Category Archives: The Bridging Project: Life & Death

40 days after Easter

May 5, 2016Festival, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, The Bridging Project: Life & Death~hag

David Newbatt

Ascension Thursday 5 May 2016 – Today is the actual Cross-Quarter Day, the half way point between Spring Equinox & Summer Solstice. It is also Cinco de Mayo.

553 Second Council of Constantinople which condemned the pre-existence of the soul

Birthday of Karl Marx

1731 – Death-day of Daniel Defoe, an English trader, writer, journalist, pamphleteer, & spy, most famous for his novel Robinson Crusoe. Defoe one of the earliest founders of the novel, as he helped to popularize the form in Britain. He was a prolific writer, producing more than five hundred books, pamphlets, & journals on various topics, including politics, crime, religion, marriage, psychology, & the supernatural. He was also a pioneer of economic journalism. According to Rudolf Steiner’s spiritual research (Lecture 6 of Inner Impulses of Evolution, GA 171) Daniel Defoe was inspired by Ahriman.

1821 – Death-day of Napoleon. According to Eliza von Moltke he was also incarnated as Aaron, the brother of Moses.

~ ~ ~

Margaret Hauschka

~To crawl, to stand,

To walk in uprightness

To speak the word

To think the gods

To become the cosmos

‘Not me, but Christ in me’

In the I of the One

~hag

~ ~ ~

Hermann Linde

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – A Festival of Ascension, part 5 of a Lecture by ~Hazel ArcherGinsberg

Just as the experience of the Ascension lies between Easter & Whitsun, so between Good Friday & Easter lies the event known as Christ’s Descent into Hell. Both hold the image of Christ disappearing from sight.

By His death Christ opened up the paths of the higher spheres for those exhausted souls trapped in kamaloca, so they could ascend into the upper planetary realms & be renewed.

The Descent into Hell rescued the heavenly forces for humanity; the Ascension rescued the formative forces.

At the Baptism the Christ Being united with the physical body of Jesus of Nazareth & was therefore united with earthly evolution as a whole.

At the Transfiguration Christ permeates the etheric body of Jesus. In the scene of the transfiguration, Christ reveals his higher sun nature, to the 3 chosen disciples, A visionary manifestation of the fully transformed etheric body, which radiates light like a Sun.

These events are mirrored, & transformed by the mystery of Golgotha, Ascension relates to the Transfiguration & Whitsun to the Baptism.

In the Ascension, Christ showed the connection to the spiritual Sun forces which became manifest in the Transfiguration, with the etheric bodies of all human beings.

When Christ entered into Jesus at the Baptism, His Sun-Being took over the ego of Jesus, the Zarathustra soul had to leave the body or be completely overpowered.

After the resurrection the Christ impulse can live within mankind without taking over the ego-consciousness. But in order for this to happen, Christ had to Ascend. Then after 10 days He sent the Holy Spirit- that divine Being of the Trinity that does not overpower, but enhances the individual ego of human beings. -So now the Christ impulse can enter human souls thru the mediation of the Holy Spirit, so that we can retain our “I” in freedom.

The benevolent Sun, that gives life generating warmth to all existence, is a bridge, connecting the macrocosm with the microcosm.

So besides the imagination of Jacobs’s ladder, we can picture the connection between the descent into Hell on Holy Saturday with the Ascension which is the metamorphosis of the scene of the Transfiguration; & in Whitsun, the transformation of the Baptism.

Tomorrow we explore the ‘Resurrection Body’

To read the entire lecture: Ascension 2014 Climbing Jacobs Ladder

Until soon

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel ArcherGinsberg

Current Festival & Program Events

Lord of Karma

May 4, 2016Festival, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Soul to Soul, Speaking with the Stars, The Bridging Project: Life & Death~hag

Wednesday May 4, 2016 – On This Day: Past/Present/Future:

250 AD – Feast day of St. Florian the patron of Upper Austria, chimney sweeps; soapmakers, & firefighters. The “Florian Principle” (known in German language areas as “Sankt-Florians-Prinzip”) is named after a somewhat ironic prayer to Saint Florian: “O heiliger Sankt Florian, verschon’ mein Haus, zünd’ and’re an”, equivalent to “O Holy St. Florian, please spare my house, set fire to another one”. This saying is used in German much like the English “not in my back yard. The name Florian is considered synonymous with fireman in the German speaking world. In some cases call for a fireman will actually be spoken as calls for Florian.

1493 – The Division of the world: The Spanish-born Pope Alexander VI decreed in a Papal Bull that all lands west & south of a pole-to-pole line one hundred leagues west & south should belong to Spain. Portugal objected because its status & rights had been omitted & overlooked. King John II of Portugal began negotiations directly with King Ferdinand & Queen Isabella of Spain to push the line west & allow him to lay claim to lands discovered east of it. The result was the Treaty of Tordesillas.

1875 – Birthday of Hermann Beckh a pioneering German Tibetologist & prominent promoter of anthroposophy.

Due to his unusual memory skills, & his many interests & talents, his peers encouraged him towards law. It became clear to him that he was not made out to be a judge when he had to impose a fine on a poor married couple for stealing wood. He paid the couple’s fine out of his own pocket & left his position.

He later took up the study of oriental languages, Indology, & Tibetology. In 1907, he received his doctorate with a thesis on Kalidasa’s poem Meghaduta.

In 1911, he met Rudolf Steiner & Friedrich Rittelmeyer, which led to his intensive study of Steiner’s work. On Christmas Day, 1912, he became a member of the Anthroposophical Society.

In 1916, Beckh was drafted into military service, shortly after he published two volumes about the Buddha & his teachings. Stationed in the Balkans, he was called to work in the Kiel Institute for the World Economy. Due to his task, he learned the Scandinavian languages in addition to: English, French, Italian, Classical Greek & Latin, Hebrew, Egyptian, Sanskrit, Tibetan & Old Persian.

From 1920 onwards, he worked as a lecturer of anthroposophy. In March 1922, he joined the Circle of Priests of The Christian Community & worked until his death as a priest, seminary teacher, lecturer, independent researcher & writer. In 1928, “Mark’s Gospel: The Cosmic Rhythm” was published, in which he related the narration of the gospel of Mark to the path of the sun through the twelve zodiac signs. In Beckh’s exposition, Mark’s gospel could be understood more in connection with the “earthly” signs seen in the planets, & John’s gospel more in connection with the “stellar” zodiac of the fixed stars. At the time of The Mystery of Golgotha the planets & the constellations were together, not separate as they are now, due to the progression of the equinoxes. In the Introduction to the sequel, “The Cosmic Rhythm, the Secrets of the Stars & Earth in the Gospel of John” (1930), Beck favorably mentioned Wilhelm Kaiser’s “Die geometrischen Vorstellungen in der Astronomie” (1928), & referred to The Novices of Sais, of Novalis. Beckh died in Stuttgart, in 1937.

For the next few nights: METEORS FROM HALLEY’S COMET. Earth is entering a stream of debris from Halley’s Comet, source of the annual Eta Aquariid meteor shower. It peaks from May 4 – 8^t^h, 2016

~ ~ ~

~My heart pulses with power

In the balance of the elements

Beatbeatbeat

I am the eagle in the light of the Sun

My wings beat in time to my thoughts…

I am a Taurus Bull in the pleasure glade

Glad am I – the thoughts that love felt

I fly to the far edge of sky

I rest in the deep folds of earth

I am a child of eternity

I am Free

~hag

~ ~ ~

Yaram Raanan

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – A Festival of Ascension, part 4 of a Lecture by ~Hazel ArcherGinsberg

For the person who on earth worked to understand the mystery of Golgotha, this picture of the ascension after death becomes an affirmation, but for the soul that has not worked towards true spiritual knowledge, it is a picture of reproach. Helping us seek in freedom to understand this mystery in our next life.

Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘It is the Christ-impulse that works on after death; it is this impulse under whose influence man frees himself from the Moon-sphere, penetrates the starry Sun-sphere, & from the impulses given to him by beings of the starry world is there able to work upon the forming of the physical organism for his next earthly life’. Dornach 15 Sept. 1922

Christ takes this Moon-Karma upon Himself, enabling the soul to find the path of the true Ascension, which leads to the world of the fixed stars. –

So in the scene of the Ascension we have an indication of the all-encompassing influence of the Christ Being, as the Lord of Karma, upon the life of the human soul after death. –

It was for this reason that when the apostles experienced the Ascension, which was for them not only the proof of the vast significance of the Christ for the life of every human soul after death, but was at the same time, the event thru which they were able to attain the knowledge of a new relationship between microcosm & macrocosm – Revealing the secret, that the human soul can come into contact with the cosmic sphere where Christ derived the forces for His Resurrection Body – The sphere of the Father, where the Atma, or future Spirit Human, is derived.

And now, since in the resurrection, Christ has united the forces of the Cosmic Midnight Hour directly with earth evolution, this created a bridge for all human beings over the cosmic abyss – Unlocking the gate between this Cosmic Midnight Hour & the Mid-Day Moment of Cosmic Existence. This then provided the opportunity for The Holy Spirit, who illuminates individual ego-consciousness, to be able to appear in earthly evolution among the 12 at Whitsun, flashing in thru this opened gate, to pour into them the true knowledge of the Mystery of Golgotha & the Ascension in full wisdom.

Since that time, Easter, Ascension & Whitsun/Pentecost, have remained inseparable from one another – they form the foundation of the only moveable feasts in the cycle of the year, which succeed one another in accordance with cosmic law, having to do with the alignment of Sun, Full Moon & Earth after the Spring Equinox. –

In this way the inner substance of this great 3-fold Festival, can illuminate this turning point of time for all Humanity.

To read the entire lecture: Ascension 2014 Climbing Jacobs Ladder

Tomorrow we explore the connection between Ascension & the Transfiguration.

Until soon

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel ArcherGinsberg

Current Festival & Program Events

Climbing Jacobs Ladder

May 3, 2016Festival, Insight, Lecture, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, The Bridging Project: Life & Death~hag

Tuesday May 3, 2016 –

St. Helena_of_Constantinople_(Cima_da_Conegliano) Cima de Conegliano

326 St. Helena and the true cross. Empress Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, is traditionally credited with a pilgrimage to Syria Palaestina, during which she is said to have discovered the True Cross.

Birthday in 612 – Constantine III, Byzantine emperor

1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes & causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.

1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, & northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.

1921 – Ireland divides into Northern Ireland & Southern Ireland.

~ ~ ~

POD (Poem Of the Day)

Frances Beento

~My mouth is

My hands are

Hard green seedlings

No longer innocent

Yet pliable by grace

An active hive of Bees

Stirred by Sun mysteries

& service

~hag

~ ~ ~

Tanakh

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – A Festival of Ascension, part 3 of a Lecture by ~Hazel ArcherGinsberg

When we attune ourselves to beings such as Raphael, Archangel of Spring, we can awaken to the way these spiritual entities constantly interact with earth thru the elements.

The messengers of cosmic warmth in the rays of the sun activate the ascension of the element of water. Through its union with air, clouds are born. In the cloud, which is between the depths of earth & the heavenly heights, in the sphere of the etheric realm – a mobile balance manifests. – We see it in the blue sky, dancing with the ever changing clouds. It is the primal image of metamorphosis, of organic forming & trans-forming, the never-resting developing, blessed by the heights. For this reason, blossoms & fruits are in reality not just products of earth but heavenly forms filled with earthly substance, like us.

And so for 40 days after the Resurrection, amidst this seasonal activity, the apostles received from the risen Christ His esoteric teachings; essentially the contents of the 5^th Gospel given to us by Rudolf Steiner.

Then they witnessed The Christ, being received into the clouds, moving out of their sight – an expansion of His being – like the unfolding of a lotus flower into the universe. Rudolf Steiner tells us, that at the same time, the vivid spiritual reality of what would have happened to earth existence if the mystery of Golgotha had not occurred; came into their consciousness. It was revealed to them that human bodies would have so deteriorated that all of humanity would have perished.

Our physical bodies have earth-gravity, but our etheric bodies have sun levity, so if the Christ deed had not taken place, our etheric bodies would have left the physical for good as well, & the existence of mankind would have come to an end, having no formative forces to give them life.

We know that until the Mystery of Golgotha, the sun was the dwelling place of the Christ. The human etheric body, which was in danger of being drawn out towards the sun, like clouds, & dispersed –is held together, contained thru this cosmic deed, so that we are not dispersed, but can remain as individuals.

Christ remains in union with the earth, which rescues for the earth the sunward-striving etheric body. –But to be able to take effect in a human being’s spirit & soul nature, the Christ impulse must also be able to penetrate into the human soul during sleep. And this is only possible if a person consciously recognizes the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha. The spiritual effect can only proceed from a true recognition of its content.

Mankind must come to realize that on the one hand Christ rescued the human physical body, & holds back the etheric body in its urge towards the sun; but on the other hand, mankind’s ego & astral body, can receive the Christ impulse only in the time between falling asleep & waking – which is only possible when knowledge of this impulse has been acquired in waking life.

The mystery here is that in the festival of Ascension not only do the forces of the macro-cosmic kingdom of the Son come into Earth-existence, but it also opens us to the forces proceeding from the sphere of the Father. This is big folks -the gospel of Mark tells us: ‘Then the Lord, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into the heavenly spheres & sat down at the right hand of the World-Father as the fulfiller of His deeds’.

As a result of the conversations over the 40 days with The Risen Christ, the apostles were able to receive the primal sources of a new imaginative clairvoyance, removing the veil hiding the true image of death, which is really a facet of the Father-God in the aspect of Creator. – What is born must die, but thru Christ death becomes life. This revelation of the apostles’ higher imagination brings the true content of death with its connection to the kingdom of the divine Father into perceptive.

At the moment of the Ascension the true meaning of death was made manifest to the apostles, they beheld it with their own eyes to be a process of union with the world of the Divine.

From that turning point of time onward, Rudolf Steiner tells us that, one of the 1^st experiences of every human being after death is a contemplation of Christ’s Ascension; which can reveal to the person’s soul, the true picture of death & its connection with the highest sphere of the Father.

To read the entire lecture: Ascension 2014 Climbing Jacobs Ladder

Tomorrow we meet Christ as the ‘Lord of Karma’.

Until soon

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel ArcherGinsberg

William Blake

Current Festival & Program Events

Towards the Heights

May 1, 2016Celestial Event, Festival, Insight, Lecture, Quote, The Bridging Project: Life & Death~hag

May 1st 2016 – Orthodox Easter

Arid Rosenkratz

880 – The Nea Ekklesia is inaugurated in Constantinople, setting the model for all later cross-in-square Orthodox churches.

1707 – The Act of Union joins the Kingdom of England and Kingdom of Scotland to form the Kingdom of Great Britain.

1785 – Kamehameha I, the king of Hawaiʻi, defeats Kalanikūpule and establishes the Kingdom of Hawaiʻi.

786 – In Vienna, Austria, Mozart’s opera The Marriage of Figaro is performed for the first time

1851 – Queen Victoria opens The Great Exhibition in London.

1884 – May day proclamation of the demand for eight-hour workday in the United States

~ ~ ~

Ruby Lun

Calendar of the Soul Sixth Week [May 01, 2016 – May 07, 2016]

There has arisen from its narrow limits

My self and finds itself

As revelation of all worlds

Within the sway of time and space;

The world, as archetype divine,

Displays to me at every turn

The truth of my own likeness.

~ ~ ~

Marc Chagall

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – A Festival of Ascension, part 1 of a Lecture by ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Ascension comes when the season of blossoming is reaching fullness. Trees & plants, stirring upwards in growth, have been touched by the warmth & light from above, & show forth the blessing of the heavens in color & scent. The whole of nature reaches upwards towards the heights.

The longing of the human soul strives upward also, in unison with nature, seeking the touch of world-warmth from the sun. This mood of ascension attunes all of life to the cosmic expanses.

However closely heaven & earth are aligned, their relationship is not always the same. In this we see the miracle of the seasons –the breathing-in, & the breathing-out, of the earth soul.

At the time of the Ascension of Christ, nature celebrates the ascension of the soul of the earth. – It is not by chance that the 40 days between Easter & Ascension coincide with this season.

Every year, when the earth breathes out in the springtime, the mystery of the Ascension of Christ, Who is the Spirit of the Earth, is renewed.

The stars in their constellations are shifting into their Summer places now, & the planets tread the ordered measure of their courses around them. These dots of light in the distance, point us to the spiritual beings who direct the life of the universe.

From this point of view, Ascension is a festival of the hierarchies.

Remember, that when Christ descended thru the heavens, & came into human form, the hierarchies lost His presence. They could only find Him by looking into the depths – bearing witness to the God Who entered physical existence to remind earthly humanity of its cosmic citizenship.

At the Ascension, the mystery of the resurrection was brought back to the company of heaven – Signaling the return of the lost world of earth into the community of the stars. Since that time, the life of this planet is renewed with the cosmic forces that stream earthward.

The sacrifice of Christ initiated on earth, was the antidote to the consequences of death brought on by the Fall – the redemptive deed that turns death into life.

The Concentrated seed of Christ’s deed continues to grow in the earth thru this connection to the stars.

This reconnection was prefigured in the story of Jacob from the Old Testament. Thru his dream of the stairway to heaven, Jacob gave us the prophecy of the Ascension – A golden ladder set between heaven & earth, on which choirs of angels & our beloved dead can ascend & descend.

When the Risen Christ returned ‘to sit at the right hand of the Father’, at the Ascension, He became the bridge between the above & below.

The Christ impulse dwells in the earth, & extends into the Divine Presence, to fulfill the prophecy of Jacobs ladder, so that thru this deed, mankind is brought near again to cosmic beings.

As the Christ has ascended, so too, in the fullness of time will humanity be transfigured. The company of the hierarchies wait, for us, their younger siblings to ascend in our thinking to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while at our sides.

Tomorrow we will continue this theme

until soon

~hag = ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

(to read the whole lecture on Ascension click: Ascension 2014 Climbing Jacobs Ladder)

Ripening/Bridging

April 27, 2016Central Regional Council, Insight, Poetry, Quote, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Soul to Soul, The Bridging Project: Life & Death~hag

April 27, 2016 -Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future:

470 BC- Birth Day of Socrates; teacher of Plato

“Remember, no human condition is ever permanent. Then you will not be overjoyed in good fortune nor too scornful in misfortune”.~Socrates

399 BC – Death Day of Socrates. The Karma Lectures of Rudolf Steiner (vol. 4/10) indicate that this was his teacher G.T. Schroer.

711 BC –Islamic conquest of Hispania: Moorish troops led by Tariq ibn Ziyad land at Gibraltar to begin their invasion of the Iberian Peninsula…The Karma Lectures of Rudolf Steiner indicate Darwin to be a later incarnation (vol. 1/10)

1777 – American Revolutionary War: The Battle of Ridgefield

1810 – Beethoven composes Für Elise.

1861 – American President Abraham Lincoln suspends the writ of habeas corpus.

1882 – Death day of Ralph Waldo Emerson, an American essayist, lecturer, & poet who led the Transcendentalist movement of the mid-19th century. He was seen as a champion of individualism & a prescient critic of the countervailing pressures of society. Emerson wrote on a number of subjects, never espousing fixed philosophical tenets, but developing certain ideas such as individuality, freedom, the ability for humankind to realize almost anything, & the relationship between the soul & the surrounding world. “Philosophically considered, the universe is composed of Nature and the Soul”. He remains among the linchpins of the American Romantic Movement, & his work has greatly influenced the thinkers, writers & poets that have followed him…The Karma Lectures of Rudolf Steiner (vol. 4/10) indicate that he was formerly known as Tacitus – considered to be one of the greatest Roman historians. He lived in what has been called the Silver Age of Latin literature. He is known for the brevity & compactness of his Latin prose, as well as for his penetrating insights into the psychology of power politics.

1945 – World War II: Benito Mussolini is arrested by Italian partisans in Dongo, while attempting escape disguised as a German soldier.

1950 – Apartheid: In South Africa, the Group Areas Act is passed formally segregating races.

~ ~ ~

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~As my soul ripens

I polish the metal of Venus –

Looking past the bronze mirror

Reflecting the dove

In the olive grove.

Today

I nourish my purpose in time…

~hag

~ ~ ~

“What is told as “history” today must first cease to be called “history.” In not too distant a future, instead of speaking of all the things contained in history as it is told today, people will speak of the spiritual impulses standing behind the historical evolution, impulses which are only perceived as if in a dream by human beings. These are the spiritual impulses that call man to freedom, and make him free, because they raise him to the world from which intuition, inspiration, and imagination come. For what happens outwardly on the physical plane, what constitutes outer history loses its meaning as soon as it has occurred, if not seen as a spiritual impulse… What is now called “history” is a “corpse-history” compared with the reality of what constitutes karma”. ~Historical Necessity and Freewill Lecture 5, by Rudolf Steiner, Dornach, 15 December, 1917

~ ~ ~

TONIGHT!

The Bridging Project: Life and Death from Soul to Soul
Our first video/phone conference is Wednesday April 27, from 7:15 to 8:30pm CST – Special guest, Marianne M. Dietzel, will share her knowledge about “Communicating with our Beloved Dead”.

We will also check-in with the Question:
What inspires you to be part of this bridging project?

To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended) https://global.gotomeeting.com/join/284737589

Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 (571) 317-3116
Canada: +1 (647) 497-9372
Access Code: 284-737-589
Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone)

Each Quarterly, Wednesday evening call, will be from 7:15 – 8:30pm CST

We have begun our study with Rudolf Steiner’s 2nd lecture from the cycle entitled ‘Historical Necessity and Freewill’ given in Dornach, December 9, 1917. This collection of lectures has been republished under the title: “The Influence of the Dead on Destiny”, Steiner Press. This will provide the study content for our work together – in addition to inviting special guests to offer fruits from out of their research and work.

Meeting Schedule:

April 27th with guest Marianne Dietzel: Communicating with our Beloved Dead

August 10th with guest Maureen Flannery: Home Funeral Alliance; Prompts for writing poetry for the dead

October 26th with guest Dwight Ebaugh: Life between Death and Re-birth

February 1st 2017 with guest Mark Miller: Spirit Parks, an alternative to cemeteries

May 3rd 2017 TBA

May love of hearts reach out to love of souls
May warmth of love ray out to Spirit-light
Even so would we draw near to you
Thinking with you Thoughts of Spirit
Feeling in you the Love of Worlds
Consciously at one with you
Willing in silent being. ~Rudolf Steiner

Blessings to ALL, from the members of the Central Regional Council: &Hazel Archer Ginsberg; Raven Garland; Alberto Loya; Marianne Fieber-Dhara; Dennis Dietzel

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

Category Archives: The Bridging Project: Life & Death

40 days after Easter

Lord of Karma

Climbing Jacobs Ladder

Towards the Heights

Ripening/Bridging

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