Odilon Redon

“History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living and the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918

April 24, 2016 –  On this Day in History:

1184 BC – The fall of Troy

1479 BC – Thutmose III ascends to the throne of Egypt

 1704 – The Boston News, The first newspaper in Colonial America, is published

 1877 – Russo-Turkish War: Russian Empire declares war on Ottoman Empire

Death Day – 1891 – Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, a German Field Marshal. Moltke was sent as adviser to the Ottoman general commanding the troops in Anatolia, who was to carry on a campaign against Muhammad Ali of Egypt. Moltke navigated the rapids of the Euphrates & mapped many parts of the Ottoman Empire, riding several thousand miles in the course of his journey. On 24 June 1839, the Ottoman army was beaten.

1915 – Armenian Genocide – The Ottoman government’s systematic extermination of its minority Armenian subjects inside their historic homeland, which lies within the present-day Republic of Turkey.

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Odilon Redon

Calendar of the Soul – Fifth Week  [April 24, 2016 – April 30, 2016]

Within the light that out of spirit depths

Weaves germinating power into space

And manifests the gods’ creative work:

Within its shine, the soul’s true being

Is widened into worldwide life

And resurrected

From narrow selfhood’s inner power. ~RS

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Odilon Redon

Healing Plants & their planetary associations

• People, plants, planets & constellations are made of the same elements (fire, earth, air & water) & the same energies (hot/dry, hot/moist, cold/dry, cold/moist). This commonality facilitates our connection with nature & the universe.
• The human body is a miniature replica of our solar system with each body part & system symbolically representing a sign & planet.
• Nature often has a way to tell us what a specific plant is good for. This belief has even been attributed to Adam who, in naming the creatures in the Garden of Eden, understood that each name has the power to describe the essence of things.

Celestial correspondences were established by keenly observing what a plant is good for, detailed in the ‘Doctrine of Signatures’, & by using the language of astrology & its rich, ancient contribution to our medical wisdom. Let’s focus on some aspects of the ‘Doctrine of Signatures’, attributed to Paracelsus (1493- 1541), & begin to understand the richness of its philosophy.

Appearance of Plants

• Sun: Plants with heart shaped leaves are used for heart ailments. Plants with yellow flowers (Calendula, St. John’s Wort) & plants that turn towards the sun (Dandelion) are associated with the Sun.
• Mars: Plants with thorns or prickles (Milk Thistle, Nettle) are identified with Mars, the planet symbolizing a pioneer, combative spirit.
• Saturn: Plants that exhibit a knobby quality may remedy swollen joints, the body part associated with Capricorn, ruled by Saturn. Perennials with long lives (Mullein), plants with annual rings or woody plants (Kava Kava) are also identified with Saturn, the planet of aging.
• Mercury: Plants with hairy, fuzzy leaves (Mullein) often correspond to the cilia of the mucus membranes of the lungs, the body part associated with Gemini, ruled by Mercury. Plants that have finely divided leaves like the bronchi of lungs (Dill, Fennel) or vines that grow on trees (Honeysuckle) are also associated with Mercury, the planet of communication & planet ruling the nervous system.
• Venus: Plants with lots of mucilage (Marshmallow) soothe irritated mucus membranes, associated with Taurus, ruled by Venus. Plants with beautiful flowers (Vervain, Violet) or red fruits (Raspberry) are also linked with Venus, the planet symbolizing beauty.
• Moon: Plants with little white or pale yellow flowers (Cleavers) & plants with juicy leaves (Catnip) or moon shaped leaves (Caraway).
• Jupiter: Large edible plants (Burdock, Centaury), that remind people of the planet of expansion.
• Neptune: Plants growing in or near the ocean (Dulse, Kelp) as Neptune is the Lord of the Oceans.

Plant Qualities

• Sun: Plants beneficial to the heart and circulation (Motherwort, Ginger)
• Mars: Plants growing under adversity (Elder, Beet, Blackberry).
• Venus: Herbs that calm overindulgence in food (Burdock, Vervain, Sage).
• Saturn: Plants that are grounding (Ho Shu Wu) & help one complete projects on the material plane.
• Mercury: Plants that are good for the nervous system (Skullcap, Lavender).
• Moon: Plants that may affect the subconscious. Plants living by the water (Peppermint, Watercress).
• Jupiter: Herbs that promote a positive frame of mind & expansion (Oatstraw).
• Neptune: Mystical herbs that are helpful in dream work (Skullcap) or help bring physical concepts to the next plane (Willow).
• Uranus: Herbs that are hybrids & easy to transplant as Uranus is the planet of sudden changes. Herbs that energize, stimulate & promote inspiration (Cinnamon, Cloves).
• Pluto: Herbs beneficial for enhancing sexuality (Damiana, Saw Palmetto) & for balancing the physical & spiritual aspects of a personality.

Healing Blessings & Peace ~hag = Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Hans de Lapell

TODAY: the Sun enters Aries in the Sidereal Zodiac (Taurus in the Tropical)

Feast of the Holy Lance, the spear of Longinus – the centurion who pierced the side of Jesus Christ. Longinus, who was nearly blind, was healed when some of the blood & water fell into his eyes. He then exclaimed “Indeed, this was the Son of God!” [Mark 15:39]. Longinus converted, Left the army, took instruction from the apostles & became a monk in Cappadocia. There he was arrested for his faith, his teeth forced out & tongue cut off. However, St. Longinus miraculously continued to speak clearly. The governor, who was made blind by the demons that came from his idols, had his sight restored when St. Longinus was being beheaded, because his blood came in contact with the governors’ eyes. St. Longinus’ relics are now in the church of St Augustine, in Rome. His Lance is contained in one of the four pillars over the altar in the Basilica of St Peter’s in Rome.

Death Day: Pope Saint Leo IX, 1054, a German aristocrat & a powerful secular ruler of central Italy while holding the papacy. Leo IX is widely considered the most historically significant German Pope of the Middle Ages. His citing of the ‘Donation of Constantine’ (a forged Roman imperial decree by which the emperor Constantine the Great supposedly transferred authority over Rome & the western part of the Roman Empire to the Pope) in a letter to the Patriarch of Constantinople brought about the Great East-West Schism between the Catholic & Orthodox churches.

1775 American Revolution begins in Lexington

1995 Oklahoma City bombing

Death Day: Lord Byron 1824 (seeker after the Palladium )

Death Day: Charles Darwin 1882 (according to the Karmic Relationships Vol 1, lecture 10, his former incarnation was Tariq ibn Ziyad)

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~In the beginning & at the end

The book is opened

And we see what we must

Remember.

We are made of god-stuff

The explosion of stars

Waves of light

Molded into form

Secrets writ large on the scroll of each soul

The laws of creation

Death & change inscribed in the blood

A Sun-seed ever expanding

In eternal thoughts

That lead to love…

But where is Wisdom?

~hag

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Edith Pulser

Why Reverse Ritual?  some thoughts by Hazel Archer Ginsberg (Part 5 of 7)

Rudolf Steiner spoke about the 4^th phase of the Reverse Ritual by pointing to the connection between the Michael Mystery & the Christ Mystery. “We must find the path to Christ within”- The connection of the human “I” with the Christ “I”. Only then do we arrive at the Word, the Logos – The Revelation

The “festival of Knowledge” that Michael brings becomes an inner revelation. The sphere of Revelation has an apocalyptic character; an apocalypse in the “I”. And from this dark night, the lonely soul gains the forces to say ‘not I, but Christ in me’, grasped in freedom as insight, realized in love.

Renewed from within, this Revelation then radiates out to others, nurturing the seed impulse in the “Christed” inner being of humanity, streaming out into the cosmos, for the future. Here we see how “Anthroposophy is a path of knowledge, to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe”

This can generate a radical capacity to understand the world, our fellow human beings, & world evolution. A force of warmth lives in this. Borne of love, it activates the will, to compassion.

The Sacramental Ritual flows from Revelation thru to Communion in a closed, self-contained form.

The Reverse Ritual moves from Communion, over Transformation & Offering to Revelation. Its form is open; the community can start from any stage or can cultivate a specific one, while maintaining its connection with the whole.

The sacrament proceeds out of the sphere of the Son, from the proclamation of the Gospel.

The Reverse Ritual, in every case, proceeds out of the sphere of the human being.

…& so it is…

Blessings & Peace –

~hag = Hazel Archer Ginsberg