Blessings my dear friends on this  Ecclesiastical Good Friday –

In our exploration of the Easter Paradox of both 2019 & 1924, here is my synopsis of the last lecture Rudolf Steiner gave to the Anthroposophical Society 22 April, 1924- The Mysteries of Ephesus. The Aristotelian Categories: The Mysteries have played an important part in the whole evolution of humankind. The Easter Festival grew out of the principle of initiation. Humankind is predestined to evolve to spiritual freedom. We know that human individuals return to the Earth again & again in their repeated earthly lives, carrying with them experiences of former epochs into later ones. The environment created by the Mysteries is an important factor in the progress of carrying from one age into another what human beings experienced & what they experience again in other forms of knowledge.

When that spiritual impulse which has gone forth from the Goetheanum thru the Christmas Foundation meeting, really finds its way into the life of the Anthroposophical Society it will provide the foundation for the Mysteries of the future. The future life of the Mysteries must consciously & deliberately be planted by this Anthroposophical Society.

In the burning of the 1^st Goetheanum, the Anthroposophical Society has ever before it an event which can be turned to good will in future evolution just like the burning of the Temple of Ephesus.

Both seem a tragedy on the outside, but on the various planes of existence these things appear in different ways, & only in the freedom can we turn to good will that which on one plane is so wrong, for it is just thru these terrible events that a real evolution can be achieved.

To enter into these things with sympathetic understanding we must grasp them, as intimately as possible. How did the spiritual life of the world live in the Mysteries? Steiner talked about the how the yearly Easter Festival proceeds for the Earth from the constellations of the Sun & Moon, & how the other planets are seen from the standpoint of the Moon.

And he relates that never did human hearts & minds partake so intimately in these Northern Mysteries, this descent from the pre-earthly into the earthly life as in the Mysteries of Ephesus, devoted to Diana or Artemis, enabling her initiates to experience & enter into the spiritual life & movement within the ether of the Cosmos.

A deep impression was made on those present when the Temple Goddess expressed her joy in all things growing, springing, sprouting in the far-spread ether of the world; a feeling that wafted thru the spiritual atmosphere of the Sanctuary as a magic breath.

And as a consequence a certain instruction could be given with great clearness in these Ephesian Mysteries, whose aim was to bring the secret of the Moon forth in the human soul, creating one’s being out of the Sunlight that wove around the Moon.

Verse Steiner gave to Ita Wegman:
The Sun, in me, my King,
Leads me into the world.
The Moon, in me, maintains
My shape, she keeps my form.
Mercury holds, in me,
The Sun and Moon in one.
Venus in me is all,
Nothing without her love.
When she and Mars are one,
He speaks me as a Word,
So Jupiter can shine
All through me wisdom’s rays,
And Saturn, ripe, can beam
Through me the colours that I am.

The spiritual life in Ephesus was filled with a radiant inner light – the true dignity of the Cosmic human being, a prefiguring of the Easter thought.

All these things bound up with the Temple Sanctuary went up in the flames lit by the hand of a criminal.

Then Steiner goes on to reference:  World History in the Light of Anthroposophy, which he gave during the Christmas Conference.  Telling how “two Initiates of these Mysteries were reincarnated in Aristotle and in Alexander. “

And “When the Temple of Ephesus was burning it was the hour of Alexander’s birth. But as the Temple burned something was powerful taking place…all that had gone on in these Temple spaces was communicated to the cosmic ether.

So we may truly say: The continuous Easter Festival at Ephesus which had been contained within these Temple spaces has since been written in the great orb of the ethereal heavens.

The human wisdom which was enclosed in Temple walls escaped & was written in the cosmic ether & is visible to spiritual Imagination, the interpreter of the starry script.

The stars must mean more to us than something merely to be calculated mechanically, or mathematically.”

For Alexander & Aristotle, there came the moment when thru the influence of the Mysteries of the Kabiri there arose something like a memory of the old Ephesian time which both of them had lived thru before. But in this remembrance of an ancient time, there was a certain power to create something new.

When the cosmic sounding in the Moon was there again & Aristotle & Alexander recognized what the fire at Ephesus had signified, when they saw how this fire had carried forth into the far ether of the world the content of the Mysteries of Ephesus, then there arose in these two the inspiration to be found the Cosmic Script written down by Aristotle, known as the Categories of Being:

Quantity
Quality
Relation
Space
Time
Position
Activity (or Action)
Passivity (or Suffering)

Steiner asks us to take these concepts which Aristotle first expounded to Alexander, & learn to develop them like we did as children with the alphabet, then we will learn to read in the Cosmos.

So we see, what was a mighty revelation of instinctive wisdom thru thousands of years flowed into concepts with an inner force of life & strength which must once more be revealed in time to come.

We must find again what is resting in the grave, we must find the Sophia, the cosmic wisdom & the cosmic light. We must learn to read once more in the great universe to experience the resurrection of what lies hidden.

We are here to create an Easter Festival as an experience for all humankind. “Anthroposophy in all its working, is an Easter experience, an experience of resurrection bound up with the experience of the grave.”

It is important just at this present Easter paradox for us to feel, the full festivity of Anthroposophical striving. Can we open ourselves to feel how once upon a time humankind was blessed with a divine-spiritual revelation which shone most radiantly in Ephesus. But now all this lies buried.

How can we set free from the grave what lies buried? And then listen to hear the words spoken on that Easter morn 2000 years ago: “That which you seek is no longer here.” Can we find it in our hearts, & open minds, in true active way?

Then in full consciousness, not instinctively as in ancient time, we are led forward into the new mysteries of Easter.

This too must be united with the impulse of the Christmas conference, which must not remain a merely intellectual, theoretic & abstract past deed. It must be an impulse of the heart, it must not be dry & matter-of-fact. It must be sacred, solemn, joyful.

Then just like Aristotle & Alexander, who used the fire of Ephesus when it flamed forth like a forge in their hearts, when it flamed forth in the Cosmic ether & then bore down to them new secrets that were gathered up into those simple concepts.

Will we take it upon ourselves to use what has also been carried out into the ether with the death of the 1^st Goetheanum, into a resurrection of Anthroposophia?

Can we awaken to the new dawn, shining in the far & wide ether, where the spirit-filled wisdom of the world dwells, to fill ourselves with impulses coming in towards us from the Cosmos?

The Anthroposophical Easter mood must hold to this Spirit that arises ever & again out of eternal foundations. Let us receive this as an Easter thought – as an Easter feeling into our hearts, as we experience Good Friday anew, as Love’s Sacrificial Death – even as we acknowledge the rending of the Temple Veil, to bring the transformation of the Venus-principle, thru the Sun-principle of Christ.

with humble respect ~hag

***

19 April 2019 “Speaking with the Stars”: The Pascal Full Moon, became exact at 6:12 am CDT. This evening look for Spica to the upper right of Bella Luna & brighter Arcturus to Her upper left.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The 1^st Night of Passover

Ecclesiastical Good Friday

Feast Day of the Holy Lance – the spear of Longinus

1054 – Feast Day of Leo IX, pope of the Catholic Church. Leo IX is widely considered the most historically significant German Pope of the Middle Ages; he was instrumental in the precipitation of the Great Schism of 1054, considered the turning point in which the Catholic & Orthodox Church formally separated.

1775 – The American Revolution begins at Lexington

1824 – Deathday of Lord Byron, English-Scottish poet & playwright, who Steiner refers to as “a seeker after the Palladium” in his Karmic Relationships lecture 1/11.

1882 – Deathday of Charles Darwin, English biologist & theorist, who Steiner refers to as “a seeker after the Palladium” in his Karmic Relationships lecture 1/11.

1960 – Students in South Korea hold a nationwide pro-democracy protest against president Syngman Rhee, eventually forcing him to resign

1995 – Oklahoma City bombing: The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, USA, is bombed, killing 168 people including 19 children under the age of six

2005 – Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger is elected to the papacy and becomes Pope Benedict XVI.

2011 – Fidel Castro resigns as First Secretary of the Communist Party of Cuba after holding the title since July 1961.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Look, she said, leaning out the window
To wave at the stream of the Pascal Moon
See how the reflected Easter light rises…
Mirroring strident spirals of the New Sun
Calling: Become
The Chalice of victory
& see thru soul eyes
To speak deeds clothed in spirit-light…
But 1st
You must drink from the cup of crucifixion
~hag

***J

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’ a workshop with biography worker Paulette Arnold

(1st Class is on Holy Saturday 20 April 2019)

$10 – 20 or pay what you can + Snacks to Share Encouraged 

for more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

 A Cosmic Wake Up Call: the Easter Paradox of 2019

18 April 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus rises above the eastern horizon about an hour before sunrise. The brilliant planet of Love dominates the predawn sky as the rosy glow heralding the Sun’s arrival grows brighter.

The Full Wind Moon arrives at 6:12 am CDT on Good Friday morning. She rises in the east shortly before the Sun sets this evening & reaches her peak in the south around midnight. Bella Luna is in her Easter place in the constellation of Virgo, with bright Spica heralding the harvest of the Resurrection.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

 1506 – The cornerstone of the current St. Peter’s Basilica is laid.

1521 – Trial of Martin Luther begins its second day during the assembly of the Diet of Worms. He refuses to recant his teachings despite the risk of excommunication.

1775 –The British advancement by sea begins; (The midnight ride of) Paul Revere and other riders warn the countryside of the troop movements.

1857 – “The Spirits Book” by Allan Kardec is published, marking the birth of Spiritualism in France

1902 – The 7.5 Mw  Guatemala earthquake shakes Guatemala with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe), killing between 1800–4,000.

1906 – An earthquake and fire destroy much of San Francisco, California.

1909 – Joan of Arc is beatified in Rome.

1955 – Deathday of Albert Einstein

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~The mist has one last dance
In the slanting rays of the sun rise
The birds proclaim the resurrection
The tender tendrils tease
The daffodils, the hyacinth
Scent the dew
The porch is swept
The old wood waits to burn
Make way for the new
~hag

***

On this Ecclesiastical Maundy Thursday we continue with the synopsis of the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave during the Easter Paradox of 1924:

The day after the ecclesiastical Easter 21 April, 1924, The Moon Secret. Spring  & Autumn Mysteries. Steiner again indicates the cosmic aspect of the Easter Festival. And as a way of deepening understanding he touches upon some of the facts relating to the so-called secrets of the Moon.

In effect, all the light that rays forth from the Full Moon into the Cosmos contains the forces that the human being when descending into incarnation needs to form the outer aspect of the etheric body.

On the other hand all that rays forth spiritually from the New Moon, out into the Cosmos, contains the forces which the human being needs to form the inner aspect of the etheric body.

This rhythm, of the external shining of the Moon & of its darkening, enables the human being to connect with what Steiner called, the Primal Teachers, which work from the moon.

Steiner tells us that the spiritual Beings of the Moon turn their gaze to begin with on what is most important for them – the wandering stars that belong to our planetary system, in order that humanity may properly receive the forces needed.

Knowledge of this was contained in certain ancient Mysteries. This knowledge is seen in the days of the week. This brought home the planetary system to the consciousness of humanity in relation to space & time – on the one hand, thru the rhythmic course of the Moon around our Earth thru light & darkness, & on the other hand, we see an imprint in the consciousness of humanity the whole succession of the planets. The initiate in the Mysteries could free themselves from the physical body & live in the formative forces of the etheric body, to experience:

Monday
Tuesday: Speech
Wednesday: Movement
Thursday: Wisdom
Friday: Love, Beauty
Saturday: Inner warmth of soul
Sunday: Protecting forces (reflected from the Moon)

The initiates knew that the Sun cannot influence the forming of the etheric body directly, but only thru the reflection from the Moon.

The initiates knew that for the full inner force of the astral body, & the Ego, of the “I am”, they must go to the Sun., to become the Christophoros, the Sun-bearer –

this inner human Easter experience of former times transformed into a cosmic Festival. In later times humanity forgot that such a thing could happen. They no longer knew they could go forth from the earthly realm, unite themselves with the Moon nature, & from the Moon behold the Sun. But a certain remembrance of this has been preserved in the Easter Festival.

Our present spiritual Festival of Easter represents an event in the Mysteries which was enacted 1^st in the Autumn, & then later in the Springtime

In later days man was no longer able to penetrate the living reality of this his relationship to the Spiritual in the Cosmos. And at length things went so far that the Autumn Mysteries of resurrection were simply superimposed on the Springtime Mystery of the descent. The confusion that arose in the course of human evolution shows how deeply materialism worked in the course of time. For it not only created false opinions but brought humankind into real confusion with regard to those things which were once in sacred, holy order in the course of human earthly life.

Once upon a time there was a sacred order in these things. As Autumn came near, humankind celebrated a Cosmic Festival, a Festival which pointed to a real process of the Mysteries. Nature, they said, is fading & dying away, Nature is laid waste. It is like the gradual death of a human beings physical life. But when we look at Nature we see only the transitory at work in her, in the human being  we see the Eternal, which we must now behold apart from what takes place in outer Nature, for we must behold it in the spirit as that which is resurrected after death in the spiritual world.

And through the Mysteries of springtime it was made clear to humanity that the spiritual works in again from the Cosmos, the physical springs & sprouts forth from the Earth, because it is impelled by the Spiritual. This however was to lead humanity to remember, not how they passed through death into the Spiritual, but how they have come from & descended out of the Spiritual.

When Nature is springing & ascending, the human being was to remember their descent into the Physical; & again when Nature is declining the human being was to remember his ascent, his resurrection into the Spiritual. Infinitely deepening the life of the soul to experience how the human being is related to the Cosmos.

“These things varied according to the different regions of the Earth. We can say that there are Autumn people , & Springtime people”.

For the Autumn people there were the Mysteries of Adonis, the Southern Mysteries, of death & the after-life; the shining of the spiritual Sun in the beginning of the night of Winter; & for the Springtime people there were other Northern Mysteries related to the life before birth as seen from the secret of the Moon initiation.

In ancient times folks stayed within their stream, which was appropriate for their time, & only great initiates like Pythagoras, who traveled from place to place taking in the various mysteries underwent the true initiation of human experience, paving the way for our time now, when we are called to embrace both streams.

So you see our Easter Festival holds many components,  1^st we meet the planetary Beings revealed in the days of Holy Week, then we experience the mystery of death, the entombment, The harrowing or redeeming  of hell & then the resurrection. And of course Easter-Tide continues thru the secret teachings given to the apostles during the 40 days between the Resurrection & the Ascension & then after 10 days, the mystery of Pentecost. 

May we take to heart the truth behind the original Maundy Thursday, ever enacting the Last Supper as if it was the 1^st – Striving to ‘wash the feet of the other’, – recognizing that we owe our life to those around us & to the plant & animal worlds which give us a foundation for life. Let us administer to all the new sacrament in remembrance of King Jupiter’s benevolence  made new by Christ’s deed.

Tomorrow we turn again to our Easter Paradox research…

Until soon

~hag

Ecclesiastical Holy Week Kaspar Hauser Study 14 – 18 April 2019,

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’

We have found this Study of Kaspar Hauser so intriguing that we wish to continue it for our Ecclesiastical Holy Week.

The work is such that you can jump in anytime. I recommend this powerful book: ‘Kaspar Hauser: The Struggle for the Spirit’ byAnthroposophical researcher Peter Tradowsky

Join us: 14 April Palm Sunday 2 – 4 pm, then Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. of Holy Week 15-18 April 7 – 9 pm

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’ a workshop with biography worker Paulette Arnold

(1st Class is on Holy Saturday 20 April 2019)

$10 – 20 or pay what you can + Snacks to Share Encouraged 

for more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

 A Cosmic Wake Up Call: the Easter Paradox of 2019

When my friend Robert posted these pictures of the Gargoyles of Notre Dame, my 1^st thought was that now, upon the burning of the Cathedral, these gruesome protector beings are inscribed on the ethers. But then I woke up this morning thinking, what does it mean that at the same time the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem also had a fire, & wondering what was being inscribed there?

My friends, it seems to me that these burnings, are the antithesis of what occurred with the burning of the Temple of Ephesus – sacred to the Goddess Diana, along with the future image seen in the burning of the Goetheanum, the Johannasbau inspired by the Templars thru Goethe. These burnings inscribed into the ethers the potent powers of the ancient & the new mysteries, enriching the starry script, furthering & potentizing our true human evolution.

We need to remember that what is now occurring is happening during the Ecclesiastical Holy Week – between Holy Moon-day, with its cursing of the fig tree, symbol of the old clairvoyance, & the cleansing of the Temple, & Holy Mars-day, Christ’s conflict with the High Priests , & his telling of the ‘Little Apocalypse’ to his disciples (Luke 21)

Could it be that this Holy Week burning , on the 1 hand, of an important seat of the Catholic Church, during the time when a Jesuit Pope sits on the Vatican throne, & on the other hand,  the 3^rd holiest site in Islam – central to the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, is a signal of the materialistic etherization of the spirit? – A fall of something spiritual – leading to the rise of the spirits of darkness…?

May we be awake to the signs of the times; ever striving to participate in the appearance of the Christ in the etheric realm.

Blessings dear ones & peace ~hag

***

As you can see dear Friends, I have diverged from my usual format -the History connected to the Calendar of the Soul is at the bottom of this missive- so as to continue with the synopsis of the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave during the Easter Paradox of 1924:

Ecclesiastical Easter Sunday 20 April, 1924:  Moon-birth & Sun-birth. Necessity and Freedom. Stages of the ancient Easter Initiation: The original idea of any sacred festival is to make the human being look upward from his dependence on earthly things to those things that transcend the Earth.

During the last centuries humanity has undergone an evolution which has lead farther & farther away from the connection with Cosmic powers & Cosmic forces. Humanity became more restricted to the Earthly powers & forces.

Humanity today does not conceive the forces spiritually connected with the Sun or what these forces are doing within the human being.

Julian the Apostate, the last of the pagan Caesars, still received instruction in what was left of the ancient Mysteries, concerning these forces of the Sun. He wished once more to make this knowledge an influence in the world, & for this very reason was murdered on his campaign into Persia. The powers in the first Christian centuries which intended that all knowledge of such things should disappear was all prevailing. No wonder this knowledge is so hard to conceive of

Steiner goes on to describe the various degrees in the ancient mystery schools;

and concludes with the statement that to become aware of the content of the Easter Festival we must call this ancient sacred history to life again, in a new way.

Then we can understand why even today we must look upward to the Sun & Moon which determines from their mutual constellation, the time of the Easter Festival. For this truth must still remain. We calculate Easter as the first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Spring Equinox. The Easter Festival is something that must be determined from above, out of the Cosmos. This must be regained. And it can only be regained by looking back to the ancient Mysteries, where the human being was made aware by seeing the cosmos within themselves. The ancient practices receded in the age when the free development of humanity had to take place. But now the time is come when these mysteries must be found again. Of this, my dear friends, we must be fully conscious. Institutions must be created today to find the Mysteries once more.

Steiner goes on to say it is Out of this consciousness which we held our Christmas Foundation Meeting. For it is an urgent necessity that there should be a place on Earth where the Mysteries can once more be founded. The Anthroposophical Society in its further progress must become the path to the Mysteries renewed.

And so it is that with these thoughts we remember that today in 2019 we are experiencing the Ecclesiastical Holy Wednesday, revealing the 2 sides of Mercury: Healer /Thief – on the 1 hand: Mary Magdalene’s pre-burial anointing, & on the other: Judas’s betrayal.

Which will we choose?

Xox~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

485 – Death-Day of Proclus – dubbed ‘The Successor’ – a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher. He studyed mathematics & the works of Aristotle under Olympiodorus the Elder. As a gifted student, he eventually became dissatisfied with the level of philosophical instruction available in Alexandria, & went to Athens, the pre-eminent philosophical center of the day, to study at the Neoplatonic successor of the famous Academy founded 800 years earlier (in 387 BC) by Plato; there he was taught by Plutarch of Athens, Syrianus, & Asclepigenia; he succeeded Syrianus as head of the Academy, & would in turn be succeeded on his death by Marinus of Neapolis.

He lived in Athens as a vegetarian bachelor, prosperous & generous to his friends, until the end of his life. He was not appreciated by the Christian rulers; he spent time traveling & being initiated into various mystery cults. He was also instructed in the “theurgic” Neoplatonism, as derived from the Orphic & Chaldean Oracles.

His house has been discovered recently in Athens, under the pavement of Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, south of Acropolis, opposite the theater of Dionysus. He had a great devotion to the Goddess Athena, whom he believed guided him at key moments in his life. Marinus reports that when Christians removed the statue of the Goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman appeared to Proclus in a dream & announced that the “Athenian Lady” wished to stay at his home. Proclus died aged 73, & was buried near Mount Lycabettus in a tomb. It is reported that he was writing 700 lines each day.

1622 – Birthday of Thomas Vaughn, a Welsh philosopher, famous for his writings in the area of natural magic, with his book Anthroposophia Theomagica, a magico-mystical work.  (Some say Rudolf Steiner got his idea for to name the AS from this treatise)

Although he did not practice medicine, Vaughan sought to apply his chemical skills to preparing medicines in the manner recommended by Paracelsus. Vaughan was also the author of tracts published under the pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes.

Vaughan was unusual amongst alchemists of the time in that he worked closely with his wife Rebecca Vaughan. He was a self-described member of the “Society of Unknown Philosophers”, & was responsible for translating into English in 1652 the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, an anonymous Rosicrucian manifesto first published in 1614 in Kassel.

He placed himself in the tradition of the Rosicrucian reformers of education, &of Johannes Trithemius, his teacher Libanius Gallus, and Pelagius of Majorca.

1787 – Goethe’s experience of the archetypal plant in Palermo – “Goethe narrates a conversation that once ensued between Schiller and himself after they had both attended a meeting of the Society for Nature Research in Jena. Schiller was dissatisfied with the results of the meeting. He had found there a most disintegrating method for the study of Nature and he remarked that such a method could never appeal to a layman. Goethe replied that “possibly this method was cumbersome for the initiated also and that there might well exist yet another way of portraying Nature active and living, struggling from the whole into the parts, and not severed and isolated.” And then Goethe evolved the great ideas which had arisen within him concerning the nature of plants. He drew “with many characteristic strokes, a symbolic plant” before Schiller’s eyes. This symbolic plant was intended to give expression to the essential being lying in every single plant, whatever particular form it assumes. It was intended to demonstrate the successive development of the single portions of the plant, their emergence from each other and their mutual relationship. In Palermo, 17th April, 1787, Goethe wrote these words in reference to this symbolic plant form: “There must be such a thing; if not, how could I recognise this or that structure to be a plant if all were not moulded after one pattern?” Goethe had evolved in himself the conception of a plastic, ideal form that was revealed to his spirit when he surveyed the diversity of the plant forms and observed the element common to them all.” Rudolf Steiner Goethe’s Conception of the World: Chapter I: Goethe and Schiller

1790 – Death-Day of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a renowned polymath & a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, & diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment & the history of physics for his discoveries & theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, & the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia’s fire department & the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution.

Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of “like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community.” The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it was modeled after English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well, & which became the center of the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Britain.

Franklin became Grand Master of the Freemasons & published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life

Franklin earned the title of “The First American” for his early & indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author & spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, & opposition to authoritarianism both political & religious, with the scientific & tolerant values of the Enlightenment

Franklin became a successful newspaper editor & printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this & Poor Richard’s Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders”. After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments & criticisms of the British policies.

He pioneered & was 1^st president of The Academy & College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 & later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized & was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society & was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris & was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France.

He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for many years,& this enabled him to set up the first national communications network. During the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs & colonial & state politics, as well as national & international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He argued against slavery from an economic perspective & became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, & his status as one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers have seen Franklin honored more than two centuries after his death the $100 bill.

1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1912 – Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed & trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

***

Ecclesiastical Holy Week Kaspar Hauser Study 14 – 18 April 2019, Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’

We have found this Study of Kaspar Hauser so intriguing that we wish to continue it for our Ecclesiastical Holy Week.

The work is such that you can jump in anytime. I recommend this powerful book: ‘Kaspar Hauser: The Struggle for the Spirit’ byAnthroposophical researcher Peter Tradowsky

Join us: 14 April Palm Sunday 2 – 4 pm, then Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. of Holy Week 15-18 April 7 – 9 pm

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’ a workshop with biography worker Paulette Arnold

(1st Class is on Holy Saturday 20 April 2019)

$10 – 20 or pay what you can + Snacks to Share Encouraged 

for more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

 A Cosmic Wake Up Call: the Easter Paradox of 2019

16 April 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Mars continues to add luster to Taurus the Bull this week. And this evening, the Red Planet passes north of the constellation’s brightest star, Aldebaran. Mars appears slightly fainter than Aldebaran,  above the western horizon an hour after sundown & doesn’t set until after Midnight.

The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, at 5:05 pm CDT.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

According to Dr. Steiner TODAY is the birthday of Aaron = mountain of strength, illuminator – born in Egypt three years before his brother Moses, & after his sister Miriam.

When the time for the Exodus out of Egypt came, Aaron was the “mouth” or “prophet” of Moses, because he was gifted speaker.

When Moses ascended the mountain to receive the Ten Commandments, Aaron was permitted to accompany him part of the way, & to behold the manifestation in the burning bush.

Later the chiefs of the tribes were each required to bring Moses a rod bearing the name of his tribe. These were laid overnight in the tabernacle, & in the morning it was found that Aaron’s rod “for the house of Levi” budded, blossomed, & yielded almonds. Aaron was able to turn that rod into a snake to try & persuade the Pharaoh to ‘Let the people go’.

Aaron was considered a type of Christ figure in his official character as the 1^st high priest, & was intended to lead the people of Israel to look forward to the time when “another priest” would arise “after the order of Melchizedek” (Hebrews 6:20).

1889- Birthday of Charlie Chaplin, English actor, director, producer, screenwriter, & composer

1828 – Death-day of the painter Francisco de Goya

In 1944, during World War II, the allied forces start bombing for the 1st time in Belgrade, killing about 1,100 people. It was Orthodox Easter.

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Today I am
Earth reborn in the hands of the potter
Who gathered me, who molded me
In Fire & Air with the waters of life…
~hag

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And so we continue during this the Ecclesiastical Holy Week with the synopsis I created of the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave during the Easter Paradox of 1924. It is very telling to actually investigate the specific topics he chose to relate. Today we look at the 1^st lecture in the series given to the Anthroposophical Society during the ‘Easter Paradox’ of 1924:

The Easter Festival in relation to the Mysteries 19-22 April 1924, Dornach

The Adonis Mystery. The Easter Thought: 19 April 1924: To understand the Easter festival, we must recognize the many customs & sacred ceremonies associated with this mystery, which has spoken for centuries to the heart of human beings, in the course of historic evolution.

In the ancient Mysteries, the festival of Death, the lying in the Grave & the Resurrection was enacted at the Autumn season, an initiation into the rites of Adonis.

In the course of evolution the human being became less able to penetrate into spiritual, losing the inner understanding which once told them that when outer Nature appears to die, the life of the Spirit can then truly be seen as a resurrection.

So it was no longer possible for Autumn to be the time of the Resurrection Festival. The human being now needs the support of material things, needs the support of what springs forth again in Nature. The human being needs to connect the Resurrection Festival with the force of the seed which is resurrected in outer Nature – needs the support of external Nature- needs to see how the plants spring out of the Earth, how the Sun increases in strength, how light & warmth increase in strength once more. Humanity needs the Resurrection in Nature in order to celebrate the thought of the Resurrection.

Our modern festival of Michaelmas can be a bridge from the past to the future.  

“Anthroposophy itself must become like an inner festival of Resurrection for the human soul. It must bring an Easter mood into humanity’s world-conception. This will indeed be possible if it is understood how the thought of the ancient Mysteries can live on in the true Easter thought. “

Tomorrow we will continue to examine this telling series, which clearly shows that Steiner is speaking about the Southern Mysteries of the Shepherds to the Magi, those folks primarily of the Northern system that occupied the Anthroposophical Society of that time.

Blessings on this Holy Tuesday where we experience in the life of Christ the conflict with his opponents & the bending of the Mars spirit to His purposes, where an Apocalyptic future is revealed.

Until Soon

~hag

15 April 2019 – “Speaking with the stars”: The annual Lyrid meteor shower ramps up this week. Although the shower won’t peak until the morning of April 23, you should see a few meteors in the predawn hours before then despite the presence of a bright Moon. Lyrids appear to come from the constellation Lyra the Harp.

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Day of Archangel Raphael

1452 – The Birthday of Leonardo da Vinci – According to the spiritual scientific research of Rudolf Steiner this individuality incarnated before as Augustine, Judas Maccabee & then as Judas Iscariot .

“What is inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle between the earth and the moon is of special importance because it is there that among other things all imperfections are recorded. It should be realized that the inscribing of these imperfections is governed by the view that every record there is of significance for the individual’s own evolution, either furthering or hindering his progress. Because it is there inscribed in the Akasha Chronicle between earth and moon, it also becomes significant for the evolution of the earth as a whole. The imperfections of really great men are also recorded in that sphere. One example of tremendous interest for clairvoyant observation is Leonardo da Vinci. He is a spirit of greatness and universality equaled by few others on earth, but compared with what he intended, his actual achievements in the external world in many respects remained incomplete. As a matter of fact, no man of similar eminence left as much uncompleted as Leonardo da Vinci. The consequence of this was that a colossal amount was inscribed by him in the Moon sphere, so much indeed that one is often bound to exclaim, “How could all that is inscribed there possibly have reached perfection on the earth!”

At this point I want to tell you of something that seemed to me quite significant when I was studying Leonardo da Vinci. I was to give a lecture about him in Berlin and a particular observation made in connection with him seemed to be extremely important. It fills one with sadness today to see on the wall of the Church of Santa Maria della Grazie in Milan the rapidly disappearing colors that now convey no more than a faint shadow of what the picture once was. If we remember that Leonardo took sixteen years to paint this picture, and think of how he painted it, we gain a definite impression. It is known that he would often go away for a long time. Then he would return to the picture, sit in front of it or many hours, make a few strokes with the brush and go off again. It is also known that many times he felt unable to express what he wished in the painting and suffered terrible fits of depression on this account. Now it happened that a new prior was appointed to the monastery at a time when Leonardo had already been working at the picture for many years. This prior was a pedantic and strict disciplinarian with little understanding of art. He asked impatiently why the painter could not finish the picture, reproached him for it and also complained to Duke Ludovico. The Duke repeated the complaint to Leonardo and he answered, “I do not know whether I shall ever be able to complete this picture. I have prototypes in life for all the figures except those of Judas and Christ. For them I have no models, although in the case of Judas, if no model turns up I can always take the prior. But for the Christ I have no prototype.” That, however, is digressing.

What I want to say is that when one looks today at the figure of Judas in the picture that has almost completely faded, a shadow is to be seen on this figure, a shadow that cannot be explained in any way, either by the instreaming light or by anything else. Occult investigation finds that the painting was never as Leonardo da Vinci really wanted it to be. With the exception of the figures of Judas and the Christ he wanted to portray everything through light and shadow, but Judas was to be portrayed in such a way as to give the impression that darkness dominated the countenance from within. This was not intended to be conveyed by external contrasts of light and shadows. In the figure of Christ the impression was to be that the light on His countenance was shining from within, radiating outwards from within. But at this point disharmony beset Leonardo’s inner life, and the effect he desired was never produced. This affords a clue when one is observing the many remaining inscriptions made by Leonardo in the Moon sphere. It is an example of something that could not be brought to fulfillment in the earth sphere.

When the period following that of Leonardo da Vinci is investigated, it is found that Leonardo continued to work through a number of those who lived after him. Even externally there can be found in Leonardo’s writings things that later on were demonstrated by scientists and also by artists. In fact, the whole subsequent period was under his influence. It is then discovered that the inscribed imperfections worked as inspirations into the souls of Leonardo’s successors, into the souls of men who lived after him.

The imperfections of an earlier epoch are still more important for the following epoch than its perfections. The perfections are there to be studied, but what has been elaborated to a certain degree of perfection on the earth has, as it were, reached an end, has come to a conclusion in evolution. What has not been perfected is the seed of the following divine evolutionary process. Here we come to a remarkable, magnificent paradox. The greatest blessing for a subsequent period is the fruitful imperfection, the fruitful, justifiable imperfection of an earlier period. What has been perfected in an earlier epoch is there to be enjoyed. Imperfection, however, imperfection originating in great men whose influences have remained for posterity, helps to promote creative activity in the following period. Hence, there is obviously tremendous wisdom in the fact that imperfections remain in the neighborhood of the earth, inscribed in the records of the Akasha Chronicle between earth and moon.

This brings us to the point where we can begin to understand the principle that perfection signifies for the different epochs the end of a stream of evolution, and imperfection, the beginning of an evolutionary stream. For imperfection in this sense men should actually be thankful to the gods.” ~Rudolf Steiner Life Between Death and Rebirth Man’s Journey through the Cosmic Spheres after Death

“Among the five sons of Mattathias is one who is already called Judas in the Old Testament. He was the one who at that time fought more bravely than all the others for his own people. In his whole soul he was dedicated to his people, and it was he who was successful in forming an alliance with the Romans against King Antiochus of Syria (I Maccabees, Chap. 8). This Judas (Maccabeus =The Hammer) is the same who later had to undergo the test of the betrayal, because he who was most intimately bound up with the old specifically Hebrew element, could not at once find the transition into the Christian element, needing the severe testing of the betrayal. Again, if we look at the purely artistic aspect, how wonderfully do the two figures stand out: the grand figure of the Judas in the last chapters of the Old Testament and the Judas of the New Testament. It is remarkable that in this symptomatic process, the Judas of the Old Testament concluded an alliance with the Romans, prefiguring all that happened later, namely the path that Christianity took through the Roman Empire, so that it could enter into the world. If I could add to this something that can also be known but that cannot be given in a lecture to an audience as large as this, you would see that it was precisely through a later reincarnation of Judas that the fusion of the Roman with the Christian element occurred. The reincarnated Judas was the first who, as we might say, had the great success of spreading Romanized Christianity in the world. The treaty concluded by the Judas of the Old Testament with the Romans was the prophetic foreshadowing of what was later accomplished by another man, who is recognized by occultists as the reincarnation of that Judas who had to go through the severe soul-testing of the betrayal. What through his later influence appears as Christianity within Romanism and Romanism within Christianity is like a renewal of the alliance concluded between the Old Testament Judas and the Romans, but transferred into the spiritual.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Gospel of Mark: Lecture 2

“If we let his “Last Supper” work on us, we find two things of which we can say that they do not altogether agree with Leonardo’s view of the principles of painting. One is the figure of Judas. From the reproductions and also to a certain extent from the shadowy painting in Milan, one gets the impression that Judas is quite covered in shadow — he is quite dark. Now when we study how the light falls from the different sides, and how with regard to the other eleven disciples the lighting conditions are represented in the most wonderful manner in accordance with reality, nothing really explains the darkness on the face of Judas. Art can give us no answer as to the wherefore of this darkness. This is fairly clear as regards the Judas figure. If we now turn to the Christ Figure, approaching it not according to Spiritual Science but according to the external view, it only produces, as it were, something like a suggestion. Just as little as the blackness, the darkness of the Judas figure seems justifiable, just as little does the “sunniness” of the Christ Figure, standing out as it does from the other figures, seem to be justified, in this sense. We can understand the lighting of all the other countenances but not that of Judas nor that of Christ Jesus. Then, as if of itself, the idea comes into one’s mind: surely the painter has striven to make evident that in these two opposites, Jesus and Judas, light and darkness proceed not from outside but from within. He probably wished to make us realize that the light on the face of the Christ cannot be explained by the outer conditions of light, and yet we can believe that the Soul behind this Countenance is itself a light force, so that It can shine of Itself, in spite of the lighting conditions. In the same way the impression with respect to Judas, is, that this form itself conjures up a shadow which is not explained by the shadows around it.

This is, as already said, a hypothesis of Spiritual Science, but one that has developed in me in the course of many years and we may believe that the more we considered the problem the more we would find it substantiated. According to this hypothesis one can understand how Leonardo, who strove to be true to nature in all his work and study, worked with trembling brush to present a problem that could only be justified with respect to this one figure. We can then understand that he might well be bitterly disappointed, indubitably so, because it was impossible by means of the then existing art to bring this problem to expression with complete truthfulness and probability. Because he could not yet do what he wanted, he finally despaired of the possibility of its execution and had to leave a picture behind him which still did not satisfy him, and the question as to the feelings with which Leonardo left his picture can be answered in full accord with the whole figure and spiritual greatness of Leonardo. He left it with a feeling of bitterness, realizing that in his most important work he had set himself a task, the execution of which could never be satisfactory with the means available to man. If in the centuries to come no eye will see the picture Leonardo had conjured on to the wall at Milan — that, in any case, was certainly not what lived in his soul. If we picture him thus before his most important creation, we are indeed tempted to ask: What secret really lay behind this figure?”

“…We see very little of Leonardo by looking at his external creations; we get the idea that this soul has still to carry out something in a super-sensible existence and we say to ourselves: Oh! We understand! In order that this soul, in the whole course of its collective existence, which runs through many earth lives, could always reveal something to mankind, it had in its Leonardo existence to pass through a life in which it was only able to bring to expression the very smallest part of what lived within it. Such souls as Leonardo are world riddles and life riddles — world riddles incarnate… Leonardo’s greatness only becomes evident to us when we get an inkling of what he could NOT accomplish. ~RS, Leonardo da Vinci – His Spiritual and Intellectual Greatness At the Turning Point of the New Age

“When we ourselves penetrate into the spiritual worlds and come to know something about the life there, we encounter conditions altogether different from those prevailing in physical life on earth. That is why it is so very difficult to describe these conditions in terms of human words and human thoughts. Any attempt to speak concretely about them often seems paradoxical.

To take one example only, I am able to tell you of a human soul after death together with whom it was possible — because of his special knowledge — to make certain discoveries in the spiritual world about the great painter Leonardo da Vinci, particularly about his famous picture of the Last Supper, in Milan. When one investigates a spiritual fact in association with such a soul, this soul is able to indicate many things which ordinary clairvoyance might not otherwise have found in the Akasha Chronicle. The soul in the spiritual world is able to point them out, but can do so only if there is some understanding of what this soul is trying to convey. Something very noteworthy then comes to light.

Suppose that in company with such a soul one is investigating how Leonardo da Vinci created his famous picture. Today the picture is hardly more than a few patches of colour. But in the Akasha Chronicle one can watch Leonardo as he painted, one can see what the picture was once like — although this is not an easy thing to do. When the investigation is carried on in company with a soul who is not incarnate but has some connection with Leonardo da Vinci and his painting, one perceives that this soul is showing one certain things — for example, the faces of Christ and of Judas as they actually were in the picture. But one perceives, too, that the soul could not reveal this unless at the moment when it is being revealed there is understanding in the soul of the living investigator. This is a sine qua non. And only at the moment when the soul of the living investigator is receptive to what is being disclosed does the discarnate soul itself learn to understand what is otherwise merely vision. To speak figuratively. — After something has been experienced together with such a soul — something that can be experienced only in the way described — this soul says to one: You have brought me to the picture and I feel the urge to look at it with you. (The soul of the dead says this to the living investigator because of the latter’s desire to investigate the picture.) Numerous experiences then arise. But a moment comes when the discarnate soul is either suddenly absent or says that it must depart. In the case of which I have just told you, the discarnate soul said: Up to now the soul of Leonardo da Vinci regarded with approval what was being done, but does not now desire the investigation to continue.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Links Between the Living and the Dead

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~This skin I wear is luminous imagination…
Light slanting in & out
Thru the clerestory windows of my eyes,
Curling like incense thru my words…
…In purest love I strive
To outpour the god-hood of my soul…
~hag

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Dear Friends for the rest of the Ecclesiastical Holy Week I will post the synopsis I created of the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave during the Easter Paradox of 1924.  I will start today with the one he gave to the workers at the Goetheanum at the time of the Esoteric Easter. I believe that if we take the time to actually investigate what he said to each group we will find a powerful message that applies to us today.

Star Wisdom, Moon Religion, Sun Religion, Given to workers at the Goetheanum in Dornach March 13, 1924, here Steiner tells us: In Roman times the Star Wisdom had been lost. Julian the “Apostate” tried to reintroduce it, but he was murdered. The advent of Christ brought the ancient Star Religion to life again — but in a new form — teaching that the Sun God must now have his place upon the Earth, accessible to all of humanity, not just the initiates. But those in power denounced this as superstition — & not only as superstition but as a creed of the devil. People were expected to believe only in the external, historical event of the presence of Christ Jesus in Palestine — in the form in which the Church proclaimed it. Consequently the Church became the supreme authority in the matter of how & what people should think, which ignored the whole cosmic setting of the Easter event.

“Julian ‘the Apostate’ maintained that in Christianity men should be taught: Christ came from the Sun and then, as Sun Being, entered into the man Jesus.Now the Churches did not wish this knowledge to be in the possession of men. The Churches did not want the real facts about Christ Jesus to come to light, but only such knowledge as was authorised by them”. ~Rudolf Steiner, Star Wisdom, Moon Religion, Sun Religion

Today is the Moonday of Holy Week, when Christ cursed the fig tree, remnant of the old clairvoyance, & went on to cleanse the Temple. May our Moon-forces must be renewed, as we strive to develop the new sight in freedom.

Until tomorrow

Blessings & peace

~hag