14 April 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The gibbous Moon shines upper right of Regulus this evening. The huge, bright Winter Hexagon still fills the sky to the southwest at the end of twilight. Start with brilliant Sirius in the Hexagon’s lower left corner. High above Sirius is Procyon. From there look even higher for Pollux & Castor, then to Menkalinan & bright Capella, lower left from there to Aldebaran, lower left to Rigel way down at the bottom of Orion, & back to Sirius.
“Everybody should be reminded by the Easter festival, that there will be the resurrection of the spirit out of the present darkened nature of the human being”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Riddles of the World and Anthroposophy
215 – Birthday of Mani the prophet & founder of Manichaeism – see Rudolf Steiner’s lectures GA 104 & 113
1126 – Birthday of Averroes, a medieval Spanish polymath. He wrote on logic, Aristotelian & Islamic philosophy, theology, the Maliki school of Islamic jurisprudence, psychology, political & Andalusian classical music theory, geography, mathematics, & the medieval sciences of medicine, astronomy, physics, & celestial mechanics. Averroes was a defender of Aristotelian philosophy against Ash’ari theologians led by Al-Ghazali.
On this day in 1561 it was Good Friday – Around
dawn there was a mass sighting of celestial phenomena over Nuremberg, residents of Nuremberg saw what they
described as an aerial battle, followed by the appearance of a large black
triangular object & then a large crash outside of the city. According to
witnesses, there were hundreds of spheres, cylinders & other odd-shaped
objects that moved erratically overhead.
A broadsheet news article was printed later that month,
describes objects of various shapes including crosses, globes, two lunar
crescents, a black spear & tubular objects from which several smaller,
round objects emerged & darted around the sky at dawn.
“In the morning of April 14, 1561, at daybreak, between 4 and 5 a.m., a dreadful apparition occurred on the sun, and then this was seen in Nuremberg in the city, before the gates and in the country – by many men and women. At first there appeared in the middle of the sun two blood-red semi-circular arcs, just like the moon in its last quarter. And in the sun, above and below and on both sides, the color was blood, there stood a round ball of partly dull, partly black ferrous color. Likewise there stood on both sides and as a torus about the sun such blood-red ones and other balls in large number, about three in a line and four in a square, also some alone. In between these globes there were visible a few blood-red crosses, between which there were blood-red strips, becoming thicker to the rear and in the front malleable like the rods of reed-grass, which were intermingled, among them two big rods, one on the right, the other to the left, and within the small and big rods there were three, also four and more globes. These all started to fight among themselves, so that the globes, which were first in the sun, flew out to the ones standing on both sides, thereafter, the globes standing outside the sun, in the small and large rods, flew into the sun. Besides the globes flew back and forth among themselves and fought vehemently with each other for over an hour. And when the conflict in and again out of the sun was most intense, they became fatigued to such an extent that they all, as said above, fell from the sun down upon the earth ‘as if they all burned’ and they then wasted away on the earth with immense smoke. After all this there was something like a black spear, very long and thick, sighted; the shaft pointed to the east, the point pointed west. Whatever such signs mean, God alone knows. Although we have seen, shortly one after another, many kinds of signs on the heaven, which are sent to us by the almighty God, to bring us to repentance, we still are, unfortunately, so ungrateful that we despise such high signs and miracles of God. Or we speak of them with ridicule and discard them to the wind, in order that God may send us a frightening punishment on account of our ungratefulness. After all, the God-fearing will by no means discard these signs, but will take it to heart as a warning of their merciful Father in heaven, will mend their lives and faithfully beg God, that He may avert His wrath, including the well-deserved punishment, on us, so that we may temporarily here and perpetually there, live as his children. For it, may God grant us his help, Amen”. Art by Hanns Glaser, letter-painter of Nurnberg
1759 – Deathday of G.F. Handel – composer
1865 – Abraham Lincoln is shot in Ford’s Theatre by John Wilkes Booth; Lincoln died the next day
1900 – The Exposition Universelle – a world’s fair held in Paris, France, from 14 April to 12 November 1900, to celebrate the achievements of the past century & to accelerate development into the next. The fair, visited by nearly 50 million, displayed many machines, inventions, & architecture that are now nearly universally known, including the Grande Roue de Paris Ferris wheel, Russian nesting dolls, diesel engines, talking films, escalators, & the telegraphone (the first magnetic audio recorder)
1912 – The sinking of the Titanic
1935 – Exclusion from the General Anthroposophical Society of Ita Wegman, Elisabeth Vreed & other members also 2 national societies
1939 – The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck is first published
2010 – Over 2,700 are killed in a magnitude 6.9 earthquake in the Yushu Tibetan
2014 – 276 schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram in Chibok, Nigeria
***
Agostino Arrivabene
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~The combustion Becomes ash & the seed is cooked in salt As our bones grow roots In the Earth-Womb… ~hag
***
Sandro Parise
My continued observations on the Easter Paradox of 2019: Interesting to note that on this Ecclesiastical Palm Sunday that it is snowing here in Chicago; but also there is thunder & lightning! And looking above at the things that happened on this day in history, it is easy to feel their imprint in the etheric realm reverberating on this day.
See this updated link to read a compilation of my Spiritual Scientific Research on the Easter Paradox. Scroll down to read the synopsis I created of the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave on both the Esoteric & Ecclesiastical Easter of 1924 – 1st to the Workers on 13 March, & then to the members of the Society 19-22 April 1924 – very illuminating to hear what he choose to say; speaking 1st to the Shepherds & then to the Magi…
***
Dear Friends – Between 1905 & 1925, Rudolf
Steiner made a number of remarks about Kaspar Hauser to the effect that he was
“a higher being who had a special mission on earth,” a being charged
with building “a new grail castle for the Fighters of the Spirit” in
central Germany. Of his origin, Steiner called Kaspar Hauser “a stray
Atlantean”, a carrier of the “Christ Impulse,” a kind of 19th
century messiah whose “sacrificial death” was central to the history
of Europe.
Rudolf Steiner says that had he lived & not
been kidnapped, & then murdered, he would have united Europe; overcoming
the forces of darkness to allow the birthing a higher Christianity. The
conspirators were able to keep him prisoner so that he was neither fully alive,
nor dead, for many years. This kept Kaspar from crossing the threshold where he
could not be bound by them.
If the powers of darkness had not prevented
Kaspar Hauser from assuming his historical & spiritual role, then, for
example, the German Third Reich might never have happened. Hauser’s death in
1833 is connected with the beginning of the Nazi rule in 1933, & with the
appearance of The Christ in the Etheric.
Steiner says: “It became apparent for the first time in its true dimensions what has been caused through Kaspar Hauser’s murder by those who commit the sin against the Spirit”. But, as Steiner makes clear, Kaspar Hauser’s death is not just of historical importance; it is truly of cosmic significance: “If Kaspar Hauser had not lived and died as he did, contact between the earth and the spiritual world would have been completely interrupted”. Kaspar Hauser profoundly affected the world; & in Europe everyone knows his name.
Come join us at the Branch during this
Ecclesiastical Holy Week as we continue to explore the mystery of Kaspar
Hauser:
TODAY: 14 April – Palm Sunday 2 – 4 pm, at
the Branch
then Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. of Holy Week 15-18 April 7 – 9 pm
Duncan Regehr
Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- “O Man (or Woman), Know Thyself: A
Glimpse at the Human Double’ an experiential workshop with Paulette Arnold
$10 – or pay what you can + Snacks to Share Encouraged
(1st Class is on Holy Saturday 20 April 2019)
Easter Sunday at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson Ave
9:30AM – Story & Song
10:00AM – Sunday Service for the Children
10:30AM – Act of Consecration of Man
11:45AM – Easter
Rudolf Steiner Branch of the
Anthroposophical Society of America, 4249 North Lincoln
Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site!
Calendar of Events
6 April 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look for Bella Luna as a slender crescent visible in the early evening sky. New was yesterday morning, so tonight we will see her starting to emerge from the underworld showing us only 3 percent of her disk just after sunset.(Tomorrow evening, a 7-percent-lit lunar crescent hangs noticeably higher in the sky.) Notice her tender ashen light faintly illuminating the Moon’s dark side. This is “Earthshine,” sunlight reflected by Earth that reaches the Moon & then reflects back to our waiting eyes.
***
“What is to be the starting force & impulse for events in social & ethical life must come out of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, New Spiritual Impulses in History” Dornach 16 December, 1917
582- Death & Feast Day of Eutychius of Constantinople, Toward the end of his life, Eutychius maintained an opinion that after the resurrection the body will be “more subtle than air” & no longer a tangible thing. This was considered heretical, because it was taken as a denial of the doctrine of physical, corporeal resurrection.
Henry Nelson O’Neil
1483 – Good Friday –
Birthday of Raphael, an Italian painter & architect
of the High Renaissance. Raphael was enormously productive, running an
unusually large workshop &, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body
of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace. From 1517 until his death, Raphael lived in the Palazzo
Caprini in the Borgo, in rather grand style in a palace designed by Bramante.
He never married, & was thought to be bi-sexual. He is said to have had
many affairs, but a permanent fixture in his life in Rome was “La
Fornarina”, Margherita Luti, the daughter of a baker (fornaro) named
Francesco Luti from Siena.
Raphael’s premature death on Good Friday (April 6,
1520), which was also his 37th birthday, was caused by a night of excessive sex
with Luti, after which he fell into a fever &, not telling his doctors that
this was its cause, was given the wrong cure, which killed him. At his request,
Raphael was buried in the Pantheon.
His funeral was extremely grand, attended by large crowds. The inscription in his marble sarcophagus, an elegiac distich written by Pietro Bembo, reads: “Ille hic est Raffael, timuit quo sospite vinci, rerum magna parens et moriente mori”, meaning: “Here lies that famous Raphael by whom Nature feared to be conquered while he lived, and when he was dying, feared herself to die.”
1472 –Birthday of Lucas Cranach the Elder, a German Renaissance painter & printmaker
Franz and Christian von Hausen Riepe
1520 – Good Friday – Deathday of Raphael
1869 – Celluloid is patented
1896 – In Athens, the opening of the first modern Olympic Games is celebrated, 1,500 years after the original games are banned by Roman emperor Theodosius I
1930 – Gandhi raises a lump of mud and salt and declares, “With this, I am shaking the foundations of the British Empire,” beginning the Salt Satyagraha
1965 – Launch of Early Bird, the first commercial communications satellite to be placed in geosynchronous orbit
1971 – Deathday of Igor Stravinsky, Russian-American pianist, composer, & conductor
1992 – Deathday of Isaac Asimov, American science fiction writer
2008 – The 2008 Egyptian general strike starts led by Egyptian workers later to be adopted by April 6 Youth Movement & Egyptian activists
2015
– Deathday of Ray Charles
***
Becka Renolds
POD (Poem Of theDay)
O Tree of Life Now is not your Winter The red-rose-vine will entwine The ever greening bough In a slow motion rapture ~hag
***
Allan Beck
I awoke with these thoughts to ponder today:
“Since Anthroposophy cannot really be grasped except by the power of love, it is love-engendering when human beings take it in a way true to its own nature” -Rudolf Steiner
Joe Magown
Love comes when the soul recollects the world, inside itself.
Freedom comes when the soul forgets itself, inside the world.
Doug Von Houghton
In the Human Soul:
Life = ‘I’ Warmth = Expression of the life of the ‘I’ Light = Manifestation of the Expression of the Life of the ‘I’
I = Christ. AM = Human Soul
I AM = The life warmth and light of Christ – the manifestation of the expression of the life of Christ in the human soul
Beth Lanton
In
the Spiritual World:
Life = Physical Sun Warmth = Sun Soul Light = Sun Spirit
Manifestation = Nathan Soul Expression = Sophia Life = Christ
I Am = Christ in The Soul of the World
hmmmmm
What are you thinking about today?
Kateřina Machytková
xox
~hag
***
‘ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY: WHAT AILS
THEE! with APO founder Fred Janney
Saturday 6 April 2019,from
7-9 pm: Personality and spiritual biographies
of the original Vorstand members and group healing meditation.
Sunday 7 April 2019,from
1 pm – 4 pm: Identifying your spiritual stream and
recognizing its opposite stream with directions for bringing cohesion and direction
for members on both sides of the threshold.
In 1999 Fred Janney
joined with six other members of the Anthroposophical Society from around the
country to start what soon became known as Anthroposophical Prison Outreach.
We are celebrating twenty years of service to incarcerated individuals based on
the good will and donations of our member.
Contribution $25-$50 or pay what you can
afford, ALL proceeds donated to APO.
In 1936 President Franklin Roosevelt
asserted that “This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny.”
Five years later he spoke of four freedoms—“everywhere in the world”—that were
“no vision of a distant millennium” but “a definite basis for a kind of world
attainable in our own time…” But when the end of the world war left the USA as
the richest and most powerful nation in the world’s history, two Americas
emerged, an inner one where the respect for the individual continued to grow,
and an outer one where a full-scale war on the Spirit of Truth, the Holy
Spirit, has been unleashed, even as the technological basis is extended for the
rulership of Satan, Ahriman, the “father of lies.” Now individuals must wake up
to this challenging reality.
John Beck is editor of being
human magazine and director of communications for the Anthroposophical
Society in America (USA). He was general manager of the New York Open Center, a
technology and communications officer at Chase Bank, and director of public
broadcasting stations in Boston and New York City. Family history has led him
to be aware of political life in the USA since childhood
Rudolf Steiner Branch of the
Anthroposophical Society of America,4249 North Lincoln
Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)Check out our Web site!
Calendar of Events
3 April 33 – According to the spiritual scientific research of Rudolf Steiner, Today is the Death Day of Christ Jesus…
& at the same time in Mexico Vitzliputzli crucified a powerful black magician. “Now at a certain time a being was born in Central America who set himself a definite task within this culture. The old, original inhabitants of Mexico linked the existence of this being with a definite idea or picture. They said he had entered the world as the son of a virgin who had conceived him through super earthly powers, inasmuch as it was a feathered being from the heavens who impregnated her. When one makes researches with the occult powers at one’s disposal, one finds that the being to whom the ancient Mexicans ascribed a virgin birth was born in the year 1 A.D. and lived to be thirty-three years old. These facts emerge when, as stated, one examines the matter with occult means. This being set himself a quite specific task.
At this same time in Central America another man was born who was
destined by birth to become a high initiate of Taotl. This man had in his
previous earthly incarnations been initiated as described above and through the
fact that he had many, many times repeated the procedure involving the excision
of the stomach, which has been described to you and which there is no need to
recapitulate, he had been gradually equipped with a lofty earthly and super-earthly
knowledge. This was one of the greatest black magicians, if not the greatest
ever to tread the earth; he possessed the greatest secrets that are to be
acquired on this path. He was faced directly with a momentous decision as the
year 30 A.D. approached, namely whether or not, as a single human individual,
to become so powerful through continuous initiation that he would come to know
a certain basic secret. Through knowledge of this secret he would have then
been able to give such a shock and impetus to the coming evolution of man on
earth that humanity in the fourth and fifth post-Atlantean epochs would have
been thrown into terrible darkness, with the result that what the ahrimanic
powers had striven for in these epochs could have come into existence.
Then a conflict began between this super-magician and the being to whom a virgin birth was ascribed, and one finds from one’s research that it lasted for three years. The being of the virgin birth bore a name that, when we try to transpose it into our speech approximates Vitzliputzli. He is a human person who, among all these beings who otherwise only moved about in spirit form and could only be perceived through atavistic clairvoyance, in actual fact became man, so the story goes, through his virgin birth. The three year conflict ended when Vitzliputzli was able to have the great magician crucified, and not only through the crucifixion to annihilate his body but also to place his soul under a ban, by this means rendering its activities powerless as well as its knowledge. Thus the knowledge assimilated by the great magician of Taotl was killed. In this way Vitzliputzli was able to win again for earthly life all those souls who, as indicated, had already received the urge to follow Lucifer and leave the earth. Through the mighty victory he had gained over the powerful black magician, Vitzliputzli was able to imbue men again with the desire for earthly existence and successive incarnations.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Mexican Mysteries and the Knights Templar Inner Impulses of Evolution lecture 3
Feast Day of Mary of Egypt. also known as Maria
Aegyptica. In Goethe’s Faust
Mary of Egypt is one of the 3 penitent saints who pray to the Virgin Mary for
forgiveness for Faust. Her words are set by Mahler in his 8th Symphony, as the
final saint’s appeal to the Mater Gloriosa. Her Story: At the age of twelve she
ran away from her parents to the city of Alexandria. Here she lived an
extremely dissolute life. In her Vita it states that she often refused the
money offered for her sexual favors, as she was driven “by an insatiable
& an irrepressible passion,” and that she mainly lived by begging,
supplemented by spinning flax.
After seventeen years of this
lifestyle, she traveled to Jerusalem for the Great Feasts of the Exaltation of
the Holy Cross. She undertook the journey as a sort of
“anti-pilgrimage,” stating that she hoped to find in the pilgrim
crowds at Jerusalem even more partners in her lust. She paid for her passage by
offering sexual favors to other pilgrims, & she continued her habitual
lifestyle for a short time in Jerusalem. Her Vita relates that when she tried
to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the celebration, she was barred from
doing so by an unseen force. Realizing that this was because of her impurity,
she was struck with remorse, & upon seeing an icon of the Theotokos (the
Virgin Mary) outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness & promised to
give up the world (i.e., become an ascetic). Then she attempted again to enter
the church, & this time was permitted in. After venerating the relic of the
true cross, she returned to the icon to give thanks, & heard a voice
telling her, “If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest.”
She immediately went to the monastery of Saint John the Baptist on the bank of
the River Jordan, where she received absolution & afterwards Holy
Communion. The next morning, she crossed the Jordan & retired to the desert
to live the rest of her life as a hermit in penitence. She took with her only
three loaves of bread, & once they were gone, lived only on what she could
find in the wilderness.
Approximately one year before her death, she recounted her life to Saint Zosimas of Palestine, who encountered her in the desert. When he unexpectedly met her in the desert, she was completely naked & almost unrecognizable as human. She asked Zosimas to toss her his mantle to cover herself with, & then she narrated her life’s story to him, manifesting marvellous clairvoyance. She asked him to meet her at the banks of the Jordan, on Holy Thursday of the following year, & bring her Holy Communion. When he fulfilled her wish, she crossed the river to get to him by walking on the surface of the water, & received Holy Communion, telling him to meet her again in the desert the following Lent. The next year, Zosimas travelled to the same spot where he first met her, some twenty days’ journey from his monastery, & found her lying there dead. According to an inscription written in the sand next to her head, she had died on the very night he had given her Communion & had been somehow miraculously transported to the place he found her, & her body was preserved incorrupt. He buried her body with the assistance of a passing lion. On returning to the monastery he related her life story to the brethren, & it was preserved among them as oral tradition until it was written down by St. Sophronius.
In Italy, this Mary became associated with the patronage of fallen women much like Mary Magdalene, to whom similar traits were associated.
Feast Day of Saints Agape, Chionia, & Irene (Greek: Αγάπη, Χιονία και Ειρήνη meaning Love, Purity, & Peace, born in Thessaloniki) 3 virgin sisters who, were martyred for their faith in the year 304 AD. The story of their martyrdom is the subject of Dulcitius, a 10th-century medieval Latin drama by the secular canoness, Hrotsvitha of Gandersheim, the first known female playwright.
1682 – Deathday of Rosamunde, Princess of Cyprus – There is a play by Helmina von Chézy, with music which Franz Schubert composed for it. The story concerns the attempt of Rosamunde, who was brought up incognito as a shepherdess by the mariner’s widow Axa, to reclaim her throne. The long-established governor Fulgentius , who already has Rosamunde’s parents on his conscience, attempts to thwart Rosamunde, initially by intrigue, then by a marriage proposal & finally by an attempt at poisoning. Rosamunde, whose claim is backed by a deed in her father’s hand, enjoys the support of Cypriots & the Cretan Prince Alfonso, her intended husband. Finally, all the attempts of Fulgentius fail; he dies by his own poison, & Rosamunde ascends the throne.
1895 – The trial in the libel case brought by Oscar Wilde begins, eventually resulting in his imprisonment on charges of homosexuality
1897 – Death day of Johannes Brahms, German pianist & composer
1922 – Joseph Stalin becomes the first General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.
*1925 – The Cremation of Rudolf Steiner at the Horburg cemetery in Basel
1968 – Martin Luther King Jr. delivers his “I’ve Been to the
Mountaintop” speech. He was assassinated the next day
~I re-member The perfume of morning Sharp as I carry the egg of light home A simple flower unfurling Slowly after a night of anguish I sway under a fragmented sky thinking how Star patterns & Moon-magic pulse within me… & how Unseen music follows… ~hag
***
Shared by Patricia Kaminski. Compiled
by Eva Lohmann-Heck
*The following moving descriptions of
experiences and observations from the time of Rudolf Steiner’s taking leave of
the earth are taken from an article by Werner
Schäfer, whose selections we reprint here with his kind permission. They
may speak for themselves without further commentary and serve to create a
unifying mood for all those who would like to commemorate Rudolf Steiner’s
being and work on the 94th anniversary of his death.
Ilona Schubert
summarized in the following words what certainly corresponded to the experience
of many people at that time when they said goodbye to Rudolf Steiner, whose
body was laid out in the studio:
“Silence
weaved in the room. In deep sorrow, but also with infinite gratitude and love
in their hearts, those present raised their thoughts to their great leader and
teacher. The next morning – on the 3rd
of April, the historical Good Friday – was the cremation, which was celebrated
by Dr. Rittelmeyer with the ritual of the Christian Community, in the old
crematorium in Basel. An immense crowd had arrived, and the small abdication
hall could not accommodate them all. So the majority stood outside in the open
air. I, too, was among them and could only follow the celebration from a
distance. But it was no less a deep experience. Bright blue skies and bright
sunshine, singing birds in the newly awakened world of spring – it was a
magical Good Friday atmosphere like in Wagner’s “Parzival,” which united all of
the people, inside and outside, and unified them in the consciousness that they
have now given the final guiding direction to the one who is among the greatest
spirits of mankind and whose work on earth they had been allowed to witness.”
The following report by Dr. Heinrich Hardt comes from the
cremation of Rudolf Steiner’s body in Basel on April 3, 1925 (from
“Mitteilungen aus der anthroposophischen Arbeit in Deutschland,” Easter 1950):
“It
was a cloudless, radiant spring sky under which the immense crowd gathered
around the Basel Crematorium, which was full of people inside. Stuten’s music
had faded away, and Albert Steffen’s
speech was audible in fragments to us who were standing in the open air. Deep
sorrow ran through me over the decease of the beloved teacher, and still
another particular sorrow over the imminent departure of his precious earthly
form, his spirit-imbued head, his grace-filled starry brow. All this was now to
be handed over to the elements. – Warm memories of his indications and revelations,
which are intimately connected to all of nature – the plants, the animals, the
elemental beings – pervaded my soul, and despite all the dignity and beauty
which had been bestowed upon the whole happening by human hearts and hands, I
somehow felt: it could not be otherwise than that Nature herself, who is not
compliant to us human beings, expressed her own participation in this hour. The
nature beings themselves, who are fraternally familiar to our spiritual teacher
– yes, they must, they will show their participation, simply their visible
presence; otherwise, this unique, at the same time so painful and yet so
sublime hour would remain incomplete. – At the gable of the grey crematorium
one could see the shape of a large antique vase, and I looked toward it with a
searching, expectant gaze: When and where does the large, beautiful bird come
from, which sits on it, ignoring the closeness of so many people and thus
proving that its presence is not accidental? – But the vase remained as it was.
– There – it may have been two or three minutes later – quiet seagull cries and
a very gentle roar caused me to look up at the sky. What did I see? – Exactly
vertically above the crematorium, at a height of about 40 meters, stood a
structure like a living crown. It was comprised of about 22 to 24 seagulls.
Their flight was cheerful and lively. In front of the bright blue sky, their
plumage sparkled silver and, on their breasts, gold. An indescribable triad of
colours! From time to time, individual birds swung through the circle in
half-lemniscate form and arranged themselves in a new order. The whole crowning
wreath, this crown crowning everything as if held by the hands of gods,
remained in exactly the same place for minutes. I nudged my friend on the
right, and we looked up for a long time, deeply moved. A look at the others
standing nearby showed us that, unfortunately, probably no one but us looked
up. One felt impelled to call out, to nudge others, to draw their attention –
we were, after all, still so young! – but the thought of creating a disturbance
through such actions made us remain silent. – Only very gradually did the
wedding flight – as the ornithologists call such an event – slowly float away,
preserving its circle, backwards to the right as seen from our perspective. But
just then, the open sun flashed forth! Our eyes were forced to close as the
feathered, livingly moving high crown approached all too near with its radiant
attire. – Most inwardly shaken by the beauty of this freely given, deeply touching
event, we then left the site with the others, looked into the silently flowing
Rhine, and thanked those birds as if out of secret solidarity for their
indescribable encircling round.”
The following is taken from “Astronomy and Anthroposophy” (1930) by
Elisabeth Vreede. It describes a
newly shining star on star atlases and globes, called “Nova 1925.” (See also
Rudolf Steiner’s lectures of June 4, 1924 [GA 236] and July 6, 1924 [GA 237].)
“Most
strange was the developmental process of [a Nova], which was illuminated to a
strongly visible brightness, and which was first seen on May 25, 1925. It
appeared in a constellation of the southern hemisphere, which bears the name
“the easel of the painter.” (The star is therefore called: Nova Pictoris.) It
thus has a position that is entirely unique in the chronicle of the Novae,
because these usually appear in or near the Milky Way, while this star is
rather near the southern ecliptic pole. Since the star-rich southern sky is not
observed as continuously as the northern one, the appearance of the star could
go unnoticed for a long time. In any case, one later discovered that it figured
on older photo plates as a star of size 13, and that it was already a star of
size 3 on April 13th, 1925 – in other words, it had already become clearly
visible, such that, in contrast to the aforementioned stars, it had a very slow
increase and perhaps entered into the range of visibility at the beginning of
April. On June 9th of the same year, it was almost a star of size 1; then it
slowly decreased again to a star of size 9.” (The new star may therefore have appeared
immediately, or three days after, Rudolf Steiner’s death…
“In January 1926, it was seen surrounded by a strongly reddish
aureole, like a solar protuberance. In March 1928, it suddenly appeared as a
double star; it had split – a phenomenon unknown to new stars up until now,
such that even astronomers of the northern hemisphere at first did not at all
want to believe their colleagues from the southern hemisphere who had observed
it. Then, one spoke much of unexpected world catastrophes and reminded of the
fable of the frog, which wanted to inflate itself to the ox and then burst – by
assuming, on the basis of the spectrum, that the star had not actually become hot,
and that its enormous increase in brightness (50,000 times, after a
calculation) could be attributed only to an actual surface enlargement, which
had become the undoing of the star. But we do not need to be confused by these
materialistic explanations. – At the same time, the star surrounded itself with
nebulae, as also occurs otherwise, so that for a while it offered the spectacle
of two red stars, surrounded by a veil of nebulae. Soon thereafter, it even
split again, and there were four stars, one brighter in the middle, three
smaller ones all around, all of whitish color and immersed in a rosy nebula.
According to the relatively few astronomers who could observe it, it was a
wonderful spectacle. Then rings formed around the individual stars. Over time, the
individual parts moved even further apart.” (Does this apparition not bring to
mind the scene arrangement in the Mystery Dramas for the three soul forces,
where the central forms of “Maria, Philia, Astrid, Luna appear in a glowing
cloud of light”?
The following observation by Annemarie Dubach-Donath, one of the first Eurythmists, comes
from nature during springtime. She later calls to mind Rudolf Steiner’s
“Butterfly Cycle” (1923, GA 230), as she brings together Rudolf Steiner’s death
with the content of these lectures:
“They
were unspeakably beautiful, blooming spring days in which this holy death was
received by the earth. And in the following summer months, white butterflies
flew in flocks such as I had never seen during any summer before or after in
the Dornach meadows and grounds. This sight reminded us again and again of the
glorious words Rudolf Steiner had spoken a year-and-a-half earlier in the 1923
autumn lectures about butterflies, the colourfully shimmering messengers of the
spiritual world. With nostalgic wonder, we looked at the delicate miracle; at
times, a distant, spiritual smile seemed to shine out from it.”
Epilogue by Marie Steiner in “The Course of my Life” by Rudolf Steiner:
“His life, consecrated wholly to the sacrificial service of humanity, was requited with unspeakable hostility; his path of knowledge was transformed into a path of thorns. But he walked the whole way, and mastered it for all humanity. He broke through the limits of knowledge; they are no longer there. Before us lies this path of knowledge in the crystal clarity of thoughts of which this book itself affords evidence. He raised the human intellect up to the spirit, permeated and united it with the spiritual Being of the cosmos. In this he achieved the greatest human deed. The greatest divine deed he taught us to understand; the greatest human deed he achieved. How could he escape being hated with all the demonic power of which Hell is capable? But he repaid with love the lack of understanding with which he was confronted.
He died – a Sufferer, a Leader, an Achiever – In such a world as trod him under foot, Yet which to raise aloft his strength sufficed. He lifted men; they hurled themselves against him, They spewed forth hatred, blocked his forward way. His work they shattered even as he wrought it. They raged with venom and with flame, And now with joy defile his memory: — “So he is dead who led you into freedom, To light, to consciousness, to comprehension Of what is Godlike in the human soul, To your own Ego, to the Christ. Was this not criminal, this undertaking? He did what once Prometheus expiated, What gave to Socrates the poisoned cup – The crime Barabbas wrought was not so vile – A deed whose expiation is the cross: He lived, himself, the future there before you. “We demons cannot suffer such a thing. We harry, hunt, pursue who dares such deeds, With all those souls who give themselves to us, With all those forces which obey our will. For ours is the turning point of time And ours this humanity which sickens, Without its God, in weakness, vice, and error. We never yield the booty we have won, But tear to pieces him who dares such deeds. ” He dared – and, daring, he endured his fate— In love, long-suffering, and tolerance Of weak, incapable humanity, Which ever all his work in peril set, Which ever misconstrued his uttered word, Which misinterpreted his kind forbearance, And in their littleness knew not themselves, Because his greatness was beyond their compass. ’Twas thus he bore us – we were out of breath In following his stride, his very flight Which ravished us away. ’Twas our weakness That was the hindrance ever to his flight, The lead that weighted down his forward footsteps…. Now he is free, an aid to Those on High, ‘Who take whatever hath been wrung from Earth As safeguard of Their goal. So now They greet The son of man who his creative power, Unfolded thus to serve the Gods’ high will; Who, for the age of hardened intellect, And for the time of dead machinery, Stamped clear the Spirit, called die Spirit forth…. They hindered him. The Earth in shadow moves, n cosmic space now see the shaping figures; The Leader waits; the heavens part and open; In joy and reverence stand the rangéd hosts. But Earth is wrapped in gray enshrouding night.”
Dear Friends, May the veil between the worlds part to unite us in our thinking, feeling & willing with the spirit of Rudolf Steiner, a true initiate, & beloved teacher.
***
Dear friends – We
have some exciting programs coming to our Branch starting this weekend:
Sat. 6 April, 7 pm
– 9 pm
&
Sun. 7 April, 1 pm – 4 pm
‘ANTHROPOSOPHICAL
SOCIETY: WHAT AILS THEE!
with APO founder Fred
Janney
Monday 8 April
2019: 7 pm – 9 pm
“The Poisoning of
America.” with John Beck.
Details:
Saturday 6 April 2019,from 7-9 pm:
Personality and
spiritual biographies of the original Vorstand members and group healing
meditation.
Sunday 7 April 2019, from
1 pm – 4 pm:
Identifying your
spiritual stream and recognizing its opposite stream with directions for
bringing cohesion and direction for members on both sides of the threshold.
Contribution $25-$50 or pay what you can afford, ALL proceeds donated to
APO.
2019 marks
the reinstatement of Ita Wegman and Elisabeth Vreede back into the General
Anthroposophical Society after 84 years. This 12×7 combination is a very
important number combination in microcosmic and macrocosmic dynamics.
Their return from banishment is only a first step in healing the karma of
our organization and embracing the ongoing leadership of Rudolf Steiner into
the future. Long standing and exacerbating problems have ensued since the
ouster of these two leading lights chosen esoterically by Rudolf Steiner.
It is essential and
imperative in our time to reconcile and forge harmony with these and other
members on both sides of the threshold so that anthroposophy can
flourish.
Sergei Prokofieff
through his research tells us that all the original Executive Council members
were chosen representatives and archetypes of the different and divergent
karmic streams that came together under the direction of Rudolf Steiner for the
esoteric tasks required well into the future.
The birth and development
of the New Mysteries that was initiated at the Christmas Conference at the end
of 1923 called on the free and active participation of these individuals.
On many occasions Rudolf
Steiner called on each member of the Anthroposophical Society to uncover and
research the spirituals stream for which he/she came to earth. Then, in
order to heal the individual and group karma of the General Anthroposophical
Society, members were urged to reach out to members of conflicting spiritual
streams, so as to find ways to harmonize the conflicts.
In our time, these steps
in self and social development are essential as we seek future work together
for the development of humanity.
References: May Human
Beings Hear It (2004) by Sergei Prokofieff. Chapter Five: The Esoteric
Archetype of the Original Council. https://www.rudolfsteiner.org/articles. Anthroposophical
Society: What Ails Thee (2017) by Fred Janney
Fred Janney in 1999 joined with six other members of the
Anthroposophical Society from around the country to start what soon became
known as Anthroposophical Prison Outreach. We are
celebrating twenty years of service to incarcerated individuals based on the
good will and donations of our member.
***
Monday
8 April 2019: 7 pm – 9
pm
“The Poisoning of
America.” Presentation by John Beck.
In 1936 President
Franklin Roosevelt asserted that “This generation of Americans has a rendezvous
with destiny.” Five years later he spoke of four freedoms—“everywhere in the
world”—that were “no vision of a distant millennium” but “a definite basis for
a kind of world attainable in our own time…” But when the end of the world war
left the USA as the richest and most powerful nation in the world’s history,
two Americas emerged, an inner one where the respect for the individual
continued to grow, and an outer one where a full-scale war on the Spirit of
Truth, the Holy Spirit, has been unleashed, even as the technological basis is
extended for the rulership of Satan, Ahriman, the “father of lies.” Now
individuals must wake up to this challenging reality.
John Beck is
editor of being human magazine and director of communications for the
Anthroposophical Society in America (USA). He was general manager of the New
York Open Center, a technology and communications officer at Chase Bank, and
director of public broadcasting stations in Boston and New York City. Family
history has led him to be aware of political life in the USA since childhood.
***
Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society
of America, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site!
Calendar of Events
30 March 2019 – On this day 94 years ago, Rudolf Steiner crossed the Thresholdto become wholly spirit 25-27 February 1861 – 30 March 1925
Chart by Hendrik Woorts
After the burning of the 1st Goetheanum, at the Christmas Conference – after consciously taking on the karma of the Anthroposophical Society, which included the karma of every member, Rudolf Steiner’s sacrificial deed was blessed by the Spiritual world; but he began to show signs of increasing frailness & illness. Yet he continued to lecture & travel widely. He was often giving 4 lectures a day for the various courses taking place concurrently. Many of these lectures focused on practical Anthroposophy, such as education, agriculture, medicine & the Christian Community. He gave his last lecture on Michaelmas September 1924. Yet even after that, Rudolf Steiner continued to work on his autobiography during the last months of his life until he died on Holy Monday, 30 March 1925.
“March 1925 was cold and foggy. It became quite windy in the last week of the month, and then the storms began. From the South and the West, the rain whipped against the walls of the studio. On March 29th, Rudolf Steiner awoke in pain. “No work was done that morning. It was the 1st time. We spoke at length about the pain. There was no reason to be worried. The pains disappeared in the course of the day. He was extraordinarily still and patient that day and gave new suggestions for his care…
At 4 pm on March 29th, the pain returned. Yet Rudolf Steiner asked again if the adjoining studio was ready for him to work on the model for the 2nd Goetheanum. Both doctors, Wegman & Noll, kept watch throughout the night. (Wegman and Nachrichtenblatt 1925)
Albert Steffen, who visited Rudolf Steiner regularly throughout his illness, recalled this time: “I visited him March 28th at 5 pm in his studio, where he lay in his sickbed. It was a tall room with skylights. Nothing of the earth looks in: no tree, no mountain, no house, only the light of the heavens. Sculptural and architectural models that he has made himself stand on the shelves along with some busts he has sculpted; at the foot of his bed, the noble statue of Christ, carved by his own hand, soars high above him. All around him are tables covered with books and manuscripts…Up to the last day of his life, his interest was for the entire world. In his studio, which he had not left for half the year, he had collected an entire library”
Rudolf Steiner wrote the last “Letter to the Members” the day he died! This last missive is like a preview of what was to come in the 21st Century. It is titled “From Nature to Sub-Nature.”: “…in the age of Technical Science hitherto, the possibility of finding a true relationship to the Ahrimanic civilisation has escaped man. He must find thestrength, the inner force of knowledge, in order not to be overcome by Ahriman in this technical civilisation. He must understand Sub-Nature for what it really is. This he can only do if he rises, in spiritual knowledge, at least as far into extra-earthly Super-Nature as he has descended, in technical Sciences, into Sub-Nature…The point is that man shall find the way to bring the conditions of modern civilisation into their true relationship-to himself and to the Cosmos.”
Was he battling with those dark spirits that fateful night?
In his recollections of Rudolf Steiner D.N. Dunlop recalled, “A few weeks before his final illness, during the summer conference in Torquay, I spoke to him about my concerns for his physical health. He drew me aside, vigorously but with infinite friendliness, and made me aware that his situation could not be explained in terms of our usual notions of disease”.
It has been publicly stated that he died of stomach cancer. But one of Ita Wegman’s closest colleagues, Dr. Margarete Kirchner-Bockholt vehemently rejected this conjecture. And Dr. Ita Wegman had reported that Rudolf Steiner’s etheric body was no longer able to work in the digestive organs in the appropriate manner. “The result was that these organs were subjected too strongly to the physical forces, which are forces of degeneration.” (Wegman and Nachrichtenblatt 1925)
From Friedrich Rittelmeyer: “None of us had expected that Rudolf Steiner would succumb to the illness. The mortal sheath, just abandoned by the spirit setting out on its far journey, was resting on the death-bed at the foot of the Christ statue which stood there almost completed. Those who looked at the face of the dead could see what the spirit can make of the body in the life of a truly great man on earth. The sublimity and purity of his features was equal to every test and unsurpassed. Perhaps the death mask, if it is ever reproduced as a picture, will be a means of convincing many. Again and again one’s gaze turned from the forsaken earthly body to the great Christ figure which points with compelling gesture into the future. The disciple had fallen at the feet of the Master. It was as if Christ were taking the disciple to Himself with sheltering arms while He Himself went forward with unceasing step towards the future of the world. The disciple’s mission was fulfilled. The Master’s brow was radiant with the light of divine world-purposes. When, at the wish of Frau Dr. Steiner, and in the solemnly decorated hall where Dr. Steiner had given most of his great lectures, I was performing the burial service according to the ritual of The Christian Community, a drop of the sprinkled water fell in the centre of the forehead and shone there through the whole service like a sparkling diamond. The light of many candles was reflected in this glittering star – even as the revelations of light from higher worlds had been reflected in his spirit. Thus adorned, the body sank into the coffin. To me it was as if higher Spirits had indicated in an earthly picture what it had been our lot to experience. When the service was at an end, one impression lived mightily within my soul: “This work is now completed. Like a great question it stands there before mankind. If all who belong to that work dedicate their powers to it with single purpose, it will prevail!”
According to Ita Wegman’s report, Rudolf Steiner was very still sad and silent. She recalled, “It seemed to me as though he had a very difficult problem to solve. The forces of light in his eyes appeared weaker than usual”.
From “The Life and
Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: “Even the last weeks in March 1925, during
which he had to endure unspeakable suffering, were devoted in the most intense
concentration to spiritual research, creative work, & bestowal…
…the beginning of his shared anthroposophical work with Marie von Sivers stood before his inner eye. It had not been easy for Marie Steiner to live with the increasing intense collaboration between Rudolf Steiner & Ita Wegman over the course of the last few years. Ita Wegman was so entirely different than she was. Now she was forced to deny herself the opportunity to care for the person she loved the most. Trouble with her legs inhibited her from doing this. That they had spoken about this with each other is evident from a letter he wrote her in Berlin on his official birthday:
“I write you these lines
at about the same time that you would usually be sitting at my side. Thinking
about how beautiful it is to listen to you speck about your activities & to
speak with you about various aspects of your work moves me deeply. And when I
know that you have now & again been able to read my Autobiography the
description of our shared work, I feel deeply how closely connected we are.
That destiny has brought other people close to me is simply the way destiny
works. And my sickness has shown just how incisive this destiny can be. But you
found the way to understanding; this is a blessing for me. To feel the unity of
feeling & thinking in discernment is something I can do only with you. That
I was not able to show you the last pages of the Steffen article before it went
to the printer was a hardship for me. Then for myself, I find inner competence
only in your judgement. Through you art is raised into the realms of the
hierarchies. I gaze with wonder upon everything you achieve & with such
devotion. In my thoughts I am with you” ~Rudolf Steiner to Marie Steiner
Shielded under the devoted care of Dr. Ita Wegman, he still communicated many a spiritual message received, & he had us to report to him what was occurring on the hill of Dornach. He loved the living noise of hammering & scaffold-building which penetrated from the building place of the Goetheanum into the quiet of his sickroom, announcing the building in the process of coming into being. He was united through his council & help with this work to his last breath & beyond death.
The last moments in
his earthly life were free from all struggle with the physical entity, free
from all uncertainty such as characterizes the death of so many human beings;
his countenance spoke of peace, grace, inner certitude, spiritual vision. He
folded his hands over his breast; his eyes were shiningly & strongly
directed into worlds with which in vision he was united. As he drew his last
breath, he himself closed his eyes; but this filled the room not with the
experience of an end, but with that of a most sublime spiritual action. An
exalted, transfigured wakefulness spoke out of his countenance, out of the
praying strength of the hands. As the great artists of the Middle Ages gave to
the pictures of the knights resting upon the sarcophagus the expression
indicating that their closed eyes were still beholding, their resting form was
still able to stride forward, so did the figure here resting speak of a
super-terrestrial wakefulness, of a striding forward into the spheres of the
spirit.
The forward striding figure of the Christ statue, pointing into the expanses of the universe, which he himself had created & at whose feet he now lay, spoke for the eye of those left behind on earth what was taking place for the spirit of a great human being who had dedicated his life to the annunciation of the Christ. Even in dying, Rudolf Steiner bestowed upon humanity the most sublime gift of consolation: the certitude that death is a waking entrance into worlds of life & action.
From Ita Wegman Nachrichtenblatt 1925: “At 3 am, I noticed a slight change in his breathing. I approached his bed; he was awake. He looked at me & asked whether I was tired. This question touched me. His pulse was not as strong as it had been, but much faster. I called Dr. Noll in order to speak with him about what ought to be done. Herr Steiner was not astonished to see him there in the middle of the night & greeted him amiably. “I don’t feel too bad” he said “I just can’t sleep.” We turned the light out again. At 4 am, he called me because the pain had reappeared. He said, “As soon as the day comes, we want to continue the treatment that I suggested”…Naturally, we didn’t wait for the day to come but did what was necessary. But then the situation changed quickly – his pulse grew weaker, his breathing more rapid. And we had to experience how his life was gradually extinguished…He went as though it were the obvious thing to do. It seemed to me as though the dice had been thrown for a last decision. When they fell, there was no struggle, no attempt to remain upon the earth any longer. He gazed calmly into the space before him for a time, said a couple of tender words to me, consciously closed his eyes & folded his hands”
“His last thoughts were of the work to which he had in love dedicated himself” ~Rudolf Steiner, from the last act of the 4th Mystery Drama.
Again from “The Life and
Work of Rudolf Steiner’ by Guenther Wachsmuth: In the lofty darkened space of the studio stood the bier of him who had
completed this earthly life, surrounded by a sea of flowers, by the light of
candles, the death watch by his side day & night. Many hundreds of persons
came in soundless silence for the last visit, went back into life comforted,
trusting, having received in their affliction assurance of the virtuousness of
the Spirit, of rebirth. On the 3rd day the body was brought into the great
workshop, to lie in state finally in the lecture hall, at the place from which
he had for decades proclaimed the knowledge of the spirit. At the request of
Frau Marie Steiner, Fredrich Rittelmeyer conducted the funeral service which
was the gift of Rudolf Steiner to the Christian Community.
The next morning the coffin was carried away for cremation. When it was passing by the newly erected structure of the new Goetheanum, the workers at the building stood still on the scaffolding & greeted the master builder & friend. At the cremation ritual, Albert Steffen united us with our beloved teacher in a picture of his being which only the artist could draw in such shining perfection. He spoke of “the friend of God and leader of humanity”. And what has come into being in us earthly persons through the leadership & schooling of Rudolf Steiner as a certitude, what we are called upon to do in his spirit, he summarized in the following words:
“He has again showed the world to us in such a way that we know it has come forth out of god. He has died in such a way that we feel: Christ lives in this death. May his immortal Spirit be resurrected in our deeds. We will, as well as we can, make them holy.”~ Albert Steffen
“To create centres
of peace & love in which the Christ can resurrect.”
~written on the urn that holds the ashes of Rudolf Steiner
What a blessing to receive the teachings of this great initiate. May we continue our connection with him in the spiritual worlds & ever enliven our Michaelic work with The Christ & the Being of Anthroposophia, as we consciously take up the work of creating these “centres of peace & love” in which those, like Rudolf Steiner who hold the Christ, can resurrect.”
1963 – Death Day of George Adams – born in Poland to a Jewish
family as George Kaufmann, he went
on to receive an honors degree in Chemistry
from Cambridge University. In 1914 he encountered
Rudolf Steiner’s “Occult Science” & become a member of the Emerson Group in
London in 1916.
Preoccupied with problems of social reform, he rejected all
manner of violence, remaining a conscientious objector throughout the First
World War – a “militant revolutionary” as he described himself. He was
imprisoned after refusing to serve with other conscientious objectors in the
Non-Combatant Corps & was only released in 1919, after a hunger strike. During his time as conscientious objector he had come to know Mary Fox,
a Quaker & in 1920 they married.
His interest in Steiner’s ideas on social reform & his
intention to translate the book The Threefold Social Order (GA 23) caused him to
visit Steiner together with Ethel Bowen Wedgwood in Dornach, Switzerland.
Steiner advised him to become involved in some form of social work, something
Adams could readily accept amid the social collapse in Central & Eastern
Europe following the war. He went on several journeys to Poland as part of the
English / American Quaker organization.
In 1920 he took part in the inauguration of the first
Goetheanum building. On his return to England, he cooperated with some friends
on spreading the ideas of Social three folding as well as the anthroposophical
ideas of Steiner. His wife Mary Adams began her work as librarian &
translator for the Anthroposophical Society in London that she was to carry for
many years. In addition, Adams was the free verbal translator of around 110
lectures of Steiner into English. He went on to translate many of Steiner’s
written works, often with his wife Mary.
He was often in Dornach during
these times & experienced the
burning of the first Goetheanum on New Year’s Eve 1922/23, he was also part of
the Christmas Foundation meeting of the General Anthroposophical Society in
1923/24. In 1924 he became one of the Goetheanum-Speakers authorized by Steiner.
While working as a free co-worker of the Anthroposophical Society in Britain as lecturer & workshop holder after 1925, Adams turned again to the study of the natural sciences & mathematics, concentrating particularly on projective geometry while working with Elisabeth Vreede, leader of the Section for Mathematics & Astronomy at the Goetheanum. At the beginning of the 1930s, Adams published a series of articles & essays about projective, synthetic geometry & its relationship to physics, to Goethe’s theory of metamorphosis & to anthroposophical spiritual science, particularly the pioneering work “Of Etheric Space” in the magazine Natura of the Goetheanum’s Medical Section. Here for the first time is mentioned the concept of “counter-space”, as Steiner indicated in the third of his courses on the Natural Sciences (GA 323), explained by means of non-Euclidean geometry. Some years later Louis Locher was to discover the same thing independently of Adams. From that time on the conceptual development of the idea of counter-space in its relation to normal spatial thinking became the focal point of Adams’ further scientific research. In 1933 the comprehensive work Space & the Light of the Creation – Synthetic Geometry in the light of Spiritual Science appeared, which was an overview of the spiritual scientific meaning of synthetic geometry.
When Elisabeth Vreede & Ita Wegman were dismissed from
the executive of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, a number of
other prominent members of the German, Dutch &British Societies were
expelled, including Adams. This brought to an end his cooperation with the Mathematical
-Astronomical Section. When the Chairman of the Anthroposophical Society in
Great Britain, D. N. Dunlop, died in May 1935, Adams took over as general
secretary. In this task, Olive Whicher became his closest co-worker,& he
introduced her to projective geometry.
At the outbreak of the Second World
War, Adams volunteered as interpreter in a prisoner of war camp. His close ties
to Germany were soon the subject of investigation & he was dismissed after
six months. He changed his name at this
point from George Kaufmann to George Adams, taking the maiden name of his
mother. In the following years Adams was one of the monitors of the Polish
broadcasting corporation in the service of the BBC & he learnt several
additional Slavic languages. Much of his free time was spent in the British
Library studying the development of modern mathematical sciences to augment
them with his thoughts about counter-space.
After the war, he was given a scholarship by the British
Anthroposophical Society at Rudolf Steiner House in order to investigate with
Whicher the geometric principles underlying the world of plants. It had been unclear where the
corresponding projective counterpart of the infinite plane of Euclidean space,
the infinite midpoint of the non-Euclidean space (was to be found in the plant
world. In 1947, Adams expressed the idea that such a midpoint did not just
exist, but that there was one to be found in every bud. This idea was connected
with that of the lemniscatory correlation between space & counter- In 1949
and 1952, two books appeared with the titles: The Living Plant & the Science of Physical & Ethereal Space
& The Plant between Sun & Earth.
In 1947, at the request of his
friends Fried Geuter & Michael
Wilson of Sunfield Homes in Clent near Birmingham, Whicher & he moved to Clent, where they founded the Goethean Science Foundation with Wilson to undertake
scientific research. The peaceful countryside & a secure financial base
provided an ideal environment for the work that followed.
Shortly before this, in 1946, Adams had made contact with the Goetheanum & its Mathematical-Astronomical Section under the provisional guidance of Louis Locher. He wished, despite their differences, to work together on common issues. He again participated actively in many conferences & discussions at the Goetheanum & in Germany. He also took up contact again with Georg Unger, who went on to found the Mathematisch-Physicalisches Institut in 1956, where Adams reported regularly on his work. Unger visited Clent for common research gatherings. In 1935, Olive Whicher joined Adams in London & worked with him in research into mathematics & physics until his death in 1963. He discovered how to describe Steiner’s findings about negative space in geometric terms, & was particularly adept with projective geometry & the application of path curves. He translated & published numerous books, lectures, & articles.
So interesting to think that this great human being has the same
Death Day as Rudolf Steiner! As does Dorothy
S. Osmond, another translator of Anthroposophical literature, who died in
1978; & Norbert Glas,
Anthroposophical doctor who died in 1986.
***
6-7 April 2019
ANTHROPOSOPHICAL SOCIETY: WHAT AILS THEE! with APO founder Fred Janney from Ann Arbor
Sat. 6 April, 7 pm – 9 pm –& Sun. 7 April, 1 pm – 4 pm
Saturday 6 April, 2019, 7:00-9:00 p.m: Personality and spiritual
biographies of the original Vorstand members and group healing meditation.
Sunday 7 April, 2019, Identifying your spiritual
stream and recognizing its opposite stream with directions for bringing
cohesion and direction for members on both sides of the threshold.
Contribution $25-$50 or pay what you can afford, ALL proceeds
donated to APO.
2019 marks the
reinstatement of Ita Wegman and Elisabeth Vreede back into the General
Anthroposophical Society after 84 years. This 12×7 combination is a very
important number combination in microcosmic and macrocosmic dynamics.
Their return from banishment is only a first step in healing the karma of
our organization and embracing the ongoing leadership of Rudolf Steiner into
the future. Long standing and exacerbating problems have ensued since the
ouster of these two leading lights chosen esoterically by Rudolf Steiner.
It is essential and imperative in our time to reconcile and
forge harmony with these and other members on both sides of the threshold so
that anthroposophy can flourish.
Sergei Prokofieff through his research tells us that all the
original Executive Council members were chosen representatives and archetypes
of the different and divergent karmic streams that came together under the
direction of Rudolf Steiner for the esoteric tasks required well into the
future.
The birth and development of the New Mysteries that was
initiated at the Christmas Conference at the end of 1923 called on the free and
active participation of these individuals.
On many occasions Rudolf Steiner called on each member of the
Anthroposophical Society to uncover and research the spirituals stream for
which he/she came to earth. Then, in order to heal the individual and
group karma of the General Anthroposophical Society, members were urged to
reach out to members of conflicting spiritual streams, so as to find ways to
harmonize the conflicts.
In our time, these steps in self and social development are
essential as we seek future work together for the development of humanity.
References: May Human Beings Hear It (2004) by Sergei
Prokofieff. Chapter Five: The Esoteric Archetype of the Original
Council.
Fred Janney in 1999 joined
with six other members of the Anthroposophical Society from around the country
to start what soon became known as Anthroposophical Prison
Outreach. We are celebrating twenty years of service to
incarcerated individuals based on the good will and donations of our member.
28 March 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna in HerLast Quarter Moon-Phase, rises around 1:30 am CDT, & climbs higher in the southeast as dawn approaches. During this time our half-lit satellite sits near Saturn among the background stars of Sagittarius the Archer, north of the conspicuous Teapot asterism.
“Because philosophy arises from awe, a philosopher is bound in his way to be a lover of myths and poetic fables. Poets and philosophers are alike in being big with wonder.” ~ Thomas Aquinas
1483 – Birthday of Raphael,(Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino) Italian painter & architect. In Rudolf Steiner’s last address he speaks about this individualities’ previous lives as the 1st man: Adam, The prophet Elijah &John the Baptist
1515 – Birthday of St. Teresa of Ávila, From the Pastoral Medicine lecture #5: “In the case with such personalities as St. Teresa there is continuous healing coming from the spirit. When we study these individuals, we find that as a first stage the ego organization separates from the rest of the human organism. It then draws the astral body closely to it, in a certain sense away from the physical-etheric organism. This is in the waking state. What is the consequence of this? You can easily see that this puts the individual into a kind of dream condition. From a spiritual-scientific point of view the ego, by drawing the astral body to itself, is not allowing it to enter the physical and etheric bodies completely, and this brings about a kind of dream condition. But because of the special karmic density, both ego and astral body are strong, and they bring into the dream condition receptivity for the perception of the spiritual world. Dream is transformed into a state in which the individual is really able to see into the spiritual world and to feel the presence of spiritual beings.” ~Rudolf Steiner
1592 – Birthday of John Amos Comenius, Czech bishop Pansophia educator. Rudolf Steiner
speaks of him as an adviser to Harun-al-Rashid in the Karmic
Relationships Vol. 6 lecture 8. “…Haroun al Raschid and his wise Counsellor
passed through the gate of death. But after their life between death and
rebirth they continued to pursue their earthly aims in remarkable ways. It was
their aim to introduce Arabian modes of thinking into the European world with
the help of the rudiments of the Intelligence now spreading in Europe. And so
after Haroun al Raschid had passed through the gate of death, while his soul
was traversing spiritual, starry worlds, we see his gaze directed unswervingly
from Baghdad across Asia Minor, to Greece, Rome, Spain, France and then
northwards to England. Throughout this life between death and rebirth his
attention was directed to the South and West of Europe. And then Haroun al
Raschid appeared again in a new incarnation — becoming Lord Bacon of Verulam.
Bacon himself is the reincarnated Haroun al Raschid who in the intervening time
between death and rebirth had worked as I have just described.
But
the other, the one who had been his wise Counsellor, chose a different
direction — from Baghdad across the Black Sea, through Russia and then into
Middle Europe. The two individualities took different paths and directions.
Haroun al Raschid passed to his next earthly goal as Lord Bacon of Verulam; the
wise Counsellor during his life between death and a new birth did not divert
his gaze from the sphere where influences from the East can be increasingly
potent, and he appeared again as Amos Comenius (Komenski), the great
educational reformer and author of “Pan-Sophia.” And from the interworking of
these two individualities who had once been together at the Court in Baghdad
there subsequently arose in Europe something which unfolded — more or less at a
distance from Christianity — in the form of Arabism derived from influences of
that past time when the Intelligence had first fallen away from Michael on the
Sun.
Here we have indicated something that lies as sub-strata of the soil into which we to-day have to sow the seeds of Anthroposophy. We must ponder deeply over the inner and spiritual reality behind these things”.
1749 – Birthday of Laplace, a French scholar whose work was important to the development of engineering, mathematics, statistics, physics & astronomy. He summarized & extended the work of his predecessors in his five-volume Mécanique Céleste (Celestial Mechanics) (1799–1825). He restated & developed the nebular hypothesis of the origin of the Solar System and was one of the first scientists to postulate the existence of black holes and the notion of gravitational collapse. Sometimes referred to as the French Newton or Newton of France, he has been described as possessing a phenomenal natural mathematical faculty superior to that of any of his contemporaries. He was Napoleon’s examiner when Napoleon attended the École Militaire in Paris in 1784.
Rudolf Steiner speaks of him in Karmic Relationships: Volume I Lecture 10, as being in the court of Mamun in Baghdad in the period from 813 to 833, cultivating astrological-astronomical knowledge. Laplace in that incarnation was a brilliant personality in whom Mamun placed deep confidence & to whom appeal was always made when it was a question of reading the portents of the stars. Steiner also connects Laplace with Kant in several lectures.
1941 – DeathDay of Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, short story writer.
1943 – DeathDay of Sergei Rachmaninoff, Russian pianist, composer, & conductor
1985 – Deathday of MarcChagall, Russian-French painter & poet
1994 – DeathDay of Eugène Ionesco, Romanian-French playwright & critic
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POD (Poem Of the Day)]
~This is the hour
The passion & the power
This is the hour
The chalice & the tower…
~hag
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“Space is the outer condition, time is the inner condition” ~Novalis
“…Man only looks up to
the Sun in the right way (even if it be but in his mind) when, as he gazes
upwards, he forgets Space and considers Time alone. For in truth, the Sun does
not only radiate light, it radiates Space itself, and when we are looking into
the Sun we are looking out of Space into the world of Time. The Sun is the
unique star that it is because when we gaze into the Sun we are looking out of
Space. And from that world, outside of Space, Christ came to men. At the time
when Christianity was founded by Christ on Earth, man had been all too long
restricted to the mere Ex Deo Nascimur, he had become altogether bound up in
it, he had become a Space-being pure and simple. The reason why it is so hard
for us to understand the traditions of primeval epochs, when we go back to them
with the consciousness of present-day civilisation, is that they always had in
mind Space, and not the world of Time. They regarded the world of Time only as
an appendage of the world of Space…
Physical science speaks of a movement of the Sun; and it can do so, for within the spatial picture of the Cosmos which surrounds us, we perceive by certain phenomena that the Sun is in movement. But that is only an image of the true Sun-movement — an image cast into Space. If we are speaking of the real Sun it is nonsense to say that the Sun moves in Space; for Space itself is being radiated out by the Sun. The Sun not only radiates the light; the Sun creates the Space itself. And the movement of the Sun is only a spatial movement within this created Space. Outside of Space it is a movement in Time. What seems apparent to us — namely, that the Sun is speeding on towards the constellation of Hercules — is only a spatial image of the Time-evolution of the Sun-Being..”. ~Rudolf Steiner. The Festivals and Their Meaning III
Saturday 6 April, 2019, 7:00-9:00 p.m: Personality and spiritual biographies of the original Vorstand members and group healing meditation.
Sunday 7 April, 2019, Identifying your spiritual stream and recognizing its opposite stream with directions for bringing cohesion and direction for members on both sides of the threshold.
Contribution $25-$50 or pay what you can afford, ALL proceeds donated to APO.
2019 marks the reinstatement of Ita Wegman and Elisabeth Vreede back into the General Anthroposophical Society after 84 years. This 12×7 combination is a very important number combination in microcosmic and macrocosmic dynamics. Their return from banishment is only a first step in healing the karma of our organization and embracing the ongoing leadership of Rudolf Steiner into the future. Long standing and exacerbating problems have ensued since the ouster of these two leading lights chosen esoterically by Rudolf Steiner.
It is essential and imperative in our time to reconcile and forge harmony with these and other members on both sides of the threshold so that anthroposophy can flourish.
Sergei Prokofieff through his research tells us that all the original Executive Council members were chosen representatives and archetypes of the different and divergent karmic streams that came together under the direction of Rudolf Steiner for the esoteric tasks required well into the future.
The birth and development of the New Mysteries that was initiated at the Christmas Conference at the end of 1923 called on the free and active participation of these individuals.
On many occasions Rudolf Steiner called on each member of the Anthroposophical Society to uncover and research the spirituals stream for which he/she came to earth. Then, in order to heal the individual and group karma of the General Anthroposophical Society, members were urged to reach out to members of conflicting spiritual streams, so as to find ways to harmonize the conflicts.
In our time, these steps in self and social development are essential as we seek future work together for the development of humanity.
References: May Human Beings Hear It (2004) by Sergei Prokofieff. Chapter Five: The Esoteric Archetype of the Original Council.
Fred Janney in 1999 joined with six other members of the Anthroposophical Society from around the country to start what soon became known as Anthroposophical Prison Outreach. We are celebrating twenty years of service to incarcerated individuals based on the good will and donations of our member.
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Ecclesiastical Holy Week 14 – 20 April 2019
We have found the 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, The rest of Holy Week: 15-19 April 7 – 9 pm
Holy Saturday 20 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- Social Sculpture Workshop around the ‘URPFLANZE’ with Victoria Martin. More details to follow
