25 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Dear Friends, right after dark, face East & glance up high. The bright star there is Capella, the Goat Star. To the right of it, by a couple of finger-widths at arm’s length, is a small, narrow triangle of stars known as “the Kids.” They’re not exactly eye-grabbing, but they form a never-forgotten asterism (informal star pattern) with Capella.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul on the road to Damascus.  Before this, he was known as Saul, “a Pharisee of Pharisees”, who “intensely persecuted” the followers of Jesus.

The Acts of the Apostles says that Paul was on his way from Jerusalem to Syrian Damascus with a mandate issued by the High Priest to seek out & arrest followers of Jesus, with the intention of returning them to Jerusalem as prisoners for questioning & possible execution. The journey is interrupted when Paul sees a blinding light, & communicates directly with a divine voice.

Acts 9 tells the story as a third-person narrative: As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him. He fell to the ground and heard a voice say to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” “Who are you, Lord?” Saul asked. “I am Jesus, whom you are persecuting,” he replied. “Now get up and go into the city, and you will be told what you must do.” The men traveling with Saul stood there speechless; they heard the sound but did not see anyone. Saul got up from the ground, but when he opened his eyes he could see nothing. So they led him by the hand into Damascus. For three days he was blind, and did not eat or drink anything. Acts 9:3–9, NIV

The account continues with a description of Ananias of Damascus receiving a divine revelation instructing him to visit Saul at the house of Juda on the Street Called Straight & there lay hands on him to restore his sight. Ananias is initially reluctant, having heard about Saul’s persecution, but obeys the divine command: Then Ananias went to the house and entered it. Placing his hands on Saul, he said, “Brother Saul, the Lord—Jesus, who appeared to you on the road as you were coming here—has sent me so that you may see again and be filled with the Holy Spirit.” Immediately, something like scales fell from Saul’s eyes, and he could see again. He got up and was baptized, and after taking some food, he regained his strength. Acts 9:13–19, NIV

Acts’ second telling of Paul’s conversion occurs in a speech Paul gives when he is arrested in Jerusalem.[Acts 22:6-21] Paul addresses the crowd & tells them of his conversion, with a description essentially the same as that in Acts 9.

Acts’ third discussion of Paul’s conversion occurs when Paul addresses King Agrippa, defending himself against the accusations of antinomianism that have been made against him. [Acts 26:12-18] This account is more brief than the others. The speech here is again tailored for its audience, emphasizing what a Roman ruler would understand: the need to obey a heavenly vision,[Acts 26:19]  & reassuring Agrippa that Christians were not a secret society.

The conversion of Paul, in spite of his attempts to completely eradicate Christianity, is seen as evidence of the power of Divine Grace: “no fall is so deep that grace cannot descend to it” & “no height so lofty that grace cannot lift the sinner to it.” It also demonstrates “God’s power to use everything, even the hostile persecutor, to achieve the divine purpose.”

The transforming effect of Paul’s conversion influenced the clear antithesis he saw “between righteousness based on the law,” i.e. the letter of the law, which he had sought in his former life; & “righteousness based on the death of Christ,” which he describes, for example, in the Epistle to the Galatians.

Interesting that in rural England, the feast day celebrated on 25 January, functioned much like Groundhog Day does in our modern-day US. With prophecies ranged from fine days predicting good harvests, to clouds & mists signifying pestilence & war in the coming months.

1366 – Deathday of Henry Suso, a German Dominican friar & mystic, the most popular r writer of the 14^th century. He is also notable for defending Meister Eckhart’s legacy after Eckhart was condemned for heresy. Suso also studied philosophy in Strasbourg, where he would have come into contact with Meister Eckhart, & Johannes Tauler, both celebrated mystics.

Suso was esteemed as a preacher, in the cities of Swabia, Switzerland, Alsace, & the Netherlands, speaking with individuals of all classes who were drawn to him by his attractive personality, & to whom he became a personal director in the spiritual life.

Suso was reported to have established among the Friends of God a society which he called the Brotherhood of the Eternal Wisdom. The so-called Rule of the Brotherhood of the Eternal Wisdom is a free translation of a chapter of his Horologium Sapientiae, which did not make its appearance until the 15^th  century. Suso was beatified in 1831 by Pope Gregory XVI.

1586 – Deathday of Lucas Cranach the Younger, German painter.

1742 – Deathday of Edmond Halley, English astronomer, geophysicist, mathematician, meteorologist, & physicist. He was the second Astronomer Royal in Britain.

From an observatory he constructed on Saint Helena, Halley recorded a transit of Mercury across the Sun. He realized a similar transit of Venus could be used to determine the size of the Solar System. He also used his observations to expand contemporary star maps. He aided in proving Isaac Newton‘s laws of motion, & funded the publication of Newton’s influential Philosophiæ Naturalis Principia Mathematica. From his September 1682 observations, he used the laws of motion to compute the periodicity of Halley’s Comet in his 1705 Synopsis of the Astronomy of Comets. It was named after him upon its predicted return in 1758, which he did not live to see.

Beginning in 1698, he made sailing expeditions & made observations on the conditions of terrestrial magnetism. In 1718, he discovered the proper motion of the “fixed” stars.

1881 – Thomas Edison & Alexander Graham Bell form the Oriental Telephone Company.

1882 – Birthday of Virginia Woolf, English novelist, essayist, short story writer, & critic

1890 – Nellie Bly completes her round-the-world journey in 72 days.

1915 – Alexander Graham Bell inaugurates U.S. transcontinental telephone service, speaking from New York to Thomas Watson in San Francisco.

1918 – The Ukrainian People’s Republic declares independence from Bolshevik Russia.

1999 – A 6.0 Richter scale earthquake hits western Colombia killing at least 1,000.

2011 – The first wave of the Egyptian revolution begins throughout the country, marked by street demonstrations, rallies, acts of civil disobedience, riots, labor strikes, & violent clashes.

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

Prayer is Point
& Periphery
Still
Reaching
~hag

***

It’s always good to count our blessings, to be grateful for our friends & nurturing to our chosen family. But perhaps we must also take time to ask: Who are my enemies? Am I someone’s nemesis? Does anybody consider me their adversary? And, do I derive anything useful from playing this oppositional role?

I suppose in the knot of karma there is always some good, some point to the friction of being someone’s obstacle.

But perhaps now, in the subzero climate in what feels like the dead of winter, it’s the perfect time to rise up & meet the wisdom tied up in that karmic knot. And to immunize ourselves with the 4 agreements:  

1. “Be impeccable with your word.
2. Don’t take anything personally.
3. Don’t make assumptions.
4. Always do your best. ”

We may not fully understand it all, or be able to completely stop feeling the pain while striving toward equanimity, but perhaps by acutely attuning to compassion & common sense, we can at least quell that quarrelsome intransigent within ourselves.

And even though it’s 5 below zero here in the heartland, I know that I can cultivate new seeds. The cold hard stones can become living kernels, robust & hardy. They have the potential to grow into big, strong blooms of forgiveness & peace, & the longed for future fruit of love.

And so it shall be

~hag

24 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Saturn the ringed planet begins a year-long appearance in the morning sky, growing more prominent as it approaches a spectacular peak in July. The King of Time rises more than an hour before the Sun, but it won’t be easy to pick out of the bright twilight. To find it, scan to the lower left of Venus & Jupiter.

With the waning gibbous Moon now gone from the early evening sky, is your sky dark enough for you to see the winter Milky Way? After dinnertime it runs vertically & across the zenith: from bright Canis Major low in the southeast, up between Orion & Gemini, through Auriga and Perseus almost straight overhead, & down through Cassiopeia, Cepheus, and Cygnus, including the Northern Cross to the northwest horizon.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

AD 41 – Roman Emperor Caligula, known for his eccentricity and sadistic despotism, is assassinated by his disgruntled Praetorian Guards. The Guard then proclaims Caligula’s uncle Claudius as Emperor.

AD 76 – Birthday of Hadrian, Roman emperor. He is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia, yet he visited almost every province of the Empire. Hadrian energetically pursued his own Imperial ideals & personal interests. He encouraged military preparedness & discipline, & fostered, designed or personally subsidized various civil & religious institutions & building projects. In Rome itself, he rebuilt or completed the Pantheon, & constructed the vast Temple of Venus & Roma. In Egypt, he rebuilt the Serapeum of Alexandria. An ardent admirer of Greece, he sought to make Athens the cultural capital of the Empire & ordered the construction of many opulent temples there. His intense relationship with the Greek youth Antinous, who he adopted & named his successor, on the condition that he adopt Marcus Aurelius & Lucius Verus as his own heirs, led to Hadrian’s establishment of an enduring and widespread popular cult. Hadrian died & Antoninus had him deified, despite opposition from the Senate. Hadrian has been described as enigmatic & contradictory, with a capacity for both great personal generosity & extreme cruelty, driven by insatiable curiosity, self-conceit, & above all, ambition.

Hadrian had an abiding & enthusiastic interest in art, architecture & public works. Rome’s Pantheon (temple “to all the gods”), originally built by Agrippa & destroyed by fire in 80, was restored under Hadrian in the domed form it retains to this day. Hadrian’s Villa at Tibur (Tivoli) provides the greatest Roman equivalent of an Alexandrian garden.

Hadrian was familiar with the Stoic philosophers Epictetus, & Favorinus, & with their works. Shortly before the death of Plotina, Hadrian had granted her wish that the leadership of the Epicurean School in Athens be open to a non-Roman candidate.

Hadrian had a great interest in astrology & divination & had been told of his future accession to the Empire by a grand-uncle who was himself a skilled astrologer.

Hadrian wrote poetry in both Latin & Greek; one of the few surviving examples is a Latin poem he reportedly composed on his deathbed:

Animula, vagula, blandula
Hospes comesque corporis
Quae nunc abibis in loca
Pallidula, rigida, nudula,
Nec, ut soles, dabis iocos…
~P. Aelius Hadrianus Imp.

Roving amiable little soul,
Body’s companion and guest,
Now descending for parts
Colourless, unbending, and bare
Your usual distractions no more shall be there…

There may be a connection between the individuality known as Hadrian & Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, one of Rudolf Steiner’s most valued & independent-minded colleagues, who was born in Prague – in the midst of the Austro-Hungarian Empire – to an aristocratic family with royal connections. Leaving behind the traditions of his background, he was to become a key actor in Rudolf Steiner’s regenerative ‘threefold’ social impulses, working tirelessly for a genuinely unified & free Europe. Polzer-Hoditz also fought to protect Rudolf Steiner’s esoteric legacy & the integrity of the Anthroposophical Society that had been founded to further his work. Following Steiner’s untimely death, Polzer-Hoditz fostered a broad range of friendships & alliances with key figures such as D.N. Dunlop, Walter Johannes Stein & Ita Wegman. In the final decade of his life he concentrated his energies on world issues, seeking to influence events in Europe in particular, lecturing widely & writing a number of books & memoranda. Polzer-Hoditz sought to build a true understanding between Central & Eastern Europe & to cultivate a spiritual connection with the West.

1939 – The deadliest earthquake in Chilean history strikes Chillán, killing approximately 28,000 people.

1961 – Goldsboro B-52 crash: A bomber carrying two H-bombs breaks up in mid-air over North Carolina. The uranium core of one weapon remains lost.

1965 – Death-day of Winston Churchill, English colonel & politician, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Nobel Prize laureate.

1978 – Soviet satellite Kosmos 954, with a nuclear reactor on board, burns up in Earth’s atmosphere, scattering radioactive debris over Canada’s Northwest Territories. Only 1% is recovered.

1993 – Death-Day of Thurgood Marshall, American lawyer & jurist, 32nd United States Solicitor General.

1991 – Deathday of René Maikowski, member of the Esoteric Youth Circle. Born in Berlin of a Russian-Polish father & a Franco-Swiss mother, he spoke all these languages fluently. Fighting in WW1 awakened in him a longing for a meaningful & humane way of life, which sparked an interest in social issues, politics, history & economics. He was drawn to Rudolf Steiner because of his views on the 3 fold social organism.

Steiner appointed him secretary of the ‘Association for Anthroposophical University Work’, in 1920, a confederation advocating anthroposophy in the universities. With Steiner he organized Higher education courses. He worked with Ernst Lehrs, Albrecht Strohschein & Fritz Kubler to help with the East-West Conference in Vienna in 1922. These 4 young men went to Dornach with the purpose of asking Rudolf Steiner to help them form the ‘Pedagogical Youth Course’, which Steiner held in Stuttgart in Oct. 1923.

Maikowski, traveled with Steiner all that year, & helped him form the ‘Free Anthroposophical Society’ mainly for the youth. He was part of the executive committee with Maria Roschl, Wilhelm Rath, & Hans Buchenbacher.

In GA 259 Rudolf Steiner calls him “Theoretician of Youth’ as he was doing a lot of the programming. Steiner loved Maikowski because he was always full of questions; & he revealed to him that as an initiate Steiner could only do something if it was asked of him. Once when they were entering a city where Steiner had never been, he called for quiet saying: “I want to see if anyone is meditating, because if there is even one person who meditates, it changes the aura of the city”.

Steiner commissioned him to set up various Waldorf Schools. When the National Socialists began to harass the Waldorf schools, Maikowski tried to use the influence of his brother who was an SA officer, but it was no use, the authorities shut down the school anyway. He stepped down as the head of the Confederation. (Many anti-Waldorf sites mention Maikowksi saying he was a Nazi, which he wasn’t)

René Maikowski was much missed by his students, who called him: Die Flamme due to his ardor & enthusiasm in the classroom. After the war he worked to rebuild many of the schools, traveling as far as Russia & Israel. He died at the age of 92.

2003 – The United States Department of Homeland Security officially begins operation.

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Eyes blazing love lasers…
Forehead pulsing…
Nose open…
Mona Lisa mouth…
Pointy chin…
…Buddha ears…
Meeting your smiling recognition…
~hag

***

Welcome to the World of Rot & Regeneration…Each one of us is a blend of life & death – hot & cold – light & dark…In the most literal sense our bodies always contain old cells that are dying & new cells that are emerging as replacements. From a more metaphorical perspective, our familiar ways of thinking & feeling & willing are constantly evolving, hopefully, as fresh modes emerge.

Both losing & winning are woven into every day; sinking down & rising up; expanding & contracting…In any given phase of our lives, one or the other polarity is usually more pronounced.

What would it be like to be lovingly conscious of these contrasts, while working to make balance our intention?

See you in the striving

~hag

21 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Goddess of Love Venus, which has been approaching Jupiter for days, comes closest to the Benevolent King tomorrow morning the 22^nd, in early dawn. And look for fainter Antares  to Jupiter’s right.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

259 – Deathday of St. Fructuosus, bishop of Tarragona arrested during the persecutions of Christians under the Roman Emperor Valerian. He was burned at the stake in the local amphitheater.

304 – Feast Day of St. Agnes of Rome a virgin martyr, 1 of 7 women, who along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. She is the patron saint of chastity, gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape survivors, virgins, & the Children of Mary. Agnes is depicted in art with a lamb. The name “Agnes” is derived from the feminine Greek adjective meaning “chaste, pure, sacred”

1793 – After being found guilty of treason Louis XVI of France is executed by guillotine

1841 – Birthday of Édouard Schuré, a French philosopher, poet, playwright, novelist, music critic, & publicist of esoteric literature. Born in the old cathedral city of Strasbourg. As a young boy he experienced events that, “Ieft traces upon my thoughts, to which my memory returns ever and again.” The result of these events he called “inner vision, evoked by impressions of the external world.” The first of these experiences occurred shortly after the death of his mother, when he & his father visited a resort in Alsace.  On the walls of one of the buildings the ten-year-old boy saw a remarkable series of frescoes, depicting the world of undines, sylphs, gnomes & fire-spirits. Before these representations of the Elemental Beings, the boy was transported into another world, the world of creative fantasy. Like a talisman, the pictures awakened the magic forces of wonder in the child soul, & the result was a new perception.

Not long after the death of his father, which occurred when Schure was fourteen, he visited Paris, & saw for the first time the classical sculptures in the Louvre. The beauty of the Venus di Milo, of Dionysus, of the wounded Amazon, penetrated deeply into the boy, awakening in him a love & appreciation for the world of ancient Greece, which was to play so significant a role in his later work as a playwright. In these sculptures Schure became aware of the fact that a divine beauty can be made manifest in physical substance through the magic of art. At about this same time Schure read a description of the Eleusinian Mysteries of Ancient Greece, & the inner pictures this evoked were so vivid, so compelling, that he dedicated himself to the task of recreating the sacred drama of Eleusis for modern humanity. For Schure was convinced that through the experiencing of such a drama, people of modern times can acquire a totally new conception of the relationship between the spiritual striving of the ancient world & the religious conceptions of today.

Parallel with these experiences of soul & spirit, Schure’s early years were devoted to formal education. Eventually he received his degree in law at the University of Strasbourg, but he never entered into practice. He visited Germany, remaining there for a few years, during which time he wrote Histoire du lied published in 1868. In this book he expressed his love for music & poetry which had been enhanced by his personal acquaintance with Richard Wagner, then living in Munich.

Shortly after his return from his travels in Germany, Schure married the sister of his friend, the composer Nessler.  They moved to Paris, where Schure continued his writing & studies, making friends with some of the most important men & women in the cultural life of France of his time. With the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War of 1870, Schure & his wife went to Italy.

In Florence Schure made the second great friendship of his life.  One day Malvida von Meysenbergs, the devoted admirer & helper of the philosopher, Friedrich Nietzsche, introduced Edouard Schure to a Greek lady, Margherita Albana Mignaty. The meeting made a profound impression upon Schure, an impression he was to recall clearly in the last year of his life: “When I saw those great sunny radiant eyes directed questioningly upon me, I felt my consciousness almost desert me, for my whole being seemed called upon to reveal itself.” In the presence of this beautiful woman, so reminiscent of the women of the classical Greece he so deeply loved, Schure once again found access to the spiritual world opening within him. In Margherita Albana Mignaty he discovered a soul to whom the unseen world was as immanent as the physical. This direct relationship with the spiritual world was the result of the death of her child, which had taken place some years before. Through their many conversations, Schure’s own spiritual perception broadened & deepened beyond anything he had previously imagined. He referred to her as his Muse, & saw in her a “spirit that moves mountains, a love which awakens and creates souls, and whose sublime inspiration burns like a radiant light.” on one occasion he asked her how she acquired such precise knowledge of the spiritual history of humankind, such intimate details concerning long-forgotten antiquity. Her reply was profoundly simple: “When I wish to penetrate to the very depths of a subject, I shut myself in my room and reveal myself to myself.” Through the inspiration of Margherita Albana Mignaty ‘as a testimony of a faith acquired and shared,’ Schure’s book The Great Initiates came into being.

Schuré now turned increasingly to the esoteric & the occult, his major influence being the famous French occultist-scholar Fabre d’Olivet.  In 1884, he met the founder of the Theosophical Society Helena Petrovna Blavatsky. Although unwelcome in the Theosophical Society, he nevertheless entered.

In 1900, the actress Marie von Sivers came into contact with him because she intended to translate his works into German (The Great Initiates, The Sacred Drama of Eleusis & The Children of Lucifer). At the German Section of the Theosophical Society, he met the Austrian philosopher & later founder of Anthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner. In 1906, Sivers brought about a meeting between Schuré & Steiner. Schuré was deeply impressed & thought of Steiner as an authentic ‘initiate’ in line with his The Great Initiates. After hearing Steiner lecture in Paris for the first time in 1906, Schuré in an ecstatic state ran home & wrote down the entirety of the lecture from memory. This first lecture, & the other lectures in the series (which Schuré wrote down) were published as Esoteric Cosmology. Subsequently, Steiner & von Sivers staged Schuré’s esoteric dramas at the Theosophical Congresses in Berlin & Munich. Schuré’s The Children of Lucifer, served as a precursor of Rudolf Steiner’s own esoteric dramas.

In 1908 Schuré brought out Le Mystère Chrétien et les Mystères Antiques, a French translation of Steiner’s work Christianity as Mystical Fact & the Mysteries of Antiquity.

Édouard Schuré was often visited by Rudolf Steiner in Barr, Alsace. Steiner produced many of Schure’s plays. In speaking about his book The Great Initiates Steiner says: “Édouard Schuré speaks about the ‘Great Illuminated,’ the Great Initiates, who have looked deeply into the background of things, and from this background have given great impulses for the spiritual development of mankind. He traces the great spiritual deeds of Rama, Krishna, Hermes, Pythagoras and Plato, in order to show the unification of all these impulses in Christ…. The light streaming from Schuré’s book enlightens those who wish to be firmly rooted in the spiritual sources from which strength and certainty for modern life can be drawn.”~Rudolf Steiner

1861 – Feast Day of St. Meinrad a hermit known as the “Martyr of Hospitality”

1908 – New York City passes the Sullivan Ordinance, making it illegal for women to smoke in public, only to have the measure vetoed by the mayor

1924 – Deathday of Vladimir Lenin

1950 – Deathday of George Orwell

1959 – Deathday of Cecil B. DeMille

1960 – Avianca Flight 671 crashes at Montego Bay, Jamaica killing 137

1961 – 435 workers are buried alive when a mine in Coalbrook, South Africa collapses

1968 – A B-52 bomber crashes near Thule Air Base, contaminating the area after its nuclear payload ruptures. 1 of the 4 bombs remains unaccounted for after the cleanup

2003 – A 7.6 magnitude earthquake strikes the Mexican state of Colima, killing 529 & leaving approximately 10,000 people homeless

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I saw Her
Soul of the Universe
Lady of crossed Destinies
Queen of Honeyed Vibrations
She, Who is the name of Spirit
Pronounced into form
Cut into wax – tossed into flames
She, Who sets the secret paths
Plotting my life
Aligned with Divine Will…
Her Name is Holy Mine
~hag

***

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere, the sun is rising about a minute earlier each morning & setting a minute later every evening. As a result, you’re drinking in about 15 minutes more sunlight every week. The psycho-physical effect of this steady influx is slowly rising, &, in concert with a variety of astrological & evolutionary influences, will soon reach critical mass. As a result, humanity will become sun-like: a luminous beacon of warmth. With this thought in mind, everything you shine upon will look brighter, & your own beauty will be exceedingly visible, as well. So make each moment, the perfect time, to pursue your highest destiny.

But remember what Andrew Harvey, said: “If you’re really listening, if you’re awake to the poignant beauty of the world, your heart breaks regularly. In fact, your heart is made to break; its purpose is to burst open again and again so that it can hold ever-more wonders.”

So…Be the seed that breaks open to the light. Roots pushing into the dark. Stem reaching. Blossom answering to the stars. Fruit feeding the world.

~hag

20 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Tonight is the first lunar eclipse in 2019, with 6 more to follow: 3 solar & 3 lunar. Lunar eclipses occur at Full Moon when the Sun is in opposition, so that the Earth passes directly between them causing the Earth’s shadow to pass across the Moon. This eclipse will occur with the Moon in the stars of Cancer the Crab, & the Sun opposite in the fixed stars of Capricorn the Sea Goat. This Full Moon is also called a “supermoon” because it is at perigee, that point which brings it closest to the Earth, making it appear larger than normal.

Every eclipse has a life span which is about 70 years much like human life.  This is called the Saros cycle & this lunar eclipse is Saros 134 with a “life span” of 72 eclipses, with one eclipse every 18 years. This is the 27th eclipse in its biography.  Saros 134 was “born”  on April 1, 1550 & will pass away on May 29, 2830. So you can see that we are looking at a long life span over history.  A thorough study of these eclipse beings in relation to historical events would be interesting.  We could ask, what happened in 1550 at this eclipse birth?  How did it unfold over history?

This is the Full Moon that follows the New Moon which occurred at Epiphany on January 6^th, when we celebrated the incarnation of the Sun Spirit into Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism of John.  This new birth into the Earth began the reunion of humanity with its true purpose: to freely serve the impulse of love that will transform our Earth.  So at this Full Moon we can activate in us that which was born at Epiphany, an entirely new Sun impulse in the Earth. In this way we counter-act the “shadow” that blocks the cosmic Sun at Full Moon with our answer to this shadow force. 

~from Johnathan Hilton of the Astrosophy Center

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

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Riddle Of the Day (ROD)

Closer than your breath & older than death…
It dreams like a mountain, laughs like a river,
Prays like the sun, & sings the way animals think…
Plus, it’s always as fresh as the beginning of time…
What is it?

***

Thoughts for Today (TOT)

The poet says the universe is composed of stories, not atoms. The musician declares that the universe is made of music, not matter. And some believe that if we habitually expose ourselves to toxic stories & only electronic sound, we could wind up living in the wrong universe, where it’s impossible to become the human genius we were born to be.

That’s why I implore you to nourish yourself with delicious, nutritious tales & living tunes that inspire you to exercise willpower for the highest good. Wean yourself from stories that have a reductive plot line fueled primarily by painful proceedings. More importantly, celebrate the luminous mysteries that have shaped your life story: the meandering fascinations that didn’t lead to tidy conclusions, the wobbly joys that fed your soul but didn’t do a thing to serve your false ego’s ambitions, the adventures whose success revolved around brain-teasing breakthroughs instead of exhausting triumphs over others, or a rehashing of suffering…Banish the “shadow” with peaceful purpose & simple joy. ~hag

19 January 2019 – “speaking with the Stars”: Tonight, bright Bella Luna, on the eve of the Full Wolf Moon, shines in Gemini with Castor& Pollux to her left, Betelgeuse farther to her right, & Procyon down below. Get ready for the Lunar Eclipse tomorrow!

After dinnertime, Sirius twinkles brightly under Orion in the southeast. Around 9 pm Sirius shines below fiery Betelgeuse in Orion‘s shoulder.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1736 – Birthday of James Watt, Scottish-English chemist & engineer, inventor of the steam engine.

1809 – Birthday of Edgar Allan Poe

1829 – Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s Faust: The First Part of the Tragedy receives its premiere performance

1853 – Giuseppe Verdi’s opera Il trovatore receives its premiere performance in Rome.

1883 – The first electric lighting system employing overhead wires, built by Thomas Edison, begins service at Roselle, New Jersey

1938 – Deathday of Rosa Mayreder – an Austrian freethinker, author, painter, musician & feminist -The daughter of a wealthy Viennese innkeeper who was able to work as a painter & writer from her youth. She loved science & turned against the prevailing state of affairs that generally only allowed a higher education to men. She loved  anthropology & physics, but soon came across the special meaning of language . Together with Hugo Wolf, she published the opera “The Corregidor“, she composed the libretto & was one of Wolf’s sponsors.

In 1881 she married her childhood friend, the architect & later rector of the Vienna University of Technology Karl Mayreder . In the women’s movement she worked with activist Marie Lang & Marianne Hainisch in the early 1890s. In 1893 she founded the General Austrian Women’s Association. From 1899 she published together with Marie Lang & Auguste Fickert the magazine “Documents of Women“.

Her books “The Critique of Femininity ” as well as ” Gender and Culture “ & also in conversations that she held in her diaries, she described to the ‘culture-makers’, that it was important  for an equal ratio of the sexes. She gained recognition & approval in literary circles. The opposition was found especially in the field of medicine , which was perceived by her to falsely stress the ‘mental weakness of women’ as a haven of arbitrariness, but also the degradation of women as a sexual object. She turned against the discrimination of their gender & the existing double standards. Her works were widely distributed &translated into English.

Mayreder, who first worked as a painter also founded the “Art School for Women & Girls” in the years before the First World War with Olga Prager & Kurt Federn.

Before & during the war, she was involved with Bertha von Suttner in the peace movement, & in 1919 became the chairman of the “International Women’s League for Peace and Freedom” (IFFF).

Rosa Mayreder met Rudolf Steiner (with whom she entered into a long& extensive correspondence) through women’s rights campaigner Marie Lang. Mayreder wrote many passages in her diaries which describe how enlightening Rudolf Steiner was for her thinking. Steiner spent time with Mayreder & her husband at their villa discussing Goethe & politics over the years & right up until Stiner’s death.

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Musical weaving’s play between the geometry of snowflakes
Called in by the Wolf Moon awaiting eclipse
I observe your composite chords
Note their flavor on my restless breath
& forward the tune to you…
~hag

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Today is the eve of Tu B’Shvat – the “New Year for the Trees” which usually occurs every year on the eve of the February Full Quickening Moon,heralding the time of the Cross Quarter between Winter Solstice & Spring Equinox – Imbolc or Brigid’s day – when the sap begins to rise. But this year it comes at the time of a lunar eclipse of the January Wolf Moon!

Kabbalists have used the tree as a metaphor to understand the relationship between the spiritual & physical worlds. Spiritual Science tells us that the human being is a reversed plant. Our head is the root & our limbs reach for the stars. The higher spiritual realms connect the above & below, manifesting their cosmic influence through our ‘branches & leaves’ – our heart & lungs & limbs, our thinking, feeling & willing in the world.

In the 16th century, the Kabbalists compiled a Tu B’Shvat “Seder” similar to the Seder for Passover. It involves enjoying the fruits of the tree, & discusses philosophical & Kabbalistic concepts, like the idea that by eating with the highest intention we can repair the ‘fall’. The ‘sin’ against the Tree of Knowledge was that Adam & Eve ate its fruit before it was ripe.

So, what is it about waiting that transforms knowledge from hurtful to healthy? Do we have faith that the spring will come & everything will grow & ripen in its season?

Through eating, we have a daily opportunity to correct a part of our soul, so deep & intrinsic that it reaches back into the Garden of Eden.

The custom on Tu B’Shvat is to eat fruits from the seven species for which the Land of Israel is praised: “…a land of wheat and barley and (grape) vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of olive trees and (date) honey” (Deut. 8:8).

On Tu B’Shvat, it is also customary to eat a “new fruit” something we have not yet tasted this year.

This festival lets us ask: Am I getting the spiritual food I need, to truly live with grace, or is my tree withered by the forces of information overload & rampant materialism?

Am I part of a strong community, providing a warm & nurturing environment? Or am I cast into the pale bleak anonymity of urban life & cyberspace?

Am I looking to future generations knowing that I am providing them with the proper foundations for their lives?

The word “Shvat” is also related to the Hebrew word for a staff or rod. A staff can be used as a symbol of power; or as a cane to lean on. This is an underlying theme of the month.

So as we open our thinking, feeling & willing to align with the rising sap, in gratitude for the fruits of life; we can use this time to focus on the idea of consciously using our daily behavior as a medium for spirituality.

~hag