15 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna shines in the south shortly after dark. Below her can you see reddish orange Alpha Ceti?

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

AD 69 – Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but rules for only three months before committing suicide, in order to steer his country from the path to civil war. A member of a noble Etruscan family, Otho was initially a friend & courtier of the young emperor Nero until he was effectively banished to the governorship of the remote province of Lusitania following his wife Poppaea Sabina’s affair with Nero. He allied himself with Galba, the governor of neighboring Hispania. Accompanying Galba on his march to Rome, he aspired to succeed the aged emperor, but revolted & murdered Galba on being passed over for the succession. He is said to have been of moderate height, splay-footed & bandy-legged, but almost feminine in his care of his person. He had the hair of his body plucked out, & because of the thinness of his locks wore a wig so carefully fashioned that no one suspected it. He used to shave every day & smear his face with moist bread to “better his looks”.

1559 – Elizabeth I is crowned Queen of England in Westminster Abbey, London, England.

1622 – Birthday of Molière, French actor & playwright

1759 – The British Museum opens.

1929 – Birthday of Martin Luther King, Jr.

1934 – The Nepal–Bihar earthquake strikes killing an estimated 20,700 people.

1943 – The Pentagon is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia.

1962 – The Derveni papyrus, Europe’s oldest surviving manuscript dating to 340 BC, is found in northern Greece; a philosophical treatise that is an allegorical commentary on an Orphic poem, concerning the birth of the gods, produced in the circle of the philosopher Anaxagoras. It was composed near the end of the 5th century BC, “in the fields of Greek religion, the sophistic movement, early philosophy, and the origins of literary criticism it is unquestionably the most important textual discovery of the 20th century.” The roll itself dates to around 340 BC, during the reign of Philip II of Macedon, making it Europe’s oldest.

1969 – Deathday of Maria Röschl-Lehrs – Member of the Esoteric Youth Circle. Maria Röschl was the daughter of a financial officer from Vienna. Her mother was a native of the Polish landed gentry, so she grew up multilingual. The family moved to Vienna in 1895. From a very young age she was a very serious, & reserved.

After leaving school, Röschl took painting lessons & planned an artistic career, but finally decided to study at the University of Vienna to teach German philology, classical philology, art history & philosophy. Since she was interested in the importance of sleep for the human soul, she wrote her dissertation on the ‘Dream of Goethe’. In the course of her research she was found Rudolf Steiner’s Work “How to know higher worlds”, & was deeply impressed.

After completing her studies, Röschl initially gave private lessons & then taught German, Latin & Greek for five years at a Viennese girls’ grammar school.

In 1918 she met Karl Schubert, who introduced her to the Anthroposophical Society in Vienna & in 1920 she became a member. Through Schubert’s mediation, she discovered the Waldorf School in Stuttgart & began teaching Latin, Greek & took over the free religious education there from 1922. In March 1923, together with Herbert Hahn & Karl Schubert, she was able to hold Rudolf Steiner’s “sacrificial ceremony” for senior high school students & became Steiner’s personal student. After the Christmas Conference in 1924, she was appointed director of the youth section of the newly founded Free School of Spiritual Science & held this position until the spring of 1931.

Following the death of Rudolf Steiner in 1926, Röschl organized a two-year introductory course in anthroposophy together with young doctors & scientists in Dornach. Increasingly, however, their work was hampered by the ever-increasing crisis within the General Anthroposophical Society. Therefore, she decided in 1931 to return as a teacher to the Stuttgart Waldorf School. In 1935 she took over the management of the teacher training.

However, since the circumstances in Germany became unacceptable for her after the seizure of power by the National Socialists in 1933, she emigrated to Clent, a village in the English county of Worcestershire. In the Summer of 1933, Röschl & her husband traveled to Spring Valley NY in America as keynote speakers for the 1^st Summer school at the Threefold Center.

In 1935 she accepted a job as private tutor in Costa Rica. After a stopover in Arlesheim, Röschl returned to England, where she married Ernst Lehrs another Waldorf teacher & anthroposopher, who had also emigrated to England. In 1940 she took the anthroposophic work to Scottish Aberdeen along with her husband, & Charles King. At that time she also worked with Ita Wegman as editor of the First Class School of Spiritual Science.

After the Second World War, Röschl worked in teacher training in Gloucester. In 1952 she finally returned to Germany with her husband & worked until her death in 1969 as a lecturer at the curative education seminar in Eckwälden.

1970 – Muammar Gaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya

2001 – Wikipedia, a free wiki content encyclopedia, goes online

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Light slides thru my thoughts
As I question the air –
The chorus begins…
The empty shells of trees fill with color
The curtain of serpents parts &
Time stands still…
Rolls backwards…
& I know
It is day…
~hag

***

From: “Into the Heart’s Land” –

“It was July 1933. The Threefold Farm, on Hungry Hollow Road in Spring Valley, New York, had celebrated its seventh birthday. The Rudolf Steiner School was five years old. Eurythmy was an established presence. Dr. Christoph Linder was building a practice based on the principles of anthroposophically extended medicine, which was also served by the Weleda pharmaceutical initiative. Anthroposophy was indeed beginning to put down roots, even though these were primarily focused in and around New York City.

At this time, Ralph Courtney and the Threefold Group undertook an initiative that was to have far-reaching consequences. Three distinguished representatives of the anthroposophical movement in Europe were invited to participate in the first anthroposophical summer school, to be held at the Threefold Farm that July.

Two of the three speakers were members of the faculty of the original Waldorf school in Stuttgart. The third was the young scientist destined to play a decisive role in the further evolution of Anthroposophy in America. Maria Roeschl and Ernst Lehrs were the teachers, later united in marriage while they lived in England after the Waldorf school closed in 1938 and the outbreak of World War II. Maria Roeschl was Austrian by birth; a woman of great erudition, a classical scholar, and a doctor of philosophy. But she was also an individual of inborn spirituality, deepened and disciplined through her years as a personal pupil of Rudolf Steiner. Ernst Lehrs was a teacher of science, a man of keen intelligence, and a personal pupil of Dr. Steiner. Both Roeschl and Lehrs taught the older students in Stuttgart. Maria Roeschl was a member of the circle of teachers who carried the “free religious instruction” and the services, inaugurated by Rudolf Steiner in response to the requests of parents of the School. At the time of the Christmas Foundation, Roeschl had been asked by Steiner to lead the “Section for the Spiritual Striving of Youth,” part of the newly inaugurated School of Spiritual Science (see chapter fifty-nine).

The young scientist Ehrenfried Pfeiffer was, in a very real sense, a protégé of Rudolf Steiner. Pfeiffer was thirty-four at the time of the first summer school conference. Ralph Courtney’s initiative, wholeheartedly backed and supported by Charlotte Parker and the Threefold Group, as well as by Henry Monges and the society’s council, was a real inauguration deed. This was subsequently confirmed by the fact that every following summer, without interruption, the Threefold Community hosted one, or more, conferences presenting one aspect or another of anthroposophical activity and research. ~ by Henry Barnes, The First Summer School

11 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: As twilight fades this evening, how soon can you detect Mars glimmering above the Moon?

Orion is on display in the southeast these evenings, higher every week. But when the stars come out he’s still lower, and his three-star Belt is still nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran and, even higher, the Pleiades. Down below, the Belt points to where Sirius rises around the time twilight fades away.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

“If you want to change the world, you have to change the metaphor.” ~Joseph Campbell

1825 – Birthday of Karl Julius Schroer, professor of German literature & language. Political developments in 1860 forced Schröer to leave Hungary for Vienna. In the following years, Schröer researched the folklore of the ethnic Germans, or Danube Swabians, of Hungary. As part of his research, Schröer discovered a Medieval cycle of Danube Swabian mystery plays in Oberufer, a village since engulfed by the Bratislava’s borough of Ružinov. Schröer collected manuscripts, made meticulous textual comparisons, & published his findings in the book Deutsche Weihnachtspiele aus Ungarn (“The German Nativity Plays of Hungary”) in 1857/1858. Several scholars later extended this work.

In Vienna, Schröer became a major figure in Goethe scholarship. He was a founding member of the Goethe Society of Vienna in 1878 & edited the society’s official publication, “Die Chronik”, from 1886 to 1894.

Schröer was especially devoted to Faust scholarship, editing the work & providing a commentary in a two-volume edition of that play. In 1884 he published one of his most well-known works, a text dedicated to Goethe’s biography, manner of poeticizing, & relation to women: “Goethe und die Liebe” (Goethe and Love). Schröer also edited a six-volume edition of Goethe’s dramas. He campaigned for the erection of a Goethe monument in Vienna, which was approved in 1894 with a design by Edmund Hellmann. Schröer died on 16 December 1900, one day after the monument was unveiled.

He was Rudolf Steiner’s professor & the son of the educator & writer Tobias Gottfried Schröer. Steiner speaks about these 2 individualities in their former incarnations. Tobias as Socrates & Karl as the nun Hroswitha & Plato. See Karmic Relationships, Volume IV: Lecture X

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~May I ride in calm waters toward destiny
May my flesh be a sail propelled by the breath of true knowing
May the rhythm of my heart stir music that embraces darkness
May my spirit witness what my hands create,
The words I utter, the worlds I think…
~hag

***

January Story (adapted from an Italian legend my Strega Nona used to tell)

It was early in the year still cold & biting was the wind.  A poor mother & her sweet daughter Ella lived in a small cottage outside the city near the great woods.  One morning, Ella put on her warmest winter clothes & went with her basket to look for a morsel of food for her good mother.

Ella asked everywhere for a crust of bread or a bit of carrot, but no one could spare a bite. Ella did not want to take an empty basket home, so she went into the woods to look for nuts & roots hidden under the snow.  On the way she found a little mouse whose tail was caught under a stone.  Ella gently freed him, & the mouse said, ‘Thank you kind child, I have been trapped here for a long time.  May good fortune find you’.  Then he scampered away through the frosty forest.

As she wandered on, she noticed a tree whose branches were so weighed down with snow, she thought they would break.  So she shook the tree until it could stand up straight again.  ‘Oh my,’ said the tree, ‘that feels much better, thank you dear child, may good fortune find you.’

Ella went on through the forest, & saw a little robin shivering from the cold. She picked the robin up & wrapped her carefully in her warm woolen hat until the robin stopped shivering.  ‘Thank you dear child,’ sang the robin, ‘I feel warm enough to fly now.  May good fortune find you.’ The bird flapped her wings & flew toward to cloud covered sun.

Ella had now walked deep into the woods where she knew a hazelnut tree grew.  ‘Perhaps I will find nuts here,’ she thought to herself.  So she started to dig under the snow, & sure enough her hard work payed off for she did indeed find nuts enough to fill her basket.  As she was digging here & there, a kind old man with a long white beard  appeared dressed all in white. He spoke to her with a voice as warm as light.

‘I am the Grandfather of the Year.  My 4 sons & I have seen how thoughtful you are. My children each have a question for you.’

One brother came all dressed in light green.  He smiled at Ella & asked her, ‘What is Spring like dear child?’

Ella answered, ‘Oh Spring is fresh & new & full of crocuses & daffodils & baby birds. I love Spring!’  The green brother smiled at Ella & nodded.

Then a second brother came all dressed in yellow, & asked, ‘What is Summer like dear child?’

‘Oh,’ said Ella, ‘Summer is a time to run & play in sunshine, plant a garden of flowers, & chase butterflies & fireflies.  I love Summer!’  The yellow brother smiled & nodded.

Then a third brother appeared dressed in orange & reds. He asked Ella, ‘What is Autumn like dear child?’

‘Autumn,’ said Ella, ‘is full of dancing leaves like flames, apples & pumpkins, & it is harvest time.  I love Autumn!’  The orange & red brother smiled & nodded.

Then the Grandfather of the Year’s 4^th son appeared all dressed in pale blues.  ‘What is Winter like dear child,’ he asked.

‘Winter snow sparkles like the stars’, replied Ella.  ‘Our cheeks get rosy as we make snowmen, & we light candles in the house, & read books. I love Winter!’  This blue brother also smiled & nodded.

Then the 4 brothers & the Grandfather of the Year who stood before her, disappeared.  Ella thought she had been dreaming, but when she looked in her basket of old nuts, they had turned into gold, frankincense & myrrh!

When she returned home her mother rejoiced.  They shared these riches with all who asked & were never poor & hungry again!

~hag

6 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”:

Orion stands in the east-southeast after dark, higher every week, but in early evening his three-star Belt is still nearly vertical. The Belt points up toward Aldebaran &, even higher, the Pleiades.

Down below, the Belt points to the horizon where Sirius rises around 6 or 7 PM CST. Just after Sirius clears the horizon, it twinkles faster as it gains altitude, & its flashes of vivid color blend into shimmering whiteness.

Venus is at greatest elongation on this date, west of the Sun in the morning sky.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

The Feast of Epiphany

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

33 – Three Kings Day – The Baptism in the Jordan: The Incarnation of the Christ in Jesus of Nazareth.

1412 – The Birthday of Joan of Arc

1828 – Birthday of Herman Grimm – Grimm’s father was Wilhelm Grimm, & his uncle Jakob Grimm, the philologist compilers of indigenous folk tales (“Brothers Grimm”). His other uncle was the painter engraver Ludwig Emil Grimm. Grimm’s reputation is that of the arch-Romantic, Gründerzeit art historian. He viewed himself as the intellectual successor of Goethe. His approach to art history was through the “Great Masters”, & arranging significance of art through a biographical account of art history. His tastes both typified & led German & continental taste. Homer, Dante & Shakespeare were the great writers of their age; in art, only Raphael & Michelangelo could compare. The nineteenth century’s adoration of Raphael is in large part Grimm’s doing.

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Doves nest in my hair & spit fire from my head…
My heart beats like a bee tongue among the withered roses
As the Avatar winds of Sophia speak Wisdom into our bones…
~hag

***

January 6^th is The Feast of Epiphany, In Greek: epi-phanos which means shining forth, manifestation, striking appearance or vision of The Divine.

This day is also called: 12th night, Three Kings Day, The feast of La Bafana The Feast of Recognition, The Adoration of the Magi, The Manifestation of God, & Saturnalia.

In ancient Egypt the 6th of January was celebrated as the Festival of Osiris – revealing the mystery of the re-membering of the Sun-god. As you know, Osiris was overcome by his enemy Typhon or Set & the Goddess Isis, his beloved, seeks & eventually finds him. This notion of finding Osiris is a prefiguring of the Festival of The Three Kings, who also went looking for their representative of the Sun god. This ‘Epiphany’ was also celebrated by the Assyrians, the Armenians & the Phoenicians. Everywhere it is a Festival connected with a kind of universal baptism — a rebirth from out of the water.

In the Act of Consecration, in the Epistle at Epiphany, a word shines out like a star: Grace. 6 times it shines thru: ‘Star of Grace’, ‘Light of Grace’, ‘Grace appearance of the world’s light’…Proclaiming that the shining forth of the Grace of Christ is our Epiphany.

Epiphany, like Easter & Pentecost are holy days traditionally set aside for initiation rites, emphasizing the mysterious relationship between the elements of fire & water, which invokes the ability to see into the formative forces of the etheric realm.

In both the Eastern & Western churches the feast of Epiphany additionally commemorates the marriage at Cana (see John 2:1-11), at which Christ performed his first miracle, an allegory for the mixing of water & wine=liquid fire, changing water into fire, which the ancients called The Alchemical Marriage, or the Great Work…

Epiphany, has been observed since before AD 194, so it is much older than our Christmas celebrations. It has always been a profoundly esoteric festival of the highest rank.

At one time the Nativity & Epiphany were celebrated together & were referred to as the 1^st & 2^nd nativity; the 1^st as the birth of the physical vessel prepared thru many generations from Adam down thru the House of King David; & the 2^nd being Christ’s manifestation into that vessel, linked with the cosmic event of Christ’s baptism by John in the Jordan; & then moving with the blood into the earth in the death & resurrection of Easter.

The Three Kings from the East: Kaspar, Melchior & Balthazar, were wise men initiated into the mysteries of the stars by Zarathustra. They followed the starry script written in the heavens that was foretold by the ancient prophets, to Bethlehem, where they paid homage to the Christ-child & presented him with gold, frankincense & myrrh.

Gold reflects the kingship of The Christ as a ‘Solar King’.  Frankincense, the incense of worship, for meditative & invocational purposes, symbolizes his priestly role, & myrrh, a purifying substance used in burial embalming, points to the crucifixion & resurrection.

“…K. M. B…. these letters represent the names of the Three Holy Kings: Kaspar, Melchior, Balthasar…these three wise men of the East who brought offerings of three human virtues:  with the gold – self-knowledge; with the frankincense – self-piety, calling forth the higher “I”; & in the myrrh, self- development & surrender, & the preservation of the eternal in the self.

The 3 kings represent the evolution of humanity, & show in their inclusiveness that The Christ Impulse is for all of humankind.

The twelve days of Christmas ends with the Feast of Epiphany which comes with its own traditions, rituals & symbols for the common folk. Carolers go from house to house; & in many homes the Christmas Tree is taken down & burnt in a big bonfire.

For the children this is an especially joyous occasion because, when the tree is taken down they get to “plündern” (raid) the tree of the sweets – the chocolate ornaments wrapped in foil or cookies, which have replaced the sugar plums, & become the raiders’ rewards.

Another tradition is to sprinkle the doorways with holy water; & the mistress of the house would write with chalk K + M + B with the number of the year above the house or barn door & say: “Kaspar, Melchior, “Balthasar, behütet uns auch für dieses Jahr, vor Feuer und.  ‘Protect our home from the perils of fire & water’.

Our modern family does this every year…

You may have seen it, especially if you’ve been to Germany or other parts of Europe – a mysterious series of letters & numbers, looking to all the world like an equation, inscribed in chalk over a doorway.

Epiphany (also known as Twelfth Night, Theophany, or Three Kings Day) marks the occasion of a time-honored Christian tradition of “chalking the doors.” The formula for the ritual — adapted for 2019 — is simple: take chalk of any color & write the following above the entrance of your home: 20 + K + M + B + 19…

The letters have two meanings: 1st they represent the initials of the Magi — Kaspar, Melchior, & Balthazar — who came to visit the Jesus of the Matthew Gospel.

The letters are also an abbreviate of the Latin phrase, Christus mansionem benedicat: “May Christ bless the house.” The “+” signs represent the cross.

And the “20” at the beginning & the “19” at the end mark the year.

Taken together, this inscription is performed as a request that Christ bless the house & those who dwell therein throughout the entire year.

The chalking of the doors is a centuries-old practice throughout the world, though it appears to be someone less well-known in the United States. It is, however, an easy tradition to adopt, & a great practice where we can dedicate ourselves to the ideals of the Christ-Impulse from the very beginning of each year.

When I was growing up, all the old Italian ladies would do it after Epiphany Mass. It can be done at any church, home, or dwelling.  In the very old days the blessing was done by either a priest or the head of the family, but here in the US, it’s usually the grandmothers or the children that want to do it! This blessing can be performed simply by just writing the inscription & offering an intention or short prayer, or more elaborately, including songs, prayers, processions, the burning of incense, & the sprinkling of holy water.

I remember the days when I would go to the Epiphany Mass with my grandma, & they gave out satchels of blessed chalk, incense, & containers of holy water blessed especially for Epiphany. Another common practice, that my Straga-ma always observed was to save a few grains of the Epiphany incense until Easter, so that it could be burned along with the Easter candle.

Practicing traditions like the chalking of the doors helps us to awaken to the mysteries behind the Holidays. It is a practical concrete way to observe & it serves as an outward sign of our dedication to being more conscious in our thinking, feeling & willing. To consciously take the time to bless our homes – the place where many of us will make the greatest strides in our spiritual growth, through observance of daily meditation, spiritual reading to the dead, & work offered freely with love – is vital.

It also serves as a reminder of the wise welcoming that the Magi gave to the Christ Child. We can also strive to be as welcoming to all who come to our homes. To greet the Christ within every body that crosses the threshold.

Blessings & Peace ~hag

***

Come explore the Spiritual Scientific insights of this powerful Feast Day, reminding us, like the moral of Shakespeare’s play, 12^th night, that we must make the most of this moment; for the NOW is a present which shapes the future…

Sunday 6 Jan. Epiphany DAY, 2 pm – 4 pm  

 Eurythmy with Mary Ruud 

Leading Thoughts & Storytelling with Ann Burfiend (Ann has been called to Vancouver & will be leaving in a few weeks!!!)

 Social Art, Movement & Form Drawing with Nancy Melvin

$10 & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 ***

Starting Tuesday 8 January 2019

Mary Ruud will be holding Eurythmy Classes

7 pm – 8:30 pm every Tuesday Evening.

$15 or pay what you can afford

***

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)

Check out our Web site!  (Anthroposophical Society in America)The Elderberries 3-Fold Space & the Flex Space are available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

5 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: New Moon – exact at 7:28 p.m. CST.  As we enter the very coldest time of the year, the dim Little Dipper (Ursa Minor) turns to hang straight down from Polaris after dinnertime. The Big Dipper, meanwhile, is creeping up low in the north-northeast. Its handle is very low &its bowl is to the upper right. And Cassiopeia, a flattened letter M, is nearly overhead in the north-northwest, just beginning to tilt.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

The Eve of Epiphany

The Witch of Christmas, La Befana, is celebrated on the Eve of Epiphany – The legend of La Befana began thousands of years ago & remains to this day a tradition practiced by many folks with an Italian heritage (my father’s people are from Montefegatesi, the highest of the Bagni di Lucca villages in Tuscany) also practiced in many Waldorf schools.

The Legend: This story takes place at the time of the birth of the Matthew Jesus. La Befana is an old woman who lives in a house in the hills of Italy. Befana spends her days sweeping & baking, when she’s not needed as a healer. One night, Befana notices a bright light in the sky, she thinks nothing of it & goes back to her work. Later, a glorious caravan led by Three Wise Men stop & ask La Befana for directions to Bethlehem inviting her to join them in their search for the Christ Child. But Befana is too busy & knows nothing of this far-away place nor the birth of a special baby. After the caravan disappeared over the hills, she remembered that box of old toys that she had collected over the years, many that were tossed out because they were broken. She had fixed & re-painted them, handing them out to every child who needed one, because she loved seeing them smile. So she placed some baked goods & gifts for the Christ-child in a sack, took her broom to help the new mother clean & raced out after the caravan in search of the Baby Jesus. La Befana was soon lost. And just as she was getting very tired, angels appeared from the bright light, the magic star in the sky to give flight to La Befana on her broom –it was a night of miracles after all. She searched & searched for the Baby Jesus.

La Befana still searches, even today, after all these centuries. And so, every year on the eve of the Epiphany, whenever La Befana comes to a house where there is a child, she drops in to see if it might be the child she seeks. It never is, but Befana leaves a gift anyway. For La Befana has come to realize, over the years, that her searching is not vain, that in a way, the Christ Child is found in all children.

Ever since then the old wise woman has been known as “La Befana” or simply “Befana.” In fact, Befana’s name comes from the ancient Greek word “epifania” which means “epiphany.” It is significant since the religious feast of the Epiphany is celebrated on January 6th. So on the eve Befana flies from house to house on her old broomstick & delivers gifts to the good girls & boys, in the name of the Holy Child.

This celebration, in remembrance of the Magi’s visit, often includes purifying rites & benedictions with water. Water set out by the fireplace on the eve of the Epiphany (the night that La Befana flies the skies) is said to have sacred properties that can ward off evil spirits & is used in critical moments of a family’s life.

Celebration of the Epiphany can be traced as far back as the 9th century, & is one of the most popular Italian feasts especially in the backcountry or in the hills. In the time when our grandparents were children, La Befana was tremendously popular & was awaited with a mixture of joy & anxiety. Children hung hand-knitted stockings on the fireplace & wrote long letters to her expressing their wishes. Often they were disappointed as their families had little money to spend on gifts; however, sometimes they found little hand-sewn dolls & puppets in their stocking. If they had been bad, their stockings were filled with onions, garlic & coal. In modern-day Italy some shops sell carbone or black rock candy that actually looks like pieces of coal.

And to celebrate this day, people would gather together on Epiphany morning to & chestnuts, & fruit pancakes.

My Waldorf girl learned this song at school many years ago:

Babuska, Babuska, she sweep & sweep all day
Babuska, Babushka, would not take time away.
Kings came ariding 1, 2, 3
Over the land & over sea
Following following yonder star
Calling out to them from afar
But Babuska, Babuska, she sweep & sweep all day
Babuska, Babushka, would not take time away.
~hag

Come see the Christmas Witch tonight, Played by Joen Delande, as part of our 3 Kings Pageant.

Saturday 5 January 2019 – The 3 Kings Pageant 7 pm

At the Christian Community 2135 Wilson Ave. Chicago

***

Sunday 6 Jan. Epiphany DAY 2 pm – 4 pm

The Baptism / 3 Kings Day / 12th Night / The feast of La Bafana

Eurythmy with Mary Ruud 

Leading Thoughts & Storytelling with Ann Burfiend

Social Art, Movement & Form Drawing with Nancy Melvin

 $10 & Snacks to Share Encouraged

 For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 ***

Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)

Check out our Web site!  (Anthroposophical Society in America)

The Elderberries 3-Fold Space & the Flex Space are available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…

3 January 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”:  

Catch the Cosmic dance at dawn’s twilight:As dawn brightens on Friday the 4th, look low in the southeast for the thin crescent Moon guiding you to Mercury below it. Earth is at perihelion, its closest to the Sun for the year.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY – According to the original Calendar of the Soul:

Birthday of Enoch – called ‘Enoch the scribe of judgment’. “In the seventh generation from Adam,” he was considered the author of the Book of Enoch, which recounts how he was taken up to Heaven & was appointed guardian of all the celestial treasures – chief of the archangels, & the immediate attendant of God’s throne. He was subsequently taught all secret mysteries &, with all the angels at his back, fulfills of his own accord whatever comes out of the mouth of God. Much esoteric literature identifies Enoch as Metatron, the angel which communicates God’s word. In consequence, Enoch was seen, by this literature, & the kabbala of Jewish mysticism, as having been the one which communicated God’s revelation to Moses, in particular. In addition to an appearance in the Book of Genesis, Enoch is the subject of many Jewish & Christian writings. Enoch was the son of Jared(Genesis 5:19–21), the father of Methuselah, & the great-grandfather of Noah. The Bible says that Enoch lived 365 years before he was taken up by God. The text reads that Enoch “walked with God: and he was no more; for God took him” (Gen 5:21–24)

The Feast Day of Caspar – the youngest of the Magi, was King of Tarsus, a historic city in south-central Turkey. His gift was myrrh, which was used in making medicines. This symbolized Christ as the healer & great physician.

The Birthday of The prophet Daniel – Hebrew: “God is my Judge“- was a hero who interprets dreams & receives apocalyptic visions. The Book of Daniel begins with an introduction telling how Daniel & his companions came to be in Babylon. Then a set of tales set in the Babylonian & Persian courts, followed by a set of visions in which Daniel sees the remote future of the world & of Israel.

Daniel & 3 friends were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon following the city’s capture by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The four are chosen for their intellect & beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court. They are given new names. Daniel is given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, while his companions are given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego. Which we read about in the famous story of the fiery furnace

Daniel & his friends refuse the food & wine provided by the king of Babylon to avoid breaking the Jewish laws. They receive wisdom from God & surpass “all the magicians & enchanters of the kingdom.”

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals with feet of mingled iron & clay, smashed by a stone from heaven. Only Daniel is able to interpret it: the dream signifies 4 kingdoms, of which Babylon is the 1st, but God will destroy them & replace them with his own kingdom.

Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters the entire world & of a heavenly figure who decrees that the tree will be destroyed; again, only Daniel can interpret the dream, which concerns the sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth.

When Nebuchadnezzar’s son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears & writes a mysterious message on the wall, which only Daniel can interpret; it tells the king that his kingdom will be given to the Medes & Persians, because Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the God of Daniel.

 The Medes & Persians overthrow Nebuchadnezzar & the new king, Darius the Mede, appoints Daniel to high authority. Jealous rivals attempt to destroy Daniel with an accusation that he worships God instead of the king, & Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but an angel saves him, his accusers are destroyed, & Daniel is restored to his position.

In the third year of Darius, Daniel has a series of visions. In the first, four beasts come out of the sea, the last with ten horns, & an eleventh horn grows & achieves dominion over the Earth & the “Ancient of Days” – God gives dominion to “one like a son of man”. An angel interprets the vision.

In the second, a ram with two horns is attacked by a goat with one horn; the one horn breaks & is replaced by four. A little horn arises & attacks the people of God & the temple, & Daniel is informed how long the little horn’s dominion will endure.

In the third, Daniel is troubled to read in Holy Scripture (the book is not named but appears to be Jeremiah) that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years. Daniel repents on behalf of the Jews & requests that Jerusalem & its people be restored. An angel refers to a period of 70 sevens, or weeks, of years.

In the final vision, Daniel sees a period of history culminating in a struggle between the “king of the north” & the “king of the south” in which God’s people suffer terribly; an angel explains that in the end the righteous will be vindicated & God’s kingdom will be established on Earth.

236 – The Deathday of Pope Anterus, Bishop of Rome. Anterus was the son of Romulus, born in Calabria. He is thought to have been of Greek origin, & his name may indicate that he was a freed slave. Scholars believe he was martyred because he ordered greater strictness in searching into the acts of the martyrs.

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~may i ride in calm waters toward destiny
may my flesh be a sail propelled by the breath of true dreaming
may the rhythm of my heart stir music that embraces darkness
may my heart witness what my hands create,
the words i utter, the worlds i think…
~hag

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The Dream Song of Olaf Asteson is an ancient Norwegian Folk Song. A true mystery tale – During a dark winter, between Christmas & Epiphany long, long ago, Olaf Åsteson, whose name means: Son of earth, experiences the mysteries of the cosmos during the 13 Holy Nights – an initiation into the great secrets of existence. As we may have been experiencing, each of these holy nights are “outside” of time, & lay over the next 12 months of the year. So just like Olaf, we too can become true sons & daughters of earth, applying our spiritual strength fortified by cosmic forces available now, so we can become better prepared to meet our highest destiny.

This sacred ‘Time out of Time’ provides an opportunity to contemplate, not only the great journey of the Cosmic Christ thru the zodiac into the body of Jesus; but also the path of Jesus to Christ; as well the evolution of every Human Being as a Star unfolding in an Earthly biography – for we as human beings are following both paths.

On Christmas Eve, we begin the contemplation with Adam & Eve, remembering that the fall was the reason The Christ Being made the sacrificial journey from the Godhead to become the Son of Man. The Holy Nights are completed on Epiphany, also recognized as the Baptism -when the Son of God – The Christ – entered human form.

So, when we look at the circle of the Zodiac during the Holy Nights we can find imprinted there a memory of that significant track from spiritual heights to human depths. The 12 apostles formed an outer version of these constellations around Jesus Christ. And we all incarnate into these various signs on our way to becoming spirit once again.

So much to revel in…

xox ~hag

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Friday 4 January 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm

 “…When the Two Become One…” 

Eurythmy with Mary Ruud  

Renaissance Art, & Storytelling with Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

Beeswax Modeling with Nancy Melvin

$10 or pay what you will

For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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Saturday 5 January 2019 – The 3 Kings Pageant – 7 pm

At the Christian Community 2135 Wilson Ave. Chicago

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Sunday 6 Jan. Epiphany DAY 2 pm – 4 pm

The Baptism / 3 Kings Day / 12th Night / The feast of La Bafana

Eurythmy with Mary Ruud 

Leading Thoughts & Storytelling with Ann Burfiend

Social Art, Movement & Form Drawing with Nancy Melvin

 $10 & Snacks to Share Encouraged

 For more info. contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg

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Member initiative:

The CREATE YOUR LIFE Vision Board Workshop with Elizabeth Beunaiche.

Sunday 13 January 2019, 1pm – 9 pm at Elderberries 3Fold Cafe Chicago. 

Join Elizabeth & friends for a full day to help manifest your dreams, in a supportive community. There is an exploratory worksheet to begin this journey and it would be extremely helpful to send it back to Elizabeth Beunaiche prior to the class.

‘Level Up Wellness’ looks forward to meeting all of you and exploring our dreams. Best Regards, Elizabeth Beunaiche

P.S. Sign up today & Share this with a friend

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Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)

Check out our Web site!  (Anthroposophical Society in America)The Elderberries 3-Fold Space & the Flex Space are available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…