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Jehanne d’Arc

Greetings Friends – Before going out to Zinniker – The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America for our Michaelmas Farm Day experience today, I thought to share some thoughts that I hold of Joan d’Arc – a true Christic Warroior inspired by Michael. A few years back our Michaelmas Festival was inspired by Joan of Arc. I called it ‘PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will’.

My research led me to many amazing resources, including Mark Twain’s heart-felt Book, as well as the work of Anthroposopher Joan M. Edmunds. But my main source came from Rudolf Steiner who gives us many insights into this powerful individuality.

Now I can’t help but think of Joan when it comes to Michaelmas. And Yesterday while getting ready to serve at the Christian Community, my co-server came in wearing one of the red T-shirts with Joan’s likeness on it that everyone got who was involved with that Fest. (Thanks Mary & Deborah!) I had almost worn mine. I love these little clues that work thru to inspire us to take initiative.

The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations: Steiner, Rudolf:  9780880102056: Amazon.com: Books

I was particularly taken by what Steiner says in ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It. Berlin, 1915’; a lecture series he gave right at the start of the 1st world war. I felt called to make that my personal focus. I didn’t get a chance to share it at our Festival since I wanted to keep it more experienical, so here it is for your contemplation. I hope it moves you to take action as it did me.

What is the mission of The Maid of Orleans?

From the time of her enchanted childhood playing around the village ‘fairy tree’ – & then, starting at the age of 12 – & for 7 years till she was martyred at age 19, Jehanne (feminine form of Joannes or John) d’Arc was inspired into by progressive Beings of the Divine Spiritual World. These powers battled the inflammatory Luciferic forces of deception prevailing in humanity at that special time right before the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Age.  

Joan of Arc, with the aid of Michael, (& his helpers St. Catherine & St. Margaret) was able to vanquish the seductive Luciferic forces which were vying to prevent this shift in human consciousness.

Steiner describes the miracle of her birth, how she went thru a sort of pre-earthy initiation during the potent time of the 13 Holy nights, incarnating on Epiphany, the day the Christ came into a human being at the Baptism.

And we can also point to her equally auspicious death. Yes it was gruesome, not unlike like the sacrifice of the Christ. In her case, it occurred because all the jealous, selfish, Luciferic forces of her enemies joined together to bring about her sacrifice by fire; not unlike the burning of Ephesus & of the 1st Goetheanum.

Trial of Joan of Arc - Wikipedia
Paul Delaroche

At what can in truth be be called her witch trial, she predicted her own death, & said that within 7 years after of her sacrifice: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal of fortune than any they had known before”.

Spiritual Science tells us that the soul of Joan of Arc continued working across the Threshold to shape these events after her death.

What the spiritual powers have to bring about will occur whatever the external conditions may be. 

Many great individualities are working with us even now from across the threshold. 

The Maid’s adversaries were able to bring about her death, but they were NOT able to prevent her mission.

Joan of Arc Bio, Age, Height, Death

The power behind the will of the Maid of Orleans, the forces of Michael, are working still against the immoral Luciferic forces that rage in the world.

Rudolf Steiner | Rudolf steiner, Steiner, Rudolf

Dear friends, as you are all so keenly aware, we are also having to deal with hostile forces in our time; but now-a-days these are predominantly Ahrimanic forces; not inflaming, but hardening, materialistic forces, that have come up with the industrial age. These forces are in evidence everywhere, especially if we turn our attention not only to the mechanical element, but thru-out cyber space; a distractive shrouding of the reappearance of the Christ in the etheric.

And so Spiritual science tells us that if we remain unconscious of these forces working into our sense impressions, we are offering an abode to the dragon that seeks to stupefy us. These sclerotic forces influence our earth life, creating the fearful events happening NOW all over the globe.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria (1863 – 1914). On 17 August 1913, the  Emperor promoted Franz Ferdinand to inspector … | Ferdinand, History,  Historical pictures

~Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria

In the above mentioned 1917 lecture, Steiner talks about how a sort of denial of the build up to the 1st World War had been present for a long time in the astral world, but was held back by something that was also astral: by the fear, doubt & hatred held in the feeling life of human beings. These negative astral forces were able to hold the war back, to prevent it, for a while. Steiner says: “…at 1st a fearful denial was able to stop war from breaking out. But then with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, there emerged a ‘reversal event’ – this recalls the words from Joan of Arc: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal than any they had known before”.

In that case the selfish Luciferic forces came back to destroy the English reign after the sacrifice of Joan of Arc; and in this case – of the world war, all the elements of fear from the ahrimanic powers began to gather around the sacrificed soul of the Archduke, creating a focal point, a tear at the threshold.

The Changing Face Of Satan, From 1500 To Today

It’s hard to really phantom this, but we know that anything that has a specific character on the physical plane will have the opposite character in the spiritual world. Everything is reversed in the spiritual world. 

An element that had a blocking effect, keeping the 1st world war at bay, was now acting in the opposite way, as a spur, an incitement, to war.

So we see that a flip of the elements of fear, of the deceiving Ahrimanic elements, became a catalyst for war, which now a 100 years later, has led to the events of our present age, where there is constant war, in all realms of society.

Tyrone Dwelzel

But fear not dear friends, Steiner tells us that we must not try to deny or rebel against these materialistic Ahrimanic elements. We must let them strengthen us; we must develop the courage of Michael to see it as something that is necessary in our time, something that has to be present, so that we can learn to reverse the fear thru our heart-thinking – transforming these forces of resistance thru love.

Lebanese artist auctions viral painting of Beirut blast to help people in  need | Arab News
Pas Beirutt

The question is: How do we make it possible for divine spiritual forces, the ‘ever present help of the spiritual world’, to enter into our actions so that we can consciously reverse The Beasts of fear, doubt & hatred?

How do we offer a positive resistance to this deceptive Ahrimanic element in our age, the way resistance was offered to the Luciferic element at the time of Joan of Arc?

Social Threefolding and Commonweal | Feminist movement, Freedom, Road trip

– By taking the path towards a spiritualization of human culture – by cultivating our ability to form ideas & concepts into a thinking will for good. This is the prerequisite foundation needed to manifest the 3-fold social organism. Which we can only do if we stop listening to the prejudices & propaganda currently pounding us deeper into the materialism of our age – a voice that speaks loudly at times, or can be the faintest of whispers from the dragon within.

We generate the great strength we need to offer resistance to these hardening forces by approaching the spirit not only thru the inner powers of revelation & faith, like in the case of Joan of Arc, but by trying to concentrate our powers of understanding on what spiritual science has to give – a rational wisdom, filling us with light.

Irene Olid Gonzalez.

And so dear freinds, when we take ahold of ourselves with this attitude, we can consciously work with what Michael, the Spirit of our Age, has to give us now in our time – Meeting every trial & test with a conscious heart-thinking, motivated by the wisdom of lovewhere we must kindle our own light of thinking.

~hag

Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:

Video – Michaelmas: Festival of the Future

Video: Michaelmas Musings

The Anthroposopher podcast – Preserve the Light

Video – The Central Regional Council – ‘Courage Born of Wisdom

30 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous Moon visits two celestial highlights of October’s late evenings.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

~Bosch

395 – John the Evangelist settles in Patmos to write the Apocalypse

420 – Deathday of St. Jerome also called Hieronymus, Roman priest, theologian, patron saint of translators, librarians & encyclopedists. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him in From Jesus to Christ lecture 4, saying he had to ‘falsify’ the Gospel of St. Matthew, because it was too esoteric for folks at the time:

When we know this, we understand that the original Gospel of Matthew could not be imparted without further preparation because men were not ripe to receive what was in it. For if Jerome, a Father of the Church, was himself not ripe for what it contained, then certainly other men were not. Those who were originally in possession of these communications, the Ebionites, did not impart them because, if received by unripe persons, they would have been so distorted that they must have led to what Jerome meant when he said that they would serve not for edification but for destruction. Now Jerome understood this; yet he allowed himself to impart in a certain way the Gospel of Matthew to the world. ~Rudolf Steiner

1207 – Birthday of Rumi, Persian mystic & poet

1791 – The first performance of The Magic Flute, the last opera by Mozart to make its debut, took place at Freihaus-Theater auf der Wieden in Vienna, Austria

1791 – The National Constituent Assembly in Paris is dissolved; Parisians hail Maximilien Robespierre & Jérôme Pétion as “incorruptible patriots”

1882 – Thomas Edison’s first commercial hydroelectric power plant (later known as Appleton Edison Light Company) begins operation on the Fox River in Appleton, Wisconsin

1914 – Birthday of Johannes Tautz – a Historian, Religious scholar, Anthroposophist, Author & Waldorf teacher. After the German capitulation, Tautz was imprisoned by the Czechs, Americans & Russians but managed to escape in the summer of 1945 back to his family in Bad Boll. He was soon approached by Erich Gabert in Stuttgart to join the Waldorf School that was about to be opened as its German & History teacher. On 1 November 1945 he stood before his first 9th grade at the Free Waldorf School, Uhlandshöhe.

Soon Johannes Tautz decided to look up his “predecessor”, the first history teacher at the Waldorf School, Walter Johannes Stein. The conversations with Stein provided an orientation & inspiration for all of his further work as a teacher, lecturer & writer; in his lecturing work at national & international conferences and in the “Hague Circle”, a coordinating international group of Waldorf teachers.

He likewise received particular guidance from Emil Bock regarding a Christological view of world history & from Jürgen von Grone about the destiny of Germany &in particular to the figure of Helmuth von Moltke.

In 1966 Tautz held three lectures about the spiritual background to National Socialism, which later appeared in print under the title Attack of the Enemy – The Occult Inspiration Behind Adolf Hitler and the Nazis in 1976. In it he looks at a number of personalities connected with questionable occult practices with which leading Nazis had been close during the time of the movement’s growth.

In 1979 he edited a collection of biographical portraits together with Gisbert Husemann of the circle of founding Waldorf teachers around Rudolf Steiner.

Together with a young friend, Thomas Meyer, he visited the daughter of Walter Johannes Stein, Clarissa Johanna Muller, in Ireland where she was living in order to look through her father’s literary estate. They found the typescript of Stein’s dissertation annotated by Rudolf Steiner, letters & meditations of Steiner for Stein, his mother & for his brother, who fell in a mysterious manner in WWI. Letters & notes of Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz, Eliza von Moltke, Ita Wegman, D.N Dunlop & many other personalities were discovered & formed the basis of Tautz’s biography of Stein in 1989

In 1993 he initiated the editing of a collection Rudolf Steiner’s letters & notes to Eliza von Moltke together with the post mortem communications & the letters of Helmuth von Moltke himself. The decision to publish these was to prevent or anticipate a partial publication without an appropriate commentary on the subject that had been announced. A previous instance of this content being used had been in the book The Spear of Destiny by Trevor Ravenscroft which, in the opinion of Tautz had been written “without the necessary protection of background knowledge for the deeply-penetrant & difficult to understand material.” Further reading

1938 – The League of Nations unanimously outlaws “intentional bombings of civilian populations”

1962 – Labor leader César Chávez founds the National Farm Workers Association, which later becomes United Farm Workers

1982 – Cyanide-laced Tylenol kills six people in the Chicago area. Seven are killed in all

1993 – The 6.2 Mw Latur earthquake shakes Maharashtra, India with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe) killing 9,748 & injuring 30,000

1999 – The Tokaimura nuclear accident causes the deaths of 2 technicians, many others affected by radiation poisoning, in Japan’s second-worst nuclear accident

2009 – The 7.6 Mw Sumatra earthquake shakes central Sumatra with a maximum Mercalli intensity of VIII (Severe). 1,115 people dead, many injured & left homeless

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Last Address

~George Mason

Greetings Dear Sisters & Brothers on this auspicious Eve of the Full Harvest Moon, coupled with the ancient Jewish celebration of Sukkot, which brings the community together for a unique opportunity to experience an amazing blend of Honoring the Ancestors, Giving Thanks, & opening to receive prosperity’s blessings…Yes, the season of in-gathering is upon us once again…Sweet with the seal of At-One-ment…

In the New Christian Mysteries this is also the Eve of The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts. Referred to as Michaelmas, a season that really begins during the Perseid Meteor showers, is celebrated specifically on September 29th, & lasts until The Feast of All Hallows.

~hag

TODAY – 99 years ago – on 28 September 1924, Rudolf Steiner rose from his sick bed where he worked at the foot of his unfinished sculpture – the ‘Representative of Humanity’, to give what has been referred to as: THE LAST ADDRESS, GA 238, THE INDIVIDUALITY OF ELIAS, JOHN, RAPHAEL, NOVALIS. Rudolf Steiner died 6 months later on 30 March 1925.

On the eve of Michaelmas, Steiner gives a mysterious example of what is called ‘Spiritual Economy’ – which he had been revealing all thru 1923 in his ‘Karmic Relationships’ series – the idea that powerful individualities can share the results of their initiations which have developed their various bodies: physical, etheric, astral & I, with other worthy souls for the purpose of furthering human evolution.

In this last public lecture, he gives a truncated glimpse into the special relationship between John the Evangelist, who in earlier incarnations was Cain, Hiram Abiff, Christian Rosenkreutz, Count of St-Germain…& John the Baptist, who was the first man Adam, the Zealot Phinehas-grandson of Aaron & great-nephew of Moses, then the prophet Elijah, the painter Raphael, & the poet Novalis…

It is up to us now as part of the Centennial renewal to take up the threads.

Thru Steiner’s 5th Gospel we can understand that John the Baptist worked with all the apostles from the spiritual world after his beheading, becoming like the “overshadowing spirit of the disciples”

And in particular JB participated, along with other powerful individualities, in the first Christian initiation of a human being by Christ Jesus: the ‘Raising of Lazarus’ = An integration of the pure essence at the core of the ancient Mystery Schools with the New Christian Mysteries working simultaneously. And here we see this principle of ‘Spiritual Economy’ or as Marie Steiner called described it:  “incorporation secrets, the line of interception of individualities”. For while Lazarus was undergoing this new 4-day initiation, JB endowed Lazarus with his Consciousness Soul which he had achieved as Elijah, & the advanced level of his astral body as Spirit-Self. Bestowing on Lazarus the initiatory title John, which signifies the Air (Hebrew=Ruach) Initiation. Steiner describes the title John as “one who has awakened his higher self, who governs the occult forces of air”.

~Van Gogh

From the Last Address we hear: “At the rising of Lazarus, the spiritual being of John the Baptist, who since his death had been the overshadowing spirit of the disciples, penetrated from above into Lazarus as far as the Consciousness-Soul. The being of Lazarus himself, from below, intermingled with the spiritual being of John the Baptist from above. After the rising of Lazarus, this Being is Lazarus-John, the disciple whom the Lord loved. And he was then able to write the Gospel of John & the Book of Revelation”. ~Rudolf Steiner

This initiation of Lazarus-John, as a representative of future humanity, pre-figured on the micro-level the death & resurrection that Christ Jesus accomplished macrocosmically on Golgotha. Since this was such an important task, other powerful individualities not able to be mentioned at that time by Steiner in the Last Address, were involved:

The Being known as Zarathustra, who had incarnated as the Matthew Jesus, visited by his followers the 3 Magi, merging with the Nathan Soul of the Luke Jesus at age 12, who then left the body of Jesus of Nazareth at the Baptism by JB to allow the Christ to enter, worked now from the Moon Sphere, offering Lazarus his advanced etheric-body (Buddhi).

And it was Aristotle, who later became Rudolf Steiner, working with Michael from the Sun sphere at the Turning Point of Time, made his powers of Atman (Spirit-Man) available to Lazarus-John.

Christ himself bestowed the Higher “I”.

The Raising of Lazarus ~Juan De Flandes

Lazarus’ sister Mary Magdalene kept his physical body intact enough to rise from the grave (even though Martha his other sister said “by this time there is a bad odor…”) Mary worked thru the advanced power of her Sentient Soul to hold him grounded in the physical while he underwent the initiation.

Perhaps that is why some say ‘the Disciple who Jesus loved’ looked like a woman. Some say it was even Mary…

And so dear friends on this eve of Michaelmas thru the inspiration of Rudolf Steiner’s ‘Last Address’, as well as comments he made in connection to other incorporations, such as between Demetrius & Kaspar Hauser, which Steiner spoke about to Count Polzer-Hoditz a few weeks before he died, we can see that at the ‘Raising of Lazarus’ we are dealing with a new kind of Initiation where a human being stands before Christ, reaching from the earthly depths to the highest heavenly heights – Assisted thru the interception of spiritual organs of high initiates working from the Spiritual Worlds: John the Baptist, Zarathustra, Aristotle, & the Apostle of the Apostles Mary Magdalene.

May more threads of our evoultion continue to connect us in our seeking to be ‘Christ in me’.

~hag

28 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The full moon closest to the equinox, or Harvest Moon – rises just before sunset. It’s the last of 4 full supermoons in a row in 2023. Also, on September 28, look for the full super Harvest Moon to be about halfway between the 2 planets, very bright Jupiter and golden Saturn.

Humanity and divinity | thehumandivinedotorg
William Blake

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

551 BC – Birthday of Confucius, Chinese teacher, editor, politician, & philosopher of the Spring &Autumn period of Chinese history

1203 – Deathday of Alanus ab Insulis, Theologian, poet, teacher at Chartres. Alan’s philosophy was a sort of mixture of Aristotelian logic and Neoplatonic philosophy. The Platonist seemed to outweigh the Aristotelian in Alan, but he felt strongly that the divine is all intelligibility and argued this notion through much Aristotelian logic combined with Pythagorean mathematic

 “Do not hold as gold all that shines as gold”

In the Anticlaudianus he sums up as follows: Reason, guided by prudence, can unaided discover most of the truths of the physical order; for the apprehension of religious truths it must trust to faith. This rule is completed in his treatise, Ars catholicae fidei, as follows: Theology itself may be demonstrated by reason. Alainus even ventures an immediate application of this principle, & tries to prove geometrically the dogmas defined in the Creed

Rudolf Steiner speaks extensively about this powerful Platonic individuality in many place such as: Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume III, lecture VI – THE SCHOOL OF CHARTRES

Giovanni Segantini - Wikipedia

1899 – Deathday of Giovanni Segantini,an Italian painter known for his large pastoral landscapes of the Alps. He was one of the most famous artists in Europe in the late 19th century. In later life he combined a Divisionist painting style with Symbolist images of nature. He was active in Switzerland for most of his life.

TODAY in 1924 – Rudolf Steiner gave his ‘Last Address’ in Dornach GA 238  ‘The Individuality of Elias, John, Raphael, Novalis’ with the Michael Meditation:

Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael’s garment of rays
Ye are predestined by Thought Divine.

He, the Christ-messenger, revealeth in you —
Bearing mankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.
Ye, the radiant Beings of Aether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to Man.

Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To the thirstily waiting souls,
To whom your Word of Light shines forth
In cosmic age of Spirit-Man.

Ye, the disciples of Spirit-Knowledge,
Take Michael’s Wisdom beckoning,
Take the Word of Love of the Will of Worlds
Into your soul’s aspiring, a c t i v e l y !

1978 – Deathday of Pope John Paul I, born Albino Luciani, served as Pope until his sudden suspicious death 33 days later. His reign is among the shortest in papal history.

30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought

The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.

After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –

Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?

Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.

Kite-Song

For Ultra-Violet Archer on the eve of your furthering:

Soar like an epic melody
My beloved kite-song –
Eternal rays
Like the trailing hair of a comet
Flowing forth from your Sun-Self
To give Hope to the world.
Shine with Faith
As a flame shines from the up-right wick
Trimmed & oiled – Christ fueled
Sending darkness into a taming conversion
Your Cosmic Memory undulating
With senses pressed
Like scent into temple drapery,
A liquid seal ever forming from molten beeswax,
A labyrinth of flowers spicing the air,
The crunch of apple,
The slow cloudage of Autumn’s promise,
As the Seasons spin –
& you
Snug as an acorn in the cup-crown of your making
A sweet sip of light
Vibrating inner warmth
On your honeyed lips.
Your soul a red thread between spirits
Gold dust between stars
A silky sash – The endless vine –
My own heart’s root
Whispering/Shouting/Singing: Love is
Who you are.

~XOXmom

“…See the sun-drenched vine, with its juice spiritualized to etheric sunlight! It is a picture of the purification & fermentation process of the “I”. It shows you how drives can be transformed when they are purified thru life’s bitter crisis, flowering as the wisdom of age.

Your “I” bears the Queenly (Kingly) power within itself thru which you can transform all that is lower within you & raise it to the heights. Without these drives you would not be a full human being, but you must tame & refine them in the crucible of the royal power of the “I”.

Then they will bear for you the loveliest fruits which will ripen in the autumn of life to become saturated with the wisdom of the divine.

You extend your soul beyond itself when you compassionately share in all that is living in humanity. You open your Self to the world. For being human means: Building the Royal power of the “I” by sharing responsibility for all that is human!

Then the thought that: “I am a member of all humankind & I am co-responsible for all that happens” is no longer foreign to you. With such an attitude the human being’s whole way of thinking gradually changes…”  ~Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Higher Worlds

13 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars:” If you extend your Perseid watch to the beginning of dawn Sunday the 13th, the waning crescent Moon will cap the night by forming a triangle with Castor and Pollux low in the east-northeast. ~skytelescope

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler

LAMMASTIDE III – Assumption of the Virgin Mary (Tuesday)
To Waken Self With Memory
v19
Mysteriously to sheathe
the new conceived with memory
be now my striving’s further aim
that strengthening it shall awake
my inner power to become
my real self.

ADVENT I
The Newly Risen Self
v34
Mysteriously to feel
old treasure resurrecting in me
with newly risen sense of who I am
shall rouse a tide of cosmic forces
that pouring into my endeavour for the world
will in becoming print me into that which Is.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Study the past if you would define the future.”  ~Confucius

303 – St. Cassian of Imola, Patron Saint of Teachers, martyred during the reign of Julian the Apostate

1699 – Deathday of Marco d’Aviano, Capuchin monk. When he gave his blessing to a nun, bedridden for some 13 years, she was miraculously healed. The news spread far & wide, among those who sought his help was Leopold I, Holy Roman Emperor, whose wife had been unable to conceive a male heir. From 1680 to the end of his life, Marco d’Aviano became a close confidant & adviser to him. As the danger of war with the Ottoman Turks grew near, Marco d’Aviano played a crucial role in resolving disputes, restoring unity, & energizing the armies of the Holy League

1792 – King Louis XVI of France is formally arrested by the National Tribunal, & declared an enemy of the people

1818 – Birthday of Lucy Stone a prominent American orator, abolitionist, & suffragist, known for using her maiden name after marriage. In 1847, Stone became the first woman from Massachusetts to earn a college degree. She spoke out for women’s rights & against slavery at a time when women were discouraged & prevented from public speaking

1831 – Nat Turner witnesses a solar eclipse which caused the sky to appear a blue-green color, which he envisioned as a black man’s hand reaching over the sun. Eight days later he & 70 other slaves kill between 55-65 whites in Southampton County, Virginia

1860 – Birthday of Annie Oakley

1868 – A massive earthquake near Arica, Peru, causes an estimated 25,000 casualties, & the subsequent tsunami causes considerable damage as far away as Hawaii & New Zealand

1876 – The premiere of Der Ring des Nibelungen at the recently completed Bayreuth Festspielhaus

ALFRED HITCHCOCK -- Pictured: Alfred Hitchcock -- Photo by: NBCU Photo Bank **FOR EDITORIAL USE ONLY AND CANNOT BE ALTERED, ARCHIVED OR RESOLD. NO TABLOID USAGE WORLDWIDE. SPECIFIC CLEARANCE REQUIRED FOR COMMERCIAL OR PROMOTIONAL USE. CONTACT YOUR NBCU REPRESENTATIVE FOR FURTHER INFORMATION**

1899 – Birthday of Alfred Hitchcock

vladinir Solovyov

1900 – Deathday of Vladimir Soloviev, a Russian philosopher, theologian, poet, pamphleteer & literary critic. It is widely held that Solovyov was one of the sources for Dostoyevsky’s characters in The Brothers Karamazov. Solovyov’s influence can also be seen in the writings of the Symbolist & Neo-Idealist writers of the later Russian Soviet era. His book The Meaning of Love can be seen as one of the philosophical sources of Leo Tolstoy’s The Kreutzer Sonata. It was also the work in which he introduced the concept of ‘syzygy’, to denote ‘close union’. He influenced the religious philosophy of many including the ideas of Rudolf Steiner, (see War, Progress, and the End of History: Three Conversations, Including a Short Story of the Anti-Christ. Reprinted 1990 by Lindisfarne Books) Steiner speaks of Solovyov’s former incarnation as a visionary nun in the Middle Ages in his Karmic relationships Vol. 4 #8

1910 – Deathday of Florence Nightingale

Curative ed

1914 – The beginning of Rudolf Steiner’s Curative Education Course “For our Friends”

1926 – Birthday of Fidel Castro

1942 – Walt Disney’s fifth full-length animated film, Bambi, was released to theaters

1946 – Deathday of H. G. Wells

1961 – the Berlin Wall is erected

International Lefthanders Day

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire –

*To celebrate The 2nd Harvest = Lammas / Lughnasdh

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus (occult Mercury) /Sun Conjunction, Sirus Rising

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Lion Heart

My POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I come with the comet
A priestess in the thought-skin of the Lion
Spreading the roaring depth of myself out
Before gods & demons
To let them study me…& I Them…
My ripened body is a rolled papyrus
Tied with red string that holds no pretense
Glow worms hide in the folds of my scroll
I am washed & ready for the new turning
Flashing with the hygienic iron-dust of shooting stars
Reborn in the cradle of my blood
~hag

And so as the Perseid’s peak, Venus comes into conjunction in front of the Leo-Sun, rising with scintillating Sirus, I attempt an ongoing digestion from Seminar 4 of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP): Who Am I ? – The Search for Identity & Authenticity. The 3rd Septennial – age 14-21. Here is Part 1.

In our 1st session with Dr. James Dyson he referenced Rudolf Steiner’s “Bridge Lectures,” a lead-in to the meditative instructions for deepening the art of healing given later during the Christmas Conference in 1923; followed by 5 lectures given at Easter, 1924. This was a very special course for medical students & young physicians on the Humanizing of Medicine.

Motivated to understand the astral body I found this quote inspiring:

“…So far as knowledge of the astral body is concerned, you learn far more when you can apply the laws of music. From music you learn an enormous amount about the forming of the human organism, how this process of formation develops out of the astral body. Inasmuch as the human being is organized for movement, for activity, he is built up, in reality, like a musical scale. Here (back of the shoulders) begins the tonic; then it passes over into the second, then into the third in the lower arms, where there are two bones because there are two thirds. This brings you to truths quite different from those which are considered nowadays to pertain to a real knowledge of the human being and quite a different course of teaching would really be necessary for one who is approaching medicine in the true sense…”

~Rudolf Steiner, COURSE FOR YOUNG DOCTORS, The “Bridge” Lectures, GA 202, III. The Path to Freedom and Love and Their Significance in World Happenings, Dornach, 19th December, 1920

This meditative verse holds many insights:

“Schau, was kosmisch sich fügt:
Du empfindest Menschengestaltung.

Schau, was luftig dich bewegt:
Du erlebest Menschenbeseelung.

Schau, was irdisch sich wandelt:
Du erfassest Menschendurchgeistung.

Look what cosmically fits:
You feel human design.

Look what moves you in the air:
You experience human inspiration.

Look what is changing on earth:
You grasp human spirituality.

~Rudolf Steiner, COURSE FOR YOUNG DOCTORS, Easter Course, GA 316, Lecture II, Dornach, 22nd April, 1924

Tess George

SUN in LEO Brings COMPASSION & FREEDOM (Opposite: Hearltessness)

Today the Sun enters the sign of the Lion, reaching again the maximum of light & heat. Open your noble heart – vital & burning with passion & compassion, shining like gold upon the sea of ripening worlds. The wise king, the good father, the Savior. Our Day-Star shining the Kingdom come.

Balance & openness belong to our heart – Not to our cold & bright head, enclosed in the skull. Not even to our dark hot limbs, radiating from the body. They belong to the heart region—to the center—where the head opens down into the spine & the ribs curve into a protective embrace.

~El Greco

I have made it my intention in working with Mary Magdalene to bring the 12 virtues to bear as I meet the 7 demons, so that I may transform them as Christ’s Companion Mary did.

In contemplating this month’s virtue, I had the thought this morning to connect the heart point from the many 7’s – seen in the #4 position of the 7 (see the many correspondances here ) to clarify & strengthen this healing process.

For instance-

In the list of the 7 Demons or 7 ‘Deadly Sins’, #4 is: Lethal Jealousy – Envy / Goodwill

In the 7 Life Processes Sorting

Adult Learning Processes – Individualizing

7 Layers of Will – Motive

7 layers of Cognition – Discernment

7 Planets – Sun day

7 Chakras – Heart

Logic of the Heart – Witness & allow a complementary feeling to arise

7 stages of Christian Initiation – Crucifixion

7 Stages of Rosicrucian Initiation – Bringing Rhythm into Life

7 Apocalyptic Seals – The Tree of Knowledge & the Tree of Life

7 ‘I Am’ sayings of Christ – “I am the good shepherd” (John 10:11–15).

Yes, friends, Today feels like a day for introspection & connection. See you between the lines

~hag

11 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The radiant point of the Perseid shower gets fairly high in the northeast by 10 pm, so meteors become more frequent. The higher a shower’s radiant, the more meteors are seen all across the sky. ~Sky & Telescope

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar.

He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner. This is my inspiration.

3114 BC – The Mesoamerican Long Count calendar, used by several pre-Columbian Mesoamerican civilizations, notably the Mayans, begins

305 – Deathday of Saint Philomena, Steiner speaks of her as being a Greek priestess martyred at age 13 by Roman Emperor Diocletian.

559 – Birthday of Radegunde, Thuringian princess & Frankish queen, who founded the Abbey of the Holy Cross at Poitiers, named for holding the relic of the True Cross. Radegunde ate nothing but legumes & green vegetables, she was widely believed to have the gift of healing.

1253 –  Deathday of Saint Clare of Assisi, an Italian saint & one of the first followers of Saint Francis of Assisi

1464 – Deathday of Nicholas of Cusa, a German philosopher, theologian, jurist, & astronomer. One of the first German proponents of Renaissance humanism, he made spiritual & political contributions in European history. A notable example of this is his mystical or spiritual writings on “learned ignorance,” as well as his participation in power struggles between Rome & the German states of the Holy Roman Empire

1877 – The two moons of Mars were discovered by Asaph Hall, an American astronomer. He named them Phobos & Deimos

1896 – Harvey Hubbell received a patent for the electric light bulb socket with a pull-chain

1942 – Actress Hedy Lamarr & composer George Antheil receive a patent for a Frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system that later became the basis for modern technologies in wireless telephones & Wi-Fi

1956 – Deathday of Jackson Pollock

1965 – the Watts Race Riots begin in Los Angeles, California

1972 – Vietnam War: The last United States ground combat unit leaves South Vietnam

1984 –”My fellow Americans, I am pleased to tell you that I just signed legislation that would outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” -Said as a joke by senile President Ronald Reagan, while running for re-election, on his weekly Saturday address on National Public Radio.

2012 – At least 1306 people are killed & 3,000 others injured in a pair of earthquakes near Tabriz, Iran

Ultra-Violet Archer – winner of the first annual Sound Opinions Music Prize

https://omny.fm/shows/sound-opinions/2023-sound-opinions-music-prize-winners/embed#?secret=8EhH9hRhh3

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire –

*To celebrate The 2nd Harvest = Lammas / Lughnasdh

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus (occult Mercury) /Sun Conjunction, Sirus Rising

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Perseus

What can we acquire in our present age from ancient myth & legend? Every year we have the Perseid meteor shower to awaken us from our Summer slumber. Perseus is the oldest of the Greek heroes, 3 generations before Hercules, long before the Trojan War.

~Benvenuto Cellini’s bronze statue in Florence

The Perseus legend was a favorite subject in painting & sculpture – the earliest scenes from mythology appearing in art.

His tale in a nutshell: Acrisius, the king of Argos, had a beautiful daughter named Danae. The king was told by the Oracle of the Sun god Apollo that Danae’s son would take over his fertile land. To thwart the prophecy, Acrisius imprisoned his daughter in a bronze, underground chamber.

~The amorous adventures of Zeus. Danae Gubaidullin Raushan

But Zeus came to the entombed Danae in the form of a shower of golden light entering thru a crack in the roof of her chamber. And Perseus was the demigod offspring of this unusual union between Zeus, the King of the gods, taking advantage of the Sun god’s omen, to appear as a shower of golden light, & Danae, a human being from the fertile plain – Princess of the golden agricultural Argos of ancient Greece.

~Walter Crane

Perseus had a calling. Aided by Hermes & the Goddess Athena, he pressed the Graiae, the prophetic witch sisters of the Gorgons, into helping him by seizing the one eye & one tooth that the sisters shared between them – not returning it until they provided him with winged sandals (which enabled him to fly), the cap of Hades (which conferred invisibility), a curved adamant sickle-sword, to decapitate Medusa, & a bag in which to conceal her serpent head. Since the gaze of Medusa turned all who looked at her to stone, Perseus guided himself by the reflection in a shield given to him by the wise Athena. He beheaded Medusa, the only Gorgon who was mortal, when she was asleep. From the blood that spurted from her neck sprang Chrysaor & Pegasus, her two sons by Poseidon. He then returned to Seriphus, where his mothe Danae had taken refuge, to rescue her by turning the wicked ruler Polydectes & his supporters to stone at the sight of Medusa’s head.

A further deed attributed to Perseus was his rescue of the Ethiopian princess Andromeda when he was on his way home with Medusa’s head. Andromeda’s mother, Cassiopeia, had claimed to be more beautiful than the sea nymphs, so Poseidon punished Ethiopia by flooding & plaguing it with a sea monster. An oracle informed Andromeda’s father, King Cepheus, that the ills would cease if he exposed Andromeda to the monster, which he did. Perseus, passing by, saw the princess, & fell in love with her. He turned the sea monster to stone by showing it Medusa’s head, & went on to marry Andromeda.

Later Perseus gave the Gorgon’s head to Athena, who placed it on her shield. He gave his other accoutrements, including most notably the winged sandals, to Hermes. He then accompanied his mother back to her native Argos, where, as fate would have it, he accidentally struck her father, Acrisius dead when throwing the discus, thus fulfilling the prophecy that he would kill his grandfather.

The chief characters in the Perseus legend, Perseus, Cepheus, Cassiopeia, Andromeda, Pegasus, & the sea monster (Cetus), all figure in the night sky as constellations.

This is the peak weekend to receive, like Danae, the shooting stars which can turn wishes into the birthing of deeds. Perseus, a reflection of the mighty Archai Michael, must be reborn in us. We must cut off the head of the old way of thinking where the fates bind us, so we can consciously ‘Speak with the Stars’, thru the heart – in freedom – upholding Wisdom, with healing wings. Then we can reveal the underworld, & forge the golden light into an iron will for good.

~hag

10 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Perseid meteors have been streaking through Earth’s atmosphere since mid-July. But the moon is now waning, just in time for the shower’s peak on the mornings of August 11, 12 and 13. ~earthsky

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Ultra-Violet Archer – winner of the first annual Sound Opinions Music Prize

~Dali

Sunday 13 August 2023 – Prep-Stir – Potluck – Bonfire

*To celebrate The 2nd Harvest = Lammas

*The Perseid Meteor Showers, Venus/Sun Conjunction

*The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary

*And a bon voyage Blessing for Ultra-Violet Archer

7 – 9 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

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