Category Archives: Upcoming Events

Come unity

Biography, Community, Festival, History, Insight, Remembering, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

Today is follow up from my essay: Festival of Offering in which I shared my essential take away from the ‘Fire in the Temple’ gathering. Today I begin an overview of the many aspects of this life changing event:

Friends, I have been to a lot of ‘Anthroposophical conferences’ over the years, which have all been amazing in their own ways. From the beginning I knew the ‘Fire in the Temple’ Holy Nights gathering would be on a vastly different level. The conference team: Guy Alma, Dr. Raphael Knauf, Andreas Schuschke, Jacquelyn Bieringer & Mary Wildfeuer, worked it out so that everyone coming had a ride from the airport & a place to stay in the community! Andreas Schuschke a member of Camphill for 30 years, one of the key people carrying the conference, did the airport pickups & wouldn’t take any $ for gas. When I arrived at Whitestone house I was greeted by the house holder, Carsten Callesen, who is on many governing committees at Beaver Run, as well as Medical director. And in my room there was a little welcome package full of treats!

I could feel the whole village holding us. This Camphill community brings in the heart & essence of community – generous hospitality, & true service – it highlights the spiritual aspects of our Movement.

The gathering began with an option to attend ‘The Consecration of the Human Being’ with the Christian Community Priest from Devon, Penn. Rev. Jong Won Choi in the amazing Rainbow Hall.

This was followed by a glorious communal lunch (every snack & meal was bountiful – I cannot stress enough how important good food is to foster community, with time to stretch out & be social. This caring gesture creates a mood of love that nourishes & helps us digest the content on every level & cannot be received in any other way!)

Guy Alma, Director of Development, welcomed us with warmth & humor. In keeping with the theme of building up & living into the 1st Goetheanum as an etheric being, we were invited to participate in a variety of artistic offerings:

*Modeling & formwork of the Architraves of the small Cupola with Rudiger Janisch & Herb Walsh.

*Working with the Planetary Seals, drawing & conversation with Peggy Hirt

*Torn shapes/form drawing of the Red Window with Becky Rutherford

*Acrylic painting on large canvas of the initiates in the small cupola with Guy Alma

*The forms of the Goetheanum in Eurythmy with Gillian Shoemaker, who I adore having worked with her thru the AAP training.

We were also invited to sign up for 2 intimate Discussion Groups. One working with the ‘Reflections of the Night’, & the other, a ‘Conversation Group’ ‘ grappling with these evocative questions:

*What phenomena form the wood of the World Cross?
*Who has erected the Cross?
*Who is crucified there?
*When will the Roses grow from the Cross?
*What forces lie behind the Roses growth?
*How can we work as individuals, together, to bring these healing forces to life?

Rudiger Janisch laid out his many artistic renderings of the 1st Goetheanum to help us build it up in our imagination & then step in to ‘Find our seats’. I have experienced this presentation 3 times now, 1st when I brought Rudiger out to our Chicago Branch, then at the last AAP session. And each time a new layer is added. He points out that we have all experienced the etheric Goetheanum as we made our way out of the spiritual world into our present incarnation.

~hag

It’s interesting to contemplate that even though Rudolf Steiner said in 1914: ‘Not one thing of this building will remain…’ he still went forward with the work anyway!

The soul forces that went into the artistic manifestation of this Temple of the New Mysteries remains – these forces cannot be destroyed.

Yes, it’s true that the beautiful physical material became a burnt offering – but the selfless will forces that went in to co-create it remain – inscribed in the ethers – waiting for us to enter into – to take up – thru a cognitive ritual that employs our intentional, conscious, individual & collective soul forces.

This striving will transform our not only our Thinking, Feeling & willing but every one of our subtle bodies.

Will we reclaim the spiritual essence of this offering, & work to overcome what is written: The ‘Envy of human beings’?

We see an important parallel with the burning of the Temple of Artemis in Ephesus, releasing the mysteries of The Word into the ethers in order to point up the ‘Envy of the lower gods‘ & to inaugurate a new age in human consciousness –

Francesco Hayez

We can think how Aristotle was able to read this sacred inscription in the starry script, bringing it down into his ‘Categories’. I have often spoken about this using quotes from Steiner’s Easter lecture of 1924.

At this Centennial milestone we are being called to rise up in ‘Cosmic Communion’ – to enter this modern Temple of the Word & bring down these will forces – a selfless will – inspired by Spirit.

The 2nd Goetheanum is like the shield of Michael, a protective shell over the etheric being of the Johannes Bau – A complete metamorphosis of the House of the Word – a tuning inside out, just as the Foundation Stone that was laid in the ground containing the Macrocosmic Lord’s Prayer needs to be transformed into the Our Father. The physical double dodecahedron was further spiritualized into the ‘Foundation Stone of Love’ laid in our hearts at the Christmas Conference Refounding thru Rudolf Steiner, which we must work toward in this Centennial Year..

To cap the day Jacquelyn Bieringer brought in ‘The Heavenly Sophia, The Virgin Mary Sophia, and Anthroposophia’ – Reminding us that this Being must be cultivated in the space between each of us in community. Setting the stage & giving focus to what is behind our movement: “I must be Mary & give birth to Christ within” ~Sileus

Such a great way to begin & make our way to the ‘Fire in the Temple’.

~hag

14 January 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share

Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid,

The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing

Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’

‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools

Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922

Contact Willow for more info.

Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’

A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch

Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT

In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA

All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will

Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!

Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.

Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site

*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch  hazel@reverseritual.com

‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum

Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom.  A joyful experience awaits young and old!

Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum

~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer 

Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube

Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words.  https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher

Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

13

Community, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events

Friday the 13th

What is at the root of “triskadekaphobia” (the fear of the number 13)?

Well it could be because all numbers have their own cosmic vibration, & “13” is considered an unstable number. From the time when humans first used numbers to measure things, the number 12 has represented a common cosmic standard. There are 12 months of the year, 12 hours on the clock, 12 signs of the Zodiac, 12 Tribes of Israel, 12 Apostles, 12 Knights of the Round Table & so on. The number 13 represents disruption or a profound metamorphosis to the established order.

The modern basis for the aura that surrounds Friday the 13th stems from Friday October the 13th, 1307. On this date, the Pope of the church in Rome, in Conjunction with the King of France, carried out a secret death warrant against “the Knights Templar”. The Templars were terminated as heretics, never again to hold the power & riches that they had stewarded for so long. Their Grand Master, Jacques DeMolay, was arrested & tortured on that Friday the 13th.

But In pre-Christian societies, reliance on a lunar calendar meant that Friday the 13th would coincide with the Full or New Moon. And Friday is the day to honor the goddesses & planet Venus.

Friday the 13th symbolized a day for everyone to let go, celebrate & sacrifice routine. Such breaks in the usual order allowed for the restoration of balance & harmony.

The Scandinavian belief that the number 13 signified bad luck sprang from their mythological 12 demigods, who were joined by a 13th demigod, Loki, a cruel trickster who brought upon humans great misfortune. 

We can see the 12 apostles as represenatives of the 12 signs of the zodiac, with The Christ as the 13th – the Cosmic Being of love radiating out to them as the Sun.

And that gets shifted at the Last Supper, when Judas becomes the traitor.

In Imitatio Christi, we see this circle of 13 again in the initiation of Christian Rosenkreutz.

Whether or not a person considers Friday the 13th as unlucky, the psychology of human nature tells us that belief in superstitions can seem to offer a sense of control in stressful situations.

Let’s remember dear friends – Today’s beliefs may very well be tomorrows superstitions. How can think for ourselves? If we look we can always find the Good.

Take a cue from our forebears. They saw the number 13 as a lucky omen, a time to make a fresh beginning, seeking new roads to success & satisfaction, as we open our heart & mind to new opportunities, luck & love!But just for fun, don’t step on a crack! 😉

~hag

Friday the 13th of January 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus shines in twilight this week low in the southwest. Saturn is moving more rapidly down toward it.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

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

Image: 0051465001, License: Rights managed, Restrictions: Image available for use in the Corbis Education Offering., Jacques de Molay, last Grand Master of the Knights Templar, was ordered burned at the stake by King Philip IV of France. Illustration from the end of the 19th century., Place: Paris, France, Model Release: No or not aplicable, Credit line: Profimedia.com, Corbis

1314 – 54 Templars tortured & eventally burnt at the stake in Paris.

“…With a mysticism such as was unfolded by the Knights Templar, something spiritual is added to the spiritual “effects” of the world. And in asmuch as this took place, humanity was actually brought a stage further in its evolution. Through this experience of the Templars, the Mystery of Golgotha was understood, and also experienced, at a higher stage than before. Something was now present in the world, in regard to this Mystery of Golgotha, which was formerly not there…

Fifty-four Templars were burned at the stake in 1314. Fifty-four souls went up into the spiritual worlds. And from that time on, supersensibly and invisibly, without its being outwardly perceptible to the facts of history, there began in European humanity a spiritual development that owed its origin to the fact that individual souls were continually being inspired from the spiritual world with what these fifty-four souls carried through the gate of death into the spiritual world…” ~Rudolf Steiner The Templars, Dornach, 2nd October 1916, GA 171

1846 – Mexican–American War: The United States declares war on Mexico.

1880 – In Menlo Park, New Jersey, Thomas Edison performs the first test of his electric railway.

1917 – Feast Day of Our Lady of Fatima. Three children report the first apparition in Fátima, Portugal.

Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share

Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid,

The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing

Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’

‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools

Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922

Contact Willow for more info.

Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’

A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch

Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT

In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA

All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will

Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!

Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.

Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site

*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch  hazel@reverseritual.com

‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum

Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom.  A joyful experience awaits young and old!

Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum

~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer 

Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube

Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words.  https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher

Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Etheric Patterns

Biography, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events
August 2019 Astrology And The Invincible Sun | Mystic Medusa Astrology
Baxter Lennon

Dearly Beloved – A friend wanting to reach out to me today on my 1/2 Birthday sent her well wishes along with something I wrote 2 years ago. And when I read it, I was amazed that it speaks about ‘after images’, which is what I wrote about a few days ago in my last essay ‘Festival of Offering’.

How interesting that this theme is showing itself as a pattern in my biography. But isn’t that the way the etheric realm works – Thru patterns & rhythms..?

And then it makes even more sense to know that:

TODAY in 1910 – Rudolf Steiner gives the 1st lecture ever on the Etheric Reappearance of The Christ, to members in Stockholm Sweden. At the same time as the “introduction” of Krishnamurti was happening in Adyar India.

The lecture is called: ‘True Nature of the Second Coming – Preparation for this Event through the Development of Etheric Vision‘ ~RS http://wn.rsarchive.org/…/English/APC1961/19100125p02.html (the archives have the version of the lecture that he gave later on 25 July 1910, Stuttgart)

Then on January 25th 19213 Rudolf Steiner begins the series ‘The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric’ for the members in Dornach http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lect…/ReapChrist/ReaChr_index.html

A modified version of my post ‘Reappearance’ from 12 Feb. 2021:

I am holding in my consciousness that we are in the season of Epiphany, which is often defined as a revelation, I can’t help picturing it as cartoon image of the lightbulb over the head -indicating a sudden, intuitive insight – where it all makes sense.

An Epiphany is often related to the appearance or manifestation of a spiritual being or phenomenon  – But I don’t think a true Epiphany happens by chance, or comes as some fliting flash that quickly fades away.

I think of the example in the book of Matthew – how the Magi prepared, perhaps for lifetimes before they made it to Epiphany.  

And in the 5th Gospel we read how Jesus of Nazareth was prepared 1st thru 42 generations, & then for 30 years, before he received the Christ in the Baptism by John in the Jordan. 

And we have to work thru all of the 13 Holy Nights to reach the Epiphany, which is not just a day, but a season, which takes us into the 1st stirrings of Spring.

Thru all that is happening to darken or distract us in the world, I have been trying to live into this, working to see thru a glass darkly – looking – always searching – for the ‘Star of Grace’ which can reveal the revelation – The Star heralds the appearance.

Umbra Perchiazzi

And this ‘appearance’, this ‘manifestation’, didn’t just stop with the physical incarnation of Christ Jesus, it advances further as the appearance or advent of the Angel of Christ in the etheric world. And it just so happens that 113 years ago today, Rudolf Steiner gives the 1st lecture ever on the Etheric Reappearance of The Christ.

Sometimes when I contemplate this amazing mystery, it comes to me in the picture of an assembly – a convocation, a summit of Spiritual Beings, kind of like what is described in the Gospel of Luke 2:9: “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them..”  

But mostly I see it as an intimate meeting. Or even like blind date, where we are introduced thru a mutual friend – thru our connection to Anthroposophia, which gives us the wisdom to see with new eyes. We receive from this part of ourselves the invite – the entre’ to the cosmic party.

It’s an open invitation, but it takes more than just spinning around 3 times to remove the blindfold –  to lift the veil that separates us from meeting this reality.

Leo Klein

The Christ, in his rhythmical Presence, presses forward into the etheric realm, into the realm of formative forces which envelop the earth, to fortify & maintain all life.

And Steiner says “Humanity on its natural path of development must touch consciously into the etheric realm with our soul forces” – 

So that gets me asking, Ok, how do we do our part on this natural path, to develop those soul forces of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, in this new way?

How do we employ Imagination, Inspiration & Intuition without the expectation that we need to experience some sort of phenomenon, but by upholding the utmost faith & patience that we will achieve some beginning glimmering when our karma allows – an awakening of our etheric eyes, a new supersensible sensing, where we can experience the life-body…

David Taulbee Anderson

Steiner says “We think we see with our eyes, but we don’t literally see with these outer organs. They are a fairly dead body in us. We see by means of these organs, only through etheric activity.”

Seeing Eye to Eye—Colorblindness and Out of the Box Spotfire Tools - BPI - The destination for everything process related

He explains that we perceive colors as the result of etheric activity. 

If we look at green & afterwards at a white sheet of paper, we see it’s reversal as red. (hmm the Christmas colors, go ahead give it a try) This seeing is due to the continuation of the etheric activity of the eye, which answers to the impressions of colors. We see a balance. We never see an actual color as it is, but always a balance.

We produce complementary colors thru the etheric activity of our eye; & what we see – the final physical effect, is a balance, even if we are not consciously aware of it. (Think 3D Glasses!)

But when we do make it our intention to be conscious, we became co-creators of this new etheric sight.

For more practical exercises in seeing into the etheric, I recommend working with Baruch Urieli’s amazing book: Learning to Experience The Etheric World – with the very interesting sub-title: Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic.

Rudolf Steiner suggests in his lectures ‘From Jesus to Christ’, (Which is a journey we can take during the Holy Nights) that it is our own etheric activity which lightens up that sphere in which the Etheric Christ is present.

And I have also come to ‘see’ that thru our own activity in connection with The Sophia as a Being of Wisdom, we can shed some Light on the Being of Love – who is waiting in the realm of the formative forces for us to perceive & interact with.

It is an activity, which in its clarity & beauty, can be strengthened not only thru the specific spiritual disciplines of the Spiritual Science: The 6 Basic exercises, & the meditative path – but thru moral development, which brings the complmentary balance, a true wholeness.

For me right now Faith, Love & Hope are helping to give a flow to my moral progress.

When we take hold of the reins of our soul forces & steer them where our higher “I” wants to go, it improves the etheric light – which we can pour from our heart down into the limbs & then back up to our head – & then out thru our eyes, into the etheric world to light up the Christ!

And so now coming around again to this ½ b-day revelation, I am grateful for the synchronicity & the reminder that this is our work…  

~hag

Reappearance on The “I Think Speech Podcast

Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share

Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid,

The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing

Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’

‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools

Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922

Contact Willow for more info.

Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’

A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch

Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT

In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA

All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will

Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!

Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.

Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site

*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch  hazel@reverseritual.com

‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum

Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom.  A joyful experience awaits young and old!

Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum

~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer 

Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube

Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words.  https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher

Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Festival of Offering

Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Community, Festival, History, Upcoming Events

Greetings & Happy New Year Dear Friends – While I was at the ‘Fire in the Temple’ Holy Nights Gathering, my soul was filled with life changing spiritual treasures which I have been eager to spill from the fullness of my loving cup. But somehow I couldn’t find the words that would begin to convey this powerful social & deeply evocative experience.

Camphill Beaver Run in Pennsylvania, is in the same neck of the woods where I travel for my AAP trainings at Camphill Kimberton – located in what some folks call the ‘Keystone’ or ‘Quaker’ State outside the City of Brotherly Love, where the Appalachian Mountains run thru the center, with the Allegheny & Pocono mountains rolling thru the Camphill communities rich with Biodynamic agriculture & the selfless impulse of service initiated by Dr. Karl Konig.

I always travel a day before the convergence commences – It gives me a chance to commune with the Spirit of Place & get a lay of the land. The weather was super mild & sunny, so I hiked around, drawn to a flowing brook where I strongly felt the aura of the indigenous Lenape of the Algonquin Tribe, whose name means “the real people”.

Later in conversation at the Whitestone house where I was staying, I had a long conversation with a co-worker & teacher at the Karl Konig School. I learned that when Dr. Konig went on a lecture tour to Silesia he met & married Tilla Maasberg, who was a Moravian. It was thru her that Konig was brought into a deep connection with the social & religious impulses of the “Herrnhut” brotherhood which was dear to Tilla.

The village of Herrnhut “The Lord’s Watch,” came about thru a little band of Moravian fugitives asking if they might take asylum on the land of Count Ludwig von Zinzendorf, who agreed to shelter them on his estate.

Count Zinzendorf was dismayed at the division between denominations & longed to unite the different factions in a spiritual peace. He was the first to speak of “Ecumenism.”

Herrnhut become a gathering place for many religious exiles. Folks spoke different languages – customs & creeds varied. Lutherans, Schwenkfelders, Separatists, Reformed & Brethren, lived side by side. As we might well imagine, squabbles developed. But then the community began a Bible study, holding all-night prayer vigils where they could confess & confront their sins in good will with one another, to work thru their karma. The community established “bands” – groups of 2 or more who would commune together encouraging each other spiritually.

The Holy Spirit moved thru their hearts, & the differences dissolved. Folks embraced one another in forgiveness & a spirit of love. Christ became central to their thinking.

They established a 24 hour around-the-clock prayer vigil which lasted one hundred years!

The Herrnhut Brotherhood was a busy & industrious community fostering arts & crafts & team work: spinning, weaving, carpentry, pottery, & farming…

Herrnhut became a remarkable experiment in what a Christian community could be, as well as a major catalyst for social reform. Dr. Konig brought some of this impulse into his anthroposophical Camphill intiative.

I knew Karl Konig had been in an internment camp with several other Anthroposophists, where he worked on his drawings for the Calendar of the Soul, but I had not known about this piece of history. It was fascinating to learn that he was introduced to this stream. I am always amazed how our biographies bring us into contact with various people & influences that go on to form the destiny of our lives.

I carried this enlightening conversation deeply into my thinking, & found this powerful impulse living thru my experience of the “Festival of Offering” which we were invited to participate in twice during the gathering.

This service is held every week at Beaver Run in the magnificent Rainbow Hall – a mini Goetheanum with a vaulted stage dome that has colored windows, which they open for color therapy sessions twice a week.

For the Festival of Offering the stage is set all in red – red curtains in the background, a red altar with a sharply peaked triangular top & 2 thrones with the same shape. In the center in a thick blue frame is ‘The Study of Christ for the last supper’, by Leonardo da Vinci.

Below that are 7 white candles in black holders, taller on the ends, tapering down to the middle. 3 lay people dressed all in black carry the service, which is a sublime evocation that includes prayers & a seasonal Gospel inspired reading. At the end these co-worker officiants come thru the congregation & touch our third eye in a call & response benediction.

This service is full of profound reverence which speaks to the heart of every “I”. What I found most compelling was the magic moments when after looking upon the scene of the red altar, one closes the eyes – & the striking after image pulses in – the red altar becomes pure etheric green – the image of Christ shimmers from blue to purple to red – the center transforms into a Sun filled yellow. The black candle sticks & the 3 servers in black, glow white & yellow with red aura outlines – it’s incredible – awe inspiring – exhilarating!

A veritable training for our etheric vison! I am still holding these images which are forever etched in my mind’s eye, purifying & imprinting these Christened etheric vibrations into all my sheaths.  

Of all the potent content, the loving hospitality, the living example of a healthy co-working community, the deep conversations & connections, of which I will attempt to share over the next days – This Festival of Offering touches me like a flash of revelation that has beckoned me across the Threshold into an active vison of the etheric Christ…

I pray I can continue to carry this revelation into the practical envisioning of the etheric Goetheanum, as we head toward the Centennial renewal of Anthroposophy – the opening of the tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz – giving us the opportunity to read & speak the ‘Temple of the Word’ that was imprinted into the starry script when the ‘Johannes Bau’ became a burnt offering – a sacrifice like the 2nd crucifixion which was an offering that makes possible the opening of our etheric sight. May we all see 2023 as The Year of WE!

~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
Here are the Christmas and New Year verses that I’m sorry I didn’t send Hazel in time for her Christmas Eve post. I hope you’ve all had enlightened Holy Nights, and now at Epiphany may the fiery force of the Cosmic Word arise in you from the heart’s love world, the first of just 3 mentions of love in the Soul Calendar.

CHRISTMAS
The Spirit Child
v38
I feel the Spirit Child set free
from spell in womb of soul;
in heart’s bright radiance
from seed of holy Cosmic Word
the heaven’s fruit of hope
is growing into farthest worlds
rejoicing from my being’s ground of God.

NEW YEAR
The Chalice of the Sense of Self
v39
Devoted to the spirit’s revelation
I win the light of Cosmic Being;
thought’s clarifying power grows
to give me who I am
and waking in me
from thinking’s power Selfhood’s feeling flows.

EPIPHANY
Love’s Offering
v40
And when I am in spirit’s depths
then in my ground of soul
the heart-formed love world fills
my self-bound vain delusions
with power of the World Word’s fire.

The mirror verse:
SAINT JOHNSTIDE II
The Spirit Bond
v13
And when I am in senses’ heights
the gods’ true Word from spirit fire-worlds
is flaming in my depths of soul:
“Foreseeing, seek your vision, find your star,
divine in spirit ground
the spirit bond with who you are”.

Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share

Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid,

The Year of the Water Rabbit –

Tu B’Shvat –

Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’

‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools

Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922

Contact Willow for more info.

Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’

A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch

Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT

In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA

All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will

Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!

Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.

Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site

*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch  hazel@reverseritual.com

‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum

Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom.  A joyful experience awaits young and old!

Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum

~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer 

Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube

Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words.  https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher

Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.

Sun Stands Still

Biography, Celestial Event, Community, Festival, History, Poetry, Upcoming Events, Winter

Welcome Friends on this Winter Solstice 2022 –

Entering into the Longest Night
Entering into the Birth of Light
Consecrating the prophetic Nativity
Of a new Solar year
In Yule-Tide Exultation
In the light of Transformation…

The battle between old & new – Dark & Light…

The Winter Solstice is the dark before the dawn, a time of renewal, giving us the most primordial myths of humankind: In Old Norse mythology, the Sun goddess was swallowed up by the wolf of darkness, but was reborn as her daughter, the maiden goddess of the underworld, who rose again to illumine the world.

In Greece & Rome, midwinter marked the birth of Sun gods, such as Mithras & Dionysus, who died & journeyed into the underworld, winning gifts for humankind before their miraculous rebirth.

Dahlia Khodur

In the Hellenistic world, initiates into the Mysteries of Isis had to undergo a ceremony of death & rebirth in which they entered the underworld to gaze upon the “Sun at Midnight.” This ceremony, which had its origins in ancient Egypt, speaks of the journey of the soul into the fecund depths of the subconscious mind, where we meet the Guardian at the Threshold, which opens to the dark sea of spirit from which all creation comes forth, purified & born anew.

To this day people gather at sacred sites as far apart as Newgrange in Ireland & the temple of Karnak in Egypt, to celebrate the miracle of the Sun’s return at the darkest time of the year – In the pitch-black sanctuaries of caves & earth chambers, to wait for the birth of new light & life.

All ways we must honor the dark before calling in the light.

The esoteric meaning of this time of year can be gleaned from the ancient mystery schools & its essence applied consciously now.

Let each of us journey down into the cave of the soul to drink from the secret well of wisdom & find the hidden flame within the dark – then return bearing our own unique gift of Light for the world.

The hag has gone to seed – & become bone…a fresh soul-frame for the new year. Let us stand in uprightness at the door & dare to open the portal to face the abyss – To release ourselves from the outer world for a sacred moment, that we may invoke our own immaculate conception – That we may surrender to the ‘waking dreaming’ – To celebrate the dark, where the inner life is honored & nurtured by the many Marys within…

The power of Peace – The Birth of Love – The Light of Wisdom

… ‘The wine dark sea’…
… The active dark womb…
… The dark space between the stars…

Let the Power of Faith lead us from the darkness into the birth of our own unique inner light…

The Darkness is coming…
But never fear…
The darkness is coming…
But the light is near…
The darkness is coming…
The darkness is here…

Engel Kunst


The gift of the light (Gesture: Both hands scoop up light & bring it to your heart)
We thankfully take, But nothing may be, Just alone for our sake.
The more we give light (Hands move outward) The one to the other
It shines & spreads life (Arms move out horizontally, spreading light)
Growing still further,
Till every spark is set aflame. (Right hand in front of chest shows the proof of a flame.)
Till every heart, Joy shall proclaim. (Eurythmy Ah — arms up, palms upward)

~hag

21 December 2022 “Speaking with the Stars”: The winter solstice occurs at 3:48 pm CST today.

Mercury reaches greatest elongation east of the Sun (20°) at 9 am CST this morning. The solar system’s smallest planet is visible in the evening twilight.

Nearby, blazingly bright Venus is to Mercury’s west (lower right). Although Venus is closer to the horizon, it’s so bright that it will remain easy to spot until it sets about an hour after the Sun. In just a few days, a delicate crescent Moon will join this pair in the Christmas Eve sky.

Finally, Mars passes north of the bright red giant Aldebaran in Taurus at 10 pm CST tonight.

Sunrise: 7:19 A.M.
Sunset: 4:38 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:22 A.M.
Moonset: 2:55 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (4%)

Resurrection of the Temple (The first Goetheanum) by Rita de Cassia Perez, Adriana’s mother

TONIGHT: The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’ Presented by Adriana Koulias*

A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.

21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET

Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone

Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago

Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)

Please type ‘Adriana’ to designate your payment

For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal.

Please bring food & drink to share.

For more Info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618(map) https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar www.rschicago.org/donate

You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Adriana Koulias

Time: Dec 21, 2022, 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89586637726

Meeting ID: 895 8663 7726

One tap mobile

+13092053325,,89586637726# US

+13126266799,,89586637726# US (Chicago)

Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbtvb8sTRI

 Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.

This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social.  Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.

During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.

In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.

For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’

Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing.  She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.