Category Archives: Upcoming Events

Threads Remain

August 24, 2023History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Stars, Upcoming Events~hag

~John Craig

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Some things always remain
True – Life
From death into life into
Boundlessness & restraint
Intuition & magic
Nature & nurture, the inner Earth & Sky…
The Sun rolls onward
The doors of heaven are open
Light returns to light
The great knowing descends – genius to genesis…
Will you meet me?
~hag

Today 24 August in 1912 was the 1^st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 3^rd Mystery Drama: “The Guardian of the Threshold”

The Mystery Dramas strike a deep chord within, bringing notes of destiny Wisdom to sound within our individual life circumstances. They contain extremely concentrated karmic wisdom. A clue to the reason why, appears in the following writings of Rudolf Steiner about his Mystery Dramas:

‘And actually, one must understand that if some trouble were to be taken to read the things that lie within this drama—not reading between the lines, but if one were to take the trouble to read what lies in the words themselves spiritually—if one were to take the trouble to grasp the Rosicrucian Mystery in just such a way, seeking for these things in the next few years, then it would not be necessary for me to give so many lectures about this or that in the time to come.’

In relation to the Mystery Dramas, Hans Pusch, who worked deeply with them, states:

‘It is a clear sign of genuine relationship to Anthroposophy, if the forces of destiny become more and more active, even though they may be disturbing and uncomfortable. The spirit of our time is an awakener, a conscious troublemaker, and a dis-illusioner. Anyone who feels inner turmoil as a necessary tribute to the forces of progress will be prepared to enjoy the seemingly long speeches in the dramas. In their composition, he will sense inner laws and rhythms that will bring order to his own soul. The dramatic events in the spirit scenes become as real as any physical happenings.’

Our trials help us to understand & have compassion for one another. As Hans says, sometimes it is indeed a daily, almost hourly inner battle with our self to say ‘Yes’ to what destiny throws in our path.

As the scenes of the Mystery Dramas unfold, we become aware of the various interactions between individuals in the course of time.

In the lecture series ‘The Secrets of the Threshold’ Steiner speaks often of the Mystery Dramas. They give us an objective overview, ‘of knots from threads that karma spun in world becoming’ in the words of Benedictus. (in the Temple Scene of the first Mystery Drama.) In these threads, human lives are interwoven.

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In the Temple Scenes of the Mystery Dramas, we experience the manifestation of karmic configurations & their progression in the spiritual development of individuals.

Within our present incarnation, there are deeds to perform to help rectify misdeeds, before we cross the threshold into the life between death & rebirth. We all have knots to loosen & unbind in our individual destiny. By recognizing the characters & situations in the plays, which are similar to our own life, unexpected karmic understandings may be glimpsed.

Full publicity shot of Reginald Owen as Ebenezer Scrooge, seated ...

We can think about the story of Ebenezer Scrooge, well known in Charles Dicken’s story, ‘A Christmas Carol’. Was it destiny that Scrooge was confronted by the ‘Ghost of Christmas Past’? How was his individual retrospect similar from those in the Mystery Dramas?

Dickens’ story is a Michaelic-kamaloca experience. Seeing the pain of the people he was hurting, Scrooge felt the need to make amends for his miserly misdeeds, thereby changing his future destiny & that of others, as well. This striving for atonement is to be developed at every turn on the wheel of the year. May we take stock of what we have reaped & sown as we move toward the harvest season.

In daily life, our trials along the path appear less objective to see & not so beautifully expressed as the poetry we find in The Mystery Dramas. It is, however, the suffering in destiny situations, which leads to soul-growth. Our present state of mind may hold clues to understanding past misdeeds. Likewise does heightened consciousness assist in planting seeds of service for the future of mankind.

~hag

from Hans Pusch – ‘Working together on Rudolf Steiner’s Mystery dramas

“The Guardian of the Threshold – Scene 10 – The Temple of the Mystic League. Here Benedictus, Torquatus, and Trustworthy have the robes and insignia of their office of Hierophant as described in the ‘Portal of Initiation.’ The Eastern altar supports a golden sphere; a blue sphere rests upon the Southern altar; while the sphere upon the altar of the West is red. As the scene opens Benedictus and Hilary are standing at the altar in the East; Bellicosus and Torquatus at the altar in the South; Trustworthy at the altar in the West; then enter Thomasius, Capesius, Strader then Maria, Felix Balde, and Dame Balde, and later on the Soul of Theodora; and last of all the four Soul-Forces. (East is stage right & West stage left.)

Benedictus:
The souls of all my pupils have received
The spirit-light, each in that special form
Which was appointed for him by his fate.
What they have now achieved each for himself
Each now must render fruitful for the other.
But this can only happen, if their powers
According unto number’s rhythmic law
Desire to join within the holy place
To form the higher unity, which first
Can waken to true life what otherwise
Could only stay in solitary state.
They stand upon the threshold of the shrine,
Whose souls must first unite, and then shall sound
In unison according to the rules
Imprinted in the cosmic book of fate:
That harmony of spirits may achieve
What each alone could never bring to pass.
‘Twill bring fresh inspiration to the old
Which here hath nobly reigned since Time was not.
To you, ye brethren, I these pupils bring
Who found their way here through the spirit-worlds
And through the strictest proving of their souls.
The holy customs will they treat with awe,
And treasure ancient sacred mystic ways
Which here are seen as powers of spirit-light.
Ye too, who have fulfilled in truest wise
Your lofty spirit-service for so long,
Henceforth will be entrusted with new tasks.
The cosmic plan loth call the sons of men
But for a time unto the sacred shrine,
And when in service they exhaust their strength
It guideth them to other fields of work.
Even this temple had to stand its trial;
And one man’s error had to guard it once,
The guardian of the light — from darkness deep,
One cosmic hour big with the fate of worlds.
Thomasius perceived through inward light
Which rules unconscious in the souls of men,
That o’er its threshold he must not pursue
His way unto the holy mystic shrine
Ere he had crossed that other threshold o’er,
Of which this only is the outward sign.
So of himself he shut the door again
Which you would fain have opened wide in love.
He now will as another come again
Worthy of your initiation’s gift.“

24 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: the 1st quarter Moon will pass in front of Antares (Alpha Scorpii), creating a lunar occultation visible from the Contiguous United States, Mexico and Canada.. The reddish star will disappear behind the dark limb (edge) of the Bella Lina & reemerge under her lit half.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

01A6AFEQ; Herculaneum is destroyed by the eruption of Vesuvius — F Matania

79 – Mount Vesuvius erupts. The cities of Pompeii, Herculaneum,& Stabiae are buried in volcanic ash

410 –Sack of Rome by The Visigoths

1185 – Sack of Thessalonica by the Normans.

1349 – Six thousand Jews are killed in Mainz after being blamed for the bubonic plague.

1391 – Jews are massacred in Palma de Mallorca

Amazon.com: Gutenberg Bible Na Page Of Johann GutenbergS 42-Line ...

1456 – The printing of the Gutenberg Bible is completed

1814 – British troops invade Washington, D.C. burning down the White House, the Capitol & many other buildings

1816 – The Treaty of St. Louis is signed by the Council of Three Fires (united tribes of Ottawa, Ojibwa, & Potawatomi) residing on the Illinois and Milwaukee rivers. By signing the treaty, they relinquished all right, claim, & title to their land, also a 20-mile strip that connected Chicago & Lake Michigan with the Illinois River. In exchange the tribes were to be paid $1,000 in merchandise over 12 years. Today, Indian Boundary Park in West Ridge, Chicago commemorates this Treaty.

File:The War of Wealth by C.T. Dazey, Broadway poster, 1895.jpg ...

1857 – The Panic of 1857 begins, setting off one of the most severe economic crises in United States history. Since the years immediately preceding the Panic were prosperous, many banks, had seized the opportunity to take risks with their investments & as soon as market prices began to fall, they quickly began to experience the effects of financial panic (will we ever learn?)

The Healing Power of Sunlight: Jakob Lorber: 9781885928108: Amazon ...

1864 – Deathday of Jakob Lorber “scribe of God” a Christian mystic &visionary. Lorber’s prose, an ‘inner voice’ from the region of his heart, has been compared with writings by other mystics such as Emanuel Swedenborg, Jakob Boehme & Rudolf Steiner

Documentary: The Story Of Thomas Alva Edison

1891 – Thomas Edison patents the motion picture camera

1912 – 1^st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 3^rd Mystery Drama: “The Guardian of the Threshold”

1932 – Amelia Earhart becomes the first woman to fly across the United States non-stop (from Los Angeles to New Jersey)

1944 – World War II: Allied troops begin the attack on Paris

1954 – The Communist Control Act goes into effect, outlawing the American Communist Party

1967 – Led by Abbie Hoffman, the Youth International Party temporarily disrupts trading at the New York Stock Exchange by throwing dollar bills from the viewing gallery, causing trading to cease as brokers scramble to grab them

1991 – Mikhail Gorbachev resigns as head of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union

1991 – Ukraine declares itself independent from the Soviet Union

RFID/NFC Implants for Bitcoin Transactions — Katina Michael

1998 – First radio-frequency identification (RFID) human implantation tested in the United Kingdom

The Elisabeth Kübler-Ross Archive has found a home at Stanford ...

2004 – Deathday of Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, Swiss-American psychiatrist & death advocate

Tim Rogerson inspired Pluto painting by Danielle Hobby | Disney ...

2006 – The International Astronomical Union (IAU) redefines Pluto as a dwarf planet

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

Judge for Yourself

August 23, 2023Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

~Rob Gonsalve

Greetings friends – I am inspired to share this wise mantric tid-bit from our dear Dr. Steiner given today 23 August in 1911, to his Esoteric students in Munich:

“We must learn to think objectively. Those who say that they’re already thinking objectively, are often making a big mistake, for this assumption is only subjective, it’s a delusion.

Pride or ambition leads to error and superstition; we must not succumb to this. We should confront everything that comes to meet us from whatever side, with an alert, open intellect, clear thinking and sharp logic. We shouldn’t swear by what seems right to us at first; investigate it critically, don’t give in blindly to something. That’s also the way it should be in our esoteric life; no belief in authority is demanded.

And my dear sisters and brothers, the masters of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings let me tell you that you should always maintain and use all of your intellectual powers with respect to the wisdom that’s given by them, with respect to what I’m justified in advocating here, and also with respect to me. One should approach what’s said and advocated here with healthy human understanding, with sensibleness and with an open-minded thinking, if it is only opened far enough. You shouldn’t swear by this or that but should judge for yourself.

And so we’ll summarize everything that this class — which like all esoteric classes should be a sacred one for us — has brought us with the words:

In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
The eyes of sense,
That through them I may see
The lights of bodies.
And the spirit has imprinted in my body
Reason and sensation
And feeling and will,
That through them I may perceive bodies
And act upon them.
In the spirit lay the germ of my body.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.
And I will incorporate into my spirit
The super-sensible eyes
That through them I may behold the light of spirits.
And I will imprint in my spirit
Wisdom and power and love,
So that through me the spirits may act
And I become a self-conscious organ
Of their deeds.
In my body lies the germ of the spirit.”

~Rudolf Steiner, ESOTERIC LESSONS II
GA 266, Lesson 31, Munich, 8-23-’11

23 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: On or around August 23 every year, Regulus, the brightest star in constellation Leo, is in conjunction with the Sun – lost in the Sun’s glare. Regulus will return to the morning sky around the September equinox.

Regulus – Latin for ‘prince‘ or ‘little king.’ In Arabic, it is قلب الأسد (Qalb al-Asad, ‘the heart of the lion‘), the same as the Latin Cor Leōnis & Greek Kardia Leontos. In Chinese, it is 轩辕十四, the Fourteenth Star of Xuanyuan, the Yellow Emperor. In Babylonian, it was Sharru, ‘the King,‘ & LUGAL, ‘the star that stands in the breast of the Lion: the King.’ In Persian, it was Miyan, ‘the Centre,‘ & Venant, one of the four ‘royal stars’ of the Persian monarchy, where in 3,000 BC, as the Watcher of the North, it marked the summer solstice. According to Ptolemy, it is of the nature of Mars; while Alvidas states that it is similar to the Sun.

Regulus is said to be one of the most fortunate stars in the heavens. Proclus (412-485) called Regulus the “Royal Star” & asserted that those born under it have a royal-like nativity. ~ Vivian E. Robson

~Joseph Mallord William Turner – Regulus. According to the Tate museum: Regulus was a Roman general who was captured by the Carthaginians. They sent him back to Rome to negotiate the release of Carthaginian prisoners. When he returned to Carthage having failed his mission, he was tortured by being left out in the sun with his eyelids sewn open. The dazzling light in the centre of this work dramatically illustrates Regulus’ cruel punishment.

Turner first exhibited this painting in Rome in 1828. His audience there would have recognised it as a seaport from a work by the 17th-century painter, Claude Lorrain displayed in the Uffizzi gallery in Florence. It appears that Turner wanted to show himself as part of a tradition of landscape painting started by Claude.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (sourced from Steiner orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons, Sky&Telescope)

“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.” ~Aldous Huxley

Feast Day of Vulcan – The god of fire – including the fire of volcanoes, deserts, metalworking and the forge in ancient Roman religion and myth. He is often depicted with a blacksmith’s hammer. The Vulcanalia was the annual festival held August 23 in his honor. His Greek counterpart is Hephaestus, the god of fire and smithery.

Black Ribbon Day of Remembrance for Victims of Stalinism & Nazism

International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade & its Abolition

79 – Mount Vesuvius begins stirring, on the feast day of Vulcan, the Roman god of fire

1244 – Siege of Jerusalem: The city’s citadel, the Tower of David, surrenders to Khwarezmian (Persian) Empire

1382 – Siege of Moscow: The Golden Horde led by khan Tokhtamysh lays siege

1572 –St. Bartholomew’s Day massacre a wave of Catholic mob violence, directed against the Huguenots (French Calvinist Protestants) during the French Wars of Religion. Traditionally believed to have been instigated by Catherine de’ Medici, the mother of King Charles IX.

1754 – Birthday of Louis XVI of France – the last King of France before the fall of the monarchy during the French Revolution. He was referred to as Citizen Louis Capet during the four months just before he was executed by guillotine. He was the son of Louis, Dauphin of France, son and heir-apparent of King Louis XV, and Maria Josepha of Saxony. When his father died in 1765, he became the new Dauphin.

1839 – The United Kingdom captures Hong Kong. The ensuing 3-year conflict will later be known as the First Opium War

1914 – World War I: Japan declares war on Germany

1939 – World War II: Nazi Germany & the Soviet Union sign a non-aggression treaty, the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In a secret addition to the pact, the Baltic states, Finland, Romania, & Poland are divided between the two nations.

1942 – World War II: Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad

1944 – World War II: Marseille is liberated by the Allies

1944 – Freckleton Air Disaster: A United States Army Air Forces B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into a school in Freckleton, England killing 61 people

1970 –César Chávez leads the Salad Bowl strike, the largest farm worker strike in U.S. history

1973 – A bank robbery in Stockholm, Sweden, turns into a hostage crisis, who begin to sympathize with their captors, leading to the term “Stockholm syndrome”

1989 – Singing Revolution: Two million people from Estonia, Latvia & Lithuania stand on the Vilnius–Tallinn road, holding hands for restoration of independence

1990 – Armenia declares its independence from the Soviet Union

1990 – Saddam Hussein appears on Iraqi state television with a number of Western “guests” (actually hostages) to try to prevent the Gulf War

1991 – Tim Berners-Lee opens the World Wide Web to new users

1996 – Osama bin Laden issues message entitled ‘A declaration of war against the Americans occupying the land of the two holy places.’

2000 – Gulf Air Flight 072 crashes into the Persian Gulf killing 143

2011 – A magnitude 5.8 earthquake occurs in Virginia as a result of ‘Fracking’. Damage occurs to monuments & structures in Washington D.C. with damage estimated at 300 million

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

The Octave of the Immaculate Heart

August 22, 2023Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

Immaculate Heart of Mary with Doves and Lace –8.5x11" based on a ...

POD (Poem Of the day)

~Searching for the Peace Path
Leading to the Queen of Heaven
Gathering hot iron
From the falling stars along the way
Feeding the Tree of Life
With redeemed Sulphur
To forge the sword of Michael…
My heart beating in Immaculate rhythm
I reach for The Anointed One
In these Dog-Days
Tying the key to the kite
In the gathering
clouds…
~hag

Queen of Heaven - Wikipedia — Diego Velázquez

Today we meet the Octave of the Assumption: Tradition celebrates two main feasts of Mary in August. The first is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary on August 15, & the second is the Feast of the Queenship of Mary on August 22 (also known as The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary)

The feast of the Assumption has been celebrated since the 5^th or 6th century & for many years its festival was extended by an octave.

Our ancestors celebrated all major feasts for eight days = for an octave. Essentially the same liturgy was said, using the same liturgical texts each day of the octave.

The eighth day of the octave was seen as a heightened experience, honoring the spiritual themes of the feast for the last time. For this reason a complimentary feast was often instituted on this eighth day.

When it came to the Assumption, it had an octave celebration for many centuries. Then on May 4, 1944, Pope Pius XII established the feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary on August 22, the octave day of the feast of the Assumption. He did this so that by her intercession may be obtained “peace among nations, the love of purity and the practice of virtue.”

However, Pope Paul VI decided to switch the feasts of the Immaculate Heart and the Queenship of Mary. The feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary was joined to the feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus (celebrated on the Saturday following the feast of the Sacred Heart, typically around the Summer Solstice June 20) and the I’m not one to give authority to Papal Bulls but when it comes to the Mary’s I always seek to bring forth the essence of the Divine Feminine from out the Matrix… was moved to August 22. Mary becomes the “Queen of Heaven.” The power of the Queenship of Mary is that she is a “Queen of Peace.”

Queen of Peace, an art print by Qistina Khalidah - INPRNT — Qistina Khalidah

I’m not one to give much authority to Papal Bulls, but when it comes to the ‘Mary’s’ I always seek to bring forth the essence of the Divine Feminine from out the Matrix…

“May all recognize more clearly and venerate more devoutly the merciful and maternal sway of the Mother of God. May this feast help to preserve, strengthen and prolong that peace among nations which daily is almost destroyed by recurring crises. Is she not a rainbow in the clouds reaching towards God, the pledge of a covenant of peace?”

After her Assumption into Heaven, Mary is Queen of Heaven, right there beside her Son, The Being of Love, listening to our prayers. She is the true “Queen of Peace,” who can help us turn the tide of war & conflict thru her powerful intercession.

Pietro Annigoni: Immaculate Heart of Mary — Art+Christianity — Pietro Annigoni

May we strive to make our hearts Immaculate to share the true Crown of our Queen & become a beacon of Love & peace in our world.

~hag

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

~Elizabeth Wang

“The aim of science is to discover and illuminate truth. And that, I take it, is the aim of literature, whether biography or history… It seems to me, then, that there can be no separate literature of science.” ~Rachel Carson

Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary & the Queenship of Mary– a celestial follow-up to the Assumption, now celebrated on the octave day of that feast

392 –Birthday of Eugenius elected – the last Roman Emperor to support polytheism

Image result for OdoacerÂ a soldier became the first King of Italy

476 – Birthday of Odoacer a soldier became the first King of Italy. His reign is commonly seen as marking the end of the Western Roman Empire

565 –Birthday of Columbaa, Christian saint -one of the ‘Twelve Apostles of Ireland’ reports seeing a monster in Loch Ness, Scotland

Image result for Pope Gregory IX, established the PapalÂ Inquisition

1241 – Deathday of Pope Gregory IX, established the Papal Inquisition

Image result for 1849 â TheÂ first air raidÂ in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice

1849 – The first air raid in history. Austria launches pilotless balloons against the city of Venice

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1864 – Twelve nations sign the First Geneva Convention

1862 – Birthday of Claude Debussy

1902 – Cadillac Motor Company is founded

1902 – Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first President to ride in an automobile

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1913 – 1^st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s 4^th Mystery Drama: The Souls’ Awakening

Image result for 1932 â TheÂ BBCÂ begins television broadcastingÂ using John Logie Bairdâs system

1932 – The BBC begins television broadcasting using John Logie Baird’s system

1941 – World War II: German troops begin the Siege of Leningrad

1944 – World War II: Holocaust of Kedros in Crete by German force

*1947 – Deathday of Francis Delaisi, French social economist spoken of by Rudolf Steiner in ‘Fall of the Spirits of Darkness’ Lecture 14 Dornach, 28 October 1917

“For once, therefore, a man woke up and saw that what mattered was not to proclaim democracy but to see the full reality, not to follow slogans, but to see things as they are. This would be particularly important today, for people would then realize that the events which reign with such blood and terror over the whole of humanity are guided and directed from just a few centres. People will never realize this if they persist in the delusion that nation is fighting nation, and allow the European and American Press to lull them to sleep over the kinds of relations that are said to exist between nations. Everything said about antagonism and opposition between nations only exists to cast a veil over the true reasons. For we shall never arrive at the real truth if we feed on words in order to explain these events, but only if we point to actual people. The problem is that this tends to be unpalatable today. And the man who woke up and wrote these statements in 1910 also presented some highly unwelcome accounts in his book. He produced a list of fifty-five individuals who are the real rulers and exploiters of France. The list can be found in Francis Delaisi’s La Democratie et les Financiers, written in 1910; the same man has also written La Guerre qui vient, a book which has become famous. In his La Democratie et les Financiers you will find statements of fundamental significance. There you have someone who has woken up to reality. The book contains impulses which allow one to see through much of what we should see through today, and also to cut through much of the fog which is made to wash over human brains today. Here again, we must resolve to look to reality.

The book has, of course, been ignored. It does, however, raise issues which should be raised all over the world today, for they would teach people much about the reality which others intend to bury under all their declamations on democracy and autocracy and whatever the slogans may be.” ~Rudolf Steiner

Image result for 1961 âÂ Ida SiekmannÂ dies attempting to cross the Berlin Wall

1961 – Ida Siekmann dies attempting to cross the Berlin Wall

1962 – The OAS attempts to assassinate French president Charles de Gaulle

1971 – J. Edgar Hoover & John Mitchell announce the arrest of 20 of the Camden 28, a group of “Christian leftists” anti-Vietnam War activists.

2006 – Russian passenger plane crashes over eastern Ukraine, killing all 170 people on board

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

Vidar = Christ Bearer

August 20, 2023Community, Festival, History, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

Greetings Friends – There is a powerful magic in the August air. The harvest is unfolding. Cosmic Iron is scintillating in our blood – seeding our souls for Michaelmas.

Last year on this date 20 August, a group of us met in the Upper Room of the Rudolf Steiner Branch, Chicago, to explore the idea of co-creating a New Festival called Vidarmas – as a gateway & compliment to Michaelmas – to acknowledge this young Archangel as the inspiring Being of Community Life, connected with pure ether forces – & in connection to our need to experience ‘The Etheric Christ‘ which is our task in this age.

Big thanks to Rob Treiste for this cool chart

The Four Ethers & the Four Elements overlap to create the seven layers of the Physical-Etheric World, & the 7-fold human being. To begin to understand this gives us insight into our task with Vidar.

I remember looking into Norse mythology thru the lens of Spiritual Science when my girl was in 4^th grade at the Chicago Waldorf School. Rudolf Steiner tells us that Wotan or Odin was an Archangelic being, who later appeared as Siddhārtha carrying on the mission of Odin to become the Gautama-Buddha.

‘Woden and the Grail‘:

And Odin hung for nine days
from the Earth’s One Tree,
his eye gouged for wisdom gained,
a loss so he could see.

He waited long upon this throne
as Godlike days passed.
For the future he’d wait to see;
how to make his time last.

The One-God was coming
for this was surely told
but how to manage tomorrow
for the long lost Gods of old.

His wolves, and horse, and crows
they stood and gathered near
looking long for his wisdom
against the lives they held so dear.

Then Odin smiled upon the ninth day
for the answer there did lie
within the Earthen Tree
he had helped himself to tie.

Lowered now to the ground,
sodden by his many tears,
he drew nigh his greatest friends
those who waited the many years.

Turning to the tree he drew
deep from within its heart
a living chalice made of wood
from which to make a start.

Come my friends gather round
and for the past do not wail
as we hold the future steady now
within this Earthen Holy Grail.

~Mac Andrew

Vidar, unseated by Loki, becomes the “Silent Aesir” – the only one to survive Ragnarok, conquering the Fenrris Wolf who wants to devour the Sun.

Important to remember that every human being has a guardian angel; & that before Siddhārtha became the Buddha he had one too. When he achieved Buddhahood, his angel was ‘freed’ – Able to ascend to a higher rank.

After much time as the “Silent Aesir”, this angel – went on to work with the Nathan Soul & with the Christ thru the pre-earthly deeds etc…(You can read about this angel working at the ‘Turning Point of Time’ in the Gospel of Luke Chapter 2 & in Matthew 1:18–25.)

Rudolf Steiner connects Buddha’s angel with Vidar.

So we can see that Vidar is linked, not only to what we hear about him thru mythology, but also to Buddhism, & to the ‘Nathan Soul’ – that pure paradisiacal ‘Sister Soul of Adam’ that did not go thru the fall from paradise – but was held back in the Mother-lodge to be able assist the mission of Christ.

Steiner speaks about the “Nirmanakaya of the Buddha” with all its “Youthful forces” as an intermigling with the astral body of the Nathan Jesus when he was 12. These Youthful forces are a characteristic of Vidar & his work with the formative forces of the etheric.

Thru Spiritual Science we learn it is Vidar, who comes to the aid of the Christ Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, fortifing his etheric body when the Ahrimanic death forces were threatening to kill the physical body of Jesus before Christ’s deed on Golgotha was completed. “An angel from heaven appeared to him and strengthened him”. (Luke 22-43)

To put things into perspective we can think how everything changes; growth/transformation – embraces all beings – evolution is working not only in humanity but in the ‘gods’.

When the Archangel Michael got promoted to Archai, the being known as Vidar, who was once associated with the Northern Mysteries, stepped into Michael’s position as ruling Archangel of the Sun, becoming Universal in his service, cosmopolitan like Michael.

According to Rudolf Steiner Vidar, could have become an Archangel long before that, but he took the path of renunciation, of silence – listening & waiting – building up forces, until 1879 – only then did Vidar take the place vacated by Michael, to work specifically with the Christ during the 2^nd crucifixion in the etheric.

The silent Aesir now speaks.

Vidar’s task is essential for our present age; he creates the etheric sheath for the Being of Christ, so that we can develop a new clairvoyance to perceive & receive this Etheric Christ.

Vidar wants to work with us to achieve the necessary formative forces needed to conquer the many Ahrimanic & Luciferic influences that plague us today – So that we can attain a level of super-sensible acuity to work with Christ in our own etheric bodies.

Vidar will guide us so that we too can become Christ bearers – creating CHRISTOPHOROS ( Χριστόφορος ) in us.

Vidar was with us in the Michael School & the super-sensibile Cultus, & he helps us now – & into the future – to put these lessons into practice with discernment; making us ready to achieve access to all the ethers: warmth, light, sound, life. To consciously employ them – which will help us purify our astral body & transform our etheric body.

We will need these tools to meet the mystery of evil.

In our striving to harmonize our astral & etheric currents, we create new spiritual organs, described by Steiner in ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’ as an ‘etheric lattice’. This gives us a reflective apparatus for our pure thinking – allowing our thoughts to press or imprint directly into our ether body – creating an etheric bridge to the Christ – giving us access to cosmic memory & the gifts from the 5^th sacrifice of Christ ie. the suffocation in the etheric attended by Vidar & the Nathan Soul – this sacrifice was the catalyst for our new clairvoyance!

I keep thinking: How can we, in everyday practical terms, work with Vidar as Guardian of the etheric forces which can brings us together in our various groups striving to live into the Spiritual Science of Christ-Sophia?

We have to be aware that elemental beings inhabit the etheric forms we create – consciously with Love & Light – or unconsciously thru what is adversarial in us…Let us call in the forces of Sophia-Michael-Vidar to fill the etheric with Christic Wisdom.

Vidar as an Archangel for our time speaks with the language of Whitsun – Pentecost – the fires of purification & purpose. And thru the Holy Spirit connected to Anthroposophia we can work with Vidar in our search for the Holy Grail, when we ask the Parzival question of each other, in a true mood of service & enthusiasm, so that when we are ripe we can become co-creators of a new Universe.

Druidic ‘gravestone’ of Vidar found in Niederdollendorf near Colonge

I have gleaned many insights from my work with Sergei Prokofieff’s indications encapsulating the Spiritual Science of Rudolf Steiner in his amazing book: “The Cycle of the year as a Path of Initiation Leading to an Experience of the Christ Being, An Esoteric Study of the Festivals” – the 12th & final chapter on: “The Modern Mysteries of the Etheric Christ” expounding on “The Vidar Mystery”.

a few Highlights:
“This individuality of Wotan or Odin (who Steiner calls an Archangel) is the same as the one who later appeared with the same mission under the name Buddha”. (GA105 August 14 1908)

“When the Buddha appeared to the shepherds in the picture of the ‘heavenly host’, he was not in a physical body but in an astral body. He had assumed a body in which he could still send his influences to the Earth….This body is called a Nirmanakaya’. ” (GA 114, 17 September 1909)

THE MISSION OF FOLK-SOULS, GA 121,, Lecture XI, 17 June 1910, Christiania – Is a powerful study:

“All these details which are set forth in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’, correspond with that which is to appear to humankind in a newer etheric vision, which in reality refers to the future. The Fenris Wolf will still remain. Oh, there is a deep, deep truth concealed in this account of the Fenris Wolf remaining behind in conflict with Odin. In the near future of humankind there will be no danger so great as the tendency to remain satisfied with the old clairvoyance, — instead of developing the new by means of new forces — the danger that humanity might be tempted to remain satisfied with what the old astral clairvoyance of primal ages could give, namely, soul-pictures such as that of the Fenris Wolf. It would also be a severe trial for that which has to grow up in the domain of Anthroposophy, if in that, the tendency towards all sorts of confused, chaotic clairvoyance should arise…

Something very different must come in. And what that is, is, however, known to Celtic-Germanic-Norse mythology — it is well aware of its existence. It knows, that there exists the etheric form in which will embody that which we shall once again see as the etheric form of Christ. And this alone will succeed in driving out the confused clairvoyant power which would bewilder humankind…Vidar, who has kept silence all the time, will overcome the Fenris Wolf. That also is told us in the ‘Twilight of the Gods’.

Anyone who recognizes the importance of Vidar and feels him in their soul, will find that beginning in the twentieth century the capacity can again be given to humanity with which to see Christ.

Vidar, who belongs to us all, will again stand before the human being. Vidar was kept secret in the Mysteries and secret Schools as a god who would receive his mission only in the future.”

We had lively discussions throughout the evening. Then to get us up on our feet to vibrate from our lips & lungs, Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer of The Musical initiative: Velsum: Voices of Ancient Futurism brought us a song they wrote for the occasion.

Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Come upon us.
Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Give us your trust.

Let us meet you in the threshold.
Let us know you in the Light.
Let us carry forth your banner
In selfless might!

Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Come upon us.
Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Give us your trust.

In the flowing of the spirit
From the Northern sickle moon,
We will harvest your new impulse
In joyous truth!

Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Come upon us.
Vidar!
Vidar!
Vidar!
Give us your trust.

Lucien & Ultra invited us to co-write a 3rd verse; so folks popcorned ideas, & we will work more with that for our next gathering…

Here are the links to the recordings of the song they taught us.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/QLvn4bSTEbjSptZe6

https://photos.app.goo.gl/AGbartxJFFJmNvTf9

https://photos.app.goo.gl/cc8YQTQHZeyGBsaL7

Lucien suggested we end by doing a group poem, each going around saying 1 word. Here is what came forth from our collective efforts for our closing verse: “Speak from the light wherein resolution leads to our hearts fulfillment of the Etheric Christ with courage.”

Vidar at the gates of Shambala by Daniel Ospina

Daniel Ospina the artist of this amazing painting held a meeting at the same time in Ireland where they also read the lecture. The invitation was taken up by other branches including one in Colombia South America. If you dear reader have also taken up this impulse to know Vidar, please share your insights. Let’s keep this knowing going.

Many Thanks to Susan Overhauser, who is one of the brilliant facility members for our AAP training who brought alive for us ‘Vidar as a Guide in the Etheric’. Susan is bringing her research to present at a Conference at the Goetheanum this month!

May the Practicum which we have began into this new Festival we are calling Vidarmas, continue to thrive.

~hag

20 August 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna emerging from the Underworld is dancing with the sheath of wheat held by Spica the brightest star in the constellation of Virgo

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
LAMMASTIDE IV
Transition from Summer to Autumn
The Nemesis Of The Lower Self
v20
So I begin to feel my being, I,
who far from world existence
would perish, I, who self-confined,
evolving only on its own ground,
must in itself surender… die.

We must take up the goal of higher self-development.
We must willingly give up what is holding us back,
not a Luciferic, unconscious, sacrifice, but a rise
in freedom to a new sense of self and purpose.
(a message derived from Eloise Krivosheia
in anthroposophyla.org – verse 20).
The mirror verse involves an Ahrimanic temptation.

ALL HALLOWTIDE III
Transition from Autumn to Winter
World Nemesis… or Resurrection?
v33
And so I come to feel the world,
which left without my soul’s communion
would be just frosty, empty life,
and powerless to resurrect in souls,
arise anew in human self-creation,
could in itself alone find only death.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

Saturday 23 September 2023

Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire

*Autumnal Equinox

*Yom Kippur

*Michaelmas Festival

6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile

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

RSVP Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

30 September 2023 – Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day

for more info.

Ptolemaic

August 17, 2023Celestial Event, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

~New Moon Maiden
Innocent scythe of alteration
Teach us to value our hidden gestation
Even as you move into the light
Let us give voice
To what is secret
Let us make visible
What is occult
Let us make familiar
What has been disowned
Blessed be the darkness
For out of it
We shall make ourselves
whole
~hag

In this Dark of the Moon time, when Bella Luna is taking up the mysteries of the Underworld. And Venus (which Steiner calls ‘Occult or Ptolemaic Mercury’ – I wrote about this here) after having been the Evening Star all Spring & Summer is making passage between Earth & the Sun – Veiled for now by Light. After 21 August this Being so close to Earth & Sun returns again to the East before dawn – to shine as the Morning Star.

~Howen/ Upsplash

A few days ago, Hideo Nishimura of Kakegawa, Japan, was photographing the night when he captured a new comet! – Comet C/2023 P1 Nishimura – currently moving in front of the constellation Gemini the Twins, low in the dawn sky. The comet was hiding in the sun’s glare before Nishimura picked it up. And, by next month, it might be bright enough to see with the unaided eye!

~Eddie Irizarry

Look for the new comet on 3 September (CG’s B-Day) 2023, some 45 minutes before sunrise, appearing with Venus (Occult Mercury) as Morning Star.

Yes – every year at this time the Cosmic Iron enters Earth’s atmosphere, following the rhythms of the cosmos – bringing the forces harnessed in the metal sacred to the planet Mars, & the Being Michael. But why is that? What’s the reason behind this charming sky show that urges us to make wishes? And what does all this have to do with iron?

Interior of Chiesa dei Gesuiti (Venice) – left nave – The Martyrdom of St Lawrence – Titian

To add to the lore, the August meteor showers are also called the “Lacrime di San Lorenzo”—St. Lawrence’s tears – the last of the seven deacons of Rome to die, martyred in August 258 AD, during the persecution of the emperor Valerian.

When he was summoned before the executioners, Lawrence was ordered to bring all the wealth of the Church with him. He showed up with a handful of crippled, poor, & sick people, & when questioned, replied that “These are the true wealth of the Church.” He was immediately sent to his death, being cooked alive on a ‘gridiron’.

Legend has it that his last words were a quip to his killers: “Turn me over, I’m done on this side!”

Italian lore also holds that the fiery bits of debris seen during a meteor shower are representative of the coals that killed St. Lawrence.

After that, people began calling the August meteors the “The tears of St. Lawrence,” even though the celestial phenomenon pre-dates the Saint, being associated with Perseus, & in our time now with the Mighty Archai Michael. These correspondences are very interesting, finding a valid explanation in the results of a spiritual-scientific investigation.

According to Anthroposophy in Summer a specific process takes place in the human organism, as light & heat grow stronger & more potent. This is a sulphurising process. From a spiritual perspective human beings start shining ‘like glow-worms’ surrounded by a yellow-bluish “sulphur” flame. This flame is associated with the spiritual beings of ‘fallen light’ which want to take advantage of human freedom for their purposes.

“From the standpoint of the cosmos this is actually a majestically beautiful sight, for it is in this glorious astral light that human beings shine out into the cosmos during the ‘Dog Days of Summer’, but at the same time it gives occasion for the Ahrimanic power to draw near to humanity. For this adversarial power is very closely related to the sulphurising process in the human organism.

We can see how, on the one hand, the human being shines out into the cosmos in the St. John’s light, & on the other, how the dragon-like serpent-form of Ahriman winds its way among the human beings shining in the astral light & tries to ensnare & curtail us, to draw us down into the realm of half-conscious sleep & illusion”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Four Seasons & the Archangels

This process of subtle combustion in the human organism causes what comes so natural in Summer – a dream-like state where human instincts arise, gaining power over the forces of consciousness & awareness. Who hasn’t experienced this during summer? And it’s not for nothing, it is important to have that outbreath to come in contact with the cosmic reaches.

But we need to understand that from this perspective the ahrimanic forces are not interested in awakening clairvoyance in humanity. That would be an old form of clairvoyance, anyway. All they want, is to control human beings – fooling us thru our own lower instincts.

When this process of expansion comes to its peak at the Summer Solstice—we must start to come back down to earth or there is a danger we fall victim to the Luciferic influences that would draw us away from life. But the wisdom of the cosmos gives human beings the antidote. The balancing impulse to counter the forces of sulphur rising from the ground, is the Cosmic Iron.

“And when in high summer, from a particular constellation, meteors fall in great showers of cosmic iron, then this cosmic iron, which carries an enormously powerful healing force, is the weapon which the gods bring to bear against Ahriman, as dragon-like he tries to coil round the shining forms of men.

The force which falls on the earth in the meteoric iron is indeed a cosmic force whereby the higher gods endeavour to gain a victory over the Ahrimanic powers, when autumn comes on. And this majestic display in cosmic space, when the August meteor showers stream down into the human shining in the astral light, has its counterpart — so gentle and apparently so small — in a change that occurs in the human blood.

This human blood, which is in truth not such a material thing as present-day science imagines, but is permeated throughout by impulses from soul and spirit, is rayed through by the force which is carried as iron into the blood and wages war there on anxiety, fear and hate.

The processes which are set going in every blood-corpuscle when the force of iron shoots into it are the same, on a minute human scale, as those which take place when meteors fall in a shining stream through the air. This permeation of human blood by the anxiety-dispelling force of iron is a meteoric activity. The effect of the raying in of the iron is to drive fear and anxiety out of the blood”. ~Rudolf Steiner, The Four Seasons & the Archangels

From this perspective we can contemplate the amazing show of the meteor showers which go on into September as we make our way toward Michaelmas. We can look at them knowing that the forces of the cosmos are at work to help us.

Fear & anxiety are two adversarial forces, that have been ensnaring us all. So this makes having an awareness of the meteor showers even more important – worthy of contemplation & active participation.

May the Cosmic Iron of the gods be with you, to defeat all the inner & outer obstacles that stand in your way.

~hag