Tuesday May 3, 2016 –
326 St. Helena and the true cross. Empress Helena, the mother of Emperor Constantine, is traditionally credited with a pilgrimage to Syria Palaestina, during which she is said to have discovered the True Cross.
Birthday in 612 – Constantine III, Byzantine emperor
1481 – The largest of three earthquakes strikes the island of Rhodes & causes an estimated 30,000 casualties.
1715 – A total solar eclipse was visible across northern Europe, & northern Asia, as predicted by Edmond Halley to within 4 minutes accuracy.
1921 – Ireland divides into Northern Ireland & Southern Ireland.
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POD (Poem Of the Day)
~My mouth is
My hands are
Hard green seedlings
No longer innocent
Yet pliable by grace
An active hive of Bees
Stirred by Sun mysteries
& service
~hag
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Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – A Festival of Ascension, part 3 of a Lecture by ~Hazel ArcherGinsberg
When we attune ourselves to beings such as Raphael, Archangel of Spring, we can awaken to the way these spiritual entities constantly interact with earth thru the elements.
The messengers of cosmic warmth in the rays of the sun activate the ascension of the element of water. Through its union with air, clouds are born. In the cloud, which is between the depths of earth & the heavenly heights, in the sphere of the etheric realm – a mobile balance manifests. – We see it in the blue sky, dancing with the ever changing clouds. It is the primal image of metamorphosis, of organic forming & trans-forming, the never-resting developing, blessed by the heights. For this reason, blossoms & fruits are in reality not just products of earth but heavenly forms filled with earthly substance, like us.
And so for 40 days after the Resurrection, amidst this seasonal activity, the apostles received from the risen Christ His esoteric teachings; essentially the contents of the 5th Gospel given to us by Rudolf Steiner.
Then they witnessed The Christ, being received into the clouds, moving out of their sight – an expansion of His being – like the unfolding of a lotus flower into the universe. Rudolf Steiner tells us, that at the same time, the vivid spiritual reality of what would have happened to earth existence if the mystery of Golgotha had not occurred; came into their consciousness. It was revealed to them that human bodies would have so deteriorated that all of humanity would have perished.
Our physical bodies have earth-gravity, but our etheric bodies have sun levity, so if the Christ deed had not taken place, our etheric bodies would have left the physical for good as well, & the existence of mankind would have come to an end, having no formative forces to give them life.
We know that until the Mystery of Golgotha, the sun was the dwelling place of the Christ. The human etheric body, which was in danger of being drawn out towards the sun, like clouds, & dispersed –is held together, contained thru this cosmic deed, so that we are not dispersed, but can remain as individuals.
Christ remains in union with the earth, which rescues for the earth the sunward-striving etheric body. –But to be able to take effect in a human being’s spirit & soul nature, the Christ impulse must also be able to penetrate into the human soul during sleep. And this is only possible if a person consciously recognizes the significance of the Mystery of Golgotha. The spiritual effect can only proceed from a true recognition of its content.
Mankind must come to realize that on the one hand Christ rescued the human physical body, & holds back the etheric body in its urge towards the sun; but on the other hand, mankind’s ego & astral body, can receive the Christ impulse only in the time between falling asleep & waking – which is only possible when knowledge of this impulse has been acquired in waking life.
The mystery here is that in the festival of Ascension not only do the forces of the macro-cosmic kingdom of the Son come into Earth-existence, but it also opens us to the forces proceeding from the sphere of the Father. This is big folks -the gospel of Mark tells us: ‘Then the Lord, after He had spoken to them, was taken up into the heavenly spheres & sat down at the right hand of the World-Father as the fulfiller of His deeds’.
As a result of the conversations over the 40 days with The Risen Christ, the apostles were able to receive the primal sources of a new imaginative clairvoyance, removing the veil hiding the true image of death, which is really a facet of the Father-God in the aspect of Creator. – What is born must die, but thru Christ death becomes life. This revelation of the apostles’ higher imagination brings the true content of death with its connection to the kingdom of the divine Father into perceptive.
At the moment of the Ascension the true meaning of death was made manifest to the apostles, they beheld it with their own eyes to be a process of union with the world of the Divine.
From that turning point of time onward, Rudolf Steiner tells us that, one of the 1st experiences of every human being after death is a contemplation of Christ’s Ascension; which can reveal to the person’s soul, the true picture of death & its connection with the highest sphere of the Father.
To read the entire lecture: Ascension 2014 Climbing Jacobs Ladder
Tomorrow we meet Christ as the ‘Lord of Karma’.
Until soon
Blessings & Peace –
~hag = Hazel ArcherGinsberg