This 3rd week of Advent honors the animal kingdom & the astral realm which we share with them. As a city girl it is not often that I get to be up close & personal with the majority of the animal world. Sure I love my cat & dog (RIP Snowy ;( And actually there are many wild creatures that live in Chicagoland. I’ve written about Coyote, Opossum & Skunk, & the various birds species that frequent my neighborhood.
Even going up to Zinniker farm, these animals, although they aren’t completely domesticated, have a relationship to human beings.
But all too often that relationship is unhealthy. Society often teaches us to fear animals; people neglect or mistreat them, control & do horrible ‘medical’ tests on them – there are sickening factory farms & yes, we kill & eat them. When we don’t honor the animal world, we are harming not only ourselves, but also the environment. Perhaps this Corona Crisis is trying to get us to see a connection between the abuse of animals & the appearance of epidemics, & all the systemic sickness & cancers in the world…
As we embark upon this 3rd week of Advent, we meet the Air Trial which asks us to develop sense free thinking – A magical kind of thinking that does not kill. But in order to develop this thinking we must first develop, fortitude & presence of mind.
Sense Free thinking is a form of perception that allows us to see the spirit behind what we see -to find the genesis of thought.
On the archetypal level, each type of animal represents a soul mood – a signature imprint – out-pictured in the constellations of the zodiac; cast off reflections of ourselves in the astral realm.
When I am on a biodynamic farm & meet the Holy Cow – I sense that their horns are like antenna to this realm of the stars. Sometimes on a walk in the forest we can find the cast off antlers of a deer, or see a great stag with a mighty rack in the distance – I always think of the “Patronus” of Harry Potter.
To Practice Spirit beholding, which we hear in the 3rd panel of the foundation stone meditation, the mind needs to be open, quiet but present & awake – “Practice Spirit Beholding in stillness of thought”.
When we reach the Air Trial, nothing compels us. We are left on our own. We have no Ground on which to stand, we must create our own moral uprightness, which builds an organ of discernment!
This is the aim of human development, to be upright. We can’t let fear take the ground from under our feet or our breath away; we must stand on the Foundation Stone & look inward to find “Where the eternal goals of the gods, Bestow the light of cosmic being, On your own I, For free and active willing”.
Yes, friends, the Foundation Stone is the secret code, the key that unlocks the human soul, the prescription & antidote for what ails thee.
It teaches us how the will that was living in us from the past must now be transformed into thinking. The light bestowed upon us for our free willing by the hierarchy of angels – the Sons of Light, live in the elemental beings behind all the things & when we think light we carry them into us.
Sense free thinking is a creative consciousness, which can only be achieved thru having a will that is free, & a soul that is balanced. This Air trial requires that our “I” hold together thinking, feeling & willing, thru our own efforts
3rd Week of Advent —
Focus: The Astral World
Symbol: The Animal Kingdom
Freed up from: Our Guardian Angel
Virtues: Bravery, fortitude & presence of mind
Beware of temptation to lose self-control
The Air trial is where we see how we imprint or project ourselves & our thoughts into the world, both good & bad. This Air Trial requires us to change our thinking, by working on our souls so that we can come to the spirit again. Ordinary sense based thinking has to be silenced so that it can unite with a harmonious will. When thought is willed it becomes an organ of perception. It becomes conscious of the way our Astral body penetrates into the world & becomes one with all we see.
We are the creators of the past, present & future – we imprint outwardly what we think inwardly, & this becomes what we face when we look in the mirror, we see it in the eye of our neighbor – everywhere – in the outer world of nature – it even forms our next incarnation.
To enter the Astral realm consciously, we can use the tool of cognitive imagination. We can work especially with complementary colors & after images.
When we look out into the world in this way we begin to see how our soul forces, when directed consciously, can cast a light on the spirit behind all things – so that we can interact with its animating essence.
In doing this, we cannot avoid coming face to face with all that is dark & imperfect in our soul. What lives inside us unconsciously is lit up to be looked at – & we are faced with what we are – for this is the 1st aspect we see when we do these exercises – we must recognize the dross we carry in us unconsciously – which is part of what we imprint on the world around us.
Coming to this reality thru the Air Trial – We lose the ground from under our feet, we feel ourselves left up in the air – supported only by our thinking.
We must become capable of seeing the error of our selfish thoughts – so we can transforming our thinking in the light of Christ. By working on perfecting our lower desires thru moral thinking, we can enter the Temple of Higher Wisdom.
At Christmas-tide we look to the symbol of the manger surrounded by the animal kingdom that have a share in the human realm. We see these pure archetypes of the soul world as a reflection in our own hearts, waiting to give birth to the child of light.
~hag
12 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bundle up and head outside to watch the December Geminids, considered the best of the annual meteor displays
THE CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated – with added titles – by Roy Sadler
ADVENT III
The Wine
v36
The Cosmic Word,
mysteriously urging to be heard,
is speaking in my depths of being:
“Inspire your life’s endeavour with my spirit light
to sacrifice yourself through Me”.
Karl König has described the Soul Calendar as 4 voices,
represented in the Soul Calendar’s 4 quarters of the year as
1 – from Easter the Tenor’s sense perception uniting with the spirit,
2 – from July the Baritone’s imaginative insight incarnating spirit,
3 – from Michaelmas the Soprano’s inspiration for the spirit’s Christmas birth,
4 – from Epiphany the Alto’s intuitive love for a new Spring world.
and in this verse quartet I’ve put in the words, not present in the original,
of senses’ & sublime in v10, imagine in v17, inspire in v36, & intuit in v43.
If anone would like to comment I’d be pleased for any feedback.
this week’s corresponding (mirror of the opposite) verse
EPIPHANY IV… IMBOLC (February 1st, the Celtic beginning of Spring)
World Consecration
v43
In winter’s depths
true spirit presence warms,
makes new appearance real
and through the heart’s force
intuits eathlife’s rise to glory
the soul’s revitalising fire in the human core
defies world cold.
this week’s opposite verse (week of June 12th)
TRINITY II
Soul Consecration
v10
To summer’s heights
the being of the sun ascends
and takes my senses’ feeling far and wide
and into the sublime, the cosmic harmony
wherein a dawning vision’s intimating faintly,
“In future you will know:
a Holy Being felt you now”.
and this week’s mirror verse
LAMMAS
The Bread
v17
The Cosmic Word,
I’ve had the grace to guide
through senses’ gates to soul ground, speaks:
“Imagine in your spirit’s depths my world expanse
to find in future Me in you”.
The 4th Sunday of Advent – 18 December 2022
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 2 pm – 3:30 pm CST
(after Rev. Jonah Evans talk at the Christian Community)
The Individuality of Conscience and the Goetheanum
with Lucien Dante Lazar
Out of our conscience, we witness the Christ in the other. And through this Seeing, our I is born within us, whose self-conscious interior is the I of God. This is a mystery of John the Baptist.
When Love enters the human heart as an awakening to freedom, the Wisdom of form enters our awareness, and color, that majesty of Light, teaches us about creation. This is a mystery of the painter Raphael.
When the Word approaches us, inspiring us in our language to find the Heavenly Sophia as intellect, we write truth and honor the New Revelation of the Christ and His marriage to Sophia. And out of this marriage, we learn about ourselves. This is a mystery of Novalis.
On this last Sunday of Advent dedicated to the Human Being & the Angels, we will engage in these three Christian gifts through the social encounter, our working with color, and our thinking through language. And we will strive to harmonize these three incarnations of this significant individuality with the birth, death, and resurrection of the Goetheanum.
$10-$50 or pay what you will at the door or online www.rschicago.org/donate(credit card or PayPal)
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
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)
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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.
Hi Hazel,
I find it so interesting how the trinity of Faith, Love, and Hope, expressed over these last three weeks, also takes another form, in which Hope, Love, and Faith become our ritual in the individual life on Earth. How else can the homage to the Animal Kingdom come forth out of the personal biography? It is because in the whole scheme of the birth of human beings today we come forth out of the physical body (hope), and then advance into the etheric body (love), and then further go into the astral body (faith). This is even taught as such in the first three developmental life cycles:
1) Birth to age seven = Imitation
2) Seven to fourteen = Emulation
3) Fourteen to twenty one = Assimilation
As such, physical body in the first seven years; etheric body in the second seven years, and astral body in the third seven years. In other words, Hope, Love, and Faith guide the process in the individual life on Earth. Of course, this all gets expanded in the endeavors of Soul between 21 and 42, and then further expanded in the endeavors between 42 and 63, which concern the Spirit.
At 63, according to Rudolf Steiner, a new cycle begins, and this involves reaching the stage of a higher Sun Triad, which is the period between 63 and 84. This is how it became possible for him to give the Karmic Relationships lectures as the sign of the Michael faculty in 1924.
This has been a wonderful exercise for me in the 10:10 theater of operation as a meditative piece of work, and I thank you for doing all the physical work in the image department, along with a lot of sensitivity, which is owing to the Mothers, which you can’t avoid, or should. You make me think of my mother and all she did over the years. Hazel; what a blessing.
I look forward to my 63 – 84 cycle…
Yes, I also have taken these virtues into the macro / micro & into the 10:10 as a thought seed…
see you there
xox
Thank you for writing these inspiring thoughts of which, I have read quite a few and they often fertilize my inner life and so this poem by William Stafford came to mind from your Air Trial notes:
“For My Young Friends Who Are Afraid” by William Stafford from The Way It Is: New and Selected Poems.
There is a country to cross you will
find in the corner of your eye, in
the quick slip of your foot—air far
down, a snap that might have caught.
And maybe for you, for me, a high, passing
voice that finds its way by being
afraid. That country is there, for us,
carried as it is crossed. What you fear
will not go away: it will take you into
yourself and bless you and keep you.
That’s the world, and we all live there.
Advent Greetings Owen –
Thank you for doing the work of fertilizing & tending your inner life. What we do as individuals rays out more than we know.
Such a perfect poem, a true blessing!