Crucible

“…See the sun-drenched vine, with its juice spiritualized to etheric sunlight! It is a picture of the purification & fermentation process of the “I”. It shows you how drives can be transformed when they are purified thru life’s bitter crisis, & flower as the wisdom of age. Your “I” bears the kingly power within itself thru which you can transform all that is lower within you & raise it to the heights. Without these drives you would not be a full human being, but you must tame & refine them in the crucible of the royal power of the “I”. Then they will bear for you the loveliest fruits which will ripen in the autumn of life to become saturated with the wisdom of life. You extend your soul beyond itself when, compassionately sharing in all that is human, you open your Self to the world. For being human means: transforming the kingly power of the “I” in sharing responsibility for all that is human! Then the thought that I am only a member of all humankind & am co-responsible for all that happens is no longer foreign to me. With such an attitude the human being’s whole way of thinking gradually changes…” ~Rudolf Steiner, Knowledge of Higher Worlds

TODAY : A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor & Spirit Community with the Eastern, Central and Western Regional Councils of the Anthroposophical Society in America

Sunday 29 May 2022 –  at 3 – 4:30 pm PT / 4-5:30 MT / 5-6:30 pm CT / 6-7:30 pm ET

We will be working with Rudolf Steiner’s THE FIFTH GOSPEL GA 148, Lecture II, 2 October 1913, Oslo

The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, our individual “I”, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is strongly felt during this time of the consciousness soul age. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create this type of culture, and the opportunity is here for each of us to meet, human to human, where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength comes from our personal development and is enhanced by weaving our gifts together with others, knitting our social world in conscious community.

For more info. contact Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Topic: All Regions Whitsun

Time: May 29, 2022 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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29 May 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

Jupiter by Sallu Nextra

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)

John Beard

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
ASCENSIONTIDE
Come, Foresight
v7

My Self is threatening to flee,
drawn strongly to the world’s inviting light.
Now you, my foresight, dawn your star
and my divining, firmly as of right,
replace the power of thought
that in the senses’ glory leaves me.

This is part of the square quartet, the only one where the 4 related verses form a perfect square in the Soul Calendar’s lemniscate pattern. They correspond to the middle of each quarter in the year. It’s not mentioned anywhere else but I think these verses can be regarded as transitions between the seasons. They are a kind of crossing over the threshold to a new soul mood – in this first quarter leading to a union with the spirit through the senses at Whitsun and on into the summer. But for that the soul must overcome the luciferic temptation to mere sensual feeling. A heavenly restoring prescience – ‘Ahnen’ in German – is called for. Ahnen is the only word that I translate in association with its sound. ‘Ah’ has the eurythmic openness to the future and in this verse I’ve added the word ‘star’, not mentioned in the original.

Verses 7 and 46 are the only ones with the word ‘threatening’. When a new spring comes without proper thought clarity it can numb our consciousness. For thoughtful perception the power of memory (of what the Soul Calendar calls to awake in us from the spirit’s depths at Christmas) is needed, in contrast now to foresight for a new summer union with spirit.

LENT I
Memory, Arise
V46

The world is threatening to numb,
my soul’s own inborn force.
Now memory, companion me
and in my sight enhance
the penetration of my glance
vitality of will alone sustains.

The Holy Grail Study Group with the CRC
Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation
June 1, 2022 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Anyone who approaches these mysteries today must feel that they are confronting and challenging themselves by striving for the virtues of Parzival, while knowing that — because of modern conditions — they are in fact someone else also, the wounded Amfortas. Today we bear this divided nature within us: aspiring Parzival, wounded Amfortas. That is what self-knowledge must lead us to feel. From this recognition will flow the forces which make a unity again of this duality, and will thus advance us a little further in world evolution.”~ from Chapter 15,  Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy GrailChapter 15 “Acknowledging Amfortas,” excerpts from Steiner’s lecture given at Berlin on 7 February 1913 (GA 144, lecture IV), will be the focus of the June 1 meeting.

A transcript of the entire lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link. Please consider giving to the development and maintenance of the digital library of Rudolf Steiner’s work.  Scroll to the bottom of this message to read more about the RSArchive.org and SteinerLibrary.org
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing  study conversation.  The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.

This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.”  The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010.

This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer).  To connect to the audio/video-conference:

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If you have questions, please contact Mary Mertz mary.mcginnis@juno.com or Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu.

There is a knighthood of the 21st century
whose riders do not ride through the darkness
of physical forests as of old,
but through the forest of darkened minds.
They are armed with a spiritual armor
and an inner sun makes them radiant.
Out of them shines healing,
healing that flows from the knowledge
of the human being as a spiritual being.
They must create inner order, inner justice,
peace and conviction in the darkness
of our time. ~Karl Konig

Agenda for this meeting (CST)
 7:15  Welcome and Introductions        
7:18  Verse
7:25  Study led by volunteers
Note: CRC team will ID volunteers
          Mariarosa – pages 117-123b
          Marianne – pages 123b-129
7:50  Conversation
8:25   ID volunteers for next meeting
8:28  Close with verse

7 thoughts on “Crucible

  1. Beautiful post, as always.
    Could you please provide the chapter in Knowledge of Higher Worlds where the opening quote comes from? It’s very powerful and I would like to look it up and study further.

    1. I got the quote from one of Frank Thomas Smith’s compilations a few years ago.
      I can’t seem to find it by searching on the archives…I think UV has my book, I will try to find it…
      I can see why you love it, that 1st line “…See the sun-drenched vine, with its juice spiritualized to etheric sunlight! It is a picture of the purification & fermentation process of the “I”…
      is sublime…

      BYW: the concert at Church today was even more sublime…I cried tears of true JOY!

        1. What strikes me most about this specific entry from KOHW, is Steiner’s emphasis on “drives”, which can be translated into “desires”, and this can become our benchmark in discerning how the “all too human human” has to strive to overcome itself. I, too, went in search for where he says it, and I’m sure he does, and likely without all the frills and feathers if this comes from Smith, but no matter. Hazel has acknowledged an important quote here, and it reminds me of something I said recently concerning the Divine Sophia, and how Her Wisdom is such that She sees the imperative of separating off ‘Desire’. This comes at the 29th Aeon, and becomes the initial impetus for human incarnation. Thus, in order to get humanity to even consider incarnating on Earth, the Divine Sophia exposes Her Wisdom, which is called, “Achamod”. Prior to this, only the Primal Father and the Divine Silence existed.

          https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA149/English/RSP1963/19131228p01.html

          Then, it was discussed how the Buddha came to enlightenment under the bodhi tree, in terms of the four noble truths and the eightfold path of righteousness, which concerns overcoming desire. Now, isn’t that interesting, coming where it does? In another four hundred years, the Divine Sophia would incarnate Herself, and produce a Son; even two. They became the gateway to what took place next.

            1. Thanks Craig. I often wonder if CC priests actually grok into these Steiner courses, like GA 149. Herein, he slips in very nicely about the Divine Sophia and how She first produces the element of ‘Desire’ in order to create the trend for human incarnation. This was, of course, a primordial event which traces to the original 29th Aeon of the 30 stages of the foundational Gnostic Doctrine. So, to have the Buddha achieve enlightenment at age 29 seems very relevant within the more circumscribed limits of earth evolution. This occurred in 534 BC. Then, for 51 years Gautama Buddha taught the Eightfold Path of Righteousness, in which human desire can be overcome by orderly thoughts, feelings, and will.

              Rudolf Steiner carried this to a whole new level when he reached 29 years of age in 1890. This is when he went to Weimar for seven years, and began to establish the further evolution of the Eightfold Path in the cognizance of Christ. As such, Thinking, Feeling, and Willing are taken to a higher level of development in which Ascension is clearly the indicator of the transition from the BC era to the AD era.

              What if it can be shown that Pentecost can occur at any moment if we bring down the right ingredients? For this purpose, Steiner’s contributions are huge, and very much in line with his predecessor, who passed the Crown to the Maitreya Bodhisattva in the lead-up to the entry of Christ into earth evolution. As such, this transition has encompassed the last two thousand years. It can be shown fairly well in the sting of progress today, which makes one think of Saul on his way to Damascus to round up the renegade Christians in Syria. “Saul, why do you persecute me?; why do you kick against the pricks”?

              Boy, did he get a conversion! We have been on this conversionary plan for two millennia, and now into a third. Yet, it is this third that is most telling of the future, because the War of All Against All is being prepared right before our eyes. You see, just as the 5th Cultural Epoch is a recapitulation of the 3rd Cultural Epoch on a *supposedly* higher level of materialism, it can be shown that the 5th Cultural Epoch is forced to face the advent of the 7th Cultural Epoch, and what Revelations tells of. Modern Initiation Science requires that we face the future, and see what is being prepared, as if the Era of Christ can be overcome by the mounting evidence of Evil. I honor Evil only because it has to be faced and overcome in the truthful pursuit of true freedom, and Christ spoke this when He challenged those of the Jews who brought the woman caught in adultery to Him in order to judge her according to the Law of Moses. Please consider what He did. He wrote in the ground. Not once, but twice. Eventually, He gave those glorious words expressed in John 8:32. It is about knowing the truth and being set free. Thus, faith and gnosis seem to have an inseparable relationship in order to achieve the highest; like bread and butter.

  2. I always read with great interest the translations into English of Rudolf Steiner’s verses. Often the verses are not always easy to understand even in German. They are really very well arranged. Rudolf Steiner himself spoke of how much he struggled to find the right form of speech, how he searched to find the right words, the words with the right vowels and consonants. That is why it is so difficult to translate the Wahrspruchworte and the verses of the calendar of the soul, and it is not for nothing that there are so many translations. Is the emphasis on the correct transmission of the content or is special emphasis placed on the “poetic” form.
    I would like to make a few remarks about this translation. Not to criticize the translation, but to contribute to a better understanding.

    Mein Selbst, es drohet zu entfliehen, 
    Vom Weltenlichte mächtig angezogen. 
    Nun trete du mein Ahnen 
    In deine Rechte kräftig ein, 
    Ersetze mir des Denkens Macht, 
    Das in der Sinne Schein 
    Sich selbst verlieren will.

    My Self is threatening to flee,
    Drawn strongly to the world’s inviting light.
    Now you, my foresight, dawn your star
    and my divining, firmly as of right,
    replace the power of thought
    that in the senses’ glory leaves me.

    The first thing to notice is that in German this verse has 7 lines; but in English only 6.
    I will try to translate the content of lines 3 – 5 as well as possible, but the poetic power may be lost:

    And now, you my divining/guessing/sensing
    step forcefully into your (own) right
    And replace the power of thinking for me

    Lines 5 + 6:
    So that the pretense/illusion of the senses
    wishes/wants to lose/to get lost itself.

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