Lately I have been finding it hard to live the life of a consistent, focused meditant. Summer often has that effect on my concentration. Although every day I try to tune into the 10:10 Thought-Seed Meditation, even if it’s just for a few minutes. My work with the 6 ‘Basic Exercises’ has been more general, on a ‘as needed’ basis lately (O equanimity my old elusive friend don’t leave me now 😉
My Circle Meditation is more structured, which helps me keep a good grounded rhythm. These powerful mantras done 3x’s a day, given by Rudolf Steiner to the Youth 100 years ago this October, connect me with the Michaelic forces, ever enlivened by the seasonal energies, to combine personal development with the social & cultic aspects of Spiritual Science. More & more as I get older (yep during this St. John’s-Tide I experience my natal return every year) I am feeling the need to essentialize – to use the doubled-edged sword of my thinking to cut away what does not serve. All the unhealthy patterns can no longer be tolerated.
When I look across at the parallels to this phase in my life with my 1st 7 years, it is as if my heart is being transplanted into the Sun. I feel the Sun is within me, like my heart-sense is becoming a cognitive organ; & that those joined in good will are shining out with it. When I can heal the Sun-spots, my true Sun-Self becomes an eye, an ear, as well as an organ of warmth. “We stand within the light, we touch spirit-beings with our light-organs.” * Then we not only feel part of the Sun, we perceive ourselves “on the other side of the Sun”. * This then allows us to experience the whole universe within our being. And we become the human center point for the joining of the Earth with the Sun.
Dear friends, there is a powerful esoteric call for us to support the creation of a New Sun-Earth. Not a me first earth. This is how the secret of the Grail can be revealed – as Christian Morgenstern says: “I lift my heart to you as a true vessel of the Grail …”* It is an experience of being totally imbued with the Spirit of eternity which fills the receiving soul of the Grail at the Sun-altar. Here Spirit, & the Soul Forces of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, unite. This is the Sophianic / Michaelic reality that we can build – a Temple in the New Jerusalem of the Heart, where the Amfortas in us is healed.
See you there –
Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg
*GA 212
 Annual General Meeting with the Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America Saturday, July 16 in person at the Rudolf Steiner House in Ann Arbor & on zoom 3:30 pm – 4:30 pm PT / 5:30-6:30 CT / 6:30-7:30 pm ET / We hope all ASA members in the Central Region can attend the AGM portion. We will be bidding farewell to Alberto Loya, dedicated CRC member since 2009, & welcoming Mary Mertz onto the Council, as well as giving reports on 2020 and 2021. Before the AGM, on Saturday afternoon, ALL members & Friends are warmly invited to Join us for: Deepening the Grail: Our Parzival Quest and Question – An Experiential Workshop with The Central Regional Council In-person at the Rudolf Steiner House in Ann Arbor & on Zoom |
| 11:00 am – 2:00 pm PT / 1:00 – 4:00 pm Central / 2:00 – 5:00 pm Eastern / NO COST for attendees The Parzival Quest is calling to humanity at this time of the Consciousness Soul. Explore aspects of this Quest through narrative, biography work and movement, including techniques developed by artist and devout anthroposophist Michael Chekhov, with Lisa Dalton and the CRC crew. Then be our guests for supper, and join us for the Central Region’s Annual General meeting. Doors & Zoom Room open at 1:45 pm ET (all times are Eastern Time) – 2:00 pm – Welcome, singing, Chekhov movement, biography work 3:30 – 3:45 – Break 3:45 – 5:00 – Our Parzival Quest and Question 5:00 – Catered Dinner at the Rudolf Steiner House in Ann Arbor 6:30 – 7:30 PM ET – Annual Meeting – bring a memory of Alberto to share! The CRC: Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Lisa Dalton, Alberto Loya, working with Mary Mertz, and Michael Gratsch Please RSVP to Mary Mertz mary.mcginnis@juno.com Let us know whether you’ll be attending in person or via Zoom. To inquire about accommodations at the Rudolf Steiner House, contact Cynthia Chelius cynthia@anthroposophy.org Zoom meeting info (please note — passcode required) Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/86449905249 Meeting ID: 864 4990 5249 Passcode: 923117 |
10 July 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars“: As Bella Luna waxes from gibbous to full, it crosses Scorpius and Sagittarius.
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHNSTIDE III
The Chalice of the Senses
v14
Completely open to the senses’ revelation
I lost my own impulse;
thought’s dream seemed, numbing me,
to rob me of myself,
but waking now there comes
in all the senses’ glory cosmic thought.
This is the first verse of the Soul Calendar’s second quarter that Karl König describes as the voice of the Baritone, who will now be incarnating spirit with imaginative insight. His final verse is at Michaelmas, after which in his mirror verses the Soprano will be inspired to birth the Spirit Child at Christmas. This week’s mirror verse is her final one.
NEW YEAR
The Chalice of the Spirit
v39
Completely open 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.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives)
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Present Age, Wikipedia)
Nikola Tesla Day
138 – Deathday of Emperor Hadrian, Roman emperor from 117 to 138. Hadrian is known for building Hadrian’s Wall, which marked the northern limit of Britannia. He also rebuilt the Pantheon & constructed the Temple of Venus & Roma. An admirer of the Greeks, he is considered by some to have been a humanist, & he is regarded as one of the Five Good Emperors.
165 – Deathday of Felicitas of Rome is a saint numbered among the Christian martyrs. A legend presents her as the mother of the seven martyrs: Alexander, Vitalis, Martialis, Januarius, Felix, Philip, Sylvanus. In Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul we see listed for today the Fairy Tale The Seven Ravens (Sieben Bruder) by Jacob & Wilhelm Grimm
1212 –London burns to the ground
1509 – Birthday of John Calvin, an influential French theologian & pastor during the Protestant Reformation
1778 – American Revolution: Louis XVI of France declares war on the Kingdom of Great Britain
1832 – U.S. President Andrew Jackson vetoes a bill that would re-charter the Second Bank of the United States
1856 – Birthday of Nikola Tesla, a Serbian American inventor, electrical engineer, mechanical engineer, physicist, & futurist best known for his contributions to the design of the modern alternating current (AC) electricity supply system
1871 – Birthday of Marcel Proust, French novelist, critic, & essayist
1921 –‘Bloody Sunday’: 160 people are killed & 161 houses destroyed during rioting & gun battles in Belfast, Northern Ireland
1923 – Rudolf Steiner invites L. Polzer-Hoditz to Belin to discuss Threefolding
1925 – Scopes Trial: the so-called “Monkey Trial” – a young high school science teacher accused of teaching evolution in violation of the Butler Act.
1938 – Howard Hughes sets a new record by completing a 91-hour airplane flight around the world
1962 – Telstar, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched into orbit.
1966 – The Chicago Freedom Movement, led by Martin Luther King, Jr., holds a rally at Soldier Field in Chicago, Illinois. As many as 60,000 people come to hear Dr. King as well as Mahalia Jackson, Stevie Wonder, & Peter, Paul and Mary.
1975 – Deathday of Marie Savitch – One of eurythmy’s pioneers, Marie Savitch was director of the Goetheanum stage group for many years and oversaw much of the early development of eurythmy.
1991 – Boris Yeltsin takes office as the first elected President of Russia.
Roots and Renewal – An online series hosted by the Regional Councils of the Anthroposophical Society in America
Join us for an exciting series where we will turn our attention toward the 100-year renewal and celebration of anthroposophy. On July 21 we will kick off the series and begin to mark significant milestones of this 100-year jubilee! We hope you will join the Eastern, Central, and Western Regional Councils as they host this engaging program.
What: An online series marking significant milestones in the 100-year renewal of anthroposophy
Where: Online through Zoom. Recordings will be shared via email.
When: July 21, 2022 at 3pm PT/ 4pm MT/ 5pm CT/ 6pm ET
Future dates are September 16 and October 16, 2022 *More details below
Contribution: Free! All donations are gratefully accepted to support the work of the regional councils.
SESSION 1: From Artemis to the Representative of Humanity and Beyond
July 21, 2022 at 3pm PT/ 4pm MT/ 5pm CT/ 6pm ET
Join the Regional Councils of the ASA to explore the connections between the burning of the Temple of Ephesus, the birth of Alexander the Great on 21 July 356 BC., and the burning of the 1st Goetheanum 100 years ago in 1922. This session will be enlivened with group eurythmy, singing, and break-out sessions. This session will be recorded and emailed after the live presentation.
We will be working with a compilation of Rudolf Steiner’s insights from these lectures:
+ World History in the Light of Anthroposophy – And as a Foundation for Knowledge of the Human Spirit, GA 233: Lecture IV, 27 December 1923 ~ Lecture V, 28 December 1923 ~ Lecture VIII, 31 December 1923, Dornach + The Easter Festival In Relation to the Mysteries, GA 233A, lecture IV. The Mysteries of Ephesus. The Aristotelian Categories, 22nd April, 1924, Dornach.
*More Detail TBA for SESSION 2 and 3!
SESSION 2: 100 years with the ‘Movement for Religious Renewal’ 16 September 1922 – 2022
A panel of Christian Community Priests from the Regions, including Rev. Craig Wiggins
September 16, 2022 at 3pm PT/ 4pm MT/ 5pm CT/ 6pm ET
SESSION 3: The Founding of ‘The Esoteric Youth Group’ 16 October 1922 – 2022
A snapshot into the biographies of the original members of the Circle. From The Esoteric School – Esoteric Lessons 1913-1923, in the collected works of Rudolf Steiner
October 16, 2022 at 3pm PT/ 4pm MT/ 5pm CT/ 6pm ET
“You know that among the many clichés which became current in the nineteenth century, it was said that the great pioneer of the nineteenth century closed his life by calling out to posterity: “More light!” As a matter of fact Goethe did not say “More light!” He lay on his couch breathing with difficulty and said: “Open the shutters!” That is the truth. The other is the cliché that has connected itself with it. The words Goethe really spoke are perhaps far more apt than the mere phrase “More light”. The state of things at the end of the nineteenth century does indeed arouse the feeling that our predecessors have closed the shutters. Then came the younger generation; they felt cramped; they felt that the shutters which the older generation had closed so tightly must be opened. Yes, my dear friends, I assure you that although I am old, I shall tell you more of how we can now attempt to open the shutters again.” ~ Rudolf Steiner – GA 217 – THE YOUNGER GENERATION – Lecture 1 – Dornach, 3 October 1922
| Renewing the Mysteries:The Founding of The Christian Community & the Burning of the First Goetheanum Spring Valley, NY – August 8-13, 2022 REGISTER NOW!* lectures * artistic workshops * conversation * evening performances I will be offering a program on Tuesday 9 August for the Free Initiative 2:30 -3:30 pm ET |
| Many anthroposophists have understood the 1923/24 Christmas Foundation Conference as constituting a renewal of the Mysteries. Nine months after the Christmas Conference, speaking to the priests of the Christian Community, Rudolf Steiner pointed to a sequence from the founding of the Christian Community in September 1922 to the burning of the Goetheanum at the end of that year to the Christmas Conference.In this 100th anniversary year of both the founding of the Christian Community and the burning of the Goetheanum, can an exploration of these events help us to understand the nature of the New Mysteries? The keynote speaker is Daniel Hafner, priest of the Christian Community. He will address this theme with a particular focus on the colored windows of the First Goetheanum. The Act of Consecration of Man will be celebrated during the week and there will also be a Class Lesson for members of the School of Spiritual Science. Venue: SPRING VALLEY, NY, Threefold Community, and The Christian Community *REGISTRATION IS REQUIRED TO ATTEND THIS EVENT: A conference on the scale currently planned requires that a minimum number of participants register by July 20th. INFO OR QUERIES: Rev. Paul Newton paulknewton@msn.com (845) 517-4101 Sponsored by The Christian Community Spring Valley Area and the Threefold Branch of the Anthroposophical Society |
Hi Hazel,
Understanding the Grail means that we need to see how spiritual evolution itself has created a kind of separation of what stood to occur in the ancient Mysteries, and wherein the development of the neophyte led to the creation of a condition called, “Katharsis”. This is the process of the development of the astral body, over time, in order to lead to the second act of initiation, which was called, “Photismos”, which required the withdrawal of the etheric body. In ancient times, this kind of close experience of the Grail could be effected rather closely, and without the need for a distance, and the search that we have come to learn as the path of the Holy Grail.
Now, at the time of the homilies of John the Baptist, we know that the conditions for initiation had changed. John could only baptize through water as a kind of ragged remnant of the earlier age, in which initiations could actually be effected by the impressing of the developed astral organs, i.e., chakras, into the etheric body.
Thus, by the time of John, this kind of initiation via the etheric body was no longer possible. The only possibility was to extract the etheric body from the physical body in an act wherein a kind of “near death experience” occurred. I know from personal experience that this is very unpleasant because I experienced it in a classmate’s backyard swimming pool at her 11th birthday party in 1961. I nearly drowned, but it proved to be a kind of catalyst for what I am doing today.
Thus, I often think about what you are doing today. I see you offering this blog as a support system. This is very important. My feeling is that nobody should think and feel that their present incarnation is incomplete. Please try to lose this kind of fatalist notion. While it is dramatic, it really needs to see the parameters of the present incarnation, in which you have met spiritual science. You see, nothing could be incomplete about that. Your efforts on behalf have been exemplary, and so you need to try to see a completion in the making in this life.
Your birth on July 12th, when the Sun is in the sign of Gemini, according to Steiner’s own COS, which accords to the sidereal dates of June 16 to July 19th, could be an important memory for your own distinction. The near Full Moon will be in Sagittarius, the near opposite of where the Sun is in Gemini, this day. Please try to see the completion as representing you in this incarnation. Leave the incomplete for the future, which we all bear. And this future only bears the higher elements of Ego consciousness, which we humans on earth as the fourth sphere have first brought forth. In the 21st century, this knowledge is a good homing. It means that some are getting it.
And this homing, and getting it, is the plantation for the future.
I know this katharis well.
I am develping the Photismos thru my imaginative cognition & meditative life…
I’m not dead yet, sooo, yes on this next Natal return I have another chance to align with my star & as you say connect to the forces coming in on the eve of the Full Thunder/Buck Moon.
I very much relate to my COTS verse which is # 14 Steiner calls it SUMMER:
Surrendering to senses’ revelation
I lost the drive of my own being,
And dreamlike thinking seemed
To daze and rob me of myself.
Yet quickening there draws near
In sense appearance cosmic thinking.
I find myself at week 13, which also fits nicely to this time of the year:
And when I live in senses’ heights,
There flames up deep within my soul
Out of the spirit’s fiery worlds
The gods’ own word of truth:
In spirit sources seek expectantly
To find your spirit kinship.