Den of Thieves

Under the Fig Tree Art Print by icons | Society6

Here is the recording from our HOLY MONDAY session of The 8-Fold Path to Easter, with Chritine Burke.

Join us again tomorrow 10 am Central Time 30 March Holy TUESDAY– with Deborah Rogers

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828… Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

Also to night begins the 3 Day Vigil for Dr. Rudolf Steiner see below.

Alexey Pismenny: The Fig Tree Diptych

Here is the link to ‘Den of Thieves’ on the ‘I Think Speech podcast’

On Holy Monday Christ uses the grove of fig trees to reveal to the disciples how the ‘Hosannas’ of the previous day were mere illusion, the last fruits of the old visionary clairvoyance, given by nature, & bound to the body. The seemingly harsh words He uses about the fig tree are a challenge to that ancient ecstatic vision. Here a momentous decision is made in the history of humankind. On that Monday in Holy Week Christ rejects a temptation. Had He allied Himself with the ancient clairvoyant forces, He might have found public recognition, like Judas wanted. Not only would the people have sung “Hosanna”; they would have crowned Him King. But a final pronouncement is made: Christ will find no link with the ancient forces. His sole aim is that humankind should find the way to awakening & freedom. Christ Jesus rejects the Hosannas of the people, bringing about the reversal in the cries of “Crucify Him”. For His mission is to show Humanity that we must act out of a consciousness that leads to freedom, even if it means tragedy; even if men in their spiritual blindness nail Him on the cross.

On the Cursing of the Fig Tree (St. John Chrysostom) | MYSTAGOGY RESOURCE  CENTER

His curse on the fig trees of those who had lent him the donkey is one of tough love. He acts purely from the nature of his Sun-Being, for when the Sun rises, the Moon inevitably goes pale. So the moon-forces of the old vision must fade away.

35 Cleansing of the Temple ideas | cleansing of the temple, temple, money  changers

Then The Christ appears before the Temple, where many pilgrims are feverishly buying, selling, trading & bargaining. The Passover lamb must be slaughtered, & this is a source of big business; for the custom demands that the animals be brought to the Temple before they are sacrificed. Old Annas, the notorious miser of world history, knows how to make a profit. He has already made a vast fortune from this market. He has been the back slapper & string-puller in the corrupt political compromise with the Romans which is the basis of the Temple business. The pilgrims must change their local currency into the ‘official Roman currency.’ So the Temple has become an Exchange market. The Roman money men have even been admitted to the Temple, even though they are agents of the ‘Cult of Caesar’, because it was hoped by this compromise to at least keep them out of the Holy of Holies.

Pieter Aertsen - Christ cleansing the Temple – Get Custom Art

Now Christ comes on the scene. He is there to fulfil the custom of the feast. But when he sees this ungodly exchange, the fire of His burning will takes over. There is no need for Him to say much. The people are immediately seized with panic. Terror-stricken, they realize the decadence they have fallen into. The conscious restraint which was exercised by Jesus 3 years ago is entirely transformed & has become the intensity of divine & human will combined. In their hearts the people know He has the right to tear down the mask of decadence in the Temple.

Jesus Cleanses the Temple (Mark 11:15-19)
El Greco

Matthew: 15 On reaching Jerusalem, Jesus entered the temple courts and began driving out those who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves, 16 and would not allow anyone to carry merchandise through the temple courts. 17 And as he taught them, he said, “Is it not written: ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all nations’]? But you have made it ‘a den of thieves.’”

Holy Week and Easter: Famous Paintings

18 The chief priests and the teachers of the law heard this and began looking for a way to kill him, for they feared him, because the whole crowd was amazed at his teaching.

~based on indications from Mark 11: 12-25 & Emil Bock

Star chart with slanted ecliptic line and labeled moon, Spica, and Arcturus.

29 March 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Let the waning gibbous moon help you find the star Spica.

TONIGHT starts our 3 day Festive Vigil for Rudolf Steiner In honor of the anniversary of his Birth into the Spiritual World

Day 1: 29 March 2021

* Begin with the Bridge verse (below) upon waking in the morning.

*  You might create a physical altar for these 3 days – a portal, or crossing point. Light a candle, place flowers, or other sacred actions. 

Day 2: 30 March 2021

*  Pay attention to reflections from the night. Begin the day with the Bridge verse

*  Join together on Zoom (link below) at 12pm PT/1 pm MT/ 2pm CT/ 3pm ET for a 30 minute Celebration of Life for Dr. Rudolf Joseph Lorenz Steiner (25 February 1861 – 30 March 1925)

During the call:

*  Welcome by Angela Foster. Bring a candle to light together if you will.

* Hazel Archer Ginsberg: Recollections from Wilhem Zeylmans van Emmichoven and Thoughts on The Representative of Humanity

* Timothy Kennedy: “Some of the Gifts of Rudolf Steiner’s Death”

*  Closing verse by Angela Foster

The ARC is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: March 30 Celebration for Rudolf Steiner Time: Tues March 30, 12pm PT/1 pm MT/ 2pm CT/ 3pm ET

Join Zoom Meeting – https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81463338523?pwd=UUdBUVBJeFh6eitoWURibzNIREVwQT09 – Meeting ID: 814 6333 8523 – Passcode: FSM

One tap mobile – Meeting ID: 814 6333 8523 – Passcode: 286512 – Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kctvcCLHg3

Day 3: March 31 2021

*  Reflections from the night. Begin the day with the Bridge Verse. What is rising up from the vigil we created together – what after-images have come? 

* You are invited to share reflections at this link: https://padlet.com/angelaARC/1vcgls2eujjed4cz

*  In the evening, before sleep, repurpose your altar. Give an offering to the earth.

We are a bridge
Between what is past
And future existence;
The present is an instant:
Is momentary bridge.
Spirit become soul
In enfolding matter
Is from the past;
Soul becoming spirit
In germinal vessels
Is on the path to the future.
Grasp what is to come
Through what is past;
Have hope of what is growing
Through what has emerged.
And so apprehend
Existence in growing;
And so apprehend
What is growing in what is.
 ~ Given to Ita Wegman at the opening of the clinic in Arlesheim Christmas 1920 by Rudolf Steiner


The 8-Fold Path to Easter

Holy Week 2021 (March 28 – April 4): Starting on Palm Sunday & every morning of Holy Week, at 8 am PT / 9 am MT/ 10 am CT / 11 am ET / 3 pm UT / 4 pm CET for 30 minutes, including Easter Sunday, we will gather on zoom & endeavor 1st of all, to take turns sharing indications from Holy Week, the 7 rhythms of the Foundation Stone Meditation & Rudolf Steiner/The Buddha’s 8 –fold Path, known as the ‘Weekday Exercises’  (15-20 min) HOLY WEEK CHART

~hag

Zoom Host Lisa Dalton (President of the National Michael Chekhov Association)

28 March Palm SUNDAY – with Hazel Archer & Lisa Dalton
Resolves or ‘RIGHT JUDGMENT.’ having been formed independently of sympathies and antipathies.

29 March Holy MONDAY – with Speech Artist Christine Burke
Talking – ‘RIGHT WORD.’

30 March Holy TUESDAY – Rudolf Steiner’s Deathday – with Deborah Rogers
External actions- ‘RIGHT DEED.’

Also at 12pm PT/1 pm MT/ 2pm CT/ 3pm ET All are invited to join a 30 minute Festive Vigil for Rudolf Steiner In honor of the anniversary of his Birth into the Spiritual World 30 March 1925 (This is a separate zoom link from the one for Holy Week) Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81463338523?pwd=UUdBUVBJeFh6eitoWURibzNIREVwQT09
Meeting ID: 814 6333 8523 – Passcode: FSM

31 March Holy WEDNESDAY – with Hazel Archer
The ordering of life. – ‘RIGHT STANDPOINT.’

1 April Maundy THURSDAY – with Lelan Harris
Human Endeavour. – ‘TO LET ALL THE EXERCISES BECOME A HABIT.

2 April Good FRIDAY – with Sally Greenberg
The endeavor to learn as much as possible from life. – ‘RIGHT MEMORY.’ (Remembering what has been learned from experiences).

3 March Holy SATURDAY – with Nancy Poer
To pay attention to one’s ideas. – ‘RIGHT OPINION.’

The octave of the New Sun
4 April EASTER SUNDAY – with Luicien Dante Lazar
To turn one’s gaze inwards – ‘RIGHT EXAMINATION.’

Whoever is holding the leading thoughts for that day will tie it into some artistic exercise based on the indications (15-20 min)

Group sharing (5 min)

Then you are welcome to join in to co-create a Thought–Seed with Hazel Archer – A group Thought-Form, a positive egregore, created by our Willed Visualization. We will use this Herbert Hahn verse as an anchor:

When I think light, my soul shines,
When my soul shines, the earth is a star,
When the earth is a star, then I am, a true human being

Group sharing (5 min)

We close with the ‘reversed’ Hahn verse.
I am a true human being
For the Earth is a star
The Earth is a star
When my soul shines
My soul shines
When I think light

Yes freinds, it’s a 30 minute Holy Week Touch in.

*Dear friends, we will open the zoom room at 9:50 am for social time & to give everyone a chance to get settled in so we can begin promptly at 10 am
Topic: The 8-Fold Path thru Holy Week 2021
Time: Starting on Palm Sunday Mar 28 – thru Easter Morning, 2021 10 AM Central Time (US and Canada)
Every day, 8 occurrence(s)
Mar 28, 2021 10AM
Mar 29, 2021 10AM
Mar 30, 2021 10AM
Mar 31, 2021 10AM
Apr 1, 2021 10AM
Apr 2, 2021 10M
Apr 3, 2021 10AM
Apr 4, 2021 10AM

Daily: https://zoom.us/meeting/tJErdOqsqj8iGNzL8iNTwKUXyrvmVGSSXqaW/ics?icsToken=98tyKuCtqDgpHtCRuBuPRowMBIjCb-jwiClHjY1HsEfsLRRESTbOL_BUP4RYI-vo

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/95633444828?pwd=Wk56K08vK2dNQUhhK0Q2S09zQWJrQT09 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: bee

Dial by your location Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/aX8X3nrr3 Meeting ID: 956 3344 4828 – Passcode: 425730

The mystery of icon-preserving bees

“Human Bee-ing at Easter Time”

Easter Sunday 4 April 2021, at 12 pm PT/1 pm MT/ 2 pm CT/ 3pm ET / 7 UT / 8 pm CET
in person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & online

Keynote with Ines Katharina Kinchen* – What can the bees teach us about consciously engaging with the Earth and deepening our inner festival life? And how does this inner festival life affect the beings all around us?

Let us discover the tasks of our time and journey with the Bee into her connection to the Earth, the Cosmos, and the Human Soul… during the Easter expansion.

This small ceremony will include artistic and meditative activity. Please have ready: some real honey and a spoon, a beeswax candle and matches, paper and colored pencils.

Zoom Host – Lisa Dalton

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Dottie Zold – On the Buddha’s 8-Fold Path

Logo for the Emerald Ark Sanctuary

Ines Katharina Kinchen makes her home at the Emerald Ark Sanctuary, a small biodynamic initiative nestled in the in the Appalachian Mountains of eastern Tennessee, surrounded by the Cherokee National Forest. Here she lives with her son Marquise, tends to the bees, the animals and the land, and facilitates workshops. Ines is a Resonance Medicine practitioner, a kindergarten teacher at the Asheville Waldorf School, and the founder of the Honeybee Habitat Project.

We close with the ‘Rock Spring Wonder’ in story & Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Potluck Social Time in the Schreinerei – Please bring food & drink to share

$10 Suggested Donation (can’t make it? or joining us online? please consider supporting this event, Thank you)

Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Easter Festival

Time: Apr 4, 2021 02:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Z0ZmT05FdDZIclE4RFBLZWNwWXJ5QT09 
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: Easter

Dial by your location – Meeting ID: 705 293 1041 – Passcode: 776400 – Find your local number: https://zoom.us/u/a961qZZhF

For more info. Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer

Events & Festivals Committee of the Rudolf Steiner Branch

of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Ave.
Chicago, IL 60618 (map
https://donate.rschicago.org/ 

3 thoughts on “Den of Thieves

  1. Hi Hazel,

    I think that you will find that all four gospels express the entry into Jerusalem with the people shouting “Hosanna!” to be indicative of a fine occasion, with no redress involving rejecting this accolade, or even the donkey colt!! John 12 here, is also supplemented by Matthew: 21, Mark 11, and Luke 19.

    Jesus Enters Jerusalem
    12 On the next day the large crowd who had come to the feast, when they heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem, 13 took the branches of the palm trees and went out to meet Him, and began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord, even the King of Israel.” 14 Jesus, finding a young donkey, sat on it; as it is written, 15 “Fear not, daughter of Zion; behold, your King is coming, seated on a donkey’s colt.” 16 These things His disciples did not understand at the first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things were written of Him, and that they had done these things to Him. 17 So the people, who were with Him when He called Lazarus out of the tomb and raised him from the dead, continued to testify about Him. 18 For this reason also the people went and met Him, because they heard that He had performed this sign. 19 So the Pharisees said to one another, “You see that you are not doing any good; look, the world has gone after Him.”

    Your Holy Monday says:

    “On Holy Monday Christ uses the grove of fig trees to reveal to the disciples how the ‘Hosannas’ of the previous day were mere illusion, the last fruits of the old visionary clairvoyance, given by nature, & bound to the body. The seemingly harsh words He uses about the fig tree are a challenge to that ancient ecstatic vision. Here a momentous decision is made in the history of humankind. On that Monday in Holy Week Christ rejects a temptation. Had He allied Himself with the ancient clairvoyant forces, He might have found public recognition, like Judas wanted. Not only would the people have sung “Hosanna”; they would have crowned Him King. But a final pronouncement is made: Christ will find no link with the ancient forces. His sole aim is that humankind should find the way to awakening & freedom. Christ Jesus rejects the Hosannas of the people, bringing about the reversal in the cries of “Crucify Him”. For His mission is to show Humanity that we must act out of a consciousness that leads to freedom, even if it means tragedy; even if men in their spiritual blindness nail Him on the cross.”

    I am thinking this analysis is coming from Emil Bock of the Christian Community, but it simply does not agree with the facts of Christ’s triumphal entry into Jerusalem, which was entirely successful and indicated the undying love and faith of the multitudes . Christ never rejects the ‘Hosanna’s’ of the people, or the donkey.

    1. Looking at the gospels thru the eye of Anthroposophy, it makes sense to me that the narratives of Palm Sunday & Holy Monday speak about Christ overcoming the temptation of simply reviving the ancient atavistic ways which would make him popular, instead he stuck to his solomen mission.

      The people that gave him the donkey colt, which Christ told his disciples to get for him, was part of this. For those people owned the fig grove & practiced the decadent pagan ways in the best way they could not being able to truly connect to source.

      If you study the 5th Gospel it all becomes clear. For when Jesus was traveling he saw how pople were clinging to the old ways which was making them sick. That secene when he goes to the pagan altar & they rsh him wanting to be their Priest was when he recieved the reverses Our Father – which revealed the decadene of the old ways. This made a deep impression in the soul of Jesus which lead him to return home to unbuden his soul to Mary before going to the Baptism. So he was not fooled by their uncouncious Hosanna’s. And his rejection of them is what made them turn against him, just as Judas did.

      1. The Gospel of Mark lecture 8 tells exactly what Christ wanted to convey about the fig tree out of season. Yes, the ancient clairvoyant faculty was to experience the beginning of something new, and based on the Mystery of Golgotha:

        “Here it is possible to perceive the methodically artistic manner in which the Gospel veils the occult facts concerned with the evolution of mankind. This passage is again a difficult puzzle for the commentators.

        And the next day, as they were leaving Bethany he was hungry.

        And from afar he saw a fig tree, which had leaves. So he went to see if he might find something on it. And when he came to it he found nothing but leaves, for it was not the season for figs.

        And he began to speak to it, “Never to all eternity shall anyone eat fruit from you!” And his disciples heard it. (Mark 11:12-14.)

        Now we should all ask ourselves honestly, “Is it not truly extraordinary that, according to the Gospel, a God should go straight up to a fig tree, look for figs and find none, and then the reason is explicitly given why He did not find any — it was not the time for figs — so at a time when there are no figs He goes up to the fig tree, looks for figs and finding none, says, “Never to all eternity shall anyone eat fruit from you?”

        Now consider the usual explanations given of this story — although the Gospel gives nothing but the dry and prosaic fact that for some strange reason Christ Jesus feels hunger, and goes up to a fig tree at a time when no figs grow. He finds no figs, and then curses the tree telling it that to all eternity no figs will grow any more on it. What, then is the fig tree, and why is the entire story told here? Anyone who can read occult works first of all will recognize in the fig tree (its connection with the Gospel will be shown later) the same picture as was spoken of in relation to the Buddha, who sat under the Bodhi tree and received enlightenment for his sermon at Benares. “Under the Bodhi tree” means the same as “under the fig tree.” From a world-historical point of view it was still the “time of figs” in respect to human clairvoyance, that is to say it was possible to receive enlightenment as the Buddha did, under the Bodhi tree, under the fig tree. But this was no longer true, and that is what the disciples had to learn. From the point of view of world history it was a fact that there was no longer any fruit on the tree under which the Buddha had received his enlightenment.

        And what was happening in all of mankind was mirrored at that time in the soul of Christ. We may see in Empedocles of Sicily a representative of humanity, a representative of many people who were similarly hungry because their souls could no longer discover the revelation that had been given earlier and had to be satisfied with the abstractions of the ego. In the same way that we can speak of the starving Empedocles, we can speak of the hunger for the spirit that all men felt in the times that were then beginning. And the entire hunger of mankind discharged itself into the soul of Christ Jesus as the Mystery of Golgotha approached. The disciples were to participate in this secret and know of it.

        Christ led them to the fig tree and told them the secret of the Bodhi tree, omitting to tell them, because it had no significance for them, that the Buddha was still able to find fruit on it. Now it was no longer the “time of figs,” figs that the Buddha had received from the Bodhi tree when he gave his sermon at Benares. Now Christ had to tell them that for all eternity the fruit of knowledge would never again ripen on the tree from which the light of Benares had shown down, but that hereafter the light would shine from the Mystery of Golgotha.

        What is the truth that is presented to us here? The truth that Christ Jesus went with His disciples from Bethany to Jerusalem, and that a specially strong feeling, a specially strong force was called forth in the disciples, awakening clairvoyant forces in their souls, so that they were predisposed toward imagination. Clairvoyant imaginative powers were awakened in the disciples. In clairvoyance they see the Bodhi tree, the fig tree, and Christ Jesus inspires in them the knowledge that the fruit of knowledge can no longer come from the Bodhi tree, for it is no longer the “time of figs,” that is of the ancient knowledge. For all eternity the tree will be withered, but a new tree must grow forth, a tree consisting of the dead wood of the cross; a tree on which the fruit of ancient knowledge will not ripen, but the fruit that can ripen for mankind from the Mystery of Golgotha, which is linked as by a new symbol to the cross on Golgotha. In the place of that scene of world history when the Buddha sat under the Bodhi tree stands the picture of Golgotha where another tree, the tree of the cross, is raised, on which hung the living fruit of the God-man revealing himself, so that from Him may radiate the new knowledge of the fruit of the ever growing tree that will bear fruit to all eternity.”

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