. Dits & -Dahs

Teal Swan

There is no doubt about it – Sirius is my favorite star-being! The way it scintillates has to be a kind of cosmic Morse Code. Even when I was a child it spoke to me. I have had many dreams over the years knowing they were messages from this place in space. I remembering reading something Steiner said about how except for those human beings known as Adam & Eve, most of us left Earth during the tumultuous early Lumerian times, when Earth was still so very volatile, & went to dwell on other planets or stars. (Can any one share that reference?) This definitely rings true for me. (I often still have a hard time being an Earthling).

As a young woman Doris Lessing’s science fiction series ‘Canopus in Argos‘ where Beings from Sirius come to help us remember our cosmic origins, made a deep impression. Truly formative, It really rang true, that yes, sometimes we forget who we really are, & the stars are there to remind us.

Garth Battista caught Orion & Sirius – the bright star on the far left, at a School Farm in the Catskill Mountains

Right now this special star rises over the southeastern horizon after midnight; & at dawn we can see its brilliance adorning the southern part of the sky. This morning at 5:30 am we were communing, & wow, Sirius is seriously the brightest star of the whole sky. Even the city lights can’t interfere with its beaming message.

Sopdet or Sothis is the ancient Egyptian name of the star Sirius & its personification as an Egyptian goddess, conflated with Isis as a goddess & Anubis as a god. It’s easy to follow Orion to find Sirius: the starry belt of the mythological hunter points at this dazzling star, whose name means “glowing triangle or “Sharp One. ” Being the brightest star in the constellation Canis Major (which was traditionally associated with Orion’s dog), Sirius is also known as the “Dog Star”.  During the dog days of summer the Nile rises with Sirius to feed the fertile bank & bring life to the desert.

During the early period of Egyptian civilization, this heliacal rising of the bright star preceded the annual flooding of the Nile. It was therefore used for the solar calendar which largely superseded the original lunar calendar in the 3rd millennium BC. & became central to cultural depictions of the year & to the celebrations of Wep Renpet the Egyptian New Year (starting around the beginning of August ie. ‘The dog days’) And Sopdet or Sothis was venerated as a goddess of the fertility brought to the soil by the flooding.

Sopdet is the consort of Sah, the personified constellation of Orion near Sirius. Their child Venus was the hawk god Sopdu, “Lord of the East”. As the “bringer of the New Year & the Nile flood”, she was associated with Osiris from an early date, & by the Ptolemaic period Sah & Sopdet almost solely appeared in forms conflated with Osiris & Isis.

She was depicted as a woman with a five-pointed star upon her head, usually with a horned hedjet. In the Ptolemaic & Roman period, the European notion of the “Dog Star” caused her to sometimes be represented as a large dog or as a woman riding one sidesaddle.

During the Old Kingdom, she was also an important ‘psychopomp’ working in the guise of Anubis, guiding deceased pharaohs thru the Egyptian underworld.

From the Middle Kingdom, Sopdet sometimes appeared as a god who held up part of Nut (the sky or firmament) with Hathor. In Greco-Roman Egypt, the male Sopdet was conflated with the dog-headed Anubis.

Myztico Campo

The Dogon Tribe from Mali, West Africa honor their connection to their Star Ancestors from Sirius.

Sothis brings her light here to this side of the globe during Autumn & Winter…So friends, make it your intention to tune into the message of Sirius thru its shimmering rainbow of light,  then let me know what you talked about. Maybe I’ll be in the conversation with you, reminding each other of our divine origins…

~hag

28 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”

The waxing crescent Moon is back in the evening sky, low in the southwest. As twilight deepens and the stars begin to come out — but before the Moon gets too low — look for the Sagittarius Teapot in its background

Teal Swan

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY 

1260 – Chartres Cathedral is consecrated

Beal Hampton

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~Hail claw in my heart,
Talon of the Hawk,
Bearer of yesterday & tomorrow…
Hail bright star in darkness,
White spider legs dancing on a web of night,
I’ve made my home within you…
The bitter herb I drank killed & cleansed & freed me,
I am new…

~hag

Our Annual All Souls Celebration – 
A Community Circle to Honor Our Beloved Dead

Wednesday, November 2, 2022
In-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago, IL. 60613

Doors open 5 pm
5:15-6:00 Potluck Dinner & Conversation 
Transition to the Upper Room 
6:05 Verse for the So-Called Dead
6:10-6:20 Singing
6:20-6:30 Speak Their Names
6:30-6:40 Social Art for the Dead
6:40-7:10 Conversation RE Experience 
7:10 Closing Verse

For those wishing to attend All Souls Day Vesper Service 
at The Christian Community, please arrive at the Church and be seated by 7:25 pm
The service will begin promptly at 7:30pm

2135 W WILSON AVE
CHICAGO, IL  60625
Church calendar.

For more info. contact Coordinators Deborah Rogers or Paulette Arnold
Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar
www.rschicago.org/donate

10 thoughts on “. Dits & -Dahs

  1. Yes, the Sirius thing is really mysterious and has been on my mind for a long time.
    Here are a few vague thoughts on the subject:
    The Christ, here meant as part of the Trinity, has descended to earth through all hierarchies. On this way he went of course also through the zodiac and only then through the planetary spheres. On this way of the Christ’s descent through the zodiac Sirius seemed to have played a special role, although Sirius of course is not part of a sign in the zodiac. The entrance into our solar system then happened through the hierarchies of the seraphim and cherubim.
    Conversely, the connection of the people beyond the solar system goes through the sphere of the seraphim and cherubim.

    1. Interesting Ottmar.
      I have been working with Steiner’s 5 lectures “Inner Experiences of Evolution” held in Berlin 31 Oct-5 Dec. 1911; And in explaining The Inner Aspect of the Saturn-Embodiment of the Earth, he speaks about the sacrifice brought by the Spirits of Will to the Cherubim – which begs the question for me of: Cool but what prompted the Thrones to make that sacrifice?
      I beleive it must be coming from outside our solar system…?
      And if so, what does that mean…

      Of course we know that evolution was happening before old Saturn…so…

      1. It has been several years by now but I remember having occasion to find a certain reflection of the Saturn embodiment of the earth when it was given to me to see into three important sacrifices found in the Old Testament. The first was when the mother of the baby Moses sent her beloved infant down the Nile River. This is the act that I most accorded to the Will of the Thrones in the Saturn embodiment. Then, relative to the Cherubim, it was the intended sacrifice of Isaac, the beloved son of Abraham, which we know involved the testing of faith in Abraham by Jahve in order to see if he really would do it. At the last moment, Jahve intervenes in favor of Abraham’s faith, and a two-horned ram is sacrificed instead. This in itself is very meaningful when we consider that Abraham had been initiated in order to receive the faculty of thinking in its original form as the unitary and undivided process of calculating measure, weight and number, which refer to the scales of delineation expressed by Libra. Relative to the Seraphim of Saturn, this is reflected in the Old Testament as the point of entry of Zarathustra on behalf of the Hebrew cultural stream. As such, Zarathustra invests his being for the cause of the Hebrews in terms of their physical-heredity, and this would both enable Zarathustra to import influences for the historically relevant figures of Moses and Hermes later in the 3rd cultural epoch, as well as setting up his own later incarnation as the Solomon Jesus child who would take the Nathan Jesus under his wing for eighteen years until the Christ finally entered Earth evolution.

        Yes, I remember doing this exercise years ago after considering the meaning of the Saturn embodiment of the earth. I could only find relevant semblances of it in the Old Testament events of the third cultural epoch. Sirius is a reminder of the epoch that is now being recapitulated in our time on a higher level.
        Call it a very early exercise of 10/10.

  2. Here is something of Sirius, and even of Chartres! From The Holy Grail and Seven Liberal Arts (Frans Lutters):

    “The mirror of Till Eulenspiegel
    Till Eulenspiegel is a renowned figure in European history. With his jests and antics he held up a mirror to people. Just like Parzival he was a kind of “pure fool.”
    The moon stands in the firmament like a mirror for the sunlight. In its changing phases it sometimes forms a sickle; at Easter time it is even a sickle on its back, like a vessel. It is as if at the time of the death and resurrection of Christ the Grail appears in the heavens as a sign.
    In 1867, Charles de Coster7 described Till Eulenspiegel as a human being who goes through a path of initiation. He experiences death and resurrection, an initiation that can be viewed as a modern Grail initiation. In his novel, Charles de Coster goes so far as to make the destiny of the Netherlands dependent on the question of whether the human being, represented in the novel by Till Eulenspiegel, is able to complete this path successfully. Till Eulenspiegel’s path is a path of initiation based on the Seven Liberal Arts.
    Many old initiations took place in seven stages. Among the Romans, for instance, the Mithras initiation was very popular. This initiation went back to Zoroaster who lived in Babylon at the time of King Cyrus the Great and the Babylonian captivity of the Jews in the sixth century bce. The prophet Daniel and the Greek philosopher Pythagoras both met this initiate in Babylon. His teaching was handed down in the Zend Avesta.
    The stages of the Mithras mysteries carry different names. In the first stage the candidate was called a raven; in the succeeding stages he was called successively the occult one, warrior, lion, folk spirit, sun hero and father. In these seven stages the candidate also became acquainted with the forces of the entire planetary system as these can be perceived in the visible planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Sun and Moon.
    At the end of Charles de Coster’s novel, Till Eulenspiegel goes through an arduous trial and speaks the following words: “The ashes beat on my heart. Would that Christ could manifest those Seven whose ashes, scattered by the wind, would make Flanders and the whole world happy.”
    Sirius, the star of Zarathustra and Isis
    Till Eulenspiegel then points to heaven. “Perhaps if a spirit will descend from the cold star,” says Eulenspiegel pointing to Sirius with his finger. Sirius was traditionally the star that was consecrated to Isis for the Egyptians and to Zarathustra for the Iranians. This is the star Eulenspiegel points to, while he calls upon Christ to demonstrate the power of seven. Zarathustra taught that there are seven good planetary spirits that, through the power of the sun, can bring about the resurrection of the earth.
    The story continues. Till and his beloved Nele are thrown to the ground by a force of nature: “And indeed, Eulenspiegel and Nele saw in the grass, in the sky and in heaven seven luminous copper tablets secured by seven flaming nails. On the tablets were the words:

    ‘Under the dung heap sprouts the plant Is seven bad, is seven good.
    Coal does form the diamond,
    The foolish doctor, the wise apprentice. Is seven bad, is seven good.’

    Then they see seven vices that are thrown into the fire in order to rise from the ashes again, but now as seven virtues. With joy and confidence in the future, the tried and tested soul of Till now hears the following:

    ‘When over land and waters
    These seven, transformed, shall reign, People, look high!
    The world is saved!’

    he human soul is addressed in its virtue. In Egypt it was the veiled goddess Isis who accompanied the sevenfold development of the human soul. Her star is the one which Till and Nele saw in its brilliance: It is Sirius!
    Charles de Coster shows us that he is conscious of an ever-progressing stream in the spiritual history of humanity. That which had its origin with Zoroaster, is continued in our time. The trials of initiation are transformed into virtues and are, in a mysterious way, connected with Christ. Mysteriously we hear the words: “Would that Christ could manifest those Seven!”
    These words form a connection with the goals of the education in the liberal arts of the Middle Ages. In its sevenfold form, the education that was built up in seven stages was a continuation of the path of the ancient mysteries.”

    1. Steiner describes “eulenspiegelism” very well here in a lecture in which Christ is seen as the raised Osiris for the New Isis.
      https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA180/English/SBC1971/19180106p01.html

      It is quite thrilling to see the waxing silver sickle of the moon already in the Teapot of Sagittarius after the New Moon and partial solar eclipse in Virgo on the 25th. That is because the moon moves 30 degrees of the ecliptic in just 56 hours, or 2-1/3 days.
      https://i0.wp.com/reverseritual.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/10/image-96.png?ssl=1

      1. This Eulenspiegelism is new to me. It was our discussion regarding the members of Chartres, where I first read about Till Eulenspiegel.

    2. Thank you for this Kyle. It has prompted me to use this subject for today’s blog post in response.

      What you have shared from Charles de Coster is amazing! Bringing in the mystery of the Philosophers Stone!
      ‘Under the dung heap sprouts the plant Is seven bad, is seven good.
      Coal does form the diamond,
      The foolish doctor, the wise apprentice. Is seven bad, is seven good.’

      And I would say that the # 7 besides being associated with the 7 liberal Arts can bring us many other associations to ponder…

      Thank you for this. I need to find that Charles de Coster piece. Can you direct me to the source?

      1. Of course, and thank you for writing the post! I am learning much regarding this.

        It is in the book The Grail Mystery and the Seven Liberal Arts – by Frans Lutters, translated by Philip Mees. (Waldorf Publications)

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