Easter Monday

Selena Wilson

~O trembling star in the bright brow of Easter-Tide
Am I just a grain of sand blowing East to West?
NO! The world is more than bright metal & dull plastic
On my lips live the promise of ripening wheat
& Prayers for Peace…
~hag

Sue Ellen Parkinson

Salutations Beloved sisters & brothers on this Easter Monday – 

I apologize for the tech difficulties around the Mary Magdalene zoom presentation we did on Holy Saturday – It’s a lot to try & do these hybrid events – to serve the community in the room & to connect & consecrate the ethers with all of you.

We did record the live event. Here is the link to the recording

Here is the link to download the Poem/Song ‘The Sanctifier’

Thank you for your interest & kind understanding…

PS. If anyone wants to volunteer to help with hosting the tech for my future zoom events,  please contact me Hazel@ReverseRitual.com 

Blessings as we move thru the Resurrection into the Mystery of the 40 days until Ascension.

~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg  

10 April 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus is passing the Pleiades tonight & tomorrow evening. How soon before the end of twilight can you first begin to see the little cluster?

“Where do the Dead come from? The Living. Where do the Living come from? The Dead.” ~ Plato

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

The Feast Day of St. Magdalene of Canossa. Born in northern Italy in 1774, Magdalen knew her mind—and spoke it. At age 15 she announced she wished to become a nun. After trying out her vocation with the cloistered Carmelites, she realized her desire was to serve the needy without restriction. For years she worked among the poor & sick, & with delinquent or abandoned girls. In her mid-twenties Magdalen began offering lodging to poor girls in her own home. In time she opened a school, which offered practical training & religious instruction. As other women joined her in the work, the new Congregation of the Daughters of Charity emerged. Over time, houses were opened throughout Italy. They focused on the educational & spiritual needs of women, which continues to this day.

Feast Day of Fulbert of Chartres, Bishop of Chartres from 1006 to 1028. A highly esteemed teacher – his pupils called him “venerable Socrates”. He was a strong opponent of the rationalistic tendencies which had infected some dialecticians of his time. Letters he wrote from 1004–1028 gave much insight into life in his day. He also wrote poetry & many sermons on the Blessed Virgin Mary. He was responsible for the advancement of the Nativity of the Virgin’s feast day on September 8. When, in about 1020, the cathedral of Chartres burned down, Fulbert at once began to rebuild it in greater splendor.

According to Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, this is the Birth Day of the prophets Daniel & Ezekiel. As well as the day Wagner received the inspiration for Parsifal in Zurich, 1857.

Daniel – Hebrew “God is my Judge” hero of the Book of Daniel who interprets dreams & receives apocalyptic visions. Daniel & his friends Hananiah, Mishael, & Azariah were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon following the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon. The four are chosen for their intellect & beauty to be trained in the Babylonian court, & are given new names. Daniel is given the Babylonian name Belteshazzar, while his companions are given the Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego. Daniel & his friends refuse the food & wine provided by the king of Babylon to avoid becoming defiled. They receive wisdom from God & surpass “all the magicians & enchanters of the kingdom.” Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a giant statue made of four metals with feet of mingled iron & clay, smashed by a stone from heaven. Only Daniel is able to interpret it: the dream signifies four kingdoms, of which Babylon is the first, but God will destroy them & replace them with his own kingdom. Nebuchadnezzar dreams of a great tree that shelters all the world & of a heavenly figure who decrees that the tree will be destroyed; again, only Daniel can interpret the dream, which concerns the sovereignty of God over the kings of the earth.

When Nebuchadnezzar’s son King Belshazzar uses the vessels from the Jewish temple for his feast, a hand appears & writes a mysterious message on the wall, which only Daniel can interpret; it tells the king that his kingdom will be given to the Medes & Persians, because Belshazzar, unlike Nebuchadnezzar, has not acknowledged the sovereignty of the God of Daniel. They overthrow Nebuchadnezzar & the new king, Darius the Mede, appoints Daniel to high authority. Jealous rivals attempt to destroy Daniel with an accusation that he worships God instead of the king, & Daniel is thrown into a den of lions, but an angel saves him, his accusers are destroyed, & Daniel is restored to his position.

In the third year of Darius, Daniel has a series of visions. In the first, four beasts come out of the sea, the last with ten horns, & an eleventh horn grows & achieves dominion over the Earth & the “Ancient of Days” (God) gives dominion to “one like a son of man”. An angel interprets the vision.

In the second, a ram with two horns is attacked by a goat with one horn; the one horn breaks & is replaced by four. A little horn arises & attacks the people of God & the temple, & Daniel is informed how long the little horn’s dominion will endure.

In the third, Daniel is troubled to read in holy scripture (the book is not named but appears to be Jeremiah) that Jerusalem would be desolate for 70 years. Daniel repents on behalf of the Jews & requests that Jerusalem & its people be restored. An angel refers to a period of 70 sevens (or weeks) of years.

In the final vision, Daniel sees a period of history culminating in a struggle between the “king of the north” & the “king of the south” in which God’s people suffer terribly; an angel explains that in the end the righteous will be vindicated & God’s kingdom will be established on Earth.

The Prophet Ezekiel describes his calling to be a prophet by going into great detail about his encounter with God & 4 living creatures or Cherubim with four wheels that stayed beside the creatures. For the next five years he incessantly prophesied & acted out the destruction of Jerusalem & its temple, which was met with opposition.

According to the midrash Canticles Rabbah, Shadrach, Meshach, & Abednego asked for his advice as to whether they should resist Nebuchadnezzar’s command & choose death by fire rather than worship his idol. At first God revealed to the prophet that they could not hope for a miraculous rescue; whereupon the prophet was greatly grieved, since these 3 men constituted the “remnant of Judah”. But after they had left the house of the prophet, fully determined to sacrifice their lives to God, Ezekiel received this revelation: “Thou dost believe indeed that I will abandon them. That shall not happen; but do thou let them carry out their intention according to their pious dictates, & tell them nothing”

Ezekiel’s statement about the “closed gate” (Ezekiel 44:2–3) is understood  as another prophecy of the coming Incarnation of Christ : the “gate” signifying the Virgin Mary & the “prince” referring to Jesus. This is one of the readings at Vespers on Great Feasts of the Theotokos in the Eastern Orthodox & Byzantine Catholic Churches. “No one can enter Heaven unless by Mary, as though through a door.” The imagery provides the basis for the concept that God gave Mary to mankind as the “Gate of Heaven” (thence the dedication of churches & convents to the Porta Coeli), an idea also laid out in the Salve Regina (Hail Holy Queen) prayer.

837 – Halley’s Comet makes its closest approach to Earth

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor  with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.


Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

18 thoughts on “Easter Monday

  1. Hi Hazel,

    In the Resurrection activities that follow Easter Sunday, we can readily assume that the disciples all went back to Galilee in order to regain their former lives as fishermen on the Sea of Galilee in the northwestern part, known as Capernaum. Some forty days transpire, and they feel as if an altered state of consciousness has come upon them, which they do not fully understand. Rudolf Steiner describes it here nicely in the second lecture of The Fifth Gospel, and wherein it is indicated that the disciples had been placed in such a state of diminished consciousness beginning with the Last Supper on Maundy Thursday of the Holy Week:

    “It seemed to the Apostles that they had been living for a long time in an unusual state of consciousness. In very truth it was a deep sleep, a wonderful, dream-filled sleep … remember that I am speaking of how it was experienced by the Apostles themselves … a sleep of such a kind that at the same time a man carries out all the affairs of everyday life and goes about just like a normal person, so that those with whom he comes into contact do not notice at all that he is in a different state of consciousness. The moment came when it seemed to the Apostles as if they had been living for a long time, for many, many days, in a kind of dream.”

    https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA148/English/RSPC1950/19131002p02.html

    This is expressed very dramatically in the last chapter of the Gospel of John, where the disciples of Christ are fishing to no avail on the Sea of Tiberius. It speaks volumes:

    https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+21&version=NASB1995

    This chapter ends the Gospels, and prepares for the Event of Pentecost; the very first one. Now, we are two thousand years further on, and wondering when it will actually occur for the general populace. We need it, even if not fully prepared for it. The world needs it, and it takes place this year on May 28, 2023. What will transpire that day, which is seven weeks from now? I can only anticipate what Infinity means when actually experienced. Could this be the year because of the Centennial? I await with baited breath.

  2. Think I got your post twice today? In between receiving the first and this second one, I was given a revelation about Mary Magdalene — she, much like the woman at the well in John 4, had seen enough of the faults of unregenerated men, so much so that she was ready to give up on humankind — but at just the right time, Jesus Christ came into their lives. Finally, here was a man who touched the heartstrings of her soul; someone who, with his new teachings that went further than the teachings those “white-washed tombs” of religious leaders were demanding the people learn, someone who had obviously descended from above just at the right time for her to follow as she began the long process of turning her life into a life of meaning and destiny.

    1. Would the removing of the seven demons be the same as the pouring out of the vials of divine wrath? Only Love of the highest order can do this. Yes, women can be made to suffer for the sins of men. In Mary’s case, it had a karma which was entirely not her fault, but she bore the demons because she loved so much. Christ found Mary early on, and readily forgave her. She followed Him, and leaving Martha to do the chores of a demanding household in Bethany.

      1. That’s a fascinating thought, the pouring out of the vials of divine wrath, which I’ll keep in mind as we continue our study of the Revelation (another study group). I feel for Mary – I’ve been following episodes of The Chosen, and the very first episode they indicate that Mary received her demons after she was raped/abused by a Roman soldier, who obviously passed to her whatever demons he had in him. We never hear about Mary’s family, so I assume she had been left an orphan (there was plenty of disease in those days). She deserved a greater life than the one she’d been dealt, and so did the Samaritan woman of John 4. Unfortunately, they had no luck with men. That is, until Jesus appeared on the scene. Both women experienced a complete reversal of their fortunes when he showed up. In a sense, the pouring out of the vials of wrath also brought about a reversal of the fortunes of humanity – it’ll be a long while before our study group gets to them, but I’ll keep Mary in mind until then. Cheers.

          1. May I also add that the home of Mary is identified in Luke, chapter 7, and wherein she is unnamed, except declared as a sinner by Simon the Pharisee. This is when Christ enters the home. With chapter 8, she is readily identified, although the source of the seven demons, now removed, remains a mystery to this very day. The Karma is deep, and involves a significant former life, known especially well by the Sadducees, who would confront Christ with their concerns involving the Resurrection.

            1. The Gospels mention Mary of Magdala 12x’s, by name, 2 inferred – more than any other woman. And it’s interesting to read the apocryphal gospels of Thomas & Philip where she is talked about, pointing up her leadership role among the disciples, which is especially shown in her ‘Gospel of Mary Magdalene’.

              Magdala or Magdalene means “Tower, magnificent, or great,” so by calling her Mary Magdalene it is like calling her “Mary the Great”.
              To ascend the tower is a symbol of initiation, an imagination of ‘far seeing’ – having vision in all directions
              The essence of Mary Magdalene invites us to rise in our heart-thinking – to ascend – step by step into the inner worlds of initiation.

              She is often called Mary of Magdala – the name of a town located on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee where Mary, an independant woman of wealth & means, who grew up in Bethany with Martha & Lazarus, had her own castle by the Sea of Galilee.

              In exploring the Gospels we see a progression. After the feeding the 4000, Matthew tells us that # wasn’t counting all the women & children that were there.
              And then Connecting to this interesting statement we next read: – “And sending away the crowds, Jesus got into the boat and came to the region of Magdala” –
              So we hear about the women & then their off to Magdala.

              Astrosophy tells us that whenever a place is mentioned in the Gospels, it correlates to certain planetary alignments connecting the geology of the earth with the heavenly realms. The Sea of Galilee power spot where many of the disciples became Fishers of Men’

              1. I see Mary as being very instrumental after Pentecost. She also was raised a notch. and became an Evangelizer.

              2. Was she really the Apostle to the Apostles? My conception sees her as a conflicted woman who was cast out of her own home by a brutal father, and find loves in a form that few understand. Here is a depiction that is not totally accurate, but gives the essence of her return home to find the One who would save her. From Jesus of Nazareth, c. 1977.

              3. I took up this project for this exact reason – to remove this kind of stain which has occurred thruout the ages perpetuated by various patriarchal media from the Pope on down into materialistic movies – slut shaming & wide spread continuation of violence against woman…

                St. Thomas Aquinas is the one who calls her the Apostle of the Apostles…
                And she was called this by St. Augustine as well

                I plan to do a series on Mary Magdalene to further bring my intensive research to show the truth of her being & mission, which I believe many are ready for. But I am leaving for another AAP training & so it will have to sit for now…

              4. I have the strongest feeling about her redemption, and evangelical work, as well. Once the seven demons are understood, it will all come into place, and her sacrifice become profound. It is the historical Mary that I am looking for within the Apostleship. Remember, the Vials of Wrath were poured out over Her, just as She had anointed Him.

              5. How could She who anoints the Anointed One have ‘vials of Wrath’ pouring over her as she is anointing Christ?

                The 7 demons were cast out of her long before that, read the Gospels, it’s all there –
                Her forgivness of sins & her great faith allowed The Holy Spirit to enter her in anticipation of the Pentecost – ‘her greater love made her whole’ –

                Her faith transformed her former initiation as a High Priestess of Isis into a new Christic form,
                & she became the only one worthy to Christen Him –
                This transference of power facilitated the Holy Spirit which was hovering over Jesus since the Baptism to fully penetrate Him –
                making Him ready for the deed of Golgotha – thru this new form of anointing – the last anointing

              6. Her sins were forgiven through her anointing of Christ. The seven demons can be correlated to pride, envy, greed, gluttony, lust, sloth, and anger, and these all go to make up the divine wrath which Christ poured out of her after she washed his feet with the perfume and dried them with her hair. Yes, it is all there, but you have added other touches. If we compare the historical Mary with the legend, how much do we really know of what is real? I am searching for that, too. I am picking up some interesting books today that I will tell you about after I get back from the library.

            2. Hi Hazel,

              I have selected three books from the college library, but I think this is the real problem at the moment. While you and I agree that Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene are one and the same being, you still find the unnamed woman who anoints Christ in the home of Simon the Pharisee as someone else, ref. Luke 36-50.

              This would account for your saying that Mary Magdalene had her demons resolved long before the incident in the home of Simon the Pharisee. Yet, I see them as all the same being. As such, Mary comes home when she hears that Christ is now walking the area where she grew up. Thus, I find her excerpt in “Jesus of Nazareth”, as very poignant. Also, the meeting of Christ with Peter is also done very well.

              We will have a chance to continue, but you are going to AAP soon. It is still prime spring-time. FYI, the Kolisko evidence from 1943 is resurfacing, and I am getting into it on another blog. I would love to tell them about you and back in 2019, when we both detected the early Easter that was delayed for a month. It is all important in this day and age.

              1. To give the context for the casting out of the 7 demons, let’s Jump into the Gospel of Luke. I find it very interesting that 1st we hear John the Baptist’s question: Are you the One? & Then as if to show the answer we are taken to a meal at house of Simon the Pharisee, where we hear:
                Luke 7:36-50: “And behold, a woman of the city, who was a sinner, brought an alabaster flask of ointment, and standing behind him at his feet, weeping, she began to wet his feet with her tears. Then she wiped them with her hair, kissed his feet and anointed them with the ointment.”

                and standing behind him at his feet…
                This brings in for me an image of her supporting him; & it also reminds me of the saying the last shall become the 1st

                Then JC tries to school simple Simon with the parable whose moral is: the greater the debt – the greater the forgiveness. Jesus says that Hers is the Greater Love…‘her many sins have been forgiven—as her great love has shown’.

                In the segue way right after this scene of anointing, right before the parable of the sower, we meet the women following Jesus, which includes a naming of Mary Magdelene in connection with the casting out of the 7 demons.

                Luke 8:1-3 “After this, Jesus traveled about from one town and village to another, proclaiming the good news of the kingdom of God. The Twelve were with him, 2 and also some women who had been cured of evil spirits and diseases: Mary called Magdalene from whom seven demons had been cast out; 3 Joanna the wife of Chuza, the manager of Herod’s household; Susanna; and many others. These women were helping to support them out of their own means.”

                So much in these few verses…The women were not only financing the ministry of Christ, they were supporting everyday needs of life on the road – doing all the cooking & cleaning etc.

                It’s very interesting to look at the connections between the order of the stories in the 4 Gospels – the juxtaposition – It gives a whole other dimension & context, especially in regards to the 2 anointings – for the first anointing in Luke hers are holy tears of repentance & gratitude for the healing she received from the forgiveness of her sins which the casting out of the 7 demons represents.

                I am not stuck on the words sinful woman, because we are all sinful & she was already forgiven – She goes to Christ with the alabaster jar of precious spikenard oil to make ‘The thank offering’ – The Hebrew sacrifice of thanksgiving; which in turn also serves as a confirmation in front of the posers at the party that, yes, Jesus is the Christ –

                At this stage she anoints his feet, symbol of Pisces, the Fishes, an early Christian Symbol. And the feet are the foundation on which the Temple of the body is built

              2. And let us not forget this citation from John, chapter 11:

                Now a certain man was sick, Lazarus of Bethany, the village of Mary and her sister Martha. 2 It was the Mary who anointed the Lord with ointment, and wiped His feet with her hair, whose brother Lazarus was sick. 3 So the sisters sent word to Him, saying, “Lord, behold, he whom You love is sick.” 4 But when Jesus heard this, He said, “This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it.” 5 Now Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.

              3. it’s interesting to note that The Gospel of John says: “Jesus loved Martha and her sister and Lazarus.”
                John 11:1-3 is called The Seventh Sign which affirms that Mary Magdalene is the one who anointed Christ previously,after the casting out of the demons.

                Then we learn that after “Lazarus had been in the tomb for four days…When Martha heard that Jesus was coming, she went out to meet him, but Mary stayed at home”.

                Mary stayed at home – I envision The Magdala was holding sacred space for her brother while he was undergoing his initiation in the underworld.

                Mary stayed at home – Was she busy protecting the red thread connecting Lazarus to his earthly home?

                It conjures the image of an Egyptian hierophant or Priestess accompanying an initiation – A highly developed Adapt who was empowered enough to anoint the Christ, standing at the threshold for her brother, as she would again later for the Christ during His ‘Harrowing of Hell’ on Holy Saturday…

                Then what comes is John’s description of the final anointing: “Six days before the Passover, Jesus came to Bethany, where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they gave a dinner for him there. Martha served, and Lazarus was one of those reclining with him at table. 3 Then Mary took a vessel and poured a pound of expensive oil made from pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus, and wiped his feet with her hair. The house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.”

                We can think about how the act of anointing can be a ritual of the transference of power, like the ordination of a Priest, or the coronation of a king or the confirmation bestowed on a Prophet. It seals the deal. And now with Mary’s sacred act we see a new kind of anointing – the last anointing – performed right before death.

                Jesus said, “Leave her be, what she has done shall count on the day of my burial”.

                It’s Six days before the Passover, so the crucifixion is near

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