Etching

11 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: After passing between the Sun & Earth only two weeks ago, Venus already appears in the predawn sky. It rises more than an hour before the Sun & climbs above the eastern horizon some 30 minutes before sunrise. The planet shines so brightly, that it shows up easily in the brightening twilight

At this time of year, the two Dog Stars stand vertically aligned around the end of twilight. Look southwest. Brilliant Sirius in Canis Major is below, & Procyon in Canis Minor is high above

Todd Young

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Those who work with the Original indications in the Calendar of the Soul know that Rudolf Steiner lists the birth & death days, as well as other significant occurrences of various individualities, along with the dates in the calendar.  He said of this: “What is presented here can be useful to those who wish to follow the path of mankind’s spiritual development” ~Rudolf Steiner

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

2nd Night of Passover

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

452 AD – Feast Day of Leo the Great, Pope who convinced Attila the Hun to withdraw from Italy

1727 – Premiere of Johann Sebastian Bach’s St Matthew Passion BWV 244b at the St. Thomas Church, Leipzig

1876 – The Order of Elks is organized

1919 – The International Labour Organization is founded

1965 – The Palm Sunday tornado outbreak of 1965: 55 tornadoes hit in 6 Midwestern states, killing 1256 people

1968 – President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1968, prohibiting discrimination in the sale, rental, & financing of housing.

1970 – Apollo 13 is launched?

1976 – The Apple 1 is created

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Hildegard von Bingen

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I pulled down the stylus of fire & a tablet of crystal
‘Write it all down’ She said…
So I wrote; not what I saw, but what I knew…
Then She parted the bones of my chest
& buried the words in my drumming heart…
Now messages course thru my veins
Etching themselves in the lines of my palms
~hag

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Beloved Friends – As some of you may know we are building, what Dottie Zold & the Elderberries 3-Fold folks call: The Michael Grail-Road here in Chicago. We are beginning to spread the word, to see what is living in the community, & in the world. It is an invitation to all, & a call to the Spiritual World, to come together to make this initiative move forward, to help bring an Elderberries 3-Fold Café to Chicago. Here is a letter from one the Elderberries, Daniel Evaeus:

Dear friends at the Chicago Branch,

I write to you from the Youth Section at the Goetheanum where the air is full with the scents of Spring. I had the honor to attend the annual general meeting of the world society here which only just ended. I listen to Gerald Haefner, leader of the social science section, paint a picture of the challenges we face today – from Monsanto’s massive land grabs in the Ukraine to the concentration of wealth. I feel my life forces and hope take a blow and I must find a way to recover them on a personal level. What echo’s in my soul is the question of how to be and grow hope in a world where across the globe the essential gesture of democracy is being greatly threatened.

I recall standing across a row of militarized police at Standing Rock, the water protectors by my side shouting. ‘Did you in freedom choose to show up to work today? We are protecting this water not only for you, but for your children and your children’s children.’ Although they were not allowed to respond to our voices and questions, I could witness how in some of their faces the expression of our humanity had pierced through their armor.

 

Since the US election I’ve been asked by European family and friends how I am doing in the midst of the national events. My answer: ‘if it were not for the depth of meaning I experience daily in my work I don’t know how I could live’. To me, Elderberries is the practice of love in action with the intention to create islands of hope and healing across our country. Today when everything is being polarized, our world cries for more humanity and that is why I am committed to Anthroposophy. ~Daniel

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William Blake

Holy Tuesday – From Emil Bock “The 3 Years” – Luke 21: 5-38

«In the early morning Jesus enters the city with His disciples once more. The waves of acclamation and enthusiasm have long since died away. Jesus is involved in the tension of His coming decision, but He will be obedient to the Law up to the last moment and fulfill the sacred customs of preparation for the Passover. There is the feeling that He Himself is the sacrifice to be offered. The people’s hatred is already surging up to Him as flames that will consume the sacrifice. From day to day the powerful sense of His spiritual presence in the city has increased. The more silent the crowds, the more majestically His sovereign will shine in His countenance. Now the day of Mars has been reached and the conflict flares up in earnest. The crowd is silent; their leaders are full of anxiety; their fears produced the hatred which leads to the attack. Every hostile group sends out assailants. One after the other they accost Him with their crafty questions. What would otherwise be a blow in the face or a dragger-thrust takes the guise of questioning.

First of all the members of the Jewish Sanhedrin approach, i.e. the High Priests, Scribes and Elders, ask Jesus what authority He has for His actions; He is required to legalize Himself. Then come the others, the Pharisees and the Herodians, and put the insidious question: “Is it lawful to give tribute unto Caesar?” The Sadducees follow. They ask Jesus’ opinion concerning the resurrection of the dead. Finally, a single question, intending to expose Him before all the people, asks which commandment He considers the most important of all.

These attacks, marking the outbreak of hostilities, are the proof of how strongly the Being of Christ was making itself felt. Just as dogs bark and bite only when they are afraid, so these ostensible questions, which are arrows of hate, are the outcome of fear.

Jesus answers each of the four questions. He is not satisfied, however, with parrying the blows aimed at Him; He accepts battle and fights back with weapons of the spirit. He uses powerful pictures. During the three previous years He has spoken to the people in poetic parables, and to the disciples in parables of deep mystery. To His opponents He now speaks parables of conflict. He tells the Parable of the Husbandmen to whom the vineyard has been entrusted; how they afterwards refuse to surrender the harvest, slay the owner’s messengers, and finally even his son. The opponents realize that they themselves are meant. In fact, Jesus is telling His enemies that they will slay Him. His parable is a last endeavor to reach the souls of His enemies. Perhaps it may bring them to an awakening; perhaps even now they may be shocked into self-knowledge.

The words of the Tuesday on Holy Week, taken together, are wonderfully relevant to every battle of light and darkness, every struggle for Christian discipleship in conflict with the Christ enemies. Goethe’s statement that world history is nothing else than a continuous fight of belief against unbelief touches the truth that is given in all detail during the Tuesday of Holy Week. All opposition to Christ and hostility to the Spirit has its root in unbelief, in deeply hidden weakness and fear. Discipleship of Christ means courage and strength. The battle is not necessarily fought by one group of men against another. It must be carried on within ourselves. In each human soul fear and courage, opposition to Christ and discipleship of Christ are mingled.»

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