Dearly Beloved – A friend wanting to reach out to me today on my 1/2 Birthday sent her well wishes along with something I wrote 2 years ago. And when I read it, I was amazed that it speaks about ‘after images’, which is what I wrote about a few days ago in my last essay ‘Festival of Offering’.
How interesting that this theme is showing itself as a pattern in my biography. But isn’t that the way the etheric realm works – Thru patterns & rhythms..?
And then it makes even more sense to know that:
TODAY in 1910 – Rudolf Steiner gives the 1st lecture ever on the Etheric Reappearance of The Christ, to members in Stockholm Sweden. At the same time as the “introduction” of Krishnamurti was happening in Adyar India.
The lecture is called: ‘True Nature of the Second Coming – Preparation for this Event through the Development of Etheric Vision‘ ~RS http://wn.rsarchive.org/…/English/APC1961/19100125p02.html (the archives have the version of the lecture that he gave later on 25 July 1910, Stuttgart)
Then on January 25th 19213 Rudolf Steiner begins the series ‘The Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric’ for the members in Dornach http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lect…/ReapChrist/ReaChr_index.html
A modified version of my post ‘Reappearance’ from 12 Feb. 2021:
I am holding in my consciousness that we are in the season of Epiphany, which is often defined as a revelation, I can’t help picturing it as cartoon image of the lightbulb over the head -indicating a sudden, intuitive insight – where it all makes sense.
An Epiphany is often related to the appearance or manifestation of a spiritual being or phenomenon – But I don’t think a true Epiphany happens by chance, or comes as some fliting flash that quickly fades away.
I think of the example in the book of Matthew – how the Magi prepared, perhaps for lifetimes before they made it to Epiphany.
And in the 5th Gospel we read how Jesus of Nazareth was prepared 1st thru 42 generations, & then for 30 years, before he received the Christ in the Baptism by John in the Jordan.
And we have to work thru all of the 13 Holy Nights to reach the Epiphany, which is not just a day, but a season, which takes us into the 1st stirrings of Spring.
Thru all that is happening to darken or distract us in the world, I have been trying to live into this, working to see thru a glass darkly – looking – always searching – for the ‘Star of Grace’ which can reveal the revelation – The Star heralds the appearance.
And this ‘appearance’, this ‘manifestation’, didn’t just stop with the physical incarnation of Christ Jesus, it advances further as the appearance or advent of the Angel of Christ in the etheric world. And it just so happens that 113 years ago today, Rudolf Steiner gives the 1st lecture ever on the Etheric Reappearance of The Christ.
Sometimes when I contemplate this amazing mystery, it comes to me in the picture of an assembly – a convocation, a summit of Spiritual Beings, kind of like what is described in the Gospel of Luke 2:9: “An angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them..”
But mostly I see it as an intimate meeting. Or even like blind date, where we are introduced thru a mutual friend – thru our connection to Anthroposophia, which gives us the wisdom to see with new eyes. We receive from this part of ourselves the invite – the entre’ to the cosmic party.
It’s an open invitation, but it takes more than just spinning around 3 times to remove the blindfold – to lift the veil that separates us from meeting this reality.
The Christ, in his rhythmical Presence, presses forward into the etheric realm, into the realm of formative forces which envelop the earth, to fortify & maintain all life.
And Steiner says “Humanity on its natural path of development must touch consciously into the etheric realm with our soul forces” –
So that gets me asking, Ok, how do we do our part on this natural path, to develop those soul forces of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, in this new way?
How do we employ Imagination, Inspiration & Intuition without the expectation that we need to experience some sort of phenomenon, but by upholding the utmost faith & patience that we will achieve some beginning glimmering when our karma allows – an awakening of our etheric eyes, a new supersensible sensing, where we can experience the life-body…
Steiner says “We think we see with our eyes, but we don’t literally see with these outer organs. They are a fairly dead body in us. We see by means of these organs, only through etheric activity.”
He explains that we perceive colors as the result of etheric activity.
If we look at green & afterwards at a white sheet of paper, we see it’s reversal as red. (hmm the Christmas colors, go ahead give it a try) This seeing is due to the continuation of the etheric activity of the eye, which answers to the impressions of colors. We see a balance. We never see an actual color as it is, but always a balance.
We produce complementary colors thru the etheric activity of our eye; & what we see – the final physical effect, is a balance, even if we are not consciously aware of it. (Think 3D Glasses!)
But when we do make it our intention to be conscious, we became co-creators of this new etheric sight.
For more practical exercises in seeing into the etheric, I recommend working with Baruch Urieli’s amazing book: Learning to Experience The Etheric World – with the very interesting sub-title: Empathy, the After-Image & a New Social Ethic.
Rudolf Steiner suggests in his lectures ‘From Jesus to Christ’, (Which is a journey we can take during the Holy Nights) that it is our own etheric activity which lightens up that sphere in which the Etheric Christ is present.
And I have also come to ‘see’ that thru our own activity in connection with The Sophia as a Being of Wisdom, we can shed some Light on the Being of Love – who is waiting in the realm of the formative forces for us to perceive & interact with.
It is an activity, which in its clarity & beauty, can be strengthened not only thru the specific spiritual disciplines of the Spiritual Science: The 6 Basic exercises, & the meditative path – but thru moral development, which brings the complmentary balance, a true wholeness.
For me right now Faith, Love & Hope are helping to give a flow to my moral progress.
When we take hold of the reins of our soul forces & steer them where our higher “I” wants to go, it improves the etheric light – which we can pour from our heart down into the limbs & then back up to our head – & then out thru our eyes, into the etheric world to light up the Christ!
And so now coming around again to this ½ b-day revelation, I am grateful for the synchronicity & the reminder that this is our work…
~hag
Reappearance on The “I Think Speech Podcast
Candlemas – a Cross-Quarter Festival Heralding Spring – with Willow Summer & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Wednesday 25 January 2023 – Program – 3 pm – Potluck – 5 pm, Please Bring Food & Drink to Share
Storytelling: The Alchemy of Celtic Triple Goddess Brigid,
The Year of the Water Rabbit – Tu B’Shvat – Beeswax Crafting – Singing
Rudolf Steiner’s Seed Meditation – from ‘How to Know Higher Worlds’
‘Charm the Plow’ – Bless & Consecrate the Farm tools
Three Springs Community Farm 15300 Bodega Hwy, Bodega, CA 94922
Contact Willow for more info.
Velsum Voices Presents: ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’
A Benefit Concert to support Nancy Jewel Poer and the community events at White Feather Ranch
Saturday, 28 January 2023, at 2 pm PT
In the Peace Garden at White Feather Ranch, Placerville, CA
All Ages – Love Donation – Contribute what you will
Come join us for Velsum’s West Coast Debut!
Dress in warm clothes for a hearty heart-filled afternoon of music and celebration. We will have an outdoor fire. If it is too chilly we can meet in the Ranch House. Pack your own picnic lunch or dinner.
Can’t make the concert? You can still Donate to Nancy’s web site
*RSVP to receive directions to White Feather Ranch hazel@reverseritual.com
‘Velsum‘ is a musical initiative formed through Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer. The songs are inspired to develop our human capacity for Love and Logic. Velsum is a celebration of harmony, rhythm, prayer, and the human voice. Each song is permeated with a sincere interest in the other, the self, the world, and the cosmos. ‘”Velsum’s music is a product of listening.” We hope that by listening to these songs, you feel heard. ~Velsum
Lucien and Ultra met as children at the Chicago Waldorf School, and became friends and collaborators as young adults. They now write, record and perform original music through the initiative Velsum. They debuted the show ‘New Nightingale, New Rose’ last winter at Angelic Organics Farm, and have performed it throughout the Midwest. Through weaving harmonies, poetic recitations, and movement, New Nightingale, New Rose invites the audience on a quest for love and wisdom. A joyful experience awaits young and old!
Here is a short video clip of Velsum, and here you can find their link to all links! https://linktr.ee/velsum
~Velsum: Ancient Futurism~ Lucien Dante Lazar and Ultra-Violet Archer
Here is a short video clip of Velsum find them on Instagram, Bandcamp, apple music, soundcloud, spotify, youtube
Ultra-Violet Archer – (b. Chicago, IL, 1999) is a songwriter and music producer, exploring music as a tool for healing and storytelling. After studying at Oberlin College & Conservatory and spending a year in Järna, Sweden, at the International Youth Initiative Program, she currently studies music at Columbia College Chicago. She strives to make music that invites people to honor the parts of themselves they feel but can’t yet put into words. https://linktr.ee/UltraVioletArcher
Lucien Dante Lazar (b. Chicago, IL, 1994) is an interdisciplinary artist whose praxis is founded in the intersections of art, science, and spirituality. He received his BA from Bard College (2016), his MFA from California College of the Arts (2020), and is currently working on his PhD in the Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness program at California Institute of Integral Studies. His dissertation will concern the pedagogy of spiritual development through the diversity of the arts.
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
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.
Happy 1/2 birthday, Hazel. I am reminded of what you said last year, as well. It is quite compelling that Steiner gave a fourth course on the Gospel of John in Stockholm, Sweden, in January 1910. Since only notes exist at the present time, and an English translation does not exist, it is important to know what he reveals in this fourth course, given some three months after the paradigm-shifting course on the Gospel of Luke, in which the two Jesus children are revealed for the first time. One of these revelations is the prophetic announcement of the imminent Second Coming of Christ; yes, on January 12, 1910. Other revelations from this course await further scrutiny.
With regard to the Fifth Gospel, and the generations of the two Jesus children, it is noteworthy to say that the Nathan Jesus had a genealogy that traced backward some 77 generations, as opposed to the 42 generations of the Solomon Jesus. As such, his trace goes back far enough to identify him as the Adam Soul. Thus, we have an important parameter in considering how close he was to the Primal Father. They were a Duad, of sorts, and then the Divine Sophia came in at the 29th Aeon in order to sacrifice primordial desire as Her great offering in setting the stage for human incarnations in the Earth sphere. Desire, of course, would descend and eventually become the concern of Siddhartha Gautama, who would eventually come to an enlightened state of being as Gautama Buddha. Thus, he so ordered the Eightfold Path for the redemption of the downfallen Astral Body, which helped in drawing down the Christ. Jesus would be seen by Buddha at the Nativity as the exalted child of the Adam Soul, who had also been the predecessor of Buddha in the form of Krishna. The secret to this is the three permeations of the Adam Soul as a result of the three pre-earthly deeds of Christ, which had the effect of forming Krishna as the bearer of the Krishna Impulse, which is glorified in the Bhagavad Gita as the Epic of the primordial entry of Christ. What first had to take place is the creation of the United Kingdom of Israel. This happened under King David, and the one most honorable in this quest was Uriah the Hittite, who was the historical incarnation of Arjuna, and needed the advice of Krishna very much in order to fulfill his duty.
A potent comment dear Steve…much to ponder in these connections you have laid out for us…thank you
You speak about after-images; here Steiner speaks about after-effects, but he’s thinking of what’s remembered from the spiritual world, possibly pre-birth, or possibly in previous lives. Much more inclusive than the after-image of something we’ve recently experienced, while not excluding such after-images:
” Anthroposophy finds the self by showing how the sense-world reveals to man not only sense-perceptions but also the after-effects of his life before birth and his former earthly lives.
Man can now gaze on the world perceptible to his senses and say: It contains not only colour, sound, warmth; in it are active the experiences passed through by souls before their present earthly life. And he can look into himself and say: I find there not only my ego but, in addition, a spiritual world is revealed.” Leading Thoughts, GA 26, “Understanding of the Spirit; Conscious Experience of Destiny”.
Beautiful, thanks Maverick, YES! May the spiritual world be revealed…
In order for the spiritual world to be revealed, the scientific outlook today, which has become ingrained in people’s minds and logical train of thought, even with no scientific training, must be seen for what it is, i.e., ghosts, specters:
“A conception of the world acquired by the ordinary scientific way of thinking is not reality at all, but a specter, or a number of specters. This is true even of our atoms and of all ideas of the atomic world. Even those who take a more positivist stand and do not entirely subscribe to the atomic theory, persons like Poincare, Avenarius or Mach, conceive of nature in such a way that they never arrive at reality, where nature is actually at work: they only reach a specter of nature. This relates to what I said here a few days ago, that actually the world of concepts in which we are living today in this age of the consciousness soul does not contain realities but merely pictures, reflected images. And we already accomplish very much when we abandon the superstition that when we read a scientific book or hear a scientific talk, we are learning the truth. If we are really aware of what is being imparted, we know that it is only an image, a kind of specter of reality.
In a certain sense, people today cherish inordinately, love inordinately, what lives in ideas of this kind, ideas that are ghostly images and not bound up with reality — in contrast, for instance, to Goethe’s thoughts on metamorphosis. And people would dearly like to confine reality to this ghostly web of ideas”.
Lecture 8, How Can Humanity Find the Christ Again?, 1 January 1919.
yes, such a great quote.
Such a great excerpt Steve — thank you for this. So timely as well. Only those who see clairvoyantly can get the true understanding of the many manifestations that the spiritual, creative forces have given us here on Earth.
The natural science that Steiner speaks of gives us no useful answers to our searching. They can only offer delusions, based on these “specters” he mentions, and the motive for their delusional answers, when they do offer them, is always based on profit — how can we make money from this?
This is the great worth and attraction of Steiner’s spiritual science, if only people are awakened to it. Unfortunately, so many are lulled to sleep by Ahrimanic influences. I have to say that in our study of the 12 Senses, we’re being awakened, and the great thing is that our sense-perceptions, as I said in my comment to Hazel, can reveal to us even our spiritual world; so much more than merely our sense-world. There seems to be no limit, other than what we place on ourselves, how deep we wish to take our search. To his credit Soesman, in his book on the Twelve Senses, invites us to go farther than merely understanding our physical, material bodies; probably due to Steiner’s influence, he’s always reminding us of the spiritual world that our sense-perceptions direct us to explore.