13 April 2017 – Astro-Weather: This is the time of year when, as the last of twilight fades away, the bowl of the dim Little Dipper extends straight to the right of Polaris. High above the end-stars of the Little Dipper’s bowl, you’ll find the end-stars of the Big Dipper‘s bowl
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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
4th Night of Passover
Maundy Thursday
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
“The most effective way to destroy people is to deny and obliterate their own understanding of their history.” ~ George Orwell
837 Best view of Halley’s Comet in 2,000 years
1742 George Frideric Handel’s oratorio “Messiah” performed for the 1st time at New Music Hall in Dublin
1743 – Birthday of Thomas Jefferson, 3rd President of the United States
1860 1st Pony Express reaches Sacramento, California
1953 – CIA director Allen Dulles launches the mind-control program Project MKUltra
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POD (Poem Of the Day)
~See how the seed falls
From the tree & is buried –
Die & live again…
Grow like that sycamore
Rooted in nature
Bound for boundless sky
Yes, you will, be, blown by the wind
You will be in the center of the storm
You will sing it’s praises thru change –
As you let grace roll down your head
Like rain from the stars of mystery…
~hag
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My thoughts on Passover:
In the Book of Exodus, we read that when the Hebrew slaves were finally able to break free from Pharaoh’s grip & a mixed multitude of people fled Egypt with them, a mixed multitude of slaves & refugees, people of different languages & beliefs, journeying with the Hebrew people into the unknown wilderness.
As human beings, we have always been a mixed multitude.
Moses himself embodied incredible internal diversity. He was educated by royal Egyptians, taken in as a homeless wanderer by polytheistic Midianites, & ultimately embraced by the Hebrews he led into freedom. With his Egyptian adoptive mother & his Midianite wife & father-in-law, Moses’s life was shaped by the teachings & love of different civilizations.
All of us, whether we are Jewish or Christian or Muslim, or of a complex identity of many influences—all of us have blessings to offer in the ongoing mission to bring the justice & freedom that Passover demands to every part of the world where oppression & inhumanity still prevail.
In our lives we have all been wanderers of one sort or another; we have all felt the pain of being the stranger; & we have all sought to escape bad situations & find liberation of one kind or another. Tonight & every night, we ask God to bless all of us, with the freedom & the courage to seek that same freedom for those who are still denied it. And we ask God to bless us all with the ability to see that together—as the mixed multitude we are —we must continue to weave the human story that seeks liberation & dignity for all.
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“On Maundy Thursday a holy stillness descends, shortly before the deep red sun sets in the west, faced by the silver disc of the rising full moon, the trumpets sound from the Temple and give the signal for the beginning of the day of Preparation, the eve of the Passover.
Jesus and His disciples also withdraw to the upper room in the house of the Order of the Essenes. There, on Mount Zion, a sanctuary has existed from times immemorial. Here the words of the 23rd Psalm are fulfilled,
“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”
Before the Meal, Jesus the Christ follows the custom observed by the Essenes and washes the feet of each of the disciples, even Judas.
“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.” This last parable, enacted, not merely spoken, teaches Love as the ultimate purpose of Christ’s Gospel.
Then for the first time Transubstantiation is consummated; now the Spiritual lights up in earthly substance.
The lunar sacrifices of antiquity are at an end; the solar sacrifice of Christianity comes into being.
Christ’s soul surrenders itself and streams into the bread and wine. In the transition from the blood offerings of the past to the bloodless offering of bread and wine; the sacrifice of the soul is founded, and there begins the true tradition of inner sacrifice.
Then the sacred Round Table breaks up dramatically. It is a strict regulation of the Passover that on this night no one may leave the protection of the house.
If he does so, he meets the Destroying Angel. The streets remain empty of people. Yet Judas does go out; to the house opposite, where Caiaphas and his circle are waiting, eager for the business that Judas wants to transact.
Jesus then rises from the table and beckons to the astonished disciples. They follow him out into the night, where the light of the full moon had for some time been extinguished, passing through an eclipse.
The two acts of going-out-into-the-night symbolize inner events. The going out of Judas shows that his true self has abandoned him; outside he meets the Angel of Death, in reality, ahrimanic spirits make him their pawn.
The going-out of Christ is a picture of the free surrender of the soul, which has been from the beginning, the cosmic bearer of Sacrifice.” ~summary excerpt from Emil Bock’s “Holy week”
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Our Easter-Tide Festival for 2017:
15 April 2017, Holy Saturday –
‘The Mystery of Golgotha – Then & Now’
2 pm – 4 pm
What was the Mystery of Golgotha?
What is the Mystery now?
What will it be for the future?
~Art Projections & Discourse with Hazel Archer Ginsberg
Group work: Based on Baruch Urieli’s
‘Learning to Experience the Etheric World,
Empathy, the After-Image and a New Social Ethic’
ALSO: A sneak Preview of our New Art Exhibition by Victoria Martin “I” See Heaven”
$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged
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16 April 2017, Easter Sunday – 4 pm – 6 pm
The Midwest Eurythmy Group will perform
The Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner & Bach Fugue Bb minor ‘5 Voices’ & Prelude #22
Then we will explore The Calendar of the Soul Verse for SPRING thru focused discussion & in an Artistic Activity. We will end with Group Eurythmy.
$10 Donation goes to support the Midwest Eurythmy Group
& Snacks to Share Encouraged
(Hazel will bring her famous slow cooked leg of lamb :
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society 4249 N. Lincoln Ave, Chicago IL. 60618. MAP