All Souls – All Saints

Planets after death

Through my work with the Mystery Dramas, Steiner’s lectures on Karmic Relationships, & as the festivals coordinator at the Chicago Branch, I was very interested in doing something special for our All Souls event this year. After doing research into the spiritual hierarchies, I woke one morning with the idea that our community could take an experiential journey through the planetary spheres as the soul does after passing beyond the threshold. I immediately called Marianne Dietzel, who I was hoping could come out & co-create the festival with me. Marianne having just been to the AGM was not able to make it, but she said oh yes, others had done something like this in the past. I was amazed, thinking I had thought it up myself! But that is how spirit works! I called Gail Sauter right away, & she said Oh yes, we’ve done a pageant which started as an impulse from Mary Thienes Schunemann. I called Linda Berg who was so supportive, she said Oh yes, & you must talk to Nancy Jewel Poer. I reached out to Margret Brill & communicated with Lyn Stull about some inspirations for eurythmy. All the while I continued my research,

I devoured:
• “Investigations into Life between Death and Rebirth,” Milan, Oct. 26–27, 1912
• “Man’s Journey through the Planetary Spheres & the Significance of a Knowledge of       Christ,”
• “Recent Results of Occult Investigation into Life between Death and Rebirth,” Vienna, Nov. 3, 1912
• “Life between Death and Rebirth,” Munich, Nov. 26–28, 1912
• “The Working of Karma in Life after Death,” Bern, Dec. 15, 1912
• “Between Death and a New Birth,” Vienna, Jan. 26, 1913
• “Life after Death,” Linz, Jan. 26, 1913
• “Anthroposophy As the Quickener of Feeling and of Life,” Tübingen, Feb. 16, 1913
• “The Mission of Earthly Life As a Transitional Stage for the Beyond,” Frankfurt, March 2, 1913
• “Life between Death and Rebirth,” Munich, March 10–12, 1913
• “Further Facts about Life between Death and Rebirth,” Breslau, April 5, 1913
• “Intercourse with the Dead,” Düsseldorf, April 27, 1913
• “Life after Death,” Strasbourg, May 13, 1913
• The Seven Planets by Adam Bittleston
• Unborness by Peter Selg
• & a bunch of Prokofieff

Everything just starting coming together! Susanne Zipperlen came back to town & took up the eurythmy, teaching us all the planetary gestures. Mary Tom: Moon, Mary Spalding: Mercury, Jean Riordan: Venus, Andrei Onegin: Sun, Nancy Melvin: Mars, Chuck Ginsberg: Jupiter & Fleur Scheepens: Saturn.

I began the festival with an introduction that lead into the ‘The Descent of Inanna’- a Myth from Sumeria, shared by Richard Dancey, a true allegory of the soul’s journey after death. Andrei Onegin did a blackboard working to support our understanding of the Hierarchies . And Elizabeth Swisher helped us cross the threshold with her lilting flute.

We all took the journey, by ringing the crystal bowl in the key of C & passing through Kamaloca with music by Mary Thienes Schunemann, sent to me by Gail Sauter. Susanne Zipperlen was our ‘Helpful Spiritual Being’, directing the ‘human souls’ through each of the spheres, as Debra Barford played the Planetary Tones on her lyre. At each planetary station, the ‘souls’ were invited to mirror the eurythmy gesture for each planets & inscribe themselves by playing a gong or tubular bell before moving on. Marianne Dietzel had suggested a verse from Steiner that we used as a meditative tool for the Hierarchies: 

Angels, Archangels & Archai
In the Ether weaving.
Receive this human’s web of destiny

In Exusiai, Dynamis, & Kyriotetes,
In the astral feeling of the Cosmos,
The just consequences of the earthly life of the human
Die in the realm of Being.

In Thrones & Cherubim & Seraphim,
As their deeds of Being,
The justly transmuted fruits of the earthly life of the human.

When all had reached Devachan, we sat in the zodiac for our ‘Circle of Remembrance’. Larry Olson read the names of those that have died this year, & everyone was invited to share a few words, show pictures, or stories.

Susanne Zipperlen then gave us a eurythmy performance done to a Verse for the Dead by Rudolf Steiner read by Fleur Scheepens. Maureen Flannery brought us an Introduction to ‘Threshold Care’ – & three wonderful Poems. Martine Benmann played her amazing cello to signal the ‘Cosmic Midnight Hour’ & we all traveled back through the spheres in reverse order, picking-up the planetary seals to take back with us as karma for our next incarnation, where we enjoyed a lively discussion with food & fellowship downstairs.

 

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all souls candles

ALL SOULS FESTIVAL: Earthly Death / Cosmic Life 2pm – 4pm, Sunday November 8th 2015 Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618

Storytelling: The Descent of Inanna – An archetype of the soul in the spirit world

Lemniscate Journey thru the Planetary Spheres & the Zodiac –

Artistic Exploration – Which Wandering or Fixed Star calls to you?

Didgeridoo

Remembering those who have Crossed the Threshold

The Hallelujah in Eurythmy

Contact Carolyn Arnett with the names of loved ones, who have died this year, To be read in the circle. (773-539-3688) c.roorda.arnett@gmail.com

$10 Donation & Snacks to Share Encouraged

For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg ReverseRitual@gmail.com

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rose cross bw

“Row, Row, Row Your Boat…”

Our All Souls Day Festival – Sunday 9 November, 2014, 1:30pm-4pm

~Lyre Music by Debra Barford

~Tone of the Day: Christian Rosenkreutz & Buddha on Mars – Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 ~Didgeridoo by Chuck Ginsberg

~Verse read by Debra Barford ~Rudolf Steiner, 17 Nov.1916

“Know the spiritual world! Then, among the many other blessings that humanity will gain will be this: that the living and the dead will be able to form a unity”.

~Eurythmy: Hallelujah- ALL with Susanne Zipperlen

~Circle of Remembrance – ALL- with a special tribute to Sergei O. Prokofieff and Baruch Urieli +

~Verse read by Karen Hartz  ~Rudolf Steiner, GA 261, for Fritz Mitscher, Basel, 5 February,1915

“Feel how we gaze lovingly

Into heights that now

Call you to other work.

May your power reach out

From spirit-realms

To the friends you left behind.

Hear our soul’s request

Sent to you in confidence;

We need here, for our earthly work,

Strong power from spirit lands-

We thank our friends now dead for this.

A hope that makes us happy

A loss that pains us deeply:

Let us hope that you light our lives,

Far-and-near, un-lost,

A soul-star in the spiritual firmament.

~Eurythmy: Hallelujah- ALL with Susanne Zipperlen

~Grandmothers Tale: Remembering Our Ancestors Freedom and Destiny: A Biography Working In groups of 3

~ Grandfathers Hands – Beeswax Sculpting with Nancy Melvin

 ~Singing + Movement with Nancy Melvin – 

“Row, Row, Row Your Boat, gently down the stream, Merrily, merrily, merrily, merrily, Life is but a Dream…” (This song from our childhood, when we were still fresh from the spiritual worlds, gives us perspective as we go merrily about our lives on earth, a reminder of our connection to the supersensible realm, from which we have come & to which we shall return)

A verse from The Egyptian Book of the Dead, read by hag

“Stars fade like memory the instant before dawn.

Low in the east, the sun appears golden as an opening eye.

That which can be named must exist.

That which is named can be written.

That which is written shall be remembered.

That which is remembered lives.

The sun rises & the mists disperse.

As I am, was, & shall be,

A spirit-being of earth & heaven.”

Join us Downstairs for Food & Fellowship

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