26 March 2018 – Astro-Weather: The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, at 12:17 p.m. CDT. Now Bella Luna is only 229,352 miles away from us.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1812 – Caracas earthquake took place in Venezuela on what was Maundy Thursday killing over 20,000 people. The seismic movement was so drastic that in a zone named Valecillo a new lake was formed & the river Yurubí was dammed up. Numerous rivulets changed their course in the valley of Caracas, which was flooded with dirty water. The earthquake consisted of two seismic shocks occurring within the span of 30 minutes. The first destroyed Caracas & the second Mérida, where it was raining when the shock occurred. Since the earthquake occurred on Maundy Thursday, while the Venezuelan War of Independence was raging, it was explained by royalist authorities as divine punishment for the rebellion against the Spanish Crown.
1812 – A political cartoon in the Boston Gazette coins the term “gerrymander” to describe oddly shaped electoral districts designed to help incumbents win reelection.
1827 – Death-Day of Ludwig van Beethoven, German pianist & composer
1830 – The Book of Mormon is published in Palmyra, New York.
1856 – Birthday of Fritz Lemmermayer, an Austrian writer, journalist & closest childhood friend of Rudolf Steiner in Vienna. Fritz was a passionate anti-materialist, he wanted to devote his life to the creation & maintenance of spiritual values. In 1883 he completed his novel “The Alchemist”. Rudolf Steiner met Lemmermayer again in 1886 in the circle of the poet Marie Eugenie delle Grazie. An extensive correspondence attests to the close friendship between the two (see GA 38).
Steiner says: Fritz Lemmermayer, with whom I was later on terms of intimate friendship, I came to know at one of delle Grazie’s afternoons. A highly noteworthy man. Whatever interested him he expressed with inwardly measured dignity. In his outward appearance he resembled equally the musician Rubinstein and the actor Lewinsky. With Hebbel he developed almost a cult. He had definite views on art and life born out of the sagacious understanding of the heart, and these were unusually fixed. He had written the interesting and profound romance, Der Alchemist(3), and much besides that was characterized by beauty and depth. He knew how to consider the least things in life from the view-point of the most vital. I recall how I once saw him in his charming little room in a side-street in Vienna together with other friends. He had planned his meal: two soft-boiled eggs, to be cooked in an instantaneous boiler, together with bread. He remarked with much emphasis while the water was heating to boil the eggs for us: “This will be delicious!” In a later phase of my life I shall again have occasion to speak of him ~Rudolf Steiner, The Story of My Life, Chapter VII
Lemmermayer & Steiner joined the ranks of the Viennese artist circle in the house of the protestant priest Alfred Formey. In 1891 Lemmermayer was vice president of Schrifstellerbundes Iduna , named after Iduna , the Norse goddess of youth & immortality a counterweight against the currents of naturalism.
Lemmermayer became a member of the Anthroposophical Society in 1920. He Steiner on many trips through Austria, Germany, Switzerland, France, Holland & England. This led to his 1929 published memories, where he spoke about Rudolf Steiner, Robert Hamerling & other personalities of the Austrian intellectual life of the 80s. In addition, Lemmermayer published in the weekly ” Das Goetheanum “.
1874 – Birthday of Robert Frost, American poet & playwright
1979 – Anwar al-Sadat, Menachem Begin & Jimmy Carter sign the Egypt–Israel Peace Treaty in Washington, D.C
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POD (Poem Of the Day)
Haiku for you:
~All the more I wish
To see those blossoms at dawn
Awakening truth
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On the Monday of Holy Week Christ approaches the fig tree to show the disciples that the old grove embodied the fruits of instinctive clairvoyance. The cutting words He speaks to the fig tree are a rejection of the temptation to continue with that ancient dispensation. The moon-forces of the old vision must fade away. Christ is the Sun, & when the Sun rises, the Moon must go pale. He rejects the Hosannas from the day before on Palm Sunday, bringing instead the transition that makes the crowd shout: “Crucify Him”.
Then in the evening Matthew 21:12-13 tells us: “Jesus entered the temple courts and drove out all who were buying and selling there. He overturned the tables of the money changers and the benches of those selling doves. “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer,’ but you are making it ‘a den of thieves.’”
How interesting to think that when Rudolf Steiner died it was on Holy Monday. This year, 93 years later, Steiner’s DeathDay (30 March 1925) falls on Good Friday – Something to contemplate. (This fact thanks to Dr. Ross Rentea)
Please join us for Our Holy Week Study & Easter Festival
YOU are invited to: The Chymical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreuz
Holy Monday – Good Friday, March 26- 30th – 7 pm – 9 pm
Holy Saturday March 31st & Easter Sunday, April 1st 2018 – 4 pm – 6 pm
This primary Rosicrucian text provides a 7 stage initiation, which we will traverse together on each of the days of Holy Week. We will discuss the symbolism & practice ‘Social Art’ rendering some of the images from the text using various artistic mediums including: Painting, Pastel Drawing & Eurythmy, stay tuned for the list of special guest artists.
***Please print your own copy of the text***
4 pm – 6 pm Easter Sunday April 1st 2018)
The Chymical Wedding – an artistic exploration with Deborah Rogers,
Christian Rosenkreutz: ‘Granum Pectori Jesu Insitum’ with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,
Group Eurythmy & Singing
$10 Donation to support Eurythmy & Art Supplies,
Snacks to Share Encouraged – Hazel will bring the Pascal Lamb
for more info. Contact Hazel@ReverseRitual.com
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