Healer or thief?

When my friend Robert posted these pictures of the Gargoyles of Notre Dame, my 1st thought was that now, upon the burning of the Cathedral, these gruesome protector beings are inscribed on the ethers. But then I woke up this morning thinking, what does it mean that at the same time the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem also had a fire, & wondering what was being inscribed there?

My friends, it seems to me that these burnings, are the antithesis of what occurred with the burning of the Temple of Ephesus – sacred to the Goddess Diana, along with the future image seen in the burning of the Goetheanum, the Johannasbau inspired by the Templars thru Goethe. These burnings inscribed into the ethers the potent powers of the ancient & the new mysteries, enriching the starry script, furthering & potentizing our true human evolution.

We need to remember that what is now occurring is happening during the Ecclesiastical Holy Week – between Holy Moon-day, with its cursing of the fig tree, symbol of the old clairvoyance, & the cleansing of the Temple, & Holy Mars-day, Christ’s conflict with the High Priests , & his telling of the ‘Little Apocalypse’ to his disciples (Luke 21)

Could it be that this Holy Week burning , on the 1 hand, of an important seat of the Catholic Church, during the time when a Jesuit Pope sits on the Vatican throne, & on the other hand,  the 3rd holiest site in Islam – central to the ongoing Arab-Israeli conflict, is a signal of the materialistic etherization of the spirit? – A fall of something spiritual – leading to the rise of the spirits of darkness…?

May we be awake to the signs of the times; ever striving to participate in the appearance of the Christ in the etheric realm.

Blessings dear ones & peace ~hag

***

Image result for The Easter Festival in relation to the Mysteries 19-22 April 1924, Dornach

As you can see dear Friends, I have diverged from my usual format -the History connected to the Calendar of the Soul is at the bottom of this missive- so as to continue with the synopsis of the lectures Rudolf Steiner gave during the Easter Paradox of 1924:

Ecclesiastical Easter Sunday 20 April, 1924:  Moon-birth & Sun-birth. Necessity and Freedom. Stages of the ancient Easter Initiation: The original idea of any sacred festival is to make the human being look upward from his dependence on earthly things to those things that transcend the Earth.

During the last centuries humanity has undergone an evolution which has lead farther & farther away from the connection with Cosmic powers & Cosmic forces. Humanity became more restricted to the Earthly powers & forces.

Humanity today does not conceive the forces spiritually connected with the Sun or what these forces are doing within the human being.

Julian the Apostate, the last of the pagan Caesars, still received instruction in what was left of the ancient Mysteries, concerning these forces of the Sun. He wished once more to make this knowledge an influence in the world, & for this very reason was murdered on his campaign into Persia. The powers in the first Christian centuries which intended that all knowledge of such things should disappear was all prevailing. No wonder this knowledge is so hard to conceive of

Steiner goes on to describe the various degrees in the ancient mystery schools;

and concludes with the statement that to become aware of the content of the Easter Festival we must call this ancient sacred history to life again, in a new way.

Then we can understand why even today we must look upward to the Sun & Moon which determines from their mutual constellation, the time of the Easter Festival. For this truth must still remain. We calculate Easter as the first Sunday after the first full Moon after the Spring Equinox. The Easter Festival is something that must be determined from above, out of the Cosmos. This must be regained. And it can only be regained by looking back to the ancient Mysteries, where the human being was made aware by seeing the cosmos within themselves. The ancient practices receded in the age when the free development of humanity had to take place. But now the time is come when these mysteries must be found again. Of this, my dear friends, we must be fully conscious. Institutions must be created today to find the Mysteries once more.

Steiner goes on to say it is Out of this consciousness which we held our Christmas Foundation Meeting. For it is an urgent necessity that there should be a place on Earth where the Mysteries can once more be founded. The Anthroposophical Society in its further progress must become the path to the Mysteries renewed.

Natalya Yeshchenko

And so it is that with these thoughts we remember that today in 2019 we are experiencing the Ecclesiastical Holy Wednesday, revealing the 2 sides of Mercury: Healer /Thief – on the 1 hand: Mary Magdalene’s pre-burial anointing, & on the other: Judas’s betrayal.

Which will we choose?

Xox~hag

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

485 – Death-Day of Proclus – dubbed ‘The Successor’ – a Greek Neoplatonist philosopher. He studyed mathematics & the works of Aristotle under Olympiodorus the Elder. As a gifted student, he eventually became dissatisfied with the level of philosophical instruction available in Alexandria, & went to Athens, the pre-eminent philosophical center of the day, to study at the Neoplatonic successor of the famous Academy founded 800 years earlier (in 387 BC) by Plato; there he was taught by Plutarch of Athens, Syrianus, & Asclepigenia; he succeeded Syrianus as head of the Academy, & would in turn be succeeded on his death by Marinus of Neapolis.

He lived in Athens as a vegetarian bachelor, prosperous & generous to his friends, until the end of his life. He was not appreciated by the Christian rulers; he spent time traveling & being initiated into various mystery cults. He was also instructed in the “theurgic” Neoplatonism, as derived from the Orphic & Chaldean Oracles.

His house has been discovered recently in Athens, under the pavement of Dionysiou Areopagitou Street, south of Acropolis, opposite the theater of Dionysus. He had a great devotion to the Goddess Athena, whom he believed guided him at key moments in his life. Marinus reports that when Christians removed the statue of the Goddess from the Parthenon, a beautiful woman appeared to Proclus in a dream & announced that the “Athenian Lady” wished to stay at his home. Proclus died aged 73, & was buried near Mount Lycabettus in a tomb. It is reported that he was writing 700 lines each day.

Image result for 1622 – Birthday of Thomas Vaughan, a Welsh philosopher

1622 – Birthday of Thomas Vaughn, a Welsh philosopher, famous for his writings in the area of natural magic, with his book Anthroposophia Theomagica, a magico-mystical work.  (Some say Rudolf Steiner got his idea for to name the AS from this treatise)

Although he did not practice medicine, Vaughan sought to apply his chemical skills to preparing medicines in the manner recommended by Paracelsus. Vaughan was also the author of tracts published under the pseudonym Eugenius Philalethes.

Vaughan was unusual amongst alchemists of the time in that he worked closely with his wife Rebecca Vaughan. He was a self-described member of the “Society of Unknown Philosophers”, & was responsible for translating into English in 1652 the Fama Fraternitatis Rosae Crucis, an anonymous Rosicrucian manifesto first published in 1614 in Kassel.

He placed himself in the tradition of the Rosicrucian reformers of education, &of Johannes Trithemius, his teacher Libanius Gallus, and Pelagius of Majorca.

Image result for 1787 – Goethe’s experience of the archetypal plant in Palermo

1787 – Goethe’s experience of the archetypal plant in Palermo – “Goethe narrates a conversation that once ensued between Schiller and himself after they had both attended a meeting of the Society for Nature Research in Jena. Schiller was dissatisfied with the results of the meeting. He had found there a most disintegrating method for the study of Nature and he remarked that such a method could never appeal to a layman. Goethe replied that “possibly this method was cumbersome for the initiated also and that there might well exist yet another way of portraying Nature active and living, struggling from the whole into the parts, and not severed and isolated.” And then Goethe evolved the great ideas which had arisen within him concerning the nature of plants. He drew “with many characteristic strokes, a symbolic plant” before Schiller’s eyes. This symbolic plant was intended to give expression to the essential being lying in every single plant, whatever particular form it assumes. It was intended to demonstrate the successive development of the single portions of the plant, their emergence from each other and their mutual relationship. In Palermo, 17th April, 1787, Goethe wrote these words in reference to this symbolic plant form: “There must be such a thing; if not, how could I recognise this or that structure to be a plant if all were not moulded after one pattern?” Goethe had evolved in himself the conception of a plastic, ideal form that was revealed to his spirit when he surveyed the diversity of the plant forms and observed the element common to them all.” Rudolf Steiner Goethe’s Conception of the World: Chapter I: Goethe and Schiller

1790 – Death-Day of Benjamin Franklin, one of the Founding Fathers of the United States. Franklin was a renowned polymath & a leading author, printer, political theorist, politician, freemason, postmaster, scientist, inventor, civic activist, statesman, & diplomat. As a scientist, he was a major figure in the American Enlightenment & the history of physics for his discoveries & theories regarding electricity. As an inventor, he is known for the lightning rod, bifocals, & the Franklin stove, among other inventions. He facilitated many civic organizations, including Philadelphia’s fire department & the University of Pennsylvania, an Ivy League institution.

Benjamin Franklin, then 21, created the Junto, a group of “like minded aspiring artisans and tradesmen who hoped to improve themselves while they improved their community.” The Junto was a discussion group for issues of the day; it was modeled after English coffeehouses that Franklin knew well, & which became the center of the spread of Enlightenment ideas in Britain.

Franklin became Grand Master of the Freemasons & published the first Masonic book in the Americas, a reprint of James Anderson’s Constitutions of the Free-Masons. Franklin remained a Freemason for the rest of his life

Franklin earned the title of “The First American” for his early & indefatigable campaigning for colonial unity, initially as an author & spokesman in London for several colonies. As the first United States Ambassador to France, he exemplified the emerging American nation. Franklin was foundational in defining the American ethos as a marriage of the practical values of thrift, hard work, education, community spirit, self-governing institutions, & opposition to authoritarianism both political & religious, with the scientific & tolerant values of the Enlightenment

Franklin became a successful newspaper editor & printer in Philadelphia, the leading city in the colonies, publishing the Pennsylvania Gazette at the age of 23. He became wealthy publishing this & Poor Richard’s Almanack, which he authored under the pseudonym “Richard Saunders”. After 1767, he was associated with the Pennsylvania Chronicle, a newspaper that was known for its revolutionary sentiments & criticisms of the British policies.

He pioneered & was 1st president of The Academy & College of Philadelphia which opened in 1751 & later became the University of Pennsylvania. He organized & was the first secretary of the American Philosophical Society & was elected president in 1769. Franklin became a national hero in America as an agent for several colonies when he spearheaded an effort in London to have the Parliament of Great Britain repeal the unpopular Stamp Act. An accomplished diplomat, he was widely admired among the French as American minister to Paris & was a major figure in the development of positive Franco-American relations. His efforts proved vital for the American Revolution in securing shipments of crucial munitions from France.

He was promoted to deputy postmaster-general for the British colonies in 1753, having been Philadelphia postmaster for many years,& this enabled him to set up the first national communications network. During the Revolution, he became the first US Postmaster General. He was active in community affairs & colonial & state politics, as well as national & international affairs. From 1785 to 1788, he served as governor of Pennsylvania. He argued against slavery from an economic perspective & became one of the most prominent abolitionists.

His colorful life and legacy of scientific and political achievement, & his status as one of America’s most influential Founding Fathers have seen Franklin honored more than two centuries after his death the $100 bill.

Image result for Ellis Island

1907 – The Ellis Island immigration center processes 11,747 people, more than on any other day.

1912 – Russian troops open fire on striking goldfield workers in northeast Siberia, killing at least 150

Image result for 1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion

1961 – Bay of Pigs Invasion: A group of Cuban exiles financed & trained by the CIA lands at the Bay of Pigs in Cuba with the aim of ousting Fidel Castro.

Image result for Sirhan Sirhan robert f kennedy assassination

1969 – Sirhan Sirhan is convicted of assassinating Robert F. Kennedy.

***

Ecclesiastical Holy Week Kaspar Hauser Study 14 – 18 April 2019, Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’

We have found this Study of Kaspar Hauser so intriguing that we wish to continue it for our Ecclesiastical Holy Week.

The work is such that you can jump in anytime. I recommend this powerful book: ‘Kaspar Hauser: The Struggle for the Spirit’ byAnthroposophical researcher Peter Tradowsky

Join us: 14 April Palm Sunday 2 – 4 pm, then Mon. Tues. Wed. Thurs. of Holy Week 15-18 April 7 – 9 pm

Special Event for GOOD FRIDAY 19 April 2019, 7 pm – 9 pm- ‘O Man (or Woman) Know YourSelf: A Glimpse at the Human Double’ a workshop with biography worker Paulette Arnold

(1st Class is on Holy Saturday 20 April 2019)

$10 – 20 or pay what you can + Snacks to Share Encouraged 

for more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

 A Cosmic Wake Up Call: the Easter Paradox of 2019

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