Holding Space

I am living into the approaching mood of Pentecost – The festival of the Word, a new Language of the Sophia-Logos, holding the ideal of Free Speech!  Our day star Sun is speaking thru the  stars of the Bull at this time, that region of the Zodiac connected to the human Larynx, giving us the capacity for self-expression.

The current World events must be given voicePentecost is the festival of NOW, highlighting the challenging relationships of self & community –  Offering us an opportunity to transcend polarities. 

Giving us a chance to ask: How do we work as individuals to transform our ingrained sympathies & antipathies? How do we purify our astral nature in order to make ourselves into a vessel worthy to receive the Holy Spirit, giving us the possibility of manifesting the ‘Spirit Self’, the True Self which will provide the capacity to create new social forms..?

Right now I am deep in what Rudolf Steiner defines as a time of profound sadness that comes with the 10 days between Ascension & Pentecost, an echo of the grief & loss expereinced by the disciples. He describes it as ‘a sorrow such as cannot be compared with any other sorrow on earth’ –A kind of death experience on a spiritual level. And just like in the old mystery traditions, after the time of catharsis & preparation, there is a mystical death; so here too there is a kind of loss & experience of death. The #10 is the number of completion.

Pablo Damas

Steiner points out: All real knowledge, all knowledge that can truly be called great is born from pain, from inner travail…And out of this pain, out of this infinite sorrow, there sprang what we call the Mystery of Pentecost…Having lost sight of the Christ in external clairvoyant vision (the 40 days with the Resurrected Christ), the disciples found it again in their inmost being…found it through sorrow, through pain.  (May 17, 1923, Christiana)

Donna Vector

Here we have a great reversal. In ancient times the human being experienced the True Self, the Higher I AM, in the cosmos outside of them, in the Sun sphere, thru initiation, by leaving the body. 

Ninetta Sombart

Even with Lazarus, the first Christian initiation performed on Earth, in public, by the Christ, Lazarus was “called forth” by Christ as the hierophant from without.

Pentecost inaugurates a new age, when human beings thru a personal path of self-guided catharsis comes to an awakening of the Higher I AM in “their inmost being” as a force of transformative power, which is the force of love.

The Greek word for grace is, “charis”, which means the free love from God.  In ancient Greek, there are several words for love:  eros – romantic love; philia – brotherly/family love; agape – divine love, or love of the human for the divine. 

Johannes Demmer

Charis is higher than agape, because it is the love of the Divine for the human being. This is the highest form of love.

Thinking of Pentecost as being 50 days after Easter, & in looking at the # 5, we see the 4 bodies of the human being: physical, etheric, astral & “I” – given a 5th dimension – a new spiritual aspect is added: The Spirit-Self, the Higher Ego.

Aggripa

The pentagram is the symbol of the true human being.  The numbers 4 & 5 raised to the 10th power, indicate a process taking place at a higher spiritual level, which is how the events described in 40 days = Ascension – & 50 days = Pentecost,  are meant to be understood, both as historical events of Christ’s union with the earth, but also as initiatory events taking place on a higher plane for humanity.

In the 12th of Steiner’s lectures on the ‘Gospel of John’, which he describes as the most spiritual perspective given by the writers of the gospels, he speaks of how John never uses the name Mary, but always says: “the mother of Jesus”.  He equates this with the ‘Virgin Sophia’ – the purified astral body.  It is this Virgin Sophia = the Mother of Jesus, who is “in their midst” at Pentecost. 

The story goes on to say that they were all together in one place, using the word which is often translated as house, but in Greek it means “a shared, common place” – in this case: The Upper Room where they experienced the Last Supper.  Into this community space, with the Virgin Sophia in their midst, came the Holy Spirit, the Universal Ego, the true I AM, which can then speak out of this purified astral body. 

This Holy Spirit came with a rushing of wind & flames that individualized onto each of the disciples, & “stayed upon each of them”(this is the same term used at the Baptism of Jesus) They then began to speak a new language “as the Holy Spirit gave them utterance.”  This was a speaking, which transcended earthly languages, for everyone understood & were amazed.

In this same lecture from the Gospel of John cycle, Steiner addresses this question: a person thus illuminated, who has received the Holy Spirit into himself, speaks in a different manner.  How does he speak? …he is not expressing ‘his’ own opinion. His views do not come into consideration.  His personal (earthly) ego has been eclipsed which means that…it has become impersonal and it is the Cosmic Universal Ego’.

He continues this Pentecostal theme in a lecture on Whitsunday, 1910: ‘This Holy Spirit enables us to become free human souls.  As the Spirit of Freedom, it streamed out through the first disciples…in the first Pentecostal festival….We can become free only when we find ourselves again in spirit and out of the spirit become master over the spirit within ourselves. Our true spirit is the universal human spirit, which we recognize as the Pentecostal power of the Holy Spirit.. which we must bring to birth in ourselves and allow to become manifest…This will bring to life in our souls something which overleaps all boundaries separating the different parts of humanity’.

Leszek Forczek

This brings us back to the great call of our current time of Pentecost – which is the great social question of our time: the individual in relation to the whole, the community. 

Today we face immense questions about the future of humanity, with division, polarization, lack of understanding & failed communication, creating the social problems of our time. 

Only by a social & personal catharsis which can allow for the true spirit of freedom, the true I AM, to eclipse our small personal egotism & the lower impulses of our nature, can a new community & new language of universal sister/brotherhood be created. 

Only out of the spiritual recognition of the universal Human Being, will the ideas & applications of a new approach to fraternity in economics; equality in human rights; & freedom in the cultural/spiritual life, be accomplished. 

May we strive to serve this goal out of the spirit of The Sophia.

~hag

2 June 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Spot Bella Luna in the west after sunset. As twilight fades, you can make out Pollux above the Moon, then Castor to the right of Pollux.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s orginal Calendar of the Soul, Wikipedia Commons)

455 – Sack of Rome

1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city; the second siege began five days later.

1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts; she was found guilty and later hanged

necklace

1743 – Birthday of Alessandro Cagliostro, Italian occultist and explorer. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe relates in his Italian Journey, that during the trial of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace*, Cagliostro said that he had been born of noble birth but abandoned as an orphan upon the island of Malta. He claimed to have traveled as a child to Medina, Mecca, & Cairo, & was then admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, where he studied alchemy, the Kabbalah, & magic. (*The Affair of the Diamond Necklace – an incident in 1781 at the court of Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, which was already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud the crown jewelers of the cost of a very expensive diamond necklace. The Affair was historically significant as one of the events that led to the French populace’s disillusionment with the monarchy, which, among other causes, eventually culminated in the French Revolution)

1793 – French Revolution: François Hanriot, leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests 22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat, setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.

1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States

1882 – Deathday of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general & politician. Spoken of as a high initiate in the Hibernian Mysteries in ‘Karmic Relationships’ Vol 1, lec. 11 by Rudolf Steiner (June 2nd is also Festa della Repubblica -The Italian National Republic Day)

1922 – Start of the West-East Congress in Vienna, opened by Ludwig Polzer-Hoditz. At this conference Rudolf Steiner gave his last lecture on Threefolding (1917 – 1922)

a collection of my Anthroposophical videos for your free viewing

22 thoughts on “Holding Space

  1. Hi Hazel,

    I thought to make another small installment here on Friday, as we approach Pentecost on Sunday. Have you ever considered the real significance of Ash Wednesday as the start of the 40 days of Lent? What if it can be shown that Ash Wednesday is immortalized as the event of the raising of Lazarus from the dead? As such, it certainly proves to be the impetus for what the disciples would experience with Ascension and Pentecost. To see Lazarus raised from the dead was designed to prove something to them. They came to know that another entity was in their midst. This is why Peter was so perplexed in the last chapter of the Gospel of John. His last question to Christ was this in reference to the Beloved Disciple, which is the raised Lazarus. He asks:: “What about this one”? This question leads to a lot, and I hope we can take this moment further.

    1. Maverick has taken this hint about Peter’s last question to the resurrected Christ on the Sea of Tiberius to its natural effect, which is what Acts of the Apostles is all about. When Peter asks, “What about this one?”, in reference to the Disciple Whom the Lord Loved, who is also following them, he is wanting to know what part this Disciple will play in the future succession after Christ ascends. This is a very relevant question, and is answered in chapter 3 of Acts, when Peter’s first sermon after Pentecost, in which he reams the Jews for having failed to listen to all the evidence given by their very own Prophets about the coming of the Messiah, sets up his very own situation. Christ provides by sending John the Evangelist to help Peter, and this occurs for some time. It even leads to the miraculous escape from chains, as accounted in chapter 12 of Acts of the Apostles. Yes, this is all about the accompaniment of Peter with John.

      And Peter had wondered about this disciple on the Sea of Tiberius, and even asked Christ about him. Christ said, “I will keep him til I come and take him. What is that to you? You follow me.” This means that Peter succeeds Christ on earth. John becomes his helper.

  2. Thank you Hazel for your write-up about Pentecost; overcoming all the polarizations; reaching a Higher Ego that bridges “differences” in people. individual vs Community (something I and I know others wrestle with….First positive feeling I’ve had in awhile…following all the dreadful news….

    Amazing but I don’t remember reading about above earthly pain required for true knowledge….apparently there is a pop song that my grandson listens to describing that all he (the singer) learned including love came through PAIN…Mike Bogil Richmond Va.

    1. I think about the quote from Steiner that says “Wisdom is crystalized pain” & I can relate…
      I also want to come to a place within my evolution when I can gain wisdom without having to suffer – Like the feeling of freedom & joy that comes from breaking an old destructive pattern…

  3. Thank you so much for these wonderful writings and lectures , so relishing enjoying learning with this illuminating poetic understanding of the whole and spiritual human journey

  4. Thanks for the encouraging and insightful words on the mysterious side of God we know as Holy Spirit. Just like the wind – we don’t know where it comes from or where it’s going – so with the Spirit. If a “little leaven works through the whole batch of dough”, we can only hope that your words will have their effect – our world and our community needs a fresh wind of the Spirit. Cheers.

      1. My feeling is that this is a real possibility, and maybe coming this year with a special force. You had mentioned the initiation of Lazarus, and then what Pentecost has grown to mean as a real potential today, some two thousand years later:

        “Even with Lazarus, the first Christian initiation performed on Earth, in public, by the Christ, Lazarus was “called forth” by Christ as the hierophant from without.”

        “Pentecost inaugurates a new age, when human beings thru a personal path of self-guided catharsis comes to an awakening of the Higher I AM in “their inmost being” as a force of transformative power, which is the force of love.”

        Hazel, I can personally admit to this having taken place in my life on February 28, 2001. This is when I experienced the descent of the Holy Spirit, and it had been predicted the year before in the aftermath of the May 2000 planetary alignment. An earthquake signaled the event, and we all dropped to our knees and prayed. I prayed to be saved in order to try to do better. Then, I found out after the earthquake had ended, and we were, indeed, saved, that it was Ash Wednesday that day, which is the first day of Lent. So, this started a process which still exists today in reference to Pentecost.

        I would like to extend this idea, based on my own personal experience, recalled from some 21 years ago, to the seminal event of the disciples, and what they experienced that caused them to become Apostles. This is only accounted for in Acts of the Apostles. We have some time to do this in increments between Friday and Sunday, and so I hope you will allow a word or two on the matter coming from me. Wow, I see that it is already Friday. I’ll try and do my best. To pray to be saved is never lost from memory.

        1. I marvel at these biographical stories which show destiny in the making. The way circumstances have to align & how our angel guides us…
          Thanks for Sharing this milestone that you continue to build on

        2. I’m just reflecting on how complex, and strange, human beings are. Everything in our external world and in ourselves was designed to reveal to us the Being and Beings behind everything, and yet it requires something no less than an earthquake, whether an external one as it was for Steve, or an internal one as it was for me, to get us on the right path. Seems we must be brought to the point of near death before we give such foundational thoughts their due.

          Which makes me wonder – what if, at Pentecost, Peter had just stood up and said, “Brothers and sisters, I’ve been designated as your new Christian Community priest, and I have the following message for you.”? Would anyone have listened to him? What if there had been no miraculous wind and what appeared to be tongues of fire resting on the disciples? Would they have given Peter’s message enough heed that souls would have been converted, as we read of in the Acts of the Apostles?

          Our Maker seems to realize that we need such traumatic experiences to jar us out of our routine, every-day lives, lives that we mostly live out of habit. Earthquakes, winds, tongues of fire – they can all be deadly, but they can also be a means through which the grace of God awakens and enlivens our souls. Thankfully, we also have the resource of study groups where we can learn extremely valuable lessons from others experiences, or even through having our ears opened to perceiving something out of a Steiner lecture – an experience that happened to me just last evening that poses a little less danger than an earthquake.

            1. Yes, I admit to having a series of externally manifested events occur in my life, which also included a near death experience in a classmates backyard swimming pool in celebration of her 11th birthday! This was when I experienced the 23rd Psalm as a living reality. The earthquake of 2001 was preceded by the eruption of Mount Saint Helen in May 1980. So, for me, acts of the God of Nature and the Elements have been very influential in my life. And we know by extension that the God of Nature and the Elements would one day incarnate on Earth as Christ. What had proceeded for so long from the outside, and epitomized the life of Moses in the three 40 year periods of his life, would actually incarnate on Earth in order to reverse the trend, and make it all an inward striving ever since. The Ascension of Christ leads to upward and onward. Apparently, some need the reminder of the external event in order to shake and awake consciousness.

              1. “…Now there are occasions when the very substance of the passions of the Fire-Earth begins to rebel. Aroused by men’s passions, it penetrates through the Fruit-Earth, forces its way through the channels in the upper layers and even flows up into and violently shakes the solid Earth: the result is an earthquake. If this passion from the Fire-Earth thrusts up some of the Earth’s substance, a volcano erupts. All this is closely connected with man. In Lemurian times, the upper layer was still very soft and the Fire-layer was near the surface. Human passions and the “passion-substance” of this layer are related; when men give rein to evil passions they strengthen its passions, and that is what happened at the end of Lemurian times. Through their passions the Lemurians made the Fire-Earth rebellious, and in this way they brought the whole Lemurian continent to destruction. No other cause for this destruction could be found except in what they had themselves drawn forth from the Earth. Today the layers are thicker and firmer, but there is still this connection between human passions and the passion-layer in the interior of the Earth; and it is still an accumulation of evil passions and forces that gives rise to earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.

                How man’s destiny and will are related to happenings in the Earth can be seen from two examples which have been occultly investigated. It has been found that persons who have been killed in an earthquake appear in their next incarnation as men of high spiritual quality and faith. They had progressed far enough to be convinced by that final stroke of the transitoriness of earthly things. The effect of this in Devachan was that they learnt a lesson for their next lives: that matter is perishable but spirit prevails. They did not all come to realise that, but many of them are now living as people who belong to some spiritual-theosophical movement.

                In the other example, the births which occurred during a time of frequent earthquakes were investigated. It was found that all those born at about the time of an earthquake, though not exactly in its area, were, surprisingly enough, men of a very materialistic cast of mind. The earthquakes were not the cause of this; rather it was these strongly materialistic souls, ripe for birth, who worked their way down into the physical world by means of their astral will and let loose the forces of the Fire-Earth layer, which proceeded to shake the Earth at the time of their birth.

                Man transforms his dwelling-place and himself at the same time, and when he spiritualises himself, he spiritualises the Earth also. One day, at a later planetary stage, he will have ennobled the Earth by his own creative power. Every moment when we think and feel, we are working on the great structure of the Earth. The Leaders of mankind have insight into such relationships and seek to impart to men the forces which will work in the true direction of evolution”. http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA095/English/RSPAP1986/19060904p01.html

                “The following is an example of the relationship that exists between the human will and telluric cataclysms: in human beings who perish as a result of earthquakes or volcanic eruptions one notices, during their next incarnation, inner qualities which are quite different. They bring from birth great spiritual pre-dispositions because, through their death, they were brought in touch with forces which showed them the true nature of reality and the illusion of material life.

                One has also noticed a relationship between certain births and seismic and volcanic catastrophes.

                During such catastrophes materialistic souls incarnate, drawn sympathetically by volcanic phenomena — by the convulsions of the evil soul of the earth. And these births can in their turn bring about new cataclysms because reciprocally the evil souls exert an exciting influence on the terrestrial fire. The evolution of our planet is intimately connected with the evolution of the forces of humanity and civilizations.

                Behind the objective laws of Nature there are in reality always spiritual laws; and a clairvoyant cannot, for instance, cross a dry piece of meadow land, or a flooded region, or perceive a volcanic eruption, without realising that spiritual powers, spiritual beings, are behind all phenomena in Nature. A volcanic eruption is for him also a moral deed, although the moral element may perhaps lie on an entirely different plane than we may, at first, imagine. Those who always confuse the physical and the higher worlds will say: — “If innocent people perish through a volcanic eruption, how can we suppose this to be a moral deed.” But at first, we need not consider this opinion; for it would be just as cruelly narrow-minded as the opposite one — namely, to consider this eruption as a punishment inflicted by God upon the people who live near the volcano. Both opinions are only the result of the narrow-minded mentality here on the physical plane. But this is not the point in question; far more universal things must be taken into consideration. Those people who live on the slopes of a volcano and whose possessions are destroyed through an eruption, are perhaps without any guilt in this life. But this will find its balance later on, and does not imply a merciless attitude on our part (to consider it as such would again be a narrow-minded interpretation of the facts). In the case of volcanic eruptions, for instance, we find that in the course of the evolution of the earth human beings cause to certain things; and because these things occur, the entire evolution of humanity is held up. For this very reason, good Gods must work in a certain way in order to establish the balance — and such phenomena in Nature sometimes bring about such a balance. Very often, this connection can be seen only by penetrating into occult depths. Thus, adjustments occur in the case of things brought about by human beings — things which are in opposition to the spiritual course of mankind’s true development. All events, even if they are mere phenomena of Nature, have something moral in their depths, and the bearers of this moral element; which lie behind the physical facts, are spiritual beings. Thus, if we imagine a world where it is impossible to speak of a division between the laws of Nature and spiritual laws — in other words, a world where justice rules as a law of Nature — then this world would be Devachan. And in Devachan we need not think that actions which deserve punishment are punished arbitrarily; for there, the immoral element destroys itself and the moral one progresses, with the same necessity with which a flame sets fire to combustible material”. http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/19120225p01.html

              2. Thanks for this Hazel – there’s much here that is applicable to our situation. Where Steiner says that the way we live affects our dwelling, I’d add that we can have an effect on our entire solar system, the stars and planets in our galaxy, including our Sun. There’s an interconnectedness there, whereby our behavior affects them just as much as they can affect us.

                I was reminded of the brief interlude when Covid was causing things to shut down – it was like Nature breathed a sigh of relief – the skies cleared, the birdsongs seemed to increase, we saw wildlife on some deserted city streets. Earth must shudder when she hears that we want everything to return to “normal”, since our normal means the destructive process to our dwelling place will continue. Normal for many people means a return to the restless, consuming lifestyle that unfortunately means more to them than the health of their planet.

                When looked at in the light of these lectures, the field of environmental science could be an interesting one for Anthroposophists. We could almost say “bring on the earthquakes”, for it’ll mean future incarnations will bring some highly-developed spiritual humans.

              3. Yes, the interconnectedness was re-established thru Christ’s Deed outpictured in the festival life of the 3-fold Easter-Tide, & as you say we have to recognize it goes both ways & do our part to consciously develop – responsible for enlivening spirit in all realms

              4. These seismic and volcanic events can lead to spiritually relevant occurrences at the moment they take place. For example, with the event in 1980 involving the eruption of Mount Saint Helen it was the Sun that was intensely focused on a particular dormant volcano which caused it to suddenly become active again. For forty days, many earthquakes took place around the mountain, and with each one a consistent stream arose from the fire-element of the interior of the Earth. This caused etherization of the blood to occur directly through the breathable atmosphere. That is why this form of receiving Katharsis (purification) led to a transcendent moment in which a Voice that seemed to be coming from the blue sky and the clouds, and also within my soul, spoke and said: “You are so worthy, and you always have been.” Fourteen years of searching led to the identity of this sublime Voice. It was the Christ communicating within my etheric body. That is why I can speak with conviction concerning the search for the Holy Grail. It was Rudolf Steiner’s lecture, “Etherization of the Blood”, that spoke of how the experience of Christ in the Etheric could take place in the form of Words of Consolation much needed by the individual soul. And, boy, did I need to hear those words. It was April 1, 1994 that I read that lecture. April Fools Day.

            2. I was reviewing the Addendum to Ch. 12 in Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path, the passage where a meaningful revelation occurred to me last Thursday, and was reminded of this thought you wrote of:

              “Right now I am deep in what Rudolf Steiner defines as a time of profound sadness that comes with the 10 days between Ascension & Pentecost, an echo of the grief & loss expereinced by the disciples. He describes it as ‘a sorrow such as cannot be compared with any other sorrow on earth’ –A kind of death experience on a spiritual level. And just like in the old mystery traditions, after the time of catharsis & preparation, there is a mystical death; so here too there is a kind of loss & experience of death. ”

              I’m now wondering if the disciples weren’t being guided into the state that Steiner speaks of in the Addendum. To quote him: “The will is free. Such freedom of will cannot be observed by someone unable to see that free willing consists in the fact that the necessary activity of the human organism is first numbed and suppressed by the intuitive element, and then replaced by the spiritual activity of the idea-filled will.” Sounds very much like what the disciples experienced – filled with the sense of loss, their human organisms being “numbed and suppressed”. Alas, the “intuitive element” is saying this is all part of the plan, to bring them to a point where they’re ready, anxious really, to receive the “spiritual activity of the idea-filled will.”

              For me, these thoughts from Steiner jarred me to remember what Paul said in his epistle to the Galatians, from which Steiner took one of his most common phrases: “I have been crucified with Christ; nevertheless I live. Yet not I, but Christ lives in me.” Like Paul, my “I” (my ego), had to be crucified, and in meditation my human organism has to be numbed and suppressed, in order for me to be ready to receive the “spiritual activity of the idea-filled will”. I realized the disciples had to go through something similar, the only difference being they would have been puzzled and perplexed as to why – they didn’t have the benefit of an explanation such as Steiner gives.

              1. These are powerful insights revealing wondrous connections.
                We have to remember too that at this turning point of time in which the disciples were participating in the life of Christ, humanity had been completely cut off from spiritual sources. The Christ gave them the possibility to cultivate new clairvoyant abilities never before experienced. It wasn’t until after the Holy Spirit comes in at Pentecost that they can take what they began to awaken to during the pain of separation after the Ascension, to digest a bit & then to begin their missions on earth.
                The Addendum you quote says it all, thank you.
                Yes, now for us to have the clarity of Dr. Steiner & at least 1 lifetime since the time of Christ is helpful in-deed…

              2. Those four chapters after the Last Supper event in which Christ washes the feet of the disciples are profound as accounted in the Gospel of John, ref. ch. 14-17. He prepares them in such a way that they gain the conviction for the cause that they have been selected for, and yet He has also planted a temporary alteration of consciousness. This is done entirely for their protection, and why in the description of the apprehension of Christ in chapter 18, they all scatter. Christ says that He is fulfilling a prophecy in which it is said, “He did not lose one of them”.

                I suspect that Christ informed His disciples to a far greater degree than Steiner ever could, and even in informing them that in a previously connected arrangement, they all twelve had been the Maccabees. This was conveyed at Ephraim, which is the place that Christ took the twelve just after the raising of Lazarus. Ephraim is in the wilderness, and outside of public view. He informs them of many things in this veritable interlude to the Gospel of John. The secret is that Rudolf Steiner received a review of what occurred here in his course on “The Gospel of Mark”, given in September 1912.

                With the announcement of the imminent Second Coming of Christ as an etheric body experience, beginning in the second third of the 20th century, we have what is no less than a further Turning Point of Time. If this can be proven by personal account, it means that Rudolf Steiner’s Spiritual Science is the real deal.

                Even the Apostle Paul, who experienced the Risen Christ on the road to Damascus in order to round up the heretical christians in order to put them in jail, based on orders from the Sanhedrin, and then received the Holy Spirit of Pentecost, has most certainly incarnated again, and very likely in order to recapitulate his life as Paul with a certain exactitude.

                We anthroposophists have this very idea in doing our biography reviews. When Steiner gave his three “practices” in the Foundation Stone verses, it begins with Spirit Recollection, which is the same as Self-Remembering. When one approaches 72 years of age, it becomes keen, and 2022 is one of those years.

                This forum is awesome when we can get this kind of dialectic going. I hope it passes over to Hazel’s other listening audience, which might not be so cerebral, but feels it just the same. We must work on Knowledge and Being at the same time. This creates objective simultaneity of purpose. We begin to move mountains, which is all about Will.

              3. You probably won’t get this reply for a while, unless Hazel checks in occasionally while she’s away hiking. You’ve given us some good things to think about here Steve. I’m looking forward to reading Steiner’s work on the Gospel of Mark sometime in future, after I’m finished the many books I’ve got on the go now. And those chapters in John, from 14-17, are some of my favorite passages – I’ve read them a lot, and continually get more insights from them all the time.

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