Sorry I missed acknowledging The Feast Day of The Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception of the Blessed Virgin Mary yesterday, my RR site was being held hostage by cyber gremlins…Today is a new day…
In the last essay, Love is Moral, we looked at how we need to bring morality into our intellect NOW – as a preparation for the 6th Cultural epoch to unfold with the virtue of Love.
In FAITH, LOVE, AND HOPE – GA 130 Steiner goes on to share how Hope is the key to what is needed for the 7th Cultural Epoch “in order to face the next catastrophe, and to begin a new life, just as was done in this present post-Atlantean age.
Thinking on this during the 2nd week of Advent when we consider the Plant Kingdom & the etheric realm with its ‘Water Trial’, this quote raises in me a contemplation of the Great Flood – a great ‘catastrophe’ – a severe trial – that became a new beginning in our evolutionary process. I think on how Christ was baptized with water; & that a baptism by fire comes after, bringing with it the gifts of the Holy Spirit.
In looking further into what is calling from the future, we can know that, if Hope is not cultivated, if what Spiritual Science has to offer is denied, then when our external culture, with its materialistic proclivity comes to a climax in the 7th – the final phase of the post-Atlantean epoch, bringing with it no fulfilment of Hope, but leaving instead “utter desolation”, people will say:
“We have wireless installations — undreamt of by our ancestors — to transmit our thoughts all over the earth, and what good does it do us? The most trivial, unproductive thoughts are sent hither and thither, and human ingenuity has to be strained to the utmost to enable us to transport from some far distant region, by means of all kinds of perfected appliances, something for us to eat; or to travel at high speeds round the globe. But in our heads there is nothing worth sending from place to place, for our thoughts are cheerless; more-over, since we have had our present means of communication, they have become even more cheerless than when they were conveyed in the old snail-like fashion.” ~Rudolf Steiner
In short, without hope, despair and desolation are all that our civilization can spread over the earth.
But, in the last – the 7th cultural epoch, souls who have accepted the spiritual in life, will become enriched, and rise above the ruins of the external life of culture. Their surety that this acceptance of the spiritual has not been in vain will be a strong force of hope within them — hope that after a great catastrophe a new age will come for human beings, when there will appear in external life, in a new culture, what has already been prepared spiritually within the soul.
And so Steiner ends these lectures on Faith, Love & Hope by assuring us that if we permeate our whole being with Spiritual Science, we will advance step by step: from our age of Faith, which we must cultivate now more than ever, thru the next age of Love, so that the angels can work in our astral body, & then into the final phase of Hope, to give us the strength to navigate thru a purifying catastrophe by fire, which will make way for the New Jerusalem. It’s up to us to do this work consciously. For if we can each do our part – if humanity can take on these virtues – a great teacher & helper will work with us – The Maitreya Buddha – who Steiner calls the “truest, most beautiful, of all human souls”
As always dear friends, See you in the Striving
~hag
9 December 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The waning gibbous Moon this evening forms a big, nearly equilateral triangle with Mars high to its upper right and Capella high above the Moon.
Sunrise: 7:10 A.M.
Sunset: 4:34 P.M.
Moonrise: 5:38 P.M.
Moonset: 8:44 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (98%)
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1923 – 1st extract of Rudolf Steiner’s autobiography ‘The Course of My Life’ in Das Goetheanum, with the birthdate of 27 February 1861
Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
10 December 2022 – from 11 am – 4 pm
Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!
If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com
The 4th Sunday of Advent – 18 December 2022 at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago, 2 pm – 3:30 pm CST (after Rev. Jonah Evans talk at the Christian Community)
The Individuality of Conscience and the Goetheanum with Lucien Dante Lazar
Out of our conscience, we witness the Christ in the other. And through this Seeing, our I is born within us, whose self-conscious interior is the I of God. This is a mystery of John the Baptist.
When Love enters the human heart as an awakening to freedom, the Wisdom of form enters our awareness, and color, that majesty of Light, teaches us about creation. This is a mystery of the painter Raphael.
When the Word approaches us, inspiring us in our language to find the Heavenly Sophia as intellect, we write truth and honor the New Revelation of the Christ and His marriage to Sophia. And out of this marriage, we learn about ourselves. This is a mystery of Novalis.
On this last Sunday of Advent dedicated to the Human Being & the Angels, we will engage in these three Christian gifts through the social encounter, our working with color, and our thinking through language. And we will strive to harmonize these three incarnations of this significant individuality with the birth, death, and resurrection of the Goetheanum.
$10-$50 or pay what you will at the door or online www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)
For more Info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar www.rschicago.org/donate
The ‘Envy of the Gods’ – The ‘Envy of Human Beings’
Presented by Adriana Koulias*
A Winter Solstice offering preparing us for the Centennial commemoration of the burning of the first Goetheanum.
21 December 2022, at 5 pm PT, 6 pm MT, 7 pm CT, 8 pm ET Here is a link to the World Clock for your time zone
Online & in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago
Dear Friends – This special presentation is supported by your generous donations. $10-$50 or pay what you will www.rschicago.org/donate (credit card or PayPal)
Please type ‘Adriana’ to designate your payment
For those attending in-person doors open at 5:30 pm for our Potluck meal. Please bring food & drink to share.
For more Info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg – Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar www.rschicago.org/donate
You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting. Topic: Adriana Koulias
Time: Dec 21, 2022, 07:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting https://us06web.zoom.us/j/89586637726
Meeting ID: 895 8663 7726
One tap mobile +13092053325,,89586637726# US +13126266799,,89586637726# US (Chicago) Find your local number: https://us06web.zoom.us/u/kbtvb8sTRI
Work on building the First Goetheanum, which was designed and supervised by Rudolf Steiner, began after the laying of the double dodecahedron foundation stone on the 20th of September 1913. Construction proceeded for a decade under enormous difficulties in the political, economic and cultural realms, brought on by the advent of the First World War. After the war when the building was near completion, the First Goetheanum was destroyed by an arsonist on New Year’s Eve 1922/1923.
This NYE 2022-23 will be the 100th anniversary of this event and the world is again facing many difficulties, political, economic and social. Adriana’s lecture will explore what Rudolf Steiner meant by the ‘Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human beings’ and how a consciousness of this during the coming 12 Holy Nights can provide the necessary strengthening for the coming twelve months.
During this presentation Adriana will speak about the three gifts given by Rudolf Steiner in 1913: The naming of Anthroposophy, The Fifth Gospel, and The Laying of the Foundation Stone of the First Goetheanum. She will explore with us how we can link our hearts to the old Goetheanum during the coming 12 Holy Nights to prepare ourselves for the coming 12 months in 2023, so we can work towards a Cosmic New Year.
In this way we will celebrate the Jubilee of the Christmas Conference and the resurrection of the living impulse of the First Goetheanum in the most auspicious way.
For Rudolf Steiner tells us: ‘My dear friends, may this link our hearts to the old Goetheanum which we had to consign to the elements. May it link our hearts also to the Spirit, to the Soul of this Goetheanum. With this vow before whatever is best within our being we want to live on not only into the new year. In strength of deed, bearing the spirit, leading the soul we want to live on into the new cosmic year.’ ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Envy of the Gods and the Envy of Human Beings.’
Adriana Koulias was born in 1960 in Brazil. Adriana moved to Australia when she was 9 years old where she lives today. She has studied art, operatic singing and nursing. She has been studying Anthroposophy (awareness of our humanity) as given by Rudolf Steiner for 33 years and has since 2002-3 integrated this knowledge into several novels and a number of books, international lectures and articles online and in magazines.
Excellent message in your blog today, and such a timely quote from Steiner. I’m reminded of how these three – faith, hope and love – work best when used harmoniously. I’m not waiting until the 7th epoch for hope; I agree with Steiner that the 7th epoch will need hope, but I’m not waiting for the rest of the world; my desire is to forge ahead by spending as much time as possible in the spiritual world, where all time is one time, which means where f, h & love are already working together. Gives one a different perspective on our world as we observe how things operate, or should I say don’t operate, very smoothly at least, without these three forces. It also gives one compassion for those who know they need them, but are still at the beginning stages of working with them. And finally, it makes one humbly aware, as you often point out Hazel, of how much we still miss the mark ourselves. We’re on the right path, but there’s plenty of “wandering” left.
Yes, I agree that the time is now for all 3 of these virtues.
It’s interesting to consider how they work into not only our individual inner development, but can be seen as the driving force behind entire eras!
Steiner also makes a point of changing the order from what Paul gives us in Corinthians saying that we must start with Faith as that resets our astral body -which can then work down into the virtue of Love which affects the etheric body. When we replace desire with faith we can purify our astral body, making it possible to effect changes to our etheric streams. Then this allows Hope to penetrate all the way down to spiritualize our very bones…And Yes, we are called to become conscious of this now as we work to set the vibration for the future of all humanity…
Thanks for this insight Hazel. The Master did say we would do greater things even than He did, and that would include this process you’ve mentioned.
These are wonderful observations, Maverick and Hazel, as we approach the 3rd Advent Sunday on the 11th. The ordering seems real enough; Faith, Love, Hope. Possibly, Paul saw the middle integer as “Hope”, because he was in a different position back then, when threats to his very physical life were a constant threat. Steiner deals with Paul’s unique position on this in his course here:
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA142/English/AP1971/BhaPau_index.html
As such, Steiner likens Paul to the historical Arjuna, who was initiated by Krishna around 1000 BC, when the battle for a United Israel was taking place. Yet, by the midpoint of Earth evolution, when Paul lived, the Earth had become “an entity without hope”, and this is what Paul experienced in his early years as Saul of Tarsus. This is when Christ entered the picture, and Saul came to find his place. His Hope became the veritable Holy Spirit in a seeming strike-down event right outside Damascus, Syria. We know what it entailed over the years of his several missionary journey’s outside Jerusalem. Thus, the factor of Hope was big in his campaign.
Yes, Paul’s event is a perfect example of what can take place at Advent. He went from having no hope for a Messiah, to being full of hope after being confronted by the glorified Christ being. Shows us all what a difference the true spiritual Light overcoming darkness can make for us too.
Actually, Paul had every hope for a Messiah, but he did not expect the form in which He would take. This is what proved to be problematical for him. He expected a Messiah coming in flowing robes like Moses, and sitting down on the Judgment Seat in Jerusalem. Instead, Christ came to sit with the mixed mongrels of the Galileans. Why? Because this culture best represented the mixture of blood that expressed “Universal Human”.
The secret to Paul, and this is very much a part of these lectures, is that he was formerly Saul of Tarsus, who had grown from birth in expectation of the coming of the Messiah. Yet, when Christ actually appeared on Earth for three years, Saul saw a figure entirely different than he expected. Thus, he rejected and rebelled against Him. He reacted against the Christ in the manner of a zealot, much akin to the Maccabees, who had restored the temple to Jerusalem. And, this affiliation only grew in a kind of vehement denial of Christ.
Then, he was struck down by a bolt of light on the road to Damascus in order to arrest Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem for jailing. Christ from above says, “Saul, why do you persecute me?” Why do you kick against the pricks”?
The real story is a matter of supersensible research. You see, Saul was murdered in an earlier incarnation involving the Macabbean Revolt in 165 BC. At that time, he was a neophyte in a particular mystery which stood on the ground of Antioch, Syria, and wherein he had been prepared to receive Initiation. Instead, he was murdered along with the Hierophant priest in the act of the Maccabees. Thus ended the last true school of the ancient Mysteries, which was a Mithras mystery. Steiner often spoke about the Mithras mystery, and how its symbology epitomized the whole evolutionary scheme that led to the advent of Christ on earth. Thus, to simply matters, the Hierophant priest in this Mithras mystery in Syria, and his disciple, who were both murdered, would reincarnate as Peter and Paul of the Gospel chronology. This is what makes it all very interesting.
This year, Hanukkah begins on the evening of December 18th, which coincides with our fourth Advent Sunday. I am always reminded of when Christ was in Jerusalem that last winter, and how the Jews were looking for another excuse to pick up stones to throw at Him. It was the time of the Festival of Lights, and Christ was in a very somber mood walking through the Portico of Solomon, as if a memory was inflicting Him. He asks them, “Why do you pick up stones to throw at me this time”? John 10.
Yes these holy days often overlap
Yes, last year Hanukkah was celebrated from Sunday November 28 to Monday December 6. It is based on the last quarter moon of the year and the last new moon, and comprises eight days. As such, it is a festival of the Old Moon. What makes it interesting in relation to Christ at the time He was in Jerusalem when this celebration was occurring, is that He is the Being of Light, and the Jews did not recognize this. They picked up stones against this Good Shepherd. What a paradox, don’t you think?
When turning points come in time there is always a push/pull – always a lag in the transition.
What is heartening to ponder is that many came & were able to let the Good Shepherd lead them, many who were ready to just leave their old lives behind, especially the sick who brought their faith & were healed
Well, I can certainly understand that. This was the fundamental time of transition, to be sure. Thanks for the reminder! 🙂
Yet, the Jews still celebrate this festival with no recognition of the Christ as the veritable “Being of Light”. According to the opening of the Sixth Seal as described in Revelations, which in its way is an homage to the 6th Cultural epoch, which we anthro’s know to be the Time of Christ, there will be a conversion of the Jews as to its twelve tribes, and wherein 12,000 of each tribe will be converted; 144,000 in all. This looks like a good sign, but we still have this interim period today in which we have to be vigilant, perseverant, and hoping for the 5th Cultural epoch to make its mark on the proceedings, if possible. Thus, the global perspective that Steiner offered with its Michael Culture affiliation.
I hope that the pen is still mightier than the sword, but who knows these days in the stupor of an age that is in crisis.
1 Peter 1:13
Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ.
1 Thessalonians 5:2-9
For you yourselves are fully aware that the day of the Lord will come like a thief in the night. While people are saying, “There is peace and security,” then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape. But you are not in darkness, brothers, for that day to surprise you like a thief. For you are all children of light, children of the day. We are not of the night or of the darkness. So then let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober. …
Matthew 24:44
Therefore you also must be ready, for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.
Luke 21:36
But stay awake at all times, praying that you may have strength to escape all these things that are going to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man.”
Matthew 24:42
Therefore, stay awake, for you do not know on what day your Lord is coming.
Mark 13:33-37
Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come. It is like a man going on a journey, when he leaves home and puts his servants in charge, each with his work, and commands the doorkeeper to stay awake. Therefore stay awake—for you do not know when the master of the house will come, in the evening, or at midnight, or when the rooster crows, or in the morning— lest he come suddenly and find you asleep. And what I say to you I say to all: Stay awake.”
Luke 12:35-48
“Stay dressed for action and keep your lamps burning, and be like men who are waiting for their master to come home from the wedding feast, so that they may open the door to him at once when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those servants whom the master finds awake when he comes. Truly, I say to you, he will dress himself for service and have them recline at table, and he will come and serve them. If he comes in the second watch, or in the third, and finds them awake, blessed are those servants! But know this, that if the master of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have left his house to be broken into. …
John 15:7
If you abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be done for you.
1 Corinthians 16:13
Be watchful, stand firm in the faith, act like men, be strong.
Matthew 24:13
But the one who endures to the end will be saved.
Mark 13:33
Be on guard, keep awake. For you do not know when the time will come.
Matthew 24:36
“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son, but the Father only.
Matthew 24:22
And if those days had not been cut short, no human being would be saved. But for the sake of the elect those days will be cut short.
Revelation 3
He who has the seven Spirits of God and the seven stars, says this: ‘I know your deeds, that you have a name that you are alive, but you are dead. 2 Wake up, and strengthen the things that remain, which were about to die; for I have not found your deeds completed in the sight of My God. 3 So remember what you have received and heard; and keep it, and repent. Therefore if you do not wake up, I will come like a thief, and you will not know at what hour I will come to you. 4 But you have a few people in Sardis who have not soiled their garments; and they will walk with Me in white, for they are worthy. 5 He who overcomes will thus be clothed in white garments; and I will not erase his name from the book of life, and I will confess his name before My Father and before His angels. 6 He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches.
Thanks for responding to the post, it gave me a chance to put into words one of my big take away’s from this lecture: The idea of replacing desire with Faith…
I was surprised at how many references Steiner made to wireless communications, as Maverick inferred with his post. There are no less than twelve.
https://rsarchive.org/Search.php
I don’t quite get what you mean with your remark about desire being replaced by Faith. Maybe I do. Desire is everything. You know that this was the purpose of the Divine Sophia. Achamoth. Steiner refers to it in just a few places. Kind regards.
Hazel, it was at the 29th Aeon that the Divine Sophia sacrificed the element of Desire from her Being in order to make human incarnations possible in the Earthly sphere of evolution. This sacrifice has ever since been memorialized as reaching the 29th year in the life of the Bodhisattva. Gautama Buddha gave us the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Path of Righteousness in his 29th year.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA149/English/RSP1963/19131228p01.html
It’s true that Desire is one of the lower 7 stages of Will:
Instinct = Physical
Impulse/Drives = Etheric
Desire = Astral
Motive = I-Being
Aspiration = Spirit self
Intuition = Life spirit
Resolve = Spirit human
I guess for me I am striving to replace desire with the faith that I can rise up
To work from my I & not be buffeted by the lower astral.
Achamoth was an imperfect being
Thanks Hazel for this handy chart of the 7 stages of Will. Very useful.
Yes, I find that I refere to it often. One of our study group friends who has gone thru the AAP training shared it thru our work with “A Psychology of Body, Soul & Spirit”
Original Desire comes from the Divine Sophia as her sacrifice within the trichotomy of: Primal Father, Divine Silence, Sophia. As such, She separates off a certain quality of Her Being in the form of Desire, and this creates the incentive for human incarnations in the Earth phase of evolution. Thus, we must distinguish between the “Desire of the Higher Self”, and the “desire of the lower self”.
For example, the descent of The Mothers into the interior of the Earth can be no other than an important allusion to this sacrifice of Desire. Yes, the Mother even sees the sacrifice of Her own Perfection in order to make this possible. This forms a big part of the Uriel Imagination. It can also be found in the Marriage in Cana, which is described in the second chapter of the Gospel of John.
“On the third day, there was a wedding in Cana of Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there”. She points out to the Christ, “they have run out of wine”.
Pretty perceptive, don’t you think?
Interesting to contemplate the Divine Sophia in relation to Desire, in connection with the teachings of the Buddha.