12 November 2018 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Vega is the brightest star in the west in early evening. Its little constellation Lyra extends to its left. Somewhat farther left, about a fist & a half at arm’s length from Vega, is Albireo, the beak of Cygnus the Swan.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1793 – Jean Sylvain Bailly, the first Mayor of Paris, is guillotined during the Reign of Terror. Bailly was a French astronomer, mathematician, freemason, & political leader of the early part of the French Revolution.
1840 – Birthday of Auguste Rodin, French sculptor & illustrator, created The Thinker
1927 – Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin in undisputed control of the Soviet Union.
1956 – In the midst of the Suez Crisis, or the Second Arab–Israeli War, Palestinian refugees are shot dead in Rafah by Israeli soldiers following the invasion of the Gaza Strip. The canal continued to be strategically important after the Second World War as a conduit for the shipment of oil. As a result of the conflict, the United Nations created the UNEF Peacekeepers to police the Egyptian–Israeli border, British Prime Minister Anthony Eden resigned, Canadian Minister of External Affairs Lester Pearson won the Nobel Peace Prize, & the USSR may have been emboldened to invade Hungary.
1979 – Iran hostage crisis: One of the leading national issues during that year was the release of 52 Americans being held hostage in Iran since November 4, 1979. In response to the hostage situation in Tehran, US President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all petroleum imports into the United States from Iran. The Iran hostage crisis continued into 1980, & as the November 1980 presidential election approached, there were concerns in the Republican Party camp that a resolution of the crisis would give incumbent Jimmy Carter enough of an electoral boost to be re-elected.
Reagan won the election, because the hostages were not released before the election, but on the day of Reagan’s inauguration—in fact, 20 minutes after he concluded his inaugural address—the Islamic Republic of Iran announced the release of the hostages. The timing gave rise to an allegation that representatives of Reagan’s presidential campaign had conspired with Iran to delay the release until after the election to thwart President Carter from pulling off an “October surprise”.
According to the allegation, the Reagan Administration rewarded Iran for its participation in the plot by supplying Iran with weapons via Israel & by unblocking Iranian government monetary assets in US banks.
The House October Surprise Task Force outlined as “principal allegations” three supposed meetings between representatives of Reagan’s campaign & Iranian government officials in the summer & fall of 1980 to delay the release of the hostages: 1) a meeting in Madrid during the summer, 2) a meeting at the L’Enfant Plaza Hotel in Washington, D.C that autumn, & 3) a meeting in Paris in October.
The Task Force characterized three other meetings or contacts as “ancillary allegations”: 1) a meeting at the Mayflower Hotel in Washington, D.C. in early spring 1980, 2) a meeting at the Churchill Hotel in London in the summer of 1980, and 3) a meeting at the Sherry Netherlands Hotel in New York in January 1981.
- March 1980: Jamshid Hashimi, international arms dealer, is visited by William Casey at Washington’s Mayflower Hotel, who asks that a meeting be arranged with “someone in Iran who had authority to deal on the hostages”.
- March 21, 1980: Jamshid Hashimi & his brother Cyrus Hashimi meet at the latter’s home.
- April 1980: Donald Gregg, a U.S. National Security Council aide with connections to George Bush, meets Cyrus Hashimi in New York’s Shazam restaurant, near Hashimi’s bank. Former Iranian President Abolhassan Banisadr said in his 1991 book My Turn to Speak that he had “proof of contacts between Khomeini & the supporters of Ronald Reagan as early as the spring of 1980…. Rafsanjani, Beheshti, & Ahmed Khomeini [the Ayatollah’s son] played key roles.”
- Last week of July 1980: At a meeting in Madrid arranged by the Hashimi brothers that includes Robert Gray, a man identified as Donald Gregg, & Mahdi Karrubi, William Casey says that if Iran could assure that American hostages were well treated until their release & were released as a “gift” to the new administration, “the Republicans would be most grateful & ‘would give Iran its strength back.'” Karrubi says he has “no authority to make such a commitment.”
- About August 12, 1980: Karrubi meets again with Casey, saying Khomeini has agreed to the proposal. Casey agrees the next day, naming Cyrus Hashimi as middleman to handle the arms transactions. More meetings are set for October. Cyrus Hashimi purchases a Greek ship & commences arms deliveries valued at $150 million from the Israeli port of Eilat to Bandar Abbas. According to CIA sources, Hashimi receives a $7 million commission. Casey is said to use an aide named Tom Carter in the negotiations.
- September 22, 1980: Iraq invades Iran.
- Late September 1980: An expatriate Iranian arms dealer named Hushang Lavi claims he met with Richard V. Allen, the Reagan campaign’s national security expert, Robert “Bud” McFarlane, & Lawrence Silberman, & discussed the possible exchange of F-4 parts for American hostages, but Lavi says they asserted they “were already in touch with the Iranians themselves”.
- October 15–20: Meetings are held in Paris between emissaries of the Reagan/Bush campaign, with Mr. William Casey as “key participant”, & “high-level Iranian & Israeli representatives”.
- October 21: Iran, for reasons not explained, abruptly shifts its position in secret negotiations with the Carter administration & disclaims “further interest in receiving military equipment”.
- October 21–23: Israel secretly ships F-4 fighter-aircraft tires to Iran, in violation of the U.S. arms embargo, & Iran disperses the hostages to different locations.
- January 20, 1981: Hostages are formally released into United States custody after spending 444 days in captivity. The release takes place just minutes after Ronald Reagan is sworn in as president.
Several individuals—most notably former Iranian President Abulhassan Banisadr, former naval intelligence officer and U.S. National Security Council member Gary Sick, & former Reagan/Bush campaign staffer & White House analyst Barbara Honegger—have continued to speak out about this truth, to no avail.
1996 – A Saudi Arabian Airlines Boeing 747 & a Kazakh Ilyushin Il-76 cargo plane collide in mid-air near New Delhi, killing 349. The deadliest mid-air collision to date.
1997 – Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing.
1999 –Düzce earthquake shakes northwestern Turkey. At least 1845 people were killed & almost 5,000 were injured.
2001 – In New York City, American Airlines Flight 587, an Airbus A300 en route to the Dominican Republic, crashes minutes after takeoff from John F. Kennedy International Airport, killing all 260 on board & five on the ground.
2017 – The Kermanshah earthquake shakes the northern Iran–Iraq border. At least 2410 people were killed & over 7,000 were injured.
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POD (Poem Of the day)
The Journey.
Above the mountains
the geese turn into
the light again
painting their
black silhouettes
on an open sky.
Sometimes everything
has to be
inscribed across
the heavens
so you can find
the one line
already written
inside you.
Sometimes it takes
a great sky
to find that
small, bright
and indescribable
wedge of freedom
in your own heart.
Sometimes with
the bones of the black
sticks left when the fire
has gone out
someone has written
something new
in the ashes
of your life.
You are not leaving
you are arriving.
~David Whyte
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Chagall
TfT– (Thought for Today):
It’s a good time to think about our relationship to human beings who haven’t been born yet. What can we do to be more conscious about making our life a gift to the future? What might we create, that would enhance the destinies of our descendants? How can we conduct ourselves so that we will not only help preserve the wonders we live amidst, but actually enhance them?
As we ponder our possible contributions–& take practical action to deepen our commitment to them–keep in mind this thought from Lewis Carroll: “It’s a poor sort of memory that only works backward.”
~hag
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The Changing Nature of Childhood Health & Illness
with Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D.
(WE ARE LOOKING FOR SOMEONE TO BE WITH THE CHILDREN DURING THE MORNING LECTURE FOR PAY)
Nov 15, 2018 — Morning Lecture 10:30am—12noon; Location: 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL 60618 (Elderberry Cafe, next to Rudolf Steiner Branch);
Childcare available for additional $5 cash donation at day of event as needed.
Click link below for tickets and more info.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-changing-nature-of-childho…
Nov 15, 2018 — Evening Lecture 7:00 pm—8:30pm; Location: 2135 W. Wilson Ave. Chicago, IL 60625 (The Christian Community Church)
Click link below for tickets and more info.
https://www.eventbrite.com/e/the-changing-nature-of-childho…
Tickets are $12. No tickets sold at the door. A rare opportunity to hear Dr. Cowan in Chicago. This event will sell out.
Please join us in welcoming world-renowned doctor and author Dr. Thomas Cowan, M.D. from San Francisco, CA as he describes his research and experience with today’s children and their health, based on his newest book, Vaccines, Autoimmunity and the Changing Nature of Childhood Illness.We are providing two opportunities to hear Dr. Cowan speak. We will provide childcare for the morning session in an adjoining space to the lecture, to help parents of young children attend. Childcare will not be available for the evening lecture.
Dr Thomas Cowan M.D. is board-certified in anthroposophic medicine. He is a founding board member of the Weston A Price Foundation and is author ofThe Fourfold Path to Healing,a companion book to Nourishing Traditionsby Sally Fallon. He writes the “Ask the Doctor” column in Wise Traditions in Food, Farming and the Healing Arts. He is author of Human Heart, Cosmic Heart(A Doctor’s Quest to Understand, Treat and Prevent Cardiovascular Disease). He has three grown children and currently practices medicine in San Francisco where he resides with his wife Lynda Smith Cowan.
This series is presented and sponsored by: Waldorf Learning Support http://arcturus.info, Arcturus Rudolf Steiner Education Program http://arcturus.info
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Friday 16 November COMMUNITY MEETING: 7 pm – 9 pm
Money as ‘New Mystery’ facilitated by Chuck Ginsberg
Continuing our discussions on Steiner’s 3-fold Social Organism, we will delve into the economic sphere
For more info. contact Chuck Ginsberg
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Friday 30 November 2018 – 7 – 9 pm
HIDDEN IN PLAIN SIGHT: THE MYSTERY OF THE APOCALYPSE with Margaret Shipman
‘Apocalypse’ today almost always means war, but its primary definition is REVELATION. the Book of Revelations seems warlike until we begin to delve into the messages, seals, trumpets and bowls as stages of initiation! We will explore the complexities of this amazing book of the Bible by taking a journey through the 7-pointed star and the Apocalyptic Seals of the 1907 Munich Conference.
For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg
Saturday 1 December 2018 – 10 am – noon
THE CHRISTMAS CONFERENCE
How can we begin to understand the importance of The Christmas Conference of 1923/24? Can it be understood as so profound to consider it a second turning point of time?
We will take a journey with the foundation stone, beginning with the laying of the first stone, a physical one, for the first Goetheanum, in 1913. Then — through the phoenix experience of the 1922/23 fire, and its journey back to earth a year later—we find it again, as a foundation stone meditation planted into our hearts. The introduction of The Foundation Stone Meditation was a central focus of the Christmas Conference week. It was one of three great gifts which Rudolf Steiner brought at this time as powerful spiritual tools for human evolution.
Margaret Shipman has been a member of the Anthroposophical Society for 30 years and considers the work of Rudolf Steiner to be the core of her life. In 2002 she started a national study group for anthroposophy – ‘Geographically Engaged Members Studygroup’, or G.E.M.S. She is also a cellist and pianist and spent 36 years repairing and making instruments of the violin family. She co-authored the book titled Violin Restoration with her mentor, Hans Weisshaar, who was in the second-ever Waldorf class and met Rudolf Steiner as a child.
For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg
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Wed. 5 December 2018 CRC Zoom Call 7:15pm – 8:30pm – Reincarnation & Karma
with special guest: Dr. Ross Rentea: “A presentation from the karma and the work together of Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman”
Steiner considered I. Wegman a true “friend”, companion over many incarnations, and invaluable helper. In her incarnation in the 20th century she collaborated with him in writing a book, asked decisive questions that led to the Christmas Foundation Conference, the First Class, and more. We will look especially at their working together on the “Fundamentals of Therapy” a work on which R. Steiner put finishing touches until hours before crossing the threshold.
Ross Rentea, MD, has been practicing anthroposophical medicine in Chicago for 35 years. He is a member of the Anthroposophical Society(1972), the First Class of the School for Spiritual Science(1974), the Physicians Association for Anthroposophic Medicine (1984) and the Christian Community (1976). He has served on the Board of the American College of Anthroposophic Medicine. He has lectured nationally and internationally, and published and written numerous scientific research articles and recently (2017) the book “Childhood Illnesses and Immunizations”. Besides anthroposophical medicine his current interests are in better understanding the seven Rhythms of the Foundation Stone. He is a co-founder of the True Botanica Company www.truebotanica.com and the Lili Kolisko Institute for Anthroposophical Medicine www.koliskoinstitute.org .
For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg
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Friday 7 December 2018 Doors open at 6:45pm
Dr. Ross Rentea: “The Rhythms of the Foundation Stone Meditation and Its Connection to the Stars” 7 pm – 9 pm
Rudolf Steiner expresses during the Christmas Conference that these rhythms “should never leave us again”. How can we understand these Rhythms better so that we may truly incorporate them with their high significance into our daily lives? We are being urged in the Foundation Stone Meditation to “practice, practice, practice” how can we do that with the Rhythms?
For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg
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Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society, 4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map) Check out our Web site! Chicago, IL (Anthroposophical Society in America)
The newly renovated (& lazured) Elderberries 3-Fold Space is currently available for rental on PEER SPACE for classes, events, meetings, retreats, art exhibits, family parties, etc…
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ON-GOING:
Community Study – Wednesdays at 9:30 am – 11 am at the Branch
Working with Rudolf Steiner’s Karmic Relationships Vol 3
‘Anthroposophy’, which means Wisdom of the Human Being is a ‘Spiritual Science’ built on the research of Rudolf Steiner. Our current conversation explores: the riddles of existence, the truth of karma, the mystery of evil, historic connections, life after death and more. We incorporate ‘The Calendar of the Soul’, eurythmy, focused discussion and seasonal artistic explorations in our study.
For more info. contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg