“He Must Increase but I Must Decrease.” (John 3:30)
John the Baptist – born in the light of the Summer Sun, just after the Solstice, 6 months before his cousin Jesus, whose birth is celebrated just after the Winter Solstice.
Along with references to the light of the Sun, there are many lamp & fire symbols in the Old Testament that prepare the way for the Christ, who appeared before incarbation as ‘flames of fire’ & ‘clouds of glory’, such as the burning bush (Exodus 3), & the refiner’s fire (Malachi 3:2)
“Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path”(Psalm 119:105)
Solomon compares prayer with a lamp, & teaching with light, (Proverbs 6:23) “like the shining of the sun, burns evermore, and leads to eternal rest.”
Rabbis were often called “Lamps of the Law,” & David was “The Lamp of Israel” (2 Samuel 21:17). Compare the remarkable parallel spoken of in the prototype of the Baptist: “Then stood up Elias the prophet, as fire, and his word was kindled like a lamp” (Ecclesiasticus 48:1). This speaks to the promised light which was to appear, & Elias as the torchbearer who kindles the lamb to light the bridegroom’s way.
“He was not the Light, but came to bear witness to the Light” (John 1:8). Here we see the distinction between the lamp (John the Baptist) & the Light (The Christ)
2 Peter 1:19 tells us: “We also have the message of the prophets, which has been confirmed beyond doubt. And you will do well to pay attention to this message, as to a lamp shining in a dark place, until the day dawns and the morning star rises in your hearts.”
John the Baptist, as the Forerunner of the Christ, is the flame signal of the Messiah, the last Old Testament form of the pillar of fire, or the candlestick in the temple. “He was the burning and shining lamp (λύχνος, not φῶς) and there was nothing you wanted more than to bask for a while in that light”. (John 5:35) Here we experience the Baptist as Christōsphoros, the harbinger of the Christ-Light (Φωσφόρος) – the “Light-Bearer”,
“John replies in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.” (John 1:23)
“The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are healthy, your whole body will be full of light.” (Matthew 6:22). We also find that, under the symbol of lamps of fire, the messengers of God, are repeatedly set forth (Matthew 5:14-16; Matthew 25:1-8; Revelation 1:20; Philippians 2:15).
Like the call of conscience from John the Baptist, the need arises to let the light of the higher ego shine into our being.
Let us seek to know the will forces that through our deeds become part of the earth’s being, & make straight the path to the New Jerusalem.
(See also these references: John 1:5, John 1:7, John 1:8, John 1:9; & compare John 3:19-21, John 8:12; John 9:5; John 12:46)
Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg
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POD (Poem Of the Day)
~Steller is the golden seed from which the corn arises,
Earthly is the Sun on the hill from which spirals day…
My body nourishes some unfolding time & purpose
My heart lifts like the Moon
& power quivers on the water…
I shine bronze & gold
& silver in the mirror of the unveiled Isis…
Today
The fixed stars & the circling planets are glad…
~hag
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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
22 June 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna, after completing her task at New Moon time for the Solar eclipse, is a thin crescent returning to the evening sky as Castor & Pollux are disappearing for the season.
Feast of St. Thomas More, “a man for all seasons,” literary scholar, lawyer, father of four & chancellor of England. He would not support Henry VIII’s divorce & remarriage. Beheaded on Tower Hill, London, 1535
1527 Deathday of Niccolo Machiavelli – “The Prince”
1633 – The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe
1805 – Birthday of Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian politician, journalist & activist for the unification of Italy spearheading the Italian revolutionary movement. Freemason – Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as a Hibernian initiate with Garibaldi & Cavour
1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, & Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears
1941 –Hitler invades the Russia in Operation Barbarossa
1942 – Pledge of Allegiance formally adopted by Congress
1969 – The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to water pollution, & spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act & the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency
1978 – Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered by American astronomer James W. Christy
1990 – Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
2002 – An earthquake measuring 6.5 Mw strikes northwestern Iran killing 261 people & injuring 1,300 others
2010 – Deathday of Ekkehard Meffert anthroposophist who studied geology, geography, philosophy (with a thesis on Cusa), Education, politics & history. Best known for his biography of Mathilde Scholl, one of the first esoteric students of Rudolf Steiner.
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Friday 26 June & Sunday 28 June, 2020 Goethe’s Primordial Plant Workshop with Victoria Martin
Friday 26 June & Sunday 28 June, 2020 – Goethe’s Primordial Plant: Urpflanze Magic Art Workshop with Victoria Martin – Create your own Totem Plant Portrait on 8 x 32 Archival Canvas.
$15 – $25 (or pay what you will) includes Tuition & All Materials. Space is limited to 10, so please reserve your spot.
Friday 26 – Doors open 4:30pm, Lecture, Demo & Art Making: 5 pm – 6:30 pm, Critique & Soiree 6:30 pm – 7:30 pm
Sunday 28 – Doors open: 2:30pm, Lecture, Demo & Art Making: 3 pm – 4:30 pm, Critique & Soiree: 4:30 pm – 5:30 pm
Please bring Paleo Snacks to share. RSVP by Thursday June 25 Contact viccimartin@gmail.com or call 312-961-3380.
~Rudolf Steiner Branch of Chicago Festivals & Programs Coordinator Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
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Sat. 27 June 2020 Werbeck Singing workshop 9 am – 5 pm
9 am – 3:30 pm Sat. 27 June 2020 with Alicia Burns at Elderberries 3-Fold Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultural Hub 4251 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
$25-$65 or pay it forward
…the human voice needs no training, it is already there, finished and perfect as an entity. What the voice is waiting for is liberation. We should speak of freeing the voice, or better yet uncovering the voice, and not voice-training. ~ Valborg Werbeck-Svärdström, creator of the Werbeck Singing Method
Details TBA. for more info. contact Frank Agrama
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August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago
We’re starting up with Culture in our community – join young people here in Chicago for a 10 day walking journey – Classroom Alive Chicago!
Exploration & experiencial learning all over Chicagoland, starting at at Elderberries 3-Fold Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultrual Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
for more info. contact Ultra-Violet Archer, or Frank Agrama
Details TBA #ClassroomAliveChicago2020
Thank you for forwarding this flier for any interested young people –
Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator
August 20-23, 2020 Questions of Courage Youth Conference at Elderberries
Questions of Courage 2020 in Chicago – August 20-23 Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost and 3Fold Cultural Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
August 20: Check-in, share conversation, build the ground for the journey together.
August 21-22: Travel to Wisconsin Move together towards the land, link up with Farmer John and Haidy Angelic Organics Biodynamic Farm, and also with Dana and Phil Burns at Healing Traditions and Alizur farm. Connect with the land, plants, animals, and one another, through creative explorations and “roughin’ it” type amendments. Sleep under the stars or indoors.
August 23: Return to Chicago Enter back into the metropolitan context, into the social questions of urban life, and close the gathering together at Elderberries, setting the ground for future work out of questions of courage that are present.
Other locations and collaborators are currently in dialogue, and will be updated here.
The gathering is essentially about stepping into the living natural element, step by step, making an integral connection, with one another, ourselves, and the elements that support us here on the Earth…”
registration: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdY7KXHkjUPV2h9UD…/viewform
Thank you Elderberries for giving us an anchor to build our heartland gathering around!
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August 27-30, HOW WE WILL 2020
At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost
for more info. contact Frank Agrama or Dottie Zold
Details TBA Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago -Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator
Hi Hazel,
I had a chance to review your extensive biblical references concerning the lamp and the light as alluding to Christ and His forerunner John. This is the type of display that acknowledges a Saint John Season with particulars that we have not seen for many years, or even ever. The last really scholarly book written on the subject was James Charlesworth’s book, “The Beloved Disciple”, written in 1995. Since then, it has been like a door closed to a tomb. So, thank you for the resurrection, which is much needed today in 2020. I wanted to take just one of your citations in order to indicate something from Rudolf Steiner as a clarification. It is here, where John speaks to those of the Priests and Levites asking about who he is.
“John replies in the words of Isaiah the prophet, “I am the voice of one calling in the wilderness, ‘Make straight the way for the Lord.” (John 1:23).
Steiner indicates here in lecture IV of the Hamburg course on the Gospel of John, that it would be more accurate to indicate solitude rather than wilderness because of John’s own approach to the Higher Ego on his very own merits. And this seems important considering that Christ brings the “I Am” to earth for the first time. Christ brings Time into the previously entirely Spatial human being knowing the Heights and the Depths but not the Midst.
“How did John describe himself? You will remember that people were sent to discover who John the Baptist was. Priests and Levites came to him to ask him who he was. Why he gave the foregoing answer, we have yet to discover. Just at present we shall only consider what he said.
He said, “I am the voice of one calling in solitude.” These are the words which stand there. “I am the voice of one calling in solitude.” “In solitude” stands there quite literally. In Greek, the word eremit signifies the “solitary one.” You can then understand that it is more correct to say, “I am the voice of one calling in solitude,” than “I am the voice of one preaching in the wilderness.” We shall better understand all that is presented in the opening words of the Gospel, if we call to mind John’s own characterization of himself. Why does he call himself “the voice of one calling in solitude?”
We have seen that in the course of human evolution, the true Earth-mission is the evolution of love, but that love is only conceivable when it is given as a voluntary offering by self-conscious human beings. We have also seen that the human being little by little gains control of his ego and that slowly and gradually this ego sinks into human nature. We know that the animal, as such, has no individual ego. If the individual lion were able to say “I” to itself, the individual animal would not be meant thereby, but the group-ego in the astral world. All lions would say “I” to this group-ego. Thus whole groups of animals of like form say “I” to the supersensibly perceptible group-ego in the astral world. The great advantage human beings have over the animals is that of possessing an individual ego. The latter, however, only evolved by degrees, for human beings also began with a group-ego, with an ego belonging to a whole group of individuals.”
GA 103, 22 May 1908.
It is also fascinating to look at what Steiner says in his last address which is all about this great individuality – the 1st Adam.
Would not the 1st Adam be the Nathan Jesus, whose genealogy traces back 77 generations to Adam and God? It is very interesting how John characterizes his cousin Jesus when he approaches to receive the Baptism. From chapter 1 of the Gospel of St. John:
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ 31 I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” 32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”
35 Again the next day John was standing with two of his disciples, 36 and he looked at Jesus as He walked, and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him speak, and they followed Jesus.”
The Lamb of God is the centerpiece of the Book of Revelation.
Adam Kadmon & the Nathan Soul are one being. The Nathan Soul stayed up in the Mother Lodge working with the Christ as he was making his way to earth thru the pre-earthly deeds which gave us the ability to stand upright & walk, Speak & Think. Then as you said came down into incarnation for the 1st time as the Luke Jesus.
Adam on the other hand went thru the fall & has had many incarnations. The scene in
Luke 1:39-45 when Mary Visits her cousin Elizabeth, tells us that the unborn John the baptist leap in the womb of Elisabeth when he came in contact with that original part of him – The Nathan Soul who the Luke Mary was carrying:
39 At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, 40 where she entered Zechariah’s home and greeted Elizabeth. 41 When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. 42 In a loud voice she exclaimed: “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! 43 But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? 44 As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. 45 Blessed is she who has believed that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her!”
Hi Hazel, I find that the fifth letter to the community in Sardis, which represents our own
5th Cultural epoch, to be very important because it is the only letter which expresses the importance of “waking up”. It even says it twice, and then warns of the consequences.
Revelation 3 New American Standard Bible (NASB)
Message to Sardis
3 “To the angel of the church in Sardis write:
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.’
https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA101/English/AP1972/images/Seal-1m.jpg
“And now we have come to our own epoch, the one to which we belong and have to ask: Is this Revelation fulfilled right into our own age? Were it to be fulfilled, he who has spoken through the four preceding ages would have to speak to us, and we should have to learn to understand his voice and become familiar with our task for the spiritual life. If there is to be a spiritual movement and if it is to understand the mysteries of the universe, then, in so far as it is to agree with the Revelation of John, it must fulfil what the speaker, this great Inspirer, demands of this age. What does he demand and who is he? Can we know him? Let us try. (Rev. iii. 1): “And unto the Angel of the Church in Sardis write.” (We must feel that we ourselves are spoken to here.) “These things saith he that hath the seven Spirits of God, and the seven stars.” What are the seven Spirits and the seven stars?”
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA104/English/APC1958/19080620p01.html
Yes, may we wake for heavens sake!
Thank you!