Happy Easter Friends –
Up with the birds for sunrise. Banned from assembling at the Great Inland Sea of Chicago, our intended prep-spray spot, we meet in our backyard. Every year at Christmas we collect the tress that folks leave in the alley, & burn them throughout the year.. How perfect to remember the sacred birth at the time of the Resurrection.
My dear friend & Merry Prep-Stir ally Ines Katharina suggested we add a bio-dynamic egg & honey from the Zinniker farm to our 501 prep. We also added soil collected by Angela Foster from her various pilgrimages.
The brew frothed & glowed a pale yellow. We sang & told stories & fed the fire, which added ash to the mix. Then we sprayed our little piece of urban bottom land, & walked the neighborhood, delighting the children who were out looking for the Easter Bunny. We ended up at the gazebo park where the 120 year old ginkgo tree lives. The Gnomes put us to work arranging rock piles in the landscape…
Back home Ultra & her godfather Fuji play music, while Chuck keeps the fire burning & we all enjoy breakfast on the deck. The Paschal Lamb, from Benta & Walter Goldstein‘s bio farm, is on the grill, our old dog & crazy cat are happily laying on the porch, bees are dancing in the blue bells, our next door neighbor’s just came out with their 2 Waldorf girls to look for hidden eggs. O how they love a good fire. I look around, is that a glow? Even though it’s a bit overcast, there is a glint in the air, the neighborhood truly feels more light-filled.
Here is a link to our CRC Holy Saturday offering
Here is our program for this Feast Day of the Resurrection
CRC ‘The Three Days” Easter Sunday 12 April 2020 by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, indications from Emil Bock and Rudolf Steiner
Easter is a spiritual event that takes place on the stage of humanity.
The physical body of Jesus of Nazareth is the mediator through which the powers of the cosmos are united with the Earth aura.
With the sacrifice on Golgotha, when the life-blood of the Cosmic Heart penetrates the Earth, and its forces flow down, even to the very core, the Earth becomes illuminated from within.
The Resurrection takes place, 1st at the gates of the underworld for the souls of the dead who had lost their divine nature.
And with the dawn on Easter Sunday, the opportunity is then given to every single human individuality to experience this light within the self.
And the seed is planted for the reunion of Sun and Earth.
The Mystery of Golgotha is the pivotal event of the whole divine process of creation, of the whole process of human evolution from its beginnings in the womb of the Spirit, to its consummation in humanity as the 10th hierarchy.
The Christian Festivals were never meant to be merely the commemoration of great historical events or simply truths of the Christian revelation, as great as these are.
The Festivals in themselves, are, each year, spiritual events, carrying a significance that grows and deepens with the developing phases of human evolution, ever evolving as we do.
This is especially true of the Easter Festival, with its answer to humanity’s deepest needs, its quickening of our highest hopes; with its message of the victory of good over evil, of light over darkness, of life over death.
Again and again, from all points of view, Rudolf Steiner spoke about the deep meaning of the Easter Festival in the eternal working of the divine worlds upon humankind, in the prefiguring myths and symbols of the ancient Mystery religions, in its relation to the world of nature and the cosmic universe, in which the date of this moveable feast contains a unique mystery.
For it is determined by a cosmic alignment. 1st the sun must enter into the sign of Spring, then it waits, for the moon to come into its vernal fullness…then the planetary beings whose names correspond with the days of the week come into play. This is Holy Week.
We are invited to connect to the Solar forces, so when the first Sun-day after the Full Moon of Spring arrives, then it is time to celebrate the Easter Festival.
And there is deeper meaning still in this alignment. It indicates how through the Christ Impulse, humanity is to be set free from the forces of earth-evolution, pure and simple.
It contains a call to humanity to lift ourselves up to the worlds beyond the earth; to once again speak with the stars. It contains a promise, that in the course of world-history, it will be possible, through the working of the Christ Impulse, for humanity to once again be united with the cosmos, in the New Jerusalem.
It is for this that we strive when we celebrate the Easter Fest.
Its consequence must be looked for in all human history, in the arts, in human thinking, in all social relationships, and even in the materialistic triumphs of modern science.
The great initiate Rudolf Steiner told us: “Anthroposophy itself must become like an inner festival of Resurrection for the human soul. It must bring an Easter mood into humanity’s world-conception”.
MOVEMENT SHARING
And so with guidance from the spiritual worlds we bring you these Easter thoughts. The airy regions of the Earth rejoice. Can you hear the ringing of the Easter Bells? Angels calling. Singing, through the breath of nature, jubilating in delight. For the grave, & the heart are full, of light.
The sun-filled pulse of life is living in the human heart. The wide-span of soul breathes in the fragrance of Spring renewed, touched by the Risen Christ.
Yet from the ancient chasm the earth quakes. Reverberating with the revolution. Echoing up from the empty tomb. Resounding in gladness. Trembling the rocks. Flashing with lightning to tear away the curtain. Removing the blindfold of the senses. To see the spirit form, shining white, like snow, in overwhelming brilliance.
Fear turns to astonishment.
Stand with me dear sisters & brothers on the high summit of the mountain. Then descend with the women to the grave, to meet the angels who have rolled away the stone.
Walk with me to the top of Mount Tabor, in the sunny landscape of the Sea of Galilee. Under the wide open sky, draw in, the miraculous draught of fishes, and become a fisher of men.
Or shall we meet in the upper room, the Cenacle, where the washing of the feet and last supper vibrate still.
Come, shout Hallelujah from Mount Zion, to get a glimpse of the Ascension that is to come.
Stand alone with Mary Magdalene to meet the gardener, the new seed planter, cultivator of a fresh life on earth. Can you hear him calling your name?
Anxiety becomes amazement shining through tears of pure love, which opens their super-sensible eyes and grows the heart.
Or do you need to put your fingers in the wound like Thomas the doubter?
Receive instead, the ‘warmth that changes the beat of our heart, weaving in our blood a true fulfilment’
Know in truth: ‘Christ is Risen to you as the meaning of the Earth’!
If we align our will with the Divine Will, then we too can ‘Come Rise’…
Sound Interlude
Break out room Question: What do you think the Being of the Earth is wanting us to hear today on Easter Sunday 2020? We come back have a large group sharing.
Elemental Chorus:
“Grant me a vision of Nature’s forces
That connect the worlds; all its seeds and sources
And innermost life – all this I shall see,
And stop peddling in thoughts that mean nothing to me…”
Rudolf Steiner, calling to mind this quote from Goethe’s Faust, tells us in his lectures entitled ‘Symphony of the Creative Word’: “…Thus you can see that what lies beyond the threshold is calling to be part of our own nature, you see how it takes us into active divine forces, into what lives and works in all forms of existence.” Hear now the Elemental Chorus, inspired by what Steiner gives at the end of these 1923 lectures.
Human Spirit receive now a message from the Gnomes – We are the Elemental Beings of earth; working in your Metabolic organization.
“You dream yourself
And shun awakening.
I maintain the power of root nature,
It creates for me the body of forms.
O human being – Strive to awaken”!
Human Spirit receive now a Message from the Undines –
We are the Elemental beings of water; working in your Rhythmical system
“Your think the deeds of angels
And know it not.
I bestir the water’s power of growth,
It creates for me substance of life.
O human being – Think in the spirit”!
Human Spirit receive now a Message from the Sylphs –
We are the Elemental Beings of air; working in your Nerves and Senses
“Creative might shines to you,
You divine it not.
You feel its strength and live it not.
I quaff the airy force of life,
It fills me with the power of existence.
O human being – Live and create a cosmic breathing existence!”
Human Spirit receive now a Message from the Salamanders – We are the Elemental Beings of fire; warming the “I”.
“Divine Will offers you strength,
You accept it not.
With its strength you can Will – Yet you thrust it from you.
I consume the striving power of fire,
Into spirituality of soul it releases me.
O human being – Receive in love the will-power of the gods!”
Gnomes: O human being – Strive to awaken!
Undines: O human being – Think in the spirit!
Sylphs: O human being – Live and create a cosmic breathing existence!”
Salamanders: O human being – Receive in love the will-power of the gods!”
At the turning point of time
The cosmic spirit-light of the world
Entered the stream of earth existence.
Darkness of night had ceased its reign;
Day-radiant light
Shone forth in human souls:
Light
That gives warmth
To simple shepherd’s hearts;
Light
That enlightens
The wise heads of kings.
Light divine,
Christ-Sun,
Warm
Our hearts;
Enlighten
Our heads;
That good may become
What from our hearts
We are founding,
What from our heads
We direct,
With Single purpose
And focused willing
Music: Now the green blade riseth
Mary Ruud – Performance of the COTS Easter Mood Verse
‘When out of world-wide spaces
The Sun speaks to the human mind,
And gladness from the depths of soul
Becomes, in seeing, one with light,
Then rising from the sheath of self,
Thoughts soar to distances of space
And dimly bind
The human being to the spirit’s life’.
~Rudolf Steiner
Mary Ruud leads – All Togther: The Hallelujah in Eurythmy
Thank you & Happy Easter
***
“The Three Days” – An online Easter Festival with the Central Regional Council
Good Friday, Holy Saturday and Easter Sunday, All three days: April 10 -12, 2020 from 3 pm – 4:15 pm CDT (4 pm – 5:15 pm EDT)
We will apply Spiritual Research, taking inspiration from the ancient Mysteries, indications from Rudolf Steiner, Emil Bock, and personal vision, to artistically follow the Cosmic Sun on the ultimate path of human initiation, from the Free-Will Sacrifice, through the Harrowing of Hell, to Conquer Death – into the Resurrection of the New Sun.
Artistic activities include: Speech Work with the Calendar of the Soul, Musical interludes, Drawing exercise, Conscious conversation, Participatory Eurythmy, and a Performance with Mary Ruud of the Easter Verse from the Calendar of the Soul.
Special Guest Rev. Craig Wiggins, Lanker for the Christian Community, will join us in the pageant readings. And Dr. David Tressemer of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology (AAP) will also join us in the readings, as our dear David Howerton is ill.
How can we as human beings in community bring a practical understanding to these mysteries?
Join us as we strive to gain the forces needed to do our part in furthering this impulse in world evolution.
FREE – ALL are Welcome – find below Zoom Call details and link to reading materials.
This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference:
Option 1. Click link below if you wish to connect through your computer (a headset is recommended)
https://zoom.us/j/9900117223
The PASSWORD is: 679832
Option 2. Call in using your telephone.
United States: +1 669 900 6833 or +1 312 626 6799
Access Code: 990-011-7223
The PASSWORD is: 679832
Option 3. You can use a combination of Options 1 and 2 (computer and phone). If you use the phone, please turn off the audio on your computer to prevent audio feedback.
For more info. contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@peoplepc.com
May Hope Spring Eternal – The CRC – Marianne Fieber, Alberto Loya, Hazel Archer Ginsberg, David Howerton, Lisa Dalton
***
The Sacred Gateway: Conscious Living, Conscious Dying, and the Journey Beyond ONLINE CONFERENCE APRIL 17-19, 2020
The Connection between Epidemics, the souls of the Dead, and the Spiritual World on Saturday & on Sunday: Festivals for the Dead, the Unborn and the Evolution of Earth -Then and Now with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg