Memory

Childhood Memory Painting by Svetoslav Stoyanov
Svetoslav Stoyanov

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Greetings friends – In working with the 8-fold Path as given by Rudolf Steiner in the daily exercises, Friday asks us to contemplate `RIGHT MEMORY‘, in the endeavor to learn as much as possible from life – An opportunity to right a wrong that we have made in the past, a chance to remember what we have learned from experience. It can also help us in the present moment to be tolerant & learn from others.

As I approach my natal return this facility presses & I call up pieces of my biography.

One of my 1st memories as a child was when I was about 3 years old. My family used to go on little vacations in Wisconsin to a place called Druse Lake with other beloved family friends to cool off in the Summer. We’d stay in one big cabin. The children would splash around in the calm sweet water all day trying not to get too sunburned, & at night the adults would play cards while the children slept in a puppy pile in the next room. That year, it was right before my 4th birthday, I remember falling asleep listening to the laughter of the parents playing cards, the smell of cigarettes & clinking glasses. Suddenly I was awakened by a bright beam of moonlight shining in thru the sliding glass doors, straight into my sleeping eyes. I felt sure that Bella Luna was calling me. I got up giggling & followed the trail of the full moon out the door onto the beach.  With my arms stretched out in front of me I walked in the sand toward the slivery trail illuminating a wide path on the water.

One of the ‘uncles’ saw me out there, just as I was about to step into the water, he flew out the door with is fat cigar on the side of his mouth & swooped me up in his arms. He playfully tossed me up in the air asking ‘Where do you think you’re going little miss’? ‘To the man in the moon’ I said. Boy did he get a kick out of that! He carried me back into the room where the adults were & made me repeat what I had said while they all tittered & patted my hands & head. I was placed on my mother’s lap who said, “Are you the rabbit that lives on the moon’. I was confused & said ‘No. I was just listening.’ That got them laughing all the more. I was passed around the room, hugged by everyone & laid back in the room with the other sleeping children.

So when doing ‘biography work’ we can take a memory, such as this,  calling it to mind vividly, sensing every detail, (the smells of the suntan lotion, the alcohol on my uncles breath, the cigars, the feel of my slightly sunburned skin, the sand in my pants, the faces of my ‘cousins’…etc…) bringing it all back with enthusiasm.

And then we must let the picture, the sensations, every sense bound image, go. Let everything drop away.

Then just sit with the feeling.

Then let that go.

After a lot of practice of simply living into that opened space, there comes the possibility to encounter the spiritual beings that are behind the biographical event. We move from ‘imagination’, where we see inner images, to ‘inspiration’, where we begin to sense the forces of spiritual beings behind the images, communicating our true origins, including our personal karma & destiny.

This can bring us to ‘intuition’ revealing the Beings themselves.

Go ahead try it for yourself. Take a memory, make it vivid. Then take it away…& see what comes up…?

Happy Friday

~hag

Laurence Liebenguth

9 July 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: New Moon – exact at 8:17 p.m. CDT.

Mural painting from Pompeii: Painting “Mars and Venus” – ars mundi

Venus (occult Mercuery) continues to shine low in the northwest during twilight. Mars, to her upper left. They set before twilight’s end. Watch the two planets close in and reach their conjunction about ½° apart on July 12th and 13th.

When twilight ends, you’ll find the two brightest stars of summer, Vega and Arcturus, about equally near the zenith: Vega toward the east, Arcturus toward the southwest. About a third of the way from Arcturus to Vega is the faint semicircle of Corona Borealis, the Northern Crown, with its modestly bright crown jewel, Alphecca or Gemma, on its front. Nearly two thirds of the way from Arcturus to Vega is the Keystone of Hercules.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchives) 

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul; The Present Age, Wikipedia)

1677 – Deathday of Angelus Silesius a German Catholic priest and physician, known as a mystic and religious poet. While studying in the Netherlands, he began to read the works of medieval mystics and became acquainted with the works of the German mystic Jacob Böhme. Silesius’s mystical beliefs caused tension between him and Lutheran authorities and led to his eventual conversion to Catholicism. He took holy orders under the Franciscans and was ordained a priest in 1661.

1807 – The Treaties of Tilsit are signed, on a raft in the middle of the Neman River, by Napoleon I of France & Alexander I of Russia.

Jean-Baptiste Greuze

1815 – Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord becomes the first Prime Minister of France. The name “Talleyrand” has become a byword for crafty, cynical diplomacy; some believe that he was a traitor, betraying in turn the Ancien Régime, the French Revolution, Napoleon, & the Restoration.

1848 – Deathday of Friedrich Ludwig Gottlob Frege, He is considered the father of analytic philosophy, where he concentrated on the philosophy of language & mathematics; responsible for the development of modern logic. Though largely ignored during his lifetime, Giuseppe Peano & Bertrand Russell introduced his work to later generations of logicians & philosophers

1850 – U.S. President Zachary Taylor dies after eating raw fruit & iced milk, to be succeeded by Millard Fillmore

1868 – The 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution is ratified, guaranteeing African Americans full citizenship

1877 – Alexander Graham Bell, Gardiner Greene Hubbard, Thomas Sanders & Thomas Watson form the Bell Telephone Company

1896 – William Jennings Bryan delivers his Cross of Gold speech at the 1896 Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In the address, Bryan supported bimetallism or “free silver”, which he believed would bring the nation prosperity. He decried the gold standard, concluding the speech, “you shall not crucify mankind upon a cross of gold”. Bryan’s address helped catapult him to the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination; it is considered one of the greatest political speeches in American history.

For twenty years, Americans had been bitterly divided over the nation’s monetary standard. The gold standard, which the United States had effectively been on since 1873, limited the money supply but eased trade with other nations, such as the UK, whose currency was also based on gold. Many Americans, however, believed that bimetallism (making both gold & silver legal tender) was necessary for the nation’s economic health. The financial Panic of 1893 intensified the debates, & when Democratic President Grover Cleveland continued to support the gold standard against the will of much of his party, activists became determined to take over the Democratic Party organization & nominate a silver-supporting candidate in 1896.

Bryan had been a dark horse candidate with little support in the convention. His speech, delivered at the close of the debate on the party platform, electrified the convention & is generally credited with getting him the nomination for president. However, he lost the general election to William McKinley & the United States formally adopted the gold standard in 1900

1903 – Future Soviet leader Joseph Stalin is exiled to Siberia for three years

1904 – First ‘Esoteric Class Lesson’ by Rudolf Steiner in Berlin

1937 – The silent film archives of Fox Film Corporation are destroyed by the 1937 Fox vault fire.

1943 – The Allied invasion of Sicily soon causes the downfall of Mussolini & forces Hitler to break off the Battle of Kursk

1962 – Starfish Prime tests the effects of a nuclear test at orbital altitudes, it produces an artificial radiation belt in space

Monday 12 July 2021 from 7 – 10 pm  
The Chicago Chapter of ‘Merry Prep-stirs’ will meet to work with BD 500, practicing the Spiritual Science of Biodynamics so that ‘The Earth May Be Healed’.

Bon-Fire & Pot-Luck Social Gathering
on the occasion of Hazel’s natal return & the Conjunction of Venus and Mars

Please Bring Food & Drink, a song, poem or Question to Share in Community

RSVP by 10 July 2021 for address & directions to the Homestead of Hazel, Ultra-Violet Archer & Chuck Ginsberg

 “And so we picture, from below upwards, in bluish, blackish shades the force of gravity, to which an upward impulse is given by the gnomes; and flitting all around the plant…[is] the undine power that blends and disperses substances as the plant grows upwards. From above downwards, from the sylphs, light is made to leave its imprint in the plant and molds and creates the form which descends as an ideal form and is taken up by the material womb of the earth; moreover fire spirits flit around the plant and concentrate cosmic warmth in tiny seed points. This is sent down to the gnomes together with the seed power, so that down there they can cause the plants to arise out of fire and life.” ~Rudolf Steiner, HARMONY OF THE CREATIVE WORD

Conjunction (appulse) between Venus (occult Mercury) & Mars on 12 July 2021

4 thoughts on “Memory

  1. Hi Hazel,

    Here is what Geoff Chester writes from the USNO website on the upcoming conjunction of Mars and Mercury in the sign of Cancer on July 12 & 13th. Your birthday is the imperative ingredient. Why? Because you are an Anthroposophist, or even an Anthroposopher, if you prefer.

    “The evening twilight hours offer the most interesting phenomena of the week. You should be able to spot the bright glow of Venus above the western horizon shortly after sunset, and an hour later ruddy Mars should appear nearby. Depending on the clarity of the sky you may need to use binoculars to spot the red planet, but by the week’s end Venus will cozy up to within half a degree of the dimmer Mars. On the evening of the 12th Mars will be just to the left of Venus, and on the following night Mars will be to the right of the dazzling planet. The crescent Moon is near the pair on the 12th and 13th.”

    https://www.usno.navy.mil/USNO/tours-events/sky-this-week/the-sky-this-week-2021-july-6-13-1

    Yet, for Mars to be in front of Mercury in the sign of Cancer is a distinct anomaly. Why? Because Mercury travels three times faster than Mars in its orbital revolution. Thus, at no time should Mars ever be ahead of Mercury. This goes back to the time of Christ, when the Mars phase passed over to the Mercury phase.

    Yet, this year, in relation to the Corona virus, it has happened that Mars overtook Mercury in the summer of 2020. Along with the diminishment of the bright star, Betelgeuse, in the sign if Orion, beginning in November 2019, which astronomers have not figured out why it took place, we have certain signs of an overt attempt to create a similar condition to the pandemic of 1918. Steiner alluded to its occurrence.

    So, when Mercury properly overtakes Mars again, after a year of chaos, what will it mean? I can only hope.

    1. Somehow I can’t access the essence of this picture. I mean I get it intellectually but I don’t feel it or really understand the spiritual significance…???

      Are you saying since we have moved out the Mars phase of earth, To have Mars going in front of Mercury our current earth phase, will be a recapitulation of that earlier Mars phase…?
      & that is what helped create the conditions for the plandemic? And does it mean that this appulse is going to amp that energy up again?

      I am confused. Can you spell it out for us?

      The diminishment of Betelgeuse…?

      & When will Mercury over take Mars again?

      My astrologer friend something said: Venus-Mars is very auspicious likely you will discover a new talent and/or boost up new ones! It is in the Beehive Cluster! very very FUN and big team spirit!

      1. Something caused Mars to go past true Mercury last year. Mercury reached inferior solar conjunction on June 3, 2020 in the sign of Taurus. Mars was in the constellation Aquarius at that time. Mercury’s orbital revolution is 225 days, while the revolution of Mars is 687 days. That means that Mercury travels three time faster than Mars. Yet, for some reason, Mercury’s speed had slowed down, and Mars had speeded up. Mercury entered Cancer in early September 2020, while Mars was still in the constellation of Pisces.

        So, it would seem that when Mars overtook Mercury last year and then proceeded through the remaining constellations, which included the Saturn-Jupiter close alignment, with true Mercury in a kind of extended retrograde for much of the time, that the old Mars directional forces became strong again.

        Now, these two planets are close again, with Mercury overtaking Mars on July 13th. This will re-establish the proper Mercury directional forces, which are aligned with the Christ.

        No one doubts that this last year has been a hell.

        1. Sorry, I know that this doesn’t make any sense. Yet, Hazel, do you remember that extraordinary moment when Saturn and Jupiter in Capricorn were met by Mercury and Venus? A fourfold alignment occurred. Mars was off by itself in Aries or Taurus.

          So, Mercury jumping the gap in Cancer is no different than Jupiter jumping the gap in Capricorn. The lead planet takes over. With Jupiter, it is all about Wisdom, and with Mercury, it is all about Healing. The quicksilver.

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