~Yana Istoshina
Greetings friends – I trust that your Labor Day was light filled.
Matthew 11:28-30: “28 “Come to me, all who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take my yoke upon you, and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light.”
We brought a highlight to the biography of Elizabeth Vreede on her Death-day recently. And today I ran across this lecture which she gave on 11 July 1930, so I thought to share this interesting snippet:
“In conclusion, I would like to share with you the beautiful words of comfort which Rudolf Steiner spoke once during the time when we were standing in the midst of battle. It was in Copenhagen in 1911, when he was giving three lectures which were then printed in the little book ‘The Spiritual Guidance of Humankind.’
The three lectures that were then used as a basis for the book were preceded by this introduction, which, however, was not included in the printing, and which indeed also would not have fitted there. I would like to read to you the conclusion from this lecture. It is my own transcription- I do not have any other- and regrettably incomplete in places. But even if it were complete, it could hardly convey the immeasurable love, forgiveness and comfort that streamed from Rudolf Steiner to his listeners in this lecture. These were approximately his words:
~Henry Brown Fuller
‘A period of time such as ours, portending such tremendous events of soul, presents a special opportunity for us to enter profoundly into ourselves. In addition to the many duties that flow out of our movement, we must also draw into our own hearts, our own souls, so that we may clearly appreciate that only through sacrifice, are we able to follow the way which can bring a certainty in regard to the Mystery of Golgotha.
Significant times such as these must necessarily bring us something confirming the truth of the old saying, ‘where there is great light, there is much darkness’- Shadows that arise along with those gifts of which we have spoken here. This possibility of error necessarily exists in combination with the outpouring of great truths. Thus, more than at other times the human soul is at present open to error. It is also true that in the coming days of enlightenment, the greatest possible errors may occur. Error is easily possible for the weak human heart precisely because we shall be experiencing enormous events.
In consideration of what the occultists of all ages, with clear warning voices, have spoken about this possibility of error, we must learn to practice the tolerance of which we have spoken here. A blind subjection must, on the one hand, be avoided, for that can actually foster the possibility of error. On the other hand, it is also necessary to have an open heart for the new forces that will to flow now from spiritual worlds into humankind. Whoever is a good Anthroposophist knows that if we wish to foster the Light that is now wanting to stream into humankind, then we must recognize the errors that will flow into us along with the light.
Let us take confidence in knowing that there has never been a movement in which such open, loving hearts could be fostered as in our present- day movement. May we realize that it is better to be attacked by those who believe they have the only truth, in their opinion, than to attack them ourselves…between those two extremes there lies indeed a long path.
Despair may descend on us with the thought in these difficult times ‘How can I distinguish truth from error?’ In our striving, let us try to live in such a way that we can be strengthened by the idea that the truth will indeed be what can provide the highest impulses for humankind: The truth shall be closer to me than I am to myself. If I have this relationship to truth and if I should err in this Incarnation, then in the next Incarnation the truth itself will lead me back to what is right. It is better to err in this frame of mind than to cling to dogmas.
If we honestly strive for truth, then truth will be the victorious impulse in the world; through us, and through its inherent power.
If the communications of spiritual truths can awaken such feelings in the human soul, then there will be fulfilled in these Souls the mission of the new spiritual Revelation which has come into humankind – and will come ever more strongly in the future – in order to lead us up into spiritual worlds’ “.
7 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
TODAY in 1919 – Opening of the 1st Waldorf School in Stuttgart “A Ceremony of Cosmic Order”
“We can accomplish our work only if we do not see it as simply a matter of intellect or feeling, but, in the highest sense, as a moral spiritual task. Therefore, you will understand why, as we begin this work today, we first reflect on the connection we wish to create from the very beginning between our activity and the spiritual worlds. With such a task, we must be conscious that we do not work only in the physical plane of living human beings.
In the last centuries, this way of viewing work has increasingly gained such acceptance that it is virtually the only way people see it. This understanding of tasks has made teaching what it is now and that the work before us should improve. Thus, we wish to begin our preparation by first reflecting upon how we connect with the spiritual powers in whose service and in whose name each one of us must work. I ask you to understand these introductory words as a kind of prayer to those powers who stand behind us with Imagination, Inspiration and Intuition as we take up this task.
It is our duty to see the importance of our work. We will do this if we know that this school is charged with a particular task. We need to make our thoughts very concrete; we need to form our thoughts so that we can be conscious that this school fulfills something special. We can do this only when we do not view the founding of this school as an everyday occurrence, but instead regard it as a ceremony held within Cosmic Order. In this sense, I wish, in the name of the good spirit whose task it is to lead humanity out of suffering and misery, in the name of this good spirit whose task it is to lead humanity to a higher level of development in education. I wish to give the most heartfelt thanks to this good spirit who has given our dear friend Mr. Molt the good thoughts to do what he has done for the further development of humanity at this time and in this place, and what he has done for the Waldorf School. We are united with him in feeling the greatness of the task and of the moment in which it is begun, and in feeling that this is a festive moment in Cosmic Order, he will be able to work in our midst with the necessary strength.
We wish to begin our work with this in mind. We wish to see each other as human beings brought together by karma, who will bring about, not something common, but something that, for those doing this work, will include the feeling of a festive Cosmic moment. ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘The Foundations of Human Experience’.
CELEBRATING 100 YEARS OF WALDORF EDUCATION
Even the large scale of the photograph did not permit the inclusion of hundreds of personages and Beings who deserve to appear. Among those from the Past are: Adam and Eve, Abraham, Joseph, St. Luke, St. Paul, St Odelia, St Christopher, Pythagoras, Thales, Julius Caesar, William Blake, Buddha, Cicero, Albertus Magnus, Brunetto Latini, Zarathustra, Gilgamesh and Ibani, Novalis, Schiller, Christian Morgenstern, Karl Koenig, A.C. Harwood, Margaret Froehlich, Henry Barnes, Roy Wilkinson, C.S. Lewis, J.R.R. Tolkien, and many, many others.
Our thanks to Paul McCartney, Jann Haworth, and Peter Blake, creators of the iconic album cover for the Beatles’ inimitable Sgt Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band .
Among those from the Present who should take their place in this photographic Pantheon are: Patrick Wakeford-Evans, Ted Mahle, Roberto Trostli, Torin Finser, Karine Munk Finser, John Alexandra, Betty Staley, Douglas Gerwin, Arthur Auer, Norman Davidson, Clifford Monks, Arline Monks, Ida Oberman, Brian Gray, Michael Heffernan, Jaimen McMillan, Bonnie River, Thom Schaefer, Donna Long, Prairie Adams, Anna Rainville, David Mitchell, Chip Romer, Allegra Allesandri, Susan Olson, Kim John Payne, Jamie York, and many, many others. ~Eugene Schwartz
Saturday 23 September 2023
Community Prep-Stir / Potluck / Bon-fire Celebrating
*Autumnal Equinox
*Yom Kippur
*Michaelmas Festival
6 – 8 pm at the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile
Please Bring Food & Drink to share, & a jar for the prep
30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day
Wonderful fun to zoom onto faces to see how many I could name.
( not many ) but each one that I could, brought a chuckle.
Great fun, and great acknowledgement of every kind of human
contribution is what it IS to BE a true human being.
Thank you so much for lighting up this 2:00 a.m. hour.
Hello dear One – Yes, just letting the gestalt of the collage work is a deed. I’m sure took those individualities even if unnamed with you into the spiritual world when you slept…xox
Hi Hazel,
I love this collage of many of the significant people who were involved in the evolution of what became Anthroposophy, and of course, led to the Waldorf school movement. Now, in the center of this enormous picture stands Rudolf Steiner, with hat in hand, and Marie von Sivers, with her pretty hat, and bouquet in hand. If you look at her face, there is the indelible impression of Goethe. I have done a study of it in looking at many photos of her, and her physiognomy bears this striking resemblance to Goethe, and even the double-chin when she got older. Maybe that is why Steiner called her a “cosmic being with no biography to tell”.
Interesting reflection. The picture that resonates for me is that Marie having held the being we know as Orpheus, then later became the 1st vessel for the overlighting of the being of Anthroposophia, allowing a shift from the Cosmic to come into humanity. After the Christmas Conference, that being was loosened & became accessible to us all.
When you mentioned Goethe, Steve, I immediately thought of what Steiner said about him… that he couldn’t be incarnated with him at the same time – or something of that nature. So are you saying she has some kind of karmic ties with Goethe, or is this an indication of a past life?
I’m still working on what Hazel says here, and where that comes from:
“The picture that resonates for me is that Marie having held the being we know as Orpheus, then later became the 1st vessel for the overlighting of the being of Anthroposophia, allowing a shift from the Cosmic to come into humanity. After the Christmas Conference, that being was loosened & became accessible to us all.”
Now, what I am attempting to describe is out of the Principle of Spiritual Economy, and involves a particularly strong Intuition over many years now in seeing (for me) a remarkable resemblance between Goethe and Steiner-von Sivers. This has a precedent (of sorts) in this excerpt about Galileo, and the etheric copy he incorporated for the furthering of the science of mechanics and physics.
“When a pioneering personality dies, his or her etheric body is always preserved, and occult schools have always known the artificial methods by which this was accomplished. Considering now another characteristic case, we can say that it was important for certain purposes in the more modern age that the etheric body of Galileo should be preserved. He was the great reformer of mechanical physics whose accomplishments were so tremendous that one can say many of the purely practical accomplishments of the modern age would not have come about without his discoveries, for all technical progress rests on Galileo’s science. The tunnels of St. Gotthart or Simplon have become possible only because Leibniz,Newton, and Galileo developed the sciences of integral and differential calculus, mechanics, and so on. With regard to Galileo, it would have been a waste in nature’s economy had his etheric body, the carrier of his memory and talent, been lost. And that is why his etheric body was transferred to another human being: Michail Lomonosov who came from a poor Russian village and was later to become the founder of Russian grammar and classical literature. Lomonosov, however, is not the reincarnated Galileo, as might be supposed as a result of superficial investigation.”
This lecture is essential for understanding the system and rationale of the use of spiritual economy in achieving the aims of earthly spiritual evolution.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA109/English/AP1986/19090121p01.html
Yes, thanks Steve this is a good example of Spiritual Economy. In other places Steiner speaks about how great initiates like Christian Rosenkranz are able to share the forces of their various sheaths depending on their grade, with those who have the capacity to receive them.
Many of Steiner’s esoteric students spoke about how Steiner himself would change before their eyes when he brought in the teachings of various Masters (some might use the word channeled)
Perhaps besides being a vessel for a ‘Cosmic being’, which is how Steiner described Marie, she also had the ability to hold the etheric forces that linger from great souls like Goethe. But I don’t think Steiner needed that from her as he already had direct contact with Goethe in the spiritual worlds.
I see Marie carrying forward certain tendencies that require creative etheric forces very much of the nature of Goethe’s work transferred to the feminine, i.e., speech, drama, recitation/declamation, Eurythmy. Thus, the etheric copy that also bears a facial resemblance.
Yet, what really grabs me is this about Orpheus, “Marie having held the being we know as Orpheus,” ……
I have especially studied this about Orpheus and the pre-christian archetype of descent. It leads in an extraordinary fashion to the mysterious dichotomy of the Son of God and the Son of Man. This lecture relates the Sacrifice of Orpheus to that matter that runs throughout the Gospels. As well, life itself is a division between the first three years, wherein no earthly memory exists, and the storehouse of memories that begin in childhood.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA124/English/RSP1985/19110116p02.html
Thank you for the remberence.
I studied to be a Waldorf teacher at Arcturus under the leadership of Magda (I have forgotten how to spell her last name. And she was on my mind today.
Then we got the foundation of Anthroposophy before we made the decision to become a Waldorf teacher.
It’s what needed now.
Hi Marianne – That was a powerful time for the Arcturus training, when they were still bringing in Anthroposophy.
When Magda died I inherited some of her books. Every one had highlighter & notes in the margin. She even made a kind of list of reference pages on the inside cover giving page #’s for different subjects for easy access. I treasure them. Although sometimes it’s hard to read her writing haha. It’s funny since I do the same thing to my books.
Greetings,
Today’s message= Greetings friends – I trust that your Labor Day was light filled.
” where there is a great light there is much darkness” Rudolf Steiner,
darkness=human impurities?
Light on the Path
Before the eyes can see, they must be incapable of tears.
Before the ear can hear, it must have lost its sensitiveness.
Before the voice can speak in the presence of the Masters it must have lost the power to wound.
Before the soul can stand in the presence of the Masters its feet must be washed in the blood of the heart.
..Rudolf Steiner..
Galatians 5 1
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by a yoke of slavery.
from link,
https://www.shastras.com/upanishads-krishna-yajur-veda/yoga-tattva-upanishad/
77. He should live in the world as a fool, an idiot, or a deaf man, in order to keep his powers concealed.
Light bearer poem,
There is no greater religion
across all ages and nations
than Love and Compassion.
The true mark of a spiritual man
Their seat is in the heart
where ceaselessly burns
benevolent creative fire
a consecration to sublime art
By constantly striving
from a light seeker
you become a light bearer
with a crescent and a cross
Bringing blessings for every one
in course of your earthly sojourn
every passing moment and hour
merciful rain and sunny shower.
(Yayati)
Dr. Madan Gandhi
Lucifer light and Jesus light the difference is human impurities…as a token,
Genesis 17:9–14
9 And God said to Abraham, “As for you, you shall keep my covenant, you and your offspring after you throughout their generations. 10 This is my covenant, which you shall keep, between me and you and your offspring after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised. 11 You shall be circumcised in the flesh of your foreskins, and it shall be a sign of the covenant between me and you. 12 He who is eight days old among you shall be circumcised. Every male throughout your generations, whether born in your house or bought with your money from any foreigner who is not of your offspring, 13 both he who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money, shall surely be circumcised. So shall my covenant be in your flesh an everlasting covenant. 14 Any uncircumcised male who is not circumcised in the flesh of his foreskin shall be cut off from his people; he has broken my covenant.”
Namaste,mkyogi