Does anyone know what DC stands for? Yep that’s right The District of Columbia.
~hag
In fact, when the original founders of this country built the ‘District of Columbia’, they called it the Holy City, & envisioned it as a Temple to this Goddess. But who is she? And how is it that we as a nation have come to forget her, despite her ubiquitous presence atop the nation’s most prominent institutions of power?
~hag
Columbia comes from the word “Columba” meaning “dove”. From the beginning, when Columbia was first revealed as the Goddess of this land, she was seen by the native peoples as an Indian Queen, a guardian of Liberty, freedom & a generous provider of plenty.
~hag
After the colonists came to America seeking freedom from oppression, Columbia changes, she is then pictured wearing the cap of freedom, later seen in the French revolution, & holds a cornucopia. The eagle & the rattlesnake are sacred to Her.
~hag
She is known as a guardian spirit. In the terminology of Anthroposophy she is The Archangel, or Folk Spirit of the American People.This spirit is called by various names: sometimes referred to as Liberty, as in the Sons of Liberty, or the Statue of Liberty; other times Independence, as in the Declaration of Independence; and Columbia, as in the City of Washington, DC. & You have heard of the South American country Colombia; & there is a British Columbia in Canada as well.
~hag
The name Columbia is borne by many other beings: a great river, towns & counties, business & cultural organizations, ships, & songs. But, the Folk Spirit Columbia of the Original Native Peoples, perceived also by the American Revolutionaries as an Indian goddess, has been usurped by Uncle Sam, her opposite in every way.
~hag~hag
The true Spirit of America is a strong & beautiful peer of all the other national cultures, interestingly enough all personified by the Divine Feminine.
~hag
The American Revolution later inspired the French Revolution, which became the catalyst for their gift of the Statue of Liberty.
~hag
And did you know that the song ‘Hail Columbia’ was actually the National Anthem, until it was changed in 1931 to the Star-Spangled banner?, a song glorifying war.
~hag
As the authentic potential of the American People, Columbia has hardly manifested. Her destiny, if ‘We the People’ will it, is to take back Her divine power, to manifest a true Land of the Dove. For many immigrants who end their long journey to freedom at Her feet, justice & hope are personified in Her form. America’s true folk spirit welcomes everyone into New York harbor with the promise of ‘life, liberty & the pursuit of happiness’. She offers these gifts to the world’s downtrodden as they enter the New World seeking a New Life; asking the world to give Her their ‘tired, poor & huddled masses’.
~hag
Have you ever really looked at the symbolism in the statue? The seven points of her crown represent the Pleiades star cluster, also known as the Seven Sisters.
~hag
And These words, from the sonnet “The New Colossus” written by Emma Lazarus, are engraved inside the statue of Liberty. Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand – A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame – Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name – Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand – Glows world-wide welcome; “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tossed to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
~hag
Can we renew this conception in our thinking now? Let us reclaim our past; this will give us the courage to love the world that we are in. Then we can envision & co-create a future of hope & light, in Love & Freedom!
Every morning I go out into my wild garden. I do my meditations. I breathe in the sunrise. I watch & listen to the signs & signals from the natural world, ever present in my little piece of bio-dynamic bottom-land, at the edge of the Great Inland Sea of Chicago.
The Milkweed is flowering & the butterflies have come to lay their eggs on the leaves. So fascinating to contemplate this delicate creature – I think of what Steiner says: “…it is the butterfly corona, which first calls us into earthly existence.” (Symphony of the Creative Word) I spoke about this in ‘The Crowning’.
The clover, feverfew, & spiderwort are rampant & the bees are all over it.
Bees have a special place in human history. The mythology, art & mystery that surrounds them is potent, & indicates a close & reciprocal relationship between the bee, the secrets of the Universe, & humanity, as partners in life’s great journey.
Traditionally the bee was perceived as a being that bridged the gap between the physical & the unseen world, the intermediary between two states of existence.
In many cultures priestesses or ‘illumined ones’ have been referred to as ‘Bees’. The bee was an emblem of Potnia, the Minoan-Mycenaean “Mistress”, also referred to as “The Pure Mother Bee”. Her priestesses received the name of “Melissa” which means bee.
Those worshipping Artemis & Demeter, as well as the Delphic priestess, are also referred to as a “bee”. Pindar, an Ancient Greek poet from Thebes, notes that she remained “the Delphic bee” long after Apollo had usurped the ancient oracle & shrine. “The Delphic priestess chewed a laurel leaf, & sought her inspiration in the honeycomb”.
Fabio Deltrica
The Homeric Hymn to Apollo acknowledges that Apollo’s gift of prophecy first came to him from three bee maidens, usually identified with the Thriae – a trinity of pre-Hellenic Aegean bee goddesses.
The Kalahari Desert’s Sand people tell of a bee that carried a mantis across a river. The exhausted bee left the mantis on a floating flower but planted a seed in the mantis’s body before it died. The seed grew to become the first human.
In Egyptian mythology, bees grew from the tears of the sun god Ra when they landed on the desert sand.
The bowstring on Hindu love god Kamadeva’s bow is made of honeybees.
Leonardo Digenio
Orators, powerful speakers, & those who can enrapture their audience thru their linguistic ability are said to have lips that have been anointed with honey.
Doug Lefpton
From the earliest times of our agrarian history the relationship between farmers & the bees that pollinate & confirm their crops has been one of reciprocal respect. The bee is the agent of pollination, the catalyst that brings about change & the connection that facilitates fertilization, allowing the crop to mature, develop & reproduce. It is easy to see why their function is considered so important & why the bee is ascribed a mystical place within the human experience.
Daisy Mellen
In the last decade there has been an alarming decline in bee colony numbers. It is a worldwide happening & indicative of a shift occurring within the planet’s own equilibrium – a call to ‘Repent, & make straight the path’, as John the Baptist would say.
Miyazaki
The bees are allies; not only the key to our food supply, but an important intermediary, a messenger from those peripheral realms of human awareness where perceptions come from ‘beyond the veil’ – they are messengers of the Sun.
The bee carries a signal or a frequency that enables transformation; what is barren becomes fertile, initiating the process of regeneration.
Cappy Thomson
The bee, in this context, represents an interlocutor between our immediate mundane awareness & the potential of human cognizance.
eddy Kendell
Look to the flora & fauna; experience & honor the elemental worlds; all nature – as messengers of what was, what is, & what is to come.
Mare Delivin
Yes, friends, we live in challenging times. Good, bad or indifferent is not a criteria; we are seeing events in our lifetimes that have a significant bearing upon the way human evolution will unfold.
Burt Lonner
The relationship between human interaction & the planet is fragile, & the most potent expression of what we will become – either architects of our own demise, or the agents of a transcendent future, is in our hands.
2 July 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Today is the midpoint of the year. There were 182 days before today & 182 days after.
Look for Antares to the lower right of bright Bella Luna this evening. The name Antares means anti-Ares, “rival of Mars” in Greek. Both are fiery orange. Around 1 or 2 a.m. these nights you can compare them yourself. Mars & the Moon get low in the southwest, & Mars will rises in the east. Mars, is 4 X’s brighter than than rival Antares.
Perhaps no month better epitomizes summer in the Northern Hemisphere than July. The Summer Triangle is on prominent display. The trio’s brightest member, Vega in the constellation Lyra the Harp, stands nearly overhead shortly after midnight. The asterism’s second-brightest star, Altair in Aquila the Eagle, then lies more than halfway from the southeastern horizon to the zenith. Deneb, the luminary of Cygnus the Swan, marks the Summer Triangle’s third corner. Although it is the dimmest star, it’s the brightest point of light in the northeastern sky.
church of Kremsmünster in Upper Austria
Maria Heimsuchung – Rudolf Steiner lists this in his original Calendar of the Soul, as an ancient German Feast Day celebrating the Visitation Of Mary to Elisabeth.
437 – Emperor Valentinian III begins his reign over & ongoing dismemberment the Western Roman Empire.
1566 – Deathday of Nostradamus, French astrologer & author
1698 – Thomas Savery patents the first steam engine
1778 – Deathday of Procopius of Caesarea the last major historian of the ancient Western world. He Accompanied the Roman general Belisarius in the wars of the Emperor Justinian, writing the Wars (or Histories), the Buildings of Justinian & the celebrated (& infamous) Secret History discovered centuries later in the Vatican Library. The Secret History reveals his deep disillusion with the emperor Justinian & his wife, Empress Theodora, as well as Belisarius, his former commander & patron, & Antonina, Belisarius’ wife. The anecdotes expose the secret springs of their public actions, as well as their private lives. Justinian is portrayed as cruel, venal, prodigal & incompetent; as for Theodora, the reader is treated to the most detailed & titillating portrayals of vulgarity & insatiable lust combined with shrewish & calculating mean-spiritedness: “Often, even in the theatre, in the sight of all the people, she removed her costume and stood nude in their midst, except for a girdle about the groin: not that she was abashed at revealing that, too, to the audience, but because there was a law against appearing altogether naked on the stage, without at least this much of a fig-leaf. Covered thus with a ribbon, she would sink down to the stage floor and recline on her back. Slaves to whom the duty was entrusted would then scatter grains of barley from above into the calyx of this passion flower, whence geese, trained for the purpose, would next pick the grains one by one with their bills and eat.”
Her husband Justinian, meanwhile, was a monster whose head could suddenly vanish—at least according to this passage: “And some of those who have been with Justinian at the palace late at night, men who were pure of spirit, have thought they saw a strange demoniac form taking his place. One man said that the Emperor suddenly rose from his throne and walked about, and indeed he was never wont to remain sitting for long, and immediately Justinian’s head vanished, while the rest of his body seemed to ebb and flow; whereat the beholder stood aghast and fearful, wondering if his eyes were deceiving him. But presently he perceived the vanished head filling out and joining the body again as strangely as it had left it.”
1816 – The French frigate Méduse struck the Bank of Arguin & 151 people on board had to be evacuated on an improvised raft, a case immortalised by Géricault’s painting The Raft of the Medusa
1822 – Thirty-five slaves are hanged in South Carolina, including Denmark Vesey, after being accused of organizing a slave rebellion
1839 – Twenty miles off the coast of Cuba, 53 rebelling African slaves led by Joseph Cinqué take over the slave ship Amistad
1897 – British-Italian engineer Guglielmo Marconi obtains a patent for radio in London
1900 – The first Zeppelin flight takes place on Lake Constance near Friedrichshafen, Germany
1921 – U.S. President Warren G. Harding signs the Knox–Porter Resolution formally ending the war between the United States & Imperial Germany
1934 – The Night of the Long Knives, sometimes called Operation Hummingbird, or in Germany, sometimes mockingly called Reichsmordwoche (Reich Murder Week), a purge that took place in Nazi Germany from June 30 to July 2, 1934, when the Nazi regime carried out a series of political executions. Leading members of the left-wing Strasserist faction of the Nazi Party (NSDAP), along with its figurehead, Gregor Strasser, were killed, as were prominent conservative anti-Nazis (such as former Chancellor Kurt von Schleicher & Gustav Ritter von Kahr, who had suppressed Adolf Hitler’s Beer Hall Putsch in 1923). Many of those killed were leaders of the Sturmabteilung (SA) – the paramilitary Brownshirts.
Hitler moved against the SA & its leader, Ernst Röhm because he saw the independence of the SA as a direct threat to his newly gained political power. Hitler was uncomfortable with Röhm’s outspoken support for a “second revolution” to redistribute wealth.
At least 85 people died during the purge, although the final death toll may have been in the hundreds, & more than a thousand perceived opponents were arrested. Most of the killings were carried out by the Schutzstaffel (SS) & the Gestapo (Geheime Staatspolizei), the regime’s secret police. The purge provided a legal grounding for the Nazi regime, as the German courts & cabinet quickly swept aside centuries of legal prohibition against extra-judicial killings to demonstrate their loyalty to the regime. The Night of the Long Knives was a turning point for the German government. It established Hitler as “the supreme judge of the German people,” as he put it in his July 13, 1934 speech to the Reichstag. “The New York Times”stated that Hitler had acted to crush a revolt & that SA leader Ernst Röhm had committed suicide.
1947 – World UFO Day, commemorating the supposed UFO crash at Roswell
1964 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964 meant to prohibit segregation in public places
1976 – The U.S. Supreme Court ruled the death penalty was not inherently cruel or unusual.
2001 – The AbioCor self-contained artificial heartis first implanted
***
Not being able to travel to present my Spiritual Research, I made a little page to share some recorded offerings. Please tune in & freely pass them on…Thanks…xox
As of September 2020 I am ready to bring my Festivals, Lectures & Programs to your community once again!
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August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago
UVA
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
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…”
“It is precisely in physical life that we need hope, for everything is upheld by hope and without it nothing can be done. The forces of hope, therefore, are connected with our last sheath as human beings, with our physical body. What the forces of faith are for our astral body, and the love-forces for the etheric, the forces of hope are for the physical body. Thus a man who is unable to hope, a man always despondent about what he supposes the future may bring, will go through the world with this clearly visible in his physical appearance. Nothing makes for deep wrinkles, those deadening forces in the physical body, sooner than lack of hope.
Susan Cooke Pena
“The inmost kernel of our being may be said to be sheathed in our faith-body or astral body, in our body of love or etheric body, and in our hope-body or physical body; and we comprehend the true significance of our physical body only when we bear in mind that, in reality, it is not sustained by external physical forces of attraction and repulsion — that is a materialistic idea — but has in it what, according to our concepts, we know as forces of hope. Our physical body is built up by hope, not by forces of attraction and repulsion. This very point can show that the new spiritual-scientific revelation gives us the truth.
Ayse Domeniconi
“What then does Spiritual Science give us? By revealing the all-embracing laws of karma and reincarnation, it gives us something which permeates us with spiritual hope, just as does our awareness on the physical plane that the sun will rise to-morrow and that seeds will eventually grow into plants. It shows, if we understand karma, that our physical body, which will perish into dust when we have gone through the gate of death, can through the forces permeating us with hope be re-built for a new life. Spiritual Science fills men with the strongest forces of hope. Were this Spiritual Science, this new revelation for the present time, to be rejected, men naturally would return to earth in future all the same, for life on earth would not cease on account of people’s ignorance of its laws. Human beings would incarnate again; but there would be something very strange about these incarnations. Men would gradually become a race with bodies wrinkled and shriveled all over, earthly bodies which would finally be so crippled that people would be entirely incapacitated. To put it briefly, in future incarnations a condition of dying away, of withering up, would assail mankind if their consciousness, and from there the hidden depths of their being right down into the physical body, were not given fresh life through the power of hope.
“This power of hope arises through the certainty of knowledge gained from the laws of karma and reincarnation. Already there is a tendency in human beings to produce withering bodies, which in future would become increasingly rickety even in the very bones. Marrow will be brought to the bones, forces of life to the nerves, by this new revelation, whose value will not reside merely in theories but in its life-giving forces — above all in those of hope.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, ‘Faith, Love, and Hope: The Third Revelation.’
July 1 is the 182nd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. 183 days remain until the end of the year.
AstroloCherry
1 July 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Mars rises around midnight tonight, & the red planet is a great morning target, shining in southwestern Pisces the Fish. The best time to view the Red Planet is in the hour before dawn, when it’s about above the southeastern horizon.
Jim Leasure
POD (Poem Of the Day)
~I speak the story As I walk in the legend… May I meet myself In every tree & rock Quickened by tendrils of light… Holy & perfect is the search Which lives by fire in the embrace of spirit… Watch as I burst into flames Scattering my ashes to feed the Earth…
~hag
***
Dear friends – Not being able to travel to present my Spiritual Research, I made a little page to share some recorded offerings. Please tune in & freely pass them on…Thanks…xox
***
The Karma Project – Manifestations of Karma Study Group July 1, 2020 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Thus we see that there is a certain relationship between karma and the animal kingdom, although we must not confuse matters by likening what the animal experiences as its fate with human karma. But if we consider the whole earth development, and what had to come about for the sake of humanity and its evolution, we will see that we can indeed speak of a relationship between the karma of humanity and the animal kingdom.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 2, “Karma and the Animal Kingdom”, Hamburg, 17 May, 1910 … focus of the July 1 meeting.
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among five volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.
This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “Manifestations of Karma.” This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.
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:
One tap mobile +13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 882 8401 0264
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by five volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Laura – pg. 26 to 29 Chris – pg. 29 to 34 Rosemary – pg. 34 to 38 Marianne – pg. 38 to 42 Alberto – pg. 42 to end 8:05 Conversation 8:28 Close with verse
***
August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago
UVA
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
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…”
“People today have a tremendous hunger for pictures. This hunger is a symptom of the fact that man, through the destiny of our time, is being urged towards the sphere of imaginative perception. We satisfy this hunger creatively if we let eye and heart dwell in active contemplation on works of art which have themselves arisen out of some measure of imaginative perception, and which can thus help to prepare the soul for this same inner sight. So ‘looking at pictures’ can help to meet a deep need peculiar to the present day. ~Emil Bock, The Apocalypse of St. John
30 June 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Venus (occult Mercury) is high in the east an hour before sunrise, in the constellation Taurus the Bull, near the Hyades star cluster. Venus sits northwest of Aldebaran, the Bull’s golden-hued eye. Look above the planet of love to spot the 7 Sisters – sparking Pleiades
Fabrizio Gavatorta
While it’s still dark, you can also try your hand at spotting Uranus, glowing in the constellation Aries. You’ll find it due west of Venus.
Mercury (occult Venus) is at inferior conjunction at 10 P.M. CDT.
Today is also the sixth-anniversary celebration of Asteroid Day, which was founded to raise awareness about asteroids & their importance in our solar system’s past, present, & future.
The World Power Conference was conceived by the Scotsman Daniel Nicol Dunlop, a entrepreneur & Theosophist who later joined Rudolf Steiner’s Anthroposophical Society. He organized the first meeting which took place in London on 30 June 1924 & attracted 1,700 attendees from 40 nations. It was deemed so successful that the conference was established as a recurring event. In the beginning, the World Power Conference convened on a regular schedule every six years.
D.N. Dunlop was a pioneer of modern community building—in two areas in particular: industry & economics, & the sphere of the free spiritual life. In 1924 he founded the World Power Conference, opened by the Prince of Wales in London that year.This was the first international conference to invite engineers & industrialists from all over the world (including Germany & Russia, two former World War adversaries), with the purpose of establishing a basis for co-operation & co-ordination in the production & technological use of energy resources within a modern world economy.
In 1929 a worldwide assessment of raw materials & energy resources was published in book-form with the title Power Resources of the World. The WPC gave birth to a permanent institution—the World Energy Council—that has its headquarters in London & has since held regular congresses in different capital cities throughout the world. The website of this private international organization records a short history of the institution which focuses on the profiles of five leading figures, beginning with Dunlop: ‘Shortly after World War I, Scotsman Daniel Dunlop, a visionary working in the British electricity industry, decided to bring together leading energy experts for a World Power Conference to discuss current and emerging energy issues. In 1923, he began working with countries around the globe to establish national committees that would stimulate attendance and prepare for technical participation at such a conference. The First World Power Conference was held the next year, 1924, in London and attracted 1,700 delegates from 40 countries. The meeting was so successful that those attending decided to establish a permanent organisation to continue the dialogue begun at the conference.’
Within the spiritual-cultural sphere, Dunlop was a pioneer of the ‘summer school’—an idea which he actively pursued and brought to practical realization during his theosophical phase. Dunlop maintained that the ‘summer school’ was not in conflict with pure individual striving, but could potentize it— offer it fulfillment. For true individualism, if developed far enough, is exactly what socially conscious communities need if they are to progress.
To a large extent these summer schools were gatherings of ‘communities of free spirits’. Following his encounter with Rudolf Steiner in 1922, Dunlop organized the great summer schools of Penmaenmawr &Torquay.According to Rudolf Steiner, these were ‘recorded in the Golden Book of the Anthroposophical Movement’. Steiner himself characterized Dunlop as a ‘far-seeing’ anthroposophist with visionary goals, endowed with clear and delicate perception,and remarkable human sensitivity & tact’. Despite Steiner’s very high public regard for him—Dunlop chose to remain in the background of events.
Daniel Nicol Dunlop met Rudolf Steiner in person in 1922. It was the Dutch manager Joseph van Leer who brought them together. They sat at the table together – Rudolf Steiner who spoke no English & Daniel N. Dunlop who spoke no German. Joseph van Leer stepped in as translator but what he didn’t see was that Rudolf Steiner took the hand of Daniel Dunlop & held it, under the table, during the whole of the conversation. In 1934, during one of his famous summer schools, Dunlop shared the memory of this with his friend Walter Johannes Stein. He made an even more interesting statement, that Rudolf Steiner on this occasion said to him, ‘We are brothers.’
Eleanor Merry, also an active member of the early British Anthroposophical Society, worked intensively with Dunlop for the last 14 years of his life during which time he told her that Rudolf Steiner gave him an insight into a former life of his where he, Dunlop, had been a member of the innermost circle of the Order of the Knights Templar ‘connected to all the ancient mysteries’ and had also worked within a secret society among the Templars’. Dunlop’s most deeply rooted intention was to serve the supra-personal goals of humanity, thereby sacrificing all personal & trivial motives & deeds.
Nature spirits by D.N. Dunlop
***
POD (Poem Of the Day)
Darlene Fevftor
~i am the mud between the toes of the Beloved… make of me a poultice for the healing, that from our commingling the lotus may take root – a strong foundation for the blossoming… ~hag
***
The Karma Project – Manifestations of Karma Study Group July 1, 2020 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Thus we see that there is a certain relationship between karma and the animal kingdom, although we must not confuse matters by likening what the animal experiences as its fate with human karma. But if we consider the whole earth development, and what had to come about for the sake of humanity and its evolution, we will see that we can indeed speak of a relationship between the karma of humanity and the animal kingdom.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Manifestations of Karma, Chapter 2, “Karma and the Animal Kingdom”, Hamburg, 17 May, 1910 … focus of the July 1 meeting.
The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among five volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.
This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “Manifestations of Karma.” This book is a translation from German of Die Offenbarung des Karma (Ga 120), published in English by Rudolf Steiner Press in 1996.
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:
One tap mobile +13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 882 8401 0264
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
Agenda for our Study Call
7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by five volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Laura – pg. 26 to 29 Chris – pg. 29 to 34 Rosemary – pg. 34 to 38 Marianne – pg. 38 to 42 Alberto – pg. 42 to end 8:05 Conversation 8:28 Close with verse
***
August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago
UVA
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
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…”
In the sense world we see the being of Nature sprouting, budding —from the powers of sleep the forces of vegetative growth, are given form. But in this sleeping Nature, the spiritual which animates & weaves thru everything in Nature is revealed. May we be awake to this spirit. As human beings we must not become blinded by the light, that we fall into a trance, drifting off into the rising warmth.
In summer humanity is bound up with Nature, but, if we have right feeling & perception for it, objective spirituality comes towards us from out of Nature’s interweaving life. And so, to find the essential human being during the St. John’s time, we must turn to the objective spirituality in the outer world, & this is present everywhere in Nature.
Ayse Domeniconi
If we follow Nature in high summer with deepened spiritual insight & with perceptive eyes, we discover the Archangel of Summer Uriel, who directs our gaze into the depths of the Earth itself. We find that the minerals down there send their inner crystal-forming process towards us more vividly than at any other time of the year; shaping itself into lines, angles & surfaces. “If we are to have an impression of it as a whole, we must picture this crystallizing process as an interweaving activity, colored throughout with deep blue”.*
We can feel that as a human form we have grown out of the blue depths of the earth’s crust; permeated with force by the silver-gleaming crystal lines.
Using our imaginative thinking, we can ask: “How is it that these silver-sparkling crystal lines & waves are working within me? What is it that lives & works there, silver-gleaming in the blue of the Earth? — then one knows: That is cosmic Will. And one has the feeling of standing upon cosmic Will”.*
~hag
*THE ST. JOHN IMAGINATION, by Rudolf Steiner ~from the Four Seasons and the Archangels Lecture 4
29 June 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna reaches perigee, the point in the orbit of the moon which it is nearest to the earth, at 9:13 P.M. CDT.
Jupiter blazes brightly climbing above the southeastern horizon an hour after sunset tonight. Just under to Jupiter’s east is Saturn. All of Jupiter’s Galilean moons are visible tonight: Europa is to the planet’s east, while to the west are Io (nearest), Ganymede, & Callisto (farthest out). If you catch the planet early in the evening, you may see its Great Red Spot through a telescope.
Pluto sits due south of Jupiter tonight.
Duccio
Feast Day of Martha, named in the Gospels of St. Luke & St. John, as the sister of Lazarus, the rich friend of Jesus who the Lord resurrected. She was also the sister of Mary Magdalene. They lived in Bethany. The Gospels speak of Martha as a dutiful housekeeper, serving the Lord hospitably when He visited: “but Martha was busy about much serving…” (Luke 10:40)
Complaining that her sister Mary was listening to Him instead of helping, Our Lord sweetly rebuked: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42)
When her brother, Lazarus, fell ill, she sent for the Lord; when He arrived, Lazarus had been four days in the tomb. She cried to Jesus about His delay, but He assured her: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.” (John 11:25) And he proceeded to call Lazarus forth from the tomb before a crowd of astonished witnesses.
After the martyrdom of St. James in Jerusalem, as persecution intensified, tradition says that Lazarus & his two sisters, along with others, were placed in a boat & set out to sea. This boat landed on the southern shore of France. While Lazarus & Martha went on to evangelize Provence, a fact recorded in French history, Mary retired to a cave in a mountain, to do penance for the rest of her life.
Martha is said to have died about the year 84. Her tomb is located in the crypt of the Collegiate Church of Tarrascon, France.
1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground
1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel’s Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.
1900 – Birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French poet & pilot – “The Little Prince”.
1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.
1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer
2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.
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Lynn Berfer
POD (Poem Of the Day
~From our own Bodies we give Birth to all time & it’s seasons Look now With new eyes & see the wise star within… ~hag
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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
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…”
