June 2^nd, 2016

455 – Sack of Rome: Vandals enter Rome, and plunder the city for two weeks

1098 – First Crusade: The first Siege of Antioch ends as Crusader forces take the city.

1692 – Bridget Bishop is the first person to go to trial in the Salem witch trials in Salem, Massachusetts. Found guilty, she is hanged on June 10.

1743 – Birthday of Alessandro Cagliostro, Italian occultist and explorer. Johann Wolfgang von Goethe relates in his Italian Journey, that during the trial of the Affair of the Diamond Necklace*, Cagliostro said that he had been born of noble birth but abandoned as an orphan upon the island of Malta. He claimed to have traveled as a child to Medina, Mecca, & Cairo, & was then admitted to the Sovereign Military Order of Malta, where he studied alchemy, the Kabbalah, & magic. (*The Affair of the Diamond Necklace – an incident in 1781 at the court of Louis XVI of France involving his wife, Queen Marie Antoinette. The reputation of the Queen, which was already tarnished by gossip, was ruined by the implication that she had participated in a crime to defraud the crown jewelers of the cost of a very expensive diamond necklace. The Affair was historically significant as one of the events that led to the French populace’s disillusionment with the monarchy, which, among other causes, eventually culminated in the French Revolution)

1793 – French Revolution: François Hanriot, leader of the Parisian National Guard, arrests 22 Girondists selected by Jean-Paul Marat, setting the stage for the Reign of Terror.

1835 – P. T. Barnum and his circus start their first tour of the United States

1882 – Deathday of Giuseppe Garibaldi, Italian general and politician. “That’s not a man. One day the Devil fell in love with a holy, Garibaldi was born after nine months”. — A dying soldier, after a battle against Garibaldi, in the comic story “Mille contro centomila”. I believe Steiner speaks about him in his Karmic Relationships lectures.

1922 – Start of the East-West Congress in Vienna, opened by Polzer-Hoditz. It was Rudolf Steiner’s last public lecture on Three-folding.

~   ~  ~

Odiln Redon

~The striped pebble is warm in my palm

I raise it up to honor the salamanders raying slices thru the sky –

Blazing thru magnolias toward the valley

Where the fire begins again…

There I stand poised in the fragrance of purple amaranth

Throwing stars & wishing on stones

I am a flower that never dies…

~hag

~   ~   ~

In thinking about: “The Working of the Spirit” by Michael Burton & Marke Levene. Part 8  (program for the Chicago reading)  

Having passed thru the “Trial by Fire” in scene 10, next we meet the “Trial by water” & (spoiler alert!!!) the death of the spiritual teacher Benedictus. There is a definite correlation to the untimely passing of Rudolf Steiner that is implied here. We see into the souls of those who were in his inner circle. Hilary takes it very hard, blaming himself. The Guardian, who bares the countenance of Benedictus, seeks to comfort him: “Your better selves shall sleep at times. But I do not forget. And, through my power, you’ll pick yourself out of the dust when you have failed and turn again to the deep and inward longing of your heart.” Each of them feels his presence as a force weaving the karma between them.

Then with a rush, the outer circle arrives, manic in the push of business, the tasks of the factory, an opening for their personal agendas. Ferdinand Reinecke, (his name means fox) who we have seen throughout as a conniving opportunist, has had a kind of mystical experience involving the inner workings of the Strader machine, right at the time of Benedictus’ passing, bringing a leap in his spiritual growth. And yet Ahriman still has a hold of him, & we see a battle, with the Guardian lending support to all.

Frederick Trautman wants to seize this opportunity to give his group greater power, the inner group ponders this.

Tomorrow we meet the “Trail by Air”.

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Current Festival & Program Events

June 1^st 2916

World Children’s Day

1812 – War of 1812: U.S. President James Madison asks the Congress to declare war on the United Kingdom

1831 – James Clark Ross becomes the first European at the North Magnetic Pole

1967 – Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band by The Beatles is released

1968 – Deathday of Helen Keller

~   ~   ~

~I embrace the hair on your resting head

I am not here

To raise order out of chaos or bind darkness with the light

I am here

To change, to do the things left undone –

Words unsaid will be pronounced

Broadcast – From my clapping hands

Like seeds tossed into the clefting shadow…

My limbs, a wild disco ball

Spinning with stars, are awake & willing.

~hag

~   ~   ~

In thinking about: “The Working of the Spirit” by Michael Burton & Marke Levene. Part 7  (program for the Chicago reading)  

“…In our present world culture, the problems that we encounter in the economic sphere result from a shortfall of ethical and moral values. Great technological and scientific progress has taken place, but human beings have not been able to keep up. Many men and women today show signs of having lost contact with themselves and one another; they feel incomplete and are alienated from their true spiritual natures. We have focused on technological process and forgotten that the root of all our problems is human greed. No amount of proselytizing will change this; the situation will be resolved only when mainstream ideas are not only directed towards materialistic concerns but are also driven by spiritual desires. Genuine spirituality, true to the values of the earth, gives insights into the spiritual cosmos as well as into physical matters and enables us to find our place between earth’s conflicts and spiritual reconciliation.

All of this is inferred in Burton’s imaginative drama. It is a response to the situation in which we find ourselves today through the many different events that have taken place during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Burton’s play reminds us of the deep hope we carry within us that, after evil has prevailed, the driving forces of anti-evolution, personified in these plays under the name Ahriman, can be redeemed through love.

I recommend to readers and to those who will participate at performances that they keep studying Burton’s drama. There is much more content within it than I can express in this foreword”. ~Karl Kaltenbach, OAM, Canberra April 2016.

Karl Kaltenbach was born in Germany and immigrated to Australia. In 1969 he founded Warrah, a cultural economic (not for profit) enterprise for curative education for children and adults near Sydney. In 1982 he received the Order of Australia Medal (OAM) and, in 1993, was awarded a Honoris Causa Doctorate from the Vatican College for his writing on social issues for people with special needs. From 1983 to 2000 he was General Secretary of the Australian Anthroposophical Society and the coordinator of a group which, if it can work in the way that he imagines it, could be called an academy for spiritual science in Australia. Today he is an independent essayist and writes on spiritual science and contemporary art.

~   ~   ~

Current Festival & Program Events

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

May 31, 2016

‘The Feast of the Visitation’ – The visible actors (see Luke 1:39-45) are Mary & Elizabeth, although Jesus & John the Baptist steal the scene. John leaps with joy in the womb of Elizabeth, who in turn, is filled with the Holy Spirit & addresses words of praise to Mary—words that echo down through the ages. Then comes the Magnificat (Luke 1:46-55).

One of the invocations in Mary’s litany is “Ark of the Covenant.” Like the Ark of the Covenant of old, Mary brings God’s presence into the lives of other people. As David danced before the Ark, John the Baptist leaps for joy. As the Ark helped to unite the 12 tribes of Israel by being placed in David’s capital, so Mary has the power to unite all in her Son.

1809 – Deathday of Austrian composer Franz Haydn

1819 – Birthday of Walt Whitman, American poet, essayist, & journalist. A humanist, he was a part of the transition between transcendentalism & realism, often called the father of free verse. His work was very controversial in its time, particularly his poetry collection Leaves of Grass, which was described as obscene.

1875 – Birthday of occultist Eliphas Levy. Steiner refers to his Mexican incarnation in the Karma lectures Vol. 2

1916 – Battle of Jutland, beginning of the end of British sea power

1942 – Deathday of Reinhard Heydrich, assinated in Prague. A high-ranking German Nazi official during World War II, one of the main architects of the Holocaust. Many historians regard him as the darkest figure in the Nazi elite; Adolf Hitler described him as “the man with the iron heart”.

1962 – Deathday of Adolf Eichman, a German Nazi SS, one of the major organisers of the Holocaust. Eichmann was working with Reinhard Heydrich facilitating & managing the logistics of mass deportation of Jews to extermination camps. In 1960, he was captured in Argentina by Mossad, Israel’s intelligence service. Following a widely publicized trial in Israel, he was found guilty of war crimes & hanged on this day in 1962.

~   ~   ~

~I bring offerings to She who is & Them that are not:

Moly & frankincense & visions of peace unending…

I bring turquoise & silver & carnelian, the stone of earth’s joyful singing…

I bring the earth, ground deep into the pores of my skin…

I bring yesterday & today & the Sun & the waning crescent Moon

Rising at midnight between them

I come with the roar of wind & time – like 2 lions mating in my mind’s eye

To give birth to my breath…

~hag

~   ~   ~

In thinking about: “The Working of the Spirit” by Michael Burton & Marke Levene. Part 6  (program for the Chicago reading) ‘

After encountering the souls of Capesius & Strader meeting in the spiritual world after death, working out their joys & regrets – their sympathies & antipathies together, which effects everyone in their karmic group; we hear these words of Benedictus to end scene 9:  “This is the moment when the evolution of the Earth can take a mighty step towards the possibilities that spiritual powers hold for it – or else fall into unmitigated darkness & catastrophe. Each individual soul is being tried now. How will they choose? “

After hearing that, Scene 10, feels ominous & full of foreboding.  We enter into a clash of wills in the boardroom of Hilary’s factory. Knowing that many of the players in this ‘battle’ have been part of an occult brotherhood over many lifetimes, it’s discouraging to see them working at odds. But like Bernard Lievegoed says in “The Battle for the Soul” “…all development must occur at the right pace…The Ahrimanic powers want to accelerate everything…in order to prevent the human “I” from reaching a fully conscious relationship with new spiritual capacities. Ahriman wants I-less people, who do not have inner contact with things, but act automatically, in a mechanical society.”

In the meeting we hear that the financials are good, but everyone seems to have their own agendas, so instead of working together to meet the future using the will for the good of the all; fear, & politics “like the ringing of Pavlov’s bell” creates turmoil. When Benedictus, who was delayed, enters, we see him distressed & unwell, yet they continue to argue, until Bell suggests that perhaps they are all unclear as to what the principles of the Threefold Social Order are. When asked to give a quick picture, Benedictus is uncomfortable & seems uncertain, like the effort to speak is costing him great effort. He makes a start but cannot continue: “The demand of our times is that the social organism be brought into harmony with the basic principle of the human form. As society evolves, its three spheres need to become more & more visible as separate entities. Each realm has its own principles & ways of being. Only by becoming conscious & experiencing the ways of each can we evolve…if this is not done, there’ll be a vacuum…forces of destructive chaos will inevitably…” He abruptly leaves & the group grapples with much, including the malady of Flex, the loss of Capesius & what to do next.

I close for today with these words of Maria: “We are all one-sided, flawed individuals, & it could seem an impossible task to stand together in the ideals Benedictus has set before us. But the key question is: How can we carry each other’s one-sidedness in such a way that together we form a wholeness where each one feels empowered by the other?”

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

May 30, 2016

Gabriel Rossetti

1431- Joan of Arc – Burned at the stake as a heretic after a politically-motivated trial.

Born of a fairly well-to-do peasant couple in Domremy-Greux (southeast of Paris), Joan was only 12 when she experienced a vision & heard voices that she later identified as St. Michael the Archangel, Catherine of Alexandria, & Margaret of Antioch.

During the Hundred Years War, she led French troops against the English & recaptured the cities of Orléans & Troyes. This enabled Charles VII to be crowned as king in Reims in 1429. Captured near Compiegne the following year, she was sold to the English & placed on trial for heresy & witchcraft. Cardinal Henry Beaufort of Winchester, England, participated in the questioning of Joan in prison. In the end, she was condemned for wearing men’s clothes. The English resented France’s military success–to which Joan contributed.

On this day in 1431, she was burned at the stake in Rouen, & her ashes were scattered in the Seine River. A second Church trial 25 years later nullified the earlier verdict, which was reached under political pressure.

Remembered by most people for her military exploits, yet her life offers a perfect example of both contemplation & action. Her spiritual insight is that there should be a “unity of heaven & earth.”

Alexandre Benois

1672 – Birthday of Peter the Great, Czar of Russia. He led a cultural revolution that replaced some of the traditionalist & medieval social & political systems with ones that were modern, scientific, westernized, & based on The Enlightenment. Peter’s reforms made a lasting impact on Russia & many institutions of Russian government traced their origins to his reign.

1778 – Deathday of Voltaire, a French Enlightenment writer, historian, & philosopher famous for his wit, his attacks on the established Catholic Church, & his advocacy of freedom of religion, freedom of expression, & separation of church & state.

Voltaire was a versatile writer, producing works in almost every literary form, including plays, poems, novels, essays, & historical & scientific works. He wrote more than 20,000 letters & more than 2,000 books & pamphlets. As a satirical polemicist, he frequently made use of his works to criticize intolerance, religious dogma, & the French institutions of his day. Steiner’s Karma lectures vol. II lec. 29 speak of him as “a former pupil of the mysteries”

1935 – Deathday of D.N. Dunlop, a Scottish entrepreneur, founder of the World Power Conference & other associations; he was a theosophist-turned-anthroposophist.

After meeting Rudolf Steiner, both expressed their intimate spiritual connection & respect for one another. He joined the Anthroposophical Society in 1920, at which time he called into being the anthroposophical “Human Freedom Group”, which he led. He introduced the idea of anthroposophical Summer Schools. In 1928 he organized the World Conference on Anthroposophy, & in 1929 he was elected General Secretary of the Anthroposophical Society in Great Britain.

As a result of conflicts & power struggles within the General Anthroposophical Society, leading to its splintering in April 1935, Dunlop was expelled together with a number of other leading members. He died shortly afterwards of an appendicitis. Dunlop enlisted the help of fellow anthroposophist Walter Johannes Stein in the hope of founding a World Economic Organization, but his death prevented this. (Former Templar)

1953 – Edmund Hillary climbs Mount Everest

~   ~   ~

~With simple sandals

I walk before my Beloved

Yet in the house of heaven my feet are still…

My breast is a lyre that hums,

My lungs fill with living fire,

A cool breeze encircles me,

There is no need for haste…

~hag

~   ~   ~

In thinking about: “The Working of the Spirit” by Michael Burton & Marke Levene. Part 5  (program for the Chicago reading) 

 Having worked with Rudolf Steiner’s indications about life between death & re-birth, I was fascinated to see the artistic rendering in scene 4 of Strader’s experiences in Kamaloca. I can just imagine the eurythmy chorus moving as Angeloi & as elemental beings, enacting around him energy pictures of the intense feeling in his soul of what he has created in the soul of others thru the words & deeds of his previous life. A moving process showing the crisis of alienation & loneness being overcome thru the awareness of the important connections he has had with others in life; & then the beauty of reuniting with his beloved wife Theodora, & his teacher Capesius, who is about to enter thru the portal of death into the spiritual world.

To follow this journey is a powerful experience for his group of karmic friends still on earth. Johannes has to purify his own guilt so he can join with the others to help further, in a positive way, Strader’s journey thru the spheres.

It’s so interesting to realize that even the adversarial powers can appear, working to assail the souls journey. To see that we can help our beloved dead with our thoughtful blessings, as Benedictus does, gives an important perspective.

We sit at the deathbed of Capesius in scene 5. Next we see, thru Johannes’ meditation, the karmic group around Capesius as the Neophytos, taking initiation in ancient Greece. This leads to a retrospective of the karmic threads that bind each soul, from the oracle of Delphi to the Greek schools of Philosophy, where we are introduced to various streams: Platonic, Aristotelian & Sophic. These perspectives into the souls of each in the karmic group, gives the background that reveals their present karmic tasks.

At the end of scene 9 we see a battle between spirits faithful to the Guardian & those who serve the adversarial beings, including an introduction to the Asuras.

It isn’t until scene 10, when we ‘come back to earth’ to deal with all that has not been resolved in those past lives.

I leave you with these words from the Guardian: “You children of earth, remember your most deep & inner longing for a world made whole & Holy through the power of Love!”

Until soon

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg