“Eternal Verities”

February 19, 2023Calendar of the Soul, History, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

True, the Beautiful, the Good – GA 220 – A lecture given by Rudolf Steiner 100 years ago today 19 January 1923, in Dornach – showing that the primary function of education & evolution is to exercise soul faculties of Thinking, Feeling & Willing, as the “eternal verities” of Truth, Beauty & Goodness – outpictured in Science, Art & Spirituality.

“…A genuine feeling for beauty forges a link that connects us here, in earthly life once again with our pre-earthly existence…

A civilization that is filled with ugly machines, with chimneys and smoke, and dispenses with beauty, tears humanity asunder…it is a fitting abode for the demonic beings who would like to make the human being forget pre-earthly existence in the realm of spirit…

How can a human being develop an actual power that will lead directly into the spiritual world left when descending to the earth from pre-earthly existence? The answer is, when the person is filled with Goodness — a goodness that flows to others, and is not confined to self-interest…

Such goodness can lead to qualities, and experiences of innumerable forces of soul, that actually instill into the human being elements with which they were permeated with in pre-earthly existence.

Through the sense of Beauty the human being is linked, by means of a picture, to the spirit.

If they are truly good, this links their earthly life to pre-earthly existence. A good person is one who can bear their own soul over into the soul of another. Upon this all true morality depends. Without morality no true social order among earthly humanity can be maintained.

When this true morality develops into momentous impulses of will which then become moral acts, it begins to be a quickening- all-pervading impulse in the soul, inasmuch as a person can then be moved to real sympathy at the sight of care on the face of another — their own astral body feels pain at the sight of suffering in others.

For just as the sense of truth manifests in the human being’s right relation to the physical body; just as a warm enthusiasm for Beauty expresses itself in the etheric body — so does Goodness live in the astral body.

The astral body cannot be healthy, or maintain its true position in the world, if a person is not able to pour through it the forces proceeding from Goodness.

Here we have the concrete reality of the three ideals of Truth, Beauty, Goodness. Truth, is related to the physical body, Beauty to the etheric body, Goodness to the astral body.

These ideals show up, to begin with, in the physical body, when the person is filled with a real sense of truth instead of conventional opinions.

A worthy existence can quicken the etheric body into life through a feeling for beauty.

A person may do good because of some convention, or because punishment is in store for a wrong-doing — or because other people will respect them less if they do wrong. A person can, however, also do good from a sheer love of goodness, I spoke about this in my book, The Philosophy of Spiritual Activity. Such an experience of goodness will always lead to a recognition of the reality of the astral body.

Now to realize the good is not, as in the experience of beauty, merely to create a link with pre-earthly existence. To experience goodness is, to unite oneself with the world, which is ever present. We have but to stretch out towards it. Experience of goodness is a link, leading directly to the world the human soul enters after death.

Forces that endure beyond the gate of death are present in actions done here on earth, if a person lives a life of goodness.

The sense of truth is a heritage from pre-earthly existence. The sense of beauty will create an image, of pre-earthly connection with spirit. And the impulse exists within us not to cut ourselves off from spirit, but rather to maintain the bond intact by the goodness we develop as inner power.

To be true is to be rightly united with our spiritual past. To sense beauty means that in the physical world we do not disown our connection with spirit. To be good is to build a living seed for a spiritual world in the future.

Past, present, future — these three concepts, as they play their part in human life, assume far-reaching significance when we understand the concrete reality of the other three concepts — Truth, Beauty, Goodness.

The person who is untruthful denies his spiritual past; the liar severs the threads between himself and his spiritual past. He who disregards beauty is building an abode on earth where the sun of spirit never shines, where he wanders in spiritless shadow. The human being who belies the good renounces their spiritual future.

It was, indeed, out of a profound drive that Truth, Beauty and Goodness were held to be the greatest ideals of human striving. Yet they have faded away into shadowy words, and it is up to our present age to bestow concrete reality upon them once again”

THE CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated – with added titles – by Roy Sadler – LENT – Memory, Arise

v46
The world is threatening to numb,
my soul’s own inborn force.
Now memory, companion me,
and in my sight enhance
the penetration of my glance
vitality of will alone sustains.

This is part of the square quartet, the only one where the 4 related verses form a perfect square in the Soul Calendar’s lemniscate pattern. They correspond to the middle of each quarter in the year. It’s not mentioned elsewhere but I think these verses can be regarded as transitions between the seasons. They are a kind of crossing over the threshold to a new soul mood. When a new spring comes without proper clarity of thought it can numb our consciousness. For thoughtful perception the power of memory is needed, in contrast to foresight for a new summer union with spirit in the mirror verse.

ASCENSIONTIDE
Come, Foresight
v7
My Self is threatening to flee,
drawn strongly to the world’s inviting light.
Now foresight, dawn in me, your star arise
and my divining, firmly as of right,
replace the power of thought
that in the senses’ glory leaves me.

19 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Watch them draw closer together twilight after twilight

1473 – Birthday of Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish mathematician & astronomer

1807 – Former Vice President of the United States Aaron Burr is arrested for treason in Wakefield, Alabama and confined to Fort Stoddert. Aaron Burr was an American politician & lawyer. He served as the third vice president of the United States during President Thomas Jefferson’s first term from 1801 to 1805. During his last year as vice president, Burr engaged in the duel in which he fatally shot Hamilton, his political rival. Although dueling was illegal, Burr was never tried, and all charges against him eventually were dropped. Nevertheless, Hamilton’s death ended Burr’s political career.

Burr traveled west to the American frontier, seeking new economic & political opportunities. His secretive activities led to his 1807 arrest in Alabama on charges of treason. He was brought to trial more than once for what became known as the Burr conspiracy, but was acquitted each time. Nevertheless, with large debts & few influential friends, Burr left the United States to live as an expatriate in Europe. Handicapped by a stroke and financially ruined, Burr died at a boarding house in 1836.

1878 – Thomas Edison patents the phonograph.

1899 – End of the Kali Yuga according to Elisabeth Vreeda, which began in 3001 BC.

1899 – Birthday of Ehrenfried Pfeiffer, a German scientist, soil scientist, leading advocate of biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophist and student of Rudolf Steiner.

Pfeiffer grew up in Nuremberg. He studied chemistry in Basel and came into contact with anthroposophy there. At the age of 21 he installed stage lighting in the carpenter’s workshop at the first Goetheanum, so that it was suitable for eurythmy performances (now on display in the Salzburg Museum for Stage Technology). He lit the eurythmy performances until Rudolf Steiner’s death in 1925 and recorded many of the performance director’s details on the use of light for posterity. At times he also Steiner’s driver.

In 1925, together with Erica Sabarth, he developed the copper chloride crystallisation method, which is one of the image-creating methods of anthroposophy. On a cold winter’s day he is said to have observed how the steam from a hot coffee cup and a hot tea cup at the window produced different ice crystals. With the method one can prove to what degree food has vitality (by examining the images that the crystals form when they come together with plant juices or blood preparations).

In 1938-40, Pfeiffer emigrated to the USA via France. In 1939, he received an honorary doctorate of medicine for his cancer research. In the USA, he developed a method for composting urban waste and conducted research in the field of organic farming and maintained a biodynamic model and research farm. In 1956 he became professor of biochemistry. He died on 30 November 1961 in Spring Valley, NY.

Image result for Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps. painting

1942 – President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs executive order 9066, allowing the United States military to relocate Japanese Americans to internment camps.

1953 – Book censorship in the United States: The Georgia Literature Commission is established

1963 – The publication of Betty Friedan’s The Feminine Mystique reawakens the feminist movement in the United States as women’s organizations and consciousness raising groups spread.

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

The Categories of Aristotle: A process of contraction…exploring a path to expansion…

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Song-Circle with Velsum,

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT a hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map) www.rschicago.org/donate

Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

Toward Freedoms Mind

February 18, 2023Community, Poetry, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Upcoming Events~hag

~The Star gate is freshly oiled
Cutting a way
Thru Mystery
Reverberating & repeating my swelling heart
With high notes of intention
& the will toward freedoms mind…
~hag

18 February 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: What’s that dazzling scene in the west after sunset? It’s the Venus and Jupiter conjunction! They’ll be closest around March 1, 2023

Image result for change your habits painting — Rekha Rodwittiya

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

TODAY in 1883 – Birthday of eurythmist, actress. painter Mieta Waller-Pyle – dear friend & personal helper to Marie & Rudolf Steiner, living in their household for many years.

Mieta Waller grew up in Amsterdam with five siblings – the daughter of a shipping company owner. In 1907 she met Rudolf Steiner at the congress of the European sections of the Theosophical Society in Munich & soon became one of Marie & Rudolf Steiner ‘s closest associates, working actively with them from autumn 1908 to August 1924, first in Motzstrasse in Berlin, at the Villa Hansi in Dornach .

In Christoph Lindenberg biography: ‘Rudolf Steiner-A chronicle’, we hear that in 1908, Mieta suggested to Marie Steiner “building a temple to the words of Rudolf Steiner” which gave the impetus for the construction of the Goetheanum, which she supported with generous donations. Mieta helped paint the Faust motif on the samll dome.

From 1908 she was also involved with singing & recitation performances in the Kunststuben , which offered free cultural activities for poor sections of the population in Berlin , Munich & Vienna .

In 1909 Mieta Waller took part in the performance of Édouard Schuré’s drama ” The Children of Lucifer ” & from 1910 to 1913 she played Johannes Thomasius in the Munich performances of Rudolf Steiner’s mystery dramas .

Mieta Waller was an important speech artist, she also created her own models for house construction in Dornach .

On August 5 , 1924, Mieta Waller married the American painter William Scott Pyle , who had been involved in the construction of the Goetheanum since 1921 . Together with him she founded a company for the production of vegetable dyes .

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (4 interesting Deathdays)

1535 – Deathday of Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, German magician, astrologer, & theologian. “ In Agrippa’s time one found, it is true, little comprehension of the “natural magic” which he advocated, and which seeks in nature the natural, and the spiritual only in the spirit; men clung to the “supernatural magic” which seeks the spiritual in the realm of the sensory, and against which Agrippa fought. This is why the Abbot Trithemius of Sponheim advised him to communicate his views as a secret doctrine only to a few chosen ones, who were able to rise to a similar conception of nature and spirit, for “one gives only hay to oxen and not sugar, as to songbirds.” It is perhaps to this abbot that Agrippa himself owes the right point of view.” ~ Mysticism at the Dawn of the Modern Age, by Rudolf Steiner

1546 – Deathday of Martin Luther, German priest & theologian, leader of the Protestant Reformation. A piece of paper was later found on which Luther had written his last statement. The statement was in Latin, apart from “We are beggars,” which was in German. The statement reads:

No one can understand Virgil’s Bucolics unless he has been a shepherd for five years. No one can understand Virgil’s Georgics, unless he has been a farmer for five years.

No one can understand Cicero’s Letters (or so I teach), unless he has busied himself in the affairs of some prominent state for twenty years.

Know that no one can have indulged in the Holy Writers sufficiently, unless he has governed churches for a hundred years with the prophets, such as Elijah and Elisha, John the Baptist, Christ and the apostles.

Do not assail this divine Aeneid; nay, rather prostrate revere the ground that it treads.

We are beggars: this is true.

1564 – Deathday of Michelangelo, Italian sculptor & painter.

“In Michelangelo we have a spirit who helped human evolution on its way because he had a maturity of soul which enabled him to imprint on the world of space and matter significant facts from the spiritual world. He stood wholly in the great current of his times yet his own inmost quality was not fully understood. A friend once wrote to him that even the Pope feared him; and yet in his soul there lived all the greatness of Christian impulses which flowed into his work. While he felt himself at one with the great Christian impulses he yet lived at the dawn of a later epoch — closely though it was still connected with earlier ages. The content of older Christian impulses still affected his soul and out of that he created something which in its form and artistic method was already part of the ties in which we ourselves live. Hence comes the mood of the poem which he wrote — probably during his last days as he looked back over his life — and which makes it clear what our relation is to him, and how we should allow his influence over us to work:

Now hath my life across a stormy sea
like a frail barque reached that wide port where all
are hidden, ere the final reckoning fall
of good and evil for eternity.

Now know I well how that fond phantasy,
which made my soul the worshipper and thrall
of earthly art, is vain; how criminal
is that which all men seek unwillingly.

Those amorous thoughts which were so lightly dressed
what are they when the double death is nigh?
The one I know for sure, the other dread.

Painting nor sculpture now can lull to rest
my soul that turns to His great Love on high
Whose arms to clasp us on the cross were spread.”

~ from ‘Michelangelo’, A Lecture given by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 8th January, 1914, GA 63

1967 – Deathday of J. Robert Oppenheimer, American physicist & academic. “Father of the atomic bomb” for his role in the Manhattan Project, the World War II undertaking that developed the first nuclear weapons. The first atomic bomb was detonated on July 16, 1945, in the Trinity test in New Mexico. Oppenheimer later remarked that it brought to mind words from the Bhagavad Gita: “Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.” In August 1945, the weapons were used in the atomic bombings of Hiroshima & Nagasaki.

After the war ended, Oppenheimer became chairman of the influential General Advisory Committee of the newly created United States Atomic Energy Commission. He used that position to lobby for international control of nuclear power to avert nuclear proliferation and a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union. He opposed the development of the hydrogen bomb during a 1949–50 governmental debate on the question & subsequently took stances on defense-related issues that provoked the ire of some factions in the U.S. government & military. During the Second Red Scare, those stances, led to him suffering the revocation of his security clearance in a much-written-about hearing in 1954. Effectively stripped of his direct political influence, he continued to lecture, write & work in physics.