“…all I have written now appears to be like straw”

December 6, 2021Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Community, Festival, History, Poetry, Storytelling~hag

During this time of Advent we must face trials that make us worthy to receive the sacred birth of the Nathan soul, around the time of the Winter Solstice; which then guides us into the precession of the 13 Holy Nights; which culminates in the birth of Christ on the Epiphany.

In the 1^st week of Advent we meet the mineral kingdom to see our relationship with issues relating to our physical needs. We recognize that death & mineralization in the physical world of nature at this time helps us step into the karmic unfolding of ourselves & of humanity as a whole. Here we face the Fire trial, where we must rise to the challenge of cultivating a sense of justice. Fire meets earth. Our task is to burn away the dross of what does not serve so that we can stand upright in the face of what we are meeting in ourselves & in the world.

Now we enter the 2nd week, related to the plant kingdom, where the etheric realm comes into play. Here we encounter the trial by water. Discretion & Self-restraint will help us meet these challenges. Water meets air. Practicing selflessness will help us build truthfulness in the face of the societal temptation to accept & perpetuate the blind lie. In the water trial we encounter our feeling life which is still quite dreamy, so we are called to bring thought into this realm, so we can judge our feelings objectively, working to understand what inspires them. And we are also challenged to bring Will into our feelings. Then we are able to control them & practice equanimity.

These trials help us develop new spiritual organs – This week we practice breathing under water! See you in the pool.

~hag

Pod (Poem Of the Day)

~Let us lift the clouds that guard the secret –
The miracle is happening
Let aspirations rise & speak:
The Peace of Wisdom is coming back
To give birth to Love
Again & yet again Sing Life
Stirring below the surface of skin,
Anoint the pain of mortality, the loss & suffering
The misunderstandings that prick
Consciousness & prod us toward truth…
Bless the body
Where Love in Wisdom is gathering…
~hag

***

Today is the Feast Day of Old St. Nick, a bishop wearing his red mantle & mitre hat, sporting a long, white beard & carrying his golden shepherds crook. Legend has it that he helped the poor & calmed the seas; & on his feast day gives children who are good sweets or gifts.

But beware if you are bad for black Pete, or Knecht Ruprecht, will put you in his bag & take you away to the black forest until you learn your lesson… So on the night of December 5th set out your boots & leave a carrot for his horse then go to bed & dream of doing good deeds like St. Nichplas once did…

In Waldorf schools St. Nick comes into the classroom of the lower grades & shakes the hand of each child telling them what they have done well, & what they have not done so well & need to improve. This always made quite an impression on the young children to receive this gentle reckoning.

The one we know of as St. Nicholas was born in 271 AD & died around December 6, 342 or 343 AD near the Asia Minor (Turkey) town of Myra, where he later became Bishop. He performed many good deeds & was a friend to the poor & helpless. Upon his death, myths soon sprang up about him all around the Mediterranean Sea. He was reputed to be able to calm the raging seas, rescue desperate sailors, & save children. He was soon named as the patron saint of sailors, & when Myra was overthrown, his bones were transported by sailors to Bari, a port in Italy, where a tomb was built over the grave & became the center of honor for St. Nicholas. From here the legend spread on around to the Atlantic Coast of Europe & the North Sea to become a European holiday tradition regardless of religion.

In the Netherlands, legend has it that Sinterklaas (Dutch name for St. Nicholas) arrives in the Netherlands by way of steamboat from Spain 2 weeks before his traditional birthday, December 6th, along with his helper, Zwarte Piet (Black Pete), who will help disperse the gifts & candy to all the good children. Referring to his book that lists all the good & bad children, Sinterklaas will deliver presents to all the good children, but watch out if you’ve been bad! The Low Countries (Belgium & Luxemburg) have basically the same traditions surrounding St. Nicholas, but not to the extent of the Netherlands. Children in Luxemburg call him Kleeschen, & his helper is Hoseker (Black Peter). Belgian children know him as Sint Niklaas.

For families with older children & adults, different twists are added to the gift giving & may include gag gifts or the drawing of gift ideas or names, & most times are accompanied by poems with a “personal touch” that poke fun at the recipient in a gentle way (or not, depending on the families ). Wrapping the presents up in odd packages & planting a trail of clues is also part of the general fun, & can sometimes be pretty tricky to get to, depending on the squeamishness of the recipients.

In Germany, St. Nicholas is also known as Klaasbuur, Sunnercla, Burklaas, Bullerklaas,& Rauklas, & in eastern Germany, he is also known as Shaggy Goat, Ash Man, or Rider & is more reflective of earlier Norse influences that were blended in with the figure of St. Nicholas, when Christianity came to Germany. After the reformation, St. Nicholas’s attire began to change, maybe as a reflection of the change from the Roman church, & he started to wear a red suit with fur. Although he still visits many homes on Dec 5th/6th & leaves candy and gifts in the children’s shoes, more recently St. Nicholas has begun showing up on Christmas Eve in Germany & is called Father Christmas.

In France, he is also called Pere Noel (Father Christmas) & he travels in the company of Pere Fouettard. Pere Noel leaves presents for good children, while Pere Fouettard disciplines bad children.

St. Nicholas day was celebrated formerly in Russia, but under Communism he was changed to Grandfather Frost & wore blue instead of red. In Sicily, he comes on Dec 13th with Santa Lucia.

The Moon under Venus and Saturn, December 6-7, 2021

6 December 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna dangles like a bauble below Venus, then Saturn, then lower right of Jupiter, which is just outside the top left of this frame.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

During the Feast of Saint Nicolas in 1273, Saint Thomas Aquinas had a mystical vision that made writing seem unimportant to him. At mass, he reportedly heard a voice coming from a crucifix that said, “Thou hast written well of me, Thomas; what reward wilt thou have?” to which Saint Thomas Aquinas replied, “None other than thyself, Lord.”

When Saint Thomas Aquinas’s confessor, Father Reginald of Piperno (an earlier incarnation of Ita Wegman) urged him to keep writing, he replied, “I can do no more. Such secrets have been revealed to me that all I have written now appears to be like straw” Thomas Aquinas never wrote again.

1926 – Deathday of Claude Monet

1959- Deathday of Emil Bock, Priest & co-founder of the Christian Community

***

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
ADVENT II
The Wine
v36
The Cosmic Word,
mysteriously urging to be heard,
is speaking in my depths of being:
Inspire your life’s endeavour
with spirit light of mine
to sacrifice yourself through Me.

The Soul Calendar’s 4 quarters represent the movements
of sense perception conceiving spirit,
imaginative insight incarnating spirit,
threefold inspiration for the spirit’s Christmas birth,
and intuitive love for a new spring world.
I gave last week’s verse the title of ‘Can True Being Inspire Me’,
and in these 2 mirror verses of the Cosmic Word
I’ve incorporated the words, not present in the original, of imagine and inspire.
Advent is a path that leads from the ordinary earthly self to the higher self
that the Nathan Child can bring us. To set the Christmas Spirit Child free
in our womb of soul we need threefold inspired thoughts, feelings and will.

LAMMAS
The Bread
v17
The Cosmic Word
I’ve had the grace to lead
through senses’ gates to soul ground speaks:
Imagine in your spirit depths my world expanse
to find in future Me in you.

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
18 December 2021 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Dear friends – Please Join Us as move toward the Winter Festival Season:

Thursday 23 December 2021 – The Eve of the Eve –
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 7 pm UTC

A Christmas Festival with Heart-Opening Movement by Lucien Dante Lazar
& a talk by our Christian Community Priest Rev. Jeana Lee

‘Divine Love and the Holy Child Within’

This will be a hybrid in-person & Zoom event
Featuring our 2 camera technology with Mary Spalding

Doors open at 12:30 pm (Zoom Room open 12:45 pm for Social time)
Snacks to Share Encouraged

Suggested donation $15.00
cash payment at the door or via the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal donation site –
*Please make a note on the first line – type in: “Christmas Fest”!
The Festival will be recorded

Time: Dec 23, 2021 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7052931041?pwd=Vk1XcDJqT0lKeHYzWXZJNlRYNlRvZz09
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041
Passcode: Christmas

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

The Epic of Gilgamesh
Storytelling during the Holy Nights 2021-2022
Hosted by the Anthroposophical Society in America

”The purpose of a story is to be an ax that breaks up the ice within us.”
~ Franz Kafka

Click to Register!

All around the world the season of midwinter is the traditional time for community bonding through storytelling. In laying the groundwork for the 100-year anniversary of the Christmas Conference, we bring the ancient Sumerian saga “The Epic of Gilgamesh” to life. Rudolf Steiner explored this story in Occult History during the Holy Nights of 1910; and again with the lectures “World History in the Light of Anthroposophy” given during those fateful Holy Nights in 1923 for the re-founding of the Society.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written tale on Earth. The Sumerian version dates from around 3000 B.C. Later it was compiled from 12 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform.

It is the “Hero’s Journey” of human evolution, a story of friendship, and a quest for the meaning of life – revealing Steiner’s core mission of bringing karma and reincarnation to the west.

Myths, fairytales, historical epics, and sagas open us up to powerful archetypes behind the human condition, revealing clues to ourselves – from the past, the present, and the future. What will we uncover about ourselves and each other during this year’s Holy Nights adventure in storytelling?

Tune in for any or all of the episodes of this dramatic reading, re-worked by Hazel Archer from various translations, and featuring friends from around the world.

What: The Epic of Gilgamesh: Story Telling during the Holy Nights hosted by the ASA, Hazel Archer, and friends.

Time: 22 minutes daily at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

Dates: December 24, 2021- January 5, 2022 for 13 consecutive days
Can’t join us live? No problem. Each gathering will be recorded and posted on our Holy Nights page (link will be emailed upon registration).

How: Register Here! Then check your email for confirmation with the Zoom registration link.

Cost: This event is free with suggested donations of $25, $50, $100
Your donations help us create events like this one!
Register Here!
www.anthroposophy.org/holynights

Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck
‘Tuning to the Stars’:
Sacred Geometry, the Planets and the Zodiac

LIVE IN-PERSON 26-30 Dec. 2021
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4 pm – 5 pm
And at 7pm on 31 Dec. as part of our Annual NYE Gathering (details below)

$100 for all 6 sessions, or $22 for each individual session.

Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal
or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “Holy Nights Eurythmy”)

Cash at the door, or send a check to:
Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 North Lincoln Avenue
Chicago, IL 60618-2953
USA

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

* Jan Ranck – Born in the USA, Jan Ranck studied music and comparative arts at Indiana University in Bloomington. She accompanied the London Stage Group on their 1976 USA tour and went on to study eurythmy at the Eurythmeum in Dornach with Lea van der Pals, where she subsequently taught. In 1984 she joined the faculty of The London School of Eurythmy. She left there to complete her eurythmy therapy training in Stuttgart in 1989, moving afterward to Israel, where she founded and directed the Jerusalem Eurythmy Ensemble (1990) and the Jerusalem Academy of Eurythmy (1992) and was an instructor in the Jerusalem Waldorf Teacher Bachelor Program in David Yellin Academic College from 1999. Jan has held Master Classes at various venues worldwide, including the Goetheanum and the MA Program in Eurythmy held at Emerson College and Spring Valley. She is the representative for Israel in the International Eurythmy Therapy Forum.

Friday 31 December 2021
Doors open at 6:30 pm

Join us for our Annual NYE Conscious Community Gathering –
The Theme for 2022 is Cabaret – a Cultural Sharing!

All are invited to take the stage with an offering.

Circles Edge & other Waldorf alum will also perform

Please bring Festival Food & Drink to share

$20 Cash at the door or Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “NYE”)

All proceeds go to support the Rudolf Steiner Branch – the young People hosting & The Band (Can’t make it? Send a $ gift PayPal)

7 – 8 pm – Eurythmy with Jan Ranck (separate fee $22 see above)

8 pm – Potluck Social

8:30 pm – Circles Edge & Friends warm the stage & host the open mic

10:10 pm – Thought-Seed Circle

10:30 pm – Clean-up…;)

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

What’s your Story?

December 3, 2021Celestial Event, Insight, Rudolf Steiner Quote, Speaking with the Starsanthroposophy, Rudolf Steiner, Solar Eclipse, storytelling~hag

“You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” from ‘Critical Path’~ Buckminster Fuller

“Working with the Word in ‘Steiner Archetypal Speech’ is a learning to breathe the light of Christ and the sound of Christ . The speech forming force is the Christ force of love, and an antidote to the fear which the dark force is currently spreading round the globe. Breathe in light-life and love, not dark death and hate. Find yourSelf, Enliven the Word, Free the World”. ~Geoff Norris, Speech Artist

This time we are living in will be one which our descendants, if they choose to be born, will tell stories about. We are the characters & narrators of this story-telling. So it’s up to us to pick the theme. Will the leitmotif be: A glorious new Turning Point in Time, where we learn to breathe light, & collectively outwit the nemesis, to undo an ancient knot, freeing humanity, to fulfill our divine purpose? Or will the chronicle twist around a convoluted plot, which ends with a whimper, as the decline of civilization blindly unfolds? Or perhaps the story will never even get written; just sound bites punched up with numbers & charts spit out by machines. – A repeated promotion of fear, feeding the propaganda, laying the ground for the global dosing. If we allow this dead-end scenario, what of our descendants? Will their DNA still be human? Will we step up, or succumb to the slide?

Mysteries Unfolding with Cat Charissage | Making Meaning, Making Soul — Cat Charissage

I resonate with the story that Geoff Norris is speaking: “This is how the larynx becomes the generative organ of the future, giving birth to the etheric babe . Speech mysteries abound. The Mysteries of Ephesus entered this realm, the Artemis mysteries, which have been Christened in the Sprachgestaltung – in Steiner Speech . The Christ force is the speech forming force and this speech force is the future – the logos”.

May we join our gifts together, to inspire & inscribe the true story of our fate.

~hag

To gear us up to heal the present may we enter into the mythos of the past to prep us for the hero’s journey of the future:

The Epic of Gilgamesh – Storytelling during the Holy Nights 2021-2022
Hosted by the Anthroposophical Society in America Click to Register!

”The purpose of a story is to be an ax that breaks up the ice within us.”
~ Franz Kafka

All around the world the season of midwinter is the traditional time for community bonding through storytelling. In laying the groundwork for the 100-year anniversary of the Christmas Conference, we bring the ancient Sumerian saga “The Epic of Gilgamesh” to life. Rudolf Steiner explored this story in Occult History during the Holy Nights of 1910; and again with the lectures “World History in the Light of Anthroposophy” given during those fateful Holy Nights in 1923 for the re-founding of the Society.

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written tale on Earth. The Sumerian version dates from around 3000 B.C. Later it was compiled from 12 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform.

Time: 22 minutes daily at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

How: Register Here! Then check your email for confirmation with the Zoom registration link.

Cost: This event is free with suggested donations of $25, $50, $100
Your donations help us create events like this one!
Register Here!
www.anthroposophy.org/holynights

“What the caterpillar calls the end of the world, the master calls a butterfly.” ~Chuang Tse

3 December 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: A total solar eclipse will occur tonight starting at 1:33 am CST. A solar eclipse occurs when a portion of the Earth is engulfed in a shadow cast by the Moon which blocks sunlight. This occurs when the Sun, Moon and Earth are aligned during a new moon (syzygy).

In “Human Questions and Cosmic Answers” Rudolf Steiner states: “An eclipse of the sun is due to the fact that the moon comes between the sun and the earth, cutting off the rays of the sun.”

At the time of a solar eclipse, for instance, something totally different takes place in the part of the earth affected from what is happening when there is no eclipse. When we know that on the one hand the rays of the sun penetrate down to the earth and on the other hand the forces or rays of will stream out to meet the sun. At an eclipse, these forces radiate into the darkness, and there ensues a period of time, short though it may be, in which all that is of the nature of will upon the earth flows out into universal space in an abnormal way. It is different altogether from what takes place when there is no eclipse. Ordinarily, the physical sunlight unites with the radiations of will streaming towards it. When there is an eclipse, the forces of will flow unhindered into cosmic space.

The old initiates knew these things. They saw that at such a moment all the unbridled impulses and instincts of humanity surge out into the cosmos. And they gave their pupils the following explanation. They said: Under normal conditions the evil impulses of will which are sent out into the cosmos by human beings are, as it were, burned up and consumed by the rays of the sun, so that they can injure only man himself, but can do no universal harm. When, however, there is an eclipse of the sun, opportunity is given for the evil which is willed on earth to spread over the cosmos. An eclipse is a physical event behind which there lies a significant spiritual reality.”

So dear friends before bed make a prayer of protection & light for those on the other side who will be subject to these unbridled forces.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
18 December 2021 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Dear friends – Please Join Us as move toward the Winter Festival Season:

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

Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck
‘Tuning to the Stars’:
Sacred Geometry, the Planets and the Zodiac

Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal
or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “Holy Nights Eurythmy”)

Tuesday 4 January 2022 – (Zoom Details TBA)
11 am PT / 12 pm MT / 1 pm CT / 2 pm ET / 7 pm UTC

a talk with Christian Community Priest & Lenker for North America
Rev. Craig Wiggins: ‘From Bethlehem to Golgotha: Birthing the Christ within at Epiphany’

the Sting of Advent

November 28, 2021Biography, Calendar of the Soul, Celestial Event, Chicago Event, Community, Festival, History, Insight, Quote~hag

Greetings friends on this 1st Sunday of Advent – I slept-in this morning, allowing myself to stay in that hypnogogic space with 1 foot in the spiritual world & 1 foot out – conscious that I was making a vow to my angel to enter deeply into this Advent season. I felt the presence of Rev. Richard Dancey, who years ago was Joseph to my Mary in the Oberufer Plays. I remember researching that tradition & discovering how the whole village would enter into a kind of sacrificial fasting in preparation for holding the essence of those divine archetypes. I have decided in lieu of my recent misstep that led to my foot turning into a big black & blue balloon, that I need to stop & take stock – to let go of all the vices that I have let creep into my habit life.

Interesting to note that during the 4 weeks of Advent the Sun is passing through the stars of Scorpio. The term “advent” – is Latin for ‘that which is coming’. So this is the time of preparation, of waiting in the dark, for the return of the light, at Winter Solstice, & it is deeply connected with the challenge of the Scorpion. – Can we overcome the consequences of error & evil that has separated us from our true divine nature? Advent can be seen as the time of transforming the fallen parts of our souls, so we can truly meet the Christmas birth.

In the northern hemisphere the darkness & death of nature mirror the descent of humanity from the light into the darkness of matter at the Fall. This time of Advent, reflects our journey away from the Divine Sun into the lower realm as represented by Scorpio. This descent began during the epoch of evolution known as ‘Ancient Moon’ – in the course of the rebellion called the ‘War in Heaven’ with the later infusion of Luciferic tendencies upon the human astral body.

“But now an event occurred that gave evolution a new turn. Beings who had a certain leading connection with that part of the Moon cosmos…became “rebellious”. This Moon rebellion changed the character of the human beings. They now had a soul body, as we said. They were thereby able to have inner sensations, emotions, etc., but now introduced into their inner nature was the impulse to develop a dim sense of independence, of segregation and of divorce from the higher spiritual world. These impulses prepared them to later become egoists. Those beings who initiated this development were later on perceived as the Serpent who brought about the Fall of humanity and the loss of paradise, according to the Book of Genesis. We find that Moon rebellion recorded in the script of the constellation of Scorpion.” (Willi Sucher, Isis Sophia II, Part Two, The Evolution of Ancient Moon)

Rudolf Steiner also describes this rebellion in Occult Science: An Outline & from another perspective in, The Spiritual Hierarchies and their Reflection in the Physical World: “Beings from the sphere of the Mights (Dynamis), to put it tritely, were detached; they were placed in the course of evolution so as to bring about obstacles instead of acting as progressive influences. We have come to know this as the War in Heaven….[later in Lemurian times]..The beings who stayed behind, whom we call Luciferic beings approached the human astral body –they were unable to reach the “I” – and injected into the astral body the results of the War in Heaven…humans now had been given the possibility of error and evil, but at the same time also received the capacity to rise above error and evil through their own strength…Thus we can see that only because the Dynamis were given adverse orders did humans receive the possibility of reaching their goal by means of their own powers, something that even the Seraphim cannot attain through their own endeavors. That is the crucial fact…Humans have to fulfill a completely new mission in the world, the mission we have just characterized, and descended into the earthly world in order to accomplish it. Christ came into the world as man’s free helper; not as a God working from above, but as the first-born among many.”

Advent is that time of the year to come to terms with the consequences of the error & evil that is in our own astral nature, reflected in our society so strongly today, as well as doing the work to develop the strength to overcome these tendencies in our self & in the world, so that we might prepare the way for the birth of Christ in us at Christmas-tide. This is our activity now for every human being during Advent. It is in this confrontation & transformation of evil in our lives, in our time, that we can begin to renovate the stars of Scorpion, to offer back to the divine what has fallen away, out of freedom.

Advent is a true festival of our current time in world evolution. This is a karmic call to humanity to awaken to this path of spiritual development with its focus on the confrontation with evil in our time.

The transformation of the Scorpion, not this time into the eagle, but into the dove, this must be our work – Opening to the Christ flame, the true I Am, born anew in the chalice of the heart at Christmas.

This ‘missing of the mark’ that led to my injury on Thanksgiving day has forced me to take a break from many outer activities. I am working hard to connect inwardly to the love, conscience & intelligence of my higher self, listening deeply to what is coming up in my thoughts & feelings. I offer them up as questions, as hopes, for transformation, for healing, for redemption of my lower self. It’s hard to sit still, to wait, to be observant, to be malleable & open to change. I have already received many not so pleasant insights into parts of myself that need purification, terrifying, or shameful glimpses into my double. Sometimes coming from very unexpected sources, blunt synchronicities, uncanny dreams & visions.

The Christian Community homily for this week speaks of this turbulent time: 1st Advent – Luke 21:25-36

“And there will be signs in sun and moon and stars; and upon the earth, the nations will be constricted with anxiety and doubt with the advent of these spiritual revelations, as before a roaring sea and waves. And men will lose their inner strength of soul out of fear and foreboding of what is coming over the living earth: for the dynamic powers of heaven will be shaken. And then they will see the Son of Man coming in a cloud, in the sphere of life, with dynamic power and great radiant glory.

And when these things begin to happen, stand upright and lift up [raise] your soul to the spirit, for your deliverance draws near.

And he gave them a comparison, saying, ‘Observe [behold] the fig-tree and all the trees when they burst into leaf. Seeing this, you know yourselves that summer is near. So also when you see these things happening, you know that the kingdom of God is near.

Amen, the truth I say to you: this present age of Man’s being shall not pass away until all has happened. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.Guard yourselves lest the perceptive power of your hearts be smothered by an excess of food and drink and by over-concern with the cares and worries of life, and the light of these spirit events break upon you suddenly like a snare…for it will come upon all who dwell upon the face of the whole earth. So be awake in the spirit at all times, praying, so that you may have the strength to live through all these things that are about to take place, and to stand before the Son of Man”.

We celebrate Advent to awaken our connection with the cosmic purpose in the Universe. Can we use this time to become more aware of the way in which we are disconnected from our source? Can we strive to awaken our purpose, as we work to remember our Divine origin?

I think of the Mother God gestating the emergent body of Jesus within her. Every breath she takes, every beat of her heart, every thought in her mind, devoted to forming the perfect human being capable of holding the divine.

I think of the approaching soul of Jesus, the pure, innocent Nathan soul, described in Luke’s Gospel, preparing to enter into this immaculate body – This soul which has never incarnated into a human being before.

I can’t help comparing that original purity & dignity of humanity with the way people treat each other now-a-days – so much derision, disrespect & hatred, all the discrimination, how can these lies appear to so many as truth, a delusion that they are willing to enslave others for?

Then I try to think about how this is part of some great plan to wake us up, to divide the wheat from the chaff, so that we can reclaim our place in the universe as conscious, Christened human beings.

With Prayers for Peace & Healing-
I Am ~hag

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler

First Advent Sunday today. Perhaps last week’s mystery verse
of the re-enlivening of old treasure could have been called Advent Prelude.
Now… can it find itself anew in the soul’s creative impulse?
ADVENT I
Can True Being Inspire Me?
v35
Can I true being know
that it may find itself anew
within my soul’s creative urge?
I feel a power trusting me
to make my Self with modesty
a member of the Cosmic Self.

This verse and its mirror are the only question verses.

LAMMASTIDE II
Can I Imagine Spiritual Need?
v18
Can I make wide my soul
that she unite with seed
of Cosmic Word conceived?
I feel my foresight asking me
to find the strangth my soul will need
to form her spirit garment worthily.

Holiday Market at the Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago
18 December 2021 – from 11 am – 4 pm

Handcrafted gifts, décor & toys
Featuring Live Music, Puppetry & Candle Dipping!!!

If you would like to be a vendor contact Elizabeth Kelly
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

Dear friends – Please Join Us as move toward the Winter Festival Season:

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

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written tale on Earth. The Sumerian version dates from around 3000 B.C. Later it was compiled from 12 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform.

Time: 22 minutes daily at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

How: Register Here! Then check your email for confirmation with the Zoom registration link.

Cost: This event is free with suggested donations of $25, $50, $100
Your donations help us create events like this one!
Register Here!
www.anthroposophy.org/holynights

Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck
‘Tuning to the Stars’:
Sacred Geometry, the Planets and the Zodiac

Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal
or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “Holy Nights Eurythmy”)

Personal Potion

November 27, 2021History, Insight, Poetry~hag

‘I THINK SPEECH‘ : Welcome to my adventure into the PODCAST world.

& Tune into a variety of video recordings

Dear friends – There are so many ways to look at life; it can be super simple or profoundly complicated. Today I was thinking, that the way to thrive is by becoming a mix between a mish-mash & a medley – part hodgepodge & part amalgamation of all the finest virtues our collective experience has garnered.

The best elixir will result from embracing the simple AND the complicated, mixing several different potions derived from our highest intentions & letting it ferment into a potentized medicine, which will only work from the inside out.

Yes, our strongest impact, our true cure, will come from blending our most diverse effects together to create a freshly refined reality, where the human being is Holy.

When you think about it, the human being is a divine wonder. Our bodies, for one thing, are miraculous, able to adapt & recreate itself every 7 years. In fact it’s mind blowing to try to even contemplate the metabolic system. I marvel at the fact that the hydrochloric acid in our digestive system is so corrosive it can dissolve a nail. In other words, we contain within us the power to dematerialize solid metal.

Why is it so hard, then, for us to conceive of the possibility that we can vaporize a virus with our immaculately conceived immune systems, or stand up to those that would enslave us?

Friends, the power of the highest hierarchies live in our limbs, waiting for us to active them with our will to reclaim our divine birthright as spiritual beings.

What would it be like to imagine that all the fear & doubt & hatred designed to confuse us & make us forget who we really are, are really just rusty nails – & that we are dropping them into a vat of spiritually charged hydrochloric acid. Ha – if we come back every day & revisit this vision – we can watch the nails steadily dissolve. As they yield to our power, we tame & embrace their forces, extracting the iron to fortify our resolve for revolution.

~hag

27 November 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Around 7 pm this week, the Great Square of Pegasus rests in its level position very high toward the south East.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast day of Barlaam & Josaphat two legendary Christian martyrs & saints, based on the life of the Gautama Buddha. The tale tells how an Indian king persecuted the Christian Church in his realm. When astrologers predicted that his own son would become Christian, the king imprisoned the young prince Josaphat, who nevertheless met the hermit Saint Barlaam & converted to Christianity. After much tribulation the young prince’s father accepted the true faith, turned over his throne to Josaphat, & retired to the desert to become a hermit. Josaphat himself later abdicated & went into seclusion with his old teacher Barlaam. The tale derives from a second to fourth century Sanskrit Mahayana Buddhist text, via a Manichaean version, the Arabic Kitab Bilawhar wa-Yudasaf (Book of Bilawhar and Yudasaf).

8 BC – Deathday of Horace, the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus; who crafted elegant hexameter verses & caustic iambic poetry. His career coincided with Rome’s momentous change from a republic to an empire. An officer in the republican army, he was befriended by Octavian’s right-hand man in civil affairs, Maecenas, & became a spokesman for the new regime.

511 – Feast Day of Clovis, the first king of the Franks to unite all of the tribes under one ruler, changing the form of leadership from a group of royal chieftains to rule by a single king, ensuring that the kingship was passed down to his heirs. He is considered to have been the founder of the Merovingian dynasty, which ruled the Frankish kingdom for the next two centuries. His name is Germanic, composed of the elements hlod (“fame”) & wig (“combat”), & is the origin of the later French given name Louis, borne by 18 kings of France. Clovis is also significant due to his conversion to Christianity in 496, largely at the behest of his wife, Clotilde, who would later be venerated as a saint for this act, celebrated today in both the Roman Catholic Church & Eastern Orthodox Church. The adoption by Clovis of Catholicism led to widespread conversion among the Frankish peoples, to religious unification across what is now modern-day France, Belgium & Germany, & three centuries later to Charlemagne’s alliance with the Bishop of Rome & in the middle of the 10th century under Otto I the Great to the consequent birth of the early Holy Roman Empire.

784 – Deathday of Vergilius of Salzburg an Irish Bishop & early astronomer.

1830 – Saint Catherine Labouré reported that the Blessed Mother appeared to her during evening meditations. She displayed herself inside an oval frame, standing upon a globe. She wore many rings set with gems that shone rays of light over the globe. Around the margin of the frame appeared the words Ô Marie, conçue sans péché, priez pour nous qui avons recours à vous (“O Mary, conceived without sin, pray for us who have recourse to thee”). As Catherine watched, the frame seemed to rotate, showing a circle of twelve stars, a large letter M surmounted by a cross, & the stylized Sacred Heart of Jesus crowned with thorns & Immaculate Heart of Mary pierced with a sword. Asked why some of the gems did not shed light, Mary reportedly replied, “Those are the graces for which people forget to ask.” Sister Catherine then heard the Virgin Mary ask her to take these images to her confessor, telling him that they should be put on medallions, & saying “All who wear them will receive great graces.”

The chapel in which Saint Catherine experienced her visions is located at the mother house of the Daughters of Charity in Rue du Bac, Paris. Her incorrupt body is interred in the chapel, which continues to receive daily visits from Catholic pilgrims today.

POD (Poem Of the day)

~Where priests murmur in crumbling churches I fly
Dropping feathers
Thru sacred fires…
In my mouth I hold the poison
That brings night mares to unbelievers
& healing to the wise…
~hag

Dear friends – Please Join Us as move toward the Winter Festival Season:

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

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written tale on Earth. The Sumerian version dates from around 3000 B.C. Later it was compiled from 12 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform.

Time: 22 minutes daily at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

How: Register Here! Then check your email for confirmation with the Zoom registration link.

Cost: This event is free with suggested donations of $25, $50, $100
Your donations help us create events like this one!
Register Here!
www.anthroposophy.org/holynights

Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck
‘Tuning to the Stars’:
Sacred Geometry, the Planets and the Zodiac

Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal
or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “Holy Nights Eurythmy”)

What’s on the Table?

November 26, 2021Festival, Insight, Speaking with the Stars~hag

Yep, we need a holy day to remember to Give Thanks. Gratitude is more than just a hallmark catchphrase. It’s a way of life; an attitude, a habit that we have to train ourselves to practice so we can build up our appreciation like a muscle. And what I’m finding is that it may actually change the perception of my well-being.

Our family’s tradition is to go to China Town for our Thanksgiving meal, since I always make a big homemade feast for our daughter’s birthday earlier that same week. When our girl was younger we would invite her whole Waldorf class over for Sukkoth & that was our community Thanksgiving. This year we went to meet some old friends who have also taken up this tradition. On the way to the restaurant I tumbled off the curb & rolled my bad ankle – my foot is swollen to high heaven. I had to sit there on the ground for a bit with the dizzying pain like the wrath of shooting stars catching my breath…dang…What’s that all about…?

When I’m feeling overwhelmed by my various health issues, compounded by the current world situation with all the vicissitudes it has brought to our sense of reality, I have to just take a breath & thank my lucky stars that I can apply Spiritual Science to my heart-thinking. And I remember that this is the ultimate testing ground, where we all agreed to meet. Our ‘truth or dare’ stage where discernment, equanimity, love, reverence/wonder, hope, & the power of peace must come into play.

I know sometimes it feels like we are hell-bent on heading straight into the abyss – I often find myself staring straight into the dragon’s eye – & it’s all too easy to get freaked out & discouraged – to spiral into the negative, cynical scenarios.

Naming the shadow has its time & place, but if it pulls us too deep into discord or depression, this shrinks our heart-health, bringing more inflammation & a weaker immune system – eclipsing the veracity of our collective power which we can access with every positive, thanks-giving, visualization. So how can I turn this pain & forced slowdown into a gratitude moment…Well, I will have to work that thru won’t I…?

I have a chance to apply gratitude like medicine – a tonic & remedy for everything that ails me. It’s the gift that keeps on giving. An opportunity to let go of the personal pain to see it as a reflection of the pain of the world.

Together we set the table for a feast of healing.

See you there

~hag

26 November 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The last-quarter Moon rises in Leo around 10 pm CT Tonight. By dawn on Saturday the 27th it’s high in the south below Leo’s belly

Dear friends – Please Join Us as move toward the Winter Festival Season:

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

The Epic of Gilgamesh is perhaps the oldest written tale on Earth. The Sumerian version dates from around 3000 B.C. Later it was compiled from 12 clay tablets written in Akkadian cuneiform.

Time: 22 minutes daily at 9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12 pm ET / 5 pm UTC

How: Register Here! Then check your email for confirmation with the Zoom registration link.

Cost: This event is free with suggested donations of $25, $50, $100
Your donations help us create events like this one!
Register Here!
www.anthroposophy.org/holynights

Eurythmy for the Holy Nights with Jan Ranck
‘Tuning to the Stars’:
Sacred Geometry, the Planets and the Zodiac

Make your payment using the Rudolf Steiner Branch PayPal
or QuickPay with Zelle to chase@rschicago.org
(Please indicate in the notes that it is for the “Holy Nights Eurythmy”)

Cognitive Ritual

~Confessions of a Modern Rosicrucian

“…all I have written now appears to be like straw”

What’s your Story?

the Sting of Advent

Personal Potion

What’s on the Table?

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