Greetings Beloved Ones on this Ash Wednesday 2023 – The start of the Lenten-Tide Season.
My father’s people, the Italian side, were Catholic. I attended many wonderful incense filled, pageant-like Masses with my Grandmother, (who was a not so secret ‘Strega’) dedicated to The Blessed Virgin Mary & all the Saints, in an practical ‘peasant = of the land’, kind of way.
My mother’s folks from Ireland ‘wore the orange’ = Protestant/unionist’, but called themselves Baptist after becoming farmers in Tennessee. My mother had to convert to Catholicism in order to marry my father, as that was the way in those days. As children my siblings & I, who were baptized in the Catholic Church, were never-the-less bussed off to ‘Baptist Bible School’ for the simple reason that the bus came to our corner every Sunday – which conveniently afforded our hard working parent’s a day off from us 4 kids.
I did not have a good experience there. On the outside they preached a sexist totalitarian ‘morality’ (no dancing-really?) & yet behind closed doors the pastor molested certain ‘chosen ones’- myself included. So as you might imagine I swore off organized religion; & related more to my Strega Nona’s more practical way of worshipping, with Mary = The Divine Feminine at the center.
Thru karmic circumstances I started working the path of the modern Rosicrucian, at a very young age, which is, I would say, an Esoteric or Cosmic Christian path. Since discovering Rudolf Steiner in college I have lived deeply into the truth of being an Anthroposopher –
After meeting Rev. Gisela Wielki when the Christian Community Seminary was here in Chicago & thru the love of Rev. Richard Dancey, I became an active member of the Christian Community Church, part of an international movement for religious renewal, founded in 1922 with the help of Rudolf Steiner, which has a kind of Lent – a shorter Passion-tide.
And yet this year I feel the need to use the opportunity afforded by the 40 days of Lent to deepen my inner work.
There is something powerful about the rhythm of 40 days – which shows up often in the Bible.
Since the number 40 appears so often in contexts dealing with judgment or testing, many understand it to be the number of “probation” or “trial.” For instance:
In the Old Testament, when God destroyed the earth with water – He caused it to rain 40 days & 40 nights (Genesis 7:12).
After Moses killed the Egyptian, he fled to Midian, where he spent 40 years in the desert tending flocks (Acts 7:30).
Moses was on Mount Sinai for 40 days & 40 nights (Exodus 24:18).
Moses interceded on Israel’s behalf for 40 days & 40 nights (Deuteronomy 9:18, 25).
Three kings reigned for 40 years each: Saul, David & Solomon – That’s no coincidence. Forty years is considered a generation in the Bible (i.e. a new group of Israelites that rises up, sustains itself, then dies off). For the three kings of antiquity, this measurement of time also contains a warning—20 years of their rule was marked by prosperity & 20 years by ruin
The Law specified a maximum number of lashes a man could receive for a crime, setting the limit at 40 (Deuteronomy 25:3).
The Israelite spies took 40 days to spy out Canaan (Numbers 13:25).
The Israelites wandered for 40 years (Deuteronomy 8:2-5).
Before Samson’s deliverance, Israel served the Philistines for 40 years (Judges 13:1).
Goliath taunted Saul’s army for 40 days before David arrived to slay him (1 Samuel 17:16).
When Elijah fled from Jezebel, he traveled 40 days & 40 nights to Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:8).
The number 40 also appears in the prophecies of Ezekiel (4:6; 29:11-13) Ezekiel laid on his right side for 40 days to “bear the iniquity” of Judea’s sins & Jonah (3:4).
In the New Testament, Jesus fasted for 40 days (Matthew 4:2). (So did Moses & Elijah)
There are 40 days between The Resurrection & The Ascension (Acts 1:3), When the disciple received the esoteric teachings of the Risen Christ.
According to Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul 23 February was the day Lazarus was raised from the dead, being that Good Friday & Easter came on 3/5 April.
The normal gestation of a human Pregnancy usually last 40 weeks
And so dear friends, I will be taking this 40 day journey – a Path to the Resurrection – asking myself: When I stand at the dawning of the New Sun on Easter Sunday, how do I want to be different?
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1632 – Galileo’s Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems is published.
1732 – Birthday of George Washington, American general & politician, 1st President of the United States
1788 – Birthday of Arthur Schopenhauer, German philosopher & author
1876 – Birthday of Ita Wegman, founder of Anthroposophical medicine & close collaborator of Rudolf Steiner. She also developed a special form of massage therapy, called rhythmical massage, & other therapeutic treatments.
Ita Wegman, as she was known throughout her life, was born as Maria Ita Wegman in Indonesia, the first child of a Dutch colonial family. Around the turn of the century, she returned to Europe (she had visited before) & studied therapeutic gymnastics & massage. In 1902, when she was 26, she met Rudolf Steiner for the first time. Five years later she began medical school at the University of Zurich, where women were not discriminated to study medicine. She was granted a diploma as a medical doctor in 1911 with a specialization in women’s medicine & joined an existing medical practice.
In 1917, having opened an independent practice, she developed a cancer treatment using an extract of mistletoe following indications from Steiner. This first remedy, which she called Iscar, was later developed into Iscador & has become an approved cancer treatment in Germany & a number of other countries.
By 1919 she had a joint practice together with two other doctors, also women. In 1920 she purchased land in Arlesheim, where she opened her own clinic, the Klinisch-Therapeutisches Institut, the first center for anthroposophical medicine. In 1922 she founded a therapeutic home for mentally handicapped children, Haus Sonnenhof, also in Arlesheim, & co-founded a pharmaceutical laboratory, Weleda, that has since grown into a significant producer of medicines & health-care products.
In the following year, Rudolf Steiner asked Wegman to join the Executive Council of the newly reformed Anthroposophical Society at the Goetheanum in Dornach, Switzerland. She also directed the Medical Section of the research center at the Goetheanum. Together, Wegman & Steiner wrote what was to be Steiner’s last book, Extending Practical Medicine, which gave a theoretical basis to the new medicine they were developing. The book was partly written while Wegman cared for Steiner, who was already terminally ill. Wegman founded a new medical journal, Natura, the following year.
In 1936, the clinic opened a second home in Ascona, Switzerland. Shortly thereafter, difficulties between Wegman & the rest of the Executive Council flared up, & Wegman was asked to leave the Council; in addition, she & a number of supporters had their membership in the Anthroposophical Society itself withdrawn. The medical work flourished, however, & Wegman travelled extensively in support of the rapidly growing movement to extend medicine’s limits; she was especially active in the Netherlands & England during this time. Wegman died in Arlesheim in 1943, at the age of 67.
Ita Wegman is a close collaborator with Rudolf Steiner thruout many incarnations:
Eabani – Gilgamesh
Cratylus – Artemisia in the era of Heraclitus of Ephesus
Aristotle – Alexander the Great
Schionatulander – Sigune
St Thomas Aquino – Reginald of Piperno confessor to Aquino
Dr. Rudolf Steiner – Dr. Ita Wegman
On the Work of the Archangel Michael by Ita Wegman
1943 – Deathday of 1943 – Hans & Sophie Scholl, German activists. Sophie a German student along with her brother Hans were anti-Nazi political activists, active within the White Rose non-violent resistance group in Nazi Germany. They were convicted of high treason after distributing anti-war leaflets at the University of Munich (LMU).
In the early summer of 1942, Scholl, his sister Sophie, Willi Graf, Kurt Huber, Christoph Probst, & Alexander Schmorell, co-authored 6 anti-Nazi Third Reich political resistance leaflets. Calling themselves the White Rose, they instructed Germans to practice nonviolent resistance against the Nazis. The group had been horrified by the behavior of some German soldiers on the Eastern Front, where they had witnessed cruelty towards Jews in Poland & Russia.
Hans & Sophie Scholl & Christopher Probst were beheaded by Johann Reichhart in Munich’s Stadelheim Prison. The execution was supervised by Dr. Walter Roemer, the enforcement chief of the Munich district court. Scholl’s last words were “Es lebe die Freiheit!” (“Long live freedom!”). Shortly thereafter, most of the other students involved were arrested & executed as well.
1932 – Birthday of Ted Kennedy, an American politician who served as a United States Senator from Massachusetts for over forty years from 1962 until his death in 2009. A member of the Democratic Party, he was the second most senior member of the Senate when he died & is the fourth-longest-continuously-serving senator in United States history, having served there for almost 47 years.
For many years, Ted Kennedy was the most prominent living member of the Kennedy family, & he was also the last surviving, longest-living, & youngest son of Joseph P. Kennedy, Sr. & Rose Kennedy. He was the youngest brother of John F. Kennedy—the 35th President of the United States—& Senator Robert F. Kennedy, both victims of assassination, & the father of Congressman Patrick J. Kennedy.
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 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
Hi Hazel,
One item worth noting here in the alignment of the incarnations of Rudolf Steiner and Ita Wegman is that Cratylus did not incarnate at the time of Heraclitus of Ephesus, but only later as a younger contemporary of Socrates. As such, Cratylus was, indeed, a Heraclitean, but only later, after the death of Heraclitus. Further research indicates that Cratylus would reincarnate as Friedrich Nietzsche, who would remember much of his Greek incarnation in his first book, “The Birth of Tragedy”.
Nietzsche would also have an incarnation as Saint Peter of Alcantara in the 16th century, who supported Saint Therese of Avila, who would reincarnate as Richard Wagner. In their 19th century incarnations, they knew each other. Nietzsche would eventually oppose his so-called “father figure”. It was at the time of the forming of the German Empire out of the former state of Prussia, c. 1870-1871. The Franco-Prussian War.
Nietzsche despised it, but it made Wagner a hero.
Hi Hazel,
We are racing through these forty days of Lent. Tomorrow, March 3rd, will be ten days already. I wanted to highlight again what you indicated that Steiner said from the original Calendar of the Soul, c. April 1912, that February 23, 33 AD, was the actual date of the raising of Lazarus. This is very important to know when considering what Ash Wednesday means as the start of the 40 days of Lent. Over time, the Lazarus factor has been lost in favor of a more general depiction of “sack cloth and ashes”, but it remains a stirring testimony to me when I think of what occurred 22 years ago on February 28, 2001, which was Ash Wednesday that year.
What has touched me most is where you write:
“And so dear friends, I will be taking this 40 day journey – a Path to the Resurrection – asking myself: When I stand at the dawning of the New Sun on Easter Sunday, how do I want to be different?”
These 40 days of Lent this year seem particularly vital in helping to see a difference that could manifest on Easter as the Higher Self, which is always there, but usually shrouded by the plethora of mundane affairs. This year is different, and that is why I am pushing for something. Each of these next 30 days matters a great deal. 30 days is a kind of mini Saturn Revolution.
Yes, thank you for taking up this powerful impulse.
These 10 days have been very potent for me as well – I have worked with puurifing my Physical body.
I will use the next 10 to penetrate into my etheric ,than, Astral & the last 10 to try & really access my “I”.
Besides immercing myself in reserch about Mary Magdalne, I have been working with this reading from Matthew
whic is the Gospel spoken on my siderial birthdate:
The Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard
20 “For the kingdom of heaven is like a landowner who went out early in the morning to hire workers for his vineyard. 2 He agreed to pay them a denarius[a] for the day and sent them into his vineyard.
3 “About nine in the morning he went out and saw others standing in the marketplace doing nothing. 4 He told them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard, and I will pay you whatever is right.’ 5 So they went.
“He went out again about noon and about three in the afternoon and did the same thing. 6 About five in the afternoon he went out and found still others standing around. He asked them, ‘Why have you been standing here all day long doing nothing?’
7 “‘Because no one has hired us,’ they answered.
“He said to them, ‘You also go and work in my vineyard.’
8 “When evening came, the owner of the vineyard said to his foreman, ‘Call the workers and pay them their wages, beginning with the last ones hired and going on to the first.’
9 “The workers who were hired about five in the afternoon came and each received a denarius. 10 So when those came who were hired first, they expected to receive more. But each one of them also received a denarius. 11 When they received it, they began to grumble against the landowner. 12 ‘These who were hired last worked only one hour,’ they said, ‘and you have made them equal to us who have borne the burden of the work and the heat of the day.’
13 “But he answered one of them, ‘I am not being unfair to you, friend. Didn’t you agree to work for a denarius? 14 Take your pay and go. I want to give the one who was hired last the same as I gave you. 15 Don’t I have the right to do what I want with my own money? Or are you envious because I am generous?’
16 “So the last will be first, and the first will be last.”
Why do you speak this parable on your sidereal birthday?
According to Astrosophy Christ Jesus was aligned with the stars during the 3 years. So when the stars were at 25-26 degrees of
Gemini, this parable was given
Very interesting. Age 63 also brings the start of the higher Sun Triad, which occurred for Rudolf Steiner in 1924. That is how it was possible for him to bring forth the Karmic Relationships with the keen insight of reaching this new Sun plateau. He described it here toward the end of this Karma lecture in Arnhem, Holland.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA240/English/RSP1971/19240720p01.html
I reached this milestone twelve years ago, and am hoping to take this Triad to the limit, which is 84.
O this lecture is full of powerful wisdom –
Insights into the Michael School, the war, the printing press, “Ahriman has appeared as an author…the Ahrimanic character must be recognised!…
Nietzsche’s Anti-Christ, his Ecce Homo, his autobiography, and the annotations in The Will to Power — those most brilliant chapters of modern authorship with their often devilish content — Ahriman was their writer, exercising his sovereignty over that which in letters on the Earth can be made subject to his dominion through the art of printing!…”
“…to behold the secrets of worlds in their interconnections, one must have passed the age of sixty-three. 1 Therefore before I myself was in this position, I should not have been able to speak of certain things of which I now speak without any reserve. Before the vision can penetrate into anything related to the Michael Mysteries, to the influences working from the spiritual realm of the Sun, one must look upwards from the Earth through the Saturn existence into the secrets of worlds. One must be able to experience, to live within that twilight of the spiritual world which proceeds from the ruler of Saturn, from Oriphiel, who was the leading Archangelos at the time of the Mystery of Golgotha and who will again assume the leadership when the Michael Age has run its course. To such vision, however, shattering, overwhelming truths connected with the present age are revealed.”
Coincidentally, I just finished reading David Tresemer’s paper, “Rudolf Steiner & Jupiter”, originally published in the Journal for Star Wisdom (Steiner Books) in 2010, where he goes into depth on how some major events in Steiner’s life happened at the time of Jupiter’s crossing of the star Antares. Since you’re speaking of how the cosmos, in the form of the Sun triad, affected his teaching on reincarnation and karma, I thought I’d mention this quote from David, in the section under 1912:
“The first exact crossing [in 1912, of Jupiter crossing Antares] was on January 22, 1912. On January 23, Steiner lectured on reincarnation and karma, which he later said was his life’s true task. He would not be able to take this up fully again until 1924, when Jupiter squared the Birth-Sun position again.”
The whole paper is full of references to the events in Steiner’s life that happened when Jupiter was in some sort of relationship with either Antares (the Threshold star) in Scorpio, or with its polar opposite star of Aldebaran in Taurus, which is where Uranus was located at his birth. David’s diagram shows these two stars in a square relationship with his birth Sun in Aquarius and his birth Saturn in Leo, which would have formed a Grand Square. It fills one with awe when you start to comprehend how his life’s events were inspired by this phenomena in the cosmos.
Wow, that is interesting. It was the right time for Steiner to bring karma & reincarnation – the spiritual world wanted it –
but the people couldn’t take it in until after the Goetheanum had burnt down & after the Christmas Conference. And even then they could not live into this impulse,
thus the infighting occured after his death.
The thought came to me today, when reading of the burning of the first Goetheanum, how the passing of the first to make way for the second is so in line with the way that the Divine being works. I’ve probably mentioned this before; at least to Steve, how this pattern is shown continuously through the Bible: Esau, the firstborn, losing that privilege to Jacob (Israel), Manasseh losing his firstborn privileges to Ephraim, and on and on it goes, even up to something as all-encompassing as the Old Covenant being set aside to make room for the New Covenant. Somehow it was the will of the gods that the first one be removed (and by fire — that’s pretty significant) so that the second one could be established. Here’s how Barnabas puts it in Hebrews 10:9: “He takes away the first to establish the second.”
A sacrifice is part of the deal for sure.
Perhaps the question in our case is what second do we want to establish…?
A lot to think about, for sure. Sacrifice is definitely a part. I don’t think the first “version” passed the test; too much of the lower self? I opt for the new and improved version, the one that’s passed the ultimate test. Is sacrifice the ultimate test? I’m recalling something Jesus said, that no greater love has anyone than if they’re willing to lay down their life for their friends.
Right, & then it’s up to the friends to do something with that sacrifice – to turn death into life.
Not sure there is an ultimate test, the tests keep coming don’t they, & each one in a way is ultimate.
But for sure the ultimate goal is to Love in Freedom…
The essence of John the Baptist is that he was the forerunner in life before the entry of Christ into Earth evolution, and destined to be superseded:
John’s Last Testimony
22 After these things Jesus and His disciples came into the land of Judea, and there He was spending time with them and baptizing. 23 John also was baptizing in Aenon near Salim, because there was much water there; and people were coming and were being baptized— 24 for John had not yet been thrown into prison.
25 Therefore there arose a discussion on the part of John’s disciples with a Jew about purification. 26 And they came to John and said to him, “Rabbi, He who was with you beyond the Jordan, to whom you have testified, behold, He is baptizing and all are coming to Him.” 27 John answered and said, “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven. 28 You yourselves are my witnesses that I said, ‘I am not the Christ,’ but, ‘I have been sent ahead of Him.’ 29 He who has the bride is the bridegroom; but the friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices greatly because of the bridegroom’s voice. So this joy of mine has been made full. 30 He must increase, but I must decrease. John 3.
pondering: “A man can receive nothing unless it has been given him from heaven”
“A sacrifice is part of the deal for sure.
Perhaps the question in our case is what second do we want to establish…?”
We want to establish the truth, don’t we? What if it can be shown that John the Baptist, the forerunner before Christ, knew that his days were numbered? So, he sends off his two disciples to follow Christ. Now, what if one of them never lost his affection for John? Yet, he became the writer of the Gospel of John, and for three years was writing down this eyewitness account. Then, he dies, as the forerunner through death before the Mystery of Golgotha? Now, that seems to be a sacrifice of great renown. Furthermore, what if this sacrifice causes the return of the first to take his place alongside the second? As such, they would be mutually inclusive.
This is why Peter asks in the last chapter of the Gospel of John:
20 Peter, turning around, saw the disciple whom Jesus loved following them; the one who also had leaned back on His bosom at the supper and said, “Lord, who is the one who betrays You?” 21 So Peter seeing him said to Jesus, “Lord, and what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23 Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”
24 This is the disciple who is testifying to these things and wrote these things, and we know that his testimony is true.
25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. John 21
Sorry. Ten years ago in 2013, I reached age 63. I guess I have a Jupiter revolution on my mind, which I do because it was twelve years ago on Memorial Day, May 30, 2011, that I published my first findings concerning Mary Magdalene’s experience at the empty tomb, as described in the Gospel of John, chapter 20. Very controversial, to this day.
Suffice to say that the 9th developmental life cycle completes the tour through the planets, and finishes with Saturn. That sets the stage for the Higher Sun Triad commencing then. The 10/10 Thought Experiments take on a higher resolution and depth of insight. You’ll see.
I’d love to read your Magdalene findings…
I was hoping you’d say that. Some of it has already been revealed here. I have had four years in which to give hints about it on this blog. Yes, i joined you on February 27, 2019. 🙂
Ah a Baptism for us both sure & true…
xox
The Magdalene findings have begun seeping into the conversation since Ash Wednesday, which is about the time you asked about Mary’s activities after Pentecost. I asked if Mary of Bethany and Mary Magdalene are one and the same. No answer. Yet, it is very important that we confirm this. It was not that many years ago that depictions of the life of Jesus had Mary Magdalene and Mary of Bethany as separate persons. We have discussed the possible reasons why Mary was living in Magdala. I see her as being misunderstood and conflicted, and you said she had a castle there, and that being rich caused her demon $ signs. Since then, we haven’t said much, but I am still working on the mystery of this person, as well as what Christ taught the disciples in the wilderness at Ephraim for the period of time before the return to Bethany. In fact, one of the last teachings was this parable about the laborers in the vineyard, ref. Matthew 20.
Then, after Christ says, “So the last shall be first, and the first last”, comes this:
17 As Jesus was about to go up to Jerusalem, He took the twelve disciples aside by themselves, and on the way He said to them, 18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death, 19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”
This completes the time in Ephraim, and the Gospel of John picks up again with chapter 12:
12 Jesus, therefore, six days before the Passover, came to Bethany where Lazarus was, whom Jesus had raised from the dead. 2 So they made Him a supper there, and Martha was serving; but Lazarus was one of those reclining at the table with Him. 3 Mary then took a pound of very costly perfume of pure nard, and anointed the feet of Jesus and wiped His feet with her hair; and the house was filled with the fragrance of the perfume.
In Mark and Matthew, chapters 14 and 26, respectively, this anointing is said to have occurred in the home of Simon the Leper, which is an important clue in relation to Simon the Pharisee in Luke, chapter 7, and the unnamed sinner with the alabaster vial of perfume.
I have 40 pages of notes & a few readings to compelte before I synthesize.
Your contributions are always appreciated
And yes, Mary of Bethany & Mary Magdalene are one & the same
40 pages on Mary Magdalene sounds very impressive. My research takes these two citations, from Matthew 26, and Mark 14 ,into account for what I believe was her placement as a focal point in Jerusalem in support of the early Church of James the Younger, and both Peter and Paul. She formed a gathering place as a kind of magnetic center.
2 For when she poured this perfume on My body, she did it to prepare Me for burial. 13 Truly I say to you, wherever this gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”
8 She has done what she could; she has anointed My body beforehand for the burial. 9 Truly I say to you, wherever the gospel is preached in the whole world, what this woman has done will also be spoken of in memory of her.”
Hi Hazel,
I would love to keep this discussion open. My findings place Mary in Jerusalem after the Crucifixion, and where she establishes a kind of focal point for the Apostolate. Her reverence precedes her, and she gathers many of the faithful to the cause of the early Church of James, the Younger, as well as Peter, and eventually, Paul. Her son, John Mark, becomes a member of Paul’s first missionary journey, having been recommended by his cousin, Barnabas, who is the brother of her father, Simon the Pharisee. She would eventually have to call her son, Mark, to come home after Peter visits her after his miraculous escape from the jail of Herod Agrippa I. Here is the account:
6 On the very night when Herod was about to bring him forward, Peter was sleeping between two soldiers, bound with two chains, and guards in front of the door were watching over the prison. 7 And behold, an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared and a light shone in the cell; and he struck Peter’s side and woke him up, saying, “Get up quickly.” And his chains fell off his hands. 8 And the angel said to him, “Gird yourself and put on your sandals.” And he did so. And he said to him, “Wrap your cloak around you and follow me.” 9 And he went out and continued to follow, and he did not know that what was being done by the angel was real, but thought he was seeing a vision. 10 When they had passed the first and second guard, they came to the iron gate that leads into the city, which opened for them by itself; and they went out and went along one street, and immediately the angel departed from him. 11 When Peter came to himself, he said, “Now I know for sure that the Lord has sent forth His angel and rescued me from the hand of Herod and from all that the Jewish people were expecting.” 12 And when he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John who was also called Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying. 13 When he knocked at the door of the gate, a servant-girl named Rhoda came to answer. 14 When she recognized Peter’s voice, because of her joy she did not open the gate, but ran in and announced that Peter was standing in front of the gate. 15 They said to her, “You are out of your mind!” But she kept insisting that it was so. They kept saying, “It is his angel.” 16 But Peter continued knocking; and when they had opened the door, they saw him and were amazed. 17 But motioning to them with his hand to be silent, he described to them how the Lord had led him out of the prison. And he said, “Report these things to James and the brethren.” Then he left and went to another place.
Acts, chapter 12.
We’ve been thinking of Mary Magdalena from this post Hazel has titled Path to Easter, and I’m reminded of something Steve brought to our attention in one of his early posts, from Luke 8:2, that it was this Mary that was delivered of seven demons. Whether the number seven is factual or symbolic doesn’t matter; the point is that she was full of, probably possessed by, demons. She was at their beck and call; whenever they chose they would use her vessel to propagate their filth.
I’ve mentioned before, that you can see a modern enactment of Mary’s deliverance by Jesus, by watching a show called The Chosen (via Angel Studios), Season 1, Episode 1. For those who notice the details, on this enactment you’ll notice that Jesus cups her head in His hands; that it’s through His healing hands that she’s delivered. I’m suggesting that, while it’s through His hands that the healing forces that were initiated, it’s the seven purifying spirits of fire that we’re told are before the throne of God (Revelation 4:5) that do the actual purifying within the being of Mary. In other words, Mary had those spirits of fire that can bring purification already within her, as we all have, but that it took the healing hands of such a pure person to activate those fires of purification.
This kind of possession wasn’t unique to Mary. We see signs of possession aplenty today, people whose vessels are being used to kill, maim, destroy and basically propagate the filthy side of a world gone amuck. We could use more “holy people”, like the seven holy Rishis of India, people who haven’t polluted themselves by interacting with such filth, or who have been delivered from their own demonic activity, who’d be willing to follow the example set by Jesus. Please do watch this one show if you wish to understand what Mary was delivered from — it’ll give you plenty to consider on your Path to Easter.
I agree that even though me call it mental illness now it is demonic possession – the same or perhpas even worse than it was then.
But we also have to remember that Oriphael was the Time Spirit then bringing all kinds of sicknesses like leprosy to the forefront.
I also think that sometimes we have to go thru a terrible illness of the soul Like mary Magdalene did before we can receive the grace of Christ’s healing…
I maintain that MM’s affliction was deep-seated and Karmic. As Jesus says in Luke 7, in relation to the sinning woman, “her sins, which are many, have been forgiven, for she loved much; but he who is forgiven little, loves little”.
I see Mary as wayward, a drifter needing a moral compass. Then, she heard that salvation was near, and close to home.
Hi Hazel,
You had indicated Mary as a kind of “apostle of apostles”. This seems interesting. We know that Peter suffered greatly for his three denials, and yet they were the outcome of the Last Supper ceremony, wherein the disciples were placed into an altered state of consciousness in order to buffer them from experiencing directly the so-called, “Passion Events”. Peter was the one most affected by this ceremony, and whereby his three denials of Christ are the reason for his temporarily confused state of mind.
In John, chapter 21, Christ wants to redeem Peter of his perceived guilt, and this is why He asks him three times: “Simon, do you love Me”?
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=John+21&version=NASB1995
It is a beautiful rendition, and designed to bring Peter out of his funk, by telling him that he is to succeed Christ in the further movement of the discipleship. Yet, Peter still needs to ask one more question of Christ before he is secure in the feeling of his successorship. He asks: “Lord, and what about this man?” 22 Jesus said to him, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you? You follow Me!” 23 Therefore this saying went out among the brethren that that disciple would not die; yet Jesus did not say to him that he would not die, but only, “If I want him to remain until I come, what is that to you?”
This is how the partnership of Peter and John comes about, and chronicled in the first twelve chapters of Acts of the Apostles. Peter is hugely supported in the gaining of etheric healing forces by his close association with the rather silent John. Then, he is taken into custody and jailed, with the intent to make him a martyr to the will of Herod Agrippa I. Acts 12 describes it, and how Peter is miraculously saved by an angel of the Lord. He goes right away to Mary, who is the governing apostle. By this time, c. 45 AD, she had a son.
Maverick, I love The Chosen! The opening episode focusing heavily on Mary Magdalene was, in my view, a wise and wonderful choice to launch the narrative.
I also wanted to comment on your mentioning of the Biblical pattern of the first born, and how that first born position is consistently turned upside down by the expected chosen person actually ending being the second, third, even twelfth born in the case of David, until we get to Christ Jesus, and the true “first born of all creation.” Then the mission is truly accomplished in the fully realized ensoulment of the Human Being through His divine drop sanctified in the Mystery of Golgotha.
If you’ve ever listened to The Bible Project podcasts — or watched their videos — they have a new one wholly on the First Born. About ten episodes plunge into this. I’ve only listened to the first so far but it’s good stuff. While the Bible Project team are largely from evangelical backgrounds, that is merely a foundation they launched from, as so many people have come from varied religious and non-religious, Easter and Western perspectives only to land more fully into a view of the mysteries.
Tim Mackie, the lead scholar, is, I believe, a truly gifted student of the Hebrew Bible and New Testament, and the entire project is a blessed outpouring of devotion and talent in an otherwise too degraded time. https://bibleproject.com/
(Their ten-part podcast series on the Tree of Life is wondrous stuff. Not esoteric by Steinerian standards, for sure, but worthy anyway as translators of initiation literature into what can help those at a variety of different levels who are attracted to going deeper into the Biblical mysteries.)
I sometimes think I’ll send a fan letter suggesting Mackie take up Steiner and see what else unfolds. Meantime it’s a great project!
Hello, thank you for your deeply insightful newsletters/blog. I look forward to reading them everyday. I was curious about the incarnations on Ita Wegmen and Steiner. We’re those the people they reincarnated from that you listed on the Ash Wednesday blog? If so, it is incredible that this was to be known, I am astounded . Thank you for your researching and writing. Heather
Hi Heather – So glad you are on the journey with us!
Yes that list is what most folks who have done the research agree on as being the former incarnations of Steiner & Wegman. A lot comes forth from Steiner’s lectures given during the evening of the Christmas conference called ‘History in the light of Anthroposophy’, https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA233/English/RSP1977/WldHis_index.html
other sourses include private conversations…
Blessings as we make our way toward Springs promise fulfilled
xox
Beautiful! With gratitude.
Thank you for telling and sharing.
In the piece about the number 40, my understanding is that there are 10 days between The Resurrection and The Ascension.
With 40 days of Lent, followed by 40 days up to The Resurrection.
So it’s 90 days from Ash Wednesday until The Ascension, which is significantly a quarter of the year.
Yes, the days do not stop, the wheel of the year keeps turning…40 days of Lent brings us to the Palm Sunday of Holy Week where the planetary beings are added to the story. Then as you say we can see the 40 days before the Ascension where the etheric Christ gives the disciples his secret teachings…& then 10 days after comes Whitsunday or Pentecost – 50 days – when the Holy Spirit sets them on the path as apostles…A true initiation that we can step into consciously by using this cosmic & earthly cycle of the year as a modern path of Christian Initiation…
BTW: reading Owen Barfield in college was what brought me to Rudolf Steiner & Anthroposophy!
Thanks for keeping his work alive
xox
I remember doing this calculation 22 years ago, when it was made known to me that Ash Wednesday was the first day of Lent. Seeing that this date varied from year to year, based on the Vernal Equinox, and the Full Moon, and knowing that the markers are: Palm Sunday, Passover Friday, Easter, Ascension, Pentecost, I calculated all the days and it came to 100. This would be the first time I actually looked ahead, and it made for a wonderful Easter season that year, and ever since.
I love you
There is a place where it is indicated that after the flood, a human life-span would be reduced to 120 years. I think it is near where the “Covenant of the Rainbow” is described. Moses would certainly be the model for this, and especially in three 40-year increments.
https://i0.wp.com/headwatersresources.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MosesMidianMinCaps.jpg?fit=660%2C530&ssl=1
This is an awesome diagram. Moses, as the son of Jethro, who saved his life for a higher calling, and lived for a time within the solitude of the soul, made it possible to confront the burning bush, and receive his mission that constitutes the Exodus of the Hebrews from Egypt.
So glad I read today’s blog; good to learn more about you; feel I have a better understanding of where you’re coming from. Also appreciated reading of Ita Wegman, and the Scholl’s and their White Rose companions. And then there was all the thoughts around the timing around the number 40 — much variation between whether it was days or years, but always an association with time. Thanks Hazel for all this learning content today. Grace and peace to you as you enter your own period of testing.
Thanks Maverick.
Yes, the timing between 40 days & 40 years is interesting to contemplate & I think there is a lot there in terms of how we work with the etheric realm – which is where we can also learn patience.
Also like that you’ve called this blog “Path to Easter”. With Easter being synonymous with Passover, the phrase comes to mind of going “up to Jerusalem”, which is what many Israelites did to participate in their Passover — they made the journey on the path up to Jerusalem, and when they arrived, they’d go up to the Temple Mount. This idea of going “up” to meet with their God is synonymous with your idea of moving into the etheric realm. Don’t know how the number 40 would relate to that journey “upward” though; maybe you have some insights on that.
In the journey to Passover we have to me mindful of the narrow places where we get stuck. What are the obstacles that get in the way of our going up to the Temple Mount…?
We retell the Passover story each year, to help us recall the ways in which we are still stuck in a “narrow place,” as the rabbis often translate Mitzrayim, the Hebrew name for Egypt.
Your question made me think that the #4 is the square – the sacred altar of the 4 elements
The positive side of the 4 elements are that they can be our springboard to ultimate union with the Most High; the negative aspect might be if we remain stuck in the 4 elements, and fail to navigate ourselves to the higher, etheric realm.
so true, we don’t want to get boxed in
I, too, am contemplating these 40 days. They become a power source when we recognize such an important occurrence as Ash Wednesday, and its true meaning. It is exactly forty days from Ash Wednesday to Palm Sunday. Wednesday is Mercury Day in the weekly calendar, and gives the feeling for what healing is and means as an evolutionary imperative. As such, the greatest act of healing in the modern era was the raising of Lazarus from a dead corpse, two thousand years ago. The Seventh Attesting Miracle.
Ash Wednesday needs to be seen as a cornerstone in the forty days that lead to the return to Bethany six days before the Passover. The interlude took place in Ephraim, which is some 13 miles northeast of Jerusalem. Christ took the disciples there for protection, and the solitude of soul, which is a ‘wilderness’ remark.
Ehraim, the place where Phineas’ father was buried – a recapitulation of the temptation in the desert after the baptism of Christ
Yes. As well, Ephraim is the name of the second son of Joseph and Aseneth, who received the blessing of Jacob. Manasseh was the first-born son, but Jacob’s hand went instead to the head of the blonde-haired Ephraim. Joseph tried to place the hand on the head of Manasseh, but Jacob saw the blessing intact with the younger son, Ephraim. This could be the important reason for going to Ephraim for the 40 days prior to returning to Bethany for Lazarus Saturday, which is April 1st this year.
I wonder if i will have a chance to go to the Holy Land in this lifetime…?
CG’s family wanted to take us a few times, but there was always some sort of unrest & so we didn’t…