‘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:
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
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’
I think you’re on to something good with your idea of thought-experiments. I appreciated Dion Fortune’s desire that such thoughts must come from “angelic presences”. Any thoughts brought into the collective consciousness must come from the highest sources, and be in attunement with the highest Mind, that of the Creator of all. Speaking personally, I’d have to decline participating in a collective thought-experiment if the voice within said it was out of harmony with that divine Mind.
I also liked the insight from St. Catherine, about the gems that didn’t shine; that those were the virtues that people neglected to ask for. Gives me the desire to ensure that I’m asking for ALL good virtues to manifest in my life. Again, I’m reminded of the excellent set of six lectures given by Albert Soesman on Our Twelve Senses, lectures based on Steiner’s teachings (1909 lectures from GA115). Cheryl Sanders says in her Introduction, that Soesman shows how the senses are the bearers of spiritual gifts, if we examine them closely. Then she makes this interesting claim: “The senses are the very foundation for the virtues of the soul.” And from what I’ve read of this book, especially when considering the “spiritual, or social, senses”, humans need the help of the angels and even archangels when using certain senses.
Yes, we have to be discerning about what kind of egregore we are working with – what energies we are adding to…
Interesting insights around the 12 senses. I haven’t worked deeply with them, it’s on the list.