Ready or not

Sergie Blakion

Beloved Friends – These are the darkest days, the longest nights, fraught with internal midnights – when it’s easy to forget the bright crystal radiance of the newborn Sun – that is yet to come.

Yet, when we have the valor to embrace our darkest spaces -the fierce onslaught of restless tossing – we will deepen into the boundless birthing. Softening until we are ripe, like pomegranates that seep & pulse ruby red – an opening of the dark wound to light.

May grace chime in our bell-hollows, so that Night Herself can become the conduit to the new.

Yes, the Great Shift is happening, ready or not, here I come.

Closer & closer – a blending of the dark & light, out pictured as a cosmic conversation in the sunset sky.

Come on, lets uncover our head & go out into the night, to hula-hoop the rings of Saturn round glad hips, while balancing Jupiter on our held-high-head as a benevolent crown.

Align the solar system by straightening our collective spine as we pass thru the star portal – a ticklish bellybutton in the world moment.

Drink it all in – the Milky Way is pouring from our pineal gland – to activate our inner eye.

And the Helpers enter with our next inhalation. Breathe them in, & sing them out, in a frosty becoming.  The Christmas Star is meant to re-tune our mind to your heart –

Together we become – the new variant – the human evolution revolution.

~hag

Kristena West

Special Free 30 minute Online Winter Solstice Festival – Monday, 20 December 2021

9 am PT / 10 am MT / 11 am CT / 12:00 ET

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/266986103?pwd=bXU4a0EvMmJkMDZTR0Rqcm0xZ0pUZz09

Join us as we gather for 30 minutes to honor the Solstice – and give thanks to the good spirits that guide our Spiritual Practice group = 6BE (Steiner’s 6 Basic Exercises)

Welcome & lighting of the candle by Angela Foster

Leading Thoughts & a reading for 5 voices: CHAOS & THE COEL COETH INCANTATION by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, with Rosemary, Timothy, Angela, Julie

Art by Kristena West – 8 minutes of silence to turn our collective attention to the spiritual world offering our gratitude for the guidance and love that is woven throughout our practice group.

We’ll end the silence with music brought by Julie Morris before we close the call.

18 December 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Full Moon tonight 11:35 pm CT. Bella Luna shines between the horntip stars of Taurus, Beta and Zeta Tauri. It’s at apogee, making this a “mini-moon,” very slightly smaller than average: the opposite of a “supermoon” at perigee.

By midnight the Moon is very high in the south, not far from the zenith. The full Moon of the Christmas season rides higher across the sky at midnight than at any other time of year, thus “giving lustre of midday to objects below.”

Why? December is the month of the solstice, when the Sun is farthest south in the sky. So, this is when the full Moon (opposite the Sun) is farthest north. In making its way across the night sky, it behaves as a pale, cold imitation of the June Sun six months ago.

Lord Fredrich Leigh

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

1271 – Kublai Khan renames his empire “Yuan” officially marking the start of the Yuan dynasty of Mongolia & China

1803 – Deathday of Johann Gottfried Herder, German philosopher, theologian, & poet – associated with the periods of Enlightenment, Sturm und Drang, & Weimar Classicism.

1829 – Deathday of Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, biologist, & academic – an early proponent of the idea that evolution occurred & proceeded in accordance with natural laws. He gave the term biology a broader meaning by coining the term for special sciences, chemistry, meteorology, geology, & botany-zoology

1863 – Birthday of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. Rudolf Steiner has some very interesting things to say about his assassination  

1865 – US Secretary of State William Seward proclaims the adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment, prohibiting slavery throughout the USA

1878 – Birthday of Joseph Stalin, 4th Premier of the Soviet Union

Image result for Paul Klee,

1879 – Birthday of Paul Klee, Swiss-German painter & educator

Image result for 1958 – Project SCORE, the world's first communications satellite, is launched

1958 – Project SCORE, the world’s first communications satellite, is launched

1966 – Saturn’s moon Epimetheus is discovered by astronomer Richard Walker

1972 –President Richard Nixon announces that the United States will engage North Vietnam in Operation Linebacker II, a series of Christmas bombings, after peace talks collapsed with North Vietnam on the 13th

Related image

1973 –Soyuz 13, crewed by cosmonauts Valentin Lebedev & Pyotr Klimuk, is launched from Baikonur in the Soviet Union

1990 – International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers & Members of Their Families is adopted.

1999 – NASA launches into orbit the Terra platform carrying five Earth Observation instruments

2006 – United Arab Emirates holds its first-ever elections

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 Kell
eilisaineariadne@gmail.com

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 Christian Community Priest Rev. Jeana Lee, 
Movement with Lucien Dante Lazar 


‘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 – 
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 Conferencewe 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.

WhatThe 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).

HowRegister 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 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 – Holy Nights 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 


20 thoughts on “Ready or not

  1. I like your thought Hazel, that we are the new variant. And, as you say, this is what should characterize us: “Breathe them in, & sing them out.” We must do this with our starry universe now, while we’re still able to – because we know what’s ahead – cosmic disturbances.

    The opening of the sixth seal is an inevitable outcome of humanity’s degradation of the pure thinking which the Gods gifted us with. Every time mankind tries to remedy their previous errors, they only dig the pit deeper for themselves, because they’ve allowed that gift of thinking to deteriorate, to the point where they refuse to acknowledge the spiritual world’s importance, and they bury themselves deeper into materialism. We’re seeing the preparations they’re making now, filling the starry heavens with the products of their degenerated minds, some of which you’ve brought to our attention. As they continue to fill space with their “junk”, and experiment on controlling the weather, there’ll come a day when the sun will be darkened, the moon will turn to blood, and the stars will fall from the heavens. The sky will recede like a scroll being rolled up, and every mountain and island will be moved out of their place. This is all set out for us in Revelation 6. Humanity says “Impossible!” Well, we’ll see what the Gods think about that. The title of your post today is poignant – “Ready or not?”

    Meanwhile, we’re still able to enjoy the starry heavens, and we can sing those songs full of reverence and awe as a result. Songs of gratitude, and of praise to their Creator.

    1. Maverick, this is why the Science of the Spirit exists in the world today as a cultural imperative. If the world rejects spiritual science, then it can only accept far more deficient alternatives. In reading the Book of Revelation, you have a book which is foretelling the future, which is occurring now. The unsealing of the sixth seal is actually a pointer to salvation. Why? Because it speaks to salvation of the twelve Tribes of Judah, numbered in increments of twelve thousand each. This speaks to an important beginning. The Jewish acceptance of Christianity.

      While your apologetics speak to a humankind which still does not know itself, it needs to sound the bell of what tolls for the advocate of Spiritual Science. In this domain, the ‘we’ becomes ‘us’, and so we should let us make the difference in what will come to pass regardless of the naysayers; right, Hazel?

      Maverick, if you see the silver lining in the midst of the dark cloud, and know that the midnight sun still wraps you up in its comforter, than peace is at hand and the world will be saved. Even the doubting Thomas was saved in order to conduct a very important apostolic mission to India and Kashmir.

      1. You’re right Steve – “we” do have the Comforter; the “we”, or the “us”, applies to more than those who follow Spiritual Science – it applies to all who rely on the Spirit of God. The risen Christ told His followers He’d ask the Father to send Holy Spirit to us; He knew from living with them that they needed a Helper, and the Father graciously sent this Helper, who is referred to as our Comforter in John’s Gospel.

        But we who are experiencing Earth are also considered “watchmen” and “watchwomen”. If we see the judgment of God coming on souls, we are obliged to say something; if we remain silent, the judgment falls on us as well. This is why I mentioned the doom of Revelation 6. It’s history repeating itself – this is why Atlantis was destroyed; a certain faction, a misled group of souls, began playing with powers they shouldn’t have, and brought on the destruction.

        It came to my attention recently that the opening of the seals of the book (or scroll) symbolizes the degradation of the pure thought gifted to us by the Gods, which you call the Noosphere. Indeed, the opening of the seals speaks of subjects beyond just thought, but it’s clear that it’s thinking that is behind the downward trend. The first horseman that appears at the opening of the first seal symbolizes the purity of thought given to us, in the white horse of purity, wearing the crown on his head and carrying a bow of sure aim. The degradation of this pure thought is seen as the other seals are opened – the red horse symbolizing man’s use of thought to kill each other, the black horse using thought to completely upset the scales of balance, to where we presently see .01% of the population controlling most of our economies. And so on until man’s misuse of thought leads to what I mentioned previously with the sixth seal.

        I now have a better understanding of why Steiner felt that his book, Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path (aka The Philosophy of Freedom), was his most important contribution to humanity, and why it would endure the longest. His intent was to restore what we’d lost, and return some of us to that Noosphere we first enjoyed when given the gift of pure thinking (I don’t know if I’m using the term Noosphere correctly – I’m just borrowing your use of it Steve). Steiner realized that a return to pure thinking would result in everything else being restored to its proper place.

        Admittedly it’s too late to reverse all the damage that’s been done by the misuse of thought, but it’s comforting to know that anthroposophists are on the right track as they follow the direction of Steiner’s teachings. As for me, I want to get back to pure thought, to riding the white horse again, and in doing so I’ll be joining with the Conqueror who famously rides the white horse in Revelation 19, the Christ who wears many crowns. Hope to see you there, amongst the “armies of heaven, clothed in pure white linen” (Rev. 19:14).

        1. My God, what an awesome response. Gifted you are, Maverick. We are brothers in arms. We stand now at a threshold of spiritual attainment. Through the Pale Horse, death becomes life. There will never be a return to the White Horse, which sought the safety of Atlantis. The Red, Black, and Pale Horses signify a descending stream of evolution which eventually has led to the Christ Event. If you open the fifth seal, what comes forth? Not a horse at all, but the potential to walk with Christ in white garments. This is the Second Coming, which in itself is also an Advent Event which is noteworthy in our time.

          Any pragmatical view of the world situation today can easily see the working of the Apocalypse. Yet, in reality the Apocalypse of John must be seen through the eyes of Spiritual Science. As such, this makes it a very positive engagement. Steiner’s Intuitive Basis of Thinking is not PoF, but KOHW in a new rewrite. The Noosphere is the Pure Thought World available to anyone to survey and prove spiritual-scientific truths. The avenue to it is the quietude of the soul, or sense-free thinking equipped with the concepts of spiritual science.

          Maverick, opening the sixth seal is an audacious undertaking. What does it prove? First open your own seal in order to find the Christ within, and then the world won’t look so daunting. This is how your apologetics continue to come forth. You know that it is all a part of the plan from the beginning. What was/is that? Genesis 1, verse 26. Big starter point for humankind. We have actually discussed this in depth in places which are holy.

  2. Hazel, in seeing your Winter Solstice celebration coming on December 20th, I would like to offer for your consideration a lecture that Rudolf Steiner gave on December 20, 1918. It concerns the New Revelation of the Spirit, and expresses an important happening that occurred at that time in 1918. With World War I having finally ended, Steiner reveals a certain shifting of the Hierarchies in which the Spirits of Form, who are the Regents of Earth evolution, pass the Regency over to the Archai Spirits, led by Michael, for the furtherance of progression to the end of this earth period.

    https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA186/English/C52/19181220p01.html

    This lecture comes when Steiner’s mother was crossing the threshold, and its revelation is as profound as the one that came forth when his father had died in late January 1910. That revelation concerned the imminent Second Coming of Christ as an etheric body experience beginning in the 1930’s. The Revelation of December 20, 1918 concerns the passing of the Exusaia’s work in creating spiritual formations on earth to the Time Spirits, led by Michael, in further bringing these formations into time. This was the catalyst for Steiner’s whole shift into Applied Anthroposophy beginning in 1919. The practical engagements begin here. Psychosophy.

    1. “…Who are the Beings of the Spiritual World who stand behind the revelations that are breaking newly into human history through the veil of outward phenomena?
      Evolution does indeed take place among the Hierarchies. The Spirits of Personality are rising to a creative activity.
      What then is it that is revealing itself through the veil of phenomena? It is the expression of a new creative principle, brought into the world by the Spirits of Personality. In this connection we must recognize it as the essential characteristic of our age (which began in the fifteenth century A.D.) to develop impulses of personality. The personality, if I may use this trite expression, wants to stand on its own feet, does so more and more as we go forward into the third millennium, when other impulses for the fulfillment of personality will enter in.
      Consider carefully, my dear friends, what I have just told you. There, coming towards humanity, is the new revelation from the Spirits of Light, the Spirits of Personality. But over against this, especially since the beginning of the fifth Post-Atlantean age, there stand certain Spirits of Darkness. For as soon as we look behind the veil of the phenomena we see at once how certain ranks of spiritual Beings are confronted by other ones, opposing ones. On the one hand we turn our gaze to the Spirits of Personality revealing themselves as I described them just now; on the other hand we see over against them certain Spirits of Darkness, making themselves manifest, Spirits whose interest it is not to allow that which is to come — the new revelation of the Spirit of Personality — to become effective in mankind. These new Spirits of Darkness find an opportunity to realize their intentions in a certain phenomenon of modern life which is unfortunately far too little heeded by present-day mankind.
      You see therefore that human labor on Earth has found, so to speak, a substitute. Something is here that works like human beings and yet does not consist of human beings in flesh and blood. This fact is extremely important for the evolution of mankind, and it is connected with other facts in the evolution of the present time. The five hundred million men who are really not there as men of flesh and blood — all the work that is done by the machines just as though men were doing it — all this machine work gives opportunity for the Spirits of Darkness to realize themselves within our human evolution. And these very Spirits of Darkness are the opponents of the Spirits of Personality who bring with them the new revelations of the heavens breaking in upon us with a new clairvoyance, while on the other hand, arising out of the sub-earthly realms, we have the embodiment provided for the adversaries. For these very adversaries are demonic Spirits, Spirits of Darkness, who can now actualize themselves — albeit not through human beings of flesh and blood; they live and move among us none the less, inasmuch as human forces are being replaced by mechanisms, by machines.
      This too lies at the basis of all disharmony in the social life of our time. It lies also at the basis of certain errors, certain aberrations of human thinking in our time, which in their turn provide once more the starting-point for social aberrations. For in the course of the last few centuries, human thinking has in a certain respect adapted itself to the mechanistic order. It is permeated, impregnated by conceptions adapted purely to a mechanistic order. In many spheres of natural science — but not only there, in many spheres of actual life, of the social and socialistic life of today…
      And yet, my dear friends, in the world of manifestation everything has a twofold aspect, and you must not therefore conclude that the mechanistic ideas have slunk into human evolution as an evil thing that ought to be avoided. No, that would be altogether wrong. Dangerous as these ideas are because they give certain Spirits of Darkness the opportunity to arise against the Spirits of Personality who are revealing themselves today; dangerous, above all, as is the mechanistic order from which these ideas are derived, yet on the other hand the very thinking which takes its start from mechanistic ideas is beneficial. For this, my dear friends, is the task of modern time: — Our powers of soul must be equipped with the ideas that live in modern scientific thought and altogether in modern thought. This is the necessary task of modern time. We must permeate ourselves with these ideas and then place them in the service of the new revelation of the heavens…
      Thus humankind has passed through a certain education in sharply outlined thinking. But from this point onward it is necessary to turn to the new revelation of the Spirit, and to conceive the spiritual worlds with the same clarity with which we have grown accustomed to conceive the world of Natural Science. This is what the modern intellectual conscience requires, nor will mankind be able to dispense with this. Without this, mankind will never be able to solve the all-important questions that will arise in the present and in the near future. Clear and sharp thinking trained in the modern, scientific ideas and then applied to the spiritual world as it reveals itself anew; such is the configuration, fundamentally speaking, of anthroposophical Spiritual Science. Such is the character which anthroposophical Spiritual Science wants to have, therefore it reckons with the most necessary requirements of our time. Moreover, for this very reason, it is able to descend from spiritual heights, to grasp what is necessary to the everyday life of man. My dear friends, we must again and again repeat that Spiritual Science wishes to bring new help to human work and human tasks of outer life.
      A host of other important impulses of our time must be seen in this connection. We are standing in the very midst — not at the end, but I say with full consciousness, in the very midst — of a time of conflict, a time when chaotic events are taking place in human evolution, events from which as I have often said, men ought to learn. Alas! There are so many who have learnt nothing yet from the events of the last four and a half years, whose thinking is still the very same in form as it was four and a half years ago. Events are taking place, my dear friends, which reveal outward humanity — or the life of outward humanity — in conflict and in warfare.
      Man must pass through inner conflicts of the soul, conflicts that will strengthen him. We have not to look towards a future more comfortable than the past or the present. Specious ideals — which in reality are nothing but modern narcotics — are not the truth.
      For the future, my dear friends, things will by no means be more comfortable in the outer life. For the remainder of earthly evolution mankind will yet have to shoulder far greater discomforts than they dream of yet. Nevertheless, they will shoulder them, for they will be strengthened by inner conflicts of soul — every individual man in his own soul.
      When we pierce the veil of phenomena we behold a life of Divine Spiritual, Hierarchical labor; the thing that strikes us first is the great battle which is taking place behind the scene of the physical world of sense — the battle between Wisdom and Love. And man is placed in the midst of this battle. For a long time he has been unconscious of it, in future he must take part more and more consciously in this conflict which is taking place in the world between Wisdom and Love. For Man himself shall be the outcome when Wisdom and Love beat like an eternal pendulum, now towards the side of Wisdom and now towards the side of Love. Only through the rhythmic swinging of the pendulum, not through a sleepy peace, will the future shape itself aright.
      All that is written in the book Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment is meant to lead men to fight this inner battle out victoriously. But people find it inconvenient; they shrink in fear; they have not the courage to go through the inner fight. And this, my dear friends, is a characteristic phenomenon of our time. Men will not go through this inner fight; they flee from it; they do not want it yet. And because they will not have it inwardly, it is projected outward.
      In Anthroposophy we do not only think new things, but we think in a new way. That is why so many people cannot approach it, they cannot get into this “thinking in a new way.”

      1. Steiner goes further into this important transition from the Spirits of Form to the Spirits of Personality in his Christmas course of 1918, “How Can Humanity Find the Christ Again?”

        https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA187/English/AP1984/WhaChr_index.html

        Thus, the Spirits of Form, having successfully built the Universal Human, are now tending in the direction of the Spirits of Movement (Dynamis) in order to more effectively work against the Eighth Sphere. Spiritual formations are now under the guidance of the Time Spirits. 1919 was a pivotal year in beginning this process after the constraints of World War I.

          1. Yes, you will remember we discussed this not too long ago. In the lectures from GA 152, on “Michael and the Mystery of Golgotha”, May 18 and 20, 1913, Steiner gives clear indication of the advancement of Michael from Archangel to Archai. We did this for the sake of Maverick, who hopefully got it. RS Archive is down tonight, but I can give a full excerpt in the morning if needed. See you in the morning.

              1. Now all the Beings who belong to the Hierarchy of the Archangels are not of the same nature nor of the same rank. When we speak of the Hierarchy of the Archangels we can say that they ‘relieve’ one another in the way I have described to you, but the highest in rank, as it were the chief, is the one who takes over the leadership in our age — Michael. Michael is one of the order of Archangels, but he is from a certain aspect the most advanced. Now there is, as you know, evolution; and evolution embraces all Beings. Beings are in an ascending evolution, and we live in the era when Michael, the chief of those of the nature of the Archangels, passes over into the nature of the Archai. He will gradually pass over into a Guiding Being, he will become the Spirit of the Time, the Being who leads and guides the whole of humanity. It is of the utmost importance that we should understand this. It means that something which in all previous epochs has not been there for the whole of mankind, now can and must become a possession of all mankind. What formerly appeared among certain peoples here and there — spiritual deepening — can now be something for the whole of humanity.

                https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA/GA0152/19130518p01.html

              2. I did hear you Steve, and I remember glancing over those lectures, but didn’t notice anything that changed my mind. I’m still at variance with you on this. While it’s obvious that Michael is acting in the “nature” of an Archai, Steiner never seems to make the clear statement that he has been advanced to that title. In fact, the opposite is true – he clearly states, at a later date (September, 1924), in Lecture 11 given in Dornach on the Book of Revelation, that “Michael is ONLY an archangel.” (pg. 157 in my book). The words “only” weren’t capitalized, but were emphasized. I know you’ll say that this is the translator or the recorder, but the same could be said for the lectures you’ve mentioned. It’d be pretty hard for a recorder, or translator, to confuse such a statement, and I can’t see them inserting their own bias into something so important.

                I do appreciate that Michael is doing the function of an Archai, and is the ruler of this age, but with Steiner being so clear, I can’t make that leap, and I sense that the same is true for the class reader that Hazel mentions.

        1. Interesting that you note 1919 as a pivotal year, coming at the end of WW1. Wondering if you have any thoughts on a similar scenario, towards the end of WW2, when the nuclear bomb was dropped on Hiroshima? I briefly heard someone remark that strange things happened spiritually after that date, August 6, 1945, so I’m wondering if it might also be pivotal?

          1. My reference to 1919 demonstrates a clear pattern of practical engagements in applied anthroposophy. If you look at the chronological dates that year, it all was about how anthroposophy could become a time-based working of achievements in various fields of spiritual activity. Three-folding of the social organism, Waldorf Education, Anthroposophical Medicine, Curative Eurythmy, these were the focal points for Steiner beginning in 1919.

            Indeed, after WWII, with the bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, based on the decree of the U.S. government under President Truman, the status of Spiritual Science became more muffled than ever. Is that what you are asking, Maverick? Truth takes time to come forth in its higher resolution. Is this more of your brand of apologetics, which takes the aftermath of WWII into account. Please remember that there has been nearly three generations since the death of Rudolf Steiner, based on the number 33, which is the modern calculation from father to son to grandson.

            1925 to 1958
            1958 to 1991
            1991 to 2024

            Maybe that helps in showing how difficult matters become in the aftermath of a great leader who has no successor. Of course, we have only now to put it in proper order. Christ has reappeared as an etheric body experience. That is a very definite start for a future that is ours in this day and age; the fifth cultural epoch, c. 2022.

            1. In Rudolf Grosse’s book: The Christmas Foundation; Beginning of a New Cosmic Age, he asks why didn’t Rudolf Steiner name a successor?
              He then points out that in the Statues of the Christmas Conference re-founding Paragraph 7 says: “The establishment of the School of Spiritual Science is, to begin with, in the hands of Rudolf Steiner, who will appoint his collaborators and his possible successor”. The key phrase here is possible successor – since Dr. Steiner aligned himself fully with the movement & the Society these cannot be separated – we as members must realize that we are to take guidance directly from the spiritual world – directly from Michael & from the individuality that we knew as Rudolf Steiner

              And this is why Steiner told Marie that his name must not be separated from his work.

            2. That you say that Spiritual Science became more muffled than ever fits with what I’ve heard. Nothing to do with apologetics; just considering what was going on behind the scenes when that bomb was dropped. I’d heard that it released even more dark forces from the Earth, with its immense effects on the Earth itself, and that may be what was behind the work being muffled for a time.

              1. Maverick, I am not here to change your mind on anything, but to give supporting information on the advent of Spiritual Science at the outset of the 20th century. Michael’s advancement from Archangel to Archai has a great deal to do with the War in Heaven, which took place from 1841 to 1879. Michael’s work has been a sacrificial bond between he and Christ because they both refer to the Sun, and Paul saw this relationship when he said, “Not I But Christ in Me”. We know today that this dimension has expanded in order to embrace Michael.

                Yes, I would suspect that when Steiner still acknowledged Michael as an Archangel as late as September 1924, it was because he still stood within this ranking, and yet, as you clearly indicate, Michael Himself is ruling as if he has risen into the ranks of the Time Spirits. Now, what is more important?

                As well, consider the 121 years since 1900, when this Advent of Spiritual Science began. Has Michael not advanced further into his mission as the Time Spirit Regent in this third millennium?

                What Steiner did leave as a lasting legacy of Michael are contained in the Michael Mystery, which graces the central material of the Leading Thoughts, ref. GA 26, and this short lecture-course on what it means that Michael won the battle in Heaven, which cast the Dark Spirits down to earth.

                https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA223/English/AP1946/MiSoul_index.html

                This course proves the elevation from Archangel to Archai, and any quibbling won’t change that. Glancing at lectures will likely allow any interpretation one wants. Is this what you mean?

              2. I suppose Steve, that there are people who will interpret the lectures to suit their biases, but that wasn’t what I was thinking of. I’m convinced that the recorders of the lectures, and the translators, do their utmost to give as accurate a transcript as they possibly can.

                My line of thinking is more like this: there are people who are doing the work of their superiors, even though they don’t have the recognition of that YET. Some day they will receive that recognition. You’re saying that because Michael is performing the function of an Archai, he is one. I think what everyone’s looking for is a statement confirming that recognition. We’re not quibbling about whether Michael is performing above the level of Archangel; our ears just haven’t heard that declared yet (aside from your hearty endorsement of his work). Such a declaration probably isn’t given just because we wish to hear it.

              3. No, I suppose the declaration falls on deaf ears. Yet, Steiner did begin to intimate that the Michael-Christ connection began on September 1 ,1914, with his first lecture in the volume, GA157. This is where he proposes the importance of the Time Spirit of our age which has come to help in our hour of need. It is a very convincing proof, Maverick. Now, yielding to the two thousand year history of the Apostle Paul, who spoke rather definitively of his own experience of “Not I But Christ In Me”, what would Paul surmise of this kind of discourse contained in Rudolf Steiner’s first lecture from GA 157? Go look. Prove to me that you went and looked. It is rather persuasive.

                There is evidence that Paul reincarnated as Martin Luther of the 15th century. We had this discussion some time ago. The Justification of Faith in Paul only became a cross to bear in Luther. Steiner spoke about Luther in two lectures from GA 176. You remember it.

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