6 thoughts on “She Speaks

  1. According to Rudolf Steiner, the Sampo represents the reforging of Ilmarinen, which is the term in the Kalevala for the Etheric Body. As such, the allegory involved in the losing of the Sampo and its rediscovery concerns the progressive indenturing of the Etheric Body into the Physical Body, which Kalevala calls, Lemminkainen. Sampo is put through the forge of the fiery kiln as an act of regeneration to its original place and position, which is the restoration of supersensible perception. As we know, this is part of why Christ incarnated on earth, which is to redeem and resurrect the downfallen physical, etheric, and astral bodies to their original archetypal forms. The ‘Smithy’ is an initiate of the Consciousness Soul Age working at the Forge in order to aid the Christ in consciously bringing this to realization in our time. Longfellow’s depiction is of a simple Christian-Rosicrucian disciple working under the ordinary conditions of life.

  2. Dear Hazel,

    I was listening to this podcast tonight, and when you spoke of the fiery forge and the anvil it caused an avalanche of snow from Mount Rainier to plunge downward for the sake of the approaching Spring season. Brigid as a symbol of the first cross-quarter day had never been seen before in this Light, as its wisdom can be correlated to another great expression of folklore, and that is the Kalevala of Finland. When Rudolf Steiner went to Helsinki, Finland in April 1912, in order to give the lectures, “The Spiritual Beings in the Heavenly Bodies and the Kingdoms of Nature”, GA 136, he also gave a public lecture on the Finnish Kalevala.

    This Kalevala of Finland, developed in the mid 1830’s by Elias Lonnrot, a country doctor, has a direct American expression in the work of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, at the time when the Transcendentalist movement of Ralph Waldo Emerson was taking place. As such, Longfellow replicates much of the Kalevala as if a telepathic channel existed with Lonnrot’s own sensitive soul inspirations. For example, in this well-known poem, The Village Blacksmith, it is possible to see the spirit of Brigid working behind the scene:

    The Village Blacksmith

    Under a spreading chestnut-tree
    The village smithy stands;
    The smith, a mighty man is he,
    With large and sinewy hands;
    And the muscles of his brawny arms
    Are strong as iron bands.

    His hair is crisp, and black, and long,
    His face is like the tan;
    His brow is wet with honest sweat,
    He earns whate’er he can,
    And looks the whole world in the face,
    For he owes not any man.

    Week in, week out, from morn till night,
    You can hear his bellows blow;
    You can hear him swing his heavy sledge,
    With measured beat and slow,
    Like a sexton ringing the village bell,
    When the evening sun is low.

    And children coming home from school
    Look in at the open door;
    They love to see the flaming forge,
    And hear the bellows roar,
    And catch the burning sparks that fly
    Like chaff from a threshing-floor.

    He goes on Sunday to the church,
    And sits among his boys;
    He hears the parson pray and preach,
    He hears his daughter’s voice,
    Singing in the village choir,
    And it makes his heart rejoice.

    It sounds to him like her mother’s voice,
    Singing in Paradise!
    He needs must think of her once more,
    How in the grave she lies;
    And with his hard, rough hand he wipes
    A tear out of his eyes.

    Toiling,–rejoicing,–sorrowing,
    Onward through life he goes;
    Each morning sees some task begin,
    Each evening sees it close
    Something attempted, something done,
    Has earned a night’s repose.

    Thanks, thanks to thee, my worthy friend,
    For the lesson thou hast taught!
    Thus at the flaming forge of life
    Our fortunes must be wrought;
    Thus on its sounding anvil shaped
    Each burning deed and thought.

    This poem, along with other works by Longfellow, e.g., Evangeline, The Song of Hiawatha, point to an extraordinary parallel with the Kalevala of Finland in the 1800’s. Here are two articles, with special attention to the second one, on the mysterious Sampo. This entity, once lost and then rediscovered, is the matter of the forge and its process. Our future demands it.

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kalevala

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sampo

  3. Oh Hazel, thank you for an even more wondrous story today! I had a delightful sense of anticipation all day after you said that you were working on another one. You’ve given us another big gift. I’m going to listen to it again and sink further in.

    1. O thank you, I’m so glad Brigid touches you as deeply as She does me!
      the story today was part of a presentation I did at the Theosophical Society a few yeears ago.
      It was my favorite part so I was happy to reprise it for the podcast.
      I may even do one more tomorrow, something I did as part of the ‘Candlemas with the Bee’ yesterday…
      Thanks for your Enthusiasm & support!
      xox

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