POD
~Bloom, my upright skeleton
With soft flowers of bitter dust
Fetid in Autumn’s withering
Bloom, heart-head dreaming
My Crone womb carries you forward
Willing the grave to sprout from within
Bloom, soul-forces purified & ready
Let tears embrace the wind
To wipe blank eyes screen fixed & unfocused
Bloom now, in freedom won
~hag
12 September 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Jupiter & Saturn continue shining in the south at dusk. They turn horizontal during twilight, then tilt to the right as evening advances. They set in the southwest around midnight. Jupiter will finally complete its retrograde (westward) motion against the background stars of the Archer tonight, northeast of the famous Teapot asterism, coming to a standstill at 7 om CDT. After that, it will begin moving east, closing the gap between itself & nearby Saturn.
Sunrise: 6:38 A.M.
Sunset: 7:13 P.M.
Moonrise: 12:55 A.M.
Moonset: 4:25 P.M.
Moon Phase: Waning crescent (27%)
***
Spiritual epiphany alert! Yes, my dear bundles of rumbling DNA – Uncanny revelations are imminent! Stories that have remained fixed – are about to acquire unexpected wrinkles…& from the crack in the godhead new possibilities are pouring forth…&…there’s something YOU can do to ensure that the new versions of the old vision are more empowering than the overlay:
- Escape the cramped quarters of your own mind…
- Slip away from the corners you’ve been backed into…
- Stop telling the convoluted stories ‘they’ concocted
to rationalize why you should be afraid… - Get out of the loop & escape into the big,
fresh places that will rejuvenate
your eyes and heart…& for the foreseeable future, - Take on the demeanor & spirit of a noble warrior
with high integrity & a fluid sense of humor…
What I pray is that we won’t be satisfied with mediocre half-truths; that it is ok to be focused on cutting out waste, fraud, & delusion; that it’s ok to be itchy to know more about the unacknowledged games that are being played…
Frustration, I hope, will be our holy fuel…Unsweetened lemonade, I trust, will be our rejuvenating drink…These are blessings, my friend, not curses..!
I pray that you’ll pick one of those itchy scabs until it bleeds so the healing process can start over — the right way this time…See…there goes that misplaced acceptance of warped chunks of complications…Here comes an opportunity to make a break for bubbly responsibility
True Human Freedom…
To take advantage, we’ll need to travel much lighter –
So please peel off your heart-armor – polish your sun-shield
Power the rust off your sword
Wipe that forty-pound sneer of doubt off your face –
Bury your broken-down theories by the wayside,
& donate all your unnecessary props
to the birds & the bees – Strip down – & Stand Up!
Are you with me?!?
~hag
***
Rarely do we find men who willingly engage in hard, solid thinking. There is an almost universal quest for easy answers and half-baked solutions. Nothing pains some people more than having to think.~ Martin Luther King
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
The Feast of the Most Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary
In Our Lady’s time, Aramaic was the spoken language. In Hebrew, the name Mary is Miryam, Meaning: “Bitter Sea,” “Myrrh of the Sea”, “The Enlightened One,” “The Light Giver,” & especially “Star of the Sea”= Stella Maris.
One of the local traditions holds that this feast day was commemorated in Vienna by the creation of a new kind of pastry shaped in the form of a half-moon (the croissant) The feast is also a counterpart to the Feast of the Holy Name of Jesus.
The entry in the Roman Martyrology about the feast: The Holy Name of the Blessed Virgin Mary, a day on which the inexpressible love of the Mother of God for her Holy Child is recalled, and the eyes of the faithful are directed to the figure of the Mother of the Redeemer, for them to invoke with devotion
1492 – Birthday of Lorenzo de’ Medici
1740 – Birthday of J.H. Jung–Stilling, German poet & mystic, his nom de plume Stilling, derived from the characterization of German Pietists as “the still people in the countryside” Stillings acquaintance with Goethe at the University of Strasbourg ripened into friendship, & it was thru Goethe’s influence & assistance that Stilling’s first work, was put to paper & published (without Jung’s knowledge) in 1777.
1857 – The SS Central America sinks east of Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, drowning 426 passengers & crew. The ship was carrying 13–15 tons of gold from the California Gold Rush
1933 – Leó Szilárd, waiting for a red light on Southampton Row in Bloomsbury, conceives the idea of the nuclear chain reaction
1938 – Adolf Hitler demands autonomy & self-determination for the Germans of the Sudetenland region of Czechoslovakia
1940 – Cave paintings are discovered in Lascaux, France.
1940 – An explosion at the Hercules Powder Company plant in Kenvil, New Jersey kills 51 people & injures over 200
1942 – World War II: RMS Laconia, carrying civilians, Allied soldiers & Italian POWs is torpedoed off the coast of West Africa & sinks with a heavy loss of life
1943 – World War II: Benito Mussolini, dictator of Italy, is rescued from house arrest on the Gran Sasso in Abruzzi, by German commando forces led by Otto Skorzeny
1959 – The Soviet Union launches a large rocket, Lunik II, at the moon
1962 – President John F. Kennedy, at a speech at Rice University, reaffirms that the U.S. will put a man on the moon by the end of the decade
1974 – Emperor Haile Selassie of Ethiopia, ‘Messiah’ of the Rastafari movement, is deposed following a military coup by the Derg, ending a reign of 58 years
1977 – South African anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko dies in police custody
1992 – NASA launches Space Shuttle Endeavour on STS-47 which marked the 50th shuttle mission. On board are Mae Carol Jemison, the first African-American woman in space, Mamoru Mohri, the first Japanese citizen to fly in a US spaceship, and Mark Lee and Jan Davis, the first married couple in space
2003 – The United Nations lifts sanctions against Libya after that country agreed to accept responsibility and recompense the families of victims in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103
***
On Sunday, September 20th, the day the foundation stone was laid into the first Goetheanum, we invite everyone back to share and offer a plenum.
HOW WE WILL HARVEST: 12 pm pacific, 1pm mountain, 2pm central, 3pm eastern, 9pm Europe / Dornach
Zoom details & Schedule TBA – I have been asked to share a few Leading Thoughts around the Michaelmas Season
***
ALIANT ALLIANCE MICHAELMAS MEET-UP: Tuesday, September 29th (for roughly 2.5 hours) @ 10am pacific, 11am mountain, 12pm central, 1pm eastern, 7pm Europe / Dornach
We will discuss organizing some of the ALIANT Next Steps
Review ELIANT’s Charter, Vision, and Mission Statement –
Take up a biweekly study of Rudolf Steiner’s Speaker’s Lectures for the Threefold Commonwealth from 1921, found in Communicating Anthroposophy. (We place an order and coordinate shipping, if you are interested please message us, and if you would like support purchasing a book, let us know! ) –
Study our countries’ Constitution wherever we are living.
If you would like to engage our future steps with us, please email Dottie and Frank at CirclesforaRenewalofCulture@gmail.com
***
The Central Regional Council Invites ALL to our Michaelmas Festival:
‘Courage Born of Wisdom’
Wednesday 23 September 2020 –On ZOOM – 7:15 pm CDT – 8:30 pm
CRC performs a telling of a tale from ancient Chaldea where EA gives birth to Marduk, precursor to Michael.
then “Wisdom Built herself a house*”…7 members of the various sections of the Anthroposophical Society will stand as Wisdom’s 7 Pillars to share how Courage was born from Wisdom leading to their work in the world.
Pedagogical Section –Michael Holdrege
Youth Section – Stephan Ambrose
Medical Section –Drs. Molly & Quentin McMullen
Eurythmy – Barbara Richardson
Social Science Section – Doug Wylie
BioDynamic Agriculture – Rand Carter
Three-Folding – Dorothy Hinkle-Uhlig
with Original songs by Lucien Dante Lazar!
& a closing about the connection between Michael, The Christ & Anthroposophia!
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82070460900
Meeting ID: 820 7046 0900
One tap mobile
+13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown)
+13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago)
Dial by your location
+1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown)
+1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago)
+1 646 558 8656 US (New York)
+1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma)
+1 346 248 7799 US (Houston)
+1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose)
Meeting ID: 820 7046 0900
Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kclU2SSTF
If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
***
Michaelmas 2020: Joan d’Arc – PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will –
Date: Saturday 26 Sept. 2020. Time: 2 pm – 5 pm CDT with a Potluck Community Meal to follow, please bring food & beverages to share!
In-Person at: Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost & Cultural Hub in Chicago – The ‘Have Seeds House’ in Los Angeles – ‘The Arc‘ in Atlanta
& Online https://zoom.us/j/97955920156 Meeting ID: 979 5592 0156
Schedule in process:
Lucien Dante Lazar– Ring the Iron Bell – Welcome – How does our Festival form a Being of Courage in this Now? (10 – 15 minutes?)
Group Singing: Michaelmas Time Song (5 Minutes)
Angela Foster – Leading Thoughts, & ‘Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc – Preface’ (20-30 minutes)
Mary Spalding – ‘Courage Dear Hearts’ Biography of Jeanne d’Arc (10 minutes)
Mary S, or Mary R, or Jan R? Copper Rod Eurythmy: (5-10 minutes)
Dottie Zold & Frank Agrama – A Michaelic Will: Joan of Arc, Sophie Scholl, Saint Odilie and Jesus of Nazareth. (30 – 40 minutes) ‘We are dealing here with a superhuman entity, a being who lived in the spiritual world and heard humanity crying out in misery, calling out to the spiritual worlds for help. This being prepared to receive the Christ Being.’ ‘Humanity cried out in pain and torment, and its cries rose up to that spirit being, who responded by seeking permission from the Sun Spirit to become imbued with Christ.’
Frank Agrama and Dottie Zold, of Elderberries and Have Seeds community, will look at the biographies of these individuals who developed the quality and capacity to work out of ‘a culture of selflessness’ in their community, and the impact this had on the world as young people becoming. We can understand these individuals’ path of sacrifice, as a reflection of the archetype of Jesus of Nazareth, during his growing and seeking years as spoken of in Rudolf Steiner’s Fifth Gospel.
‘Michael is a being of Strength, Courage and Will. He is Sun spirit. He wishes to be regarded.’
Group Singing: Firmly on the Earth I Stand Song? (5 minutes)
Paulette Arnold, Sea Anna? – Biography Work in Break out Groups – Sharing a story of courage from our lives: Each person takes 3 minutes to tell their tale. (15 minutes)
Large Group Sharing (5-10 minutes)
‘The Passage’ by Lucian Dante Lazar (15 minutes)
Large Group Sharing (5-10 minutes) which can lead into or be part of:
Angela Foster – Social Sculpture – Weaving the Chalice (20 minutes)
Jonathan Hadley or Victoria Martin? – The Mars / Saturn Square (10 minutes)
Everyone takes a turn Ringing the IRON, verse, goodbye (5-10 minutes)
Group 1: Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael’s garment of rays
We are predestined by Thought Divine.
Group 2: Michael, the Christ-messenger, reveals in us
Bearing humankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.
You, radiant Beings of Ether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to human beings.
Group 1: Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To our thirstily waiting souls.
Your Word of Light shines forth to us
In the cosmic age of the Spirit-Human.
Group 2: We, disciples who would know the spirit,
Follow Michael’s beckoning Wisdom,
To take the Word of Love, Willed by Worlds,
Into our highest aims of soul-work; actively!
Hag – Last thoughts? – Goodbye – Thank you – Potluck
