In the sense world we see the being of Nature sprouting, budding —from the powers of sleep the forces of vegetative growth, are given form. But in this sleeping Nature, the spiritual which animates & weaves thru everything in Nature is revealed. May we be awake to this spirit. As human beings we must not become blinded by the light, that we fall into a trance, drifting off into the rising warmth.
In summer humanity is bound up with Nature, but, if we have right feeling & perception for it, objective spirituality comes towards us from out of Nature’s interweaving life. And so, to find the essential human being during the St. John’s time, we must turn to the objective spirituality in the outer world, & this is present everywhere in Nature.
If we follow Nature in high summer with deepened spiritual insight & with perceptive eyes, we discover the Archangel of Summer Uriel, who directs our gaze into the depths of the Earth itself. We find that the minerals down there send their inner crystal-forming process towards us more vividly than at any other time of the year; shaping itself into lines, angles & surfaces. “If we are to have an impression of it as a whole, we must picture this crystallizing process as an interweaving activity, colored throughout with deep blue”.*
We can feel that as a human form we have grown out of the blue depths of the earth’s crust; permeated with force by the silver-gleaming crystal lines.
Using our imaginative thinking, we can ask: “How is it that these silver-sparkling crystal lines & waves are working within me? What is it that lives & works there, silver-gleaming in the blue of the Earth? — then one knows: That is cosmic Will. And one has the feeling of standing upon cosmic Will”.*
~hag
*THE ST. JOHN IMAGINATION, by Rudolf Steiner ~from the Four Seasons and the Archangels Lecture 4
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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
29 June 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Bella Luna reaches perigee, the point in the orbit of the moon which it is nearest to the earth, at 9:13 P.M. CDT.
Jupiter blazes brightly climbing above the southeastern horizon an hour after sunset tonight. Just under to Jupiter’s east is Saturn. All of Jupiter’s Galilean moons are visible tonight: Europa is to the planet’s east, while to the west are Io (nearest), Ganymede, & Callisto (farthest out). If you catch the planet early in the evening, you may see its Great Red Spot through a telescope.
Pluto sits due south of Jupiter tonight.
Feast Day of Martha, named in the Gospels of St. Luke & St. John, as the sister of Lazarus, the rich friend of Jesus who the Lord resurrected. She was also the sister of Mary Magdalene. They lived in Bethany. The Gospels speak of Martha as a dutiful housekeeper, serving the Lord hospitably when He visited: “but Martha was busy about much serving…” (Luke 10:40)
Complaining that her sister Mary was listening to Him instead of helping, Our Lord sweetly rebuked: “Martha, Martha, thou art careful, and art troubled about many things: But one thing is necessary. Mary hath chosen the best part, which shall not be taken away from her” (Luke 10:41-42)
When her brother, Lazarus, fell ill, she sent for the Lord; when He arrived, Lazarus had been four days in the tomb. She cried to Jesus about His delay, but He assured her: “I am the resurrection and the life: he that believeth in me, although he be dead, shall live.” (John 11:25) And he proceeded to call Lazarus forth from the tomb before a crowd of astonished witnesses.
After the martyrdom of St. James in Jerusalem, as persecution intensified, tradition says that Lazarus & his two sisters, along with others, were placed in a boat & set out to sea. This boat landed on the southern shore of France. While Lazarus & Martha went on to evangelize Provence, a fact recorded in French history, Mary retired to a cave in a mountain, to do penance for the rest of her life.
Martha is said to have died about the year 84. Her tomb is located in the crypt of the Collegiate Church of Tarrascon, France.
1613 – The Globe Theatre in London burns to the ground
1888 – George Edward Gouraud records Handel’s Israel in Egypt onto a phonograph cylinder, thought for many years to be the oldest known recording of music.
1900 – Birthday of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, French poet & pilot – “The Little Prince”.
1974 – Mikhail Baryshnikov defects from the Soviet Union to Canada while on tour with the Kirov Ballet.
1975 – Steve Wozniak tested his first prototype of Apple I computer
2007 – Apple Inc. releases its first mobile phone, the iPhone.
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POD (Poem Of the Day
~From our own
Bodies we give
Birth to all time & it’s seasons
Look now
With new eyes
& see the wise star within…
~hag
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August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago
We’re starting up with Culture in our community – join young people here in Chicago for a 10 day walking journey – Classroom Alive Chicago!
Exploration & experiencial learning all over Chicagoland, starting at at Elderberries 3-Fold Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultrual Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
for more info. contact Ultra-Violet Archer, or Frank Agrama
Details TBA #ClassroomAliveChicago2020
Thank you for forwarding this flier for any interested young people –
Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator
August 20-23, 2020 Questions of Courage Youth Conference at Elderberries
Questions of Courage 2020 in Chicago – August 20-23 Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost and 3Fold Cultural Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618
August 20: Check-in, share conversation, build the ground for the journey together.
August 21-22: Travel to Wisconsin Move together towards the land, link up with Farmer John and Haidy Angelic Organics Biodynamic Farm, and also with Dana and Phil Burns at Healing Traditions and Alizur farm. Connect with the land, plants, animals, and one another, through creative explorations and “roughin’ it” type amendments. Sleep under the stars or indoors.
August 23: Return to Chicago Enter back into the metropolitan context, into the social questions of urban life, and close the gathering together at Elderberries, setting the ground for future work out of questions of courage that are present.
Other locations and collaborators are currently in dialogue, and will be updated here.
The gathering is essentially about stepping into the living natural element, step by step, making an integral connection, with one another, ourselves, and the elements that support us here on the Earth…”
registration: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdY7KXHkjUPV2h9UD…/viewform
Thank you Elderberries for giving us an anchor to build our heartland gathering around!
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August 27-30, HOW WE WILL 2020
At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost
for more info. contact Frank Agrama or Dottie Zold
Details TBA Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago -Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator
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Dear Hazel,
It is, indeed, interesting to look again at this St. John Imagination, especially as it refers to Archangel Uriel’s gaze into the depths of the earth. “For the Father Spirit of the Heights Doth Reign in the Depths of the World, Begetting Being.” As well, “Let From the Heights Ring Forth What In The Depths its Echo Doth Find.” This speak to the first foundation stone meditation, and its “Ex Deo Nascimir”. And yet, indeed, where is the Mother?
“But standing by the cross of Jesus were His mother, and His mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus then saw His mother, and the disciple whom He loved standing nearby, He said to His mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then He said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” From that hour the disciple took her into his own household.” John 19
Now, if we consider the Book of Revelation, written when the elderly John was living on the island of Patmos, it seems to need all that can be dredged up from the depths of the earth in order to form its crystal ideas and associated imagery. It has even been said that John was transported to Ephesus for the words and imagery. And the Mother was there, in his household, where the new Sonship was formed by Christ.
Of course, we know that the Mother of Jesus returned to earth as a spiritual being who incorporated into the stepmother, Mary. Thus, her entry into the household of the “beloved disciple” was an entry into the astral body of this disciple, which enhanced it immeasurably.
Mary as the Sophia – brings in the essence of the 3rd panel of the FSM – Per spiritum sanctum reviviscimus
This is a modeling of the ‘Spirit-Self’ a prefiguring of our work of purifying the astral body.
JOhn holds the middle Christ Sphere
There is something important to be said here concerning the Mother of Jesus, and this excerpt from lecture IX of the John course given in Hamburg, expresses it very well:
“The manner of speaking of the “Mother of Jesus” in the Gospel, is usually overlooked. If the ordinary, average Christian were asked: who was the Mother of Jesus? he would reply: “The Mother of Jesus was Mary?” And many indeed will believe that there is something in the Gospel of St. John to the effect that the Mother of Jesus was called Mary. But nowhere in this Gospel is there anything to indicate that the Mother of Jesus was called Mary. Wherever reference is made to her, she is quite intentionally called just the Mother of Jesus. The meaning of this we shall learn later. In the chapter on the Marriage in Cana, we read: “and the Mother of Jesus was there;” and further on, it says: “His Mother saith unto the servants.” Nowhere do we find the name “Mary.” And when we meet her again in the Gospel of St. John, when we see the Saviour upon the Cross, we read:
“There stood by the Cross of Jesus, His Mother, and His Mother’s sister Mary, the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.”
It is clearly and definitely stated who stood by the Cross. The Mother was there, then her sister who was the wife of Cleophas and who was called Mary, and Mary Magdalene. Whoever thinks about it at all, must say to himself: It is extraordinary that the two sisters are both called Mary? That is not customary in our day. It was also not customary at that time. And since the writer of the Gospel calls the sister, Mary, it is clear that the Mother of Jesus was not called Mary. In the Greek text, it says clearly and distinctly: “Below stood the Mother of Jesus, and His Mother’s sister Mary who was the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene.” For a proper understanding the question arises: “Who was the Mother of Jesus?” Here we touch upon one of the most important questions in the Gospel of St. John: “Who was the real father of Jesus, and who was His mother?”
https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA103/English/AP1962/19080529p01.html