Tag Archives: Easter

The Festival Life: Practical Journeys into the New Mysteries

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Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year

“To celebrate a festival really means to unite oneself in spirit with the cosmic spirit”.  ~Rudolf Steiner

Our festival life is structured to include activities that stimulate head, hands and heart. We engage our thinking through lectures on Spiritual Science, learning, as Goethe did, what lives behind the laws of nature, engaging in creative thinking outside the box, like Einstein demonstrated, opening to insight and intuition to better solve the problems of the world. Movement and artistic endeavors motivate our will forces, creating balance and beauty, channeling creativity in a purposeful way that deepens our thoughts through action. Activities like storytelling, biography sharing, and singing consciously involve our feeling life, reducing stress, stimulating our imagination, creating connections and goodwill.

By strengthening our thinking, feeling and willing we lead more conscious lives, better able to serve the greater community -involved parents, good neighbors, mindful citizens, purposeful workers in our chosen fields of work in the world.

The Greek meaning of the word festival is “Shining Day”.

The festivals not only commemorate great historical events, cosmic truths and traditions; they are in themselves spiritual events that manifest in seasonal rhythms, and carry a significance that grows and deepens with the development of human evolution. The celebration of the festivals let us practice what Steiner calls ‘the Reverse-Ritual’ – The idea of ‘Openness to Above’.  Instead of invoking Spirit down, as in days of old, we rise to the spirit, in our thinking. We study and celebrate these ‘Shining Days’ to sustain and renew ourselves and the world.

A festival has the quality of lifting us out of the ordinary and into the mysteries and magic of the rhythm of the seasons. Throughout history, festivals have emerged from people’s connection with their spiritual life and their search for the meaning of human existence.

“Through various festivals and rituals we acknowledge and celebrate our connection to and our responsibility toward each other and the world.” Celebrating festivals can bring us consciously to what we all experience instinctively in our daily lives, the changing cycles of the seasons and of life itself.  ~excerpted from Festivals by Marilyn Pelryme.

“Celebrating festivals illuminates our life on earth with spiritual meaning and shows us the significance of our human existence in the universe. We human beings stand between the two worlds uniting them in ourselves. We are the crossing point where the upper circle representing the heavens flows into the lower one belonging to the earth.”  ~Evelyn Frances Derry

Some Upcoming Festivals at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago, Il. 60618 

Michaelmas 2015: Sept. 27, 6:30pm – 11:30pm

All Souls:  Nov. 8, 2015, 2pm – 4pm

Holy Nights 2015 -2106: Sunday Dec. 27- Wed. Dec. 30, 7pm – 9pm…Thursday Dec. 31 – NYE – 7pm – 1am…Jan. 1-5 7pm – 9pm

Holy Week 2016: March 20th – Palm Sunday 2pm – 4pm…March 21-26th – 7pm – 9pm…March 27th Easter Sunday – 2pm – 4pm

Pentecost: Sunday May 15, 2pm – 4pm

St. John’s: Sunday June 19, 2016 – 2pm – 4pm

Michaelmas 2016: Sunday Sept. 25th – 2pm – 4pm

I look forward to exploring these cycles with you

~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Easter Week – A Cosmic Recapitulation of The Mystery of Golgotha

Festival

Dear Friends –

For three years the Fire of divine Ego-hood has burned in the body and soul of Jesus. The human vessel, from within outwards, has almost been consumed to ashes.

What still has to be suffered and completed demands so much strength from the earthly sheaths that there is a real danger of premature death. Ahriman lies in wait and hopes to make use of this moment.

But Christ is victorious and death is repulsed.>>~summary excerpt from Emil Bock’s “Holy week”

 

3 April, 7-9pm at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson, Chicago

Good Friday

Love’s Sacrificial Death – the transformation of the Venus-principle

Thru the Sun-principle of Christ – the rending of the Temple Veil

7pm –Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’ with Johanna Rohde

Group Study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week” forGood Friday

8:15pm –“Judas” a Good Friday Easter Drama with music & Eurythmy

  

~   ~   ~

 

In the New Mysteries we follow the path of Rosicrucian/Christian initiation throughout Holy Week.

Each of these steps through the planetary spheres leads to a conquest of a corresponding layer in the interior of the earth.

The Beatitudes are the spiritual weapon we must wield to fortify the development of self-determination in the human ego led by Christ, giving us the strength to make the darkness transparent. Like Christ, we must descend to ascend.

 Every year we have a chance to recapitulate the Easter event. And this weekend it is especially true, as Astrosopher Willi Sucher tells us, the original dates were ‘from the 3rd to the 5th of April 33 AD.’

Our 1st Full Moon after the Vernal Equinox is always spiritually significant – heralding the feasts of Passover & Easter.

This year on Holy Saturday April 4th, 2015, the Spring Moon will be in total eclipse!

Joining this celestial dance, look for Uranus, the first planet discovered with a telescope.

This ‘modern’ planet is regarded as a representative of change. With a Total Eclipse of the Spring Moon, & the planet Uranus in the same region of the zodiac as the Sun, there certainly seems to be change on our horizon.

Could it be a cosmic call to destiny? The eclipse begins at 5:15am CST, max at6:22am. 

The sun rises at 6:27am, & the moon sets at6:31am. The eclipse ends at 7:02am CST.

Also working with us, from the time of the Vernal Equinox, is the Archangel Raphael, who holds the staff of Mercury, offering us the healing power of the Caduceus through the grace of the living Christ, who stands as the middle pillar within us all.

So during the Lunar eclipse of Holy Saturday 4 April 2015, we have the opportunity to stand as Michaelic warriors holding the light, sending our shining heart-thinking into the heights and the depths.

Remembering all the while what was written on the urn that holds the ashes of Rudolf Steiner:

“To create centres of peace & love in which the Christ can resurrect.”   ~ Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 

4 April 2015 (Full Lunar Eclipse)5AM – 7AM at the branch

Holy Saturday (The Harrowing of Hell)

Christ laid in the tomb is taken by the quake into the grave of the earth Saturn darkness becomes Easter Light, healing the realm of the dead 

The Interior of the Earth asChristian/Rosicrucian Initiation & the Spiritual Significance of Eclipses byHazel Archer Ginsberg

Group Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’ with Johanna Rode

Group study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week” forHoly Saturday

The “Golden Legend”

into an Artistic Exploration of the Rose CrossMeditation with Nancy Melvin

 Snacks to Share & a Donation for Art Supplies Welcome

For more info Contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg 

~   ~   ~

~Erkenntnisfeier~

A Cosmic Recapitulation of the Mystery of Golgotha

 

5 April 2015, Easter Sunday 2-4pmat the branch

The New Sun

The Octave of Resurrection – Mary Magdalene meets the Angels

& sees the ‘Gardener’ – The Risen One in His Spirit-Body

 

Midwest Eurythmy Group Performanceof:

The Calendar of the Soul Verse for Easterwith speech artist Christa Macbeth

And the Hallelujah

The Legend of Shambhalla by Richard Dancey

Singing, Group study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week” for Easter Joy

Group Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’ with Johanna Rode

Pot-Luck to Share Encouraged

All Donations go to the Midwest Eurythmy Group

For more info Contact Festivals Coordinator Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 

Easter Week – Mandy Thursday – The Sacred Round Table

Festival,

Greetings Friends –

On Maundy Thursday a holy stillness descends, shortly before the deep red sun sets in the west, faced by the silver disc of the rising full moon, the trumpets sound from the Temple and give the signal for the beginning of the day of Preparation, the eve of the Passover.

Jesus and His disciples also withdraw to the upper room in the house of the Order of the Essenes. There, on Mount Zion, a sanctuary has existed from times immemorial. Here the words of the 23rd Psalm are fulfilled,

“Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies.”

Before the Meal, Jesus the Christ follows the custom observed by the Essenes and washes the feet of each of the disciples, even Judas.

“A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another.” This last parable, enacted, not merely spoken, teaches Love as the ultimate purpose of Christ’s Gospel.

Then for the first time Transubstantiation is consummated; now the Spiritual lights up in earthly substance.

The lunar sacrifices of antiquity are at an end; the solar sacrifice of Christianity comes into being.

Christ’s soul surrenders itself and streams into the bread and wine. In the transition from the blood offerings of the past to the bloodless offering of bread and wine; the sacrifice of the soul is founded, and there begins the true tradition of inner sacrifice.

Then the sacred Round Table breaks up dramatically. It is a strict regulation of the Passover that on this night no one may leave the protection of the house.

If he does so, he meets the Destroying Angel. The streets remain empty of people. Yet Judas does go out; to the house opposite, where Caiaphas and his circle are waiting, eager for the business that Judas wants to transact.

Jesus then rises from the table and beckons to the astonished disciples. They follow him out into the night, where the light of the full moon had for some time been extinguished, passing through an eclipse.

The two acts of going-out-into-the-night symbolize inner events. The going out of Judas shows that his true self has abandoned him;  outside he meets the Angel of Death, in reality, ahrimanic spirits make him their pawn.

The going-out of Christ is a picture of the free surrender of the soul, which has been from the beginning,

the cosmic bearer of Sacrifice.>>      ~summary excerpt from Emil Bock’s “Holy week”

 

Tonight, 2 April, Our Holy Week Studywill meet

6pm-9pm at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson, Chicago

Maundy Thursday (Last Supper)

Christ washes the feet of the disciples & administers to them the New Sacrament

The benevolence of the Jupiter King

6pm – optional Silent Meal (simple Potluck to share)

7pm –Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’

Group Study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week”for Maundy Thursday

8:15pm – Contemplation and ‘Close of Day’

with Richard Dancey and Ann Burfeind

 

For More Information Contact Festivals Coordinator

Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Holy Tuesday Insight – Harmony Thru Conflict

Festival,

 

Now the day of Mars has been reached and the conflict flares up in earnest. Goethe’s statement that world history is nothing else than a continuous fight of belief against unbelief touches the truth that is given in all detail during the Tuesday of Holy Week.

All opposition to Christ and hostility to the Spirit has its root in unbelief, in deeply hidden weakness and fear.

To work upon one’s own soul demands the greatest courage.

The wedding garment is the soul become radiant through purification. The oil in the lamps is a picture of the forces of the soul to be won by struggle.

The talents increased by personal effort are the spiritual organs in man brought to further development. To hold the balance between earthly duties and spiritual ideals, gains sovereignty over all earthly conditions. Even if, as at that time, a monster occupies the throne,

He is able to say “Render to Caesar the things which are Caesar’s and unto God the things which are God’s.”

In the concluding vision of the dividing of mankind, the true quality of inner courage is described:

“Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”

The true path to the spirit shows itself in the power to love. Love is the opposite of fear. All genuine inner development begins with inner courage and finds its goal in love. So His words of spiritual battle end in words of love.

 

 

 

 

Festival – Palm Sunday

Festival,

Dear Friends –

Palm Sunday – Matthew 21: 1-11

Christ enters the Holy City on the first day of Holy Week. It is at first an unpretentious sight. He rides through the gate of the city upon a donkey,

followed by His faithful believers. But suddenly, as though he were the God of Spring himself, His entry creates a frenzy in the souls of the people.

It is as though the crowd were seized with the ecstasy of a pagan Spring Festival. Primitive rites are revived when the people cast down palm branches rom the trees. The palm has always ranked as the tree-symbol of the sun which shines in the Spring sky with renewed strength.

The crowd spread His path with the symbol of the sun.

Is He in fact perhaps the Friend and Lord of the Sun who has been promised to man as the great King of the Light?

Is the original spiritual significance of the city of Jerusalem to be released from enchantment, the city which sheltered on Mount Zion one of the oldest sun-sanctuaries of mankind, before it was overshadowed by Mount Moriah, the Mount of the Moon, with the Temple of Solomon?

Has the time of Melchisededek, the great Sun-Initiate, come back?

It would appear as though the Christ had now really found entrance into humanity. The high Sun- Spirit has already lived for three years in a human body and undergone earthly destiny. He held back and kept silence; and whenever He stepped forward He was met with hostility and lack of understanding.

Is all this now to take a new direction? Is destiny to find a solution in an ecstatic jubilation?

No, this is the beginning of the most solemn week in human history. The same men who strew palms and break forth into fervid Hosannas will shriek with fanatical hatred a few days later: “Crucify him! Crucify him!” The Cross on Golgotha, the symbol of death, will companion the palm branch, the symbol of life. It is the Christ Himself who brings about the sudden reversal of feeling. He passes through the ecstatic crowd in silence, with grave countenance. He sees through the acclamations; they are merely superficial, and He aims at deeper levels. His will is directed to something very different.»

~Emil Bock “Holy Week”

And so the Journey Begins

29 March 2015, 2- 4pm at the branch

Palm Sunday – The old Sun –

Christ’s triumphant entry into Jerusalem – The Prophesy fulfilled

Group Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’ with Johanna Rohde

Study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week”, A Spiritual Guide from Palm Sunday to Easter

 

Attached is a copy of the text, please print it out for yourself.

If you need a copy printed for you or for more information, 

Contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg

 

30 March (Rudolf Steiner’s Death Day) 7-8pm at the branch

Holy Monday

The fig tree, symbol of the old clairvoyance, cursed –

Moon-forces must be renewed -The cleansing of the Temple

Group Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’ with Johanna Rohde

Study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week”, A Spiritual Guide from Palm Sunday to Easter

 

31 March, 7-8pm at the branch

Holy Tuesday

Conflict with opponents – bending the Mars spirit to His purposes

An Apocalyptic future revealed

Group Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’ with Johanna Rohde

Study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week”, A Spiritual Guide from Palm Sunday to Easter

 

1 April Fool’s Day, 7-8pm at the branch

Holy Wednesday

Mary Magdalene’s pre-burial anointing, Judas’s betrayal –

the 2 sides of Mercury: Healer /Thief

Group Eurythmy: Hallelujah in the ‘Lamb of God Heptagram’ with Johanna Rohde

Study of Emil Bock’s “Holy Week”, A Spiritual Guide from Palm Sunday to Easter

For insights into this year’s Easter-Tide from Dr. Ross Rentea of the Lili Kolisko institute clink here http://www.koliskoinstitute.org/blog/