the 11th Holy Night – Dove

Whisper Painting by Olga Naletova | Saatchi Art
Olga Nalatova

Listen to the 11th Holy Night on the podcast ‘I Think Speech

Greetings friends – For those that have been following our journey thru the Holy Nights, today is the penultimate, the 11th Holy Night, bringing us to the Constellation of Taurus, the Bull (ruling the neck & throat, the larynx & speech )

57,997 Holy Spirit Photos - Free & Royalty-Free Stock Photos from Dreamstime

Congratulations Dear Holy Nights traveler – you have made it beyond the threshold – past the 9 Angelic realms, into the Sphere of the Holy Spirit! It may seem odd at 1st that this Divine Realm is represented by what appears to be such an ‘earthly’ image – Taurus the Bull!? But we only need to contemplate the image of the sacred cow, with its potent digestive activity which is vast, like the universe – & trace this imagination into the astral cosmos, remembering that in the spiritual world everything is reversed – to reveal its true form – And so the cow or bull becomes the dove! Rudolf Steiner encourages us to also see the reverse: that what is astral in the Dove, becomes physical in the cow or bull.

Our ancestors of ancient India, Egypt, Babylon, Greece & Asia Minor, knew this, & made the cow sacred – revealing the significance of the cult of the bull or calf. The occult knowledge of this connection can be seen in Egypt, for instance, in depictions of the Sun-god Ra in the aspect of a falcon, bearing on its head a solar disc, sitting between the 2 horns of the heavenly cow; or in Babylon, with its images of the winded bulls (Shedu).

File:Sumerian God. Bull with man's head.jpg - Wikimedia Commons

From Spiritual Science we know that the principle of the Holy Spirit works thru the sphere of the Moon, & the Son-principle works thru the sphere of the Sun. So the bull reflecting the activity of the Holy Spirit is connected to the Moon gods & goddeses – like the Sumerian Moon-god, pictured with the body of a bull.

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In the Mysteries of ancient Egypt, the image of Isis arose out of the union in the lunar sphere of 2 cosmic streams coming from the heavenly regions of the Virgin (the constellation of Virgo) & the Bull (Taurus). When the influence of Virgo prevailed, then the image of Isis, usually seen holding her son Horus, out-pictured the energies of the Divine Sophia or World-Soul (a more lunar aspect), a pre-figuring of The Virgin Mary. But if the Bull prevailed, Isis was depicted with the Sun disc between the bull’s horns, showing her connection with the World-Spirit (or Sun aspect). Isis is later depicted wearing the Throne on her crown – after the death of Osiris.

Worship of this Egyptian goddess spread from Egypt to England | National  Geographic

The relationship of Isis with Osiris, a pre-figuring of The Christ, further indicates the transition from the Lunar Logos to the Solar Logos, which corresponds to the shift from the 3rd to the 4th cultural epoch, when The Christ is born on earth.

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It’s important to note that earlier in evolution, during a time that Spiritual Science names as ‘Old Moon’, the Luciferic principle chose not to evolve to the Sun-Sphere, but wanted egoistically to remain behind in the Moon Sphere, yet cut off from the true Holy Spirit. We see this debased, Luciferic representation of the Holy Spirit, which does not seek to find The Logos, in the time of Moses, as the cult of the Golden Calf

Kristena West

At the baptism in the Jordan, it is the Holy Spirit which enables the descent of Christ, to be ‘born’ into the Sun-Soul of Nathan, in the body of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, emanating from the region of the Bull, was seen by John the Baptist thru the agency of his angel, in the form of a Dove above the head of Jesus. (John 1:32-34) Where John the Baptist gives this testimony: “I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him. The one who sent me to baptize with water told me, ‘The man on whom you see the Spirit come down and remain is the one who will go on to baptize with the Holy Spirit.’ I have seen and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.”

There is another significant aspect which connects the influence from the region of the Bull, which rules the larynx, giving us the gift of speech, with the future working of the Holy Spirit. Speech connects us with others in a loving marriage of souls, & Rudolf Steiner takes this metaphor even further to say that the Larynx will one day not only speak forth words, but will become a creative organ, a higher version of the organs of reproduction! Here’s a quote from Dr. Steiner: “…we must understand that the larynx in its full transformation, when the human being has become chaste again, will turn like a flower to the spiritual Sun. The calyx of the flower, when the larynx is pure, becomes a chaste chalice, ready to be fructified by the Spirit, to be offered to the ‘Holy Lance of Love’. This is a symbol of the Holy Grail, its highest Ideal” (GA 98 May 11, 1907)

May we begin this transformation of our speech NOW, in order to bring to birth the Spirit of Christ, as a moral creative force, within our human soul. This will fructify the soul of our communities (Think Whitsun), & pollinate the Soul of the Earth.

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Alex Grey

Freed thru the working of the Christ-Impulse in the soul of humanity, the Luciferic principle will turn from being adversarial, to becoming the servant of the redeemed Holy Spirit, The New Isis-Sophia.

Greek Mythology Photo: Fall of Phaëthon | Greek paintings, Greek art,  Michelangelo art

May we ride the Bull in full consciousness, in peace, & we can do this by practicing the Virtue: Equilibrium becomes progress. I know, it’s not always easy to stay in balance when riding the bull in this crazy jacked up world. but It helps to live into the picture of the dove of peace.

Symbolism of the Dove | symbolreader
Andrew Gonzalez

And I have also been working closely with this quote from ‘The Search for the New Isis’ a lecture Rudolf Steiner gave on Christmas eve in 1920, where we hear: ‘Wisdom is the precondition of love; and love is wisdom reborn in the human I.”

Yay, we can’t know what love is without the wisdom of understanding, & we can’t know true wisdom without warming with love our understanding, in our highest self. Steiner goes on to say:

“We must realize that through the force of the Christ we must find an inner astronomy that will show us again the cosmos moving and working by the power of the spirit. When we have this insight into the cosmos that is awakened through the newfound Isis power of the Christ — which is now the power of the Divine Sophia — then Christ, united with the Earth since the Mystery of Golgotha, will become active within us, because then we shall know him. It is not the Christ that we lack; what we lack is the knowledge and wisdom of Isis, the Sophia of the Christ…Human beings today must realize that for Christ to appear to them they must first seek Isis-Mary-Sophia.”

Modern Sophia as a Form for the Holy Daughter – mydevotionstoDEA
Marianne Felkster

And so taking that into our thinking, I will end with this poem by Alice O Howell:
O Holy Sophia, Holy Wisdom, Holy Joy, hidden for so long
Come forth and reveal yourself in the world and in our souls!
Help us to see with a loving eye
Help us to hear with wit and intuition
Show us how to be natural and kind
Show us how to find ourselves in one another
Lead us from who we think we are to who we really are.
Let us learn from the flowers that we need not strive so hard.
Teach us to allow that Light from within
To unfold us, as a gift, like your lily, or the Rose.

Blessings dear friends, see you tomorrow for 12th night. Until soon, Peace

***

Nancy Poer

Wednesday 6 January 2021, 2 pm – 4 pm CST

Joan’s Epiphany ‘What Joan of Arc Calls for Today’

In-Person at Elderberries Bio-dynamic Outpost & The Rudolf Steiner Branch
4249-51 N. Lincoln Ave. Chicago

or Online Join Zoom Meeting https://zoom.us/j/7052931041 
Meeting ID: 705 293 1041

Today on the Birthday of Joan of Arc
We Welcome Special Guest 
Nancy Poer

Social Sculpture: “The Passage” with Lucien Dante Lazar, 
+ An Artistic exploration 

We will also explore ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations’, Lecture 5, ‘The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It’ 
by Rudolf Steiner, with Leading Thoughts by Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Group Eurythmy with Mary Ruud

Dear friends please consider making a good will donation
to The Rudolf Steiner Branch, our HVAC got destroyed in the Tornado
http://donate.rschicago.org/

For more info. contact hag@rschicago.org

Blessings of the Season
~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg
Events & Festival Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch 
of The Anthroposophical Society

One thought on “the 11th Holy Night – Dove

  1. Hi Hazel,

    What stands out here for me on this 11th Holy Day is where you compare the Dove with the Bull. This same arrangement can be found in the second occult seal picture from the Apocalypse. In this picture, we see the Eagle at the highest point, and the Bull below to the left. Thus, Astral Body to Physical Body. As such, this arrangement becomes in our time the very invitation to engage in spiritual exercises designed to lift the astral body out of the physical body, and remain awake while doing so. Steiner gives these exercises in his book, “Knowledge of the Higher Worlds and Its Attainment”. In the beginning, we tend to fall asleep just like at night, and usually give up the effort as silly nonsense, but we must persevere. The results are coming. This is occult development.

    Now, in the latter part of your discourse, you mention the most important part of Rudolf Steiner’s lecture on “The New Isis”, from Christmas 1920. As long as the Copernican model of the solar system exists to hold sway, then Isis will remain fully embodied in the sign of Aquarius, and yet remain obscure to the humanity that needs her for the revealings of the Consciousness Soul. This is the present condition on earth, and why gentle, kind, and enthusiastic givings have come your way in order to try to jostle a renewed effort, as just one example, of identifying Venus and Mercury properly.

    Another very important opportunity comes when we consider Gemini as the 10th sign, and herein we know that Steiner gave a whole lecture-course in this direction with GA 110, and the System of Zarathustra. Now, how about that for a start in 2021!?

    https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA110/English/APC1928/19090415p01.html

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