The Circle Eternal

Dearly Beloved – It is an occult truth that after 100 years an esoteric initiative has an opportunity to be renewed. I often refer to the Rosicrucian impulse that puts forth the imagination of ‘the opening of the tomb of Christian Rosenkreutz’ – a way of signifying the evolution of human consciousness.  

But with the opportunity to lift the veil comes a great moral obligation, for as Spiritual Science points out, there are dangers – great perils – if we are not prepared thru a conscious working, to build a foundation of ethical uprightness, that allows us to selflessly Cross the Threshold to enter & effectively work in the Spiritual World, not only for the individual, but for all those karmicly connected to the same esoteric initiative. For as Steiner tells us: It is the mutual taking on of karma that is created in such a community. (The Circle)

And so, in discerning whether or not we are meant to take up the Circle work, which demands, not only making a sacred vow to the spiritual world; we must also be consciously willing to take on this karma, bearing the joys & suffering of every member, living & dead, now, & for lifetimes to come. No small thing.

This makes our personal commitment to consistently & earnestly work with the Circle meditations of vital importance! Our integrity, or lack thereof, has a ripple effect that touches every member of the Circle, the Spiritual World, & the evolution of, not only humankind, but of the Earth which is destined to become a new Sun – the New Jerusalem.

One of the original Circle Members Herbert Hahn tells us: While, on the one side, the meditations are for the individual & the community an organ of higher spiritual development, they also serve, on the other side, the whole Earth. Steiner explained that the moral forces of the Earth today are so threatened with corruption, ruination, that this meditative activity has an immensely significant healing effect for the Earth. This is especially true when, as happens in a spiritual community, the meditative forces potentize in their effect.”

And so you can imagine that whatever is put into, or not put into, the meditative practice, is potentized, & written into the ethers, for good or ill – affecting all realms.

Hahn goes on: “In this connection Rudolf Steiner also mentioned The Christian Community that was starting. It is to be thanked as a helper in this service for the preservation of the moral forces of the Earth…

Steiner went on to say that when we do this community-meditation, it will bring about a deeper connection of the core our being with our sheaths. This can however, because it is a birth process, be connected with feelings of suffering & pain…

Rudolf Steiner said all this with especially great earnestness. One had the impression of looking at great dangers that are coming toward us out of a time that is striding on into one-sidedness.

As he gave us the meditations in an unforgettable spirit-mood…he said something deeply stimulating: These meditations, when used correctly, could become something like windows into the spiritual world. The words & pictures give form to only half of what was to be entrusted to us. The other half we were to find ourselves through spiritual activity..

In the moment in which the meditations were given…Steiner said: “You can consider this thusly, that I was given the charge to bring this to you.”

For the writer of these lines, this was the highest impression that I ever received of the person of Rudolf Steiner. More & more I was allowed to experience how the suprasensible world revealed its full power in the work & appearance of Rudolf Steiner himself, as a high spiritual individuality.

In this moment of the giving of the meditations however, as if through a bolt of lightning, a spiritual background – which one can only divine – behind the bearer of the modern initiation, was torn open. In this experience, there was an indescribable spirit-aroma that remains connected with these meditations forever.”

As I mentioned in the last 2 articles around the origins & The Circle Jubilee, the giving of the meditation took place on Friday the 13th of October. The actual Founding – when the 12 Circle members took the solemn vow; came on Monday 16 October 1922. (Interesting to remember that the inital arrest of the Templars was on Friday, October 13, 1307)

Lehrs tells us: “Before the founding is described, an incident that took place in the meantime must be reported, because this caused Dr. Steiner to begin the Foundation in a specific way & to indicate an incumbent task for the whole of the Anthroposophical Movement.

Here is reported that a few of those founding the Youth Group had the intention-with the agreement of Dr. Rittelmeyer & Dr. Steiner-to participate in the first Act of Consecration of Man, at which others in addition to just the Priests could be present, on Sunday 15 October. This was the preparation by the inner circle of Priests for the first public celebration to be held at Advent in the wider communities.

In the conversation beforehand, in which the details of the service were made known, Emil Bock called for all, through their participation in the service, to commit themselves to building up The Christian Community. As a result of this, the Youth Group founders withdrew their intention to participate.”

I imagine that Emil Bock’s ill placed enthusiasm for his work made the young people feel unfree, so perhaps an opportunity for them, out of themselves, to bring: an incumbent task for the whole of the Anthroposophical Movement, to bear in the world at that time was missed.

This incumbent task, which I see as a calling for Christology to be more visible in Anthroposophy; acknowledged perhaps as one of the Sections in the Movement, is calling to be taken up now as part of the renewal forces available at this Centennial milestone – a chance to resurrect what lay dormant in the tomb.  

 Tomorrow we follow up with details the Founding of The Circle

Until soon

~hag

19 October 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Vega is the brightest star very high toward the west these evenings. To Vega’s right look for Eltanin, the nose of Draco the Dragon. The rest of Draco’s fainter, lozenge-shaped head is a little farther behind. Draco always eyes Vega as they wheel around the sky. The main stars of Vega’s own constellation, Lyra, extend to Vega’s left by half as far as the distance from Vega to Eltanin.

RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
MICHAELMAS 111
Soul Sunpower’s Awakening
v28

I can, revived within,
now feel my own wide breadth of being,
my strength of sun-empowered soul
whose radiance of thinking solves life’s riddles
and lifts the wish-fulfilling wings
left lame by hope.

The COTS verses can also be imagined in a 24 hour rhythm.
The summer is soul’s sleeptime in the drowsiness of senses.
This verse, the first mention of active human thought,
can be a meditation every morning on awakening,
and the opposite verse (the Southern Hemisphere one now),
with an alteration of its first line,
‘Arising into senses’ all-enwoven outwardness’,
and its third line changed from a present to a coming tense,
can be a meditation every evening as one prepares to sleep
for which one must release one’s thoughts.

EASTER II (revised as a meditation into sleep)
Spirit World Participation
v2

To sleep in all-enwoven outwardness
thought’s power sheds its separate strand;
the spirit worlds will find again
their human offspring,
whose soul must find her seed in them
but in herself the fruit.

At Ascensiontide, v7 (28/4), the Tenor calls for foresight
(“Ahnung”, that I alays translate with an ah, a sound for the future):
…now you, my foresight, dawn in me your star
and my divining, firmly as of right,
replace the power of thought
that in the senses’ glory leaves me.

In v8 at Whitsun (Pentecost):
…the senses’ power grows;
it presses thinking down
to dimness of a dream.

As the second quarter of the year begins in v14 (28/2)
the Baritone receives cosmic thought:
…there comes in all the senses’ glory cosmic thought’.

And now in v28, the 2nd verse of the COTS’ 2nd half of the year,
the daytime’s sun-empowered thought awakens in the Soprano’s voice.

Support Velsum purchase their new EP on bandcamp – Velsum is an Anthroposophical musical initiative formed through Ultra-Violet Archer and Lucien Dante Lazar. A true vocal presence is the union of past and future. Through harmony, generous creativity, and uplifting social transformation, Velsum invites the universal human being into the individual.

11 thoughts on “The Circle Eternal

  1. Hi Hazel, Craig Wiggins is coming to the Twin Cities December 3-4. Do you think he would be able to point me in the right direction regarding this Circle? This is something that’s been on my mind since you brought the subject up. Thanks! 🙂

    1. Yes, wonderful.
      Also other branch or 1st Class members in the area could help connect you.
      I would recommend getting the book so you know what you are getting into…
      Blessings on this endevour!

      1. There is an essay that was written in 2000 which attempts to explain the parameters of the Esoteric Youth Circle in terms of Michael. As such, Michael is drawing those to Him in numbers far greater than those who have embraced Anthroposophy. And the remarkable thing is that astute anthroposophists are seeing that this is the case, and looking for those who adhere to Michael for a renewal of youthful forces.

        https://anthroposophy.eu/w/images/a/a4/Kobran_Joel_-_The_missing_Michaelic_millions.pdf

        1. Hi Steve – I remember seeing this when it first came around.
          I look forward to picking it up again since I tend to bristle at the personage of Ben-Aharon.
          I do agree that there are many Michaelites incarnated now that are not part of the Anthroposophical Society, I know several in my own life.
          When I was part of the ASA I had high hopes of working from the inside to try & make the Society more about initiative & less about administration so as to be more welcoming to those souls, but it was not meant to be. I do pray that the next 100 years can bring the changes needed to bring the 2 streams together…

          1. No longer part of the ASA! This must have been a recent decision. At any rate, your inspirational journeys of recent note are surely tending in the direction of those that require risk and will. I have been very impressed by what I’ve seen. You were an able administrator for the ASA as well. Hazel, you will always land on your feet because the society and the movement are really one and the same when anthroposophy is lived, and you certainly do “live it”.

        2. Steve, I’m happy to see you writing here again! Hazel, yes it is becoming a rather synchronistic endeavour. I am not surprised you are writing on this subject. What first gave me this thought, was when someone asked me during a Michaelmas gathering if I was part of any Anthroposophical Youth groups, of sorts. I did not know (still don’t) of any such group in the area. I am not sure if being 40 years of age qualifies as ‘youth’, but I do see a need for younger generations, at least, to come forth and at least discuss all these subjects and themes with others. It really makes a world of difference, and all the daunting material is much more relevant and with grasp of understanding. It really needs to be discussed and shared. And like the topic recently brought up, I do believe this is part of the communal ‘spirit’ that we feel with the Christ/Michaelic stream… a ‘yoking’ of the Etheric. Essentially, this is a shared feeling of the presence of Divine Love…. which a feeling like ‘suffocation’ – despair – has no part in.

          1. I love this term ‘yoking of the etheric’ – how we align our life bodies together for strength & understanding.

            It’s interesting, I hear many young people say there is no unity, no real youth movement. I have said to my daughter, well, you have to step up & start something…It seems everyone is waiting for someone else to be the shepherd.

            Perhaps linking up with the various regional councils can help gather young people together? Using that platform can reach others in the local areas, putting out a call to folks under 50 to do a common study or plan a regional event…?

            I believe you are in the Central region. Here is the contact for Lisa Dalton in the Central Regional Council Lisa@lisadalton.com

            I know Viroqua has many young people working in various ways with Anthroposophy. You could contact Robert Karp robert.karp@newspiritventures.com

            Tess Parker the Programs Director of the ASA is 34, she is looking to link people up tess@anthroposophy.org

            It is so important to have that shared feeling of ‘Divine Love’ – but it must be cultivated.

            1. “how we align our life bodies together for strength & understanding”… Yes! This is why it is good to connect with others, really hear what they have to say, and their own experiences.. one’s journey and growth is shared with all, and becomes communal growth. There is definitely something ‘spiritual’ in the very act of getting together with a common purpose.

              Thank you for the contacts, Hazel! I’ll do some digging around and see who is doing what or what is going on. Yes, starting something can seem daunting. Talking about it, and actually looking for people is surely a small step in the right direction. My feeling is that there are more youth that are ready for this, and perhaps thatis the case in Viroqua. I am not surprised somethings are happening there!

              Now, there are tons of younger folks who are drawn to Permaculture. Steiner and Biodynamics are but a footnote, yet, there is a crossover. I feel this is something that can be explored further. There is much more widespread sensitivity to the potentiality of plants and plant/life… so there already is an impulse to understand what the Etheric is.

              We can see that Manas comes after the “I”… Manas is the cultivated Etheric body, and that is our next stage. It is then up to us to really investigate what the Ether is, and I believe there are many ways one can go about it, that doesn’t have to be explained purely in Anthroposophical terminology.

              1. Wow KJ that was a real revelation how you connected the ‘back to the land’ impulse with the call to renew the etheric body or life-spirit of the human being!

                Totally makes sense, I had never put that together in that way. Thank you.

                I am always struggling with the terms from Theosophy but I believe Atma is connected to the renewing of the physical body giving us the Spirit Human, Buddhi is the renewing of the etheric body & Manas the purified astral body…

                My Wednesday study group has taken up a series of lectures that I am working with in the AAP training that deals with the Psychology of Body, Soul & Spirit & it gives a basic understanding of the 12 senses which is something I have yet to really take up, but I think these play in as well…

              2. Thank you for that correction! Yes… the cultivated Astral comes after the “I” – as it goes backwards, ultimately leading to Spirit Man (Atma) as the cultivation of the physical, the final step.

                Still, the relevance between plant/etheric and our relation to it, I feel, still holds relevance. For the Etheric is between the Astral and Physical bodies, if it is fair for me to say so. There are a couple of things that come up with this.

                The Permaculture/Biodynamic movement is a great beginning on how we interact with plants. It is pretty much agreed across the board, when one ‘works’ with plants, they feel the therapeutic benefit of it. This is one sign. Also, there is another element which Clifton Furness brings up in his writing ‘Lotus Petals’, where Steiner gives talks to physicians:

                “The whole system of therapy which he proposed rests upon the thesis that health of the physical body can be maintained only by a proper balance between the ‘constructive’ forces of the etheric, and the forces of the astral body which are ‘destructive’ to the physical. This balance, when disturbed, can best be adjusted by ‘materia medica’ dreived entirely from plant life. The nature and effect of medicines may be calculated from a scientific knowledge of the properties of the etheric bodies of plant life employed in the making of medicines.” – pg 19/20 from Lotus Petals, Furness

                https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=hvd.hn6m69&view=1up&seq=1&skin=2021

                Reading about how the Astral forces are destructive to the physical is quite new to me. But here, we have reference of constructive Etheric forces of plants being the mediator – so to speak – between Astral and Physical.

                Not only that, this is also the case with dreams… as working with the Etheric/Physical does influence ‘dreams’ – which we are experiencing in the Astral/”I”… which in turn leave an effect in our waking state. One can feel the ‘tone’ or ‘mood’ from last night’s dream, even if the details are not fully remembered.

                I didn’t mean to side track there too much. But I can see the difficulty in cultivating the Astral. It is all to easy to abuse our bodies, and I suppose this is partly due to an uncultivated Astral?

                Would love to hear more about the 12 senses.

              3. This book by Furness looks like a gem. I love how the edition you provided has the dedication in the beginning!

                What you describe so well of the interaction between our sheaths is compelling. It is very much what the 6 basic or essential exercises are all about. How we must order the etheric streams of the lotus petals of our heart which then sets the astral stream into harmony – bringing our physical body & “I” into alignment.

                I have been thinking a lot about the 2nd of the 12 senses – It is called well-being or the Life-sense: it is about growth & decay of our own constitution – Pain is a major part of this, which gives us the key to the doorway from our soul to the realm of our higher being.

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