The Journey – Part 4 Auburn & Sheffield Alabama – (part 1, part 2, part 3)

11/13/19: With dawn’s first blush, & the ‘just past Full’ Moon pointing us West; the 3 sisters loaded up the truck which belonged to Patrick Foster’s big daddy Howell when he was alive. Stuffed with our abundant food coolers, luggage, the art projector, drawing materials & all the presentation & ritual supplies – we hit the road for Auburn Alabama.  

Helene Burkart welcomed us “to the deep South” & her handsome home, where 19 of her friends, & fellow long time Anthroposophers gathered. The living room was set up theatre style, & the dining room beautifully adored for our luncheon after.

The thoughtful interest & intimate sharing of the participants during the program was profoundly moving. The questions & comments, the stories & artistic explorations created a sacred chalice, allowing the veil between the worlds to open in grace.

At the repast, Helene asked me to share about the Elderberries Initiative, so I talked about the shift that was born over our Michaelmas weekend, when we connected with the biodynamic farmers in a gathering at Angelic Organics. The idea came then to bring the city folk & country folk together for the healing of the earth & the mutual benefit of all, by creating EB’s General Store in Chicago!

After our lovely meal & much conversation, Helene gifted the 3 sisters with bags full of local cotton & the famous white marble of the area – A Blessed memento that I will cherish.

Deb got behind the wheel & we made our way to Sheffield Alabama, where Angela had arranged for us to stay the night in a house situated in a neighborhood configured in the shape of the liberty Bell. (Angela, have I told you lately how amazing you are!)

On Angela’s suggestion, & Deb’s dime, we watched the documentary MUSCLE SHOALS, which we were called to visit the next day. What a thrill! We danced & sang along, laughed & cried as we learned about a place filled with magic & music, legend & folklore, where the river is inhabited by a Native American Spirit who has enticed some of the greatest Rock & Roll & Soul legends of all time, & has drawn from them some of the most uplifting, defiant, & important music ever created. The ups & downs in the story of Rich Hall, who brought black & white folks together in a cauldron of racial equality to create music for the generations, was compelling.

We went to bed tired, with a sigh of gratitude & a joyful prayer for the work done, knowing that the blessing of all worlds was carrying our work into the night.

Tomorrow, more adventures abound…

Until soon

~hag

***

POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I have come to answer the call
Witch no one wants to hear
My hands cling like hopeful ancestors
To the task.
‘Open thou my lips’
Red as ox blood
‘So that I may show forth thy praise’
& speak charms that drive snakes back into the rocks & Cause
The violets to flower.
Stars fall into my heart, a pool of fire
I stand with She so
I am blame, ignited into flame
Purpose full & lost
In translation…
~hag

***

25 November 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: VENUS-JUPITER CONJUNCTION AT SUNSET: When the sun goes down tonight, step outside and look southwest. Venus and Jupiter are in conjunction little more than a degree apart. Try to catch them before the sky fades to black. The sight of the two brightest planets, side-by-side, surrounded by twilight blue is out of this world.

Whenever Fomalhaut is “southing” (crossing the meridian due south, which it does soon after dark this week), the first stars of Orion are just about to rise above the east horizon. And, the Pointers of the Big Dipper stand upright low due north, straight below Polaris.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day 

Feast Day of St. Catherine of Alexandria, also known as Catherine of the Wheel, a Christian virgin saint, who was martyred in the early 4th century at the hands of the pagan emperor Maxentius. According to her hagiography, she was both a princess & a noted scholar, who became a Christian around the age of 14, converted hundreds of people to Christianity, & was martyred around the age of 18. More than 1,100 years after Catherine’s martyrdom, Joan of Arc identified her as one of the saints who appeared to & counselled her.

Some modern scholars consider that the legend of St. Catherine of Alexandria was probably based on the life & murder of the Greek philosopher Hypatia, with reversed roles of Christians & pagans.

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (OK so what is it about this day which has brought so many ‘natural’ disasters…?)

1667 – A deadly earthquake rocks Shemakha in the Caucasus, killing over 80,000 people.

1759 – An earthquake hits the Mediterranean destroying Beirut & Damascus & killing over 40,000 people.

1783 – American Revolutionary War: The last British troops leave New York City three months after the signing of the Treaty of Paris.

1839 – A cyclone slams into south-eastern India, with high winds & a 40-foot storm surge destroying the port city of Coringa (which has never been completely rebuilt). The storm wave swept inland, taking with it 20,000 ships & thousands of people. An estimated 300,000 deaths resulted from the disaster.

1915 – Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

1915 – Albert Einstein presents the field equations of general relativity to the Prussian Academy of Sciences.

1947 – Red Scare: The “Hollywood Ten” are blacklisted by Hollywood movie studios.

1950 – The Great Appalachian Storm of November 1950 impacts 22 American states, killing 1353 people, injuring over 160,000

1960 – The Mirabal sisters of the Dominican Republic are assassinated, turning them into “symbols of both popular and feminist resistance”. In 1999, in the sisters’ honor, 25 November is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women.

1987 – Typhoon Nina pummels the Philippines with category 5 winds of 165 mph &a surge that destroys entire villages. At least 1,036 deaths are attributed to the storm.

1996 – An ice storm strikes the central U.S., killing 126 people. A powerful windstorm affects Florida & winds gust over 90 mph, toppling trees & flipping trailers.

2000 – The Baku earthquake, with a Richter magnitude of 7.0, leaves 1,226 people dead in Azerbaijan.

2008 – Cyclone Nisha strikes northern Sri Lanka, killing 1,500 people & displacing 90,000 others while dealing the region the highest rainfall in nine decades.

2009 – Jeddah floods: Freak rains swamp the city of Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, during an ongoing Hajj pilgrimage. Three thousand cars are swept away & 1,222 people perish in the torrents.

***

13 – 14 December 2019

Rudiger Janisch

“The Spiritual Goetheanum, the threefold human being and the threefold social impulse”

Friday 13 December , 7 – 9 pm

Saturday 14 December, 9 am – noon

Rüdiger has been working in Curative Education and teaching in professional training programs in Germany and the United States for over 40 years. A long-time student of anthroposophy, he serves on the Collegium of the School for Spiritual Science in North America. His contributions to adult education methods were recognized in the context of an international research project sponsored by the European Union. He has been a member of the core faculty of a joint ‘Training for Trainers’ program supporting Curative Education and Social Therapy in Russia, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kyrgyzstan. He has also taught as an adjunct faculty member of the M.S. Ed program in Waldorf Remedial Education at Antioch University N.H. Having taught many different aspects of anthroposophy and Curative Education, he currently is focused on action research and the development of artistic and experiential approaches to the spiritual scientific study of the human being.

Fro more info. contact Hazel Archer-Ginsberg