19 March 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The Eve of the Full  Storm Moon & the Eve of the Vernal Equinox. Bella Luna, almost full, shines in the hind feet of Leo. After dark we see her at the upper right of Regulus.

The Moon reaches perigee, the closest point in its orbit around Earth, at 2:48 pm CDT -223,307 miles away from us.

Left of La Bella by about half that distance is Denebola, the tip of Leo’s tail.

***

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Feast Day of Joseph the Carpenter, husband of Mary the Mother of the Matthew Jesus.

Annual Return of the Swallows: The American cliff swallow is a migratory bird that spends its winters in Goya, Argentina, but makes the 6,000-mile trek north to the warmer climes of the American Southwest in springtime. According to legend, the birds, who have visited the San Juan Capistrano area every summer for centuries, first took refuge at the Mission when an irate innkeeper began destroying their mud nests. The Mission’s location near two rivers made it an ideal location for the swallows to nest, as there was a constant supply of the insects on which they feed, & the young birds are well-protected inside the ruins of the old stone church.

Each year the Fiesta de las Golondrinas is held in the City of San Juan Capistrano. Presented by the San Juan Capistrano Fiesta Association, the Fiesta de las Golondrinas is a week-long celebration of this auspicious event culminated by the Swallows Day Parade & Mercado, street fair. Tradition has it that the main flock arrives on March 19 (Saint Joseph’s Day), & flies south on Saint John’s Day, October 23.

In recent years, the swallows have failed to return in large flocks to the Mission. The reduction has been connected to increased development of the area, including many more choices of nesting place & fewer insects to eat.

1797 – Death Day of Christiane Wilhelmine Sophie von Kühn (March 17, 1782 – March 19, 1797) the love interest & eventual fiancée of the German Romantic poet a& philosopher Friedrich von Hardenberg, known to many simply as Novalis. Her image famously appears in Novalis’ Hymns to the Night, a foundational text of the literary movement known as German Romanticism.

“Over I journey
And for each pain
A pleasant sting only
Shall one day remain.
Yet in a few moments
Then free am I,
And intoxicated
In Love’s lap lie.
Life everlasting
Lifts, wave-like, at me,
I gaze from its summit
Down after thee.
Your lustre must vanish
Yon mound underneath —
A shadow will bring thee
Thy cooling wreath.
Oh draw at my heart, love,
Draw till I’m gone,
That, fallen asleep, I
Still may love on.
I feel the flow of
Death’s youth-giving flood
To balsam and ether
Transform my blood —
I live all the daytime
In faith and in might
And in holy fire
I die every night”.

Although Novalis’s love for Sophie has assumed mythic proportions, their time together was short . The two met on November 17, 1794 when Novalis was twenty-two &Sophie was only twelve. They became engaged on Sophie’s thirteenth birthday March 17, 1795. Sophie became sick in November 1795, & her sickness continued until her death at the age of 15 in March 1797. The loss of Sophie brought about a deep period of mourning & suffering in Novalis’ life.

Ludwig Tieck’s biography of Novalis describes Sophie, saying: “Even as a child, she gave an impression which–because it was so gracious and spiritually lovely–we must call superearthly or heavenly, while through this radiant and almost transparent countenance of hers we would be struck with the fear that it was too tender and delicately woven for this life, that it was death or immortality which looked at us so penetratingly from those shining eyes; and only too often a rapid withering motion turned our fear into an actual reality”.

1918 – The U.S. Congress establishes time zones & approves daylight saving time.

1945 –Adolf Hitler issues his “Nero Decree” ordering all industries, military installations, shops, transportation facilities and communications facilities in Germany to be destroyed.

2018 – The last male northern white rhinoceros, Sudan, dies.

***

“Uplifted is the stone —
And all mankind is risen —
We all remain thine own.
And vanished is our prison.
All troubles flee away
Thy golden bowl before,
For Earth and Life give way
At the last and final supper.

To the marriage Death doth call —
The virgins standeth back —
The lamps burn lustrous all —
Of oil there is no lack —
If the distance would only fill
With the sound of you walking alone
And that the stars would call
Us all with human tongues and tone.

Unto thee, O Mary
A thousand hearts aspire.
In this life of shadows
Thee only they desire.
In thee they hope for delivery
With visionary expectation —
If only thou, O holy being
Could clasp them to thy breast.

With bitter torment burning,
So many who are consumed
At last from this world turning
To thee have looked and fled,
Helpful thou hast appeared
To so many in pain.
Now to them we come,
To never go out again.

At no grave can weep
Any who love and pray.
The gift of Love they keep,
From none can it be taken away.
To soothe and quiet his longing,
Night comes and inspires —
Heaven’s children round him thronging
Watch and guard his heart.

Have courage, for life is striding
To endless life along;
Stretched by inner fire,
Our sense becomes transfigured.
One day the stars above
Shall flow in golden wine,
We will enjoy it all,
And as stars we will shine.

The love is given freely,
And Separation is no more.
The whole life heaves and surges
Like a sea without a shore.
Just one night of bliss —
One everlasting poem —
And the sun we all share
Is the face of God.”

~Novalis, Hymn’s to the Night section 5

***

Our Chicago community has taken on the mystery of the Being known as Kaspar Hauser this year. We will read thruout this Cosmic Holy Week, recognizing that confronting challenging cosmic alignments is part of humanities calling, to face, name & work to redeem evil.  

We will continue this Study during the Ecclesiastical Easter-Tide, so that like Rudolf Steiner, who gave lectures during the ‘Easter Paradox of 1924’, on BOTH the Cosmic & Ecclesiastical dates, we will be working to bridge the 2 streams.

Interesting to note that the lectures to the workers (Southern Stream) “Star Wisdom, Moon Religion, Sun Religion” & “Easter as a Chapter in the Mystery Wisdom of Man” centered around bringing the wisdom of the Magi (Northern Stream) to the Shepherds (Southern Stream).

And the lectures to the members of the Anthroposophical Society (Northern Stream)  “The Easter Festival in relation to the Mysteries” gave the Magi a profound look into ancient mysteries of Adonis & Ephesus, the distinct worldview of the Shepherds.

And in the Young Doctors Easter Course given at that same time, by Dr. Steiner & Dr. Ita Wegman (Southern Stream) they are given these verses to meditate on:
“Behold what is joined in the cosmos,
And you will feel the forming of the human being
Schau, was kosmisch sich fügt
Behold all that moves you in Air
And you will experience the ensoulment of the human being.
Schau, was luftig dich bewegt
Behold what is changed in the Earthly
And you will discern the spiritualizing of the human being.

The whole planetary system is connected with substances that are remedial:
Saturn = Lead
Jupiter = Tin
Mars = Iron
Sun = Gold
Venus = Copper
Mercury = Quicksilver
Moon = Silver.

(see Lili Kolisko’s experiments done during the Easter Paradox of 1943)

If you think about these lines again and again they will help you to realize what is built into the human being out of the cosmos, out of the earth’s periphery, and by earthly forces. If you will meditate on these questions in the light of the following lines, you will learn to look into the real nature of the human being:

Behold, what is joined in the cosmos:
You feel the forming of man.
(that in connection with Moon)
Behold, all that moves you in Air:
(for example, in breath or in blood circulation)
You will live man’s ensoulment.
(that in connection with Sun)
Behold, what is changed in the Earthly:
(especially what also brings death to the human being)
You will discern the spiritualizing of man.
(that in connection with Saturn)”

What a powerful opportunity for all of us to practice the Science of the Spirit.

~Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Click below to read more research into this Easter Paradox 2019: A Cosmic Wake Up Call: The True Date of Easter 2019