16 March 2019 – The eve of the ‘True’ Holy Week. “Speaking with the Stars”: Very high after dark, Castor & Pollux point at the waxing gibbous Moon.
The Big Dipper glitters softly high in the northeast these evenings, standing on its handle. You probably know that the two stars forming the front of the Dipper’s bowl are the Pointers; they point to Polaris. And, you may know that if you follow the curve of the Dipper’s handle out & around by a little more than a Dipper length, you’ll arc to Arcturus, rising in the east. But did you know that if you follow the Pointers backward the opposite way, you’ll land in Leo? Draw a line diagonally across the Dipper’s bowl from where the handle is attached, continue far on, & you’ll go to Gemini. And look at the 2 stars forming the open top of the Dipper’s bowl. Follow this line past the bowl’s lip far across the sky, & you crash into Capella.
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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1244 – Over 200 Cathars who refuse to recant are burned to death after the Fall of Montségur.
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POD (Poem Of the Day)
An old gnarled tree near the shore,
Roots swallowing the sand & rock
Pecked by the high-tide & the wild wind…
A 1000 fledglings have nested in my boughs
& beneath, I give shelter to all…
How do you see me?
As firewood or freedom…?
~hag
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The Northern & Southern Mystery Streams as they relate to the ‘Easter Paradox’
Rudolf Steiner connects the Northern path to the Sun Mysteries, an initiation thru the outer world of nature & the cosmos, enacted at the time of the Autumn Equinox. The Adonis Mysteries revealed the experience of the human soul after death; the ascent into the macrocosm, to unite with the Spirit of the Sun. The threat to the pupils on this path was Ahriman, who seeks to keep humanity bound to outer material phenomena.
In the Southern Mysteries, the initiatory path of the Moon, led the pupil into the inner nature of their own being. This revealed the experience of existence before birth, the descent into the microcosm. These rites were enacted at the nearest Full Moon to the Spring Equinox, where the pupil gazing up thru the sphere of the Moon was able to see into the Soul of the Sun-sphere. Their main opponent or tempter was Lucifer.
Both paths, although completely different, arrived at the same goal – the union with the cosmic Christ in the sphere of the Sun.
These 2 paths were developed prior to the Mystery of Golgotha, in strict separation from each other. Thru Christ’s Deed, the possibility was created for every human being to receive the fruits of both mystery streams thru the actual awareness & experience of His Being in the sphere of the Earth.
These 2 paths must become united. Every human being is now being asked to make a connection to the outer, into nature & the cosmos, as well as, to the inner, into our own beings.
Otherwise, if the 2 streams continue to develop separately they fall prey to the adversarial forces mentioned above.
Many folks have been quoting from Steiner’s lectures given at the ‘Easter Paradox of 1924’, where he speaks about the Northern Adonis Mysteries, as a justification for celebrating Easter-tide according to the fixed date.
But we must also take into account that in March 1924 at the time of the Astrological Easter, Steiner also gave lectures to the workers from the perspective of the Southern Mysteries.
Dear friends, we are being asked thru the ‘Easter Paradox of 2019’ to cultivate a new experience of Christ, which is connected to our willingness to encounter evil; an ‘As above so Below’ experience, beyond a creed, or the events in Palestine 2000 years ago; we are called to bridge the 2 streams within ourselves, which will foster a true spiritual experience in the life-realm of the Earth.
Rudolf Steiner’s core mission was to bring an understanding of Karma & Reincarnation to the West. Perhaps by looking into our propensity toward 1 or the other of the Streams we can find a clue to our own karma, & thru this year’s ‘Easter Paradox’ find a way to open to the opposite stream to bring the Christ path to bear within us.
If we are to live into: ‘Christ in me’, we must take up this task of integration, for the future evolution of humanity & the Universe.
(see Sergei Prokoffief’s book: ‘Rudolf Steiner and the Founding of the New Mysteries’, Chap. 2, pg 35-36)
Below is a link for a compilation of my research so far on the ‘Easter Paradox of 2019’
A Cosmic Wake Up Call: The True Date of Easter 2019
