(part 6 -the final bit of the series)

Greetings friends on this Eve of the Full Thunder-Buck Moon – The Eve of the Cross-Quarter often called Lammas or Loaf-Mass in honor of the grain harvest.

I am leaving tomorrow for my next session of AAP Training, so I wanted to wrap up this series of reflections from “The Mysteries of Healing: Realizing Anthroposophia” Conference. Here are the links to the earlier essays part 1 – part 2 – part 3 – part 4 – part 5

To further the emphasis on the healing task of the Arts, the perfect capper to ‘Realizing Anthroposophia’ came in the form of a spoken word performance by Richard Ramsbotham, with captivating music by Godlind Gadeke – “In Search of the Hidden Sources of Healing” – Through the death-forces in our culture to the rebirth of the spirit! Taken directly from the diaries of Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk written up in her book: “The Journey to Byzantium – The Palladium of Victory”, where she poetically describes her super-sensible experiences in Constantinople in 1926.

Yes, it’s the same Countess von Keyserlingk who together with her husband Count Carl von Keyserlingk hosted Rudolf Steiner’s Agriculture Course at their estate in the obscure village of Koberwitz near Breslau, Germany (now Kobierzyce, near Wrocław, Poland).

Her highly developed clairvoyant ability, verified by Rudolf Steiner, opens her to the dread deed of 869 – the banishment of the Spirit – which plunges humanity into materialism. Facing this darkness, she also experiences the full potential to overcome this pronouncement – bringing a rebirth of Spirit – a healing of the sickness prevailing in our culture.

Perhaps you attended the amazing zoom series: “Shining a Light into the Darkness” initiated by Dr. Melissa Greer of Carah Medical Arts, for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Branch? Richard Ramsbotham gave the first two talks on the Academy of Gondishapur.  Melissa asked him to contribute something for the Conference & this is what he felt called to bring! She sent him my essay on the Countess: Johanna von Keyserlingk: Vessel for the Etheric Christ for art & background.

Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk was deeply affected by Rudolf Steiner’s death, feeling it as blow to humanity. The only hope she thought, must come thru the aid of the Spiritual World, which she was very much in-touch with. This launched her on a quest to re-discover the lost “Palladium – The Sun-Jewel of Pallas Athena”.

~Nike (Victory) offers an egg to a snake entwined around a column surmounted by the Trojan Palladium

Many tales speak of the Palladium (like the Spear of Destiny) – as conferring spiritual rulership of the world for whoever holds it.

~Odysseus and Diomedes steal the Palladium from Troy

Steiner described the search for the Palladium as a quest for human freedom.  “Legends tell of the removal of The Palladium, the Treasure of Wisdom, from Troy to Rome, from Rome to Constantinople, when Roman Christianity was secularized. They tell of its future removal to the East…& they tell of the necessity for this Sun-Treasure to receive new light from the West…How it must wait until it is redeemed spiritually in the West, released from the dark shadows of a purely external knowledge…

The Sun-Mystery has disappeared into the nether regions of human existence. Through spiritual-scientific development we must find it again…

Today people are looking expectantly towards – Washington! Not those “Washingtons” having conferences looking for an open door for trade to China -but those that speak with the tones of the spiritual world –  conferences conducted in the West that will bring salvation – which develop in such a way that the Palladium can be kindled once again to light. For like a fluorescent body, the Palladium, in itself, is dark; if it is suffused with light, then it becomes radiant. And so it is with the wisdom of the East: dark in itself, but it will light up when it is permeated by the spiritual light, The Sun-Wisdom of the West.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Cosmosophy, GA 208, 6 Nov. 1921

The journey the Countess takes is not about finding a physical object, but of striving to understand the spiritual causes for the sickness of society – & for the spiritual healing of it all. This brought her first into contact with the dark powers involved with the Council of Constantinople in 869.

From Rudolf Steiner: “…At the Council of Constantinople (in 869) it was decreed that the spirit did not exist; it was dogmatically stated that the human being consisted only of body and soul, and it was heresy to speak of a human spirit. In the same way attempts will be made to decree the soul, the inner life, as nonexistent.

The time will come — and it may not be far off — when quite different tendencies will come up at a congress like the one held in 1912 (involving the start of WW1) and people will say: It is pathological for people to even think in terms of spirit and soul. ‘Sound’ people will speak of nothing but the body. It will be considered a sign of illness for anyone to arrive at the idea of any such thing as a spirit or a soul. People who think like that will be considered to be sick and — you can be quite sure of it — a medicine will be found for this.

At Constantinople the spirit was made non-existent. The soul will be made non-existent with the aid of a drug. Taking a ‘sound point of view’, people will invent a vaccine to influence the organism as early as possible, preferably as soon as it is born, so that this human body never even gets the idea that there is a soul and a spirit.

The two philosophies of life will be in complete opposition. One movement will need to reflect how concepts and ideas may be developed to meet the reality of soul and spirit. The others, the heirs of modern materialism, will look for the vaccine to make the body ‘healthy’, that is, makes its constitution such that this body no longer talks of such rubbish as soul and spirit, but takes a ‘sound’ view of the forces which live in engines and in chemistry and let planets and suns arise from nebulae in the cosmos. Materialistic physicians will be asked to drive the souls out of humanity.

People who think that playful ideas will help them to look ahead to the future are very much mistaken. We need serious, profound ideas to look ahead to the future. Anthroposophy is not a game, nor just a theory; it is a task that must be faced for the sake of human evolution.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, THE FALL OF THE SPIRITS OF DARKNESS, GA 177, 5. Changes in Humanity’s Spiritual Make-up, 7 October 1917, Dornach

Dear friends – As we meet each of the many 100 year milestones that ask us to transform & renew what was wrought in Steiner’s time, we can see many parallels. Ramsbotham’s question to us thru this artistic work is: As we stand against the abyss of the ‘4^th Industrial Revolution in which ‘biological & digital identities would be merged’ How can we uncover the hidden mysteries of Healing? What is asked of us today?

As Countess Johanna von Keyserlingk says:

“We were aware that humanity had struck against something in front of which we were powerless. So If we are not to go under, Spiritual Powers need to come to humanity’s aid.”

Thank you Dear Richard for this moving piece. The voice of the Countess rings forth today with light filled hope thru your work.

May we quest together for the renewed Sun-Jewel of AnthropoSophia – that every human soul become a Star & the Earth a New Sun…

To finalize: Here is what I put on the Ideas for the future card:

Conference or workshop theme ideas: Preventative ‘Medicine’ / Social Health 

In the spirit of the ‘Cosmic Communion’ in the New Mysteries of Healing, does anyone else feel a calling to bring a Renewal to Pastoral Medicine, in the light of the Reverse Cultus, co-creating Rites of Passage to help folks meet the milestone moments marking the 7 year cycles, perhaps in conjunction with Waldorf Teachers, as a preventative measure  – a psycho/spiritual medicine that may allow a healing catharsis, so that perhaps the soul doesn’t have to resort to becoming ill to have a threshold experience…?  

May we ennoble the Cultural Realm in Freedom thru Love… 

I will be off-line until 9 Aug. 2023 – I will try to send out remotely a few inspirations for Lammas tomorrow

May the bread of life nurture the Christ in you

~hag