In art we find the doorway to the eternal. It is a bridge which connects us with spiritual processes. It opens the way so we can step back from sense-bound life, bringing us closer to the core of being – who we are before birth & after death.

Rudolf Steiner talks about how the spiritual realm can be felt, especially around the shoulders & head. How from there, it sends out its blessing out in the forces of speech & thought. The art of the creative speech is destined to open this realm in a new way. Around the head weave the thoughts that in primordial beginnings were one with the Logos, & to which we turn thru the words:

“In the beginning is the thought, and the thought is with God, And a Godly Being is the thought. In it is life, and life shall become the light of my ‘I’. And may the divine thought shine into my ‘I’, so that the darkness of my ’I’ may take hold of the divine thought.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Pre-Earthly Deeds of Christ.

The more we speak & move words like these, artistically, with vivid, sensing feeling, & the more lovingly we are able to dedicate ourselves to them, the more lively & lasting will they live within us. A gesture embodying a loving mood unfolds & expands the human soul.

“The dwindling of the forces of love is the same as what we could call the dwindling of the forces of the etheric body, for the ether body is at the same time the body of love.” ~Rudolf Steiner, Faith, Hope, Love.

In language & speaking we have before us – audibly – an archetype, a vibrational image of the human being. We can implement the idea of becoming healthy thru speech, by changing our speaking habits. Artistic practice of individual sounds brings to bare the wholeness of the cosmos within us.

One of our sister-strivers, from NE Oregon, tuning into this blog, wrote that she went out walking with her dog with the intention of sounding U & instead, out came “Do-Re-Me” from The Sound of Music! She said: “Worked great. cheerful, positive and picked up my pace a little to walk with the song. Thank you for the sound connection. “ Thank you Virginia for sharing your insights!

Making it fun certainly enlivens the process!

We become ill when our inner life-stream has come into disorder. Rudolf Steiner describes the struggle that takes place in the ether body “…between the progressive spirits & the ahrimanic beings…our ether body becomes pervaded by spiritual darkness….In the ether body is our store of memories, mirrored thoughts that we have in memories, thoughts mirrored by time. But deep down in our ether body, behind memory, the good, divine-spiritual beings are at work, opposing Ahriman.” ~The Inner nature of Man.

An artistic practice of speech strives to reach the profound forces of the life-body in order to ignite anew the supporting, maintaining, healthy life forces within us. We can work consciously with these helpful spiritual beings to bring ourselves back into health.

Let’s become active researchers into Spiritual Science by putting this into practice, each in our own way.

Blessings and Peace ~Hazel Archer Ginsberg

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

7 July 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Comet NEOWISE is currently in the constellation of Auriga. Until July 12, NEOWISE is best seen approximately 90 minutes before sunrise. Look in the Northeast direction, about 10 degrees above the Horizon. The comet will rise higher as the morning progresses but the sky will get brighter as well. After July 12, it will be visible after sunset, in the Northwest direction. It will climb higher each day; by July 25, the comet will appear 30 degrees above the horizon at sunset. Its brightness will decrease during this period, even though it will be closest to earth on July 23.

‘World Chocolate Day’ – today marks 500 years since chocolate was introduced to Europe

1207 – Feast Day of Saint Elizabeth a princess of the Kingdom of Hungary, Landgravine of Thuringia  – the town of St. Germain of the the Rakoczy family. She was an early member of the Third Order of St. Francis, & is honored as its patroness. Elizabeth is perhaps best known for her miracle of the roses which says that while out taking bread to the poor in secret, she ran into her husband Ludwig on a hunting party, who, in order to quell suspicions of the gentry that she was stealing treasure from the castle, asked her to reveal what was hidden under her cloak. In that moment, her cloak fell open & a vision of white & red roses could be seen, which proved to Ludwig that God’s protecting hand was at work.

Rudolf Steiner speaks about this in ‘Christianity in the Evolution of Mankind – Leading Individualities and Avatar-Beings’ GA 109, Berlin February 15, 1909. “St. Frances of Assisi, was one of those who had a copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth inwoven. Because of this he was able to accomplish just what he did accomplish, and many of his adherents from the Order of Franciscans, had similarly such copies interwoven with their astral bodies.

All that was in Francis of Assisi was wholly sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth, so to speak. Wholly sentient soul of Jesus of Nazareth was contained in that remarkable personality whom you will follow biographically with the soul when you know the secret of her life: Elizabeth of Thüringen, born in 1207. Here we have a personality who had a copy of the astral body of Jesus of Nazareth woven into the sentient soul. The riddle of the human being is solved for us by means of just such knowledge.”

1834 – In New York City, four nights of rioting against abolitionists began.

In the Americas & Western Europe, abolitionism was a movement to end the Atlantic slave trade & set slaves free. In the 17th century, English Quakers and evangelical Protestants condemned slavery as un-Christian. By that time, most slaves were Africans, but thousands of Native Americans remained enslaved.

In the 18th century, as many as six million Africans were taken to the Americas as slaves. At least a third of the newly enslaved Africans were carried on British ships.

1911 – The United States, Great Britain, Japan, & Russia sign the North Pacific Fur Seal Convention banning open-water seal hunting, the first international treaty to address wildlife preservation issues

1928 – Sliced bread is sold for the first time (on the inventor’s 48th birthday) by the Chillicothe Baking Company

1930 – Industrialist Henry J. Kaiser begins construction of Boulder Dam

1930 – Deathday of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the creator of Sherlock Holmes

1937 – Japanese forces invaded China

1946 – Mother Francesca S. Cabrini becomes the first American to be canonized.

1947 – The Roswell incident, the (supposed) crash of an alien spaceship near Roswell in New Mexico

1957 – Deathday of Walter Johannes Stein – a major figure in the early anthroposophical movement. A close pupil of Rudolf Steiner’s, he also wrote an important books of original historical research: ‘The Ninth Century and the Holy Grail’,  & ‘The Death of Merlin, Arthurian Myth and Alchemy’. Stein was born & grew up in Vienna, & his mother was an anthroposophist. At age 21 he found Steiner’s book “Occult Science” on his mother’s desk & started reading it. He was immediately fascinated by the contents & wanted to know more about the anthroposophical movement. Towards this goal he attended a conference where he met Rudolf Steiner, & later had a private audience. Stein was occupied with the questions of the nature of consciousness & of epistemology in his university studies, & from Rudolf Steiner he received indications for how to proceed in his research. His studies were interrupted by the First World War, in which he fought for Austria on the eastern front. He experienced the full horrors of the modern battlefield & survived. Shortly after the end of the war he completed his Ph.D. in philosophy & was called to teach history at the first Waldorf School in Stuttgart where he established the high school history curriculum under Rudolf Steiner’s guidance.

Steiner’s death in 1925 was difficult for everyone connected to Anthroposophy, & in 1928 Stein ceased teaching at the Stuttgart Waldorf School due to disagreements with other Anthroposophists about his lecturing activities.

As the Nazi party rose to power in Germany, Stein, who had a Jewish background, moved to London in 1933. He would remain in England until the end of his life in 1951, though he continued to travel widely, lecturing on Anthroposophy.

Among some interesting high points of his life was his collaboration with Belgium’s King Leopold on a plan to avert the Second World War through the implementation of the Threefold Social Order.

Another time, when traveling in Turkey, Stein arranged an audience with Kamel Ataturk where he lectured the founder of modern Turkey on the anthroposophical worldview.

Stein also experienced his past life as a result of his dedication to meditative exercises.

An excerpt from: Buddha and the Mission of INDIA, by Dr. W. J. Stein

In the legend of Buddha it is said that when the Bodhisattva descended to his last birth, he had received from Gods and man all the gifts which predestined him to become a king over the whole world.  But the greatness and deep significance of this Bodhisattva-—who in his twenty-ninth year ascended to the level of Buddha—was that although he possessed the power fitting him for world-rulership, he transformed it.  The more deeply we study the mission of India in the evolution of mankind as a whole, the more clearly do we realize that the task of India is to transform the impulse of war and conquest into a healing love, into the impulse of compassion, love and sacrifice.  The secret of India is that it is part of her mission to awaken men to this ideal.

Rudolf Steiner has described the evolution of man in the post-glacial age by indicating how the first epoch of civilization in India has its rise, and he called our attention to the fact that the seven cities ‘which are in Asia,’ to which the Letters in the Apocalypse are addressed, represent the seven epochs of civilization.  Thus the first letter to the Church at Ephesus must be thought of as referring to the Indian epoch of civilization.  If we apply this conception to Indian history, we can say that in the spiritual sense India is an Ephesus and that the mission of this spiritual Ephesus is to transform the impulse of conquest and of power into that of healing love.

The attitude of soul that is characteristic of Buddhism is ‘christianized’ in a most wonderful way in Francis of Assisi.  Rudolf Steiner indicated this in his lectures entitled Anthroposophical Ethics. In the early part of his life Francis of Assisi was bold and prodigal, full of warlike impulses.  As the outcome of a great and impressive vision he transmuted these qualities of his being and became a healer.  Rudolf Steiner also told us that leprosy—a disease so widespread in Europe during the Middle Ages—is to be traced to the chronic state of fear aroused in the peoples by the Mongolian invasions.  And it was precisely Francis of Assisi who brought forces of healing into these conditions.  We see forces working in him which are the direct opposite of the forces of Mars.  Francis of Assisi bore within him the healing forces of love which we may call the Mercury-forces.

1959 – Venus occults the star Regulus. This rare event is used to determine the diameter of Venus & the structure of the Venusian atmosphere

1987 – Public testimony at the Iran-Contra hearing began

1994 – Amazon.com, Inc. was founded in Seattle, Washington under the name “Cadabra.”

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August 8-18 ‘Classroom Alive’ Youth Open-Source Learning in Chicago

We’re starting up with Culture in our community – join young people here in Chicago for a 10 day walking journey – Classroom Alive Chicago!

Exploration & experiencial learning all over Chicagoland, starting at at Elderberries 3-Fold Bio-dynamic Outpost & Cultrual Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618

for more info. contact Ultra-Violet Archer, or Frank Agrama

Details TBA #ClassroomAliveChicago2020

Thank you for forwarding this flier for any interested young people –

Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator

August 20-23, 2020 Questions of Courage Youth Conference at Elderberries

Questions of Courage 2020 in Chicago – August 20-23 Elderberries Biodynamic Outpost and 3Fold Cultural Hub 4251 N. Lincolon Ave. Chicago, IL. 60618

August 20: Check-in, share conversation, build the ground for the journey together.

August 21-22: Travel to Wisconsin Move together towards the land, link up with Farmer John and Haidy Angelic Organics Biodynamic Farm, and also with Dana and Phil Burns at Healing Traditions and Alizur farm. Connect with the land, plants, animals, and one another, through creative explorations and “roughin’ it” type amendments. Sleep under the stars or indoors.

August 23: Return to Chicago Enter back into the metropolitan context, into the social questions of urban life, and close the gathering together at Elderberries, setting the ground for future work out of questions of courage that are present.

Other locations and collaborators are currently in dialogue, and will be updated here.

The gathering is essentially about stepping into the living natural element, step by step, making an integral connection, with one another, ourselves, and the elements that support us here on the Earth…”

registration: https://docs.google.com/…/1FAIpQLSdY7KXHkjUPV2h9UD…/viewform

Thank you Elderberries for giving us an anchor to build our heartland gathering around!

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August 27-30, HOW WE WILL 2020

At Elderberries 3-fold Bio-Dynamic Outpost

for more info. contact Frank Agrama or Dottie Zold

Details TBA Co-sponsored in part by The Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago -Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Festival & Program Coordinator