Greetings dear friends – Can you feel it? The expansion experienced during Ascension gives way to a kind of constriction of the soul, as we abide in the upper room of our consciousness. In open anticipation, we prepare for the revelation of the Spirit of Wisdom – The Paraclete – The Mediator -between the ‘Above & Below’ that connects us to our highest human destiny – modeled in the original Pentecost mystery, 50 days after Easter Sunday.
The Merry month of May, when all of nature is reborn, belongs to the 3-Fold Easter-Tide Season, which is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.
As we know the 3rd Sunday in May is Mother’s Day. And every year our family has a practice of beautifying our wild garden – planting flowers, herbs & our vegetables for the year. We have the annual Plant Parade – All the house plants go outside where they receive some of Angie’s gold compost.
Besides tuning into the plant world, I have an ever-growing collection of rocks & crystals that I have gathered over the years from various excursions, & every Mother’s Day I clean & rearrange them around the plants. I touch each one, connecting to its essence, often recalling the story of where they came from & why I chose them.
I receive so much from the treasure’s of Natrura’s.
We are shifting now at the end of May to the virtue: ‘Perseverance Becomes Faithfulness’.
In my work to understand the initiation of Mary Magdalene I have taken up a practice of working with the 12 virtues as a way of transforming ‘the 7 demons’.
After Whitsunday I will share some of my experiences in seeking to live into this ‘Apostle to the Apostles‘ – This woman who was chosen to anoint the ‘Anointed One’.
Until then I will abide (John 15:4-7 – Thanks CG)
~hag
Here are some pics from Our Spring Farm Day at Zinniker. It was a glorious Saturday with many friends. We stuffed stag bladders with yarrow, Stirred 500, & barrel, nettle, & equisetum, infused gold into horn silica, made tree paste, visited the animals, including their new puppy, & shared a delicious repast…CG & I were on delivery duty for the Chicago egg group, so we had to leave before folks did the spray on the land. I look forward to gathering again for St. John’s…God Bless the Zinniker’s.
RUDOLF STEINER’S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated with added titles by Roy Sadler
ASCENSIONTIDE
Transition verse from Spring to Summer
Come, Foresight
v7
My Self is threatening to flee,
lured stromgly by the cosmic light.
Now you, my foresight, dawn your star
and my divining, firmly as of right,
replace the power of thought
that in the senses’ glory leaves me.
This is part of the square quartet, the verses at the centre of each quarter of the year, each of them presenting a challenge to the soul: to proceed in her development something must wake up. This week’s verse is a luciferic temptation; the mirror verse an ahrimanic one.
I think they can be imagined as transition verses between the seasons of the year.
LENT 1
Transition verse from Winter to Spring
Memory, Arise
v46
The world is threatening to numb
my soul’s own inborn force.
Now memory, companion me,
and in my sight enhance
the penetration of my glance
vitality of will alone sustains
21 May 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars: Look west shortly after sunset this evening for the young moon. It’s edging toward the brightest planet, dazzling Venus (occult Mercury) look for the pale glow – called earthshine – on the unlit side of the moon.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (RSarchve.org)
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY ( From Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, The Present Age Mag., Wikipedia, RSarchive.org)
429 BC -Birthday of Plato (According to Dunlop’s ‘Path’ Calendar)
1265 – Birthday of Dante – according to Rudolf Steiner “…Dante became a seer at the age of thirty-five”. “…All leaders of mankind, who were aware of how the higher spiritual life of man arises out of his lower nature, have comprehended the significance of Easter. Dante therefore described his awakening — in his Divine Comedia — as taking place on Good Friday.”
“…Dante had a friend and teacher Brunetto Latini, who, as I think you will recognise from what we shall presently say, may be described as an Initiate in the true sense of the word.”
“…When you follow the teaching of the Templars, there at the heart of it is a kind of reverence for something of a feminine nature. This femininity was known as the Divine Sophia, the Heavenly Wisdom. Manas is the fifth principle. the spiritual self of man, that must be developed, for which a temple must be built. And, just as the pentagon at the entrance to Solomon’s Temple characterises the fivefold human being, this female principle similarly typifies the wisdom of the Middle Ages, This wisdom is exactly what Dante sought to personify in his Beatrice. Only from this viewpoint can Dante’s Divine Comedy be understood. Hence you find Dante, too, using the same symbols as those which find expression in the Templars, the Christian knights, the Knights of the Grail, and so on. Everything which is to happen [in the future] was indeed long since prepared for by the great initiates, who foretell future events, in the same way as in the Apocalypse, so that souls will be prepared for these events.” ~ Rudolf Steiner, The Temple Legend
1471 – Birthday of Albrecht Dürer, German painter, engraver, & mathematician
1639 – Death Day of Tommaso Campanella, an Italian Dominican friar, philosopher, theologian, astrologer, and poet. Campanella was prosecuted by the Roman Inquisition for heresy in 1594 and was confined to house arrest for two years. Accused of conspiring against the Spanish rulers of Calabria in 1599, he was tortured and sent to prison, where he spent 27 years. He wrote his most significant works during this time, including The City of the Sun, a utopia describing an egalitarian theocratic society where property is held in common.
Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as reincarnating in the brilliant but tragic individuality of Otto Weininger
1860 – Giuseppe Garibaldi begins his attack on Palermo, Sicily, as part of the Italian unification. Rudolf Steiner speaks about him qite a bit in his Karmic Relationships series.
“…many Initiates of bygone days appear again as personalities who with the concepts and notions prevailing to-day cannot be recognised as former Initiates because they are obliged to use the body which their epoch provides. Garibaldi is just such an example…In Hibernia, in Ireland, there were deep and penetrating Mysteries whose influences still made their way across to Europe in the early centuries of the spread of Christianity. And there one finds an Initiate whose path in the 8th to 9th centuries after the founding of Christianity led him from Ireland to the region corresponding approximately to modern Alsace. Under the stormy conditions then prevailing, this Initiate achieved much for the cause of true Christianity. To this Initiate came three pupils from different quarters of the world — three pupils who entrusted themselves to him. These three pupils came to him — one from far away, another from nearer at hand. But in the Irish Mysteries there was an inviolable decree that an Initiate to whom pupils had entrusted themselves must not abandon them in the later incarnation but must accomplish in earthly life something that will hold them to him, something that establishes a bond between him and these pupils. The Initiate of whom I am speaking was born again as Joseph Garibaldi, with that visionary quality of will which in olden times had been able to express itself in a quite different form from that possible in a body belonging to the 19th century. Garibaldi received only a very inferior education, quite unlike the education that was typical of the 19th century. The three others I have named were the pupils who in the past had come to him from different parts of the world. But the impulse working from the one incarnation over into the other was far deeper and more potent than external principles of action…And so in spite of the radical difference in sentiment and conviction, Garibaldi could not abandon, for example, Victor Emanuel...” ~Rudolf Steiner
1907 – Bubonic plague breaks out in San Francisco
Tune into the Ascsension – thru these video recordings:
~Vitae Sophia~ A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor (New Hampshire)
As Above So Below (Boston)
The Sacred Geometry of Ascension (Infinity Foundation)
Anthroposophia & the Redemption of Lucifer – A Pentecost Festival for 2023
with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, & Velsum Voices Lucien Dante Lazar & Ultra-Violet Archer
Experiential Break out led by Lucien
1 – 2:30 pm Central Time Saturday 27 May 2023 on zoom
Hazel Archer is inviting you to a scheduled Zoom meeting.
Topic: Pentecost Festival
Time: May 27, 2023 01:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041?pwd=WkNaNDlPS0VIMTJUUkE1ZkFMaDh5dz09
Meeting ID: 705 017 4041
Passcode: Whitsun
50 Days after The Resurrection = Our Community Pentecost Gathering – Community Bonfire, Pot-Luck, & Prep Stir
Whitsunday 28 May 2023
5 – 7 pm at the home of Hazel & Chuck Ginsberg
Please bring food & drink to share –
RSVP to Hazel@ReverseRitual.com
Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE
https://i0.wp.com/reverseritual.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/image-43.png?ssl=1
“The Merry month of May, when all of nature is reborn, belongs to the 3-Fold Easter-Tide Season, which is traditionally dedicated to the Blessed Virgin Mary.”
Hazel, I have been intensely studying this lecture, which sums up the Hamburg course in the Gospel of John. In it, the Mother of Jesus has no name, and the author of this gospel wants it to be known that she is, in reality, the “Virgin Sophia”, which is beyond secular names. She enters the household of the “Beloved Disciple”, as indicated in John 19:25, and a new Sonship begins. This seems very important, and even transcending the age in which it occurs.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA103/English/AP1962/19080531p01.html
Also, as a major highlight, is what is revealed here about the power of the Gospel of John in achieving Initiation. Consider these words:
“By continually meditating upon passages of the Gospel of St. John, the Christian pupil is actually in a condition to reach initiation without the three and a half day continued lethargic sleep. If each day he allows the first verses of the Gospel of St. John, from “In the beginning was the Word” to the passage “full of devotion and truth,” to work upon him, they become an exceedingly significant meditation. They have this force within them, for this Gospel is not there simply to be read and understood in its entirety with the intellect, but it must be inwardly fully experienced and felt. It is a force which comes to the help of initiation and works for it. Then will the “Washing of the Feet,” the “Scourging” and other inner processes be experienced as astral visions, wholly corresponding to the description in the Gospel itself, beginning with the 13th Chapter.”
On Holy Saturday I brought in an overview of Mary Magdalene, the One who Anointed the ‘Anointed One’, & we talked about what Rudolf Steiner reveals, that when we acquire wisdom thru the power of our higher I, becoming active in our Sentient Soul, we earn the title ‘Mary Magdalene’ – this title represents the Christened initiate who is able to give birth to the I in the Sentient Soul, to place her “I” in service of the senses – achieving the soul force of Intuition.
When our ‘I’ acquires wisdom by becoming intentional in the Intellectual soul, we receive the title ‘Mary’ – outpictured in the Bible as Mary of Cleophas, who demonstrated the ‘I’ in the Intellectual soul – Giving us access to true Inspiration.
When the ‘I’ achieves the Consciousness soul, it becomes the ‘Virgin Sophia’ – the Mother that gives birth to the Spirit Self – the Higher ‘I’.
This Virgin Sophia is the spiritualized Astral body. Those who achieve this stage of initiation become what can be called ‘The mother of god’,
because it allows the fertilization of the substance of Christ – an Imprint of the Christ ‘I’ to occur thru the medium of the Holy Spirit, which becomes individualized as Spirit Self.
I was reminded by this to read the fifth lecture in the Basle course in the Gospel of John:
“Those human beings who had brought the Spirit Self to birth within them, were called Children of God; in such men “the light shone into the Darkness and they received the light.” Outwardly they were, men of flesh and blood, but they bore a higher man within them; the Spirit Self had been born within them out of the spiritual soul. The “mother” of such a spiritualised man is not a bodily mother, she lies within him; she is the purified and spiritualised spiritual soul; she is the principle who gives birth to the higher man. This spiritual birth, a birth in the highest sense, is described in St. John’s Gospel. The Spirit Self or the Holy Spirit pours into the most highly purified Spiritual Soul. This is referred to in the words, “I saw the Spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him.” (John 1:32).
As the Spiritual Soul is the principle in which the Spirit Self develops, this principle is called the “mother of Christ,” or, in the occult schools, the “Virgin Sophia.” Through the fertilisation of the Virgin Sophia the Christ could be born in Jesus of Nazareth. In the occult school of Dionysius, the Intellectual Soul was called “Mary,” and the Sentient Soul “Mary Magdalene.”
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA100/English/LR1942/19071120p01.html
It is a highly unique description, and Steiner never expressed it in quite the same way in the Hamburg (1908) and Kassel (1909) courses on the Gospel of John. Thanks.
Yes, It’s one of my fav.s thanks for bringing this piece in
Here, the arrangement is described without naming the three Divine figures:
“What develops in us as the “astral body” and the “sentient soul,” which interact with each other, is simply a third element, abstractly speaking, but by passing in reality to this third element, a third unit can no longer merely be added to the first two. Instead, we must realize that this third element is in itself different from the first two.
Then, the fourth member is counted off, which is actually the fifth, and again, in the modern human being, we must basically add together the sixth and seventh. Thus, we arrive at the way they are actually listed in my Theosophy: 3, 4, 5, 6, 7. We have seven actual components, which, when they are abstractly counted off, are nine:
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA204/English/AP1987/images/204-08-01.gif
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA204/English/AP1987/19210423p01.html
The listing of the 7 & 9 fold human is helpful, thanks
I’m interested to see what you’ll present re the redemption of Lucifer. After our recent study of Peter Selg’s book on “The Future of Ahriman and the Awakening of Souls”, I was left with the impression that, as much as we like to think that Lucifer can be redeemed, Sorat will never allow this to happen. Sorat keeps both Lucifer and Ahriman in captivity to his wishes. This is my own view, not picked up from anyone else that I’m aware of, so I can’t blame it on anyone else if I’m completely off the mark.
Also, I’m curious about the title you gave today’s article, since I didn’t see anything about the vine or vineyards in the body of the article? I know you always have meaning in the titles you use.
My understanding is that Lucifer & Ahriman are part of our evolution – Steiner often says they were created by the ‘good gods’ as a goad to our growth.
After we achieve the status of 10th hierarchy & become like angels – we will have the forces to begin to redeem these adversarial forces & this is part of our evolution task.
Steiner gives the picture that already Lucifer is not as strong since the advent of the deed of Gologotha. As a fallen Archangel connected to the Sun – Steiner says that in the journey between death & rebirth we meet Lucifer in his unfallen state when we pass the Sun Sphere.
Ahriman will be harder, we need to be united before we can bring his forces into harmony.
But Sorat & the Asuras came in from another dimension. That’s why it these truly evil beings are so dangerous to our baby “I” –
I won’t be bringing those beings into our work for Pentecost, thank god. One step at a time. I will bring in the connections between the Serpent & the Divine Sophia & our responsibility in the redemption.
Steiner clearly indicates that Lucifer is on the path of redemption, and it has everything to do with Christ. It also has to do with the existence of Anthroposophy in the world. Ahriman is a more difficult challenge, and the Asuras is the one that is most deeply affecting the Fifth Cultural epoch at the present time. This lecture makes the case for all three in their particular time frame:
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA107/English/AP1954/19090322p01.html
Suffice to say that the triple challenge of the Adversarial Powers working in the world is what makes the Representative of Man the sculptural masterpiece that it is today. We must overcome.
I don’t know a lot about Sorat, and prefer to keep it that way, but one thing I’ve noticed is that he’s an imitator, and since the true G-d manifests as a trinity of beings (Father , Son and Holy Spirit), Sorat imitates this arrangement. Just as the true G-d keeps himself “cloaked in darkness” (1 Kings 8:12, Psalms 18:11), and thus out of sight, Sorat imitates this as well. We only know the true Father through the Son and Holy Spirit, and in like manner we only know of Sorat through Lucifer and Ahriman.
There is hope for us though – as we were reminded yesterday (Sunday, May21st) in our Christian Community Gospel reading, “In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). In like manner, we’re told in Revelation 20:10 that “The devil [Sorat], who deceived them [the saints], was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast [Ahriman] and the false prophet [Lucifer] are. And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.” A fitting end for the being who always deceives and accuses us; knowing this, we can be of good cheer.
Steiner describes the so-called, “Triple Fall”, in lecture 11 of the Apocalypse Priest Course. First is the Fall of Babylon, which involves the cleansing of the self in order to become a fit vessel for the spirit; the second is the Fall of Ahriman and the False Prophet, which is a matter of simple recognition and placing Ahriman “under one’s feet”; and the third is the Fall of Satan, which is even bewildering to Michael, Who has chosen to remain within the Sun’s orbit in order to further the Cosmic Intelligence for humanity. Thus, the Satan that is described here seeks to upset the whole cosmic system from outside, and even to the extent of disturbing planetary alignments and orbits. Thus, the overcoming is most definitely an active-dynamic engagement of The Hieroglyph of the Universe. This is ‘WE’.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA346/English/UNK1995/19240915v02.html
It’s a bit confusing, these different words “devil” and “Satan”. Also interesting that Steiner uses the word “Satan” in this lecture (if it’s been translated from the German correctly), since that word “Satan” doesn’t appear in the Revelation in the Greek; it does in the New Testament, in Matthew and Mark’s gospel, when Jesus rebukes Peter. But in Revelation the word used is “devil”. The devil is a diabolical force or power (Greek word “diabolos”), and Satan is a prince of evil spirits (Greek word “Satanas”). It’s the “diabolos”, the “devil”, that Michael contends with in Jude 9, over the body of Moses. I’d have to do a more in-depth look at it, but I still hold that a trio are cast into the lake of fire, regardless of what Babylon might mean symbolically ( at this time I believe Babylon to be a man-made pattern or system founded on our own mistaken desires).
You mention in one of your Anthropopper comments that Steiner speaks of a “false prophet” coming before Ahriman’s incarnation – I know you have your own views on that, but if Lucifer was to be the one called the “false prophet” in Revelation 20:10, what Steiner said would hold true, because Lucifer appeared before Ahriman. Just a thought that crossed my mind after reading your comment.
It *is* confusing when it comes to Revelations, and Steiner’s particular slant on it with regard to the Priest Course. I had always thought of Satan as the more common name for Ahriman, and when Christ seemingly rebukes Peter in Matthew 16:23, and Mark 8:33, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are a stumbling block to Me; for you are not setting your mind on God’s interests, but man’s”, it seems that the third fall, explained in lecture 11, as the Fall of Satan, is actually referring to Sorath, which is a much more difficult task to accomplish. I do see the “false prophet” as connected to Ahriman because they are linked together in relation to the second fall. I see Lucifer as related to the first fall, the Fall of Babylon, because Lucifer is very much a part of our corrupted nature since childhood, and this has to be cleansed through the practices known as Katharsis, which was a focal point of the ancient Mysteries, and precursor to the Act of Initiation. Today, this must be conducted through self-efforts of meditation and concentration, as contained (for example) in the verses that comprise the Gospel of St. John. Everything in this Gospel bears the stamp of a powerful astral force that is designed to come right down into the Etheric Body, and leading to Initiation, or Photismos (Illumination). You see, the writer of this Gospel of St. John was a very highly developed Initiate in his own right.
So you may just be correct in thinking that Satan is the more common name for Ahriman – I can see that possibility. And we can both be correct regarding Babylon – Lucifer has had a part in deceiving us into thinking that the glories of a “Babylon” are something worth striving for, but the creation of this Babylon is still a result of our free will.
Regarding modern initiation, here’s how I’m understanding it lately. This is from two paragraphs in the lecture of 1921 called The Alphabet. It’s a difficult process, as difficult as it would have been for the old initiates I’m sure, and because of that not many have the courage to face their vulnerabilities. It involves diving beneath the threshold of our consciousness:
“I have spoken of how it would appear to Man if he were to dive beneath the threshold of his consciousness. In ordinary consciousness memories are reflected upwards or, in other words, thoughts are reflections of what is experienced between birth and death. Normally we do not penetrate Man’s actual being beyond this recollection, this thought left behind in memory. From another point of view I have indicated how, beneath the threshold of consciousness, there lives what may be called a universal tragedy of mankind. ….
Diagram 1 (didn’t reproduce, so you’ll have to check the lecture)
Let us say that here we have the boundary between the conscious and the unconscious, red representing the conscious, blue the unconscious. If a person sees something belonging to the outer world or to himself, for instance, if with his own eye he sees another Man’s eye, then the visible rays which go out of his eye into the other Man are thrown back, and he experiences it in his consciousness. What he also bears of his own being beneath the threshold of consciousness he experiences in his astral body and his ego, but not in the ordinary waking state. It remains unconscious and essentially forms the actual content of the etheric and the physical bodies. The etheric body is never recognized at all by ordinary consciousness; it recognizes only the external aspect of the physical body. As I have mentioned in the past, we must plunge beneath memory to perceive the primal source of evil in human beings, but then something else can also be perceived, namely, an aspect of Man’s connection with the cosmos.”
Again, this dipping below the threshold of consciousness, being confronted with the primal source of evil (or the universal human tragedy as he calls it in the previous paragraph) – this is where only the courageous dare to trod. But the final thought expressed here is what I consider the “resurrection” experience we can all share in now, thanks to the deed of Golgotha; our reconnection with the cosmos. What Steiner is describing here is my understanding of today’s initiation, where we undergo a death-like experience, but are resurrected into the knowledge that Christ has paved the way for us to be reconnected to the entire cosmos; because when that reconnection happens, then the forces of Christ really come to life in us, and we can start doing the “greater things” he said his followers would do. We begin small, as he did at the wedding in Cana, and increasingly exercise our newfound etheric powers that are connected with the etheric Christ – very important point, they’re not our own powers, but are connected with Christ.
The Alphabet lecture: https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/Alphab_index.html#:~:text=In%20short%2C%20what%20would%20be,roots%20are%20in%20the%20universe.
Hi Maverick,
I am looking into this very interesting lecture from GA 209, and I think you will find that it does lead to the recognition of our very vulnerable state of being today. Yet, two years before, in lectures from November 1919, Steiner told of how the very last of the air-ensouling mysteries was doomed to fire with the burning of the Temple of Artemis at the heart of the Mystery of Ephesus.
This is where Cosmic Speech was squelched in order to make room for a new movement involving the forces of Life, Light, and Love. Thus, the advent of Christ was laid with the burning of the Mystery of Ephesus. Steiner does a great deal in this lecture on “The Alphabet”, c. 18 December 1921, to make known what is most vulnerable in the human condition; what has dived down in order to make the so-called, “Unconscious”, the mysterious entity that it is even today, and especially with all the elements of Freud and Jung.
What is needed is a clear-cut case of what it takes to evolve the most unconscious part of our being, which is the Will. We know that with the Will, we can move mountains, which also means that we can solve every problem that exists on Earth.
This is why I took the issue to the Anthropopper blog, and tried to be an advocate for change, based on what it might take to even begin a start. I was duly disappointed, but we still have time. Steiner made it so simple, and yet, when human effort is involved, that is where the problems begin. No one wants to change. They want everything else to change while they sit on their spot! It won’t happen with this kind of notion. Spiritual Science is a programmed discourse with a planned objective that seeks real results. If it hasn’t happened by now, it only proves that the adversarial powers are still working against it, and are very powerful in their own right. They form a kind of group soul, which gains the present advantage over the individual human spirit. We persist with vigilance, and it takes these kinds of insights and remarks from you and Hazel and Anthropopper. She has a whole community supporting her, and this becomes a touchstone .
The Cosmic Speech can never be ‘squelched’ – The wellspring simply goes underground, transforming & reappearing renewed
I agree that the adversarial powers are controlling many sleepy heads, hands & hearts –
Being a will person it is often difficult for me to relate…
Know what you mean Hazel – I too am a will person, always have been, so it’s hard to relate. But, as Lisa Romero said about a month ago, on her Astral Arc program (on Youtube), some people don’t want to put the effort into the Ascent; they’d prefer to be dropped off by helicopter at the peak. I guess they’ve been conditioned by our “fast food” generation; they want instant results, and aren’t interested in enjoying the journey it takes to get to the top.
This societal overlay comes from years of bad education, lots of mind-controlling propaganda, & like you say the fast food mentality.
Steiner said we can’t think because there isn’t enough nutrients in our soil to support the formative forces…That’s one of the reasons I champion Biodynamics…
Not to mention those pesky adversarial beings who prefer we stay docile couch potatoes
I knew that 🙂
Certain extant circumstances have to be faced in order not to undermine the whole engagement. The Spirit is Willing, and the Flesh Becomes Word in the final summation.
Speak it Brother!
xox
I’m interested in what it means to be a “will person”. I like the idea that it is based on action, and not reaction, in which many “willfully” engage in. There is a difference. Now, with regard to the burning of the Temple of Ephesus, which Steiner correlated to the burning of the first Goetheanum, we are definitely looking at a strategic attempt to stifle the so-called, “cosmic word”, which we refuse to accept by continuing to sponsor spiritual science. Thus, we attempt to consciously bring up what has been driven down by the transition from the Greek age to the Roman age, which saw poetry pass into prose. Now, we have the means in which to synthesize the two, and this becomes its higher achievement. The Michael Culture.
In the lectures (History in the Light of Anthroposophy) that Steiner gives during the evenings of the Christmas Conference where he reveals the connections between the burning of the Temple of E & the Johannes bau, he speaks about how the old mysteries of the word had reached their culmination & that it was right that those secrets went to fertilize the ethers, taking the mysteries out of the temple into the world, & that Aristotle was able to retrieve those mysteries & bring them back renewed for the change that was happening in human consciousness thru his categories…Yes the shift from Greek to Roman & on & on, so that we can now speak to the stars once more
Aristotle had been a student in Plato’s Academy for 11 years when the Temple of Artemis was torched on the day that Alexander was born. So, indeed, this integer was the veritable catalyst for what would develop in Aristotle’s own “Cosmic Speech”, and then be communicated to the young Alexander, who would go on to spread the Aristotelian Knowledge of Nature to the four corners of the world that he sought to conquer.
O & haha Yes, the clue to the title is there in the reference to the grape vines on the Zinniker Farm & the word ‘Abide’ both seen in John 15
“This wisdom is exactly what Dante sought to personify in his Beatrice. Only from this viewpoint can Dante’s Divine Comedy be understood. Hence you find Dante, too, using the same symbols as those which find expression in the Templars, the Christian knights, the Knights of the Grail, and so on.” Temple Legend
“In the successive epochs of human evolution we find one remarkable phenomenon. I could give examples of what I have just told you of the confusing way in which initiates on reincarnating sometimes appear to have come down from their heights. *You would probably be much surprised if I told you, for instance, in what way Dante was reincarnated in the nineteenth century*. But it is not my task here to discuss further this result of my own investigation and what was established for me. Rather have I to bring forward with strong proof the things known to everyone conversant with occultism, letting everything else recede into the background and stating nothing that is not generally recognised where bona fide occultism is upheld.”
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA138/English/AP1980/19120826p01.html
Steiner on Dante – A treasure trove!
xox
Even better than Steiner on Dante is Dante on Dante. I must reread his short treatise soon called Vita Nuova (New Life), where he explains the origin of his love for Beatrice. I need to reread it before we study the chapter in Rene Querido’s book, Reflections on the Mystery of Love – he gave an essay on Dante (from earthly to eternal love) – should be good.
Please share whatever comes forth
xox
Steiner would discuss further *this result of my own investigation and what was established for me*, in early February 1913, at the inaugural general assembly of the Anthroposophical Society in Berlin. He speaks very intimately about the importance of Dante’s search for “Philosophia”.
https://southerncrossreview.org/39/steiner-sophia.htm
Then, the next day, he speaks even more intimately about an event that occurred when he was a little boy living in Pottschach, Hungary, and how he met someone close to his family who had just died. She asks for his help, and suddenly his eyes were opened. This is described in the lecture of February 4, 1913, “Self Education: Autobiographical Reflections 1861-1893”.
Once again, I’m indebted to you Steve for the link to this excellent article from the Southern Cross. I need to read it more closely, which I’ll do in the near future, but for now I’ll just say that I can recall two subjects now being attributed to Beatrice – one being the subject of Philosophy, as it’s presented in this article; the other is the subject of the Church, and religion. Both have strong feminine roots, despite the fact that men and their egos have predominated in both.
I look forward to reading this article in more depth. Perhaps the subject of Dante will come up again, especially around the time when our study group is looking at Rene Querido’s essay based on him. Cheers.
This article is the actual lecture that Steiner gave in Berlin on February 3, 1913. It is designed, as you can see, to link Dante’s “Philosophia” to its higher resolution in “Anthroposophia”. Steiner was compelled to give this lecture as a means to effectuate the beginning of the Anthroposophical Society, after the termination of the German Section of the Theosophical Society at the end of 1912. Thus, it became the unexpected, but necessary means to indicate more about the 19th century incarnation of Dante, as Steiner had briefly indicated in the lecture from GA 136, as previously cited.
When you get to your study group’s coverage of Querido’s essay on Dante, it could prove useful to further investigate how much Dante was influenced by Aristotle, and especially the Aristotle as resurrected by Thomas Aquinas. Also, Brunetto Latini, who was Dante’s guardian and mentor. Steiner’s lecture here will prove to be useful in showing how influential Latini was in the formative development of Dante:
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/BruLat_index.html
Suffice to say, at this point, that the “Being Anthroposophia” is related to all this. Steiner was compelled to say more because he had to start anew after the expulsion by Besant, and this made his own personal supersensible experience when he was a little boy something needing to be explained. He does so in the lecture from February 4, 1913, which unfortunately is not available online. Steiner reveals a number of destiny relationships here. The first was the reincarnated Dante herself. This was Steiner’s mother’s next older sister, and thus, his aunt. The story is fairly well known by now. He never really intended to talk about it at all, but circumstances were already pressing in from back in August 1912.
Dear Reverse Ritual,
I tried to look up the artist listed as Wendy Bazster. The image of the goddess is
extraordinary! I found the image but it looks like the artist is Patricia Ariel.
Thank you for posting art!
https://patricia-ariel.pixels.com/collections/archives
O really, Ok, thanks.
She is an amazing artist.
I appreciate you letting me know.
Blessings