7 November 2019 – “Speaking with the Stars”: The annual Leonid meteor shower ramps up this week. With Bella Luna currently waxing toward Full, the best views will come in the couple of hours after the Moon sets & before twilight starts to paint the sky. The shower will peak the morning of November 18, unfortunately under the watchful eye of a waning gibbous Moon.

The Moon reaches apogee, the farthest point in its orbit around Earth, at 4:36 am CDT.

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Today’s 3rd installment of 11.11.19 is dedicated to the Christian Community Priests here in Chicago attending the Synod. ( read the 1st & 2nd )

11/11 is also Martinmas. St. Martin of tours, like Martin Luther King Jr, recognized that he had the capacity to bring healing out of his own resources by sharing his cloak (etheric body) with the shivering beggar (humanity).

Celebrating this Feast Day serves as a reminder that each of us has a connection in the etheric world, where the Christ is calling to be recognized & that each of us has a divine spark that we must ferry out into the world & share with others.

On Martinmas the children hear the story of St. Martin, sing songs; & as darkness falls, venture out into the night with their lanterns, walking along a path lit with glowing luminaries, carefully carrying their glowing light in a mood of quiet reverence – An innocent prefiguring of the human soul in the life between death & rebirth.

This symbolic act also brings home the deeper truth heard in the gospel song “This little light of mine.”

Interesting to note that MLK Sr. after visiting Germany, changed his name & his son’s name from Michael to Martin Luther. & MLK Jr. also named his 1st son Martin Luther.

So powerful to feel the sword & shield of Michael under the wings of these powerful human beings.

I love the story below, I don’t know who wrote it, it is not the typical Martinmas story, but one I thought to share as we make our way thru the dark in anticipation for the powerful events of 11.11.19

SAINT MARTIN’S LIGHT

A stranger once knocked on Martin’s door, and said: “I met an old woman living high in the hills. She is ill and needs your help. She asked for you.”

Martin wrapped bread and wine in a blanket, tied the bundle to his back and set off with his walking staff.

It was late in the day as Martin hurried along. At first he followed the highway and the going was smooth, but, at the foot of the hills, the road turned away to the south and Martin had to climb up into the woods. As he went along, storm clouds gathered and blocked the setting sun. A cold north wind began to blow, and he buttoned up his coat to keep warm. Soon the woods became as black as ink and Martin was forced to feel his way forward with his staff like a blind man.

Rain and sleet began to beat down on Martin’s head as he climbed and great rocks and boulders blocked his way. At last Marin tripped and fell. He looked around and saw nothing. It was too dark and the rain and sleet too fierce. He realized he was lost and no longer knew which way to go. So Martin did the only sensible thing a man can do when he cannot see the way and is completely lost: he prayed- and this was his simple prayer.

“Dear Lord, I have done my best,
But I can’t lay down to rest-
I am lost and cannot see,
Please send a light to comfort me.”

Martin looked up and saw a small light hovering in the air before him. He got to his feet, picked up his staff and followed it. The light lit the ground before him and even though he did not know where he was, he knew the light was leading him truly and that he would never stumble.

Higher and higher into the hills he climbed, the little light never wavering, until at last it stopped before a hut made of mud and sticks. It was the poorest hovel Martin had ever seen. He had to bend right over to get in the low doorway and when he was inside he saw and old, old, old woman lying on a bed of fir branches and moss.

Martin immediately untied the bundle from his back and spread the blanket over the woman’s thin body. He took out the loaf of bread, broke it into small pieces, and gave her one to eat. Then he opened the flask of wine, still warm from the heat of his body and put it to her lips.

But, as soon as the wine touched her lips, the old woman stood up before Martin. All age fell from her and she looked both young and timeless. She became so bright that he thought the sun itself had risen into the sky behind her. Martin fell down on the ground and as he did so he saw in a vision the moon at her feet and a crown of stars on her head.

“Look up, Martin,” she said. “Do not be afraid.”

Martin raised his head and saw the little light, which had led him resting on the palm of her hand.

“This is my gift to you,” she said. “It is the light of faithful knowing that lights your way. From now on, whenever you walk in darkness, this light will shine before you and lead the way.”

And so it was. From that day forth, as soon as darkness fell, the little light hovered before Martin and lit his way. The local people were amazed to see such a thing and called it Martin’s Lantern.

After he died, Martin was buried in the church where he worked and every year in early November, all the townsfolk gathered at dusk and each of them carried a lantern. Some carried theirs by hand and others, remembering how Martin always used a walking staff, tied theirs to a stick to swing before them. Out into the meadows and fields the townsfolk wandered, singing songs and winding though the darkness.

May we all find our way thru the darkness, enkindling & holding the wisdom of the true light within.

Until tomorrow

~hag

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Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

680 – The 6th Ecumenical Council commences in Constantinople

1492 – The Ensisheim meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, strikes the Earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France

1665 – The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published

1775 – Goethe arrives in Weimar

1775 – John Murray, the Royal Governor of the Colony of Virginia, starts the first mass emancipation of slaves in North America by issuing Lord Dunmore’s Offer of Emancipation, which offers freedom to slaves who abandoned their colonial masters to fight with Murray and the British

1837 – Death-day of Elijah Parish Lovejoy an American Presbyterian minister, journalist, newspaper editor & abolitionist. He was murdered by a pro-slavery mob in Alton, Illinois.

1867 – Birthday of Marie Curie, Polish chemist & physicist, Nobel Prize laureate winner

1870- Papal Infallibility is proclaimed by Pius IX

1879 – Birthday of Leon Trotsky, Russian theorist & politician, founded the Red Army. Trotsky joined the Bolsheviks just before the 1917 October Revolution, immediately becoming a leader within the Communist Party. He would go on to become one of the seven members of the first Politburo, founded in 1917 to manage the Bolshevik Revolution

1893 – Women in the U.S. state of Colorado are granted the right to vote, the second state to do so

1913 – Birthday of Albert Camus, a French philosopher, author, & journalist. His views contributed to the rise of the philosophy known as absurdism. He wrote in his essay The Rebel that his whole life was devoted to opposing the philosophy of nihilism while still delving deeply into individual freedom. He won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1957

1922 – The Order of the Freemason’s official ‘condemnation’ of Rudolf Steiner

1944 – Franklin D. Roosevelt elected for a record fourth term as President of the United States of America

1962 – Death-day of Eleanor Roosevelt, American humanitarian 39th First Lady of the United States

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POD (Poem Of the Day)

~I rise above the waxing moon
Gentling the horns with peat moss & beeswax,
Rounding up to the stars
Reaching
Beyond numbers that bind minds into boxes –
Let the vultures gobble the sin with the flesh…
Thru me the past flows like blood
Renewed in the heart convulsing –
A formula forthcoming
A blueprint unfolding gold
~hag

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How about a Road-Trip?

THE ALL SOUL’S SOUTHERN TOUR!
Take the Journey of the Soul
in the Life Between Death & Rebirth
in the warm hospitality of our Branch Buddies in the South:

Quick overview of the week:

Nov 10, 1st Class Lesson at the ARC in Atlanta GA

11.11.19 – Martinmas / Mercury Transit Gathering 4:11 pm – 6:11 pm at the Martin Clinic

Nov 12, Hazel and Deb Abrahams-Dematte will be in Atlanta, send any thoughts for must-see spots before we head out on the road trip

Nov 13, Gathering at Helene Burkarts’ ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 10 am-2 pm (see below)

Nov 14, Tuscumbia site visit, Helen Keller’s birth place

Nov 15, Memphis, death place of MLK, home of Elvis Presley

Nov 16, Nashville program ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 10 am – 2 pm

Nov 17 Knoxville program ALL SOULS’ FESTIVAL 1 pm – 5 pm

Nov 18 return to ATL

11/11/19, at the Martin Clinic – Humanizing Medicine – in Atlanta GA, 4:11 pm – 6:11 pm with a community potluck to follow

On this auspicious day we will gather to look at the mystery of 11:11, & the connections between, Martinmas, MLK, The Journey of the Soul, Armistice Day, The laying of the Foundation Stone, & a Rare Cosmic Alignment – The Transit of Mercury across the Sun. 

‘Speaking with the Stars’ with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Storytelling with Enid Hancock

Leading thoughts with Mark Hancock, Angela Foster 

Votive Art with Angela Foster

Biography work with Jolie Luba

Together we will sprinkle the BD preps around the Clinic

$10-$20 or pay what you will

For more info. contact Angela Foster

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ALL SOULS JOURNEY – Exploring the Life between Death & Rebirth

10 am – 2 pm, Wednesday 13 November 2019, Auburn, Alabama, Community Potluck lunch – Please Bring a dish to Share – Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – for more info. contact Helena Burkhart

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10 am – 2 pm, Saturday 16 November 2019 in Nashville TN
Community Potluck lunch – Please Bring a dish to Share – 
Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – 
For more info. contact Cathy Green  Or Barbara Bittles 

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1 pm – 5 pm, Sunday 17 November 2019 Knoxville TN
Community Potluck Dinner – Please Bring a dish to Share – 
Suggested Donation $20-$50 or pay what you will – 
For more info. contact Bill Rogers

Hazel Archer-Ginsberg is a spiritual midwife and trans-denominational minister working in an eclectic style that inspires connections, initiating us into the magic waiting to be revealed in the cycle of the seasons. She is also the festivals coordinator of the Rudolf Steiner Branch of the Anthroposophical Society, a lecturer, promoter, blogger, poet and performance artist. Learn more at www.ReverseRitual.com