“…An anthroposophically oriented person cannot just cut themselves loose from external life and practice – Life’s outer needs continue on, and they cannot get away from them in a single step or with one stroke. So their soul is caught and divided between their continuing outer life and the ideal life and knowledge that they have embraced in concept as a member of the Anthroposophical Society.
A cleavage of this sort can be a painful and even tragic experience, and it becomes such to a degree determined by the depth or superficiality of the individual. But this very pain, this tragedy, contains the most precious seeds of the new, constructive life that has to be built up in the midst of our decaying culture. For the truth is that everything in life that flowers and bears fruit is an outgrowth of pain and suffering. It is perhaps just those individuals with the deepest sense of the Society’s mission who have to have the most personal experience of pain and suffering as they take on that mission, though it is also true that real human strength can only be developed by rising above suffering and making it a living force, the source of one’s power to overcome.
The path that leads into the Society consists firstly, then, in changing the direction of one’s will; secondly, in experiencing super-sensible knowledge; lastly, in participating in the destiny of one’s time to a point where it becomes one’s personal destiny. One feels oneself sharing humankind’s evolution in the act of reversing one’s will and experiencing the super-sensible nature of all truth. Sharing the experience of the time’s true significance is what gives us our first real feeling for the fact of our humanness.
The term “Anthroposophy” should really be understood as synonymous with “Sophia,” meaning the content of consciousness, the soul attitude and experience that make a person a full-fledged human being. The right interpretation of “Anthroposophy” is not “the wisdom of man,” but rather “the consciousness of one’s humanity.” In other words, the reversing of the will, the experiencing of knowledge, and one’s participation in the time’s destiny, should all aim at giving the soul a certain direction of consciousness, a “Sophia.” ~Rudolf Steiner “Living Anthroposophically”: Awakening to Community, lecture 4. February 13, 1923
23 January 2022 – “Speaking with the Stars”: In the pre-dawn hours, the sun and retrograde Mercury align in their inferior conjunction, offering self-awareness through introspection. Are we hung up on ideas that no longer serve a purpose, which is perhaps even inhibiting our growth? When considering our future, are we caught in speculative loops instead of setting smart goals? This transit cuts through confusion and grants much-needed clarity.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN Occult HISTORY
1556 – The deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll as high as 830,000.
1570 – James Stewart, 1st Earl of Moray, regent for the infant King James VI of Scotland, is assassinated by firearm, the first recorded instance of such a death.
1571 – The Royal Exchange opens in London
1945 – Execution of Helmuth James von Moltke by the Natzi’s – a German jurist who, acted to subvert German human-rights abuses of people in territories occupied by Germany during World War II. He was a founding member of the Kreisau Circle opposition group, whose members opposed the government of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, and discussed prospects for a Germany based on moral and democratic principles after Hitler. The Nazis executed him for treason for his participation in these discussions. Moltke was the grandnephew of Helmuth von Moltke the Younger and the great-grandnephew of Helmuth von Moltke the Elder, the victorious commander in the Austro-Prussian and Franco-Prussian Wars, from whom he inherited the Kreisau estate in Prussian Silesia, now Krzyżowa in Poland.
Deathday of Dr. Madeleine van Deventer, colleague of Ita Wegman.
On this day 23 January 2020 – The World Health Organization declares the ‘Corona Virus’ a pandemic – a Public Health Emergency of International Concern
THE CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated – with added titles – by Roy Sadler
v43
Epiphany IV… Imbolc
THE CONSECRATION OF THE WORLD
In winter’s depths
true spirit presence warms,
empowering through the heart’s force
appearances of earthlife’s rise towards her glory;
the soul’s revitalising fire in the human core
defies world cold.
Now, in winter’s depths, there is a great germinating force, lying asleep,
that shall waken with the coming warmth of Spring. We are being asked
to love the outside world with our hearts for appearance to be real.
The opposite verse at Lammas asks our depths of spirit to imagine
the Cosmic Word’s reality.
LAMMAS
The Bread
v17
The Cosmic Word
I’ve had the grace to lead
through senses’ gates to soul ground speaks:
Imagine in your spirit depths my world expanse
to find in future Me in you.
| “Out of the substance of soul and spirit, human beings have to fashion the tools with which to plough a way, the soul-way leading to the castle of the Grail, to the mystery of the Grail, to the mystery of bread and blood, to the fulfilment of the words ‘This do in remembrance of me’. This is, truly, in remembrance of the mighty event of Golgotha, if the symbol of the bread — of what, in other words, develops from the earth through the synthesis of cosmic forces — is understood. It is done in full remembrance if we understand once again how to grasp the world through a spiritualized cosmology and astronomy, and if we learn to comprehend the human being in terms of his essence: the element where the spiritual directly enters him — the mystery of the blood. The path that leads to the Holy Grail must be found through inner work in human souls. This is the task of cognition and the social task.”~Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy Grail, Chapter 8, “The Lapse into Matter”, and Chapter 9, “Piercing the Thicket”, excerpts from Steiner’s lectures given at Dornach on 16 & 17 April 1921 … focus of the February 2 meeting. Chapters 7, 8 & 9 in the book can be found online at the CRC’s website by clicking this link A transcript of the 16 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link A transcript of the 17 April, 1921 lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link The Central Regional Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America invites you to join our ongoing study conversation. The study has been divided among two volunteers who will summarize their section to rebuild it as a foundation for our conversation. Please familiarize yourself with the lecture if possible so you will feel comfortable sharing your reflections and thoughts with the group.This collection of lectures has been republished by Rudolf Steiner Press under the title: “The Mysteries of the Holy Grail — from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation.” The book was compiled and edited by Matthew Barton, published by Rudolf Steiner Press in 2010. This will be a “Zoom” conference call allowing us an opportunity to see one another while conversing (or audio only if you prefer). To connect to the audio/video-conference: Video Conference Details: Join Zoom Meeting https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88210505106 Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106 One tap mobile +13017158592,,81116556762# US (Germantown) +13126266799,,81116556762# US (Chicago) Dial by your location +1 301 715 8592 US (Germantown) +1 312 626 6799 US (Chicago) +1 646 558 8656 US (New York) +1 253 215 8782 US (Tacoma) +1 346 248 7799 US (Houston) +1 669 900 6833 US (San Jose) Meeting ID: 882 1050 5106 Find your local number: https://us02web.zoom.us/u/kcHr5EVwrv If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu |
| Agenda for this meeting (CST) 7:15 Welcome and Introductions 7:18 Verse 7:25 Study led by volunteers Note: CRC team will ID volunteers Michael – Chapter 8 Camille – Chapter 9 7:50 Conversation 8:25 ID volunteers for next meeting 8:28 Close with verse There is a knighthood of the 21st century whose riders do not ride through the darkness of physical forests as of old, but through the forest of darkened minds. They are armed with a spiritual armor and an inner sun makes them radiant. Out of them shines healing, healing that flows from the knowledge of the human being as a spiritual being. They must create inner order, inner justice, peace and conviction in the darkness of our time. ~Karl Konig |
