Turn

We need new “impulses” (or springs of action). If one comes to-day with a new “impulse,” it is the last thing that people understand. For if one brings a new “impulse,” whose source is entirely within the spiritual world, and presents it as a remedy for the evils of our age, complaints are heard on all sides, from the extreme right to the extreme left, that it is all incomprehensible. Of course one does not understand it if one wants to retain the old forms of thinking. But to-day it is necessary to overcome these old forms, re-modelling one’s whole soul inwardly. All external revolutions, no matter how agreeable to this or that party or class, lead into the worst of blind alleys and will bring the greatest misery to humankind if not illuminated by the inner revolution of the soul. This means throwing off one’s absorption in the purely materialistic view of the world and preparing actively to receive the spiritual wave that is willing to invade human evolution as a new revelation”. ~Rudolf Steiner – GA 193 – Some Characteristics of To-day – Heidenheim, June 12th, 1919

~What mystery is unfolding
In the heart-fires we are holding
In our hand we our molding
A new destiny…
~hag

Sandra Dieckmann

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day (Help support the RSarchives!)

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (resourses include The original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, Wikipedia, Anthrowiki, EarthSky.org, Skyandtelescope.org)

17 May 2021 – “Speaking with the Stars”: It’s time for Mars’ first conjunction — there are two this Merry Month of May! An hour before sunrise this morning, look east to find Mars above the horizon. The Red Planet, easily visible to the naked eye, sits in far northeastern Aquarius, west of bright Jupiter in Pisces. Venus lies east of Jupiter.

Mars will pass due south of Neptune at 6 P.M. CDT, when the planets aren’t visible above the horizon. However, tomorrow morning Mars is southeast of Neptune.

The Moon now officially reaches perigee, the closest point to Earth in its orbit, at 10:27 A.M. CDT.

Sunrise: 5:43 A.M.
Sunset: 8:10 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:31 P.M.
Moonset: 6:41 A.M.
Moon Phase: Waning gibbous (97%)

1510 – Death-day of Sandro Botticelli, Italian painter of the “golden age” of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School under the patronage of Lorenzo de’ Medici. Among Botticelli’s best-known works are The Birth of Venus & Primavera.

Grigory Valuyev

1606 – Murder of False Dmitriy I, the only Tsar ever raised to the throne by means of a military campaign. He was the first, & most successful, of three “impostors” who claimed, during the Time of Troubles, to be the youngest son of Ivan the Terrible.

Dmitriy married polish priestess Marina Mniszech. It was the usual practice that when a Russian Tsar married a woman of another faith, she would convert to Eastern Orthodox Christianity, but she didn’t because Dmitriy had obtained the support of Polish King Sigismund III Vasa & Pope Paul V by promising to reunite the Russian Orthodox Church & the Holy See.

This was considered a betrayal. Ten days after his marriage, commoners stormed the Kremlin & killed Dmitriy. The body was put on display & then cremated, the ashes shot from a cannon towards Poland.

He was the primary character in the opera Boris Godunov, & Modest Mussorgsky’s opera of the same name. His story is also told by Schiller in Demetrius, by Antonín Dvořák in his opera Dimitrij, & Rainer Maria Rilke recounts the overthrow of the False Dimitriy in The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge; Rilke’s only longer prose work. Harold Lamb fictionalizes the demise of the False Dimitriy in “The Wolf Master”.

1792 – New York Stock Exchange founded

1922 – Riot at a Rudolf Steiner lecture in Munich, reported in the New York Times

Watergate Hearings Audio : US Senate : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming  : Internet Archive

1973 – Watergate scandal: Televised hearings begin in the United States Senate.

Yoram Raanan

Announcing an exciting Event on Ascension Thursday, May 26th   7 – 8:30 pm Eastern time.

Climbing Jacob’s Ladder – Celebrating the Festival of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

& Eurythmy with Maria Ver Eecke

“In heavy clouds let Him ascend
And so also let Him downward tread.
In cooling streams let Him be sent,
In flames of fire blaze His descent,
In air & essence, sound & dew
To permeate our whole earth thru” ~Novalis

Ascension is a Festival of the Elements, & of the Hierarchies, it relates to the Transfiguration & the fulfillment of the promise of the ‘Second Coming’. Together we will explore the mystery of ‘As Above so Below’.

            Hazel Archer-Ginsberg is a trans-denominational minister, essayist, lecturer, performer, and poet. She writes and curates ‘Reverse Ritual, Understanding Anthroposophy Through the Rhythms of the Year’ and the ‘I Think Speech’ podcast. Hazel’s been the Cultural Events and Festivals Coordinator for the Rudolf Steiner Branch in Chicago for over 10 years. She is a member of the Central Regional Council, the School for Spiritual Science, the Esoteric Youth Circle, and the General Council of the Anthroposophical Society in America.

                  Register by contacting Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, by Sunday, May 22nd. You will receive an email with the zoom link on Tuesday May 24.

Hope to see you there!! – YES! Please feel free to spread the word!

Yours, Diane McGary, mcgary.family@comcast.net, for the the Eastern Region

A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor & Spirit Community

with the Eastern, Central and Western Regional Councils of the Anthroposophical Society in America

Sunday 29 May 2022 – 3 – 4:30 pm PT, 4-5:30 MT, 5-6:30 pm CT, 6-7:30 pm ET

We will be working with Rudolf Steiner’s THE FIFTH GOSPEL GA 148, Lecture II, 2 October 1913, Oslo

The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, our individual “I”, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is strongly felt during this time of the consciousness soul age. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create this type of culture, and the opportunity is here for each of us to meet, human to human, where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength comes from our personal development and is enhanced by weaving our gifts together with others, knitting our social world in conscious community.

For more info. contact Hazel@ReverseRitual.com

Topic: All Regions Whitsun

Time: May 29, 2022 05:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

Join Zoom Meeting

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Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

Passcode: Whitsun

The Holy Grail Study Group with the CRC
Mysteries of the Holy Grail – from Arthur and Parzival to Modern Initiation
June 1, 2022 – 7:15 pm Central (8:15 pm Eastern)
“Anyone who approaches these mysteries today must feel that they are confronting and challenging themselves by striving for the virtues of Parzival, while knowing that — because of modern conditions — they are in fact someone else also, the wounded Amfortas. Today we bear this divided nature within us: aspiring Parzival, wounded Amfortas. That is what self-knowledge must lead us to feel. From this recognition will flow the forces which make a unity again of this duality, and will thus advance us a little further in world evolution.”~ from Chapter 15,  Rudolf Steiner, The Mysteries of the Holy GrailChapter 15 “Acknowledging Amfortas,” excerpts from Steiner’s lecture given at Berlin on 7 February 1913 (GA 144, lecture IV), will be the focus of the June 1 meeting.

A transcript of the entire lecture can be found on the RS Archive by clicking this link. Please consider giving to the development and maintenance of the digital library of Rudolf Steiner’s work.  Scroll to the bottom of this message to read more about the RSArchive.org and SteinerLibrary.org
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:

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If you have questions, please contact Mary Mertz mary.mcginnis@juno.com or Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu.

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

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
          Mariarosa – pages 117-123b
          Marianne – pages 123b-129
7:50  Conversation
8:25   ID volunteers for next meeting
8:28  Close with verse

11 thoughts on “Turn

  1. Yes, thank you Hazel for the reminder – what Steiner said in 1919 in “Some Characteristics of Today” is just as applicable for us today. I like that last sentence, “This means throwing off one’s absorption in the purely materialistic view of the world and preparing actively to receive the spiritual wave that is willing to invade human evolution as a new revelation”. What a challenge, a challenge that I’m desiring to undertake. This became clear to me yesterday during a discussion about doctors healing patients – how critical the patient’s attitude is to the whole process. My mind saw the patients as human beings, and the doctors as spiritual beings; spiritual beings have their agenda, their work they’d like to see accomplished on Earth, but they must work with and through us, which can lead to mixed results. Fortunately, their patience with us is longsuffering. How much swifter is the “healing” process when the patient, the human being, is in the receiving mode, ready to spring into action to carry out the divine will.

    I also see how Steiner’s words apply to present-day national interests. We see Sweden and Finland moving with the changes, concerned for their security, and pursuing a new impulse. We also see the “old guard” unable to accept this new impulse – to them it’s incomprehensible, and just the way Steiner describes it: “Of course one does not understand it if one wants to retain the old forms of thinking.” Of course, Steiner was speaking of individual soul remodelling, while this is referring to the souls of nations, but the same principles are at work.

    Thanks for another great article, fittingly inviting us to “turn”, to step into the same ascending spiral of the stars, a move which will allow the work of higher beings to progress at a swifter pace.

    1. ha, Yes, I like this phrase ‘Soul Remodeling”!
      And I too see it as an opportunity to help tune in & turn the ascending spiral in our evolutionary co-creation.
      So glad we are in this divine dance together
      xox

      1. Steiner’s lecture here has some background for consideration. First of all, he is worried about how the negotiations of the Treaty of Versailles are about to condemn Germany and Austria for causing World War I. In fact, this is how it turned out. The Treaty of Versailles was ratified on June 28, 1919, some 16 days after Steiner gave this lecture.

        https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Treaty_of_Versailles

        As we know, this treaty served to punish Germany this way, sideways, and all over. And, Steiner knew it some two weeks before it was officially declared. I have studied this lecture comprehensively over the years, and what you cite from it is definitely important for now, and the future. You see how Steiner is always considering the evolutionary flow, and its challenges for being vigilant, steadfast, and persistently hopeful. Yet, one of the considerations that plagued him over the years in which the war was going on, and he indicates it again here, is how could the some 30 to 40 leaders of the European nations experience such a diminishment of consciousness at the critical hour in 1914? This was especially keen on his mind in relation to Helmuth von Moltke, who as General Field Marshal of the German Army in 1914, experienced a mental breakdown as the key event in the diminution of consciousness, and led to his being replaced at the critical point in which the defeat of France would have swiftly ended the conflict. Steiner came to see this as the key event in which Ahriman had gained access to the consciousness of these several leaders of Europe in order to make war, when it was merely a matter of seeing clearly what was going on. Later, he would experience the epiphany of it all. It came from out of the West, where Wilson was POTUS until 1920. This fact is given clarity in GA 200, which also forecasts the future conflict with Japan.

        So, America the Beautiful, huh. America as the Spirit of Columbia, huh?

        Maybe we just need to get a grip on what is going on in this day and age. The gun violence in America is sickening, and yet, apparently we must uphold the 2nd amendment right to bear arms. Yet, this is the thinking of the American Revolution against Britain. It should not be part of the thinking that Steiner espouses in your excerpt from “Some Considerations of Today”.

        1. Yes this diminishment of consciousness has continued & is much worse…
          That is why it is so important to re-claim the Being of Columbia.
          That is why the 10:10 is so important…

          Actually Helmuth was the only one who stayed awake, & when he tried to warn the sleepers again & again he was rebuffed & scapegoated, & they claimed he had a mental breakdown to discredit him…

          1. This is all true. I am glad that you have referred again to 10:10 as a daily practice. For me, it is a kind of 24/7 arrangement, and that is why I can be a pain in the rear 🙂

            When you say that Helmuth was the only one to stay awake during the critical hour, this is very intriguing to me. I had seen him as the first example of diminution of consciousness, and wherein he would confide later that he saw himself as Pope Nicholas I, and his general staff as various evil popes from former times. He sees himself as part of the betrayal of Germany, and this cannot be denied. Steiner’s volumes on “The Karma of Untruthfulness” are owing to the death of Helmuth von Moltke in 1916. In October 1922, Steiner would discuss Pope Nicholas I in a lecture designed to echo von Moltke.

              1. Yet, how do we even remotely bring forth a third-party system? In even recent prior decades, the effort for an Independent Party, or a Reform Party platform were attempted, and all brought down to nothing. If Unger had gotten the traction that he needed from the GAS, instead of rejection, maybe things would be different today. Alas, with regard to Germany in 1929, we know how it went a certain way; the way of totalitarianism. Remember, all Unger wanted to do after four years of waiting, was to reintroduce Anthroposophy into Germany, by way of Nuremberg. He even had the transcript in hand, yet never spoke a word of it. It was entitled, “What Is Anthroposophy?” He never spoke a word of it, and yet we still have it as a remembrance today. This is what is important.

                Yet, now the obstacles are even bigger. Rudolf Steiner saw this from the other side when Carl Unger was murdered. It has only gotten worse since then, and this is something we need to accept in this day and age, regardless of what the Spirit of Columbia espouses. Sorath has a firm residence in America, and this is not to diminish your love of the people of America. America is Christianized through and through, and this is the greatest paradox, right along with your notion of Unger’s karma, which led to his death. Maybe it is along the lines of the Cherubim? They Love, and Carl Unger loved Rudolf Steiner, and wanted to continue his mission.

              2. So much interweaving, destiny meeting destiny, progressive forces meeting retarding forces…& yes the anti-forces which would destroy & enslave…
                The Christ impulse fully embodied is the only way forward

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