~Mariusz Lewandowski
Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of Michaelmas:
Video – Michaelmas: Festival of the Future
Video: Michaelmas Musings
The Anthroposopher podcast – Preserve the Light
Video – The Central Regional Council – ‘Courage Born of Wisdom’
Greetings friends – I know you are feeling it. A deep holiness broods over the dying light. Now, in ourselves we must find our own power of bestowing warmth; that we may shine from within. In the realm of the senses the plant world sinks down into death. Inwardly the fire-spirits, offspring of the lofty Beings of the Sun, bearing the Archetypal pictures of the plant kingdom, stream down into the womb of Mother Earth. All around us we see withering, the color leaving to reveal the essence. As human beings we must not allow the death of nature to draw us into sleep. In autumn we must discover the force of resurrection within, so that we can pass with full consciousness thru the gate of death with a wakened soul, in our time. This is possible by what Michael bestows as the Fire of Will. We can come into communion with the most hidden secrets of existence now, whispering: Feel yourself as bearer of the Motherhood of Nature, to conceive in love the fiery germ of Self.
Michaelmas is not just a day; it is a season that extends from September 29, the Feast of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts, to October 31, All Hallows Eve
The dragon is not an external reality, but rather lives within all humankind, represented by cold, dead, rationalistic & pragmatic thinking. It is alive within every mortal as a potentially evil force. Michael’s message to humanity is not to try to slay the dragon within ourselves, for we would not live in freedom if we did, but rather to overcome it with consciousness. It is the consciousness in our thinking which calls for Imaginative Cognition & selflessness, as well as the strength of will needed to follow a moral path in life.
Michaelmas is a festival of inner strength & initiative. It is a time when our higher being can conquer anxiety & fear, for it is the task of Michael to awaken humankind to the eternal within.
The old legends always preface the story of the battle against the dragon with an enumeration of the 9 Angelic Realms. This view is revealed to our soul, taking us all the way to the Seraphim. Michael stands before us as the Prince & Herald of all the Hierarchies, that we may look to the Angelic Choirs, that we may look to our future selves, that we may think, what it is to be truly human, here & now, & step by step, to courageously build our own strong & steady rung on the ladder of evolution.
It is our job to strive to complete the never-ending story, with the New Michaelic Mysteries put forth by Rudolf Steiner, a true emissary of Michael, teaching us to count the human being as the 10th hierarchy.
“The Michael thought: (to be born again – one has to die), and a Michael festival in the second half of September, must be linked alongside the Easter festival. Then, to the thought of the resurrection of the God after death, could be added the thought, produced by the Michael force, of the resurrection of the human being from death, so that humanity, through the Resurrection of Christ, would find the force to die in Christ and be born again. This means, taking The Risen Christ into one’s soul during earthly life, so as to be able to die in Him — that is, to be able to die not at death, but when one is living. Then that which we need will be present in life. For these are one, and they will once again weave religion, science, and art into oneness, because people will understand how to conceive the trinity. Such a thing could actually become an impulse which singly and alone would be able, in the present condition of humanity, to replace the descending forces with ascending ones.” ~Rudolf Steiner ‘The Cycle of the Year’ 1923 Dornach
~Lois Schoff
In our present age full of these forces that would pull us down, it is essential to align ourselves with the Being of Michael to enable us to overcome all that is of the ‘dragon’ rearing its many heads within us.
We can come to know this mighty ‘Time Spirit’ by taking into our hearts earnest wisdom-filled thoughts concerning the Christ Countenance that this being holds. If we practice this, we will soon see the light of Wisdom transform into fiery flames of will –empowering us to fulfill the tasks that are incumbent upon us.
During Harvest season these energies firing up our will are especially available & are strongest when joined in a community effort. In concert with friends & co-creators, we can work with Sophia-Michael/Christ at this crucial time, when the Mystery of Evil unfolds together with the Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric.
Mi-cha-el is a Hebrew name consisting of three separate words – the word Mi, pronounced My, means “Who?” cha, pronounced kai, means “like” or “as.” And El pronounced “L”, is the abbreviated form of Elohim – the name of God in the plural – the 7 Spirits of Form or the Creator Gods referred to in Genesis: “In the beginning God [Elohim] created heaven and earth…” Put these three word-syllables together & we get Mi-cha-el: “Who is like God?” This name prods our ordinary thinking – providing an opportunity to penetrate beyond the surface – to pose important questions. Facts are dead if they are not stepping-stones to more penetrating questions which allow further answers.
The very essence of Michael is not a proper noun but a verb – a deed. What if we applied this kind of spiritual questioning to all our striving toward knowledge?
~Hilma af Klint
Who, or what, is the essence behind the Word? What is it that we seek in all our ‘Questing’ for Wisdom, knowledge & understanding?
The ‘Holy Grail’ up-holds the Wisdom of god – The knowing of the spiritual foundation of things.
Rudolf Steiner reminds us that “Every idea we hold that does not become an ideal slays a power within us.” Instead of slaying the dragon in us, this kind of lazy thinking slays the Michael power within us. But when our thoughts rise to the ideal, they have a force that is useful & eternal, imbued with will – fired with an indomitable force. These thoughts rise-up to God.
~Carlline Maniele
Michael as Time Spirit is cosmopolitan – universal – a role-model preparing us for the collective culture of the future which began with the Christ event – blossoming in the future into ‘Philadelphia’ – the culture of ‘Brotherly Love’ which leads us into the ideal community of the New Jerusalem – where we are the 10th hierarchy – the universal human being – co-creators in the cosmos.
What is universal goes completely beyond groups, beyond divisions – into the All as One – the Christ within us. This divine spark that we have in common with all of humanity is universal. Until we can embrace all, accept all, love all—as Christ shows us—we have not achieved the Freedom of Universal Individualism. As students of the Michaelic intelligence we are called to mirror the highest in the other.
~Vlad Apetrei & Irene Olid
This is how we can work with Michael. We become co-workers – mirroring the highest in the other –mirroring the countenance of Christ – this is what we come to understand in the School of Michael.
Anyone who is striving to do ‘The Great Work’ on the path of personal development & spiritual research knows that it is an arduous, lonely path – And ironically it is often in community where the most suffering & pain is triggered, offering our deepest sorrow as well as our biggest opportunities for growth.
~Beela Dentley
From a broad evolutionary perspective, we can understand that every soul is on ‘the path’.
Can we recognize & feel the cry of the spirit, the seeking soul within our family members, or co-workers, the annoying person on the street? Can we have compassion for others & for ourselves in our various conditions of soul & spirit-sickness?
Can we see beyond this soul-sicknesses, to meet the hungering individual who is, in their own way, hoping for a fulfillment that only the spirit can bring?
When we are recognized by another on the level of spirit, we naturally awaken to our latent potential & connect more readily with our unique life-purposes.
Can we trust that no matter where a fellow human being is on their journey that we can acknowledge the Christ within them? Or do we hold the individuals around us captive to their past? Do we unconsciously cast judgment on them? We have seen them fail perhaps countless times. Is there a subtle condemning in us when we speak to them or of them to others?
How about those who ascribe to a different social philosophy or support a different political party – do we judge them as inferior for their beliefs & unworthy of our help or support? Do we think of them as evil – never able to progress or change? If so, we are aligning ourselves with the adversary stunting our own soul’s progress as well as theirs.
Can we forgive them & ourselves, & step up to be the person in their life that helps them see their true potential?
Are we living up to our own true potential?
If we are able to do this, then we are working with Michael as a mirror to the divine nature within others. What a beautiful harvest that will bring to the world.
Let this season enkindle in us a renewed hope, an unshakeable faith, a sure strength – endowing us with the spiritual will of Sophia-Michael. In the name of Christ, we can stand fast in freedom – to sure up the practical reality that Spiritual Science offers as a world view.
~hag
29 September 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~Mark Twain
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts, also called MICHAELMAS
1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades. A man of extraordinary culture, energy, & ability Frederick II was called stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche, also the first European, the first modern ruler – by many historians, Frederick established in Sicily & southern Italy a modern, centrally governed kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy.
He was a King of Germany, of Italy, & Burgundy. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage & his connection with the Sixth Crusade.
He was frequently at war with the Papacy, hemmed in between Frederick’s lands in northern Italy & his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist.
Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek & Arabic, Frederick was an avid patron of science & the arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature & on what was to become the modern Italian language.
He was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational.
1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter
1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city’s architecture & making authorities consider moving the capital to a different city
1812- Birthday of Caspar Hauser, grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Theories link him with the grand ducal House of BadenThese claims, & his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate & controversy.
“…It was the case of that human being, so enigmatic for many people, who was once placed into this city in a mysterious way, and who in just as mysterious a way met his death in Ansbach. An author, in order to indicate the mystery of his life, wrote that as he was carried out to burial the sun was setting on the one horizon and the moon was rising on the other. I speak, as you know, of Caspar Hauser. If you disregard all the pros and cons that have been asserted, if you look only at what has been fully verified, you will know that this foundling — who was one day simply there in the street, and who since he did not know whence he came, was called the Child of Europe — could neither read nor write when he was found. At an age of twenty years he possessed nothing of what is gained through the intellect but he had a remarkable memory. As they began to instruct him, as logic entered his soul, his memory disappeared. This transition in consciousness was accompanied by something else. He possessed at first an incredible, an entirely inborn truthfulness and it was precisely in this truthfulness that he went more and more astray. The more he nibbled, so to say, at intellectuality, the more it vanished. There would be many things to study were we to enter deeply into this human soul which had been artificially held back. It is not difficult for the student of Spiritual Science to credit the popular tradition, so unacceptable to the learned people of to-day, which relates that while Caspar Hauser still knew nothing, while he still had no idea that there were beings besides himself of different form, he exercised a remarkable effect upon quite savage creatures. Savage animals humbled themselves and became mild, something streamed from him that made such beasts gentle, although they savagely attacked anyone else. We could in fact penetrate deeply into the soul of this remarkable personality, so enigmatic to many, and you would see how things that cannot be explained from ordinary life are led back through Spiritual Science to spiritual facts. Such facts cannot be learnt by speculation but only by spiritual observation, though they are comprehensible to an unbiased and logical thinking.
All this has only been said in order to show you that the modern consciousness has evolved from another, an age-old-state when man was not in direct touch with outer objects in the modern sense, but on the other hand was in connection with facts and beings of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Apocalypse of St. John, Spiritual Science — The Gospel — The Future of Mankind
1885 – The first public electric tramway in the world is opened in Blackpool, England
1902 – Deathday of Émile Zola a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, & an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France & in the exoneration of the falsely accused & convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J’accuse. Zola was nominated for the first & second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 & 1902. His death from carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected to have been murder
1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1st First Class Lesson
1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed
1957 – Twenty MCi of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk
1981 – Deathday of Adolf Arenson, German composer & Anthroposopher. Arenson editied many of Rudolf Steiner’s works, & composed the music for many of the plays & productions. Steiner mentions him at the end of Wonders of the World lecture 1
2008 – Following the bankruptcies of Lehman Brothers & Washington Mutual, The Dow Jones Industrial Average falls 777.68 points, the largest single-day point loss in its history
30 September 2023 – Our Annual Michaelmas Festival & Zinniker Farm Day – Biodynamic preparation making and Michaelmas 2023 – Food for Thought
The time for biodynamic preparation making is upon us. We will be making and burying the chamomile, yarrow and dandelion compost preparations. This offers hands on activity. We will be walking through grass and working in the soil. Please dress accordingly and be ready to get dirty.
After the potluck join Hazel Archer-Ginsberg in an experiential activity at the bon-fire called: Food for Thought –
Bounty: What spiritual gifts have you harvested in your life so far this year?
Farewells: What no longer serves? What is over? Say good-bye/ thank you.
Preserves: What will you keep as seed for the future?
Date: September 30th, 2023 at the Zinniker Farm
Time: 1:30pm, potluck dinner
Please bring a dish to share
Suggested donation: $15-25 for more info.
Hazel’s presentation on the New Isis Myth is important, as well as the second lecture of the course on the Search for the New Isis, given on 24 December 1920.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA202/English/MP1983/NewIsi_index.html
Because Lucifer and Ahriman have changed their respective positions from the 3rd to the 5th Cultural Epochs, and now Lucifer works from the outside, Isis is held in a prison of sorts in the heavenly world, which is symbolized by Aquarius. She is fully embodied, and not cut up like Osiris from the Egyptian epoch. Steiner indicates in this lecture that it is due to modern mechanistic-materialistic astronomy, which is entirely Luciferic that the New Isis remains hidden and unknown. This equates to the Copernican model, and the failure to further develop the Tychonian system. Kepler was pivotal here in that while he succeeded Tycho in 1601, he went further toward Copernicanism.
The movie was put together by arranging the daily pictures of the moon in its monthly cycle. It forms an extraordinary visual. I could send it to Hazel as a gif file. Is that okay. Maybe it could be posted to the RR blog.
The reversal of the slaying of Osiris is seen in the slaying of Isis – a dismemberment into 14 pieces. This is clearly an important part of the New Isis Myth. We are top be the ones to bring her back to embodiment as Anthroposophia within us.
Indeed. The New Isis is to the Consciousness Soul, and lifting the veil, as the Old Isis was to the Intellectual Soul, and lowering the veil. Ahriman-Typhon in the 3rd Cultural Epoch cut up Osiris into pieces, and sent them to Asia. This symbolizes the desire of Ahriman to remain backward and clinging to the east. The original Isis retrieves the cut-up Osiris and returns to Egypt, but Typhon takes the 14 pieces and puts them in a trunk. This begins the phases of the Moon. Isis sacrifices herself to the Moon, and cuts herself up in order to be the latter 14 pieces (phases) that makes for a complete Moon cycle. This is why she is associated with drawing the veil. The structural basis for the Intellectual (Mind) Soul is formed here, and this leads to its effective display beginning in the 4th Cultural Epoch with the deductive reasoning of the Greek culture.
The New Isis remains whole and heavenly, but begs for Spiritual Science to release Her to the higher calling of bringing Immortality to the Earth.
I often get it confused too, but it is Luicfer who wishes to hold us to the old tradtions of the past when we were tied to the gods without freedom.
It is Ahriman who wants us to go too fast, as seen in the The Academy of Gondishapur to bring in the Conciousness soul too soon & today bringing in technologies before we are morally ready for them.
It is Lucifer & Ahriman working together to dismemember the New Isis who is not associated with the Moon which has a cycle of 13, but with the zodiac plus Sun & Moon.
Matters have changed since the Egyptian culture. This is when materialism first awoke, and is symbolized by Ahriman-Typhon, working from the outside, toward fragmentation, which is the first attribute of materialism. Lucifer, on the other hand, working from the interior, supported the clairvoyant faculty that still existed at the time. The Old Isis served this perception. Today, this arrangement is reversed; Ahriman is active inwardly, and most fundamentally perceived in feeling and willing functions of the organism. Lucifer, now perceived in the head, wants freedom, but not enlightenment. That is why modern astronomy is luciferic, which is obvious when seen from an anthroposophical point of view. Of course, the inwardly beheld Ahriman easily digests whatever is told of this modern mathematical system of astronomy.
So, Lucifer and Ahriman still support one another, just like before, but now reversed. We humans are the only ones that can disentangle this situation. The Cosmic Intelligence of Michael shows the way, through His emissary, Rudolf Steiner. I’m sure we can agree on that.
Just read “The Magi and the Shepherds: The New Isis.” lecture III, 25 December 1920 Dornach. And I now understand much more clearly what “finding the new Isis, of the divine Sophia whom man must find if the Christ Power that is his since the Mystery of Golgotha is to become alive, completely alive, that is to say, filled with light within him.” is.
This is the developing of Imagination and Inspiration. And as RS says, “What must arise is a new kind of knowledge, a new kind of willing in all domains. We must familiarize ourselves with the thought of the vanishing of a civilization, but we must look into the human heart, in the spirit dwelling in man; we must have faith in the heart and the spirit of man in order that through all we are able to do within the wreckage of the old civilization, new forms may arise, forms that are truly new.”
This is exactly right, and these words you quote, epitomize what can now become a concrete kernel of spiritual existentialism over these next few days. On August 21, 2017, you could hear a pin drop because it felt like Time had stopped and the Earth stood still. The blue sky was extra blue that day as the Cosmic Ether invited at least the surreal feeling of the event. People felt ennobled that day because it made one sense something about the Christ and Resurrection. On October 14th, the same is possible, and even more, because Michael has been the companion of Christ for a long time, and His Time is now.
That is why lecture two needs to be most scrutinized in this course. Of course, lecture III is a proof of the outcome, but only if lecture two is properly seen as the defeat of the present-day Copernican model. The release of the New Isis. More than words need to be perceived. We are still in the old model, while Steiner has taken off. This is a very good insight, and yet it means nothing to the world if we don’t defeat the present-day model of the solar system, which is utterly materialistic. So, here we are as the anthroposophical enterprise.
Thank you for that, Steve. Could you elaborate on this a bit
more and how it relates to the development of
Imagination and Inspiration?
The moon movie is a good way to elaborate on imagination and inspiration. If you give me your e-mail address I can send the file to you. I can’t post it directly to the blog without a url. Hazel would also see its implications for the expansion of these faculties.
Thank you.
My email address is:
jcsophias@gmail.com
Another one of my Elizabethan sonnets from 1987.
___________________________
THE DARKNESS AT MICHAELMAS
I grip the hollow goblet of despair.
I move with blunted madness down the street.
A weary nothingness is all I wear.
Behind me echo footsteps without feet.
A picture in my pocket shows the face
of one who looks with sadness on the earth,
who once bestowed the beauty and the grace
of God, but that was long before my birth.
Archangel Mi-cha-el! I cannot meet
your gaze! It burns my eyes with shameful light.
This self I am is darkness in defeat.
My hope has died; my faith has swallowed night.
Entranced, intoxicated by the day,
I nod to every pilgrim on the way.
________________________________
from “Post-Existential Sonnets,” Folio I
by Tom Mellett, Austin, Texas, 1987
Thanks for sharing your sonnet from 1987.
I’ll bet the one you could write today would be very differant…
I hope so too, Hazel. Astounding insight, especially this year, where we might have a new paradigm to consider in the real sense of the term. It has been a long time since the Renaissance era produced one paradigm after another toward the scientific revolution. Two of these come readily to mind; Luther’s Protestant revolution, and Copernicus’ new view of the Solar system, both banned by the Roman Catholic church in the early 16th century.
Now, today, we are espousing a new attempt to look at things objectively. Michael’s so called, “Season of Despair”, is really the advantage that we need in seeing that death is actually renewal to new life. The Resurrection of Christ at Easter has its converse in that the mortal existence of human beings extends into eternity through Michael. I guess that is why they align so well.
This Michael Festival Season is calling us to take up & live a New Michael Mass which is Universal, transcending space to consecrate Time, reflecting the Countenance of Christ in our soul forces.
Thank you for this. It is very powerful and I am holding on to it.
I can really feel the Michaelic forces flowing in holding this
imagination which rings so true with me!! Now how do we
get this word out?
I think this word is getting out, but humanity is very slow to receive it. Consider all the paradigm shifts that occurred, of necessity, when the Consciousness Soul age began in the 15th century. The goal was to infuse the Gabriel forces into creative human minds in order to begin to bring the Intellectual Soul into the already developed Sentient Soul. Now, today, they have been synthesized. Yet, the result is abstract thinking, and this is now suppressing the true aims of the Consciousness Soul. That is why Anthroposophical Spiritual Science came to Earth in 1900.
So, Janet, again, another great $64,000 question! We are trying to make Michael’s season into a moving festival, like Easter, and because they are so close in terms of Resurrection. Christ is to the Macrocosm of It, as Michael is to the Microcosm of It. Christ sets the foundation of Resurrection with the three years on Earth two thousand years ago, which was the physical midpoint of earth evolution. All of this is well known to anthroposophists. Michael is less well known, which is why the Event of 1879 is so important to understand.
This year, something has come to the fore which is a kind of affirmation of the need to make Michael a moving festival, as well as a means to expose the Eighth Sphere. I told you about a movie which proves the Eighth Sphere is behind the phases of the moon, but you did not respond. This is all part of getting the word out.
We still have a couple of days before Last Quarter on the 6th to prepare the visual. Yes, the word needs to get out for those with both eyes to see and ears to hear.
YEs, I had the same thought to put something out on the last quarter moon 6 October…
So sorry about not responding to the Eight Sphere material you sent. I’ve been
a bit swamped here. Could you send it to me again and I will look at it. Thank you!
Once again, thank you Hazel for such profound and accurate guidance, especially the part in dealing with difficult people. I am not yet computer savvy enough to know how to print it out. Do you have a PFD version of the first section?
Michaelmas Blessings dear Janet –
This is such a profounf opportunity to tune into, there is so much for us to Harvest.
TO copy just highlight the text then right click & it will give you the option to copy it then you can do the same thing but choose paste to deliver the text to a new document…
Learning new skills is part of what this season is all about!
you can do it…Good Luck!
xox
I have expressed over the years, from time to time, that a true and recognizable Michael Festival needs to be calculated and celebrated as a moving festival, like Easter. This excerpt from “Cycle of the Year” reminds me very much of the incentive, and its possible focal point.
“The Michael thought: (to be born again – one has to die), and a Michael festival in the second half of September, must be linked alongside the Easter festival.
[…..]
Such a thing could actually become an impulse which singly and alone would be able, in the present condition of humanity, to replace the descending forces with ascending ones.”
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA223/English/AP1984/19230402p01.html
Now, here is my proposal. As long as Michaelmas is celebrated on a fixed date, September 29th, it will never truly represent itself. It is a moving festival that celebrates Autumn in the same way that Easter celebrates Spring. Yet, by giving it a fixed date, it loses its dynamic aspect, and is accordingly neglected. So, it needs to be calculated in a manner similar to the calculation for Easter, which is based on the Full Moon.
Yet, for Michaelmas, the calculation needs to be based on the New Moon, rather than the Full Moon. Thus, Michaelmas is the first Sunday after the New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox, which is occurs on September 23rd. This year, the New Moon occurs on October 14th, which is Saturday, and the next day is Sunday, October 15th. This is the true Michaelmas. Why? Because Michaelmas is based on ascending forces, which a New Moon indicates.
“Such a thing could actually become an impulse which singly and alone would be able, in the present condition of humanity, to replace the descending forces with ascending ones.” GA 223, lecture III, Cycle of the Year as Breathing Process of the Earth.
Michael represents the force of Resurrection in the season that sees death before its springtime renewal. It moves in its way, just as Easter does. Thus, it is not fixed at all.
I’m sure this will be rejected again as simply inconvenient. I thought to get it off my chest, though.
For me it’s about seeing it like Easter as a Season or a Tide. Yes, folks need a fixed date to hang their hats but we know that Michaelmas starts with the Perseid Meteor showers in August! & goes until All Souls
Yes, the Perseid’s peak on August 15th, my birthday. Maybe that is why I am so aligned with Michael. I like Michael’s view of Resurrection. Our own self consciousness in thinking, unfolds again during this Tide. This has always been the reassuring sign for me of Michael’s concept of resurrecting human forces when we most need them.
Could we toss around what might make good sense for this, Michaelmas TIde? I love how it could last almost a full two and a half months.
Janet, we’re doing it.
We are making sense by taking our sense impressions & spiritualizing them.
We are living into the Michaelmas Mood thru our communal communion here & in our local communities.
Applying head, hands & hearts.
Studying the texts of Anthroposophy,
doing things like biodynamics, or art
& practicing heart-thinking.
Not to mention local Festival gatherings exploring & building the Michaelic Temple of the New Mysteries.
And tuning into the 1010 Thought-seed co-creating a Christic egregore to work with the Spiritual world & each other ethericly…
Yes, and look how far we’ve come from just a year ago.
https://reverseritual.com/who-is-like-god/
This has a classic comments section featuring Rod and Maverick. It is a one of kind contribution between two very deft thinkers. I was on the mend at the time, but have remembered it all year. I like to encourage these efforts of the head and heart. Now, today, we are doing something audacious. I’m so glad that the ears are listening, even on a small level.
It reminds me of the fellow several years ago, a Catholic anthroposophist, who when he heard of my proposal to make Michaelmas a moving festival, said, “Not on my watch will you make Michael a date other than September 29th. It is set for all time”. I told him to forget it, and sorry for bringing it up.
Even the stone can roll
Yes, indeed!! And this reminder that this is an important festival for now and into our future is very important. I am making several Michaelmas tapestries/scrolls — eleven inches wide and five feet long in reds and golds. Do you know why the Michaelmas vestments in the Christian Community are peach blossom and light green during this time? Michaelmas Blessings, Janet
O yes, your amazing banners, I’m so glad you are still creating them. I’ll never forget how you graced us with your powerful scrolls for our ‘Building the Temple of the Heart’ Conference! What a blessing that you take these concepts into your art!
xox
It is a bit shocking to see the vestments at Michaelmas isn’t it…Most folks around here wear red on Sept. 29th.
My first impression which I mentioned to Rev. Jeana when I served on that 1st day of the Michaelmas service is that I see the peach blossom, which Steiner describes as being the color of the human being, as the taming of the dragon. It is not bold like the red we see at Easter but the calming subtle color of our true humaness.
Just watched your New Isis presentation. So, Anthroposophia is the New Isis, the sacred marriage of warmth and light!! What a delight! And we are in her midst. Thanks so much for the link to it.
“As above – So Below
As within, so without,
As the universe, so the soul…”
~Hermes Trismegistus
Peach blossom would be related to future Jupiter, and light green to photosynthesis in a dwindling Michael season, it seems to me. Christ created the system of electro-celluar light phosphorylation, which gives the incentive for the etheric body to remain with the physical body, even unto death. This had to happen at the turning point of time.
——
As Above, So Below, is the true parameter of what Spirit and Matter mean.
As Within, so Without, expresses Ahriman and Lucifer in today’s frame of reference, as previously discussed. It is all a part of what we need to understand in order to prevent feeble-mindedness, and the atomistic view of the world.
Steve, I like your idea. Something novel to ponder. One thing that comes to mind is the differences between New Moon and Full Moon regarding the building up of the etheric body from outside-in (Full) and then from inside-out (New).
Festival of Easter, Lecture 3
21 April 1924, Dornach, GA 233a
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA233a/English/RSPC1935/19240421p04.html
Thanks for giving some consideration to this. If the resurrection of Christ is based on the Full Moon, and the movement from Spring to Summer, when the Earth goes to sleep, and we experience a kind of egoless midsummer nights dream, which gives a kind of natural clairvoyance for those who yield to it, then it only follows that Michael hosts another kind of resurrection from Fall to Winter, in which we are reminded of our agency as Thinkers and Egoists for the Fourth Sphere. This is what I experience, and feel as a kind of redemption during the season of Michael. As such, the New Moon represents the ascension of what it really means to be human when the Earth is awake.
To be awake when the Earth is awake, and know that one is awake, seems to me to be the essence of the Fourth Sphere. Yet, the dichotomy of Spring is also a breath of fresh air. Forcing consciousness at midsummer has some interesting effects. This blog expresses many of these at the right time. It becomes a conscious journal.
Looking across the squared circle as we do when working with the cycle of the year as path of initiation we see the connection between Christmas & St. John’s, & Michaelmas & Easter which we have & will continue to contemplate & work with every year.
Easter does not bring us into the Summer mood – that doesn’t come in until May Day.
Interesting that this year the 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equinox is a Solar eclipse! This is a perfect opportunity to bring the Michaelic forces in. I was debating about using this cosmic event as a milestone & thru your inspiration I have decided yes – Let’s join our energies together to hold the Sun.
Yes, and Sunday is the 15th of October. So, it perfectly fits the rationale!
I also like this diagram of the seasons from Cycle of the Year, lecture 5.
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA223/English/AP1984/images/19230404p010.png
I did not know until now that the New Moon of October was also an annular solar eclipse. Thrill bumps.
https://www.greatamericaneclipse.com/october-14-2023
Could this be the start of something big? Hazel, you have the connections.
This is how this annular solar eclipse will look like:
https://images.squarespace-cdn.com/content/v1/53c358b6e4b01b8adb4d5870/d8439c04-cea8-45e0-8f24-72140ccc6efb/Annular+Eclipse.jpg?format=1500w
metamorphosis in action
Yes. I remember back in October 1999, when the New Moon phase began on October 9th that year. It was 24 years ago, and what I remember is that my area of Washington was experiencing an Indian Summer at the time. So, the early morning blue sky was of a deeper hue, and this made it possible to catch the glimpse of the very early waxing crescent moon in my right eye on October 11th. Having read the lecture from GA 254 about the Eighth Sphere for the first time, I was able to follow the early waxing crescent moon for several days in its ascent, and became convinced that the Moon has a partner that surrounds it. This was seen in broad daylight, and invited the question: “Why does the Moon, which is completely visible with the Sun in the morning and afternoon, carry this shadow appearance?” I became convinced then that the Eighth Sphere is a real fact. For 24 years now, this has been known.
So, in October 2023, we have the same advantage, and yet this time we have an annular solar eclipse to consider. The proof is there.
How would we go about getting this established?
Perhaps this year since the 1st New Moon after the Autumnal Equionx is also a Solar eclipse. Let’s all meet thru pur thinking in the etheric world at 10:10 am when the eclipse is happening.
Perhaps we can say this verse:
Verse for the Michaelic Age ~by Rudolf Steiner
We must eradicate from the soul all fear and terror
Of what approaches us from the future.
We must acquire serenity in all feelings and sensations
About the future.
We must look forward with absolute equanimity
To whatever may come.
And we must think only that whatever comes
Is given to us by a cosmic guidance full of wisdom.
It is part of what we must learn in this age, namely,
To live without any security in material existence
And to live with pure trust in the ever-present help
of the spiritual world.
Truly, nothing else will do if our courage is not to fail us.
For this let us seek awakening
To the reality of the spirit
From within ourselves,
Every morning and every evening.
Also, we should set our respective vectors. Here is mine:
https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/in/usa/tacoma
Of course, cloud cover will diminish the spectacle, but it can still be imaginatively beheld. I vividly remember the August 2017 total eclipse, and for me, it was all about seeing the deep blue sky becoming even deeper. Surreal, and quiet as a pin. It was like time had stopped. A hint of Zeruane Akarene?
O I love this idea of tuning into Zeruane Akarane.
Yes, We can tune in ethericly thruout the entire time no matter what our time zone is, keeping especially awake to the 10:10 moment I think we may experience something interesting which we can document & report back on
Janet asked the $64,000 Question when she said:
“How would we go about getting this established?”
Fear not, Dear Heart, for there is a movie that depicts in sequence the 30/31 individual phases of the moon that encompass a whole month from new moon (waxing crescent) to old moon (waning crescent). Old Moon was once an actual descriptive term for that entity which in truth is the remnant of the ancient Moon sphere. In today’s parlance, from the occult perspective, it is known as the Eighth Sphere.
Have you read chapter five of the course, “The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century”? It is the only fully descriptive account of this Eighth Sphere, which is actually out there!
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA254/English/RSP1973/19151018p01.html
Ok, I printed out the lecture, let’s see if i can grasp this
send me strength!
It is the text of the Eighth Sphere Discourse I sent you.
I do pray to send you strength. The Eighth Sphere Discourse is a tough nut to crack. That is why the problem is still not solved, and here we are in 2023! You see, there is another side to the Eighth Sphere, and Steiner indicates that he wants to describe its functional side, after exposing its occult side, which the occult movement in the 19th and 20th centuries have used to their advantage. Oh yes, the Eighth Sphere is behind all the nonsense of putting astronauts on the moon. Remember, Richard Hoagland? He is the one that said in the 1990’s that moon monuments existed on the moon, and that extra-terrestrial beings built them. He was trying to reintroduce Sinnett’s “Esoteric Buddhism” from 1883. You see, ‘what goes around comes around’, when it concerns the occult movement .
Now, here is something that will give you strength because it is a short quote from a lecture that gives the reason for what is popularly known as the “Eighth Sphere”. The lecture is part of a course that wants to free the New Isis from her present full body imprisonment in the sign of Aquarius.
“Pythagoras, for instance, still knew so much of the ancient wisdom that they could say: We dwell on the Earth, we belong through the Earth to a cosmic system, to which Jupiter and Saturn also belong; but if we remain in these three dimensions, then we shall not belong in the same way to Venus and Mercury. We cannot belong to the two latter directly, as we do to Saturn and Jupiter; but if our Earth is in one space with Saturn and Jupiter, there must be a ‘counter-Earth’ which is in another space with Venus and Mercury. Hence ancient astronomers spoke of the Earth and the counter-Earth. Of course the modern materialist would say: “Counter-Earth? I see nothing of that!” He is like a person who weighs a man, having first charged him to think about nothing, and weighs him again when he has charged him to think a specially clever thought, and then says: I have weighed him, but I have not found the weight of his thought. Materialism rejects what has no weight or cannot be seen. Remarkable things however shine out of the atavistic primeval wisdom to which we can return by the inner vision of Spiritual Science. It is of urgent necessity that we should work our way through now to that which is entirely new and which has yet been on Earth all the time, and has only now in these days to be acquired in full consciousness. Unless we do, this we shall lose the very possibility of thinking.”
https://rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA201/English/RSP1972/19200502p01.html
So does the 8th sphere or counter-earth have to do with the switch between Venus & Mercury?
I just printed out the lecture. Is this what you were referring to in your previous email. Sorry to be so confused.
I am sorry. I am a little confused about the part of freeing Isis from her imprisonment. Is this a Steiner lecture? Also, what is the title to the movie you mentioned and how can I find it and see it? I just printed out and read Lecture of “The Occult Movement in the Nineteenth Century.” It made a great deal of sense to me, especially the part about love being the counter weight, imaginative heart thinking. I feel like I really understand the Eighth Sphere now and how the events of our times are conspiring to drag people into it and the severe danger that poses.
I feel the time is so ripe for a movable and longer Michael Festival. I think people are hungry for it to be more that a sweet little Waldorf School type of event but something of great import, and I am dreaming about what that might look like at the Fellowship Community next year!! Reading the Michael lectures could be a start, building up to it.
My birthday is July 31, close enough to August 15th to have a strong affinity, I think?
For what it is worth on the Old Calendar Russian Orthodox Church, today is the Conception of St. John the Baptist and the 14th of October, the eve of the 15th, is the celebration of the Feast Day of the Protection of the Theotokos.
Janet here is an offering based on Steiner’s New Isis Myth which gives this picture of her astral dismemberment by Lucifer
https://youtu.be/-04zFYqrbWw?feature=shared
Thanks for bringing a concise synthesis around counteracting the 8th Sphere – Heart-Thinking really what it’s all about!
It’s great that you are tuned into the Feast Day’s of the Saints – so important to bring those energies in!
xox
Tycho Brahe attempted to combine the Ptolemaic and Copernican systems in order to better depict outer space and inner space. Here it is, and it was not popular at all.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a6/Tychonian_system.svg
“Diagram depicting the basics of the Tychonian geocentric system. Basically, the objects on blue orbits (the Moon and the Sun and the fixed stars) revolve around the Earth. The objects on orange orbits (Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn) revolve around the Sun. All is surrounded by a sphere of fixed stars (though they are fixed only with respect to each other, for the sphere revolves around the earth). The system is essentially geocentric, though everything except for the moon and the fixed stars and the earth centre itself revolves around the Sun. Distances are of course just generalized, though it is important that the minor planets are always “tied” to the Sun while the major planets can be on either side of the Earth. This is a superior diagram of Tycho’s system to most that you will find: the path of the sun’s orbit intersects with the path of Mars’ orbit, causing a problem for any astronomer thinking of the mechanism as incorporating nested physical “spheres”.
So, it was in the effort to simplify the solar system into one space for all the planets revolving around the Sun that Venus and Mercury got interchanged. If Steiner’s depiction as indicated in lecture 11 of GA 201 had been understood, then Venus would be next to the Sun, and Mercury next to the Earth.
The important thing is to see the function of the Counter-Earth and its Counter-Space. George Adams knew a lot about this. He was working with Elizabeth Vreede on this when the purge of 1935 occurred. He found a new partner in Olive Whicher.
This gives a good visual of October 6th, Last Quarter Moon.
https://www.moongiant.com/phase/10/6/2023
Last Quarter begins the process of switching from the gibbous phase to the crescent phase, and where the true nature of the Vesica Piscis comes into play.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Vesica_piscis_circles.svg
“The vesica piscis is the intersection of two congruent disks, each centered on the perimeter of the other.”
This is a roundabout way of saying that the Eight Sphere is centered in the Moon. Now, we should add the movie, if possible.
The sign of Pisces actually occurs 12 times a year.
Thank you, Hazel. I think this a wonderful idea.
That is my favorite verse!!! Love and Blessings,
janet
Something big always happens during Michaelmas. It feels like an energy that can either uplift you or cripple you, depending on which ‘side’ of the battle you get pulled to. I don’t know, it’s like a release valve I suppose.
I hear that. The lead up to Michaelmas was tough, but then when we came to the Harvest moon, I felt the blessings start to pour in. And then working the Festivals in Community is always uplifting for me as well.
We definitely experience the safety valve releasing during eclipses.
This does seem to be the action at Michaelmas. Either it is despair, due to the Autumn season of decline, or the realization of potential in seeing that “death becomes life”, which is a Christic maxim.
Kyle wrote:
“Something big always happens during Michaelmas. It feels like an energy that can either uplift you or cripple you, depending on which ‘side’ of the battle you get pulled to. I don’t know, it’s like a release valve I suppose.”
Yes, and you have to decide in full freedom what side you take.
As human beings we are not meant to follow nature into decline. We are to use the Resurrection forces bestowed thru Christ’s deed applying them especially in our thinking at this time.
If we can shift our perception into this expanded reality we will be able to use the abundance spiritual harvest available now as our food for thought.
I have the Michael Mystery on my nightstand for many years now. These insights were mostly given in Autumn in 1924.
https://rsarchive.org/Books/GA026/English/APC1956/GA026_index.html
I’m not so sure that it would be rejected. It could be contemplated. And we each in our own space and time can take this up which is a beginning, which is already beginning.
It is always important to be flexible – to experiment & explore. And it really helps to do it together
This has been a long thread of comments. What I said back on September 30 has already expanded enormously in just 7 days! Contemplation can move mountains, and a rolling stone gathers no moss. Fixed rigidity is acknowledged in the Catholic church, but is anathema to Anthroposophy. Even so, Michael has been an evolutionary being since the Ancient Sun set his course as an Archangel. Bearing the Countenance of both Jahve and Christ signifies a dynamism of unparalleled importance. As well, let’s not forget the War in Heaven, and the Event of 1879. He is now the Time Spirit leading our age with Creator Powers. This is something new for the Archai, and has a trickle-down effect that wants to influence human beings here in the Consciousness Soul age since the big move in 1919.
Just read GA 233a, Lecture, a compelling back ground for the movable feast of Michaelmas. Now on to Lecture II in “The Search for the New Isis Divine, Sophia.” Thank you for directing me to these readings. Also, viewed Hazels talk on the New Isis. Click, click, things are moving into new places and spaces. Glory Be!!!
This place has formed a wonderful smorgasbord of ideas which comes up not frequently, and only when we are considering great moves. So, please trust it, as I do. Hazel spoke about you here, and I was able to find notes from the August 17, 2021 blogpost. My approach takes the onerous method of studying the work of anthroposophy and reciting what seems significant. Of course, I have also worked it out for myself, and can vouchsafe it. Your comment about the CC vestments worn at Michaelmas seems a very keen observation, and then the tapestries and scrolls. Hazel knows all about this, and I consider her a vouchsafing agent.
I live in Washington, and it seems that you live in Maine. Maybe I have connected to someone for the first time who really cares.