According to the original Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner, TODAY is the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary – Mary’s birth has ‘officially’ been celebrated since the 6th century. A September birth, with the Sun in the constellation Virgo. Also noteworthy-the Eastern Orthodox Church begins its Church year in September, with the feast of the Immaculate Conception nine months earlier on 8 December.
The apocryphal book of James gives us this account: Anna & Joachim are infertile but pray for a child. They receive the promise of a child that will advance God’s evolutionary plan for the world.
St. Augustine connects Mary’s birth with the work of The Christ. He tells the earth to rejoice & shine forth in the light of her birth. “She is the flower of the field from whom bloomed the precious lily of the valley. Through her birth the nature inherited from our first parents is changed.”
“Today the barren Anna claps her hands for joy, the earth radiates with light, kings sing their happiness, priests enjoy every blessing, the entire universe rejoices, for she who is queen and the Father’s immaculate bride buds forth from the stem of Jesse”
The Virtue for the month of September: Courtesy becomes Steadiness of Feeling.
This virtue of Equanimity or steadiness of Feeling has never been my strong suit. And today it dawned on me that perhaps it’s partly because I have always looked on ‘courtesy’ as a false societal mask, a convention that my: ‘Say it like it is’ attitude didn’t allow me to fully appreciate; especially since my dear mother, always very courteous, was often martyred. I thought I had to be tough so I wouldn’t be walked on like she was. But recently I was called ‘unkind’ & that hurt. It woke me up to my impatience, & showed me how tolerance is a form of courtesy. It showed me that to be truly kind, truly courteous, I had to practice a real ‘steadfastness of feeling’ – It shouldn’t come from a rule outside me, an unconscious convention, a patent please & thank you – but from a kind, patient, heart – centered in equanimity, bringing a calm sobriety & the resolve to cultivate & harvest right relationship.
So thank you September; for the time has come when the contemplative Virgin of the heavens approaches, sparking wholeness, to gather us up in her blue mantle, like ears of corn, we are brought home from the fields of Summer.
The constellation of the Virgin has always been regarded in the ancient mysteries as the bearer of the bread of life -Full filled at the ‘Tuning Point of Time’ in the ‘miracle of the loaves & the fishes’, as well as the ‘Last Supper’.
If cosmic provisions are to become nourishment for the “I”, we must make a connection with the powers of the depths, which lie opposite the Virgin along the axis of the Zodiac, in the constellation of Pisces, the sign of the Fishes. With this balance of Above & Below we can truly feed the “I” – & say as St. John did: “I am the Bread of Life”!
This begs the question, which our current culture has to answer: How can the food of life, which is so often taken in unconsciously, in greedy gulps -instead be taken up & internalized with a wakeful & reverent consciousness?
If the Bread of Life is to be fully digested by the “I”, then what is required is the destruction of our selfish desires, making us ‘virgin’ again, that we may give birth to the ‘Christ in me’, to preserve & focus the activity of the will, freeing the “I” from outdated husks, to feed the Christ self.
In the social realm, the royal virtue of courtesy brings the giddiness of summer’s unconscious expansion back into a steadfast feeling of thoughtful care. A soul hygiene that brings the pendulum into right relationship, just as every out-breath is followed by an in-breath –The austerity of the Virgin leading us into the balanced scales of Libra in preparation for Michaelmas.
This must be developed in the practice of our social life. If we practice this high ideal of courtesy, not just a surface, conventional politeness, we can acquire the right heart-felt feeling, which awakens an inner organ that can reveal to us the true being of the other person, as well as opening our connection to the elemental beings, that look to us to release them from the withering blooms.
“If the sheath-bearing Virgin, who draws near with golden rays of autumn sun, in the blue firmament, is to nourish you with what she provides, you must take up this food that is the Bread of Life in your innermost being.
That you can only do, when you develop not only your senses, but with them, open up the spirit of your soul to the world around you, & deepen in your heart the fruits of your life, that you gather, shape & organize. Only the right heartfelt tact gives you the possibility of recognizing the human being in others & of becoming aware of your own human nobility!” ~Rudolf Steiner
Happy B-day BVM. Please work with my karmic angels, & that seed of wise-love that I must continue to cultivate, to awaken the virtuous tasks at hand, living into the potential of human nobility…
~hag
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8 September 2020 – “Speaking with the stars”:
Sunrise: 6:35 A.M. CDT
Sunset: 7:19 P.M.
Moonrise: 10:45 P.M.
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1504 – Michelangelo’s David is unveiled in Piazza della Signoria in Florence
1565 – The Knights of Malta lift the Ottoman siege of Malta, the climax of an escalating contest between a Christian alliance & the Islamic Ottoman Empire for control of the Mediterranean
1637 – Deathday of Robert Fludd, a prominent English Paracelsian physician & occultist, an astrologer, mathematician, cosmologist, Qabalist & Rosicrucian apologist.
1900 – Galveston hurricane: A powerful hurricane hits Galveston, Texas killing about 8,000 people
1941 – World War II: Siege of Leningrad begins
1949 – Deathday of Richard Strauss, German composer
1978 – Black Friday, a massacre by soldiers against protesters in Tehran, provoked 700-3000 deaths, it marks the beginning of the end of the monarchy in Iran
1988 – Deathday of Dr Rita Leroi a few days before her 75th birthday. She attended the Stuttgart Waldorf School as a child. She went on to became a Clinical Assistant at the Ita Wegman Clinic in Arlesheim. She developed a deep interest in cancer & the Iscador treatment of this disease. In 1954 she married Dr Alexandre Leroi who was the leader of the Society for Cancer Research & Director of the Hiscia Research Institute in Arlesheim. It is here that Iscador is produced & researches into the many problems to be solved in developing it into an effective remedy are undertaken. In October 1963 the Lukas Klinik, devoted to the care & treatment of cancer patients, opened in Arlesheim & Rita Leroi became its Director & selected to be President of the International Anthroposophical Medical Association
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HOW WE WILL HARVEST: 12 pm pacific, 1pm mountain, 2pm central, 3pm eastern, 9pm Europe / Dornach
On Sunday, September 20th, the day the foundation stone was laid into the first Goetheanum, we invite everyone back to share and offer a plenum.
details TBA – But I have been asked to share a few Leading Thoughts around the Michaelmas Season
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ALIANT ALLIANCE MICHAELMAS MEET-UP: Tuesday, September 29th (for roughly 2.5 hours) @ 10am pacific, 11am mountain, 12pm central, 1pm eastern, 7pm Europe / Dornach
We will discuss organizing some of the ALIANT Next Steps
Review ELIANT’s Charter, Vision, and Mission Statement;
Take up a biweekly study of Rudolf Steiner’s Speaker’s Lectures for the Threefold Commonwealth from 1921, found in Communicating Anthroposophy. (We place an order and coordinate shipping, if you are interested please message us, and if you would like support purchasing a book, let us know! )
Study our countries’ Constitution wherever we are living.
If you would like to engage our future steps with us, please email Dottie and Frank at CirclesforaRenewalofCulture@gmail.com
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The Central Regional Council Invites ALL to our Michaelmas Festival:
‘Courage Born of Wisdom’
Wednesday 23 September 2020 –On ZOOM – 7:15 pm CDT – 8:30 pm
CRC performs a telling of a tale from ancient Chaldea where EA gives birth to Marduk, precursor to Michael.
then “Wisdom Built herself a house*”…7 members of the various sections of the Anthroposophical Society will stand as Wisdom’s 7 Pillars to share how Courage was born from Wisdom leading to their work in the world.
Pedagogical Section –Michael Holdrege
Youth Section – Stephan Ambrose
Medical Section –Drs. Molly & Quentin McMullen
Eurythmy – Barbara Richardson
Social Science Section – Doug Wylie
BioDynamic Agriculture – Rand Carter
Three-Folding – Dorothy Hinkle-Uhlig
with a closing about the connection between Michael, The Christ & Anthroposophia!
Join Zoom Meeting
https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82070460900
Meeting ID: 820 7046 0900
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If you have questions, please contact Alberto Loya aloyavaca@utexas.edu
***
Michaelmas 2020: Joan d’Arc – PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will –
Date: Saturday 26 Sept. 2020. Time: 2 pm – 5 pm, In-Person & Online
https://zoom.us/j/97955920156 Meeting ID: 979 5592 0156
Schedule (in process)
Opening Song by Jen Zimberg? – (3-5 minutes)
Lucien Lazar ? – Ring the Iron Bell – Welcome (How does our Festival form a Being of Courage in this Now?) (10 – 15 minutes?)
Elisabeth Swisher, or Frank, or Nancy Melvin & Elizabeth Kelly? Michaelmas Harvest Song, or ? (5 Minutes)
Angela Foster – Leading Thoughts, & ‘Personal Recollections of Joan of Arc – Preface’ (20-30 minutes)
Mary Spalding – ‘Courage Dear Hearts’ Biography of Jeanne d’Arc (10 minutes)
Mary S, or Mary R, or Jan R? Copper Rod Eurythmy: (5-10 minutes)
Dottie Zold & Frank Agrama – Michael, Joan of Arc, St Oldie & the Elderberries Impulse of Selflessness (20-30 minutes)
Song by Jen Zimberg ? or another Michaelmas Song? (5 minutes)
Paulette Arnold? – Biography Work in Break out Groups – Sharing a story of courage from our lives: Each person takes 3 minutes to tell their tale. (15 minutes)
Large Group Sharing (5-10 minutes)
‘The Passage’ by Lucian Dante Lazar (15 minutes)
Large Group Sharing (5-10 minutes) which can lead into, or be part of:
Angela Foster – Social Sculpture – Weaving the Chalice (20 minutes)
Jonathan Hadley – The Mars / Saturn Square (10 minutes)
Everyone takes a turn Ringing the IRON, verse, goodbye (5-10 minutes)
Group 1: Springing from Powers of the Sun,
Radiant Spirit-powers, blessing all Worlds!
For Michael's garment of rays
We are predestined by Thought Divine.
Group 2: Michael, the Christ-messenger, reveals in us
Bearing humankind aloft — the sacred Will of Worlds.
You, radiant Beings of Ether-Worlds,
Bear the Christ-Word to human beings.
Group 1: Thus shall the Heralds of Christ appear
To our thirstily waiting souls.
Your Word of Light shines forth to us
In the cosmic age of the Spirit-Human.
Group 2: We, disciples who would know the spirit,
Follow Michael's beckoning Wisdom,
To take the Word of Love, Willed by Worlds,
Into our highest aims of soul-work; actively!
~From Rudolf Steiner's Last Address
hag – ending thoughts? – Goodbye – Thank you – Potluck
Hi Hazel,
Again, you write something that is very revealing about yourself. It takes courage to do this, but it is also a reaching out in the spirit of, “please understand me”. You wrote:
“This virtue of Equanimity or steadiness of Feeling has never been my strong suit. And today it dawned on me that perhaps it’s partly because I have always looked on ‘courtesy’ as a false societal mask, a convention that my: ‘Say it like it is’ attitude didn’t allow me to fully appreciate; especially since my dear mother, always very courteous, was often martyred. I thought I had to be tough so I wouldn’t be walked on like she was. But recently I was called ‘unkind’ & that hurt. It woke me up to my impatience, & showed me how tolerance is a form of courtesy. It showed me that to be truly kind, truly courteous, I had to practice a real ‘steadfastness of feeling’ – It shouldn’t come from a rule outside me, an unconscious convention, a patent please & thank you – but from a kind, patient, heart – centered in equanimity, bringing a calm sobriety & the resolve to cultivate & harvest right relationship.”
What is Christ if not the equipoise between left and right? The balance between opposites. The fulcrum of earth evolution. The Turning Point of Time when an Aquarius initiate dunks his own cousin, who was a Pisces initiate, and of a higher rank according to John the Baptist’s own words. What does it all mean other than that we must strike this balance in ourselves.
The secret to Christ is that He represents the Sattva condition, which stands between Rajas and Tamas, which are active and passive, respectively. Thus, they represent the gunas of phenomenalism, like left-wing and right-wing, and democrats vs. republicans. Only the middle position, which is the oscillator or rotator, and conducts the pendulum swing between cause and effect, is the true reality.
Yet, in today’s day and age we don’t get to take the middle position of neutrality unless we do it consciously on our own. We have to be left or right; one or the other. Well, this is a well-crafted ploy designed to create dissension, confusion, and chaos. It represents life outside the Christ-zone.
Rudolf Steiner gave a very important lecture-course, which discusses this dichotomy of left and right, and how only the Sattva condition in the middle exists to meet our true aims of eternal salvation. It is the course on, “The Occult Significance of the Bhagavad Gita”. https://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA146/English/AP1968/OcGita_index.html
Herein, Steiner explains how the Bhagavad Gita is an epic, which tells of a time of transition. As such, the time of transition is the one in which the unitary blood lines of Hebrews must begin to mingle with the bloods of other people. Arjuna, who is the central figure here, is dismayed at the idea of killing his own kinsmen, and so drops his sword in personal defeat. Slaying his own brethren is completely offensive to his human spirit. He can no longer tolerate it. Yet, he is lifted up to the realm of Krishna, who begins to explain how spiritual evolution is taking place in a certain way, and he cannot simply throw down his ‘bow and arrow’. He is a part of destiny. Thus, he is brought into the realm of Krishna, and begins to learn about spirituality, and its causes and effects. And especially about the practice of Yoga, which achieves the Sattva condition.
Yes, we all have our tasks, our challenges. And it’s always about finding & maintaining balance. Living with purpose, our soul forces consciously engaged.
We all have our personal hard places to overcome, i feel it is important to be transparent so that the shadow doesn’t lurk, but is brought into the light.
Work on “chief feature” is descriptive of the personal hard places to overcome. We tend to emphasize our strengths and mask our weak areas. Only self study with keen observation and unmerciful objectivity can make it so mindful that we come to know how Jesus would feel, and what He would do.