What is…

Bettina Müller

I know, I know I have been belaboring this forever, but here it is again: What is it to be on a modern path of initiation into the New Mysteries?

It begins, as it did for Hercules, with the ‘Hero’s Journey’ – But now in our time in full consciousness. Yes, it starts…with a Quest…as Parzival shows us & as Christian Rosenkreutz demonstrated in the Alchemical Wedding. We must first discover the mission we are called to – this involves research & study; then thru heart-thinking we imagine the journey – we contemplate in pictures how we can proceed, using cognitive imagination; & when we can attune our soul forces to be receptive – we will be able to listen & receive guidance from our higher Self thru Inspiration given to us from the spiritual world. Then the goal is to act upon these spiritual directives – to co-create with the spiritual worlds – this is Intuition.

To be an ‘initiate’ we must consciously enact what others do unconsciously – manifesting the blueprint we signed up to outpicture during our life before birth.

To make the conscious intention to embark on the Quest with a heart-felt will – often born thru struggle – opens us to acquire Wisdom.

The gods bring us to the memory of our intention to take up the Quest, but they allow us the freedom to take it up or not – & to conceive it how we will – to choose for ourselves how we will achieve it.

These great spiritual collaborators are glorified when we willingly take up our task – For they learn something thru our unique human journey. The gods are ever helping us along the way, leaving little coded messages that require us to decipher them. All our joys & sufferings are messages, like sign posts that lead us to our individual karma, as well as into the karma of the world – giving us the potential to reach our goal: Freedom thru Love & Wisdom –

What is Love? Selfless compassion, joyful sacrifice, peaceful receiving in gratitude…Christ – the Being of Love – in us…

Who is Wisdom? Uniting our Anthroposophia with the light of the Holy Spirit that allows us to manifest true understanding, so we can embrace Love…

We are all students before we can be novice apprentices – before we can become Adepts – co-creators with the creators. We are all on the path of initiation – to know this gives us great responsibility.

Christ is Love – the meaning of the Earth – Uniting our soul in Love with the Holy Sophia, we cast a light upon this Christ impulse – allowing it to grow & transform us.

And then we become One with the Beloved. This is the Quest of the Holy Grail – The Alchemical Wedding of Christ in the soul with the Holy Spirit.

See you at the Wedding

~hag

(PS, I have been having many tech difficulties with my server recently. Please let me know if you got this & yesterday’s post Cross-Roads…? Thanks)

Chart via John Jardine Goss/ EarthSky.

10 March 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Don’t miss Bella Luna near Spica, late on the evenings of March 9, 10 and 11, 2023 – look for the waning gibbous moon hanging near the bright star Spica in Virgo the Maiden.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY

Paolo Veronese

According to Steiner’s Original Calendar of the Soul which lists historical events as well as Feast Days, birth & death days…etc…of leaders in humanity, TODAY is: The Conversion of Mary Magdalene. This is described in Pietro Aretino’s 1535 book L’umanità di Cristo; a version of the Gospels widely distributed in Northern Italy at that time. In the legend that inspired the painting, Mary went to a temple where the teachings of Jesus inspired her to convert to a pious life.

The Categories of Aristotle – a process of contraction…
Is there a path to expansion…..?

PUBLIC LECTURE AND EURYTHMY WORKSHOP WITH CLAUDIA FONTANA

Friday 24 March 2023 – Lecture 7 pm CT – 8:30 pm – Purchase tickets at the door or pay online
$12

Saturday 25 March 2023 – Workshop – 9 am CT– (10:30 am 1/2 hour break – 11 am) 12:30 pm CT CT– Purchase tickets at the door or pay online $50

The Categories of AristotleA process of contraction…exploring a path to expansion

Does one have to be a philosopher of great erudition to approach Aristotle’s gift to humanity……his Categories?

Perhaps , YES! But an initial acquaintance with them can lead out of the confinement of the intellectual concept to an experience of expansion supported by Eurythmy.

In the evening lecture Claudia will introduce the life of the Categories before they became concepts – Bringing the symbols in a sequence of sounds  (called the Evolutionary Sequence ) out of their conceptual form, to life, supported by Eurythmy and examples of poetry.

During the workshop we will enter into the movement of the poetry presented  during the lecture. This will be accessible to Eurythmists as well as to anyone interested in the life of language, poetry and our alphabet.

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch of The Anthroposophical Society
4249 North Lincoln Avenue. Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
https://www.rschicago.org/happenings/calendar 
www.rschicago.org/donate

For more info contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Claudia Fontana saw a Eurythmy performance when still a teenager. Unbeknownst to her at the time, that performance was the gate to her destiny path. Soon thereafter she studied Eurythmy in Vienna and subsequently spent fourteen years as a performer with the Dornach, London and Stuttgart Eurythmeum ensembles. Teaching became the next challenge which she happily met in the United States, Europe. Before Covid, she spent seven years teaching all levels in Thailand, Malaysia and China. She resides in Ann Arbor, MI still performing and teaching.

“Lazarus – Come Forth” – An exploration of the1st Christian Initiation, thru the Word & Eurythmy

with Rev. Jeana Lee, Mary Ruud & Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

Starting at Sundown on the eve of Lazarus Saturday 31 March 2023
7 pm – 8:30 pm CT at the Christian Community 2135 W. Wilson

Leading Thoughts & Close of Day with Rev. Jeana Lee

Continuing on 1 April 2023
10 am – 12 noon CT
at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago 4249 N. Lincoln Ave

$10 more or less or pay what you will
Please bring a potluck dish to share for the luncheon after the Festival

For more info. contact Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator Hag@rschicago.org

Mary Magdalene & the Women at the Tomb – A Festival of Resurrection

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg,

Song-Circle with Velsum, 

Eurythmy – & an artistic break out session

Holy Saturday 8 April 2023

1 pm – 3pm CT hybrid event in-person at the Rudolf Steiner Branch Chicago & on zoom

https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041

Meeting ID: 705 017 4041

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (map)
www.rschicago.org/donate

PRESENTS:

The Mystery of Ascension with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg

This course is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it. Go to the Infinity Foundation web site to enroll

Course Number 231154 / Zoom
Date: Thursday, May 11
Time 7:00 – 8:30 PM CST
Cost $33/23 payment 10 days in advance

Gerald Shepherd

When we tune into the Cycle of the Seasons, we experience that as the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the beings of nature reach upwards towards the heights. The longing of the human soul also strives to meet this mood of ascension, which attunes all life to the cosmic expanses.

Together we will gain insights in how to rise up to our Higher Self by participating in this harmonizing spring-dialogue between the worlds.

This reconnection between heaven & earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Through his dream of the ‘stairway to heaven’, Jacob gave us a prophecy in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels traverse between the ‘Above & Below’. The Mystery of the Ascension of Christ, 40 days after the Resurrection at Easter, fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy. Christ as the Being of Love became the living bridge connecting us to the eternal.

Through this workshop we will learn how humanity will also be transfigured in the fullness of time. The company of the Angelic Hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while by our sides.

Nancy Poer

~Vitae Sophia~A Whitsun Festival of United Soul Endeavor 

with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Velsum Voices & Eurythmy

Saturday 27 May 2023 a Hybrid event in person* & on zoom

We are called to redeem the ether spheres to create an Ecclesia, a chalice for The Sophia. Then the spirit flame can spread out to become what Steiner called a “World Whitsun”, which began in earnest at the Christmas Conference. The Whitsun Festival highlights one of the greatest challenges of being human: placing our individual gifts, in right relationship within the social realm. This challenge is especially strong now during this ‘pandemic’. Our groups striving to know Spiritual Science must work together as a community, to have the possibility to create a new culture where a sacrament is possible in every encounter. Our individual strength is enhanced by weaving our gifts together, kindling our social world in conscious community.

Zoom: https://us06web.zoom.us/j/83663366670?pwd=L292UzlOR1pkZjBXSWpxK1B2b0o1dz09 Meeting ID: 836 6336 6670 / Passcode: 397593

For more Info. contact Hag@RSChicago.org Cultural Events & Festivals Coordinator
*Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 North Lincoln Avenue, Chicago, IL 60618 (mapwww.rschicago.org/donate


Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE

7 thoughts on “What is…

  1. Thanks Hazel for the reminders of what modern initiation entails. Making a comment on your blog has changed — part of some changes Word Press is making perhaps? Now, when I click on the Comment box, it brings up the whole blog again, so I needed to scroll to the very bottom. Previously the Reply box showed up right away. Something new to become accustomed to. Technology’s always changing. I just finished notifying the various groups I participate in via the Zoom platform, that with their most recent update, Zoom is now automatically recording all our meetings, and that when we join the meetings, we now are consenting to Zoom’s terms and conditions, which I assume applies to being constantly recorded. I’ve noticed for the last month that there’s been a red Record indicator on the top tab of our Zoom meetings, and also was wondering why we now need to give our consent to their terms and conditions. Something to be aware of; this may have something to do with recent tensions with China and the U.S. (Zoom has Chinese origins, and maintains close ties with China); issues like those we’ve been hearing of concerning the banning of TikTok from government devices.

    I appreciate all that you reminded us of concerning modern initiation, and would only add this thought — that initiation always has involved the dying of our lower selves. There’s no words that express this as well as Paul did, when he said that “I have been crucified with Christ, and it is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me…” No surprise that this thought was often brought to mind by Steiner in his lectures. We all must confront the struggles associated with this dying — for some it’ll be more difficult than others, because of the amount of karma being brought forward with them into this incarnation, or the amount of karma they’ve added for themselves in their current experience; in my case, before I even understood what karma was, or how it works. But we can know it’s definitely worth whatever struggles are involved — as Jesus said when referring to Mary Magdalene’s being forgiven for many sins, those who are forgiven much, love much.

    By the way, I didn’t receive yesterday’s blog (Cross-Roads), but am able to link to it through the listing of Recent Posts on today’s blog.

    1. Thanks for this important feedback. Yes, more & more of our freedoms are being infringed upon thru various electronic media platforms.
      I have noticed that google blocks me from sending emails to my friends who have gmail accounts, saying something to the effect that they are protecting me from what they see as spam. Its crazy, folks that I have had many email exchanges with over the years are all of a sudden considered dangerous. Yesterday it wouldn’t let me reply to an email from Rev. Jeana Lee about our upcoming Lazarus Festival.

      I have seen for many years that when I try to post my blog essays on fb that they are blocked.

      I’m not sure what our recourse will be as this sort of censorship ‘for our own good’ takes over more & more…

      Thank you for pointing out that even the modern form of initiation involves a kind of death – a complete transformation – which is what John the Baptist called for & Paul demonstrated.

      1. Hi Hazel,

        A seemingly good platform (alternative to Facebook) is Substack. I tried it out myself a couple years ago, and it is super easy to use. Great for articles, essays, some even do podcasts. Based on the content I’ve seen thus far, I don’t think you need to be worried about being blocked.

        https://substack.com/

        1. Good mention Kyle — I read a daily Substack newsletter from Thom Hartmann, and find it a good platform.

  2. Greetings,
    “Christ is Love – the meaning of the Earth – Uniting our soul in Love with the Holy Sophia, we cast a light upon this Christ impulse – allowing it to grow & transform us.”
    cast a light upon……??
    which Light? mind/heart/ womb? fire element too has light..fire for food and related sex
    wood Mose’s burning bush light sun/moon /north star light?
    Christ shows the way..gps. yeh weh is lungs aligning lungs with wind pipe!not love but blood purification..SemaTawy.
    John 14 6
    Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.
    originally human was created by air..spirit water added to it.
    human was missing acids and related gases food related..
    which was banned we are not allowed to eat..and we eat lavishly chemicals..
    fasting is key we do not have ….???
    congratulations title reversal ritual= ancient sand clocks..palms together,mkyogi

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