May 15, 2016

Whitsun-day/Pentecost

“When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you.’

After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.’

When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” John 20:19-23

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“And Suddenly there came from the sky a Noise like a Strong Driving Wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.

Then there appeared to them Tongues as of Fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all Filled with the Holy Spirit”. Acts 2: 2-3

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“Then came the moment when it seemed to the apostles that they had lived through a long time as in a dream from which they awoke with the Pentecost event.

The apostles felt impregnated by all-encompassing love and awakened from the dream-like state.

Now, however, they were as transformed: like people who had achieved a new state of mind or soul disposition, like people who had lost all the narrow restrictions, all the egotism of life, who had gained an infinitely wide heart and all-embracing tolerance, a deeply heartfelt understanding of all that is human on earth.

They could also express themselves so that everyone present could understand them.

One felt also that they could see into each heart and soul and clarify the secrets of the soul, so they could comfort the other, could tell him exactly what he needed.

Now, in that instant, understanding of what actually happened on Golgotha appeared before their minds’ eye.” ~From ‘The Fifth Gospel’ by Rudolf Steiner

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“…After    His  Resurrection   from  the   dead  and  also  at  His   Ascension,    Christ   was   still  outside  the world  of   men;  He  had   not   endowed   their  individual   ego-consciousness   with  those  forces   which  He  had  already  borne  into Earth-existence   through  the  Mystery  of  Golgotha.

In order  that  this  might  come  about,  the festival  of Ascension  had  to  be  followed   by  the   Festival   of  Pentecost,  the  festival  of  the  outpouring  of  the   Holy   Spirit,   the  Spirit  of   Universal  Love,  upon  the  Apostles.

Rudolf   Steiner   speaks   about   this   as   follows: ‘From the event  of  Pentecost  onwards,  the  Christ-Being  experienced  His  entry  into  the  sphere  of  the  Earth,  which  signified  for  Him  what  the  transition into the  Spirit-Land signifies for the human being.

But  instead  of  ascending  –  as  is  the   case  with  a  human  being  after  death–  to  Devachan,  to  a  spiritual  region (that  is, as far as the World of  Archetypes),  the  Christ  Being  offered   up  His   sacrifice as  though  He  were   building  His  Heaven  on  the  Earth;  He  sought  it  on  the Earth.

Since  then,  and  for  all  future  ages  of  the  Earth,   it  has  become  possible  for  every  man  inwardly  to  experience  the  direct  presence  of  the  macrocosmic  Christ  through an  inner  experience  of  the  new  Holy  Spirit  who  proceeds   from  Him, who  quickens  the  soul  of    man  with a  universal,  cosmic  love, and   reveals  to  his  fully   awake  individual  ego-consciousness  a  perception  of   the     higher    worlds,  so  that  he  may  become  a   conscious witness  and   servant  of  the  Spirit. ” ~From ‘The  Cycle  of  the  Year   as  a  Path  of  Initiation, The  Mystery  of  Pentecost’  by Sergei O. Prokofieff

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Whitsun-Day, 15 May 2016,  

~Festival of United Soul Endeavor

A Biography Atelier with Leah Walker

2pm -4pm

at the Rudolf Steiner Branch 4249 N. Lincoln, Chicago

$10 includes all artistic materials

Warmth: Contraction/Expansion

The Pulse of Me & We – AUM = A – I stand for myself, U – I stand for humanity, M – I stand for Life

Welcome Circle

What is Whitsun?

What is Biography Work?

It is good to remember that biography work (just like Whitsun) is really for the future–a more human and moral future.  It is an antidote to our increasing individuality, a remedy for the isolation so many of us feel deeply, painfully.  It is a new art form. In this, our current time, we may simply take small steps with and through biography–we may strive to develop this potentially great work.  ~Leah Walker

Exploring Ourselves as ‘Social Artist’:

‘Postcards’ – Imaginations that deepen our inner feeling for the role others play in creating who we are.

‘Life Triptych’ – Spontaneous Sketches, that open us to real moments from our lives; revealing the nature of our Spirit Self-hood.

We may therefore picture to ourselves that, by uniting in brotherliness in working groups, something hovers invisibly over our work, something like the child of the forces of the spirit self–  the spirit self that is nurtured by the beings of the higher hierarchies in order that it may stream down into our souls…In our groups we perform work that streams upward to those forces that are being prepared for the spirit self. ~Rudolf Steiner, Preparing for the Sixth Epoch, Dusseldorf, June 15, 1915

Spirit Recalling, Spirit Sensing, Spirit Beholding

Light divine,

Christ-Sun,

Warm Our hearts;

Enlighten Our heads;

That good may become

What from our hearts, We are founding,

What from our heads, We direct,

With focused will.

~Rudolf Steiner, The foundation Stone Mediation

Snacks to Share Encouraged !
For more info. Contact Hazel Archer Ginsberg ReverseRitual@gmail.com