Greetings Friends – To continue to feed the inner fires of the Michaelmas Season - Before going off to the Annual Southeast Biodynamic Conference - Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of Biodynamic Agriculture - Hosted by Jeff Poppen ‘the Barefoot Farmer’, at Long Hungry Creek Farm in Red Boiling Springs, TN - I thought to share some thoughts that I hold of Joan d’Arc – a true Christic Warroior inspired by Michael. A few years back our Michaelmas Festival was inspired by Joan of Arc. I called it ‘PURIFYING FIRE: The Power behind the Will’.
My research led me to many amazing resources, including Mark Twain’s heart-felt Book, as well as the work of Anthroposopher Joan M. Edmunds. But my main source came from Rudolf Steiner who gives us many insights into this powerful individuality. Now I can’t help but think of Joan when it comes to Michaelmas.
I was particularly taken by what Steiner says in ‘The Destinies of Individuals and of Nations, Lecture 5, The Nature of the Christ Impulse and the Michaelic Sprit Serving It. Berlin, 1915’; a lecture series he gave right at the start of the 1st world war. I felt called to make that my personal focus. I didn’t get a chance to share it at our Festival since I wanted to keep it more experienical, so here it is for your contemplation. I hope it moves you to take action as it did me.
What is the mission of The Maid of Orleans? From the time of her enchanted childhood playing around the village ‘fairy tree’ – & then, starting at the age of 12 – & for 7 years, until she was martyred at age 19, Jehanne (feminine form of Joannes or John) d’Arc was inspired into by progressive Beings of the Divine Spiritual World. These powers battled the inflammatory Luciferic forces of deception prevailing in humanity at that special time right before the beginning of the Consciousness Soul Age. Joan of Arc, with the aid of Michael, (& his helpers St. Catherine & St. Margaret) was able to vanquish the seductive Luciferic forces which were vying to prevent this shift in human consciousness.
Steiner describes the miracle of her birth, how she went thru a sort of pre-earthy initiation during the potent time of the 13 Holy nights, incarnating on Epiphany, the day the Christ came into a human being at the Baptism.
And we can also point to her equally auspicious death. Yes it was gruesome, not unlike like the sacrifice of the Christ. In her case, it occurred because all the jealous, selfish, Luciferic forces of her enemies joined together to bring about her sacrifice by fire; not unlike the burning of the Temple of Ephesus, & of the Johannas Bau, The Temple of the Word - the 1st Goetheanum.
At what can in truth be be called her witch trial, she predicted her own death, & said that within 7 years after of her sacrifice: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal of fortune than any they had known before”. Spiritual Science tells us that the soul of Joan of Arc continued working across the Threshold to shape these events after her death. What the spiritual powers have to bring about will occur whatever the external conditions may be. Many great individualities are working with us even now from across the threshold. The Maid’s adversaries were able to bring about her death, but they were NOT able to prevent her mission.
The power behind the will of the Maid of Orleans, the forces of Michael, are working still against the immoral Luciferic forces that rage in the world.
Dear friends, as you are all so keenly aware, we are also having to deal with hostile forces in our time; but now-a-days these are predominantly Ahrimanic forces; not inflaming, but hardening, materialistic forces, that have come up with the industrial age. These forces are in evidence everywhere, especially if we turn our attention not only to the mechanical element, but thru-out cyber space; a distractive shrouding of the reappearance of the Christ in the etheric. And so Spiritual science tells us that if we remain unconscious of these forces working into our sense impressions, we are offering an abode to the dragon that seeks to stupefy us. These sclerotic forces influence our earth life, creating the fearful events happening NOW all over the globe.
In the above mentioned 1917 lecture, Steiner talks about how a sort of denial of the build up to the first World War had been present for a long time in the astral world, but was held back by something that was also astral: by the fear, doubt & hatred held in the feeling life of human beings. These negative astral forces were able to hold the war back, to prevent it, for a while. Steiner says: “…at 1st a fearful denial was able to stop war from breaking out. But then with the assassination of the Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria, there emerged a ‘reversal event’ – this recalls the words from Joan of Arc: “the English would meet with a much greater reversal than any they had known before”. In that case the selfish Luciferic forces came back to destroy the English reign after the sacrifice of Joan of Arc; and in this case – of the world war, all the elements of fear from the ahrimanic powers began to gather around the sacrificed soul of the Archduke, creating a focal point, a tear at the threshold. It’s hard to really phantom this, but we know that anything that has a specific character on the physical plane will have the opposite character in the spiritual world. Everything is reversed in the spiritual world. An element that had a blocking effect, keeping the 1st world war at bay, was now acting in the opposite way, as a spur, an incitement, to war. So we see that a flip of the elements of fear, of the deceiving Ahrimanic elements, became a catalyst for war, which now a 100 years later, has led to the events of our present age, where there is constant war, in all realms of society.
But fear not dear friends, Steiner tells us that we must not try to deny or rebel against these materialistic Ahrimanic elements. We must let them strengthen us; we must develop the courage of Michael to see it as something that is necessary in our time, something that has to be present, so that we can learn to reverse the fear thru our heart-thinking – transforming these forces of resistance thru love.
The question is: How do we make it possible for divine spiritual forces, the ‘ever present help of the spiritual world’, to enter into our actions so that we can consciously reverse The Beasts of fear, doubt & hatred? How do we offer a positive resistance to this deceptive Ahrimanic element in our age, the way resistance was offered to the Luciferic element at the time of Joan of Arc?
– By taking the path towards a spiritualization of human culture – by cultivating our ability to form ideas & concepts into a thinking will for good. This is the prerequisite foundation needed to manifest the 3-fold social organism. Which we can only do if we stop listening to the prejudices & propaganda currently pounding us deeper into the materialism of our age – a voice that speaks loudly at times, or can be the faintest of whispers from the dragon within. We generate the great strength we need to offer resistance to these hardening forces by approaching the spirit not only thru the inner powers of revelation & faith, like in the case of Joan of Arc, but by trying to concentrate our powers of understanding on what spiritual science has to give – a rational wisdom, filling us with light.
And so dear freinds, when we take ahold of ourselves with this attitude, we can consciously work with what Michael, the Spirit of our Age, has to give us now in our time – Meeting every trial & test with a conscious heart-thinking, motivated by the wisdom of love – where we must kindle our own light of thinking. ~hag
1 October 2024 - “Speaking with the Stars”
Looking at the past to see the present, co-creating the future: “History, historical life, will only be seen in the right light when a true consciousness of the connection of the so-called living with the so-called dead can be developed” – The Living and the Dead by Rudolf Steiner, Berlin, 5th February, 1918 ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
286 -Feast Day of Saint Piatus, a Belgian saint, native of Benevento, Italy, Tradition states that he was ordained by Dionysios the Areopagite. He was martyred under Maximian by having the top of his skull sliced off. He may be recognized in depictions holding the sliced portion of his skull. Some of his relics can be found at Chartres Cathedral
331 BC – Alexander the Great defeats Darius III of Persia in the Battle of Gaugamela 1811 – The first steamboat to sail the Mississippi River arrives in New Orleans 1814 – Opening of the Congress of Vienna, intended to redraw Europe’s political map after the defeat of Napoleon the previous spring
1847 – Birthday of Annie Besant a prominent British socialist, theosophist, women’s rights activist, writer, orator & supporter of Irish & Indian self-rule.
In 1890 Besant met Helena Blavatsky. She became a member of the Theosophical Society & a prominent lecturer. She established the first overseas Lodge of the International Order of Co-Freemasonry, Le Droit Humain. Over the next few years she established lodges in many parts of the British Empire. In 1907 she became president of the Theosophical Society, whose international headquarters were in Adyar, Madras. She also became involved in politics in India, joining the Indian National Congress. When World War I broke out in 1914, she helped launch the Home Rule Leagueto campaign for democracy in India. This led to her election as president of the India National Congress. In the late 1920s, Besant travelled to the United States with her protégé & adopted son Jiddu Krishnamurti, whom she claimed was the new Messiah & incarnation of Buddha. Krishnamurti rejected these claims in 1929. She is thought to be the reincarnation of Giordano Bruno
1880 – First electric lamp factory is opened by Thomas Edison 1890 – Yosemite National Park is established by the U.S. Congress 1908 – Ford puts the Model T car on the market at a price of US$825.
1918 – World War I: Arab forces under T. E. Lawrence, also known as “Lawrence of Arabia”, capture Damascus
1924 – Birthday of Jimmy Carter, American lieutenant & politician, 39th President of the United States, Nobel Prize laureate 1928 – General Secretary Joseph Stalin of the Soviet Union introduces its First five-year plan, including the creation of “kolkhoz” collective farming systems that stretched over thousands of acres of land & had hundreds of peasants working on them. This essentially destroyed the kulaks as a class, & also brought about the slaughter of millions of farm animals that these peasants would rather kill than give up to the gigantic farms. To meet the goals of the first five-year plan the Soviet Union began using the labor of its growing prisoner population. This disruption led to a famine in Ukraine, Russia, Kazakhstan as well as areas of the Northern Caucasus.
1957 – First appearance of In God we trust on U.S. paper currency 1961 – The United States Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) is formed, becoming the country’s first centralized military espionage organization 1985 – The Israeli Air Force bombs Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) headquarters in Tunis 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
4 - 6 October 2024 Annual Southeast Biodynamic Conference - Celebrating the 100-year anniversary of biodynamic agriculture. Hosted by Jeff Poppen ‘the Barefoot Farmer’ Long Hungry Creek Farm in Red Boiling Springs, TN
‘Mary Magdelene – The Sanctifier’ – with Hazel Archer-Ginsberg Monday 14 October 2024 7 pm – 9 pm Central Time (US & Canada) Sponsored by The Minneapolis Theosophical Society The zoom link is: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/84368789880?pwd=bUI5b3FZcHNoc3NLaXpUbktHejRGUT09 Why does Mary Magdalene resonate with so many of us these days? Some 2000 years after the Turning Point of Time, her insights, her mission, her mystery, is needed now, more than ever. In our work together we will be drawing from her living wellspring, unveiling ancient manuscripts, lost for centuries - like her banned Gospel, often called, ‘The Gospel of the Beloved Companion’. We will employ artistic inspirations thru the collages Hazel has created, using images rendered by great initiate painters who have sought to capture & convey the essence of the Magdala. We will use our focused intention, to decode & embody the wisdom of ‘Our Beloved Companion’– so that the spirit of Mary Magdalene, Priestess of Isis, Myrrhophores, 'Apostle to the apostles', can take us on an initiatory journey.
17 October 2024 - a Sukkot / All Souls / Full Hunters Harvest Moon "When you sit in the Sukkah, 'the shade of faithfulness,'
All Souls Festival w/ Mysteria Mystica Americana (MA) Friday 1 November 2024 - New Moon ALL Details TBA
Join us at the Goetheanum for the performance of Rudolf Steiner’s Four Mystery Dramas 26-31 December 2024We need 30 English speaking folk to come so that a Translator can be provided. If you are thinking of making this bucket list pilgrimage to see the Mysteru Dramas on the Goetheanum stage contact Sarah Cappelletti +41 61 706 42 50, buehne@goetheanum.ch
If you want to support the Spiritualization of the Earth thru the Biodynamic Farming done on Zinniker Farm, you are invited to become a paid subscriber, with all donations going directly to the farm
Greetings Friend, you currently a free subscriber to Cognitive Ritual. Thank you for receiving my workings freely offered. For the full experience, upgrade your subscription. ALL donations go to support Zinniker Farm - The oldest Biodynamic Farm in America! Together we can spiritualize the Universe. XOX ~hag
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Tuesday 1 October 2024
Warroir Maiden
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Planting flags in our Memory Garden at school. It all started with our field tr...
