August 15th is the Feast of the Assumption of The Blessed Virgin Mary.
Assumption :
Assumption is an interesting word – The concept is applied to mean that the body of the Mother of God was not subjected to the usual process of physical decay, but was “assumed” into heaven, to be reunited with her eternal Spirit in the Holy Trinity. This mysterious event, represents the 1st fruits of a Universal Resurrection. It symbolizes a conscious death - the ultimate transformation of matter into spirit – A sentient death in the physical world is a Resurrection into the Spiritual World –
Done in full wakefulness – it is the culmination of a way of life - that prepares us for a worthy death - This is an evolutionary revolution - like the sacrifice the caterpillar makes to become a butterfly.
This Feast Day is also called: Mariae Himmelfahrt – Mary’s Ascension – It is the day The God-Bearer = The Theotokos - is taken up to the heavenly worlds by the angels.
Her Holy Day is also known as: ‘The Feast of the Dormition of Our Most Holy Lady, the Theotokos & Ever-Virgin Mary’ by the Eastern Orthodox. Dormition - Latin = to fall asleep, or to ‘pass into’ a different phase.
This Holy Day, which has been celebrated since the 4th century, is a Christian version of earlier Cross-Quarter Festivals, & in many parts of Europe, it is known as the ‘Feast of Our Lady of the Harvest’. It is still common for folk to make offerings of new wheat to the Theotokos on this day. In Italy, remnants of the ancient celebration include night time bonfires & public illuminations in the fields - The idea of prosperity is also evident in the throwing of coins from windows. Images of the Virgin Mary & her assumption into heaven are paraded thruout the day.
Blue with an inner red is the color most often associated with the Virgin Mary. It symbolizes truth & clarity. It is the color of the sky, which symbolizes heaven, & the Sun at its rising & setting.
The Rose & the lily, symbols of purity, chastity, & simplicity, are also associated with the Virgin Mary.
We can think of the many Marian Apparitions as a reflection of the Assumption - as well as a revealing of the etheric Christ.
In honor of the Feast of the Assumption, The foundation stone of Cologne Cathedral, built to house the relics of the Three Wise Men, is laid in 1248.
In the Egyptian epoch this day was celebrated as the Feast of Isis – For centuries celebrations were held in honor of Isis of the Sea, who was born on this day according to mythology.
With the Rising of Sirius, a sacred gate, which joins the Earth with the Cosmos is opened. The ancient Egyptians knew this – their Temples were aligned to this conjunction, heralding the flooding of the fertile Nile.
It is at this time that a sacred rite occurs. The outer aspect is a celebration called ‘Lychnapsia’- the ‘Festival of Lights for Isis of the Sea’.
The sacred story attached to this Sais Festival includes the lighting of many lamps set afloat on the sea to assist Isis in Her search for the slain Sun god Osiris.  Here is a presentaion MA did last year for the Feast of Assumption. A retelling of the New Isis Myth:
Later in Greece & Rome this Feast Day became known as ‘The Festival of Torches’ or ‘Nemoralia’, a 3-day event celebrated around the time of the Ides of August, commemorating the foundation of the Temple of Diana, on the shores of Lake Nemi.
In antiquity, woman would adorn the lake with lamps. Then, they would march with hunting hounds along the shore carrying torches. There, they would offer the fruits of the harvest to the goddess Diana. These ceremonies also honor the Rex Nemorensis - the King of the Wood, as well as Egreria -The Lady of the Lake.
The Golden Bough speaks of these rites as the original impulse behind Excalibur, the mythical sword of King Arthur.
My Italian Strega Nona kept this festival as well. It is thought of as an ideal time for the renewal of vows & oaths.
The Ides of August has also become associated with the Underworld Triple Goddess Hecate because of the connection to the waning Sun as a symbol of the inevitability of death; which is seen as a stage of preparation before the Resurrection. In Greece even today, Hecate is given offerings during the ‘Dog Days of Summer’ to protect the crops against blight & storms.
It’s interesting to think that on this Feast Day – we were given the very 1st performance of Rudolf Steiner’s very 1st Mystery Drama “The Portal of Initiation” which opened on this day in Munich - 15 August 1910
Also on this auspicious date in 1906, Rudolf Steiner wrote about the origin of the ‘Cognitive-Ritual‘: “This ritual can be nothing else than a mirror image of what is a spiritual fact on the higher plane. At the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th Century there hovers in the immediate neighborhood of the physical world, a great super-sensible event, consisting of acts of ritual, an unfolding of images of the spiritual life of mighty Beings of the universe, the Beings of the Angelic Hierarchies, in connection with the great ether-workings of the universe, and the human workings upon Earth. It is interesting to see how at this most favorable moment a little miniature picture of this super-sensible ritual & action flowed into Goethe’s spirit. Transformed and changed in miniature we receive this picture set down by Goethe in his fairy story of the Green Snake & the beautiful Lily...”
One of the themes central to this tale is that of the Temple – with its Three Kings: the representations of Wisdom, Beauty, & Strength. This is also characterized by Rudolf Steiner as a path of initiation: The power of perception in the Golden King coming from the Imaginative faculty giving us Wisdom; that of the Silver King, an Inspiration from the equanimity of feelings; & that of the Bronze King, which we are still learning to strengthen - building us up to Intuition - springing from the Will.
The Three altars, in the the Fairy Tale, are also in Steiner’s Cognitive-Ritual, & artisticly shown in the Temple scenes of the Mystery dramas.
Continuing on from the letter of 15 August 1906, Steiner further states, that the ritual appropriate for our time, was prefigured by esotericists & in particular the initiate Melchizedek, over 2,300 years ago, & then taken up by: “The Rosicrucians who said: ‘Shape the world in such a way that it contains, Wisdom, Beauty, and Strength, then will Wisdom , Beauty and Strength, be mirrored in us. If you have used your time to this end, then you will depart from this life taking with you the mirror-image of Wisdom, Beauty, and Strength. Wisdom is the image of Manas; Beauty, piety; Goodness, the image of Buddhi; Strength is the image of Atman… It is not through idle contemplation that the human being progresses on Earth, but by incorporating Wisdom, Beauty and Strength into the Earth”.
From Marie Steiner in reference to Steiner’s autobiography ‘The Story of My Life’, she writes: “When Rudolf Steiner first made his public appearance with the intention of removing the veil of esotericism, he took Goethe’s Fairy Tale as his starting point, & spoke about the altars of Wisdom, Beauty, and Strength. He placed them in the Temple of his Mystery Dramas and spoke to us in greater depth about their significance. And again he placed them into our Esoteric School (specifically in the Cognitive-Ritual of the Misraim Service) & let us approach again & again the various aspects of Thinking, Feeling and Willing, which are an expression of these altars”.
A start had been made in fulfilling the central demand of Goethe’s Fairy Tale: to bring the Temple - i.e the Mysteries - out of occult obscurity - into the full light of day - for all who have the will to build it.
Rudolf Steiner: “What is Anthroposophy in it’s reality? My dear friends, if you comprehend all the wonderful, majestic imaginations which are present as a Super-sensible Cognitive-Ritual, and translate them into human concepts, that is Anthroposophy” ~Dornach, 8 July 1924, Karmic Relationships Vol. 3.
In this sense Goethe’s fairy Tale, developed further in the Cognitive-Ritual, with its Three altars, was the sign & seal of Rudolf Steiner’s activity, brought out of the depths of the Temple, since the time when the Mysteries 1st existed, & handed over to humankind.
So much to contemplate on this Ides of August ~hag
15 August 2025 - “Speaking with the Stars”: In the early morning hours Bella Luna in her last quarter, will approach the 7 Sisters - the Pleiades star cluster. Follow them after midnight thru to dawn.
Zinniker Farm has harvested Biodynamic Pfeiffer Wheat - If you are interested in signing up to receive a share of the harvest - Contact the Family Farm Initiative – Supplies are very limited.
Here’s the link to a compendium of various Free Video Presentaions
Michaelmas Festival 2025The Courage of Wisdom in the Light of LoveSunday 28 September 6 pm - 9 pm Potluck, Bonfire, Festival CircleRSVP for Chicago location details
If you want to support 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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Friday, 15 August 2025
The Ides of August
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