Strop the Sword - Burnish the ShieldMichaelmas - The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts
Welcome All Spiritual-Warriors to The Feast Day of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts, also called MICHAELMAS Here are some podcasts & video’s on the theme of this Festival of Inner Strength: Video: Autumnal Equinox / Michaelmas Festival w/ Mysteria Mystica Americana Video: Michaelmas: Festival of the Future Video: Michaelmas Musings The Anthroposopher podcast – Preserve the Light
I know you are feeling it. A deep holiness broods over the dying light. Now, it is from within ourselves that we must find our own power to bestow warmth - that we may shine from the inside out. In the realm of the senses the Plant-world sinks down into death. Inwardly the fire-spirits, offspring of the lofty Beings of the Sun, bearing the Archetypal pictures of the plant kingdom, stream down into the womb of Mother Earth. All around us we see Nature withering - the color leaving to reveal the essence. As human beings we must not allow the death of nature to draw us into sleep. In autumn we must discover the force of resurrection within, so that we can pass with full consciousness thru the gate of death with a wakened soul, in our time. This is possible by what the Archai Michael administers as the Fire of Will. We can come into communion with the most hidden secrets of existence now - Can you hear the whispering?: Feel yourself as bearer of the Motherhood of Nature, to conceive in love the fiery germ of Self.
Michaelmas is not just a day; it is a Season - which extends from September 29, the Feast of St. Michael & All the Heavenly Hosts, to October 31, All Hallows Eve.
Friends - The dragon is not only seen as an external reality working in the world, but the beast also lives within all humankind, represented by cold, dead, rationalistic & pragmatic thinking. It is alive within every mortal as a potentially evil force. Michael’s message to humanity is not to try to slay the dragon within ourselves, for we would not live in freedom if we did, but rather to overcome it with consciousness. It is the consciousness in our thinking which calls for Imaginative Cognition & selflessness, as well as the strength of will needed to follow a moral path in life. Michaelmas is a festival of inner strength & initiative. It is a time when our higher being can conquer anxiety & fear, for it is the task of Michael to awaken humankind to the eternal within.
The old legends always preface the story of the battle against the dragon with an enumeration of the 9 Angelic Realms. This view is revealed to our soul, taking us all the way to the Seraphim - the Threshold to the Holy Trinity. And there Michael stands before us as the Prince & Herald of all the Hierarchies, that we may look to the Angelic Choirs, that we may look to our future selves, that we may think, what it is to be truly human, here & now, & step by step, to courageously build our own strong & steady rung on the ladder of evolution. It is our job to strive to complete the never-ending story, with the New Michaelic Mysteries put forth by Rudolf Steiner, a true emissary of Michael, teaching us to count the human being as the 10th hierarchy.
“The Michael thought: (to be born again – one has to die), and a Michael festival in the second half of September, must be linked alongside the Easter festival. Then, to the thought of the Resurrection of the God after death, could be added the thought, produced by the Michael force, of the Resurrection of the human being from death, so that humanity, through the Resurrection of Christ, would find the force to die in Christ and be born again. This means, taking The Risen Christ into one’s soul during earthly life, so as to be able to die in Him — that is, to be able to die not at death, but when one is living. Then that which we need will be present in life. For these are one, and they will once again weave the Rosicrucian principles of Science, Religion, and Art, into oneness, because people will understand how to conceive the Trinity. Such a thing could actually become an impulse which singly and alone would be able, in the present condition of humanity, to replace the descending forces with ascending ones.” ~Rudolf Steiner ‘The Cycle of the Year’ 1923 Dornach
In our present age full of adversarial forces that work to pull us down, it is essential to align ourselves with the Being of Michael to enable us to overcome all that is of the ‘dragon’ rearing its many heads within us. We can come to know this mighty ‘Time Spirit’ by taking into our hearts earnest wisdom-filled thoughts concerning the Christ Countenance that this being holds. If we practice this, we will soon see the light of Wisdom transform into fiery flames of will – empowering us to fulfill the tasks that are incumbent upon us.
During Harvest season these energies firing up our will are especially available & are strongest when joined in a community effort. In concert with friends & co-creators, we can work with Sophia-Michael/Christ at this crucial time, when the Mystery of Evil unfolds together with the Reappearance of Christ in the Etheric.
Mi-cha-el is a Hebrew name consisting of three separate words – the word Mi, pronounced My, means “Who?” cha, pronounced kai, means “like” or “as” - & El pronounced “L”, is the abbreviated form of Elohim – the name of God in the plural – the 7 Spirits of Form or the Creator Gods referred to in Genesis: “In the beginning God [Elohim] created heaven and earth…” Put these three word-syllables together & we get Mi-cha-el: “Who is like God?” This name prods our ordinary thinking – providing an opportunity to penetrate beyond the surface – to pose important questions. Facts are dead if they are not stepping-stones to more penetrating questions which allow further answers. The very essence of Michael is not a proper noun but a verb – a deed. What if we applied this kind of spiritual questioning to all our striving toward knowledge?
Who, or what, is the essence behind the Word? What is it that we seek in all our ‘Questing’ for Wisdom, knowledge & understanding? The ‘Holy Grail’ up-holds the Wisdom of god – The knowing of the spiritual foundation of things. Rudolf Steiner reminds us that “Every idea we hold that does not become an ideal slays a power within us.” Instead of slaying the dragon in us, this kind of lazy thinking slays the Michael power within us. But when our thoughts rise to the ideal, they have a force that is useful & eternal, imbued with will – fired with an indomitable force. These thoughts rise-up to God.  Michael as Time Spirit is Cosmopolitan – Universal – a role-model preparing us for the collective culture of the future which began with the Christ event – blossoming in the future into ‘Philadelphia’ – the culture of ‘Brotherly Love’ which leads us into the ideal community of the New Jerusalem – where we are the 10th hierarchy – the Universal Human Being – Co-creators in the Cosmos. What is universal goes completely beyond groups - beyond divisions - beyond Nations – into the All as One – the Christ within us. This is the Divine Spark that we have in common with all of humanity. Until we can embrace all, accept all, love all—as Christ shows us—we have not achieved the Freedom of Universal Individualism. As students of the Michaelic intelligence we are called to mirror the highest in the other.
This is how we can work with Michael. We become co-workers – mirroring the highest in the other –mirroring the countenance of Christ – this is what we come to understand in the School of Michael. Anyone who is striving to do ‘The Great Work’ on the path of personal development & spiritual research knows that it is an arduous, lonely path – And ironically it is often in community where the most suffering & pain is triggered, offering our deepest sorrow as well as our biggest opportunities for growth. From a broad evolutionary perspective, we can understand that every soul is on ‘the path’. Can we recognize & feel the cry of the spirit - the seeking soul within our family members, or co-workers, the annoying person on the street? Can we have compassion for others & for ourselves in our various conditions of soul & spirit-sickness? Can we see beyond this soul-sicknesses, to meet the hungering individual who is, in their own way, hoping for a fulfillment that only the spirit can bring? When we are recognized by another on the level of spirit, we naturally awaken to our latent potential & connect more readily with our unique life-purposes. Can we trust that no matter where a fellow human being is on their journey that we can acknowledge the Christ within them? Or do we hold the individuals around us captive to their past? Do we unconsciously cast judgment on them? We have seen them fail perhaps countless times. Is there a subtle condemning in us when we speak to them or of them to others? How about those who ascribe to a different social philosophy or support a different political party – do we judge them as inferior for their beliefs & unworthy of our help or support? Do we think of them as evil – never able to progress or change? If so, we are aligning ourselves with the adversary stunting our own soul’s progress as well as theirs. Can we forgive them & ourselves, & step up to be the person in their life that helps them see their true potential? Are we living up to our own true potential?
If we are able to do this, then we are working with Michael as a mirror to the divine nature within others. What a beautiful harvest that will bring to the world. Let this season enkindle in us a renewed hope, an unshakeable faith, a sure strength – endowing us with the spiritual will of Sophia-Michael. In the name of Christ, we can stand fast in freedom – to sure up the practical reality that Spiritual Science offers as a world view. ~hag
29 September 2025 – “Speaking with the Stars”
Michaelmas Mood Verse 26 of The Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner O Mother Nature, your maternal being - I bear within the essence of my will - This fiery power of will - Shall steel my spirit impulses - That they give birth to Sense of Self - To give myself to me.
“History doesn’t repeat itself, but it does rhyme.” ~Mark Twain ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
1227 – Frederick II, Holy Roman Emperor, is excommunicated by Pope Gregory IX for his failure to participate in the Crusades. A man of extraordinary culture, energy, & ability Frederick II was called stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche, also the first European, the first modern ruler – by many historians, Frederick established in Sicily & southern Italy a modern, centrally governed kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy. He was a King of Germany, of Italy, & Burgundy. His other royal title was King of Jerusalem by virtue of marriage & his connection with the Sixth Crusade. He was frequently at war with the Papacy, hemmed in between Frederick’s lands in northern Italy & his Kingdom of Sicily (the Regno) to the south. Pope Gregory IX went so far as to call him an Antichrist. Speaking six languages (Latin, Sicilian, German, French, Greek & Arabic, Frederick was an avid patron of science & the arts. He played a major role in promoting literature through the Sicilian School of poetry. His Sicilian royal court in Palermo, saw the first use of a literary form of an Italo-Romance language, Sicilian. The poetry that emanated from the school had a significant influence on literature & on what was to become the modern Italian language. He was also the first king who explicitly outlawed trials by ordeal as they were considered irrational.
1571 – Birthday of Caravaggio, Italian painter 1717 – An earthquake strikes Antigua Guatemala, destroying much of the city’s architecture & making authorities consider moving the capital to a different city
1812- Birthday of Caspar Hauser, grown up in the total isolation of a darkened cell. Theories link him with the grand ducal House of BadenThese claims, & his subsequent death by stabbing, sparked much debate & controversy. “…It was the case of that human being, so enigmatic for many people, who was once placed into this city in a mysterious way, and who in just as mysterious a way met his death in Ansbach. An author, in order to indicate the mystery of his life, wrote that as he was carried out to burial the sun was setting on the one horizon and the moon was rising on the other. I speak, as you know, of Caspar Hauser. If you disregard all the pros and cons that have been asserted, if you look only at what has been fully verified, you will know that this foundling — who was one day simply there in the street, and who since he did not know whence he came, was called the Child of Europe — could neither read nor write when he was found. At an age of twenty years he possessed nothing of what is gained through the intellect but he had a remarkable memory. As they began to instruct him, as logic entered his soul, his memory disappeared. This transition in consciousness was accompanied by something else. He possessed at first an incredible, an entirely inborn truthfulness and it was precisely in this truthfulness that he went more and more astray. The more he nibbled, so to say, at intellectuality, the more it vanished. There would be many things to study were we to enter deeply into this human soul which had been artificially held back. It is not difficult for the student of Spiritual Science to credit the popular tradition, so unacceptable to the learned people of to-day, which relates that while Caspar Hauser still knew nothing, while he still had no idea that there were beings besides himself of different form, he exercised a remarkable effect upon quite savage creatures. Savage animals humbled themselves and became mild, something streamed from him that made such beasts gentle, although they savagely attacked anyone else. We could in fact penetrate deeply into the soul of this remarkable personality, so enigmatic to many, and you would see how things that cannot be explained from ordinary life are led back through Spiritual Science to spiritual facts. Such facts cannot be learnt by speculation but only by spiritual observation, though they are comprehensible to an unbiased and logical thinking. All this has only been said in order to show you that the modern consciousness has evolved from another, an age-old-state when man was not in direct touch with outer objects in the modern sense, but on the other hand was in connection with facts and beings of the spiritual world.” ~Rudolf Steiner, The Apocalypse of St. John, Spiritual Science — The Gospel — The Future of Mankind
1902 – Deathday of Émile Zola a French novelist, playwright, journalist, the best-known practitioner of the literary school of naturalism, & an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism. He was a major figure in the political liberalization of France & in the exoneration of the falsely accused & convicted army officer Alfred Dreyfus, which is encapsulated in the renowned newspaper headline J’accuse. Zola was nominated for the first & second Nobel Prize in Literature in 1901 & 1902. His death from carbon monoxide poisoning is suspected to have been murder
1924 – Ludwig Polzer holds his 1st First Class Lesson
1954 – The convention establishing CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) is signed
1957 – Twenty MCi of radioactive material is released in an explosion at the Soviet Mayak nuclear plant at Chelyabinsk
1981 – Deathday of Adolf Arenson, German composer & Anthroposopher. Arenson editied many of Rudolf Steiner’s works, & composed the music for many of the plays & productions. Steiner mentions him at the end of Wonders of the World lecture 1
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
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NOTE the DATE CHANGE:Michaelmas Festival 2025The Courage of Wisdom in the Light of LoveTONIGHT MONDAY 29 September6 pm - 9 pm Potluck, Prep-stir, Bonfire, Festival Circlein the backyard sanctuary of the Lucchesi-Archer-Ginsberg domicile rsvp Hazel@CogRite.com
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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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Monday, 29 September 2025
Strop the Sword - Burnish the Shield
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