While waiting for the birth of the light, we move deeper into the dark, & the Holy Daze of December revs up – The 12th gives us the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe - & On the eve of the 3rd Sunday of Advent we meet the Feast of Santa Lucia - & tonight at Sunset, the 8 days of Hannukah begin – reminding us of the miracle & triumph of light. There is an interesting parallel to Lucia - the martyr blinded for the light - in that according to Astrosophy, which takes into account what was inscribed in the heavens during the life of Christ on earth, Lucia’s Feast Day corresponds to the alignment that occurred during the healing of the man born blind, described in the Gospel of John. This parable shows that our eyes were created by the light for the light.
The Sun, whose light is now waning, gives us an opportunity to inwardly perceive the Spiritual light behind the physical semblance – an eternal flame that we must set ablaze thru our thinking will - & this requires a sacrifice - We must be willing to shift our gaze - to a gain a new focus - beyond the lower astral. As we have been experiencing in the First & Second weeks, if we are awake in the dark, Advent is a time when the human being faces many trials. Only when we stand up to these tests can we enter the Temple of Wisdom - & give birth to Love.
In this 3rd week of Advent we open the doors & clean the windows of the astral realm - as we honor creatures big & small - in a tribute to the animal kingdom - & the Star body we share with them. As a city girl – in the throes of moving to Spring Prairie Wisconsin - it has not been often, until now, that I get to be up close & personal with the majority of the animal kingdom. Sure, I love my dog Winifred J. Rabbit - And actually, there are many wild creatures that live in Chicagoland. I’ve written about Coyote, Opossum, Rabbit & Skunk…& the various Bird species that frequent my neighborhood – There are a pair of Snowy Owl’s, & Falcon at the Montrose Beach ‘Magic Hedge’ Bird Sanctuary this year!
Moving to “America’s Dairyland” is a big deal - I relish our time up on Zinniker farm for so many reasons - fostering their biodynamic legacy thru community festivals for sure - & its such a gift to interact with the cows, chickens & pigs, the sassy farm cats, the bees & barn sparrows… - These animals aren’t completely domesticated, but they are far from wild, since they have a relationship to human beings. Thru my ping ponging relationship between the city & country life all these years, I have come to see that because of busy urbanized environments, our relationship with the animal kingdom has become unhealthy. Society often teaches us to disdain or fear animals. People neglect or mistreat them, restrict & control them – using animals to perform horrible ‘medical’ tests on - There are sickening industrial factory farms, like CAFOs - And yes, we kill & eat them. When we don’t honor the animal kingdom, like we do on a biodynamic farm, we are harming not only ourselves, but also the entire astral environment.
Spiritual Science tells us that pain lives in the astral body, along with our lower desires & animal urges. As we embark upon this 3rd week of Advent, we meet the Air Trial which asks us to develop sense-free thinking - to pull us out of the loop of instinct – A magical kind of thinking that does not kill. But in order to develop this active thinking we must first develop fortitude & presence of mind. Sense-Free Thinking is a form of perception that allows us to regard the spirit behind what we see - to find the Genesis of thought – to free the Geni from the bottle.
On the archetypal level, each species of animal represents a kind-of Soul Mood – Cast off reflections of ourselves in the astral realm - Each with its own signature imprint – out-pictured in the constellations of the Zodiac - which are in reality great Spiritual Beings. The etymology of the term ‘Astral’ gives us an enlightening picture, for it means = “Pertaining to the Stars,” we see this correlation thruout the various cultural epochs - In Sanskrit, Proto-Bantu, Hittite, Greek, Latin, Welsh, Balto-Slavic, Slavonic, Polish, Russian, Proto-Indo-European…etc… – All borrowing from the Akkadian: Istar - the earliest version of the Divine Feminine that we call ‘Venus.’
When I am on the biodynamic farm & meet the Holy Cow – I sense that their horns are like antenna into this Realm of the Stars. Have you ever taken a walk in the forest & found the cast-off antlers of a deer - or caught a glimpse of a mighty stag with its majestic rack in the distance – I always think of Harry Potter’s “Patronus” - his inspiring animal totem - a magical protective guardian.
Unlike the Water-Trial, when we reach the Air-Trial, nothing compels us. We are left on our own. We have no ground to stand on, no water on which to float – With Air we must create our own moral uprightness, which builds an organ of discernment - ‘developing presence of mind’ To be upright is the aim of human development. We can’t let fear take our breath away, or pull the rug out from under our feet. And, we can’t lose the capacity for action. “Through the breath we connect our self with the astral, which gives us the free mobility of our limbs and the strength of will. Being born and waking up are connected with inhaling; dying and going to sleep are connected with exhaling. We breathe living air in, and breathe dead air out. In the exhaled air, we form speech. This is a spiritual act of will through which the dead air is again enlivened. This is deepened when we use speech to intone a mantra: ‘My own being is interwoven with the strength of the breath’ - this thinking leads to the experience of: ‘Per Spiritum Sanctum reviviscimus’. (Thru the Spirit I live Again)”~Rudolf Steiner, Esoteric Lessons 1913 - 1923, p. 411
To “Practice Spirit Beholding”, which we hear in the 3rd panel of the Foundation Stone Meditation, the mind needs to be open, quiet - present & awake – “Practice Spirit Beholding in stillness of thought”. We can stand on the Foundation Stone - & look inward to find “Where the eternal goals of the gods, Bestow the light of cosmic being, On your own I, For free and active willing”. Yes, friends, the Foundation Stone has the secret code - the key that unlocks the human soul - the prescription & antidote for what ails thee. It teaches us how the Will that was living in us from the past, must now be transformed into Thinking - revealing a mysterious reversal that keeps turning between Thinking & Willing - which we must mediate thru love in the middle pillar of our Feeling life. All 3 pillars need to work together if we are to live up to our human potential. In accordance with ‘The Philosophy of Freedom’, by Rudolf Steiner, the Air Trial, calls us to work out of the purest impulses of moral imagination. “Whatever keeps the pupil from listening to the voice of the Spirit must be boldly overcome.” Then we can work on develping sense-free thinking - a creative consciousness, which can only be achieved thru having a will that is free - & a soul that is balanced. This Air Trial requires that our “I” hold it together thru our own efforts.
The Element of Air has a bestowing aspect to it, connected on the higher planes with Light-Ether - When we ‘Think Light’, we carry Wisdom into us - to power up our free Willing. Thru the Air Trial we recognize how we imprint our thoughts into the world, both good & bad. Ordinary sense-bound thinking has to be silenced so that our thoughts can unite with a harmonious will. When thought is willed, it becomes an organ of perception, opening the secrets of the Astral World. We are the creators of the past, present & future – we imprint outwardly what we think inwardly, & this becomes what we face when we look in the mirror, or out the window, & what we see in our neighbor’s eye – in Nature – in everything – it even informs, & literally forms, our next incarnation.
To enter the Astral realm consciously, we can use the tool of Imaginative Cognition. I find that by creating, or contemplating symbolic art forms or sacred geometry, I am better able to meet the Trials of Air, giving me a solid & inspired foundation for my thinking. Working with complementary colors & after images, is therapeutic - & it trains the inner eye. Our soul forces, when directed consciously, can cast a light on the Spirit behind all things – so that we can interact with its animating essence. In taking up this practice, we will also inevitably come face to face with all that is dark & imperfect in our soul as we strive to meet our destiny. What lives inside us unconsciously, is lit up – This is part of the test. Will we dare to look in that mirror - to see what we really are? – This is the 1st aspect of the Guardian of the Threshold - who stands before us in the commencement of these trials – helping us recognize the shadow & dross we carry unconsciously – which is part of what we imprint on the world if we are not able to transform it. & Yes, there is always a reckoning.
In meeting the test of the Air Trial – We may get caught up in a whirlwind – or we might feel ourselves being evaporated – This is when we must realize that our only support is our thinking. Can we exercise discernment, without fear or doubt? We must become capable of seeing the error of our selfish thoughts – then we can transform our thinking in the light of Christ - & by working on perfecting our lower astral desires thru moral thinking, we can fully particapate in the building of the Temple of Higher Wisdom.
“What is necessary is that the pupil should quickly be able to come to terms with their own nature, for here we must find our “Higher Self’ in the truest sense of the word. We must instantly decide to listen in all things to the inspiration of the Spirit. There is no time for doubt or hesitation ... Whatever keeps us from listening to the voice of the Spirit must be boldly overcome. It is essential in this situation to have presence of mind, and the training at this stage is concerned with the full development of this quality.” ~Rudolf Steiner, ‘How To Know Higher Worlds’ The 3rd step on the Advent path takes us into the animating force, the might of movement. We see this activity in the starry sky, in weather patterns, & on earth in the animal kingdom.
At Christmas-tide we look to the symbol of the humble manger, surrounded by the ‘group souls of the animal kingdom’. We see these pure archetypes of the Astral world as a reflection in our own hearts, waiting to give birth to the Child of Light. ~hag Air Trial Recording for the 3rd Week of Advent
14 December 2025 - “Speaking with the Stars”: A glimpse at the players interating with the Geminid Meteor Shower’s.
Dear international friends, Pleroma Travels is happy to inform you that we have officially made our upcoming trip to Ireland, scheduled for May 17–24 - 2026, accessible to all English-speaking participants. There will be a simultaneous translation service, provided by one of our collaborators who has already carried out this work on other occasions involving themes related to Anthroposophy. The trip is confirmed, & there are only 3 places that remain for those who may be interested.Please contact Antonio via WhatsApp at +39 347 1585692Thank you 🌹
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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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Saturday, 13 December 2025
Blinded by the Light
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