Ascension comes as the blossoming world is unfolding into fullness. Trees, plants, flowers, touched by the warmth & light from above – are stirring upwards - Embodying heaven's blessings of color & fragrance. The whole of nature reaches upward towards the heights.
The longing of the human soul strives also upward, in unison with nature, seeking the touch of world-warmth. This mood of Ascension attunes all of life to the cosmic expanses. And it is in this mood that every year, at the time of the Ascension of Christ, nature celebrates the ascension of the Soul of the Earth. It is not by chance that the 40 days between Easter & Ascension coincide with this season of rebirth.
Yes, Every year, when the Earth breathes out in the Springtime, the mystery of the Ascension of Christ, Who is the Spirit of the Earth, is renewed.
The Zodiac Stars in their Constellations are shifting into their Spring & Summer places, & the planets, the Wandering Stars, tread the ordered measure of their courses around them. These dots of light in the distance, point us to the Spiritual Beings who direct the life of the universe. So from this point of view, Spiritual Science calls Ascension a Festival of the Hierarchies.
We can also remember that when The Christ descended down, thru the heavenly spheres from the heights of the godhead, & came into human form, the hierarchies lost His presence. They could only find Him by looking into the depths - Bearing witness to the God Who entered physical existence to remind earthly humanity of its cosmic citizenship.
It blows my mind to think that at the Ascension, the Mystery of Death & Resurrection was brought to the company of Heaven-to those eternal beings who had no concept, no experience of death.
And not only that, the Ascension also signals the return of the lost world of Earth back into the community of the Stars.
So Since that time, the life of this planet is renewed with the Cosmic forces that stream earthward, imbued now with this new impulse from Christ’s deed.
This reconnection between Heaven & Earth was prefigured in the story of Jacob’s ladder from the Old Testament. Thru his dream of the ‘Stairway to Heaven’, Jacob gave us the prophecy of the Ascension in the picture of a golden ladder on which choirs of Angels; our descendants, & our beloved dead traverse between Heaven & Earth.
And so When the Risen Christ returned ‘to sit at the right hand of the Father,’ at the Ascension, He fulfilled Jacob’s Prophecy, becoming the living bridge between the above & below - & every year we get to tune into this harmonizing Spring-dialogue between the worlds.
And, as the Christ has ascended, so too, in the fullness of time will humanity be transfigured. The company of the hierarchies wait for us, their younger siblings, to ascend, first of all in our thinking, to meet them in fellowship, as they work all the while at our sides, hoping to awaken us to The new Christ-Revelation ‘coming in the clouds.’
And yes, dear friends, that time is now! The fulfillment of the secret promise of the Ascension, is the Second Coming. It was said to the apostles, “He will come again, in like manner, as you have seen Him go up into the clouds of heaven.” So yes, The Ascension is the seed of this Second Coming, & the Second Coming is the fulfillment of the Ascension.
We will explore this further as we enter now into the 10 days between Ascension & Pentecost.
~hag
9 May 2024 - “Speaking with the Stars”
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Indications from the orignal Calendar of the Soul by Rudolf Steiner + Anthrowiki)
68 - Suicide of Roman Emperor Nero
1760 – Death-day of Count Zinzendorf - A social reformer & bishop of the Moravian Church. The Zinzendorf family belonged to one of the most ancient of noble families in Lower Austria. Among his ancestors was the Emperor Maximillian I.
Zinzendorf did not intend to found a religious organization distinct from the area’s Lutheran Church, but to create a Christian association, by demonstrating practical benevolence, that might awaken dull Lutheranism. He began to think that true Christianity could be best promoted by free associations of Christians, which in the course of time might grow into churches with no state connection.
In 1722, Zinzendorf offered asylum to a number of refugees from Moravia & Bohemia & built the village of Herrnhut on a corner of his estate.
Out of study & prayer, the community formed a document known as the Brüderlicher Vertrag, the ‘Brotherly Agreement’, today known as “The Moravian Covenant for Christian Living.” The Moravian Church is one of the few denominations that emphasizes a code of Christian behavior over specific creeds.
In these communities, a radical equality of spiritual life was practiced. Nobility & Native Americans shared common quarters; slaves were full members of the Church & could be elected to offices of leadership.
Zinzendorf’s interest in missionary work was sparked by meeting two Inuit children.
In 1736, accusations from neighboring nobles & questions of theological orthodoxy caused Zinzendorf to be exiled from his home in Saxony. He & a number of his followers moved to Marienborn (near Büdingen) & began a period of exile & travel, during which he became known as the “Pilgrim Count.”
In 1741, Zinzendorf visited Pennsylvania, becoming one of the few 18th century European nobles to have actually set foot in the Americas. In addition to visiting leaders such as Benjamin Franklin, he met with the leaders of the Iroquois.
Zinzendorf’s theology strongly included the emotional life of the believer as well as the intellectual. He criticized the coldly intellectual approach common in his day, & built a great deal of practice around the transformation of the emotions. He referred to this as the “religion of the heart.”
1805 – Death-day of Friedrich Schiller, some say he was poisoned (GA 64) The coffin containing what was purportedly Schiller’s skeleton, was brought in 1827, into the Weimarer Fürstengruft (Weimar’s Ducal Vault), later also Goethe’s resting place. On 3 May 2008, scientists announced that DNA tests showed that the skull of this skeleton is not Schiller’s, & his tomb is now vacant.
Friedrich Schiller was a German poet, philosopher, physician, historian, & playwright. During the last seventeen years of his life (1788–1805), Schiller struck up a productive, if complicated, friendship with the already famous & influential Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. They frequently discussed issues concerning human freedom. Schiller encouraged Goethe to finish works he left as sketches. This relationship & these discussions led to a period now referred to as Weimar Classicism. They also worked together on Xenien, a collection of short satirical poems in which both Schiller & Goethe challenge opponents to their philosophical vision.
Schiller wrote many philosophical papers on ethics & aesthetics. He synthesized the thought of Immanuel Kant with the thought of the German Idealist philosopher, Karl Leonhard Reinhold. He elaborated Christoph Martin Wieland’s concept of die schöne Seele (the beautiful soul), a human being whose emotions have been educated by reason, so that Pflicht und Neigung (duty & inclination) are no longer in conflict with one another. Beauty, for Schiller, is not merely an aesthetic experience, but a moral one as well: the Good is the Beautiful.
His philosophical work was particularly concerned with the question of human freedom, a preoccupation which also guided his historical researches, & found its way as well into his dramas. Schiller wrote important essays on the question of the sublime, addressing one aspect of human freedom—the ability to defy one’s animal instincts, such as the drive for self-preservation, when, for example, someone willingly sacrifices themselves for conceptual ideals.
Sangraal: A Pentecost Pilgrimage
with Mysteria Mystica Americana (MA)
Saturday 18 May 2024 Noon – 1:30 PM Central Time
Creating Sacred Space on Zoom ID: 705 017 4041 - Passcode: MMA
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041?pwd=j1AkESGygaKVFaD0T7r2lfV533BWfm.1&omn=87316485500
w/ Richard Cloud, Hazel Archer, Lisa Loving Dalton, Zakaria Manella. And friends: Alexander Torrenga, Jeffery Levy.
Celebrating the Feast of Mary Magdalene
w/ Hazel Archer
Through the Gospel of Mary Magdalene take an initiatory journey honoring a sacred purification process.
This course for the Infinity Foundation is available on Zoom. You will be emailed a Zoom link closer to the time of the class. The course will also be recorded and you will receive a link to watch it.
Course 242133 | Zoom
Date Monday, July 22
Time 7:00 - 8:30 PM CT
Cost $35/30 payment 10 days in advance
from 'Lewis Wavecrest'.
From the centre, polarities flip
The heights gaze down through the clouds through treetops they dip
Love had descended to enkindle the form
A mission of destiny that heralds the dawn
Seeking Suns beloved amidst dark confusion
The way and the truth lights the dark of delusion
Let what is prayed in the depths be heard in the heights
Let the herald of dawn bring the end of all nights
From the centre, polarities flip
From the chalice of life we are offered a sip
Forgive another message, but the poem settled slightly differently, as it was fired from the east.... Thank you for the inspiration and sanctification of this virtual space.
From the centre, polarities flip
The heights gaze down through the clouds through treetops they dip
Love had descended to enkindle the form
This mission of destiny that heralds the dawn
Seeking Suns beloved amidst dark confusion
The way and the truth lights the dark of delusion
Let what is prayed in the depths be heard in the heights
Let the herald of dawn bring the end of all nights
From the centre, polarities flip
From the chalice of life we are offered a sip
Lewis