Continuity

Oct 23, 2023

~Hermann Linde

Greetings friends & Welcome to this fresh format - which I hope will prove stimulating & fruitful in the exploration of The Spiritual Science of the Cognitive Ritual.

This work constructs a bridge like the one formed by the willing sacrifice of the Green Snake in Goethe’s Fairy Tale - allowing ALL to consciously cross the Threshold into the New Mysteries of our Present age.

Many remember that during the turmoil of WW1 Rudolf Steiner suspended all occult work, instructing his students to pour those esoteric forces into caring for the dead as they Crossed the Threshold of Death.

~Rudolf Steiner

But few realize that 7 years after the outbreak of the war in the Summer of 1921, Steiner had a break-thru when visiting the Druid sites in Wales. It was during that time that Ita Wegman asked him the Question: Is it possible to renew the ancient Mysteries?

From the beginning Rudolf Steiner’s mission was about giving an understanding & a renewal to the currents of Wisdom from the past. He acknowledged all that preceded, furthering what he called in chapter 36 of his Autobiography ‘a continuity with the past’, in a free, conscious independent way appropriate for the modern world.

As humanity we are the bridge that unites the physical with the Spiritual worlds. In straightforward terms all symbolism, including ritual gestures, are earthly reflections of the language of the cosmic realms – an imitation of Divine realities. Ritual action invokes the supersensible into the visible. And in the Reverse Ritual we are rising in our soul forces to meet the higher worlds.

This starts with Imaginative Cognition, which then thru Preparation, Illumination & in the process of Anthroposophical Initiation leads into Inspiration, the ability to not only picture the supersensible, but to be inspired by it - to hear it; & Intuition, the capacity to co-create with Divine Spiritual Beings.

The “Royal Art” is the enactment of a living, breathing sacred human geometry by which the “rough stone” becomes the “Cubic Stone”.

With this in mind, I felt called to share what you can read in CW 265 starting on page 464 in “Documents of a New Beginning”.

In December of 1921, Steiner brought together the “Cognitive-Ritual-Work-Group” after a 7 year hiatus. At that time he ceremoniously disbanded the charter convened before the war, officially stating that it was time for a change-The old must die, so that the new could be reborn. The esoteric rites they had been working with for the highest good of human evolution could no longer be connected to ‘Freemasonry’. They must no longer be kept in utter secrecy as was needed before. Now these Mysteries must be made open. The changed conditions brought on by the World War demanded a renewal, so now, he said, the work must continue in a revised way: From death comes forth new life.

After that the Esoteric Lessons & the Misraim-Dienst continued. There are written reports from Oslo & Dornach in May & October of 1921 thru 1923, before the Christmas Conference, & then after, thru January 1924, specifically for what Steiner called the “Wachsmuth-Lenrchenfeld-Group” which had sprung from the initiative of the Wachsmuth brothers, Gunther, & Wolfgang & his wife, as well as Count Lerchenfeld, & Harriet von Vacano. The other named participants included, Marie Steiner von Sivers, Dr. Ita Wegman, Dr. Elisabeth Vreede, Albert Steffen, Dr. Kurt Piper, Otto Palmer, Dr. von Baravalle, Dr. Maria Roschl-Lehrs, Jurgen von Grone, Margarita Woloschin.

From a document written by Maria Roschl-Lehrs we hear:

“By way of introduction it was told to us by Dr. Steiner how it was again possible to have such a group.
Clear consciousness is a necessity. Earlier one had approached anthroposophical affairs with too little consciousness, too little spiritual awareness.
If what was given in those old esoteric connections had been published, many rituals would have come into existence in the world. But as it was not published, the whole thing aroused hatred and Betrayal.
The people here have not been summoned by him (Steiner), they have come together of their own accord…
It is not only a personal matter, but one of world importance. The cosmos is interested in the fact of whether we carry it out or not.
          O human Being…(This mantra was later incorporated into the mantras of the First Class)
          Temple Legend (New supplement)
           The Divine is revealed through Symbols
           The Human is conveyed through Touch
           The Sub-human is averted through the Word”

Dear friends, thru these “Documents for a New Beginning” we see that the esoteric work of the “Mystica Aeterna” (also called the “Cognitive-Ritual Section or the Misraim Dienst=Service of the Esoteric School) was a spiritual foundation for the Christmas Conference, which brought the ‘Movement’ i.e. the Spiritual Beings – especially Michael, behind Anthroposophia, together with the ‘Society’. Unlocking the secret of the New Mysteries.

In a letter from Adolf Arenson to Albert Steffen 24 December 1926 we learn: “Rudolf Steiner did not open the Christmas Conference with words, but with the symbolic mallet strokes, by which he demonstrated the law of continuity…”

In a report by Ingeborg Moller-Lindholm we hear:

“The old would come to life again in us too…he (Steiner) meant by that the First, Second and Third Classes…
As far as I remember, the Temple Legend was not told at that meeting in 1921, which was how the Misraim-Dienst often started. That took place at the inception into the First Class.”

These esoteric teachings became the basis for the First Class material & for the Foundation Stone Meditation planted into hearts at the Christmas Conference. And the so called “Tablets” which we see in the First Class Lessons were given years before to those in the Esoteric School.

The Second Class, which was to have the active elements of the Misraim-Dienst never made its full appearance on earth because of the early death of our Great Teacher.

But now fellow seekers on the path, as we stand at the Threshold of the Centennial of the re-founding of Anthroposophy let us see to it that the ‘continuity’ brought about thru Rudolf Steiner, persists.

The seeds planted by the esoteric work that inspired the Christmas Conference must continue to be explored & activated to meet what is calling to us now for the next 100 years…

Yours in service

~hag

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Star chart with near vertical green line of ecliptic, with Sickle, star Regulus and Venus labeled.

23 October 2023 – “Speaking with the Stars”: Look for Venus (occult Mercury) before sunrise - she reaches greatest elongation – its greatest distance from the sunrise. Notice Regulus in the constellation Leo the Lion. Regulus marks the bottom of a backwards question mark pattern, an asterism in Leo called The Sickle. ~Chart via EarthSky’s monthly night sky guide.

RUDOLF STEINER'S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler

MICHAELMAS IV, Michaelic Hope, v29

To have the inner fire to kindle thinking's radiance and draw the meaning of xperience from worldwide spirit's well of power is now for me the summer's heritage, is autumn's peace... and winter's hope.

The spirit of the world has now activated the soul with Michaelic will-power, the fruit created from the soul's darkness in the mirror verse, and now as the outer world becomes gloomier, an inner light shines, the autumn spirit presence becoming radiant with thought, the gift of the summer's heritage.

AUTUMN PRELUDE IV, The Fruit Of Will, v24

In constant self-creation the soul grows self-aware; the spirit of the world strives onward in new self-knowledge re-enlivened, creating from the darkness of the soul the sense of selfhood's harvest of the will.

Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day

ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY – You tell me…What happened in history today, that YOU think made an impact on world karma?

1855 - Birthday of Eliphas Levy - Rudolf Steiner speaks about this individuality

The Birth of a New Agriculture: Koberwitz 1924 - Google Books

1905 – Deathday of Adalbert Graf von Keyserlingk, son of Count Karl & Countess Joanna Keyserlingk, who wrote ‘Birth of a New Agriculture : Koberwitz 1924 and the Introduction of Biodynamics’ which describes the 12 day ‘agriculture course’ at Whitsun 1924 on the Koberwitz estate. They turned the castle belonging to the estate into a hospitable place with a cosmopolitan touch, which also accommodated, among others, the founding priest of the Breslau congregation of the Christian Community Rudolf Meyer for 3 years. The first Act of Consecration in Silesia was celebrated in Koberwitz.