Today as we stand still with the Sun in the glow of the Honey Moon, in anticipation of the Festival of St. John’s Tide, which starts on the fixed date of June 24, the Birthday of John the Baptist, & goes for 4 weeks, leading us into the Feast Day of Mary Magdalene on 22 July, & on into the harvest with the Festival of Lammas, the Cross Quarter between the Summer Solstice & the Autumnal Equinox.
The name John is really a title, it represents the best of humanity, devoted to what is beyond the little self, alive to the revelation of the spirit on Earth.
At the ‘Turning Point of Time’ - the center of history, the admonition of JB is to turn inward, & confront the lower self.
St. John’s-Tide is a perfect time to re-assess & re-balance ourselves in this ‘Metanoia’, this examination of our conscience, as Mary Magdalene did, casting off the 7 demons to become the ‘Apostle to the Apostles’.
Metanoia - This Greek word consists of: Meta, which means "beyond"; & Nous, a mysteries word for "mind, or consciousness"– so literally, Metanoia means: beyond thinking, or, a changed consciousness that goes beyond mere concepts – a metaphysical, spiritual shift in thinking.
In the Bible, the term Metanoia is most often used as a call to repent, to atone – a call to conscience – a call to ‘Prepare the way’, as John the Baptist says.
Metanoia – Change your heart & mind.
In the prologue of the Gospel of St. John the Evangelist right after we hear the ‘Word’ In the Beginning, John, the 1st Adam is proclaimed. This Gospel emphasizes the divine spark in humanity, & connects us to its supreme form as the Logos Himself. The ‘disciple who Jesus Loved’ received the forces of the beheaded John the Baptist, at the rising of Lazarus, earning him the title John as well.
When the human principle in Jesus of Nazareth had reached its highest development, he was ripe to receive the Christ in the Baptism by John. His body unfolded its full power, like the radiant Sun at Midsummer.
Just as the Son of God is begotten in Jesus of Nazareth – So it is for every individual human being – there is a mighty experience, which may be called the birth of the Higher Self – The Divine “I” is born of the striving human being. Awakening to Initiation is possible, & when it is taken up, life as we know it, opens to new dimensions.
This had been prophesied. The Spirit was to be born out of the darkness, like the Sun which increases in power towards Solstice, waxing strong until St. John’s Day, & then begins to move inward.
JB was able to behold the approach of Jesus of Nazareth, as the increase of the Sun, & say ‘I must decrease, as the Sun decreases after Midsummer Day.’ But The Christ as the spiritual Sun will increase, & ‘his Light will shine forth from out of the darkness.’
It was the Baptist’s mission to proclaim this: ‘He who was announced by the prophets of old, the Son of the spiritual realms, born of the spirit, behold, He hath appeared.’
John the Baptist is ever active since this Turning Point of Time. He has lived many a life of renunciation - Then, he came to prepare the way, thru Baptism. And when we ‘make straight the path’, the inner spirit-light can shine forth ever more brightly, reflecting the Christ light.
This is how the Universal Ego of humanity is reborn in freedom, & the condition fulfilled for the rebirth of the individual Higher Self in every human being.
This is the most vital experience in the evolution of each individual human: the rebirth of the immortal being which can issue forth from the little self. This is inseparable from the greatest of all events, the deed of Christ on Golgotha ‘As the meaning of the Earth‘.
Dear friends, Be awakened! There are forces trying to distract us from our true ultimate reality – so many illusions working to prevent us from becoming Divinely human. May we be alert to the signs, & vigilant in our striving to practice Spiritual Science.
~hag
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY (Rudolf Steiner’s original Calendar of the Soul, Anthrowiki, Wikipedia Commons, Alchetron, The Free Social Encyclopedia)
Feast of St. Thomas More, “a man for all seasons,” From Rudolf Steiner: Things in Past and Present in the Spirit of Man, Lecture VIII – THOMAS MORE’S “UTOPIA” …”Thomas More was really fortune’s favourite. He advanced from various state offices, became a member of Parliment, and finally High Chancellor for Henry VIII who had him executed because he would not agree to the Succession Act. This was a sin against the new institution of the English Church. Then the enlightened Lord Justices had to decide what sort of judgement should be meted out to Thomas More. The following is the decision which these enlightened justices reached as the price Thomas More had to pay for his so-called treason of not going along with Henry VIII. He was to be condemned and brought to the Tower by Sheriff William Pinkston and then put in a braided basket and dragged through the City of London to Tiburn. In Tiburn he was to be hanged only until he was half dead, then he was to be taken down form the scaffold and certain of his limbs would be cut off; his body torn open and the entrails burned. Then his body with the exception of the head would be divided into four portions and each would be placed on a pike and set at the four ends of the City of London. His head, however would be put on a high spear and placed on London Bridge in order to serve as a warning for people to go along with the King. This was the sort of judgement that these enlightened lords issued. This was not carried out, however, he was beheaded and the head was placed upon a spear on London Bridge.”
1527 Deathday of Niccolo Macchiavelli – “The Prince”
1633 – The Holy Office in Rome forces Galileo Galilei to recant his view that the Sun, not the Earth, is the center of the Universe.
1805 – Birthday of Giuseppe Mazzini, an Italian politician, journalist & activist for the unification of Italy spearheading the Italian revolutionary movement. Freemason – Grand Master of the Grand Orient of Italy. Rudolf Steiner speaks of him as a Hibernian initiate with Garibaldi & Cavour in Karmic Relationships: Esoteric Studies – Volume V
1839 – Cherokee leaders Major Ridge, John Ridge, & Elias Boudinot are assassinated for signing the Treaty of New Echota, which had resulted in the Trail of Tears
1892 – Birthday of Maria Darmstädter – a German religious scholar and Holocaust victim. Born to a prominent Jewish family from Mannheim, she was baptised in the Lutheran church as an adult and shortly after joined the newly established Christian Community in the early 1920s. She was one of the community’s first and most influential members, and contributed greatly to its liturgy. She was deported to Gurs internment camp by the Nazis in October 1940 and murdered in Auschwitz. Her letters from Nazi concentration camps were published in 1970. ~ Peter Selg, ‘From Gurs to Auschwitz: The Inner Journey of Maria Krehbiel-Darmstädter’, Great Barrington, 2013
1941 –Hitler invades the Russia in Operation Barbarossa
1942 – Pledge of Allegiance formally adopted by Congress
1969 – The Cuyahoga River catches fire in Cleveland, Ohio, drawing national attention to water pollution, & spurring the passing of the Clean Water Act & the creation of the Environmental Protection Agency
1978 – Charon, a satellite of the dwarf planet Pluto, is discovered by American astronomer James W. Christy
1990 – Checkpoint Charlie is dismantled in Berlin.
2002 – An earthquake measuring 6.5 Mw strikes northwestern Iran killing 261 people & injuring 1,300 others
2010 – Deathday of Ekkehard Meffert anthroposophist who studied geology, geography, philosophy (with a thesis on Cusa), Education, politics & history. Best known for his biography of Mathilde Scholl, one of the first esoteric students of Rudolf Steiner
Find a collection of the many RECORDINGS of Presentations, Programs & Festivals HERE
~hag
~Midsummer Centennial Celebration~
A Community St. John’s-Tide Festival Gathering Marking 100 years of Biodynamics!
Saturday 22 June 2024 at Zinniker Farm
1 pm - Grinding, stirring & spraying the land with ‘Basil Williams Festival spray’
4 pm – Mid-Summer Thoughts w/ ~hag
Sun Crafting Workshop w/ Charlie Kahn
Social Poetry w/ Zosia Novak
Call & Response Singing w/ Ultra-Violet Archer
* Share YOUR Artistic Gifts – Poem, Song…? Express yourself! *
Potluck – Please Bring Food & Drink to Share
Bonfire Drum Circle - Bring your drums & music makers
Show your support for Zinniker $20 more or less Love Donation
St. John the Baptist and Uriel the Archangel of Summer - An Experiential Festival with Mysteria Mystica Americana (MA)
On the Eve of St. John’s Day - Sunday 23 June 2024
1 -2:30 pm Central Time
w/ Frater Richard Cloud, Soror Hazel Archer-Ginsberg, Soror Lisa Loving Dalton, Frater Zakaria Mannella. And friends: Alexander Torrenga, Dawson Macleod
All are invited to this Free Zoom Festival:
Topic: St. John's with MA
Time:
Sunday Jun 23, 2024
1 PM Central Time (US and Canada)
Click the link below to Join the Festival Gathering:
https://us06web.zoom.us/j/7050174041?pwd=IHmFS9yuzUXffIXg5b4OojEMtLzbFA.1&omn=87373593884
Meeting ID: 705 017 4041
Passcode: MA
If you want to support the Spiritualization of the Earth thru the Biodynamic Farming done on Zinniker Farm, you are invited to become a paid subscriber, with all donations going directly to the farm.
The Voice
19 This is the testimony of John, when the Jews sent to him priests and Levites from Jerusalem to ask him, “Who are you?” 20 And he confessed and did not deny, but confessed, “I am not the Christ.” 21 They asked him, “What then? Are you Elijah?” And he *said, “I am not.” “Are you the Prophet?” And he answered, “No.” 22 Then they said to him, “Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?” 23 He said, “I am a voice of one calling in the solitude of the soul ‘Make straight the way of the Lord,’ as Isaiah the prophet said.”
24 Now they had been sent from the Pharisees. 25 They asked him, and said to him, “Why then are you baptizing, if you are not the Christ, nor Elijah, nor the Prophet?” 26 John answered them saying, “I baptize in water, but among you stands One whom you do not know. 27 It is He who comes after me, the thong of whose sandal I am not worthy to untie.” 28 These things took place in Bethany beyond the Jordan, where John was baptizing.
29 The next day he saw Jesus coming to him and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world! 30 This is He on behalf of whom I said, ‘After me comes a Man who has a higher rank than I, for He existed before me.’ 31 I did not recognize Him, but so that He might be manifested to Israel, I came baptizing in water.” 32 John testified saying, “I have seen the Spirit descending as a dove out of heaven, and He remained upon Him. 33 I did not recognize Him, but He who sent me to baptize in water said to me, ‘He upon whom you see the Spirit descending and remaining upon Him, this is the One who baptizes in the Holy Spirit.’ 34 I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.”