Strange to step into the mythic drama of Orthodox Good Friday today so deep into the Spring-tide season, amid the Passover air-raid sirens mocking liberation from slavery & the ancient Exodus from Egypt.
The Pesach seder includes 2 powerful rituals of grief: dipping a leafy green into salt water, & dripping 10 drops of wine from the cup. The salt water represents the tears of the persecuted & enslaved. And yes, the spilling of the red wine shows the blood-shed. Everywhere we meet those that are unfree, held hostage by the dissonances of ideology, crucifying each other for the sin of an unrecognized shared humanity.
Finding the connection with Good Friday, we can live into the truth of Redemption - evidenced in the hopeful life of what can Spring Eternal.
This sign is also contained in the Quest for the Holy Grail, where the chaste blossom, striving towards the Sun - the Holy Lance of Love - is contrasted with our human desire-filled nature – seen in the selfish sword that brings suffering, poisoning the blood of Amfortas.
The path to the Holy Grail is a cleansing of the sinful spilling of blood caused by our blind lower desires. We can Pierce the Veil to Resurrect the Grail when we become the ‘Holy Fool’ filled with questions, that lead us on our Quest for the meaning of the Earth, moving us towards a future ideal that was modeled for us in the life of Christ.
Looking towards the Cross, we experience the selfless Being of Love, pouring new redemptive forces into the Grail Chalice of the Earth, gifting us with an inner awareness of the Eternal Spirit able to conquer death – The end for the need of blood sacrifice.
Humankind is redeemed by the Redeemer when we take up the Quest to be fully human. And like Wagner in his telling of the Parzival tale we can ask: “When is the Redeemer redeemed?”
Only when The Christ impulse abides in every human heart. Just as the Cosmic Being of Love made the sacrifice to descend to earth, We must ascend to meet this Love.
“Greatest Healing Wonder - Redemption for the Redeemer!”
And so it is that: In Christ Death becomes Life.
This axiom became reality for me at the Eclipse Convergence. After our powerful ritual working, my cohorts were very lifted out, filled with a joyous accomplishment. Hugging & tittering like happy birds, they left the sacred space & stay gathered together in little groupings toning in the bright Sun with jubilation.
I watched from the other side of a curtain, detached. I was a bell struck dumb with awe. Wringing introspective silence. I found myself on the earth under a budding tree. Watching the light slice white out of the heightened azure sky, exposing the elemental world. It was so loud. The bright overlay cut into my forehead. Fingering the grass, I touched some dirt to my tongue. Tasting the music of the chemical ether. Has the shifting glimmer always been here? When did I get up to splash water on my face? I stood at the magical portal of the trellis proscenium. Was it just a few hours earlier when knights in shining armor passed in procession thru that vined Threshold to meet in Convergence with Our Lady of Guadalupe, there at the center of our sacred circle, whose periphery impressed the etheric Christ into our Opus Magnus..?
I was thinking about Something Vidar speaks in the New-Mystery drama rendering what Steiner said about the connection between The Pieta & the Holy Grail: ‘And so, if you, O human soul, would take up the Quest, put before your mind’s eye the image of the Virgin Mother with the Christ upon her knee. For the one who can feel the holiness of the Pieta will feel the same reverence for the Holy Grail. ‘Above all other lights, all other gods, shines the Holy Vessel–the Moon-Mother, now touched by the Christ-Sun, to become ‘The New Eve’–the bearer of the Sun-spirit’. Her Wisdom-light must lead your quest.’
I was thinking of Sigune holding her dead bridegroom Schionatulander – Their eternal story unfolding in a cosmic enigma within my soul.
I was thinking about Isis & Osiris. How we are recapitulating the Egyptian epoch now in this time. How Isis can show us how to re-member the Sun-god a-new.
I was looking thru the trellis portal at the bright sky that was now forever etched with the Black stamp of the ‘Father Ground of the World’ – my living after-image of the totality. My eye was drawn to the earth, to the rocks that made up the path leading into the center. I reached down & picked up a stone.
And received a witness of The Pieta.
In the grace of affirmation for the Quest.
~hag
Hi Hazel,
I know it is late, but I have to take up the issue about Vidar as successor to Michael. On page 11 of your Eclipse Drama, you convey remarks that indicate this:
"I was thinking about Something Vidar speaks in the New-Mystery drama rendering what Steiner said about the connection between The Pieta & the Holy Grail: ‘And so, if you, O human soul, would take up the Quest, put before your mind’s eye the image of the Virgin Mother with the Christ upon her knee. For the one who can feel the holiness of the Pieta will feel the same reverence for the Holy Grail. ‘Above all other lights, all other gods, shines the Holy Vessel–the Moon-Mother, now touched by the Christ-Sun, to become ‘The New Eve’–the bearer of the Sun-spirit’. Her Wisdom-light must lead your quest.’
Now, we need to hold on here a bit. You can't just proclaim Vidar as the successor to Michael as Archangel of the Sun. A vetting process needs to take place. Have you done that? My experience of you, Hazel, is that you have largely cut your ties with the Anthroposophical Society, and maybe even in Chicago. So, you are making large claims here about Vidar, and I want to tell you that Kyle and I have been assessing it for about two years now. We had a recent conversation in which we explored the distinct possibility that Vidar chose to sacrifice his being to the elementary forces, and conveyed most prominently in the Oak. Thus, the Oak is the harbinger of the new clairvoyance for every child born. I remember it myself. I was not even six years old. 1956. North 29th and Lawrence was a street in Tacoma, Washington. It had a marvelous old oak tree, where us kids would congregate every day after school. We all met Lucifer and Ahriman around this oak tree. This was the work of Vidar.
Much different than what you think. Vidar wants to prepare the new clairvoyance from early childhood. As such, he knows that Lucifer and Ahriman have to be embraced for the normal growth pattern to occur that will eventually lead to the eventuality of the new clairvoyance without the threat of atavism. So, rather than attaining to the Archangelic status that you would give him, he became the elementary spirit of the solid oak. It is all right there in the "Twilight of the Gods".
It has proven to be a very good thing that this year the Jewish Pesach is separated from the Christian Pasach by one full month. Thus, we can now contemplate the Jewish Passover in its time of April 22 to April 30, and having experienced our own Christian festival which encompassed the Solar Eclipse of April 8, 2024. You see, Pesach is a lunar-oriented event concerning the Full Moon, while Easter is a Sun-oriented event involving the Full Moon that leads to Sunday. Sunday is of no particular consequence to the Jews.
So, Janet speaks of the Russian calendar, which is Julian vs. Gregorian. A 13 day difference. The important point is encompassing the Eclipse Convergence of April 8th. I saw the Runes being thrown. I saw the Lady of Guadalupe being displayed. All on the field of Saint Raphael's Retreat. And just one small stone can make the difference in an individual heart. This is the half-step toward the fifth stage; our guardian Guide.
For me, it is so good this year that the Jewish Pesach is separated from our Good Friday (March 29th) because it is not only a rare occurrence, but also helps make the proof of the importance of Sun(day) for us Christians.