The Festival of St. John’s Tide starts today on the fixed date of 24 June - the birthday of John the Baptist - born 6 months before his cousin Jesus, on the opposite side of the wheel of the year just after Winter Solstice.
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 Christened Spirit.
At the center of history, the summons of JB was to turn inward, & confront the lower self.
St. John’s-Tide is a perfect time to re-assess & re-balance ourselves in this Metanoia.
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 whom Jesus Loved’ received the forces of the beheaded John the Baptist, at the rising of Lazarus, earning him the title John as well - St. John the Evangelist.
Awakening to Initiation is possible, & when it is taken up, life as we know it, opens to new dimensions - which may be called the birth of the Higher Self – The Divine “I” is born in the striving human being.
When the human principle in Jesus of Nazareth had reached its highest development, & his body had become an expression of the Spirit within him, he was ripe to receive the Christ in the Baptism by John. His body had unfolded its full power, like the radiant Sun at Midsummer.
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 after, the physical takes over, giving us the harvest - & the spiritual aspect of the Sun begins to move inward, where we must cultivate it.
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 came to prepare the way, & is ever active since this ‘Turning Point of Time’. He has lived many a life of renunciation.*
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 event in the evolution of each individual human: the rebirth of the immortal being which can issue forth from the ordinary self. This shift in our evolution 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 this truth – working to prevent us from becoming Divinely Human. May we be alert to the signs, & vigilant in our striving to practice Spiritual Science.
Blessings and Peace ~hag
RUDOLF STEINER'S CALENDAR OF THE SOUL
translated (with added titles) by Roy Sadler
SAINT JOHN'S TIDE
At the Altar of the Senses
v12
The world’s light-glancing beauty
compels me from the depths of soul
to free the god-enwoven powers of my life
in cosmic flight, forsake myself
and trusting, seek my Self
in cosmic light and warmth.
SAINT JOHN'S TIDE
The earth breathes out its summer truth in leaves — umbrellas over tattered planet skin — revealing memories of winter fears. Earth grieves - for negligence, the purely mortal sin. At Saint John's Tide, the children shout - and leap across the fiery abyss - of twigs that symbolize the burning out - of last year's sins ---- they do believe in this.
He leapt for joy inside his mother's womb, when news of cousin Jesus' coming filled the universe ---- two sisters in one room - possessing every hope that gods had willed.
The turning point of human history: the pregnant earth is still a mystery.
~from "Post-Existential Sonnets," Folio I, by Tom Mellett, Austin, Texas, 1987
Rudolf Steiner’s Lectures on this day
ON THIS DAY IN HISTORY
24 June 2020 – “Speaking with the Stars”
*The Feast Day of John the Baptist. Rudolf Steiner revealed his other lives as Elijah, Raphael, Novalis in GA 120 & in the Mystery Dramas. Steiner also gave indications that he was the 1st Adam, & that he is an inspirer of John the Evangelist/Christian Rosenkrantz.
1374 – A sudden outbreak of ‘St. John’s Dance’ causes people in the streets of Aachen, Germany, to experience hallucinations & begin to jump & twitch uncontrollably until they collapse from exhaustion.
1717 – The first Freemasonic Grand Lodge is founded in London. Benjamin Franklin was a member.
1812 –Napoleon invades Russia
1922 – Assassination of Walther Rathenau, a German statesman who served as Foreign Minister during the Weimar Republic.
1938 – A 450 metric ton meteor hits Chicora, Pennsylvania
1976 – Deathday of Rudolf Kreutzer entrepreneur, anthropsopher
2004 – In New York, capital punishment is declared unconstitutional
a recording of a St. John’s -Tide Tale told
Get into the Seasonal Swing with these other recorded offerings as well:
St. John the Baptist & Uriel the Archangel of Summer
An Experiential Festival with Mysteria Mystica Americana (MA) Leading Thoughts & Images by ~hag as a member initiative for MA
“The Forerunner & the Archangel Uriel”
Musical Performances w/ Lucien Dante Lazar; Speech w/ Geoffrey Norris; Eurythmy w/ Elizabeth Carlson; Practicum w/ Lisa Dalton; Leading Thoughts by hag
Front Range Anthroposophical Café presents: Summer Solstice ‘RING of FIRE’ with Hazel Archer
Last Chance to join us for a Farm to Table Brunch in support of Zinniker Farm - The oldest continuous Biodynamic Farm in the USA
Saturday 28 June 2025
11 am - 1:30 pm
at The Chicago Christian Community 2135 W Wilson Ave, Chicago, IL 60625
Menu includes food fresh from the farm:
Summer Frittata
Slow cooked Beef
Pork Sausage
Fresh Baked Pfeiffer Wheat Bread
La Bafana Corn Cake
Rhubarb Crumble
Garden Salad
More info. & RSVP to join us for brunch with Aidan & Alisyn and Mark & Petra. Can’t join us in person? You can always make a donation or become a paid subscriber with all contributions going directly to the farm…
If you want to support the Biodynamic Farming done on Zinniker Farm, you are invited to become a paid subscriber, with all donations going directly to the farm