Iftach Ben Aharon

(morning)

In the world' divinity

In the world's spirit

In the world's soul

I will find myself

To rest in it

To live in it

To be in it

(evening)

I will be

I will live

I will rest

I will find myself

In the world's soul

In the world's spirit

In the world's divinity

søg Kristi nåde,

som bringer dig hjælp,

hjælpen fra åndens lande,

som også skænker fred til den ånd,

som lever i

fortvivlet ensomhed.

Soul in the realm of soul,

seek the grace from Christ

which brings you help,

aid from the realms of spirit,

providing peace, even to the spirit

who lives in

desperate loneliness.

Rudolf Steiner (source unknown)

Din vilje var svag.

Styrk din vilje.

Jeg sender dig varme for din kulde.

Jeg sender dig lys for dit mørke.

Min kærlighed være med dig.

Min tanke være med dig.

Vord videre.

Your will was weak.

Strengthen your will.

I am sending you warmth for your coldness.

I am sending you light for your darkness.

May my love be with you.

May my thoughts be with you.

Keep on becoming.

Rudolf Steiner (given to F.G. when a friend had chosen death)

Perhaps this last one was the one Kristena recited?

-Kerry

​For This Michaelic Age

We must eradicate from the soul

All fear and terror of what comes towards man out of the future.

We must acquire serenity

In all feelings and sensations about the future.

We must look forward with absolute equanimity

To everything that may come.

And we must think only that whatever comes

Is given to us by a world-directive full of wisdom.

It is part of what we must learn in this age,

namely, to live out of pure trust,

Without any security in existence.

Trust in the ever present help

Of the spiritual world.

Truly, nothing else will do

If our courage is not to fail us.

And let us seek the awakening from within ourselves

Every morning and every evening.

Morning:

O Michael, under your protection I place myself;

With your guidance I connect myself

Wholeheartedly, so that this day may become

An image of your destiny-ordering Will.

Evening:

I carry my sorrow into the setting sun,

Place all my worries into her radiating womb.

Purified in love, transformed in light,

They return as helping thoughts,

As strength for self-sacrificing deeds

- attributed to Rudolf Steiner

November 27 – December 22

~ Break for Holy Days ~

Positivity

January 8 - February 2, 2024

Open-Mindedness

February 5 - March 1

Harmony

March 4 – March 29, 2024

That live in the seashells, crystals, and bones.

The second light of Advent is the light of the plants,

That reach up to the sun and in the breezes dance.

The third light of Advent is the light of the beasts;

The light of hope that we may see in the greatest and in the least.

The fourth light of Advent is the light of humankind

The light of love, the light of thought, to know and understand.                                                                                                                                                              -Rudolf Steiner

The smallest stone a drop of the Mountain and the mountain but a wave on Earth’s mantle.

At the molten core of our Mother,

life giving warmth,

life supporting consistency,

crystals carrying the coded information holding galaxies together….

The intelligence of soil.

The still,

vast,

power of unconditioned Love.

This being human is a guest house.
Every morning a new arrival.

A joy, a depression, a meanness,
some momentary awareness comes
as an unexpected visitor.

Welcome and entertain them all!
Even if they’re a crowd of sorrows,
who violently sweep your house
empty of its furniture,
still, treat each guest honorably.
He may be clearing you out
for some new delight.

The dark thought, the shame, the malice,
meet them at the door laughing,
and invite them in.

Be grateful for whoever comes,
because each has been sent
as a guide from beyond.

From The Bhagavad Gita 

The law of karma states unequivocally that though we cannot see the connections, we can be sure that everything that happens to us, good and bad, originated once in something we did or thought. We ourselves are responsible for what happens to us, whether or not we can understand how. It follows that we can change what happens to us by changing ourselves; we can take our destiny into our own hands.”

1. All of our actions, our deeds, our WILLING, are attempts to fulfill our longings, values, intentions, needs. These are Universal for all people.

2. Whether our needs are met or unmet gives rise to FEELINGS. FEELINGS are the signposts which point to what we value, long for. These FEELINGS do not arise on their own; they are stimulated by our actions, our WILLING, something we do or think.

3. Once FEELINGS arise, there are two options.

   OPTION 1:

   WILLING to FEELING to WILLING. This is the Unconscious Will/reaction.

OPTION 2:

WILLING to FEELING to THINKING back

to WILLING.

By adding THINKING we can gain specific Understanding of the source of our FEELINGS. This offers the possibility to return to action, to WILLING with awareness, the birth of the Conscious WILL. We then have the possibility to live in alignment with our values.

We can choose to modify our behavior, to change to transform.

We are free!

We can choose EQUANIMITY!

Sherry Jennings

"In trying to understand we become free, in reaction we are unfree."

Viktor E. Frankl

One of the slippers she could not find, and a boy seized the other and ran away with it saying he could use it as a cradle when he had children of his own. So the little girl went on with her little naked feet, which were quite red and blue with the cold. In an old apron she carried a number of matches, and had a bundle of them in her hands. No one had bought anything of her the whole day, nor had anyone given her even a penny. Shivering with cold and hunger, she crept along, looking like the picture of misery. The snowflakes fell on her fair hair, which hung in curls on her shoulders, but she regarded them not.

Lights were shining from every window, and there was a savory smell of roast goose, for it was New-year's eve, yes, she remembered that. In a corner, between two houses one of which projected beyond the other, she sank down and huddled herself together. She had drawn her little feet under her, but could not keep off the cold. And she dared not go home, for she had sold no matches.

Her father would certainly beat her; besides, it was almost as cold at home as here, for they had only the roof to cover them. Her little hands were almost frozen with the cold. Ah! perhaps a burning match might be some good, if she could draw it from the bundle and strike it against the wall, just to warm her fingers. She drew one out- "scratch!" how it sputtered as it burnt. It gave a warm, bright light, like a little candle, as she held her hand over it. It was really a wonderful light. It seemed as though she was sitting by a large iron stove. How the fire burned! And seemed so beautifully warm that the child stretched out her feet as if to warm them, when, lo! the flame of the match went out!

The stove vanished, and she had only the remains of the half-burnt match in her hand.

She rubbed another match on the wall. It burst into a flame, and where its light fell upon the wall it became as transparent as a veil, and she could see into the room. The table was covered with a snowy white table cloth on which stood a splendid dinner service and a steaming roast goose stuffed with apples and dried plums. And what was still more wonderful, the goose jumped down from the dish and waddled across the floor, with a knife and fork in it, to the little girl. Then the match went out, and there remained nothing but the thick, damp, cold wall before her.

She lighted another match, and then she found herself sitting under a beautiful Christmas tree. It was larger and more beautifully decorated than the one she had seen through the rich merchant's glass door. Thousands of tapers were burning upon the green branches, and colored pictures, like those she had seen in the shop-windows, looked down upon it all. The little one stretched out her hand towards them, and the match went out.

The Christmas lights rose higher and higher till they looked to her like the stars in the sky. Then she saw a star fall, leaving behind it a bright streak of fire. "Someone is dying," thought the little girl, for her old grandmother, the only one who had ever loved her, and who was now in Heaven, had told her that when a star falls, a soul was going up to God.

She again rubbed a match on the wall, and the light shone round her; in the brightness stood her old grandmother, clear and shining, yet mild and loving in her appearance.

"Grandmother," cried the little one, "O take me with you; I know you will go away when the match burns out; you will vanish like the warm stove, the roast goose, and the large glorious Christmas-tree." And she made haste to light the whole bundle of matches, for she wished to keep her grandmother there. And the matches glowed with a light that was brighter than the noon-day. And her grandmother had never appeared so large or so beautiful. She took the little girl in her arms, and they both flew upwards in brightness and joy far above the earth, where there was neither cold nor hunger nor pain, for they were with God.

In the dawn of morning there lay the poor little one, with pale cheeks and smiling mouth, leaning against the wall. She had been frozen on the last evening of the year; and the New-year's sun rose and shone upon a little child. The child still sat, holding the matches in her hand, one bundle of which was burnt.

"She tried to warm herself," said some. No one imagined what beautiful things she had seen, nor into what glory she had entered with her grandmother, on New-year's day.

https://www.thoughtco.com/little-matchstick-girl-short-story-739298

        " The subsidiary exercises strengthen the pupil's soul character, bring it into the right 

         form, and make the results of meditation good."

"Let's make it clear to ourselves what's really brought about by meditation. Streams of spiritual life are always flowing through the world. These streams can't flow into us, when we're thinking about everyday things. But our meditation words are like portals that are to lead us in the spiritual world. They have the strength to open up our soul so that the thoughts of our great leaders, the master of wisdom and of the harmony of feelings can stream into us. For this to happen the deepest quiet must reign in us. We must realize that meditation is a very intimate soul activity.." 

Spirit of Love in us

Help us to overcome

our fears,

our doubts,

our anger.

Spirit of Love in us

Carry us in the light

with courage,

with trust,

compassion.

Help us to overcome

our fears,

with courage,

our doubts,

with trust,

our anger,

compassion.

Lovingly written by Mary Lynn Channer

submitted by Nancy Carpenter

You are loved, deeply loved.
You are a well-cherished garden.
You are loved, deeply loved.
You are a treasured child.
All your life, all your days, from the very first moment of being.
You’ve been loved, greatly loved. You are loved.

Drink it in, drink it in.
Love is the life-giving water.
Take it in, take it in.
Know it in every cell.
Soak it into your toes, so the rose that you are fully blossoms.
You’ve been loved, greatly loved. You are loved.

Drink it in, drink it in.
This is what nourishes spirit.
Take it in, take it in.
This is what opens the heart.
Soak it in to our toes so the roses we are fully blossom.
We’ve been loved, greatly loved. We are love.

--Rudolf Steiner

"If you want to walk in the shoes of another, you must take off your own shoes first."

Friday/Saturday March 15-16
Champlain Valley Unitarian Universalist Society  
2 Duane Court,  Middlebury

Friday Lecture 7 - 9pm

In our time, it can seem naïve to speak of positivity, hope, or joy. World events all seem to justify perpetual alarm or even perpetual despair. This lecture will examine cases in history, in spiritual literature, and in my clinical practice, where people thrive in seemingly impossible circumstances and even offer help to others. 

Saturday Workshop  9am - 4pm

This workshop will include meditative and spiritual practices oriented toward joy and effective participation in life, without ignoring the disasters within us, around us, and ahead of us. Attention, risk-acceptance, and an orientation toward varieties of relationship are some of the ingredients that go into an integrative and creative stance.

Please come prepared for a day of intense communal practice in all these areas. We will base some of our meditative work in Buddhist texts, some in Christian and Jewish scripture, some in Sufi poetry. The key text, however, is what the natural world around us recites, and what is written in our hearts.

Michael Lipson, PhD is a Clinical Psychologist who leads meditation workshops internationally and maintains a private practice in Western Massachusetts.

For more information, and to register, see the Eventbrite page

So far, I have not found anywhere in the original German where Steiner uses the words Ich and Ego interchangeably?

Please let me know if you have and the GA number or date and/or title? Thank you.

submitted by Nancy Carpenter

Personal Star Poems. Discover Treasures Laid Down at your Birth.

The link to for more information and to participate:

Personal Star Poems (thestarhouse.org)

Copied and pasted from the link is some of the information: "Your Personal Star Poems help you discover gifts given from the cosmos, through the Sun, through the Earth, and from the horizons."

David Tresemer, Ph.D., is the founder of the StarHouse in Boulder, Colorado, and the developer of the Solar Cross system for the “Personal Star Poem” qualities of each of the 360 zodiacal degrees. David is editor and contributor to The Counselor… As If Soul and Spirit Matter, as well as Slow Counseling. He is co-founder and past president of the Association for Anthroposophic Psychology."

Maybe we could form a cohort of 6BE Noon ET participants who accept this invitation and could inspire and motivate one another? Your thoughts? sharleenleonard61@gmail.com

My worry after I registered, and also after I publish this post, is that I will fail to engage my will to follow through. However, there are no failures, only results, right?

Sun —fire and light

Heat and warmth

Life-giving

Global warming

One sun at day

Thousands — to the naked eye

At night.

Millions, billions, and more,

With telescopes, the Hubbard satellite,

Radar dishes and technology.

Andromeda, Cassiopeia, Hercules, Orion,

The Great Bear, Taurus the Bull, Leo the Lion,

Aries the Ram, Aquila the Eagle, Cygnus the Swan,

Cancer the Crab,, Pegasus the Flying Horse . . . and on and on,

All made of suns.

The Milky Way,

Some 100 to 400 billion stars,

That’s a lot of suns

As our sun’s chums.

Galaxy after galaxy,

140 billion or so,

Wrap your head around that.

4.3 light years to Alpha Centauri

Our nearest neighbour,

Just a stone’s throw away

In galactic terms;

Yet, still, a hundred million times

Further than the moon.

To reach it by space ship

A mere 25,000 years.

Our next neighbour, Sirius,

Another 4.6 light years,

If you’re curious.

The birds, the beasts, the trees,

They speak to me.

They touch my soul,

They make me whole.

How do they feel?

Can they communicate?

What do they see?

Can we open the gate?

Nature is a mystery,

That is how it's meant to be.

We don't always need to know,

We can just enjoy the show.

We can't always grasp it all,

With our mighty intellect,

But if we let it open our hearts,

Then we really can connect.

Do they connect, too,

With what we do?

Or what we've done

With our dominion?

We were never in control,

We weren't meant to run the show.

We can help to make Earth whole,

And nature might just love us so.

There are times of great uncertainty in every life. Left alone at such a time, you feel dishevelment and confusion like gravity. 

When a friend comes with words of encouragement, a light and lightness visit you and you begin to find the stairs and the door out of the dark. 

The sense of encouragement you feel from the friend is not simply her words or gestures; it is rather her whole presence enfolding you and helping you find the concealed door. The encouraging presence manages to understand you and put herself in your shoes. 

There is no judgment but words of relief and release.”

John O'Donohue

"Don't say NO

Just say OH"

I learned about a reframe for the acronym HALT that I think may have originated with some 12 step group. The original acronym is used as a simple reminder when someone has the urge to do something that is not helpful and could be harmful. HALT - Am I Hungry, Angry, Lonely Tired? If I am, what can I do instead of reaching for my drug pr behavior of choice?

HALT can also be the solution to the urge dilemma. Am I being Honest (and also remembering to enjoy a little Humor), Accepting, Loving, Thankful, (Teachable, Tolerant.)

Today, I am very thankful and teachable, i.e. open minded.

With joy and appreciation!

Thank you! LoveLy

11:58:44 From angela to Everyone:
        Day 87! 🌟
12:11:12 From Robyn Hauenstein to Everyone:
        The “L” and the watery element as love and life.
12:11:30 From Martee Seuss to Everyone:
        Life force , Mighty!
12:11:59 From Kathy Reardon to Everyone:
        Life, freedom and movement
12:12:09 From Kathy Rodgers Pettit to Everyone:
        When I think of water, I think “water is life” and I like to think that every drop of water has been here and cycled through its different forms over and over again, much as we return through many life cycles
12:12:44 From Joe Schofield to Everyone:
        Water is the medium for light to sparkle. It revitalizes and purifies. It models fluidity and adaptability. It supports all life and bodily processes. It supports the weight of our bodies despite the pull of gravity.
12:12:52 From Nancy Carpenter to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Water is the medium ..." with ♥️
12:12:57 From Verlyn McGilvray to Everyone:
        Flow, streaming, astral power
12:13:03 From Kerry McCarthy to Everyone:
        Water is everything! Calming.
12:13:19 From Nancy Carpenter to Everyone:
        Reacted to "When I think of wate..." with ♥️
12:13:28 From Sherry Jennings to Everyone:
        Shapes and transforms the earth from the softest sand to the hard rock, moves, soft, flowing free, takes course of least resistance, life-giving, earth-shifting, has shaped the creatures of the sea, can take many forms
12:13:46 From Kathy Rodgers Pettit to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Shapes and transform..." with 👍🏼
12:13:50 From Martee Seuss to Everyone:
        Reflection
12:13:57 From Nancy Carpenter to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Shapes and transform..." with ♥️
12:14:08 From Martin & Timothy Kennedy to Everyone:
        "Form Follows Flow" - Sim Van der Ryn
12:15:13 From Robyn Hauenstein to Everyone:
        Water as selfless being.
12:15:20 From Kathy Rodgers Pettit to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Water as selfless be..." with ❤️
12:15:38 From Matt Richter RI to Everyone:
        water - earth element, physical expression of truth, elemental being, the universal solvent, dissolving all things, the solution to all soluble manifestations, to and from all solutions providing the swells of life.
12:15:42 From Martee Seuss to Everyone:
        “The Tears of the Earth”- John O’Donohue
12:15:48 From Kathy Rodgers Pettit to Everyone:
        Reacted to "“The Tears of the Ea..." with ❤️
12:16:13 From Nancy Carpenter to Everyone:
        flowing strength
12:16:22 From Sandra Slater to Everyone:
        Cleansing
12:16:38 From Martin & Timothy Kennedy to Everyone:
        Martin - "Amniotic fluid"
12:17:03 From angela to Everyone:
        Tom Robbins said that water invented human beings as a means of transformation!
12:17:11 From Sherry Jennings to Everyone:
        Gives itself to the shape of the vessel that hold it
12:17:17 From angela to Everyone:
        Reacted to "When I think of wate..." with ❤️
12:17:26 From angela to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Water is the medium ..." with 💦
12:17:30 From angela to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Flow, streaming, ast..." with ❤️
12:17:37 From angela to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Water is everything!..." with 💦
12:17:44 From angela to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Shapes and transform..." with ❤️
12:17:52 From Linda Brooks Cooper to Everyone:
        Water is the element of life, living, shaping and loving
12:18:08 From angela to Everyone:
        Reacted to "Martin - "Amniotic f..." with ❤️
12:19:30 From Verlyn McGilvray to Everyone:
        So many blessings!
12:19:41 From Kathy Rodgers Pettit to Everyone:
        These feel like holy moments.

In the Light of a Child, by Michael Burton

Calendar of the Soul verses for Children ( and adults)

GROUNDING basic training podcast:Dynamic Interactive Skills Team

Radio episode #2.

https://dynskills.com/images/zak%20episode%202.mp3

Good work!!

12:05:09 From Matt Richter to Everyone:
        Murmer
12:05:16 From Robyn Hauenstein to Everyone:
        calMing
12:05:19 From Sherry Jennings to Everyone:
        musical
12:05:20 From Kathy Rodgers Pettit to Everyone:
        Moment
12:05:22 From Nancy Carpenter -  Detroit to Everyone:
        Warmth
12:05:47 From Verlyn McGilvray to Everyone:
        my
12:05:59 From Carolyn KRAW to Everyone:
        Memory
12:06:09 From Nancy Carpenter -  Detroit to Everyone:
        Amend from Judy
12:06:27 From Mary Goode to Everyone:
        mystical
12:11:21 From angela to Everyone:
        Happy birthday to Timmmmmothy! We love you!!!!!❤️
12:11:45 From Matt Richter to Everyone:
        ❤️
12:15:17 From Robyn Hauenstein to Everyone:
        Is the Ahrimanic tone z?
12:15:28 From Kathy Rodgers Pettit to Everyone:
        Thank you Karen - this is all new to me and very enlightening!
12:15:51 From Barbara Boeheim to Everyone:
        Thank you so much!
12:15:53 From Robyn Hauenstein to Everyone:
        OK S and not Z, thank you
12:16:08 From Prempreet to Everyone:
        Thank you
12:16:10 From Verlyn McGilvray to Everyone:
        Wow, thank you so much!!
12:16:13 From Sherry Jennings to Everyone:
        amend, moth, remain, commandment,
12:16:14 From Sally Greenberg to Everyone:
        Thank you
12:16:39 From Robyn Hauenstein to Everyone:
        Thank you very much Karen!
12:16:55 From Mary Goode to Everyone:
        Thank you Karen!  Very nourishing.  And happy birthday to TiMothy!
12:16:59 From angela to Everyone:
        Yes, excellent Karen!
12:17:05 From Kerry McCarthy to Everyone:
        Thanks!!!

"All Philosophy begins with Wonder." - Plato (whose Academy in Athens was populated by Lovers of Sophia (poets, artists, scientists) in conversation with one another.)

https://youtu.be/fbQvVS_8ZNI?si=0FfQM6s3dh0QJvnA

And a piece I added was that Light comes to Life through Love.

and a part of us dies if we don't.

Which part will prevail? --Jett Psaris

Rudolf Steiner, Oct. 21st in Berlin

If we were not enabled by anger to take an independent stand, in cases where the outer world offends our inner feeling, we would not be selfless, but dependent and Ego-less in the worst sense.

For the spiritual scientist, anger is also the harbinger of something quite different. Life shows us that a person who is unable to flare up with anger at injustice or folly will never develop true kindness and love. Equally, a person who educates himself through noble anger will have a heart abounding in love, and through love he will do good. Love and kindness are the obverse of noble anger. Anger that is overcome and purified will be transformed into the love that is its counterpart. A loving hand is seldom one that has never been clenched in response to injustice or folly. Anger and love are complementary.

A superficial Theosophy might say: Yes, a man must overcome his passions; he must cleanse and purify them. But overcoming something does not mean shirking or shunning it. It is a strange sort of sacrifice that is made by someone who proposes to cast off his passionate self by evading it. We cannot sacrifice something unless we have first possessed it. Anger can be overcome only by someone who has experienced it first within himself. Instead of trying to evade such emotions, we must transmute them in ourselves. By transmuting anger, we rise from the Sentient Soul, where noble anger can flame out, to the Intellectual Soul and the Consciousness Soul, where love and the power to give blessing are born.

Transmuted anger is love in action. That is what we learn from reality. Anger in moderation has the mission of leading human beings to love; we can call it the teacher of love.

1.  This is the sound of one voice,

One spirit, one voice,

The sound of one who makes a choice,

This is the sound of one voice,

This is the sound of one voice.

2.  This is the sound of voices two,

The sound of me singing with you,

Helping each other to make it through,

This is the sound of voices two,

This is the sound of voices two.

3.  This is the sound of voices three,

Singing together in harmony,

Surrendering to the mystery,

This is the sound of voices three,

This is the sound of voices three.

4.  This is the sound of all of us,

Singing with love and the will to trust,

Leave the rest behind it will return to dust,

This is the sound of all of us,

This is the sound of all of us.

5.  This is the sound of one voice,

One people, one voice,

A song for every one of us,

This is the sound of one voice,

This is the sound of one voice.

After a lecture or seminar, some of the audience come up to the lectern with a question, a thank you, or their sympathy. The lecturers will remember them but hardly recall the many others who quietly leave the hall with a friendly nod of the head from a distance. Nevertheless, how often does a new world grow out of a thought, taken from the evening, in just such an unknown, silent listener? “The silence ripens,” Rudolf Steiner mused. Yes, often it happens in “secret”—the currents of anthroposophy may be determined less in branch meetings and conferences than in reading at the doctor’s office, in the conversation on the train, or in the remark overheard in the corridor. Presumably, it is no different in the soul: there, too, the spiritual thought that remains tucked away inside, secret to the rest of us, bears the real fruit. Perhaps that is why early anthroposophy is a “secret science” (Geheimwissenschaft), because it is about these quiet, secret pathways—the ways to those who stayed hidden.

Gilda Bartel and Wolfgang Held

(Translator note: Geheimwissenschaft is sometimes translated as “occult science”, and continuing this lovely play of words, “occult” can also mean “hidden”.)

Translation Laura Liska

Rudolf Steiner