Saturday, December 31, 2011

The Grail and Speech: historically, today and in the future

new years eve to 2012, hong kong
The thought came to mind to include this post at years-end and new beginning with an excerpt from Walter Johannes Stein's "The Ninth Century and the Holy Grail". The Austrian philosopher W.J. Stein (1891-1957) taught in the first Waldorf School in Germany when it began 1919. Rudolf Steiner asked him to be the German Literature and History teacher, even though his background was philosophy with Phd's in mathematics and physics. He became noted for his original scholarship and penetrating spiritual scientific research particularly with his groundbreaking and unconventional methods into the deeper aspects and meanings of the Holy Grail. He was led by his Anthroposophical insights into the inner workings of reincarnation and karma which are not only unique but profound in the deepest sense of the word. Stein reveals not only the historical 9th century background when the Parzival story actually unfolded but also provides us with the basis for understanding of the immense battle now dawning closer upon humanity in our time... between the spiritual powers of the True Grail Impulse and the sinister anti-Grail forces which threaten to annihilate the human spirit and all world civilization. I will follow up the quoted material with a commentary. I wish you a spiritually good and prosperous new year with courageous heart-strength to manifest your insightful intentions in practical life. We will all need to draw on this thought as a guiding light in all our remaining years to come..

In the early days of the Waldorf school, Rudolf Steiner used to come for visits to the school in Stuttgart. Walter Johannes Stein describes one special event:

'As he came up the steps in his black coat, his eyes beaming with love and kindliness, the children would run to meet him seizing his hands or at least his coat-tails. He would come across the court with the children jumping happily around him, but as he passed up to the staff room they hung back with shy respect. He generally arrived in the morning,. Later, when the lessons began, he visited the different classes....On January 16, 1923, Rudolf Steiner came to visit the 11th grade class.'

They were reading a verse from Wolfgang von Eschenbach's Parzival when Rudolf Steiner entered the room and listened to what they were saying about the Sword of the Grail.'

Stein continues...'His custom was to listen quietly to the talk between teacher and children. He sat at the desk, looked at the class and listened very seriously and attentively; then a bright light broke over his face, his eyes shown, he stood up, and continued the class himself. At such times he was always very animated. He asked questions, glancing round to see who was ready with an answer. There were always the most wonderful conversations between him and the children. On this occasion he said, "Graal, that comes from gradalis; that means gradually", "by degrees". The way of Parzival is accomplished stage by stage, from dullness... through doubt... to Saelde.' He took the chalk, wrote the word Saelde on the blackboard and said, 'That is blessedness. The word soul is ...[implied]. Saelde is connected with soul.'

He then asked, "In what period did this all this, that Dr. Stein has told you, really happen?" The children said, "It was the Middle Ages." 'Yes,' said Dr Steiner, 'but we can date it more exactly. In the description of Parzival's experiences we can see very well that the conditions of the eighth or ninth centuries are being described. Those were times of bloodshed. Men were accustomed to live among bloodshed. And at that time, too, there were wild forests everywhere, and there men fought. They still shed blood in their sacrifices. From time to time shining forms of light clad in scintillating armour passed through the forest. When they came to inhabited places, the people came together and conferred with one another, and no longer went out to fight and plunder. These knight-errants, who appeared from time to time in their flashing armour, sought to establish, in this bloodthirsty age, an order that was based in bloodshed. The central body of these knights, who were scattered about everywhere, was formed by the Knights of King Arthur, or as we may also call them, "Knights of the Sword". They had their centers in Northern France and in England. But there were other knights too at that time. Now think. If Arthur's Knights were Knights of the Sword, what sort of knights could the other knights have been?'
Dr Steiner then made the children guess, and helped them, until at last one of them said, 'The others were "Knights of the Word" .'

'Yes indeed,' said Dr Steiner, 'that is quite right. The others were really "Knights of the Word".' The word is a sword too, but not an ordinary one. The word is a sword that proceeds out of man's mouth. Here you see this sword is mentioned.' Dr Steiner took the book from my hand and began to read, interspersing his reading with explanations.

"The sword will withstand the first blow, at the next it will break in twain."

W. J. Stein then goes on..."The Grail Sword breaks when it has grown old," said Dr Steiner, 'therefore that of which only the fragments have been handed down must be brought back to its source. What is old must be renewed at the living spiritual source. There the Grail Sword will become whole again.'

then again from Linda Sussman from her book "Speech of the Grail"...

"If the end of the Grail journey is to become like the Grail, then the crowning achievement is to stand with humble dignity upon the threshold between earthly and spiritual worlds. Like the Grail, human beings who inhabit their speaking are the connection, the common boundary between visible and invisible realms. The grail journey brings Parzival and each seeker to realize that, as Robert Sardello says, 'the new temple of initiation is the world itself'. With that insight the re-sacralization of the earth becomes possible through renewal of the individual and collective understanding of the significance of human speech." (p.11) (italics my emphasis)

me now speaking: with this post, the attempt is made to illustrate the fundamental importance of speech...not just as a means of ordinary daily communication in a computer age...but as a way capable of expressing the deepest fount of the human heart, full of a insight for the three great ideals of humanity: TRUTH  BEAUTY GOODNESS. It would seem almost impossible in our lives today, but if in our daily connection with others we could strive for and remain somehow, ever inwardly connected in the deepest recesses our our being (conscience) with these great ideals then our speech will convey a feeling and sense of light, life and love for others, in a world falling deeper into darkness, death and fear and despair. The world now needs a new world culture which heals. This is what the world is calling calls on us to do. Everything now is dependent on  the how of every thought, word and action. Yes, we create ...and co-create our future...

"If the end of the Grail journey is to become like the Grail then the crowning achievement is to stand with humble dignity upon the threshold between earthly and spiritual worlds." as Linda puts it...

or too, as the Tao teaches us...to firmly hold the balance between heaven and earth with courageous virtue.

Wednesday, December 28, 2011

Parcelcus, Goethe, Steiner...and the Tao

Here is an interesting excerpt from "The Abolition of Man...or reflections on education with special reference to the teaching of English in the upper forms of schools." pg. 78-79, 1944  by C, S. Lewis

"In Paracelcus the characters of magician and scientist are combined. No doubt those who really founded modern science were usually those whose love of truth exceeded their love of power; in every mixed movement the effacy comes from the good elements not from the bad. But the presence of the bad elements is not irrevelant to the direction the efficacy takes. It may be going too far to say that the modern scientific movement was tainted from its birth: but I think it would be true to say that it was born in an unhealthy neighborhood and at an inauspicious hour. Its triumphs may have been too rapid and purchased at too high a price: reconsideration, and something like repentance, may be required.

Is it then possible to imagine a new Natural Philosophy, continually conscious that the 'natural object' produced by analysis and abstraction is not reality but only a view, and always correcting the abstraction? I hardly know what I am asking for. I hear rumours that Goethe's approach to nature deserves fuller consideration--that even Dr. Steiner may have seen something that orthodox researchers have missed. The regenerate science which I have in mind would not do even to minerals and vegetables what modern science threatens to do to man himself. When it explained, it would not explain away. When it spoke of the parts it would remember the whole. While studying the It, it would would not lose what Martin Buber calls the Thou-situation. The analogy between the Tao of Man and the instincts of an animal species would mean for it new light cast on the unknown thing...Instinct, by the only known reality of conscience and not a reduction of conscience to the category of Instinct. Its followers would not be free with the words only and merely. In a word, it would conquer nature without being at the same time conquered by her and buy knowledge at a lower cost than that of life."

Clive Staples Lewis (1898-1963) was one of the intellectual giants of the twentieth century and arguably the most influencial Christian writer of his day. He wrote more than 30 books, among them The Chronicles of Narnia, Out of the Silent Planet, The Four Loves,, The Screwtape Letters, and Mere Christianity.

Saturday, December 24, 2011

St. Francis and the Christmas Creche

by FR. WILLIAM SAUNDERS

What is the origin of the Nativity Scene (creche)?
The story of the origin of the Christmas creche rests with the very holy man, St. Francis of Assisi.

In the year 1223, St. Francis, a deacon, was visiting the town of Grecio to celebrate Christmas. Grecio was a small town built on a mountainside overlooking a beautiful valley. The people had cultivated the fertile area with vineyards. St. Francis realized that the chapel of the Franciscan hermitage would be too small to hold the congregation for Midnight Mass. So he found a niche in the rock near the town square and set up the altar. However, this Midnight Mass would be very special, unlike any other Midnight Mass.

St. Bonaventure (d. 1274) in his Life of St. Francis of Assisi tells the story the best:

It happened in the third year before his death, that in order to excite the inhabitants of Grecio to commemorate the nativity of the Infant Jesus with great devotion, [St. Francis] determined to keep it with all possible solemnity; and lest he should be accused of lightness or novelty, he asked and obtained the permission of the sovereign Pontiff. Then he prepared a manger, and brought hay, and an ox and an ass to the place appointed. The brethren were summoned, the people ran together, the forest resounded with their voices, and that venerable night was made glorious by many and brilliant lights and sonorous psalms of praise. The man of God [St. Francis] stood before the manger, full of devotion and piety, bathed in tears and radiant with joy; the Holy Gospel was chanted by Francis, the Levite of Christ. Then he preached to the people around the nativity of the poor King; and being unable to utter His name for the tenderness of His love, He called Him the Babe of Bethlehem. A certain valiant and veracious soldier, Master John of Grecio, who, for the love of Christ, had left the warfare of this world, and become a dear friend of this holy man, affirmed that he beheld an Infant marvellously beautiful, sleeping in the manger, Whom the blessed Father Francis embraced with both his arms, as if he would awake Him from sleep. This vision of the devout soldier is credible, not only by reason of the sanctity of him that saw it, but by reason of the miracles which afterwards confirmed its truth. For example of Francis, if it be considered by the world, is doubtless sufficient to excite all hearts which are negligent in the faith of Christ; and the hay of that manger, being preserved by the people, miraculously cured all diseases of cattle, and many other pestilences; God thus in all things glorifying his servant, and witnessing to the great efficacy of his holy prayers by manifest prodigies and miracles.

Every Crystal Bead ....from the Rig Veda

There is an endless net of threads throughout the Universe.
The horizontal threads are in space. The vertical threads are in time.
At every crossing of the threads, there is an individual.
And every individual is a crystal bead.
And every crystal bead reflects
not the light from every other crystal in the net,
but also every other reflection throughout the entire Universe.

-The Rig Veda ...version by Frank Joseph
From his book: Synchronicity and You

The Christmas Mystery: Deepest Words Expressed Within

"And now we will listen to words in which the deepest import of the Christmas Mystery is mirrored. In all ages these words resounded in the ears of those who were pupils of the Mysteries — before they were allowed to participate in the Mysteries themselves" — R.S.

Behold the Sun
At midnight hour,
And build with stones
in lifeless ground,
So find in downfall
and in death's dark night
Creation's new beginning,
The morning's youthful might.
The heights of heaven reveal
The gods' eternal Word;
The deeps shall guard and keep
Its gift of peace assured.
In darkness living
Create an inner sun.
In substance weaving
The spirit's joy is won.

translated from the original
by Arvia MacKaye Ege

Die Sonne schaue
Um mitternächtige Stunde.
Mit Steinen baue
Im lebenlose Grunde.
So finde im Niedergang
Und in des Todes Nacht
Der Schöpfung neuen Anfang,
Des Morgens junge Macht.

Die Höhen lass offenbaren
Der Götter ewiges Wort,
Die Tiefen sollen bewahren
Den friedensvollen Hort.
Im Dunkel lebend
Erschaffe eine Sonne.
Im Stoffe webend
Erkenne Geisteswonne.

from: The Festivals and their Meaning ...lectures by R. Steiner
Berlin, 17th December, 1906    GA 96
lecture 2 "Signs and Symbols of the Christmas Festival"
read the entire lecture on-line at
http://wn.rsarchive.org/Lectures/Christmas/19061217p01.html

Friday, December 23, 2011

Tao Principles in Practice: Bio-dynamic Agriculture

BIO-DYNAMIC AGRICULTURE AS MODERN ALCHEMY
by Jim Barausky

Medicine must not act without the participation of heaven; it must act together with it. Therefore, you must separate the medicine from the earth so it will obey the will of the stars and be guided by them.
— Paracelsus

The Alchemical tradition as practiced in many ancient cultures viewed Nature as a divine being with a creative intelligence. The practice of alchemy was an art, and the alchemist sought to work directly with the guidance of Natura herself. The alchemist had to “stand in the light of nature” to perform the art of alchemy, and thereby learned to transform substance from a denser physical manifestation to an more refined expression of the divine thought or archetype hidden within the outer garment.

The traditional alchemical methods of working with the plants were extractions, distillations and fermentations. Each of these three special processes “opens” the plant and liberates the essence or the spiritual archetype of the plant. The alchemical work always takes place in three stages: separation, purification, and recombination, or the chymical wedding. The resulting preparations, or spagyrics, having been transformed become medicines with highly curative powers. Participation in the process itself also had a profound effect on the alchemist.

Rudolf Steiner, founder of bio-dynamic agriculture, gave indications for the use of plant extracts and special preparations for agriculture as a method for healing the earth and increasing the life forces of our food. A healthy plant grows between heaven and earth and is an expression of both substances and forces. The practices of bio-dynamic agriculture reunite the cosmic forces with the earthly forces. It is our task as farmers and gardeners to awaken to our place in the cosmos and to harmonize the plant, mineral, animal and human kingdoms.

For the bio-dynamic practitioner the earth and the cosmos are perceived as a divine creation permeated with spiritual beings. We extend our awareness towards both the cosmic beings dwelling in the starry realms, as well as the living earth and elemental spirits of fire, earth, air and water. We learn to view outer nature as book whose script is revealed through devoted and reverent observation. Through utilizing the bio-dynamic preparations in the field and garden, the plant substances are attuned and harmonized with the cosmic rhythms. The plants become more receptive to the world of the stars, and are more aware of their whole environment and their origins. Both genotype and phenotype are active and in balance. Our food becomes imbued with these life forces. This substance bears within it the imprint of this cosmic harmony and when ingested as food or medicine these processes are conveyed to our organism. Through this food we become connected to, and sensitive to, the world around us in a vital way. This enhanced food is the basis of a nutrition that is truly healing.     © Jim Barausky, 2006. All rights reserved.
from: http://www.goodfarmers.org/article

(below, I include again a quote from Steiner on the fulfillment of the TAO. Juxtaposing the foregoing article with this following quote is a further illustration of the PRINCIPLE of the Tao which is exists in every manifestation of our created cosmos...all from heaven to earth, in the soul of the human being and in the soul of the Mother Earth. And since the human soul and Mother Earth's soul are unseparable, the Tao further teaches us that as we ourselves, the third principle of the Tao... the first being Oneness ... the second duality...then the farmer or gardener is the balancing facilitator between heaven and earth...Yang & Yin.)

"The TAO expresses -- for the greater part of humanity as it has already expressed for millennia-- the highest to which humanity could aspire, and of which humanity thought that the world, the whole of humanity, will one day aspire. It is the highest that the human being carries as a seed, which one day will blossom fully out of innermost human nature. TAO signifies both a deep, hidden fundament of the soul and an exalted future."
Rudolf Steiner, November 16, 1905 (whole lecture as yet untranslated)

2012--end of the world or time for real change?

Friday, December 23, 2011 by: Tara Green   from the website http://www.naturalnews.com/

The coming new year which is 2012, also happens to be the name of a 2009 Hollywood disaster film in which a lucky few survivors, mostly political leaders and the very rich, board huge insulated arks to ride out a massive civilization-destroying tsunami. As the real 2012 approaches, pop culture speculation continues to fashion an apocalypse-almost-now out of misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar.

For those of us less prone to anxiety, perhaps 2012 offers an opportunity to begin a new era-- which is actually what the Mayan calendar predicts. We can act to make our own lives and the lives of others in our community healthier and happier. We can act to ensure that politicians and the wealthy lose the insulation which permits them to ride an ark of selfish indifference, ignoring the problems created by corporations plundering both human and environmental resources

Misinterpreting the Mayan Calendar

Our calendar measures time in terms of years, decades and centuries. The basic unit of the ancient Mayan calendar was the 360-day tun, which, like our own 365-day years, is roughly equivalent to one revolution of the earth around the sun. Twenty tuns form a k'atun and twenty k'atuns (or 400 tuns) become a bak'tun. In our calendar, a bak'tun equals roughly 395 years. The ancient Mayan Long Count calendar covers a period of 13 bak'tuns, which will end approximately around the winter solstice of 2012. In Mayan cosmology, an earlier era preceding their calendar lasted for 13 bak'tuns and ended through natural transition rather than through devastation and destruction. They did not predict the end of the world with the passage of 13 bak'tuns, but a turning of an era, similar to our calendar shift from 1999 to 2000.

Is it Doomsday again?

The Mayan calendar and 2012 form the latest hook upon which some people want to hang their doomsday forebodings. Some of the previous occasions are within recent memory. End of the world predictions occur with regularity. Twice in 2011, 90-year old evangelical minister Harold Camping predicted the end of the world based on his own mathematical calculations, first on May 21 then on October 21. Nearly thirty years ago, Pat Robertson told his millions of television viewers that the Second Coming would take place 1982.

Doomsday predictions are not a recent phenomenon. In 1843, a preacher from upstate New York, William Miller, persuaded over 50,000 followers that Christ would return, bringing the end of the world in 1843. Like Harold Camping, Miller had to revise his prediction, with his followers awaiting a re-scheduled end of the world in 1844, leading to what history books term the Great Disappointment. A massive volcanic explosion in Iceland in 1783 covered much of Europe in poisonous clouds causing crop failure and starvation. The natural disaster and subsequent tragedy led some observers of the day to predict the imminent end of the world. Many Christians in Europe spent the night preceding January 1, 1000 in church praying, awaiting the Last Judgment.

Recycling Doomsday emotions

End-time predictions provide a sense of heightened drama which can help people feel their lives are more imbued with meaning as time ticks down to a purported end. Doomsday scenarios also offer a hope of redressing injustices whether through a Last Judgment or through some brave new world forged by a few survivors. The key point to grasp is the emotions which make doomsday scenarios attractive can be harnessed to create positive change. We all have the choice every day to view our lives with a sense of greater meaning without recourse to "the end is nigh" thinking. We all have the option now to participate in social justice movements, or environmental causes, or efforts to re-create the food and health systems which are slowly poisoning huge numbers of people.

Next time you read or hear a prediction that the world is ending, take some time to think of actions you can take to help re-make the world. Don't let yourself be frightened by the scope of the problems -- give yourself permission to take small steps. But don't be afraid to think big and to build alliances with other people to make your actions resonate more loudly. If enough people act, 2012 can be the "end of the world" for corporate greed and exploitation of the environment, the middle class, and the poor.

(Let's remind ourselves to live fully in the moment today between yesterday and tomorrow, breathing deeply and taking time even for a few moments as day for inner contemplation. This to me exemplifies what it means to live in the spirit of the Tao not letting ourselves being swayed by any outer forces that we ourselves have not comprehended and digested in freedom and love...seeking to live in unity with the World All, meaning taking care for one another and becoming more conscious of our inseperable relationship to nature, i.e. our living environment. ed.)

THE TAU CROSS

from "The Secret Teachings Of All Ages" by Manly P. Hall, 1928
http://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/secret_teachings/sta45.htm

There are three distinct forms of the cross.

TAU CROSS... (or TAV)

The first cross closely resembles the modern letter T, consisting of a horizontal bar resting on a vertical column, the two arms being of equal length. An oak tree cut off some feet above the ground and its upper part laid across the lower in this form was the symbol of the Druid god Hu. It is suspected that this symbol originated among the Egyptians from the spread of the horns of a bull or ram (Taurus or Aries) and the vertical line of its face. This is sometimes designated as the hammer cross, because if held by its vertical base it is not unlike a mallet or gavel. In one of the Cabalistic Masonic legends, Hiram Abiff is given a hammer in the form of a TAU by his ancestor, Tubal-cain. The TAU cross is preserved to modern Masonry under the symbol of the T square. This appears to be the oldest form of the cross extant.

The TAU cross was inscribed on the forehead of every person admitted into the Mysteries of Mithras. When a king was initiated into the Egyptian Mysteries, the TAU was placed against his lips. It was tattooed upon the bodies of the candidates in some of the American Indian Mysteries. To the Cabbalist, the TAU stood for heaven and the Pythagorean tetractys. The Caduceus of Hermes was an outgrowth of the TAU cross. (See Albert Pike.)

THE CRUX ANSATA

The second type was that of a T, or TAU, cross surmounted by a circle, often foreshortened to the form of an upright oval. This was called by the ancients the Crux Ansata, or the cross of life . It was the key to the Mysteries of antiquity and it probably gave rise to the more modern story of St. Peter's golden key to heaven. In the Mysteries of Egypt the candidate passed through all forms of actual and imaginary dangers, holding above his head the Crux Ansata, before which the powers of darkness fell back abashed. The student is reminded of the words In hoc signo vinces. The TAU form of the cross is not unlike the seal of Venus, as Richard Payne Knight has noted. He states:

"The cross in this form is sometimes observable on coins, and several of them were found in a temple of Serapis [the Serapeum], demolished at the general destruction of those edifices by the Emperor Theodosius, and were said by the Christian antiquaries of that time to signify the future life."

Augustus Le Plongeon, in his Sacred Mysteries Among the Mayas and Quiches, notes that the Crux Ansata, which he calls The Key to the Nile and the Symbol of Symbols, either in its complete form or as a simple TAU, was to be seen adorning the breasts of statues and bas-reliefs at Palenque, Copan, and throughout Central America. He notes that it was always associated with water; that among the Babylonians it was the emblem of the water gods; among the Scandinavians, of heaven and immortality; and among the Mayas, of rejuvenation and freedom from physical suffering.

Concerning the association of this symbol with the waters of life, Count Goblet d'Alviella, in his Migration of Symbols, calls attention to the fact that an instrument resembling the Crux Ansata and called the Nilometer was used by the ancient Egyptians for measuring and regulating the inundations of the river Nile. It is probable that this relationship to the Nile caused it to be considered the symbol of life, for Egypt depended entirely upon the inundations of this river for the irrigation necessary to insure sufficient crops. In the papyrus scrolls the Crux Ansata is shown issuing from the mouths of Egyptian kings when they pardoned enemies, and it was buried with them to signify the immortality of the soul. It was carried by many of the gods and goddesses and apparently signified their divine benevolence and life-giving power. The Cairo Museum contains a magnificent collection of crosses of many shapes, sizes, and designs, proving that they were a common symbol among the Egyptians.

THE ROMAN AND GREEK CATHOLIC CROSSES

The third form of the cross is the familiar Roman or Greek type, which is closely associated with the crucifixion of Jesus Christ, although it is improbable that the cross used resembled its more familiar modern form. There are unlimited sub-varieties of crosses, differing in the relative proportions of their vertical and horizontal sections. Among the secret orders of different generations we find compounded crosses, such as the triple TAU in the Royal Arch of Freemasonry and the double and triple crosses of both Masonic and Roman Catholic symbolism.

To the Christian the cross has a twofold significance. First, it is the symbol of the death of his Redeemer, through whose martyrdom he feels that he partakes of the glory of God; secondly, it is the symbol of humility, patience, and the burden of life. It is interesting that the cross should be both a symbol of life and a symbol of death. Many nations deeply considered the astronomical aspect of religion, and it is probable that the Persians, Greeks, and Hindus looked upon the cross as a symbol of the equinoxes and the solstices, in the belief that at certain seasons of the year the sun was symbolically crucified upon these imaginary celestial angles.

The fact that so many nations have regarded their Savior as a personification of the sun globe is convincing evidence that the cross must exist as an astronomical element in pagan allegory. Augustus Le Plongeon believed that the veneration for the cross was partly due to the rising of a constellation called the Southern Cross, which immediately preceded the annual rains, and as the natives of those latitudes relied wholly upon these rains to raise their crops, they viewed the cross as an annual promise of the approaching storms, which to them meant life.

There are four basic elements (according to both ancient philosophy and modern science), and the ancients represented them by the four arms of the cross, placing at the end of each arm a mysterious Qabbalistic creature to symbolize the power of one of these elements. Thus, they symbolized the element of earth by a bull; water by a scorpion, a serpent, or an eagle; fire by a lion; and air by a human head surrounded by wings. It is significant that the four letters inscribed upon parchment (some say wood) and fastened to the top of the cross at the time of the crucifixion should be the first letters of four Hebrew words which stand for the four elements: "Iammin, the sea or water; Nour, fire; Rouach, the air; and Iebeschah, the dry earth." (See Morals and Dogma, by Albeit Pike.)

That a cross can be formed by opening or unfolding the surfaces of a cube has caused that symbol to be associated with the earth. Though a cross within a circle has long been regarded as a sign of the planet Earth, it should really be considered as the symbol of the composite element earth, since it is composed of the four triangles of the elements. For thousands of years the cross has been identified with the plan of salvation for humanity. The elements--salt, sulphur, mercury, and Azoth--used in making the Philosopher's Scone in Alchemy, were often symbolized by a cross. The cross of the four cardinal angles also had its secret significance, and Masonic parties of three still go forth to the four cardinal points of the compass in search of the Lost Word.

The material of which the cross was formed was looked upon as being an essential element in its symbolism. Thus, a golden cross symbolized illumination; a silver cross, purification; a cross of base metals, humiliation; a cross of wood, aspiration. The fact that among many nations it was customary to spread the arms in prayer has influenced the symbolism of the cross, which because of its shape, has come to be regarded as emblematic of the human body. The four major divisions of the human structure--bones, muscles, nerves and arteries--are considered to have contributed to the symbolism of the cross. This especially due to the fact that the spinal nerves cross at the base of the spine, and is a reminder that "Our Lord was crucified also in Egypt".

Man has four vehicles of expression by means of which the spiritual Ego contacts the external universe: the physical nature, the vital nature [etheric organism], the emotional nature [astral organism] and the mental nature [ego]. Each of these partakes in principle of one of the primary elements, and the four creatures assigned to them by the Cabalists caused the cross to be symbolic of the compound nature of man.

Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Cultivating the Tao is Education

What Heaven confers is called nature.
Accordance with this nature is called the Way.
Cultivating the Way is called education.
That which is called the Way
cannot be separated from it for an instant.
What can be separated from is not the Way.
Therefore the superior man is cautious
in the place where he is not seen;
And apprehensive in the place where he is not heard.
Nothing is more visible than the hidden;
And nothing is more apparent than the subtle.
Therefore the superior man is cautious when he is alone.

attributed to Confucius' grandson

Becoming Like the Grail ...Through Speech

from Speech of the Grail by Linda Sussman,  from the introduction, 1995... Landisfarne Books

"All these possibilities prompt fruitful contemplation, but the overall impression remains that the physical manifestation of he Grail and its history are not as pertinent as the ability to recognize its significance, to know its mission. The grail can be known only through its activity which, as depicted in the stories [of the Grail] is the nourishing of each person according to his or here needs and capacities. The stories clearly illustrate that one can know the Grail only by becoming like it. (p.1)

If the end of the Grail journey is to become like the Grail, then the crowning achievement is to stand with humble dignity upon the threshold between earthly and spiritual worlds. Like the Grail, human beings who inhabit their speaking are the connection, the common boundary between visible and invisible realms. The grail journey brings Parzival and each seeker to realize that, as Robert Sardello says, 'the new temple of initiation is the world itself'. With that insight the re-sacralization of the earth becomes possible through renewal of the individual and collective understanding of the significance of human speech." (p.11)
(italics my emphasis)

Thursday, December 15, 2011

"Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth" by William Shakespeare

Poor soul, the centre of my sinful earth,
My sinful earth these rebel powers array,
Why dost thou pine within and suffer dearth,
Painting thy outward walls so costly gay?
Why so large cost, having so short a lease,
Dost thou upon thy fading mansion spend?
Shall worms, inheritors of this excess,
Eat up thy charge? Is this thy body's end?
Then soul, live thou upon thy servant's loss,
And let that pine to aggravate thy store;
Buy terms divine in selling hours of dross;
Within be fed, without be rich no more:
So shall thou feed on Death, that feeds on men,
And Death once dead, there's no more dying then.

(I have a special relationship to this poem...
having performed it in Eurythmy with three others
in my graduation of training in the London School 1986).
...with another American, a South African and a Scotsman.

"FIRE" by Michelangelo

Not without fire can any workman mould
The iron to his preconceived design,
Nor can the artist without fire refine
And purify from all its dross the gold;
Nor can revive the phoenix, we are told,
Except by fire. Hence if such death be mine
I hope to rise again with the divine,
Whom death augments, and time cannot make old.
O sweet, sweet death! O fortunate fire that burns
Within me still to renovate my days,
Though I am almost numbered with the dead!
If by its nature unto heaven returns
This element, me, kindled in its blaze,
Will it bear upward when my life is fled.

translated by
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

Wednesday, December 14, 2011

The Healing Social Life

"The healing social life is only found when in the mirror of the human soul the whole community finds it's reflection and when in the community the virtue of each soul is living." ...Motto of the Social Ethic 1920 by Rudolf Steiner"

 This for me is clearly an idea completely in keeping with the Tao. The third principle of the Tao is the striving human being who seeks balance between heaven and earth through virtue.  In the 'Tao Te Ching' the great work by master Lao Tzu, the Chinese word Te in fact means virtue. So one interpretation of the title 'Tao Te Ching' could be... the teachings of virtue in keeping with the Tao.

As in theTao, so in the Grail... I think this is implied as well. The 'path of the Grail', or 'the way' is a gradual path of transformation, transforming one's personal ego into a vessel for the virtuous life of oneself and the community. The key here is the vessel which is the Grail. And the community too becomes a Grail vessel which seeks a rightful freedom-based-ethic in unison with in the cosmic order...or the Tao.

 The community is an extension of the individual and when there is a harmony between individual and community (a mirroring) then there is harmony between heaven and earth as well. The Tao is the Great Oneness that is always a Unity. Oneness means that all elements of creation are in harmonious synchronicity. The unifying Oneness of individual and community (together with heaven and earth) as indicated towards by Steiner in this motto is of course an ideal ...a great way from much that we experience today in the world. It is something that in the long process of spiritual evolution will however be attained by a great part of humanity (together with the Creator Beings)... which genuinely seeks fulfillment in the Tao (ed.)

Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Santa Lucia: Bringer of the Light

The feast day of Saint Lucia is celebrated yearly in various European countries particularly Italy and Sweden on the date of December 13. She is associated with the idea of inner light. In the middle ages, the 13th fell on the shortest day of the year. And in Sweden, the sun is not up very long in winter where in some places it doesn't come up at all. This festival also connotes the fact that the days will now get longer. Here the idea of light naturally means that because of the darkness, Lucia... being the "bearer of light"... brings with her appearance the hope of the inner light preparing the way for the coming Birth on Christmas Day

Lucia was one of the earliest Christian saints to achieve notoriety, having a widespread following before the 5th century. Because of various traditions associating her name with light, she came to be thought of as the patron of sight and was depicted by medieval artists carrying a dish containing her eyes.

According to apocryphal texts, Lucy came from a wealthy Sicilian family in Syracuse, Sicily Italy. Spurning marriage and worldly goods, however, she vowed to remain a virgin in the tradition of St. Agatha. An angry suitor reported her to the local Roman authorities, who sentenced her to be removed to a brothel and forced into prostitution. This order was thwarted, according to legend, by divine intervention; Lucy became immovable and could not be carried away! She was next condemned to death by fire, but she proved impervious to the flames! Finally, her neck was pierced by a sword and she died.in 304 A.D. at the age of 21.

One of the patron saints of virgins, St. Lucia is venerated on her feast day, by a variety of ceremonies. Sweden's Lucia's Day marks the beginning of the Christmas celebration.
The children serve coffee and special saffron bread to the rest of the family. They walk into the bedroom with the oldest daughter in the front, followed by the next tallest girl, down to the smallest. Then the boys follow with the tallest in the front. As they bring in the Lucia bread and coffee the girls sing "Santa Lucia" (in Swedish, of course), and then the boys sing "Stefan was a Stable-boy." The children then go to their neighbors and teachers and serve them the coffee and bread.

In the reproduction here, note the way she is depicted with her red wrap which in a way follows the shape of the cup she holds. She appears in her whole countenance as a Grail figure, a chalice with herself as the sun.

Saint Lucia, by Domenico Beccafumi, 1521 a High Renaissance recasting of a Gothic iconic image 
File:Saint Lucy by Domenico di Pace Beccafumi.jpg

Monday, December 12, 2011

Santa Lucia December 13th

It was during my first visit to Sweden, deep winter of '77 (at 27) that I took a long journey mid-course of a Waldorf teacher training in Detroit , MI....deciding to explore my options of what to do in the coming year. Would I already go on right away to become a Waldorf teacher? ...or should I see if the arts were where i should focus more attention to at least for the present? The later was the case. Arne Klingborg was to become my main spiritual teacher and art mentor during the coming 15 years. I first studied '78-'79 on a course called the "Konstnarliga Linjen" or  'artistic line'. I studied with Klingborg, Fritz Fuchs, Rex Raab and John Wilkes...some of the foremost European 'light bearers' of art out of Anthroposophy in the 20th century. Each of these leading individuals took knowledge of Anthroposophy into the world through artistic/practical work.  These made a deep impression on me during my formative years.

So during that first visit that winter, I stayed in a student house called Tallevana. During one of the deep cold, crystal clear nights there with a heaven above that revealed  every star  imaginable!...I was woken even before the first glimmer of sunrise by something very, very heavenly...sweet music voiced by singing angels! Lo and behold in the absolute darkness, the door to the room opened slowly and in walked 3 or 4 most beautiful maidens and a young lad. They were completely clad in long white dresses. The first maiden bore a wreath of evergreen leaves with maybe 7 lit candles set in them upon her head and a belt of red ribbon and none wore shoes, only white socks. The others had a shiny silver ribbon around their heads. And the boy had a pointy hat upon his head with three stars on it and carried a baton with one star on the end. They bore gifts of freshly made little saffron buns. So who is Lucia?  ....please follow in tomorrow's blog.

Tao and the Grail

Are the Grail and the TAO intimately related? This is for me is a very, very interesting question, one which I often ponder on.  I've become pretty well convinced that they are in essence the same.
The path of the Grail is a process of gradual change...gradalis...meaning a path of gradual, step-by-step inner change or inner transformation towards a more worthy, ethical human being (Steiner in his book "Intuition as a Spiritual Path" would even call this "ethical individualism").  Is this Grail's meaning of  change  then similar or even like-in-essence with the Chinese meaning expressed in the "I Ching"... the"Book of Changes"? I think there are clear similarities.

The key representative of the Grail mystery was, according to Rudolf Steiner's spiritual scientific research in the Akasha, a very real historical person who lived in the 9th century A.D. This representative Parsifal was the reincarnated Mani. (Steiner reveals that much earlier Mani was the leading Initiate of the Sun Oracle on Atlantis). But in this new incarnation Parsifal (in the German...recall Wagner's opera?), Parzival (from the Persian) or Perceval (English) ...as a big step towards developing deep humility before fellow human beings, achieves during in the various stories and legends, the spiritual rank of the new Grail King. He moves along an arduous path towards the Holy Grail from naivety... through doubt... to grace or blessedness, full of compassion and understanding for fellow humanity.

According to Rene Querido's writings in his book entitled "The Mystery of the Holy Grail", 'Parzival means poor fool: one who lives in dullness within his physical surroundings, unrelated to super-sensible reality. Perceval [on the other hand also] means piercing the vale, and by extension refers to one who goes through the dark valley of death in search of the ultimate light." We may see that both of these descriptions can in fact illustrate two characteristics of the same enigmatic figure with whom we can also in fact, if we are indeed honest with ourselves, that for the most part we are all Parzivals at various times along our life journey (or journeys, if we hold reincarnation to be a fact of human destiny) ....whether we are conscious of this or not. We all start out pretty naive to the world (and in some ways many remain in that state)...we all have doubts about life (many about the questions the existence of God, of creation and individual freedom and love of equality and fraternity). And some achieve earlier on, but usually towards the end of life, the stage of grace or blessedness or goodness after a long life of learning through experience.

The Tao on the other hand is, as we often hear, called 'the Way".  The Hong Kong born, now US resident Ph.D. professor and author Kwan-Yuk Claire Sit in her wonderful, fairly recent book (through http://www.steinerbooks.org/) entitled "Lao Tzu and Anthroposophy" puts it this way... "The word Tao [Dao in Chinese] can be used as either a verb or noun. As a verb, it means  to guide or speak. As a noun, it stands for a road, a guide or method, or the eternal Way--something that seems to exist, and yet it is so difficult to grasp that Lao Tzu expounds on it with more than five thousand words."[!] Claire goes on to say in the next paragraph that..."Nam Huai-Jin (b.1918) explains that using the word Tao to mean "speak" is quite recent. He says that this usage was common during the Tung and Sung dynasties (618-1279), but not during Lao Tzu's time around the sixth to fourth centuries B.C.E."  Perhaps this is a further evolving of the Tao towards something intimately closer what it means to be uniquely human and towards a time when not only  "In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was [a] God...but that the Word becomes manifest also  within  the human being?  So is the Word and the Tao of the same essence? Another thought to ponder on and to take up later.

So we can see that the Grail and the Tao have so-to-speak one major common denominator in their meanings of ...a path...a road....to something more humanly worthy...with great virtue.
In fact, within the very title of the great work 'Tao Te Ching' written down by Lao Tzu in which he interprets in his words the wondrous wisdom from spoken traditions descending through millennia from Atlantis... the 'Te' means virtue. And "Ching" means teachings. Again we will dwell on this theme in a later post. (ed.)

Sunday, December 11, 2011

Humanity's Highest Aspiration

"The TAO expresses -- for the greater part of humanity as it has already expressed for milennia-- the highest to which humanity could aspire, and of which humanity thought that the world, the whole of humanity, will one day aspire. It is the highest that the human being carries as a seed, which one day will blossom fully out of innermost human nature. TAO signifies both a deep, hidden fundament of the soul and an exalted future."
Rudolf Steiner, November 16, 1905 (whole lecture as yet untranslated)

..."that is the highest of the arts"

It is something to be able to paint a particular picture, or to carve a statue, and so to make a few objects beautiful, but it is more glorious to carve and paint the very atmosphere and medium through which we look, which morally we can do. To affect the quality of the day, that is the highest of arts. We are tasked to make our lives, even in its details, worthy of the contemplation of our most elevated and critical hour.  Henry David Thoreau, Walden

The Royal Temple

The Tao...in this ancient wisdom which began to awaken within the sleeping consciousness of the Chinese people, having been born in our ancient beginnings on Atlantis, there is embodied the deepest of hidden mysteries. The Tao, however as spiritual 'property' of all of humanity, lives on through the present with each passing moment. TheTao, or The Great Spirit, as the native American Indian called It, flows evermore as water through all dimensions and eons of world existence... in all of nature and within the human being the third principle of the Tao. And as the human individual gradually awakens to the Spirit in all of existence, it can seek, find and hold the balance between heaven and earth. The Tao ...a "dew drop of the Spirit" is the essential God-ness at the core of every human heart ...it evolves within.. Out of a long deep sleep within time and space each free-ing human being when awakening to the Spirit of Unification with the world...with others...follows the path, first more or less unconsciously then gradually more and more consciously on "the way" towards the greatest of all creations ...and what is this greatest of all creations? It is the culminating fulfillment in the far far distance ...beyond time and space... yes, in the duration of eternity, when humanity together with all of God's created beings will have formed in the Spirit of Truth, Beauty and Goodness... the Royal Temple... a mighty harmonious and majestic confluence of All Beingness. If this is even possible to put into words, then this is the 'exulted future' of the Tao of which Steiner speaks. (ed.)

below is a reproduction of a painting of the Seventh Seal of the Book of Revelations or the Apocalypse of Saint John by Arild Rosenkrantz, a collaborating painter with Rudolf Steiner in the building of the First Goetheanum
                   

Friday, December 9, 2011

The Way

"Experience is a riverbed... it's source hidden...forever flowing: It's entrance, the root of the world, The Way moves within it. Draw upon it. It will not run dry."  
Lao Tzu   from the Tao Te Ching

Being One With the Tao

Being one with the Tao is to be at peace,
and to be in conflict with it,
leads to chaos and dysfunction.
Lao Tzu

Thursday, December 8, 2011

The Tao..."...as long as we remain within it..."

"In the Tao itself, as long as we remain within it, we find the concrete reality in which to participate is to be truly human: the real common will and common reason of humanity, alive, and growing like a tree, and branching out, as the situation varies, into ever new beauties and dignities of application. While we speak from within the Tao we can speak of Man having power over himself in a sense truly analogous to an individual's self-control. But the moment we step outside and regard the Tao as mere subjective product, this possibility has disappeared."    C. S Lewis