Michaelmas Celebration E-Book

Christiane Gerges

• Herausgeber: Books on Demand
• Kategorie: Geisteswissenschaft
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 41

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2023

Beschreibung

It describes the Michaelmas Celebration. How to structure it and the content.

Das E-Book Michaelmas Celebration wird angeboten von Books on Demand und wurde mit folgenden Begriffen kategorisiert:
Michaelmas, Mystery cult, Mystery art, Anthroposophy, Michael

Leseprobe

Dedicated to Michael the Guardian, accessible only by thoughts of the heart.

Dedicated to Michael with the Scales, who holds the rhythm of life through death and resurrection.

Dedicated to Michael the Countenance of the Christ, who transforms separation into unification through the Sun-filled powers of the heart.

Structure of this contemplation

This contemplation is structured so that it carries within it the character of the Michaelmas Celebration. In other words, I do not write about the Michaelmas Celebration; rather, this contemplation is intended as a work of art in which form and content correspond.

Every festival includes ritual procedures that transform an everyday encounter into a festival or ritual act. Procedures that recur in a repetitive manner – the locked door before Christmas Eve, the decorated tree, the special meal – these are all ritual procedures. They have a certain order.

Similarly, this Michaelmas Celebration contemplation has a structure that reveals the character of the Michaelmas Celebration in its organization and sequence. For you to comprehend this in full consciousness, I present the structure in seven steps and refer to it throughout the text.

The essay is made up of two intertwining parts: the first part drawing attention to the form of the Michaelmas Celebration while, at the same time, the second part considers the content of the Michaelmas Celebration.

Content Pages

1. Three Stages to the Inner Space

(

a) Who writes this?

(

b) The relationship between us

(

c) Who is in our center?

2. Planetary Spheres

3. Sketch of the Ground Plan

4. Altarpiece of the Elements

5. Invocation of Michael

6. The Being of Michael in the Cycles of Time

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a) Michael as Guardian of the Gate

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b) Michael with the Scales

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c) The Egyptian Michaelmas Celebration

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d) The Dragon-force

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e) Michael as the Countenance of the Christ

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f) Michaelic meditations

7. Completion and Prayer

First Step – Three Stages to the Inner Space

Michael is connected with human consciousness. We come a step closer to him if in reading this text, we not only absorb the information but keep our I-consciousness awake. This happens when we become aware of which consciousness we are identifying with during the activity. It may seem strange to place such weight on this, but the following three stages from (a) to (c) are important as they clarify how to build an inner space in which only beings who love consciousness may appear. These three stages allow us to depart from the everyday world into a festival mood.

(a) Who writes this?

First of all, it should be clarified who the author of this contemplation – i.e. me, the author – writes as. Every author writes out of something different: out of their upbringing, out of their ideas and desires, or perhaps because he or she has journalistic training and "know-how". We all know people who can totally change, for example, when they pretend to be a private person after work or when they have to make decisions while dressed in a suit as a board-member of a company. Within one and the same person, different thought-forms and different soul-moods occur.

In writing this, I therefore make an effort to hold a relationship with Michael, and I make an effort to write from that higher consciousness. That is, to write down thoughts that I have formed in relation to Michael on this subject, "The Michaelmas Celebration".

(b) The relationship between us

What is the relationship between us: between you, the reader and me, the writer?

You have purchased this text and wish to read something that will illuminate the Michaelmas Celebration for you. You, the reader, are in a receptive attitude toward me. I am making an effort to write words that can illuminate the being of Michael. I am engaged in a word-forming activity for you.

Thus, as you read this, we are forming a shared soul-space together.

(c) Who is in our center?

This text is not meant to be informative but transformative. I want to consider something that can make the outer world, which we are going to look at, light up in you as spirit-borne, and I want to consider something that reveals the inner world of soul-experience.

This is what Rudolf Steiner refers to in Anthroposophical Leading Thoughts as the Christ-Michael language which comes to resound between us.1

He describes the Michael-language as that which makes the outer world light up as spirit-borne, and for this I am responsible as the writer.