Northeast Florida's Anthroposophical Study Group
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SOPHIA CIRCLE
anthroposophy (noun)
[an-thro-POS-o-phy] The art and science of becoming more fully human
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THE SOPHIA CIRCLE MEETING GROUPS & EVENTS
Sophia Zoom Circle
The Sophia Circle Book Club meets every Monday from 8-9 pm EST to discuss various readings from spiritual literature.
The Zoom link is:
Zoom for Sophia Circle Book Study
There are two sections to our Book Club. We study different books on alternate Mondays.
Section One:
THE REAPPEARANCE OF CHRIST IN THE ETHERIC: We are about to begin the last chapter of this book, another year-long study following the previous year-long examination of Steiner's THE GOSPEL OF ST. JOHN. The message is that Christ is here but you have to develop the organs of perception to see the Spiritual Worlds. The study of Anthroposophy leads to developing such organs. Christ will never again appear in physical form, but will become ever more present and visible in the ether. Steiner discusses how our blood etherizes as it rises from the heart to the head, surrounding the pineal gland with a glistening misty aura. This is where Christ's etheric body, which entered earth's etheric body when His wounds shed blood into the earth on Golgotha, mixes with our developing awareness of the etheric realm. Our senses of love and compassion and forgiveness and understanding grow. Chapter 10, 11, and 12 are about Spirit Beings, how to understand the spirit world in terms of actual beings, and how to reckon with the ever-present contrary forces, ie contrary beings. Chapter 13, the last one, is "The Three Realms between Death and Rebirth."
Our next book, which we may start to read by June, is THREEFOLD MARY by Emil Brock.
Section Two:
THE FAIRY TALE OF THE GREEN SNAKE AND BEAUTIFUL LILY by Goethe, translated by Thomas Carlyle. - we begin to read this on May 1st.
We have just completed Steiner's KARMIC RELATIONSHIPS. During the last year of his life, 1924, Steiner gave over 80 lectures on Karmic Relationship in many cities across Europe. We began studying Volume Two, Lecture 6, Karma in Human Life. Steiner explains that we incarnate in "waves" of karmically-connected souls who experience their lives together over incarnations; and that such human beings dwell within one another in the time between death and a new birth, thus setting up certain conditions for the next incarnations. He talks about the Sun (Present) , Moon (Future), and Saturn (Past) impulses. In Lecture 7, he describes a three-day event in which the astral body gives shape to a picture of something experienced during the day and then the etheric elaborates that picture, spiritualizing and transforming it. Lecture 8 amused us with some arbitrary and specific examples of the influences of a human's anatomy from one incarnation into the next, such as bow-legs or knock-knees stemming from a person previously disinterested in spiritual matters. He mentions Aristotle's Physiognomy. "Those who ascend very high (spiritually) will eat in order to live; those who do not rise so high will live in order to eat." He talks about the three systems: Head, Rhythmic, and Metabolic. Lecture 9 introduces the Moon Beings and concludes the section about Karma in Human Life.
For more information about joining, please email Barbara Braathen at sophiacircleflorida@gmail.com
Previously we studied PATH TO AN UNDERSTANDING OF THE FOUNDATION STONE MEDITATION by Ernst Katz and Rene Querida. The Foundation Stone Meditation was given by Steiner in 1923. As described by Daisy Aldan: "The meditation is mantric, that is, a spiritual revelation in which sound, form and rhythm integrate with the esoteric meaning which lies in layers of evocative multiplicity." There are four parts, with various and complex internal structures, mirrors, and directions from which to study the willing-feeling-thinking human in relation to the spiritual world.
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Talk by Dr. Karin Cseak
The Elemental Ceremony was blessed with a talk by Dr. Karin Cseak, a Sophia Circle member and Anthroposophical Physican from Ohio. Dr. Karin was visiting Jacksonville for the first time, and we want her to come down more often, and perhaps offer some medical consultation in our area. There are very few Anthroposophical Physicians in America: Florida has none, California and New York each have seven, Ohio has one, many states have none. Dr. Karin discussed how Anthroposophic Medicine is closely tied to the elementals, and is administered in relation to the movements of the earth, sun, moon, planets, and stars. It is an extremely effective approach to good health. Thank you so much, Dr. Karin!!
News
We in Jax were delighted to meet in person our Sophia Sister from Durham NC, Ruth Upton, when she passed through to visit her sister in Melbourne. Great to meet you, Ruth!! And please come again.
Calendar of the Soul
Saturday mornings from 7:45-8 am EST we meet to read and contemplate Rudolf Steiner's "Calendar of the Soul." Here is the Zoom link:
This book, available in many translations, consists of 52 weekly readings which follow the seasons, beginning in Spring through Summer, Fall, and Winter. The readings trace the changing relationship, throughout the year, between our personal soul and those of the earth and cosmos. We have been enthralled to study how the wider cosmos plants seeds within us and we radiate back to the divine realms in a constant exchange.
We began our group in 2021 at Week 1, Easter week, and at Easter 2022 completed our first year of readings. The year's trajectory goes like this: In the spring, our senses activate to witness the magnificence of nature's resurrection, awakening, greening, and growing. Summer brings the complete effulgence of the beauty of the fruits of nature, and we are rapt in that vision of divine creation as the earthly banquet spreads out before us. In Autumn, the days begin to shorten, and our senses turn inward to the seeding and ripening of our own soul, nourished by infinite spirit. In the Winter, the Soul lives within, engages Cosmos, and Rests in the Burning Fire, gestating as a Seed for birth in the Spring.
Barbara Braathen Guest Speaker
The leader of our Sophia Circle,, Barbara Braathen was interviewed for Martin Bensen's podcast "Concerning the Spiritual in Art." See it below!!
Annual Meeting of the Anthroposophical Society in America
The Sophia Circle participated as a presenter in the annual meeting of the Anthroposophical Society of America in Washington DC on October 8-9, 2022. The theme for 2022 was "Enkindling Connections."
There were three online gatherings beforehand. First, on September 29, there was a presentation from the Goetheneum, the central headquarters of the General Anthroposophical Society in Dornach, Switzerland, including a tour of the building designed by Rudolf Steiner.
Second, on October 2nd, there were presentations by The House of Peace in Ipswich Massachusettes and by our Sophia Circle; We held a 25-minute presentation of music, art, words, and movement discussing the Divine Sophia, her children the Elementals, and her relationship to Christ in the etheric.
On October 4, presentations were made by chapters in Maine, Alabama, and Georgia.
For more information, contact Barbara at sophiacircleflorida@gmail.com
More about Sophia Circle
Anthroposophy, as the field of spiritual science, was described by Rudolf Steiner as "a path of knowledge to guide the spiritual in the human being to the spiritual in the universe."
As we move through our lives, and in the world, we seek to understand each other and ourselves to find both harmony and freedom.
To understand others, we must develop a true interest in them and the world, and find an appreciation for the individual value of each person.
Sophia Circle seeks to engage with others in ways that bridge the gaps of understanding and acceptance that leave so many feeling alone and polarized.
We welcome you to follow us on social media, join one of our meetings or reach out via email to sophiacircleflorida@gmail.com
