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The Rudolf Steiner Archive

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Search results 161 through 170 of 631

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54. Easter 12 Apr 1906, Berlin
Translator Unknown

It is said he falls into a sleep at the time of the year when we celebrate Christmas, to awake again at Easter. Those calling themselves his servants celebrate the entire intervening time in a most significant manner: they abstain from certain foods and drinks, and also meat. In that way they prepare themselves for gaining an understanding of the meaning involved when, at the Vishnu-festival, the resurrection is celebrated,—the awakening of entire Nature. The Christmas festival also has a significant relation to great natural phenomena—the power of the Sun becomes weaker, days shorter, and also that the Sun radiates more heat from Christmas onwards, so that Christmas becomes the festival of the reborn Sun.
With these characteristics only in your mind, the two festivals Christmas and Easter seem rather similar, for the Sun has gained more power since its own festival of resurrection—the Christmas festival; therefore something more should be expressed by Easter.
162. The Tree of Life and the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil: Tree of Life I 24 Jul 1915, Dornach
Translator Unknown

The first is what took place as purely objective fact: in short, what happened as the entry of the Cosmic Being ‘Christus’ in the sphere of earthly evolution. It would be-hypothetically possible, one might say, it would be conceivable, for the Mystery of Golgotha, that is, the entry of the Impulse of Christ into earthly evolution, to have been enacted without any of the men on earth having understood or perhaps even known what had taken place there.
1. See ‘The Christmas Thought and the Mystery of the Ego. The Tree of the Cross and the Golden Legend’—Rudolf Steiner.
259. The Fateful Year of 1923: Assembly of Delegates of the Anthroposophical Society in Switzerland 08 Dec 1923, Dornach

in view of the imminent founding of the International Anthroposophical Society at Christmas (following Rudolf Steiner's evening lecture) Minutes taken by Helene Finckh Albert Steffen greets Dr.
The reasons for the formation of a new Swiss company will then become clear. But in any case, the time before Christmas is too short to organize everything. Miss...? says that if every delegate here reports back home, then at Christmas the delegates can also report on how the branch views this question.
So formally everything would be in order for the Christmas Conference, and the suggestion that Mr. Knopfli first made can certainly be made at the Christmas Conference.
54. Easter 12 Apr 1906, Berlin

One said, he falls asleep at the time of the year when we celebrate Christmas and awakes at the moment of the Easter festival. Who call themselves his servants celebrate this whole time in a significant way: they abstain from certain dishes, beverages, and meat. Thus, they prepare themselves to get an understanding of that which takes place when at the Vishnu festival the resurrection is celebrated, the arousal of the whole nature. Also Christmas builds in a significant way on big physical facts, on the fact that the strength of the sun becomes weaker and weaker, that the days become shorter and shorter and that from Christmas on the sun emits bigger heat again, so that Christmas is a festival of the reborn sun.
Thus, one can connect the Easter festival with the sign of the Aries or Lamb, and considers this festival, therefore, as the resurrection festival of the saviour because the saviour causes everything to a new life, after it has died in the winter months. With it, Christmas and Easter do not separate so distinctly, because the sun gains strength again since the own resurrection festival, Christmas.
Easter and the Awakening to Cosmic Thought 12 Apr 1907, Berlin
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond

A particular festival was therefore dedicated to Vishnu It was said that he goes to sleep at the time of the year when we celebrate Christmas and wakes at the time of our Easter Festival. Those who adhere to this Eastern teaching celebrate the days of their Festival in a characteristic way.
The days leading up to this point of time become progressively shorter and the Sun's power steadily weakens. But from Christmas onwards greater and greater warmth again streams from the Sun. Christmas is the Festival of the reborn Sun.
It is precisely at this time that we celebrate our Christmas Festival. When the Easter Festival is celebrated the Sun is continuing its ascent which had been in process since the Christmas Festival.
262. Correspondence with Marie Steiner 1901–1925: 174. Letter to Marie Steiner in Berlin 01 Dec 1923, Dornach

We are expecting a fantastic number of people here for Christmas. And it seems almost impossible to accommodate everyone. I would now ask you whether you would allow female guests to use the new eurythmy room in the Brodbeck House.
Because I place the last hopes for society, so to speak, on the Christmas gathering. And it should not be just Meyer who has the auditorium. Now I have to go to the dress rehearsal of the performance you ordered for tomorrow.
If you would like to send me the provisional programs for the Christmas performances, I will prepare everything. I look forward to seeing you. I think I have written everything necessary and just add the warmest greetings.
343. Lectures on Christian Religious Work II: Eighteenth Lecture 05 Oct 1921, Dornach

Thus we have fixed the Christmas festival quite according to earthly conditions. Even in its fixing lies the fact that the human being who experiences the Christmas season in the right way, I would like to say, feels connected in warm fervor with that which the earth can give out of its own strength.
It is the inner substantiality of the earth to which we appeal when we set the Christmas festival in the season in which the sun most strongly withdraws its power from the earth. In a sense, we turn completely to the center of the earth by setting the Christmas season; in a sense, we are alone with the earth and its substantial existence; we are expelled from our heavenly context, but we see that we have given from this loneliness of the earth into the earth itself when we set the Christmas season on the calendar.
In a certain sense, we relate to earth and heaven in a different way at Easter than at Christmas, and it is a significant, profound immersion in the course of time when one becomes aware of what it means to set Christmas as an earthly festival and to set Easter as a heavenly festival.
240. Karmic Relationships VI: Lecture III 06 Feb 1924, Stuttgart
Translated by Dorothy S. Osmond, E. H. Goddard, Mildred Kirkcaldy

It will become a reality only by virtue of what happens through its impulse in the life of the Anthroposophical Society. The Christmas Meeting becomes a reality only through its consequences and effects. A certain responsibility in the soul is involved merely when attention is directed to the Christmas Meeting—the responsibility to make it a reality; otherwise as a foundation it will withdraw from earthly existence and go the same way as the Moon Beings of which I have spoken to-day. In a certain sense the impulse of the Christmas Foundation Meeting was actually in the world. Whether it will become effective in life depends upon whether its impulse continues.
Kolisko, on the occasion of my first visit here since the Christmas Meeting. I should like to respond with equal warmth so that we may work together in the spirit of the Christmas Meeting in such a way that the impulse then given may never cease to be active among anthroposophists who genuinely strive to understand what anthroposophical life means.
37. Writings on the History of the Anthroposophical Movement and Society 1902–1925: The School of Spiritual Science XI 27 Apr 1924,

In a eurythmy performance for the members of the Anthroposophical Society, we wanted to show how the impulses that were present at the Christmas Conference at the Goetheanum can develop with a certain inevitability. The new impulse that entered anthroposophical work at this conference must also assert itself by not only bringing what has arisen in the moment to life in our events, but also by allowing what has been worked on earlier to develop further in subsequent events. The verses with which the spiritual foundation stone was laid in the hearts of the members of the Anthroposophical Society at the Christmas Conference were presented again at this Easter Conference in a eurythmic art performance. In connection with them, Albert Steffen's spirit-filled, soul-warm poems were eurythmized, which cast a consecratory mood over this conference.
We had such an Austrian celebration, into which our Christmas conference, which is so meaningful for society, resonated fully. Despite the difficulties that arise for many members due to the current situation, our Easter conference was well attended.
351. Nine Lectures on Bees: Lecture IX 22 Dec 1923, Dornach
Translated by Marna Pease, Carl Alexander Meir

This fir branch from which the Christmas tree is made should become for us a symbol of love. It is commonly thought that the Christmas tree is a very old custom, but the fir-tree has only been so used for 150 to 200 years. In earlier times this custom did not exist, but another plant was made use of at Christmas time. When the Christmas plays, for example, were performed in the villages, even in the 15th and 16th Centuries, there was always a man who went round to announce them who carried a kind of Christmas tree in his hand.
These men of olden times watched the birds on the juniper trees with the same love with which we look at the little cakes and gifts on the Christmas tree. To them the juniper tree was a kind of Christmas tree which they carried into their houses; the juniper became a kind of Christmas tree.

Results 161 through 170 of 631

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