Announcements
2008 Pilgrimage to India, the Land of the Seven Holy Rishis, offers you an experience of a lifetime, exploring the spiritual streams born in the land of Mother India, participating in sacred dance and song, visiting holy sites sacred to different world religions, and meeting with spiritual leaders of various traditions. Inspired by the "Rose of the World", the full itinerary is described in a full color brochure, along with registration information. The brochure, an optional extension to the trip, and a map with the route marked out, may be viewed and downloaded by clicking below: Brochure with full program
Optional Extension to Pilgrimage to India
Map of India with Pilgrimage Route
Hunab Ku and the Year 2012: Retreat at Ancient Mayan Site of Tulum, Mexico
To the Mayans Hunab Ku was the supreme God, the Creator of the Universe. Some fifteen hundred years ago ancient Mayan astronomers predicted an alignment of the Earth, the Sun, and the center of our Galaxy taking place at the end of the present cycle of the Mayan Long Calendar on December 21, 2012. This day, according to the Mayans, signifies the end of a cycle and simultaneously the beginning of a new cycle for humanity.
Starting on the day of the Full Moon - Sunday, April 20, 2008 - we shall gather for a week at the ancient Mayan site of Tulum on the Caribbean coast of the Yucatan peninsula to explore the mystery of Hunab Ku and the year 2012. During the week there will be some free time to explore Tulum and visit sacred sites there and in the areas, including a one day excursion to the magnificent Mayan site Chichen Itza.
From April 20, 2008 to the winter solstice, December 21, 2012, is a period of four years and eight months, which is not long in terms of preparing ourselves for the changes taking place as we approach the great shift in consciousness predicted by the Mayans.
Invitation brochure with color photos
Registration and accommodation information
Full program and schedule
Pluto and the Galactic Center
On July 17 and October 27, 2007 Pluto is in conjunction with the galactic center. (This conjunction also occurred on Dec. 30, 2006.) What does this conjunction signify? Click on the Articles page of our website for two articles which answer this question: Pluto and the Galactic Center by Robert Powell, and Pluto-Phanes and Pluto-Hades by Krista Koesters and Robert Powell.
Sophia Grail Circle Study Material
Sophia Grail Circle study material is now available in booklet format upon request, with a donation of $12 each. Click here for a request form.
- Consecration to the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sophia & Consecration to the Sacred Heart of Jesus Christ
- The Foundation Stone Meditation in the Sacred Dance of Eurythmy
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Morning Meditation in Eurythmy: Four steps of Realization of the Words "Not I, but Christ in Me"
- The Prayer Sequence in Sacred Dance
Reprint of Cosmic Dances of the Zodiac is now available!
In 2006, Cosmic Dances of the Planets became available. Meanwhile we sold out of Cosmic Dances of the Zodiac and have been working on a second edition. This edition is now available in the same format as the Planets book. While substantially the same as the first edition, a few corrections have been made and two tables have been added at the end of the book: "Planetary Rulers of the Decans and Zodiacal Signs" and "Correspondences to the Twelve Signs of the Zodiac." Both books may now be ordered in our bookstore.New Publications
The History of the Zodiac, Robert Powell's Ph.D. is in print and now available in our bookstore in both paperback and hardback editions. Click here. The zodiac was first clearly defined by the Babylonians some 2,500 years ago, but until recently the basis of this original definition remained unknown. This zodiac of the Babylonians, known as the sidereal zodiac because it is specified in direct relation to the stars (Latin sidera, 'stars'), was used for centuries throughout the ancient world, all the way to India, and must be distinguished from the tropical zodiac in widespread use by astrologers in the West today, which was introduced into astroglogy in the middle of the 2nd century A.D. by the Greek astronomer Claudius Ptolemy. Such was Ptolemy's influence, however, that the tropical zodiac gained prominence and, except for its survival in a variant form in India, knowledge of the sidereal zodiac was lost.
In this penetrating study of the history of the zodiac, the sidereal zodiac is restored to its rightful place as the original zodiac, traced back to the Babylonians in the 5th century B.C. The implications of this rediscovery of the original zodiac are immense, the key point being that the signs of the sidereal zodiac, each thirty degrees long, coincide closely with the twelve astronomical constellations of the same name, whereas the signs of the tropical zodiac, since they are defined in relation to the vernal point, now have no direct relationship to the corresponding zodiacal constellations, owing to the precession of the equinoxes.
This carefully researched history of the zodiac includes chapters on the Egyptian decans and the Hindu nakshatras, showing how these sidereal divisions, which originated in Egypt and India, are related to the original Babylonian zodiac. By illuminating the history of the tropical zodiac in widespread use at the present time, light is also shed on the controversy surrounding the 'zodiac question' (tropical vs. sidereal), showing that originally the tropical division was not a zodiac at all, but a calendar for describing the course of the seasons. This book, the fruit of thirty years of research, is intended not only for scholars but for general readers as well, and offers the clearest and most comprehensive study of the history of the zodiac yet published.
The Christian Star Calendar 2007 by Robert Powell, with monthly ephemerides by Peter Treadgold, computed using his Astrofire program. The ephemerides list the daily positions of the planets geocentrically and heliocentrically in the sidereal zodiac. Robert provides a commentary on the astronomical events for each month against the background of similar events in the life of Christ - in the spirit of continuing in our time the Cosmic Christianity of the three magi who beheld the star of Bethlehem and came to pay homage to Jesus. A new feature is the inclusion at the beginning of each month of an astronomical overview to assist one in keeping track of the visibility of the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. In addition to the monthly commentaries and ephemerides, there are a number of interesting articles:
The Rose of the World
Pluto and the Galactic Center
Robert Powell
Civilization's Critical Rite of Passage
William Bento
The Only Time Steiner Met Nietzsche
David Tresemer
The Reign of the Antichrist, the Unlawful Prince of the World
Wain Farrants
Planating by the Moon
Lacquanna Paul and Robert Powell
The Sophia Foundation of North America was founded and exists to help usher in the new Age of Sophia and the corresponding Sophianic culture, the Rose of the World, prophesied by Daniel Andreev and other spiritual teachers. Part of the work of the Sophia Foundation is the cultivation of a new star wisdom, Astro-Sophia (astrosophy), now arising in our time in response to the descent of Sophia, who is the bearer of Divine Wisdom just as Christ (the Logos or the Lamb) is the bearer of Divine Love. Like the star wisdom of antiquity, astrosophy is sidereal, which means "of the stars". Astrosophy, inspired by Divine Sophia descending from stellar heights, directs our consciousness to the glory and majesty of the starry heavens, to encompass the entire celestial sphere of our cosmos and, beyond this, to the galactic realm -- the realm referred to by Daniel Andreev as "the heights of our universe" -- from which Sophia has descended on her path of approach into our cosmos. Sophia draws our attention not only to the star mysteries of the heights but also to the cosmic mysteries connected with Christ's deeds of redemption wrought two thousand years ago. To penetrate these mysteries is the purpose of the yearly Christian Star Calendar.
The Christian Star Calendar 2007 may be ordered from our website bookstore.
A New Book from the Western Shores
We have the Christian esoteric or Anthroposophical works of Rudolf Steiner and Valentin Tomberg which provide us with the spiritual background of the earth and mankind's development, knowledge of the invisible spheres (etheric, astral, spiritual) -- seen in conjunction with that upon which the very meaning of the earth depends: the incarnation of Jesus Christ. We have the beautiful and profoundly moving accounts of Anne Catherine Emmerich of events described in the Gospels and the Bible; through her we may inwardly approach the humanity of the Son of Man and the humanity of the Blessed Virgin. And through the work Meditations on the Tarot we have a foundation for Christian Hermeticism which allows us to see Christian truths in wider and deeper contexts such that esoteric and exoteric elements may live harmoniously within Christianity.
Yet Steiner and Tomberg's Christian esotericism, Anne Catherine Emmerich and the work Meditations on the Tarot (subtitled: A Journey into Christian Hermeticism) live parallel lives.
Anthroposophists read Rudolf Steiner avidly. Certain segments of the Catholic Church are awake to what has been given to the world by Emmerich; other segments are aware of and perhaps even work with Meditations on the Tarot. At the Sophia Foundation all of these authors are studied with reverence and this has had far-reaching though not always noticeable effects. Yet much still remains to be done if the style and qualities inhering in these authors are to weave together as themes in a musical symphony, and if the research being done is to permeate the wider spheres of Christianity and academia.
How can we discover higher syntheses between Steiner and Emmerich or between Tomberg's Christian esotericism and the work Meditations on the Tarot?
At the Western Shores our premise is that there is one and only one source from which a genuine and dynamic higher synthesis between the works of these authors may arise engendering ever new depths and true insights-- and this is the awareness of Christ Jesus' presence in the etheric, where at the very borders of the etheric and physical worlds the Risen One accompanied by the Blessed Virgin suffers for all human beings and for the nature of our maternal earth. His invisible Second Coming is that and that alone which allows us to grasp Steiner, Tomberg, Emmerich and the work Meditations on the Tarot not only as independent impulses but as currents within a living organism, as themes of the Holy Grail.
If this can be understood within the Anthroposophical movement, within the traditional church then the research which has already been done (for instance by Robert Powell) and that bubbling forth today may then percolate, awaken and enthuse human beings so we may better withstand shadows cast by the fast approaching Ahrimanic incarnation.
Our new book: the Western Shores / Christian Hermeticism vol. I is now available. This is an attempt to weave the above-mentioned authors around the pivot upon which esotericism, Hermeticism, Christianity, and indeed humanity and nature herself turn: the Second Coming of Jesus Christ in the etheric. It is a book of biblical research which we hope can be grasped by Anthroposophists, by open-minded Catholics and Christians, and in so far as this is possible by ordinary men and women of goodwill.
Dafydd Griffiths and Keith Harris
The book may now be ordered from the Sophia Foundation website bookstore for $38. Click here.
