online Holy Nights Journal
“Everything in the cosmos takes its rhythmic course: the stars, as well as the sun, follow a regular rhythm. Would the sun abandon this rhythm even for a moment, an upheaval of untold magnitude would take place in the universe. Rhythm holds sway in the whole of nature, up to the level of the human being. … The rhythm which through the course of the year holds sway in the forces of growth, of propagation and so forth, ceases when we come to the human being. For the human being is to have his roots in freedom … As the light disappears at Christmas-time, so has rhythm … departed from the life of the human being: chaos prevails. But the human being must give birth again to rhythm out of his innermost being, his own initiative. By the exercise of his own will he must so order his life that it flows in rhythm, immutable and sure; his life must take its course with the regularity of the sun. Just as a change of the sun's orbit is inconceivable, it is equally inconceivable that the rhythm of such a life can be broken. The Sun Hero was regarded as the embodiment of this inalterable rhythm; through the power of the higher human being within him, he was able to direct the rhythm of the course of his own life. And this Sun Hero, this higher human being, was born in the Holy Night. In this sense, Christ Jesus is a Sun Hero and was conceived as such in the first centuries of Christendom. Hence the festival of His birth was instituted at the time of the year when, since ancient days, the festival of the birth of the Sun Hero had been celebrated. Hence, too, all that was associated with the history of the life of Christ Jesus; the Mass at midnight celebrated by the early Christians in the depths of caves was in remembrance of the festival of the sun. In this Mass an ocean of light streamed forth at midnight out of the darkness as a remembrance of the rising of the spiritual Sun in the Mysteries. Hence the birth of Christ in the cave — again a remembrance of the cave of rock out of which life was born … As earthly life was born out of the dead stone, so out of the depths was born the Highest — Christ Jesus. Associated with the festival of His nativity was the legend of the three Priest-Sages, the Three Kings. They bring to the Child: gold, the symbol of the outer, wisdom-filled human being; myrrh, the symbol of the victory of life over death; and frankincense the symbol of the cosmic ether in which the Spirit lives.” (Rudolf Steiner in Signs and Symbols of the Christmas Festival, a lecture given by Rudolf Steiner in Berlin on December 17, 1906; The Festivals and Their Meaning / GA 96)
The online Holy Nights Journal is meant to help us to connect with the cosmic rhythm and the yearly rhythm during the time of the holy nights between the Christmas festival and Epiphany. The online Holy Nights Journal can be used as a guide during the 12 days and 13 nights between December 24 and January 06 to practice to live with a consciousness that connects in a meaningful way with the higher truths in the universe and concerning our own life. We are encouraged to turn inward and towards a contemplation of the deeper meaning of our lives and of our own particular and unique biography.
The Sophia Institute Holy Nights Journal has been inspired by several individuals and the work of the late Willi Sucher and William Bento in particular. Sucher and Bento dedicated much of their life’s work to the research into Astrosophy and the wisdom of the stars. Astrosophy concerns itself with the new relationship of the human being to the stars, was pioneered by Willi Sucher and is based on the understanding of the world and humanity as represented in the work of Rudolf Steiner, called Anthroposophy. For more than 65 years, Willi Sucher strove to understand humanity’s new relationships to the stars. His work was inspired by Anthroposophy, which was his lifetime study and path of spiritual development. The “lightning-bolt” that galvanized his intense interest in developing a vision of the human being’s new relationship to the stars was a statement by Rudolf Steiner that the asterogram at one’s death is more significant than a birth chart in understanding the significance of an individual life as it affected that individual’s further evolution. Willi Sucher combined meticulous mathematical calculations and a fully scientific approach with a personal path of meditation and spiritual development to bring a high level of intuition and inspiration to his work. William Bento, PhD had created many different relationships with many clients as a psychologist, a mentor, and one who consulted the workings of the heavens including Astrosophy and anthroposophic psychology which evolved into Psychosophy. William Bento was instrumental and participated in creating Holy Nights Journals for many years. More recently Mary Stewart Adams has been taking up the work with star wisdom, Astrosophy and the Holy Nights, and has led groups working with the Holy Nights under the auspices of the Anthroposophical Society in the United States.
The focus of the 2024/2025 online Holy Nights Journal is the following.
The Gospel of St. Luke Lectures 1 through 4 --- Lectures given by Rudolf Steiner (GA144)
In these lectures on the Luke Gospel, Steiner provides the solution to the riddle of the irreconcilable contradictions in the accounts of the genealogy and childhood of Jesus in Matthew and Luke when he unveils for the first time the secret of the two Jesus children. He also describes the workings of Zarathustra, the relation between the Buddha and Jesus child, and more. The translation of these lectures has been made from shorthand reports unrevised by the lecturer and published as Volume No. 114 in the Complete Centenary Edition of the works of Rudolf Steiner.
Enrollment for the year/year online Holy Nights Journal will begin October 01, 2024. Open enrollment period: October 01, 2024 through December 25, 2024.
You can participate in a group of individuals who are working with the online Holy Nights Journal on a daily basis starting December 24, year and ending January 06, 2025. You will be provided with daily contemplations, tasks and artistic challenges during the time of the twelve days of Christmas and the thirteen Holy Nights. You will be working with the materials provided in a self-directed manner and will be able to share your work online with the group, thereby creating a deep and meaningful community experience.
Each of the Holy Nights begins with the sunset and extends until dawn of the next day. Thus we find the following sequence each year.
December 24: at sunset begins the 1st Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 25)
December 25: at sunset begins the 2nd Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 26)
December 26: at sunset begins the 3rd Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 27)
December 27: at sunset begins the 4th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 28)
December 28: at sunset begins the 5th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 29)
December 29: at sunset begins the 6th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 30)
December 30: at sunset begins the 7th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 31)
December 31: at sunset begins the 8th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 01)
January 01: at sunset begins the 9th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 02)
January 02: at sunset begins the 10th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 03)
January 03: at sunset begins the 11th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 04)
January 04: at sunset begins the 12th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 05)
January 05: at sunset begins the 13th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 06)
Beginning on December 24, we will set up for ourselves a certain practice for each of the Holy Nights. We might select to commence with this practice in the afternoon of the day, or — ideally — around sunset in the evening of the day. This practice includes 4 steps or segments for each of the Holy Nights.
In this way we are engaging in a practice of turning in a contemplative way to the past, present and future, and in doing so move closer to our higher being, to our guiding star and to the deeper meaning of our lives and our personal biography.
The online Holy Nights Journal is meant to help us to connect with the cosmic rhythm and the yearly rhythm during the time of the holy nights between the Christmas festival and Epiphany. The online Holy Nights Journal can be used as a guide during the 12 days and 13 nights between December 24 and January 06 to practice to live with a consciousness that connects in a meaningful way with the higher truths in the universe and concerning our own life. We are encouraged to turn inward and towards a contemplation of the deeper meaning of our lives and of our own particular and unique biography.
The Sophia Institute Holy Nights Journal has been inspired by several individuals and the work of the late Willi Sucher and William Bento in particular. Sucher and Bento dedicated much of their life’s work to the research into Astrosophy and the wisdom of the stars. Astrosophy concerns itself with the new relationship of the human being to the stars, was pioneered by Willi Sucher and is based on the understanding of the world and humanity as represented in the work of Rudolf Steiner, called Anthroposophy. For more than 65 years, Willi Sucher strove to understand humanity’s new relationships to the stars. His work was inspired by Anthroposophy, which was his lifetime study and path of spiritual development. The “lightning-bolt” that galvanized his intense interest in developing a vision of the human being’s new relationship to the stars was a statement by Rudolf Steiner that the asterogram at one’s death is more significant than a birth chart in understanding the significance of an individual life as it affected that individual’s further evolution. Willi Sucher combined meticulous mathematical calculations and a fully scientific approach with a personal path of meditation and spiritual development to bring a high level of intuition and inspiration to his work. William Bento, PhD had created many different relationships with many clients as a psychologist, a mentor, and one who consulted the workings of the heavens including Astrosophy and anthroposophic psychology which evolved into Psychosophy. William Bento was instrumental and participated in creating Holy Nights Journals for many years. More recently Mary Stewart Adams has been taking up the work with star wisdom, Astrosophy and the Holy Nights, and has led groups working with the Holy Nights under the auspices of the Anthroposophical Society in the United States.
The focus of the 2024/2025 online Holy Nights Journal is the following.
The Gospel of St. Luke Lectures 1 through 4 --- Lectures given by Rudolf Steiner (GA144)
In these lectures on the Luke Gospel, Steiner provides the solution to the riddle of the irreconcilable contradictions in the accounts of the genealogy and childhood of Jesus in Matthew and Luke when he unveils for the first time the secret of the two Jesus children. He also describes the workings of Zarathustra, the relation between the Buddha and Jesus child, and more. The translation of these lectures has been made from shorthand reports unrevised by the lecturer and published as Volume No. 114 in the Complete Centenary Edition of the works of Rudolf Steiner.
Enrollment for the year/year online Holy Nights Journal will begin October 01, 2024. Open enrollment period: October 01, 2024 through December 25, 2024.
You can participate in a group of individuals who are working with the online Holy Nights Journal on a daily basis starting December 24, year and ending January 06, 2025. You will be provided with daily contemplations, tasks and artistic challenges during the time of the twelve days of Christmas and the thirteen Holy Nights. You will be working with the materials provided in a self-directed manner and will be able to share your work online with the group, thereby creating a deep and meaningful community experience.
Each of the Holy Nights begins with the sunset and extends until dawn of the next day. Thus we find the following sequence each year.
December 24: at sunset begins the 1st Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 25)
December 25: at sunset begins the 2nd Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 26)
December 26: at sunset begins the 3rd Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 27)
December 27: at sunset begins the 4th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 28)
December 28: at sunset begins the 5th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 29)
December 29: at sunset begins the 6th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 30)
December 30: at sunset begins the 7th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (December 31)
December 31: at sunset begins the 8th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 01)
January 01: at sunset begins the 9th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 02)
January 02: at sunset begins the 10th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 03)
January 03: at sunset begins the 11th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 04)
January 04: at sunset begins the 12th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 05)
January 05: at sunset begins the 13th Holy Night and ends at dawn on the next day (January 06)
Beginning on December 24, we will set up for ourselves a certain practice for each of the Holy Nights. We might select to commence with this practice in the afternoon of the day, or — ideally — around sunset in the evening of the day. This practice includes 4 steps or segments for each of the Holy Nights.
- Contemplation. This contemplation practice should include for example turning to a segment of a lecture by Rudolf Steiner, a story relating to Christmas, poetry, the contemplation of a work of art, etc.
- Threefold review. We turn towards and review the events of our biography, events from our life from the past year, and later during the Holy Nights looking towards the present and then the future and our expectations and intentions for the next year. For each of the Holy Nights we turn to a certain period of time, for instance for the 1st Holy Night we look back at the month of April of the past year; for the 2nd Holy Nights we look back at the month of May of the past year, and so on. As each of the 12 days of Christmas relates to one of the signs of the zodiac, so our review turns to the corresponding period during the past year, the present and finally the coming year. This review should be done in a threefold manner. This threefold review includes our observations of and via the three realms of body, soul and spirit, which will be described in more detail below.
- Artwork. Next we turn towards an artistic activity, drawing, painting, writing poetry, or another artistic medium of choice. We attempt to complete artwork inspired by the previous contemplation and review.
- The realm of the night. The following morning upon waking up we take a short period of time and turn our attention to the realm of the night. We note and write down what came to us from the realm of sleep, our dreams or messages received upon waking up, and the like.
In this way we are engaging in a practice of turning in a contemplative way to the past, present and future, and in doing so move closer to our higher being, to our guiding star and to the deeper meaning of our lives and our personal biography.
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Download sample pages/instructions for the online Holy Nights Journal
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