Musings on the Mercury Transit of 11.11.19 and its Relation to the Foundation Stone
At the last Michaelmas of the 20th century, September 29, 1999, the North Node of the Moon was 11 degrees of Leo in the tropical zodiac. Nearly 75 years earlier, on March 30, 1925, at the death of Rudolf Steiner, the Node was also at 11 degrees Leo, as though it would be the portal through which he carried the deeds of his life into the spiritual world.
What does this say, if anything, about what “11” means? This is not a question about an astrological interpretation of that degree in the zodiac, but an invitation to an imagination on the number itself.
At first glance, “11” seems to suggest the mystery of an individual coming face-to-face with the self, where “1” meets “1”, or one meets oneself in the world (the world and my soul are one great unity). But let us now consider, in the events leading to the Mystery of Golgotha, a betrayal occurs from among the 12 that were called by the Christ in the physical realm as his disciples, leaving only 11 to pass through the “rites” of this New Mystery: the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, the 40 days of teaching, and the Ascension.
After the descent of the flaming tongues on the rushing winds of the Pentecost, Saul of Tarsus is called by the Christ from the spiritual world to join the community of Apostles.
But between Ascension and Pentecost (also known as Whitsunday), there is one who is called not by the Christ in the physical (as were the disciples originally), nor by the Christ from the spiritual world (as was Saul who becomes Paul). This one is called by those who have, at last, recognized the Christ within themselves, and face-to-face with one another, they choose the one who will complete their community, Matthias. As the one who will replace Judas, Matthias is the only Apostle called by his fellow human beings, not by the Christ Being. The capacity of the Apostles to recognize this task that they have been called to, and their worthiness, calls forth a mighty, celestial affirmation in the form of rushing winds and flaming tongues.
This leads me to imagine that one can distinguish between an “11” that is reeling from having endured a betrayal and all that ensued, and the “11” that finds itself capable of taking the next steps out of themselves after Ascension. And this is the relationship of 11 to 11, which is a “before” and “after” relationship that results from moving through initiatory experience. It is a crossing of the threshold, from being called and guided by the spiritual world, to the necessity of activating one’s will to find community with one’s peers.
November 11 in the calendar is the anniversary of Armistice Day, which marks the cessation of fighting in WWI in 1918. It is also the Feast of St. Martin, who recognized that he had the capacity to help another out of his own resources by sharing his cloak with the shivering old man beneath the bridge at Amiens. And this year on November 11, 2019, the planet Mercury will transit across the face of the Sun, an event that only happens about 13 times a century.
Among many things, Mercury is god of communication, who serves as psychopomp, escort of souls across the threshold. In Elizabeth Vreede’s work, he is described as “god of combining intellect” in whose sphere “imaginations become their reality.” So here is the god of communication, an escort, transiting the sun on 11.11, as though in service to the movement across the threshold.
When Rudolf Steiner laid the Foundation Stone of the first Goetheanum, he singled out Mercury as though to witness the deed, noting in the document laid with the stone that this was undertaken while “Mercury, as evening star, stood in the sign of Libra, the balance.” The position of Mercury on September 20, 1913 marked the point of Autumn Equinox for the Sun. But the stone was laid on September 20 ~ Equinox would not occur for another three days. Still, we can imagine that the position of Mercury at the moment the Foundation Stone was laid was not arbitrary or coincidental, it was intentional. But why?
In the “Paradise” of Dante’s “Divine Comedy”, the poet gives a remarkably beautiful description of the point of Equinox, describing how four circles are bound into three crosses when the Sun rises at the Vernal Point, which marks the onset of Spring (the four circles are the horizon, equator, ecliptic and equinoctial colure; the intersection of these circles at the horizon is imagined as forming three crosses):
Through divers portals rises on mankind
he lantern of the world, but from that part
Where the three crosses the four circles bind,
With happiest stars he comes conjunct, to start
His happiest course, and seals and tempers here
This mundane wax most after his own heart.
~Dante’s Paradise, Canto I, lines 37-42
But Rudolf Steiner performed his deed as Autumn approached. Equinox was three days away, and it was Mercury, not the Sun, that was called to witness, to activate the “sunset side” of this point where the four circles bind into three crosses.
As god of communication, Mercury can be imagined as one who was called to witness not the enactment of an ancient ritual, but of its reversal. In the beginning was the Word, but when the Word was written down, it lost its power, as though once it was set in stone it was divested of its creative capacity. In myth and fairy tale, when something is turned to stone, it can represent the end of an old way of being for a season. This deed of laying the Foundation Stone reverses this ritual in that what was set into the earth as stone would only later, borne by fire, become the Word of the Foundation Stone meditation, nine years hence. Mercury, god of communication in whose sphere imaginations become their reality, is called to witness this return (just as he escorts Persephone and Eurydice and all those cast into the underworld).
The stars spoke once to human beings. They grew silent when what they spoke was written down, as though it was set in stone—this was world destiny. Now, it is our turn to speak. Rudolf Steiner demonstrated this great mystery of our speaking to the stars at the Christmas Conference 1923/24, when the Foundation Stone that was laid in 1913 became the foundational words of love poured into the hearts of the spiritual community of humanity which he served. He gave the “Stars spoke once to human beings” verse in December 1922, just a few days before the first Goetheanum was consumed in flames. Then, one year later, with the burned-out foundation of the structure as his backdrop, he spoke the Foundation Stone meditation, reversing the ritual, and freeing the mystery from the stones.
Rudolf Steiner described the laying of the Foundation Stone as an act of sinking the microcosm into the macrocosm. This was a deed undertaken from within the Moon sphere that reached out to the Sun sphere, which passage requires an escort, Mercury. Mercury witnesses the stone as it is laid into earth; and Venus is implied as witness when the Foundation Stone is laid into the heart as the sacred Word. Through the Christmas Conference, the Foundation Stone (witnessed by Mercury) becomes the Stone of Love (witnessed by Venus).
When Mercury transits the Sun on 11.11 in 2019, nearly 100 years after the Christmas Conference, and in anticipation of the fulfillment of that rhythm, it is as though the witness invites us to move from a community of the “11” that lived through “betrayal” to a community that resonates with the “11” that recognizes itself, and one another, as they who would now speak the human mystery to the stars.
It is worth noting here that in classical mythology, Mercury loves the flower nymph Floris, who works in the service of Aurora, Titan Goddess of the Dawn. Her task is to scatter flower petals in the advancing path of the Sun before it rises, so Mercury waits at this sunrise spot to greet and capture her, using a net crafted by Hephaestus to capture those who had betrayed him. We can imagine this is the sunrise spot described in Dante’s “Paradise”, only now, we are in a mode of reversal: Mercury is called not to the sunrise spot, but to the sunset spot, as it were, and rather than seeking to capture his beloved, he waits on whether the beloved will reciprocate his attentions. It is all so very marvelously held by the mysteries of ages! Because now our hearts, like the flowers, can speak, they regain their voices, and theirs is a voice of love.
Rudolf Steiner was born in late February, 1861, a few days after the Feast of Matthias and exactly nine months following the movable feast of Pentecost, which was on May 27, 1860. One can well imagine, then, that Rudolf Steiner is conceived on the rushing winds and the flaming tongues of the Pentecost, which he described as a festival of flowers:
“Whitsun is preeminently a festival of flowers. If human beings have a true feeling for this Festival, then they will go out among the buds and blossoms opening under the influence of the sun, under the etheric and astral influences~and they will perceive in the flower-decked earth the earthly image of what flows together in the picture of Christ’s Ascension, and the descent of the tongues of fire upon the heads of the disciples. The heart of the human being as it opens may be symbolized by the flower opening itself to the sun; and what pours down from the sun, giving the flower the fertilizing power it needs, may be symbolized by the tongues of fire descending upon the heads of the disciples. Anthroposophy can work upon human hearts with the power that streams from an understanding of the festival times and from true contemplation of each festival season.”
The Festivals and Their Meaning, III, The Whitsun Mystery and its Connection with Ascension, May 7, 1923.
In laying the Foundation Stone into the Earth and then laying it as a meditation into human hearts, with Mercury witnessing the former and Venus as though witnessing the latter, Rudolf Steiner invited each of us to make this imagination a reality by facing each other, a spiritual community defined by our shared striving toward a realization of the Christ in our time.
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I have lived with this imagination on the “11” since September of 1999, when I gave my first talk to an anthroposophical group at the Rudolf Steiner House in Ann Arbor. The occasion was the last Michaelmas of the 20th century, and the Moon’s Node occupied the same degree it had at Rudolf Steiner’s death.
This seemed a powerful and auspicious configuration to me, but I was concerned that my insight might be in error, so the night before, while preparing, I prayed that my sharing not be misleading.
At dawn, I was gifted with a message: “After the betrayal there were but 11”, spoken over and over again as I awoke.
It has been 20 years since that morning, and when I shared this experience face-to-face with Tess Parker in Decatur at the Society’s 2019 annual general meeting, the next step in realizing the mystery revealed itself~ that the “11” of the betrayal are not the same as the “11” after the Ascension, and this is the mystery of 11.11.
And this year, Mercury stands there, escort and witness to the Foundation Stone, as though seeking we who would undertake the service of living through the transition.
We found each other in that sublime moment, and I told Tess then as I am sharing this now, it is what passed between us that allowed the mystery to show itself. Otherwise, such insight, which is so necessary to our time, doesn’t come.
Thank you, Tess, for your interest, your question, and your striving.
We have stood on the Foundation Stone and felt it in our hearts, and this waking experience with one another is what we need to face the day.
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Mary’s additional thoughts:
I see the Mercury Transit of 11.11 as the portal through which we will cross into the energies of preparing for the rhythm of the 100th anniversary of the Christmas Conference.
The opportunities to engage are as endless as the imagination, and I recommend, at least!:
● Flowers (since Mercury loves the flower nymph)
● Gathering fresh water on 11.11 while Mercury transits the Sun, for as Rudolf Steiner shares with us, "the deeds of the stars are carried in the waters of the earth."
● November 11 is Feast of St. Martin, so lantern walking out into the night is fitting
● And the Foundation Stone meditation!
Mary Stewart Adams
Star Lore Historian
The Storyteller's Night Sky
Here is a link to an abbreviated blog post on Preparing for Mercury's Transit 11.11.19.