Table of Contents

• Building a Commonweal Society for people and planet
• Four-Day Karma Exercise Research Group
• STARS 2026-by Fatima Godinho
• About Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai
• Washing of the feet
• Fieldfare CSA Garden

Building a Commonweal Society for people and planet

Talk and Workshop with Martin Large

Talk by Martin Large on Commonweal on Friday, 13th  March,
7.30 to 9.15 p.m., Newton Dee, Phoenix Hall

Workshop; Saturday, 14^th March. Newton Dee
Phoenix Centre Cresset Room Aberdeen
9.30-12.30
1.30- 4pm

This workshop invites participants to re-imagine and explore a commonweal society for people and planet, our shared cultural, social and economic commonwealth.

Martin Large draws on Rudolf Steiner’s insights in a threefold social order, how to create healthy conditions for government, business and cultural organisations to work to their strengths.
Participants are invited to bring their burning questions, reflection and share their experiences.
How can we see and consider doing things differently?

The workshop will be useful to anyone interested in analysing the current societal crisis, in exploring the emerging regenerative society and considering practical steps. It will also be relevant to those charting their organisation’s course in a changing political, cultural and economic context.

• Program
• 9.15 Drinks/Welcome
• 9.30. Introduction to the Workshop Threefold Society overview Movement and threefolding
• Listening-Archetypal Social Phenomena
• 11.00 Break
• 11.15-12.30 :Characterising the Cultural, Economic and Rights Realms; Healthy and Unhealthy Boundaries
• 12.30-1.30  Lunch (Please provide your own)
• 1.30-4pm Practical applications e.g. housing/Individual reflection/ questions/projects/inquiry arising.
• I

Inquiries : richard.keys255@btinternet.com

Four-Day Karma Exercise Research Group

Report: Meeting December 28^th 2025

Next Meeting: 21^st March 2026.

Over the past Holy Nights, participants who had undertaken to undertake the Four-Day karma exercise monthly over 2025 had the chance to come together and harvest a year of their experiences with the exercise.

A combination of individual reflection and artistic representation led into one one-on-one conversations and whole group sharing. Emergent themes included: the need to persist with the exercise over long periods of time ( Steiner mentions 70-90 repetitions!); questions around working with a partner or group on a topic; how helpful drawing can be; questions around the rhythm of sleep and how this affects results and what a helpful rhythm would be going forward?

As a result of our lively and open meeting, we would like to invite others who are interested in this and/or other karma exercises to join the group and the next meeting, which will be held on 21^st March 2026.

As a research group we are keen to foster openness of enquiry rather than rigidity, so feel free to ask any questions you have and for further information reach out by using the sites contact link below.

Details of the exercise can be found here on our website as well.

• Karma Exercise
• Working with the 7 Life Processes and the 4 Day Karma Exercise

STARS 2026-by Fatima Godinho

Planetary movements during the Holy Nights:       [Asc 10 Virgo, MC 13 Gemini sid]

 New Year picture and what is in preparation:

Mercury, Venus and Mars progressively gather around the Sun until at Epiphany Venus and Mars meet in superior conjunction, between the Sun and the Stars! 
And later in the month they are joined by Mercury. [18-25th]

 This event resets the visibility of the three planets: when the conjunction breaks up later in the month Venus and Mercury change from morning stars to evening stars, while Mars shifts from evening to morning planet.

Throughout Advent they were preparing this beautiful dance by passing what may be called the most charged area of the zodiac, the area around Lesath, the star that marks the sting of Scorpio and the death into materialism, and the tip of the Archer’s arrow which aims at the heart of the galaxy and our goal of becoming truly human and reconnecting with the divine. Throughout December they did this in succession: first Mars on the 8th/14, then the Sun on 16/21[solstice] , then Venus on 20/24[Christmas eve] and lastly Mercury on Dec 30/Jan 1. And at the same time  they passed Lesath they squared Saturn and when they passed the tip of the arrow they squared Neptune, so already calling attention to the preparation that our soul forces [Mercury, Venus and Mars] need to do in order to meet at the end of February this powerful conjunction of Saturn and Neptune, which will be the first major aspect of the year!
When Mercury and Venus appear as morning stars they are making their way outwards towards the stars, and when they appear in the evening sky they are returning once more towards the earth. When they are in superior conjunction they are the most open to the starry worlds and their wisdom. And when they come back from that meeting with the stars, towards the earth in their evening appearances they bring us the gifts, influences and impulses they gathered from the widths of the starry world.

In this meeting of Venus and Mars we can see hope and the potential for the harmonious working of heart forces and will forces for the needs of humanity and the earth in our challenging times. But, of course, for this to happen attention must be paid towards the transformation of the Mars forces from aggression to good will, with the help of the Buddha working in our time from the Mars sphere [and before that he had already been sent by Christ to work in the Venus sphere]. And the Venus sphere is the one that carries the new Christian mysteries and is working towards helping human beings develop “the new Christic Self” [Hilton]. So there is the potential here for a strengthening of the esoteric Christian stream. [recommend reading again the excellent article by J. Hilton that was circulated earlier].   

This beautiful dance of Venus, Sun, Mars and Mercury continues throughout January and in the last week of January they all pass Pluto : Venus Jan 20, Mercury Jan 23, Sun Jan 24 and Mars Jan 28.

Jupiter dominates the night sky [still visible in the beg July but setting already at 22:30, then gradually lost in the Sun’s glare] and is in a very special position: in the middle of Gemini, close to Castor and Pollux, the mortal and immortal twins. The 12 Moods verse for Jupiter in the Twins says: “Towards a blessed knowing of worlds”…
Jupiter, the preparer of the future and bearer of wisdom-filled thinking. Gemini, the abode of the Seraphim, the Spirits of Love, and the virtue for Gemini is “Perseverance becomes Faithfulness”, faithfulness in learning to work creatively with polarities and overcome opposite extremes, which is very much a central theme and need in our time.

Jupiter here is in the same place where it was at the time of the first Easter, also at the time of the first Ascension and on Pentecost 33 AD, 10 days after Ascension, was joined by Mercury. And, last but not least, it is also in the same area of the sky where Pluto was discovered in 1930! And it is preparing an opposition to Pluto and trine to Saturn., which will happen in the Summer.
Uranus still close to Algol and preparing trine to Pluto [ close to Algol until mid March]]
Saturn and Neptune approaching conjunction [first major aspect of the year, Feb 20]

February a very important month!
20.2 – (Algol week) : first major shift of the year: Saturn/Neptune conjunction
(still active in March)

In the Sumer an important “cradle” configuration appears:
Jupiter makes a tense opposition to Pluto (July), a trine to Saturn (August) and a sextile to Uranus. (July)

 Also in July Uranus starts a trine to Pluto which will last for the  rest of the year. (this trine will, in the first half of 2027, get a bit out of focus but it will be exact again in the Summer 2027. This is a powerful and important aspect which will bring strong winds of revolution and change!

Comets: the positive influence of Comet 3I/Atlas will remain until April 17. It entered the solar system in May last year, near the tip of the Archer’s arrow which aims at the galactic center, and its path will take it from Saggitarius all the way up to Gemini, where it will depart on April 17. Near a full year’s journey through half of the zodiac, in the axis of polarisation! It has recently moved from Cancer into Gemini…in October reached perihelion, the closest approach to the Sun [when it united with the Sun’s forces in a way, in terms of its message and mission for our solar system] then turned and began its outward journey. Before perihelion it met Mars; in Nov met Venus and on Dec 19 it came closest to the earth. On March 16 it will pass Jupiter [in the middle of Gemini and aligned with Sirius!]. 

It brings a purifying and invigorating quality, helping create new spiritual organs in our physical and etheric bodies, assisting us against the adversarial and anti-I forces present in Gemini and Sagittarius.
Amazing quote by Steiner: “…If the I is to think differently in the nineteenth century from the way it thought in the eighteenth, there must also be something that changes the outer expression of the I in the physical and etheric bodies – and this something is the comet! The comet works upon the physical and etheric or life bodies of man in such a way that they actually create organs, delicate organs that are suitable for the further development of the I, the I consciousness as it has developed especially since the imbedding of the Christ impulse in the earth…”
Other 4 comets: 2 in January, one periodic, one non-periodic. One in April, non-periodic (April 20, shortly after 3I Atlas leaves us) and one in August, periodic.


Saturn/Neptune conjunction  [active till the end of March]
This is the culmination of a process which started last year. They came within half a degree of one another on two occasions last year: June 29 and August 1,  then they both went retrograde at different speeds and this year they meet again for a single exact conjunction on Feb 20, at the vernal point, in Pisces and at the axis of the equinoxes, the axis Pisces/Virgo,  the axis of harmonisation of polarities and healing. So there is a healing motif here, through the virtues of Virgo and Pisces, Courtesy and Love. Of note is also that Feb 20 is part of one of the Algol weeks, in which the Sun squares Algol: [the conj is in May, the first square in August, the opposition in Nov and the second and last square in Feb]

The world, it threatens to benumb
The inborn strength of soul;
So now let memory rise 
Radiant from spirit depths
And empower my vision
Which by strength of will alone 
Can be retained.

And on that day Uranus will be only one degree away from Algol, and will remain so until mid March…
This conjunction marks the beginning of a new Saturn/Neptune cycle, which is a 36 year cycle, and Neptune was discovered exactly in a year of conjunction with Saturn,  1846. Saturn orbits the zodiac in ap. 30 years and Neptune ap. 165. Their coming together is an important moment and their contributions to the journey of humanity on earth are quite different, almost opposite in a way…Saturn in its highest level is the keeper of the divine plan and the balancing of karma. At the earthly level it works to build structure, limits and order. Neptune in its highest level one could say it relates to capacities of love and attunement to the spiritual world. At the soul level it stimulates imagination, spirituality and dissolution of boundaries, of the forms created by Saturn, so that we can be inspired to create new forms that can take us into the future…That aspect of dissolution  could be seen quite clearly, and literally, the last time they met, Nov 1989, with the fall of the Berlin Wall and the subsequent collapse of the Soviet Empire! But Neptune has two sides, like all planetary spheres. The time of Neptune’s discovery was a time of a strong impulse to develop a purely material conception of the world and humanity’s place in it. [Darwin, Communist Manifesto, Pasteur’s discovery of germs, etc…]

Parallel to this in the spiritual world there was what Steiner called the war in heaven waged by Michael and his angels on behalf of humanity’s possibility for a renewed spiritual insight. So Neptune on the one hand can awaken a heightened spiritual comprehension in human beings, but on the other hand it also opens the possibility of its shadow in the form of a deeper fall into materialism through the influence of the ahrimanic forces, working in our etheric body without our awareness. At the psychic level it can bring lack of discernment and blurring of healthy boundaries. At the world level, this conjunction has the potential to bring great geopolitical shifts [which started last year…] They will meet in PIsces, Neptune’s own sign, representing the dissolution and end of a global cycle. In its higher aspect it can be seen as a call to align our personal human will with the divine will. Saturn gives the opportunity to make real an inner vision inspired by Neptune. 

Interestingly,  apparently both Putin and Jinping have a Saturn/Neptune conjunction in their birth charts, in Libra [they were born less than a year apart , Putin in Oct 7, 1952 and Jinping in June 15, 1953…exact dates of conjunction were Nov 21, 1952, May 18 and July 22, 1953] 1953 was the date before 1989. Before that was 1917, year of the russian revolution and America’s entry into WW1. Before that 1882, when Nietzsche said “God is dead”…]

Another aspect of this conjunction relates to the christian esoteric stream: the pattern of these conjunctions makes a 9 pointed star on the circle of the zodiac which takes around 322 years to complete. Alan Thewless has traced this rotation backwards through time and realised that the current placement of this conjunction was prefigured in the year 1200 AD, which was the time of the flourishing of the Grail stories. These stories describe the pathway of the new christian mysteries through the individual quest for spiritual grace and knowledge and the development of empathy and love.   

Parallels indicated by the current conjunction:
1989 – 2025 – 2061
1164 – 1200 – 1236 
These are not simple repetitions but rather cosmic themes and intentions that develop through cycles of time. 

Jupiter
During the Holy Nights Jupiter dominates the night sky and is facing directly opposite this wonderful dance of Venus, Mars and Mercury, highlighting and stimulating the transformation of our soul forces. It is also  preparing 3 important aspects which will unfold later in the year, in the Summer: in July it will reach a tense opposition to Pluto and at the same time make a sextile to Uranus. Then in August it will trine Saturn, part of the unfolding conjunction cycle that started in 2020. [June 9 Venus passes Jupiter]

Opposition Jupiter/Pluto (active mid July to mid August)

A very strong aspect, relating to themes of power, control and transformation. Jupiter, the planet of wisdom-filled thinking and the preparer of the future, faces Pluto, the planet of the depths , the Lord of the Underworld in greek mythology. Pluto brings intensity as well as the forces of the shadows from the depths, towards destruction and rebirth. So this aspect often brings major crises which can potentially lead to breakthroughs but through great challenges and upheavals. So expect the intensification of what we are witnessing already, a lot of power struggles. The shadow side of Jupiter is despotism, which can become obsessive and lead to all sorts of excesses, on all levels,  financial,  spiritual, military,  psychological. Pluto has the tendency to make us face our limits and, of course, through that something new can arise if we can face it in the right way…

Sextile Jupiter/Uranus  (exact on July 21) [mid July to mid August]

This aspect is somehow more positive, it’s a sextile, a harmonious aspect, which means it works towards balancing in a harmonious way the energies of both planets. Uranus works towards strengthening the impulse of freedom, but often through sudden changes that support breaking free from limitations.  In a world context it is very much the planet of revolution, either at the literal level of political revolution, or at the mental level of new insights and perspectives and, of course, technology, very much the planet of technology. He is the great Awakener, brings awareness of the call from the future and takes us into the unknown, whether we like it or not… 

Uranus trine to Pluto [it will be exact in July and August, then go a bit out of focus but be exact again in the end of the year, Nov and Dec , then get out of focus again but be exact again in the Summer 2027!] 
This is another powerful and important aspect which will bring strong winds of revolution and change!

[Cradle configuration: a supportive aspect pattern featuring two opposing planets each trined to a third planet, forming a trapezoid with supportive sextiles connecting the other two planets, symbolizing a pathway to integrate intense opposing energies through the “easing” planet, offering potential for growth, balance and flow despite inherent tension, though it requires conscious effort to master the different modes and energies involved. 

The core opposition creates tension but the trined planet acts as a mediator, offering a third way to resolve or flow with the polarity, turning struggle into opportunity. Like a literal cradle the pattern suggests a safe, nurturing space where challenging energies can be held and transformed, fostering development. Without discipline energies can scatter across the houses involved; mastery requires dedication. The easing planet facilitates dialogue and understanding between the opposing forces, guiding the individual to handle conflict creatively.]

Being a trine, which is a harmonious aspect, and part of the cradle configuration, it has the potential to facilitate innovative breakthroughs. Uranus, planet of freedom and innovation, working together with the deep and transformative forces of Pluto. But most likely within the framework of highly challenging outer events and circumstances, and it can go in many different ways, from “forcing” us to discover new ways of working together with each other and with nature in the discovery of our true human future, or new challenging technologies that go in the opposite direction, further away from our true humanity. Either we can find ways to work creatively with polarities or will fall deeper into aggressive forms of polarisation…

Jupiter trine Saturn  [active mid Aug-mid Sep]]

Then in August Jupiter will trine Saturn, which is part of the unfolding of the current cycle of aspects which started with the 2020 conjunction. 
In 2020 we had the conjunction which started a new 20 year cycle, and, in the past, these 20 year cycles were the most important ones because they were the two slowest planets observable with the naked eye. Nowadays longer cycles have been discovered as even slower planets, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto, entered the arena of human awareness. But in a way Jupiter and Saturn are still the most important ones because these are the two outermost planets related to the span of human life on earth [except Uranus, 84 y] . The memory of the past meeting the impulses for the future which are striving to come to light and become reality on Earth. 

The conjunction of 2020 happened at the beginning of Capricorn [sidereal] [and, according to W. Sucher, close to where the Sun was at the Adoration of the Magi!] Capricorn is the abode of the Archangels and the human astral body, bearer of our soul forces of thinking, feeling and willing. Its virtue is “courage becomes power of redemption” and its task is “to bring thoughts to the world”. But the power to redeem only comes after a thorough catharsis/purification of our soul forces before we are able to develop forces of forgiveness and healing, with the healing sound “L” and the forces of the etheric world which can enliven our thinking. So this Great Conjunction in 2020, at the beginning of Capricorn, brought a long period of catharsis for mankind. It is challenging us to find new ways of thinking, of relating to one another and to the earth and, ultimately, to the forces of the Christ being and discovering what makes us really human. 

It happened at the end of 2020, on the day of the winter solstice, Dec 21. Then in 2021 Pluto, which has a lot to do with the events in our time, entered Capricorn as well and will stay there also for 20 years! The last time it traversed Capricorn [although humanity was not yet aware of its existence] was the last part of the 18th century, from 1773-1792, which was marked by two big revolutions: the American War of Independence and the French Revolution. 
Also a reminder that the Great Conjunction of 2020 stood right at the midpoint, 3,5 years, between the 2 Great American Eclipses, the one in 2017 and the other in 2024   
The Golden Triangle of Great Conjunctions has 3 corners that can be traced back to events in the life of Christ [according to W. Sucher]:
6 BC: Star of Bethlehem that led the Three Magi, marking the Annunciation of the birth of the Solomon Jesus. It carries the theme of a Great Annunciation of a new impulse in the history of mankind, every 60 years. [previous ones 1961, 1901, beg of public work of R. Steiner]. Also the theme of Epiphany! [manifestation of the Christ being in human form]. Question: which new birth was announced to humanity in 2020?
14 AD: Union in the Temple. Theme of Union of 2 streams in humanity. Next one will be in 2040 in Virgo, a theme sorely needed after the culmination of the current period of divisiveness and hatred…
34 AD: Paul meets the Etheric Christ in Damascus. Theme of the development of man’s capacity to perceive the Christ in the etheric realm of the Earth. 

Last year we had the first square between them [June] and this year we have a trine, a supportive aspect.  “At the same time it is important to be awake to what arises as deep soul impulses when planets work in harmony with each other. We must be awake to the window of grace that is opened!” [A. Thewless, who also calls our attention to the correlation between the present movements of Jupiter and Saturn and their movements during the life of Mani, namely the year 258 AD when Mani’s work was supported by the Persian king Shapur 1st. “During this period Mani was permitted to teach throughout the persian world and his teachings were spread by his followers along great distances both east and west.” 
So this supportive aspect has the potential to help move forward in new and creative ways the theme of this great conj, the proclamation of a new annunciation event for humanity.

About Angeloi, Archangeloi, Archai

Excerpt from a lecture of Rudolph Steiner, given in Berlin, 16. Januar 1911

We have learnt that man, as he lives in our world, is the lowest member of a hierarchical Order, that his place is at the lowest step of the ladder of this Order. Immediately above him in the supersensible world, at the first level, are the Beings called in Christian esotericism, Angeloi, Angels. They are the supersensible Beings of the rank immediately above man, who influence his life. Above them come the Archangeloi or Archangels, then the Archai or Spirits of Personality; then the Exousiai, Dynameis and Kyriotetes, and finally the Thrones, Cherubim and Seraphim. Thus above man there are nine ranks of hierarchical Beings.

The Angeloi are the Beings who as messengers of the spiritual world to the individual man in his life on Earth, are nearest of all to him. They exercise a perpetual influence upon the destinies of individuals on the physical plane. The Archangeloi are spiritual Beings whose activities embrace a wider sphere. They are the Beings whom we may call ‘Folk-Spirits’, who regulate and guide the affairs of whole groups of peoples. When a man of the present day speaks of a ‘Folk-Spirit’ he thinks, purely in terms of number, of so many thousands of individuals who happen to populate the same territory. But in Spiritual Science we mean by a Folk-Spirit the actual Folk-Individuality, not such and such a number of people but a real individuality just as we speak of an individuality in the case of a single man. The spiritual guidance of a whole Folk lies in the hands of the Archangelos. All these higher Beings are supersensible entities having their own spheres of activity. The Archai, Spirits of Personality or the ‘Primal Beginnings’, are again different from the Archangeloi or Folk-Spirits. If we speak of the French, the German, the English Folk-Spirit and so on, this points to different regions of the Earth. But there is something that is common to all men to-day, at least to all Western peoples, and affords them a basis for mutual understanding. In contrast to the single Folk-Spirit we speak here of the Time-Spirit: there is a Time-Spirit in the period of the Reformation, another in our own day. The Time-Spirits, the Archai, rank above the individual Folk-Spirits, and are the leaders of successive epochs.

Washing of the feet

A poem of Christian Morgenstern set to music and beautiful translated by Colin Tanser

At Balmakewan Farm, Walled Garden, Laurencekirk, Aberdeenshire

Please see below a link to the website and a description of the project