{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 93/1904-09-30/p039","lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"*Astronomical Meaning Demonstrated*.  \nThe first canto of the Edda, which apparently contains a description of the ceremonies performed on the initiation of an aspirant, says that he seeks to know the sciences possessed by the Aesas or gods. He discovers a palace, whose roof of boundless dimensions is covered with golden shields. He encounters a man engaged in launching upwards seven flowers. Here we easily discover the astronomical meaning: the palace is the world, the roof the sky; the golden shields are the stars, the seven flowers the seven planets. The candidate is asked what is his name, and replies Gangler, that is, the wanderer, he that performs a revolution, distributing necessaries to mankind; for the candidate personates the sun. The palace is that of the king, the epithet the ancient Mystagogues gave to the head of the planetary system. Then he discovers three seats; on the lowest is the king called Har, sublime; on the central one, Jafuhar, the equal of the sublime; on the highest Tredie, the number three. These personages are those the neophyte beheld in the Eleusinian initiation, the hierophant, the daduchus or torchbearer, and the epibomite or attendant on the altar; those he sees in Freemasonry, the master, and the senior and junior wardens, symbolical personifications of the sun, moon, and Demiurgus, or grand architect of the universe. But the Scandinavian triad is usually represented by Odin, the chief deity; Thor, his first-born, the reputed mediator between god and man, possessing unlimited power over the universe, wherefore his head was surrounded by a circle of twelve stars; and Freya, a hermaphrodite, adorned with a variety of symbols significant of dominion over love and marriage. In the instructions given to the neophyte, he is told that the greatest and most ancient of gods is called Alfader (the father of all), and has twelve epithets, which recall the twelve attributes of the sun, the twelve constellations, the twelve superior gods of Egypt, Greece, and Rome. Among the gods of the Scandinavian theogony there is Baldur the Good, whose story, as already hinted above, formed the object of the initiatory ceremonies. Baldur is Mithras, the sun's love. He foresees the danger that threatens him; he dreams of it at night. The other gods of Valhalla, the Scandinavian Olympus, to whom he reveals his sad fore-bodings, reassure him, and to guard against any harm befalling him, exact an oath from every thing in nature on his behalf, except from the mistletoe, which was omitted on account of its apparently inoffensive qualities. For an experiment, and in sport, the gods cast at Baldur all kinds of missiles, without wounding him. Hoder the blind [that is, Fate], takes no part in the diversion; but Loki [the principle of evil, darkness, the season of winter] places a sprig in the hands of Hoder, and persuades him to cast it at the devoted victim, who falls pierced with mortal wounds. For this reason it was that this plant was gathered at the winter solstice by the Druids of Scandinavia, Gaul, and Britain, with a curved knife, whose form symbolised the segment of the zodiacal circle during which the murder of Baldur took place. In the Edda of Snorro we have another legend of Odin and Freya, the Scandinavian Isis or Venus, giving an account of the wanderings of the latter in search of the former, which, of course, have the same astronomical meaning as the search of Isis for Osiris, of Ceres for Proserpine, etc. One of the chief festivals in the year, as with the Druids, was the winter solstice; and this being the longest night in the year, the Scandinavians assigned to it the formation of the world from primeval darkness, and called it “Mother Night.” This festival was denominated “Yule,” and was a season of universal festivity.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"3. The Mysteries of the Druids and the ‘Drottes’","site_heading":null,"date":"1904-09-30","location":null,"word_count":637,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/93/1904-09-30/p039","alignment_confidence":"low","alignment_reason":"count_diverges","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":{"scope":"unit","status":"established","translator":"John M. Wood","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"The Temple Legend","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA093/English/RSP1985/19040930p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["English"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"en","edition":"English","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/93/1904-09-30/p039"}],"kind":"note","footnote":{"marker":"Notes by the Editor","part":16,"definition_locus":"GA 93/1904-09-30/p024","definition_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/93/1904-09-30/p024"},"record":{"record_type":"unknown","scope":"volume","note":"How this text was taken down (shorthand transcript, listeners' notes or manuscript) is not on record here. Unknown is not an assurance of a stenogram: check the edition's own notes before resting an argument on one word.","evidence":null,"evidence_translation":null,"evidence_source":null},"other_renderings":{"loci":[{"locus":"GA 92/1904-07-30","ga":"92","lecture":"1904-07-30","kind":"renderings","relation":"another translation or transcription of the same lecture"}],"note":"The same lecture is also served at the loci listed, each with how it relates to this one. They are ONE witness, not independent attestations: quote the rendering you fetched, and do not cite another as corroborating it. Wording differs between translations, so a quotation found in one need not occur in the other."},"authorship":{"kind":"editorial","is_steiner":false,"speaker":"the editor","note":"This passage is one of the notes the editor printed after the lecture under the heading \"Notes by the Editor\" (see `footnote`), NOT lecture text. Words it quotes from other authors or from Steiner are the note's quotations and must not be quoted as the lecture."},"attribution_warning":"This passage is one of the notes the editor printed after the lecture under the heading \"Notes by the Editor\" (see `footnote`), NOT lecture text. Words it quotes from other authors or from Steiner are the note's quotations and must not be quoted as the lecture.","german_anchor":{"de_prefix":"1904-09-30","de_passages":[],"bead_confidence":"high","correspondence":"no_counterpart","pairing_state":"no_counterpart","evidence":["reader"],"no_counterpart_reason":"editor_note","note":"A reader compared this paragraph with the German unit and found no German counterpart: it is a note the English edition's editor added. No German text is given."},"paired_german":{"status":"no_counterpart","pairing_state":"no_counterpart","evidence":["reader"],"no_counterpart_reason":"editor_note","note":"A reader compared this paragraph with the German unit and found no German counterpart: it is a note the English edition's editor added. No German text is given; german_unit points to the German unit.","german_unit":{"lang":"de","edition":"original","unit_locus":"GA 93/1904-09-30","paragraph_count":23,"fetch_unit":{"ga":"93","lecture":"1904-09-30","lang":"de","edition":"original"},"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/de/ga/93/1904-09-30","json_url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/ga/93/1904-09-30?lang=de"}},"witness_completeness":{"ratio":3.05,"band":"fuller_than_original","note":"This witness is longer than the original — paraphrastic or padded. That makes it a less faithful witness to wording, not a more complete one. Verify quotations against the original.","word_count":4741,"original_word_count":1553,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"scope":"unit","status":"recorded","translator":"John M. Wood","identified_edition":"RSP1985","book_title":"The Temple Legend","publisher":"Rudolf Steiner Press","publisher_inferred":true,"match_score":1.0,"source_url":"https://www.rsarchive.org/Lectures/GA093/English/RSP1985/19040930p01.html","evidence":"lecture_page_line","publisher_note":"The publisher is inferred from the edition code in this lecture's source URL, not stated by the source page. The translator IS verified for this lecture: its own source names the translator (evidence: the lecture's page, rsarchive's lecture list, or the cover of the book it was published in), and that page's text was matched against this unit (see match_score and source_url). Cite the translator with confidence; attribute the publisher only as probable."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}