Francis Berger's Blog, page 72
April 2, 2022
What Happens When You Spend Time in Paris - The Shift Into 20th-Century Modernity
János Vaszary (1867-1939) hailed from a prominent Catholic family in Kaposvár, Hungary. How prominent? Well, his uncle was the Archbishop of Esztergom, which was a very big deal back in those days. Vaszary began pursuing art quite early in his life, and displayed notable technical talent. Yet what makes him particularly interesting as a painter is the remarkable shift in style that basically cleaves the oeuvre of his work into two distinct Jekyll and Hyde-ish parts that I will refer to here as pre-Paris and post-Paris.
Vaszary's pre-Paris paintings comprise those he painted before he moved to the City of Light in 1899. Note the style and subject matter.
Peasant Girl in the Garden - 1893 (Not only my favorite Vaszary painting, but one of my favorite Hungarian paintings, full stop. 
The Command Has Arrived (Farewell!) - 1894 And the following paintings exemplify the style shifts Vaszary employed later in his life during and after his return from Paris after the turn of the century. 
After Bathing - 1903 
French Riveria - 1920 
Nude with Buddha - 1926 
Woman Sitting in the Garden - 1930 
The Morphinist - 1930
April 1, 2022
Pecks That Despiritualize and Kill the Soul
Many bloggers and writers are commendably drawing attention to the various negative health effects of the peck but very few have addressed the real and potential spiritual consequences, particularly for Christians.
On the contrary, most bloggers and writers see no implicit connection between the peck and the spiritual. Moreover, many Christians have promoted the idea that the peck can be taken in good conscience.
Although I am aware of the health concerns, I am far more weary of the potential spiritual harm behind the demonic push to peck the world, and I believe this potential spiritual harm should be at forefront of Christian thought concerning the peck.
Rudolf Steiner was among those who recognized this potential spiritual harm. A little over a century ago, he issued a stark prophecy concerning the role of pecks and medicine as possible despiritualization tools.
The excerpt below has made its way around the internet in the past two years, but if you haven't encountered yet, I encourage you to read it (or listen to video).
I'm certain the despiritualization we see all around us has more to do with consciousness and personal choice than it does with pecks of the past. At the same time, I strongly suspect the birdemic pecks the demonic elite are peddling today and the future pecks they will attempt to push in the future all have nefarious spiritual objectives:
A Future Vaccine to Prevent Knowledge of Soul and Spirit From The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness (Bristol: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993; GA 177), p. 85. October 7, 1917 85 –
“The time will come – and it may not be far off – when quite different tendencies will come up at a congress like the one held in 1912 and people will say: It is pathological for people to even think in terms of spirit and soul.
‘Sound’ people will speak of nothing but the body. It will be considered a sign of illness for anyone to arrive at the idea of any such thing as a spirit or a soul. People who think like that will be considered to be sick and – you can be quite sure of it – a medicine will be found for this. . . .
The soul will be made non-existent with the aid of a drug. Taking a ‘sound point of view,’ people will invent a vaccine to influence the organism as early as possible, preferably as soon as it is born, so that this human body never even gets the idea that there is a soul and spirit.
“. . . the heirs of modern materialism will look for the vaccine to make the body ‘healthy,’ that is, make its constitution such that this body no longer talks of such rubbish as soul and spirit, but takes a ‘sound’ view of the forces which live in engines and in chemistry and let planets and suns arise from nebulae in the cosmos. Materialistic physicians will be asked to drive the souls out of humanity.”
October 27, 1917 199-200 – “. . . the spirits of darkness are now among us. . . . “. . . I have told you that the spirits of darkness are going to inspire their human hosts, in whom they will be dwelling, to find a vaccine that will drive all inclination toward spirituality out of people’s souls when they are still very young, and this will happen in a roundabout way through the living body.
Today, bodies are vaccinated against one thing and another; in future, children will be vaccinated with a substance which it will certainly be possible to produce, and this will make them immune, so that they do not develop foolish inclinations connected with spiritual life – ‘foolish’ here, or course, in the eyes of materialists. . . .
“. . . a way will finally be found to vaccinate bodies so that these bodies will not allow the inclination toward spiritual ideas to develop and all their lives people will believe only in the physical world they perceive with the senses. Out of impulses which the medical profession gained from presumption – oh, I beg your pardon, from the consumption [tuberculosis] they themselves suffered – people are now vaccinated against consumption, and in the same way they will be vaccinated against any inclination toward spirituality.
This is merely to give you a particularly striking example of many things which will come in the near and more distant future in this field – the aim being to bring confusion into the impulses which want to stream down to earth after the victory of the [Michaelic] spirits of light [in 1879].”
On the contrary, most bloggers and writers see no implicit connection between the peck and the spiritual. Moreover, many Christians have promoted the idea that the peck can be taken in good conscience.
Although I am aware of the health concerns, I am far more weary of the potential spiritual harm behind the demonic push to peck the world, and I believe this potential spiritual harm should be at forefront of Christian thought concerning the peck.
Rudolf Steiner was among those who recognized this potential spiritual harm. A little over a century ago, he issued a stark prophecy concerning the role of pecks and medicine as possible despiritualization tools.
The excerpt below has made its way around the internet in the past two years, but if you haven't encountered yet, I encourage you to read it (or listen to video).
I'm certain the despiritualization we see all around us has more to do with consciousness and personal choice than it does with pecks of the past. At the same time, I strongly suspect the birdemic pecks the demonic elite are peddling today and the future pecks they will attempt to push in the future all have nefarious spiritual objectives:
A Future Vaccine to Prevent Knowledge of Soul and Spirit From The Fall of the Spirits of Darkness (Bristol: Rudolf Steiner Press, 1993; GA 177), p. 85. October 7, 1917 85 –
“The time will come – and it may not be far off – when quite different tendencies will come up at a congress like the one held in 1912 and people will say: It is pathological for people to even think in terms of spirit and soul.
‘Sound’ people will speak of nothing but the body. It will be considered a sign of illness for anyone to arrive at the idea of any such thing as a spirit or a soul. People who think like that will be considered to be sick and – you can be quite sure of it – a medicine will be found for this. . . .
The soul will be made non-existent with the aid of a drug. Taking a ‘sound point of view,’ people will invent a vaccine to influence the organism as early as possible, preferably as soon as it is born, so that this human body never even gets the idea that there is a soul and spirit.
“. . . the heirs of modern materialism will look for the vaccine to make the body ‘healthy,’ that is, make its constitution such that this body no longer talks of such rubbish as soul and spirit, but takes a ‘sound’ view of the forces which live in engines and in chemistry and let planets and suns arise from nebulae in the cosmos. Materialistic physicians will be asked to drive the souls out of humanity.”
October 27, 1917 199-200 – “. . . the spirits of darkness are now among us. . . . “. . . I have told you that the spirits of darkness are going to inspire their human hosts, in whom they will be dwelling, to find a vaccine that will drive all inclination toward spirituality out of people’s souls when they are still very young, and this will happen in a roundabout way through the living body.
Today, bodies are vaccinated against one thing and another; in future, children will be vaccinated with a substance which it will certainly be possible to produce, and this will make them immune, so that they do not develop foolish inclinations connected with spiritual life – ‘foolish’ here, or course, in the eyes of materialists. . . .
“. . . a way will finally be found to vaccinate bodies so that these bodies will not allow the inclination toward spiritual ideas to develop and all their lives people will believe only in the physical world they perceive with the senses. Out of impulses which the medical profession gained from presumption – oh, I beg your pardon, from the consumption [tuberculosis] they themselves suffered – people are now vaccinated against consumption, and in the same way they will be vaccinated against any inclination toward spirituality.
This is merely to give you a particularly striking example of many things which will come in the near and more distant future in this field – the aim being to bring confusion into the impulses which want to stream down to earth after the victory of the [Michaelic] spirits of light [in 1879].”
March 31, 2022
Until the Birdemic is Acknowledged and Repented, There Is No Good -- Only Lesser Evil
There's an awful lot of delusional nonsense about geopolitical good guys and bad guys flooding the internet at the moment.
To no one's surprise, the stuff the mainstream is spewing is ridiculous. Unfortunately, much of the stuff coming from alternative and Christian sources is just as ridiculous.
The West is obviously the greater evil, but this does not automatically make the non-West "good". On the contrary, the non-West is -- at best -- a lesser evil.
Why? Simple. The birdemic.
No country in the world -- West or non-West -- has publicly acknowledged or repented the evil of the birdemic.
Not. One. Single. Country.
That includes China, Russia, Hungary and every other country (or state, or city, or jurisdiction) that Christians and conservatives currently hold up as geopolitical beacons of hope.
As long as the birdemic remains unacknowledged and unrepented, there is no good at the level of geopolitics -- only lesser evil.
Although lesser evil is "better" than greater evil, it is still evil -- NOT good.
Stop pretending otherwise!
To no one's surprise, the stuff the mainstream is spewing is ridiculous. Unfortunately, much of the stuff coming from alternative and Christian sources is just as ridiculous.
The West is obviously the greater evil, but this does not automatically make the non-West "good". On the contrary, the non-West is -- at best -- a lesser evil.
Why? Simple. The birdemic.
No country in the world -- West or non-West -- has publicly acknowledged or repented the evil of the birdemic.
Not. One. Single. Country.
That includes China, Russia, Hungary and every other country (or state, or city, or jurisdiction) that Christians and conservatives currently hold up as geopolitical beacons of hope.
As long as the birdemic remains unacknowledged and unrepented, there is no good at the level of geopolitics -- only lesser evil.
Although lesser evil is "better" than greater evil, it is still evil -- NOT good.
Stop pretending otherwise!
March 30, 2022
Lovely Spring Hike
The council of the small village in western Hungary that I call home recently announced a series of monthly hikes in which the settlement's inhabitants can participate free of charge.
The first hike -- a five-hour excursion to the nearby town of Kőszeg and its surrounding hills -- took place this past weekend. Great weather; wonderful scenery; and friendly company. We couldn't have asked for anything more. I'm already looking forward to the next one in April!
Before the Calvary Church atop the first hill we climbed. 
Leaving the vineyards and entering the forest. [image error] View of Kőszeg and the surrounding landscape. 
Beech forest.
The first hike -- a five-hour excursion to the nearby town of Kőszeg and its surrounding hills -- took place this past weekend. Great weather; wonderful scenery; and friendly company. We couldn't have asked for anything more. I'm already looking forward to the next one in April!
Before the Calvary Church atop the first hill we climbed. Leaving the vineyards and entering the forest. [image error] View of Kőszeg and the surrounding landscape. Beech forest.
March 28, 2022
Poorer, Hungrier, Less Healthy: The UN's Sustainability Goals in Action
The UN's Sustainable Development Goals -- a collection of 17 interconnected global goals designed to be a "blueprint to achieve a better and more sustainable future for all" -- is one of the guiding agendas of the 2020 global totalitarian coup. As seen above, the intentions behind the global goals appear quite noble and virtuous in theory. After all, who could possibly be opposed to aims such as eliminating poverty and hunger?Taken as a whole, the global goals present a colorful Utopian vision of a better world for people and the planet. It is intentionally promoted as an idea everyone can get behind, and as far as I can tell, it is an idea that everyone has indeed got behind.
The System -- governments, corporations, organizations, international bodies, universities, religions, etc -- all vehemently support these honorable aspirations. This massive web of global cooperation working toward admirable goals should imply unprecedented and palpable material improvement, not just in the future but also in the present.
Put another way, all of us should be experiencing the benefits of these global development goals here and now or, at the very least, we should be able to clearly see the blossoming of all of this amazing well-being in the present.
Just for fun, let's focus on the first three goals alone: no poverty; zero hunger; good health and well-being.
No poverty: Massive inflation, decreased purchasing power, stagnating wages, currency debasement, etc.
Zero hunger: Sky-high food prices, rationing, supply concerns, supply chain disruptions, warnings of impending famines and shortages, warnings of viral infections that threaten to decimate livestock, etc.
Good health and well-being: In addition to all the problems caused by "no poverty" and "zero hunger", good health and well-being involve lockdowns, social distancing, 24/7 psychological terror operations, peck mandates featuring harmful, inefficient, unnecessary pecks, job loss for refusing to comply with mandates, etc.
The UN wants to achieve all 17 of its Sustainable Development Goals by 2030. To put that into perspective, consider what the first three goals have achieved since the 2020 global totalitarian coup alone and then extend and expand that damage and destruction to include the 14 other goals over the course of the next eight years.
It goes without saying that the blueprint for a better and more sustainable future for all is actually a blueprint for unprecedented global death and destruction.
Want to verify that? Simple. Start from your own experience. Once you've assumed that perspective, it would be worth your time to consider going beyond the material implications of this noble blueprint and consider the blueprint's ultimate spiritual aim, which is mass damnation.
Poorer, hungrier, and less healthy are all very real future possibilities. The only way to manage these possibilities and overcome them is through the implementation of Personal Spiritual Development Goals; more precisely, through the commitment to God and Creation, and the acceptance of Jesus's offer of everlasting life.
March 27, 2022
Richter Plays Bartók's 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs
It is not flawless, but Richter's rendition of Bartók's 15 Hungarian Peasant Songs ranks among the best I've heard. I would argue a pianist like Annie Fischer plays a more faithful and clean version of the piece, but something about Richter's intentional tempo "adjustments" add an entirely different level of depth and playfulness to the songs.
March 25, 2022
Disillusionment Stems From Illusions
Society is splitting into three groups -- two are broad and easily recognizable while the third is virtually invisible and does not actually qualify as a group at all.
The first group comprises the disillusioned -- that slowly increasing and expanding patchwork assembly of people experiencing varying degrees of disappointment, despondency, and dismay at the discovery that many things of the world are not as good as they hoped or believed they would be.
They are confused and mortified by the failure of democracy, the cratering of free markets, the trampling of human rights, the encroachments upon individual liberty, the splintering of society, and all the rest of it.
Like betrayed lovers, they feel as if their entire world has been wrenched out from beneath them, and they look around frantically for someone or something to trust, to commit to, to believe in.
Deep down, the disillusioned know the System has not lived up to its promises, but they can think of no alternative beyond the possibility of a reformed or improved System.
The disillusioned understand that they have been deceived and cheated, but they refuse to recognize the illusions as illusions and remain committed to the "reality" of everything that led to their disillusionment.
The second group consists of the fully "illusioned" -- the formless mainstream mass of despiritualized moderns whose "reality" never extends beyond the illusions of the manufactured, external "given" world of the System.
Unlike the disillusioned group, the illusioned feel little dismay or regret. They are not saddened by the failure of democracy because they are unaware that democracy has indeed failed.
They are not disheartened by the trampling of human rights because they assume the safety and security the System peddles is the ultimate human right that trumps all others. They care little about individual liberty because they experience freedom as a burden and cannot bear to be free.
Finally, they embrace the splintering of society as "progress" and work diligently to accelerate the process by throwing their full support and allegiance behind whatever "current thing" the System promotes.
The third and final group is not really a group at all but more of a miscellany of individuals sprinkled thinly over the vast surface of the world. Like the disillusioned, the individuals in the third group are acutely aware that many of the things of this world are not as good as they previously believed them to be.
Unlike the disillusioned group, the third group has moved past all despondency, bitterness, discouragement, and dismay. For them, disillusionment is not a let down, but a "raise up".
Instead of brooding on the loss of cherished illusions, individuals in the third group are becoming aware of the reality beyond the illusions. The wrenching away of the world amounts to little more than the wrenching away of untruth.
Individuals in the third group are free to act, learn, love, and believe in ways individuals in the other two groups cannot even begin to fathom. Rather than brood on disillusionment, individuals in the third group quietly work toward a new revelation that can only arise from freedom, creativity, and love.
For them, the end of illusion marks the beginning of creation.
The first group comprises the disillusioned -- that slowly increasing and expanding patchwork assembly of people experiencing varying degrees of disappointment, despondency, and dismay at the discovery that many things of the world are not as good as they hoped or believed they would be.
They are confused and mortified by the failure of democracy, the cratering of free markets, the trampling of human rights, the encroachments upon individual liberty, the splintering of society, and all the rest of it.
Like betrayed lovers, they feel as if their entire world has been wrenched out from beneath them, and they look around frantically for someone or something to trust, to commit to, to believe in.
Deep down, the disillusioned know the System has not lived up to its promises, but they can think of no alternative beyond the possibility of a reformed or improved System.
The disillusioned understand that they have been deceived and cheated, but they refuse to recognize the illusions as illusions and remain committed to the "reality" of everything that led to their disillusionment.
The second group consists of the fully "illusioned" -- the formless mainstream mass of despiritualized moderns whose "reality" never extends beyond the illusions of the manufactured, external "given" world of the System.
Unlike the disillusioned group, the illusioned feel little dismay or regret. They are not saddened by the failure of democracy because they are unaware that democracy has indeed failed.
They are not disheartened by the trampling of human rights because they assume the safety and security the System peddles is the ultimate human right that trumps all others. They care little about individual liberty because they experience freedom as a burden and cannot bear to be free.
Finally, they embrace the splintering of society as "progress" and work diligently to accelerate the process by throwing their full support and allegiance behind whatever "current thing" the System promotes.
The third and final group is not really a group at all but more of a miscellany of individuals sprinkled thinly over the vast surface of the world. Like the disillusioned, the individuals in the third group are acutely aware that many of the things of this world are not as good as they previously believed them to be.
Unlike the disillusioned group, the third group has moved past all despondency, bitterness, discouragement, and dismay. For them, disillusionment is not a let down, but a "raise up".
Instead of brooding on the loss of cherished illusions, individuals in the third group are becoming aware of the reality beyond the illusions. The wrenching away of the world amounts to little more than the wrenching away of untruth.
Individuals in the third group are free to act, learn, love, and believe in ways individuals in the other two groups cannot even begin to fathom. Rather than brood on disillusionment, individuals in the third group quietly work toward a new revelation that can only arise from freedom, creativity, and love.
For them, the end of illusion marks the beginning of creation.
March 23, 2022
Some of the Ministers Behind "None Are Safe Until All Are Safe"
The other day I got to thinking about the individuals behind the global diktat of "none are safe until all are safe", which inevitably led to me to national health ministers. The following is a sample of some of the people who have been working overtime during the birdemic to ensure the safety and health of citizens within their respective countries.
Take a deep breath -- this is gonna hurt . . .
Belgium: Because nothing says health like a pasty moon face and a double chin the size of Brussels. 
United Kingdom: The Uncle Fester of national health 
United States: Create your own commentary. 
Germany: I vant every Cherman zu be healzy like me! 
Canada: I honestly don't know where to begin. 
Spain: The Austin Powers of health ministers. Yeah, baby! Yeah! 
Russia: This guy gets the award for most intimidating health minister in the world because in Russia, you don't question the health minister; the health minister questions you! I don't think the birdemic bug would dare to infect this man. Note added: The decision to investigate health ministers was partly inspired by a post from another blog.
Take a deep breath -- this is gonna hurt . . .
Belgium: Because nothing says health like a pasty moon face and a double chin the size of Brussels. United Kingdom: The Uncle Fester of national health United States: Create your own commentary. Germany: I vant every Cherman zu be healzy like me! Canada: I honestly don't know where to begin. Spain: The Austin Powers of health ministers. Yeah, baby! Yeah! Russia: This guy gets the award for most intimidating health minister in the world because in Russia, you don't question the health minister; the health minister questions you! I don't think the birdemic bug would dare to infect this man. Note added: The decision to investigate health ministers was partly inspired by a post from another blog.
March 22, 2022
The Birdemic; It Blurs
Last year at around this time, a young professor colleague stopped me in the hallway and gleefully informed me about his decision to get pecked. When I nonchalantly asked him why he felt it necessary, he looked at me as if I were simpleton and curtly muttered something about protecting himself and the students. A few months later he revealed that he had also gone in for the third peck. Yesterday he notified me of his recent birdemic bug infection.
"I had to stay home, but it was no big deal. A mild fever and some cold symptoms."
"I thought you got pecked to protect yourself," I said.
"I did protect myself!" he proclaimed with relief. "I mean, it would have been much worse if I hadn't been pecked. I probably would have ended up in the hospital or worse. I'm sure of it."
I nodded and let him get back to going wherever he had been planning to go. After he had turned the corner, I silently added him to the growing list of pecked colleagues who have recently fallen ill. As far as I know, none of them have expressed any disappointment. Getting the birdemic bug after two or three pecks is now simply par for the course.
The birdemic. On the one hand, it clarifies. On the other hand, it blurs. It all comes down to a matter of perspective. Positioning. Vantage points.
The birdemic has made many things evidently clear to me. At the same time, it also befogs many things. The current hysteria over the invaded country is a good example of the latter.
The motives and differences between the two sides are detectable and meaningful as long as the birdemic is kept out of the assessment. However, add the birdemic into the mix and the detectable, meaningful differences immediately fade and blur.
Or perhaps it is more a matter of supersession. The detectable, meaningful distinctions remain, but the birdemic displaces these and casts them aside.
If the conflict -- or anything in the external world -- is to have any deeper meaning for me in the present, it must reveal itself as a spiritual position against the birdemic. Moreover, as a spiritual position for God and Creation.
Until then, the birdemic remains. And as long as it remains, it blurs; or, more precisely, it supersedes.
"I had to stay home, but it was no big deal. A mild fever and some cold symptoms."
"I thought you got pecked to protect yourself," I said.
"I did protect myself!" he proclaimed with relief. "I mean, it would have been much worse if I hadn't been pecked. I probably would have ended up in the hospital or worse. I'm sure of it."
I nodded and let him get back to going wherever he had been planning to go. After he had turned the corner, I silently added him to the growing list of pecked colleagues who have recently fallen ill. As far as I know, none of them have expressed any disappointment. Getting the birdemic bug after two or three pecks is now simply par for the course.
The birdemic. On the one hand, it clarifies. On the other hand, it blurs. It all comes down to a matter of perspective. Positioning. Vantage points.
The birdemic has made many things evidently clear to me. At the same time, it also befogs many things. The current hysteria over the invaded country is a good example of the latter.
The motives and differences between the two sides are detectable and meaningful as long as the birdemic is kept out of the assessment. However, add the birdemic into the mix and the detectable, meaningful differences immediately fade and blur.
Or perhaps it is more a matter of supersession. The detectable, meaningful distinctions remain, but the birdemic displaces these and casts them aside.
If the conflict -- or anything in the external world -- is to have any deeper meaning for me in the present, it must reveal itself as a spiritual position against the birdemic. Moreover, as a spiritual position for God and Creation.
Until then, the birdemic remains. And as long as it remains, it blurs; or, more precisely, it supersedes.
March 20, 2022
Bartók - Spring (Tavasz): A Little Something to Raise One's Spirits
You don't have to be fluent in Hungarian to appreciate this lovely and seasonal choral piece by Bartók. Enjoy!
