Journal for Star Wisdom 2017

Robert A. Powell, PhD

Robert A. Powell, PhD, is an internationally known lecturer, author, eurythmist, and movement therapist. He is founder of the Choreocosmos School of Cosmic and Sacred Dance, and cofounder of the Sophia Foundation of North America. He received his doctorate for his thesis The History of the Zodiac, available as a book from Sophia Academic Press. He is the author and coauthor of numerous work, including The Sophia Teachings (a six-tape series), as well as numerous books on star wisdom (Astrosophy), the divine feminine (Sophia), the Christian Mysteries, and sacred movement. He has also been a contributing editor of the annual journal Star Wisdom. He translated the spiritual classic Meditations on the Tarot and co-translated Valentin Tomberg’s Lazarus, Come Forth! Robert teaches a gentle form of healing movement: the sacred dance of eurythmy, as well as the Cosmic Dances of the Planets and signs of the zodiac. Through the Sophia Grail Circle, Robert facilitates sacred celebrations dedicated to the Divine Feminine. He has also offered numerous workshops in Europe and Australia, and with Karen Rivers, cofounder of the Sophia Foundation, and has led pilgrimages to the world’s sacred sites since 1996.

Claudia McLaren Lainson

CLAUDIA McLAREN LAINSON is a teacher and Therapeutic Educator. She has been working in the field of Anthroposophy since 1982, when she founded her first Waldorf program in Boulder, Colorado. She lectures nationallyis the founder of Windrose Farm and Academy near Boulder. Claudia most recently founded the School for the Sophia Mysteries at Windrose. She is the author of The Circle of Twelve and the Legacy of Valentin Tomberg.

Estelle Isaacson

Estelle Isaacson is a contemporary mystic and seer, whose first books were published by LogoSophia in 2012: Through the Eyes of Mary Magdalene: Early Years and Soul Awakening. In volume 1 in her trilogy on the life of Mary Magdalene, Estelle Isaacson presents her visions of the life of Christ as seen through Magdalene’s own eyes. Volume 2, Through the Eyes of Mary Magdalene: From Initiation to the Passion, enters the profound mysteries of Christ’s Passion, culminating in the Resurrection. Estelle is coauthor with Robert Powell of Gautama Buddha’s Successor: A Force for Good in Our Time(2013) and The Mystery of Sophia: Bearer of the New Culture: The Rose of the World(2014).

Nicholas Kollerstrom

Nicholas Kollerstrom, the director of New Alchemy Press, has long been interested in Hermetic matters. For thirty years he has produced Britain’s lunar gardening calendar Planting by the Moon. He has also been a Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society for more than two decades and has published academic articles on the history of astronomy. For eleven years he was a Fellow of University College London in its Science and Technology Studies Department, though his somewhat unorthodox views made it difficult for him to continue in that capacity. His articles for Mercury Star Journal (edited by Robert Powell) consider evidence for lunar-sidereal rhythms in vegetable growth. His latest book, Metal-Planet Affinities: The Alchemical Bridge between Heaven and Earth,reviews work he has been involved with since the 1970s, based on the pioneering work of Lily Kolisko. 

Julie Humphreys

Julie Humphreys is a graduate of Stanford and a former pediatric nurse and Waldorf mom. An early interest in astrology lay dormant for more than three decades until she was introduced to the sidereal system, the works of Robert Powell, and the visions of Anne Catherine Emmerich. She has taken great joy in researching astrological phenomena for the Journal for Star Wisdom. Julie lives in Carmel, California, where shooting stars and the Milky Way are often visible.

Daniel Andreev

Daniel Andreev (1906–1959) was born in Berlin. His father was the well-known Russian writer Leonid Andreev. His mother Alexandra Veligorsky died during childbirth. Daniel's father, overcome with grief, gave up Andreev to Alexandra's sister Elizabeth Dobrov, who lived in Moscow. It was a critical event in Daniel Andreev's life, for in contrast to many of the Russian intelligentsia at the time, the maintained its Russian Orthodox faith. Daniel's childhood included contact with persons as his godfather Maxim Gorky. Daniel was conscripted as a noncombatant in the Soviet Army in 1942, and after the war he returned to writing fiction and poetry. Daniel Andreev was arrested in 1947, along with his wife and many of his relatives and friends, and sentenced to twenty-five years in prison, while his wife received twenty-five years of labor camp. All of previous writing was destroyed. With the rise of Khrushchev, Andreev's case was reviwed and his sentence reduced to ten years. He was released to his waiting wife in 1957, his health ruined following a heart attack in prison. While in prison, he had written the first drafts of The Rose of the World and Russian Gods (a collection of poetry), as well as The Iron Mystery, a play in verse. Andreev spent the last two years of his life finishing his work on these works. Andreev's wife Alla, realizing the negative reception the books would get from the Soviet authorities, hid them until the mid-seventies, but didn't publish them until Gorbachev and glasnost. The first edition of The Rose of the World (100,000 copies) quickly sold out, and since then several editions have been equally popular in Russia.