Birthday in the Ashram.
Today, October 17, 2025 is the 27th birthday of the first class of our Esoteric Group (Esoteric & Astrological Studies & Research, Arts & Sciences Institute) begun on a Sunday in our building in Santa Cruz at 523 Center St., at the corner of New & Center Streets, next to a Baptist church, the participants of which sang gospel day and night & next door to a Buddhist Sangha.
After years of writing the Astrology column & teaching in everyone else’s building, office space, venue, school, corridor, rooftop, gallery & home in Santa Cruz…we finally had a building – a Center of our own.
The owner was Dr. Elmore (people who are esotericist will notice the significance of his name). It had a small back yard. It was 560 square feet.
One day while driving around Santa Cruz I saw this little crooked building, with a big dusty plate glass window in the front. It literally was crooked & a bit sideways (like Uranus). It had been occupied by a tax man who studied the Book of Enoch. The man had died & the place had been empty. Who owned this building I wondered? I knew it was to be our center.
I went to the courthouse to find the owner, found his name & phone number and called him. I told him I wanted to rent the space (it was connected to his dentist’s office) for a school & he agreed immediately. This was in January, 1998.
Well, it was Venus retrograde when he agreed I could rent that little crooked space and then we had severe storms that winter & spring & for several months the place was filled with floodwaters. Over & over we had to put sand bags at the front & back doors. The flood water were not deterred. They would splash into the little building, feet deep, like ocean waves.
Spring then summer & things dried out. Surveying what was ahead we saw the following – the walls needed painting, partitions had to be taken down, old rug taken out, new carpetting, new bathroom installed, large white board for one wall in the room, multiple bookshelves, blinds to cover the big window (golden), a desk, table, chairs, refrigerator, pillows for students to sit on the floor during classes, etc.
Students stepped in (I had been teachings for many years before, teaching astrology classes – but this building was for the Esoteric Astrology school) – they painted (sponged) the walls a pale ochre yellow, took down partitions, two tall white columns showed up, book shelves, too.
I received a call from a woman that her father had died, and the family wanted to donate his esoteric books to our school.
During the summer we had our first astrology classes. Then in October, on a Sunday, on October 17th, we had our first Esoteric Wisdom Class. This consisted of students who had studied astrology with me for several years and who I knew were ready for the deeper studies – Esoteric Astrology & the Seven Rays.

On that Sunday as we began our new studies (the Alice Bailey teachings, the Seven Rays, etc.) we heard a sound outside our building from down the street. We went outside & looking up Center Street and marching down the street were high school marching bands from all over the state – a parade of them all playing their music, cymbals clashing, trumpets blaring, bells ringing – brass, woodwinds, tubas (sousaphones), saxophones, clarinets, zylaphones, flutes, and various drums, the percussive rhythm & musical tempo, flags, a color guard dancing, spinning, tossing flags in the air &, at times, a baton twirler!

We were surprised. It was laughable. I could not teach. It was so loud! What was this I wondered? And so we stood outside, lining up against the big glass window for the next hour watching the parade – the colorful and different styles of each marching band & listening to their steady energetic pace and musical performances. It was a celebration! And it was fun!

After the marching bands had passed, went inside again & discussed what we had seen. What we all came to realize this was a party, an honor, a festival, musical merriment, an outer celebration recognizing the opening of our Esoteric School & our very first esoteric class. It all seemed perfect & appropriate, actually! A celebration of our first esoteric wisdom class.

So….our school went on with classes for the next 10 years in that location until Dr. Elmore retired & the building was sold to another dentist (Dr. McClure) who tore down everything but one wall – the wall where the white board was, with 10 years of astrological esoteric seven rays teachings on it – that wall still stand & is the foundation for the entire new building.

After the building was torn down & rebuilt to be a medical office,
our school went online, where it is today. We presently have an inner esoteric group still working together – 12 students who have been together now for over 27+ years.

In the days ahead, I will begin new study groups, new classes in basic astrology in order to create a foundation for later wisdom teaching studies.

Today our esoteric group, after morning medication, talked together about our history, our origins, the experiences we have had together these past 30 years or more. Over those years our students grew up, got married, had relationships, went to college, had children (who are adults in college now).

They talked about how important our classes were for them, building a new mind, learning & studying and building a new mind & understanding astrology, linking heaven & earth, the personality with the Soul. And how everyone learned to eat better too. After each Sunday class we sat together & ate together. Everyone was responsible for bringing home made organic food to share with everyone. Salads, & chickens & stews & tacos & chai & home made desserts. We ate together after our classes. And everyone learned everything all together, over time & all at once.

We look forward to someday have another such building. But a bigger one, this time. With land & gardens, with meadows & children, with a professional kitchen, buildings, libraries, and a warm swimming pool. An Erdkinder for everyone, the City of Humanity, the City of Light.

Tonight, wherever we all are, in the Ashram, we will eat cake together. And remember our past 27+ years together. And talk of the future. And blow out 27 candles. love, Risa

Photos:
523 Center St. today (Dentist office now).
Center St, down from the Center, white building is an Orthodox Church.
Street name – Center Street.
Lincoln Court – California cottages, built in 1920, a perfect community build – 1/2 a block down from the Center, on New Street. Living here w/ students would be a dream come true.
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