IN the 1920s, Rudolf Steiner created a sort of liturgy of the natural and spiritual year in the form of fifty-two short verses. Experience—my own and others—testifies to the powerful effect that a short meditation on the relevant verse throughout the course of the year can have in respect to awakening and sensitizing the soul to each season’s unique quality and gesture.
Below is Dr. Steiner’s original Seelenkalender, or “Calendar of the Soul” verse for this week followed by my translation into English. I have opted to follow, whenever a conflict arose, the spirit over the letter in my translation efforts, attempting to convey the “mood” before the propositional content.
TWENTY-FIFTH WEEK OF THE YEAR 25. Ich darf nun mir gehören und leuchtend breiten innenlicht in raumes- und in zeitenfinsternis. Zum schlafe drängt natürlich wesen, der seele tiefen sollen wachen Und wachend tragen sonnengluten in kalte winterfluten. ∇∆ AT LAST! I may indwell myself again and find that secret dawn within my ken as cosmic night descends through space and time, as nature spirits soon, to slumber, shall incline, a wakefulness is kindled in the depths of mind, enlightened by a rising inner sun in Winter’s swell.