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.
TENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR
Zu sommerlichen Höhen Erhebt der Sonne leuchtend Wesen sich; Es nimmt mein menschlich Fühlen In seine Raumesweiten mit. Erahnend regt im Innern sich Empfindung, dumpf mir kündend, Erkennen wirst du einst: Dich fühlte jetzt ein Gotteswesen. ∇∆ THE Sun, enthroned in summer’s height weaves a net with threads of warmth and light and casts it out upon the airy sea then draws its harvest in, and with it, me. a premonition stirs within a subtle inkling, faint surmised that one day you will recognize: a godly presence felt in thee.