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.
FIFTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR 15. Ich fühle wie verzaubert Im Weltenschein das Geistesweben: Es hat in Sinnesdumpfheit Gehüllt mein Eigenwesen, Zu schenken mir die Kraft: Die, ohnmächtig sich selbst zu geben, Mein Ich in seinen Schranken ist. ∇∆ SPELLBOUND in a shining weft wrought of world-spirit’s ceaseless weaving: it has enwrapped me in an envelope of its enchantment—a chrysalis, wherein I wax in strength and stature, embraced by shining threads that give my nascent self, a place to call its own.
I am coming at long last to know Steiner through your “Calendar of Soul” translations. This one especially speaks to me today.