liturgy of the seasons (16)
a weekly translation of Rudolf Steiner’s Seelenkalender verse
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.
SIXTEENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR 16. Zu bergen Geistgeschenk im Innern Gebietet strenge mir mein Ahnen, Dass reifend Gottesgaben In Seelengründen fruchtend Der Selbstheit Früchte bringen. ∇∆ “STAND thou ceaseless guard above the spirit’s kernel,” my angel’s warning, stern, to me resounds “foster thou that slow-ripening germ of gods abiding deep within thy soul’s own fertile grounds, pulsing with selfhood’s promise.”
