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-THIRD WEEK OF THE YEAR 23. Es dämpfet herbstlich sich der sinne reizesstreben; in lichtesoffenbarung mischen der nebel dumpfe schleier sich. Ich selber schau in raumesweiten des herbstes winterschlaf Der sommer hat an mich sich selber hingegeben. ∇∆ THE mood of Autumn, soft-descending dampens Summer’s festival of senses; trails of creeping mist arise like shrouds upon a shining face of light now to far-flung space, my eyes are tending sensing Winter’s sleep impending the Summer gave its life into my keeping its harvest for my reaping holding nothing for itself.