liturgy of the seasons (27)
a weekly translation of Rudolf Steiner’s Seelenkalender verse
IN 1912-1913, 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-SEVENTH WEEK OF THE YEAR 27. In meines Wesens Tiefen dringen: Erregt ein ahnungsvolles Sehnen, Daß ich mich selbstbetrachtend finde, Als Sommersonnengabe, die als Keim In Herbstesstimmung wärmend lebt Als meiner Seele Kräftetrieb. ∇∆ IN stations of my being unremembered long-lost intimations stir to second life, faintly, at first only an ember, then a shower of sparks: a self-encounter in the dark— for Summer’s dying Sun shall still abide as inner Warmth, retained through Autumn-tide, as Life sustained, as germinal power.
