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.
THIRTY-SECOND WEEK OF THE YEAR 32. Ich fühle fruchtend eigne Kraft Sich stärkend mich der Welt verleihn; Mein Eigenwesen fühl ich kraftend Zur Klarheit sich zu wenden Im Lebensschicksalsweben. ∇∆ I feel a power now my own, ripe and ready to give back my Self, I feel and comprehend my way I’ll wend in clarity, to weave life’s latticework of destiny.
It was in 1912 that Rudolf Steiner first formulated the Calendar of the Soul. April 7th was Easter that year, and Steiner was in Finland for a lecture-course that could be experienced by the Russian members for the first time, i.e., GA 136. Thus, the 52 verses that were promulgated that year also bore the stamp of the Sun's movement through the constellations of the Zodiac in true sidereal fashion. What had occurred to make this all possible was the revealing of the birth of Christian Rosenkreutz for the first time in the lectures contained in GA 130 from September 1911. The CoS was the outcome, which only proves that forward progress was the goal. Every year was like the advancement of a watch on a clock. Father Kronos? Indeed.
I am very much interested in this blog, Max, and especially Barfield's discussions with C.S. Lewis about Steiner's version of Christology; the so-called, "Great War". When will Fundamentalism pass into the New Future? This is the question.