liturgy of the seasons (36)

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.

THIRTY-SIXTH WEEK OF THE YEAR36. In meines Wesens Tiefen spricht
Zur Offenbarung drängend
Geheimnisvoll das Weltenwort:
Erfülle deiner Arbeit Ziele
Mit meinem Geisteslichte,
Zu opfern dich durch mich.

∇∆

IN deepest recesses of me
a power presses towards its revelation,
lo! the cosmic WORD begins to stir today 
and in my soul doth raise its voice to say:
“pursue thy strivings’ destination 
my light divine will show the way,
to offer up thyself through me.”

Photo by Jaanus Jagomägi on Unsplash