liturgy of the seasons (40)

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.

FORTIETH WEEK OF THE YEAR

40. Und bin ich in den Geistestiefen,
Erfüllt in meinen Seelengründen
Aus Herzens Liebewelten
Der Eigenheiten leerer Wahn
Sich mit des Weltenwortes Feuerkraft.

∇∆

AND I abide, my spirit’s wings enfolded
when from the soul’s foundation,
to the heart’s high-vaulted welkin
a rushing wind of love
fills my specious sense of self
with buoyancy and warmth
bearing it aloft upon 
the breath of the world Word