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.
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, wings of wind enfolded when from the soul’s foundation, to the heart’s high-vaulted welkin: a rising, rushing gust of love fills my empty sails of self bearing me aloft upon the breath of the cosmic Word