liturgy of the seasons (45)
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.
FORTY-FIFTH WEEK OF THE YEAR 45. Es festigt sich Gedankenmacht Im Bunde mit der Geistgeburt, Sie hellt der Sinne dumpfe Reize Zur vollen Klarheit auf. Wenn Seelenfülle Sich mit dem Weltenwerden einen will, Muss Sinnesoffenbarung Des Denkens Licht empfangen. ∇∆ A welling spring within the earth so thought o’erflows the spirit’s birth catching rays of yonder cosmic sun from senses’ semblance, truth is spun; if thou wouldst resolve, from depths of heart in this world’s unfolding to take part then pour the stream of sense and sight into the shimm’ring font of thinking’s light and wed thy will with world-becoming
