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.
FIFTY-SECOND WEEK OF THE YEAR 52. Wenn aus den Seelentiefen Der Geist sich wendet zu dem Weltensein Und Schönheit quillt aus Raumesweiten, Dann zieht aus Himmelsfernen Des Lebens Kraft in Menschenleiber Und einet, machtvoll wirkend, Des Geistes Wesen mit dem Menschensein. ∇∆ IF on emerging from the depths of Soul the Spirit wends its way to World-Being, then is drawn from out those distant heavens those forces that all human frames inspire, and thus are joined, in quick’ning fire, the Spirit’s essence with the being of Man.