liturgy of the seasons (9)
a weekly translation of Rudolf Steiner’s Seelenkalender verse
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.
NINTH WEEK OF THE YEAR Vergessend meine Willenseigenheit Erfüllet Weltenwärme sommerkündend Mir Geist und Seelenwesen; Im Licht mich zu verlieren Gebietet mir das Geistesschauen, Und kraftvoll kündet Ahnung mir: Verliere dich, um dich zu finden. ∇∆ FORGOTTEN is my sovereign will as world-warmth, announcing summer, fills my wakeful heart and dreaming mind; “to lose thyself in light,” inciteth me, the season’s wisdom, and exhorting me still further says: “you must have lost yourself, yourself to find!”
