Rudolf Steiner’s
Calendar of the Soul
In 1912, the Austrian esoteric philosopher and spiritual leader Rudolf Steiner published a little booklet, called Calendar of the Soul, with a verse for each week of the year. He suggests that we begin on Easter Sunday, a celebration of Soul’s victory over death, which is the first Sunday after the full moon following the Spring Equinox. The Soul’s annual journey then follows the path of the Sun and the Moon across the sky. For more information about Calendar of the Soul, click here.
Inner life changes along with the changing seasons of nature, as the two are intimately connected.
-Rudolf Steiner
Marta Stemberger instituted and initially carried the ASNYC website project on Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul (COS). She took each week’s verse, presenting the original German and the Ruth and Hans Pusch English translation and choosing a wonderful image (check them out in our COS archive) resonant with the verse.
Starting early last year, the ASNYC meditation group under Fred Dennehy’s guidance began, with increasing frequency, choosing meditation themes from the week’s COS verse. The experience for the group was often revelatory, despite the fact that some of the members had been aware of the COS verses for decades. It was if we had awoken from a deep and long winter sleep to find ourselves in the midst of previously unimagined riches.
With that awakening, it is the meditation group’s privilege to re-start the COS weekly offering. Individual members will choose an image evoked by the verse, select or create a “best” translation, and perhaps add a comment, insight or relevant quotation.
Image: The intersection of the sun’s Zodiacal path and the ecliptic
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 6
The seven lines of Verse Six emerge and merge in a twofold, complementary structure– four lines followed by three. The foregrounding lines present an experiential assertion of realized, graced human potential in the surging of time and space: an upraised Self as World-manifestation.
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 7
The key line is the third: Nun trete du mein Ahnen. “Now step forth my…Ahnen.”
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 8
In Verse 8 We are reminded of the powerful spiritual event: Pentecost. Previous to this event existed the Mystery of Golgotha. The Christ’s deed was a ‘Universal’ one, redeeming the etheric and the physical bodies in evolution.
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 9
Verse 9 brings to fruition the foregrounding, nascent Whitsun experience of verse 8. In verse 8 “human cognition” “must in humility yield to a dream state” “when life divine seeks union with my soul.”
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 10
We can feel the air thick with life, our eyes are filled with a riot of color in the garden, and all the earth hums with manifestations of the spirit world. We can easily be lost in this profusion of life outside ourselves and be lost in the sense world, off -kilter, dreaming. What does it mean that we will know- one day, in the future- that “a divine being felt you now”?
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 11
Devoting our senses to the dazzling sunlight and exuberant growth of nature activates our Feeling. This outward gesture of appreciation brings our personal I into the realm of the cosmic I and facilitates our self discovery.
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 12
We continue with the theme of entering the summer season, when spirits approach mankind. The earth is exhaling in the form of blossoms, leaves etc. We are given the opportunity to observe and experience the beauty. Ideally, we can experience the cosmic process via thoughts and feelings (via the higher universal ‘I’). One of the essential traits for attaining this experience is that of ‘gratitude’. The spiritual experience is often described as having divine light and warmth.
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 17
Jonathan Hilton’s astrosophy letter from July 30th conveyed a concordant message: “And since we are now beginning the seedling start of the Michael season with the Aquariid meteors this weekend and then the great Perseid meteor shower in mid August, its time to start awakening to our work of bringing resurrection forces again into the world as our harvest in preparation for autumn.
Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul, Verse 19
Why the need for secrecy? What may be called to mind is Matthew 6:3: “But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth.” To give purely is to deeply perceive another’s need and then to fulfill the need in loving response. The danger is in the aftermath. Will the lower self take credit? Bask in having done a worthwhile deed? Make a public show of it? Or will achieved self knowledge be sufficiently strong to evoke gratitude for a moment of elevating and weaving oneself into the fabric of the world’s living need.