Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul Verse 3

Introduced by Michael Aitken

In a presentation at ASNYC on the relationship between the life cycle of the plant and human soul development, Tom Altgelt overlays the phases of preparation, illumination and initiation from Rudolf Steiner’s Knowledge of Higher Worlds onto the lemniscate form of the Calendar of the Soul.  In this moment (Verse 3), situated three steps into the upward movement from the spring equinox toward summer solstice, we’re still in the very early stages of transition from preparation to illumination.  We’re still in the Easter mood.  Having rooted in the soil from the seed during preparation we now sprout and reach toward the light and warmth of the sun.  In Verse 1 the sun “calls to the human mind”, and by Verse 3 we begin to reach, and return that call with our own speech indicating our intention.

The two images above flanking the sprouting plant from Tom Altgelt’s presentation are illustrations by Johfra Bosschart from The Chemical Wedding of Christian Rosenkreutz.  Bosschart’s illustration style could be considered a bit too literal and sensational for Anthroposophists, but they do point to two moments in the narrative that show Rosenkreutz in an Easter mood, and resonate with this week’s verse.

These two moments are taken from the end of Day 1 and beginning of Day 2 of The Chemical Wedding.  Earlier, after a long period of preparation, Rosenkreutz had been approached by the spiritual world in an imaginative picture of an invitation to the wedding – as in Verse 1 of the Calendar of the Soul “when from far and wide / The sun calls to the human sense and mind.”  Later that night he dreams of a dark dungeon in which he is attached to “weighty fetters” among throngs of others similarly burdened (above left image).  Having escaped, he wakes from the dream and embarks on the first phase of his journey that will eventually lead to a union of soul and spirit.  He sets out with a light heart and speaks to the universe through a joyful song to the surrounding birds (above right image).

Rosenkreutz, who is still in the process of forgetting the fetters of his lower astral nature, has announced his intentions to the spiritual world and reaches with “childlike confidence” toward a wholistic and participatory relationship with the world.  Significantly, he receives a token for the way with the inscription “D.L.S.”: Deus, Lux, Solis, or Divine, Light, Sun.

The following is taken from the end of Day 1 of The Chemical Wedding:

“Whereupon the trumpets began to sound again, which gave me such a shock that I woke up, and then first perceived that it was only a dream, but it so strongly impressed my imagination that I was still perpetually troubled about it, and I thought I still felt the wounds on my feet.   Howbeit, by all these things I understood well that God had vouchsafed that I should be present at this mysterious and bidden wedding.  Wherefore with childlike confidence I returned thanks to his Divine Majesty, and besought him that he would further preserve me in fear of him, that he would daily fill my heart with wisdom and understanding, and at length graciously (without deserting me) conduct me to the desired end.”

. . . 

“And thereupon in the presence of God I made a vow that if anything through his grace should be revealed to me, I would employ it to neither my own honor nor my own authority in the world, but to the spreading of his Name, and the service of my neighbor.  And with this vow, and good hope, I departed out of my cell with joy.”