As summer wanes and autumn descends upon us, the opportunity arises to observe the ebb and flow of nature both within the world and in ourselves. During earth's spring and summer, spiritual forces rise up into the heavens to greet the sun like a great exhale. Like a deep inhale during fall and winter, both the earth and we ourselves draw inward. At this time when external nature is withering and withdrawing, Rudolf Steiner urges us to maintain balance within ourselves by opposing nature-consciousness with the force of self-consciousness — our heart-felt, intellectual understanding of our selves.
Last week we began the awakening the soul forces of humanity. We aim to produce "fruits of will" just as the orchards and gardens produced fruit in the summer. The autumn of the world is the spring of the soul. The verse for this week in the Northern Hemisphere reflects the opportunity for a resurrection of the soul to carry cosmic warmth and light into this darkened world through our heart-felt thinking and actions.
Practice the Calendar verses to entrain with the rhythms of the seasons. Together, we will radiate these forces out into society through our moral words and deeds of brotherly love. Rudolf Steiner's verses for the 52 weeks of the calendar are here on our website, together with Rudolf Steiner's original German text and several other translations: Rudolf Steiner, The Anthroposophical Calendar.