Step Inside The Calendar of the Soul

Karl König meditated intensely on the 52 weekly verses of Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul. He often encouraged his colleagues to find inner strength from the verses, and wrote The Calendar of the Soul, which forms part one of this combined volume, as a guide for them, drawing out the patterns through the course of the year.

Part two of The Calendar of the Soul: An Inner Journey Through the Year comprises 52 naïve, full-colour artistic sketches that König created in 1940 to accompany each verse during his internment on the Isle of Man. For each weekly verse of the Soul Calendar, there’s a picture which describes an experience of the inner situation.

Read on for a free extract from the eighteenth week, which emphasises the importance of listening attentively, plus we share the accompanying sketch from Karl König.

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18. August 4-10

Can I expand my soul
To grapple to her being
This word of worlds in germ conceived?
I do forebode I strength must find
To found and form my soul
A garment worthy of the spirit.

The word of worlds has gained entry into human depths of soul through the sphere of the senses. It will stream into the limbs, which are borne by the spirit, in order to be reborn in the aims of work.
Between conception and birth lies the time of this transformation, which is spoken of in the verse for this week. How can it come about that this change takes place worthily?

This is the question that the human I poses itself:

Can I expand my soul
To grapple to her being
This word of worlds in germ conceived?

It is an inner listening, a real effort to keep quiet and listen, that needs to happen now. The words, ‘Behold, I am the Lord’s handmaid, let it be according to thy word,’ express the attitude of soul which is alone appropriate here. It should also be said: Can I open the ear of the soul out of humility to such an extent that I can listen to the tender voice of the word of worlds? For only in the element of listening and hearing can that connection arise of which the I is speaking here.

How otherwise would we be able to encounter the word if we did not incline our ear towards it in an attitude of listening?

If this inner surrender has been achieved, the voice of the angel speaks again within us, for a ‘boding’ note is sounded:

I do forebode I strength must find
To found and form my soul
A garment worthy of the spirit.

To fashion ‘my soul’ so that it is ‘worthy’ — this is a message that the angel whispers to the I. ‘Become worthy,’ he says, ‘then you can adorn yourself like the bride that the spirit birth awaits.’

For this, however, it is necessary to find the strength which can bring such a condition about. This requires not brute force or strength but an inner power of resolve.

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