To very little else does the human
soul feel more intimately related than to this web of transience and
permanence, metamorphosis and law. This web constitutes the tapestry of life on
which the earthly events occur. Even those without any ideas about the nature
of this tapestry are unconsciously affected by the symbol it represents. Much
poetry bears witness to this. But the human soul does not merely repeat what
occurs in nature, however profoundly she may be moved by it. She feels herself
satisfied only when, out of this, she gives rise to something new.
The rhythm of the year draws all
creatures of nature with it, without their being able to oppose or change it.
The human soul too is capable of surrendering herself to the light of summer
and the darkness of winter in joy and pain. But she can also experience that
the year’s events assume a new form in her innermost being elevating her to a
state above and beyond nature. When the soul directs her introspective gaze
onto herself, she may notice that the moods of the seasons correspond to twelve
attributes of her own being. These attributes, however, do not unfurl as is the
case with creatures of nature, without her own activity. There are twelve
stages of development in which she can educate herself, and to which she must
impel herself. Hence they are not natural tendencies but Virtues. In this
sense, the human being may experience its own soul as a bud yearning to unfold.
The human soul is, to be sure, even before her self-knowledge and self-trans-formation,
graced with an abundance of potentialities, but these become stunted or even
change into their opposites when the treasure hidden in the soul is not
nurtured and brought to light. For this, the soul requires the guidance and
direction of her own spirit. She then senses her spirit as the inner sun which
in “The Year of the Soul” awakens her to herself, allowing her to follow her
journey through the constellations of the Ideal.
If this occurs, then a similar unfolding
begins in the soul as in nature too as a dying and falling away of the
unpurified, similar to the falling leaves when the year draws to an end. For
the human spirit too succeeds in radiating its light and warmth only when in dialogue
with the soul, it ever better recognizes its task. The path of metamorphosis,
which the soul traverses under the direction of the spirit in a lawful sequence
(even though inner practice demands repetition), does not return, however, to
its starting point. Rather, the soul renders unto herself, becoming ever more
vital and perfect, the ideals of the Virtues which the spirit reveals to her
and to which she is summoned from within. She describes in her development not
an orbit, but an ascending spiral. Or otherwise expressed, the soul bud
illumined by the spirit unfurls to blossom, bringing forth a fruit in whose
ripening, soul and sprit intimately unite. Insofar as the spirit signifies to
the soul the star-script of the Ideal, it makes her into a poetess of her own
true being.
The following
contemplations on the Virtues (which initially appeared in the Star Calendar, Easter 1969 to Easter
1970, published in Dornach in 1968), are based on brief indications by Rudolf
Steiner for meditations which may be practiced in according with the changing
year. They begin: “Until January 21: Courage becomes power of redemtion”, and
end: “Until December 21: Control of the tongue (speech) becomes feeling of
truth”. The time of inner transformation extends from the 21st day
of the month to the 21st day of the following month. Since it is a
question of transformation and progression, Rudolf Steiner does not enumerate a
series of Virtues, but directs us to a path of inner work on ourselves, whereby
in developing our potential qualities and blending them into one another, we
become creators of our Virtues, architects of our own being.
Herbert
Witzenmann
Dornach, August 1974
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