The “Calendar of the Soul”

By editor | March 24, 2021 |
See updated 2021-2022 guide below…

In 1912 Rudolf Steiner provided a “calendar of the soul,” weekly verses that express how the changing seasons in the natural world and in our own inner lives are helping our consciousness evolve.

[View and download here a guide by Herbert O. Hagens to dates for the Calendar in 2021-2022.]

In an article first published in Orion magazine in Autumn 1999, “The One Life Within Us and Abroad,” Prof. Gertrude Reif Hughes describes Steiner’s Calendar as a personal awakening. “That year I became able to “read” the Soul Calendar as Steiner designed it to be read—meditatively.

The Calendar began to offer its gifts to me, and for the next seven years I worked with it almost daily. I saw that the verses are more like koans than poems. The descriptions not only represented processes around me but awakened me to processes occurring within my soul. Earlier I hadn’t felt that echoing, which is fundamental to the Calendar. Now I began to confirm it in my own experience.

You can read Prof. Hughes’ full article, reprinted in the Fall 2012 issue of being human, as part of a special centennial section on the Calendar linked here.

The Calendar of the Soul Online

There are several editions of the Calendar of the Soul on the internet. The one at the Lili Kolisko Institute allows you to click through to Steiner’s eurythmy for for that week’s verse. This version offers many translations with original text, and other special features. (If initially you see only the German, hover your mouse pointer over the text to see options.)

Posted in Course of the Year, Resources, Self-development

10 Comments

  1. Kelly Arbor on May 10, 2020 at 3:47 pm

    I heard there are mp3 files available in which the German Calendar of the Soul is read. However I haven’t found the right website. Perhaps you can help me.

    Reply
    • editor on May 21, 2020 at 9:24 pm

      Kelly, hi —
      I haven’t been able to locate those.
      Does anyone else know?
      John Beck

      Reply
    • nicolette on March 28, 2021 at 7:35 pm

      I would like to find Calendar of the soul in German audio as well!! Please let us know. Nicolette111@icloud.com (Vancouver Island). Thank you!

      Reply
  2. Ken Simpson on July 24, 2020 at 6:40 am

    My dear friends,

    I purchased these 52 mp3 files from Kilian Voß (Voss) about three years ago. He currently is moving from Germany to England. You may reach him on Facebook.

    Ken Simpson

    Reply
    • editor on July 25, 2020 at 3:49 am

      Thanks, Ken!

      Reply
  3. Judy Lucas on October 21, 2020 at 6:42 pm

    Is it possible to have the weekly Calendar of the Soul verses emailed? I would love that, and I am also enquiring on behalf of a friend who originally had the idea.

    Reply
  4. Dean on March 28, 2021 at 4:26 pm

    Emailing of verses stopped August 2020 from RSA. Only available online. Would be great to have someone or the society to pick up the emailing service again.

    Reply
    • editor on April 5, 2021 at 5:44 pm

      Sorry that information was out of date! This is not a commitment we could undertake at the moment. Anyone else?

      Reply

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