glory in the stable
Among the oxen (like an ox I’m slow)
I see a glory in the stable grow
Which, with the ox’s dullness might at length
Give me an ox’s strength.
Among the asses (stubborn I as they)
I see my Savior where I looked for hay;
So may my beast like folly learn at least
The patience of a beast.
Among the sheep (I like a sheep have strayed)
I watch the manger where my Lord is laid;
Oh that my baaing nature would win thence
Some woolly innocence!
—C.S. Lewis, "The Nativity"
* * * * * *
What is a year?
It might seem a simple question at first, even obvious, but just a little reflection on the question opens up a world of curious riddles—perhaps annoying ones if depth is not your thing, and materialism is—but these same riddles can also point us toward beauty, wonder, mystery, inexact harmony—in short, the borderline of a world of soul and spirit that we can find—if we start exploring what lies behind the increasingly rigid surfaces of digitized clocks and calendars—is always present: the soul of the year, in all its subtle, familiar, known but so often overlooked, sublimity. As with so many things, we truly have Rudolf Steiner to thank for initiating a renewed consciousness of the cycle of year, for reminding us of our (human) souls' connection to nature, and how that awakens a different experience of "time," and a deeper sense, possibly, for what "time" is.
Take the time of Advent, for example. While it is a rather old Christian tradition with obscure beginnings, and varied expressions, it is both remarkable and profound how these four weeks (four lights) marking the journey through the darkest time of the earthly year were quietly and humbly renewed in the twentieth century to encompass the anticipation (and participation) of the birth of light by the whole of the earthly kingdoms: mineral, plant, animal, man.
And thus, The third light of Advent is the light of beasts/The light of hope that we may see/What is greatest in the least. What a gift for children, and the living child in us all, to experience our humanity, in candlelight surrounded by darkness, in company with the kingdoms of nature, awaiting new birth.
May you have a blessed Sunday and a wonder-filled week,
John-Scott
The Spiritual Hierarchies and the Physical World
Zodiac, Planets & Cosmos
10 lectures in Düsseldorf, April 12–18, 1909;
participants' notes from Q&A sessions (CW 110)
In these remarkable lectures, Rudolf Steiner reestablishes the human being as a participant in an evolving, dynamic universe of living spiritual beings: a living universe, whole and divine. He does so in concrete images, capable of being grasped by human consciousness as if from within.
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