Dear Friends,
Lili Kolisko died 40 years ago on 11.20.1976.
Rudolf Steiner pointed out that we can understand a lot about the spiritual intentions of a person by observing their death day and the meaning of that day.
I was surprised at the insight that one can gain about her when one looks at the verse of the 34th week in the Calendar of the Soul.
Mysteriously, what was kept of Old
With newly awakened Selfhood-being
Within my Inmost, re-enlivening itself, feel:
It should, awakening World-Strengths
Pour out into my life’s outer work
And by becoming imprint me into Existence.
This is the week when we are particular guided to combine the impulses that are coming to us from two directions (we shall discuss this shortly) in such a way that they undergo a re-enlivening. They should be felt and thus enable us to awaken within ourselves powers of the universe, the cosmos, the world. These new powers that we have should be poured into our practical work in the outer world. With this action of changing the world around us, through these spiritual forces, we can imprint a seal of our own personality into the existing world around us.
It is important to note that Rudolf Steiner does not say, does not “just” say, that we should be working in the practical physical world around us but rather that we should be active through the new powers that we can gain. We should change the world through re-enlivened spiritual impulses.
What are these “Old” and what are the “New” elements?
One can look at them on many levels.
One could simply say that we should at this time combine the, by now old, summer forces with the coming, new forces of autumn. Not incorrect. One should indeed combine the forces of warmth, of light, the glow of the outward radiating impulses of the summer with the clear, more accurate, more self-aware, less dreamy, forces of the autumn. Combine the Head and the Heart.
One could, however, also realize that the human Gestalt, the human form, is the result of the Old Saturn, the Old Sun, the Old Moon, and those forces are still preserved in us, they continue to act in us. These “Old” powers need to be re-enlivened with the powers of the New Selfhood, the new Ego strengths. Only by uniting the two streams can we truly make an imprint on the world, change the world in the spirit of anthroposophy, let the spirit be visible in the physical world, show that it is the spiritual impulses who are the “changers” of the world.
(Incidentally, this is of course the perennial value of the Calendar of the Soul: it shows at all times how we can be, in our inner Soul workings, in harmony with the events that Outside, in Nature, the Gods are working on. )
This verse I believe illuminates Lili Kolisko’s lifelong work and intentionality: to create experimental situations where (confirmed by Rudolf Steiner) pure spiritual forces could be seen directly affecting the etheric forces of growth in the plants; where cosmic star forces could be seen to be real in the world; where a medicine could be arising in the future based not just on physical but also on spiritual laws.
(Lili Kolisko was of course concerned to represent spiritual life in many other areas.)
I want to draw everybody’s attention one more time to the fact that on the Kolisko website we provide every week the verse of the week of R. Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul. you will find the verses both in the original German and in my special translation that attempts to stay as literal as possible to the original translation.
But we go one step beyond that. With the help of my friend Dr. Mark Kamsler we give every week also the eurhythmy movements – with the correct colors- as given by R. Steiner. R. Steiner tells us that meditating (an if I may add moving) these verses every week can connect us to the impulses and the beings that are guiding that week.
This is one of the several efforts of the Kolisko Institute.
In the name of all co-workers and the Kolisko Institute Board I want to warmly thank All who follow us, support us and make our striving worthwhile.
In Thanks,
Ross Rentea MD