The cycle of the year

Final post of reflections from Sunbridge, Fall 2012

The above is a photo of my page of notes from our week of talking about the Cycle of the Year pertaining to the Festivals in Waldorf Early Childhood. What an exciting topic for in depth discussion! Hopefully you can sort of make out my handwriting...

The Season of Winter....

This is where our inner light shines....

We take with us the warmth of the Summer sun into these cold and dark months; "a spark of the Summer sun's light" is represented during our Martinmas Lantern Walk. It is all we have. Yet, this is the time where the Earth is truly awake! 

Through the field the farmer goes,
Seeds of ripened corn he sows;
Trusts the earth will hold it warm,
Shelter it from cold and harm.

For he knows, that warmth and light
Live there, hidden from our sight;
And beneath a sheltering wing,
Deep below, new life will spring!

Above is a sketch representing the Advent Spiral....

One walked into the darkness, finding that the eternal light was always there to enkindle every human being.

Spring is a time of rebirth and life (Easter, candlemas)....the light is ever more present....
Yet, there is a time of decay during this lively time of year as the flowering trees and bushes drop their silky flowers to the ground....

 

High Summer is depicted above...the world is asleep after a surge of new life....we fall into a Summer consciousness; almost like a warm dream. Oh, this is my most favorite time of year.

Fall brings about a "moving back down/in"....think of fruit hanging from the branches and falling towards the Earth, flowers wilting and drooping, leaves finding their final resting places on the Earth...

"Look around thee..."

 

Meditative Thoughts for Autumn
(R. Steiner)
“It is true that spring is fair, and it is a fine capacity of the human soul to perceive the beauty of the spring, the growing, sprouting, burgeoning life. But to be able to perceive also when the leaves fade and take on their fall coloring, when the animals creep away — to be able to feel how in the sensible which is dying away, the gleaming, shining, soul-spiritual element arises — to be able to perceive how with the yellowing of the leaves there is a descent of the springing and sprouting life, but how the sensible becomes yellow in order that the spiritual can live in the yellowing as such — to be able to perceive how in the falling of the leaves the ascent of the spirit takes place, how the spiritual is the counter-manifestation of the fading sense-perceptible; this should as a perceptive feeling for the spirit — ensoul the human being in autumn! Then he would prepare himself in the right way precisely for Christmastide.”

I hope some of you may have found this helpful!

 

Let the Christmas Crafting continue!