Rudolf Steiner’s Calendar of the Soul and Karl Konig’s Drawings

The Calendar of the Soul consists of 52 meditative verses, one for each week of the year, written by Rudolf Steiner.  In their content and structure – their relationship to each other, the verses serve as a bridge between our inner soul world and the outer world of nature.

Each of the Calendar’s verses forms a group with four corresponding verses. There are, thus, thirteen groups of corresponding verses or crosses. Karl König was one of the first, if not the first, researcher to study and elaborate the importance of these cross correspondences. He also gave a name to each cross.  As part of the Conference, a special selection of four of the crosses will be made visible in eurythmy directed by Dorothea Mier and performed by the Eurythmy Spring Valley Ensemble and guest eurythmists from our region. Each set of verses will be performed twice, once before and once after a talk by Richard Steel.  Dorothea and Richard have both devoted many years to studying and working with the Calendar.

Information: Melissa Lyons, melissa@threefold.org

Dr. Karl König (1902-1966) was a pioneer of anthroposophic medicine and curative education and the founder of the Camphill Movement for curative education and social therapy, which has thrived over 80 years with 140 intentional communities worldwide. König strove to develop and implement anthroposophy in countless ways that brought spirit into practical, daily life; he always kept the healing of the human being, the social organism and the living earth in the foreground. Karl König was one of the first students of Anthroposophy to reveal the fourfold structure and mysteries of the Calendar of the Soul.

Dorothea Mier Born in England in 1932, Dorothea Mier was educated at the Elmfield and Michael Hall Waldorf schools and the Birmingham School of Music. She studied eurythmy at the Lea van der Pals School in Dornach, Switzerland, going on to teach there for seventeen years. She was a member of the Goetheanum Stage Group under Marie Savitch. Dorothea was Artistic Director of Eurythmy Spring Valley, for 25 years and is now “retired”, continuing to teach at ESV and traveling around the world to give workshops. Dorothea has worked with the Calendar of the Soul in eurythmy for many years.

Richard Steel studied Linguistics and then completed a training at the Camphill Seminar for Curative Education in 1975. He lived and worked with his family in a Camphill community for children and youngsters with special needs in Germany until 2008. Richard then founded the Karl König Institute in Berlin and is its CEO.  He is a speaker and a poet and is responsible for the new edition of Karl König’s written works. Richard was also involved in establishing a Camphill life-sharing community with elderly people in New York State. He has been a lifelong student of the Calendar of the Soul since experiencing Karl König’s illustrations in 1972.