In her search for recovery and an inner home, Marion von der Wense was inspired to create a new and free soul calendar. Within the rhythm of her female cycle, she experienced constant inner renewal, which opened doors.
The renewal period for human life forces is 28 days. On the natural side of the life forces, in the physical body, this renewal is often evident during illness and recovery, where a clear change results after four weeks. On the cultural side of the human life force organization, the mental and spiritual life forces renew themselves more delicately and subtly. Ideally, they carry the active soul as if in an underground vessel—a level in which a consciously active soul can develop and renew itself, and in whose power an ‘I’ soul can form new life and consciously transform itself in this new life. It is a resurrection of the soul in small steps.
Form of Renewal
The period of 28 days corresponds to the sidereal lunar cycle in which the moon orbits the earth once. Long ago, humans became independent of a direct constitutional connection with such cosmic rhythms. However, rhythms are still inscribed in their constitution. Humans now have the freedom to reconnect with them and shape them themselves. Life, whether in nature or in humans, must repeatedly go through a process of withdrawal in order to qualitatively transform and re-form itself. These dynamics of renewal can be found in the cosmos, nature, and humans, where renewing fourfold rhythms can be recognized. They appear particularly clearly in the seasons, in the 24-hour day, in the lunar cycle, and in the female cycle. The fourfold rhythm was also brought to life in the cultivation of human spiritual relationships and has been celebrated in pre-Christian times, in the old initiation mysteries, and since Christ’s work, in forms of Christian worship. The formation of a whole is also reflected in the four cardinal directions.
Using the fourfold rhythmic form given to the world, I create and enliven the calendar year in 13 equal cycles of 28 days, each with a self-generated word formation. Within each 28-day word cycle, I let four different word formations sound—the same word formation, 13 times a year, seven days each. The renewing rhythmic form arises in the dynamics of the fourfold nature of a word cycle. My soul calendar begins every year on January 6th—the day of the baptism in the Jordan and the Epiphany—with the week of renewal (part 4, see below). There is one “big day” for December 25th and 26th, in order to accommodate all 365 days. In leap years, the corresponding week is extended by one day.
Primal Rhythm of Life
The fourfold rhythm and associated cycles begins with summer, midday, full moon, follicle rupture, and the beginning of the old mysteries or the Christian cult, as the primal rhythm of life. For better understanding, somewhat profanely numbered 1, 2, etc.:
(1) Flowering at and after the high point; condensed life force; hidden formative preparation for what is to come.
(2) Occasional late-ripening “fruit;” withdrawal of enlivening forces; conscious preparation of the space (death/illness) for overcoming the forces of “dying,” decomposition, and decay.
(3) Visible or tangible effect of the forces of “dying,” decomposition, and decay; beauty in a different and substantially transforming quality of warmth; certainty of coming renewal.
(4) Revitalization from the depths (concentration) of the organism in renewed quality, approaching a new high point of warmth.
Vertical Resonance
Actual renewal takes place in each of the rhythms and cycles mentioned. In soul-spiritually enlivened 28-day word cycles, it is not necessarily about producing deeply renewed soul substance every four weeks. It is also not about drawing the soul into a particular mood. It is about letting this primal form resonate in self-generated word structures and thus reinforcing connection every day in the individual resonance and sound space. It is about the will to develop together in “vertical” resonance, that is, to be and become active as an ‘I.’ Not in order to shine on the outside but to develop a consciousness that radiates both in the wider world and in the very concrete processing of individual construction sites and life issues. Where I AM in the soul, healing can take place.
Unlike Rudolf Steiner’s soul calendar, “my” pathway is not connected with changing seasonal moods and existing words, but unfolds its power-effectiveness, inscribed in the course of the year, from within: grasped by the individual ‘I’, turning towards the eternal power-effectiveness of humanity’s ‘I’.
Literature Marion von der Wense, Psychologossophie. Tredition, Hamburg 2021.
More marionvonderwense@gmx.net
Translation Laura Liska
Image A simplified representation of the lunar cycle