Rudolf Steiner first published the Calendar of the Soul for the year 1912 to 1913, to provide weekly contemplations that awaken in the soul of the user a sense of the rhythmic harmony of nature and the cosmos, and our intimate relationship with this for every week of the year.
The verse for this first full week of September describes the damp autumnal air, hazy veils of mist, the sense’s luring magic, as experiences of this moment in the year’s life cycle. Through this verse, the soul is supported in its sense that summer is now a slow and fading mistress (to borrow from Tennyson), while an inner activity heralded by ripening fruit, falling temperatures, and shorter daylight begins to stir a greater sense of self within. The verse completes with the beautiful picture that now, the summer yields itself into our keeping.
When I contemplate this verse in relation to the stars overhead at this time, bold tales of King Arthur come marching into my mind’s eye. The bright star Arcturus in the constellation Boötes is slope upon the West, readying to set for the season, following the star Spica over the edge of the world, while overhead, Draco, the dragon, coils about the North Star, guarding and coveting the treasure of true north that he once possessed. Beside and just above Arcturus in Boötes is the starry crown, Corona Borealis with the glittering jewel Gemma, the centerpiece star of the crown.
Let’s imagine these three constellations this way: Boötes, with the bright star Arcturus is Arthur (you can even hear it in the name); Draco is his wrathful father, Uther Pendragon, who committed a subterfuge against his enemy’s wife that resulted in the questionable right of Arthur’s claim to Kingship; which kingship would be marked by his achieving the starry crown, Corona Borealis.
So those are the stars.
In some renderings of the tale, Uther Pendragon had Merlin cast a hazy veil of mist over the castle of his enemy after a battle in which he had slain his foe, and using this luring magic of the senses he entered, disguised as the king, and seduced his wife. This is the dragon’s subterfuge, taking what wants. King Uther dies not long afterward, and in Alfred Tennyson’s rendering of Arthur’s subsequent birth we hear it told mightily like this, which is a description of Merlin and his master witnessed, the night that Arthur was born:
..on the night
When Uther in Tintagil past away
Moaning and wailing for an heir, the two
Left the still King, and passing forth to breathe,
Then from the castle gateway by the chasm
Descending through the dismal night—a night
In which the bounds of heaven and earth were lost—
Beheld, so high upon the dreary deeps
It seemed in heaven, a ship, the shape thereof
A dragon winged, and all from stern to stern
Bright with a shining people on the decks,
And gone as soon as seen. And then the two
Dropt to the cove, and watched the great sea fall,
Wave after wave, each mightier than the last,
Till last, a ninth one, gathering half the deep
And full of voices, slowly rose and plunged
Roaring, and all the wave was in a flame:
And down the wave and in the flame was borne
A naked babe, and rode to Merlin’s feet,
Who stoopt and caught the babe, and cried “The King!
Here is an heir for Uther!” And the fringe
Of that great breaker, sweeping up the strand,
Lashed at the wizard as he spake the word,
And all at once all round him rose in fire,
So that the child and he were clothed in fire.
And presently thereafter followed calm,
Free sky and stars: “And this the same child,” he said,
“Is he who reigns; nor could I part in peace
Till this were told.”
What do we do with all this? First, find your way through the stars. The Big Dipper can lead the way to most of it. First, follow the arc of the Big Dipper’s handle to Arcturus ~ then you’ve got King Arthur. Arcturus is the brightest star in the constellation Boötes, and Boötes itself is shaped like a kite. Then, moving up the sky one star from Arcturus, and then equidistant one star left, you arrive at the gemstone of the starry crown, Corona Borealis. But the trick at this moment in the cycle of the year is to get through the hazy veils of mist cast by Uther Pendragon, to find our true north.
Go back to the Big Dipper and follow the outside lip of the cup to Polaris, the North Star. Polaris is the star that marks the tip of the tail of the Little Dipper. Between the Big and Little Dippers coils Draco, and it’s as though he’s placed there placed among the stars, never setting, as a punishment, which for this starry dragon means he must forever witness the majesty of human becoming, or, as Tennyson called it The Coming of Arthur.
As summer fades, the inner soul awakes!
Mary
Hear this episode of The Storyteller’s Night Sky on podcast here, or wherever you listen. Cover image shows you the way to some of the main characters in this week’s episode. And also, I’d like to note that this week marks 14 years that I’ve been hosting these weekly episodes ~ I’d love to hear from you, as a way of celebrating!