Preface to an Illustrated Calendar for the Year 1912/13

Time is experienced through the changing phenomena of the world. This change connects the new with the old in the course of the world. Night follows day; day follows night. The new day brings forth what has not yet been from the womb of existence; but it also repeats the previous day in its own essence.

The light of the moon penetrates the darkness of night, brightening it. In fourteen days and nights, it waxes and wanes again to the same extent. This, too, is repeated over and over again, preserving the old in the new.

From the earth's soil, the power of the sun draws forth plant life. This unfolds, fades away, withdraws into hidden depths, like daylight at nighttime, or the moon's radiance in new moon nights, and rises anew, revealing the essence of the old in the new.

Man stands face to face with this world evolution, changing and yet preserving itself in change. He must bring his own experience into harmony with this life of the world. The calculation of time on which the calendar of various peoples is based is the expression of this fact.

The repetition of the old in the new is most characteristically expressed in the position of the stars in relation to one another. These positions always occur in such a way that the new ones are similar to the old ones. Man can express his experience at a particular time by speaking of the position of the stars at that moment. The simplest way to do this is to express the experience of the morning in the words: the sun rises. All time calculations are based on the same process. The experience of spring can be expressed in the words: the sun appears to the human eye in such a direction that when the eye turns in that direction, it also finds this or that constellation.

Just as a particular written character is the expression of a human sound, so the position of the stars can become the written character for the experience of a particular moment in time. Take a look at one of the pages of the following calendar. Take a particular day, for example in May, and then another in August. The overall experiences that a person has on these two days in his interaction with the becoming of the world are quite different. He can express this difference by relating, for example, the position of the sun in relation to a constellation of the zodiac to the experience, like a written character to its sound. In the calendars of different ages and peoples, the position of the sun in relation to a constellation of the zodiac at a particular point in time is expressed by a symbolic sign. Thus, the sign found for the constellation of Pisces on a particular day refers to the fact that on that day, at a certain hour, the gaze directed towards the sun also falls on the constellation of Pisces. If characteristic positions are chosen for such a designation, then the repetition of these positions provides the basis for the division of time.

In the following calendar entries, the fact that the gaze that follows the rising sun also falls on a constellation is expressed in the continuous monarch figures by a symbolic figure.

During a month, approximately, the position of the sun in relation to a zodiacal constellation can be considered. After a year has passed, approximately the same positions recur. The term “approximately” is justified because a shift in the positions occurs as time progresses. For example, whereas centuries ago the rising sun in March coincided with the constellation of Aries, at the present time the rising sun coincides with that of Pisces.

In this calendar, instead of the usual signs for the positions of the sun in relation to the signs of the zodiac, there are signs that bring the experience of the world phenomena that a person can have when the sun rises in the corresponding months into a characteristic intuitive image. Thus, in the consecutive monthly images, one finds expressions for the soul experiences that a person can have who compassionately follows the changes in the world's evolution and expresses them as if in a script through the position of the sun. Just as the simple experience, “I feel the nightly darkness giving way to light,” can be expressed in the words, “the sun rises,” so the more complicated soul experience, “I feel the earth preparing for new growth in a spring-like way and increasing solar power,” would find expression in the words, “the rising sun is seen in the direction of Pisces.” And this relationship between the soul experience and a cosmic process is symbolically expressed in the monthly pictures for the following calendar dates. If one experiences the co-experience with the world becoming in these continuous pictures, as with a character the corresponding sound enters into consciousness, so one will feel the meaning of these pictures correctly. Less emphasis is placed on abstract astronomical relationships.

The pictures that are added to the days are characterized by similar conditions for the moon as for the pictures of the months for the sun.

The number of a year is always determined by one part of humanity in such a way that the count is started from an event that is perceived as particularly important for that part of humanity. The Jews count from the point in time they call the “creation of the world,” and the Christians from the “birth of Jesus.” This calendar counts from the year 33-34 of the Christian era. It is based on that date in the development of the earth that is significant for all of humanity without distinction of race, nation, etc. The assumption of “spiritual science” is based on this, which sees the moment in the year indicated when the forces entered the development of mankind through which the human ego can grasp itself within itself and bring it into relation with the world through the forces of its own life of ideas, without any symbol. Before this point in time, in order to understand himself and think his way into the world, the human being needed images taken from external perception. The preparation for this point in time lies, on the one hand, in ancient Hebrew culture, which first brought the “God within” without images; on the other hand, in Greek intellectual life, which, both in its artists and in its world sages, prepared the time by grasping the human being through the presentation of himself as an earthly creature and characterizing world-becoming in his philosophy not through external images but through ideas that originate only in the human mind as a thinking consciousness (Thales to Aristotle). The Christian confession expressed the feeling towards this human fact by placing the “death and resurrection of Christ”, the “mystery of Golgotha”, at the corresponding point in time. From this point on, the years are counted in the following information. And in keeping with this, the day of remembrance of this year is assumed to be the first in the year count. Whether there is any right to this, in relation to the counting from January 1, is of course debatable. This should not be done here.

The annual remembrance days do not aim for completeness. They are provided with names in such a way that what is mentioned can be useful to those who want to follow the spiritual development of humanity.