Truth-Wrought Verses and Proverbs

From lectures and transcripts in chronological order

They shine like stars
In the sky of eternal being
The spirits sent by God.
May all human souls succeed
In the realm of earthly becoming
In seeing the light of their flames.

from Heidelberg, January 21, 1909

God's protective, blessing ray
Fill my growing soul
That it may grasp
Strengthening powers everywhere
It wants to vow
The power of love within itself
To awaken full of life
And thus see God's power
On its path through life
And work in God's spirit
With all that it has.

from Vienna, March 31, 1910

Protective, blessing ray of God
O fill my growing soul,
That it may experience
Strengthening powers of God everywhere,
Let it always experience
What love can awaken in it
In people and all beings,
Let it always recognize
God's power in the universe
On its paths of life.

ca. 1910

It presses upon the human mind
From the depths of the world, mysterious
The rich abundance of matter,
It flows into the depths of the soul
From the heights of the worlds, full of meaning
The clarifying word of the spirit.
They meet in the inner being of man
To form a wise reality.

from Berlin, October 20, 1910

They speak to the human mind
The things in the vastness of space,
They change in the course of time.
The human soul lives in recognition
Unlimited by the vastness of space
And unharmed by the passage of time.
It finds in the realm of the spirit
The deepest foundation of its own being.

from Berlin, December 8, 1910

The sun shines from the heights of worlds
The beings from the vastness of space
The beings from the vastness of space
The human heart thirsts
To unite with the spirit.

Draft, notebook

They speak to the senses
The things in the vastness of space,
They change in the course of time.
The human soul lives
Not limited by the vastness of space
And not by the passage of time
In the realm of eternity.

Notepad, winter 1910/11

They speak to the human senses
The things in the vastness of space.
The power of the soul is revealed
The change in the course of time.
Awakening itself to spiritual being,
The inner being of man is freed
From the limitations of the body
And looks into spiritual realities
The deep workings of his own existence
In the realm of eternity.

Notepad Winter 1910/11

March 15, 1911
For dear Marie von Sivers

Building the world within the self
Seeing the self in worlds
Is the breath of the soul

Experiencing the universe in self-feeling
Is the pulse of wisdom

And paths of the spirit
Described in one's own goal
Is the language of truth

And the breath of the soul penetrates
Into the pulse of wisdom, redeeming
From human reasons
The language of truth
In the rhythms of life and years.

Rudolf Steiner

Speaking to the human sense
Are the things in the vastness of space,
They change in the course of time.
Recognizing, the human soul penetrates
Unlimited by the vastness of space
And undeterred by the passage of time
Into the realm of the spirit.

from Berlin, November 14, 1912

In life it learns
To think the soul;
It then thinks the beings
That form the sense of being.
But if it feels correctly
Empowered itself,
It learns to know itself surely
Not only to know through thinking.
Thought, it also knows
That in the universe
It is thought of by gods!

Berlin, January 13, 1914

Evil, wickedness
They remain a mystery
As long as the senses alone
To form an image of the world
The mystery is solved
As soon as the spirit
Seeks the source of evil and misfortune
In the hidden depths of existence.

Notebook, January 1914

He who dwells in the mere light of the senses
does not solve the riddles of the soul;
He who wants to understand life
Must strive for spiritual heights!

from Berlin, January 15, 1914

The power will prevail,
which is predestined by the fate of time
for the people
who, in spiritual protection
for the salvation of humanity
in the heart of Europe
extract light from the struggle.

For Helmuth von Moltke, August 27, 1914

Aversion to responsibility:

What have you false thoughts, deceitful faces
To do with the lofty task I must perform;
The spirits want it of me
So I create enmity in my own soul
Forcing me to think powerfully
From my timid heart,
Which serves me well, if only I want it to.

For Helmuth von Moltke October 1914

The German spirit has not accomplished
What it is meant to create in the becoming of the world.
It lives hopefully in concerns for the future,
It hopes for future deeds full of life; —
In the depths of its being, it feels powerfully
Something hidden that must still mature. —
How can the enemy power, without understanding,
Revive the desire for its end,
As long as life reveals itself to him,
Which keeps him creative in the roots of his being?

from Berlin, January 14, 1915

In the will of coming earthly days
Arising, strong for creative life,
The forces that are carried
Through the gate of death and earthly suffering
Shine and warm securely in the spirit.

In future days on earth, when peacefully
The work of the spirit through the valley of the earth
The revelation of its willpower
Through human souls will carry healing,
Then in human hearts as a force of existence
The noble will will live, which accomplishes the act of sacrifice
At the gate of death in loyalty to the people.

Notebook, January 1915

He who persists in pain
sees the victorious realization.

He who persists in happiness
sees the declining
world that forms a foundation.

He who loses himself in happiness and
suddenly awakens, sees
how all the life forces of happiness perish
he cannot then hold on to what is perishing.

He who awakens in suffering sees existence —
he can hold on to what is perishing.

Notebook, January 1915

They speak to the human senses
The things in the vastness of space;
They change in the course of time.
Awakening itself
The human soul awakens
Unlimited by the vastness of space
And undeterred by the course of time
In the stream of becoming
Of eternity.

from Nuremberg, March 12, 1915

The things in the vastness of space
speak to the human senses;
They affect the human soul
Changing in the flow of time.
Experiencing itself
The soul is seized,
Unlimited by the vastness of space,
Unrestricted by the passage of time,
The realm of the spirit's being
In its eternal uniqueness.

from Basel, April 9, 1915

Let us only be, O world spirit,
Imbued
with a spirit-captivating attitude,
so that we do not fail
to achieve what can be for the salvation of the earth
and for the progress of the earth,
Lucifer and Ahriman
in the right sense!

V Elberfeld, June 13, 1915

When the human being, warm in love,
Gives himself to the world as a soul,
When the human being, light in his senses,
Acquires the spirit of the world,
In a spirit-illuminated soul,
In a soul-carried spirit,
The spirit-human in the physical human
Truly reveal himself.

from Berlin, December 10, 1915

When a person, warm with love,
Gives themselves to the world
As a soul,
When a person, light in their senses,
From the world
Acquires the spirit
From the spirit-illuminated soul
In the soul-carried spirit
The human being in the human being becomes real. —

Draft

Waltzing wise spirit of will
Weaving in spiritual expanses everywhere
Working through spiritual beings
You work surely
In the depths of my soul as well
So bind my inner being strongly with love
To your light power.
Finding you, I find myself.

in a book, ca. 1917

To grasp the world's thoughts,
Snatches the soul from the body
And releases the spirit within it.
To ignite the soul's will with the world's thoughts
And in willing
To return to the world
What it may give to thinking:
Freed in the creative power of love
Through the worlds,
The worlds through the human being.

December 24, 1917 Dr. Rudolf Steiner
For Helene Röchling

Seek the truly practical material life,
But seek it in such a way that it does not numb you to the spirit that is at work in it.
Seek the spirit,
But do not seek it in supersensible voluptuousness, out of supersensible egoism,
But seek it
because you want to apply it selflessly in practical life, in the material world.
Apply the old principle:
“Spirit is never without matter, matter never without spirit” in such a way that you say:
We want to do everything material in the light of the spirit,
And we want to seek the light of spirit in such a way
That it develops warmth for our practical actions.

The spirit that we lead into matter,
The matter that is worked on by us until its revelation,
Through which it drives the spirit out of itself;
The matter that receives the spirit revealed by us,
The spirit that is driven by us to matter,
These form the living being
Which can bring humanity to real progress,
To the kind of progress that can only be longed for by the best in the deepest depths of contemporary souls.

from Stuttgart, September 24, 1919

In primeval days, Before the spirit of heaven
The spirit of earthly existence appeared.
He asked:
Grant me the language
Through which to speak
From the heart of the world to the heart of man.
Then the spirit of heaven gave the spirit of earth: Art.

Draft

In primeval times
The spirit of the earth
Came before the spirit of heaven.
He spoke imploringly:
I know how to speak
To the human spirit;
But I also implore
I implore,
Through which to speak
The heart of the world to the human heart.
Then the benevolent spirit of heaven
The art to the pleading spirit of the earth.

Goetheanum, December 7, 1919
For Florizel from Reuter in her autograph book

Ecce homo

In the heart
Feeling weaves,

In the head
Thinking shines,

In the limbs
Willing powers.

Weaving light,
Powerful weaving,
Shining power:
That is - the human being.

for eurythmy
Christmas 1919 So grasp being
In becoming;
So grasp what will be
In being.

In the color glow of the ether sea
Weaving beings of light are born
The spirit fabric of the human soul;
And spiritually fertilized, maturing, striving
In the color-dark depths of space
Outward, the soul thirsting for light.
The nature of the spirit is needy,
Which draws its strength from the soul;
The human soul is also needy
Of the power of light in the world ether.

Notebook, 1919

Without the spirit, the world
Is like a book to man,
Written in a language
He cannot read,
But of which they know That its content determines life.
And spiritual science strives
For the art of reading;
It considers itself necessary,
Because it must believe
That it is demanded by life itself,
Into which humanity
Has entered Through the forces of development
Through the forces of development
Of the present
Has entered.

Notepad, ca. 1920

Man is a bridge
Between the past
And the being of the future;
The present is a moment;
A moment as a bridge.
Soul become spirit
In the shell of matter
That is from the past;
Spirit becoming soul
In seed shells
That is on the path to the future.
Grasp the future
Through the past
Hope for what is to come
Through what has been.

Christmas, December 24, 1920
Rudolf Steiner

It ascends to the heights of life
Man through childhood and youth
He descends to the goal of earth.
Every age of life proclaims the spirit:
First the spirit creates the power of the body
Then again it releases the power of the body
The supersensible enriches itself
To unite with that from which it came.

Notebook, ca. 1921

Clarity in thinking,
Sincerity in feeling,
Prudence in willing:
If I strive for these,
So I can hope
That I will find myself
On the paths of life
Before human hearts
In the circle of duties.

For clarity
Comes from the light of the soul,
And intimacy
Receives the warmth of the spirit, Prudence
Strengthens the vitality.
And all of this
Strives in trust in God,
Guides on human paths
To good, secure steps in life.

in a book, March 1921

Speaking, man lives
The spirit that draws from the depths of the soul
The strength
To form human colors
From worldly thoughts,
As from the light of God.
In declamation lives
The world power of light
In recitation pulsates
The color power of the soul.

March 15, 1922
For Marie Steiner
Rudolf Steiner

If you want to know yourself,
Then seek yourself in the vastness of the worlds;
If you want to know the world,
Then penetrate your own depths.
Your own depths will reveal to you
As in a world memory
The secrets of the cosmos.

from Vienna, June 5, 1922

Waking

In the circles of the world spirit
Stands the spatial form of man.
In the realms of the world soul
Weaves the life force of man.

Sleeping

In the circle of soul freedom
The human instinctive forces rest.
In the realms of the spirit sun
The human power of thought creates.

End of December 1922
Notebook

When the ancient man said:
“Know thyself” — and he
then characterized himself as the world,
he implied that his
essence is not on earth —

When the Greek characterized himself as the world
in “Know thyself,”
he implied that his
essence was being denied.

But modern man denies himself when he does not recognize himself as spirit.

For from February 2, 1923 Notebook

In the present earthly time,
Man needs once again
Spiritual content for the words of his speech;
For from language, soul and spirit retain
For the time of sleeping outside the body
That which points to the spiritual in the word.
For sleeping people must
Come to an understanding with the Archangels.
But they only take in the spiritual content,
But they only take in the spiritual content,
Not the material content of the words.
If humans lack this understanding,
They suffer damage to their entire being.

From a letter to Marie Steiner
March 15, 1923

A mystery of nature

Look at the plant!
It is the butterfly
bound by the earth.

Look at the butterfly!
It is the plant
freed by the cosmos.

from Dornach, October 26, 1923

Calls of the animals of the heights, the middle, and the depths of the earth

Thus speaks the eagle:

Learn to recognize my nature!
I give you the power
In your own mind
To create a universe.

West

Thus speaks the lion:

Learn to recognize my essence!
I give you the power,
In the light of the air circle
To embody the universe.

Center

Thus speaks the cow:

Learn to recognize my essence!
I give you the power,
Balance, yardstick, and number
To wrest from the universe.

East

I must learn:

O cow, your power
from the language that the stars
reveal within me.

O lion, your power
from the language that in year and day
the circumference works within me.

O eagle, your power
from the language that creates the earth's offspring
within me.

from Dornach, October 20, 1923

The elemental beings

as mediators between the earth and the spiritual cosmos

Words of admonition

Gnomes:

You dream yourself
And avoid awakening.

Undines:

You think the works of angels
And do not know it.

Sylphs:

The creative power shines upon you,
You do not suspect it;
You feel its power
And do not live it.

Fire beings:

The will of the gods empowers you
You do not receive it;
You want to use its power
And push it away from you.

Characteristics of their own nature

Gnomes:

I hold the root elemental power,
It creates my physical body.

Undines:

I move the power of water growth,
It forms my life substance. Sylphs:

I sip the airy life force,
It fills me with the power of being.

Fire beings:

I breathe the fire striving force,
It redeems me in soul spirituality.

Moral impression of the words of the worlds thus heard

Chorus of gnomes: Strive to be awake!
Undines: Think in spirit!
Sylphs: Live a creative, breathing existence!
Fire beings: Receive the loving power of God's will!

from Dornach, November 4, 1923

There is a nature, but human beings
can only approach this nature
by allowing themselves to be destroyed by it.

There is a human soul, but nature
can only approach this human soul
by becoming an illusion.

from Dornach, January 19, 1924

Darkness, light, love

To devote oneself to matter
Means to grind souls into dust.

To find oneself in the spirit
means connecting people.

To see oneself in others,
means building worlds.

from Stuttgart, April 11, 1924

The cloud illuminator:
May it illuminate,
May it shine through,
He glows,
He warms
Me too.

For eurythmy 1913
and Dornach, July 3, 1924

Strive for peace
Live in peace,
Love peace.

For eurythmy 1914
and Dornach, July 9, 1924

World and Human Being

Dance of Peace

The soul's desires germinate,
The deeds of the will grow,
The fruits of life ripen.

I feel my destiny,
My destiny finds me.
I feel my star,
My star finds me.
I feel my goals,
My goals find me.

My soul and the world are one.

Life becomes brighter around me,
Life becomes harder for me,
Life becomes richer within me.

For eurythmy 1914
and Dornach, July 10, 1924

I search within
The creative forces at work,
The creative powers alive.

It tells me
The earth's heavy power
Through the words of my feet,

It tells me
The formative power of the air
Through the singing of my hands,

It tells me
The light-giving power of the sky
Through the thinking of my head,

How the world in man
Speaks, sings, thinks.

For eurythmy July 11, 1924

You absurd magic of life,
You shine in the night,
And lofty weaving of fate
God-willed eternal power
Pierces the opposing force —
So that soul-tormenting spreads,
What demonically creates disaster
And glides toward me like a serpent.

Draft

You absurd magic of life
You shine in the night;
And noble love — weaving fate
World-firing high power
Pierces the counterforce;
So that soul-tormenting spreads
What demonic disaster creates,
And serpent spirits are led. —

Notepad November 1924

Behold the stars of rest
World-affecting
Powers of eternity

Notebook, 1924

I would like every human being
Ignite from the spirit of the cosmos,
That they may become flame
And unfurl the fiery essence
Of their being. —

The others, they may
Take from the waters of the cosmos,
That which extinguishes the flames
And watery all beings
Within.

O joy, when the human flame
Blazes even where it rests!
O bitterness, when the human thing
Is bound where it would like to be active.

Notepad 1925