The Rudolf Steiner Archive

11. The Christmas Tree — A Symbol

[ 1 ] On this day, which is meant to symbolize the feast of Christmas, it is surely fitting that we alter our usual customs somewhat, so that we refrain from seeking knowledge and truth and instead turn our attention to that world of feelings and sensations which is to be awakened by the light we receive through spiritual science.

[ 2 ] That festival, which is now approaching once again and which is a celebration of joy in the truest sense of the word for countless people, is not yet a very old festival in the sense that it must be understood through our anthroposophical worldview. What is called Christian Christmas was not immediately present when Christianity entered the world. The first Christians did not yet have such a Christmas celebration. They did not celebrate the birth of Christ Jesus. And nearly three centuries passed before the feast of the birth of Christ Jesus was celebrated within Christianity.

[ 3 ] In the early centuries, as Christianity spread throughout the world, the sentiments and feelings in the souls of those who had sensed the Christ impulse led these people to withdraw quite significantly from the outward life that prevailed at that time—a life that had been handed down from ancient times and had taken shape by the time of the Christ impulse. For a dark premonition arose in the souls of the first Christians that they should give rise to the impulse for a new shaping of earthly things—a shaping of earthly things that, in contrast to the past, is permeated by new sensations, new feelings, and above all by a new hope and a new confidence in the development of humanity. And what was then to emerge on the horizon of the great world existence was to take its starting point—we might say “literally”—as a spiritual seed within the Earth.

[ 4 ] We have often imagined ourselves in the Roman catacombs, where, cut off from the life of that time, the first Christians celebrated the feast of their hearts and the feast of their souls. We have transported ourselves in spirit to these places of worship. At first, no birthdays were celebrated there; at most, there were the Sunday services each week, to commemorate the great event of Golgotha once a week. And in addition, during the first centuries, memorial services were held for those who had spoken of the event at Golgotha with particular enthusiasm and deep feeling, and who had significantly influenced the course of human development, so that they were persecuted by the world that had grown old. The anniversaries of the martyrs’ deaths—since these martyrs had entered into the spiritual life—were celebrated by the first Christians in the early centuries as the birthdays of humanity.

[ 5 ] Back then, there was no Christmas celebration either. But the very origins of this Christmas celebration can show us how we still have every right today to say: Christianity does not consist merely in this or that dogma, in this or that institution—which simply must be passed down from generation to generation—but we have the right to rely on Christ’s promise that he is with us, that he fills us with his Spirit every day. If we feel this Spirit filling us, then we may consider ourselves called to a constant and never-ending further development of the Christian spirit. And it is precisely through anthroposophical spiritual development that we are called not to perpetuate a dead, rigid Christianity, but to develop into the future an ever-new Christianity that brings forth ever-new wisdom and insights from within itself. We never speak of the Christ who once was, but always of the eternally living Christ. And we may recall the eternally living, the eternally active Christ, the Christ working within us, especially when we speak of the feast of the Nativity of Christ Jesus. Already in the first centuries, Christians felt that they were permitted to imprint something new upon the organism of Christian development, that they were permitted to add that which truly flows to them from the Spirit of Christ.

[ 6 ] Thus, the celebration of Christmas is actually a tradition dating back to the 4th century. We can say that the first Christian Christmas was celebrated in Rome in the year 354. And it becomes particularly clear to us that, in an era less critical than our own, the followers of Christianity were imbued with the intuitive realization that they should continually draw fresh fruit from the great Christian tree of life. Therefore, we may perhaps also reflect on an outward symbol of Christmas, the symbol of the Christmas tree, which we have here before us, which countless people will have before them in the coming days, and which spiritual science is called upon to impress ever more deeply into the hearts and souls of people in its special significance.

[ 7 ] We might almost find ourselves at odds with the course of history if we were to cling strictly to this symbol. It would be a mistake to believe that this symbol is an ancient one. Indeed, the belief could easily take root in the minds of people today that the poetic Christmas tree is an age-old tradition. There is a painting depicting a Christmas tree in Luther’s family parlor. This painting, which of course was not created until the 19th century, depicts something entirely false, for in the vast expanse of the German lands as well as in other regions of Europe, such a Christmas tree did not yet exist in Luther’s time. It is only a later symbol. This very Christmas tree, however, may reveal something quite remarkable to us. Might we not also say that the Christmas tree today is something that could be viewed as promising for the future, in the sense that people might increasingly see in this Christmas tree—perhaps gradually—a symbol of something extraordinarily significant and important?

[ 8 ] We may turn our gaze to this Christmas tree, provided we do not delude ourselves regarding its historical age, and in doing so we may, in a certain sense, recall what has often come to mind: the so-called Holy Legend. It tells us: When Adam was driven out of Paradise—the legend recounts it in many different ways, but let us now summarize it as briefly as possible—he took with him three seeds from the Tree of Life, which humans were not to eat after they had eaten from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil. When Adam had died, Seth took these three seeds and placed them in Adam’s grave, and from them a tree grew out of Adam’s grave. From the wood of this tree—so the legend tells—many things were made: Moses fashioned his staff from this wood, and later the wood for the cross of Golgotha was also taken from this tree.

[ 9 ] Thus, a legend reminds us in a significant way of that tree of paradise, which stood as the second: People had eaten from the tree of knowledge, and the enjoyment of the tree of life was taken from them. But a longing, a yearning for that tree, remained forever in the hearts of people. Driven out of the spiritual worlds designated as “Paradise” into the outer world of phenomena, people felt in their hearts the urge toward the Tree of Life. What they were not permitted to have without merit, without their own development, they were to attain by gradually earning merit through knowledge, by gradually making themselves ripe and capable, through their work on the physical plane, to receive the fruits of the Tree of Life.

[ 10 ] Those three seeds symbolize our longing for the fruits of the Tree of Life. The legend tells us that the wood of the cross contained that which originated from the Tree of Life. And throughout the entire course of evolution, there has been an awareness that the dry wood of the cross nevertheless contains the seed of new spiritual life, that from it shall grow that which, when people partake of it in the right way, can unite with their soul as the fruit of the Tree of Life, as the fruit that grants them immortality in the true sense of the word, that kindles the light of the soul within them and illuminates the soul so that it finds the way from the dark depths of the physical world to the luminous heights of spiritual existence and feels itself there as a member of an immortal life.

[ 11 ] Without succumbing to illusion, we may—if not as historians, then at least as sentient human beings—perceive in the tree standing before us as a Christmas tree something akin to a symbol of that light which is to dawn within our souls, so that it may secure for us immortality in the spiritual realm. We look within ourselves, and through the anthroposophical spiritual current we feel permeated by that power which enables us to look up into the spiritual world. We then look at that outward symbol standing before us as the Christmas tree and may say to ourselves: May it be a symbol for what is to shine and burn within our souls, to carry us up into the spiritual world!

[ 12 ] This tree, so to speak, has also sprung up as if from dark depths. Only those who do not realize that what physical perception cannot grasp has deeper spiritual reasons might criticize such an ahistorical view as has just been described. To the outward eye, it may remain hidden how this Christmas tree has strangely crept into outward human life. In a relatively short time, it has established itself as a joyful custom in the general course of world affairs. Outwardly, it may elude the eye; but whoever knows that all outward events are imprints of a spiritual process must feel that perhaps there was also a special, deeper reason on the outer physical plane for the emergence of the Christmas tree: that the emergence of the Christmas tree arose as if from a deep spiritual impulse that invisibly guides humanity and may even have imperceptibly inspired certain highly sensitive souls to express outwardly, in the beautiful Christmas tree, the inner light that is meant to shine in the world. And when such knowledge awakens into wisdom, then through our will this tree can also become an outward symbol of the Highest.

[ 13 ] If anthroposophy is to be wisdom, it must be active wisdom that permeates everything with wisdom—that is, it must imbue external impressions and customs with a golden glow. Thus, perhaps, as anthroposophy gradually spreads, warming and enlightening the hearts and souls of people in the present and the future, it may also gild the now so materialistic external custom of the Christmas tree, permeate it with its wisdom, and make it a most important symbol, after it has made its way into earthly life from the dark depths of the soul in the course of the very latest times. And if we nevertheless dig a little deeper and assume that a deeper spiritual guidance has planted the impulses in human hearts, it does not seem entirely without reason to us that people live out the thoughts inspired in them by a spiritual guidance in deeper feelings as they gaze upon the burning tree.

[ 14 ] It has long been a custom in many different countries of Europe to spend the weeks leading up to Christmas searching for all manner of tree shoots and shrubs—mostly deciduous plants—that could be brought to bloom or at least to sprout by Christmas Eve. And in many a soul, a sense of the indomitable life arose—that life which is to triumph over all death—when, on Christmas Eve, the carefully gathered shoots or branches of the trees stood solemnly in the living room and were artificially brought to bud on the night of the winter solstice. That was an old custom. But the Christmas tree itself is of more recent origin. Where should we first look for the origin of the Christmas tree?

[ 15 ] We are familiar with the powerful language used by our great German mystics, particularly Johannes Tauler, who was active in Alsace. Anyone who allows Johannes Tauler’s sermons—with their profound inwardness and their infinite emotional depth—to take effect upon them will realize that back then in Alsace, when Tauler sought the deepening, spiritualization, and even the heartening of Christianity, a very special spirit was at work, seeking everywhere the soul that was filled with the mystery of Golgotha. When Tauler delivered his sermons in Strasbourg, his powerful, fiery words sank deep into people’s souls, and many lasting impressions may have taken root there. Some of these impressions may have stemmed from what Johannes Tauler often said in his beautiful Christmas sermons. Three times, he said, is God born for humanity: first, by descending from the Father, from the great universe; then, by coming down to humanity and taking on human form; and for the third time, Christ is born in every human soul that finds within itself the capacity to unite with that which is God’s wisdom and to give birth to a higher human being within itself.

[ 16 ] Using all manner of beautiful, solemn expressions, Johannes Tauler conveyed the deepest wisdom, particularly in the Strasbourg region, and especially on Christmas Day. It is precisely such profound wisdom that may have sunk into people’s souls, and it may have remained there and continued to have an effect. Feelings, too, have their traditions. What was once instilled in people’s souls may have continued to have an effect from century to century. Thus, the feeling that sank into people’s souls back then—like all true feelings imbued with the spirit—may have found its way into the eye and the hand, may have inspired the eye to see, even in the outer symbol, the Resurrection, the birth of the light of the human spirit. Therefore, while it may be a pleasant coincidence for materialistic thinking, for those who know how spiritual guidance permeates all physical things, it is more than a mere coincidence when we hear that the first reports of a Christmas tree standing in a German living room come from Alsace, specifically from Strasbourg. In 1642 we have the very first record that such a Christmas tree stood in a home for the inner delight of those who wished to see in an outward symbol the light that is to be awakened within ourselves through the reception of spiritual wisdom.

[ 17 ] We can see just how poorly German mysticism was received by that form of Christianity which clings to outward forms, for example, in the case of Meister Eckhart, the great predecessor of Johannes Tauler: he was declared a heretic even after his death, after people had forgotten to do so during his lifetime. And Johannes Tauler’s fiery words, which sprang from a heart truly filled with Christ, also found little recognition. We can see how that external Christianity, which does not believe in the true Spirit, reacted to the deepening of Christianity by Meister Eckhart, Johannes Tauler, and others from the fact that the first mention of the Christmas tree is reported to us by a spiritual opponent. The person in question thought this was child’s play; people should rather go where they could hear the true doctrine being preached to them.

[ 18 ] At first, the Christmas tree spread slowly. We see it appearing in central Germany around the middle of the 18th century, but even then only in isolated places. It was not until the 19th century that the Christmas tree became the increasingly common spiritual adornment of Christmas, a newer symbol of something that has been cherished for centuries. For those who were truly able to feel all things in the radiance—not of nominal Christianity, but in the radiance of genuine spiritual Christianity—it was always the case that the Christmas tree could evoke beautiful human feelings. And you will readily believe that the Christmas tree is of such recent origin if you consider that the greatest German poets have not written a single poem about the Christmas tree. Had it existed earlier, a poet like Klopstock, for example, would certainly have expressed himself poetically on this symbol. Therefore, let this Christmas tree also be a guarantee to us that symbols for the highest and the greatest can arise anew. And these symbols can come to the fore in our souls especially when we feel the spiritual truth of the awakening of the “I” in the human soul—that “I” which feels the spiritual bonds from soul to soul, and feels them most keenly when noble people work together.

[ 19 ] Let us mention just one example that shows how the light of the Christmas tree shone into the soul of a great leader of humanity. It was in 1822 that Goethe, whom we have so often encountered when considering spiritual life in the light of anthroposophy, felt so deeply at the conclusion of his *Faust* that Christian symbols were the only possible means of expressing his poetic intentions. And he also truly felt how Christianity must forge the noblest bonds from human soul to human soul, how it must establish those bonds of brotherly love that are not bound by blood, but by the soul, joined to the spirit. We sense what still lies as an impulse within Christianity when we think of the conclusion of the Gospels. From the cross on Golgotha, Christ Jesus sees the mother, sees the son, and there he establishes that communion which had previously been established only through blood. A son was given to the mother, a mother was given to the son, previously only through blood. The bonds of blood are not to be abolished by Christianity. The bonds of blood are to remain. But spiritual bonds are to be added, which outshine the blood ties with spiritual light. Therefore, Christ Jesus spoke from the cross the words: “Woman, behold, this is your son!” and to the disciple: “Behold, this is your mother!” What was previously established only by blood ties is now established from the cross through spiritual bonds.

[ 20 ] Wherever the spirit thrives in noble intellectual fellowship, Goethe always felt compelled to look toward the true Christian spirit. For him, it was also a necessity to let this Christian spirit flow from his heart into his eyes. In 1822, he had a special occasion to do so. The people of that principality, to which Goethe had devoted so much of his energy, had come together to establish a higher civic school. It was, as it were, a gift presented to the Prince of Weimar. Goethe could think of no better way to celebrate this small impulse of intellectual progress than to call upon a number of people before Christmas to celebrate this progress of the spirit in individual poems, as best they could. He then collected these poems, which had sprung from the people, wrote a poetic preface for them himself, and the future Grand Duke Karl Alexander, who was a three-year-old boy at the time, was to present the little book to Prince Karl August under the Christmas tree. For by 1822, the Christmas tree had already become a permanent symbol.

[ 21 ] With this small gesture, Goethe indicated that the Christmas tree was for him a symbol of the feeling and perception of spiritual progress, both on a small and a large scale. And in the poetic preface he wrote for this little book—which is still preserved today in the library in Weimar—Goethe celebrated the Christmas tree as this symbol with the words:

Trees glowing, trees dazzling,
Bestowing sweetness everywhere,
Moving in the radiance,
Stirring hearts both old and young —
Such a feast is bestowed upon us,
Adorned with many gifts;
In wonder we look up and down,
Back and forth, again and again.

But, Prince, if it should happen to you
And an evening should bless you so,
That like lights, like flames
All together shone before you
All that you have accomplished,
All who are devoted to you:
With a spirit’s gaze lifted high
You felt a glorious rapture.

[ 22 ] We may, so to speak, count this poem by Goethe among the earliest Christmas poems. When we speak of symbols in the field of spiritual science, we may also say that symbols which rise up into the souls of human beings—as if unconsciously or subconsciously—enter the flow of time, gilded and clothed in wisdom.

[ 23 ] Thus, in the 4th century, we see the emergence of the Christian Christmas and observe how it was first celebrated in Rome at that time. And it must be regarded almost as a providential arrangement that Christmas—not in an outwardly materialistic way, but through a mysterious providential arrangement—was incorporated into an ancient festival in the regions of Central and Northern Europe at a time when, since time immemorial, the lowest point of the sun’s course had been celebrated: the winter solstice. One must not believe that Christmas in Central and Northern Europe was transferred to this festival, to this time, because one wanted to transform the old festival into Christmas, so to speak, in order to reconcile the peoples. Christmas was born purely out of Christianity. It is precisely through the adoption of Christmas in the Nordic regions that the deep spiritual kinship of these peoples and their symbols with Christianity has become evident. While, for example, in Armenia Christmas was not adopted as a custom at all, and even in Palestine Christians long resisted it, it quickly became established in Europe.

[ 24 ] Let us try, through an anthroposophical perspective, to truly understand the Christmas festival itself, so that we may perceive the Christmas tree as a symbol. Throughout the year, when we are gathered here, we allow those words to flow to us from spiritual sources—words that are not merely words, but are meant to be a force that grows ever more potent within our souls, so that the soul may become a citizen of eternity. Throughout the year we gather to let these words, this Logos, resound in this room in the most manifold ways: that Christ is always with us and that, when we are together, the Spirit of Christ works within us, so that our words are permeated by the Spirit of Christ. If we speak these things only with the awareness that the word is a vehicle for the Spirit’s revelations to humanity, then we allow into our soul that which is the word of the Spirit. But we know that the Word of the Spirit is not fully grasped by us, cannot be for us all that it is meant to be, if we merely take it in as knowledge in an external, abstract form. We know that it can only be what it is meant to be when it generates that inner warmth through which the soul expands and feels itself expanding through inner warmth, and finally, pouring out into all the phenomena of worldly existence, learns to feel itself one with that Spirit which is poured out over all phenomena.

[ 25 ] Let us feel that what reaches our ears as a spiritual word must become strength and life within us, by placing before us, when the time is right, the symbol that can call out to our soul with affirmation: Let arise within you as something new, as the spiritual human being, that which the word—coming to us from spiritual sources, from spiritual depths—can kindle as warmth and illuminate as light; then we will also feel that what resounds to us as a spiritual word has meaning. Let us, in a moment such as today’s, seriously feel what spiritual science can give us in terms of such soul light and such soul warmth! Let us feel it, for example, in the following way:

[ 26 ] Let us look at today’s materialistic world with all its hustle and bustle, how people rush about from morning till night, and how they judge everything in terms of materialistic utility, according to the standards of the outer physical plane, completely unaware that behind it all the Spirit lives and works. People fall asleep at night, completely unaware of anything beyond the belief that they are simply unconscious, and that they will wake up again in the morning into the consciousness of the physical plane. Unaware, a person falls asleep after having rushed about and worked during the day, without seeking enlightenment regarding the meaning of life. When the seeker of spiritual knowledge has taken in the words of the Spirit, then he knows something that is not merely theory and doctrine. He knows something that gives him the light and warmth of the soul; he knows: If you were to take in only the concepts of physical life during the day, you would wither away. Your whole life would be barren; everything you gain would wither away if you had only the concepts of the physical plane. When you lie down to sleep in the evening, you enter a world of the spirit, diving with all your soul’s powers into a world of higher spiritual beings, to whom you are meant to grow in your being. And as you wake up in the morning, you emerge anew, strengthened from a spiritual world, and pour divine-spiritual life over what you receive from the physical plane, whether consciously or unconsciously. From the Eternal, you yourself rejuvenate the temporal aspect of your existence every morning.

[ 27 ] When we transform the word of the Spirit into the feeling we can have every evening: I am not merely slipping into unconsciousness, but I am immersing myself in the world where the beings of the Eternal dwell, to whom my own being is meant to belong. I fall asleep with the feeling: Into the spiritual world! —and I awaken with the feeling: Out of the spirit!—then we imbue ourselves with that feeling into which the word of the Spirit, which we have taken in here in a life dedicated to spiritual knowledge, is to be transformed, day by day, week by week. Then the Spirit will live within us; then we will awaken differently and fall asleep differently.

[ 28 ] When we feel connected to the spirit of the universe, when we feel like missionaries of the world spirit every morning, when we gradually feel connected to that which, as the world spirit, permeates and interweaves all external existence, then we also feel, when the sun stands high in the summer sky and sends its life-giving rays to the earth, how the Spirit works in an outward way and how, because it sends us its face—its outward face—in the outward rays of the sun, it allows its inner essence to recede, as it were.

[ 29 ] Where do we see this spirit of the universe, which Zarathustra already proclaimed in the sun, when only the sun’s external physical rays shine upon us? We see this spirit of the universe when we can recognize where it sees itself. Truly, this spirit of the universe creates its own sensory organs through which it can reveal itself during the summer. It creates external sensory organs for itself. Let us learn to understand what covers the earth from spring onward as a green blanket of plants, clothing the earth with a new face! What is this? A mirror for the world spirit of the sun. When the sun sends us its physical rays, the world spirit looks down upon the earth. What springs forth there in plant growth, in blossoms and leaves, is nothing other than the likeness of the pure, chaste World Spirit, who sees himself reflected in his work, which he causes to sprout from the earth. The sensory organs of the World Spirit are contained within the plant cover.

[ 30 ] When the vegetation disappears in the fall, we see how the sun’s external power diminishes, how the face of the World Spirit withdraws. If we are prepared in the right way, we feel within ourselves the Spirit that pulses through the universe. Then we can follow the World Spirit even when it withdraws from external view. Then, when our eyes can no longer rest on the vegetation, we feel how the spirit awakens within us to the same extent that it withdraws from the outer phenomena of the world. And the awakening spirit becomes our guide into the depths into which spiritual life withdraws, into that place where we entrust to the spirit the seeds for the coming spring. There we learn to see with our spiritual gaze and say to ourselves: When external life gradually becomes invisible to the external senses, when the melancholy of autumn creeps into our soul, the soul follows the spirit into the dead rock to draw from it those forces that in spring cover the earth with new sensory organs for the world spirit.

[ 31 ] This is how those who grasped the Spirit in spirit felt their journey alongside the world spirit, their journey alongside the seed as it descended into winter. When the outer sun has the least power, shines the least, when the outer darkness is at its strongest, the spirit within us feels, through the spirit of the universe with which it has united itself, connected to the lower realms, united with those forces that become most clearly perceptible and visible as they lead the seed to a new existence.

[ 32 ] In this way, we literally live ourselves into the earth, as it were, with the power of the seed, permeating the earth. Whereas in the summer we turned toward the radiant sphere of the air, toward the sprouting and budding fruits of the earth, we now turn toward the dead rock, knowing full well: within this dead rock lies that which is to appear once more as an outer existence. - With our own soul, we follow in spirit the sprouting, budding power that withdraws from external sight and remains wholly hidden within the stone throughout the winter. And when this winter season has reached its midpoint, when the deepest darkness reigns, then precisely because the outer world does not prevent us from feeling connected to the spirit, we sense how, in the depths into which we have withdrawn, the light of the spirit springs forth—that light of the spirit for which Christ Jesus gave humanity the most powerful impulse. There we sense what people felt in ancient times, who spoke of having to descend to where the seed rests in winter in order to recognize the Spirit in its hidden powers. There we feel that we must seek the Christ in the hidden, in that hidden realm which is dark and gloomy if we have not first enlightened ourselves in the soul, but which becomes bright and radiant when we have received the Christ-light into the soul. There we find that we are strengthened and invigorated at every Christmas by that impulse which has penetrated humanity through the Mystery of Golgotha.

[ 33 ] Thus, every year we truly feel the Christ impulse as a confirmation of our striving, and from this impulse we draw the assurance and guarantee that, year by year, we are strengthening within ourselves that life which leads us into a spiritual world where there can be no death as it exists in the physical world. Then we can spiritualize and ennoble what for today’s materialistic human being is not a symbol at all, but merely an external, materialistic sensual pleasure. And we then sense in the symbol the reality we sense the same thing that Johannes Tauler, for example, means when he speaks of Christ being born three times: once from the eternal Father God who weaves through and lives within the world, once as a human being at the time of the founding of Christianity, and then again and again in the souls of those who awaken the spiritual Word within themselves. Without this final birth, Christianity would not be complete, and anthroposophy would be unable to grasp the Christian spirit if it did not understand what it means that the Word, which resounds to us year after year, is not to remain theory and doctrine, but becomes warmth and light and life, so that through this power we may be integrated into the spiritual life of the world, be received by it, and be incorporated with it into eternity.

[ 34 ] This is what we should feel when we stand before the symbol of Christmas, feeling as if we are plunging into the deep, frosty, seemingly lifeless world beneath the earth, not merely sensing but recognizing that the Spirit awakens new life from death. No matter what stage of development we are at, we can empathize with what those who were initiated have felt throughout the ages—those who truly descended at midnight on this Christmas, to behold there the spiritual sun at Christmas midnight, where the spiritual sun of Christmas midnight first evokes from the seemingly dead rock the sprouting, budding life, so that it may appear in the new spring.

[ 35 ] We ourselves feel united with those forces of the world that are at work, even though outwardly and physically they have withdrawn into frost and darkness. Let us feel this, just as all those will feel it who, around Christmas time, truly and constantly remember the spiritual sun—that Christ-sun which stands behind the physical sun. Let us empathize with them so that we may gradually ascend, experience, and then be able to see what a human being can see when they continually develop new inner forces that connect them to the spiritual. And what we spoke of several years ago when we celebrated Christmas may also conclude this reflection as the most important thing we can take in during the year and pour into our souls:

The sun shines
At the stroke of midnight.
I build with stones
On lifeless ground.

Thus, in the twilight
And in the night of death
Find creation’s new beginning,
The young power of the morning.

Let the heights be revealed
The eternal word of the gods,
Let the depths preserve
The peaceful haven.

Living in the Dark
Create a Sun
Weaving in the Fabric
Recognize the Joy of the Spirit.