The Cycle of the Year by Rudolf Steiner

The Cycle of the Year as a Breathing Process of the Earth, Nov 1, 1984. Barbara D.Betteridge, Translator. 5 lectures, Dornach, March 31 - April 8, 1923. "Humankind must attain esoteric maturity so as to think not merely in abstractions but to think so concretely that we can again become festival creative. Until then, it will be impossible to unite the spiritual with the cycle of sensory phenomena." —Rudolf Steiner These five lectures were given at Easter, 1923. In a fully conscious way, Steiner provided a basis for celebrating the Christian festivals of Christmas, Easter, St. John's Tide, and Michaelmas. He begins with a description of how the cycle of festivals evolved over long ages through the Earth's cycle of inhalation and exhalation—forces that are actually the Earth's soul activities in relation to the cosmos.