Northern Native people tell of a long ago event in the depth of winter, wherein a starving hunter is given the first pair of snowshoes by a mysterious man who turns out to be the Spirit of the Wolf. From that day, powers of transport and provision are enhanced for the people.
Now, as the story comes to mind, an inhabitant of our day, opening to inward edges of spiritual being, can sense the Spirit of the Wolf ranging by his or her side, lending fortitude, golden eyes contending with winter darkness, leathery paws forbearing icy traverse, and luxurious fur an ample robe against the cold. Ranging the austerity of the season, no matter how fraught with tempest, nor dark the winter of our materialistic society falls, the wolf is in its element. At this time, when spirit strength is weaving itself into the fabric of soul life, spring feels distant, but there is a grandness at hand in which small notions can be overcome. Wakeful, wakeful, with enchantment dissipating, it is a time of clarity and mindful venturing.
Traveling back to the depth of a northern winter, floundering in the darkness of an insubstantial marriage, a Waldorf teacher I know relives the loneliness that attends not being met by a mate. And in the travail of his descent, he discovers in the central theme of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony an adagio movement consonant with his soul mood, as it modulates between deep melancholy and a sweet bridge to the love he longs for. Within this orchestration he encounters a star shining in the black waste of an interior heaven. And the soul, struggling to rise from the numbing snowdrift sweeping over it, cold, dark, silent, alone, reaches out to its beacon of redemption. Forward in time, across a gulf of many years, but still within the month of Valentine, he dreams of a beautiful, radiant woman with a gorgeous blue aura gazing lovingly into his eyes. All of her bearing is focused on accepting and embracing him, and he is reciprocating. The vision has a warm healing effect on his loneliness, and helps sustain him during a time in which his destiny calls for lengthy passage across a romantic desert. On Sunday evenings he hosts a weekly radio program. Perched before the mike, wheels revolving, pick-ups amplifying, the rotating disks map a journey driven by the intonation of Spirit. Rarefied nuances converge, wandering piano melodies, percussive caverns, streaming violins, a full-bodied sea of synthesizer. It is an occasion to roam inwardly, to counteract the depletion, or nostalgia of feeling far from Home, that pervades the soul through its long ordeal of incarnation. And the listening ear cups the stream, becomes a sail, now crossing a plateau of harmony, now passing through a woodwind forest, or rafting down a piccolo river to spill out into a dulcimer gulf. Through the week, he teaches a Grade Two class in a Waldorf school. In Waldorf Education, the stories are the heart of the lesson and, lucky him, he gets to convey Native legends. Evoking a mood with a hoop drum, Raven, the trickster, flies in primordial skies, bringing light to the world. Raven also meets hard lessons due to his mischievous nature. The children get to live through Raven's consequences without needing to be transgressors in an overt manner. From the story of The Wolf Who Brought Snowshoes, a snowshoe trail becomes a form drawing. From Raven Steals the Sun, an art lesson explores light and dark interactions.
This time of year there arises a feeling of spaciousness, as Chronos lingers, holding the sweep of time's passage in abeyance. Now, sense perception of nature diminishes. Light dims, colors fade to earthen shades. Birds are absent or subdued. Fewer aromas pervade the air, a faint whiff of frozen cedar, perhaps, or a metallic hint of snow. And feeling, by cold, falls numb. Snow-shoeing the meander of a valley bottom, grounding aspiration, the inner sensate being ventures through a vivid landscape. Beneath the auspices of Sirius, the Dog Star, Beethoven's Ninth rises from the foundation of creation, and unlimited vigor counters the cold drifts and parades across the frozen field. And under the star's brilliant beams flashing now against the black night, the wolf ranges far and wide, traversing horizons of the undiscovered. Provision is held in abeyance for remnant bird life, sustenance sparse, but adequate, in this Calendar-end stretch far from summer dreaming. And here, a part of humanity peers off into the year ahead and envisions potential for a time of fulfillment, creativity, and community. And, though another part looks and lacks faith to embrace such grandness, exaltation can be won. Life provides what is needed now. And the last word is key. Now is dependable. And, in fact, now is forever.
A Calendar of Nature and Soul, authored by Josef Graf, can be accessed in full through the EARTH VISION website: www.evbooks.net
Josef Graf Within the biography of Josef Graf can be found a Waldorf teacher, wilderness traveler, watercolorist, swing dancer, and anthroposophical researcher. With over twenty years of experience in the field of spiritual ecology, his primary approach to writing is to penetrate beyond the veil that nature presents.
You can find more of Josef's work at www.evsite.net and www.insight21.net.
Josef Graf Within the biography of Josef Graf can be found a Waldorf teacher, wilderness traveler, watercolorist, swing dancer, and anthroposophical researcher. With over twenty years of experience in the field of spiritual ecology, his primary approach to writing is to penetrate beyond the veil that nature presents.