Edmund Blair “The Accolade” (1901)
Forging the Armor
(attributed to Rudolf Steiner)
I refuse to submit to fear that takes away my joy of freedom, that keeps me from taking the risk, that makes me small and petty, grabbing me, that prevents you from being direct and frank, that haunts me and occupies my imagination, always painting gloomy visions. I don’t want to raise barriers out of fear. I want to live and I don’t want to lock myself up. I don’t want to be friendly for fear of being honest. I want my steps to be steady because I’m sure… and not to hide the fear. And when I shut up, I want to do this out of love. and not out of fear of the consequences of my words. I don’t want to believe anything just for fear of not believing. I don’t want to philosophise out of fear that something might hit me up close and personal. I don’t want to bend only for fear of being unlovable, I don’t want to impose anything on others. for fear that they might impose something on me; for fear of making a mistake, I don’t want to become passive. I don’t want to run back to the “old” for fear I wouldn’t feel safe in “new.” I don’t want to make myself important for fear of being ignored otherwise. In conviction and love I want to do what I do and stop what I stop doing. From fear I want to tear the domain and give it to Love. And I want to believe in the Kingdom that exists in me.
Against Fear
by Rudolf Steiner
The Intimate Nature of Prayer, GA59, 4th Conference, Berlin, 17 February 1910
Whatever happens, whatever, unknown to me, may happen to me in the next hour or tomorrow, I certainly cannot change it with fear and anxiety. So I face it with perfect inner peace, with the sea of feeling perfectly calm. Fear and anxiety paralyze our evolution; let us reject the waves of fear and anxiety as far as our soul is concerned from the future. Devotion to what is called Divine Wisdom present in events, the certainty that whatever will happen because it had to happen, and that – whatever the direction – it will still have its positive effects; by translating this animic attitude into words, feelings, ideas, we realize the state of mind of devout prayer. This belongs to what we must learn in this time: we must learn to live with pure trust, without any security in existence, with confidence in the ever-present help of the spiritual world. In truth, today cannot be otherwise, if courage must not sink in. Let us properly discipline our will and seek inner awakening every morning and every evening.
Morning: Oh Michael, I commend to your protection With all the strength of my heart, I place myself under your aegis, So that the dawn of this day May it be an image of the just Fate in the act that belongs to your being.
Evening: I carry my pain into the setting sun, I place all my worries in her radiant bosom: Purified by the Light, Transform through Love, They return as invigorating thoughts, As strength for acts of joyous sacrifice.
Michael, lend me your Sword!
by Rudolf Steiner
Mantra written for Giovanni Colazza, 1910, contained in GA268
Michael! Lend me your Sword, that I may be armed to overcome the Dragon in me. Fill me with your Strength, so that I may vanquish the spirits who wish to paralyze me. Work in me in a such a way, that the Light of my I am can shine and I may be thus led to accomplish deeds worthy of you. Michael!
John Pettie “The Vigil” (1884)