Thirty-Five and the Fall of Japan

Today, I welcome the age of thirty-five. In the seven-year cycle theory once advocated by the pedagogue Rudolf Steiner, this age marks a turning point, an entry into a new stage of growth. The sixth cycle, beginning at thirty-five and continuing until forty-two, is positioned as a period for the awakening of one’s calling. Put simply, it is a time when one must know their own limitations; a time to cease directing one’s gaze solely upon oneself, and instead ask how one might use that self to act for others and for society. The preceding cycle—the fifth, spanning from twenty-eight to thirty-five—was defined as a period of facing spiritual crises, a time to refine and cultivate oneself by turning away from outward expansion and toward inward growth. Looking back, I have indeed spent the seven years since the age of twenty-eight moving across the various lands of Japan, undertaking a solitary pilgrimage in search of origins. I can thus concur with Steiner’s insight that human beings possess a seven-year cycle of maturation.