Rudolf Steiner gave a thirteen part lecture series in 1906 titled Supersensible Knowledge. The second of these lectures was titled Blood Is A Very Special Fluid.
Using that line from Goerthe’s work Faust, the lecture explores why blood is so special that the devil character, Mephistopheles, demanded his deal be signed in Faust’s own blood.
It may sound a bit like smoke and mirrors to anyone not familiar with the system of knowledge, and it is in a way just that. The haziness of the ancestral consciousness was alive and understood as a whole,...read the full gossamer article for clearer insights
"Not till Beauty and Truth become part of a person's blood does he truly possess them. Mephistopheles wants power over Faust's “I”; that is why he seizes Faust's blood. So you see that the quotation, which is the Leitmotiv of this lecture, arose out of profound knowledge. Blood is indeed a very special fluid." -Rudolf Steiner Supersensible Knowledege
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“…In the past ... the inner life contained all that was brought over through heredity. A human's mental life depicted ancestors' experiences as if they were his own. A person could remember not only his own childhood, but his ancestors' lives, because they were contained in the pictures absorbed by his blood. Incredible as it may seem to the modern materialistic outlook, there was a time when human consciousness was such that an individual regarded both his and his forefathers' physical experiences as his own. -Rudolf Steiner Supersensible Knowledege
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“… formless substances come together in the human body, …the ether body transforms them into living forms, ….through the astral body the outer world is reflected and becomes inner sensation, and finally this inner life produces of itself pictures of the outer world. “
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Steiner says, "..we have followed a path that leads from the outer world to humanity's inner world and back to the outer world. We have seen that the origin of blood coincides with our ability to face the world as an independent being, a being able to form his or her own pictures of the external world from its reflection within the self."
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"Unless this stage is reached, a being cannot say “I” to itself. Blood is the principle whereby “I-hood” is attained. An “I” can express itself only in a being who is able independently to formulate the pictures the outer world produces within the self. A being who has attained “I-hood” must be able to take in the outer world and recreate it within the self."
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"...a being who in addition possesses blood will experience inner life within the self. The blood, assisted by oxygen [ formless substance ] taken [in] from the outer world, builds up the individual body according to the inner pictures. This is experienced as perception of the “I”.
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In the lecture Steiner also reveals the role of blood as the differentiation of the spiritual and physical, the macrocosm and microcosm, the above and the below.
He says "…remind ourselves of a maxim that originated within the civilization of ancient Egypt, where the priestly wisdom of Hermes held sway. This maxim, which expresses a fundamental truth, is known as the Hermetic maxim and runs as follows: As above, so below..."
The ancients understood that the human body, the fractal of the whole cosmos, also contained the cosmos. The body itself is the above and the below.
"…Physical principle, ether body and astral body are the “above” blood…". "the “I” forms the center; " … "and physical body, living fluids and nervous system are the “below.”
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"But in the work accomplished spiritually by the efforts we have to make, we get rid of a little of our egotism; we enter what we wish to acquire …in a more hallowed frame of mind if we have had to take trouble over it, than if it had been presented to us in quite an easy and popular form." -Steiner in 1915
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"Whatever power wishes to subjugate a person will have to exert an influence that imprints itself in his blood. Thus, if an evil power wishes dominance over an individual, it must gain dominance over his or her blood. That is the profound meaning of the quotation from Faust, and the reason the representative of evil [Mephistopheles] says: “Sign your name to the pact in blood; once I possess your name written in your blood, I shall have caught you by the one thing that will hold man. I shall then be able to pull you over to my side.” That which possesses a person's blood possesses that person, and possesses the human “I. ”
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"Not till Beauty and Truth become part of a person's blood does he truly possess them."
I think this thirteen part lecture is in essence showing that as we evolve, if we as humanity want to climb up the mountain, there is risk of falling down the mountain. We have evolved into higher forms of beings, but there is also a devolving that could drag us down. Maybe there were civilizations near the top of the mountain before humanity was flooded with material wants. Maybe there still are.
The material world is dense and heavy. Understanding how to use the material ballast is an evolved skill, it is the spiritual work required in the above and below.
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These lectures and much of Steiner's authentic work is available to read here.
In our current time some archive data base are using AI to offer Steiners work, but this is not Authentic Steiner and does not necessary convey his meanings.
Authenticity is a key to honest reality.
Supersensible Knowledge was published in German as, Die Erkenntnis des Uebersinnlichen in Unser Zeit und Deren Bedeutung Fuer das Heutige Leben.
Here are 13 lectures given by Rudolf Steiner at Berlin and Cologne in 1906 and 1907. Translated by Rita Stebbing
Listen to Supersensible Knowledge online or download -free
Read the full gossamer article Beauty and Truth In The Blood
