The occult meaning of blood (translated) E-Book

by Rudolf Steiner

• Herausgeber: David De Angelis
• Kategorie: Ratgeber
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2025

Beschreibung

The mighty legacy of innovative knowledge and initiatives that Steiner has left us has produced a vast series of initiatives in the various fields of human endeavour around the world, including biodynamic agriculture, anthroposophical medicine, eurythmy, the art of speech, Steinerian pedagogy (Waldorf schools) and living architecture. The activities of the Free University of Spiritual Science, artistic and theatrical activities, conferences, meetings and concerts take place in the Goetheanum.

Leseprobe

The occult meaning of blood

AN EXOTERIC STUDY by RUDOLF STEINER, Ph.D. (Vienna), 1912

'Blood is a very special fluid'

Each of you will no doubt know that the title of this lecture is taken from Goethe's Faust. You all know that in this poem we are shown how Faust, the representative of the highest human endeavour, enters into a pact with the powers of evil, which for their part are represented in the poem by Mephistopheles, the emissary of hell. You will also know that Faust must enter into a pact with Mephistopheles, whose deed must be signed with his own blood. Faust, at first, sees this as a joke. Mephistopheles, however, at this juncture utters the phrase that Goethe no doubt intended to take seriously: 'Blood is a very special fluid'.

Now, with reference to this verse from Goethe's Faust, we come across a curious trait in Goethe's so-called commentators. You know, of course, how vast the literature dealing with Goethe's version of the Faust legend is. It is a literature of such stupendous dimensions that entire libraries could be filled with it, and I cannot, of course, take the time to expound on the various comments made by these interpreters of Goethe regarding this particular passage. None of the interpretations sheds much more light on the sentence than that given by one of the last commentators, Professor Minor. He, like others, treats it in the light of an ironic remark made by Mephistopheles, and in this connection he makes the following very curious observation, to which I ask you to give your best attention; for no doubt you will be surprised to hear what strange conclusions Goethe's commentators are capable of drawing.

Professor Minor observes that 'the devil is an enemy of blood'; and points out that since blood is what sustains and preserves life, the devil, who is the enemy of the human race, must therefore also be the enemy of blood. Then - and rightly so - he draws attention to the fact that even in the oldest versions of the Faust legend - and, indeed, in legends in general - blood always plays the same part.

In an old book on Faust we are given a detailed description of how Faust makes a slight incision in his left hand with a small penknife, and how then, when he takes up the pen to sign his name on the contract, the blood flowing from the cut forms the words: "O man, flee!" All this is authentic enough; but now comes the observation that the devil is the enemy of blood, and that this is the reason why he demands that the signature be written in blood. I would like to ask if you can imagine that a person would be eager to possess the very thing for which he has a dislike? The only reasonable explanation that can be given - not only with regard to Goethe's meaning in this passage, but also with regard to the meaning of the main legend as well as all the older Faust poems - is that for the devil blood was something special, and that it was not at all indifferent to him whether the deed was signed with ordinary neutral ink or with blood.

We can assume nothing more here than that the representative of the powers of evil believes - nay, is convinced - that he will have Faust more especially in his power if only he can get hold of at least a drop of his blood. This is obvious, and no one can really understand the verse otherwise. Faust must inscribe his name in his own blood, not because the devil is inimical to him, but rather because he wishes to gain power over it.

Now, there is a remarkable perception underlying this passage, namely that he who obtains power over the blood of a man obtains power over man, and that the blood is a 'very special fluid' because it is the one over which, so to speak, the real struggle must be waged, when it comes to man's struggle between good and evil.

All those things that have come down to us in the legends and myths of various nations, and that touch on human life, will in our time undergo a particular transformation with regard to the entire conception and interpretation of human nature. Gone is the time when legends, fairy tales and myths were considered merely as expressions of a people's childhood imagination. Indeed, the time has also passed when, in a semi-serious and childish manner, it was fashionable to allude to legends as the poetic expression of a nation's soul.

Now, this so-called 'poetic soul' of a nation is nothing but the product of the educated bureaucracy; for this type of bureaucracy exists just as much in the official variety. Anyone who has ever observed the soul of a people knows that this is not imaginative fiction or something like that, but something much deeper, and that indeed the legends and fables of the various peoples are expressive of wonderful powers and events.

If, from the new vantage point of spiritual enquiry, we meditate on the old legends and myths, allowing those grand and powerful images that have come from primordial times to work on our minds, we will find, if we have been equipped for the task by the methods of occult science, that these legends and myths are the expressions of a deeper and more ancient wisdom.