6. The Blood as Manifestation and Instrument of the Human Ego

In all the preceding we see that the blood system is the instrument of the Ego through which it can and does work. From this we must conclude that the whole organization must be active by means of the blood as far as the skin. Moreover, we can find that everything present as a tendency in the force systems of the entire organism is present in the skin itself. The entire organism is a human being because it harbors within itself an Ego that creates, through the instrumentality of its blood, an expression of itself throughout, even to and into its outer boundary. Thus the circulatory, nerve, organ (sweat glands) and nutritional (secretion) systems are all present all the way out to and within the skin.

The blood system is the most immediate instrument of the Ego, but is possible only if all the other systems exist first. The whole human organism must first be built up before the blood as the Ego instrument can come into existence. The animal appears in some ways to be similar, but is not so, for all of the human being's systems have to be built up in precisely their form, manner, structure and function in order to receive the blood that can be the instrument for an indwelling earthly Ego. All the forces must have done their necessary work beforehand in order that the blood system can hold exactly to the form it now takes to be an expression of the Ego. The blood is the most easily controlled element in the human body and has the least stability in itself, pouring out when not fully enclosed, so that, beginning with the nutritive processes, there have to be present in the human organism all the laws that lead ultimately to the formation of the course of the blood, the circulatory system. A human's blood is more determined than any other system by the experiences of the conscious Ego. Thus it blushes from shame or pales from fear or anxiety, rushing outward to hide inner being or rushing inward to flee danger.

The deeper we penetrate into the organ systems, the less they follow our Ego in this way—ultimately to the bones themselves, over which the Ego has almost no power during the earthly life. Thus, the blood, which is most instantly and constantly affected by the Ego's presence, and the bones, which reach their final form with the second dentition and are thereafter beyond the Ego's formative power, merely growing or decaying by virtue of forces already set in motion, represent two extremes in the human organization. The blood is the youngest and the bones the oldest force system in the human being's organization. The structure of a given person's bones, absolutely essential to give the rest of his or her organization its form, must thus be seen as having been formed by the Ego prior to its incarnation. A human being's skeleton, particularly the configuration of its skull which is largely established before its birth, is tangible proof of reincarnation. When one finds a shell, it is proof that something once lived in it. From all that has been said earlier, we know that the shell of an animal is not proof that its Ego lived in it on Earth inasmuch as its group Ego dwells in the astral plane and so does not die with the death of its various animal parts (see I-11). But likewise, from all that has been said, a human skull shows that it was once occupied by a human being who also did not form it during the life it accommodated.

While the foregoing fairly summarizes, I believe, the substance of Lect. 6, let us pause momentarily to consider how, taking into account all that went before, it is reflected in the short passage in Mt 15,10-20, epitomized in its verse 11, "Not what goes into the mouth defiles a man, but what comes out of the mouth, this defiles a man."

We take first the first half, the ingestion as not defiling. We are baffled by the phenomenon that dumb animals know what to eat and what not to eat from the moment of their birth. No animal will eat a poisonous plant, but the human being must be told or else learn from experience what to eat or not to eat. Nor will an animal eat more than it needs, contrary to the vast majority of humans who are given the option of doing so. Thus, the animal is given instinctive knowledge (see 6 Brit 332, "instinct," and 14 Brit 627, "Behaviour, Animal"). Animal instincts have always been a puzzle to us, but anthroposophy shows why they are as they are. The animal's Ego, dwelling in the astral world (I-11), is not limited in earthly knowledge, is not "veiled in flesh," as is the incarnated human Ego.

How is it then that the indwelling human Ego can keep something that goes into it from defiling it? As with all scripture, this passage can have many levels of true meaning.

At the lower level, it can be true that an exalted Ego has more power over the immediate effect of food than a more "normal" person would have. To some extent we see this reflected in the analogous powers in Mk 16,17-18, "And these signs will accompany those who believe: … if they drink any deadly thing, it will not hurt them. . . ." From this we may reasonably infer, as is indeed in keeping with all the foregoing, that the individual human organism, but most especially its blood, is so built up or constructed by the Ego that only diseases, germs and the like that it sees as befitting its purposes will affect it. One individual will be grievously affected, another but little, and another none at all by ingesting or inhaling certain noxious elements.

At a higher level, one can see that what one ingests or inhales in a given lifetime is done for a purpose, and is handled by the body in keeping with that purpose, so that one will be sick or not according to that purpose. The purpose is tied in with a much longer range goal than that of a single lifetime and is associated with what needs to be learned or experienced in the lifetime. In general, the ingesting thus has only a beneficial consequence to the Ego or entelechy in the long multilived process of its perfection (Mt 5,48). Consequently it does not "defile" but has the tendency toward eventual purification. It comes within the healing consequences of sin, namely, the "pain, toil and death" consequences first introduced in Genesis 3.

If we then take the latter half of Mt 15,11, that what comes out of the mouth defiles, we can also deal with it at different levels, corresponding with the present incarnation or a later one. It is fairly apparent how the character of a person is adversely affected or "defiled" by its words. But beyond character, the soul aspect can be visibly affected in both a short- or long-range manner within the person's lifetime. One does not need to believe in karma and reincarnation to accept this, and indeed this and its consequential effect at a later "judgment" would seem to constitute substantially all of the defilement. On the other hand, the higher meaning, which goes along with the reality of karma and reincarnation, shows us that the words that come out of one's mouth etch themselves into what is carried over into the formation of one's person in subsequent lives, so that in a most direct way there is deep and grievous defilement by each and every unworthy thing that comes from the mouth. When one considers that the organs of speech are in the ascendancy and will one day become the human organs of reproduction, then the progress of the personality in the purification of this organism can be seen as bearing directly upon the eventual salvation of the Individuality.³¹ It is this that is most deeply indicated by the brother of Jesus, "And the tongue is a fire. The tongue is an unrighteous world among our members, staining the whole body, setting on fire the wheel of birth" (Jas 3,1-12, esp. vs 6; emphasis mine, RSV footnote).