Blood, Page Three

Prior to the spilling of Abel's blood no mention is made of the blood of any animal, not even with respect to the offering Abel had previously made to God (Gen 4,4). No mention is there made of an altar, and none is thereafter made until Noah brings an offering to the altar in Gen 8,20, whereupon God reverses his curse upon the ground and the raising of plants is ordained. The events up through Gen 4 may be considered to have occurred generally in Lemuria and in the periods up to the middle of the Atlantean Epoch; the events from Seth to Noah⁸ during the last half of Atlantis; and the events from the Noah transition on during the current post-Atlantean Epoch.

From I-27, we see that during the Earth Condition of Consciousness, the Sun, Moon and planets have separated out from the original Earth mass in the following order: Saturn, Jupiter, Sun, Mars, Moon, Venus and Mercury. We may take it for now that Saturn separated during the Polarian Epoch, the Sun during the Hyperborean, and the Moon during the Lemurian (see I-2). That leaves Mars to have made its iron deposits within the present Earth mass either late in the Hyperborean or early in the Lemurian. In either event, the iron necessary for warm red blood was first deposited relatively shortly before the Moon separated. We shall see that such latter event was necessary for the development of the higher vertebrates and warm blood.

Noah's sacrifice of animals symbolized the opening of post-Atlantean culture to agriculture—a step made possible by the spilling of blood (Gen 8,20-22).

While it is difficult for us in the present stage of human evolution to accept, anthroposophy shows us that spiritual progress is possible only through pain, toil and death. That is the teaching of the Old Testament as early as Gen 3, and the essential meaning of the Crucifixion. Christ as the first born, or first fruit, endured it, shedding his unique and salvific blood whereby a human soul's objective karma was taken upon his shoulders to the extent such human being accepts his sacrificial offering (see "Forgiven Sins" in The Burning Bush). Revelation shows us that each individual who would attain to the resurrection must eventually drink that "cup"—there it is in the form of "eating a scroll" that has been "unsealed" (Rev 10,8-10).⁹ The "stomach" represents the mineral-physical body, while the "mouth" (cf. Rev 1,16) represents the ascending power of the new organ of human reproduction, the larynx, from which the human being's creative word will someday issue. This will be when one will not want to be "with child" (Mt 24,19; Lk 23,29), that is, when humans who have evolved spiritually through assimilation of the etheric blood of Christ (see the discussion below of the etherization of the blood) will have passed beyond the time of sexual reproduction as we know it now.

In the complex fourth chapter ("Cosmic Evolution and the Human Being") of his deeply profound book An Outline of Esoteric Science (OES), Steiner shows us that the human being was created from the time of Old Saturn by the progressive sacrifice by the hierarchies, and that only by such sacrifice did they themselves advance (see also I-6 and I-35). Under the eternal law reflected by Hermes' saying "As Above, So Below," it is also only thus that the human being (in the image of its creators) will attain to spiritual advancement. From this it can be seen that the life of luxury and ease so worshiped in our day as the attainment of success is a disguised spiritual burden, even a curse, ominous and with devastating consequence. The scriptures are replete with similar warning (e.g., Mt 13,22; 19,23-24; 25,31-46; Mk 10,23-25; Lk 6,24; 16,19-31; 18,24-25; Jas 5,1-6; 1 Jn 3,17; 1 Tim 6,6-10). The depth of their meaning is still hidden to many of the outwardly devout by the veil of conventional belief, which finds it hard to give up the view held by so many in Old Testament times that riches are an indication of blessing, or righteousness no less (cf. Gen 13,2; 26,12-13; 1 Sam 2,7; Job 42,10-17; Prov 10,4,22). It is hard not to notice the political tendencies of the rich, many of whom are of fundamentalist Christian persuasion and yet very active in support of governmental policies that favor (i.e., preserve or enhance the privileges of) the rich as against the poor. It is not my purpose here to characterize conservative political positions as either good or bad (for the liberal can be equally so), save as they relate to the matter of wealth—for the love of it has been characterized as "the root of all evils" (1 Tim 6,10). Social conflict, as Steiner suggests, is destined to rage until human souls are sufficiently advanced to structure their institutions along the threefold lines of the human being's own bodily nature (see I-88).

For reasons that shall become apparent, the Bible requires blood sacrifice as expiation for all sin. Blood sacrifice as spelled out in the Old Testament must be seen, in the light of New Testament development, as prophetic of what was to come. It is otherwise difficult for us today to understand how the sacrifice of an animal by spilling its blood erased human sins. But that was the recurring format given for God's covenant as expressed in the "law" (e.g., Heb 9,6-26).

The mechanics by which the blood of the animal cleansed human sins is expressed, as indicated for instance by 1 ABD 761 ("blood"), in Lev 17,11, "For the life of the flesh is in the blood; and I have given it for you upon the altar to make atonement for your souls; for it is the blood that makes atonement, by reason of the life." The theory advanced in 1 ABD 761 is that "by placing a hand on the animal sinners passed their essence on to it," so that the subsequent shedding of its blood, which took the life of the animal, brought the sinner back to life. One can note the preliminary requirement of such a placing of the hands in numerous passages giving the procedure for animal sacrifice, e.g., Ex 29,10,15,19; Lev 1,4; 3,2,8,13; 4,4,15,24,29. The validity of this ancient understanding is attested by the anointing of the head of Jesus, the Lamb of God, in Mt 26,1-13 and Mk 14,1-9. The blood sacrifice of this "lamb" thereafter removed the sins of the world (see "Forgiven Sins" in The Burning Bush; also Rev 5,6,9,12).

The equation "blood equals life" was more ancient than the Hebrews, undoubtedly going back to the clairvoyant knowledge of prehistoric time. Moreover, we are told (1 ABD 761) that the two (blood and life) are "attested as lexical pairs in … Ugaritic and Akkadian poetry," which antedates that found in Hebrew. This primal understanding appears also to have existed among the Native Americans (see, for instance, Lakota Myth [LAKM], p. 207). Undoubtedly, the pagan practice of human sacrifice derived from such knowledge as the ancient mystery wisdom became decadent. Abraham's willingness to shed the blood of his only son, Isaac, reflected his tradition, but the (descending) Christ Spirit, acting through its angels, prophetically, profoundly and symbolically delivered "a ram [i.e., lamb] caught in a thicket by its horns," Gen 22,11-14.¹⁰

How deeply and marvelously esoteric is the prophecy here laid down. And as the "law" thereafter developed, Hebrews, with their God's approval, abhorred human sacrifice. Nevertheless, the spilling of human blood remained ambiguously approved under the law for numerous offenses. Even the commandment "Thou shall not kill" (Ex 20,13; Deut 5,17) was more honored in the breach than otherwise by Old Testament law, and seemed, like that of loving one's neighbor (Lev 19,18), to have initially had a quite limited scope. Few commandments extend as near the outer limits of creation as "Thou shall not kill." Anthroposophy shows us that our senses function only by killing what enters the human body from the outside. Light is killed to create sight, sound to create hearing, the constitution of what is ingested to conform it to human metabolism. In time, humanity will cease to kill animals for food (let alone for sport, which is already abhorrent to the more spiritually sensitive), thereafter even plants, and finally even the physical sound and light waves for sense (as we see in Revelation when even the Sun will no longer be needed for light). In other words, as with all written (graven) images, evolution will eventually change the meaning of "Thou shall not kill," and those most sensitive souls will yearn always to move onward to the next stage. Those who most understand the Christ of our time already sense these latent tendencies in their attitude of reverence for all things—such attitude perhaps reflecting the presence in them of the astral body of Saint Francis of Assisi (who had the astral body of Christ; see I-74 and the essay "Spiritual Economy" in The Burning Bush).

It would be easier for us to simply skip over the term blood because of its complexity, and I might have been tempted to do so if an increased understanding of its spiritual significance were not so vital. Steiner's works are a cornucopia of references to it.¹¹

Let us look first at the prehistoric knowledge, later reflected in the Old Testament, that "the life is in the blood" and consider how it relates to Steiner's assertions that the blood is the material manifestation of the Ego. We saw above how what was animal sacrifice in the Old Testament gradually and prophetically matured into the sacrifice of Christ as the Lamb of God in the New Testament. Christ, as the higher Ego ("I AM") to be taken in by the human being, tells us, "'I am … the life" (Jn 11,25 and 14,6, emphasis mine). He makes clear that his blood is given for us, and other New Testament writers cited above assert that our salvation is through the agency of that blood. In such sense, the life is in the blood in the New Testament's Mystery of Golgotha—the transformation, as it were, of the sacrifice from the animal level to the human through Christ's deed (Heb).