A person who, through exertion of the soul, is able to experience the inner condition just described has become in a certain sense clairvoyant, feeling as if a higher order of being were towering up in his or her soul life. Thus we may say that the clairvoyant human being learns, through advanced power of observation, to know the spiritual world—that spiritual world with which the human being is indeed connected and which to a certain extent comes to meet one through the nervous system, even though in normal life this occurs by the indirect road of the sense impressions. In ordinary consciousness the human being knows nothing about this spiritual world, but it nevertheless actually inscribes itself upon the tablet of our blood, hence upon our Ego. In other words, we may say that underlying everything surrounding us externally in the world of sense there lies a spiritual world, so that we see as though through a veil woven by the sense impressions. In our normal consciousness, which is compassed by the horizon of our ordinary Ego, we do not see the spiritual world lying behind this veil. However, the moment we free ourselves of the Ego, the ordinary sense impressions disappear also. We then begin to live in a spiritual world above us, that same world that exists in reality behind the sense impressions, and with which we become one when we lift our nervous system out of our ordinary blood system.

We have already said that our Ego-manifesting blood is like a tablet upon which the nerves acting through the upper blood circulation bring us impressions from the outer world while the nerves acting through the lower circulation provide impressions from those outer world forces that are condensed and compressed into the spleen, liver and gallbladder. Steiner illustrated this by showing the blood as a circle with the arrows pointing from the circumference outward as the upper nervous system and arrows pointing from the center to the circumference as the lower. In other words, the arrows were not both pointing at the blood even though both nervous systems made impressions on the blood. The upper system comprises our enclosed brain and spinal cord. The human being's normal consciousness is aware of the impressions from the upper but not from the lower system.

The lower system is called the "sympathetic nervous system." It passes along the spine and spreads out from there into reticular forms, especially in the abdominal cavity, where one part of it goes by the popular name "solar plexus."

What is interesting is that the physiology of the two nervous systems is analogous to Steiner's drawing, i.e., to the antithetical direction of its arrows. For whereas in the case of the sympathetic nervous system the essential thing is that the ganglia of a certain kind are strong and large, while the connecting filaments radiating out from them are relatively small and of little account (in contrast to these ganglia), exactly the reverse is true in the case of the nervous system of the brain and spinal cord. There the connecting threads are the important thing, whereas the ganglia have a subordinate significance.

Our blood is thus in the center, between the outside and inside worlds, and exposes its two sides to be written upon like a tablet, first by one side and then by the other.

Let us now observe something astounding that is nevertheless completely analogous to what is said above. We have seen that the human being is in position to free its nerves, insofar as these lead to the outside world, from their action upon the blood system. We must now ask whether something similar is possible also in the other direction. And we see that it is possible to practice other exercises of soul that can produce in the other direction the same effect as that just described. There is one difference, however. Whereas we are able, through concentration of thought, concentration of feeling, and esoteric exercises, to free the nerves of our brain and spinal cord from the blood, we are able, on the other hand, through concentrations (called the "mystical life") that go right down into our inner life, our inner world, to penetrate so deep within ourselves that in doing so we most certainly do not ignore our Ego, nor therefore its instrument in the blood. This mystical immersion is not primarily a lifting of oneself out of the Ego; it is rather a positive plunging of oneself down into the Ego, a strengthening or energizing of the Ego feeling. The earlier mystics, in contrast to some today, in looking into their own Ego looked away from everything the outside world could offer.

This inward immersion could truly be said to be the "mystic path" and is in direct contrast to the one leading out into the macrocosm. For whereas we loosen by the process previously described the connection between the nerve and the blood, we here strengthen the connection between the blood and the sympathetic nervous system by true mystic immersion.

This is the physiological counterpart—that the blood is here pressed in more than ever against the sympathetic nervous system, whereas when the wish is to reach the spiritual world the other way the blood is pushed away from the nerve.

There is, however, another and ominous difference. For when one frees oneself from the Ego, the Ego is left behind with all its less desirable qualities. But when one immerses oneself in the Ego it is not at all certain, to begin with, that one is not at the same time pressing down all one's undesirable characteristics into this energized Ego. Let us put aside for now the great spiritual dangers imminent where such undesirable Ego traits of the passionate blood are pressed down into the sympathetic nervous system and assume that the mystic has properly prepared the self through preliminary training and exercises.

The Ego in that case is carried by the instrument of the blood down into the mystic's own inner world. It then comes to pass that the inner nervous system, the sympathetic nervous system, about which the human being in normal consciousness knows nothing, presses its way into the Ego consciousness, so that the person begins to know, "I have within me something that can mediate to me the inner world in a way similar to the way the other nervous system mediates the outer world to me."

But in order to be thus "similar," something quite obvious but at the same time amazing, takes place in our realization. For just as in our becoming conscious of the outer world we do not see the nerves, since no one sees the optic nerve, but rather what is to be seen by means of the nerve, the external world that penetrates our consciousness, so also in the case of the mystic immersion it is not, to begin with, the inner nerves that penetrate the consciousness. It is something quite different that appears. It is truly our own Self as physical being.

It is not our spleen, liver and gallbladder. To see these would be the equivalent of seeing the optic nerve in exercising our sense observation of the outer world. This does not happen. Similarly, in observing our inner world we do not see the counterparts of the optic nerve, the materialized digestive organs. To see these would be like looking at the outer world rather than the inner, for in this respect they are also outer world. Instead, what the mystic sees is what caused the seers throughout the ages to choose such strange names as those cited in the second lecture, i.e., Saturn, Jupiter and Mars. The mystic is now aware that in reality, to external sight which uses the brain and the spinal cord, these organs appear in maya, in external illusion, because the aspect they offer outwardly does not show them in their inner essential significance. The mystic becomes aware that what is actually seen are portions of the outside world enclosed within the boundaries of his or her inner organs.

In the balance of this lecture Steiner beautifully illustrates how (at least in one way) the spleen came to be seen by seers as the condensed forces of Saturn. He does so by looking at its function. He notes that it is only one of the ways in which the spleen functions and that it is impossible to explain all of them at once. In a prior lecture he had fleetingly characterized it as a sieve, a function observed by normal external physiology. And he later shows us why it, in contrast to other organs, can be removed without suffering fatal consequence, i.e., without losing the effect of its function. He goes on to give the spiritual reality underlying that one particular externally observable function.

It has to do with rhythm. In this function it is a very significant organ. In fact, to the seer it appears as though it is not even existing of fleshly matter but rather a luminous cosmic body with highly complicated inner life. We immediately recognize the importance of rhythm in the regularity of the pulse beat of the blood. But it is interesting to observe how very noticeably the spleen's externally observable rhythm differs from other rhythms we perceive. It is far less regular than others due to the fact that it lies near the human nutritive apparatus and has something to do with this.

We know how amazingly regular the rhythm of the blood must be if life is to be properly sustained. But there is another rhythm that is regular only to a very slight degree, namely, the rhythm of eating and drinking. One readily recognizes that such irregularity is probably most extreme in our modern way of life. The worst irregularities must be counterbalanced and to accomplish this an organ must be inserted that reconciles the irregularity of the process of nourishment with the necessary regularity of the rhythm of the blood. This organ is the spleen. It is really a transformer given to counterbalance the irregularities in the digestive canal in order that they may become regularities in the circulation of the blood. This it does by means of a "backward thrust," as we may call it. Only as much is to be conducted into the blood as is useful to it. Outwardly, the only thing that shows itself is that the spleen is to a certain extent inflated for hours at a time after a heavy meal is eaten, and that, if another meal does not follow, it contracts again. One is able to conceive how the rhythmic movements (expansions and contractions) of the spleen, although dependent of course upon the outside world (the supply of food), radiate throughout the whole organism and have a counterbalancing influence upon it.

Thus we have in the spleen an organ that is dependent from the aspect of the digestive canal on external human will. But from the aspect of the blood, it is an organ that sets aside to a certain extent human choice, rejects it, and leads back to a rhythm in accordance with the person's being. The human being, insofar as it is the carrier of its own bloodstream, must be set apart, so to speak, within itself, isolated from what proceeds with irregularity in the outside world, that outside world which it incorporates within itself when it takes in nourishment out of it. Hence this is a process of isolation, of making the human being independent of the outside world. Every such individualizing of any being, making it independent, is called in esotericism saturnine, something brought about by the Saturn influence. This as a matter of fact is the original idea associated with Saturn—that a being is individualized in such a way that within itself and of itself it can evolve regularity.

Disregarding the outer planets, Pluto, Neptune and Uranus, never visible to the naked eye (see I-17 & I-27), this is precisely what is brought about by Saturn, our most remote planet, in the relationship between our solar system and the surrounding universe. If we visualize the entire solar system, we might say, "The solar system must be so placed that it can follow its own laws within the orbit of encircling Saturn, and can make itself independent by tearing itself loose, as it were, from the surrounding world and from the formative forces of this surrounding world." For this reason esotericists of all the ages have seen in the Saturn forces what secludes our solar system within itself, thus making it possible for the solar system to develop a rhythm of its own that is not the same as the rhythm outside the world of our solar system.

In a certain way the spleen does something similar within our organism. The forces that are in the spleen isolate the circulation of our blood from all outside influences, and make of it a regular rhythm within itself, a system having its own rhythm.

In the esoteric schools the name Saturn was applied to anything that excluded a world outside from a system that took on a rhythmic form within itself. There is always a certain disadvantage for cosmic evolution as a whole when one system shuts itself off and regulates itself within itself, fashions a rhythm of its own. And the esotericists have, consequently, been somewhat concerned about this disadvantage. We might say, indeed, that it is quite comprehensible that all activities in the entire universe have a basic inner relation and are mutually related. The complete separation of any one "world," be it a solar system or the blood system of the human being, from the rest of the universe surrounding it this signifies that it quite independently violates external laws, makes itself independent of them, changes itself and creates its own inner laws, its own rhythm. A contradiction is thus created between what surrounds and what is within the being concerned. This contradiction cannot be compensated for, after it has once appeared, until the inner rhythm set up has again adapted itself completely to the outer rhythm. We shall see that this applies also to the human being, for otherwise, according to what has been said, it would be compelled to adapt itself to irregularity. We shall find, however, that such is not the case. The inner rhythm, although it has established itself, must again strive after doing this to fashion itself in accordance with the entire outside world, which means that it must eliminate itself.²³

To put it in other words, everything that has made itself independent as a result of a saturnine activity is doomed at the same time, because of that activity, to destroy itself again. Saturn, or Kronos (see I-17), devours his own children, so the myth tells us. Here you see a deeply significant harmony between an esoteric idea, expressed in the name Kronos or Saturn, and a myth which expresses the same thing in a picture, a symbol: "Kronos devours his own children!'"

How beautifully the Greek myth is paralleled by the Bible! For we note how on the "fourth day," i.e., the Earth Condition of Consciousness (see I-1), this shutting off into our solar system is expressed in Gen 1,14-19, while the return to the outer zodiacal influences is expressed in Rev 22,1-5 when the fruits of Earth evolution are seen as twelvefold and there is no longer a need of the Sun (our solar system).

A little later Steiner observes, without explaining, that the names Cain and Abel embody similar mythological truth (Gen 4,1-16). Etymologically, the name Cain is seen as coming from the Hebrew root qnh meaning to create or to acquire (see 1 ABD 806), while Abel is seen as perhaps deriving from the Hebrew root hbl meaning "breath" (see 1 ABD 9 at 10). More simply Abel might be seen to arrive at the same spiritual source as "breath" if we say "ab = from and el = god."