The Rudolf Steiner Archive

44. Blood Is a Very Special Fluid

[ 1 ] You know that the saying intended to serve as the leitmotif of our lecture, “Blood is [a very special sap],” is found in Goethe’s *Faust*. Mephistopheles, the emissary of Hell—that is, of evil—demands that Faust sign the contract he concludes with him in blood. The point is that Faust—in whom Goethe has portrayed the representative of the striving human being—is caught between good and evil; that Faust is to be served by the servant of Hell; and that Mephistopheles is to accompany Faust throughout his life, in exchange for which Faust pledges himself to Mephistopheles. This contract is to be signed with blood, as Mephistopheles demands. Now you know that the answer to Faust’s remark—whether such a form, and specifically blood, is necessary—is: “And blood is a very special fluid.”

[ 2 ] [There] is a whole body of literature on Faust, but very few people know the meaning of the word “Mephistopheles”: the liar, the corrupter—from the Hebrew =; even fewer [know] the meaning of “blood.” In one of the most recent commentaries on Faust, you can read that Mephistopheles’s remark must be understood as follows: Mephistopheles demands blood and remarks ironically, “Blood is a very special fluid,” because he hates blood, because it is particularly unpleasant to him—that is why he demands the signature in blood. One really has to be a “Goethe interpreter” to make such a statement. Can you, in all reason, imagine demanding something as a special price precisely because it is the most unpleasant thing to you? One does not do that; when one demands something as strictly as Mephisto does—namely, with a signature—one thereby designates that thing as something of value. Common sense simply leads one to conclude that the messenger from Hell attaches very special value to blood. That is why he demands a signature in blood.

[ 3 ] We can trace the legend on which Goethe based his poem back to the sixteenth century. Even then we find the ritual of writing in blood; there it is depicted in a particularly vivid manner. How Faust’s vein is opened, how the blood trickles out, how it then coagulates, and how, finally, the sign appears: “O Man, arise!”

[ 4 ] The Faust legend is, in turn, just one of the many legends in which blood and the “blood decree” play a role. The concept of blood inheritance did not find its way into the Faust legend by mere whim, but through the very means by which we find profound wisdom expressed figuratively in so many legends and myths. How mysterious a fact often seems! The spiritual researcher, however, knows that when we delve into the old legends and fairy tales—not in the way that today’s materialistic scholars do, who speak of a poetic folk imagination that the true connoisseur of the people has certainly found nowhere, who speak of fantastical constructs—but when we observe them not in that way, but as spiritual researchers, we find deep spiritual truths expressed throughout them—figurative expressions of profound spiritual truths. It is something most remarkable that when we look at the simple expressions of the people, we find the great spiritual truths before us in image, depicted figuratively. These are fairy tales, myths, and legends! And we can always ask ourselves: Is there perhaps a profound spiritual truth contained in this folk legend, or perhaps in this one saying? And then, as spiritual scientists, let us examine this saying.

[ 5 ] Today, then, let us consider the significance of blood—the significance of this special fluid—both in the life of the individual and in the life of humanity and nations. If we shed light on the mystery of blood, we will gain some insight into important cultural issues of the present.

[ 6 ] We will understand what we have to say about this if we adhere to an ancient saying, a maxim known as the Hermetic Principle. It comes from one of the greatest initiates, Hermes Trismegistus, the Egyptian initiate. Many scholars consider him a legendary figure. Spiritual science, however, knows that he was the greatest teacher of Egyptian culture. At first glance, this statement seems strange; it reads: “As above, so below; as below, so above.”

[ 7 ] What is this? You will understand it if you consider the following: You see a smiling expression on a person’s face; it is immediately clear to you that cheerfulness is present in that person’s soul. You see a tear, and it is clear to you that sadness or pain has settled upon that person’s soul. You infer the inner state from what the eyes see on the outside—from the material to the spiritual. Now, according to the philosophy of Hermes Trismegistus, the material and physical are called the lower, and the spiritual and soul-related are called the higher. And anyone familiar with this philosophy understands that there is a spiritual world, and that everything that takes place in this spiritual world can find expression in the material realm. At some point, this philosophy tells us, every spiritual aspect finds its material expression. There is no spiritual aspect that does not find expression, even in the physiognomy of the material world, and no material aspect that does not have a spiritual side. As above in the spiritual, so below in the material.

[ 8 ] In the medieval philosophy of that great, wondrous brotherhood known as the Brotherhood of the Holy Grail, if you had been able to be invisible spectators, you could have overheard a lengthy teaching scene between the teacher and the students of the Holy Grail Brotherhood. I cannot briefly sketch this in any other way than, for example, in the form of a conversation. It did not actually unfold that way, but it will give you an idea of what took place between the teacher and the student.

[ 9 ] It was made clear to the student: Just as you, when you see a smiling face, can infer the person’s cheerful spirit, and from a tear can infer a sad spirit, so you can do the same throughout all of nature. For such a student, what Goethe characterized as the Earth Spirit was not merely a poetic image, but reality. Just as every person, when seeing fellow human beings before them laughing or with a sad expression, says to themselves: “Here I have not only flesh and blood, but a soul”—so the medieval Grail student had been led to say to himself: When I look at this Earth with its stones, plants, animals, people, and everything else, it is to me—just like the human body—the expression of a soul or a spirit; and it had been made perfectly clear to him: If your finger were to imagine itself to be an independent entity without your soul, you could easily convince yourself that this is not the case if you were to sever it from the whole body. It would wither away in a short time. It cannot lead an independent life. Nor can you yourself, who are part of the soul of the Earth. If you could separate yourself from it—if you were to move just a few miles away from the Earth—you would wither away just like the finger. The finger does not, however, succumb to the foolish illusion of being an independent entity simply because it is attached; if it could walk around like a human, it would do so just as a human does.

[ 10 ] Thus, for the student, the saying became a profound truth, and the Earth Spirit a real entity. And when he walked through the fields, a realization dawned within him, touching his heart deeply. When he saw a plant with a smiling face, it was to him the expression of the cheerful Earth Spirit, and when he beheld another with dark violet blossoms, it was to him the expression of the mourning Earth Spirit; the whole earth became to him the expression of a spirit, as did the seemingly lifeless stone.

[ 11 ] When the student then moved on to the so-called Rosicrucian School, which was founded in the fourteenth century, the instruction continued as follows: “Look at the stone, this crystal! It consists of a certain substance.” Compare this substance with animal and human substance. The latter is permeated by instincts and passions, by desires and longings; but desireless, without longing—made only of glass—illuminated by the light, the substance of the stone stands there; chaste in contrast to animal and human substance. — And so the student had to immerse himself more deeply in the chaste stone. The goal of becoming as pure as the stone in its own way hovered before his eyes as a lofty ideal. The student had to feel this sentiment toward the chaste stone.

[ 12 ] I may tell you only the first sentence of a most profound formula, which was spoken every time an important section of the lesson was reached—the formula that signifies the passage of divine wisdom through all of nature. Where worldly wisdom creates down in the realm of stone, it is characterized by the formula: “The stones are silent.” I have placed and hidden the eternal Word of the Creator within them; chastely and modestly, they carry it in the depths.

[ 13 ] And another scene that took place within the Grail schools was this: They pointed to the calyx of the plant, which rises up from the plant, and said: “Look at the plant! It stretches its roots into the earth and its reproductive organs toward the sun—those organs that appear to us here in chaste purity—and has been kissed by the sunbeam, which is called the holy lance of light. And this plant calyx contains the very same reproductive organs that must be covered by a sense of modesty in the human realm. — Man is the plant turned completely upside down. The roots are the head of the plant. We must imagine that, through the absorption of desires and instincts, man must shamefully conceal what the plant holds up to the sun as a chaste calyx. A process of development takes place from the plant to man. Imagine the plant indicated by a downward stroke; the animal makes a half-turn, the human being a full one. Draw this out: a cross emerges. Plato expressed it this way: The world soul is crucified on the cross of the world body. — For in spiritual science, the three kingdoms were perceived as the cross, and as the world soul passes from the plant to the human being, it passes through the cross.

[ 14 ] And now the student was told further: Imagine this development; imagine the chaste calyx of a plant as a model for the human power of creation, purified of all desire; imagine the human being as a creative, generative being, as pure and chaste as the calyx of a flower; then the calyx appears before the human eye as the spiritual organ of creation of the future, kissed by the sun of spiritual life. This ideal is called the Holy Grail. — Thus was the spiritual essence of the Holy Grail imparted to the disciples.

[ 15 ] You see, one who walks through nature as such a scientist sees in the chalice a profound indication of what human beings are meant to become. Thus, the lower realm—matter—speaks of the spirit—the higher realm—everywhere.

[ 16 ] And we come to understand the lower realm when we come to know the higher realm. We understand the nature of blood when we come to know the higher realm that corresponds to it. Our task is first to contemplate the human being spiritually and then to see what in the spiritual realm corresponds to blood.

[ 17 ] We no longer need to explore in detail the nature of the human being in the spiritual realm. Four components: the physical, etheric, and astral bodies, and the “I,” through which the human being has become the crown of creation. The “I” is that which thoughtful individuals always perceive as the expression of the truly eternal within the human being. And you need only make a very slight effort to consider what this name “I” signifies, in contrast to all other names. Anyone can call a chair a “chair”; this cannot happen with the name “I.” No one can say “I” to me; the name “I” can never approach us from the outside if it is to have meaning for us. The soul must begin to speak from within. With the “I,” we express something that gives itself its own name. The true religions have always sensed this. For example, the ancient Hebrew esoteric science called this divine essence “God Himself,” and the name for it, the unpronounceable name of God. “I am who I am” means nothing other than this “I am” within the soul. And this is what those who heard it sensed; this is what the listeners sensed: the resounding of the spiritual within the soul when it was uttered: “Jav” = “I am who I am”; that is the ineffable name of God.

[ 18 ] The “I,” then, is the highest of the four parts of the human being. Of these four parts, you can see and touch only the physical body here, and so on. The other three parts constitute the higher aspects of the human being; but each higher aspect corresponds to a lower one. Each of these three parts manifests itself in the physical body as specific organs. That which the ordinary materialistic anatomist knows something about—the physical body—is also a multi-part entity. Its organs are not all of the same kind; human beings have four kinds of organs: those that are purely physical, formed solely by the physical body itself; then those that the human being could not have developed without the etheric body, without the astral body, without the “I.” Certain organs are the lower part of the etheric body, certain ones the lower part of the astral body, and certain ones the physical expression, the lower part of the ego.

[ 19 ] You must not believe, however, that physical organs—which are composed solely of physical matter—can exist in a merely physical body; all are permeated by the etheric and astral bodies; but the former derive their form solely from the physical body. The ear and the eye are physical apparatuses. In his senses, the human being is an expression of the physical body. Now turn from these senses to the organs of nutrition, reproduction, and growth: these are no longer mere physical apparatuses; they are constituted and form the lower part of the etheric body. You must therefore imagine that the human body, in its sense organs and its skeletal structure, is constituted by the physical principle itself. Because it is permeated by the etheric body, the other organs are integrated into it. The plant is also permeated by an etheric body; therefore, it, too, has integrated organs of nutrition, growth, and reproduction. The moment a being is additionally permeated by an astral body, a nervous system becomes integrated into that being. This is the expression of the astral body.

[ 20 ] As human beings gradually developed into material beings, they passed through the various kingdoms of nature; they found their way from the purely physical body up to the higher realms, and the higher aspects of their being increasingly incorporated organs into the lower ones. The organs are not of equal value; the nerves are the expression of the astral body, while the stomach and liver are those of the vital body; they find, as it were, their external physiognomy in the lower for the higher.

[ 21 ] The matter can be explained in even greater detail: The astral body has developed gradually; it consists of various parts, beginning with the so-called sensory body—the lowest part—followed by the sensory soul, then the intellectual soul, and finally the conscious soul. They have developed step by step. If you want to understand this step-by-step development of the human being, you must start once again at the lowest level. Look at a physical being! Great philosophers call this a mirror of the entire world system. Why? Look at the smallest stone; consider that it could not be as it is unless the entire environment were as it is. The great naturalist Cuvier said: If you show a single bone to a truly wise anatomist, he would be able to see from its structure what the structure of the entire animal to which it belongs must be like; if the bone were even slightly different, the entire structure would have to be different. The whole is expressed in the details—this applies to the entire cosmos.

[ 22 ] Just as a single bone must be as it is because the whole is as it is, and just as it would be different if the whole were different, so a truly wise being would be able to deduce from the smallest pebble how the entire planet is structured. The individual is a mirror of the cosmos.

[ 23 ] But when we ascend from the merely lifeless mirror of the cosmos, as it already appears in stone, this cosmic reflection appears to us as something higher when we see it where beings are rooted in life. There, the cosmos is not reflected as it is in stone; there, the process of reflection continues within. The being closes itself off from the outside. Processes within are stimulated by certain processes occurring outside. The plant reflects the external world in its movements.

[ 24 ] In the nervous system, this reflection is even more complete. The simplest nervous system is the one still present in humans as the sympathetic nervous system, which extends in two strands on either side of the spinal cord and whose activity is unknown to our consciousness. As the lowest nervous system, this system forms the foundation for the sensory body. Now you can see, just as is shown in my *Theosophy*, how the soul of sensation is integrated into the body of sensation. This finds expression in the lower realm: the spinal cord nerve tract is integrated between the two ganglion tracts. As above, so below!

[ 25 ] The material world is a wonderful expression of spiritual life. Theosophy will offer you a spiritual picture of the world. This bears the imprint of the seal on the outside. And this is the meaning of the word “seal.” Where we have something material before us whose spiritual aspect we do not yet know, it is called “sealed” in the language of the Revelations of St. John. And our world will be revealed with its seven mysteries. The entire world is divided into seven parts: seven colors, seven tones, seven parts of the human being. There is nothing miraculous about this; it is simply the same fundamental law. This sevenfold universe, insofar as it remains veiled, is a book with seven seals. When it is unsealed, one will recognize the higher in the lower.

[ 26 ] For the intellectual soul, which is a higher component of the astral body, the brain is the outward expression, the lower aspect.

[ 27 ] This raises the question: If the physical body is, so to speak, its own physical expression—and everything related to the nutritional system, etc., is the expression of the etheric body—and if the nervous system is that of the astral body, what, then, is the expression of the Eternal?

[ 28 ] This is blood and the circulatory system. Wherever blood appears, it is an expression of the “I.”

[ 29 ] In this way, we will come to understand—from a spiritual scientific perspective—how it is that, for example, in humans, as the embryo develops, the heart and blood do not appear until all the other organs have already formed in the womb. This corresponds exactly to what takes place in the spirit. The “I” is the crown of everything and also appears last.

[ 30 ] There is also a wonderful connection between blood and the “I.” You may already begin to glimpse how blood is connected to the “I”—to the very essence of the human personality—if you consider the following: Where the “I” feels fear or is terrified, its physical body turns pale; where it wants to hide, the blood becomes visible in the form of a blush. Where the “I” is particularly engaged, we see this reflected in the external expression of a change in facial color. This may seem trivial, but it offers a glimpse of the connection between the “I” and the blood.

[ 31 ] You see, our materialistic science regards the heart as a kind of pumping mechanism. It holds the view that the heart pumps blood through the body in a purely mechanical way. Hegel was the only German philosopher of the nineteenth century who knew that this is not the case. He said: It is not the heart that drives the blood, but rather the blood that gives the heart its movement. And the blood derives its movement from the soul; it is driven by the spirit. The heart beats faster when the spiritual impulse is present. The blood is the driving force of the heart.

[ 32 ] It was a bold statement, but it is common knowledge in the humanities. The humanities have never said anything other than this: that it is the soul itself which, under the impulse of the “I,” drives the blood—whether in response to fear or to some other emotional state—and that this soul, this “I,” drives the blood and thereby the heart.

[ 33 ] And this will at the same time draw your attention to something in spiritual science that will help you understand one thing. The heart, in fact, is something that throws a wrench into the plans of today’s materialistic science. The voluntary muscles are so-called striated muscles, while all involuntary muscles are so-called smooth muscles. The heart, however, is an involuntary muscle; most people cannot control it. And yet it is striated; where does that come from? Spiritual science explains it this way: The heart, as it is today, is at the beginning of its development; there will come a time when what is still an involuntary movement today will become a voluntary one, subject to the human spirit. The brain is the organ of thought today, and the heart will become the organ of the spirit in the future. In the future, the heart will assume an entirely different position. Human beings will consciously circulate their blood through their bodies. The heart will be the expression of their spiritual life—a muscle acting consciously. This is how it will be in the future. That is why the seeds of this are already present today. Thus, we have these very different human organs—blood and heart—as expressions of the “I,” and we can trace their significance for the world.

[ 34 ] People speak of blood ties, of the significance of blood. One senses this, but one has no real understanding of it. I want to illustrate such intuitions for you with examples from real life: Anzengruber and Rosegger, who are known as chroniclers of peasant life—the latter describes it as he saw it, while the former depicts it entirely from his own perspective, without having observed or studied it closely, and yet very aptly—had a conversation in which Rosegger said to Anzengruber: “You live and have always lived entirely in the city, and yet you’ve characterized the farmers so excellently. If you were to go out to them now and take a close look at them, just imagine how well you’d be able to portray them then. That would just drive me crazy,” replied Anzengruber. “I’ve spent my whole life in the city, but my ancestors were farmers—all farmers—so it’s just in my blood.”

[ 35 ] It’s in one’s blood—that might seem like a metaphor; but is it merely a metaphor? Anzengruber truly painted from the depths of his own blood. He had no sketchbook. Why? Not because the blood was inherited—that cannot be inherited. Not a single drop of blood is passed from father to son. It is, in fact, the very last thing to develop in the embryo. But just as you inherit your nose from your father—the structure of your external organs—so, too, do you inherit the structure of your nervous system and the structure of your internal organs. Everything that constitutes the expression of the physical body, the etheric body, and the astral body, you inherit from your ancestors. You might just as well examine the stomach for its resemblance to your father’s as you would the nose. And you might examine the resemblance of Anzengruber’s brain to that of his peasant ancestors, just as you would the nose. The parts of the human being that prove to be similar to ancestral forms in this way are imprinted in the blood as if on a tablet, because the blood represents the “I.” Whatever makes an impression on the blood makes an impression on the “I.” If I live entirely as a son of my ancestors, and what has been inherited is the strongest force within me, then what has been inherited imprints itself on the blood, and I sense in the blood what still existed within my ancestors. If, on the other hand, the impressions from the external world are stronger, then what penetrates my “I,” my blood, drowns out what flows forth from within. I forget what my ancestors allowed to flow into me.

[ 36 ] Thus, the one of whom it is said that he has “race” will truly be a son of his lineage, possessing the structure of his ancestors. He imprints this upon his blood, upon his self. The one in whom the racial trait is no longer so strong is dependent on external impressions. Everyone has these for themselves, whether the son of this or that father. They have drowned out their inner impulses with stronger external impressions. If the impressions of the outside world are stronger, then the outside world has his blood; if “race” lives within him, then “race” has his blood. What the ancestor experienced is then expressed in what he does and writes.

[ 37 ] Expand on that and consider the spiritual origins of humankind. Just imagine: even more of what is inherited is expressed in this way. Just imagine that; it really did happen.

[ 38 ] If we go back to ancient times, we find a certain starting point among every people. Entirely different marital relationships, relationships of love, togetherness, and kinship prevailed then; individuals married within the family or the tribe. In every people, you will then find the transition from what might be called “close-kin marriage” to what is called “distant-kin marriage.” In the era of the former, it would have violated the custom—the law—of a tribe if a male or female member had married outside the tribe. In every people, however, we see how close-kin marriage was later broken, as individuals married into other tribes. And everywhere, this transition from close-kin marriage—where blood relatives unite—to distant marriage—where strangers unite—is linked to a change in spiritual life.

[ 39 ] The legends of various peoples have preserved for us this transition from close-knit to distant marriage in a special, distinctive way. There are many legends in which women are abducted and taken away to foreign tribes. They express a certain tragedy inherent in the transition from the old order to the new. The transition to exogamy is linked to a shift from an ancient form of clairvoyance to a modern mode of observation that relies more on the external sensory world. Where endogamy is the common custom, people still possess something akin to a natural clairvoyance. This is lost when blood foreign to their own is mixed in. What Anzengruber felt in his blood was also felt by those in close-kin marriages, but to a much greater degree. There, one did not sense what the ancestors had experienced as dimly or as half-unconsciously as Anzengruber did, but rather as something personally experienced. Through close kinship, the inherited structure was so strong that it imprinted itself on the blood. Thus, the “I,” the blood, the entire lineage—did not perceive merely itself. Only when foreign blood was mixed in did the power of the generation cease, and the ancient cult of the ancestors fade away. Where a distant ancestor had been revered, this did not stem from the imagination, but from the fact that the most distant descendant felt connected to the ancestors in his blood, in his “I.” Clairvoyance was present there. All legends, which stand as images of truths, become understandable to us when we realize that they arose from different perspectives—from the clairvoyance that can still be found today among primitive peoples living in harmony with nature.

[ 40 ] This is what you need to know if you want to understand the writings based on spiritual science. One text in particular belongs here: the Bible. You cannot understand the most important parts of it in today’s [times]. It is impossible unless you know one thing: that in ancient times, a name did not denote what is manifested in an individual personality, but rather what had lived on through close kinship across entire generations. Because the inherited structure was expressed in the blood of even the most distant descendant, one experienced all of this within one’s own self. It did not yet function as it did in the case of Anzengruber, but rather as a true memory. Just as a person whose blood has mixed with that of others through distant marriages remembers only his own life, so does a person from a close-knit family remember everything the ancestors have experienced. Those born of close marriages regarded this as belonging to their very self. The same name resonates through entire generations because people remembered the experiences of their ancestors. Thus, “Adam” did not refer to a single individual, but to a continuous memory spanning generations.

[ 41 ] Let the Bible describe the original ages to you; it knows that those names were given at that time. This sheds a wonderful light on those ancient accounts. They are accurate once you realize that their names belong to a time when the same structure was expressed in the blood over and over again.

[ 42 ] And then we find that wherever the transition from close-blooded to distant-blooded marriage takes place, that ancient clairvoyant memory is destroyed. Today, you can find everywhere the very first elemental truths that are millennia old in occultism. You can find this principle expressed as follows: The closer the blood relationship, the more vivid the clairvoyant power. The mixing of blood has a devastating effect on the life of the spiritual body. Today, researchers are conducting experiments to see if the blood of different animals can be mixed. The blood of mice does not kill rats, nor does that of rabbits kill hares, because these animals are closely related; however, the blood of more distantly related animals does kill them. Distant blood truly kills in this case. With humans, it was different. In their case, distant blood did not have a destructive effect on the physical body, but rather on the spiritual body, which was the bearer of that higher wisdom.

[ 43 ] Here we see the function of blood. Here we see that the one who has the blood has the “I.” Where the greater power gained the external world because distant blood was mixed in, external experiences took effect, and there they possessed the blood. Whoever has the blood of a being possesses the “I” of that being.

[ 44 ] Not everything remains the same throughout time; back when the “close marriage” existed, conditions on Earth were different. This does not apply to the new era; because conditions on Earth have changed, the ‘I’ had to transition to the “distant marriage.” The noble families have preserved the old ways, which has adverse consequences today. What in ancient times served as the vehicle for great spiritual developers of humanity must have a harmful effect in this materialistic age.

[ 45 ] In the future, humanity will once again rise to a higher level of perception, but in a different way—as individuals take hold of spiritual rebirth; they will become so strong that, as persons, they will be able to imprint the Spirit into their blood and gain power over their blood. Then human beings will once again become clairvoyant, so that they will not merely acquire abstract knowledge but will be able to transfer this knowledge into their blood. Try as you may to acquire theoretical knowledge—it remains dry and abstract, sober and barren; try to develop insights in such a way that concepts become feelings and higher emotions for you, touching your blood—then it becomes higher knowledge. Hence that medieval training that led the student through the meadows, allowing the flowers to speak to his blood—and not merely to his cool intellect.

[ 46 ] This is how things are connected. It is necessary to investigate the function of the blood. Just as the blood is the source of that which holds the “I” together, so too, if we bring the spiritual life to the blood from the outside and it does not fit with the blood, the spiritual life cannot be understood by the blood. That is why Europeans cannot simply impose their culture on a “primitive” tribe. If one tribe is incompatible with another, they can preach as much as they like; they will not achieve their goal—they will only destroy it. This is how the Spaniards destroyed the Native Americans; the differences in blood were too great. The Native Americans had blood entirely different from that of the Europeans.

[ 47 ] Thus, you will see that intellectual exchange among peoples must be consciously regulated. We must pay attention to the mission of the blood; the blood question is connected to the colonial question. Here, once again, we can see how practical Theosophy is. The time will come when we will have to consciously guide what is called cultural mixing. We must not overlook the fact that only that which is higher can penetrate the lower, and that which is higher is truly capable of expressing itself within the lower.

[ 48 ] Study the relationships within your blood, for then you will come to know the relationships among your various selves.

[ 49 ] When you speak to someone in everyday life, you recite abstract concepts to them—bare, barren concepts! The other person can learn a great deal from you, but everything they can learn remains in a certain shadowy, conceptual state. If you speak to them in a way that touches their heart, that stirs their blood, then you have not merely their intellect—you have them within—you have their “I.” Whoever has a person’s blood has their “I.” Whoever has the blood of a people—not in a materialistic sense, but as an expression of the “I”—has that people; and whoever wants to possess a people, to teach them, must understand their “I” and the expression of that “I” in their blood. Whether one seeks to take possession of a human “I” for good or for evil, one must take possession of their blood.

[ 50 ] Thus, folk legends have spoken words of wisdom here by using the metaphor of a “blood contract” to indicate that a person commits himself entirely. There is profound wisdom in the legend that allows the Devil to gain Faust—his entire self—by obtaining his signature in blood. If Mephistopheles has Faust’s blood, then he has his very self. That is why he did not mean it mockingly; rather, it is the truth and truly an expression of profound wisdom—indeed, the very deepest wisdom regarding the nature of the human being, in the sense that the lower is the expression of the higher. This wisdom confirms for us the statement: “And the blood—yes, the blood—is a very special sap.”