OCCULT SIGNIFICANCE OF BLOOD

what extent are uncivilized peoples capable of becoming civilized? How can a person of African descent or an utterly barbaric savage become civilized? And in what way ought we to deal with them? And here we have to consider not only the feelings due to a vague morality, but we are also confronted by great, serious, and vital problems of the very fact of existence itself. The author is addressing the "Native Question" common in early 20th-century discourse, applying spiritual science to sociology.

Those who are not aware of the conditions governing a people — whether it be on the up- or down-grade of its evolution, and whether the one or the other is a matter conditioned by its blood — such people as these will, indeed, be unlikely to hit on the right mode of introducing civilization to an alien race. These are all matters which arise as soon as the Blood Question The "Blood Question" refers to the esoteric belief that blood carries the inherited experiences and spiritual essence of a lineage. is touched upon.

What blood in itself is, you presumably all know from the current teachings of natural science, and you will be aware that, with regard to man and the higher animals, this blood is practically fluid life.

You are aware that it is by way of the blood that the “inner man” The "inner man" refers to the soul or ego-consciousness that inhabits the physical body. comes into contact with that which is exterior, and that in the course of this process man’s blood absorbs oxygen, which constitutes the very breath of life. Through the absorption of this oxygen the blood undergoes a renewal. The blood which