Spiritual Blood

 

I've used the term "spiritual blood" in the last post; and I think it deserves some commentary.

Gurdjieff’s term “hanbledzoin” refers, in general terms, to the blood of the astral body, and from the point of view of where we are now, this is the spiritual blood of man. In the Holy Communion, when we refer to the "body and blood of our Lord Jesus Christ" it's a reference to the spiritual blood, not in an abstract or allegorical sense, but the actual spiritual blood of the astral body, which has its own bloodstream, lungs, heart, brain, and so on. 

This is because each higher body is mirrored by the functions of the lower body. They actually share, in a corresponding manner, the physical locations of the ordinary body, although the way they work in it is quite different. Those interested in greater detail about how this works are encouraged to read about correspondences in Swedenborg's works. The human body itself is a corresponding entity that reflects the structure of the kingdom of heaven; and every higher body that man can develop is a more refined version of that same correspondence.

I want to stress once again that spiritual blood is a real thing and not some allegory to be applied. It isn't conceptual; it's a fact that we can grow additional higher bodies, and that they have functions quite different than our ordinary body. The first function the astral body has is to awaken higher feeling; and that is because the food that the higher bodies need to grow comes through feeling, most especially the feeling of love.

Spiritual blood is what carries the energy that makes it possible for this feeling to arise; and it is a very high food indeed. However, it functions in the same way than ordinary food functions for the ordinary body. That is to say, the astral body digest impressions which enter the spiritual blood as concentrate and give the life force to Being which enables growth and further development. 

Because this is a very rich food, and astral blood itself is a concentration of that food, there are other creatures both external to us and in our own Being that can find it highly profitable to feed off our spiritual blood at our expense. Instances of this were actually described by Gurdjieff, although I won't go into it in detail here. The point is that your spiritual blood is a real property, a place where you concentrate the results of your work in order to feed the bloodstream of the astral body. 

All of this is closely connected to the development of the soul.

Under ordinary circumstances, none of this is awakened in a person, and this is why Gurdjieff said that a human being does not have a soul unless they work. A soul, in this sense, is something that must be acquired. There is, of course, an ordinary soul that transmigrates from lifetime to lifetime retaining the seed of a capacity for the birth of the astral soul; that's a complicated question which once again I won't get into here. The important point is to understand what spiritual blood is.

The connection between a permanent sensation of Being in one’s spiritual blood is a deep one. There is a reciprocal relationship between hanbledzoin and sensation. They feed one another and amplify each other. 

This, however, only takes place if one concentrates one's attention within Being in a responsible way.

Hoping that you find yourself in good relationship today,

warmly,

Lee

Lee van Laer is a Senior Editor at Parabola Magazine.