Bruce Michael
Well-Known Member
Hello Friends,
During the Fourth Subrace wine began to be treated as a holy thing. In the past, water was considered holy and used in the mysteries. Note that for women of childbearing age, wine was still forbidden except during the Bacchanalia.
From some notes on the "Origin and Meaning of Wine" by Rudolf Steiner:
Back to the Doctor:
"Wine was that which separated man from everything spiritual. He who takes wine cannot arrive at the spiritual. He can know nothing of Manas, Buddhi, Atma. The whole course of humanity is one of descent and ascent.
Man had to go own once to the lowest point. That he might thus go down to the lowest point, there arose the Dionysian cult."
"Formerly there was a strict rule for priests, forbidding wine. They could experience Atma, Buddhi, Manas. There had to be a religion which could come quite down to the physical plane, one that changed water into
wine. Later on the wine will be changed into water. If water had not been changed into wine, man could not have taken with him all that is below in the Vale of Earth."
You can read more about this in the Gospel lectures.
Some might know that Dr. Steiner claimed he used alcohol in his early years to stamp out blood clairvoyance. Now whether or not that was a great excuse for getting drunk, I don't know. It's not going to work if you're pulled over by the police.
Alcohol was intimately connected with the incarnation of the human ego- I'll develop this later.
-Br.Bruce
During the Fourth Subrace wine began to be treated as a holy thing. In the past, water was considered holy and used in the mysteries. Note that for women of childbearing age, wine was still forbidden except during the Bacchanalia.
From some notes on the "Origin and Meaning of Wine" by Rudolf Steiner:
"In the Persian Race we get the description of the beginning of the vine culture. But still wine was something quite worldly. Gradually it was applied to the Dionysian cult."
Back to the Doctor:
"Wine was that which separated man from everything spiritual. He who takes wine cannot arrive at the spiritual. He can know nothing of Manas, Buddhi, Atma. The whole course of humanity is one of descent and ascent.
Man had to go own once to the lowest point. That he might thus go down to the lowest point, there arose the Dionysian cult."
"Formerly there was a strict rule for priests, forbidding wine. They could experience Atma, Buddhi, Manas. There had to be a religion which could come quite down to the physical plane, one that changed water into
wine. Later on the wine will be changed into water. If water had not been changed into wine, man could not have taken with him all that is below in the Vale of Earth."
You can read more about this in the Gospel lectures.
Some might know that Dr. Steiner claimed he used alcohol in his early years to stamp out blood clairvoyance. Now whether or not that was a great excuse for getting drunk, I don't know. It's not going to work if you're pulled over by the police.
Alcohol was intimately connected with the incarnation of the human ego- I'll develop this later.
-Br.Bruce