Rudolf Steiner-| Michael and Meteoric Iron |—–

“And when in high summer, from a particular constellation, meteors fall in
great shows of cosmic iron, then this cosmic iron, which the Gods bring to bear against Ahriman, as he seeks Dragon like to coil round the shining human forms. The force which falls on the earth in the meteoric iron is truly a cosmic force whereby the higher autumn approaches. And this majestic display in cosmic space, when the August meteor showers stream down into the human being shining in the astral light, has its counterpart–so gentle and apparently so small–in a change that occurs in the human blood. This human blood, which is in truth not such a material thing as contemporary science immagines, but is permeated throughout by impulses from soul and spirit, is rayed through by the force which is carried as iron into the blood and wages war there on anxiety, fear, and hate. The processes which are set going in every blood corpuscle when the force of iron shoots into it are the same, on a minute human scale, as through the air. This permeation of human blood by the anxiety-dispelling force of iron is a meteoric activity. The effect of the raying in of the iron is to drive fear and anxiety out of the blood.

And so, when the Gods with their meteors wage war on the spirit who would like to radiate fear, and while they cause iron to stream radiantly into this fear-tainted atmosphere, which reaches its peak when autumn approaches or when summer wanes–so the same process occurs inwardly in humans, when their blood is permeated with iron. We can understand these things only if, on the one hand, we understand their inn

er spiritual signifacance and, on the other, if we recognize how the sulphur-process and the iron-process in human beings are connected with corresponding events in the cosmos.

Those who look out into space and see a shooting star should say to themselves with reverence for the Gods: ‘That occurance in the great
expanse of space has its minute counterpart continuously in myself. There are the shooting stars, while in every one of my blood corpuscles iron is taking form. My life is full of shooting stars, miniature shooting stars.’ And this inner fall of shooting stars, pointing to the life of the blood, is especially important when autumn approaches, when the sulpher-process is at its peak. For when people are shining like glow-worms in the way I have described, then the counter-force is present also, for millions of tiny meteors are scintillating inwardly in their blood…