Bones- 13th June 1994

Dear Teachers, we have had a question from C. M. which is in three parts. It concerns those who are buried rather than cremated, asking of their remains and whether or not there is a special significance in a graveside visit because of them. She goes on to ask about the ramifications of this, with prayer and contact; and also to ask, what of Christ and His physical body after the Crucifixion and after His Resurrection?

DEAR Child, of all of our attachments within this physical arena, that of our bodily graftings is most dear and especial to us. There is much argument and divisiveness however, within the single constitution of a man, for which there may be this and that suspended from agreement - amicable though it be.

Everybody's body is at this point, advancing and evolving, adapting and reordering, suffering and in turn, strengthening, responding to soul and acknowledging the World in ever new ways. Our bodies are both our door and our key into this World. Simply put, they have been described as mere vessels or vehicles in the past, and yet there is a marvel and a mystery which goes beyond the 'throwaway' or 'disposable' concept.

Too few regard their physical constitution with the reverence and care required to maintain it. We distinguish between life and death with no in-between, however from a spiritual vantage point one can see gradients of dissolution affecting the very many bodies that interweave the physical and markedly, each man does differ in his fortitudes and in his fading.

To some the re-embodiment physically is maligned and despised as an awkward captivity, as a piteous condition. For admittedly there are physical pains experienced and wretchedness made obvious and trials set before a man, which the spirit simply would not anguish with in similar form. But there becomes also an exertion of will in cooperation with the soul of the striving man who works to perform the tedious tasks, just to sustain or drive his frame further. This concentration of exerted effort is the most marvelous preparation for the individual after death, whereupon all conscious trying translates into furthered skills and consciousness in further worlds of experience.

Have you ever heard of the expression "I feel it in my bones"? This quaint phrase is accurate to the core, as it describes our most hardened substance, weighted to the world but mobile, where our concentrations of deep memory reside. Much is transitory and floats in and out and around the man himself. His vitalities, his soul-forces (soul-expressions) and soul-experiences are ever moving and changing, as do the colors which surround him - they are not fixed.

His physical body is as a 'float' overall, a maze also of circulatory systems visible and invisible which stream in and around key centers that correspond to higher faculties and higher spheres. Some (most) attributes are borrowed. All are then individualized, and all conspire around the skeleton, our sturdy 'tree of life' whose boughs and branches support the mass with delicate strength. This 'tree' is independent of the rest insofar as it is totally of our own making and is an extension of our creative will.

As the developing fetus forms, the drawing in of the tiny frame is commanded by the incarnating ego at the time, that has built upon the skill over lifetimes of varying design, and accomplished this task of concentrating matter, personal matter, to their individualized form which is and is to be. We are assisted in the compilation of such 'body building' as is initially carried out prebirth and continues on throughout one's entire lifetime until dissolution. Physiology in this sense - the explanation of the various streams of assistance from levels of beings so apportioned - would of itself take many books indeed to enter into proper and worthy explanation. (You can see why we are irked at the 'throw-away' concept, therefore!) Suffice to say that Man is also in this respect, a synthetic being who has many imports within his system that need be worked over and made adaptable and perfected by him in futures to come. There are many gifts that we are given that need be used before we are truly entitled to call them our own.

The skeletal form is that point where we have driven as far into the World as possible in this hardening process of consolidation. It is of course, the most stable in this respect, and yet whilst it is enhardened, it is to be remembered that the living article is imbued with fluids and fibers which are quite pliable and unlike rock for example, by comparison. This is still an organic component which is by contrast to the metallic bodies with which a man harbors and works with within his fluidic system also.

There is a principle to be remembered here before we go on to further instruction. This is best remembered in regard to many practices and understandings: Men are essentially free beings. Try to remember that, when teachings lead you to necessary areas whereupon we find our threads of existence intertwining and need make explanation of them. For one may arrive at the thought that we are here, there and everywhere in the sense that we leave ourselves, our imprints, everywhere that we have been, and have projected ourselves into. These imprints do trace back to the man assuredly, but not to the point of intruding or impinging upon his future being, for if this were not the case we would be held by the past inescapably. So when we study our certain investitures and how all are linked, we may know that there is a law which prohibits a man to be called upon by his past if he does not himself wish it to be so.

In further explanation of this, we mean to say one can go to an object and decipher a man's past emanations from that object, and by doing so may trace his past history around that time of his being in contact with the object. Furthermore it is possible, if skilled enough, to establish a communicative present-day link with the man (if he is within worldly reach) that may call to him. However if it is not of his comprehension and his available powers of understanding, then he shall rebuke such callings. If there is not a shared or common key, there shall be no communication or choice thereof; and if he is taken up with concentrations elsewhere and does not enter into communication, then it is of his choice entirely and he shall not be bothered or usurped invasively.

Man is a free being. This is a very good and healthy thought to hold. Many times our imprints are to be taken as us - they are mistaken for the soul they represent. There are vast differences in this. Man is freer than we could ever presume. What a wonderful surety to hold! And in respect to the karma of an individual, it may be added that all beings embrace karma lovingly - the soul of Man acknowledges the sense and justice of that which is brought before him. All trials are sweetened eventually. All conquests are truly worth the patience and labor. All men are grateful to the binding laws of karma which facilitate their passage throughout all planes of experience.

Returning to the bones: they are especially significant to a man, even after they have dried and remained after death. The bones themselves continue to hold many memories which were incised within them - particularly in their cavities where the fluids did flow - and when a person goes to the graveside and is within a certain radius of the remaining skeleton there shall be stronger impressions given out which speak to those particularly who shared memories also, and the experience will be greater because of that. 

Bones of monks and saints have long been treasured for the reason that the living men could directly feel the presence of the man past and perhaps come to the deeper impressions of the memory as was held by him at that time. Furthermore, this reservoir of deposit needs to be broken down and dissipated in order for those aspects of the former man (i.e. now made ghostly) to be fully released and for the most part, truly laid to rest. There is little sentimental value in the long run to be gleaned from historical detail. We all have it. One must try to remember that it is the living soul, the current individual, to which we would entrust and share our love with. Aspects of self are of themselves, ongoing and improving. They need release for their own sake - innately and abstractly speaking.

In the ordinary understanding, Christ was boneless. He did not contribute to the formation of such a skeletal frame, His incarnating was without the skeleton as formed by another - which was returned, dissolving during incarnation, for it could not be borne by our God of the Light. All matter was redeemed by Him upon His return. He was completely fluid and animated by His own intensity, requiring not the bones as we should.

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Rudolf Steiner :


At the baptism in Jordan, when the significant symbol of the dove appeared above the head of Jesus, he was not merely inspired but directly intuited by the Christ.
On that occasion something shot through the entire body of Jesus of Nazareth, even into those parts which, at the present stage of human development, are most withdrawn from the influence of man — the very bones.
I am now about to say something which to the materialistic consciousness of the present day seems nonsense; but that is of no matter. At the moment when the body of Jesus of Nazareth was permeated and fired by the Individuality of Christ — the great Sun-Spirit — the effect reached even into the bones.
If you burn a bone the cartilaginous part is consumed and the bone ash is left. The mineral substance of the bone and the cartilage are held together by a power which is opposed to fire, but also, therefore, associated with it.
This power is at present entirely beyond the control of man's will, but it was under the control of Him Who was later to pass through the Event of Golgotha. Man can at present move his hand, but has no power to affect the chemical forces of his bones; he has become solid through them. The body of Jesus of Nazareth, through its having been intuited by the Christ, is the only body on earth that has ever acquired control over the force that holds cartilage and bone-ash together.
Through this control over the bones a force entered the world which is positively able to conquer death; for the bones are guilty of the death of man.
Man has become entangled in the mineral part of the earth through being so constructed that he has incorporated into himself solid bony substance. Death came to him because of this, and it is not without cause that death is represented by a skeleton — the symbol is fully justified.
The Christ-Impulse is the living force that is able to again transform the bones that is, to lead men gradually towards that which is spiritual; and this will come to pass in future evolution. This is why no external force was permitted to interfere with the bony structure of Jesus Christ: no bone of Him was to be broken.
The others who were crucified with Him had their bones broken, but in Him the words of the prophet had to be fulfilled: “No bone of Him shall be broken!” This was in order that what had been imparted as a mighty central impulse to the earth should not be spoilt by any outside influence.