Document text
With fan AiterWcri^
on the. Art of Joseph heuij:
Lectures by
Rudolf Steiner
LECTURES BY
Rudolf Steiner
Translated by Thomas Braatz
& Anthroposophic Press
The lectures in this book were translated from German by Thomas
Braalz. The Prelude is an excerpt from lecture 17 in the Collected
Works of Rudolf Sleiner, volume 348, Uber Gesundheit und Krankheit
Grundlagen einer geisteswis.senschafllichen Sinneslehre, published by
Rudolf Steiner Verlag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1981. The remaining
eight lectures are from volume 351, Mensch und Welt Das Wirken des
Geistes in der Natur Uber die Bienen, published by Rudolf Steiner Ver¬
lag, Dornach, Switzerland, 1966. Blackboard drawings were added
as an insert in the 1988 German edition.
Translation copyright © Anthroposophic Press, 1998. Introduction copy¬
right © Gunther Hauk, 1998. Afterword copyright © David Adams, 1998.
Published by Anthroposophic Press
P.O. Box 749, Gt. Barrington, MA 01230
www.steinerbooks.org
library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Steiner, Rudolf, 1861-1925.
[Uber die Bienen. English]
Bees / Rudolf Steiner,
p. cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-88010-457-0 (pbk.)
1. Anthroposophy. 2. Bees—Miscellanea. I. Title.
BP595.S894U2313 1998
299.935—dc21 98-6452
CIP
Page 189: "Bienenkonigin (fiir Bronze)," 1958, goldbronze 14.4 x 9.5 cm, by
Joseph Beuys, © 1998 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York/VG Bild-Kunst,
Bonn. Photograph: courtesy of Oeffenthche Kunstsammhing Basel, Kupfer-
stichkabinett. Photocredit: Oeffenthche Kunstsammlung Basel, Martin Buhler.
10 9 8 7 6 5 — 2009
All rights reserved.
Printed in the United States of America bv McNaughton & Gunn, Inc.
Contents
Introduction by Gunther Hauk
Prelude
Dornach, February 3, 1923
Lecture 1
Dornach, November 26, 1923
Lecture 2
Dornach, November 28, 1923
Lecture 3
Dornach, December 1, 1923
Lecture 4
Dornach, December 5, 1923
Lecture 5
Dornach, December 10, 1923
Lecture 6
Dornach, December 12, 1923
Lecture 7
Dornach, December 15, 1923
120
Lecture 8
Dornach, December 22, 1923 140
Blackboard Drawings 161
Appendix: Extracts from various lectures 169
Afterword by David Adams
From Queen Bee to Social Sculpture:
The Artistic Alchemy of Joseph Beuys 187
Index 215
Introduction
LOOKING BACK at the twentieth century, we can certainly
see tremendous progress in all fields of technology. Advance¬
ment in this sphere of our human lives, however, has been
achieved at the cost of a gradual loss of the instinctual, holis¬
tic knowledge that has guided and protected life on Earth for
great spans of time. But it would be wrong to nourish a desire
for a return to the "good old days." Fortunately, they cannot
be retrieved. New ways of tapping this knowledge must be
found while retaining the accomplishments of our scientifi¬
cally trained intelligence.
In order to focus with our sharpened intellect on the phys¬
ical, material side of nature, we have had to neglect the
dimension that constitutes the underlying cause and support
of our physical world: the spiritual world. Whether we
acknowledge that world or not, the fact that we are con¬
fronted with an avalanche of life-negating and life-destroying
events cannot be denied, and the underlying causes must be
found if we, the Earth, and all its life are to survive. The dying
of honeybees in large areas of the world is only one fragment
in this whole picture.
What can we do about a situation of such global dimen¬
sions? Times of crises, whether personal, nationwide, or glo¬
bal, are times of chance and opportunity. These "moments"
in history wake us and shake us up so that we can abandon
Introduction
IX
viii • B E E S
the path of (self) destruction, change our course, and head
in a new direction that offers possibilities for life. Without
regaining an all-encompassing knowledge—this time not
instinctual or traditional—we can gain no real truth. We are
floundering on a sea of hypotheses about the origin of life,
about our cosmos, evolution, and the goal of evolution. It
takes an honest scientist such as Steven Hawkins to acknowl¬
edge that our worldview today is based on assumption: "Any
physical theory is always provisional, in the sense that it is
only a hypothesis: you can never prove it.... Today scientists
describe the universe in terms of two basic partial theories_
The major theme of this book ... is the search for a new the¬
ory." The problem, however, is that the general public takes
these assumptions as facts—and lives by them.
Rudolf Steiner (1861-1925) did not discard the intellec¬
tual accomplishments of our scientific age but, by utilizing
them, researched another dimension, which is needed to
complement the admirable achievements of the natural,
physical and psychological sciences of our time. His method,
called "spiritual science," or "anthroposophy" (anthropos =
humankind, sophia = wisdom), can be learned by anyone who
applies great stamina of will, concentration, and intent. By
reaching into the realms of the reality that causes and affects
the sense-perceptible, material world, Steiner was able to cut
through the jungle of hypotheses and theories that directly
or indirectly influence our everyday actions.
Steiner passed on his research results in approximately
forty written works and two thousand lectures. The results of
his investigations into spiritual realities are not intended to
be "believed"; rather, we are to verify them through common
sense and wakeful, open, and unbiased minds. Through
1. Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time, pp. 10-12, (New York: Ban¬
tam Books, 1988).
application to everyday, practical life, the fruits of these
insights have become abundant throughout the world—in
pedagogy, curative education, medicine, agriculture, reli¬
gion, the arts, the sciences, and in the social realm.
We can be immensely grateful that we also have these lec¬
tures on bees from a spiritual scientific view. Steiner gave
these lectures to the workers at the Goetheanum in Dornach,
Switzerland. Among the workers was a professional bee¬
keeper, Mr. Muller, who contributed to these lectures in the
form of insights and questions. Mr. Muller rebelled vehe¬
mently and showed no understanding, however, when
Steiner explained the intricacies of the queen bee, mention¬
ing that the modern method of breeding queens (using the
larvae of worker bees, a practice that had already been in use
for about fifteen years) would have long-term detrimental
effects—so grave that "a century later all breeding of bees
would cease, if only artificially produced bees were used"
(appendix, extract, Nov. 10, p. 177-178). The answer came in
another lecture: "It is quite correct that we can't determine
this today; it will have to be delayed until a later time. Let's
talk to each other again in one hundred years, Mr. Muller,
then we'll see what kind of opinion you'll have at that point"
(Dec. 5, p. 75).
Seventy-five years have passed, and the kind of queen
breeding Steiner spoke of has not only continued, but has
become the standard, and is now supplemented with artificial
insemination. Now that over 60 percent of the American
honeybee populations have died during the past ten years,
we should certainly become more alert and open to such
statements. Of course, this would force us to take a pause
from looking at what appears to be the cause of this crisis—
the varroa mite—and pose more difficult questions. These
are questions about the general health of the animal and
questions that probe basic issues, such as our attitude toward
x • BEES
Introduction • xi
the bee and our depth of understanding for this being. These
two factors, which are certainly interrelated, essentially deter¬
mine the myriad aspects of beekeeping: the form and mate¬
rial of the hive, wax production, artificial foundations,
modern queen breeding (including artificial insemination),
swarming or its prevention, manipulation of the drone popu¬
lation, sugar feeding, pollen substitutes, moving the hives
from location to location, and the yearly exchange of queens.
Certainly other "external," physically detrimental factors play
a role in beekeeping, but they are also related to our lack of a
true understanding of intricate interrelationships and life
processes in nature: the effects of mineral fertilizers on the
quality of nectar and pollen, insecticides, air and water pollu¬
tion, and the constantly dwindling variety and quantity of
wild flowers.
In order to dojustice to an animal—and as human beings
this is, or should be, a moral obligation—we must have a
deep understanding of its nature. We cannot simply consider
our own comfort and calculate our economic situation. If we
do, we will face dire consequences.
Rudolf Steiner never intended to turn the clock back to
old ways, and as we study these lectures we can glimpse
deeply into the nature of the bee. We will then, out of free¬
dom and insight, be able to keep bees in ways that are
appropriate to them; we will be able to help them regain life
forces and, thereby, heal some of the wounds we have
inflicted through shortsightedness, ignorance, and greed.
Such study can help us to realize the immensely important
role not only of the bee and her honey, but also of the wasp
and the ant in nature and human evolution. Can we ignore
doing everything possible in attempting to help these crea¬
tures? They certainly deserve our active gratitude.
Steiner wanted to look at the situation again with Mr.
Miiller in a hundred years. Three fourths of that time has
passed, and, in all probability, the next few years will be deci¬
sive; we will either reverse the trend or see the results Steiner
foresaw. Such a development will have an inconceivable
impact on the whole ecosystem and on all of nature's intri¬
cate interrelationships. The last two of these lectures to the
workers should make this clear.
This new translation will help the reader of today under¬
stand what Steiner intended to say; in my opinion, it has
come just in time, and we are very grateful for it. May these
ideas reach the minds and hearts of many!
Gunther Hauk
January 1998
GUNTHER HAUK is director of the Pfeiffer Center, a biody¬
namic research center sponsored by Threefold Educational
Foundation and Sunbridge College, Spring Valley, N.Y. He
started a training program in biodynamic gardening there in
1996. He has worked with bees since 1975 and has been a bee¬
keeper since 1980. He gives workshops throughout the United
States on the plight of the honey-bee.
• Prelude
Domach, February 3, 1923
Good morning, gentlemen. Since our last meeting have you
thought of any questions you would like to ask me?
(A question was asked about the difference between bees and wasps.)
Dr. Steiner: In asking his question the gentleman in the audi¬
ence, as an expert bee-master, draws attention to the differ¬
ences between the life of the bees and that of the wasps.
There is much that is similar here, and I have recently
described the life of the wasps to you. The life of the bees
much resembles it, but, on the other hand, in the beehive
there is a very special and remarkable life. How can we
account for this?
Life in a beehive is established with extraordinary wisdom
behind it. Anyone who has observed life in the beehive will say
that. Naturally, you can't say that bees possess a knowledge or
science such as human beings do; they simply don't have a
brain as we do. They can't take up into their bodies a general
understanding of things in this world. However, cosmic influ¬
ences have a tremendous effect upon the beehive. You would
be able to gain a correct and true understanding of life within
the beehive if you were to allow for the fact that everything in
the environment that surrounds the Earth in all directions has
an extremely strong influence on what goes on in the beehive.
Life in the beehive, much more so than with ants and wasps, is
2
BEES
Prelude • 3
based on successfully cooperating and working with the other
bees in the hive. If you try to figure out how this comes about,
you will, after careful observation, draw the following conclu¬
sion. The bees have a life in which that element is suppressed,
very strongly suppressed, which in other animals is expressed
through their sexual life. With bees, this element is very much
repressed.
You see, with bees it is always the case that only very few
chosen females, the queen bees, take care of all the propaga¬
tion of the species. With the rest, the sexual life is more or less
repressed, but in this sexual life there is another element—
love life—which is, above all, a matter concerning the soul.
Only when the soul element works on certain organs of the
body do these organs become a manifestation, an expression
of love life. Since this love life is held back in all the bees
except a single queen, the sexual life of the beehive is trans¬
formed into all this activity that the bees develop among
themselves. That is why those much older and wiser people of
a time long ago, "knew" about this in a very different way than
the way we know things today; they knew that the wonderful
activity of the beehive pointed back to the condition of the
bees' love life, the love life that these people associated in
their minds with the planet Venus.
About this we can say the following. If you try to describe,
on the one hand, wasps and ants in this regard, then they
are considered animals that remove themselves more from
the influence of the planet Venus. Bees, on the other hand,
are completely open to this influence and develop this love
life throughout the entire bee colony. This is a very wise
form of life, for you can imagine how wise it would have to
be. I've told you various things about their method of propa¬
gation. There is unconscious wisdom in it, a wisdom that
they develop in their observable activities. That which we
experience within ourselves only at a time when our hearts
develop love is actually the very same thing that is present as
a substance in the entire beehive. The whole beehive is per¬
meated with life based on love. In many ways the bees
renounce love, and thereby this love develops within the
entire beehive. You'll begin to understand the life of bees
once you're clear about the fact that the bee lives as if it
were in an atmosphere pervaded thoroughly by love.
But the thing that a bee profits from the most is that it
derives its sustenance from the very parts of a plant that are
pervaded by the plant's love life. The bee sucks its nourish¬
ment, which it makes into honey, from the parts of a plant
that are steeped in love life. And the bee, if you could express
it this way, brings love life from the flowers into the beehive.
So you'll come to the conclusion that you need to study the
life of bees from the standpoint of the soul.
This is less true with ants and wasps. If you study how they
live, you will see that they are not like bees in this respect, that
they engage in a more sexual behavior. The bee, with the
exception of the queen bee, is a being that would say, if I may
put it this way: "As individuals we want to renounce all sexual
life, so that we make each one of us into a supporter of the
hive's love life." They have indeed carried into the hive tJiat
which lives in the flowers. When you begin to think through
all of this properly, you will have unlocked the whole secret of
the beehive. The living element of this thriving, germinating
love that is spread out over the flowers is also contained in the
honey the bees make.
You can study this matter further by eating the honey. What
does the honey do? ... Honey creates sensual pleasure, at the
most, on the tongue. At the moment when you eat honey, it
creates the proper connection and relationship between the
airy and fluid elements in the human being. There is nothing
better for a human being than to add a little honey in the
right quantity to food. In a very wonderful way, the bees see to
4 ■ BEES
it that a person learns to work on the internal organs by
means of this soul element. By means of the honey, the bee
colony returns to humans the amount of effort the soul needs
to expend in their bodies.... Whenever someone adds honey
to food, that person wants to prepare the soul element for
properly working upon the body, for breathing, as it were.
This is why beekeeping can be a great aid to human culture; it
makes human beings strong....
You see, when you consider that bees are influenced most
of all by cosmic forces, then you will also see that bees pro¬
vide the detour for humans to take into their beings what is
right and necessary. Everything that is alive will function in
the proper manner when it is combined in the correct way.
Whoever looks at a beehive should actually say with an
exalted frame of mind, "Making this detour by way of the
beehive, the entire cosmos can find its way into human
beings and help to make them sound in mind and body." ...
Thus, you will arrive at the point of expanding wisdom
about the nature of humans to include true knowledge of
the cosmos.
• Lecture One
Dorncich, November 26, 1923
Good morning, gentlemen! I intended to make several com¬
ments regarding Mr. Muller's explanations. You might find
these comments interesting, although there naturally would
not be enough time to really apply such things in apiculture
in a practical way at the present time. Since Mr. Miiller has
presented everything you need to know in such a fine man¬
ner, a manner frequently employed today, there is really not
much more, if anything at all, to be said about the practical
aspects of beekeeping.
Perhaps you noticed something about the entire nature of
beekeeping, something, I would say, of the nature of an
enigma. The beekeeper is understandably interested above
all in what must be done. Actually, every human being should
show the greatest interest in this subject, because, much
more than you can imagine, our lives depend upon beekeep¬
ing. Let's look at this matter from a broader perspective. You
see, bees—if you remember Mr. Muller's lectures—are capa¬
ble of gathering what is already contained in the plants as
nectar. In reality they collect only the nectar, and we, as
human beings, take only a part, not even a very large part, of
what they collect in their hives. You could perhaps state that
the amount removed by humans is approximately 20 percent.
This is how much we take away from the bees.
1. This lecture was given after a report by Mr. Miiller, a beekeeper.
6 • BEES
Lecture One • 7
Besides this, however, the bee can remove pollen from the
plants because ofits body shape and the way it is organized as
an insect. The bee collects from the plants that very thing
which is uncommon and difficult to procure. By means of lit¬
tle brushes located on its hind legs, the bee collects the com¬
paratively small amount of pollen available to it and then
either stores or eats it in the beehive. In the specific case of
the bee, we have an animal that collects and uses in its house¬
hold this substance that has been prepared by nature to be in
an extraordinarily refined state.
Let's continue. After the bee—and this is perhaps the least
apparent feature because people don't think of this at all—
has transformed the food in its digestive system into wax (this
wax the bee makes by itself), it creates a small vessel to
deposit eggs but also to store its provisions. This little con¬
tainer is a great curiosity, I would say. This receptacle looks
like this: from above it's hexagonal—from the side like this
[see drawing below, also table II in the section of blackboard
drawings beginning on page 161]—and on the one side it is
closed off like this. Into this receptacle the bee places the
eggs and also the provisions. One is right next to another.
These things fit together very well, so that in the honeycomb,
by means of this plate with which one such cell—this is what
it is called—is attached to another, the space in the honey¬
comb is used to its best possible advantage.
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it
If you ask just why it is that the bee can construct instinc¬
tively such an ingeniously shaped cell, people usually
respond by saying that they do this to use space efficiently.
Yes, that is also true. Ifyou were to imagine any other form of
cell, there would always be an empty space between cells
somewhere. With this form, no such gap arises, but rather
everything is compact so that the space in the honeycomb is
completely utilized.
Well, that certainly is one reason. But it is not the only rea¬
son. Just consider the following. If the maggot, or larva, is in
the cell, then it is completely closed off from the environ¬
ment. You should not believe for even a moment that what¬
ever exists somewhere in nature is without certain powers.
This six-cornered little case, this six-sided shell, has energies
within it; it would be quite a different situation if the larva
were inside a sphere. The significance of being placed into
such a hexagonal house has a very different effect on its con¬
tents. The larva internalizes these forms; in its body it senses
that in its youth, while its body was as soft as it would ever be,
it was in such a six-sided cell. Out of this same energy that it
assimilates as a larva, it will, as an adult, produce such a cell
out of itself. In it reside the energies that help the bee do all
other kinds of work as well. The environment is the cause for
everything the bee does externally. This is the first thing we
have to pay attention to.
But you have heard from the explanation Mr. Muller gave
that there is yet another very remarkable fact. In the entire
beehive you find various types of cells. I think a beekeeper
can easily tell the female worker bee cells apart from the
male drone cells. That isn't very difficult, is it? An even easier
task is to distinguish the worker and drone cells from the
queen bee cells, because the latter do not have this form;
their form is actually more like a pouch. There are also very
few of them in a beehive. The worker bees and drones
8 • BEES
Lecture One • 9
develop in such six-sided cells, but the queens develop in a
pouch; hence the latter do not take any notice of what such a
many-sided environment means to the other bees.
Add to that something else. To reach full maturity, the
queen needs only sixteen days [table II]. At that time it is
already a fully grown queen. A worker needs about twenty-
one days, a longer period. You could say that nature uses
more care in creating the final shape of workers than it does
with queens. You'll see shortly that there is another reason
for this. Well, so the workers need twenty-one days. The
drones, which are used up fastest by the beehive—these male
bees are killed when they have fulfilled their purpose—need
twenty-three to twenty-four days. You see, this is an entirely
new matter. The various bee types (queens, workers, drones)
need a different number of days to achieve maturity.
Well, gentlemen, with regard to these twenty-one days a
worker needs to develop, there is something rather peculiar.
Twenty-one days is not a random number without any partic¬
ular significance for all the things that happen here on Earth.
Twenty-one days is the approximate time span the Sun needs
to revolve once on its axis and return to the point where it
can begin a new cycle. Just imagine, the worker bee's devel¬
opment is just barely completed at the same time that the
Sun has completed a single revolution on its axis. By follow¬
ing this cycle, gentlemen, the worker bee has experienced
every different effect the Sun can have on it, and all of these
effects are now within the bee.
If this process were to continue beyond twenty-one days, the
workers would only receive more of the same and repeat that
to which they had already been exposed. If you then imagine
the worker here (drawing on the blackboard) [table II, upper
left, inner circle] and the Sun over there when the egg is laid,
then this is the point that lies opposite the Sun. The Sun turns
on its axis once in twenty-one days. Then it will arrive again at
this point and begin repeating this movement. The worker
uses from the Sunjust what it needs to achieve its full develop¬
ment. If the worker were to continue in its development
beyond this point, it would leave the Sun development and
come into the sphere of influence that the Earth would exert
upon its development. It would thus lose its Sun development
because it had already completed it and enjoyed it to its fullest
capacity. The way it is now, the worker enters into Earth devel¬
opment and experiences it only as an already completely
developed animal, having achieved its full maturity at twenty-
one days. At most, it needs to experience only, I would say, a
moment of Earth development for itself; after this the worker
is cut off from further development and is a Sun animal con¬
taining the results of all the possible effects that the Sun can
have upon such a form of animal life.
Now consider the drone. It doesn't "feel," as I would put it,
that it is completed at twenty-one days and wants to continue
into the Earth development phase before it is finished matur¬
ing. It is definitely an Earth animal, while the worker is a Sun
child, complete within itself.
And what about the queen bee? It doesn't even finish the
entire Sun cycle of twenty-one days. It lags behind and
remains forever a Sun child. The queen lingers to a certain
degree in its larval stage, or at least closer to this stage than
the other bees. The drones have distanced themselves farthest
of all from this larval stage. Because the queen remains closer
to the larval stage, it is capable of laying eggs. With bees, you
can really see what it means to be under the influence of the
Earth or of the Sun: depending upon whether a bee waits to
complete the Sun development phase, it will turn out to be a
queen, a worker, or a drone. The queen can lay eggs because
the Sun effect is always within it, and it hasn't anything at all of
the Earth's effect upon development. The worker continues
its development for four to five days longer. It makes use of
io • BEES
Lecture One
11
every influence the Sun has to offer. But then it enters slightly,
for just a moment, into the Earth development's sphere of
influence, just at a point when its body has become hard
enough. Because it has absorbed itself completely, it can’t
return to the Sun development's influence. This is why it can’t
lay eggs.
The drones are fertile males; this fertilization capability
comes from the Earth. The drones acquire the power to fer¬
tilize from the few days longer they are exposed, as incom¬
plete insects, to the influence of Earth development. This
leads us to the conclusion that with bees you can see clearly
that the male's fertilization powers come from the energies
given by the Earth, whereas the female capability to develop
eggs derives from the Sun’s energies. You see, gentlemen,
you can comprehend the great significance of the particular
length of time that a being needs to develop. During a cer¬
tain period something occurs that does not happen in a
shorter or longer period, but in the shorter or longer period
something else happens.
There is one more thing to consider: the queen develops
in sixteen days. Here is its point of complete development
(drawing on the blackboard) [table II, upper left, outer cir¬
cle] that it took as it stood opposite the Sun; it remains within
the period of Sun development. The workers complete this
Sun rotation period, but they remain within the sphere of the
Sun’s influence and do not enter the Earth development
phase. Because they belong to the same Sun development
cycle, they feel related to the queen; they feel themselves tied
to the queen. The drones, they say, are traitors; they have
already split away from the group and have fallen to Earth.
They no longer belong with them. They only tolerate them
because they need them. And what do they need them for?
It sometimes happens that a queen is not fertilized and
nevertheless lays eggs capable of development. The queen
does not need to be fertilized in all instances; she will lay eggs
anyhow. This is called, in the instance of bees, a virgin brood.
The queen has not been fertilized. Some other insects are
capable of doing the same. Parthenogenesis is the scientific
term for it. But from the eggs that are laid in this way, only
drones will hatch! If the queen is not fertilized, no more
worker bees and queen bees can be produced, only drones.
Such a beehive has no practical use. You can see that with a
virgin brood, only the opposite sex can arise, never the same
sex. That is a very interesting fact, a fact that is very important
for maintaining nature's entire household: fertilization is
necessary so that the same sex will be reproduced—naturally
only in the lower animals, not in the higher ones. That's why
it is that out of bee eggs only drones can be created, if no fer¬
tilization has taken place.
Fertilization, on the whole, is a very special matter with
bees. It is not as though there were a marriage bed some¬
where to which they retire during fertilization, but rather
the complete opposite takes place. For fertilization they
appear in public, in full sunshine. And specifically—this may
seem very strange—they go as high as possible. The queen
flies as high as possible toward the Sun, to which she
belongs. I have described that for you already. The drone,
still able to overcome its own Earth-based powers, despite
the fact that it has unified itself with these powers, flies high¬
est of all and can fertilize the queen way up there in the air.
Then the queen comes back again and lays her eggs. You
see, bees don’t have a nuptial bed; they have instead a nup¬
tial flight. When they want fertilization to take place, they
strive as much as possible to fly in the direction of the Sun. It
is also the case that they need good weather for their nuptial
flight; during bad weather nothing will happen. All this
demonstrates how the queen maintains a relationship with
the Sun. After fertilization has taken place, the workers are
12 • BEES
Lecture One • 13
produced in the corresponding worker cells. At first, as
described to you by Mr. Mtiller, the little maggots (larvae)
develop, which, in turn, grow into adult workers in twenty-
one days. In these pouch-like cells a queen develops.
In order to gain insight into what follows, I need to tell you
something you will naturally at first admit into your thoughts
with reservation and doubt, because you would need to spend
more time to really study this matter. It just happens to be this
way. I need to tie this in with the infertile worker bee we have
just discussed. When the worker, having reached maturity,
flies out to seek flowers or trees and can assume a secure posi¬
tion on them by means of its claws (drawing on the black¬
board) [table III, page 162, lower right], it then can suck up
the honey nectar and collect pollen. It carries the pollen on
its body where it has deposited it. There is a special accommo¬
dation: the so-called brushes on its hind legs, where the pol¬
len is deposited. But the honey nectar it sucks up with its
proboscis. Part of this honey serves as food for its own diges¬
tion, but the greatest portion it retains in its "honey stomach."
The contents of the latter it will regurgitate when it returns to
the hive. So when we eat honey, we are in reality eating the
regurgitated product of the bee. We need to be clear about
this, however; it is a very pure and sweet form of vomit, not
the way such products usually are in nature. So, you see, the
bee collects what it needs to eat, to store away, or to use in
making wax and so on.
Now we need to ask ourselves how the bee finds its way to
the blossoms. It makes its way to these blossoms with utter
confidence. This is hard to understand, if you look at the
bee's eyes. The worker—the drones have somewhat larger
eyes—has two little eyes on each side and three very small
ones in its forehead (drawing on the blackboard) [table II,
upper right]. If you examine the workers' eyes, you will come
to the conclusion that they can see very little, and the three
tiny eyes, at least at first, seem to be able to see nothing at all.
This is what is so strange: The bee does not approach a blos¬
som by means of sight, but by means of something closer to
smelling it. It moves in the direction of the scent, which
directs it toward the blossom. What leads the bee to the blos¬
som is a certain sensing ability situated midway between smell
and taste. The worker bee already "tastes" the nectar and pol¬
len as it flies toward the blossom. Even from a distance it can
taste it. That has brought the bee into a situation where it
does not use its eyes.
Now just imagine very clearly the following. Think of a
queen bee that has just been born, born in the realm of the
Sun without having completely absorbed all the influences
that the total Sun cycle of twenty-one days could offer it. This
queen has been held back somewhat in receiving all of the
Sun's influential powers. A whole army of workers has com¬
pleted the entire Sun cycle of influences but has not gone
over and allowed the Earth's influences to take over. Now
these workers feel related to the queen not because they have
experienced all the same influences of the Sun, but rather
because they have remained within the sphere of the Sun's
cycle of influences. In this regard, their development was the
same as the queen's. The drones do not share this parallel
development, since they separated themselves from the rest.
But now the following takes place. Whenever a new queen
is created, a nuptial flight must have preceded this birth.
The animal, the queen, has come out into the Sun; a new
queen bee has been born. At this point a very strange event
occurs for all the workers that feel related to the old queen.
Their tiny eyes begin to see, at the time when a new queen is
born. This is something the bees can't stand. They can't bear
the fact that something the same as they themselves is arising
from somewhere else. The three tiny eyes of the workers
originate from deep within their bodies and are permeated
14
BEES
Lecture One
15
with their inner blood, among other things. These eyes have
not been exposed to the external effects of the Sun's influ¬
ence. Because the new queen, having been "born of the
Sun," brings new sunlight into the beehive with her own
body, the workers with their tiny eyes suddenly begin to
"see"; I would like to say, they become clairvoyant and can't
stand to see the light emanating from the new queen. The
entire horde begins swarming. It is as if they are afraid of the
new queen because she seems to blind them. It would be as
though you were looking directly at the Sun. This is why they
swarm out of the hive. At this point you must try to establish
the beehive again with the old queen, attempting to retain
most of the workers that still belong to it. The new queen
must attract a new community ofbees.
A part of the swarm remains behind, but that is the por¬
tion that was born under other conditions. The reason bees
swarm out of the hive is simply that the workers can't endure
the new influence of the Sun that the new queen brings into
the hive. Now you might ask. Why do the bees become so
overly sensitive to this new Sun effect? Gentlemen, there is a
remarkable thing at work here. You know that sometimes
meeting up with a bee can turn into an unpleasant experi¬
ence. It can sting you. Being as large as a human being means
that you will usually suffer only an inflammation on your
skin—but unpleasant it remains. Little animals can die from
the sting. All this derives from the fact that the bee has a
stinger that is actually a duct. Tn this duct something resem¬
bling a piston goes up and down, retrieving from the poison
sac the poison it causes to stream downward.
This poison, which causes such unpleasant problems for
anyone who encounters it, is extraordinarily important for
bees. It is not even a pleasant experience for a bee to have to
sacrifice the poison while engaged in stinging. The reason it
does so is that it has difficulty tolerating all types of external
influences. It wants to remain within itself. The bee's world is
its own beehive; every influence from the outside disturbs it.
It defends itself against this foreign influence with its poison.
But this poison has another significance as well. This poison
is present within the bee in such a way that only tiny
amounts are absorbed into the bee's body. Looking at the
worker's eyes, you can say that these tiny eyes can't see. The
reason for this is that poison constantly enters these small
eyes. This poison is limited in its effect upon the bee when
the new queen, the new Sun's influence, is present. The poi¬
son loses its effectiveness. Suddenly the eyes can see again.
You could say that the bee actually owes to the poison it car¬
ries the fact that it lives in a continual twilight.
If I should try to give you a picture of what the bees expe¬
rience when a new queen crawls out of its sac-like cell, I
would have to say that a little bee, like the ones we are exam¬
ining, lives in a continuous twilight; it feels its way about by
means of a sense midway between smell and taste and lives in
a twilight that is appropriate for its life as a bee. The appear¬
ance of the new queen can be compared to our going out on
a darklune night and seeing glowworms, lightning bugs, or
fireflies flying about. In the same way, the queen appears to
give off light for the swarm ofbees, because their poison no
longer has an effect strong enough to keep each one "within
itself." The bee needs to be shut off from the world with a
twilight barrier. This barrier it carries along with itself when
it flies out, because the poison can help the bee remain
within itself. It needs the poison whenever it becomes afraid
that something external might attempt to influence it. The
whole beehive wants to be completely by itself. So that the
queen can remain in the realm of Sun influences, it may not
be in such a cell with corners, but rather in one with round
sides. There it will be totally under the Sun's influence [table
II, middle right].
16 • BEES
Lecture One
17
And now, gentlemen, we come upon something that
should make everyone become interested in apiculture.
Inside the beehive things basically happen the same way, only
with slight differences, as they do in the head of a human
being. The only difference is that the substances do not
develop and mature as much. In the human head we have
nerves, blood vessels, and also individual protein cells, which
remain round. They are always somewhere in there. We have
three types of things in the human head. First we have the
nerves, consisting of individual cells, which do not grow and
develop into animals because they are covered on all sides by
nature. They really want to become little animals, these
nerves. If the nerve cells in the human head could develop in
all directions like the beehive, then these nerve cells would
become drones. Second, the blood cells, flowing in the arter¬
ies, would become worker bees [see drawing below, also table
III, upper left]. Third, the protein cells, particularly those in
the middle of the head, having undergone the shortest devel¬
opment, can be compared to the queen bee. So, you see, we
have the same three powers in the human head.
// -- / n / erve?^. dr0neS
/ ^ .
/ / r'zrCtth
I * | q ueen ^m
\S\-\ mf\
h '/ blooa , ^
'// /, / *
\V ?/} workers
Well, the workers bring home what they collect from the
plants, manufacture wax within their own bodies, and then
construct these wonderful cells. Gentlemen, this is what the
blood cells in the human head do as well! They go from the
head into the entire body. If, for example, you look at a piece
of bone, you will see everywhere these hexagonal cells. The
blood that circulates in the body carries out the same task
that the bees do in the beehive. The only difference is that
other cells, for example, the muscles—where it is also still
similar, for muscle cells are also similar to the wax cells of the
bees—soon lose their form as they are dissolved. They are
still soft, so you don’t notice it as much. But if you study the
matter more closely, you will notice this form in the bones
very clearly. So now we can say that our blood has the same
powers that a worker bee has.
Yes, gentlemen, you can study this even in connection with
time. Those cells that you find developed before everything
else in the human embryo, and which then remain—the pro¬
tein cells—are the very cells that are present in the earliest
stages of embryonic development. The others, the blood
cells, develop somewhat later, and last of all the nerve cells
appear. It happens the same way in the beehive, the only dif¬
ference being that a human being builds up a body that only
seems to belong to the individual, and the bee also constructs
a body: the honeycomb, the cells. The same things happen
with the construction of wax that happen in the forming of
our bodies. With the body it is not easy to prove that the
blood cells make it out of a type of wax. But we are made of a
kind of wax, just as the bees make their honeycomb in there
or in the box. So we can say that it is like this: the human
being has a head, and the head works on the entire large
body, which actually is the beehive. And the beehive contains
within it in the relationship between the queen and the work¬
ers, the same relationship that the protein cells that remain
round have with the blood. And the nerves are constantly
being ruined. Continually the nerves are being worn out, for
we exhaust our entire nervous system. When this happens, we
18 • BEES
Lecture One
19
do not immediately engage in a battle of nerves—we would
die each year if we did that—the way the bees engage in a bat¬
tle against the drones; nevertheless, our nerves become
weaker each year. It is actually because of this weakening of
the nerves that the human being dies. We are then no longer
able to sense the body as well as we once did, and human
beings always die because they have frayed their nerves and
worn them out.
If you now examine the human head, which represents the
beehive, you will find that everything in the head is protected.
If you bring something forcibly up to it from the outside,
there will be a terrible injury. The head can't tolerate it. The
beehive also can't tolerate the appearance of a new queen and
would rather leave than try to live with this new queen. It is for
this reason that apiculture has always been considered
extremely important to human beings. Humans take 20 per¬
cent of the honey away from the bees. You could easily say that
this honey is extraordinarily useful to us, because we would
otherwise obtain very little honey in all the other food we eat,
since it is so sparingly distributed among plants. We would
otherwise manage to eat only tiny amounts of honey. We also
have "bees" in us—specifically, our blood, which carries this
honey to the various parts of the human body. This very same
honey is what the bee needs to make wax, from which it can
construct its body: the honeycomb of the beehive.
Honey has an extraordinarily beneficial effect on humans,
particularly when we grow old—with a child, it is milk that
acts in this way. Honey assists in maintaining the form of our
bodies. For this reason the consumption of honey is highly
recommended for older people. However, it is important not
to eat too much of it. If you overeat honey and don't use it to
simply garnish other foods, then you will develop too much
form. Then the body form will become brittle, and you will
contract many diseases. Well, a healthy person senses how
much should be eaten. Particularly for older people, honey is
an extraordinarily healthy form of nourishment, because it
actually gives the body a solidness, a real power of resistance.
If you were, therefore, to follow this rule also with children
who have rickets—to be sure, you would not do this during
the very first weeks oflife, when children normally would live
only on milk, because honey would not have any effect
then—if you gave a such a child at about nine to ten months
of age a properly dosed amount of honey and then had the
child continue this diet until age three or four, the rickets
would not become as bad as it would normally be, because
the nature of rickets is that it keeps the body too soft, so that
it begins to collapse into itself. But honey contains the power
to maintain the shape and form of the human body, to give it
solidity. You need to gain insight into the interconnections of
these matters. You really could say that we ought to pay much
more attention to honey production and beekeeping than we
currently do.
The following is also possible. In nature there are remark¬
able connections between all things. Those particular laws
that people can't comprehend with their ordinary under¬
standing are actually the most important. It is true, isn't it, that
these laws operate in such a way as to always allow for a slight
amount of freedom or latitude. Take, for instance, the balance
between the sexes on Earth. There is not a completely equal
number of men and women on Earth, but the number is
approximately equal. Over the entire Earth the number isjust
about equal. The wisdom of nature controls this. If the time
should ever come—I think I told you this before—that we are
able directly to manipulate the birth of children by sex and
leave the choice to the parents, then the whole matter could
immediately become chaotic. Currently the situation is this: If,
for example, raging wars have decimated the population in
some region, then the population becomes more fruitful, and
20
BEES
Lecture One • 21
more children are born. In nature every deficiency, every
shortage, calls forth an opposing power.
It is also true that when bees seek out honey nectar in a
certain region, they remove it from the plants. But they take
it away from the plants that we need for other purposes, such
as for fruits and so forth. The strange thing is that fruit trees
and similar plants thrive better in regions where there is api¬
culture than in regions where there is not. When the bees
remove the honey nectar from the plants, nature does not
look idly by, but creates even more such fruitful plants. So it is
that the human being derives benefits not only from the
honey the bees provide but also from that which is offered by
the plants that bees have visited. This is an important law,
into which you can gain deep insight.
Connected to all of this is the thought that if you could see
to the bottom of things, you could express the following.
Nature has placed a truly wonderful wisdom into the entire
manner in which a bee society functions. Bees respond to
certain powers of nature that are extremely important and
really wonderful. That is why you will feel a certain reserve
that will keep you from indiscriminately, and perhaps
crudely, trying to put your fingers on these powers of nature.
It is still true today that wherever we intrude upon these pow¬
ers of nature, we tend to make things worse rather than bet¬
ter. But we don't worsen things immediately, since nature has
limitations everywhere. Despite these constraints, nature
operates in the best way it can. We can remove certain limita¬
tions and thereby make things a little easier for nature. We
have, for instance, seemingly really helped nature very much
in regard to beekeeping by using, instead of the older bee¬
hives, the newer type ofbeehive boxes that are arranged with
comfort in mind for both bee and human.
But now we come to this whole new chapter concerning the
artificial breeding of bees. Gentlemen, you must not believe
that I can't understand, even from the standpoint of non-
anthroposophic science, that, beginning with the very first
steps, much can be said for artificially breeding bees, because
it does simplify quite a few things. But the strong bonding of a
bee generation, a bee family, will be detrimentally affected
over the longer period. In certain respects you will be able to
only praise artificial breeding, if all necessary precautions are
taken, as Mr. Muller described to us. But we'll have to wait and
see how things will look after fifty to eighty years. Certain
forces that have operated organically in the beehive until now
will become mechanized, will in themselves be mechanically
carried out. It won't be possible to establish the intimate rela¬
tionship between a queen bee you have purchased and the
worker bees the way it would arise all by itself in nature. But at
the beginning, the effects of this are not apparent.
Obviously I would not like to see initiated a fanatic move¬
ment against the artificial breeding of bees. Such things
should not be undertaken when we know that other, more
practical means exist. Being fanatic about this would be
about the same as something else I want to tell you about.
We could figure out approximately when the Earth's reserves
of coal will be exhausted. Then we could decide to extract a
smaller amount of coal, so that the reserves would last until
the Earth reaches the projected end of its existence. You
can't say that you must do this, because you really ought to
be optimistic and put some trust in the future. You must
then tell yourself, well, all right, we'll rob the Earth of all its
coal, which means, in reality, that we'll rob our descendants
of coal. But they will be able to find another source of
energy, so that they won't need coal. In the same way, you
could, of course, talk about the disadvantages in the artificial
breeding of bees.
But, nevertheless, it doesn't hurt to be conscious of the
fact that by introducing a mechanical, artificial element, we
22
BEES
Lecture One • 23
are actually disturbing what nature has produced in such a
wonderful manner. Beekeeping has always been considered
an activity full of wonder; particularly in earliest antiquity, the
bee was regarded as a sacred animal. Why? From the manner
in which this revered animal carries out its tasks, you could
begin to understand much about how things happen within
the human being's body. If you take a piece of beeswax into
your hands, you are actually looking at an intermediary prod¬
uct arising from a mixture of blood, muscles, and bones,
more precisely that which lies between the latter three.
Humans undergo such a stage of wax production; the wax
does not solidify, but rather remains fluid until it can be
transformed into blood, muscle, or bone cells. The beeswax
that you can see physically is within you in the form of certain
powers and energies.
When, in olden times, people made candles from beeswax
and lit them, they really saw in them a remarkable sacrament:
"This wax, burning there before us, we obtained from the
beehive. There it was a solid substance. When the fire melts
this wax and it evaporates, then the wax takes on the same
condition that it has in our own bodies."
Back then people sensed in the burning candle wax some¬
thing in their own bodies that flies toward heaven in a similar
fashion. This put them into a special mood of reverence that
caused them to regard the bee as a particularly sacred ani¬
mal, because it prepared something that the human being
must continually prepare within. For this reason, it is also
true that the more we go back in time, the more we will find
that people revered the existence and conduct of bees. Of
course, this was when bees were still in a wild state in nature.
People looked upon them as a revelation. Later they were
domesticated. But in all the things that occur among the
bees, there are truly marvelous riddles. The only way to
understand bees is to direct the efforts of your study toward
what it is that actually happens between the human head and
the rest of the body.
Now I have finished making these comments. Wednesday
we will have our next session. Perhaps you will think of some
questions to bring up at that time. Mr. Miiller may also think
of one thing or another to ask. I wanted to make only these
comments, which are not open to doubt because they are
based on true knowledge gained by expending great effort
in obtaining these insights. But there still may remain a
question of perhaps trying to clarify this matter or that.
Lecture Two
25
• Lecture Two
Dornach, November 28, 1923
Good morning, gentlemen! Has any question come to mind
that you would still like to ask me?
At this point, someone reads aloud an article printed in the Swiss
Apiculture Newspaper, new series, nos. 2 and 3, February and
March 1923. The article by Professor Buttel-Reepen is entitled "Can
Bees See Colors Invisible to Human Beings?"
Dr. Steiner: Let's talk about this a bit. These experiments car¬
ried out by Forel, as well as Kuhn and Pohl, demonstrate
clearly how thoughtlessly such experiments are conducted at
the present time. 1 You cannot imagine anything more absurd
than the manner in which this experiment is interpreted!
Simply consider for a moment that I could also interpret it in
the following way. Assume, for instance, I have a substance
(such substances do exist) that is particularly sensitive to
ultraviolet light, by that I mean those colors in the color spec¬
trum that lie beyond the visible blue and violet colors. Take,
as a specific example, the substance mentioned in the article:
the acid salt hexacyanoplatinate. The latter will give off light
1. Auguste Henri Forel, 1848-1931, a Swiss psychiatrist and natural scientist
who wrote, among other things, The Psychic Capabilities of Ants, 1901, and How
Insects Live Through Their Senses, 1910; Alfred Kuhn, 1885-1968, a German zo¬
ologist who wrote and compiled An Outline of General Zoology, 1922; no infor¬
mation on Pohl.
even iff have darkened all the colors of the visible spectrum
[page 163, table IV, upper left]. For this purpose I create a
device that will eliminate red, orange, yellow, green, blue,
indigo, and violet so that they will not be visible. As a result, I
will have here the so-called ultraviolet rays, which are invisi¬
ble to the human eye. If I put this chemical compound,
hexacyanoplatinate, a white powder, where it will be exposed
to these rays in a darkened room, then it will begin to phos¬
phoresce. As human beings, we can see nothing in this com¬
pletely darkened room, but now we allow light rays to enter.
At this point we apply the device to remove the visible spec¬
trum, thereby allowing only ultraviolet rays to enter. But
when I place the hexacyanoplatinate where the rays should
fall, what happens? Then this substance "sees."
The whole procedure would be about the same if you
were to use ants for an experiment instead. Rather than tak¬
ing hexacyanoplatinate, I take ants. Ants are attracted to
sugar. As a result, I say to myself that they can "see." But they
do not have to see the sugar to find it, just as little as the
hexacyanoplatinate needs to be able to see in order to begin
glowing and giving off light. All I can assert now is only that
when I have a certain substance, it has an effect on ants.
More than that I am not permitted to maintain and say is
true. The learned scientists who wrote the article are
extremely careless in their thinking and are asserting such
things as can be considered only pure fantasy. The only pos¬
sible assertion that can be maintained is that something did
affect these insects through their sense organs to a greater
or lesser degree. The scientists in the article proved that no
more stimulation of the insects took place when they lac¬
quered their eyes shut. But it was typical for them to apply by
analogy to ants and wasps what they had noticed in working
with bees. This demonstrates how carelessly such experi¬
ments are carried out.
26
BEES
Lecture Two
27
To this we can still add the following point. If you continue
going in this direction [see drawing below, also table IV,
upper left], you will come to the so-called ultraviolet rays.
Here we have red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and then, still
further, indigo and violet.
0 qY ' V
/
tmms*
$1
* ,
There (pointing to the left side) we have the infrared rays
and there (pointing to the right side) the ultraviolet rays.
These ultraviolet rays possess the peculiar property, as stated
in the article, of having a very strong chemical effect. What¬
ever you place in the vicinity of these ultraviolet rays will be
very strongly affected through a chemical process. As a result
of this, if I expose an ant to these rays, it is immediately
affected by them. The ant senses them. That statement is
true; the ant senses them primarily through its eyes. For the
ant, being exposed to the ultraviolet rays creates a feeling as
if someone were tickling it. It is the same with the hexacyano-
platinate that is affected when it is placed in the realm of
chemical activity. If I draw the shades in a room and allow
only the ultraviolet rays to enter, the fact is that the ant
notices immediately that something is happening here. Spe¬
cifically, if you had ant eggs with larvae there in that room,
they would undergo a complete change: they would die wher¬
ever such a strong chemical effect was being produced. That
is why ants in an otherwise dark room will move their eggs
away from the ultraviolet rays in order to save them. Well,
what it really boils down to in this article is a chemical reac¬
tion. That which I mentioned recently in another lecture is
certainly correct: bees have a kind of sense organ that com¬
bines the characteristics of smell and taste and lies some¬
where in the middle between the two. This is what the bees
sense (with the ants it is similar).
These gentlemen are so unaware of what really is involved
that they do not even know that, for example, when human
beings sense colors in their eyes, beginning with the visible
violet rays, small chemical reactions take place. Here you can
see that the perception of colors in human beings tends to go
in the direction of chemical processes. You can say that every¬
thing that was examined with regard to the bees can be
reduced to the process of bringing about an inner chemical
reaction in the bees when they live in an environment that
exposes them to ultraviolet light.
Now consider the fact that bees can perceive everything
in the area of black, white, yellow, gray (simply a dark
white), and blue-green [table IV, upper middle]. There is,
after all, no ultraviolet in all these colors. Because of this,
they do not sense the strong chemical reaction that takes
place when they come into the presence of ultraviolet light.
When a bee leaves an area of black, white, yellow, and blue-
green and moves into an ultraviolet area, it senses some¬
thing strange about which it can do nothing. The main con¬
sideration here is that the bee has a combination sense of
smell and taste. It is true that we make a clear distinction
between smelling and tasting. Tasting, for us, is primarily a
chemical sense; it is based completely upon chemical pro¬
cesses. But the bee has a sense that lies midway between
smelling and tasting.
There is no objection perceived in the fact that a bee can
distinguish colors, as exhibited when its hive is painted a spe¬
cific color that it recognizes. Consider that each color creates
28 • BEES
Lecture Two • 29
a different chemical reaction and has a different degree of
warmth [table IV, lower left]. If you were to color a surface
red and a bee were to approach it, the bee would feel the
warmth of the color. How then is it not possible for this bee
to have a different feeling when it comes upon a blue color
[table IV, lower middle]. On a blue surface it is colder. The
bee senses the warmth of the red and the coldness of the
blue. This much it can distinguish. But from this you may not
logically deduce that this bee sees with its eyes in the same
way human beings do. That would be complete nonsense.
That is the way it is with many other things that people do.
I have already pointed out to you in which direction all these
experiments are going. I have told you that there is a certain
plant—the "Venus flytrap"—that immediately closes its
leaves when they are touched. The same way you make a fist
when someone wants to touch or hit you, so also does the
Venus flytrap wait for an insect to come near it, and then
snaps its leaves together. Now people say that this plant, the
Venus flytrap, has a souljust like humans. It perceives when
the insect arrives, snaps its leaves together, and so on. Then I
always answer, I know of a self-acting mechanism that is con¬
structed in such a way that if an animal approaches it and
touches some part of it, this mechanism closes immediately,
and the animal is caught. This is what you call a mousetrap.
If you ascribe a soul to the Venus flytrap, then logically you
must say the same thing about the mousetrap. If you credit
bees with the sense of sight simply because you observe them
acting in a certain way in ultraviolet light, then you must like¬
wise ascribe the same sense of sight to the chemical com¬
pound hexacyanoplatinate, which can also, so to speak, see.
If people truly would think, then they would come upon
some very remarkable observations, because hexacyano¬
platinate is an extraordinarily interesting compound, con¬
sisting, among other things, of barium. This is a white metal
belonging to the category of alkaline earth. It is also inter¬
esting that such metals play a certain role in human life. We
would not, as human beings, be able to have in our physical
bodies the proper effect of the proteins, as contained in the
egg whites we eat, if it were not for the presence of such
metals in our pancreas. These metals must be there. In bar¬
ium, we have something that is related to the pleasant feel¬
ings we experience in the process of digestion. Platinum, as
you know, is a particularly valuable metal, a precious metal
that is especially hard and heavy. These metals all possess
the characteristic that they, in turn, are connected to that
which is called feeling or sensing.
Let me remind you of something else. In this compound
there is also cyanide. That is a certain kind of hydrocyanic
acid salt, which is also called prussic acid. Now I have told
you before that a human being always develops a certain
kind of prussic acid right where the muscles are used. So we
can say that this entire compound is rather similar to those
substances that a human being continuously creates in the
body. From this you can see that even a human being is
extremely sensitive to the chemical processes that take place
in ultraviolet light, specifically in the chemical components
of light. This sensitivity is registered in the entire body, not
in the eyes. Thus it is possible for us to judge this matter
properly only if we pay close attention to these matters.
Only with the help of anthroposophic science will we be
led to observe such things as the fact that when hexacyano¬
platinate is particularly affected by light, one type of feeling is
taking place there. The intensity of this type of activity is
present to the greatest degree in bees. Bees sense the colors
2. See lecture "Uber Blausaure und Stickstoff, Kohlensaure und Sauerstoff,"
October 10, 1923, in Mensch und Welt Das Wirken des Gristes in der Natur / Uber
dieBienen, (GA 351; not published in English).
30 • BEES
Lecture Two
31
with particular intensity and see dimly luminous colors when
other beings emitting light appear in the vicinity. That is why
I continue to say that, in general, a bee experiences only dim
conditions around itself. If, however, a new queen bee
appears on the scene, then the other bees experience the
queen bee as a phosphorescent source, very much as we can
experience glowworms on a June night. That experience is
reserved for the three little eyes of the bee; the other, larger
eyes do have some kind of normal light sensitivity, but it
resembles a twilight condition. If this normal light is
screened out, the animal then perceives more powerfully the
presence of a color that brings about a chemical reaction, for
example, ultraviolet, or one that creates no chemical reac¬
tion, infrared.
At the end of the article referred to earlier, the authors
promise future reports on their research with infrared light.
To be sure, if bees are exposed to infrared light, they will act
quite differently, since the chemical reactions no longer will
occur. The facts reported in these experiments are correct,
but you need to be quite clear in your minds that the conclu¬
sions arrived at by Forel and Kiihn are not correct. This is a
very thoughtless way to carry out an experiment. But then
people say that the findings have been proved beyond any
doubt. Yes, they are, naturally—for a person who can ascribe a
soul to a mousetrap. But for someone who knowsjust how far
one can go, just how far thoughts may take one so that the
experiment can be carried out properly, the authors of the
article have not eliminated all reasonable objections to the
proofs they have offered.
In everyday affairs we are not used to pursuing a matter at
hand with such rigor. When people experience somewhere in
their lives an insignificant matter, they can, as the saying goes,
make a mountain out of a molehill. This also happens to our
learned scientists. When they consider one aspect of an
experiment, they do not stop thinking. Instead, they con¬
tinue thinking about only that which lies directly before their
eyes. From this can arise all sorts of fantastic nonsense: a
molehill can become a mountain very easily. When modern
science claims something to be true, it can do so only
through its power—it controls all the scientific journals. As a
result, no one generally will dare to contradict whatever has
been presented. However, ultimately you will not be able do
anything with all this nonsense.
I personally believe that if you were to consult all existing
beekeepers, you would find out that the best of them would
concern themselves very little with the results that Forel and
Kiihn published regarding their experiments with bees. This
is so because beekeepers need to be practical above all. They
do instinctively whatever they need to do. It would be much
better if you really understood why these instinctive things
are done. I think that I have generally noticed that a bee¬
keeper might be interested enough to sit down and read such
an article on a Sunday evening when it is snowing outside.
But he will not be able to apply the information in any mean¬
ingful way.
But you must certainly have some other interesting ques¬
tions to ask me.
Mr. Muller: I would like to add something about the queen
bee. We've already talked about the fact that it lays eggs. But we
also have unfertilized queen bees, for example, in bad weather,
and from their eggs the worthless drones hatch. Likewise, the
situation arises that when the queen has left and no young
brood is present any longer, the worker bees breed a bee to
become a queen. This queen also lays eggs, but, as it turns out,
unfertilized eggs, from which arise worthless drones.
Then I also would like to make a comment about swarm¬
ing. The first swarm has no new queen bee; it is still sleeping
32
BEES
Lecture Two
33
in its cell. Only the older bees have left with their queen. By
catching this queen, I can put all the bees of the swarm in the
hive.
In regard to the bee's ability to see, I would like to say that
when we work in the bee house and there is too much light—
which is never enough light for the beekeeper—the bees get
overly excited. About the bees' stinging when they are swarm¬
ing, all our beekeepers know that a first swarm is rather "tick¬
lish," but the subsequent swarm is less so. Our opinion is that
young bees don't sting, still don't use their stinger.
There are some regions where people don't harvest honey
before the priest has blessed the hives. August 8 is such a
sacred honey day.
It can also happen that a swarm flies out, that the queen
takes up a position somewhere else. It then appears that the
swarm is done for, but it isn't so; it isn't always completely the
case.
Dr. Steiner: Regarding what I said, it all seemed to be directed
toward the fact that the old queen leaves its own community
of bees when the young queen appears, specifically, when it
shows itself to the bees as a "glowworm." When the swarm has
swarmed out and you've caught the old queen, then you can
bring the swarm back to the hive and it will just continue
functioning as it did before. You can't say that it is not true
that the swarm, on first impulse, left on account of the strong
impression of light the young queen made upon the three
small eyes of each bee. You haven't eliminated that possibility
entirely. You need to think very logically here. Let me give
you an example from real life. Imagine that all of you were
working somewhere for the same company. One day you
decide to strike because the board of directors did something
unjust. Let's assume you decide to strike, which is like swarm¬
ing out.
Now time passes, and you are no longer able to buy the
groceries you need. You're suffering from hunger and are
forced to return to work again. Well, can I now say that it isn't
true that something unjust happened earlier? For now you
must consider that if you remove the old queen from the
swarm that left the hive and put the swarm back into the hive,
then the swarm will swallow the bitter pill that it no longer
has its old queen and will simply have to put up with the new
queen—something it does sense. That's why what I said
before isn't incorrect; rather it's a question of putting all
these things in the proper perspective.
Then you also spoke about premature swarming, where a
young queen isn't there yet, where you really can't talk about
something like that. Well, have you ever seen such a premature
swarming if the egg of the young queen hasn't hatched?
Mr. Mutter: Nine days before the young queen hatched.
Dr. Steiner: At first the young queen is in its cell in the form of
an egg [table IV, upper right]. After sixteen days she'll be an
adult queen bee. At that point she'll emerge from the egg.
But nine days earlier she is either in the form of an embryo
or a larva. The strange thing is that the egg at that point gives
off the greatest amount of light. It gradually stops shining,
and the young queen still shines for some time. Her strongest
radiation appears when she is still an embryo or a larva. So it
becomes quite clear why these premature swarms, consisting
of the most sensitive bees, leave the hive. And that explains
why nothing happens until a young queen appears. What is
the young queen? She is already there, even if only in the
form of an embryo.
If the queen remains unfertilized, then she will not pro¬
duce any workers, only drones, and, as Mr. Miiller said, on top
of everything, they are bad drones. That's correct. You can't
34
BEES
Lecture Two
35
use the brood of an unfertilized, pseudo mother, because
there are no workers in it. You'll have to see to it that the bees
carry out their nuptial flight specifically under the influence
of sunlight.
Now you see again what an important role the chemical
element plays, for it's true, isn't it, that everything that hap¬
pens is an effect exerted upon the sexual nature ofbees. The
nature of sex is, however, completely of a chemical kind.
When the queen flies up high, naturally, light doesn't cause
the influence directly, but rather it is the result of the chemi¬
cal element present in the influence coming from the light.
Here you can really see how supersensitive bees are to that
which is chemical in nature.
You also stated that if you are working with the hive, you,
as a human being, need light, but the bees become restless
and would prefer to work in the dark. Well, think about this
very hard: The bee receives chemical effects from the light; it
is affected chemically by the light. But it is the chemical
effects that it senses, not the light as such. Now you come as a
human being and allow light to shine on the bees. You sud¬
denly introduce light, which affects bees, just as a strong draft
would affect you if you were sitting somewhere and opened a
window to allow a strong draft to enter. The bee senses the
light; it doesn't sense that it is particularly bright, but it senses
it more like a shock that causes it to be shaken up to the
point of confusion. You could almost say—without my ever
having observed this personally—that when the beekeeper
allows too much light to fall into the hive, the bees will act
extremely nervous because of the chemical effects of the
light within their bodies, and they will begin to fly back and
forth like small swallows. They dance back and forth. That's
simply an indication that they feel in themselves a certain
amount of restlessness. Imagine, for a moment, that the bees
did not act restless in this way when they saw the light. They
would tend to crawl away into corners so that the light would
no longer affect them.
In all these matters you should be clear about the fact
that these effects, which are present everywhere, should not
be compared to the effects that these same things have upon
human beings. In this case, you would anthropomorphize
everything too much, and you would never get to the point
of being able to imagine the whole matter in any other way
than by saying that because the human being sees things this
way, the animal, too, must see them the same way. You
should not be allowed to say anything like that offhandedly.
You probably have already experienced the following situa¬
tion. Whoever has observed such things can perceive cor¬
rectly what is going on. In your mind put yourself into a
kitchen where there is an oven range plate that is slightly
warm because of the pilot light directly beneath it. The cat
likes to take up a position there, curls up, closes its eyes, and
goes to sleep. Now if, somewhere under a kitchen cabinet,
there is a mouse that the cat can't see with its eyes, it can
happen that the cat willjump down suddenly without having
opened its eyes and, with complete self-confidence, will leap
right on top of the mouse. Before you've even had a chance
to consider what is happening, the cat comes back with the
mouse in its mouth.
Well, gentlemen, you're not going to tell me that the cat
saw the mouse; it had its eyes closed and was sleeping. Then
other people will say, "The cat has a very fine sense of hear¬
ing, and with this it was able to sense where the mouse was."
Now you would have to reason as follows. The cat hears best
of all when it sleeps. That is a rather questionable assertion,
because seeing and hearing are those senses that generally
play an important role only while the cat is awake, whereas
the sense of smell plays an extraordinarily important role
when the cat is asleep. This sense is based upon reacting to
36
BEES
Lecture Two
37
chemical processes. Something chemical happens in the
nose and in the entire brain. And, moreover, if you hear
something, are you immediately prepared tojurnp with con¬
fidence in the right direction? That is certainly not the case.
Hearing is not a sense you can orient yourself to so quickly.
So it can't be a question of hearing in the case of the cat.
But what you do definitely find in the cat is a very fine
sense of smell, which it has right in its bristly whiskers . And
this extremely fine sense of smell is in the whiskers because
each bristle contains a canal in which is contained a sub¬
stance (drawing on the blackboard) that changes chemically
when a mouse is present. If there isn't a mouse present,
then this substance is in a certain chemical state. But if one
is in the vicinity, even rather far away, then the cat will sense
it through the chemical changes in its whiskers. I once told
you about people who live on the fourth floor of a house,
in the cellar of which some material, for example, buck¬
wheat, is stored. These people can sense this material and
become ill from it. People can easily come to the conclusion
that the sense of smell can also function with great accuracy;
otherwise there wouldn't be any police dogs. They actually
do not achieve very much with their eyes but can accom¬
plish much with their sense of smell. So it turns out that in
the animal kingdom, confidence in sense perception does
not come from the eyes, but can instead be ascribed to
chemical effects, and these effects are strongest of all in
ultraviolet light.
If you really wanted to help a police dog, it would be very
beneficial to the dog for you to go along with it, shine on it a
special spotlight that removes the visible color spectrum, and
3. Sec lecture "Zur symptomatischen Betrachiung des Astralleibes," April
14. 1923, in Vom Leben des Menschen und derErde (GA 349; not published in
English).
make sure that the dog is always within the beam of ultraviolet
light. Then the police dog would pursue its quarry with even
more confidence, because even greater chemical effects would
occur in its scenting hairs—yes, dogs also have "whiskers" for
this purpose. Everything that you can know about animals
points toward the fact that when you enter the animal king¬
dom, you need to look beyond such obvious and commonly
referred to animal sense organs as sight and hearing, and you
must delve into the senses of smell and taste; that means going
down to the level of the chemical senses.
You were also of the opinion that young bees don't sting. It
could easily be explained that young bees simply haven't yet
developed the mature organ for stinging as well as all other
inner organs. That will all come later, when it reaches matu¬
rity. There is nothing of particular importance about this,
and it doesn't contradict what I've already said.
Mr. Mutter asks about feeding bees artificially. He takes four liters of
water and five kilos of sugar, adds some thyme, chamomile tea, and a
pinch of salt. What effects will that have'?
Dr. Steiner: We should be able to give quite a bit of informa¬
tion about that because our homeopathic medicines are par¬
tially based upon such principles, according to which you
acted instinctively. Not all, but a number of our medications
are based on them. If you feed bees sugar, it is actually, at first
glance, a bit of nonsense. By nature bees derive their nourish¬
ment from nectar and pollen, not from sugar.
Mr. Mutter: For example, we have to empty out everything in
the apiary, even the combs with unhatched bees, because the
bees will otherwise get dysentery. And then sometimes the
bees have only two to three kilos left at the end of the sum¬
mer. That's not enough.
38
BEES
Lecture Two
39
Dr. Steiner: Generally bees are not accustomed to eating
sugar, since they normally have their honey as food. That's
what they're used to taking in by nature. Now the strange
thing is that in winter the bee will transform every type of
food it receives into a kind of honey. Any animal will trans¬
form the nourishment it receives into something it can use.
The bee does this as well, but you can imagine that trans¬
forming sugar into honey demands more energy from the
bee than does eating its own honey. What kind of bees are
those going to be that are capable of transforming larger
quantities of sugar into honey? Those can only be the strong
bees, the ones that you can well use. You won't be able to get
weak bees to accomplish this transformation, and for that
reason they are more or less useless to humans.
But remember what I said earlier. This whole procedure is
understandable from an anthroposophic standpoint. If you
add chamomile tea, for example, to the mixture, then you are
already taking from the bee a part of the work it would nor¬
mally have to carry out in its own body. If you mix sugar with
this chamomile tea, the chemical substance of chamomile is
that part of the plant that brings out the honey nectar within
the plant. For the substance contained in chamomile tea is
not only in the chamomile plant but also in every plant that
has honey nectar in it. The chamomile plant, however, con¬
tains this substance to a greater degree, and that's why you
can't use it as a plant source for honey. But if you have before
you a plant, there is in it a lot of so-called starch. This starch
continually has the tendency of transforming itself into sugar.
Now thejuice of the chamomile plant already begins working
on this starch in the plant in such a way that it directs the sug-
aryjuice within the plant to become more like honey. If you
give the animal chamomile tea, you are supporting it this way
in the inner honey effect that it creates. You are making the
sugar more like honey when you add chamomile tea.
This is how we also do it with our homeopathic medi¬
cines. If you have any kind of metal that you need to give as
medicine, you can't give it to a person directly, because it
would simply wander through the digestive system without
being properly absorbed. What you need to do is compound
it with something else, because then it will be more easily
assimilated. That's the way it also is with the chamomile tea
that you add to the sugar. Salt will also have to be added,
because it is salt that makes digestible otherwise indigestible
things. Human beings instinctively add salt to soup, because
salt has the unique property of spreading very fast within the
body, which helps make food digestible.
Lecture Three • 41
• Lecture Three
Dornach, December 1, 1923
Gentlemen! Mr. Miiller gave me another issue of the Swiss
Apiculture Newspaper, in which there is an article about the
experience people have had with honey cures: "Our continu¬
ing experiences with honey cures at the Frauenfelder Home
for Children in Amden," by Dr. Paula Emrich, Weesen, no. 3,
March 1923.
Several passages are read aloud.
It will be of interest to you to have me add a few comments
to this article today. What happened here is that an attempt
was made, at this home for children, to treat with honey
those children who were found to be undernourished.
According to the article, the children received honey dis¬
solved in moderately warm milk, milk that had not been
overheated or brought to a boil but had remained below the
boiling point.
Dr. Emrich has recorded excellent results to prove her suc¬
cess, namely, that the number of red blood cells in these chil¬
dren increased in a very extraordinary way. She had, for
example, two children who were siblings. The younger child,
upon entering the home, had only 53 percent red corpuscles.
Upon this child's release, after the honey cure had been com¬
pleted, the red corpuscle count had risen to 82 percent. The
older child had a count of 70 percent to begin with and 78
percent when this child was picked up by the parents. The
latter child had experienced less of an increase, but at least
there was an increase. This child had been given only the
milk cure, but the red blood cells had nevertheless risen
from 70 to 78 percent; this child had not been so weak to
start with, but also did not grow in strength as much as the
first child did.
She also lists quite a number of very interesting experi¬
ments, and I ask you kindly, when I mention these experi¬
ments, to pay attention to the ages of these children. If you
want to research the effect that any particular substance
might have on human beings, it does no good simply to do
these experiments in a laboratory, but rather it is necessary to
determine, first of all and immediately, the age of each sick
individual before you conduct any experiments with nutri¬
tion or make any attempts to effect a cure [table V, a column
of numbers, page 163].
We have here the case of an eleven-year-old boy; he under¬
went a honey cure of eight weeks and, as a result, achieved a
very significant improvement in the condition of his glands.
His bronchitis diminished, and the red corpuscles, the impor¬
tant constituents of blood, rose in number from 73 to 75 per¬
cent [upper right]. A second example is another eleven-year-
old boy who experienced an increase from 55 to 74 percent.
Then there is a fourteen-year-old girl whose count improved
from 70 to 88 percent. I won't read to you all the rest of the
numbers, but they are in every instance significant. Dr.
Emrich also lists the gains in body weight; they, too, give evi¬
dence that the children have become stronger. She also lists
three girls, one aged 7 and two aged 10, and six boys aged 7,
8, 9, 11, 12, and 13, respectively. These experiments demon¬
strate that children in this range of ages, specifically of school
age, seem to derive the best benefit from this honey cure.
42 • BEES
Lecture Three • 43
In addition to these results, the author of this article tried
to determine why it is that these children benefited so much
from this honey cure. What she states is remarkably interest¬
ing. She indicates something that condemns, in the most
extreme way, that which is still applied in many areas by con¬
temporary science. What do the foremost scientists do when
they want to assess the nutritive value of certain foods? They
do a chemical analysis of these foods in order to determine
the type and quantity of chemical substances they contain.
That's what today's scientists do.
This is what happened. A student, Dr. Emrich says, of the
famous professor of physiology, Bunge, whom you all know
by name at least, was in Basel and conducted experiments
that involved feeding mice milk. These mice had a good life;
their physical condition improved tremendously because
they were being fed milk. Then he introduced another ele¬
ment into this experiment. He told himself that milk consists
of casein, which is the basis of cheese, fat, sugar, and various
salts. He said to himself that mice thrive when they are given
milk, and milk consists of casein, fat, sugar, and salts [table V];
hence he decided to give a similar group of mice these con¬
stituents of milk, which are the same as those found in milk.
But the mice to whom he gave casein, fat, sugar, and salts died
only a few days later! This group of mice had received exactly
the same substances, scientifically analyzed, as the first
group, but they died. You see, it doesn’t make any difference
if you know all the parts of a compound. Something else
1. Gustav von Bunge, 1844-1920, a German physiologist of Russian origin. He
was a professor in Basel after 1885 and supported the modern notion of neo¬
vitalism, a renewal of the theory or doctrine that life processes arise from or
contain a nonmaterial, vital principle and cannot be explained entirely as
physical and chemical phenomena. His main works are A Handbook of Physio¬
logical and Pathological Chemistry, 1887, and A Handbook of Human Physiology,
1901, 2 vols.
must be involved here—that's what these gentlemen should
have told themselves.
But what is it that they did tell themselves? The gentlemen
said that the substances that can be analyzed chemically are
all that there can be; these substances are present every¬
where. Wherever something happens, a substance must be
involved. But those substances contained in milk (casein, fat,
sugar, and salts) are not responsible for the results in this
experiment! Then the gentlemen said that there simply must
be another new substance in such immeasurably small quan¬
tities that chemical analysis does not uncover it. This sub¬
stance people now call a vitamin. Vita is the Latin word for
"life"; hence vitamin means "makes life" [table V]. Heine
once had in mind to ridicule something. He said that there
are people who, for example, would like to explain where
poverty comes from, what the cause of poverty is. Well, the
simplest explanation is that poverty comes from pauperism
[pauvrete, the French origin of the English word; pauper, the
Latin origin]. There you have different words, but they don’t
really explain anything at all.
I was once in literary society where the discussion turned
to the subject of where the comical element came from. A
number of people present had given this serious thought
and came up with some thought-provoking arguments. But
then one of them stood up and walked to the podium in
such a way that we all knew instinctively that he had much to
say about this subject. He expressed his opinion in this way.
The comical element simply comes from the fact that a per¬
son has the vis comica, or the power of being comical [table
V]. That would be the same as if an economist were to ask
2. Heinrich Heine, poet, 1797-1856. His statement that "poverty comes from
pauperism" could not be documented. Avery similar statement can be found
in Fritz Reuter's Out of My Stormy Time, chapter 38: Inspector Braesig says:
"The great poverty in the city comes from the pauperism."
44 • BEES
Lecture Three • 45
where money comes from and reply that it comes from the
power of making money. By saying this, you haven't ex¬
plained anything at all.
Scholars and experts in the field of economics would
immediately think that you were rather strange if you said
that the origin of money can be found in the power that cre¬
ates money. But scientists in the field of natural sciences
don't notice anything wrong when someone asks where the
enlivening power in milk comes from and is given the answer
"from vitamins." But that'sjust like saying that poverty comes
from pauperism. And nobody notices anything wrong. They
even think that this person has said something very profound
and true, but in reality nothing of significance has been said.
This is what is so upsetting, if I may say so, about the way
things are conducted in modern-day science. These scientists
think they are saying something truly important. They
announce their results using big words, and all the rest of the
people believe everything they say. If this type of thing contin¬
ues in the course of history, the time will come when every¬
thing will have to wither and die. For the world is dependent
on your ability to actually do something and not only talk
about things and create new abstract terms. Words must mean
exactly what is really there. Long ago there used to be a kind of
science that was directly connected to the actual experience of
those things under examination. Today we have a science that
knows nothing anymore of this direct experience. All it does is
think up fantastic new word combinations, and this is only pos¬
sible because a new authority has been added to the old one.
You must also consider how recent the proliferation of sci¬
entific journals in specialty areas is; there used to be very few
suchjournals. Reports are printed in thesejournals on exper¬
iments involving beekeeping after the beekeepers have met
at one of their conferences. This was still so at the time when
I was young. Then, after a conference you could still learn
how things were. One beekeeper would relate his experi¬
ences to another, and you could immediately tell if someone
was a windbag or if the person had real experiences to back
up the statements. It's a very different matter when you hear
a person speak. You can tell if the person is speaking about
something he or she knows or is only repeating things heard
from others. What has been added to this method is the new
authority of having something appear in print. When some¬
thing is printed, people immediately think there must be
something to it, because a printed page lends an air of
authority to whatever is being conveyed.
In this article we are talking about, there is an additional
element. This doctor has actually bestowed a blessing by con¬
ducting her honey cures. In relating these research results,
she has accomplished something truly excellent. And now
she starts to think about these results as a modern scientist
would, and she comes up empty-handed. She even says so:
It would be desirable to have the results of our experi¬
ments publicized far and wide and particularly to ensure
that our young people will once again eat more honey.
For the present, our report includes only the results of
our practical experiences, but we don't doubt that as
more knowledge about vitamins is obtained, pharmacol¬
ogists and physiologists will need to devote attention to
the problem concerning the effect of honey upon the
entire human organism.
Likewise, the author of this article states at the very begin¬
ning:
I feel called on, at some point, to give a doctor's perspec¬
tive regarding the effects of the honey cure_Our suc¬
cessful results encourage me to try to uncover the
46
BEES
Lecture Three • 47
deeper relationships and conditions that must exist.
Although I am certainly conscious of the fact that I
haven't even scratched the surface, I would, neverthe¬
less, like to indicate, based on our experiences and the
results of our experiments, the points from which, in my
opinion, future research could continue.
Well, from her own words it becomes clear that this doctor
has sufficient modesty to say that using all we know today
about vitamins, there is no way to get to the core of this matter.
Now here is something you'll want to consider carefully.
We'll try to determine the basis for the effects caused by the
honey cures. These experiments do show us something.
They show us that the effect of honey is particularly strong—
the experiments will continue to demonstrate this more and
more—not in very young children, but rather in those chil¬
dren undergoing second dentition or in those who have def¬
initely already replaced their baby teeth with an adult set of
teeth. It is very important to consider this point, which the
results clearly demonstrate. But the results also show that
honey has its best effect in children if you dissolve it in mod¬
erately hot milk. It is this combination of honey and milk
that has a strong effect in children.
If you continue thinking along these lines, you'll find
something else to be true. Honey can begin to have a signifi¬
cant effect upon still younger children. But it is important to
use a small amount of honey—more milk, but less honey. In
older people it is primarily the honey that helps, not the
milk. You can obtain favorable results in very old people by
allowing them to ingest honey without any milk at all. Based
upon the experiences recorded here as the results of experi¬
ments, you would have to come to the conclusion that milk
and honey play an extraordinarily significant role in the life
of a human being.
And, gentlemen, as I've told you before, the older forms of
science weren't as primitive and stupid as present-day science
would have you believe. These older forms of science often
expressed things in a simplistic way, but they were, in reality,
very wise in their insights. And you know that the old phrase
"This is a country where milk and honey flow" simply means
that it is a healthy country, a country where you can live a
healthy life. The people of antiquity knew that both milk and
honey are strongly connected with a healthy human life
force.
Nature sometimes talks to us in a very understandable
manner. You will notice what it says if you can take the simple
things simply enough. Whoever knows that nature works in
very wise ways will not need much proof to determine that
milk is something that is good for little children and those
who are growing up to adulthood. Otherwise nature would
have seen to it that honey, and not milk, would flow from a
woman's breast. This is something that is not out of the realm
of possibility. Because plants produce honey, it could indeed
be possible for the mammary glands of women to produce
honey. You simply have to take things on a simple basis. You
should not say that nature is a bungler, constantly botching
things—but rather say to yourself that behind all of it lies a
fact you can recognize, that milk nourishment is the primary
concern for a small child, but as the child grows, you can add
more and more of the honey nourishment.
We really shouldn't get such an idea in our minds, an idea
of the abstract word definition type, and then say to ourselves
that poverty comes from pauperism, the comical element
from the comic force, and the enlivening force of honey
from a vitamin contained in it; on the contrary, we should
direct our attention to the reality in these relationships. And
in this regard I am going to tell you this—we'll put together
some ideas we've already encountered in these lectures, but
48 • BEES
Lecture Three • 49
it will be important for you to be able to look at these things
with the proper and correct perspective.
You see, gentlemen, when you go up into the highest parts
of the Alps, where these high mountains are the hardest,
where, in a sense, the hardest parts of the Earth extrude
upward, right there you'll find quartz crystals. They are very
beautiful. In general, you will find all sorts of crystals there.
Remember how I sketched these quartz crystals for you. They
look like this [see drawing,
also table V], When they
are complete crystals, they
will look as if they are
closed off below, just as
they are on top. But most
of the time they are not
complete. They come out
of the surrounding rocky
material; they seem to
grow out of the rock in the way I've already frequently
sketched for you. What does this mean? This means that the
Earth lets such crystals grow out of itself, crystals that are
six-sided and terminate in a point. So within the Earth is a
power that can shape something like this so that it will have
six sides.
As I've always explained to you, in human beings reside all
the forces that are in the Earth as well as in the cosmos. The
Earth, in turn, receives this force from the cosmos. Human
beings get it from the Earth. The force with which the Earth
presses out this quartz crystal is contained in a human being.
How is it possible that this power is in us? Well, it's true that
the human body is full of quartz.
Now you'll probably say, "That man must really be crazy;
listen to that strange rubbish he's telling us!" The quartz you
find up there in the mountains is truly a hard substance. You
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can crack a human skull with it, and nothing happens to the
quartz crystal. Its rigidity is one of its most prominent fea¬
tures. But substances do not always have the same form that
they present to us here and there. In human beings exists this
very same substance that the quartz crystal is made of, but it
takes a more fluid form [table VI, page 164]. Why?
You see, it's possible to observe—you simply have to
observe properly through a spiritual eye directed inwardly—
how there is a constant stream of something from the head
into the members of the human body. It is interesting how the
same substance the Earth let stream out of itself became hard,
took on the form of a quartz crystal, and can now be seen
constantly flowing downward from the human head. With
the Earth it is found streaming out from the Earth's interior,
and with human beings it streams from the head to the rest
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of the body. It is either quartz or
silicic acid. The only difference is
that the human body doesn't allow
the quartz to become crystallized.
That would really be something, if
we were inwardly completely filled
with quartz crystals. That would
really hurt! The human body allows
the quartz substance to develop up
to the point where quartz wants to
take on its six-sided shape, and then
50 • BEES
Lecture Three • 51
it stops the process at that very point. The body simply doesn't
let it happen.
Our life as human beings is dependent on the fact that we
continuously want to form six-sided crystals, beginning with
the head and going down into the rest of the body, but we
stop this crystal formation just in time, so that it doesn't hap¬
pen. As a result, we have what you might call a very thin solu¬
tion of quartz "fluid" in us. If we didn't have this quartz
substance in us, we would, for instance, never have a sweet
taste in our mouths, no matter how much sugar we ate. The
quartz we have in us is responsible for this, not because of its
chemical composition but rather by virtue of the fact that it
has a strong will to take on a six-sided form as a crystal. This is
what does it. Everything depends on our understanding this
properly.
So you see, in the Earth we find the same substance, only
further developed. The human being stops the process at the
point of the development of silicic acid, just when this pro¬
cess wants to become spiky. The Earth allows this process to
continue until the sharp-pointed nature of quartz pokes its
way through to the surface. But the human being needs and
uses this power, this silicic acid power, which is the power to
produce these six-sided shapes.
I can imagine that not all of you were good in geometry.
Not all of you will have geometry fresh in your minds. You
might not immediately be able to sketch a quartz crystal or
model it in clay. But your body is a good geometrician. It
wants continuously to make such crystals, but we are held
back from doing so. All life consists in stopping the process of
dying, and when we no longer are able to stop it, then we sim¬
ply experience the actual death we've been trying to avoid.
Now let's look at a bee again. The bee flies out and collects
honey nectar. In its own body it transforms this honey nectar
into honey and creates from it its own powers of life. But it
also produces wax. What does it do with this wax? It makes
six-sided cells from it. You see, the Earth makes six-sided
silicic acid crystals, while the bee makes six-sided cells. This is
terribly interesting. If I were to sketch for you these cells, or if
you can remember how Mr. Miiller showed them to you, then
you will see that they look like quartz crystals, the only differ¬
ence being that they are hollow. The quartz crystal is not. But
in their form they are completely alike [table VI, upper
right].
hollou
You see, gentlemen, these cells are hollow. But what goes
in there? The egg of the bee is placed into it. Where the
silicic acid is contained in the quartz, it is hollow in the cell—
that's where a bee egg is placed. The
bee is formed by the same force that
resides in the Earth and can construct a
quartz crystal. It's the finely distributed
silicic acid that has this effect. There is
a force in it that can' t be proved using
physical methods. In this process the
honey, having been worked upon by
the bee's body, has such an effect that it
can create wax in just such a form that human beings can
use, because all human beings need to have these six-sided
spaces within themselves. Human beings need the same
things bees do. And since the bee is that creature that can
best of all create this force of having a six-sided effect on
other things, the bee collects from everything available in
nature the very form of nourishment that can carry over into
our bodies this same hexagonally acting force, a force that
produces a six-sided effect.
You see, gentlemen, if you eat honey, you will take into
yourselves a tremendously strengthening force. If you have
become too weak to develop within yourselves this six-sided
force that must flow from your head to the rest of the body, if
52 • BEES
Lecture Three • 53
you don't have any longer the power to give your blood a cer¬
tain degree of solidity so that this six-sided force is continu¬
ally present, then honey must step in to make up for the loss,
or, in the case of children, milk will be necessary. Children
don’t have this six-sided force as yet—they still must obtain it
through that which a woman produces in herself in the form
of milk.
This is why, no matter how much casein, fat, sugar, and salt
you give mice to eat, they will still die. Why? Because this ani¬
mal also needs this force to produce the six-sided effect. Just
mixing casein, fat, sugar, and salt is not going to yield real
milk because the power that expresses itself in six-sidedness is
not there. If you give real milk to mice, this force is imparted;
however, it is not contained in milk to such a degree that
when the milk turns sour, it will form six-sided crystals. If this
hexagonally acting force were just a bit stronger in the milk,
then you would be able to drink sour milk that would create
tiny silicic acid crystals on your tongue. It would feel as if there
were tiny hairs present in the milk. But in milk the crystalliza¬
tion process doesn't ever reach this point, because the milk
originates in a human or animal body, where it remains fluid.
For a child the power contained in milk is sufficient, but not
for an adult human being. This maturation toward adulthood,
however, begins in childhood. At that time you need to begin
adding the stronger six-sided activating force that is contained
in honey.
Another interesting point is this. Milk, even if it comes
from a human being, is in reality animal-like in nature; it
comes from the animal part of a human being. Thus, in the
human being milk is animal. Honey, on the other hand,
comes from the plant kingdom via a detour through the
bee. Originating in the plant kingdom, it is considered vege¬
table. Silicic acid, let's say quartz, is mineral. It has a distinct
hexagonal shape. The wax, which comes about within the
bee as it is influenced by the bee’s metabolism, takes on its
form—the wax isn’t derived directly from the bee’s nourish¬
ment, but it receives its form from it—and is shaped into a
six-sided cell. Milk dissolves this shape or form quickly and
allows only a shadowy image of six-sided crystals to be formed
[table VI, lower right]. As a result, you can say that honey is
that form of nutrition that must have the most salutary and
beneficial effects on a human being.
I suppose you could also reason that it would be a good
thing for human beings to substitute silicic acid for honey,
because the silicic acid would also supply a method for get¬
ting this six-sided power into your system. But silicic acid has
an effect on human beings that is too strong because it was
pushed too far along in the process of attaining a six-sided
shape and forming the typical silicic acid shape within itself.
Nevertheless, it has some beneficial effects for the human
being.
Now assume the following circumstance. Imagine a poor
child isn’t lucky and doesn't receive a honey cure of the type
described in the article at the age of sixteen or seventeen, or
even of thirteen or fourteen, when it is best. This child
doesn’t fare well. The percentage of red corpuscles in the
blood is reduced more and more as time progresses. The
child grows older and at the age of thirty, let’s say, lives in pov¬
erty and has become a very weak human being. The writer of
the article even says as much when she says, "They simply col¬
lapse." But now you have before you a person who is thirty
years old. You could easily initiate a honey cure, but this per¬
son has become too enervated, too emaciated. In order to
help such a person, you would have to give so much honey
that the stomach would be spoiled in the process, for honey
is something that demands moderation from the human
being who eats it. If you eat too much honey, you will upset
your stomach.
54 • BEES
Lecture Three • 55
This is based on a very simple fact. Honey is sweet and con¬
tains a lot of sugar. Your stomach, however, needs primarily an
acidic content. So when you ingest too many sweet things, you
will spoil the acidic effect the stomach is trying to produce. If
you gave such an emaciated person who is thirty years old as
much honey as such a person would need in order to bring
about a positive outcome, he or she would, at first, suffer from
indigestion, which would lead eventually to a chronic intesti¬
nal condition. You simply can't do it.
You could try something else. You could, to begin with,
give such a person, as a medication, a drastically diluted solu¬
tion containing powdered quartz, which is silicic acid. If you
give someone this extremely thin solution of silicic acid as a
remedy, this person will, after a certain amount of time has
passed, regain the capability of absorbing the beneficial
effects of small quantities of honey. This very thinly dissolved
silicic acid will have stimulated within the person the power
to make use of the hexagonal force. In this way you can use a
lesser amount of honey as a follow-up. So the silicic acid can,
in a sense, prepare the way for the honey. You could do
something similar with a thirty-year-old individual whose
hemoglobin content is too low. Add a bit of extremely
diluted silicic acid directly to the honey. This is generally
permissible for all adults, whereas with children it is best to
give them a great deal of milk. In this way the honey can
have its effect on human beings.
You must know how all these things are connected. And
then you will be able to ask, "What is it, in reality, that brings
about the effect that honey can have on human beings?" It's
this hexagonal formative force that works via the honey upon
the human being. This power is inside the bee. You can see its
effects by observing the bee's wax cells. It is through this
power that honey can be of such benefit to humans. For this
reason, the statement I made to you earlier is true—in a child
it is primarily the power in milk that is effective, but you can
strengthen this power with honey. With adults, for the most
part, it is the power in honey that has a strong effect. When a
person gets older and has definitely left childhood behind, you
will need to strengthen the power in honey with that con¬
tained in quartz, as I have described for you. An adult might
still derive some benefit from a honey-milk cure because the
powers of early childhood might still be present. A simple
honey cure might also be beneficial. The benefits of a honey
cure remain incontestable.
Those involved in the practical application of these cures
know very well that these beneficial effects exist. What we
need to do is make clear to practitioners that they should see
to it that the properly measured amounts of honey be avail¬
able commercially. People generally tend to let themselves
be deceived. I don’t mean this in the usual criminal sense of
the word, but rather I would say that they let themselves be
deceived by the general conditions that exist in our culture.
If you travel about anywhere and go into hotels where you
might ask for some honey, you will frequently receive not
honey, but a substitute sugar honey that was produced artifi¬
cially! If only people knew that such honey isn’t the same
thing as real honey, that there is no way that this power that
produces the hexagonal effect can be present, they could
not have the wool pulled over their eyes so that they would
believe that this artificially made honey has the same effect
that genuine honey has. You could, naturally, feed mice with
real honey. They would even enjoy the taste of it. However, if
you gave them artificial honey, they would die fairly soon,
perhaps even in just a few days. This is what I wanted to say
about the article on honey-milk cures.
Now there is another interesting matter that has come to
my attention. I would like to speak about it, but also to hear
from you as to what your thoughts might be about the matter.
56 • BEES
Lecture Three
57
as well as from Mr. Muller, who also will speak to you regard¬
ing this matter. You'll see that so many questions will come up
that we’ll have to talk about this again next time. You'll be
able then to ask questions, and Mr. Muller or I will answer
them. At this time I want only to touch upon two things
quickly. These may seem rather strange to you, but I'm quite
interested in finding out how you will react to them.
Question submitted in writing: Among the beekeepers in tradi¬
tional farming communities, there is a conviction that
between the beekeeper and the bees, there is a certain soul
connection, a spiritual bond that exists between them. So
they say that if the beekeeper dies, the death must immedi¬
ately be made known to the bees. If this is not done, all of
the bees will die during the course of the next year. That a
certain spiritual rapport exists between them is made clear
by the experience that many have had. If you try to attend to
your bees when you are in an angry mood, the bees will sting
you more frequently than if you carry out your tasks with the
bees when you are in a calm mood and in harmony with
your environment. Is there any basis in reality for this some¬
what ancient notion that older beekeepers have?
Dr. Steiner: It would be interesting to hear from Mr. Muller, if
he could simply say that such things are a total figment of the
imagination. Such things as announcing the death of the
beekeeper are customary among beekeepers in the country.
But I'm more interested in this spiritual rapport, this rela¬
tionship between the beekeeper and the bees. Perhaps Mr.
Muller could say something about this.
Mr. Muller: (Mr. Muller talks about two illustrative cases in Basel
and Zurich.) In one family the wife who had helped very much
in tending the bees died, and in the course of one year all of
the hives died out. In another case, this one in Basel, it was
also a wife who was very much devoted to tending the bees
who died. The same thing happened. It was a large apiary. In
the course of a year, twenty-eight hives were reduced to only
six. I can't explain how that is connected to the time span
and why it happened to those bees. In one case it was estab¬
lished that the bees did not die of any known disease; per¬
haps there was a soul connection.
Dr. Steiner: Let's try to remember what I once told you about
the connection between humans and animals. You may have
heard me talking about it; I've mentioned it in the past. A
while ago there was much talk about so-called calculating
horses,' horses that were given a question, such as "How
much is four plus five?" Then the owner of the horse began
counting—one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine—
at which point the horse stamped the ground with its foot.
These horses did innumerable calculations like this. You've
probably heard that the horses from the Elberfeld region
became quite famous in this regard. Investigative commis¬
sions were sent there to research this matter and get to the
bottom of it. I myself have not seen these horses from Elber¬
feld, but I saw another such calculating horse that belonged
to a Mr. von Osten. This horse also performed this feat. From
this example alone, you could draw a conclusion as to the
real basis for such a phenomenon.
People have really racked their brains to try to figure this
one out. When you think about it, there is something terri¬
bly shocking about horses that are said to suddenly begin
doing calculations. They calculate so well that you could
See the article by Oskar Pfungst, "Mr. von Osten's Horse, 'Smart John'—
A Contribution to Experimental Animal- and Human-Psychology," Leipzig,
1937.
58 • BEES
Lecture Three • 59
almost dispense with calculating machines. Well, gentlemen,
if you could teach horses to do this, the competition
between horses on the one hand and bookkeepers and
accountants on the other could become fierce. However, the
story behind these horses is not a nice one.
Even the scientific world suffered an unbelievable degree
of embarrassment in probing for the truth in this matter.
There is, however, an easy way to get a handle on it. Naturally,
a horse can't really do calculations. What you need to find
out is why it happens that the horse stamps its foot at the
number nine. It would be a case of complete idiocy to con¬
tend, or even believe, that a horse is able to do these calcula¬
tions. Even Professor Pfungst, who studied this matter very
carefully, knew this for a fact. But he then established a the¬
ory. He said to himself, "Mr. von Osten must make a certain
kind of face or have a slightly different expression on his
face, and then the horse must see this slighdy changed
expression on his face. The horse must detect this very slight
change in the lines on his face. When seeing this change, the
horse stamps its foot." But then this professor states his own
objection to this line of thinking. He figures that he should
be able to place himself directly before Mr. von Osten and
watch his facial expressions very carefully. This he did, but he
noticed nothing at all. But he didn't let himself get confused
by his own theory. So he said to himself, "This change in
expression is so minute that I can't detect it, but the horse
can." Well, gentlemen, what we can conclude from this is that
a horse can see more and better than a professor. There can
be no other conclusion.
But this is not the way things are. If you are trained in
anthroposophic science, which allows for a spiritual as well as
the obvious physical dimension, and you go to examine this
matter, then you will not place emphasis upon any slight
change in expression. But this is the way things really were.
The horse stood on one side and Mr. von Osten, holding the
bridle loosely, stood on the other side. And in the right
pocket of his jacket, Mr. von Osten had many small pieces of
sugar, which he continually gave to the horse. The more the
horse licked and ate these pieces and savored their sweetness,
the more it began to love Mr. von Osten. As this love
increased, supported each time by the offering of sugar, a
very cordial relationship between Mr. von Osten and the
horse was formed. Mr. von Osten didn't even need to change
his expression ever so slightly; he only needed to think,
"When I reach nine, the calculation is correct." The horse
then senses this thought because animals have a much finer
sensitivity to all those things that are going on in their imme¬
diate environment. They sense what is going on in your head
even though you don't express it visually through a facial
expression that a horse might see, but not a human being.
The horse senses what is going on in your brain when you are
thinking "nine" and then stamps its foot. If the horse had not
received the sugar, the horse's love might have transformed
itself somewhat into hate and then it would not have stamped
its foot.
So you see, animals have a very fine sensitivity for things—
not for almost imperceptible facial expressions, but rather
for truly invisible things, just as Hans the horse had for what
was happening in Mr. von Osten's brain. These are things
you simply have to observe; then you will know that animals
indeed can feel things in, what seems to us, a very marvel¬
ous way.
Just imagine for a moment that you are walking into a
swarm of bees and you are extremely afraid. Well, the bees
can feel that you have fear; there is no way to deny it. What
does it mean that you are afraid? You know that if you are
afraid, you will become pale. And when you become pale,
your blood is held back. It doesn't flow outwardly into your
60
BEES
Lecture Three • 61
skin. Now when a bee approaches a person who is afraid, it
senses in that person, more than it normally does when the
blood is properly distributed in the skin, this force that
affects things in a six-sided manner, and it wants to obtain
from you honey or wax. Whereas if a person calmly
approaches the bees, and the blood is distributed evenly, the
bee has a very different experience. The bee then notices
that the person's blood has the same amount of the six-sided
power as it has.
Now imagine that you are angry as you approach the bees.
Anger will make you red. In this case, a lot of blood suffuses
the skin, and this blood wants to receive more of the six-sided
force. The bee, with its fine sensitivity, notices this and
believes that you want to take away from it this six-sided
power—so it stings you. These are very fine sensibilities that
register the various powers in nature that are playing about
out there or are contained inside things.
Add to this the process of becoming accustomed to being
in someone's presence. Consider also that a beekeeper
doesn't approach a beehive the same way any person, chosen
randomly, would walk up to a beehive. The bees feel, if I may
use this expression, a person's effluvia, exhalations, vapors, or
perspiration. They know what makes up a specific human
being and become accustomed to this individual. If this per¬
son dies, then they have to break the relationship with one
and gradually become accustomed to another. This is of great
significance for the bees. Consider what you can find happen¬
ing with dogs. It has happened before that when the master of
a dog died, the dog went to its master's grave and died there
because it couldn't easily get used to a new master. So why
can't you assume that bees, known for having a very fine sense
for chemical substances, can perceive all these things, that
they can become so accustomed to a particular beekeeper that
they are unable to do an about-face and immediately accept a
new beekeeper? There is something very important upon
which all of this is based.
But you may say, "Is the situation with dogs and horses the
same as with those tiny creatures, the insects?" Well, you may
not have observed this, but it is nevertheless true. You can
find people who have a green thumb when it comes to grow¬
ing plants, whether it's potted plants or plants growing out¬
side. Another person puts in at least the same amount of
effort—nothing happens. It's a person's Ausdimstung (exhala¬
tions, vapors, perspiration, and so forth) that influences the
flowers favorably when it comes from one person, but unfa¬
vorably when it comes from another. And for some individu¬
als, growing plants comes completely to nothing. This
unfavorable influence is primarily on the force residing in
the plant, a force that produces the nectar and that produces
sweetness within the plant. So you could say that human
beings can affect flowers, but they can affect bees even more
strongly. You don't have to be astonished about this at alkjust
keep the facts together in their proper relationships. You'll
(hen see that such things can really be true. You'll also be
able to consider these matters as you carry out the practical
aspects of beekeeping.
Second question: There's an old farmer's saying that states that
if it rains on the third of May, the nectar gets washed out of
I he blossoms on flowers and trees so that honey production is
reduced that year. My observations during the past four years
seem to indicate there may be some truth to this adage. Is
something like this really possible?
Dr. Steiner: Yes, gentlemen, this is something that will lead us
more deeply into the area of the various influences that exist
in nature. The fact that it is specifically the third of May is of
lesser importance. What is important is the season that is
62 • BEES
Lecture Three • 63
active around this time of year. What does it mean, when it
rains at this time near the beginning of May? I once told you
that the vernal equinox is now located in the constellation
Pisces [table V, upper left]. The Sun remains in this constel¬
lation until approximately April 23, at which time it moves
into the constellation Aries. At the beginning of May, the
Sun's rays come from a different part of the sky than they do
at other times of the year. Assume, for instance, that the
weather is beautiful at the beginning of May, which would
include May 3. What does this mean? It means that the Sun
exerts a powerful influence upon all earthly things. All those
things that happen here on Earth take place under the Sun's
influence when the weather is beautiful. What then would
be the significance of rain on May 3 or at the beginning of
May? It means that the Earth's forces are greater and dispel
the effects of the Sun.
All of this is of tremendous importance for the growth of
all plants. If the Sun's power can allow its influence to be felt
atjust that point in time when the Sun's rays originate from
the Aries region of the sky, so that it can bring its full force to
bear upon the flowers, then the flowers will develop this
sweet substance that appears in the nectar. Then the bees will
find this nectar to make honey. If, however, the Earth's power
can prevail, when there is rain at this time, then the flowers
can't develop under the Sun's rays that come from the Aries
region, but they will have to wait for a later Sun period, or
they may be interrupted entirely in the development of what
they already have. Then the flowers will not properly produce
nectar, and the bees will not find any honey.
These matters will become clear to you if you know that
everything that happens on Earth, as I have frequently told
you before, is open to the influences emanating from the cos¬
mos, from whatever is located outside the Earth and sur¬
rounds it in all directions. Rain simply means that the Sun's
influence is driven away. Beautiful, clear weather means that
the Sun's power can manifest its full potential in the influ¬
ences it sends in the direction of the Earth. And what is
important is not that the Sun generally shines in our direc¬
tion all year long, but rather that the Sun's forces are com¬
ing from a specific area of the sky, not the area we are
looking at now [December 1] but specifically the region
known as Aries. From every corner of the sky, the Sun's
power acts differently. It is not the Sun alone that has these
effects; instead it is important that the background behind
the Sun is a certain region, such as Aries. That which the
Aries region gives to the Sun is assimilated by the Sun and
then passed on in the Sun's rays. It's quite a different matter
if the Sun sends its rays to the Earth at the beginning or at
the end of May. At the beginning of May, the full power of
Aries is still effective, but at the end of May, the power of
Taurus makes itself known. At this point the influence is one
that no longer can exert itself on plants in the same way; its
effect is rather one that causes the plants to harden and dry
out, and, as a result, the plants no longer have the proper
power to create nectar [table VI, middle].
- ■
- .. ■5:1:::::
%, ..
So there is, after all, something to these old farmers' say¬
ings. One ought to pay attention to them. Naturally, as I've
told you before, the proper understanding of such things has
been lost, and for this reason we have become superstitious.
This happens when you no longer can distinguish one thing
from another. Then these proverbs or adages have about
64
BEES
the same value as the one that says: If the rooster crows on
the dung heap, either the weather will change or it will
remain as it is. But this is not always the case with such say¬
ings. Some of them are based on ancient wisdom, which you
will need to delve into. The farmers who followed these say¬
ings sometimes did very well for themselves in adhering to
them. You see, a deeper understanding can lead us back to
using such sayings, albeit with a new understanding of their
significance.
We'll continue next Wednesday.
Lecture Four
Dornach, December 5, 1923
Mr. Erbsmehl states that beekeepers today are primarily concerned
with the profits gained from beekeeping. Every effort is directed
toward this materialistic goal. In the Swiss Apiculture Newspa¬
per, no. 10, October 1923, you will find the following statement:
"Honey is, for the most part, a luxury item, and those who purchase
it can afford to pay a good price for it. " Later on, in the same news¬
paper, an example is given of a certain Mr. Baldensberger who
traveled throughout Spain and, on one occasion, found a group of
very healthy children assembled about a beekeeper. He asked the bee¬
keeper, "Whom do you sell your honey to?" The beekeeper immediately
replied, "These are my customers." Here in the heart of Europe the
goal is to get as much out of the honey as possible. An employer's
main interest is to see how much labor can be gotten out of the
employees. The same applies also to the bees.
Another question is posed as to whether there might be any truth to
the opinion expressed by some that moonlight has a certain influence
on the formation of nectar in flowers (no. 11 of the same newspaper).
Mr. Mutter responds that Mr. Erbsmehl can easily see from read¬
ing the apicultural newspaper that it can only be a beekeeper with a
small number of hives who doesn't sell any honey at all. Mr. Erb¬
smehl simply doesn't know yet how much is presently involved in a
1. Ph. T. Baldensberger, awell-known beekeeper, in Bulletin de IApiculture des
Alpes Martimes.
66
BEES
Lecture Four • 67
beekeeping operation and that a certain amount of bookkeeping is
necessary. If you don't plan financially for some profit in this ven¬
ture, just as you would in any other enterprise, then you'd simply
have to give up beekeeping. The large quantity of honey available
commercially would not be there if you didn 't obtain honey that was
produced by artificial breeding in this way. Sometimes the yield is
only one to two kilos of honey; under certain conditions it even con¬
tains some fir tree honey, which you have to remove if you want to
keep the bee colonies healthy. That's all.
After that there may be a bad year, and you won't have enough to
last until April or May. You 7 1 need to use artificial feeding — sugar,
chamomile tea, thyme, and some salt—in order to get the bee colonies
through a difficult period so as to maintain them in a state of con¬
tinuous vitality. In a modern beekeeping operation, you need to keep
a record of how much time the beekeeper has worked, five- and-one-
half hours at the going rate of 1 or 1.5 Swiss francs. Then the honey
would have to be sold at a price of 7 Swiss francs. You can also
count on losses; you may lose the framework for the honeycomb and
then have to replace something. The whole thing has to turn a profit.
If a beekeeper were only to stick to the old way of doing things, then
the beekeeper wouldn 't make any progress. Mr. Erbsmehl can do that
with his small operation, but if you have a large number of hives,
then you have to sit down and figure out that you have already
incurred a deficit when you ask 6 Swiss francs. The American bee¬
keepers do it the same way.
Mr. Muller cannot comprehend that the bee colonies may die out
in eighty or one hundred years. He simply can't understand how Dr.
Steiner can say that, in fifty or one hundred years, artificial breeding
can cause serious problems for the bee colonies to which it has been
applied.
In regard to the second point about announcing the death of the
beekeeper to the bees, he already mentioned that the greatest portion of
the hives died out when the beekeeper who tended them died. Just how
this can happen, he sim,ply can't comprehend.
About the adulterated or artificially made honey in hotels, he
wants to add that first-class hotels are, in many instances, selling
American honey. If you feed European bees this honey, which is, after
all, a bee product, they die.
Then there is this matter about the bees' stinging: Perspiration is
about the worst thing for bees, and if you hear whistling, rattling, or
any strident sound, it is advisable to remain standing and not move.
And then with reference to the question that asks about the effect
of a bee sting on a human being, he relates one example that he knew
about personally. A strong man was stung by a bee. He cried out,
"Hold me, I've been stung by a bee!" He was extraordinarily sensi¬
tive (allergic) to bee stings. He also had heart disease. He suggests
that Dr. Steiner could explain how a bee sling can pose such a great
danger to certain human beings. There is, for example, a saying: If
a horse is stung three times by hornets, the horse will die. Some time
ago, in one of his hives, he says he found a hornets' nest. He simply
removed the brood. The hornets were so cowardly that they didn't
sling in the dark. Outside they probably would have done so.
Dr. Steiner: Let's investigate, so that we can discuss this matter
rationally, how bees can recognize the beekeeper who tends
them. You passed judgment on this matter based on your
normal understanding of such things, and this is completely
justified. But now I want to tell you something. Imagine that
you have a friend with whom you became acquainted in, let's
say, 1915 [table VII, page 164]. This friend remains here in
Europe, and you go to America and return again in 1925.
Your friend, let's assume, lives in Arlesheim, where you hap¬
pen to see him and recognize him and remember who he is.
But what has happened meanwhile? I've already explained
ihis to you in detail before on another occasion. All the
material substances in the human body are completely
2. Fichtenhonig ( Waldhonig) is honey from the honey-dew that aphids secrete.
68
BEES
Lecture Four • 69
renewed or replaced in a period of seven or eight years. The
old substances, such as cells, are completely exchanged for
new ones. Nothing of that which once was there is there
later. So you can say that your friend, if you see him once
again after ten years, has none of the physical substances
within himself that he once had when you saw him ten years
ago. But you recognized him nevertheless. And if you look at
him externally, he does appear to you as that same interre¬
lated mass of substances. Yes, he does appear familiar in this
way, but if you were to examine him using a sufficiently large
magnifying glass, then you would see that [table VII, upper
middle] somewhere in his head blood flows through an
artery, and when this blood is magnified to a certain point,
[table VII, upper right] it no longer looks like blood but
rather like many tiny dots that resemble small animals.
These tiny dots are constantly quivering and trembling.
When you look at this, you will see a great similarity between
it and a horde ofbees swarming about!
A human being has the appearance of a swarm of bees
when you magnify sufficiently the substances contained in
the body. Once you've gained a proper insight into all of this,
then it would have to seem incomprehensible that one
human being could recognize another after ten years,
because not a single one of these tiny moving points is still
there. His eyes now have completely new "dots." There are
new, different little animals in there, and yet a human being
will recognize another after a long separation.
It isn’t absolutely necessary for these individual tiny "ani¬
mals" and "plants" of which we consist to be responsible for
doing something that makes it possible for us to recognize
each other again after a long separation, but it is rather due
to the fact that we recognize the whole person. Likewise, the
beehive isn’t simply what you would call a collection of an
undetermined number ofbees, but rather a complete whole.
a complete being. That which you can recognize again, or
not recognize again, is the entire beehive.
Ifyou could zoom out rather than zoom in, you could see
all these bees at once and connect them in what would
resemble a human muscle. With bees, this is the very thing
you must pay attention to: that the object of our concern has
nothing to do with the individual bees but rather with that
which absolutely belongs together to make up the whole.
This is something that a simple understanding of the matter
can’t fathom. In this case you must be able to view the whole
as it must really be. That is why we can learn so much from a
beehive or things like it, because a beehive completely con¬
tradicts the thoughts we may form about it. Our thoughts
keep trying to tell us that the explanation must be different.
However, in a beehive the most wonderful things happen. It
isn't the way our common understanding of the matter tells
us. So, what happens when the change brought about by the
death of the beekeeper affects the beehive in a certain way,
this can't be denied. It simply happens this way, experience
tells us. Someone who is not restricted to one beekeeping
operation but sees many such operations is able to observe
this as a fact.
I can tell you, for example, that as a boy I had numerous
personal experiences relating to beekeeping, and at that
time my interest in this matter was extremely great, not
because of any connection beekeeping had to economic or
commercial questions that interested me after I grew up but
rather because honey was prohibitively expensive at that
time, so that my parents, who were poor, could never afford
to buy any. Whatever honey we had came from our neigh¬
bors, usually for Christmas, but we received so much
throughout the winter that we had enough honey for the
entire year. At that time I wasn’t interested in the economic
question regarding honey, since I ate almost exclusively
70
BEES
Lecture Four
71
honey that had been given as a present. How can this be?
Nowadays, under the same conditions, you would not so eas¬
ily receive honey as present. But back then, in the surround¬
ing area where my parents lived, the beekeepers were
primarily farmers who had made beekeeping part of the
entire agricultural operation.
This is quite a different situation compared to an individ¬
ual purchasing whatever a beekeeping operation requires,
and add to this the fact that such a person usually is a salaried
worker who has to live entirely from hourly wages. In an agri¬
cultural operation, beekeeping is carried on in such a way
that you don't even notice it. Hardly any consideration is
even given to the length of time spent in this activity, because
it is something that the farmer somehow manages to find
time to do. In farming there is always something that is left
over to do. The time spent on such ajob may be saved else¬
where, or perhaps a certain task, for some reason, is sched¬
uled for a different time, thereby freeing one up to do
something else. In any case, the hives were tended some¬
where in between other chores back then, and the people
knew that honey was something so valuable you couldn't
even pay for it. And this, in a certain sense, is absolutely right,
because, under the present economic conditions, everything
you can buy suffers from an improper relationship of price as
related to the actual work done. Today we really ought not to
be discussing these false price relationships, because such a
discussion must really be placed upon a much broader basis
of political economy. You'll not gain much of an insight ifyou
treat honey asjust another item on a grocery list rather than
a luxury item like coffee, tea, or chocolate. If the organiza¬
tion of a society were a healthy one, then, without a doubt, a
proper price for honey would be established.
It is just because we are not living under healthy social
conditions that all the questions we raise will be tainted by
the situation we are part of. You see, here is the situation
today when you visit large farms. Yes, gentlemen, what the
agricultural manager—usually this person is not a farmer, but
an accountant-type manager—says to you about the quantity
of milk obtained from cows is horrible. The manager gets so
many liters of milk a day from a single cow. Anyone who
really understands the nature of a cow knows that it is impos¬
sible that you can get this much milk from a cow. But they
manage somehow to get this amount. As far as I know, some
of them have pushed this amount to be double that which a
cow can normally give. This brings in a good profit for the
farm naturally. And to top it off, you can't even say that you
would be able to notice that the milk doesn't have the same
nutritional value as the milk that is produced under natural
conditions. You can't even prove that something really bad
has happened to it.
But let me give you the following example. Over the past
few years, we have done many experiments with a medication
used to treat hoof-and-mouth disease in cattle. 3 These exper¬
iments were conducted on large farms as well as small ones,
where the milk production for each cow was lower. You could
find out all sorts of things because you had to try out the
medication. The experiments were not completed because,
officially, the people didn't want to comply with all aspects
and because today so many concessions have to be made. But
the medication produced some extraordinary results. In a
somewhat changed form it is used as a medication to treat
canine distemper.
When you do these experiments, you'll discover the fol¬
lowing. Calves born to cows that are forced to produce too
much milk are considerably weaker. You can observe this in
3. Regarding this remedy, see Joseph Werr's Animal Husbandry and Animal
Medicine in the Framework of Bio-Dynamic Agriculture, Stuttgart, 1953.
72
BEES
Lecture Four • 73
the effect the medication has on the calf. The effectiveness or
lack of effectiveness is greatly magnified. Eventually the calf
grows up, if it doesn’t die of the disease. But a calf whose
mother has been overfed in order to force it to give more
milk is a much weaker calf than one whose mother was not
forced to produce as much milk. You can observe this in the
first, second, third, and fourth generations. Then the calf
gets to be so small that you hardly notice it. This type of
forced milk production has not been in existence for very
long, but I know one thing very well, that if people continue
along this path, if a single cow is made to deliver over thirty
liters of milk a day, if they continue to mistreat these animals
this way, then, after some time, dairy farming may come to a
bitter end. There's nothing that can be done about that.
Well, to be sure, things are naturally not quite so bad with
the artificial feeding and breeding of bees. This is mainly so
because the bee is an animal that always knows how to help
itself, since it is much closer to nature than a cow, which
really can't help itself very much when it is raised and treated
in this way. And this ability to help itself out of difficult situa¬
tions is a truly wonderful thing about a beehive. Now we’re
getting to the point that Mr. Miiller made about the hornets
he sometimes finds inside his hives, hornets that don't sting
him, whereas any other time a person meets up with a hor¬
net, terrible things can happen.
I also want to tell you something else. I don’t know if you've
had this experience yourself—those of you who are beekeep¬
ers will know about this—but it can happen that you find
yourself in a situation that forces you to empty out the entire
hive. Well, once I looked into such an empty hive and saw
something rather strange there. It looked like a tuber [draws
on blackboard, see table VII, lower right]. No one really knew
what it was. The bees seemed to have made this tuber for no
reason at all. It was made of all the usual substances that bees
are capable ofproducing. Looking like a stone, this tuber con¬
sisted of resins, waxes, and glue-like substances. Yes, gentle¬
men, I was truly curious about what was going on in there,
and when I took the tuber apart—lo and behold, a dead
mouse was inside!
This mouse had gotten into the hive and died there, and
then imagine how terrible the stench of the rotting corpse of
the mouse must have been for the bees! In this very extraor¬
dinary case, the entire hive had the instinct to surround this
dead mouse with a shell. When we took apart the surround¬
ing shell, there was really a terrible smell that had remained
inside it until that moment. As you can see, in the whole hive
there was not only an instinct to build cells, and to feed the
young, but also an instinct to do something when an event so
unusual happens, like a mouse entering a hive. Since they
were unable to remove the mouse from the hive, they helped
themselves by creating a shell around it. I've heard from
other beekeepers about snails and slugs that managed to get
into the hive and were encrusted there. Alive within the hive
are not only the usual instincts but also instincts that help to
heal. These are particularly effective.
Well, if a hornets' nest is inside the hive, then the bees do
not create such a solid structure, but they continually sur¬
round this nest with a secretion of their poison, and for this
reason the hornets lose the energy, the power even to
attempt to escape. As with the dead mouse, which no longer
creates a stench in all directions, the hornet, even though it
hasn't been encrusted in a shell, lives continually in the poi¬
sonous vapors with which the bees surround themselves so
that the hornet becomes weak and can do them no harm. In
this way the hornet eventually loses its power and energy, and
it can no longer defend itself ifyou approach it.
You will get on well with bees only if you go beyond the
normal, basic understanding of things and actually begin to
74
BEES
Lecture Four
75
follow matters with an inner eye. The picture of things you
get in this way is indeed wonderful. Using this type of insight,
you'll have to say that a beehive is a total entity. You must try
to understand it in its totality. And with such an entity the
potential damage is not at all noticeable right away.
Whoever knows human beings well, knows, for instance,
that one sixty-five- or sixty-six-year-old individual still might
have a rather fresh appearance, but another may not be as
healthy in appearance because the second one suffers from
hardening of the arteries or something like that. To observe
this fact and to make a connection between what happened
in childhood and later adulthood is extremely interesting.
You can, for example, give a child milk that comes from cows
that derive too much of their nourishment from plants grow¬
ing in a soil with a high lime content. In this way the child
assimilates, through the cow's milk it drinks, some of the cal¬
cium present in the calcareous soil. This calcium intake prob¬
ably will not manifest itself immediately. Along comes a
medical doctor of the modern-day sort and shows you one
such child who was raised on milk from a cow that had grazed
on land with a predominant lime content and another child
who had received only mother's milk, and such a doctor says,
"It doesn't make any difference which type of milk the child
gets." But it turns out that the child raised on mother's milk
is still fresh in appearance at an age of sixty-five or sixty-six,
and the other, raised on cow's milk, has suffered from calcifi¬
cation at the same age.
Such a thing happens because a human being is a complete
entity, and whatever is effective at a given time may still have
aftereffects at a much later time. Something might be quite
healthy at one time, but it will still show aftereffects later. And
this is just what I'm trying to say. There is no way, based on the
current situation with the artificial methods used in feeding
and breeding bees, to predict what the significance of these
procedures will mean for the future fifty or sixty years, or even
a century from now. The fact that someone will say, "I don’t
understand how things like this would be any different in fifty,
sixty, or one hundred years from now" certainly is understand¬
able. This inability to understand, or lack of desire to gain a
deeper insight—this is just what I observed once on a large
farm. You can rest assured, they really discouraged me in a
very friendly manner when I began to talk about reducing the
amount of milk taken from each cow. Dairy farming will suffer
much faster; it will probably approach a ruinous state in a
quarter of a century.
Today it is impossible to object in any way to the artificial
methods applied in beekeeping. This is because we live in
social conditions that do not allow anything else to be done.
Nevertheless, it is important to gain this insight—that it is
one matter if you let nature take its course and only help to
steer it in the right direction when necessary, but it is entirely
another matter if you apply artificial methods to speed things
along. But I really don't want to take a strong position against
what Mr. Muller has stated. It is quite correct that we can’t
determine these matters today; it will have to be delayed until
a later time. Let's talk to each other again in one hundred
years, Mr. Muller; then we’ll see what kind of opinion you'll
have at that point. This is something that can't be decided
today.
Mr. Erbsmehl indicates once again that with beekeepers today, every¬
thing they do is based upon profit.
Dr. Steiner: The more you find that somebody is involved in
beekeeping as a sideline, the more such a person will have
the same opinion that the Spaniard you mentioned had.
Well, today this will probably no longer be a common situa¬
tion, but fifty or sixty years ago a farmer did not regard with
76 • BEES
Lecture Four
77
any particular value what was collected from the bees. It was
always something the farmer didn't count on. The honey was
given away for free, or if it was actually sold, the farmer
would put the money in the children’s piggy banks or some¬
thing like that. Today conditions have become quite differ¬
ent from what they once were. How could you imagine that
someone whose wages are based upon working by the hour
or who talks about circumstances in terms of time being
money would not be primarily interested in profit? Such
individuals arrive at this attitude through all the conditions
under which they live. It’s true, is it not, that these days there
are hobby beekeepers who must interrupt their salaried
work and take a vacation without pay in order to conduct
their beekeeping activities properly? Then they sit down and
calculate into their honey price the money they lost from
their normal salaried position.
Just imagine—beekeeping is so old that no one can provide
any physical proof of the way it was prior to the domestication
of bees. For the most part, people know only about our bees,
the European honeybee; their only acquaintance is with the
domesticated bee. In natural history textbooks you can even
find the type of bee found throughout Europe referred to as
the common house-bee. It is truly remarkable that people know
only of the domesticated bee and have no idea what conditions
were like when these bees were found in a wild, natural state,
entirely exposed to the forces of nature. We can assume that
the domestication of bees reaches very far back into history. As
you begin to discuss such ancient matters, consider that the
prices of things were very different from those that prevail
today. Just remember that people today work in jobs that you
can trace back to the time when they originated. But here you
4. This term was first used by Alfred Brehm in Brehm 's Illustrated Animal Life,
vol. 3, Leipzig, 1875, p. 474.
have two types of price formation. With bees this goes back to
very ancient antiquity. There are no ancient recorded prices to
compare with today's prices, as in the metal and lumber indus¬
tries, which have price lists going back a number of decades.
Only when healthy social conditions once again prevail will the
proper price of honey arise in accordance with the new and
different conditions existing at that future time.
Most people simply have no idea nor can they imagine
how difficult it is to discuss price formation or how prices are
fixed. In order to talk about these matters, you need a very
thorough understanding of the actual conditions that exist.
Recently I had an interesting experience that I want to tell
you about, because it may cause you to wonder about price
formation. A university professor I know wrote a book about
political economy. He gave me a copy of the book while I was
on a lecture tour. I stayed in one place for two or three days
and had time to talk to him, and I told him that I would look
at the book but, naturally, not read it entirely. Well, I looked
at the book and told him the following: "I've noticed that you
have included an index, something that normally repels me,
but in this case I found it very helpful. This index contains, of
course, a list of subjects you've discussed in the book. Well, I
immediately look up the word price and, would you believe it,
there was nothing at all on that subject."
How can this educated man write a book on political econ¬
omy and not include anything in it on the subject of price?
Yes, gentlemen, this is very typical. Today, political econo¬
mists are not even capable of seeing the most important
problem in political economy. They simply omit the problem
of price formation. It is very important, but people don't
seem to recognize it. When a thing like this happens, it
becomes even more apparent that something is wrong. In
5. Reference could not be determined.
78
BEES
Lecture Four • 79
this case you will simply have to hope that little by little peo¬
ple will come to the conclusion that healthier social condi¬
tions must be initiated. Then, I think, there will not be so
much concentration on the profit motive, the bottom line.
These are concepts that are connected with the idea of com¬
petition; it may not necessarily be the competition between
those who make similar products but rather between those
who produce different products.
If you were to look back into my youth and examine bee¬
keeping practices in the region where I lived, where only
farmers tended bees—well, those farmers were rather corpu¬
lent. I can’t even say that anyone here is as fat as those farm¬
ers were. The price of honey was of such a nature that no one
would have even considered beekeeping as a sole occupa¬
tion, in order to sell honey for money. If the beekeeper had
placed himself next to the farmer, it would have looked like
this [drawing below, see also table VII, middle]—this would
be the farmer and that the beekeeper.
i V.
Yi If
I *
ii
13
■s.fe sf
It simply wouldn’t have worked out! The farmer wouldn’t
have had to include the cost of beekeeping in his expenses,
whereas the beekeeper would have. This situation would have
been intolerable. This is why it is so important to understand
political economy and include it in your considerations when
you start talking about making a profit.
Now I'd like to answer a few questions about the subjects
we havejust discussed.
Someone says that there are. some people who simply can't tolerate any
honey at all. They immediately suffer from heartburn and indiges¬
tion. Is there any medication that might control this negative effect of
honey?
Dr. Steiner: People of the type that can’t tolerate any honey
are usually those who tend toward getting sclerosis, an incli¬
nation toward hardening throughout the entire body, which
causes the body's metabolic rate to be quite slow. This is why
they can’t tolerate honey, the primary effect of which is to
increase the metabolic rate. Within their bodies a split in
their metabolism occurs when their bodies want an abnor¬
mally slow metabolism and the honey makes it faster. As a
result, they get indigestion, which manifests itself in a num¬
ber of different ways. Every person should be able to enjoy
eating some honey, by that I mean not only to enjoy the
honey but to have the inner ability to digest it properly. Ifyou
have before you people who can’t tolerate honey, you should,
above all, determine the causes or origins of these condi¬
tions. You shouldn’t be thinking of finding a general cure or
a single medicinal remedy, but rather you must attempt to
determine on an individual basis how a person came to
develop such a sclerotic condition and then base the cure
upon this knowledge. The following case might serve as an
example.
Say, for instance, someone is unable to tolerate honey and
gets indigestion when attempting to eat it. You need to ask
yourself whether this person experiences indigestion when
eating honey because the individual tends toward hardening
of the arteries, veins, and blood vessels in the head, which is
called a head sclerosis. It is possible that at a certain age, such
80
BEES
Lecture Four • 81
a person will not be able to tolerate honey. In a case such as
this, the cure will be effected by giving a preparation contain¬
ing phosphorus. Then the person will begin tolerating honey,
if you can bring about a cure in this way.
But it can also happen that you'll notice that the sclerotic
condition is in the lungs. Then you'll need to use, not a
preparation containing phosphorus, but one containing sul¬
fur. This is what I wanted to say about this matter. It is impor¬
tant not to lump all these conditions together and to ask a
general question about how to treat someone who gets indi¬
gestion from honey but rather to say to yourself that if some¬
one can't tolerate honey at a given age, it is evidence of
illness. A healthy person can tolerate honey without any
problems. If someone doesn't tolerate it, that person is ill,
and you must seek the nature of the illness and cure it. Not
to be able to tolerate honey isn't as serious as not being able
to tolerate sugar, such as in the condition of diabetes mettitus.
This type of diabetic condition is, naturally, much more seri¬
ous than not being able to tolerate honey. A diabetic person
is truly ill, and you need to treat this illness.
Someone asks, "Just like most insects, bees fly out of the darkness
toward the light of a candle lamp. Some experienced beekeepers have
told me repeatedly that bees react much less toward electric light. If you
approach bees with a flashlight, they remain very calm, as if they
don't even see this light. Only after some time has passed do they
become restless. Petroleum lamps and candlelight attract them faster
and also in greater numbers. Is there an explanation for this behav¬
ior•?"
Mr. Miiller states that he has obsen’ed the same reactions.
Dr. Steiner: Well, gentlemen, you may have observed in the
first Goetheanum, before it was destroyed by fire that the
insides of the domes were painted in various colors. These
colors were made from pure, natural plant substances. As a
result, these same colors, had they been exposed to sunlight
shining in, would have faded and become pale after a certain
period of time, perhaps months or even years. Then you
would not have seen what had been painted there. If you had
exposed them to electric light, they would have remained. So
the painters painted with this in mind.
You can also see that sunlight, which has the ability to bring
about chemical changes—and you said that the bee notices
this—has a very different effect than electric light does. Electric
light has much more of a hardening effect on all substances, it
doesn't dissolve or break apart substances as sunlight does.
Because of this, a bee experiences a very slight rigidity, or paral¬
ysis, when exposed to electric light, a reaction it does not have
in sunlight. Of course, it quickly recovers from this condition.
That's what I wanted to say about that.
Someone asks, "With regard to the influence that the signs of the
zodiac can have on the production of honey, in some older, tradi¬
tional farmiiig communities, the fanners still pay close attention to
this, for instance, when they sow the seed, they do so when the moon is
in Gemini and so on. Are they superficially following the characteris¬
tics of the, signs of the zodiac, or is there something else that might be
meaningful'?"
Dr. Steiner: Things of this type are naturally never properly
examined in a scientific manner these days, even though it is
possible to do so. I've already indicated to you what has an
influence on the beehive. A bee, and specifically the queen, is
to a certain degree a "sun" animal. As a result, the sun, as it
moves through the zodiac, has the greatest influence upon
bees. The changes the sun undergoes as it moves through
each sign are transmitted to the bee. But the bees are, natu¬
rally, also dependent on that which they find in plants. And
82 • BEES
this is where there is a connection between the farmers' sow¬
ing of the seed under a certain sign of the zodiac and the
bees' finding of substances the plants have prepared for
them. Such things aren't simply pulled out of nowhere; how¬
ever, the way they are normally presented is very amateurish
and misleading. These matters must be properly examined in
a scientific manner so that they will have a firm foundation.
With that we've used up the time allotted to us today.
Whatever still remains to be discussed, we'll take up again
next Saturday at nine o'clock. 6 I can imagine that many of
you will still have questions to bring up at that time. Beekeep¬
ing is such a beautiful and useful endeavor that there is no
way that one can ask too many questions about it. Ask ques¬
tions among yourselves, and ask Mr. Miiller and me. I think
we'll be able to find a way to build a bridge between the dif¬
fering opinions. We don't have to resort immediately to sting¬
ing the way bees do; we can settle these differences in a
gentle and friendly atmosphere. But we shouldn't hold back
with our questions either.
6. This announced lecture actually took place on Monday, December 10,
1923.
• Lecture Five
Dornach, December 10, 1923
Mr, Dollinger asks about honeycombs. There are people who eat the
wax of the honeycomb along with the honey. Long ago innkeepers
sometimes used to put honeycombs on the table along with the food. He
would like to know if there are any detrimental effects that might arise
from eating the entire honeycomb. With regard to the diseases that can
afflict bees, he thinks that these diseases were not as virulent as they
are today, at a time when a larger quantity of honey is taken from the
bees and artificial methods are used for feeding and breeding bees.
Mr. Miiller says that eating honeycombs is a matter of personal
preference. Of course, they need to be of the completely natural type
and not those that are artificially constructed. With regard to the dis¬
eases that afflict bees, he does not think they arise from modern meth¬
ods used in working with bees and extracting larger amounts of
honey. It is more likely that such diseases simply were not noted as
carefully. Also, there were not as many hives with very small popula¬
tions, so people did not pay as much attention to these things. There
is one bee disease that came into Switzerland from England, a disease
that had never been here before.
Mr. Erbsmehl thinks that a possible cause might be the use of arti¬
ficial, chemical fertilizers. Flowers show the negative effects that they
can cause.
Dr. Steiner: With regard to both of the things you just men-
lioned, I might add another point. It's very true that eating
1 he wax comb along with the honey is a type of predilection
84
BEES
Lecture Five
85
or penchant that some people have. With such things, it is
naturally important to decide how well they can digest it. But
that is a question that would have to be answered medically. It
would be possible to say something meaningful about this
question only if you could observe the people who eat both
the honey and the wax comb and then examine their health.
I admit that I'm acquainted with various people who do this,
but they usually spit out the wax portion after they have
extracted the honey in their mouths. But not having
observed people who have ingested larger quantities of wax
along with the honey, I simply have nothing to report.
There is one thing I suppose you could say. Human
beings can tolerate and digest various things, and not every¬
one the same things. There may be people who, by ingesting
beeswax, could develop an unpleasant stomach illness; they,
of course, should be advised not to eat the wax. There may
be others who would have no problem digesting the wax and
who pass the indigestible portions in the stool. In the case of
the latter individuals, it would be possible to say that because
they also ingest the wax, thereby leaving the honey in con¬
tact with the wax as long as possible as it makes its way
through the digestive tract, they digest the honey mainly in
the intestines, whereas the honey otherwise, under normal
conditions, continues being digested in the lymph ducts and
so on after it has left the intestines. Well, you could say that
this all depends on what state of health the individual is in.
There are those who digest more in the intestinal region and
others who do it more in the lymph ducts. You won't be able
to say simply that one method is good and the other bad;
everything must be adjusted to fit the individual human
being. You could say something for certain only if you had
one group of individuals eat honey with the comb and
another honey without it and then determine the relation¬
ship between these two groups.
With reference to the diseases that afflict bees, for that
matter even diseases in general, you will need to consider
what Mr. Miiller has said. With humans also it is true that peo¬
ple did not pay any attention at all to certain things, but now
they study these things very carefully and pay careful atten¬
tion to them.
Another essential element also plays a role in this matter.
Long ago, a beekeeper did many things based purely on
instinct, without really knowing why. Today humankind has
lost these instincts, and eveiybody wants to know the reasons
for every little thing. It'sjust for this reason that it's necessary
to investigate every matter very thoroughly, and our present-
day method of accumulating knowledge scientifically is usu¬
ally not capable of doing such a thing. The beekeeper in the
past had a very strong instinct to treat the bees in a very, if I
may say so, personal and proper manner. Consider, for
instance, the difference in providing housing for the bees. In
earlier days skeps were provided, but now it is boxes. These
boxes are made of wood. Wood is a very different material
from that which the "basket"-beehives were made of—plaited
straw or similar materials. In addition, this straw, by its
nature, attracted from the air very different substances than
wood does. So there we already see a difference in the way
beekeepers externally treat bees.
If I could summarize for you all the things a beekeeper did
in the past, then I would say that there was a strong instinct
for the ways things were done. Sometimes the beekeepers did
not know at all why they did things in a certain way, but they
would select a place for the hives where the wind would reach
them from this or that side, or something similar to that.
Today these placements are made primarily from practical
considerations, such as whether there is room enough for all
the hives. Some thought is given to climatic conditions, but
not as strongly as in former times.
86
BEES
Lecture Five
87
Mr. Miiller says that he still pays considerable attention to these
things. He has his apiary on a ridge of hills where there is almost no
north wind and not much east wind, and other considerations like
that.
Dr. Steiner: Wood is less sensitive to such external elements
compared with straw. Don't misunderstand me. I'm not a
propagandist for the old-fashioned straw beehives, but these
differences exist and also have a strong effect on things, such
as the bee, when it accomplishes through inner work all the
necessary chemical transformations. In the process of collect¬
ing nectar and converting it into honey, the bee carries out a
tremendous task within its body. This is truly a gigantic task
that the bee needs to complete, and how does it do this? It
comes about because of the relationship between two types of
juices in the bee: gastric and blood. If you examine the con¬
tents of a bee, you'll see the white gastricjuice and the some¬
what reddish blood juice. These are the two essential
components that make up a bee; all the other parts arise out
of the effects created by these twojuices.
What's really important is that there is a very specific rela¬
tionship between the gastricjuice and the bloodjuice. There
is a significant difference between them. The gastricjuice is
sour; it is what chemists call acetous. The bloodjuice is what
chemists call alkaline, which means that it is not acetous nor is
it an acid, but it can only be acidified. If the gastric juice
doesn't have sufficient acid content, then a process takes
place within the bee, a process that disturbs its inner organ¬
ism as honey is being made. The bloodjuice is strengthened
only when the corresponding and very necessary conditions
of climate, light, warmth, and so forth are present.
If you want to gain control over such bee diseases as those
that have appeared recently, it will depend in large part on
bringing about the appropriate effect by regulating and
attaining the properly balanced relationship between the
bee's gastric and blood juices. And because beekeeping is
no longer conducted on such a simple basis as it once was
long ago, you won't be able to effect a change through cli¬
matic and warmth conditions, since they don't affect the
newer beehives. All that is left, then, is to do research to
determine what might have the greatest effect on the bee's
blood juice. And probably future beekeepers will always
need to monitor their bees and make certain that the suit¬
able preparation of the bees' blood juices is constantly tak¬
ing place. In order to do this, it is important to keep the
following point in mind.
It is true, isn't it, that there are years when bees are forced
to collect almost all their honey nectar from trees? During
such years, the constitution of the bees' blood is in extreme
danger; they contract diseases more easily than in other
years. For such a situation, it will be important for future bee¬
keepers to set up a very small greenhouse—it doesn't have to
be very large—in which the beekeeper will keep and tend
artificially such plants that bees love at certain times of the
year, plants that bees definitely need. In this way the bee¬
keeper will have a small bed of flowers toward which he can
send his bees, for instance, in May. The bees will seek them
out by instinct, when those specific plants that they need are
either doing very poorly in nature or are not even present
during such a period in May.
In this way, by helping nature through placing a small
nursery garden in the vicinity of the beehive, you will be
able to gain control over such diseases in the future. I would
recommend such methods, but they are only suggestions. I
do believe they will be worthwhile, since they come from
1. What is meant is: from the sugary excretions (honey-dew) of the aphids.
See also note on p. 66.
88 • BEES
Lecture Five
89
knowledge about the nature of bees. A beekeeper will see
good results if these methods are employed. This is the way
to fight these diseases, but you'll have to take into account
all the relationships that exist in order to proceed in a prac¬
tical manner.
This is not just my opinion but rather the result of studying
the nature of bees. Someone ought to try to set up an experi¬
ment with greenhouse plants that thrive at a certain time of
year when in nature they are withering or dying off, and prob¬
ably the bees' health will be improved. I am convinced such
effects will come to light when researchers once again investi¬
gate these matters with a true cognizance of nature. Today it
can no longer be a question of turning back the clock of his¬
tory. Just as we don’t need to be reactionaries in political life,
likewise we don't have to be reactionaries in specialized areas.
We need to go along with progress. What is important is to pay
attention to what we do as we’re leaving the old behind, to
bring about a balance by means of something else that returns
and gives back to us what we've lost. That’s what I have to say
about this matter.
Mr. Muller states that beekeepers are already working toward provid¬
ing such artificial plantings dedicated to the purpose just discussed.
For example, some have planted yellow crocuses and other similar
plants with small, yellow blossoms, in order to make these flowers
available to the bees. Many have even planted American clover, which
can grow as high as tivo meters and has blossoms all year long. The
fanners wait until fall to harvest it, but before the han’est it is avail¬
able to the bees. That's what would be necessary.
Dr. Steiner: Yes, they're starting to do these things, but they
understand too little about the actual relationships involved.
The point that you mentioned first is a good step in the right
direction, a direction that should be continued. That which
you mentioned about American clover, with its perpetual
blossoming, is something that will eventually be abandoned
because it doesn't improve the bees’ blood juice. What
American clover does is stimulate the bees for a short time,
just as you might stimulate a human being with alcohol. The
bees get all worked up and are able to work harder for a
time. But one thing you should watch very carefully. Don’t
introduce something completely foreign to the bees, since
bees, according to their inner nature, have become accus¬
tomed to and are tied to a specific area or region. You can
see this by noting the variations in the appearance of bees
that come from different regions.
There is the middle European bee, the common house
bee already mentioned. The Italian bee has a very different
appearance; the Carniolan bee is very different from the
Italian bee. Bees are very strongly attached to the region
they belong to, and as a result you won’t be able impart any
long-term benefit by giving them nectar derived from
regions foreign to them. If you do this, they will need to
expend extra energy in converting the nectar within their
bodies, where they will experience turmoil as they attempt
to convert the nectar into a form like the form it takes in the
place the clover came from. For a few years, you might be
successful, but there will be real trouble later on. You cor¬
rectly said that we still don’t have enough data to make any
meaningful statement about this situation. But time will tell,
and beekeepers will stop doing it, or they will do what wine¬
growers once did.
The experience of the winegrowers was this. You proba¬
bly know that in the 1870s and 1880s the vine louse (phyllox¬
era) suddenly appeared and devastated the vines over large
areas of Europe. At that time I was able to occupy myself
very thoroughly with this problem because I had as a good
friend a farmer who published an agricultural newspaper
90 • BEES
Lecture Five
91
and devoted much space to this specific problem. There
were people who were contemplating why it was that Ameri¬
can grapevines had no lice and were not endangered. What
came of all this? They discovered that the means used to bat¬
tle lice on American vines wouldn't work when applied to
European vines. The result was that when they began plant¬
ing the American vines, they were successful in keeping the
American vines healthy, but the European ones still died.
Then they were forced to give up the European vines entirely
and Americanize the entire process of growing grapes. Thus
viticulture became entirely transformed and evolved into
something very different from what it once was. In many
regions it has become something very distinct in many ways.
You can't think so mechanically about it, but you should be
clear in your minds that things, by their very nature, are tied
to certain localities because they have become accustomed to
them. This must be taken into consideration. Otherwise you
can probably achieve momentary successes, but not anything
lasting.
Is there anything else you would like to ask, or are all the
silent gentlemen interested only in eating honey, but not in
engaging in much discussion about it? Perhaps one or the
other of you will think of something that you could ask! I
would still like to revisit the matter concerning the true
nature of the bee's ability to create honey and fill in a few
more details. Basically, it is truly a wonderful thing that such
small creatures exist that are capable of extracting from
2. Most probably this was Hugo Hitsehmann, 1838-1904. founder ofmodern
newspapers on forestry and agriculture in Austria. He co-founded govern¬
mental organizations on forestry and agriculture and, after 1870, owned the
Viennese Agricultural Newspaper. In 1883 he established the Austrian Forestry
and Hunting Newspaper: in 1884 the General Wine Newspaper: in 1867 the Prac¬
tical Farmer: and in 1878 the Economist. Beginning in 1879, he also published
A Farmer's Pocket Calendar and, beginning in 1882. Archive for Fanning Matters
and A Handbook for the Farmer.
blossoms, flowers, and plants that substance which they
transform into this extraordinarily healthy honey, a sub¬
stance that could play a more important role in human
nutrition than it does today. All that is necessary is that peo¬
ple gain a thorough insight into how terribly important
honey is as a food. For example, if it were possible to exert
more of an influence on the entire field of what I might call
"social" medicine, I would consider it an extremely favorable
influence if couples, during the time of their engagement,
would eat honey as a preparatory activity before having chil¬
dren. For in this way they would not have rickety children,
because there is in honey a force that can affect the repro¬
ductive power in human beings, who then, in turn, trans¬
form this honey power further so as to give the offspring a
proper bodily form. The parents'—more specifically, the
mother's—consumption of honey has a beneficial effect that
extends itself to the bony, skeletal frame of the child.
Such influences will be discovered once people investi¬
gate the deeper connections between these things. Rather
than all these useless details and vagaries that you can
encounter printed in scientific journals today, you'll find, at
some point in the future, when they know something about
these matters, such questions as "Which foods are consid¬
ered good nutrition at such and such a time in life, and
which are good at another time of life?" and so on. Yes, that
will be of tremendous use to people, because their condi¬
tion of health will be vastly improved as a result of it; more
particularly, their level of energy will increase. The one
thing you can say is that people generally do not attach very
much value to these facts, because a person who doesn't
have rickety children may, to be sure, be very happy about
it, but would not really think about it very much. It is
accepted as a matter of course without much attention
being paid to it. The only person who complains is the one
92 • BEES
Lecture Five
93
who has rickety children. Hence, I would like to say that
those very medical-social regulations that are the most use¬
ful have to wait the longest before becoming reality, because
they are trying to establish what people should consider to
be normal conditions.
But in order to understand that it is possible to bring
about a great positive effect in this direction (I do believe
that if general public interest in this matter were to arise
through following the ideas and methods indicated by
anthroposophic science, then those people who searched
for the spiritual element in the proper sense would come
upon these insights by themselves), much more is necessary
than what is being done now, when people are advised in
this way: "You should pray, because by praying this or that
will happen." You'll be able to gain insight and reach a con¬
clusion only by applying the powers of mind, intellect, soul,
heart, spirit, and imagination. This is what "looking at some¬
thing spiritually" really means. Yes, gentlemen, these things
can be properly ascertained only in this way; modern sci¬
ence is not acquainted with such an all-encompassing view¬
point. These are simple matters that you can gain knowledge
about, as, for instance, at which particular time (let's say at the
time of a couple's engagement) honey can be most useful.
As I've just indicated, it is truly something to marvel at
how the bee sucks the honey nectar commonly available in
nature, transforms it within itself, and produces honey,
which is so extraordinarily useful for human life. You'll
begin to understand how honey originates if I tell you about
the same process in a completely different form, as it is
found in the neighbors or relatives of the bees: the wasps.
However, from wasps you can't get anything similar to honey
that would be beneficial to mankind, although medicine has
found a way to make great use of another product that wasps
produce. But the way wasps work is quite different from that
of bees. Next time. I’ll also tell you about ants. But let's first
examine a specific type of wasp— Cynipidae.
There are wasps that have the unusual trait of laying their
eggsjust about anywhere—in plants, in trees, and, for exam¬
ple, in leaves or the bark of trees. There are even some that
lay them in the blossoms of trees. It would look like this
[table VTII, page 165,
upper middle]. There
is a branch and there,
let's say, an oak leaf.
The wasp, using its
ovipositor (a stinger
that is hollow inside)
deposits its egg on the
oak leaf. What hap¬
pens now? The entire leaf tissue surrounding the spot where
the wasp egg was placed undergoes a complete transforma¬
tion. The leaf would have grown very differently if the egg
had not been placed there. Let's now look at what arises at
this spot. Here the growth of the plant has been changed
completely, and around the wasp egg, sticking out of the leaf,
a gall is formed. These galls are brownish in appearance. But
how do they arise? They arise from the changed plant sub¬
stance that now surrounds the wasp egg. Normally this wasp
egg would not thrive if it were placed just anywhere. It can
thrive only if this protective substance, which the wasp steals
from the plant, is present.
The bee places its egg into the comb, and the egg becomes
a larva, the larva a pupa, and, finally, the pupa a bee, which
goes out to steal a plant substance and convert it within itself to
something else. The wasp also does this, but somewhat earlier
than the bee. The wasp, by placing the egg into the plant, takes
the substance it needs from the plant at that time. The bee,
however, waits somewhat longer than the wasp before it begins
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94 • BEES
Lecture Five
95
using the plant substance. With higher animals and humans,
the egg already has a protective covering in the mother's body.
That which the mother herself produces to protect the egg,
the wasp needs to take from the plant in this instance. The gall
is produced by the plant around the egg in the same way that
in humans the placenta, which is expelled at birth, protects the
growing embryo and fetus within the mother.
You notice how the wasp
comes together with the
plant. In areas where many
such wasps live, you will
observe that the trees are cov¬
ered completely with such
galls. This type of wasp and
this type of tree have a symbi¬
otic relationship. The wasp is
dependent on the tree and would not be able to procreate
without having the plant create the protective shell around
the egg. These galls can take on different appearances.
Some don't look like apples, but rather like hair that has
become entangled. But everywhere you will find in the cen¬
ter the wasp egg. Sometimes these galls take the form of
small shaggy nuts [table VIII, right]. This demonstrates how
wasps live together with plants. Then, when the wasp has
matured sufficiently, it drills its way out using its mandibles,
to live as an adult until it, repeating the cycle, places its egg
into another leaf. The placement of eggs always involves a
symbiotic relationship with plants.
Now you could perhaps ask, "What does this have to do
with the preparation of honey?" Gentlemen, it has a lot to do
with it, and you can learn how honey is created if you con¬
sider this matter. Once again you'll find that in folk wisdom,
3. These are the rose galls of the rose gall wasp, Rhodites rosae.
in the instinctive agricultural knowledge that has been
passed down generation by generation, just such a thing is
taken into account. You perhaps know that in the southern
regions—Greece, to be specific—figs play an important
role. There are the so-called wild figs, which are somewhat
sweet but not sweet enough for some people with a sweet
tooth. So what do these people do to bring about even
sweeter figs? Imagine that this represents a wild fig tree. This
wild fig tree is very attractive to a particular type of wasp,
which places its eggs into the fig. Imagine that this is the wild
fig tree with a fig growing on the branch, and that this fig
contains the egg the wasp has laid [table VIII, left].
The fig grower is really a rather
smart person. The grower allows the
wasps to lay their eggs in the wild fig
trees. Afterward, two such figs are
taken down at a particular point in
time when the wasp larvae have not
finished developing and still have a
long way to go before they would nor¬
mally emerge. In any case, they have
4. From Brehm's Illustrated Animal Life, p. 511, op. cit: "It is well-known that
the people of antiquity knew how to make use of the gall wasp (Cynips Psenes
Linn's, or today Blastophaga psenes) so as to obtain juicier and better-tasting
figs. Even today the Greeks take great pains to use this animal properly to
achieve caprification (Caprificusmeans "wild fig"), which improves the flavor
of wild figs that have been enhanced in this way. This animal lives in the wild
figs and achieves maturity at the end of June, when the figs are still unripe.
These animals would stay in the figs were it not for the fact that people dis¬
turb them by picking them, tying them together with a long stalk of rush,
throwing them in this form back onto a wild fig tree, all the while trying to
distribute them equally on the tree. The process of drying out and shrinking
of these wild figs causes these insects to crawl out, leave their home, and seek
out other figs as their new home for a new brood, a second, abnormal gen¬
eration. Before this second brood can achieve maturity, the figs are harvest¬
ed for their enhanced properties of more juice and sweetness, a quality
caused by the presence of the doomed insect."
96
BEES
Lecture Five
97
finished a portion of their development. What happens now?
The fie- grower takes a stalk of rush and ties together these
two figs containing the undeveloped
wasp larvae in such a way that they'll
hold together. Now this person goes to
another fig tree, which has figs that
need to be improved, and hangs on
that tree the figs tied together because
they contain the eggs that the wasp
deposited there [table VIII, middle].
What happens now?
This is what happens. The wasps
notice the change, because the figs torn
off the first tree begin drying up, since
they're no longer directly attached to the fig tree. The figs dry
up because they don't receive any more sap from the tree. Nat¬
urally, the not yet fully developed wasp senses inwardly what is
happening. Even the undeveloped egg can sense this. The
result is that the wasp speeds up tremendously the time of its
emergence. For this reason the grower begins this procedure
in spring. First the wasp is allowed to lay its eggs. Suddenly,
toward the month of May, the two figs are taken down to go
through this transfer procedure. "Oh my!" the insect inside
the fig thinks, "now I must really hurry. It is already time for
the fig to begin drying out." The animal greatly accelerates its
inner processes, and it emerges much earlier than it normally
would. Had the fig remained attached to the tree, the wasp
would have come out at the end of the summer. But now it has
to emerge in early summer, and as a result of coming out this
early it is forced into creating a second brood. It lays a second
set of eggs during the summer, while it normally would have
waited until the following spring to do so.
To lay this second set of eggs, the wasp goes over to the
other figs growing on the same tree, the ones that the grower
hopes to improve. It places its eggs into them, eggs that don't
achieve maturity and develop only to a certain degree. What
happens as a result? The figs containing the second brood
become twice as sweet as the other wild figs. This is what is
called the enrichment or improvement of figs, because they
become twice as sweet.
What has happened here? The wasps, although related to
bees, are in comparison very different because, in the form of
an egg, they have already taken from the plant what potentially
can become honey. If you, in such a clever fashion as the fig
grower, were to tie together, using a stalk of rush, two of your
wild figs containing wasp eggs and swing them up into the tree
so that they hang up there, and if in this way you caused them
to once again weave into the plant what they have absorbed
from another plant, then you would be able to cause the wasp
to inject this honey as a form of added sweetness into these
now improved figs. The wasp injects this extra sweetness into
the improved figs by thinly distributing the honey within them.
This happens in a roundabout way that nature provides.
You can see that we have not taken anything out of nature
but rather have allowed the true nature of honey to remain
what it really is. A wasp is unable to prepare honey the same
way that a bee does; the organization of this insect isn't even
suited for that. But if you force the wasp to take this detour,
it can transfer, during its reproductive cycle, to one plant the
sweetness of the honey it has extracted from another plant.
It thus makes this second, improved fig sweet, and you'll
find in it a kind of honey-like substance. With this example
we have come upon something very noteworthy. It becomes
evident that these wasps have a body incapable of extracting
from nature a nectar-like substance and converting it within
themselves into honey. But using natural processes, they can
make possible a certain type of honey creation involving the
transfer of something from one fig to another.
98
BEES
Lecture Five
99
The bee is a creature that has developed its wasp-like
body to such an extent that it can carry on independently,
away from the tree, the process that the wasp can carry on
only in the tree itself. We need to realize that the bee is an
insect that maintains within itself the power that the wasp
has only as long as it is very young, that is, in the egg, larva,
or pupa stage. The wasp loses the power to produce honey
after it matures, but the bee maintains it even as an adult.
Just consider, gentlemen, what it means when a person can
look out into all of nature and say that in plants you can find
honey, this substance that tends toward being a sugary sweet
substance. It's just simply in there somehow. But you can
make it appear, if only you follow the right paths. And you
can do so by lending support to already existing natural pro¬
cesses, such as causing the wasp to move at the proper time
to another tree, the fruits of which you wish to make sweeter.
Up here in our area you can't do things such as this any¬
more; especially now, in our present day and age, these things
are no longer possible to achieve. But there once was a time in
the development of the Earth when there was the possibility
of taking wasps, as we still do today and others did even two
thousand years ago, and using them in such a way as the
clever wild fig grower does. By forcing a second brood in the
same year and allowing them to emerge prematurely, the pos¬
sibility existed for allowing wasps to emerge and to deposit
their eggs into the mature figs that had already been picked;
by doing this little by little for a long time, growers once suc¬
ceeded in breeding wasps into bees. A bee is an animal that
was bred from wasps a very long time ago. Today you can still
see in animal activity, in the activity of wasps specifically, how
the preparation or creation of honey existed in nature itself
before the existence ofbees.
And from this example you can also determine what the
facts may be about bees putting their honey into combs in a
very definite manner. The comb consists mainly of a wax sub¬
stance. Note also that this wax substance isn't necessary just as
a place for the honey to be deposited. It is necessary for the
bee to secrete the wax. But it's also the case that a bee can pre¬
pare honey only if its whole body is functioning properly.
The second fig tree, in which the sweetness arises by itself,
also has a richer wax content than the original wild fig tree.
This increased wax content is one of the most important dif¬
ferences between the improved fig tree and the wild one.
Nature, all by itself, creates this additional wax. It is this
improved, sweetened fig, growing and thriving on a tree, that
makes itself, to a certain degree, waxier than it was before.
Here you can find the primitive prototype that prefigures
what is later found in bee culture.
If you want to examine these facts in greater detail, you can
take a cut through a stem from the improved tree, and what
you'll find, strangely enough, when you look carefully, are
markings that look like wax cells [table VIII, lower right]. Out
of the wax that accumu¬
lates inside the stem,
growths such as these,
specifically a type of bee
t ' y cell, begin to form. The
\ ‘ " V J ' ' improved fig becomes
''' richer in wax content,
and inside the stem the
wax organizes itself into
something resembling a cell form. You may come to the fol¬
lowing conclusion. If we examine this process for improving
figs, what we have is a natural, but primitive method for pro¬
ducing honey, the only difference being that the honey
remains within the fig.
Th e bee places, if I may express it this way, before the
public eye that which remains hidden within nature in the
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ioo • BEES
Lecture Five
101
case of the improved fig. With the help of the wasp, nature is
able to do the same in this way. The wax is pushed up into
the fig, the wax that would otherwise have remained in the
stem and created cells through natural formation, cells that
are not massive or very obvious but are simply hinted at and
disappear again quickly. In this way the entire wax and
honey formation is located in the fig. This entire bee culture
is located within the tree, so that we can truly say that nature
generally is a beekeeper.
What does a bee do first? A bee lays an egg into the comb,
and the egg matures. Now it doesn’t need to transform a sub¬
stance into a gall nut but simply takes the nectar directly
from the plant. It doesn't have to go to another tree that has
a greater wax content but instead creates from itself that
which otherwise is formed in the stem, the comb structure,
and puts juice into it, now known as honey, whereas this
juice is distributed throughout the entire fig in the case of
the improved fig. You could also say that with bees, a process
that nature normally restricts to the realm of the tree alone
is carried out openly, in public view, and then only with the
cooperative effort of both the tree and the wasp. Now you
should be able to see clearly what you have before you when
you look at an artistically created honeycomb with its regu¬
larly constructed wax cells. It's really a marvelous thing to
look at, isn’t it, Mr. Miiller? And to top it all, there is honey
in the cells!
Yes, gentlemen, just look at this. Then you'll say that it is
amazing that the bee seems to represent, in the construction
of its wonderful comb cells made of wax, something that
resembles an artistically constructed tree trunk with all its
ramifications! The bee doesn’t
…[truncated]