Lecture II (GA 351)
Dornach,
November 26, 1923.
[In
connection with a paper read to the Goetheanum
working people by Herr Müller]
Good morning,
gentlemen! I will add just a few remarks to the
statements made by Herr Müller — remarks
which may perhaps be of interest to you, though
naturally, as far as the present day is concerned,
the time has not yet come when one could really apply
these things in practical bee-keeping. For the
moment, on this side of practical bee-keeping, very
little, or perhaps not even anything much can be
said, since Herr Müller has already given you a
beautiful account of the way things are managed
nowadays.
If
you listened to him attentively it must have occurred
the to you that this whole question of bee-keeping
has something of the nature of a riddle. Obviously,
the bee-keeper is first of all interested in what he
has to do. Everyone must, in reality, take the
greatest interest in bee-keeping, for in fact more in
human life depends on it than one usually thinks.
Let
us look at it in a wider sense. As you have heard in
the lectures Herr Müller has given you here, the
bees are able to gather what is already present as
nectar in the plants. They really only gather the
nectar, and then we take away as honey, a portion of
what was collected for the hive — on the whole
it is not a very large portion. We might say that
what man takes away is somewhere about 20% —
roughly speaking.
But
in addition to this the bee, by means of its bodily
structure and organisation, can also take pollen from
the plants. Thus the bee gathers from the plant
something that exists there in very minute quantities
and is difficult to procure. Pollen is collected by
the bees, with the help of the minute brushes
attached to their bodies.
This
pollen is then stored away, or consumed in the hive.
In
the bee we therefore have a creature before us that
collects a substance extremely delicately prepared by
Nature, and having done so, makes use of it in his
own household.
Now
we will go a step further, to something very seldom
noticed because one does not stop to think about it.
Having transformed the food by means of its own
bodily substances into wax — this the bee
produces out of itself — the bees now make a
special little container in which to deposit its egg
or in which to store food supplies. This special
little vessel is, I should like to say, a really
great marvel, It appears to be hexagonal when we look
at it from above; looked at from the side it is
closed in this way. (Diagram
1 and Diagram
2.)
Eggs can be deposited there, or food can be stored.
Each vessel lies next to another; they fit extremely
well together, so that this “surface” by
which one cell, (for so it is called), is joined to
another in the honey-comb, is exceedingly well made
use of — the space is well used.
When
the question is raised how can the bee instinctively
build such a skilfully formed cell, people generally
answer: “It is done that the space may be
thoroughly well used.” That is true. If you try
to imagine any other form of cell there would always
be spaces, everything is joined together so that
every part of the surface of the comb is completely
made use of.
This
is one reason, but you see it is not the only reason.
We must consider how the little larva which lies
within it is entirely isolated, and one must not by
any means believe that anything exists in Nature that
is without forces. This six-angled, six-surfaced
dwelling has certain forces within it; it would be
quite another matter if the larva were to occupy a
round one. In Nature it signifies something quite
definite in that it lies within this six-surfaced
little dwelling-place. The larva receives the forces
of the form later
it feels in its body that it was once in this
hexagonally-formed cell, in its youth when it was
quite soft.
The
bee is afterwards able to build similar cells out of
the same forces which it thus absorbed. There lie the
forces through which the bee afterwards works with,
for what the bee makes externally
lies in its environment.
This
is the first thing we must notice. Now there is
another very remarkable fact that has been described
to you. In the hive there is a variety of cells. I
think every bee-keeper can well distinguish between
the cells of the worker-bees and those of the drones.
This is not a difficult matter, is it? It is still
easier to distinguish between the cells of
worker-bees and drones and those of the Queens, for
the latter have not at all this form, they are more
like a sack. The Queen cells have no such shape, they
are more like a kind of sack; also there are very few
of them in the hive. So we must say: The worker-bees
and the drones (the males) develop in hexagonal
cells, but the Queen develops in a “sack.”
She is not at all concerned to have hexagonal
surroundings. (Diagram
3 and Diagram 4)
Then
we must consider something else. You see, the Queen
needs only sixteen days to become an adult. She is
then fully matured. A worker bee requires about
twenty-one days to mature, which is a longer period.
One might say that Nature bestows much more care on
the development of the worker-bee than on that of the
Queen.
But
we shall soon see that quite another reason comes in
question. The worker-bee needs twenty-one days, and
the drone, the male — which will finish its
task soonest of all — needs twenty-three to
twenty-four days. The males are killed when they have
fulfilled their task.
We
have quite a new situation here. The different kinds
of bees — Queens, workers and drones —
all need a different number of days for their
development.
Well,
let us consider these twenty-one days needed by the
worker-bees. There is something very special about
this. A period of twenty-one days is not without
meaning for what happens on the earth. Twenty-one
days are equal to the period of time during which the
Sun, approximately speaking, revolves once upon its
own axis.
Now
think, the worker-bee takes just that period of time
for its development which the Sun takes to turn upon
its axis. The worker-bee experiences one revolution
of the Sun, and because it has experienced one
complete revolution it enters into all the Sun can
give.
If
it wished to go further it would always meet only
with the same Sun-influences, for if you picture to
yourselves here the worker-bee, [Dr.
Steiner draws on the blackboard.] and here the Sun at the moment when the egg is laid,
then here we shall have the point exactly opposite
the Sun. The Sun revolves upon its own axis once in
twenty-one days; then it returns again and the first
point is again here. If this were to continue, only
such Sun's effects would be there as had once been
there already. So the worker-bee by the time it is
fully developed has experienced all that the Sun can
give. Should the worker-bee continue to develop it
must leave the Sun and enter the earth development;
it will then no longer be having a Sun-influence in
its development because it already had this, and has
tasted it to the full. Now it passes into the earth
development, but only as a perfect insect, as a
matured creature. I might say that the worker-bee
occupies herself only momentarily with this
earth-development, and has then finished with her
Sun-development, is entirely a creature of the Sun.
Now
let us look at the drone. The drone, I might say,
considers the matter a little longer. It does not
think itself quite ready after twenty-one days, so
before it is fully matured it enters the
earth-development. The drone is thus an earthly
being, whereas the worker-bee is entirely a child of
the Sun.
How
is it with the Queen? The Queen-bee does not even go
through the whole of the Sun-revolution, but stays
behind and remains always a creature of the Sun. For
this reason the Queen is much nearer to her larval
state than the others; the drones (the males) are the
farthest removed from the larval state. The Queen is
thereby able to lay eggs. In the bees it is clearly
to be seen what it signifies to be exposed to the
earth-influence or to the Sun-influence. As you know,
it depends entirely on whether the bee completes or
does not complete its Sun-development, that it
becomes either a Queen, a worker or a drone. The
Queen lays eggs, and it is because she remains always
under the influence of the Sun and receives nothing
from the earth that she is enable to do so. The
worker-bee goes a little further and develops for
another four or five days; it tastes the Sun to the
full. But then, just when its body becomes firm
enough it goes over, just for a moment, as I said,
into the earth-development. Thus the worker-bee
cannot return again to the Sun, for it has already
thoroughly absorbed its influences. Consequently the
worker-bee cannot lay eggs.
The
drones are the males; they can fertilise; this power
of fertilisation comes from the earth; the drones
acquire it in the few days during which they continue
their growth within the earth-evolution and before
they reach maturity. So we can now say: in the bees
it is clearly to be seen that fertilisation (male
fecundation) comes from the earthly forces, and the
female capacity to develop the egg comes from the
forces of the Sun. So you see, you can easily imagine
how significant is the length of time during which a
creature develops. This is very important for,
naturally, something happens within a definite time
which could not occur in either a shorter or a longer
time, for then quite other things would happen.
But
there is something further to be considered. You see,
the Queen develops in sixteen days. Then the point
which stood opposite to her in the Sun is perhaps
only here;
[Drawing
on the blackboard.]
the Queen remains within the Sun-development. The
remaining part of the Sun's course is gone through by
the worker-bees, but they too remain within the
Sun-development; they do not really pass out of it to
the earth. And so, you see, they feel themselves
entirely akin to the Queen because they belong to the
same Sun-influence; the whole host of the worker-bees
feel themselves related to the Queen. They say: —
“The drones are betrayers; they have fallen to
the earth. They no longer belong to us; we suffer
them only because we need them.”
For
what are they needed?
As
you know, it sometimes happens that the Queen is not
fertilised; nevertheless she lays eggs. The Queen
need not necessarily be fertilised to lay eggs. Then
we have what is called “virgin-brood.”
This also happens with other insects; the scientific
name for it is parthenogenesis. But only drones can
emerge from these unfertilised eggs; no workers and
no Queens. Thus when a Queen is unfertilised
worker-bees and Queens do not hatch out, only drones;
such a colony is naturally useless.
You
see, in “virgin-brood” only
the opposite sex
is produced, not the same sex. This is a very
interesting fact, and an important one in the whole
household of Nature — namely, that
fertilisation is necessary if the same sex is to come
into being (this applies to the lower animals of
course, not to the higher ones). With the bees it is
the case that only drones emerge where fertilisation
has not taken place.
This
fecundation of the bee is indeed a very special
affair; there is nothing like a marriage-bed to which
one retires, it all takes an entirely different
course. It takes place openly, in full sunlight and,
though this may seem very strange at first, as high
as possible in the air. The Queen-bee flies as far as
possible towards the Sun to which she belongs. (I
have already described this to you), and that drone
alone which can overcome the earthly forces —
for the drones have united themselves with the
earthly forces — only that drone which can fly
the highest is able to fecundate the Queen up there
in the air.
The
Queen returns and lays her eggs. So you see, the bees
have no marriage-bed, they have a marriage flight;
they must strive as far as they are able, towards the
Sun. One must have, is it not so, fine weather for
this marriage flight which really needs the Sun? In
had weather it cannot take place.
Now
all this shows you how closely the Queen remains
related to the Sun. When fertilisation has taken
place, then worker-bees emerge from the worker-cells;
first the little larva appear, as Herr Müller
has so well described, and then after twenty-one days
develop into worker-bees. In the sack-like cells a
Queen develops.
Now
if we are to go further, I must tell you something
you may naturally receive with some doubt, for it
needs exact study. Nevertheless, it really is so. The
worker-bee, now mature and ready, sets out on its
flight, visiting the flowers and trees to which it
attaches itself by the minute hooks on its feet.
It gathers both nectar and pollen. The pollen is
carried on the body where there is a special
contrivance for depositing it; the nectar it sucks up
with its tongue. A part of the nectar is used for its
own food, but the greater part is retained and this,
on its return to the hive, the bee spits out.
Actually, when we eat honey we eat the spittle of the
bee; we must be quite clear as to this, but it is a
very clean and sweet spittle.
Thus
the bee gathers all it needs for food, for storing,
and for further elaboration into wax, etc. Now we
must ask ourselves, how does the bee find its way to
the flowers? It finds its way to the flowers with
absolute certainty, but one is quite unable to
explain this by merely observing the eyes of the bee.
The worker-bee (the drone has somewhat larger eyes),
has only two small eyes, one at each side, and three
quite minute ones on the forehead (Diagram
7).
The drones have rather larger eyes. But when one
studies these two eyes of the bee, one discovers that
it sees very little with them, and that with the
three minute frontal eyes it sees, to begin with,
nothing at all. That is the strange thing that the
bee does not find the flowers by sight, but by a
sense more like the sense of smell. It finds its way
to the flowers by a sense which is between taste and
smell, on its flight it already tastes the
pollen and the nectar. From far away it tastes them,
so the bee has no need to use its eyes at all.
Now
make for yourself a clear picture of the following.
Think
of a Queen-bee born in the realm of the Sun, and not
having tasted the Sun's working to the full, has
remained, so to speak, entirely under the influence
of the Sun. The whole host of the worker-bees, though
it has completed the course of the Sun's revolution,
has not actually passed over to the earth
development. These worker-bees feel themselves united
with the Queen, not because they were under the same
Sun,
but because they remained within the Sun-development;
this is why they feel themselves so united with the
Queen. In their development they did not sever
themselves from that of the Queen. The drones,
though, do not belong to them; they have separated
themselves.
But
now the following happens. In order that a new Queen
can come into being, the marriage flight must have
taken place. The Queen flies out toword the Sun. A
new Queen comes into being. At that moment a most
remarkable thing happens to the whole host of the
workers who feel themselves so united with the old
Queen. Their tiny little eyes begin
to see when
the new Queen is born. This they cannot endure; they
cannot endure that what they themselves are should
come from elsewhere. The three minute frontal eyes,
these three very small eyes of the worker-bees, are
built up from within; they are permeated with the
inner blood, and so on, of the bee; they were never
exposed to the external working of the Sun. But now
the new Queen is born from out of the Sun, and brings
Sun-light with her own body into the hive; now the
bees become — I should like to say —
clairvoyant with their little eyes. They cannot
endure this light of the new Queen. The whole host of
them prepares to swarm. It is like fear of the new
Queen, as though they were dazzled. It is as though
we were to look at the Sun itself.
That
is why the bees swarm. And now one has once more to
re-establish the colony on the basis of the majority
of the worker-bees which still belong to the hive —
that is, to the old Queen. The new Queen must find a
new people. A part of the population of the hive has
of course, remained behind, but these are those born
under different circumstances. The reason why the
bees swarm lies in the fact that the workers cannot
endure the new Queen who brings in a new
Sun-influence.
Now
you might ask, “Why should the bees feel so
sensitive towards this new Sun-influence?” This
is indeed a very strange thing. No doubt you know
that it is sometimes not at all pleasant to meet a
bee; it may sting you. If one is so large an animal
as man at the worst one gets an inflamed skin; all
the same it is rather unpleasant. Smaller animals may
even die from the sting of a bee. This is due to the
fact that the sting is really a tube in which a kind
of piston moves up and down, which is connected with
a poison bag. This poison (very disagreeable to one
who has to experience it) is however, of great value
to the bees. It is by no means pleasant for the bee
to have to part with its poison, and in reality it
only does so because it cannot bear that any
influence from outside should approach. The bee wants
always to remain within itself, to stay within the
sphere of its own substance. Every external influence
is felt as disturbing, as something to be warded off
by its poison. But this poison has at the same time
quite another significance, for in the minutest
quantities it continually passes over into the whole
body of the bee; without it the bee could not exist
at all.
One
must understand in studying the worker-bee that it is
unable to see with its small frontal eyes, and that
this is due to the fact that the poison continually
permeates these frontal eyes. The moment the new
Queen appears with her new Sun-influence, this poison
is harmfully affected. It ceases to be active, and
the small eyes suddenly begin to see, for the fact
that the bee lives its life in a perpetual twilight
is due to the poison.
If
I were to describe to you in a pictorial form what
the bee experiences when a new Queen slips out of her
sack-like cell, I should have to say: “The bee
lives always in the twilight, and finds its way about
by means of a sense between taste and smell; it lives
in a twilight congenial to it. But when the new Queen
appears it is exactly like when we walk in the
twilight of a June evening, and the little glow-worms
are shining.” Even so does the new Queen shine
for the swarm, because the poison does not work
strongly enough to keep the bees in their twilight
seclusion from the world. It keeps within it even
when it flies out, because it is then able with its
poison to keep within itself. It needs the poison
when it fears something from outside may disturb it.
The whole colony desires to be entirely within
itself.
Indeed,
in order that the Queen may remain in the sphere of
the Sun she may not dwell in an angular cell, but
within a circular one. There she remains within the
Sun-influence.
Here
we touch upon something that makes bee-keeping so
extremely interesting for everyone. For you see, in
reality, things go on in the hive in exactly the same
way as in the human head, only with a slight
difference. In our head, for instance, the substances
do not grow to such dimensions. In the human head we
have nerves, blood-vessels, and the separately
situated round-shaped cells which are always to be
found. We have these three varieties of cells in the
human head. The nerves consist of separate cells
which only do not grow into independent beings
because Nature encloses them on all sides; in
reality, however, these nerves would like to become
little animals. If the nerve-cells of
the human head could develop in all directions, under
the same conditions as those of the hive, then
the nerve-cells would
become drones.
The blood-cells which
flow in the veins would become worker
bees; and
the single
free cells which
are, above all, in the centre of the head and go
through the shortest period of development, may be
compared with the Queen
bees.
So
in the human head we have the same three forces
(Diagram
8)
as in the hive.
Now
the workers bring home what they gather from the
plants, and work it up in their own bodies into wax,
of which they then build the wonderful structure of
the combs. The blood-cells of the human head however,
do the same thing. From the head they pass into the
whole body. When you look for instance, at a bone, at
a piece of bone, you will find hexagonal cells
everywhere. The blood that circulates through the
whole body carries out the same work that is done in
the hive by the bees. It is similar with the cells of
our muscles which, once more, correspond to the
wax-cells of the bees, but these cells being softer,
dissolve more quickly, so it is here less noticeable.
A study of the bones shows it very well. Thus, the
blood has the same forces as those of the worker-bee.
One
can even follow their development through the course
of time. The cells which you find first developed in
the human embryo, and which subsequently remain
unchanged, are those that already exist in the early
stages of embryonic life. The others, the
blood-cells, come into existence somewhat later, and
finally the nerve-cells are developed — just as
with the bee-hive. Only man builds up a body which
obviously belongs to him; the bee also builds up a
body, but for the worker-bees this body is the
honey-comb — the cells. This building of the
comb corresponds to what happens within our bodies, —
namely, that the blood-cells in reality do this out
of a kind of wax — but here it is not so easy
to prove.
We
ourselves are made of a kind of wax, just as the
honey-comb forms the marvellous structure we find in
the hive.
So
this is how it is. Man has a head, and this head
works upon his great body which is actually a
“bee-hive” and contains in its
relationship between the albuminous cells (which
remain round) and the blood, the same connection that
exists in the bee-hive between the Queen and the
worker-bees. Our nerves are continually destroyed; we
continually use up our nervous system. We do not
immediately kill our nerves — as the bees kill
the drones — for in this case we should die
every year, but none the less our nerves get weaker
every year, and it is through this gradual weakening
of the nerves that man really dies. We are then no
longer able to experience our body rightly; a man is
actually always dying from the wearing out of his
nerves.
When
you look at the head — which represents the
hive — you find that here all is well
protected. If one injures one's head it is a serious
matter; the head cannot bear it. Equally, what
happens through the presence of the new Queen —
who is there by reason of the marriage flight —
is something the bees cannot endure; they prefer to
go away rather than remain with her.
This
is why bee-keeping has always been regarded as
profoundly significant. Man takes away from the bees
— perhaps 20% of their honey — and one
can justly say that this honey is extremely valuable
to man, for with his ordinary food he gets very
little honey because honey is distributed in such
very small quantities in the plant-world. We get only
minute quantities of honey into our bodies in this
way.
We
also have “bees” within us, namely, our
blood, which carries the honey to the various parts
of our body. It is honey that the bee needs for
producing wax, out of which it then makes the “body”
of the colony.
As
we grow older, honey has an extremely favourable
effect upon us. With children it is milk that has a
similar effect; honey helps us to build our bodies
and is thus strongly to be recommended for people who
are growing old. It is an exceedingly wholesome food;
only one must not eat too much of it! If one eats too
much of it, using it not merely as a condiment, one
can make the formative forces too strongly active.
The form may then get too rigid and one may develop
all kinds of illnesses. A healthy man feels just how
much honey should take. Honey is particularly good
for older people because it gives the body the right
firmness.
One
should also adopt the plan of giving just the right
quantity of honey to children suffering from rickets
when they are nine to ten months of age, and continue
this honey diet till the age of three or four years.
Rickets would then not be as bad as it is, for this
illness consists in the body being too soft, and
collapsing. Of course, in the very first weeks
children ought only to be given milk; honey would at
that age have no affect. Honey contains the forces
that give man's body firmness. These things should be
understood.
So
one can say that much more attention should be given
to the keeping of bees than is usual.
The
following is also possible. In Nature everything is
wonderfully inter-related. In Nature the laws which
man is unable to penetrate with his ordinary
intelligence are the most important. These laws work
— do they not? — always with a perfect
freedom. This holds good, for instance, with the
proportion of the sexes on earth. This is not always
the same, the number of men and women is not always,
but only more or less an equal one; it is
approximately equal over the whole earth. This is
brought about in the wisdom of Nature. If it should
ever come about — I believe I have already told
you this — that human beings were ultimately
able to determine the whole matter arbitrarily, then
everything would fall into confusion. If in any
country the population has been decimated by wars it
will afterwards again become more numerous. In Nature
every need calls forth the working of opposite
forces.
Now,
when the bees seek nectar from the plants, they
naturally take this from plants which also have other
uses — which give us fruits and so on. But the
remarkable thing is that fruit-trees thrive much
better in places where bees are kept than in places
where there are no bees.
When
the bees take the nectar from the plants Nature does
not remain idle, but produces more fruitful plants.
So man not only benefits by the honey the bees make,
but receives more from the plants visited by the
bees. This is a law of great importance, and one we
can well understand.
Observing
things in this way one is able to say — in the
whole inter-relationship of the bee-colony — of
this organism — Nature reveals something very
wonderful to us. The bees are subject to forces of
Nature which are truly wonderful and of great
significance. One cannot but feel shy of fumbling
among these forces of Nature. It is becoming
increasingly obvious today that wherever man clumsily
interferes with these forces he makes matters not
better, but worse. He does not make them worse all at
once, for it is really so that Nature is everywhere
hindered, though notwithstanding these hindrances
Nature works as best she can. Certain of these
hindrances man can remove, and by doing away with
them can make things easier for Nature. For example,
he seems actually to be helping Nature when he makes
use of bee-hives which are conveniently arranged,
instead of using the old straw skeps.
But
here we come to the whole question of artificial
bee-keeping. You must not think that I am unable to
see — even from a non-anthroposophical point of
view — that modern bee-keeping methods seem at
first very attractive, for certainly, it makes many
things much easier. But the firm holding together
of one bee-generation,
of one bee-family, will be impaired in the long run.
Speaking
generally today, one cannot but praise modern
bee-keeping; so long as we see all such precautions
observed of which Herr Müller has told us, we
must admire them in a certain sense. But we must wait
and see how things will be in fifty to eighty years
time, for by then certain forces which have hitherto
been organic in
the hive will be mechanised, will become mechanical.
It is not possible to bring about that intimate
relationship between the colony and a Queen that has
been bought,
which results naturally when a Queen comes into being
in the natural way. Only, at first these things are
not observed.
Of
course, I by no means wish that a fanatical campaign
in opposition to modern bee-keeping should be
started, for one cannot do such things in practical
life. To do so would be rather like something I will
now tell you. It is possible to calculate
approximately the time when there will be no more
coal in the earth. The coal supply of the earth is
exhaustible; one day it will come to an end. Now it
would be quite possible to limit the amount of coal
taken out of the earth so that the supply would last
as long as the earth itself. One cannot say that we
ought to do so, for we should have a little faith for
the future. One says “Well, of course we rob
the earth of its coal, that is we rob our descendants
of coal, but they will be able to invent something
else so that they will not need coal any longer.”
Naturally, one can say the same about the
disadvantages of modern bee-keeping!
Still,
it is well to be aware of the fact that by working
mechanically we destroy what Nature has elaborated in
so wonderful a way. You see bee-keeping has at all
times been highly valued; in olden times especially
the bee was held to be a sacred animal. Why? It was
so considered because in their whole activity,
processes reveal themselves which also take place in
man himself. If you take a piece of bees-wax in your
hand you are in reality holding something between
blood, muscle and bone, which in man's inner
organisation passes through the stage of being wax.
The wax does not however become solid, but remains
fluid untill it is transformed into blood, or
muscles, or into the cells of the bones. In the wax
we have before us what we bear within us as forces,
not as substance.
When
in olden times people made candles of bees-wax and
lighted them, they knew that they performed a
wonderful and sacred action: “This wax which we
now burn we took from the hive; there it was
hardened. When the fire melts it and it evaporates
the wax passes into the same condition in which it is
within our own bodies.”
In
the melting wax of the candle people once apprehended
something that rises up to the heavens, something
that was also within their own bodies. This awoke a
devotional mood in them, and this mood in its turn
led them to look upon a bee as a specially sacred
creature, because it prepares something which man
must continually work out within himself. For this
reason, the further back we go the more we find how
men approached the bees with reverence. Of course,
this was when they were still in their wild state;
men found it so, and they looked upon these things as
a revelation. Later they brought the bees into their
household.
Quite
wonderful riddles lie concealed in all that happens
with the bees, and by much studying of them one can
learn to know what happens between the head and the
body in man.
I
have now told you a few of those things I wished to
speak of. On Wednesday we shall have our next
meeting, and perhaps many questions will have arisen.
Something may occur also to Herr Müller.
Today
I only wished to make these remarks which, after all,
are beyond doubt, for they are founded on real
knowledge. But, there may still be much that can be
made clearer.
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