LECTURE IV.
Dornach, December 1, 1923.
HERR
MÜLLER has handed me another number of the
“Swiss Bee-keeper's Journal” with an article
dealing with the results of certain experiments with honey-cures
— (“Our further Experiences with Honey-cures in the
Frauenfeld Children's Home, Amden,” by Dr. Paula Emrich.
Weeson.) (No III of the “Schweizerische
Bienenzeitung” March 1923). (Certain passages from this
article were read aloud).
DR.
STEINER:
It will be quite
interesting, gentlemen, to add today a few remarks on this article.
In this Children's Home an attempt was made to give honey treatments
to children found to be suffering from some form or other of
mal-nutrition. As described here, the treatment was to dissolve the
honey and stir it well into moderately warmed milk, not brought
to boiling point but kept just below it. This mixture was given to
the children.
Excellent results
were thus attained. The author, Dr. Paula Emrich, mentions the satisfactory
result that the percentage of red corpuscles in the blood of these
children increased to an extraordinarily high degree. For
instance, two children were admitted belonging to the same family. On
arrival the younger child had only 53% of red blood-corpuscles. On
leaving, after a honey-treatment, the percentage had risen to
82%. The elder child had at first 70%, and on leaving this had risen
to 78%. In this case there was thus less improvement, but still some
improvement.
The elder child
had milk only, and benefited by it, but the percentage rose only from 70%
to 78%; it was therefore, to begin with, not so weakly, but did not get
stronger in the same proportion.
There are still
quite a number of very interesting experiments. As I shall refer to them,
I should like to ask you to note carefully the ages of the children
concerned. If one is to observe the effects of some special substance
on a person, it is no use simply to make experiments in the
laboratory; one has always first to find out the age of every
patient; one must always note the age in any experiments in
nutrition, or in healing.
Here we have
a boy aged 11; he went through a honey-cure lasting 8 weeks, with the result
of a very considerable improvement in his glands. A case of catarrh
of the upper parts of the lungs also improved, the red corpuscles
— those really significant elements — increasing from 55%
to 75%.
Then again we
have a boy aged 11. He shows a rise from 50% to 74%. Then a girl aged 11,
with a rise from 70% to 88%. The rise is throughout, significant. She
then gives the increase in weight also, which shows that the children
became stronger. I will not read the further details.
Mention is also
made of a girl aged 10, of another of the same age; then a boy aged 13, a
girl of 7, a boy aged 11, a boy aged 8, a boy of 12, a boy of 9 and a boy
of 7.
The experiments
show that children of these ages, let us say roughly, the school-age, derive
great benefit from a honey-cure.
Now, this doctor
tries to discover why the children benefited so remarkably from this treatment
with honey. And here, gentlemen, he mentions something very
interesting, something which in a most remarkable way condemns what
is so largely applied in science today.
For what does
science do now-a-days when it tests food-stuffs in respect to their nutritive
value? Science analyses certain food-substances to discover how many
components of one or another chemical substance are to be found in
it. This is what science does.
Now the following
thing happened — a pupil of the famous Bunge, the Professor of
Physiology — (you very probably know him by name, he was at one
time in Basel) — made experiments in feeding mice with milk.
These mice had a good time of it, they throve extremely well when
they were fed on milk. So now he made the experiment in another way.
He said: — milk consists of casein — i.e.
cheese-substance, fat, sugar and salts. He said to himself: —
the mice throve splendidly on milk; milk consists of casein, fat,
sugar and salts; consequently, I shall give some mice casein, fat,
sugar and salts. This is exactly what is contained in milk. And
behold! when he gave the mice casein, fat, sugar and salts, they died
within a few days! They got the same things, but they all died.
You see,
gentlemen, the composition of the substance is not the whole matter.
Those gentlemen ought to have said to themselves: something else must
be in question here. But what did they say? They said: “substance
is everything: substance must be everywhere where anything happens.”
Well, yes,
but the substances that are there in casein, fat, sugar and salts —
well, they do not make milk. So the gentlemen said, evidently
there must be a new substance here, in such minute quantities that it
cannot be found by chemical analysis. This substance is what people
now call — vitamin. Vita means life; min
is connected with “make”; therefore, vitamin
“makes life.”
Once, gentlemen,
when Heine wanted to mock at something, he said: “There are people
who wish, for instance, to explain poverty, the cause of poverty. Well,
the simplest way is to say — ‘poverty comes from being
Poor!’” One has found another term, but one has not
explained anything! I was once in a society where people discussed
the question where what is “comic” came from. Some of
them had arrived at quite interesting ideas as to the source of the
“comic” — of what one laughs at. Then however,
someone got up and went to the platform in a way that one knew at
once — “he has the feeling he has a great deal to
say.” So then he brought forward his ideas of
“comic” and said: — “The ‘comic’
originates solely from the fact that man possesses a
‘vis-comica.’ ‘Vis’ is force —
‘comica’ is comic. Man has the ‘comic
force.’ This is where what is ‘comic’
originates.”
This is just as
though one should say in economics: — where does money come from?
Money comes from the money-making force. Nothing is explained in this
way. Well — in economics one would at once remark that anyone
saying that money comes from the money-making-force was a queer
fellow! But in science people do not notice it when someone asks:
— where does the life-giving property of milk come from? and
then answers: — from the vitamin! That is the same as saying
that poverty comes from being poor! But it is not noticed. People
think they have said something wonderful, but in truth nothing at all
has been said. And that, you see, is what I should like to call the
disturbing element in modern scientific methods. People claim to have
something to say; they announce it in gigantic words, and everybody
believes what is said. But if this continues further in the history
of the world, things will come to a point where everything will
dry up and perish. For the world depends on the fact that
something can be done, not that things are merely discussed
and many words made about them. Words must signify what is there in
reality.
And truly,
gentlemen, in earlier times a kind of knowledge existed that was directly
connected with practise. Today there is a science which no longer knows
anything about practical matters. Often it merely spins out words.
This has naturally come about because a new authority has superseded
an old authority.
You need only
consider how short a time ago it is that we did not have so many journals
on special subjects as we have today. Communications which were to be
made on various subjects — let us say for instance bee-keeping
— were given out at special bee-keepers' meetings. This
was still so in my youth. At such a gathering of bee-keepers one
could learn how things were being dealt with. One would tell the
other what he knew from his own experience, and one felt at once
whether a man was merely a wind-bag, or whether he had real practical
knowledge behind him, which is a very different matter. When you hear
someone speak, you know at once whether he knows something, or
whether you can find it all in print somewhere. For printer's ink has
come as a new authority in addition to all the rest. If anything is
printed people believe there must be something in it!
But there is
something further to be considered in this article. This doctor has indeed
achieved something of great value with her honey treatments. What she
has done in her practical work is really admirable. But when she
begins to think it all over on scientific lines, the result is really
nil. Further she says this: — “It is much to be desired
that these results of our experiments should be made known as widely
as possible, and that more honey should be given, especially to the
young ... For the moment our communications only give the results of
our practical experiences; but we do not doubt that with the further
development of the theory of vitamins the pharmacologists and
physiologists will give their attention to the problem of the
working of honey on the human organism.”
The author also
says at the beginning: “I feel obliged to give this account of the
effects of honey-cures from the medical point of view. Our good results
encourage us to seek their deeper connections, as I am well aware
that I am far from having penetrated their innermost
nature.”
It is evident
from her own words that this doctor is modest enough to admit that the whole
theory of vitamins does not enable her to reach the real heart of the
matter.
And now let us
consider very exactly the following question. Let us see on what these
effects of honey-treatments really rest. You see, these experiments show
us something; they show that the effect of honey is an especially strong
one, and that further experiments will increasingly show this, not in
the case of very young children, but with those who have reached the
change of teeth, or with those who are well beyond it. This is shown
by the actual experiments, and it is extremely important to take this
into account.
But the
experiments indicate something further. They indicate that honey is
most effective when one gives it in moderately heated milk. It is
this admixture of milk and honey that has such especially favourable
results with children. If one went a little further one would
discover that honey is important even in the case of the younger
children. One must then put only a little honey in the milk —
more milk and less honey. With old people it is the honey without any
milk that is good. Excellent results can be obtained with really old
people if one persuades them to take honey without milk. We must say
that milk and honey have very great importance in human life; these
experiences make it evident.
You see, the old
wisdom, as I have often told you, was not so stupid as modern learning thinks.
This old wisdom is sometimes expressed in very simple words, but it
was really wise. In the ancient saying: — “This is a land
where milk and honey flow,” the meaning is that it is a land of
health, a country where men can live healthily. Thus, of old, men
knew that milk and honey have a tremendously strong relation to human
life.
Nature often
speaks in a very reasonable way. One observes her utterances if only one
takes simple matters sufficiently simply.
If one knows
that Nature works with great wisdom, one
does not need much proof of the fact that milk is good for little
children, for were it not so, honey would flow from the breasts of
women and not milk. This would by no means be beyond the sphere of
Nature's possibilities, for the plants produce honey and it certainly
might be possible that the glands of the female breast secreted
honey. One must only take things simply enough. One must not say:
— Nature is a bungler, she makes only milk to flow from the
woman's breast and not honey, but one must say: — Behind this
lies the knowledge that for the small child, milk above all else is
necessary; one can add the honey as the child grows older.
Well, then,
surely we should not form such an idea as the above, which is nothing but
mere words, and say to ourselves; “poverty comes from being poor;
the comical from the vis-comica, and the life-giving power of honey
from the vitamin!” One must look for what has reality in this
connection.
We will now,
gentlemen, gather together some of the things we have long learnt to know
from these lectures, for the important thing is that one should always
observe things in the right way.
| Diagram 10 Click image for large view | |
When you go
into the mountains you find, just where the rocks are hardest, where so
to speak, the very hardest earthly substance pours in — there you
find the quartz-crystals. They are very beautiful. You find many
kinds of crystals. You will remember I drew these quartz crystals for
you; they look like this: —
(Diagram 10).
When they are entire,
they are formed below just as they are above, but usually, they are
not perfect. They come out of the rock; they grow, as it were, out of
the rock in the form I have just drawn for you here. What does this
signify?
It signifies that
the earth permits crystals to grow out of itself which are hexagonal,
growing to a point. Within the earth there is thus the power to build
up this six-angled form.
As I have so
often explained to you, the forces that are within the earth and in the
universe, are also in man. The earth in her turn receives this force
from the universe; man has it from the earth. Man has the same force
within him which, in the earth, drives out the crystal. How is it
then within him? Truly, gentlemen, the human body is full of
quartz.
Quartz as you
find it in the mountains is one of the very hardest of substances, But
substances are not everywhere just as they present themselves to us
here or there. In man there is something quite similar to quartz, but
it is in a more fluid form. Why?
| Diagram 11 Click image for large view | |
You see, if one
observes — and one must really observe in the right way, and with a true
inner vision — what flows continually from man's head into his limbs
(see Diagram 11),
and this is most interesting, there streams
incessantly downwards from the head what the earth once upon a time
caused to flow from within outwards, and which became hard up
above there, and settled down, for instance, as quartz crystals. It
streamed out from the interior of the earth. In man it flows from his
head through the whole of his body. It is quartz, or silicic acid.
But the human body does not permit the quartz to become a crystal.
That would indeed be a fine business if we were all to be filled up
inside with quartz crystals!
Only to a point
where the quartz is about to become hexagonal does man allow the thing to
go; there he stops it; he does not allow it to go any further. Thus we
have only the beginnings of the quartz formation in our body, and
then it is arrested; it must come to an end.
Our whole life
rests on this — that we are perpetually on the point of forming
hexagonal crystals from the head downwards, but we do not permit it
actually to come about. These hexagonal crystals always wish to take
form in us, but in reality they do not do so. They are interrupted,
arrested, and then we have, so to speak, the quartz fluid in the
highest possible state of solution within us.
If we had not
this quartz-fluid within us, we could for example, eat ever so much sugar
and we should never have a sweet taste in our mouth. This tasting of
the sugar is brought about by the quartz we have within us, not by
its substantiality, but by what is the will within it to
become hexagonal like a crystal. That is what causes it; that is the
essential.
You see, in the
interior of the earth this crystallising process is continued. Man arrests
the silicic acid when it wants to grow spiky up above inside him. The
earth allows it to become spiky up above.
But man needs
this force, this silicic acid force — i.e., this power to
bring forth hexagonal forms — man has need of it.
I imagine that
you are not all of you good geometricians. Geometry is not exactly familiar
to you all; you could perhaps not straight away, draw a quartz crystal,
or model one in clay. But your body is a very good geometrician, and
wants always to be forming such crystals. We are prevented from doing
this. All life consists in the holding back of death, and when we can
no longer hold death back, we die.
Now let us
look at the bees. The bee flies out and gathers nectar. This it works upon
in its own body, and in so doing provides its own life-forces. Further
the bee prepares the wax. What does it do with the wax? It makes
hexagonal cells. You see, the earth makes hexagonal silicic-acid
crystals. The bee makes hexagonal cells, and this is extremely
interesting. If I could draw the bees' cells for you — or if
you remember Herr Müller showing them to you — then they
look just like quartz crystals, only they are hollow. But in
their form they are the same.
| Diagram 12 Click image for large view | |
You see, these
cells are hollow
(Diagram 12),
but what is put in them? The bees' eggs are
laid there. Where there is silicic acid in the quartz, here in the cell is
a hollow, and there the bee places its eggs. The bee is shaped by the
same force that is within the earth and forms the quartz. Here
the finely dissolved silicic acid
(Diagram 13)
is at work. A force is
at work there, though this cannot be physically proved. The nectar
works in the body of the bee so that it can shape the wax in a form
which man really needs, for man must have those six-cornered spaces
within him. Man needs the same thing. Inasmuch as the bee is the
creature best able to give form to this hexagonal force, the bee is
the creature that everywhere collects that particular food which can
best be transformed in the body into this hexagonal force.
| Diagram 13 Click image for large view | |
You need only
eat some honey and you receive an immensely strengthening force. If you
are too weak to develop this hexagonal force in yourself which has
to pass from the head into the whole body, if you no longer have the
power to give the blood so much firmness that this force is always
present in it, then honey must intervene — or milk in the case
of the child. The child has not yet got this hexagonal force;
therefore, it must receive it from what is prepared in the human
being as milk.
Now you see,
gentlemen, that you can give as much casein, fat, sugar and salts to the
mice as you please — and they will die. Why? Because the animal
also needs this hexagonally-working force. If one only mixes together
chemically casein, fat, sugar, and salts, then the force present in
the hexagon is not there. When you give the mice milk then it
is there. Only in milk it is not so strongly present that when the
milk is turning sour it crystallises hexagonally. If this
hexagonally-working force were a little stronger in milk, one could
drink sour milk and it would form little silicic-acid crystals on the
tongue. This would taste as though the milk were full of tiny little
hairs. But it does not go so far, because milk comes from the human
or animal body, and there it remains fluid. This is sufficient for
the child but not for the grown man. But to become adult is something
that already begins in childhood, so we must give the child the more
powerfully-working hexagonal force that honey contains.
You see,
gentlemen, it is very interesting that when you take milk, even if
it comes from the human being, it is still something belonging to the
animal-nature in man. In man it is animal. If you take honey, it comes
from the plant kingdom — indirectly through the bee. But it comes
from the plant world and has a plant nature. If you take silicic acid
— quartz — then this has a mineral-nature; it has quite a
definite hexagonal form. The wax which is produced within the bee
itself through the food which is its nourishment, the wax has
received its form; it does not originate it, it receives
the form as developed in the hexagonal cell. In milk this form is
dissolved again; only a shadow-picture of the hexagonal crystal
remains in the milk
(see Diagram 14).
Thus, one can say that honey is a substance most suitable and
health-giving for man.
| Diagram 14 Click image for large view | |
One might
however, be inclined to think that it would be just as good if man were
to take some silicic acid instead of honey, for then he would also obtain
this hexagonal force. But the silicic acid which has been driven as
far as the hexagonal form, as far as to evolve this silicic acid
form, contains too powerful a crystallising force; it would work much
too strongly in man.
Now let us
imagine the following. Picture to yourselves some poor child not so fortunate
as to be given this honey-cure (as described in the article), at the age
of 16 or 17, or at 13 or 14, when it is most suitable. This child has
not had this good fortune and the iron-corpuscles in the blood get
weaker and weaker.
The percentage
in the blood gets less and less. The child grows up, let us say to the age
of 30, and has grown up into a weak man. The writer of this article
describes this also when she says, “they collapse.”
When the man is 30 years of age it may often be a very good thing to
give him a honey-treatment, but he is already too much
exhausted; he would have to eat so much honey to get any real
benefit from it that his digestion would be ruined. Honey teaches man
moderation; if you eat too much honey you ruin your stomach.
This rests on
quite a simple fact. Honey is sweet; it contains a great deal of sugar.
The stomach especially needs acids, and when you put too much sugar into
the stomach you hinder the working of the acids. Thus, briefly put,
honey must only be eaten in moderate quantities, and when a man is
already exhausted at the age of 30, one would have to give him so
much honey, if a honey-treatment was to help him (and this it would
doubtless do), that he would first get bad stomach disturbances and
then intestinal troubles. Thus, one cannot do this, but one can do
something else. One can at first give the man very highly diluted,
pulverised quartz, that is, silicic acid as a remedy. When you have
given him this highly diluted silicic acid as a medicine for a time,
then after a time he will be able to benefit by small quantities of
honey. The strongly diluted silicic acid will have called forth in
him the power to make use of the hexagonal force, and then a small
amount of honey can follow. The silicic acid has prepared the way for
the honey.
One might also
help a man with whom the content of the blood in regard to hæmoglobin
has become exhausted, by adding to the honey, suitable to an adult, some
highly diluted silicic acid the honey can then take effect. In the
case of a child one should give plenty of milk.
You see, it is
necessary to know these connections. One might ask: what then is it that
works through the honey into man? It is the formative forces of the
hexagonal principle. This is within the bees themselves. One can see
it in the waxen cells of the comb, and it is this that makes honey so
beneficial. It was for this reason that I said just now that it is
primarily the force of milk that works in the child, and this can be
further enhanced by the addition of honey, whereas in the adult
person the forces of the honey are more especially active.
Nevertheless,
when a man has grown older this honey force must be strengthened by that
of silicic acid, as I told you. Also, a milk and honey cure can be of
use because the forces of early childhood still exist in the older
man; this is beyond contradiction the good effect of a honey-cure
remains undoubted.
In practise,
this is well-known, and one should really insist on making these things
so clear to people, that a right amount of good honey should be
available. On this matter people are very readily deceived. I do not
mean this in a bad sense; I might say people are easily mislead by
the conditions of present day civilisation. If you have ever asked
for honey in hotels when travelling, it was certainly not honey that
you were given there, it was sugar-honey, artificially produced.
If people
realised that this is by no means the same thing, for there can be no
question of any hexagonal force being in such honey, they would never
claim that imitation-honey could have the same effect as pure bee-honey.
One could very well feed mice with pure honey, they would like it very
well. But if you were to feed them on this artificial honey, they
would die, though not perhaps in a few days. I have now added what I
wished to say about this article on milk and honey cures.
Now another
interesting question has been put to me about which I would like to speak,
and also to hear what you yourselves have to say about it; also what Herr
Müller has to say to you. You see, there are so many matters to
be considered that it will really be worth our while to discuss these
things further next time. You will then be able to ask your
questions, and Herr Mailer or I will answer them.
I want first to
touch quite briefly on two other points. They may seem rather strange to you,
but I am really eager to know what you will have to say about them.
WRITTEN
QUESTION:
Among
old-fashioned bee-masters there is a conviction that a certain
soul-relationship exists between the bee-master and his bees. It is said
that when the bee-father dies, then his death must be at once announced
to all the bees. If this is not done, then the whole stock will die out
in the course of the following year. That a certain relationship of soul
does exist between the two is again indicated by the fact that one
gets far more stung when one approaches one's work in the hive in an
angry or irritable mood, then when one does the same work in a
peaceful and harmonious one. Is there any objective reality at the
base of this old idea of the bee-masters?
DR.
STEINER:
It would be
interesting if Herr Müller would tell us quite simply whether he
believes such things to be quite in the air or no? Such things are customary
among the peasant bee-keepers; they announce a death to the bees. But
this soul-relationship, this connection between the bee-father and
his bees, is what I now have in mind. Perhaps Herr Müller can
tell us more.
HERR
MÜLLER:
Two cases were
cited which had occurred in Basel and in Zurich. In one family a woman who
had helped a good deal with the bees had died, and in the course of a
year all the bees were dead. In the other case, at Basel, it was also
a woman who died who had given much care to the bees; the same thing
happened. It was a very large apiary; in a year's time twenty-eight
stocks were reduced to six. One cannot explain this by anything
connected with the general conditions, or with the bees themselves.
One could trace no disease that the bees may have had. It may
have been a “soul” connection.
DR.
STEINER:
Let us remember
what I once told you about the relation between man and the animals. You
may perhaps have heard, gentlemen (I have spoken of it before), that
some time ago people talked a great deal about the so-called
“counting” horses, horses which, for instance, were asked
the question: “How much is four and five?” Then one
counted — 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9 — and the horse
stamped its foot at nine. Really remarkable and not inconsiderable
sums were done in this way — by the horses. You may perhaps
have heard of these “Elberfeld counting horses;” they
were very celebrated. Whole delegations went to investigate the
matter.
I did not myself
see these horses, but I saw another horse belonging to Herr von Osten that
could count equally well. One could form an exact judgment of the
whole matter. People simply racked their brains over these
“counting horses,” for it is naturally something
fundamentally terrible that horses should suddenly begin to count.
Science itself was put to shame by such a thing! Naturally one was
quite aware, for it is an obvious conclusion to reach, that a horse
cannot count; one had to find out how it was that the horse stamped
its foot at a correct number. In reality, it cannot count; it would
be quite idiotic to think a horse could count. Even a University
lecturer knew this who scientifically investigated the matter, but he
constructed a theory. He said: “Herr von Osten makes a
slight facial movement when he counts; the horse observes the lines
in his face, and in response to those it stamps its foot.” But
he himself then made the following objection: “Yes,” he
said, “but in that case the horse should be standing in front
of Herr von Osten, and be looking at him, observing his face so that
it knows when to stamp.” So he then took this position himself
and saw nothing. Still, he did not give up his theory, he merely
said: “The change of face is so minute that I cannot perceive
it, but the horse can!”
Well gentlemen,
it then follows that a horse can see more than a University lecturer!
Nothing else can be inferred!
The matter was
naturally otherwise. If one is trained by spiritual science and then
observes the facts, one does not then lay much stress on some small facial
change, for it happened in this way: there on the one side stood the
horse; there stood Herr von Osten, very lightly holding the bridle.
In his right hand waistcoat pocket Herr von Osten had plenty of
sugar. Now Herr von Osten perpetually gave the horse little lumps of
sugar. The horse licked them, found them sweet, and loved Herr von
Osten very dearly. It loved him ever more and more through these
little lumps of sugar, and thus an affectionate relation was set up
between the horse and Herr von Osten. The latter had no need to make
faces, he had merely to think — nine is the correct
number; then the horse could sense it, for animals have a most
delicate perception for what is going on around them. They
sense what is going on there inside man's head even if he
indulges in no small grimaces which a horse might be able to see but
not a man. The horse senses what is happening when the brain
thinks — nine — and then it stamps. But if the
horse had not had any sugar its love would be a little changed into
hate, and it would not have stamped with its foot any more.
Thus, you see,
the animal has a very delicate perception of things; not of little grimaces,
but of things actually not visible; for instance, with the horse, this
sensing of what is going on in the brain of Herr von Osten. One has
only to observe the facts, and then one knows how wonderful a
sensitiveness the animals have.
Just imagine
for a moment that you go near a number of bees, and are very much afraid
of them. The bees will feel this fear in you, that is undeniable. Well,
what does it mean when one is afraid? When one is afraid of something or
other one grows pale, fear makes people pale. When one turns pale the
blood flows inwards, it does not go outwards into the skin. When the
bee comes near a man who is afraid, it senses more than it normally
does when the blood is in the skin. It senses the hexagonal force of
the blood, and stings into it; it would like to get honey or wax from
you. On the other hand, when a man works quietly and his blood is
flowing evenly in his veins, then the bee senses something quite
different.
And now think
of a man who is angry, and in his anger he goes to the bees. Anger makes
a man red, and a great deal of blood flows into the skin, for the blood
would absorb the hexagonal force. This, too, the bee senses in its
delicate feeling and believes you would deprive it of this force
— and it stings you. So fine are the subtle sensibilities of
the forces of nature at work here.
And now we come
to the question of habit. Think of the bee-father, the bees do not see his
approach as men would do, the bee “senses” — if I
may use this expression — everything that emanates from him
— how all this is constituted. The bees get used to this, and
should the bee-father die they must re-adjust themselves, and this
means a great deal to them.
And now, for a
moment, think what one finds even with dogs when the master dies. It has
been known to happen that the dog will go to the grave and die there,
because it cannot adjust itself to a new master. Why should one
suppose that the bee with its fine sensitiveness should not be aware
of what happens, why should one not think that the bee also,
accustomed as it is to the bee-master cannot at once adapt itself to
a new one? Indeed something very significant lies at the root of all
this.
But you may say:
“Is it then the same with these tiny little creatures as with dogs and
horses?” Well, perhaps you may not have noticed, but it is
nevertheless true, that one finds men who have, as the saying is, a
specially lucky hand in the cultivation of plants. Even when they sow
plants, or grow flowers in a pot, everything thrives with them, while
another person may take equal care of the plants, but none will
thrive; he is not successful. This is due to the
“emanations” man has, and which work favourably on the
plants in the one case, and unfavourably in the other. It is quite
impossible for some people to cultivate plants. They have an
unfavourable reaction which above all affects the forces in the
flower that produce nectar, the forces that sweeten the flower. So we
can say, Man works even on the flowers, and in a much more
pre-eminent way upon the bees.
One need not
wonder at this, but one must bring the facts before one as they appear;
then one begins to understand that things really are so, and can bring
them to bear in practical life.
QUESTION:
According to an
old peasant rule it is held that if it rains on the third of May, the Day of
the Finding of the Holy Cross, the honey is washed out of all the flowers
and trees, and there will be no good honey harvest that year. My
observations of the last four years seem to confirm that there is
some truth in this rule. Is such a thing at all possible?
DR.
STEINER:
This question
leads us very deeply into the great processes of Nature. You see, it is
just this day of the Finding of the Holy Cross, this third of May which
is of less importance; it is of much greater importance that it is just
this season of the year. What does it actually mean when it rains at
the beginning of May? It means this. You know that on March 23, the
Sun enters the Sign of the Fishes. I have told you before that the
spring equinox is now in this Sign of the Fishes. The Sun remains in
this Sign till April 20, then it passes on into the Sign of the Ram.
Thus the rays of the Sun come at the beginning of May from an
entirely different corner of the Universe than at other times.
Suppose now that
it is fine weather in the beginning of May — on the third of May
— what does this signify? It signifies that on the third of May
the Sun has a powerful influence on all that is earthly. Whatever
happens on the earth is under the influence of the Sun when the
weather is fine.
What then does
is mean when it rains on May the third — that is in the beginning of
May? It means that the earth has the strongest forces, and hinders
the influences of the Sun. This is immensely significant for the whole
plant kingdom, for when the rays of the Sun come from the direction
of the Ram, they can so work that their whole power is directed to
the plants. Then the flowers can develop the sweet substance which is
present in honey. Then the bees can make honey.
When, however,
the earth has the greater power, when it rains at this season, the flowers
cannot develop in the rays of the Sun which come from the Ram, but
must await later events, or maybe even be altogether interrupted in
what they have already developed. Then the flowers do not mature the
nectar rightly and the bees find none.
A matter such as
this only becomes comprehensible when we know that everything that happens
on this earth is, as I have repeatedly told you, under the influence of
the Cosmos, of all that is outside and beyond the earth. Rain means
that the influences of the Sun are chased away. Fair weather means
that the Sun forces can unfold in all their power. The question here
is not that the power of the Sun comes only in a general way, from
where we look up to it, but that it comes definitely from that part
of the heavens where the Ram is. The forces of the Sun differ
according to the particular corner of the heavens from which they
come. This is not due to the Sun alone, but because as the Sun shines
down upon the earth, behind it, in this instance, in the Cosmos
stands the constellation of the Ram. What the Ram gives, the Sun
first absorbs and then pours it forth again with its rays. Thus, it
is quite different if the Sun sends its rays to the earth at the
beginning of May, or at the end of May. In the beginning of May the
full force of the Ram is working; by the end of the month the Sun is
already in the Sign of the Bull. These forces of the Bull cannot work
with the same strength on the plants, they tend to harden and dry up
the plant, and this means above all that the plant is no longer able
to mature the forces for honey-production.
Thus something
has really come to light from these old peasant rules that has sound reason,
and one should take note of it. Naturally, as I have previously said
— the consciousness of these things has been lost, and we have
fallen into superstitions, for when one is no longer able to
distinguish things one may easily become superstitious. Then these
old peasant rules are of about the same value as the saying:
“If the cock crows on the dunghill the weather will change, or
will remain as it was before!”
This does not
apply however, to all these old rules, for many of them are based on deep
wisdom, and this we should once more study. The peasants who have
applied these rules have sometimes done very well! A deeper wisdom
will also lead us to the point where we can once more make use of
them.
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