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The Artistic Alchemy of Joseph Beuys – Dr David Adams

For Beuys, the other artistic material inspired by Steiner's bee lectures was honey. Honey not only carried the same warmth character as beeswax, but added other references important for Beuys's larger artistic mission. Honey had been considered a sacred substance by the ancients. The Indians, Egyptians, and Greeks all used it in rituals connected with the transitions between the material and spiritual worlds, with birth and death. In Norse and Greek mythology honey was the food of the gods. Beuys himself pointed out many of these associations:

earthly forces that absorbed it all.... Basically, my sculptures, too, are a kind of Apis cult.

Beuys had read in the lectures by Steiner about the ancient Venus cult associated with the beehive, upbuilding and healing "formative forces of the hexagonal principle" in honey, and the strong relationships among honey, the beehive, and the human being.