Bee Shamanism

[Helter Skelter]

What do y'all make of this?
http://sacredtrust.org/beemain.htm

[Rob P]

Interesting!
I've been curious about bees lately, only because
Rudolf Steiner had spoken about them
quite a bit...I haven't read any of it yet, but I still
intend to, out of eternal curiosity...and now this
link opens it up even more!
thanks
This is from amazon.com's review of
Bees by Steiner:

In 1923 Rudolf Steiner predicted the dire state of the honeybee today. He said that, within fifty to eighty years, we would see the consequences of mechanizing the forces that had previously operated organically in the beehive. Such practices include breeding queen bees artificially.
The fact that over sixty percent of the American honeybee population has died during the past ten years, and that this trend is continuing around the world, should make us aware of the importance of the issues discussed in these lectures. Steiner began this series of lectures on bees in response to a question from an audience of workers at the Goetheanum.
From physical depictions of the daily activities of bees to the most elevated esoteric insights, these lectures describe the unconscious wisdom of the beehive and its connection to our experience of health, culture, and the cosmos.
Bees is essential reading for anyone interested in understanding the true nature of the honeybee, as well as those who wish to heal the contemporary crisis of the beehive. Bees includes an essay by David Adams From Queen Bee to Social Sculpture: The Artistic Alchemy of Joseph Beuys.
The art and social philosophy of Joseph Beuys (1921–1986) is among the most influential of the twentieth century. He was strongly influenced by Rudolf Steiner's lectures on bees. The elemental imagery and its relationship to human society played an important role in Beuys's sculptures, drawings, installations, and performance art. Adams' essay on Beuys adds a whole new dimension to these lectures, generally considered to be directed more specifically to biodynamic methods and beekeeping.

seeya
r o b

[nanouk]

once i knew a bee medicine man, when i lived in chicago, he kept bees and collected herbs and combined used the herbs, royal jelly, honey comb and honey for curing but also preventative purposes, i have never again had the pleasure to access so much divine medicine, chewing honey comb all day long!

[dragonfly]

This passage about bees comes from a book called Lithuania: Past, Culture, Present (Baltos lankos 1999). The English translation is awkward, but it still contains glimmers of interesting information. As the last country in Europe to accept Christianity (not until 1387, and then only reluctantly) and the center of what was once a vast pagan empire, Lithuania has kept alive many pre-Christian folk practices, including this one:

One of the most unusual Lithuanian rural traditions is “biciulyste” – friendship through bees. This is a very complex system with mythological underpinnings; it reveals the family order, the status of the woman as homemaker, relations between men and women, and generally speaking – basic social mores. Beekeeping is primarily a man’s work, and a woman has no right to interfere: taking care of bees is not unlike befriending women. This friendship through bees has become an auxiliary familial structure. A traditional wedding is the ideal model for the eldest son, the future family heir, to find himself a wife; taking care of bees and finding a family with no male heir, but with many daughters, is the duty of the younger, second son. The role of creating relationships falls to the swarm of bees, at the point when it lands and settles “where the girls are.” The people must then share the hives – and it is this manner of friendly relationship which can end in marriages between families.

Bees are considered intelligent and wise, and their queen – the goddess Austeja – is the guardian of families and married women. Bees can recognize good people; their response to people defines the public moral code, which in turn reveals the basic character of the people – the deep-rooted moral values which have survived for at least a thousand years. Bees dislike jealous and angry people who don’t get along with their neighbors, and misers who disobey the rules of hospitality and friendliness. Bees either sting such people, or flee. These bee-determined rules give us an insight in the the well-established strength of agrarian communities – which for a long time were the foundation of our European civilization.

For many years, neither bees nor honey were bought or sold; everyone had a right to beekeeping friendships: a peasant could be a bee-friend to a landowner as well as to any other, noble or less than noble, person. Inevitably however, this custom imposes upon the beekeeper the duty to surreder half of this honey to the landowner; this obligation, a gift in kind, later becomes a tax paid to the estate. All the same, beekeeping friendships remain alive to this day.

[Buzz]

interesting.

twice in my life, alone (and sober I might add) I've been buzzed by an invisible swarm of bees. At least that was what it sounded like.

Whitley Strieber wife, Anne, interviewed Simon Buxton on her radio show Mysterious Powers .
http://www.unknowncountry.com/mysteriouspowers/
to listen click on the green "Click here to listen now" logo in the upper left column or click on "Mysterious Powers" in the upper right corner. Either way, a player will come up and you can select the August 20 show with Buxton.

There is an ancient rock wall painting in Africa which depicts a Bee Goddess with mushrooms growing all over her.

[nanouk]

dear buzz,
i dont know if you read my elementals post but the 'Lord of th Flies' i had pursuing me i initially thought i stepped in a hornet's nest but i walked briskly up the hill into the beech woods and the buzzing got louder and louder and then unbearable! no insects visible thou, and as soon as i left my 'special' ground and came out in the open, they stopped!!! i even put my head back into the woods to listen for them but they were gone, it wasn't flies...i know now it was a swarm of bees...and they weren't out to hurt me, just to alert me...

the buxton interview is wonderful, and i can totally absorb the idea of the honey bee being the conductor of the symphony of herbal active ingredients, and a most powerful healer, jeez, i even use honey in coffee sometimes!

with love and respect, nanouk

[Sage]

I have recently read Simon Buxton's book "The Shamanic Way of the Bee". It is deeply strange, perhaps more so for me because it is so firmly rooted in the landscape of Britain - somehow it is so much easier to accept extraordinary things happening somewhere else. But is is also deeply real - I have found some books on shamanism to be a little too "everything is perfectly safe and bright and lovely". I am both tempted and terrified by some of Buxton's courses - in particular the "Sacred Burial" one where you are buried in the ground overnight, an experience he went through and describes in his book.

[Buzz]

Hi Nanouk,
I missed your post on Oct 5, till now, of course. Are you sure they were bees?
Both times I experienced it, it completely surrounded me, enveloped me. It was very loud, and totally invisible, then flew off, or moved off. One of the Big Mysteries of my life.

Feel free to tell us more Sage.

[nanouk]

well i know the sound of hornets quite well, as well as bees, *being a keen gardener*
my first reaction was hornets, then flies, because the noise unsettled me, i really do not like flies, i let spiders live in my home as fly killers.
i really did not see any insects, and i took my time first to try to localize the noise of the 'swarm', but hurried out of the woods after i failed to, as i hurried up the hill the noise got louder and LOUDER. and then like you said yourself, Buzz,...gone.

i rarely feel paranoid but this scared me.
i have had many psychopomp experiences before, but this one was a clear warning.
i also noted that i did not see ANY animals at all during that particular walk, not even magpie...

as :confused: as you...

love and respect,
n.

[ November 29, 2004, 10:31 PM: Message edited by: Nanouk ]

[benevolent_demon]

This is my first post here and I
had to reply when I saw
the title "Bee Shamanism."
Here is a dream that I had
from fall 2002 as transcribed
the next morning in my log:

I was being led by this shaman
into a ritualistic trance around a campfire.
He was letting the smoke form rings
as they worked their way to the sky.
He started preparing a mixture of
various plants but that also consisted
of mashed up bees which he himself
raised. He told me to eat it when it was
done burning over the fire. It looked
like tar, I told him there was no way
I could eat that.
He sighed and said,"Please...don't think
I'm an asshole." He held my head
back---forced my lips open and poured
the resin into my mouth..
After he closed my lips things get
weird from this part of the dream.
My perceptions goes back/forth between
my own vision and the shamans..who was
talking to me about how most people think
bees are evil... but that it is theoretically
possible to raise even an insect with
good intentions, if it can be raised with
selfish ones. He walked up a mountain with
a wolf looking dog and started "om-ing"..
The "om" sound started sounding more bee like
and my hearing was flooded with the sound of an entire hive of bees. As the shaman's OM became
completely bee-like I woke up."

I was glad to have notepad by my bed
after this one..I have lost so many in
depth dreams..

[willoweyes]

My husband and I have just taken up beekeeping--in spite of the fact that he is allergic to bee stings and terrified of insects. (it was his idea--this is not some subtle plot on my part). Interacting with bugs has never been high on my list of priorities, but now that the bees are part of our life, I do feel a communion, which I hope will grow.

I feel that animals and plants like to listen to our stories--human's greatest talent might be their gift to enchant with words and tales. All domesticated animals that I know appear to enjoy my stories. (These are not tales that I read to them about the nice little horsie--these are tales in my mind, whereby I think a vision of our partnership; of the horse's strenth and beauty, and courage in jumping a fence--which I believe the horse feels and comes to believe in too). The same goes for my dog, goats, chickens, and the plants which I coo my love to. They seem to thrive and preen in the attention and recognition.

However, if you want to tell a tale to a wild animal, you must pay enough attention to learn their story. They do not buy mine. That's one of the differences between the wild and the tame. Bees are somewhere in between, it seems to me. This is part of their magic, which is not subdued by our own--and probably part of the key to their disjunction with our modern world. It's basically very hard to keep a bee alive nowadays. Wouldn't it be ironic if we weren't brought low by fire or ice, but by the demise of the earth's greatest pollinator?

My daughter recently sent me a copy of "The Shamanic Way of the Bee" which I read with interest, if not a complete suspension of disbelief. I think there is a market out there for "The Shamanic Way of the Horse"--a lot more people keep horses than bees, and they all have disposeable income, God bless them! But my heart is really set on "The Shamanic Way of the Chicken."

[tana]

Wliioweyes, you spoke about connecting with animals and plants via speech: "...The same goes for my dog, goats, chickens, and the plants which I coo my love to. They seem to thrive and preen in the attention and recognition."

I hear ya, sister! I can't stop myself from talking to my cats, other people's pets, my vegetable seedlings...and i swear i get feedback from them. I think the same goes for wild animals and insects...i especially enjoy talking to spiders (my personal "animal guide"), and the birds that come to the feeders.

Read through this thread with great interest earlier...gotta check out Buxton's book...found Benevolent Demon's dream, and Buzz & Nanouk's "invisible hive" stories very compelling!

[ March 24, 2005, 09:24 AM: Message edited by: tana ]

[whitewave]

the shape of the honeycomb in a hive is what permaculturists call "the crack and stack" pattern. It is a designed that accommodates infinite numbers of additions without stressing the whole. I get the feeling the bees have lots of messages for all who would listen...in The Fifth Sacred Thing, by Starhawk, the bees are the ultimate hero/ine.

[FormerlyMatt]

I enjoyed your post immensely, Willoweyes!

I, too, read "The Shamanic Way of the Bee," and, in the end, felt ripped off. Not even good fiction, and it claimed to be non-fiction! I was heartened to read a bad review of it months later in "The Shaman's Drum" (#67, 2004). . . Basically, the reviewer didn't believe him either.

I'm sure you know of Sue Hubbell's "A Book of Bees"?

Matt

[willoweyes]

Formerlymatt, I haven't read that one--I'm on it now! I have read Hubbell's book, "A Country Year," which impressed me with her quality as a writer and a human being.

Thank you for the tip, and thank you for your appreciation--you and Tana allowed me to feel like I've managed to communicate something here, that is of utmost importance to me.

[willoweyes]

The main thing that disturbed me about "The Shamanic Way of the Bee" is that there is a lot of real magic and mystery surrounding the subject, but it is as if the author wasn't content with that--he stuck in a few too many bells and whistles.

It's like watching performers in the Cirque Du Soleil--are they not magic? Why do things have to be "over the top" to inspire awe?

[forteanajones]

This topic has rekindled my aspirations from a year ago to start a hive on my suburban property. I'm considering installing a small "stealth hive" on my roof (my city has a fifty-foot distance requirement). Talk about overgrowing! But I'm waffling because I have serious doubts that I would be able to conceal the bee traffic. My city allows, but has a fifty-foot distance requirement (I guess they have to protect people with allergies).

[silentwolf]

Just set it up in an old log in your yard...and don't let it look like you're tending to them. Chances are that no one will even notice; more people would notice if you had a ganja plant than they would if you have a bunch of bees in your yard.