10. october .08

i was outside today taking a walk to clear my head and enjoying the absolutely beautiful fall weather in new england and noticed a few honeybees still hanging in there, albeit flying a little more slowly.  i've always been curious about bees, so of course i went home and started doing some investigating.  such fascinating and mythical little creatures now finding themselves in a state of peril.  i wonder is there anything in nature we humans haven't inflicted devastation upon?  Like the bees , we are individuals, yet we are, most surely, like the bees, a group, and as a group we have, over the millenia, built ourselves a hive, our home. We would be foolish, to say the least, to turn our backs on this carefully and beautifully constructed home especially now, in these uncertain and unsettling times.

so bees...

The Telling of the Bees

In Britain, according to tradition, the bees residing in family beehives, "had to be treated as members of the household; in particular, they must be told about deaths, marriages, and births in the family."  If these courtesies were not made, the bees would swarm to a hive elsewhere or die.  In some areas the hives were turned  as the coffin was removed from the house, so that the hive could witness the procession. A piece of funeral crepe is then tied to the hive and after a period of time funeral sweets are brought to the hives for the bees to feed upon. The bees are then invariably invited to the funeral and have on a number of recorded occasions seen fit to attend. According to folklore belief, bees had the ability to take messages from people who were living to those already in the spirit world. The telling of the bees was a way to prepare the way for the newly deceased.

There are a great many other practices that are observed concerning bees. Among those that know them well, bees are understood to be quiet and sober beings that disapprove of lying, cheating and menstruous women. Bees do not thrive in a quarrelsome family, dislike bad language and should never be bought or sold for money. Bees should be given without compensation but if such compensation is essential, barter or trade is greatly preferable so that no money changes hands.

In early traditions bees were believed to have originated in paradise and were known as "little servants of Gods". It was considered bad luck to kill one.

In Wales a bee buzzing around a sleeping child means the child will have a happy life and a virgin can always walk safely through a swarm of bees. (HA!)

Bees are symbolic of sexuality, chastity, fertility, purity and care. They are also considered to be an image of a human soul due to their natural ability to find their way home from great distances.

In ancient times it was believed that bees were attracted to the sounds of clanging metal and thus bees were associated with the love of music.

The Hindu gods Vishnu, Krishna and Indra were referred to as "nectar born ones" (Madhava) and were often represented as bees perched on a lotus flower.

The Egyptian sun god Re was believed to have created bees and humans from his tears. Burying the nobility in honey was a common practice in Egypt as a form of embalming the dead. The Egyptians also placed bees and honey in tombs as offerings to spirits of the dead.

Mead or honey wine is one of the oldest alcoholic beverages in the world and was drunk in countries such as Ireland, Ethiopia, India, Germany and Greece. Because mead was believed to be the drink of immortality, bees were legally protected in Ireland.

A long believed myth about bees is that they do not sting at night, which in fact is incorrect ,they will sting at anytime for protection.

Bees, supposedly being capable of "virgin births" , became symbolic of the Virgin Mary.

St Ambrose of Milan is the patron saint of beekeepers and it was said that as a child,  his father found the sleeping boy covered in a swarm of bees.

THE END