Imagine getting a spiritual visitation from one of these!
Intense, right?
Still, for this girl, a night that includes a visitation from a spirit guide, loved one, or ascended being, file that under best. night. EVARRRR!!!!
One of the very BEST happened in July, 2018 when was granted visitation from, what I can only describe as a Queen Bee. She was way prettier than homeboy in the above picture but, alas, google. Here’s what went down:
While drifting to sleep I began to feel this welling up of love in my heart that was so strong that I was pulled back into complete 3d awareness. I was alone in my bed, but I knew someone or something was sending it so I kept my eyes closed and concentrated on my third eye and simply asked, “Where is this coming from”? Slowly shades and shadows danced until they settled on their shapes: A pair of wide set-eyes- the sweetest eyes! They were large, oval, sparkly-black, and I could feel the calm, care emanating from them. I’m not sure whether or not there was an actual smile or just the feeling of one, but it was an energy that unmistakably pleased. And… antennas!?!? If I hadn’t spent much of the day with my daughter in the garden hyper-aware of the many bees at work and that my 20 month old wanted to pet them, I may have not have recognized Her Majesty. The last thing I’d expect would be for a giant bee to be sweet. I did not hear a “buzz” of any sort, but I sure did feel my whole chest vibrating and drinking in the liquid love that she was emanating. It was a “she”, for sure. She didn’t stay long, just enough to thank me for letting the oregano and thyme flower and grow wild year after year my healing room. She praised me for how I described the bees to my daughter, and for telling others to only plant organic and be careful of chemical pesticides, and she assured me they would not sting any members of our family or my clients. She told me to create an energy system (still in the works) to connect people with the soul and service of the Bee, and that she would come whenever I needed guidance or work ethic to manifest abundance. Her image faded and I had the best nights sleep.
What stands out to me the most about the interaction was how nice her majesty was. How compassionately “seen” by those big alien eye and how relaxed. The more I research bees the more I come to admire them. The entire hive (about 60,00 in the summertime) is living in service to the community and they are always working on the part of the whole. They are calm, focused, they have respect for and maintain the natural order, and they are in tune with the cosmic forces. Qualities that are inherent to the hive set a wonderful example for how to be. And that’s not surprising as been have been on the planet for 70-80 million years and the honey bee for at least 20 million.
(An Irish Beehive ‘stone hut’ called a Clochán, from the Bronze Age)
The bees are our elders and have long been considered divine messengers from the gods. Perhaps they also carried forth the tradition of the Great Goddess, for bees, whose lives are organized entirely around a single queen, have been sacred to the Divine Feminine for thousands of years, in ancient civilizations from Babylon to Rome. Bees were revered for their ability to pollinate flowers and crops, increasing the abundance of the Earth. The cultivation of honey was regarded as a sacred charge carried out with great reverence and ritual for it was seen as a precious gift from the Mother herself.
In the time of ancient Greece bees were called “Birds of the muses”. In the temples of Artemis, Aphrodite, Demeter, Diana and Rhea, priestesses were called the Melissae, which translates as ‘the bees.’ The Goddess as the Great Mother was sometimes titled Melissa, literally, ‘the Queen Bee.’ The Pythian oracular priestess at Delphi was known as the Delphic Bee, and the emblem of a bee was placed on Delphic coins in her honor. Bees often appear on the statues of Artemis, and the officiates at Eleusis during the celebration of the Mysteries were called Bees. Since I’ll be traveling to Ireland in April as part of the Sacred Enchantress Retreat I was particularly excited to learn that The Irish goddess, Brigid, held bees to be sacred. Ancient Celts believed that her power was manifested through the bees,
In early Ireland, the Bards sang of Land-under-Wave, the Otherworld country of the gods, where
‘Rivers pour forth a stream of honey
In the land of Manannán son of Lír.’
This was the land where Celtic warriors hoped to live when they had passed from this world, where they could feast, carouse, and drink unlimited quantities of mead. Mead, made from fermented honey, was the drink of heroes and kings: the royal hall of Tara was called the ‘mead-circling house.’
Bees were considered so important to early Irish society that there were special bee laws designed to protect them to protect bees and handle their interactions with people, called the ‘Bech Bretha.’
The laws were:
- Don’t steal a hive, for that is a capital offense.
- If you were stung but did not retaliate, you received a meal of honey from the beekeeper.
- If you died from the sting, your family would receive two hives!
A 7th century 
holy woman called Gobnait, who founded a women’s community in southwest Ireland, had a close relationship with bees and used their honey for healing illnesses and treating wounds. She was said to be one of three sisters who had power over fire, and is clearly a Christianised version of the triple fire-goddess, Brighid, with whom she shares the same feast-day in early February.
When a band of thieves attempted to steal the community cattle, Gobnait let loose a swarm of bees on the rustlers and sent them fleeing in terror.
At her shrine in Ballyvourney, Co. Cork, a statue depicts her standing on top of a hive, surrounded by bees. I will hopefully get to pay Lady Gobnait a visit while in Ireland for the Sacred Enchantress Retreat!
All this is just the top of the honeycomb. Delving in even deeper to Celtic bee lore may make you sticky as you work your way through the comb, but it is worth the very sweet time.
Crop Circle of a Bee that appeared on the Feast Day of Saint John the Baptist – England, 2004
