Of Bees and Bears. Part 2. Making the Drum.
Continued from Of Bees and Bears Part 1: 
I recently read that bees, like shamans are able to travel between worlds, and that in many cultures the world over they once held the belief that have the ability to connect the beekeeper to the ancestral spirit realms, acting as a bridge between the beekeeper and the spirit world.
And so it was that as soon as I returned home from the Collage of the Melissae I sat with my piece of now dry bear hide which was soon to become my drum and journeyed to learn the story of this bear and how best to honor her.
I learned more things in this journey that I could have ever imagined, there were many lessons in this for me, that literally took an entire year to process and sort out. Patience has been one of those lessons, but waiting between each journey came easily once I understood that it was for the best and why. These are a few of the lessons I learned from my spirit guides and the bear:
Most animals cross over the moment they die. Some, very few, stay because they loved their lives and are too attached to their bodies, or are angry about how they died, fewer still are attached to humans and they are rarely attached to each other.
This bear loved her body and was still here, but was ready to go now.
It was explained to me that when working with an animal that has left/crossed they often look like ALL the animals in their species.
I was shown a polar bear, then a grizzly and then a black bear. If they are STILL HERE here they will be specifically the same animal they were when they died. I was also told that this bear wants to work with me and was wanting to leave and willing to go in order to be able to do this work, once this happened I knew I still must wait, just a little longer–somehow this felt like a big part of the process…
And so I waited for a month and a half month, knowing that the next piece would be reveled in it’s own time….. I have found over the years that when doing shamanic work that the pieces of the puzzle work themselves out in their own sweet time and forcing the issue only makes it harder for me, and somehow seems to make the matter take even longer!
During this time I continued to ponder the deep connection I was feeling between the bees and bears, it was a conundrum to me since bears adore bees, but they usually destroy the nests to get at the sweet buttery larvae and the bees are none too happy about it. But this adoration on the part of the bears was what I have kept coming back to, because I too, feel the same adoration and love for them. It is the bee that brings us a little sweetness in life and makes things feel better when life gets us down. A soothing cup of tea with honey, sweet cakes eaten and shared in times of celebration, and of course the poetry of the sweet honey comb and the powerful elixir mead that is made from honey–I literally could go on and on! I too feel like the bear in the image below shown hugging the bee skep, and of course who can forget pooh bear whose great love in life is sweet honey!
Art by: Julianna Swaney
Yes bees and bears go together like it or not, and I like to think that the bears give back in their own unassuming way, as they feast on berries in the spring and summer dropping the seeds all over the place in their scat to create new blossoms for the bees to pollinate the following year, as is such in the great circle of life…
Over the past year this bear has come with me to Courtnay and back-my big plans to make her into a drum there foiled because I brought the wrong size of frame, she has waited and waited for me to feel that the timing was right, to make sure that I honored her in the right way and then finally the day came when I knew she would wait no longer–her drum needed to be made! I nervously prepared everything, found the perfect size of frame and held my breath when she was dry, as I have never made a drum with a hole in it before–did I mention that there was a large hole in the face of the drum? This too was to be a big part of the process, the reason for the drum included this hole, Ijust did not know exactly why, yet……
Once she was made and as soon as she was dry and ready to be woken up, I tentitivly played her softly at first and then louder and louder with complete delight and awe that she sounds SO amazing!
The year meandered on slowly, with pieces coming to me as they will in their own time, and now that the drum was made I had the great opportunity to play it and journey with it, finding deeper meanings in what the drum was for and my role in it all.
For now all I can say is that I am still integrating it all, slowly letting it seep into my bones and working on painting the spirit bear on the front, which it would seem is also to be a slow work in progress.
Here is a photo of my slowly evolving bear drum, the imagery is changing daily at this point, and I am sure what is here now will be entirely different by next month, but I am enjoying the process immensly.
Also in this photo you can see the hole or as I have come to understand it, a “spirit hole” at to the side of the bear, this has great meaning for my work with this drum and my new spirit guide bear.
Sacred Beekeeping.
An Ancient, sacred, and environmental job that is calling for our attention again.
This is an article that I originally wrote for the Caravan newsletter in the fall of 2012 for our shamanic community.
Sometime in 2006 or perhaps even before, beekeepers all over Europe noticed that their honeybees were leaving the hive and not returning home. Literally over night thousands of honey bees would disappear!
By 2007 scientists also began to take notice, and over the next few years the mysterious disappearance of honey bees would become a world-wide problem. The name they gave this phenomenon was Colony Collapse Disorder, and theories about where the bees were going, and why were vast!
Scientists have estimated that nearly one-third of all honey bee colonies in the USA have vanished. This does not account for Canada and the rest of the world where bees are being just as affected! If we loose our pollinators we loose all vegetable and fruit crops, many grain crops and all of our flowers the world over, a message too hard to simply ignore!
There are many though, who tapped into the consciousness of the bees had it right from the get go, and it is these people who have a deep understanding of the importance pollinators play in not only the health of humans and animals, but also an understanding that the bees are desperately trying to get our attention!
Mass pesticides, the overuse of antibiotics{yes beekeepers treat their bees with them} invasive parasitic mites, an inadequate food supply, {mono culture} and a new virus that targets bees immune systems all play a role in the disappearance of our honey bees. But more research needs to be done to determine the exact cause of the bees distress, and more people need to do what they can to support, even if it is just planting bee friendly flowers.
In the meantime a small group of beekeepers the world over have started a movement of keeping our bees more naturally, not using common antibiotic treatments and going back to the basics of beekeeping, and learning what we can from ancient practices.
Beekeeping and shamanism:
My journey as a sacred/shamanic beekeeper began in 2008, two years into my shamanic apprenticeship when I picked up a book
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Sweet Honey Harvest
This year we had the sweetest honey harvest ever!
Well actually it was our first honey harvest ever, as last year we left all of the honey for the bees, and the year before the bees that lived here belonged to Nao, who always gave us several jars, but the harvest always happened over at her place.
Yes this year I did the harvest all on my own and then invited the community over to our house to take part and share in the sweetness with us!
Everything kind of happened in several stages over the course of the past 2 weeks, starting with making sure that the honey was ready to be taken and then taking it over the course of several days, the last of it being taken about 4 days ago.
The bees, considering what they went through this year, many of the hives being swarm splits and queenless at certain points did amazingly well!
As you can see below there were many many frames full of fully capped honey for us to take, BUT having said that it is important to leave quite a bit of honey for the bees so they do not starve over the winter. This being my first year “robbing the bees” of their honey I had a bit of reading up to do to make sure that I did not take too much!
The first day I took only 4 frames, which weighed about 10 lbs per frame, heavier then you might expect! Chatting with the bees I explained what I was doing and thanked them for the sweetness that they would bring us over the winter months and leaving them sweet offerings.
Luckily last year when Nao moved to Honey Grove she sold me her small honey extractor so I was all set up for the harvest!
Our family gathered in the kitchen that first night and watched as liquid gold spun out of the frames and into the filtering bucket, where slowly it filtered through the netting and then, finally we were able to fill our first precious jars of honey!
It was truly magical and I felt very blessed to have my children be able to experience the crazy amazing phenomena and magic of what thousands of bees create!
A few days later I was able to gather several more frames of honey and then we invited the neighborhood community over. Have I ever mentioned that a LOT of children live on our block? It only took a few calls and we had a full kitchen of curious children excited about seeing honey and spinning the comb out!
Of course at this point we were all seasoned experts{*wink*}and were able to give a full demonstration of how it all worked and then let everyone have a try at combing the caps of the top of the honey to prepare it for the extractor.
I am not sure which was more fun for the kids having a crank on the extractor, or getting to fill up their own jars of honey!
The night was sticky, but finally when everyone had left and the floor was mopped for the thousandth time, I again had a wash of gratefulness, for I could see that much like the bees we all live in a community, sharing the same streets and caring for each others children and well being. Our neighborhood really is a thriving busy place and, one week later I was preparing my observation hive to take to our block party for all the kids to see.
Yes it has been a busy and sweet year for us! What has made your summer sweet?
Adventures at the Collage of the Melissae and the Goddess Temple
A few weeks ago my family and I drove down to California from where we live here in B.C, this trip has become a bit of an annual one, as both Sohrab’s brother and sister both live in the bay area, and it has become one we look forward to each summer.
This year though I had connected with Laura Ferguson the director of The Collage of the Melissae/Center for Sacred Beekeeping and wanted to actually met her in person and see what she has created over this past year.
Laura lives in Ashland and the center is located at a beautiful hot springs on the same land as the Goddess temple Ashland so I could not be more excited!
If you were to go to the web–site you would see that the model and syllabus says this: “The College of the Melissae offers a community-centered hands-on approach to beekeeping science, art, craft, culture and ceremony. Modeled after ancient village-based temple educational systems, the college will offer a multi-faceted curriculum that will train students to become proficient beekeepers as well as develop the skills to provide action-based magic and leadership in these changing times.
We intend to go beyond current beekeeping practices by delving into the Sacred and developing a deep resonant interaction with Apis Mellifera. Through collective envisioning and prayer we will celebrate and strengthen community and learn from one of Nature’s greatest emissaries, the Mysterious Honey Bee.”
The collage where the student beekeepers gather is in a dome shaped structure with a lovely wood floor and smells of the sweet heavenly smell of beeswax and honey.
This is a perfect place for their community to gather and learn, and I was spellbound and fully inspired by what they have created in such a short time!
Laura greeted me on the path to the goddess temple and the bee temple and took me deep into the gardens on the property, we spoke at length about our own ideas and philosophies on beekeeping and were delighted to realize that we both share the same out look with regards to sacred beekeeping–We need to meet the bees where they are, not the other way around!
Laura is a humble gentle woman with a HUGE amount of energy, which is good, because she is at the forefront of this new and exciting movement with regards to the honey bee and gathering community to bring awareness and support to the honey bee, as Colony Collapse has affected millions of bees and pollinators each year and it is getting worse!
Laura guided me up the hill and onto the sacred site where the students keep their bees, stopping at the base to ground and settle ourselves before entering the bee yard, which I appreciated because between the two of us the energy was high as we excitedly talked and shared. Once we got to the top and my eyes met the hives I was stilled and humbled as I heard the buzzing and happenings of the bees in the individual worlds of their hives.
Each student took the time to paint their boxes, creating beautiful pieces of art for the bees to live in. As we walked through the hives Laura explained the consciousness of each hive to me, and related it to be similar to the personality of the man or woman who was their beekeeper. I have long thought this to be true as my bees recognize me and reflect my moods back to me while I am in the hives. This makes me more aware of the state of mind and pushes me to “bee” more mindful in my life.
I was also struck by the acceptance of men into the structure of the collage, as typically spiritual melissae are woman only, but Laura has created both Bee priestesses and Priests as both men and women come together to work in a sacred manner with the bees. For in the end, no matter what you call us, all that really matters is that we are doing the work we feel called to do, and in my opinion if this helps the decline of the honey bee, I am all for it!
There are many exciting things to come at the collage, right now they have approx 15 hives{to my count} on the property, with more to come I am sure! Laura and I only had a precious hour to spend together before she had to run off to work, but we managed to cram it all in, parting ways with promises to keep in touch and to collaborate on the new on-line course that is developing. It is my hope to support the school in any way I can, offering some of the shamanic wisdom of the bees that I have learned from my ancestors over these past years and helping to spread the word of the work she is doing.
Once she left I wandered down to the Goddess Temple and the Red Tent tipi that is there and made offerings of copies of our Moon Mysteries book, prayers and other sweet things I had brought with me….
I will leave this post now with some of the photos I took of the Goddess temple, for really there are no words to describe the peaceful energy that resides there, nor my experience as I sat alone taking it all in–other then to say I left with a deep peace in my heart, and an inner fire in my belly to follow my heart and path as a priestess of the Melissae.
The Goddess Temple Ashland:
The Red Tent at the Goddess temple:
Adventures on Red Moon Urban Farm.
So we finally came up with a name for our humble urban homestead-Drum Roll please…. Red Moon Urban Farm–Yes I know original right!?. But in defense of myself Sohrab and the kids like it-whew!
On another note I have to fess up and admit that here in Vancouver the weather in the past 3 weeks has been rainy and cold and I let it get to me! Feeling a little down and not very inspired to write I have been drinking tea and having chats with friends instead of writing here, or getting a farmers tan like I had hoped. We have nicknamed this month “June-uary”
But I of course having no choice was rolling with the punches getting the kids to their last weeks of school, and taking advantage of the rain to be inside working on creations, but if I am really honest what I wanted to be doing was gardening and enjoying some sunshine!
And then a few days ago the sun came out, I was tentative at first to believe it’s staying power, but lo and behold it did stay, and then the flip flops came out to my great surprise! Now don’t get me wrong I am still wearing a hoodie when I am out because the sun is not very hot, but holy-goddess I will take it!!
Of course when one is only going outside to feed the chickens or to pop into the bee hives to make sure all is well, once does not necessarily notice the growing things, but things have been growing away in the garden and thriving on this rain!
So here is a catch up post about growing things:
In one day all of the flowers seemed to pop open giving us the most wonderful eye candy!!
And a few Blog Posts ago I mentioned that two of my hives did not have queens and I was working hard to remedy this problem, for you see a hive without a queen to lay more eggs will die out in a matter of weeks! Because it is always better to have your hive make it’s own queen it really is a waiting game before doing anything drastic, and so I waited…..
But after several weeks of no new eggs in either hive I decided to slowly move two of the hives together with the hopes of combining them, and bought a new queen for the other. This process takes several days, and as soon as I got the hives beside each other and acclimatized to each other, I did one last check, just to be sure that there was no queen in the left hive, and lo and behold there were eggs!!!
This was happy news, but then I needed to begin moving the hives apart again, this I took my time with as there was no rush and I now have three happy and thriving hives all with Queens!
Of course the chickens-well um-er roosters had some of their own adventures, a few weeks ago when one of them started crowing/cock-a doodle-dooing in the mornings and gave us quite the surprise! And a week later one of the others chickens-er roosters started doing the same thing! So off we trucked Fathers day week-end to Anne’s farm and traded them in for hens, so now we have two new lovely ladies Crumpet and Smokey and hopefully in the next month or so we will also have eggs.
The raised beds are growing like crazy and full of lettuce, Kale, beans and other yummy things we have been enjoying in bits and spurts,and we are preparing to build two more raised bead out front as part of the small neighborhood grant I received, these beds will be full of bee friendly flowers!
Today we head out of the city for a few days to the Island, which I am really looking forward to, and hoping that the sun will stay with us too.
Telling the Bees
There is an ancient tradition among beekeepers as Telling the Bees. This tradition was very well kept right up until the late 19th century, when for some reason it was lost.
The belief is that the bees being a central part of each family that kept them, needed to be informed of any marriages, births and most importantly the death of their keeper. If they were not told it was said that they would leave and not come back.
Beekeepers would come to the bee yard and share with the bees what was happening and leave little offerings such as wedding cake or small sweets if a child was born. Conversely if their beloved beekeeper actually died, the bees would be told, and the hives draped in black cloths on the day of the funeral, or turned around so that the entrance was away from where the body would be removed from the home.
It is also said that those beekeepers who work with them in a more spiritual or shamanic way, would tell the bees of their learning’s in the realm of magic, and thus pass on the wisdom of this knowing.
When a new apprentice takes over the bees from the shamanic beekeeper it is said that they would then “Ask the bees”.
Asking the Bees:
It is said that if you want to know the wisdom of the bees and to learn their sacred knowledge ask them what “the druids knew”. It is said that the bees remember…..
I myself have been telling and asking the bees since they came to live here with us and I have to say, theirs is truly a sacred wisdom, they are happy to share, if of course treated with respect.
Below you can see that I have moved two hives close together, this is because one of them is queenless….
I have been “Telling the Bees” that soon they will be merged into one colony, that their queen will have more room and a larger family. More importantly though I have been telling the queenless hive that the will be getting a new queen soon, and how wonderful she is, in hopes that they will receive her well, for if they do not they will kill her!
We will see if it works!
For now though I leave you with a video, and chat with the band Telling the Bees, whose cover image is above….
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