Click here to support the Daily Grail for as little as $US1 per month on Patreon

Beehold: The Bee

Our good buddy Andrew Gough (of Arcadia) has finished his detailed (3-part) article on the esoteric history of ‘The Bee’, and I heartily recommend you make up a brew and take some time out to read it all. It’s absolutely fascinating, and takes you on a journey through history and across the world, looking at how the bee has been held sacred by civilisations since the dawn of recorded history (and perhaps before). The first instalment, “Beedazzled”, sets it all up:

History is rife with lost knowledge and traditions whose meaning has blurred with the passage of time. I believe the ‘Bee’ is one such tradition, and that its symbolism was important to civilizations of all ages. Inexplicably, the Bee is dying and nobody is quite sure why. Legend asserts that when the Bee dies out, man will shortly follow. We will review the implications of the Bee’s apparent demise in due course, however in this – our first instalment, we will examine the genesis of the Bee’s symbolism in the mist of prehistory.

The subsequent parts (“Beewildered” and “Beegotten“) cover everything from ancient Egypt and the symbolism of Freemasonry through to scientific analysis of the bees’ communicative “waggle dance” and even a shout-out to my own research into the sounds of altered states (see the free PDF “Her Sweet Murmur” on the Darklore website, or perhaps even buy the book if you’re feeling generous!).

All three parts of the article are available via the links beside the title, and don’t forget that each part is divided into multiple pages, so click through once you get to the bottom of each page. Nice work Andy!

Editor
  1. Esoteric links with bees in modern fiction
    There are references to bees in Anne Rice’s vampire books. She didn’t finish to tell the story, but it’s obvious there was a link between a bee hive that had acquired consciousness, and the Talamasca, the secret society of psychic detectives.

    And, in Francisco Velasco Piña’s Regina, the bees are portrayed as the first species to create a civilization before the humans —they had science and all— but they end up degrading into normal insects, not before helping Regina on her task of awakening Mexico.

    —–
    It’s not the depth of the rabbit hole that bugs me…
    It’s all the rabbit SH*T you stumble over on your way down!!!

    Red Pill Junkie

  2. Great Work!
    I have to say I am flabberghasted at the amount of work and research that has been done to create this fantastic piece of work.

    Yes, some of the parts relate to other people’s research and I welcome the credit they are given, but despite that, this work is beautifully presented, and easy to read.

    I have only read about half way through but intend to read the rest soon.

    Thank you for this enlightening piece.

    As an aside, I have always found the bee to seem to be important to many people, often the aristocracy, and wondered why. When Sarah Ferguson married Prince Andrew Windsor she had bees engraved all over her wedding dress as this was one of the symbols of her ancestral family. Perhaps it is to represent a blood line link with some former ancient Bee God? I may be stretching things a bit, but nevertheless I have always wondered why this insect should be so important to her family.

    I have also been worrying about the fact that bees are in decline in the western world at present, with the suggestion being the development of society, and the poor standard of the soil on the farmlands, as well as the poor weather affecting the timing of the pollen producing plants, and the diseases that now seem to be infecting the hives, all hastening the decline of one of the most intriguing insects on earth. It is not supposed to be able to fly, yet it does; it uses “dance movements” to describe where it has been and where other bees can find the best places to harvest pollen.

    I also cannot help but think about the only real bit of Shakespeare that I remember, “To be or not to be, that is the question”. Could the “be” in this sentence actually refer to “bee”? Again I am stretching the facts, but there may be more to this than meets the eye.

    Carol A Noble

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Mobile menu - fractal