Up until a week ago, I had not been closer to the bees than my father's folklore stories about it having an entire Sura named after in the Quran and how sacred and blessed their honey was. At home honey was truly portrayed as a divine elixir and called as medicine, next to olive oil when we complained about pains.
I am also very grateful to have been inculcated to not be afraid when we were approached by bees and even wasps. My brothers and I had been taught from early on to always recite an arabic incantation or affirmation invocating the protection of God, asserting that all creations of God understand the language of God. Staying calm when they hovered aroud us was a beautiful early lesson for getting to appreciate the rawness of Nature and have a glimpse of the notion that we are all one, we all speak the language of the heart.
And that's what I felt very powerfully when @ravenking13 got his much awaited delivery of a colony and we got to the moment of transferring them to the Beehive.
No protection apart from a turban to avoid them getting caught in my hair, it honestly felt like the most natural thing to be in the middle of the ten thousand bees (10,000 literally) flying in every direction, being rootedly present, almost as if a part of it all, and witness the eye of the swarm.
Amore had told me about the two times he kept bees himself but I did not expect him to tell me one morning a couple of months ago; "We are getting bees at the end of May!"
Surprised I was, and did not make the link that WE are literally getting bees now! It's funny how the mind can record reality when something you have never really engaged with is due to enter your life so up close when you have no idea what it all consists of.
But the underlying ambiance of organically building a Sanctuary for Free and God Loving spirits was immediately the bursting joy of understanding that we are going to live with Bees, we are going to build them a powerful temple, we are going to let them do whatever they want and not steal anything from them, not treat them with chemicals, not meddle with their natural way, all just for the sake of witnessing their grace and divine work with our own eyes and beings. With the mystic realization of sharing living space with powerful animal spirits like the Python or the Bee that we enchantedly built sacred living spaces for, and many others that take residence in the garden, like the nightingale rocking us to sleep since a couple of days, it becomes more and more intentionally for us to invite our huge animal family back to our lives, for now to our small modest Oasis.
Since the announcement, we dived deep into videos and research, being particularly drawn to initiatic and shamanic paths working with, and honoring the Bee. It's really impressive to learn that honeybees have been living in the same constellation for 30 million years and have done it well without any human intervention.
To be frank, it aghasts me how some people affirm that there are no wild honeybees left, that they 'need' to be husbanded by humans otherwise they would not survive, I find that very very humancentric and don't agree.
We need everything more than any of these life forms need us. I'm not sure there would be a big ecosystem breakdown if humans disappeared off the face of the earth. Quite the contrary if we continue with such mentality of having to "care" for everything, and by caring many understand manipulate.
Once you dive into the beekeeping world, it sure reminds me a lot of what we encountered when we felt called to invite two ball pythons to our home; breeders and 'producers' proudly calling themselves such because of their ways of 'managing' and interfering with the animals natural independence. It's so awkward to see people behave in such a manner that they deem humans so 'responsible' for the success and efficiency of what an animal has been created to do in it's own DNA.
A funny thing is that if I continue with those two species, they are so complimentary, it's magical.
We all know the Black Plague killed most of Europe, and that was coincidentally right after they had burned all the witches and their snakes and cats. And who brought the Plague? The prey of those who were burned away and shunned religiously.
Rodents are still doing a mess today; we don't have enough of their predators anymore around. Evenmore so if people use poison, they are poisoning the predator with its offspring at once. We could not even let our snake friends catch one of these rodents from the wild or solve the mice problem in our roof (like Nature meant it to be) unfortunately because we have no idea what they have been eating and cannot give into the danger.
Rodents are not bothering us humans much, but for honeybees they are the biggest enemy during the wintermonths. They break in and eat all the honey and bring in parasites and what else and can jeopardize an entire bee colony's health so much so that it can collapse.
There are many lores of Beehives having particularly been protected by snakes tell us how one of the biggest threats of a living hive would be taken care of by the glorious serpentines. Those two being mutually inclusive in many healing traditions and temples across Europe, they both point to constant mutation, death, rebirth and ascension to immortality.
So we decided to laser engrave many serpents on the hive to at least invite Snake Spirit as protection :)
And that's how @ravenking13 just up and ordered another swarm and another hive that will become a second sanctuary in our garden :)
The Entrance ready for the first inhabitants
Be sure to stay tuned for the next post I'm going to unveil the entire creation of the temples with full pictures this week Godwilling!
-All pictures are shot by me-
Peace, Love, God, Mother Earth