I have been a companion of bees for a number of years; this relationship has walked hand in hand with my shamanic path. I see that bees hold a wisdom which humanity is reaching for, such is the rise\u00a0of\u00a0interest in “bee keeping”. How we listen and interpret this wisdom though is an individual journey to take. I\u00a0would like to offer\u00a0that bees as an expression of nature hold a great wisdom and this is a story of how my recent encounter with two colonies of bees\u00a0and a group of humans moved and shaped my life into a new direction, one that I am sure the bees orchestrated. I recently was involved in bringing\u00a0two colonies of bees to a large working\u00a0community of people close to where I live. The community decided on the\u00a0new site for the bees as I carried a hive with a friend\u00a0I recall saying “we have the whole universe in our hands!”. When I am with a colony of bees I am in awe of the way they operate and something happens deep inside me a quiet and stillness comes to me. My approach to being a companion with bees is to build a relationship with them, observe and\u00a0listen and ask of the bees what is needed,\u00a0as well as using shamanic journeys to meet the spirit of the bees both of the individual hives and the spirit of bee, along with conversation with supportive people this offers a rich source of information to support the bees\u00a0. Any interventions are then done using the information gained\u00a0from these methods and\u00a0offered as\u00a0sensitively as possible with minimal and only necessary interventions. Both hives\u00a0from this\u00a0way of listening\u00a0were calling for space which I gave to them by increasing the size of the hive, very quickly\u00a0one colony began to thrive. The other colony I\u00a0soon realised came with no queen and was struggling. I used my methods to find\u00a0a solution that involved the bees input and\u00a0would sit with the hives regularly and watch\u00a0their comings and goings. Then there were murmurings from the community that bees were coming to the flowers and they were worried about being stung! I spoke with people in the hope of reducing the fear. Then one day I arrived and the hives had been rearranged, another bee person came looked at them and decided that everything was “wrong!”. Honey was taken from the hives and the space the bees were asking for was removed and the colonies were split! The original idea of the bees being allowed to be as a support for the land was over and a farming and resource approach was imposed. On a personal level the pain I felt was deep and strong the grief of how we relate to the earth opened up in me through this experience;\u00a0I fell into a immense sadness. I\u00a0called out\u00a0to find a solution from the spirit of bee,\u00a0I got no clear answer yet the following events unfolded. I spoke with a number of\u00a0people and out of these discussion I went to meet a woman who has a number of hives all kept in a natural beekeeping way. When I arrived she had a visitor and I was left to be with the bees, soon I went deep inside and felt a connection with the bees and from feeling the aliveness of the garden I understood the impact the bees were having on the land and environment I was standing in as well as me as part of the environment for these moments.\u00a0When she\u00a0returned\u00a0I listened to a number of stories about her experiences with bees, as I listened the grief I was still feeling started to drain away and by the time it came for me to leave I was with a great\u00a0admiration for her and the bees\u00a0as well as full of\u00a0joy and\u00a0inspiration. I left with a understanding that I had never experienced before and what I dreamed was possible with bees I now had just experienced. I felt\u00a0how bees shape land and environment they really are alchemists. As a result I am now involved in discussions about setting up some kind of advocacy service for natural bee keeping here in Scotland. On a personal level as someone who is inclined to be a lone worker, this involvement with the bees has opened up something in me of working with others with both\u00a0the advocacy service as well as the synchronicity of being asked to be a trustee of a biodynamic garden. It seems my involvement of working with bees directly\u00a0as well as with\u00a0the spirit of bees has opened and shaped a new direction in my life and old patterns are\u00a0slipping away. Jaqueline Freeman in her excellent book “the song of increase” talks of the hive as a holy place. I met the hive each time as a sacred encounter and trusted in the wisdom the bees held and worked with the\u00a0guidance both of\u00a0the hive bees and the spirit of bee offered. My role as human was to listen and shape the environment to support the bees as they did there magic to the land. I also became unexpectedly a voice\u00a0using language that met the people involved for this way of being with bees, a voice\u00a0that largely was met with silence. This experience has changed me and new projects\u00a0are on the horizon as a result. I understand this has come from an encounter with the wisdom the bees hold and meeting the bees in this holy place and maybe orchestrated by the spirit of the bee itself. I know when we engage with spirit our life will change and\u00a0my story with the bees\u00a0I see as a direct example of working with shamanism as\u00a0opening a sacred relationship with life one I keep saying is much needed in the times we live in. So while it was a deeply distressing experience personally so much is opening from this and I can only\u00a0wonder that\u00a0this was orchestrated by the bee spirit? The group that made decisions about the bees decided to move them away from the community as there was too\u00a0 much concern about the bees being with the flowers! I wonder what there experience of this\u00a0has brought to there life? Shamanism is rooted in the earth and\u00a0offers a respectful\u00a0encounter with life and one that is\u00a0earth centred if we can open to find the questions and listen well to the answers that\u00a0spirit and nature gifts us our relationship with the earth changes which brings us to a more natural rhythm. \u00a0In\u00a0Natures Sovereignty\u00a0 we work with the understanding that\u00a0“nature is the best manager of nature” if we can listen and allow this to be so, and\u00a0act for the earth and all life what kind of world would this be and what would we humans become as a result? It\u00a0would be a radical move away from how society is now but the wisdom may well be with us if we can listen.<\/p>\n
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I have been a companion of bees for a number of years; this relationship has walked hand in hand with my shamanic path. I see that bees hold a wisdom which humanity is reaching for, such is the rise\u00a0of\u00a0interest in “bee keeping”. How we listen and interpret this wisdom though is an individual journey to … <\/p>\n