Voices from Goddess: Priestess of the Bee
Bees have buzzed their way through the mythology of most cultures - unsurprisingly, because without these colonies of little pollinators, there would be very few plant foods available to the food chain. Many of these myths arose during the Age of Taurus, c. 4300-2150 BCE, the time when many civilisations were matriarchal and goddess-worshipping. Taurus is the constellation of the bull, and interestingly, many myths of the bee are linked with the bull or cow. ‘A land of milk and honey’ for example is a metaphor that links abundance with bees and cows. Bees are seen as magical little messengers, flying between this world and the next, waggle dancing across the veil.
An image that came through to me very strongly was of starseed souls flying like bees from the constellation of the Pleiades, ‘the Seven Sisters’, in the constellation of Taurus, to earth and looking back at their star home. The image here is of a gold bee goddess from Greece, c.700 BCE, and the ancient bee priestesses of that time were known as the Melissae. Here’s a little poetic transmission from them that arrived last year when I was diving deep into these ancient traditions, the story of a Melissa soul’s journey through lifetimes. You can read my poem below, or if you prefer to just lie back and receive in the true Path of Pollen way, you can listen here.
If you’re inspired to dive more into the traditions of the bees, you can listen to this short journey into the hive with Donna - to make the most of the journey, have a candle (ideally a beeswax one) and lighter, a small dish of honey and paper and pen.
Perfect tracks to play in the background while listening to this journey are Mantra of the Bee Goddess and The Hive of the Mysteries, both by Layne Redmond. Enjoy!
Blessed Bee!
Donna xox
Priestess of the Bee
star dwellers born from primordial humming
from the Pleiades, the Seven Sisters, in the Bull,
Sirius and the Bee Cluster
dowager queens swarming to new homes
a star diaspora
flying to a blue-green flower
to Sumer I navigated my waggle dance path
in a moon maiden bull horn crescent of fertility
a Cosmic Bee Queen of the Stars
building a ziggurat hive
with central Queen Bee star
Ishtar the winged eight pointed Star
skep and bovine horn helmeted
looking back to Taurus, I am the bee from the Bull
embraced by lion-hearted poet Enheduanna
pollinating holy tree of life palms with sticky date pollen
Euphrates thirst-slaking lioness and tigress of the Tigris
I died a blazing supernova star sacrifice
freeing my bee soul to fly with winged beloved sister Isis
giggling and dancing bee nymphs together
lithe feline perfumed kitten Bast babies
smiling love and magic, painting honey glyphs at third eye
on each other
and on linen wrapped lioness cubs
from heart of Inanna and womb of Sekhmet
we shed amber honey tears to watch Neith rise from the waters of the Nun
built the beeswax structure of the delta House of the Bee
overflowed our honeyed reverence into black obsidian obelisk temples in the city of the Sun
where our babies were born from his eyes
eyes so bright that we were veiled
come lift our veils and see into the galbanum scented propolis tomb wrapping
of the journey of the dead
and yet not dead
souls carried as bees
by bees
past seven questioning sisters
into the psychopomp hands of Anubis
weighing their honey heart
against the feather of Ma’at
flying back through the veil as Osiris resurrected
from the horns of our Sumerian helmet
buried in desert sands
arising as seven life length knowing
cowrie shell rattle girdle wearing
sistra shaking sisters from the stars
to join an incense-and spice scented drum-marked procession
of Taurus
home and yet here
my beloved Bull
flying as doves
across the ocean at the centre of the world
leaping over the back of a bull
to a sacred cave hive where Bee Mother Rhea birthed drone Zeus
and we nurse maid suckle him on ambrosial nectar
and as doves and serpents we speak from Rhea-Gaia’s sacred earth
at Dodona and Delphi
chewing on the sacred laurel
in blood red gowns
bleeding into the hive earth
wheat sheaf cradled by Demeter dowager Queen Bee mother
descending Persephone deep into the labyrinthine Eleusinian earth
ascending lips dripping with sweet-sticky pomegranate womb hive juice on virgin queen flight
maiden searching for my Dumuzi drone honey man
flying
loving
blazing in the honeyed ghee fire of subcontinent demon slaying sun
divine drinking ambrosial amrita soma swilling
wedding drunk on heady blue lotus flower bridegroom garland
spinning flying waggle dancing
joining
coupling
ecstatically space travelling back to our star hive home
fertilising
filling me full of his fertile Aphrodite birthing sea foam
explosively initiating me into Artemis egg filled temple hive
I am rapturous
rebirthed
renewed
distraught
his physical Osiris body falling back to Gaia dust
his Aphrodite-blessed honey dripping bee soul
flies free
home to stars
as I Bee Queen Sheba return to hive temple
ritual mantra birthing egg babies
rudraksha bee beads in beeswax temple bowls
honouring my dancing consort
blazing on his star mountain
our brood grow and swell and swarm again and again
into Lemurian bee shaman hives
alchemising into Atlantean Royal Fire Family
bee coming Tuatha de Dannan
psychopomp bees buzzing from Tir na Nog
rising with phoenix passion
from ashen
bulls again
in the Morrigan’s red-eared Sidhe herd
stealing cattle from Cooley
still intoxicated by honeyed mead
from vulva hive of priestess queen
breath-granting the three gifts of the hive of CuChulainn’s heart
stoking the poetic fire in Brigid’s head
kindling the fire under three druidic cauldrons
listening to druid knowledge
mead circling in Tara Hill
goddess of battles fought and won telling of bounty of balance
countered by apocalypse devastation of abuse of bees and Maeve mead Earth
collapsing exhaustion of enslaved Oshun honey bees
juggernaut driven on hive slave ships across Yemaya oceans away from their native Aye earth
breaking their Chango chains
remembering
community
respect
honouring the earth
recalling the swarm of queen bee earth mothers
asking the bees what did the druids know?
they knew to tell the bees and to look to the stars.
Donna Gerrard (c) 2021
