Bee spirits
Shamanic practice calls on spirits, which can be of all kinds. Each of us, in this world of ordinary reality, has a mind connected to the world of non-ordinary reality but it is not always easy to “see” on the other side of the mirror. Wild animals, like the elements and the mineral world, are very connected with other dimensions. This is especially the case for bees, which easily pass on both sides of the border, as we describe here...
What is the connection between shamanism and bees?
The shaman is a hollow bone, a bridge between the ordinary reality in which we live, and the non-ordinary reality, where the spirits live. To cross the passage, he enters a trance and can communicate with the spirits and entities of the non-ordinary world. There are several ways to enter a trance state. Some use substances such as Ayahuasca. Dancing or drumming (which I use frequently) are also ways of opening up to these other dimensions. For me, it was the bees that opened this door for me. I didn't understand at first what it was about, but certain things happened that aroused my curiosity. They weren't harmless, so I did a little research and discovered that others had experienced this kind of encounter with bees. And that brought me to the world of shamanism. I then realized all the hidden dimensions in which bees live and to which they can open the doors for us. The apiary then became a sort of highly vibrating drum, a multifaceted door to non-ordinary realities. A door to the spirit world.
In the middle, slightly to the left, a bee communicates with its sisters all around it
A beautiful cluster, the bees cling to each other with their legs
Vibrational bees
The abilities of bees and the nature of their world are too vast to summarize here. I can only give a few clues... Bees are highly vibrational beings, like mini high frequency drums. They are also at the crossroads of a multitude of paths from our visible world to the hidden world. They emit and perceive, in a hyper-sensitive manner and in realities other than those we perceive.
On the side of our ordinary reality, we can mention the fact that they perceive ultraviolet radiation (colors that we do not see), polarized light (which allows them to know the exact position of the sun even if it is hidden) . They perceive minute variations in the Earth's magnetic field. Their sense of smell is infinitely more sensitive than ours, capable of smelling flowers over incredible distances, or even subtle pheromones emitted by their queen. They also smell the hormones that we emit, when we are afraid, when we are agitated or happy, or even certain odors linked to our hormonal imbalances or illnesses.
More than sounds, they feel vibrations in the air such as those generated by an external movement, or a hand placed on the hive, even delicately.
They dance to communicate to their sisters the position of sources of nectar or pollen. The frequency of their vision is approximately 10 times higher than ours, which means that they have a perception of the passage of time that is probably slowed down by the same amount compared to ours. Recently, we have known that they dream, are capable of abstraction and even recognize faces. At night, in the heart of the hive, they know the position of the sun below the horizon. And they adapt to all climates, including long winters in our latitudes, where they maintain a temperature of 25°C in the heart of the hive.
However, it is their spirits and shamanic dimensions that interest us more particularly here. Due to their very special perception of the world around us, they are on the border of our non-ordinary reality and easily pass to the other side. Their ability to convey messages, to “feel” what is wrong with us, and to provide us with remedies is nothing short of astonishing. When we take the time to listen, nature is filled with spirits, plants, animals, elements that speak to us... Animals that have remained close to the wild world have this ability to be connected to the world of spirits. But the spirits of bees are perhaps those who speak to us more easily and more vividly.
They beat the call of their sisters,
by ventilating their pheromones
Omphalos of Delphi, Greece
The navel of the world
Psychopomp bees and much more
This is a role that has been recognized for them since antiquity and perhaps even before. They are also found on cave paintings tens of thousands of years old, the very first traces of the shamanic activities of our ancestors.
Among bees, life and death constantly coexist, and as a result, they willingly play the role of conveyors of souls, or psychopomp. This role, described in several ancestral traditions, is that of the ferryman who ensures that the soul of the deceased returns to where it should go, to the world beyond.
They are found in ancient Greece, Egypt, and many other places.
A fairly widespread belief in the Magrehb is that the soul escapes from the body in the form of a bee or a large fly and that it thus prowls for forty days near the grave of the deceased. She will then join the barzah, an immense apiary in the sky, where each soul occupies a cell. It is in the form of bees that the souls of the dead come to earth to visit their loved ones, particularly every Friday, at their graves. We must therefore never kill a bee since we do not know if it is a real bee or a flying soul.
The Thries or Thriae are three sisters, famous bee-women in the service of the god Hermes: Antalia, Rosanna and Pausania. They are the nurses of the gods of Olympus. Antalia learns to see the Invisible; Pausania teaches the past; finally Rosana, for her part, learns to see the future.
Bees and the honey they produce have often been associated with the sacred and religion. As animals, they are bearers of divine word and will. Here, the three sisters, nymphs and bee-women, are endowed with the gift of divination and in the service of the god Hermes to whom they were offered by Apollo, god of oracles and prophecies.
They are the ones who invented the art of prophecy. The art of divination practiced in the sanctuary of Apollo at Delphi, among other places, was a leading activity in ancient Greece.
