There is power in stories, wisdoms crafted for the telling to be so compelling they would be told again and again until lessons learned became legends that no one would forget for lifetimes upon generations.
And so it was that rain and flame were one, until only water and darkness covered Earth. The Gods grew weary of the few beings who now shared their skies and so, when Curious Mantis asked what was the purpose of life, they kicked him from the Heavens. If it were not for Mighty Bee, who saw the poor creature’s plummet into the dark oceans below, there would be no story to tell. But this most generous of beings carried the Mantis upon its back in search of land where it would survive, across the waters as night turned to day and night again, weighted down and weary, it saw a bright white flower afloat and laying the sleeping mantis within its petals, with a kiss slipped a seed between the mantis’ lips, whispering, “I give you purpose in this seed. My journey is complete”.
The Curious Mantis awoke to a new sun, its warmth drawing open the petals where seed had sprouted into the first San man. And so it is that Curious Mantis became Praying Mantis, forever asking the Gods to return his friend, Mighty Bee, and for wisdom in all living beings to honour this new cycle of Earth and Mankind.
The creation story of the San, descendants of today’s Kalahari in South Africa, concurs with the discovery of cave drawings dating back to The Stone Age depicting the San’s life with bees. We lose trace of most of history until the appearance of the fertility goddess known as Ma in Western Asia whose cult reached its peak at the Temple of Artemis in Turkey, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. Here, two wooden statues still stand of the deity abound with bees. Her priests were called Essenes or ‘king bees’ and their influence can be followed to the Shrine at Delphi in Ancient Greece, whose priestess foretold the future for Apollo, and was referred to as the Delphic Bee.
Across cultures and time, the sacred role of bees in man’s sense of success is evident, originally as a sacred guardian of life between the natural world and the underworld, and later as a magical master of fertility and healing, its golden honey treasured for its natural preservative and strong antiseptic qualities.
In Ancient Egypt are many records of bee worship, from The Bee King of Lower Egypt in pre-dynastic times and in hieroglyphs dating 2400 BCE, as to honey offered to the gods, used in embalming, to seal sarcophagi. Jars of honey were even discovered in the tomb of Tutankhamen.
Bees’ role as cohort to royalty and gods alike continues, with India’s Bee Goddess, Bhramari Devi and Indra, the ancient Greek gods Dionysus, Artemis, Demeter, Melissa, and the muses said to bestow eloquence by placing honey on the lips of mortals. The Hebrew promised land of “milk and honey”. The Mayan god Ah-Muzen-Cab. The Norse goddess Beyla, the Celtic goddess Brighid, and the Virgin Mary, represented by the “Queen of the Bees “.
And the belief in their magical powers has not been lost. Today, the ‘telling the bees’ ritual of Western European is still sacred to many in which significant events such as births, deaths, marriages, would ensure safe passage and blessings.
Ask a bee. Why not give it a try, it is true, bees are great listeners.
