A look at the nature of how bees reproduce. We will approach the swarm as a birth, and seek to understand the moment of creative energy present. I will discuss why I don’t believe in swarm suppression, how swarming can create stronger hives, and how bees choose a new home. We will also visit the concept of the beehive as womb-like, both biologically, and in connection to the metaphor of parthenogenesis found in many ancient greek myths associated with the divine feminine.

In this talk we will explore who lives inside the hive, and how the colony functions as a whole. We will pay particular attention to the sensory organs of the bee and the hive: sight, sound, olfaction, drones, touch, and more.

Bees are not just in need of saving, they are in need of a shift in human interspecies relating. We have incredible scientists and beekeepers tackling the big questions of how to keep bees in the modern era, however, we also need to ask the questions of why and who. Why keep bees and who are they? Honey bees sit at the confluence of the wild and the domestic. They are a bridge species, helping connect us to the land, the elements, and our own internal rhythms. 

Through the lens of European folklore and religion, we will examine the kinship and magic felt by many people toward honey bees, and the way intuition and ancient folk wisdom can inform how we relate to bees.

Restoring Our Relationship to Honey Bees

Bees as a bridge:

Veil-Winged:

Biology and Behavior of the Honey-Bee

Mistress of Parthenogenesis:

Reproductive Swarming, Birth, and the Womb

This lecture discusses ways to connect with bees away from the hive and hive inspections. This will include such methods as dreamwork, talking to the hives, and meditations with the hive. We will also learn about the folk tradition of Telling the Bees.

We will explore ways to approach the hive, connect with the bees, open the hive, handle the bees, and more. This will include both practical and heart driven ways to open a hive.

At the Hive

Communicating with Bees:

Away from the Hive

Hive Alchemy:

A lecture on the relationship between honey bees and flowers, including how flowers attract bees, how bees forage, and how flowers have evolved in relationship to bees.

We will explore the connection between bees and women’s mystery traditions, myths, and bee themes of Ancient Greece. You will learn about the Oracle of Delphi, the bee nymphs, and the priestesses known as the “Bees”.

The Bee Women, Nymphs, and Priestesses of Ancient Greece

The Melissae:

Messengers of Love:

The Love Affair Between the Bee and the Flower

Body Sovereginty:

In this talk we will first learn what animism is and how an animistic world view can benefit modern life as we address societal division, climate change, and ecological collapse. Animism is the belief that everything is animate or filled with spirit and a form of consciousness. This means we can directly communicate with the spirit of a tree, a river, and landscape, or a hive. We will cover how an animistic approach can shift your life into deeper relationships with the world around you. Finally, we will learn how we can apply such views to the way we think about, and work with bees.

The Great Goddess is the overarching sacred feminine mother goddess found in many pre-Christian and pre-Patriarchal cultures of Europe, as well as other lands. For the purpose of this lecture, we will focus on the regions where apis mellifera (the western honey bee) is from. We find stories of bees connected to the divine feminine in many cultures. From Anatolian Artemis to to Brigid of the Celtic Isles, the bee remains strongly tied to the goddess in her many forms. In this lecture we will trace some of the areas where we find bee symbolism, art, and story threaded through expressions of the feminine as creatrix, mother, and regenerative goddess.

Locating Bee Magic in European Goddess Lore.

HONEY BEES AND THE GREAT GODDESS

Animism in Beekeeping

Other ways of Seeing and Relating

Communicating with Bees:

An in-depth exploration of honey: what it is, how it’s made, and the bees’ relationship to it. We will also explore how honey has been used in folk customs and religious practices. The lecture will conclude with some brief discussion on honey harvesting and why I prefer the crush and strain method over saving and reusing old comb.

The Honey Offering

What Feminism, Women's+ Bodies, and Earth Sovereignty Have to do with Beekeeping

What does feminism have to do with beekeeping? What is the connection between our own sense of body sovereignty and the body sovereignty of a hive? How are the earth, beehives, and women+’s bodies related to one another in the age of Patriarchy?

In this lecture we will dare to discuss the idea of feminism in beekeeping and what a feminist approach to beekeeping might look like for all genders.

How Bees Heal Us

An overview of Apitherapy and the healing benefits of the hive

Bees are tiny alchemists, transforming the raw material of the land (pollen, nectar, sap), into substances imbued with healing power. While this healing gold is made by the bees for the bees, humans have also been the receptors of the bees’ healing gifts since the beginning of our relationship with them.

In this lecture we will discuss the various forms of Apitherapy and learn of some of the ways work with the hive and the products of the hive can help us heal and maintain health.

Prophecy and Pilgrimage at the Oracle of Delphi

The Delphic Bee:

Pre-Industrial/Alternative Beekeeping in Various Regions and Ages

In the 1800s Lorenzo Langstroth invented a beehive that would revolutionize beekeeping, and become the standard hive used in many parts of the world. In the United State, if you say beekeeping, the white boxes with their filling cabinet style frames are what immediately come to mind.  

However, all over the world, there are a myriad of traditional hive styles that have been used to support the bees. In some regions they are clay, in others they are logs or stumps, in others they are woven baskets. In this lecture we will view a number of slides and learn about hive styles from various regions, as well hive styles from the ancient world. In doing so, we will learn how many these alternative hive styles can support a more natural or bio-region sensitive approach to beekeeping.

Trees, Skeps, Gourds, & Clay:

The Oracle of Delphi was one of the strongest and most lasting institution of the ancient world. The Ancient Greek temple stood as an active oracular center and pilgrimage site for over a thousand years. While much of the Delphic rites continue to remain elusive to scholars, we do know that the Delphi Oracle was called both Pythia and Bee, connecting her to two ancient symbols of feminine power: the snake (python) and the bee. In this lecture we will discuss the Delphic bee, the bee maidens who taught prophecy to the god Apollo, the Cave of the Nymphs, and other aspects of this Temple once said to be constructed of beeswax and feathers.

The Lectures