Folk Traditions for Modern Life
How do you marry the sacred and the scientific? I could say this so many ways: the sacred and the mundane, the spiritual and the pragmatic, the ineffable and the physical. What I’m asking, is how do we allow ourselves to source from more than one pool of wisdom?
When it comes to beekeeping there is a lot of stuff you need to know. It’s not as simple as ordering some bees and putting them in a box. Unless that box is a tree. A lot of well-meaning folk want to let the bees be bees, to leave them alone, and to let nature do it’s thing. There can be an incredible reverence for the sacredness of bees that comes with this approach, which is vital. We need rewilding movements. They spur a deeper understanding of the nature of the honey bee organism on a physical, spiritual, emotional, and even energetic level. However, once we put bees into a human made bee box, we become stewards. I daresay, once we turn our gaze towards supporting the wellness of the bees at all, we become stewards.
The reason bees are dying is not a bee problem. It’s a human problem. What we have done to the earth and the practices that are standardized in beekeeping are the heart of the problem. We mechanized beekeeping. We covered the earth in monocrop food deserts, and then sprayed the earth in poisons.
I understand why so many people who feel a sacred connection to the bees, don’t want to “do” anything to them. Simply let them be. However, we have incredible depth of knowledge available to us through science and the study of bee behavior and biology.
To serve the ancient partnership between human and bee, we need science and the sacred. It’s not an either/or situation. You will support your bees better with both your rituals and your understanding of who they are. Sometimes, when all else fails, ceremony, meditation, and energy practices cause the hidden world to shift toward wellness. Sometimes, when all else fails, a new discovery in the study of bee behavior provides the missing link to our understanding.
For me, I find empowerment in bringing folk traditions into modern life.
The cloth in this photo is a Brigid’s mantle, hung outside in early February to gather the healing dew from the Celtic goddess Brigid. It can be used in the future to wrap around a person or an animal in need of healing. I can place it over my hive, as a ceremonial act if my hive is struggling. An old tradition, made new, in a new land.
However, I’m also going to continue to learn and do as much as I can to support the bees when they are struggling. The more I understand their biology and behavior, the better I can support who they are. This might not look like it does in all the beekeeping books, I might not do alcohol shakes, chemical treatments, or use antibiotics, but I will use what I am learning about bee behavior to shift my overall approach to beekeeping.
I’ll never forget my religion professor at Lewis and Clark college. When he was doing his thesis on the experience of God, he went to the theology department to ask the people who were best qualified to answer his question. They said, “What is God? Don’t ask us. We’re all atheists. If you want to know about God go talk to the biologists, they look at God all day long.”
How do you weave the spiritual and the pragmatic together in your life?
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