Bee – Feminism and Religion

The Mysteries at Eleusis, a nine-day festival in ancient Greece based on the myth of Demeter and Persephone, has fascinated and baffled us for millennia. Here thousands of people from all over Greece and beyond came to understand, in the words of Plutarch, “an undoubted truth our soul is incorruptible and immortal” (277). Producing this festival was the task of the Melissae, the bee priestesses of Demeter, powerful and honored women in a society in which women had few rights, famous in their own time but almost unknown in ours.

In Meeting the Melissae: The Ancient Greek Bee Priestesses of Demeter, Elizabeth Ashley offers us not only facts about the Melissae and other ancient Greek priestesses gleaned from archaeology, art and literature from the period, and modern academic research but her own glimmerings of their deepest spiritual life. She explores what is known about the priestesses and their everyday lives, the goddesses whose temples they presided over, and bees themselves. An aromatherapy researcher, she began her journey to discovering the secrets of the Melissae when she kept reading references to them in ancient botanicals about the herb lemon balm (Melissa officinalis) but nothing more. (The connection between lemon balm and bee priestesses? Pheromones. That’s all I’m going to say).

I’m an avid gardener. I must, need, long to have my hands in the soil. The sweet smell and feel of the earth connects me to something greater, to a sense of ‘other’; a source divine. I am interwoven, connected, at one and in reverence of a greater mystery. When I think about my connection to the earth and its origins, I find it is a connection I have had my entire life. As a young girl I spent many hours, days, in fact years, exploring the Australian bush – it was my backyard. Some of my most prominent memories are the smell of Eucalypt and the crescendo of cicada song that would permeate my entire surroundings throughout summer. As a teen, time and time again, I bushwalked our families property that backed onto mountainous National forest. I often sensed the indigenous ancestral spirits of our land watching attentively.

It is this deep connection that I have to the earth that not only leaves me feeling exultant, it leaves me troubled. I am troubled by the continuing problems caused to the environment. I admit to feeling quite disturbed recently when I read a number of reports about the persisting problems with the Fukushima Nuclear plant – radiated water still leaking into the ocean. Birdlife and ocean animals found suffering from radiation burns. Should we even be eating fish from the pacific? I can’t begin to fathom the enormity of the repercussions from this disaster that will be seen for many generations to come. My inner activist wants to be out there on the frontline, riding the waves on the Rainbow Warrior, tied to an ancient tree in protest of lopping; but I know my place is here, nurturing my little ones. So what can I do with these troubled feelings, with the frustration and with the love I have for Mother earth and all her beings? Action starts from home. So I let it fuel my fire and I get creative. I paint, I write, I garden; with intention. My intention is to play a role, no matter how small, that aids in the healing of the planet. I hold hope that it inspires other to do the same. Continue reading “Earth Connection & Healing the Bees by Jassy Watson”