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Archive for the ‘Beetwixt & Beetween’ Category

Twin Horsemen of Surya Rob Honey from Celestial Bees!

Posted in Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on February 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »

In Hindu mythology, Surya represents the Sun god.  Surya is depicted as a red man with three eyes and four arms, riding in a chariot drawn by seven mares. Surya holds water lilies with two of his hands. With his third hand he encourages his worshipers whom he blesses with his fourth hand.  In India, Surya is believed to be a benevolent deity capable of healing sick people.  Even today, people place the symbol of the Sun over shops because they think it brings good fortune.

painting of Surya in his chariot

Myth has it that the Savins – who were the twin horsemen of the sun god Surya – acquired honey from celestial bees and brought it down to earth in a three-wheeled cart called a madhu-valhana.

Picture from:  http://www.goloka.com/docs/gallery/zodiac/surya.html

Bee Story from: http://luna.clubyachats.com/index.php/food-for-thought/honey.html

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The World is a Beehive!

Posted in Bee Lore, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on February 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Similarly to the mythologies of other Finno-Ugric peoples, in Mordvin mythology the world has three levels: the upper world or the heaven (mdE&M Menel’), the middle world or the earth (mdE&M Moda), rimmed with the ocean, and the lower world or the underworld – the domain of coldness and darkness. In the Moksha tradition there was also a world pillar joining these three levels – a birch (mdM Kelu).

In the Erza tradition the world arrangement is patterned on a beehive and divided into four: the upper, the lower and two middle parts. Humans live in one of the middle hives; the other middle hive is inhabited by all kinds of living creatures. Each hive is under the rule and protection of a god who rules there as a ‘queen bee’. The ruler of the hive heaven Ineshkipaz (Nishkepaz) creates stars, which the Erza believe to be the souls of happy people. They live in shiny houses illuminated by sunbeams. The god is depicted as a man who keeps bees, souls twirling around him like bees. The god’s home is Ursa Major or the Balance (Mainof 1889: 109).

From: http://www.folklore.ee/folklore/vol17/mordmyth.pdf

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The Bee God chkai

Posted in Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on February 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Myth has it that the Mordvinian Ugro Finns had a chief God, chkai, a bisexual king bee responsible for creating the human race. These people believed that humans came from bees, they envisioned the earth as a beehive, ruled by the bee God chkai who laid eggs from which all bees and creating goddesses were born.

From: http://luna.clubyachats.com/index.php/food-for-thought/honey.html

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Bonny Bee Nursery Rhyme

Posted in Bee Lore, Beetwixt & Beetween on February 19, 2008| Leave a Comment »

Bless you, bless you, bonny bee:
Say, when will your wedding be?
If it be tomorrow day,
Take your wings and fly away.

From: http://www.rhymes.org.uk/a10-bless-you.htm

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Sherlock Holmes’ Magnum Opus

Posted in Bee Lore, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on February 5, 2008| Leave a Comment »

“But you had retired, Holmes. We heard of you as living the life of a hermit among your bees and your books on a small farm.”

Sherlock replies: “Exactly, Watson. Here is the fruit of my leisured ease, the magnum opus of my latter years, The Practical Handbook of Bee Culture.”

As quoted by Dr Watson in Conan Doyle’s “His Last Bow”.

If anyone has a copy of Holmes’ magnum opus, I would love to see it!

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Honey Gatherers of the Mind

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beetwixt & Beetween on February 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

“Our treasure lies in the beehive of our knowledge.  We are perpetually on the way thither, being by nature winged insects and honey gatherers of the mind.”

Quotation  from the Preface to  “The Genealogy of Morals” (written in 1887) by Friedrich Nietzsche the German philosopher – who lived from 1844 to 1900.

What a lovely analogy – “honey gatherers of the mind!”  Nietzsche died well before the invention of the internet – which, by his analogy has surely now become a truly magnificent “beehive of our knowledge”.   And how quickly the honey gathering of the mind has accelerated with all the search engines, blogs and wikis that are now available to us.  Even more reason for us all to find the hidden treasure of the secrets of life that the bees have known for so many millions of years!

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Dance of the Melissae

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beetwixt & Beetween on February 3, 2008| Leave a Comment »

I am fascinated by the Ancient Traditions of the Melissae and found this on the web:

Artist Statement by Nancy Macko

‘My last major piece was an ambitious installation entitled Dance of the Melissae, a multi-sensory, multi-media body of work that explored the world of the honey bee society and its relationship to art, science, technology and ancient matriarchal cultures. This piece was exhibited at the Brand Library Art Gallery in Glendale, California in 1994. The 3,000 square foot space lent itself well to my ideas for creating a multi-sensory construction of an ancient and sacred site and its interior components. The integration and centralization of bees and bee worship by ancient matriarchal cultures are historical testament to the power and fascination of the astounding world of bees.

Borrowing images from nature and bee society, I attempted to reveal the inherent connection between the natural world and technology. The piece incorporated mixed-media wall reliefs, found-object sculptures and computer-generated photographic images installed together and linking traditional media (drawing, painting, printmaking and sculpture) with the more contemporary world of digital media. From a conceptual base that is framed by feminist thought, I am using the “bee” and the “honeycomb” as metaphors to re-interpret scientific ideas. My intention is to suggest that science is based not only on observing nature’s structures but also on imagining them.

“The exhibition thus becomes an investigation of the Enlightenment from the perspective of the practitioner; Nancy Macko’s critique of the information world suggests a Kuhnian paradigmatic shift in which technology becomes ritual, science reverts to magic and art is removed from the site of culture and comes back to life.” (J. M. S. Willette, “How Sweet It Is,” Artweek, February 17, 1994.)’

I’m not exactly sure what this Kuhnian paradigmatic shift is – but you can find out more on Nancy Macko’s work at: http://www.cla.purdue.edu/waaw/Ressler/artists/mackostat.html

See also: http://www.nancymacko.com/ about Nancy Macko’s exibition on LA a year ago – including a wall of hexagons – none of which I saw, unfortunately.  But I think her art and interpretation of the bee lore and feminism is fascinating!

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Talking to the Bees

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween, Bylaugh on February 2, 2008| Leave a Comment »

She went back to her box, picked it up and can and then carried it slowly up to the swarm.

And she started speaking in a low voice.  It was almost like singing.  Her hands were bare, yet the rest of her body was covered in white.  I did not understand this, because I though that the one place which the bees would sting her would be on her hands. The barrage of questions rushed back into my mind:

“Are they wild bees – or domesticated bees?”
“How many times have you done this before?”
“What was the most dangerous bee catching job you did?”
“How many hives do you have back in your home?”
“How long have you been keeping bees?”

But I never asked her any of the questions because she was too concentrated in talking to the bees!

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The Lake of Innisfree

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Beekeeping, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »

By William Butler Yeats

I WILL arise and go now, and go to Innisfree,
And a small cabin build there, of clay and wattles made:
Nine bean-rows will I have there, a hive for the honey-bee,
And live alone in the bee-loud glade.

And I shall have some peace there, for peace comes dropping slow,
Dropping from the veils of the mourning to where the cricket sings;
There midnight’s all a glimmer, and noon a purple glow,
And evening full of the linnet’s wings.

I will arise and go now, for always night and day
I hear lake water lapping with low sounds by the shore;
While I stand on the roadway, or on the pavements grey,
I hear it in the deep heart’s core.

From: http://www.online-literature.com/yeats/775/

Picture from: http://mfinley.com/gif/innisfree.jpg

Many people, both past and present, find places of sanctuary where the bees are!  It is sometimes difficult to know what comes first – the bees or peaceful places.  But put the bees in a peaceful, tranquil spot near water and the peace passes all understanding!

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“Float like a Butterfly, Sting like a Bee”

Posted in Bee Lore, Bee Present, Bee-ology, Beetwixt & Beetween on January 23, 2008| Leave a Comment »

muhammadali.gif

Quoted by Mohammad Ali.

This is a graphic image on Mohammad Ali’s technique on how to box.  Isn’t it strange how we need to refer to the insect kingdom (and not the kingdom of mammals) to describe the extremes of grace and power!

Picture from: http://theknightshift.blogspot.com/2007_01_01_archive.html

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