Bee Happy

Trigger warning

for people who

don't like bees!

Hey, look at this cool photo

of a bee fancier gnome

taken by e of plufrompdx

at a local hardware store!

I think his name should be

Honeycomb Gnome!

Another mystery solved!

I love the legal system!

I know what you mean, man.

Xavier wants answers!

Nice art!

And many thanks to Mistress Maddie

of A Day With The Mistress Borghese 

for this fabulous bee swag!

Such a nice surprise!

Time For More Bees!

I haven't done a bee post 

for a year and a half now, 

can you BEE-lieve it?

Incidentally, if you're a new reader

and are wondering WTF is up

with all the bee imagery on this blog,

this older post will answer that!

I couldn't end without 

a bad pun, now could I?

That would constitute 

un-BEE-coming BEE-haviour!

Bees Galore!

This blog can never have too many bee images!

MANY THANKS

to these perceptive blog readers

who sent me the following

gorgeous bee images

they found on the internet --

From Jackiesue of Yellowdog Granny --

From e of plufrompdx --

And even one from

Her Royal Highness the Cat --

Bees, Glorious Bees

As you can see from my blog header and sidebar,

bees are important here at She Who Seeks blog.

(If you're a "newbee" in the hive and want to know why,

click on this link to find out.)

So today's post is dedicated to bees everywhere!

Bees are notoriously hard workers.

And speaking of bee butts . . . .

However, it's a dangerous thing to be a bee today.

Let's walk a mile in their shoes

(errr, boots) to see why.

Bees pollinate most of the world's crops.

The crops on which we all depend in order to live.

Pesticides are killing off bees at an alarming rate.

Some even fear that bees will soon die out completely.

That would be disastrous for all of us, of course.

So it's clear what we must do.

Ban those pesticides now!

We must protect bees and

their central place in our ecosystem.

Before it's too late!

Why This Blog is Full o' Bees

[art by Lea Bradovich]

In the "Ask Me Anything" post, several questions were raised about bees. Jadedj of The Banquet of Consequences wonders about the significance of the bee motif on my blog banner and sidebar, while MonkeyME of Green Monkey Tales cheekily asks which came first, the hive or the honey? Ivy of The Happy Whisk wants to know where my love of honeybees comes from. Here's the answer --

Bees have been sacred to the Divine Feminine for thousands of years in ancient civilizations from Babylon to Rome. In Greece, many Goddesses such as Rhea, Artemis, Cybele and Demeter were characterized as Bee Goddesses (among their other attributes). Their priestesses were called "melissae," which is Greek for "honeybees," because they served the Bee Goddess like female worker bees serve their Queen Bee.

That is the origin of the popular girls name Melissa. It means "honeybee" and connotes "priestess of the Goddess." The equivalent Hebrew name meaning the same thing is Debra, which actually is my real name (so that answers your question too, Rosemary of Where Five Valleys Meet!). I have also seen Debra translated more conceptually as "she who seeks." After all, what does a female bee spend her time doing? She seeks flowers and pollen in order to make honey.

[art by Lea Bradovich]

Debra She Who Seeks perfectly sums up my spiritual identity. My name honours the Divine Feminine and expresses my connection to the Goddess. And I have spent a lifetime seeking spiritual truth wherever I may find it. Like a honeybee, I have gone in turn to most of the flowers in the spiritual garden and gathered some wisdom teachings from each. So when Jane and Lance Hattatt of HATTATT and Missy George of This N That ask me what, exactly, am I seeking? -- that's the answer.

Bonus points to Jacquelineand.... of Cheapskate Blethering who correctly noted that Debra means The Bee and asked is that why you chose it?

[Note: This post is a condensed "Coles Notes version" of six older blog posts I wrote on this topic. Want to read the full version? Check out my archived posts dated December 14th to 19th, 2009.]

Sacred Bees of the Goddess, Part 2

As promised, here's some info about the ancient Bee Goddess jewelry pictured on my blog sidebar.

On the Greek island of Rhodes, archaeologists unearthed several small gold plaques embossed with a winged Bee Goddess and flowers. These jewelry fragments date from the 7th century BCE and are currently housed at the British Museum. The Goddess appears to be wearing a sphynx-like cap or headdress.

This next gold pendant dates from 1800-1700 BCE. Skillfully crafted on the Greek island of Crete, it may have belonged to a Mellisae, a Bee Priestess of the Goddess-worshipping Minoan civilization. It is called the Mallia Bee Pendant because it was discovered at the palace of Mallia, east of the central grand palace of Knossos. The pendant depicts two bees framing a central drop of pollen or honey. It is now located at the Heraklion Museum in Crete.

This final photo from the internet shows a modern altar honouring the Divine Feminine, adorned with flowers, candles and a central motif based on the Mallia Bee Pendant. Isn't it lovely?

Sacred Bees of the Goddess, Part 1

To paraphrase a recent inquiry from a new reader: "What's up with all this bee imagery on your blog?" The answer is that it relates to my spiritual name Debra She Who Seeks.

Bees have been sacred to the Divine Feminine for thousands of years in ancient civilizations from Babylon to Rome. In Greece, many Goddesses such as Rhea, Artemis, Cybele and Demeter were characterized as Bee Goddesses (among their other attributes). Their priestesses were called "melissae," which is Greek for "honeybees," because they served the Bee Goddess like female worker bees serve their Queen Bee.

That is the origin of the popular girls name Melissa. It means "honeybee" and connotes "priestess of the Goddess." The equivalent Hebrew name meaning the same thing is Debra, which is my given name. I have also seen Debra translated more conceptually as "she who seeks." After all, what does a female bee spend her time doing? She seeks flowers and pollen in order to make honey.

Debra She Who Seeks perfectly sums up my spiritual identity. My name honours the Divine Feminine and expresses my connection to the Goddess. And I have spent a lifetime seeking spiritual truth wherever I may find it. Like a honeybee, I have gone in turn to most of the flowers in the spiritual garden and gathered some wisdom teachings from each.

Tomorrow I'll discuss the two ancient pieces of Bee Goddess jewelry pictured on my sidebar.

[Note: This post is a condensed Coles Notes version of six older blog posts I wrote on this topic. Want to read the full version? Check out my archived posts dated December 14th to 19th, 2009.]

My Spiritual Name: "She Who Seeks"

Many years ago in a Winnipeg mall, I ran across a temporary kiosk selling calligraphic prints illustrating the meaning of given names. I looked up "Debra," expecting (of course) to find it translated literally as "honeybee." Imagine my surprise when I found it translated as "she who seeks"!

After reflection, however, this new translation started to make sense to me. Honeybees are female. Therefore, "she." And what does a honeybee spend her time doing? She "seeks" flowers and pollen in order to make honey. So "she who seeks" is actually quite a wonderful symbolic or conceptual translation of "Debra/Honeybee."

But more than that, "she who seeks" accurately and succinctly summarizes my life of seeking spiritual truth wherever I may find it. After embarking on my spiritual journey as an adolescent, I spent nearly 20 years seeking before finding the Goddess Path. Like a honeybee, I went in turn to most of the flowers in the spiritual garden and took some wisdom teachings from each. I have now been on the Goddess Path for a further 20 years, but I still seek diverse wisdom teachings as I journey.

So although I was not actively looking for a spiritual name, "Debra She Who Seeks" came to me as a gift and fits so well that I have gladly adopted it.

And now you also understand the symbolism of my blog header, LOL!

My Spiritual Name: "Debra" (Part 2)

When I was a teenager, there was a book called Your Destiny is in Your Name. It concerned numerology, if I remember correctly. I didn't put much stock in my destiny being in my name.

But when I discovered the deep Goddess connections of my name, it did feel to me like I had somehow been marked as Hers right from the beginning. My mother unintentionally expressed my life's path simply by choosing that starlet's name for me. Funny, isn't it? Carl Jung would say, No, it is synchronicity. There are no meaningless coincidences.

So "Debra" remains the central component of my spiritual name. But where did the rest of it come from?