Collapse of the Bees

Each shamanic tradition works with the healing power of archetypes, especially those of the plant people and the animal people. The defining archetype of the Northern Q’ero lineage is the Bee. The Bees and their Queen flew into this system of archetypes bringing with them some very timely teachings and insights into our own current cultural, environmental and community dilemmas.

In the 1920’s Rudolph Steiner predicted the mass die-off of Bee Hives, which we are now witnessing, due to the long term manipulation of the hives and their Queen. There are many ways in which this phenomenon parallels our current personal and ecological condition.

In 2006 the Queen Bee and her Hive arrived as the new archetype within the Shamanic tradition of the Northern Q’ero lineage which blends the healing methods of the Q’ero shamans, under the guidance of Don Martin of Cusco, Peru, together with the northern teachings of Rudolph Steiner and of the Celtic people, all woven together with the thread of Buddhist understanding.

The arrival of the Bees as the defining archetype of this lineage has brought us much insight into our own current cultural and ecological dilemma. The complex and compound issues causing colony collapse within the hives is a result of the industrialization of the bees over the past one hundred years and the increasing poisoning of our food crops with fertilizers and insecticides. The Bees are given prepared frames of wax comb, so they don’t have to produce wax, which they sweat out of their chests, but instead make more honey, which is what we want to sell. These frames have cells that are made too big or not even out of wax, so the bees are bigger but lose some immune strength in that process of being made to be bigger. Bigger is not always better…..then they are often fed a sugar cane diet after too much of their winter store of honey has been taken to market. They often do not have a natural wintering period of rest, or are even able to stay in the same neighborhood. All of these practices are, simply put, the industrialization of the bees. And this is before we mention anything about the poisons sprayed on the crops they are moved around to service as essential pollinators.

So when we think about the archetype of the bee being the indicator of community issues within this shamanic system, what we look at within our own social system at the moment is the industrialised system of our own lives. We too have been industrialized, we have lost touch with the rhythms of our world. We are out of balance with our resources, our diets are often no better than that sugar cane diet, and we do it so that we can keep our energy up, so that we can fulfill some kind of industrialised expectation on our time, on our energy and the expression of our lives, which does very little most of the time to feed our soul.

We all suffer from some level of soul loss and even our soil is bereft of her essential elements, being so heavily manipulated with man-made concoctions. The endless chain of industrial waste is poisoning our lives. We wonder why we are not so healthy, being full of toxins, unable to drink from the rivers or, sometimes, to breath the air. One of the most extraordinary aspects of the Queen Bee is that she eliminates no waste. She lives on a refined food called Royal Jelly, which is all she ever takes in to her system, This food is a perfect food. No waste! As a shamanic archetype she corresponds to our pineal gland, the seat of our soul and clearly shows us the condition of our soul. She regulates the whole hives’ activity. Nothing is wasted. We notice her parallel to our own pineal gland, that regulates our system and we wonder, what food is its perfect food, so that nothing might be wasted? What happens to our personal honey comb of cells when our glandular system is fed inexact concoctions?

The Bees are telling us that to survive they need to be allowed to stay in one place, not to be moved about all the time. They need to return to their natural seasonal rhythms, to feast on clean and healthy flowers, untainted by man-made cocktails of destruction. And so do we. This is what this shamanic work is about, releasing our traumas and re-aligning our lives with the natural cycles that nurture us, body and soul, heart and mind. Our glandular system, our soul, needs a rhythm that allows us to have darkness sometimes and starlight and sunshine, not so much electric light. In our own Inner Sanctum where our soul sits, we look for clear light, and the nectar of life that knows no waste.

The Queen Bee and her Hive are the ‘canary in the mine’ of our own cultural and ecological collapse. Einstein once said, when the Bees go, humans have four more years. We have no time to waste. Let’s listen to the Bees.

Patricia was born in London, England and trained, originally to teach English Lit, Drama and Religious Ed. She then spent the next two years studying under Alberto Villoldo, learning (or rather re-membering) the shamanic healing practices of the Peruvian Shamans. She has completed the Healing the Light Body, Advanced Soul and Destiny Retrieval and the Way of the Sage professional training programs. Don Martin of Cusco is her Mentor.
You can read more about the bees and Patricia at her website The Shamanic Ministry.