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Tell it to the bee's

TheCatWoman

An old custom is that you should tell the first bee you see all your family news and whats going on and tell the bee's anything new thts happened when they're not dormant. This is because bees are agents of the Wyrd Sisters, The Norns, who guard the Tree of Life and who weave the threads of life, the bee's tell the Wyrd Sister's to make sure they know everything thats happening and it all becomes part of the Wyrd.

My Granny used to do this and apparently it goes at least as far back as the Pagan Anglo-Saxons and Norse/Viking beliefs, I wonder how much further back it goes?

Parents

  • Sadly there isn’t evidence of the origins of conversing with the bees, but its possible that the ancient Egyptians and Greeks influenced Celtic traditions in which bees were messengers between the physical and spiritual worlds. 

    Honey was believed to have come from the tears of the Egyptian sun god Ra and was used in medicine, for offerings to the gods and embalming.

    The Greek goddess Artemis protected creativity and knowledge which is referenced in Aristotle’s writings likening the orderly structure of bee hives to harmony and governance.

    I can imagine that bee keepers today might talk to bees as a form of therapy, even if they aren’t conscious of it being that, so important things like deaths and births might be high on the list. 

Reply

  • Sadly there isn’t evidence of the origins of conversing with the bees, but its possible that the ancient Egyptians and Greeks influenced Celtic traditions in which bees were messengers between the physical and spiritual worlds. 

    Honey was believed to have come from the tears of the Egyptian sun god Ra and was used in medicine, for offerings to the gods and embalming.

    The Greek goddess Artemis protected creativity and knowledge which is referenced in Aristotle’s writings likening the orderly structure of bee hives to harmony and governance.

    I can imagine that bee keepers today might talk to bees as a form of therapy, even if they aren’t conscious of it being that, so important things like deaths and births might be high on the list. 

Children
  • in reply to ArchaeC

    I don't know if the Celtic peoples talked to the bees, but I know Anglo-Saxons and Norse peoples did. 

  • in reply to ArchaeC

    Having been a Beekeeper, I've heard of Telling the Bee's, and I guess if you talk through things to yourselves it seems natural to tell the Bees, plus its often just you and the bees(one of the reasons I thought be a good hobby, no one else to worry about).

  • in reply to ArchaeC
    In some parts of the Country people also use the phrase;
    "telling the bees".
    Sometimes it used to be associated with putting the bees into mourning.
    Section of John Greenleaf Whittier's 1858 poem;
    "Tell the Bees"
    Before them, under the garden wall,
    Forward and back
    Went, drearily singing, the chore-girl small,
    Draping each hive with a shred of black.
    Trembling, I listened; the summer sun
    Had the chill of snow;
    For I knew she was telling the bees of one
    Gone on the journey we all must go!
    "Stay at home, pretty bees, fly not hence!
    Mistress Mary is dead and gone!"