Happy Friday the 13th, a day long associated with women’s bodies and women’s cycles. Did you know that a woman has her moon cycle about 13 times a year?

feminine, Nature, sacred, Women's HealthAri DalyDecember 13, 2019feministbeekeeping, listentothebody, fridaythe13th, women Comment

Thank You For Loving

🧡 To all the women out there who do and do and do. Who are the mistresses of the hive, tending to the young, the honey chambers, the fields of plenty and the fields of lack, thank you.⠀
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feminineAri DalyNovember 29, 2019feministbeekeeping, womenlove, beewisdom, thankyouComment

A crown of Ivy

It happens every year. I am on a walk on a warm fall day in November. The kind of day where you start your walk with a hat and a sweater and end your walk in a t-shirt. It’s always the sound that catches my attention. So late in the season, it’s unusual to hear the loud hum of many foraging bees.

gardening, honey beesAri DalyNovember 11, 2019ivy, druid lore, plant lore, dionysus, maenadsComment

Witches? Why, Thank You.

I don’t speak on Halloween. I don't write. I honour my ancestors. It’s an exercise in liminality. I’ve been doing this since I was 15. Last night, a group of female friends and I decided to dress up all in white, paint our faces white, and pass candy out to kids.

feminine, Sacred FeminineAri DalyNovember 1, 2019witches, feministbeekeeping, samhain, wisewoman, ancestors, liminal, allhallowseveComment

Can You Let Her Lead?

Have you ever found yourself guilty of the general assumption that western history didn’t REALLY start until the birth of Jesus? Okay Okay, maybe we can go back to the Roman Empire and it’s conquests. That’s when what matters got going right? Or possibly Ancient Greece? Aristotle and all that? It’s a sneaky thought.

Ari DalyOctober 25, 2019leadership, women, matriarchy Comments

That's My Language

Hi, my name is Ariella. I’m a beekeeper. It’s not a hobby. I don’t make my money from honey. I don’t make my money from carting bees around the country on semi trucks for mass pollination events. I only have a few hives. But beekeeping is part of my profession. I am a teacher of beekeeping plus some other real cool shit. It’s part of the business I run, because I’m also a boss. It’s not cute. Or sweet. Or adorable. I wear skirts. This is also not cute. Not sweet. Or adorable. But sometimes I am cute, sweet, and adorable. Running a business is not. That’s the difference. So today I want to raise a glass to all the bee business boss ladies out there who aren’t playing by the rules. ⠀

Feminist BeekeepingAri DalyOctober 11, 2019feminist beekeeping, beekeepingComment

Re-piecing A Hive Together

I dreamt last night of a hive torn to pieces. Every bit of comb on the ground was covered in bees. It was the largest hive I’d ever witnessed. Night was approaching and I had to gather all the bees and broken comb. I had to provide them with a new home in a hollow under my bed before it got too cold. Many people around me were oblivious, but some unexpected friends and family came to help. No one had protective clothing. We gently took up each comb with bare hands. Despite the darkness, despite the cold, despite the gravity of destruction, the bees didn’t sting. They understood we were here to help.

Dreaming, honey beesAri DalyOctober 10, 2019fortheloveofit, bees, wildanimals, wild, planetearth, dreamsComment

Just Another Animal Experiencing Autumn

Ever notice how love, loss and longing get stored in your body the same way seasons do for every other temperate animal on earth? There’s a kind of body knowing that arrives. There’s a kind of body knowing that arrives. It sneaks in and gives you emotional responses to things that feel out of context, until you examine the seasons of your life.

What's In A Name?

As my most witchiest of seasons arrives, I’ve been thinking a lot about titles. I do a fair amount of interviews & Podcasts and people always want to know my title/label. In the world of bios, CVs and qualifiers, this title business is always daunting.

Ari DalySeptember 18, 2019rites of passage, initiation, path of pollen Comment

They Made Me Do It

What is it about beekeeping that encourages so many dudes to mansplain and publicly shame other beekeepers? Particularly natural beekeepers. Particularly female natural beekeepers? In my Facebook group a female treatment free beekeeper selling honey at a local market was recently approached by a very aggressive and strongly opinionated male pro-treatment beekeeper who talked AT her while she just sat there.

feminineAri DalySeptember 8, 2019feminist beekeeping Comment

Mother For President

I’ve been thinking a lot about women’s voices lately. I’ve been thinking about what would happen if more women were voted into office, or if more women were invited to speak at basically any conference that’s not for, or already about, women. I’ve been noticing the changes too: how I can casually talk about my menstrual cycle around my male friends, or how pumping milk at work is suddenly something normal to see on Netflix shows. For god’s sake, it’s starting to be okay to talk about the normal function of our bodies.

Feminist Beekeeping, Sacred FeminineAri DalyAugust 23, 2019mother, queen, feminist beekeeping, womenComment

Apple: Fruit of the Otherworld

It’s apple season here in Sebastopol. I grew up in a land of cedars and pine, but moved to the soft, apple hills of this small town, which used to be the Gravenstein capital of the world. Some of the old orchards have resisted the encroaching vineyards and every spring they are ablaze with white blossoms and memories of Avalon.

herbalismAri DalyAugust 19, 2019Apple, fey folk, harvestComment

Lavender: Giddy Calm

I will never forget the way it hit me. Like a physical bath of scent. We arrived in Sainte-Croix-à-Lauze just as dusk descended. The crickets were declaring the glories of summer, while fireflies emerged to secret the sun away into the night. It was heaven. I got high.

travel, Sacred Feminine, herbalismAri DalyAugust 12, 2019lavender, provence, anxietyComment

Untangling the Narrative

Yesterday I had another rude awakening in the long journey of untangling the poisoned threads of Patriarchy. Before I go any further, let’s establish once more that Patriarchy is a well-fed idea, whose systemic markers are expressing themselves within all of us. Dismantling the Patriarchy requires and inward gaze, as well as a recognition of its expression in society, infrastructure, classism, racism, and sexism.⠀

Forward ho! So, I have an Instagram bookclub (#honeyreads) where I recommend books on bees, ecology, and the feminine. This month I recommended Austrian philosopher Rudolf Steiner's lectures on bees. I was vaguely aware of his racism, but felt his view on bees worthy of sharing.

Feminist BeekeepingAri DalyAugust 9, 2019patriarchy, feminism, feministbeekeeping Comment

The Face of the Hive

You know how you learn to read your dog? Her expressions of love, worry, silliness and eagerness? Or how your cat does that one tail flick when he’s proud of himself?

What happens when you can’t see the face or hear the meow? Bees, as individuals, have faces, but what is the “face” of the colony? A colony, after all, is an organism. A whole that is the sum of many parts.⠀⠀

feminine, natural beekeepingAri DalyAugust 3, 2019feministbeekeeping, hive, beecolony, superorganismComment

Sometimes There’s Honey⠀

I spend a lot of time talking about the importance of letting bees be bees. I teach about more natural or bee-centric approaches to beekeeping. I talk about planting for pollinators. I educate on the damages of the monocrop pollination industry and conventional beekeeping. I leave the bees alone most of the time. But sometimes...there’s honey.⠀

HoneyAri DalyJuly 5, 2019honey, stingComment

Let the Bees Lead You

I know it’s called “beekeeping friday” and I ought to talk about beekeeping, but the thing is, nothing with bees is linear. This photo is all about beekeeping. It’s also about finding your voice, trusting the path, sisterhood, and magic. It’s also about hard work, discipline, punches to the ego, and realness. ⠀

travel, Sacred FeminineAri DalyJune 28, 2019intuition, france retreatComment

What "Counts" as Feminist?

In my life, I keep bees alone. It’s usually just me out there, going from hive to hive. I don’t mind keeping bees alone except for this one thing: I’m not very strong and I don’t know how to use power tools. Furthermore, I don’t want to learn how to use power tools.

Ari DalyJune 14, 2019Comment

Pleasure as Purpose

“There is a sort of bee who moves from flower to flower, sipping nectar from each luscious blossom. Picking up pollen from this bloom, she deposits into that one, circulating pollen everywhere, fertilizing all the plants. As a result, the garden flourishes…”

Ari DalyJune 7, 2019 Comment

Don’t Assume. Listen.

Don’t assume I’m going to sting you. Don’t assume anything about my nature. Don’t assume I’m soft and fuzzy. Don’t assume I’m making you honey. Don’t assume I am industrious. Don’t assume I’m in it for the love affair. Don’t assume I need your chemicals.

Ari DalyMay 31, 2019Comment