Honey Bees and the Great Goddess

Locating bee magic in European GOddess Lore

THURSDAY, JULY 20, 10-11:30am PST

The Great Goddess is the overarching sacred feminine mother goddess found in many pre-Christian and pre-Patriarchal cultures of Europe, as well as other lands. For the purpose of this lecture, we will focus on the regions where apis mellifera (the western honey bee) is from. We find stories of bees connected to the divine feminine in many cultures. From Anatolian Artemis to to Brigid of the Celtic Isles, the bee remains strongly tied to the goddess in her many forms. In this lecture we will trace some of the areas where we find bee symbolism, art, and story threaded through expressions of the feminine as creatrix, mother, and regenerative goddess.