The Budding Moon: Bees in Fairy Tales
“Handle a book as a bee does a flower, extract its sweetness but do not damage it.”
Full Moon blessings, witches!
Nicknamed the Snow Moon, Milk Moon, Hungry Moon, Storm Moon, Eagle Moon, and our favorite, the Budding Moon, February's moon asks us where we'd like to go, what we feel called to do, and how we will show up at each destination.
This year, our second full moon arrives midway between Imbolc and Ostara - a reminder that the Spring Equinox is only a few weeks away! Do you notice the earth stirring? The quickening underfoot? Can you hear the buzzing of newly wakened bees?
If your gardens are still resting beneath winter's blanket, it won't be for long. And until then, join us in the fairy tale meadows, where the flowers have already started to bloom…
Place your ear to the pages of your favorite fairy tale, and you'll hear the gentle murmuring of bees. Many times, a hive takes the role that a fairy might – saving the day when all hope seems lost.
Folk stories of yesteryear say bees are born within budding flowers. Like the fae folk, a bee takes its first breath within a bassinet of velvety petals. While the elder bees leave to forage for pollen, the flowers watch their kin, and the wind rocks them to sleep.
Once upon a time, in The Queen Bee by the Brothers Grimm, a hero leaves home to see about a princess. Her castle is far away, and he crosses mountains and meadows, stopping three times to rescue a colony of ants, a flock of ducks, and a swarm of bees. You see, he wasn't the only one who wanted to meet the princess – his older two brothers also desired new lives, although their reasons were different. Our hero longed for love and companionship, while his brothers wanted crowns and never to work again. Although they'd left home just moments before their little brother, a trail of destruction lay in their wake – a flattened ant hill, a muddied pond, and a fire left burning beneath a bee hive.
Needless to say, our hero was quick to remedy his brothers' cruelty. He helped the ants rebuild their home, diverted fresh water into the pond, and smothered the fire that threatened the hive. When the three brothers eventually arrived at the castle, a cryptic witch met them at the gate, and handed them three impossible tasks:
Put back together a 1000-pearl necklace, whose pearls were scattered around the forest.
Fetch the princess's bed, which was floating in the lake.
And identify the princess from her two wedded sisters.
Anyone who failed at her requests would be turned to stone.
Luckily for our kind-hearted hero, the ants quickly gathered the pearls and repaired the necklace. Meanwhile, the ducks steered the royal bed to shore. And when was time to meet the princess, the Queen Bee arrived! Each sister was sweet in her own way, but the bride-to-be possessed a honeyed tongue, which drew the bee toward her lips. The two older brothers had already been turned to stone, but as soon as our hero and the princess locked eyes, all was right in the world. The curse hovering over the kingdom was lifted, and the petrified men regained their fleshy skins. They were sad but wiser, finally understanding that kind deeds will be rewarded, usually when we least expect it.
Dripping from honeyed tongues are beads of truth, magick, and poetry. Legend suggests that bees hover around the mouths of children destined to become writers and poets. Sometimes, the bees are attracted to the child's scent, as a bee is to a flower, but other times, the bees are creative caretakers, feeding the children honey to sweeten their words. Symbolically, a mouthful of honey foreshadowed poetic inspiration.
As messengers, bees puncture the creative veil. Barbara Walker says that bees are 'veil-winged,' referring to the veil that governs the inner sanctum of the Goddess's temples. Honey is the Goddess's preferred elixir, perhaps because of honey's use in ceremonial and medicinal potions or its ability to increase the longevity of food, including meat. In ancient Egypt, honey had the power to resurrect, and people used it to embalm the dead.
If mythical tales, bees were both inspiring and dangerous because hidden within their unassuming, fuzzy coats were sharp stringers. Homer called the sirens honey-voiced, alluding to their threat. And although our Roman deliverer of love, Eros (or Cupid), often battled these creatures in stories, he was also compared to a bee. Like his winged opponents, Eros was small and carried a single, pointed weapon, yet was able to cause great pain.
Bees were also known as the Muses' birds. The Muses, nine goddesses of inspiration, sent bees to bless their followers. The bees dropped sweet dew upon their lips, delivering the Muses' gifts of prophecy, creativity, and artistic inspiration.
And did you know…
That's right, in just over a week, we gathered enough pledges to bring this beautiful book to life! And on the eve of a full moon, no less! Thank you to everyone who has pre-ordered a book or bundle or shared Telling the Bees with your friends, we are so grateful!
With this initial hurdle in our rearview, we're setting our sites on the first of four stretch goals – bonus foil detail, custom end pages, ribbon bookmark, and gilded page edges are up for grabs! With each stretch goal, a new upgrade is unlocked.
