Telling the Bees

Possibly inspired by ancient Aegean notions, although the origins of this specific ritual are unknown, the myth of Telling the Bees is to inform them of major life events, as, if not informed, the results could be catastrophic:

At all weddings and funerals they give a piece of the wedding-cake or funeral biscuit to the bees, informing them at the same time of the name of the party married or dead. If the bees do not know of the former, they become very irate, and sting every body within their reach; and if they are ignorant of the latter they become sick, and many of them die.[Wikipedia]

When we tell the bees, is it our expectation that they understand our spoken language, or is it through speaking the words we form a message in our minds that is transmitted telepathically, or is this ritual simply ridiculous?

In our current world, nature is investigated, dissected, analyzed, studied, in an effort to understand it. We use this understanding to optimize the relationship with nature, such as comfort controls, advanced farming techniques, pest control, etc. We have created a synthetic world for the comfort of our bodies, distancing ourselves from unpleasantness nature.

Honey and bees wax have been with us since the Mesolithic era. Depictions of humans collecting honey from wild bees date to 10,000 years ago. Beekeeping in pottery vessels began about 9,000 years ago in North Africa. Traces of beeswax are found in potsherds throughout the Middle East beginning about 7000 BCE. Domestication of bees is shown in Egyptian art from around 4,500 years ago. [Wikipedia]

Bees have been featured in myths from around the world, and the Telling of the Bees is simply one of many. Yet the ritual does imply a set of beliefs, which suggest an understanding of the world, different than our own, when our relationship was more as a peer, rather than a consumer of its resources. It was a time when we respected the animals we might have killed for food, and paid homage to the bounty we gathered. A time when we were embedded in our environment rather than cloaked in a protective virtual reality as gluttonous shoppers simply transacting.

Myths, like this, reflect a heritage of the past mind, past thinking, points of view, an understanding that can’t be carbon-dated, that is passed down through ritual, and whose origins are uncertain, in contrast to our physical heritage of buildings, and other artifacts. Such myths bring us back in time to an ambiguous, uncertain way of life, a time of mysterious and supernatural forces.