Why This Blog is Full o' Bees

In the "Ask Me Anything" post, several questions were raised about bees. Jadedj of The Banquet of Consequences wonders about the significance of the bee motif on my blog banner and sidebar, while MonkeyME of Green Monkey Tales cheekily asks which came first, the hive or the honey? Ivy of The Happy Whisk wants to know where my love of honeybees comes from. Here's the answer --

Bees have been sacred to the Divine Feminine for thousands of years in ancient civilizations from Babylon to Rome. In Greece, many Goddesses such as Rhea, Artemis, Cybele and Demeter were characterized as Bee Goddesses (among their other attributes). Their priestesses were called "melissae," which is Greek for "honeybees," because they served the Bee Goddess like female worker bees serve their Queen Bee.

That is the origin of the popular girls name Melissa. It means "honeybee" and connotes "priestess of the Goddess." The equivalent Hebrew name meaning the same thing is Debra, which actually is my real name (so that answers your question too, Rosemary of Where Five Valleys Meet!). I have also seen Debra translated more conceptually as "she who seeks." After all, what does a female bee spend her time doing? She seeks flowers and pollen in order to make honey.

[art by Lea Bradovich]

Debra She Who Seeks perfectly sums up my spiritual identity. My name honours the Divine Feminine and expresses my connection to the Goddess. And I have spent a lifetime seeking spiritual truth wherever I may find it. Like a honeybee, I have gone in turn to most of the flowers in the spiritual garden and gathered some wisdom teachings from each. So when Jane and Lance Hattatt of HATTATT and Missy George of This N That ask me what, exactly, am I seeking? -- that's the answer.

Bonus points to Jacquelineand.... of Cheapskate Blethering who correctly noted that Debra means The Bee and asked is that why you chose it?

[Note: This post is a condensed "Coles Notes version" of six older blog posts I wrote on this topic. Want to read the full version? Check out my archived posts dated December 14th to 19th, 2009.]