The Spiritual Meaning Of Bees
It fascinates me that honey bees and honey are found in spiritual texts across religions. Bees and honey make an appearance in The Bible.
You'll find important reference to the honey bee and honey in The Quran and in Hinduism in the Rig Veda.
The bee is included in the Torah too, and honey appears in Jewish customs.
It seems that the honey bee is singled out to teach humanity. I cannot think of a single creature more elevated so unanimously by the great religions and holy books.
“The bee is more honored than other animals not because she labors, but because she labors for others.”
― Saint John Chrysostom
This seems significant to me, such that I feel ever more compelled to love, cherish and protect this dear little creature.
The Spiritual Meaning Of Bees
Service to others
Within the superorganism that is a honey bee colony, each member plays a vital role in helping to sustain its fellow members, whether that be foraging for food, feeding the young, building honeycomb to store honey, or helping to regulate the temperature of the hive or nest. Thus the whole colony thrives and is sustained.
The bee feeds itself and other bees from that which comes from flowers
When away from a colony, a bee spends its productive time among the flowers, gathering sweet nectar, so that what it takes back to the colony, is nectar from flowers which is turned into honey.
If it took back anything that was not good (e.g. poison) it would ultimately be harmful for the individual bees and for the rest of the colony.
Given the comparisons of honey with spiritual wisdom (see below), I feel this is perhaps a metaphor representing what we ourselves digest (into our minds and hearts), how we spend our time, and what we take back to our homes and loved ones?
Do we feed our families with what is spiritually loving and good, or do we take back the equivalent of poison?
The bee takes back nectar from flowers to the hive (or nest), and the whole colony gets honey.
Do we 'ingest nectar' and 'take back nectar' into our homes, or something else?
Honey as blessing, abundance
In various spiritual writings and customs, the spiritual meaning of honey appears to be in God's provision of abundance, and the giving of something sweet and good to eat.
Honey and wisdom
The meaning of honey also appears to be linked with wisdom. For example:
“Eat honey, my son, for it is good;
honey from the comb is sweet to your taste.
Know also that wisdom is like honey for you:
If you find it, there is a future hope for you,
and your hope will not be cut off.” – Proverbs 24:13-14
“He will be eating curds and honey when he knows enough to reject the wrong and choose the right,” – Isaiah 7:15
Bee-Themed Car Stickers And More
More honey articles
- Honey Articles information about honey and general articles.
- Honey And Ancient Medicine Examples of bizarre ways honey was used in ancient medicine, such as mixing honey with a pig’s eye, then pouring it into the ear ..... to cure blindness!
- Toxic Honey ("Mad Honey") The earliest form of chemical warfare may date back to Turkey, 65 BC. Surprisingly, honey bees played a role, producing toxic honey, also known as ‘mad honey’.