A cold, rainy November day

"I'm one with the Goddess
and open to Her Wisdom."

19th Day of the 11th Lunar Cycle
Ruled by Demeter
Lunar Tree Month ~ Gort/Ivy
Celtic Tree Month - Ngetal/Reed
Moon Phase: waning Gibbous
Moon sets: 10:12AM EST
Moon rises: 7:23PM EST
Moon in Gemini v/c 10:45PM EST
Rhiannon's Cycle of the Moon
Lunar Meditation: The truth of the
imagination.
Sun in Scorpio
Sunrise: 6:45AM EST
Sunset: 5:13PM EST
Solar Question for the Day: "What is the source of your comfort?
Samhain (Calan Gaeaf) Quarter of the Year
November 5th, 2009

   The Disappeared

An essay of mourning by Bethroot Gwynn in 2007

re-printed in "We'Moon '09

Hives are empty. Honey bees have gone missing - by the billions. There are no mass graves,

no sad sodden mounds of 30,000 dead bees dumped on a hive's bottom board the way I

found them once, in my beekeeping years, when disease grabbed them by the fistfuls.

No, they are simply gone from croplands in countries the world over. Some mysterious

force has spirited them away. Probably a rogue virus, exacerbated by Pesticides?

GMO crops? Parasites? Stress? Climate change?

Honey bees pollinate 3/4 of all flowering plants. Without honey bees, the face of

the planet would be recognizable. We would grow hungry for many foods, and

for beauty.

Sweet golden furry ones, where have you gone? Have you fled into the arms of

Melissa, great bee priestess of Aphrodite? Has She decreed: "We won't play

anymore in the poisoned fields, with the engineered crops, the toxic orchards.

We quit."

The wild ones of you must hiding out in the woods with Melissa, for you come

to my rosemary flowers. You must still do your tail-wagging dances to tell

each other exact coordinates of this flavor flower, that one. You are a chorus

of busy joy, your specific voice unlike any other insect buzz.

May Melissa tuck you safely into Her vast pollen pockets,

May She nestle you under Her veiled wings, and restore you

with the resurrection-magic of honey,

sacred elixir which once bathed the dead toward eternal life.

May She gather up the billions of you in a mystery that promises

your return to a world full of glorious blossoms and abundant fruit.