“THE BEEHIVE REVISITED” Bro. P.D. Newman, 32° Valley of Corinth, Orient of MS (Part One published in TWT Feb 2012) The [larva] of a bee is scarcely worthy to be called a life, but after it is transmuted by death, it appears in a more excellent and glorious condition…
charisma that could charm even the Lord of tHades. Indeed, for this is precisely what he did when, armed only with his voice and his lyre, he descended into the Underworld for the purpose of persuading the god Pluto, Lord of Hades, to consent to the return of Orpheus’ deceased wife Eurydice to the realm of the living. And it is here that we come back to our unfortunate beekeeper Aristaeus, whose romantic advances Eurydice was fleeing when she ran upon the fatal serpent, the sting of which was to prematurely end her life and land her in the subterranean Hades. It was in retribution for this fact that Orpheus destroyed Aristaeus’ beloved hives.
Ill. Bro. Albert G. Mackey once said that “the intention of the ceremonies of initiation into [the The beehive, like the honey which it houses, is a Mysteries] was, by a scenic representation of death, fecund symbol, both rich and enduring. In my and subsequent restoration to life, to impress the great previous treatment of this subject, I provided a truths of the resurrection of the dead and the decidedly limited overview of the symbol of the immortality of the soul.” It was with the above beehive and its cognates, bees and honey, as they narrative of Eurydice’s death and subsequent were understood in the mythologies and folklores resurrection that the Orphic priests indoctrinated the of various cultures. In the present treatment, I will participants in their Mysteries regarding the truth of be exploring the possible significance of the the soul’s immortality, and the possibility of its symbol as it most readily relates to the actual resurrection into the realm of the living. Both arcana of Freemasonry, i.e., as an emblem of Aristaeus and Orpheus, the latter for only a short resurrection and of the immortality of the soul. For time, were in the end reunited with that of which they this we need but make a return to the remnants of had previously mourned the loss. In Orpheus’ case, it ancient Greece and the neighboring shores of the was his beloved wife Eurydice who was restored to Mediterranean where, according to scholars, the life, and in that of Aristaeus, his cherished beehives. symbol of the bee and its correlating hive were popular objects of worship and veneration, serving According to Apollodorus, Orpheus was also said as the symbolic bridge between this world and that to have been responsible for creating the Dionysian of the hereafter. Mysteries. As a type of what Sir J.G. Frazer called the dying god, i.e., a deity whose tragic death is followed If the reader will recall, in The Beehive: A by his miraculous resurrection, Dionysus, with his Migration of Myth I touched upon Ovid’s account corresponding Mysteries, also taught the truth of the of the youthful shepherd Aristaeus and the tragic immortality of the soul. Like his father Zeus, as an loss and miraculous, resurrection-like restoration infant Dionysus is said to have been tended by the of his cherished beehives. However, in Virgil’s Meliai, a sisterhood of bee-like nymphs associated version of the same story, we learn that the initial with the ash tree, who fed him on a diet solely of misfortune which was visited upon Aristaeus was honey, instead of milk. A god of wine and not simply a random act of fate, but was actually resurrection, Dionysus was frequently depicted as a orchestrated by the hero-poet Orpheus. But, before swarm of honey bees. Greek scholar Károly Kerényi we get to that, it will be helpful to first explain a postulated that the association between bees and little bit about the colorful figure of Orpheus and, resurrection in the figure of Dionysus stemmed most by extension, some of what it is that his likely from the ancient sacramental use of mead, an corresponding Mysteries entailed. alcoholic honey drink that was fermented in great subterranean vats, whose use as an entheogen According to Greek myth, Orpheus was the preceded the discovery of the intoxicating potential of son of Calliope, the muse of epic poetry, and the Dionysian vine. Apollo, the god of music. As the offspring of these two deities, Orpheus was destined for a fame and (Continued on page 42)
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