The Art of Playing with Bees

I’m prepping for FaerieCon and it’s very exciting. This is my first time to have a booth of my own. Usually, at festivals and faires, I sit in somebody else’s booth and sign books for a couple of hours, then roam for the rest of the time. I’ve actually had customers and booth owners track me down to purchase books, whilst I was flitting about like a playful little faerie. I’ve had booths occasionally – at the KVMR Celtic Music Festival and the Women’s Spirit Summer Solstice Festival, however, I’ve always shared a booth with others, so that way I could continue to frolic, share costs, and not get that “desperate vendor look” – you know the one. This time, I’m making a big ole’ banner (actually my friend Jenny is painting me a silk banner) and then I’m decorating the booth – ALL BY MYSELF! I also decided that “just five books” would be boring in a booth, so I’m making new products: Seasonal Altar Scarves, Magick Mirrors, and Naughty Faerie Spoons. So what do I do? Go into panic, worrywart mode, just like a good Cappy girl.

As the anxiety sets in I can hear my faerie friends telling me to relax. This is supposed to be fun. After all, I’ll be able to spend time with a long lost aunt, whom I’ve not grown up with and was only reunited this April after the unexpected death of my father. I am so looking forward to spending time with her, getting family stories and hearing tales of my prodigal father. And I’m going to a bad faerie ball, said to be held in a haunted brothel. How fun!

But no, I did not heed the fae folk’s first warning – relax little sister. So, they threw me a curve ball and for awhile there it seemed like childcare options for my kids while I was at FaerieCon for five days were scarce on the ground. I decided my desire to go and experience was more important than whether or not I ordered the right number of books or chose the right color for autumn velvet scarves. I would stop worrying and instead focus on my cute new boots for the ball. Childcare issues resolved themselves and the next morning three glorious white mushrooms popped up on my lawn, a sure sign from the faeries. Huzzah for me!

Within hours it was time to go back to fretting. (You’d think I’d learn!). So as I’m walking through the nature preserve with my friend Joi, I begin in on my concerns over the conference and all the possible scenarios. Just as I’m really working myself up, I walk into a bee swarm. Suddenly the sound of angry buzzing fills my ears. Several bees have lost themselves in my thick hair. I start flipping my hair like I’m at some raging heavy metal rock concert. Joi tells me to stop so she can search for the bees in my hair. Within seconds she yells “You’ve got too much damn hair! I don’t see anything!” At this point the bees begin crawling down my shirt. One stings me and I cry out. Joi tells me to take off my shirt. So I whip off the shirt and commence the hair flipping and flailing about. Through the strands of my hair I can see an elderly couple watching me. Of course, the first thing I think about is, “Thank my stars I’m wearing cute bra.” No doubt about it, I’m vain. Later I wonder if this little scene could have been part of a Ben Stiller film. I lean over again for Joi to dig for bees and she announces the bees are gone. But I can still hear them angrily buzzing in my ear. The reason she tells me this is because the bees that have freed themselves from my tresses are dive-bombing her and me. Meanwhile I get stung three more times. Finally, the bees take off. I put on my shirt again and we walk back to the kids’ school to get some Rescue Remedy Cream for my stings which are swelling and painful. The elderly couple met us as our paths converged – of course – and they are quite sweet about my little display. The man blushed.

Later I tell Lisa Steinke about this and she asks jokingly, “What did you make that mean?” Of course there is a story and a meaning or lesson, you choose. My BFF Dana looked up bees in Ted Andrews’ Animal Speak and found that because of bees’ connection to honey; they represent the sweetness of life. Am I embracing the joys and goodness in my life? No, not really. They are also symbols of community – am I allowing friends to help me, or am I taking on too much busy-ness? Busy little bee – that was me. And finally am I being fertile or creative? Can I allow the muse to flow through me or am I forcing it. Strong-arming would be the word. Not to mention that three of the bee stings are exactly on my stress knot, the reoccurring pain from a car accident I got into right after the Teen Spell Book came out. (I was nervous about that first book signing and so manifested a drunk driver to crash into me – there really are less painful ways to learn these lessons. I’m sure of it.) And the other bee sting is on my breast, the quintessential nurturing spot.

Let me be perfectly clear. Letting go is a learned art. I can honestly say, I’m getting better at it. I’m listening to when the Goddess has a word for me. Hopefully before the cosmic 2 x 4 hits me too hard in between the eyeballs. And my friends, with Mercury Retrograde upon us, we’ve got the prime opportunity to just go with the flow. It’s not easy. Life can get pretty screwy when the planet of communications sends an optical illusion of backward movement. But it’s necessary for us to just drop all the preconceived notions of how things need to look before we accept the sweetness that is always there. I used the bees in my talk about Play in Ritual Magic at San Diego Pagan Pride, because I could have worked that story into a real sob story, milking all kinds of pity. I could have even felt guilty over the bees losing their lives to teach me a lesson. Instead I laughed about it. Five days later the swelling was down. All is well. The scarves are amazing. I discovered The Teen Spell Book has once again sold out of stock and won’t be available for another 5 weeks – 3 weeks after the conference. I could have gone into another panic mode, but my editor searched and found 15 copies I can take and there’s always Amazon or Ebay! All is well in the world.

“Whether or not it is clear to you, no doubt the Universe is unfolding as it should.”- Desiderata.

So you might as well have fun. This is my example of Play in Ritual Magick.