The Shamanic Way of the Bee: Ancient Wisdom and Healing Practices of the Bee Masters Paperback – 6 January 2006

• Examines the healing and ceremonial powers of the honeybee and the hive

• Reveals bee shamanism’s system of acupuncture, which predates the Chinese systems

• Imparts teachings from the female tradition and explores the transformative powers of the magico-sexual elixirs they produce

Bee shamanism could be probably the most ancient and enigmatic branch of shamanism. It exists all over the world–wherever actually the honeybee exists. Its medicinal tools–such as honey, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly–are actually in common usage, and even the origins of Chinese acupuncture may also be traced back to the ancient practice of applying bee stings to the body’s meridians.

In this authoritative ethnography and non secular memoir, Simon Buxton, an elder of the Path of Pollen, reveals for the first time the richness of this tradition: its subtle intelligence; its sights, sounds, and smells; and its unique ceremonies, which until now have been known only to initiates. Buxton unknowingly took his first steps at the Path of Pollen at age nine, when a neighbor–an Austrian bee shaman–cured him of a near-fatal bout of encephalitis. This early contact prepared him for his later meeting with an elder of the tradition who took him on as an apprentice. Following an intense initiation that opened him to the mysteries of the hive mind, Buxton learned over the next 13 years the practices, rituals, and tools of bee shamanism. He experienced the healing and non secular powers of honey and other bee products, including the “flying ointment” once used by medieval witches, in addition to ritual initiations with the female members of the tradition–the Mellisae–and the application of magico-sexual “nektars” that promote longevity and ecstasy. The Shamanic Way of the Bee is a rare view into the name of the game wisdom of this age-old tradition.