Honeybees & A Rune

Which Rune Do Honeybees Reflect?

If you are on my Beginners Runes Course, this might begin to ring a bell or two for you, as it is one we have looked at & the class has been working with from our second class at Ostara time.

Honeybees give sacred offering to their colony by a life of service. The god Tyr, one of the strongest warriors, sacrificed his sword arm for the protection of the realms. Tyr grew up playing with one of Loki's children, Fenris the wolf. As Fenris grew, he became fierce, angry at everything & everyone & was a force of destruction. The gods came to Tyr & asked if he would do something to help them control Fenris. Together, they came up with the idea to chain Fenris, so that he would be bound & unable to create instability. Tyr went to Fenris & said to him, "Would you be willing to let me bind you with these chains to see just how strong you are? You can prove your power by breaking from them, because these other guys over here, they don't think you can." Fenris agreed to be bound & easily broke free. The gods & Tyr met up again & Tyr was asked to try again with Fenris. Again, Tyr asked & Fenris agreed, but Fenris was having the feeling that something was off, yet he agreed once more. Fenris broke free, again.

The gods were really frustrated & knew they needed to do something soon about their trouble with Fenris, because Fenris was catching on to their scheme. The gods went to the Dwarves & asked them to make spell chains & Dwarves don't make anything by halves, what they make works & is of best quality. Tyr once again went to Fenris & by now, Fenris was about having enough of the shenanigans his friend was putting him through. Fenris once again, agreed to be bound, but there was a condition, Tyr had to place his sword arm into the wolf's mouth, just in case some trickery was happening & he couldn't break free of his binds. Tyr placed the chains on Fenris & immediately, Fenris knew that this was a trick & with his strong jaws & crunching teeth, bit off Tyr's sword arm.

Tyr is a god of service, he made sacred offering of his sword arm, so that the rest of the realms had some peace.

Honeybees are in service to their queen bee & their sisters, they know that without her, the bees' world would cease. The honeybees are also in service to their brothers, the drones, taking care of them as unfertilised eggs, feeding them as hatchlings & allowing them free run of the hive, but at the end of the foraging season, around October time, the female bees drag their brothers from the hive & throw them to the elements, banishing them from the colony, from food, warmth & comfort. And it's not a pretty struggle to witness. The havoc that the drones cause is that they have no practical tasks in the non-foraging months & all they will do during that time is eat the precious foodstores that the sisters have worked life & limb to gather for over the long months of their food gap. They must preserve all for their queen & those who will look after her.

Female honeybees forage, create wax from their bodies to create cells to store food from their foraging & brood, they pack the brood cells with specialised nutrients - a certain mix for males, another mix for females & a very nutrient dense mix for a new queen. The females clean the hive; they are super tidy.

So, the sisters are ensuring all is right with their worlds by service for the highest good of all who are looking after the queen & Tiwaz is the rune that reflects them.

(not a honeybee in the photo, but a bumble)