Welcome back to White Rose of Avalon, my Darlings. For this week’s Femme Fatale Friday blog post, I will be exploring the importance of Honey and Bees to Venusian energy, specifically through the lens of my beloved Celtic Venusian Faery Queens!
I find that when we explore Bees and Venusian energy, what I first think of are the Melissae, the Bee Priestesses of Ancient Greece. The Bee Priestess who is called Melissa, as Melissae is the plural form of the word, is often described as having been Priestesses of Aphrodite, which is where we get our Venusian link. However, I will note that the Melissae were also Bee Priestesses to several other Goddesses, including Demeter and Persephone, serving to show that the Melissae were deeply connected to Fertility Goddesses of all sorts. Interestingly, Melissa is also the term by which the Priestesses of the Glastonbury Goddess Temple are referred to, creating an obvious connection between the Ancient Bee Priestesses and modern Priestesses of Avalonian Tradition!
Now, when we discuss the Celtic Venus, she is not a singular Goddess. Instead, the Celtic Venus is a collection of several Faery Queen Goddesses who embody the energy of Venus! I have written about the Celtic Venus many times, and I will continue to write about her because the Celtic Venus is very important to my own spiritual path. Primary examples of Faery Queens who also embody the Celtic Venus include Blodeuwedd, Guinevere, Rhiannon, Melusine, Aine, Maeve, and certain aspects of Morgan le Fay (in her Faery Lover, Enchantress, and even when she tends her Val Sans Retour)!
So, you can be working deeply with the Celtic Venusian energy if you seek to honor, become a Devotee, or even a Priestess to any of these Faery Queens. A great way to connect to the Honeyed energy, and Bee Priestess side, of the Celtic Venus, is to work with any herb that is loved by pollinators! The most obvious herb to work with for this purpose is one of my favorite Priestess herbs, Melissa officinalis, commonly known as Lemon Balm. This is a plant that Bees adore, and the scientific name of the plant being Melissa gives us a direct reference to the Melissae!
So, if you want to tap into this Honeybee Celtic Venusian Priestess energy this weekend, might I recommend brewing yourself a cup of strong Lemon Balm Tea (with Honey, of course) and sipping on it out in the sunshine while you meditate on your connection to the Faery Queens who embody the energy of the Celtic Venus! I hope you have enjoyed this short very Venusian Faery Friday look at how Honey, Bees, and the Celtic Venus are connected. What is your favorite way to work with the Honeyed energy of the Celtic Venus? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below!
Note on Image: The image at the top of the post is a lovely Melissa (Bee Priestess) artwork. I found the artwork on https://www.thisiskatemurphy.com/post/who-were-the-melissae-and-the-bee-priestesses.
LINK TO AVALONIAN ROSE FAERY MYSTERIES PATREON: patreon.com/AvalonianRoseFaeryMysteries
Further Reading
- Blood and Roses: A Devotional for Aphrodite and Venus by Bibliotheca Alexandrina
- The Mabinogion translated by Sioned Davies
- Arthurian Romances by Chretien de Troyes
- Le Morte d’Arthur by Sir Thomas Malory
- Once and Future Queen by Nicole Evelina
- Priestess of Avalon Priestess of the Goddess by Kathy Jones
- The Herbal Alchemist’s Handbook by Karen Harrison
- https://goddesstemple.co.uk/
- https://www.thisiskatemurphy.com/post/who-were-the-melissae-and-the-bee-priestesses
- https://bluestarowl.wordpress.com/2013/04/09/the-melissae-of-ancient-greece/
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