****
Condition: BRAND NEW
ISBN: 9781594771194
Format: Trade paperback (UK)
Year: 2006
Publisher: Inner Traditions


Description:
Reveals for the first time the ancient tradition of bee shamanism and its secret practices and teachings

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

* Reveals bee shamanisms 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 may well be the most ancient and enigmatic branch of shamanism. It exists throughout the world-wherever in fact the honeybee exists. Its medicinal tools-such as honey, pollen, propolis, and royal jelly-are now in common usage, and even the origins of Chinese acupuncture can be traced back to the ancient practice of applying bee stings to the bodys meridians.

In this authoritative ethnography and spiritual 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 on 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 spiritual power