For all its sorrows, life is sweet. The Earth’s delightful honey is abundant in all its actual and metaphorical manifestations as nectar of the bees, compassion by and for all manner of living beings, the exquisite beauty of flowers, oceans, birds, and all beings, the mystery of the cosmos, and so much more. By our hands we humans can protect and nurture this delicate yet powerful aspect of the sweetness of our world if we choose. Such is the vision that Lithuanian goddess Austreja can offer our 21st century world by reminding us of the joys we could have if we will just do the hard work of meeting our responsibilities steadfastly while living joyfully.
Marija Gimbutas calls Austreja “the ideal bee-mother, a responsible homemaker figure. She “ensures that the families (as every beehive community is commonly called) under her guardianship multiply and increase” (Gimbutas 1999, 204). Patricia Monaghan describes her as “an energetic housewife who watched over the safety of the farm and its occupants; a weaver whose bees created honeycombs; and a bride who drank mead or honey wine at her wedding” (Monaghan 2014, 168). She also oversaw the birth of new life as a patron of women at their marriage and during pregnancy and motherhood.
These characteristics deeply embed her in traditional Lithuanian culture that venerates bees as almost human, but only the best of humans who are industrious for the benefit of all, truthful and virtuous, and dedicated to family and friends. Bee colonies are referred to using the same word as for human families. It was thought that bees would not allow anyone near them who did not have “good morals” and would sting those who were dishonest. The word bičiulis means an especially dear friend and is closely related to the word for bees.
In other Old European cultures, bees were associated with rebirth and regeneration, two concepts closely linked to pregnancy and motherhood. Marija Gimbutas notes that in Old Anatolia, Greece, and Ukraine images of bees were sometimes seen arising from a bucranium, the skull of a bull shaped like a uterus and fallopian tubes. In Rome, bees were believed to be human souls born from an ox. She also says that “a cave painting from Spain shows an hourglass-shaped goddess with bird’s feet and hands, bee’s eyes, and antennae, and three lines which mark the Bird Goddess. She is at once a bird of prey, a woman, and a bee – a manifestation of death and regeneration” (Gimbutas 1991, 246-248).
Bees are also associated with healing, certainly connected to protection of the family and community, and ecstatic ritual, another element of the sweetness of life. Vicki Noble notes that “For thousands of years the wild honey fermentation process of the ‘bee priestesses’ was a balm to their communities, bringing much-needed anti-bacterial, antiseptic, antifungal qualities and making people ecstatic” (Noble 2003, 99).
So, Austreja is firmly rooted in the traditional realm of both bees and bee goddesses, but, to me, what is uniquely important about her is her special perspective of appreciation for the everyday sweetness of life. Her nurturing of families and communities and drinking mead or honey wine at her wedding evokes the sacred delights of day-to-day happiness, which may also manifest in our own time in actions such as simply stopping into a neighborhood market to buy an orange, spending an afternoon playing silly games with friends, or sharing a holiday meal with biological or found family. There is an honesty, a concentration of essence, a cutting through of pretense and unnecessary spiritual clutter that comes with finding blessedness in ordinary moments that I think is too often overlooked but yet creates a powerful vision that all can share.
But, of course, bees are currently teaching us that our world of everyday sacredness could soon be lost. According to researchers from Pennsylvania State University, “Several studies show that in the United States alone, beekeepers have lost about 30 percent of their colonies every year since 2006, with total annual losses reaching as high as 40 percent. Similarly, many populations of wild bees are also showing declines, with many species now threatened or endangered” due to climate change, use of pesticides, and habitat destruction. Acting to reduce these losses to bees and all living creatures, our planetary household, by making global changes in our relationship to the Earth is essential for 21st century reverence of Austeja.
August, which will soon be upon us, is the time when Austeja was traditionally honored in Lithuania. Gimbutas says that “Offerings were made to her by jumping while tossing the oblation upward to the ceiling or into the air” (Gimbutas 1999, 204). This exuberant motion, to me, offers guidance as to what Austeja’s special role in our planet’s regeneration is. She is the one who reminds of what we are losing, not just the glaciers and rainforests, which can seem distant and easier for many people to forget, but also everyday pleasures of the morning songs of birds, the fresh and tasty fruits and vegetables that grace our tables, honey on toast as a child. She gives a vision not only of what we could have if we are willing to rethink our destructive lifeways, but guidance on how to achieve it — do the steadfast, often non-glamorous, work of healing, nurturing and protecting life, care for our families and communities, expect ecstasy as a part of daily life, and focus on birth and the regeneration of life rather than material gain and exploitation. May all our lives thus lived be honey-sweet.
Sources:
Barber, Elizabeth Wayland. 2013. The Dancing Goddesses: Folklore, Archeology, and the Origins of European Dance. New York: W.W. Norton and Co.
Gimbutas, Marija. 1991. The Civilization of the Goddess: The World of Old Europe. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Gimbutas, Marija. 1989. The Language of the Goddess. New York: HarperCollins Publishers.
Gimbutas, Marija. 1999. The Living Goddesses. Berkeley, CA, Los Angelos, CA, London: University of California Press.
Mawhood, Will. 2018. Are Lithuanians Obsessed with Bees?. BBC, March 20, 2018. https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20180319-are-lithuanians-obsessed-with-bees
Monaghan, Patricia. 2014 Encyclopedia of Goddesses and Heroine,.Novato, CA: New World Library.
Noble, Vicki. 2003. The Double Goddess: Women Sharing Power. Rochester, VT: Bear & Company.
Pellagrini, Ann. 2020.. “Sweetness and light with a sting.” The Baltic Times, June 6, 2020. https://www.baltictimes.com/news/articles/6570/
Pennsylvania State University. Honeybees and Other Pollinators. https://www.psu.edu/impact/story/protecting-pollinators/