Snow White & Red Rose

June, 2009

Among the collection of 'wonder tales' the famous Grimm brothers gathered was Snow White & Rose Red. Not the Snow White made popular by the works of Walt Disney, this tale has Snow White paired against her perfect opposite, Rose Red. The immediate fairy tale comparisons spring to mind with the universal North European pairing of the duo of red and white. These young twins love each other and prance about like merry little girls of fairy tales hand in hand. They live together with their old widowed mother, and we immediately see a trinity emerge with the twin forces unified by the Widow.

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The Chain of Transmission

March 29th, 2009

In the Sufi Tradition, Baraka can be alikened to spiritus and spiritual power. According to Idries Shah in The Way of the Sufi one translation is "special virtue". The Arabic word apparently has a place in contemporary French as a term for blessings. It is also cognate with charisma and divine presence.

In a mystical sense, the Sufis often see Baraka as the flowing grace from Godhead, the Creator, which also passes between people and objects, transcending time and space. Whilst individual people and items may possess a share of Baraka, that which belongs to a Sufi order includes its antecedents and is a store house that allow transformation via connection with the order through the master.

Silsila, or the chain of transmission, in Sufism is more than simply a pedigree of the master back to Mohammed and Allah. Silsila is the vital connection between the student and the stream, connecting him with the accumulated knowledge and Baraka, the light, of the order. Initiation links the student with the chain via the master who is the channel.

A passage in The Way of the Sufi from Sheikh Shamsudin Siwasi talks about how the greedy attempt to manipulate Baraka for wrongful reasons and the thirst for it cause us to ascribe the virtue of Baraka to certain feelings, convincing us it is real. Instead, we are advised to give before we may receive - to do otherwise is sinful.

"And I shall go into a bee, with mickle horror and dread of thee"

March 22nd, 2009

The honeybee, Melissa, has been travelling broadly in the early Spring sun and returning heavily laden with yellow pollen. To a beekeeper, this is a sign that the Queen, arguably the most important bee of the community, mother of the whole hive and staunch holder of the "egregore", is laying her new brood.

The Melissa currently busying about the pussy willow and hazel catkins, daffodils and early bulbs, is the winter bee. This bee, as opposed to its Summer sister who lives for up to 36 days, has a life span of up to six months. Unique in its species, this enables the honeybee to survive winter with a whole hive of bees. This is possible because, unlike the bumble, the honeybee stores honey, its essential metabolic food stuff. It also means that many of the bees currently flying around were born around All Hallows and will all be dead by May Eve.

Amongst the community of bees, the drone is a purely seasonal member who is absent during the winter months. When summer begins around May Eve, the drones will be emerging from hives and preparing themselves for mating with the new Queen. This deadly love tryst will result in his emasculation and death, whilst securing the life of the new colony. His role in the hive is essential as, without his sperm, the Queen is only capable of producing male bees. This also means that the drone is from unfertilized eggs, without father, a virgin birth. If he does not fulfill his fatal coupling with a new Queen, he is evicted or killed by the female bees by All Hallows.