Fascination and Magic go hand in hand when you get a chance to watch bees first hand with our Observation Hive.  Mr. Buddy aka The Bee Whisperer captures the attention of young and old with his knowledge of these beneficial creatures at Saturday Market in Downtown Greenville. 

Take a minute to think…..   the oneness of the bee colony reveals the interconnectedness of the world, and each of us within this vast community we call world. In the past centuries as bees became a commodity of modern agriculture, a deeper meaning and understanding of their true nature was lost.

The old German word bien is an attempt to describe the oneness of the bee colony, and to also distinguish its individual “personality”. The honey bee colony is one being in countless bodies. The biological term for this is super-organism. The colony is both a society of thousands of individuals, as well as one super-organism, one bien. This multitude of bees creates a being with capacities far beyond those of a single bee, and the bien as a whole lifts the individual bee on to a higher level of existence.

A single bee gives herself completely to the wellbeing of the colony. Her physical existence is completely devoted to the prosperity and survival of the bien. She will even give her own life, to serve and protect much like a human mother. In this altruistic gesture we can see her sense of self and the extent to which she can surpass her individual existence and function as a part of something larger.

The Austrian philosopher and spiritual scientist Rudolf Steiner describes the bien as being “permeated with life based on love”.  If only we as humans could learn to live and work together in a life based on love….  There might be a little more Magic in the World…..