HONEY & HOPE
Inspired by the queen bee who calls forth the swarm with honey and hope, ten luminaries will share stories of how they have pushed boundaries, connected deeper with Nature, learned from ancestral wisdom, gained inspiration from within, and/or sought to affect systemic change.
From indigenous cultures to integrated psychedelia, from ecofeminism to environmental economics, together we will explore questions about mindful, meaningful living and how we can individually and collectively sprinkle honey and hope from our own hives to humans and non-humans far beyond.
April 7: Dr. Stefan Stângaciu from Apitherapy.com
April 21: Dr. Elsa María Cardona Santos from Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research
May 19: The Melissae's World Bee Day Ceremony
June 16: Matthew Shepherd from Xerces Society
July 14: Max Dashu from Suppressed Histories Archive
September 15: Clare Dubois from TreeSisters
September 29: Starhawk from Earth Activist Training
October 20: Melanie Kirby from Zia Queenbees
November 17: Chiara Baldini from BOOM Festival
December 15: Hanifa Nayo Washington from Fireside Project
10 SPEAKERS
Activism
Mythology
Apitherapy
Archetypes
Psychedelia
Ecofeminism
Sacred healing
Environmentalism
Bee-centric science
Indigenous cultures
Community-building
Art and more...
2022 BEES, DREAMS & MEDICINE
Full-Series (10) Subscription $160 (get 2 free)
6 Speakers $100 (save $20)
3 Speakers $55 (save $5)
1 Speaker $20
* Online webinar series via Zoom *
* Attendees of live talks get an opportunity to ask speakers questions *
* Video recordings will be available to view on-demand afterwards *
* All prices include service fees and sales tax *
* Tickets bought up to one hour in advance guarantee access to live talks *
Are you experiencing financial hardship?
BIPoC: we value your presence and warmly welcome you into this community.
Contact us for a limited number of partial scholarships.
2022 PROGRAM
MEET OUR 2022 SPEAKERS
Thursday, April 7
12–2pm Pacific Time
Dr. Stefan Stângaciu
Mysteries of Bees:
Intelligence, Communication, Medicine
Around the world honey bees are known for producing honey and for greening the planet through pollination. Less known is their ancient relationship with humans, dating back tens of thousands of years; their inherent intelligence and wisdom, passed down to those who “listen”; their contributions to medicine, whereby almost every byproduct of the hive—honey, pollen, royal jelly, propolis, even bee venom and beehive air—can be applied to humans to prevent or cure various illnesses (aka “apitherapy”); as well as a little understood, slightly controversial theory that bees can sense our “auras” and administer healing bee stings where needed.
Dr. Stefan Stângaciu, one of the world’s leading apitherapists, relays personal and professional stories of working with bees throughout his lifetime, during which he’s observed their behavior and developed theories about and practices surrounding their intelligence, communications, and medicine.
About Stefan
Stefan is a Romanian physician, focused primarily on apitherapy, a practice that uses bee products to heal numerous ailments. Renowned as one of the world’s foremost apitherapists, he has successfully treated thousands of patients throughout Europe, North America, and beyond. Stefan is President of the Romanian Apitherapy Society, Honorary President of the German Apitherapy Association, Secretary General of the International Federation of Apitherapy, founder of Apitherapy.com, author of apitherapy books, and a keynote speaker at many international conferences.
Thursday, April 21
12–2pm Pacific Time
Dr. Elsa María Cardona Santos
Rewilding Nature and Society
Anthropocentrism—the belief that humans are superior and separated from other life forms—is profoundly embedded in many modern cultures and our globalized economic system. While some claim this to be a root cause of human-driven environmental collapse, others propose that anthropocentric approaches, such as regarding Nature as a form of capital, can provide a solution to ecosystem degradation. However, the concept of "rewilding" proposes the opposite: a re-connection between people and Nature, whether as a conservation approach to support the health of ecosystems or as an approach to enhance human health.
Dr. Elsa María Cardona Santos will explore both the potential of rewilding and the potential for rewilding. She will analyze our capacity to implement this approach, given our cultural and economic institutions, and the capacity of this approach to shape our connection to Nature.
About Elsa
Elsa is an environmental economist concerned about the effects of our consumption and production patterns on our health and the health of our planet. She is a researcher and campaigner for the protection of Nature and the wisdom of our ancestors. She studies the design and impact of environmental policies and brings together science and policymaking to stop ecosystem degradation and to protect biodiversity. She works at the Helmholtz Centre for Environmental Research in Germany.
Thursday, May 19
12–2pm Pacific Time
The Melissae
World Bee Day Ceremony
A growing number of people seek to interact with the honey bee in a deep way. There is awe in their voices as they speak of their sweet humbleness after sharing liminal space with them. Many commune with honey bees in an artistic way, ceremonial way, through performance, art, plant medicine. What is emerging is a distinct culture, a unique vision and fecund vocabulary, expressed through influential music, dreams, archetypes, and activism.
The Melissae (bee priestesses) invite you to participate in a simple set of ceremonial practices, so that together we may grow in awareness of the honey bee. After years of study and personal development, each of our presenters has special ways by which they honor bees in their lives. They will describe these discoveries and processes, and then, if you wish, we will all perform a ceremony of offering, forgiveness, and love to our pollinator family in celebration of World Bee Day (May 20).
About The Melissae
Laura Bee Ferguson, founder and director of The College of the Melissae, invites Rahibe (alumni) and members of the school’s network to share glimpses into their inner musings and spiritual studies with honey bees. Each has discovered lines of understanding that, seemingly self-discovered, also exist collectively. This synchronicity and unity is helping to provide a framework for a renewed animistic look at our relationship with Nature, one another, ourselves, as well as the world around us.
Subscribe to The College of the Melissae's mailing list for updates and introductions to our special hive of guest presenters.
photo © Alexander Wild
World Bee Day Ceremony
About The Melissae
Thursday, July 14
12–2pm Pacific Time
Max Dashu
Prophetic Women
We’ll take an international visual journey that calls back memories of the seer-ess, dreamer, sibyl, oracle—under her many cultural names. The prophetess does more than “predict the future,” she speaks sacred truths (“soothsayer”) and communicates profound insights about reality in her inspired voice. She channels divine wisdom, “sitting out” on a stone, under a tree, at the riverside, or while dancing, chanting. She divines by casting lots, throwing the bones or kernels or shells. We’ll look at Aztec diviners; the Germanic veleda; female oracles from Malawi, Zimbabwe, and Greece; Algonquin mashkiki-kwe; French and African-American fortunetellers; the Caribbean madama; and South African izangoma. The prophetess is a guardian of culture and sometimes leads her people in fighting domination, like Dahia al-Kahena (Tunisia), Muhumusa (Uganda), Mauricia la Bruja (Venezuela), Teresa Urrea (Mexico), and Essie Parrish (California). We need to know about these women, and their ways of knowing which subvert systems of domination, on our path to liberation.
About Max
Max Dashu founded the Suppressed Histories Archives in 1970 to research women in the global cultural record. From her collection of some 50,000 images, she has created and presented hundreds of slideshows at universities, conferences, festivals, community centers, bookstores, schools, and libraries internationally. She is the author of Witches and Pagans: Women in European Folk Religion and Pythias, Melissae and Pharmakides: Women in Hellenic Culture. She also publishes videos, such as Woman Shaman: the Ancients and Women’s Power in Global Perspective, as well as the Deasophy Coloring Book. She teaches with images via her online courses, webcasts, the SHA Facebook page, and stream-on-demand videos (Suppressed Histories Portal on Teachable).
In a career that began in England and took him to Kenya before his arrival in the United States, Matthew has spent 35 years working with people from all walks of life to create better places for wildlife. He works for the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation, and in the last two decades has helped build pollinator conservation from an obscure issue to a topic of dinner-table conversation and wide engagement.
Matthew is author or co-author of numerous articles and other publications, including Attracting Native Pollinators.
We’ve all seen headlines about plunging pollinator populations and have read stories about people who want to save them. There’s no doubt that pollinators are under pressure and that we most certainly need to enact change to help them. But which bees need saving, and which actions will have the best impact?
Matthew Shepherd’s own awakening about bees came a quarter century ago. Soon after, he was offered the opportunity to take a leading role in protecting them.
Join him on a journey through the diversity of bees, some of the major issues clouding their future, steps we need to be taking to ensure they have a safe environment, and how you can contribute at both an individual level and as a community. Along the way, we’ll also take a diversion to check in on the status of monarch butterflies in North America.
Thursday, September 15
12–2pm Pacific Time
Clare Dubois
Inspiring Restoration and Feminine Leadership, One Tree at a Time
Beekeeper and social activist Clare Dubois founded TreeSisters after a car crash that delivered a life-changing message to reforest the tropics and lead the way in switching humankind’s behavior from a consumer to restorer species. Since then, TreeSisters has grown into a worldwide network of individuals inspired to protect and restore the planet—and themselves—through reforestation, feminine leadership, and global action.
Clare will share her personal journey of transformation, nature consciousness, and the process of opening our bodies to listening and becoming embodiments of different sources of wisdom. She'll also explore what stops us from these themes, why it's hard, what blocks us, how she's worked around obstacles, and how we can help each other open further. Through such personal work, we can cultivate more activists and leaders to create a better, more sustainable future for all.
About Clare
Clare is the founder of TreeSisters, a social-change and reforestation organization that places tropical forest restoration into everyone’s hands. TreeSisters has funded the planting of more than 26 million trees globally.
She is a free radical and unlikely leader, an Earth-loving social entrepreneur and inspirational speaker, inviting us all to step up on behalf of the planet. Before TreeSisters, Clare coached business leaders and facilitated group behavioral change internationally across multiple sectors.
Thursday, September 29
12–2pm Pacific Time
Starhawk
A Revolution of Thought, Action and Community
These are challenging times. And in challenging times we need visionary leaders to guide us towards a better future, leaders who can ignite the people with bold thoughts and unflappable passion. A revolution of philosophy, of action, could be sparked, whereby underdog values (re-)emerge from the cracks of a crumbling society. Values of Earth-based activism. Ecofeminism. Community. Environmental spirituality. Social justice.
Starhawk heeds the call and rises to that challenge. Emboldened by a growing movement of concerned citizens taking action, she forges forth—and brings us along—on a journey about goddesses, regenerative culture, permaculture, and the power each of us holds within ourselves.
About Starhawk
Starhawk is an author, activist, permaculture designer and teacher, and a prominent voice in modern Earth-based spirituality and ecofeminism. She has authored or co-authored 13 books, including The Spiral Dance: A Rebirth of the Ancient Religion of the Great Goddess and the ecotopian novel The Fifth Sacred Thing, as well as its sequel City of Refuge. Her most recent nonfiction book is The Empowerment Manual: A Guide for Collaborative Groups about group dynamics, power, conflict, and communications.
Starhawk founded Earth Activist Training, which teaches permaculture design grounded in spirituality and with a focus on activism. She travels internationally, lecturing and teaching on Earth-based spirituality, the tools of ritual, and the skills of activism.
