The Path Of Pollen | Hooting Yard

Before you get too far along your path (!) you might want to consider the following messages from bee maidens and then ask for your money back! lol

A note from Ms Sarah (ex-“bee maiden”):

I’ll be as brief as possible. I was drawn to undertake Path of Pollen workshops and trainings having read The Shamanic Way of the Bee and taken it on trust that the book is, as it claims, an authentic account of the author’s initiation into the Path of Pollen.

What I have recently discovered has shaken that trust considerably and left me wondering if I have been a) duped and b) exploited.

As you will see, it appears that significant passages in The Shamanic Way of the Bee (TSWOTB), including whole paragraphs, appear to have been lifted virtually word-for-word from the much earlier essays of the late P.L. Travers, who is best known as the author of Mary Poppins but was also a lifelong student of and writer upon myth and fairy tales. Worse still, these key passages are variously presented as either the dialogue between Bridge and Twig in TSWOTB and also the first person narrative. There is no indication that use of the passages in question was authorised by P.L.Travers or her estate and P.L.Travers’ work is not acknowledged either in footnotes or the bibliography at the back of TSWOTB.

Some people may not care whether or not there is any truth in TSWOTB or if it is simply one man’s eloquent modern fantasy, but to me at least there is something deeply unethical about passing another’s words off as one’s own and it raises serious questions about the authenticity of the Path of Pollen as a whole.

I present some of the evidence below for you to make up your own minds.

The P.L Travers work I quote from is “What The Bee Knows – Reflections on Myth Symbol and Story, foreword by David Applebaum, Codhill Press edition 2010

P.L. Travers, What The Bee Knows (WTBK) (from the essay entitled What The Bee Knows, first published in Parabola magazine, New York 1981) page 81:

For the Bee has at all times and places been the symbol of life – life as immortality. In the Celtic languages, the Cornish ‘beu’ the Irish ‘beo’, the Welsh ‘byw’, can all be translated as ‘alive’ or ‘living’; the Greek ‘bios’ has been mentioned above and is the French ‘abeille’ not akin to these? So, the Bee stands for – or is a manifestation of – the fundamental verb ‘to be’. ‘I am, thou art, he is’, it declares, as it goes humming past. …

… No wonder then that mythologically the bee is a ritual creature of a host of lordly ones…

… To anyone capable of suspending for a moment the cavortings of the rational mind, of accepting myth for what it is – not lie but the very veritable truth – it needs no great inward effort to act upon such advice. It’s a matter, merely, of listening.

Pp30-31 The Shamanic Way of the Bee (closing paragraphs of Bridge’s first knowledge lecture)

“The Bee Master knows the bee as the most remarkable of creatures, a social alchemist and truly nature’s most astonishing being,” he reflected before displaying his discreet passion for language and linguistics. It has at all times and places been the symbol of life – life as immortality. In the Celtic language, the Cornish ‘beu’ the Irish ‘beo’ and the Welsh ‘byw’, can all be translated as ‘alive’ or ‘living’. The Greek word bios should also be mentioned. So, the Bee stands for – or is a manifestation of – the fundamental verb ‘to be’. ‘I am, thou art, he is’, it declares, as it goes humming by.”

“… if we look to myth the bee is the ritual creature of a host of lordly ones. To anyone capable for a moment of suspending the cavortings of the rational mind, of accepting myth for what it is – not a story or a lie or a corruption of the facts, but the very essence of truth – it should need no great inward effort to access their significance.” His eyes bore into me, testing to see if I had yet understood. Then he spoke again, very slowly: “It is a matter, merely, of listening.”

P.L. Travers, (WTBK) p86:

“When does the old year end?” asks a child. “On the first stroke of midnight”, he is told. “And the new year – when does it begin?” “On the last stroke of midnight.” “ Well then, what happens in between?” The question, once asked, required an answer from those who know what the Druids knew. Long after I had written down this story, I listened to a radio reporter who was describing the ceremonies of an African tribe at the end of their lunar – or solar? -year. At a given moment, it appeared, the chanting and the drumming ceased as the gods invisibly withdrew. For a few seconds – twelve perhaps – absolute silence reigned. Then the drums broke out again in triumph as the gods as the gods invisibly returned with the new year in their arms. ‘And’ the reporter added ‘though I do not ask you to believe it, I can vouch for the fact that my tape recorder, for those few moments of sacred silence, without a touch of my hand, stopped spinning”

p35-36 TSWOB

The end of the year falls exactly at the beginning of the first stroke of midnight on December 31, and the new year begins as the last stroke ends. But what happens in between?… … In answer to Bridge’s question, I told him a story I had heard as a child that had stayed with me over the years. A correspondent for the BBC World Service was describing the ceremonies of an African tribal people at the end of their lunar cycle. At a given moment, the chanting and drumming ceased as the gods and deities invisibly withdrew from the world… … For just a few moments, absolute silence reigned in Africa as the gods withdrew. Then the drums broke out again in triumph as the spirits invisibly returned, cradling the new year in their arms. The reason I had recalled the story was that the reporter, a modern western man, had added that though he did not expect his listeners to believe him, he would vouch that during the few moments of sacred silence, his tape recorder had completely stopped working.

P.L.Travers WTBK p86

…. “Anyone used to yoga practice experiences the ritual pause between the outgoing and the indrawn breath. Between one breathtime and the next, between one lifetime and the next, something waits for a moment.”

p37 The Shamanic Way of the Bee “… the Bee Master continued. He reminded me that in meditation working with the breath, there is usually a ritual pause between the outgoing and incoming breath. “Between one breath and the next, between one lifetime and the next, something waits for a moment….”

P.L Travers WTBK p11

“… the homeland of myth, the country which in the old Russian stories is called East of the sun and West of the moon, and for which there is no known map”

p98 “To my surprise and delight, on this occasion Bridge continued to elaborate: “The Melissae are women who live in a country that is east of the sun and west of the moon for which there is no known map.”

P.L. Travers WTBK P267 From the essay “About The Sleeping Beauty” “The Thirteenth Wise Woman stands as a guardian of the threshold, the paradoxical adversary without whose presence no threshold can be passed.”

p102. TSWOTB “Early next morning, I wandered into the garden and found an austere presence dressed in black, awaiting my arrival before the Gate of Transition. She was as the Thirteenth Wise Woman who stands as guardian of the threshold, the paradoxical adversary without whose presence no threshold may be passed”

A note from Ms Alice (who is no longer in pollen wonderland):

“This is just incidental stuff, but all points towards the lack of authenticity of the Path of Pollen.

“1. The Nightshade Isle, based on the geographical, topographical and natural historical description given by process of elimination can only possibly be an approximation of Steep Holm. Drawing attention to this may irk. Also, one suspects the Kenneth Allsopp Memorial Trust who administer the island as a nature reserve are unlikely to be aware of any instance of Buxton rowing dozens of beehives over before cavorting about smothered in honey and gripping his fantasy penis extension. [She obviously knows him well!]

“2. The “ai dai idem jano” supposedly chanted while Buxton was doing the above (p. 169) is according to some of Buxton’s workshops, a remnant of the Atlantean language. In fact it’s a fairly well-known Bulgarian folk song (see video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goawogGqGlw

“3. Buxton’s Bridge displays a remarkable lack of originality for a so-called “poet with an axe”, but then even that line is robbed from Robert Mitchum’s description of himself. Not content with ripping off P.L. Travers in his opening knowledge lecture, Bridge’s backing vocals for Buxton’s bizarre honey-glazed bonfire wankfest consist of another bootleg cover version, this time of a fairly popular modern wiccan chant performed here by Kate West. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrEc6zORTUE

“Best wishes,
Alice D”

3 thoughts on “The Path Of Pollen”

Tanya Marshall on Thursday, 12 March, 2009 at 3:09 pm said:

Now this is all very well but every competent bee keeper knows that you need a Queen Keeper to keep the queen bee from “damaging” the honey. On the path of pollen “The Bee Master knows” many things but in the end is not the Queen Bee. SHE works with her mellissae to keep all the drones and Bee keeper on the right hand path, so please, please make sure you keep yourself safe by using one of these formulations. bee venom is far more powereful, in many different ways, than is commonly thought!
celestial elf on Friday, 18 March, 2011 at 1:09 pm said:

Enjoy your path 😀
Thought you might like my machinima film of the bee myth
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CsVL22dIdKw
Blessed Bee !
elf ~
ross on Thursday, 29 August, 2013 at 3:38 pm said:

Before you get too far along your path (!) you might want to consider the following messages from bee maidens and then ask for your money back! lol

A note from Ms Sarah (ex-“bee maiden”):

I’ll be as brief as possible. I was drawn to undertake Path of Pollen workshops and trainings having read The Shamanic Way of the Bee and taken it on trust that the book is, as it claims, an authentic account of the author’s initiation into the Path of Pollen.

What I have recently discovered has shaken that trust considerably and left me wondering if I have been a) duped and b) exploited.

As you will see, it appears that significant passages in The Shamanic Way of the Bee (TSWOTB), including whole paragraphs, appear to have been lifted virtually word-for-word from the much earlier essays of the late P.L. Travers, who is best known as the author of Mary Poppins but was also a lifelong student of and writer upon myth and fairy tales. Worse still, these key passages are variously presented as either the dialogue between Bridge and Twig in TSWOTB and also the first person narrative. There is no indication that use of the passages in question was authorised by P.L.Travers or her estate and P.L.Travers’ work is not acknowledged either in footnotes or the bibliography at the back of TSWOTB.

Some people may not care whether or not there is any truth in TSWOTB or if it is simply one man’s eloquent modern fantasy, but to me at least there is something deeply unethical about passing another’s words off as one’s own and it raises serious questions about the authenticity of the Path of Pollen as a whole.

I present some of the evidence below for you to make up your own minds.

The P.L Travers work I quote from is “What The Bee Knows – Reflections on Myth Symbol and Story, foreword by David Applebaum, Codhill Press edition 2010

P.L. Travers, What The Bee Knows (WTBK) (from the essay entitled What The Bee Knows, first published in Parabola magazine, New York 1981) page 81:

For the Bee has at all times and places been the symbol of life – life as immortality. In the Celtic languages, the Cornish ‘beu’ the Irish ‘beo’, the Welsh ‘byw’, can all be translated as ‘alive’ or ‘living’; the Greek ‘bios’ has been mentioned above and is the French ‘abeille’ not akin to these? So, the Bee stands for – or is a manifestation of – the fundamental verb ‘to be’. ‘I am, thou art, he is’, it declares, as it goes humming past. …

… No wonder then that mythologically the bee is a ritual creature of a host of lordly ones…

… To anyone capable of suspending for a moment the cavortings of the rational mind, of accepting myth for what it is – not lie but the very veritable truth – it needs no great inward effort to act upon such advice. It’s a matter, merely, of listening.

Pp30-31 The Shamanic Way of the Bee (closing paragraphs of Bridge’s first knowledge lecture)

“The Bee Master knows the bee as the most remarkable of creatures, a social alchemist and truly nature’s most astonishing being,” he reflected before displaying his discreet passion for language and linguistics. It has at all times and places been the symbol of life – life as immortality. In the Celtic language, the Cornish ‘beu’ the Irish ‘beo’ and the Welsh ‘byw’, can all be translated as ‘alive’ or ‘living’. The Greek word bios should also be mentioned. So, the Bee stands for – or is a manifestation of – the fundamental verb ‘to be’. ‘I am, thou art, he is’, it declares, as it goes humming by.”

“… if we look to myth the bee is the ritual creature of a host of lordly ones. To anyone capable for a moment of suspending the cavortings of the rational mind, of accepting myth for what it is – not a story or a lie or a corruption of the facts, but the very essence of truth – it should need no great inward effort to access their significance.” His eyes bore into me, testing to see if I had yet understood. Then he spoke again, very slowly: “It is a matter, merely, of listening.”

P.L. Travers, (WTBK) p86:

“When does the old year end?” asks a child. “On the first stroke of midnight”, he is told. “And the new year – when does it begin?” “On the last stroke of midnight.” “ Well then, what happens in between?” The question, once asked, required an answer from those who know what the Druids knew. Long after I had written down this story, I listened to a radio reporter who was describing the ceremonies of an African tribe at the end of their lunar – or solar? -year. At a given moment, it appeared, the chanting and the drumming ceased as the gods invisibly withdrew. For a few seconds – twelve perhaps – absolute silence reigned. Then the drums broke out again in triumph as the gods as the gods invisibly returned with the new year in their arms. ‘And’ the reporter added ‘though I do not ask you to believe it, I can vouch for the fact that my tape recorder, for those few moments of sacred silence, without a touch of my hand, stopped spinning”

p35-36 TSWOB

The end of the year falls exactly at the beginning of the first stroke of midnight on December 31, and the new year begins as the last stroke ends. But what happens in between?… … In answer to Bridge’s question, I told him a story I had heard as a child that had stayed with me over the years. A correspondent for the BBC World Service was describing the ceremonies of an African tribal people at the end of their lunar cycle. At a given moment, the chanting and drumming ceased as the gods and deities invisibly withdrew from the world… … For just a few moments, absolute silence reigned in Africa as the gods withdrew. Then the drums broke out again in triumph as the spirits invisibly returned, cradling the new year in their arms. The reason I had recalled the story was that the reporter, a modern western man, had added that though he did not expect his listeners to believe him, he would vouch that during the few moments of sacred silence, his tape recorder had completely stopped working.

P.L.Travers WTBK p86

…. “Anyone used to yoga practice experiences the ritual pause between the outgoing and the indrawn breath. Between one breathtime and the next, between one lifetime and the next, something waits for a moment.”

p37 The Shamanic Way of the Bee “… the Bee Master continued. He reminded me that in meditation working with the breath, there is usually a ritual pause between the outgoing and incoming breath. “Between one breath and the next, between one lifetime and the next, something waits for a moment….”

P.L Travers WTBK p11

“… the homeland of myth, the country which in the old Russian stories is called East of the sun and West of the moon, and for which there is no known map”

p98 “To my surprise and delight, on this occasion Bridge continued to elaborate: “The Melissae are women who live in a country that is east of the sun and west of the moon for which there is no known map.”

P.L. Travers WTBK P267 From the essay “About The Sleeping Beauty” “The Thirteenth Wise Woman stands as a guardian of the threshold, the paradoxical adversary without whose presence no threshold can be passed.”

p102. TSWOTB “Early next morning, I wandered into the garden and found an austere presence dressed in black, awaiting my arrival before the Gate of Transition. She was as the Thirteenth Wise Woman who stands as guardian of the threshold, the paradoxical adversary without whose presence no threshold may be passed”

A note from Ms Alice (who is no longer in pollen wonderland):

“This is just incidental stuff, but all points towards the lack of authenticity of the Path of Pollen.

“1. The Nightshade Isle, based on the geographical, topographical and natural historical description given by process of elimination can only possibly be an approximation of Steep Holm. Drawing attention to this may irk. Also, one suspects the Kenneth Allsopp Memorial Trust who administer the island as a nature reserve are unlikely to be aware of any instance of Buxton rowing dozens of beehives over before cavorting about smothered in honey and gripping his fantasy penis extension. [She obviously knows him well!]

“2. The “ai dai idem jano” supposedly chanted while Buxton was doing the above (p. 169) is according to some of Buxton’s workshops, a remnant of the Atlantean language. In fact it’s a fairly well-known Bulgarian folk song (see video).
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=goawogGqGlw

“3. Buxton’s Bridge displays a remarkable lack of originality for a so-called “poet with an axe”, but then even that line is robbed from Robert Mitchum’s description of himself. Not content with ripping off P.L. Travers in his opening knowledge lecture, Bridge’s backing vocals for Buxton’s bizarre honey-glazed bonfire wankfest consist of another bootleg cover version, this time of a fairly popular modern wiccan chant performed here by Kate West. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TrEc6zORTUE

“Best wishes,
Alice D”

3 thoughts on “The Path Of Pollen”

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