Ever since the fields had been harvested some weeks ago, i heard it in my head everytime I drove past: „flaxen hair blowing in the breeze, it is time for the geese to head to south“ – the opening lines of Tori Amos´s „The Beekeeper“ and I imagined that celtic shaman woman, presenting the power of life and death in the garden, in natures seasonal cycles. As the year turns towards its end, still we are given the plentyfull of harvest, of crops and fruit and last warm sunshine. And the last of summers honey…and I knew, i needed to literally photograph it out of my head, or it would haunt me all autumn.
Bees have been a relevant agricultural, even a survival factor and fascinating to humans for centuries, communicating the number eight, the symbol of eternity with their dance. They bring the honey, they bring the sting. You can´t have one without the other.
“My mom was very ill this year. I was having to realize that I was not willing to let her go at this time, so what do you do? Well then you go to the Beekeeper, don’t you? So in the song, The Beekeeper, I travel to find the Master Beekeeper who is really sort of the Master Shaman keeping everything together within the gardens making sure that everything is pollinated, making sure that there is life, making sure that when and if there is disease that that is extricated from the garden. I wasn’t guaranteed that my mother would survive, but the master Beekeeper explained that, of course she will wait. Don’t you believe in infinity, don’t you believe in the shape of infinity? That’s the bees den. That is what the worker bees do. That is their dance. Don’t you believe in the mystery of the Magdalene, don’t you believe in this lineage of Demeter? The endless of cycles, of Mother and Daughter. Because where ever she awakes she is still your mother, even if it isn’t on this plane, she will always be your mother.”
Tori Amos ; The Beekeeper Limited Edition Bonus DVD
a big thank you to Jette :-)