Jacqueline Freeman
Jacqueline Freeman is a biodynamic farmer and natural beekeeper who
speaks at national events including the Organic Beekeepers
Conference, Women in Agriculture, and permaculture and nature
conferences. She lives in Washington state. For more, visit
spiritbee.com.
Susan Chernak McElroy
Susan Chernak McElroy is the author of the national bestselling
book Animals as Teachers and Healers; and Animals as Guides for the
Soul. Diagnosed with terminal cancer in 1987, she survived - by
following the dignified, joyful example of her dog Keesha, who had
died ten years earlier of the same type of cancer.McElroy and her
husband live in Oregon, where they share their farm with miniature
donkeys, llamas, chickens, geese, cats, dogs, and a cockatoo.
"Song of Increase opens up a mystical realm of deep communication
with nature. Learn the wisdom of the bees, and you will never look
at the world the same way again." --Starhawk, author of The Spiral
Dance and The Fifth Sacred Thing "I have been deeply moved by this
book. Jacqueline's work with bees is truly extraordinary. This book
has the potential to transform beekeeping and transform the world."
--Susan Chernak McElroy, author of Animals as Teachers and Healers
"This book is a treasure of honeybee philosophy. Jacqueline
profiles the many ways bees connect within the hive, with the world
outside the hive, with agriculture, and with the beekeeper. Spend
time watching your hives. What the bees say in this book is right."
--Nathan Rausch, biodynamic beekeeper, Snoqualmie Valley Beekeepers
"This book is a jewel. I am having a total
can't-put-the-book-down/don't-want-it-ever-to-end experience. This
is holy bee communion. This book is one of the great bee books of
our times. It speaks to the relationship with the sacred that is so
precious. The book is divinely timed, eloquent, honest,
compassionate, and completely full of love. And probably brave,
too, because this work is clearly the result of a deep and intimate
dive into the divine. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for
sharing this." --Debra Roberts, master beekeeper, natural
beekeeping educator, The Center for Honeybee Research "Beekeeping
is a sacred occupation. This book grounds that intuitive knowing
and informs my work with my bees . . . the drones singing the song
of creation to the babies, the joy of the maiden bees when they
find nectar and flowers, the search for the sun as the virgin queen
begins her marriage flight. All these images live within me as I
interact with the bees, opening my heart and mind to the beauty of
life in the hive. Quite literally, this book has changed my life."
--Patti Pitcher, biodynamic farmer and educator, The Farm Wife
Mystery School "Jacqueline is on the cutting edge of apiculture
with her intuitive, compassionate, and intelligent work. She has
the rare ability (and courage!) to take us into the bee's world. We
can learn so much from this deeply sensitive book." --Laura Bee
Ferguson, director, College of the Melissae Center for Sacred
Beekeeping "It is time for the voice of the bee to be heard. That
voice speaks to each of us in its own way. To understand it
requires us to change our perceptions and paradigms. Jacqueline's
conversation with the bee is a unique contribution to the growing
movement of bee-centered beekeeping." --Gareth John, trustee,
Natural Beekeeping Trust "A gem of a book: a deep reflection and
meditation on honeybees, celebrating the sacredness and holiness of
the hive. Song of Increase blends spiritual, practical and
scientific insights into a beautiful anthem for the honeybee.
Jacqueline shares the inner workings of the hive, to the tragic
implications of Colony Collapse Disorder. She navigates us out of
the darkness, into the light to help create a healthier
relationship with this most sacred animal." --Taggart Siegel,
award-winning documentary filmmaker of The Real Dirt on Farmer
John, Queen of the Sun: What Are the Bees Telling Us?, and SEED:
The Untold Story "Jacqueline takes you on a bee-keeping journey to
new (or perhaps ancient) levels of interconnectedness. This book is
a stunning revelation of deep spirituality that can be found in the
simple act of caring for bees." --Marjory Wildcraft, founder, The
Grow Network "The principles of White Buffalo Woman are expressed
in the wholeness and holiness offered in this wondrous book.
Whether or not you ever keep bees, this amazingly profound and
fascinating book is a deep lesson in the intelligence, wisdom,
harmony and robust vitality of Creation. This book offers an
intimate look into a stunningly effective society, where its
members all give 100 percent to their part of the humming whole.
There are joyous lessons and healing ways here for each of us as
individuals, and perhaps more importantly in this time, for the
well-being of the whole. A honeycomb of sweetness awaits you!"
--Brooke Medicine Eagle, author of Buffalo Woman Comes Singing and
The Last Ghost Dance "Song of Increase is a manual for listening.
Jacqueline Freeman starts her book with the sentence: 'When bees
speak, I listen.' It is an apt beginning that sums up her approach
to bees and the crisis they are in. Today this crisis has reached
alarming dimensions. The call for help is desperate, loud and
clear. And yet we are helpless as hive after hive collapses: we can
hear the message but don't understand its meaning. Jacqueline's
book suggests that we don't listen deeply enough to understand the
nature of this call. To understand this call--to make sense of the
bee crisis and remedy it--we need different ways of responding,
thinking, seeing, listening.
We need every voice to be heard: the voice of science and of common
sense, of professional and lay-bee-keepers, of artists and
intuitives. We need a choir of approaches rather the soloist of
science. Above all we need every kind listening in order to
understand what the bees are telling us through their demise.
Jacqueline's book suggests such new and unusual ways of listening,
and in doing so calls for a wider, broader, more diversified
approach to a crisis that we can only solve through a diverse
community of researchers and practitioners. With Song of Increase,
Jacqueline joins the global choir of those concerned about bees
with a unique contribution gleaned from her unique form of
listening. " --Horst Kornberger, author of Global Hive: Bee Crisis
and Compassionate Ecology "This is the most apicentric book on
natural beekeeping that I have read. Freeman firmly rejects the
utilitarian ethic that underpins most modern beekeeping and
presents her intuitions, rich in poetic style and imaginative
metaphor, on the life of the honeybee. Throughout the book she lets
the bees speak for themselves as they tell us about things hitherto
hidden from us--things which could provide a source of inspiration
for research far into the future. Readers with a spiritual
worldview will easily empathize with Freeman's obvious reverence
and respect for the nature of the bee and its intrinsic rather than
instrumental value." --Dr. David Heaf, The Bee-Friendly Beekeeper
and Natural Beekeeping with the Warre Hive "Jacqueline Freeman
weaves two stories here, both compelling and exquisitely told. One
is hers--a beekeeper who, through attention, stumbles onto an open
channel of communication with the bees; and the other is the wisdom
of the bees . . . in their own voice. Reading both stories reminds
me how well other species know how to read and heed every subtle
cue of their environment, how well they know what we humans must
relearn: cooperation as the path to personal survival, surrender as
freedom, separation as an illusion in the tapestry of life. I feel
like I can now cock my ear and consult the bees, and that they and
others can guide us home." --Vicki Robin, author of Your Money or
Your Life and Blessing the Hands that Feed Us "Beekeeping practices
are undergoing serious transformations--so that we can really keep
the bees. Song of Increase takes you into realms not found in
traditional beekeeping books, realms that require an open mind and
also an open heart. The book encourages you to look with new eyes,
listen with new ears, and develop the understanding of honeybees
required for having the right to say, 'I love them.' The future of
our relationship with the natural world is tangible!" --Gunther
Hauk, author of Toward Saving the Honeybee; cofounder, Spikenard
Farm Honeybee Sanctuary "It is rare to find someone acutely tuned
in to the natural world and the many beings that inhabit this web
of life. Jacqueline Freeman is one of those special persons. Her
ability to not only understand the life of bees but to go beyond
surface noticing to actually be guided by the vast wisdom found in
the world of bees is phenomenal. Being a plant person myself I fell
in love with bees through the deep insights in Song of Increase.
While reading this very accessible book, a whole other level of
depth perception unfolded as the plant/pollinator relationship took
on new meaning. My relationship with plants is broadening to
include their intimate partners, the bees. Everyone needs to read
this book to understand why it is so important for the bees to not
only survive but thrive." --Pam Montgomery, author of Plant Spirit
Healing: A Guide to Working with Plant Consciousness and Partner
Earth: A Spiritual Ecology "Jacqueline Freeman presents a
biodynamic philosophy of beekeeping where the science of the sun,
the plant, and the soil is woven together with life force, form,
and unseen realms of nature. Her story shows us how deeply we can
know and care for these small creatures known as the honeybee.
Freeman is a farmer and an experienced beekeeper who brings both an
intellectual understanding and a poetic outlook to her work. Many
answers to a healthy future for our bees are to be found in her
writings." --Christy Korrow, editor of LILIPOH magazine "Jacqueline
takes the reader on a journey into the world of honeybees and the
hidden aspects of apiculture through immersion into a deeply
sensitive and perceptive communication with bees. She reveals the
wisdom aspects of bees and their emotional integrity, and
encourages us to venture further into new territory within the
multidimensional landscape of honeybees. It is an inspiration for a
holistic approach to apiculture and a timely book in a transitional
time for bees and the entire biosphere." --Michael Joshin Thiele,
founder, Gaia Bees "Enjoying a totemic relationship with the honey
bees, Jacqueline Freeman shares her spiritual journey of communing
with the soul of the hive. If you ever wondered what dreams bees
have, what secret role the drones may play, or what the queens sing
about, you will discover here a unique perspective as well as a
heartfelt plea to adopt bee-friendly ways in beekeeping and
agriculture at large." --Dr. Leo Sharashkin, editor of Keeping Bees
With a Smile: A Vision and Practice of Natural Apiculture
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
