It all started with a dream.  About a week ago while I was dreaming I was shown a symbol, a bee emerging from a spiral shell.  I was fascinated by this and in my dream noted that I must remember this symbol to discover the meaning.  It was interesting that I remembered because I am not one to remember most dreams but this symbol was etched in my mind.  I kept seeing bee related topics on the internet and decided to figure this out.  I consulted the cards and what came from that was a complex message that required some time to reflect and organize.  I am going to attempt to convey these messages to you because I do feel that it represents more than just my personal spiritual evolution.  There seems to be a message for the collective here as I sit and write this on Easter Sunday.

To set the stage, I tried to illustrate the symbol from my memory with this drawing that I did on Good Friday.  I referred to a couple of dream interpretation books for the meanings of each symbol.  From “The Secret Language of Dreams” by David Fontana, he writes “…the Greeks and Romans regarded honey as the food of the gods. Bees were endowed with special wisdom, and their appearance in dreams was regarded as an auspicious symbol, predicting peace and prosperity.  The shell is a profoundly spiritual symbol that often represents the unconscious, and through its links with the sea, the imagination. It also stands for the divine female: Venus was born from a shell off the coast of Cyprus”.  From “The Illustrated Dream Dictionary – What Dreams Reveal About You and Your Life” by Pamela Ball, she notes that “the bee symbolizes immortality, rebirth and order. Spiritually a shell is a miniature representation of the process of life and death”.

The bee lives and works for community.  It is said that the honeycomb represents the heart chakra.  Immediately I thought of unity, of one heart and then playing in my mind, Bob Marley’s “One Love” took center stage. Obviously this a very popular song but for those that do not know this song, here is an excerpt from the lyrics:

“One love, one heart Let’s get together and feel all right

Hear the children crying (one love)

Hear the children crying (one heart)

Sayin’, Give thanks and praise to the Lord and I will feel all right”.

The bee is sending a message of unity, to work together for the greater good.  The individual bees work to ensure the success of the hive. Is the bee suggesting the prosperity we humans could achieve if we begin to come together in appreciation and celebration of the individual efforts towards the greater good? 

The spiral shell symbolizes the slow reveal of things that are hidden. From www.whats-your-sign.com, “the spiral is a symbol for big concepts like evolution, life, consciousness, creation. It can represent the path leading from the outer consciousness (materialism, ego outward perception) to the inner soul (enlightenment, unseen essence, cosmic awareness). Movements between the two worlds are mapped by the spiraling of archetypal rings; marking the evolution of humankind on both an individual and collective scale”. 

Fascinating that both of these symbols can represent both the individual and the collective. Perhaps the journey from the outer world into the inner world and back again as depicted by the spiral, brings a rebirth of a new way of being, where the one heart belief is elevated and all decisions are based on how the entire whole is affected versus the individual. There is much more to write about it in relation to this dream symbol and the associated card reading which I will outline in part 2 next week.  In the meantime, think of some of the symbols or images that you may be seeing in dreams and try interpreting them. I can honestly say, that I really enjoyed learning about the symbolism and reflecting on what this message could mean for me personally. I may just have to buy myself a dream journal!