Exploring frequency through scent
A dear friend and I were talking the other day about frequency, about how the energy we put out into the world tends to find its way back to us. What had me pondering long after our chit chat is how much of frequency and vibration depends on staying present, and paying attention to what's right in front of our noses.
This present-ness is one of the things I love most about being near a hive. It asks me to slow down, even if the rest of my day is a hurried, hot mess. When I am working the bees, every movement has to be slow and deliberate, partly out of respect and partly for safety, because one careless motion can crush a bee or startle the colony into stinging. And all of this talk about frequency has me thinking about the bees' point of view, too.
Have you ever stopped to think about how a honeybee experiences her world? To her, scent is a physical language. With thousands of tiny sensory hairs on the antennae, she can follow a single flower on the wind for miles and sense the mood of her sisters in complete darkness. Her whole life is lived through paying attention with her senses.
We have a version of this within ourselves, too, and it is more powerful than we give it credit for. Scent is one of the fastest ways to shift how we feel, and because a smell only exists the moment you breathe it, it pulls you out of autopilot and back into your own body. A single, intentional breath of fragrance can change the whole mood of a room, and of the person standing in the midst of the aroma.
With a honeybee colony, there are profound energetic frequencies. The wax comb bees build absorbs the botanical history of the surrounding blossoms. The resinous propolis they use to line their wooden walls acts as an external immune system. The hive itself breathes and hums with the vibration of thousands of individuals working in unity. As an apitherapist, I spend my days observing this living apothecary. I believe the magic of the superorganism offers a brilliant blueprint for how we can manifest the reality we want to live in.
The HIVE is the architecture of the colony, built by thousands of bees in the dark. It carries the frequency of a living ecosystem, and reminds me that the most beautiful things are rarely built alone. Its scent is a warm, golden foundation of raw beeswax, propolis, labdanum, and benzoin.
The BROOD is the future of the colony, tucked into the warmest and most protected part of the comb. The brood’s frequency of nurturing teaches me that being held is not a weakness, and that every becoming needs a season of rest, too. Its scent is a soft blend of chamomile, lavender, and vanilla.
The WORKER moves through every role the hives needs during her life, from nurse to builder to forager and more, supporting the health and survival of the greater good. In the frequency of alchemy, she shows me that are allowed to change, and that some of the unsexiest work is often the most essential. Her scent is the herbal lift of grapefruit, lemongrass (a nod to the similar smell of bee pheromone), and rosemary.
The DRONE carries the song of the hive, resting against the comb and sending a low hum through the whole colony, and he finds his way to gathering places in the open sky as he meets with a queen and passes his genetic lineage forward. With the frequency of expansiveness, drone is proof to me that we carry a kind of inner map, that we are never truly without direction. His scent is an evergreen forest of fir, cedarwood, and spruce.
The QUEEN holds tens of thousands of bees together through her presence, giving no orders at all. The colony naturally organizes around her. In the frequency of coherence, she teaches me that leadership is less about control and more about being a consistent presence others can trust. Her scent is a nectar-rich bouquet of jasmine, gardenia, and rose otto.
All of this biological magic inspired the creation of The Colony Discovery Set. Our needs change from day to day. Sometimes we require the magnetism of the queen in our workspaces. Other times we need the expansive freedom of the drone in our living rooms. The Discovery Set features five sample sizes of my handmade natural home fragrances. Each one is formulated to mirror these distinct, energetic roles within the honeybee hive.
Every scent has its place, the same as every bee in the hive. This is an easy way to experience their frequencies before deciding which one feels the best in your space.
Explore the whole collection, choose the vibration you need on any given day, and let your home become a living apothecary.
Bee well, Netta