Amrita means ‘Holy Food’ and is another word for honey.

Across many ancient cultures, bees were tended to by women shamans and were incorporated into nearly all origin stories. The most discussed example of bee worship stems from Delphi (the most famous oracular center in the ancient world), where female priestesses called ‘Melissae’ (Greek for ‘bee’) lived in huts of beeswax and turkey feathers and spoke prophecy after ingesting a psychoactive honey unique to the region. With the rise of patriarchy, Delphi crumbled and these women were forced to practice their spirituality in secret. Somehow this oral tradition managed to survive into the modern day, and is still being practiced among a small handful of women. This unique sect of shamanism is currently referred to as European Bee Shamanism. 

Even though women were the dominant force in the ancient world of beekeeping (a time when honeybees thrived), they are highly underrepresented in beekeeping today- a mere 32%. Modern day beekeeping is viewed through a patriarchal lens. Even our backyard beekeeping practices are modeled after industrial beekeeping where the bees are consistently manipulated and exploited for profitable gain. There are several documentaries that have pointed out the flaws in our industrial approach, yet no one has addressed the critical difference between beekeeping (a method of farming bees for production) and conservation. Too many discussions on honeybees are focused on sustaining industrial production, rather than asking what is actually best for the bees. It is interesting to see women at the forefront of conservation efforts after so much suppression in the field, and imperative that their voices finally be heard.

The goal of this film is not to criticize commercial beekeeping, as this has already been accomplished, but rather to document a different approach that is rooted in both spirit + science in an attempt to inspire us to find harmony with bees.