Summary of Lore 314: Hive Mind

Overview of Lore 314: Hive Mind

In this episode, Aaron Mahnke explores the rich folklore surrounding bees and, in the second half, silkworms. The episode blends mythology, history, and a bit of science to show how insects have been treated as sacred messengers, magical beings, omens, and even tools in witchcraft across cultures. A major thread is the human urge to assign meaning to creatures we depend on but don’t fully control.

Key Themes and Takeaways

Bees as sacred, magical, and symbolic

• Bees appear in myths across the world as creatures tied to creation, divinity, and the afterlife.
• Mahnke highlights how bees have long been associated with:
  • Life and creation
  • Messages from gods or the dead
  • Luck, love, and fortune
  • Religion and ritual
  • Witchcraft and spellcasting

“Telling the bees”

• One of the episode’s central customs is the tradition of telling the bees about major family events.
• Beekeepers were believed to keep their hives informed about:
  • births
  • marriages
  • funerals
  • gossip and visitors
• The most important announcement was a death, often delivered with black cloth, ritual phrases, and offerings.
• Mahnke emphasizes that this tradition reflects both superstition and a practical dependence on bees for survival.
• He closes this section with a modern example: after Queen Elizabeth II died, the British royal beekeeper reportedly informed the bees.

Folklore examples from around the world

The episode moves through a wide range of bee beliefs, including:

• San mythology: a bee carries Mantis across the waters and helps bring forth the first human.
• Ancient Egypt: bees are said to have come from Ra’s tears; honey and wax were sacred and practical materials.
• Ancient Greece: a bee landing on a baby’s lips was a sign the child would become a great speaker.
• Celtic tradition: bees are messengers between worlds.
• Christian folklore: bees were linked to the Virgin Mary and the Immaculate Conception, helping explain why monks kept bees.
• Romantic traditions:
  • In Hindu myth, love god Kamadeva uses bees in his bow.
  • In some European customs, bees were used to test whether a lover was cheating.
  • The episode also corrects a common myth: “honeymoon” does not come from a month of honey wine, but from the idea that early marital sweetness fades like the moon.

Bees in Witchcraft and Magic

Beeswax and revenge magic

• The episode tells the Egyptian story from the Weskar Papyrus, where a priest uses a beeswax crocodile to murder his wife’s lover.
• This illustrates how beeswax became a powerful ingredient in spellcraft and magical thinking.

Bees and witch trials

• In early modern Europe, bees were sometimes tied to witchcraft accusations:
  • Some believed witches swallowed queen bees to resist torture.
  • Others thought witches kept bees as familiars.
  • Some accused witches were said to transform into bees.
• Notable examples include:
  • Susanna Smith of Suffolk, said to have an evil spirit in the form of a black bee.
  • John Stewart, accused of keeping “three humble bees” and feeding them his blood.
  • Elizabeth Roberts, accused of appearing as a bee to torment a man.

Silkworms and the Second Insect Story

Why the episode shifts to silkworms

• Mahnke ends the bee story by teeing up another insect with a deeply human folklore history: the silkworm.
• The connection is thematic: humans have long relied on insects for food, materials, and meaning.

Folklore and the origins of silk

• A Romanian folktale claims silkworms came from worms emerging from a dead son’s body, a strange but grief-filled origin story.
• Historically, silkworms are the larvae of the silk moth, and silk production began in ancient China.
• The episode recounts the legend of Xiling Xu (Xi Ling Shi), the Chinese empress who discovered silk thread when a cocoon fell into her tea.
• China guarded the silk secret for centuries, and silk became a major source of wealth and trade power.

The horse-hide silkworm myth

• Another folktale from China, later shared in Japan and Korea, tells of a girl betrothed to a horse.
• After the horse is killed and its hide hung to dry, the hide wraps around the girl and she disappears.
• Later, a silkworm cocoon reveals the transformed girl inside.
• In the story, she is eventually associated with the care and watchfulness of silkworms.

Historical and Practical Notes

• Honey never spoils, and ancient honey jars can still be edible.
• Beekeeping has existed for thousands of years, likely since at least 2600 BCE in Egypt.
• Bees were valuable because:
  • honey was a key sweetener
  • wax was essential for candles and ritual use
• Silkworm cultivation came with a grim reality: silkworms are boiled alive during silk production.

Notable Closing Idea

The episode’s larger point is that insects are rarely “just insects” in human culture. Bees and silkworms became symbols of:

• survival
• mystery
• divine order
• grief
• prosperity
• and the human need to explain what we cannot control

Production and End Notes

• Written and produced by Aaron Mahnke
• Writing by Jenna Rose Nethercott
• Research by Cassandra de Alba
• Music by Chad Lawson
• The episode also promotes Mahnke’s book Exhumed, about the New England vampire panic and Mercy Brown.