“The dream is a continuation of the waking state,” Sigmund Freud famously said in The Interpretation of Dreams. As we move from April showers to May flowers, I thought it might be fun to consider what the presence of honeybees in our dreams may signify.

Have you ever heard, “Do you have a bee in your bonnet?” The translation of a bee-in-your-bonnet dream might mean obsessive ideas buzzing around in your head. The saying is first found in a mid-1500 translation of Virgil’s Aeneid.¹ Buzzing bees often symbolize love and can be found in messages of affection: the Valentine’s Day note requesting “Bee Mine,” or “You’ve been stung by the Love Bug!”² The good news is that obsessive thoughts of business and love together often manifest solutions in dreams.

In the dream world, the spiritual significance of the bee represents the wise use of nature through pollination and honey as food and love. It has been said to represent female intuition and wisdom applied to the universal intelligence of a united community, which without, a bee cannot survive.⁴

The healthy hum of hive life symbolizes community, continuance, regeneration and a connection to our ancestors. Many scholars believe early cultures of the Mediterranean worshiped the bee as a mother-goddess, as honey in food represents sweetness, healing and love.

So, might bee dreams be a mother-goddess message to find common ground, spread love and contribute goodness in our community? As critical pollinators, bees certainly do just that. In fact, they are responsible for $30 billion a year in crops, and pollinate 70 of the 100 crops that feed 90% of the world.⁵

The reality is that bees are a dream come true, and life without them would be unimaginable.

As we move deep into spring, our daily lives and dreams reflect the shift from winter’s sleep to a full energetic reawakening in business, life and love. With the spring equinox, we balance equal amounts of daylight and darkness,⁶ thus, our busy-bee daily lives might be reflected in our nightly dreams as the bee-mother-goddess reminding us to pollinate our community with goodness and love.

Kathleen O’Keefe-Kanavos of Rancho Mirage is a survivor, author, dream expert, speaker, TV/radio host/producer and has been featured on Dr. Oz and The Doctors. Her new book Dreams That Can Save Your Life is available now. For more information, visit www.KathleenOkeefeKanavos.com.

References: 1) https://grammarist.com/idiom/have-a-bee-in-ones-bonnet/#:~:text=This%20term%20is%20first%20found,has%2C%20as%20the%20Scotch%20call 2) https://www.columbiaspectator.com/spectrum/2015/02/13/st-valentine-more-just-patron-saint-love/
3) https://www.rif.org/sites/default/files/documents/2018/04/18/Support_Materials/G2-Romulus-Remus-Medium.pdf 4) https://www.abc.net.au/radionational/programs/earshot/the-significance-of-the-bee/6924374 5) https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20140502-what-if-bees-went-extinct#:~:text=We%20may%20lose%20all%20the,It%20gets%20worse 6) https://www.foxweather.com/learn/first-day-spring-march-20-vernal-equinox