The Way of the Melissae is a well-trodden path for distaff members of the European shamanic tradition known as The Path of Pollen. This workshop offers a rare opportunity to work directly with women from The Path of Pollen who will be sharing teachings that have traditionally been passed down ‘from mouth to ear’.

The work itself harks back to a time when the guiding lore of the feminine principle lay at the heart of all things, and as an underground current it continues to inspire new pathways down which a woman may walk today, embodying this age-old knowledge and transforming it into the ever-new. Those women who walk this indefinitely ancient path carry particular bodies of teaching, orientated towards encouraging the student to become both the flower, the flow-er and the pollinator of honeyed wisdoms, a vital salve for the fragile and delicate times we live in, and a calling to women to change the face of the world through the facets of her own body.  We will excavate aspects of the feminine principle that have become buried and then balance them alongside the divine masculine, seeking equanimity and the fluid movement of both within.

The work will include a pattern of praxes that will guide each woman as deeply along this path as she wishes to go.  These forms can be worked with for a lifetime to unlock the secrets of ourselves, and the extraordinary prima materia that is woman herself.

There is a pythoness in every one of us, and a Delphic cavern,
namely our imagination, into which we must retire if we
are to accomplish anything of worth.
JFC FULLER

Within the Path of Pollen the expression ‘The Trembling Veil’ refers not only to the diaphanous liminal divide that exists between the physical and non-physical supernal worlds, but also to the metaphysical or spiritual hymen that dwells within all women, irregardless of their sexual standing, be they maiden or menarche, crone or scarlet woman. Comprehending and engaging with a living knowledge of this interior veil allows any woman to step into the status of virgin (‘innocent one’) repeatedly. Journeying into this visceral knowing is initiated by undertaking an especial ceremony of womb sanctification and sacred reclamation of the distaff Cavern of Creation; which – once embraced and completed — brings about a ‘roar’ from the attendant interior stars or roses, as they are referred to in this context.

Each woman attending will engage with the central ceremony of womb empowerment, purification & blessing, together with other practices from the Path of Pollen that have not been previously shared outside the tradition, all of which will be woven together lemniscatically as we continue to traverse this funambulatory path.

Arte Triptych Melissae is a private, three-part training for women in the ways of the distaff members of The Path of Pollen, the Melissae. The Melissae draw their inspiration from a different spring than most: it is an arcane discipline, a vein, an underground working – difficult to trace but easy to recognise once encountered. The training itself is imparted in three folds, each educating the participant in the ways and wiles of one of the three sisterhoods associated with the Pollen Way.

Here, specific meditations and ceremonial practices that revolve around the Lemniscatic Volatus – the Dance of Infinite Flight – are imparted and utilised to move between worlds and step outside and beyond the circles of time. Students will be stretched so that they might reach through the surface of the tradition, accessing practical applications of the work to be applied to themselves and others. Within these practices and accompanying ceremonial work and ritual action, a path is laid leading to physical and metaphysical health and simultaneously a pilgrimage is made towards a vital and radiant life and the tableaux of honey and sting.

This training is being led by Sacred Trust faculty members India Rose Waters and Deborah Willimott

This ten day training retreat is designed to allow participants to experience an in-depth immersion into the distaff line of the Path of Pollen over an extended period of days and nights. Unlike other Path of Pollen workshops and trainings, it offers the opportunity for participants to live, move and have their beings in a similar fashion to the classical model and manner of the Melissae when residing together as a ‘cell’.

On this immersion training, there will be three cells of six women, each being looked over and guided by an initiate of the Path of Pollen. Each day will carry a precise ritual order to it, weaving together three aspects or ‘rays’ that hold particular import within the bee tradition namely: Love, Power and Wisdom. Each day will commence with prayer, followed at midday and evening when certain salutations to the hidden teachers are offered.

Each of the ten days will also have as part of its focus one of the Ten Nektars of the Flow-er, moving up to and beyond what flows on from the Tenth Nektar, being the abditory teachings regarding miraculous birth or parthenogenesis. The work will include healing practices, working with the hives, labiomancy and lampadomancy as well as initiatory work using the oniricell, being a hexagonal structure used for merging and dreaming work.

This immersion retreat calls for a high level of commitment, and we therefore call only to those women who consider themselves ready for the metamorphosis that will carry them ever deeper into a life lived passing back and forth through the golden and honeyed veils.