Posted by Otremer on July 09, 1998 at 22:10:45:
An Irish friend once told me of an old Irish legend that maintained that the Tuatha de Danna, the people who preceeded the Milesian Celts into Ireland, were actually the Tribe of Dan. Well, the time frame is about right for the Jewish diaspora, but the Tuatha de Danna, as their name implies, were the children of the Goddess Danu who was often symbolised by the moon. That doesn't sound very Jewish until one recalls Lilith, the first wife of Adam and "the origional uppity Jewish woman" as some of my Pagan Jewish friends characterize her. Returning to my Irish friend, he added that the totem for the tribe of Dan was the honey bee, just as the tribe of Judah had the lion at their totem. His mention of the honey bee made me think not only of the Mormon Church that seems throughly infatuated with the honey bee (Deseret, Beehive State, etc.) but also had a rather unpleasant group called the Dannites or Sons of Dan. Is there a connection here? Just what is the point of all the honey bee symbolism with the Mormon Church? I suspect, what with the Dannites included, there's more to it than just "industry" as a Mormon Bishop once told me. Just as a matter of interest, the honey bee seems to have been of symbolic importance to many folks. The last Merovingian ruler of the Franks (Dagobert II, I believe) was buried in a cape studded with golden honey bees. Some suspect that he was actually killed by his successor, Pepin, who founded the Carolingian dynasty, as at the time of his death the Merovingians were fueding with Rome over the rite of coronation and were shopping around for a new church. The Merovingians maintained that they were of a royal lineage that antedated the Roman Catholic Church, and there fore did not need to be coronated by the church. The Carolingians gladly accepted the Roman Catholic rite and remained within that church. Dagobert and his honey bees remained undisturbed in the grave until the scheduled coronation of Napoleon as Emperor of France. Napoleon had the honey bees removed from Dagobert's tomb and placed on his cape for the coronation. It will be recalled that Napoleon also saw fit to remove the crown from the Bishop's hands and place it on his own head, thus showing that he, like the Merovingians, did not neet the recognition of the Roman Catholic Church. I told this tale to a person of Irish descent who found it most illuminating as her family is also Jewish. She's quite secular, but she recalled that when she got married, her Jewish grandmother came from Ireland and embroidered honey bees around the hem of her wedding dress. At the time she just thought it was grandmother's touch of decoration. After I told her about the Tuatha de Danna and the honey bees, she asked her mother about it. All her mother could say was that the honey bee was part of an old family crest. One final related question: Does the Mormon Church still have Dannites? I've seen at least one former Mormon state that he had received threats from Dannites.
Thank's to any one who's taken the time to read this, and blessings to anyone who will tell me what, if anything is so special about the honey bee and the Tribe of Dan to the Mormon Church.
Otremer