The Thoth Emperor and his Bees

[Joan Marie]

I was just having a close look at the Thoth Emperor card and for the first time I noticed that his cloak is adorned with honeybees.

Close up of the Thoth Emperor's robes

Immediately I recalled that Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte selected the honeybee as a symbol to represent himself and his role as Emperor of France.

He had honeybees everywhere, his robes, his bedding, the wallpaper... just about anywhere one (or few hundred) could be engraved or embroidered or painted.

Napoleon's coronation robe was emroidered with 300 honeybees

Napoleon admired the Honeybee because of it's association with industriousness, orderliness, vigilance and diligence, and as well as a producer of honey, to sweetness and benevolence. (though I am not so sure those last two characteristics quite stuck to him as well as he'd hoped.)

Does anyone else make anything of this association?

[Charlie Brown]

The Bee features prominently in the Tabula Mundi. I'm sure MMM would have lots to say about it. I'll look at Liber M when I have a chance.

[Joan Marie]

The Bee features prominently in the Tabula Mundi. I'm sure MMM would have lots to say about it. I'll look at Liber M when I have a chance.

Well you were right.
I've been listening to Mel Meleen and Susan Chang's podcast series, Fortune's Wheelhouse and in the episode on the Emperor the Bee was discussed.

Mel noted that the bees also appear on the Thoth Empress, which I had totally not noticed before.

Bees, she said, are associated with royalty, but maybe more interesting is that they are also associated with Venus.

Venus is the planet on the Empress card.

Bees have both a Lunar and a Solar correspondence. Solar, because bees gather nectar on sunny days and are very in tune with the sun. Lunar because the hive is 99% female. (100 female worker bees to every 1 male drone.) So they are both Lunar and Solar just like the Emperor and Empress.

And speaking of Lunar and Solar, people usually assume that the two crescents on the Empress card are moons, but Mel pointed out that Venus is the only planet that appears to us in phases like the Moon does. And it's entirely likely that those two crescents could be Venus. Or maybe, (this is my thought) Venus and the Moon. And of course the Sun features prominently on the Emperor card. So between them we have the Sun, Moon, and Venus as well as the bees which are associated with Venus and correspond to the Sun and Moon.

So, turns out there was quite a lot to that.

[Cheers]

Frieda Harris' description of the Emperor on pg. 33 of the LWB says, "The bees on his costume may have originated from French tradition, but more probably they typify the bees of the Secret Doctrines in the Indian Upanishads." She acknowledges a French connection but adds important additional details.

[Charlie Brown]

Thanks, Joan. I forgot about this. I looked in Liber M and anything more than what you've already shared is pretty much specific to the TM deck.