I promised more on bees - here it is :)

Sadly, it isn't that much, but it does deal with swarms and hives and the differences (as I remember them).

So, last time it was about treating bee stings.  When a bee stings you, get it out as quickly as possible and take the appropriate medication (if necessary).  But what do you do about a swarm of bees?

OK, it turns out swarms fall into two categories:  I call them "moving" and "protective".  a Moving swarm is just that:  the hive has taken off after the queen and is now looking for a new location for their hive (this also applies to the little queens and their new hives).  A Protective swarm is this:  the hive has been disturbed for some reason and the workers are trying to protect their queen, and the best way to do that is by stinging (well, duh, they are bees, after all).  The thing with beehives is that the hive will never attack without provocation.  Usually the hive has been disturbed by humans or honey badgers, bee-eaters or other animals after their carbohydrate treasure.  Sometimes the hive has to be moved because they constitute a threat of some kind to children or the elderly.  Whatever the case, there has been a disturbance of the hives and the workers are in full attack mode.  This is where the beauty of nature becomes deadly:  it only takes one bee's sting to incite the others to swarming.

This is done by the release of pheromones in the apitoxin (bee venom) when the sting is delivered.  As bees communicate visually and by smell, pheromones are a perfect war-flag.  Not only do the released pheromones "activate" the workers' defensive kamikaze modes, they also identify the target (hypothetically, the poor, inexperienced fool tasked with removing the possibly dangerous hive to a safer location).  Once this attack drive is activated, the bees will attack the threat until such a time as they feel it isn't a threat anymore.  Many people who die of bee stings die because of swarm attacks for this very reason.

Right, it's after midnight and my eyes are on fire.  I'm off to bed and I hope you will be, too.

Sleep tight!

For those of you who don't know, I'm allergic to bees.

What does that mean?  Well, simply put, it means that if a bee stings me and the sting is left untreated the bee's venom (apitoxin) will cause enough swelling to reach my heart or my throat.  in either case, the swelling will kill me.

Now, how does a person treat a bee sting?  Quite simply, you can't.  Not really.  A bee's sting is basically a heavily modified egg-laying organ (ovipositor) that now carries venom and a bard instead of eggs.  When the bee stings you, the bard on the sting catches and the sting is ripped from the bee's body, thus ending her life.  For you, the stung, is has another implication, though.  The bard makes sure that the sting stays in your skin long enough to deliver its full dose of venom.  Regardless of what you do, the amount of venom delivered is always the same.

To remove a sting is actually easier than it sounds.  The old-fashioned way is to remove the sting by sliding a blade in under the slant of the sting and to scrape it out.  Since you already have the venom in you, that doesn't matter, though, and you can remove the sting any way you like.  I rubbed mine off when I got stung on Saturday, like it was dust.  If you do feel the need to remove it with something flat, please don't go looking for a knife - paper works just as well, and most people have at least one money note somewhere on them.  Once the sting is out, you have nothing to worry about anymore.  Just try not to scratch the itch from the sting for the next few days.

For those of us who are allergic, getting our medicine as soon as possible after the sting is of tantamount importance.  The swelling can either stop our hearts or suffocate us.  Any anti-histemine will work, but I would personally suggest either Phenergan or Celestimine.  Carry them with you at all times just in case.  I was lucky, I was stung just outside a petrol station on Saturday, so getting my pill in was really simple, but we aren't all that lucky.  Try and keep a small bottle of water with you as well for swallowing the pills.  Also, don't panic at all:  the faster your heart beats, the better your chances of the venom spreading.  Take slow, deep breaths, and the tablets also won't hit you with too many side-effects (diziness, etc).  I'm not quite sure how that works, but it does.

I'll give you guys more on handling bees in the next post.  Until then - sleep tight!!

Her'e a question all readers have at one point or another: "How do I learn to read?"

The easiest (and personally best) answer to give is to say, "Use the Little White Book", which is the answer I gave.  I wonder now, in retrospect, if it was the right answer to give.  I gave it because that's how I started my tarot journey, with very little idea of how anything works, much less my own intuition.  I still have my first LWB, wrapped up in home-made laminating and travelling around wherever I go in the same velveteen bag their companion deck travels in.

But what now about those who can't start like I started, those who don't have the advantage of having afternoons and weekends and weeks off from school, like I did (yes, I know, I should have focused on my school-work, but the cards were much more fun)?  How do people like this learn the cards?

The question of "How?" was tonight asked by a doctor friend in New York City who works in public health with HIV/AIDS.  I gave her the LWB answer, but I doubt she has enough free time on her hands to actually sit and work through the little pamphlet, folding and refolding it, while she works with her patients.  For her, it's easy enough to track down the American Tarot Association and find a tutor/mentor through them.  In South Africa, how does one do that?  Here in Cape Town we haven't got anything even nearly like the ATA, though we do have the Cape Town Tarot Association, but most of us have other jobs and or hobbies that very often pull us away from our tarot.  In regards to mentoring and tutoring, there are very few members of the CTTA who have that amount of free time to sit and work with someone, and in this tiny little group even fewer who have the actual skill to guide anyone in the cards.  I know I tried it once, and it wasn't a flop, but it didn't work out half as well as we'd both hoped it would, mainly because she already had a tarot basis to work with and the material we used was so very different from what she'd already started doing on her own.  Some teachers also tend to charge more than some students can afford, while the majority of teachers seem to float around the City more than in the suburbs.  Maybe I have this wrong, but it's been my experience.

If only we could pull ourselves together and start working together as tarot card readers and not only tarot enthusiasts; tarot helpers and mentors instead of tarot "oh-I'll-do-it-myself"s.  We need to grow up when it comes to things like this.  Am I wrong, or not completely correct?

Right, ranting aside, something I found useful when it comes to tarot books is tagging.  No, not tagging online.  I mean actual sticky-tape-and-paper tags, or filing tags.  I did it originally with a copy of the "Tarot Bible" and now did it again, and slightly more completely, with the companion book for the Grail Tarot.  I tagged the Major Arcana Chapter on its own, then tagged out the suits, and then sub-tagged all the court and pip cards. This way, while I work with the book, it's easier to find the correct card instead of struggling with pages sticking together for some reason or another.  I also tagged out the "Working with the Cards" and "Spreads" pages to make it easier.

The sad thing is, it's such a nicely set out book, I didn't want to bend the spine.  However, it IS a working book, so you WILL bend the spine as you work with your cards and get to know them, and the constant back and forth through the book may even eventually loosen a few pages.  If you happen to buy a "how-to" book, but don't want to bend the spine, you might just as well throw it in the rubbish for all the real good it will do you.  Or, be a bit more practical and take it back for a refund and stick to the LWB.  Whatever.

Anyway, this cat's off to bed.  Have fun and sleep tight, guys and gals!