The Path of Pollen/'Bee shamanism'

[jergonsacha]

Regulars here will know that I have a 'bee in my bonnet' about a UK fraud called Simon Buxton who refers to himself as a "bee shaman" and claims to have been initiated into a secret European society called the Path of Pollen.

His book The Shamanic Way of the Bee claims to describe his initiation into this cult but was ripped to shreds by Shaman's Drum magazine which devoted a 10-page editorial to exposing his 'Path of Pollen' and other claims and practices as not only lies but DANGEROUS lies.

I have been looking in to the so-called Path of Pollen, but the only reference I can find to it is not a European secret tradition, but the words of a NAVAJO song: "By This Song I Walk" - see http://parentseyes.arizona.edu/wordsandplace/bythissongiwalk.html

The words are full of "pollen" references and these lines in particular caught my eye:

"This song is for traveling. When one travels, he should sing this. One should have corn pollen at all times. We travel by means of corn pollen. Pollen is our body. Medicine men say, 'I walk the path of pollen'. The songs were created at White House Ruins."

I don't know where White House Ruins are but I bet they're nowhere near Europe or especially to Cornwall, UK, where Buxton runs his sham-anic organisation The Sacred Trust (sic) which, on his website, he calls "the home of the Path of Pollen".

Can any of the scholars here shed further light on this Navajo song/tradition and/or on any 'European bee shamanism/Cornish Path of Pollen' they may have heard of?

Thanks.

[walking-soft]

Have been gone for the holidays to TN and NC and am glad to be back on site. I have e mailed a Navajo friend concerning this "song" and the word "pollen" will post when I receive. Will help research on this topic.
                                   Joyce A.

[educatedindian]

This reminds me a bit of a Beauty Way song.

Corn pollen is used in lots of traditions in the southwest, Navajo, Hopi, Zuni. Some of the Pueblos use blue corn pollen. Warriors/soldiers carry it for protection, and it's used in ceremonies for blessings and to give thanks. It's also used in Kinaalda by both Apaches and Navajos, when a girl becomes a woman.

These are nothing at all like Buxton's silly claims. It has nothing to do with bees being regarded as sacred (no more so than any other living thing). It's because corn has a central part in the lives of so many tribes.

Natonabah is a very highly respected healer and elder, I should add. Teaches at Navajo Community College.
http://oncampus.richmond.edu/~rnelson/233/natonabah.html

JS, do you have a link to the Shaman's Drum article?

[jergonsacha]

Hello educatedindian

I don't have a link to the Shaman's Drum editorial on Buxton's book, but this link goes to back issues if anyone wants to purchase a copy of issue 64 where the editor Timothy White dedicates a 10 page editorial to it, amongst other things calling it a fraud and warning readers away from its practices: http://www.shamansdrum.org/Pages/BackIssues.html

Timothy White is quite approachable and if anyone wants to contact him for further information on Buxton's ludicrous book or White's views on it, the email is drum@shamansdrum.org

Sorry I cant be of more help.

[jergonsacha]

Another interesting development regarding the so-called path of pollen:

http://www.psychosislane.com/bee.html

[jergonsacha]

And another. The truth appears to be coming out now:

http://dailyablution.blogs.com/the_daily_ablution/2005/06/a_correction.html

[nemesis]

I just wondered is anyone had any more information re this as the links to critical pieces are no longer active.

I have the back issue of Shaman's Drum already but would appreciate any further information.

Also if anyone wrote a critical Amazon review only to have it removed by Amazon I would really appreciate it if you could either post the review here or PM it to me if you still have a copy.  I am especially interested in critical reviews from authoritative sources, simply because Buxton is an academic and so, sadly, has some credibility amongst other academics.  By "authoritative" I mean from other academics or from bona fide / non-fake NDN organisations and individuals.

Thanks a lot.

[dabosijigwokush]

i am reminded by elders that the buttery fly pollinated here
bees were brought here by the pilgrims
i can not think of one old story of bears and honey prier to the pilgrims
old saying when you found bees you found white man

[nemesis]

That is really interesting and important

I had no idea that was the case and I bet most other people here in Europe wouldn't know either.

Thank you so much

[Yiwah]

i am reminded by elders that the buttery fly pollinated here
bees were brought here by the pilgrims
i can not think of one old story of bears and honey prier to the pilgrims
old saying when you found bees you found white man

Honey bees were brought to the Americas, but we had the Cree word for bee 'amo' already, so there were smaller bees around.  Interesting to think how much honeybees have altered the landscape though.  It's a little hard to handle sometimes, when you try to imagine what your territory looked like before the settlers came.  The physical landscape was changed so drastically.

[nemesis]

Thanks also Yiwah

All of this is interesting to me.

For the record, I have examined the no 64 issue of Shaman's drum magazine and, contrary to the claims of jergonsacha, there is no review of Buxtons' book in it, let alone a 10 page feature devoted to criticising it.

jergonsacha could you be mistaken about the specific back issue?

[nemesis]

This is a PDF link to the findings of a Trademark related legal dispute between Simon Buxton of the Sacred Trust and Ross Heaven regarding the rights to use the name "Darkness Visible" for workshops

www.ipo.gov.uk/o03709.pdf

If anyone has time to spare the whole things is definitely worth a read as it involved both Heaven and Buxton throwing their toys out of the pram and accusing each other of all sorts of things, however I have highlighted the conclusions of Geoffrey Hobbs Q.C. below FYI (emphasis mine)

64. In relation to the primary case of the appellant, I am satisfied that the Hearing
Officer adopted a selective approach to the evidence58 which yielded ‘an inventory of
corroborated facts’59 that lacked the breadth and depth required for the purpose of
determining the dispute as to proprietorship of the unregistered trade mark DARKNESS
VISIBLE. This was a case in which the structured approach to assessment outlined in the
BRUTT Trade Marks case60 needed to be applied with close attention to detail. It appears
to me that an assessment conducted on that basis would necessarily have resulted in the
rejection of Mr. Heaven’s claim to proprietorship in favour of Mr. Buxton’s claim to
proprietorship. That is because Mr. Buxton (trading as The Sacred Trust) was entitled to
claim that the trade mark was his on the basis of use in commerce by his organisation
since January 200361 and the evidence put forward in support of Mr. Heaven’s claim to
proprietorship was so seriously open to doubt as to provide no reliable basis for a finding
in his favour 62 (and none the less so because it pointed strongly to the conclusion that they
had both been involved in an elaborate hoax intended to portray Mr. Buxton as an initiate
of a group of shamanic bee-keepers known as The Path of Pollen).63


65. For the reasons I have given the appeal is allowed, the opposition succeeds and the
application for registration is refused. The Hearing Officer’s order for costs is set aside.
Mr. Heaven is responsible for burdening the proceedings with a considerable amount of
unsatisfactory and irrelevant evidence. Mr. Buxton has for his part insisted upon using the
proceedings as a vehicle for unimpressive evidence about his self-proclaimed initiation
into the so-called Path of Pollen.

[Lodro]

From a tibetan buddhist practitioners point of view I also question his involvement with what is generally in Dzogchen circles called "the dark retreat". In Dzogchen, these retreats are never advertised and they can only be done within the context of a three year solitary retreat, under the tutelage of a qualified teacher. I met one man who wanted to go on a darkness retreat, without guidance or teacher and i tried to dissuade him from it. I think it is dangerous that people should undertake such a thing, having got the idea from buxton's book. I don't know what his qualifications are in this respect nor who his teachers were. All this indicates: don't play.

[goozih]

I think honey bees were introduced by europeans but I am quite sure bees(bumble bees) have been here from the beginning. In fact I have found amber with bees preserved inside.... just saying..

[Sparks]

I am reviving this topic because there are developments recently; in 2023 and 2024, to be posted in the present topic.

There is another topic on Simon Buxton: http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=530.0

Then there are weighty comments in a few other topics:

There is 2005 post by jergonsacha in a locked topic:
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=236.msg1252#msg1252

Another post (by Moma_porcupine, 2009)
http://www.newagefraud.org/smf/index.php?topic=1697.msg17060#msg17060

There is an disturbing new trend in the UK: plastic shamans are wising up to the fact that their suspect 'lineages' are under scrutiny and unfavourable comment costs them money as they are unmasked as frauds and fewer punters attend their bogus workshops and pseudo-ceremonies.

How to get around this? Simple! You just make up a lineage of your own that no-one else has ever heard of despite extensive research and appoint yourself the 'Master' of this "arcane knowledge"! See my post on SIMON BUXTON and under CORE SHAMANISM.

This, to me, is even more worrying than posing as a 'shaman'. At least the posers can be unmasked - but how do you prove that a fictional form of shamanism (Buxton's ridiculous sounding 'Bee Shamanism') is made up to make its self-important founder sound like a guru and earn a few bucks? Since the entire system is invented frauds like Buxton can say almost anything and get away with it, claiming - as he does - that the tradition has remained hidden for centuries and he is only now bringing it to light as the reigning 'Bee Master' (sic) and tribe leader.

I think this demands further investigation.

Finally, I wonder whether anyone here has run across the book The Shamanic Way of the Bee by Simon Buxton. I admit I've only skimmed through it, having run across it at a friend's house, but I'm rather suspicious about its authenticity for several reasons. The use of the term "shamanic" to refer to a spiritual path being taught in Britain of course immediately sets off alarm bells; equally so his use of the name "Melissae", an obviously Latinate term, to refer to a supposed order of priestesses within this tradition. (Certainly there's a degree of linguistic crossover between Celtic and Latin words, given how long Britain was occupied by the Romans, but I'm skeptical of the notion of an "ancient path" using Latin terminology that was never written down.) I also ran across an article at http://www.nationmaster.com/encyclopedia/Plastic-shaman which appears to be an older version of the Wikipedia article on "plastic shamans" which asserts that Buxton's work is "pilfered from a Navajo Beauty Way song". I'd appreciate any insight or references that anyone could provide as to the source of this assertion. Buxton apparently runs "training workshops" at his "Sacred Trust Centre" in Dorset, England for nearly 500 pounds a throw -- if he's ripping off Navajo sources in doing so, this really ought to be exposed.

Not long ago I phoned the Royal Anthropological Institute here in London with regard to the plastic shaman / fraud Simon Buxton. I was so appalled by what I discovered about him and his farcical and rather creepy sex cult the "Path of Pollen" that I was sure that he could not really be a member of such a prestigious organisation.   I learned, to my dismay, that not only was he a member but "a respected member with many friends in the Institute", or so I was told by the highly indignant and defensive woman who responded to my enquiry.

This documentary throws much needed light on the issue of fraudulent academics and anthropologists and I suppose it helped me to understand how a fraud like Buxton could become a "respected" member of the Royal Anthropological Institute.  Or I should more accurately say that it helped me to question whether or not the Royal Anthropological Institute is quite as prestigious as its name and website imply.

Next: Developments in 2023 and especially 2024.