The Bees Know the Way

On sacred devotion, spiritual distraction, and the courage to belong to a burning world

Sitting in the pollinator garden of the Sanctuary, I watched the bumble bees in their devotional rhythm, little fat furry monks on wings, humming their ancient hymns from bloom to bloom. They weren't posting about it, branding it, or turning it into a 6-week container with a bonus PDF. They were just doing the work. Holy work. Necessary work. For the hive, for the Earth, for Life itself.

And I sat there, wondering how do we stay in our sacred work while the world feels like it's on fire and the algorithm demands and swallows all our attention span?

How do we not lose ourselves in the landslide of despair, division, and distraction?

And just as importantly, how do we not bypass the real grief, the raw truths, and the responsibilities of this moment by floating into spiritual platitudes and calling it presence?

We're not here to be frozen in terror.

But we're also not here to be lured to sleep by comfort, convenience, or curated spiritual aesthetics.

Terror is paralyzing; it clutches the nervous system, feeds on apocalyptic headlines, and leaves us doom-scrolling while the medicine we carry goes unused. It whispers that it's all too far gone, that there's nothing left to save, and that collapse is inevitable, so we may as well sink into numbness or cynicism. That's the lie of despair. It keeps sacred action locked in the cage of paralysis.

But the flip side is just as deadly.

Complacency. Spiritual bypass disguised as "trusting the process." New age sugarcoating that avoids hard truths in favor of aesthetic rituals and 'good vibes only.' The sleepwalking spell of privilege that says, "If it's not happening in my backyard, it's not really happening, and I am going to be ok."

Let's be honest. We are living in a time of wild contradictions:

Glaciers are melting while luxury brands are launching $5,000 aura cleansing kits (yes, this is true).

Ancient forests are burning while influencers sell trauma-healing courses with AI-generated spirit animals.

People are starving, displaced, and grieving, and we're told to "just raise our frequency" and think positively.

Neither fear nor fantasy will carry us through this.

What will?

Sacred presence. Clear seeing. Grief that doesn't drown us but initiates us. Joy that isn't performative but regenerative. Devotion not as performance, but as practice.

This is what the moment asks of us.

To neither look away nor get swallowed by the abyss.
To keep choosing love, not as a fluffy concept, but as fierce action.
To learn what it means to live with purpose, not perform it.
To remember that comfort, when not shared, becomes complicity.

And that healing, when not grounded, becomes escapism.

We were not born for the sidelines.
We were born for this exact moment.
Not to save the world. But to belong to it again.

Sometimes, when I speak of ancient wisdom, I get told I must want to live in the past. Like reverence and ritual are obsolete.

At other times, when I share a vision for the future —a world where our children aren't just surviving capitalism's hangover but thriving in kinship with the land, Spirit, and one another, I'm told I'm idealistic. Utopian.

I don't care. And I disagree.

I'm not trying to go backward or forward. I'm trying to live now in a way that is ferociously honest, rooted in love, and unshakably devoted to all Life.

I want to end each day knowing I gave my best prayer. Planted one true seed. Listened to at least one thing wilder and wiser than me. That I remembered to breathe with the land. That I didn't abandon myself or the Earth when things got hard.

This is what I've been learning to do, failing to do, and continuing to do anyway. And it's what I teach, not as a master, but as a committed student of the Way.

In the Sacred Purpose Blueprint, we unravel the lies that keep us bound to productivity as worth and reweave a path rooted in purpose, prayer, and radical presence. Once you know your aligned purpose, you are unstoppable and uncontrollable.

In Sacred Business Mastery this summer, we will reclaim the soul of entrepreneurship because we need medicine people and healers who thrive, not burn out while trying to save everyone else.

In our plant diets, ceremonies, and initiatory spaces, we don't just talk about transformation; we become it. Through breath, sweat, silence, song, and ancient maps.

Not everyone is ready for that. That's okay. But if something in your bones is saying: It's time, I want you to know the doors are open. The fire is burning. The elders are whispering. And I'm here, with a seat at the circle.

Because despite what the news says, what the empire profits from, or what your inner critic might scream at 3 a.m., another world is possible.

And we don't build it by dreaming from the sidelines. We build it by living as if it already exists. Now. In every step. In every prayer. In every offering of love that refuses to give up.

The bees have been doing this for millions of years.

If I can live even a fraction of that devotion, I'll count myself blessed.

"The future is an endless succession of presents, and to live now as we think humans should live, in defiance of all that is bad around us, is itself a marvelous victory." Howard Zinn

With gratitude. With irreverent hope. With action.

See you on the Sacred Paths,

Angell Deer

🌿 www.sacredpaths.earth