The beehive is a symbol of Freemasonry, industry, domestic virtues and faith. In Freemasonry, it is common to find it together with the words “Holiness to the Lord”. It is believed that the origin of the symbol comes from the medieval period, when builders didn’t have power-driven machines to accomplish their works (associating their work with the work of the bees in building the beehives).
In Ancient Egypt, the beehive was also a symbol of obedient people, as Horapollo said, “of all insects, the bee alone had a king.”
There seems, however, to be a more recondite meaning connected with this symbol. The ark is associated with Freemasonry and the Ancient Mysteries as a symbol of regeneration,-of the second birth from death to life. In the Mysteries, a hive was a type of ark. "Hence," says Faber (Origin of Pagan Idolatry, volume ii, page 133), "both the diluvian priestesses and the regenerated souls were called bees; hence, bees were feigned to be produced from the carcass of a cow, which also symbolized the ark; and hence, as the great father was esteemed an infernal god, honey was much used both in funeral rites and in the Mysteries." This extract is from the article on the bee in Evans' Animal Symbolism in Ecclesiastical Architecture.
Source: Mackey's Encyclopedia of Freemasonry
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