Faraone reminds us that the prosaic synthema “Bull, you jumped in the milk” (A group) reflects Dionysiac religion as reconstructed from other early evidence. By uttering this statement, the initiate re-enacts the sudden motion of the god from life to death and back, as it is told in the Homeric episode of Lycurgus: the foam of the sea there had a milky aspect. It deals with a personal internalization of Dionysus’ mythology, leading to an identification with Dionysus himself. Thus Dionysus would not only have been the mystic goal, but also the dynamic paradigm of every initiatic process. (Alexis Pinchard, review of Radcliffe G. Edmonds III (ed.), The “Orphic” Gold Tablets and Greek Religion: Further Along the Path.)
You see, I officially released my new Bacchic Orphic-themed blog yesterday. I even gave folks a pretty clear clue about how to find it. And most people, I’m guessing, did not.
Part of me was tempted to keep it that way. Write intense, arcane material for the select few who were clever enough or well-versed enough in Bacchic Orphic lore to solve the puzzle that leads to the heart of the labyrinth. That’s how the Orphikoi handled things.
Many are the wand-bearers, few are the Bakchoi.
But if I’m serious about starting up this mad drunken death cult thing I have to cast a wider net. So …
Drink the rabbit’s wine and you’ll find yourself on the other side.
