I snagged the questions for this from Ruadhán McElroy, who has been posting some great responses so far and is also running a fund-raiser to get a cool devotional ring for Eros – check it out!
1. A basic introduction to Dionysos, the Starry Bull
Dionysos is a god of many names and many forms to the point that some scholars have had difficulty discerning an underlying unity behind all of these diverse manifestations. Over the years I’ve experienced quite a few of them and yet I’ve never had that problem. Dionysos is Dionysos whether he’s showing himself as the jubilant reveler, the lord of all fertility, the terrible and overwhelming frenzy or the prince beneath the earth. This is not to deny the profound differences that can come through depending on which mask he wears – indeed I often read people’s accounts of their experiences with him with a touch of wistfulness for I rarely feel that joyous, lusty, liberating ecstasy except through their encounters with him in the rituals I lead. (Which is, to be completely honest, one of the reasons why I am so drawn to communal worship: I miss that face of my god, even as I am immensely grateful for all that he has shown me.)
My Dionysos is one who has suffered things beyond even the capacity of a god to endure – he has tasted every pain, every minute variation of madness and he has been torn apart over and over again until there was seemingly nothing left of him. And yet he remains. Always, he comes back.
He is strong. To go through all of that and not be crushed by it, not become bitter and angry – to still have this deep lust for life and the world and everything in it: that shows tremendous strength. He is strong enough to shoulder whatever burden we bring to him – no matter how hurt and broken and fucked up we are he never turns away from us, never gives up on us. He is patient, generous, compassionate and infinitely understanding. All that he wants for us is to be happy and free and so he brings release to those who are bound up or suffering. In this capacity he is primarily an intercessor, stepping in when situations get out of hand, when people or communities are caught up in unbreakable cycles of oppression and retribution. Through his gentle words and wise counsel he brings understanding, peace and joy to troubled souls.
His concern for us does not stop here – he made a bargain with the Lord of the Underworld so that all of his devotees and those he cares deeply for would have their memory and vitality preserved instead of becoming witless, impotent shades and he prepared a place of eternal feasting for us with him below.
That’s not to suggest that this form of Dionysos is all hugs and smiles – far, far from it. There is a violence and savagery to this form of Dionysos that I don’t really glimpse in most of the accounts I’ve read of other people’s encounters with the god. And after a certain point he is uncompromising in his demands of freedom and authenticity, with little tolerance for weakness or excuses. He doesn’t scold or punish, however. If you want to run with the Hunt he expects you to keep up – and if you don’t you will be left behind. The consequence for letting your internal bullshit get in the way is that you get to wallow in the muck and mire instead of reveling free and wild with him. After a while he’ll even stop reaching out to you. But if you manage to pull yourself up out of it there’s a place at his side waiting for you, and all is forgotten. But he won’t stop reaching out for those who keep trying, no matter how successful they are, for as long as they keep trying and he’ll move heaven and earth to help them. They just have to want his assistance.
For a more precise discussion of his character in this form, click here.
2. How did you first become aware of this form of Dionysos?
After years of working with his more general forms.
3. Symbols and icons of Dionysos
Each of his forms has a specific set of symbols and associations, so I’m just going to give the ones for this form.
The wispy, feathery thyrsos depicted on Apulian vases.
The two-handled kantharos or drinking-cup.
Wine.
Honey.
Pomegranates.
Figs.
Fire.
Water.
Ash.
Grapes.
Ivy.
Marijuana.
Masks.
Horns.
Phalloi.
Stars.
Mirrors.
Keys.
A hunting-net.
While the bull is his primary animal he is also associated with sheep, goats, foxes, spiders and white peacocks.
The numbers nine and thirteen.
The colors red, black and white.
4. A favorite myth of Dionysos
Clement of Alexandria, Exhortation to the Greeks 2.30
Phalloi are consecrated to Dionysos, and this is the origin of those phalloi. Dionysos was anxious to descend into Haides, but did not know the way. Thereupon a certain man, Prosymnos by name, promises to tell him; though not without reward. The reward was not a seemly one, though to Dionysos it was seemly enough. It was a favour of lust, this reward which Dionysos was asked for. The god is willing to grant the request; and so he promises, in the event of his return, to fulfil the wish of Prosymnos, confirming the promise with an oath. Having learnt the way he set out, and came back again. He does not find Prosymnos, for he was dead. In fulfilment of the vow to his lover Dionysos hastens to the tomb and indulges his unnatural lust. Cutting off a branch from a fig-tree which was at hand, he shaped it into the likeness of a phallos, and then made a show of fulfilling his promise to the dead man. As a mystic memorial of this passion phalloi are set up to Dionysos in cities. ‘For if it were not to Dionysos that they held solemn procession and sang the phallic hymn, they would be acting most shamefully,’ says Herakleitos.
5. Members of the family – genealogical connections
Well, let’s see – there’s his father Zeus and his mother Persephone and his other mother Semele; there’s his half-brother Hermes, his adopted father Seilenos, his “aunts” and “uncles” the nymphs and satyrs of Mount Nysa and his wet-nurses the Hyades. Then there’s his wife Ariadne and his numerous mistresses including (but not limited to) Arachne, Erigone and Aphrodite as well as his male lovers Ampelos, Prosymnos and others. Then there’s his various children, including Telete, Thysa, Pasithea, Methe, Lyssa, Deïanira, the Charites, Priapos, Keramos, Phlias, Narkaios, Oenopion, Staphylos, Thoas, Peparethos, Kloster, etc. Then there’s his descendants, especially Alexander the Great, the Ptolemies and Marcus Antonius.
And that’s the family that I care about – through Zeus Dionysos is related to something like 93% of the Hellenic pantheon and I am not going to list all of them!
6. Other related deities and entities associated with Dionysos
I’ve listed them here and since I plan to do some pieces on how they’re all connected I’ll just save that for later.
7. Names and epithets
The epikleseis of this form of Dionysos are Lusios “the Releaser”, Lyaios “the Deliverer”, Eubouleos “of Good Counsel”, Charidotes “Giver of Graces”, Meilichios “the Gentle”, Bromios “the Loud Roarer”, Mainomenos “the Maddener”, Katachthonios “He who is beneath the earth”, Agrios “the Wild One”, Petempamenti “He who is in the West”, Choreutes “Dance-weaver”, Asterios “the Starry One” and Zagreus “the Great Hunter.”
He is also known by the allonym Bakchos or Bakchios which has to do with ecstatic enthousiasmos.
8. Variations on Dionysos
I’m engaged in multiple cults for the same god – there’s the Starry Bull mystery tradition, there’s my standard Dionysian revelry and then there are specific, local-focus practices I’ve picked up, all of which involve different forms of him. The Dionysos I’ve been describing is associated with mystery stuff, the standard form most people are already familiar with and the other is highly idiosyncratic. This Dionysos is associated with volcanoes, old growth forests and the coastline, buffaloes and Jim Morrison, rain and raging rivers – he’s very much an American Dionysos.
9. Common mistakes about Dionysos
That his mildness implies meekness (it doesn’t) and that there’s only one way to be a Dionysian (there isn’t.)
10. Offerings – historical and UPG
Most of the things mentioned under #3 would work as appropriate offerings. He’s extremely fond of dance and music, especially music that we make ourselves. When it comes to meat, the bloodier the better as far as he’s concerned. For incenses he tends to prefer rich, earthy scents as well as the things listed here. And while wine, mead and beer are historically attested drink offerings, Dionysos has never met an alcohol he didn’t like. He’ll even accept water in a pinch.
11. Festivals, days, and times sacred to Dionysos
I’ve discussed the festivals I keep for him here, and of course within the thiasos of the Starry Bull Sundays are sacred to him but I also honor him on the noumenia and the ninth and thirteenth of the lunar month. I feel Dionysos’ presence the strongest during the liminal times of dusk and right before dawn and more diffusely throughout the evening with around 3:00am being another sweet spot. I honor other forms of him, especially those associated with the nymphai, during the day – but this one is definitely a night owl.
12. Places associated with this form of Dionysos and his worship
His holy places are Naxos, Thebes, Lerna, Parnassos and Pangaion in Greece; Tarentum, Cumae, Lokroi Epizephyrii, Sybaris, Neapolis, Pompeii, Thurii, Hipponion, Naxos, Akragas, Syracuse, Aetna and Vesuvius as well as the modern Lecce and Galatina in Southern Italy and Sicily. He also has strong ties to Alexandria in Egypt and Olbia in the Ukraine.
Mind you, these are just the places associated with this form – Dionysos has staked his claim all across Europe, Asia, Africa and the Orient.
13. What modern cultural issues are closest to Dionysos’ heart?
He has a strong concern for the mentally divergent, those suffering from depression, alcoholism and suicidal drives, as well as outcasts and misfits of all stripes. He also cares a great deal about animal rights and environmental issues and even more pronouncedly than with his other forms, he encourages tending the dead, especially the rejected and forgotten dead.
14. Has Dionysos’ worship changed in modern times?
Dionysos’ worship has been continually evolving since the early Minoan period – I’ve traced its continuity and change from the 4th century to the present over at Eternal Bacchus if you’re interested in the specifics of how this happened.
Probably the biggest difference from antiquity is that the majority of Dionysians worship the god today as solitaries whereas he was very much a communal, orgiastic deity back in the day. (And still is – but circumstances are what they are and I think he appreciates our cultus even more because of what we have to go through to offer it to him.)
15. Any mundane practices that are associated with Dionysos?
Once you get to a certain point with him all such arbitrary boundaries dissolve. He has a way of soaking into the totality of one’s life and you know how difficult it is to get wine out.
16. How do you think Dionysos represents the values of his pantheon and cultural origins?
Not very well, since he tends to represent the complete inversion and transgression of those values. Ours too.
Whatever is regarded as Other – that belongs to Dionysos.
17. How does Dionysos relate to other gods and other pantheons?
Dionysos is a world-traveler and a very charming fellow – somehow he’s managed to insinuate himself into the Heathen, Celtic, Levantine, Egyptian, Indian and Christian pantheons. So I’d say he gets along fairly well with other gods.
18. How does Dionysos stand in terms of gender and sexuality?
Are you kidding? Dionysos is queer as a three-dollar bill. (So was Orpheus, by the way.)
19. What quality or qualities of Dionysos do you most admire? What quality or qualities of his do you find the most troubling?
I love everything about Dionysos. Especially the parts of him I find troubling.
20. Art that reminds you of Dionysos
21. Music that makes you think of Dionysos
Music is one of the primary ways that I interact with my gods and sprits, Dionysos in particular, so the challenge isn’t to find a piece of music that makes me think of him but rather to limit it to a manageable selection. At the moment I would have to say that these four songs are probably the ones I consider most evocative of him in this form.
DeVotchKa – Twenty-Six Temptations:
SORNE – Shaman of Snakes:
Hexvessel – I Am The Ritual:
Velvet Underground – Venus in Furs:
22. A quote, a poem, and a piece of writing that you think resonates strongly with Dionysos
Aelius Aristides, Orationes
Nothing can be so firmly bound, neither by illness, nor by wrath or fortune, that cannot be released by Dionysos.
Sophokles, Choral Ode from Antigone
Surrounded by the light of torches,
he stands high on the twin summits of Parnassos,
while the Corycian nymphs dance around as Bacchantes,
and the waters of Castalia sound from the depths below.
Up there in the snow and winter darkness Dionysos rules in the long night,
while troops of maenads swarm around him,
himself the choir leader for the dance of the fire-breathing stars
and quick of hearing for every sound of the night.
Philip K. Dick, VALIS pages 165-166
The gentle sounds of the choir singing ‘Amen, amen’ are not to calm the congregation but to pacify the god. When you know this you have penetrated to the innermost core of religion. And the worst part is that the god can thrust himself outward and into the congregation until he becomes them. You worship a god and then he pays you back by taking you over. This is called enthousiasmos in Greek, literally ‘to be possessed by the god.’ Of all the Greek gods the one most likely to do this was Dionysos. And, unfortunately, Dionysos was insane. Put another way – stated backward – if your god takes you over, it is likely that no matter what name he goes by he is actually a form of the mad god Dionysos. He was also the god of intoxication, which may mean, literally, to take in toxins; that is to say, to take a poison. The danger is there. If you sense this, you try to run. But if you run he has you anyhow, for the demigod Pan was the basis of panic which is the uncontrollable urge to flee, and Pan is a subform of Dionysos. So in trying to flee from Dionysos you are taken over anyhow. I write this literally with a heavy hand; I am so weary I am dropping as I sit here. What happened at Jonestown was the mass running of panic, inspired by the mad god – panic leading into death, the logical outcome of the mad god’s thrust. For them no way out existed. You must be taken over by the mad god to understand this, that once it happens there is no way out, because the mad god is everywhere. It is not reasonable for nine hundred people to collude in their own deaths and the deaths of little children, but the mad god is not logical, not as we understand the term. When we reached the Lamptons’ home we found it to be a stately old farm mansion, set in the middle of grape vines; after all, this is wine country. I thought, Dionysos is the god of wine.
23. Your own composition – a piece of writing about or for Dionysos
Here is a little piece I like to call Holiness is always dangerous:
Pity the weary man, the sad clown, my sweet but insufferable cousin Pentheus.
He was a feisty one, let me tell you. Fought hard until the very end.
I do like when the prey has some spirit.
The blood of the bull is so much richer then.
What? Gods get hungry too.
It takes a lot out of you to be this fabulous all the time.
Life feeding on life in an unending chain
like the wandering of the dancing queen
through the hunting ground beneath the earth
where royalty are transformed into flowers and stars and rain,
the fateful fruit of the new wine
consummated in the ox-shed in the swamp
so that the moans and whimpers of the holy, life-giving dithyramb
will mingle with the croaks of otherworldly frogs.
Haides and Dionysos are one,
for whom they rave madly
as they dance the phallos and race through the night in the hunt.
Silly boy. He thought he could get a glimpse of all this
and come away untouched.
Holiness is always dangerous.
And as a bonus, here’s a story about a girl named Mary.
24. A time when Dionysos has helped you
Oh gods. There’s so many. Every day I draw breath is a gift from him. So how about the time he protected me from internet dragons.
25. A time when Dionysos has refused to help
I asked him to guide me to a decent religious community in Las Vegas.
26. How has your relationship with Dionysos changed over time?
I started out very Wiccanesque. In time I got to know him better and he gave me a name. Then he tore me apart, and I became his initiate. I followed him into and out of Egypt. An obsession with severed heads turned me into a Fool for a while. Then one day I took off the mask and became an Orpheoteleste. So, yeah. There have been some changes in my relationship with Dionysos over time.
27. Worst misconception about Dionysos that you have encountered
That Dionysos is Wolverine from the X-Men.
28. Something you wish you knew about this form of Dionysos but don’t currently
What it feels like when he comes through while standing on Italian soil.
29. Any interesting or unusual UPG to share?
No.
30. Any suggestions for others just starting to learn about this form of Dionysos?
Get used to walking around in circles and all the best truths are penis-shaped.
Tagged: dionysos
