MYTHIC ORIGINS:

Dionysus appealed to many frustrated and bored Greek housewives who felt obliged to strike out and shake their booty as it were. He did not belong to the original Greek pantheon of Olympians at all but was eventually absorbed to offset what could not be forestalled as a cultural wave of personal transformation. In order therefore to arrive at the core reality of the Dionysian myth and its implications it is important to separate what, at least in Greek tradition is implied literally and what is suggested symbolically. In many cases these go hand in hand and are often inseparable. This is a formidable task for any classically educated western mythographer as so much analysis has been heaped onto the compost heap of mythic significance that any attempt at demystification may impinge or detract from its intrinsic secrets, enigmas and paradoxes. It also seems expedient to recognise what elements of the archaic cult were later absorbed into mainstream philosophical, anthropological, and religious ritual and entered mythological symbolism. The cult also bears close parallels with Persian Sufism, Nordic and Russian Shamanism, as well as Hindu Tantric practices imported from the Far East into Asia Minor. As it found its way into the Mediterranean region it automatically absorbed the natural and philosophical elements of various Mystery Religions found at Eleusis and those fostered by the Orphics. Mythographers suggest a natural evolution from the cults of Dionysus Zagreus, a pagan woodland deity worshipped in ancient Greece who was dismembered by the Titans. The goddess Athena managed to save his heart and brought it to Zeus who swallowed it and gave birth to a new indestructible soul of the divine. Zeus then punished the Titans with his lightning bolts and human beings were then left to celebrate the death and revival of Dionysus each year in dramatic displays that gave rise to modern theatre (The Dionysia). In ancient Rome similar festivities became known as the Bacchanalia because one aspect of Dionysus was also known to the Greeks as Bacchus.

SEE ALSO HAOMA (The Food of the Gods)
www.cais-soas.com/CAIS/Reli..._plant.htm

In many classical works he is mistakenly referred to as a vegetation deity which, in my view is slightly misleading. However, it will be found that Dionysian leitmotifs and their symbolism are virtually universal for reasons which will be revealed in the course of this essay. Firstly, there is little doubt that his Graeco-Roman cult is synonymous with that of the Egyptian Osiris, Phoenician Adonis, or Attis, the god Odin of N. Europe, the Cernunnos of Celto-Germanic origins, the Judaic-Christian Jehovah (Jesus), Sumerian Tammuz, Aztec and Mayan Quetzacoatl, and Shiva of Hindu mythology. Furthermore, legends, myths and folktales from remote regions of the world contain elements of the Dionysian phenomena leaving one to construe that his supernatural emergence is both natural and culturally widespread. We can identify numerous parallels of a dying and resurrected vegetable god in N. America, Mexico, Polynesia and Indonesia, so that no part of the world remains untouched by his wild and enigmatic presence. Western mythographers identify several places where the cults of "Dionysus" may have arisen, although they may in actual fact go much further back into the mists of prehistoric human experience. In this sense therefore the cults and ritual practices may constitute the foundation and source of all human religious experience. The mythic references from several sources suggest Thrace, Phrygia, Nysa, Boeotia, Nyseion, S. Italy. However, the Vedic cult of haoma in the northern reaches of the Indus valley where Greek influence extended may precede these places as origins or distant roots. The only other likely origin source is Finland, N. Russia, Siberia and Mongolia.

HYMN TO DIONYSUS:
I invoke you, loud-crashing, eua-screaming Dionysos:

First born, second, third born King Bacchus!
You, the savage, unspeakable, clandestine one,
Two-horned, double-formed, ivy-clad, like the bull.
You, like Ares, O Euius!
You innocent devourer of flesh so raw!
Triennial, frocked in grape and olive branch,
You, Eubolius, so very enlightened.
Demigod immortal, born of the coupling
Of Zeus and Persephone, too dark to whisper!
Listen, blessed one, to my voice, and breathe
On me with a heart blameless and kind,
You and the women who nurse you, dressed for duty.

THE LOVE OF DIONYSUS:
At Naxos Dionysus met the beautiful abandoned maiden Ariadne, they fell hopelessly in love and they were soon married. Ariadne bore Oenopion, Thoas, Staphylus, Latromis, Euanthes, and Tauropolos and her bridal tapestry was adorned among the stars. Later in life he went to Argos where he punished Perseus for killing so many of his followers. However, Perseus eventually admitted his error and built a temple in honour of Dionysus. Finally Dionysus attained his apotheosis and was admitted into the Olympian circle as a true, eternal god.

APOTHEOSIS OF DIONYSUS:
Early Gnosticism had proposed that the Christian Gospels were merely symbolic and not to be taken as literal or historic fact. More significantly they claimed that Christ did not die on the cross as stated in the Bible. This brought them into conflict with the Church of Rome and some elements of the Judaeans. The story of the dying and resurrected god harks back to an earlier pagan time. It represents a cycle of time as a mythic allegory. The people are in a state of crisis, the land is laid waste, a ritual human sacrifice is therefore arranged, the chosen man is accused, without resistance is openly arrested, he is questioned, beaten, whipped and stoned, then ritually hung on a tree, only to be pierced with arrows or in some cases spears. There then follows the ritual cannibal meal of bread and wine, symbolising blood and flesh. In the Greek legend when Dionysus reappeared to his followers he told them:

"You say Dionysus is dead, but I tell you he will make swift his return and avenge this gross sacrilege which you have here today performed."

This notion of ritual dismemberment, the tearing of flesh, the thrashing and whipping are all rural allegories of the wheat being cut, the grain that is delivered from the sheaf, the grapes that are crushed by trampling round in a circular fashion - symbolising a ritual calendar cycle of death and regeneration. However, the death is not "real" as contemporary Christians understand and believe today, but merely a psychological spectacle, a drama, and the real Christ is actually substituted for his twin (Tanist ie: substitute). The Gnostic heresy proclaimed that the death of the saviour is merely part of a greater mystery or proto-myth. In reality it represented the triumph of the spirit over matter, the death was in effect a ritual "psychic death" which symbolised the death of the lower self (Eidelon) and the resurrection of the Daemon (Higher Self). In other words death of the ego is necessary if we are to free the soul from the bonds and captivity of this mortal plane. Death is in actual fact a doorway into another dimension from which we, as divine sparks, return from time and time again. Initiations or "mysteries" of this type were very common in Gnostic and Orphic circles, particularly at Eleusius and usually followed by certain strict observances. According to one Gnostic tradition there were 4 levels of initiation.

1. The Hylic: (Physical Body) Theseus - Service & Duty, Earth.
2. The Psychic: (Personality or Ego) Odysseus or Jason - Baptism, Water.
3. The Pneumatic: (Spiritual Plane) Perseus - Holy Vibration, Air.
4. The Gnostic: (Mystical Plane) Hercules - Divine Light, Fire.

SACRED MUSHROOM:

The mushroom is another perfect gestalt image which can embody the mysterious symbolism of Dionysian revelry and at the same time provide further clues to the enigmas of the cult practices during important calendrical periods. As an organic life-form mushrooms appear and disappear, as if by "magic". They break down what is no longer required, what has died and become useless and return what is essential to the earth once again. To the uneducated mind, therefore fungi seem to have no roots and shed no seed and suddenly manifest with little or no encouragement or assistance. However, natural biologists now know that mushrooms grow as a result of microscopic spores which find a suitable breeding ground in the shade and around the roots of certain trees. They usually sprout almost immediately after a thunder storm in the early morning sunshine reinforcing the idea that fungi are connected to the occurrence of lightning. As lightning is synonymous with the Greek God Zeus, then the mushroom is the child of the immortal god, raised up to heaven (apotheosis). The fungal bacterium resides largely underground or on its rotting host and only when the spores are reproduced does the mushroom's phallic stem and venereal hood suddenly and unexpectedly make their appearance. According to Greek Mythology Dionysus evolved magically from the remnant heart of Zagreus (Wildman of the Woods), the still-beating heart was saved by Zeus and given to Semele to consume. Therefore, in a strange manner of symbiosis and transmutation the infant Dionysus was born from the sexual union of Semele and Zeus. However, this myth describes the singular characteristics of the fungal kingdom particularly in woodland habitats. Scientists now realise that without fungi our atmospheric environment would consist largely of carbon dioxide and organic life would therefore cease to exist. In autumn when the decaying fruits fall from the trees (sugar & acid being synonymous with the still beating heart of Zagreus), followed by leaves and nuts (tannin) it provides a natural environment for its bacterial growth. The art of wine-making basically involves the encouragement of this organic transfiguration employing a lesser known fungus called yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae), which is of course also used in baking bread. The altars of Dionysus were usually dressed with customary delicacies of goat's cheese, bread, wine, grapes and yoghurt. All of these foods contain the natural enzymes, bacterial agents or the cultivated yeast and were therefore synonymous with the cult of Dionysus. In relation to Dionysian sacramental rites and more importantly with respect to the possible influence of magical concoctions there are numerous varieties of hallucinogenic compounds found in the mushrooms Death Cap (A. muscaria), and Magic Mushrooms (Stropharia cubensis). Alongside this phenomena it will be noted that wheat, rye and barley grains are often infected with a purple-coloured fungus known as ergot (Claviceps purpurea & C. paspali), which, according to the earliest records available to botanists happened during the Middle Ages. This devastating fungus was responsible for the occurrence of fits of hallucinogenic frenzy among the populace who had inadvertently consumed it with their daily bread.