The Dynamic Duo: Apollo and DionysusIn The Birth of Tragedy Nietzsche argues that the essence of Greek tragedy lies in the dynamic fusion of Apollonian and Dionysian aesthetics. The former he associates with form, the latter with flux. Thus, the Apollonian is represented by arts that have a material form, such as sculpture and are indicative of beauty, symmetry and moderation. Dionysian on the other hand, Nietzsche associates with music; an art without a physical form or limits, and allied with intoxication, sexuality and frenzy (Strong 120-21). While both of these impulses can be given form by being represented in art, they originate in nature and are an integral part of human psychology. Nietzsche believed that the Dionysian in tragedy conveyed the integrity of the will beyond the physical while the Apollonian concern for beauty and form reassured audiences that individuation was also worthwhile (Smith xviii). This is not to say that the Dionysian is antithetical to bodily experience because as Nietzsche states, “Dionysian art too wants to convince us of the eternal joy of existence†(91). For Nietzsche, the Dionysian spirit was embodied by heroes such as Prometheus who aided humanity by stealing fire from Zeus. The Dionysian or non-rational and emotional roots of Greek tragedy, its attention to myth and ritual, and to heroism and suffering, were to Nietzsche the most vital elements of its drama and the most lacking in modern society (Perry 296).
I see you. More so than you will ever know. I feel you as though we share the same vessel. I am in your heart, as you are are in mine. Together we are the Wind, water, earth, and fire. We are life.
Is it meant to be so complex? Do we place more burdens upon ourselves than ever necessary? Do we put more distance between ourselves for any good reason? Is there a better way? Is there a simpler way? Is there a life worth living? Yes.
What if all that you believed and knew to be true were simply illusion , would you be able to accept the truth? Or would it swallow you?
She spoke softly into the child's ear. The world awaits you and it patience wears thin. Though they know not what they wait for. Soon you will grow, soon you will thrive.
From one star to next... Do you think he has a chance? Thought will bring no comfort in such a situation. THen what do you suggest? Like a warm well worn blanket, it is hope that gives the security I desire. Hope? And what exactly to you hope for? For humanities sake, I hope he makes it.
You Are Merlot
Smooth, confident, and popular - you're the type most likely to order wine for the whole group.
You seem to breeze through life on your intuition and wit. And no one seems to mind!
You're comfortable in any social situation you find yourself in, and you never feel outclassed.
And while you live a charmed life, you never let it go to your head. You are truly down to earth and a great friend.
Deep down you are: Balanced and mature
Your partying style: Surprisingly wild... when you let loose, you really let loose
Your company is enjoyed best with: Some greasy pizza
What Kind of Wine Are You?
I am intrested in creating a new world. A world of peace. A place in which everyone can be free to become their true selves.
Your Hidden Talent
You have the power to persuade and influence others.
You're the type of person who can turn a whole room around.
The potential for great leadership is there, as long as you don't abuse it.
Always remember, you have a lot more power over people than you might think!
What's Your Hidden Talent?
(Vagabond)
Fallen hero. Scared idol of a lost generation.
Once so grand, once so strong. No more sweet music, no more sweet songs.
A vagabond's eyes, somehow drained of their soul.
A colorful aura now turns to black. A beautiful dream falls through a crack.
Doors once open, now locked shut. Smiles once bright, have now become infected cuts.
Forces of nature to one hand. Retreat to safety or take a stand. Call forth rising tides. Skin the animals wear their hides. Fall victim to full moon fever. A liar swears he is a true believer.
No time to hesitate. A new day is at dawn.
To much is the way of man. Shall we surpass such foolish nature, and revert? Back to a time when our spirits were pure, and magic still filled the air? Look beyond masks and pre-defined dreams. Look inward upon your own beinging. What was your name? What was your purpose? Will you remeber?
You Are 98% Sexy
Your Sex Appeal Is: Off the Charts!
Let's face it... you're one of the sexiest people around. And you don't let anyone forget it.
You're crazy hot, and you deliver on what you promise. You are definitely one wild ride.
How Much Sex Appeal Do You Have?
ARIADNE was the immortal wife of the wine-god Dionysos. There were several versions of her story. In one, Ariadne, the daughter of King Minos of Krete, assisted Theseus in his quest to slay the Minotaur, and then fled with him aboard his ship. However, when they landed on the island of Naxos, Theseus abandoned her as she was sleeping. It was here that the god Dionysos discovered her and made her his wife. Some say that she was later slain by Artemis, or else granted immortality. In another account, Ariadne's bridal with Dionysos occurred several generations before, when the god was still wandering the earth introducing his cult. But when he rode into battle against the Argives with his band of sea women, she was slain or turned to stone by King Perseus. The god then descended to the underworld through Lerna to bring her back, before ascending to Olympos.Ariadne was often depicted alongside Dionysos in Greek vase painting: either amongst the gods of Olympos, or in Bacchic scenes surrounded by dancing Satyrs and Maenads. The discovery of the sleeping Ariadne on Naxos was also a popular scene in both vase painting and mosaic.
Persephone
I am looking to meet new like minded people to share a the dream of a new world with. Aswell as reunite with friends of the past, from this life and from lives of the past. Here are some links to sites belonging to friends and associates.
Abbie Hoffman
The Chicago Seven
Bootleggshaman
Ralph Rodenberry
Jimmy Young Band
Deep Blue Sun
Donna Hopkins Band
Jake's Toadhouse
The Answer Coalition
Norml (help legalize it)
Temple of Dionysos
The United States Costitution
The Declaration Of Independence
You Are a Mermaid
You are a total daydreamer, and people tend to think you're flakier than you actually are.
While your head is often in the clouds, you'll always come back to earth to help someone in need.
Beyond being a caring person, you are also very intelligent and rational.
You understand the connections of the universe better than almost anyone else. What Mythological Creature Are You?
Your Aura is Yellow
You're a deeply happy and content person, and you enjoy sharing your cheer with others.
While you may seem like a simple optimist, there is a lot of thinking going on inside you.
The purpose of your life: bringing joy and a better life to others
Famous yellows include: Conan O'Brien, Jenny Mccarthy, Jim Carrey
Careers for you to try: Athlete, Actor, Yoga Instructor What Color Is Your Aura?
You Are A Poplar Tree
People tend to look up to you, and it's a bit lonely at the top.
Inside, you are not always self confident, but you show great courage.
Mature and organized, you are reliable in any situation.
You tend to have an artistic or philosophical outlook on life.
You are very choosy in love and take partnership seriously. What's Your Celtic Horoscope?
You Are a Rose
You are a total alpha dog who tends to be a leader.
Your friends depend on you to hold things together and make decisions.
Potential lovers are drawn to your raw power and strength.
While you are the center of attention, you are secretly introverted and a bit shy.
What Flower Are You?
ben harper
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JABBERWOCKY
Lewis Carroll
(from Through the Looking-Glass and What Alice Found There, 1872)
..Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe:
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
"Beware the Jabberwock, my son!
The jaws that bite, the claws that catch!
Beware the Jubjub bird, and shun
The frumious Bandersnatch!"
He took his vorpal sword in hand:
Long time the manxome foe he sought --
So rested he by the Tumtum tree,
And stood awhile in thought.
And, as in uffish thought he stood,
The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame,
Came whiffling through the tulgey wood,
And burbled as it came!
One, two! One, two! And through and through
The vorpal blade went snicker-snack!
He left it dead, and with its head
He went galumphing back.
"And, has thou slain the Jabberwock?
Come to my arms, my beamish boy!
O frabjous day! Callooh! Callay!'
He chortled in his joy.
..Twas brillig, and the slithy toves
Did gyre and gimble in the wabe;
All mimsy were the borogoves,
And the mome raths outgrabe.
Who Should Paint You: Alfred Gockel
All American yet funky, you inspire an artist's imagination
And while not everyone will understand your portrait, you will!
What Artist Should Paint Your Portrait?
You Belong in 1966
You are a free spirit with a huge heart. Love, peace, and happiness rule - oh, and drugs too.
What Year Do You Belong In?
The Doors, Ralph Rodenberry, Jefferson Airplane, Marvin Gaye, John Lennon, Jimmiy Young, John Mayer, Buffalo Springfeild, Johnathen Edwards, Jack Johnson, Ben Harper etc....
Your Brain's Pattern
Your brain is always looking for the connections in life.
You always amaze your friends by figuring out things first.
You're also good at connecting people - and often play match maker.
You see the world in fluid, flexible terms. Nothing is black or white.
What Pattern Is Your Brain?
(Reunion)
Untimely birth of a dying man, Unfamiliar ground covered by sand. Faded foot prints lead the way. I think I will choose another path. I believe I will choose another day.
Walking on clouds a simple vision. Mind locked down by a simple decision. Awkward circles, emotional spheres. A cry for freedom that no one hears.
Under the bridge with a pen and pad. Writing a thought I thought I had. Seems strange days have come again. Another life, another sin.
Oh moon child son of night. Shine down in glory and grace. The bearded youth is breaking through, I have found myself but who are you?
Your World View
You are a happy, well-balanced person who likes people and is liked by others.
You question whether many conventional views on morality are valid under all circumstances.
You are essentially a content person.
Sometimes, you consider yourself a little superior.
You are moral by your own standards.
You believe that morality is what best suits the occasion.
What Is Your World View?
Dionysian Mysteries
The Dionysian Mysteries probably began as an ancient initiation society, or family of similar societies, centred on a primeval nature god (and his consort), apparently associated with horned animals, serpents and solitary predators (primarily big cats), later known to the Greeks in the eclectic figure of Dionysus. It seems to have first taken organised form in Minoan Crete or Greece between 3000 BCE and 1000 BCE. When absorbed into Greek culture, it gradually evolved into a complex mystery religion that utilized intoxicants and other trance inducing techniques, such as dance and music, to remove inhibitions and artificial societal constraints, liberating the individual to return to a more natural and primal state. It also afforded a degree of liberation for the marginals of Greek society, women, slaves and foreigners.[1]In their final phase the Mysteries apparently shifted from a chthonic, primeval orientation to a transcendental, mystical one, with Dionysus altering his nature accordingly (much in the same way as happened in the cult of Shiva, Dionysos' eastern counterpart, according to some). Other scholars see these Mysteries, with their resurrected god and secret knowledge about the afterlife, as the precursor of the Eleusinian Mysteries, Orphic Mysteries, Gnosticism and Early Christianity. Manifestations of all its phases are said to have existed in a diverse range of Dionysos cults on the shores of the Mediterranean up until late Roman times.
The mysteries unveiledApart from this basic outline the Mysteries remain largely just that, a mystery, as very little knowledge of them has been passed down to us. Our current knowledge is largely based on the speculation of various scholars (notably Carl Kerenyi and W F Otto), drawing on contemporary descriptions and imagery and comparative cross cultural studies.The sophisticated Dionysian Mysteries of mainland Greece and the Roman Empire are generally thought to have evolved from a more primitive initiatory cult of unknown origin, that had spread throughout the Mediterranean region by the start of the Classical Greek period. Its spread possibly associated with the dissemination of wine, a sacrament or entheogen with which it appears always to have been closely associated (though mead may have been the original sacrament). Beginning as a simple primitive rite it appears to have quickly evolved within Greek culture into a popular Mystery Religion, which absorbed a variety of similar ancient cults, and their parallel gods, in a typically Greek eclectic synthesis across its colonial territories. In one of its late forms it mutated into what some would call the Orphic Mysteries (not to be confused with the more general trend called Orphism). But all stages of this developmental spectrum appear to have continued in parallel in various locales on the shores of the eastern Mediterranean until quite late in pagan history.On integration-individuation theories, read Carl Gustav Jung's "Analytical Psychology" (Princeton: Princeton U Press, 1991).[edit] A brief history of the early Dionysus cultThe ecstatic cult of Dionysus was originally thought to have been a late arrival in Greece from Thrace or Asia Minor, due to the popularity of the cult there and the non integration of Dionysus into the original Olympian Pantheon. But following the identification of the deity's name on Mycenean Linear B tablets this theory has now been abandoned and the cult is accepted as effectively indigenous and predating Greek civilization. The absence of an early Olympian Dionysus is today explained in terms of patterns of social exclusion and the marginality of the cult rather than chronology. The question of whether the cult originated on Minoan Crete, as an aspect of an ancient Zagreus, or in Thrace or Asia as a proto-Sabazius (or even Africa) is still unanswerable given the available evidence. Some believe it was an adopted cult that was not native to any of these places, and may have even been an eclectic cult in its earliest history, though it almost certainly obtained many of its most familiar features from Minoan culture.The original rite of Dionysus, as introduced into Greece, is almost universally held to have been associated with a "wine cult" (perhaps not too dissimilar to the entheogenic cults of ancient Central America in some ways), concerned with the cultivation of the grapevine, and a practical understanding of its life cycle - which was probably believed to have embodied the living god - as well as the production and fermentation of wine from its dismembered body - apparently associated with the essence of the dead god in the underworld. Most importantly however the intoxicating and disinhibiting effects of the drink itself were once regarded as due to possession by the god's spirit and later as a facilitator of this possession. Some wine was also given as libation to the earth and growing vine, completing the circle. The cult would not only have been solely concerned with the lore of the vine itself, but almost as much with other components of wine. Wine originally commonly included many other ingredients, herbal, floral and resinous, adding to its quality, flavor and medicinal properties, and was far more diverse than the simple drink we know today. Some scholars have suggested that given the very low alcohol content of early wine its apparent effects were perhaps due to an entheogenic ingredient in its sacred form. Honey and bees wax were also often added to wine, bringing with them the associations of the even older drink mead. Kerenyi in fact postulates that this wine lore superseded and partly absorbed a much earlier Neolithic mead lore, involving the very bee swarms that the Greeks associated with the presence of Dionysus. Mead as well as beer, and its cereal base, were certainly incorporated into the domain of Dionysus at some stage, perhaps via his identification with the wild Thracian corn deity Sabazius. Other plants believed to be viniculturally significant were also included in the retinue of wine lore. Thus were added ivy, once thought to negate the effects of drunkenness, and thus opposite of the grapevine - a symbolic relation also due to its blooming in winter rather than summer; the fig, thought to be a purgative of toxins; and the pine, a wine preservative. Similarly the bull - from whose hollowed horns wine was once drunk - and the goat - whose flesh provided wineskins, as well as acting as a natural 'pruner of the vine', were also included as wine cult animals and according to this theory eventually seen as manifestations of Dionysus. It is likely that some of these associations had long been linked with fertility deities like Dionysus and to a certain extent became reinterpreted in his new role. But an understanding of this vinicultural lore and its symbolic interpretation is crucial to an understanding of the cult that emerged from it, and would take on significance quite apart from wine making that would encompass life, death and rebirth and acquire a deep awareness of human psychology.If the Dionysus Cult first came to Greece with the importation of wine, as seems likely, then it probably first emerged around 6000 BC in one of two places, either in the Zagros Mountains, the borderlands of Mesopotamia and Persia, both with their own rich wine culture since then (arriving in Europe via Asia Minor), or from the ancient wild vines on the mountain slopes of Libya / North Africa, the source of early Egyptian wine from around 2500 BC, and home of many an ecstatic rite involving animal possession - notably the goat and panther men of the Aissaoua Sufi cult of Morocco (though it is also possible that this was of later origin and influenced by Dionysian cults itself). Whatever the case it appears Minoan Crete was the next link in the chain of transmission, importing wine from the Egyptians, Thracians and Phoenicians and exporting it to its own colonies, such as Greece. Thus it was in Minoan Crete (c. 3000 to 1000 BCE) that the basic Mysteries probably took form — certainly the name Dionysus exists nowhere else other than here and Greece.The rites were based on a seasonal death-rebirth theme and on spirit possession. The death-rebirth theme is supposedly common to all vegetation cults. The Osirian, for example, closely paralleled the Dionysian, according to contemporary Greek and Egyptian observers. Spirit possession involved an 'atavistic' liberation from the constraints of civilisation and its rules. It was a celebration of all that was outside civilized society and a return to the source of being — something that would later take on mystical connotations. It also involved an escape from the socialized personality and ego either into an ecstatic, deified state or into a primal herd, often both. Dionysus in this sense was the 'beast god' within, or as we moderns might conceive it, and Jung certainly saw it, the unconscious mindCitation missing. Such activity has been interpreted variously as fertilizing, invigorating, cathartic, liberational and even transformative. Thus it is not surprising that many of the devotees of Dionysus were originally the outsiders of mainstream society: women, slaves, outlaws and foreigners, non-citizens under Greek democracy. All of these were considered equal in a cult that appears often to have transgressively inverted their roles, much like the Roman Saturnalia. In fact in Greece at its height the Dionysian rites were almost entirely associated with women, allegedly liberating themselves from their suppression in Greek society. However, the fact that the titles of the officers of the cult were of male and female gender disproves the once popular claim that the cult was solely a women's mystery.The trance induction that was central to the cult involved not only chemognosis, but also the 'invocation of spirit' by means of the bull roarer, and ecstatic communal dancing to drum and pipe, much like today's raves. The trances induced are described in terms familiar to anthropologists, with characteristic movements such as the backward head flick, found in all trance inducing cults, and represented most famously today by Afro-American Vodou and its counterparts. And just as in Vodou rites, and the best raves, certain drum rhythms were associated with the trance state. Rhythms are allegedly also found preserved in Greek prose that referred to the Dionysus rites, specifically the Bacchae of Euripides. This compilation of classical quotes describes such ancient rites in the Greek countryside, where they were held high in the mountains to which ritual processions were made on certain feast days:Following the torches as they dipped and swayed in the darkness, they climbed mountain paths with head thrown back and eyes glazed, dancing to the beat of the drum which stirred their blood' [or 'staggered drunkenly with what was known as the Dionysos gait']. 'In this state of ekstasis or enthusiasmos, they abandoned themselves, dancing wildly and shouting 'Euoi!' [the god's name] and at that moment of intense rapture became identified with the god himself. They became filled with his spirit and acquired divine powers.[2]This practice is represented in Greek culture by the famous Bacchanals of the Maenads, Thyiades and Bacchoi, and it was no wonder that many Greek rulers considered the cult a threat to civilized society and wished to control it, if not suppress it outright. The latter failing and the former ultimately succeeding in the foundation of a domesticated Dionysianism in the form of a State Religion in Athens! However this was but one form of Dionysianism, a cult that took on many forms in different localities, often absorbing indigenous divinities, and their rites, similar to Dionysus. The Greek Bacchoi claimed that like wine, Dionysus had a different flavour in different regions, reflecting their mythical and cultural soil, their Terroir, and appeared under different names and manners in different regions. On remote Greek islands and the barbarous fringes of Thrace and Macedonia, or so it was rumored, the most primeval forms of Dionysianism continued to be practised, some of which still included human sacrifice as late as the Roman period. A taste of the nature of the primal Dionysos might be more readily accessible to modern readers when we consider that when the Macedonian Greeks reached India under Alexander and his heirs, they claimed Dionysos had gone ahead of them, in the form of a local deity known to us as Shiva. Bactrian coins were minted with both gods on either side, and strangely the two gods would evolve along similar lines.Dionysus in this most bestial aspect is believed to preserve the archaic archetype of the "Lord of the Animals", and to a certain extent also the ambiguous "Trickster" archetype. His ritual procession of Maenads and Bacchoi was portrayed as heralded by a troop of panthers or tigers, sileni, and satyrs, often led by Pan himself.The ritualized atavism of Dionysos was also associated with a 'descent into the underworld' of which Dionysos was also regarded as lord; thus Hades and Dionysos are one and the same, declared Heraclitus a philosopher closely associated with the Mysteries according to some commentators.[edit] The emergence and evolution of the Dionysian MysteriesThe idea of a mystery religion was essentially of a series of initiations which benefited the individual or their society in some way. Initially associated with the passage from childhood to adulthood and maturity, they later became seem as what we might call an evolutionary rite. And it was in the form of a Mystery Religion that the Dionysus Cult was first channeled in a more civilized way, probably first in Minoan Crete.The notion behind the Dionysian Mysteries seems to have been of not only the affirmation of the primeval bestial side of mankind, but its mastery and integration into a civilized psychology and social culture. Given the dual role of Ariadne as the Mistress of the Minoan Labyrinth and consort of Dionysus, some have seen the Minotaur story as also partly deriving from the idea of the mastery of mankind's animal nature, though this remains controversial. The self mastery achieved on this way was not one of domination as in similar cults, most famously preserved in contemporary culture as George and the Dragon, and perhaps the original Minotaur myth, but one of acceptance and integration. Thus while the Mysteries did much to lighten the darker aspects of the Cult they often failed to reassure its perhaps excessively civilized critics and continued to be regarded by many as dangerously liberative (particularly given its egalitarian tendencies as well).In Athens, atavistic possession was also channeled into dramatic masked ritual within the Bacchic Thiasos (Greek equivalent of a 'coven' or 'lodge'), seeding the emergence of acting and theatre, crafts also sacred to Dionysos, particularly in the form of tragedy and comedy. Thus the Dionysian Mysteries came to be seen as not only as a recognition and casting off the repressive over civilised masks we all wear, and the realisation our true nature, but with the creation of new more authentic masks as well, arguably also the deeper function of drama and comedy too. In other words the development of genuine character rather than socialised persona. In time as Dionysos became regarded as less bestial and more mystical, with the general shift of Pagan orientation, this also came to be seen as the generation of a soul and the survival of death. Themes that would become central to the later Orphic manifestations of Dionysianism that would influence early Christianity according to Roman commentators, denounced as devlilsh mockery of Christ by Justin Martyr (Dialogue with Trpypho ch. 64).The basic ritual that accomplished this appear to have been for men the identification with the god Dionysos in a ritual enactment of his myth of life, death and rebirth, including some form of ordeal. This involved a ritualised descent into the underworld or katabasis, apparently often carried out in actual caverns or catacombs, though sometimes more symbolically in temples. This process always seems to have been a part of the rites, and one form of it may be preserved in Aristophanes play, the Frogs (405 BC), which features the descent of Dionysos into Hades, with the assistance of a surreal chorus of amphibian guardians, and the advice of his half-brother Heracles, who also appears in the iconography of the Dionysian Mysteries. In these narratives someone or something is sought after and brought back, with varying degrees of success, the details vary. However, in Classical Greek culture this probably involved more theatre, with the initiate acting the role of the Heroes, than the full possession of the original rites. Following this there was usually a communion with the god through shared wine. The Initiate was then afterwards known as a Bacchoi, or Bacchus, the alternative name for Dionysos, shown the secret contents of the Liknon or Arc and presented with the thyrsos wand. In contrast the female initiate was prepared as a bride of Dionysos, an Ariadne, and encountered him in union in the underworld. In reference to this the ritual symbol of Dionysos hidden in the Arc till the culmination of the female rites was said to be a goat's penis and later fig wood phallus. After which she undertook a similar communion or wedding feast. Flagellation also seems to have been a basic ordeal, at least for women, according to many depictions of Dionysian initiations, and there are indications of some sort of ritualised hanging. All of this would have taken place at the same time as the traditional Dionysian revelries.The evolution of Dionysianism continued in the Roman Empire, with the Bacchic Mysteries, as they were known in Italy after their arrival in 200 BC. Here Dionysos was merged with the local fertility god Liber, whose consort Libera was the inspiration for the statue of liberty, a principle she and her partner also represented. The Roman Bacchic Cult typically emphasised the sexual aspects of the religion, and invented terrifying, chthonic ordeals for its Mystery initiation. It was this aspect that led to the cults banning by the Roman authorities in 186 BC, for alleged sexual abuse and other criminal activities, including accusations of murder. Whether these charges were true or not is uncertain, there may have been individual cases of corruption as in any institution, but there is no evidence of widespread corruption, and the general opinion is that these were trumped up charges levelled against a cult seen as a danger to the State. The Roman Senate thus sought to ban the Dionysian rites throughout the Empire, and restricted their gatherings to no more than a handful of people under special licence in Rome. However, was never fully successful and only succeeded in pushing the cult underground. They gained even more infamy due to the claims that the wife and inspirer of Spartacus, leader of the Slave Revolt of 73BC, was an initiate of the Thracian Mysteries of Dionysos, who considered her husband an incarnation of Dionysos Liber. But they were revived in a slightly tamer form under Julius Caesar around 50 BC, with his one time ally Mark Anthony becoming an enthusiastic devotee, and gaining much popular support in the process. They remained in existence, along with their carnivalesque Bacchanalian street processions, until at least the time of Augustine (A.D. 354-430) and were implanted in most Romanised provinces.Although much scholarship in these studies, like so much of ancient history, is based on educated guesswork, we do have some insight into the female initiation process through the murals of the Bacchic Villa of the Mysteries in Pompeii. Here a series of murals painted on the walls of an initiation chamber have been almost perfectly preserved after the eruption of Vesuvius, though there remains controversy as to whether the entire process is shown and how it should be interpreted.1. The first mural shows a noble Roman woman approaching a priestess or matron seated on a throne, by which stands a small boy reading a scroll. This is presumably the declaration of the initiation. On the other side of the throne the initiate is shown again, in a purple robe and myrtle crown, holding a sprig of laurel, and a tray of cakes. She appears to have been transformed into a serving girl.
2. The second mural depicts another priestess, or senior initiate, and her assistants preparing the Liknon basket, at her feet are mysterious mushroom shaped objects, which some find suggestive. To one side a sileni (a horse elemental) is generating musical ambiance on a lyre.
3. The third mural shows a satyr playing the panpipes and a nymph suckling a goat in an Arcadian scene. To their right the initiate is shown in a state of panic. This is the last time we see her when she appears again she has undergone a change that is not shown. Some scholars think a katabasis occurs now, others disagree.
4. In the direction in which she stares in horror, another mural shows a young Satyr being offered a bowl of something (probably wine) by a Silenus, while behind him another Satyr holds up a bestial mask, which the drinking satyr seems to see reflected in the bowl. This may parallel the mirror into which a young Dionysos stares in the Orphic rites. Next to them sits an enthroned goddess (Ariadne or Semele) with Bacchus lying erotically across her lap.
5. The next mural sees the initiate returning, she now carries a staff and wears a cap, items often presented after the successful completion of an ordeal. She kneels before the priestess and then appears to be whipped by a winged female figure. Flagellation may have been one of the many trance control techniques used in the Bacchic rites. Next to her is a dancing figure, a Maenad or Thyiad.
6. In her penultimate appearance we see her being prepared with new clothes, while an Eros holds up a mirror to her.
7. Finally she is shown enthroned and in a wedding costume. The last mural after this is merely an image of Eros.This is all we definitely know of the Roman rites of initiation.[edit] The Mystery ritesThe Dionysian Mysteries are believed to have consisted of two sets of rites, the secret rites of initiation just outlined and the outer public, or Dionysia The public rites are generally held to be the most ancient of the two.[edit] The public ritesIn Athens and the Attica of the Classical period the main festivities were held in the month of Elaphebolion (around the time of the Spring Equinox) where the Greater, or City, Dionysia had evolved into a great drama festival — Dionysos having become the god of acting, music and poetic inspiration for the Athenians - as well as an urban carnival or Komos. Its older precursor had been demoted to the Lesser, or Rural, Dionysia, though preserved more ancient customs centred on a celebration of the first wine. This festival was timed to coincide with the "clearing of the wine", a final stage in the fermentation process occurring in the first cold snap after the Winter Solstice, when it was declared Dionysos was reborn. This was later formalised to January 6 (now Epiphany), a day on which water was also turned to wine by Dionysos in a separate myth. The festivals at this time were much wilder too, as were the festivities of the grape harvest, and its carnivalesque ritual processions from the vineyards to the wine press, which had occurred earlier in the autumn. It was at these times that initiations into the Mysteries were probably originally held.Dionysos was also revered at Delphi, where he presided over the oracle for three winter months, beginning in November, marked by the rising of the Pleiades, while Apollo was away "visiting the Hyperboreans". At this time a rite of known as the "Dance of the Fiery Stars" was performed, of which little is known, but appears to have been appropriation of the dead, which was continued in Christian countries as All Souls Day on November 2.In sharp contrast to the daytime festivities of the Athenian Dionysia were the biennial nocturnal rites of the Tristeria, held on Mount Parnassus in the Winter. These celebrated the emergence of Dionysos from the underworld, with wild orgies in the mountains. The first day of which was presided over by the Maenads, in their state of Mainomenos, or madness, in which an extreme atavistic state was achieved, during which animals were hunted - and, in some lurid tales, even human beings - before being torn apart with bare hands and eaten raw (this being the infamous "Sparagmos", said to have been once associated with goat sacrifice, marking the harvesting and trampling of the vine). The second day saw the Bacchic Nymphs in their Thyiadic, or raving, state, a more sensual and benign Bacchanal assisted by satyrs, though still orgiastic. The mythographers would explain this with claims that the Maenads, or wild women, were the resisters of the Bacchic urge, sent mad, while the Thyiades, or ravers, had accepted the Dionysiac ecstasy and kept their sanity. This has some plausibility in terms of psychological repression, though sceptics claim the Maenad stories may have been exaggerations to scare away the curious tourist!While the Athenians celebrated Dionysos in various day festivals, including those during the Eleusinian Mysteries, a far older tradition was the two year cycle, where for a whole year the death and absence of Dionysos was mourned, in his aspect of Dionysos Chthonios, Lord of the Underworld. Followed by a second year in which his resurrection as Dionysos Bacchos, was celebrated at the Tristeria and other festivities, including one marked by the rising of Sirius). Why this unusual period was adopted is uncertain, though it may have reflected a long fermentation period. All the most ancient Dionysian rites reflected stages in the wine production process. It was only later that the Athenians and others synchronised the Bacchic festivities with the common agricultural seasons.The first large scale religious worship of Dionysos in Greece seems to have begun in Thebes in around 1500 BC, around a thousand years before the development of the Athenian Mysteries. Here a cult worship of Dionysos, and his mother Semele, a Moon goddess, was performed in the earliest Dionysian temples, usually located in the liminal spaces beyond the walls of the city, on the edges of swamps and marshes. Its first rituals were probably similar to those ancient rites still held on Greek islands, such as Keos and Tenedos, even in Classical times, but which probably originated in the Mycenaean period. Here the first wine was offered to Dionysos, and to the now growing vine, and a bull was sacrificed with a double axe, its blood mixed with the wine. There are indications that at one time the sacrificer of the sacred bull was himself then stoned to death, though this became a mere symbolic act quite early on in most places. The more economical practise of goat sacrifice seems to have been added to the rites later. The goat, like the bull, being regarded as a manifestation of Dionysos, but was also seen as the 'killer of the vine', due to its tendency to consume it, welcome in times of pruning, but unwelcome in times of growth. The death of the goat could thus be interpreted as a combined Dionysos sacrifice and the vengeful slaying of the sacrificer. It was usually torn apart, just as the vine had been at the harvest. Other archaic rites found on the Greek islands include festivals to his consort, Ariadne, which included some form of tree swinging game, said to date to a time when Ariadne hung herself from a tree. Some see a remnant of ritual hanging or partial asphyxiation in these games.In Rome the Bacchanalia, essentially a milder form of the Tristeria, were held in secret and originally attended by women only, on three days in the year in the grove of Simila near the Aventine Hill, on March 16 and 17. Subsequently, admission to the rites were re-opened to men and celebrations took place five times a month! Initiation could take place at any of these times.Within these public rituals were hidden the secret rites of initiation, the public festivals largely setting the ambiance for these private rites, as A E Waite evocatively puts it, perhaps getting a little carried away:"Whatsoever may have remained to represent the original intent of the rites, regarded as Rites of Initiation, the externalities and practice of the Festivals were orgies of wine and sex: there was every kind of drunkenness and every aberration of sex, the one leading up to the other. Over all reigned the Phallus, which - in its symbolism a rebours - represented post ejaculation the death-state of Bacchus, the god of pleasure, and his resurrection when it was in forma errecta. Of such was the sorrow and of such the joy of these Mysteries". (A E Waite, New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry)Whatever we make of Waite's interesting interpretation, the phallus does appear to have been a connecting link between the outer and inner rites. Not only was it prominent in the Bacchic carnival in Rome, carried by the Phallophoroi at the head of the procession; it also appears to have been the secret object in the Liknon, the sacred basket, or Arc, revealed only to initiates after their final initiation. Other possible contents could have been sacred fruit or leaves, or alternatively loafs, possibly with entheogenic qualities, with some scholars speculatively combining these possibilities in imaginative ways. Some sources suggest that the phallus used was made from fig wood (see Prosymnus), while even older sources indicate it may have once been the phallus of the sacrificed goat. Indeed the contents probably changed over the centuries and in different modes of initiation, the general idea being that the final stage of the initiation involved the revelation of the god in one form or another.[edit] The temple and its officersThe sacred loci of the Dionysian Mysteries have varied over time and place, just like the rites themselves. The earliest rites took place in the wilderness - in the forests and woods, the marshes, and particularly high in the mountains, where the lower oxygen content was suitable for trance induction. Later the 'priest' would simply cast their staff into the ground, at any suitable location, and hang a mask and an animal skin from it, the circle drawn around this centre becoming the sacred precinct for however long the staff remained. This practise soon became archaic, but was apparently revived by the nomadic healers of the Orphic Mysteries. In Classical times dedicated temples were built for Dionysos, the earliest being circular buildings open to the sky - probably the origin of Greek theatres and forums, the later no different to any other Greek temple as Dionysos was gradually assimilated. The Lenos, or the building that contained the wine press, also became a temple to Bacchus, and was often solely used as such. Underground chambers were also often used for initiations, which may have originally taken place in natural caves, particularly those by the shoreline. Liminal boundary zones being especially sacred to Dionysos. By the final days of the cult however any temple could be dedicated or rededicated to Dionysos.Most Mystery Religions had a hierarchy of priests maintaining them, but it is uncertain if this was the case with the Dionysian Mysteries. The Orphic texts of the late period record a boukolos, or 'cowherd', as an offerer of sacrifice, sayer of prayers, and hymn singer, who seems to have been the nearest thing they ever had to a priest. Other inscriptions record an archiboukolos, or 'chief cowherd' presiding over these boukoloi, and in some records there is also mention of boukoloi hieroi, 'holy cowherders' as well as hymnodidaskaloi,'hymn teachers'. According to Athenian sources, where the Dionysos Cult was State controlled, over all of these was placed a High Priest, or Hierophant, as well as a High Priestess, later referred to in Rome as the Matrona, who had two 'assistant priestesses'. One late text even describes a complex hierarchy of three archiboukoloi, seven boukoloi hieroi and eleven boukoloi. The personal names of many of the senior priests and priestesses reveal them to be aristocrats, though the high priest in at least one text has the name of a slave, indicating the supposed equality within the cult, where slaves and masters were encouraged to exchange roles. Curiously there is no evidence of such a complex hierarchy in the Bacchic Mysteries of Rome, which seem to have been simply presided over by a Domina and Dominus, serving as a High Priestess and Priest, and so it is possible that only the established Athenian form of the Mysteries and the Orphic Religion had this structure. The original Mysteries of Dionysos seem to have had no real hierarchy at all, as only ritual functionaries, such as the Phallophoroi, are mentioned, the rest being participant Bacchoi, Thyiades or Maenads. However, a key role was always reserved for the Heroes, and his 'bride', who were possessed by the god, and initiates may have played officiating roles in this process.[edit] Ritual miscellaniesDionysian paraphernalia:The Kantharos, a drinking cup with large handles, originally the Rhyton, a drinking horn (from a bull), and later a Kylix, or wine goblet; the Thyrsos, a long wand with a pine cone on top, carried by initiates, and those possessed by the god; the Stave, once cast into ground to mark ritual space; the Krater, or mixing bowl, the Flagellum, or scourge; the Minoan Double Axe, once used for sacrificial rites, later replaced by the Greek Kopis, or curved dagger; the Retis, the hunter's net; the Laurel Crown and Cloak (purple robe, or leopard or fawn skin nebix); the Hunting Boots; the Persona or Masks; the Bull Roarer; the Salpinx, a long straight trumpet, the Pan Pipes, Tympanon, Bells and Drums; the Liknon, the sacred basket; with the FigTraditional offerings to Dionysos:Musk, civet, frankincense, storax, ivy, grapes, pine, fig, wine, honey, apples, Indian Hemp, orchis root, thistle, all wild and domestic trees, black diamonds.Animals sacred to Dionysos:The Bull and Goat, and their 'enemies' the Panther (or any big cat, after the Greeks colonised part of India Shiva's Tiger sometimes replaced traditional Panthers or Leopards) and the Serpent (probably largely from Sabazius, but also found in North African cults). Also the Fawn / Deer, the Fox, the Wolf, the Bear, the Dolphin, Bees and all Dragons.An invocation of Dionysos, from the Orphic hymns"I call upon loud-roaring and revelling Dionysos,
primeval, double-natured, thrice-born, Bacchic lord,
wild, ineffable, secretive, two-horned and two-shaped.
Ivy-covered, bull-faced, warlike, howling, pure,
You take raw flesh, you have feasts, wrapt in foliage, decked with grape clusters.
Resourceful Eubouleus, immortal god sired by Zeus
When he mated with Persephone in unspeakable union.
Hearken to my voice, O blessed one,
and with your fair-girdled nymphs breathe on me in a spirit of perfect agape.""In intoxication, physical or spiritual, the initiate recovers an intensity of feeling which prudence had destroyed; he finds the world full of delight and beauty, and his imagination is suddenly liberated from the prison of everyday preoccupations. The Bacchic ritual produced what was called 'enthusiasm', which means etymologically having the god enter the worshipper, who believed that he became one with the god." (Bertrand Russell, A History of Western Philosophy).[edit] Some primary texts on Dionysianism* Herodotus' The Histories 1.151; 2.29; 2.42; 2.47-50; 2.123; 3.8; 4.72; 4.78-80; 8.65
* Homeric Hymn to Dionysos 1, 7, 26
* Heraclitus' Logos 124; 127
* Ovid's Metamorphoses 3.259-315; 3.513-4.41; 4.389-419; 5.329; 7.294-296; 8.176-182; 11.67-84; 11.89-145; 13.650-674
* Plato's Laws 672b
* Plato's The Republic 2.6-7
* Sophocles' Erigone
* Sophocles' Thyestes 234[edit] Secondary texts* Carl Kerenyi, Dionysos, Archetype of Indestructible Life, Princeton 1976.
* W F Otto, Dionysos, Myth and Cult, London 1965.
* Alain Danielou, Shiva and Dionysos, Paris 1979.
* Martin P. Nilsson, "The Bacchic Mysteries of the Roman Age", Harvard Theological Review 46 (October 1953): 175—85.
* Andrew Dalby, "Bacchus, A Biography", The British Museum Press, London 2003.[edit] Notes1. ^ Otto, Walter F. Dionysos, Myth and Cult.
2. ^ Peter Hoyle, Delphi (London: 1967), p. 76.[edit] External links* http://gracie.smsu.edu/myth/mythnotes/notes07.htm – Dionysian Notes
* http://research.haifa.ac.il/~mluz/dionysus.html – An insightful take on Dionysos
* http://www.greecefoods.com/wine/ – Greek Wine
* http://www.drugwar.com/orpheus.shtm – Dionysian Mysteries and Entheogens
* http://www.roguery.com/cities/naples/visiting/city/villa/vil
la.html – Villa of Mysteries
* http://www.winterscapes.com/dionysus/epithets.htm – Names of Dionysos
* http://duke.usask.ca/~niallm/252/Clement.htm – The Christian Perspepective
* http://www.sirbacon.org/links/dawkinsl&s.htm – An Elizabethan Revival?
* http://www.winterscapes.com/dionysus/ – Traditionalist Neo-Dionysian Revivalism
* http://www.templedionysos.com/ - Dionysian worship site
* http://trismegistus.org.uk/Bacchic_Mystery.htm – Counter Cultural Neo-Dionysian Revivalism
Steal this movie- stroy of Abbie Hoffman.
Fear and loathing in Las Vegas
FEAR AND LOATHING CLIP
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Human Traffic
Happiness
The Nineth Gate
You Are Mint Green
Balanced and calm, you have mastered the philosophy of living well.
Your friends seek you out for support, and you are able to bring stability to chaotic situations.
You're very open and cheerful - and you feel like you have a lot of freedom in life.
Your future may hold any number of exciting things, and you're ready for all of them!
What Color Green Are You?
(Nomad)
An endless journey. A quest for freedom. Seems like such a long, seems like an empty vision.
Watering eyes, burned from the truth. Sometimes I wish I could believe the lies.
Never at home. Always lost and alone. When will I find a door to fit my key? A wondering nomad on foot through diverse realities.
Some how in touch with thoughts of the past. Another life brings about another task. A feeling of solitude.
Simple questions with complex answers. Take a second glance at what you want to need.
Futures foretold by the blind one seem to have made since only yesterday. Call to me, cry my name. Relinquish your guilt and drown you shame. Now again, turn the page.
Your Personality is Very Rare (ESTP)
Your personality type is dominant, driven, poised, and self-aware.
Only about 5% of all people have your personality, including 3% of all women and 6% of all men
You are Extroverted, Sensing, Thinking, and Perceiving.
How Rare Is Your Personality?
Aqua Teen Hunger Force
AQUATEEN HUNGER FORCE (FRYLOCK AND THE APPARTMENT)
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The Daily Show
Heros
Jericho
Nova
You Were Born Under:
You are totally loyal, faithful, and honest.
However, you don't trust others to be as ethical as you are!
Straight forward and direct, you really aren't one for small talk.
You are a great listener - and an agreeable companion when you're in a good mood!
You are most compatible with a Tiger or Horse.
What Year Were You Born Under?
(Life)
A hard weeks work brings a hefty pay. I believe it is time to celebrate.
Time to relax. Time to unwind. Time to return to feeling divine.
I hate to worry, I hate when I am stressed. Just as soon as I think I have overcome it, I have to regress.
Break my back on a daily basis. I am not bias, I am not a racist. I just want a free life, and a simple one at that. I don't want to think about getting old, and I don't want to get fat.
The good die young or so they say. In the end I will probably go out this way. YOu get to live a whole life time, and only die once. So make that one time a good time. Embrace and rejoice.
A freak of nature. A political revolutionary. This is a burden I do not mind to carry.
Power and greed have never appealed to me. Wisdom and knowledge are of the things I seek. Absorbing the world I have to think. I wonder if this life long trip will ever peak.
Put here for a purpose. I think I have found what it is. Tell me how I begin to get there, and in return freedom will be yours. I promise you this.
Life is not as complex as we are all made to believe. Made by a society, controlled by a goverment that loves to deceive.
Come along with me for a life worth living. Just learn to say no and start believing. Say no to the political bullshit, and those who lie. The corrupt lawenforcement, dirty judges, and the rest of those guys. Gathered together we stand as one power. Feel free to take back your rights. Your rights as a human, the right to be yourself.
Your Summer Love Style is Sultry
You make a hot summer night just a little bit hotter!
For you, summer is all about letting go of any inhibitions.
You're not shy about getting what you want this summer - and lots of it.
Love is the last thing on your mind, but you'll have plenty to keep you busy.
What's Your Summer Love Style?
The Four Agreements- Miguel Ruiz
Debt and Dishoner-Robbert Goddard
Into The Wild
Care For The Soul
Steal this Book-Abbie Hoffman
American Night-Jim Morrison
You Are A Good Friend
You're always willing to listen
Or lend a shoulder to cry on
You're there through thick and thin
Many people consider you their "best friend"!
What Kind of Friend Are You?
(Dancing Mind)
Swirling round in my head. Liquid dreams of blue and red. Trip while falling, into a pit of hallucination. Tell what is this fascination.
Calling the names of those lost that have found. The passage to revolution, for those trapped within institution.
Come with me now to a new world. A world lacking the boundaries of false reality. Come to be free, to fly away. Into the next day of tranquility.
A soft nirvana, a utopia if you will. A place where you will find no reason to kill. The emotions you bottle inside. Don't say that you tried. But instead that you did and have done. It is all in good fun.
A false perception of any if not all. No external stimulus to cloud. Forever trapped but not confined. Only none existent objects block the way. Speak if you will, or if I may say.
A twilight state, between sleeping and awaking. A moment of delirium, between healing and forsaking. My visual sense is most effected. Lay me down as I feel rejected. Accusing commanding voices all in vain. Causing grief and unhalting pain.
React in panic with object obedience. Now cease all following actions. Can you hear it? Can your hear it? The song and dance of this peaking trance. I wish you were here. I wish you all were here.
Your Heart Is Blue
Love is a doing word for you. You know it's love when you treat each other well.
You are a giving lover, but you don't give too much. You expect something in return.
Your flirting style: Friendly
Your lucky first date: Lunch at an outdoor cafe
Your dream lover: Is both generous and selfish
What you bring to relationships: Loyalty
What Color Heart Do You Have?
Jim Morrison
"A friend is someone who gives you total freedom to be yourself." "Blake said that the body was the soul's prison unless the five senses are fully developed and open. He considered the senses the 'windows of the soul.' When sex involves all the senses intensely, it can be like a mystical experence." "Each generation wants new symbols, new people, new names. They want to divorce themselves from their predecessors." "I am interested in anything about revolt, disorder, chaos-especially activity that seems to have no meaning. It seems to me to be the road toward freedom... Rather than starting inside, I start outside and reach the mental through the physical." "I believe in a long, prolonged derangement of the senses to attain the unknown. Our pale reasoning hides the infinite from us." "If my poetry aims to achieve anything, it's to deliver people from the limited ways in which they see and feel." "Listen, real poetry doesn't say anything; it just ticks off the possibilities. Opens all doors. You can walk through anyone that suits you."
-Jim Morrison
Abbie Hoffman
"Become an internationalist and learn to respect all life. Make war on machines. And in particular the sterile machines of corporate death and the robots that guard them." "Never impose your language on people you wish to reach." "Revolution is not something fixed in ideology, nor is it something fashioned to a particular decade. It is a perpetual process embedded in the human spirit." "The key to organizing an alternative society is to organize people around what they can do, and more importantly, what they want to do." "You measure a democracy by the freedom it gives its dissidents, not the freedom it gives its assimilated conformists."
-Abbie Hoffman
Johnny Depp
"Anything I've done up till May 27th 1999 was kind of an illusion, existing without living. My daughter, the birth of my daughter, gave me life." "As a teenager I was so insecure. I was the type of guy that never fitted in because he never dared to choose. I was convinced I had absolutely no talent at all. For nothing. And that thought took away all my ambition too." "France, and the whole of Europe have a great culture and an amazing history. Most important thing though is that people there know how to live! In America they've forgotten all about it. I'm afraid that the American culture is a disaster." "I don't pretend to be captain weird. I just do what I do." "I pretty much try to stay in a constant state of confusion just because of the expression it leaves on my face."
-Johnny Depp
Abe Lincoln
"I have never had a feeling politically that did not spring from the sentiments embodied in the Declaration of Independence." "Be not deceived. Revolutions do not go backward." "If by the mere force of numbers a majority
should deprive a minority of any clearly written
constitutional right, it might, in a moral point
of view, justify revolution."
Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
"Life finds its purpose and fulfillment in the expansion of happiness." "The important thing is this: to be able, at any moment, to sacrifice what we are for what we could become." "Whatever we put our attention on will grow stronger in our life." -Maharishi Mahesh Yogi
Thomas Jefferson
"A Bill of Rights is what the people are entitled to against every government, and what no just government should refuse, or rest on inference." "A wise and frugal government, which shall leave men free to regulate their own pursuits of industry and improvement, and shall not take from the mouth of labor and bread it has earned - this is the sum of good government." "At last now you can be what the old cannot recall and the young long for in dreams, yet still include them all."
Benjamin Fraklin
"A house is not a home unless it contains food and fire for the mind as well as the body." "All mankind is divided into three classes: those that are immovable, those that are movable, and those that move." "Anger is never without a reason, but seldom with a good one." "Any society that would give up a little liberty to gain a little security will deserve neither and lose both.
" "If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing.
"
-Bejamin Franklin.
Jerry Rubin
"By the end, everybody had a label - pig, liberal, radical, revolutionary... If you had everything but a gun, you were a radical but not a revolutionary." "Don't trust anyone over thirty." "The backseat produced the sexual revolution." "The power to define the situation is the ultimate power." "Most men act so tough and strong on the outside because on the inside, we are scared, weak, and fragile. Men, not women, are the weaker sex."
-Jerry Rubin