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SANNION: Ah, Eunomius, my good friend! How are you doing? EUNOMIUS: As well as a figment of your imagination can be expected to be doing. SAN: Well good .... I guess. Man, we haven't talked in ages. EUN: That's not surprising. You only come to see me when you're stumped and can't think of anything else to write. Then you make up these cute little dialogues, and people think you've done some actual writing, when in reality, you're just fudging it. That's why you're here, isn't it? SAN: Well, uhm ..... yeah. EUN: Why don't you go talk to Opal MoonWolf, Wiccan Extraordinaire. Everyone seemed to like your previous conversation with her. SAN: Opal changed after our discussion. EUN: Oh? SAN: Yeah. I'm not saying it was our conversation that did it .... but well, she's definitely not the same. She quit Wicca, and became a Thelemite. Got rid of all of her funky gypsy skirts and stuff, and now wears black. All black. Leather and chains type black. She got her nipples pierced, too, and listens to hard-core industrial music. She frightens me now. I don't want to talk to her anymore. EUN: Hmm, I see. Okay, what do you want to talk about? SAN: I don't really have any ideas. That's why I came to you. EUN: Okay then, how about we discuss Polytheism? SAN: Man, I've already done that to death. I've got like five articles about it on my site. EUN: Very well. Why did you pick Dionysos as your God? I don't think you've covered that yet. SAN: Hey, I haven't! Great idea. EUN: I try. SAN: Okay, well, it wasn't really a case of my choosing Dionysos. It's more like he chose me. EUN: How so? SAN: Well, as you may remember from our previous discussion, I had become dissatisfied with Wicca and Christianity and most of the other religions that I had explored. There were certain things about them that interested me, but never enough to hold my restless spirit. EUN: A lot of young people are like that today. SAN: Yeah, there's this terrible restlessness in our national psyche. I think it comes from the general rootless condition of American life, and the isolation we experience as modern people - isolation from the natural world, from tradition, from other people, and from ourselves. There aren't any rituals of life passage, as there once were. And I think it's a shame. We're emotionally and spiritually children, even if we have the physical bodies of adults. EUN: Yes, it's quite a sad condition. SAN: Well, I was caught in the midst of this confusion and uncertainty, desperate for something to hold on to, something to bring about that connection which I so deeply needed - and in my darkest hour, Dionysos appeared to me. EUN: Your darkest hour? SAN: Okay, maybe it wasn't really my darkest hour. But I was certainly confused and aimless. EUN: And you're not now? SAN: Well, not as much. And hey, I'm talking about my conversion experience here. So you shut up and listen! EUN: Uhm .... okay. You do realize you're threatening a voice in your head, right? SAN: Yeah, I realize that. And what's your point? EUN: Well, it makes you sound a little crazy. SAN: Dionysos is the God of madness. It is only fitting that his devotees should share in the experience. EUN: Uhm .... yeah. So anyway, you were saying ..... SAN: Right. Well, there I was, lost and confused, when Dionysos appeared to me, like the sun cutting through clouds on a rainy day. I'm not sure when I first met him, to be honest. I'd like to say he appeared directly before me and said, "Come, follow me!" Or even that I had a life-changing dream or vision. But the truth is, I came to know him gradually, over a period of time, after a series of strange coincidences. For a while there, everywhere I turned I would come upon his name, or something directly related to him. Every book I read for about a month had something to do with him. I'd turn on the TV, and there'd be a documentary about theater in ancient Greece, or wine production in a Cretan monastery. And it wasn't just in my waking life: I began to have a number of dreams that were rich in Dionysian symbolism, even if the God himself did not directly appear in them. Well, you can only have these kinds of experiences for so long, before even the most stubborn person admits that something is up. So, I decided that I would look into this strange God, and see why he seemed to be everywhere I searched. EUN: And what did you find? SAN: I found everything I had been looking for. Dionysos was the answer to questions I hadn't even realized I was asking. Everything I learned about him struck a cord with me. It was like "Yes! This is it. This is how it all fits together. Now I know what it means to be complete." The more I learned about him, the more I wanted to learn about him. Dionysos is very addictive. He unlocks our passions, and brings us fully to life. I had no idea how much I was missing out in life until I discovered him. It's like, my life until then was walking around in a fog. And then I discover Dionysos, and I see the vibrant rhythm of life flowing through me and around me, and everything has color and depth and meaning. I'm probably not describing this very well .... it's an intuitive, emotional understanding that I've come to. EUN: I think it's beautiful. But I notice that you don't always reflect that. Sometimes you can be really depressed. Why is that? SAN: Well, it's easy to get caught up in the mundane world. To get so involved with the petty little blah things in our life, or focused on what's not going right, that you lose sight of this beautiful vision. To live fully, completely the Dionysian life - it takes courage, and effort. You have to leave behind your fear, your attachment to the ordinary and plain. You have to open yourself up to the miraculous - and whenever you open yourself up, you risk getting hurt. But that risk is worth it - because the rewards or so incredible. EUN: Tell me a little bit about Dionysos. Who, or what is he? SAN: Ah! Where do I begin? All Gods are complex, and in truth, beyond man's ability to fully comprehend them. And none of the Gods reflect this more than Dionysos. He is the God of Masks, not just because the mask was used in his earliest worship, but because there are layers and layers of meaning with him, and every time we strip one away, and think we understand who or what the God is, another mask rises up to take its place. A smiling mask that mocks our efforts, yet at the same time encourages us to continue, to strive ever to learn more about the God, and ourselves, always with that elusive promise of a great truth behind the mask. Hence, Dionysos is also the God of Mysteries, both hidden and revealed; of the madness that takes hold of us, and the blessed release that comes with drunkenness and sleep. He lives in wine, which is his gift to mankind, and when we consume it and become drunk, he lives within us. He doesn't just live within the grape and the vine and our human bodies, but can be found within all of the fruitful earth and in every wild animal. Especially in the panther and the goat and the bull. These three creatures are most sacred to him. The reason that they are so intimately linked with him is because these are the creatures who best reveal the lethal promise of the God, the overflowing vitality, and awesome masculine power which are of the essence of Dionysos. At any moment, the primal passions unleashed by the God can manifest in sudden violence, such as a Maenad falling upon a living creature and ripping him apart with her bear hands. Yet the God inspires blessed visions of peace and of harmony, a world united by the sacred rhythm of life, the dance which he leads. Dionysos is the dissolver of order, the dismantler of boundaries. Where there is unhealthy repression - he upsets it. In times of old, women would leave their homes for the hills where they would sing and dance and commune with vital nature, discovering their true selves, the part of them which, by necessity, they had been forced to limit, conceal, and sacrifice. Then they would return home, their passions safely released, and become the good wives, mothers, and daughters that society required them to be. The songs sung in his honor eventually developed into the tragedy or "goat-song" which is the basis of all theater, and even in later ages, the theaters remained dedicated to him. Hence, Dionysos is a God of creativity and art, and all those who practice true art, in some small way are his. Dionysos presided with Apollo at Delphi, where during the winter months he gave out the prophecies which guided the whole of the ancient world. That, then, is the God whom I serve, Dionysos whose name is the sweetest sound I have ever heard. EUN: Ah, you sound like a fundamentalist. SAN: In a way, I am. When you're touched by Dionysos in the way that I have been, felt his presence so fully, completely, intimately - it's not something you easily forget. And it's something you want to share with everyone else. You can believe that everyone has their own way, and that the other Gods are just as valid, have just as much importance in their worshippers lives' - and yet, still want to run out into the street and sing, "Dionysos is real! Come, everyone, join in his dance! Come!" I could definitely see myself being a Pagan Televangelist. It's something I joke about with my friends, but there's a definite appeal there. I mean, there wasn't a full time priesthood in ancient Greece, and there weren't missionaries spreading the faith - except for two cults, the followers of Dionysos, and of the Magna Mater Kybele. The followers of Dionysos were so zealous that they met with resistance, and were even persecuted by Rome. The number of Bacchantes put to death by Rome rivals that of the Christian martyrs. So there's something intense about Dionysos that inspires that kind of fanatical devotion. EUN: You mentioned that Dionysos had touched your life deeply, and yet earlier you said that he never appeared to you directly, not even in a dream. SAN: Oh no, not at all. That was only in the beginning that his appearance was clandestine. As I learned more about him, and my devotion grew more intense, he appeared to me quite frequently. I have had dreams where I would meet him in the forest, or where he appeared to me as a lover. I have felt his presence in my daily life, walking down a street at night, or in the forest. I talk to him all the time, and feel the sudden inspiration which I know to be a gift from him. He has come to me during ritual, and once I was even possessed by the God. Though that was a brief experience, and I have not repeated it since. There have been all kinds of neat little coincidences, answered prayers, unexpected things that let you know that he notices you, and is there. Things that have deep personal meaning, but would bore the rest of the world if I went into them. EUN: Oh, I doubt that. It sounds very interesting to me. SAN: Yeah, well, you have to say that. EUN: Perhaps. SAN: But I don't think I'm alone here. At first I thought I was the only one who had these kinds of experiences, but since I've gone on-line, I've discovered a lot of people with similar stories, and some with experiences far greater than mine. And there are always people out there who are discovering Dionysos for the first time. Who knows, maybe someone will read this and go, "So that's who the beautiful stranger, draped in ivy, and holding a wine cup, was!" That is sort of my dream, you know. EUN: Oh? SAN: Yeah, I'd like to create small groups which will perform the ancient rituals in his honor again. Groups which will discover the Mysteries, and share them with all who are interested. EUN: Is that what your Thiasos Dionysos is about? SAN: Yes, it is. It's meant to discuss the things surrounding Dionysos, to make contacts with others who are devoted to the God, and to form rituals in his honor, rituals which will eventually be performed by groups of people in the real world. EUN: That is a wonderful dream. SAN: Yes, it is. And hopefully one day it will be more
than just a dream. |
