THE AMBIGUOUS ARCHITYPE

Dionysos and Multiculturalism

The classical Dionysos was as much part of Greek culture as Bacchus was of Roman culture. Where ever he became recognised he took on a local form, and assimilated, or became allied with, the local deities with a similar nature to his own. He thus had a slightly different character in different regions, much like wine. However all these local manifestations were considered to be a single deity. The Greeks also regarded any similar deities they discovered overseas as regional forms of Dionysos, thus Osiris, Shiva, Baal, and even the Hebrew Adonai, were all regarded as Dionysos under another name. This had the ethically ambiguous virtue of preserving conquered cultures, rather than supressing them as most other cultures did, but in Hellenised form.

Dionysos and Religion

The Cult of Dionysos was in technical terms a nature religion, however as a 'religion' which in its purest form promoted life in the here and now, an 'amoral' ethos of 'natural liberty' and the transgression of social norms, as well as the deification of the individual-at-one-with-nature, it does not really fit the modern conception of a religion! Its only religious aspects can be
found in its devotion to a deity (regarded in part as one's 'true self') and an anti-materialist worldview. Though even in the latter case its 'spirituality' is one of the earth, or of one world - complete with 'invisible realms' or 'extra dimensions' - rather than of a 'fallen' lower and seperated transcendental world. It was a 'religion of this world' with devoutly immanent spirituality as opposed to a mystical 'otherworldliness'. Within this framework there was the usual extreme duality of the cult, on the one hand a Bacchic aspect that emphasised the worldliness and pagan naturalism of the archetype (but ran the risk of self destructive debauchery), and on the other an Orphic aspect that emphased it's spirituality and a deeper domain of pure flux beyond the everyday world of the senses (and ran the risk of other worldly transcendentalism). Both manifestions, and their pitfalls, being common in the history of the Dionysos Cult. The true Dionysian Art being the tricky combination of both extremes, and rarely achieved.

Dionysos and Gender

Dionysos was often regarded as being beyond gender, and was sometimes represented androgenously, but he could also be represented as either highly effeminate or hyper-masculine (though not 'macho'), again manifest in both extremes and beyond all. In the latter case his absent aspect (his Shakti as the Hindus call it) was represented by the goddesses he was closely associated with. These tended to be Dianic huntress goddesses, like Ariadne, who were his consorts or female counterparts; sex goddesses, such as Aphrodite (on whom he fathered the phallic deity Priapus), who were his lovers, or 'divine whores' perhaps, and Underworld goddesses, like Persephone, who were his mothers. Though of course these roles transgressed their boundaries, and some goddesses, like Hecate, combined all three. Dionysos was also the most popular god for women, and in Greece the majority of his devotees were female. Dionysian women seem to regard Dionysos as an Animus like figure, while identifying more strongly with the goddesses on a personal basis. To be true to human gender it should also be remembered of course that in modern terms gender has both a biological and psychological base that are not always conjunct.

Dionysos and Sexuality

Quite seperate to gender, sexuality is similarly ambigous in Dionysos, though this is less openly expressed in mythos. The
sex life of Bacchus can be predatorily monosexual (heterosexual in his mythos despite the acceptance of homosexuality in Ancient Greece) or passively bisexual (as some claim to be the case with one of his 'avatars', the mystical poet and musician Orpheus). Alternatively he can be like the Mystical Bacchus of Orphism, Dionysos Phanes, self contained and beyond sexuality (a rare concept in primal Dionysianism!).

Dionysos and Time

Dionysos was seen as both the most ancient of deities and also the god who was eternally young and constantly returning in renewed form. A deity of eternal arrival who never stayed long. He was thus represented equally as a mature bearded man (as in Athens) or as a youthful athlete (as in Italy), and even as an ancient man or a newborn babe (or one regarded as an immanent birth). He was also an immortal and the shade of the long dead. He was essentially timeless.

Dionysos and Class

Dionysos favoured, or was favoured by, the 'primitive' indigenous people of each nation that adopted him, as well as it's slaves and lowest classes, all three were actually often the same. His cult was open to all regardless of social background, race or gender and within its rites all were eqaul (an uncommon feature of ancient paganism). In contrast however his cult was also favoured by kings and rulers who were isolated at the peaks of society and desired community. It could thus be said he was the patron of the alienated at both ends of the social spectrum, certainly not a middle class religion, though one the middle class were of course free to join. His Mysteries were classless, and the organisers of its rites were often slaves outside the cult (a rarity if not unique even amongst the few cults who accepted slaves). Historically the Great Slave Revolt was led by the Thracian gladiator Spartacus, an inititiate of Dionysos Sabazius, making the cult extremely suspect to the authorities.

Dionysos and Race

Dionysos was always regarded as an outsider and a 'foreigner'. He came from 'outside' of any civilisation or culture that he was recognised in. His alleged home varied from the mysterious east, to the barbaric north, and the wild lands of North Africa. In one story he was hinted to have arrived from an otherworld in the far west. In reality however his archetype would assimilate the most ancient aboriginal deities of which ever culture adopted him and so ironically was the most indigenous of all.

The essential ambiguity of Dionysos Bacchus (as the dynamic flux of life), and Dionysos Chthonios (his shadow underworld aspect), as well as the cosmic Dionysos Phanes (the 'infinite light' that contains all) represents the eternal cycle of life and death or order and chaos, the primal foundation of nature and reality, as well as the fundamental unity of all opposites. He is ultimately a shapeshifter, the trickster shaman of the gods. Perhaps the purest form of the Dionysian Mysteries being the rhythmic cycle between these extremes (regular and irregular) or their temporary transcendance.


The Dionysos archetype is thus a complex and multifaceted one, largely due to its dynamism, which is part of its charm and power. It is perhaps most simply envisioned in terms of its basic image of an all inclusive grapevine, an incomprehensible matrix that contains or connects everything within it , or continually attempts to. While in nature it is nothing but the clusters of individual grapes in which its real essence lies. This metaphor can of course be applied to the particular individual as much as the cosmic whole! And to the components of that individual in the eternal circle! The universe in a grain of sand and eternity in a moment. There is the core of the Mysteries. But then, like the Tao, the Mystery that can be spoken are not the true Mystery...


The Dionysian Mysteries can be simply understood as reconnecting to the Bacchic flux within nature, society and ourselves.

A more in depth historical account of the Dionysian Mysteries can be found on their Wikipedia page.




THE DIONYSIAN UNDERGROUND :: BEYOND THE MYSTERIES

The Dionysian Underground differs from the many traditional Bacchic revivalist and reconstructionist groups in going far beyond 'tradition'. In addition to the preservation and expansion of the Dionysian Mysteries we are just as concerned with
the Dionysiac in all its forms. Like the Greeks we may discover Dionysos everywhere (as of course he/she is) but unlike our ancient forbears we have no desire to impose his Hellenic mask on every other culture. Rather we take Dionysos as we find him, be he Shiva, Cernunnos, Frey, Woden, Adonai, Pan, Ghede, Ol Coyote, Kukulkan, or Tane, or even Lucifer and Shub Niggurath, the Goat with a Thousand Young. All of which we regard as essentially the same archetype as the Bacchic god.
The same is true of our attitude to his many consorts and mothers. The preferance for the Hellenic archetype as a common
ground merely reflects the sophistication of his presentation and greater inclusiveness, as well as a recognition that the
culture of the Greeks, and their Roman emulators, is essentially still the foundation of the western world, and every culture that seeks to emulate it. That the Dionysian ethos is also the antipathy of the modern world thus makes it the ultimate virus.


Beyond this even we also aim to transcend the 'religious' and 'mythic' and seek the essence of these within a contemporary secular culture. We thus seek and unite with the Dionysian in its 'modern expression', be it psychedelic, countercultural,
anarcho-political, occultural, bohemian, (post)artistic, or just pure rock n roll. All of which contain fragments of the 'spirit of
Dionysos' waiting to be recombined in a new form. This may at times take us very far from the traditionally Dionysian, and
indeed Bacchus may not even get a mention in some of our projects! However it is maintained that all our activities are a purer form of Dionysianism.

We are not of course the first to realise this simple truth, the great philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche (despite his all to human
failings) drew much from the Dionysian worldview, as well as it philosophical offshoots in the writings of Heraclitus, quite openly. As did in his own way, the earthy mystic Hegel. Many of those that followed in the wake of these great thinkers have
come to similar conclusions. Moreover the whole of the Post Modern turn (particularly in its Deleuzian form) can perhaps be regarded as the ultra-secular extension and responce to this line of thinking.


If you feel in tune with this simply form your own Dionysian Association right now, whether 'Traditional' or 'Neo-Dionysian',
or if near to us (physically or ideologically) join us in the Underground!