Do you know that you worship the ancient God of intoxication, orgies and ecstasy? Nowadays it’s a mundane celebration and it is called Carnival.
Do you know that you worship the ancient God of intoxication, orgies and ecstasy? Nowadays it's a mundane celebration and it is called Carnival.
Throughout the centuries, Carnival is the only pagan celebration that the Christian Church could not assimilate into a Christian celebration. It was to radical for them, even today.
The basis of Carnival is so polar opposite to the Christian faith that it was never possible to erase it. You can see why by the following characteristics of the cult to Dionysus:
Dionysian Traits
- Being passionate
- Tendency towards chaotic
- Behaving irrationally and instinctual
- Drinking wine towards a state of intoxication
- Celebration of nature and in nature
- Wholeness perspective of existence (Unity)
- Music and movement
- Trance states
- Brute realism and absurdity
- Glorification of human beings as divine work of art
- Feeling over thinking
- Female energy
- Intuitive creativity
- Inner worshippers
- Barterers
- Mysteries
The Youth of Bacchus by William-Adolphe Bouguereau
God Dionysius
"I am a disciple of the philosopher Dionysus, and I would prefer to be even a satyr than a saint.”
― Friedrich Nietzsche, Ecce Homo
In ancient Greece the God that incorporated all these characteristics of music, dance, intoxication, orgy and ecstasy, was called Dionysius.
Dionysius had a great number of worshippers specially women and they were called the Meenads (Bacchantes in ancient Rome). Maenads would go into nature, drink wine into a state of intoxication and dance till a state of trance and ecstasy was reached. The purpose was union with nature and ecstatic union with the god Dionysus. By going into an altered state of consciousness the Meenads would meet Dionysus and have intercourse with him. This idea is expressed in the following quote:
"The image of Dionysos, whom she loves, stands alive before her soul, and she sees him even though he is far away from her; for the glances of the bacchante sweep up high into the aether and yet are filled with the spirit of love.”
– Otto quotes Plutarch
The ritual of worshiping Dionysius was orgiastic, involving altered states of consciousness where the aim was to attain trance like states, absolute ecstasy, in which they could merge and be possessed by the god.
Every two years this celebration took place in Mt Parnassus near the Delphi and would go as follows:
"Surrounded by the light of torches, he stands high on the twin summits of Parnassus, while the Corycian nymphs dance around as Bacchantes, and the waters of Castalia sound from the depths below. Up there in the snow and winter darkness Dionysus rules in the long night, while troops of maenads swarm around him, himself the choir leader for the dance of the stars and quick of hearing for every sound in the waster of the night.”
– Sophocles in Antigone
The Ritual
This ritual was organized in three parts:
- oreibasia ("mountain dancing"): At the sound of drums, flutes, and cymbals, the worshippers, particularly women, would dance into ecstatic trances.
- sparagmos ("tearing to pieces"): While being in these trance states they caught small animals and snakes and with their bare hands dismembered them.
- omophagia ("eating raw flesh"): They would then eat the bloody flesh of these animals. By doing this sacrament, the worshippers unite with the god, becoming one with the wild natural forces that he represented.
This ritual was powerful, quasi shamanic, and reflected the role of women as priestesses in spiritual mysteries eons before Christianity. With time their roles of inspirers and initiators were replaced by a dubious morality turning them into temptresses. Shamanic out of the body ecstasy into sexual excitement, and ecstasy through spontaneous singing into masturbation as the apotheosis of the cathartic moment.
"So long as we are unconscious of the divinity inherent in matter, sexuality can be manipulated to fulfill ego desire; the sacred prostitute is not present, nor is the Goddess being invoked. Instead of manifesting as a transformative power that can mediate between wounded instinct and the radiance of the divine, the Goddess is called upon to justify lust and sexual license. Light does not come through incessant wallowing in the dark. All our rage, all our bitterness, all our fears, are stepping stones. Only from a clear vision of oneness, an experience of genuine love, can we live our own truth. Whether this experience is given through another human being or through a solitary connection with the divine, this is the experience that illuminates our lives."
Marion Woodman intro to The Sacred Prostitute by Nancy Qualls-Corbett
Final Thoughts
If we look at today's Carnival it has more to offer than the social accepted roles. Carnival holds the possibility of transcendence of the highest order, a way to communicate with the unconscious, gods and archetypes of our psyche, with the purpose of unity.
Joy is the immutable and eternal touchstone that exists in the heart of every male and female. As our contemporary society puts its weight on laws, regulations and economical slavery through debt, joy fades and becomes an old memory, erased from the present. Even narrow minded ideologies contribute to this state of affairs like "men bad, women good" (or the other way around).
Through ritual and transcendence it is possible for men and women to overcome the childhood conditioning of fitting into predefined sex roles, moving beyond the sexual oppression of imposed stereotypes, and rediscover that powerful and sacred energy which is joy.
So, my wishes to you on this Carnival week that is starting is: take a walk on the wild side of your psyche and meet the God of Joy. May your Carnival be one of divine transcendence and absolute pure Joy!