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In an earlier thread, we discussed how the language of music, including the mythic symbolism related to the musical instruments (more specifically the aulos), was closely associate to the concept of reincarnation.
https://twitter.com/Auslandsgruppe1/status/1255565379230932995
https://twitter.com/Auslandsgruppe1/status/1255565379230932995
Through reincarnation, man touches eternity, he takes part in the eternal circle, he finds his path from the womb to the bosom and back to the womb of Mother Earth. He MOVES to the rhythm of the cosmos, so to speak.
Thus, in association to poetry and music, movement in the form of dancing was also an important element in pagan ceremonies, usually associated to the impersonating of the deities. Through dance the body and spirit were attuned to the divine Nature.
The movement was that of the initiate through the process of reincarnation, chiefly associated to the figures of Dionysus and Apollo. These deities do not symbolize opposing principles, as Nietzsche, while trying to reconcile them, still emphasized.
They're actually the same, the initiate, only in different stages of his journey/reincarnation process: Dionysus associated to the katabasis/descent and Apollo to the anabasis/ascent.
What we call "paganism", the tradition itself, is not the attested tradition, but the all-encompassing journey/Erlebnis. The Old Norse word for it is seiðr, and according to the Ynglinga saga the Æsir first learned it from Freyja (fertility), who is also Frigg (the wife/mother).
Women are link between the realm of the dead and the realm of the living, so the journey begins with them, in the womb, with the pregnancy leading to (re)birth, i.e. with Freyja/Frigg "teaching" us seiðr. https://twitter.com/sentona97/status/1231549455910031360
The followers of Dionysus were, then, women – the Maenads, the "raving ones".
The notion of ecstasy/Rausch as some sort of degenerate alcohol-infused partying is utter nonsense.
The notion of ecstasy/Rausch as some sort of degenerate alcohol-infused partying is utter nonsense.
The "frenzy" of the Maenads was related to them impersonating/becoming the deities, moving/dancing to the tune of the cosmos. They were intoxicated by the divine, by the gods they were channeling.
The symbols associated to the Maenads are, of course, all connected to pregnancy/(re)birth.
The wine is an avatar for the blood feeding the fetus in the womb.
The Maenads are represented holding the thyrsus and often also holding/wearing snakes, ...
The wine is an avatar for the blood feeding the fetus in the womb.
The Maenads are represented holding the thyrsus and often also holding/wearing snakes, ...
... symbolizing the transference of the ancestral memories, which were symbolically conveyed through music, the music to which the Maenads danced to – the wail of Medusa (placenta-ancestor) captured by Athena (mind) in the sound of the aulos. https://twitter.com/Auslandsgruppe1/status/1255565882375503877
The thyrsus, a wand/staff decorated with ivy-leaves and a pine, holds phallic symbolism, also observed in association to Freyr (as Dionysus is known from Germanic mythology). It's a symbol of fertility, the rebirth of the initiate vis-à-vis the rebirth of Nature in the year cycle
The Maenads are also depicted wearing deer or leopard skins. The deer symbolism is linked to struggle, as the male deers become aggressive during mating season and lock antlers, which were also used as shovels to unearth the ancestor's bones, ergo to open the passage to the grave
The leopard symbolism is possibly linked to the mating season of the species, which takes place in the winter, around the time the Dionysia was celebrated in rural areas (coinciding with the time for Nature's katabasis, the descent of Persephone to Hades). https://twitter.com/serbiaireland/status/1255149990239846401
As for the dance of the Maenads itself, the ecstatic movements were linked to the swarming of the bees, the midwives of Nature. Honey-drinks, as we know, play a similar role as wine in the mythic symbolism.
Dionysus' worship is older than the cultivation of the vine, thus his early association is to honey: he goes by the epithet Βρισαῖος, "god of abundance/spring", a term associated to the verb βλίττειν, "to take/remove honey (from the comb)".
Like the dance of the Maenads, the Germanic Elf-Dance is also linked to the swarming of bees. In the Grímnismál, Álfheim, the "elf-realm", is said to have been given by the gods to Freyr, so he presides over the bee-dancing, pretty much like Dionysus in Greek mythology.
The raving dance of the Maenads/Elves also captures the movement of the stars, of the waters etc. Everything in Nature is connected.
Let's now return to Homer's ekphrasis of Achilles' shield (see Il. 18), which was the starting point for our discussion... https://twitter.com/Auslandsgruppe1/status/1255164868874964994
... The mighty shield crafted by Hephaestus is a metaphor for the womb, meant to encompass the entirety of the cosmos – thus the many dancing scenes represented in it, symbolizing the rhythmic movement of the cosmos.
Music, poetry, dancing – that's how our ancestors first conceptualized their worldview, from within the divine circle.
I'll cover some Apollonian elements in the next thread.
Thank you for reading this far.
I'll cover some Apollonian elements in the next thread.
Thank you for reading this far.
