Cyber-nomadic texts from the Dionysian Underground : Vol I Issue ii

A. An ever-changing polymorphous association of autonomous anarcho-surrealists, neo-pagans, experimental artistz, krypto-taoists and utopian (r)evolutionaries dedicated to the hedonik transformation of consciousness, culture and everyday life. 

Q. What are their principles? 

A. We have no prince-appalls , other than a contagious will to self-emancipation, a faith in the dialectikal synchronization of human desire and a d-votion to the cult of passion, with its anarkic spirit of revolt and lust for life. the artist-revolutionary does not force their creation into existanze but merely bears its spontaneous emergence from the all-encompasing womb of chaos! 

Q. What is the Dionysian? 

A. The essence of the archetype of Dionysos. zôe. the root and web of life. the kaos that is the foundation of all order, being and meaning. the ambiguous whole, the nothing that contains all opposites. the meaningless meaning. the wellspring of the lifeforce. the alchemist's merkurius. the taoist's way. the psychologist's hidden unconscious. the Hegelian dialectik. the logoz of Heraclitus. le/la Différance. its fully free manifestation as a dynamic tide of formless energy driving an ecstastik tranceformation, both creative and destructive. its gentler form, the hedonistik consciousness of immediate existanze and spontaneous be(cum)ing , within the evolutionary flux of a living cosmos, its erotic ariadnean fulfilment. 

A Dionysian matrix that contains both itself and its contrary the arboreal Apolloline. Urizen oppressor of fiery Orc, the once and future peer of Luvah, the liberated Orc, freed through the mediaton of our Orphean Arts.

Q. Is this meant to be taken seriously? 

A. Yes and No. ;-)

Dionysos is the outsider in the city, the eruption of the strange, the intoxication of the forbidden.

Dionysos and Eros are both agents of change. first, the Bacchae, destruction of the city, then the Metamorphoses, mischievious variations of nature. perhaps love is the only way to experience change. how then can we live without love of change?

Comparing two objects as distant as possible from each other or putting them together by any other method in an abrupt and startling manner remains the highest task to which poetry can aspire

The way up is the same as the way down

'Night is also a Sun', and the absence of myth is also a myth, the coldest and purest, the only true myth 

We are concerned not with the coup-d'etat of Trotsky and Lenin, but with the more crucial coup-du-monde. 

The Invisible Insurrection of a Million Minds, Alex Trocchi

The Tao that can be spoken is not the real Tao

Are myths fairytales or forces? Though written off as superstition it may be that myths are the forces of the non-dual, the currents that cross the split of mind and matter. My guess is that the dynamic of myth shapes our environment as much the force of the tectonic, and can reshape it with the suddenness of the Tsunami. Myths may be deep sources of change and revolution. 
Science, that drooling old dictator, thinks it has stamped out myths with it 's laser beam objectivity. But scientism's grip has slipped and the energy that was exiled to the poetic is returning to the everyday. What I want to know is this - where can the motivated look for the re-enchantment of reality and the revival of the utopian? 
Jung 's articulation of archetypes may be one path back to the mythopoeic. He recognised the expression of innate modes of understanding, a source of images and metaphors rising out of a collective unconscious. Seeing these patterns as deeply imprinted in our psyches can help explain their power. Jung suggested that the archetypes regulate our perception so that everyday reality is perceived in mythic terms whether or not this is consciously recognised. 
James Hillman 's Archetypal Psychology makes a move beyond archetypes with a philosophic satori. For him the mind is in the imagination not the imagination in the mind . Images are not just the seen but the means by which one sees. The imaginal is the fundamental stuff of existence and human beings exist in a field of the visionary, out of which we construct our perception of reality. 
Many indigenous societies consider themselves in a balanced relationship with personified forces that defy the division of the psychic and the physical. By medieval times our European mythos was largely annexed by Church and State to justify hierarchy and feudal rule. The Enlightenment and science supposedly liberated us from this manipulation but has left us in a culture whose tapestry is bleached clear of dramatic colour and depth. Now the bleached cloth is only palely illuminated by the flicker of the cathode ray tube. 
In Tibetan Buddhism practitioners work with a constellation of Bodhisivattas, embodiments of energies and qualities such as compassion and anger. As I understand it, the practitioner establishes relationships with these cosmic characters, and may enact everyday tasks as parallels of particular Bodhisivatta myths. Talk of such entities is not in terms of inside or outside (of mind or matter) but of a different coordinate system altogether. The Bodhisivattas don't exist within conventional categories but express the world as mapped by different axes of experience. There is a historic depth of skill in Tibetan Buddhism in how to work with such entities for individual enlightenment but for me it 's hard to connect this with the urgent need for change in the contemporary world-political situation. I 'd say we need a contemporary political slant on non-dualistic forces. 

The Dionysian Mysteries

An essay by Jocelyn Chaplin, from her book Love in an Age of Uncertainty.

The Cult of Dionysos was charcterisesed by its Mystery Initiation, here Jocelyn interpretes the inititiation process in the light of modern Psychoanalysis.

This process of going deep into the instincts and then coming back 'up' to reintegrate them into a more whole self has been called individuation by Jungian analysts. And some of them, Linda Fierz-David and Nor Hall, for example, have linked the Roman Dionysian mysteries specifically to this process. These are the most recent examples of a mystery religion that probably went back thousands of years to Minoan Crete and before. A depiction of a Dionysian initiation painted on the wall of a Roman villa near Pompeii shows what actually went on in those rites. The meaning of the actions, feelings and symbols expressed there can only be guessed at, but certain features do seem similar to the modern therapy process. Most people come into therapy at times in their lives when they are facing transitions. Therapy can be a safe place away from the world to experience a certain degree of 'madness' or descent into that state of letting go or psychosis that all babies experience to some extent. It involves the two opposites of control and letting go. The therapist keeps the sense of reality and the boundaries, allowing the client to lose hers for a while. In the same way the mysteries are presided over by one or more priestesses who remain calm and contained but are not without empathy. Indeed, it is likely that they will themselves have experienced reaching that primal baby state, the primal wound, the primal scream, the loss of everyday structure, and have come out stronger and wiser therapists who have never dared make the descent may not be able to provide the same opportunity for deep change in their clients. Perhaps the best therapists are those who have allowed some 'breakdown in their own lives, as jung himself did in the years leading up to the first World War.

The sequence of events depicted on the wall at Pompeii is as follows. First the initiate arrives with a veil over her head. This could imply a separateness from the everyday world and going to a special, sacred place, as the therapy room can be. A young boy then reads to her from a book. This could be the intellectual framework in which any therapy needs to take place. There are usually some concepts needed by the mind to give's safety and structure to the process of letting go. Simply getting drunk or dancing all night or even falling in love without a mental understanding of why and for what purpose this is happening can be a limited experience at the least and, at worst, a step on the way to potential self-destruction. So the words are important. Throughout this book I describe a framework in which opposites such as control and letting go are seen as rhythmically connected and life is seen in terms of stages, transitions and cycles, with love energy as the connecting principle. This basic set of ideas can give meaning to ecstatic experiences. Stories and myths, either of gods and goddesses or of people's own lives, described at the beginning of an initiation also give the experience meaning. 

The next part of the Dionysian initiation appears to involve a gift of cakes or perhaps a sacrifice. Cake, like the bread and wine of Christianity, could represent the body of the sacrificed god. As we saw in the story of Dionysus, he was indeed broken into many pieces, only then to be reborn as a new whole. In our personal therapies we too may need to make sacrifices, of money, of time, of illusions about ourselves. I found that sacrificing the image I had of myself as a nice, giving person was difficult in the early days of my therapy. For some people even just coming into therapy is a sacrifice of their image of themselves as someone without problems. Learning to be humble and to submit to the process is vital in this first part of the rites, as it is in therapy. It is also vital that the therapist does not use this stage to impose his or her own power or feel superior in any way. Therapists too need to be humble and trust the goddess or god or process that is present between them and their clients.

It appears that a number of rituals are then performed to prepare the initiate. Water is poured over a laurel leaf, which is then placed in a basket that seems to contain a snake or phallic object. The laurel leaf may have been chewed to help each an ecstatic state, but it had to be purified first. Any drugs or alcohol taken as part of a controlled ecstatic experience need o be 'blessed' or somehow imbued with sacred meaning, and thus purified, like a glass of wine held up to the light with thanks given to the goddess. The basket and phallic object inside seem to have played a vital part in many mysteries. 

The basket was probably associated with the winnowing basket in which corn seeds are sorted out. But it also symbolized the womb or vagina with the penis or phallic energy inside. There are strong sexual connotations, and at this point of the process there is an air of building excitement and anticipation. When in therapy or in life generally something important is about to happen, people often have a sense of almost sexual excitement, without knowing quite why. This is of course especially strong in adolescence, when there is that feeling of something wonderful about to happen, but what?

In the next part of the rite Silenus, Dionysus's old tutor, appears, playing a lyre. And suddenly the scene changes to anatural, rural environment, perhaps symbolizing a return to childhood feelings of oneness with everything. Certainly music can inspire such feelings in people. This stage could be seen as a phase of naive ecstasy or a symbiotic union with the mother, a merging. This is what people often long for in relationships, in therapy, in life. It is a primitive kind of loss of self, being carried away by the music. 

Then suddenly the scene changes again, there is a terrified woman depicted on the wall. At this point there may be a sudden separation or an awakening from that primal bliss. In therapy, perhaps after exploring childhood and seeing the therapist as the safe, good mother, suddenly she goes on holiday or something happens that makes the client have to face her worst fears, for example of abandonment. In the background old Silenus holds up a grotesque mask. This might also be the point where one has to take off the mask of everyday life and face the real self underneath. This usually happens in therapy, but it is also a stage in people's lives, as when the first bliss of naive love in a relationship changes and the real person behind the projected mask shows her or himself. There may be a descent into an underworld of fear or depression. 

Then the initiate returns, having been through some experience such as facing a deep fear, able now to face the phallic object in the basket consciously. The ecstasy is contained. Behind her the figures of Dionysus and Ariadne sit voluptuously, suggesting a contained and contented sexuality. The initiate seems to lift a veil off the phallic object, perhaps really to see it for the first time. This could represent an honest facing of one's own sexuality, or specifically an honouring of phallic energy as sacred and valuable to women as well as men. Yet this scene is followed by a dark angel appearing with a whip, which could either be an infliction of pain as a mark of initiation, or a sadomasochistic sexual experience, or a form of humiliation that all initiates have to go through in order to submit fully to the divine. There may be a confession of 'sins' here, a going down to one's most shameful side in order to feel shame no more. And certainly in our culture there is still a lot of shame around sexuality. 

After this the initiate emerges, naked and dancing. It seems at this point that she is now ecstatic again, but this time in a more conscious and mature way. She is united with the divine. All the energy that she at first merged with, then separated from, then feared, then admitted to having, has now become incorporated into herself. She can dance naked with no shame. She is goddess or god, note merely merged. The pictures end with Cupid holding up a mirror to the woman. This final outcome is perhaps the main aim of many therapies: self knowledge and learning to let the libido flow free within necessary containments. The result is a rhythmic interconnection between Dionysian energies and the structures of ordinary life. 

Some thoughts on this essay by Caligula X...

This is without doubt one of the most thoughtful analyses of the Dionysian Mysteries from the psycho-analytic perspective ever written, one that unlike so many other attempts avoids Freudian or Jungian dogma in its expose of Initiation. The first step to a Rosseta Stone to the psychological process involved in these and similar rites. However some of it remains contentious, an important point to remember is that this description is of the Roman Mysteries in Pompeii. Not only did the Greek form have a different style and procedure, according to some sources, but also somewhat different underground Bacchic initiations seem to have been established in other parts of Italy (though these may have been of a later Orphic type in the south). What is most likely is that the Dionysian Mysteries were quite flexible and creative and adapted to local conditions and interpretations. There seems to have been different schools within the cult rather than a universal dogma. 

I would argue that Jocelyn's account also suffers from a 'Christian' residue (though no doubt this will be debated further in the letters page :-) ) By this I mean three things: one, Dionysos is regarded as the 'dying god', whereas I would see this as a late Orphic development influenced by the Osiris myth (which certainly developed in this way). For me, as for Crowley, Dionysos is the 'god who comes', a rising and avenging archetype, more like Horus than Osiris. It is no accident that A. C. associated Dionysos with the Aeon of Horus (which in Crowley's description is clearly Dionysian); two, I'm not so sure if something as banal as Christian 'humility' (that old anti-individualist ploy) was a part of the original Mysteries, it certainly had little effect on Alexander the Great or Sparticus following their initiations; three, I would question the containment of the Dionysian energies within the structures of ordinary life. As a revolutionary I would emphasise the Nietzschean negation of everyday structures through the Dionysian affirmation (though no doubt this was lacking in the more coopted Roman form of the Cult. A more radical form of Dionysianism seems to have existed amongst exiles living in the crater of Vesuvius in the time of Sparticus, whereas the Bacchic cult of the Villas while preserving the same essence was no doubt highly recuperated). Similarly while myth and narrative does stabilize the process of chthonic descent, it can also distort it through the social conventions inherent in those myths. A mythless descent and direct encounter with instinctual reality would be more ideal, though giving the mind little to grasp onto and conceptualise. Perhaps the compromise being a myth rooted in chaos, just as the original Dionysos myth is believed to have been. 

Of course there is also more to the Dionysian Mysteries than mere psycho-therapy, though no doubt it was an important part of them. The debate will go on, and serves to show that the Dionysians of today are just as non-dogmatic as their predecessors, with as many schools of thought now as then.
 
 

Poets Grapevine

please send us ya bacchic poetry, any style or form

"to poet Ozkan Mert, 
who may be drinking his beer 
inside the stomach of a whale". 

At the most silent hour of all hours 
a new solitude has shown itself, 
conflict has arisen. 
Welcome solitude, welcome conflict! 

What have you brought for me? 
For I am a lost ship in the stormy sea 
searching for the lighthouse. 
I am a mother in Palestine 
searching for her baby. 
I am the child in Jerusalem 
the youngster in Mexico 
the prisoner in Turkey. 

You are not in the Balkans 
you are in London or New York or Paris. 
I am miles and miles away 
from swallows and skylarks, 
unriddling the mystery of this world 
with their wings and beaks. 

My friend Ozkan Mert had once said: 
"One day we are all going to die 
insects will eat 
our penises 
and our hearts" 

I am blundering my way along 
with corn-poppies in my bosom... 

At the most silent hour of all hours 
a new solitude has shown itself, 
conflict has arisen. 
Welcome solitude, welcome conflict! 

What have you done to me? 
For I long to be under that cliff, 
looking straight toward the horizon. 
My feet touch the open sea 
and I am "there". 

Hakan C.  (Turkish poet in exile)
Colchester, April 2001. 
 

POEMS OF THE MEDITERRANEAN

You, sea-sky,
If you stop a moment in sleep,
Seaweeds grow against the night.

Dead men become restless
If you lean a moment on the dark,
You, sea-sky.

I plunge into the horizon,
For what I live
Is what I can recall.

Between Rome and Carthage
Floats,
love by love,
Istanbul.

A bird splits my thoughts
From the blue.
My drink remains unfinished.

You say Stars
Will touch our hands
In an endless growth.

You say
Darkness
Is bright for lovers
Because it keeps quiet.

You say
I can't go to sleep.
We are alone,
And the night is blue.

The globe was calm
With only the Mediterranean on it.
On the Mediterranean,
Just the two of us.

I said, "Do you love me?"
She closed her eyes to the horizons.
"Just the moment to ask," she smiled,
"Just the place to ask."

A mass of green, a mass of gray
Over the winds,
They collide, and both crash into the horizon.

A rim of the stars on the crest of the waves --
Each foam is a tempest,
Each tempest, a world.

The sea and the sky may be concealed.
My love for you
Cannot be hidden.

It's like air and flame and tree
But most of all like water,
This love of ours.

Purple has anguish but no end.
It blends into our life
By itself.

They say man turns to dust at death.
No, not us...
Clearly we shall turn to water.

The Mediterranean grows dark on the horizons,
But
I am
Blue all over.

The Mediterranean is bygone and far as you go,
But
I am
The owner of the stars.

The Mediterranean cannot create you anew,
But
I
Can love you again

A frantic clamor erupts,
And silence is suddenly shattered.
The Mediterranean deepens in thought.

Airplanes cruise the sky.
Their white traces cling to the blue.
The Mediterranean understands and loves.

It is the sea.
Each evening
In all thoughts
It comes and goes.

Seven to none --
Its agony,
Its duration,
Its echo.

This deep blue thing is midnight,
The silence
You forgot
Far away.

You had heard
This song
In the old days too.

The song evokes in the wind
From green
The quiet weeds on the bottom of galleons.

In the Mediterranean's waves and in this song
You are alive, sparkling,
And somehow you don't exist.

Think hard; this is all of our living.

Fazil Husnu Daglarca

REBIRTH OF EROS

Dark sun of some ancient sacrifice,
Let your green-cool, coal-black piercing eyes
Gorge through my unprotected heart,
Burn in my unfolded flesh.
Die again in me.
Cry on the stones, cry on the sea,
Cry for the lost boys,
Of the vengeful furies cause.

Let me craddle your bones
To enable your soul
To come home.

From out of the sea,
Where your mother was lost,
Great Aphrodite.

J Chaplin

And bull-voices roar thereto
from somewhere out of the unseen,
fearful semblances,
from an image as if of thunder underground
is borne on the air heavy with dread.

Aeschylus

view from the pier

each pebble on the shore
lying wet and decadent
the sun sets.

hakan c.

Let 's go Pan 
Let 's go pagan 
Let 's wake up Her Majesty with Michael Fagan 
Let 's reinvent the art of the urban shaman 
Throw a wild party in the wrecked heart of Babylon 

Let 's make a magic potion 
Let 's brew it in a cauldron 
Reawake the snake 
Make poetry in motion 
Let 's go night tripping skinny dipping in the ocean 

Let 's go pink 
Let 's go punk 
Let 's smile for the camera with a mouth full of spunk 
Let 's shadow-box with angels until we punch-drunk 

Let 's get feathered 
Let 's get furred 
Let 's shake a hoof with the horny goat-herd 
Let 's raise the roof and then let fly the bird 

Let 's go Pan 
Let 's go primal 
Let 's do the Old God Man Shamanic Revival 
Catch as catch can and scratch-scratch it on vinyl 

Let 's go Trickster 
Let 's go Tantra 
Let 's bang a gong and sing a Bagavati Mantra 
Paint our bodies red and blue create a living Yantra 

Let 's advance 
Let 's retreat 
Let 's trance dance to a tribal break beat 

Let's Do It All Night 
Let's stir up and shake up 
Let's give ourselves a fright when we take off our
make-up 
Love-bite the Sleepers until they finally 

Wake up! 

John Constable > < Crow 

to the Dionysian Underground

A Random Apocalyptic Cut-Up

From the Book of Revelation, Market and Futures advice and commercial advertisements. Using a computerized variant of the Burrough's technique,
produced by Steve A, under the influence.

Prices! When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead, with the latest IN-Style Jewelry, Clever gifts, and Fashion, But he laid his right hand upon Bridal Collectibles, Books, Home Decor and MORE!! saying, "Fear not, I am the 'New Items all the time'! and at last, I died, and behold I Shop for European Toiletries. The best am alive for evermore, and I have shopped for European style toiletries and bathrooms and the keys of Death and Hades. His eyes of cast iron were like - an addition to having the ability to earn a flame dishwasher- and a stain resistant safe. His Nonstick cookware is of great benefit. To Telephone a loud cake pan and in a cookie voice, to welcome our investment like a trumpet sheet. Stainless steel is family. "Discover How to Gain an Unfair Advantage saying, "Write what is extremely durable and in free quotes, free corrosion. But it said to the seven churches: intra-day charts, free daily market research doesn't conduct heat as Ephesus did and always astounds materials. We show you how to witness, the first-born of God -- and maximize profits by buying and selling your dead, and the husband can be a cool and controlled manner. How to create the ruler of kings, to get 'stuck' with stocks. When to dinner party. And the earth To him who sells! Benjamin Christ, Chairman. To Join the Word Look for Our Group: Telephone 1-800-820-0888 Rydex Series Trust of God and the heavy gauge, Ask for an aluminum testimony of Jesus. which is a free prospectus and an application. Read the less likely prospectus. Fill out the application. On your application warp and resist Spirit. Mail stains and scratches. Aluminum day, and I am the application. Click here for linen, purple, silk and scarlet, who hear great conversation, soft music and all kinds of scented wood, all articles. We show you all the inside facts, of ivory, all articles of costly wood, who keep what is in the background. There's bronze, iron and marble, cinnamon, spice, spread setting, spread widening and narrowing, walking incense, myrrh, frankincense, wine, oil, fine flour is written therein; for only one problem, wheat, cattle and sheep, horses and up and down prices, spread staggering, chariots, and slaves, that is, human souls. You, the time is near. can't cook "The fruit for which thy soul is shaking', price momentum. The merchants tried seven churches that are of these wares, who gained wealth from market opening, market makers stock holdings, will stand far off, in fear to cook, for anyone in Asia: Grace of her torment, weeping and mourning aloud, and obligations, realtime data and news flows. More Testimonials Amen. "I am top-of-the-range cookware because Here In Futures Trading, is What You Don't Know of the Alpha and the its ability Can Hurt You! VantagePoint Gives You the heat of Omega," says the Lord, the quick Advantage You Need to Make Intelligent Trades and evenly, but God, who is in VantagePoint is wantonness." Then in plain English I heard another voice from heaven saying, aloud the words of your crystal - "Come out of her, my people, lest you sample resistances, supports and moving champagne, and take part in her sins, lest you share saucers, averages, and double tops, bollinger bands, in her plagues; for her sins are RSI and stochastics. He made it known to start with soup, for God has put it into their pump-and-dump, calculating when profit-taking might occur, with hearts to carry out his purpose by sending his angel courses, so being of one mind and giving over market maker tactics, in regard to volatile royal power, to the beast, until it can be his servant John. And the woman that you saw beautifully rimmed who bore witness to basics is the great city which is dominion to the advanced - is soup over the kings of the earth." You registered to the Word here After, thus I saw another angel coming, Technical analysis and 'charting' jargon seemed to fall down from heaven, having great authority; and for Grilled fish and God the earth was made bright with his being all around - but what of splendor. And he called out with the steamed asparagus "Fallen, fallen is Babylon, all mean, and equally, of the great! It has become a dwelling place of Jesus Christ, delicious in the formality of demons, a haunt of every foul spirit, a factor enough in the real haunt of every foul and hateful bird; and all that china. The seven heads are seven investor relations sites, investment software and quote mountains on which the woman is seated; systems, bulletin boards, stock exchanges, overseas trading, they are also seven kings, five comprehensive references of financial terms and definitions, of whom many have fallen, one is, other has not yet come, and when and where you stand in the event there must remain only bankruptcies, suspensions and halted shares, rights issues, a little while. As for the beast, mergers, the complete guide to fundamental analysis and much more. And in the box an eighth, but it belongs to the matter of hours, and indeed every seven, having from the seven spirits pizza. Then one of the seven angels from who Heaven at Home had bought the seven bowls came and said with role and reliability, charting with short term to me, "Come, I will show you trends, priority of charting in your decision, the judgment of the great harlot who to buy or sell, discounting news, evaluating upon many waters, with reliability of historical data. Options and short selling strategies are become drunk. And he showed me two ways to make money from falling away in the Spirit, into a wilderness of stocks, and in the case of options I saw a woman sitting on trading gain, in control of much stock, a scarlet beast which was full of what you could buy. Yet these blasphemous trading names had seven head methods, that are seldom used by retail investors, and ten horns. The woman was a complete guide to success, arrayed in purple and scarlet, and bedecked with risk-minimized short-selling and options trading. With gold and jewels and pearls, holding your first option to trade in her hand, a golden cup full of strategies: straddles, strangles, bull spreads and more, of abominations and the impurities of her predictable short selling opportunities, using combination fornication; and on her forehead was a trade mark, and written a name of mystery: "Babylon the strategy, trade size optimization, time valuations, on-line great, mother of harlots and of earth's options brokers. Newspaper tips, Bulletin Boards & abominations." And I saw the woman of investment publications. You may have noticed her drunk with the blood of the saints newspaper articles, rumours and other 'tips' that are the blood of the martyrs and often responsible for dramatic moves in the shares of Jesus. When I saw her I marveled at prices, creating many trading opportunities. But the angel said to you, "Why marvel? I will tell you circumstances. News flow to market makers, trading the mystery of woman, and of weekday and weekend press tips, taking the beast with seven heads and ten positions before a news release, the value horn that carries her. The beast of TV interviews and internet.

Newsflash

Not much good news to report this time, after a winter that saw the first obvious effects of Global Warming.

Perhaps the only amusing thing has been the ongoing attempts in America to crack down on their emerging 'Rave Culture', seen as a 'threat to civilisation' by the Moonie funded American Right and its friends in the Bush Administration. The full story of this farce is recorded in Parallel Youniversities Upgrade E Zine (e mail fraser@parallel-youniversity.com for more details).

True Face of Christianity?

VATICAN CITY (Reuters) - The Vatican has acknowledged a damning report that some priests and missionaries were forcing nuns to have sex with them, and were in some cases committing rape and forcing the victims to have abortions. Some nuns were forced to take the contraceptive pill, the report cited in the Rome daily la Repubblica said. The Vatican said the issue was restricted to a certain geographical area, but the report cited cases in 23 countries, including the United States, Brazil, the Philippines, India, Ireland and Italy. Limit Of Human Endurance Missionary news agency MISNA condemned the abuse while recalling that missionaries often worked ``at the limit of human endurance.'' It urged the media to remember the good deeds of missionaries around the world as well as their failings. A Vatican statement said ``in relation to the news of cases of sexual abuse against nuns committed by priests and missionaries, Chief Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls had the following announcement: ``The problem is known about and is restricted to a certain geographical area. ``The Holy See is dealing with the issue in collaboration with bishops, the Union of Superiors General (grouping of heads of male religious orders) and the International Union of Superiors General (heads of female religious orders).'' While the Vatican did not name the geographical area, the report said most incidents of sexual abuse against nuns occurred in Africa where the nuns were identified as ``safe'' following the onset of the HIV and AIDS viruses devastating the continent. A source in Africa made specific reference to certain cases, one in which a priest forced a nun to have an abortion, after which she died. He then officiated at her requiem mass. In reference to Africa, her report said: ``It is impossible (there) for a woman or an adolescent to refuse a man, especially an older man and in particular a priest.'' In Africa, certain priests sought out nuns ``for fear of contracting AIDS with prostitutes.'' ``There are cases in which priests make nuns take the pill, ...and there was one case of 20 nuns in one religious community being pregnant at the same time,'' the article cited the report as saying. A mother superior was continually ignored by the local bishop when she complained that priests in the diocese had made 29 of her nuns pregnant. The bishop relieved her of her duties, the report said without identifying the diocese. End.

Those of us aware of the consequences of the anti-sex ethic of Christianity will not be surprised by this report. A phenomenon recorded as far back as Dark Age Ireland when the Celtic Church complained of the activities of the incoming Catholic clergy!

British News

In case you hadn't heard we are in the middle of an election. So naturally we shall completely ignore this and turn our attention to something more important. Remember "No matter who you vote for the Government always gets in!"

UK tops Bacchic charts

News reports suggest Britain has the highest rate of excessive drinking and drug taking among teenagers in Europe! Apparently some 30% of the UK's teenagers take illegal drugs or drink excessively. This was contrasted in the media with Mediterranean countries like Italy and Greece (the traditional homes of the Bacchanalian), where a very poor result of only 3% was recorded. Some media propagandists have attempted to invert this good news into a 'problem', but while it is true that these activities may be related to the repressive nature of modern British society, a more celebratory attitude seems appropriate. Figures for the rest of the world were not given, so we cannot say how Britain stands globally, but what is certain is that the UK is now fast becoming the centre of Bacchic Lifestyle in Europe. Something we should certainly be proud of.

Animal Slaughter

The news this spring has been dominated by the foot and mouth cull. For the sake of 'the economy' (code for maintaining the privileged lifestyles of the rich) thousands of healthy animals were unnecessarily slaughtered. Probably the worlds largest ever sacrifice to Mammon! This is not only an argument from the vegetarian perspective either, many of us enjoy meat and accept that animals will be sacrificed for this pleasure (as long as it is humanely done), but if anything it is this enjoyment that gives an added responsibility to the welfare and regard for the animals we consume. Not a moral argument merely one of 'right relationship with the world'. It is clear though that this was not even taken into account by the 'planners'. Not surprising as it was our unacceptable factory farming practises which spread this disease in the first place. Animals are being farmed in vast numbers in horrendous conditions and moved around the country like just another objectified commodity the primary cause of the epidemic claims to the contrary not with standing. Despite the fact that countries like Argentina are riddled with foot and mouth and still manage to maintain a viable beef industry from this (with animals raised under far better conditions), the so called 'experts' pronounced the outbreak was a threat to British farming and instead of adopting an effective vaccination program decided on a mass cull to reassure the market (reassure we have no regard for anything but paranoia and greed presumably). But perhaps for something good may come from such a crime, the revolting sights might waken people to the true nature of factory farming and the capitalist system that produces it. But the biggest mystery is the relative lack of protest regarding what amounts to mass murder. While something relatively insignificant like fox hunting attracts mass action. Could it be that the ideological veggies have no regard for the animals that they see as doomed to death anyway. A case of ideology producing injustice (as is usually the case) or is dissent being suppressed? The real test will be the aftermath of this. Is it not a time for all devotees of Pan and Hathor to turn their magickal will on the heart of 'MAFF'.

Stop Press

Just as this edition was about to be finally released a documentary on C4 reveals the true nature of our 'government'. The right wing paranoia around the so called 'Bilderbergers' turns out to be partly true after all. No they're not the shadowy cabal of world rulers of fascist myth, but they are a club of self interested shits, an insidious web of crooked corporate executives, hypocritical politicians, uncivil servants and toady media types rubbing up to each other; protecting corporate capitalism and pushing for globalisation, all in private (protected by their own private security agency) far from the eyes and ears of 'the uneducated masses' (until now). And of course Blair and his cronies are right at the core of this (as are their like minded Europhile friends in the Conservative Party led by Kenneth Clarke). Ultimately a European US fan club this group is dominated by the technocratic 'liberal' elite of the American Establishment, with their 'conservative allies' in groups like the 'Moloch worshipping' Bohemian Club (with its allegedly 'occult' inner core), an alliance that goes back to the Euro-American Masonic conspiracies of Benjamin Franklin and the 'College of Apollo' in 18th Century France (the antithesis of the Dionysian Underground in fact!). A full article on this will appear in the next edition of Bacchanal, but until then remember this when you are voting for your 'representatives'!

REVU 's

If you have any event, club, music or book reviews from a Dionysian perspective please send them to us.

William Blake Exhibition at the Tate

Earlier in the year many in the dU network went on a quest to the Tate's exhibition of the work of William Blake (patron St of the Dionysian Underground) . The exhibition was an ironic one given that it was sponsored by the corporate giant GlaxoSmithKline, a case of Blake sponsored by 'Satanic Mills Inc'. To emphasise this point a group of Blakean demonstrators had been gathered outside the exhibition on its last day by the LPS, exposing the corporate's involvement in the African HIV scandal. Alas while tipped off on this event by a dU supporter I was unable to get there in time to show solidarity and so contented my self with an exploration of the exhibition itself. Alas my luck was out here too as the fucking tickets had all gone, no doubt to Corporate friends. I therefore immediately decided to boycott the exhibition and ended up in the Tate's book shop. Two books immediately caught my attention, books which demonstrate the battle that has always raged around the soul of Blake. The first was an entirely unconvincing attempt tp portray Blake's vision as an allegory of personal transformation, free of political commitment. Fortunately the other exposed the crucial political core to Blake's life and revealed his vision of a New Jerusalem to be an earthly political one. While written with a certain dated Marxian tunnel vision the book none the less was a good analysis of Blakean politics. On exploring the shop I realised this area was a repository of great informtion on the Visionary of Lambeth. Far more so than the exhibit itself which others had described as a sanitised display. While I regreted missing the original works of the great man, I was more than satisfied with the array of information I gleaned from the bookshop, I even managed to recuperate a particularly interesting tome. I would recommend that at any such exhibition in future the display itself be botcotted and the bookshop be thoroughly rifled.

Following Your Bliss, a lecture at the Esoteric Lodge in South London.

We all have the potential to tune into our natural state of bliss according to many 'new age' pundits. But does this mean and is it true? This was the topic of debate at a recent discussion at the secretive 'esoteric lodge' this April. A fascinating discussion emerged in which people compared altered states of consciousness. It emerged that many people had experience this 'bliss' but it was not as easy to achieve as many pundits declare. The state is often described as 'baby consciousness' relating it to the state of joy that can emerge in babies free of the cares of the world, our natural base state according to some. Perhaps this was what Kubrick had in mind in the final scenes of the 2001? It is certainly how the infamous Dave Oshana, the street wise Guru of the Den of Enlightenment describes it. But it is more than this in my view it is not a regression to some infantile state (as it could be interpreted from the above description) but the manifestation of a deep human potential. Or in Dionysian terms it is the hedonic state that emerges when we accept ourselves and our natural place in the world. In the Aristotelian terms of Joseph Campbell (see below), one of the main psychologist supporters of the idea, it is the eudemonia that one feels when ones teleological function is fulfilled. Of course there is a danger here of a kind of conservative esoteric naturalism here, a kind of 'accept your position in life and enjoy it' bullshit, and certainly this delusion is often spread by New Age charlatans. But this is not necessarily the only interpretation, and is certainly not Campbell's one, in fact I would argue it is not even a valid interpretation as it leads ultimately to disempowerment and so inevitable depression. What it really involves is an awareness of human potential and the struggle to achieve it. The eudemonia is that which arises from self empowerment and the realisation of personal uniqueness. Even without such a commitment to teleology it can be understood as the natural joy that one achieves when one accepts oneself and follows ones own lights and desires without self repression or censure. Not an unselfcritical state but one inherently of self love and a desire for improvement. A self love that is the first stage in loving others. But lets not get too hippie here, it is not that an axe murderer can't experience such bliss if their uniqueness and empowerment is achieved in manslaughter (fortunately this is rare outside of sociopathy). It is ultimately the bliss of being in touch with ones own nature and through that fully part of nature itself. The bliss of authenticity and the free satisfaction of desire. But it is not through understanding that such a state is really to be known it is through experience. The experience of a monochrome world becoming technicolour and of a love of every minute detail of the natural world around us (and often see the manmade world as absurd). A mode of consciousness that in its deepest form seems to led to a heightened state of awareness (sic), a state in which conscious thought stops and we intuitively follow our instincts and inspirations, achieving harmony with the world. A state in which we can also throw off our social conditioning and imprisoning conventions. A Dionysian oceanic state in which the free spirit swims and the madman drowns. But alas the manmade world makes this state almost impossible to achieve, a restrictive society kills the bliss of the free spirit and crushes them (spreading the myth that the manmade world is the real one). The establishment psychologists may argue that what they call the 'libido' must be restrained, but those in the bliss state know it is not one of destructive infantile desire and frustrating conflict but of creative love and imaginative 'compromise'. The 'repression surplus' is enormous in human civilisation. As long as that it is the case we cannot build an ecstatic society the old order must go we need to rebel. And as Marcuse realised this erotic bliss is also the road to social change. Any self-empowered rebel, whether revolutionary or evolutionary (or both), must be rooted in this bliss and not in the eternal resentment of bitter weaklings (no matter how much their resentment is justified and occasionally inevitable). Resentment only makes for more resentment and frustration and the eventual burn out, but the ecstatic rebel cannot be crushed and even enjoys the strife generated by their enemies. The trick is to achieve this state and hold on to it, or at least to be able to evoke it at will. Such a person is unstoppable. This discussion was certainly an inspiring one and very much in tune with the aims of the Dionysian Underground. Our research projects are very much geared to the development of this mode of consciousness.

Retro-Media

An interesting phenomenon in the entertainment media is the return of key 'political' material from a more radical age. The flagship of which being the release on video of Kubrick's greatest film A Clockwork Orange (ironically in the year 2001 reflecting his other great masterpiece on human evolution, to which ACO was said to be the dark companion). This film banned until recently was based on the novel by Anthony Burgess which he described as a modern 'Dionysian tale'. Much has been written about this in the past thirty years so I won't attempt to add much here, other than the comment that in my opinion it's the most dramatic (and prophetic) portrayal of suppressed Dionysiac forces ever made. A warning of what happens when such forces inevitably explode in modes determined by a socially atomised Apolline society. See it for yourself and see what I mean. The other blast from the past is the reruns of the Prisoner on the Sci Fi Channel. While not as dark as ACO, this only example of 'anarchistic Sci Fi' on TV shares similar themes of brain washing and the oppression of autonomous individualism and genuine humanity in an Apollonian 'global village' (be it Left or Right or both). But here the Orwellian mind control system is far more communal and surreal, and more reminiscent of Foucault's all-seeing Panopticon society in 'Discipline and Punish', than the brutally self centred and hypocritical society of ACO. In both however countercultural rebels emerge as the 'heroes' be they the proto-punk Droogies of ACO or the psychedelic surrealists of the Prisoner. The Prisoner's portrayal of a dystopian convergence of Left and Right elitism into a 'paternalistic' global system, based on the control of information and peoples minds, is again a stunning piece of prophecy now coming true. Both of these nightmare visions are extremely relevant today (and will no doubt be analysed further in dU writings) and hopefully there re release will once again sound warning bells and release counter cultural viruses into the minds of a new generation. Orange Alert!

THE WONDERFUL UNION OF HEAVEN AND EARTH AND JOURNEYS THROUGH THE SPIRAL

It was the night of one day moon. Slender crescent, close to the horizon, looking as beautiful as ever. In the centre of Farrington, in a squatted building, preparations for the Party were taking place. As we entered the building, I thought to myself: “Yes, we’ve definitely come to the right place!” It was a huge squatted building. As I was involved in the squat movement couple of times in the past, I was familiar with what usually goes on inside these buildings. So I really felt at home. I liked the atmosphere and especially the enthusiasm and energy of the squatters, who were bumbling and buzzing around like bees :) They were transforming the place in their own unique, creative ways. I could not help but join in the fun. When the party really kicked off around midnight, I could not recognise the place. What a transformation! Magic mushrooms, music, dance, food and drinks, meditation, love, painting, poetry, banners and decorations, flowers, cushions… I wanted to evolve to more expansive fields of consciousness. Thus my journey began through an upward spiral of ever expanding consciousness to the mysterious caves of the soul... Music was uplifting. In the basement there was Drum & Bass. In other sections of the building they played trance. I would say that music was overall good. People were definitely enjoying themselves, dancing to repetitive beats of uplifting trance and D&B. Even around two o'clock in the morning people were still trying to enter the building. Evidently it was a well-publicised event, which was going to last 24 hours. Unfortunately, I couldn't make it that long. One of the big attractions of the night was the beautifully decorated "Sacred Healing Space". It was a place where you could relax, lie on soft cushions and even meditate. Thanks to the organisers and to all those involved.

hakan c.

Liquid Spiral Collective Party 2

One of the best large scale squat parties I've attended for a long time. Seven floors of psychedelia and rave culture all within a squatted office building. And this time I liked it all, there was cool shit going on on every floor. Last time I found myself loving the contrast between the genuinely spiritual ambience of the healing sanctuary in the attic, at the top of some freaky iron spiral stairs, and the full-on Drum and Bass and Techno deep in the basement (a real marriage of heaven and hell), while being bored by the hippy crap in between. This time even the 'hippy crap' was good. One highlight was a brilliant band on the live music floor, best described as 'hippy hip hop', or as they described it psychedelic funk, its rapper a hybrid of Lenny Kravitz, Bob Marley and Jim Morrison. A band that energized the whole room while remaining deeply trippy. Other highlights were the excellent exhibition of the Temporary Autonomous Art collective and the genuinely Psychedelic beats of the Nagual Sound Experiment ('nothing is true all is permitted', indeed). One thing that nearly led to a boycott of the event by some of us was Dom Spiral's initial decision to ban RTS and political flyers from his 'club', fortunately he was ignored and the place abounded with subversive literature on the day. Alas it seems the event made a financial loss, which is not surprising considering the amazingly low entry price and the amount of blagging going on. Something that proves that good parties can never be free under capitalism, one more reason to bury it. Hope they manage another one.

Den of Enlightenment Pre-Launch Party

A difficult one to review considering the DU involvement in the club! But I shall transcend by biases (not). Our focus was in the excellent Playshop on Neo-Ancient Underground Spiritual Alchemical Sexual Sects and Revolutionary Movements of Britain. Here we had helped arrange space for the psychedelic comic and new age psychologist Guru Dave, who taught his audience how change the world by getting ' blissed out', Inter Ference, a 'mad' poet-philosopher, who stunned the audience with his fiery recitations , and a DU talk on radical politix, advertising Mayday, and the coming events at Eros in Piccadilly. This space culminated in a talking stick circle, with an open mike continually passed round facilitating expression on any topic. Politix dominated this session with the usual fluffy / spiky split raising passions, and entertaining questions like 'what makes you get out of bed in the morning?', and 'what is your vision for the future?'. In answers to the last question a wide variety of 'utopian dreams' were affirmed, while other answers ranged from a provocative 'is capitalism all bad' to a denunciation of visions as 'authoritarian impositions of personal dreams on others' (one person's utopia being another's dystopia). The conclusion being our vision must be one of a free and open, pluralistic 'utopia', that preserves what little (if anything) is good about capitalism. Meanwhile in other rooms people gyrated to cutting edge music, got massaged by hippy chicks, or listened to the ubiquitous John Constable perform his Southwark Mysteries and poems (including the one below for the Dionysian Underground). Despite teething troubles the party was a success and we look forward to the next one. As a fellow Dionysian said to me afterwards 'this is even better than the Warp'. Praise indeed.

Steve A

Mayday 2001

The Dionysian Underground fully supports the Anti-Globalisation Movement and its International attempts to stop the spread of the cancer of Capitalism and State Power. However this is not an unconditional or uncritical support. The main political thrust of the Dionysian is towards the indefinite expansion of human freedom and autonomous individualism within a 'socialistic' free communal framework (the only environment that the next phase of human evolution can occur in). It was in this capacity that it was decided that we would take part in the Mayday demonstration in London on May 1st 2001.
We thus launched our contribution to the day - Eros Against Global Capitalism at Picadilly Circus (as you read this this will have already happened, see http://www.stoned.at/eros for details).

Reservations for some existed about two features of this involvement:

1) Who controls the Mayday demos, do we share their agenda?

2) Will it be violent?

The first has an easy answer, no one controls the event but those who take part in it. While there may be organisors, a faction of whom may wish to control events or create an 'organised mass movement', these latter few are a tiny minority who are largely ignored by most of the demonstrators and activists, while the former play only a small, though valuable, role in coordination and support in service of the larger throng. Though we must always be vigilant against would be ideological vanguards within this arrangement and prevent them gaining any kind of ascendancy.
As for a common agenda there is no common agenda between any of those there apart from the negation of the existing economic and political situation. That is the strength of this 'rebel alliance'.

The second is more controversial (and unless properly handled could split the alliance and lead to a victory for those who would maintain the system). To start with violence is never inevitable and seldom necessary, the Dionysian ethos is to oppose the system with its carnivelsque negation rather than force, though this does not mean we will not defend ourselves from attack or suppression. As this is article in production a decision has been taken to counter the provocative psy-ops of the police and attendant slander from the media (The Dionysian Underground has been described by the Sunday Times as organisors of a 'flashpoint' preparing to burn Eros!) by taking a leaf from the book of Sun Tsu (The Art of War) and avoiding this trap entirely (see the description of the actual event in the above link).

The Mayday Event will hopefully be an entirely peaceful one, there is no need for violence at such a demonstration (it may even be counter productive), lets show that the State is the only real purveyor of violence.

That said there may come a time when conflict will be unavoidable and a necessary feature of our revolt. This is a difficult issue, pacifists and militants have argued about it for generations, the following provocative articles from members of the Dionysian Underground explore this theme.
The first is a reprint of an article by a Dionysian anarchist giving a powerful argument in one particular direction. In reply another more Orphean Dionysian perspective is given in response in the subsequent article:

New Age Fascism Part Two: Hitler and Ghandi, Mirror Images or Parallel Lines?

By Soror Thanatos.

Almost exactly 70 years ago to this day in Germany a psychopath was stirring up hatred and xenophobia in order to seize power for his evil party, with its fascistic policies of violence, nationalism and racism. Meanwhile at precisely the same time on the other side of the planet a saintly man was leading a spiritual crusade for the freedom of his people from imperial power, preaching a message of love, non-violence and peace. Lies! This is the version of history the forces of oppression want you to believe, feeding you lies through their tools in the media. But the truth is very far from this. Let us compare Hitler and Ghandi, what were their real differences. Intention would seem to be the main difference, Hitler was intent on world domination and spreading the politics of hate, while Ghandi genuinely seemed to have been in favour of a peaceful almost anarchic communalism (for the common people, though accepting the rights of the ruling elite) based on his concept of love. But as the saying goes 'the road to hell is paved with good intentions'. Or to put it more philosophically intentional morality which excludes consequentialism is no morality at all. Foreseeable consequences of actions are as important for ethical responsibility as intention. And as I shall demonstrate the morality of Ghandi had dire consequences for the subcontinent. But first lets examine some parallels between Hitler and Ghandi. Hitler and Ghandi both idealised the simple rural community, with its homespun values and traditional morality. And their ideas on 'natural order' also foreshadowed the conservative, if not outright fascistic, trends in parts of the ecological movement today, long before 'Alternative Green' were heard of. Their anti-modernism was totalistic, and both rejected much of the cultural progress of the modern age, particularly its (partial) sexual liberation, indeed both men were pathologically repressed and puritanical (the roots of the fascist personality according to Wilhelm Reich). Most significantly both were ideologically moralistic and religious in their own way, and like all religious fanatics both wanted to impose their religion on other people. In the case of Hitler this was a weird mix of Teutonic Paganism and Blavatskian Theosophy (an authoritarian form of occultism derived from a mix of misconceived Indian mysticism and superstition), which many Nazi's saw as the 'new spirituality' of the Aryan master race that was going to dominate the new moral order. Amazingly it is often claimed that a party of pro-Nazi Tibetan monks were in Berlin in support of Hitler as his empire was crushed, they reportedly committed suicide with him. Ghandi was more traditional and less imperious but alas his whole philosophy was based on Hinduism (of a kind heavily influenced by Jaina and Buddhist notions), to the extent that his political position only made sense within the context of its belief system. This is most clearly demonstrated by his stance on pacifism, despite Ghandi's famous cliché's on realistic cycles of violence, his philosophy for this was explained in terms of Karma, one could not do harm to another or change the 'natural order' in any way, because this would generate bad Karma for oneself (a purely selfish motive it should be noted). Karma was a priestly conservative invention that insured that people lived correctly, that is in accord with Hindu social convention in ways that upheld the status quo. A Ghandian India was thus a Hindu India, there was no place for other the other religions of India, Islam, Sikhism, Zorastrianism, Christianity or Atheism, within it. This was dramatically demonstrated by Ghandi's followers, who in 1931 demanded a Hindu 'hartal', a cessation of all work in protest against the execution of two of their comrades hanged in Lahore for murder. Moslems who refused to obey Hindu custom were beaten in the street. This was followed by fierce intercommunal violence that left 200 dead. This violence would accelerate with the rise of Hindu nationalism. While Ghandi was not directly to blame for this his political position was its underpinning. Some might argue that this was a separate social phenomenon or even that Ghandi was merely a player carried along by social forces, but such forces cannot exist with focal individuals that embody them. Of course, like Hitler, Ghandi was a fanatical Nationalist, his vision of the ideal nation state may have been different but the sentiment was the same. He was also not above supporting his then British allies in their first war with Germany (his pacifism being either hypocritical or tactical rather than moral in reality). Both men were elitists as well, Hitler seeing him self as an enlightened master of a new class of supermen, while Ghandi allowed himself to be known as the 'great soul', a moralistic elitist in the tradition of the priestly caste of India. Given these similarities it is not surprising to find both men as heroes of those at opposite ends of the 'New Age' political platform. An opposition that is largely cosmetic. So what about the real intentions behind their actions. Well for both men it was ideally the creation of a utopian society underpinned by a moralistic 'new age' religion, even if their values were somewhat different. Beyond this there was an even closer pragmatic parallel. Hitler was the champion of the middle classes and business interests against the common people, despite his appeal to the 'Volk'. Fascism was essentially an alliance of strong government and free market capitalism. Similarly Ghandi was a figurehead of the emerging Indian middle class and its version of capitalism. He opposed any attempts to regulate business or create a socialist economy, in this he could be seen as even more right wing than Hitler, who introduced certain distorted elements of socialism, at least in his early days. The picture we are left with is of two right wing, pseudo-populists, acting on behalf of the rich, while pretending sympathy for the poor. One driven by hate, the other by an idealised and misguided form of 'love'. Why has history treated them differently? Because in the end Ghandi produced results favourable to western capitalists (the creation of a new wealth producing Indian market and a docile population), while Hitler became a mad dog that had to be destroyed. But what of the consequences of their actions? We all know Hitler was directly responsible for the Holocaust (despite the claims of neo-Nazi apologists), but what is not so widely understood is the complicity of Ghandi in the racial and religious massacres in the sub-continent. While this influence was not as intentional or direct as that of Hitler's, it was none the less every bit as real. Ironically by affirming Hinduism over all else and drowning the voice of non-Hindu India, Ghandi triggered a cycle of violence that led to the partition of Subcontinent and an ongoing conflict that could conceivably end in a regional nuclear war (a holocaust that would far outweigh that of the Nazi's). Where as Hitler's more direct action lead to his defeat and the union of Europe against Fascism, hopefully preventing any future racial holocausts in western Europe. Consequentially it is Ghandi who might turn out to be the greater mass murderer if we disregard intentionality. In conclusion I don't think there is much to choose between an intentional monster and a consequential one, nor between a soft 'new age' fascism or a 'satanic' one. So what is the lesson in this? Are their really no more heroes? The answer must be no, not in the history books at least, the lying testimony of the dominant elite. Neither are there saints. Fortunately this doesn't mean that heroic individuals don't exist, real history is full of ordinary people struggling to emancipate themselves from their oppressors. Their story is largely untold by the historians and media of late capitalism, but they exist none the less. Most importantly we should not be looking for 'heroes' or 'leaders' but empowering ourselves in our struggle for freedom. So what of that popular creed of Ghandiesque pacifism, that is a more difficult problem but one stained by the memory of its founder. (See Appendix).

The Dionysian Underground - Turning your world upside down since 23BC

Appendix - Pacifism vs. Non-Violence.

All freedom loving people are devoted to the cause of non-violence, if by violence we are to understand the use of force or terror to achieve an end. Instrumental violence is the mark of the fascist. But does this mean freedom and pacifism are equivalent? I argue not. Pacifism is the rejection of violence as a valid activity within any context, unlike rational non-violence, it includes the rejection of self defence. The pacifist will tolerate violence against their own person, or that of their friends, in their universal rejection of it. While the non or anti-violent will react to violence with counter-violence to defend their own being or that of their friends from damage or extinction, but will not use it to further their own ends. An initial response to this might be that of the ivory tower logician who sees a contradiction here, but we are not dealing with logic but with human behavior which is always contradictory. A better way to elucidate the situation is to examine psychological motivation. The motive of the pacifist is the intellectually based negation of violence based on detachment from the passions, the motive of the non-violent is a respect for freedom and the affirmation of life, based on love. Many confuse the two but they are very different. Non-violence is emotive and passionate, while pacifism is rational and cold. The pacifist's defence is that violence breeds more violence (even if it is counter- violence), while the non-violent argue that allowing violence to occur, even against self, is itself a preventable act of violence, unacceptable to those motivated by love. Many 'non-rationalists' in this camp also regard aggression (and perhaps even sadism), and resultant violence, as an irrepressible natural drive in the human (as it is in other animal species) which defends it from harm, preserves its autonomy and increases its well being (the mirror image of the erotic libido, which also serves a preservative and life enhancing role), attempted repression of which is psychologically harmful. The 'rationalist' pacifist morally counter argues that aggression, and violence, are 'unnatural' (pathological symptoms or social constructs. Though they rarely say the same thing about affection, or love, which is far less common in nature than aggression) or, more weakly (but more convincingly), that aggression only arises as an undesirable and avoidable natural response to initial irrational violence (though usually leaving the beginning of this cycle a mystery. A random act? An Original Sin!?). But both these stances naively view humans as totally rational beings, capable of free choice with the possibility of complete control of their behavior, and claim aggression would be abolished in a 'healthy' or rational society. The fact that a close observation of nature (and human history) supports the 'non-rational' claim more than the 'rational' often leads the pacifist towards a repressive 'humanistic' anti-nature position, either of the mystically transcendental type (one often leading to Puritanism, as seen in the sad cases of Ghandi or Tolstoy), or a type of extreme social constructivism, which usually promotes a form of collectivism free of any individual assertiveness and thus prone to inauthenticity and domination by others. Both are equally spurious positions for any kind of revolutionary. There are two kinds of pacifism, moral pacifism and tactical pacifism. The first tries to impose the ethic that it is always immoral to harm another person, or to destroy anything, under any circumstances. Like all imposed morality it is based on slavery to an ideology. This notion that violence is wrong in itself has at its root the idea that there is a 'natural order' that must not be interfered with. In more mystical forms this becomes the belief in the oneness of nature and harmonious living. But this idea is surely nonsense, there is no 'natural order' to be preserved, only 'social order' which is historically founded on inequity and the power of one group of men over others, a state of affairs upheld in itself by power and threats of violence. This kind of tacit violence is a structural violence and it is as the saying goes 'inherent in the system'. Pacifism of this conservative kind is geared to protecting the 'social order', thus rightists are able to support pacifists like Ghandi who did not challenge the 'social order' in India, and will always push political protest towards reformist but radically impotent acts of pacifism. The non-violent in contrast react to tacit violence in the same way they do to any violence imposed on them. While only a few act with 'pre-emptive' counter-violence against everyday structural violence (the presence of the State, an armed military, a police force, the rich, injustice, laws etc), many are not adverse to teasing an oppressive institution into expressing its foundational violence, and then acting in negation of it with counter-violence, and all will react aggressively if their affirmations of life are blocked by unprovoked force. If these institutions and injustices did not exist there would be no violence of this kind . The right action in this context is indeterminable and can only be left to the conscience of each individual. The pantheistic mystical version of this is also misguided, in that it mistakes oneness with nature for harmony and peace, when in reality nature is at war with itself and conflict (including conflict against nature itself) is a part of any genuine 'oneness with nature'. Contradiction is again shown to be foundational to reality. The Tao of Nature is non-violent but not pacifistic, it does not force itself but defends its integrity with a redirection of force against its assailants (note- the original Taoists of ancient China were notorious and aggressive rebels against authoritarian governments, few were pacifists). Again those pacifists rejecting this need to adopt a transcendental mystical position and achieve a harmony in spirit rather than nature. Thus returning to the problems mentioned above and once again revealing religion (like all ideological slavery) to be a dangerous repressive force. Assuming something as thoughtful as an ideology exists. In the worse cases all there is is conditioned belief and selfish desire for heavenly rewards, the ultimate social control mechanism. A more modern form of moral pacifism (apart from the cold 'rationalist' form mentioned earlier) is the empathic aversion to harming another living being, but while commendable, in modern life this is only viable within the limited consciousness of the sheltered existence. Many situations exist in which the only way to protect a majority from harm (or even another minority) is to defend them with counter-violence from a harmful minority. Aversion to harming the latter is identical to complicity in the harm to their victims, something which should be of greater aversion to those capable of love. But when this harm is invisible (as in the case of the comfortable slave-owner unaware of the suffering of his slaves) the counter-aversion is not present (the slave-owner is averse to harming other slave-owners). Today slave relations are fortunately rarer in western countries (surviving only in wage-slavery and gender relations) but they are still there in their relation with the third world. The hardcore pacifist might respond to this with a case for just change without violence, but when was slavery ever abolished anywhere without it, mankind is stubborn and not a rational animal. A final defence might be the cry of those incapable of violence to any living thing, but this almost pathological condition is one that would lead to their death in nature and so is a terminal disease (one usually brought on by excessive suffering and heightened sensitivity), best treated as a symptom of mental distress rather than morality. The only remaining defence is the disguised cowardice of the emotionally dead. As Nietzsche observed 'morality' and 'virtue' are all too often masks hiding weakness and selfishness. Tactical pacifism is somewhat different. The tactical pacifist is not against violence per se, they are only against violence in a particular situation. This often makes sense, if engaged in conflict with a larger group with superior fire power fighting them on a different level is often the only way. Thus in demonstrations were the authorities can shoot to kill tactical pacifism is always the best stance (until numbers are sufficient to enable a more militant proportional response). Some have argued that Ghandi was a tactical pacifist (pointing to his support for W.W.I), however in reality examination of his ideology reveals he was merely a hypocrite. But even 'tactical pacifism' is flawed because in its pure form it is just as totalitarian as moral pacifism, excluding violence in all circumstances in a given situation. In this sense it is more strategic than tactical. This makes it inflexible and allows it to easily degenerate into moral pacifism with all the problems mentioned above. It is not an accident that strategic pacifism is often the favoured approach of the self-centred, hypocritical and cowardly, bourgeois left. In contrast the true tactical pacifist adopts a pacific stance in an appropriate situation, but is open to a change of tactics if the situation changes (questions on the role of the activist in maintaining or effecting the situation are too complex to enter into in depth here, but generally a non-violent situation is the ideal to be maintained). Whether this can be called real pacifism is open to question, many would regard it as simply the only valid starting position of the non-violent stance. Against even this there are some who would say that any talk of tactics or strategy smacks of 'authoritarian rationalism', and that any political action should be impulsive and irrational if it is to negate the 'tyranny of reasonableness' (though this does not necessarily commit them to violence and is perfectly compatible with a non-violent stance). Again this is a complex issue and so best left to individual choice (no one has the right to condemn another's action when it is performed under conscience). That last point leads to another factor in both 'tactical pacifism' and non-violence. Any non-authoritarian political movement relies on the autonomous actions of a range of individuals and groups, an attempt to regulate their behavior on a party line is always authoritarian. The tactical 'pacifist' functions within an affinity group and tries to maintain a non-violent situation for as long as possible, but is not tied to that stance as an imprisoning strategy, nor can they condemn the actions of others outside their affinity group (if those actions are based on an alternative conception of non-violent action or represent the authentic emotions of the oppressed victims of society), all they can do is engineer positive situations. In contrast the moral pacifist is essentially authoritarian and will condemn the action of anyone acting outside of the moral constraints of their tunnel reality. Thus moralism is once again shown to be the slippery slope to totalitarianism. This is not only idealistically dangerous it is also practically dangerous, solidarity is a necessity in any struggle for liberation, justice and love, consensus is always impossible and the exclusion of any position (that is not at odds with that struggle) weakens solidarity making victory impossible and defeats our objectives. Spurious arguments are usually made against non-pacifism attempting to exclude it, one is that 'violence is what the authorities want'. Why this should be has never been explained, the authorities are just as capable of suppressing a peaceful activity as they are a 'violent' one, as experience has often shown. Neither is the general public alienated by violence (most love it in fact, supporting the bombing of Dresden in W.W.II, the death penalty and renting video nasties and shoot em up games by the score. If anything pacifism alienates us from the public making us seem like unworldly saints). Those that object to attacks on institutions and the bourgeois order are as much a problem as the authorities they collaborate with, regardless of whether they are a majority or a minority, pleasing them is not in our interest (the myth that such a group actually constitutes the majority of the population is the hope the dumb media plays on, and the paranoia of the meek revolutionaries fears). Given that, and that fact that pacifism has never changed history in any radical sense apart from a few counterproductive reforms (such as post-Ghandian Indian capitalism), it would seem that a more accurate charge is 'pacifism is what the (clever) authorities want'. Another spurious argument is that the paradigm of struggle, conflict and aggression is a patriarchal product and that a feminine ethos of peace, harmony and compassion is more revolutionary. But this confuses the true feminine with the false feminine. The true feminine is an awareness of the wholeness and interconnectedness of nature, and primarily of maternalism and receptiveness (features generated by female biology), but this includes closeness to all aspects of nature, including the more 'masculine' aggressive aspects, and maternalism as the forceful protection of the weak from predators. The false feminine of meekness, humility, unconditional love, self-sacrifice and grace is purely a patriarchal social construction, exploiting the true feminine in ways that keeps the 'slave-gender' docile, compliant and in non-consensual bondage. It was also the trick exploited by the empire of Roma (the antithesis of Amor) to later enslave both genders with its Christianity. A related fable is that masculine aggression is the evil behind the exploitation of nature and society. In fact the opposite is the case, a lack of connection with nature, and its species (including other humans), is the problem, only from a transcendental, nature-hating and alienated anti-humanist position is exploitation possible. Descent into the 'divinity' of raw nature is what is needed to 'save the planet'. A raw nature that includes both the so-called 'masculine' and 'feminine'. On a spiritual level it is only in an authentic immersion in evolutionary conflict that dualism will one day be overcome. Even for those that ultimately want to live in a utopia founded on love, the darker regions of life can have a positive reality. As Vaneigem observes, the collision of the will to live with its exploitation in the residues of power produces a zone of corruption, the 'interworld'. But like everything at hand even the interworld has its teleological role in evolutionary and (revolutionary) change. A subversive move of turning the products of the dying order against itself. As Vaneigem puts it in The Revolution of Everyday Life : "With its phantoms, its obsessions, its outbursts of hate, its sadism, the interworld is like a cage of wild animals driven mad by their imprisonment. Anyone is free to go down there by means of dreams, drugs, alcohol or the disordering of the senses. Its violence asks only to be freed. A good climate to steep oneself in, if only to reach the consciousness which dances and kills - what Norman O. Brown calls the 'Dionysian consciousness'". None of this is an argument in favour of violence or a glorification of the so called 'darker aspects of life', merely one against naïve pacifism and in favour of a realization of what has to be passed through in our escape. Every alchemical journey has its negrido. In a last defence the pacifist can argue in favour of the 'modificational stance', that is natural aggression and empathic outrage can be channeled into psychological sublimated forms or more radically evolved into new forms. The non-violent can also recognize these mechanisms, but can be more realistic in their realization that some passions cannot be sublimated into 'safe' forms disconnected from their teleological function, they demand a more authentic expression, and that evolution, while real, is a slow process, one that alas does not happen instantaneously or at will. The most spiritual lesson to learn from all this is perhaps that as the Taoists and their ilk have observed for centuries extreme manifestations naturally lead to their opposites. Pacifism leads to more violence (the Ghandi case being a prime example, as are the resentful frustrations of some pacifists who vent their repressed venom on loved ones rather than more appropriate targets), while instrumental violence leads only to the peace of death. Aggression and affection are two movements in the same dance, both need its opposite to exist, and both have their role in life. Only an appropriate response leads to evolutionary change, which means neither being trapped in the rigid category of the 'spiky' or the suffocating category of the 'fluffy', but increasing freedom, equality and love in ways most effective in any given situation (according to one's own instinct and conscience).

The Revolt of Love, by Frater Eros.

Violence does not achieve any thing, apart from driving the cycle of oppression onwards forever. In its spasmodic form it is atavistic, in its extreme instrumental form it is the pathological tool of the weak. The animal kingdom is founded on violence and has entered an evolutionary dead end because of it. The human-animal has evolved to a state where it can break free from this real 'wheel of samsara'. By genetic 'accident' and natural selection the human infant's brain is underdeveloped at birth, it lacks the hard wired instincts of its genetic predecessors and has had to replace these with socialized drives. The development of language and culture means that this socialized foundation is consciously manipulatable. In short we can become the masters of our own evolution. This is not to fall for naïve social constructionism, we all intuitively know that our bodies are charged with the forces of life that drive us on. Forces that can be creative or destructive depending on circumstance, but unlike our animal kindred, how we conceptualize and channel these drives is entirely a matter of socialization and culture. Neither is this saying we are outside of nature, merely that nature now includes the capacity to shape itself through us. How would we recreate nature, ideally we would live in a world of peace and pleasure that also preserves our autonomy as authentic individuals. A culture of this kind is difficult to achieve but possible. It is also inevitable as it is driven by the strongest power in the universe, love. Seen globally such a culture could take centuries to evolve, but on an individual level it can occur far quicker. We are not puppets totally immersed in our culture, we also have our own self-culture and the micro-cultures we form with our associates. True, mass culture is often the mire that holds us make but it is not an unfordable mire. And with the aid of ancient techniques and parallel psychotropic fungal evolution we can boast our evolutionary potential and free ourselves from the conditioning influence of the mass. It is perfectly possible both to liberate ourselves and create a micro-culture of resistance. Such a mindset is incompatible with anykind of instrumental violence and distances itself from any confrontational act. Rather it seeks to subvert on a higher level and refuses to play the same game as its oppressors. Regrettably we retain our aggressive drives and defenses - we cannot deny these totally - but even here we can channel them into something positive. Destruction is a necessary pre-requisite of any new creation, new order needs chaos to emerge from, and sometimes force is needed preserve our integrity and achievements from attack. But such violence that is necessary should always be minimalised and avoided, and entered into only as an extension of our affirmation of life - an empowering and liberating act of revolt born out of love. Hatred, malice and resentment, while often understandable and natural - and so never to be repressed, are inevitably counter to our aims. And ultimately they too must be sublimated into a positive expression rather than denied. A world of plenty without frustration would be a world without hate. The key to effective resistance is imagination and subversion, we do not have to meet force with force but can dissipate it with skillful manipulations. Like the martial artist we can turn our enemies force away from its target and into other channels. We can confuse and defuse. We can also re-root our energies into the wild and exciting rather than the chaotic and destructive. This is always the only real possibility, it is immensely difficult but should not be jeopardized by foolish acts that distance us from our inevitable future.

QUESTION

HOW DIFFERENT ARE THESE TWO PERSPECTIVES?
IS A CHOICE REQUIRED OR A SYNTHESIS?
OR SHOULD THE ANSWER BE INDEFINITELY DEFERRED?
PERHAPS THE ONLY AUTHENTIC ANSWER IS TO BE FOUND IN LIVING OUR OWN LIVES ACCORDING TO OUR OWN CONSCIENCE?





STOP PRESS

AS THIS IS IN PRODUCTION NEWS COMES IN OF THE CANCELATION OF THIS YEARS CANNABIS RALLY AND FESTIVAL. THE EVENT HAS NOW BEEN RESCHEDULED TO 16TH JUNE 2001. THE DIONYSIAN UNDERGROUND HOPES TO BE ABLE TO ACT IN SUPPORT OF THIS IMPORTANT EVENT.

Book Revues

Gods of Love and Ecstasy :

The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus by Alain Danielou

In this recent reprinting of the classic French book 'Dionysos and Shiva', Danielou variously argued that the Greek god Dionysos had his origins in the Indian deity Shiva, imported to the Aegean at some early date, or perhaps more plausibly that both gods were derived from a common Paleolithic ancestor, a shamanic 'Lord of the Animals', whose cult spread east and west at the end of the stone age, in nomadic migrations, with Shiva being the closest (geographically and archetypally) to the original. Danielou is clearly an expert on Sivaism, and the book is a wealth of parallels between this diverse cult and a reconstructed Dionysianism. Given that much of the secret Dionysian teachings have been lost, Danielou argues they can be more extensively recreated through a study of Sivaism. The book is a great piece of comparative mythology but its thesis is not really convincing. While Dionysos does have a great many parallels with Shiva (to point of them almost being identical) neither is derived from the other, and the origins of Dionysos are now generally believed to have been in Africa rather than the East. But that said the book does provide ample evidence for a universal Paleolithic cult that spawned similar deities all over the ancient world, of which Shiva and Dionysos are the purest survivors. Stories claiming the unity of Shiva and Dionysos date back as far as the Hellenic period. Alexander's army claimed to have passed through valleys of ivy on their way into India, a sign for them that Dionysos had passed that way, and on discovering Shiva declared him to be in reality Dionysos himself. Similarly at places like Nysa in the Indus Valley, self-proclaimed Indian 'devotees of Dionysos' were said to have run out of their villages to greet Alexander, declaring their fellow faith, forming alliances and joining with his army in a spontaneous orgiastic bacchanal! Later Dionysos was said to have been born on the local mountain of Nysa (identified with Mount Meru) by these villagers (Sanskrit 'Maha-Deva-Nysa' becoming Indo-Greek 'Dion-Nysa' and later 'Dion-Nysos'). In reality what is more likely was that an attempt to Hellenize was going on from the Greek side (from where this historical data comes), while a strategy of appeasement and alliance may have been adopted by some tribal Sivaics on the Indian side (who could have discovered Alexander's inclination towards Dionysos, and the latter's similarity with Shiva). The more precise parallels between Dionysos and Shiva (such as the image of them riding on a tiger or panther) may have come about through mutual exchanges in this period as syncretism set in (though this was something effecting upper class Greeks and Indo-Greeks, in Gandharan, Indus Valley and the Bactrian regions, more than popular Indian Sivaism). The close parallels between Dionysianism and Sivaism are undeniable however. Not only do both traditions have similar roots and tenets, but both were divided (by local evolution within a liberal theology) into a diverse variety of 'schools of thought'. What's more these 'schools' also show similarities and seem to have evolved in parallel. For instance the most ancient form of Sivaism, the Pasupata cult (in its pre-Vedic form), is closest to the original cult of Dionysos, while the Kapalika cults were similar the Sabazian Dionysos cults of Thrace and the northern Aegean, and the later cults of Kashmiri Sivaism, and especially 'Heroic Saivism' in the south, are close to the ascetic and transcendental offshoots of Dionysianism found in the Orphic Mysteries. The evolutionary and developmental similarities of the cults demonstrate that the roots of these traditions are in fact in the human psyche. Questions of theology, mythological detail and the true nature and origin of these 'gods' is somewhat irrelevant when we realize they ultimately represent forces in human psychology, and their parallels in nature. This is where Danielou's book fails, while a great source of theological and mythic detail is does not convey any sense of the spirit of the Dionysian or the Sivaic, and the reader is left to look elsewhere in search of this. Other problems include a certain chauvinistic attitude in Danielou's writing and in his promotion of a universal 'natural order'. But his claim that this kind of spirituality can invoke an 'ecstatic consciousness' capable of changing our relationship with the world and perhaps even 'saving the planet' is a bold and well made one On the whole this is a very informative academic and thought provoking text, but lacks poetry and vision.

The Green Man, Companion and Gazetteer,

Ronald Miller, S. B. Publications

This little book picked up a few months back is also worth reading. Documenting every known carving of the Green man figure in Britain and abroad and examining associated traditions, this is a useful guide to those interested in homegrown folk myth and underground 'pagan religion' in the British Isles. Of most interest to those researching Dionysian mythos is the authors conclusion that the most likely candidate for the origin of this mysterious wild figure is a British adaptation of the Roman Bacchus. An informed conjecture bringing Dionysos even closer to home.

Dionysos Rising :

The Birth of Cultural Revolution Out of the Spirit of Music,

E. M. Jones

This is a genuinely hilarious book. Jones, author of such bizarre books as 'Degenerate Moderns - Modernity as Rationalized Sexual Misbehavior' and 'Monsters from the Id' (which attacked horror fiction as the signs of a 'sick society'), here produces another diatribe against modern society, and this time counterculture in particular, which he claims has its roots in the 'satanic' pagan cult of Dionysos! The central thesis of this book is that European culture 'fell' with the end of classicism. A cultural apocalypse dramatically played out in the 'demise of classical music', and the rise of rock 'n roll and the avant garde. But this was no historical accident according to Jones but a deliberate conspiracy of 'sexual revolutionaries' plotting to undermine Christian morality! Jones traces this satanic plot from Woodstock back to the well known Satanist Mick Jagger(!?) and the very origins of Rock music. The whole bunch being rooted in a countercultural conspiracy, subverting society through sex, drugs and in particular music, for their own sinister ends. But it is not only popular music that is to blame, Stockhausen and Schoenberg are also targeted as the deliberate destroyers of Christian culture, and the assassins of classical music. This countercultural Illuminati is traced back further to Wagner and Nietzsche, particularly the latter's declaration of the 'death of God', his transcendence of 'conventional morality' and his subversive text 'The Birth of Tragedy', evoking the ancient Dionysian ethos, ideas he initially shared with Wagner, and which apparently were also behind the Dresden uprising in 1848! (which Wagner took part in alongside the anarchist Bakunin). Jones identifies a secret conspiracy of political, cultural and sexual revolutionaries, dating back from this time, who are still active today and extend their evil influences into contemporary culture (alas he fails to capitalize on the indebtedness of the post-moderns to Nietzsche thus not encompasing his conspiracy wide enough) . He sees this conspiracy as the revival of an ancient form of subversion first seen in Ancient Greece, the cult of Dionysos. Unfortunately his main evidence comes from an extraordinary bad reading of the Greek playwright Euripides. As another reviewer of his book puts it succinctly: "Jones uses Euripides' 'Bacchae' to illustrate that Dionysus is the destructive "spirit of the antichrist" who would destroy both his worshippers (Jones says Agave represents Dionysus' worshippers) and his opponents (Jones says Pentheus represents Dionysus' opponents). There are many important points about Euripides' 'Bacchae' that Jones conveniently ignores. Perhaps the most important is explained by Dionysus himself in the prologue: both Pentheus AND Agave oppose worship of Dionysus, and it is for the sin of 'impiety' that Dionysus punishes them BOTH. Euripides' characters are not "damned if they do [worship Dionysus], damned if they don't" as Jones claims." I more general terms Jones sees the whole culture around Dionysos as being the beginnings of the disintegration of Western Civilization. This book would be very useful if it was better written, it could be turned around into something genuinely revolutionary, in the manner of Burrough's reversal of Spengler's 'Decline of the West', making it into a countercultural bible for the Beats. But as it stands its evidence and argument is little more than a chain of wild accusations, rumour mongering and guilt by association. Even so it will no doubt improve the standing of Dionysianism in the annals of subversion!

William Blake,

Kathleen Raine, Thames and Hudson

This classic book on Blake was reissued last year to tie in with the then upcoming Blake exhibition. An informative and lavishly illustrated text, at an affordable price (unlike other Blake bandwagon rip offs), this is THE book to get on the man. The book gives the complete breakdown on the life and work of the visionary seer, and an analysis of his message. Most interesting for me was the elucidation on The Marriage of Heaven and Hell, one of Blake's most profound works. A synthesis of his studies of the mysticism of Boehme (which also greatly influenced Hegel), the alchemy of Fludd, Agrippa and Paracelsus and his wide knowledge of esotericism and Gnosticism. The text contains a deep vision of a spiritual reality beyond all dualism, even beyond good and evil, as Raine puts it: "Christianity has never sufficiently understood what Jung has called the 'ambivalence of the archetypes'. No psychic energy, or mood of the soul, is merely good or merely evil; the face turned depends on the circumstances. This is a truth well understood in Mahayana Buddhism, whose deities have their peaceful and angry aspects; also in Hinduism, were Kali and Shiva have their mild and terrible faces, or in their equivalents in Ancient Greek paganism; or in Jewish tradition of the Kabbalistic Tree of Life. Blake wrote 'there is no progress without contraries'. Jesus, he concludes 'was all virtue, and acted from impulse not from rules'. Blake's 'Hell', or 'Energy', is one of the modes of life; 'the roaring of lions, the howling of wolves, the raging of the stormy sea, and the destructive sword are portions of eternity to great for the eye of man'". Hell for Blake was just as valid as Heaven, ultimately the two had to be seen as one and united. But the text is also of political importance and its underlying motif also supports Blake's politics of that period. The destructive forces of Revolution were seen as a necessary preparation for his New Jerusalem. While Blake always rejected violence ('everything that lives is holy') he also saw life as dependent on context, free it was mild and loving, impeded it was rebellious and violent. Energy chained became warlike and fierce. Blake represented this in his mythology in Luvah and Orc. Luvah, Blake's Eros, was the eternal archetype of passion, Orc was his manifestation on Earth, oppressed and rebellious, a dangerous Dionysian figure. 'Energy is eternal delight', and life, no less holy in 'the new born terror' with 'fiery limbs and flaming hair', than the unimpeded child in the 'Songs of Innocence', follows its own law. Orc, the child who 'burns in the flames of his own energy', is hailed the Messiah of the New Age by Blake, whose prophet he believed himself to be. As Raine says, " In Blake the 'starry king' (the tyrant) is overcome by the 'fiery child', later developed as Red Orc, spirit of the energy of life. Orc is Eros, but he is also Revolution, for 'when thought is closed in caves, then love will show its root in deepest hell.'" This also ties in closely with Blake's use of the myth of Eros and Psyche which in his work becomes Luvah and Vala (also known in her liberated form as 'Jerusalem'). Which is itself a reworking of the Eleusinian and Orphic Mysteries. Those of us interested in the Dionysian mythos will not be surprised to discover from Raine's book that Blake was greatly influenced by Thomas Taylor's 'Dissertation on the Eleusinian and Bacchic Mysteries' (or by another similar claim in Akroyd's recent biography of Blake, that his poem 'The Tyger' was apparently influenced by the ancient mural 'Bacchus and his Tiger', found in contemporary accounts of 'orgiastic Priapic cults', popular amongst mythological scholars then. As well as being another affirmation of his revolutionary politics. The Tyger is effectively Orc in bestial form). But it would be wrong to cast Blake as just a fiery revolutionary (despite the groundbreaking booklet by Peter Marshall, 'William Blake, Visionary Anarchist', who systematically analyses Blake's texts and life, demonstrating the mystical anarchism inherent in all his ideas, to the extent of declaring him the "founding father of British anarchism'). Blake was also an apostle of love, both in the 'Christian' sense and the erotic (having an affair with the feminist Mary Wolstonecroft, William Godwin's partner, at the same time as enjoying an open relationship with his own life long companion). Blake was in many ways a proto-hippy (it's a shame that Raine doesn't highlight this element, or the well known influence he had on the likes of Allen Ginsberg, ironically her first work on Blake was written in 1968), whose ultimate vision was of a world where the 'lion would lay down with the lamb'. The only problem with the book is Raine's attempts to categorize Blake as a Neo-Platonist or Swedenborgian mystic, and as a republican in politics (just as others have categorized him as a Druid, or socialist, or even perhaps as an 'anarchist'). While this established Blake's vision within a set of coherent ideas, elevating him from the 'eccentric' he had previously been seen as, this is not really an accurate picture. In fact Blake was seeking to go beyond such labels and ideologies and contact a deeper reality, anarchically using the archetypes and symbols of other religions and systems as his language, as well as creating his own. As he said himself, "I must create my own system, or be enslaved by another man's".

Back Channal: dionysian korespondance

Still a shortage of letters, write to use you bastards...... 8o)

Dionysos, whose cult emblem was the erect phallus, was also a god of healing, and his name, when broken down to its original parts, IA-U-NU-ShUSh..."Semen, seed that saves', is comparable with the Greek Nosios, 'Healer', an epithet of Zeus.

John M. Allegro, The Sacred Mushroom and the Cross