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Fulfilled his red and bleeding feasts Held the Great Mother's mountain flame Enhallowed I and named by name A
Bacchos of the mailed priests
Robed in pure white I have borne me clean From men's pained birth and coffined clay And exiled from my lips always
Touch of all meat where life has been
Invocation of the Kouretes
Come 0 Dithyrambos, Bacchos, come...
Bromios, come, and coming with thee bring
Holy hours of thy own holy spring.
Evoe, Bacchos! Hail, Paen, Hail!
Whom in sacred Thebes, the Mother fair
She thy one once Zeus to bear.
All the stars danced for joy
Mirth of mortals hailed thee, Bacchos, at thy birth!
In the tradition of the Kouretes, the male principle is reborn from the Mother into new life. This is a birth-song,
celebrating the Mother and Her full-grown Child. The Korybantes lead the chariot of the Goddess and this man-child
across the heavens (this is the horned Selene and Her Son). The Satyrs, brothers to Kouretes, performed the Goddess
revelries as well, as fertility aspects of Nature. The Dithyrambs brought in the aspect of the sacred Bull, Male Principle
of the Universe. It was the custom of the Dithyrambs to lead young men (the sons) through town with a live, festively
garlanded bull. All these acts were culturally diverse, yet focused on the same sacred image that of Mother and
Child.
In springtime, 0 Dionysus To Thy holy temple come To Elis with Thy Graces Rushing with Thy bull foot come Noble
Bull, Noble Bull!
Dionysus is a god of the people. As intruder into Hellenism, he represents the early religious instincts, now revived. He
is a gentle New Year God, who loves wine, women, men and the dance. His worshipers were a very distinguished
people of the mountains (Thrace, for the most part), not easily conquered. The satyrs, traditionally worshipers of a
Nature-god, were the attendants of Dionysus. It is only later, in the patriarchal Greek mythology, that satyrs become
horse-men, beings to be feared "because they rape women."
The Greeks were very quick with mythological justifications for their own hatred and prejudice against the conquered
people of the Old Order. As happens in cultural wars, the conquered people were told to reject all that was natural and
familiar to them, and to adopt the "new" ways and religion. They were made to feel evil, dangerous, ugly, lacking
breeding, but in possession of superior (unnatural) sexual passion and prowess. They were forced to deny their
religion, and fear what was once beloved. Satyrs were represented as fearsome in order to prevent the instant alignment
of women's sympathies with the Nature religions. It didn't work. Dionysus was recognized by women as the brilliant
Son of the Mother, and the women attached themselves readily to his worship, taking all manner of unheard-of
privileges as the "mad" Meneads.
file:///X|/B2DvD_1008____Wisdom_Ancient/The_Holy_Book_of_Women's_Mysteries/pp%20104-305.txt[8/19/2009 6:46:19 PM]
The women who followed the gentle, fun-loving, nature god Dionysus were not, strictly speaking, the counterparts of
Satyrs, since the latter implies a strictly gender code Thracian Mountain Men. Meneads were neighborhood
priestesses, whose task was to foster good luck in the community and officiate at community events. Meneads altered
their consciousness in their nature-worshipping rituals. The resulting Sacred Madness, achieved not necessarily with
wine but with Amanita muscaria, fermented mare's milk, ivy, laurel leaves, peyote and the like, was intended to
commune with Nature, to see Her secrets and be one with Her. Other names for these "mad" priestesses were
Mimallones, Klodones, Bassadirs, Thyiads, Potniades, names attached as well to the Goddesses worshipped in
religious ecstasy. Artemis is thus addressed: "Menead, Thyiad, Phoibad, Lyssad; Mad One, Rushing One, Inspired
One, Raging One."
Patriarchs found it difficult to digest the "excesses" of these women, to tolerate their freedom to rave and go out at
night. For the most part they allowed it only because of the threat of magical and powerful retribution if any man
interfered with Women's Mysteries. One legend tells how Penteus, ruler of an entire kingdom, was literally torn apart
by his own mother and sisters because he violated the sacredness of the women's worship. This served well in the
culture, to remind the new patriarchs that to pry into women's affairs always angers the Female Principle, causing her
to turn into Her Death-aspect, regardless of the rank or status of the offender.
Plutarch relates a story he heard from Klea, a High Priestess of Delphi. There was a religious war against the nature
religions, and the tyrants had taken sacred Delphi. Attendants of Dionysus, the Meneads, wandered into the city
following their revels, not knowing the city was in enemy hands. They went to the temple as usual to rest and sleep.
Still under the influence of their ritual, and unaware of danger, the Meneads slept, while the women of the city formed
a circle of protection around them. In silence, the women
of the circle waited until the Meneads woke, then attended to their needs and guided them stealthily out of the city to
escape detection by the soldiers and patriarchs. What a testimony this is to women's solidarity and women's religion!
The Salii
Just as the Kouretes served Rhea with their shields, so did the initiates of the Salii serve their Goddess, Themis.
Tradition called for initiates into the Salii to leap a ritual fire and roll flaming wheels down mountainsides. The
priestesses of Themis attended to each boy by anointing his five points, thus assuring him of immortality. Then he was
presented with his toga, shield and weapon, and received into the fraternity of the Salii. These rites were held at a
crossroads, sacred to Hecate. Rites of passage were held in the sacred temples of Hecate, because of Her importance as
a Goddess of Transformation.
The Salii were considered aspects of the sun, sun-priests serving the Triple Moon Goddess. Salii priesthoods
performed the rituals during the month of March because, although the Romans devoted this month to Mars, it was
previously and more traditionally held to be the month for the Rite of Passage for Boys. On March 17, Roman boys
assumed the ritual toga according to traditions much more ancient than Hellenism.
On March 14 there was a festival known as the Mamuralia, followed by the festival of Anna Perenna the next day.
This is the time of the year when the cycle of seasons is at the point of completion and continuation: the Vernal
Equinox. During the festival of Mamuralia, an old man of the community would dress in goatskins and be led through
the town while members of the community ritually purified him with white rods, symbolically driving him away. This
signified an exorcism of the past and the physical and psychic opening up of the new. As soon as the Old Year had
been expelled, the New Year God was introduced and everyone rejoiced, wishing each other a healthy and happy new
year.
More traditionally, this Old Year was a woman rather than a man. Her name was Anna, and she would pass herself off [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]