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DIONYSIAN MYSTERIES |
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by Arthur Edward Waite From A New Encyclopaedia of Freemasonry Phallic Mysteries. -- The characteristic symbol of the Dionysia was the Phallus, representing the fecundity of Nature, as a plausible hypothesis suggests. Its selection in preference to grapes seems to have escaped commentary. In the purification of Candidates by air they leaped up to clutch a Phallus composed of flowers. Aristophanes and Diodorus are witnesses to the recurrence of this emblem, which was worn by women on their heads and at Lavinium was paraded through the streets. Whatsoever may have remained over to represent the original intent of the observances, regarded as Rites of Initiation, the externalities and practice of the Festivals were orgies of wine and sex: there was every kind of drunkenness and every aberration of sex, the one leading up to the other. Over all reigned the Phallus, which -- in its symbolism a rebours -- represented post ejaculationem the death-state of Bacchus, the god of pleasure, and his resurrection when it was in forma arrecta. Of such was the sorrow and of such the joy of these Mysteries.
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