Dionysian Mass

 

A ritual written to honour and explore Dionysus and his gifts in our lives. 

PREritual- Have participants being a song or poem or piece of witting that they associate with freedom or ecstasy or Dionysus, and a small object to represent their balanced, everyday self

Words in purple are objects needed for the ritual outside of normal ritual tools and items

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Main (non-working) altar is covered with a large black cloth or something to create a ‘cave’ like area blocked from rest of the room; there are 7 ‘stations’ set up around room

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Make Sacred Space in your usual way but with thyrsos

Create and explain khernips - create with burning leaf or other material plunged into the salt water on altar, then hand washing

Preamble

In this sacred place, this sacred time, we invoke the ancient madness of Dionysus—not as illness, but as sacred ecstasy. This is no descent into chaos without meaning, but a deliberate unshackling of the soul from the confines of reason, ego, and social constraint. It is the madness of the vine, the theater, the dance, the storm; the madness of Dionysus is a gift, a divine intoxication, a holy frenzy through which we become our true selves- vessels of the primal spark of being.

Dionysus’ madness is a blessing. It strips away pretense and reveals the raw, trembling truth beneath. In this sacred state, the mask of identity falls, and the boundaries between the self and the world dissolve. The laughter that bubbles up is the laughter of the cosmos; the tears shed are the earth’s own weeping. Through rhythm, wine, chant, and trance, we open the gates to that realm where logic bows before mystery.

As we begin this rite, let us not fear the madness that comes. Let it move through us like wine through the blood, like wind through the trees. Let it shatter what must be broken and nourish what lies waiting to grow. We do not call upon Dionysus for control or safety—we call upon him for truth, for ecstasy, for transformation. Let us step barefoot into the vineyard and lose ourselves, and in loosing find what was never truly lost.

 

First invocations

(LIGHT CANDLE FLAME) Goddess Hestia, sacred flame, warmth, heat, furnace, fuel, centre, order, first born and last. Oldest of the Olympians, first swallowed by Khronos-Time, last returned in the purge of heaven- first born and last… We honour your order, we thrive in the light of your sacred flames; bless our homes and keep us safe, but keep your tradition and stability from us just for tonight, and only for tonight: in this circle, and only within this circle. We honour you but we do not invoke.

(LIGHT CANDLE FOR APOLLON ) Apollon of light and song, lord of prophesy, hear us. Bless us with your gift of sound and song and dance and sway and your gift of understanding.., but tonight, and only tonight… in this circle and only this circle, withhold your blessings of constraint and control… Apollon, tonight Bard and not Judge, bless us with hidden knowledge.

(LIGHT CANDLE) Nymphs and Satyrs and Maenads of myth, panthers and serpents and Silenios and Kentaurs and Pan… And all those in the train of Dionysus: dance around us this night! Dance around our circles’ edge, dance around and draw us into the realm of magic and myth, dance around us and lead us into the realm of our Lord, draw us into the world of Dionysus

(LIGHT CANDLE FOR ARIADNE) Lady of the Labyrinth, palace princess. darling of the dancing floor – beloved of Dionysus: Ariadne! Ariadne of the starry crown and of the coiled clue…. The clue… the clew…

A clew, a coiled and balled length of yarn, a trail left behind so we may find our way again. Ariadne was the daughter of Minos, was the sister of the Minotaur – the beast that fed on flesh and fostered fear through the four corners of the earth. Ariadne who aided Theseus with a ball of yarn, a clew, aided him so he may find his way into the maze of the Minotaur and upon his victory find his way out.

EXPLAIN (while unraveling and cutting yarn lengths for each person) each person ties (pre-chosen) item/amulet that represents their everyday ‘sane’ self to the yarn (should be long enough to go around circle at least 3 times) walk and leave yarn around circle edge while chanting:

From tangled dark, to path well laid,
The clew unwinds, the fear shall fade.

We leave our judgment – useful, needed in day to day life…. but there is no judging here. We leave our fear – needed to survive outside this place yes, but we surrender to fearlessness here. We leave our sorrow, we leave our doubt, we leave our shame and we leave behind what holds us back.

Ariadne of the clew and of the labyrinth and of dancing floor, lead us safety through our dances this night, both the dancing of our flesh and the dancing of our souls. Ariadne, most holy, utterly pure, lead us forth to your lord Dionysus, mark and guard and guide our way.

Preamble about Dionysus

Dionysus. God of wine and theater, of madness and ecstasy and of the unending well-spring of the untamed spirit. Born of a mortal mother – well, in a fashion at least, his first birth… or perhaps his second…

Born of Semele, princes of Thebes, unbelieved by her kin, mocked by her sisters: you do NOT carry the child of a god, they cried, you were deceived or else you lie to hide your shame. But she was not false, she did not lie, she in truth carried the child of Zeus within her. Hera knew she did not lie and so she, in the form of an old maid went to her rival, she went and she whispered… perhaps your sisters are right, after all, how could you know if he was a god? Perhaps he lied? Or worse… not a god, but a monster?

Semele fell to doubt, to her disaster. She called to her heavenly lover and he appeared. She made him swear to her to do one thing for her, any one thing she asked; in honour of the child she carried, and to seal it he swore to do so by the river Styx – an oath even the Gods themselves are unable to sunder. She said to him: prove it. Show me your true self, your true form in all your divine glory. He begged, he plea; he could not break his oath. He showed her. It was too much. His divine form, as pure as lighting, was too much for the fragile form and flesh of the mortal woman. She burned. She burned and so would have burned the child within her, save Zeus took the unborn godling and sewed him shut inside his own divine flesh to finish growing and forming and becoming. And he grew, and he formed and he became and he was born a second time…. Or third… there are so many tales.

He was born again, yet one more time, later in his youth as he wandered the world in search of his place in it. Hera’s wrath was not yet sated and she drove Dionysus to madness, causing him to wander in a frenzied state until he stumbled upon the revelries of Kybele the great Mother of the Gods. Kybele took pity upon the youth and initiated him into her mysteries, he wandered a youth but was reborn a god. The god of the vine that adorned the heads of the initiates, the god of the fruit that it bore, the god of transformation – the god fermented and distilled, the god of the wine and the madness and the healing and the release that it bought on and out and forth.

Readings

Let us call upon Dionysus with words close to our hearts and in calling on him bestow those words upon him as an offering

Each person present read or share a song or poem or piece of witting that they associate with freedom or ecstasy or Dionysus

Invocation of Dionysus

(HOLD MASK HIGH)

The god is not far, but near!
He walks among those who love him,
He dances in the hearts of those who call his name!
Blessed are those who drink his cup,
For they shall know the truth of the world!

All participants but priest/ess holding mask dance around the priest/ess while chanting:

Loud-roarer, thrice born

Come, god, come
Io Io Dionysus

Come, god, come

The god has come! The god is here!

Hail Dionysus!

Hail!

Place the mask in the ‘cave’ area, have battery operated candles behind eyes

Confession

We have purified and made pure this circle that we are now in, purified and made pure ourselves. But we carry, still, within us things that weigh us down and things that weight us into the real world, the everyday world, the mundane world. Things we have done to ourselves, to our spirit, ways we have wounded our…. Selves.

One bye one, we shall go before the god and confess to him how we are hurting our own spirit, how we are fighting against our very being, and ask him to absolve us and bless us and give us the strength to heal and be whole.

Each participant goes one by one. After last participant is done the ‘cave’ is removed. All invocation candles moved to main altar, working altar moved out of the way.

Toys

All sit, explain call and response in each part)
(Sink, relax…… let the outside world fall away…. )

In a time before time, in the glowing cradle of the cosmos the gods walk freely, and among them: Zagreus, the child of Persephone and Zeus. Zagreus, radiant with divine potential. He is joy in motion, a flame of curiosity. Zagreus, Chosen by lord Zeus to be the next king-over-all, the next lord of heaven.

Hera, Queen of Heaven, jealous of her own position and that of her own children is slighted by this, and so calls upon the titans, those raw and untamed powers that helped forge creation. She called upon them and sets them a task – destroy the child, destroy the son of Zeus.

Wary of his power and knowing they can not kill a god – a deathless one, they seek to encase him in flesh and blood, they seek to destroy him by creating him.

(HOLD FORTH AND PASS AROUND BALL)

The Titans approach Zagreus gently, smiling with silver tongues. One holds forth a golden ball—gleaming like the sun, and like the cycle of death and rebirth with no beginning, with no end.

They roll the ball to him across the ether.

And he… laughs. He chases it. It rolls, and he follows.

See, little god, they whisper, the joy of motion… the delight of grasping. This is the world’s first lure: form, shape, gravity.

Zagreus rolls. He lands. He roots.

And so do you.

Feel your body, anchored now. Let yourself drop deeper into your form.
You are incarnate, just as he.

I roll. (all repeat ‘I roll’)
I land. (all repeat ‘I land’)
I root. (all repeat ‘I root’)

(HOLD FORTH AND PASS AROUND DOLL)

The Titans offer him another toy. A doll, shaped like a tiny person, with eyes that shine like glass.
It smiles without moving. Zagreus reaches for it. He touches its face. He giggles. It is other. And yet… it is like him.

Here is your double say the Titans, made for play. For the joy of touch, of discovery.

He holds it close. He forgets who he was for a moment and becomes the other, his mind slipping into that new form and worlds of imagination open to him, he senses and reaches and yearns for these new experiences.

And so do you,
You contain worlds within, just as he

I sense. (all repeat ‘I sence’)
I reach. (all repeat ‘I reach’)
I yearn. (all repeat ‘I yearn’)

(HOLD FORTH AND PASS AROUND YARN)

Now, soft wool is offered, a ball of yarn, strong as spirit, light as a cloud.

Zagreus grabs a strand, wrapping it around his arms. He plays, he tangles, loops and lassos, cradles and weaves and knots.

The Titans laugh. Here is power made form. You may weave the world… or bind yourself to it, young god

And he is bound, softly, joyfully, bound by ego and by expectations, he twists, he pulls, he binds.

And you are bound, just as he.

I twist. (all repeat ‘I twist’)

I pull. (all repeat ‘I pull’)

I bind. (all repeat ‘I bind’)

(HOLD FORTH AND PASS AROUND SPINNING TOP)

A spinning top is placed before him. It spins and it whirls, a little star upon the ground.

Zagreus watches it with wide eyes. It turns. It dances. It wobbles. See, child, the Titans say, this is the dance of the heart unsteady and yet sacred. Can you feel it? The dizzying balance of life? The joy and sorrow, spinning at once?

And Zagreus begins to dance with it. Round and round. He dances he wanders, he spins.

And like him, you exist, dancing, balanced upon a precarious point.

I dance. (all repeat ‘I dance’)

I wander. (all repeat ‘I wander’)

I spin. (all repeat ‘I spin’)

(HOLD FORTH AND PASS AROUND BULL ROARER)

Now, the Titans offer forth a bull roarer, carved of wood, tied with twine. They spin it and spin it, and it moans through the air. The sound is deep, ancient… like wind over graves… like thunder inside a cave. This is your voice, Zagreus.

Zagreus listens. His breath catches. The sound becomes his own.

He breaths he speaks, he calls, the bull roarer evokes the will put into words, the sound of creation.

You are a creator, just as he.

I breathe. (all repeat ‘I breath’)

I speak. (all repeat ‘I speak’)

I call. (all repeat ‘I call’)

(HOLD FORTH AND PASS AROUND KNUCKLE BONES)

The Titans laugh now. They grow bolder. They throw knucklebones to the ground—tokens of chance, fate formed into bone.

The Titans shout and chant, inviting Zagreus to play. He does. He throws the bones, and they scatter. Chance. Fate. Chaos. What is fate, young king? they shout. Let go of certainty now. Let the mystery settle like mist in your lungs. Who wins? Who sees? Who knows?

Zagreus does not know. Nor do we. But Zagreus keeps going forward into the unknown, and like him, so do we.

I see. (all repeat ‘I see’)

I lose. (all repeat ‘I lose’)

I win. (all repeat ‘I win’)

(HOLD FORTH AND PASS AROUND MIRROR)

The final gift. The last trap. The Titans give him a mirror, polished and still.

Zagreus leans in. He sees… himself, he sees the truth, sees his divine and infinite nature, sees his spark and spirit twined and twined with flesh and form, neither one above the other neither one lower. The mirror reflects all, he sees the illusion of separation melt away. He is, He becomes. He is transformed

He looks into the mirror and knows himself; and the moment he knows who he truly is…. the Titans strike. He is torn apart, dismembered, rent, wrecked and ruined.

You are soul married to substance, just as he.

I am. (all repeat ‘I am’)

I become. (all repeat ‘I become’)

I am transformed. (all repeat ‘I am transformed’)

The Titans tear Zagreus apart.

Seven pieces of sacred flesh, seven pieces of the god, the titans feast. And as the first drop of blood falls upon the greedy outstretched tongue, Zeus’ wrath is woken and all reality shakes to behold his rage. His holy lighting strikes forth from the heavens upon the Titans smiting them, burning them, incinerating them. And with them what remained of Zagreus. Flesh to ash. God to dust. The child-god is no more. He was born, he lived, he died.

And just as he, one day we all shall follow.

I was born (all repeat ‘I was born’)
I live (all repeat ‘I live)
And one day I shall die (all repeat ‘and one day I shall die’)

But this is not where the story ends, in fact in never ends – for two eternal things spring forth from the flames and the ashes of burned Titans and burned god.

The heart of Zagreus was unburned and saved, it was turned into a potion and given to the mortal Princess Semele to consume, she who was to become the mother of the God Dionysus, who would see the God through the second of his births.

And from the rest, from ash and agony… and burnt soil and stone - humanity is born.

We are not just mortal. We are Zagreus remade. Part god. Part Titan.
Born of spirit, bound by flesh, and destined for remembrance.

The toys that lure are also the keys to awakening

You are the Ball and the doll, the yarn, the top and the roarer, the toss of the bones, and the mirror and its reflection within.

You are what the Titans could not destroy. You are of both earth and starry heaven

I live. (all repeat ‘I live’)

I die. (all repeat ‘die’)

I shall be reborn. (all repeat ‘I shall be reborn’)

 

Stations of the Cup

explain will be walking the circle, and the call and response

For thousands of years humanity has sought communion and union with the divine, and for thousands of years one of the many way that we have found that union is though the sacred blood of Dionysus, through wine.

Wine brings both enthuseasmos and exstasis. The god within and our self without.

Exstais. Our spirits released, our minds opened, our inhibitions loosened all to celebrate the power of the eternal spirit in this world. Exstais – once you have felt your spirit soar you need never again doubt its existence, never again doubt your own eternity. That is the first of the gifts of the grapes.

The god within is the second. The birth and life and death of the god is mirrored in the life of the grape and the fermentation of wine… no… not mirrored… IS the life of the grape and the fermentation of the wine. Just as our Mother Gaia is not just the goddess OF the earth, but the very earth itself, and just as Father Heaven, Ouranos, not only ruled over the starry depths but is their very being and form – so too is Dionysus the wine – and by ingesting it we take the god into ourselves and mix and merge and meld with his majesty, we find our own godhood and become one with the universe divine.

Let us witness the life and the death of the god so that we may know him.

(Station One)

The Planting of the Seed (plant seed into pot of soil)

Unless a grape seed falls to the earth and dies, it remains alone. But if it dies, it bears much fruit.

The seed is buried in darkness, in stillness, in silence. This is the mystery of beginning.
All things must die to live again. In silence the seed sleeps, kissed by the underworld queen.
Demeter weeps above. Persephone smiles below. The seed splits open. And so begins the god’s return.

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

Dionysus, planter of secrets, sow the truth within us. Let us die to what we were, that we may rise in the vine of your being.

(Station Two)

The Growing Vine (hold up green vines, if enough each get a crown of vines)

Shoots break the surface. The vine dances upward in sunlight. Beauty and potential unseen in the seed, now rising toward sky. The green one rises! The vine climbs! Ivy and grape leaves coil in joy, and the breath of the god is in the breeze

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

Bloom within us, O Wild One. Let our souls reach like your tendrils toward the light.

(Station Three)

The Ripening Grapes (hold grapes)

Juice gathers. Time and sun draw sweetness from the vine. Maturity comes with waiting.

The god matures in the cluster, The fruit becomes ready for the cup.

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

Ripen us in your joy, O Bacchus. Give us patience to become what we was born to be.

(Station Four)

The Harvest (cut grapes off bunch)

The grape is taken from the vine—it must die to become sacred. We are plucked from the swinging world. From the branch we fall, laughing and weeping, For the knife is also a kiss.

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

O Dionysus, may we be willing to be taken when we are ripe. May we offer ourselves into transformation.

(Station Five)

The Crushing (Crush a grape in the hand)

Under foot, the grape is broken. Its juice flows. The skin tears. This is pain. This is ecstasy. This is surrender. Crush me, and I become true. Break me, and I flow forth. The blood of the grape is the blood of the god.

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

Break us, Dionysus, that we may be made whole. Let our spirits pour free into the mystery of becoming.

(Station Six)

The Fermentation (pour grape juice into a bottle and stopper it)

Darkness again. Stillness again. But inside, the grape changes. It bubbles. It sings silently. It becomes wine. This is death's alchemy. In the cask of night, the grape forgets itself. It dreams it is fire. It wakes as joy. The god stirs in the wine.

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

Ferment in us, Dionysus. Transform our wounds into wisdom, our grief into ecstasy.

(Station Seven)

The Sacred Cup (Pour wine)

The wine is poured. The cup is lifted. This is the grail. This is the god’s heart. This is our rebirth.

Drink, and know him. The grape and the wine. The god, reborn within your body.

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

Drink deeply, for this is his gift!
In the fruit of the earth is his soul, and in its pressings, his blood.
Whoever drinks, let them not drink in fear, but in ecstasy,
For He is with them in the dance, in the laughter, and in the wild night

This is the blood of the vine. Drink, and be divine. In this cup is the god entire. Through his blood, we awaken. Through his wine, we are made whole.

All drink

Io Dionysus! Iacchus! Evoe!

As the grape was planted, grown, crushed, and transfigured, so too are we transformed in the mysteries of the Vine.

In Dionysus, we live. In Dionysus, we die. In Dionysus, we rise again.

Io Dionysus!
Blessed is the vine that bears the god!
Blessed is the cup that grants rebirth!

We adore you, Dionysus, and we bless you.

All: For by your vine we are made divine.

Ecstatic Exploration (set timer? Play music)

We stand here in this place that is not a place, in a time out of time, we stand pure and purified having bared ourselves to the god, having meditated upon his births and life and deaths, having taken his very self into us….

We stand here in this place surrounded by tools of altered reality and tools of the altered mind, surrounded by the gods Toys and the gods music and by the spirits and beasts in the great gods train.

Let us revel in this place and in this time and lets us seek out the god in what ever way we deem fit, let us take this <TIME> and these tools to embrace our own divinity, to seek out ecstasy and embrace the god within!

All use tools or wine or dance or chant or whatever needed to try to grasp an altered state

There are rites of the ancient world that would be…. unseemly to us now, but there were rites of Dionysus that some of the ancient world thought unseemly even then. Sparagmos and omophagia.

Sparagmos. The rending of flesh, tearing it from the bones of a beast still living, dismantling and dismembering beast into meat and blood just as the grapes were rent, just as Dionysus was – beast standing in for god. Omophagia. The eating of raw flesh. Ingesting the might and the power of both the beast and the god, taking it within.

We have faced many heavy and heady truths tonight. In true Dionysian fashion let us end this night with the rending and ingestion of a sacrificed beast. But also in true Dionysian fashion, let us place this tradition on its head and turn a bloody release of pent up power into a celebration of frivolousness and joy!

Hang pinata and have everyone tear it apart

Closings

Ariadne of the dancing floor, lady of the labyrinth, you who have guided and guarded us on this night and this journey hear us! We give you thanks and honour!

Each find the end of their yarn around the edge of the circle and rewind it back to your amulet while chanting:

Through sacred maze, I find my place,
The clew returns my grounded grace.

Ariadne, most pure, we give you thanks, lend your blessings to us now and always. (PUT OUT CANDLE)

To the Nymphs and Satyrs and Maenads of myth, panthers and serpents and Silenios and Kentaurs and Pan… And all those in the train of Dionysus, we thank you for reveling this night with us and lending your air of mystery and joy. We send you back to that place of myth with honour and gratitude. (PUT OUT CANDLE)

Great Lord Apollon, we thank you for your gifts of music and understanding tonight and ask that you to return to us the restraint and logic that we need to wander in the world outside this circle. Lord of light, give us your blessings. With gratitude and with thanks. (PUT OUT CANDLE)

Gentle Hestia, lift your veil and return your gaze upon us. First born and last grant us your blessings, With gratitude and with thanks. (PUT OUT CANDLE)

The god is not far, but near!
He walks among those who love him,
He dances in the hearts of those who call his name!
Blessed are those who drink his cup,
For they shall know the truth of the world!

We have taken the god within ourselves and so we do not – we can not – bid him farewell. But we do give honour and thanks.

Lord Dionysus, Twice-born, thrice-born, eternally-rent-and-reborn. As you have given to us so do we give back to you. The eternal dance of divinity. Offer and offering, receiver and received.

Pour wine into an offering container (preferably full of soil)

Io Dionysus!!

Conclude with cakes and ale and closing the space in the usual way.