The Myth of Dionysius, Level One
In the beginning was Unaging Time, The First Principle. This Cause manifested two qualities within its own nature, Aether and Chaos. Aether is cosmic energy, described as a serpentine force in the Chaldean Oracle. Chaos is primordial undifferentiated substance. Together Aether and Chaos are Spirit and Matter and by their strivings the Cosmic Egg was formed.
The Orphic Egg was Being itself, the first born of unsurpassed time. From the Egg of the World came forth the luminous winged Phanes – The Universal Mind. Phanes is described by Orpheus as “a God without body with golden hue.
Phanes, the first-born of Space differentiates from his own essence great Mother Night. Upon Immortal Night, Phanes bestows the rulership of the World. Uranus, or Heaven is the child of Night and succeeds his Mother as the Lord of the Cosmic Order.
Uranus unites with the spiritual body of the Earth. From this union is born the Titans, the chief of whom is Chronos or Saturn. The Titans revolt against Heaven / Uranus and dismember him. Saturn seizes the Olympian Throne. Saturn devours all of his sons, but his wife Rhea through cunning, is able to save the infant Zeus or Jupiter. Later Zeus ascends the universal throne by destroying the power of hiw own Father Saturn.
Zeus, having dethroned Saturn, desired to Marry his own Mother. Rhea, to escape her sons advances, changed her form into a snake. Zues also assumed a serpents form and bound Rhea the the noose of Hercules. From the Union of Zeus and Rhea was born the goddess Persephone or Kore. Persephone is described as horned, with two heads and four eyes. She is two headed because one head faces outward and the other faces inwards. The Caduceus of Hermes represents the union of Zeus and Rhea in the form of two serpents.
Later Zeus consorts with his daughter Persephone in the form of a snake within a Sicilian cavern. The son of Zeus born of this union is Zagerus or Dionysius. Zeus centered all of his affection upon his divine son. As an infant Dionysius was seated on his Father’s throne with the great sceptre that ruled in his tiny hand. The playground of Dionysius was the broad field of space filled with worlds and softly blowing clouds. Here with the toys given to him by Zeus the child god spent his early years in constant joy. The playthings of Dionysius are described in the Orphic traditions as a dice, winged wheels, a spinning top, a ball, the apples of the Hesperides, and a fleece.
Hera or Juno, the sister-wife of Zeus and the mistress of the laws of the mundane sphere, was fearful and jealous of the power of Dionysius. With the aid of the Titans, she conspired to destroy Dionysius. The Titans, gathering the substances of space, formed them into a great mirror that reflected the whole world. The Titans contrived to introduce the Mirror of Illusion among the play things of Dionysius. Looking into the mirror, young Dionysius beheld his image for the first time. Beholding a radiant and beautiful child in the reflection, Dionysius desired him as a playmate and tried to grasp his own reflection. The Titans kept moving the mirror away until they had lured Dionysius to the furthermost extremity of the mundane diffusssion, and then they fell upon Dionysius and slew him.
To escape, Dionysius used his magical powers to turn himself into the form of youthful Zeus. He then turned into aged Chronos. He quickly kept changing his form, into a baby, then a youth, a lion, a horse, a horned snake, a tiger, and lastly a bull. It was in the form of a Bull that he finally died. The Titans sought a device to conceal their crimes, but there was no way to dispose of the body, so they resolved to devour it. The Titans then dismembered the Bull, first boiling it, and then roasting it over fire. Zeus became aware of the smell of roasting meat. Looking down Zeus beheld the Titans devouring the body of his son. He immediately dispatched Athena / Minerva who swooped down from heaven and caught the heart of Dionysius before it could be eaten. Athena brought the heart of Dionysius to the feet of Zues at Olympus, the throne of High Heaven. High Heaven then hurled his thunders and great bolts of lightning brought death to the Titans. Only the charred bodies of the Titans remained.
From the Ashes of the Titans the race of man was formed. With the ashes were also mingled the blood and body of Dionysius, so that all men contain within their fabric the substance of the Titans and the essence of the divine child. Zeus took the heart of Dionysius back to himself again, restoring the Dionysian principle to his own essence, to await the time when he could devise a way to send it forth again for the perfection of mankind.