Wow. Einstürzende Neubauten recently performed their 46th anniversary concert. It’s pretty fucking impressive that Blixa Bargeld is still at it. I’d have assumed that he’d be a victim of debauchery or suicide by now. He’ll probably outlive us all. 

With a cup full of Bacchus’ best wine,
I hail the Giants, and Titans, and Gods,
and Monsters, and Labyrinth-dwellers,
and mighty Heroes and Heroines,
and Spirits of Earth, Water, Fire and Air,
the lusty Satyrs, the sage Sileni,
the wardance-loving Korybants,
the Nymphs who nurse him,
the Nymphs who love him,
the Nymphs who protect him,
the Mad Ones, the Hanged Ones,
the Kings and Artists,
the Blessed Initiates,
the experts in Orphic rites,
and the Dead who belong to him,
all forming an invisible troop
of wild spirits that march unseen
but clearly heard in Dionysos’ processions,
who race through the fields,
and forests, and city streets,
on certain especially dark nights,
in pursuit of victims of the hunt,
delighting in the chase,
driven to frenzy by their God, Zagreus
the far-roaming one, the master pursuer.
Hail, you Furious Host, and may you never thirst!

Sayings of Desert Fathers 184
I heard that Abba Poemen and many of the fathers uttered this saying: ‘The snake-charmer does not know the force of the words he speaks but the beast hears and knows: it is rendered obedient and subservient.’ That is how it is with us; even if we do not know the force of the words we are saying, yet the demons hear and retreat in fear.

As this incense rises, curling to the unseen,
may it please you, Liberator, Breaker of chains.
Accept this offering, sweet with earth and fire,
a breath of devotion carried on the air.
You who dwell in forest shadow and festal light,
in laughter, in wine, in the pulse of the drum—
be near, O Twice-Born,
and awaken the spirit within me.
Loosen what is bound,
open what is closed,
let the sacred frenzy of life flow freely.
In this moment, I honor you—
in scent, in flame, in reverence.
Evoe, Dionysos!
Receive this offering.

Remember the words of Falernus,
“The tradition needs man
as much as man needs the tradition.”
Therefore, as is only right,
on this day appointed for sacred feasting,
on which all conflict must cease,
and no business may be conducted,
we accord to Bacchus due respect
with songs our fathers sang
and trays of baked offerings
in the shape of virile members,
and we pray for our sons:
Oh Father Liber,
who leads souls through the Labyrinth,
guide our sons into manhood,
gentle tyrant of the Evian cry,
and make them worthy to wear the purple stripe
by testing their hearts in wine, and fury,
and trials that forge strong characters.

O thrice-ecstatic Dionysos,
bearer and bestower of intoxication,
ever wild and untamed, you who dance
between joy and madness,
Stranger God,
you come to people
where they are,
as they are,
and you give to them
as much of your blessings
as they are ready
and able to accept.
With a hand more careful and skilled
than that of any physician
you heal the hearts of the hurting,
broken, and outcast,
and leave us purified.
Dionysos Bakcheios,
you are the Savior of body and soul!
You are the loving granter of eternal happiness!
So hail to the God whom I serve and adore,
Dionysos whose name is the sweetest
sound I have ever heard. Hail him again, and again!
May all who are lost, and in need of your
blessings find you, Lord of Mount Nysa,
and may they accept your savage grace,
and the mysteries that save.

O Dionysos Bakcheios, we pray
for the wellbeing and success
of your Starry Bull tradition.
Fill it with your mysteries,
in all truth, with proper understanding.
Where it is corrupt, purify it;
where it is in error, correct it;
where it is amiss, reform it;
where it is divided, reunite it.
Where it is right, strengthen it;
where it is pleasing, bless it;
where it warrants it, provide for it;
where it is doing your work, protect it.
Io evohe! Io io Dionysos Asterios!

O loudsounding Bakchepaian, grandson of Kadmos
who danced on the slopes of Kithairon by your grace
as if he was a young man again; you who did not just
restore the rock-mangled bodies of Ino and her precious
Melikertēs to life, but transformed them into divine protectors
of those at sea; I petition you Dionysos Iatros, come to the aid
of NN, your dear devotee, who continues to praise your most
excellent name through illness and grievous pains; please
demonstrate your magnificence and love of humanity
by granting them cessation of suffering, health, and wholeness.
I know that you can accomplish this, and other wonders beyond counting,
if you but will Sōtēr, so I beseech you to help NN, beloved Medōmethēs.

O Dionysos, Bull who was slain
and born again amid the thunderous rain
of Zeus your father, friend of men and Gods
throughout the inhabited world, plentiful giver
of fertility and the blessings of every kind of madness;
we pray that you help us remember what is important,
and forget the things that we need
no longer burden our minds with.
O Dionysos, God of those who wear white,
and immerse ourselves in your tradition,
and sing the songs that sustain the world;
each day we pray to do better, and to be better people,
that you shall gain honor through our deeds and our words.
Merciful One, we acknowledge our imperfections before you,
and, O Starry Dionysos, even though we can
still violate the taboos that have been laid upon us,
err in the performance of the sacred rites, neglect the times
we have set aside for study, prayer, and reflection,
forget the wise and simple tenets of your religion,
we still adore you, and dedicate our lives to your service.
Do not abandon us, Lord of Mount Nysa, for we are
frail and imperfect creatures who so often miss the mark.
Instead, kindly Dionysos, grant us the strength to forgive
those who have done us wrong, and the courage
to seek forgiveness when we ourselves have faltered.
Help us to practice love and understanding with our family,
our friends, the members of our thiasos, our clients,
as well as outsiders who don’t know your principles,
and the way of life which Orpheus, Pythagoras, and Euripides
have taught us to live so that we may be pleasing to you,
and successfully make the journey through the underworld
to join the other souls who revel in your train,
the women and men counted worthy to bear your name
and dance your secret mystic dances for all time.
O Dionysos, Bull whose blood intoxicates
and cleanses us so that we may lead a pious life,
proudly bearing the crown of ivy,
and shaking our thyrsos in joy,
hear our prayers and look generously upon us.

One Dionysos, now and forever!
You are great, O Successor of Zeus,
and greatly to be praised. It is joy
to worship you; thrice-joyous to become drunk
on your miraculous wine. Our heart is restless
until it rests in you, Savior of men upon the Earth,
Guide and goal of the souls who walk the labyrinth-like
path through the Underworld to Mount Nysa,
where your wild ones abide with you forever.

May the son of Semele Kallikarpos, who loves you, favor you.
May Bakcheios place his protection around you day by day.
May you dance to delirium and make ecstatic proclamations
of his names and exploits; then may Dionysos Meilichios embrace you,
and grant that you spend a long lifetime of happiness on Earth,
full of potency, prosperity and praise!

Dionysos of many names and many forms, unrivaled in power
and beneficence, grant the favors that are yours to grant:
freedom from all constraints, wisdom that confounds the wise,
poetic inspiration, abundant wealth, charisma, the fruits of ecstasy,
a long life and a good old age, and numerous other favors
so that we may come before you in joy O Dionysos, our Master,
favored son of Zeus, who is unique among the Gods of Mount Olympos,
those upon the Earth, and beneath it. You slaughtered the snake-limbed
Giants Eurytos, Porphyrion, and Alkyoneus, fearless sons of Gaia,
so what are my troubles compared to such mighty deeds, O brother
of Herakles who wields a tree-trunk like a club and Hermes who can
outwit even the all-seeing Argos? I am thankful beyond words to express
the mound of good deeds you have done for mankind, and ask that
this matter be added to the pile, Dionysos Thaleiros and Thaumatourgos.

O Dionysos who grew to manhood
in Arabian Nysa, land of a thousand spices,
I pray that you accept this incense I am offering,
and hope that its exotic scent is pleasing
to you as you are pleasing to me, God who
desires to be worshiped through the senses,
and grants sweet intoxication which releases
us from all of life’s troubles and hindrances.
As this aromatic smoke swirls and dances
around your shrine, let all other thoughts fade away,
unlocking a flood of memories of past rites
performed, and past encounters with you,
surge forth overwhelming my mind,
so that I am in the right state
to make the rest of the offerings
I have gathered for you today.

O Dionysos, God arrayed in a Hymnod’s white garb
and crowned with laurel as Leader of the Muses;
you who taught Thracian Charops mystic songs
and how to play the krotala and tympanon.
Dreamer, inspirer, exciter to frenzy, revealer;
I petition you — overcome my frustration,
and smash through any blockages within me,
so that the words I have stored up will gush forth
like an inundation of wine, like a firestorm of truth.
O Dionysos Melpomenios, you who loosen the tongue
and free the mind, guide my voice and shape my vision —
that what I write may breathe and live, and do honor
to you, my King.

O Dionysos Phileleos, please accept my veneration though
my words are clumsily spoken, and I cannot always recall
all of the things I am supposed to do at your shrine.
I was born into a society which does not teach its people
proper reverence, and I am lacking in mentors or wise models
to emulate. I do what I can with what I have, and I am
figuring things out as I go along, striving always to improve
the quality of the worship I offer to you and your blessed family,
for my heart swells with love of you, and I wish only to give you the best,
for you have been so gracious and understanding with me,
though I am just one person, alone, fumbling in the dark.
O Dionysos Euphrōn, I pray, increase my knowledge and confidence;
with every rite performed let it become easier to approach you
and conduct worship in the ways which are proper, and pious,
and pleasing to you, the God of the Bacchants, whom I hope one day
to be worthy to be counted among, that I may spend both this and the
life to come in joy and perfect celebration with my own kind. Io evohe!

The Starry Ram now has its own soundtrack. It tells a story, if you have ears to hear. 

Although multiple systems can be found throughout the Greek Magical Papyri and other writings from late antiquity, Claire Chandler provides a system of planetary and musical notation associations for the Greek vowels which Diane Touliatos worked out in her article “Nonsense Syllables in the Music of the Ancient Greek and Byzantine Traditions” published in The Journal of Musicology 7, no. 2 (1989) that I am partial to:

Alpha = Moon = D
Epsilon = Mercury = C
Eta = Venus = B flat
Iota = Sun = A
Omicron = Mars = G
Upsilon = Jupiter = F
Omega = Saturn = E

She also shares this explanation of how the vowels functioned in PGM XIII from Patricia Cox Miller’s “In Praise of Nonsense” from Classical Mediterranean Spirituality, ed. A. H. Armstrong (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1986), p. 482:

When the God who is ‘an invisible symbol’ breaks into human speech, his sounds are the echoes of the alphabet, the vowels.

An example of which is the following:

Lord, I imitate you by saying the 7 vowels; enter and hear me!

A
EE
ĒĒĒ
IIII
OOOOO
YYYYYY
ŌŌŌŌŌŌŌ

ABRŌCH
BRAŌCH
CHRAMMAŌTH
PROARBATHŌ
IAŌ
OYAEĒIOYŌ

This could be fun to play around with, especially applied to “birdglyphic” and the enchanting language of falcons, as well as other operations from the PGM.