Be gone, Empousa! Be gone! Be gone!
For I shall call upon my Lord Dionysos
who thwarts the devices and checks the power
that you might otherwise claim
over his Bacchants and initiates;
loathsome Empousa, who once was a slave
of the three-necked Goddess, until hate
and rebellion blossomed in your maggoty heart;
most hideous of your hideous sisters, Empousa
whose eyes are full of envy, division, and illness;
whose lolling tongue drips poison
more deadly than lies and rumors;
who can change your appearance at will
though always your single copper leg remains,
betraying your true identity to those who know;
Empousa who snatches children from their beds,
and does not return them alive;
who drags young men about to be married off
to your lair and copulates with them until
all of their beauty and vitality have been drained;
who appears to souls who have lost their way
and tries to lead them deeper into the darkness
and confusion of the underworld;
Dionysos defeated you Empousa
because he knew the secret meaning
of your true name, Onokōlē — and he will do it again!
It does not matter if you turn yourself into a mule,
a brazen bull, a beautiful woman, a dog,
or a bone-white snake, for he who is Lord of Life
will use your name against you, wicked spirit,
and transform you into a stinking pile of shit.
So be gone, Empousa! Be gone! Be gone!

O disheartening Dysthymia, dour and dishonest,
unloved and unwanted daughter of ashen Achlys,
who carries the torch for Thanatos, whose sole friend is Lyssa,
you who hate the rest of the Gods and revile all spirits,
which drives you to try and distract mankind from our divine service
stirring up in us resentment, pollution, apathy and other things
that keep us from approaching holy altars and sacred images,
and the trustworthy traditions that have been carefully passed down to us.

Against you stands Dionysos the joybringer, banisher of cares,
the one who stitches back together broken hearts,
and lifts those suffering from despair out of the slimy pit,
cleansing us of the muck and mire that clings to us
so that we may again shine as brilliantly as the stars in Heaven
with love for the Blessed Immortals and the life that has been given to us.

Flee, faithless fiend, for you shall not prevail!
Flee, feckless farrago, as everyone you’ve ever cared for has fled from you!
Flee, fumbling fool, or suffer your well-earned fate!

O Dysthymia, you who make the eyes of the sorrowing red
from a deluge of tears, and hollow our cheeks from forgetfulness
of the body’s needs; your power over us is broken, and Dionysos
will tear loose any hooks you still have in us, so that you can never
again darken our thoughts or torment our flesh.

O Dysthymia, you who make the grieving experience inescapable
isolation even in the midst of a crowd of friends and loved ones;
do you think your constricting walls are stronger than those of Pentheus’
Kadmean citadel which came crashing down when Dionysos roared,
freeing his madwomen trapped within? They are not!

O Dysthymia, who lays heavily upon the mourner like some
hideous hag, causing us to hunch our back and drag our foot,
assuming we can even find the strength to get out of bed;
Dionysos will pick you off like a speck of dust and fling you
so far away that you never find your way back to us again,
while we dance in celebration atop the forested mountain,
all the aches and pains you caused gone and forgotten.

O Dysthymia, who steals joy and courage, and fills the mind with fear
for things that have not yet happened and likely never will;
Dionysos has locked the doors of our ears and given us his potent
wine to drink, a healing drug that restores what you took from us.

O Dysthymia, who drains the color and vividness from experiences,
so that life feels stale and unreal; Dionysos will wake us up to the
wonders that surround us, and make things even more surreal.

O Dysthymia, who recreates for us the worst parts of the story of our
life over and over again, making it impossible to move on; Dionysos
can shatter the bonds that keep your own dolorous past repeating,
and help you to become all of the things that you could have been
had trauma not warped you, Dysthymia, if you would just agree
to leave humans alone and no longer interfere with our practice of piety.
Dionysos is a kind and generous God when not provoked; submit to him.

I praise the beautiful God, beloved of Ariadnē,
giver of wine and countless other blessings,
many-named Dionysos, Lord of manifestation,
living eternally, free of want and suffering,
the bull-horned Savior, unrivaled in ferocity,
protector of his people, who has said,
“May your soul be strong against adversity,
may you face your trials bravely,
may you never forget that you have the power
to smash and overthrow your foes,
no matter how numerous they may be.”
With his blessing I shall trample beneath my boot
the spirit of fear, the spirit of unbelief, the spirit of guile,
the spirit of division, the spirit of empty confidence,
the spirit of overindulgence, the spirit of laziness,
the spirit of insolence, the spirit of dejection,
and anything else that leads to impurity of mind and body,
so that I may experience his exquisite ecstasy
and revel with his blessed initiates on Mount Nysa
when my time comes to join them.

On Monday I’m going to share some of my previous posts as well as a bunch of academic articles on Dionysos’ presence in Israel and Palestine in preparation for offering up some of the Jewish-themed Katares. But before I do so I have a little something to take care of.

When I’m finished compiling the Ἱερός Λόγος for the monastic strain of the Starry Bull tradition I am going to have a book printed. I go back and forth on whether I should release it to the public or just keep it for members of the Order.

One of the chapters, containing Κατάρες (“Imprecations,” which are a kind of prayer slash incantation recited against hostile spirits) became so large it is now its own book. Katares can be prayed individually or as part of a larger ceremony, such as an exorcism or an attack on that entity (preemptively if need be — I am a firm believer that the best defense is a strong offense.) Many of them are modeled on spells and similar material from antiquity to the early modern period, and even some contemporary examples.

I believe that such a volume is needed because it taps into the current created by previous itinerant religious specialists; these malign entities are causing trouble in the world today; and the most important reason — in composing the historiolae I was given pieces of Dionysos’ lacunose backstory. It is especially frustrating when an ancient author refers to something we know little to nothing about as a commonplace, which his readers would have instantly picked up on no matter how cryptic the allusion. Sometimes this material came through visions, like I was viewing an episode of Legion. Other times the knowledge was just plopped into me noggin. Then there were the times it just flowed out of me, and I had no idea what I was typing. I’d read it afterward and go, “What. The. Fuck.”

One of the most interesting stories that has emerged from these historiolae is Dionysos’ activities in Judea and his relationships with Yahweh, Ašerah, Ašmedai, and Michael (among others.) I’d known he had a strong presence in the region from archaeology and references in authors like Philo, Plutarch, Tacitus and Livy but over the course of working on this a whole secret mythology emerged. It certainly wasn’t something I’d planned; indeed, most of the Katares were written while heavily inebriated or in other altered states of consciousness, which means I had even less control over what was coming through than normal.

I might be inclined to dismiss this material except that through experimentation I discovered that this shit actually worked when the formulae and other odds and ends were included. These show how important the power of story is. Despite that I readily admit that the material could be false without affecting the efficacy of the κατάρα; after all, the two most important components in my estimation are the inspiration and grace of Dionysos on the one hand, and my conservative approach on the other. I start from the assumption that my predecessors knew what they were doing. I don’t tinker unnecessarily, and if I don’t understand both how something works and how it fits within the whole, I leave that shit alone. That’s why a lot of this will be familiar to students of magic and esotericism rooted in the ancient Near East. But that still doesn’t explain where the historiolae came from in many cases. It all still requires a great deal of research, ritual work, and divination but this may be the opening of another strain of Dionysianism, alongside the Starry Bull (Southern Italy) and Starry Bear (Eastern and Northern Europe) traditions. I suppose it makes sense since the Jews and their neighbors had a reputation for exorcism and magic in antiquity and that’s clearly a core part of what this is about. I’m further uncertain if this should include Egypt or if Dionysos’ activities there constitute their own thing, and if there’s really any point in dividing and organizing things this way. It’s all centered on Dionysos, and Dionysos is what Dionysos is.

Either way I’ll start sharing the Dionysos Abraō material next week; I have some other stuff to take care of first. (Abraō means “of or worshiped by the Hebrews,” and comes from a votive inscription from the Decapolis. It’s what I’ve taken to referring to this aspect of the God as, like Asterios and Óðr for the other strains.) It does amuse me that I returned to blogging in the middle of Ḥag hasSukkōṯ, the Jewish festival most commonly associated with Dionysos by Greco-Roman authors.

And don’t forget one of our simplest and most potent prayers, the Oration of Aristides.

Body of Bacchus, save me;
Soul of Bacchus, fill me with frenzy;
Suffering of Bacchus, strengthen me;
Blood of Bacchus, inebriate me;
Tears of Bacchus, wash me clean.

Dionysos the Conqueror,
King of Nysa and Prince of Olympos,
passes through every land victorious
but does not take captives
and does not lay waste.
Instead he overthrows the oppressor,
frees those who are bound,
soothes the suffering of the afflicted,
and dispenses blessings to all
who will have them.
O Dionysos, Giver of Grace,
I ask to obtain and receive from you
life, health, reputation, wealth,
influence, strength, success, charm,
favor with all men and all women,
and victory over every obstacle before me,
Beneficent one, Savior, Liberator.

O Dionysos, kindly prince of the Olympians,
I pray that you have mercy upon us who are
of the blood of the terrible Titans that splashed upon
the thigh of the fertile Earth when the children of Ouranos
waged war against King Zeus and his family;
through your liberating madness
and rites of deliverance we are able
to transcend our savage nature
and develop the strength and virtue
to cease doing the thoughtless, hurtful
and wicked things which we humans
so easily do to one another, O you who forgave
your foes and their kinsmen, and even admitted them
into your mighty army to fight beside you
against a much worse enemy.
If even such beings can be redeemed by you Lusios,
then I have hope that my stains may be washed away
in the pure stream of your compassion, my Lord.
[Confess anything that is troubling your conscience.]

O Dionysos flourishing in fruit,
you have called us into your vineyard,
and poured sweet longing into our hearts,
so that we may joyously labor in your vineyard;
grant me also the grace that I might complete
this task that I am starting rightly,
in a manner that brings you glory,
and without any sort of hindrance,
so that your vineyard may increase.

O Worthy Bull, son of the Dragon,
you who won your Olympian throne
through the valor, endurance, and power
that you displayed, heroic Dionysos I pray,
may I never fail to think brave thoughts,
to speak brave words, and to do brave deeds,
especially in defense of my land, my people,
and my traditions; O great Leader
of Gods and spirits and men and beasts,
may I one day prove worthy
to be counted among your Furious Host.

O Dionysos Ptoaleos who protects his people
from the heart of envy, from the eye of evil,
from the deceitful tongue, and every sort of wickedness;
hear my prayers, Dionysos Rōmaleos, and help me
to remain calm and strong in the face of all that comes
against me or mine; and should conflict ensue,
may I fight like you fought, Dionysos Aimaleos,
when you liberated the Indian land from wicked king Deriadēs,
or avenged the vines that maniac Lykourgos hacked up,
and slaughtered many a foe during the Gigantomachy;
my God, I dedicate these lives to you,
and shall throw a lavish feast to celebrate
the humbling of my enemies, and their utter defeat.

While I was away I worked on numerous projects, but two of them were more successful than the others: developing a monastic order for the Starry Bull tradition (basically Pythagoreanism, with less math) and a Bacchic Orphic system of demonology and exorcism.

The latter project necessitated immersing myself in systems ranging from Babylonia, Egypt, the Levant, Greece, Mandaeism, Manichaeism, Eastern and Northern Europe, Medieval Christianity, Oriental Christianity, Charismatic and Evangelical Christianity, Catholicism, and Judaism from ancient times to the Babylonian and Palestinian Talmuds, and from there to Kabbalah and similar strains of mysticism, as well as Goetia and various Left-Hand Paths.

I then took this material and synthesized it until I had something that I could give an Orphic and Dionysian spin to.

Amusingly this is exactly what itinerant religious specialists have been doing from time immemorial. I encountered a ton of formulae through thousands of years and vastly differing cultures. While sometimes the mode of transmission was obvious to scholars, other times it beggared description. Having experimented with this material I can say why certain things keep cropping up, and why others are specific to times and places.

I intend to share some of this material with y’all over the coming weeks, though much will be held back for students and colleagues.

Why?

Because we are living through extraordinary times. Anyone who is dealing with the demonic can attest that there has been a radical uptick in encounters and possessions within the last 5-10 years; anyone who watches the nightly news or keeps up with social media has no doubt noticed the consequences of all this, even if they didn’t have a name for it, or resisted seeing it for what it so obviously is.

I want to provide folks with the spiritual framework and tools necessary for dealing with such things, and to bring glory to the name of Dionysos, our Defender and Redeemer.

I have no illusions that by doing so I am going to provide my enemies with ammunition, and those who once called me friend or studied under me good cause for distancing themselves even further from me.

So be it.

Since I got online in the late 90s my goal has never been to be liked. I spoke out about the issues facing our communities years, even decades before anyone else, and more often than not I was proven correct, though by the time that was apparent I’d burned so many bridges that few, if any, would acknowledge the fact. I have no reason to believe that this time will be any different.

What I do hope is that when the time comes people will have the resources needed to combat this evil and keep their loved ones safe, and that this will engender an even deeper love and devotion for Dionysos.

And that was a selection from the Εὐχολόγιον or collection of common prayers I’ve compiled as part of my codification of the Starry Bull tradition’s liturgy.

On Friday our household will be performing a rite in honor of Dionysos and his Blessed Dead, so if you’d like something said on your behalf submit your request to sannion@gmail.com by 5:00pm Eastern time tomorrow.

Wine Blessing I

Bless,
O Agriampelos,
Lenaios, Methusos,
Oinodotēs,
and all the rest,
this rich beverage which you have made.
May it be a joyous medicine against sorrows
for all who drink of it, I pray, and grant
by the invocation of your holy names
that whoever tastes of it may,
from your generosity, sweet Lord,
receive wellness of both body and soul,
leading to inspiration and blessed madness
through the blood of great Dionysos, our Deliverer.

Wine Blessing II

King Bromios, as we drink this wine
let us remember that you are the giver of life,
the one who sets free;
you bring deep peace to our souls,
and your love flows within us like waves of purple.
As we pour out this wine
we see your sacrifice poured out for us.
We are witness to the depth of your grace and goodness,
and the pain you continuously suffer for us.

Wine Blessing III

This, O large-hearted Polygēthes,
is your greatest gift to care-worn mortals,
for it eases our suffering,
and when we are drunk from it
we are filled with joy and a lively spirit.
Without wine there would be no fine banquets,
no festivals, no sacrifices for the Gods,
and love would completely disappear from the world.
But wine is even more precious than that,
for this wine is your blood,
O Mad and Maddening One,
first poured out upon the black Earth
when the Titans set upon you
with their terrible knives.
A part of you dwells in each sip of wine,
and dwells within us when we drink it.
So hail, and thank you, O Bakcheios,
for your splendorous gift.

Wine Blessing IV

Bios. Thanatos. Bios.
It is through your death
and resurrection, Dionysos,
that we have both wine
and the eternal revelry
conferred by initiation.
Thanatos. Bios. Thanatos.
This cup is full
of your blessed mysteries,
and as we drink from it
may the remembrance
of them be awakened
within our hearts
and our minds.
Bios. Thanatos. Bios.

Wine Blessing V

Oh benevolent Bacchus,
most excellent master,
who loves and smiles upon
all his devotees,
our gratitude to you,
maker of the fruit of the vine,
bestower of countless blessings,
deliverer, and loosener of cares,
sacrificed bull whose spirit lives on
in the wine, and when drunk
arouses, excites, maddens,
inspires poetry and beatific visions,
and leads our hearts into deeper
communion with your own holy heart;
may this cup of your precious blood
crown our festivities, and give us a taste
of the joys that await your blessed initiates
on the other side.

O gracious Dionysos, by the great suffering of your indestructible heart
I implore you to come and heal my damaged heart, mind and body.
I implore you to banish the worrisome and obsessive thoughts
that are causing unceasing stress and anxiety in my life.
I implore you to loosen and release the psychological conditions
that keep me in harmful and unhappy patterns of behavior.
I implore you to dissolve any traumas and torments
that have scarred and stunted me
going all the way back to childhood,
and any generational curses or guilt
that have traveled through the blood
to maim and distort my life,
and the lives of those who are close to me.
I implore you to release the hold that bitter memories have on me,
and the hatred I have allowed to fester in my soul as a result
against those who have wronged and offended me.
I implore you to take away my soul’s anguishes,
especially those which are the root cause
of my bodily pains and illness.
O gracious Dionysos, by the great suffering of your indestructible heart
I fervently pray that you help and heal me
in all these ways, and in ways I have not thought to ask for.

Remember, O Dionysos who intercedes
with the Lady Persephonē, that I am
a child of Earth and starry Heaven,
a creature of conflicting impulses
madly running through the dark,
confusing corridors of the Labyrinth
searching for answers to questions
I don’t even know how to frame.
I want to do right, to be pious,
to glorify you, and to bring honor
to my people through my words and deeds,
and yet it is so easy to fall short,
to act wrongly, to think the things
that I should not, to give in
to pessimism and doubt,
or worse the haughtiness
and violence which are in me
because of my Titanic ancestry.
Force of Liberation,
Breaker of Chains,
Loosener, I implore you,
Dionysos grant me
strength of will,
and the grace to subdue
my old self to the new,
and the new self to you,
that I may be counted worthy
to bear the blessed name of Bakchos,
and celebrate your orgies in the afterlife
with the other wine-rich initiates.
Strengthened by love of you,
I shall renew my struggle
and sacrifice to you the best
version of myself I can produce,
day by day and night by night
until I reach your surpassingly beautiful mountain,
where I may dance forever with you, Loudroaring One.

Hail to every last God and spirit
gathered round the throne
of Zeus’ indomitable son,
the King of Nysa,
Dionysos the Starry Bull;
may they never thirst!
Hail to his wives,
and to his lovers,
his brothers and sisters,
his mothers and his children,
and any divine friends who may be visiting
from far off lands;
may they never thirst!
Hail to the Titans and the Toys; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Nymphs and Nurses; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Muses and Sirens; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Centaurs and Gryphons; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Satyrs and Silens; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Fauns and Paniskoi; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Korybantes, Kabeiroi, and Kouretes; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Kallikantzaroi, Kukeri and Kobaloi; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Fairies and Goblins; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Harlequinade; may they never thirst!
Hail to the Furious Host; may they never thirst!
Hail to those who have joined his mighty Army
from numerous places and pantheons;
may they never thirst!
Hail to the myriads of Dionysian Dead;
the Martyrs and Prophets; the Blessed Initiates;
the Orpheotelestai and all those who performed
his sacred rites and dances;
the Boukoloi; the Nyktipoloi; the Rhizotomoi;
the Bakchoi and Bakchai; the Bassarai; the Lenai;
the Thyiades; the Aletides; the Klodones; the Mimallones;
the Komastai; the Technitai; the Basileis;
the Tragic Heroes and Heroines;
the outcast, the lost, the drunkards, the insane,
and all the rest; may they never thirst!

Dionysos, sin-devourer,
master of many kinds of catharsis,
inventor of rites of liberation,
establisher of customs of holiness,
cleanse from us any impurity
wherever it may be found in us.
Dionysos, render and weaver,
fill our hearts with a loathing
for that which is wicked, ugly, and false,
and ardent longing for that which is
beautiful, good, and true.
And may we immerse ourselves
ever deeper in your traditions,
and walk always in your ways,
Dionysos who releases, and who saves.