Current Reading List

I’ve really been digging not only my library’s interlibrary loan system (especially now that the requests are all online instead of in writing), but also their digital library system.  I love listening to audiobooks when I’m cooking or doing chores.

Recently, I was listening to the audiobook of The Botany of Desire by Michael Pollan, and was pleasantly surprised at how often he brought up Dionysos.  He makes a rather good argument for Johnny Appleseed being an American Dionysos.  Did you know that apples from trees planted by seed are pretty much inedible, but they were great for making alcoholic cider?  That was NOT in the Disney cartoon I saw when I was a kid.  There is more to it than that, including his being an outsider, a wanderer, very close to nature, and having some pretty radical spiritual views for the time, but I recommend reading the whole chapter at least - but the whole book is excellent.  He also discusses Dionysian vs Apollonian principles in his discussion of our human ideals of beauty on the chapter on the tulip, and unsurprisingly, Dionysos comes up again on the chapter about Cannabis and intoxication.

I recently tracked down a science fiction short story written in the 70’s called The Feast of St Dionysus.  In the story, a man who is having trouble dealing with traumatic memories of his mission to Mars, goes off into the desert of Earth to be alone (and one senses, possibly to end his life).  Instead of the solitude and starkness he was hoping for, he finds a cult community in the middle of the desert that worships Dionysus, somewhat as a saint and somewhat as an equivalent to Jesus.  The main character then gets convinced to join the community and participate in the mysterious festival they have planned.  It was worth tracking down, I enjoyed it.

It’s worth mentioning that I found a reference to the above short story in The Encyclopedia of Psychoactive Plants, one of the first books I got through interlibrary loan . (And really didn’t want to give back.  One day, I’ll buy a copy.)  The encylopedia mentions Dionysos in connection with the fly agaric mushroom, which seems to be speculation, although it’s something to think about. I think it’s interesting that both Dionysos and fly agaric mushrooms share an association with pine trees.

I’m also rereading The Science of the Craft, which is very thought provoking as far as seeing mystical and magickal phenomenon in a framework of quantum physics.  I’ve been pondering the concept of our consciousness as being a metapattern in the quantum sea (or Zero Point Field) and the idea of gods as also being intelligent metapatterns (though presumably greater or more complex). It gives a new perspective to the idea of invoking or evoking gods.  Is it simply a matter of aligning yourself with a particular god-pattern?

Currently on loan:  Kerenyi’s Dionysos.  (Finally!! Been meaning to read this for a long time.)  And an interesting find from a used bookstore:  Healing Dream and Ritual: Ancient Incubation and Modern Psychotherapy by C.A. Meier.  Not quite sure what to expect from it, but I’ve been feeling drawn to creating a dream incubation ritual focused on Dionysos, since that’s how he’s often communicated with me, so I’m hoping it will give me some inspiration for that.

Devotional Day Trip (with salt and pepper)

On our last devotional day to Dionysos, we took a day trip up north.  I had been feeling an itch to get out of the city, so we decided to go to the Tonto Natural Bridge.  My husband had been there before but I had not.  

We woke up later in the morning than we intended, but started up anyway.  The day was beautiful, and we took a different route than usual, which was actually even more scenic than I thought it would be.   We were delighted to see patches of snow still on the ground the farther north we got.  (Snow delights me when it's non-threatening in this way.)

On the way there we were waylaid by a mutual weakness, one that has cut hours out of many a road trip that we have taken...  

Antique store!

Here you can see our favorite find of the day that made the detour worth it.  They are salt and pepper shakers in the shape of and decorated with fly agaric mushrooms (although yellow instead of the traditional red):

My husband had tried to describe the land bridge to me, but it's understandably hard to describe.  Needless to say, it exceeded my expectations.   The drive there takes you steeply down into a canyon, and you can't see the bridge until you hike a little bit, and then suddenly it's THERE.  Much bigger than I anticipated - it looks like a huge cave at first, until you're in front of it and close enough to see through the other side.  Water trickles down steadily from the top down into the creek that cuts through it, down onto bright blue water and green moss.  On the interior walls underneath it, there's small ledges and caves.  We imagined what it might be like, being one of the first people to stumble upon and discover it in the late 1800's!

(The first pic is from the outside, the second from under the bridge looking out towards the other side.)

We did the full hike down into the bridge, through it, and went up the ravine on the opposite side.  Although it wasn't long, it was a very rocky hike, sometimes necessitating using your hands to climb and balance.  This was the first strenuous hike I've done since breaking my foot last year, and although I had some achey metatarsals towards the end, I held up pretty well.

Our waking up late and getting distracted by knick knacks meant that we only had a couple hours to spend there.  Which means we'll have to make another trip back soon!

Since the park closed we couldn't picnic there like we planned, so we drove further north trying to find an out of the way place in the forested area where we could stop.  We had to settle for a place just a little off the road.  There was plenty of snow on the ground and with the temperature dropping with the sunset, we settled on having a car picnic in the backseat.  It was a lovely feast with homemade bread, olive tapenade, falafel and hummus, oranges and wine.  Most of the wine was poured out onto the damp earth at the foot of the largest pine tree nearby.  While looking into the trees, we saw what looked like a wolf (but was more likely a large coyote with a healthy winter coat) loping through the trees surprisingly close by!

I'm very much looking forward to the warmer weather allowing us to go camping again - I've missed it.