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Trees Are People Too
“The worst feature of the Christian religion, however, is its attitude toward sex — an attitude so morbid and so unnatural that it can be understood only when taken in relation to the sickness of the civilized world at the time the Roman Empire was decaying. We sometimes hear talk to the effect that Christianity improved the status of women. This is one of the grossest perversions of history that it is possible to make. Women cannot enjoy a tolerable position in society where it is considered of the utmost importance that they should not infringe a very rigid moral code.
― Bertrand Russell
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After reading Hillman, I began to wonder about how Dionysus became overshadowed by his brother Apollo and his cool distant reason? And how ever since the Rational Enlightenment, the Apollonic consciousness seems to have become one of our preferred modes of consciousness?
And whilst the Apollonic consciousness loves to analyze things from a far off distance, I have some sympathy for Dionysus because he is a ‘god of the vine’ and a ‘god of moisture’ and seems to be a little closer to the ‘zoe’ of a more natural life force and the earth and the body and nature. And also because it seems like he could be more sensitive and poetic. And also because the Dionysian consciousness doesn’t seem to be as much in the head, and also leaves some room for…
