Customer Reviews

Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Danielou meant that book to be an introduction to a religion that lies at the roots of all of us, and possibly lead us back to such primordial religion. The claim is bold. First, it is the author's controversial opinion that such a shaivite/dionysian religion was really so widespread. Second, the book itself doesn't give a "feeling" for what that religion is/was like. It gives extensive, scholarly details on the gods and myths, but little insight into what that would all mean to us nowadays.

However, the discussion of civilisations so remote from ours in time and spirit (Dravidian, Indus, Cretan, etc...) is mind-boggling and challenging. It makes our own culture seem very narrow-minded in some ways and ignorant of so much of human nature. The author was a native Frenchman yet deeply immersed in Hindu/Shaivite culture and religion from a young age. His insights are rare and precious. Thank you Monsieur Danielou.

Having made the connection between Siva and Dionysus from other sources, I looked forward with some anticipation to a book that treated both together. I have come a way a little disappointed. While the book is well documented and very factual it lacks poetry. I could not get a feeling for either of the Gods from this book as I have been able from others (Like 'Dionysus: Myth and Cult' by Walter Otto.) However it was reassuring to to have my intuitions about the link between the two Gods substantiated.

The bulk of the material is about Siva, (which is understandable given the background of the author and the relative amounts of material available on each of the subjects) though this leads to a somewhat fragmentary portrait of Dionysus.

In places it has the tone of a polemic for a return to 'natural' or 'ecstatic' religion as a basis for saving the planet. It treats the 'good' features of such an approach at length but fails to adequately address the fact that 'Siva/Dionysus' is at heart a 'mad' and ambivalent God (CF. W Otto above). I am not sure I can stomach a return to ritual or cult prostitution or to human sacrifice. Feminists may be interested in his description of the 'natural' role of women.

At first he appears to be anti-christian though this turns out to be more anti Roman-Catholic and Institutional Church. He believes that Christianity in its original, unadulterated form was very close to 'natural' spirituality and points to the many parallels between Dionysus and Christ.

I would suggest that readers get a good background in both subjects before reading this book.

Alain Danaielou has written a fascinating look at religion before it was bastardized by modern man. The Shivaite tradition, and its Bachannalian equivalent in the West, is the basis of all world religions, and this book does a great job of explicating and delineating concepts in terms of yesyeryear and today.

Daniélou's book is rare in its international cultural outlook. Ancient mediterranean paganism becomes much clearer through approaching it from an Indian perspective. However, his readings of Old and New Testament sources should be read with care, as he does not really seem to be familiar with them. There are several misquotations, e.g. Moses coming down from the mountain did NOT wear horns on his head, Saul was NOT the son of Samuel. Also, the bible texts make a very clear distinction between pagan and jewish-christian sources of ecstacy.
For Daniélou exstacy and sex are means to release tensions resulting from a bourgeois lifestyle, a typical promiscuous gay view. However, anyone familiar with really deep sex knows that this is kind of tension-release thing is sex for beginners who never went through hell for someone beloved. Also, Daniélou does not seem to be familiar with modern neurological Feldenkrais techniques, which are very western and lead to sex on a level as deep as tantra practices.

This is a well written document that brings together a number of the world's most important spiritual traditions.

I hate to give negative reviews, but I strongly caution prospective readers to approach this book with caution. Thanks to archeological and genetic findings in the years since author Danielou's death, there have been massive changes in our understanding of ancient Indian history. Many of the assumptions he made about cultural conflicts in northern India have been called into serious question by archeologists and historians. At this point, this book is probably more notable for what it reveals about the misreading of ancient South Asian culture by European scholars of Danielou's generation.

Having studied religion for many, many years as a personal endevour, i found this book to be both informative, exact, but also lively and very entertaining to read.

While i can not say that my research has gone to the same depths as the author, i did make the exact same conclusion as he does: namely that Shiva is the original deity.

I began my studes as a christan all those years ago. I have studied the egyptian religion, the greek religion and many others - but the shock came when i realized that the God of the old testament can be none other than Shiva (with rudra being represented as the pillar of fire).
It was thus no shock to find Dionysus to be very popular in the "holy land", and even less surpricing to learn that the cross actually comes from the cult of Dionysus.
It is further my conclusion that advocates such as Paul of Tarsus (saint paul) became christian (or actually dionysian) because he understood that "this is the original religion". To bad they (the christians) screwed it up.

The book is worth every penny.

Danielou provides insight into the eastern logic behind religion and spirituality. The tolerance of Hinduism and its basic acceptance of individuality is undeniable. what Danielou does is to illustrate the worthy points of the oldest religion in the world.

Alain Daniélou's assessment of the dionysiac cults is somewhat naive. The Dionysaic cults are by no means just about free, ecstatic love and religious tolerance. As René Girard has shown, these cults are most of all about the sacrifice of an - innocent - scapecoat in order to regularly release the tensions which again and again build up in a society. Pagan societies, which do not know forgiveness, need this form of tension release in order to preserve or reinstate their unity. The origin of the dionysiac cult is the cruel and indeed ecstatic murder and paradox divinisation of the founder of a culture/society. In Indian mythology, for instance, Parusha was torn to pieces and out of the pieces came the four castes. This founding murder is again and again repeated in the dionysiac cult. Archaic forms of this cult used to sacrifice humans, later forms animals. The Holocaust is a modern form of dionysiac ecstasy. Daniélou of course does see very clearly that dionysiac ecstasy is tension release. What he does not see or know is that mere tension release is not all that is possible in lovemaking.