Last year for Samhain, I blogged about how the end of summer (which is what the name “Samhain” means) could be related to the Descent of The Goddess. It makes sense for the Descent to be linked to Samhain for several reasons, not the least of which is the symbolic connection with death and dying. Samhain isn’t just a feast of the dead, though. It has another side; one which I want to use as a starting point for this month’s post.
Among other things, Samhain is a harvest festival. It is the final harvest of the season; when we bring in the last gleanings of the fields, and make decisions about which part of our flocks and herds to keep alive over the lean winter months and which should be culled. It is traditionally a time both of feasting and of fasting. It is both celebratory and somber, because it marks the end of our labor in the fields, but also the beginning of a time of hardship and potential loss.
Samhain is a time when we are mindful of the sacrifices and austerity which allow our tribes and clans to survive the coming shortages of the barren season. Our fields will not bring forth crops with which to feed ourselves or our livestock. The days of easily obtained fresh food are behind us, so we save what we can. We have developed techniques to preserve much of our harvest’s bounty. We dry or can fruit and vegetables. We salt or cure meats and we carefully prepare and store grain and wheat flour. We do these things to make sure that we will have the ability to sustain our bodies over the winter.
Of the crops that we have invented elaborate preservation processes for, none can match the success we have had with the fruit of the vine. The effort to preserve grapes has led us well beyond mere survival. It has given us wine, and wine is much more than a way to keep grapes from spoiling. Wine doesn’t just sustain us; it fills us with a sense of life so vibrant and compelling that we might easily lose ourselves in it. Since man first made and imbibed wine, we have known that it has the ability to bring us into contact with something wilder, less constrained and more vital than ourselves. Wine connects us with a spirit larger than our own: The Divine Spirit of Dionysos.
To the Greeks He was the “Lord in Many Guises.” He is the patron of the theater, and of masks. He is the liberator of the souls of the dead, and the protector of unborn children. He is an aspect of the Slain and Risen God, as well as the Divine Child, and the Horned God. He is the regenerative force of nature, but also has strong ties with the underworld. He is the bestower of both joy and madness. What Dionysos is most known as, however, is the God of wine and of the winemaking process. He is spirit of the vine, and it is His Divine essence that gives wine its unique ability to inspire and uplift us. We could learn a lot about Dionysos just by examining how wine is made.
Over the last month, that’s exactly what I’ve been led to do. Since the end of September, I’ve been in the process of making my first ever batch of homemade wine. In my next couple of blog posts, I hope to trace each step of the process and use it to find insight into the Divine truth of Dionysos.
Next month, I’ll describe the crushing of the fruit and dealing with the must during its time in the primary fermenter. We’ll put this process side by side with the Orphic accounts of the birth and dismemberment of Dionysos.
Hope to see you then.
No comments:
Post a Comment