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Dionysos - Villa of Mysteries Pompei - Ecstasy
Identifier
013511
Type of Spiritual Experience
Background
Read any ‘expert’ interpretation of this scene from the Villa of Mysteries in Pompei and you will be told that this is Dionysos with his mother! Even those who know nothing of kundalini energy, might find this a bit hard to swallow given the context. The yellow ribbons on the thyrsus gives the game away. The thyrsus represents the spine with the pineal gland on the top, thus the energy has travelled up the spine and the ‘Dionysos’ [all men are potential Dionysos’s] is having an ecstatic experience.
The ribbons are a symbolic representation of the kundalini energy and are actually gold – gold is the ultimate mystic state – the alchemical gold.
The lady, whoever she is, is equivalent to a geisha [see Shinto] and is his helper in getting the kundalini energy flowing. Thus what we can tell from this is that there were women and possibly men [for men] and men and possibly women [for women] whose job it was to generate the kundalini energy and direct it properly. It probably involved sexual practises but kundalini energy can be generated by non sexual practises.
He wears a wreath. A wreath is a halo, it is symbolic of the energy that flows up to the head and the end state you reach.
See the Shinto description of the Geisha for more details
Laurel leaves= vine leaves = fig leaves
A description of the experience
