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

Front Cover
Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 1992 - 250 pages
Shiva and Dionysus are the Hindu and Greek gods of magical power, intoxication, ecstatic sexuality, and transcendence who initiate us into communion with the creative forces of life. Revealing the earliest sources of the traditions of Shiva and Dionysus, Alain Danielou reconstructs the fabric of our ancient relationship with creation, vividly relating practices that were observed from the Indus Valley to the coasts of Portugal at least six thousand years ago.

From inside the book

 

Contents

FOREWORD
7
INTRODUCTION
11
ORIGINS The Two Sources of Religion
13
ASPECTS AND LEGENDS OF THE GOD
47
THE GODDESS power lover and mother
76
THE SONS OF THE GODDESS AND OF THE GOD
88
THE COMPANIONS OF THE GOD
99
ANIMAL AND VEGETABLE FORMS OF THE GOD AND GODDESS
112
MAN IN THE WORLD
139
RITES AND PRACTICES
179
GOD OF THE DANCE AND THE THEATRE
199
LIFE AND SOCIETY
210
THE MODERN AGE
219
CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE
236
BIBLIOGRAPHY
248
Copyright

SACRED PLACES
131

Other editions - View all

Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus
Alain Daniélou
Limited preview - 1992

Common terms and phrases

According Aghora ancient animal appears Aryan aspect Asuras bacchants bhaktas body Brahmâ bull called Celtic centre chap Christian civilization corresponds creation Cretan Cretan Cults Crete Cults and Festivals death destroyed Dionysiac Dionysus divine Dravidian earth Egypt elements Evola exist female fire forest Ganas Ganesha god's goddess gods Greece Greek Hesiod Hindu horned human India initiation initiatory invoking Jainism Jeanmaire Kali Yuga King Korybantes Kouretes labyrinth legends Linga Linga Purâna living Lord magic male manifestation mantra Minoan Minos Mohenjo Daro mountain mysteries myth naked nature nymphs Nysa origin Orphism Osiris Pârvatî phallic phallus practices Primitive Erotic Art principle R. F. Willetts religion religious represented rites ritual rôle Rudra Rudra Samhitâ sacred sacrifice sages sanctuaries sexual organ Shakti Shiva Purâna Shivaism Shivaite Skanda snake sperm spirits subtle symbol Tantric Tantrism temple Titans tradition Veda Vedic Vishnu women worshipped Yoga Yoga tantrique Zagreus Zeus

References to this book

About the author (1992)

One of the most distinguished living Orientalists, Alain Danielou was an intimate of Stravinsky, Jean Cocteau, and Nabokov, and spent more than 20 years in India studying music and philosophy with eminent pandits of the Hindu tradition. Danielou is the author of Myths and Gods of India; While the Gods Play; Yoga: Mastering the Secrets of Matter and the Universe; Virtue, Success, Pleasure, and Liberation; The Phallus; The Complete Kama Sutra and Music and the Power of Sound. He is the founder and former director of the International Institute for Comparative Musicology in Berlin, is a Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, and Officier du Merite National.

Bibliographic information

TitleGods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus
AuthorAlain Daniélou
Editionillustrated, reprint
PublisherInner Traditions / Bear & Co, 1992
ISBN0892813741, 9780892813742
Length250 pages
  
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