We can read about death through fire and ashes and rebirth in the traditions noted by Marko Cepenkov, about the bird Phoenix, when it felt that death was near „it sat in the nest, without moving from the nest, up to three days, and on the third day, a wonder happened, the nest was on, and burnt up together with the bird. From the ashes, the bird was to be born and to live again“.35F This mythical bird that dies sacrificing itself, having dew as its only food, is gifted with extraordinary long life. Its symbolism stresses the triumph over death, resurrection and immortality, the cycle of birth and death. In Old Egypt the Phoenix, the bird with incomparable beauty, was connected with the daily solar cycles, and with the floods of Nile throughout the year.36F As a solar symbol connected with the cult of the Sun, according to the Arabs, this bird lands only on the mountain that signifies the pivot, the center of the world. About the bird, Cepenkov says: „that bird lived in the biggest mountains“ and „no man of this century knew where it started“. During the Middle Ages the Phoenix becomes a symbol of the resurrection of Christ and also a symbol of the very essence of God. Chronologically seen, this bird also relates to the god Osiris whose underworld travel is understood as an act of ritual perfection, as the legend says, supported by the god Horus descends to revive him and gifts him with the power of „discerning“.37F From this follows the understanding for the Phoenix as a symbol of the comprehensive Osiris’ soul that will endlessly revive itself, until time and eternity exist.38F
The mythical-ritual theme of suffering and resurrection (metamorphosis) by means of tearing apart39F i.e. tearing and warming up or boiling on fire, leads to the mysterious characteristics to the cult in general. The same is true for the cult of the child Dionysus Jagreus, whose name Jagreus was mentioned for the first time in the poem „Alkmeon“ from the Tebahs cycle (VI cen.), with the meaning „big hunter“, and it is adequate to the Dionysus wild orgyorial character40F. This most dramatic episode of boiling and baking the divine child by the Titans, that always carries initiating symbolism, in science is interpreted as an initiation ritual through which immortality or rejuvenation is accomplished.41F
In this wide mythical-ritual complex research, connected with Macedonian folklore, we will separate few fully developed models of metamorphoses. First of all, we point out the transformation connected with the changes and motion of nature, to her creative energy, or that is the so-called cyclic metamorphosis (the used examples from poetry). The second entailing aspect is the metamorphosis of the torn heroe, who often is a cultural hero, whose identity does not change not even after the revival. They can be found in epics, as in fairy tales. The third aspect of the metamorphosis are those that consider the unjustly punished sister and we find them in the lyrical-epical forms of ballads, where after the tearing we cannot speak about preserving the identity of the protagonist. In these cases we have different kinds of transformations on each part of the human body, e.g. the black eyes become clear springs, the hands long bridges, the girl’s hair green pine tree, the fine body a big garden and so on. The fourth aspect of the metamorphosis, very specifically (Miladinovci, p.No. 505) shows the transformation of a human into more forms, starting with the fauna and ending with the flora (man – fish – ashes – flower) where fire plays an essential role.42F The last aspect is found in the lyrics where the metamorphosis is accomplished in two ways: by tearing apart, where the human being transforms into a form of a plant, and by tearing and burning43F where the final result, again, is a plant or an object. In the last three aspects of metamorphoses there is no lasting identity of the person, but a transformation from one form into another.
Fredrih Nietzsche pays a great deal of attention to the problem of the Dionysian44F, first established in the mythical opinion and then in the aesthetic creation of literary forms, a name whose researches mainly originate from the pre-Socrates period. His philosophical view of the world, as Milos Gjuric says in the introduction of „The birth of the tragedy“, it can be marked as „Dionysian“45F, or as Nietzsche wrote himself „I’m a student of the philosopher Dionysus“46F. Often turning back to the Dionysus art, in his work „The Twilight of the Idols“, the term Dionysus, will light up as concrete access and orientation towards life, a sort of behaviour, or more specific:
„saying ‘Yes’ to life, even in its most hard and most distant problems; the will for living; the joy of sacrificing its own leading types because of its own inexhaustibility – I call it Dionysian, I have understood it as a bridge towards the psychology of the tragic poet. Not that he can be released from fear and pity, not that by some hot-tempered outflow he can be cleanse himself from some dangerous affect – that is how Aristotle understood it – but to be over and beyond fear and pity, he himself became everlasting joy of existence – a kind of joy that encompasses the joy of decadence“47F.
By indicating this state, and through this kind of protective impulse of life, Nietzsche was aware that he dared and created a new approach, different from the principles of the former evaluation of morality and life, and he treated all that artistically, anti-Christian. Moving with his thoughts into the spheres of the aesthetic interpretation of the world and its justification, he wonders how to name it. As a philologist, he says, I named it „not without a certain freedom (…) after the Hellenistic god – Dionysus“.48F
In his work „The Birth of the Tragedy“, Nietzsche treats Dionysus as a heroe of the mysteries, a god that must experience the sufferings of the individualization. About this is contained in the myths, in his tearing apart by the Titans as a condition in which he is respected as Jagreus. The tearing present a real Dionysian suffering – some kind of transformation in air, water, earth and fire. According to Nietzsche, that condition of the individualization must be treated as source and basis of the entire sufferings and evil, something that is already condemnable. But, after all, hope (the highest level of devotion in eleustic mysteries), in regards to the torn apart Dionysus, was directed at his rebirth, and understood as the end of mentioned individualization.49F Exactly in these Dionysian mysteries, by means of ecstasy, a psychological condition in which man „comes out“ of the darkness of the individuality, personifying with the entireness all around, with the nature that continually is changing and transforming is achieved. In that sense „Dionysus is not coming to place a measure or limit, but disconnects the awareness through which individuality is aware of it limited existence“50F, that the anonymous writer in a filigree, will portray through lyricism in only a few verses reflecting one truth: that „youth passes by very fast, / as the dew on the green grass, / as the leafs of the green trees, / as the vegetable in a green garden“.51F
According to Nietzsche, through the Dionysian orgies of the Hellenists, an important feasts52F celebrating the saving of the world and the days of transfiguration, „nature achieves its own artistic triumph, even the breaking of the principles of the individualization becomes an artistic phenomenon“53F. This condition is a mixture, and it reflects the Dionysian dreams, as a condition of a wonderful connection, overflowing the pain with the beautiful and the eternal. With the understanding of the intellectual and the cosmogony side of the mysteries founded on the holy dramatic ritual, at the same time imposes the conclusion that Dionysus is not only a dynamic mover of the entire Greek mythology, which of course contributes significantly, but is also an impulsive force of the entire development. The Austrian, Eduard Shire, in his work „Evolution of the Deity“ will frame the issues of Dionysus in esoteric wisdom through the principle of humanity and cosmic trinity. According to him, the Hellenic genius presents the conception about the universe through the four big deities, and the everlasting cosmic forces, named as Zeus, Poseidon, Pluton and Dionysus. These four big deities can be found in the constitution of man. He recreate the same again within his own soul, and in no way can he understand them unless he carries all of them together.
Learning by intuition, man forms the cosmic and the human trinity, where Zeus presents the world’s astral aura, Poseidon its vital body, and Pluton the physical body of the world. However, the most important thing is absent here; the organic principle, the creative spirit that connects all those pieces in one homogenic unity. „The awareness is missing, the personal ‘I’!“ That cosmic „I“ from where the our human „I“ originates from, is called „Dionysus“, says Eduard Shire. Thus, „Dionysus is a god of action, who weaves the whole universe with his creative breath“54F. That Orphean Dionysus, or Dionysus Jagreus lives torn apart in all the creatures, divided among the people, and connected again. He resurrects in a higher harmony, as in some transfiguration. His magic breath inspires life into nature, and therefore the saying of Orpheus that „The gods were born from his smile, while the people from his tears“.55F
The position of Ancient Greece was in no way unimportant, specifically in the sense of the mission that her spirit had to undertake. Greece was representing that Gordius node that ties up all the secret threads that go through Asia and Europe, from the East to the West. That Greek spirit, often thought to be an inexplicable wonder of a divine stupor hides a transitional condition in its basis about which the romanticist Nietzsche will write:
„Nothing is more foolish than to attribute to the Greeks some kind of autochthon culture; they have even absorbed the culture that was blooming among the other nations, and they went so far because they understood how to continue to throw the stick from the place left by some other people“.56F
That is why this frigic Dionysus by origin became even more luxurious in what he symbolizes on the new ground, overflowing a huge abundance and life force similar to the fertile nature and dynamism. Through the mysterious connection of the transforming powers and the powers that venerate, he became the symbol of the spiritual efforts of people, and thus, the connection with the human world and the world of the gods. His principle of wild dynamism, is also ever so obvious in the phenomenon of the metamorphosis from Macedonian folklore. This shows him as a leader on the way of the depths of the Unconscious, of the depths of hell, the depths that serve the urges as humus, leading the soul to ecstasy.57F
Dionysus or Bach58F, that is, Bakhikos59F is present all over the world. His energy, not easily tamed, is most recognized through the symbols of the grapevine and the cheerful mood coming from the product of the juice of the grape. As the grapevine resurrects every year, and as the wine is born out of the lather relic60F in the same way Dionysus resurrects, forever being victorious over death. His periodical suffering and rebirth makes him equal to the goddess Cora, and at first sight, through the inconspicuous but existing fusion61F, he correlates and unites the myths of Osiris, Tammuz, Adonis, Atis… Their special kind of death, through tearing apart and fire (in the myths and the examples about the metamorphoses from the Macedonian folklore, the fire accept as it is, is present also in a form of heat or breath) confirms the specifics of the gods of vegetation whose evolution is closely related to the metamorphoses which we have mentioned.*
* This text is part of the study „The Metamorphosis of the Archetype of Tearing“.
#b
35. Марко Цепенков, Преданија, Скопје, 1972, предание бр. 569, стр. 70-71.
36. J. Chevalier – A. Cheerbrant, Rijechnik simbola, Zagreb, 1983, 153.
37. Mircha Elijade, Istorija verovanja… knj. 1, str. 88.
38. J. Chevalier – A. Cheerbrant, Rijechnik simbola, Zagreb, 1983, 154.
39. Mircha Elijade, Istorija verovanja… knj. 1, str. 309.
40. Исто, 313.
41. Исто, 173.
42. За изгорениот и преродениот човек види: Милко Матичетов, Sezhgani in prerojeni chlovek, Slovenska akademija znanosti in umetnosti… Ljubljana, 1961.
43. За празничниот оган види: М. Арнаудовџ, Очерки по б’лгарскија фолклорја, Софија, 1934.
44. Дионизиски елементи зачувале и македонските русалии.
45. Niče, Rođenje tragedije… str. 8.
46. Niche, Ecce homo. Kako postajemo ono shto jesmo, Beograd, 1988, str. 5.
47. Niče, Rođenje tragedije…, str. 56.
48. Исто, 32.
49. Исто, 76.
50. Исто. 11.
51. Македонските мелографи од крајот на 19 век… песна бр. 294, стр. 234.
52. Аристотел ни соопштува дека во Атина постоеле 4 вида Дионизиски празнувања, и тоа Мали или Селски Дионизии, славени во месец декември; Ленаи во време на јануари; Антестерии во месец февруари и Големи или Градски Дионисии, празнувани во месец март. Види: Аристотел, Политика, Београд, 1984. 252.
53. Niče, Rođenje tragedije… , str. 47.
54. Eduard Schure, Evolucija božanstva. Od Sfinge do Hrista, Beograd, 1989, 140-141.
55. Исто, 142-144.
56. Niche, Filozofija u tragichnom razdoblju Grka, Beograd, 1985, 2.
57. Frederik Lionel, Sakralna astrologija. Ogledalo Velikog predanja, Beograd, 1984, 100-101.
58. Frejzer, Zlatna grana 2. Prouchavanje magije I religije, Beograd, 1977, 61-68.
59. Rechnik grchke I rimske mitologije… 116.
60. Eduard Schure, Evolucija bozhanstva… 144
61. За оваа фузија види: Веселин Чајкановиќ, О врховном богу у старој српској религији, Београд, 1944, 236.