[Dancecult-l] A Passport to Zionysus: Travels in Israel's Autonomic Zones

[Graham St John]

fresh ravings @ edgecentral:

A Passport to Zionysus: Travels in Israel's Autonomic Zones

.....

Back in July I lamented my rather forlorn quest for the Dionysian 
Spirit in the land of its origin. While he remained elusive on 
Greece's "Island of Fire", I discovered Dionysus piped into 
domesticated domains regulated by tourism, music and mobile 
telecommunications industries.

A few months later, I would be swimming in it in Israeli psytrance-a 
curious circumstance in the light of the ongoing crisis in the Middle 
East. Writing the piece "Dionysus in Zion" in Azure way back in 2000, 
Assaf Sagiv noted that, following centuries of dormancy, the 
Bacchanalia have "returned with an intensity unknown since the end of 
the classical period." Moreover, while this "new culture of ecstasy" 
and "pagan intoxication" would be "resurrected" throughout the 1990s 
in worldwide electronic dance formations, as an embattled "hothouse 
of permissiveness in the conservative Middle East", Israel would 
become the vital center of this new international movement. As Sagiv 
continued, "the ancient fertility cults which the zealous followers 
of the Hebrew God sought to extirpate three thousand years ago have 
come to life again in the land of Israel."

Continued:
http://edgecentral.blogspot.com/2007/10/passport-to-zionysus-travels-in-israels.html

Graham
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