Philosophy now - Friedrich Nietzsche

Under the charm of the Dionysian not only is the union between man and man reaffirmed, but nature which has become estranged, hostile or subjugated, celebrates once more her reconiciliation with her prodigal son, man. Freely the earth proffers her gifts, and peacefully the beasts of prey approach from desert and mountain. The chariot of Dionysius is bedecked with flowers and garlands; panthers and tigers pass beneath his yoke. Transform Beethoven's "Hymn to Joy" into a painting; let your imagination conceive the multitudes bowing down to the dust, awestruck ~ then you will be able to appreciate the Dionysian. Now the slave is free; now all the stubborn, hostile barriers which necessity, caprice and "shameless fashion" have erected between man and man are broken down. Now, with the gospel of universal harmony, each one feels himself not only united, reconciled, blended with his neighbor, but as one with him; he feels as if the veil of Maya had been torn aside and were now merely fluttering in tatters before the mysterious Primordial Unity. In song and in dance man expresses himself as a member of a higher community; he has forgotten how to walk and speak; he is about to take a dancing flight into the air. His very gestures bespeak enchantment. Just as the animals now talk, just as the earth yields milk and honey, so from him emanate supernatural sounds. He feels himself a god, he himself now walks about enchanted, in ecstacy, like the gods whom he saw walking about in his dreams. He is no longer an artist, he has become a work of art; in these paroxysms of intoxication the artistic power of all nature reveals itself to the highest gratification of the Primordial Unity. The noblest clay, the most costly marble, man, is here kneaded and cut, and to the sound of the chisel strokes of the Dionysian world-artist rings out the cry of the Eleusinian mysteries: "Do ye bow in the dust, O millions? Do you divine your creator, O world?"