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

Alain Daniélou

Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, May 1, 1992 - Religion - 264 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. 

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I will write a proper review of this but i'd just like to point out my problems with the only review so far.( by Barnaby Thieme) I feel it's kinder than hassling him in comments Claim 1)The author ...

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
• SACRED PLACES: 131
• 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

About the author

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

• Title: Gods of Love and Ecstasy: The Traditions of Shiva and Dionysus
• Author: Alain Daniélou
• Edition: illustrated, reprint
• Publisher: Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 1992
• ISBN: 0892813741, 9780892813742
• Length: 264 pages
• Subjects: Body, Mind & Spirit / General; Body, Mind & Spirit / Magick Studies; Religion / Hinduism / General; Religion / Sexuality & Gender Studies; Social Science / Folklore & Mythology