This is a sigil I devised in my craft, for the purpose of convoking and conducting the influence of the Mighty Dead and the entwined forces of death, rebirth, and transformation. For this particular sigil, I worked with the Greek god, Zagreus, as a conduit of those energies.
In ancient Greek religion and mythology, Zagreus was a god of Mysteries, Hunting, Rebirth, and the Underworld. He is frequently identified with a god worshipped in the Orphic Tradition, known as the “first Dionysus”—a son of Zeus and Persephone who was dismembered by the Titans and reborn of his new mother, Semele.
However, no known Orphic sources use the name "Zagreus" to refer to the Orphic Dionysus, and, in the earliest mention of Zagreus, he is coupled with Gaia and called the “highest” god [of the underworld.] The Ancient Greek playwright Aeschylus, for instance, linked Zagreus with Hades, generally as his son by Persephone. However, taking note of "Hades' identity as Zeus' katachthonios,” or alter ego, classical scholar Timothy Gantz thought it most likely that Zagreus—originally the son of Hades and Persephone—was later merged with tales of the Orphic Dionysus—the son of Zeus and Persephone.
It is possible that the affiliation between the two was known by at least the third century BC, when the poet Callimachus was believed to have written about it in now-lost sources. Callimachus, along with his contemporary playwright Euphorion, told the tale of the dismemberment of the infant Dionysus, and Byzantine sources quote Callimachus as speaking of the birth of a "Dionysos Zagreus", describing Zagreus as the poets' name for the chthonic aspect of Dionysus. The earliest decisive reference to the belief that Zagreus was another name or title of the Orphic Dionysus can be found in the late first century writings of Plutarch. Following that, the fifth century Greek poet Nonnus' Dionysiaca told the story of this Orphic Dionysus, in which Nonnus calls him the "older Dionysos ... illfated Zagreus", "Zagreus the horned baby", "Zagreus, the first Dionysos", "Zagreus the ancient Dionysos,” and simply, "Dionysos Zagreus". In the Interpretatio Graeca, Dionysus is frequently identified with the Egyptian god Osiris as well, since stories of the dismemberment and subsequent resurrection of Osiris parallel those of Dionysus Zagreus.
Hungarian scholar, Kerényi, associates the figure of Zagreus with archaic Dionysiac rites that involved small animals being torn limb from limb and their flesh being devoured raw, "not as an emanation of the Greek Dionysian religion, but rather as a migration or survival of a prehistoric rite.”
The early mentions of Zagreus, which are found only in fragmented lost works, do connect Zagreus with the Greek underworld, with the earliest being a single quoted line from the epic Alcmeonis (6th century BC):
“Mistress Gaia, and Zagreus, highest of all the gods”
(Most widely interpreted as meaning the highest of all Cthonic gods.)
The Stygian Doorway, Sign of Zagreus, channels the primordial power of death and rebirth, calling upon the ancient mysteries of chthonic power. It is best used in conjunction with ritual deeds rooted in that same Chthonic Magic, be they for the sake of Oneiric Reception, Ceremonial Possession, or Necromantic Rites. Offerings of mead, blood, figs, bone-dust, dedicated sexual activity, and mixed fumigations of storax and sulphur smoke may serve to bolster your potency when working with this Sigil.
2087
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