Tarot Enlightenment's Newsletter

Welcome to March Madness!

Written by Napaea.

Welcome to March Madness!
In the U.S., this is the month of a strange phenomena known as March
Madness. During the month of March, college basketball is at its
height in competition and intensity, as the teams compete for the
national college basketball championship. Bars are filled with
cheering students, and streets are filled with either parties or
riots (depending on how well your team does!)

While there is nothing supernatural about March Madness, there have
been a number of "madnesses" that have swept through our world
throughout history.

The Many Partner Madness
In the play "The Bacchae" by Euripides, historians noted that
women dancers were "mad in honour of Dionysus". These characters in
the play are based on real people. Dionysus was the Greek god of
wine and ecstasy, and his followers were known to give in to excess
and revelry. During rituals or celebrations, worshippers danced
with a passion and strength that seemed superhuman, and many people
believed they were possessed. While some worshippers were engaged in
religious ceremonies or rites, many others were "engaged" in quite a
different way. Multiple sexual partners might be had in one night as
the frenzy of wild abandon increased throughout the evening's
celebrations. Still today there are those who worship Dionysus and
throw uninhibited, erotic celebrations on his behalf, drinking the
night into oblivion and enjoying the "company" of others.

Monestary Madness
The famous book "The Devils of Loudon" by Aldous Huxley
chronicles a true story of women seemingly possessed in a convent.
A number of nuns who lived at an Ursuline convent in Loudun reported
seeing a ghost, apparitions, and other odd events. This was the year
1632, and rumours spread quickly throughout France of the sisters and
their wild ways. The sightings caused the nuns to go into hysteria,
disrupting the whole convent.
The behavior of the nuns became lewd and uncontrollable, even to the
point of accusing a local priest of having possessed them and being
the cause of their disturbing behavior. Investigators were brought in
to deal with the chaos in the convent, and eventually the man accused
of inciting the madness was burned at the stake.

Midsummer Madness
In 1374, after many events left the peasants in Germany with
miserable living conditions, people from all over the country came to
Aachen. Although the old pagan customs had recently been
Christianized, many pagans still celebrated the summer solstice in
the old way, and the festival this year was even more magically
charged than ever. The people that were present leapt about in a
state of stupor and ecstasy for hours and hours. Apparently
oblivious to everything around them, these revellers started off in
an epileptic type state, continued to dance for longer than would
seem possible, foamed at the mouth, and fell to the ground in a heap
of exhaustion. After a short break they would leap up again and
start the process all over. Some might scream the names of gods or
goddesses, while others had visions. Once the dancers used up all
their energy, they would fall to the ground, where they were bound
around the waist. After all the hard dancing, the bodies began to
bloat and swell, and the binding was intended to relieve the
swelling. Some non-dancers found they were able to assist with the
swelling by trampling the fallen dancers underfoot!
The Dancing Madness seems to have affected people in Aachen
for several months, then traveled on to churches in Maastricht,
Utrecht, Liege and other areas. The madness then traveled to the
areas now known as Belgium, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands, where it
was finally "trampled out" after six months or more.

© 2002 Tarot Enlightenment