Vyacheslav Ivanov’s Dionysian-mysterial Plot and his Mystical Anthropology (the Concept of «Thou art»). Second Article

Abstract

The purpose of the second article on Ivanov’s mystical anthropology is to demonstrate how the plot «thou art» grows out of the Dionysian-mysterial plot that developed in Ivanov’s early work. The research material was Ivanov’s poetic, philosophical, scientific and epistolary texts. Comparative, hermeneutic, structural and semantic methods were used. Ivanov’s mystical anthropology appears as a detailed narrative, the elements of which are symbols denoting mystical entities. This narrative represents the story of the relationship between Anima and Animus, feminine, irrational and masculine, rational. This story is symbolic, it can be interpreted psychologically, mystically, cosmologically. The plot of «thou art» is modeled on the Dionysian-mysterial plot and can be divided into two lines – the mysterial and soteriological ones. Each of them is divided into «male» and «female» versions. In the «male» version of the mysterial line, the Animus distorts the divine Self in itself and separates from the Anima; in the «female» version, the Anima assumes a priestly role and renounces the God-fighting Animus. In the «male» version of the soteriological plot, the Animus acquires its God-human primordial image and transforms into the son of God, Adam, who has risen from the mortal dream. This transformed Animus appears as a Godhuman Bridegroom, with whom the Anima-Bride marries, as a result of which a complete transformation of the human personality is accomplished, the reconciliation of the male and female principles and the birth of a new Dionysus-Bacchus.