Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy: From the Spirit of Music

In the Dionysian dithyramb the human being is stimulated to the highest climax of all symbolic capabilities—something that was never before perceived demands to be expressed: the destruction of the veil of maya, oneness as the form of the human species, and even the unity of nature.

Here especially the wildest beasts of nature were released, extending to that disgusting mixture of pleasure and cruelty that always seemed to me to be the original “witches brew.”

Through singing and dancing, human beings express themselves as members of a higher togetherness; having lost the ability to walk and to speak along the way, they fly dancing into the air. Their gestures reveal the magic of transformation. Now, just as animals talk and the earth produces milk and honey, something supernatural occurs to human beings. Feeling themselves to be divine, they now walk as charmed and elated as the gods they saw transformed in their dreams. That person is no longer an artist but has become a work of art.

Under the magic of the Dionysian, the bond from person to person not only emerges again but the estranged, belligerent, and enslaved nature also celebrates its reconciliation with its prodigal son: the human being.