in religious studies, describes "lunar- or nature-oriented" religions that emphasize the ecstatic and emotional aspects, and the liberating of the psyche from the limitations of mundane consciousness, to enable union with the "group mind", or collective consciousness of the group (named for Dionysus, the Greek God of wine and Ecstasy)
Relating to Dionysius, a monk of the 6th century; as, the Dionysian, or Christian, era
Passionate revelry, uninhibited pleasure-seeking; the opposite of Apollonian, according to Friedrich Nietzsche, who considered drama a merger of these two primary impulses in the Greek character