The Dionysian spirit is one of expansion. He lifts us out of our everyday confines, broadens our horizons, opens us to the fullness of life, and dissolves whatever boundary may be standing in our way. With all of this, we should not be surprised to discover that prophecy was closely linked with Dionysos by the ancients - for it is only our limited sight which perceives past, present, and future as three distinct categories, instead of but parts of a single stream which they become when viewed through divine eyes. Plutarch called Dionysian madness a secret knowledge, and Euripides explicitly called the God mantis, or seer, and "prophet of the Thracians". Herodotos tells us that there was an oracle of Dionysos at Delphi, while Pausanias testifies to one at Amphikleia and Aristotle tells us that, just as the Apollonian seers prophesied at Klaros after drinking from a sacred spring, Thracian prophets gained inspiration from Dionysos after drinking large quantities of wine.

What sort of prophecy did Dionysos preside over? We have evidence of a number of different types. First, there are what have been called 'mechanical' forms of divination, since they required a tool of some sort to communicate divine will. This is the sort of divination that we see employed at the Villa of the Mysteries. In one of the scenes a young satyr, assisted by two companions, is gazing into the depths of a vessel. This sort of divination or scrying had a long history and is found in numerous places in the Greek magical papyri. This may be what is indicated in the Orphic myth when the Titans creep up on the child Zagreus who is lost in meditation on his reflection in a mirror. The cup or bowl would be filled with water, wine, oil, or some other substance, and the diviner would gaze into its depths to behold visions. The shimmering reflection of light and shadows on the surface (this operation was usually performed in a darkened room lit only by lamps) would distract the conscious portions of his mind, allowing the images and deeper, intuitive knowledge to rise to the surface. The visions that the diviner beheld could be symbolic (i.e. if he beheld a flowering tree it meant renewal), more concrete such as actually beholding a scene from the future, or more along the lines of a monition, as we see from the Papyri which describe the magician actually holding conversations with the spirit within the bowl.

Another form of mechanical divination associated with Dionysos was the interpretation of the lees left in a glass of wine. Unfortunately, we have no evidence of how these were interpreted, although we can surmise that the process was probably not unlike the modern tea leaf readers, or those who divine by reading coffee grounds.

We have evidence of a third form of mechanical divination associated with Dionysos from the Roman author Arrian. According to the text, when Alexander the Great visited India, he met with and spoke to Dionysos, who lived in a pair of sacred trees. This brings to mind the oracle of Zeus at Dodona, where the barefoot priests discerned oracles through the rustling of leaves. Unfortunately, history has provided us with no clues as to how the priests interpreted the rustling of leaves, or how Alexander spoke with Dionysos.

But, the most common form of Dionysian divination required no tools, but was, in fact, possession and prophecy in the fullest extent of the term. At the height of Dionysian worship, the spirit of the God enfolds and entwines with that of the worshipper, uniting in the most intimate form of communion. The Greeks called this enthusiasmos, or literally "A God is within" and the individual was thereafter known as a Bacchos (m) or Bacches (f) signifying their unity with Bacchus. In addition to being filled with the God's spirit, made whole and new, they were granted prophetic gifts, imperviousness to pain and extreme conditions such as heat and cold, and the ability to perform miraculous deeds, such as the maenads causing wine, milk, and oil to flow, and Akoetes being able to loose the chains that bound him. (We find similar phenomena in Haiti, where Vodouns are 'ridden' by their lwas.) In such a state, it is not the individual's personality that is foremost - but the God's. They have greater understanding, speaking things they would not otherwise know, in words they would not normally use. Often, there is not just a change in personality, but also in voice - as we see from the Greek tradition of "belly-talkers", women who, in trance, spoke with deep, gravelly voices that seemed to emanate from somewhere deep within their bellies.

Of course, Dionysos could also inspire visions and prophetic understanding without fully possessing an individual. We see this in Euripides' Bakkhai, when Kadmos utters wise speech which Tiresias attributes to the God, and even proclaims an oracle at the end of the play, without ever having experienced enthusiasmos. The Athenian playwright Aiskhylos attributed his poetry to Dionysos' inspiration, after the God visited him and commanded him to compose dramas in his honor. Alexander the Great was visited by Dionysos in a dream, who gave him advice regarding the military engagement that was to take the place the following day. Alexander followed his unlikely advice, and saved his army, who would have been soundly defeated had he followed his original course of action.

So clearly, as Plutarch observed, Dionysos had an equal share in the prophetic arts which guided the ancient Greeks.