A Roman relief from Herculanium shows the wild wine god, Dionysus, with his thyrsus tipped with a pine cone and his panther. Similarly the corresponding Tarot Trump for Neptune, the Fool, shows him attended by the same splendid pet, death itself.   Dionysian rites were never tame.

The great gift of the vine is the Piscean spirit of compassion and caring and deeper feeling.  After the dry and practical spirits (air and earth) by which we generally live our daily lives, this liquid spirit (water) restores our emotional life which is so often imprisoned for its inconvenience.  This can be a wonderfully fuffilling experience as we explore the neglected territory of friendship and what we really feel about things but often we find these frustrated feelings emerge bubbling over with rage or simple irresponsibility.