ecstasy
1. rapturous delight.
2. an overpowering emotion or exaltation; a state of sudden, intense feeling.
3. the frenzy of poetic inspiration.
4.mental transport or rapture from the contemplation of divine things.
From dictionary.com
I was watching a movie from the early 1980’s. The word, “ecstasy” was used. That word reminds me of the opening of Wide World Of Sports in the late 1970’s. “The thrill of victory – the agony of defeat.”
I realized that people talk a lot about agony but I never hear of people feeling ecstatic anymore. I wondered why not.
The word “ecstasy” was hijacked as a name of drug. I wondered if this might seep into the collective somehow. You need a drug to feel ecstasy. I decided to call my husband…
“I’ve never felt ecstatic,” he said.
“I have. I have felt it many times. Many times…”
I asked if he thought feelings like this could be obliterated from a culture. He said he thinks some people feel ecstasy. He considers it a “racehorse” thing, where he’s a “plow horse”.
“But do you think feelings like this can be erased from a culture? Rarely felt?””Oh yes. We’re going to be like Russia. It’s all drudgery. Life is drudgery.”
“But if I see it coming, can I not hold on to my feelings of ecstasy?””Oh, I’m sure there are pockets, untouched, in a culture like that. It’s just never been something that’s part of my life.”
Neptune. Jupiter. Saturn. Mars. Venus…etc. Ecstasy is like when all the energies converge.Have you ever felt ecstatic? Have you felt ecstatic lately? Do you see how good things can be taken from you, sneakily?
I feel ecstatic often. Not necessarily everyday, but with some degree of regularity… at least a few times every season. I’ve never felt it during sex or anything like that, but I get the “frenzy of poetic inspiration” when my creative mind finds moments of wisdom or vision. When I don’t feel it, I miss it and hope to find it again soon.
I love this post. I agree that ecstasy is not a common emotion in our culture anymore. I’m not entirely sure why. Maybe because we live in a puritanical society. Its frowned upon… people see it as a loss of control over your emotions… or something. I feel it with regularity as well, especially when I’m reveling in the beauty of the natural world. I also feel it when I make time to feel thankful for the good things I have in my life.
It’s really not pc to be happy! Gotta be railing against something or someone, all the time.
This reflects a lack of faith.
Hadn’t thought about it that way. Having suffered from depression since my early teens, I spent some time (3 years, lol) in therapy to learn to hold on to the moments of ecstasy and pure joy. I fought too hard and they come to infrequently for me to let them go, but now that you have brought it to attention, I will look for those moments more purposefully! Thank you!!
I’m catholic, particpate frequently in Holy Eucharist, Divine ecstasy Yes! Without a doubt, this IS it! I guess this comment will raise eyebrows, shaking heads, smirks and so on. But there will be some who know exactly what I’m talking about. It truly IS the deal, no need for alcohol, drugs, chocolate or any other addiction, it fulfils all – no side effects either, other than the desire to return time and time again. (I’m a normal person, by the way, married, teacher, two kids.)
Unfortunately, I do not remember when I was really ecstatic. I was happy when my country won the World Cup for juniors in soccer, and people were ecstatic, but not me. I’m pretty much doom&gloom these days. But I’ll manage till Saturn in Sag 🙂
Yes! I like ecstatic!
I also like a more mundane happy. I’m happy most of the time – and you’re right, it’s not PC, but what do I care about PC? 🙂
I have that Sagittarius moon; I’m buoyant.
i’m very moon Jupiter but i can feel (watery) when people (individuals) get jealous or angry that i’m so buoyant over even small stuff. So i honestly have to try to keep it quiet. too much faith isnt really acceptable looking, it probably looks fake but yeah i agree it isn’t pc to “feel” happy. but looking happy is a different matter. i look unhappy, don’t smile. I even had a nun in catholic school tell me i should smile, there’s Always a sadness in my eyes she said. But, i feel buoyant about the future despite it.
I use “ebullience”…I feel ebullience often. I laugh so hard it hurts sometimes. Maybe that is Jupiter in my fifth trining my Taurus MC and my Virgo ascendant. I’ve had many moments of ebullience in my life. Some had to do with faith but not most. Sometimes it just feels really really good to be alive.
I do agree that ecstasy can be wiped out because so many people whine and complain constantly that the person who is feeling ecstatic doesn’t express their feelings so as not to further bring down those around them who are not feeling ecstatic. I have felt ecstatic on many occasions I even feel ecstatic when someone tells me of their good fortune. Of course I tend to be a bit of an empath. I think it is a very important emotion ecstasy. I have discerned that men don’t tend to express it because they have been taught that it is not manly to express ecstasy or whatever. Unless of course it is during sex then it is okay. Why people feel it is better to complain about how bad they feel rather than how wonderful they feel has always been amazing to me. Thinking about how bad you feel and talking about it only make you feel worse and everyone around you feel bad as well. Same thing if your are ecstatic and talk about how excited and wonderful things are everyone around you begins to feel that way too.
I just had a two week ecstatic vacation with my favorite activities- rock climbing,backpacking, and sex. I’ve got Uranus on my sag sun and Aquarius ascendant – both 20 degrees. A lull in the intensity of Pluto opposite my cancer Mars and Neptune square my sag Mercury . I took the opportunity. Jupiter conjuncted my Uranus during the trip – I met an exciting man and had fantastic sex. I was ecstatic ! Life has been tough in the last year but two weeks of ecstasy – I’ll take it no matter how short .
Yes, yes, and yes. I’m mostly a pretty serious old gal, solitary. But, there’s this part of me that is bustin’ with jollies and gets expressed in VERY ODD AND UNEXPECTED ways. When the jollies oooze out it surprises even me. The voice is different, so many voices!
Ecstasy (that good feeling thing) does get taken away when I’m not content to let myself feel it like I feel it … not the way another thinks I oughta. To feel it takes creating and so I take to gathering magic, and write write write my way into the medicine. It’s my currency.
Oh yes, I experience ecstasy. I think it’s because of my 8th house Pisces Sun Moon and Mercury. The Sun is my chart ruler. My Asc in Leo is trine Uranus conj Jupiter in Sadge H4. No need for any drugs…I can feel like I’ve actually taken the drug ecstasy when I haven’t. The 8th house is strange and mysterious.
My Scorpio Moon and Leo Sun are so bipolar. I can be depressed and ecstatic at the same time. Half of my chart is in fiery love-for-life FIRE and half of my chart is in moody WATER. I have Capricorn-Neptune in the 3rd house, I could keep myself grounded in an ecstatic/depressed state if I wanted to with my vivid imagination. I’m not a racehorse or a plow-horse. I’m a unicorn!
Ive felt ecstacy, but i don’t feel it anymore. My highest is happiness, which i hope will develop into ecstacy. I don’t know how though. I wonder if it not meant for me?
Ive always wanted to travel to Russia, i find it an interesting place for some reason. Id love to find those “pockets” as well. I am from the states
Yes! Ecstasy! I have, I do! I haven’t heard that word in a while, too, but I love it! Me, and all my “I LOVE it!”s
Good things being taken from me? Yes. Something I love, hold dear, value, being denigrated, ridiculed, or used to throw back in my face to put me down: it feels like it’s being taken away from me.
2nd house Leo Sun trine Aries Jupiter in 10th. I feel ecstatic alot. Usually anytime that my Neptune square Saturn and my Saturn opposed Sun isn’t interfering.
As long as my basic needs are met, I feel pretty darned good and happy most of the time. I’m the type of person who feels ecstatic if I’m looking at nice scenery or eating some awesome food. Little things mean alot to me.
Spot on again Elsa! Joyfulness too flaky and uncntrollable, linked to a drug too.I used to get in trouble at work for being joyful as a teen. Moon trine neptune plus merc and sun in expansive sag.In a saturnian regime it triggers control issues in folks,even seen here in Australia how blond haired people dye their hair brown to go along with new cultural dominances.BTW this is a fantastic book -Ecstasy in Secular and Religious Experience (Library of Spiritual Classics) Paperback – July 1, 1990. I love the story of St Therese I think, who used to go into an ascension like rapture and begin to float upwards. The others tied chains to her ankles so she could do her chores like sweeping!
St Theresa is the name I chose when I got confirmed (catholic) no ecstasy there and no longer catholic but found my own way to ecstasy via meditation and in the presence of God Goddess All that is.(sorry I don’t have any other way to put it) my ecstasy comes via a deep sense of peace and inner joy.
Is it being culturally suppressed? I dunno. I choose not to buy into mainstream propoganda so I only have my own experience to go on. Being somewhat of a melancholic temperament with Saturn in 1st house Scorpio(yeah) I do get rather bummed sometimes at the state of the world. But my Sag Moon saves me every time! ?
P. S. I have had long periods of illness and chronic fatigue and a strange but welcome side effect is that in slowing down and becoming more inward I become more aware of the infinite beauty in simple things. A beautiful sunset can bring me to tears, the smell of a flower sweet ecstasy. Someone said its about finding the extraordinary in the ordinary ! Maybe if we all shut off our devices and the we might feel ecstatic on a daily basis.
oh my, someone else who is brought to their knees by beauty. Tears of joy. It happens sometimes that the tears start to flow and people think I am sad and want to help me feel better. Please please don’t make me feel any better than I already do. Like that would be possible.
Yes, I have felt ecstasy. It’s more part of my life than before. I’m freer now to live the contemplative life, and strive for intellectual beauty.
I have 8th house planets aspected by Jupiter, with Neptune prominent.
Interesting point, that the experience of ecstasy may be whittled away from one’s life. Now, I’ve learned to influence my environment, rather than the other way around. I think my joy lifts others, too.
When I was a very young child, I remembered experiencing sublime well being, profound states of ecstasy, that have been lost with the buffering of influences like school, ‘socializing’ – but not altogether. I’m finding my way back to those states. Nature helps one to experience the Numinous.
Tryin to quit. It wears me out. What I did feel this week after eating a piece of chocolate layer cake with thick frosting was like I needed an insulin shot. 150 yr celebration or not, I ain’t eating that much sugar ever again. Probably an age thing.
Ahhh, ecstasy!
I feel it all the time when Im in love…
and when hiking through the woods or paddling on the lake, am immersed in ecstasy…I dont go to church because nature is my ecstasy, my religion, my connection with the one.
I needed to deliberate on this. Thanks for the visit. For me, there is a deep end I can easily transmute to. It is blotto. I have no proof or scientific fact to back me up, but I think there is only so much current that my physical body can withstand. Uranus in Pisces was the ultimate challenge for me. I am in a physical body and it has limitations as to what it can endure. It is mere physical matter and has limits. I took this body on and I can’t deny it is my vehicle. Moderation is the word I have to remember when I am tempted to take off to that wired dimension. My physical matter body has limits.
I almost never felt ecstasy (with an exception maybe when falling in love) but I possibly made up for that wearing a hoodie with letters written in bold, ecstasy, trafiker de colombia in school. It was a gift from my traveler uncle. No teacher ever scolded me.
The word rapturous is nice, it sounds like capture.