However running such a large and active group took a lot out of me, and my religious practice suffered as a consequence. So around 2009 I parted ways with Neos Alexandria to focus on my own solitary worship and writing and to put my energy into local activities to honor the gods, independent of the internet, which I think has some serious problems and actually impedes the growth of minority religious groups. And that's pretty much where I am at today.
You've just written a new book about Dionysus. Tell me about that.
I'm coming up on my 20th anniversary as a dedicated Dionysian and I realized that during that time I had produced an immense body of writing concerning his ancient and contemporary worship and my own experiences with him. So to celebrate that and honor him I decided to gather it all up into a single volume since it had been scattered across a bunch of different websites, blogs, magazines, and newsletters and even some of my previous Nysa Press publications. I was quite surprised to discover just how much material I had written; it ended up being a nearly 600-page book, and that was even with a bunch of stuff left out! As far as I'm aware there really isn't anything out there quite like it. It has all kinds of stuff on history and mythology, the basics of religious practice and keeping his festivals, what having an intense relationship with him is really like as well as poetry, hymns, fiction, a play, and even a new system of divination based on his symbolism.
Why Dionysus?
Because I love him and everything that he represents.
In your book you talk about different paths to/of Dionysos. I've also encountered this with Odin and many other Gods. Can you explain a little bit about this (and if you're comfortable doing so, touch upon your own personal path(s) to Him)?
Dionysos is such an immense and complex divinity—full of paradoxes and the reconciliation of polar opposites—that it's not really surprising that there would be all these different paths leading to him and ways to relate to and understand him. But after a number of years of correspondence with fellow Dionysians in the Hellenic community I came to realize that there tend to be a lot of underlying patterns to our experiences with him and that these same core "archetypes" could be found in the mythological lore surrounding him. So I put together a rough outline of these and, judging by the feedback I've gotten since the piece was initially published, I think it's probably one of the most popular and helpful things that I've written.
It shows folks that they they're not alone in what they're going through with him, that you can be a Dionysian in your own unique way instead of trying to mold yourself into this narrow, stereotyped role—i.e., the wild, drunken libertine poet or the mad-woman who's abandoned her home and family to dance in the woods and run with the wild beasts. In fact, there is room in the Dionysian throng even for people who are predominantly devoted to other gods.
Realizing this can be very liberating for people, inspiring them to seek out a unique and authentic relationship with him, which is really what it's all about anyway. I could summarize the different paths here, but honestly I think it'd be best if your readers went and consulted the original article for themselves, which is available on the wildivine.org site I maintain with my partner. The version in the book is a little more polished and some minor corrections have been made, but I'm sure people will get the gist of it.
As for my own personal path, that has undergone some transformation over the last couple months, along with how I predominantly view the god. This has been challenging in certain respects because I was on a very different path with him for a number of years, one that I'd grown quite accustomed and attached to, even though it was certainly challenging in its own way. That's the thing with Dionysos, however: He's always pushing and challenging you, encouraging growth and deeper kinds of liberation. He's a very fluid god, constantly in motion, and nothing ever remains the same with him. Even if you walk just one path with him you could easily spend a whole lifetime peeling back the layers and discovering depths of meaning you scarcely could have imagined when you began.
My path right now seems to be that of the wine-pourer, one who dispenses the blessings of the god to his community. I do that through my writing and by answering questions that people have about him, through my oracular work and more conventional priestly duties such as hosting festivals and performing sacrifices. But there's more to it than that; I feel at times (and this is probably going to sound a little audacious but if you're doing the work you've got to own up to it) like I'm a conduit through which his blessings of fertility and madness flow into the world, that he uses me to reach out to others and help awaken them to his wonders.
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