THUNDERSTRUCK WITH WINE

Thunderstruck with Wine

The Hymns of Sannion

H. Jeremiah Lewis

Copyright © 2014 by H. Jeremiah Lewis

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced by any means or in any form whatsoever without written permission from the

author, except for brief quotations embodied in literary articles or reviews.

For Dionysosand all who hail him!

This book is dedicated to Galina Krasskova,

my loving partner and my support.Thank you for everything.

Contents

Preface: Context.................................................1Preface: Bacchic Backdrop.................................2Preface: Words...................................................4Preface: How to Pray..........................................5

Hymn I................................................................7Hymn II...............................................................8Hymn III..............................................................9Hymn IV............................................................10Hymn V.............................................................11Hymn VI............................................................12Hymn VII...........................................................13Hymn VIII..........................................................14Hymn IX............................................................15Hymn X.............................................................17Hymn XI............................................................18Hymn XII...........................................................19Hymn XIII..........................................................20Hymn XIV.........................................................21Hymn XV..........................................................22Hymn XVI.........................................................23Hymn XVII.........................................................24Hymn XVIII........................................................25Hymn XIX.........................................................26Hymn XX..........................................................27Hymn XXI.........................................................28Hymn XXII.........................................................29Hymn XXIII........................................................30Hymn XXIV.......................................................31Hymn XXV........................................................32Hymn XXVI.......................................................33

Hymn XXVII......................................................34Hymn XXVIII.....................................................35Hymn XXIX.......................................................36Hymn XXX........................................................37Hymn XXXI.......................................................38

About the Author..............................................39Also From Nysa Press.......................................40

Preface: context

Thunderstruck with Wine is, in essence, the “Sannionian Hymns,” a potent, potable, and portable collection of some of the best Dionysian prayers produced by Sannion, which lends itself not only to practical usage in devotional contexts, but simply to recitation for the honeyed wine of their language.

The spirits of the ancient hymnodists are alive here, as we see various faces of Dionysos from across the world:  Cretan and Egyptian, Delphic and Italian, ancient and medieval, and even modern and American, a meandering of cultures appropriate to the far-wandering god’s stream of wine drawn from many inebriating tributaries. 

While the verse-styles and voices of each hymn range far more widely than the hymns of Orpheus and other great collections from antiquity, this refusal of univocality is not in any fashion diminished by that, but instead speaks more authentically for the great throng of ancestral traditions and the many poets who were mouthpieces of them, variable in form and aspect as widely as the God Himself. 

Whether as a book of days for prayer, practice, and contemplation, or as a singular recitation, or as a ritual to be stretched out over a night’s revels and offerings, Thunderstruck with Wine brings the illumination of the vine and its many-splendored God to the reader and reciter through a clarity and

forwardness of language which, like a bolt of lightning, cannot be hidden nor contained. 

A true triumph for its talented author, and for the reader and worshipper who takes it fully into their perceptions!  Io Dionysos!

P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS author of The Phillupic Hymns, Ephesia Grammata:

Ancient History and Modern Practice, The Syncretisms of Antinous, and All-Soul, All-Body,

All-Love, All-Power:  A TransMythology 

Preface: Bacchic backdrop

The earliest reference to the cult of Dionysos we presently possess is a Linear B fragment from Khania in Crete, dating from the 14th-13th century BCE, recording the dedication to the God of two amphorae of honey, showing His importance already in this prehistoric era.

All of the transformations and upheavals of antiquity bear His stamp in some fashion: tragedians, comedians, philosophers and sorcerers alike invoke Him; kings and emperors hold authority in His name, as do plebeians in revolt. He is the most Hellenic of Hellenic Gods, by the evidence of archaeology, and yet always conceived as a foreigner, coming from afar, at home in the liminal spaces of encounter with Thracians and Italians, Egyptians and Indians, and speaking in the archaic voices of indigenous peoples everywhere Hellenism spread.

He embodies the mainstream of Hellenic paideia, as well as its subversive fringe, and the ability to somehow take this very instability into its heart is perhaps much of the enduring strength of Hellenism. Dionysos, in this sense, is indeed the king without portfolio of an Olympos without borders.

He is with us again at the very end of classical antiquity, in the Dionysiaca of Nonnus of Panopolis, and His ship sails onward into the Middle Ages, in the tributes of thirsty scholars as well as the nocturnal rites of those beyond the

reach of ecclesiastical authority, whether in the countryside or in the depths of the urban wild. When the performing arts were reborn, signaling the end of the churchmens’ dour epoch, He was there in the commedia del arte, in the opera, in the ballet.

When revolutions rocked the West in the 18th

and 19th centuries, they wore the Bacchic cap of liberty, while at the dawning of the 20th century Nietzsche found the source of all values in Dionysian ecstasy.

Today’s revival of polytheistic devotion, and of His worship, thus forms only the most recent moment in His epic, which has never stopped being sung, the latest threads woven into His fabric, from the timeless wool of the mountain grazing ewe to the very clothing in which modernity knows itself as modern, Dionysos is always older than any tradition held too securely and newer than the present as we know it.

The greatest tribute I can render Sannion is that I know that he bears on his broad shoulders the fullest possible awareness of this breadth and majesty of his God, this long mad story which is at once historical and helplessly personal, His limpid beauty and curdling perversity. These hymns, honeyed words, are just a taste of Sannion’s labors on the God’s behalf; I encourage you, the reader, to delve deeper, indeed, to go beyond sight of shore.

EDWARD BUTLER

author of Essays on a Polytheistic Philosophy of Religion and

Essays on the Metaphysics of Polytheism in Proclus

Preface: words

Words of the written and visually recorded variety are amongst the most significant acts of devotion that a person of this world can embark upon.

Whether graffiti meme scrawled on ancient Pompeiian wall or singularly deep and moving prose, words writ hold power, and the potential for a shifting permanence which can bring those words outside the folds of time.

Words written and read but once can be recalled again and again, even when lost to burning fires or calamity of digital decay; never underestimate the potency of the ghosts of words, which as immortal specters can weave with a literary constitution forward and sideways through the futures, drawn forth and evoked by later writers and hailed heroically as a text that once was, or recalled and recorded only as fragmented form.

Fragments of written words alone can lift a people from their knees and like the first-responder’s jaws-of-life lend themselves to liberation from doom.

Words spoken with breath of one carry the life of prayer to the immortal gods themselves, while words written are themselves immortal, to be spoken on the breaths of the many who would read and know them.

The restorative pursuit of writing words in prayerful and pious fashion is amongst the most essential of avenues in the paving of the roads of a

thousand tomorrows, upon which the parades and festival processions of the Mysteries of our gods returned can put foot after ecstatic foot to forming new ways forward.

ANOMALOUS THRACIANpolytheanimist priest, shaman, and Founding Director of Polytheist.com

Preface: how to pray

When you praybe overcome by the power of the words

so that everything else disappearsand it’s just you at your shrine

with the god looking on.Speak your words like a lover

seducing the divineand know that they are not empty sounds

but every one of them is full of myths.When you say hail Bromios,

mean that night when you screamed as loud as you could

and didn’t care what your neighbors thought.Staphylos,

the skin of the grape between your teeth.Soter,

the pain and your tearsfalling down.

Hold the aromas of his invocation in your mouthlike wafts of wine poured from the bottle,

like a damp forest late at night,like the smoke of a fine cigarette after sex.

And then let it out.Give it to him.

Offer everything inside you up to the god– the good and the bad, the pain and the joy –

in a single blast of euphoric love,for you are his and all you have belongs to him.

Cry “Io evohe!” like the maenads of oldand mean it with all your heart.

That is how you pray.

SANNION

Hymn I

Dionysos,though you are ever a strange god,be not a stranger to me.Show me all the many faces you wear,the forms you put on when you come among usto make the earth fruitful and the forests to soundwith laughter and the dance of the mad oneswho tear the grapes from the vine and love the wet raw feast.Come as a bull with horns of flame,come as a serpent slumbering in a bed of soft grass,come as a leopard chasing its preyor come as a beautiful manwith eyes full of longing for the joys and sorrows of this worldand all that lies beyond.Come as it pleases you to come,so long as you are here with me now.For I yearn to feel your presence enfold melike the tendrils of ivy that cling to the walls of a temple,like the warmth of good wine as it spreads through my body,like the furious winds that drive the poet’s thoughts to unfamiliar places,like the memory of what it is to be truly freethat lurks inside each of us.

Hymn II

Oh Dionysos,may my words rise up to you like clouds of fragrant incense,intoxicating as the rich red wine I pour out for you in libation.May my thoughts never be far from youcalling to mind your innumerable noble namesand the marvelous things you’ve done in ages pastand continue to do for your people today.As Bakchos you free our souls of harmful emotionsdriving us wild into the hills to dance and shout.Bromios we hail you as when sweet slumber takes hold of usafter many cups of good wine have been drained.Anthios you are when the lovely flowers show their faces come springtimeand as Kissokomes we see you wrapt in the evergreen foliage of the ivy.You are the bull-faced son of thunder,the companion of the moisture-loving nymphs,the giver of many gifts,the joyous one who makes our hearts glad,the lord of all vegetation,master of the wild beasts,the mad one who loves the frenzied women,the revealer of mysteries,all-holy one who has come to set us free!I could go on and on,for I never tire of praising you

but my feet long to dance in your worship,so let these few words suffice and I will show youjust how much you mean to me, O Lord, with this body of mine!

Hymn III

Dionysos, I sing, whose head is twined with ivyand grapes in ripe bunches that tumble to his gentle shoulders,clad in their fawn-skin cloak.Swift-moving god racing down the side of Olympos,or through the wooded coverts of the Nysan plane,attended by goat-footed satyrs, and the lovely nymphs,giving out the call, “Euoi!”All-conquering, fierce-eyed one,who wields his thyrsos like a fiery brand,striking with madness those who offend him.Mystery discovered through our bodies,in dancing round raging fires till exhaustion overtakes us,and the touching of trembling flesh against trembling fleshunderneath the all-seeing moon.I suppose there are older gods, and stronger –but there has never been a god dearer to my heartthan the son of Semele and Zeus who reigns in heaven!

Hymn IV

All hail my King,the Worthy Bull,the one who maddens and brings joy,ivy-crowned Dionysos of the many masks,leader of the Furious Host,breaker of bonds,awakener of souls,he who holds my heartand knows my whole story,Bacchus, lord of all Italyand triumphant in India,and beside him always fair Ariadne the Queen.

Hymn V

Hail the midnight rider,the dearly departed,the snake-charmer,mask-wearer,tree-dweller,woman-pleaser.

Hymn VI

I summon to this sacrificethe god who dances through the woods,who wears the skin of ferocious beastsand delights in the bloody feast.Maddened, rapturous, holy in the extreme,you with bull’s horns on your head,bearing snakes and tossing your long hair aboutwith the frenzy of a thunderous storm.Lord of every tree,with a face lovelier than the first flower of spring,raving in the night when decent folk are behind doors,leader of the mad throng down from the mountainand through the shadowed streets.Decked with ivy and clusters of bountiful grapes,he who takes pleasure in the phallosand the screams of intoxicated maidenstearing the fawn to piecesand dancing about,proudly bearing their trophies of the hunt.Come to this place,hallowed in your name,and bless us with your many giftsgod of Nysa’s heightsand the hidden places of our hearts.

Hymn VII

My heart beats and I draw breathonly so that I may praise youDionysos, bringer of increase and giver of many joys,you who have set me free and driven me madinto the wild places far from homewhere the forest delights in the rhythm of our dancing feetand the thunder of dithyrambic verse poured out for youlike wine spilled on a lovely turf altar,like fragrant clouds of incense rising up to heaven.I will never tire of this worshipor turn my face away from yours,so long as there is life left in my limbs,for you are the source of lifeand all the good things in it– a fact which even blind Tieresias could clearly see.

Hymn VIII

Come thou, O Lord,in thy name of Meilichiosgentle and loving master of all,with the warmth of life in thy ruddy cheeks,a gracious smile upon thy soft lips,thy head of flowing locks crowned with a wreath of juicy figsand thy ivy-wrapt wand held high!Before thee is set a table overflowing with bread and meats,heaped with piles of fruit from the vine,and wine that flows as freely as thy maniform blessings.Join us in the feast, O Kindly One,and raise thy voice along with ours,as we sing of the good things of lifeand the joys that thou bringest to us.Away, away all sorrows!Take flight depression and thou winged madness,for Meilichios is here,laughter-loving, all-embracing lord of life!Io Io Meilichios!

Hymn IX

Hail to you Father Liberproud and conquering king victorious in every battle,who dissolves all boundaries and effortlessly overcomes every obstacle.Fruit of thunder and mortal bloodwhose shaggy sons cavort with swarms of bees,nymphs of the madness brewed from honey.For you, oh handsome husband of Libera,mascara smeared, flowers in your beard,stumbling barefoot at night, composing dithyrambs in empty parksbeneath the golden glow of Narnian lamp posts.We carry cocks in solemn mirthful procession for you,blessing the soil and trees with your fertile power.Give us the grace of ecstasy, freedom and boundless joyO Lord of the lands of the noontime sunand the smoldering heights of Mount Etnawhere the grieving mother stopped in search of her nameless daughter.Guide our sons into manhood,gentle tyrant of the Evian cry,make them worthy to wear the purple stripe by testing their hearts in wineand fury and trials that forge strong characters.You lift us high

like the grapes and corn that flourish in our fields because of you,high as the thyrsus tossed about by a dancing, drunken Bacchant,high as the peaks of Parnassus where you watch eagles soarfrom the oracular, three-legged chairwhile your brother sojourns among the fair oneswho live far beyond the north windin a land rich in raven’s bread, honey and amber.You, Bacchus, wander even further still,yet always find your way back to us. So hail to you godwho brought Caesar eternal renown,you leader of the chorus of dancing, fire-breathing stars.

Hymn X

Hail to you Dionysos,lord of the Red Lands,master of the places far from man.Yours is the thunder and the winds that smash,the blinding sand storm and the sudden downpour of rain.You delight in the hunt and the taste of raw flesh torn by your savage teeth,in strong wine and the pungent smoke of thick cigars.You snarl and howl, a sound to make even a strong man tremble,and your laughter echoes into the stillness of the night,a sound like crunching metal and shattering glass.You fear nothing and bend the knee to no one.You are the one who turns things upside down and rends us apart,especially when we are stuck in an unhealthy rut and cannot free ourselvesfrom the self-made snares.Your purification is painful and without mercy –but all too often exactly what we need.Hail to you, world-destroyer, wild one bringing liberation,the feral god we ignore at our own peril!

Hymn XI

With a glad heart I sing the praises of the bull-horned son of Zeus and fair Semele, nobly born daughter of divine Harmonia and Kadmos, ruler of seven-gated Thebes,Dionysos the joy-bringer and lover of the ecstatic oneswho dance to the thunder of drumbeats and the bull-voiced salpinx.Hail maddener who knows the taste of raw flesh of the deer hunted by moonlight.Hail loosener of the bonds of the soul and the bodywho stirs within us an uncompromising desire for freedom and excellence.Hail reveler who soothes all cares through the blood of the grapeso that we may experience rapturous bliss.May these and all future offerings I make be pleasing to youwhose grace and generosity are boundless.Io evohe! Io io Dionysos!

Hymn XII

A waken, O Bacchic One, from your long slumberand raise yourself up from the earth with loud thunder!You who wear ripe fruit as your crownand cause the mad-women to leap and fall down;they who rave and dance before your ivy-draped idolpraising your power and beauty and all your fine titles.O Bromios, sweet is the wine we draw from your casks,and sweet the laughter of the street-marching youths in their masks.Rude jokes and ribald songs they sing on their waythat none may forget in whose honor we esteem this day.From death comes life and in dark there is light;changing sorrow to joy – yea, such are the secrets of your rites.No god has a festival as great as your Lenaianot even the ram-bearing feast belonging to the son of Maia!So join us, Dionysos, as we drink to good cheerand may all who tip their glass to you be back next year!

Hymn XIII

Hail to you Dionysos the Deliverer.Hail to you Loosener of Cares.Hail to you Dissolver of Boundaries.Hail to you Buffalo-Facedwho crushes every obstaclewith your dance-weaving, ecstasy-loving, freedom-reveling triumphant hoof!Hail Dionysos!Hail Dionysos!Hail Dionysos!Hear my prayers oh ivy-shrouded Ploutos Liknites,master of the persuasive net,god of miracles and might,most fruitful and most potent,hear my prayers!

Hymn XIV

Hail to thee Dionysos,prince of those beneath the earth,wild one who brings liberation and madness,lord of the vine and the magical drink made from it,father of kings, lover of mad-women, joyous onewho makes the whole earth turn green with life at his coming.

Hymn XV

The face of Dionysos shines as he strides across the land,luminous as the moon in heaven,golden as the wings of the Bennu-bird in flight.Where he steps the earth becomes black,the trees swell with fruit,clear water rushes forth,and the scent of acacia and pine fills the airlike a fine incense.Dionysos appears as a bull in his strength,as a young king in his power.He is terrible and mighty,filling the hearts of all who behold him with awe.When he comes forth, there is great rejoicing in the land.Wine is poured out, tables are piled high with food for feasting,the maidens sing and dance in the streetand husbands take their wives to them.The whole world is renewed through its Lord!

Hymn XVI

The earth is hungry after summer’s long laborand hungrier still the gods who dwell under the earth.So accept this fair feast of the season’s rich bountybeneath the branches wet with drops of nourishing rain.Be welcome, O prince of the shadowy soulswhose bull horns rise from a crown of dark ivyand heavy grapes that are crushed to make our wine;whose beard is soft like the moss that covers the treesduring the cold months of winterand reaches down like tangled roots in the black soil;whose somber eyes glow like torches in the night,like the streams of lava that flow through subterranean caverns;whose breath smells of decaying leaves and the white flesh of mushrooms.

Hymn XVII

My Lord,I am dirty and broken,imperfect and yet full of an ardent longing for you.Open me up, I pray.Let your madness wash over melike the heavenly fire that birthed youso that I may rise up and bellow in the hunt as a furious bull!

Hymn XVIII

While I live may I always kiss the earth before theeand sing thy praises, O great Ancestral King,whose face is beautiful in the land of shadows,whose soul is radiant in the house of the gods,whose spirit is life-giving to the fruit trees in the orchard.My heart longs for thee, O Good Brother,like the barren earth yearns for the floodwaters of the Nile,like the cow in the field aches to be mounted by the virile bull,like the poor man desires the coming of a righteous judge who will set things straight.My mind is inflamed with the memory of thy presence, O Noblest of the Noble Ones,how thy breath smells of pine and cedar and sweet acacia wood,how thy eyes are silver, like the moon’s reflection in a still pool,how thy flesh is green like ivy clinging to a wall.I am overcome with the thought of thee:it makes my heart tremble in my breast.For thou art the Lord of the Double Horns,mightier and more potent than ten thousand bulls.For thou art the Chief among those in the Westwhom even death could not destroy.For thou art the One whose Word is True,

who gives laws to gods and whose counsels all must obey.O Dionysos, may these words be pleasing to thy heartso that when I come before thee thou wilt give me cool water to drinkand permit me to take my bread from the offering table of eternity.

Hymn XIX

Dionysos, make me drunk on the wine of life!Open me up to every experienceso that when it is time to stand before the judges in the WestI will be able to say that I wasted not a second of lifeand that I ended my days without a single regret.Cause my spirit to overflow its bounds,like the Nile spilling over its banks,and may this inundation make the soil fertileso that every type of crop and plant can take root in it.Dionysos, nurture the seed that I plant and guide it until it reaches fruition.Be just as gentle to me, Lord, as I undergo the journey into wholeness.Show me the source of true being,which survives every transformation,even that of death,so that I might seejust how small and powerless my fears are.

Hymn XX

O Prince of the Lilieswith peacock feathers in your honey-brown hairand a dancer’s fair body,leaping the bull with such effortless agilitywhile the bare-breasted Queen watches on,a cold grin on her cruelly beautiful face.You rise, brushing the dust from your hands,and turn round to receive the praise of the feasting, drunken court.Deep below, the brute stalks the shadows,wiping blood from his bovine maw,head heavy with the burden of horns.You feel his pain as he feels yours,mirrored reflections of each otherliving in different worlds.

Hymn XXI

Hail to you Bakcheios, who makes one rage with ecstasy.Hail to you Lyaios, who grants release from all cares.Hail to you Auxites, who causes to flourish.Hail to you Eubouleos, who speaks for the dead.Hail to you Mainomenôs, who helps through madness.Hail to you Thurepanoiktes, who knows how to unlock what is closed.Hail to you Patroôs, guardian of the ancestral rites.Hail to you Omadios, who makes raw by tearing open.Hail to you Meilichios, sweetest and gentlest of all the gods.For your limitless blessings I praise you Dionysos, lord of many names and many masks!

Hymn XXII

Oh master of the torchlit midnight revels,oh lord of the bull’s foot who surges with the lava beneath the earth,oh king raised in the silence of a nymph’s moist cavern,oh moss-bearded elder of a strange people,hail!

Hymn XXIII

To you, Dionysos, I give this offering,you who are poured out in offering to the godsand bring mad blessings to the careworn hearts of mortalkind.You who delight in all young lifeand cause flowers to bloom and fruit to swell.You who hunt in the night with the furious hostand open the doors so that the free ones may revelin wild places once more.Lord of many names and many masks,most gentle and most savage of all the gods,hearer of prayers and worker of wonders,whose boons are beyond counting –Dionysos, this life is yours,oh Lord of boundless life!

Hymn XXIV

Hail to youmask-wearing Dionysos,god of grape and grain,bull of fertile rain,king of the fruitful delta,snake of fire and rockwho shapes the earth and dreams;come with a joyous heartand accept these holy offerings,you who have done so much for us.

Hymn XXV

Io euoi! Ie paian!Let us honor Dionysos the King,the Lord of Delphi during the cold winter months,the intoxicating, liberating lover of the ivy,the vine-clad son of Semelewho sleeps beneath the tripodand is aroused by the frenzied songs of the mad womenwho dance upon the mountainside at nightbearing their bright torches.Io io Dionysos!

Hymn XXVI

He is the healerand the violent one,emotion’s lordand master of all that excites– the dance, the wine,the mask, the heavy scent of animal bodies,blessed deliveranceand a kiss that opens your mindlike Pandora’s Jar,loosing the black-winged sprites,thirsty and bearing unfamiliar gifts.He was there before the beginning,and he’ll be there to welcome you at your end.

Hymn XXVII

Hail to you, bull-formed Dionysos,twin of the most holy Apis,I sing your praises and ask you to come in peace,for you are the source of all good things in life.With your horns you drive off the foe,keeping the two lands safe, and protecting those who love you.You are solid, like truth, and your heavinessspeaks of the rich yields that we shall harvest with your blessing.Your thunderous bellow stirs my souland sends me into a frenzy of joyous ecstasy.Your hooves are made of the stuff of stars and light my pathas I make my way through life.Your gentle tongue wipes away my tears and soothes all my cares.Come, O beautiful bull,O mighty and majestic one,that I might place a garland of sweet roses around your fragrant neck,and rest in the presence of your godhood.

Hymn XXVIIIA morning prayer

As the golden light of dawn spreads across the vineyardand the forested mountain where the nymphs danceafter bathing in the rushing waves of the pure river,I hail the noble son of Semele and loud-thundering Zeus on high,bull-horned and ivy-crowned Dionysos,giver of wine and countless blessings,he who sets us free,and banishes all care from our mortal hearts,limitless joy to mankind.Be with me as I go about the business of the dayin a spirit of reverence for all the wonders that the world holds.Help me to remain true to my highest aspirations,so that nothing can dull my senses,tame my wild soul,or distract me from my callingto serve the holy powers with all I have and all I am.This I askO ecstatic deliverer, lord of mysteries,many named and many formed one.And in return I will renew your shrinewith plentiful offerings and joyous libations.

Hymn XXIXAn evening prayer

As darkness descends and the world grows stranger,calling forth the wild spirits who revel in the streets while others sleep,I hail you god of the maskand husband of the labyrinth’s mistress,night-roaming Dionysoswho leads the dancing stars in heavenand fills our hearts with joy and mystery.I thank you for all the blessings of this day,the things I’ve seen,the passions I’ve felt,the opportunities I was givento do the work of the holy powers I serve.May the life course within me ever stronger,may I discover new depths to the mysteries,may my soul be overcome with even more longingfor the ones I lovein the days to follow.All this I ask through your gentle hand,and in return I will renew your shrinewith plentiful offerings and joyous libations.

Hymn XXX

Hail Dionysos, ivy-crowned lord of those in the West,mortal-faced bull of thunder and fire who raves in the nightwhile the mad-women dance and howl their hunting songs,panther-limbed, snake-graceful, flowing like wine poured from a jar,like thoughts stirred to a frenzy by mystic longing,force of rhythm that compels a body to move,dissolution of fear and inhibition and all bonds of the flesh and spirit,fertility of flowers and fruit and green branchesswaying in a breeze while the rain soaks the hungry earth,eyes in darkness like guttering torches silently observing the mad spectacle,he who desires all, who is insatiable for experience,hear my cries and join me in the feast!

Hymn XXXI

Hail upright god,stout one who plows the field,lusty one who makes men hard,joyful one who fills the women with phallic frenzy,fruitful one, bursting with seed.Lover of the moist ripe grapeand the delicate, late-blooming flowers,Bull of His Mother,who impregnates a thousand cows in a single night!Come, o potent one, come in peace,smelling of sweat and the salty sea,he whom all the gods adorein the innermost chambers of their temple.Thou greatest of the great ones,without whom there would be no life upon the earth!

About the author

Sannion is a mantis (“diviner”) and Orpheoteleste (“specialist in Orphic rites”) with over two decades’ worth of experience worshiping Dionysos and his retinue of gods and spirits. He is a prolific writer and provocateur who publishes under the pseudonym “H. Jeremiah Lewis.”

Also From Nysa PressHeart of the LabyrinthH. Jeremiah Lewis guides the reader along the winding path of Bacchic Orphism much as he himself discovered it after decades Dionysian worship. Through essays which seamlessly combine primary source material with personal experiences, and poetry that exposes the raw, bleeding heart of devotion and the

madness of following a mad god, he explains and explores the living form of this ancient tradition.

EcstaticFor a significant portion of his life H. Jeremiah Lewis has struggled to understand the ways and nature of this elusive ancient Greek deity of wine, vegetation, madness, drama, liberation and much else besides. In the course of his study and explorations he has produced an immense body of writing which has

been gathered together in this unique volume for the first time ever. In addition to learning about Dionysian history, mythology, symbolism, and methods of worship both ancient and modern, the reader will gain

a first-hand glimpse of what it’s like to know and love a god as strange as Dionysos. Strange Spirits (Volume One)

A collection of poetry and other mysteries.

From the Satyr’s Mouth: Wit and Wisdom from an Opinionated Polytheist

In ancient Greece, satyrs were famed for their mocking criticism of societal conventions. H. Jeremiah Lewis brings that same spirit to a discussion of contemporary Pagan life and values in this latest collection of essays.

Prepare to be challenged, informed, annoyed and hopefully entertained!

The Balance of the Two Lands: Writings on Greco–Egyptian Polytheism

This collection of essays explores the long history and contemporary manifestations of Greco-Egyptian poly–theism. It provides an overview of the system, information on theology, ethics, the afterlife, and

material on domestic worship, ritual forms, and the basics needed to begin practicing today. This is a book for all who have heard the call of the gods of Greece and Egypt and wondered what to do next.

Echoes of Alexandria: Poems and Stories

This volume of poetry and short stories celebrates the author’s undying love for the incomparable city of dreamers and the immortal gods and famous historical figures who once walked Alexandria’s fabled streets. It offers a unique glimpse into the religious life of a man dedicated to

a rich multicultural pantheon drawn from Greece, Egypt, Rome and the Near East. Included are hymns, poetry, imaginative retellings of ancient stories, and modern myths set down for the first time.

Gods and Mortals: New Stories of Hellenic Polytheism

These are the stories of Hellenismos today. What it feels like to recognize the presence of the gods around you. To discover the mystery of the divine, the joy of love, the struggle with doubt, the loneliness of belonging to a minority faith. You can read about ancient Greek religion in academic

tomes, but none will tell you what it's like from the inside. The only way to do that is to hear our stories, in our own words. Stories of gods and mortals.