Patreon Song/Poem/Prayer 25 -For Dionysos

If you want to submit a request for a prayer, poem, or song to be written to you privately or to be posted on this blog or my Patreon for a God, Ancestor, or spirit, sign up for the Ansuz and above level here on my Patreon. This prayer was requested from Alec for Dionysos.

Honey-spattered hands

Wetten the jar

Stirring in the magic

Patience, patience

Brewing takes time

Juice-soaked feet

Dance in the barrel

Pouring down the magic

Patience, patience

Brewing takes time

Green-stained hands

Collect the basket

Simmering the magic

Patience, patience

Brewing takes time

Calloused hands

Grind the mill

Boiling the magic

Patience, patience

Brewing takes time

Protrygaios! Theoinos! Agathos Daimon!

Blessed are the Ways You have taught!

Blessed are the Ways of patience, patience

For brewing takes time!

Visions of Dionysus

Strange dreams heralded Your coming

Intense, vivid, real

Ivy and mead, yes, but more:

Drums in the distance, heavy and echoing

Spears and swords gleamed

Fangs shone

Something deeper and darker

Slather and blood dripped

Grinning

You stir them up

Drinking

Dancing

Howling

At first I cannot follow your footsteps

I cannot follow your rhythm

I cannot dance with you

I am too afraid

You stir them up with that bestial grin

That snapping of teeth and pawing the earth

That thudding of Your thyrsus

You stir them up with that roar

That shaking of Your body

That unbridled ferocity

You stir them up

You stir them up

You stir them up

How can I do other than follow my soul

As it leads me to dance

As it leads me to release

As it leads me to rage

Your wolfish grin invites

The forest unfolding

Come and be who you are

Io! Io! Io!

O Enualios!

O Holy Wild One!

O Dionysus!

Tasting Dionysus

I taste you in my wine press

Your body splits as the vice presses

Your flesh flows as it crushes

Your blood falls into my thirsty barrel

Each grape its own, each grape a taste of You

Twice-Born

The God caught Himself in the mirror and stood in awe

Absorbed, never thinking

That behind Him stalked His killers

 

Torn limb from limb

Body boiled, limbs roasted

 

The wine stained eyes fell from His mirror

Rolled up to His Father, whose wrath blazed

The furious bolt crashed

 

Dead fell the feasters

Dead fell the God-hungry

Living fell the beating heart of Lenaeus

 

Taken up by Athena it was blessed with knowing

Taken up by Demeter it was blessed with vitality

Taken up by Rhea it was blessed with purification

Taken up by Zeus it was blessed with power

Devoured by Semele, Dimetor came forth

 

The ivy-haired God shone forth

Twice-born of Semele learned again

To crawl, to step, to walk, to dance, to sing, to rave, to fight

 

He took up His gifts and power in glory

His sword felled every foe before Him

His thyrsus struck frenzy into His followers

His grapes crossed the world and brought wine to all peoples

His wine poured and dythrambic verse fell in power from His mouth

His ivy marked His paths and ways for worshipers and pilgrims

To follow Him where He would lead

 

O Zagreus Dimetor, O Reborn One! You show us the Ways!

O Isodaetes, You give free that we may give!

O Mighty Dragon, Your jaws have torn the foe!

Io Dionysos!

To Demeter and Dionysus

Demeter and Dionysus

Tower o’er with sheaf and grape

The cornucopia spilling forth

Your blessing that You’ve made

 

To Dionysus the Wine-pressed

Your blood flowing sweetly free

Red pouring out from Your life

A drunken goodly stream

 

Your grapes have swelled to bursting

Their juices have grown sweet

Ready for our eager hands

And for our stomping feet

 

To Demeter, O Holy Mater

You Who has lost

A Child who heralds Winter’s dark

Who come Spring will melt the frost

 

The shafts of grain grow tall

And ‘fore Summer’s end

The scythe will bend

Your Bread comes forth for all

 

Holy Ones Who hear the prayers and cries

Of Children far and wide

In You the harvests abound in goodness and in time

 

Teach us Holy Ones, the wisdom and the way

To live each moment fitfully in work and drudge and play

 

To take up each new challenge each new struggle in our lives

To do more than just go on; to truly grow and thrive

So be with us this Mabon and all the days from now

From chaffing wheat and decanted wine, from harvesting and plow

 

Blessings to You Demeter and Dionysus both,

for blessings of the harvest, of comfort, and of hope