According to my birth certificate I am H. Jeremiah Lewis, but most people know me as Sannion, which is the religious name I’ve borne in honor of Dionysos since 1999. It means “the Wagging One” and refers to the phallic processions that were carried out in honor of the god in antiquity. However, the tongue also wags and this aligns nicely to my sacred vocation, which is being a writer and teacher about the gods. 

As far back as childhood I had two driving passions in life: religion and storytelling. I learned to love stories from my mother’s knee. She spent hours reading to me or making up her own tales for my entertainment. I soon returned the favor by writing and illustrating long, complicated narratives involving my circle of “imaginary friends” (which I kept long after most of the children my age had lost theirs) and as far as I know, my mom still has these, my first books. Around this time I also had a series of powerful dreams and visionary experiences. This was my first encounter with the gods, and Dionysos in particular, though I only made that connection much later on. 

I was a precocious child, always posing difficult theological questions to the youth ministers. It wasn’t that I doubted or that I wanted to cause trouble – though I’m sure that they often interpreted it that way – but rather, I had a deep desire to know, to understand, to make sense of the sacred myths of Christianity. Eventually I grew tired of being told to just believe, to toe the line, to stop making trouble and I drifted away from the Church. My spiritual quest led me through a number of world religions, ranging from Zen Buddhism to Laveyan Satanism; Gnosticism to Marxist dialectical materialism and everything in between. Although I found much that was beautiful and true within each of these systems, none of them met my very specific spiritual needs. I had a Dionysos-shaped hole in my soul, and it was only when I discovered him and the ancient methods by which he had been worshiped that it was filled. 

At the time that I was reintroduced to the god I was a nominal Wiccan-influenced Pagan. I spent a lot of my time studying magic and reading Tarot-cards for my friends at lunch. In fact, I just recently found my yearbook from 1996 and almost everyone who signed it mentions that. The other thing that they mention is my passion for writing and the memorable speeches I delivered at the monthly school board meetings. In addition to being our school’s representative, I was highly involved in student government, was the founding editor of our literary journal, chaired our extracurricular philosophy club, received high honors in a number of my classes, and was in a fast track program that allowed me to take college-level courses in addition to my standard studies. My teachers had great expectations of me – but then my life took a very different direction. 

The cause of this detour was the reappearance of Dionysos in my life. As I said, he had been there before, lurking in the shadows, perhaps even from the beginning. But now he made his presence felt in a most striking and undeniable way and I fell deeply in love with him. I committed myself fully to serving him, though at the time I scarcely understood what that would mean. I spent years studying everything I could find on him: his myths, the history of his worship, the forms of his ancient cultus, and so forth. This led me to an interest in ancient Greek culture and religion generally, and from there to the other gods who make up his family and associates. Around 1999 I purchased a computer and discovered that I was not alone in my love for the gods and culture of ancient Greece. There was a thriving Hellenic polytheist community with numerous websites, lists, forums, etc. I became an active part of this community and built up a website that was highly regarded as an authoritative source for those new to the faith. I was instrumental in forming several important groups and organizing meetings offline. I taught workshops at Pantheacon and helped lead several rituals that were attended by something along the lines of a hundred and fifty people. 

Then, around 2003 I had some powerful encounters with the Egyptian gods. At the time I was a culturally specific Hellenic recon, and had no interest in exploring other traditions or honoring foreign deities – but the Elder Horus is not exactly the sort of god you can politely ignore, and in this instance he was most insistent. Since Dionysos himself had strong connections to Egypt, I figured it’d at least be worth looking into, and tentatively began studying ancient Egyptian religion and culture. I was surprised at how strong a hold all of this came to have over me. It was as if a part of my soul had finally been restored to me, a piece I hadn’t even realized I had been missing until I found it. I spent a year going “entirely native” (with the exception of worshiping Dionysos on the side, who is and always has been my pole star) before I realized that I needed both the Greek and Egyptian elements to be truly complete. So, like the ancient Ptolemies before me, I sought to reconcile the two traditions and fuse them into a distinct path. Thankfully there was ample precedent for this and a wealth of material to show how they had accomplished such a creative undertaking in the past. 

I and a few others formed the Greco-Egyptian polytheist group Neos Alexandria and I dedicated the next five years of my life to seeing it grow and flourish. We built a solid educational website, a working religious calendar, a strong and vital community where people could share their experiences and learn from each other, brought out a line of successful books which allowed us to make substantial charitable donations, and a host of other meaningful activities. Although I very much enjoyed my time there and took pride in our numerous accomplishments, I eventually came to feel that I needed to direct my efforts elsewhere. Online groups are wonderful, but they have certain inherent limitations. Chief among those are the fact that everyone is scattered across the globe and the internet favors communication over direct action. 

Having seen what can happen when people come together to worship the gods, I felt that this needed to be where my energy was directed. Teaching classes, organizing discussion groups, hosting festivals, and all of the stuff that goes with that. I feel that this is my life’s calling and I am taking steps to see that it manifests. 

And that’s pretty much where I’m at now. I live here in the gorgeous city of Eugene, Oregon with my wise and beautiful partner. I am forging strong relationships with the local land-spirits and deepening my connections to Dionysos, Hermes, Aphrodite, Horus, Hathor, Apis and a shifting handful of other Greco-Egyptian deities. Perhaps the most unique feature of my religious practice is the special veneration I offer to the deified Ptolemies and a rather obscure cross-cultural Spider-divinity. My worship is becoming more ecstatic and magic-filled by the day. And I am working on becoming an independent, self-employed author. 

I don’t think that there’s a whole lot else to say about myself. If you’re curious you can always ask questions or follow along at my more intimate livejournal, where I post random musings and the happenings of the day as opposed to my wordpress blog which is reserved for scholarly study and my more polished writing. I will be teaching classes and doing readings from my books at various locations throughout Eugene. If you are interested in attending, please visit the events section of my site for further details.