1. What is your deity's name, and what concepts of the human condition do they represent?

Hades, Aides, The Dark Lord, The Unseen One, He Who Hosts Many, Pluton, Serapis.

Generally representing the human condition of death, or an 'end'.

2. Give a brief description of your god's backstory. How were they born/created? Who are they married to?

He was the first son of Chronus and Rhea, and was swallowed by Chronus like the other siblings. Zeus conspired with Rhea, Gaia, and other deities to release them all from Chronus. They overthrew his rule, and imprisoned the Titans in Tartarus. He is one half of the Holy Matrimony with Persephone.

3. What is something about your deity that most people don't know?

The pluton role is not covered much, as it entails a fear of death, which Hades is not really in charge of. That is a duty for a different underworld deity, one which is not shared with any others.

In Hades' role of Pluton, he is the keeper and giver of great wealth; indeed, 'primary wealth' is all derived from digging in his realm-- from the silver on your keyboard, to the oil that the plastics are made from.

The cave you fear to enter contains the treasures you seek.

4. What's something unique you've learned from working with them this year?

The Serapaium, or annex to the Great Library of Alexandria, was not destroyed by the fires, and contained the last books lost in the mid 300's CE. The library was dedicated to the god Serapis, and the few known statues of this god were depicted as having a flower pot on his head, standing next to a three-headed dog. It is thought that Serapis was a final image of Hades that survived long past the end of the public worshipping of pagan gods in Rome.

All of the minerals in the soil that are used to grow the plants we require, are provided from Hades, as a gift and unseen duty.

5. If you were to spend a day with your deity, what activities would do? How would they react to those mortal activities?

I think that photography, and specifically our ability to 'freeze frame,' run cameras so fast as to capture the micro-seconds of events, and run them in a time-lapse mode to experience long-term events quickly, would fascinate Hades. The breaking down of Chronus into micro-segments, and being able to freeze them forever in time, would be like a comedy for Hades.

Meet Hades in the flesh and witness the gods walk the earth at this year's Spring Mysteries Festival.