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

He is Zeus. He provides humanity with governance and social order, and the example of what hard decisions must be made for the good of all.

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

Zeus was youngest of the Titans, born children of Kronos and Rheia. His mother hid him away from his father, who swallowed a stone thinking it was the latest child. Zeus was raised in secrecy, and developed the alliances and skills to finally overthrow his father, and cast down the rule of the Titans. He took his sister Hera as his wife. He engaged in exploits that tied most of the pantheon together, setting him squarely at the top as King of Mount Olympus.

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

What I've learned through working as his priest, is that he must be the father that loves all his children. Yet as much as he sees how their path is unfolding for them, he must let them fall and learn to pick themselves back up, so they will grow into the fullness of their own agency. There is a time that the father can impart knowledge and guidance, yet step back to let each one makes their own choices with that knowledge.

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

In truth, I've often avoided the Kings and All Fathers of pantheons, not taking the time to delve into their deeper mysteries. Many in the modern era only see the superficial reflections of these figures, presented in media and by authors of myth that don't take time to interrupt the meaning behind the words. In the modern pagan faiths, we struggle against what we see as tyrannical restrictions and controls placed on our ability to worship and freely express ourselves. Thus, we associate these Kings and All Fathers in the same light we see our modern tyranny, when we should be looking to them for exemplar of what just and fair rule should look like.

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

I would introduce him to the methods we use to communicate and minister to our people, and how we are working to keep the priesthoods moving forward into the future. I will not assume to know how Zeus would react, but I am interested in observing him as he moves through the world around us.

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