ERIBROMOS

[ . . . ] but seeing the gods in their true form was not always so benign. Most significantly [Semele], princess of Thebes and lover of Zeus, king of the gods, is tricked by Zeus's wife Hera into demanding to see him in his true form: Zeus appeared as a thunderbolt, and [Semele] was destroyed. [Semele] was the mother of Dionysus, so it is appropriate that the worship of Dionysus involved the potentially devastating opportunity of direct contact with the god (emphasis added)

I love Dionysos, and Dionysos loves me. Deeply. Irrevocably. At this point, I'd be surprised if we weren't inseparable at a molecular level, our souls entangled. Our devotion to one another is eternal. But I'm learning the hard way that love and devotion don't automatically equal presence. A few months ago, when the chips were down, Dionysos revealed that he would be exiting my life for a period of time, a timeline that has since become sacred to me. He will be leaving, and I won't be able to rely on or even call upon him beyond a working relationship for divination. He will be gone until he returns