OSCAR WILDE SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON October 16th, the Religion of Antinous honors SAINT OSCAR WILDE who was born on this day in 1854. He died in ignominy and poverty on November 30th, 1900.

Ostensibly, Saint Oscar Wilde was an Irish playwright, poet and author of numerous short stories and one novel.

Known for his biting wit, he became the most successful playwright of the late Victorian era in London, and the greatest "celebrity" of his day.

His plays are still widely performed, especially The Importance of Being Earnest.

As the result of a widely covered series of trials, Wilde experienced  a dramatic downfall and was imprisoned for two years' hard labour after being convicted of homosexual relationships, described as "gross indecency" with other men.

After Wilde was released from prison he set sail for Dieppe by the night ferry and he never returned to Ireland or Britain.

That is the truth, pure and simple, of his life. But as Saint Oscar himself once famously said: "The pure and simple truth is rarely pure and never simple."

For that reason (and for many others) we remember him not only because he was notorious (something for which he might claim to be quite proud) but because he remembered Antinous.

He kept the name of Antinous alive through his poetry: 

"—A moment more, the trees had stooped to kiss
Pale Daphne just awakening from the swoon
Of tremulous laurels, lonely Salmacis
Had bared his barren beauty to the moon,
And through the vale with sad voluptuous smileANTINOUS had wandered, the red lotus of the Nile.
"Down leaning from his black and clustering hair
To shade those slumberous eyelids — caverned bliss,
Or else on yonder grassy slope with bare
High-tuniced limbs unravished Artemis
Had bade her hounds give tongue, and roused the deer
From his green ambuscade with shrill hallo and pricking spear.FROM "THE BURDEN OF ITYS" BY OSCAR WILDE.


"—Lift up your large black satin eyes which are like cushions where one sinks!
Fawn at my feet fantastic Sphinx! and sing me all your memories!
Sing to me of that odorous green eve when couching by the marge
You heard from Adrian's gilded barge the laughter of ANTINOUS
And lapped the stream and fed your drouth and watched with hot and hungry stare
The ivory body of that rare young slave with his pomegranate mouth!

FROM "THE SPHINX" BY OSCAR WILDE.

Here are some quotations from Oscar Wilde:

We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars.

Ordinary riches can be stolen, real riches cannot.
In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

I have the simplest tastes. I am always satisfied with the best.

Man can believe the impossible, but can never believe the improbable

The critic has to educate the public; the artist has to educate the critic.

Whenever a man does a thoroughly stupid thing, it is always from the noblest motives.

It is absurd to divide people into good and bad. People are either charming or tedious.

I am so clever that sometimes I don't understand a single word of what I am saying.

I love talking about nothing. It is the only thing I know anything about.

Always forgive your enemies — nothing annoys them so much.

A true friend stabs you in the front.

I don't want to earn my living — I want to live.

Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.

Nothing that is worth knowing can be taught.

The only thing worse than being talked about is NOT being talked about.

A gentleman is one who never hurts anyone's feelings unintentionally.

What is a cynic? A man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.

To live is the rarest thing in the world. Most people exist, that is all.

Be yourself; everyone else is already taken.

ANTINOUS HAS TWO SPIRITS

IN October millions of people in the United States of America celebrate Indigenous Peoples' Day as an alternative to Columbus Day.

Antinous the Gay God is the divine essence of homosexuality ... the magico/spiritual gay spark in the Ancient Blood of humanity ... from the Olduvai Gorge ... across the Caucasus ... into Europe ... over mountains and deserts to the Far East ... over land bridges and in outrigger canoes to Australasia ... and the Americas! 

That gay spiritual spark flows in the veins of all of us ... but it shines most brightly in the Two Spirit People ... who have suffered so terribly for living magico/spiritual lives ... and who are re-kindling that spark today ... that it might shine brighter than ever.

Antinous the Gay God has Two Spirits ... but One Heart. Antinous dances with Two Spirits around the world. Antinous lives in the heart of Two Spirits everywhere ... the healers, medicine people and musicians. 

Antinous adherent Jack Baker offers this poem to all Gay and LGBT Two-Spirit, that they take pride in that name! 

TWO-SPIRIT

Two-Spirit never forget who you are.

A light to this world as bright as a star.
You are born as healers to humanity.
Together we can cure its insanity.
Mother Earth gave you this gift.
Of two-spirits to heal this rift.
Once seen as sacred and pure.
Now a sinner the Abrahams abhor.
Persecuted you are but strong is your heart.
Shine a light to the world to pave this new start.
Two-Spirit you are the visionaries of earth.
Through your sacred guidance we will see a rebirth.

THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR MARTYR SAINTS OF MALE-MALE LOVE

ON this day, the origin of the folk belief that "Friday the 13th" is an unlucky day, the Religion of Antinous remembers the Knights Templar.

The proud and courageous brotherhood known as the Order of Knights Templar, who were sworn to protect pilgrims traveling to the Holy Land, were accused of Heresy, Idolatry and Sodomy, and were arrested on Friday the 13th of October in the year 1310 in France.

Although they had fought valiantly during the Crusades, and even stayed behind, sacrificing themselves to guard the retreat of Christian refugees during the fall of Acre in 1291, the order was condemned by the Pope and handed over to the envious King Philip the "Fair" of France, who coveted their land and immense wealth.

The Knights had adopted the heresy of Catharism which was basically a form of Gnosticism with Manichean influence, that had perhaps been introduced to them in the Holy Land where it flourished under the Moslems.

The Cathars believed that Jesus had descended to the material plane to undo the rule of the God of Israel, and that he had liberated mankind from the law of Moses and the natural order, through salvation in his name.

The Cathars believed that the body, and life itself, was the creation of the Evil One, who claimed to be the "Creator of the Universe."

They did not recognize the authority of the Church and believed that homosexuality was sacred because it was a form of love which did not result in procreation (locking humans in a cycle of earthly incarnations).

Following the Platonic ideal of Venus Urania, the Cathars believed that Brotherly Love was more in keeping Christ's teaching than the love between husband and wife.

The Knights Templar, whose seal depicted two knights riding on one horse, quite openly advocated this philosophy. But the Papal accusation claimed that they took this to the extreme of sodomy, requiring new initiates to perform the Kiss of Shame, by which they kissed the buttocks and phallus of the Grand Master of the Order.

They were also accused of abandoning Christianity and worshipping a demon called Baphomet, a hermaphroditic, goat-headed idol whose name implied secret knowledge.  

Other accusations were leveled against the Knights. But Heresy, Satanism, and Sodomy were the crimes which essentially led to their downfall. 

Of course most of this information was obtained through torture. But one can only wonder at the consistency that characterizes their confessions. 

On this night, the Grand Master Jacques de Molay and thousands of  Templars were arrested, tortured, condemned and subsequently Burned at the Stake. From then on, Heresy, Devil worship, and Homosexuality were indistinguishable in the eyes of the Inquisition, perhaps because they were indeed interconnected. 

Homosexuality, however, had not been a significant threat to Christendom until it was connected with a diabolical plot to overthrow the order of society and of the Church. This was the beginning of Our Burning Times, and over the course of the next 400 years, thousands of homosexuals were officially and publicly condemned and burned or otherwise executed as an act of faith that, through our extermination, the Church was protecting the world from the Forces of Evil which we embodied.

For their courage and sacrifice, we praise the Order of the Knights Templar as Heroic Martyr Saints of the Religion of Antinous, as the Sacred Band of the Middle Ages, and we recognize their secret god Baphomet as an incarnation of our beloved Dionysus, a manifestation of Homo Deus, and of Our Beautiful God Antinous.

MATTHEW SHEPARD SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON this sad day we honor a young gay man who was brutally murdered: Matthew Shepard, who died at 12:53 am on Monday, October 12th, 1998.

He was brutally assaulted because he was gay, on the night of October 7, by two men who had lured him to a secluded place outside of Laramie Wyoming. 

His attackers tied him to a fence, beat him and left him for dead in the freezing cold. 

He was found the following evening by a cyclist. 

By the time help arrived, he had slipped into unconsciousness.

The death of Matthew Shepard awakened the world to the persecution that homosexuals have endured for centuries. His beauty, youth and innocence affected everyone, and spoke for the hundreds of others who in recent years have died similar deaths without being noticed.

Matthew Shepard is a Sacred and Holy Martyr of Homosexuality, he died an innocent because he was gay. He died a death that so many others have suffered, but his death changed the world.

He was 22 years old, very near the age of Antinous and, like Antinous, his beautiful face, humble origin, and tragic death have had a great impact on the future of homosexuality in our society.

We consecrate his memory and pray for him, that he will guide and protect us in our hour of danger, and bring an end to the violence and hatred that he suffered.

TODAY IS INTERNATIONAL COMING OUT DAY

THIS international event is in celebration of the joy of revealing to the world our sexuality. 

It is an international event that gives people the opportunity to come out as an act of spiritual and political courage, in defiance of all who would deny homosexuals our human rights. 

The first National Coming Out Day was held on October 11, 1988, it was in commemoration for the 1987 March on Washington. 

In its full essence it is a political statement, meant to call out to our brothers and sisters to publicly state that they are homosexual to all those who do not already know. 

Flamen Antonius Subia says:

We acknowledge the spiritual implication of this event as profoundly significant to the religion of Antinous and of the mysterious nature of Homo Deus. As an act of Liberation and as a vision promotion of our presence and numbers, we solemnly dedicate ourselves to public declaration of our sacred sexuality on this day.

NOMINATIONS FOR SAINTHOOD 2024 NOW BEING ACCEPTED BY OUR PRIESTS

THE time has come to Nominate Gay Saints of Antinous for 2024.

Before making a nomination, please check the current LIST OF SAINTS to be sure that your suggestion is not listed already.

All nominations will be considered, but as a reminder, our traditional criteria is as follows:

I. A Nominee for Sainthood must be:

    1. A person who is no longer alive.

    2. A person who was known to be Gay or reasonably suspected to have been Gay or bisexual to a significant degree.

    3. A person who made a notable contribution to gay society or human society in general.

II. A Nominee for the category of Martyr Saint should be:

    1. Any gay person who committed suicide or was the victim of gay violence.

III. A Nominee for the category of Venerable Saint can be:

    1. Any person who was not gay, or whose homosexuality is uncertain, but who made a significant contribution to gay society or gay spirituality that we feel deserves to be recognized in an official capacity.

IV. Members of Ecclesia Antinoi, and those they love may be nominated for passage on the Barque of Millions of Years.

The deadline for nominations is October 24th, any nominations made after that date will have to be added to the nomination list for 2025.  Discussion is open to all considering the qualifications of any nomination.  The Priesthood of Antinous will make the final decision...an announcement will be made on October 30th, and a ceremony of consecration will proceed that evening.

May the Saints of Antinous be with us,

Watch over us,

And guide us to Antinous Consciousness.

Antonivs N. Svbia

Flamen Antinoalis

ANTINOUS IN MENNEFER (MEMPHIS) ENCOUNTERS THE MEMPHITE TRINITY

HADRIAN and Antinous arrived in splendor at Mennefer/Memphis the ancient capital of the Old Kingdom.

The Memphite cosmology held that the god Ptah was the creator of the universe, that out of fire he created Atum and the Ennead of the Heliopolis. 

Ptah created the Atum from his burning heart and speech, and then the Atum created the world with his hands and semen. 

In later days Ptah would become a ruler of the underworld, or more specifically, of what lied beyond these world, he was the root of the root. 

He was accompanied two other goddess, Sekhmet-Bast, the Lion-Cat Goddess who represents destruction and Nefertum, their son, whose name means "the accomplisher of Atum" and represents preservation and healing.

Another son of Ptah and Sekhmet-Bast was Maahes, the lion-headed boy god of war, protection, knives, lotus blossoms and also vanquishing enemies of light and justice.

Yet another deity associated with Ptah at Memphis/Mennefer was the dwarf deity Ptah-Pataikos ... who at first glance resembles BES, but who appears to represent all Egyptian dwarf deities.

Ancient Egyptian dwarfs were assumed neither fully adult or pre-pubescent and assumed part of both human and animal realms. Patakoi symbolised youthful solar gods. 

The symbolic aspect was the solar affinities of dwarfs reflecting the idea of regeneration.

They assumed the role of protectors of small children and were strongly connected with fertility and magical amulets. 

The dwarf Ptah-Pataikos-Sokar amulets were concerned with both the living and the dead ... the Ptah-Patakoi guarded the living, especially children, and what appears to be an insignificant figurine is in reality a beautiful and magical amulet.

Antinous was exposed to these mysteries that brought him deeper into the unfolding of the nature of the universe and the identity of the first principle. 

He was initiated into the double nature of creation, through Sekhmet and Nefertum. 

Pictured above is the Memphite triad with a very white-skinned king who resembles Antinous.