Friday, February 14, 2025

DID ANTINOUS MEET ST. VALENTINE?
BOTH IN ALEXANDRIA AT THE SAME TIME



IT is a little known fact that there is a connection between Antinous and the original St. Valentine ... Valentinus of Alexandria. Hadrian and Antinous visited Alexandria in the year 130 AD ... and could possibly have crossed paths with the man who would one day become one of Christianity's most misunderstood saints.

Here is how our own Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia explains our own special view of Valentine's Day ... the Day of Love:

"Valentinus was the Gnostic Father who was a bishop of the Catholic Church. He tried to change orthodoxy by introducing the Gnostic speculation.

"Valentinus was from Alexandria and was there, studying with his teacher Basilides, when the court of Hadrian and Antinous arrived.

"He believed that Love was the creator of the universe, and the cause for the fall of Sophia (wisdom) ...

"He believed that Jesus came to reverse the fall of Sophia, that Jesus was the consort of Sophia, the Aeon called Christos.

"The love between them was the reason that Jesus descended to save the world. Valentinus began his teaching in Rome, and gained so much support that he was even nominated for the Papacy but lost by a narrow margin.

"Eventually exiled for heresy, the Gnostic Father formed his own rival church that became an influential and widespread Gnostic sect, influencing Gnostic thought down to our own time.


"Because Valentinus was a witness of the Passion of Antinous, and because he attempted to change the Catholic Church, we sanctify his name and venerate him on this sacred day of Eros, the Day of Love."

Thursday, February 13, 2025

THE FEBRUARY FAUNALIA IS PERFECT
FOR VALENTINE'S EVE LOVE MAGIC



FEBRUARY 13th is the Eve of St Valentine and, of course, a day for all sorts of love magic. (Image above entitled "Cupid's Kiss" is by Felix d'Eon.)

In Ancient Rome, February 13th was the start of one of the two feasts of Pan called the FAUNALIA (the other starting on December 5th) ... and it was originally the start of the Ancient Roman festival of LUPERCALIA, which was concerned with fertility, lust and passion ... semi-nude boys chasing virgins around the walls of Rome, whipping their bottoms with thongs dripping with white goat's milk.

It is possible that Hadrian and Antinous encountered Valentinus during their stay in Alexandria in 130 AD, or at least heard of this controversial figure.

Valentinus was a Gnostic firebrand who believed that Love was the creator of the universe, and the cause for the fall of Sophia (Wisdom). He believed that Jesus came to reverse the fall of Sophia, that Jesus was the consort of Sophia, the Aeon called Christos.

The love between them was the reason that Jesus descended to save the world, according to Valentinus, who defied the Christian sect of radicals who created the simplistic concept of hell and damnation for those who did not accept their beliefs.

He said there is no hell ... aside from the hell we create for ourselves on this earthly plane ... and that Love is the key to heaven ... not fear of eternal hellfire and brimstone.

Valentinus began his teaching in Rome, and gained so much support that he was even nominated for the Papacy ... but lost by a narrow margin. Had he become pope, Christianity would be very different today ... and so would Islam.

But the hellfire-and-brimstone brigade triumphed and ... as they would do so often in centuries to come ... they branded Valentinus a heretic ... condemning him to suffer the torments of hell for all eternity. (Image at left: Dancing Fauns by Carlos Barahona Possollo)

One story says that when St Valentine was waiting in prison for execution he cured his jailor's daughter of blindness and they fell in love ... a metaphor for Sophia (Wisdom) and Amor (Christos) uniting in Gnostic mysticism.

After he had been executed it was found he had left a message for the girl, scratched into the wall of his cell: "Always your Valentine."

He was dead and gone, burning in (non-existent) hell. But he was too influential and too popular to be disregarded entirely ... so he was canonized ... perhaps the only Catholic heretic to become a Catholic saint. 

His detractors cloud the issue by saying he was never properly canonized and is only a "folk saint" like St. Nicholas. 

Others insist there were many man named Valentinus so the heretic and saint could be different people ... but the Gnostic teachings of them all are heretical.

So one of the most popular saints is a heretic ... condemned to eternal hellfire and damnation ... because he insisted that Love, and not Fear, is the key to eternal life.

If you are a Protestant, of course, you don't believe in saints. You risk hellfire and damnation if you buy a Valentine's Day box of chocolates or allow your children to share Valentine's cards at school with their classmates.

If your Protestant Sunday School class even mentions Valentine's Day, Martin Luther will spin in his grave.

If your Roman Catholic Sunday School honors St. Valentine ... you are honoring a heretic ... worse, a Gnostic mystic.

If you are a pagan, perhaps you celebrate the Faunalia and the Lupercalia.

Regardless what you do ... you're going to Hades as far as many fundamentalist evangelical Christians are concerned.

So if you're going there anyway, you may as well try a little Valentine's Day Eve love magic. Here's what you do:

To dream of your lover, fasten a bay leaf to each corner of your pillow and one in the centre. Then when you lie in bed with your head on the pillow say seven times:

"Sweet angels in my dreams tonight
"My true love's face, reveal the sight
"Send me a Valentine imbued with love
"Both true and constant may he prove."

Count up to seven between each repetition of the spell ... and your dreams will be "ominous," as the Pagans and the Gnostics would say.

Wednesday, February 12, 2025

RAISE A GLASS TO THE DEAD
DURING THE ANTINOUS FEAST OF CUPS



ANTINOUS traditionally is identified with Dionysus, god of ecstatic transcendence over death ... and 12th February is Choes Day or the Day of Cups, a feast dedicated to Dionysus. In ancient Greece the purpose of this festival was to become as drunk as possible as quickly as possible. Also, the spirits of the dead were said to be allowed out of Hades to visit those of their loved ones who were receptive to their spirits. So today is a good day to try spirit communication, or at least to light a candle and remember loved ones who have died ... or to raise a glass and simply enter an altered state.


Tuesday, February 11, 2025

NOW YOU CAN SEE THE TOMB OF OSIRIS
JUST AS ANCIENT EGYPTIAN PILGRIMS DID



THE 11th of February is the Feast of Wasir (Osiris) in Egypt, which we commemorate because Antinous has always been equated with Osiris as deity of transcendence over death. 

During this festival the Statue of Osiris was transported down the Nile to visit his tomb in Abydos and then returned in triumph to the temple.

This represented the triumph of Osiris over death. An effigy of Osiris was removed from his temple and processed along the Nile to the jubilation of crowds lining the river banks.

Not many people realized that there is a symbolic Tomb of Osiris which was a pilgrimage site for millions of Egyptians over the centuries.

Many Egyptians even designed their own tombs to be a REPLICA TOMB OF OSIRIS.

Just as people make pilgrimages to the Ganges, Mecca, Lourdes and other sites today, the Ancient Egyptians made pilgrimages to Abydos to make offerings.

Many pharaohs also built symbolic tombs at Abydos in addition to their actual tombs in Thebes, Memphis and elsewhere.

Now you can visit the most sacred ... and most mysterious ... temple in Egypt at night and even explore the fabled Tomb of Osiris.

Desperate to boost tourism, Egyptian authorities have improved the long-neglected Temple of Seti at Abydos ... where for thousands of years, Egyptians made pilgrimages to pay their respects to Osiris.

The Temple of Seti is now outfitted with lighting to enable visitors to see it in all its glory at night, Minister of Antiquities Mohamed Ibrahim said in a surprise announcement.

In addition, the subterranean Tomb of Osiris ... called the Osireion ... has been drained of water and cleared of reeds and waterlilies and is included in tours of Abydos, he said.

Most tourists bypass Abydos, which would be unfathomable to the Ancient Egyptians, who considered it the most Sacred City.

In a way, Abydos was the Ancient Egyptian Mecca or Lourdes ... a place where pilgrims converged for prayers and meditation and to attend the annual Passion Plays which explained the cruel death and mutilation of Osiris and the grief of Isis and the miraculous resurrection of Osiris as Egyptian god of Victory over Death and King of Eternity.

The Tomb of Osiris is a subterranean chamber fed by an underground channel from the nearby Nile, which created a moat inside the chamber. The chamber was accessed by priests via a long, dark passageway.

A mound of earth covered the tomb, symbolizing the original mound which rises out of the cosmic depths in the Egyptian creation myths. 

The mound, which is a feature of illustrations in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, is thought to be the inspiration for the first pyramids.

But that raises the controversial issue of the true age of the Tomb of Osiris, an issue hotly disputed by experts.

The Temple of Abydos was begun by Pharaoh Seti, but completed by his son Rameses the Great after his father died befored it was finished. It features exquisite reliefs in amazingly bright colors. 

Most importantly, from the viewpoint of Egyptologists, one entire wall along a long passage provides a list of all Egyptian pharaohs from the beginning of their history in chronological order.

The temple was largely neglected until the 1950s when a self-taught English Egyptologist named DOROTHY EADY helped with restoration efforts. 

Using insights she claimed to have gleaned from a past life incarnation as a priestess at Abydos, she led archaeologists with uncanny accuracy to the location of such things as the temple library.

She became official Keeper of Abydos and was instrumental in piecing together fragments of bas relief stones ... so that Abydos is now one of the most completely restored Egyptian temples. 

Many books and films have been made about her. Witty and full of life, she loved to regale visitors with tales of her past life.

She brazenly observed ancient rituals at the temple to the astonishment of her Islamic neighbors ... she lived at Abydos year-round for decades.

With her winning smile and encyclopedic knowledge, she won the respect of scholars.

Dorothy Eady, affectionately called Omm Sety by her friends and neighbors, never returned to England, dying in old age at her beloved Abydos.

The Osireion (also spelled Osirion or Osireon) is outside of the temple, behind it. It was discovered by Flinders Petrie and Margaret Murray by chance in 1902. For more than a century, experts have argued over the age of the Osireion. 

Some experts insist it was built in the 19th Dynasty by Seti or Rameses, making it 3,300 years old. 

But others point out that the stone work is similar to the Sphinx Temple at Giza ... which would make it at least 4,500 years old.

The Osireion draws New Age pilgrims who flock to the site in the footsteps of the Egyptians of ages past. 

But the derelict state of the Osireion meant that visitors had to stumble across rocks and sand dunes and then climb down a steep ramp to a veritable swamp overgrown with bullrushes and waterlilies.

In this photo, the reeds have been cleared, but often it is totally overgrown.

Priest Hernestus has vivid memories of leaving his tour group and heading off alone ... finally finding the Osireion ... descending the rickety and slippery ramp ... and being confronted by a toothless Egyptian man who popped out of the reeds, brackish water up to his hips, brandishing a machete.

Hernestus thought, "Well, what better place to die than the Tomb of Osiris?" But it turned out the man was trying to clear some of the undergrowth and only wanted baksheesh (pocket money) to help feed his family.

Nonetheless, the Osireion is one of the eeriest and most mysterious places on Earth ... and you will now be able to pay a proper pilgrimage to it ... as the Ancient Egyptians did.

Monday, February 10, 2025

CELEBRATING AN ANTINOUS FACEBOOK PAGE
FOR ANTINOMANIACS LIVING IN BRITAIN



WE are proud to celebrate the third anniversary of British Antinous Priest Martinus Campbell's Facebook page devoted to Antinous.

Below is one of his exclusive, first-person posts, and his followers are continually impressed with the scope of Martinus's knowledge and the depth of his devotion to Antinous. CLICK HERE to follow all of his posts!

Martinus writes:

Today I am showing you a UK based bust of Antinous about which I know some history. You can find it at the magnificent Hampton Court Palace, just West of London - the favoured home of King Henry the VIII and his 7 unfortunate wives.

It is Roman and created in the first century AD. Made of marble it stands 100 cm (3.28 feet) tall. It was acquired by King Charles I, of Great Britain during his ill-fated reign (1600-49).

Antinous is depicted wearing an ‘Attic’ helmet (meaning inspired by ancient Greek designs). Experts classify the attic, in this case, by the diadem-shaped band and the short neck guard. It is surmounted by a very worn sphinx resting on a wedge-shaped base. 

The sphynx’s tail divides in two at the back and forms two scrolls on the sides of the helmet. 

It is a style that Hadrian may have designed himself.

During his reign, Charles I put together an important collection of Roman antiquities. 

It is believed that this portrait bust of Antinous was acquired by Charles I around 1625 and that it was one of the marble portraits from the Gonzaga collection in Mantua, Italy, that were sold to Charles I by Duke Vincenzo II.

It is remarkable that it has survived in the Royal collection. The English Civil War (1642–1651) resulted in King Charles being beheaded and the aristocracy being  replaced by the new 'Commonwealth' republic, ruled by Oliver Cromwell.

This lasted for 5 years until Cromwell died and young King Charles II was given the throne. Like most revolutions the great houses of the exiled or executed elite were raided and looted.

Somehow this Antinous survived. Hadrian protected it. In reality it was probably too heavy to carry!

Sunday, February 9, 2025

DID YOU KNOW THAT PIZZA
WAS INVENTED BY AENEAS?



FEBRUARY 9th is Pizza Day ... Did you know that pizza was invented by Aeneas? The origin of pizza is in Virgil's Aeneid! The hero Aeneas sails the seas with other fugitives from Troy. They seek a new home. They are starving when they land on the shores of Italy. They only have some stale round loaves of bread to eat. They collect some "fruits of the field" (cheese? herbs? garlic?) and put these on top of the thin base. “Hey! We’re even eating our tables!” says Ascanius, the son of Aeneas. (Heus! Etiam mensas consumimus inquit Iulus!) Immediately, Aeneas remembers a prophecy: When you arrive at a place so tired and hungry that you eat your tables, you will know you have reached your promised land. Antinous remembers this story when he and Hadrian order pizza ... delivered by their lararium winged genius! So when you eat pizza, remember to quote the words of the son of Aeneas: Heus! Etiam mensas consumimus!