TONIGHT HADRIAN'S WALL

BECOMES WORLD'S LONGEST ART WORK

FLAMEN Antonyus Subia is celebrating the Full Moon tonight in Rome as part of his Sacred Pilgrimage.

Meanwhile in England Hadrian's Wall will be illuminated to become the world's longest work of art.

Antonyus will carry out sacred ANTINOUS MOON MAGIC rituals in Rome as part of his religious pilgrimage to the Eternal City. Tonight is the cycle of the intensely sexual/spiritual Pisces Full Moon, which we call the HOMOTHEOSIS MOON.

Simultaneously along Hadrian's Wall, a group of US artists will use up to 450 balloons and thousands of light emitting diodes to revamp the 2,000-year-old wall.

­The creative challenge is to suspend hundreds of white weather balloons, fitted with lights, above the 117- kilometer wall, the most important monument built by the Romans in Britain.

Viewers will have a chance to submit their tiny messages which will be transformed into pulses of colored light passing along the wall akin to Morse code.

A digital arts collective from New York known as "YesYesNo" has been invited to the UK to transform the historic landmark built by the Romans to guard the northern frontier of their empire.

The installation is due to take place on the nights of August 31 and September 1. It  is part of the London Festival, a three-month cross-country arts feast involving up to 12,000 events staged to coincide with the Olympic and Paralympic Games.

ANTONYUS SUBIA IS IN ROME

FLAMEN Antonyus Subia has arrived in Rome and is settling in to his five-star hotel overlooking the Ancient Forum at the outset of a week-long pilgrimage coinciding with the historic, first-ever ANTINOUS EXHIBITION at Hadrian's Villa.

First order of priestly business after freshening up from the 11-hour flight from Los Angeles was to visit the Forum and environs, Circus Maximus, the Colosseum and adjacent sites.

As Flamen Antinoalis or "high priest" of the modern Religion of Antinous, Antonyus is ever mindful that he is the first practicing and recognized Priest of Antinous to set foot on these ancient paving stones since the Fall of the Ancient Religion of Antinous with the rise of Christianity.

He is following in the footsteps of Johann Joachim Winckelmann (the Father of Archaeology and Art History) and others throughout the centuries who have been instrumental in keeping the memory of Antinous alive through ages of darkness, anti-gay persecution and ignorance.

The week-long pilgrimage will take Antonyus to all the Sacred Sites associated with Hadrian and Antinous in the Eternal City.

He will meditate and carry out religious rites at the Pantheon, the Obelisk of Antinous, Hadrian's Mausoleum, the Temple of Venus and Jupiter built by Hadrian and of course Hadrian's Villa.

In addition, he will pay solemn respects to the many statues, busts and other images of Hadrian and Antinous at various museums in Rome.

He will celebrate the intensely sexual/spiritual Pisces Full Moon on Friday, which in Antinous Moon Magic is called the HOMOTHEOSIS MOON.

Priest Hernestus is traveling to Rome from Germany to confer with Antonyus. Priest Uendi, who is providing generous financial support for this conclave, will be in constant touch from Hollywood.

Antonyus and Hernestus will make a Sacred Pilgrimage together to Tivoli to see the unprecedented and spectacular Antinous exhibition at Hadrian's Villa near Rome.

Because the Antinous Exhibition at Hadrian's Villa is a once-in-a-lifetime event, Antonyus intentionally planned his Sacred Pilgrimage to coincide with it.

ANTONYUS SUBIA ON WAY TO ROME

ON SACRED ANTINOUS PILGRIMAGE

FLAMEN Antonyus Subia is flying from Hollywood to Rome today on the first leg of a week-long pilgrimage which will take him to all the Sacred Sites associated with Hadrian and Antinous in the Eternal City ... and the first-ever ANTINOUS EXHIBITION at Hadrian's Villa.

He will meditate and carry out religious rites at the Pantheon, the Obelisk of Antinous, Hadrian's Mausoleum, the Temple of Hadrian erected by his successor Antoninus Pius, the Temple of Venus and Jupiter built by Hadrian and of course Hadrian's Villa.

In addition, he will pay solemn respects to the many statues, busts and other images of Hadrian and Antinous at various museums in Rome.

Special religio/magical rites will be performed during the cycle of the HOMOTHEOSIS MOON, the intensely sexual/spiritual Pisces Full Moon on Friday.

Priest Hernestus is also converging on Rome from Germany and will accompany Antonyus to Hadrian's Villa and the Vatican Museum. Priest Uendi, who is providing generous financial support for this conclave, will be in constant touch from Hollywood.

Antonyus and Hernestus are particularly excited about seeing the unprecedented and spectacular Antinous exhibition at Hadrian's Villa near Rome.

Running now through November 4th, hundreds of Antinous-related statues and other artefacts from around the world are on display. The exhibition is entitled ANTINOO: IL FASCINO DELLA BELLEZZA (Antinous: A Fascination With Beauty) -- and reviewers in the Italian press say the exhibition lives up to its name.

Amazingly, this is the first time EVER that the curators of Hadrian's Villa (the Superintendence for Archaeological Heritage of Latium Villa Adriana Antiquarium) have launched an exhibition solely devoted to Antinous.

Because the Antinous Exhibition at Hadrian's Villa is a once-in-a-lifetime event, Antonyus intentionally planned his Sacred Pilgrimage to coincide with it.

Every major station of this Sacred Pilgrimage will be reported on in depth on this blog and at the official ANTINOUS FACEBOOK page!

KARL HEINRICH ULRICHS SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON AUGUST 28th, the Religion of Antinous honors Saint Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the world's first gay activist, who lobbied governments 100 years before Stonewall for repeal of anti-gay laws, and who was also Chief Priest of Antinous worldwide in the latter half of the 19th Century.

Even before the term "homosexuality" had been coined, Ulrichs came out to his friends and families and proclaimed in 1864 that he was a "Uranian" — or "Urning" in his native German — and thenceforth waged a one-man campaign for gay rights in Germany.

Sanctus Carolus Henricus Ulrichs, Chief Priest of Antinous in the 2nd half of the 19th Century (worldwide!) wrote incredibly long poems — nearly in epic form — about Hadrian and Antinous.

He wrote a manuscript for a mammoth scientific work on Antinous in history, art, coins and his influence on ancient and modern culture. The manuscript was confiscated and destroyed in a police raid.

As part of his gay-rights lobbying effort, he wrote dozens of pamphlets with titles such as "Researches on the Riddle of Man-Manly Love" aimed at dispelling homophobic myths about same-sex love.

Late in life Ulrichs wrote: "Until my dying day I will look back with pride that I found the courage to come face to face in battle against the spectre which for time immemorial has been injecting poison into me and into men of my nature. Many have been driven to suicide because all their happiness in life was tainted. Indeed, I am proud that I found the courage to deal the initial blow to the hydra of public contempt."

Forgotten for many years, Ulrichs is now becoming something of a cult figure in Europe. There are streets named for him in the German cities of Munich, Bremen and Hanover. His birthday (August 28th, 1825) is marked each year by a lively street party and poetry reading at Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Square in Munich.

The International Lesbian and Gay Law Association presents an annual Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Award in his memory. He died on July 14th, 1895, in L'Aquila, Italy.

ANTINOUS THE WORLD'S LOVELIEST CAMERA

THERE is an Antinous flower, a red lotus called the Antinoeios. And there is an Antinous tarantula, called Pamphobeteus antinous. There is a STAR OF ANTINOUS and an Antinous Asteroid and there is even an ANTINOUS CRATER on one of the moons of Saturn.

But only collectors of antique photographic equipment have ever heard of the Antinous Camera.

At the start of the 20th Century the British camera-maker Watson Edwards brought out the "Antinous", a revolutionary new bellows camera that folded up flat so that it could be taken anywhere in a handy carrying case. This was in an age when bellows cameras were bulky and enormous.

In a sense, it was the first "pocket" camera. And it was such a thing of beauty, with brass fittings and mahogany woodwork, that its manufacturer couldn't resist calling it the "Antinous."

Occasionally, an Antinous camera comes up for auction on EBAY. And even more rarely, some of the Antinous camera accessories come onto the market. One such item, coveted by collectors, is the Antinous Shutter-Release Cable.

Vintage camera buffs adore this wire-cable which replaced the traditional rubber bulb squeeze release which had been problem-prone. Sometimes when you squeezed the rubber bulb it failed to trigger the shutter. 

But the "Antinous" always worked. It revolutionized professional photography on the early wooden cameras.

In a classic book on stereoscopic photography for use in "science, industry and education" written prior to 1935, an authority with the Royal College of Science in London laments that most camera shutter release knobs or levers are so badly located that there is a tendency to shake the camera in releasing the shutter. Antinous to the rescue!

"Personally," the expert advises, "the use of the Antinous release is preferred for hand work; the release of this can be arranged in any convenient position to suit the operator, and there is no tendency to rock the camera."

The Watson Edwards "Antinous" was displayed in 1905 at the Royal Photographic Society's 50th Annual Exhibition as being practical and handy, since it could roll flat to fit "in the tiniest pocket cameras". Today the "Antinous Camera" and its many accessories is a prized part of any collection of vintage British photographic equipment.

A 'NEW' ALTAR FOUND AT WALL FORT

EXPERTS ASK WHY 18 WERE BURIED THERE

A ROMAN altar dating from the time of the Antonine Emperors in the 2nd and 3rd Centuries AD has been unearthed in pristine condition at the site of a Hadrian's Wall outpost — and incredibly, it is the 18th altar found here, adding to a mystery that has confounded experts for a century and a half.

The stone altar, dedicated to "Jupiter Optimus Maximus" was discovered at the Maryport, Cumbria, archaeological dig — where 17 other stone altars were discovered 142 years ago.

The altar will join 17 others unearthed by landowner Humphrey Senhouse in 1870 which are in the town's Roman museum. The altars were all buried in gigantic pits at regular intervals, to the mystification of experts

The manager of the Senhouse Roman Museum described the altar as "rare and special".

The inscription on the latest altar is in mint condition because the altar was buried face-down. It is a dedication to Jupiter on behalf of Titus Attius Tutor, commander of the First Cohort of Baetasian, which came to Maryport from what is now the Netherlands.

Most likely, there were even more altars at the site because a fragment of an altar was found by a volunteer on the first day of the excavations at Maryport began in June 2011. This new, 18th, altar was also found by a volunteer.

The 28-strong team of volunteers is working to unravel the mystery surrounding the unique cache of 17 altars discovered at Maryport in 1870 — now 18 and growing. They had been buried in a series of pits to the north and east of the fort. The site had remained untouched since 1870 until this new dig began a year ago.

Previously, it was thought that the altars were ritually buried.

But Professor Ian Haynes, from Newcastle University, told the BBC that the latest find indicates that at some point the altars lost their significance and were used by the Romans in building work.

Experts hope that revisiting the area will help them to construct a more complete picture of this internationally important site. Watch this blog for updates on this major dig.

THESE JOKES HAD THEM LAUGHING IN HADRIAN-ERA ROME

EVER HEAR the joke about the astrologer who predicted a sick boy would survive the night and get well? He wanted payment in advance ... just in case! 

An English translation of PHILOGELOS (THE LAUGHTER LOVER) is a collection of jokes dating from the Hadrian Era and gives insights into Roman humor.

Take for example the joke in which a man complains that a slave he has just bought has died.

"By the gods," answers the slave's seller, "that's more than he ever did when he was with me."

Other jokes in the book show that sex, nagging wives and farting have formed the basis of humor for centuries.

One example is: "A misogynist is attending to the burial of his wife, who has just died. When a passerby asks, 'Pardon me, who is it who rests in peace here?', he answers, 'Me, now that I'm rid of her!'."

The 265 jokes in Philogelos are attributed to a pair of jokers called Hierocles and Philagrius. Little is known about them, except that they were more likely to have been the compilers of the jokes than the original writers of the gags.

The jokes have been published in a multimedia online book, which includes video of veteran British stand-up comedian JIM BOWEN performing the jokes for a 21st century audience.

Bowen said: "One or two of them are jokes I've seen in people's acts nowadays, slightly updated. They put in a motor car instead of a chariot."

The translator of the book, William Berg, a US professor of classics, said the Philogelos book was already a later version of jokes dating back to the 1st and 2nd Century AD.

HERE'S A SELECTION:
 
No. 187: An ill-tempered astrologer cast the horoscope of a sick boy, promised his mother that he would live for a long time, then demanded his fee. "Come back tomorrow and I’ll give it to you then," the worried mother said. "But what happens to my fee if he dies in the night?"

No. 201: A man consults a charlatan soothsayer and asks about the health of his family who live in a distant province. "They are all well, especially your father." "But my father’s been dead for ten years!" "Ah, clearly you do not know your REAL father."

No. 202: Having cast a boy’s horoscope, a charlatan prophet predicted that he would be first a lawyer, then a city prefect, and finally a provincial governor. But the boy died. His mother came back and remonstrated, "My son has died, the one you said would be a lawyer and prefect and governor." "I swear by his memory," responded the prophet, "he would have been all of those things had he lived!"

No. 203: Someone went to a charlatan prophet and inquired if his conniving rascal of a rival would come back from a voyage. The prophet promised that he would die at sea. But the man found out a few days later that his enemy had returned unharmed. "Well," said the prophet, "how shameless can you get? That man even goes so far as to cheat the Fates!"

No. 204: A charlatan prophet cast a client’s horoscope and told him he could never have children. "But I’ve already got seven!" "Then you’d better take good care of them!"

No. 205: A charlatan prophet was captured by the enemy, and confessed his trade. Now it so happened that they were about to fight a battle. "You’ll win it," he promised them, "as long as the enemy don't see the hairs on the back of your heads." (trans. B. Baldwin)

Get it?

ANTONYUS SUBIA

MAKING PILGRIMAGE TO ROME

FLAMEN Antonyus Subia, who founded the Religion of Antinous anew 10 years ago this month, is embarking on a Sacred Pilgrimage to Rome.

The week-long pilgrimage will take Antonyus to all the Sacred Sites associated with Hadrian and Antinous in the Eternal City.

He will meditate and carry out religious rites at the Pantheon, the Obelisk of Antinous, Hadrian's Mausoleum, the Temple of Venus and Jupiter built by Hadrian and of course Hadrian's Villa.

In addition, he will pay solemn respects to the many statues, busts and other images of Hadrian and Antinous at various museums in Rome.

Special religio/magical rites will be performed during the cycle of the HADRIAN BLUE MOON, the second full moon of August.

A conclave of priests is also planned, with Priest Hernestus converging on Rome from Germany. Priest Uendi, who is providing generous financial support for this conclave, will be in constant touch from Hollywood.

Every major station of this Sacred Pilgrimage will be reported on in depth on a daily basis on this blog and at the official ANTINOUS FACEBOOK page starting August 29th!

A NEW STAR IS BORN

IN THE CONSTELLATION OF THE UNICORN

FLAMEN Antonyus Subia has just announced:
 

In celebration of the Lion Hunt,the cosmos displays a new star in the constellation of the Unicorn.

 

ANTONYUS SUBIA

 

---------

 

Nova Monocerotis 2012 = PNV J06393874+0553520
August 21, 2012

NOTE: AAVSO Alert Notice 467 was issued on August 17, 2012, and was posted on the AAVSO website and FACEBOOK page. Due to technical difficulties with the email distribution utility, this
email version is being distributed August 21, 2102.


Discovered by: Shigehisa Fujikawa (Kanonji City, Kagawa Prefecture, Japan, reported by Mitsuru Soma, National Astronomical Observatory of Japan)

Discovery Magnitude: magnitude 9.4 C using a 105mm camera lens+CCD

Discovery date: 2012 Aug. 09.8048 UT

Coordinates: 06 39 38.74 +05 53 52.0 (2000.0)

EPISTLE ON THE SACRED LION HUNT

BY ANTONYUS SUBIA

FLAMEN SACERDOS ANTINOALIS

GREAT Triumphant Blessings Upon all of you, Ecclesia Antinoi,
On this Occasion of the Sacred Lion Hunt.

Every Year we commemorate one of the few known events
That are certain to have taken place in the short life of Antinous,
The day Hadrian, Antinous, and the inner circle of the Imperial court,
rode out into the western desert in search of a ferocious man-eating lion
That was ravaging the countryside, gaining a high level of fame and notoriety,
enough to call the attention of the visiting Emperor.
Who knows how many people the lion killed,
very likely a great number...and he evaded all hunters.
Hadrian must have been delighted by the news,
and Antinous, standing within the very pinnacle of godlike strength and virility,
must have felt the rush of fear and daring that he had come to love so much.
Antinous was at that beautiful age where boys feel that they are completely indestructible.
Hadrian was at the opposite end o the male spectrum, the age when death is all too real,
and the only way to feel ALIVE is to put your strength and fear to the total test.
...after so much time spent in the company of Antinous...Hadrian wanted to feel like he was 19 years old again.
Thats what was going on when the news came that there was a ferocious man-eating lion
Killing Egyptian peasants somewhere off at the edge o the desert.
They probably only rode out only a few dozen miles, maybe a day or two journey.
Bringing a huge retinue of local Egyptians to surround the lion and drive him towards the Emperor.
...hundreds of dogs...among them Hadrian's super fine, well trained hunting hounds,
a pack of beautiful animals who traveled everywhere the Imperial court went,
Antinous was friend and master to all of them...some he had raised himself from puppies.
They say that the ventured into Libya, and the lion is called the Lion of Mauretania,
but very likely, they didn't even go 50 mile from Alexandria,
But for dramatics sake, the poet said that they had left Egypt and gone hunting in Mauretania!
The lion was cornered, and Hadrian first wounded the lion with his spear but then,
"Wishing to test to the full the sureness of aim
Of his beauteous Antinous"
He let Antinous charge against it...and Antinous...all full of teenage bravado
Charged at it on his horse with his spear...but he failed to kill the lion and only made it more ferocious
So that it attacked him and would have killed him had not Hadrian intervened
and dealt the death blow.
It was a triumph for Hadrian...and although he failed to kill the lion,
It was a triumph for Antinous too...because he showed no fear.
From the blood of the lion...pink lotus flowers sprang forth...or so said the poet.
The new blossoms were collected and offered to Antinous as a crown of victory.
It was the pinnacle of Antinous's life...and it was the changing point.
Something changed in Antinous at that moment,
Perhaps at the moment when the skin of the young lion was presented to him as a trophy.

The meaning of the lion has always disturbed me,
because it is a moment filled with symbolism.
Foremost of these as the emblem of the Demiurge of the Gnostics,
The god of the world...which the Gnostics said was symbolized by Egypt,
with its many gods and deeply religious mystical, magical antiquity.
The refutation of this false being known popularly as GOD
was the deepest creed of the Gnostics,
And Antinous's attempt to destroy the Lion
was symbolic of this same aspiration in me.
But only Hadrian could destroy the Lion,
....Antinous however, held no fear of it.

The Lion also came to represent Eternal Time,
as symbolized by the Mysteries of Mithras,
and perhaps also by the mystic followers of Orpheus.
Antinous was soon to triumph over time through the miracle of deification,
But again, it was Hadrian who destroyed Eternal Time
When he made Antinous forever immortal.

Now I have begun to investigate a new meaning for the Mystery of the Lion,
which is that the Lion represents Spiritual Falsehood...Delusions.
The Lion represents the millions of Spiritual non-sensible things
that we are taught to believe about the nature of the gods,
and spirituality in general...superstitions...obvious non-realities,
wishes, prayers-come-true, make-believe, hopes & dreams, legends, myths, rumors,
personal experiences, matters of faith, second-sight, magical abilities,
Unexplainable miracles, signs in the sky, waking-dreams, past-lives,
ancient accounts, lore, scriptures and all the collected beliefs of the ancients,
augmented by modern-day madness…and self-inflicted delusions.
We are told that there are a number of things we should understand (if we are even able to understand)
And experience in relation to the gods and spirituality.
For so many years, I just simply went along with it as best I could,
Clinging to little fragments of “personal experiences” as proof to carry on with.
But then one day…my eyes were thrown open,
And a long process of emotional turmoil began
Filled with deep-rooted resistance to the truth, within myself
But what more than anything overcame my hesitation to cast everything
I had known and loved to the wind as if it were utterly meaningless,
Was the same as what had opened my eyes to the truth in the first place,
The Beautifully divine, and utterly human form of Antinous…my one and only god,
And how even from the first day...what astonished me so much about him
Was that his humanity was more important than his godliness.
It was undeniable that he had been Made into a God by Hadrian,
All the Miracles, like the Pink Lotus Flowers that sprang from the Blood of the Lion,
It's all just poetry and legend as beautiful and as meaningful
As the wreaths of grape leaves that adorn his statues.
Antinous was very different from the other gods...no matter how synchretic he may seem,
I could never ignore this difference, and now...it has risen up to whole new levels of grandeur.

In Plato’s cave…it is said that there are certain characters who hold up figures
Before a fire so that the figures cast shadows on the wall of the cave,
And to the chained people who have known no other world than the cave
The shadows cast upon the wall…are the only reality that they know.
But then when one of them breaks free…it is said that he sees
That the shadows are cast by mysterious figures,
And that neither the shadows nor the figures are reality,
And so he wanders up out of the cave and stumbles into the light of day
For the very first time and sees reality as it truly is.

I have begun to believe that the allegory of the cave is a description
Of spirituality and the nature of the gods.
The mysterious figures are the ancients and those who speak for them,
Holding up artistically created images of gods and spiritual concepts,
Holding up ancient books, scriptures, lore, myths, superstitions, art
Proof of miracles, personal experiences, accounts of dreams,
And all the other things that we…chained below as children
Are taught to believe as if they were fact.
The problem for me comes with the realization that,
Most of us do not break free and run off into the light of day.
Most of us…like myself…when we realize that the shadows are cast by figures
Held up before a light…do not reject them as false…but rather,
When we become adults…we take up the figures and hold them up
Before the fire ourselves…casting new shadows of our own interpretation.
This is what has disturbed me for so many years,
That even though I myself have seen the light beyond the cave,
I cannot bring myself to cast down the figures or the play of shadows,
Because I find them to be immensely and profoundly beautiful.

This is the Lion for me,
And just like Antinous
…it may be that I am not strong enough to kill it.

The Lion is the Fire that burns within the cave of our imagination.

The Lotus Flower is the fire that burns within my soul.
(sprung from the blood of the Lion)

My heart will never be settled
I will never be free,
I will never be at peace
I will never leave the cave.
Just like the Hero…I have seen the light of Sol Invictus,
(It’s just the sun in the sky)
And like the hero, rather than run off to dance in the fields of flowers,
I’ve crawled back into the darkness and dankness of the cavern
tried to break my brothers chains and drag them into the light.
But they have almost all told me to please just fuck off.
And so I stay...(because it wouldn't be madness to just leave)
…I need to see if I can figure out what it is
About the fire and the forms and the shadows on the wall
That is so extraordinarily beautiful…all I see is silhouettes of Antinous,
…It was his body, his face, his eyes, his legend and his curls of perfect hair
That broke the spell and opened my eyes to the truth…the reality,
And now that I am awakened…I will never be at peace again,
I would never want to be at peace again.

Very soon I am going to make a great pilgrimage to see if I can find
Meaning in all of this…some sort of explanation
To take away some of the insanity and frustration,
And perhaps present me with sign in the sky (like an Etruscan augur)
Or some other kind of inconsistency to confuse myself even more.

I’m going to Rome!

ANTONYUS SUBIA
Flamen Sacerdos Antinoalis

THE SACRED LION HUNT

 

 

IT IS THE DAWNING of the 21st of August and the Sun is poised to enter the fiery sign of Leo the Lion.

All around the world worshipers of Antinous commemorate The Sacred Lion Hunt which climaxes with solemn rituals at the HOLLYWOOD TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS.

The place is Egypt, somewhere in the rocky wilderness between the scattered oases southeast of Alexandria. The time is August of the Year 130 AD. The Sun is poised to enter the Sign of Leo. The Constellation of Aquila the Eagle is at its zenith in the nighttime sky — just as it is now.

It is the constellation of the Emperor. And the Emperor and his Beloved are touring Egypt when they hear grisly accounts of a man-eating lion marauding the countryside on the edge of the cultivated land. The "Marousian Lion" it was called.

They lead a hunting expedition out into the wilderness. The whole expedition is rife with symbolism from the start since the Sun is in Leo in the daytime skies and the Eagle is soaring in the nighttime skies and the Ancients believed killing lions was tantamount to defeating death itself. Lion hunting was the sport of kings.

When at last the Imperial party flushes out the man-eater, the huntsmen and archers stand back and leave Hadrian to close in on the beast with his steed. Hadrian has just got off an arrow which wounds the animal when, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, young Antinous rides ahead, his reins in his left hand, an adamantine-tipped lance in his upraised right hand.

As the Imperial retinue looks on in horror, the snarling lion charges toward the boy, causing his panicked horse to whinny and wheel about in terror. But Antinous maintains his balance and, instantly judging distance and angle, sends his lance sailing towards the lion as it quickly closed the gap between them.

The lance slams into its rear flank, inflicting a serious but not fatal wound. Enraged even more, the lion uses its fangs to pull out the lance and charges anew against the Boy who is fumbling with his quiver to ready a shot with his bow. But an arrow is already in the air from behind Antinous, and it whizzes past his ear and hit its mark in the throat of the lion.

It has been fired by Hadrian, who is approaching at full gallop and who, even while the first arrow was still in the air, had already readied a second arrow, which this time penetrates both lungs.

The lion spins about and collapses writhing in the dust, rage in its eyes, blood and saliva guttering from its fanged mouth, gasping for breath as it struggles to get to its feet — because Antinous has dismounted and is sprinting toward it with a drawn dagger.

Hadrian draws his steed to a halt and dismounts with an agility and lightness befitting a man half his age, fueled by adrenalin and alarm for his Beloved Boy, who faces imminent peril from the mortally wounded lion, still capable of severing an artery with one swipe of its mighty paw.

Hadrian draws his hunting axe from his belt and holds it high as he lunges onto the lion's back and dispatches the beast with one powerful blow which splits its skull in two with a frightening crack and a spurt of bright red blood which bathes both the older man, now panting and perspiring heavily, and the younger man who still shows no visible expression of concern, just a wild-eyed look of excitement in his eyes, as if he never realized the danger he had been in — as if he thinks he is immortal.

A cheer goes up from the coterie of onlookers when they realize the lion is dead, killed seemingly by a single blow from the Emperor's hand. Courtiers whose eyes are unskilled in the ways of hunting will later claim Hadrian had struck the lion dead with a club.

As soldiers and nervous bodyguards rush forward to make sure everything is all right, the emperor, his adrenalin-strength ebbing as quickly as it came, shakily wraps a blood-spattered arm around Antinous and plants his gilded, spike-soled sandal on the dead animal's neck and nods to Antinous to do the same.

There they stand, bathed in blood and bathed in the adulation of the Imperial coterie, each with one foot on the vanquished man-eater as the animal's blood spreads out and covers the surrounding rocks and sand and a few scrubby wildflowers growing from a crevice in a rock.

Even the flowers are splattered with blood. And these red blossoms will be plucked by members of the entourage to take back as souvenirs to show to envious courtiers who had not been invited along.

THE SACRED LION HUNT was immortalized in poetry and in stone, with Hadrian adding medallions to the Arch of Constantine showing him and Antinous with feet on the lion's neck and also making sacrifice to the great lion-killer Hercules.


Soon legend would have it that scarlet-red lotus blossoms had sprung forth from the pool of the lion's blood, the lion which had been brought down by Antinous and which had been dealt its death blow by Hadrian — the SACRED RED LOTUS.

Under the Sign of Leo. And under the Constellation of the Eagle. 

Within a few short weeks, Antinous himself would be dead. The Sacred Lion Hunt is the last recorded event in His short life.

And some time afterward, grieving Hadrian would look up into the nighttime skies with tear-filled eyes and his court astronomers would point out a New Star which had appeared in the southern part of the Constellation of Aquila the Eagle.

The New Star would be interpreted as a celestial sign that Antinous had been raised to the firmament, that the Constellation of the Imperial Eagle had been joined by the CONSTELLATION OF ANTINOUS. It was a sign that Antinous was now a God.

If you go outside tonight and peer out into the darkness with all its deep and hidden dangers, remember Antinous and how he peered out into the barren wilderness with all its deep and hidden dangers. 

He charged forth, his bridle-reins in his left hand and an adamantine-tipped lance in his right, and he faced death unafraid.

For Antinous knew he was immortal.

The Constellation of Antinous, still under the wing of the Imperial Eagle, will be right directly over your head tonight — shining proof that Antinous is a God and that he is indeed immortal.

Don't look out into the darkness around you and be afraid. Instead, look up and remember the Beloved Boy, who was a fearless hunter, who stalked death itself, and who emerged victorious over it.

THE SACRED BAND OF THEBES

ON AUGUST 20th the Religion of Antinous commemorates the Sacred Band of Thebes, the Army of Gay Lovers whose courage and valour have echoed down through the ages as an inspiration that Gay Love is a magical means of Conquering Fear and Doubt.

The Sacred Band of Thebes, also called The Theban Band, was a battalion composed entirely of homosexual friends and lovers. This military unit, consisting of 150 male couples, was based on the belief that men fighting alongside their lovers would die rather than shame one another.

According to Aristotle, the Army of Lovers were sworn into military service at the Tomb of Iolaus, one of the many male lovers of Hercules. Iolaus had helped the god in the Twelve Herculean Tasks.

He often acted as Hercules' charioteer and companion, and the closeness of their relationship was such that he was known as Heracles' symbomos (altar-sharer), since the two could be honored at one and the same altar — a very rare occurrence in ancient Greece, where each divinity would have his or her own altar.

Iolaus was called the eromenos (beloved boy) of Hercules, and was thus a Sacred Hero of same-sex love in Thebes. Hercules, Iolaus and Eros were often depicted together.

That is probably why the army of gay lovers was called the Sacred Band, since they took their oath of allegiance at the Sacred Tomb of Iolaus, which was at the same time a shared sacred altar to Hercules. In effect, the warriors were swearing that they would fight alongside their comrades the same way Iolaus and Hercules fought together — armed with the arrows of Eros.

You can see the parallels to Hadrian and his beloved boy Antinous, and later this week the parallels become even clearer when we commemorate the SACRED LION HUNT. After that hunt in the Libyan desert in the summer of the year 130 AD, Hadrian and Antinous made sacrifice to the Great Lion Slayer Hercules — thus cementing the identification between Hadrian/Hercules and Antinous/Iolaus — and their affiliation with the Sacred Band of Thebes.

The great Theban general and tactician Epaminondas is generally credited with establishing The Sacred Band, although some sources claim it was his "beloved friend" Pelopidas who was responsible for recruiting them. No matter — they both fought side-by-side at the head of The Sacred Band.

This corps d'elite first took to the battlefield against Sparta, which had dominated Greece since the fall of Athens in 404 BC. The Spartans were confident of victory, as they had never suffered a defeat on the battlefield — never ever.

Deploying the Sacred Band on his front left wing, "Epaminondas made his left wing fifty deep and flung it forward in the attack." 

The "extra weight" of this wing and the "fanatical bravery of the Sacred Band" broke the Sparta right wing, which contained their best warriors. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, the Spartan king was killed and their right gave way.

Witnessing this, the rest of the Spartan forces, who had not yet been engaged, fell back in disarray, running for their lives. Thus, Sparta suffered their first recorded defeat in more than 400 years — at the hands of an Army of Gay Lovers.

But the end came in 338 BC at the battle of Chaeronea when King Phillip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander (later called Alexander the Great) defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes-Boetia. Alexander confronted The Sacred Band of Thebes, the elite corps of 300 homosexual lovers who were by that time the most respected soldiers in the world.

But alas! They were no match for the Macedonians under Phillip and Alexander. It was a rout. The Athenian and Theban armies gave way and began retreating from the advancing Macedonians. Only The Sacred Band stood their ground — and died. Only a few were subdued and captured. Of those who died, it was found that not one had been wounded in the back — a sign that they had not turned away from the fight.

Alexander was so moved by their nobility and courage that he asked his father to bury them with honour and raise a monument in the form of a Sacred Lion over their mass grave. In 1881, the shattered fragments of this Lion Tomb were discovered, surrounded by the bones of 254 pairs of men with their weapons, arranged in a phalanx of seven rows, the battle formation of the Sacred Band.

In 1902 the fragments of the Sacred Lion were reconstructed and placed again over the tomb of The Sacred Band (depicted left) by the secret homosexual society known as the Order of Chaeronea, founded by gay-rights pioneer George Cecil Ives.

It reminds us once again of the Sacred Lion Hunt which we celebrate later this week.

So, what has all of this got to do with us in our daily lives? We're not soldiers. We're not brave and courageous. Like Dorothy Gale, we're meek and mild. Timid. We know that if we were on a battlefield, we would turn and run. We would hide and "play dead" and hope nobody found us.

We assume that the Army of Gay Lovers were all fearless. We think they were unafraid. We don't think of them as being saredy-cats like us. We think they didn't mind the prospect of agonizing death. We think they were somehow above such mortal fears and doubts.

That's nonsense, of course. They were scared out of their wits. We can scarcely imagine how afraid they were. As they stood there alone against the mightiest army in the Ancient World, their emotions shifted beyond the mere terror of possibly being killed, to the actual horror of inescapable agony and death. It is one thing to be terrified — we all know the fears generated by terrorists who fly airliners into buildings. 

But the emotions experienced by those trapped in the planes or inside the burning buildings go far beyond mere terror to the actual horror of inescapable agony and death. That is the Mystery of Terror as opposed to the Mystery of Horror. We tend to forget the distinction!

The Army of Gay Lovers were not without fear. On the contrary, they were staring into the horror of impending pain and death. But they did not allow their fear to overwhelm them. 

Instead, they turned their fear "inside-out" and used it as a magical shield. The barbs of fear were no longer poking inward to themselves, but instead were pointing outward towards their foes.

And that is the Mystery Teaching of the Army of Gay Lovers. It was no doubt part of the initiation which the recruits underwent at the Tomb of Iolaus. They were schooled in magico-religious methods for handling fear. It's about learning to harness Mars energy. Mars is all about the double-edge sword of fear/bravery and how you can learn to wield that Sword of Mars.

It's not about being fearless. It's about being able to transform your fear into a mighty force which wins the battle of life. Mars Warrior Energy is not about death. It is about LIFE. It is about harnessing fear and doubt and turning them into useful energies in your daily life.

Life — from the time you are born until the time you die — life is just one constant battle. And if you give in, then you are lost. And if you give in to the fear and doubt that constantly confront you each and ever day, then you are lost. It's about using selfless love and transcendant awareness to transform fear and doubt into constructive energies which empower you to stand up and wade into the fray of daily life.


The Band of Thebes were initiated into Mystery Teachings which showed them how to transform fear and doubt into a magical force which made them invincible — capable of asserting their will and making their dreams become reality. 

And the catalyst was male-male love and devotion.

This is one of the deepest and most profound Mystery Teachings of the Religion of Antinous. 

We are talking about the Mysteries of Antinous-Mars. This is why Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia has painted Antinous in the guise of the War God (top left). 

Antinous is not just about gay male beauty. He is about gay male warrior energy.

Mars is a very important constituent aspect of Antinous. In Fixed Star Astrology, the STAR OF ANTINOUS is characterized by a mixture of Jupiter/Mars energy along with Venus energy — unique among Fixed Stars. To overlook Mars is to overlook a major component of what Antinous is all about.

Mars and his Alchemical Intelligence Graphiel and Daimon Barzabel (Deimos and Phobos) is much misunderstood by philosophers and occultists. 

The fiery Graphiel/Barzabel energies of the red planet ("terror" Deimos and "horror" Phobos) are often seen as frightful and horrific and destructive and warlike with no other qualities. This is a shallow analysis and one that should be discarded. Understanding your Martial nature — the Antinous-Mars warrior inside you — is essential to your survival and growth as a gay man. Terror and horror accompany us all our lives.

We are all afraid every day. We are all riddled with doubts every day. Look around you — most people are consumed with fear and doubt. Fear fuels their lives! But each of us can learn to turn our fears and doubts "inside-out" so that their barbs no longer point inward towards us, but instead so that these barbs of fear and doubt form a protective shield around us. 

It girds us with a constructive energy which helps us to advance through the Herculean travails which we face in our daily lives. Instead of being "fearfully" timid, we become "fearsomely" determined not to let life get us down.

Tomorrow, this transformational ability to turn fear "inside-out" will help us to understand how Antinous was able to charge the man-eater during the SACRED LION HUNT.

He must have been terrified. He was young and inexperienced and alone on his steed and armed only with an adamantine-tipped lance.

But through his loving bond with Hadrian/Hercules, Antinous/Iolaus was also magically armed with the "fearsomely strong" energies of the Sacred Band of Thebes.

Flamen Antinoalis Antonius affirms: "We consecrate and honor their memory and call upon their strength and courage in our own hearts, that we may become the New Sacred Band."

SAINT FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA

ON AUGUST 19th, the Religion of Antinous honors St. Federico García Lorca, who was openly gay and who is one of the greatest poets of the Spanish language. 
He was executed by the Fascists on this day, August 19th, during the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

García Lorca's central themes are love, pride, passion and violent death, which also marked his own life. The Spanish Civil was just getting underway in August 1936 and García Lorca was seen by the right-wing forces as an enemy. The author hid from the soldiers but he was eventually found.

An eyewitness has told that he was taken out of a Civil Government building by guards and Falangists belonging to the "Black Squad". García Lorca was shot in Granada without trial. The circumstances of his death are still shrouded in mystery. He was buried in a grave that he had been forced top dig for himself.

According to some sources, he had to be finished off by a coup de grâce. One of his assassins later boasted, that he shot "two bullets into his arse for being a queer".

It was the end of a brilliant career as a poet and dramatist who was also remembered as a painter, pianist and composer.

In the 1920s he was close friends with Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, among many others who later became influential artists in Spain. Despite the accolades from artists and critics, he suffered from bouts of depression brought on largely by his inner conflict about his homosexuality.

He was tortured by the demands of being a celebrity in a homophobic society and the yearnings of his gay soul.

During his lifetime only a handful of close friends were allowed to read the collection of gay poems which would be published many years later as his Sonnets of Dark Love. Here is one of them, entitled Love Sleeps in the Poet's Heart:

You'll never understand my love for you,
because you dream inside me, fast asleep.
I hide you, persecuted though you weep,
from the penetrating steel voice of truth.
Normalcy stirs both flesh and blinding star,
and pierces even my despairing heart.
Confusing reasoning has eaten out
the wings on which your spirit fiercely soared:
onlookers who gather on the garden lawn
await your body and my bitter grief,
their jumping horses made of light, green manes.
But go on sleeping now, my life, my dear.
Hear my smashed blood rebuke their violins!
See how they still must spy on us, so near!


With the Catalan painter Salvador Dalí and the film director Louis Buñuel he worked in different productions.

Dalí and Lorca had met in 1923. From the beginning, Lorca was fascinated by the young Catalan's personality and looks. Also Dalí had admitted that Lorca impressed him deeply.

When Buñuel and Dalí made their famous surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou (1928), García Lorca was offended: he thought that the film was about him.

Lorca's friendship with Dalí inspired a poem, a defense of modern art and at the same time an expression of homosexual love. Dalí dedicated his painting of Saint Sebastian to his friend, who often compared himself to the tortured homoerotic martyr.

"Let us agree," Lorca wrote to Dalí, "that one of man's most beautiful postures is that of St. Sebastian."

"In my 'Saint Sebastian' I remember you," Salvador Dalí replied, ". . . and sometimes I think he IS you. Let's see whether Saint Sebastian turns out to be you."

García Lorca was capable only of a "tragic, passionate relationship," Dalí once wrote — a friendship pierced by the arrows of Saint Sebastian.

The Religion of Antinous honors this great artist who lived and loved tragically and passionately and who died tragically for being gay.

ANTINOUS SHOOTS HIS ARROWS

INTO YOUR HEART

THE PERSEID meteor shower is at its peak and tonight's LEO NEW MOON means the sky will be dark so you will see lots of meteors.

They appear to originate in the Constellation of Antinous right in the middle of the July and August night sky — as though Antinous is shooting arrows at you.
 

The CONSTELLATION OF ANTINOUS is directly right overhead in mid-heaven at this time of year. Go outside about 10 p.m. when it is good and dark and look up. You will see the Milky Way bisecting the sky from north to south. Look for the "Summer Triangle" formed by the stars Vega, Deneb and Altair — they seem to straddle the brightest part of the Milky Way.

Altair is the head of Aquila the Eagle — and Antinous is directly under the Eagle. 

The PERSEIDS are a great opportunity for ANTINOUS STAR MAGIC. 

How you cast the wish is up to you. If you re a Druid, Wiccan or even just a lapsed Catholic, you know some simple rituals. You can write a wish on a piece of paper and then go outside and look up and, as you repeat the wish aloud while tearing up the piece of paper, a shooting star will catch your eye — and you hold the palm of your hand in front of your mouth and blow away the bits of paper.

The Shooting Star does the rest.

There are many, many other ways of working ANTINOUS STAR MAGIC. As always with such things, the "magic" is within your heart and soul. So there are no firm-and-fast rules ... it all depends on you.

VISIONARY ARTIST KEVIN KIHN

LAUNCHES HIS 'DOME OF LIGHT' PROJECT

KEVIN KIHN is one of the most inspiring contemporary visionary artists, quite aside from being a devotee of Antinous and a personal friend of us priests of Antinous.

So we are proud to announce the official launch of the keenly anticipated DOME OF LIGHT project by Kevin, an accomplished commercial illustrator, storyboard artist, and architectural renderer who studied art in Florence at the Accademia di Belle Arti.

A few of us have been privileged to see the preliminary prototype Dome of Light in Kevin's sunny atelier in the San Francisco Bay Area. 

Priest Hernestus has stood inside the Dome and was amazed at what a magical space it creates for meditation. An interviewer has said that being inside it is like SWIMMING IN SPACE, and it's true.

Hernestus also discovered that it acts as a kind of prism. Sunlight striking the Dome is broken up and diffused throughout the room, creating a kaleidoscope effect of colors. The whole room appears to glow with the light eminated from the Dome.

The pre-prototype in his studio is only a reduced-scale version of what he wants to build.  The actual prototype would be fully room-size, large enough to enter and walk about inside of.

Kevin says there are almost no limits to size. Such a Dome of Light could be house-size or even far larger. He is fascinating to listen to as he describes the technical details, and the more you learn about his Dome of Light, the more you begin to see how limitless the possibilities are.

For one thing, the colors and geometric patterns on the pre-prototype are only one possibility. You could have any colors you wanted, any designs, any holographic projections. You could make the entire Dome out of a transluscent material, such as stained glass.

Kevin's dream for many years now has been to create a true, full-size temple, and so we were delighted when he informed us that he has just unveiled his project to potential financial backers. 

"I've recently launched a KICKSTARTER PAGE for what I consider my magnum opus, the Dome of Light," Kevin says.

"This is to be a temple devoted to the gods of Hellas, Antinous included, though not only him. The emphasis will be primarily on youthful male deities. Much of the imagery will be homoerotic in character, and consistent with the concept of Homotheosis.

"Kickstarter is what's known as a crowd funding site. Donations to the project are solicited. If the project makes its funding goal, it goes ahead. If not, the project is canceled and donors' funds are untouched. There is of course absolutely no obligation whatsoever. I wish people to see this page - particularly the featured video - to give an idea of what is possible and what we might make in the way of pagan places of worship. If the temple should happen to make its funding goal, naturally that would be great.

"This is the best support I can offer as an artist for what I hope will be a vigorous, enduring revival and renascence of the pagan world view that prevailed throughout the ancient West when Hadrian ruled with Antinous at his side. I hope it pleases."

ANTINOUS IN CORINTH

THE IMPERIAL entourage arrived in Greece, at the city of Corinth in the late summer of 128. 

They visited the Temple of Fortuna, the goddess of fortune, known as Tyche to the Greeks. 

Hadrian and Antinous made sacrifice to her for the benefit of the tour and for the Empire as a whole. Fortuna, also known as Bona Dea, a manifestation of the Great Mother as a girl, in her aspect as the bestower of goodness, wealth and prosperity. 

Her consort was Agatho Daimon, the "Blessed Daimon." In Greek, "daimon" means "spirit-being" regardless whether that being is beneficial or detrimental to humans. It was only later that the Christians literally "demonized" the word daimon, so that the modern word "demon" only ever refers to an evil spirit. 

Agatho Daimon is a decidedly beneficent spirit, rendered often as a serpent. 

Antinous was later compared to Agatho Daimon, and is often portrayed with the Serpent in his hand, as in the famous Berlin Antinous-Agathodaimon statue pictured here. 

The arrival of the court in the city of Corinth signaled the beginning of the association between Antinous-Agatho Daimon and his female counter-identity as Fortuna. 

We consecrate this day to our own fortune and to the forces of chance that play through our lives, as Hadrian and Antinous submitted their hope to the goddess at Corinth.

THE WORLD'S FIRST MUSEUM

OF ANCIENT GREEK TECHNOLOGY

IN GREECE this summer on vacation?

Check out the ANCIENT GREEK TECHNOLOGY MUSEUM in the seaside town of Katakolo near the site of ancient Olympia in western Greece.

Opened in 2005, it houses hundreds of Greek technological inventions and mechanisms ranging from 2000 BC up to the time of Hadrian and Antinous when Hellenism was in fashion in Rome. It is said to be the most detailed exhibition of its kind on a world scale.

The museum's exhibits include:

• The Alarm Clock of Plato (the first wake-up mechanism in history)
• Automatic Opening of the Temple Gates after sacrifice on its altar (the first building automation in history)
• The "Static" Automatic Theatre of Heron of Alexandria (the first “cinema” in history)
• The Hydraulic Clocks of Ktesibios (the first precise automatic clocks in history)
• Heron's Aeolosphere (the first steam machine in history)
• The Automatic Maid (the first operating robot in history)
• "Odometer" (the first road counter in history)
• The Movable Automatic Theatre of Heron of Alexandria (the first automated "puppet show" in history)
• Crane With Winches for the elevation of mast and load (the first elevating mechanism in history)
• Perpendicular Mycenaean loom
• The "Web" of Penelope (Odysseus’ wife)
• The Catapult "Palindonos", (the first siege machine in history)
• Bale-fires and Beacons (the first telecommunication method in history)
• Acoustic Telegraph (the first acoustic radar in history)
• Elevating Mechanism of Two-Sided Elevation (the first port building crane in history)
• Hysplex (the first starting mechanism in history)
• Ancient Greek musical instruments