ANTINOUS WORKS MIRACLES FOR YOU THROUGH DREAMS WHILE YOU SLEEP

IN ancient times, Antinous was known as a miracle worker. His worshipers prayed to him for miracles, oracles, visions and answers to problems in their daily lives.

The ancient priests of Antinous knew that he hears the prayers of all who call upon him ... and that he sends miracles to them in dreams as they sleep.

The modern-day priests of Antinous got proof of that miraculous phenomenon after this past weekend's SACRED GAMES ceremonies at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous ... which drew participants from across America, Europe and also South America via social media (photo above).

Among those taking part were Priest DECUS RIBEIRO in Brazil, who reports the miraculous dreams involving two new members of his temple. Priest Decus writes:

"Last Saturday, as I informed you during the Sacred Games ceremony, we had two new members performing their initiation rites at the Temple ... one in person, from São Paulo, and one by facebook video, from Lisbon, Portugal.

"All went well ... and I warned them to pay attention to their dreams that night. Antinous, you know, love the use of dreams as a form of communication...

"On the next day, at different times of the day and without speasking with each other, both of them recalled the SAME dream.

"BOTH dreamed of the intersex Egyptian Nile inundation deity Hapi ... whom they had never heard of before. They didn't even know who it was until I told them. But it was a blue-ish god, mostly male, but with a vagina. Both metioned a long conversation, but neither remembered the exact words.

"I told them Hapi was the first god to embrace Antinous. We came together to the conclusion that the gods were pleased with their initiation. They were very excited," Priest Decus said in a report to fellow priests in the United States, Britain and Germany.

But the priests point out that dream miracles of Antinous are not limited to the gay god's priests. Anyone who calls upon him can receive miracles.

The Egyptian hieroglyphs on the OBELISK OF ANTINOUS state clearly that Antinous answers the prayers of all who call upon him through dreams and visions.

The hieroglyphs also make cryptic references to his ability to work magic through his heart. This is a reference to the Ancient Egyptian concept of the "Intelligence of the Heart."

The Egyptians knew that the brain is the center of motor activity and sensory perception. 

But they believed the heart is the center of a form of intelligence which has baffled most mainstream Egyptologists ... who assume the Egyptians believed the heart was where cognitive thinking occurs.

But the Egyptians had a very different view of the universe from our rational, scientific view of the universe. 

We dissect facts and analyze them. But while the Egyptians were very good at analyzing facts, they also retained the Zen-like ability to see the whole ... which leads to contemplation ... not analysis.

The Egyptians understood that if you want to find an intelligent solution to a problem, your brain can do the work. You have all the necessary intelligence inside the bone in your skull.

However, most people use their brains the same way they use their muscles. You can strain your head just as if it were a muscle, and work very hard trying to arrive at an answer, but it doesn't really work that way.

When you really want to find an answer to something, what you need to do is contemplate the problem. Visualize your question as well as you can, and then simply wait.

If you don't, and if you instead try to find the solution through brute mental strength, you may be disappointed, because any solution that comes in that way is likely to be wrong.

But when you have waited for a while, the solution will come of itself. That is what the Egyptians called the Intelligence of the Heart ... using your heart instead of your head.

It will work for you in the same way your stomach will digest your food for you without your having to supervise it consciously. Our attempts to supervise everything consciously have all led to consequences that aren't too good for our stomach, and the reason for that is quite simple.

Conscious attention, which employs words, cannot think of very much. We are forced, therefore, to ignore almost everything while we are thinking. We think along a single track, but the world doesn't proceed along a single track.

The world is everything happening altogether everywhere, and you just can't take all that into consideration because there isn't time.

However, the Intelligence of the Heart can take it all into consideration because it is capable of handling innumerable variables at once, even though your conscious attention cannot...

The hieroglyphs on the Obelisk of Antinous promise that Antinous the Gay God enables us to discover the Intelligence of the Heart ... the Intelligence of HIM ... he opens his heart to you ....

NOW YOU CAN BUY THIS BRITISH MUSEUM ANTINOUS BUST FOR YOUR OWN HOME

LONDON's British Museum has revolutionized the gift shop experience by offering an affordable replica of the famous Townley bust of Antinous as Dionysus shown above.

You can now buy a resin replica of the bust from the Museum's Grenville Shop or ONLINE for £200.

The original is on display in the Museum in Room 70, in Ancient Greece and Rome.

This attractive replica represents the fascinating meeting of modern technology with ancient art, and would make the perfect gift or addition to your home. 

This replica has been created exclusively for the British Museum by ThinkSee3D, experts in 3D digital heritage. 

It is part of the British Museum's wider work with 3D technology, building on the AHRC funded MicroPasts project. This technology was also used to recreate a replica of the Ancient Egyptian Statue of Roy. 

The Antinous bust project is the first time the British Museum has been able to use 3-D technology to produce something to buy. This exciting use of technology means that this replica has been created faithfully with no damage to the original object, at a reduced size from the 81 cm (2 ft) statue on display. 

To create a replica, ThinkSee3D takes the British Museum Digital Team's scans of artefacts on display in the Museum?s galleries and produces 3D prints from which moulds are made. 

These moulds are then used for production of the replicas which are cast using traditional techniques and finished by British artists.

ARCHAEOLOGISTS 'MAY HAVE FOUND' LOST TOMB OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT

ANTINOUS and Hadrian must have seen the Tomb of Alexander the Great during their visit to Alexandria in August and September of the year 130 AD.

The fabled tomb was the biggest tourist attraction in the city ... attracting Julius Caesar and Octavian (Augustus Caesar) and every other notable person in antiquity.

But the question facing us today is: Where is the location of Alexander's tomb?

A team of archaeologists "may have found" the Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great under the crypt of an ancient Christian church in the heart of Alexandria.

A team of Polish archaeologists claim they have found a chamber resembling a mausoleum.

The marble and gold mausoleum had been sealed off, and is lined with inscriptions that combine artistic and architectural influences from Greek, Egyptian, and Persian cultures. 

The tomb contains a broken sarcophagus made of crystal glass, 37 bones, mostly heavily damaged but presumably all from the same adult male, as well as some broken pottery dating from the Ptolemaic and Roman ages.

While there may be no validity to the claim, it highlights the continuing mystery of the Lost Tomb of Alexander ... and raises hopes of finding the Lost Tomb of Antinous. 

A famous site of pilgrimage in Antiquity, the tomb was visited by many famous historical figures, including Julius Caesar and Cleopatra ... depicted by Elizabeth Taylor and Rex Harrison before Alexander's rock crystal sarcophagus in the epic film "Cleopatra."

Numerous emperors came here, including Gaius Octavius, better known as Augustus, who is said to have placed flowers on the tomb and a golden diadem upon Alexander’s mummified head. 

It is possible that Antinous and Emperor Hadrian paid their respects during a visit to Alexandria in 130 AD.

The last recorded visit to the tomb was made by the Roman emperor Caracalla in 215 AD, less than a century before it disappears from Roman records.

The tomb apparently was sealed off and hidden in the 3rd or 4th Century AD, possibly to protect it from the christian repression and destruction of pagan sites after the change of official religion within the Roman Empire. 

It once held a broken sarcophagus made of crystal glass, possibly damaged during the looting that took place during the political disturbances that ravaged Alexandria during the reign of Aurelian shortly after 270 AD. 

The Egyptian Supreme Council for Antiquities already has  officially recognized more than 140 unsuccessful searches for the site of Alexander's third and final resting place, built by Ptolemy Philadelphus around 280 BC. 

Many astounding theories have been elaborated over the centuries to explain why the tomb became lost.

One far-fetched yarn suggests that his body could have been unintentionally stolen from Alexandria by a pair of Venetian merchants, taken to Venice, mistakenly renamed and venerated as St. Mark the Evangelist in Basilica di San Marco in Venice.

Most believable, though, is the version handed down by many authors of Antiquity and the Middle Ages, such as Plutarch,  Ibn ‘Abd al-Hakam, Al-Massoudi and Leo the African. 

According to them, Alexander's body was hijacked in Syria by one of his generals, and stolen from its enormous catafalque while it was being transferred back from Babylon to Macedonia. 

That general, Ptolemy I Soter, then diverted the body to Egypt where it was interred in Memphis, the traditional capital of Egypt, while construction proceeded on Alexandria.

When Alexandria was suitably finished and proclaimed the new capital of Egypt in the late 4th or early 3rd Century BC, Alexander's body was transferred from Memphis to Alexandria, where it was entombed.

There it remained for 700 years. But by the 4th Century AD, the tomb's location was no longer known.

KARL HEINRICH ULRICHS SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON AUGUST 28 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.

WE WEEP FOR THE INNOCENT GAY MARTYRS OF IRAN, IRAQ, SYRIA AND OTHER LANDS

ON August 27th we commemorate the countless LGBT people who have been persecuted and executed in Iran, Iraq, Syria and other countries ... many of these innocent martyrs were teenagers.

Iran still regularly kills minors no matter what international law says. Amnesty International recently decried the hanging of gay Iranian teenager, Hassan Afshar, as proof of the country's "sickening enthusiasm for putting juveniles to death that knows no bounds."

Several years ago ... 19 July 2005 ... Iran publicly executed two teenage boys for being gay. Their names were MAHMOUD ASGARI and AYAZ MARHONI, 16 and 18 years old. 

Since then many more LGBT people have been tortured, imprisoned and publicly executed in Iran ... no one knows how many. 

For their suffering, the Religion of Antinous proclaims Mahmoud Asgari and Ayaz Marhoni and all of the named and unnamed gay victims of Iranian persecution, Saints and Innocent Martyrs of the Religion of Antinous.

Putting to death any juvenile violates United Nations covenants. Still, Iran hasn't shied from the most extreme penalty when prosecuting even the youngest men for gay sex and other crimes under Islamic law.

An Amnesty International report in January found that four people were killed last year despite being juveniles at the time of their crime. And between 2005 and 2015, 73 were executed.

In this latest case, Afshar was charged at age 17 with raping another boy. His family said it was consensual, which is sometimes a moot point. If the other boy hadn't called it "rape" instead of consensual sex, he too could have faced the death penalty.

Amnesty International reports that Afshar was hanged in Arak's Prison in Markazi Province on July 18.

Another teen, Alireza Tajiki, is next in line for execution, accused of raping and murdering a friend.

Amnesty International notes that Iran’s Supreme Court had said there's no evidence Tajiki committed the crime, and it says a confession is invalid because it was provoked by torture.

International outrage over Afshar’s death has so far managed to put the next killing on hold.

A rare photo of one of these executions (seen above) outraged the world in 2005, when a blindfolded Mahmoud Asgari, 16, and Ayaz Marhoni, 18, were publicly hanged in Mashhad, Iran, on charges of raping boys. The photos might have stopped, but the killings haven't.

A United Nations report in 2014 reported that 160 young men are on death row in Iran having been convicted of a myriad of crimes. Another United Nations investigation this year found that the death penalty reached a 20-year high in 2015, with 966 people killed.

Under Islamic law, these offenses — called hodud — can include "insulting the Prophet of Islam," extra-marital heterosexual sex, and consensual gay sex. Under hodud, death is one of four possible punishments, which could also include crucifixion, banishment, and amputating the right arm and left leg.

JUAN GABRIEL IS A SAINT OF ANTINOUS GAY ICON TO MILLIONS IN MEXICO

WE honour Juan Gabriel, a superstar Mexican songwriter and singer who was an icon for millions of LGBT people in the Latin music world. He is a saint of Antinous.

Born 7 January 1950, he dropped dead 28 August 2016 at his home in California only hours after performing a standing-room-only crowd. He performed for two hours at the Los Angeles Forum on Friday, clad in one of his typical brightly colored outfits. In its review of the concert, Billboard called him "the ultimate showman." He was 66.

Juan Gabriel was Mexico's leading singer-songwriter and top-selling artist. 

His ballads about love and heartbreak and bouncy mariachi tunes became hymns throughout Latin America and Spain and with Spanish speakers in the United States.

He brought many adoring fans to tears as they sang along when he crooned his songs about love and heartbreak, including his top hits, "Hasta Que Te Conoci" ("Until I Met You") and "Amor Eterno" ("Eternal Love").

His hit "Querida" ("Dear") topped Mexico's charts for a whole year.

The adjectives "flamboyant" and "eccentric" followed him all his career, and he was imitated by drag queens in gay clubs throughout Mexico.

He skirted rumors of gayness his whole life. 

He liked to wear jackets covered in sequins or dress in shiny silk outfits in hot pink, turquoise blue or canary yellow, and he was known for tossing his head before dancing or jumping around the stage.

He was once famously asked by a television interviewer: "People look at you and say you are homosexual. What do you say?" His answer became part of his enduring myth.

"Lo que se ve no se pregunta," he answered … "Don't ask about something that is obvious."

Then Juan asked the interview what he saw when he looked at him.

The journalist said: "I see a singer before me, I see a winner" and Juan Gabriel replied: "That is the most important thing, because it is what you do that counts in life."

Juan started out as a waif ... having been sent to an orphanage after his father went insane with grief over the loss of Juan's mother and burned down their village and had to be carried off in a straitjacket.

Little Juan fled abuse at the orphanage by hiding in a rubbish bin and being transported to freedom in a garbage truck. 

Arriving in Juarez, he sang for tips and tricks in seedy clubs, where he caught the eye of a "talent scout" ... and the rest is showbiz history.

In 2015 artist Arturo Damasco painted a 40-square-meter mural of Juan Gabriel on a building in Juarez.

Juan Gabriel never married. According to The Associated Press, a former secretary of his, Joaquín Muñoz, claimed that the two men had a sexual relationship in a tell-all book, "Juan Gabriel and I." 

It confirmed what most fans already believed, but his fans were surprised when years later it became known that he had fathered four children with a friend, Laura Salas.

Juan Gabriel performed to packed auditoriums, including New York's Madison Square Garden and the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. 

A six-time Grammy nominee, Juan Gabriel was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and received countless industry awards.

He also garnered ASCAP Songwriter of the Year in 1995, Latin Recording Academy's Person of the Year 2009, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that same year.

The singer, who was born 7 January 1950, wrote his first song at age 13 and went on to compose more than 1,500 songs. He died 28 August 2016 at age 66 … a homeless orphan who came to be loved by millions.

CHAVELA VARGAS SAINT OF ANTINOUS

CHAVELA VARGAS, the forceful lesbian songstress who was born in Costa Rica and rose to fame in Mexico, and influenced generations on both sides of the Atlantic, has been proclaimed a Saint of Antinous.

When she died in 2012 at age 93, she was especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras, but she is also recognized for her contribution to other genres of popular Latin American music.

Never one to hide her lesbianism, she has been an influential interpreter in America and Europe, muse to figures such as Pedro Almodóvar, hailed for her haunting performances, and called "la voz áspera de la ternura," the rough voice of tenderness.

FLAMEN ANTONIUS SUBIA speaks for millions of gays in the Spanish-speaking world when he says her passing is a saddening loss. He grew up with her music.

ANTONIUS RECALLS:

My parents had always played her music it...among many other singers...she was the only one who made an impact on me.  She was the only one who stood out...mostly because I could tell that she was crazy...she wasn't trying to sound pretty or traditional...but more like someone having an attack of too much feelings.

It wasn't until I was in my late teens that a friend pointed out that all her love songs are sung about women, I hadn't even noticed, I had just taken them at face value, you broke my heart songs, without really thinking about the context...that was when I really started to like Chavela Vargas...when it suddenly dawned on me that this dramatic, bellowing woman, who was such a favorite of my parents, was A LESBIAN!!!

As it turns out she was a hard-core lesbian, though never public about her sexuality, she never actually hid it...it was pretty much right there for everyone to see.  She drank heavily, carried a gun and wore a big red poncho...how can you not love a lesbian such as that?!  Eventually the drinking became too much and she dropped out of making music for a long, long time...only to return about 10 years ago, at 83 years of age with a new album...and it was during her return that I finally learned that, yes indeed, just as I suspected, she was in fact a Lesbian.  My favorite quote is when she said: 

"I've never even been to bed with a man. Never. That's how pure I am; I have nothing to be ashamed of. My gods made me the way I am." - Chavela Vargas

Chavela Vargas is a blessed Saint of Antinous.

ANTONIUS SUBIA

HERE ARE THE WINNERS OF THE 4th MODERN GAMES OF ANTINOUS

PROCLAMATIO IV ANTINOEIAD

MDCCCLXXXVII ~ MMXVIII

August 25th, 2018

It is with great joy that we,

The Priesthood of the Temple of Antinous

Announce the winners of

The 4th Antinous Sacred Games!

FIRST PLACE CHAMPION
LINDA LARSON

SECOND PLACE
KEITH LANCE

THIRD PLACE
MICHEL VALIM

The Winners will receive the following prizes

1st Place Champion $500
And the tripod incense brazier

2nd Place winner will receive $200
3rd Place winner will receive $100

Contest Entries can be viewed HERE.

In all there were 18 contestants. Some contestants submitted multiple pieces, but these were judged together as one entry.

Winners were selected by a vote of priests
taking part in ceremonies
at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous
and via Skype in Europe and Brazil.

May Antinous bless all those

Who participated in His Sacred Games!

AVE ANTINOUS!

LET THE GAMES BEGIN! THE 4th MODERN GAMES OF ANTINOUS

PROCLAMATIO IV ANTINOEIAD

MDCCCLXXXVII ~ MMXVIII

August 25th, 2018

It is with great joy that we,

The Priesthood of the Temple of Antinous

Solemnly announce the opening of

The 4th Antinous Sacred Games!

Contest Entries can be viewed HERE.

In all there are 18 contestants. Some contestants submitted multiple pieces, but these are judged together as one entry.

Spectators can participate by naming their favorite Contestant-submission in the comments!

May Antinous bless all those

Who participate in His Sacred Games!

AVE ANTINOUS!

ANTINOUS MADE A CAMEO APPEARANCE IN THE CAMPY MOVIE 'THE GAY DECEIVERS'

ANTINOUS has made cameo appearances in countless movies from the silent era to the present, and it is always a pleasant surprise when he shows up ... as in the box-office hit camp classic THE GAY DECEIVERS.

The film caused a bit of a controversy in 1969 ... the year of the Stonewall Riots ... because it was about two straight young men who pretend to be gay in order to avoid being drafted into military service and sent to Vietnam.

The movie follows Danny and Elliot, two friends who try to get out of the draft by pretending to be gay lovers who insist on being accepted as a couple at their draft board. 

Their scheme works ... and they are not drafted ... but they are placed under surveillance by the Army and have to keep up the pretense of being gay.

They move into a gay apartment complex and try to blend in with the residents, all the while trying to maintain their romantic relationships with women ... and not get caught by the Army.

Their landlord ... played by openly gay comedian and cabaret artist MICHAEL GREER ... welcomes the two young men with open arms and has obligingly furnished their one-bedroom apartment in opulently campy style ... with lots of nude art and statuary.

The statuary includes a replica bronze statuette of the Capitoline statue of Antinous.

The Antinous statue appears briefly at the top of the apartment's stairway landing in two different scenes in the movie.

Antinous is positioned so that he seems to be conveying blessings on anyone coming up the stairs to enter the bedroom ... or when they leave the bedroom ... which is furnished with Baroque furniture with wallpaper and drapes in shades of pink ... and a large round bed.

The pink bedroom is the focus of several semi-nude scenes in the movie revolving about efforts by the two guys either to pretend to be gay (to their gay landlord) or to assert their heterosexuality (to their parents and girlfriends).

They can never let down their guard because military men prowl the apartment complex.

The military men seem to be spying on the two guys to see if they really are gay ... or if they are straight and should be sent to Vietnam.

The twist is that even after the pair is caught, they are not inducted into the military. The Army investigators assigned to watch them are themselves gay and are trying to keep straight people out of the Army.

When the film was released in 1969, some LGBT people protested against its stereotypical depiction of gay men being effeminate.

Michael Greer later said he worked with the writers and director to tone down the role of the gay landlord Malcolm to make him more likeable to mainstream audiences.


Conservative critics condemned the film for indicating that the military service is full of homosexuals who try to keep out heterosexual males.

Viewed from our vantage point in the 21st Century, the film is mostly notable for depiction white male privilege caught in the dilemma of an unpopular war.

The film opens with chants of "No, We Won't Go!" ... the rallying call of anti-war protesters in the 1960s. But in retrospect it means privileged young white men were refusing to go to Vietnam.

Instead, poor blacks and Hispanics were drafted in large numbers ... because they lacked the money and influence to get a deferment.

The film is notable for the utter and total absence of any persons of color or ethnic diversity.

The photo at left shows a bronze replica of the famous Capitoline Antinous statue similar to the prop that must have been used in the movie.

Yet, in an ironic twist at the end of the movie, the two young men's love lives and their careers are completely ruined and they head off miserably to opposite ends of America to try to start new lives.

Meanwhile, all their gay neighbors at the all-gay apartment complex go on merrily having brunches and parties ... living happily ever after.

And Antinous stands proudly on the landing, blessing all who enter or leave the pink bedroom with its huge, round bed.

As our founder and spiritual leader ANTONIUS SUBIA says: "No matter how good or how bad a movie is, if Antinous is in it, then the movie is blessed!"

THE HISTORY OF THE ROSY LOTUS OF ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD

When Emperor Hadrian visited Alexandria,
the poet Pancrates presented him
with a beautiful lotus flower.

Awestruck by the magnificent rosy-red petals,
Hadrian agreed to name the flower
after his beloved Antinous.

Drawings by Uendi

Beautiful CG Art by Antonius Subia

Music by Kevin MacLeod

For more info: THE TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS

DID ANTINOUS SEE CLEOPATRA'S TOMB ON HIS LION-HUNTING EXPEDITION?

THE Lost Tomb of Antinous and the Lost Tomb of Alexander the Great capture the imaginations of archaeologists everywhere ... but imagine stumbling onto the Lost Tomb of Cleopatra?

One long-held theory is that her tomb could be hidden in a labyrinth beneath a Roman era fort in the desert west of Alexandria called Taposiris Magna.

Experts from Egypt and the Dominican Republic have discovered the temple's original gate on its western side. In pharaonic Egypt the temple was named Per-Usir, meaning "A place of Osiris."

Legend has it that when the god Seth killed Osiris he cut him into fourteen pieces and threw them all over Egypt. This is one of 14 temples said to contain one piece of the god's body.

The team also found limestone foundation stones, which would once have lined the entrance to the temple. 

One of these bears traces indicating that the entrance was lined with a series of Sphinx statues.

The team, led by Dr. Kathleen Martinez, began excavations in Taposiris Magna ten years ago in an attempt to locate the tomb of the well-known lovers, Queen Cleopatra VII and Mark Antony.

There is some evidence that suggests that Egypt's last Queen might not be buried inside the tomb built beside her royal palace, which is now under the eastern harbour of Alexandria.

The archaeologists have been exploring the underground labyrinth, turning up a bronze statue of the goddess Aphrodite, the alabaster head of a Cleopatra statue, a mask believed to belong to Marcus Antonius and a headless statue from the Ptolemaic era.

The location is of great interest to those of us who love Antinous because it is very likely that Hadrian and Antinous visited this temple site in August of the year 130 AD ... the final summer of the brief life of Antinous.

As we know, the imperial entourage was visiting Alexandria in the summer of the year 130, and we know that Hadrian and Antinous hunted and killed a man-eating lion which had been terrorizing the countryside. 

It was described as a "Libyan" lion, "Libya" being the term used in those days for everything west of Alexandria.

So it is highly possible (even likely) that the imperial hunting party passed by the temple at Taposiris Magna, which is less than 45 kms (30 miles) west of Alexandria. 

In the year 130 it was a vast complex of temples that included a Roman fortress. The name Taposiris comes from the legend that one of the relics of Osiris was enshrined there.

This is a very noteworthy site because it is the location of the only wholly Greek style temple (with columns) ever known to have been built in Egypt. 

And it is also a temple which was converted into a military fortress by the Romans.

In addition, it is the location of a unique stone tower overlooking the sea which is believed to have been a miniature replica of the Great Lighthouse at nearby Alexandria.

Only shattered walls and foundations are left to indicate the size of Taposiris Magna.

It is entirely conceivable that Cleopatra and Marcus Antonius, cornered by Octavian's advancing forces, might have sought refuge at this fortified temple complex with its tower suitable for use as an observation post.

It is also entirely possible that Cleopatra and Marc Antony were buried here.

THE SACRED LION HUNT

ON the 21st of August, with the Sun in the final degrees of Leo the Lion, we commemorate the Sacred Lion Hunt ... when Hadrian and Antinous slew a man-eating lion in Egypt in August 130 AD.

Priests of Antinous celebrate the event in with ritual ceremonies at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous which also see worshipers participating via Skype from Mexico, Brazil and Germany.

During the special ceremonies they also honor the Sacred Rosy Lotus of Antinous ... the pink waterlily said to have sprung forth spontaneously from the lion's blood as it splattered the banks of the Nile.

Flamen Antonius Subia relates in vivid detail the events of the Sacred Lion Hunt: 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 adrenaline-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 THE ARMY OF LOVERS

AUG. 20 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 scaredy-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 (above). 

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."