Friday, December 31, 2021

ODE TO LUCIUS AELIUS
By Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia



ON January 1st we celebrate the brief but shining life of Lucius Aelius Caesar, Hadrian's "other favorite" and chosen heir who predeceased the Emperor by dying suddenly on 1st January 138 AD. Antonius Subia says:

Long Live Lucius Aelius Caesar
The Prince of Flowers!
Hadrian's First Love
Who raised Temples to Antinous
Lucius Capricornius, who reigned for one day
And for all eternity
Beauty and Spirit of the Latins
The shining one who gave his blood for laurels

~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

THE APOTHEOSIS OF AELIUS CAESAR


ON December 31st we commemorate the Apotheosis of Aelius Caesar.

Hadrian adopted Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus, and called him Aelius Verus Caesar (portraits by Priest Uendi).

It was said that beauty was his only recommendation. His poor health soon overtook him and Hadrian is reported to have said, "We have leaned against a tottering wall and have wasted the four hundred million sentences which we gave to the populace and the soldiers on the adoption of Commodus."

He died on the Calends of January in the year 138 ... only a few months before Hadrian ... from an overdose of medicine given to help him make a speech to the Senate thanking Hadrian for the succession.

After Aelius Caesar's death, Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius (September 19, 86 - March 7, 161) on the condition that Antoninus Pius adopt the younger Lucius Verus and Hadrian's great-nephew by marriage, Marcus Aurelius (April 26, 121 - March 17, 180).

Marcus later co-ruled with Lucius as Marcus Aurelius until Lucius' death in 169, at which time he was sole ruler until his own death in 180. Collectively, they are remembered as the Antonine Dynasty of emperors who ruled wisely over a period noted for its peace and prosperity.

In his classic text The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 18th Century historian Edward Gibbon considers the reign of the Antonines, as well as those of their predecessors Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian, the height of the Roman Empire, after which time the empire began its inexorable decline.

Aelius Caesar is a major character in Marguerite Yourcenar's epic historical novel Mémoires d'Hadrien (Memoirs of Hadrian).

Lucius, as we affectionately call him, is the recipient of much bittersweet love and adoration from followers of the Religion of Antinous

For us he represents so many pretty young men whose bright futures are thwarted by tragic illness.


Aelius Caesar is often called the Western Favorite, because of the possibility that he rivaled Antinous for Hadrian's love.

We venerate Aelius Caesar as the fallen Prince of Flowers, the spiritual twin brother of Antinous whose death is the end of the Saturnalia.

Thursday, December 30, 2021

ANTINOUS WELCOMES ALL


AS we celebrate the Saturnalia on the cusp of 2021/22 we welcome the hundreds of new subscribers and followers on this blog and on FACEBOOKINSTAGRAM  and  TWITTER.

Antinous welcomes you!

Antinous, last of the Classical deities, embraces all others. 

He is the Gay God who embraces all Gays from all cultures and from all nations. 

Just as each gay man is different, His ancient statues depict HIM in the guise of Hermes, Dionysus, Apollo and many others. 

The image on this page by ANDRÉ DURAND shows a new follower adoring Antinous (as Osiris) in the inner-most alcove of the Canopus Pool at Hadrian's Villa.

Antinous welcomes all, regardless of cultural origins or religious beliefs.

There is no record that Antinous has ever fought against or squabbled with any deity. Instead, he prefers to cloak himself in their starry mantle and become one with them.

Antonyus Nikias Subia is the spiritual leader of our religion. Check out the online TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS

Some of us, like Antonius, worship Antinous to the exclusion of all other deities. 

But there are lots of Wiccans in this group, as well as Buddhists, Hindus, along with Jews, Christians and many, many fallen Catholics ... plus the odd Chaos "magickian" as well as none-of-the-above individualists.

All ages are represented, from 19 to 99. They are scattered around the world on all continents ... with the possible exception of Antarctica! 

Temples are being established in Mexico and -Brazil, where there is a huge contingent of Antinous worshipers.

So feel free to introduce yourself to the group and to tell us where you're coming from ... physically and spiritually.

Whether you decide to stay or whether you are "just browsing" and decide to move on elsewhere ... may the love of the Most Great and Good God, the Blessed Boy Antinous, enter your heart and fill it with His love and joy.

May He become one with you, as He has with so many mortals and deities throughout the ages. And may you discover Him in your heart and may you take the spiritual plunge to god-man-sameness," a process Antonius Subia calls HOMOTHEOSIS.

Wednesday, December 29, 2021

EXPERTS DECIPHER TWO MAGICAL SPELLS
FOUND NEAR ANTINOOPOLIS IN EGYPT



TWO ancient Egyptian papyrus magic spells in use in or near Antinoopolis have been deciphered by Italian archaeologists, who say the curious documents had a "fill-in-the-blanks" format for targeting people to bless ... or to curse.

They were written around 1,700 years ago and filed away at the famous library at the town of OXYRHYNCHUS (which Hadrian and Antinous visited) near Antinoopolis and have been translated for the first time. 

The names of those targeted are left blank to be inserted.

Antinoopolis was always a place of "magic, sorcery and strange religious fervor " according to Royston Lambert in his authoritative book about Antinous, BELOVED AND GOD

We know that the priests of Antinous wrote a LOVE SPELL. Lambert notes that even to this day local villagers believe the place to be haunted.

Just last year, scholars in Australia translated a GRIMOIR disguised as a Coptic prayer book which magician-priests at Antinoopolis could have used to cast spells.

But the latest discovery of two spells goes much farther towards enlarging our knowledge of magical skills in the Antinoopolis area.


One text invokes the gods to "burn the heart" of a woman until she loves the caster, said Franco Maltomini of the University of Udine in Italy, who translated the two spells. 

Another spell, targeted at a male, uses a series of magical words to "subject" him, forcing him to do whatever the caster wants.

The two spells were not targeted at a specific person. Rather, they were written in such a way that the person who cast the spell would only need to insert the name of the person being targeted.

The deciphered love spell invokes several gnostic gods. (Gnosticism was an ancient religion that incorporated elements of Christianity.) 

It says that the spell caster should burn a series of offerings in the bathhouse (the names of the offerings didn't survive degradation) and write a spell on the bathhouse's walls, which Maltominitranslated as follows:

"I adjure you, earth and waters, by the demon who dwells on you and (I adjure) the fortune of this bath so that, as you blaze and burn and flame, so burn her (the woman targeted)whom (the mother of the woman targeted) bore, until she comes to me…"

Then, the spell names several gods and magical words. It goes on to say, "Holy names, inflame in this way and burn the heart of her…" until she falls in love with the person casting the spell.

The text of the other deciphered spell calls for the person casting it to engrave onto a small copper or lead plaque a series of LEAD CURSE magical words, including the phrase translated as "subject to me the (name of the) man, whom (the name of the man's mother) bore…" and then to stitch the plaque onto something the man wears, such as a sandal.

The spell, if successful, was supposed to force the man to do whatever the spell caster wanted,the ancient text says.

On the back of that papyrus is a list of recipes that use droppings from animals to treat a wide range of conditions, including headaches and leprosy. Some of the recipes simply say that they help "promote pleasure." 

One recipe says that a combination of honey and droppings from a bittern bird, used in a way that isn't specified, will "promote pleasure," according to the ancient text. 

Tuesday, December 28, 2021

EDWARD PERRY 'NED' WARREN
SAINT OF ANTINOUS


ON December 28th the Religion of Antinous celebrates the life of Saint Edward Perry "Ned" Warren, who died on this day in 1928. 

Estranged and ostracized by "decent" socialites, Saint Ned Warren was a famed gay Bostonian art collector who virtually single-handedly built up the collections of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Museum of Fine Arts through his passion for Classical art.

As a sissified schoolboy who suffered the taunts of bullies, he wrote a poem comparing a classmate in whom he was infatuated to Antinous.

He and his lover John Marshall travelled around Europe seeking out and buying art treasures for great museums. They were referred to snidely as "the bachelors of art" among society circles in Britain and America. 

But Warren was so fabulously rich, and museums depended on him  so much, that nobody dared say anything to his face about his blatant homosexuality. His gifts to the Boston MFA made up 90 per cent of its Classical collection, one of the finest in the world.

Even so, he found puritanical Boston deeply disagreeable, and spent most of his life in England when he was not at his apartment in Rome.

The famous Warren Cup and Rodin's statue The Kiss are just two of the most well-known objects he rounded up -- both of which were rejected by museums in Britain and America as being too raunchy. Museum curators feared museum-goers could be lured into thinking unwholesome thoughts.


Warren in fact actually commissioned the The Kiss from Rodin, explicitly saying he wanted large genitals on the man. To this day, photographs of the famous statue tend to avoid a full-frontal male view for that very reason.

The Warren Cup is a solid silver goblet which dates back to the 1st Century CE/AD and was found near Jerusalem. It is believed that it was deposited along with other valuables (some gold coins, jewellery and other precious items) in a cache by the servants of a fleeing Roman nobleman during one of several Jewish uprisings. It is even possible that it was buried during the uprising that was crushed by Hadrian's legions. 

The cup itself is considerably older, and may date to Republican times. And it is done in a retro-style which was a bit archaic even when it was new.

As the photos demonstrate, the Warren Cup shows two scenes (one on each side of the cup) of a man and a youth having sex on a couch. The silverwork is exquisitely done and the hair and draperies and facial expressions are beautifully rendered. It also reflects a bit of tongue-in-cheek wit by showing a servant boy peering curiously around a door frame at the lovers.

On one side a young man (barely more than a boy himself) is having his way with a young boy. On the other side, an older man with a beard is having anal sex with a younger man who is seated on top of him and holding onto what appears to be perhaps part of the drapes of a canopy bed. A servant looks on from the doorway off to the right side.

Saint Ned is believed to have purchased the Warren Cup from an antiquities dealer in Italy.
His efforts to sell it to museums in London and the U.S. were rebuffed.

The Warren Cup's unabashedly gay sex theme is impossible to ignore. The cup has been controversial in the art world ever since it first came to light in the 19th Century.

For many, many years, museums on both sides of the Atlantic refused to obtain it (despite its unquestionable value as a remarkably important historical piece of art) because of Victorian and Edwardian moral objections to its "immoral and beastly" theme.

At one time a curator for the British Museum was interested in acquiring the Warren Cub.

But other experts reminded him that one of the members of the board of directors of the British Museum was the Archbishop of Canterbury. The result was that museum officials were loathe to show his reverence even a photograph of the cup, let alone ask him to condone purchasing it for the collection.

So the cup languished in Warren's personal collection for many years and changed hands many times after his death, never ever being put on public display.

The British Museum finally purchased the Warren Cup for a large sum in 1999 -- and even then there was much titillation in the tabloid press.

Ned Warren wrote extensively about his views that homosexuality is a spiritual state of being, something divinely magical. Taunted as a schoolboy for being a bookworm and a sissy (he would get up at 5 a.m. to read Greek until breakfast), he nonetheless had many crushes on other schoolboys. He wrote about them all in his diary, and even wrote a poem about one especially beautiful boy whom he called a modern Antinous.

As an adult, he continued to proclaim his notion of idealized homosexual love, much to the distress of his family in Boston.

He even wrote a book entitled The Defence of Uranian Love about the same time that Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray was published. 

He also used his wealth to sponsor the educations of numerous boys and young men who showed promise but had no money.

He was very generous and had a big heart. For example, he heard that the daughter of a vicar in his district in England had become pregnant out of wedlock and was going to be forced to give up the child. 

Saying "this is as bad as Boston," he was so outraged that he legally adopted the little boy himself. He allowed mother and son to live upstairs in his home in England at his expense and loudly defied anyone to besmirch her honor or that of Travis, the little boy.

Ned Warren and his lover John Marshall had a stormy, on-again off-again relationship, but they were together at their flat in Rome in February of 1928. On the evening of the 15th, John went to bed early not feeling well. Ned tiptoed in later and kissed him good night and got in bed beside him. John was dead by morning.

Ned never recovered from that blow. He returned to England, where his health declined rapidly. Saying he couldn't face Christmas and New Year's without John, he died in a nursing home in England on December 28, 1928, at the age of 68.

He was cremated on January 1, 1929. But because he had always been blatant about his homosexuality, no members of his family attended the funeral and none of the museums that had benefitted so much from his largesse sent a representative to the memorial service.


His ashes were buried in the non-Catholic cemetery in Bagni di Lucca, Italy, a town known as a spa in Etruscan and Roman times.

We honor Edward Perry "Ned" Warren, 1860-1928, who wrote a poem likening a boy he loved to Antinous.

Monday, December 27, 2021

'MY DEATH NEEDS TO MEAN SOMETHING'
17-YEAR-OLD TRANS GIRL SAID IN FINAL NOTE



ANTINOUS weeps for Leelah Alcorn (November 15, 1997 – December 28, 2014) the 17-year-old US transgender girl who committed suicide to make a statement about the societal standards of transgender people. 

A suicide note was published on her Tumblr page in which she declared that she wanted her suicide to cause an impact and create a dialogue about the discrimination and abuse of transgender people.

Meanwhile, Leelah Alcorn rallies are planned and a candlelight vigil is scheduled to be held at Leelah's high school near Cincinnati, Ohio, on January 3.

Laverne Cox and Emmy Rossum are a few of the celebs who spoke out after Leelah took her own life after struggling for many years as a transgender girl. 

At the Hollywood Temple of Antinous, Antonius Subia said he was devastated by the news, coming on the heels of many hundred deaths this past year involving LBGT youth.

"When these kids say that there is no hope for them, it's because that's all they see," Antonius said.  

"We need to look into our souls and see how we can change the world for them, what we can do to give them hope. The list of Saint nominations for 2015 keeps growing," he said.

"May Antinous take Leelah Alcorn into his arms and give her a place on the Barque of Millions of Years," Antonius added.

Leelah was born in November 1997 to parents Doug and Carla Alcorn. Her birth name was Joshua Ryan Alcorn. One of four children, she was raised in a fundamentalist Christian environment. 

In a suicide note, she referred to herself as Leelah Alcorn.

According to the suicide note, she identified as a transgender female from age 14, when she became aware of the term, having felt "like a girl trapped in a boy’s body" since she was four. 

She subsequently came out online, and turned primarily towards the internet for friendship. 

She attempted to convince her parents that she had to medically transition, but claims she instead received therapy and "biased" counseling from Christian therapists.

The note also describes her coming out as gay at age 16, hoping it would be a stepping stone to coming out as transgender at a later date. 

She wrote that she was instead taken out of school by her parents and cut off from the outside world for five months as her parents denied her access to social media and many forms of communication. She described this as a large contributing factor towards her suicide.

She committed suicide by walking into the path of a tandem-trailer truck on a highway near her home in Ohio on December 28, 2014.

Sunday, December 26, 2021

MITHRAS TEMPLE IN NORTHERN ENGLAND
WAS ALIGNED TO SUNRISE DECEMBER 25



AN ancient temple constructed by a mysterious cult in northern England may have been built to align with sunrise on December 25, to "recall the birth" of the light god Mithras.

A new analysis using satellite maps and a software that can plot the direction of sunrise and sunset revealed that the Mithraeum beside a Roman fort in Carrawburgh, England, lines up with both the winter solstice and December 25th.

Followers of the cult of Mithras often associated these two dates with the god, and were even said to celebrate the New Year on December 25th, as it marked his birth.

In a paper published to Philica, Amelia Carolina Sparavigna of Politecnico di Torino says the temple at Carrawburgh was designed for the birth of Mithras.

Sparavigna used the SunCal.net software to pinpoint the direction of sunrise and sunset at different times of the year for this location.

And, this revealed "good alignment" for the December 25 sunrise along with the winter solstice (December 21), with a difference of just 0.2 degrees.

"As we can see using software giving the sunrise and sunset directions on satellite maps, the orientation of the temple and the direction of the sunrise on winter solstice are in good agreement," Sparavigna wrote.

"It means that, probably, the orientation of the temple was chosen to recall the birth of Mithras on December 25."

Worship of Mithras spurred the rise of a mystery cult during the Roman era.

It was practiced from the 1st Century to 4th Century AD, and is linked to the sun god Sol Invictus.

"The cult of Mithras, such as that of the Sol Invictus, who was the patron of the soldiers, was very popular in the Roman army," Sparavigna wrote.

"Both Sol Invictus and Mithras, who were often identified in the same god, are linked to winter solstice.

"Actually, the followers of Mithras worshipped the New Year on December 25, to celebrate the birth of Mithras."

Saturday, December 25, 2021

ANTINOUS EMBRACES GEORGE MICHAEL
(25 June 1963 - 25 December 2016)



MUSIC legend George Michael is a saint of Antinous for inspiring millions of LGBT people. 

Known for hit songs such as “Faith,” “Freedom ‘90” and holiday favorite “Last Christmas,” he died at age 53 on 25 December 2016, of heart failure.

But the legacy of the pop icon, who sold well over 100 million albums in the span of his career, extends far beyond his music.

"George was probably the first gay pop star in the modern era, who was totally unabashed about gay sexuality,” said Martin Aston, a music journalist.

Even though Michael was forced out of the closet, once he was out, Aston noted, "he took a great leap forward" and "came out guns blazing."

Michael's moment of liberation followed what seemed at first to be a time of deep humiliation.

He was blessed with sensual good looks and an exquisite voice, attributes he used to become first a teenybopper heartthrob and then a mature solo artist with videos that played up his considerable appeal.

He kept his own sexual orientation private, until he was arrested in 1998 for lewd conduct in a public toilet in Los Angeles after being spotted by a male undercover police officer.

In an earlier era, that might have doomed his career. Instead of retreating, however, Michael made a single and video ... "Outside" ... that ridiculed the charges against him and mocked the Los Angeles police officers who busted him.

The memorable image of the two uniformed policemen kissing in the video ... both funny and outrageous at the time ... helped Michael come out as a proud gay man.

Despite his infamous outing, “he never dealt with [his sexuality] in terms of shame,” Aston told NBC Out. “He realized he had to be true to himself, and that had to have helped bust that closet door open.”

THE SATURNALIA
THE GOLDEN AGE OF SATURN



IN celebration of the return of Antinous Invictus, for the five days between December 25th and the 1st of January, we commemorate the Golden Age of the reign of Saturn.

This is a time outside of time, and an occasion for joy and freedom from the world when Sol Invictus returns.

The divine twins are born, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys, Castor and Pollux, Freyr and Freya (for whom this time is also known as Yule).

(Image: Antinous as the Ghost of Christmas Present by S.L. GORE.)


We celebrate the Saturnalia with indulgence and as the festival of Liberty and total Freedom. There shall be no authority and no submission during this sacred period.


There is to be no war, and no form of violence committed, only peace and harmony and the many joys of ecstasy are allowed.

The rejoicing of the Saturnalia ends with the apotheosis of the Prince of Flowers, Aelius Caesar, on January 1st.

Friday, December 24, 2021

LOVELY 'BIRTH OF MITHRAS' SCULPTURE
OLDEST DEPICTION OF ZODIAC IN BRITAIN



ON what is now Christmas Day, troops on Hadrian's Wall 1,800 years ago were celebrating the birthday of the god Mithras.

Born on December 25, Mithras was worshipped at sites on at least three locations along the Wall.

This stunning sculpture of Mithras was discovered at Housesteads Roman fort in the 19th Century.

The stone relief shows Mithras emerging from the Orphic Egg – the symbol of eternal time.

The god is surrounded by an egg-shaped representation of the signs of the zodiac, representing the cosmos.

This is the earliest representation of the signs of the zodiac to be found in Britain.

It would have been lit from behind to present a powerful image for worshippers entering the semi-underground temple at Chapel Hill at Housesteads.

The sculpture is one of the main exhibits in a collection of Mithraic items from the Wall on show at the Great North Museum in Newcastle.

"It is one of the best collections of Mithraic material in the world," said Andrew Parkin, keeper of archaeology at Tyne Wear Archives and Museums.

It was totally repaired and conserved in recent years and is one of the most breath-taking works of art at the museum.

The carving is on display underneath a relief sculpture which shows a scene of Mithras slaying a bull, which was also found at Housesteads and was a common depiction in Mithraic temples.

"Our Mithras stone is a unique and powerful Roman object that blends several religious traditions," Andrew said. "We still have offerings left at the museum at Christmas time. Previously we've had a pot plant, pine cones, money and even a Chocolate Orange."

The stone is part of the Society of Antiquaries of Newcastle upon Tyne's collection.

The cult of Mithras was popular amongst the military and originated around 1400 BC in Persia.

It was confined to male worshippers and involved progression through several grades of worship with different ranks and costumes.

Mithraic temples have been identified in Northumberland at Housesteads, Rudchester and Carrawburgh, where three altars were found along with the remains of cockerels which had probably been sacrificed and statues of the god's helpers.

The complex imagery of the Housesteads sculpture suggests the sophistication of the cult at the fort. The celebration of Christmas became superimposed on earlier religious and ritual practices.

"To some extent there have always been mid-winter festivals at what is the darkest part of the year to mark the turning point when it will begin getting lighter," said Andrew. "In the early days Christianity was competing with a lot of different cults around the world."

Mithras was celebrated as the Lord of Ages and a god of light, who is often shown carrying a torch and bringing light to the world.

Thursday, December 23, 2021

HADRIAN IN APOLLINOPOLIS
THE EDFU TEMPLE OF HORUS

By Our Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia





AT the end of December 130 the court arrived at the sacred Egyptian city of Horus once known as Behdet, but later called Apollinopolis by the Greeks, because they equated Horus with Apollo, it is now called Edfu.

The Temple of Horus is one of the only surviving ancient pagan temples in the world. 

Apollinopolis is the sacred place where Horus defeated his great rival god Seth.

(Photos by Antonius Subia.) 

Among the many contests between Horus and Seth included one in which Seth tried to have anal sex with Horus and ejaculate inside him.

But Horus tricked Seth into ejaculating in his hand and then flung the sperm into the Nile. 

Then later Horus ejaculated onto lettuce and fed the salad to Seth who consumed the sperm and lost the contest.

The site of Apollinopolis was where Horus defeated Seth and became ruler of the cosmos and the divine model for the Kings of Egypt.

A ritual called the Feast of Victory was celebrated there at about the time of the December solstice.

Hadrian took part as Emperor-Pharaoh in the event, which was celebrated as a mystery play with high priests playing the roles of Horus and other gods.

Sabina took part as Empress taking on the form Isis.

The ceremony commemorated the victory of Horus with a ritual slaying of a Hippopotamus which represented Seth.

Throughout the ceremony Hadrian had to maintain perfect calm even though he was still deeply affected and mourning the recent loss of Antinous.

And he may have been terrified that the ferocious animal might break its chains and attack.

But a crowd was watching, some probably hoping he would lose his nerve. 

But everything proceeded as intended. Hadrian cast a harpoon into the beast from a boat on the sacred lake and the ceremony was deemed a success. 

The Lord of Darkness had been defeated, the New Sun God was restored, and Hadrian was proclaimed the incarnation of Horus.

As the ceremony concluded his thoughts and prayers were for Antinous and the spiritual dangers he must face on the ascent to immortality.

At this moment Antinous is ascending to the celestial sphere, passing through pylons, facing 72 archons, overcoming the adversaries with his divine power of Homotheosis.

Ave Antinous!
~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

Wednesday, December 22, 2021

THE RETURN OF THE CAPRICORN GODS
By Our Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia



THE Solstice occurred at 16:00 Universal Time Tuesday, and worshipers of Antinous in North and South America, Europe and Africa took part in Zoom ceremonies celebrating the Winter Solstice (for those in the Northern Hemisphere) and the Summer Solstice (for those in the Southern Hemisphere.

On this Sacred Night, We celebrate the triumphant return
Of the New Sun, Sol Invictus, Antinous-Mithras
May the reborn god of light cast away the darkness
That has weighed upon us over the course of this year.
May a new hope for the coming age be reborn this night
Father Saturn, who stands at the edge of the cosmos
Father of endless time, clockwork of the universe
We welcome the return your golden age...Ave Saturnalia!
We celebrate the return of the Capricorn Gods,
We praise the wild horned god
We praise both the lesser and the greater Pan.
We ask that Bacchus shall come forth within us
In his incarnate form of Antinous the Gay God,
May the semen of the first god be revealed within us
That we may become aware of our divine nature
On this sacred night of the winter solstice
We ask the blessing of the new born sun, 
The god of light, Sol Invictus!
Ave Antinous!

This is the Night of Sol Invictus, the rebirth of the Sun, 
Mithras is the super cosmic god who the ancients believed Caused the equinoxes to move backward in the sky

Tonight is the Solstice, when the savior gods are born,
Including Mithras, Osiris, Horus, Jesus, and the one to whom Antinous was compared above all others, Dionysus-Bacchus, the Capricorn god who like the others gave his life to save all mankind from perdition and to make us aware that we are Divine, that we all carry the semen of the first god within us.

We must awaken to our inner potential to the Homotheosis Power that we all hold within our hearts because the Age of Aquarius is here, we must rise up and overthrow the old and usher in the New Age. This is why Antinous has chosen now to restore his ancient religion, so that we will understand the significance of these signs, which others before or after might not have understood.  We are the chosen people of Antinous.

May the blessing of Sol Invictus be with us
May the Blessing of Antinous be with us on this sacred night.

Ave Antinous!
~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

Tuesday, December 21, 2021

ANTINOUS INVICTUS AND THE SOLSTICE


ON Tuesday at 16:00 Universal Time (8:00 a.m. at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous) the sun "stands still" ("Sol Stasis") — the 21/22 December Solstice for the year 2021. 

This is a special day every year in the Religion of Antinous for it marks the return of Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun.

The return of the sun is the Conquest of Unconquered Light over chaos and darkness, the emergence of Phanes-Eros-Dionysus from the cosmic egg (image at right).

On this day, we observe the moment when the unknown god Bythus-Narcissus gazed into the pool of the abyss and saw his own reflection. 


His image caused the birth of the thrice-great Phanes-Eros-Zagreus, the saviors, who together are called Antinous Invictus.

The three-fold mystery of their birth is the descent of Phanes-Beauty, Eros-Love and Zagreus-Ecstasy into our world. 


These great spirits are the divine light of Antinous the God, it is their presence at the ground of our soul that is our immortal spark.

Within us all is the perfect image of the perfect face of light and love, a reflection of Narcissus-Bythus gazing down into the darkness of our world.

Antinous Invictus the perfect image of the perfect face of light and love will illuminate the way ahead.


It was Hadrian's dream to create the perfect civilization ... a civilization based on the Hellenistic principles of love, beauty, learning and tolerance. And it was his dream to create the perfect religion ... a religion which would encompass all others.

In the Northern Hemisphere today is the Winter Solstice and the days will be getting longer now. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Summer Solstice and the days will become shorter now.


Wherever you live on this blue marble of ours, it is the same moment in the eye of Antinous the Gay God.

Monday, December 20, 2021

ROMAN TEMPLE OF MITHRAS
REBORN IN THE HEART OF LONDON



SECRET, males-only rituals from the ancient cult of Mithras have been recreated in an original Roman temple after it was reconstructed several metres below London’s street level. 

Mystical chants, ghostly light effects and the sounds of bells, horns and other Roman instruments form part of a sensory reconstruction that will greet visitors at the London Mithraeum museum, which opened to the public recently.

Sophie Jackson, director at Museum of London Archaeology, which conducted a dig on the site, said the building was a rare trace of the city’s Roman past that people could experience first-hand. 

“London Mithraeum is not only a truthful presentation of the archaeological remains of the temple of Mithras, it is a powerful evocation of this enigmatic temple,” she said at an event to mark the opening. 

One of the most important Romano-British sites of the 20th Century, the 3rd-century Temple of Mithras was discovered in 1954, after wartime bombing devastated the buildings above it and its foundations were later spotted by archaeologists. 

The discovery sparked huge public interest, attracting 30,000 people a day to queue up and view the site over a two-week period. 

Taken to pieces to make way for an office building, it was rebuilt ... “roughly and somewhat inaccurately”, according to Mola archaeologists ... in the 1960s around 100m away.

The museum housing the temple has also put on display hundreds of objects found during an archaeological dig on the site five years ago.

Sunday, December 19, 2021

STONEHENGE WAS BUILT ON SOLSTICE AXIS
BUT ONLY DUE TO ICE AGE FLUKE



FOR the first time, experts have found geological proof that the prehistoric builders of Stonehenge aligned it to the Solstice axis, and it has to do with an Ice Age "fluke" of terrain.

The discovery was made by accident during road work.

In what is described as a "missing piece in the jigsaw" in our understanding of one of the world's greatest prehistoric sites, excavations confirm the theory that its ancient processional route was built along an ice-age land form which was naturally on the solstice axis, according to Professor Mike Parker Pearson, a leading expert on Stonehenge.

The monument's original purpose still remains shrouded in mystery, but this is a dramatic clue, he said.

The route, known as the Avenue, extended 1.5 miles from the standing stones' north-eastern entrance to West Amesbury.

The discovery came only after the closure of a modern road which bisected the route, allowing archaeologists to excavate there for the first time.

Just below the modern road’s surface, they unearthed ditches dug by prehistoric builders.

Professor Parker Pearson identified naturally-occurring fissures that once lay between ridges which follow the route of the Avenue.

The ridges were created by Ice Age meltwater and naturally point directly at the mid-winter sunset in one direction and the mid-summer sunrise in the other.

Professor Parker Pearson is excited by the evidence, which he describes as "hugely significant".

"It tells us a lot about why Stonehenge was located where it is and why they were so interested in the solstices," he said.

"It's not to do with worshipping the sun, some kind of calendar or astronomical observatory.

"It's about how this place was special to prehistoric people. This natural land form happens to be on the solstice axis, which brings heaven and earth into one."

He explained that Stonehenge is "all about the solstices" and our ancestors could see this in the land.

Saturday, December 18, 2021

ANTINOUS IS THE 5TH MAGICAL SPIRIT
IN THIS PROFOUND WORK OF ART

By Our Priest Adriaan van den Berg





THIS new art work is by Miranda Baggins, who entitles it: "Antinous the Fifth Magical Spirit."

I think this truly invokes Antinous as a primal elementary deity. When he was filled with the seed of the Creator, as the Obelisk says, he was given access to the domains and command over the elements of fire, water, earth and air. 

But Miranda's notion that these elements are also unified in Antinous and that, as a deity, he represents a unified fifth element, is rather original and true to what he has become: a god not confined to narrow domains, to any exclusive or limited to being god of some bordered realm and with narrow explicit titles and prerogatives.

Other gods find alliances with him, other religions are easily linked to him and his faith, and he is extremely mutable, adaptable and has unique powers and abilities which it makes sense to see in terms of him having access, mastery and command over the four elements, of him being able to enter the elements as much as being able to become a vessel and a conduit for them, unifying and uniting them and having the awesome power of being able to thus become a fifth elemental magical deity, entity and power, a medium for all of the other four, but a superconductor that also fuses and elevates the four traditional magical elements into a super-state of harmonious unity and in whom new meaning is thus born ... a deity in a special state of grace comes forth ... and his is also a new and special potential and power and ability which I see manifest in the swirling haziness emanating and surrounding or dripping from his right hand and arm.

This involves Antinous gaining the power that each of the four basic elements represent.

And through the four elements he gains command over creation, over all matter and energy and command over the primordial media and all forms which the four elements comprise, command over their related energies and capability to manifest in and through each of them.

And Antinous gains the ability to elevate each element beyond matter, power and energy, but to transform it into the form of meaning and higher principles of magic in himself when he becomes the Fifth Super-Elemental Magical Spirit.

I like that Miranda used traditional aspects in her artwork such as the wreath and toga and armbands, but that she then rendered it in this otherworldly, ephemeral light and with the swirling energy.

The violet colour is an excellent choice since it is associated with the crown chakra in which the other chakras come together and through which they can be fed just as the four elements come together in and through Antinous with violet symbolizing and denoting Antinous the Fifth Magical spirit.

You know, Antinous is immediately also linked to all the beings, creatures and entities and other deities which call the different elements their realms.

It links him with the Creator God and with every human who has one of the elements associated with themselves astrologically. 

I am just so delighted with Miranda's Antinous art.

Ave Antinous!
Adriaan van den Berg
Priest of Antinous

Friday, December 17, 2021

JALALUDDIN RUMI
SAINT OF ANTINOUS


ON December 17th the Religion of Antinous celebrates the life of the Sufi mystic Jalaluddin Rumi who dedicated his life to the illumination he received through the love of another man.

The mystic lover and poet Jalaluddin Rumi, better known simply as Rumi, was united with his beloved on this day. 

Born in Afghanistan in 1207 CE, his family moved to Turkey while he was still young. 

In the city of Konya, not far from the Bithynian birthplace of Antinous, Jalaluddin Rumi established himself as a traditional Islamic teacher.

But then one day he met Shams-e-Tabriz, a wandering Sufi mystic. 

Shams set Jalaluddin free from worldly concern and revealed the inward love of god as expressed through music, poetry and the whirling dance that simultaneously confuses and centers the soul of one who spins.

When Shams mysteriously disappeared, Jalaluddin went in search of him, only to discover that Shams was within his own heart.

From that day forward, Jalaluddin Rumi became a profound teacher of mystic eloquence whose poetry refers to god as the Lover within. 

The homoerotic character of Jalaluddin Rumi's spirituality, referring both to his love for Shams and his love for god, has ingratiated him to gay men because of the depth and sensitivity and sacred intimacy that his words exude.

Jalaluddin Rumi and his Mevlevi Order are the last remnants of the Bithynian-Phrygian ecstasy cults of Dionysus and Attis, and they are distantly connected to the Religion of Antinous, through the mystical charge of homoerotic spirituality.

Jalaluddin Rumi expressed total love, proclaiming that all religions were one. And on the day of his funeral, his bier was followed by a procession made up of representatives from five different faiths.


We sanctify Jalaluddin Rumi as a Saint in the Religion of Antinous. He died on December 17th, 1234.

MARGUERITE YOURCENAR
IS A SAINT OF ANTINOUS



ON this day in 1987, Marguerite Yourcenar died.

She wrote the landmark Mémoires d'Hadrien (Hadrian's Memoirs), which is considered by many to be the finest historical novel of the last century.

It is through her literary genius that millions of people around the world have been drawn to the modern-day Religion of Antinous.

She truly is a saint of Antinous.

Thursday, December 16, 2021

A TRUE SAINT OF ANTINOUS:
GAY MAN GAVE LIFE TO SAVE OTHERS



A gay man's courage in the face of imminent death helped most hostages at his café in the heart of Sydney to escape ... though he paid for his bravery with his life.

Worshipers of Antinous in Australia and New Zealand have canonized Tori Johnson as a Saint of Antinous ... the first Saint of Antinous from Australia ... for wrestling a gunman to the ground ... giving a chance for others to flee to safety.

Tori, an openly gay man who had been with his partner Thomas Zinn for 14 years, was the manager of Lindt Chocolat Café in busy Martin Square in the heart of the financial district of Sydney on 16 December 2014. 

He was on duty when an Islamic radical held the staff and customers as hostages for 11 hours ... before Tori rushed him in order to permit the other hostages to flee to safety ... resulting in Tori's death.

Tori, 34, who was one of two persons killed during the Sydney siege, soon became a national symbol of heroism. Candlelight vigils along with statues and memorials have commemorated his selfless heroism for trying to snatch the weapon from the gunman to allow the other hostages to escape. 


His parents and his lover became the focus of a nation's grief and gratitude.

"We are so proud of our beautiful boy Tori, gone from this earth but forever in our memories as the most amazing life partner, son and brother we could ever wish for," the family said in a statement.

Friends of Tori described him as "a loving, placid and very gentle soul ... a true gentleman".

Co-workers said they were not the least bit surprised at his bravery.

"He was an amazing man," said Peter Manettas, who worked with Tori for nearly seven years. 

"He was a selfless person who always put staff above everyone," Manettas said. "He always put himself second."

Others spoke of his loving compassion for everyone, even strangers.

When Tori heard of a 6-year-old boy (photo at left) who had never eaten a candy Easter egg because of a rare food-allergy disorder, Tori invited the boy and his family to the café. 

He created a giant Easter egg made entirely of pure chocolate … one of the few foods that the boy could eat safely.

"My son still talks about it all the time," said the boy's mother, Mercedez Hinchcliff. "It taught him that some people do go out of their way for other people."

Tori Johnson is a true Saint of Antinous!