MULLED SPICED WINE MADE LIFE SWEETER FOR ROMAN SOLDIERS AT HADRIAN'S WALL

NEW research has revealed how life was made a little sweeter for the Roman troops patrolling Hadrian’s Wall ... with hot mulled wine and honey mead.

Examination of the pottery collections at English Heritage’s Corbridge Roman Town and Housesteads fort in Northumberland has shown that as well as beer and wine, mead was also made and drunk.

Mead is a beverage created by fermenting honey with water, sometimes with various fruits or spices, and is thought to be the world’s oldest alcoholic drink.

In an age without sugar, the natural sweetness of honey would have been a welcome change of tipple from beer and ... if it could be afforded ... imported wine.

Cameron Moffett, English Heritage collections curator who carried out the research, said: "English Heritage's collections from Wroxeter Roman Town in Shropshire and Hadrian's Wall shows that mead was being made in the Roman period in Britain. 

"Once wine started being imported honey was also used to make mulsum, a popular sweetened wine drink.

"There's evidence of mead being consumed thousands of years ago and it was the power drink of ancient Europe before wine-making had developed."

And Dr Frances McIntosh, English Heritage curator of Hadrian's Wall and the North East, said that jars for storage of honey and of mead and mulsum, plus specific lids which would have been sealed in place with wax, have been identified in the Corbridge and Housestead collections.

"Cameron’s research identified 15 stoppers used to seal the jars used to make mead and mulsum, and 21 bungs used to seal the flagons and jars for temporary transport of the liquids," she said.

"It was probably also the case at Roman bases on the Wall such as Chesters and Birdoswald. While wine had to be imported, the advantage of mead was that all the ingredients were to hand."

Today, with a revival of interest in a craft ales and drinks like gin, mead is also making a comeback.

It was also the drink of choice for Vikings, and was given to newlyweds on what is now known as their "honeymoon".

Cameron said: "We've also found evidence of mead being produced and stored at Tintagel Castle, Cornwall, in the 5th and 6th Centuries AD for use in great feasting events."

GEMINID METEOR SHOWER THIS WEEK MAY BE THE YEAR'S VERY BEST

AMAZING meteor shower this week! Go outside about 20:00 hours (8 p.m.) and look up to see the Geminids ... meteors shooting out of Gemini. The Geminid meteor shower appears every year about this time and is our best shooting star display, with more than 100 meteors appearing each hour. Sadly, if you live in the Northern Hemisphere the winter weather makes viewing bad. But if you are lucky enough to live in the Southern Hemisphere, you have a perfect view on a clear summer night!

HOW TO CULTIVATE THE PRESENCE OF ANTINOUS IN YOUR LIFE

AS priests, we often receive enquiries from people asking how they can be closer to Antinous ... but the answer is that Antinous continually whispers into your ear and comes to you in dream visions.

"It can be a momentary flash or a scent or a sensation," said our spiritual leader ANTONIUS SUBIA during ceremonies in Hollywood California.

"It is easy to dismiss these messages as just a figment of our imagination," he said in the ceremonies, which originated at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous and were shared globally via Skype with adherents across North America, Latin America and in Europe.

"But if we open our hearts, we can recognize these momentary flashes for what they are: Antinous is speaking to us," Antonius added.

"And the more we become accustomed to being receptive to these messages, the more Antinous speaks to us," he told the worldwide worshipers.

Antonius issued an appeal for worshipers of Antinous to become mindfully aware of "how Antinous is part of their daily life," he said.

"You have to come to the realization that you are not imagining this, but rather, that it is HOMOTHEOSIS ... Antinous speaking to you.

We can be more intentional with our relationship with Antinous than just waiting for him to come to us. There are many ways to cultivate his presence, from writing in a dream journal to repainting the living room to visiting with a particularly interesting friend or a place. 

Finding what inspires you and consciously cultivating it will give you access to allowing Antinous to communicate new ways of thinking and energy you did not know you had.

There are as many ways to find Antinoian inspiration as there are people looking for it. If you already know what inspires you, find a way to incorporate it into your life on a regular basis. 

If you aren't sure what inspires you, or if it has changed, take some time to think about it. When was the last time you felt the spark of your imagination? When was the last time you acted on an impulse that felt totally right?

When you are in the presence of what inspires you, Antinous taps us on the shoulder and whispers into your, "This is being truly ALIVE!" and you hear his inner guidance more clearly and you have the energy to follow his cues.

If it has been a while since you have been touched by inspiration, you may feel listless and dissatisfied. Know that you can turn things around by remembering what lights you up and bringing that into your life. 

CARDINAL ALESSANDRO ALBANI SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON December 11th the Religion of Antinous honors SAINT ALESSANDRO ALBANI, who was an Italian aristocrat and cardinal, and a collector and patron of the arts. 

It is largely thanks to Cardinal Albani that Antinous experienced a resurgence of interest in the 18th Century which continues to this day.

It is also believed that Albani secretly worshiped the Beauteous Boy as a gay god.

Albani became a trend-setter and an arbiter of taste. Albani, whose sexuality was ambivalent, and the openly gay Winkelmann more or less single-handedly launched a craze throughout the European aristocracy for Classical art.

When he was 29, by special dispensation from his uncle Pope Clement XI, Alessandro Albani was made a Cardinal, although he had never been a priest or member of a lower order. 

Indeed, he would have preferred to pursue a military career. But chronic eye problems, which eventually resulted in total blindness in old age, convinced him to take up his uncle's generous offer.

He is said to have been a continuing cause of great concern to his uncle, due to his worldly and irreligious obsessions, first among these his passion for art.

Cardinal Albani used his vast wealth to collect Classical art, and to patronize artists of his day, such as Anton Raphael Mengs, and the "Father of Archaeology" Johann Joachim Winckelmann, who was an open homosexual.

The art collection of Cardinal Albani contained an extraordinary number of statues of Antinous, and these were studied by Winckelmann, who had taken up residence in the sprawling and very lavish Villa Albani outside of Rome (pictured at left).

And Antinous was the pre-eminent example of male beauty in Classical art. Every aristocrat in Europe wanted a statue or Antinous. And monarchs such as Frederick the Great of Prussia (who never married and favored intimate friendships with males) sent out experts to find statues of Antinous.

Thus, the science of archaeology was born largely through a desire by aristocrats to furnish their palaces with the sort of Antinous-style Classical art which Albani had made fashionable.

By the time he died on December 11th in the year 1779, it was rumored that Cardinal Albani, along with his intimate friends Winckelmann and neo-classicist painter Anton Mengs, had been secret worshippers of Antinous and Priapus.

It was asserted that they reinstated the religion of the Beloved Boy as a kind of underground cult along with other, unnamed persons.

For this reason, though based largely on rumor, Cardinal Alessandro Albani is sanctified as a Saint of the Religion of Antinous.

Although he was a Cardinal of the Catholic Faith, he may in fact have been the first High Priest of Antinous since the extermination of the ancient religion 1,300 years before.

Albani's secret cult ... assuming it truly existed ... is the only known predecessor since ancient times to the current Religion of Antinous.

ANTONIUS SUBIA SHOWS YOU HOW TO MAKE ANTINOUS PRAYER BEADS

THERE are Catholic rosary beads, Eastern Orthodox beads, Swedish Lutheran Frälserkransen beads, Islamic prayer beads, Buddhist meditation beads, Hindu japa mala beads and even Wiccan prayer beads ... now several adherents of Antinous are designing prayer beads.

This photo shows Antinous Prayer Beads designed and created by Antonius Subia. Click here to read how he hand-crafted the FLAMEN ANTONIUS SUBIA PRAYER BEADS.

Priests Uendi and Hernestus also have created their own special prayer beads ... very different in design and function from Antonius Subia's beads.

Priest Hernestus calls his the "Antinous Moon Magic" beads and describes them in full detail HERE.

They consist of 52 beads symbolizing the 52 primary annual lunar phases, each of which represents a specific archetypal spirit in Antinous Moon Magic (photo at left).

In addition, there are some 30 additional beads representing various major "Saints of Antinous" and "Blessed Souls of Antinous."

There are also has beads for what Hernestus calls his "Sorgenkinder" (German for "special needs children") ... beads for persons or situations which require urgent spiritual attention.

Priest Julien's beads have a unique flavor all their own and he uses them in his daily meditations and prayers (photo below right).

Many other modern-day Antinous adherents have created their own Antinous Prayer Beads.

You can construct a set of prayer beads with a variety of themes and use them in rituals to express your particular beliefs and spiritual interests.

Let's look at ideas for two different types of Pagan prayer beads. The first  set is a devotional one that honors the elements, the changing seasons, and the phases of the moon. The second pays tribute to Antinous.

You will need:

• Beads in colors representing ASPECTS OF ANTINOUS you treasure
• Beads that symbolize some of the attributes of the deity
• Spacer beads in color of your choice
• Beading wire or string

Sort your beads and arrange them so they for a pattern that you like. You may want to try different patterns and designs and see which feels right for you.

Once you have your beads aligned the way you like them, string them on the beading wire and knot it securely. To use your beads in ritual, assign a prayer or short devotional to each bead. As you count them, recite the prayers.

For some more great ideas on how to construct and use Antinous prayer beads, read Donald L. Engstrom-Reese's excellent essay at We Are Walking in Beauty.

Here is a stunning set of Antinous Prayer Beads created by a modern-day adherent of the Most Great and Good God Antinous … Angelo Louis Montiserrat:

ANTINOUS GUADALUPE AND THE MIRACLE OF THE PINK LOTUSES

THE Day of the Virgin of Guadalupe (Día de la Virgen de Guadalupe) is a Catholic feast that celebrates the belief that a man encountered the Virgin Mary, Mexico's patron saint, in Mexico City on December 9 and 12, 1531.

It was said that she was the reincarnation of the Aztec goddess Tonantzin.

Born on the banks of the Rio Grande between the US and Mexico, Antonius Subia was inspired to paint this portrait of Antinous as Guadalupe. 

Antonius says:

I told them I had seen Antinous on the hilltop but they didn't believe me, something about drugs and alcohol and that I am a Mexican, and must be delusional.

So I let my poncho unfold and pink lotus flowers fell to the floor and behold there was a miraculous image of ANTINOUS on my poncho, by no means painted by human hands!

"Rebuild my Temple, Antonius," he said to me in Nahuatl.

~ANTONIUS SUBIA

MARTIN CAMPBELL'S HISTORICAL NOVEL 'QUEEN JULIUS CAESAR' IS A TRIUMPH

LOOKING for a holiday gift? We can most assuredly say that, if you loved THE LOVE GOD, Martin Campbell's historical novel about the life of Antinous ... now you must read his new novel about the early life of Julius Caesar entitled "Queen Julius Caesar" ... now available in Kindle and paperback. ORDER HERE! 

This meticulously researched book (with 40 pages of glossary and appendices) is a fast-paced page-turner with swashbuckling pirates, orgies and political intrigue. And it has already spawned pre-publication controversy with its provocative title and the tag-line "Rome's greatest ruler was bisexual." 

But far more interestingly, Campbell shows how a cocky, privileged young Patrician, accustomed to getting his way, is forced through adversity and deprivation ... and the intervention of Eastern potentates ... to develop the qualities of character that will make him a great leader.

Along the way, he parlays physical and emotional disabilities (epilepsy, obsessive-compulsive tendencies and self-injury to allay emotional pain) into strengths which will enable him to outwit and outmaneuver his adversaries.

His lessons begin at sea on a galley loaded with gold when pirates commandeer his vessel and hold him for ransom. Cunningly, he informs his captors the ransom is too low, and he finagles and entraps the pirates.

Another man in such a hopeless and helpless situation would give up. But Campbell skillfully shows how Caesar used his wits and his obsessive-compulsive discipline and determination not only to save himself and his adjutants, but also to emerge victorious and to exact cruel vengeance which would earn Caesar a place in the history books as a man not to be trifled with. 

In addition, in Campbell's brilliant historical novel, 20-year-old Caesar's education in leadership comes in the arms (literally) of Nicomedes IV, king of Bithynia, and his consort Nysa. 

Prudish Victorian historians quibbled over the three-way relationship. But Julius Caesar's own troops lustily chanted: "Gallias Caesar subegit, Caesarem Nicomedes," (Caesar laid the Gauls low, Nicomedes laid Caesar low). Hence, the title of this book!

Campbell shows how young Julius Caesar observed the way Nicomedes charmed and coaxed and coerced his courtiers and his naval and land forces into doing his will ... without having to resort to blunt force in the traditional Roman way.

By the end of this at once charming and illuminating book, the reader has accompanied Julius Caesar from bumptious adolescence to manhood as a mature leader who can meet ... and defeat ... anything or anybody who gets in his way.

Through it all, the goddess Minerva provides off-stage asides to the reader in the tradition of the chorus in a Classical stage comedy.

Campbell is working on two more novels ... and we can't wait!

'THE LOVE GOD' BY MARTIN CAMPBELL IS A BRILLIANT NOVEL ABOUT ANTINOUS

THE most brilliant novel about Antinous to appear in over half a century ... THE LOVE GOD ... is authored by our own MARTINUS CAMPBELL, priest of Antinous.

While that sounds like biased praise, we Antinomaniacs are hard to please and would not hesitate to pick apart a poorly researched book or one that denigrated Antinous, even if it were written by one of our best friends ... perhaps especially if it were. 

At the same time, a sycophantic book that presented Antinous as being cloyingly sweet and angelic would be unbearable and not believable.

So we are gratified (and greatly relieved) to report that this book truly is a remarkable work of historical fiction right up there with Marguerite Yourcenar's landmark MEMOIRS OF HADRIAN 60 years ago.

Martin traces the life of Antinous from the moment his tousle-haired head emerges from his mother's womb under auspicious stars in Asia Minor to the moment his head sinks beneath the swirling waters of the Nile on a starry evening in Egypt.

Antinous comes to life as a young man of breath-taking beauty who is filled with conflicting passions and loyalties. He is a young man who at times is naive, yet at other times worldly wise with an ability to see the world as it is ... and to describe it with at times brutal honesty to the most powerful man in the world.

Above all, this is a gentle love story between Antinous and Emperor Hadrian, himself a man of contradictory passions and priorities.

Martin himself is a man shares these passions. He has rebounded from a series of debilitating strokes to resume a daunting array of political activism for LGBTIU health and rights issues ... while working on this novel.

Based in a hilltop home overlooking the sea in Brighton England, he spent the best part of a decade researching this novel, retracing the footsteps of Antinous across Greece and Italy, as far north as Hadrian's Wall and as far south as the Nile in Upper Egypt.

Historical facts are excruciatingly accurate ... even the positions of the stars and planets at the moment of the birth of Antinous have been calculated to precision.

An academic scholar can read this book with satisfaction, noting obscure and arcane references which only the experts in the field of Antinology fully appreciate.

At the same time, however, this is a fun book to read even for those who have never heard of Antinous in their lives and who have no firm grasp of Roman civilization in the 2nd Century AD.

There is intrigue, skulduggery, near-death by lightning, getting lost in a subterranean labyrinth, a storm at sea, earthquakes ... and some fairly hot man sex as well, albeit tastefully brought to the page.

The narrator is the Classical Love God himself: Eros. He shoots his amorous arrows and ensures that Antinous and Hadrian fulfill the destiny which the Fates have in store for them ... despite efforts by certain people in the Imperial Court to thwart the Fates.

But the genius of this book is that there are no black-and-white villains or heroes. Antinous is a young man with all the problems and drives of late adolescence. Hadrian is a man with a mid-life crisis of doubt and regret.

Others such as Empress Sabina and her constant companion Julia Balbilla and their coterie of fawning courtiers and freedmen are not really hateful towards Antinous so much as they are simply perplexed by him. 

They view him the way some members of the Royal Household might look at the favorite Corgi of the Queen, unable to comprehend her affection for it, her grief when it dies.

They whisper amongst themselves: What hold does Antinous have over Hadrian? 

Just who does he think he is? And is he a threat to them? 

What is so different about Antinous that Hadrian doesn't grow weary of him ... as he always has with previous toy boys? 

Because they cannot understand how he fits in the scheme of Imperial court life, some really rather wish he would just disappear ... voluntarily or otherwise. 

And through it all is the boyhood friend of Antinous who has accompanied him on this long journey with mixed feelings and with growing envy and jealousy. 

The boiling emotions all stem from Eros, who winks knowingly at the reader as he shoots one arrow after another with unerring accuracy to ensure that Antinous fulfills his destiny ... to take his place alongside Eros as a God of Love.

The result is a richly entertaining and beautifully written novel which  appeals to those seeking authoritative scholarly accuracy as well as readers who just want a riveting and memorable adventure yarn.

The Love God is available as Kindle and as a paperback ... CLICK HERE to order.

NEFERTITI SURVIVED THE FALL OF EGYPT AND EVEN THE FALL OF THE 3RD REICH

AN alluring mystery has surrounded this famous bust of Nefertiti since its discovery on December 6, 1912, incredibly intact and sporting vibrant colours, after lying in forgotten in the sands since the tumultuous days at the close of the reign of Pharaoh Akhenaton, one of the most enigmatic rulers of all time.

It was found by a German archaeologist in the ruins of a sculptor's house at Tell el-Amarna ... 20 km south of ANTINOOPOLIS.

In 1913, the Ottoman Empire agreed to allow its finders, part-time German-Jewish archaeologist and full-time entrepreneur James Simon and his Prussian colleague Ludwig Borchardt, to retain possession of the bust.

The simmering controversy between Egypt and Germany boiled over anew when a German news magazine printed excerpts from documents which allegedly indicated Borchardt deliberately used subterfuge to "smuggle" the bust out of Egypt. 

The documents are not new to scholars, however, who say Borchardt and Simon did not need to be devious. 

Instead, the Ottoman Empire officials simply failed to appreciate the artistic value of the artefact.

Despite persistent rumors that Borchardt and Simon smuggled out the bust under a coating of mud, the plain truth of the matter is that Ottoman authorities failed to recognize the bust as a masterpiece. In those days, the stark style of the Amarna Period was not viewed to be as valuable as more traditional styles of other periods.

Borchardt and Simon, however, immediately recognized the bust's appeal to European tastes for Art Nouveau and other post-Victorian styles. They did indeed breathe a sigh of relief when the Ottoman authorities blindly gave their stamp of approval to their request for removal from Egypt.

Borchardt and Simon carted it off to Europe where Simon displayed Nefertiti prominently in his home in Berlin before later lending it to the Berlin museum and finally donating it in 1920 to the Berlin collection.

The discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922 spawned an Egypto-mania craze as well as the Art Deco style.

King Tut's treasures flaunted the "decadent" style of the late 18th Dynasty, and Nefertiti suddenly was a fashion trend-setter.

Crowds flocked to the Berlin museum in to see Nefertiti and shame-faced Egyptian authorities realized they had made a ghastly mistake a decade earlier.

"They suddenly realized that this bust, which had been dismissed as 'un-Egyptian' in 1913, was in fact one of the most exquisite examples of Egyptian art," the Berliner Zeitung newspaper quoted one expert as saying.

In 1933 the Egyptian government demanded Nefertiti's return - the first of many such demands over the decades to come. One of the many titles Hermann Goering held was premier of Prussia (which included Berlin) and, acting in that capacity, Goering suggested to King Fouad I of Egypt that Nefertiti would soon be back in Cairo.

But Hitler had other plans. Through the ambassador to Egypt, Eberhard von Stohrer, Hitler informed the Egyptian government that he was an ardent fan of Nefertiti:

"I know this famous bust," the fuehrer wrote. "I have viewed it and marvelled at it many times. Nefertiti continually delights me. The bust is a unique masterpiece, an ornament, a true treasure!"

Hitler said Nefertiti had a place in his dreams of rebuilding Berlin and renaming it Germania.

"Do you know what Im going to do one day? I'm going to build a new Egyptian museum in Berlin," Hitler went on.

"I dream of it. Inside I will build a chamber, crowned by a large dome. In the middle, this wonder, Nefertiti, will be enthroned. 

"I will never relinquish the head of the Queen," Hitler vowed. 

(Cartoon by ALLYSTERIO)

While he did not mention it at the time, Hitler envisioned more for the museum. There was to be an even larger hall of honour, with a bust of Hitler.

It was rumoured immediately after World War II that Hitler had commissioned a copy of the bust for possible handover to the Egyptians after a Nazi victory. 

American Allied art experts claimed they found two wooden crates in a salt mine south of Berlin where the German capital's museum art treasures had been placed by the Germans for safekeeping during bombing raids. The two crates allegedly contained identical Nefertiti busts.

But in post-war confusion, one of the crates got lost. The whereabouts of the "other Nefertiti" are unknown - assuming it ever existed to start with. 

From time to time over the years, there have been reports suggesting that the fake bust survived and that the genuine bust is lost. A recent documentary on Germany's ZDF television network revived that theory.

But a series of new CT scans come to the rescue. 

They prove once and for all that the bust on view in Berlin is indeed genuine. 

Whether there ever was a duplicate is now a moot point.

The exquisite limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti forms the focal point of the Berlin collection, which ranks among the top two or three collections in the world outside Egypt itself.

The British Museum, the Louvre in Paris and the Metropolitan in New York are the only chief rivals to Berlin's collection, which spans all eras from the pre-Dynastic period all the way through to Roman times.

Hitler's dreams of a monolithic new Egyptian museum never materialized. Hitler and his mad dreams are long dead. But Nefertiti continues to smile serenely. As she has for 3,300 years. As if to say, this too shall pass. And I shall endure.

MEET SANTA'S HELPERS KRAMPUS AND ANTINOUS/APOLLO

EVER wonder about the origin of Santa's reindeer? They echo Pan, satyrs and fauns who had their own festival in December.

December 5th and 6th is the ancient Roman feast of the Faunalia ... which ironically is still celebrated in Europe and Latin America by millions of children ... who get a visit from Santa and his horned helpers.

Millions of kiddies know that you put your shoe outside the door on the evening of December 5th and that St. Nicholas will fill it goodies on December 6th ... the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.

Children who have been good receive sweets and toys ... but children who have been naughty are punished by St. Nick's furry helpers.

What few people realize is that old St. Nick is related to Antinous/Apollo ... and his helpers are Pan and his hordes of satyrs and fauns.

The pagan history shows that St. Nicholas is a vastly more complex being than most Christians could imagine, stemming from the Temples of Apollo and Artemis in Asia Minor (the birth country of Antinous) which would later be the birthplace of the mythical Nicholas.

The truth is that when you see a department store Santa, you are seeing only a composite being whose multitudinous composite aspects (many of them very dark and spooky) trace their origins back to the beginnings of mankind.

If you look very, very carefully, you will see the face of Antinous/Apollo shining through the centuries of folk customs under a variety of names including Santa, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

In some parts of Central  Europe, St. Nick goes from house to house on December 6th accompanied by a coterie that includes figures resembling Pan, Apollo and Artemis (Austrian Alps photo right).

 The legend of St. Nicholas begins in the Turkish town of Patara in Asia Minor which was also the birth land of Antinous. Patara was also the birth place of Apollo and a famous oracle was located there.

Apollo's sister Artemis also had a cult center in nearby Myra, where Nicholas grew up and allegedly became a "bishop." Myra's main cult was dedicated to Artemis Eleuthera, a distinctive form of Cybele, the ancient mother-goddess of Anatolia. She had a magnificent temple in Myra.

Unfortunately, St. Nicholas was zealous in his duties as bishop and took strong measures against paganism. The temple of Artemis and the Apollo oracle were among many other temples in the region that he destroyed. It is said that the very foundations were uprooted from the ground, so complete was its destruction, "and the evil spirits fled howling before him".

St. Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Church. He simply usurped the popularity of Artemis and Apollo and promoted his own reputation for being a protector and a giver of good things.

Antinous/Apollo more or less morphed into Old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

And in a lot of places, Santa has several dark and scary sidekicks — all related to Pan, who also originated in Asia Minor.

In the Alps, Santa's helpers take the form of a demonized Pan who chases and abducts children who have been naughty. He is called Krampus and, thanks to the Internet, Krampus is becoming widely known in English-speaking countries.

In the Nordic and English version, of course, all that is left of Krampus with his horns and hooves and fur is the reindeer which accompany Santa's sleigh. 

In Holland, St. Nick is accompanied on December 5th/6th by a Moorish youth wearing a turban and a fur-trimmed costume called Svarte Piet, who delights in teasing naughty children.

In English-speaking countries, prudish Victorians stripped Santa of all his impish devilry. Santa is nice to all and punishes no one. 

In Europe, Santa's Dark Side still prowls — marches defiantly, in fact. In a way, the Anglo-American Santa Claus was lobotomized by the Victorians so that he is only docile and sweet-humoured.

But to understand the REAL Santa Claus, you have to understand his Darker Side. You have to understand where Santa is coming from, literally....

He is composite spirit being who in English-speaking countries is called St. Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

But the deeper you go back into the forests of Europe, the more differentiated this ancient being becomes so that you see his various  component parts — including Antinous-Apollo — all competing against each other — sometimes morphing into each other.

A VOYAGE TO PARADISE WITH ANTINOUS ABOARD HIS CELESTIAL BARQUE

ALL those who believe in Antinous the Gay God hold a ticket for the Barque of Millions of Years. We will all be together, making our way towards the unseen Dark Star. This is a journey to paradise with Antinous...he will circle the Sun until the last one of us has boarded..and then we will set forth away into interstellar space until we reach his unseen star...which is a gateway to other worlds beyond.

Todos aqueles que acreditam em Antinous, o Deus Gay, têm um bilhete para o Barque de Milhões de Anos. Estaremos todos juntos, fazendo o nosso caminho rumo à Estrela Negra invisível. Esta é uma viagem ao paraíso com Antinous ... ele circundará o Sol até que o último de nós tenha embarcado ... e então iremos para o espaço interestelar até chegar à sua estrela invisível ... que é uma porta de entrada para Outros mundos além.

Todos los que creen en Antinous el Dios Gay tienen un boleto para la Barca de Millones de Años. Estaremos todos juntos, haciendo nuestro camino hacia la Estrella Oscura invisible. Esto es un viaje al paraíso con Antinous ... él circundará el Sol hasta que el último de nosotros ha abordado ... y entonces partiremos lejos en el espacio interestelar hasta que alcancemos su estrella invisible ... que es una entrada a Otros mundos más allá.

~ANTONIUS SUBIA

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

THE 3rd of December is the Feast of the Going Forth of the Netjeru from Abydos (site of the Tomb of Osiris) in Egypt which we commemorate because Antinous has always been equated with Osiris as deity of transcendence over death. 

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

MARQUIS de SADE SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON December 2nd, the Religion of Antinous honors the Marquis de Sade for being the first person since ancient times to proclaim publicly his adoration of the beauty of Antinous.

The Marquis de Sade was himself probably what we would nowadays call ambi-sexual. At any rate, homosexual activity is an important item in his program of revolutionary sexual libertinism.

The Comte Donatien-Alphonse-François de Sade, more often called the Marquis de Sade, lent his name to the complex psycho-sexual phenomenon of "sadism" ... that is, the derivation of pleasure from cruelty through inflicting physical pain, mental suffering, or both.

To this day, "sadism" (which was named for him) is a provocative term which turns off conventional-minded people ... and turns on those other people who are into Fetish, BDSM and the many other related fields of sexual endeavour.

Yet there is more to Sade's writings than sadism -- the term coined by Krafft-Ebing in his "Psychopathia Sexualis" (1876). For running  throughout the Sadean oeuvre of plays, stories, essays, novellas, and letters ... and often overlapping with the most calculated outrages of his obscene novels ... is a philosophical discourse on freedom, power, evil and desire.

Donatien Alphonse Francois de Sade was born June 2, 1740, in Paris, France. The Marquis grew up in the decadent excesses of pre-revolution France's aristocracy.

Sade's father, for instance, was arrested while "cruising" the Tuileries Gardens for male hustlers. Throughout most of his life, the Marquis pursued bizarre forms of sexual gratification, he was arrested for his excesses numerous times and spent several periods of time imprisoned.

In 1772, he was sentenced to death as a "sodomite." Though the sentence was lifted in 1776, he was imprisoned for many years. Early in July 1789, as mobs rallied for the revolution, he screamed to the masses from his cell window in the Bastille, telling them that the prisoners were being slaughtered by the guards on orders of the aristocracy. 

The mob subsequently freed him, but the cloud of immorality never lifted and he died broken in mind and body.

And yet it was his imprisonment which resulted in his literary legacy. While serving that sentence in the Bastille, he began to turn his extreme imagination towards writing books and plays, which are a summit of erotic poetry.

It is from these works that the word Sadism is derived because the philosophy of sexual violence and domination was delineated and demonstrated for the first time by the Marquis in his numerous and detailed catalogues of perversions.

One of these works, entitled "The 120 Days of Sodom" was written  while in the Bastille. When the prison was stormed during the French Revolution, many of the works of the Marquis de Sade were lost, including this work. It was miraculously rediscovered in 1904, rolled up in the frame of a bed, and subsequently published.

We consecrate the memory of the Marquis de Sade because he was a sexual revolutionary, who spoke quite openly about homosexuality, and who freely acknowledged that his valet Latour was his personal sodomizer.

And he was among the first to take up the name of Antinous for beauty and homoerotic purposes, naming one of the characters in "The 120 Days of Sodom" after Antinous, describing him in this way:

"Antinous: so named because, like Hadrian's favorite, he had, together with the world's loveliest prick, its most voluptuous ass, and that is exceedingly rare. Antinous wielded a device measuring eight inches in circumference and twelve in length. He was thirty and had a face worthy of his other features."

The Marquis de Sade died December 2, 1814, in Charenton Insane Asylum.

THE NEW STAR OF ANTINOUS

ON December 1st we remember the day in 1999 when a New Star was discovered in the Constellation of Antinous ... a celestial portent for the rebirth of the religion of Antinous in the 21st Century.

It reminded us of that dark night 1,800 years ago when grief-stricken Hadrian looked up into the heavens with tearful eyes and saw a new star in what had until then been the Constellation of Ganymede.

Hadrian proclaimed it the STAR OF ANTINOUS and renamed the constellation after Antinous. 

Flamen Antonius Subia sees parallels to the new discovery which coincides with the re-establishment of the Religion of Antinous for the new Millennium and writes:

"In 1999 on December 1st, a Super Nova was discovered in the constellation Aquila, visible with the naked eye. It was confirmation that the ancient celestial event criticized by Dio Cassius as a lie might indeed have occurred, prompting Hadrian to redraw the map of the constellations and include Antinous among the immortal heroes of antiquity. 

"This new star named by astronomers Nova Aquilae v1492 was a sign of the return of Antinous in the modern age. It was a signal to begin the reconsecration of His sacred religion. 

"The light of this new star passed over the face of the Earth, illuminating the hearts of all those who believe in him, effecting change and demonstrating those whose eyes were directed towards the heavens that the voice of Antinous was beckoning, and the time to revive his religion had finally come, after so many centuries of silence.

"With this sign from Antinous we are compelled, out of love to inflame ourselves for his sake and to spread the light of the New Star to the world."