LOOKING ANTINOUS IN THE EYE

THE understanding of HOMOTHEOSIS ... Gay-Man-Godliness-Becoming-The-Same ...  is one of the most dangerous things in the world. 

And for a person who cannot contain it, it's like putting a million volts through your smart phone. You blow your mind and it stays blown ... I am God ... God is me. 

Now, if you go off in that way, you easily misunderstand what the Religion of Antinous is all about because, from the standpoint of Antinous the Gay God, there is no fundamental difference between the spiritual world and this everyday world. 

HOMOTHEOSIS isn't about drifting off into dream land and never coming back. It isn't about going off into some ego-driven "I am God" delusion. It is about living ordinary everyday life to help other beings to see clearly too ... to look Antinous in the eye ... in the eyes of all gays.

You don't do this out of some sort of solemn duty to help mankind and all that kind of pseudo-pious nonsense. You do it because you see the two worlds are the same. You see all other gays as Antinous.

As G.K. Chesterton writes, "But now a great thing in the street, seems any human nod, where move in strange democracies the million masks of god."

And it's fantastic to look at people and see that they really, deep down, are divine ... They're faces of Antinous the Gay God.

And they look at you, and they say, "Oh no, but I'm not divine. I'm just ordinary little me."

You look at them in a funny way, and here you see Antinous looking out of their eyes, straight at you ... but saying he's not Antinous ... and saying it quite sincerely.

And that's why, when you meet someone like Flamen Antonius Subia for the first time he has a funny look in his eyes.

When you say, "I have a problem, Antonius. I'm really mixed up, I don't understand Homotheosis," he looks at you in this queer way.

And you think, "Oh my God, he's reading my most secret thoughts. He's seeing all the awful things I am, all my cowardice, all my shortcomings."

But he isn't doing anything of the kind. He isn't even interested in such things. He's looking at Antinous the Gay God looking back at him through your eyes. He is looking at Antinous and saying, "Oh my God, Antinous, who are you trying to fool?"

AS HADRIAN VISITED MEMPHIS THE SPIRIT OF ANTINOUS WAS WITH VENUS URANIA

AS Hadrian visited the city of Memphis in spring of 131 AD, the spirit of Antinous had journeyed to the heavens, having crossed the darkness of the Saturnine Sphere.  

Antinous reached the shore of Venus Urania, the goddess of celestial love, who had arisen from the severed testicles of Uranus.  

Plato revealed that it was from Venus Urania that gay love arose, which he called celestial love, the highest form of love.  

Antinous ascended from the earthly realm to the sphere of Celestial Love, where Venus Urania ignited the flame of Homotheosis within his heart, aligning him with the semen of the first god Atum-Phanes, the cosmic Narcissus.  

Venus embraced Antinous as her son giving him the power of love and beauty making him the new HomoEros from whom Homotheosis flows.  

We Antinoans praise our mother Venus who gave us the blessing of being gay, of being Uranian, in whom celestial love and Homotheosis blossom like a pink lotus flower, from the semen of the first god within our hearts. 

AVE VENUS URANIA

NOW THERE IS AN OBELISK OF ANTINOUS ON THE NORTH AMERICAN CONTINENT

YOU all know of the ANTINOUS OBELISK in Rome ... there is also an Antinous Obelisk in North America.

On Monday, April 11, 2017, a cenotaph obelisk inscribed with Antinous' name and dates was erected by an Antinous adherent in the Congressional Cemetery in Washington DC. 

It is thought to be the only cemetery with a LGBT section. 

Above is a picture of the grave of Leonard Matlovich under the blooming cherry tree. If you should visit Leonard's grave and turn around, directly behind you you will see the obelisk in the second picture. 

Take the short walk to the obelisk and you will see the name of Antinous and his dates inscribed on the fifth niche down from the top. 

The Antinous worshiper's name, James Crawford, is on the plate as well as that of Henry Moses III, a saint of Antinous, whose urn is within the niche. 

The names of two other gay men immortalized on this cenotaph are covered over out of respect for their wishes. 

Antinous is now inscribed on an obelisk on the North American continent. 

The landscaping has not been completed because the installation just occurred yesterday. 

If you are ever in Washington, DC, and intend to visit the very historic and interesting Congressional Cemetery, you might want to stop by and give a remembrance to our Antinous.

APOLLONIUS AND PHILEMON SAINTS AND MARTYRS OF ANTINOUS

AS the fires of intolerance under the guise of "freedom of religion" rage all around us, we remember St. Apollonius and St. Philemon of Antinoopolis, two loving friends who died together as martyrs to religious persecution.
 
Antinoopolis was built upon the bank where Antinous had fallen into the Nile. From its birth the city was enshrouded with the specter of death.

The Religion of Antinous under the Curia of Antinoopolis was a death cult. The city's two major temples, that of the Egyptian faction and the larger Antinoeion which is the second possible site of the Lost Tomb of Antinous, were places for the perpetual lamentation of the death of Antinous, and for the passing of all beauty and youth in the world.

Antinoopolis was the flower of Greek civilization deep in the desert of the Thebaid, and it was a haven for dispossessed and exiled thinkers and theological revolutionaries of all sorts. But there came a time when even liberal-minded Antinoopolis fell under the sway of the fear and violence that had swept across the world.

The Christian faith was suffering one of the bloodiest persecutions in its history. In the 4th Century CE, as Antinoopolis was in full flower, Emperor Diocletian had sought to curb the rising tide of Christianity with brutal violence. He issued decrees that all citizens should be compelled to demonstrate their piety to the Roman Gods by offering sacrifice. It was a direct challenge.

Any person who refused was not only insulting the Gods of Rome, but also showing disloyalty to the Emperor and to Rome herself. Such treason was punishable by death. This was a legal way to persecute Christians. It was not an attack on the Christian doctrine, or its practices, but demonstrated an unavoidable line that no Christian would cross.

It is interesting to note that, although many of the Christians were executed by beheading or by being shot through with arrows, some were executed by being drowned in the Nile. This similarity between their deaths and the death of Antinous must have been very moving to the Ancient Priests of Antinous.

And it is also curious that the authorities apparently were not sensitive to the nature of this form of execution in the sacred city of a boy who had become a god simply by drowning in the Nile.

Of these Martyrs, the most profoundly moving are Apollonius and Philemon. Apollonius was a Deacon of the Church, also called a reader. The story goes that he was ordered to make a pagan sacrifice at Antinoopolis in order to prove that he was not a practicing Christian. He couldn't bring himself to do that, so he asked his "dearest friend" Philemon to make the sacrifice for him, since Philemon was a pagan.

Philemon is said to have been a flute player, an occupation notoriously held by homosexuals. While one was a young Christian priest and the other a pagan, it is indeed noteworthy that Apollonius the priest would have the confidence and trust to ask Philemon to take his place, and that Philemon would risk his life to aid the young priest. The two must have had a very close friendship, the nature of which has escaped the attention of the Christian martyrologists.


In the end, of course, the ruse was found out and they both died together by being drowned after the manner of Antinous, in the Nile.

One key element of the story is the irrefutable fact that Philemon, though not a Christian himself, refused under torture to renounce his friendship. In other words, he would rather die with his friend than renounce him and live on without him.

The details of the story of their martyrdom are shrouded in legend. In one version, they were tortured separately and were to be executed by archers.

But the story goes that the arrows bounced off their bodies. And in one version, an arrow point ricocheted back at Arian himself, blinding him in one eye.

Saint Philemon predicted that, after his martyrdom, Arian would be healed at Philemon's tomb on condition that he became a Christian. Arian did so, was cured miraculously -- and subsequently was put to death himself for being a Christian.

After arrows failed to kill them, Apollonius and Philemon, bloody but alive, were chained together and placed in a sack and thrown into the river. In one version, they were thrown into the sea at Alexandria.

Their deaths occurred on April 10th in the year 305.

What would cause a man to link his fate with that of another man, the two of them residents of a city founded in honor of a man who linked his fate with that of another man?

As for Apollonius, he must have been regarded as a rebellious hothead and self-destructive with his talk about this martyred Hebrew carpenter boy being an alternative to Antinous -- right there in the Sacred City of Antinoopolis!

What thoughts went through Philemon's mind as he was being bound up in chains together with his beloved friend and they were shoved into the river?

They probably weren't very nice men. Remember that actor/musicians were considered scum in ancient Rome. One was an actor and the other was a rabble-rousing religious fanatic. Not nice men.

Theirs was not a very pretty story. But then, few of the saints of any religious canon were very "sweet and nice" people to actually be around. "Nice" people obey the rules. "Nice" people obey the rules.

These people did not. They stood up against authority and convention. And their life stories generally are not very pretty.

But most of us are not very "sweet and nice" people, once you get past the smiling exteriors that most of us present to neighbors and co-workers. Most of our life stories are not particularly very pretty.

But "nice" people with pretty life stories don't become saints. Most saints are usually just ordinary people who were placed in an extraordinary situation and who did something extraordinary as a result. We read the lives of the saints because they shock us into facing the reality of our own not very nice selves and our own not very pretty little lives.

It is very fitting and appropriate that we remember Philemon and Apollonius, two friends from the Sacred City of Antinoopolis whose lives were linked by bonds of love and whose deaths were linked by bonds of chains.

WE HONOR VASLAV NIJINSKY SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON April 8th the Religion of Antinous honors St. Vaslav Nijinsky, the greatest gay ballet dancer/choreographer of all time, who died on this day in 1950 in an insane asylum.

He was a living Antinous who innately understood our religion's idea of Homotheosis ... Gay-Man-Godliness-Becoming-the-Same.

Homotheosis can only be accomplished by a self-inflicted act of faith after the example of Antinous. 

One must deny this mortal existence of death and decay, which existence is rightfully called transient, and cast the mortal self into the rushing waters of the Nile that flows within the veins and arteries of our true, perfect, interior self. A body that is the same as and as beautiful as the marble flesh of Antinous the Gay God. 

This is not turning away from life, but turning to it for the very first  time, and finding the light of the Unconquered Sun that has always shone within.

One of this religion's favorite Hadrian and Antinous stories is the tumultuous love affair between Vaslav Nijinsky and Sergei Diaghilev. Nijinsky completely changed ballet, inventing what we now consider to be modern dance. Of course he was out of his mind, and after his relationship with Diaghilev ended, he went certifiably insane and spent the rest of his life in an asylum.

Vaslav Fomich Nijinsky was born in Kiev on March 12th, 1888. Both his parents were ballet dancers, and Vaslav was introduced to the stage as a child. When he was a 18 he became the lover of Prince Paul Dmitrievitch who then introduced him to Sergei Diaghilev, the ballet impresario, whose lover he became in 1908.

Diaghilev took Vaslav to Paris where he was starting the famous Ballet Russe, an experimental production company that brought together the finest composers of the day with the most innovative scenery artists, costumers, and of course the greatest ballet dancers in the world.

The volatile relationship between the teenage Nijinsky and the 40-year-old Diaghilev led to the some of ballet's most profound and moving works. Nijinsky was the male star of the Ballet Russe, but he soon showed that his true talent lay in choreography. His debut as a choreographer came when he was 21 in the short piece entitled L'aprés-midi d'un Faune (Prelude to the Afternoon of a Fawn) with music by Claude Debussy, in which Nijinsky starred as the lustful faun trying in vain to seduce a group of nymphs.

The ballet caused a scandal when it premiered in Paris on May 29, 1912, because of the highly suggestive ending in which Nijinsky pantomimed masturbation and orgasm.

But that was nothing compared to the riots that broke out after his next choreography for the orgiastic Le Sacre du printemps (The Rite of Spring).

The style of Vaslav Nijinsky was far ahead of his day. He revolutionized the ballet and single-handedly invented what we call modern dance, rejecting the stylistic forms passed down by tradition in favor of sensuality, odd gestures and unnatural movement that was totally infused with the grace and power of the feel of music.

The relationship between Nijinsky and Diaghilev broke down over time and they separated. Nijinsky married a female fan he had only met once ... simply to spite Diaghilev. But he was slowly succumbing to mental illness, and would eventually lose his mind completely.


He wrote a bizarre diary in the few weeks before he was taken away to  spend the rest of his life in various mental institutions. The genius of Vaslav Nijinsky, who was taken as a stupid person because of his shy and quiet demeanor, was revealed in his divine power of dance and in the sublimity of his strange diary.

Here is an excerpt, you'll notice the way that he rambles just barely able to communicate his wandering mind. Nijinsky was already leaving this world and becoming an immortal. He signed the last page, Nijinsky, the God.

"One day in the streets of Paris I pushed [Diaghelev] in order to show him that I was not afraid of him. Diaghelev hit me with his stick, as I wanted to go away from him. After this we lived for a long time together. I loved the Ballets Russes. I gave my whole heart to it. I worked like an ox. I lived like a martyr. I lived sadly and sorrowed alone. I wept alone. I loved my mother and wrote her letters every day. I was afraid of life, because I was very young. I could not go on composing the ballet 'Jeux.' It was a ballet about flirting and unsuccessful, as I had not feeling for it. The story of this ballet is about three young men making love to each other. I began to understand life when I was 22 years old. I composed this ballet alone, too. Debussy, the well-known composer, wanted the subject to be written down.

"Diaghelev likes to say that he created the ballet, because he likes to be praised. I do not mind if Diaghelev says that he composed the stories of 'Faune' and 'Jeux,' because when I created them, I was under the influence of 'my life' with Diaghelev. The Faune is me and Jeux is the life which Diaghelev dreamed. Diaghelev wanted to make love to two boys at the same time and wanted these boys to make love to him. In the ballet, the two girls represent the two boys, and the young man is Diaghelev. I changed the characters, as love between three men could not be represented on the stage'"

The Parisians called him the God of Dance, and toward the end of his diary, he signed his name, Nijinsky, the God. He died in a London clinic on April 8, 1950.

We consecrate him as a Saint and as a living incarnation of Antinous/Pan/Dionysus. St. Vaslav Nijinsky, who knew how to live  Homotheosis every single blessed day of his life ... which means living daily the Divine Spirit of Being Gay ... and who knew how to express this ineffable spirit in dance as well.

YOU CAN HAVE YOUR OWN ANTINOUS SCULPTURES THROUGH 3-D PRINTING

NOW you can own your own museum-quality Antinous sculpture, thanks to 3-D printing.

Our friend Keith MezaenAset Hoberg shares these photos of the replica of the Farnese Antinous/Adonis statue which adorns the sacred altar of Antinous in his home in Los Angeles.

The full-size original Farnese Antinous is in the National Archaeological Museum in Naples Italy. Keith ordered his 30-centimeter (12-inch) 3-D printed, bonded stone replica online.

Keith says:

"As a Companion of Antinous, having a beautiful depiction of Him to focus on during prayer, devotion, or meditation can be very helpful. 

"We are very lucky to be able to find such images of Antinous today, such as this beautiful 3-D printed statue, found in a shop on the Etsy app. 

"This reproduction of the Antinous Farnese statue has always been my favorite image of Him. Gazing upon it always calms my mind and fills my heart with love and happiness. He inspires me in so many ways."

ANTINOUS IN THE STRANGEST PLACES EVEN AT THE SUPERMARKET

ANTINOUS shows up in the most extraordinary places — even at the supermarket magazine rack.

Some years ago, Hachette published a magazine series entitled THE GODS OF ANCIENT EGYPT which featured special issues on scores of Egyptian deities — nearly 100 in all — each sporting a glossy brochure and an epoxy resin figurine in a little plastic "display case." The magazines were widely available at booksellers and newsstands around the world.

Antinous was featured in Issue 88 — possibly the most collectible issue in the whole series.

The Hachette magazines have long since gone out of print, but the figurines are still found on eBay and other online marketplaces. Antinous is hard to find, but occasionally he turns up and the bidding turns fierce as ANTINOMANIACS fight to possess the little 4.5-inch (14 cm) figurine.


The one pictured here sold on eBay for nearly $50 in "NRFB" condition — "Never Removed From Box."

It is "only a fake" of course. But that does not make it any less sacred or magical to anyone who loves Antinous. In ancient times, Antinous figurines, images, coins and medallions were prized by his worshipers as a sort of portable Sacred Token or Pocket Shrine.

In his authoritative book about Antinous, BELOVED AND GOD, Royston Lambert points out that in ancient times many followers of the Blessed Youth felt it was necessary to have a tangible representation of Antinous with them at all times for protection and for blessings:

"Some of the devotees evidently could not bear to be parted from the beneficial and reassuring presence of their Antinous and therefore had small, light-weight travelling busts or bronzes made to accompany them on their journeys."

Poor people made do with more crudely made representations, such as coins and figurines and medals made of lead, clay and other base materials. The demand was so great that there was a rife trade in which we would nowadays call "copyright piracy" among artisans turning out "illicitly yet more crude and cheap medallions of this hero whose images, miracles and protection were obviously sought by countless poor folk of faith."


People of modest means who were lucky enough to get their hands on one of his clay figures or commemorative coins would carry them with them for protection, often even wearing them:

"Many were pierced by holes and hung from the neck as talismans: Antinous' image offering protection against evil, sickness and death," says Lambert. 

Other such tiny statuettes, figurines, coins and medallions were placed in portable shrines or pouches or adorned away-from-home altars, and others were buried with the dead "to invoke the god's aid on the perilous journey into the unknown."

We look at the little Hachette Antinous figurine and see only a cheap epoxy resin plastic action figure, crudely hand-painted in some Chinese sweat shop. 

But imagine how the Ancient Priests of Antinous would have gaped in wonder at this little figurine swaddled in cellophane, along with a book of shiny pages unlike any papyrus, pages adorned with inscrutable glyphs and breathtakingly realistic images. 

Where we see ordinary plastic, the Ancient Priests would see a wondrous statuette fashioned in what to them would be a magical putty-like material not like anything found on Earth.

Clearly, it was fashioned by the Gods themselves — clearly, ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD truly is "immanent" (in-dwelling) in this miraculous vessel.

And the Ancient Priests would, of course, be absolutely right. 

REMEMBER WHAT THE ROMANS SAID: FORTUNE FAVORS THE AUDACIOUS!

ON April 5th we remember the anniversary of the Temple of Fortuna Publica for the city of Rome.

It was one of three temples of Fortuna on the Quirinale Hill, where Fortuna Primigenia, Fortuna Brevis and Fortuna Euelpis were worshiped.

The symbol of Fortuna is the ever turning wheel, found in the Tarot pack as the Wheel of Fortune, this indicates that things change and that you should not rest on your laurels but be prepared to grasp opportunities. It also tells us that things will not stay bad forever, the wheel will turn and things will get better.

Remember what the Romans said: "audica favet fortuna" ... fortune favors the audacious.

Fortuna Publica Romani symbolised the luck of the Roman population and state. Sje is an aspect of the Roman Goddess of luck, fate, and chance, Fortuna. As Fortuna Publica, she ensures the luck of the populice or state, and is a complimentary idea to Fortuna Privata, the Luck of the Individual.

Fortuna was honored with three temples on the Quirinal Hill in Rome in the neighborhood called tres Fortunae, "the Three Fortunas". 

At least two of those three temples were to Fortuna Publica. One was to Fortuna Primigenia, whose full title in Rome was Fortuna Publicae Populi Romani, "the Luck of the Roman People".

Another was to Fortuna Publica Citerior (citerior meaning "nearer", probably because it was closer to the center of the city).

There is not much known of the third temple to Fortuna. Some identify it as again belonging to Fortuna Primigenia.

But it is possible that it was more specifically dedicated to Fortuna Publica. The first temple had as its festival date the 25th of May, and the one to Fortuna Publica Citerior the 5th of April.

Fortuna Publica was sometimes known as Fortuna Populi Romani, the "Luck of the Roman People". Under this name She had an altar way up on Hadrian's Wall, at the fort of Vindolana, at modern Chesterholm in Northumberland, England.

WE CELEBRATE THE MEGALENSIA GREAT MOTHER OF THE GODS

AT the Megalensia we celebrate the introduction of the Cult of Magna Mater, the Great Mother of the Gods, into Rome.

During the War with Hannibal, the Senate consulted the Sibilline Book and received an oracle instructing them to bring the Great Mother of Phrygia to Rome. 

They sent an embassy to the city of Pessinus and amazingly, the Phrygian priests freely handed over the black heavenly Stone that was the most sacred emblem of their goddess. 

The Black Stone was brought to Rome, and met at the port of Ostia by a large congregation of the matrons of the city. They carried her in their arms, from one lady to another, into the city.

Within a year, Hannibal left Italy and was soon defeated. So it was that Magna Mater became one of the guardians of Rome.

The religion of Magna Mater is one of the oldest faiths of mankind, extending far back into prehistory. Evidence has been found of her veneration in one of the oldest human settlements known as Catal Huyuk in modern Turkey. 

The image above shows a mother figure on a chariot drasn by two lions, an image always central to the Great Mother. 

She was known under several names, Idea, Dydima, Sipyla, Agdistis, Rhea, Kubaba, Khaba, Khabala, and Cebele, daughter of Uranus and Gaia, wife of Saturn, mother of all the gods. 

It is believed that her religion was spread throughout the Middle East during the conquests of the Hittite Empire, led by eunuch priests headed by the Archigallus, who was the earthly representative of the divine consort Attis. 

The sacred shrines of the goddess were established where a black stone had fallen from heaven, and there a prophetess, known as a Sybil took up residence, speaking oracles from Apollo. The religions of Dionysus, Apollo, Diana and Persephone are deeply and intimately related, through their connection to Magna Mater. 

They are the vestiges of a faith and culture that long preceded Greece, yet whose traces remain even now, in the concept of Holy Mother Church, in the black stone embedded in the Khaba at Mecca, and as the spirit of the Holy Tree known as the Kabalah in Jewish mysticism. 

Antinous was very probably brought up as a devotee of her religion, since Bithynion had a mountaintop shrine to Attis, and was very near to the center of her worship at Pessinus. 

We adore and venerate the Great Mother on this day, as the savior of Rome, and as the Goddess whose religion was central to the formation of the young Antinous, who is the New Attis.

The bisexuality of her incarnation as Agdistis, and the transvestitism of her priesthood makes her religion of extreme importance to the concept of Homo Deus and of the New Religion of Antinous.

We praise the Great Mother of the Gods on this night.

Ancient goddess of Phrygia, who has watched over us since the down of time, seated upon her throne of Lions

Mother of the Holy Mountain, Queen of Beasts, 

Lover of Grandfather Saturn with whom she gave birth

To the Gods of Olympus.

It was on this day that the sacred black stone arrived

In Rome from Pessinus, carried by the Matrons

Together with the transgender priestesses of Magna Mater

It was prophesized by the Sibyl of Cumae that

So long as the black stone was venerated that no enemy

Would ever penetrate the walls of Rome, a prophecy

That remained true until the black stone was desecrated by The Christians, a few years later the city was destroyed

Magna Mater Deum Ideum, Cybele, Rhea

Queen of the Titans, Mother of the Gods

Watch over us, bless our black stones, make us invincible

Let our hearts be an impenetrable fortress of black stone

Ave Magna Mater

CHIRON COMES TO THE RESCUE

THE Sun aligns with the asteroid or minor planet CHIRON IN ARIES this week to empower you to access your inner healer. (Art by Miranda Baggins entitled: "Antinous as the Horseman of Conquest!"

It is nice to remember who Chiron is ... the wisest and noblest of all the Centaurs in Classical Mythology. While all the other centaurs galloped off to riotous ruin and drunken oblivion, Chiron alone shared the knowledge he had inherited from the Titans ... tutoring a series of sensitive youths ... Achilles, Jason, Perseus, Theseus, Ajax, Dionysus, Hercules ... an endless list of heroes and demigods. He schooled them in the arts and sciences ... teaching them to be musicians and physicians.

This week healing energies get a sudden and dramatic boost when the Sun aligns with Chiron in Aries. This is a good time for health checkups and medical treatment ... also, you can expect a positive and expansive outlook, which can benefit your well-being at this time. 

You may be more open-minded with regard to experiencing new things, which will allow healing of your mind, body, and spirit. 

For instance, you could seek higher understanding and meaning in your life through a guide, mentor, or spiritual person or increase your inner knowledge by means of educational processes, religion, or meditative practices during this period. 

An urge to travel to far-away places (real or imaginary) may also be experienced. You may discover new perspectives on your beliefs, faith, and sense of hope. 

Restoring peace and harmony in your personal life and relationships is possible now through your interest in healing your own wounds, as well as extending compassion and generosity to others.

ANTINOUS IS THE GOD OF THE GAYS BUT WAS HE GAY IN THE MODERN SENSE?

WE are often asked whether Antinous was gay during his mortal lifetime ... truly gay, at least as we understand the complex sociological and orientation that exist today.

This stunning portrait by famed collage artist DOUG STAPLETON shows modern faces superimposed on the face of Antinous.

But was Antinous "gay" in the modern sense?

Scholars have quibbled ... especially in Victorian times ... that Hadrian and Antinous were not homosexuals in the modern sense.

Instead, they were engaged in a socially acknowledged erotic relationship between an adult male (the erastes) and a younger male (the eromenos) usually in his teens ... or so the uptight scholars argued.

These semantic nuances allowed academics to sidestep the socially loaded issue of calling some of the greatest figures in history "practicing homosexuals" ... because that might imply that homosexuality was in fact not a degenerate mental illness, but instead was perfectly normal.

Even up until the turn of the 21st Century, many academicians (mostly male) persisted in avoiding the "G" word when referring to Hadrian and Antinous.

All of that changed at a news conference in London a few years ago.

"Hadrian was gay, and we can say that now. The Victorians had a problem with it. But we can say it." Thorsten Opper, a British Museum curator of Greek and Roman sculpture shocked the stuffy world of academia when he made that statement ... at a news conference announcing the Museum's Hadrian: Empire and Conflict" exhibition in 2008.

The British Museum, that bastion of staid and conservative scholarship, signaled a paradigm shift in historical awareness of homosexuality. 

The collage portrait of Antinous by artist Doug Stapleton on this page symbolizes the many layers of perception of gayness through the ages.

Our own high priest, Flamen Antonius Subia, explains the change in attitude that has taken place ... it is not so much gayness which has changed ... but rather the cultural perception of gays has changed ... not only society's perception of gays ... but more especially the perception of gayness amongst gays.

"Gay has always been and always will be, or so I feel," Antonius says. "Antinous was gay in the way that gays were in Roman times, which is different from how gays were in the 1950's, which is different from how gays are now," he says.

"Antinous represents the divine essence that we all hold in common, so yes, I believe that in his own way and for his time, Antinous was gay just like we are now."

HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN SAINT OF ANTINOUS

WE remember Danish fairy tale writer Hans Christian Andersen as a Saint of Antinous because he was gay although he may never have acted on his gayness.

Biographer Jens Andersen says the author could not overcome societal strictures against homosexuality ... but also could not bring himself to marry a woman.

In modern parlance, "he was just not that into girls", according to the author.

In an almost Freudian manner, Andersen channeled his sexual energies into his writing, creating some of the finest fairy-tale fiction ever written.

He fictionalized his biography as a wonderful fairy tale, even naming his autobiography "The Fairy Tale of My Life".

His own life read like a fairy tale. He was born April 2, 1805, in Odense, the son of a poor shoemaker and an illiterate laundry woman. 

Like "The Ugly Duckling", he was an eccentric boy who was teased merciless by other children for being odd-looking and awkward and for wearing hand-me-downs.

At age 14 he moved to Copenhagen in hopes of finding other misfits like himself. He succeeded beyond his dreams, winning the hearts of leading bourgeois families, who sponsored his education. 

Andersen finished his secondary schooling in 1828 and determinedly set about establishing himself as a writer. He published his first novel within a year and was soon on his way to fame, churning out novels, travel books, dramas, autobiographies and poetry. 

Firmly established as a Danish man of letters, he turned his talents to fairy tales in 1837, he began writing the fairy tales that won him international fame and access to the royal houses and cultural elites of Europe. 

He travelled widely, touring Europe and Britain. In London, he stayed with Charles Dickens, who found the effeminate, fussy, self-centered and hypochondriacal bachelor a tiresome guest.

While Andersen's novels are traditional romantic works celebrating religion and nature and displaying a deep faith in God, his fairy tales offered room for his subconscious mind to work out "relationship issues", according to his biographer.

Many of the fairy tales may be read as gay allegories, and some are clearly autobiographical. 

For instance, "The Little Mermaid" was written after a crisis Andersen suffered in 1836 at the marriage of Edvard Collin. 

Andersen's novel "O.T.", depicting an intimate male friendship, is also influenced by this unrequited love, according to the biographer.

Although Andersen typically conducted one-sided infatuations with young men, he did experience a more reciprocal romantic friendship with the Hereditary Grand Duke of Weimar, Carl-Alexander von Saxe-Weimar-Eisenach, whom he met in 1844. 

In his later years, Andersen was infatuated with the young ballet dancer, Harald Scharff.

Andersen died on August 4, 1875. It was not until 1893 that his sexuality was publicly discussed, when a newspaper hinted that he may have been a homosexual. 

In 1901, an article in Magnus Hirschfeld's Jahrbuch fuer sexuelle Zwischenstufen also discussed him as a homosexual.

Actually, says his biographer, Andersen may never have had sexual relations with anyone. The pages of his diaries are festooned with crosses which he used to indicate masturbation.

The famous crosses suggest that he was an ardent masturbator, who meticulously recorded this act, as he recorded everything else in his life.

Throughout his life, Hans Christian Andersen thought of himself as the ugly duckling … a misfit undeserving of being loved by anybody.

 

ON THE VENERALIA By Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia

Mother Venus, Queen of Heaven

I lift up my heart to you.

When I was lost,

You brought me to the ruins of your temple

And all my doubts vanished among the stones.

You have forgiven my transgressions

And restored me to the path of destiny

She-Wolf, Mother of the Romans

In whose border-fields Antinous dwells forever

Gather them around me now

Let the key open the darkest doors

The splendor of your beautiful child

Radiates between us and binds us together

I will spread his power to the far corners of the world

Love, Pleasure, Beauty, Feeling

We are invincible.

Ave Venus

~ANTONIUS SUBIA

THE VENERALIA WHEN VENUS BLESSES HOMOSEXUAL LOVE

ON April 1st we honor Venus Urania, who blesses homosexual love.

When Saturn castrated his father Uranus, and separated the sky from the earth, by cutting away the testicles of heaven, Venus, the Great Goddess of Love was born, where the foam of the testicles washed ashore on the island of Cyprus.

She was attended by the Erotes, the spirits of desire, as seen in this image: "D'après Botticelli" 1984, acrylic on canvas, by the noted Italian artist, Marco Silombria. Soon afterwards she created the three Graces.

She was brought into Olympus by marrying Vulcan, the smith god, but Venus is an older, and more powerful than the Olympians, except for Zeus, because she is directly descended from Uranus, the heavens.

Venus shared her love with almost all the gods, to the humiliation of Vulcan, Juno's son, but her most ardent desire was for the war god Mars, whose virile masculinity is in direct contrast to her voluptuous feminine grace.

Together Mars and Venus fought for the Trojans against the other jealous goddesses, and though Zeus gave victory to the Greeks, he promised Venus that her chosen people would have their revenge.

Flamen Antonius Subia says:

So it was that Venus guided her son Aeneus and his followers out of the burning city and across the world to the place where Rome would one day stand. The descendants of the Trojan refugees and of Mars were Romulus and Remus who founded Rome, whose sons, through War and Love would conquer the world.

Julius Caesar claimed to be descended from Venus through Aeneus, and so she became the guardian spirit of the Emperors.

In the year 135 Hadrian dedicated the Temple of Venus and Roma. Hadrian built one of the largest Temples in Rome for the Great Goddess of Love and for the Spirit of the Deified City. 

Hadrian intended with this Temple to proclaim to the Romans that the Empire was the child of Love and War, but that Love, through the Goddess Venus, was to be the foremost power. We dedicate this day to Venus Urania, who blesses homosexual love.