Sunday, December 22, 2024
THE RETURN OF THE CAPRICORN GODS
By Our Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia
By Our Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia
Saturday, December 21, 2024
ANTINOUS INVICTUS AND THE SOLSTICE
ON Saturday at 09:22 Universal Time (Saturday 1:22 a.m. at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous) the sun "stands still" ("Sol Stasis") — the 21/22 December Solstice for the year 2024.
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.
Friday, December 20, 2024
ROMAN TEMPLE OF MITHRAS
REBORN IN THE HEART OF LONDON
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.
Thursday, December 19, 2024
STONEHENGE WAS BUILT ON SOLSTICE AXIS
BUT ONLY DUE TO ICE AGE FLUKE
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.
Wednesday, December 18, 2024
MULLED SPICED WINE MADE LIFE SWEETER
FOR ROMAN SOLDIERS AT HADRIAN'S WALL
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."
Tuesday, December 17, 2024
JALALUDDIN RUMI
SAINT OF ANTINOUS
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.
Monday, December 16, 2024
MARGUERITE YOURCENAR
IS A SAINT OF ANTINOUS
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.