THE MUMMIFICATION OF ANTINOUS AS IT MIGHT HAVE BEEN CARRIED OUT

THE newly ordained priests of Antinous were busily overseeing the mummification of his body in the 72 days between his death in late October of the year 130 and early January of 131, many experts believe.

Hadrian founded the city of Antinoopolis on the banks of the Nile where Antinous died and proclaimed the new religion.

While the Emperor continued his tour of Egypt, the priests scurried to carry out his imperial commission.

We do not know for certain what transpired with the remains of Antinous ... or whether they were ever retrieved from the Nile. Perhaps they were cremated. But perhaps the body was mummified.

Using an Antinous Action Figure, we can demonstrate how it may have been done:

We prepared the body by cleansing it with wine. Then we removed the Intestines, Liver, Lungs and Stomach (placing them in Canopic Jars). 

There is a incision mark down his left side to represents where he would have been cut open for the removal of these organs. 

Next we removed the Brains with a hook through the nose (hence the black dot on his nostril). 

The brains were thrown away because the Egyptians felt the heart was the seat of intelligence, not the brain.

We used a basting brush to cleanse him although a hair-dye or cosmetics brush is also applicable. 

The red heart represents the fact that they left the heart in tact, later it will be used in the Weighing-of-the-heart ceremony. 

In the back corner you see Anubis (the God of Embalming) present during this embalming.

We put him in Sea Salt which represents the Natron Salt that the priests would have used. (Himalayan Salt works just as well). 

Then we let him sit in the salt for 40 minutes ... 1 minute for each day the priests would have left the body in the Natron Salt.

Next we wiped him down with spices of Cinnamon, Nutmeg and Allspice with olive oil.

Then the priests would have replaced the eyes with onions stuffed into the sockets. 

Because the salt desiccated the body, then they stuffed the body with mud, sawdust, rags and chaff to make it appear nicely contoured.

Next we began the wrapping process. We used muslin and a mixture of flour and water (1 part to 3 parts) for the paste. 

In ancient times, it took about 15 days to wrap the body and about 20 layers of linen bandages. 

We put Amulets between the layers of Linen … a tiny scarab beetle and a miniature protective eye of Horus.

We allowed him to do a little drying before the final wrapping.

In ancient times the process took 72 days.

In the case of Antinous, this meant his mummy would have been ready for the final ceremonies on January 11th of 131 AD.

By that time Hadrian would have completed his tour of Egypt and would have returned to Antinoopolis for the "Opening of the Mouth Ceremony."

Afterwards, his tomb would have been sealed and the first priests of Antinous would have begun their sacred watch … and the establishment of the new religion.

No one knows the location of the Lost Tomb of Antinous.

WE TOAST ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD DURING THE MINOR BACCHANALIA

ON January 6th we celebrate the Minor Bacchanalia.

The lesser Festival of Dionysus is celebrated when the wine has reached fermentation. Traditionally a secret ceremony limited to women, but opened to men during Roman times.

It is the season in which Dionysus rules at Delphi and at Eleusis, though the full ceremonies of the Minor Bacchanalia were only performed once every two years.

Mythologically this is the occasion when the Titans lure and capture the child Dionysus, charming him with a mirror and toys. The Titans murder him, rend his limbs from his body and eat his flesh.

This is the first Wine festival and triumphal procession of the entourage of Dionysus whose arrival signals the Victory of Antinous over the forces of life and death as represented by the Archons.

NERO'S CRUMBLING PALACE AT LAST GETS EMERGENCY RESTORATION FUNDING

IN a race against time, the Italian government has earmarked part of a 300-million-euro funding bill for emergency restoration of Nero's famous "Domus Aurea" (Golden House) and its fabled octagonal dining room with "rotating ceiling" ... before it crumbles completely.

It is hoped that the site can be re-opened to tourists by 2018 ... if indeed the repairs don't prove to be too little, too late.

After two-thirds of Rome was destroyed by the great fire in 64 AD, Nero used fire-ravaged land between the Esquiline and Palatine Hills as the site for his new palace. 

It was not so much a palace as a "party villa" … a series of buildings scattered over a landscaped "countryside in the city" (rus in urbe) which included an artificial lake.

The main building was extravagantly crafted, and boasted rooms and hallways decorated almost entirely in gold, with marble and ivory encrusted ornamentation.

The architects in charge of the project, Severus and Celer, designed two of the principal dining rooms to flank an octagonal court, surmounted by a dome with a giant central oculus to let in light. 

It was a design element which Emperor Hadrian would expand upon in his design for the Pantheon.

The Domus Aurea had more than one banqueting hall, according to the Ancient Roman historian Suetonius. 

But the most extravagant one was a vast circular room which featured a "rotating ceiling."

Celer and Severus devised an ingenious mechanism, either cranked by slaves or perhaps powered by flowing water, which made the ceiling within the dome of the main banqueting hall rotate like the heavens, while perfume was sprayed and rose petals were dropped on the assembled diners. 

The rotating ceiling was painted with the stars and the planets by the artist Fabullus.

In his book De Vita Caesarum ("The Lives of the Caesars", best known in English as "The Twelve Caesars"), Suetonius describes the banqueting hall in detail:

"The main banqueting hall was circular, and its ceiling rotated slowly, day and night, in time with the heavens."

Suetonius goes on to write that when the lavish Domus Aurea was finally completed, Nero said, "Good, now I can at last begin to live like a human being!"

However, Nero did not enjoy the frescoed halls and gold-encrusted ceilings for too long. It was completed in AD 68 -- the year he committed suicide amid a revolt.

But for all its splendor, the Domus Aurea has been closed since 2005 for safety reasons … and a ceiling vault collapsed in 2010. Persistent problems with drainage and moisture threaten both its structural stability and its decorations. 

Recently, the archaeological superintendency of Rome embarked on the last phase of an ambitious restoration project. 

"We hope,” says superintendent Mariarosaira Barbera, “that the Domus Aurea can be visited again by 2018, and that it will last another 2,000 years."

Click here for a tour of Nero's Domus Aurea:

GOOD NEWS: WE FOUND YOUR SHIPMENT BAD NEWS: AT THE BOTTOM OF THE SEA!

ITALIAN archaeologists have found an exciting Hadrian-era shipwreck off the coast of Italy ... but instead of gold or jewels or antiquities, the boat is full of 3,000 jars of ancient fermented fish sauce.

Who knows? Perhaps the cargo was destined for the Imperial palace in Rome. And perhaps Antinous was disappointed that the cargo was lost at sea ... or more likely, he was delighted that he wouldn't have to eat any of the stinky stuff.

It was called GARUM and it was as ubiquitous on Ancient Roman dining tables as a bottle of soy sauce, Worcestershire sauce, ketchup, Mexican salsa, Thai Nam Pla fish sauce, Australian Vegemite or German Maggi is on tables in modern cultures.

This powerful fish sauce was loved by many Romans, who ladled it over everything they ate ... and absolutely detested by many other Romans, whose stomachs turned at the mere scent of it. 

The image above is a spoof mosaic saying "Beware of Garum" (a pun on "Cave Canem" ... "Beware of Dog") but many Ancient Romans no doubt would have welcomed such a warning at a taverna doorway.

Garum was an essential condiment for Romans, both patrician and plebian. It was made by curing chopped and salted fish innards in earthen amphores. These jars were left in the sun for up to three months as the mixture fermented.

Production of garum was often relegated to areas removed from residential and business districts because the stench was over-powering.


The final product varied widely in quality.

An ancient recipe book even offers advice about how to "reclaim" spoiled garum.

While many Romans dearly loved garum, many other Romans ... and nearly all non-Romans ... truly despised garum. Asking for garum at a noble home in Athens, Antioch or Alexandria was like asking for ketchup in Paris today.

Ancient Roman cuisine had some interesting elements, and one prized product was a condiment called garum, which was made of fermented salted fish intestines.

According to The Local, the ship found off the northeastern coast of Italy dates to the first or second century, and archaeologists were unsure of where the boat might have come from until they realized that it was carrying an enormous load of fish sauce.

"After we filmed the wreck and analyzed an amphora [clay jar] and some fragments that a robotic craft brought back to the surface, we realized the ship was carrying a huge quantity of fish sauce when it sank," said archaeologist Simon Luca Trigona.

The ship was also carrying some jars of wine, but considering that it and the fish sauce jars are about 2,000 years old, there is probably nothing left of the contents by this point, since it all most likely disappeared into the sea.

The researchers identified the fish sauce by the shape of the jars, and the fact that the boat was carrying fish sauce and wine gave them a good idea of where the boat had come from and where it had been going when it sank.

"She most likely sailed out of Rome along the Tiber and sank a couple of weeks later while making the return journey, weighed down by all that fish sauce," Trigora said.

2016 IS "THE YEAR OF MARS" ANTINOUS TAKES UP HIS FEARSOME SHIELD

FROM an astrological viewpoint, the Year 2016 is ushering in a period of revolutionary or even cataclysmic changes the likes of which have not been seen since the upheavals of the late 18th Century.

According to a rather obscure astrological text called the "Galendarjum Oeconomicum Practicum Perpetuum," the Year 2016 is the "Year of Mars."

The Year 2015 was the "Year of Jupiter" and 2016 it is Mars's turn to take over.

To give you a preview, World War II broke out in another "Year of Mars" ... 1939.

It means that 2016 will be about the lessons of that indomitable ancient army of male gay warriors known as The Sacred Theban Band of Lovers ... the ability to transform fear into a weapon of protection ... instead of letting fear cut you into mincemeat even before your enemies do.

It is highly ironic that the German alchemist and astrologer Dr. Mauritius Knauer devised his perpetual calendar based on planetary rulerships in the late 18th Century. His "Galendarjum Oeconomicum Practicum Perpetuum" was published just as the planet Pluto was entering the Sign of Capricorn.

And now in 2016 Pluto is again in the Sign of Capricorn for the first time since the 18th Century.

Pluto in Capricorn is about revolutionizing age-old political and economic structures and replacing them with completely new and different structures.

Just look at the changes which occurred in the late 18th Century ... the French Revolution and the American Revolution, for starters.

Look at all the political turmoil in the world since Pluto entered Capricorn in early December 2008.

And just look at all the turmoil on the global financial markets, the Arab Spring, uprisings and warfare around the world ... and a horrific resurgence of Islamic terrorism.

Pluto will remain in Capricorn until the year 2024 ... by which time many cherished and time-honored political and economic institutions will have been swept aside forever.

Ironically, the planet Uranus was also discovered in the 18th Century, and many astrologers consider its discovery to have marked the first faint Dawning of the Age of Aquarius, the sign which Uranus rules.

Uranus and Pluto have been in a tight 90-degree square aspect to each other on and off for the past two years and they start 2016 in that same tight right-angle configuration ... exacerbating all the global tensions forcing renewal and renovation.

It is going to be a very tumultuous and frightening year for many people, and it is very fitting for you to feel fear and panic in this "Year of Mars 2016".

The Warrior God's sons Phobos and Deimos (Fear and Panic) are the horses which lead Mars' war chariot ... spreading fear and panic before them as they gallop towards their foes.

Phobos and Deimos are rattling at the door, trying to get in. 

But just remember that they are not trying to get inside in order to scare you. 

They are trying to get inside in order to harness your chariot so that you can ride off on your Sacred Quest the same way that Mars rides off into battle with Phobos and Deimos leading the charge with shrieks and howls which send fear and panic into the souls of all adversaries.

Like Mars, you must learn to wear your fear and panic as a shield and breastplate (like the mosaic of Phobos) to fend off all who would attempt to stop you. 

You mustn't repress or ignore fear and panic. You must harness their "fearsome" energies to provide you with the impetus to go forward.

It is very hard for most of us gay men to muster up self-confidence and self-assertiveness. 

If we speak up or assert ourselves, we think we are being aggressive and nasty.

We are used to being nice, good, well-behaved boys.

We tend to repress our "Mars Energy" and try to ignore it. But Mars is in the natal horoscope of every person on this planet ... even nice, good, well-behaved gay boys like us. A certain amount of self-confidence and self-assertiveness is very healthy and good for us.

If we try to repress this gods-given natal energy, then Phobos and Deimos will terrorize us with the blessings of Mars. The energy has to go somewhere, so it will revert back into our souls and destroy us unless we understand how to harness it and channel it into constructive avenues.

Phobos and Deimos (also known as Graphiel and Barzabel to the Alchemists) will be powerful allies in your Sacred Quest. 

Notice how they form the protective outer rim around the Alchemical Seal of Mars. 

Mars is shielded by a ring of fear and panic which is turned outward away from him. 

As they do with Mars, they will lead the way for you and dispel all foes and hindrances that might get in your path. You will see how enemies and barriers scatter and melt away into the shadows when you approach ... as if by magic (which of course it is).

As a follower of ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD, your life becomes a magico-religious experience.

One of the first steps toward living gay spirituality is to learn to turn your fears inside-out so they are no longer a hindrance but rather a source of strength.

Transforming fear into strength is the hardest task any human being faces.

The Ancient Priests of Antinous knew all of these things. Hadrian knew these things. They knew the "fearsome" power of Phobos and Deimos. If you look up these deities of fear (Graphiel and Barzabel, for example) you will see dire warnings about how cruelly dangerous they are.

And they ARE dangerous ... repressing our natural born self-assertiveness is very self-destructive.

It is a problem common to most gay men. It is the root of many of our neuroses and substance abuse and many other problems.

Mars energies are always tricky and potentially dangerous.

Hadrian knew all about these things and was well-versed in the "fear" of the gods.

It's like that expression about "putting the fear of god" into somebody. You have to learn to put the fear of the god Antinous-Mars in you. It is a very awesome thing. You must learn to harness it and channel it into constructive courses.

Phobos and Deimos are rattling at the door and will break it down and get inside. But rather than let them eat up your heart with their fear and panic, you must greet them and welcome them and give thanks to Antinous-Mars for sending them to you to harness your Quest Chariot so that you can ride forth.

That is the Mystery Teaching of the Sacred Theban Band of Lovers … learning how to turn around the razor-sharp daggers of fear so that they point outward to create an impenetrable force field of protection around you.

Fear can point inward to wound your heart and soul, or it can point outward to ward off danger.

ARCH THROUGH WHICH ANTINOUS STRODE TO BE RECREATED IN LONDON AND NYC

SOON you can see a triumphal arch through which Antinous and Hadrian strode in the ancient city of Palmyra … recreated in the heart of London ... and in Manhattan.

The arch from a Palmyra temple believed to have been destroyed by DAESH Islamic State barbarians is to be recreated in London's Trafalgar Square ... and in Times Square in New York City during UNESCO World Heritage Week in April 2016.

The 2,000-year-old arch was all that remained of the Temple of Bel, part of the Syrian Unesco World Heritage site, captured by militants in May.

It will be recreated from photographs, using a 3D printer.

The institute behind the project hopes the arch will draw attention to the importance of cultural heritage.

DAESH militants have ransacked and demolished several similar ancient sites to Palmyra that pre-date Islam in Iraq, denouncing them as symbols of "idolatry".

Alexy Karenowska, from the Institute of Digital Archaeology, which is behind the project, says she hopes it will help people understand how important it is to preserve cultural sites in war-torn countries such as Syria.

She says: "People say, 'should we be worrying about this stuff when human lives are being lost?'

"Of course all of this stuff takes second place to human life, but these cultural objects are very important to give a sense of place and community."

It's unknown if the Palmyra Arch was fully destroyed.

"The status is uncertain," says Karenowska, the institute's director of technology. 

"This is part of the motivation for selecting this particular object for the installation," she explains.

"Given the level of destruction in Palmyra, it seems unlikely it has survived without some damage, but if it remains standing in any form, it represents an outstanding symbol of resilience."

She adds: "If it doesn't, then the message is obviously just as powerful, but for different reasons."

The installation will be created off-site and then assembled at Trafalgar Square and Times Square.

In London, it will stand next to the National Gallery and Nelson's Column, both Neo-Classical in style.

The famous 15m (50ft) arch will also illustrate Britain and Syria's shared heritage, with the Greco-Roman architecture of Palmyra echoed by the neoclassical buildings of the National Gallery and Nelson's Column.

ANTINOUS JANUS, OPENER OF THE WAYS

ON January 1 the Religion of Antinous marks the moment the Egyptians called SEP TEPY, the moment of endings and origins, the moment that is not a moment and is every moment, the place that is no place and is every place.

The God Janus, doubled-faced, observes the passage of the common year. Hadrian mourns the tragic death of his Beloved Antinous, who died in October of the year which has now passed.

The Prince of Flowers is dead, and the New God Antinous is rising, just as the STAR OF ANTINOUS will rise in the heavens during the year to come.

Hadrian's Beloved Antinous resides in SEP TEPY, the inner-most celestial sphere, where he is filled with the Semen of the First God which infuses him with godhood.

ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD emerges from that moment which is no/all moments and from that place which is no/all places, and he strides forth as one of the Imperishables of heaven.

The Religion of Antinous recognizes the common calendar and uses the date as a reckoning that pertains only to our place in time and a space within the earthly sphere.

We know that, though our bodies are of Earth, our spirit is of the Heavens, and through the conquest of Antinous over the 72 Archons our spirit is set free.

Father Janus opens the way for the passage of Antinous through the outer limit of the celestial sphere. Janus is the mouth of the serpent that bites its tail, and we observe that as the common year is born, so the liberation of Antinous from our cosmos nears completion, with only eleven heavenly spirits standing before him.

This is the Holy Day of The Gate, the tool of the priesthood of Religion of Antinous. We wash our sacred stones and seek new auguries for the year.