SAINT SERGIUS AND SAINT BACCHUS

OCTOBER 7 the Religion of Antinous honors St. Sergius and St. Bacchus, Christian patron saints of male-male love.

They were inseparable officers in the Roman army stationed in Syria during the reign of Emperor Maximian, who was fond of them and honored them repeatedly, which gave rise to jealousy in the court. 

A rival denounced Sergius and Bacchus, accusing them of not venerating the ancient gods of Rome, and of being Christians. When summoned to sacrifice to the genius of the Emperor, as was the Roman custom, Sergius and Bacchus refused.

They were imprisoned and subjected to a long series of tortures aimed at forcing them to sacrifice to the gods. They were stripped of their uniforms and made to walk through the streets wearing the clothing of women, a strange form of humiliation not usually inflicted on Christians, but a sign that their sexuality was being used to mock the saints.

Bacchus was beaten to death, but Sergius proved to be considerably  stronger than any torture that the Pagans could subject him to. When he was on the verge of surrender, and in despair, the spirit of Bacchus appeared to him and said: 

"Why do you grieve and mourn, brother? If I have been taken from you in body, I am still with you in the bond of union — Hurry then, yourself, through beautiful and perfect confession to pursue and obtain me."

Sergius was so strengthened that he could not be compelled to betray his faith, and the pagans chopped off his head.

For their strength and for the valor of their love for one another, and because for so many centuries they have remained the champions of homosexual love and devotion, we honor the Christian Saints Sergius and Bacchus as saints of the Religion of Antinous.

PART OF HADRIAN'S WALL FOUND IN MIDDLE OF NEWCASTLE

A part of Hadrian’s Wall has been found in the middle of modern Newcastle, shedding new light on its route across the north of England. 

Ironically, the section of the historic wall was uncovered outside the Mining Institute on Westgate Road.

Diggers made the discovery as they excavated land during restoration works at the Victorian building. It was reportedly last seen during a similar excavation at the site in 1952. 

But Simon Brooks, acting general manager of the Mining Institute, said: "There was some controversy about whether the Wall had been found. A lot of people were skeptical but now we have proof positive and we are delighted."

Site investigations are now being carried out by Newcastle-based The Archaeological Practice.

Archaeologist Alan Rushworth said:

"Various people had cast doubts about what had been found in 1952 but this now adds a lot more precision about the course of the wall."

Nick Hodgson, author of the new book, "Hadrian's Wall on Tyneside," said: "It is wonderful to see the wall again in the centre of Newcastle."

The wall has also been previously located under the Coopers Mart building at the bottom of Westgate Road, now occupied by Ryder Architecture.

The remains of a milecastle ... a small Roman fort ... have also been found near Newcastle Arts Centre on Westgate Road.

ANTIKYTHERA SHIPWRECK TREASURE TROVE FAR GREATER THAN BELIEVED

MARINE archaeologists report they have uncovered a bronze arm and the remains of at least seven more priceless statues from an ancient Roman shipwreck famed for yielding an amazingly sophisticated astronomical calculator the "Antikythera Mechanism" for casting horoscopes.

Divers found the right arm, encrusted and stained green, under sediment on the boulder-strewn slope where the ship and its cargo now rest. 

The huge vessel, perhaps 50 meters from bow to stern, was sailing from Asia Minor to Rome when it foundered near the tiny island between Crete and the Peloponnese.

An international survey team says the ship is twice as long as originally thought and contains many more calcified objects amid the ship's lost cargo that hint at new discoveries.

The ancient Roman shipwreck was lost off the Greek coast around 67 BC, filled with statues and the famed astronomical clock.

"What we're finding is these sculptures are in among and under the boulders," said Brendan Foley, co-director of the excavations team at Lund University. "We think it means a minimum of seven, and potentially nine, bronze sculptures still waiting for us down there." 

The boulders that overlie the metal objects weigh several tons and may have tumbled onto the wreck during a massive earthquake that shook Antikythera and surrounding islands in the 4th century AD.

The bronze arm, probably from a statue of a male, is the highlight of the team's 2017 excavation season. 

Among other objects the divers recovered are a patterned slab of red marble the size of a tea tray, a silver tankard, sections of joined wood from the ship’s frame, and a human bone. 

Last year, the team found the skull, teeth, ribs and other bones of an individual who perished on the wreck. They have since extracted DNA from the skull and from it learned the individual's sex and where they came from. 

Until those results are published, the person is known as Pamphilos after divers found the name, meaning “friend of all”, carved on a buried cup that had been decorated with an erotic scene.

Salvaged by the Greek navy and skin divers in 1901, its stern perched too deep for its original skin-diver discoverers to find. The wreck is best known for yielding a bronze astronomical calculator, the "Antikythera Mechanism" widely seen as the most complex device known from antiquity, along with dozens of marble and bronze statues. 

The mechanism apparently used 37 gear wheels, a technology reinvented a millennium later, to create a lunar calendar and predict the motion of the planets, which was important knowledge for casting horoscopes and planning festivals in the ancient world.

A lead anchor recovered in a stowed position in the new survey shows that the ship likely sank unexpectedly when "a storm blew it against an underwater cliff," says marine archaeologist Theotokis Theodoulou of Greece's Ephorate (Department) of Underwater Antiquities. "It seems to have settled facing backwards with its stern (rear) at the deepest point," he says.

COLOSSEUM OPENS ITS TOP LEVELS TO TOURISTS FOR FIRST TIME IN DECADES

PLEBS may have been the lowliest of the low, but they had a stupendous view of ancient Rome.

For the first time in decades, visitors can have a plebeian's eye view of the Colosseum, the oval amphitheatre where gladiators fought wild animals - and each other.

From November 1, tourists will be able to climb to the fifth and highest level of the arena, which was reserved for Rome's plebeian classes.

Groups of up to 25 people will be led up to the highest reaches of the amphitheatre by guides.

The "plebs" sat on wooden benches, unlike the senators and imperial officials on lower levels, who parked their behinds on marble benches.

"The noise and the smell would have been hellish," Rossella Rea, the director of the Colosseum, told The Telegraph of London from the top level of the Colosseum, which rises more than 120 feet (30 meters) above the ground.

"The wild animals were kept in underground tunnels. They were not fed for days. So when they were hoisted up from the darkness to the arena in cages, they would have been terrified. The carnage was terrible."

While the first level of the Colosseum was reserved for the emperor and his senators, the second was occupied by imperial functionaries.

The third was given over to the middle-class, while the fourth ... which will also be opened to the public next month ... was the realm of traders, merchants and shopkeepers.

Ordinary people had to clamber up steep flights of stone steps and walk along dimly-lit tunnels to reach the fifth and final level.

"It was tiring to get all the way up there," said Professor Rea. "A lot of the plebeians brought food from home ... pieces of chicken, cereals, that kind of thing.

"You have to remember that the games lasted all day so they and their families needed some sustenance."

The poor were at least compensated with expansive views not only of the 50,000 other people crammed into the Colosseum, but of the nearby Forum and the Palatine Hill, where emperors built their palaces.

Spectators received tickets which indicated their seat numbers and which entrance to use, much as in modern stadiums.

LOOK INTO THE EYES OF A GAY PERSON AND YOU SEE ANTINOUS LOOKING BACK

OUR Flamen Antonius Subia likes to say that when you look into the eyes of a gay person, you see Antinous looking back at you. (Portrait entitled "Restored Antinoos" above by Damylion.)

And that means Antinous is the one who looks out of my eyes and out of your eyes and out of everyone's eyes ... that Antinous is the beholder and the beheld ... Antinous is the same center.

You know that when you look at another human being, and you look straight into their eyes, it feels uncomfortable. There's something embarrassing about looking into someone's eyes too closely.

It's as though you might find out who that person really is. And what do you suppose that would be?

Do you suppose that another person who looks deeply into your eyes will read all the things you're ashamed of, all your faults, all the things you are guilty of? Or is there some deeper secret than that?

The eyes are our most sensitive organ, and when you look and look into another gay person's eyes you are looking at the most beautiful jewels in the universe.

And if you look down beyond that surface beauty, it's the most beautiful jewel in the universe for the simple reason that it is Antinous the Gay God looking at you.

We are the eyes of Antinous. So in a way, when you look deeply into somebody's eyes, you're looking deep into yourself, and the other person is looking deeply into the same self ... Antinous the Gay God.

'TOTALITER ALITER'

THE TALE OF THE TWO PRIESTS 

OF ANTINOUS

(From THE MEMOIRS OF AN ANCIENT PRIEST OF ANTINOUS by Ernest Gill)

TWO PRIESTS  of Antinous at the Temple of the Blessed Boy in Rome had devoted their lives to the Good God and were getting on in years.

As young men they had become priests together.

Their love for each other was symbolized and enhanced by their love for Antinous. Together, they had lived out their lives at the great Temple of Rome under the most exalted Priest Nikias.

Nikias of Rome was the author of a famous inscription in Greek which addresses Antinous as NEOS HERMES the "New Hermes" who conveys the deceased through the portals of death into transcendent light. A great Antinoo-Hermeticist, Nikias had taught them much about the triumph of Antinous over death.

And now, as toothless old men, they were approaching the final stage of their earthly priesthood. Both men were frail and ill. They knew death was imminent.

But they were unafraid, for they were confident that they would be re-united in death through the grace and love of the Most Great and Good God whom they had served so faithfully all their lives.

But how exactly would that re-union occur? The ancient texts spoke of the Barque of Millions of Years sailing across the heavens towards the Star of Antinous. But that was the Egyptian imagery, and these priests were both Romans and had only ever served in the Antinous Temple of Rome.

The Rome Temple would of course place their death masks in niches in a special area of the temple dedicated to former priests.

Incense and prayers would be offered to them. Would their shades inhabit those niches?

Would Antinous welcome them in Hades, despite the fact that Antinous the Boy God had come from Bithynia in Asia Minor?

Would their souls be reincarnated as some Eastern mystics believed? Would they hover between heaven and Earth or perhaps be consigned to spending part of the year in the underworld and part of it as lemurs roaming the Earth?

They weren't afraid. But they were exceedingly curious to find out. Confidentially, they believed amongst themselves that they would sail with Antinous aboard the Boat of Millions of Years —  a perpetual journey which would never end. But they weren't sure ....

They had spent years perfecting their meditation skills and, without false modesty, they could claim to be masters at the art of trance vision travel. They both knew that the Egyptian hieroglyphs had told the truth in promising that Antinous speaks through dreams and visions. They also knew how to send psychic messages to each other, and had done so on many occasions.

So they made a deal. He who was the first to die would appear to the other in a dream and reveal what the afterlife was like.

As accomplished as they were, they nonetheless knew that such astral communication must be as succinct and simple as possible.

So they agreed that, if the afterlife was as they had envisioned it, the deceased would appear to his friend and utter the word TALITER meaning "exactly so" as they had expected it to be.

And if it was not as they had imagined, the deceased would say ALITER meaning "different" from what they had expected.

The fateful day came not long afterward, and the surviving priest lit incense and recited prayers before the niche mask of his beloved friend and fellow priest.

That night, almost immediately after his head touched his pillow, his deceased friend appeared to him. He was no longer old and sick and frail. He was as young and handsome as the day they had entered the temple. And he was smiling and clearly very excited and seemed to have forgotten the agreed-upon words.

"Taliter or aliter, which is it?" the sleeping priest asked his departed friend.

The friend smiled bigger than ever and said: TOTALITER ALITER — "totally different" — and still beaming with joy, he turned and vanished into golden light.

 

ANTINOUS AND THE ORPHIC MYSTERIES

ON THIS DAY, October 1st, the beginning of the holy month of the Sacred Nights of Antinous, we venerate Orpheus. 

Antinous our God was initiated into the cult of Orpheus so that his teachings became part of the Religion of Antinous, and therefore we receive the salvation that Orpheus accomplished through our god Antinous, the New Dionysus.

It is on this date that the Religion of Antinous remembers the blessed heritage of The Orphic Mysteries, into which Hadrian and Antinous were both initiated.  

The Orphic Mysteries teach that human souls are divine and immortal but doomed to live (for a period) in a "grievous circle" of successive bodily existences through reincarnation. 

This belief that each of us is divine and immortal — Man-Godliness-Becoming-One — is the mystery which Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia calls HOMOTHEOSIS. 

By welcoming this divine force instead of rejecting it, we take the first step away from our instinctive animalistic fearful self on the long road to becoming a Shining One of Heaven.

Hadrian and Antinous must have known by heart the story of Orpheus in the Underworld: Orpheus was the son of Apollo and the muse Calliope, and from his father he received the Lyre and the gift of music. 

So powerful was the music of Orpheus that he could tame the hearts of beasts and birds and his song enchanted even the trees and stones.

He was one of the Argonauts who, together with Jason, retrieved the Golden Fleece. Returning from the journey, he married Euridice, but the marriage was short-lived because while fleeing the Shepherd God Aristaios (ironically also often depicted as a form of Antinous in ancient times), who was attempting to rape her, she was bitten by a snake hidden in the grass and died. 

Orpheus was so overwhelmed with grief that he used his powers of enchantment to travel to the underworld to bring back his wife.

His music soothed the three-headed dog, and gained his entry into the dark hall of Hades and Persephone. There he sang to the rulers of the underworld, and his song touched the cold heart of the Lady of Death. Persephone decreed that he could lead his wife out of hell provided that he did not turn to see her following.

Orpheus, singing as he went, very nearly succeeded, but at the last moment, at the very gate of darkness, he turned and saw his wife vanish back into oblivion.

Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia tells the rest of the story, and why it is important to us:

From that moment Orpheus was a changed man, he became a priest of Dionysus, and gave himself over to intoxication, completely shunning the company of women, and separating himself from the customs of the world. Orpheus is said to have been the first to sanctify homosexuality as an indulgence that frees the soul from  continued reincarnation through the procreation of the flesh. His journey through the underworld gave him a deep detestation of death that he developed into a new philosophy. Orpheus taught that we were all children of the fallen star Dionysus-Zagreus, who had been torn to pieces by the Titans and consumed by them so that his light was mingled throughout their flesh. Zeus struck the Titans down with his lightning and from their ashes arose mankind, fashioned by Prometheus.
So that we will never suffer the fate of passing into the realm of Hades, Orpheus taught that we must restrain our titanic nature and restore the purity of our godliness, we must become Bachkoi, which is that we must become Dionysus again. A pure life, free from murder, including blood sacrifice and the eating of meat is required, and we must undergo initiation into the blessed rites which he inaugurated.
Although part of the religion of Dionysus, the Orphic cult was limited to men. Orpheus wrote volumes of sacred poems that comprised the heart of his new religion. The Orphic cult was a combination of the freedom and indulgence of Dionysus, tempered with the high-minded nobility of Apollo.The Orphics denied the world and set their minds on the inner light of Dionysus so as to liberate the soul from imprisonment within the flesh.

You can see the parallels between the story of Orpheus and Eurydice and the true-life story of Hadrian and Antinous. The emperor mourned and wept and sought to bring his Beloved Boy back to the world of the living. 

Hadrian's route through the Underworld was of a purely spiritual nature. He recognized that Antinous had always been Divine — a fact which is a tenet of The Orphic Mysteries. He decided to establish a religion which would enable the followers of Antinous to become aware of their own Divine Nature and to become one with ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD.

It is indeed ironic that this beautiful religion was born out of Hadrian's inconsolable grief. But the divine regenerative sacred force of this phenomenon is the secret behind the Tarot Trump called Death.

Death occurs in so many forms. We experience Death in some form every day of our lives. Loss of job. Loss of a lover. Loss of a friendship. Loss of money or status. Loss of confidence in ourselves ....

Your grief can be the powerful Gnosis which makes you remember that you are the musician. You are the dancer. You are that which has died and entered the Underworld. You are also that which rises re-born bright and shining like the dawn sunrise.

It is the process (because it is a process and not a method) which Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia calls HOMOTHEOSIS ... "Gay-Man-God-Becoming-the-Same-As-Gay-Man-God."