THE NARCISSUS MOON OF ANTINOUS THE CANCER FIRST QUARTER MOON

TONIGHT's Cancer First Quarter Moon is the Lunar Phase of reflection and insight which we call the NARCISSUS MOON in Antinous Moon Magic.

Each Lunar Phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype. The Spirit of the Narcissus Moon is the Lover of the Self. It is the Spirit which tunes out all distractions and all other people in order to focus on the Divinity within. It is the Spirit of Self-Love and Same-Sex Love.

It is forever gazing into its own reflection and whispering to itself: You are Divine! The reflection and the viewer are one and the same. The Spirit of Narcissus is the Divinity which holds a mirror up to ourselves.

It invites you to look into the depths of yourself — find your Spiritual Twin. You may call this twin your "Soul," "Higher Self," "KA," "Spirit Guide" or "Guardian Angel." The terminology is unimportant. What is important is that you become aware of your Second Self.

In the Religion of Antinous, we call this the NARCISSUS PRINCIPLE, which is one of the founding principles of our religion. It is at the basis of the Spirit of Homosexuality -- Love of the Divine Self.

Most of us go through life unaware of this Other Self. We do what is expected of us. We do what we feel others want us to do. We put the perceived wants and needs of others ahead of our own. We think that it's "selfish" to put our own interests first.

But the Narcissus Moon reminds us that there is another Self ... a Spiritual Self ... without which we are not spiritually whole. For it is only by "looking out for Number 1" that we are physically, mentally and spiritually able to love ourselves. And only then can we truly love others.

The Narcissus Moon invites you to take a deep and profound look at yourself, with all your strengths and all your weaknesses, all your virtues and all your faults, all your courageous achievements and all your failures. Become aware of your Spiritual Twin, so that together, as one spiritual entity, you can fulfill your destiny.

Meditations and rituals on this night are well suited for delving into your inner self, for exploring the spiritual being which dwells within. This is also a good time for determining whether you are perhaps too self-centered and introspective and whether you focus on yourself to the exclusion of others.

LABRADORITE FOR THE NARCISSUS MOON By Our Crystal Meditation Advisor Martin Campbell

AT tonight's Narcissus Moon we should remember that vanity and loving oneself are very different things...

Vanity focuses on the physical appearance you present to the world. It is important to be comfortable with that and ensure you love the image you create and project. Perhaps falling in love with yourself to the exclusion of all others is less positive - as the story of Narcissus illustrates.

Loving oneself is often seen as negative in European cultures. In the UK especially it is seen as quite vulgar to say that you love yourself. It is viewed as selfish and vane. This is so wrong. As Louise Hay says in her seminal book 'You Can Heal Your Life':

"I am talking about having a great respect for ourselves and a gratitude for the miracle of our bodies and our minds."

She goes on to recommend looking at yourself in a mirror, meet your eyes and tell yourself how much you love and respect yourself. Repeat this a few times a day - preferably every day.

LGBTU people have often had to grow up in societies which tell us that we are evil, dirty or repulsive. It can be hard to shake off that negative  view of yourself. So try what Louise calls 'Mirror Work' - it is very effective at boosting your self-esteem and self-worth. You are amazing!

Antinous provides a positive reflection of ourselves. He is the eternal image of a man who loved a man. He is the spiritual guide for all people who love people of their own gender or realise that they love themselves as a different gender.  He will be reflected in that mirror too.

Excellent crystals for inner reflection on yourself are:

Labradorite - This one of my favourite crystals (photo above) - partly for its iridescent beauty but also because of its many healing attributes. These include the ability to help you to have faith in yourself. It also brings positive contemplation and introspection.

Fire Agate - This is a powerful crystal (above left) particularly helps with introspection and finding inner peace with yourself.

Apophyllite - This crystal also encourages introspection but helps the process to reveal the truth of who you really are.

Whilst I would, obviously, recommend that you hold these crystals during meditation during this moon phase I would also recommend doing the 'mirror work' Louise Hay recommends. I would add that doing the 'mirror work' while holding one (or all three) of the crystals above would make it even more effective.

Love and Light,

MARTIN

To get more advice from Martin Campbell and to find out how to contact him CLICK HERE.

ANTINOUS IN PESSINUS HOME OF GENDER-FLUID PRIESTS OF PHRYGIA

IN March of 129 AD Antinous and Hadrian arrived in the ancient city of Pessinus in Phrygia which was the cult center of the Great Mother of the Gods, Cybele.

It was from here that the Cult of Magna Mater, the Great Mother of the Gods, spread out into the world even unto Rome.

Pessinus was ruled by the transgender high priestess known as the Archigallus who together with her transgender galloi priestesses worshipped a black stone that had fallen from the sky and was the embodiment of the Great Mother herself.

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 emissary 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.

Along with the stone came the transgender priestesses who castrated themselves as an offering to the goddess and served her for the rest of their lives dressed as women, in keeping with the beautiful boy Attis, who sacrificed his manhood to the goddess. They danced wild ecstatic dances to the beat of drums and cymbals drawing their blood as an offering.

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 here shows a mother figure on a chariot drawn 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.

The proximity of Bithynium-Claudiopolis to Pessinus makes it likely that Antinous was familiar with and participated in the Cult of Magna Mater.

And the discovery of an image of Antinous in the sanctuary of Magna Mater in the port city of Ostia outside of Rome suggests that the cult of Antinous was connected to the transgender cult of the Mother Goddess.

The festival of the death and rebirth of Attis, who was transformed into a Pine tree, was celebrated at the March Equinox in Rome and in Pessinus and it was at this time that Hadrian and Antinous attended the festival in its ancient sacred city. We pray for the blessing of Magna Mater and the reborn transgender goddess Attis.

WE HONOR THE EMPRESS SABINA

THE Empress Sabina Augusta ... Vibia Sabina ... Hadrian's Wife ... died sometime in the year 136, and was deified in the year 138.

The date of her elevation to godliness is not known, but because she was so often compared to the Mother Goddess Ceres-Demeter, we declare her Apotheosis to coincide with the return of spring in Rome, and dedicate our celebration of the Equinox to our mother and Empress, Nova Dea Ceres, Sabina Augusta.

This relief sculpture of her deification, in which she is shown rising up from the cremation flames on the wings of a female Aeon, shows Hadrian enthroned, behind him is a figure that resembles Antoninus Pius.

And reclining on the floor is one who could possibly be Antinous, the resemblance to the youth on the Apotheosis of Antoninus is remarkable.

ANTINOUS WORSHIPERS IN GLOBAL RITES TO CELEBRATE THE SACRED BOAR HUNT

TONIGHT, in observance of the Ancient Roman Vernal Equinox, modern-day priests of Antinous around the world conferred via Zoom to carry out rituals commemorating the Sacred Boar Hunt.

The priests from both sides of the Atlantic joyously celebrated the Sacred Boar Hunt of Antinous which was one of the few recorded events in the actual life of Antinous.

This wonderful, mysterious hunt represents the pinnacle of his life ... Antinous at the highest point of his brief mortal existence, full of youth, beauty and vitality ... mounted on horseback in the forest with his lover Hadrian, hunting a boar. 

That night there was sure to have been a big party, Roman style, with delicious boar meat, drinking, music, wild sex, and all the good things in life.

This is what our festival means ... to enjoy life ... to take it all in right now and be glad that we are alive and well.

Take all your pain and disappointment of the past, unfulfilled wishes, regrets, embarrassment, mistakes ... Hopes and dreams that never came true ... Take a moment to set yourself free of their burden, they are of no use to you anymore. 

Instead, look to good things that you have now, the pleasures and beauties that surround you, the friends you hold close, the accomplishments you have earned, enjoy what the gods have given you ... eat, drink, fall in love, indulge in sexual desire ... in all the splendors of being alive, right now at this moment.

For as just like Antinous as he rode, strong, young, beautiful and free, we never know what fate has in store. One year after the Boar Hunting ... Antinous was dead.

I offer my Blessing to All the people who love and believe in Antinous everywhere in the world on this occasion of the Sacred Boar Hunt. 

I ask Antinous to bless us as we begin the transition into this new phase of development. May the Temple of Antinous gather together in great numbers from all over the globe!

May the Meat of the Sacred Boar 

Feed the spirit of Homotheosis

In all our hearts!

Ave Antinous!

~Antonius Nicias Subia

Flamen Antinoalis

ANTINOUS SAINTS BLESS THE MARRIAGE OF BRAZIL'S FIRST PRIEST OF ANTINOUS

SAINTS Sergius and Bacchus continue to bless gay nuptials in their roles as patrons of Marriage Equality.

Marriage Equality is legal in Brazil ... and those saints were honored along with Antinous the Gay God at this wedding in Campinas, São Paulo, on 23 March 2013! 

See if you can spot an image of Antinous visible in this photo of the wedding of gay educator-journalist Deco Ribeiro (Brazil's first priest of Antinous) and his beloved Chessler Lohren Beauty.

A giant icon of Saints SERGIUS AND BACCHUS is the backdrop for the altar in the background. 

And also THE TWO LOVERS OF ANTINOOPOLIS are invoked. And it is in the upper corner of their round tondo portrait that you see a small golden image of Antinous.

May these Saints of Antinous watch over Chessler and Deco for all eternity.

ANTINOUS-ATTIS DIES AND IS REBORN DURING THE CYCLE OF THE EQUINOX

THE cycle of the March Equinox is Sacred to the Great Mother of the Gods, and to her divine lover-son Attis, who dies and is reborn at this time of year.

Persephone returns from the underworld, and the verdure returns to the face of the Earth.

The death of Attis is symbolic of the fruit flowers that appear at this  season and then fall away, making room for the ripening fruit.

It was celebrated in Rome with the introduction of a great pine tree that was carried into the Temple of Magna Mater.

An image of the dead Attis was carried on a bier and hung from the tree which was decorated with purple ribbons and violet flowers.

On the Day of Blood, the priests performed austerities including the  self-castration of new priests, and the bloodletting of the old priests  to the accompaniment of drum and cymbal music.

After the Day of Blood, when Attis was said to have risen again, the festival turned to joy and elation and was known as the Hilaria.

The final part of the sacred days was the day of cleansing, when the image of the Great Mother, a black stone encased in silver, was taken to the river Arno and washed by the priests.

Flamen Antonius Subia says:

"The five-day cycle of the Equinox ... the Mithraic Mysteries and all the other remembrances ... are all contained in the Death and Resurrection of Attis, the beautiful boy, who severed his own testicles and died giving his blood to the bosom of the earth ... but did not die."