MAGNUS HIRSCHFELD SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON May 14th, the Religion of Antinous honors the life of the Father of Gay Liberation, Doctor Magnus Hirschfeld, who died on this day in 1935 (which was his 67th birthday) while in exile form his native Germany in Nice, France. He died a broken and embittered man.

A life that had started out with such lofty ambitions ended in disillusionment. He was of Jewish ancestry and began his career as a medical doctor but very soon devoted his life to the study of homosexuality.

In 1897 he founded the Scientific Humanitarian Committee, which was an organization whose publication, called The Yearbook of Intermediate Sexual Types, was devoted to the repeal of "Paragraph 175", a law passed by the Reichstag in 1869.

The work of the committee included ongoing lobbying supported by the scientific studies of Dr. Hirschfeld into human sexuality. This study culminated in the formation of the Institute for Sexual Science in 1919.

Dr. Hirschfeld spent the majority of his career writing and lecturing around the world on the nature of homosexuality and other "intermediate" sexual types, including cross dressers. The word "transsexual" was coined by Dr. Hirschfeld to describe the phenomenon that he argued was a natural extension of human sexuality.

His philosophy centered on the contention that there was a third sex, called the Uranian, which was neither male nor female, but a combination of both that was manifested in homosexuality, which was not to be considered an impure deviation, or even as an illness, but as a natural and phenomenal component of human nature.

For his work, the Nazis targeted Dr. Hirschfeld as an example of decadent Bolshevistic/Jewish influence infecting the purity of the German people, luring the Aryan race into impure and destructive perversity. He was ultimately driven into exile and burned in effigy as an emblem of evil. His institute was ransacked May 6th and his books were publicly burned in a bonfire on May 10th, 1933.

The slogan with which he began his speeches, "Uranians of the World, Unite!" was not to be realized until our own time. For his courage and his career of some thirty years, all of which was spent in tireless devotion to the cause of Gay Liberation, we venerate Saint Magnus Hirschfeld.

WE OFFER GARLANDS OF FLOWERS AT THE FESTIVAL OF NEPTUNE

MAY 13th is the Roman Festival of offering Garlands to Neptune, the Roman equivalent of Poseidon, god of the seas and oceans. He is known for his quick temper which turns the sea from tranquil to stormy. Today you should offer garlands of flowers to him, to keep his temper sweet and the seas calm. Antinous was associated with Neptune, who had relations with another male sea deity Nerites. Their son was Anteros, god of mutual requited love. At the temple of Antinous in Corinth, temple Priest Hostilius Marcellus minted coins of Antinous with Neptune. Coins fetch thousands at auction.

13 de maio é a festa romana de oferendas guirlandas de Netuno, o equivalente romano de Poseidon, deus dos mares e oceanos. Ele é conhecido por seu temperamento rápido que transforma o mar de tranquilo a tempestuoso. Hoje você deve oferecer guirlandas de flores para ele, para manter seu temperamento doce e os mares calmos.

El 13 de mayo es el Festival Romano de ofrendas de guirnaldas a Neptuno, el equivalente romano de Poseidón, dios de los mares y los océanos. Él es conocido por su temperamento rápido que convierte el mar de tranquilo a tormentoso. Hoy deberías ofrecerle guirnaldas de flores, mantener su temperamento dulce y calmar los mares.you to all of you who sent messages and prayers for the 1st April birthday of Venus/Aphrodite.

ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΙ ΗΡΟΙ (TO ANTINOUS THE HERO)

HERE IS an Antinous image rarely seen, but which I love.

Let me first call attention to the wonderful way that his name is written, combining the second two letters.

I love it...too bad it has been defaced...because I love the body and the stance.

And I would say that this is the only Antinous shown holding a spear. Historical record states that Antinous hurled an adamantine-tipped spear at a man-eating lion in Egypt ...

It was found in the ancient Roman stadium in the city of Plovdiv in Bulgaria, called Philippopolis in Roman times.

Games were held in Philippopolis like those in Greece. The games were organized by the General Assembly of the province of Thrace.

This marble slab was found during excavations at the stadium proving that there were games celebrating Antinous. Games in honor of Antinous were held in ANTINOOPOLIS and in numerous other cities in the Eastern Empire. 

This votive tablet dedicated to Antinous is exibited in the PLOVDIV ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM.

The inscription on the slab reads:

ΑΝΤΙΝΟΟΙ ΗΡΟΙ (to Antinous the hero)

On a number of coins of Antinous, he is honored as a hero. Syncretism of Antinous with locally relevant heroes of various types is certainly a likely thing to have occurred.

Even Hadrian himself honored Antinous as a hero in at least one location: the temple founded in Socanica, Dalmatia (modern Croatia), which was co-founded with his adopted heir, Aelius Caesar, in 136 AD.

Of the various classes of divine being that existed for the Greeks, heroes are an interesting option. Gods are gods, and demigods are often born of a god and one mortal parent. 

Many heroes seem to have started out as strictly mortal. Whatever the cultic or theological reality may be in each individual case, perhaps the main distinction is that most gods have a timeless and almost eternal quality about them, whereas heroes have a beginning and an end in death, but a very glorious afterlife.

Some heroes such as Hercules were eventually deified. The same happened in the case of "Antinous the Hero," who underwent apotheosis and became "Antinous the Good God."
 
There always seems to be something new to learn about Antinous.

There always seems to be another image, another bust, even another statue, such as the "Dresden Antinous" shown here, which Priest Julien and I were honored to see at the GETTY VILLA MUSEUM, where it was painstakingly restored before being returned to Germany...

There could well be others hidden away in private collections ....

FLAMEN ANTINOALIS ANTONIUS SUBIA

THE TWO LOVERS OF ANTINOOPOLIS

ON MAY 10th the Religion of Antinous honors two men we call the Two Lovers of Antinoopolis who lived in the Sacred City of Antinoopolis and who worshiped the Beauteous Boy and whose joint portrait is one of the great mysteries of Egyptology.

This round portrait, called a "tondo" because of its circular format, was used as a face plate on a mummy. The vicinity of Antinoopolis and the Fayoum Oasis region is famous for hundreds of such mummy portraits which give us a priceless look at how the residents of the Sacred City actually looked. It is believed these were portraits which had hung in people's homes and which were interred with the deceased, as a reminder to their Ka about who they were in mortal life.

The tondo is unique, though, because it shows two faces. Archaeologists have no explanation as to why anyone would want the face plate on a mummy to show two men's faces. The conventional explanation is that they were perhaps brothers and when one of them died, his surviving brother insisted on burying him with their joint portrait to show his fraternal love.

But one glance at the portrait shows that the two men bear little resemblance to each other.

Even more striking is the difference in skin coloring. Throughout Egyptian art, males were portrayed as having typically ruddy-brown skin and girls and women as having creamy colored skin ... that was the iconic rule in Ancient Egyptian art. The skin colors do not represent the ACTUAL skin tones of the people, just as the idealized features of pharaohs don't reflect how they actually looked.

In Ancient Egyptian art, even if two individuals appear to be identically dressed with wigs and flowing robes, you can distinguish gender roles by skin color.

Ruddy skin means male. Creamy skin means female.

That makes it all the more interesting to look at the Tondo of the Two Lovers, because one man has dark "male type" skin coloring and the other man has very light "female type" skin coloring. Such contrasting skin coloring traditionally was used only for married male-female couples in Ancient Egyptian art.


Even when the hairstyles and clothing are barely indistinguishable in Egyptian art, the difference in skin tones is a gender-role clue. Any Egyptian would instantly register the visual "pun" and would think it no accident.The artist who painted the Tondo of the Two Lovers appears to have been giving us a clue as to the relationship between the two men.

The Tondo has been dated between 130-150 AD which would place them as nearly contemporaries of Antinous, living in His Sacred City in the first bloom of the Religion of Antinous. French architectural historian Jean-Claude Golvin painted this stunning rendering of Antinoopolis at its height.

But of even more significance are the small images of Greco-Egyptian gods placed above their shoulders. The darker man is guarded by a figure which some experts identify as Hermanubis, a god of the underworld adored in the nearby city of Hermopolis. His name is variously interpreted as "Hermes/Anubis" or "Horus-as-Anubis", depending on whether you read the Latin or the Egyptian spellings.

The cult of Hermanubis was on the rise in Rome at this time and he was interpreted as a solar deity who (like Hermes/Mercury and Horus) led the dead through the darkness to everlasting sunlight. A crack runs through the figure, however, making its identity somewhat unsure. At one point Hermanubis had a large cult following in Rome itself and his face graced Imperial coins. But his cult was suppressed almost as quickly as it rose, for moralistic reasons which are hard to reconstruct.

The lighter skinned and more beautifully dressed boy is watched over by Antinous, the patron god of Antinoopolis, who grasps a Dionysiac scepter and who wears the SWTY (Two Feathers) crown of divinity symbolic of his many-faceted Sacred Powers. It is ironic that the Christians later suppressed the cult of Antinous for moralistic reasons, just as the cult of Hermanubis had been suppressed by the Romans. Was there a sexual/moral connection between the two cults?

At any rate, this makes the Tondo of the Two Lovers the only portrait painting of Antinous to have survived, and the only image of two probable followers of HIS religion.

The faint inscription beneath the image of Antinous reads 15 Pachon, which is a date in the Greek calendar that corresponds to the 10th of May. No one knows what the significance of this date might be. An anniversary, perhaps.

The younger figure is wearing a splendid red wrap held in place by an impressive amethyst brooch in a gold setting ... a family heirloom perhaps. The artist has gone to pains to render it perfectly. The embroidery on his white tunic is very fine. An oriental swastika good-luck charm is stitched into his right sleeve.

Perhaps the portrait was commissioned for the day (May 10th) when he donned his manly robes for the first time on his 16th birthday, as was the Roman custom. The peach-fuzz on his face gives him the appearance of an adolescent.

The older man (who could 30-something) stands behind him, as if symbolically showing his love and support of his young companion. He could be an older brother or uncle. He could even be the youth's father ... life expectancy was shorter then, and people married early in those days and were grandparents by their mid-30s.

But just perhaps the composition and skin-tone nuances are subtle clues by the artist that these two men shared an older-man, younger-man relationship ... a Classical Greek-style erastes/eromenos relationship ... similar to that of Hadrian and Antinous. After all, this city was founded on Hadrian's love for Antinous.

The Temple of Antinous honors these two men on May 10th ... the day which was so special to them, for reasons known only to them and to the gods they worshiped ... Hermanubis and Antinous! 

GHOST OF AN ANCIENT ROMAN SOLDIER 'STILL PATROLS HADRIAN'S WALL'

MAY 9th is the start of the ancient Roman Lemuria (also Lemuralia) feast when Romans appeased Lemures/Larvae (angry ghosts).

Even today, a Roman soldier's ghost still dutifully patrolling Hadrian's Wall, local people say.

Amateur photographer Stuart Murray was out with friends at night trying to get pictures of the Northern Lights by the Unesco World Heritage Site when this spooky apparition appeared on camera.

The 26-year-old security engineer said: "We had set out because the live data was looking good for a display of the Northern Lights, the stats were good but when we got there it was cloudy.

"On a good night that area near the wall is very good getting shots of the lights," he told reporters.

"Me and friends were just chatting taking some test shots and then this figure just appeared on camera."

Stuart said he and his pals initially thought it was a sheep or something which had wondered into the frame but when they ran over there was nothing there.

He added: "It was not in any of the other shots, just this one, when we realised there was nothing there which could have popped up like that we got really excited and people started to say it was the ghost of an old Roman soldier.

"I have heard stories about a Roman soldier who has been spotted patrolling the wall, maybe the stories are true ... who knows."

Hadrian's Wall was a defensive fortification in the Roman province of Britannia, begun in 122 AD in the reign of the Emperor Hadrian.

It ran from the banks of the River Tyne near the North Sea to the Solway Firth on the Irish Sea, and was the northern limit of the Roman Empire.

THE AQUARIUS THIRD QUARTER MOON THE FORUM MOON

THE ANCIENT Priests of Antinous were known for making oracles, taking auspices and casting magical prayer spells. The Phases of the Moon were vitally important, especially since Antinous was worshiped as a Lunar Deity. Each major phase of the moon had a specific oracular significance.

Each Lunar Phase occurs at a particular time of year and represents a particular archetypal astrological meaning.

Tonight's AQUARIUS THIRD QUARTER MOON comes on the heels of last week's SCORPIO FULL MOON and a week prior to the upcoming GEMINI NEW MOON. In the Religion of Antinous we call this Lunar Phase THE FORUM MOON, named for the Roman Forum.

Each Lunar Phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype. The Spirit of the FORUM MOON is the Spirit of the Public Person. This is the Mood and Spirit of a city, neighborhood or work place. It is the combined Spirit of all the people who inhabit that place and indeed the very Spirit of the place itself.

This is the best Lunar Phase of the year for oracles or spell work involving interaction with groups or a public setting. Gathering place. Club. Work place. Any place where numerous people gather. It is also the best moon for rituals focusing on parks, gardens and the outdoors in general, such as working rituals for protecting a back garden or outdoor venue.

It is also the best moon for working spells involving "strangers," by  which we mean people outside your immediate circle of family and close friends. The Environment. Crowds. Society at large. Stage. Audience. It represents strangers and crowds. People you work with.

It represents your interaction with the world beyond your doorstep. It is the world at large. It is Internet groups and forums. It is the company you work for. It is schools and hospitals. It is the perfect Lunar Phase for for what Chaos magicians call cyber-magic.

IT'S RUBIES FOR THE FORUM MOON By Our Crystal Meditation Advisor Martin Campbell

OUR astrological expert Hernestus describes the Aquarius Third Quarter Moon as the FORUM MOON perfect for oracles or spell work involving interaction with groups or a public setting - any place where numerous people gather, especially gardens and parks.

Many of you find yourself attending meetings in your work. Hopefully you all have social interactions with groups of friends. You may even be lucky enough to meet in open spaces. 

Such gatherings and interactions are how we humans meet, do business and attempt to understand one another. 

It is likely that we have the most developed manner of communicating of all Earth's animals. Some of us are very good at interacting - many are not. So we can use this opportunity to either enhance our existing ability or develop one we lack.

So, for crystal enhanced meditations this moon phase I would recommend the following crystals:

Ruby - Rubies are protective crystals so help prevent the impact of others negative communication. They are best known for helping you to have crystal sharp thoughts, confidence and even dynamic leadership - you can become the life of the party!

Celestite - These beautiful pale blue crystals have many attributes. For this moon phase, however, they have key two key aspects. Firstly they bring mental clarity aiding fluent communication. Secondly they help you to analyse complex ideas and be open to new ones - ideal for a positive exchange of ideas.

Love and Light,

MARTIN

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