NIANKHKHNUM and KHNUMHOTEP SAINTS OF ANTINOUS

ON November 11th the Religion of Antinous honors two men whose love for each other has survived the fall of all ancient civilizations.

We honor Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep, Blessed Saints of Antinous.They lived in Egypt 2,000 years before the siege of Troy. 

They had been dead and forgotten for 2,650 years when Hadrian and Antinous visited Mennefer (Memphis) Egypt in 130 AD. 

Most likely Hadrian and Antinous stood directly on top of (or very nearly on top of) the lost tomb of these two men — two men who were buried together at the Memphis necropolis some 4,500 years ago.

When the tomb was discovered in 1964 it sent shock waves through the dusty world of Egyptology. The vividly painted reliefs on the walls of the tomb showed an intimate embrace between two male Royal Manicurists — the first recorded depiction of an openly homosexual couple.
Prudish Egyptologists have argued ever since that the two men were "just good friends" or perhaps that they were possibly "twin brothers".

But recent research by more open-minded archaeologists, such as California-based EGYPTOLOGIST GREG REEDER, has offered compelling evidence that the two men were more than "just good friends" or "close brothers."

Greg Reeder has written and lectured extensively on this extraordinary tomb, which was uncovered in 1964 in the necropolis of Saqqara at Memphis, on the west bank of the Nile. The site atop a cliff overlooking the Nile has drawn tourists since ancient times. Julius Caesar and Cleopatra stood atop this cliff and gazed in awe at its ancient tomb structures.

Hadrian and Antinous almost certainly stood on this very same spot in October of the year 130 AD, only weeks before Antinous drowned in the Nile. Beneath their feet was the Lost Tomb of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep. The sand has been removed and now that long-lost tomb is no longer lost.

And what a tomb it is! It has a splendid entrance and charming layout befitting a pleasant gay holiday retreat cottage — for an eternal, never-ending holiday vacation.

While grave robbers stripped the tomb of relics in antiquity, the wall paintings reveal tantalizing hints about its original occupants. The men are repeatedly depicted together, sometimes holding hands, sometimes with their arms around each other.

In two instances they are shown with their noses touching — the most intimate embrace permitted in Egyptian art of the time — tantamount to kissing. Their bodies are pressed so closely together that their groins rub against each other in a decidedly intimate sort of way. 

In Ancient Egypt, such male-male depictions were reserved for kings who merged with gods, not for two mortal men.

They are so close together that some Egyptologists have theorized that they may have been Siamese twins joined at the hips.

Other figures, identified as wives and children, are relegated to the background. In one scene, in which the two men share a final banquet before their journey into the afterlife, Niankhkhnum' s "wife" has been plastered over by the craftsmen who decorated the tomb. Khnumhotep's spouse fails to make an appearance at all — highly unusual in Egyptian tomb art, if not totally unprecedented.

Throughout the tomb, the two men are depicted in joyous pursuits, such as this relief vignette (right) showing one of them playing flute accompaniment as the other sings.

The magnificent reliefs show a variety of scenes involving nude or semi-nude males involved in all sorts of artistic and manly activities, such as one scene (below left) of a sort of "Egyptian Rodeo" bull-roping tournament with accompanying scenes of a raucous "beef barbecue" feast.

Or the scene (below right) of athletic youths — so sparingly attired you can see they are circumcised — engaged in a playful mock battle using reed skiffs on the Nile.

Throughout the tomb, the reliefs show men, men, men (and a few token females) engaged in service to the tomb's two male occupants who are — unprecedented in Egyptian Sacred Art — wholly committed to each other. Other tombs invariably show man-and-wife. Not this one.

Hieroglyphs describe the men as "Overseers of the Royal Manicurists" to pharaoh. 
Ostensibly, they were responsible for the care of the pharaoh's hands and were among the select few permitted to touch the ruler. 

However, it is also possible that the title "Royal Manicurist" could be a ceremonial honor similar to the "Order of the Garter".

Though the hieroglyphs say nothing of the two men's relationship, Greg Reeder, an Egyptologist based in San Francisco, believes the wall paintings suggest homosexuality is the answer. Reeder points out that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep clearly chose to depict themselves in poses usually restricted to husbands and wives in other tombs. 

"Same-sex desire must be considered as a probable explanation," Reeder said at a lecture in Britain which made headlines a couple of years ago.

"We can only say for certain that the carvings show a profound intimacy between the two men, and the people who built the tomb were possibly unsure how to portray this," the US archaeologist noted.

The tomb was restored by German archaeologists in the late 1970s and opened to the public in the 1990s.

While gay tour operators have not targeted the site, in large part because Egypt outlaws homosexual activity, Greg Reeder's articles and lectures have created gay interest in this long-lost tomb.

"It has now become famous and lots of gay tourists go there," he says with scholarly pride.

Reeder notes that, regardless of whether the two men were sexual lovers, they were definitely two men who loved each other so much that they wanted to spend all eternity in an intimate embrace.

Even their two names are intertwined. Over the entrance to one chamber their names are mingled together so that Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep become "NiankhKHNUMhotep" — Peace and Life joined in the ram-headed Source-of-the-Nile Deity Khnum, clearly their mutual sacred patron.

Thus, their names blend together, forming a single name: "Joined in Life and Joined in Peace at the Source of All That Lives and Dies and is Born Again for All Eternity". Such is the subtlety of the Egyptian language, which turns a name into a commitment.
Our Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia says:

"Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep is one of the earliest and most vivid portrayals of homosexual love, crossing all boundaries, binding two men and two families for all time, and demonstrating the profound antiquity and sacredness of our form of love." 

Thanks largely to the bold and candid research of Greg Reeder, the names of Niankhkhnum and Khnumhotep have been rescued from oblivion, so that their KAs might live forever — together! 

SAINT ARTHUR RIMBAUD

ON November 10th the Religion of Antinous honors St. Arthur Rimbaud, the free-spirited French poet whose openly gay lifestyle shocked even the most avant garde artists of London and Paris in the late 19th Century.

On this day, in 1891, the poet Arthur Rimbaud, Saint of Antinous, died of cancer just three months short of his 37th birthday. Despite his early death, he was already an acclaimed and highly controversial literary figure.

In his youth, Rimbaud had been what we would nowadays call a twink. A schoolboy friend said he was prettier than any of the girls and that he had "the most beautiful pale blue eyes" he had ever seen.

Raised by a staunchly Catholic single mother in isolation in the country, Rimbaud ran away to Paris at age 16 with no money but with a prodigious talent for poetry — he had already published a couple of highly praised poems.

In Paris, Rimbaud's behavior became outwardly provocative. The mild-mannered country boy started drinking, speaking rudely and writing scatological poems, stealing books from local shops, and instead of his previous neat appearance and in defiance of short-hair fashions, he began to wear his hair rebelliously long.

At the same time he wrote to an old school teacher of his who had encouraged his poetic talents, telling him about his method for attaining poetical transcendence or visionary power through a "long, intimidating, immense and rational derangement of all the senses. The sufferings are enormous, but one must be strong, be born a poet, and I have recognized myself as a poet."

Still a teenager, he was friends with radical Communists in Paris known as the Communards (hence the name of the '80s pop group) and he even wrote a poem about being sodomized by drunken Communard paramilitary men entitled "Le Coeur Supplicié" (The Tortured Heart).

He solicited the friendship of the established poet Paul Verlaine by audaciously writing a love letter to him and enclosing two hotly sexy poems, including the hypnotic, gradually shocking "Le Dormeur du Val" (The Sleeper of the Vale), in which the forces of Nature more or less rape a sleeping soldier.
  
Verlaine, who was intrigued by Rimbaud, sent a reply that stated, "Come, dear great soul. We await you; we desire you," along with a one-way ticket to Paris.

Verlaine was so smitten with the 17-year-old Rimbaud, that he abandoned his heavily pregnant 17-year-old wife and took up living with Rimbaud instead. Verlaine quit his job to become what he called "a full-time professional drunk" At left is a caricature of Rimbaud that Verlaine lovingly sketched about that time.

All of Paris was shocked by their behavior which, even among avant-garde artists, was considered scandalous.

The two of them fled to London, where they lived the life of starving artists. Rimbaud spent most of his time in the Reading Room of the British Museum for the simple reason that "heating, lighting, pens and ink were free", he later said. 

Verlaine and Rimbaud had a volatile on-again, off-again relationship punctuated by drunken bitch fights and which climaxed with Verlaine firing a gunshot at Rimbaud which resulted in a wrist wound.

In his 20s and early 30s, Rimbaud was a vagabond poet who traveled the world, mostly on foot, doing odd jobs and writing poems. There is a marble plaque on the island of Java commemorating his short visit there as a soldier in the Dutch Colonial Army — he decided the military life was not for him and deserted almost immediately upon arrival there and returned to Europe.He was living on the Horn of Africa with an Ethiopian mistress (he had had several lovers of both sexes, basically one in every port) when his health began to deteriorate due to what would later be diagnosed as cancer — alas, the diagnosis would be made too late to save his life.

He was 17 years old when he wrote the poem The Drunken Boat: 

"..Lighter than a cork, I danced on the waves which men call eternal rollers of victims, for ten nights, without once missing the foolish eye of the harbor lights! Sweeter than the flesh of sour apples to children, the green water penetrated my pinewood hull and washed me clean of the bluish wine-stains and the splashes of vomit, carrying away both rudder and anchor. And from that time on I bathed in the Poem of the Sea, star-infused and churned into milk, devouring the green azures; where, entranced and pallid, a dreaming drowned man sometimes goes down; where, suddenly dyeing the bluenesses- deliriums and slow rhythms under the gleams of the daylight, stronger than alcohol, vaster than music-ferment the bitter redness of love."

 We dedicate this poem and the course of the free and disordered life  of St. Arthur Rimbaud to the period of 72 Archons, and our difficult passage towards godliness.

THE DEATH OF HEPHAESTION RECALLS THE DEATH OF ANTINOUS

THE 10th of November 324 BC is thought to be the day when Hephaestion died in the arms of Alexander the Great. Ancient writers said Hephaestion was "... by far the dearest of all Alexander's companions. He had been brought up with Alexander and shared all his secrets." This friendship lasted throughout their lives, and was compared, by others as well as themselves, to that of Achilles and Patroclus ... and by later generations to Hadrian and Antinous.

10 de novembro de 324 aC é o dia em que Hefestião morreu nos braços de Alexandre, o Grande. Escritores antigos disseram que Hefesto era "... de longe o mais querido de todos os companheiros de Alexandre. Ele havia sido educado com Alexandre e compartilhado todos os seus segredos". Essa amizade durou por toda a vida, e foi comparada, por outros como eles próprios, à de Aquiles e Patroclus ... e por gerações posteriores a Adriano e Antinous.

10 de noviembre de 324 AC es el día en que Hefestión murió en los brazos de Alejandro Magno. Escritores antiguos dijeron que Hefestión era "... de lejos el más querido de todos los compañeros de Alejandro. Había sido educado con Alejandro y compartido todos sus secretos". Esta amistad duró toda su vida, y fue comparada, por otros tanto como ellos mismos, a la de Aquiles y Patroclus ... y por generaciones posteriores a Hadrian y Antinous.

THE SCORPIO NEW MOON THE ZELUS MOON OF ANTINOUS

TONIGHT's Scorpio New Moon  is the darkest and most serious new moon of the year. In Antinous Moon Magic, we call it the ZELUS MOON in honor of the Dark Eros who teaches us to let go of things without fear.

This New Moon usually occurs at or near the cycle of ancient dark festivals which are mirrored in modern Halloween, Samhain, Día de los Muertos, All Souls Day, St. Martin's Processions, Trick-R-Treat and all the other variations of this primeval Dark Moon Lunar Festival.

This is the new moon to focus on death and rebirth. Remember the Phoenix rising from the ashes of its own destruction. It is a time to focus on positive ways to release any negative energies and go forward, transforming fear into magical strength and fortitude.

Each Lunar Phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype. The Spirit of the Zelus Moon is the Spirit of Fear. Fear expresses itself in so many ways, through jealousy, envy, rivalry and emotional insecurity.

It is the darkness under the bed or in the bedroom closet when one was a child. It is the fear of the unknown. It is the essence of dread and fear-and-trembling along with anxiety, panic and trepidation.

It is especially the fear of losing something or someone, which sours its energies into jealousy, envy, covetousness and irrational malice.

This Lunar Phase unleashes many powerful energies -- Fear. Phobia. Jealousy. Envy. Covetousness. Fear of losing something. Insecurity.

We all know the icy grasp of Zelus as he clutches our heart with FEAR -- the fear of losing something or someone, losing your life, your possessions, losing a lover to someone else.

It isn't even necessarily about the one that you love, but can also be more focused on those who you think are a threat to your love, those whom you hate because of the love you have for the one you fear to lose.

But it also extends to Envy and Covetousness...jealousy over the recognition given to others, jealousy over the things you have, or the things you want that someone else has...it comes from a sense of insecurity on many levels, not only having to do with love.

Tonight's Scorpio New Moon meditations and rituals should focus on where fear blocks and hinders your spiritual progress. Find and identify the things you fear. Look Zelus in the face and ask him to help you harness and master the powerful energies which he offers you.

For Zelus is not your enemy. He is part of you. Zelus constitutes one of the most powerful energies in your spiritual self. Shunning Zelus and trying to block him out of you life only makes Zelus pound and scratch at the portals to your soul all the more frantically.

Open the portals and allow Zelus inside so as to make yourself complete. Watch in amazement as the Dark Eros morphs into the Light Eros, as fear and envy turn into courage and love.

By befriending and harnessing the powerful energies of Zelus, by making him your spiritual ally and companion, you become a warrior with the SACRED BAND OF THEBES, the Army of Lovers who carry fear as their shield and their buckler.

It's not about being fearless. It's about being able to transform your fear into a mighty force which wins the battle of life.

Zelus energy is not about scaring you to death. It is about LIFE. It is about harnessing fear and doubt and turning them into useful energies in your daily life.

FIGHTING FEAR DURING THE ZELUS MOON By Our Crystal Meditation Adviser Martin Campbell

I feel tonight's ZELUS MOON is rather like a journey. So I have made suggestions for each stage.

Fear - Always a difficult one to suggest a crystal for as there are many which help you deal with, or get fear expressed. This time I suggest Azurite. It is a beautiful stone which can help you to alleviate the feelings of fear through meditating with one. It can also help you to focus on the reality of what you are feeling.  

Jealousy - It can eat away at you... Rather than just accepting this we can use meditation with a Peridot crystal. They form in volcanoes so will help you to focus on and observe your jealousy as it rises in your mind. This focus should help you to be clear what the real cause is.

Suspicion - Once you have analysed your jealousy it is likely that suspicions of other people's higher status, better looks, wealth etc. are why you are becoming jealous. Melanite Garnets will help you to speak the truth and allow the truth to emerge. 

Anxiety - You will feel anxious about these truths being uttered - will you be judged harshly? I would suggest you use Iron Pyrite. These metallic crystal formations (often very geometric) are particularly good if you are a man (especially gay men) because it can help reduce those feelings of inadequacies you may have been feeling in comparison with other men. It will help you to boost your own assessment of your self worth.

Resolution - As you relax after this internal battle with your emotions you will want a feeling of resolution. Among many other attributes Amethyst can help you get rid of negative energy and thoughts. It can also help you transition to a new state of being. Which of course can include transition from this life into the next. So it is also perfect for meditating on the transience of life and the narrowing of the veil between life and death at this time of year.

So your journey has hopefully led you to a place where you can experience fun and deep spirituality at Halloween/Samhain.

Love and Light

MARTIN

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

MUNDUS PATET

NOVEMBER 8th in Ancient Rome was Mundus patet: the day when the gate of the underworld is open and dead people return to us.

English: Memento Mori Roman mosaic from Pompeii representing the Wheel of Fortune. The wheel turns. Rich people (symbolized by the purple cloth on the left) become poor. Poor people (symbolized by the goatskin at right) become rich. Both conditions are very precarious. Death is in the balance. Death hangs by a thread: when it breaks, the soul (symbolized by the butterfly) flies off. And thus are all made equal.

Português: 8 de novembro na Roma antiga foi Mundus patet: o dia em que o portão do submundo está aberto e mortos voltar para nós. Mosaico romano de Pompéia representando a Roda da Fortuna. A roda gira, os povos ricos (simbolizados pelo pano roxo na esquerda) tornam-se pobres. Os pobres (simbolizados pela pele de cabra à direita) se tornam ricos. Ambas as condições são muito precárias. A morte é o equilíbrio. A morte pendura por um fio: quando quebra, a alma (simbolizada pela borboleta) voa fora. E assim são todos iguais.

Español: El 8 de noviembre en la Roma antigua fue Mundus patet: el día en que la puerta del mundo subterráneo está abierta y los muertos regresan a nosotros. Mosaico romano de Pompeya que representa la Rueda de la Fortuna. La rueda da vuelta, la gente rica (simbolizada por el paño púrpura en el izquierdo) hace pobre. Los pobres (simbolizados por la piel de cabra a la derecha) se hacen ricos. Ambas condiciones son muy precarias. La muerte es el equilibrio. La muerte cuelga por un hilo: cuando se rompe, el alma (simbolizada por la mariposa) vuela. Y así se hacen iguales.

Français : La mosaïque représente la Roue de la Fortune qui, lorsqu'elle tourne, peut faire du riche (symbolisé par l'étoffe pourpre à gauche) un pauvre, et du pauvre (symbolisé par la peau de chèvre à droite) un riche ; en effet chaque état est très précaire, la Mort est aux aguets à tout moment, et la vie tient à un fil : lorsque ce dernier rompra, l'âme (symbolisée par le papillon) s'envolera. Et tout le monde sera sur un pied d'égalité.

Italiano: Questo mosaico romano rappresenta la ruota della fortuna che, girando su se stessa, può far diventare povero il ricco (simboleggiato dalla stoffa purpurea a sinistra) e ricco il povero (la pelle di capra a destra). Ma l'equilibrio è molto precario: la morte è in agguato in ogni momento e la vita è sospesa ad un filo: quando il filo si spezzerà, l'anima (raffigurata come una farfalla sotto il teschio) volerà via. E, a quel punto, tutti gli uomini saranno uguali.

Deutsch: Das römische Mosaik repräsentiert das Glücksrad / Rad der Fortuna, das wenn es sich dreht die Reichen (symbolisiert durch das purpurrote Tuch links) arm machen kann, und die Armen (symbolisiert durch das Ziegenfell rechts) reich machen kann, aber alles ist sehr prekär, der Tod lauert zu allen Zeiten, und das Leben hängt an einem Faden: wenn dieser reißt, fliegt die Seele (symbolisiert durch den Schmetterling) davon. Und alle werden gleich gemacht.

EXPERTS DECIPHER MAGICAL SPELL BOOK FOUND NEAR ANTINOOPOLIS IN EGYPT

AN ancient Egyptian handbook containing magic spells in use in or near Antinoopolis has been deciphered by Australian scientists.

The Handbook of Ritual Power – as named by the researchers – explains how to cast love spells, exorcise evil spirits and treat 'black jaundice', a fatal infection still present today.

According to Live Science, the text is written in Coptic and the book is made of bound parchmentpapers. It is about 1,300 years old and was first acquired by Macquarie University in 1981 from antiques dealer Michael Fackelmann.

However, where Fackelmann first got the handbook from is unknown.

"The dialect suggests an origin in Upper Egypt, perhaps in the vicinity of Ashmunein/Hermopolis," which is directly across the Nile from Antinoopolis, researchers Malcolm Choat and Iain Gardner wrote in their book A Coptic Handbook of Ritual Power.

Antinoopolis was always a place of "magic, sorcery and strange religious fervor " according to Royston Lambert in his authoritative book about Antinous, BELOVED AND GOD. 

We know that the priests of Antinous wrote a LOVE SPELL. Lambert notes that even to this day local villagers believe the place to be haunted.

The ancient Egyptian magic spell book starts with a long series of invocations, annotated with drawings and "words of power", they say.

"These are followed by a number of prescriptions or spells to cure possession by spirits and various ailments, or to bring success in love and business."

The book, which is 20 pages long, includes a spell about how to control someone. To do this, people must say a magical formula over two nails, then drive them into his doorstop: "One on the right side (and) one on the left."

At the time the book was written, Egyptians had become Christians and it contains several references to Jesus. However, there are also mentions of the Sethians – a group that held the third son of Adam and Eve (Seth) in high regard.

Church leaders thought Sethians to be heretics and by the time the book was written, they had been all but wiped out.

The authors believe the handbook could be a transitional text created before all the Sethian spells had been purged. They told LiveScience they believe the spells were originally from separate books, but were later combined to create a "single instrument of ritual power".

Discussing who might have used the book, Choat said: "It is my sense that there were ritual practitioners outside the ranks of the clergy and monks, but exactly who they were is shielded from us by the fact that people didn't really want to be labeled as a 'magician'."