ANTINOUS IN TYRE/SIDON

IN summer of the year 129 AD, the Imperial entourage wound its way through the mountains of Asia Minor (modern-day Anatolia) and visited such cities as Ephesus and Tarsus before arriving in Antioch.

Antioch was their base of operations for the rest of that autumn and winter. From Antioch, they made excursions to other cities.

One jaunt in late summer was to the the ancient Phoenician twin cities of Tyre and Sidon on the Mediterranean coast.

Tyre and Sidon were famous for the production of the dye called Tyrian Purple which was used to color the robes of Emperors and Kings.

The dye was derived from "milking" thousands of sea snails known as porphyra in Greek and purpura in Latin ... from which we get the word purple.

The snails secrete a silvery semen-like mucous which is dripped on hand spun cotton thread. The color makes several color shifts and eventually colors the thread a beautiful violet color.

Arriving here in the late summer of 129, Antinous and Hadrian were draped in purple as they entered the temple of the great god Baal whose name means "Lord."

Baal was primarily the sun god, but he was also the ruler of the sky god, of war and the bestower of fertility. The mysterious El was his father. El placed Baal on the throne of the world, from which Baal waged war against evil and brought storms and life giving rains to the fields.

At his online Temple of Antinous, ANTONIUS SUBIA outlines a very curious and very interesting link between Hadrian and the Temple of Baal at Tyre/Sidon:

"When the Phoenicians colonized the Mediterranean, they brought the religion of Baal with them. So it was that Baal was installed first in Carthage, and then later in Spain, when the Carthaginians conquered the Iberian Peninsula.

"Baal was still worshipped in Spain when Hadrian was born, and so the visitation to the ancient Temple in the city of Tyre was touched with the reminiscence of Spain. The religion of Baal had a dark side in that human sacrifice was demanded in times of crisis, particularly the sacrifice of children. The Canaanites worshipped Baal along with the early Jews.

"Competition led to the demonization of Baal, who became known as Baal-zevuv, 'Lord of the Flies.' Later tradition would make Baal, called Beelzebub, one of the primary fallen angels, indeed the right hand man of Satan. It is in this sense that we view the entry of Antinous, the Demon, into the blood-soaked temple of Baal."

The early Christians demonized Antinous and denounced all his followers as devil worshippers.

Ironically, the Beauteous Boy was worshiped as a "daimon" (blessed spirit) in ancient times.

THIS STUNNING ANTINOUS SCULPTURE WAS BRIGHTLY PAINTED AND GILDED

A stunning exhibition of Antinous sculpture in San Antonio, Texas, has amazed the world of archaeology with the revelation that this head of Antinous as Dionysus once was painted in bright colors ... and partially gilded in glittering gold.

The color is long gone, but thanks to modern technology, the San Antonio Museum of Art has a better idea of what the sculpture looked like when it was newly created. In 2011, a study of the piece revealed a thrilling surprise: minute traces of gold.

The exhibition Antinuous, the Emperor’s Beloved: Investigating a Roman Portrait has provided a peek at the museum’s behind-the-scenes research and reveals what the museum has learned about the artwork, the only marble statue of Antinous on which gilding has been found.

“It was really the unexpected discovery of the gilding that drove the whole project and inspired doing things like looking more closely at the pose and the figure of Antinous,” said Jessica Powers, the museum’s curator of art of the ancient Mediterranean world.

The marble head of Antinous in the museum’s collection was a gift from Gilbert M. Denman, Jr. 

It originally was part of a larger-than-life sculpture depicting Antinous as Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, theater and religious ecstasy. 

A hand ... once connected to an arm ... rests on top of the the marble head, which is crowned with thick curls and an ivy wreath.

The famous Frugiferus statue of Antinous (pictured at left) shows how it would have looked.

About six years ago, Michelle Bushey, then a chemistry professor at Trinity University, reached out to Powers. The school recently has acquired an X-ray fluorescence instrument.

Shaped like a ray gun from a sci-fi movie, it can be used to analyze the elements present in a variety of materials, including the composition of historic pigments on paintings and other objects. Bushey offered to examine works in the museum’s collection.

“Some of the pieces that we have have been in collections for a long time, so they’ve been really heavily cleaned, like down to the marble,” Powers said. “When that happens, you lose the polychromy.”

Since the hair and ivy wreath on Antinous’ portrait had not been overly cleaned, it was a good candidate, Powers said. After the initial readings were taken, a research assistant who was working with Bushey emailed Powers.

"She said, ‘Would you expect to find gold in the XRF readings for a marble portrait?’ and suddenly I was very interested in what was coming out of the XRF,” Powers said. “So we did more XRFs and were able to show that bits of gilding survived on all of the leaves of the ivy wreath. Then we examined the surface with the microscope and we were able to see it.”

Those findings kicked off a fuller investigation. In addition to Bushey, Powers worked with Mark Abbe, a professor in the department of classics at the University of Georgia, to better understand the portrait’s gilding and original appearance.

In addition to the Antinous head, the exhibit also features a portrait of Hadrian, and ancient coins of Antinous (left).

As part of the exhibition programming, Bushey, who is currently with the National Science Foundation, gave a talk at the museum about the use of X-ray fluorescence to unlock ancient and historical secrets.

Using the technology on artworks “gives me a way to connect with people who might otherwise recoil at the word chemistry,” Bushey said. 

“But there’s also the aspect of this is our collective heritage and our history and to understand better the importance of these items and how people functioned, I don’t think that we give people enough credit who lived in maybe less technologically advanced times. I think if we really go back and take a look at what they were able to accomplish, given what they know, given what we know, given our tools and given their tools, we’ve lost a lot of knowledge about how important these items were, how people did things and how they understood the world.”

ANTINOUS ENABLES YOU TO DISCOVER THE INTELLIGENCE OF THE HEART

IN ancient times, Antinous was known as a miracle worker. His worshipers prayed to him for miracles, oracles, visions and answers to problems in their daily lives.

The Egyptian hieroglyphs on the OBELISK OF ANTINOUS state clearly that Antinous answers the prayers of all who call upon him through dreams and visions, for example.

The hieroglyphs also make cryptic references to his ability to work magic through his heart. This is a reference to the Ancient Egyptian concept of the "Intelligence of the Heart."

The Egyptians knew that the brain is the center of motor activity and sensory perception. But they believed the heart is the center of a form of intelligence which has baffled most mainstream Egyptologists ... who assume the Egyptians believed the heart was where cognitive thinking occurs.

But the Egyptians had a very different view of the universe from our rational, scientific view of the universe. We dissect facts and analyze them. But while the Egyptians were very good at analyzing facts, they also retained the Zen-like ability to see the whole ... which leads to contemplation ... not analysis.

The Egyptians understood that if you want to find an intelligent solution to a problem, your brain can do the work. You have all the necessary intelligence inside the bone in your skull.

However, most people use their brains the same way they use their muscles. You can strain your head just as if it were a muscle, and work very hard trying to arrive at an answer, but it doesn't really work that way.

When you really want to find an answer to something, what you need to do is contemplate the problem. Visualize your question as well as you can, and then simply wait.

If you don't, and if you instead try to find the solution through brute mental strength, you may be disappointed, because any solution that comes in that way is likely to be wrong.

But when you have waited for a while, the solution will come of itself. That is what the Egyptians called the Intelligence of the Heart ... using your heart instead of your head.

It will work for you in the same way your stomach will digest your food for you without your having to supervise it consciously. Our attempts to supervise everything consciously have all led to consequences that aren't too good for our stomach, and the reason for that is quite simple.

Conscious attention, which employs words, cannot think of very much. We are forced, therefore, to ignore almost everything while we are thinking. We think along a single track, but the world doesn't proceed along a single track.

The world is everything happening altogether everywhere, and you just can't take all that into consideration because there isn't time.

However, the Intelligence of the Heart can take it all into consideration because it is capable of handling innumerable variables at once, even though your conscious attention cannot...

The hieroglyphs on the Obelisk of Antinous promise that Antinous the Gay God enables us to discover the Intelligence of the Heart ... the Intelligence of HIM ... he opens his heart to you .... 

KARL HEINRICH ULRICHS SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON AUGUST 28 the Religion of Antinous honors Saint Karl Heinrich Ulrichs, the world's first gay activist, who lobbied governments 100 years before Stonewall for repeal of anti-gay laws, and who was also Chief Priest of Antinous worldwide in the latter half of the 19th Century.

Even before the term "homosexuality" had been coined, Ulrichs came out to his friends and families and proclaimed in 1864 that he was a "Uranian" — or "Urning" in his native German — and thenceforth waged a one-man campaign for gay rights in Germany.

Sanctus Carolus Henricus Ulrichs, Chief Priest of Antinous in the 2nd half of the 19th Century (worldwide!) wrote incredibly long poems — nearly in epic form — about Hadrian and Antinous.

He wrote a manuscript for a mammoth scientific work on Antinous in history, art, coins and his influence on ancient and modern culture. The manuscript was confiscated and destroyed in a police raid.

As part of his gay-rights lobbying effort, he wrote dozens of pamphlets with titles such as "Researches on the Riddle of Man-Manly Love" aimed at dispelling homophobic myths about same-sex love.

Late in life Ulrichs wrote: "Until my dying day I will look back with pride that I found the courage to come face to face in battle against the spectre which for time immemorial has been injecting poison into me and into men of my nature. Many have been driven to suicide because all their happiness in life was tainted. Indeed, I am proud that I found the courage to deal the initial blow to the hydra of public contempt."

Forgotten for many years, Ulrichs is now becoming something of a cult figure in Europe. There are streets named for him in the German cities of Munich, Bremen and Hanover. His birthday (August 28th, 1825) is marked each year by a lively street party and poetry reading at Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Square in Munich.

The International Lesbian and Gay Law Association presents an annual Karl Heinrich Ulrichs Award in his memory. He died on July 14th, 1895, in L'Aquila, Italy.

ASTRO FORECAST: AUG. 27th—SEPT. 6th, 2020

Antinous Astrology Forecast

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AUG. 27th-SEPT. 6th, 2020

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THURS-FRIDAY, AUG. 27th-28th, 2020

On Thursday, you will want to watch out for excesses in eating, drinking, spending money and falling in love when indulgent Venus is in 180-degree opposition to exaggeration-prone Jupiter ... and Venus is also in a trine aspect to dreamy, nebulous Neptune ... creating powerful cosmic energies. If you are a latent shopoholic, this is the one weekend of the year when you will max out on your addiction ... while maxing out on your credit card. This is a good time for smooth-talking gigolos who pay fanciful compliments to you ... and you find yourself actually believing them ... And why not? Is that such a bad thing? Why not enjoy the fantasy as long as it lasts ... and as long as you know it's a fantasy?

SATURDAY, AUGUST 29th, 2020

On Saturday, Mercury forms a fortuitous trine aspect with lucky Jupiter. Even if you usually never play the lottery, you might want to consider buying a lotto ticket for this week.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30th, 2020

On Sunday, the Earth may shake for you when Venus moves into opposition with Pluto and the Star of Antinous (See: PLUTO ALIGNS WITH THE STAR OF ANTINOUS). Venus opposition Pluto is something that happens only once a year. There is equally the possibility of making a profound commitment at this time, particularly in a sexual relationship. Power struggles are also possible in this phase. Venus opposition to Pluto can also literally cause the Earth to shake ... in the form of earthquakes. There is equally the possibility of making a profound commitment at this time, particularly in a sexual relationship. Power struggles are also possible in this phase. Venus opposition to Pluto can also literally cause the Earth to shake ... in the form of earthquakes.

MONDAY, AUGUST 31st, 2020

This week Mercury is in a positively profound trine with Pluto and the Star of Antinous that enables you to get down and dirty and show what is really inside of you ... deep ... down ... inside. This is a good week to grow beyond yourself ... shed your old shy image the way a snake sheds its skin ... and present your shining inner self to the world.

TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1st, 2020

This week the Sun forms a positive trine aspect with Uranus which blows in a breath of fresh air which rejuvenates and invigorates you and encourages you to act first and ask questions later.

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 2nd, 2020

Overnight Tuesday-Wednesday, we come to the Pisces Full Moon ... In heterosexual astrology, the Pisces Full Moon is just a moon of sensual spiritual energy. But in Antinous Gay Moon Magic, this is the HOMOTHEOSIS MOON ... the archetype of gay sexuality ... when your sexual dreams can come true ... This hot Full Moon tells you it may be time to take your relationship to a whole new level ... This lunar phase helps you to deepen your love relationships in meaningful ways, making constructive compromises which allow each partner freedom while strengthening the bonds which unite you both.

THURS-FRIDAY, SEPT. 3rd-4th, 2020

This week, the Earth will shake (perhaps literally in the form of earthquakes) when Venus is in dramatic configurations with Saturn and Mars. On the negative side, this means upheavals in personal relationships, in business transactions and in financial speculation. But let's stress the positive aspects. Venus opposition Saturn is volatile unless you are flexible and willing to learn hard lessons. You should look for guidance from an older person in financial and relationship issues ... or offer guidance to a younger person ... when Venus is in opposition to Saturn. This is a time when maturity triumphs over youthful zeal. Sit back and heed the guidance of an old soul ... who can also be a spirit guide. And if you see a younger person blundering into a trap, this is the day to intercede and offer a wise word of advice based on personal experience.

Heading into the weekend, Venus and Mars are in a 90-degree right angle to each other, causing chaos in love relationships. This is the astrological textbook recipe for a relationship in which tempers are always hot, the sex is always hot, passions are always hot and in which you are fighting violently with each other one moment — and then violently having sex the next moment.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 5th, 2020

This weekend, Mercury leaves fastidious Virgo and wings its way hand-in-hand into laid-back Libra. Depending on your own star sign, Libra Mercury may cause you some difficulty making decisions and getting work done and generally finding your way through the highways and byways of life. Libra Mercury gets a bad reputation for being lazy, indecisive, two-faced and a downright liar. But it's not true! Well, actually, it IS a bit true ... but also not true ... both true and not true at the same time.

And that is exactly how Libra Mercury sees everything ... they see both sides to every question ... they sees two people (or two nations) arguing and they see that both sides are partly right ... and both sides are also partly wrong.

Libra Mercury helps to give you a balanced view of the world. It enhances your skills at mediating a compromise which is beneficial to both sides ... and beneficial to you. Libra Mercury loves harmony and balance so much that it tries to please everybody. So you may find yourself tacitly agreeing with people on both sides of an argument. That infuriates both sides, of course, and both sides accuse you of being two-faced.

In fact, you may not have agreed with either side. You wanted to tell both sides to take a hike. You only nodded in tacit agreement just to shut them up and avert open conflict. The result is that you end up being caught in the middle ... a plight that Sun Sign Librans know all too well.

So the down side of Libra Mercury is that decision-making is more difficult. You look at a restaurant menu and it ALL looks so good that you can't make up your mind ... again, a plight that Sun Sign Librans know all too well.

But the up side of Libra Mercury is that you are open to new experiences ... you pick a menu item you have never eaten before ... and it turns out to be delicious. You are driving along your regular route home from work and suddenly turn off down another street you have never explored before ... and you discover places which turn out to be wonderful.

As for being lazy ... that is also partly false ... and yet also partly true. Libra Mercury is very industrious when it comes to something that is interesting, pleasant or lovely. So you may find yourself beavering away at some fabulous project with your mind and soul concentrated solely on that fab project.

Meanwhile, boring and tedious tasks fall by the wayside. You may conveniently "forget" to do things which are uninteresting to you. Mercury Libra is the artistic genius who creates the most exquisitely inspiring art ... and yet who lives in absolute squalor and filth. Art is intensely interesting to them ... but housekeeping is intensely boring, so they "forget" to do any house cleaning. Sun Sign Librans are experts at "forgetting" unpleasant or uninteresting things.

SUNDAY, SEPTEMBER 6th, 2020

This weekend Venus, the planet of love, leaves down-home Cancer and struts into show-off Leo, where she remains for a month. This is a chance to put on high heels and strut your stuff and make yourself attractive to others so your popularity soars. When you look good, you feel good so treat yourself to a new outfit or a facial or a haircut or any other pampering session that boosts your self esteem. Old-school astrology texts like to call Leo a Drama Queen. They like to paint planets in the sign of Leo as people with superiority complexes. This happens occasionally, but mostly it doesn't. Leo is the sign of Royalty, and royalty, the kind that stays in power, doesn't lord over others. True royalty is generous, humane and often quietly dignified. Venus in Leo gives you the expressive dignity of a Queen or King, you have creative dominion over an artistic field… and the hearts of others.

SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK:

Another exciting week lies ahead between September 7th and 13th when ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD squares off against the Sun for the GEMINI THIRD QUARTER MOON which in Antinous Moon Magic is called the CONSOLATION MOON because it is the Lunar Archetypal energy of serendipity and fortuitous misadventures. You win the Silver Medal (but not the Gold). You win $20 in the lottery (but not the jackpot of $20 million). It is about finding a $50 bill in an old wallet ... More details next time ....

JUAN GABRIEL IS A SAINT OF ANTINOUS GAY ICON TO MILLIONS IN MEXICO

WE honour Juan Gabriel, a superstar Mexican songwriter and singer who was an icon for millions of LGBT people in the Latin music world. He is a saint of Antinous.

Born 7 January 1950, he dropped dead 28 August 2016 at his home in California only hours after performing a standing-room-only crowd. He performed for two hours at the Los Angeles Forum on Friday, clad in one of his typical brightly colored outfits. In its review of the concert, Billboard called him "the ultimate showman." He was 66.

Juan Gabriel was Mexico's leading singer-songwriter and top-selling artist. 

His ballads about love and heartbreak and bouncy mariachi tunes became hymns throughout Latin America and Spain and with Spanish speakers in the United States.

He brought many adoring fans to tears as they sang along when he crooned his songs about love and heartbreak, including his top hits, "Hasta Que Te Conoci" ("Until I Met You") and "Amor Eterno" ("Eternal Love").

His hit "Querida" ("Dear") topped Mexico's charts for a whole year.

The adjectives "flamboyant" and "eccentric" followed him all his career, and he was imitated by drag queens in gay clubs throughout Mexico.

He skirted rumors of gayness his whole life. 

He liked to wear jackets covered in sequins or dress in shiny silk outfits in hot pink, turquoise blue or canary yellow, and he was known for tossing his head before dancing or jumping around the stage.

He was once famously asked by a television interviewer: "People look at you and say you are homosexual. What do you say?" His answer became part of his enduring myth.

"Lo que se ve no se pregunta," he answered … "Don't ask about something that is obvious."

Then Juan asked the interview what he saw when he looked at him.

The journalist said: "I see a singer before me, I see a winner" and Juan Gabriel replied: "That is the most important thing, because it is what you do that counts in life."

Juan started out as a waif ... having been sent to an orphanage after his father went insane with grief over the loss of Juan's mother and burned down their village and had to be carried off in a straitjacket.

Little Juan fled abuse at the orphanage by hiding in a rubbish bin and being transported to freedom in a garbage truck. 

Arriving in Juarez, he sang for tips and tricks in seedy clubs, where he caught the eye of a "talent scout" ... and the rest is showbiz history.

In 2015 artist Arturo Damasco painted a 40-square-meter mural of Juan Gabriel on a building in Juarez.

Juan Gabriel never married. According to The Associated Press, a former secretary of his, Joaquín Muñoz, claimed that the two men had a sexual relationship in a tell-all book, "Juan Gabriel and I." 

It confirmed what most fans already believed, but his fans were surprised when years later it became known that he had fathered four children with a friend, Laura Salas.

Juan Gabriel performed to packed auditoriums, including New York's Madison Square Garden and the Kodak Theater in Los Angeles. 

A six-time Grammy nominee, Juan Gabriel was inducted into the Billboard Latin Music Hall of Fame in 1996 and received countless industry awards.

He also garnered ASCAP Songwriter of the Year in 1995, Latin Recording Academy's Person of the Year 2009, and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame that same year.

The singer, who was born 7 January 1950, wrote his first song at age 13 and went on to compose more than 1,500 songs. He died 28 August 2016 at age 66 … a homeless orphan who came to be loved by millions.

ANNOUNCING THE LARGEST GALLERYOF ANTINOUS IMAGES IN THE WORLD

WE are proud to announce the most extensive collection of Antinous images in the world!

Flamen Antonius Subia spent nearly two years assembling the GALLERY OF ANTINOUS ICONS. 

What initially was supposed to be one page of images became a massive library.

He says it turned out to entail "months of painful, agonizing, finger-crippling, endless catalogueing, and intricate photoshop enhancing and resizing of countless... countless. ..Antinous images!"

The endeavour proved to be not only a technical challenge but also something of a spiritual initiation.

Antonyus says, "I now feel that I am an expert in Antinous Iconography...as over the process, I have become deeply familiar with each and everyone of Antinous's wonderful, beautiful statues and busts and other images.

"I have to tell you that in the end...it has been the most meaningful, and intimate experience of getting to know Antinous on a level that I have never before felt.

"He is so astonishingly beautiful... I found myself treating each and every one of his images with particular, loving care and devotion.

"It's amazing...when you handle his beautiful image again and again...when you gaze upon him, and study him, and see example after example, they all seem to blur together until you are left with this cumulative impression of what he really must have looked like...like the sum total...as though I had layered translucent leaves of his face and body one over the other, each showing through to the next, cancelling out errors, cracks, chips, peculiarities, the hand of the artist, modern enhancements, slight differences...my own impression of what I always thought he looked like...all blurring together into a ghostly form of his true image...I see him now.

"But I am also deeply familiar with all the different variations...I know them all by name, location, origin, and bits of their history...I know the image of Antinous as I had never known it before."

Antonius adds that the gallery is not complete and he has issued a call for readers to submit more images.

"My intent is to have the most complete collection of Antinous images in the world," he explains. "We are after all The Temple of Antinous, his modern religion. It is only right that we take his image into our possession and display his form for all to see....with reverance and piety...not as an object of art, or history, but as an object of worship."

CHAVELA VARGAS SAINT OF ANTINOUS

CHAVELA VARGAS, the forceful lesbian songstress who was born in Costa Rica and rose to fame in Mexico, and influenced generations on both sides of the Atlantic, has been proclaimed a Saint of Antinous.

When she died in 2012 at age 93, she was especially known for her rendition of Mexican rancheras, but she is also recognized for her contribution to other genres of popular Latin American music.

Never one to hide her lesbianism, she has been an influential interpreter in America and Europe, muse to figures such as Pedro Almodóvar, hailed for her haunting performances, and called "la voz áspera de la ternura," the rough voice of tenderness.

FLAMEN ANTONIUS SUBIA speaks for millions of gays in the Spanish-speaking world when he says her passing is a saddening loss. He grew up with her music.

ANTONIUS RECALLS:

My parents had always played her music it...among many other singers...she was the only one who made an impact on me.  She was the only one who stood out...mostly because I could tell that she was crazy...she wasn't trying to sound pretty or traditional...but more like someone having an attack of too much feelings.

It wasn't until I was in my late teens that a friend pointed out that all her love songs are sung about women, I hadn't even noticed, I had just taken them at face value, you broke my heart songs, without really thinking about the context...that was when I really started to like Chavela Vargas...when it suddenly dawned on me that this dramatic, bellowing woman, who was such a favorite of my parents, was A LESBIAN!!!

As it turns out she was a hard-core lesbian, though never public about her sexuality, she never actually hid it...it was pretty much right there for everyone to see.  She drank heavily, carried a gun and wore a big red poncho...how can you not love a lesbian such as that?!  Eventually the drinking became too much and she dropped out of making music for a long, long time...only to return about 10 years ago, at 83 years of age with a new album...and it was during her return that I finally learned that, yes indeed, just as I suspected, she was in fact a Lesbian.  My favorite quote is when she said: 

"I've never even been to bed with a man. Never. That's how pure I am; I have nothing to be ashamed of. My gods made me the way I am." - Chavela Vargas

Chavela Vargas is a blessed Saint of Antinous.

ANTONIUS SUBIA

IT'S YELLOW JASPER & AMETHYST FOR THE EQUESTRIAN MOON By Our Crystal Meditation Advisor Martin Campbell

OUR well traveled astrological expert Hernestus has prompted me that the coming moon phase is theEquestrian Moon (Sagittarius First Quarter Moon). It will bring thoughts of  travel - both physical and spiritual journeys.

There are some among us who have traveled in the footsteps of Antinous and Hadrian. 

Right now our companion in Antinous,  Andriy Bendyna, is following our gods Antinous and Hadrian through Greece - keeping us up to date via Facebook as he sees each divine place and relic. Blessed be to him. 

I have trodden in those same footsteps and also followed my gods across Britain, Italy and Egypt. An epic journey but worth every penny/cent and every step.

Of course we spiritual folk also take spiritual leaps of faith and journeys into our hearts and those of our gods. These are perhaps the hardest of all journeys at the outset. We may need guidance to start or to understand what it is we see, think or feel as the journey unfolds. They can be epic too. 

We are all on the path - enjoy the ride!

To help you to meditate on these journeys and during this moon, I  recommend that you use the following crystals to enhance your experience:

Yellow Jasper - These attractive stones protect you during journeys and helps to feel energized to do so. 

No doubt that is one reason the artesans of Ancient Egypt created the breath-taking head of a queen or princess (shown above) out of yellow jasper. This fragment was found in the ruins of "heretic" Pharaoh Akhenaten's city ... a scant 20 km south of Antinoopolis.

Amethyst - Yes my old favourite again! One of its many attributes is to help you to have out of body experiences and intuitive dreams if you sleep with it under your pillow. 

Love and Light,

MARTIN

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

THE EQUESTRIAN MOON OF ANTINOUS THE SAGITTARIUS FIRST QUARTER MOON

TONIGHT Antinous the Moon God is in his first quarter in the lofty sign of Sagittarius, the sign of travellers, voyagers, pilgrims and those who embark on Gay Spiritual Quests.

In Antinous Moon Magic, each lunar phase represents a spiritual archetype. We call this First Quarter Sagittarius Moon the EQUESTRIAN MOON.

The Equestrian Moon is the best night of the year for blessings involving travel. 

Bless your faithful car, bike, boat ... or your beloved horse! 

This is the day to meditate or do a ritual involving a house move, change of jobs or relocation. 

On a deeper level, this lunar phase speaks of your spiritual movement, astral travel and astral projection ... this Moon says: "Try it, you can do it!"

Here's a lovely depiction of the Equestrian Moon symbolism from Italian artist Giorgio Tavaglione's L'ORACOLO DELLA SIBILLA oracle cards.

ANTINOUS WORSHIPERS IN MEXICO HONOR HADRIAN AND A SAINT

THIS week our brothers and sisters in Mexico commemorate the accession of Hadrian as emperor of Rome with this hand-crafted bust.

The papier-mâché bust created by Carlos Oseguera Loranca is in the likeness of Mexican educator Antonio Salazar, nominated to become a saint of Antinous for his work in the Visual Documentation Workshop of UNAM.

Carlos, head of Epithimia Antínoo Mexíco, graciously guest authors the following blog article for us:

Salazar created in Mexico the Visual Documentation Workshop (TDV), cradled in the San Carlos Academy, of the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM). 

Its importance lay in the creation of leaflets, information cards and other printed materials, whose artistic roots worked to disseminate critical information on discrimination towards homosexuals, which was crossed by racism, classism, obligatory heterosexuality and the arrival of Epidemic of HIV / AIDS to the world.

The workshop came into being in 1984, only a couple of years after homosexual rights movements in other countries was beginning to be born and the HIV epidemic was making headlines. 

Stigma and rejection of homosexuals were fueled by society's alarmist reactions to HIV, by considering that LGBT people were a "source of infection" or that the disease was a "divine punishment" sent by God.

"The workshop emerges in the effervescence of the homosexual liberation movement in our country, when marches, groups and protests take hold. It begins to generate a Mexican speech. From many points begin to join the struggle, one of them the Front of the Plastic Arts, whose greatest exponent is the Visual Documentation Workshop," said Salvador Irys, director of the International Festival for Sex Diversity (FIDS), in an interview for DISASTER.

The Front of the Plastic Arts was the first collective that began to address issues related to homosexuality in an artistic way. 

Not all members of the workshop were openly homosexual, due to the social context, but under Salazar's leadership and steeped in communism, workshop participants created collective works that captured the concerns and problems of the LGBT population of that time. 

"They said that art had to serve society and therefore not empower the artist, so they signed in a collective way, they released the rights of their works so that anyone could use them whenever and to promote these issues, there was A leading role. Their work focused on sexuality, class differences and religion, from which they created their discourse. "

"Their work was influenced by the arrival of HIV in Mexico, they were committed artists, they believed that art had a social purpose, if not, it was of no use. And as many of their friends start to become infected, they begin to create the first materials that have been made in this country about HIV, both artistic and broadcast, issues that were used to prevent and promote condom use."

Derogatorily called the pink cancer, due to the incidence of homosexual men cases, HIV broke into a gay community that found in sex a perfect refuge and a place of subversion before a society that criminalized, excluded and considered sick and sinful Their way of sexual and affective bonding.

Precisely, the importance of the Visual Documentation Workshop was that, faced with the panorama of disinformation and hate created around the epidemic, began to erect a visual discourse based on awareness and destigmatization.

"The workshop artists were among the first in Mexico to create a bridge between activism and art, they worked hand in hand with the gay liberation groups, there was a feedback. Some of the first signs of the marches were done by the TDV, some brochures of the organizations made them the workshop. They managed to articulate activism of homosexual liberation and art." 

ANTINOUS WORSHIPERS WORLDWIDE TAKE PART IN LION HUNT CEREMONIES

ANTINOUS worshipers worldwide participated live online tonight in ceremonies commemorating the SACRED LION HUNT, the final recorded event in the brief life of Antinous ... when he and Hadrian slew a man-eating lion in Egypt in August of the year 130 AD.

Worshipers on both coasts of North America as well as worshipers in South America, Europe and Africa took part in the ceremonies originating at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous.

The skin art image courtesy Priest Michael Isom shows Antinous subduing the man-eating Marousian lion in the Egyptian desert in the year 130 AD.

The SACRED LION HUNT was immortalized in poetry and in stone, showing Antinous brashly attacking the lion with his adamantine-tipped spear and wounding it ... so that Hadrian had to gallop to his rescue and dispatch the beast.

Hadrian added medallions to the Arch of Constantine showing him and Antinous with feet on the lion's neck and also making sacrifice to the great lion-killer Hercules.

Soon legend would have it that scarlet-red lotus blossoms had sprung forth from the pool of the lion's blood ... which we honor as the LOTUS MOON, the Pisces Third Quarter Moon in June.

Within a few short weeks after the Sacred Lion Hunt, Antinous himself would be dead. The Sacred Lion Hunt is the last recorded event in His short life.

Novice Priest DECO RIBEIRO related the story of the Lion Hunt from São Paulo Brazil. Flamen ANTONIUS SUBIA celebrated the liturgical ritual in Hollywood.

Antonius noted that the brave may not live forever, but the cautious do not live at all. Tonight's rituals and meditations were aimed at enabling participants to traverse the road between who they think they are and who they can be. The key is to set forth on the journey ... with adamantine-tipped spear in hand ... galloping forward.

Among those taking part tonight was Priest Michael Isom, whose arms are adorned with Sacred Images of Antinous.

WILLEM ARONDEUS SAINT OF ANTINOUS: 'HOMOSEXUALS ARE NOT COWARDS'

WE honor Willem Arondeus (22 August 1894 – 1 July 1943) as a saint of Antinous for his courage in standing up against hatred, intolerance and bigotry.

He was a Dutch gay non-Jewish artist and writer who led a group in bombing the Amsterdam Public Records Office in order to hinder the Nazi round-up of Jews, was executed with 12 others by firing squad.

He had started life as an illustrator, designer of posters and tapestries and a painter. In 1923 he was commissioned to paint a large mural for Rotterdam City Hall. During that same period, he illustrated poems by J. H. Leopold, Pieter Cornelis Boutens and Martinus Nijhoff. He admired the older Dutch designer Richard Roland Holst, as can be seen in his work. He did not attain much fame and lived in impoverished circumstances.

Around 1935, he gave up visual arts and became an author. The poems and stories he had written in the 1920s went unpublished, but in the year 1938 he published two novels, Het Uilenhuis ('The Owls House') and In de bloeiende Ramenas ('In the Blossoming Winter Radish'), both illustrated with designs by Arondeus himself. 

The year 1939 saw the publication of his best work, Matthijs Maris: de tragiek van den droom ('The Tragedy of the Dream'), a biography of the painter Matthijs Maris, who was a brother of the Dutch artists Jacob and Willem Maris. 

Two years later, Figuren en problemen der monumentale schilderkunst in Nederland ('Figures and Problems of Monumental Painting in the Netherlands') was published, again with designs by the author. 

At that time in 1941, however, Arondeus was already involved with the Dutch resistance movement.

In the spring of 1941, Arondeus started an underground periodical in which he tried to incite his fellow artists to resist the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. Earlier than others, Arondeus realized that the demand by the Nazi occupiers that all Jews register with the local authorities was not, as the Nazis claimed, for their own safety, but rather so they could be deported to the Westerbork concentration camp and from there to the death camps in occupied Poland. 

In the spring of 1942, Arondeus founded Brandarisbrief, an illegal periodical in which he expressed the artist’s opposition to the edicts imposed by the Reichskulturkammer (Reich Chamber of Culture); the Nazis' cultural committee. 

In 1943, Brandarisbrief merged with De Vrije Kunstenaar ("The Free Artist"), where sculptor Gerrit van der Veen was one of the editors. Together with composer Jan van Gilse; openly lesbian publisher and writer Tine van Klooster and her partner, publisher Koos Schregardus; sculptor Frits van Hall and his sister, dancer Suzy van Hall; and a number of other artists and intellectuals, the group called for mass resistance against the German occupation.

A concerted operation was underway to hide Jews among the local population, with various underground organizations preparing forged documents for Jews. 

Arondeus was a member of one such group, Raad van Verzet (Resistance Council), which also included openly lesbian cellist and conductor Frieda Belinfante and typographer Willem Sandberg, who was then curator at Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum. 

Within a short while, the Nazis began to expose the false documents by comparing the names with those in the local population registry. 

To hinder the Nazis, on 27 March 1943, Arondeus led a group in bombing the Amsterdam Public Records Office. Thousands of files were destroyed, and the attempt to compare forged documents with the registry was hindered.

Within a week, Arondeus and the other members of the group were arrested. Twelve, including Arondeus, were executed that July by firing squad.

In his last message before his execution, Arondeus, who had lived openly as a gay man before the war, told his lawyer these words, traditionally translated thusly: "Let it be known that homosexuals are not cowards!"

The Dutch original quote is "Zeg de mensen dat homoseksuelen niet per definitie zwakkelingen zijn!" ... literally: "Show people that homosexuals are not by definition wimps!"

THE SACRED LION HUNT

ON the 21st of August, with the Sun in the final degrees of Leo the Lion, we commemorate the Sacred Lion Hunt ... when Hadrian and Antinous slew a man-eating lion in Egypt in August 130 AD.

Priests of Antinous celebrate the event in with ritual ceremonies at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous which also see worshipers participating live online from Mexico, Brazil and Germany.

During the special ceremonies they also honor the Sacred Rosy Lotus of Antinous ... the pink waterlily said to have sprung forth spontaneously from the lion's blood as it splattered the banks of the Nile.

Flamen Antonius Subia relates in vivid detail the events of the Sacred Lion Hunt: The place is Egypt, somewhere in the rocky wilderness between the scattered oases southeast of Alexandria. 

The time is August of the Year 130 AD. The Sun is poised to enter the Sign of Leo. The Constellation of Aquila the Eagle is at its zenith in the nighttime sky ... just as it is now.

It is the constellation of the Emperor. And the Emperor and his Beloved are touring Egypt when they hear grisly accounts of a man-eating lion marauding the countryside on the edge of the cultivated land. The "Marousian Lion" it was called.

They lead a hunting expedition out into the wilderness. The whole expedition is rife with symbolism from the start since the Sun is in Leo in the daytime skies and the Eagle is soaring in the nighttime skies and the Ancients believed killing lions was tantamount to defeating death itself. Lion hunting was the sport of kings.

When at last the Imperial party flushes out the man-eater, the huntsmen and archers stand back and leave Hadrian to close in on the beast with his steed. Hadrian has just got off an arrow which wounds the animal when, all of a sudden, out of nowhere, young Antinous rides ahead, his reins in his left hand, an adamantine-tipped lance in his upraised right hand.

As the Imperial retinue looks on in horror, the snarling lion charges toward the boy, causing his panicked horse to whinny and wheel about in terror. But Antinous maintains his balance and, instantly judging distance and angle, sends his lance sailing towards the lion as it quickly closed the gap between them. 

The lance slams into its rear flank, inflicting a serious but not fatal wound. Enraged even more, the lion uses its fangs to pull out the lance and charges anew against the Boy who is fumbling with his quiver to ready a shot with his bow. But an arrow is already in the air from behind Antinous, and it whizzes past his ear and hit its mark in the throat of the lion.

It has been fired by Hadrian, who is approaching at full gallop and who, even while the first arrow was still in the air, had already readied a second arrow, which this time penetrates both lungs.

The lion spins about and collapses writhing in the dust, rage in its eyes, blood and saliva guttering from its fanged mouth, gasping for breath as it struggles to get to its feet — because Antinous has dismounted and is sprinting toward it with a drawn dagger.

Hadrian draws his steed to a halt and dismounts with an agility and  lightness befitting a man half his age, fueled by adrenaline and alarm for his Beloved Boy, who faces imminent peril from the mortally wounded lion, still capable of severing an artery with one swipe of its mighty paw.

Hadrian draws his hunting axe from his belt and holds it high as he  lunges onto the lion's back and dispatches the beast with one powerful blow which splits its skull in two with a frightening crack and a spurt of bright red blood which bathes both the older man, now panting and perspiring heavily, and the younger man who still shows no visible expression of concern, just a wild-eyed look of excitement in his eyes, as if he never realized the danger he had been in — as if he thinks he is immortal.

A cheer goes up from the coterie of onlookers when they realize the lion is dead, killed seemingly by a single blow from the Emperor's hand. Courtiers whose eyes are unskilled in the ways of hunting will later claim Hadrian had struck the lion dead with a club.

As soldiers and nervous bodyguards rush forward to make sure everything is all right, the emperor, his adrenalin-strength ebbing as quickly as it came, shakily wraps a blood-spattered arm around Antinous and plants his gilded, spike-soled sandal on the dead animal's neck and nods to Antinous to do the same.

There they stand, bathed in blood and bathed in the adulation of the Imperial coterie, each with one foot on the vanquished man-eater as the animal's blood spreads out and covers the surrounding rocks and sand and a few scrubby wildflowers growing from a crevice in a rock.

Even the flowers are splattered with blood. And these red blossoms  will be plucked by members of the entourage to take back as souvenirs to show to envious courtiers who had not been invited along.

THE SACRED LION HUNT was immortalized in poetry and in stone, with Hadrian adding medallions to the Arch of Constantine showing him and Antinous with feet on the lion's neck and also making sacrifice to the great lion-killer Hercules.


Soon legend would have it that scarlet-red lotus blossoms had sprung forth from the pool of the lion's blood, the lion which had been brought down by Antinous and which had been dealt its death blow by Hadrian — the SACRED RED LOTUS.

Under the Sign of Leo. And under the Constellation of the Eagle. 

Within a few short weeks, Antinous himself would be dead. The Sacred Lion Hunt is the last recorded event in His short life.

And some time afterward, grieving Hadrian would look up into the  nighttime skies with tear-filled eyes and his court astronomers would point out a New Star which had appeared in the southern part of the Constellation of Aquila the Eagle.

The New Star would be interpreted as a celestial sign that Antinous had been raised to the firmament, that the Constellation of the Imperial Eagle had been joined by the CONSTELLATION OF ANTINOUS. It was a sign that Antinous was now a God.

If you go outside tonight and peer out into the darkness with all its deep and hidden dangers, remember Antinous and how he peered out into the barren wilderness with all its deep and hidden dangers. 

He charged forth, his bridle-reins in his left hand and an adamantine-tipped lance in his right, and he faced death unafraid.

For Antinous knew he was immortal.

The Constellation of Antinous, still under the wing of the Imperial Eagle, will be right directly over your head tonight ... shining proof that Antinous is a God and that he is indeed immortal.

Don't look out into the darkness around you and be afraid. Instead, look up and remember the Beloved Boy, who was a fearless hunter, who stalked death itself, and who emerged victorious over it.

ASTRO FORECAST: AUGUST 20th—30th, 2020

Antinous Astrology Forecast

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AUGUST 20th to 30th, 2020

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THURS-FRIDAY, AUGUST 20th-21st, 2020

Overnight Thursday-Friday, Mercury leaves selfish Leo and enters compassionate Virgo. It has been said that Virgo Mercury is like having a cyber-servant or surrogate replicant who anticipates all your inter-personal communications needs and rushes to your beck and call. Mercury will be in Virgo until September 6th, which means you can expect advice and supportive suggestions for "upgrading" your cognitive and communications skills for the next three weeks.

SAT-SUNDAY, AUGUST 22nd-23rd, 2020

This weekend, the Sun enters Virgo, which puts the focus of the coming four weeks on detailed analysis of work and health issues.

MONDAY, AUGUST 24th, 2020

This week underscores an astrologically very troublesome year. The week's celestial configurations are dominated by a dire Mars square Saturn aspect ... something which last occurred in the third week of January 2017 ... inauguration of the US president ... and it is a configuration which always spells trouble. This 90-degree square aspect is exact today ... and it does not bode well for the transition of power. Mars-square-Saturn is like driving down a highway with one foot on the brake and the other on the accelerator because Mars wants to press the pedal to the metal, while Saturn wants a cautious, go-slow approach. The result is pent-up frustration which boils over into rage. Open warfare breaks out not only in crisis regions of the world, but also in street traffic, in your work place and in your domestic relationship. Cold-blooded, vengeful wrath strangles out rational thought.

TUESDAY, AUGUST 25th, 2020

On Tuesday, we come to the Sagittarius First Quarter Moon, which we call the EQUESTRIAN MOON in Antinous Moon Magic ... the Lunar Phase we associate with spiritual movement and progress, astral travel and astral projection ... On the material level, this Lunar Phase is excellent for making travel plans and for carrying out rituals for a safe journey with bountiful spiritual rewards ... or at least for washing that vehicle of yours.

WED-FRIDAY, AUG. 26th-28th, 2020

On Wednesday, you will want to watch out for excesses in eating, drinking, spending money and falling in love when indulgent Venus is in 180-degree opposition to exaggeration-prone Jupiter ... and Venus is also in a trine aspect to dreamy, nebulous Neptune ... creating powerful cosmic energies. If you are a latent shopoholic, this is the one weekend of the year when you will max out on your addiction ... while maxing out on your credit card. This is a good time for smooth-talking gigolos who pay fanciful compliments to you ... and you find yourself actually believing them ... And why not? Is that such a bad thing? Why not enjoy the fantasy as long as it lasts ... and as long as you know it's a fantasy?

SATURDAY, AUGUST 29th, 2020

On Saturday, Mercury forms a fortuitous trine aspect with lucky Jupiter. Even if you usually never play the lottery, you might want to consider buying a lotto ticket for this week.

SUNDAY, AUGUST 30th, 2020

On Sunday, the Earth may shake for you when Venus moves into opposition with Pluto and the Star of Antinous (See: PLUTO ALIGNS WITH THE STAR OF ANTINOUS). Venus opposition Pluto is something that happens only once a year. There is equally the possibility of making a profound commitment at this time, particularly in a sexual relationship. Power struggles are also possible in this phase. Venus opposition to Pluto can also literally cause the Earth to shake ... in the form of earthquakes. There is equally the possibility of making a profound commitment at this time, particularly in a sexual relationship. Power struggles are also possible in this phase. Venus opposition to Pluto can also literally cause the Earth to shake ... in the form of earthquakes.

SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK:

Another exciting week lies ahead between August 31st and September 6th when we come to the Pisces Full Moon ... In heterosexual astrology, the Pisces Full Moon is just a moon of sensual spiritual energy. But in Antinous Gay Moon Magic, this is the HOMOTHEOSIS MOON ... the archetype of gay sexuality ... when your sexual dreams can come true ... This hot Full Moon tells you it may be time to take your relationship to a whole new level ... This lunar phase helps you to deepen your love relationships in meaningful ways, making constructive compromises which allow each partner freedom while strengthening the bonds which unite you both ... More details next time ....

THE SACRED BAND OF THEBES THE ARMY OF LOVERS

AUG. 20 the Religion of Antinous commemorates the Sacred Band of Thebes, the Army of Gay Lovers whose courage and valour have echoed down through the ages as an inspiration that Gay Love is a magical means of Conquering Fear and  Doubt.

The Sacred Band of Thebes, also called The Theban Band, was a battalion composed entirely of homosexual friends and lovers. This military unit, consisting of 150 male couples, was based on the belief that men fighting alongside their lovers would die rather than shame one another.

According to Aristotle, the Army of Lovers were sworn into military service at the Tomb of Iolaus, one of the many male lovers of Hercules. Iolaus had helped the god in the Twelve Herculean Tasks. 

He often acted as Hercules' charioteer and companion, and the closeness of their relationship was such that he was known as Heracles' symbomos (altar-sharer), since the two could be honored at one and the same altar — a very rare occurrence in ancient Greece, where each divinity would have his or her own altar.

Iolaus was called the eromenos (beloved boy) of Hercules, and was thus a Sacred Hero of same-sex love in Thebes. Hercules, Iolaus and Eros were often depicted together.

That is probably why the army of gay lovers was called the Sacred Band, since they took their oath of allegiance at the Sacred Tomb of Iolaus, which was at the same time a shared sacred altar to Hercules. In effect, the warriors were swearing that they would fight alongside their comrades the same way Iolaus and Hercules fought together — armed with the arrows of Eros.

You can see the parallels to Hadrian and his beloved boy Antinous, and later this week the parallels become even clearer when we commemorate the SACRED LION HUNT.

After that hunt in the Libyan desert in the summer of the year 130 AD, Hadrian and Antinous made sacrifice to the Great Lion Slayer Hercules — thus cementing the identification between Hadrian/Hercules and Antinous/Iolaus — and their affiliation with the Sacred Band of Thebes.

The great Theban general and tactician Epaminondas is generally credited with establishing The Sacred Band, although some sources claim it was his "beloved friend" Pelopidas who was responsible for recruiting them. No matter — they both fought side-by-side at the head of The Sacred Band.

This corps d'elite first took to the battlefield against Sparta, which had dominated Greece since the fall of Athens in 404 BC. The Spartans were confident of victory, as they had never suffered a defeat on the battlefield — never ever.

Deploying the Sacred Band on his front left wing, "Epaminondas made his left wing fifty deep and flung it forward in the attack." 

The "extra weight" of this wing and the "fanatical bravery of the Sacred Band" broke the Sparta right wing, which contained their best warriors. In the ensuing hand-to-hand combat, the Spartan king was killed and their right gave way.

Witnessing this, the rest of the Spartan forces, who had not yet been engaged, fell back in disarray, running for their lives. Thus, Sparta suffered their first recorded defeat in more than 400 years — at the hands of an Army of Gay Lovers.

But the end came in 338 BC at the battle of Chaeronea when King Phillip II of Macedonia and his son Alexander (later called Alexander the Great) defeated the combined forces of Athens and Thebes-Boetia. Alexander confronted The Sacred Band of Thebes, the elite corps of 300 homosexual lovers who were by that time the most respected soldiers in the world.

But alas! They were no match for the Macedonians under Phillip and Alexander. It was a rout. The Athenian and Theban armies gave way and began retreating from the advancing Macedonians. Only The Sacred Band stood their ground — and died. Only a few were subdued and captured. Of those who died, it was found that not one had been wounded in the back — a sign that they had not turned away from the fight.

Alexander was so moved by their nobility and courage that he asked his father to bury them with honour and raise a monument in the form of a Sacred Lion over their mass grave. In 1881, the shattered fragments of this Lion Tomb were discovered, surrounded by the bones of 254 pairs of men with their weapons, arranged in a phalanx of seven rows, the battle formation of the Sacred Band.

In 1902 the fragments of the Sacred Lion were reconstructed and placed again over the tomb of The Sacred Band (depicted left) by the secret homosexual society known as the Order of Chaeronea, founded by gay-rights pioneer George Cecil Ives.

It reminds us once again of the Sacred Lion Hunt which we celebrate later this week.

So, what has all of this got to do with us in our daily lives? We're not soldiers. We're not brave and courageous. Like Dorothy Gale, we're meek and mild. Timid. We know that if we were on a battlefield, we would turn and run. We would hide and "play dead" and hope nobody found us.

We assume that the Army of Gay Lovers were all fearless. We think they were unafraid. We don't think of them as being scaredy-cats like us. We think they didn't mind the prospect of agonizing death. We think they were somehow above such mortal fears and doubts.

That's nonsense, of course. They were scared out of their wits. We can scarcely imagine how afraid they were. As they stood there alone against the mightiest army in the Ancient World, their emotions shifted beyond the mere terror of possibly being killed, to the actual horror of inescapable agony and death. It is one thing to be terrified — we all know the fears generated by terrorists who fly airliners into buildings. 

But the emotions experienced by those trapped in the planes or inside the burning buildings go far beyond mere terror to the actual horror of inescapable agony and death. That is the Mystery of Terror as opposed to the Mystery of Horror. We tend to forget the distinction!

The Army of Gay Lovers were not without fear. On the contrary, they were staring into the horror of impending pain and death. But they did not allow their fear to overwhelm them. 

Instead, they turned their fear "inside-out" and used it as a magical shield. The barbs of fear were no longer poking inward to themselves, but instead were pointing outward towards their foes.

And that is the Mystery Teaching of the Army of Gay Lovers. It was no doubt part of the initiation which the recruits underwent at the Tomb of Iolaus. They were schooled in magico-religious methods for handling fear. It's about learning to harness Mars energy. Mars is all about the double-edge sword of fear/bravery and how you can learn to wield that Sword of Mars.

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. Mars Warrior Energy is not about death. It is about LIFE. It is about harnessing fear and doubt and turning them into useful energies in your daily life.

Life — from the time you are born until the time you die — life is just one constant battle. And if you give in, then you are lost. And if you give in to the fear and doubt that constantly confront you each and ever day, then you are lost. It's about using selfless love and transcendant awareness to transform fear and doubt into constructive energies which empower you to stand up and wade into the fray of daily life.


The Band of Thebes were initiated into Mystery Teachings which showed them how to transform fear and doubt into a magical force which made them invincible — capable of asserting their will and making their dreams become reality. 

And the catalyst was male-male love and devotion.

This is one of the deepest and most profound Mystery Teachings of the Religion of Antinous. 

We are talking about the Mysteries of Antinous-Mars. This is why Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia has painted Antinous in the guise of the War God (above). 

Antinous is not just about gay male beauty. He is about gay male warrior energy.

Mars is a very important constituent aspect of Antinous. In Fixed Star Astrology, the STAR OF ANTINOUS is characterized by a mixture of Jupiter/Mars energy along with Venus energy — unique among Fixed Stars. To overlook Mars is to overlook a major component of what Antinous is all about.

Mars and his Alchemical Intelligence Graphiel and Daimon Barzabel (Deimos and Phobos) is much misunderstood by philosophers and occultists. 

The fiery Graphiel/Barzabel energies of the red planet ("terror" Deimos and "horror" Phobos) are often seen as frightful and horrific and destructive and warlike with no other qualities. This is a shallow analysis and one that should be discarded. Understanding your Martial nature — the Antinous-Mars warrior inside you — is essential to your survival and growth as a gay man. Terror and horror accompany us all our lives.

We are all afraid every day. We are all riddled with doubts every day. Look around you — most people are consumed with fear and doubt. Fear fuels their lives! But each of us can learn to turn our fears and doubts "inside-out" so that their barbs no longer point inward towards us, but instead so that these barbs of fear and doubt form a protective shield around us. 

It girds us with a constructive energy which helps us to advance through the Herculean travails which we face in our daily lives. Instead of being "fearfully" timid, we become "fearsomely" determined not to let life get us down.

Tomorrow, this transformational ability to turn fear "inside-out" will help us to understand how Antinous was able to charge the man-eater during the SACRED LION HUNT.

He must have been terrified. He was young and inexperienced and alone on his steed and armed only with an adamantine-tipped lance.

But through his loving bond with Hadrian/Hercules, Antinous/Iolaus was also magically armed with the "fearsomely strong" energies of the Sacred Band of Thebes. 

Flamen Antinoalis Antonius affirms: "We consecrate and honor their memory and call upon their strength and courage in our own hearts, that we may become the New Sacred Band."