ON June 30th, Asteroid Day, we honor Antinous ... or rather Antinous the near-Earth asteroid which could one day pay us a visit ... with a bang.
The Antinous Asteroid … officially called "1863 Antinous," was discovered in 1948 by an American astronomer named Carl. A. Wirtanen.
Astronomers had known for some time that asteroids were plentiful between Mars and Jupiter. But no one had expected to find any in the Inner Solar System ... certainly not near Earth.
But Wirtanen turned his Lick Observatory telescope inward and discovered eight asteroids in our own vicinity.
These Inner Solar System bodies are called "Apollo Asteroids" all named for Classical deities, including of course Antinous.
Apollo Asteroids are collectively named after the first one to be discovered. The asteroid "1862 Apollo" was sighted in 1932 and then lost until 1973.
Apollo asteroids are so small and faint that they are difficult to see except when close to the Earth.
Astronomers fear 1862 Apollo may one day strike Earth, however, they currently do not expect 1863 Antinous to hit Earth … assuming it does not stray from its current admittedly erratic orbit.
Antinous is about 2 km (1.2 miles) in length and spins on its axis one revolution every seven hours. It takes more than three years to orbit the sun.
Antinous Asteroid is a "Mars Crosser" and also an "Earth Crosser" or even "Earth Grazer" planetoid ... meaning it crosses the orbit of Mars and also the orbit of Earth ... and comes very close to Earth.
Antinous came close to the Earth in 1992 and 1999 ... 18 million miles (30 million km) and it is supposed to come past Earth again in the 21st Century ... but hopefully won't hit us!
A collision with an "Apollo Group" asteroid 65 million years ago may have been one of the causes of the extinction of the dinosaurs. A closely related group, the "Amor Group" of asteroids, come close to Earth but do not cross its orbit.
The art of Asteroid Astrology is very arcane ... only a minority of astrologers employ "Astrals," as astrologers call these planetoids ... and then usually only a couple of major ones such as Chiron and Lilith.
Quite honestly, they are so new that astrologers haven't quite agreed on what they mean.
The whole focus on asteroids got a boost when astronomers officially down-graded Pluto from a "planet" to a "minor planet" or "dwarf planet" ... the same category to which Chiron belongs.
So astronomers and astrologers alike are having to take another look at their definitions as humankind's knowledge of the cosmos grows by quantum leaps.
ANTINOUSis the God of the Men with the Pink Triangles, gay victims of the Nazis.
So it is with profound humility that we proclaim an anti-Nazi resistance fighter and the last known gay Jewish survivor of the Holocaust to be a Saint of Antinous.
GAD BECK died in Berlin in 2012 six days before his 89th birthday on June 30.
Beck was a pioneering gay activist and educator in a severely anti-homosexual, repressive post-World War II German society. He was famous for his witty, lively style of speaking.
On a German talk show, he said with a wink to his small physical size, "The Americans in New York called me a big hero. I said no... I’m really a little hero."
Perhaps the single most important experience that shaped his life was the war-time effort to rescue his boyfriend. Beck donned a Hitler Youth uniform and entered a deportation center to free his Jewish lover Manfred Lewin.
After bluffing his way out of the deportation center, as the two youths were hurrying down the road to freedom, Manfred stopped and said he couldn't go on.
He tearfully said he would never forgive himself if he abandoned his family. So, with a parting kiss, he turned back and Gad never saw him again.
The Nazis would later deport the entire Lewin family to Auschwitz, where they were murdered.
Gad's only memento of Manfred was a little notebook with poems, sketches and essays which Manfred had written, plus a photograph. Gad treasured them all his life.
Speaking about his life as a gay Jew, Beck invoked a line frequently cited about homosexuality: "God doesn't punish for a life of love."
He was featured in the film THE LIFE OF GAD BECK (Die Freiheit des Erzählens: Das Leben des Gad Beck) as well as in the German documentary film PARAGRAPH 175. (The notorious Paragraph 175 of the German Penal Code outlawed homosexuality before Adolf Hitler became chancellor in 1933, and the Nazi party radically intensified the enforcement of the anti-gay law, including deportations to extermination camps.)
Aside from the two documentaries, however, he said with typical humor that he was still waiting for the blockbuster, feature-length movie about his life, and he knew just the man to bring it to the big screen.
"Only Steven Spielberg could film my life – forgive me, forgive me," Beck quipped.
He had immigrated to Israel in 1947. After his return to Germany in 1979, the first post-Holocaust head of Berlin's Jewish community, Heinz Galinski, appointed Beck director of the Jewish Adult Education Center in Berlin.
In a telephone interview with Judith Kessler, editor of the Berlin Jewish community's monthly magazine, Juedisches Berlin, she told THE JERUSALEM POST that Beck would organize gay singles meeting in the center.
"He was open, sweet and would speak with everybody," she said. Kessler, who knew Beck since 1989, added that he would attend the annual Christopher Street Day Parade for gay pride in Berlin and wave an Israeli flag.
Beck's father was an Austrian Jew and his mother converted to Judaism.
The Nazi racial laws defined Beck as mischling (mixed-breed), and he and his father were carted off to a holding compound in the Rosenstrasse in central Berlin. After the non-Jewish wives of the prisoners launched a massive street protest in 1943, Beck was released. There were "thousands of women who stood for days... my aunts demanded 'give us our children and men'," he said. The Rosenstrasse demonstration helped debunk the widespread myth in post-Holocaust German society that resistance against Nazism was futile. "The Rosenstrasse event made one thing absolutely clear to me: I won't wait until we get deported," said Beck. Following his release, Beck joined Chug Chaluzi, an underground Zionist resistance youth group, and played a key role in securing the survival of Jews in Berlin. According to the entry about him at the Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, he noted that "as a homosexual, I was able to turn to my trusted non-Jewish, homosexual acquaintances to help supply food and hiding places." Shortly before the end of the war in 1945, a Jewish spy working for the Gestapo betrayed Beck and some of his fellow resistance fighters. He was held captive at a Jewish transit camp in Berlin. After the defeat of Nazi Germany, Beck continued his Zionist work and helped Jewish survivors emigrate to Palestine. He remained in Israel between 1947 and 1979.
TONIGHT's Aries Third Quarter Moon is the lunar phase of the determined warrior which we call the TRIBUNE MOON in Antinous Moon Magic.
If you are someone lacking in self-assertiveness, then Antinous the Moon God is sending assertiveness your way on his moonbeams tonight... so that you can forge ahead in with determination and vigor.
Each lunar phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype.
The Spirit of the Tribune Moon is the dominant Alpha Male, the leader of the pack. This spirit is symbolized by the Roman tribune riding in triumph through the Forum.
It is the Spirit of discipline and obeying orders ... and giving orders which earn the respect and admiration of others.
It is the Spirit that likes order and rules and expects others to abide by his own code of behavior. This Spirit leads the charge into battle and is a born leader.
Many gay men have a hard time asserting themselves. We equate assertiveness with "aggression" and "being a bully." And so, many of us gay men go through our lives trying to stifle and suppress any sort of assertiveness. We try to be good little boys ... all of our lives.
And yet ... each of us is born with Aries warrior energy in abundance. He always finds a way to get out and exert himself. If we spend our lives suppressing our inner warrior energy, then it seeps out in destructive ways. We have problems with pent-up rage. We have problems with self-destructive habits. We build an impenetrable shield of fear and disdain around ourselves.
We are afraid of being hurt. And we are afraid of hurting others. So we hurt ourselves instead. Our lives turn into chaos.
The Tribune Moon is about confronting your fears ... above all, your fear of baring your true self to others. It is about turning your weaknesses into your strengths. It is about transforming destructive energies into constructive ones. It is about finding ... and fulfilling ... your destiny ....
Meditations and rituals tonight are best suited for finding ways to assert your will constructively ... for the benefit of yourself and for others.
OUR sage astrological adviser Hernestus has advised me that the next moon phase is the "Tribune Moon" the Aries Third Quarter Moon. It represents an alpha male and discipline and orderliness in life, obedience, attention to detail, it is about self-assertiveness.
With all of this in mind I recommend that your meditations during this moon phase would be best enhanced by holding, or placing near you, the following crystals:
Bronzite- These beautiful mottled stones (in the top photo) help to support masculine energies within your body but also in your consciousness.
Onyx - Typically black (although can be found in other colours) these powerful stones help you to recognize and integrate the dualities we often have within us. This will lead to better self-control.
In Light and Life,
MARTIN
To get more advice from Martin Campbell and to find out how to contact him CLICK HERE.
THE last of our three Uranian Patriarchs, Edward Carpenter was born in Brighton England on the 29th of August, 1844, to a very large middle-class family.
While his brothers went into the military, Edward became a scholar, with great success and eventually even taught at Cambridge where he was required to become ordained as a curate of the Anglican Church.
It was at this time, when he was 24, that he first read Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman and was completely changed. He resigned his position at Cambridge and devoted his life to the working class, becoming a Socialist philosopher, lecturing, organizing and speaking for working men.
When his parents died, he received an inheritance that he used to purchase a rural estate at Millthrope, which he turned into a veritable Socialist Commune. He repressed his homosexuality for much of his life, channeling his desire into politically inspired friendships.
But the Millthrope house gave him the freedom to express his feelings more openly, and he began to write books on the subject of Uranian Love. He was deeply influenced by Hindu spirituality, and visited India, all of which emerged in his spiritual view of the Socialist movement, which was not so much about political revolution, but directed towards a change in human consciousness, of which homosexuality rapidly became his greatest cause.
While returning from India he met George Merrill on the train. It would be the love of his life. The younger man soon moved into the house at Millthrope, the two became inseparable lovers whose relationship lasted over forty years.
In 1908, he published The Intermediate Sex, the first widely available book on the subject of homosexuality. After the death of John Addington Symonds, with whom he had been closely allied, Edward Carpenter assumed the role as torch bearer, and subsequently published dozens of books and essays for the cause of gay liberation. He died on the 28th of June, 1929, in Guildford England, and though not widely known at the time, was to later become a spiritual patriarch for the gay liberation movement of the late 1960s and '70s. He is regarded as a Saint and Patriarch of the Religion of Antinous, and remembered as one of the first fathers whose work changed the world with subtle power.
Antinous is a Moon God. He is, of course, many other things and he wears many hats. But one of the ways he was worshiped in Antiquity was as ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD.
His worshipers looked skyward and saw His beautiful face perpetually turned towards the Earth. The Man in the Moon was actually the Blessed Boy in the Moon for the ancient priests and worshipers of Antinous. Swiftest and most youthful of all the Zodiacal deities, Antinous speeds through an entire year's worth of Astrological signs in just 28 days.
ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD represents our deepest personal needs, our basic habits and reactions, and our unconscious gay selves. Where Hadrian the Sun acts, Antinous the Moon REACTS. How do we instinctively react or respond to problems? What do we feel we need for a sense of security? Look to ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD for answers.
ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD is both our inner boy child and our inner lover. His ever changing phases, as he sweeps past all the other Planets in all the Signs, make us at turns responsive, receptive, and reflective. Eternally youthful, ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD represents our childlike spontaneous and instinctual reactions.
ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD beams down on us to make us imaginative, creative, intuitive, sentimental, adaptable, introspective, and protective. On the negative side, and depending on where he is in the Zodiac, he can make us moody, restless, and irrational.
Antinous Astrology Forecast
JUNE 27 to JULY 7, 2024
THURSDAY, June 27th, 2024
This week, Venus and Mars form a powerful sextile configuration. This magical Venus-sextile-Mars moment occurs only twice a year. It is possible now to take a balanced approach to conflict, problems and projects that require effort. This can combine both a gentle touch and firm action, sensitivity and forcefulness. Negotiation and interaction with others could be aggressive and determined now, but also balanced with sensitivity and style. Any expressions of anger, frustration or discontent are more likely to be tempered with fairness, moderation and composure. On the spiritual level, you are able to balance the masculine and feminine energies of your soul to create a beautiful whole.
FRIDAY, June 28th, 2024
This week, we come to the Aries Third Quarter Moon, which is the lunar phase of the determined warrior we call the TRIBUNE MOON in Antinous Moon Magic. If you are someone lacking in self-assertiveness, then ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD is sending assertiveness your way on his moonbeams tonight ... so that you can forge ahead in with determination and vigor ... The Tribune Moon is about confronting your fears ... above all, your fear of baring your true self to others. It is about turning your weaknesses into your strengths. It is about transforming destructive energies into constructive ones. It is about finding ... and fulfilling ... your destiny ... Meditations and rituals this night are best suited for finding ways to assert your will constructively.
SATURDAY, June 29th, 2024
This weekend, Saturn the ringed planet shifts into reverse gear to go Retrograde or "backwards" as seen from Earth. As Saturn retraces its steps for the next four months, we will all revisit issues and problems in our lives which need to be remedied before we move on. From now until November 15th, when Saturn goes Direct or "forwards" again, you can expect to have Saturn, the school teacher of the Zodiac, to force you to sit down and complete your homework before moving forward to the next class.
SUNDAY, June 30th, 2024
This weekend, you may want to break loose and go off alone on some impromptu adventure when Mercury forms a sextile aspect with Uranus. If you are stuck at home with family or people you would rather avoid, this can create intolerable tensions and the desire to walk out and jump in the car and speed away. But if you have the week to yourself, this creates the perfect atmosphere for doing something new and different without anyone holding you back.
MONDAY, July 1st, 2024
This week, Mercury leaves sulky Cancer and struts into lively Leo so that communications become bold, fiery and focused more on drama than on picky details.
TUES-WEDNESDAY, July 2nd-3rd, 2024
This week, Neptune turns Retrograde and begins retracing its steps through dreamy Pisces from now until December 6th. Retrograde Neptune in intuitive Pisces means there will be an atmosphere of nostalgia and yearning for a return to the "good old days" — which were maybe not all that good to start with. Nostalgia reigns during Retrograde Neptune in Pisces! On the negative side, Retrograde Neptune in Pisces causes addictive behavior to resurface. But on the positive side, Retrograde Neptune shines a spotlight on the arts and spirituality. Don't be surprised when recurring dreams revisit you in coming weeks and months. ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD is using Retrograde Neptune to remind you of unfinished dream work. This is your chance to practice Dreamscaping ... consciously manipulating your dreams. You are the dreamer. You can do anything you want to do in your dreams.
THURSDAY, July 4th, 2024
This week, Mercury is in opposition to both Pluto and the Star of Antinous (See: PLUTO ALIGNS WITH THE STAR OF ANTINOUS). Mercury in opposition to Retrograde Pluto ... even as Pluto is aligned with the star of Antinous in the sign of Capricorn ... sends transformative energies that can radically alter gay spirituality for centuries to come. This is an opportunity for LGBT advancement that will not come again in our lifetimes.
FRI-SATURDAY, July 5th-6th, 2024
Overnight Friday-Saturday, we come to the CANCER NEW MOON. In ANTINOUS MOON MAGIC we call this the ADONIS MOON ... the lunar phase which enhances relationships ... Antinous has always been identified with Adonis, the god of beauty and desire, and a central figure in various mystery religions ... Adonis is the divine ideal lover ... Rituals and meditations tonight are best suited for focusing on your lover ... or how to find a lover ... or simply a good night for being with your lover ... for the benefit of yourself and for others.
SUNDAY, July 7th, 2024
This weekend, aggressive Mars forms an ambition-filled sextile aspect with Saturn. You will be energized with perseverance and endurance for the long haul.
SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK:
Another exciting week lies ahead between July 8th and 14th, 2024, when we come to the Libra First Quarter Moon, the beautiful moon of balance and equilibrium we call the VENUS MOON in Antinous Moon Magic ... This is Venus Genetrix, the Mother of Rome ... Rituals and meditations tonight are best suited for questions about your mother or your "inner mother" and also about finding flexible solutions to problems. The serpentine qualities of the "Snake Goddess Moon" offer insights into how to slither around or through seemingly impervious barriers in life ... More details next time ....
THIS is the day the Liturgical Calendar of the Religion of Antinous sets aside for remembrance of Saint Judy Garland, whose death was the spark that ignited the Stonewall Riots on a sultry night in 1969 when a bunch of drag queens and assorted other gay men decided they weren't in the mood to put up with yet another raid by the corrupt and brutal NYPD.
Gays had had enough and they had just suffered a terrible shock — Judy Garland's tragic death on June 22 had rocked the gay world. It was said that 13 twisters raged through Kansas the day Judy died, which — in Kansas — in June — is a pretty safe bet, in any case. But still, and all the same ....
Judy had died in London, and amid much news media hype, her body was flown back to New York for a memorial service which drew a huge crowd of grief-stricken gay men who gathered outside Campbell's Funeral Chapel in Manhattan — on June 27, 1969.
Afterwards, the bars were jammed with gay men drowning their sorrows in booze and drugs while listening to Judy Garland songs full blast on every jukebox.
The mood was electrified by a sense of solidarity in grieving for a fallen idol. Gay men had surprised themselves by turning out en masse for Judy's funeral. They had experienced strength in numbers for the first time. They had been on national TV news.
In an unprecedented move by prime-time national news anchormen, Walter Cronkite and Huntley-Brinkley had talked about Judy Garland's "tremendous appeal among male homosexual fans" — at supper time when whole families were watching the evening news!
Blacks were standing up for their rights. Women were burning their bras. The Chicano Movement was gathering steam. And now "ho-mo-sexuals" (the announcers were unaccustomed to speaking the word aloud) were having the audacity to congregate outside a sacred chapel in broad daylight — and they even showed their faces on the evening news!
Straight people were being confronted with homosexuals right there on television beamed into their homes. And — more importantly — homosexuals were seeing themselves and their brothers/sisters on national television news. Gays in isolated places who had worshipped Judy Garland at the movies or on LP and tape, were now watching other gay people weeping for her in New York. For the first time, gay people in isolated places saw themselves on TV. We were not alone in our grief at the passing of a star with whom we somehow innately felt connected.
It was a Friday night. Late June. Hot and steamy. The bars were filled to bursting. Gay men were sharing a rare moment of solidarity in powerful emotions. There was a feeling, not only in New York, but around the world, that a paradigm shift had taken place. A gay icon had died suddenly and tragically (shades of Antinous) and we gay people everywhere found ourselves in a catharsis of identity change. None of us understood what was happening. Just as it was with being gay, we gay men couldn't explain it, we just "felt" it and "knew" it to be true.
And THAT moment was when the Manhattan police happened to stage one of their periodic raids on queers. Basically it was a routine raid on an average gay bar. Nobody had reckoned with what would happen next. Even gay men were surprised by what happened next.
ESPECIALLY gay men.
We were men who had been accustomed to being timid fraidy-cats. Men who had never dared to stand up for their sexuality. Drag queens and faggots never fought back. That was a fact of gay survival. We knew we were gay. And we knew what we weren't. We were not "MEN".
Grief turned to outrage. It was a spontaneous uprising fuelled by rage. The vice squad was overwhelmed. Reinforcements had to be sent in. Gay men stood their ground and advanced on the police, pushing them back.
It was the turning point for us. Gay men throughout America — and later in London, Berlin, Sydney and elsewhere — began standing up for themselves under the banner "Remember Stonewall".
In a sense, Judy Garland died for us. Had it not been for her tragic death — strangling on vomit over a toilet bowl in a London hotel suite — there might not have been any Stonewall Riots. Flamen Antinoalis ANTONIUS SUBIA puts the Stonewall Riots into a spiritual context: "It was the first resistance by homosexuals against the repression of two thousand years, and the beginning of the Gay Liberation movement. The importance of the Stonewall Riots is the awakening of gay consciousness, the throwing off of the coils of the python that had for so many centuries enveloped our divine form of Love. This sacred revolt is holy to Apollo, Dionysus, and Diana combined as the guardian spirits of Homosexuality. Our modern Gay society was born on this occasion, and all of the peace and freedom that we have obtained in the these short decades are due to the courage that erupted on that Sacred Night in front of the Stonewall Bar."
FOR Pride Month, an aromatherapist and parfumier in Brazil shares this image of Antinous/Antenociticus adorning a small temple in Newcastle England.
He adds this poem:
THE SCENT OF ANTINOUS
When contemplating the beauty
of your divine body
adorning the altar
in this ancient temple
my heart calms down
When smelling the perfume
of your bare skin
Saturating this sacred space.
Poetry by Edhie Laureano Pires Yata'wá
@antinousemporium1 (Instagram)
This small temple is dedicated to a curly-haired boy god called ANTENOCITICUS ... a deity worshiped by soldiers and local people at the eastern end of Hadrian's Wall.
Antinous in the guise of Antenociticus is not mentioned at any other Romano-British site or on any inscriptions from Europe, which is why it has been identified as a local deity.
Antinous priest and writer MARTINUS CAMPBELL, author of THE LOVE GOD about the life of Antinous, says it is highly possible Antenociticus is a local aspect of Antinous ... perhaps in honor of a visit to this outpost by Antinous and Hadrian.
Martinus says: "Archaeologically there is a period of time in AD 126 to 127 when we have no record of where Hadrian was. We do know, however, that the wall was completed in Ad 128."
He says: "It is believed he would have come to Britannia to oversee the final stages of the wall. It is further believe he would have brought Antinous with him."
Martinus adds: "That is why the locals (mostly of mixed Roman and British blood, by then) connected Antinous to a local deity Citicus and re-named him Antenociticus." Stone heads of Antenociticus have been found nearby.
ON June 25th we remember Sir Lawrence Alma-Tadema, who died on this day in 1912, one of the most famous painters of the late 19th Century who was forgotten in the 20th Century and is only now beginning to be rediscovered in the 21st Century. No Victorian artist painted marble as well as Alma-Tadema ... or painted faces so that you could read the emotions from facial expressions ... as in "Bacchanale" 1871 above. Alma-Tadema, the now sadly forgotten painter who was one of the biggest celebrities of the Victorian art scene. Born in Holland on 8 January 1836, and trained in Antwerp, he settled in England in 1870 and became the toast of London with his enormous, wall-sized paintings of scenes of luxury and decadence in Ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome.
Viewing his paintings in a London gallery was the equivalent of going to an Imax 3-D Sense-Surround cinema today. His attention to color and to near-photographic detail was superb. Every petal of every flower was always perfect. Each face had a personal story to tell. The painting "Hadrian Visiting a Romano-British Pottery" (above) displays Alma-Tadema's mastery of textures, colors, facial expressions and architectural details ... just look at the exquisite mosaics. Alas, fame and celebrity are fleeting things. Styles changed and his work went out of fashion. He died a bitter and disappointed man in June 1912. That was only a couple of weeks after Nijinsky had shocked ballet-goers in Paris by masturbating on stage, and it was barely a month after the Titanic had sunk. Very soon war would break out and the world would never be the same. It was the end of the Gilded Age of complacency, comfort and ease. Alma-Tadema' s paintings were derided as "kitschy" and were stored away in attics and warehouses. Once the most famous artist in Britain, he was soon forgotten and serious art historians ignored him for decades. In recent years, however, his genius has been rediscovered and a new generation of admirers delight in his magnificent paintings, a few of which have been brought out of storage for display for the first time in more than a century.
TRAVELINGacross the Arabian desert along the caravan routes, and the border road constructed for the Legions to patrol the frontier with Parthia, Hadrian and Antinous went south from Palmyra towards Arabia, crossing the country that is now called Jordan. They visited the city of Gerasha where a monumental arch of Hadrian was constructed to celebrate his visit.
They followed the trade routes to the capitol of the province of Arabia, the famous city of Petra, where merchants arrived from Yemen, carrying sacred frankincense, the most important religious offering in the Roman religion.
The great temples of Petra, carved out of rock, were dedicated to their primary god, Al Qaum, who is compared to Mars, the war god, and was said to be the protector of the Caravans. Al Quam was never depicted, but was represented as an un-worked, cone-shaped stone set on a golden pedestal, that somewhat resembles a phallus.
The Nabateans of Petra were conquered by Pompey, but were allowed independent rule, until Trajan made their kingdom a Roman Province.
Hadrian was so pleased with Petra and the reception he received that he lavished great sums on the people, and he elevated the city to the status of a Metropolis after which the city was called Hadrian's Petra.
The importance of the Nabateans and their fantastic city of rock is that they are the ancestors of the Arabian culture as we know it, their language and writing is what evolved into Arabic.
Their entire culture and religious foundation were embraced by the tribes of the whole Arabian Desert, Medina and Mecca were outposts of Nabatean culture along the trade routes to the south.
The elegance, love for poetry and war of the pagan Arab people extends from the Nabatean culture that so impressed Hadrian.
It was in Hadrian's Petra that Antinous was immersed into the Arabian culture which would in centuries to come overtake half of the Roman world especially the cities and provinces where the Antinous religion was strongest, leaving little trace of his cult behind.
We pray that the wisdom of the pagan Nabateans of Arabia Petra will return to calm the crisis of our modern age. We offer sacred olibanum of Petra in honor of the ancient gods and as a symbol of our faith in Antinous the gay god.
IT is indeed ironic that Jerusalem is in the headlines again, amidst continuing religious and political strife and bloodshed, for it is in mid-July when the Religion of Antinous commemorates the bitter-sweet arrival of Antinous and Hadrian in Jerusalem in the year 130 AD. In hindsight, Hadrian must have viewed Jerusalem as a bad omen enroute to what would tragically turn out be a fateful date with destiny in Egypt following a triumphal tour of Asia Minor. This day in the year 130 AD signaled a turning point in history. The glorious tour of the Eastern Provinces turned sour when Hadrian reached religious strife-torn Jerusalem.
In a few years, he would raze the city to the ground in rage at the Jewish rebellion, earning him the enmity of Jews forever more. In a few weeks, the entourage would enter drought-stricken Egypt, where Hadrian would be confronted by despair and discontent. And only six months hence, his beloved Antinous would be dead. The wise and cautious emperor would turn bitter and cruel without sweet Antinous at his side. The history of Western Civilization was about to change .... But on this day in the spring of 130 AD, Hadrian basked in the golden glow of adulation, sensing perhaps only vaguely that this glow was in fact the sunset of his reign. Hadrian and Antinous crossed the Jordan river and entered Jerusalem on this day in 130. There they remained for much of summer of 130, while Hadrian immersed himself in the Jewish faith and attempted to convince Jewish leaders to compromise on religious matters. He soon realized that compromise was impossible. Hadrian had two facets to his personality. One was the compassionate and wise seeker of knowledge who was open to new ideas, particularly when they pertained to spiritual matters. But the other facet was the uncompromising warrior who could not allow an affront to Roman dignity and socio-economic order to go unpunished.
It was during this visit to Jerusalem that Hadrian realized the Jews would never be subsumed into Roman society. He began issuing controversial decrees, such as outlawing circumcision. It may have been during this visit that Hadrian began drawing up plans to rebuild Jerusalem after the fashion of the Greeks, with major temples to Jupiter and Venus. He may even have begun work on the reconstruction of the Temple Mount, dedicating the new Temple to Jupiter Capitolinus, with a statue of Hadrian in front. His actions and disregard for the Jewish religion led to the rebellion of Bar Kochba, and the protracted and very bloody Jewish war. The result of this war was that Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina, and all Jewish and Christian Churches were replaced with Temples to Venus and Adonis. Israel was renamed Palestine, and the Jews were forbidden to enter Jerusalem except once a year on Passover. This was the beginning of the Diaspora. It was the beginning of 18 centuries of rancour and strife over the issue of Judea/Israel/Palestine, and of who should live there. To this day, Hadrian's name is accursed among Jews. This is where the glorious tour of the Eastern Provinces turned sour. But it is also where the glorious reign of Hadrian turned sour. Until the year 130, Hadrian had surprised his critics with his even-handedness and his cautious wisdom and his patience in seeking peace and avoiding armed conflict wherever possible. His goal was to create a Hellenistic society based on tolerance and mutual benefit. But the second half of the year 130 changed everything. By the end of the year Antinous would be dead and Hadrian would return to Rome a broken and embittered man. The man who loved to travel and spent half of his reign abroad would never leave the environs of Rome and his villa at Tivoli again. The remaining eight years of his life would be marked by capricious cruelty, vindictiveness, chronic pain and sickness. Above all, he would be remembered for a devastating war against the Jews — a war which left a sore which continues to fester 1,800 years later.
ON June 20th and 21st Hadrian's Pantheon is the place to be during the Solstice.
Hadrian's Pantheon brings tears to your eyes. Imagine being with ANTONIUS SUBIA as he describes the monolithic columns each carved from a single stone from Egypt ... "as if he could snap his fingers and have such columns appear here" ... and the marble in the interior coming from every corner of Hadrian's vast empire. Then you stand under the oculus ... the eye of the cosmos ... the most spiritual architectural element anywhere.
DURING tonight's SUMMER BLUE MOON we reflect on the inner Antinous within us all ... already within us ... waiting to be awakened. (Art above by Linda Larson) Many of us spend a lot of our lives looking for role models, mentors, teachers, and gurus to guide us on our path. There is nothing wrong with this and, in fact, finding the right person at the right time can really help. However, it is important to realize that in the absence of such a figure, we can very safely rely upon ourselves. Flamen Antonius Subia has said this many times. Instead of looking for Antinous outside of us, Antonius says we should look inside of us for Antinous. We ARE Antinous and He is us. That means we carry within us everything we need to know to make progress on our paths to self-realization. The outer world serves as a mirror. Or to use another metaphor, our inner world has a magnetic Antinous force that draws to us what we need to evolve to the next level. All we need to do to see that we already have everything we need is to let go of our belief that we need to seek in order to find. The path of the spirit is often defined as a journey with a goal such as the fabled pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. In this metaphor, a person begins a search for something they want but do not have and then they find it, and there is a happy ending. However, most of us know that getting what we want only makes us happy for a moment, and then the happiness passes until a new object of desire presents itself. Joy is a permanent aspect of our inner selves and is not separate from us at any point. We do not have to travel to find it or imagine that it resides only in the body of another. In fact, what the best teachers will do is point out that this very precious elixir is something we already possess. So when we find ourselves on our path, not knowing which way to turn and wishing for guidance, we can turn to ourselves ... to our Inner Antinous. We may not know the right answer rationally or intellectually, but if we simply ask, let go, and wait patiently, an answer will come ... from our Antinous Within. The more we practice this and trust this process, the less we will look outside ourselves for teachers and guides for we will have successfully become our own. It is so simple. It really is a Simple Gift to just let go and trust your Inner Antinous.
HADRIAN designed his personal observatory at his sprawling villa outside Rome to be in alignment withthe Solstices.
Imagine the scene during the Solstice cycle: First, he would observe the setting sun sending a shaft of goldish-red light through a certain slit in his observatory tower to illuminate a golden statue of the Egyptian Goddess Isis.
Then there would be oracles at midnight. You can just see the cluster of priests and augurs, chanting and offering sacrifices amidst billowing clouds of incense.
An Etruscan haruspex or two would be wearing yellow robes and conical hats as they inspected the entrails of animals. Patrician augurs would be wearing their finest ceremonial togas as they listened for messages from nocturnal birds. Babylonian astrologers would be clad in garish robes with multi-tiered crowns as they scanned the heavens and babbled to each other about their arcane calculations.
And naturally the Egyptian priests would do their utmost to out-do all the others with outlandish make-up, headdresses and robes to the cacophony of sistrums, gongs and the whoosh of incendiary incense sending up pastel-colored clouds of smoke to the wailing of a priestess of Isis in the throes of a trance.
Scores of Imperial court officials and hangers-on would be stifling yawns as the oracles took most of the night.
But yawns would turn to gasps of wonder and praise when the Emperor announced that he had just seen the RISE OF THE STAR OF ANTINOUS over the eastern horizon.
Then at dawn, the Emperor would climb stairs to the upper chamber to observe the Solstice Sunrise on June 21st.
He would announce the outcome of the oracles and whether the Antinoian Auspices for the coming year were favorable.
Meanwhile, an Italian archaeologist and her team spends Solstice at the ruins of a tower on a hillock at Hadrian's Villa which was the Emperor's own private observatory.
These experts, led by MARIA DE FRANCESCHINI, have demonstrated that the observatory tower is in fact aligned to the Solstices. She believes the observatory was dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, who raised Osiris from the dead to become a god of resurrection and transfiguration — just as Hadrian declared Antinous a god of resurrection and transfiguration.
For centuries, experts had been mystified by the layout of the sprawling complex of marble baths, banquet halls, luxurious residences, gardens, shrines and unidentified structures 30 kilometers outside Rome.
Hadrian's Villa was a sprawling complex of buildings, temples, gardens, a zoo and — yes — even an observatory tower on a hillock on the edge of the compound from which Hadrian could observe the heavens.
But, in an article published in the journal Nature last year, De Franceschini wrote that she believes the mystery-shrouded Rocca Bruna Tower, long held to be Hadrian's private observatory, is in fact aligned so as to produce sunlight effects for the seasons.
She describes her findings personally in the video at the top of this entry.
De Franceschini says that during the summer solstice, rays of light pierce the tower and another of the villa's buildings. In the Rocca Bruna Tower, dawn sunlight during the summer solstice enters through a wedge-shaped slot above the door and illuminates a niche on the opposite side of the interior (image courtesy nature.com). And in a temple of the Accademia building, De Franceschini has found that sunlight passes through a series of doors during both the winter and summer solstices.
"The alignments gave me a new key of interpretation," says De Franceschini, who adds that the two buildings are connected by an esplanade that was a sacred avenue during the solstices. Based on ancient texts describing religious rituals and study of recovered sculptures, she thinks the sunlight effects were linked to religious ceremonies associated with the Egyptian goddess Isis, who was adopted by the Romans.
De Franceschini, who works with the University of Trento in Italy, has published a book describing the archaeo-astronomical work, VILLA ADRIANA ARCHITETTURA CELESTE. She credits two architects, Robert Mangurian and Mary-Ann Ray, for initially noticing the light effect in Rocca Bruna.
According to nature.com, Robert Hannah, a classicist from the University of Otago in New Zealand, says that De Franceschini's ideas are plausible. "They're certainly ripe for further investigation," he says.
Hannah believes that the Pantheon, designed by Hadrian in Rome with a circular opening at the top of its dome, also acts as a giant calendrical sundial, with sunlight illuminating key interior surfaces at the equinoxes and on the spring equinox on April 21st, the city's birthday.
Few classical buildings have been investigated for astronomical alignment, says Hannah, partly because it is much easier to check for alignments in prehistoric structures such as Stonehenge, which do not have potentially contradictory artefacts.
De Franceschini spends every solstice at Hadrian's villa, seeking further verification. Our thoughts and prayers go with her during this special season of the Solstice.
We can envision Hadrian, sick with grief and alone after the death of Antinous, ensconced in his observatory tower scanning the heavens for a sign from his Beloved Boy, praying to Isis for her to work her magic on Antinous.
Antinous is a Moon God. He is, of course, many other things and he wears many hats. But one of the ways he was worshiped in Antiquity was as ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD.
His worshipers looked skyward and saw His beautiful face perpetually turned towards the Earth. The Man in the Moon was actually the Blessed Boy in the Moon for the ancient priests and worshipers of Antinous. Swiftest and most youthful of all the Zodiacal deities, Antinous speeds through an entire year's worth of Astrological signs in just 28 days.
ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD represents our deepest personal needs, our basic habits and reactions, and our unconscious gay selves. Where Hadrian the Sun acts, Antinous the Moon REACTS. How do we instinctively react or respond to problems? What do we feel we need for a sense of security? Look to ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD for answers.
ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD is both our inner boy child and our inner lover. His ever changing phases, as he sweeps past all the other Planets in all the Signs, make us at turns responsive, receptive, and reflective. Eternally youthful, ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD represents our childlike spontaneous and instinctual reactions.
ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD beams down on us to make us imaginative, creative, intuitive, sentimental, adaptable, introspective, and protective. On the negative side, and depending on where he is in the Zodiac, he can make us moody, restless, and irrational.
Antinous Astrology Forecast
JUNE 20th to 30th, 2024
THURSDAY, June 20th, 2024
Overnight Thursday-Friday, we come to the JUNE SOLSTICE. For those of you in the Northern Hemisphere this is the Summer Solstice and the days start getting shorter. For those of you in the Southern Hemisphere this is the Winter Solstice and spring will soon be on the way. But above all, we reflect on the inner Antinous within us all ... already within us ... waiting to be awakened. Many of us spend a lot of our lives looking for role models, mentors, teachers, and gurus to guide us on our path. There is nothing wrong with this and, in fact, finding the right person at the right time can really help. However, it is important to realize that in the absence of such a figure, we can very safely rely upon ourselves. Flamen Antonius Subia has said this many times. Instead of looking for Antinous outside of us, Antonius says we should look inside of us for Antinous. We ARE Antinous and He is us. It is the process (for it is a process and not a method) which he calls Homotheosis.
FRI-SATURDAY, June 21st-22nd, 2024
Overnight Friday-Saturday, we come to the first of two Capricorn Full Moons in succession, which is the SUMMER BLUE MOON, coinciding with the JUNE SOLSTICE.
SUN-MONDAY, June 23rd-24th, 2024
This weekend, Mercury is in a sextile aspect to Mars to help you get your point across articulately and strongly to others. And because Mercury is Retrograde, you can rehash, rewrite or revise proposals and re-present them to your best advantage.
TUES-WEDNESDAY, June 25th-26th, 2024
This week, Mercury forms a brilliant and glowing trine aspect with Saturn which empowers you with perseverance (Saturn) and clear forms of expression (Mercury) to make some serious long-term plans for the future.
THURSDAY, June 27th, 2024
This week, Venus and Mars form a powerful sextile configuration. This magical Venus-sextile-Mars moment occurs only twice a year. It is possible now to take a balanced approach to conflict, problems and projects that require effort. This can combine both a gentle touch and firm action, sensitivity and forcefulness. Negotiation and interaction with others could be aggressive and determined now, but also balanced with sensitivity and style. Any expressions of anger, frustration or discontent are more likely to be tempered with fairness, moderation and composure. On the spiritual level, you are able to balance the masculine and feminine energies of your soul to create a beautiful whole.
FRIDAY, June 28th, 2024
This week, we come to the Aries Third Quarter Moon, which is the lunar phase of the determined warrior we call the TRIBUNE MOON in Antinous Moon Magic. If you are someone lacking in self-assertiveness, then ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD is sending assertiveness your way on his moonbeams tonight ... so that you can forge ahead in with determination and vigor ... The Tribune Moon is about confronting your fears ... above all, your fear of baring your true self to others. It is about turning your weaknesses into your strengths. It is about transforming destructive energies into constructive ones. It is about finding ... and fulfilling ... your destiny ... Meditations and rituals this night are best suited for finding ways to assert your will constructively.
SATURDAY, June 29th, 2024
This weekend, Saturn the ringed planet shifts into reverse gear to go Retrograde or "backwards" as seen from Earth. As Saturn retraces its steps for the next four months, we will all revisit issues and problems in our lives which need to be remedied before we move on. From now until November 15th, when Saturn goes Direct or "forwards" again, you can expect to have Saturn, the school teacher of the Zodiac, to force you to sit down and complete your homework before moving forward to the next class.
SUNDAY, June 30th, 2024
This weekend, you may want to break loose and go off alone on some impromptu adventure when Mercury forms a sextile aspect with Uranus. If you are stuck at home with family or people you would rather avoid, this can create intolerable tensions and the desire to walk out and jump in the car and speed away. But if you have the week to yourself, this creates the perfect atmosphere for doing something new and different without anyone holding you back.
SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK:
Another exciting week lies ahead between July 1st and 7th, 2024, when we come to the CANCER NEW MOON. In ANTINOUS MOON MAGIC we call this the ADONIS MOON ... the lunar phase which enhances relationships ... Antinous has always been identified with Adonis, the god of beauty and desire, and a central figure in various mystery religions ... Adonis is the divine ideal lover ... Rituals and meditations tonight are best suited for focusing on your lover ... or how to find a lover ... or simply a good night for being with your lover ... for the benefit of yourself and for others ... More details next time ....
THE JUNE SOLSTICEis one of the most sacred days in the Liturgical Calendar of the Religion of Antinous.
It is the day when Ra Herakhte, the heavenly father of Antinous, stands still for a moment. In the Northern Hemisphere it is the longest day and from now on the days become shorter and shorter. For our brothers in the Southern Hemisphere, this is the Shortest Day and from now on the days become longer and longer.
That is an important aspect to remember about the Religion of Antinous. The Blessed Boy is beyond such constraints as Summer and Winter or even Life and Death. For Antinous, the days are ALWAYS getting longer and the they are ALWAYS getting shorter.
For HE lives in our hearts — wherever we are.
The Religion of Antinous celebrates a whole cluster of Sacred Events on this magical day, which we call The Delphinea as a collective term. The Delphinea is the celebration of the beautiful, golden-haired god of light, Apollo.
Antinous would be associated with many deities in the generations to come. Among his many names, the Beauteous Boy was adored as Antinous-Apollo (image above). The Delphineais the celebration of the beautiful, golden-haired god of light, Apollo, and of his triumph over the great and monstrous Python which was wrapped around holy mount Parnassus. The Python was the creation of Juno, a creature of jealousy whose coils were meant only to stifle and constrict the grace of that which was to proceed from the Sacred Way of the holy city of Delphi.
Apollo shot the Python and destroyed it, when he was only three days old, which is like the brilliance of the Sun dispelling the covering of night. He set the black stone which had fallen from the sky, called the Omphalos, over the navel of the Earth, and charged a Sibyl, a priestess of the Great Mother to watch over the stone and to convey his wisdom to mankind.
Flamen Antinoalis Antonius Subia explains the significance for us Antinoians:
"The Oracle of Delphi, called a Pythoness, was overtaken while seated atop a golden tripod, by a fire that is the breath of the God. Apollo is the Flower Prince reborn, he is the Twin brother of Dionysus, the Twin brother of Diana. He is the Son of Zeus, and the inheritor of his Kingdom, just as Aelius Caesar was the chosen son of Hadrian.
"Apollo is the God of wisdom and art, the speaker of truth, the deliverer of radiance, reason and beauty. Apollo is the God of Socrates and Plato, and he is the God of Pythagoras who claimed to be his son, exhibiting a golden thigh as proof. Apollo is the unconquered light, the full manifested brilliance, power and wisdom of Orpheus.
"Of all the gods, Apollo is the most boy-loving, though the touch of his heart was invariably fatal. He is the genius of the dying boy-gods. We pray to Apollo, the great god of homosexuality, and seek his guidance on this day, the longest day of the year."
ON JUNE 19ththe Religion of Antinous commemorates the birth of SAINT NICK DRAKE, the sexually ambivalent English singer who died under very mysterious, Antinous-like circumstances at a young age and who became an artistic icon for future generations of dreamers and artists.
Nicholas Rodney Drake was born on June 19th, 1948, to an upper middle class English family living in Burma. His father was an industrialist and there was never much question about Nick's financial future. Indeed, he would have been a wealthy middle-aged man today had he done nothing at all. But Nick never ceased to wonder and worry about his spiritual future. Despite or perhaps precisely because of his admission to Cambridge University, Nick Drake was convinced that he should shun a financially certain future and pursue a future as a musician. Nick Drake learned to play piano at an early age, and began to compose his own songs, which he would record on a reel-to-reel tape recorder he kept in the family drawing room in rural England. In 1966 he spent some time in the South of France where he purportedly became acquainted with "the best sort of pot" and perhaps experimented with LSD — and possibly sex with both females and males. Returning to England, he realized he was not suited to receive a degree from Cambridge University. Nick abruptly and shockingly (as far as his family was concerned) ended his studies at Cambridge nine months before graduation, and in autumn 1969 moved to London to concentrate on a career in music. Nick signed to Island Records when he was 20 years old and released his debut album, Five Leaves Left, in 1969. By 1972, he had recorded his second album — Bryter Layter and part of his third, Pink Moon. Neither of the first two albums sold more than 5,000 copies on their initial release in Britain, much less abroad. He never made an American breakthrough, unlike other major British artists of the era. Nick was devastated and depressed. His excruciating shyness to perform live or be interviewed further contributed to his lack of commercial success. Despite this, he was able to gather a loyal following. He managed to complete his third album, Pink Moon, recorded in midnight sessions in the winter of 1971, immediately after which he withdrew from both live performance and recording, retreating to his parents' home in rural England. Once again, it did not sell well. He felt he was a failure. On November 25th, 1974, Nick Drake retired to his upstairs bedroom where he took a cocktail anti-depressants which killed him. He was found stretched over his bed next morning by his mother. The Religion of Antinous honors Nick Drake as a prophet of Homoeros. He was a man who saw through the transparent barriers between sexuality to see the spiritual truth of reality. He was one of those many men who are never sure of their sexuality. But it is unimportant whether he was "gay" or not. Nick Drake is a symbol of these sorts of dreamy and shy men who live existences of quiet despair. Nick Drake could play better riffs on the guitar than almost anybody of his generation. He had a beautiful voice. He was a gifted song-writer. He knew he had more talent in his little finger than most well-paid artists would ever possess. But his career never took off. The big break never happened. Nobody appreciated him. He was broke and disillusioned. His sister says she believes he took an overdose of anti-depressants thinking he wanted it to either cure him or kill him, because he couldn't go on living in such despair of being an artistic failure. How many people in the economic meltdown of the early 21st Century don't feel the same despair? And yet .... Nick Drake could scarcely have dreamt as he swallowed a handful of pills on a dreary November evening in his parents' house in the English Midlands that he would become a major recording star with fans around the world — 30 years after his death. His three albums now are cult chart-busters around the world. When we remember Saint Nick Drake, we must remember too that Antinous is the patron of these sensitive souls who die untimely and tragic deaths at an early age. Antinous is the River Man who drowned in the Nile ....
