ON January 1st we celebrate the brief but shining life of Lucius Aelius Caesar, Hadrian's "other favorite" and chosen heir who predeceased the Emperor by dying suddenly on 1st January 138 AD. Antonius Subia says:
Long Live Lucius Aelius Caesar
The Prince of Flowers!
Hadrian's First Love
Who raised Temples to Antinous
Lucius Capricornius, who reigned for one day
And for all eternity
Beauty and Spirit of the Latins
The shining one who gave his blood for laurels
~ ANTONIUS SUBIA
TONIGHT's Capricorn New Moon is the lunar phase which in Antinous Moon Magic is called the LAMIA MOON of dark magic.
Meditation and rituals conducted tonight are best suited for rooting out malaise and sickness and for diminishing evil sendings. Look for areas in your life where you may be detrimental to yourself, may be working against yourself or may be making yourself sick, perhaps literally so.
The Lamia Moon helps you to focus on those areas and drain them of their debilitating energies. It helps you to look squarely at yourself to see what is draining you of your vitality ... so that you can chart a course towards healing and recovery ... rather than further diminishment.
Each Lunar Phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype. The Spirit of the Lamia Moon is vicious negativity which attacks vitality. It is the Spirit of torment which seeks to dissipate and weaken. It is malaise and malevolence.
The spirit of the Lamia Moon incorporates all negativity of body and soul. It is destructive thought patterns. It is the instigator of bad habits which impair not only physical health but also mental or spiritual health.
It is sickness in the broadest sense, but it is by no means limited to physical ailment. It is a disease of the spirit. It is the debilitating failure to shake off a "sick" situation.
However, the spirit of the Lamia Moon also has the incredible ability to "sicken" and diminish harmful forces.
Just as a poison can cure, and just as a vaccine uses disease cells to build immunity to those very cells, the Lamia Moon spirit has the ability to weaken forces which are detrimental. It is the spirit of your body's immune system, waging a ceaseless and merciless battle against intruders.
The Lamia Moon spirit is debilitating and it is cruel. Yes, the Lamia spirit can be harmful, but it can also be a vital ally.
All meditations and rituals conducted during the cycle of the Capricorn New Moon are best aimed at enlisting this spirit to be your valiant ally in helping you to identify those inner areas of yourself which are weakening you from the inside out.
OUR astrology 'doctor' Hernestus, has prompted me that tonight's Lamia Moon phase is about coping with sickness and the importance of boosting healing energies to reverse the negativity.
ON December 31st we commemorate the Apotheosis of Aelius Caesar.
Hadrian adopted Lucius Ceionius Commodus Verus, and called him Aelius Verus Caesar (portraits by Priest Uendi).
It was said that beauty was his only recommendation. His poor health soon overtook him and Hadrian is reported to have said, "We have leaned against a tottering wall and have wasted the four hundred million sentences which we gave to the populace and the soldiers on the adoption of Commodus."
He died on the Calends of January in the year 138 ... only a few months before Hadrian ... from an overdose of medicine given to help him make a speech to the Senate thanking Hadrian for the succession.
After Aelius Caesar's death, Hadrian adopted Antoninus Pius (September 19, 86 - March 7, 161) on the condition that Antoninus Pius adopt the younger Lucius Verus and Hadrian's great-nephew by marriage, Marcus Aurelius (April 26, 121 - March 17, 180).
Marcus later co-ruled with Lucius as Marcus Aurelius until Lucius' death in 169, at which time he was sole ruler until his own death in 180. Collectively, they are remembered as the Antonine Dynasty of emperors who ruled wisely over a period noted for its peace and prosperity.
In his classic text The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, 18th Century historian Edward Gibbon considers the reign of the Antonines, as well as those of their predecessors Nerva, Trajan and Hadrian, the height of the Roman Empire, after which time the empire began its inexorable decline.
Aelius Caesar is a major character in Marguerite Yourcenar's epic historical novel Mémoires d'Hadrien (Memoirs of Hadrian).
Lucius, as we affectionately call him, is the recipient of much bittersweet love and adoration from followers of the Religion of Antinous.
For us he represents so many pretty young men whose bright futures are thwarted by tragic illness.
Aelius Caesar is often called the Western Favorite, because of the possibility that he rivaled Antinous for Hadrian's love.
We venerate Aelius Caesar as the fallen Prince of Flowers, the spiritual twin brother of Antinous whose death is the end of the Saturnalia.
ON December 28th the Religion of Antinous celebrates the life of Saint Edward Perry "Ned" Warren, who died on this day in 1928.
Estranged and ostracized by "decent" socialites, Saint Ned Warren was a famed gay Bostonian art collector who virtually single-handedly built up the collections of the New York Metropolitan Museum of Art and Boston Museum of Fine Arts through his passion for Classical art.
As a sissified schoolboy who suffered the taunts of bullies, he wrote a poem comparing a classmate in whom he was infatuated to Antinous.
He and his lover John Marshall travelled around Europe seeking out and buying art treasures for great museums. They were referred to snidely as "the bachelors of art" among society circles in Britain and America.
But Warren was so fabulously rich, and museums depended on him so much, that nobody dared say anything to his face about his blatant homosexuality. His gifts to the Boston MFA made up 90 per cent of its Classical collection, one of the finest in the world.
Even so, he found puritanical Boston deeply disagreeable, and spent most of his life in England when he was not at his apartment in Rome.
The famous Warren Cup and Rodin's statue The Kiss are just two of the most well-known objects he rounded up -- both of which were rejected by museums in Britain and America as being too raunchy. Museum curators feared museum-goers could be lured into thinking unwholesome thoughts.
Warren in fact actually commissioned the The Kiss from Rodin, explicitly saying he wanted large genitals on the man. To this day, photographs of the famous statue tend to avoid a full-frontal male view for that very reason.
The Warren Cup is a solid silver goblet which dates back to the 1st Century CE/AD and was found near Jerusalem. It is believed that it was deposited along with other valuables (some gold coins, jewellery and other precious items) in a cache by the servants of a fleeing Roman nobleman during one of several Jewish uprisings. It is even possible that it was buried during the uprising that was crushed by Hadrian's legions.
The cup itself is considerably older, and may date to Republican times. And it is done in a retro-style which was a bit archaic even when it was new.
As the photos demonstrate, the Warren Cup shows two scenes (one on each side of the cup) of a man and a youth having sex on a couch. The silverwork is exquisitely done and the hair and draperies and facial expressions are beautifully rendered. It also reflects a bit of tongue-in-cheek wit by showing a servant boy peering curiously around a door frame at the lovers.
On one side a young man (barely more than a boy himself) is having his way with a young boy. On the other side, an older man with a beard is having anal sex with a younger man who is seated on top of him and holding onto what appears to be perhaps part of the drapes of a canopy bed. A servant looks on from the doorway off to the right side.
Saint Ned is believed to have purchased the Warren Cup from an antiquities dealer in Italy.
His efforts to sell it to museums in London and the U.S. were rebuffed.
The Warren Cup's unabashedly gay sex theme is impossible to ignore. The cup has been controversial in the art world ever since it first came to light in the 19th Century.
For many, many years, museums on both sides of the Atlantic refused to obtain it (despite its unquestionable value as a remarkably important historical piece of art) because of Victorian and Edwardian moral objections to its "immoral and beastly" theme.
At one time a curator for the British Museum was interested in acquiring the Warren Cub.
But other experts reminded him that one of the members of the board of directors of the British Museum was the Archbishop of Canterbury. The result was that museum officials were loathe to show his reverence even a photograph of the cup, let alone ask him to condone purchasing it for the collection.
So the cup languished in Warren's personal collection for many years and changed hands many times after his death, never ever being put on public display.
The British Museum finally purchased the Warren Cup for a large sum in 1999 -- and even then there was much titillation in the tabloid press.
Ned Warren wrote extensively about his views that homosexuality is a spiritual state of being, something divinely magical. Taunted as a schoolboy for being a bookworm and a sissy (he would get up at 5 a.m. to read Greek until breakfast), he nonetheless had many crushes on other schoolboys. He wrote about them all in his diary, and even wrote a poem about one especially beautiful boy whom he called a modern Antinous.
As an adult, he continued to proclaim his notion of idealized homosexual love, much to the distress of his family in Boston.
He even wrote a book entitled The Defence of Uranian Love about the same time that Oscar Wilde's The Picture of Dorian Gray was published.
He also used his wealth to sponsor the educations of numerous boys and young men who showed promise but had no money.
He was very generous and had a big heart. For example, he heard that the daughter of a vicar in his district in England had become pregnant out of wedlock and was going to be forced to give up the child.
Saying "this is as bad as Boston," he was so outraged that he legally adopted the little boy himself. He allowed mother and son to live upstairs in his home in England at his expense and loudly defied anyone to besmirch her honor or that of Travis, the little boy.
Ned Warren and his lover John Marshall had a stormy, on-again off-again relationship, but they were together at their flat in Rome in February of 1928. On the evening of the 15th, John went to bed early not feeling well. Ned tiptoed in later and kissed him good night and got in bed beside him. John was dead by morning.
Ned never recovered from that blow. He returned to England, where his health declined rapidly. Saying he couldn't face Christmas and New Year's without John, he died in a nursing home in England on December 28, 1928, at the age of 68.
He was cremated on January 1, 1929. But because he had always been blatant about his homosexuality, no members of his family attended the funeral and none of the museums that had benefitted so much from his largesse sent a representative to the memorial service.
His ashes were buried in the non-Catholic cemetery in Bagni di Lucca, Italy, a town known as a spa in Etruscan and Roman times.
We honor Edward Perry "Ned" Warren, 1860-1928, who wrote a poem likening a boy he loved to Antinous.
AFTER the death of Antinous in October 130 AD, grief-stricken Hadrian continued his journey up the Nile to Upper Egypt.
Hadrian returned downstream a few weeks later, stopping at Antinoopolis to review the progress of the new city. During a nocturnal ceremony the mummified body of Antinous was brought into the new temple called the Antinoeon still under construction and the ceremony known as the Opening of the Mouth was performed.
The immortal spirit of Antinous was enabled to receive the offerings left by worshippers in his temples everywhere in the world. The body of Antinous was returned to his boat-shaped coffin and carried onto the ship for return to Rome.
Hadrian arrived at the city of Oxyrhynchus, about halfway to Alexandria. The city was located on a canal that flows from the Nile to lake Moeris in the East.
The city may have originally been dedicated to Seth as it was the gateway to the desert Oases, but was later dedicated to Osiris because after his dismemberment, this where the penis of Osiris was eaten by a fish and was the only part of his body not recovered by Isis, who then created a magical phallus to take its place.
The elephant-nosed fish is called Oxyrhynchus or sharp-nosed by the Greeks and is the sacred animal of the city. During the Ptolemaic era it was home to a large population of Greeks and was the third largest city in Egypt.
Thousands of papyrus fragments were unearthed on the site, including many important documents about Antinous and the citizens of Antinoopolis, such the Diocletian poem, the cult calendar, Aurelius Horion named as the convener of the Antinous games and the fragments of the Lion Hunt by Pancrates.
Hadrian's arrival was greeted with celebration by the Greek population, many of whom would soon become the first citizens of Antinoopolis. In the year 205CE renovation work was ordered to restore the Baths, or Hadrianon Thermon which were built during Hadrian’s visit, among other projects.
The papyri fragments remind us of how easily knowledge can be lost, and so we remember the city of Oxyrhynchus, where the sharp-nosed fish consumed the sacred phallus of Osiris, because it was here that so many of our Antinous documents were found, where a temple of Antinous once stood and where his sacred games were celebrated.
AVE 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.
THURSDAY, December 26th, 2024
At Christmas 2024, Mercury boosts tensions by squaring off against Saturn. Mercury square Saturn means some stubborn issues offer you the challenge of facing them without procrastinating. On the positive side, though, you find you have the tenacity and determination to face them. Mercury square Saturn is a textbook case for trouble in communications. Some astrologers say this is when people sharpen their swords, but we prefer to say it is when people sharpen their tongues to use as weapons! Remember that lovely line from "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde (who is a Saint of Antinous, by the way): "On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure." This is an aspect which encourages people to say vicious and intentionally hurtful things. People are overly persnickety and bitchy and downright mean. You'll be amazed how true this is.
FRIDAY, December 27th, 2024
After Christmas 2024, it's make-up or break-up time when Venus squares off against Uranus. You can be sure that unanticipated upheavals will occur in interpersonal relationships. Misunderstandings and arguments come from no where. This is the sort of day when seemingly stable relationships break up for a minor reason. And at work, you sense that people are conspiring against you. And quite possibly they are.
SAT-SUNDAY, December 28th-29th, 2024
The year 2024 ends on an optimistic note when CHIRON IN ARIES ends its four-month retrograde period and begins moving forward towards better health horizons. This is a good time for health checkups and medical treatment ... also, you can expect a positive and expansive outlook, which can benefit your well-being at this time. You may be more open-minded with regard to experiencing new things, which will allow healing of your mind, body, and spirit. For instance, you could seek higher understanding and meaning in your life through a guide, mentor, or spiritual person or increase your inner knowledge by means of educational processes, religion, or meditative practices during this period. An urge to travel to far-away places (real or imaginary) may also be experienced. You may discover new perspectives on your beliefs, faith, and sense of hope. Restoring peace and harmony in your personal life and relationships is possible now through your interest in healing your own wounds, as well as extending compassion and generosity to others.
MON-TUESDAY, December 30th-31st, 2024
Overnight Monday-Tuesday, we come to the Capricorn New Moon, which we call the LAMIA MOON of dark magic. Meditation and rituals conducted tonight are best suited for rooting out malaise and sickness and for diminishing evil sendings. Look for areas in your life where you may be detrimental to yourself, may be working against yourself or may be making yourself sick, perhaps literally so.
WED-THURSDAY, January 1st-2nd, 2025
The New Year gets off to a highly inauspicious start when Mars is in opposition to Pluto, which is an age-old recipe for destruction, war, conflict and even earthquakes and volcanoes. For "normal" people this means this will be a day of unexpected and even cataclysmic upheaval. For spiritually minded LGBTQIA people, this is a fine opportunity for working some startlingly effective Antinous Moon Magic.
FRIDAY, January 3rd, 2025
The New Year gets a boost when romantic Venus leaves emotionally cold Aquarius and dives into the romantic depths of Pisces. This sign change marks a major change not only in love but also in finances. Pisces Venus is not only loving and compassionate but also creative and generous. The motto for the next four weeks is: "Give, and you shall receive!" Pisces Venus is super-compassionate and over-generous. For the next month you may find yourself obsessed with spirituality and consumed with compassionate charity for others. On the negative side, common-sense practicality may be hard to muster.
SAT-SUNDAY, January 4th-5th, 2025
This first weekend of the New Year, the Sun forms a brilliant and glowing sextile aspect with Saturn which empowers you with perseverance and clear vision to make some serious long-term plans for the New Year.
SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK:
Another exciting week lies ahead between January 6th and 12th, 2025, when we come to the Aries First Quarter Moon, which is the Lunar Phase we call the INVICTUS MOON ... the Antinous Moon Magic spirit of Mithras ... because this lunar phase always occurs in December or January near the Solstice Birthday of Mithras ... Invictus is the bold light that shines forth from a gay man's eyes to illuminate those around him. It is the warmth of your every being ... It is the optimism which brightens a dismal day when things are going wrong. Invictus is indomitable, unbeatable, unconquerable ... It is a determined spirit which never admits defeat, never gives up, never quits ... Invictus is a beacon which dispels darkness and casts out shadows ... In Antinous Moon Magic, tonight is an ideal time for meditation and rituals aimed at illuminating opaque situations or questions ... It is well-suited for planning assertive, goal-oriented action aimed at whole-heartedly positive results ... More details next time ....
Followers of the cult of Mithras often associated these two dates with the god, and were even said to celebrate the New Year on December 25th, as it marked his birth.
IN celebration of the return of Antinous Invictus, for the five days between December 25th and the 1st of January, we commemorate the Golden Age of the reign of Saturn.
This is a time outside of time, and an occasion for joy and freedom from the world when Sol Invictus returns.
The divine twins are born, Osiris and Isis, Seth and Nephthys, Castor and Pollux, Freyr and Freya (for whom this time is also known as Yule).
(Image: "Antinous as the Ghost of Christmas Present" by Sandra Gore.)
We celebrate the Saturnalia with indulgence and as the festival of Liberty and total Freedom. There shall be no authority and no submission during this sacred period.
There is to be no war, and no form of violence committed, only peace and harmony and the many joys of ecstasy are allowed.
The rejoicing of the Saturnalia ends with the apotheosis of the Prince of Flowers, Aelius Caesar, on January 1st.
TONIGHT's Libra Third Quarter Moon is the lunar phase we call the CROSSROADS MOON in Antinous Moon Magic. It is symbolized by the "Herme" shown here, the ithyphallic stele of Mercury which guarded intersections of Roman roads.
Tonight is a propitious time for setting a new course, possibly changing course, setting out in a new direction. It is about making a decision. The key is not to worry about which choice to make. The key is to make a choice and go ahead with it.
Each Lunar Phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype. The Spirit of the Crossroads Moon the decision-making capability of Antinous/Mercury. It is the spirit of making choices, weighing options and then choosing one.
This Crossroads lunar spirit is the guardian at the crossroads who admonishes travelers not to dither nor tary, not to avoid making a decision. He is the guardian who presents travelers with alternatives. He does not care whether the right choice is made, but only insists that some choice is made.
He personifies the roads, streets and highways in life, both literal and figurative. He also represents the network of veins and arteries in your body along which oxygen-enriched blood flows to every organ.
And this spirit is the embodiment of any parting of the ways. He is the turning point and the divining rod who shows the way ahead.
Tonight is ideal for carrying out meditations and rituals aimed at making decisions or deciding what course of action to take. Because this lunar phase occurs in December or January, it is an ideal time for taking stock of the old year and making decisions for the new year.
ON Saturday at 09:22 Universal Time (Saturday 1:22 a.m. at the Hollywood Temple of Antinous) the sun "stands still" ("Sol Stasis") — the 21/22 December Solstice for the year 2024.
This is a special day every year in the Religion of Antinous for it marks the return of Sol Invictus, the Unconquerable Sun.
The return of the sun is the Conquest of Unconquered Light over chaos and darkness, the emergence of Phanes-Eros-Dionysus from the cosmic egg (image at right).
On this day, we observe the moment when the unknown god Bythus-Narcissus gazed into the pool of the abyss and saw his own reflection.
His image caused the birth of the thrice-great Phanes-Eros-Zagreus, the saviors, who together are called Antinous Invictus.
The three-fold mystery of their birth is the descent of Phanes-Beauty, Eros-Love and Zagreus-Ecstasy into our world.
These great spirits are the divine light of Antinous the God, it is their presence at the ground of our soul that is our immortal spark.
Within us all is the perfect image of the perfect face of light and love, a reflection of Narcissus-Bythus gazing down into the darkness of our world.
Antinous Invictus the perfect image of the perfect face of light and love will illuminate the way ahead.
It was Hadrian's dream to create the perfect civilization ... a civilization based on the Hellenistic principles of love, beauty, learning and tolerance. And it was his dream to create the perfect religion ... a religion which would encompass all others.
In the Northern Hemisphere today is the Winter Solstice and the days will be getting longer now. In the Southern Hemisphere it is the Summer Solstice and the days will become shorter now.
Wherever you live on this blue marble of ours, it is the same moment in the eye of Antinous the Gay God.
SECRET, males-only rituals from the ancient cult of Mithras have been recreated in an original Roman temple after it was reconstructed several metres below London’s street level.
Mystical chants, ghostly light effects and the sounds of bells, horns and other Roman instruments form part of a sensory reconstruction that will greet visitors at the London Mithraeum museum, which opened to the public recently.
Sophie Jackson, director at Museum of London Archaeology, which conducted a dig on the site, said the building was a rare trace of the city’s Roman past that people could experience first-hand.
“London Mithraeum is not only a truthful presentation of the archaeological remains of the temple of Mithras, it is a powerful evocation of this enigmatic temple,” she said at an event to mark the opening.
One of the most important Romano-British sites of the 20th Century, the 3rd-century Temple of Mithras was discovered in 1954, after wartime bombing devastated the buildings above it and its foundations were later spotted by archaeologists.
The discovery sparked huge public interest, attracting 30,000 people a day to queue up and view the site over a two-week period.
Taken to pieces to make way for an office building, it was rebuilt ... “roughly and somewhat inaccurately”, according to Mola archaeologists ... in the 1960s around 100m away.
The museum housing the temple has also put on display hundreds of objects found during an archaeological dig on the site five years ago.
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.
THURSDAY, December 19th, 2024
This week, the Moon passes in front of Retrograde Mars to put a spotlight on what we have achieved this year, not only in our careers, but also in our personal emotional lives. This "Lunar Occultation" of Mars in Leo is foreshadowing the course of our Mars retrograde journey, on multiple levels. Bringing our Leonine awareness to our feelings now will aid us in navigating this journey well so that we can count on ourselves to excel when we emerge from the Mars retrograde on February 23rd. .
FRIDAY, December 20th, 2024
This week, Venus trine Jupiter offers a ray of hope. On the positive side: you can trust your intuition to buy a lottery ticket. But on the less positive side, you don't know when to stop and squander your hard-earned money on a big risk.
SATURDAY, December 21st, 2024
On December 21st, we come to the December Solstice. Check out the more than 20,000 worshipers of Antinous at the ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD FACEBOOK PAGE and you see there are people in South Wales (UK) and New South Wales (Australia). There are people in Sao Paulo and Sydney. There are people in California and Cape Town, and there are some in Portland Oregon and Portland Maine.For some of us the days are getting shorter and Winter is approaching. For others of us the days are getting longer and Summer is on the way. For our brothers in Brazil and South Africa and Australia, the jacarandas are in bloom and the days are hot and balmy. Sydneysiders are bracing for another bush fire season.
For our brothers here in Britain and Europe, the days are short and almost completely sunless and the scent of roasted chestnuts and mulled wine fills the air from vendors on city streets.
For our brothers in the US and Canada, ice storms and the icy fear of pandemic disaster have put a chill on this Solstice Season.
Wherever we are, regardless of the season, Antinous the Gay God looks into our hearts.
And it is all happening at this magical moment. Twice a year there is a moment — in fact, a few days — when the sun seems to "stand still" in the heavens. From the Latin "sol stasis" we derive our name for these events: solstices.
That's the very odd thing about this blue marble upon which we live. The Solstice occurs at the same moment everywhere. But the hands on the clocks point to 23 different hours. And in some places it signals the start of summer (though the days start getting shorter), while in others the it signals the start of winter (though the days start getting longer).
But it is really the same moment and we are all living and breathing at this same moment, though we live in places where the hands of the clock point in all different directions. Each of us is alone. All of us are together in this aloneness. It is the same phenomenon. But how you see it depends on how you look at it.
The days are getting longer. The days are getting shorter. It all depends on how you look at it.
However you look at it, remember that we are all brothers, lovers and comrades. And we are all turning, turning toward our own true delight.
SUNDAY, December 22nd, 2024
On Sunday, we come to the Libra Third Quarter Moon. This is the lunar phase we call the CROSSROADS MOON in Antinous Moon Magic ... It is symbolized by the "Herme", the ithyphallic stele of Mercury which guarded intersections of Roman roads ... Tonight is a propitious time for setting a new course, possibly changing course, setting out in a new direction. It is about making a decision. The key is not to worry about which choice to make. The key is to make a choice and go ahead with it.
MONDAY, December 23rd, 2024
On Monday you may feel paralyzed between optimism and pessimism when Jupiter forms a 90-degree square angle aspect to Saturn which dominates the entire week. This is a textbook case of finding fortune in misfortune. You may find that a project you have been counting on to succeed suddenly backfires ... but that this apparent "failure" turns out to be a blessing in disguise. Jupiter-square-Saturn also often suggests that you yourself become the blessing in disguise for other people. While expecting good fortune for yourself, you suddenly find yourself in the position of helping others ... which is a blessing-in-disguise for you yourself.
TUESDAY, December 24th, 2024
This week, your ideas are larger than life with Mercury opposition Jupiter, and you see details as annoying and only there to slow you down. You need to be cautious about proceeding too quickly or over-expanding. This is a better day to evaluate your progress and make any adjustments that will make expansion easier. Other people may challenge your optimistic attitude, but their input is helpful in giving you a different perspective; watch responding in a self-righteous or arrogant manner. You may enjoy a brief trip today, which will be educational or enlightening.
WED-THURSDAY, December 25th-26th, 2024
At Christmas 2024, Mercury boosts tensions by squaring off against Saturn. Mercury square Saturn means some stubborn issues offer you the challenge of facing them without procrastinating. On the positive side, though, you find you have the tenacity and determination to face them. Mercury square Saturn is a textbook case for trouble in communications. Some astrologers say this is when people sharpen their swords, but we prefer to say it is when people sharpen their tongues to use as weapons! Remember that lovely line from "The Importance of Being Earnest" by Oscar Wilde (who is a Saint of Antinous, by the way): "On an occasion of this kind it becomes more than a moral duty to speak one's mind. It becomes a pleasure." This is an aspect which encourages people to say vicious and intentionally hurtful things. People are overly persnickety and bitchy and downright mean. You'll be amazed how true this is.
FRIDAY, December 27th, 2024
After Christmas 2024, it's make-up or break-up time when Venus squares off against Uranus. You can be sure that unanticipated upheavals will occur in interpersonal relationships. Misunderstandings and arguments come from no where. This is the sort of day when seemingly stable relationships break up for a minor reason. And at work, you sense that people are conspiring against you. And quite possibly they are.
SAT-SUNDAY, December 28th-29th, 2024
The year 2024 ends on an optimistic note when CHIRON IN ARIES ends its four-month retrograde period and begins moving forward towards better health horizons. This is a good time for health checkups and medical treatment ... also, you can expect a positive and expansive outlook, which can benefit your well-being at this time. You may be more open-minded with regard to experiencing new things, which will allow healing of your mind, body, and spirit. For instance, you could seek higher understanding and meaning in your life through a guide, mentor, or spiritual person or increase your inner knowledge by means of educational processes, religion, or meditative practices during this period. An urge to travel to far-away places (real or imaginary) may also be experienced. You may discover new perspectives on your beliefs, faith, and sense of hope. Restoring peace and harmony in your personal life and relationships is possible now through your interest in healing your own wounds, as well as extending compassion and generosity to others.
SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK:
Another exciting week lies ahead between December 30th, 2024, and January 5th, 2025, when we come to the Capricorn New Moon, which we call the LAMIA MOON of dark magic. Meditation and rituals conducted tonight are best suited for rooting out malaise and sickness and for diminishing evil sendings. Look for areas in your life where you may be detrimental to yourself, may be working against yourself or may be making yourself sick, perhaps literally so ... More details next time ....
FOR the first time, experts have found geological proof that the prehistoric builders of Stonehenge aligned it to the Solstice axis, and it has to do with an Ice Age "fluke" of terrain.
The discovery was made by accident during road work.
In what is described as a "missing piece in the jigsaw" in our understanding of one of the world's greatest prehistoric sites, excavations confirm the theory that its ancient processional route was built along an ice-age land form which was naturally on the solstice axis, according to Professor Mike Parker Pearson, a leading expert on Stonehenge.
The monument's original purpose still remains shrouded in mystery, but this is a dramatic clue, he said.
The route, known as the Avenue, extended 1.5 miles from the standing stones' north-eastern entrance to West Amesbury.
The discovery came only after the closure of a modern road which bisected the route, allowing archaeologists to excavate there for the first time.
Just below the modern road’s surface, they unearthed ditches dug by prehistoric builders.
Professor Parker Pearson identified naturally-occurring fissures that once lay between ridges which follow the route of the Avenue.
The ridges were created by Ice Age meltwater and naturally point directly at the mid-winter sunset in one direction and the mid-summer sunrise in the other.
Professor Parker Pearson is excited by the evidence, which he describes as "hugely significant".
"It tells us a lot about why Stonehenge was located where it is and why they were so interested in the solstices," he said.
"It's not to do with worshipping the sun, some kind of calendar or astronomical observatory.
"It's about how this place was special to prehistoric people. This natural land form happens to be on the solstice axis, which brings heaven and earth into one."
He explained that Stonehenge is "all about the solstices" and our ancestors could see this in the land.
