ON MOTHER'S DAY LIGHT A CANDLE FOR THE MOTHER OF ANTINOUS

Happy Mother's Day! We honour the mother of Antinous, who gave birth to him in Bithynia Asia Minor (art by Priest Julien). 

Little is known of the origins of Antinous except that he was from the Bithynian city of Claudiopolis modern-day Bolu, Turkey.
It has been speculated that he was a slave ... or even a provincial prince. 

The OBELISK OF ANTINOUS, which now stands atop the Pincian Hill in Rome, is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs which tell us much about Antinous the Gay God. But sadly, there are huge gaps where the text has been worn away.

There is, for example, an intriguing reference to the mother of Antinous which is incomplete. Did a missing portion of the text talk about his biological family back in Bithynia? We'll never know.

We wonder how many brothers and sisters Antinous had? He must have had cousins and other "ephebe" male relatives. How on earth could the mother of Antinous ever have parted from him?

For that matter, no one knows what happened to the earthly remains of Antinous after his tragic death in the Nile in October 130 AD. Were they returned to his family in Bithynia? Did his mother weep over them? Were they interred in a family crypt ... and were the ashes of his mother interred beside his after she died?

This Mother's Day prayer was written by our beloved WARREN WILLIAMSON before his untimely death a couple of years ago. We join Warren in praising the Mother of Antinous the Gay God:

O most glorious Mother of Antinous our God, accept our prayers and present them to thy son our God, that He may, for thy sake, enlighten and bring our souls unto the most holy city of Antinoopolis where we shall dwell with thee and the Imperator God Hadrian forever and ever.  Be it so now and forever. 

THE SACRED BOAR HUNT

AT the March Equinox the Religion of Antinous commemorates the Sacred Boar Hunt.

In our Liturgical Calendar, it is the day when Hadrian and Antinous arrive at the sacred city of Bithynium/Claudiopolis, the home of Antinous, in the spring of the year 129 AD.

Imagine the jubilant welcome they must have received as the city's populace turned out en masse (including all of the extended family and acquaintances of Antinous) to see the imperial entourage with Hadrian and Antinous at the forefront.

The region is teeming with bountiful wildlife and so Hadrian and Antinous went on hunting forays while in Bithynium.

The Boar Hunt had deeply mystical symbolic meaning for Hadrian, as exemplified that it was elevated to mythic proportions for use in public monuments.

The image above shows Hadrian and Antinous (looking backwards) during the Sacred Boar Hunt, immortalized on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

Flamen Antonius Subia explains the mythic symbolism this way:

In ancient times, boys would enter the forest armed only With a spear to test their courage as young men 
So it was that Antinous went with Hadrian
To hunt the wild boar of Phrygia, to test his manhood
The boar symbolizes strength, courage, honor, & truth
And was an emblem of warriors and of fearlessness
The Boar is sacred to the beautiful hunter god Adonis
Whom Venus so loved that she chased after him through Briars and thorns, and when he was killed by the Boar, Which was her jealous lover Mars in disguise
She compelled the world to mourn his death
Her love for Adonis was so strong that she brought him 
Back from the underworld again for half the year.
The Boar is the emblem of the fertility god Freyr
Whose mighty phallus purifies and protects the fields
The Boar is sacred to the sun god Belenus
Of the Cisalpine Gauls, of whom there is an inscription From Hadrian’s Villa that reads:
“Antinous and Belenus are equal in age and beauty
For this reason Antinous is also be worshipped like Belenus appropriately, by Quintus the Sicilian”
We praise the god Belenus, whose bonfires protect us
From the malevolent spirits of darkness and chaos
The beautiful Sun God Belenus is Antinous of the North
We praise Antinous as Mercurius, the son of Maia
Maia is the Bona Dea, leader of the Pleaides
She is the bringer of goodness and plenty of summer
We praise Diana the Huntress and ask her blessing
On this night of the Sacred Boar Hunt
May the Strength of the Boar be with us
May the Power of the Boar be with us
May the Courage of the Boar be with us
In celebration of Antinous the Hunter
We now consume the meat of the Sacred Boar
So we may be blessed
Ave Antinous – Adonis
Ave Antinous – Freyr
Ave Antinous – Belenus
Ave Antinous – Mercurius
May flesh of the Sacred Boar give us his blessing
Ave Antinous Venator!

~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

BASRELIEF OF EMBRACING EMPERORS FOUND AT NICOMEDIA WHICH ANTINOUS VISITED

AN amazing bas-relief panel showing two Roman emperors in passionate embrace has been found at Nicomedia, the Bithynian capital city which Antinous and Hadrian visited during the first year of the final and fateful tour of the Eastern Empire.

Ancient Nicomedia, the most important capital of the eastern Roman empire during the Tetrarchy, now lies below the modern industrial city of İzmit in Turkey. 

The panel is the most spectacular of more than 30 very large relief panels (average height 1.0 m by width. 1.5 m) discovered by archaeologists recently.

They are the only surviving examples of Late Roman state reliefs that have extensive paint preserved on them. 

The panels illuminate multiple aspects of the art of the period, including the brightly colored costumes and the new and distinctive self-representation of the tetrarchic emperors and their administration. 

The bas-relief panel with a representation of two emperors embracing is believed to be part of a larger adventus scene that shows the meeting of the two diarchs, Diocletian and Maximian, and thus dates from slightly before the onset of Tetrarchy in 293 AD.

In early 129 AD, after visiting Mt. Ida and the Phyrgian countryside the court of Hadrian entered Nicomedia, the ancient capital of the province of Bithynia, from which most of Asia was governed at that time. We commemorate this visit on March 6 each year. 

Here is how Flamen Antonius Subia describes it at the online TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS:

"This is the triumphant return of Antinous to his homeland as the Imperial Favorite, and is symbolized as the return of the wandering Dionysus.

"It is said that Julius Caesar stayed as the guest of Nicomedes III, the last king of Bithynia, and that Caesar, when he was young, was the lover of Nicomedes. For the rest of his life, critics called Julius Caesar the Queen of Bithynia, a title that may have had some truth because when Nicomedes died without a son, and he left his kingdom to Rome in his will, or rather to his beloved Julius Caesar.

"This title of Queen of Bithynia would by inheritance fall to Hadrian, and it accentuates the homosexual liberty and voluptuousness of the Bithynians as a nation, the reputation of Nicomedia as a city where Kings loved beautiful males and gave them the throne for their beauty's sake, and this is the atmosphere which permeated the return of Antinous to his people.

"We celebrate the ancient openness and homoeros of the Bithynians."

MEET SANTA'S HELPERS KRAMPUS AND ANTINOUS/APOLLO

EVER wonder about the origin of Santa's reindeer? They echo Pan, satyrs and fauns who had their own festival in December.

December 5th and 6th is the ancient Roman feast of the Faunalia ... which ironically is still celebrated in Europe and Latin America by millions of children ... who get a visit from Santa and his horned helpers.

Millions of kiddies know that you put your shoe outside the door on the evening of December 5th and that St. Nicholas will fill it goodies on December 6th ... the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.

Children who have been good receive sweets and toys ... but children who have been naughty are punished by St. Nick's furry helpers.

What few people realize is that old St. Nick is related to Antinous/Apollo ... and his helpers are Pan and his hordes of satyrs and fauns.

The pagan history shows that St. Nicholas is a vastly more complex being than most Christians could imagine, stemming from the Temples of Apollo and Artemis in Asia Minor (the birth country of Antinous) which would later be the birthplace of the mythical Nicholas.

The truth is that when you see a department store Santa, you are seeing only a composite being whose multitudinous composite aspects (many of them very dark and spooky) trace their origins back to the beginnings of mankind.

If you look very, very carefully, you will see the face of Antinous/Apollo shining through the centuries of folk customs under a variety of names including Santa, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

In some parts of Central  Europe, St. Nick goes from house to house on December 6th accompanied by a coterie that includes figures resembling Pan, Apollo and Artemis (Austrian Alps photo right).

 The legend of St. Nicholas begins in the Turkish town of Patara in Asia Minor which was also the birth land of Antinous. Patara was also the birth place of Apollo and a famous oracle was located there.

Apollo's sister Artemis also had a cult center in nearby Myra, where Nicholas grew up and allegedly became a "bishop." Myra's main cult was dedicated to Artemis Eleuthera, a distinctive form of Cybele, the ancient mother-goddess of Anatolia. She had a magnificent temple in Myra.

Unfortunately, St. Nicholas was zealous in his duties as bishop and took strong measures against paganism. The temple of Artemis and the Apollo oracle were among many other temples in the region that he destroyed. It is said that the very foundations were uprooted from the ground, so complete was its destruction, "and the evil spirits fled howling before him".

St. Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Church. He simply usurped the popularity of Artemis and Apollo and promoted his own reputation for being a protector and a giver of good things.

Antinous/Apollo more or less morphed into Old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

And in a lot of places, Santa has several dark and scary sidekicks — all related to Pan, who also originated in Asia Minor.

In the Alps, Santa's helpers take the form of a demonized Pan who chases and abducts children who have been naughty. He is called Krampus and, thanks to the Internet, Krampus is becoming widely known in English-speaking countries.

In the Nordic and English version, of course, all that is left of Krampus with his horns and hooves and fur is the reindeer which accompany Santa's sleigh. 

In Holland, St. Nick is accompanied on December 5th/6th by a Moorish youth wearing a turban and a fur-trimmed costume called Svarte Piet, who delights in teasing naughty children.

In English-speaking countries, prudish Victorians stripped Santa of all his impish devilry. Santa is nice to all and punishes no one. 

In Europe, Santa's Dark Side still prowls — marches defiantly, in fact. In a way, the Anglo-American Santa Claus was lobotomized by the Victorians so that he is only docile and sweet-humoured.

But to understand the REAL Santa Claus, you have to understand his Darker Side. You have to understand where Santa is coming from, literally....

He is composite spirit being who in English-speaking countries is called St. Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

But the deeper you go back into the forests of Europe, the more differentiated this ancient being becomes so that you see his various  component parts — including Antinous-Apollo — all competing against each other — sometimes morphing into each other.

ON MOTHER'S DAY LIGHT A CANDLE FOR THE MOTHER OF ANTINOUS

 

Happy Mother's Day! We honour the mother of Antinous, who gave birth to him in Bithynia Asia Minor (art by Priest Julien). 

Little is known of the origins of Antinous except that he was from the Bithynian city of Claudiopolis modern-day Bolu, Turkey.
It has been speculated that he was a slave ... or even a provincial prince. 

The OBELISK OF ANTINOUS, which now stands atop the Pincian Hill in Rome, is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs which tell us much about Antinous the Gay God. But sadly, there are huge gaps where the text has been worn away.

There is, for example, an intriguing reference to the mother of Antinous which is incomplete. Did a missing portion of the text talk about his biological family back in Bithynia? We'll never know.

We wonder how many brothers and sisters Antinous had? He must have had cousins and other "ephebe" male relatives. How on earth could the mother of Antinous ever have parted from him?

For that matter, no one knows what happened to the earthly remains of Antinous after his tragic death in the Nile in October 130 AD. Were they returned to his family in Bithynia? Did his mother weep over them? Were they interred in a family crypt ... and were the ashes of his mother interred beside his after she died?

This Mother's Day prayer was written by our beloved WARREN WILLIAMSON before his untimely death a couple of years ago. We join Warren in praising the Mother of Antinous the Gay God:

O most glorious Mother of Antinous our God, accept our prayers and present them to thy son our God, that He may, for thy sake, enlighten and bring our souls unto the most holy city of Antinoopolis where we shall dwell with thee and the Imperator God Hadrian forever and ever.  Be it so now and forever. 

THE SACRED BOAR HUNT

AT the March Equinox the Religion of Antinous commemorates the Sacred Boar Hunt.

In our Liturgical Calendar, it is the day when Hadrian and Antinous arrive at the sacred city of Bithynium/Claudiopolis, the home of Antinous, in the spring of the year 129 AD.

Imagine the jubilant welcome they must have received as the city's populace turned out en masse (including all of the extended family and acquaintances of Antinous) to see the imperial entourage with Hadrian and Antinous at the forefront.

The region is teeming with bountiful wildlife and so Hadrian and Antinous went on hunting forays while in Bithynium.

The Boar Hunt had deeply mystical symbolic meaning for Hadrian, as exemplified that it was elevated to mythic proportions for use in public monuments.

The image above shows Hadrian and Antinous (looking backwards) during the Sacred Boar Hunt, immortalized on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

Flamen Antonius Subia explains the mythic symbolism this way:

In ancient times, boys would enter the forest armed only With a spear to test their courage as young men 
So it was that Antinous went with Hadrian
To hunt the wild boar of Phrygia, to test his manhood
The boar symbolizes strength, courage, honor, & truth
And was an emblem of warriors and of fearlessness
The Boar is sacred to the beautiful hunter god Adonis
Whom Venus so loved that she chased after him through Briars and thorns, and when he was killed by the Boar, Which was her jealous lover Mars in disguise
She compelled the world to mourn his death
Her love for Adonis was so strong that she brought him 
Back from the underworld again for half the year.
The Boar is the emblem of the fertility god Freyr
Whose mighty phallus purifies and protects the fields
The Boar is sacred to the sun god Belenus
Of the Cisalpine Gauls, of whom there is an inscription From Hadrian’s Villa that reads:
“Antinous and Belenus are equal in age and beauty
For this reason Antinous is also be worshipped like Belenus appropriately, by Quintus the Sicilian”
We praise the god Belenus, whose bonfires protect us
From the malevolent spirits of darkness and chaos
The beautiful Sun God Belenus is Antinous of the North
We praise Antinous as Mercurius, the son of Maia
Maia is the Bona Dea, leader of the Pleaides
She is the bringer of goodness and plenty of summer
We praise Diana the Huntress and ask her blessing
On this night of the Sacred Boar Hunt
May the Strength of the Boar be with us
May the Power of the Boar be with us
May the Courage of the Boar be with us
In celebration of Antinous the Hunter
We now consume the meat of the Sacred Boar
So we may be blessed
Ave Antinous – Adonis
Ave Antinous – Freyr
Ave Antinous – Belenus
Ave Antinous – Mercurius
May flesh of the Sacred Boar give us his blessing
Ave Antinous Venator!

~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

MEET SANTA'S HELPERS KRAMPUS AND ANTINOUS/APOLLO

EVER wonder about the origin of Santa's reindeer? They echo Pan, satyrs and fauns who had their own festival in December.

December 5th and 6th is the ancient Roman feast of the Faunalia ... which ironically is still celebrated in Europe and Latin America by millions of children ... who get a visit from Santa and his horned helpers.

Millions of kiddies know that you put your shoe outside the door on the evening of December 5th and that St. Nicholas will fill it goodies on December 6th ... the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.

Children who have been good receive sweets and toys ... but children who have been naughty are punished by St. Nick's furry helpers.

What few people realize is that old St. Nick is related to Antinous/Apollo ... and his helpers are Pan and his hordes of satyrs and fauns.

The pagan history shows that St. Nicholas is a vastly more complex being than most Christians could imagine, stemming from the Temples of Apollo and Artemis in Asia Minor (the birth country of Antinous) which would later be the birthplace of the mythical Nicholas.

The truth is that when you see a department store Santa, you are seeing only a composite being whose multitudinous composite aspects (many of them very dark and spooky) trace their origins back to the beginnings of mankind.

If you look very, very carefully, you will see the face of Antinous/Apollo shining through the centuries of folk customs under a variety of names including Santa, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

In some parts of Central  Europe, St. Nick goes from house to house on December 6th accompanied by a coterie that includes figures resembling Pan, Apollo and Artemis (Austrian Alps photo right).

 The legend of St. Nicholas begins in the Turkish town of Patara in Asia Minor which was also the birth land of Antinous. Patara was also the birth place of Apollo and a famous oracle was located there.

Apollo's sister Artemis also had a cult center in nearby Myra, where Nicholas grew up and allegedly became a "bishop." Myra's main cult was dedicated to Artemis Eleuthera, a distinctive form of Cybele, the ancient mother-goddess of Anatolia. She had a magnificent temple in Myra.

Unfortunately, St. Nicholas was zealous in his duties as bishop and took strong measures against paganism. The temple of Artemis and the Apollo oracle were among many other temples in the region that he destroyed. It is said that the very foundations were uprooted from the ground, so complete was its destruction, "and the evil spirits fled howling before him".

St. Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Church. He simply usurped the popularity of Artemis and Apollo and promoted his own reputation for being a protector and a giver of good things.

Antinous/Apollo more or less morphed into Old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

And in a lot of places, Santa has several dark and scary sidekicks — all related to Pan, who also originated in Asia Minor.

In the Alps, Santa's helpers take the form of a demonized Pan who chases and abducts children who have been naughty. He is called Krampus and, thanks to the Internet, Krampus is becoming widely known in English-speaking countries.

In the Nordic and English version, of course, all that is left of Krampus with his horns and hooves and fur is the reindeer which accompany Santa's sleigh. 

In Holland, St. Nick is accompanied on December 5th/6th by a Moorish youth wearing a turban and a fur-trimmed costume called Svarte Piet, who delights in teasing naughty children.

In English-speaking countries, prudish Victorians stripped Santa of all his impish devilry. Santa is nice to all and punishes no one. 

In Europe, Santa's Dark Side still prowls — marches defiantly, in fact. In a way, the Anglo-American Santa Claus was lobotomized by the Victorians so that he is only docile and sweet-humoured.

But to understand the REAL Santa Claus, you have to understand his Darker Side. You have to understand where Santa is coming from, literally....

He is composite spirit being who in English-speaking countries is called St. Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

But the deeper you go back into the forests of Europe, the more differentiated this ancient being becomes so that you see his various  component parts — including Antinous-Apollo — all competing against each other — sometimes morphing into each other.

ON MOTHER'S DAY LIGHT A CANDLE FOR THE MOTHER OF ANTINOUS

Happy Mother's Day! We honour the mother of Antinous, who gave birth to him in Bithynia Asia Minor (art by Priest Julien). 

Little is known of the origins of Antinous except that he was from the Bithynian city of Claudiopolis modern-day Bolu, Turkey.
It has been speculated that he was a slave ... or even a provincial prince. 

The OBELISK OF ANTINOUS, which now stands atop the Pincian Hill in Rome, is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs which tell us much about Antinous the Gay God. But sadly, there are huge gaps where the text has been worn away.

There is, for example, an intriguing reference to the mother of Antinous which is incomplete. Did a missing portion of the text talk about his biological family back in Bithynia? We'll never know.

We wonder how many brothers and sisters Antinous had? He must have had cousins and other "ephebe" male relatives. How on earth could the mother of Antinous ever have parted from him?

For that matter, no one knows what happened to the earthly remains of Antinous after his tragic death in the Nile in October 130 AD. Were they returned to his family in Bithynia? Did his mother weep over them? Were they interred in a family crypt ... and were the ashes of his mother interred beside his after she died?

This Mother's Day prayer was written by our beloved WARREN WILLIAMSON before his untimely death a couple of years ago. We join Warren in praising the Mother of Antinous the Gay God:

O most glorious Mother of Antinous our God, accept our prayers and present them to thy son our God, that He may, for thy sake, enlighten and bring our souls unto the most holy city of Antinoopolis where we shall dwell with thee and the Imperator God Hadrian forever and ever.  Be it so now and forever. 

THE SACRED BOAR HUNT

AT the March Equinox the Religion of Antinous commemorates the Sacred Boar Hunt.

In our Liturgical Calendar, it is the day when Hadrian and Antinous arrive at the sacred city of Bithynium/Claudiopolis, the home of Antinous, in the spring of the year 129 AD.

Imagine the jubilant welcome they must have received as the city's populace turned out en masse (including all of the extended family and acquaintances of Antinous) to see the imperial entourage with Hadrian and Antinous at the forefront.

The region is teeming with bountiful wildlife and so Hadrian and Antinous went on hunting forays while in Bithynium.

The Boar Hunt had deeply mystical symbolic meaning for Hadrian, as exemplified that it was elevated to mythic proportions for use in public monuments.

The image above shows Hadrian and Antinous (looking backwards) during the Sacred Boar Hunt, immortalized on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

Flamen Antonius Subia explains the mythic symbolism this way:

In ancient times, boys would enter the forest armed only With a spear to test their courage as young men 
So it was that Antinous went with Hadrian
To hunt the wild boar of Phrygia, to test his manhood
The boar symbolizes strength, courage, honor, & truth
And was an emblem of warriors and of fearlessness
The Boar is sacred to the beautiful hunter god Adonis
Whom Venus so loved that she chased after him through Briars and thorns, and when he was killed by the Boar, Which was her jealous lover Mars in disguise
She compelled the world to mourn his death
Her love for Adonis was so strong that she brought him 
Back from the underworld again for half the year.
The Boar is the emblem of the fertility god Freyr
Whose mighty phallus purifies and protects the fields
The Boar is sacred to the sun god Belenus
Of the Cisalpine Gauls, of whom there is an inscription From Hadrian’s Villa that reads:
“Antinous and Belenus are equal in age and beauty
For this reason Antinous is also be worshipped like Belenus appropriately, by Quintus the Sicilian”
We praise the god Belenus, whose bonfires protect us
From the malevolent spirits of darkness and chaos
The beautiful Sun God Belenus is Antinous of the North
We praise Antinous as Mercurius, the son of Maia
Maia is the Bona Dea, leader of the Pleaides
She is the bringer of goodness and plenty of summer
We praise Diana the Huntress and ask her blessing
On this night of the Sacred Boar Hunt
May the Strength of the Boar be with us
May the Power of the Boar be with us
May the Courage of the Boar be with us
In celebration of Antinous the Hunter
We now consume the meat of the Sacred Boar
So we may be blessed
Ave Antinous – Adonis
Ave Antinous – Freyr
Ave Antinous – Belenus
Ave Antinous – Mercurius
May flesh of the Sacred Boar give us his blessing
Ave Antinous Venator!

~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

MEET SANTA'S HELPERS KRAMPUS AND ANTINOUS/APOLLO

EVER wonder about the origin of Santa's reindeer? They echo Pan, satyrs and fauns who had their own festival in December.

December 5th and 6th is the ancient Roman feast of the Faunalia ... which ironically is still celebrated in Europe and Latin America by millions of children ... who get a visit from Santa and his horned helpers.

Millions of kiddies know that you put your shoe outside the door on the evening of December 5th and that St. Nicholas will fill it goodies on December 6th ... the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.

Children who have been good receive sweets and toys ... but children who have been naughty are punished by St. Nick's furry helpers.

What few people realize is that old St. Nick is related to Antinous/Apollo ... and his helpers are Pan and his hordes of satyrs and fauns.

The pagan history shows that St. Nicholas is a vastly more complex being than most Christians could imagine, stemming from the Temples of Apollo and Artemis in Asia Minor (the birth country of Antinous) which would later be the birthplace of the mythical Nicholas.

The truth is that when you see a department store Santa, you are seeing only a composite being whose multitudinous composite aspects (many of them very dark and spooky) trace their origins back to the beginnings of mankind.

If you look very, very carefully, you will see the face of Antinous/Apollo shining through the centuries of folk customs under a variety of names including Santa, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

In some parts of Central  Europe, St. Nick goes from house to house on December 6th accompanied by a coterie that includes figures resembling Pan, Apollo and Artemis (Austrian Alps photo right).

 The legend of St. Nicholas begins in the Turkish town of Patara in Asia Minor which was also the birth land of Antinous. Patara was also the birth place of Apollo and a famous oracle was located there.

Apollo's sister Artemis also had a cult center in nearby Myra, where Nicholas grew up and allegedly became a "bishop." Myra's main cult was dedicated to Artemis Eleuthera, a distinctive form of Cybele, the ancient mother-goddess of Anatolia. She had a magnificent temple in Myra.

Unfortunately, St. Nicholas was zealous in his duties as bishop and took strong measures against paganism. The temple of Artemis and the Apollo oracle were among many other temples in the region that he destroyed. It is said that the very foundations were uprooted from the ground, so complete was its destruction, "and the evil spirits fled howling before him".

St. Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Church. He simply usurped the popularity of Artemis and Apollo and promoted his own reputation for being a protector and a giver of good things.

Antinous/Apollo more or less morphed into Old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

And in a lot of places, Santa has several dark and scary sidekicks — all related to Pan, who also originated in Asia Minor.

In the Alps, Santa's helpers take the form of a demonized Pan who chases and abducts children who have been naughty. He is called Krampus and, thanks to the Internet, Krampus is becoming widely known in English-speaking countries.

In the Nordic and English version, of course, all that is left of Krampus with his horns and hooves and fur is the reindeer which accompany Santa's sleigh. 

In Holland, St. Nick is accompanied on December 5th/6th by a Moorish youth wearing a turban and a fur-trimmed costume called Svarte Piet, who delights in teasing naughty children.

In English-speaking countries, prudish Victorians stripped Santa of all his impish devilry. Santa is nice to all and punishes no one. 

In Europe, Santa's Dark Side still prowls — marches defiantly, in fact. In a way, the Anglo-American Santa Claus was lobotomized by the Victorians so that he is only docile and sweet-humoured.

But to understand the REAL Santa Claus, you have to understand his Darker Side. You have to understand where Santa is coming from, literally....

He is composite spirit being who in English-speaking countries is called St. Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

But the deeper you go back into the forests of Europe, the more differentiated this ancient being becomes so that you see his various  component parts — including Antinous-Apollo — all competing against each other — sometimes morphing into each other.

ON MOTHER'S DAY LIGHT A CANDLE FOR THE MOTHER OF ANTINOUS

Happy Mother's Day! We honour the mother of Antinous, who gave birth to him in Bithynia Asia Minor (art by Priest Julien). 

Little is known of the origins of Antinous except that he was from the Bithynian city of Claudiopolis modern-day Bolu, Turkey.
It has been speculated that he was a slave ... or even a provincial prince. 

The OBELISK OF ANTINOUS, which now stands atop the Pincian Hill in Rome, is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs which tell us much about Antinous the Gay God. But sadly, there are huge gaps where the text has been worn away.

There is, for example, an intriguing reference to the mother of Antinous which is incomplete. Did a missing portion of the text talk about his biological family back in Bithynia? We'll never know.

We wonder how many brothers and sisters Antinous had? He must have had cousins and other "ephebe" male relatives. How on earth could the mother of Antinous ever have parted from him?

For that matter, no one knows what happened to the earthly remains of Antinous after his tragic death in the Nile in October 130 AD. Were they returned to his family in Bithynia? Did his mother weep over them? Were they interred in a family crypt ... and were the ashes of his mother interred beside his after she died?

This Mother's Day prayer was written by our beloved WARREN WILLIAMSON before his untimely death a couple of years ago. We join Warren in praising the Mother of Antinous the Gay God:

O most glorious Mother of Antinous our God, accept our prayers and present them to thy son our God, that He may, for thy sake, enlighten and bring our souls unto the most holy city of Antinoopolis where we shall dwell with thee and the Imperator God Hadrian forever and ever.  Be it so now and forever. 

THE SACRED BOAR HUNT

AT the March Equinox the Religion of Antinous commemorates the Sacred Boar Hunt.

In our Liturgical Calendar, it is the day when Hadrian and Antinous arrive at the sacred city of Bithynium/Claudiopolis, the home of Antinous, in the spring of the year 129 AD.

Imagine the jubilant welcome they must have received as the city's populace turned out en masse (including all of the extended family and acquaintances of Antinous) to see the imperial entourage with Hadrian and Antinous at the forefront.

The region is teeming with bountiful wildlife and so Hadrian and Antinous went on hunting forays while in Bithynium.

The Boar Hunt had deeply mystical symbolic meaning for Hadrian, as exemplified that it was elevated to mythic proportions for use in public monuments.

The image above shows Hadrian and Antinous (looking backwards) during the Sacred Boar Hunt, immortalized on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

Flamen Antonius Subia explains the mythic symbolism this way:

In ancient times, boys would enter the forest armed only With a spear to test their courage as young men 
So it was that Antinous went with Hadrian
To hunt the wild boar of Phrygia, to test his manhood
The boar symbolizes strength, courage, honor, & truth
And was an emblem of warriors and of fearlessness
The Boar is sacred to the beautiful hunter god Adonis
Whom Venus so loved that she chased after him through Briars and thorns, and when he was killed by the Boar, Which was her jealous lover Mars in disguise
She compelled the world to mourn his death
Her love for Adonis was so strong that she brought him 
Back from the underworld again for half the year.
The Boar is the emblem of the fertility god Freyr
Whose mighty phallus purifies and protects the fields
The Boar is sacred to the sun god Belenus
Of the Cisalpine Gauls, of whom there is an inscription From Hadrian’s Villa that reads:
“Antinous and Belenus are equal in age and beauty
For this reason Antinous is also be worshipped like Belenus appropriately, by Quintus the Sicilian”
We praise the god Belenus, whose bonfires protect us
From the malevolent spirits of darkness and chaos
The beautiful Sun God Belenus is Antinous of the North
We praise Antinous as Mercurius, the son of Maia
Maia is the Bona Dea, leader of the Pleaides
She is the bringer of goodness and plenty of summer
We praise Diana the Huntress and ask her blessing
On this night of the Sacred Boar Hunt
May the Strength of the Boar be with us
May the Power of the Boar be with us
May the Courage of the Boar be with us
In celebration of Antinous the Hunter
We now consume the meat of the Sacred Boar
So we may be blessed
Ave Antinous – Adonis
Ave Antinous – Freyr
Ave Antinous – Belenus
Ave Antinous – Mercurius
May flesh of the Sacred Boar give us his blessing
Ave Antinous Venator!

~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

BASRELIEF OF EMBRACING EMPERORS FOUND AT NICOMEDIA WHICH ANTINOUS VISITED

AN amazing bas-relief panel showing two Roman emperors in passionate embrace has been found at Nicomedia, the Bithynian capital city which Antinous and Hadrian visited during the first year of the final and fateful tour of the Eastern Empire.

Ancient Nicomedia, the most important capital of the eastern Roman empire during the Tetrarchy, now lies below the modern industrial city of İzmit in Turkey. 

The panel is the most spectacular of more than 30 very large relief panels (average height 1.0 m by width. 1.5 m) discovered by archaeologists recently.

They are the only surviving examples of Late Roman state reliefs that have extensive paint preserved on them. 

The panels illuminate multiple aspects of the art of the period, including the brightly colored costumes and the new and distinctive self-representation of the tetrarchic emperors and their administration. 

The bas-relief panel with a representation of two emperors embracing is believed to be part of a larger adventus scene that shows the meeting of the two diarchs, Diocletian and Maximian, and thus dates from slightly before the onset of Tetrarchy in 293 AD.

In early 129 AD, after visiting Mt. Ida and the Phyrgian countryside the court of Hadrian entered Nicomedia, the ancient capital of the province of Bithynia, from which most of Asia was governed at that time. We commemorate this visit on March 6 each year. 

Here is how Flamen Antonius Subia describes it at the online TEMPLE OF ANTINOUS:

"This is the triumphant return of Antinous to his homeland as the Imperial Favorite, and is symbolized as the return of the wandering Dionysus.

"It is said that Julius Caesar stayed as the guest of Nicomedes III, the last king of Bithynia, and that Caesar, when he was young, was the lover of Nicomedes. For the rest of his life, critics called Julius Caesar the Queen of Bithynia, a title that may have had some truth because when Nicomedes died without a son, and he left his kingdom to Rome in his will, or rather to his beloved Julius Caesar.

"This title of Queen of Bithynia would by inheritance fall to Hadrian, and it accentuates the homosexual liberty and voluptuousness of the Bithynians as a nation, the reputation of Nicomedia as a city where Kings loved beautiful males and gave them the throne for their beauty's sake, and this is the atmosphere which permeated the return of Antinous to his people.

"We celebrate the ancient openness and homoeros of the Bithynians."

MEET SANTA'S HELPERS KRAMPUS AND ANTINOUS/APOLLO

EVER wonder about the origin of Santa's reindeer? They echo Pan, satyrs and fauns who had their own festival in December.

December 5th and 6th is the ancient Roman feast of the Faunalia ... which ironically is still celebrated in Europe and Latin America by millions of children ... who get a visit from Santa and his horned helpers.

Millions of kiddies know that you put your shoe outside the door on the evening of December 5th and that St. Nicholas will fill it goodies on December 6th ... the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.

Children who have been good receive sweets and toys ... but children who have been naughty are punished by St. Nick's furry helpers.

What few people realize is that old St. Nick is related to Antinous/Apollo ... and his helpers are Pan and his hordes of satyrs and fauns.

The pagan history shows that St. Nicholas is a vastly more complex being than most Christians could imagine, stemming from the Temples of Apollo and Artemis in Asia Minor (the birth country of Antinous) which would later be the birthplace of the mythical Nicholas.

The truth is that when you see a department store Santa, you are seeing only a composite being whose multitudinous composite aspects (many of them very dark and spooky) trace their origins back to the beginnings of mankind.

If you look very, very carefully, you will see the face of Antinous/Apollo shining through the centuries of folk customs under a variety of names including Santa, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

In some parts of Central  Europe, St. Nick goes from house to house on December 6th accompanied by a coterie that includes figures resembling Pan, Apollo and Artemis (Austrian Alps photo right).

 The legend of St. Nicholas begins in the Turkish town of Patara in Asia Minor which was also the birth land of Antinous. Patara was also the birth place of Apollo and a famous oracle was located there.

Apollo's sister Artemis also had a cult center in nearby Myra, where Nicholas grew up and allegedly became a "bishop." Myra's main cult was dedicated to Artemis Eleuthera, a distinctive form of Cybele, the ancient mother-goddess of Anatolia. She had a magnificent temple in Myra.

Unfortunately, St. Nicholas was zealous in his duties as bishop and took strong measures against paganism. The temple of Artemis and the Apollo oracle were among many other temples in the region that he destroyed. It is said that the very foundations were uprooted from the ground, so complete was its destruction, "and the evil spirits fled howling before him".

St. Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Church. He simply usurped the popularity of Artemis and Apollo and promoted his own reputation for being a protector and a giver of good things.

Antinous/Apollo more or less morphed into Old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

And in a lot of places, Santa has several dark and scary sidekicks — all related to Pan, who also originated in Asia Minor.

In the Alps, Santa's helpers take the form of a demonized Pan who chases and abducts children who have been naughty. He is called Krampus and, thanks to the Internet, Krampus is becoming widely known in English-speaking countries.

In the Nordic and English version, of course, all that is left of Krampus with his horns and hooves and fur is the reindeer which accompany Santa's sleigh. 

In Holland, St. Nick is accompanied on December 5th/6th by a Moorish youth wearing a turban and a fur-trimmed costume called Svarte Piet, who delights in teasing naughty children.

In English-speaking countries, prudish Victorians stripped Santa of all his impish devilry. Santa is nice to all and punishes no one. 

In Europe, Santa's Dark Side still prowls — marches defiantly, in fact. In a way, the Anglo-American Santa Claus was lobotomized by the Victorians so that he is only docile and sweet-humoured.

But to understand the REAL Santa Claus, you have to understand his Darker Side. You have to understand where Santa is coming from, literally....

He is composite spirit being who in English-speaking countries is called St. Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

But the deeper you go back into the forests of Europe, the more differentiated this ancient being becomes so that you see his various  component parts — including Antinous-Apollo — all competing against each other — sometimes morphing into each other.

ON MOTHER'S DAY LIGHT A CANDLE FOR THE MOTHER OF ANTINOUS

Happy Mother's Day! We honour the mother of Antinous, who gave birth to him in Bithynia Asia Minor (art by Priest Julien). 

Little is known of the origins of Antinous except that he was from the Bithynian city of Claudiopolis modern-day Bolu, Turkey.
It has been speculated that he was a slave ... or even a provincial prince. 

The OBELISK OF ANTINOUS, which now stands atop the Pincian Hill in Rome, is covered in Egyptian hieroglyphs which tell us much about Antinous the Gay God. But sadly, there are huge gaps where the text has been worn away.

There is, for example, an intriguing reference to the mother of Antinous which is incomplete. Did a missing portion of the text talk about his biological family back in Bithynia? We'll never know.

We wonder how many brothers and sisters Antinous had? He must have had cousins and other "ephebe" male relatives. How on earth could the mother of Antinous ever have parted from him?

For that matter, no one knows what happened to the earthly remains of Antinous after his tragic death in the Nile in October 130 AD. Were they returned to his family in Bithynia? Did his mother weep over them? Were they interred in a family crypt ... and were the ashes of his mother interred beside his after she died?

This Mother's Day prayer was written by our beloved WARREN WILLIAMSON before his untimely death a couple of years ago. We join Warren in praising the Mother of Antinous the Gay God:

O most glorious Mother of Antinous our God, accept our prayers and present them to thy son our God, that He may, for thy sake, enlighten and bring our souls unto the most holy city of Antinoopolis where we shall dwell with thee and the Imperator God Hadrian forever and ever.  Be it so now and forever. 

THE SACRED BOAR HUNT

AT the March Equinox the Religion of Antinous commemorates the Sacred Boar Hunt.

In our Liturgical Calendar, it is the day when Hadrian and Antinous arrive at the sacred city of Bithynium/Claudiopolis, the home of Antinous, in the spring of the year 129 AD.

Imagine the jubilant welcome they must have received as the city's populace turned out en masse (including all of the extended family and acquaintances of Antinous) to see the imperial entourage with Hadrian and Antinous at the forefront.

The region is teeming with bountiful wildlife and so Hadrian and Antinous went on hunting forays while in Bithynium.

The Boar Hunt had deeply mystical symbolic meaning for Hadrian, as exemplified that it was elevated to mythic proportions for use in public monuments.

The image above shows Hadrian and Antinous (looking backwards) during the Sacred Boar Hunt, immortalized on the Arch of Constantine in Rome.

Flamen Antonius Subia explains the mythic symbolism this way:

In ancient times, boys would enter the forest armed only With a spear to test their courage as young men 
So it was that Antinous went with Hadrian
To hunt the wild boar of Phrygia, to test his manhood
The boar symbolizes strength, courage, honor, & truth
And was an emblem of warriors and of fearlessness
The Boar is sacred to the beautiful hunter god Adonis
Whom Venus so loved that she chased after him through Briars and thorns, and when he was killed by the Boar, Which was her jealous lover Mars in disguise
She compelled the world to mourn his death
Her love for Adonis was so strong that she brought him 
Back from the underworld again for half the year.
The Boar is the emblem of the fertility god Freyr
Whose mighty phallus purifies and protects the fields
The Boar is sacred to the sun god Belenus
Of the Cisalpine Gauls, of whom there is an inscription From Hadrian’s Villa that reads:
“Antinous and Belenus are equal in age and beauty
For this reason Antinous is also be worshipped like Belenus appropriately, by Quintus the Sicilian”
We praise the god Belenus, whose bonfires protect us
From the malevolent spirits of darkness and chaos
The beautiful Sun God Belenus is Antinous of the North
We praise Antinous as Mercurius, the son of Maia
Maia is the Bona Dea, leader of the Pleaides
She is the bringer of goodness and plenty of summer
We praise Diana the Huntress and ask her blessing
On this night of the Sacred Boar Hunt
May the Strength of the Boar be with us
May the Power of the Boar be with us
May the Courage of the Boar be with us
In celebration of Antinous the Hunter
We now consume the meat of the Sacred Boar
So we may be blessed
Ave Antinous – Adonis
Ave Antinous – Freyr
Ave Antinous – Belenus
Ave Antinous – Mercurius
May flesh of the Sacred Boar give us his blessing
Ave Antinous Venator!

~ ANTONIUS SUBIA

MEET SANTA'S HELPERS KRAMPUS AND ANTINOUS/APOLLO

EVER wonder about the origin of Santa's reindeer? They echo Pan, satyrs and fauns who had their own festival in December.

December 5th and 6th is the ancient Roman feast of the Faunalia ... which ironically is still celebrated in Europe and Latin America by millions of children ... who get a visit from Santa and his horned helpers.

Millions of kiddies know that you put your shoe outside the door on the evening of December 5th and that St. Nicholas will fill it goodies on December 6th ... the Feast Day of St. Nicholas.

Children who have been good receive sweets and toys ... but children who have been naughty are punished by St. Nick's furry helpers.

What few people realize is that old St. Nick is related to Antinous/Apollo ... and his helpers are Pan and his hordes of satyrs and fauns.

The pagan history shows that St. Nicholas is a vastly more complex being than most Christians could imagine, stemming from the Temples of Apollo and Artemis in Asia Minor (the birth country of Antinous) which would later be the birthplace of the mythical Nicholas.

The truth is that when you see a department store Santa, you are seeing only a composite being whose multitudinous composite aspects (many of them very dark and spooky) trace their origins back to the beginnings of mankind.

If you look very, very carefully, you will see the face of Antinous/Apollo shining through the centuries of folk customs under a variety of names including Santa, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

In some parts of Central  Europe, St. Nick goes from house to house on December 6th accompanied by a coterie that includes figures resembling Pan, Apollo and Artemis (Austrian Alps photo right).

The legend of St. Nicholas begins in the Turkish town of Patara in Asia Minor which was also the birth land of Antinous. Patara was also the birth place of Apollo and a famous oracle was located there.

Apollo's sister Artemis also had a cult center in nearby Myra, where Nicholas grew up and allegedly became a "bishop." Myra's main cult was dedicated to Artemis Eleuthera, a distinctive form of Cybele, the ancient mother-goddess of Anatolia. She had a magnificent temple in Myra.

Unfortunately, St. Nicholas was zealous in his duties as bishop and took strong measures against paganism. The temple of Artemis and the Apollo oracle were among many other temples in the region that he destroyed. It is said that the very foundations were uprooted from the ground, so complete was its destruction, "and the evil spirits fled howling before him".

St. Nicholas was never officially canonized by the Church. He simply usurped the popularity of Artemis and Apollo and promoted his own reputation for being a protector and a giver of good things.

Antinous/Apollo more or less morphed into Old St. Nick, aka Santa Claus, Father Christmas, Sinter Klaas, das Christkind and Kriss Kringle.

And in a lot of places, Santa has several dark and scary sidekicks — all related to Pan, who also originated in Asia Minor.

In the Alps, Santa's helpers take the form of a demonized Pan who chases and abducts children who have been naughty. He is called Krampus and, thanks to the Internet, Krampus is becoming widely known in English-speaking countries.

In the Nordic and English version, of course, all that is left of Krampus with his horns and hooves and fur is the reindeer which accompany Santa's sleigh. 

In Holland, St. Nick is accompanied on December 5th/6th by a Moorish youth wearing a turban and a fur-trimmed costume called Svarte Piet, who delights in teasing naughty children.

In English-speaking countries, prudish Victorians stripped Santa of all his impish devilry. Santa is nice to all and punishes no one. 

In Europe, Santa's Dark Side still prowls — marches defiantly, in fact. In a way, the Anglo-American Santa Claus was lobotomized by the Victorians so that he is only docile and sweet-humoured.

But to understand the REAL Santa Claus, you have to understand his Darker Side. You have to understand where Santa is coming from, literally....

He is composite spirit being who in English-speaking countries is called St. Nicholas, Santa Claus or Father Christmas.

But the deeper you go back into the forests of Europe, the more differentiated this ancient being becomes so that you see his various  component parts — including Antinous-Apollo — all competing against each other — sometimes morphing into each other.