FEDERICO GARCÍA LORCA SAINT OF ANTINOUS

ON AUGUST 19th, the Religion of Antinous honors St. Federico García Lorca, who was openly gay and who is one of the greatest poets of the Spanish language. 
He was executed by the Fascists on this day, August 19th, during the Spanish Civil War in 1936.

García Lorca's central themes are love, pride, passion and violent death, which also marked his own life.

The Spanish Civil was just getting underway in August 1936 and García Lorca was seen by the right-wing forces as an enemy. The author hid from the soldiers but he was eventually found.

An eyewitness has told that he was taken out of a Civil Government building by guards and Falangists belonging to the "Black Squad". García Lorca was shot in Granada without trial. The circumstances of his death are still shrouded in mystery. He was buried in a grave that he had been forced top dig for himself. 

According to some sources, he had to be finished off by a coup de grâce. One of his assassins later boasted, that he shot "two bullets into his arse for being a queer".

It was the end of a brilliant career as a poet and dramatist who was also remembered as a painter, pianist and composer.

In the 1920s he was close friends with Luis Buñuel and Salvador Dalí, among many others who later became influential artists in Spain. Despite the accolades from artists and critics, he suffered from bouts of depression brought on largely by his inner conflict about his homosexuality.

He was tortured by the demands of being a celebrity in a homophobic society and the yearnings of his gay soul.

During his lifetime only a handful of close friends were allowed to read the collection of gay poems which would be published many years later as his Sonnets of Dark Love. Here is one of them, entitled Love Sleeps in the Poet's Heart:

You'll never understand my love for you,
because you dream inside me, fast asleep.
I hide you, persecuted though you weep,
from the penetrating steel voice of truth.
Normalcy stirs both flesh and blinding star,
and pierces even my despairing heart.
Confusing reasoning has eaten out
the wings on which your spirit fiercely soared:
onlookers who gather on the garden lawn
await your body and my bitter grief,
their jumping horses made of light, green manes.
But go on sleeping now, my life, my dear.
Hear my smashed blood rebuke their violins!
See how they still must spy on us, so near!

With the Catalan painter Salvador Dalí and the film director Louis Buñuel he worked in different productions.

Dalí and Lorca had met in 1923. From the beginning, Lorca was fascinated by the young Catalan's personality and looks. Also Dalí had admitted that Lorca impressed him deeply.

When Buñuel and Dalí made their famous surrealist short film Un Chien Andalou (1928), García Lorca was offended: he thought that the film was about him.

Lorca's friendship with Dalí inspired a poem, a defense of modern art and at the same time an expression of homosexual love. Dalí dedicated his painting of Saint Sebastian to his friend, who often compared himself to the tortured homoerotic martyr.

"Let us agree," Lorca wrote to Dalí, "that one of man's most beautiful postures is that of St. Sebastian."

"In my 'Saint Sebastian' I remember you," Salvador Dalí replied, ". . . and sometimes I think he IS you. Let's see whether Saint Sebastian turns out to be you."

García Lorca was capable only of a "tragic, passionate relationship," Dalí once wrote — a friendship pierced by the arrows of Saint Sebastian.

The Religion of Antinous honors this great artist who lived and loved tragically and passionately and who died tragically for being gay.

LAPIS LAZULI FOR THE SACERDOTE MOON By Our Crystal Meditation Advisor Martin Campbell

 

OUR fabulous astrology expert Hernestus has informed me that today is the The Leo New Moon or "Sacerdote Moon" of Antinous". Hernestus suggests that this moon will encourage us to focus on spiritual insight and invigorating your connection with your spirit guide.

Spirit guides come in many forms and watch over every aspect and object in our lives. We are used to the concept of (typically!) a native American standing at our shoulder and gently guiding us down the right path. 

Or maybe a specific angel who you identify with and gives you particular aspects of their soul to guide you. 

These are correct for many people - but not all. You see these guides, angels, saints, gods - whatever you want to call them - are divine aspects of you. You simply call in divinity to support and guide you in any way you need. So you can have a guide to help you with writing, numbers, emotion, mending a broken computer or choosing the right shirt for that important date.

Soman and I regularly call for such divine help. If we have lost something or need help with something we ask the angel of that 'thing' to help us. 

For example, we were putting up some new light fittings. We are no electricians so some things baffled us. We consciously called on the angels of light fittings to help us. 

Within minutes we had figured it out and the lights were up and working!

So what crystals would make this connection to such guides more fluid and significant? I would suggest the following:

Kyanite - these crystals are typically banded layers of crystal - often in roughly rectangular chunks. There are various colours. It can be used to  make a clear connection to the divine spirit you need at any given time. 

Lapis Lazuli - these are fabulous, deep blue, stones flecked with gold. They have many dramatic aspects to them which made them much sought after by ancient priests, Kings, Queens and Emperors.

The Pharoahs of ancient Egypt often incorporated them into their jewels (top photo). Part of the attraction was that Lapis assists the holder/wearer to quickly connect with a spirit guide.

In Light and Life,

MARTIN

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

THE LEO NEW MOON HELPS YOU BECOME WHO YOU WERE BORN TO BE

 
TONIGHT's Leo New Moon is your opportunity to let your inner Sun shine forth so that you become the being you were born to be.

In the Religion of Antinous we call this the SACERDOTE MOON because it represents the priestly spiritual development of Antinous from boyhood to mystery initiation and finally to godhood.

Each lunar phase represents a Divine Spirit or Archetype. The Spirit of the Sacerdote is Spirituality itself. It is holiness and sacredness personified.

The Leo New Moon is the fierce moon of kindling the flame of courageous new faith.

This is the night to kick-start your self-esteem, to jump-start the dead battery that is your career or your love life or your artistic ambitions.

We all know the feeling -- chronic low self-esteem, chronic insecurity, a habitual feeling of powerlessness, of being at the mercy of others.

Take heart!

We are approaching one of the most sacred periods in our Liturgical Calendar. ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD is saddling up and preparing to engage in the SACRED LION HUNT.

The LEO NEW MOON which ushers in the season of the SACRED LION HUNT. Antinous fights the lion and grapples with the lion -- he and the lion become ONE and the SAME -- they join forces to create divinity -- HOMOTHEOSIS.

The awe-inspiring "Strength" card (shown here) from Stevee Postman's COSMIC TRIBE TAROT beautifully symbolizes what we are talking about.

During the LEO NEW MOON, we have the opportunity to shine. There's an ebullient child-like energy that draws forth the playful and creative self that resides within. Yet, when doing so care is usually taken since Leo wants to be nothing if not dignified.

The Sun God sign Leo aligns us with a feeling of wanting to be recognized and embraced for the special being we are. If other people's interactions with and attitudes towards us do not meet with these expectations, our pride is hurt and we roar with indignant rage.

Which is not a bad thing. Most gay men have problems expressing anger. We have been taught to be "nice" boys. We have been brainwashed to believe that "nice" means never daring to speak up for ourselves, never taking care of "Number 1". The result is that our pent-up rage sometimes makes us turn into a wild and raging beast -- the lion!

ANTINOUS THE GAY GOD has mastered the art of grappling with those leonine energies. He shows us that it is possible to become one with our "inner lion" -- without being devoured by it.

He shows us how to harness the enormously powerful Leonine energies inside us in order to boost our self-esteem, to end our powerlessness, and to energize us into standing up for ourselves with dignity and pride.

Antinous allows us to see how important it is to be generous in spirit and to radiate our inner light to those around us. He shows us how if we do not let our vital energy flow,  we may experience stress, tension and RAGE in our hearts, bodies, and mind. The Leo New Moon reminds us that we should proudly express our essential  self -- a being that has great gifts to offer those with whom it orbits.

The SACRED LION HUNT demonstrated to Hadrian and the world -- and most importantly to Antinous himself -- that Antinous was no longer a common-born kid from the provinces. It showed that He was on the road towards Divinity.

The New Moon in Leo is also special to the Religion of Antinous because the Leo New Moon is creative and playful. The Leo New Moon is a bit of a show-off and likes to be in the spotlight, with all heads turned his way -- as with the Beauteous Boy himself.

The Leo New Moon is also eager to throw out old and ineffective habitual ways of thinking -- "I'm old, fat and stupid" "I'm unworthy" -- and eager to go for new solutions which will help us to get out of the rut which has become our everyday lives.

Many of you are familiar with the experience of waking up to the fact that your life is no longer working the way you have set it up. Sometimes this is due to a shift occurring inside yourself over time, and sometimes it is part of the larger shift that is currently affecting all humanity.

Change is happening at such an increased rate that it is difficult to predict what the future holds. As a result, many of the old ways of planning out a life are no longer applicable, and if you cling to them you feel strangely out of tune with reality. If you are in tune with the LEO NEW MOON energies around you, you will begin to question ideas that just a few years ago seemed sensible.

In the simplest terms, the shift you are undergoing right now has to do with recognizing yourself as being more than human -- the process we call HOMOTHEOSIS -- remembering that your earthly aspects are a very small part of who you are.

In truth, you are a multidimensional being. Gay-Man-Godliness-Becoming-the-Same.

When you begin to realize this, the life you planned for a limited conception of yourself no longer fits. You must meet the needs and qualifications not only of your body (the "monkey" as Flamen Antonyus calls it) but also of your Spiritual Heart. 

This realization dawns slowly for some and with the suddenness of a bolt of lightning for others, and each of you must find the way that works for you to integrate this new and larger sense of self into your life plan.

Tonight during this Leo New Moon, take time to reflect on becoming who you were born to be. Rather than focusing on a specific task, go to the center of your heart and meditate on the core strength of your soul. 

Perhaps you are here to bring beauty, whether through art, justice, or fashion. Perhaps you are here to help heal the  offering of the world, whether through your writing, activism, or as a physician. 

Or maybe you are here to bring insight and truth where there is confusion and ignorance....

By the way, Leo rules the heart, spine, and hair. Pay extra attention to these parts of your body around the time of this Leo New Moon.

A BROKEN ANTINOUS CALLS TO US FROM A SHATTERED SYRIA By Flamen Antonius Subia

AUGUST marks the beginning of the second year of the sacred peregrination cycle, which is a recurring 3-year cycle commemorating the journey of Antinous and Hadrian through the Eastern Provinces of the Roman Empire. 

It is at this time that we believe the Imperial Entourage arrived at the ancient city of Antioch, founded by Seleuces I Nicanor, one of Alexander's generals and the founder of the Hellenistic kingdom of Seleucia. 

Antioch was the greatest city in the province of Syria during the Roman age, and was the command center from which Trajan conducted his war against the Parthians. It is very likely that Hadrian would have based his court at Antioch during his visit to Syria making excursions throughout the province. 

Antioch is known as the cradle of Christianity, because it was where the majority of Hellenized Jews lived at the time, those who had embraced the Hellenic culture of the previous Seleucid empire, and then of the Romans, and had essentially created a culture with both Greek and Jewish influence, these were of course the first to embrace Christianity. 

This had taken place only over the course of 100 years before, so Antioch was a city full of mixed cultures and cults and beliefs, but it was in Antioch that Hadrian and Antinous may have first encountered significant opposition and ridicule to their relationship from the Christian factions. 

After traversing the deeply Hellenic provinces of Asia Minor, who loved and adored Hadrian, even proclaiming him to be the living Zeus, and lavishing adoration upon his beautiful young Ganymede, it must have come as a shock to be reviled and openly insulted by the Hellenized Jews and early Christians of Antioch. 

For us, Antioch represents the first serious encounter with Homophobia that they have even experienced. There was of course, so much more to come as they progressed deeper towards Jerusalem.

It is significant that now, Syria is in a state of total chaos and war, based on the very same ideological beliefs that were growing in Antioch at that time. The war in Syria has the potential to bring the entire world into global disaster, as if Trajan's conflict has never ended.

But Syria for us, for gay people, represents something new. Apart from the many horrors and atrocities that have been committed there, like genocide, mass executions, sex slavery, public burning alive, and stoning, there is a new form of execution reserved for gay people, which is throwing us from the top of a high building..and if that does not kill us, then we are to be killed with stones. 

This is new and it is happening now.

Antinous was there!

He walked upon the now contested ground of Syria where gay men are thrown from rooftops.

I am probably the least disturbed person by all the violence that is occurring now against our people across the world, because many years ago, in 2004 I think it was, Antinous revealed to me in a bath ceremony, that the greatest holocaust that gay people have ever known was coming. 

It began almost immediately afterwards, when they hung the two boys in Iran, but it has grown exponentially since then and we are only in the start of it...there will be much worse to come.

The irony is that it all began when Antinous set foot in Syria.

Recently there was an auction of an Antinous bust that sold for $28 million, one of the highest prices ever paid for an ancient bust...but of course it was for Antinous. And it was not just any Antinous, but the only image of Antinous with his name engraved upon it. 

The engraving says:

ANTINOO HEROON
M. LUCIUS FLACCUS

Or: Dedicated to Antinous the Hero by Marcus Lucius Flaccus

It was found in the now disputed Golan Heights region of Syria and has been owned by privately since the British occupation.

It made celebrity news for an antiquities sale, because of course it is Antinous.

Taken from the same land where so many gay people are being tortured and executed...with no realistic end in sight, the bust has vanished again into private hands...but it is one of the few Antinous images from the tumultuous middle-east, and even broken it is one of the most precious and significant, the one and only Antinous image with his name carved onto it and the name of the believer, our brother from ancient times who had it made!

This is what the beginning of the Second year of the Peregrination cycle means to us now:

It means entry into the darkness and suffering that we must not turn away from, but with the sign that Antinous was there, and that his believers were among the same people and that there is hope, there is even word of an LGBTQ group of soldiers who have banded together under the rainbow flag (photo above left).

May Antinous of Antioch be with them and with all of us in our struggle.

~ANTONIUS SUBIA
Flamen Antinoalis

NO WELL-GROOMED ROMAN MALE WAS WITHOUT AN ANTINOUS BALSAMARIUM

"CLEANLINESS is next to Godliness" ... was Ovid's advice to young men setting out on amorous conquests in his poem Ars Amatoria.

A clean body and a well-groomed appearance was not only indispensable in the art of love, but was also considered a fundamental feature of Roman self-esteem, frequently contrasted with the uncleanliness and unkempt appearance of Barbarians living outside the borders of the Empire.

August 17th is Men's Grooming Day and the ancient Romans apparently considered Antinous to be their role model because a BALSAMARIUM (bath unguent jar) in the form of the head of Antinous was hugely popular.

Any well-groomed Roman male owned an array of bathing implements, combs, strigilae, lamps, water-resistant flip-flops and other articles ... including a balsamarium to hold his bath oils or skin lotions.

Antinous balsamaria were exceedingly popular in Rome. Suitable for holding bath oils or moisturizers, an Antinous balsamarium suggested that its owner would emerge from the baths looking like a God. 

And we thought modern advertising came up with that gimmick!

ANTINOUS THE MOVIE STAR UPSTAGES EVERYBODY IN 'CLEOPATRA'

ANTINOUS defies time and space ... appearing in Cecil B. DeMille's 1934 film CLEOPATRA, which starred Claudette Colbert.

The epic movie premiered on 16 August 1934 ... with Hollywood hyping the anniversary of the death of Cleopatra VII queen of Egypt on 12 August 30 BC.

In the movie, the Antinous Capitoline statue gazes into the atrium pool beside Calpurnia (played by Gertrude Michael) in Julius Caesar's Villa in Rome.

In another scene, Caesar (played by William Warren) has Antinous on his mind ... or at least on his head ... or perhaps springing forth as Athena sprang forth from the brow of Zeus. 

Handsome Henry Wilcoxon is Mark Antony (left) and C. Aubrey Smith is bearded Enobarbus. 

The Antinous Capitoline statue upstages all the actor in this wonderful peplum ... despite the fact that Caesar lived in the 1st Century BC and Antinous lived in the 2nd Century AD.

ANTINOUS SHOOTS HIS ARROWS INTO YOUR HEART

THE PERSEID meteors streak across the heavens from late July to reach their peak in mid-August. Go outside on a clear night and you will see dozens of meteors.

They appear to originate in the Constellation of Antinous right in the middle of the July and August night sky — as though Antinous is shooting arrows at you.

The CONSTELLATION OF ANTINOUS is directly right overhead in mid-heaven at this time of year. Go outside about 10 p.m. when it is good and dark and look up. You will see the Milky Way bisecting the sky from north to south. Look for the "Summer Triangle" formed by the stars Vega, Deneb and Altair — they seem to straddle the brightest part of the Milky Way.

Altair is the head of Aquila the Eagle — and Antinous is directly under the Eagle. 

The PERSEIDS are a great opportunity for ANTINOUS STAR MAGIC. 

How you cast the wish is up to you. If you re a Druid, Wiccan or even just a lapsed Catholic, you know some simple rituals. You can write a wish on a piece of paper and then go outside and look up and, as you repeat the wish aloud while tearing up the piece of paper, a shooting star will catch your eye — and you hold the palm of your hand in front of your mouth and blow away the bits of paper.

The Shooting Star does the rest.

There are many, many other ways of working ANTINOUS STAR MAGIC. As always with such things, the "magic" is within your heart and soul. So there are no firm-and-fast rules ... it all depends on you. 

If you are an ARIES, you probably don't believe in such foolishness as "wishing on a star" — but you love to gamble, and so you'll make a wish. And when it comes true, you'll be all the happier.

If you are a TAURUS, you know precisely what you want to wish for, something you've wanted for a long, long time. A leatherette recliner, for example. You love the romance and beauty of a summer evening. You've brought along a lawn chair and a hamper full of food and drink. 

If you are a GEMINI, you will be out with friends and you will be talking, laughing or else texting and twittering so much that you may forget to look up and make a wish.

If you are a CANCER you will be overwhelmed by the sheer romantic beauty of it all. You love the cosy setting and being with close friends or family. When you look up, you will make a special wish upon a star in hopes of finding that certain someone. You may stop pouting about how that other special someone broke your heart.

If you are a LEO, you will be convinced that Antinous is indeed shooting these love arrows your way — just for your own personal benefit, of course! And you will make a very grand wish, and you can't wait to show off and brag when it comes true.

If you are a VIRGO, you don't believe in luck, only in thankless hard work, and so you doubt that any wishes ever come true. You are wary of lying back on the grass because you are worried that a tick might bite you and you would contract Lyme Disease. It would be just your luck — Besides, you know it's selfish to wish for things for yourself. And anyway, you think you don't deserve to have a wish come true. But you DO deserve it!

If you are a LIBRAN, you can't decide on just one wish. So you make two wishes (at least). You secretly know you deserve to have your wishes come true more than anybody else, but you are far too diplomatic and tactful ever to say so openly. Your wishes involve matters of love and grace and beauty. You publicly wish good luck to all the others and they all thank you and think you're so nice. Everyone thinks you're their friend and you encourage them in that. Of course, secretly you think they're all morons, and if their lame wishes come true and your lovely wish doesn't come true — then there's no justice in this world.

If you are a SCORPIO, then you will also wish for love — but skip the grace and beauty and get down to the hot and heavy. Something with gleaming black leather and chrome steel chains. That wish better come true, too. You demand obedience.

If you are a SAGITTARIUS, your wish comes true instantaneously — or perhaps has already come true before you actually made the wish. Sagittarians have a direct hotline to the stars, so you always get your wishes -- and don't mind letting others know about it, either.

If you are a CAPRICORN, you don't believe in such frivolous nonsense as wishing on a star. But you have a list of very practical things you would like to wish for. Good dividends on investments, for example. So there's no harm in making a wish. If it comes true, it was "coincidence".

If you are an AQUARIUS, you will be counting the shooting stars ("Wow, 60 in just one hour, that's one a minute!") and you will be estimating what speed they must be traveling to reach the burn-out temperature. You're indoors, of course, watching the spectacle on NASA's streaming video website. You wrote down a wish for a new iPhone on a slip of paper, but you forgot where you put it, maybe it's stuck to the cheese under the Domino's Pizza next to your keyboard. Who cares? There are so many shooting stars to count.

If you are a PISCES, you have made elaborate plans to position yourself on a hilltop where your friends the UFO space aliens will be sure to spot you in your glow-in-the-dark jump suit. Your wish is for the aliens to abduct you ... again.

Make a wish!

HERNESTUS