Sunday, October 23, 2022

THE SCORPION GODDESS SELKET
GUARDS THE TOMB OF ANTINOUS



23 October is the feast day of the Egyptian scorpion goddess Selket/Serqet ... on this day the Sun enters Scorpio. When Isis went off in search of the body of slain Osiris, she left her baby Horus in the protection of Selket ... because everyone knows scorpions are good mothers ... scorpions carry their babies on their backs. Selket is the guardian of Horus and ... by extension ... she is the guardian of Antinous.

23 de outubro é o dia da festa do escorpião deusa egípcia Selket / Serqet ... neste dia o Sol entra em Escorpião. Quando Isis saiu em busca do corpo de Osíris morto, ela deixou o bebê Horus na proteção de Selket ... porque todo mundo sabe escorpiões são boas mães ... escorpiões carregam seus bebês em suas costas. Selket é o guardião de Horus e ... por extensão ... ela é a guardiã dos Antinous.

23 de octubre es el día de fiesta de la diosa egipcia escorpión Selket / Serqet ... en este día el Sol entra en Escorpio. Cuando Isis fue en busca del cuerpo de Osiris muerto, ella dejó a su bebé Horus en la protección de Selket ... porque todo el mundo sabe que los escorpiones son buenas madres ... escorpiones llevan a sus bebés en sus espaldas. Selket es el guardián de Horus y por extensión ... ... ella es el guardián de Antinoo.

Saturday, October 22, 2022

SOME MODERN ANTINOUS WORSHIPERS
PURCHASE NEWSPAPER DEATH NOTICES



LATE October is the time of the Sacred Nights of Antinous ... culminating with the death and deification of Antinous.

In the modern religion of Antinous, we commemorate the Death of Antinous on 28 October ... but many scholars and Antinous adherents believe 22 October may have been the date.

Some faithful worshipers purchase obituary death notices in newspapers on the anniversary, such as the one above.

The death notice at the left was published in the Camden New Journal on 17 October 2013.

The exact date is uncertain. 

All we know for certain is that his death occurred in the final week of October during a visit to Egypt with Emperor Hadrian in the year 130 AD. 

Near the Egyptian village of Hir-wer, Antinous fell into the Nile and drowned. Antonius Subia says:

"Antinous fell into the Nile, beneath the swirling waves, but when his body was pulled from the water ... a God emerged. Antinous is our God, he has accomplished the salvation of all lovers of his beauty. His is our salvation. He is Antinous the Gay God. He is the last pagan God of Classical Rome."

Friday, October 21, 2022

SUNRAYS ILLUMINATE INNER SANCTUARY
OF ABU SIMBEL AT DAWN OCTOBER 22nd



FOR most of the year, the inner sanctum of the main temple at Abu Simbel is shrouded in darkness.

On two days, traditionally the anniversary of the birthday and coronation of pharaoh Ramses II, a shaft of sunlight pierces the gloom, illuminating statues of gods and the king in the temple's inner sanctum.

On February 22, a day celebrating the king's birthday and again on October 22, a day celebrating his coronation, sunlight illuminates seated statues of the sun gods Re-Horakhte and Amon-Re, as well as a statue of king Ramses II. The statues sit in the company of the Theban god of darkness, Ptah (who remains in the shadows all year).

The spectacle—which has endured more than 3,200 years of Egyptian history—draws thousands of tourists to Abu Simbel to watch this ancient tribute to a pharaoh whose name is still known up and down the Nile Valley for his military exploits and monumental building projects.

Ramses, who ruled Egypt for 66 years from 1270 to 1213 BC (about 50 years after the death of Tutankhamen, better known as King Tut) made a name for himself by battling the Hittites and the Syrians, Egypt's enemies to the north.

To celebrate his victories, Ramses erected monuments up and down the Nile with records of his achievements. He completed the hypostyle hall at Karnak (Thebes), and completed the funerary temple of his father, Seti I, at Luxor on the West Bank of the Nile.

The main temple at Abu Simbel, which Ramses ordered built near the border of Nubia and Upper Egypt, was dedicated to two sun gods, Amen-Re and Re-Horakhte. 

Standing 100 feet (33 meters) tall, the temple was carved into an already-standing sandstone mountain on the banks of the Nile.

Four colossal statues of Ramses, each 66 feet (22 meters) high, guard the entrance to the temple.

Rising to the pharaoh's knees are smaller statues of family members: his mother; favorite wife, Nefertari; and son, Prince Amonherkhepshef.

Inside the temple, three connected halls extend 185 feet (56 meters) into the mountain. 

Images of the king's life and many achievements adorn the walls. 

A second temple at Abu Simbel is dedicated to Nefartari, who appears to have been Ramses' favorite wife.

"Abu Simbel was one of, if not the largest, rock-cut temples in Egypt," says Bruce Williams of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, "The rock was sacred because the Egyptians believed the deity was living inside the mountain."

Rock-cut temples may have been especially significant in ancient Egypt because the bulge in the otherwise flat land may have signified the location where the gods emerged from the Earth, says Williams.

Thursday, October 20, 2022

THE LAST METEORS ANTINOUS SAW:
THE ORIONIDS REACH THEIR PEAK TONIGHT



THE last meteors that Antinous saw before he died in October of 130 AD! Go outside tonight and look up and see one of the great wonders of the October heavens ... when the Orionids meteor shower reach their peak tonight! Every year in late October, our planet passes through debris left behind by Halley's Comet, and some of that debris turns into meteors. You see up to 20 meteors an hour in the Northern Hemisphere, or up to 40 an hour in the Southern Hemisphere.

Os últimos meteoros que Antinous viu! Olhe para o céu esta noite para ver uma das grandes maravilhas dos céus Outubro ... quando os meteoros Orionids atingir seu pico de hoje à noite! Todos os anos, no final de outubro, o nosso planeta passa por detritos deixados para trás pelo cometa de Halley, e alguns dos que os detritos se transforma em meteoros. Você vê 20 meteoros por hora no Hemisfério Norte, ou 40 meteoros por hora no Hemisfério Sul.

Los últimos meteoros que Antinoo vi! Mira en el cielo esta noche para ver una de las grandes maravillas de los cielos de octubre ... cuando los meteoros Oriónidas alcanzan su pico esta noche! Cada año a finales de octubre, nuestro planeta pasa a través de los escombros dejados por el cometa Halley, y algunos de los desechos que se convierte en meteoritos. Ves 20 meteoros por hora en el hemisferio norte, o 40 meteoros por hora en el hemisferio sur.

ASTRO FORECAST: OCTOBER 20th—30th, 2022

Antinous is a Moon God. He is, of course, many other things and he wears many hats. But one of the ways he was worshiped in Antiquity was as ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD.

His worshipers looked skyward and saw His beautiful face perpetually turned towards the Earth. The Man in the Moon was actually the Blessed Boy in the Moon for the ancient priests and worshipers of Antinous. Swiftest and most youthful of all the Zodiacal deities, Antinous speeds through an entire year's worth of Astrological signs in just 28 days.

ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD represents our deepest personal needs, our basic habits and reactions, and our unconscious gay selves. Where Hadrian the Sun acts, Antinous the Moon REACTS. How do we instinctively react or respond to problems? What do we feel we need for a sense of security? Look to ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD for answers.

ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD is both our inner boy child and our inner lover. His ever changing phases, as he sweeps past all the other Planets in all the Signs, make us at turns responsive, receptive, and reflective. Eternally youthful, ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD represents our childlike spontaneous and instinctual reactions.

ANTINOUS THE MOON GOD beams down on us to make us imaginative, creative, intuitive, sentimental, adaptable, introspective, and protective. On the negative side, and depending on where he is in the Zodiac, he can make us moody, restless, and irrational.

Antinous Astrology Forecast


OCTOBER 20th-30th, 2022


THURS-FRIDAY, OCTOBER 20th-21st, 2022

This week you discover the warrior goddess within your heart ... when the Sun aligns in conjunction with Venus ... both in Libra ... and both the Sun and Venus form powerful aspects with Mars and Pluto. First of all, Sun trine Mars and Venus trine Mars creates a magical moment. It is possible now to take a balanced approach to conflict, problems and projects that require effort. This can combine both a gentle touch and firm action, sensitivity and forcefulness. Negotiation and interaction with others could be aggressive and determined now, but also balanced with sensitivity and style. Any expressions of anger, frustration or discontent are more likely to be tempered with fairness, moderation and composure. And second of all, the LGBT spiritual revolution gets a massive boost when the Sun and Venus are in a 90-degree right angle to Pluto, which is aligned in near conjunction with the star of Antinous in the sign of Capricorn ... sending transformative energies that can radically alter gay spirituality for centuries to come. Pluto takes more than 250 years to orbit the Sun. To give you some perspective, the last time Pluto was in Capricorn was in the late 18th Century ... the dawning of the Age of Reason and the revolutions in France and America. This time around, Capricorn Pluto is once again revolutionizing global political and economic structures along with belief systems. This is an opportunity for LGBT advancement that will not come again in our lifetimes. Seize the opportunity for transformational healing to prepare you for the world that will exist when Pluto leaves Capricorn and enters Aquarius ... in 2023. More on how Capricorn Pluto and the Star of Antinous can change your life: PLUTO ALIGNS WITH THE STAR OF ANTINOUS.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 22nd, 2022

This weekend, the year 2022 gets a reboot when Saturn turns around in space and goes Direct ("forward" as seen from Earth) again for the first time since it went Retrograde on 4 June 2022. As Saturn retraced its steps over the last five months, we all revisited issues and problems in our lives which needed to be remedied before we move on. Saturn, the school teacher of the Zodiac, forced you to sit down and complete your homework before moving forward to the next class. Now, with Saturn moving forward again, this means a breakthrough in logjams in Aquarius Saturn topics such as karmic trust issues in relationships, business partnerships and legal matters. You will see progress again in those areas and can make new commitments and set lofty new goals.

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 23rd, 2022

This weekend Venus leaves gentle Libra and dives into steamy Scorpio from now until 16 November 2022. Venus is the planet of relationships, interaction, beauty, pleasure and material resources. She struts through Scorpio with attitude! The good news: you see through the veil of mendacity and see all dark secrets. The bad news: envy, jealousy, suspicion. Try to avoid becoming obsessed with power, wealth or passion. Use Venus Scorpio's nighttime vision to see the true light within your soul.

MON-WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 24th-26th, 2022

This week we get some celestial Halloween pumpkin spice with a partial solar eclipse when we come to the SCORPIO NEW MOON. In Antinous Moon Magic this lunar phase is called the ZELUS MOON of fear, angst and anxiety ... and using Antinous Moon Magic to triumph over fear.

MON-THURSDAY, OCTOBER 24th-27th, 2022

This week is perfect for a job interview or for a presentation of a special project when Mercury is in a good trine aspect to Mars to help you get your point across articulately and strongly to others. But that's not all! Libra Mercury is in a 90-degree square aspect to Capricorn Pluto which benefits negotiations of all kinds. However, con men to try to pull a fast one on gullible souls. If you are gullible, then watch out. If you are a con man, then this is your day to shine. Pluto is aligned with the star of Antinous in the sign of Capricorn for much of 2022 ... sending transformative healing energies that can radically alter gay spirituality for centuries to come. Pluto takes more than 250 years to orbit the Sun. To give you some perspective, the last time Pluto was in Capricorn was in the late 18th Century ... the dawning of the Age of Reason and the revolutions in France and America. This time around, Capricorn Pluto is once again revolutionizing global political and economic structures along with belief systems. This is an opportunity for LGBT advancement that will not come again in our lifetimes. Seize the opportunity for transformational healing to prepare you for the world that will exist when Pluto leaves Capricorn and enters Aquarius ... in 2023. More on how Capricorn Pluto and the Star of Antinous can change your life: PLUTO ALIGNS WITH THE STAR OF ANTINOUS.

FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28th, 2022

This week retrograde Jupiter slips backwards out of Aries into Pisces. The energy of Jupiter in Pisces is mystical, creative, and nostalgic. Jupiter will finally conclude its retrograde on November 23, 2022, and, once direct, it will officially say au revoir to Pisces until the year 2033 on December 20, 2022, when it reenters Aries once and for all.

SATURDAY, OCTOBER 29th, 2022

This weekend Mercury wings his way out of airy Libra and plunges into the murky depths of Scorpio where he transforms into canine-headed Hermanubis to sniff out dark mysteries with his keen nose and hear whispered secrets with his powerful ears. On the global level, you can expect public revelations of dark secrets during the coming weeks. And on the personal level, you can expect to see which of your friends are faithful and will stick by you when the chips are down ... and which ones will back off and just leave you standing there alone. Now is the time to talk about all of those shadows and skeletons hiding in the closet. They will be crawling out and rearing their head regardless, so why not work with them so they don’t work against you?

SUNDAY, OCTOBER 30th, 2022

This weekend Mars stops dead in its tracks, does an about-face, and begins moving backwards as seen from Earth. "Retrograde" periods of any planet are times of unease. But Retrograde Mars is a time of potential peril. Mars will be retrograde from October 30th, 2022, to January 12th, 2023 — 10 weeks!

When a planet is retrograde, it appears to be moving backward in the sky from the perspective of the Earth. Of course, the planet is actually continuing in its usual orbit, and the retrograde effect is a kind of optical illusion. Since perspective is so important in astrology, however, retrograde planets do correspond to recognizable meanings. Mars is the planet associated with the Warrior archetype. It is therefore the planet we look to when we want to know about assertiveness, aggression, determination, and action. Mars is also closely associated with sexuality — not the love and romance aspect of sex, but the more instinctual, desire-driven side of it.

Retrograde Mars is usually is considered to be a poor time to begin a new sexual relationship, but there is no reason to abstain altogether for ten weeks. The underlying meaning of Mars retrograde is that energy is lacking — and that's why new sexual relationships are seen as being doubtful: the desire may not last.

SNEAK PREVIEW OF NEXT WEEK:

Another exciting week lies ahead between October 31st and November 6th, 2022, when we come to the Aquarius First Quarter Moon ... the Lunar Phase in Antinous Moon Magic which we call the altruistic and magnanimous CONCORDIA MOON ... the perfect night for laying enmity and strife to rest ... and open your heart to healing love ... More details next time ....


ANCIENT CROCODILE SKELETON FOUND
UNDER A TEMPLE AT ANTINOOPOLIS


OCTOBER 20th is the ancient Egyptian Festival of Sobek, the ancient Egyptian crocodile god. 

Sobek is fierce, frightening, nurturing, and virile ... and as such was much loved by the Egyptian pharaohs. 

Archaeologists have found a crocodile skeleton under a temple of Antinous at Antinoopolis (see photo below). 

The crocodile protects the temple in all eternity! 

Sobek is celebrated for his protective and nurturing nature. In ancient Egypt, crocodiles were often mummified with a baby crocodile in their mouth, or on their back. 

This aspect of crocodile behavior was unknown to Western science until late in the 20th century, but the ancient Egyptians knew it. That is why a crocodile was buried at a temple of Antinous ... to protect Antinous for all eternity! 

The crocodile skeleton is one of the mysteries surrounding an INTENTIONALLY BURIED STONE STRUCTURE at Antinoopolis where ot just one ... but three ... human skeletons interred in sand directly on top of the structure.

With the discovery of the first body in 2017, archaeologists reluctantly speculated about "human sacrifice" ... but now they believe humans were buried separately but along with sacrificial animals.

The team of archaeologists working at ANTINOOPOLIS in Egypt say the subterranean "stone structure," which they believe may be an underground mortuary temple, is covered by two meters of soil strewn with sacrificial pottery sherds, bones of livestock and a crocodile ... and the skeleton of at least three human beings.

None of the animals was mummified ... nor were the humans,
says James B. Heidel, president of the Antinoupolis Foundation.

Some of the animals ... livestock ... were ritually butchered as normal for a Roman-era sacrifice. But a crocodile was buried intact, without being mummified.

But the human bodies were interred intact, also without being mummified. One of the bodies was accompanied by pottery vessels and ushabti figurines ... small clay dolls representing spirits who tend the deceased in the afterlife. 
The experts are certain that the pottery vessels and the bodies date to the earliest days of the city which Hadrian founded at the site where Antinous died in the Nile.

None of the pottery is later than the 2nd or 3rd Century AD, the experts said ... meaning the sacrificial offerings were made at the time when the city was founded and under construction.

The archaeologists are also certain that the site is intact and has not been disturbed by looters over succeeding centuries.

They found bones of large livestock, which appear to have been butchered prior to burial. An intact crocodile skeleton is seen as proof that the site was used as a religious sacrificial offering venue ... since crocodiles were sacred to Ancient Egyptians and not a source of food.


But the human skeleton is a total mystery. In Roman times, human sacrifice was taboo, but the archaeologists say the human bones mixed in amongst the bones of sacrificial animals and pottery suggest a gruesome possibility.

"The human burial is sealed in the same clean sand layer as all the other offerings, and the not unreasonable, but somewhat uncomfortable, hypothesis must now be that at least one human was sacrificed and offered with the animals," says James B. Heidel, president of the Antinoupolis Foundation.

The pottery and bones are in soil which covers the mystery-shrouded "intentionally buried stone structure" which Heidel's team found in January 2017 in the heart of the city founded by Hadrian at the spot where Antinous died in the Nile.

Using ground-penetrating radar, the experts discovered the rectangular stone structure ... 12 by 22 meters in size ... which consists of three successive chambers. 

The archaeologists suggest it could be an OSIREION ... symbolic Tomb of Osiris ... raising hopes that this could be the Lost Tomb of Antinous.

The structure was detected with ground-penetrating radar.

It is located near the waterfront peristyle discovered last season.

It is within what possibly was the Great Temple of Antinous and is a rectangular chamber which is subdivided into three sub-chambers ... apparently an antechamber, a middle chamber and an inner sanctum.

Wednesday, October 19, 2022

SAINT DIVINE
HARRIS GLENN MILSTEAD


ON October 19th we honor Saint Divine (October 19, 1945 — March 7, 1988), born Harris Glenn Milstead. 

Divine was an openly gay American actor, singer and drag queen.

Described by People magazine as the "Drag Queen of the Century," Divine often performed female roles in both cinema and theater and also appeared in women's wear in musical performances.

Even so, he considered himself to be a character actor and performed male roles in a number of his later films.

He was most often associated with independent filmmaker John Waters and starred in ten of Waters's films, usually in a leading role.

Concurrent with his acting career, he also had a successful career as  a disco singer during the 1980s, at one point being described as "the  most successful and in-demand disco performer in the world."

Divine, the seventh-of-a-ton transvestite star of Mr. Waters's early movies, helped set a new standard for drag that endured long after Divine's death of heart failure in 1988, Mr. Waters said.

"When we started in those days, drag queens were square," Mr. Waters explained. "They hated Divine: they wanted to be Bess Myerson. And Divine would show up in a see-through miniskirt with a chainsaw instead of a pocketbook."

The Divine look, which stylist Van Smith first created in 1972 for Pink Flamingos, had three components. First was the hair, shaved back to the crown to allow more room for eye makeup.

Second was the makeup, acres of eye shadow topped by McDonald's-arch eyebrows; lashes so long they preceded the wearer; and a huge scarlet mouth. Third were the clothes: shimmering, skintight numbers that gave Divine a larger-than-life female sensuality.

The net effect, as Mr. Smith ordained it, was a cross between Jayne Mansfield and Clarabell the Clown.

"If you look at anything that Divine wore, you sure couldn't find that off the rack," Mr. Waters said.

All of Divine's costumes were constructed by a Baltimore woman who made outfits for strippers. Subtle they were not. There was the red fishtail dress from Pink Flamingos, in which Divine looks equal parts mermaid, Valkyrie and firetruck. And there was the sheer wedding gown she wears in Female Trouble (1974), underwear not included.

Divine once famously said that if anybody was shocked by a 300-pound drag queen in a slinky cocktail dress "then maybe they need to be shocked." He himself would describe his stage performances as "just good, dirty fun, and if you find it offensive, honey, don't join in."

As a part of his performance, he would constantly swear at the audience, often using his signature line of "fuck you very much", and at times would get audience members to come onstage, where he would fondle their buttocks, groins and breasts.

He became increasingly known for outlandish stunts onstage, each time trying to outdo what he had done before. At one performance, held in the Hippodrome in London, that coincided with American Independence Day, Divine rose up from the floor on a hydraulic lift, draped in the American flag, and declared that "I'm here representing Freedom, Liberty, Family Values and the fucking American Way of Life."

When he performed at London Gay Pride parade, he sang on the roof of a hired pleasure boat that floated down the Thames passed Jubilee Gardens, whilst at a performance he gave at the Hippodrome in the last year of his life, he appeared onstage riding an infant elephant, known as Bully the Elephant, who had been hired for the occasion.

Divine and his stage act proved particularly popular amongst gay audiences, and he appeared at some of the world's biggest gay clubs, such as Heaven in London. According to Divine's manager, Bernard Jay, this was "not because Divine happened to be a gay person himself... but because it was the gay community that openly and proudly identified with the determination of the female character Divine."

He was also described as "one of the few truly radical and essential artists of the century ... who was an audacious symbol of man's quest for liberty and freedom."

On the evening of March 7, 1988, a week after his starring role in "Hairspray" was released, Divine was staying at the Regency Hotel in Los Angeles. The next day, he auditioned for a part in the Fox network's television series "Married ... With Children". After dining with friends and returning to the hotel, he died in his sleep of an enlarged heart at age 42.