1- Antinous on Mount Ida (Per. An. I)

Landing in Asia Minor, Hadrian and Antinous proceeded directly to the site of the city of Troy, visiting the grave of Achilles, and then making their way to sacred Mount Ida, homeland of the Great mother of the Gods, and the place from which the Phrygian Prince Ganymede was taken up by Zeus to be the immortal lover of the Father of Heaven. Mount Ida is the most sacred of three mountains in Phrygia including Didymus, and Agdistis. From the summit of Mount Ida, Antinous looked down over the plain of Illium, and across the land of his Phrygian ancestors.

1- Antinous in Armenia (Per. An. II)

The court spent much of the winter in Antioch, but Hadrian and Antinous set out with a light escort across lower Cappadocia and into Armenia. This is the furthest East that Antinous was ever to travel and is observed here in conjunction with Imbolc, also known as Candlemas, a festival of newborn light. Though indigenous and Phoenician deities were worshipped, the Armenians of this time are considered to have been Zoroastrians because of the many hundreds of years that they had been controlled and influenced by Persia. Their religion venerated fire as the manifestation of the Ahura Mazda, the God of Light who had descended into the Kingdom of Darkness, which is our world, in order to fight the evil one and prevent his rise to the place of eternal light. Life on earth is understood by Zoroastrians as the struggle between our double natures. The body is composed of evil and darkness, the spirit is made of fire and light and belongs to Ahura Mazda. Antinous would have been exposed to the influence of Zoroaster while visiting the Temples in Armenia, and because it is the furthest point East in his travels, it is symbolically the nearest he came to the rising sun.

1- The Opening of the Mouth (Per. An. III)

The Process of mummification was completed on the body of Antinous and the priests of Anubis, while chanting the sacred words of the Book of the Dead, opened the mouth of Antinous, thereby allowing his spirit to receive homage, which was the high ceremony that opened the way for the immortality of the body. Antinous was fitted with a vessel of flesh that would last for all eternity. The location of the body of Antinous is unknown, like Isis, a component of the Religion of Antinous is composed of the never-ending search for his scattered, eternal limbs. The Opening of the Mouth is sacred to Anubis, the god of mummification, who like a scavenging dog, consumes the flesh of the once living and guides the soul to immortality.

15- Lupercalia

The festival of the wolf mother of Rome, and sacred festival of Antinous Master of Hounds. The Lupercalia remembers the she-wolf who raised Romulus and Remus, twin sons of Venus and Mars, who later founded the city of Rome. The wolf-like nature of the twins and of the roman character was imparted through the milk of the wolf-mother. The spirit transferred through the loving milk of the ferocious mother is celebrated on this day, and is integral to the concept of Antinous the Hunter. Antinous took his place at Hadrian's feet, and accompanied him bravely and loyally through the forests and lived by the Emperor's side for seven years, which is equivalent to the life of a strong hunting dog. The Canine nature of Antinous is celebrated on this day and is seen as an allegory for the Priesthood of Ecclesia Antinoi.

28- The Adoption of Antoninus Pius

After the death of Aelius Caesar, Hadrian adopted Antoninus, imposing on him the condition that he adopt two sons, Lucius Verus and Marcus Antoninus to be his successors. Antoninus supported the dying Hadrian for the remainder of his years, and obeyed his commands even after his death. For this Antoninus is called Pius.

MARCH

1- The Apotheosis of Antoninus Pius

Antoninus Pius died in 161 AD after 23 years as Emperor. His rule is marked by an almost unbroken period of peace and tranquility. The golden era of Rome, known as the Age of the Antonines, takes its name from Antoninus, because every emperor afterward took up his name as an emblem of glory. Antoninus is the emperor most responsible for the perpetuation of the religion of Antinous. He had served as Proconsul of Asia Minor under Hadrian from 130 to 135, while the religion of Antinous was being formed, and it was during his reign that construction of the city of Antinoopolis was completed. The senate deified Antoninus Pius shortly after his death. The base of the column erected in his honor, shows Antoninus Pius and his wife Faustina the elder, rising up to heaven. They are ascending upon the wings of an Aeon, with Mother Rome on one side, and a beautiful reclining male figure on the other who grasps an obelisk. We believe this figure to be Antinous, guardian spirit of the Age of the Antonines.

 

6- Antinous in Nicomedia (Per. An. I)

In the spring of 129, after visiting Mt. Ida and the Phyrgian countryside the court of Hadrian entered Nicomedia, the ancient capitol of the province of Bithynia, from which most of Asia was governed at that time. 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 boys 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 and pray that the modern nation of Turkey will one day return to the grace of its ancestors.

17- The Apotheosis of Marcus Aurelius

Marcus Aurelius had ruled alone since the death of Lucius Verus in 169AD. Most of his reign was spent fighting and negotiating with the Germanic barbarians who were steadily crowding around the borders of the Empire. Marcus was able to hold them back with a succession of victories and peace treaties. In 177 he made his son, Commodus, joint-Emperor, though Commodus was had no interest in the responsibility, caring more for the gladiatorial sports, but Marcus, the philosopher-king, took no notice of his son's blood-lust, which was to later cost the Empire dearly. For much of his reign, Marcus Aurelius had suffered from severe illness, but his calm devotion to stoic virtue gave him the strength to continue without rest and without his poor health interfering with his duties. While with the legions on the German frontier, Marcus Aurelius suddenly died on March 17th in the year 180AD. His ashes were conveyed to Rome and placed in Hadrian's Mausoleum. Commodus assumed power and began the chain of tragic events that are said to have brought the decline and fall of the Roman Empire. For his wisdom, and strength, and because he was the last instrument of Hadrian's plan that brought so much glory, and prosperity to Rome, we venerate the deified Marcus Aurelius as a god of Ecclesia Antinoi.

19- St. Robert Mapplethorpe

In 1990, the Cincinnati Contemporary Arts Center and its director were charged with ?Pandering Obscenity? after an exhibition of Mapplethorpe?s photographs. They were eventually acquitted but the event fueled the debate over the National Endowment for the Arts. Robert Mapplethorpe died from AIDS in on March 19th,1989, one year before the controversy, so he was only able to speak through his photographs. His subject matter portrayed homosexually charged images of nude men, and S&M including the famous ?Self-portrait with Bullwhip.? The controversy that Robert Mapplethorpe sparked exposed the double standard by which homosexual art is judged against heterosexual art. He revealed that nudity is most obscene when men are shown naked with other men.

We proclaim his sainthood to be heroic and dedicated to Antinous, because Robert Mapplethrope beautifully photographed a plaster statue of Antinous...He must have known our god and in some way loved him.

Antinous by Mapplethrope

21- Mars

21- The Apotheosis of Sabina

Vibia Sabina, Hadrian's Wife, and Empress of Rome died sometime in the year 136, and was deified in the year 138. The date of her elevation to godliness is not known, but because she was so often compared to the Mother Goddess Ceres-Demeter, we declare her Apotheosis to coincide with the return of spring, and dedicate our celebration of the Equinox to our mother and Empress, Nova Dea Ceres, Sabina Augusta. This relief sculpture of her deification, where she is shown rising up from the cremation flames on the wings of a female Aeon, shows Hadrian enthroned, behind him is a figure that resembles Antoninus Pius, and reclining on the floor, is one who could possibly be Antinous, the resemblance to the youth on the Apotheosis of Antoninus is remarkable.

21- Antinous in Bithynia (Per. An. I)

Antinous returns to his hometown and is greeted as a returning King. Hadrian is hailed as the living Zeus, and Antinous is spoken of as the New Ganymede. Their visit precedes the Death and Resurrection of Attis which is the Childhood religion of Antinous. It is observed in this context by Ecclesia Antinoi, as a presage of the Death and Resurrection of Antinous that would later be commemorated in Bithynia, which is the second of the four Holy Cities of Our religion. Antinous is worshipped as the triumphant son, returning from across the sea, like so many gods whose ships vanish over the waves, promising one day to return. We pray that Antinous will return to the place of his birth which is at the core of our soul, and that he will take his place within the small shrine of Attis that we have kept ready for his arrival.

The inner circle of Hadrian's court, with a light escort, visited Palmyra in what is now Eastern Syria, near the northern Iraqi border. Palymra was an ancient buffer state between the Roman and the Persia Empires, which had now been at peace for many years. Palmyra was therefore a mixture of both cultures, with its own, ancient Assyrian and Hittite blood beneath the surface. According to Marguerite Youcenar, Antinous was initiated into the Cult of Mithras while at Palmyra to the displeasure of Hadrian who was already an initiate, and perhaps an influential leader of the secret cult because of his position as Pontifex Maximus. Coming after the Zoroastrian sanctification in Armenia, and given the Phrygian aspect of the Mithraic cult, and the proximity to the Persian border, and the end of the transition from the Age of Taurus to the Age of Aries, which the cult revealed, we celebrate the initiation of Antinous into the mysteries of Mithras and their cosmic revelation.

21- The Entombment (Per. An. III)

After the process of mummification had been completed, and the ceremony of the Opening of the Mouth had given life to the eternal vessel of Antinous, his body was carried on a boat shaped bier into the newly constructed and consecrated tomb. The tomb was perhaps located in the sacred city of Antinoopolis, but this is not certain. It might have also been located in Rome, at Hadrian's Mausoleum, or at the Villa of Tibur. No one knows, the tomb, and the body of Antinous is lost. We must search for his remains and for his final resting place within our selves. The Entombment of Antinous, like his return to Bithynia is a final triumph of the Body of Antinous, it is the final part of the earthly journey, and the occasion of the most solemn ceremonies of dedication. We are the Tomb of Antinous, and the Entombment is our moment of impregnation.

21- The Death of Adonis

Adonis was the most beautiful boy that ever lived, so beautiful that Venus fell totally in love with him and forsook all her love-joys in order to follow him on his hunt through the forests of Mt. Lebanon. But Adonis was unmoved and completely rejected her advances. She became infatuated and abandoned herself to the boy who only cared to hunt. Mars was jealous of his rival, and outraged to see Venus subjected to desperation and lust, so he contrived to lure Venus away by having Mercury recall her to her neglected duties, because without her influence to temper the raging schemes of her Erotic son, there was no love in the world. While she was away, Mars transformed himself into a wild boar and let Adonis pursue him through the woods. The God of War suddenly charged the young God of Beauty and disarmed him, and with a deadly kiss, gored Adonis in the groin sinking his razor tusk between his perfect white legs. When she returned Venus found her beloved boy dead and cut her hair in morning, she immortalized his soul as a flower, and made the river that bears his name flow red. The love between Venus and Adonis was unfulfilled, her adoration for him was unreturned because Adonis had no care for women, and he preferred his hunting dogs to her gentle caresses. Only the War God Mars had his way with Adonis, though motivated by jealousy and rage, it was a violent sexual attack, for which all the world must mourn, because in the savagery of the Lust of Mars, the world was forever robed of the beauty of Adonis. We venerate him and seek his shadow in the gardens of human beauty. Antinous is the "Adonis of the Underworld" our perfect desire who flees from our embrace, but we like Venus never abandon him to his endless hunt, and caress his cheek even though our hands can never touch him.

21- The Death of Attis

The Vernal Equinox is Sacred to the Great Mother of the Gods, and to her divine lover-son Attis, who dies and is reborn on this day. Persephone returns from the underworld, and the verdure returns to the face of the Earth. The death of Attis is symbolic of the fruit flowers that appear at this season and then fall away, making room for the ripening fruit. It was celebrated in Rome with the introduction of a great pine tree that was carried into the Temple of Magna Mater. An image of the dead Attis was carried on a bier and hung from the tree which was decorated with purple ribbons and violet flowers. On the Day of Blood, the priests performed austerities including the self-castration of new priests, and the bloodletting of the old priests to the accompaniment of drum and cymbal music. After the Day of Blood, when Attis was said to have risen again, the festival turned to joy and elation and was known as the Hilaria. The final part of the sacred days was the day of cleansing, where the image of the Great Mother, a black stone encased in silver, was taken to the river Arno and washed by the priests. The return to Bithynia, the Mithraic Mysteries and the Entombment are all contained in the Death and Resurrection of Attis, the beautiful boy, who severed his own testicles and died giving his blood to the bosom of the earth?but did not die.

26- The Prophet Walt Whitman

Walt Whitman was born on May 31, 1819, on the West Hills of Long Island, New York. He was lavished with love by his mother, but treated with stern discipline by his carpenter father. After only a few years of school, Whitman was pulled out to help with the family earnings. He educated himself, reading all that he could, worked in a printing house, and eventually became a schoolteacher who taught with refreshing openness and excitement, allowing his students to call him by his first name. After years of teaching, he went into journalism, and in time was the editor of several publications. However Walt Whitman is said to have experienced a life transforming epiphany, he left New York, and returned to live for a period with his family, then returned from isolation with Leaves of Grass, one of the most powerful collections of poems in American literature and the first to allude heavily to homosexual love. During his time in isolation, it is often said that a religious sense of purpose entered his heart, which he revealed in the Calamus poems. The Calamus plant was his symbol for homosexuality. When the civil war broke out, Walt Whitman was 42 years old and served as a hospital nurse, where he fell in love with all the soldiers, especially those that died in his arms. Open expressions of love between men were accepted without issue during the war, and it gave brought vision of Walt Whitman came into reality, he saw that the origin of this love, brotherly, or friendly perhaps, if not more, was the salvation of the human race, and certainly able to heal the divide between North and South. His final years were spent communicating his message to the new torchbearers, such as John Addington Symonds and Edward Carpenter. After his death, and as Gay Liberation took strength, he was called a Prophet, particularly by the George Cecil Ives and the Order of Chaeronea. In keeping with the faith of our predecessors, we also proclaim Walt Whitman the Prophet of Homoeros, and elevate him to his own stratosphere in our devotion. The spirit of the Prophet Walt Whitman left the world on this day in 1892.

 

31- St. Hypatia of Alexandria

St. Hypatia was a philosopher and mathematician who lived in Alexandria (370-415 AD) during a time of turmoil and conflict between Christians and the last pagan philosophers of the Great Library. Her father was the Philosopher Theon, and Hypatia studied among the Neoplatonists. She was the author of several highly reputed works and commentaries, none of which has survived, but she held a reputation of excellence that exceeded her contemporaries. Hypatia taught among the male philosophers and attracted a large following even among Christians. Her beauty was highly desired by numerous men, but she remained celibate (or at least unmarried) all her life, which leads some to suspect lesbianism. The proud life of Hypatia came to an end when she was attacked by a Christian mob, led by a fanatic Deacon named Peter, who dragged her through the streets to a church called Caesareum. There she was stripped naked and murdered with roof-tiles. ?Saint? Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria, who encouraged her assasination, was then praised for eradicating the city of idolatry and witchchraft. The Martyrdom of St. Hypatia of Alexandria is one of the most profound examples of Chrisitian violence against paganism, women, and philosophy, and she is noted as one of the last reasoning pagans murdered by the irrational religion that has dominated the world even since. Her death is among the crimes of the Christian Church, whose attrocities continue to this day. The image at right, by Charles William Mitchell, portrays Hypatia just before her death, naked at the altar, imploring her attackers to take heed of their own faith?which they continue to ignore.

APRIL

1- Veneralia

When Saturn castrated his father Uranus, and separated the sky from the earth, by cutting away the testicles of heaven, Venus, the Great Goddess of Love was born, where the foam of the testicles washed ashore on the island of Cypress. She was attended by the Erotes, the spirits of desire, and soon created the Graces. She was brought into Olympus by marrying Vulcan, the smith god, but Venus is an older, and more powerful than the Olympians, except for Zeus, because she is directly descended from Uranus, the heavens. Venus shared her love with almost all the gods, to the humiliation of Vulcan, Juno's son, but her most ardent desire was for the war god Mars, whose virile masculinity is in direct contrast to her voluptuous feminine grace. Together Mars and Venus fought for the Trojans against the other jealous goddesses, and though Zeus gave victory to the Greeks, he promised Venus that her chosen people would have their revenge. So it was that Venus guided her son Aeneus and his followers out of the burning city and across the world to the place where Rome would one day stand. The descendants of the Trojan refugees and of Mars were Romulus and Remus who founded Rome, whose sons, through War and Love would conquer the world. Julius Caesar claimed to be descended from Venus through Aeneus, and so she became the guardian spirit of the Emperors. In the year 135 Hadrian dedication of the Temple of Venus and Roma. Hadrian built one of the largest Temples in Rome for the Great Goddess of Love and for the Spirit of the Deified City. Hadrian intended with this Temple to proclaim to the Romans that the Empire was the child of Love and War, but that Love, through the Goddess Venus, was to be the foremost power. We dedicate this day to Venus Urania, who blesses homosexual love.

6- Antinous in Pergamum (Per. An. I)

The capital of the Roman province of Asia was the ancient city of Pergamum. When Alexander the Great died, one of his generals, named Lysimachus, made Pergamum his capital. The Kingdom of Pergamum, under the Attalid Kings was to become the strongest power in Asia Minor for the centuries preceding conquest by Rome. It remained a grand and wealthy city throughout Roman times, and was mentioned in the Christian Book of Revelation as one of the Seven Churches of the world. Hadrian and Antinous certainly visited the great city of Pergamum in the spring of 129 CE. The people of Pergamum having once been firmly under the control of the Persian Empire, and then living under the domination of the Hellenistic kings of the Attalid Dynasty, were accustomed to worshipping their rulers as gods, and it is believed that the province of Asia is the birthplace of the Cult of the Emperors. Hadrian was declared and openly worshipped as a living god by the residents, an honor that he did not refuse. Antinous being his chosen favorite was also viewed with interest, and began to take his place here as the Divine consort, as the Ganymede, who was a local deity. The main temple of Pergamum was dedicated to Zeus, and was richly ornamented by a frieze depicting the war between the Olympic gods and the Titans. Hadrian built a magnificent Temple to the Divine Trajan, his Father, and so it is in this vein that we consecrate the visitation of Hadrian and Antinous to Zeus, as the spirit of the Divine Emperors, and as the conqueror of Titanic chaos.

8- St. Vaslav Nijinsky

The dancer Vaslav Nijinsky was born in Kiev on March 12th, 1888. Both his parents were ballet dancers, and Vaslav was introduced o the stage as a child. He was accepted into the Imperial Theatre school of St. Petersburg at nine and performed there as a star performer. When he was a 18 he became the lover of Prince Paul Dmitrievitch who then introduced him to Sergei Diaghilev, the ballet impresario, whose lover he became in 1908. Diaghilev took Vaslav to Paris where he was starting the famous Ballet Russe, an experimental production company that brought together the finest composers of the day with the most innovative scenery artists, costumers, and of course the greatest ballet dancers in the world. The volatile relationship between the teenage Nijinsky and the forty year old Diaghilev led to the some of ballets most profound and moving works. Nijinsky was the male star of the Ballet Russe, but he soon showed that his true talent lay in choreography. His debut as a choreographer came when he was 21 in the short piece entitled The Afternoon of a Faun with music by Claude Debussy, in which Nijinsky starred as the lustful faun trying in vain to seduce a group of nymphs. The ballet caused a stir in Paris because of the highly suggestive ending in which Nijinsky pantomimed masturbation and ecstasy. But that was nothing compared to the riots that broke out after his next choreography for the Rites of Spring. The style of Vaslav Nijinsky was far ahead of his day. He revolutionized the ballet and single-handedly invented what we call modern dance, rejecting the stylistic forms passed down by tradition in favor of sensuality, odd gestures and unnatural movement that was totally infused with the grace and power of the feel of music. The relationship between Nijinsky and Diaghilev broke down over time and they separated. Nijinsky married a female fan who he had only met once simply to spite Diaghilev. But he was slowly succumbing to mental illness, and would eventually lose his mind completely. He wrote his bizarre diary in the few weeks before he was taken away to spend the rest of his life in various mental institutions. The genius of Vaslav Nijinsky, who was taken as a stupid person because of his shy and quiet demeanor, was revealed in his divine power of dance and in the sublimity of his strange diary. The Parisians called him the God of Dance, and toward the end of his diary, he signed his name, Nijinsky, the God. He died in a London clinic on April 8, 1950. We consecrate him as a Saint and as a living incarnation of Dionysus.

8- St. John Addington Symonds

John Addington Symonds was born on 5 October 1840, to a wealthy middleclass family in Bristol England. His father was a liberally minded Doctor with connections and close friendships with many of the most illustrious and forwards minds of the time. It was this environment in the middle of Victorian repression that caused John Addington Symonds to blossom into one of the first and most prolific proponents for the cause of love between men. While teenager in school, he was awakened by Plato to the awareness of love between boys among his schoolmates and almost immediately and unhesitatingly came out of the closet, even to his father, who was disturbed but supportive. From then on, Symonds devoted his entire life to the study of homosexuality through art and history. He was the most pronounced defender of the ancient and glorious legacy of love between men, and a champion of social change. He was a deep admirer of Walt Whitman, and later worked closely with Edward Carpenter, and Dr. Magnus Hirschfeld, co-founding the British Institute for Sexual Science, which advocated a methodical study to overturn the laws against homosexual love. John Addington Symonds for his life-long work and devotion, and for his early recognition and exultation of his sexuality is a canonized saint of the Religion of Antinous. The most sacred of his many contributions to the enlightenment of our freedom are the words that he wrote about Antinous, whose beauty he glorified with poetry and elegance in the language of a lover of the homosexual, erotic beauty of Our God. John Addington Symonds died in Rome on the 8th of April 1893.

10- St. Apollonius and St. Philemon

"During the reign of Diocletian (284-305), the Governor of Antinoe in the Thebaid of Upper Egypt was named Arian, a fierce persecutor who had sent many Christians to a violent death, among them Saints Timothy and Maura and Saint Sabine. When he had imprisoned Christians for their confession of faith, one of them, named Apollonius, a reader of the Church, lost his courage at the sight of the instruments of torture, and thought how he might escape torments without denying Christ. He asked Philemon a flute-player and a pagan, to put on Apollonius' clothes and offer sacrifice before Arian, so that all would think Apollonius to have done the Governor's will, that he might be released. Philemon agreed to this, but when the time came to offer sacrifice, enlightened by divine grace, he declared himself a Christian instead. He and Apollonius, who also confessed Christ when the fraud was exposed, Arian commanded that they be shot with arrows, but while they remained unharmed, Arian himself was wounded by one of the arrows; Saint Philemon foretold that after his martyrdom, Arian would be healed at his tomb. Apollonius and Philemon, still living, though tortured and wounded with arrows, were sewn into sacks and thrown into the sea. Their deaths occurred on April 10th in the year 305.

10- Megalensia

The Megalensia commemorates the introduction of the Cult of Magna Mater, the Great Mother of the Gods, into Rome. During the War with Hannibal, the Senate consulted the Sibilline Book and received an oracle instructing them to bring the Great Mother of Phrygia to Rome. They sent an embassy to the city of Pessinus and amazingly, the Phrygian priests freely handed over the black heavenly Stone that was the most sacred emblem of their goddess. The Black Stone was brought to Rome, and met at the port of Ostia by a large congregation of the matrons of the city. They carried her in their arms, from one lady to another, into the city. Within a year, Hannibal left Italy and was soon defeated. So it was that Magna Mater became one of the guardians of Rome. The religion of Magna Mater is one of the oldest faiths of mankind, extending far back into prehistory. Evidence has been found of her veneration in one of the oldest human settlements known as Catal Huyuk in modern Turkey. The image pictured at right, shows a mother figure seated on two lions, an image always central to the Great Mother. She was known under several names, Idea, Dydima, Sipyla, Agdistis, Rhea, Kubaba, Khaba, Khabala, and Cebele, daughter of Uranus and Gaia, wife of Saturn, mother of all the gods. It is believed that her religion was spread throughout the Middle East during the conquests of the Hittite Empire, led by eunuch priests headed by the Archigallus, who was the earthly representative of the divine consort Attis. The sacred shrines of the goddess were established where a black stone had fallen from heaven, and there a prophetess, known as a Sybil took up residence, speaking oracles from Apollo. The religions of Dionysus, Apollo, Diana and Persephone are deeply and intimately related, through their connection to Magna Mater. They are the vestiges of a faith and culture that long preceded Greece, yet whose traces remain even now, in the concept of Holy Mother Church, in the black stone embedded in the Khaba at Mecca, and as the spirit of the Holy Tree known as the Kabalah in Jewish mysticism. Antinous was very probably brought up as a devotee of her religion, since Bithynion had a mountaintop shrine to Attis, and was very near to the center of her worship at Pessinus. We adore and venerate the Great Mother on this day, as the savior of Rome, and as the Goddess whose religion was central to the formation of the young Antinous, who is the New Attis. The bisexuality of her incarnation as Agdistis, and the transvestitism of her priesthood makes her religion of extreme importance to the concept of Homo Deus and of the New Religion of Antinous.

11- Antinous in Arabia (Per. An. II)

Traveling across the Arabian desert by caravan, with only the inner circle and a light escort, Hadrian and Antinous went south from Syria towards Arabia Petra, crossing the country that is now called Jordan. They skirted the Dead Sea, and went as far as the capitol of the province of Arabia, the famous city of Petra, where merchants arrived, carrying frankincense, the most important religious offering in the Roman religion. The great temple of Petra, carved out of rock, was dedicated to their primary god, Al Qaum, who is compared to Mars, our war god, and was said to be the protector of the Caravans. Al Quam was never depicted, but was represented as an un-worked, cone-shaped stone; set on a golden pedestal, that somewhat resembles a phallus. The Nabateans were conquered by Pompey, but were allowed independent rule, until Trajan made their kingdom a Roman Province. Hadrian so adored the city and lavished great sums on the people, that he decreed that the city should be called after him from then on, so that is was known as Hadriane Petra. The importance of the Nabateans and their fantastic city is that they are the ancestors of the Islam, their language and writing is what evolved into Arabic. Their entire culture and religious foundation was embraced by the tribes of the whole Arabian Desert, and ultimately formed the backbone of the Arabian conquest after Mohamed. The elegance, love for learning and war of the Arabian people extends from the Nabatean culture that so impressed Hadrian. We praise and sanctify Arabia and the Moslem world as a whole, because even they are touched by Antinous and had influence upon our god. We pray that the wisdom of the Nabateans of Arabia Petra will return to calm the crisis of our modern age.

15- St. Jean Genet

The poet Jean Genet was born in Paris on December 19th, 1910. He was put up for adoption by his mother, who is believed to have been a prostitute. While a teenager, Genet ran away from his foster parents and began wander Europe as a beggar, a male prostitute and a thief. After several arrests (mostly for stealing, rare, valuable books) he was sentenced to a very long stay in prison, which is where in 1943, he wrote his first Novel, Our Lady of the Flowers, which glorified the life of dragqueens, prostitutes, thieves and murderers in sumptuous brilliant poetic language. It met with immediate success when published through underground literary circles. After being released, he wrote several other books, which were considered the highest French poetry of the time, Genet however continued with his petty crimes, and was sentenced to life in prison. The philosopher Jean Paul Sartre, and the poet Jean Cocteau succeeded in gaining a total pardon for his crimes from the French Government based on his literary accomplishments. Thus began a new age for Genet. He wrote for the theater, and his plays are largely what he is known for, The Maids, The Blacks, The Balconies, The Screens, they mixed sex art and politics, to which Genet was rapidly leaning. Jean Genet was one of the first and most modern gay poets, whose elegance and sordid love for the street life was unprecedented, and has never been matched. Among his most fervent desires, expressed from the very beginning was that he should one day be elevated to Sainthood. We of Ecclesia Antinoi, fully and faithfully, take faith in the spirit of Saint Jean Genet, through whom the eternal voice of Antinous spoke with the most voluptuousness and vain-glory. Saint Jean Genet died on this day in Paris in1986.

20- Antinous in Aphrodisias (Per. An. I)

The beautiful city of Aphrodisias was an important stop in the province of Asia, because it was famous for its school of art. Sculptors came to Aphrodisias to perfect their skill, and the foremost masters of the Roman world gathered here. Hadrian being a devoted lover of art, spent a great deal of time in the studios, examining the progress, questioning the masters, and even offering his learned advice to the young students. It was at this time, while in Aphrodisias that the most important portraits of Antinous were produced. Our young god modeled for the masters whose hands produced the archetypal images that later, after the deification of Antinous, would be used as sacred examples for the reproduction of his image on a vast scale. The artists of Aphrodisias were called upon to undertake the task of creating the sacred images of Antinous by the thousands, based on one or two portraits made during his life, portraits made in Aphrodisias, by Aphrodisians. These artists had seen the living Antinous, had spoken to him and carefully observed the fine details of his face and body. They took notice of the subtle gestures that Hadrian and Antinous the lovers, gave off, and they were able to capture in marble, the radiance beneath the skin that had so captivated the Emperor. The artists of Aphrodisias were the first to see and worship the divinity of Antinous, through his image, and it is their vision that has come down to us through the ages. The city of Aprodisias was sacred to the Goddess of Love, Aphrodite-Venus, and we dedicate the visitation of Hadrian and Antinous to her, whose influence inspires the veneration of beauty, and is the guiding light of all artists. We commemorate the portrait carving of the living Antinous by the Masters, whose images have maintained the religion of Antinous for so many centuries. Foremost of these, we remember St. Antoninianus of Aphrodisias, the only sculptor of Antinous to sign his work (the image at right, of Antinous as Dionysus.) This day, which precedes the Eroticon, is sacred to him, to Venus and to the idolatry of Antinous.

 

21- Eros

The Great God of Love, Eros-Cupid, whose origin no one knows, is foremost of the Gods of the religion of Antinous. He is the first impulse upon which the world was created, and he is the beauty and perfection of all creation. He is called Phanes, the radiant being of beauty who emerged from the egg of night. Others say that he is the son of Uranus and Gaia, or that he was born when Venus was born, and that he is the leader of a whole army of Erotes who attended Venus as she rose from the sea. But Eros is also said to be the son of Venus, the Mother of Love, and his father is often said to be Mars, which is why Eros so often uses violence to obtain love. Eros makes the world burn with the desire for beauty, he conquers all and is the drive that sustains life, Love is Life. He inspires us through desire, to fight for our gratification, which is why the stag grows horns, to do battle in the time of rut. Eros is portrayed as a child because he has no reason or control over his desires. Eros is madly in love with the soul, with Psyche, who dwells within all of us, he cannot resist the beauty that is in our hearts and so therefore, he never distains us. Eros is Antinous, and we consecrate this day, the day of the Sacred Games, wherein the beauty and love-joy of Antinous, the body, and all those charms that captivate us, which were ravishing to Hadrian, are proclaimed in the power of the Love God. We recognize that in the athletic competitions of the Sacred Games is the contest of seduction, where the strong and the beautiful prove themselves against rivals for praise and love-joy. We also recognize and adore the nectar-sweet affection that brought Hadrian and Antinous together, that many-splendored mystery of True Love. This is the mystery of Eros and his twin brother and lover, Anteros who is love returned. We dedicate ourselves to the veneration and promotion of Eros within our hearts and in the immortal spirit of Antinous the God, spread out across the world.

21- Priapus

The Great God Priapus is the divine phallus, the column of male virility, the bestower of the fertility of fields, vineyards, orchards and gardens. Priapus is the axis of the cosmos. His mother is Venus, and his fathers are Hermes and Dionysus. Priapus was a god of the Roman era, though his cult was much older it was imported from the Hellespont where it was obscure. The cult center of Priapus was the town of Lampsakus, which is one of the names that he was called there. Other names include Orthanes, Conisalus, and Tychon, all of which are names for obscenely large phalluses. Priapus has but one power, which he calls his only weapon?his immense phallus, and it is equal in strength and potential to powers of all the others gods. The Romans prayed to Priapus to protect their gardens from thieves, warning intruders of the ferocious anal rape which is the one cruelty that Priapus is capable of (cruelty indeed!) The protection that Priapus extended beyond the garden, amulets of his great phallus were worn as protection from evil. Malevolent spirits were terrified of his power, and thus the phallus of Priapus preceded the cross as a ward against malevolence. Priapus was a god of procreation as the transference of life-giving sperm is dependant on his vigor?without him, human life would end. But Priapus has little affection for Love and War, for family and responsibility, he cares nothing for Wisdom and Virtue, and absolutely nothing for Pride and Honor. Lust is his only concern, the male fervor for triumphant passion and desire, that never falters, and has no heed for safety or humiliation, caring only for satisfaction at any cost. The Mighty Phallus of Priapus the God, never diminishes, never falls. We who are lovers of men, are worshippers of the Great God Priapus, who rules over all forms of male sexuality. On this day we venerate, exalt and adore, Priapus Invictus, the brother of Eros. We pray that he will watch over our garden and protect us from Evil.

21- The Sacred Bear Hunt

While in Mysia, in Asia Minor, the court engaged in a Bear Hunt near the city which Hadrian had founded on his earlier trip, called Hadrianotherae, "Hadrian's hunting ground." The Bear is the sacred animal of Diana-Artemis, and symbolizes the solitary, forest-roaming character of the Virgin Huntress. In the ferocity of the bear lies the secret of Diana's power, against which Hadrian and Antinous pitted themselves, as shown on the tondo from the Arch of Constantine. Artemis was an all-powerful mother goddess in Asia Minor, considered to be a manifestation of Magna Mater, in her Lunar aspect as Queen of the Night, of the wilderness, and of the animal world in general, which is why she is depicted as a huntress. Antinous, under Hadrian's guidance, was an accomplished hunter, indeed it is perhaps his natural skill and bravery in the chase that elevated him to the absolute love and adoration of Hadrian. The Emperor was madly in love with hunters, and Antinous was one of the best. Antinous had perhaps been silently stalking and hunting the Emperor's favor for quite some time, and now, in Asia, in the sacred Hunting Grounds of Hadrian, Antinous closed in on the heart of his prey and captured the Emperor completely. In our commemoration of the Sacred Bear Hunt we recognize that Artemis and Antinous are twin deities, and we seek the Dianic-Artemis-Bear within ourselves.

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