Sacred Nights: Foundation Day

At last, we come to the culmination (but not the end!) of the Sacred Nights of Antinous, the most important holiday of the year: Foundation Day.

Since 2002, on this date, I have held rituals that (with two exceptions) were public and attended by more than two people. Later this afternoon (gods willing, I may sleep in between now and then!), another such ritual will be held by myself and my associates in Seattle at the Horizon Oasis O.T.O. Temple on Capitol Hill. An unprecedented number of Mystai Antínoou may all be present on one occasion for this, as well as any number of other attendees. But, however large or small their numbers may be, it will be a dedicated group, and I am grateful for everyone’s interest and participation.

I will give a brief outline of some of the ritual actions we will be doing on the occasion–feel free to do these at home, by yourself or with friends, or to come up with appropriate actions for your own position, means, and level of interest that you can do and would enjoy. (Most of the prayers/hymns mentioned here are available in The Phillupic Hymns.)

After our preliminary prayers to Wepwawet, Hekate, and Ianus, we silently drop stones into a large bowl of water representing the Nile River. These stones represent whatever it is in our lives that is “weighing us down” and that we seek transformation or “deification” for; I use the stone I inscribe each year at the end of the Foundation Day ritual for this, in order to leave the previous year of devotion behind and start again anew each year.

Then, the covered image of Antinous is revealed for all to see, and processed around the ritual space with singing.

After the image of Antinous is installed upon the altar, offerings are given immediately. We may also sing “Ave Ave Antinoe” at that point, to hail him and praise him.

This statement will be read out near the beginning of the ritual, as it has been since 2002 in my own practices:

On this day in 130 of the current era, 1880 years ago, during the 13th year of the reign of Aelius Traianus Hadrianus Caesar, in the 227th Olympiad, 884 years after the foundation of Rome, in Egypt on the River Nile near Hermopolis, at a bend in the river called Hir-Wer, a great tragedy occurred, a great mystery was revealed, and a great tradition began. We come together now to remember these events, to re-enact those mysteries, to rebuild that tradition, and to let the name of Antinous be heard once again. This is Foundation Day: the day Antinous’ two-days-dead and drowned body was found, the day Hadrian founded the city of Antinoöpolis in his honor, the day Antinous was first called a hero and god, the day many of his temples were opened and his games were enacted, and the day that we begin to re-establish and recreate tradition in our own times and for our own times. We confront death with fear and sadness in our hearts, but unshakeable knowledge that peace, light, and the fire of love are unconquered and unquenchable.

Blessings to all who hear these words,
Blessings to all who see these images,
Blessings to all who have drawn near this fire,
Blessings to all who contemplate these mysteries,
Blessings to all who love and are loved,
Blessings to all who keep the name of their ideals alive,
and Blessings to all who remember the name of Antinous.

After this follows a blessing of fire and water. Then, we usually invoke the Obelisk of Antinous (about which I’ll speak more in the future), read the poem “Coming Forth by Day” on deification, and then have several sacred liturgical dramas, which though scripted are not rehearsed–people attending the ritual are asked to play various parts, and the most amazing things happen as a result of different portrayals each year. (Though 2003 is going to be a hard one to beat–a dear friend, and a Catholic one no less, played the role of Antinous and sang an impromptu sean nós tune that made me cry, and that often makes me tear up just recalling, or singing. When we did a run-through of that particular drama earlier last evening, I was holding back tears…)

We do the usual prayers involved in our larger rituals: the Prayer Against Persecution, the Antinoan Petition, and this year we’ll also be adding the Spell Against Homophobia. We also officially name and sanctify the various Ekklesia Antinoou Sancti for the year–this year, thirty-six of them–with a read ritual rubric in English and then Latin, the ringing of bells and the lighting of candles and sharing of water, and then singing “Ignis Corporis Infirmat, Ignis Sed Animae Perstat” for each of them in turn.

About this time, things should be wrapping up, but often, we’ll have further songs or poems that individual participants bring with them, to honor Antinous or any other deity they may choose to. Oftentimes, on this ritual occasion, the altar ends up looking like a “god party,” to which nearly everyone is invited. Thus is the way with polytheism and syncretism!

In the next week or so, I’ll try and post pictures from my own archives of past Foundation Day rituals, and hopefully we’ll get a few from this year as well to add to the mix. Later on tomorrow (as I’ll be going directly from our Foundation Day ritual to an all-night Samain vigil for the Seattle area CR Schmooze group), once I’ve returned from all ritual activities and have rejuvenated somewhat, I’ll carry on with the penultimate post in the Sacred Nights, and then on November 1, the final post will be made for this year’s observances of the Sacred Nights of Antinous.

And, on the front of honoring the Sancti, today was the death-date in 1987 of one of our Sancti, Joseph Campbell, the famed professor and mythologist. Had it not been for him and the influence of his work (no matter how lacking it might be under certain critical eyes now) back in 1991, I would not have gone to college where I did, become pagan, or gone into the field I’m now in within academia. It was on Samain (or, as I knew it then, Hallowe’en) of 1991 that I had the last of about six or eight near-death experiences I’ve accrued in my life. It was that occasion that reordered my priorities entirely, and put me not only on a path to bliss, but one to an active and engaged spirituality far beyond anything I’d known in my life previously. While I’ve certainly had bouts with bad health and even hospitalization since then, I’ve never lost consciousness and stopped breathing or anything of the sort like I did so many times previously. Joseph Campbell’s influence, mediated through my favorite high school teacher (who remains a very dear friend), an independent study course in creative writing and Arthurian and Celtic medieval literature, and the increasing presence of the gods and experiences of a religious nature, all gave me a tie to life and to living that I had lacked previously. No matter how badly I feel, people ever since have said that I look hale and healthy, and I have been eager to engage the world in every way after that occasion.

Samain has a connotation of death for a variety of reasons, and in my own case, they’re not only traditional or cultic or even related to my own “hero-cultus” to figures like Campbell, they’re deeply personal and specific. Every Samain that passes is another victory for me, another year of life and of experience and of enjoyment (though pain and difficulty and disappointment also occur). For the past nineteen years, I’ve found more and more reasons to continue enjoying life and to go on despite hardship. For the past nine years, I have had Antinous helping me through it as well, and may he continue to do so for me, and for all of you!

Ave Ave Antinoe! Haec est unde, Haec est unde, Haec est unde vita venit!