I had hoped to get this post out long before now…perhasps in January, and then the entirety of February seemed to evaporate before my eyes…?!?
We are on the eve of two Tetrad++-specific holy days: the Birth of Panpsyche, Panhyle, and Paneros tomorrow on March the 2nd, and then the Marriage of Paneros and Paneris on March 3rd. Not long after that, the Trophimoi and the Family of Herodes Attikos have their festivals for a week, from March 5th to March 11th.
However, in the meantime, two people have been confirmed via divination to be worthy of adding to the Sancta/e/i of Antinous. While there is no longer an “official” list of these being maintained in the present context, nonetheless many of you may wish to know about these two individuals: one is very specific to Antinous and Hadrian and our modern knowledge of Them, and the other is a spiritual figure that has been profoundly influential for the last fifty years and more.
To start with the one who died first of these two, let us discuss Ram Dass, who was born under the name of Richard Alpert. He was born on April 6, 1931 and died on December 22, 2019. He taught psychology at Harvard when he became involved in the psychedelic experiments of Timothy Leary, and then he went to India and became a devotee of the guru Neem Karoli Baba. Upon returning to the U.S. and gathering a group of people interested in this guru and writing a number of books, he traveled with many of them back to India. Among these was Krishna Das, who has been especially influential in my own life in various ways, and was my introduction to Hanuman, a Deity with Whom I have great respect and devotion, and who Himself teaches all there is to know about devotion. Neem Karoli Baba was a devotee of Hanuman as well, and some even consider him an incarnation of Hanuman. Through Ram Dass’ many writings, including such books as Be Here Now and others, the traditions related to Hanuman have been transmitted to millions worldwide. In addition to his importance for spirituality in many arenas, as well as his contributions to the counterculture of the 1960s and afterwards, Ram Dass also appears in the book Gay Soul, though I would suggest that he is technically what would be called a “historical bisexual” more than, strictly speaking, being gay, as he was married and had children at one stage. In his own practices and those of the people in his circle, love is to be understood as something that extends to all people and all beings, so in a certain sense one might even say he is pansexual to a degree! No matter how you might decide to parse his life or label his affections, however, his influence and importance are undeniable, and thus he qualifies on several different categories for inclusion in the Sancta/e/i of Antinous. (Not to mention, as I noted earlier, divination confirmed he should be included amongst them!) For more information on Ram Dass, see the biography provided on his group, the Love Serve Remember Foundation’s website (from which the above image comes).
The second is Anthony Birley, who was a scholar of ancient history and did a lot of work on Roman Britain, Hadrian’s Wall, and Hadrian himself. Most importantly for our purposes, and my introduction to him (before I found his works on Roman Britain) was the book he did in the imperial biography series, Hadrian the Restless Emperor, which has been profoundly useful for my own research into Antinous–almost even more so than Royston Lambert’s Beloved and God: The Story of Hadrian and Antinous in certain ways (mainly to do with how thorough and accurate Birley’s notes are, which is not always true of Lambert, sadly). In that same imperial biographies series, Birley also wrote the volumes on Marcus Aurelius and Septimius Severus, which are also excellent and I recommend them to anyone interested in those particular figures. Birley was born on October 8, 1937, and died on December 19, 2020. There is an excellent profile of him at Following Hadrian, with links to some of his appearances in documentaries, which I suggest you all have a look at to see photos of him, amongst other things. My own engagement with the ancient cultus of Antinous and learning about it from many perspectives would be far less rich and detailed were it not for Birley’s excellent book, and I highly recommend it to anyone who is interested in the fuller history of Hadrian and his times as well.
So, only a brief note for the moment, and with any luck, more will follow at several other points this month…it’s a full month of holy days, with days for Cú Chulainn, Pancrates, Diva Sabina Augusta, and others along the way as well!
P. SUFENAS VIRIUS LUPUS 