P. Sufenas Virius Lupus is a metagender person, the founder, Sacerdos, Mystagogos, and Doctor of the Ekklesía Antínoou (a queer, Graeco-Roman-Egyptian syncretist reconstructionist polytheist group dedicated to Antinous--the deified lover of the Roman Emperor Hadrian--and related divine figures), a contributing member of Neos Alexandria, a practitioner of Gentlidecht and Filidecht, with additional devotions to deities from Roman Britain, Wales, Gaul, and much further afield, as well as dedications to various land spirits (especially Mt. Erie) of North Puget Sound and its islands. E is widely published in the Neos Alexandria devotional volumes, as well as other periodicals and anthologies, particularly in poetry but also with essays and fiction. Eir published books include The Phillupic Hymns (2008), The Syncretisms of Antinous (2010), Devotio Antinoo: The Doctor's Notes, Volume One (2011), All-Soul, All-Body, All-Love, All-Power: A TransMythology (2012), A Garland for Polydeukion (2012), A Serpent Path Primer (2012), and Ephesia Grammata: Ancient History and Modern Practice (2014). Follow em and eir work further at eir blog, Aedicula Antinoi.
I don’t know if it is coincidence or not (and I’m not sure I believe that “coincidence” actually happens–!?!), but it seems that people seem like they’re a little bit “off” these days, and it really started to happen hot and heavy as of December 17th, when Saturnalia began. Saturnalia is one of the great “feasts of reversal,” so to speak, when the Golden Age of humanity returns again, kings serve slaves, slaves are crowned…
My title on this column echoes the phrase often attributed to Benjamin Franklin, from a letter of 1789, which read (in full): “Our new Constitution is now established, and has an appearance that promises permanency; but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes” (emphasis mine). However, Daniel Defoe said it even earlier than Franklin, in 1726: “Things as certain as Death and Taxes, can be more firmly believed.”…
We are now in late October, when many people are either getting ready for, or have already done, something in relation to the Irish quarter-day of Samain (I use the Old Irish spellings of many terms because they taste better to me–yes, I am a synaesthete!). Those who celebrate “astrological Samain” are doing something entirely novel from the last 40 years or so, which has no basis in Irish tradition or anything remotely Celtic whatsoever;…
One of the most difficult matters facing someone who is attempting to discuss syncretism in a nuanced and useful fashion within modern polytheism is that the term “syncretism” refers to at least two different phenomena as it is commonly used. The second of those phenomena can be further subdivided into (at least) two further categories. What I hope to do at present, however briefly, is to draw out those nuances here in an accessible manner.…
Bring up the topic of “syncretism” to a group of people, and those who even know what the word means at all might have mixed reactions. To many Christians, it implies what I hear people within a certain denomination deride as “Cafeteria Catholicism.” To Muslims, syncretism is fundamentally equal to shirk, their most grievous and heinous sin, because it challenges the completeness and perfection of Islam by “joining” other practices and/or beliefs to their religion, and…
