by

Commentary on the 31 Hymns to Antinous

Greetings Beloveds!

Five years ago this year, our very own Merri-Todd Webster composed a series of 31 Hymns to Antinous, an offering of devotion which she completed in exactly one month. In honor of this anniversary, she is taking it upon herself to write a series of Commentary on each of the hymns, which she is publishing on her own blog, A Nest Made of Words. I invite you all to check out her commentaries as she is writing them, as they provide much insight into her thoughts and feelings about the hymns as they are, five years later, as well as insight into our cult devoted to the Beautiful Boy. They have proven to be a great gift to us in our own liturgies. Literally, I cannot count how many times I’ve consulted the 31 Hymns to find just the right offering to the Boy. There’s very nearly a hymn for any occasion in this beautiful body of work.

Enjoy!

From her introduction:

“In May 2015 I sat down at my laptop, facing my shrine, and began a writing project unlike anything I’d undertaken before. I wanted to write a hymn to the god Antinous every day that month. I had been involved in the worship of Antinous since late 2012, and since 2013 I’d been developing a habit of daily writing through the excellently minimal website, 750words.com. Inspired by my growing love for the god and the examples of other polytheist bloggers who did 30-day writing sprints devoted to individual deities or pagan topics, I wanted to create a body of hymns as an offering to the Beautiful Boy.
….
I am aiming for a spot somewhere between the fannish idea of the DVD commentary and the traditional notion of a commentary on a sacred text. (One of my foundational premises in life is that fandom is religion, but religion is also fandom.) These hymns are not sacred texts, except to me and to those who, I am grateful to know, find them helpful in their own devotion. I hope that my commentaries, too, may be useful to my readers.”

Links to the Commentaries:

Merri-Todd's Mystificatioin - Jay, MT, Kurt, and Michael, November 2017

Co Merri-Todd Webster with her fellow Mystai Jay Logan, Sister Krissy Fiction, and Otter, on the night of her initiation in 2017.

1188

 

 

Leave a comment