Using a rosary or mala is an ancient and traditional practice found in religious communities all over the world, one that involves the use of beads to count prayers. You can create a string made of knots or semi-precious stones, or perhaps a simple bowl filled with river or sea stones, one for each prayer. Whatever best fits your means and circumstances. With this Antinoan rosary practice, we recommend three sets of 28 stones, plus four larger stones to stand as ‘spacers’ between each set of prayers as well as an introductory/closing prayer. The 28 beads make up the bulk of the practice, and in number represent the days that make up the lunar cycle, the Moon being particularly associated with Antinous among the heavenly spheres. If one has the means, we might recommend that they be made of lapis lazuli, a stone precious to the land of Antinous’ birth and as blue as the Nile waters. Each of the three spacer beads represents one of the three faces or aspects of Antinous – the Liberator, the Navigator, and the Lover – and the color should reflect that as best as possible. In modern Antinoan cultus, red has represented the Liberator, white the Navigator, and black the Lover, though do feel free to use colors that seem appropriate. A number of us in Naós Antínoou , for instance, have found blue to work quite well for the Lover, making for an unintentionally patriotic look. And then there’s the introductory bead, which begins and closes the full set of prayers – this can be of any color suitable for your rosary.

Once you have your beads assembled into a rosary, you are ready to begin. This practice can be integrated into your regular daily, weekly, or monthly devotionals, or whenever you deem appropriate as circumstances demand. To begin, set your intention: what do you need? What does your family need? Your community? What are you praying for? Once this is clear in your mind and clearly stated before Antinous – he hears the prayers of those who call upon him! – hold that in your prayer and channel it into this rosary.

Intro & Closing

Behold, the Beautiful Boy rises in the East

Ave Ave Antinoe

Ave Ave Antinoe

Haec est unde, haec est unde,

Haec est unde vita venit

[Repeat Latin text 3x]

Chant (28 beads between each spacer)

Beautiful, Just, Benevolent one

Guide and liberate us through your love

Liberator (1^st spacer – red stone)

Antinous Liberator

At whose name the gates of the underworld tremble

Free us from our fetters, free us from our chains

Banish all that would bind, constrict, and poison us

Ave Antinoe

Navigator (2^nd spacer – white stone)

Antinous Navigator

Triumphant you will pass over the sky

Help us to ascend to our divine stature, to shine as your star shines amongst the heavens

Guide us, so that we might join you on the Boat of Millions of Years

Ave Antinoe

Lover (3^rd spacer – blue or black stone)

Antinous Lover

Beloved who dwells in the limits of the earth

Descend as a dove from the heavens and crown us with your grace

Ensoul our bodies with your love so that we may take on every shape that our heart desires

May your love and beauty pour forth upon the earth and bless all beings who dwell upon Her.

Ave Antinoe

BIO

Jay Logan is a long-time resident of the Pacific Northwest in the would-be sovereign nation of Cascadia. A Mystes of Antinous since 2011, he has been serving the Naós Antínoou as a Mystagogue since 2017 and as a priest a bit longer than that. He is also an initiated priest of Chalice Hart, a local Wiccan coven. A librarian by trade, he enjoys researching, providing information and resources to the public, knitting, and dancing under moonlight at the Witches’ Sabbat.