Ad Futura: The Ancient Religion Of Rome In Modern Life

By M. Horatius Picinus Earlier this month cultores Deorum Romani gathered in Poltava to celebrate the community they have built over the last few years in the Ukraine. Over the course of the first week of August 2010, the celebrations at the Altar of Jupiter Perrunus held an annual sacrificial feast in honor of Jupiter, followed some days later by Pontifex Cn. Cornelius Lentulus' consecrating a new temple to house His presence in their community. Making this a special occasion was the presence of three sacredotes from the international Collegium Pontificum and Collegium Augurum. Pontifex Lentulus arrived from Budapest, Hungary. Augur M. Lucretius Agricola had flown in from Japan. Ti. Claudius Drusus and cultores Deorum from Bulgaria arrived with a contingent of Legionaries. Meanwhile Sacerdos Iovis M. Octavius Corvus hosted the celebrations of Poltava. The past three years have seen a flowering of the religio Romana as more communities of cultores Deorum have been founded worldwide and link to one another. In the early summer of 2007, the Villa Rustica opened to the public at Eigeltingen, Germany. Cultores Deorum participated in this event by performing the consecration of a new altar for Silvanus. The original altar of Silvanus from this archaeological site is now on display at a nearby museum, while the new altar will continue in use for ceremonies held on behalf of the surrounding community of cultores Deorum and the forests that grace the north face of the Alps. Joining our sacerdos for this altar dedication were officials of the local and national governments of Germany. This event resulted from cooperation of local cultores of Germany with members of the Societas Via Romana and Nova Roma. It was followed by the re-establishment of the feriae Latinae atop Mont Albano, Italy, in April 2008. Hosted by the Consuls of Nova Roma, members of three Italian organizations of cultores joined in performing the sacred rites on site. Other organizations and individuals were invited to join in celebrating the feriae Latinae in a coordinated effort to encompass the globe. The celebration began outside Rome on Mont Albano with a sacrifice for Jupiter Latiaris. It then moved on to other sites in Germany, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Belgium, France, England, and Spain, across Canadian provinces and Alaska, from coast to coast across the U.S. It proceeded to Monte Alban in Mexico, and down into Peru, Brazil, and Argentina. It crossed the Pacific from Hawaii to Australia, Viet Nam, Japan, and China. It returned via celebrations by cultores Deorum among the soldiers in Iraq, and other cultores in Israel, Lebanon, and Turkey, moving on to plains of the Ukraine, across the Carpathians Mountains of Romania, and on to Hungary before returning to Rome. Read More from: The Future of Paganism The following day, April 21, 2008, the celebrations continued around the world for the 2761st anniversary of the Founding of Rome. Participating in these world-wide celebrations were the Societas Via Romana and The Roman Way, Nova Roma, Pax Deorum of Ohio, the Clarion Temple of Philadelphia, the Temple Religio Romana of California and Oregon, and the Sacred Grove of Egeria at Chapel Hill, N. C. Since that year the annual sacred rites of Jupiter Latiaris have been continued atop Mont Albano, Italy. That same year saw Pontifex Maximus M. Horatius join with Pontifex T. Julius Sabinus and Pontifex Cn. Lentulus at Baiae Herculane, Romania. This is the location of the oldest and still-functioning Roman bathhouse where visitors from around the world come to partake in its healing waters. Pontifex Sabinus led a sacrificial ceremony for Hercules in thanks for His healing waters. Pontifex Lentulus conducted a thanksgiving to Concordia for the Tenth Anniversary of Nova Roma. Meanwhile Pontifex Maximus Horatius, donning a black toga of mourning, conducted ceremonies to recall home the genius of a U.S. soldier and cultor Deorum who had died in Iraq earlier that year. Attending the sacrificial rites were cultores Deorum from Romania, Finland, Hungary, Italy, Canada, and the United States. Conventus Dacia MMDCCLXI Baiae Herculane, Romania August 2008 was the first occasion when two Consuls of Nova Roma from different continents, one from North America and one from Europe, met one another while in office. It was also the first year when Pontifices from different countries held a conference and celebrated rituals together. This event came after the Consuls and Pontifices M. Horatius and T. Sabinus had for the first time in Nova Roma's history invited other organizations of the Religio Romana in joint religious celebrations. But not all celebrations that year were happy occasions. In May 2008 Nova Roma saw its first member to die while involved in a war. C. Popillius Strabo died in Iraq while serving in the U.S. Army. He received a military funeral in his hometown. At the request of his widow, his funeral recognized him as a cultor Deorum Romani and member of Nova Roma. Pont. Max. Horatius conducted additional ceremonies, inviting the genius of C. Popillius to return to his home, and called upon the sacred Lares to guide him on to the Blessed Isles. Eastern Europe has become an exciting region for the Religio Romana. This region also provides an example of how the tradition wishes to develop in the future even as we look to the past. Since the end of the Pax Deorum of Rome in the 4th century with the attempt of Theodosius to prohibit even private worship of the Gods, the religio Romana continued with individuals, within important families, and in some communities throughout Western Europe, although under circumstances where these cultores became increasingly isolated from one another. Attempts were made to revive the Religio Romana in Italy with Pomponio Leto and the Academy of Rome (dissolved by Pope Paul II in 1468 and its members imprisoned and persecuted). Other revivals were attempted in the 18th and 19th centuries as Italy pursued national unification. Elsewhere in Western Europe and in the Americas other individuals and small isolated societies developed of cultores Deorum Romani. A major development came with the Risorgimento of the late 19th century -- the discoveries of archaeologist Giacomo Boni, the re-introduction of the ludi Troiae in Rome, the Ara Graminea on the Palatine Hill, and other events that celebrate Roma antiqua. Revival and reconstruction of a Religio Romana as a state religion, or at least as a religion of the City of Rome, was advocated in such publications as the Salamande r by A. Reghini (1914), by A. Armento in ATANOR (1924), Ignis (1925), and the Western Tradition essay by A. Reghini (1928), his essay Pagan Imperialism , and a book by Julius Evola with the same name (1929). These advocates for a modern reconstruction of a Religio Romana were both encouraged by the rise of fascism and reacted against Mussolini's involvement with the religion and with his accord with the papacy. After World War II, interest in the Religio Romana in Italy remained, for the most part, connected with right-wing political movements like the Groups of the Dioscuri. Renato del Ponte became influential with his magazine Arthos (1972), his books Italic Gods and Myths (1985) and The Religions of the Romans (1993). Another influential person on Italian practitioners was Salvatore Ruta, coming from the Dioscuri of Messina, who began the Arx Group (1984) and began publishing The Citadel magazine that supports the Movimento Tradizionale Romano (MTR). In Italy today there are three main divisions of the Religio Romana. The MTR emerged in the mid-1980s from Salvatore Ruta of Messina ( Arx ), Renato del Ponte in Genoa ( Arthos ), and Roberto Incardona of Palermo. The MTR is a politico-cultural association that practices reconstructed Roman rituals with little interest in the religious and metaphysical aspects of the Religio Romana tradition. Its interest in the Religio Romana remains primarily political rather than religious. La Associazione Tradizionale Pietas is a cultural organization without political interests. It holds diverse historical and cultural interests related to ancient Rome. Some members are practitioners of Roman rituals along the same line as MTR while others may be cultores Deorum Romani. Different from both of the above, L'associazione religiosa Gentilitas - Spiritualità Italica is both a religious and philosophical organization of cultores Deorum Romani. Founded in 2006, this association is organized into small communities of cultores Deorum and Gentiles Romani where each has a Minister of Worship ( ministre di culto ) who works in partnership with individuals as an instructor on the practice of the Religio Romana, philosophy, ethics, and spirituality. A Spiritual Council of Ministers appoints new ministers based on their knowledge, skills, and dignity among a community of worshippers. As its name suggests, the focus of the Gentilitas is with the family cultus for the Lares and patron deities. The Gentilitas rejects the idea of the Religio Romana as a state religion, and therefore is not a political organization, and it rejects any form of hierarchal priestly orders, preferring to keep its focus on individual worship and development of an individual's spirituality among living communities of the Religio Romana. Developments of the Religio Romana in Italy have been mirrored in the United States, and carried from there to other parts of the world. Interest in reviving the Religio Romana in the U.S. began with the Julian Society founded by William Bradford (M. Cassius Julianus), who went on to co-found Nova Roma in 1998. Wm. Bradford and his friend Bloch were inspired by the MTR when they first founded Nova Roma. However, they left membership open to any and all who were interested in ancient Rome, and thus over the course of its first ten years it developed into something like La Associazione Tradizionale Pietas. Nova Roma has cultores Deorum whose interests are found in the spiritual and religious tradition of the Religio Romana, as well as in philosophy and the Roman virtues related to ethics. Nova Roma also has "reconstructionists" and "practitioners" whose interest is the performance of reconstructed rituals, but not necessarily in the spiritual or metaphysical aspect of the tradition. And Nova Roma has an assortment of "non-practitioners" who follow Jewish, Christian, Hindu, Muslim, and other traditions, or no traditions at all, as well as a variety of polytheists, neopagans, and others. Tensions in Nova Roma over political issues and over religious issues have led to break-away organizations. These included the cultural association known as the Societas Via Romana , and such religious organizations as the Pax Deorum of Ohio, formed by pontifices of Nova Roma (Left); the Temple Religio Romana of California founded by a former Pontifex of Nova Roma, Cornelia Antonia; and the Clarion Temple of the Religio Terranova. Italian members of Nova Roma, in reaction to Nova Roma, were also involved in founding the Religious Association of Gentilitas of Italy. Nova Roma has promoted the development of several local communities of cultores Deorum in North and South America, in Europe, Australia and Asia, sometimes within Nova Roma itself as we see with Eastern Europe and the U.S. today, and, unfortunately, often in reaction to Nova Roma by the formation of new organizations. Internal politics within Nova Roma has been a continuous problem since its first year. Another factor has been that Nova Roma is not an organization of the Religio Romana but only an organization that provides for an international community of practitioners and cultores Deorum to meet one another. Both problems have resulted from Nova Roma being essentially an internet community, when what cultores Deorum seek are local communities of fellow worshippers of the Gods actively working together as the Gentilitas has managed to create in Italy. On the positive side, Nova Roma has steadily improved on the information it collects about the Religio Romana and its traditions, and therefore improved on the quality of scholarship in the information it disseminates about the Religio Romana for all cultores Deorum to access. The Societas Via Romana, Gentilitas and other organizations have likewise improved the knowledge of the general public about the Religio Romana, attracting more practitioners and cultores Deorum into the tradition. In the past two years, Nova Roma has also developed its own modern rituals, based closely on historical examples, and thus provides a standard model of ritual practice for cultores Deorum Romani both within and outside Nova Roma. As a source of information on the internet, Nova Roma, Gentilitas, the Societas Via Romana, and similar organizations have fueled greater interest in the Religio Romana as a post-modern religious tradition. In addition, such organizations have brought together cultores Deorum from different parts of the world in face-to-face conferences and established bonds of cooperation. But these have been internal conferences, with few exceptions, leaving different organizations of the Religio Romana isolated from one another even when some individuals are members of more than one organization. The history of the modern and post-modern Religio Romana lends insight to the future of this ancient tradition. Past attempts to revive and reconstruct a modern version of the Religio Romana have generally begun with an organizational structure at the top, establishing priesthoods in some instances, before establishing communities of worshippers. That is, they began with a focus on the organizational structures of the developed state religion of imperial Rome of the Augustan Restoration. They then sought a state on which to place their hopes that would adopt the Religio Romana as its organized state religion, as Reghini and Evola had toward fascist Italy of the 1920s, or else to create a quasi-state or "micronation" as Bradford and Bloch attempted with Nova Roma in 1998. In these early days of 1998 to 2001, the Religio Romana was involved in seeking legal recognition in the United States. It first came in a child custody case in Texas where the court accept the Religio Romana as an authentic "religious tradition," and later in the courts of two other states on similar grounds. By 2008 it was recognized a religious tradition by the U.S. military and federal government. While such instances were encouraging, they still represented state authorities deciding matters from above in regard to the development of the modern practice of the Religio Romana. Greater success has resulted instead when individuals formed into local communities of worshippers. This has been the story of the Temple Religio Romana that formed in the Los Angeles area in 2003. It was the first organization of the Religio Romana to incorporate in the United States. That same year Nova Roma incorporated as an educational and fraternal cultural association. With the assistance of Antonia of the Temple Religio Romana and the advice of M. Horatius of the Societas Via Romana, the Clarian Temple of Religio Terranova next incorporated in the Philadelphia area. Both of these temples, on either coast of the United States, formed around core groups of around thirty people each. Smaller associations like the Sacred Grove of Egeria at Chapel Hill, North Carolina, and the Temple of Neptune in Georgia have yet to build communities with which to incorporate a stable organization. In 2006, Gentilitas was able to incorporate as a religious association by combining small local groups and families across Italy into one organization, and then each local group began to grow further. Organizations like Nova Roma and the Societas Via Romana have allowed cultores Deorum from distant places to meet one another. Nova Roma hosted its first European Conventus 2002 in Tongeren, Belgium, with the founders of the Societas Via Romana attending. The European conventions have since attracted people from all over the world to attend in Bologna, Segovia, Rome, Hadrian's Wall, Baiae Herculane, and again in Rome this year. A convention was also held in 2009 at the Parthenon in Nashville, TN (right) and one is planned later this autumn in South Carolina. These larger events generate more energy and stronger social bonds within the communities of cultores Deorum and between communities, allowing the development of more stable temple communities. From my personal experience of attending the Conventus VI in Romania, it was a thrill to visit so many Roman sites -- Trajan's Bridge and the Roman fort at Dobreta, the Roman city of Ulpia Trajani with its ruins of Roman temples, the Iron Gates, the mausoleum at Trophaeum Trajani, all of the museums, the picturesque Carpathian Mountains and the Black Sea. Unforgettable was to be in the city of Tomis on the 2000th anniversary of Ovid's exile to that distant outpost of the Roman Empire, to stand in the shadow of his statue in Plaza Ovid, for one old Roman spirit to connect with the spirit of a more ancient Roman. No less uplifting was to be with fellow cultores from so many countries, joining together in rituals to offer common worship for our Gods and Goddesses in public. Very spiritual for me personally was to purify myself for ritual in the River Ister, to spiritually meet with so many generations of Roman cultores Deorum who had visited the Danube frontier of the Roman Empire in the same way before the Gods. Currently we are seeing cultores Deorum and Gentiles Romani bringing individual practitioners and families together into temple communities, following the examples of the Temple Religio Romana and the Clarion Temple. This is a movement away from internet-based organizations to local communities that gather at a dedicated shrine ( templum ) for common worship. In Eastern Europe the plan takes us one step further in that they are building neighborhoods of cultores Deorum living in close proximity, working and worshipping together. As we look ahead, our effort shall be to bring individuals and families of cultores from different organizations together into the local temple communities. Then these local communities will link up with one another into statewide, regional, or national organizations. Thus, what had in recent years began as internet communities organizing from the top down are now changing over to grassroots organizing from the local level up. This shall become more important as the Religio Romana seeks wider recognition. Scholarly interest in the religious traditions of ancient Rome has really come into its own only in the past couple of decades. The early history of a modern Religio Romana had the reconstruction of rituals as a primary interest, and thus practice was a main focus. Ritual practice has led to more experience in the tradition itself, and what we find today is that more and more cultores Deorum are finding spiritual experience through ritual. Formal Roman ritual involves pomp and repetition. The formalism and repetition leads into a state of ritual consciousness that can at times then lead into the other side of the Religio Romana which derives from its origin in an ecstatic tradition. This has led to an interest away from "reconstructionist" practice to the simpler and more pious practice of the Numa tradition. What this means for the future of the Religio Romana is the awakening of a new spirituality among cultores Deorum. While Rome was said to have been founded by Romulus, its first King, the Religio Romana has been traditionally attributed to Numa Pompilius, the second King of Roma antiqua. The Numa tradition refers to that original form of the Religio Romana. The presence of the Gods and Goddesses are found in Nature. A verdant grove, a spring, a tree of unusual proportion might result from the presence of a God or Goddess. Thus the early templa of the Religio Romana were such places, no more than a sacred grove with a fresh water spring and an altar. Still today we connect with the Gods more often in Nature than in anywhere else. The Gods are represented by the altar flame. This is best seen with the worship of Vesta, Goddess of the Hearth and Home, Who may only be represented by a flame. While statues and other images might be used for decorative purposes of the home, under the Numa tradition no images of the Gods are used during ritual. Ritual is to be complex so that it is not performed in haste or a perfunctory manner. Numa forbade the use of blood sacrifices, and was thus the first to introduce offerings of grain, salt, oil, milk and the first fruits of our gardens and fields. "Rightly," said Persius, "what is proper and just to offer the Gods are holiness of mind and purity of heart in the deepest recesses of our being." Pliny the Younger told us that "The Gods rejoice more in the innocence of worshippers than in elaborate prayers; the man who enters their temples with a pure heart is more agreeable to them than one who recites a carefully prepared litany." Also Cicero said that we should "approach the Gods and Goddesses while pure and chaste, bringing piety, and leaving riches behind." All of these Romans expressed a return to the Numa tradition that modern cultores Deorum are adopting in their practices as well. While our rituals have been evolving to these more complex, more austere and pious rituals, they bring us back to Numa's own example of speaking directly with the Gods. This leads to a different way that cultores Deorum think about Roman ritual, and thus how they practice our tradition. Historians necessarily dwell on the state religion of Rome as it developed during the Late Republic and under Caesar Augustus. The state religion was filled with display, excesses, and the contractual form of petitions addressed to the Gods. This is what is known as the do ut das formula. ("I give, so that You may give.") In contrast, the ritual of the Numa tradition -- where one attends with purity and piety, where one sits between each stage of ritual to reflect, and where the emphasis is on communing with the Gods rather than petitioning to Them -- naturally leads to a more personal religion. This is due in part to our emphasis on daily worship of the Lares, who are the spirits of our departed family members, and of the household Gods known as the Penates. So on one level the Religio Romana embraces a kind of spiritualism; ancestor worship is what distinguishes the Religio Romana from other polytheist traditions of the Mediterranean region. Festival days are devoted to celestial deities -- Jupiter, Juno, Minerva, Ceres, and Magna Mater being some of the main deities worshipped. But the approach toward Them is in a personal way, in a familial manner, not as abstract entities or impersonal beings, but as forces in Nature that treat us as loving parents. Some of the mysteries, some of our rituals, heighten this sense of the presence of the Gods being personally alongside us, not looking over our communities but within our communities as active members. The future of the Religio Romana lies with the blossoming of this new spirituality, with a new understanding of the Gods in a post-modern world. As often happened in its development over millennia, the Religio Romana today is evolving toward the future by looking back on its traditions, seeing in the Numa tradition a purer form of the religio that is still relevant today and into the future. M. Horatius Piscinus has been fortunate to serve as Pontifex Maximus, Augur, and Flamen Cerealis of both SVR and NR, and as Flamen Carmentis in NR. He was Consul in NR in 2008, and twice served as Consul in SVR. He has been on the Board of Advisors to the Temple Religio Romana and advisor to the Clarion Temple of Religio Terranova, as well as advised and taught sacerdotes of other communities in the US, Europe, and South America. He taught online at the Academia Thules on formal Roman ritual. He has been an ordained minister, licensed in the State of Ohio, for the last twenty-one years.

Ad Futura: The Ancient Religion of Rome in Modern Life