readoldthings

Janus's Gate

With the coming of January, we enter into a new year. It's easy to see this as simply a secular affair, a way to mark time on the calendar and make it easier for government officials to record how much of our money we owe them, but the symbolism of January is deeper than that.

January is the month of Janus, the two-faced god of doorways. In fact, in Latin the word janus or ianus can simply refer to a door, in the same way that Vesta is the goddess of the sacred fire, but the vesta can also simply be the name for the altar. (Considering that, and considering that Sallust assigns Vesta to the element of Earth, leads to some interesting thoughts, if you're willing to follow them.)

Now, as in ancient times, we pass through Janus's Gate into the New Year just after the entrance of the Sun into Capricorn. Capricorn is a sign of special significance. An Earth sign, symbolized by the goat slowly and patiently making its way to the top of the mountain, Capricorn also represents the descent of souls into material incarnation. The Sun's entrance into Capricorn was anciently marked by the great festival of Saturnalia. During this time, the feast of great Saturn, all social bonds were relaxed. Above all, it was a time of freedom for slaves, who ate at their masters' tables, often served by the masters themselves, and everyone wore the distinctive cap of a freedman.

The symbolism of Saturnalia functions on several different levels:

First, the freeing of the slaves during the time of Capricorn reminds us that it is through its seeming enslavement to the body that the soul will eventually become freed.

Second, the leveling of the social order signifies the return of the Golden Age, when slavery had not yet been instituted among men. During this time Saturn was the high god, not having yet been deposed by his son, Jupiter. In Politicus Plato tells us that the day will come when Sun will reverse his course and begin to rise in the West and set in the East. On that day Jupiter will relinquish his throne to his father, the Dead will rise from their graves, and the Golden Age will come again. At Saturnalia the Golden Age comes again, for a moment, and then a new cycle of creation begins.

At still another level, Saturn is the Divine Intellect, as Jupiter is the Universal Soul. As Time, brought into being by Jupiter, is a moving image of Eternity, the Golden Age of Saturn already exists for those who have transcended material incarnation and abide in the Intellectual Cosmos, which is also called the light of Gwynvydd.

And Janus?

To be a god of doorways might seem a rather lowly thing, after considering such exalted topics. It is nothing of the kind.

Consider an actual doorway. It is a boundary, making a division between two separate spaces-- inside and outside a home, between two rooms in a home. But the boundary itself does not exist as a physical space. If you try to locate it, you will find that you are always on one side or the other, in one room or the other, in the home or out of the home. It has no material existence-- in a sense, no existence at all. And yet, it is by virtue of this nonexistent reality that the separate places, inside and outside, this room or that room, have existence at all.

This is why, Porphyry tells us:


Notice, too, that it is at Saturnalia that Christ, the Logos, who both is and transcends the Divine Intellect, descends into material incarnation, and that it is at January First that we celebrate the Solemnity of Mary, the Mother of God, who is the living gate through which the Logos is incarnated.

Housekeeping and Announcements

I've discovered that making announcements about my plans for this blog is the quickest way to sabotage them, so I'm just going to say that I think you'll like what I have planned for the new year. 

That said, there are also a few items leftover from 2023 to discuss. 

First, if you're waiting on an astrological chart from me, please be patient. I had set aside a great deal of time to work on these during the holidays, and then I promptly contracted Covid and was unable to do much of anything for a week. Today is the first day I'm functioning more-or-less normally. 

Second, and in keeping with the first, I'm no longer going to be taking orders or appointments any time Mercury is in retrograde. Yes, I know, "Mercury Retrograde" is the great cliche of contemporary astrology, but I've been whacked by it so many times that it's clearly time (long past time) to take it seriously. This is probably due to the position of Mercury in my natal chart, which is strong enough that if my parents had consecrated me I could have been a living astrological talisman. There are three remaining retrogrades in 2024, which I record here for the future: 

• April 1 to April 25, 2024
• August 5 to August 28, 2024
• November 25 to December 15, 2024

What I'll probably do is go dark during these times, and then offer some kind of sale once Mercury stations direct again. 

Finally, I want to wish you all a Happy New Year from all of us here at Read Old Things! 

(All of us presumably consists of me, whatever spirits guide my writing here, and the cats who can't stop laying on my keyboard while I'm trying to type.)