Janus - god of entrances
Janus was one of the superior gods of the Romans. The myths and legends represent
him as reigning over the earliest inhabitants. An Ancient God of beginnings and
activities he is related to beginnings. The Romans named the first month of the
year after him and the Babylonians were the first to have New Year's resolutions.
From this deity, January is named and the first day of the month was sacred to
him. Janus is listed first in prayers. His name is invoked when sowing grain as
this is the beginning of the crops. His blessing is asked at the beginning of
the day, month, and year. He is also the god of entrances, of going in and
coming out. Which means he is the god of doorways, bridges, ferries, harbors,
and boundaries.
In early statues of Janus, he has four faces. In later depiction's two faces looking
in opposite directions. His main temple at the Forum in Rome has two doors, one
facing the raising sun, the other the setting sun. Inside the statue of Janus
has one face looking out each door. The doors to this temple are closed only at
times of peace. During Rome's first 700 years the doors were closed three times.
Opening the doors may be symbolic of the way drawbridges were opened in time of
war to protect the early city of Rome.
Enshrined in ancient mythology, he was the god of change, transitions, and
beginnings.
Janus was
often pictured with a set of keys, in keeping with his role as warden of gates.
Shrines to him typically took the form of archways, gateways, and arcades. In
later years, the Romans even exchanged coins embossed with Janus' image, as
a way of offering people good fortune in the New Year. As for his physical appearance,
well, Janus had a face only a mother could love. That's because he had two faces
-- one looking forward, the other backward. This showed his ability to watch
entrances and exits.
Thus, this ancient god stood at the threshold of all new beginnings, including
war, peace, and the new year and was honored at the first of every month. Commonly
depicted now with two faces just as every door and gate has two sides, one looks
into the past, the other into the future. Originally one face was bearded and
the other not. This may have symbolized the moon and sun or age and youth. Later,
both faces were bearded, and later still the beards disappeared. He also holds
a key in his right hand. His love was Carna, a nymph who lived at the future
site of Rome. Janus fell in love with her and gave her power over door handles
so that one had to knock and say "open says me" in order to enter.
Elsewhere in IE mythology, Janus has name and perhaps some character similarities
with the Lithuanian god Janis. This obscure god was celebrated every summer
solstice, bringing abundance to the land. Like many of the other Roman deities,
however, we might find an origin in Tuscany. Although seemingly a peculiarly
Roman god, he may have been derived from the Etruscan god Ani (or Ane). This
sky-god dwelt in the highest heaven. Ani in turn might plausible be related
to the ancient Near Eastern primordial sky-god known to the Hittites, Hurrians,
and Mesopotamians as Anu or Anus.
In sum, Janus has some similarities to IE primal sky- or cosmic- gods. His association
with waters combined with his own character suggests he might be connected with
time and the primordial waters. Indeed, his supposed rule during the Golden
Age, bringing agriculture to the land overlaps with the myth of Saturn, who
in turn is equivalent with the Greek cosmic-god of time Chronos. That would
logically make Janus equivalent with the Greeks' Ouranos, although the Romans
never developed this association. Still, he might have been derived from the
Tuscan Ani and thus part of a very ancient tradition. Ani could have come to
Tuscany with the legendary immigrants from Anatolia, where in turn we find him
as the Hurro-Hittite god Anu or Anus. Another tenuous possibility would have
him arriving with the earliest Neolithic farmers to Italy. If so, all these
gods could conceivably be related to the Lithuanians' Janis, which would make
him a very ancient god indeed.
From The Two Babylons, Hislop, pages 26-32, we read: Baal signified "The
Lord; but Bel signified "The Confounder". We read that Belus, the father of Ninus,
was he that built or founded Babylon, there is no doubt that the title of Belus
was given to him. In that sense, Bel the "Confounder" has the meaning of the name
of the Babylonian Bel, a distinct allusion in Jeremiah 1:2, where it is said "Bel
is confounded," that is, "The Confounder is brought to confusion." Cush was known
to Pagan antiquity under the character of Bel, "The Confounder" a statement of
Ovid proves that which Janus, "the god of gods," from whom
all the other gods had their origin is made to say of himself: "The ancients...called
me Chaos. (pp.26-27) Chaos was known as "god of Confusion" and just one
of the established forms of the name of Chus or Cush. The symbol of Janus, whom
the ancients called Chaos tallies with Cush who is identified with Bel, "The Confounder."That
symbol is a club and the name of "a club" in Chaldee comes from the very word
which signifies "to break in pieces, or scatter abroad - he who caused the confusion
of tongues and was he who broke the previously united earth (Gen 11:1, "in pieces"
and "scattered". The symbol is the club, as commemorating the work of Cush, as
Bel, the Confounder (Gen 11:9, the very word from which a club derives its name
is that which is employed when it said, that the confusion of tongues, the children
of men were "scattered abroad on the face of all the earth."Janus the Seer, or
"All-seeing Janus, with his maul or club as the word used for scattering abroad
is Hephaitz, which in the Greek form becomes Hephaizt rendered Hephaistos, as
applied to Vulcan, "father of the gods", thus the symbol and origin of
Vulcan's Hammer is just another name for the club of Janus or Chaos, "the god
of Confusion. Thus Bel is identified with Janus or
Chaos with his symbolical club. Bel or Belus, the father of Ninus, founded
Babylon. Ninus or Nimrod was the builder of it and its first king. (p.28) When
two-headed Janus with the club is represented, the two-fold representation was
intended to represent old Cush, and young Cush or Nimrod as combined. But the
two-fold representation with other attributes, had reference also to another "Father
of the gods," afterwards to be noticed, who had specially to do with water. Bel,
is the historical Bel as Cush, the identity of Ninus and Nimrod is confirmed.
Semiramis, the wife of Ninus, can be none other that the wife of Nimrod, when
deified and adored. (p.29). The tower-bearing Diana, depicted as a virgin, the
patroness of virginity, has all the attributes of the Mother of the gods, wearing
a turreted crown, being reminded of the tower of Babel; and is expressly identified
with Semiramis, deified, worshipped under the name of Rhea (p.30) Nimrod
was the actual Father of the gods, as being the first of deified mortals
(p.32)
The Roman Church uses this symbol in The Catholic Encyclopedia, Revised
and Updated, "Power of the Keys", p.485
Do you see the symbolism?
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Dr. Burns says of Janus of being a Hermaphrodite - archetypal parests, Father
and Mother of the World, under the form of Father Heaven and Mother Earth, known
to the Greeks as Zeus and Hera, ( Uranos and Gaia) and to the Chinese as T'ien
and Ti (Yang and Yin.; these two perfect beings possessed the characteristics
of both sexes and from this mythical being comes the term "hermaphrodite". The
name Omphale is a bi-sexual name coming from "Om," the Universal Mother, and from
phallus, the male organ. Likewise,
Janus
of the Greeks not only had 0pposite faces but was double-sexed, or hermaphrodite.
(pp. 16-17). A fashionable look among some as Bly, Nin, and Jung tell us that
each individual must achieve inner marriage of their masculine and feminine natures
to encounter true equipoise.Masonic and Occult Symbols Illustrated by Dr.
Cathy Burns, pp.16-17, Yin/Yang Symbol.
