January 2010

It is interesting that this first month of the New Year, 2010, actually comes as as name from our pagan past in the Roman empire. January is a designation for the Roman god, Janus who we recognize as the god with two faces. Actually the name January and Janus are derivations from the Latin januae which means “gate” as in the god who is both the “opener” and the “shutter” of heaven’s gates. January (Janus) shuts the gate on last year and opens to the new year and to the Solar Light which will now increase forward until Summer Solstice. So Janus (January) was also the god of time, who was worshipped at the beginning of each New Year, and thus we follow Roman custom to this day, perhaps unbeknownst to us.

More deeply, January is for those who follow a Christian path an “opening into Light.” Perhaps, though, it would be better to say an “awakening” into Light. In the middle of winter's darkness we wake up to what is; to what is Real, and in that state we begin to see the world not as a veil that hides the features of the divine Light, but reveals it. Asleep the world is simply a veil thrown over the face of Reality. Awake, the world is a mirror manifesting in its myriad forms the face of God. Therefore, in this month, as in all months, as the Psalm says, “We walk into your wakefulness” (Psalm 121).