January

Month of Janus, according to the Romans, opener of the new year, and guardian of the gates of heaven. Janus, an early deity had two faces, one that looked ahead to the future, and the other to the past. He built the temple of Janiculum, on the Janiculus, a hill on the other side of the Tiber, a temple whose doors were opened in times of war, and closed during peace. When the king refused to open them, in a time of conflict, the goddess Juno, wife of Saturn, and Queen of the gods, and the spirit of all women, descended from the sky, and forcefully opened them herself, upon which the city of Rome was engulfed in flames. What can all this mean? I wish I knew, but the Romans were not lacking in a dramatic tale, or two, intertwining the gods’ and goddesses’, loves, hopes, desire and pursuits, reflective of human nature, not always understood in modern times, no matter what month of the year.