Greetings from Oregon

Here we are again, all snowed in...

 

Janus is the God of beginnings and transitions, hence also of gates, doors, passages, endings and time. He is usually depicted as having two faces, since he looks to the future and to the past. The Romans named the month of January in his honor.

Janus presided over the beginning and ending of conflict, and hence war and peace. The doors of his temple were open in time of war, and closed to mark the peace. As a God of transitions, he had functions pertaining to birth and to journeys and exchange, and in his association with Portunus a similar harbor and gateway god, he was concerned with travelling, trading and shipping.

The ancientGreeeks had no equivalent to Janus, whom the Romans claimed as distinctively their own. Modern scholars, however, have identified analogous figures in the pantheons of the Near East. His name in Greek is 'Ιανός (Ianós).

Happy New Year!

 

 

Ring Out, Wild Bells

Ring out, wild bells, to the wild sky,
The flying cloud, the frosty light;
The year is dying in the night;
Ring out, wild bells, and let him die.

Ring out the old, ring in the new,
Ring, happy bells, across the snow:
The year is going, let him go;
Ring out the false, ring in the true.
Ring out the grief that saps the mind,

For those that here we see no more,
Ring out the feud of rich and poor,
Ring in navyress to all mankind.

Ring out a slowly dying cause,
And ancient forms of party strife;
Ring in the nobler modes of life,
With sweeter manners, purer laws.

/Lord Tennyson/

This the Season...

 

Hope you have a lovely Holiday Season!

Blessed Christmas to All!

As Years Go By....