Looking backward to look ahead
The Romans celebrated the first day of the year as a festival to Janus, their god of gates, doors, beginnings and endings. They named the month of January after him, and portrayed him with two faces: one looking back and one looking forward. Janus presided over transition from past to future, the passage from childhood to adulthood and into old age. One of his faces was often portrayed clean-shaven with the other bearded.
Gates and doors are both portals from one experience to another. We enter through a gate and leave […]
