Gods' Section [August 28th: Asmodeus]

[Shadowcat]

The Article for Lord Asmodeus is amazing, i was glad to read!

 

[Alexander666]

Thank you, SG, for your professional articles about our beloved Gods. Everyone should read them to deprogram from Abrahamic narratives and connect more deeply with our deities.

 

[Karnonnos [SG]]

Janus is known as the mysterious two-headed God of the Roman people, starting with his ancient origin in the reign of the King Numa Pompilius. He was known as a God of beginnings, gates, time, breakthroughs, doorways, transitions, ages, the seasons, liminality, diplomacy and endings.

He was known as the “Two-Faced of War and Peace” whose dictates were closely followed when the Roman state pursued diplomacy or warfare with other states, but his oracle was also consulted when it came to starting any major religious, civic, architectural or legal endeavor in the Roman kingdom.

Temple of Janus, coin of Nero

It was said by Livy and Dionysius that the King Numa introduced the rites of Janus to the Roman people to tame their bellicose nature, to make them deeply respect religion in solemnity and to civilize them with proper rigor; the doors were kept shut as Numa waged no wars. He built a passage or bridge with a double gate, which came to be known as the first temple of Janus. The Gates of Janus were famously held closed during times of peace and conversely open during times of war, a tradition that Romans obediently followed into the sixth century:

When he had thus obtained the kingship, he prepared to give the new City, founded by force of arms, a new foundation in law, statutes, and observances. And perceiving that men could not grow used to these things in the midst of wars, since their natures grew wild and savage through warfare, he thought it needful that his warlike people should be softened by the disuse of arms, and built the temple of Janus at the bottom of the Argiletum, as an index of peace and war, that when open it might signify that the nation was in arms, when closed that all the peoples round about were pacified.

Book 1, History of Rome, Livy

The Temple was described as modest and of being a square burnished with bronze, only five cubits high. Another Temple to Janus with a clearly occult design was built by the consul Gaius Duilius, who also had a statue of Janus installed with one hand showing the number 300 and the other hand 65, with twelve altars.

The existence of Janus always closely correlated with the presence of civilization and law. In fact, Plutarch designated Janus as the one God who lifted humanity as a whole out of bestiality and confusion, despite the Hellenistic view that Janus originated with the Roman people. The Romans themselves considered the dual God to be the first ancient king of Latium, and, in a roundabout way, the ancestor of all peoples within the area.

“Omne principium Iano” — Every beginning belongs to Janus.

Roman phrase

The God was typically involved in blessing procedures of city gates and walls for the most auspicious beginning possible, but he also was consulted in regards to major projects in Rome, including amenities for civilians and great architectural structures. Servius in the Aeneid claimed that it was ‘proper’ to invoke Janus on any start to any effort.

He also represented border-zones, but unlike Set, represented the sort of ambiguity of such a zone rather than its rigid wall. Many of the liminal zones between the Romans, Etruscans, Samnites and other peoples of Italy bear increased evidence of Janus’ presence with their place name markers. The most notable instance is the expanse of the Ianiculum which separated Rome from Etruria proper.

King Ancus Marcius, the fourth king of Rome, instated a complex set of practices linked to Janus when declaring war on other states, observed by the class of diplomat-priests known as the fetials. The procedure involved sending holy envoys to warn foreign powers of Roman distress, declaring a succession of oaths if the issue was not resolved.

Thirty-three days had to pass before an escalation occurred under oath to both Jupiter and Janus, and the matter was returned to Rome for the king and patricians to make a final decision. If war was declared, a spear was thrown into the territory of the enemy.

Rites to Janus were conducted by the rex sacrorum, the kingly priest office inaugurated by King Numa.

Janus also maintained a deeply mystical aspect related to the home and hearth, where he functioned as a deity that kept watch over any kind of boundary zone, which is why passages were called ‘iani’ and doors ‘ianua’. His cult was immensely popular with the Roman people for its apotropaic and protective qualities against thieves, natural disasters, diseases and other dangers. In this he shared a practical function with Vesta, who functioned as a similar deity closing off the home and tomb.

The triad of Jupiter, Juno and Janus were often invoked to keep the initiate safe and prosperous.

SYMBOLISM OF JANUS

Janus is known as a two-faced God, a concept from which the word ‘Bifrons’ comes. The two or ‘twin’ faces of Janus were nonetheless often represented distinctively with subtle differences. Occasionally the differences were dramatic, such as one head as a bearded citizen and the other as a younger man, sometimes as an old man and a relatively younger one, although both faces were always male. In the Roman context, it was also said to represent the transitional differences between Mars and Quirinus.

The duality represented war and peace, life and death, past and future, love and hate, the beginning and the end, youth and senility, day and night, civilization and nature, matter and intellect, and many other oppositional sets of meanings that were interpreted as forming a cohesive whole.

Even the etymology of Janus has a distinctive set of symbols behind it:

The mystery of Janus since the time of Ancient Rome was one of the most important celebrations of Rome. As time elapsed, the knowledge of the Great God started being buried beneath the rubble as the people stopped remembering him, despite of his name being the name of the month IAN-UARY or January, the first month of the year of the Calendar.

The first three letters of Janus’s Name, the IAN, contain two important elements from Ancient Greek. I, which is the letter Η, signifying the word “or” and the “AN” which signifies the word “if”.

Inside this code, we can see the two important questions we have before we embark in every choice in life. The “Or” element this or that choice, and the word “If”. Will we succeed? Will we be able to manage things? Or it will be better to stay where we are? If this is done, then what? What “If”?

In this date, an important symbolism was present: Now, what was before, is no longer. However, the symbol of Janus was to be utilised for this; the passage and the pathway, the door to other and bigger or smaller things. The student had to move forward in life, and there was a door in front of him in the Ritual of the year yet, it was the student that had to choose to pass through the door willingly.

In Zevism we have many doors and many passages that we must take in order to advance. Our personal choice is reliant to this subject. How much ready for change and uplifting we are and our readiness to cross each door, will determine our success in the elevating passages of power, consciousness, wealth, or all other fields of success. This procedure is absolutely necessary, as one cannot see before their choice to open a door what lies behind it.

Free ToZ Donor Article: The Month Of January: The Message of Janus, High Priest Hooded Cobra​

Therefore, Janus rules over rites such as the Dedication of the Soul. We can read about what is behind the door we are about to embark, we can make estimations, and we can certainly ask a Master that has went through or we can visualize what might be the reality after the door. Yet, unless we walk through the door, we can never know what lies beyond the threshold.

HPS Maxine has written very graphically about the Truth of Zevism. There is a door behind you that slams closed when you enter it, a new world that opens up after this, one cannot go back. If we pay attention to this statement, the closing of the door behind us, is symbolic of the ability to choose. While certain choices can be taken back, others cannot; not because we cannot cancel them, but because what one will see can never be unseen.

As the Christian apologist Augustine explained, the Romans viewed the mouth of Janus with its two ‘doors’ as being between the two heads. The mouth cavity in this context was seen as being symbolic of the sky, the universe and symbolically represented the airy powers of magical vibration. The beginning cause was always held to be a prerogative of Janus, through which Jupiter accomplished all things. Other than Jupiter, he had no direct mythological relation to any of the Roman or Hellenic Gods.

The ‘twin Janus’ (Janus Geminus) spoken of by Romans also had four heads in two sets (Janus Quadrifons), symbolic of the four corners of the earth. Janus’ body was equated with the visible and material soul of the world through which all magic manifested.

Some Romans interpreted his name as being formed from ‘ire’ (the verb ‘to go’). Roads, paths and waterways in general were considered to be his domain because every way implies a way to go forward and backwards.

The key was a major symbol of the dual God and represented his capacity to unlock new things, including the use of such powers in the initiate before a major magical working or desired mental shift. The symbolism of the key was deeply interwoven into the holy doors being opened and shut, and it was seen as a symbol of friendly foreigners such as merchants having access to Rome’s cities during times of peace. It also signified the divinely-endowed prerogative of the priest to lock any temple door.

Doors also symbolized Janus in himself, and the Romans remarked among themselves that every door in existence has two sides. The door was also linked to the shrine of the Roman household where one side would be visible to the people outside the sanctuary, and the other side would only have the divine ones in silence staring at the door.

Naturally, the dual heads and doors, much like the gates of Cerberus, the door of Hestia and other transitional symbols, also allegorically represented the rite of dedication in a holy initiate. The door to the old life full of impiety and death was shut forever, with the new life looking towards holiness. They also represent the brain and its two hemispheres; the functions of both sides must be united and nurtured for someone to advance in power.

Janus was also closely associated with the morning and shared in the symbolism of Eosforos, the morning star. Horace called him ‘the Father of the Morning’, and this aspect of Janus represented the morning as signifying the new day where resets could occur, and new obstacles could always be broken.

Just as with the start of the day, Janus through the policies of Numa inaugurated the new-style year beginning in January , a month which continues to bear his name across the world and which marked the death of the ‘old sun’ and beginning of the new, alongside the aftermath of the Saturnalia and the beginning of the traditional time to start the Magnum Opus. The old new year in March was used to drum up the military campaign season, but this date was chosen so ne torpor infectet annum ex auspicio (lest the sloth of auspiciousness infect the whole year), and is linked to the industrious sign of Capricorn:

Iane, veni: novus anne, veni: renovate veni, sol.

Anne, bonis coepte auspiciis, da vere salubri apricas ventorum animas, da roscida Cancro solstitia et gelidum Boream Septembribus horis. mordeat autumnis frigus subtile pruinis et tenuata moris cesset mediocribus aestas. sementem Notus umificet, sit bruma nivalis, dum pater antiqui renovatur Martius anni.

Come, Janus; come, New Year; come, Sun, with strength renewed!

Year, that beginnest with good augury, give us in healthful Spring winds of sunny breath; when the Crab shows at the solstice, give us dews, and allay the hours of September with a cool north wind. Let shrewdly-biting frosts lead in Autumn and let Summer wane and yield her place by slow degrees. Let the south winds moisten the seed corn, and Winter reign with all her snows until March, father of the old-style year, come back anew.

Precatio Consulis Designati Pridie Kalendas Ianuarias Fascibus Sumptis, Ausonius

Janus thus held open the eternal Gates of Capricorn and Cancer through which souls passed. Romans gave offerings to Janus of a symbolic variety at the beginning of the year, typically things of a sweet variety such as figs and cakes, but even money itself. Ovid’s representation of Janus in the Fasti explains that this was to ensure the resolution began in the first part of the year remained as sweet as it was when pledged.

The 365 days of the year were also equated with him heavily in the sources of Antiquity. In this, Janus shared symbolism with Hermes and Abrasax.

Janus was also referred to as the ‘porter of the heavenly court’ and stands as the major gatekeeper of the doors of heaven. However, it is not just heaven that he has the right to lock and unlock, but the effects of the heavenly powers on earth as a whole, which partially explains the metaphor of his body:

Me penes est unum vasti custodia mundi,
et ius vertendi cardinis omne meum est.

Mine alone is the guarding of the vast world,
and the right to turn the hinge is all mine.

Fasti, Ovid

The Major Arcana card of Janus is the Hierophant, known as ‘the Pope’ for much of Tarot’s development. This card in Rider Waite imagery shows a mixture of proper Zevist and enemy imagery in confusion. The Hierophant stands between two men and two pillars, holding his staff up level to the pineal gland. Between him stand two keys, one golden and one silver, conventionally used as a symbol of the church, but actually symbolic of Janus’ powers in representing the conscious and subconscious mind. The red robe is symbolic of the breaking power of Ganesh; the papal tiara itself is shaped like the brain witnessed from a sky view.

This card harkens to tradition and to do things in a tried and tested way rather than pursuing dangerous and unorthodox methods. Often it beseeches the querent to build a proper spiritual routine and to draw on the powers of wisdom in a situation that requires it. It can also signify the incoming presence of a teacher or a guide. Since the Hierophant occupies an office that is changeable, his teachings may someday aid his two disciples.

The Six of Cups is the Minor Arcana card associated with Janus. The card represents the past and shows two children, a boy and a girl, with the boy passing a cup full of lilies to her. In the background is an adult guard with a pike and many old buildings, while one of the cups stands on top of a plinth with a saltire emblem.

For the querent, the emphasis is to be inspired by the past, to allow innocence and joy to inform current choices. Sometimes, it serves as a rebuke not to be childish. In any case, the Six of Cups always represents something that ceased existing, or is yet to exist.

JANUS AND THE ENEMY​

I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on Earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on Earth shall be loosed in heaven.

Matthew 16:19

Aspects of Janus were stolen to create the mythology of ‘St. Peter’ and the founding of the church. The association of the Papacy itself with the dual keys shows the erection of the great synagogue above Rome, as Nietzsche infamously called it. To make this less abstract, the installation of the Pope as the intermediary of God on earth is highly symbolic, and in theory it was the command of the ‘First Priest’ that decided most important decisions in the Age of Ignorance. To defy the Pope and his most odious institution meant calamity.</p>

Certain ‘theologians’ of the enemy wrote tracts devoted to attacking the functions of Janus. Since he is a major custodian of empires, this was not merely some theological dispute, but this was a vitriolic attempt to undermine the Roman state by appealing to the stupidity of the masses.

As the Age of Ignorance began in earnest, the Goetic ‘identity’ of Janus became the demon Bifrons, a name which simply means ‘two-faced’. It is said he assumes an extremely monstrous form before shifting to a human one on the command of the conjuror, another way of letting slip the dual identity of Janus. Unfortunately, certain ‘experts’ are unable to understand the connection here, even though it is one of the blatantly obvious cases. The same goes for the proper understanding that Janus and Ganesh do represent the same God.

Bifrons teaches astrology, geometry, and other arts and sciences, as well as the virtues of precious stones and woods. In the early 20th century, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn’s investigations into this demon claimed that Bifrons could be summoned for the purposes of astral travel and intellectual mastery of a subject, which at least shows some cursory early awareness of Janus’ proper attributes.

Certain portents of Janus were eerily interwoven into Roman history and should serve as a warning about the Gods’ eternal rulership of civilization. The first king of Rome and the last ruler of Western Rome were named Romulus. The first Christian ruler of Eastern Rome who made Christianity the state religion and the last Christian ruler in 1453, who fell in battle to the Turks, were both named Constantine. An empire is much like a year.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

History of Rome, Livy

History of Rome, Dionysus of Halicarnassus

City of God against the Pagans, Augustine

Precatio Consulis Designati Pridie Kalendas Ianuarias Fascibus Sumptis, Ausonius

Fasti, Ovid

 

[Astrid]

Really incredible article SG Karnonnos, I felt chills reading it! Thank you so much for all your hard work with these
Hail Lord Janus Bifrons!

 

[TAHARQA]

Wonderful read, thank you, esteemed SG Karnonnos!
Hail, Lord Janus Bifrons!