January is named after the Roman God Janus. This God isn’t just a doorway God. Which by the way I think would be a very important duty. Doorways, gates, and arches are all beginning a and ends. Think about it, when we walk though a doorway we are entering into a different place, anything can happen here. We leave beside the old, and sometimes carry things with us. Emotional and physical baggage. This isn’t always a bad thing though. We carry knowledge and tool, that we have learned from that last place we were.
He was worshiped at the beginning of just about anything thing. Harvest time, a season, birth, and a marriage, just to name a few.
Janus has “twin” heads, one looking in front and one behind. This says so many things to me. One, he seems very paranoid, always watching his back. I think I would ask this God to watch over me, and my back. Two, he is looking into the future, but also at his past. Three, he works with opposites in general. I read that he is associated with peace and war, countryside and city life.
January is the first month, the “gateway” to a new year. We, humans make a really big deal out of the New Year. We party, we make a list of things to do in the next year of or lives, changes.
Change is a major part of this Gods symbology. No matter what we all change. As we grow and experience life, we change with each decision we make. Big things like marriage and having children. When we move we change not just cities but house and in a lot of cases friends.
We Numa, the second ruler of Rome, named the time point of “January” Janus was the principal God in some parts, since he is the God of all beginnings.
I would think energy work dealing with a change in our lives would be strong in this month. Energy to banish negativity is vibrating now too.
The Full Moon in January is called the Wolf Moon, people in Colonial American said this month them can hear a lot of wolf howling. So the wolf is associated with this month. The wolf is my spirit guide, they are loyal, protective, and mate for live.
White is one of the colors that are connected to this month. I can see this, snow is normally a big part of the winter and I would think not much is going on because of it. The snow really would control a lot of the daily lives of people in the past.
I also see white for this month because it is the color of cleaning and purifying. This is a new beginning and we have a clean start.
January’s birthstone is the garnet. This stone was once called the Warrior Stone, because it was known that soldiers would carry them. The stone is said to help stop the flow of blood to wounds. It also promotes success and victory.
January’s flower is Dianthus, this family of flowers include the carnation. One story I read about them is that when Mary saw Jesus carrying the cross, she wept and where her tears fell, carnations grew. Carnations have a magickal property of protection.
The number of January is 1. This is the number of God, beginnings, ends, action.
Sources for the information on the post:
http://www.sacred-destinations.com/france/autun-temple-of-janus#
http://www.pantheon.org/articles/j/janus.html
http://wp.wiccanweb.ca/2013/01/01/january-magical-correspondences/
http://cresentmoon2007.hubpages.com/hub/Garnet-And-Its-Magical-Properties
http://enchantmentsschool.blogspot.com/2012/05/more-magick-of-plants-herbs-and-flowers.html
