1
00:00:00,200 --> 00:00:03,960
So I want to talk about something
a little strange at the outset it will

2
00:00:04,000 --> 00:00:08,080
be to some, which is to
talk about the symbolism of the month of

3
00:00:08,160 --> 00:00:25,120
January and its original namesake, which
is the god Janis. This is Jonathan

4
00:00:25,199 --> 00:00:39,799
Pejel, Welcome to the symbolic world. And so I don't tend to talk

5
00:00:39,840 --> 00:00:43,960
about pagan symbolism so much. But
here I think meditating and pondering on the

6
00:00:43,960 --> 00:00:49,439
pagan symbolism will help us understand even
some of the Christian symbolism which appears at

7
00:00:49,479 --> 00:00:54,799
around this time. And so January, of course his name after the god

8
00:00:54,960 --> 00:00:59,600
Janis. The god Janis is the
god of thresholds. He is the god

9
00:01:00,200 --> 00:01:04,480
of doors, the god of transition, the god of in between, right,

10
00:01:04,599 --> 00:01:11,120
and so you can understand why the
symbolism of his representation is to show

11
00:01:11,159 --> 00:01:14,840
him with two faces, one face
going one way, the other face's going

12
00:01:14,879 --> 00:01:18,480
the other way. And you can
understand it in different ways. People will

13
00:01:18,519 --> 00:01:21,879
interpret it sometimes and say, you
know, it's the past and the future.

14
00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:25,879
Sometimes you can see Janus with three
faces with one in the middle two

15
00:01:25,879 --> 00:01:27,799
so it's like the past, the
future, and the present. That is

16
00:01:27,840 --> 00:01:32,000
a good way to understand it.
But you know, a better way to

17
00:01:32,079 --> 00:01:38,480
understand it is the symbolism of thresholds
themselves, the symbolism of the transition between

18
00:01:38,640 --> 00:01:45,640
two spaces, the ambiguity of that
transition. You know, there a lot

19
00:01:45,680 --> 00:01:51,560
of superstitions about thresholds can be understood
that way, because the threshold is in

20
00:01:51,599 --> 00:01:56,879
some ways, you know, a
place that is neither inside nor outside,

21
00:01:57,040 --> 00:02:01,719
and it has to be indefinite by
it's very nature, because you imaginal line

22
00:02:01,719 --> 00:02:08,240
between inside and outside doesn't actually exist
physically, right, It's an imaginary boundary,

23
00:02:08,599 --> 00:02:15,159
and that boundary actually has no space
in physically, Like if you tried

24
00:02:15,159 --> 00:02:21,240
to actually trace the exact line of
where your house your house ends and begins,

25
00:02:21,639 --> 00:02:25,240
you wouldn't be able to find it
exactly because there's always more. You

26
00:02:25,280 --> 00:02:29,639
can always crush it more and more, until at some point it's actually just

27
00:02:29,639 --> 00:02:34,680
a virtual line that separates the inside
and the outside. And that's why usually

28
00:02:34,719 --> 00:02:38,879
there's all these superstitions about thresholds,
which is the idea that you shouldn't step

29
00:02:38,919 --> 00:02:42,919
on the thresholds. There are many
there are many traditions where stepping on the

30
00:02:42,960 --> 00:02:46,919
threshold of a door is bad luck, and so you should always step over

31
00:02:47,080 --> 00:02:52,599
the threshold in order to not step
into the ambiguity, you could say,

32
00:02:52,680 --> 00:02:59,280
get trapped in Zeno's paradox, you
know, where you can't actually define where

33
00:02:59,360 --> 00:03:01,599
something where the middle, you know, where something starts when something ends.

34
00:03:01,599 --> 00:03:07,240
There's this kind of indefinite quality about
the quality of inside and outside, which

35
00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:12,960
is related. And so this idea
of Janice as this character that has two

36
00:03:13,080 --> 00:03:16,599
sides, as being the threshold,
as being both inside and outside at the

37
00:03:16,639 --> 00:03:22,400
same time, you could say,
or neither, you know, representing both

38
00:03:22,439 --> 00:03:28,280
aspects of the transition. And so
sometimes Janice is represented this way, which

39
00:03:28,319 --> 00:03:32,000
is that you know, it's usually
the same head that is on either side,

40
00:03:32,080 --> 00:03:38,879
and then sometimes Jane's is represented with
difference between the different heads. And

41
00:03:38,960 --> 00:03:42,080
so there are different ways to do
it. Sometimes it's masculine, feminine.

42
00:03:42,199 --> 00:03:47,120
Sometimes it is an older man and
a younger man. Sometimes it is in

43
00:03:47,159 --> 00:03:51,919
this case, for example, that
you see here, you see that it

44
00:03:52,120 --> 00:03:59,159
is a man and some kind of
fantastical creature with horns with pointz ears like

45
00:03:59,199 --> 00:04:02,599
a fawn, and so some kind
of wild creature of the forest, and

46
00:04:02,680 --> 00:04:05,599
so all of these are helping you
to kind of understand that what it is.

47
00:04:05,680 --> 00:04:11,960
It's about a contrast so think about
this image here as being something like

48
00:04:12,120 --> 00:04:16,120
inside and outside, that is,
the man and the forest, the man

49
00:04:16,240 --> 00:04:20,639
and the monster, the inside and
the outside. In the same way you

50
00:04:20,680 --> 00:04:25,040
can see that you could if you
understand it in time, you could understand

51
00:04:25,079 --> 00:04:29,480
it as youth and age. It
really is about the problem of even like

52
00:04:29,560 --> 00:04:32,560
that, you could say that the
place where past and future meet is an

53
00:04:32,600 --> 00:04:38,079
ambiguous space because it's looking in both
directions at the same time. So you

54
00:04:38,120 --> 00:04:42,720
can understand this, this threshold or
this door as being something which is also

55
00:04:42,920 --> 00:04:46,680
always there, which is always something
that we kind of have access to in

56
00:04:46,759 --> 00:04:48,839
terms of for example, in terms
of time, but in terms of any

57
00:04:48,879 --> 00:04:55,480
identity that has a maginal line that
has a difference between the inside and outside,

58
00:04:55,480 --> 00:04:59,519
which is basically everything. But what's
mostly important to understand is how this

59
00:04:59,600 --> 00:05:02,680
is really to this time of the
year, right, And so this time

60
00:05:02,720 --> 00:05:08,680
of the year, which is the
time of around the winter solstice, the

61
00:05:08,800 --> 00:05:13,920
time which is the moment when the
days get the darkest and now the sunlight

62
00:05:14,000 --> 00:05:16,879
is starting to appear, there are
all these feasts that are kind of all

63
00:05:16,959 --> 00:05:20,959
cramped together that aren't exactly at the
same time. All these celebrations that are

64
00:05:21,000 --> 00:05:26,879
related to the transition between the old
and the new, the transition between the

65
00:05:27,000 --> 00:05:30,480
darkness and the light, the transition
between the old year and the New year.

66
00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:34,720
And so this is also part of
the symbolism of Christmas, which is

67
00:05:34,759 --> 00:05:40,000
why I bringing it up here.
Part of the symbolism of Christmas, because

68
00:05:40,439 --> 00:05:46,439
the symbolism of Christmas is that moment
where the old Covenant and the New Covenant.

69
00:05:46,639 --> 00:05:48,720
There's a transition between the old covenant
and the New Covenant. And so

70
00:05:48,839 --> 00:05:55,079
this transition that happens in Christmas is
found reflected in the very solstice itself,

71
00:05:55,120 --> 00:06:00,000
which is the solstice. Is this
moment of transition between when the day is

72
00:06:00,240 --> 00:06:02,079
getting shorter and when the day is
getting longer. Now, you could apply

73
00:06:02,160 --> 00:06:08,519
that again to the solstice if you
think about how you know when exactly is

74
00:06:08,560 --> 00:06:13,000
the moment when the day is getting
longer and the day is getting is getting

75
00:06:13,040 --> 00:06:16,040
shorter and the day is getting longer. If you try to pinpoint that moment,

76
00:06:16,399 --> 00:06:20,399
you're just going to kind of dig
into a virtual point or point that

77
00:06:20,480 --> 00:06:26,720
actually doesn't have quantifiable existence in time, but is this kind of this let's

78
00:06:26,720 --> 00:06:30,800
say, invisible line in between when
which is facing towards the old year which

79
00:06:30,879 --> 00:06:35,040
is dark now and when which is
facing to the new year, which is

80
00:06:35,399 --> 00:06:40,160
going to become light. And so
you can understand it as if you look

81
00:06:40,199 --> 00:06:44,759
at this image of the old man
and the New Man as the man of

82
00:06:44,879 --> 00:06:47,519
darkness right, which is the wild
man, and you could say the man

83
00:06:47,560 --> 00:06:53,000
of light which is the New Man, the inside man and the outside man.

84
00:06:53,079 --> 00:06:57,240
See, all these these images are
all related to each other, so

85
00:06:57,240 --> 00:07:00,279
it can help you kind of understand
what this symbol is about and how it's

86
00:07:00,279 --> 00:07:05,720
related to Christmas. I've often said
that the symbolism of Christmas is not straightforward.

87
00:07:06,040 --> 00:07:11,279
The symbolism of Christmas has in it
both the light and the dark.

88
00:07:11,319 --> 00:07:15,480
It has the revelation of the Messiah
and the slaughter of the innocence. It

89
00:07:15,600 --> 00:07:19,279
has, you know, the coming
of the King and the fleeing to Egypt.

90
00:07:19,560 --> 00:07:25,360
It has this duality to it which
is part of its symbolism. It

91
00:07:25,399 --> 00:07:30,120
is important to understand how it all
fits together in terms of this idea.

92
00:07:30,240 --> 00:07:33,120
Now, it's also related to another
symbolism which you know, I'm just gonna

93
00:07:33,240 --> 00:07:39,720
mention very quickly, and it was
the theme of my patron Only video this

94
00:07:39,959 --> 00:07:46,560
year this month in December, which
is that the mysterious symbolism of Saint Nicholas

95
00:07:46,600 --> 00:07:50,519
and Crampis. And so this is
of course the same type of symbolism which

96
00:07:50,759 --> 00:07:57,319
is related to Saint Nicholas and his
let's say, dark, strange, demonic,

97
00:07:58,560 --> 00:08:03,600
you know, contrasting accompaniments where on
the one hand you have the light

98
00:08:03,720 --> 00:08:07,399
and the dark, you have the
angelic the demonic. You also have the

99
00:08:07,480 --> 00:08:11,680
gift the punishment. You know,
you can understand it as life and death,

100
00:08:13,160 --> 00:08:16,800
right if you think about the inside
and the outside. Look at this

101
00:08:16,920 --> 00:08:24,000
image here and look how it's already
promising something like the contrast between the Bishop

102
00:08:24,839 --> 00:08:28,040
of Light, you know, the
bishop Saint Nicholas, and he is dark

103
00:08:28,759 --> 00:08:33,200
and kind of evil, counterpart that
he is a wild creature with horns,

104
00:08:33,240 --> 00:08:39,159
similar to the way in which the
Janus figure is often represented. And so

105
00:08:39,200 --> 00:08:43,559
it can help you understand what it
is that this duality, why this duality

106
00:08:43,639 --> 00:08:46,000
is related to this time of year, this time of transition, and so

107
00:08:46,039 --> 00:08:50,159
you can see that all of it
if you want to understand all of the

108
00:08:50,200 --> 00:08:54,000
symbols of this period and you look
at the symbolism, you'll see. So

109
00:08:54,720 --> 00:08:58,480
there are two types of symbolism January. First, the beginning of January in

110
00:08:58,559 --> 00:09:05,360
the western calendar, especially in the
northern Europe, not earlier, but like

111
00:09:05,399 --> 00:09:09,120
in France and on the continent of
Europe, was circumcision day, you know,

112
00:09:09,200 --> 00:09:15,120
and I think it's circumcision also in
I mean it's circumcision in the entire

113
00:09:15,200 --> 00:09:20,000
church, but circumcision day on January
first for Europeans. In the Middle Ages,

114
00:09:20,039 --> 00:09:22,720
it was also the Feast of Fools. It was also a carnival.

115
00:09:24,039 --> 00:09:28,960
It was a moment of let's say, celebration of the flesh and cutting off

116
00:09:30,120 --> 00:09:33,360
of the flesh. So you kind
of have a carnival where there's this weird

117
00:09:33,399 --> 00:09:39,440
celebration upside down and all of this
stuff, and then there's the removal of

118
00:09:39,840 --> 00:09:43,759
the remainder of that old world and
moving into the new world. So you

119
00:09:43,799 --> 00:09:46,200
can understand it again if you look
at the figure of Janis, you can

120
00:09:46,240 --> 00:09:52,159
see that symbolism there in the first
of January, which is on the one

121
00:09:52,159 --> 00:09:56,399
hand, you have the strange you
could say foreskin, you know, and

122
00:09:56,480 --> 00:09:58,639
then you also have so you have
this celebration of that which is related to

123
00:09:58,720 --> 00:10:03,960
carn which related to monsters, which
is related to these strange, ambiguous figures

124
00:10:03,960 --> 00:10:07,399
that live outside that live in the
forest that dance and play the flute,

125
00:10:07,440 --> 00:10:11,559
and they are also you know,
allude and all of this kind of symbolism

126
00:10:11,799 --> 00:10:18,080
related to these outside figures. And
then you have the new man or the

127
00:10:18,120 --> 00:10:22,159
circumcised man, the one that is
on the inside and is moving towards light,

128
00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:26,720
towards the future, towards rectification,
all these types of words that can

129
00:10:26,759 --> 00:10:31,080
help you understand what it is that's
going on. And so when you look

130
00:10:31,120 --> 00:10:35,679
at the symbolism, you'll see why
it is always the contrast between dark and

131
00:10:35,759 --> 00:10:41,000
light and all the feasts, and
this relates to the symbolism of the transition

132
00:10:41,399 --> 00:10:46,639
that happens at the solstice, but
that also happens at Christmas. So hope

133
00:10:46,639 --> 00:10:50,720
you enjoy this and that you will
have that you had a happy New Year,

134
00:10:52,720 --> 00:10:56,159
and that this will help you understand
how this symbolsom comes together. So

135
00:10:56,200 --> 00:10:58,200
thanks everybody, and I'll talk to
you very soon. Bye bye. If

136
00:10:58,240 --> 00:11:03,240
you enjoy these videos and podcasts,
please go to the symbolic World dot com

137
00:11:03,279 --> 00:11:07,480
website and see how you can support
what we're doing. There are multiple subscriber

138
00:11:07,519 --> 00:11:11,200
tiers with perks. There are apparel
and books to purchase, so go to

139
00:11:11,200 --> 00:11:13,080
the Symbolic World dot com and thank
you for your support