The Face of Janus: the doors of birth

Where this face sits on the wheel

Janus is the last face of the Quarter of Initiation. After him begins the Quarter of Civilization, the world of form. Four gates correspond to him:

• Gate 42 — Growth
• Gate 3 — Ordering
• Gate 27 — Caring
• Gate 24 — Rationalization

Gate 24 closes the quarter — it is a gate of the Cross of the Four Ways.

The image

Janus came from the Etruscans, one of the most mysterious peoples of ancient Europe. He is known as the god of doors, entrances and exits, the god of beginnings, of birth and of children. On the oldest images he has two faces, and in that pre-traditional image you can see a mother and child. Later both faces were given beards, and the image became purely male.

But the essence stayed: Janus is about the miracle of reproduction. However you look at it, human life coming out of a human body is something utterly extraordinary.

Four gates

• 42 — growth and completion: bringing a cycle to its end, maturing.
• 3 — ordering. Here lies the decision of how the contributions of mother and father are put in order and what is passed on. This gate is associated with midwives.
• 27 — caring: the mother who feeds and looks after.
• 24 — return: what is sorted through and put in order again and again.

All of it comes back to one image — mother and child, the birth of new life.

How it shows in a chart

If your conscious Sun or Earth is in one of these gates, the themes of beginnings, caring and completing cycles are tangible in your life. It may be children and family, or it may be any kind of "birth": projects, ideas, new stages that you bring to maturity.

The same applies, more quietly, to any other Personality activations in these gates. But a single face never describes a whole person: it matters whether these gates are defined, which center they sit in, and what is in the Design. A gate in an open center, for example, gives an unstable theme that doesn't operate all the time.

And one more thing. Wherever we have Personality activations is where the mind most easily hands its power to outside forces — and the Faces of the Gods set the frame for exactly that false authority. Knowing about the faces doesn't free you by itself. What frees you is living by your own strategy and authority: then you can see this force without handing it the wheel.

The crosses of this face

• Sun in gate 42: Right Angle Cross of Maya, Juxtaposition Cross of Completion, Left Angle Cross of Limitation
• Sun in gate 3: Right Angle Cross of Laws, Juxtaposition Cross of Mutation, Left Angle Cross of Wishes
• Sun in gate 27: Right Angle Cross of the Unexpected, Juxtaposition Cross of Caring, Left Angle Cross of Alignment
• Sun in gate 24: Right Angle Cross of the Four Ways, Juxtaposition Cross of Rationalization, Left Angle Cross of Incarnation

Janus looks both back and forward. He guards the door through which new life enters the world.