Janus is With Us

Restoration Anglican Church

We have just celebrated the birth of our salvation, his entering our hearts with the Holy Spirit, and the imminent return that we long for. Through the symbolic death of the year with its shortest day, and now the long, long cold. It’s cold, purifies, and cleanses, an extremity in temperature, but instead of cleansing by fire, it puts some of the cancerous imperfections into a slumber that they never awakes from. Now is the season of Janus.

Janus the primordial deity of transitions, beginnings, gates, time, duality, and doorways, the archetype of birth death, light, dark, male and female. One face gazing reflectively forever in the past, a melancholic meditation on long-ago mistakes, a regret of things not said, missed opportunities, potential lovers not kissed, an “I love you” not uttered before a sudden death. Janus the eternal and reigning king of hindsight, a keen eye on the things that should have been done, should have been said, and regret. However our month’s archetype is not simply a melancholic cliché; forever sad and beautiful, his other face stares forever into the future.

 He sees all, and evermore into what awaits; not just this future but other realities, dimensions and universes, one small choice having a cascading effect on infinite probabilities; thoughts, feelings, and actions spiraling out in endless cycles. Dominoes stacked and falling in infinite arraignments, more tiles and possibilities than there are connections in ones brain. The archetype that sees the architecture.

As one sits next to his hearth, fortifying himself with a peaty scotch, or a hearty stew during the long, long cold with its short days and purifying snow; may he not fall compulsively into depressive cycles of ruminations, but also planning for his future. 

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While the cold will make one heave a great sigh of relief to find oneself in the dark vault with the pale dead. The cold seeming to soothe all care, melt away every pain, comfort every sorrow, but alas The bright days of spring with the sun in the south at meridian which is the beauty and glory of the day await his plowshare.

January is the perfect time for reflection, the perfect time for planning, and the perfect time for resolutions. Make peace with those you have wronged, or those who have wronged you. Make peace with yourself. And love, love with all that you have,  for one day the archetype of doorways will compel you to enter and you don’t want to be an “I love you” not uttered before a sudden death.

The Awaiting

With the season of death and morning past us, which has opened our hearts for immense gratitude that our loved-ones and we ourselves haven’t answered the ceaseless calling of Santa Muerte, Baron Samedi, or better known as Death.

Our great Harvest, our American Eucharist has been celebrated though the national holiday of Thanksgiving. A time to set aside the mundane, profane, and appreciate kith and kindred, all the blessings God has bestowed upon us.

Now Advent is upon us, it’s not just Christmas, not just a time for materialism, forced family commingling with drunken pilgrimages to midnight mass, or all the other trappings that come with the secularization of observing the birth of our Redeemer. It’s a time for reflection, anticipation, and celebrating the three comings of Christ. A celebration and observance of his first coming over 2000 years ago, also the deeply personal, easily overlooked, and mysterious manner in which he makes his way into our hearts daily; the source of our salvation in the here and now. Just as importantly it is also his coming at the end of days when all of this pain is washed away, no more broken people breaking others, no more hurt people hurting others, a return to the way it was meant to be. You know that hole you feel in you right now? One day that void will be satiated.

Advent is a time for reflection and preparation, there is a nervousness in the air, a little anxiety that moves though like static electricity. We look inward and hope our souls are prepared. The Invincible Sun will rise again, the cancer will be burned away, and we will reunite with our creator. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again. 

Keep Your Knife Sharp

   When I reflect upon my own impending age; I sometimes fret and angst about not pairing up and starting a family. How long does one have while they are in their prime? 

   36, not too old, I just turned it and ran 10 miles yesterday, sure it hurts more, but that’s the price of being a beast.

   Jared Leto is 46, has been working since the early 90s and is still breaking hearts

   So is Travis Fimmel who can be recognized from the show Vikings

   And The Rock is 49.

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   There are two ways to live your life, are you like fruit? Where you quickly become ripe firm and luscious? All the things that society pines for in the movies, only to quickly be harvested, pass your genetic material on and then live vicariously through your offspring, while you watch from the sidelines and gain 40lbs.

   One of the greatest sins of our age is that we do not encourage physical fitness after post secondary education.

   Then we pacify ourselves with television, smart phones and medications because we know something is lacking, but we can’t quite put our finger on it.

   Is this the path you chose?

   Or do you take your fruit; the fruit of your labor, of your body, your mind, and refine it. Are you fresh grapes in the field awaiting the beasts to consume you, or are you a well aged wine? Are your best years behind you, or ahead of you? Are you in a hurry to spill the fruit of your loins like the profane, or are you preserving them for a mate of quality, for someone deserving of all that is you?  Are you grain in the field, or a twenty year old single malt, the choice is yours.

   Hone your body like the Smith forges a blade, hours and hours of refining, amalgamating, tempering, hours on the stone, anything of quality takes time, love, and pain.

    Everyday you should be stronger than the man you were yesterday, you should be smarter than the man you were yesterday and you need to be a little more spiritual than you were yesterday.

   Everyday, sweat, cry, cum, use all your glands; Everyday read, learn, teach, stretch you mind and imagination; everyday pray, meditate, reflect, become more spiritually and emotionally resilient  than the man you were yesterday.

   Don’t be in such a hurry to pair up, breed, live a short while through your children, and then die. There is so much more than that, so much adventure. Don’t just live though your children, sweep your family up in the adventure, a quest isn’t one man’s journey, it is for your wife, it is for your children, lead them, it is the natural order and what they yearn for.

   If you do not have a family yet save yourself for someone worthy, have strong beautiful children when you are stable; both financially, and emotionally. Keep your knife sharp, and seek danger from a position of power.  
   Stop looking for the perfect person and daily strive to be the perfect person,  then yours will find you when the time is right. 
And most importantly love, love with all that is in you, love until there is nothing left, love is all that we have.

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The Autumn of our Culture

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We just finished my favorite holiday All Hallows Eve, Samhain, or Halloween if you prefer. Yesterday we remembered all the saints; may we join them in Christ's eternal glory. Today we pray for, remember, and celebrate all the souls; all those that have gone before us, Los Dia de los Muertos, or the Day of the Dead.

Memento Mori

One would think that our seasonal dying is drawing to a close, but far from it. It is time to put your skeletons back in your closet, put your red poppies on, and prepare for Remembrance Day celebrations, or in America, Veterans Day. Nine days to revere our service members and allies who gave so much for our way of life.

How to Explain Remembrance Day to Kids

It is through the reflection of where we have been and what we have lost, that makes a way for our gratitude.
After an allegorical dying and with grateful hearts we can come together and celebrate the bountiful season of life, and beauty that was summer in a Great Thanksgiving; our country's Eucharist. 

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This opens our hearts and prepares us to receive the Redeemer and celebrate the birth of our salvation through Christ's Mass.
Happy holidays everyone.