The Janic Tradition
© Janeson Keeley
The Goddess Jana is most revered in the Janarra Tradition of Italy - one of the Triad Traditions derived from La Vecchia Religione, a fourteenth-century revival of the Old Religion in Italy. In the Triad Traditions, the Tanarra focus on the Stellar Mysteries, the Fanarra focus on the Earth Mysteries, and the Janarra focus on the Lunar Mysteries.[i] Outside of Italian Witchcraft, Jana is most often known as a Roman Moon Goddess, the wife of Janus.[ii]
According to Phoenix McFarland in The Complete Book of Magical Names, Jana is the "guardian of doors and the turn of the year." "Jana" is also considered to be "a good name for initiation (opening of doors), movement, and growth; for dealing with aging and death."[iii] Jana is also considered to be the Goddess of "woodland creatures."[iv]
The God Janus, husband of Jana, is known as the custodian of the universe, the God who watches over doors and gateways, and the two-headed God of beginnings - with one head facing the past year and one facing the next. Sacred to him are "the first hour of the day, first day of the month, and first month of the year (which bears his name)."[v] The Roman Festival of Jana and Janus is celebrated on January 9th. In 2001, this corresponds with the Full Wolf Moon Esbat.
In the Pythagorean Tarot[vi], the XXI. Mundus - Kosmos - Cosmos (21. The World) card represents the union of Jana and Janus into an androgynous being who represents the epitome of spiritual development. Ops states that "by the laws of phonetic variation, Diana, Jana, and Iana are all equivalent," that "Jana = Diana Triformis, as lunar goddess, is equivalent to Hecate Triformis," and:
"We have seen that Diana Trivia, who looks three ways, is the female counterpart of Janus [who looks two ways], and that Hecate Triformis [equivalent to Jana, as above] shows us the third face without which we cannot know our true destiny.[vii]
The union of Jana and Janus, therefore, provides the Janic practitioner with a connection to the transformative power of Spirit. In the Janic Tradition, Spirit is the Source of All, and within every being there there is a spark of Spirit - the soul or "Divine Consciousness[viii] which drives each being to pursue those experiences and conditions in life that are for its Highest Good and Highest Growth.
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