The Many Names of the Winter deities
Janus is known as the god with two faces and has been depicted in ancient roman coinage with one face looking forward toward the future while the other looks backward reviewing the past. It is this striking imagery that makes the month of January sacred to this deity of past present and future. He is popularly represented seated, with two profiled faces, one youthful (to signify beginnings), and the other more matured (indicating endings). In his left hand he holds a key, to indicate that he opens all things in the beginning, and closes them at the end, and in his right hand he carries a sceptre with which he controls all new undertakings.
The Roman twin goddess aspects of Antevorta (goddess of the past) and Postvorta (goddess of the future) also look simultaneously backward and forward as a symbolic depiction of the past joined with the future. These goddesses have been called sisters of Carmenta, (Latin carmen = "prophesy", "incantation") the goddess of prophecy and childbirth, but are also sometimes called aspects of Carmenta herself, or even daughters or assistants of Carmenta. The names Anteverta and Postverta themselves are thought to have derived from either The Latin root words for "before" and "after", or through a syncretization of Porrima, (Antevorta/Postvorta), as the name of two ancient goddesses of prophecy, sisters and assistants of Carmenta or Carmentis , worshipped and at times invoked by women. Porrima was also known as Prorsa as well as Carmenta and was regarded as a divinity of procreation. Thus, the derivation of the names by which she was invoked, Prorsa (head first) and Postversa (feet first), is from the two positions in which a child can be born.
Whew, confusing isn't it? Well, it may be a little easier if you think of aspects of a personality rather than a whole different being. The deities charged with beginnings and endings, births, and the successful culmination of the birthing process may show different faces to all who invoke them, and in so doing may get to be known by different names. Just as our own parents may have been showing us a different aspect of themselves when they addressed us by our full given name (including middle name) than the aspect we saw when they addressed us by a nickname, or called us "honey" or "dumpling". They were not different people, we were just seeing different aspects of their demeanor.
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The Need S/he Fulfills
Clearly, the needs fulfilled by all of these beginning/ending deities are to be found at the first step of any new enterprise. The more important the new enterprise, the greater the need for the beneficent intervention of these deities. It is clearly a common theme to want to get started on the "right foot" and in order to do so one must first review the events of the past that have lead so inexorably to the present juncture. The rememberance of past successes (and more importantly, past failures) can often offer a blueprint to follow (or not, as the case may be) when launching a new venture, and so people are inclined to request of Janus, Carmenta, Postverta, and Anteverta the clearest vision of this "blueprint" in prophecy so that they may find their way to the most desirable aspects of the future armed with the certainty provided by lessons learned in the past.
These deities also answer the need to "close the books" on the past as well. The key of Janus can be used to lock away past mistakes as well as to unlock the doorway to the future and it was a wise soul who did not venture into the uncertainties of the future without first asking Janus to lock the undesirable effects of past missteps away.
Carmenta in the twin aspects of Anteverta/Postverta serves much the same purpose as a goddess of prophecy and childbirth, so too, Postverta when summoned as Prorsa Postverta, can be called upon by women in labor.
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Their Legends and Myths
Janus was said to be the son of Apollo, although he has no Greek equivalent and is strictly a Roman deity. His consort is Jana. He is the father of Tiberinus by Camasena, of Fontus by Juturna, and of Canens by Venilia. Janus is depicted either as two-faced (Bifrons) or, less popularly, four-faced (Quadrifons). Janus has been said to have been originally an ancient king who came from Greece to Latium, instituting the worship of the gods and the building of temples to them, and was himself later elevated to godhood. Almost as powerful as Jupiter himself, Janus is the orchestrator of all things, and any enterprises, even those begun by Jupiter himself, are seen to be under the control of Janus.
Anteverta/Postverta as aspects of Carmenta who presides over human birth is often invoked and honored by mothers. Some say she was the wife of Evander, the Arcadian, and a prophetess who delivers her oracles in verse, and from carmen, a word for verse, was called Carmenta, but her proper name is Nicostrata. Still others derive Carmenta from carens mente, or insane, in a reference to her prophetic frenzies.
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Correspondences and Associations
Janus, as the Roman god of passage, of doorways (januae), archways (jani), and of beginnings and endings is also seen as a god of the threshold between the old year and the new, it is for this latter reason he lends his name to the month of January. His jurisdiction includes gates, harbors, travel, daybreak... all things which have the sense of beginning. The beginning of the day, month, season and year are all sacred to him. Janus is properly regarded as the origin of all things, the introducer of the system of the years, the changing of the seasons, the beginning of civilisation through agriculture, industry, art and religion. The doors of his temple in Rome are to be kept locked in peacetime and thrown open in wartime.
Antevorta/Postvorta, are celebrated January 11th to January 15th. This celebration, known as the Carmentalia honors the Goddess Carmenta. She may be otherwise known as Metis, the Titaness of Wisdom and in this wisdom is credited with the invention of the Greek alphabet, thus anything written with an alphabet will be of her influence.
She lives behind the North Wind and on January 11th, pregnant women (and those who want to be pregnant) make offerings to her of rice for easy deliveries, as she can aid women in childbirth. The festivities begin by baking cream-filled pastries shaped like male and female genitalia (not so very different from the eclairs we have today) or triangular shaped pastries with berry filling. These are to be eaten in honor of the birth goddess.
On the second day, (January 15th) Carmenta is remembered in her aspect of Mania, the mother of ghosts. In order to appease Mania, women make straw effigies of little people and hang them above their doorsteps as a substitute for the living bodies of those within. Mania accepts these, and leaves the dwellers of the house safe.
The Carmentalia features processions of mothers decorated with flowers, celebrating their achievement as mothers. This is a time for mothers to be celebrated and revered.
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Magical Attributes
The magical attributions of Janus are very much aligned with doorways as he opens and closes all things. His festival is the Agonium, held on January 9 and all rituals of beginnings, but most importantly those beginnings which coincide with the date of his sacred day will benefit from an invocation to him.
In an anonymous Strega poem Carmenta is invoked with the following;
Carmenta, Carmenta!
Thou who art so fair,
Thou who truly lovest
Children, everywhere!
As I come to thee,
So have many others,
Knelt before thy shrine
Seeking to be mothers.
Thou didst grant their wishes,
Thou as good as fair,
Listen unto me,
Grant my humble prayer!
Once my husband loved me,
Now he loves no more
Because I bear no children
All his love is o'er,
Make me once a mother,
He will love me as before!
This poem makes clear the connection between Carmenta in the aspect of Antevorta/Postvorta and any ritual or meditation concerning childbirth and fertility. It would be most appropriate to incorporate this rhyme into a fertility or childbirth spell, and if whispered under a new moon during the days dedicated to the Carmentalia... so much the better. In fact, we just happen to have the Italian version of this poem available should you feel that it would offer greater authenticity to your invocations;
Carmenta, Carmenta!
Che tanta bella sei
E inamorata sei
Tanto dei fanciulli!
Tante spose sono venute
A te a raccomandare
Che dei figli tu gli facesse fare,
E tu buona quanto e,
Bella i suoi voti tu ai,
Ascoltati ti prego pure
I miei di volere ascoltare
Perche sono molto infelice,
Ii mio marito non mi ama piú
Che tanto m'amava perche figli crear
Non so, ma date, o bella Carmenta,
Mi vengo a raccomandare
Che un figlio tu mi possa far fare,
E la pace con mio marito possa ritormare!
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