Ianus

The word Ianus in Latin means “door” . In ancient times Ianus was a “God” associated with the Sun and traditionally better identified as the protector of every “beginning” and every “transition”.

Not surprisingly the first month of our calendar year is called Janu(ary) or Ianu(ariu)s in Latin.
In addition to being depicted with two faces – each looking into the other’s opposite direction – Ianus was also shown holding two keys.
One key was made of gold , the other was made of silver and they respectively symbolised the “great” and the “small” mysteries. The Catholic world adopted the symbol of the two keys – we can see them on the flag of the Vatican – and gave them the meaning of the union between the spiritual power (gold) and the temporal one (silver) both held by the Pontiff.

Another interpretation of the two keys symbolism is that they represent the two doors of the “ Solstice” : Janua Coeli (the gate leading to Heaven) and Janua Inferni (the gate leading to Hell), or more possibly that they are a reference to the “Eleusini rites”. These very ancient ceremonies were celebrated every year in the sanctuary of the city of Eleusi in Greece and later even in Rome.
The rite was divided into two parts ( “small mysteries” and “great mysteries” ! ) and intended to represent the perennial alternating of the repose and the awakening of the life in the country.
What are the “small mysteries” ? They are those that open the doors to the process of evolution of our human side , the ones that prepare us to understand and then accept the mystic death and resurrection. The initiation path then leads us to the “great mysteries” which make man distinguish and understand good from evil, the forbidden fruit of Heaven.
The “great mysteries” concern the supernatural . They represent the process of taking consciousness of the highest state that man can attain : the spiritual state. And it connects us with the divine, with God.
The “great mysteries” also represent what is beyond nature : a metaphysical and pure knowledge which is immutable and therefore God’s own.
If we now translate all this into a massonic plane , we note that the three Craft degrees represent the small mysteries through which we learn to understand our inner-self and the human nature in general.
The Royal Arch , instead, represent the “great mysteries” through which the initiate rediscovers the lost “word” and gets to know God.

By Frazof