January: The Month Between Worlds
Does January sometimes feel like a space in between to you? Between the holidays and big plans, between what has been and what is about to begin? We rush into “new year, new goals,” yet January may not be the month for launching forward, but the month for pausing. Time is not something nature announces with a starting signal. The calendar says “January 1.” Nature says “keep resting, keep sleeping.” Our bodies are often still in winter mode while our minds already want to speed ahead. The two faced god Janus captures this tension. Past and future face us at the same time. There is no priority given to what comes next, only the present moment in which we are asked to remain in the in between.The name January comes directly from Janus, the Roman guardian of thresholds. One face looks back, the other looks ahead.This means that in January, the old and the new coexist. There is no clear direction and no demand to move forward yet. It is the moment before decision, when time feels held rather than driven. At Janus’ side stands Saturn, the god of finitude and limits. He tests visions, restricts possibilities, and makes the boundaries of what is possible visible, physically, energetically, through willpower, and in our capacities. Not everything we plan can be realized immediately. Sometimes it matters more to first recognize where reality sets its limits. The old names of this month tell the same story. Hartung, Ice Month, and Wolf Month all point to resistance. Frozen ground where effort brings no result. Movement that is possible but risky. A fragile sense of order and the closeness of uncertainty. January therefore invites us to recognize melancholy as a tool. Not as sadness, but as a state of gathering and concentration. The logic of purpose and constant performance is paused. In this school of time, we learn to endure stillness.When plans have not yet taken hold, decisions are not yet mature, and time cannot be “used,” January invites us to remain at the threshold, to notice what is still active, and to allow what is coming to take shape in its own time.