Author: Simone Salandra
Freelance web writer, scholar of esotericism, symbolism and ancient history.
The symbolism of the two solstices, from two-faced Janus to the two Johns
The ancient solstitial cult, centered on the figure of two-faced Janus, was "Christianized" around 850 and included in the liturgy with the names of the two Johns: St. John the Evangelist on December 27, at the winter solstice and St. John the Baptist on June 24, at the summer solstice. On the other hand, the initiatory doctrine had recognized in the symbolism attributed to the Saints a coincidence of images with the pagan divinity, which went beyond the merely occasional datum.
โThe Knight, Death and the Devilโ: Dรผrer's late Gothic symbolism
The famous engraving by Albrecht Dรผrer represents the epiphany of the man Heideggerianly thrown into the world, whose destiny is, humanistically, to be "faber fortunae suae", regardless of any obstacle, including the apparently impassable one of evil, that is, the devil, and of time, or of decay and death.