KATHERINE NEVILLE’S
June to January Newsletter
June 21, 2022
Solstice Gates of the Year
June is named for the goddess Juno, benefactor of marriage and families (perhaps why so many weddings are held in June.) While January is named for the god Janus–the familiar two-faced image, whose name in early Italian meant ‘door’ or ‘gate’–from a Sanskrit word iati: “to go, to travel.” Although Summer solstice is in June (the longest day of the year, when the sun ‘stops’ and heads south for the winter) and Winter solstice, the shortest day, is in December, the festival of the return of the sun was celebrated throughout January, overseen by Janus, the god who looks at the past and heralds the future, simultaneously.
Traveling Through the Door
Beginning now, in June, my two principal Millennial assistants Ludovico and Helene, will each be traveling the country and the world, in jungles and forests–each relatively incommunicado (in this age of instant information.) While I myself will be heading into the dark phase of the year in literary isolation, as my new book emerges!
Look for periodic updates from our three routes into the unknown.
Wish us luck!
To see more about Solstice, see my Newsletters of the past…
