October 13th: Fontinalia

On October 13th the ancient festivity of Fontinalia is celebrated. This festivity is dedicated to Fons/Fontus (son of Janus) and it is linked to springs and wells where invisible waters become visible. Springs, fountains and wells are decorated with wreaths and flowers are put in the rivers.

It is important to note the use of flowers to celebrate the rituals of Fontinalia: the flower is the symbol of transient beauty and impermanence of the existence.


This festivity is however rather complex, with more profound meanings than one can expect. This festivity sacralizes a relevant aspect of water as  fons et origo, or primordial element which embraces all the potential manifestations of the existence. The fact to be also "origo" explains the relation with Janus (The Beginning).

The most relevant aspect of Fontinalia (invisible/visible waters) is thus the sacralization of an element which precedes any form and any creation. This cycle "invisible/visible" corresponds to the relation immersion/emersion: emersion is the cosmogonical act of the manifestation while immersion is a dissolution. Thus water (a regeneration element) evidences the cycle life/death.

Moreover, water, preceding creation, has its own "aquatic" symbology (i.e. the shell). Water is linked to the Female Polarity, the Moon, the Matter, the Undifferentiated Life.

Water (and its primordial features) connotes any "humid" and indefferentiated principle: it's important to note the symbology of the "Flowing Waters" and the "Iced Waters", the symbology of the "Flow" and the "Descending Principle". The cycle and the "Becoming" described by the water are linked to the complex symbolgy of Janus. 

 

If Water is a symbol of purification, Spring Water has this feature in an even more relevant way: not only "purification" but also "salvation". This is the reason why, among others, one of the most important symbol of Janus (connected as mentioned above to Water) is a boat.

 

"Without the Divine Water, nothing exists" (Zosimus)

 

Water and Spring symbolizes also the "Travel", the "Journey" according two different but integrated perspectives: the travel following the water flowing form the spring to the Sea or proceeding against the tide from the Sea to the Spring. This case represents the imagine of the travel going back to the origins and the initiatory palingenesis. Following the tide symbolizes the imagine of the destination to achieve.