> One question that comes to mind--Was the willingness to switch
> correspondences to match up with the landscape at all related to
> a respondent's experience in Craft? Or did you find that some were
> relying on source material of a Trad no matter how much time they'd
> spent in Craft?
There was a general trend that the longer one had been practicing the
more likely one was to have a cogent rationale for one's practice, and
this tended to equate with sticking to one method. However there was one
interesting response by a long time practitioner who had moved from the
NH to the SH and who tried to do the circle clockwise but found it felt
wrong and "didn't work" and so they changed to anticlockwise.
Regards,
Morgan Leigh
PhD Candidate
School of Sociology and Social Work
University of Tasmania
On 17/05/2012 3:06 AM, Pitch wrote:
> Aloha,
>
> On 5/15/2012 12:54 AM, Morgan Leigh wrote:
>
>>I still don't think we have got to the why of this question. Why should
> we proceed in
>>the order of the zodiac, the seasons, the Coriolis force or the winds?
> Why should we >follow, or not, the direction of the sun?
>
> I suspect that the choice of deosil/sunwise came fairly early on
> in the formulation of modern Craft, taken up from some Scottish
> folklore or Druid source. Sunwise movement appears to have
> links with prosperity and good outcomes.
>
> Plus, standing on the ground, we humans have pretty much two
> directions to choose from. Why not choose the direction that
> originates with regional lore and suits the conditions of the
> hemisphere. (I'm imagining here that, had Craft protocol developed
> in the Southern hemisphere, Northerners would be wondering about
> Why widdershins?)
>
>>To answer this I think we need to consider what it is we are doing when
> erecting a
>>circle. Yes, we are creating a sacred space, but what are the referent/s?
>
>>Some thoughts on this. If one was working a nature based rite, saw
> Wiccan, then I can
>>see why one would want to follow the sun, and why the seasons would be
> important.
>>In such traditions one is describing sacred space as a mirror of the
> physical shape of
>>the universe.
>
> In the way of an aside about practice that follows Trad or group
> custom vs. personal ones. Group work has made me comfortable
> with casting circles of sacred space. All in all, I find the procedures
> excellent for generating a sense of stability and common focus.
>
> But (mulling such things over) I actually do not, for myself, by myself,
> cast circles much in order to enjoy sacred space. I just create it more
> or less in a transforming moment. This tracks back to being instructed
> by my first teacher--who emphasized individual work--that sacred
> or safe magical space was to be created completely in an instant.
> (So that there would, in exploratory visualization, not be a period of
> un-safe personal vulnerability.)
>
>>I can also see why one might want to have Fire in the North (for the
> Southern >Hemisphere), but what would be the rationale for placing the
> other elements on the >points of the compass? Some Wiccans who
> contributed to my research said they would >always place Fire where the
> Sun was, and moreover that they would alter their directional >elemental
> attributions depending on the physical location. e.g. if the sea was to
> their >East they would place Water there. If a landmass was to their
> West they would place >Earth there. Some said they would never alter the
> directional attributions from those set >down in the source material of
> their tradition, even if it meant that Fire was in the South >in the
> Southern Hemisphere. These people were those who also said they didn't
> know >why the attributions were as they were.
>
> My experience has been that it is quite difficult to alter the anticipated
> conventional directional/elemental correspondences of Craft groups,
> at least when participants are of mixed backgrounds or groups grow
> large. Folks tend to fall back on the default correspondences found in
> textual resources with which most are familiar.
>
> Which suggests to me that Craft ritual procedures do not always aim
> to mirror the physical landscape and surroundings. Sometimes, they
> aim to foster a common frame of mind via the shared use of symbols.
> Which element goes with which direction in the landscape may not be
> as telling as that participants agree on some element be associated
> with some direction as they work.
>
> One question that comes to mind--Was the willingness to switch
> correspondences to match up with the landscape at all related to
> a respondent's experience in Craft? Or did you find that some were
> relying on source material of a Trad no matter how much time they'd
> spent in Craft?
>
> For myself, the more years I've practiced, the more more willing and
> able I've grown to depart from source authorities just because they
> happen to be source authorities. My reply when new in Craft would
> have been different than it is these days, and would have relied on
> what I was told or taught or lacked confidence to question received
> conventions.
>
> Musing How We Go Around & Around! Rose,
>
> Pitch
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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