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[log in to unmask]" type="cite"> Aloha,
On 5/10/2012 8:08 PM, Morgan Leigh wrote:[log in to unmask]" type="cite">Frankly, I appreciate matters like the hemisphereNo, they didn't change them at all. But as Ceremonial magicians I wouldn't have expected them to. However this does get interesting as one of the examples they give when explaining the directions is the winds. Obviously this explanation is not cogent for the southern Hemisphere. Mind you they also used the stella explanation, which is also not relevant in the south, esp there is no southern pole star. There is a big empty hole where due south is, which is an interesting contrast from the North.
problem in part because they poke at the relationship
between cultures as local and cultures as global. Or,
maybe, cultures going global.
Here, I think that it says something about how we
(magic workers) want to orient ourselves within a
planetary frame of reference. How much weight shall
we allow for planetary differences, and how much for
doctrinal and received sameness everywhere?
Both, either, appear to work to effect.
In my earlier post, I mentioned Coriolis rotation. I was
thinking along the lines described here:
<<High pressure systems rotate in a direction such that the Coriolis force will be directed radially inwards, and nearly balanced by the outwardly radial pressure gradient. This direction is clockwise in the northern hemisphere and counter-clockwise in the southern hemisphere. Low pressure systems rotate in the opposite direction, so that the Coriolis force is directed radially outward and nearly balances an inwardly radial pressure gradient. In each case a slight imbalance between the Coriolis force and the pressure gradient accounts for the radially inward acceleration of the system's circular motion.>>
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_effect#Meteorology
So that the direction of high-pressure rotation would guide
the direction of circumambulation in each hemisphere.
As for winds, I'm presuming that they had in their minds
European wind lore, not, say, Maori wind and direction lore.
Which may, via its localism, disarranged the Euro-centric
magical template of ritual orientation and processes.
Let me add, honestly, that I've found it difficult to disengage
my own awareness from the Euro-centric compass rose. To
attend to direction according to a wind rather than a directional
NSEW grid superimposed on the land across which the wind blows.
(I'm doing my best to describe the sort of non-compass
navigation said to guide indigenous Polynesian sailors, as
best as I have understood it.)
Direction founded on wind might direct a different circumambulation...
Karapu, Paeroa, Tonga ma uru, Ura ma raki...or some such...
<<Maori compass, showing specific terms and also wind names,
as given by Mohi Turei of the Ngati-Porou tribe>>
http://www.nzetc.org/tm/scholarly/Bes02Maor-fig-Bes02Maor211a.html
Musing Finding & Following Our Magical Ways! Rose,
Pitch