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Hi folks, Pitch wrote: "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." This is essentially correct. In European folklore, deosil movement has positive associations, and widdershins negative ones. To give a personal example, my grandmother's cook taught me to always stir deosil to beat eggs, whip cream and perform other kitchen tasks. She said that stirring widdershins would cause the mixture to "break." There's no scientific truth to this (I tried it out!), but the practice is customary. Similarly, traditional European circle dancing always moves deosil; some say only the dead dance widdershins. Thus, widdershins movement is popularly understood as a symbolic inversion of deosil movement -- something that undoes good outcomes, or that is performed by beings in a counter-world. It makes sense that this general tendency was incorporated into Craft fairly early on, since it was part of the habitus of its creators. It doesn't mean, however, that we are bound by that traditon forever. BB, Sabina Sabina Magliocco Professor Department of Anthropology California State University - Northridge [log in to unmask] ________________________________________ From: Society for The Academic Study of Magic [[log in to unmask]] On Behalf Of Pitch [[log in to unmask]] Sent: Wednesday, May 16, 2012 10:06 AM To: [log in to unmask] Subject: Re: [ACADEMIC-STUDY-MAGIC] Is the direction of circumambulation affected by hemisphere? 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