Withershins

From Traditional Witchcraft Wiki Project

Withershins, or widdershins, is a word denoting an anti-clockwise movement. It is cognate to the Germanic widersinnig, which is a composite word meaning "against" and "sense". In Scottish Gaelic this is called tuathal, which literally means a northerly movement (tuath meaning "north"); the opposite of which is deasil. Some postulate that this movement is concerned with a reversal of the norm.

Just as it was considered lucky and propitious to move with the sun, it was equally considered baleful to move against the sun, thus do we encounter the many folk beliefs wherein the Devil might be summoned by circling churches, fairy hills, graves and so forth in a widdershins fashion. In some folk stories, to run around a fairy tree or church in this direction will transport you to Elphame. These beliefs may also account for the malevolent virtue ascribed to the left and sinister hand in folklore (sinister deriving from the Latin Sinistral, meaning "left").