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KatyBr
Senior Lexiterian
Joined: 10 Feb 2005
Posts: 959
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 Posted: Tue Oct 25, 2005 11:23 pm
Post subject: widdershins |
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now if we have a goodword of Akimbo, can widdershins be far behind?
| Quote: | wid·der·shins (wĭd'ər-shĭnz') or with·er·shins (wĭTH'-)
adv.
In a contrary or counterclockwise direction: “The coracle whirled round, clockwise, then widdershins” (Anthony Bailey).
[Middle Low German weddersinnes, from Middle High German widersinnes : wider, back (from Old High German widar) + sinnes, in the direction of (from sin, direction, from Old High German).]
Obscure
widdershins
(also withershins) [adj] moving in a counterclockwise (or left-handed) direction, contrary to the apparent course of the sun (considered as unlucky or sinister); unlucky, ill-fated, relating to the occult
Wikipedia
widdershins
Widdershins (sometimes withershins, or widershins) is a word which (usually) means anticlockwise, however in certain circumstances it can be used to refer to a direction which is against the light, i.e. where you are unable to see your shadow. It was considered unlucky in former times to travel in a counterclockwise direction around a church and a number of folk myths make reference to this superstition, e.g. Childe Rowland, where the protagonist and his sister are transported to Elfland after his sister runs widdershins round a church.
The word is frequently used in fiction in incantations etc, as a means of heightening atmosphere on account of the archaic and arcane nature of the word itself.
The Wiccan Rede says, “Widdershins go when the Moon doth wane / And the werewolf howls by the dread wolfsbane.” www.answers.com |
widdershins was a perfectly good word before the 'new agers' discovered it and demesne.... | Quote: | de·mesne (dĭ-mān', -mēn')
n.
Law. Possession and use of one's own land.
Manorial land retained for the private use of a feudal lord.
The grounds belonging to a mansion or country house.
An extensive piece of landed property; an estate.
A district; a territory.
A realm; a domain.
[Anglo-French, respelling (probably influenced by French mesne, variant of Anglo-Norman meen, middle, in legal phrase mesne lord, lord who holds a manor of a superior lord) of Middle English demeine, from Anglo-Norman, from Old French demaine. See domain.
used in every swords and [Yawn] sorcery book ever written.
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Brazilian dude
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Feb 2005
Posts: 1463
Location: Botucatu - SP Brazil
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:52 am
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Now, this is an interesting word.
Brazilian dude
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gailr
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 1639
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 10:40 pm
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Paying attention to deosil and widdershins to stay on the "right" side of authority figures has had a long history for just about anyone with pagan (in either sense) European forebears. I wouldn't say that the meaning was altered, once the "New Agers discovered it". If anything, they've kept it alive, even as it's passed from the vocabularies of more prosaic minds.
Sufis of the Mevlevi Order turn widdershins, rotating around the heart. When the left, heart-side hands are clasped in dances, one turns naturally to the left. Pagan [folk] dances turned widdershins, inflaming the ire of the Church, who viewed left-handedness, turning oneself to the left, circumambulating shrines and wells moon-wise, and dancing back-to-back (cheek to cheek?!) [sorry - couldn't resist that one  ] as evidence of witchcraft and heresy to be stamped out at all costs.
To dance widdershins under the full moon, laughing... almost as intoxicating as good chocolate. (Tubas are optional, in my trad.) Even so, hard to do in suburbia...
gailr
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"Perhaps it's just as well that you won't be here...to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations." - Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie in The Wicker Man |
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Stargzer
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Feb 2005
Posts: 2336
Location: Crownsville, MD
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Posted: Wed Oct 26, 2005 11:20 pm
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Ooh-la-la! Is that Gail in the tuba and red slacks?
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Regards//Larry
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.”
-- William Pitt the Younger |
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gailr
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 1639
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 2:20 pm
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Oh, stargeezer, I am so disappointed. You know that I would never appear in public without my vulture headdress. That was just some floozy with a tuba.
gailr
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"Perhaps it's just as well that you won't be here...to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations." - Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie in The Wicker Man |
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Stargzer
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Feb 2005
Posts: 2336
Location: Crownsville, MD
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 4:47 pm
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| gailr wrote: | Oh, stargeezer, I am so disappointed. You know that I would never appear in public without my vulture headdress. That was just some floozy with a tuba.
gailr |
And the chain mail you told me about before, too? 
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Regards//Larry
“Necessity is the plea for every infringement of human freedom.”
-- William Pitt the Younger |
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gailr
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 1639
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Posted: Thu Oct 27, 2005 9:01 pm
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You will note that the tuba floozy has neither.
-gailr
still dancing widdershins
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"Perhaps it's just as well that you won't be here...to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations." - Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie in The Wicker Man |
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M. Henri Day
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Feb 2005
Posts: 1138
Location: Stockholm, SVERIGE
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 6:48 am
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Please, gailr, more respect for the dead ! Oompa became a goddess when, after her playing in the surf and getting the cuffs of her red slacks wet led to a cold (or was it avian influenza ? - those gulls, you know !) and then to her premature death, the Asar (or was it the Vaner - I forget ?) decided to elevate her to divine status. She should not, by any stretch of the imagination - or those slacks - be considered a floozy !...
Henri
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曾记否，到中流击水，浪遏飞舟？ |
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gailr
Grand Panjandrum
Joined: 15 Mar 2005
Posts: 1639
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Posted: Sun Oct 30, 2005 5:37 pm
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You're right, Henri; what áss possessed me to speak as I did.
It's just that...I can understand sporting a solar disk, or the atef, or an ostrich feather, and let's be honest, who really feels dressed without the uraeus.
And I'll grant that the traditional Viking helmet--even with anachronistic horns--makes a certain fashion statement (although not one I can pronounce)... But to festoon oneself, for all eternity, with a tuba? Not even the Ásatrú can understand it.
-gailr
 
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"Perhaps it's just as well that you won't be here...to be offended by the sight of our May Day celebrations." - Lord Summerisle to Sgt. Howie in The Wicker Man |
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