Q: "Which way to turn myself I know not?"
A: "If you worship the gods, right-hand wise, I apprehend."
Ever wondered why "clockwise" means "circle to the right" and "anti clockwise" means "circle to the left"?
Cause the original clocks were sundials
You can make a sundial by sticking a stick in the ground, and drawing a circle around it. As the sun moves from east to west, which is in the northern hemisphere "to the right" the shadow made by the sundial stick will move in the opposite direction, to the left...
But by doing that it will draw "rightward" circle around the sundial stick, with the stick, and the sun, always "on the right" side...This movement eventually became known as clockwise, but really it is "sunwise"...
Now for the Gaels (The Irish), doing thing "sunwise" was super important...
According to the 19th century ethnographers, no ceremony "religious or superstitious" could be performed without who ever performed it "turning sunwise" (from left to right)...
Turning to the left, counterclockwise, against the sun...was considered unlucky, evil and believe or not pagan, by the Christian church🙂 who completely adopted the "sunwise" turning as their own...And turning to the left became associated with curses, magic and witches...
In "Traces of the elder faiths in Ireland..." (1901) we can read that: "Camden relates that, in his day, when an Irishman happened to fall, he immediately, upon rising, turned three times to the right..."
In "The origin and history of Irish names of places" (1875) we can read that "Even at this day the Irish peasantry when they are burying their dead, walk at least once, sometimes three times, round the grave yard with the coffin from left to right"...
Also "To the south of the old church of Carran, county Clare, Ireland, there is a small cairn, around which the corpse is carried before burial in the churchyard"...and "whilst on the way to the cemetery, corpse is carried sunwise around the cross at Monkstown, county Dublin"...
Even today in Ireland when holy wells are visited at Gaelic festivals of Imbolc, Beltane and Lughnasa, people would pray for health while walking "sunwise" around the wells...
Also processions around the churches are also performed "sunwise"...
The same belief is found among the Gaels in Scotland. In Scottish folklore, Sunwise or Sunward (clockwise), turning from east to west in the direction of the sun, was considered the "prosperous course"...
In "A Description of the Western Islands of Scotland" (1703) we can read that: "Some of the poorer sort of people in the Western Isles retain the custom of performing these circles "sunwise" about the persons of their benefactors three times, when they bless them"...
"Some are very careful when they set out to sea, that the boat be first rowed "sunwise", and if this be neglected, they are afraid their voyage may prove unfortunate"...
Also people avoided turning boats anti-clockwise at all if possible, cause it was bad luck to do so...
"When a Gael goes to drink out of a consecrated fountain, he approaches it by going round the place from east to west, and at funerals, the procession observes the same direction in drawing near the grave"...
"Hence also is derived the old custom of describing "sunwise" a circle, with a burning brand, about houses, cattle, corn and corn-fields, to prevent their being burnt or in any way injured by evil spirits, or by witchcraft"...
In Carmina Gadelica (1900) we find this prayer song performed on the Feast day of Mary, which says:
"I went sunways round my dwelling,
In name of the Mary Mother,
Who promised to preserve me,
Who did preserve me,
And who will preserve me..."
In "The silver bough" (1959) we read that "The Caledonians paid a superstitious reverence to the sun"...
"Practically every religious festival began with the ceremony of walking thrice deiseil, that is, in the sunwise direction, round the circle, cairn, altar or bonfire that marked the site, the object of the rite being to aid the sun by virtue of mimetic magic"...
"Until recent times...at a wedding, the company went trice round the house before entering...expectant mothers went thrice round a church in order to ensure an easy delivery...fire was carried thrice round an infant before baptism to save it from the fate of changling"...
In " Waverley" Sir Walter Scott describes how the old Highlander, called in to attend the wounded Edward, walked round the patient three times, from east to west, "sunwise", and this ceremony was considered a matter of the utmost importance towards effecting a cure...
In "A smaller social history of ancient Ireland..." we can read that: "When a king of any grade ascended the throne, he usually made a visitation or royal progress through his kingdom, to receive allegiance and hostages from his sub-kings"...
"He moved leisurely in a round-about, "sunwise", from left to right; and during the whole journey, he was to be entertained, with all his retinue, free of charge, by those sub-chiefs through whose territories he passed: so that these visitations were called Free Circuits"🙂...
The arrival of Christianity changed nothing in this respect. Actually church adopted this custom wholeheartedly. "For instance, St. Patrick consecrated Armagh, as St. Senan did Scattery Island, each by walking sunwise with his followers in solemn procession round the site"...
But not all saints liked this right turning business. "At the battle of Cooldrumman, fought near Drumcliff, county Sligo, in the year 561, St. Columbkille, in his prayer before the contest, denounces his adversaries for employing pagan rites to assure victory"...
He anathematizes them as: "the host which has taken judgment from us, a host that marches round a earn" i.e. performs the desiul, walks "sunwise"...
"By the strange irony of fate the saint's manuscript of portion of the Holy Scriptures the origin of the conflict, hence styled the Cathach, or 'the book of the battle' became the battle-standard of his tribe, the Cinel Conaill"...
"And an old Irish manuscript recounts that before a fight 'it was proper the Cathach should be carried three times to the right round the army of the Cinel Conaill at going to battle...If that was done, 'it was certain they would return victorious'"...
And so the custom survived and the 10th c. Cormac's Glossary says that: "when the spirit of poetry met Chief poet in Ireland in the time of Guaire Aidhne king of Connaught in the 7th c. it went sunwise round poet and his people"...
And in the 12th c. Vision of Mac Conglinne we read that the hero when parting from his tutor went right-hand wise round the cemetery...
Dr. P. W. Joyce states that Tempo, a little village in Fermanagh is called in Irish An tIompú Deiseal (the right-hand turn) and that the place received its name, "no doubt, from the ancient custom of turning sunways, i.e. from left to right, in worship"...
It is also possible that the name refers to a bend in the Tempo River near the village. But there is also a local legend that Saint Patrick left a manuscript here on his way to Enniskillen and that he told his servant to "turn right" to go back and retrieve it...So...
The belief in the magical power of "sunwise turn" existed in England too...It was considered unlucky to travel in an anticlockwise (not sunwise) direction around a church...
19th c. antiquarian Mr. F. T. Elworthy recounts that: "in Somerset, quite recently, and within his own knowledge, a number of children were brought to be baptized, and, of course, were ranged in a group round the font"...
"The officiating minister, not being accustomed to such a number, or not knowing the custom, began with the child on his right hand, of course following on in order, and going round to the child on his left"...
"This action caused great indignation: parents, who had never before seen the importance of having their children baptized at all, were quite sure that now they had not been done properly"...
"...and that they must be taken to another church, 'to be done over again'. Thus it was held of far greater moment that the parson should proceed from left to right than it was that the children should be baptized or not"...
I don't know if this "superstition" once existed in other parts of Europe...If you have any info about it please post it in this thread...
But it turns out, references to the "sunwise" turn in religious rituals exist in Roman and Greek culture...
And so in "On the Ceremonial Turn, Called Desiul" we find that in the comedy by Plautus, one of his characters says: "Which way to turn myself I know not"; the other jestingly replies, "If you worship the gods, right-hand wise, I apprehend;" Was Plautus here mocking "peasants"?
Anyway, I will stop here...
Sources:
"A smaller social history of ancient Ireland"
"Traces of the elder faiths in Ireland"
"The origin and history of Irish names of places"
"A description of the Western Islands of Scotland"
"Sanas Chormaic. Cormac's glossary"
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