Would you walk widdershins around a church?

What exactly is "widdershins"?

Anticlockwise

Well then I guess my anwer is yes, I would.

Is there some kind of rule about not doing so?

Since I tend to kinda spiral around churches - first around one way and then around the other way - I already do.

Now I know what to call it.

The question is, in what context have I heard/read that word before.

I think I read it in a terry pratchet book, but didn't look it up. Now I know it's meaning - thanks Noddy!

Widdershins is big in the magical world.

Going widdershins figures in several superstitions, which might be why you associate it with witchcraft. It was said that if you walked widdershins around the church three times at night, you would see the devil looking out at you from the church porch.
http://www.randomhouse.com/wotd/index.pperl?date=19991008

If I have to do it 3 times, it better be a very small church. Hmmm, does driving count? Heck, I already live next door to the graveyard.
P

What we need to establish is the pitch of this thread.










Get the pun?

Uhhhh.....

No. Chumly, I don't get it?

Is it a pitchfork type pun? Or something to do with tree sap perhaps? Maybe baseball?

I'm sorry. I'm a bit slow.

Does it have to be particularly late at night, Pauligirl, or would just dark be okay?

Since God seems so intent on hiding, seeing the devil might give me reason to rethink a few things....

We are communicating in a thread.
The pitch of this thread can mean it's tendency or direction.
A thread can also be described as a left handed or right handed pitch as used in a machine screw for example.
A left handed or right handed machine screw's pitch would be either clockwise or counter clockwise (widdershins).

In spite of living in a rural area, my possibilities for walking are limited. The picturesque country roads have no sidewalks--they don't even have shoulders. A certain percentage of drivers regards scenery as something to move through quickly using a race track that extends across the road from tree to shining tree.

There are two outdoor walking areas available--neither official One is a medical complex with a circuit of 1/5 mile, with no traffic on weekends.

The other is a church that my Catholic daughter-in-law calls Our Lady of the Parking Lot. A circle of the outer lots is about 1/4 mile.

A new fantasy novel by Charles de Lint, makes use of a superstition (which I had not heard before) that walking widdershins around a church would take you out of this world to the Kingdom of the Fey.

The first Mr. Noddy's grandmother (a lace curtain Irish Catholic) was positively rabid about walking widdershins from a parking space to the church door, although she was more worried about the Devil than about the Good People.

I was simply wondering....

If I am walking around a church, chances are I would be trying to take photographs for some reason related to architecture or spatial design, or simply to record a beautiful building or (I do this sometimes..) a homely one. So, chances are that I would be keyed in to the way the sun was highlighting the building facade, or other aspect, and walking, therefore, to a place where I could take photographic advantage of that, whatever direction that might be relative to the clock concept. Thus there is a random chance I'd walk widdershins.. wickershins.. wildepins.

Come away, O human child!
to the waters and the wild
with a faery, hand in hand,
for the world's more full of weeping
than you can understand...
- - - W. B. Yeats

Midnight, dark o' the moon, dressed in black and by candlelight.
Recite the Lord's Prayer backwards in Latin.

ETHAY ORD'SLAY AYERPRAY: Ourway Atherfay, ichwhay artway inway eavenhay, allowedhay ebay Ythay amenay. Ythay Ingdomkay omecay. Ythay Illway ebay oneday. Onway Earthway, asway itway isway inway Eavenhay. Ivegay usway isthay ayday ourway ailyday eadbray, andway orgivefay usway ourway ebtsday asway eway orgivefay ourway ebtorsday. Andway eadlay usway otnay intoway emptationtay, utbay eliverday usway omfray evilway. Orfay Inethay isway ethay Ingdomkay, andway ethay owerpay andway ethay oryglay. Oreverfay. Amenway.

Oh...wait...that's pig latin. What the hey, probably work just as well.
P

I did it once by accident. We had a usual walk we took weekly where we always went clockwise around a church. One evening we decided, sure, why not, to go the other way around.

When we got back, I couldn't explain it, but I was out of whack. Dazed and dopey, not able to think clearly or say anything beyond "I need to lie down." So I slept and was fine the next day, but I always wondered what the hell had happened. Years later I learned if you walk widdershins around a church "the devil takes you soul."

serendipitous accidents are the best kind...