Deosil (pronounced jesh\u2019l) or clockwise or sunwise follows the Sun\u2019s path, at least in the northern hemisphere.\u00a0 Tuathal or widdershins or counter-clockwise pertains to the Earth, as the Hopis teach.\u00a0 Both directions are sacred but have different meanings and functions.<\/p>\n
When witches wish to make something, they cast a spell while circling deosil.\u00a0 If they want to unmake, they circle tuathal.\u00a0 Deosil is for raising the cone of power; tuathal is for delving the reverse cone of power.\u00a0 The cone of power raises power from the depths of the Earth, including the depths in each Witch, and sends it through the zenith (or \u2018Height\u2019) of the circle out into the astral realm.\u00a0 The reverse cone of power gathers the energy from the zenith of the circle and channels it down into the Earth and into the depths of each Witch present, to the \u2018Deep\u2019 or nadir of the circle.\u00a0 The energy raised in the cone of power carries a thought-form which embodies the purpose of the spell and imprints it on the astral matter beyond the Height, whence it falls to the material realm once more and passes through the spell\u2019s material link to effect the spell\u2019s purpose.\u00a0 The energy focused and channeled downward in the reverse cone of power sends a thought-form down into the depths of the Earth and of each Witch, where it will incubate until the coven is ready to raise it again.\u00a0 It is a little like making a bank deposit.\u00a0 When something is unmade in the circle, it is not obliterated; instead, its component energies are saved for future use by binding them in a thought-form and sending it down the reverse cone of power by circling tuathal.<\/p>\n
According to Celtic witch tradition, the Fomorians utilized the tuathal direction, whereas the later races of Eire, the Tuatha de Danaan and Milesians, favored the deosil direction in their circlings.\u00a0 The Fomorians inhabited a part of Eire that had sunk into the sea; thus, the rest of Eire was virgin land when the parricidal Partholans landed there. \u00a0This allowed the Partholans to expiate their blood-guilt, this being the method known to antiquity to become purified of such guilt, that is, by landing on land that had never been previously inhabited, and spending a specified amount of time there.\u00a0 For that reason, parricides in the eastern Mediterranean used to travel to that part of the delta of the Ister (Danube) just being deposited on the shores of the Black Sea.<\/p>\n
The Fomorians regarded the part of Eire above the water as a natural extension of their own engulfed kingdom, and so came ashore to contest it with the invading races.\u00a0 They were partly successful, in that they intermarried with the Tuatha de Danaan, but ultimately balked of their design to drive out the invaders.\u00a0 Their sort of witchcraft, as already mentioned, made use of the tuathal direction in circling, and followed the dark moon cycle.\u00a0 Witchlore attributes the stone circles to their practice, for the Druids always worked in sacred groves.\u00a0 The Druids, however, worked with both directions, regarding it as equally important to raise Earth energies to the Sun as to ground solar energies in the Earth.\u00a0 This synthesis no doubt was a result of the intermarriages mentioned above.<\/p>\n
Traditions of the modern Craft tend to favor the deosil or Sunwise direction.\u00a0 This is because modern witches believe they are going to the Sun.\u00a0 After an undetermined number of reincarnations in Middle-Earth, our root-souls in the Underworld will be fully mature from the lessons and skills learned in our various Earthly lives, and we shall be ready for transmutation.\u00a0 Then, as a passage in the ancient Prasna Upanishad teaches (and as the stregha of Italy believe), we shall go to the Sun and there receive a body of light.\u00a0 Prior to that, we sojourn in the Summerland (in part of the Underworld) between lives, and when it is time to be reborn, we go to the Moon, descending thence in the rain.\u00a0 The Prasna Upanishad calls this \u2018the southern path.\u2019\u00a0 When it is ready, the soul takes \u2018the northern path\u2019 to the Sun, and it never returns from that journey.\u00a0 Modern Vedantin monks confess they do not understand this passage; they say it describes a lost spiritual experience.\u00a0 But the stregha and modern Witches have not lost their knowledge of it, which may have been brought west from India by Apollonius of Tyana.<\/p>\n
But do we never return?\u00a0 The meaning is probably that we do not reincarnate.\u00a0 However, now we are daimones, demigods, and our real work lies ahead of us.\u00a0 Like the Sidhe, we now have bodies of light, and the more recent historical sightings of the fair folk describe these bodies.\u00a0 But in former times they also materialized as physical and at times dangerous beings.\u00a0 Either we of Middle-Earth have lost the power to see them thus (as indeed the second sight, whereby their light-bodies can be seen, has become increasingly rare), or else they have withdrawn their material forms from our world for some reason, perhaps because we are entering the end of the current cosmic cycle.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Sources:<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
The Fomorians and tuathal:<\/p>\n
Ryall, Rhiannon, Celtic Lore and Druidic Ritual<\/span>, Capall Bann Publishing, Berkshire, \u00a0\u00a0 UK, reprinted 1995.<\/p>\n The Northern and Southern Paths:<\/p>\n Prasna Upanishad 1: 9 \u2013 10.\u00a0 In The Upanishads<\/span>, Vol. 2, edited by Swami Nikhilinanda, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York, 1952.<\/p>\n The body of light and stregheria:<\/p>\n Grimassi, Raven, Italian Witchcraft; the Old Religion of Southern Europe<\/span>, p. 263.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2000.<\/p>\n Decline of second sight:<\/p>\n Evans-Wentz, W.Y., The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries<\/span>, Colin Smythe Humanities \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Press, Gerrards Cross, Atlantic Highlands, orig publ 1911, reprint 1999.<\/p>\n Association of tuathal with the Earth:<\/p>\n Waters, Frank, Book of the Hopi<\/span>, Penguin Books, New York, 1963, p. 166.<\/p>\n Apollonius of Tyana:<\/p>\n Mead, G.R.S., Apollonius of Tyana; The Philosopher-Reformer of the First<\/span>\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Century A.D.<\/span>, New Hyde Park, New York, University Books, Inc., 1966.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Deosil (pronounced jesh\u2019l) or clockwise or sunwise follows the Sun\u2019s path, at least in the northern hemisphere.\u00a0 Tuathal or widdershins or counter-clockwise pertains to the Earth, as the Hopis teach.\u00a0 Both directions are sacred but have different meanings and functions. When witches wish to make something, they cast a spell while circling deosil.\u00a0 If they want to unmake, they circle tuathal.\u00a0 Deosil is for raising the cone of power; tuathal is for delving the reverse cone of power.\u00a0 The cone of power raises power from the depths of the Earth, including the depths in each Witch, and sends it through the zenith (or \u2018Height\u2019) of the circle out into the astral realm.\u00a0 The reverse cone of power gathers the energy from the zenith of the circle and channels it down into the Earth and into the depths of each Witch present, to the \u2018Deep\u2019 or nadir of the circle.\u00a0 The energy raised in the cone of power carries a thought-form which embodies the purpose of the spell and imprints it on the astral matter beyond the Height, whence it falls to the material realm once more and passes through the spell\u2019s material link to effect the spell\u2019s purpose.\u00a0 The energy focused and channeled downward in the reverse cone of power sends a thought-form down into the depths of the Earth and of each Witch, where it will incubate until the coven is ready to raise it again.\u00a0 It is a little like making a bank deposit.\u00a0 When something is unmade in the circle, it is not obliterated; instead, its component energies are saved for future use by binding them in a thought-form and sending it down the reverse cone of power by circling tuathal. According to Celtic witch tradition, the Fomorians utilized the tuathal direction, whereas the later races of Eire, the Tuatha de Danaan and Milesians, favored the deosil direction in their circlings.\u00a0 The Fomorians inhabited a part of Eire that had sunk into the sea; thus, the rest of Eire was virgin land when the parricidal Partholans landed there. \u00a0This allowed the Partholans to expiate their blood-guilt, this being the method known to antiquity to become purified of such guilt, that is, by landing on land that had never been previously inhabited, and spending a specified amount of time there.\u00a0 For that reason, parricides in the eastern Mediterranean used to travel to that part of the delta of the Ister (Danube) just being deposited on the shores of the Black Sea. The Fomorians regarded the part of Eire above the water as a natural extension of their own engulfed kingdom, and so came ashore to contest it with the invading races.\u00a0 They were partly successful, in that they intermarried with the Tuatha de Danaan, but ultimately balked of their design to drive out the invaders.\u00a0 Their sort of witchcraft, as already mentioned, made use of the tuathal direction in circling, and followed the dark moon cycle.\u00a0 Witchlore attributes the stone circles to their practice, for the Druids always worked in sacred groves.\u00a0 The Druids, however, worked with both directions, regarding it as equally important to raise Earth energies to the Sun as to ground solar energies in the Earth.\u00a0 This synthesis no doubt was a result of the intermarriages mentioned above. Traditions of the modern Craft tend to favor the deosil or Sunwise direction.\u00a0 This is because modern witches believe they are going to the Sun.\u00a0 After an undetermined number of reincarnations in Middle-Earth, our root-souls in the Underworld will be fully mature from the lessons and skills learned in our various Earthly lives, and we shall be ready for transmutation.\u00a0 Then, as a passage in the ancient Prasna Upanishad teaches (and as the stregha of Italy believe), we shall go to the Sun and there receive a body of light.\u00a0 Prior to that, we sojourn in the Summerland (in part of the Underworld) between lives, and when it is time to be reborn, we go to the Moon, descending thence in the rain.\u00a0 The Prasna Upanishad calls this \u2018the southern path.\u2019\u00a0 When it is ready, the soul takes \u2018the northern path\u2019 to the Sun, and it never returns from that journey.\u00a0 Modern Vedantin monks confess they do not understand this passage; they say it describes a lost spiritual experience.\u00a0 But the stregha and modern Witches have not lost their knowledge of it, which may have been brought west from India by Apollonius of Tyana. But do we never return?\u00a0 The meaning is probably that we do not reincarnate.\u00a0 However, now we are daimones, demigods, and our real work lies ahead of us.\u00a0 Like the Sidhe, we now have bodies of light, and the more recent historical sightings of the fair folk describe these bodies.\u00a0 But in former times they also materialized as physical and at times dangerous beings.\u00a0 Either we of Middle-Earth have lost the power to see them thus (as indeed the second sight, whereby their light-bodies can be seen, has become increasingly rare), or else they have withdrawn their material forms from our world for some reason, perhaps because we are entering the end of the current cosmic cycle. Sources: The Fomorians and tuathal: Ryall, Rhiannon, Celtic Lore and Druidic Ritual, Capall Bann Publishing, Berkshire, \u00a0\u00a0 UK, reprinted 1995. The Northern and Southern Paths: Prasna Upanishad 1: 9 \u2013 10.\u00a0 In The Upanishads, Vol. 2, edited by Swami Nikhilinanda, Ramakrishna-Vivekananda Center, New York, 1952. The body of light and stregheria: Grimassi, Raven, Italian Witchcraft; the Old Religion of Southern Europe, p. 263.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Llewellyn Publications, St. Paul, Minnesota, 2000. Decline of second sight: Evans-Wentz, W.Y., The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries, Colin Smythe Humanities \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Press, Gerrards Cross, Atlantic Highlands, orig publ 1911, reprint 1999. Association of tuathal with the Earth: Waters, Frank, Book of the Hopi, Penguin Books, New York, 1963, p. 166. Apollonius of Tyana: Mead, G.R.S., Apollonius of Tyana; The Philosopher-Reformer of the First\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Century A.D., New Hyde Park, New York, University Books, Inc., 1966.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":105,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"iawp_total_views":3,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8287","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/105"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8287"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8287\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8287"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8287"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paganpages.org\/emagazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8287"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}