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. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ... Jump to: navigation, search A church building is a building used in Christian worship. ... Jump to: navigation, search A superstition is an irrational belief about the relation between certain actions (often behaviors) and other actions. ... Childe Rowland is a fairy tale, the most popular version being by Joseph Jacobs in his English Folk and Fairy Tales, published in 1892, and written partly in verse and part in prose. ...

In contrast, in Judaism circles are always walked counterclockwise. For example: when a Groom circles his bride 7 times before marriage, when dancing around the bimah during Simchat Torah (or when dancing in a circle at any time), or when the Torah is brought out of the Ark (you approach the Ark from the right, and leave from the left). Jump to: navigation, search Judaism is the religious culture of the Jewish people. ... A bimah is the Ashkenazic Jewish term for the elevated area or platform in a Jewish synagogue which is intended to serve as the place on which the person reading aloud from the Torah stands during a service. ... Jump to: navigation, search Simchat Torah (שמחת תורה) is a Hebrew term which means rejoicing with/of the Torah. It is a festivity that takes place on the Jewish holiday of Shemini Atzeret, or Eighth (day) of Assembly, which falls immediately after the 7-day holiday of Sukkot in the autumn (mid... Jump to: navigation, search Torah (תורה) is a Hebrew word meaning teaching, instruction, or law. ... For the heavy metal band ARK see ARK (band) See also the homonym, Arc The term Ark is derived from the Latin word arca meaning chest, and is generally synonymous with refuge. Look up ark in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ...

This has its origins in the Beis Hamikdash, where in order not to get in each others way, the Priests would walk around the Altar counterclockwise while performing their duties. When entering the Beis Hamikdash the people would enter by one gate, and leave by another. The resulting direction of motion was counterclockwise. Jump to: navigation, search The Temple in Jerusalem or the Holy Temple (Beit HaMikdash בית המקדש in Hebrew) was built in ancient Jerusalem and was the center of Israelite and Jewish worship, primarily for the offering of sacrifices known as the korbanot. ...

The opposite of widdershins is deosil. A clockwise motion is one that proceeds like the clocks hands: from the top to the right, then down and then to the left, and back to the top. ...

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. An incantation is the words spoken during a ritual. ...

The Wiccan Rede says, “Widdershins go when the Moon doth wane / And the werewolf howls by the dread wolfsbane.”

It is similar to the German language widersinnig, i.e., "against" + "sense". German (called Deutsch in German; in German the term germanisch is equivalent to English Germanic), is a member of the western group of Germanic languages and is one of the worlds major languages. ...

In Terry Pratchett's Discworld, Widdershins is the opposite of Turnwise, the direction in which the Disc rotates. Jump to: navigation, search Terence David John Pratchett OBE is an English fantasy author (born April 28, 1948, in Beaconsfield, Bucks), best known for his Discworld series. ... The Discworld is a series of over 30 novels by Terry Pratchett set on the Discworld. ...