The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #102065 Message #2064987
Posted By: CapriUni
31-May-07 - 12:21 PM
Thread Name: Folklore: fairy tale motifs
Subject: RE: Folklore: fairy tale motifs
Bee --
In her book O, Mother Sun! A New View of the Cosmic Feminine, Patricia Monahagn draws connections between goddesses of the sun and goddesses of spinning a weaving (the rays of sunlight being the strands of yarn from which the goddess weaves the world), and, as she points out, if the spindle starts turning in the wrong direction, all the spinster's work is undone. So walking widdershins (oppoisite from the turning of the sun) "unbinds" the world -- looses the fabric between this world and the faery world.
I once attended a meditation where the woman leading it directed us to draw counter-clockwise spirals to grow stronger... Since I knew about widdershins, this made no sense to me... until I learned, later, that she had been taught by a shaman in South America. Then, it made perfect sense (and this is why, if you're going to use magic -- either for real, or as a fictional device, it's important to understand the principle behind it, rather than just repeating it by rote)
MMario --
No, I've not come across that. I'll have to keep my eyes open for it... personally, I think I fit most into the Fool archtype than anything else.
TheSnail --
Thanks for backing up my vague memory with historical information! This is why I love Mudcat!