The Migration of Symbols by D. Mackenzie

Author:D. Mackenzie [Mackenzie, D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History, General
ISBN: 9781136193903
Google: tUkAAgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2013-11-05T16:00:21+00:00

SECTION V

THE SACRED CIRCUIT

The Dancing and Revolving Sun—Winter Solstice Ceremony—Quarter days—The Course of Nature—Left-hand circuit—Birds that fly sunwise—Highland, Irish, Gaulish, Buddhist and Homeric customs —English mistletoe dance—Dancing Greeks—Hindu customs— Ocean flowing from left to right around the world—Circulating dwelling houses—Masonic spiral staircase—Hindu priests’ circuit —Evil Eye customs—Top spinning—Serpent spirals—Left-hand circuit as Ceremony of Riddance—Egyptian examples—Hindu movements explained—The Wishing Maidens—Borneo expulsion ceremony—Spiral on wand—Pig calls spirits—Women dance from left to right—Omens of Death—The Witches’ dance—Ecstatic dances—Sun as “ magic tank”—Sacred circle—Palaeolithic dances —Sun cult in Palaeolithic times.

The ancient custom of making a sacred circuit to the right appears to have been intended to stimulate the Great Bear (Ursa Major) constellation to revolve in the proper direction. There was a danger—so it was believed—that it might jam, or else spin in the wrong direction.

The stellar cult’s belief in this connexion was taken over by the sun cult, and it can still be detected as an “import”. In the Scottish Highlands, for instance, the newly-born sun of Summer—the” big sun “*—is supposed to” dance “ and whirl round three times to the right on May Day (Beltane) The sun thus imitates the” dancing Dervishes “ who gave the” Great Bear “ a lead.

In Arizona the Navaho Red Indians dance to stop the sun at the winter solstice, lest it should move too far southward.2 Evidently they had taken over an ancient ceremony of the sun cult. But, as we have seen, they, too, had stellar beliefs, and placed their “ whirling logs” in the north of the sky.

In Gaelic lore there are interesting references to the ceremonies which were performed not only at the birth of the year, but at the births of the seasons. At the end of each quarter, it was believed, the forces of evil were let loose. Men and animals had to be protected against fairies, demons, witches, etc. It was during these occasions of seasonal change that “ fairy-raids” took place. The Rev. John G. Campbell, of Tiree, has written in this connexion :

The seasons on which their (the fairies’,) festivities are held are the last night of every quarter, particularly the nights before Beltane (May-day) the first of summer, and Hallo wmass, the first of winter. … On the last night of the year they are kept out by decorating the house with holly; and the last handful of corn reaped should be dressed up as a Harvest Maiden, and hung up in the farmer’s house to aid in keeping them out till next harvest.1

The ceremony of encircling sacred objects and places was sometimes a spiral movement. It is of widespread character and great antiquity and appears to have originated in the belief, above referred to, that it was necessary to stimulate the Great Bear to revolve in the right direction at the beginning of the new year, and also at the beginning of each season. By following the course of nature, the magic-workers not only assisted nature, as they believed, but procured for themselves an accumulation of “ good luck”—that is, everything man desired, health, food, prosperity, etc.

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