Widdershins - Definition and Overview

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.

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.

It is similar to the German language widersinning, i.e., "against" + "sense".

Widdershins is also the title of a collection of ghost stories by Oliver Onions.