Paganistan: Notes from the Secret Commonwealth
In Which One Midwest Man-in-Black Confers, Converses & Otherwise Hob-Nobs with his Fellow Hob-Men (& -Women) Concerning the Sundry Ways of the Famed but Ill-Starred Tribe of Witches.
Men's Side, Women's Side
You're of the Dobunni, the original Celtic tribe of Witches. You live in a traditional Iron Age Celtic roundhouse. Like houses everywhere, it shows forth a likeness of the cosmos.
In the center, the round hearth, with its living, undying flame.
To the right, the Men's Side.
To the left, the Women's.
Interestingly, the seat of greatest honor is where the Sides meet: directly across the fire from the door.
Door, fire, seat.
Men's Side, Women's Side: the language of ritual preserves these ancient usages, meaning “men generally,” “women generally.” The metaphor was originally a spatial one: “side” here meaning not “team” or “party,” but “side of the fire.”
I've long known of this traditional usage and its associations, but have wondered for equally as long: right and left sides as seen from where?
Well, I now know.
Archaeologist V. Gordon Childe records that among the shorefolk of the Outer Hebrides, such traditional spatial attributions persisted into the early “20th” century.
There, the Women's is the left side, and the Men's the right, as viewed from the door.
Of course, viewed from the seat of honor, it's the other way around: Women right, Men left.
As usual, it's all a matter of perspective. Who says that the ancestors had no sense of humor?
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