Why do stadiums run counterclockwise: features of athletics, direction of movement. Running in a circle - continued

We are all astrologers involuntarily - says Pavel Voitovsky. He came to this conclusion by trying to answer a simple question: why do many of us imagine the movement of the annual cycle counterclockwise. This post is a prologue to a series of texts dedicated to the four elements and the most unexpected consequences of this ancient idea.

Year inside the head

Close your eyes and imagine 2017. What did you see? 12 calendar sheets? But after all, the year goes in a circle, but the calendar sheets do not. You may have imagined a circle, a dial. Do twelve months pass like twelve hours?

I'm willing to bet not. Such a representation is rather unnatural: the seasons have moved sideways. Then like this:

And perhaps like this:

Now the main question: in your internal representation of the year goes clockwise or counterclockwise?

I have always imagined the year as going counter-clockwise. Winter in my internal picture is usually on the bottom, spring on the right, summer on the top, autumn on the left:

On March 1, 2017, I distinctly felt that I was turning left past the lower right corner of a certain building or block. In a simplified form, the picture looks like this:

In summer, however, the picture is reversed, winter is on top, but the year still goes counterclockwise. Two versions of the picture can be called winter (summer on top) and summer (summer on bottom), while the second one seems more natural, because the New Year is in the same place where noon and midnight are on the clock:

The logic of my internal picture is as follows: every time we find ourselves at the bottom of the vessel, at the bottom of the circle - and in front lies its right half, which we have to climb. In winter, we wait for spring and summer, with difficulty we rise to it, and in the middle of summer, having overcome halfway, we switch our attention to autumn, which should always bear some fruit, and to the end of the year, before which we need to have time to finish certain things.

I'm not the only one

For most of my life, I was sure that such a representation is a feature of my consciousness. But I recently discovered that a lot of people are experiencing the same thing. They write on forums, as if confessing to illness, and find like-minded people.

I was very curious as to why this is happening? Where does this seemingly counterintuitive idea come from?

The hypotheses that are listed on the forums do not fit. For example: it all depends on whether you are right-handed or left-handed. Indeed, on Wikipedia they write that left-handed people often draw circles and go around the premises clockwise, while right-handed people are against it.

Research on this topic was carried out by Theodor Blau in the 70s. Empirically they seem to be correct, but the question is not very clear. And most importantly, the forums failed to confirm this theory. Another assumption: everything is explained by whether you are a humanist or a techie, in other words, a right hemisphere type or a left hemisphere type. But here, too, there are counterexamples. Perhaps the concept of time lies deeper than the mechanisms responsible for the formation of right-handedness and perceptual patterns.

In this post, I will tell you about my own version: most of us have a mythological idea of ​​the annual cycle in our heads. We are all unwitting astrologers in the sense that the year for us goes like the circle of the Zodiac - counterclockwise. (Of course, astrologers are in quotation marks: knowing the zodiac constellations does not make you believe that the positions of the stars and planets predict the best time to buy stocks.)

Apparent motion of the Sun

It would seem much more natural to imagine the annual cycle in the same way as an ordinary dial. The sun moves clockwise across the sky (for the majority of humanity that lives in the northern hemisphere). Therefore, the shadow from the gnomon on the sundial crawled clockwise. Before the appearance of the word clockwise, there was a variant sunwise, and in Russia they said “salting” (according to the sun, clockwise) and “anti-sun” (against the sun, counterclockwise).

Clockwise movement is associated with the right hand: when the wheel rolls to the right, it rotates clockwise. According to popular belief, the dough must be kneaded clockwise, otherwise the bread will be tasteless. The left-to-right reading direction in the Western tradition also seems to enhance the impression of the correctness of such a move.

So, clockwise is right, and right is good. And if this were the end of history, then it would be natural for all people to imagine the movement of the year in the same way as the movement of the hands on the dial:

However, there is another idea, just as deeply rooted, but contradicting the first.

Zodiac

The earth revolves around the sun in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed from the north celestial pole:

The solar system passed this direction of motion to all its "children": the Sun itself, all comets, asteroids and planets (except Venus) rotate counterclockwise. During the year, the visible path of the Sun runs through 12 zodiac constellations (today this number is 13, but at the time of the first astronomers it was 12):

The signs of the zodiac go around the year counterclockwise. Given that the ram is usually placed on the left, the picture looks exactly like the "summer" version of my intracranial annual cycle (here the dates are slightly shifted so that each sign corresponds to one month):

Interestingly, the dial is divided into 12 divisions due to the 12 signs of the Zodiac. The Greeks seem to have borrowed this idea from the Babylonians. (Let me remind you that the division of the hour into 60 minutes, the circle into 360 degrees and the year into more than 360 days - also from the Babylonians, who had a 60-decimal number system.) Only the direction of movement had to be reversed so that the shadow of the gnomon on the sundial consistently passed all marks. Anyway, this is the only explanation that came to my mind.

On medieval astronomical clocks, one can see the zodiac circle and the figures of the sun and moon, which moved counterclockwise along this circle. Here's how it looks on the famous Prague Astronomical Clock:

Enthusiasts created a copy of the watch in the Second Life game and wrote it down on this topic video. In GIF, every second is one day. You can see how the moon glides through the Zodiac, changing phases, and the sun slowly moves from Aries to Taurus - counterclockwise, as befits a self-respecting luminary.

The astrological idea of ​​the "correct" circumambulation cannot directly influence my internal picture of the annual cycle. I learned about the existence of a calendar dial and the direction of the Earth's movement around the Sun only while working on this post. And I looked at the usual hour and minute hands all my life. And yet these two pictures are somehow connected. I like to think that there is a deeper reason that links the direction of the annual cycle in space and in my head.

Dead end

In search of an answer, I turned to technology and science, to the question of spirals in nature, but found myself in a dead end. Right-handed DNA helixes, anti-clockwise umbilical cords, the chemical properties of glucose and its mirror image did nothing to help with the intracranial calendar. It is, in general, understandable: technology and science appeared by evolutionary standards recently, and brains - a long time ago.

I was also interested in what cases in Western culture there is a departure from the "correct" rotation. For example, all our stadiums are "astrological": athletes run counterclockwise. The reason, most likely, is that the heart is displaced to the left. If you run clockwise, the centrifugal force will press the heart against the left lung, and this can make breathing difficult. If you run counterclockwise, the heart will move slightly to the center of the chest, and there will be no breathing problems. Another explanation is offered on the runners' forum: when running counterclockwise, there is less load on the left leg than on the right one - the outer circle is larger than the inner one - and it is more convenient for right-handed people. (In the same way, they write that the stairs in the knight's castles descended counterclockwise, so that it was more convenient for right-handed warriors to fight back. Flights of stairs in most modern houses descend clockwise.)

Forehead outside and inside

I found a hint of a solution in the work of psychologist Richard Wiseman. He suggested this test: close your eyes, put your finger to your forehead and draw the letter Q. There are two options for how your drawing will look from the side: in a direct version or in a mirror.

If you drew a direct version, it will be easier for others to read it, if a mirrored one, it will be easier for you to read it from the inside of your head. In the first case, you kind of keep the center outside, look at yourself through someone else's eyes. According to Wiseman, such people, whom he calls other-centered, focused on others, like to be in the spotlight, lie better, but are worse at detecting lies. In the second case, you are more self-centered, straightforward, bad at lying, but good at detecting lies. This is similar to the division between extroverts and introverts.

Suppose instead of the letter Q, you drew a clock face on your forehead and tracked how the hand makes a circle. If you belong to the second type, then an external observer will see how the arrow goes counterclockwise - against itself. An interesting exercise: continuing to mentally move the hand and without opening your eyes, try to cross the plane of the dial (pass "through the forehead") and see how the right, hourly movement was replaced by the left, astrological.

One can imagine that there are two times: internal and external, and they mirror each other. The outer one is an ordinary watch, and we are used to measuring it clockwise. But the internal is, as it were, cyclic time, the time of natural and mythological cycles, and they go counterclockwise.

mythological circle

The most famous mythological circle was drawn by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. And it goes counterclockwise:

Campbell's system is called the "hero's path". She is notorious for being turned into a template by Hollywood writers. If you enter “the path of the hero” on the Internet, then you will get something like this picture:

Clockwise! The original mythological circle is turned, subordinated to the "external" clock.

Let's plot the seasons from my intracranial picture (winter version) on Campbell's diagram:

In this view, summer is the starting point of the journey, in autumn we cross the line of uncertainty - and plunge into another world, into the world of winter trials, experience the death of nature - and return to life in spring.

My summer version can be explained in a similar way. This time, winter is the starting point, a familiar environment in which nothing happens, and summer is the time of adventure, the "little life".

I have already written that for me Campbell's circle is inverted: I feel that the adventure must be climbed, that some kind of revelation awaits at the top. But the essence of this does not change.

Outcome

Perhaps one day it will turn out that the effect I have described is fully explained by the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. Moving in a circle counterclockwise is just more convenient for a right-handed person.

My hunch is just an interesting way to think about the seasons and organize them in your head. This method helps me to connect the intuitive idea of ​​the annual cycle and the mythological circle of Joseph Campbell. .

But we are talking not only about the annual cycle, but in general about any natural and cosmic cycles. You can also think about one day and about your whole life in terms of a mythological circle:

And now the surprise: it was all a saying. The story starts next. I will tell you how you can apply the four elements of the ancient Greeks to the mythological circle: fire, water, earth and sky.

If you remember how you ran around the stadium in your school days, or how you looked at the Olympic Games, then you can notice the fact that running in stadiums always runs counterclockwise. Many people in their lives have at least once tried to run clockwise around the stadium, such people are usually looked askance at, and running is so terribly uncomfortable.

Why do the athletes in the stadium run counterclockwise? Most likely, you have never thought about it, but this rule is established by the International Association of Athletics Federations itself! The question of running counterclockwise is incredibly complex and stupid at the same time. Nobody knows the answer there are only theories, among which the most plausible ones are highlighted.

1 theory - Ancient Greek traditions

This theory is one of the most probable. It is based on a simple habit of people, but the Olympic Games originated there, in Ancient Greece! But not everything is so simple, the adherents of this theory are divided into groups, because there are two options for explaining this tradition of the Greeks.

• Option 1 - Contrasting sport and nature. This theory has the right to be considered, since in their eyes sport was opposed to nature, and moving counterclockwise is also a kind of opposition.
• Option 2 - Ease of Time Tracking. This option looks more plausible than the previous one, as it has practical confirmation. It’s just that at that time there was only a sundial, on which the time of the races was recorded, and running counterclockwise is much easier mark the past tense by the shadow on the sundial.

Even some historians wrote about this theory of the origin of running in books, for example, Norman Douglas, so it is one of the most common in the world.

Theory 2 - There are more right-handed people on the planet

In our list, this theory is the second, it is the same in popularity (it can be considered the most popular). This theory answers the question - Why is it so much harder to run clockwise?

Yes, people are used to it, but habits cannot completely fool our brains. Indeed, right-handers push leg is exactly the right one, it is slightly stronger than the left one, which means it is easier to change the direction of movement to the left side.

This does not mean that left-handers cannot do athletics, you just need to work on yourself!

3 theory - Laws of physics

This theory does a much better job of explaining why running counterclockwise is easier, but that doesn't mean it was the reason for this running rule. Many people are very poorly versed in physics, so I will try to state everything briefly and in simple language.

There is such a thing as angular velocity vector, and so, when the movement occurs to the left, this vector is directed vertically upwards, which means that no resistance to movement is created. If the run will take place clockwise, the mentioned vector will also be directed vertically, but only downwards, as a result of which it will be noticeably harder to run.

The bulk of professional athletes and their coaches tend to this theory, because it is she who completely describes the reasons the difficulties of such a run. This is easier to understand for people who remember at least school physics.

Theory 4 - Borrowing from Horse Racing

This theory is also associated with Ancient Greece and the Olympic Games. The fact is that any races took place strictly counterclockwise, and there is a reasonable explanation for this, because the rider beats the horse with a whip, which is always in the right hand(more right-handers), the whip hits the right side of the horse, as a result of which it turns to the left!

Although the theory is supported by the data on reasons for racing rules, very few people believe in it, since these are completely different disciplines, people living in Ancient Greece should have been aware of this.

In "The Eye of Revelation" Colonel Bradford indicates clockwise rotation:

"The first Ritual," the colonel said, "is quite simple. It is designed to speed up the movement of the Whirlwinds. As children, we used this in our games. Your actions: stand straight, with your arms extended horizontally along your shoulders. Start spinning around your axis until you feel slight dizziness. There is one warning: you must rotate from left to right. In other words, if you put the clock face up on the floor, your hands should move in the direction of the arrows"

Note that Colonel Bradford defines the "hour hand" direction as the direction in which a person rotates from left to right, regardless of their location on the planet.

Given that Bradford was in the northern hemisphere when he wrote to rotate from left to right (clockwise), some people wonder if his instructions should be adapted to rotate counterclockwise while in the southern hemisphere.

When I ask them " Why do you think that we should change the direction of rotation?"

Their response is usually along the lines of " Water in the southern hemisphere swirls counterclockwise, while in the northern hemisphere it spins clockwise".

However, this notion itself is based on a popular misconception, and hence the reason for the change in direction of rotation is also not convincing.

Alistair B. Frazier, PhD, Emeritus Professor of Meteorology, Penn State University, USA, explains in detail:

"Compared to the rotations we see every day (car tires, CDs, sink drains), the rotation of the Earth is almost imperceptible - only a revolution per day. The water in the sink rotates in a few seconds, so its rotation speed is ten thousand times higher than that of the Earth. This is not surprising, given that the Coriolis force is several orders of magnitude smaller than any of the forces involved in these everyday examples of rotation. The Coriolis force is so small that it affects the direction of rotation of water no more than the direction of rotation of the compact disk.

The direction of rotation of the water in the sink drain is determined by how it was filled, or what swirls were created in it during washing. The size of these rotations is small, but compared to the rotation of the Earth, it is simply huge.

It is difficult to describe the Coriolis effect in more detail without resorting to mathematical equations or such complex concepts as angular mechanics. First of all, our frame of reference is: What we see depends on where we are". This means that we are standing on a solid surface, when in fact we are not - after all, the earth is a rotating ball.

Coriolis effect

In physics Coriolis effect is the apparent deflection of moving objects when viewed from a rotating frame of reference. For example, consider two children on opposite sides of a spinning carousel throwing a ball to each other (Figure 1). From the point of view of these children, the path of the ball is bent to the side by the Coriolis effect. From the thrower's point of view, this deflection is to the right as the carousel rotates counterclockwise (when viewed from above). Accordingly, when moving clockwise, the deviation is directed to the left.

If you are really interested in a detailed explanation of the Coriolis effect, search for "Coriolis effect" and study this issue thoroughly.

Direction of rotation of the chakras

Peter Kelder did not describe the direction of movement of the vortices (chakras):

“The body has seven centers, which can be called Vortexes. They are a kind of magnetic centers. In a healthy body, they rotate at high speed, and when their rotation slows down, this can be called old age, illness, or extinction. The fastest way to regain youth, health, and vitality is to get those whirlwinds spinning at the same speed again. There are five simple exercises to achieve this goal. Any of these are useful on their own, but all five are essential for best results. The lamas call them rituals, and I will treat them the same.” - Peter Kelder, edited by Alina and Mikhail Titov "Eye of Revelation", 2012.

I wonder if Calder deliberately avoided mentioning the counter-clockwise direction? According to Barbara Ann Brennan, former NASA scientist and authority on human energy, healthy chakras should rotate clockwise; and closed, unbalanced - counterclockwise.

In her successful book, Hands of Light, she says:

"When the chakras are functioning properly, each one will be open and rotate clockwise to draw in the specific energy needed from the worldwide field. Clockwise rotation to draw energy from the Global Energy Field into the chakras is like the right hand rule in electromagnetism, which says, that a change in the magnetic field around a wire will induce a current in that wire.

When the chakras rotate counterclockwise, there is an outflow of energy from the body, provoking a metabolic disorder. In other words, when the chakra rotates counterclockwise, we do not receive the energy we need, which we perceive as a psychological reality. Such a chakra is considered closed to incoming energy."

Possible influences of traditions

(a) Traditional Tibetan "trul-khor" yantra yoga

Chogal Namkhai Norbu, one of the great masters of Dzogchen and Tantra, was born in Tibet in 1938. His book " Yantra Yoga: Tibetan yoga of movement"Published by the publishing house" Snow Lion ".

"Trul-khor" means "magic wheel", says Alejandro Chaul-Reich, lecturer at the Ligmincha Institute and assistant professor at the University of Texas School of Medicine. He says:

"The characteristic trul-khor movements originated from the deep meditation practices of Tibetan yoga adepts. Traditionally practiced in remote Himalayan caves and monasteries, the trul-khor movements are now available to serious Western students. They are a powerful purification tool, balancing and harmonizing the subtle aspects of your energy dimension."

Ryan Parker, specialist in Five Tibetan Rituals, is currently doing research comparing the Five Rites and trul-khor. According to Peter Kelder in The Eye of Revelation, the rituals, like the trul-hor, are about 2,500 years old.

In his last "Comparative Table" he states:

"The Buddhist "trul-khor" suggests the existence of energy centers rotating clockwise. "Trul-khor" is sometimes called a stimulus for the rotation of energy centers. Moreover, they begin to rotate in unison. Although this rotation can be caused in many ways, the rotation of the body is special connected in a way with the stimulation of the centres. Clockwise rotation is considered beneficial and is the suggested direction of rotation in the Buddhist trul-khor."

(b) Pradakshina

In the course of history, Tibet and India exchanged ancient knowledge, and it is possible - but not proven - that the practice of Pradakshina may have influenced the First Ritual.

In Hinduism Pradakshina means an act of worship - going around in a clockwise direction around a holy place, temple, shrine. Dakshina means right, so you go to your left, with the spiritual object always on your right.

In Pradakshina, you walk clockwise around a temple, shrine, person, mountain, place, or even yourself. Hindu temples even have passageways so that people can make these movements around them in a clockwise direction.

The purpose of such circular movements is to focus or purify oneself, or honor the object of worship.

The round trip is so common that it is found in the culture of the Greeks, Romans, Druids and Hindus. This is usually associated with a sacrifice or purification process. The interesting thing is that for all these cultures, the direction of movement is always the same - clockwise!

Other interesting facts about clockwise rotation

During one of my classes, a dance teacher told me that children are initially taught to spin clockwise. Obviously, it's easier for them (although there are exceptions). He said it was well known among dance teachers - if you need to calm the children, make them spin counterclockwise. And to activate them - let them spin clockwise!

This energetic effect is exactly what people experience when performing Ritual #1 as described by Colonel Bradford. It seems to me that if the lamas instructed to rotate clockwise, then this is how it should be!

Who practices counterclockwise rotation

However, I do know one Marina who is spinning counterclockwise due to a life-threatening health condition she is trying to correct. She is very committed to meeting the needs of her body, as you can read below:

"According to qi-gong and traditional Chinese medicine, clockwise movement speeds up life processes by increasing the speed of the chakras to the original speed. Anti-clockwise movement slows down the chakras. Most ritual practitioners want to speed up the chakras that have slowed down due to age, weight and so on, because it is logical that they rotate clockwise.However, one day, during the morning prayer, I realized that in my case, the acceleration of the chakras would only have negative consequences, since the chakra that affects my lungs is incapable of accelerating !Thus, I began to rotate counterclockwise, and soon noticed that it became easier to perform other rituals!"

To sum it up, until documents or teachers are found, all attempts to understand the motives behind Ritual #1 will only be theoretical. Therefore, you should do what you personally feel is good for you!

We are all astrologers involuntarily - says Pavel Voitovsky. He came to this conclusion by trying to answer a simple question: why do many of us imagine the movement of the annual cycle counterclockwise. This post is a prologue to a series of texts dedicated to the four elements and the most unexpected consequences of this ancient idea.

Year inside the head

Close your eyes and imagine 2017. What did you see? 12 calendar sheets? But after all, the year goes in a circle, but the calendar sheets do not. You may have imagined a circle, a dial. Do twelve months pass like twelve hours?

I'm willing to bet not. Such a representation is rather unnatural: the seasons have moved sideways. Then like this:

And perhaps like this:

Now the main question: in your internal representation of the year goes clockwise or counterclockwise?

I have always imagined the year as going counter-clockwise. Winter in my internal picture is usually on the bottom, spring on the right, summer on the top, autumn on the left:

On March 1, 2017, I distinctly felt that I was turning left past the lower right corner of a certain building or block. In a simplified form, the picture looks like this:

In summer, however, the picture is reversed, winter is on top, but the year still goes counterclockwise. Two versions of the picture can be called winter (summer on top) and summer (summer on bottom), while the second one seems more natural, because the New Year is in the same place where noon and midnight are on the clock:

The logic of my internal picture is as follows: every time we find ourselves at the bottom of the vessel, at the bottom of the circle - and in front lies its right half, which we have to climb. In winter, we wait for spring and summer, with difficulty we rise to it, and in the middle of summer, having overcome halfway, we switch our attention to autumn, which should always bear some fruit, and to the end of the year, before which we need to have time to finish certain things.

I'm not the only one

For most of my life, I was sure that such a representation is a feature of my consciousness. But I recently discovered that a lot of people are experiencing the same thing. They write on forums, as if confessing to illness, and find like-minded people.

I was very curious as to why this is happening? Where does this seemingly counterintuitive idea come from?

The hypotheses that are listed on the forums do not fit. For example: it all depends on whether you are right-handed or left-handed. Indeed, on Wikipedia they write that left-handed people often draw circles and go around the premises clockwise, while right-handed people are against it.

Research on this topic was carried out by Theodor Blau in the 70s. Empirically they seem to be correct, but the question is not very clear. And most importantly, the forums failed to confirm this theory. Another assumption: everything is explained by whether you are a humanist or a techie, in other words, a right hemisphere type or a left hemisphere type. But here, too, there are counterexamples. Perhaps the concept of time lies deeper than the mechanisms responsible for the formation of right-handedness and perceptual patterns.

In this post, I will tell you about my own version: most of us have a mythological idea of ​​the annual cycle in our heads. We are all unwitting astrologers in the sense that the year for us goes like the circle of the Zodiac - counterclockwise. (Of course, astrologers are in quotation marks: knowing the zodiac constellations does not make you believe that the positions of the stars and planets predict the best time to buy stocks.)

Apparent motion of the Sun

It would seem much more natural to imagine the annual cycle in the same way as an ordinary dial. The sun moves clockwise across the sky (for the majority of humanity that lives in the northern hemisphere). Therefore, the shadow from the gnomon on the sundial crawled clockwise. Before the appearance of the word clockwise, there was a variant sunwise, and in Russia they said “salting” (according to the sun, clockwise) and “anti-sun” (against the sun, counterclockwise).

Clockwise movement is associated with the right hand: when the wheel rolls to the right, it rotates clockwise. According to popular belief, the dough must be kneaded clockwise, otherwise the bread will be tasteless. The left-to-right reading direction in the Western tradition also seems to enhance the impression of the correctness of such a move.

So, clockwise is right, and right is good. And if this were the end of history, then it would be natural for all people to imagine the movement of the year in the same way as the movement of the hands on the dial:

However, there is another idea, just as deeply rooted, but contradicting the first.

Zodiac

The earth revolves around the sun in a counter-clockwise direction as viewed from the north celestial pole:

The solar system passed this direction of motion to all its "children": the Sun itself, all comets, asteroids and planets (except Venus) rotate counterclockwise. During the year, the visible path of the Sun runs through 12 zodiac constellations (today this number is 13, but at the time of the first astronomers it was 12):

The signs of the zodiac go around the year counterclockwise. Given that the ram is usually placed on the left, the picture looks exactly like the "summer" version of my intracranial annual cycle (here the dates are slightly shifted so that each sign corresponds to one month):

Interestingly, the dial is divided into 12 divisions due to the 12 signs of the Zodiac. The Greeks seem to have borrowed this idea from the Babylonians. (Let me remind you that the division of the hour into 60 minutes, the circle into 360 degrees and the year into more than 360 days - also from the Babylonians, who had a 60-decimal number system.) Only the direction of movement had to be reversed so that the shadow of the gnomon on the sundial consistently passed all marks. Anyway, this is the only explanation that came to my mind.

On medieval astronomical clocks, one can see the zodiac circle and the figures of the sun and moon, which moved counterclockwise along this circle. Here's how it looks on the famous Prague Astronomical Clock:

Enthusiasts created a copy of the watch in the Second Life game and wrote it down on this topic video. In GIF, every second is one day. You can see how the moon glides through the Zodiac, changing phases, and the sun slowly moves from Aries to Taurus - counterclockwise, as befits a self-respecting luminary.

The astrological idea of ​​the "correct" circumambulation cannot directly influence my internal picture of the annual cycle. I learned about the existence of a calendar dial and the direction of the Earth's movement around the Sun only while working on this post. And I looked at the usual hour and minute hands all my life. And yet these two pictures are somehow connected. I like to think that there is a deeper reason that links the direction of the annual cycle in space and in my head.

Dead end

In search of an answer, I turned to technology and science, to the question of spirals in nature, but found myself in a dead end. Right-handed DNA helixes, anti-clockwise umbilical cords, the chemical properties of glucose and its mirror image did nothing to help with the intracranial calendar. It is, in general, understandable: technology and science appeared by evolutionary standards recently, and brains - a long time ago.

I was also interested in what cases in Western culture there is a departure from the "correct" rotation. For example, all our stadiums are "astrological": athletes run counterclockwise. The reason, most likely, is that the heart is displaced to the left. If you run clockwise, the centrifugal force will press the heart against the left lung, and this can make breathing difficult. If you run counterclockwise, the heart will move slightly to the center of the chest, and there will be no breathing problems. Another explanation is offered on the runners' forum: when running counterclockwise, there is less load on the left leg than on the right one - the outer circle is larger than the inner one - and it is more convenient for right-handed people. (In the same way, they write that the stairs in the knight's castles descended counterclockwise, so that it was more convenient for right-handed warriors to fight back. Flights of stairs in most modern houses descend clockwise.)

Forehead outside and inside

I found a hint of a solution in the work of psychologist Richard Wiseman. He suggested this test: close your eyes, put your finger to your forehead and draw the letter Q. There are two options for how your drawing will look from the side: in a direct version or in a mirror.

If you drew a direct version, it will be easier for others to read it, if a mirrored one, it will be easier for you to read it from the inside of your head. In the first case, you kind of keep the center outside, look at yourself through someone else's eyes. According to Wiseman, such people, whom he calls other-centered, focused on others, like to be in the spotlight, lie better, but are worse at detecting lies. In the second case, you are more self-centered, straightforward, bad at lying, but good at detecting lies. This is similar to the division between extroverts and introverts.

Suppose instead of the letter Q, you drew a clock face on your forehead and tracked how the hand makes a circle. If you belong to the second type, then an external observer will see how the arrow goes counterclockwise - against itself. An interesting exercise: continuing to mentally move the hand and without opening your eyes, try to cross the plane of the dial (pass "through the forehead") and see how the right, hourly movement was replaced by the left, astrological.

One can imagine that there are two times: internal and external, and they mirror each other. The outer one is an ordinary watch, and we are used to measuring it clockwise. But the internal is, as it were, cyclic time, the time of natural and mythological cycles, and they go counterclockwise.

mythological circle

The most famous mythological circle was drawn by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces. And it goes counterclockwise:

Campbell's system is called the "hero's path". She is notorious for being turned into a template by Hollywood writers. If you enter “the path of the hero” on the Internet, then you will get something like this picture:

Clockwise! The original mythological circle is turned, subordinated to the "external" clock.

Let's plot the seasons from my intracranial picture (winter version) on Campbell's diagram:

In this view, summer is the starting point of the journey, in autumn we cross the line of uncertainty - and plunge into another world, into the world of winter trials, experience the death of nature - and return to life in spring.

My summer version can be explained in a similar way. This time, winter is the starting point, a familiar environment in which nothing happens, and summer is the time of adventure, the "little life".

I have already written that for me Campbell's circle is inverted: I feel that the adventure must be climbed, that some kind of revelation awaits at the top. But the essence of this does not change.

Outcome

Perhaps one day it will turn out that the effect I have described is fully explained by the functional specialization of the cerebral hemispheres. Moving in a circle counterclockwise is just more convenient for a right-handed person.

My hunch is just an interesting way to think about the seasons and organize them in your head. This method helps me to connect the intuitive idea of ​​the annual cycle and the mythological circle of Joseph Campbell. .

But we are talking not only about the annual cycle, but in general about any natural and cosmic cycles. You can also think about one day and about your whole life in terms of a mythological circle:

And now the surprise: it was all a saying. The story starts next. I will tell you how you can apply the four elements of the ancient Greeks to the mythological circle: fire, water, earth and sky.

Everyone knows that most people prefer to use their right hand, and when reading texts in most languages, the reader's eye moves from left to right.

But few people notice that we have a certain preference in those cases when you need to rotate something. We choose clockwise rotation. So, the car engine starts when the ignition key is turned clockwise. In the same direction, you need to turn the volume control in most radios if we want to make the sound louder. The lighting dimmers, the thermostat knob in the refrigerator are also arranged. The CD player rotates clockwise. The disk rotated in the same direction when dialing a number in old phones (from smaller numbers to larger ones). The numbering of houses on the Boulevard Ring and the Garden Ring in Moscow also goes clockwise when viewed from above. In our perception, the course of rotation in a clockwise direction seems to indicate a forward movement, an increase, an increase in something.

Employees of the Institute of Neurophysiology and Cognitive Sciences in Leipzig (Germany) became interested in this psychological phenomenon. They did a simple experiment. Voluntary participants first had to go through several simple psychological tests “for the sake of appearances”, and then the researchers proceeded to the actual experiment. As if as a reward for successfully passing the tests, the participants were given tea and offered to choose a piece of candy from a round box standing on a rotating stand. Candy offered 16 different flavors, eight regular - cherry, orange, lemon, and so on, and as many non-traditional - with the aroma of popcorn, melon, rose petals and the like. Each pile of sweets had a label indicating the taste. Rotating stands were of two types: in one experiment, the stand could only be rotated clockwise, in the other, only counterclockwise. It turned out that those who had to rotate the stand clockwise when choosing were more likely to take non-traditional candies. That is, the usual direction of rotation made me feel more relaxed and ready to try something new.

In another experiment, 60 volunteers were subjected to detailed psychological tests for personality type, after which they were asked to turn a certain handle. Those who rotated it clockwise were often more open to the world and more creative than those who preferred the opposite direction.

These features of perception are also taken into account in practice. So, the roulette in the casino always spins clockwise. This makes the players more relaxed and risk-averse, and also hints at the possibility of an increase in winnings. The download symbol also rotates clockwise while waiting for a server response on the Internet, which encourages the user to have a positive attitude when perceiving new information.

It remains to find out why the hands of the clock rotate "clockwise". The fact is that the sundial was invented in the Northern Hemisphere, where the shadow of the gnomon creeps in this direction as the Sun moves. And when mechanical watches appeared, the usual arrangement of numbers on the dial was preserved, and the arrows had to be put in the same direction.