Deosil

(pronounced “DAY-uh-sill”)
Term used by some Wiccans to mean “clockwise”, especially as a direction of motion in ritual. Taken from an Irish Gaelic word for “Sun”, the term “Sunwise” is also often substituted for the standard “clockwise” in ritual or magickal contexts.

Since the Sun appears to move in a clockwise motion (in the Northern Hemisphere, at least – the effect is more noticeable in higher latitudes), many Paleo-Pagan cultures determined deosil to be a direction of positive or beneficial intent. Counter-clockwise or widdershins was held by such cultures to be a negative or baneful motion. Accordingly, many modern Pagan traditions consider deosil to be the standard, default, or only recommended ritual motion, reserving widdershins for the working of baneful or banishing rituals.

In its native Irish Gaelic, the word deosil is normally pronounced something like “JESS-ill”. It’s normal for words of foreign derivation to have their pronounciations altered when they get imported into English, however, and the standard Pagan pronounciation of “DAY-uh-sill” seems not to be ignorance of the recommended Gaelic pronounciation, but rather adherence to the standard phonetic/orthographical rules of English (which are apparently seen as taking precedence).