The Witch On The Wall by Jorgen Andersen

A booklet describing the history of the church can be found inside but makes no mention of the Sheela at all. It could do with being moved inside the church to protect it from elements. The carving is quite badly weathered the face is deeply cracked and the rest of the carving is badly pitted. If the carving has been rubbed it has been done in quite a different way.

The rubbing however was in an up and down motion which makes sense given the narrow vertical nature of the vulval slit. The comedian Mike Harding who is interested in Green Men came across a tradition of genital rubbing on Kali statues in India.

I’ll leave it to you which theory you choose to subscribe to. Jorgen Andersen in his book the “Witch on the Wall” describes the figure as being much rubbed with the fingers being re-carved at some point. It’s pretty hard to deny that the large vagina immediately grabs your attention. If this type of rubbing took place then you would expect the vaginal area to grow wider which indeed it is, however the fingers would have gradually been “rubbed out” which they most certainly are not.įrom what I’ve seen of the carving it appears that the image was carved this way deliberately.

The finger could have been rubbed in a circular motion around the vulva. The finger could have been rubbed up and down this would result in a deeper line within the vulva which is not present.Ģ. If the carving has suffered from rubbing it would have happened in two ways.ġ. The fingers do not appear shortened or “rubbed out” in any way in fact they are rather long and stand out from the rest of the carving. The vaginal area on the carving is a wide deep oval, fingers are lightly incised on either side stretching a fair way into the vulva. You can see from the photograph that the stone is unlike any of the other surrounding flint nodules and much weathered. Unlike the Buncton Sheela this carving could have been moved to it’s current position, around 10 ft of the ground, from a more accessible position. I find myself agreeing with the question mark. Images of lust reports this sheela as being “much rubbed?”. The Buckland Sheela Na Gig before being painted The figure in 2003 with it’s new coat of paint Much Rubbed

The Witch On The Wall by Jorgen Andersen