CIRCUMAMBULATION. – A rite consisting in circling around the boundaries of a piece of land, a building, or an object. This circling is performed for two reasons: either to enclose the thing circled within a sacromagical circle that prevents evil influences from entering and drives out those that may be lurking there (apotropaic c.); or to procure for those circling around the object charged with «sacredness» the benefits deriving from it (augural c.).
It is a rite of universal occurrence, which may be performed either to the rhythm of a dance, by running, or at a processional pace, and is supplemented by prayer formulas, lustral rites (water, fumigations, lit torches), and the carrying of sacred objects or sacrificial animals.
Examples of apotropaic c.: the running of the Luperci sodales around the slopes of the Palatine, originally to enclose the hill within a magic circle against the attacks of wolves on the flocks of the primitive shepherds; the lustration of the fields by leading around them the three sacrificial animals: pig, sheep, and ox (Cato, De agr., 141); the circuit which, in the Indian ritual, the sacrificer makes around the offering, holding a burning coal in his hand (Socr. Books of the East, XII, p. 145); the c. of the corpse in funeral rites: at the funeral of Patroclus (Il., XIII, 13); of Pallas (Virgil, Aev., XI, 188); in the imperial apotheosis (Herodian, IV, 2).
Examples of augural c.: the running in which the newborn child was made to circle around the Amphidromia (v.); the threefold circuit which the bride makes on a camel around her father’s tent among the Arabs of Sinai; the circuit of the Ka'bah, which Muslims make seven times when undertaking the pilgrimage; the circuit which Buddhist devotees make around the stūpas (tomb-shrines) containing the relics of their saints. A characteristic example of c. is found in the Old Testament in the conquest of Jericho (Ios. 6, 1-20), which Joshua had the soldiers perform for six days around the walls, and on the seventh day seven times by the Ark of the Covenant. C. is also found among ecclesiastical rites: in the consecration of a church on the day of its dedication; in the funeral rites of the faithful according to the Latin rite; and in other rites of a particular and local character.