Come Under One Body's Hand

Just got through watching a strange little film entitled The Wicker Man. It’s set on an island off the west coast of Scotland where people continue to practice ancient pagan rituals. The film was released in 1973 and it’s fairly dated and all, but there was one curious little scene that made me do a double take.

Funny, The House with a Clock in its Walls was published in 1973, too. I’m sure there’s no connection here, but I do think this would have been a film much to John’s liking. It even had a fair amount of folk songs to boot.

We’ve always found it interesting, though, Edward Gorey’s hand of glory, as pictured on the dust jacket, shows the hand “flat” with the candle on the back of the hand in connection with the text [170]. A lot of hands we see tend to be of the Wicker Man variety, with candles on the tip of each finger. Maybe that makes more sense when constructing the devilish item? Either way apparently gets the job done. (Right?)