As
part of last
week's criticism of Haunted Mansion Holiday, I mentioned the
Séance Circle's weird
grab bag of themes and imagery, to wit: Madam Leota recites an
occult-themed, thirteen-verse spinoff of “The Twelve Days of
Christmas” wherein divinatory tools have romantic functions, while
giant Tarot-esque cards featuring characters from The Nightmare
Before Christmas swirl around
the room. It's three or four completely disparate things just
mashed together because they needed to give Leota something
Christmas-y to do and include more of of the Burton characters. The
scene is appropos of nothing.
Or
is it?
Readers,
I have a confession to make. I may have—may
have—misrepresented that
scene. It may actually make more sense than I originally gave it
credit for. See, I was thinking of it as a Christmas-related scene,
but if we consider that the invading characters see everything
through the lens of Halloween, it's possible that the Imagineers who
designed it were alluding to some genuine, if nearly forgotten, old
traditions.
Possible,
not definite. It could be a coincidence. Then again, even
Disneyland's coincidental
design choices sometimes end up being profound.
Halloween
goes with magic like hand in black lace glove.* It's reasonably
common knowledge that the holiday originated as the ancient Celtic
holiday Samhain, envisioned as a time when the barriers between
worlds—living and dead, mortal and faerie, seen and unseen—were
especially thin. Spirits and goblins could cross over into the human
realm, and it was a most auspicious time to cast spells and perform
divinations. Even today, one of the most iconic “characters” of
Halloween is a spellcaster: the witch.
Toward
the end of the Nineteenth Century and the beginning of the Twentieth,
Halloween as we know it was just coming into fashion. The general
public had no taste for lurid horror and the holiday's imagery
revolved around fairly harmless conceptualizations of spooks and
bogeys, cobwebs and jack-o-lanterns, witches and black cats. Young
women in particular might attempt a little benign witchcraft of their
own. And at that point in time, the fad wasn't for contacting
deceased relatives or whistling up random ghosts and/or demons, but
foretelling the future.
Specifically,
one's own romantic
future.
Here's
a classic:
“Light a candle at midnight, and
look into a mirror. If you have a dressing table, it’s handy to use
that. It adds a personal/intimate touch to your spell. Then you eat
an apple with your left hand while combing your hair with your right
hand. If you work the spell properly, you will see your future
husband in the mirror.”
Or
a girl might walk three times around a church while reciting an
incantation, then look quickly over her shoulder to see an image of
her future mate. Or gather hazelnuts, name one after each of her
suitors, and roast them over a fire—the first to pop would be the
one she would marry. Or, perhaps simplest of all (if difficult to
pull off), peel an apple in one continuous spiral and throw the peel
over her shoulder, where it would land in the shape of her future
husband's initial. Quite a lot of the Halloween love divinations
involve apples, actually, those being an abundant crop at this time
of year and a fruit
long associated with magic and wisdom. Disney obviously knows this:
It's
especially interesting to note that the Witch sells Snow White on the
idea that this is a “magic wishing apple,” and Snow's wish is to
be reunited with her true love. It's not exactly a divination, and
the movie doesn't take place at Halloween, but clearly the idea of an
apple being used to wish for love was familiar enough to 1937
audiences to be considered touching and not unbearably corny.
So
getting back to Haunted Mansion Holiday's Séance
Circle, let's assume the point of the scene is to reference these
Halloween love divinations and spells. How does it hold up? Could
someone potentially learn something about these largely discarded
traditions from the ride? Let's take another look at that
poem...omitting the flowery “gingerbread” language (heh) and just
considering the numbers and items mentioned.
13 rings of power: While the
very phrase “rings of power” calls to mind Tolkien (and may be
intended as a tribute), the reference here could be to wedding rings.
For a young lady curious about her future marriage, the token of an
existing marriage would make a powerful talisman. A sympathetic older
woman, happily married, might lend her wedding ring to be used for
pendulum divination.
12 signs of the Zodiac:
Astrology is one of the more elaborate forms of divination, which may
be why it is still popular today—studying the heavens and
performing mathematical calculations feels like science,
not mysticism. It's not the sort of thing a breathless teenaged girl
can do at her kitchen table, in other words. But she might consult
her horoscope in the newspaper to see if romance is in store for her
today, or read up on which signs are compatible with her own.
11 candles: Candles are a
nigh-essential part of all kinds of magic, including divination. Some
forms of divination involve gazing into a candle flame, or into the
smoke rising from it, or interpreting the shapes made by the wax as
it melts and re-cools. The little ritual quoted above utilizes a
candle.
10 telling tea leaves: Tea
leaf divination is all about recognizing and interpreting shapes. The
practice can be used to tell romantic fortunes as well as any others.
9 magic crystals: The
crystal most associated with divination is the crystal ball, but the
ones depicted on the ride's huge card are pointed and faceted,
therefore are more likely to be used as pendulums or talismans.
8 balls of knowledge: Who
isn't familiar with the Magic Eight Ball, that toy that answers
yes-or-no questions through the magic of murky fluid and a buoyant
icosahedron? I still see kids playing with these, and one of their
favorite questions seems to be “Does <Name> like me?” It's
chintzy, but I'll allow it.
7 pearls of wisdom: This is
where the pattern really starts to break down. “Pearls of wisdom”
is a common idiom, but the wisdom so referred to is gained through
life experience and thoughtful reflection, not mystical channels. The
attraction writers tried to keep the ball rolling by adding “to
keep my love bewitched to me,” but it's one of the clunkier lines
in the poem. I am not aware of any tradition of using pearls in love
divination or love magic.
6 mystic mirrors: Quite a
lot of Halloween love divinations, including the one quoted, involve
gazing into a mirror in order to glimpse one's future mate.
Mirror-gazing is a common form of divination in general, and it's
especially on-point where love is concerned because it is so
personal. People hoping to find love spend a lot of time looking at
the mirror anyway to make sure they are attractive enough, so why not
make a spell out of it?
 |
| Note also the candle, wedding rings, and--of course--apples. |
5 lucky charms: This one is
really reaching. Not only are the charms depicted unfortunately
reminiscent of the General Mills cereal, but lucky charms aren't used
for divination; they're used to bring
you luck. Even the rest
of the line—“to understand the right from wrong” makes no sense
and doesn't have anything to do with...well, anything. I really can't
tell what the deal is with this one.
4 Wheels of Fortune: Not the
game show but the Tarot card is referred to here. (The game show was
of course named after the Tarot card.) The idea of the Wheel of
Fortune is that luck has its ups and downs and we have to take the
bad with the good in turn. You never know where it's going to land.
This can be applied to affairs of the heart just like any other, but
it's a little non-specific.
3 lifelines: Here the
reference is to palmistry,** or telling someone's fortune by studying
the contours of the palm of their hand. It's another one that has
survived into the modern day with sincere believers, probably because
like astrology, it seems just methodical enough to maybe work. It's
just too bad they chose to highlight the life line instead of the
much more thematically appropriate love line.
2 passion potions: We're
veering away from divination and into more assertive love magic here.
The “love potion” is one of the classics, if decidedly out of
tune with contemporary ethics. I suppose the fact that there are two
suggests that an already affectionate couple are deciding to each
drink one and cement their relationship.
A star: And at this point,
the poem takes a 90-degree turn into Christmas decorations. Oh dear.
So what's the verdict? I'm afraid I
have to say that it's at
best a mixed bag. Maybe
two or three of the items in the list have a specific connection to
love divination, while the rest are just generically magical or
mystical. And what's prominently missing? Apples. If this scene
purports to represent Halloween love magic, it should not be without
that most distinctive prop.
The obvious counter is that all
those cozy little spells have fallen into obscurity and guests
wouldn't get it, whereas the items that are depicted are still
commonly known. To which I
reply that the scene is confusing as it is—if it must confuse,
shouldn't it do so because it is imparting unfamiliar information
than because it is a hodgepodge of nonsense?
Oh, well. It was worth a shot. Let
it never be said that I let my snap judgments carry the day and don't
give things another chance. I'll close with a few links to pages that
describe more Halloween love spells and divinations, so you can
explore on your own:
*
Or weird glove with claws on the fingertips. Different people have
different Halloween styles.
**
And possibly Who Wants to Be a Millionaire? There are three of them.
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