Welcome, foolish mortals, to this UNofficial page about Disney's Haunted Mansion's ghostly references.

An academic study of
Seance Circle
-the significances of Madame Leota's Chamber-
Pages: 1 2 3 4 5

All of these references are from the script of the Seance Circle:

A seance is also known as a sitting, a circle, or a spirit circle.  It is a French word which means sitting, coming from the Latin, sedere, to sit.

At the start of the 19th century, the word was used to mean any discussion among a group of people, or an instructional meeting.  In 1845, the word began meaning any meeting of a group to study spiritualistic phenomena.  By 1875, seance was also used for medical consultations.

Today, it generally means a circle led by a medium (someone who can communicate with "the other side") for the purposes of contacting spirits of the dead.  This group is usually seated, assembled in a circle around a table, and members often hold hands to make it a linked circle of energy.

return to the script

Madame, also spelled Madam, a term used in English since about 1600 to politely refer to a married woman.  It comes from the French word, Madame, originally used to denote a woman of the royal family.  At the start of the 19th century, the word was used in slang to refer to a hussy, and later for the owner of a brothel.  

At the height of the Spiritualist Movement in the late 19th century, the term was affected by mediums who wanted to sound exotic, perhaps foreign, and also acknowledge an elevated station in society.

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A crystal ball is one way that a medium can focus his or her energy to contact the spirits, see the past, or predict the future.  In many cases, the ball is only used as something to focus on.  In some cases, the person actually sees images in the ball.

Crystal balls are usually clear, but any sphere can be used.  The least expensive crystal balls are actually made of glass.  A sphere made of quartz crystal or other mineral will cost at least three times as much as a glass ball.  

Some psychics prefer a perfectly clear ball.  Others like the shearing (flaws) of a natural crystal ball, to give them something even more distinct to focus upon.  

Mediums usually use crystal balls that are at least the size of a grapefruit.  However, occult shops sell them in sizes ranging from a large playing marble, to something as large as a bowling ball.

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"Serpents and spiders, tail of a rat..."

Serpents traditionally represent Satan or the Devil.  The Bible never says this plainly, but describes the snake that tempted Eve with the apple, "The serpent was more subtil (sic) than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made..." (Gen. 3:1, KJV) 

Despite the religious connotation, many people are squeamish about snakes and serpents, so this sets the tone for something creepy to happen.  

Snakes are also used in some Voodoo practices.  Ground and powdered snake is one ingredient in fatal curses.  However, the remedy for most snake curses includes the herb, snakeroot. 

Spiders, like snakes, make many people nervous.  Like snakes, few spiders are actually poisonous to man.   The word has been used since the 16th century, and probably earlier, to refer to members of the Arachnid family, having eight legs and no wings.

So far, I find no mystical references to a tail of a rat, or spells that would use this ingredient.  Perhaps it merely rhymed well for the attraction, and many people are squeamish about rats anyway.

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