Rolling Away the Stone

5 October, in ancient Rome, marked one of three dates (along with 24 August and 8 November) of a festival known as Mundus Patet, when a stone covering the entrance to a round or bottle-shaped pit was ritually removed. Originally the pit was where earliest Roman inhabitants had stored seed grain, to keep it safe. Somehow, over time and with the mix of Etruscan lore, the entrance to the pit came to be understood as entrance to the underworld. I suppose our nearest approach to something similar would be All Souls Day/Hallowe'en.

On the three dates when the entry to the pit was left open, it was thought that spirits of the dead could roam at will, making those times generally inauspicious. It was decreed that, on any of the three days of Mundus Patet, no public business should be performed, no battles fought, no ships allowed to set sail, and no marriages could take place. Not good days for much of anything. In other words, days of ill omen...although the fact that no battles could be fought would be thought to be A Good Thing these days. The other no-nos seem to me like quite good ideas too!

What brought that tid-bit to mind, as well as today's date, was this vintage photograph from husband's collection. A double exposure has created a vision of ghostly figures. I wonder if it was taken on
5 October, 24 August or 8 November?



In honour of the ancient day, a song written by Okie, Leon Russell, and Greg Dempsey. Performed by Leon Russell. (This is not the same song as another with same title by Ian Hunter/ Mott the Hoople).

Why No Astrology ?

In the USA we're seeing a succession of TV drama series with themes based on the (mildly) paranormal: ghosts, regression, mediums, mentalists, peculiar happenings.

Medium - Lead character has dreams predicting crimes about to happen, or giving clues which help to solve crimes.

Mentalist - Guy who refuses to say he is psychic, but assists in solving crimes via skills which he says are purely due to observation and mental shenanigans.

Psychic - Similar to above, but lead character pretends to be psychic, though viewers are aware that he is using only observation skills.

Ghost Whisperer - Lead character sees ghosts, helps them to "go into the light" after dealing with unfinished business of one sort or another.

Fringe - Storylines focus on "stange" happenings, something akin to Twilight Zone (no relation), or The X-Files.


Past Lives - An expert in the study of regression, with an ex-cop as side-kick, helps people who have troubling regression episodes stemming from problems in past lives.

There might be more - those are series of which we've watched at least a couple of episodes.

It's good that these subjects are surfacing in a format accessible to the average person, who is otherwise uninterested in the genre. Even though, in Mentalist and Psychic, there is continual emphasis on "there's no such thing as a psychic", anyone with any insight at all realises that to have extraordinarily ultra-sharp observation skills is itself beyond normal: an extra-sensory excess.

Still no sign of any drama involving an astrologer, or astrology. I find this to be very odd. Astrology is probably more in the public eye daily, in newspapers and magazines, than any of the above topics, yet no writer seems to want to use it in a drama. I wonder why?