M.J. Rose

First, we here at the Museum of Mysteries send our love and concern to everyone who endured the terrifying hardship and stress of the hurricane. We are thinking of you.

As you well know, it’s hard to resist anything that concerns the ever-fascinating ancient Celts and their mysterious rituals…

This just so happens to be a subject that is touched on in Seduction, M.J.’s book that will be out on May 7.

Now…

Here’s  a little Celtic related wonderment for you on this spooky Halloween eve:

Celtic sacrifices confirmed at famed ancient site

by Dan Vergano (USA TODAY)

Ancient Celts practiced startling ritual murder practices, decorating sacrifice sites with ghoulish entanglements of human bones, most likely as a warning to foes and the folks they ruled.

“Halloween brings trick-or-treaters, candy and rather macabre displays of skeletons and graves suddenly dotting suburban lawns.

All in fun, but for the ancient Celts who cooked up the autumn festival of Samhain, a predecessor to today’s Halloween, a new study confirms such displays were serious business…”

For the rest click here.

I’m fascinated with the little scrap of papyrus they found that suggests Jesus was married (perhaps to Mary Magdalene?). We already knew this in our gut though, right? Why wouldn’t Jesus have been married?

Or, could it be that the words “My wife” are in reference to the holy church? The debate will no doubt go on and on…

Here is one perspective:

‘Proof’ Jesus was married found on ancient papyrus that mentions how son of God spoke of his wife and Mary Magdalene

By DAMIEN GAYLE

“A recently uncovered fragment of ancient papyrus makes the explosive suggestion that Jesus and Mary Magdalene were man and wife, researchers say.

The 8cm by 4cm fragment supports an undercurrent in Christian thought that undermines centuries of Church dogma by suggesting the Christian Messiah was not celibate.

The centre of the fragment contains the bombshell phrase where Jesus, speaking to his disciples, says ‘my wife’, which researchers believe refers to Magdalene…”

Read more here.

And here is an interview with the woman who discovered Jesus’s “wife”.

The character Jac L’Etoile in The Book of Lost Fragrances studies mythology – it is her life’s work to find the truth behind myths. She would be extremely interested in the following article from the Sunday Review:

If Achilles Used Facebook…
By PADRAIG MAC CARRON

WHEN we pick up a mythological text like “The Iliad” or “Beowulf,” we like to imagine that the societies they describe existed. Even if the stories are fiction, we believe that they tell us something about ancient Greece or the Anglo-Saxons, and that some of the characters and events were based on reality.

Archaeological evidence suggests that at least some of the societies and events in such stories did exist. But is there other evidence, lurking perhaps within the ancient texts themselves?…

For the complete piece click here.