Church of the Earth of NC

Written by Terry

There is often a cultural link between the Pagan Religions (Wicca, for instance) and the Gothic frame of reference, for better or for worse.  Participants on both sides may take issue with this linkage, however, for the general population, there is a relationship.  However, the link, assuming it is there, is one of more indirect connections than it is of direct connections.

I’d like to discuss one of these links, it’s a link I am very interested in, it’s the female fronted gothic music form, a largely European phenomena but one that has some interesting relevance to the topic.

Clearly, Gothic and Pagan is not the same thing.  One is a religious perspective, maybe not traditional mainstream, but religious non-the less.  Gothic is a lifestyle.  It may have certain religious overtones but it is not a defined religion. 

Within the gothic environment, there have been those who have addressed the relationship.  Michelle Belanger, an author and musical performer with the group Nox Arcana has attempted to address the issue saying  “As a mystical system, Gothic Paganism is a very powerful tool to self-awareness and self-realization. There is no looking away from this dark mirror, even when all it reflects to you is your own face, decaying to a skull”.  She argues that older pagans often take issue with the current gothic movement considering it too extreme for comfort.  There is, she argues, a more tolerant perspective from younger pagans.

I would argue that there is a significant difference between the Gothic movements in the United States and that we observe in Europe; Eastern and Western.  In fact, you could include much of the world in that observation.  Gothic in Europe is not so much an obscure outcast, revolution driven phenomena, as it is a colorful, often academic and clearly artistic means to express a more culturally accepted lifestyle.  You can be an accountant in the daytime but at night, when you go to the local music club, you dress in black and get ready for some music with a message.

So, how’s the music fit into this?  Gothic is a much broader musical style in the rest of the world than it is here, after all, we have rap.  It also has many sub systems.  My interest is the Female Fronted Gothic, sometimes called Operatic or Symphonic Gothic.  There are a number of themes, however, the predominant one is the ethereal, and the notion that life is a spark within the eternal framework of time.  Our life is a second in this eternity.  It is the eternity that matters, and, upon reflection, our simple lives are a measure of the existential desolation that encompasses them.  This theme runs through the music.

At it’s core, the pagan religions tend to be somewhat female in nature.  Historians would argue that it is this perspective that saw them loose out to the more masculine religions that followed, Christianity being the foremost of those religions.  Many of the Gothic musicians, especially the European musicians, appreciate this perspective and work it into the framework of their music.  It’s often not addressed directly, but indirectly as a statement of opposition to the status quo of Western lifestyle.  Nightwish, a Finnish band, says:

Wrote for the eclipse, wrote for the virgin
Died for the beauty the one in the garden
Created a kingdom, reached for the wisdom
Failed in becoming a god

Has our Western religion, and culture, failed in becoming a god?

Of course, this theme is a construct in Gothic thinking.  In the early 20th century, the psychologist Carl Jung conceived of something he called the “shadow”.  The shadow, Jung believed, was a source of great drive and inspiration for people. Yet it was also a place where we kept many repressed impulses and fears. When it was dealt with correctly, a healthy psyche could make use of the energy and insights stored there.  Was this shadow the feminist within us, a part of us repressed and kept from conscious thought?  If so, today, it is repressed more than ever in many parts of our society.

The Gothic music addresses this “lost” part of our psyche.  It also addresses the more expanded perspective of our reality, what pagans might call the darkness, that which we have little consciousness of.  Epica, a Dutch band, dares to ask that which we dare not explore:

What's the point of life
And what's the meaning if we all die in the end?
Does it make sense to learn or do we forget everything?

Tears of unprecedented beauty
Reveal the truth of existence
We're all pessimists

Teach me how to see and free the disbelief in me
What we get is what we see, the Phantom Agony

There is a darkness in our life, one that our Christian religions would prefer not to address.  However, the Goth looks into his Shadow and embraces it. It is as much a part of him as is the light, and only as a whole and balanced being will he be able to survive the changing times ahead.  The Goth, like the Pagan, looks for balance, the balance of reality, the balance of life.  At least this is the case with many current Pagans, those who are willing to consider that a darkness exists.  For, in the case of the darkness, it is a question of have the Goths chosen the darkness or has the darkness chosen the Goth.  For the Pagan, this darkness is a more natural part of existence, one that does not bring with it a fear of the unknown.  However, both acknowledge this part of reality, although their perspectives may differ in terms of perception.

Sethanikeem, or Michelle Belanger, talks further about the link between the “archetype and divinity”.  Again, the point here is the concern that we are not in a position to directly observe and integrate the unknown, except through the use of human devised methaphor and similar technique.  She talks about “emanations” like those from the Hebrew Kabbala saying, “These emanations, or aspects of the divinity, filter down through the cosmos like light filtering through clouds. The closer they get to humanity, the more limited and human they become, but also, the more limited and human they become, the easier it is for us to contain and comprehend them.”  Psychologists might call these emanations archetypes.  And, they are found routinely within the Gothic music experience:

Elbereth
Lorien

Sla-Mori the one known only by Him
To august realms, the sorcery within
If you hear the call of arcane lore,
your world shall rest on Earth no more
A maiden elf calling with her cunning song
"Meet me at the Inn of Last Home"
Heartborne will find the way!

Gothic music, especially female fronted Gothic, is a window into this understanding, one that can be of special interest to those of us who strive to understand the meanings of the Pagan religions.  As we said in the 60s, there are a lot of windows into reality, you have to start with one. . . and this music is a beautiful window into that understanding.
 

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