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As for literature, it helps me experience the numinous through its visual evocations. Sylvia Plath was very a visual author and her poetry speaks to something deep in me through the images she uses. Similarly, when it comes to fiction, Lovecraft and Clark A. Smith really evoke atmospheric presence, numen, through their vivid visual descriptions. Writers who focus more on the 'emotional' effect of words, or on the mental constructs that words point to, don't evoke anything deep. What they evoke is emotional or intellectual - nothing of the soul.
I felt like I was missing out on something when I realized that alot of musicians, Richard Moult included, experienced and sought to communicate a numinous something through their music. Listening to music was, and is, for me, a way of regulating my own emotions. I experienced it as deep emotionally, but not "spiritually" (the word spiritual is used for lack of a better one: I don't believe in a dichotomy between spirit and matter, though I do think we have a deeper being; a soul).
It was only more recently, after watching a documentary (Until the Light Takes Us, Audrey Ewell, 2008) on black metal, and discussing Varg Vikernes's interviews from the film with others, that I realized the deep, non-Semitic, non-Christian soul was to be (or at least, could be) found in black metal. I started exploring the genre. Emphasis on the 'pagan' (for lack of a better word), on European heritage, spoke to my soul. It's when I started listening to BM that I began experiencing my deep soul through music, you could say. Other forms of music, Hindu or Buddhist chants, Gregorian Chant, or Sufi music, all evoke something, but it does not feel quite of the European Soul in the same way. Ambient music, such as Christos Beest/Richard Moult's compositions also evoke something. Christos Beest wrote the ONA text Diabolus in Musica, where he argues that music such as Gregorian Chant can become Satanic if one alters the lyrics. What the music evokes, numinously, is what matters - regardless of the intent of the composers.
But again, Gregorian Chant, even when the lyrics are altered, such as in the Diabolus chant (of the ONA) (which is the Dies Irae with some words replaced with others and often sung at a slower tempo), does not evoke quite the European Soul, which I feel some forms of black metal channel much more properly. Burzum, Goatmoon, Satanic Warmaster, Bathory, Absurd, Svar, Dunkelheit (I mean here the Polish one-man band, not the song), Moonblood, Vlad Tepes, Graveland - I could go on. What is important is that BM often evokes a sense of battle, or war, and its meaningfulness, through the emotions conveyed. It's not a style of music for contemplating your navel - which is, in my view, the least numinous thing you can do. It's about finding meaning through war as well as in Mother Nature.
I'd have to listen to more Sufi/Dervish music, to get a better feel for what it evokes, but it feels deeper than Gregorian Chant (though obviously quite different from BM). Sanskrit mantras and chants, such as those sung by Gaeia Sanskrit (check out her Youtube Channel) and some of Zeena Shreck's Buddhist Milarepa Mantra (available on Zeena's YouTube channel) evoke something for me, more so than Gregorian Chant.
I couldn't finish this without a word on Neo-folk. I had gotten into bands like Current 93, Blood Axis, Fire and Ice, Death in June, Radio Werewolf etc, just before I did black metal, and their music too, really digs deep into the soul.
My ears (and soul) bleed when I walk into a mall and hear contemporary rnb or pop music. I just can't anymore (not that I was ever really into those things, but it has gotten harder to tolerate meaningless slop, rappers and pop stars talking about heartbreak and social interactions..)
I couldn't write up a clear-cut hierarchy of which musical forms and styles most evoke the numinous for me, except that black metal would be on top of it.
Thank you for reading.
JW
Wash It All Away (by Five Finger Death Punch) is currently playing on Octane. It's a song where the band almost (just almost) inadvertantly made a Satanic tune. It's missing something vital to Satanism. My (easy) challenge is this: What's it missing?
Here's the lyrics, with hints.
I've given up
On society
Up on my family
Up on your social decease
I've given up
On the industry
Up on democracy
Done with all your hypocrisy
All of the chaos
And all of the lies
I hate it
I'm wasting here
Can anyone wash it all away
I'm waiting here
For anyone to wash it all away
Wash it all away
I've given up
On the media
Feeds my hysteria
Sick of living down on my knees
I've given up
On morality
Feeds my brutality
Fuck what you think about me
All of the chaos
And all of the lies
I hate it
I'm wasting here
Can anyone wash it all away
I'm waiting here
For anyone to wash it all away
Wash it all away
I won't change for you
And I can't take the pain
There's nothing you can do
And there's nothing you can say
I've given up
On everything
Up on everything
Up on everything
I'm wasting here
Can anyone wash it all away
I'm waiting here
For anyone to wash it all away
Wash it all away
I'm wasting here
With everyone just wash it all away
I'm waiting here
For anyone to wash it all away
Wash it all away
Wash it all away
Music Companies are Brainwashing You to Like Bad Pop Songs
