The Brigantii Moot

I’ve been thinking, for decades now evangelical Christians have had a thriving ‘rock gospel’ scene providing them with music in all kinds of genres produced by Christians with lyrics of relevance to Christians. But what is there for the Pagans and Witches among us? Not anywhere near as much, it seems…

I mean, there are plenty of shamanic drum and new age-y CDs and iTunes downloads; the occasional witchy-themed attempt at producing a pop track, 9 times out of 10 terminally embarassing; and, Inkubus Sukkubus, a band well known in goth circles but not by any means everyone’s cup of tea. Personally I like some of their stuff, but find most of it overblown, overly dramatic, a bit dated in its rock sound (I can almost see the mullets when I listen) and, most importantly, presenting an image of Pagan practice that is a little stereotypical but entirely in keeping with traditional goths and what they like. The band’s image, too, is goth through-and-through.

But you don’t have to be a goth to be a Pagan, most Pagans aren’t, and while I enjoy a lot of goth music–I’m a huge fan of The Cure and only now, in my 40s, getting into The Cult–my tastes are much, much wider. And I see no reason why we can’t have dance and pop music that is Pagan flavoured.

Much of what is seems to me to be closeted to some degree, or at least not made much of. One of my all-time favourite singers, Kate Bush, is most definitely Pagan-tinged. Her track ‘Lily’ from the album ‘The Red Shoes’ is atmospheric, powerful, and involves an evocation to the guardian angels for protection by a traditional Witch. And then there’s most every track from ‘Hounds of Love’, which has among its themes such great topics as reincarnation, ghosts, and more. But then, Kate comes from the late 1970s alternative scene where there was lots of dabbling in ideas and beliefs at the time considered ‘out there’ or exotic. Her unofficial heir is, of course, Tori Amos and she is quite upfront in having come from a staunchly Christian background but having a connection to the Goddess. Her autobiography, published a few years ago, reveals a lot of Pagan thinking and belief.

When will we see, I wonder, the equivalent of a bunch of young witchy girls doing a Girls Aloud in producing catchy dance-pop with themes we can connect to, who at the same time are upfront about their spiritual beliefs? I”d like to see Pagans obvious and active across all musical genres. Hey, even a Pagan musical would be so cool–but I’m not thinking ‘The Crucible’ by Arthur Miller set to music and performed on a skating rink, haha!

I know that if you want to see examples of real snobbery, you only need to mention pop music to a few long-haired traditional Pagans, for whom the idea of using synths and drum machines is–well, it’s like you’ve suggested they boil their babies in saltwater! But Pagan music doesn’t always need to be focused on the spiritual, it doesn’t need to be deep and constantly, consistently meaningful in a serious way, and it can, it really can, be fun. But so far there’s little I’ve found that’s fun about Pagan music.

What are others’ views on the subject? Does anyone know of examples of popular and contemporary music that is made for the dancefloor and yet contains or clearly touches upon Pagan themes? And why don’t we make more of an impact on popular culture beyond ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’–is it because most of us are too damned serious all of the time?