Publication details
Unholy Alliances : Preliminary Remarks on the Esoteric Interaction with Black Metal
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| Year of publication | 2022 |
| Type | Appeared in Conference without Proceedings |
| MU Faculty or unit | |
| Citation | |
| Description | Since the early 1990’s, black metal’s employment of dark occult, pagan, and warrior themes, individualist antinomian elitism and romanticism concentrated on dark aspects of humanity and nature, together with its violent antichristian acts and from that resulting media visibility have transformed the scene into a well-known space filled with discourses and symbols which are also present in various (mostly dark) esoteric alternative spiritualities. As a result, esoteric actors could thus use black metal for propagation of their own ideas and practices not only within the scene, but also outside it. The paper aims at demonstrating evidence for ongoing esoteric reflection of black metal by non-metal occult actors and their active involvement with the scene for the sake of their esoteric interests. Via three case studies from the realm of radical right-wing esotericism (Satanic organisation Order of the Left Hand Path/Ordo Sinistra Vivendi; esoteric Heathen Michael J. Moynihan; and Thelemite Traditionalist Sebastián Jahič), the presentation will try to provide preliminary first steps towards the discussion of the phenomenon, whereby, for certain established proponents of mostly darker forms of esoteric spiritualities, black metal represents an important mirror for their (social) reflection and an arena for dissemination of their ideas already since the first half of the 1990’s, and whereby black metallers’ movement towards more systematic and active involvement in esoteric spiritualities was (and still is) sometimes accompanied by an active interest of established esotericists in the scene. |