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lady_kishiria) wrote2006-12-26 09:39 am
lady_kishiria) wrote2006-12-26 09:39 am
Entry tags:
Pagan Musical Ranty Rant
Okay, this is about SOME pagan musicians' choice of subject matter. Read on if you wish; be aware I'm rather pissed off:
Okay, as I think everybody here knows, while I'm not a pagan, I'm a noisy defender of the path (which reminds me, I need to post some links on the struggle to get the pentagram added to the list of DoD-approved tombstone symbols), but as with all religions including my own, there are some lines of bullshit in it that just get my dander up.
In my case, it's "the Burning Times". I was reminded of this while listening to a band on YouTube called Inkubus Sukubus. For the record, they are REALLY GOOD. I mean AMAZING. It's a female-fronted band and they rock.* Unfortunately, "Don't Forget The Burning Times!" is their big theme.
The Burning Times, for those who don't know, is the massacre of millions of women in late-medieval Europe under the Catholic Inquisition. It was a horrible holocaust.
...Or would have been, had it actually occurred. I wondered, during the early parts of my theology degree while I was at McGill, if this was just me being a Catholic apologist, but then I found out what the actual history was and that some pagan historians (I'll provide cites if requested) are getting rather embarrassed over the whole thing.
Skyypilot's song "The Burning Times" is a perpetrator of the Burning Times myth. It paints a picture of an idyllic rural pagan religion practiced by women, which had to be stamped out by Catholicism. Tens of thousands of women joined hands and jumped off cliffs into the ocean to avoid the Inquisition.
Okay, this is a historical human rights story that bears all the hallmarks of an urban legend. This outrageous thing happened at the hands of anonymous men upon anonymous women in no specific place, at no specific time, leaving no traces or consequences. Let's ignore the fact that if the genocide occurred at the rates the Burning Time myth suggests that there would have been no population left in Europe by the Renaissance. Ten million is about the population of the whole continent in any given year in, say, 1431. I'm only counting western Europe here, because the BT myth perpetrators don't either. Apparently eastern Europe wasn't Christian, or it didn't exist or something like that.
I'm trying to figure out where to start deconstructing. I guess I'll have to start with "the Inquisition". There was no one Inquisition. Every country had one and each one had a different thing it was trying to eradicate. Interestingly, none of them had "witches" as a target. Spain, the one usually pointed to, was after Jews, Muslims, and "heretics". Interestingly, Teresa of Avila was under constant scrutiny and some of her books were even burned. She was never accused of witchcraft though, even when she started levitating during prayer. France was after Protestants. Germany was as well. Italy had some interest in witches, but they were more concerned with if you were an evil witch who did harmful things. A "good" witch healed, blessed, and did "good" things, with the end result that their witchcraft trials could and did end in acquittals.
By the way, this all points to the number one thing that makes me roll my eyes at perpetrators of the Burning Times story: it blissfully ignores what is possibly the biggest formative event of late medieval/renaissance Europe, namely, the Reformation. All of the religious intolerance, violence and yes, often genocide of this period of time took place as part of the Reformation and the efforts of all involved to wipe each other out. (Eastern Europe got to sit out this particular dance as they were Orthodox for the most part, although they didn't mind offing Protestants either. They also had this slight problem with Turks, although that's another story entirely.) Europe fell into a maelstrom of sectarian violence that had nothing to do with witches or pagans or midwives or any of the other alleged victims. Jews occasionally got caught in ugliness as well although as my friend who went on to become a rabbi observed to me, "Wow, I never realized that the only time they came after us Jews was when they ran out of other Christians!"
Which brings me to another thing that was going on. In the more remote parts of Germany, Protestants were often burned on the charges of witchcraft. It should be noted though that this happened in places *where the Inquisitions were non-existent*. The reason for that is was that the Inquisitions were Dominican-run, and they were not only anything but superstitious (they were and still are intellectuals), they adhered to strict rules. Protestants were executed as Protestants. Protestants being executed as witches was a sign of legal breakdown.
"But what about the Malleus Maleficarum!" some will say. Yes, this book had an audience and was in fact used, but generally under the same circumstances as "Protestants executed as witches". The religious thinkers of the time, including Martin Luther, condemned its use, and in fact the Inquisition came down on at least one of the writers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum. 'Nuff said. Yes, it's been circulated a great deal, but it needed to be relegated to the same category of literature as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Anyway, I think I've made my point. Late medieval Europe was a gory, gory place. So gory in fact that it seems to me childish to want to invent outrages in order to claim victim status. Claiming victim status is obnoxious enough behaviour on its own. It's clear on the most cursory of levels that "the Inquisition" persecuting "ten million women" is a line that ignores the most basic facts of European history. It is a lie and as such does not serve the cause of either feminism or paganism. Stop writing songs about it. Especially good ones.
* Inkubus Sukubus gets particularly...inventive...with history when they start the song "Church of Madness" with a line about "the red and white knights of the Catholic Church." I presume they mean the Templars. Who were eradicated on charges of witchcraft. CAN THESE PEOPLE NOT PICK UP STINKIN' HISTORY BOOK!!!!!!?????
Okay, as I think everybody here knows, while I'm not a pagan, I'm a noisy defender of the path (which reminds me, I need to post some links on the struggle to get the pentagram added to the list of DoD-approved tombstone symbols), but as with all religions including my own, there are some lines of bullshit in it that just get my dander up.
In my case, it's "the Burning Times". I was reminded of this while listening to a band on YouTube called Inkubus Sukubus. For the record, they are REALLY GOOD. I mean AMAZING. It's a female-fronted band and they rock.* Unfortunately, "Don't Forget The Burning Times!" is their big theme.
The Burning Times, for those who don't know, is the massacre of millions of women in late-medieval Europe under the Catholic Inquisition. It was a horrible holocaust.
...Or would have been, had it actually occurred. I wondered, during the early parts of my theology degree while I was at McGill, if this was just me being a Catholic apologist, but then I found out what the actual history was and that some pagan historians (I'll provide cites if requested) are getting rather embarrassed over the whole thing.
Skyypilot's song "The Burning Times" is a perpetrator of the Burning Times myth. It paints a picture of an idyllic rural pagan religion practiced by women, which had to be stamped out by Catholicism. Tens of thousands of women joined hands and jumped off cliffs into the ocean to avoid the Inquisition.
Okay, this is a historical human rights story that bears all the hallmarks of an urban legend. This outrageous thing happened at the hands of anonymous men upon anonymous women in no specific place, at no specific time, leaving no traces or consequences. Let's ignore the fact that if the genocide occurred at the rates the Burning Time myth suggests that there would have been no population left in Europe by the Renaissance. Ten million is about the population of the whole continent in any given year in, say, 1431. I'm only counting western Europe here, because the BT myth perpetrators don't either. Apparently eastern Europe wasn't Christian, or it didn't exist or something like that.
I'm trying to figure out where to start deconstructing. I guess I'll have to start with "the Inquisition". There was no one Inquisition. Every country had one and each one had a different thing it was trying to eradicate. Interestingly, none of them had "witches" as a target. Spain, the one usually pointed to, was after Jews, Muslims, and "heretics". Interestingly, Teresa of Avila was under constant scrutiny and some of her books were even burned. She was never accused of witchcraft though, even when she started levitating during prayer. France was after Protestants. Germany was as well. Italy had some interest in witches, but they were more concerned with if you were an evil witch who did harmful things. A "good" witch healed, blessed, and did "good" things, with the end result that their witchcraft trials could and did end in acquittals.
By the way, this all points to the number one thing that makes me roll my eyes at perpetrators of the Burning Times story: it blissfully ignores what is possibly the biggest formative event of late medieval/renaissance Europe, namely, the Reformation. All of the religious intolerance, violence and yes, often genocide of this period of time took place as part of the Reformation and the efforts of all involved to wipe each other out. (Eastern Europe got to sit out this particular dance as they were Orthodox for the most part, although they didn't mind offing Protestants either. They also had this slight problem with Turks, although that's another story entirely.) Europe fell into a maelstrom of sectarian violence that had nothing to do with witches or pagans or midwives or any of the other alleged victims. Jews occasionally got caught in ugliness as well although as my friend who went on to become a rabbi observed to me, "Wow, I never realized that the only time they came after us Jews was when they ran out of other Christians!"
Which brings me to another thing that was going on. In the more remote parts of Germany, Protestants were often burned on the charges of witchcraft. It should be noted though that this happened in places *where the Inquisitions were non-existent*. The reason for that is was that the Inquisitions were Dominican-run, and they were not only anything but superstitious (they were and still are intellectuals), they adhered to strict rules. Protestants were executed as Protestants. Protestants being executed as witches was a sign of legal breakdown.
"But what about the Malleus Maleficarum!" some will say. Yes, this book had an audience and was in fact used, but generally under the same circumstances as "Protestants executed as witches". The religious thinkers of the time, including Martin Luther, condemned its use, and in fact the Inquisition came down on at least one of the writers. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malleus_Maleficarum. 'Nuff said. Yes, it's been circulated a great deal, but it needed to be relegated to the same category of literature as the Protocols of the Elders of Zion.
Anyway, I think I've made my point. Late medieval Europe was a gory, gory place. So gory in fact that it seems to me childish to want to invent outrages in order to claim victim status. Claiming victim status is obnoxious enough behaviour on its own. It's clear on the most cursory of levels that "the Inquisition" persecuting "ten million women" is a line that ignores the most basic facts of European history. It is a lie and as such does not serve the cause of either feminism or paganism. Stop writing songs about it. Especially good ones.
* Inkubus Sukubus gets particularly...inventive...with history when they start the song "Church of Madness" with a line about "the red and white knights of the Catholic Church." I presume they mean the Templars. Who were eradicated on charges of witchcraft. CAN THESE PEOPLE NOT PICK UP STINKIN' HISTORY BOOK!!!!!!?????
no subject
no subject
The book "Witchcraze" is the usual tome consulted. It has its flaws, but it's probably the most readily available jumping-off point. Also in many libraries.