Esoteric themes in pop music

[litewave]

Back in year 2003 something weird happened to me: I realized that a mainstream pop song and music video by a singer who was popular at the time (and was apparently not known for anything esoteric or religious) seemed to be conveying a message about souls' descent into matter and spiritual fall. The song was "Beauty on the Fire" by Natalie Imbruglia. An interesting thing about it was that at first sight this looked like a song and video about desire, fun and dancing and you would probably have to pause a bit to notice some of the unusual metaphors in the lyrics and an indication of a civilizational tragedy in the video. Before 2003 I had read some esoteric literature (for example Edgar Cayce, Ken Carey) but I never expected I would find this stuff in mainstream pop songs and that has fascinated me ever since, as I discovered more instances of esoteric themes in pop music. Apparently these esoteric themes have been bubbling up in human culture for centuries or even millennia but seeing them in pop songs and music videos gives me a particular emotional resonance and a sense of urgency.

Recently I got the idea to ask Claude AI what it thought about this, which developed into quite a long conversation. If you are interested you can check it out here:

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I discussed the following songs in the conversation (in this order):

• Natalie Imbruglia: Beauty on the Fire; That Day
• Pink Floyd: High Hopes (as well as the album The Division Bell and the related Publius Enigma phenomenon)
• Lana Del Rey: short film Tropico; Summertime Sadness
• Avril Lavigne: Nobody's Home
• Taylor Swift: Anti-Hero
• Depeche Mode: My Favorite Stranger
• Dua Lipa: Houdini
• Lady Gaga: Abracadabra
• Tate McRae: Sports Car

There are more artists I could mention but the chat was quite long already and I think it constitutes an interesting enough sample.

What do you think about it? Am I reading too much into mundane music? Have you had a similar experience with pop songs?

 

[Jsinclair]

You aren't reading anything into it. You're reading between the lines OF it. I admittedly am not familiar with any of the songs on your list other than Abracadabra. Take an afternoon and have a look-see on YouTube regarding the symbolism of that song. One can even mine some gems from the Christian paranoiac channels, as long as they are squared with unbiased interpretation. My personal favorite from the same artist is Judas. And that one leads you directly and intentionally into a very specific tradition of "Magdalene Gnosticism" that is, curiously, in keeping with the exact same tradition concealed in Moulin Rouge, the blue & white dress of Walt Disney Princesses (vide The High Priestess trump by way of A.E. Waite) - and MUCH more along THAT particular Royal Road (vis-a-vis Beauty and the Beast, wishing on a particular star, The Little Mermaid - specifically the Magdalene painting in the undersea grotto- etc., etc., et al.), The Greatest Showman, etc. Now, these may not be POP music, per se, but they clearly establish a very specific Gnostic tradition that one may use as a frame of reference when proceeding.

The purposeful encoding of symbolism within music is nothing new, with Mozart being a prime example. But, as with anything else, realize that there is not just one tradition being represented (I simply used my own as the above example), and that opposing goals are often pursued with similar language.

There are an exhaustive number of examples to be found. And whether the message is encoded by The Artist or The Assembly Above them varies from case to case. But the point here is that your eyes are now open and you will never be able to unsee what you do see - especially as you become familiar with more traditions and more symbolism.

Note : The elaborate live music presentations on awards shows are, almost without fail, little more than Mystery Plays. They make for particularly intriguing analysis and speculation regarding intent/motivation.

 

[OberonFromTheHills]

Kate Bush performing a LBRP in Lily

 

[Jsinclair]

Back in year 2003 something weird happened to me: I realized that a mainstream pop song and music video by a singer who was popular at the time (and was apparently not known for anything esoteric or religious) seemed to be conveying a message about souls' descent into matter and spiritual fall. The song was "Beauty on the Fire" by Natalie Imbruglia. An interesting thing about it was that at first sight this looked like a song and video about desire, fun and dancing and you would probably have to pause a bit to notice some of the unusual metaphors in the lyrics and an indication of a civilizational tragedy in the video. Before 2003 I had read some esoteric literature (for example Edgar Cayce, Ken Carey) but I never expected I would find this stuff in mainstream pop songs and that has fascinated me ever since, as I discovered more instances of esoteric themes in pop music. Apparently these esoteric themes have been bubbling up in human culture for centuries or even millennia but seeing them in pop songs and music videos gives me a particular emotional resonance and a sense of urgency.

Recently I got the idea to ask Claude AI what it thought about this, which developed into quite a long conversation. If you are interested you can check it out here:

Please, Log in or Register to view URLs content!

I discussed the following songs in the conversation (in this order):

• Natalie Imbruglia: Beauty on the Fire; That Day
• Pink Floyd: High Hopes (as well as the album The Division Bell and the related Publius Enigma phenomenon)
• Lana Del Rey: short film Tropico; Summertime Sadness
• Avril Lavigne: Nobody's Home
• Taylor Swift: Anti-Hero
• Depeche Mode: My Favorite Stranger
• Dua Lipa: Houdini
• Lady Gaga: Abracadabra
• Tate McRae: Sports Car

There are more artists I could mention but the chat was quite long already and I think it constitutes an interesting enough sample.

What do you think about it? Am I reading too much into mundane music? Have you had a similar experience with pop songs?

There is a 2 volume occult music collection now available on the BookShares sub-forum.

Use them as a foundation. Follow the trail. Go down some rabbit holes. Play some shit backwards and have a blast!

 

[litewave]

My personal favorite from the same artist is Judas. And that one leads you directly and intentionally into a very specific tradition of "Magdalene Gnosticism"

I loved Lady Gaga's video for Judas, her playing Mary Magdalene riding with a motorbike gang of Jesus and apostles, and the whole concept of the song as her being torn between Jesus and Judas but also honoring both as aspects of herself. Very creative.

Note : The elaborate live music presentations on awards shows are, almost without fail, little more than Mystery Plays. They make for particularly intriguing analysis and speculation regarding intent/motivation.

Last year I was struck by Lady Gaga's performance of Abracadabra/Dead Dance combo at MTV Music video awards. The first half of the performance shows her in a red dress, like an evil queen sitting on top of a red prison that is cramped with dancers. In the second half she becomes one of those imprisoned dancers inside, now in white or pinkish clothes like the rest of the dancers. The prison doors open and Gaga with the dancers walk out onto the runway and dance. But at the end they return to the prison and the door is shut again.

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I am wondering what they meant to say with this. The return to prison seems like a regrettable ending and it reminds me of the video for "The Greatest" by Sia, which at the beginning shows a prison too, with piles of children's bodies inside, who are apparently dead or asleep. The children then come alive/wake up, escape from the prison and dance. But at the end they all suddenly collapse and die/fall asleep again.

 

[Jsinclair]

I loved Lady Gaga's video for Judas, her playing Mary Magdalene riding with a motorbike gang of Jesus and apostles, and the whole concept of the song as her being torn between Jesus and Judas but also honoring both as aspects of herself. Very creative.



Last year I was struck by Lady Gaga's performance of Abracadabra/Dead Dance combo at MTV Music video awards. The first half of the performance shows her in a red dress, like an evil queen sitting on top of a red prison that is cramped with dancers. In the second half she becomes one of those imprisoned dancers inside, now in white or pinkish clothes like the rest of the dancers. The prison doors open and Gaga with the dancers walk out onto the runway and dance. But at the end they return to the prison and the door is shut again.

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I am wondering what they meant to say with this. The return to prison seems like a regrettable ending and it reminds me of the video for "The Greatest" by Sia, which at the beginning shows a prison too, with piles of children's bodies inside, who are apparently dead or asleep. The children then come alive/wake up, escape from the prison and dance. But at the end they all suddenly collapse and die/fall asleep again.

Because that is the unavoidable cyclical nature of things while wrapped in this mortal coil. It helps to recognize that at the outset. One may get ever closer to ultimate freedom but, at the end of the day, one really just has to be recognize that we have consciously replaced the Quest for Survival with The Quest for Freedom/Enlightenment/The Grail. And that, in and of itself, is the first phase of Liberation.

I hate to use this quote from Cleveland Brown in Family Guy about his Civil Rights board game...but it popped in my head so I'm gonna : You never really win, you just do a little better each time.

 

[litewave]

Kate Bush performing a LBRP in Lily

Oh this was quite on the nose I haven't listened to Kate Bush much but I suspected she was spiritual because I knew Running Up That Hill, her song about a deal to swap places with God.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 12:34 AM

There is a 2 volume occult music collection now available on the BookShares sub-forum.

Use them as a foundation. Follow the trail. Go down some rabbit holes. Play some shit backwards and have a blast!

You mean your thread "2 Volumes on Occult Music"? I currently can't view threads in that subforum because I have not fulfilled certain conditions yet.

Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 12:50 AM

Because that is the unavoidable cyclical nature of things while wrapped in this mortal coil. It helps to recognize that at the outset. One may get ever closer to ultimate freedom but, at the end of the day, one really just has to be recognize that we have consciously replaced the Quest for Survival with The Quest for Freedom/Enlightenment/The Grail. And that, in and of itself, is the first phase of Liberation.

I hate to use this quote from Cleveland Brown in Family Guy about his Civil Rights board game...but it popped in my head so I'm gonna : You never really win, you just do a little better each time.

Yes... that makes sense. How frustrating. It works on personal as well as collective scales.

 

[Kepler]

What do you think about it? Am I reading too much into mundane music? Have you had a similar experience with pop songs?

It was enlightening to read Leonard Cohen talking about psychic terrorism in his music after getting the impression of prophetic insight in songs like The Future.

Sarah McLachlan Possession immediately seemed like a psychic/magickal defense that took energy directed at her and repurposed it. Very inspirational. The entire album Fumbling Toward Ecstasy giving an esoteric impression.

Constant Craving by k.d. Lang drawing in from the first listen with it tapping into esoteric interpretation from its existential lyrics.

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Post automatically merged: Yesterday at 8:00 AM

 

[litewave]

It was enlightening to read Leonard Cohen talking about psychic terrorism in his music after getting the impression of prophetic insight in songs like The Future.

Early 1990s and the fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the fall of the whole Iron Curtain between the capitalist world and the socialist world and the end of the Cold War, was an inspiring time for other musicians too, from what I noticed. It was the fall of barriers between individualistic Western and collectivistic Eastern societies. U2 released the album Achtung Baby ("Watch out, baby" in German), which they say was inspired by the reunification of West and East Germany, but it also showed a lot of unease and skepticism (like about the idea of "oneness" in the song One). Pink Floyd referenced the Berlin Wall in their album The Division Bell in the song A Great Day For Freedom, which warns of individualistic fragmentation in a formerly collectivistic society (implying the arrival of capitalism in East Germany). Scorpions reflected the era in their hopeful hit Wind of Change.

Sarah McLachlan Possession immediately seemed like a psychic/magickal defense that took energy directed at her and repurposed it. Very inspirational. The entire album Fumbling Toward Ecstasy giving an esoteric impression.

I was struck by Sarah McLachlan's first two songs on her album Afterglow. The song Fallen is clearly about the fallen human condition while the song World on Fire sounds like an apocalyptic awakening.

As for the two moon-related songs you posted, I have met with two opposite symbolic meanings of the moon. One is about intuitive spirituality related to femininity (due probably to lunar and menstrual cycles). The other is about materialism because the moon has no light of its own, it just reflects the light of the sun (faintly), and is constantly changing, as opposed to the immutable looking sun. So what are these two songs about - about the pull of spirit or matter?

 

[Kepler]

Early 1990s and the fall of the Berlin Wall, which symbolized the fall of the whole Iron Curtain between the capitalist world and the socialist world and the end of the Cold War, was an inspiring time for other musicians too, from what I noticed. It was the fall of barriers between individualistic Western and collectivistic Eastern societies. U2 released the album Achtung Baby ("Watch out, baby" in German), which they say was inspired by the reunification of West and East Germany, but it also showed a lot of unease and skepticism (like about the idea of "oneness" in the song One). Pink Floyd referenced the Berlin Wall in their album The Division Bell in the song A Great Day For Freedom, which warns of individualistic fragmentation in a formerly collectivistic society (implying the arrival of capitalism in East Germany). Scorpions reflected the era in their hopeful hit Wind of Change.

In context of a changing of aeons with end times to world events references marked in the song The Future were contextually one of longing for the old aeon's return by the narrator. How reliable the narrator is part of the song's charm.

As for other bands Sisters of Mercy Floodland preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall and captured that political tension as it was happening. The album was and is pretty popular with occultists, but not exactly pop music.

Observations an AI analyzing may miss until an explicit reference is added to its dataset.

I was struck by Sarah McLachlan's first two songs on her album Afterglow. The song Fallen is clearly about the fallen human condition while the song World on Fire sounds like an apocalyptic awakening.

Her repertoire is bursting with meaning. Very talented lyricist.

As for the two moon-related songs you posted, I have met with two opposite symbolic meanings of the moon. One is about intuitive spirituality related to femininity (due probably to lunar and menstrual cycles). The other is about materialism because the moon has no light of its own, it just reflects the light of the sun (faintly), and is constantly changing, as opposed to the immutable looking sun. So what are these two songs about - about the pull of spirit or matter?

Gowan's Moonlight Desire's perhaps unintentionally through its earnest composition has strong parallels with the Ordeal of the Siren and Yesod.
Coincidently a band called The Parallels covered the song.

At The Feet of the Moon dealing with initiation, passion for progressive development with alignment and astral visions penetrating secrets. Perhaps a play on and reference to At The Feet of The Master and mentorship.

Again things an ai would miss until explicitly pointed out. There's more to elaborate, but this is plenty and the benefit for training AI is low compared to the satisfaction of knowing things it doesn't and drip feeding these 'secrets'. Its also fun seeing things I've pointed out make its way to ai.

I Mother Earth, The Tea Party and David Usher had some great esoteric lyrics but is more 90s alt-rock than pop.

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maybe got some pop radio/mv play. It has surreal existential examination that raises esoteric contemplation.