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Orphic Hymns, No. 1 The histories of European occultist and esoteric tradition exist almost solely in the obscure and incoherent ramblings of medieval philosophers or in the cold detached voices of modern scholarly articles; they are as difficult to find as they are to understand; and they are marginalized or ignored by mainstream academics, theologians and society. But there is one mode of art which continues blatantly to interweave the themes of occultism and esotericism: black metal.
Neoplatonism, with its cosmic focus on man’s connection to divine powers, Egyptian Hermeticism, as a philosophy of occult sympathies, Cabalistic Demonology, with its cataloguing of Hebrew demons and ancient Judaic magic, and Satanism are all heavy influences on the symbolism and lyrical content of many black metal bands. Even a cursory look at band names, album titles, and lyrics reveals a vast and chaotic library of mysticism. The website for the Temple of the Black Light, perhaps gaining fame through its followers in more well-known black metal bands, outlines a muddled ‘chaosophy’—a belief in which freedom can only be found in chaos— which claims that outside our known, ordered plane of existence, there exists a liberated chaos, not bound within in the constructs of our plane’s spatial and temporal limitations. Within each human there is a ‘latent inner force’ of chaos, which must exist within the constructs of a cosmic-ordered ego until the gnostic and introspective philosopher can open the ‘blinded-eye’ of ego to see the true ‘All-Seeing Eye’ of the self. It then goes on to summon numerous ‘angles’ (which I can only guess are meant to be angels), from apocryphal and occult texts—Moloch, Astaroth, Lilith, Naamah, etc.—who also appear in various band names, album titles and songs. Black metal and occultism also share a profound affinity in the past and in ancient wisdom. Hermeticism, Cabalism, and almost all elite esoteric philosophies hold that the more ancient a wisdom the closer it is to original knowledge, and therefore, the more authentic. Getting back to this first philosophy, or prisca philosphia, was vital in recovering the lost, pre-fallen wisdom of Adam and the ancients. The texts of Hermes Trismegistus, which later gave rise to the Renaissance interest in Hermeticism, were held to be a more genuine truth than more modern religious texts because Hermes Trismegistus was believed to have been a contemporary of Moses, receiving the original philosophy directly from the divine. This antiquarian dating was crucial to its prestige and authenticity as occult knowledge, and when the dating was called into questioned by Isaac Causaubon in the early seventeenth-century, many of its disillusioned practitioners turned regretfully away. Black metal shares a similar retrophilia, repeating the themes that older is more authentic, original, and ‘true’. Forgeries in dating aren’t uncommon, as bands try to increase the value of their message by claiming it antedates its actual recording. For example, on a 2005 release a band might claim that the song was written or recorded in 1999, thereby placing it in a more ‘old school’ or ‘true’ time frame. While innovation and deviation are acceptable and encouraged by many major labels, departure from original themes, sounds, or styles is frowned upon among underground, or ‘elite’, black metal fans. Just as Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa gained a reputation as a learned occultist by mimicking the research and formulae of earlier esoteric philosophers Pico della Mirandola and Marsilio Ficino, so later occult philosophers like Aleister Crowley would look back to sixteenth century demonologists like John Dee for inspiration, rarely digressing from ancient themes. Similarly, black metal bands regularly continue the styles of early Darkthrone, Burzum, or Bathory, with little or no deviation. While the rest of the world marches towards musical progress, black metal fans insist that authenticity lies in the past. Contemporary elite occultism is necessarily esoteric and exclusive, and enormously distinguished from other more inclusive modern mysticisms, such as the various New Age ‘philosophies’, which are often merely mass-marketed self-help guides cloaked in a superficial spiritualism. Ancient mystic philosophers were extremely wary of sharing their knowledge, and many didn’t publish their research, and those that did would (some scholars think) obscure its truths behind elaborate ciphers, as did John Dee and Johannes Trithemius. Black metal also has a very closed and exclusive mindset—wary of newcomers, who are often inelegantly labelled ‘newbs’. In the middle ages and early Renaissance, the occult philosopher was variously respected or feared, depending on current socio-political climates, and their continuing persistence in exclusivity and obscurity could possibly be explained by the need to maintain these levels of social status. However, some claimed that they hid their magic from the unworthy, or the uninitiated, who would abuse their power. Why black metal musicians and fans hold this level of exclusivity is more difficult to discover; while it could just be misplaced intellectual or artistic elitism, it seems to be more grounded in the notion that what is sacred is for the few, as populism tends to slowly degrade musical value. But the fixation on occultism, combined with exclusivity and retrophilia, is a phenomenon not lost on this partially-outside observer. For what reasons would these musicians devote so much of their thematic content to esotericism and occult mysticism? Is it a desperate desire to become a member of the elect ‘elite’ few by ceaselessly mimicking them and their musical ancestors? Perhaps they believe that in order to gain the acceptance necessary they must take on the exterior garb of their musical superiors, in much the same way that a young apprentice into magic would imitate the incantations and behaviours of his philosopher master without really understanding their meanings. However, there is no denying that many fans and musicians hold these occult philosophies to be absolute truths, and are not simply posturing an interest in mysticism; many do seem to actually internalize these esoteric teachings and to appropriate them into personal belief systems. As regards to the cause and effect of the transition from black metal into occultism, or from occultism into black metal, these evolutions are probably a matter of personal experience and development and would vary from case to case should someone conduct an extensive interview-based research project. Perhaps an interest in the esoteric led a person to become immersed in one of its musical outlets, or conversely, an interest in the aesthetics of black metal encouraged its listeners and creators to explore much of the genre’s lyrical content. For me, the journey began with a child-like fetishized fascination of everything secret, hidden and forbidden, which led to my studies in the occult, religious apocrypha, satanic philosophies and eventually found enjoyment in a musical and artistic manifestation of these fixations: black metal. If readers of this article find themselves inextricably lodged between the worlds of black metal and of esoteric philosophy, maybe they will try to disentangle the progression of experiences that led them to one and then the other and respond in the comment box below, thereby starting the process of discovering and archiving pre-existing tendencies within black metal.
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Thoughts 
