Ouch!

This is a little off my beaten path, but there is an interesting study about people who manifest the stigmata.

“Although I shook Bernas’s bloody hand, I obtained a better look at a wound shortly before, when she hugged the woman in front of me and thus placed her hand virtually under my nose. I noticed that the actual wound looked like a small slit, but surrounding that was a larger red area; this appeared to have been deliberately formed of blood in order to simulate the appearance of a larger wound, like one formed by a Roman nail.”

We don’t get too much of this sort of thing in modern paganism, I just couldn’t picture someone claiming to manifest the rope burns of Odin or Herne The Hunter.

Pagan Band Profile #4

As part of the lead-up to my annual Darker Shade of Pagan radio special (coming in August) I will be profiling some pagan and occult bands that have gotten my attention lately.

BUTTERFLY MESSIAH

Shannon Lyn Garson of Butterfly Messiah

Band Bio:

Hailing from unlikely Tampa, Florida, the band have created their own distinctly original sound, unlike any band that has come out of that state. “It is mostly industrial metal or alt rock (in Florida),” keyboardist Josh Harrington tell us, “we didn’t really fit into that mold.” Merging (as mental references, not mimicry) apects of 90′s era Depeche Mode, a dash of electropop, the occasional hardness of Prodigy or the artiness of Bjork, tempered with the uniquely gorgeous voice of Shannon Garson, who has been compared to Annie Lennox (Eurythmics) and Katherine Blake (Miranda Sex Garden, Medieval Babes). The vocals are a highlight of contrasting beauty; an emotion laden purging of humanness standing stark against a foreground of electronic wizardry – original and inspiring to say the least. – Butterfly Messiah Website

Reviews:

“I still maintain that Butterfly Messiah is one of the most interesting and promising new dark music acts active today. The band?s name is starting to become more familiar to those within the scene. Their tracks are starting to pop up on various DJ playlists, as well as on club request sheets. And rightfully so. This Floridian trio provides a seamless and impressive fusion of chilling Gothic atmosphere with pulsating synth pop/electro elements. Though my interests in organic Goth Rock will reveal my bias, I am not indifferent to the current crop of electro pop pervading dark music clubs. I just rarely hear anything that stands out in my memory or stirs my emotions. Ultimately, it?s just a matter of taste, and as they say, to each their own. But this single, the band?s first release since ?Priestess,? their debut full length for Fossil Dungeon early last year, contains what very well may be the first truly great potential club anthem of 2003.” – Starvox

“Imagine a mixture of lush female vocals that soar to angelic heights and slink to earthy lows, mixed with intense, sometimes spoken, sometimes sung, lyrics and chants and you have an idea of the magic that is weaved by Butterfly Messiah. With complex lyrics that often contain multiple meanings and touch on issues of both spirit and society they entrance the listener on many levels. Butterfly Messiah has been gaining a large following lately with their unique combination of electronic beats, gothic atmosphere and ethereal bliss. A little to driving too ritual to, “Priestess” is a great album to inspire a witchy mood and an even better album to experience on the dance floor.” – newWitch magazine

“Butterfly Messiah continues to live up to their name to some degree, as they are constantly in a state of metamorphosis. Their recordings are never rehashes of past successes, so essentially it is like hearing a new band each time. The one constant is Garson’s ethereal punctuations which is almost a trademark with the band at this point. One can hear twenty tracks, but will instantly know it is a Butterfly Messiah track by the way she and Davis construct a song to give just that much of a dark angelic hint.” – Legends Magazine



Further Reading:

Check out an interview with the band over at CHAIN DLK.

MP3s

You can download four full-length songs at Electromancer.

Is She or Isn’t She?

Chas Clifton comments on a Get Religion post on Jewish identity and brings up everyones favorite pagan activist Starhawk.

“I guess people like Mimi “Starhawk” Simos belong in a “hard-to-define, niche spirituality” to newspaper religion writers, to quote Mattingly’s blogging colleague, Douglas LeBlanc.” – Chas Clifton

In further Starhawk news, she is urging people to come to the RNC to protest.

“We can offer an alternative: embodying in our organizing and our actions the values we stand for: compassion, diversity, nonviolence, freedom, creativity and love, embodying a vision of a society based on real democracy, on liberty and justice, not for a privileged few, but for all.” – Starhawk

…and where Starhawk goes, there is a good bet the Pagan Cluster will also be there.

“Pagans” Feedback

The Barbelith boards have some initial feedback on the 4-part “Pagans” documentary I covered about a week ago.

“…this is the programme that used a blood dripping, four-clawed slash image as it’s ‘out’ reel for advert links, and that repeatedly used images of either naked ‘Pagan’ women being beaten about the bottom with birch twigs (complete with the background sound of Estonian/Danish/Swedish crossed ‘Ooo’s’ and ‘Ahhh’s') or the yellow and red graffitied words ‘bestiality’ and ‘SLUT!’ when in need of any visual image for the V/O.” – olulabelle

I guess we will see how the rest of them go.