My Top 10 Pagan Albums of All Time

December 5, 2017 By John Beckett

I’ve been writing a lot of serious stuff lately and I need a break. So let’s do something fun.

What is Pagan music?

Is it the songs and instruments of our ancestors? Is it inspirational and devotional music for Pagans? Perhaps it’s the artistic exploration of Pagan themes. Maybe it’s music made by Pagans. Or perhaps it’s just music Pagans like. A good case can be made for any and all of these definitions.

I use recorded music in most of my rituals. Some of it’s for devotional offerings, but most is for background music, played while we’re doing something non-verbal. Occasionally I make playlists dedicated to a particular deity or theme. And because I’m a geek, I plan these playlists in spreadsheets.

I combined 21 playlists from the past 11 years into one big spreadsheet, then pivoted by artist and album. The cut from 71 albums down to 16 was easy. Cutting down to the final 10 was hard. But it’s a Top 10 list, so that’s what I did.

Please note the qualifier at the beginning of the title: this is my Top 10 list. I’m not a music critic or historian, and this isn’t a list of the “best” or “most influential” albums in the Pagan world. This is my list of the albums I like and have played a lot in ritual. Your list will be different, and different is good.

So, in no particular order (mostly), here are my Top 10 Pagan albums of all time.

I only have CDs for two of the Top 10 - my younger self is very sad — *I only have CDs for two of the Top 10 – everything else is a digital download. My younger self is very sad.*

Damh the Bard: Spirit of Albion (2006). I said there was no particular order, but Spirit of Albion has to be first. Damh started writing songs so we’d have something Pagan to sing around the campfire, and I’ve definitely used them in that spirit. The title song is perhaps the most rousing anthem in all of Paganism. “Morrighan” is a haunting devotion to the Battle Raven. “Noon on the Solstice” was Damh’s first song to the Horned Gods, and “Oak, Broom and Meadowsweet” would partially inspire this year’s bardic offering Y Mabinogi.

There are no weak songs on Spirit of Albion, just good ones and better ones. I’ve played music from all of Damh’s albums at one time or another, but this is the one I use most of all.

*Damh the Bard in concert at the 2015 OBOD East Coast Gathering*

Pandemonaeon: Dangerous Beauty (2010). Pandemonaeon is Sharon Knight’s plugged-in rock band. The instruments are positively powerful, and while Sharon’s vocals are always good, here they’re haunting. Some of the songs aren’t strictly Pagan, but others are very much so: the lyrics to “Heart Girt With A Serpent” come straight from Aleister Crowley.

This album turned up near the top of this list because I’ve used “Queen of Shadows” in devotions to the Morrigan so often. And “The Goat Is On The Pole” is a fast and fun instrumental piece that’s great for finishing off a Maypole dance. But mainly, I love listening to it. Dangerous Beauty fits all the definitions of Pagan music I listed at the beginning of the post. For listening (as opposed to playing in ritual) this may be the best of the Top 10.

Dead Can Dance: The Serpent’s Egg (1988). Wikipedia calls Dead Can Dance “Neoclassical dark wave” and that’s fairly accurate. Their music isn’t explicitly Pagan, but I know a lot of Pagans who like it. There isn’t anything better for setting a ritual atmosphere before beginning something deep and introspective.

I could have chosen any of their albums. I picked The Serpent’s Egg primarily because of “The Host of Seraphim.” Before Denton CUUPS’ first Spiral Labyrinth at Samhain 2011, I was unusually nervous, almost agitated. “The Host of Seraphim” was our prelude. I turned it on and closed my eyes. Six minutes and 18 seconds later I was in the proper frame of mind for the ritual, and so was everyone else.

S.J. Tucker: Blessings (2007). S.J. Tucker is a brilliant singer-songwriter whose “fun and filk” music is popular with a lot of Pagans. Most of it is too light for my tastes. But not Blessings – it’s plainly Pagan… so much so there’s a warning on her website that it “may not be appropriate for all audiences.” But “for those that are open to alternative spiritual paths, this album is not to be missed.” Truth in advertising is a good thing.

“For Love of All Who Gather” is an invocation. “Witches’ Rune” is a beautiful exposition of Wiccan ritual. “Come To The Labyrinth” is renewing and inspiring. And while “Hymn to Herne” is a cute and sexy song, it has a serious element to it. The video below is old and the talking part is hard to hear. Turn your speakers up, watch S.J.’s facial expressions, and hear her struggle to not get choked up when she says “and he showed up.”

Bulgarian State Radio and Television Female Vocal Choir: Le Mystère des Voix Bulgares (1975). This is a collection of Bulgarian folk songs performed by a large and talented women’s choir. I picked it up in a used CD store in the mid-1990s because some of it had been used in the Xena: Warrior Princess TV show. I listened to it a few times and liked it, but then I put it in my CD rack and forgot about it. When I went looking for ritual music for Samhain 2011 I was very glad I had it.

The harmonies are beautiful, and because Bulgarian is so different from English it has a very mysterious sound to it. If these aren’t authentic pre-Christian songs of Bulgaria and Thrace, they could be. I’ve used it in some of our Samhain rituals and in our 2015 Rite of Hermes.

There have been three similar albums released by this same project. Volume 2 won a Grammy Award in 1989.

Damh the Bard: The Cauldron Born (2008). This album is for all those who’ve said finding Paganism is like coming home. It has two rousing anthems. “The Cauldron Born” says we’re not alone:

“You feel so lonely, Come with me and let me show, There are others just like you.”

“Land, Sky and Sea” could be the theme song for Nature-centered Paganism, and “Pagan Ways” tells the mainstream TV culture that we’re different and we’re happy about it.

Sharon Knight: Neofolk Romantique (2013). The Sex Pistols made it into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame on the basis of only one album. Neofolk Romantique makes it onto this list on the basis of only one song: “Fire in the Head.” It’s based on a Welsh legend that says anyone who sleeps on a certain mountain will wake either mad, dead, or a poet. Both the lyrics and the music are simultaneously beautiful and terrifying.

“The screaming hag that rides the wind
Will rip the soul right from your skin
The hollow hills will swallow you
And flay apart your mind
To win the kiss of the gifted ones
We risk our lives on the mountain front
There’s some wake mad, and some wake dead
And some will rise with a fire in their head.”

“Mistress of MacLyr” is an original devotion to the sea and the God of the Sea, and “The Captain’s Flask” is another short fun instrumental piece. The rest are traditional Celtic folks songs and sea shanties. They’re good, but they’re not really what I think of when I want Pagan music. But “Fire in the Head” is enough to put this album on my Top 10 list all by itself.

Faith And The Muse: :Ankoku Butoh: (2009). Faith and the Muse is a dark wave collaboration between William Faith and Monica Richards. This album has a Japanese theme and uses Taiko drums extensively. This is powerful, driving music.

If you want a mysterious torchlight procession, play Dead Can Dance. If you want to call people to rise up and fight, play “Battle Hymn” “When We Go Dark” and “Sovereign” from :Ankoku Butoh:.

Their 1996 album Annwyn, Beneath the Waves has a Celtic theme and includes songs to Arianrhod, Rhiannon, and Cernunnos. I’ve used some of that music in ritual too. But top to bottom :Ankoku Butoh: is their best album, and their most powerful.

Omnia: PaganFolk (2006). Omnia is a “Neoceltic” Pagan band from the Netherlands that has had a variety of members and instruments over the years. Their music has changed a lot too, from Celtic and Neoceltic at their beginning to the environmentalist emphasis of their more current stuff.

They can be more show than music, and their last couple of albums have been rather preachy. For me, PaganFolk was their “just right” phase. Much of it isn’t in English, but the sound is perfect for light background music. “Tine Bealtaine” and “Dil Gaya” are regular choices for our Maypole Dance.

Sharon Knight and T. Thorn Coyle: Songs for the Waning Year (2008). Pagan chants shouldn’t be dirges, but for many years most all of them were. This is a collection of 22 short songs that can be incorporated into your rituals. We’ve used “Ancestor Chant” “Beyond the Gates” “Come All Who Hunger” and “Prayer for the Dead” as interactive chants. Just teach them to everyone before the ritual begins, and as long as you’ve got a couple of strong singers to carry the tune, everyone else can follow along.

Sharon and Thorn also did Songs for the Strengthening Sun in 2009. It’s good too, but I like Songs for the Waning Year better.

rehearsing “Come All Who Hunger” before a Denton CUUPS ritual

The 6 that didn’t make the cut

Enya:  The Celts (1986).
Loreena McKennitt:  The Visit (1991).
Loreena McKennitt:  The Mask and the Mirror (1994).
Wendy Rule:  The Wolf Sky (2006).
Faun:  Eden (2011).
Blood Ceremony:  Living With the Ancients (2011).

I love all this music, and I’ve used a lot from the first five of these albums as background music in rituals and in my personal practice.

Enya’s popularity with the New Age crowd is no reason for Pagans to avoid her. I saw Loreena McKennitt in concert last year and she was awesome. I don’t do much Wicca-based ritual anymore, but I’d still like to find a way to do a live version of Wendy Rule’s “The Circle Song” and “Elemental Chant” in a group ritual.

Faun is similar to the best of Omnia but with a more consistent sound. For some reason I don’t have their Midgard album from last year – I need to fix that. And Blood Ceremony isn’t serious Pagan music, but its 70s metal / Hammer Films vibe is a lot of fun.

I could have put any of these in the Top 10 list (especially Eden or The Visit) but then I would have had to take one of the Top 10 out.

The Top 5 Novels I Read in 2023

December 20, 2023 By John Beckett

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Stories are magical.

A good story can transport you to places and times in the far past, in the distant future, or in an alternate universe. It can help you see things in the ordinary world that were previously invisible to you. It can inform you, inspire you, and encourage you to try new things and branch out in new directions.

If you want to change hearts and minds, you don’t need facts. You need stories.

I read a lot growing up. There was no internet and only three TV channels – my entertainment options were rather limited. My fiction reading peaked in my late 20s and early 30s, mainly because I was reading every vampire novel I could get my hands on.

And then I got busy. Three cross country moves in six years, driven by three new jobs. Discovering witchcraft and Druidry, experiencing an ephipany, and taking a leadership role in a local Pagan group. Deciding to start a blog, and, well, you know how that turned out. I still read the occasional urban fantasy, and in 2021 I made an effort to read something new. But even that was a pale comparison to what I used to read.

This year I set a goal to read one novel a month. Again, that’s a fraction of what I used to read, but it would be a step in the right direction. I’m happy to say I’ve met that goal. The stories I’ve read have been entertaining, but they’ve also been inspiring. I can’t do the kind of magic fictional witches can do, but reading fictional magic encourages me to go deeper into the real magic I can do.

I’ve not been shy about asking for reading recommendations. So in the spirit of reciprocity, here are my recommendations to you.

Here are the top five novels I read in 2023.

5. All That Consumes Us

All That Consumes Us by Erica Waters. 2023, 416 pages.

Corbin College is a private liberal arts college in the South. Most of its students are from wealthy families, but Tara is not. So she’s thrilled when she’s given the opportunity to join a secretive elite academic society that will pay all her expenses. But that comes with expectations, and with a price that isn’t disclosed up front.

This is a ghost story, a cautionary tale for people (of all ages) whose lives are focused on achievement at all costs, and a story about the meaning of friendship.

All That Consumes Us is classified as Young Adult. The main character is a 17 year old college freshman, so I suppose it is. But its themes are quite mature, and I never felt like I was reading something intended for kids. Also, it does a great job of being inclusive and representative (around race and ethnicity, gender and sexuality, disability, and class) without being preachy. Some other authors I read this year tried to do this – none did it so well.

4. The Lost Apothecary

The Lost Apothecary by Sara Penner. 2021, 320 pages.

The Lost Apothecary is three stories in one. In 1791, Nella runs a secret apothecary shop, helping the women of London with their problems – including their problems with troublesome men. Eliza is a domestic servant who pays a visit to Nella on behalf of her mistress and then becomes entangled with her. And in the present day, Caroline visits London for what was supposed to be her 10^th wedding anniversary, until things turned sour.

I generally don’t like non-linear storytelling, but this works. We learn how Nella and Eliza’s stories happen from their perspective, and then we see how Caroline discovers bits and pieces of that story. In the process, she becomes the historian she always wanted to be before she took a job as a bookkeeper because it was the safe and sensible thing to do. But will she embrace her calling?

Is magic real in this world? The main characters are skeptical, but as in our world, sometimes it’s easier to accept that magic works than to rationalize it away.

3. A Dowry of Blood

A Dowry of Blood by S.T. Gibson. 2022, 320 pages.

For all the many retellings and reimaginings of the Dracula story – in print and on screen – almost none of them have taken the opportunity to fill in the stories of the three Brides of Dracula (Hammer’s 1960 movie of that title was a completely different story). Stoker does not name them, and Jonathan Harker refers to them only as “the weird sisters.” Dracula is long out of copyright and these characters are just waiting for someone to tell their stories.

A Dowry of Blood is a series of letters written to Dracula (though he’s never called by name) by Constanta, his first bride. It’s a vampire story, but mainly it’s a story about domestic violence. Not physical violence, but the violence of emotional manipulation and financial control, and the difficulty of leaving such a situation. And also, the necessity of leaving. I won’t give any real spoilers, but I will say I was happy with the ending.

S.T. Gibson has a retelling of Carmilla coming out in February titled An Education In Malice. I will definitely be reading it.

2. The Cloisters

The Cloisters by Katy Hays. 2022, 336 pages.

This is another dark academia novel, but instead of being set in a college, it’s set in the musuem world of New York City. Ann is a recent graduate in Art History from a small college in eastern Washington who moves to New York for a summer internship. At The Cloisters – a real life museum that specializes in medieval art – she helps the curator and his assistant with their research into a very old Tarot deck, and with their explorations into reading the Tarot.

The Tarot explorations give the story a very Ninth Gate feel to it, minus the Emmanuelle Seigner as the Devil angle.

This isn’t the best novel on this list (that’s why it’s #2) but it is the deepest. It explores the question of free will vs. fate and it shows how some people’s opinions about fate are more about believing what they want – and need – to believe instead of where facts and reason and virtues lead them.

With about a quarter of the book left, I told someone that there were four ways it could end and I had no idea which way it would go. I wouldn’t call the ending happy, but I would call it satisfying.

I haven’t been to New York City since a business trip in 1988. I think I’m going to have to go again, to see The Cloisters.

1. Ninth House

Ninth House by Leigh Bardugo. 2019, 480 pages.

Most of us have heard of Skull and Bones, the secret society at Yale University whose membership includes George W. Bush. But there are others – a quick Google search says there may be as many as 47. Apparently, some are more secret than others. Author Leigh Bardugo is a member of Wolf’s Head, founded in 1883.

In Ninth House there are eight secret societies. Their power comes not just from old money and political conections, but also from magic. Each house has a magical speciality, and they use magic pretty much how you’d expect rich entitled college kids to use it.

Lethe is the ninth house, formed to oversee the magical workings of the other eight. It requires members to have certain skills and talents with magic and the supernatural.

Alex Stern is the last person you’d expect to find at Yale. She’s smart enough, but her high school years were spent with drugs and dealers instead of application-boosting extra curricular activities. But she can see ghosts, so she’s recruited to Yale to serve in Lethe. She struggles to fit in at Yale and to escape her past on the West Coast, while trying to do her job and not get killed – or kicked out of school – in the process.

Ninth House is as much urban fantasy as it is dark academia, and I love the mixture. The timeline bounces around from past to present (you learn the backstory as the main story unfolds) but chapters are labeled so you always know where you are.

My only complaint with Ninth House is that it doesn’t have an ending – it just stops. Fortunately, the sequel (really more of a continuation) came out earlier this year. Hell Bent runs 496 pages and it’s just as good as the original.

This one didn’t make the cut

A Discovery of Witches by Deborah Harkness. 2011, 592 pages.

This is the story of Diana, a young woman who is the latest in a long line of witches, but who prefers to build a life as a scholar. But she can’t quite leave magic alone, and she finds herself entwined in a centuries-long battle for supremacy among the world’s magical species.

I should love this book. It combines my current favorite genre – dark academia – with witches and vampires. A lot of people do love it. When I asked for suggestions in 2021, this book got more recommendations than any other. It also got the most negative comments. One reviewer called Diana TSTL – too stupid to live. That’s a little harsh, but she does take risks that are both serious and obvious. Main characters who never screw up are boring, but those that have the reader screaming “what could you possibly be thinking???!!!” are frustrating.

A Discovery of Witches isn’t a bad book and I don’t regret reading it. But I haven’t read the sequels, and I doubt I will.

Enjoy This Day: 10 Thoughts on the Inauguration

January 20, 2021 By John Beckett

It’s over.

For the first time in four years, the President of the United States is a decent human being. That’s a pretty low bar, but that’s where we are. Joe Biden may turn out to be much more than that – we will see.

Congratulations – we made it through alive. Not everyone did. Mourn the needless deaths – from Covid and otherwise – but do not feel guilty because you survived and others didn’t.

I’m enjoying today. It’s the first step toward restoring decency, compassion, and reason to our government. We didn’t just get a new President today. We got a new Vice President, a new Attorney General, and a new Secretary of State. Instead of “leaders” who were trying to tear things down (Betsy DeVos, I’m looking at you), we have competent professionals in the cabinet… or at least we will when the Senate confirms them.

And we have the most diverse cabinet in American history. Representation matters.

I have many thoughts. Here are ten of them.

1. Let’s give thanks to everyone who made this day possible

I’ve seen a lot of comments saying that without this group or that group this never would have happened. Certainly some individuals and groups are worthy of special recognition: the members of the Navaho Nation who put Biden over the top in Arizona. Stacey Abrams and the members of Fair Fight Action who showed that hard work can turn a red state blue – and then did it again in the Senate runoffs. There were many others who went above and beyond to make this day possible.

But 81 million people voted for Joe Biden – I want to thank all of them. I want to thank everyone who made phone calls, knocked on doors, put up signs, and wrote checks. If you helped get Joe Biden elected, thank you.

2. Let’s give thanks to those who kept the government running

Some like to rant about “faceless bureaucrats” and “the swamp.” But in many cases, it was career civil service employees who kept things running – people who insisted on doing their jobs despite pressure from the former President and his political appointees.

I’ve already read several articles on the damage in the State Department and in the Justice Department. I expect we’ll be reading many more in the weeks and months to come.

I have nothing but respect for those who resigned rather than be a part of the previous administration. But for those who stayed and kept essential functions going as best they could, thank you.

3. Let’s give thanks to the resistance

The idea of “the resistance” always seemed a bit over the top to me. As bad as things have been for the past four years, they haven’t been Nazi-occupied Europe or the Vichy-controlled Morocco of Casablanca.

Still, there were acts of resistance. I wrote about some of them in The Inspiration of Badass Park Rangers in early 2017.

[he] banned all government agencies from communicating with the public … They’ve set up independent Twitter accounts so they can continue to distribute information anyway. So far we have ‏@AltNatParkSer, @AltForestServ, @RogueNASA, @alt_fda, @AltUsda, @TheAltEPA, @AltHHS and more.

[he] doesn’t want them to do their jobs serving the public interest? They’re going to do them anyway.

You smiled when you read that, didn’t you? You cheered when you first heard it. Felt a bit of pride and a bit of hope.

Because a bunch of park rangers did their job.

The resistance served as a constant reminder that this wasn’t just another Republican administration. This was beyond the bounds of ethical government and we could never accept it as normal.

To everyone who resisted, in ways great and small, thank you.

Fort Davis National Historic Site - part of the US Park Service — Fort Davis National Historic Site – part of the US Park Service

4. The people who tried to overturn the election are still here

As important as today’s changes are, the things that did not change are also important. And that begins with the people who stormed the Capitol and all those who support them and think like them.

They were there because their dear leader told them to be there. But make no mistake – they were there because they wanted to be there. 74 million people voted for authoritarian rule, and a substantial number of them were willing to abandon democracy to keep their preferred authoritarian in power.

And for every “Q Shaman” there was a lawyer, a realtor, a retired military officer. I didn’t see a single unemployed coal miner in the bunch.

I was wrong. It was never about economic anxiety. It was about patriarchy, xenophobia, and white supremacy. The soul of America is rotten.

A few of these people can be redeemed. Most simply have to be opposed: again, and again, and again.

5. Accountability must precede reconciliation

Funny how some Republicans are calling for “unity” and “reconciliation” now that Democrats control the presidency and both houses of Congress. I appreciate Mitch McConnell finally realizing that some lines can’t be crossed, but he waited until he got everything he wanted from the previous administration before he spoke up. Ted Cruz and Josh Hawley are pandering to the radical right base, not trying to find common ground with the majority.

The people who tried to overturn the election must be held accountable. The people who tried to dismantle the government must be held accountable. There is a clear bright line between honest conservative politics (which I respect even though I oppose) and what we’ve seen over the past four years, and especially since the election was called on November 7.

No pardons. No “bipartisanship.” No sympathy for the “f*** your feelings” crowd. Forgiveness without repentance just enables further bad behavior.

Accountability first.

no longer a functioning prison – but we have plenty more

6. Four years of misrule cannot be undone in a hundred days

It’s important to temper our expectations for what Biden can do right away, even with a Democratic Congress. He’s promised to reverse many of the previous administration’s executive orders – that can be done quickly. But undoing the impact of those orders will take time. So will any changes that require legislation.

And the courts are lost for a generation.

Covid is killing people and wrecking the economy (the real, non-stock-market economy, that is) – combatting the pandemic has to be Priority One. A government can work on multiple things at once, but it can’t fix everything, much less fix it all right away.

7. Biden is ultimately a centrist and must be held accountable to his promises

At the same time, these next few weeks present a unique opportunity. Incoming Presidents try to ride their election momentum into early support for their ideas. Biden has that, plus he has a wounded opposition party with a fair number of Republicans trying to distance themselves from the previous administration. He needs to grab everything he can while he can.

Joe Biden has been a centrist all his life. His positions moved leftward during the campaign, but a 78-year-old doesn’t suddenly change his core beliefs and approach to governing.

When he does the right thing, we need to support him. When he slides back into the worst of what we saw from the Obama and Clinton administrations, we need to criticize him just as loudly as we would if he was a Republican.

8. We are still living in Tower Time

Tower Time isn’t going to end just because the United States has a new President. Even if you discount the spiritual and metaphysical aspects of Tower Time, the fact remains that all empires decline. The American empire is no exception.

Climate change is still going on. Fossil fuels are still being depleted. Species are still going extinct.

This isn’t an apocalypse or a cataclysm. We’re not entering a new Dark Age. But we are about ten years into a period of disruption and decline that will not be over any time soon.

There are still many challenges ahead of us. We can overcome them… but not if we ignore them.

And especially not if we act like they went away at noon today.

9. Do not forget what we have learned

For all that went wrong the last four years, a lot went right.

We remembered that democracy is not a spectator sport. We need not all become political activists, but good citizens have to remain engaged or we will be governed by people who do not share our values.

We have to take care of each other, on a societal scale to be sure. But first and foremost, we have to take care of each other on the ground where we are. Your friends and family are your first and best source of comfort and aid – and you are theirs.

Build a good, deep, consistent spiritual practice and it will support you in difficult times.

Build alliances with people of good will no matter their religious or political persuasions. Don’t let your legitimate demands for accountability turn into a crusade for purity.

And never, ever, underestimate a wannabe dictator. Even if he ultimately fails, the harm will be immense.

10. But today, celebrate

Whatever we need to do can be done starting tomorrow. Today, raise a glass of something or other: in memory of those needlessly lost, in honor of those who made this day possible, and in celebration of a new beginning.

May it be a good one.

Top 10 Posts of 2017