Saturday, February 21, 2015

Death Metal, Greek Philosophy, and Gnosticism

GNOSTICISM SHOWS UP IN THE MOST UNLIKELY PLACES: Pneuma Hagion's R. Discusses Death Metal, Greek Philosophy, and Gnosticism (Kim Kelly, Noisey (Vice)). Excerpt:
Tell me about the idea of Pneuma Hagion. As Lovecraftian as the project's title sounds, I read that it's actually Greek for "holy spirit." Clearly there's a perversion going on here. Your lyrics aren't posted, so could you give me some insight into what message and ideas you're trying to convey?
The perversion idea is pretty spot on: this is a Gnostic band, and one of the most well-known strategies of Gnostic exegesis is the inversion of canonical scripture. Specifically, Pneuma Hagion represents several things to me, but I use it primarily as a symbol of the "divine spark" celebrated in Gnostic mysticism. I tend to subscribe to the pseudo-dualism of flesh versus spirit which is so common to biblical demiurgical traditions (pseudo-dualist because this dualism is actually played out against a monistic backdrop).

The Greek connection deepens with a song like "Caverns"— I immediately thought of Plato's Allegory of the Cave.
And here is where you truly are spot on; this observation is incredibly accurate. "Caverns" absolutely draws on the Allegory of the Cave, and I definitely see Pneuma Hagion as a vehicle of Light and Wisdom. To expand (briefly) on the general themes at work in Pneuma Hagion, I can summarize it this way: the true Self of any person is their divine Spirit, which is at once of the same substance as, yet separated from, God. I speak here of something similar to Tillich's "God Above God"; this is NOT the god of scripture or of any mainstream religion, past or present: this is a God removed from, yet intimately connected with, our sensible world. So in effect, the idea is to remember our origins, to see the truth, and to escape this cave. I take a very, very negative view of this universe and of life in general, which is typically Gnostic, but this is attenuated somewhat by my belief in many Neoplatonic ideas.
More on modern reflections of Gnosticism here and links.