Pneumatised!

MM,

I know a few people are wondering what an urban pagan such as myself would choose to listen to these days. Well, first of all, I don’t listen to the radio much and I find most of my music via internet now. Nathan is constantly searching for new music artists and occasionally I hear something I like and just add it to my playlist.

Here is a quick run-down of some artists I listen to these days in alphabetical order:

A Perfect Circle

Nathan got me listening to this band, though at first I couldn’t listen to them because the album he had was a little depressing and I needed to listen to something more uplifting or peaceful. However, when the mood is right, I listen to them. What makes this band stand out is their bass guitar. Without it, the songs wouldn’t be the same. Yes, the music is a little sad and depressing, but at the same time there’s a feeling of hope – just that little glimmer. I’m amazed at the expression of emotion in the music. I really like the song “Blue” from them.

Aeone

A lovely vocalist. She has been compared to Loreena McKennitt. I like “Umbra Nihili”.

Anuna

What can be said about Anuna that hasn’t been said? In case you don’t know who Anuna is, it’s the famous Irish choir. They do some amazing chants and some contemporary pieces. Great stuff.

Arcadia

Would you believe I still listen to this? I had the album on vinyl when I was a kid and I had to have this on mp3. The singer is sexy Simon LeBon – enough said.

Balligomingo

This is nice and relaxing in an smooth tempo. Good vocals. Trance type music that’s a little bit pop. Female vocalist.

Celtic Cross

This music is similar to Dagda. Trance type music with a Celtic theme. Not bad, smooth like Balligomingo.

Conjure One.

This band is related to Balligomingo. Pretty much the same comments as Balligomingo, except not so much pop.

Claire Voyant

Good vocals. Good sound. Some interesting mixes. Their song “Mirror” is my current favourite from them. Close friends with Hungry Lucy. Note the name of the band – clairvoyant. Get it? Female vocalist.

Dagda

Apparently, some people don’t like Dagda comparing the artist to Enigma. Yes, what they are doing is similar, however, the theme is different. Enigma is more East Indian inspired while Dagda is strictly Celtic. Duh… that’s why the artist is named Dagda. Some amazon reviewers are just clueless. I like Dagda’s Underworld album and their newer one, Celtic Trance.

Duran Duran

Yes, I still listen to them. Actually, more like rediscovering them, since I missed out on much of their albums after the breakup of the original lineup. Lucky me, though, the original members got back together and I got to see their concert here last April. See my review on this blog about the concert. Anyway, can’t convince people to like them if they don’t already, so not going to try. I like the band frankly because they are strange guys and their fascination with sci-fi carries through into their music.

Entheogenic

This group is a little bit psychedelic, which I don’t normally go for. However, they are fairly smooth and I can actually fall asleep with this on, even though it’s not slow music. It’s quite relaxing.

Enya

Who has not heard Enya? Her Celtic album is one of the best.

Evanescence

Okay, Amy Lee is not that hot and she is not that good of a singer, so guys get over it already. Evanescence is for the teen goth wannabes. Victoria Lloyd of Claire Voyant, Christa Belle of Hungry Lucy, and Sharon den Adel of Within Temptation are way better goth singers. So why do I listen to Evanescence? Well, the music is good. Composition is great. Amy Lee is a good composer and pianist. I just think the band needs to get a different singer while Amy Lee concentrates on composing and playing the piano and not torturing our ears with her horrendous live performance attempts at singing her complicated vocals.

Faith and the Muse

An interesting goth/pagan band. They have a nice style and do some really good drums – I mean the African, tribal kind of drumming, not the two sticks kind. “Willow’s Song” is particularly good. Some may recall that song from The Wicker Man. Faith and the Muse does a good cover of it, though I’d like to get the original song too. Female vocalist.

Hungry Lucy

I’ve done a review of this band previously on here. Great lyrics and good trip hop music. Not many pagan bands do trip hop. “To Kill a King” is a great song and so is “In the Circle”. Lots of good songs by them actually. Just read my review. Female vocalist.

Ian Van Dahl

Okay, not a pagan-oriented band, but I love my dance music and miss the days when I used to go dancing every weekend. Ian Van Dahl is great trance/dance. The music is uplifting and good for those days when you need to lift your spirits (i.e., those cold winter days when you don’t feel like doing anything.) Female vocalist.

Inkubus Sukkubus

A pagan artist I like primarily because they do some good Wiccan chants. Check out “Aradia” on their Wild album.

Jack Off Jill

Good vocalist. A good pagan band. They have a song called “Witch Hunt”. Though I like “Strawberry Gashes” and “Star No Star” better. They also do a cover of the popular Cure “Love Song”. Female vocalist.

Kidney Thieves

For some reason, the singer’s voice reminds me of Britney Spears IF Ms. Spears could actually do goth punk rock (which I highly doubt). But this should not deter you from liking Kidney Thieves. This band is on my current listening list and I haven’t paid attention to their entirely, so I don’t have any favourites by them.

Lacuna Coil

This band is on my “to listen” list. So far I like them, but don’t have any favourite songs yet.

Linkin Park

Would you believe this band has the same producers as Duran Duran? Somehow it doesn’t surprise me, though the two bands sound different. I love voice of the Linkin Park singer. It’s nice, mellow, and smooth. Amazing how he goes from mellow and smooth to screaming in rage. Some very good songs by them, though I first heard “My December” and it reminded me so much of some songs from high school that I had to check out the band to see what else they had. “Crawling” and “Numb” are two of my favourites from them.

Loreena McKennitt

Who cannot like Loreena McKennitt? She has a wonderful voice and great control of her vocals and she’s canadian! Would you believe she researches topics for her songs? Like when she wrote “Mummer’s Dance”, she was travelling and researching the cultural background for it. “Mummer’s Dance” is definitely a favourite of mine, so is “Mystic’s Dream” from the TV movie Mists of Avalon.

Mists of Avalon

Loved the movie and loved the soundtrack. Naturally, I had to get the soundtrack. Excellent composition. When I listen to it, I can almost see the movie in my head. “Mystic’s Dream” is on the soundtrack. The vocalist on the soundtrack is Aeone (see above).

New Order

I still listen to New Order on occasion. What can I say about them that hasn’t been said over the past 20 plus years? The music was innovative at the time and still sounds good.

Receiving End of Sirens

This band has been compared to “My Chemical Romance” though I haven’t heard “My Chemical Romance” yet. They are more popular than Receiving End of Sirens right now. Receiving End of Sirens has a strangely good grasp of varying their styles in a song. Frankly, you’ll just have to listen to them to understand what I mean. The strange thing is that their songs will unexplicably sink into your brain and you won’t be able to forget about them.

Rhea’s Obsession

This artist has a strange goth and trance feel when I listen to them. Some good songs like “Mortal Ground”.

Switchblade Symphony

This band is on my “to listen” list. I’ve listened to them a bit so far and they are quite good, though I don’t have a favourite right now.

Tapping the Vein

Another goth band. Beautiful lyrics and vocals. Check out “Butterfly” – “What am I? I wish I was butterfly. I’d fly and fly until it was my time to die. It’s creeping in again. I know what I really am. No more pretty purple peaceful butterfly.” Then listen to “Hurricane”. Female vocalist.

The Cure

I had this on cassette and listening to all this goth music lately reminded me of the Cure, especially the cover from Jack Off Jill. From the Cure, one of my favourites is “Pictures of You”.

The Gathering

On my “to listen” list. I like them so far.

Theatre of Tragedy

Liv Kristine was the singer for this band. She is now a solo artist and has another band. Some of Theatre of Tragedy’s stuff is really good though and it’s worth checking out sometime. “A Distance There Is” sometimes plays in my head when I wake up and I have to listen to the song. It’s a good piano piece. They also have a song called “Cassandra” and I actually like it. Great lyrics and excellent vocals.

Tori Amos

Tori Amos is a good artist, an original. She was able to take the tragedy in her life and use it to become stronger through her creativity. I was first introduced to her by a friend who sent me the song “One Thousand Oceans”. It so far is my favourite by her, though I haven’t heard all of her stuff yet. Her new album is decent, but it tends to be a mood thing for me. I can only take too much of it. It’s almost too mellow for me.

Within Temptation

This is an excellent goth band. Theatre of Tragedy and Within Temptation seem similar to me. I like a few songs from this band very much – “Angels”, “Memories”, “Our Farewell”, “Never Ending Story”, “In Perfect Harmony” and “Julian”.

Okay, that is my short list of what I listen to these days. I have meditation stuff and some other Wiccan/new age type music that’s pretty decent, but I’ll cover that next time. For now, this list should keep some of you people busy.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local webmistress and music fan
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

Nathan showed me this interesting chart a few days ago and I had some amusing thoughts about it. The chart lists a few major religions and shows what followers in each religion thinks will happen to followers of the other ones. Seeing as they didn’t put Paganism or Wicca on the chart, I figure I might as well give an individual pagan’s perspective.

First, catholics – you will either go to heaven, purgatory, hell or are going to reincarnate depending on how nice you are to us pagans. I don’t particularly believe in hell, but since you’re so adamant about it existing, I figure you’ll end up there anyway if you don’t treat people of other spiritual backgrounds nice enough. Chances are though, most of you will reincarnate as you really don’t have a clue how life and death work. Purgatory is for those who have been toeing the line a little too often. Heaven is for those lucky few who manage to be very nice to everyone and become so enlightened you won’t reincarnate – you’ll probably see a few of us pagans there too.

Second, protestants – you almost fall into the same category as the catholics except since you don’t believe in purgatory, you’ll either go to heaven or hell or are going to reincarnate. Chances are you’ll reincarnate because you don’t have a clue either, just like the catholics. If you’re really mean to us pagans though, you’ll probably end up in hell since you believe in it so much. To get to heaven, see comment regarding catholics.

Third, mormons – you’re much nicer than the catholics and protestants and you have good hearts, though a little misguided. I think you’ll likely reincarnate because you don’t quite have the meaning of life and death yet. You’re not as clueless as the catholics or protestants though, so maybe a few of you will get to heaven this time around. Otherwise, if you heed my words, you might get to heaven in the next lifetime. As for hell, well, if you leave us pagans alone which you tend to do sometimes, you probably won’t go there.

Next, muslims – hm… thinking they’ll reincarnate like most of the mormons. Some muslims are quite enlightened though, so maybe they’ll get to heaven. Just stay away from crazy kamakazi maneouvres and you should stay away from hell.

Hindus and Buddhists will either go to heaven or reincarnate. They don’t tend to be as bad as the catholics, protestants, mormons, or muslims. They tend to relatively nice people, not shoving their beliefs at everyone else trying to convert them and they don’t tend to condemn someone just because of their spiritual background. Much more enlightened groups of people they are. Some may get to heaven this time or maybe in the next life.

Unitarians are quite nice folks. This is a toss-up. Because they are so nice, I’m hesitant to say they are going to reincarnate. They at least try to be nice to everyone and maybe they actually do have a clue. For now, I’ll say they’ll go to heaven (just to be nice back) and maybe us pagans will see them there.

Atheists and Agnostics, I hate to say this, but you’re probably going to be reincarnated in this sometimes miserable limited-dimension world that is comprised of nothing but suffering, as Buddha says “All life is suffering”. Sorry, but just because you can’t prove something exists doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist. You won’t get to heaven frankly because you don’t believe in it and you really don’t have a clue. So another trip around the circle of life you go. Maybe next time, you’ll take my advice and just become pagan.

As for other pagans, we’ll all just go to our respective otherworldly places that we each believe in whether it be the Summerlands or Valhalla or Hades or the Egyptian underworld or just heading into the west a la Lord of the Rings elf-style or well you get the idea. There’s the off chance some might reincarnate because they may need to learn a few more lessons, but hopefully they’ll all just come back as pagans again.

Well, there you have it. Be nice to us pagans and you can’t go wrong.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local webmistress
Brigid’s Flame

MM,

Finally went for a run. I ran a half mile to Bloor and Park Rd., then a mile back going north on Yonge to Church and then south on Church. My time was a little slow, but decent. I was feeling a little dizzy from the cold. Thinking on top of wearing a hat, I need to wear ear muffs. My ears really can’t take the cold well. The time for the half mile was 5 minutes 14 seconds and the time for the mile was 9 minutes 7 seconds. I’m hoping to get a run in tomorrow.

I did do some pushups when I got back from the run and some free weights for my arms. I felt like my arms were getting weak from not getting to the gym as much as I should lately. I also did some light stretching. I’m fairly flexible, so a short time not doing much stretching doesn’t hurt me as much as missing the running and weight training.

I didn’t get any writing done, so hoping to go for a run tomorrow and come back and do some writing.

BB,
Cassandrah
Your local webmistress
Brigid’s Flame