Pagans: why do wailing guitars and pulse-pounding percussion bring out the Pagan in me?

Question

Just had to crank up the volume for U2's "New Year's Day". I do the same with Metallica's "Enter Sandman" (okay, being a die-hard rocker since '64 the list is endless, but these came to mind readily enough).

Don't get me wrong, I love Enya and a wide variety of Celtic instrumentals, but there is something very powerful and primal about rock.

It is as if Enya touches the feminine, while rock touches the masculine (if I may be excused for stereoptyping, but that is how it feels to me).

Care to suggest a reason for that?

"Get Your Ya Yas Out" tour - Buffalo 1975 ;-)

Answer 1

What does Slayer bring out in you?
You look old enough to be able to have gone to the first Rolling Stones concert lol...just joking....or am I?

Answer 2

It may have more to do with the percussion than anything else. I believe it's 180 beats per minute that works on the brain waves to help produce a hypnotic state. When teaching meditation and astral projection, I suggest beginners play music with a good fast drum beat, preferably 180 bpm.

I also love U2 not Metallica so much
Try Dead Can Dance. Way better than Enya.

Answer 3

Actually, drumming in many tribes throughout the world (some no longer exist) used drumming as a medical practice as well as inspiring a fervour in others.

Medically, the drumming is done in an enclosed space, or the person who is ill is surrounded by drummers. IF the pulse seems weak or low, the drummers beat fast, trying to increase the pulse rate. If the heartbeat was too fast, then the drummers drumed slowly.

We, as humans, are used to hearing and responding to pulses, from our time in the womb and as infants held against the chests of our parents. We will attune ourselves to someone else's heartbeat from infancy (which is why it is so easy to get a baby to fall asleep on your chest if you breathe slowly and slow your own heart rate) and we attune ourselves to drumming even more quickly.

That fast pace in rock music today does elevate our pulses, get the blood pumping anf hypes us up.

the drumming of a drum circle - steady and constant, does inspire an almost trance-like state. I've had the joy of participating in one once.

Answer 4

Your previous poster needs a bit of an education in languages. Pagani is the original term and it is latin, meaning country-dweller. However, he is correct on the fact that christians used it as an insult.. but, perhaps he wasn't aware of the fact the the term christian was also latin and originally meant "mini-christ" and was used by the Roman guard as an insult.

I'd like to know what you mean by "it brings out the Pagan in me" before answering. In what way are you pagan when this music comes on?

Answer 5

Depends on what you mean by "Pagan." It was originally the Greek word for "rural."

Christians started using it as a pejorative, because it carried the connotation of "Bumpkins," those unsophisticated losers who saw God in the whole of Nature, rather than seeking him in stone temples. Later, it was expanded to mean those heretics who communed with God directly instead of going through the toll gate of the hierarchy.

But, to come down off my high horse and answer your question, the driving percussion and strong bass lines of rock bypass the conscious mind and go straight to the lizard brain and thence to the soul. Thus rock makes us feel closer to the divine presence.

"Upon this Rock I will build my Church."--J Christ

Answer 6

What are you calling "pagan"?

I'm don't consider myself a Pagan, but I want to address this.

I'm a Christian, and I find something visceral about listening to Arthur Lee and Love or to Yes. There's something spiritual or profound about that music. In my church we use drums and guitars, but the artists I just mentioned touch me in a way that I wish the music in my church does.

Many traditional Christians, confusing true Jesus spirituality with Westernism, have racistly rejected anything that doesn't sound classically European. However, Psalm 150 says "praise Him with drums and dancing" and mention stringed instruments such as the harp and lyre. (The violin and the guitar hadn't been invented yet.) In 2 Samuel, David, worshipping God, dances a wild dance in his underwear! (I don't recommend that in most modern settings.)

Last month I attended a Native American Christian conference where they honored the drum and the flute as instruments with which to worship God.

This doesn't directly answer your question. However, I just wanted to assert that any kind of music, IMO, can be used to worship God.

Answer 7

I think the way certain types of music make you think and the mindset they put you in just opens your mind to different things. As in, the 'images' your brain assigns to different types of music links itself to 'bringing out the Pagan in you.'

Think of it this way: Say you are 15 and in Highschool. You're sitting in the middle of your English class and your teacher asks you to write an essay on the theme of MacBeth. In that enviornment, you automatically fall into the essay-writing mindset and apply the correct logic in finding the theme in MacBeth.

Now say it's summer and school has been out for 3 weeks. If you read MacBeth, aside from probably not liking it and not wanting to write an essay, you probably would not fall into that mindset as readily as you would have if you were in school. Of course, part of that is because you'd fall out of the habit of thinking like you're in school, but you get the idea.

Answer 8

Wow, I love the hard stuff, too. I stun all the young guys I work with when I tell them what I listen to. At one of our karaoke nights I sang Drowning Pools "Let the bodies hit the floor". Nobody expected that at all. Rock on!

Answer 9

Hmm...I never get a religious vibe from any kind of music, Maybe this is just a thing that happens to you?

Sorry about your son..

Answer 10

I must be masculine lol
not a keen enya fan to be honest

Metallica any day for me thank you
but I am more into Pagan Metal these days
Turisas is one of my favs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_3ILbQBTLxM&mode=related&search=