Pagan Rites
God and religion are typically depicted as straightforward and unambiguously good forces in the horror movie genre. With the exception of the biblical epics, there is no other setting is which Christianity is seen as an absolutely pure power of righteousness. Movies with satanic villains such as Rosemary’s Baby (1968), The Exorcist (1973) and The Omen (1976) represent the opposing force to religion. They are purely evil, base and corrupt forces. In a Jungian sense, the Devil is the Shadow side of the God archetype, the opposing force of evil to God’s force of pure good. The satanic rituals in devil movies, the “Black Sabbaths,” are perverse inversions of Christian masses. Wine and debauchery are central parts of the ceremony, rather than a symbolic sipping of the vestal wine. Nudity, sex and sadomasochism are also overt parts of the ritual, physical celebrations of the visceral elements that are figuratively embodied in the Catholic vestige of the bloody, suffering, half-naked Jesus dying on the cross. Also, real blood is used in the satanic rituals, rather than symbolic blood in the form of wine. And finally, an actual human sacrifice is at the core of the ritual, rather than the symbolic remembrance of the sacrifice of Jesus at the cross.
On a different level, the satanic rituals recall the Dionysian rites of the Greek cults and primeval pagans that predate Christianity, yet somehow linger in the collective unconscious of both the religion and the people who believe in it. The link between Christianity and its pagan precursors is experienced through the ritual, the symbolic connection between humans and their gods. The ritual and the transcendent function it offers is much older than modern Judaism or Christianity. The purpose of the ritual is to create a metaphysical connection between Man and his gods. Rituals in “primitive” tribes use blood, sex, dancing, human sacrifice, music, liquor and drugs to achieve states of higher or altered consciousness, in which the gods are encountered.
Rituals in “civilized” cultures are sanitized in order to conform to the prudish sanctions of refined society. Liquor and drugs are minimized into nominal, symbolic sips of vestal wine. Sexuality and sadomasochism are sublimated into passionate prayer, sycophantic benedictions, torturous kneeling and submissive postures in the pews. Wild dancing is conformed into ordered processions. Rhythmic, primal music is systematized into sophisticated organ fugues. Spirited, animalistic singing and shouting is domesticated into unison singing of hymns and psalms. And the central symbol of the ritual—the human sacrifice—is only alluded to in references to Jesus and God, and Abraham and Isaac. Nevertheless, both the primitive ritual and the civilized church or temple service serve the same transcendent function. And though the visceral pleasures of the primeval rites are only symbolically alive in contemporary temples and churches, they are still very much alive in our collective unconscious.
However, since the pagan rites are not Jewish or Christian; since the pagan rites celebrate pantheistic gods of the earth, rather than a monotheistic God of heaven; since they represent “primitive” belief systems rather than “civilized” faith; and since the pagan rites represent sexuality, impulsiveness and physical pleasure rather than repression, submission and guilt, the archaic memories of pagan rites are typecast in films as supplications to the devil rather than services to gods. Instead of seeing the pagan rites as precursors to modern religion, they are cast as the opposites of religion. Rather than holy, they are “unholy.” Rather than good, they are evil.
The Devil Archetype
The European inquisitions of the Dark and Middle Ages were aimed at stamping out the ancient pagan beliefs. The heretics and witches were tortured and executed in incredibly sadistic ways that ironically recaptured the perverse elements of sadomasochism and human sacrifice within the pagan rites that the inquisitions were trying to eliminate. The movement to erase the pagan precursors to Christianity is not dead. The movement has become internalized in the Western world’s collective unconscious in the form of the devil archetype. All of the fears, desires and repressed associations within the collective unconscious that are related to paganism are embodied within the Satan figure.
Satan is a man-beast—he has a human torso and head, with hoofed feet, horns and a spiked tail. For the pagan cultures, the man-beast archetype represented an anthropomorphous mixture of human and animal qualities. The man-beast represented the divine combination of human intellect with animal physicality and intuition. Animals in primitive and archaic religions were not considered lesser form of life (i.e., “dumb animals”). In pagan religions, animals were respected and often worshipped as spiritual beings who carried intuitive wisdom and a sacred spiritual essence. The sacrifice for pagans was a consecrated act of releasing the inner spirit of the beast, so it could join with the larger communal spirit. The drinking of the animal’s blood was a symbolic integration of the animal’s sacred essence. The man-beast was a holy symbol for the pagans, corrupted into a symbol of evil and unholiness by Catholic priests in the Dark and Middle Ages.
Satan is also a god of the earth, residing either on the surface of the earth—in forests or caves—or beneath the earth in the demonic regions of Hell. In this sense, Satan is a direct recasting of Hades and Pluto, the Greek and Roman gods of the underworld. But while Hades was a brother of the gods who was capable of both good and evil, Satan is a former angel who rebelled against God. Therefore, Satan is completely evil, because God is completely good. The fundamental duality of Judeo-Christian thought—the conflict of complete opposites—creates these extreme archetypes. The pagan gods were more human. They had physical desires for sex and wine. They had human weaknesses and faults such as greed, vanity, lust and pride. The Judeo-Christian God, on the other hand, is not human. He is completely good and entirely spiritual, resulting in the necessity of an opposing archetype that encapsulates all of the negative qualities of the human race, the archetype of evil thoughts and depraved deeds.
Pagan Vampires
The devil is often recast as the vampire in movies—another primordial archetype that predates Christianity. The vampire in Dracula (1931) is a pagan deity, a Shadow God who is immortal, craves human blood and demands human sacrifice. He is also a shapeshifting man-beast, able to transfigure from human to animal like Zeus or Hades. Naturally, the forces of Christianity that repel and destroy Satan can also repel and destroy the vampire. A wooden stake, the symbol of the holy cross, driven through the vampire’s heart will kill him. The cross itself will repel the vampire, while other Christian vestiges such as holy water and the holy ground of a churchyard hamper the pagan monster.
It is interesting to note that the sun, the most ancient and most powerful of the pagan gods, can also kill the vampire. In the first feature length vampire movie, Nosferatu (1922), Count Orlok (Max Shrek) is evaporated by the rays of the morning sun. This may be because Jesus (the “Son”) was in many ways recast by the Roman Catholic tradition as the replacement figure to Apollo, the Roman solar god (the “Sun”). Hence the designation of the ancient festival of the winter solstice, once dedicated to Apollo, as Christmas. It is also interesting to note that in Tod Browning’s original 1931 production of Dracula, the count prominently wears a six-pointed Star of David emblem on his chest. Was this an accident? A subliminal anti–Semitic gesture? Or possibly a sanitized allusion to the Star of Satan, the five pointed pentagram?
Pagan Frankenstein
There is also a bounty of overt religious symbolism in the Frankenstein movies. The central symbolism in these films relates to Dr. Frankenstein’s sacrilegious experiments. As “the modern Prometheus,” he plays with the fire of the gods and so must eventually get burned. His unholy creation is a sympathetic creature, like Jesus. Frankenstein’s monster is resurrected from dead bodies taken from the gallows, just as Jesus himself was resurrected after being executed at the cross. At the end of Frankenstein (1931), the monster is strapped to a post and carried off by a mob of villagers in a crucifixion pose. And at the end of Bride of Frankenstein (1935), the monster destroys himself—sacrificing his own body after accepting
the realization that his own existence is an affront to God.
Pagan Monsters
Movie monsters in their many forms recapitulate unconscious images from our pagan past. In Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde (1920), Dr. Jekyll’s physical regression from Jekyll to Hyde is also a symbolic regression from civilized and repressed Christian to primitive and impulsive man-beast—the primary archetype of paganism. In The Wolf Man (1941), the werewolf is a shapeshifting man-beast. His supernatural curse, his craving for human blood, and his unbridled lust and violence are pure representations of the unrepressed pagan rites that linger as archaic memories in the collective unconscious. The monster in The Mummy (1932) is a worshiper of ancient Egyptian gods. Through his curse and resurrection, the Mummy becomes a walking representation of supernatural pagan powers. The Witch in Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Sleeping Beauty and The Wizard of Oz, whether an actual servant of Satan or an independent practitioner of the Dark Arts, is the evil feminine archetype—the Shadow Goddess—who is a direct vestige of the witch priestesses and sorcerer goddesses of the ancient pagan cults.
The Devil’s Children
Movies with demonic children such as The Exorcist, The Omen, The Damned (1962) and Children of the Corn (1984) represent the need to instill wholesome Christian values in today’s children. Traditional Christian doctrine maintains that all humans are born in sin, and that children retain the stain of this “original sin” in their souls. The sign of the original sin is apparent in the child’s naughty behaviors and evil desires. Hence, the traditional way to save the child’s soul was to “beat the devil out of him.” The violence directed at the “devil’s children” in these movies recasts this ancient tradition of holy child abuse in the form of “exorcism.” The frequent reappearance of the demonic child in horror movies is a statement to the lingering belief in original sin, as well as the prevalence of the devil archetype within the filmgoers’ collective unconscious.
The Deluge Archetype
Joseph Campbell was just one of the many mythologists who have pointed out the ubiquitous existence of the Flood Myth in the legends and creation stories of cultures throughout the world. Nearly every culture has a myth in which the world was either created or recreated through a primeval worldwide flood. The primeval flood marks a transition between the antediluvian (before flood) world and the re-created world after the flood. In Judeo-Christian tradition, the Bible clearly expresses the notion that the flood was intended to wash out all of the pantheistic and pagan elements on earth:
When men began to increase in number on the earth and daughters were born to them, the sons of God saw that the daughters of men were beautiful, and they married any of them they chose … [Genesis 6:1–2].
This passage is probably an allusion to the Greek gods such as Zeus and Hades, who were notorious for seducing young nubile mortal girls. Note that in the antediluvian age, God was not the sole divinity—he had “sons.” The notion of pluralistic divinity would not be broached again until the New Testament, when God, briefly, experiences fatherhood again.
…The Nephilim were on the earth in those days—and also afterward—when the sons of God went to the daughters of men and had children by them. They were the heroes of old, men of renown … [Genesis 6:4].
Here the bible alludes to semi-divine figures and creatures. The “Nephilim” in Hebrew translates into “the fallen ones.” These figures are typically interpreted as fallen divine figures, such as the Titans in Greek mythology, the race of Cyclops or other versions of the archetypal lost race of giants. Another interpretation is that the Nephilim were the semi-divine man-beast creatures of ancient myth, such as minotaurs and centaurs. The “heroes of old” are a clear reference to the semi-divine classical heroes of ancient Greek mythology such as Hercules or Perseus.
So the Lord said, “I will wipe mankind, whom I have created, from the face of the earth—men and animals, and creatures that move along the ground, and birds of the air—for I am grieved that I have made them” [Genesis 6:7].
The Lord, the “one true God,” decides to eliminate all of his divine and semi-divine rivals. He washes out the old gods and establishes a new covenant with Noah based on monotheism rather than pantheism.
Every living thing that moved on the earth perished—birds, livestock, wild animals, all the creatures that swarm over the earth, and all mankind. Everything on dry land that had the breath of life in its nostrils died. Every living thing on the face of the earth was wiped out; men and animals and the creatures that move along the ground and the birds of the air were wiped from the earth. Only Noah was left, and those with him in the ark [Genesis 7:21–23].
Here it is made clear that all things old are gone. Mythical creatures such as unicorns, dragons, giants and man-beasts, as well as supernatural shadow beings such as demons, ghosts, specters and spirits were driven from the earth. But, while the antediluvian figures were flooded over in the conscious mind, the memories may still exist underneath the floodwaters—buried deep within the psyche as primeval memories, ancestral experiences, primordial images and archetypes within the collective unconscious.
Then Noah built an altar to the Lord and, taking some of all the clean animals and clean birds, he sacrificed burnt offerings on it. The Lord smelled the pleasing aroma and said in his heart: “Never again will I curse the ground because of man, even though every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood. And never again will I destroy all living creatures, as I have done” [Genesis 8:20–21].
After emerging from the ark, Noah pays tribute to his god in the traditional pagan way, through a sacrificed burnt offering. Sacrifice will remain the primary form of worship in the Judaic tradition until the destruction of the Second Temple by the Romans in A.D. 70. Modern Jewish services are merely symbolic representations of the ceremonial animal sacrifices and burnt offerings, which (according to Orthodox tradition) will resume when the Messiah comes and the Third Holy Temple is constructed in Jerusalem. It is also interesting to note God’s estimate of humanity: “every inclination of his heart is evil from childhood.” This passage, no doubt, had a profound influence on the concept of original sin and the consequent abusive treatment of children in the Judeo-Christian tradition.
…you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each man, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of his fellow man [Genesis 9:4–5].
The drinking of the lifeblood of the animal sacrifice was an integral part of the pagan blood ritual—the moment in which Man becomes one with the animal, integrating its spiritual essence. In the passage above, God is establishing his formal covenant with Noah. As an initial clause, God clearly forbids the drinking of blood and the practice of human sacrifice—mainstays of the antediluvian pagan rites. (Oddly enough, God forgets the ban a few chapters later when he asks Abraham to sacrifice his own son to him).
Noah, a man of the soil, proceeded to plant a vineyard. When he drank some of its wine, he became drunk and lay uncovered inside his tent. Ham, the father of Canaan, saw his father’s nakedness and told his two brothers outside. But Shem and Japheth took a garment and laid it across their shoulders; then they walked in backward and covered their father’s nakedness. Their faces were turned the other way so that they would not see their father’s nakedness. When Noah awoke from his wine and found out what his youngest son had done to him, he said, “Cursed be Canaan! The lowest of slaves will he be to his brothers” [Genesis 9:20–25].
In this passage, we see Noah being punished for his regressive ways. The antediluvian world, as depicted so magically in the Pastoral Symphony segment of Disney’s Fantasia (1940), was a fantasy world of Dionysian indulgence. Wine flowed like water in those days. Noah’s indulgent tastes lead him to a drunken stupor. The traditional interpretation of this passage is that Noah, while passed out drunk, is emasculated by his youngest son, who wants to make sure that Noah bears no more
rival heirs who will claim ownership to the world. So, the first bible story of the post-flood era is both a denouncement of pagan debauchery and a rather bawdy, Oedipal-tinged tale of father-son antagonism.
The Unconscious Flood
The abundant psychological symbolism related to the archetypal deluge myth is apparent in all literature and works of art, especially in film. Floodwaters and oceans are widespread symbols of the unconscious in movies, especially in the “psychological thriller” genre. In What Lies Beneath (2000), a menacing bathtub represents the protagonist’s unconscious mind. When the tub is filled with water, the ghosts and shadows from her unconscious come flowing out. In In Dreams (1999), an abused boy is abandoned in his hometown, which is then flooded in a manmade deluge. When the boy grows up to be a serial killer (Robert Downey Jr.), the traumatic flood from his youth gives him the power to travel through the dream world of the collective unconscious. He can travel into people’s dreams and lure them into his underwater world of death. And in Artificial Intelligence: AI (2001), David’s (Haley Joel Osment) journey ends underneath the waters of a flooded New York City. The goddess figure he encounters, The Blue Fairy, resides at the bottom of the flood. She is at the center of the unconscious world into which David has descended. There, underneath the endless floodwater of time and consciousness—where myth and dream meet—David’s most cherished memories and deepest wishes come to life.
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