Hail Saturn! Aquarius & Black Metal
Content Warning: Metal is a musical genre featuring dark themes. Darkest amongst its subgenres is black metal. A full discussion of the subgenre and its origins would be incomplete without mention of arson, murder, and self-harm. If you are sensitive to these subjects, you may want to refrain from reading.
Few musical genres draw more divisive reactions than metal. Its intensity, unconventional song structures, harsh vocals, and focus on extreme emotions can be off-putting to the average music listener. Then again, many folks dislike spicy food, while others relish curries and griot. It all comes down to a matter of taste, with many enjoying both food and art forms which mingle pain with pleasure. And then there are some forms of metal which simply seem off-putting and painful by design. Enter black metal.
History
Clad in pentagrams, bandolero belts, and spiked armbands, when black metal burst onto the world stage in the 1980’s, it deliberately fed into the ongoing Satanic panic. Intended to provoke pearl-clutching and hand wringing amongst the complacent and mild-mannered, pioneering black metal acts like Venom, Hellhammer, and Bathory released influential albums with provocative titles like Welcome to Hell, Satanic Rites, and Under the Sign of the Black Mark. Building upon many other innovations in extreme metal like double-bass drums and wild costuming, early black metal artists took the genre of metal to its furthest limits. As I stated previously, all metal subgenres find their unique flavor in some form of extremity, taking a musical element and driving it to the edges. Black metal finds its essence in atmospheric and idealistic extremity. Musically, much of early black metal was like thrash and speed metal: fast, aggressive, but much darker. They also opted for a rawer, crunchier guitar tone, and notably Quorthon of Bathory started singing in a demonic croak. Moreover, what set these groups apart was their subject matter: misanthropy, chaos, and the occult, especially Satanism.
Although the first wave bands created the template for black metal, it was the second wave scene in Norway that perfected it. Groups like Mayhem, Darkthrone, and Immortal crystallized the subgenre into the form we know today. Many of them ditched thrashing and chugging guitar riffs for tremolo picking at high speeds while drummers pummeled their kits with blast beats. Appearing demonic or dead, Mayhem started wearing black and white “corpse-paint” at their performances and other bands soon followed suit. Vocalists shrieked like Nazghul over lo-fi production. Band logos became indecipherable, bearing a closer resemblance to twisted, leafless tree limbs. Whereas first wave bands employed Satanism as a gimmick, the second wave kids wanted you to know that they really did believe in Satan. Burning churches, cutting themselves on stage, and even murdering one another, the second wave scene brought into being the darkest musical genre imaginable. In the frozen darkness of the Scandinavian tundra, black metal found its zenith.
“It is an extremist sect of an extremist sect. ”
Aquarius
Falling squarely in the middle of winter, there is no better sign for black metal than Aquarius. Typically in the tropical zodiac, the Sun enters the sign on January 20th each year. At this point in the solar cycle, the deepest darkness of the Winter Solstice is behind us. The daylight is slowly increasing, but the darkness still prevails. These are often the coldest days of winter. Here in the frozen wastes, the Sun experiences his exile; the vital spirit is assailed by harsh climes and bitter winds. Endless ice and snow blanket the landscape while oppressive gray clouds hover ominously in the atmosphere. The larder grows thinner each day and will not be replenished until the thaw. Night triumphs over day.
Modern astrology lends fairly optimistic associations to Aquarius such as quirky, humanitarian, and progressive. However, these are fairly new attributes for the sign of the Waterbearer, stemming from the erroneous assignment of Uranus to Aquarius, starting with John Varley in 1828 (Farnell, 2005). It is through the traditional ruler of Aquarius that we must understand the sign, its anti-Solar nature, and its connection to black metal. Enter Saturn.
Saturn
Of the visible planets, Saturn is furthest from the Sun. Shining a dingy, brownish color and creeping slowly through the zodiac, the ancients associated Saturn with elder gods such as Cronos and Kumarbi, fearsome lords who separated the heavens and earth by castrating their sky fathers (McCann, 1996). One of Saturn's Latin epithets is Falcifer meaning “scythe-wielder” (Lilly, 1659). With his sickle, Saturn governs the fall harvest, distributes the consequential harvest of one’s actions, and gathers souls at the end of life. As lord of lines and limits, Saturn outlines structures, creates containers, and delineates distinctions, including the final boundary between life and death. Named the Greater Malefic by the ancients, much of Saturn’s purview is that which is ostensibly negative: chronic illness, misery, melancholy, depression, grief, and loss. He may be a harsh teacher, but Saturn also stimulates virtues like endurance, erudition, and stability.
The Thema Mundi
Notice Saturn’s position in Capricorn opposite the Moon in Cancer, plus the sign of Aquarius opposing the Sun in Leo.
From the Hellenistic astrologers of Alexandria, we have inherited the Thema Mundi, displayed above. Held to be the birth chart of the Cosmos itself, the Thema Mundi was used as a teaching tool. Much like a mandala, the Thema Mundi is a contemplative image laden with meaning. Although superficially simplistic, continued meditation upon its form yields many discoveries. Notably, the Saturnian signs of Capricorn and Aquarius stand directly opposed to the signs of the luminaries, Cancer and Leo. While the Sun and the Moon govern life, light, warmth, and birth, Saturn stands in bitter opposition, lording over death, darkness, cold, and decay. Hissing, spitting, and spurning the light, Saturn’s signs set themselves against the work of the luminaries. Saturn therefore lends his nature to the aspect known as the opposition, in which two planets are 180° apart, occupying opposite signs and standing at odds with one another. This antagonism is best expressed in the dichotomy of the Leo-Aquarius axis.
Darkness and Light
As the domicile of the Sun and the fixed Fire sign at the heart of summer, Leo is thoroughly life-giving, lordly, and unitive. The Sun itself is literally the center of our Solar system, never undergoes retrogradation, and remains constant in its emanation of light, unlike the Moon who waxes and wanes. When above the horizon, the Sun eclipses all other celestial objects, drawing attention to itself alone. This sense of radiance, constancy, and centrality is expressed in authority figures, monarchies, the mainstream, and central power structures. Standing in contradiction, Aquarius is the realm of outcasts, the obscure, the diffuse, and the lowborn. Aquarius is the land beyond the city gates, the wasteland and wilderness, the fringes and frontiers. To Saturn Lilly attributes “deserts, woods, obscure valleys, caves, dens, holes, mountains,” and these desolate landscapes frequently adorn black metal album covers. As astrologer Patrick Watson states, “...airy Aquarius would represent wide open, harsh and unforgiving environments which put pressure on the mind and soul. Being far from central powers and civilization means figuring out how to survive with one’s own resources, doing things the hard way, discovering self-reliance” (2020).
This opposition baked into the Sun/Leo-Saturn/Aquarius relationship is the eternal war between light and dark, day and night, warmth and cold. It is expressed in the Game of Thrones universe in the Night King, who leads his army of White Walkers from beyond the Wall (Capricorn) to crush the Seven Kingdoms and its rulers. In the same universe, it also appears in the dualistic religion of the Lord of Light, who is opposed by the Great Other. We also see this light-dark dualism manifest in the works of J.R.R. Tolkien, whose works would prove incredibly influential upon many black metal artists like Summoning, Carach Angren, and Gorgoroth (to name a mere fraction). In the Silmarillion, the first Dark Lord Morgoth destroys the Two Trees of Valinor which literally illuminate the world and give birth to the Sun and the Moon of Middle-Earth. Later, the second Dark Lord Sauron sets himself in opposition to all free peoples of Middle-Earth, launching wars to bring them under his dark dominion. Famously, he creates the “One Ring to bring them all, and in the darkness bind them.” And as far as evil jewelry goes, can you get any more Saturnian than a ring?
There is another Dark Lord who is emblematic of this light-dark dualism and he provides the archetypal fountain from which all black metal flows.
Satan
Once again, we turn to Patrick Watson who states, “If the Sun is a God-like figure on its throne in Leo, then Saturn in Aquarius is a Satan-like figure à la Paradise Lost, a fallen angel exiled from heaven” (2020). Satan has his origins in the Old Testament, where the name appears as a title for a prosecutor in the celestial court of YHWH. Etymologically, the name comes from “Hebrew satan ‘adversary, one who plots against another,’ from satan ‘to show enmity to, oppose, plot against,’ from root s-t-n ‘one who opposes, obstructs, or acts as an adversary.’” (Etymonline.com)
Developing later in Christian mythology, Satan became associated with many figures, including Lucifer, the greatest of God’s creations. When asked to bow before God’s beloved creation mankind, Lucifer rebelled against God’s divine order and sought to create his own kingdom. As Satan says in Sjon’s novel From the Mouth of the Whale, “As all the world knows, I did not bow my knee to this new pet of my Father’s, and for that I was cast out of Heaven along with all who wished to follow me” (2019). It was this act of divine rebellion that would inspire Tolkien in his creation of the character of Melkor, later known as Morgoth, the greatest of the Valar who opposed the works of Illuvatar, the supreme deity of Tolkien’s universe.
Lucifer’s Fall from Heaven as depicted by Paul Gustav Dore for Paradise Lost
The original Edgelord in action
Notably, in Dante Alighieri’s Inferno, Satan occupies the Ninth Circle of Hell, imprisoned in a vast block of ice. With the beating of his bat-like wings, Satan circulates freezing winds, perpetually blasting this Circle of Hell with a glacial chill reminiscent of cold Aquarius. In his Book of Reasons, the rabbi Ibn Ezra states, “It is said that Aquarius is the sign of the devil because it is the domicile of Saturn that indicates depression at the sight of the devil. This is said of Aquarius but not of Capricorn, for the power of Saturn is shown in it” (Ibn Ezra, 1991). The last sentence is obscure, but may make reference to the fact that Saturn is slightly stronger in Aquarius due to his affinity for the diurnal sect.
It is Satan then, as the divine rebel opposed to God’s holy order, who gave lifeblood and inspiration to black metal. Blatantly evil, unremittingly antisocial, and intentionally obscure, black metal defined itself in opposition to everything mainstream, whether it be Christianity, commercialism, or even death metal, which was the ascendant form of metal in the late 80’s and early 90’s. With most artists adhering to atheistic Satanism, the figure of Satan himself is lauded as an archetype of unfettered freedom, carnal reverie, and authenticity of expression. Individualism is especially paramount to black metal artists. One aspires to be the black goat, rather than a blind sheep of the herd. Interestingly, the Sun and its sign of Leo are often touted as indicative of individualism as well. However, the Solar/Leonine figure stands out from the crowd as a leader or celebrity whereas the Aquarian figure carves out his own individualism in secrecy and obscurity. One immediately thinks of the prevalence of one-man bands like Xasthur in black metal, a suitably Saturnian phenomenon in its solitude.
Aquarius & Black Metal: Outsider Art
When considering Aquarius’ remote and rebel nature, one also thinks of the underground, inaccessible, and even anonymous nature of black metal. Lyrics are often cryptic to the point of obscurantism. Masks, corpse-paint, and stage names are employed to draw attention to the message of the music, rather than the identity of the artists. Some bands, including major names like Darkthrone, have never even played a live show. Due to the meager resources of seminal artists, early recordings are marked by their lo-fi production, distribution through demo cassettes, and DIY album artwork xeroxed in black and white. To this day, lo-fi production is often still favored due to its raw, cold, and gritty sound. For obvious reasons, the Saturnian use of black and white also remains integral to the black metal aesthetic in all its monochrome gothic glory.
Although many black metal artists believe Satanism to be essential to the music’s contrarian nature, there is also a panoply of black metal bands employing pagan symbols, motifs, and themes to mark their opposition to both Christianity and modernity. Typically, we think of ‘pagan’ as referring to non-Abrahamic spiritualities. However, before the 4th century AD, ‘pagan’ meant provincial, rustic, and peasant, perhaps due to the persistence of nature-based cults in the backwater of the Roman empire (Etymonline.com). Again, we think of Saturn and his governance over the lowborn, the serf, and the farmer. Christ may be god of the church and king, but genius loci rule over the rivers, mountains, and forests. Living on the fringes, far from the center, one must maintain relations with the spirits of the neighboring storms, streams, and stones.
Random misty forest? Or generic black metal album cover?
This romantic nostalgia for an idealized pagan past is a deep vein running throughout black metal, at times sadly veering into nationalist and even racist domains. Ironically, black metal is the only musical genre with both fascist and antifascist subgenres. This should be unsurprising to astrologers though, as Aquarius is a fixed Air sign, often seen as rigid, stubborn adherence to an ideology. Utopian in orientation, these political beliefs romanticize an inaccessible, fictitious past or look to a future that will never arrive. The unfortunate result is National Socialist black metal (NSBM), an embarrassment to the genre and a phenomenon that many prominent artists have vocally criticized.
Interestingly, some of the most seminal releases for black metal were all recorded and/or released during the last time Saturn was in Aquarius. The dates for that transit are Feb 6, 1991 to May 21, 1993. There was a brief 40 day dip into Pisces before Saturn finished the rest of the transit from June 30, 1993 to Jan 28, 1994. Taking it year by year, we can see that in 1991, classics such as Ritual by Master’s Hammer, Immortal’s self-titled EP, and Beherit’s Oath of Black Blood were released. The following year saw the release of Diabolical Fullmoon Mysticism by Immortal, A Blaze in the Northern Sky by Darkthone, and Burzum’s self-titled album, to name a few. More classics followed in 1993, like Rotting Christ’s Thy Mighty Contract and Dissection’s The Somberlain. While Mayhem’s first studio album De Mysteriis Dom Sathanas was not released until May of 1994, the recording of the album took place in ‘92 and ‘93 and multiple demos were released years prior (Questy). Further important works for the genre would be released throughout the 90’s, but these three brief years from 1991-1993 represent the peak of black metal in its raw potency. Moreover, the arrests and convictions of Vark Vikernes from Burzum plus Samoth and Faust from Emperor in 1994 deflated much of the Norweigian scene's momentum.
Conclusion
Thirty years later, many of those bands and albums are experiencing their Saturn return. During this past Saturn cycle, black metal has evolved in myriad ways and become interwoven with many other genres, spawning atmospheric, symphonic, bestial, and shoegaze subgenres to name a few. In particular, depressive suicidal black metal (DSBM) seems to have retained black metal’s bitter, Saturnian spirit. Some of the most galvanizing artists of the past decade are those coming from marginalized communities. Although women have been involved in black metal since its inception, there's been a rise in the visibility of female artists like Asagraum, Marthe, and Hulder. Native American artists such as Blackbraid, Pan-Amerikan Native Front, and Nechochwen have adapted black metal’s mysticism to indigenous beliefs and history. Swiss-American artist Zeal & Ardor has crafted a unique sound melding Satanism and Black spirituals. There is also the Crepusculo Negro scene out of southern California whose bands blend black metal with Mayan beliefs and legends. As fresh blood pours in from the fringes, black metal retains its contrarian ideals and devotion to darkness, reminding us all of humanity's potential for evil and quest for freedom. Hail Saturn!
Below you can find a carefully crafted Spotify playlist containing many of my favorite black metal tracks and artists. For tradition’s sake, I included a couple classics from Mayhem, Immortal, and Darkthrone. But the playlist also features many of my favorites bands across a broad spectrum of sounds. We have bands from the Cascadian scene like Wolves of the Throne Room, the cathartic black metal of Gaerea and atmospheric black metal from artists like Svrm and Ellende.
Bibliography
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Ibn Ezra, Abraham. The Book of Reasons, edited by Robert Hand, translated by Meira B. Epstein, Project Hindsight, 1991, p. 7.
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