“…I hear her scream Guttering The pitch black chord of night I am her and She is me…” – Joey Morris Woad Warrior
Never in human history has the screaming been so silent.
The sanitization of modern society impresses on the individual the need for silence to such a degree that the verbal act of screaming is relegated to films concerning horror. The Horror genre is generally considered to be a psychological pressure valve for social and cultural concerns within the human psyche;
“Horror movies have always been a way of addressing our most unspeakable fears and desires. Sometimes these are smuggled past our defences disguised as zombies or werewolves – not to slip one over on the censors (though there was that, too, back in the day) but because it’s a way for us to absorb notions about death, decay and the human condition…” – Anne Billson Crash and Squirm
Within Pagan spiritual pathwalking, silence also encumbers the spiritual dialogue, based on the premise of self preservation in a dangerous world; for witches can still be segregated at best or put to death at worst depending on their physical location.
Though understandable in times of survival, the chains of silence permeate society in all sorts of insidious ways, until the very concept is associated with strength; even memes proclaim ‘A strong woman is one who is able to smile this morning like she was not crying last night.`
Screaming is primal, ancient, and powerful.
The voice can be the seat of our magickal power; expression is the catalyst by which ideas ignite and spread through the minds of others like wildfire.
Human beings knew once the intrinsic value of screaming; that it represented far more than simply an outer expression of inner fear but could be harnessed in time of war to cause fear in the enemy, to rouse allies to combat or to warn of impending death as in the case of the Banshee in folklore.
The Goddess Badb is oft identified in Celtic mythology initially by her voice;
“Ro erig em badb discir, dian, demnetach, dasachtach, dúr, duabsech, detcengtach, cruaid, croda, cosaitech, co bai ic screchád ar luamain, os a cennaib. Ro eirgetar am bananaig, ocus boccanaig, ocus geliti glinni, ocus amati adgaill, ocus siabra, ocus seneoin, ocus damna admilti aeoir ocus firmaminti, ocus siabarsluag debil demnach, co mbatar a comgresacht ocus i commorad aig ocus irgaili leo.”
“There arose a wild, impetuous, precitpitate, mad, inexorable, furious, dark, lacerating, merciless, combative, contentious badb, which was shrieking and fluttering over their heads. And there arose also the satyrs, and sprites, and the maniacs of the valleys, and the witches, and goblins, and owls, and destroying demons of the air and firmament, and the demoniac phantom host; and they were inciting and sustaining valour and battle with them.”—“Cogadh Gaedhel re Gallaibh,” Todd’s ed., p. 174
Whether it be in horror, folklore or historical accounts of battle, screaming is inextricably linked with the process of death; and perhaps the notion of fear and screaming is a pale ghost of this; as death is something that is greatly feared throughout history.
Death and screaming have both been sanitized, removed from sight and pushed into silent corners, as though encouraging people to speak about them only in hushed whispers takes away from their primal nature.
What is really happening is the devaluing of the voice, and the power of the Death Scream, which is ours to reclaim; I had spoken before about discovering the nature of the Death Scream and have come to realise that such primal power would surge from the subconscious mind whenever it was required to repeal and defeat any form of spiritual attack.
The Death Scream has also been implemented personally to draw attention when the situation felt dire; and the reality of the Death Scream was that it was almost silent in its verbalisation – it was the pure embodiment of pain released through a screaming motion, the essence of what a scream became when the words within had ran out.
Strength and hiding ones emotional state are not the same; just as embracing Death Goddess energies can be the utter rejection of silence when one feels the desperate urge to scream.
The act in of itself is a liberation; a personal confession of the heart and soul to the endurance of the self… it acknowledges ones pain, and the survival of the many deaths one encounters along the road of life.
There is a time for silence. But not at the expense of the inner primal self that screeches, wails and screams.
Many blessings Starlets,
Joey