Top 10 backward messages of 2012

James Holmes: Six months later, do we know why he did it?

We’re coming to the end of Backward Messages’ second year, and what a year it was. We had some immense tragedies, including mass shootings in Aurora, Colorado; Madison, Wisconsin; and Newtown, Connecticut. Goths around the world also took a major hit, with attacks in Iraq and Britain, but a goth singer in the United States surprised everyone. The word “Satan” was tossed around, as it always is, describing everything from Lady Gaga to the Hunger Games.

Last year we looked back at the blog’s top 5 posts, but I wanted to go a little broader. Here’s what drew people most in 2012:

1. Let’s play “imagine the Aurora killer’s motivations!” After James Holmes killed a dozen people in a movie theater, the press had a field day trying to answer one deceptively small question: why?

2. Young opera singer proves goth culture can nurture: Although he didn’t last long on “America’s Got Talent,” Andrew De Leon surprised his audience by (gasp!) not sounding like a monster. Go figure.

3. New Yorker cartoon: the pagan version of blackface: Why are Wiccans still depicted like ugly old hags?

4. Are “The Hunger Games” sacrifices Satanic? I can’t believe I even had to ask that question.

5. Goth, metalhead beaten in separate UK attacks: In the UK, being different remains an unfortunate liability.

6. It’s time to listen to the moms of violent young men: After Newtown, how long will it be before we help young men struggling with violent thoughts — and support their families?

7. Bloody bath lands Lady Gaga in hot water: This wasn’t the first or last time Gaga was called “Satanic” this year, but it was one of the more creative. She was also banned from several countries, on the grounds that her stage show is Satanic.

8. “The New Satanism” in heavy metal: Speaking of Satanic, heavy metal persists in not being as Satanic as its reputation makes it out to be, but there are a handful of musicians keeping the faith.

9. Ohio shooting: What’s “goth” got to do with it? After Columbine, the press has found ways to link almost every youth-committed mass shooting with goth culture. And every time, reporters have been wrong.

10. Iraqi youth stoned to death after leaders link emo culture to Satanism, homosexuality: One of the most heartbreaking stories of the year.

Happy new year, everyone. See you in 2013!

Bloody bath lands Lady Gaga in hot water

Lady Gaga has been known to frolic in blood. Does that make her a Satanist? A London hotel housekeeper seems to think so.

A housekeeper at a London hotel is reporting that Lady Gaga recently bathed in a tub full of blood in the hotel — and then didn’t clean up afterward. According to several reports, the housekeeping staff — who, of course, are widely accepted experts on such things — claim it was part of a “Satanic ritual.”

Oh boy.

Let’s revisit history, shall we? The most famous woman alleged to have bathed in blood was Elizabeth Báthory, whose life (like Gaga’s) is so surrounded by myth and hyperbole, it’s hard to know fact from fiction. However, allegedly, Báthory figured out that bathing in the blood of virgins helped her look younger. Is there any evidence that the occult was involved? No.

Bathing in blood is also a pop-culture trope, seen in such films as (pictures not safe for work) Hostel II and (of course) Bathory. Eminem posed in a bathtub full of blood. Did anyone call him a Satanist? Well, okay, yes, but not specifically for his bathing habits.

While it’s true that blood magic is practiced in some pagan faiths, it’s not any more common among Satanists than other groups — and there are no known “Satanic rituals” that involve bathing in blood. Moreover, there’s no sign that this was real blood, or that Lady Gaga is a practicing Satanist.

It seems much more likely that the housekeeper in question, understandably horrified at the scene and justifiably angry at having to clean up, jumped to conclusions based on pop-culture references and her imagination took over.

Let’s keep this in mind the next time we see someone we think might be involved with paganism, the occult, or even Satanism. Those who do practice blood magic probably don’t look like you imagine they would.