In the four months since Super Bowl XLVI there has been,
at least in some sections of the internet, a lot of fuse and fury about Madonna’s
half-time show. With most of them calling it a “Satanic Illuminati ritual and
blasphemy against the God of the Bible” or variations on that, over produced
yes. Satanic? no.
First of all as far as I know, the Illuminati (if there
really, really is such a thing) is pretty much an all-boys club so it seems to me
if they were going to go for a spokes priest they would have gone with Lady
Gaga (hey it’s what I’ve heard!) second it was more a Pagan / Pop culture
fusion and sorry but the Pagans WERE NOT SATANISTS! Only Christians, and ironic
Agnostic Post Goths can be Satanists, so cut that out.
Seriously though there was much meat for those looking
for hidden meanings behind the symbolism used, references seemingly to Isis,
and Anubis, a fusion of X O, what looked like runes, a guy really putting his
nuts in danger on a rope, thigh boots, a 53 year old woman bouncing around like
that! There was a lot to work with, but if it were a magickal ritual what of
it? The theme, such as there was, other than selling as many copies of MDNA as
possible, was World Peace.
I know the horror, the horror! Yes, a direct blaspheme against
the last millennium and a half of message of the Big Religion, which has mostly
been expressed by an endless parade of wars, pogroms, witch hunts, and heaping
helpings of oppression, fear, hate and ignorance. I mean who in their right
mind doesn’t want those good times to keep rolling?
Was it a magickal ritual? I’m betting almost certainly not,
but if it was I’m also betting it was a good thing.
