It is that time of year again when our thoughts turn to 'ghosties and goulies, long leggity beasties and things that go bump in the night'. It is October and the gothic season is upon us. It is all rather fun and fabulous and fleeting; a month in the year when we can give ourselves up to spooky films, ghost walks and DVD marathons of Supernatural. But what happens when the shadows seem to linger a little too long; when the darkness encroaches on your day to day life, pulling you down into a gothic abyss?
I adore the gothic genre. Books, music, films, poetry, art, architecture...if it's gothic I love it, whether its a classic novel such as Dracula or contemporary art by Victoria Frances and Anne Stokes. I love to immerse myself in this world of shadowy enchantment. But you can have too much of a good thing and the power of darkness draws you in like a magnate.
I studied gothic literature at university and in cultural terms it is a very important genre because it brings to the surface all those issues that society as a whole shies away from. Death, despair, depression, addiction, mental illness, isolation, incarceration, forbidden love, secrets, trickery, manipulation, illusion, delusion...its all apparent in the gothic genre, which lays it out on the table for all to see...and yet it doesn't tell the truth.
This is because the gothic genre romanticises everything, but there is nothing romantic about watching someone descend into addiction, depression or dementia and fading away before your eyes as they become little more than the shell of the illness which holds them. Think back to the movie Black Swan, which bears all the hallmarks of classic gothic literature. The main character, Nina is suffering from mental illness, yet the film portrays this as the spirit of Odille, the black swan, possessing her. It romanticises Nina's frailty with a supernatural twist, because few people would go to see a film about a girl with a controlling and possibly abusive mother, who experiences delusions and eventually kills herself!
The gothic culture is also important because it gives people a place of belonging when their life has become a struggle, or when they feel like outsiders, for whatever reason. Goth culture embraces those individuals which society might shun. The darkness makes all things beautiful.
When feeling down, you can turn to this genre for comfort because it doesn't tell you to get a grip and get on with things. Instead it says "You're depressed? But how marvellous! What does your beautiful darkness look like? Let's turn it into music, a song, a poem, a symphony." And so you can wallow in the realms of Edgar Allen Poe or Evanescence and feel that your low mood is completely understood, in a way that no doctor could ever comprehend. Giving yourself up to the mood in this way can in itself be healing, but it is vital you don't let yourself linger too long. After all, the main point of experiencing dark nights of the soul is that they lead you back out into the light of a new dawn. Balance is the key.
A few years ago I had lots of gothic art in my home. Prints by Victoria Frances adorned the walls of my study and bedroom; black roses stood in a vase on my desk. Friends would contribute to this style of decor by giving me gothic calendars and mugs etc for my birthday and at Christmas, usually with the comment "I thought you'd like it because you have gone a bit that way haven't you?" A wiser, more compassionate friend would have asked why I was suddenly drawn to such images of isolated maidens, wounded and alone, wandering in dark forests, and why I felt my place was among them.
Then two years ago I had an equally swift and sudden change of heart. I was tired of the darkness. I realised that enough was enough, for it was no longer doing me any good. I'd had too much of a good gothic thing and I was ready to move back into the light once more. I wanted to make my home lighter, brighter, whiter - I wanted it to sparkle, for the sunshine to bounce around the rooms, reflected in mirrors, sequins and crystals. I put all the gothic art away and bought sparkling pictures of snow scenes instead. My home is now a snow-scape of creamy white and sparkles and I love it. I stopped wearing so much black and went back to the favourite colour of my childhood, dusky pink. I'd had the dark night of my soul, the gothic genre had helped me through it, but now I was awakening to my new dawn.
The darkness is a beautiful and powerful thing. Enjoy all that the gothic genre has to offer this dark season...but don't allow it to linger in your life for too long! Blessed Be.
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