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Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion?

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Thanako

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Thanako

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Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? Empty
PostSubject: Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? EmptySat Feb 21, 2015 1:10 pm#1

Sound Horizon has taken on the concept of religion in nearly every release. It's not always the same, even if Christianity is one of the most recurring. In fact, we are presented with Thanatos multiple times as a "confirmed" deity, and yet we also see a fallen angel from Christianity.

We see concepts from Buddhism, Hinduism, Islam, and Greek Mythos. With hints of seeing Egyptian lore to come, where does that leave Sound Horizon's "canon" religion? The answer may surprise you. We know that the Abrahamic God (Judaism, Christendom, Islam, and some faiths with less following) is confirmed to exist. Yet, we also know that the Saṃsāra process exists. This can only mean that every religion within the world of Sound Horizon is presumed to be "canon". A world where Thanatos, Jesus Christ, Muhammad, Chronica, and even the "Thunder God", a mortal who became a God can all exist.

Is our perception skewed from the fact many horizons come from different cultures, people, and even books? That remains open for discussion. What do you think? Is Sound Horizon "all-inclusive", or is there something deeper?
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Ghostie

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Ghostie

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PostSubject: obligatory Gnosticism post Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? EmptySun Feb 22, 2015 5:50 pm#2

How religion ties into Sound Horizon is undoubtedly one of my favorite topics of discussion. I truly believe that the religious references Revo puts in his releases are there for a reason; they must be analyzed from a multitude of varied perspectives. He is inspired by a lot of different mythologies in all of his releases, which is why piecing together these religious references can be quite a challenge. Personally I think it's very important to understand that Sound Horizon is not a story of religion at all, but understanding the references can further your understanding of everything as a whole.

The religion I write about the most, interestingly enough, is not one of the "confirmed faiths" of Sound Horizon you mentioned. However, I think it can be seen as a framework that absolutely allows all of the other myths to coexist with one another. I've written a lot on Gnosticism, and my theories absolutely revolve around it. It is the bridge between polytheistic and monotheistic faiths with plenty of inspiration from Greek thought, and of course, it is a somewhat heretical branch of Christianity. It is not at all a confirmed faith of Sound Horizon and likely will never be, but I do think the roles certain characters play in Roman are uncanny in how they parallel Gnostic archetypes. Also, in addition to its religious tenets, Gnosticism also contains psychological and philosophical elements we see present in Sound Horizon. The point of this post, however, is not to go in-depth with my theories, but rather explain why I choose to look at Gnosticism when it's not ever directly mentioned whatsoever.

Gnosticism, while unique in several ways, contains a lot of aspects familiar to other religions. Out of One comes the Many. Only from divine enlightenment can a human break out of the cage of fleshly existence. These are concepts that are key components of Buddhism. Also, the Gnostics did view Jesus Christ as someone who is a savior figure, albeit in a completely different way from most other Christian sects. So yes, some aspects are not completely unique. If I could pick one religion it is closest to, it would be Buddhism due to the entire religion revolving around the concept of divine enlightenment. Once someone achieves Gnosis, that is, the knowledge of their spiritual origins, they are liberated from the material world filled of evil.

The idea of Samsara, a confirmed interpretation of 輪廻, is a key part of both Buddhism and Hinduism. The endless cycle of death and rebirth is not as heavily emphasized in Gnosticism in comparison. However, it is most certainly an accepted thought that humans that do not obtain the divine knowledge undergo an endless cycle of death and rebirth, doomed to repeat meaningless lives in our physical world. Another difference between Buddhism and Gnosticism is how they view the world itself. The Gnostics truly emphasized how evil and terrible our world is as a reflection of a delusional, twisted, insane, blind, arrogant False Creator God (Yaldabaoth/The Demiurge/the Abrahamic God). This is what makes Gnosticism stand apart from other faiths, and in my opinion, what makes it incredibly relevant to Sound Horizon.

The religion also ties in perfectly with psychology that is a big aspect of Sound Horizon. Particularly, Jung's ideas of a collective unconscious are reflected Gnosticism, to the point where Jung himself is considered a modern Gnostic scholar. Naturally, as he was a neo-Freudian who built a lot of his ideas based on Freud's contributions to psychoanalysis, this establishes a firm bond between ideas of ego and id (a major part of Sound Horizon from the beginning!) and the religion. It's an all-encompassing and fascinating religion and psychology that ties into Sound Horizon and absolutely can fit with other religions and is quite complex and at times confusing, very much like Sound Horizon itself.
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Thanako

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Thanako

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Posts : 102
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Age : 33
Location : The Coral Castle
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PostSubject: Re: Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? EmptyMon Feb 23, 2015 12:36 am#3

I'm glad you mention Gnosticism, my weakest subject. One of my most basic mindsets is to look at Sound Horizon with as much religious connotation as I can, and see what does or doesn't stick. There's so much enrichment to the experience when you can understand, in your own way, where the creator is coming from. My favorite parts of school were always when I'd be asked to find my own interpretations of poems, stories, or even entire novels.

Unlike those, with most of the authors long dead, I really think Revo intends to make the story clear, by the end. At least, what we really needed to know all along. That said, the 10th will definitely be worthy of discussion in regards to how Sound Horizon really goes into their own concept of an afterlife. It's difficult to tell where we stand with some subjects religiously, since we have seen what is presumably the Elysion, the gates of Hades, and in Iberia which has been interpreted by some to be the manifestation of Hell itself.

It may be possible that Saṃsāra is only possible because of the end of Moira, with a supposed War of the Dead (Nekromachia). A very recurrent theme after the release of Moira is the idea of the dead man walking. It seems like we will even see Egyptian mythos in the 9th, only raising more questions. It's very easy to rule the base story of Moira as the 1st chronological horizon, taking place in ancient times, which would really help set a standard for how death itself works in later releases. Going back to the idea of the 2nd, Thanatos sure is letting a lot of people escape.

Even if Sound Horizon supports the idea of Monotheistic religions being canon, it also supports the idea of several different Polytheistic religions existing just as well. But, with that said, we have to wonder if the fact almost every horizon takes place within a book helps contribute to a sense of bias towards the Gods, or Goddesses that the said people believed in.

To push this idea to the limits, however, we know a Chronica is the translator of the myth in Moira. While not exactly confirmed to be the Chronica, it has some interesting implications. Even if there was a sort of bias from the perspective of the writers, the Chronicles are a telling of actual history, while the myth in Moira is exactly that, a myth.

Things just don't seem to add up, here.
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Ghostie

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Ghostie

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PostSubject: Re: Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? Religion in Sound Horizon - A "Canon" Religion? EmptyMon Feb 23, 2015 8:53 pm#4

I feel that it can be very, very confusing to take all of the religious references literally and try to piece them together. I think a lot of the religious metaphors may indeed be just that: metaphors used to weave the stories and give them some more cultural context, if you will. For example, much of the Greek mythology in Moira, particularly the entire breakdown of the gods described in Mythos, is not exactly crucial to Moira itself or any Sound Horizon release. However, there are other religious references that do play a role in plot and have symbolic significance, so this can be difficult to dice. I think what should be focused on is elements that are common between Sound Horizon releases regardless of the exact religion chosen.

Something I'd like to touch upon is the idea of the missing God. This is something we see in several Sound Horizon releases. In Moira, the title goddess is an invisible force. Moira is a goddess that can be seen as either the destiny that caused everything to occur, or maybe even a manmade concept altogether made to explain a series of unfortunate events. In the 7th Story, we also have a "God" referred to (in this case, it is the Abrahamic God), also a being that people pray to but never grants salvation (this is something referred to in Aoki Hakushaku no Shiro, among other songs). And lastly, Halloyoru has a similar idea of praying to the "10th Lord in Heaven" and no salvation being granted.

In essence, elements of one religion are transformed into elements of another religion, but the meaning is retained. Another example is the cycle of death and rebirth. It is presented in terms of reincarnation in the framework of Samsara in one release. In Chronicle it's simply the destruction and creation of the world in the context of history repeating itself by use of the Flood (Noah's Ark) as the religious reference. In Roman it's literally birth and death with no obvious religious reference (but if you dig deeper you see it is the Gnostic Horizon with the overarching conflict of truth versus ignorance, complete with all the archetypes from the religion including the Demiurge, Archons, and a Messenger of Light). The list goes on, as ultimately every Horizon is about cycles and endless loops. It's just portrayed in a different way, sometimes using different religions to make the point. I am sure Revo will do this again with Egyptian mythos in Bastet.
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