Embracing the Darkness: Understanding Dark Subcultures Paperback – May 5, 2005

This book was a definite good read. As I "belong" to several of these subcultures and I have for over 20 years, this book would have helped my parents and the parents of my friends to understand these subcultures. Needless to say we got bullied.I hope this book opens doors for the dark subculture (many of which are underground in some places). I also hope it opens minds. It should be realized that there are bad people in every subculture and in every religion. Leaning more to the darker side of philosophy should not deem a person as "evil" right off the bat. Imagine if we all just listened to each other. We do not all have to agree. I highly recommend this book. It is easy to understand and the author incorporates interviews with people from the subcultures to further define what they are. A worthwhile book to include in your library.

I enjoyed the fact that Nocturnum spoke with different individuals and gave a further voice to subcultures that many do not know anything about.

The idea of this book is great; the delivery is not. I feel that a book like this could be a great asset to enlightening people to darker aspects of our society. However... it is so poorly written that I would lose focus on what I was reading. The author is too close to whom he interviews and so it appeared to me to be more of a showcase of his friends rather than what they had to really say about things. There were actual misspellings within the text, which I also found disappointing.

Often, when this writer is on a bus in full Gothic attire, she is often asked, "Why do you wear that?" She is never sure what to say. Jokes don't work, and she is far too nice to make a sacastic comment. Besides, how can you explain a diverse culture such as mine in seven seconds?Answer solved. This book goes into the various "dark subcultures" (Paganism, Goth, BDSM, the Vampire community) in a rather insightful, well-thought-out way. Corvis definately knows what he's talking about. I would reccomend this book to beginners.

On page 42 the author states that the Batcave was a dance club in New York City. The Batcave was actually a dance club in London, England. Check Wikipedia. This makes me wonder what other information contained in this work is incorrect. Glad to say I'll never find out since I'm sending it straight back to Amazon!

Embracing the Darkness is a fairly comprehensive review of various subcultures, revealing some pretty ghoulish and chilling information. It is a curious peek into the hearts and minds of people who, in some cases, try their best to put a happy face on the dark arts - feasting on blood and the like. Be prepared for a startling look at some lifestyles you might rather not know actually exist.

I highly recommend this book to all who walk the dark path. The interviews the author gives are excellent.

Just got through reading “Embracing the Darkness” by Corvis Nocuturnum. Got it as a digital loan from Amazon. Suffice to say this is one book I will heartily recommend with no reservations although there is some room for improvement. The book serves as a guide and explanation of the various dark cultures and it explains them in good depth by use of historical explanation and interviews. The book is a real eye opener for white lighters or someone totally unfamiliar with the various scenes.ie Wiccans and Christians.For someone like me who has read up quite a bit on dark cultures there is nothing new here or not much but that should not detract from the books value. As it does turn you on to some great new reading material, organizations and recorded music. I only wish I could go more in depth with this book. The kindle edition does suffer rather greatly in some areas from poor editing. They should brush up on that.Dark cultures are often times misunderstood. People dressing in black with multiple piecing and being into vampires and magic is rather a turn off for most and that is because they do not understand the dark cultures. Life is filled with pain more so for some than others. To strengthen ourselves we must not deny our shadow self but embrace it to make ourselves whole. The diffent sub cultures do not fit into tiny little boxes but rather they over lap. A Goth is not just a goth but could be a Satanist and a vampire at the same time.The first culture to be discussed is Goth or Gothic. The author seems to feel that most people who dress in black are poseurs who into it just to be chic. No less I remember Goth coming out in the 80’s and being a heavy metaller myself did not pay them too much mind. These people tended to be quiet and melancholy realizing that life was not all fun and games. That was ok. There were two types of Goths . The Apollonian Goths tended to be more quiet and withdrawn gravitating towards creativity. Apollo was the god of poetry. Dionysian Goths were the wild party types. The movement sort of faded out and has recently resurfaced. The old schoolers do look upon the newbies with a measure of disdain but the internet could help bridge that gap.The next area he dives into is dark pagan. Those Pagans who like to work at night with darker and more Cthonic deities. Some Ceremonial Magicians definitely fall into this and even fewer Wiccans. Goddesses like Hecate, Erkigal and other dark goddess form are worked with as are gods like Hades and Loki. There is an interview with an follower of Asatru or those who follow the Norse way. The Norse path is often frowned upon by a false notion of being associated with the Nazis. The curse of anything being Germanic. Asatru followers are a warrior path that believe in living with strength and honor. One of my favorites Konstantinos and John Coughlin are mentioned and quoted as sources but missing are the likes of Raven Digitalis and Edred Thorrson …Oh come on.The next subset is Vampyre. Some Vampyres do like to drink blood and they are Sanguinarian Vampyres, but most tend to feed off of people’s extra psychic energy. Temple of the Vamire is interviews along with Michelle Belanger and Father Sebastian. I have read the works of Father Sebastian and Michelle Belanger both of whom disdain blood drinking and believe in energy consumption. Michelle is into straight up energy work wile Father Sebastian is a fang smith who like high ritual. Temple of the Vampire does believe in elitism and their ideology borrows heavily from Anton La Vey’s Church of Satan.Which leads to the next subset. Satanism. No this is not devil worship where babies and animals are slaughtered on an altar. That is a false notion. Anton La Vey found the church of Satan and as followers of the Left Hand Path they are into deifying the self and not giving their power away to other deities. They believe that a certain class of higher evolved individuals will bee drawn to their ideology. With a disdain for weakness they frown upon begging for charity and giving t the undeserving. People want to enjoy things then they must earn it.BDSM and Dark metal are covered next. Tying someone up and spanking them is viewed by many as a form of violence. In fact quite the opposite it is performed with consenting adults as a form of play and therapy. Safe words are installed to stop things from going too far. Black Metal or Death metal with heavy guitar riffs and dark lyrics is another dark culture. Starting out in Scandinavian countries it is associated with Church Burnings.The band members of varying bands have connections to Asatru, Satanism and Vampirism.The Last area covered are the groups that help victims of abuse. There are several and people in dark cultures do need organization to help them with drug addiction, drug abuse and child abuse and they need it from a non judgemental indivividual who understands their background.Definitely want to read more of this author’s works and I hope he comes out with more in depth material. I will read