What can I say? There’s a lot of Youtube channels out there – more than enough for my usual twenty special mentions I like to have for a top ten, if the subject matter is prolific enough.
So these are the special mentions for my Top 10 Youtube list, featuring channels beyond reviewers or commentators in popular culture, film or television to history and other topics – more than half the entries or so for the latter, although of course there are still some of the former.
Free “divine gallery” art sample from OldWorldGods
But wait – there’s more mancy!
Of course, you knew that already.
There is a plethora of methods of divination (or types of magic) connoted by the suffix -mancy, indeed so many that I could have done my usual twenty special mentions several times over. Just look at the Wikipedia entry for methods of divination – or the TV Tropes entry for whatevermancy.
As I said in my introduction to the top ten, there is an almost overwhelming number of variants of divination (or magic) with that suffix -mancy, and their sheer abundance has always fascinated me. In part that reflects the ease by which one can coin such a word, usually by combining a Latin or Greek root word with -mancy. However, it predominantly reflects connoting forms of divination actually used by people as observed or recorded in history or anthropology – as people have used almost anything and everything as the magical means of divination.
Of course, some or even many are incredibly particular, esoteric or obscure as a result – to use just one example to illustrate, belomancy (or bolomancy) is the art of divination by use of arrows.
Accordingly, I have continued to prefer the broader brush strokes I used in my top ten for the special mentions as well, although as usual I splash out with some wilder entries in my special mentions.
And once again, it goes without saying that the top ten or special mentions does or do not reflect any personal beliefs in methods of divination or forms of magic, just my interest in them.
Free “divine gallery” art sample from Old World Gods
I don’t have a religion – I have a mythology.
Indeed, I have a top ten of them – and I have a whole host of special mentions for mythological subjects. My usual rule is twenty special mentions for each top ten, where the subject matter is prolific enough, as it is here – which I suppose would usually make each top ten a top thirty if you want to look at it that way. My special mentions are also where I usually have some fun with the subject category and splash out with some wilder entries.
Free “divine gallery” art sample from OldWorldGods
I live in a mythic world – and I have special mentions!
That’s right – I don’t just have a top ten mythology books, I have a whole host of special mentions. My usual rule is twenty special mentions for each top ten, where the subject matter is prolific enough, as it is here – which I suppose would usually make each top ten a top thirty if you want to look at it that way.
My special mentions are also where I can have some fun with the subject category and splash out with some wilder entries.
Youtube channel banner as at 10 April 2024
(1) DESPOT OF ANTRIM (SOUTH KOREA 2019)
“You will hear my thoughts on movies, TV shows, media companies and the cultural and political influences that go into them.”
Shortened to the Despot, just as my previous entry is shortened to the Drinker, his accent reveals him as the Irish member of my holy trinity of caustic critics hailing from the British Isles, although his Youtube bio has his location as South Korea. That – and the reference in one of his videos to Taiwan – might well originate from his former life as a teacher, to which he also has referred.
I can’t help but feel that his former life as a teacher is also revealed in the analytical style and sequence of his video content, such that you can almost see his video scripts in the same style as lesson plans. I’m a sucker for a systematic logical sequence, although the downside is that his video content tends to be by far the longest of my holy trinity. And I’m a sucker for a black sense of humor with an Irish accent – both of which you get in spades in his videos, or “taking the p*ss” as he puts it.
I’m obviously not the only one – as at April 2024, he released videos for the milestone of 10 and 1,000 subscribers respectively only a year previously but his channel subsequently ballooned to 86,800 subscribers.
His epic takedowns of film or TV are things of beauty to behold, often released with subtitles “Anatomy of a Disaster” or “So Much Worse than You Think” – my absolute favorite was his annihilation of Rings of Power, but other highlights include his videos savaging Bros and the Netflix Cleopatra documentary.
Oh and I looked it up – Antrim is actually a town (and district) in Ireland. So there you go.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR SHOULD THAT BE DESPOT-TIER?)
Art from Neil Gaiman’s The Sandman graphic novel series – one of the best depictions of what is essentially oneiromancy
(1) ONEIROMANCY
“Your young men will see visions and your old men will dream dreams”.
Oneiromancy, or divination by dreams, may not have the brand recognition of necromancy in second top spot, but it takes out the top spot all the same.
That’s somewhat like Neil Gaiman’s Sandman series, where Dream gets top billing as the titular protagonist. In fairness, Death remains his older and more powerful sister, but she’s also nice and not at all necromantic.
On the subject of fantasy in popular culture, one of my favorite depictions of oneiromancy as the core for a fantasy or SF series is that of Robert Silverberg’s Majipoor series, particularly in the first book Lord Valentine’s Castle.
However, its top spot here goes beyond my enjoyment of Sandman or Silverberg, and for that matter a preference for dreams over death or the undead.
It can be argued – and effectively has been by anthropologist Pascal Boyer – that oneiromancy probably was the original source of all divination, not least of necromancy, or indeed, of magic and religion in general, and for much the same reason as for necromancy. That is, that we see dead people in our dreams – prompting us to believe that they live on or have some continuity in a spirit realm or supernatural reality.
As Joseph Campbell famously opined, mythology overlaps with dream – “myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths”.
Prophetic dreams and their interpretation recur surprisingly frequently in the Bible, from Genesis to the Gospels and arguably to Apocalypse. And when they are not actual dreams, it is striking how often God or angels reveal themselves by night rather than day – in divine dream-like revelations. Unlike other methods of divination, oneiromancy seems respectable or even ordained in the Bible, to the point that God himself might be styled the god of dreams.
Biblical oneiromancy is only one of many throughout world mythology – with written or literary records including manuals of dream interpretation dating back to the beginning of recorded history in Mesopotamia.
And one might say we’re still at it – with modern psychology originating as a form of oneiromancy, not least with that landmark work The Interpretation of Dreams by that leading modern (sexual) oneiromancer, Freud.
In turn, this originates with the raw and vivid emotional power of dreams for each of us. Who among us does not secretly believe that our dreams are true or meaningful in some transcendent way? Although, I always recall a quip that dreams can mean everything and nothing – or that dreams are the bowel movements of the brain.
It does not seem an exaggeration to suggest that all divination is ultimately a form of oneiromancy, whether by way of using dreams and visions as a focus for divination, or by similar means of symbolic interpretation.
Nor does it seem an exaggeration to suggest that all magic is also ultimately a form of oneiromancy – essentially acts of lucid dreaming to shape reality to our imagination, or to impose dream-logic on reality to make it fluid like dreams.
At very least, oneiromancy would seem to be a straightforward one-on-one correspondence to the schools of enchantment and illusion in Dungeons and Dragons, but readily also adapts every other school of magic, perhaps most vividly conjuration and transmutation by dream-logic. Also abjuration – necromancy too if one counts nightmares.
Nor does it seem exaggeration to style all supernatural reality as the Dreaming, as in indigenous Australian culture, which has been widely adopted by popular culture well beyond its original context.
The versatility and power of oneiromancy was perhaps best stated in the Sandman, where the titular personification of dream confronts the powers of hell, mocking him that he has no power there. He replies simply what power would hell have if those in it could not dream of heaven? And of course one might say that heaven and hell are but themselves dreams, albeit fever dreams for the latter.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER – OR IS THAT DREAM-TIER?)
The Creation of Adam – Sistine Chapel by Michelangelo. Probably the most famous painting of Biblical imagery – “reproduced in countless imitations and parodies” as “one of the most replicated religious paintings of all time”
(1) BIBLICAL
Or as I like to call it – Babylon and the Beast (featured here in art from a Christian website, which only succeeded in making these two Biblical supervillains look awesome).
This is it. This is the big one – genesis and apocalypse, alpha and omega, allelujah and amen!
Of course, Biblical mythology is helped into top spot in that for many people it is not just mythology but religion, in contrast to classical mythology or other ‘pagan’ mythologies it largely replaced. Although as one historian quipped, from a historical point of view, Christianity is a Greek hero cult devoted to a Jewish messiah.
However, I read the Bible as mythology rather than religion – or as poetry rather than history. That is, as literature for its literary quality. Or in other words, like virtually everyone reads classical mythology or any other mythology shorn of religious belief. And as mythology, it has an enduring resonance – of symbolic narratives that ring true at an emotional level or with the power of story, characters that resonate with us as flawed human protagonists (and that’s including God, who is all too human in his characterization) and language that in its best passages has an enduring lyrical or poetic quality.
And when you look at the mythology under the religious hood, that’s when things become much more interesting with layers of subtext, sex and violence as well as hints or insinuations of competing mythologies
Born again in Babylon and torn apart in Jerusalem…
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD-TIER – WHAT ELSE?)
The title page to the 1611 first edition of the King James Bible
(1) BIBLE
The Hebrew dreaming and the great messianic ghost dance.
The holy book of smiting and begetting.
Chosen people and only son.
This is the big one – genesis and apocalypse, alpha and omega, allelujah and amen!
Readers of my top tens will be familiar with me playfully classifying the highest tier (or god-tier) entries as my Old Testament or New Testament – a tribute to the influence of the Bible. I do that in a few ways with my Top 10 Mythology Books (or Top 10 Mythologies), but of course at a fundamental level the Bible is itself my Old Testament and New Testament.
Of course, the Bible is helped into top spot in that for many people it is not just mythology but religion, in contrast to classical mythology or other ‘pagan’ mythologies it largely replaced . The Bible is also the heart, still beating in many ways, of ‘Judeo-Christian’ culture that is one of the two predominant cultural influences in what is often termed as Western civilization, along with the ‘Greco-Roman’ culture that vies with it as the other predominant cultural influence – sometimes in alignment and sometimes as rivals. Athens versus Jerusalem and all that – filtered through Rome. It is as the source for religion rather than mythology that most people come to it, as I did, even if I have lapsed from any religious belief in it.
However, it is the book that doesn’t stop giving, even after you stop believing. That is because of its enduring mythic resonance or narratives and language that in its best passages has an enduring lyrical or poetic quality.
In other words, I read the Bible as mythology rather than religion or in short, as poetry rather than history. Don’t get me wrong – my own hot take, to antagonize both believers and skeptics, is that the Bible is of course a lot less historical than fundamentalist believers usually maintain, but has more history than skeptics usually credit. This is a view influenced by Manfred Barthel’s What The Bible Really Says, which among other things proposes more naturalistic explanations of apparently supernatural miracles – even such things as the burning bush, and not in terms of what Moses was smoking. And also don’t get me wrong as to its literary quality – the Bible is an anthology after all, and one of uneven quality. It may be described by believers as the word of God but he could have used an editor. Or for that matter, better writers of a more modern novelistic style even for its better narrative parts, which tend to resonate more when adapted into more modern style – or screenplays.
I mean seriously, the Bible is the original Game of Thrones – people are often surprised just how much sex and violence is in it (or just how much sheer pagan enjoyment it can provide). It is the book of smiting and begetting after all. And as opposed to Game of Thrones, it finishes with a bang rather than a whimper with a much more sensational, if much trippier, finale, at least in the New Testament and the Book of Apocalypse, my personal favorite book in the Bible.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD TIER – WHAT ELSE?)
Youtube channel banner as at 9 March 2024
(2) THE CRITICAL DRINKER (UNITED KINGDOM 2006)
“I drink and I say things. I’m here to deliver reviews, breakdowns and analysis on modern entertainment media. Expect a healthy dose of sarcasm, biting criticism and low-functioning alcoholism.”
The second of my holy trinity of Youtube popular culture commentators hailing from the British Isles as its Scottish member – and Youtube alter ego of writer Will Jordan. He perhaps prompts the most controversy of the trinity, given that he has a profile of an entirely different higher order of magnitude than the other two – closing in on 2 million followers – and people online seem to love him or hate him with little middle ground.
I fall somewhere in between, although obviously falling more towards the former, given I’ve placed him second in my Top 10 Youtube rankings. The fact that there is such a divide – and that it is so intense – between his fans and his critics may well illustrate his recurring theme about political messaging in entertainment media (or as he puts it in his videos, the MESSAGE!), as his fans and his critics are usually on opposite sides of that message.
I often don’t agree with his criticism or for that matter his recommendations but I usually find them entertaining, which is my primary criterion for these rankings. The usual example off the top of my head is his criticism of Midsommar – I agree that film is flawed but for different reasons than the Drinker and which do not detract from my appreciation of the film as a whole, particularly for its visual and stylistic elements.
Similarly, the points where I disagree with the Drinker do not detract from my appreciation of the Drinker’s video content as a whole, including the persona he adopts for it – “a Scottish drunkard with a crude attitude, a penchant for black comedy, speaks in biting sarcasm and snark, and frequently uses running gags and catchphrases” as well as a “snide demeanor…juxtaposed by his intelligent critique of the art of filmmaking and storytelling.”
Although he can be as caustic as the other two members of my holy trinity of caustic critics from the British Isles, he is perhaps the most positive of them – with videos appreciating or recommending films or TV series, including some that might surprise those on the other side of his caustic catchphrases “updated for modern audiences” and “reflecting the world we live in today”, as well as videos proposing ways to fix the issues he criticizes.
Also I have a soft spot for Tatiana, the Critical Drinker’s fictional muse and with whom he is said (by himself) “to live out many of his most perverted desires”.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
S-TIER (GOD TIER)
Free “divine gallery” art sample – OldWorldGods
(2) NECROMANCY
Dead men do tell tales!
That’s right – it’s the mancy everyone knows, virtually synonymous with evil and death or the undead in popular culture, hence its high ranking although I refuse to give it top spot.
For example, Sauron styles himself as the Necromancer in The Hobbit, although he doesn’t seem to do much actual necromancy – he probably would have done better with armies of the undead in The Lord of The Rings. Of course, he was also a vampire AND a werewolf at various points, because the First Age was trippy.
Necromancy has a far older literary pedigree – indeed the oldest, at least for the two sources of Western literary culture, the Bible and the epics of Homer, albeit the Odyssey rather than the Iliad.
The Bible has the Witch of Endor, whom Saul consults to raise the prophet Samuel from the dead. Interestingly, it is presented as working, although both Samuel and God seem pissed about it. It could also be argued to present with the same deception or trickery as a séance.
The Odyssey has the archetypal journey into the underworld by its protagonist to consult the shade of the prophet Tiresias, with the nice necromantic component of pouring out sacrificial blood to attract the dead – also perhaps demonstrating the substantial overlap with hieromancy and blood magic from the previous entry.
Interestingly, in both cases, while the necromancy involved raising or summoning the dead person, but the actual divination or prophecy part did not originate from them being dead, but that they had been prophets in life. Although Odysseus’ dead mother also has useful information for him – and I have read (and prefer) adaptations that extend the divination to other shades.
Necromancy has a pedigree older than literature or writing, as its inclusion in the Odyssey, originally an oral epic, suggests. Indeed it has probably the oldest, likely one of the first methods of divination in history or prehistory – originating from when humans first associated death or the dead with a mystical or supernatural realm, from which one could see things not seen by the living.
Strictly speaking, necromancy is defined not as the hardcore zombie apocalypse type of necromancy we see in popular culture, but only calling on or communicating with the dead for divination – divining things beyond the knowledge of the living, whether past, present or future. After all, the dead reside in eternity as opposed to time.
As such, it was not necessarily evil in origin – indeed, quite the contrary, seeking out or summoning the spirits of ancestors or dead heroes for guidance. To the extent that it extended beyond communing with ancestors or heroes, it probably involved positive aspects of keeping balance between life and death, or with the spirit realm or souls, for purposes such as healing.
“But since that’s not nearly as interesting as zombies”, necromancy in popular imagination and culture is, as I said, virtually synonymous with evil and death, or rather, the undead – the ultimate crossing lines that were not meant to be crossed between life and death, animating or controlling the dead (or generally playing with dead things).
“The career of necromancer is an excellent choice for evil-doers who are not a ‘people person’. Though some might say there is not much point to turning the earth into one gigantic graveyard, these people are fools and will never understand anyway. Good career entry points for becoming a necromancer include occultists, dabblers in voodoo, grave diggers, morticians, possessed eight-year-old girls, and inheritors of scary books wrapped in human flesh.”
— Neil Zawacki, How to be a Villain
As TV Tropes points out, necromancy commonly overlaps with the trope of necromantic (a pun of necromancy and romance) – bringing back a loved one lost to death. Also, “it’s not unheard of for a necromancer to be one of the undead themselves, often a lich. Even if they aren’t liches or other forms of undead themselves, they are likely to have unlocked other ways of prolonging their own lives to unnatural lengths. Furthermore, they may become partially undead.”
As a means of divination, it’s up there with the original and the best, the dead perhaps being second only to the divine or infernal (and often overlapping with those) in secret knowledge. Speaking of infernal, necromancy definitely overlaps with the more rarely used necyomancy (or divination by summoning damned souls) or demonomancy (or divination by demons).
As a school of magic, it is similarly one of the most powerful, if distasteful. It was notoriously overpowered in Dungeons and Dragons, such that opting out of it was effectively nerfing your wizard – although ironically the class of cleric made for better necromancers than wizards, which certainly makes me think differently of the average priest.
RATING: 5 STARS*****
GOD-TIER (OR IS THAT DEVIL-TIER – OR DEATH-TIER?)