Gothics seek confrontation with death. However, this does not mean that they are tired of life or that they particularly revere death. Rather, they see beauty in transience and exhort themselves to enjoy life because every day could be their last. In the gothic scene, there are no chair circles or panel discussions, no meditations or workshops that deal with death. Music, motifs and lyrics are for personal confrontation and quiet reflection.
Memento Mori
Remember that you must die! This is the translation of the rhyming sermon "Memento mori". We know the expression from obituaries or tombstones. There is also a close connection with other mottoes: "Media vita in morte sumus" means "In the midst of life we are in death". "Mors certa hora incerta" means "Death is certain, the hour uncertain". These sayings are popular in the black scene, for example in tattoos or T-shirt prints.
Vanitas
Vanitas motifs are also popular in the gothic scene. Vanitas stands for the transience of everything earthly and means something like: Voidness, vanity, lie, worthlessness. Typical motifs are skulls, hourglasses or anything that makes it clear that man has no power over life and must inevitably leave. Knowledge, wealth, beauty, power: with death, everything disintegrates. A basic idea that the Gothic scene likes to keep in mind. In the ode "Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!" by the poet Andreas Gryphius from 1643, you can trace the meaning.
Dance of Death
At midnight, the dead come out of their graves and dance. In doing so, they make contact with the living and spread the message: "What you are, we were; what we are, you will become!". The dance of death has been depicted on paintings and walls since the Middle Ages. The images of dancing skeletons are underpinned with verses. In the black scene, the dance of death is often the eponym for parties. Numerous songs in the scene also describe it, for example the song "Totentanz" by Corvus Corax.