Ghost spent over ten years turning holy signs into dramatic rock tales, but Mary On A Cross marked when their vision quietly entered popular culture.

Originally a B-side release from 2019’s Seven Inches of Satanic Panic EP, it unexpectedly brought millions to Forge’s blend of irony, allure and blurred faith themes. It started as psychedelic pop-rock, but gradually shifted into Ghost’s most influential work, boosted by TikTok trends pushing it onto the Billboard chart, and reshaping how far the band could go.

The Real Story Behind the Myth

Tobias Forge created Ghost through opposing ideas. Though the band appears like a religious hallucination, their songs always had a sense of fever dream that felt like a soundtrack to your summer.

When “Mary On A Cross” dropped in 2019, fans were led to believe that it was recorded in the late ’60s by the bold figure Papa Nihil, predating today’s Papa V Perpetua. Yet in truth, Forge teamed up with the Swedish writers Salem Al Fakir and Vincent Pontare, better known as Vargas & Lagola. The duo had previously collaborated with the likes of Katy Perry & Madonna and helped write Prequelle songs such as Dance Macabre, along with Life Eternal, and would help shape the mystical hooks that made Mary On A Cross explode.

Lyrically, the song walks a fine line. In the opening verse, two figures race toward fame, wounded by drive but tied together, unable to let go. Then comes the chorus: You go down just like Holy Mary, Mary on a, Mary on a cross, shifting its meaning sharply; it mixes sacred terms with personal feelings.

When the song went viral in 2022 through a slowed-down Stranger Things fan edit, it pulled in millions of listeners who had never encountered metal before, sparking backlash among religious groups, as you would expect. The band leaned into the moment, going on to release an official animated video in 2024 to support their Rite Here Rite Now film, and as of 2025, the track is approaching 900 million streams on Spotify, far outpacing the band’s back catalogue.

In 2022, Forge explained in an interview with Brann Dailor of Mastodon about the meaning of the song:

Brann Dailor

What is the song (Mary On A Cross) about? Are you able to divulge that?

Tobias Forge

I can to a certain degree. I read the lyrics, I think now just because I’ve been asked especially from angles where you feel a little bit more obliged to really answer, as in your kid has a friend who asked, what does the chorus mean?

Brann Dailor

Does that happen?

Tobias Forge

That has happened. So, all of a sudden I’m like, okay. Well, she heard somewhere that it’s perverse.

Brann Dailor

Okay. Well. I don’t think it’s perverse. I wouldn’t think that it’s perverse.

Tobias Forge

So I can just clear that up.

Brann Dailor

Maybe some kind of an addiction or something is happening within there?

Tobias Forge

Yeah and there are multiple layers of the lyrics. It might be important for people to understand that the chorus is written very tongue-in-cheek. “Go Down” doesn’t necessarily mean as in a “69 sense” of the word, it can also mean go down as in go down in history, or go down as in you’re on ascent, you’re ascending. Mary doesn’t necessarily mean Mother Mary of Jesus, it might mean Mary Magdalene, the proclaimed whore who might actually have been the wife of Jesus, if you want this to just be a symbol for someone who came off as one thing but actually had other intentions and did something else, someone who’s miscredited.

I’m not going to explain exactly all the elements of the song, it’s more about friendship and how you, together with someone else, might have been something at one point, and then you just ended up not being like that.

Also, just throwing it out there my stage name when I was in Repugnant was Mary Goore, so it might be an internal conversation as well. I’m just telling you that it has very little to do with the mother of Jesus because I don’t want anybody to believe that she was not a virgin.

Ghost Mary On A Cross Lyrics In Full

Why Mary On A Cross Still Haunts Listeners

At its heart, Mary On A Cross isn’t about disrespecting faith. Instead, it tells of two individuals moving through disorder, holding on despite wounds caused by celebrity, pressure, or just living.

Religious imagery acts as a cover hiding deeper human truths, which is why the song struck such a chord, and also explains why it stands as Ghost’s signature piece, crossing into wider culture while stretching what a metal band can achieve in the modern era.

We may earn an affiliate commission when you buy through links on our site. This helps support the station. For our full list of affiliates, head here.