Μια Αποκλειστική Συνέντευξη με το Αβατάρ του Νυαρλαθοτέπ
NYARLATHOTEP DIABOLUS REX
NYARLATHOTEP DIABOLUS REX
Δουλεύοντας εντατικά τα δυο τελευταία χρόνια πάνω στην έρευνα και τη συγγραφή του καινούργιου μου βιβλίου Νεκρονομικόν: Το Μονοπάτι του Μαύρου Θεού, συναντήθηκα και μίλησα με πολλούς ασυνήθιστους ανθρώπους. Ορισμένοι από αυτούς προσεγγίζουν το θέμα της Μυθομαγείας Κθούλου με έναν ιδιαίτερο, φιλοσοφικό (ενίοτε και σκεπτικιστικό) τρόπο.
Κάποιοι άλλοι δε είναι αυτό που ο καθένας μας θα χαρακτήριζε απλά ως cultists. Η περίπτωση του Diabolus Rex, όμως, δεν επιδέχεται κατηγοριοποίηση!
Ήταν στις αρχές του 2011 (και συγκεκριμένα, σε μια καθόλου τυχαία ημερομηνία: 11/01/2011) όταν ο άλλοτε αρχιερέας της Εκκλησίας του Σατανά (του LaVey) στην Αμερική, ένα από τα σημαντικότερα ονόματα στο χώρο της Αριστερής Ατραπού και εξεζητημένος (σκοτεινός) καλλιτέχνης παραιτήθηκε από την οργάνωση όπου ήταν, για να ιδρύσει μια δική του ομάδα, με σκοπό τη λατρεία των Μεγάλων Παλαιών του Λάβκραφτ!
Όπως καταλαβαίνετε, το σοκ στους διεθνείς αποκρυφιστικούς κύκλους ήταν μεγάλο, όπως και η περιέργειά μου να γνωρίσω λίγο καλύτερα αυτόν τον τόσο παράξενο άνθρωπο.
Ο 51χρονος Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex –ναι, αυτό είναι το αληθινό του όνομα!- δέχτηκε την πρότασή μου για μια αποκλειστική συνέντευξη και στη συνέχεια αρχίσαμε ένα διάλογο εφ όλης της ύλης: το Νεκρονομικόν, το Χάος, τον τρανσχιουμανισμό, τη μαγική τεχνολογία, τους δαίμονες...
Το αποτέλεσμα ήταν μια κουβέντα διαφορετική, όπως περίεργα εκκεντρικός είναι και ο ίδιος.
Κάποιοι άλλοι δε είναι αυτό που ο καθένας μας θα χαρακτήριζε απλά ως cultists. Η περίπτωση του Diabolus Rex, όμως, δεν επιδέχεται κατηγοριοποίηση!
Ήταν στις αρχές του 2011 (και συγκεκριμένα, σε μια καθόλου τυχαία ημερομηνία: 11/01/2011) όταν ο άλλοτε αρχιερέας της Εκκλησίας του Σατανά (του LaVey) στην Αμερική, ένα από τα σημαντικότερα ονόματα στο χώρο της Αριστερής Ατραπού και εξεζητημένος (σκοτεινός) καλλιτέχνης παραιτήθηκε από την οργάνωση όπου ήταν, για να ιδρύσει μια δική του ομάδα, με σκοπό τη λατρεία των Μεγάλων Παλαιών του Λάβκραφτ!
Όπως καταλαβαίνετε, το σοκ στους διεθνείς αποκρυφιστικούς κύκλους ήταν μεγάλο, όπως και η περιέργειά μου να γνωρίσω λίγο καλύτερα αυτόν τον τόσο παράξενο άνθρωπο.
Ο 51χρονος Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex –ναι, αυτό είναι το αληθινό του όνομα!- δέχτηκε την πρότασή μου για μια αποκλειστική συνέντευξη και στη συνέχεια αρχίσαμε ένα διάλογο εφ όλης της ύλης: το Νεκρονομικόν, το Χάος, τον τρανσχιουμανισμό, τη μαγική τεχνολογία, τους δαίμονες...
Το αποτέλεσμα ήταν μια κουβέντα διαφορετική, όπως περίεργα εκκεντρικός είναι και ο ίδιος.
Γιώργος Ιωαννίδης
In 1920 H. P. Lovecraft dreamed of Nyarlathotep, a great magus and an adept of the secrets of technology. Some say that this figure was very similar to Nicola Tesla. Still, you use the name Nyarlathotep, as your own! Is that your real name or your magical title? And why did you choose it?
The faceless God of the late Egyptians was only faceless in that he had thousands of manifestations. It has been speculated that Lovecraft was making reference to the Serbian Inventor "Nikola Tesla" when he composed the short story "Nyarlathotep," as he astounded audiences with his machines of wonder. These machines were of course the results of Tesla's work in high frequency electromagnetic physics and the science/sorcery that was birthed from this. I have been working with EMS (electromagnetic spectrum Magick) since my teens and have specialized in building Tesla Coils, tornado plasma generators, Jacobs ladders, and Van de Graff generators for use in the ritual chamber. The "tepaphone" and "Thurim" (early versions) were also part of my magickal design template. As fascinating as these scientific wonders are, Tesla was an inventor and physics genius. If he was a "magician" he was within the context of the temporal realm. Nyarlathotep is more than my "Ouranos" or magickal personification of my self, (there are others who have used this name) rather I share my consciousness with this Being as a distinction from my own mind.I have designated this alien intelligence as the “Nyarlathotep Being,” as it demonstrates operational parameters consistent with the Cthulhu mythoes archetype. As a Chaos magician I function as an Avatar of this entity or "Chaomera," and have been consulting it in meditation since my recognition to the Satanic priesthood. Collectors of magickal happenstance may find it interesting in reference to my state of "possession" that in philosophical and magickal conversation with a Tibetan Lama and monk of the "Bon" religious tradition, a tantric sorcerer and friend of many years, affirmed to several younger novice monks that I was the only westerner he had ever met who carried the "second being" in my consciousness. He stated this Being was, quote~"one of the eighteen enlightened entities of the current aeon, and that this Being was the “Lord of the annihilating energy. This monk was unfamiliar with Lovecraft's writing.
As of this year I have legally changed my name to Nyarlathotep Diabolus Rex. I do not expect people to call me “Nayarlathotep,” Rex will do fine.
Could you briefly tell us how did you get into occultism at first place? What exactly drew you to this field?
My parents were early members of the COS having discovered it by way of a group of lectures given by Anton LaVey at the “Black House” in the early 60’s. When the Satanic Bible was published there was one acquired for the home library and I eagerly read it. I was naturally drawn to the dark, forbidden, and secretive side of life, from art, to science to “dangerous literature,” so this book was of great interest to me. In reading it I was set upon the path of black magick, sorcery, and art and this in combination with the writings of HP Lovecraft solidified my sojourn into the underworld and my dedication to the Left Hand Path.
I believe you knew Anton Szandor LaVey. What kind of person was he? Can you share with us some of your memories with the Black Pope?
Anton LaVey was sagely and perceptive, very adept at “cold reading” people, a master of lesser magick, naturally, given his work in the carnival and his adept manipulation of the media. In my visits with him we discussed many of the elements of the Germanic “Schwartzen Ordens” and the use of expressionistic design in ritual. We also discussed Lovecraft, Fortean science, the Knights Templar and Aleister Crowley, to name just a few subjects. The outside occult world has no idea of the secrets the Church of Satan kept for so many years with relevance to “Black Magick” that sadly, are now gone.
Suddenly, after so many years, you resolve from Church of Satan in 11/01/2011. Why? And why now?
Satanism in it’s current incarnation is militantly atheistic and intolerant of any conceptualization of “Satan,” by that name or any of his designates, as a preternatural being or “super consciousness” within the mechanical construct we designate as the Universe. I have been convinced of the reality of the Prince of Darkness as a psych-centered consciousness and “overmind” since my first days in ritual experimentation and that is over 40 years now. It was not obligatory for me to divulge this perspective in relation to the COS hard-line material reductionism, as my Black Magickal Order the “Chaos Imperium” has remained a secret society for over 20 years. The magicians of the Chaos Imperium are all in contact with this Being which we have designated as the Lovecraftian singularity “Yog-Sothoth” and work with the sorceric concepts germane to this Satanic force. When I decided to make the Chaos Imperium public knowledge, it was necessary for me to tender my resignation as continuing to remain a high profile member of an organization dedicated to atheism would only have served to confuse and disturb. What is most important is my absolute dedication and deadly seriousness to black magickal power, transformation, and sorceric solutions to the problems of entropy by way of my interaction with the Prince of Darkness.
Apart of Satanism, I believe you are an adept to the Temple of the Vampire. What exactly is vampirism, according to the teachings of ToV? And how different is it from the modern cinematic version?
I am not currently active with the TOV, my dedication to expanding the psychic influence of the Chaos Imperium into the apocalypse current and my work with occult engineering the Ragnarok Engine demand my singular attention. The Chaos Imperium is far more magickally advanced in its antonimian program than any vampiric/satanic/gnostic order aggregate currently in existence.
During the last few years, you show a great interest for the Necronomicon Current. What brought you to Lovecraft in the first place, and why do you believe that there is an occult aspect in the mythos?
My immersion in the “Necronomicon Current” is not a phenomena of the last few years, but has been my focus from almost childhood as my art- drawings/paintings/sculptures will attest. I came to Lovecraft by way of Arkham House editions which I would read with fiendish interest. “Tales of the Cthulhu Mythoes” published in 1969 was a favorite and the monstrous gods of Lovecraft’s “fiction” formed the basis of some of my initial black magickal workings. Lovecraft’s strange fiction lends itself to translation into occult themes, such as inspiration for ritual with great ease precisely because it is “occult” in the most literal sense. I have stated before that Lovecraft was the last great mythologist and that his Cthulhu mythos is particularly powerful because it has nothing “ethnic” associated with it, it is completely alien in context.
Do you believe that the Great Old Ones are actual entities or some kind of psychological archetypes? Are you a follower of Theistic Cthulhucism or you interpret the gods and goddesses of the Necronomicon from a philosophical point of view?
The Chaos Imperium reference alien intelligences via the term praetor-human entity, and in the context of this interview this phraseology should be recognized as that which is outside of the human condition. In the tradition of the Left Hand Path it is accepted that there are “super conscious” entities in existence out of the general reaches of human manifestation, and therefore not subject to the same laws of space/time which is the generalized operating condition of this psychosphere. Azathoth operates as an ancient primordial force outside of the rational parameters of our Universe. He/It comprises elements of the Ylem hyper-force left over from the first incarnation of the big bang. Yog-Sothoth however, is a singular superconsciousness highly distinct from all other forms of cosmic phenomena, able to break barriers of space/time and act independent of universal law. Several of the HPL mythoes gods are in truth exotic cosmic principles outside of our space time configuration, and only a few of them are actual psych-eccentric beings possessed of consciousness. The existence of one or more of these extra-dimensional intelligences precludes any form of “worship” or groveling to appease.
I read in a previous interview with Venger Satanis your thoughts about the Super-Consciousness as the actual Prince of Darkness. What exactly is your understanding of the God, and how is related with Yog-Sothoth?
The designate “super-consciousness” is what we in the Chaos Imperium equate with the Prince of Darkness, and in more intimate sorceric terminology define as Yog-Sothoth, the gate and key of all black magickal equations. This “overmind” is one of the “Platonic Idealistic Forms” a pure element existing in the mechanical construct, a model for the magician to focus upon as he evolves toward its likeness. It is the archetype of “Selfhood” from which all particular and individual selves emanate. This is not to be confused with the christian idea of “god” as that conceptualization has no opposite with which to compare itself, (and therefore no personal identity) but an alien consciousness separate and distinct from all other forms and universal phenomena. We see the non-natural reality of the soul as proof of a conceptualization in the subjective universe and a micro-form of a much greater, far more developed “ideal.” Lovecraftian terminology allows the magicians of the Ch I to give intellectual conceptualization and experiential homogeny to an otherwise almost incomprehensible (in the objective world) concept that the common man has no context for in his experience. I and other memebers of the CH I directly interact with this being in the ritual chamber to a degree that supersedes language as aural symbolism itself is grounded in material principles. Black Magick is the language of communion and congress with the Prince of Darkness.
Is its helpful for a modern magician to work with the Necronomicon Current, and how dangerous could that be?
Contrary to the opinions of most peddlers of occult expertise, magick, particularly Black Magick and antinomianistic sorcery are not easy, rather it is one of the most difficult of human actions and highly dangerous. The danger lies in working with such forces and elements in such a direct manner thus tremendous mental focus, precise discipline, and complete understanding is demanded or the magician can “spin out” and their lives can become irrevocably altered. Black Magick is not an activity for the incompetent and egotistical as this combination can be highly self destructive as the documented evidence will attest. It is for precisely this reason that historically the title of “occult” meaning hidden, secret, and cloaked in darkness was implemented for books, manuscripts and paraphernalia germane to the black arts. There are more “magicians” now on the planet than at any other time in history, and more failures. The Necronomicon Current is dangerous to work with to be sure, but a mental pygmy unsuited and unworthy attempting to work with any current is a volatile combination and a disaster waiting to happen. If I was in control of the state I would create an Orden der Okkulten Forschung where magickal material would be sacred and reserved for proper research and implementation. All occult related ephemera would be controlled like a dangerous substance, and out of reach of psychic philistines.
Right this moment there are many different versions of the Necronomicon all around the world! Which one of them do you think is better for actual magical workings, and why?
None of them. The power of the true Necronomicon resides in the fact that it has never been written, and never can be. It exists in the “Akashic Field” the psychic ethereal current accessible only to the master magician. This etheric tomb is far darker than anything in occult print. In my opinion the “psuedonomicons” in circulation are rather lackluster, not surprising given that most of them have been composed by white magicians playing at black magick.
Nowadays, you are developing the Chaos Imperium. In a few words, could you share with us what exactly is C.I. and in what ways it is related to the Necronomicon Current and Chaos Magic in general?
The Chaos Imperium functions as a quantum network which does not operate through a terrestrially based Temple or physical Order, because its members are not - in a Black Magickal sense - centred in this terrestrial sphere. Their zones of occult activity are located in spaces "In between" which both include and transcend astral levels of consciousness, the angular ether. The Chaos Imperium must therefore not be thought of as corporate entity in the mundane sense - it is controlled by inner-plane contacts- themselves adepts of extra-dimensional magick centered in Dark Energy- focused today through the GOTOS of the Aeon of Chaos, Diabolus Rex the avatar of the Black God ~Nyarlathotep, channelling currents in the angled realms outside the circles of time and space.
There is no comparison to other Satanic Orders or LHP systems. The Chaos Imperium is an Order of dark beings, the basis of our Work being the direct assimilation and manipulation of angular inertia and black magickal power. As the work of the Order progresses, revelations in adeptship are conferred upon various members by only one source, the Dark God of our order, Yog Sothoth. This elevated master of being is then recognized by other members of the internal cabal and formally sanctioned, in this way self initiation... the ultimate act of Being is the refined action of Becoming. XEPER.
What is Chaos for you? A dynamic power of continuous changes and endless possibilities, a force of total annihilation, or something completely different?
Chaos is both of these things........and neither of them. Most occultist today have little to no understanding of the chaos current except in its most grotesque analog form. The Ylem Primordium, the residue of the massive trans dimensional eruption commonly known as the big bang is the physical boundry of the chaos equation. Chaos again is antinominian as it is the lowest vibratory frequency of the nine angles of the trapezoid, the annihalting frequency. Chaos Magick as perceived by members of the Ch I is differentiated from that of Peter Caroll in that Caroll expresses Chaos as a manifestation of the material Either which is subject to the movements and mechanix of the space/time continuum with randomicity playing a part in the push/pull of the sorcerer’s Will. Belief serves as the magickal weapon to “restructure matter” and create the changes desired on the physical plane. The angular inertia of the Chaos Imperium which is a direct creative/destructive force of chaos geometry is independent of purely materialistic paradigms in that it is “isolate” much like the perception of Stephen Flower’s conception of Galdr. This perception of Chaos in the Ch.I finds itself personified in the symbolism of the Chaos Singularity of our Order where it demonstrates the principle of the psych-centered self manipulating Daimonic Being in both the physical and material planes.
A basic part of you magical working, is technology. Such as the development of the Tepaphon device. Still, many magicians feel uncomfortable with the use of machinery. How do you combine these two aspects?
Magicians who feel uncomfortable with technology such as the Ragnarok Engine or Tepaphone are reacting to their ingrained fear of the origins of this techno-sorcerery. Without exception all occult devises of this type have their pedigrees in pre-WWI through WWII. The Nazi Occult Bureaus adapted, refined and improved this technologie and developed their own. After WWII much of this research was sequestered away by the Soviets and tested during the cold war. The USA on the other hand acquired much if not most of the research in Hanebue and flying disk aeronautics, (but this is another subject close to my interests), point is, the Chaos Imperium is taking Black Magick into the future. The continued evolution of quantum physics, chaos theory in dynamic systems, (the RE even works on chaos systems in gyro~torsion physics), sonic barrier displacement, advanced black radionics, and a vast bestiary of infernal machines are the domain of the Chaos Imperium. We are elevating the power of mind and magickal consciousness out of the primitive doldrums of superstition and into a vast new dark age.
One of your projects made you very famous among the occultists. I'm referring of course to the Ragnarok Engine. What exactly is it? What is the physics behind R.E. and what's its purpose?
The Ragnarok Engine or "RE" for short, is a device for amplifying black magickal actions of non-locality. The implementation of its program is research and development and is ongoing. It is the "Thurim" of the Chaos Imperium, and the Eschaton of the Apocalypse. It is powered by "Vril Energy" which drives the angular inertia of its hyperspherical vorticitation ( how this is utilized is detailed in my book.) Based on initial images of the RE's gyro-dynamic components there has been some speculation as to its mechanization as a "portal devise," but this is incorrect. It is more accurately a "demon generating forge" a crucible for the creation of thought forms in highly sophisticated configurations involving multiple permutations of being. Its metallurgic composition is T-1 a steel used in high strength pressure vessels, tank armor and submarines. The RE can be “tuned” to contact pre-existing demonic forms, alter them with etheric technologies, and carry out sorceric operations. The RE can also be utilized as a magickal weapon, its potential in this arena is still being evaluated. The forthcoming book, "Dominion of Chaos, Art, Science, Black Magick" will go into detail of design, operating parameters and experimental work with this machine.
Is it true that you will activate R.E. on 21/12/2012? Why then? And what do you believe it will happen?
Yes, there are plans to implement the device in 2012, reason being that with the tremendous psychic radiation flooding the ether and akashik fields, spilling out into the objective world by way of fear and apprehension from the human mind, monsters let loose from the Id, this presents an opportunity both timely and unique. The Chaos Imperium is ready to feed this energy to the Ragnarok Engine with the expectant results remaining within the secrets of our Order. I can say that the occult world will never again be the same.
The concept of gates that leads to the realms of the Gods, exists in various ancient religions and in certain modern magical orders. I believe, ToV is also working with the Cube of Experience, CoS with the Shining Trapezoid, ONA with a system of stargates, and of course we have Simon's 9 Gates of the Necronomicon. In what ways R.E. is different?
The methodology of the gates as systems of gnosis are like powerful microscopes. The Ragnarok Engine is like a black magickal “Hadron Collider.” It represents the most advanced form of machine demonics. It creates infernal forms as opposed to bringing them from outside. Non~Locality in asymetric systems and angular inertia are events initiated by way of the RE’s gyro~dynamics. The ensuing results are highly specialized thought forms resulting from pre-determined angled trajectories. Tesla technology is part of the power source used in the RE’s lab room. Mass in motion creates energy, this mass pre-designed on occult principles results in quantum/magickal effects. Science~sorcery. Occult engineering is so vast a subject that it cannot be broken down enough for an interview, but there is a book in the works.
Apart from the use of technology in magic, you are also interested in body modification! Do you consider the metamorphosis of your body as part of your rituals? Is it a declaration of transhumanistic beliefs, or just bizarre art?
I am hardened advocate of transhumanism, seeing it as a methodology beyond politics and a way to overcome humanity. My exterior manifestation in the objective universe mirrors a carefully crafted and controlled internal psychic landscape. I am far from completed.
Have you ever travelled in Greece? What is your opinion about our country, Greek mythology and our magical tradition?
I have never been to Greece but I have desired to travel there for some time. I have friends in your country I have met via cyber space who have generously offered their time and resources to view your beautiful land. As I have magickal work in Germany to attend to, it is my hope to visit Greece as part of my travel plans. I would like to visit before the current paradigm goes completely down the wormhole.
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Αν θέλαμε να περιορίσουμε σε δυο λέξεις-κλειδιά τα μυστικά της μαγείας, τότε ασφαλώς αυτές θα πρέπει να ήταν η θέληση και η φαντασία. Φαντασία είναι η λειτουργία των ενσυνείδητων οργανισμών να οραματίζονται πράγματα, ιδέες και καταστάσεις εκεί που δεν υπάρχουν. Θέληση είναι η ενέργεια βούλησης ενός ατόμου. Όταν αυτά τα δυο συνδυαστούν, τότε το άτομο μπορεί να κατευθύνει την προσοχή του σε κάτι που, αν τι μια στιγμή δεν υφίσταται, μπορεί την αμέσως επόμενη να γίνει απτό – αρχικά στην οθόνη της φαντασίας του μυαλού, αργότερα στις ίδιες τις πράξεις του.
Τι θα γινόταν, όμως, αν το άτομο που στρέφει όλη τη θέλησή του σε μια φανταστική πραγματικότητα ενδυθεί πλήρως και ενεργειακά το όραμα που χτίζει; Μήπως τότε θα γινόταν ο ίδιος η ιδέα που μέχρι πριν σκιαγραφούσε στο μυαλό του μόνο; Ή μήπως θα γινόταν φάρος για την προσοχή δυνάμεων έξω και πέρα από το άτομο αυτό, ίσως ακόμη και δυνάμεων υπερφυσικών;
Η απάντηση και στα δυο είναι θετική, όμως πριν φτάσουμε στο θέμα αυτό, αξίζει πιστεύω να εξετάσουμε ένα από το διασημότερο γέννημα της ανθρώπινης φαντασίας του 20ου αιώνα, που κατόρθωσε να κερδίσει το ενδιαφέρον μιας στρατιάς πραγματικών μάγων, μετατρέποντας μια pulp λογοτεχνική μυθοπλασία σε μια πλήρη μαγική σχολή, σ’ ένα κανονικό ρεύμα αποκρυφισμού, ακόμη και σε αναγνωρισμένη θρησκεία…
Τι είναι η Μυθολογία Κθούλου;
Ήταν τη δεύτερη και τρίτη δεκαετία του περασμένου αιώνα όταν ο Χάουαρντ Φίλιπς Λάβκραφτ, ένας ξενοφοβικός μυθιστοριογράφος από το Πρόβιντενς της Αμερικής, οραματίστηκε ένα καινούργιο σύμπαν εξωγήινων θεών, πανάρχαιες σέκτες υψηλής μαγείας, και ένα ακατονόμαστο βιβλίο γραμμένο από τον Αμπντούλ Αλχαζρέντ, έναν ποιητή που το κισμέτ του ήταν να καταβροχθισθεί από αόρατα πλάσματα στο μέσο της αγοράς της αρχαίας Δαμασκού.
Όπως ο ίδιος ο Λάβκραφτ εξηγεί στην αλληλογραφία του, η λέξη Νεκρονομικόν ήταν προϊόν ενός ονείρου, ενώ αργότερα το σύνολο της Μυθολογίας Κθούλου θα αποτελέσει και αυτό παράγωγο των λογοτεχνικών του επιρροών (από λαμπρούς συγγραφείς του φανταστικού και του τρόμου, όπως τον Λόρδο Ντάνσανυ, τον Άρθουρ Μάχεν, και φυσικά τον Ε.Α. Πόε), όπως και αποκύημα μιας σειράς ονείρων -ακατάσχετων εφιαλτών για την ακρίβεια- που σχεδόν καθημερινά συντρόφευαν τον ύπνο του.
Σύμφωνα πάντα με τη φαντασία (;) του Λάβκραφτ, εκατομμύρια αιώνες πριν την εποχή του ανθρώπου, μια φυλή υπερδύναμων εξωγήινων πλασμάτων έφτασε στον κόσμο μας από τον πλανήτη Γιουγκόθ. Πρόκειται για τους Μεγάλους Παλαιούς, πλάσματα τόσο ξένα στην ανθρώπινη λογική που δύσκολα μπορεί κάποιος να συλλάβει τον πολιτισμό τους, πόσο δε την επιστήμη τους, που στα δικά μας μάτια μοιάζει με μαγεία.
Καθώς, λοιπόν, οι χιλιετηρίδες ωρίμαζαν τη Γη και οι Παλαιοί που την κατοικούσαν γερνούσαν, η αυτοκρατορία τους έσβησε μαζί με τις κυκλώπειες πόλεις, που η μια μετά την άλλη γκρεμίζονταν ή καταποντίζονταν.
Σιγά σιγά η ιστορία έδωσε τη θέση της στους θρύλους και η κάθοδος της δυναστείας του Μέγα Κθούλου έγινε αντικείμενο μύθων και λατρείας από περίεργες σέκτες που, δρώντας στις σκιές των επίσημων θρησκειών, εργάζονταν υπομονετικά για να φέρουν ξανά πίσω τους θεούς που, δίχως να έχουν πεθάνει, κοιμούνται στον πάτο της θάλασσας, μέσα σε βαθιά σπήλαια, κρυμμένοι μέσα στις αρχαίες και απάτητες ζούγκλες.
Όλα αυτά, λοιπόν, και πολλά περισσότερα εξιστορούσε το καταραμένο Νεκρονομικόν που, περνώντας από χέρι σε χέρι, έφτασε στα γραπτά του Λάβκραφτ, για να εμπνεύσει με τη σειρά του περισσότερους συγγραφείς, φίλους του Χάουαρντ.
Και έτσι, με την πάροδο του χρόνου, σπουδαία πρόσωπα του φανταστικού, όπως ο Κλαρκ Άστον Σμιθ, ο Όγκουστ Ντέρλεθ, ο Ρόμπερτ Μπλοχ και πιο πρόσφατα ο Μπράϊαν Λάμλεϊ και ο Νιλ Γκέιμαν, θα επαναλάβουν το mythos που σχεδίασε ο Λάβκραφτ, προσθέτοντας ακόμη περισσότερα στοιχεία.
Κάπου εδώ, όμως, προκύπτει ένα ενδιαφέρον παράδοξο: πώς γίνεται ένα δημιούργημα της φαντασίας, όπως η Μυθολογία Κθούλου, να απασχολεί πολύ σοβαρά το πλήθος των μάγων που προανέφερα; Η απάντηση είναι ίσως ακόμη πιο περίεργη…
Και Εγένετο Νεκρονομικόν!
Σε μυριάδες επιστολές του, ο Λάβκραφτ επαναλάμβανε ξανά και ξανά πως το Νεκρονομικόν ήταν ένα φανταστικό βιβλίο και πως ο ίδιος δεν είχε ιδέα από τις δοξασίες του αποκρυφισμού, πέρα από μια στοιχειώδη γνώση που απέκτησε μελετώντας κάποια σχετικά εγκυκλοπαιδικά λήμματα και μερικά ανάλογα βιβλία ανθρωπολογίας και φολκλορισμού.
Μάλιστα, ένα από τα έργα που τον επηρέασαν περισσότερο ήταν το The Witch Cult in Western Europe (1921) της Margaret Murray, το οποίο αξίζει να σημειώσω πως επηρέασε σημαντική και τον ιδρυτή της θρησκείας Wicca, Gerald Gardner!
Παρ’ όλες τις αντιδράσεις του Λάβκραφτ, όμως, οι αναγνώστες συνέχιζαν να ψάχνουν με ενδιαφέρον σε βιβλιοθήκες και παλαιοβιβλιοπωλεία το μιαρό Νεκρονομικόν. Η βιβλιοθηρεία αυτή δε, έφτασε στο αποκορύφωμά της όταν ο Λάβκραφτ πέθανε το 1937 και πολύ περισσότερο αργότερα, όταν τα διηγήματά του θα κυκλοφορήσουν πιο προσεγμένα από τις εκδόσεις Arkham House.
Βλέπετε, ο ρεαλιστικός τρόπος γραφής του Λάβκραφτ, η εκκεντρική του προσωπικότητα, αλλά και το γεγονός πως για το ίδιο θέμα γράφανε σχεδόν ταυτόχρονα πολλοί διαφορετικοί συγγραφείς, έκαναν τους αναγνώστες να πιστέψουν πως πίσω από τις ιστορίες των αγαπημένων τους συγγραφέων θα πρέπει να κρύβεται μια αληθινή, αλλά μέχρι τότε παραγκωνισμένη ιστορία.
Πολλοί, λοιπόν, άρχισαν να αναζητούν το αυθεντικό Νεκρονομικόν και επειδή όταν κάτι το θέλεις πολύ, αυτό τείνει να γίνει πραγματικότητα, το πρώτο αληθινό (;) Νεκρονομικόν έφτασε στα χέρια του Ντέρλεθ το 1946. Το όνομα του ήταν Cultus Maleficarum και έφερε την υπογραφή του Fred L. Pelton.
Σήμερα το βιβλίο αυτό είναι σχεδόν άγνωστο, αποτελεί όμως το «αρχέτυπο» όλων των υπόλοιπων ψευδεπίγραφων και κάλπικων Νεκρονομικόν… διότι θα υπάρξουν πολλά ακόμη, από το πλέον γνωστό και πολυχρησιμοποιημένο Necronomicon του Simon μέχρι και την σειρά βιβλίων κθουλικής μαγείας που έχει βγάλει ο Donald Tyson την τελευταία πενταετία.
Καθώς, λοιπόν, οι προθήκες των βιβλιοπωλείων και των occult shops άρχιζαν να γεμίζουν με Νεκρονομικόν, δεν άργησε να στραφεί και το ενδιαφέρον της διεθνούς αποκρυφιστικής σκηνής στη σκοτεινή Μυθολογία Κθούλου…
Θεμελιώνοντας την Αληθινή Μαγεία του Νεκρονομικόν
Από την αριστερή πλευρά του Ατλαντικού, την αρχή έκανε η Εκκλησία του Σατανά του Anton LaVey, όπου στο δεύτερο σατανικό του σύγγραμμα (The Satanic Rituals, 1972) θα συμπεριλάβει δυο τυπικά που έγραψε για αυτόν ο μαθητής του και αργότερα ιδρυτής του Ναού του Σεθ, Michael Aquino.
Πρόκειται ασφαλώς για τελετουργικά που είναι εμπνευσμένα από τη Μυθολογία Κθούλου και συμπεριλαμβάνουν αρχές και ορολογίες του mythos.
Από την δεξιά πλευρά του Ατλαντικού, τώρα, και πιο συγκεκριμένα στην Αγγλία ξανά του 1972, ο ιδρυτής του Τυφώνειου Τάγματος Kenneth Grand θα κυκλοφορήσει το βιβλίο του The Magical Revival, στο οποίο, εκτός των άλλων, θα συγκρίνει τα πρόσωπα και τις έννοιες της μυθολογίας Κθούλου με την Θελημική μαγική φιλοσοφία και θεολογία του Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ.
Αρκετά χρόνια αργότερα τη σκυτάλη θα αναλάβει η σχολή Χαοτικής Μαγείας, που κατορθώνει να αποδείξει πως σημασία δεν έχει το πλαίσιο μέσα στο οποίο δουλεύει ο μάγος, όσο ο βαθμός της πίστης του προς αυτό. Ως εκ τούτου, μπορεί κανείς να δοξολογεί τους Μεγάλους Παλαιούς και αυτό να φέρνει κυριολεκτικά αποτέλεσμα!
Στην πορεία των ετών περισσότερες σχολές και αυτόκλητοι μάγοι θα στρέψουν την προσοχή τους στην αποκρυφιστική πλευρά του mythos, κατασκευάζοντας ένα λειτουργικό αλλά -λίγο ως πολύ- διαφορετικό για τον καθένα σύστημα πρακτικής μαγείας του Νεκρονομικόν
Αυτό, λοιπόν, που κάποτε ανήκε στη φαντασία των λίγων έγινε πράξη και τα πνεύματα του απαγορευμένου τόμου άρχισαν να ενσαρκώνονται στους μαύρους καθρέπτες των επικλητών τους…
Οι Σέκτες του Κθούλου Σήμερα
Μέχρι σήμερα έχουν εμφανιστεί πολλές διαφορετικές ομάδες λατρείας των Μεγάλων Παλαιών. Αρκετές από αυτές έσβησαν από το χάρτη αρκετά νωρίς, είτε γιατί η πίστη τους δεν ήταν αυθεντική είτε γιατί οι πεποιθήσεις τους οδήγησαν σε αδιέξοδο. Όπως και να έχει, σήμερα, εν έτει 2011 υπάρχουν και εργάζονται τουλάχιστον εφτά τάγματα. Αυτά είναι: Order of the Necronomicon, Cult of Cthulhu, Esoteric Order of Dagon, Temple of Shub-Niggurath, Order of the Trapezoid, Ordo Nabu Maerdechai, και το Ansactus Cechoslovacica Esoterica Templum de Antiquelis της Πράγας.
Οι αδελφότητες που προανέφερα περιλαμβάνουν το πάνθεον του Νεκρονομικόν στον πυρήνα των εργασιών τους. Υπάρχουν, όμως, και αρκετές ακόμη, που στα πλαίσια του σκοτεινού τους εσωτερισμού χρησιμοποιούν ενίοτε στοιχεία από το mythos, όπως το Arcanus Ordo Nigri Solis, το Order of the Nine Angles, το Temple of the Vampire, και μέχρι πριν λίγα χρόνια, το Lodge Magan.
Είτε έμμεσα είτε όχι, όμως, όλες αυτές οι ομάδες αποδεικνύουν πως η πραγματική Μαγεία μπορεί να εκφραστεί μέσα από τις εικόνες και τις ιδέες της Μυθολογίας Κθούλου, πως υπάρχει μια άσβεστη φλόγα γνήσιου ενδιαφέροντος και δύναμης που ακούει στο όνομα Ρεύμα του Νεκρονομικόν, και πως το πνευματικό αυτό κίνημα μπορεί να βοηθήσει τον άνθρωπο να γνωρίσει όχι μόνο τον εαυτό του, αλλά και τις ανώτερες υποστάσεις του κόσμου μας. Στο σημείο αυτό ίσως να αναρωτιέστε το πώς ακριβώς μπορεί να συμβαίνει αυτό; Προσέξτε, λοιπόν…
Σχετικά με τον Λαβκραφτικό Σατανισμό
Από τη στιγμή που ο LaVey ενσωμάτωσε στις Σατανικές του δραστηριότητες την ψευδομυθολογία του Λάβκραφτ, αυτοί που έδειξαν μεγαλύτερο ενδιαφέρον για τη Μυθολογία Κθούλου ήταν οι εκπρόσωποι και οι φίλοι του Left Hand Path, οι οποίοι στους σκοτεινούς πρωταγωνιστές του mythos προσπαθήσανε να αντιστοιχίσουν τις οντότητες του Sitra Ahra.
Κάπως έτσι, και για μια μερίδα αποκρυφιστών, η μαγεία του Νεκρονομικόν ερμηνεύτηκε καθαρά ως κλιφωθική, και οι Μεγάλοι Παλαιοί ως δαίμονες με… εξωγήινα ονόματα.
Μ’ αυτό τον τρόπο, λοιπόν, γεννήθηκε ο Λαβκραφτικός Σατανισμός, όπου διακρίνουμε τουλάχιστον τρεις μορφές μαγικής άσκησης:
1) Επικλήσεις προς τους Μεγάλους Παλαιούς – όπως συμβαίνει με το Κάλεσμα του Κθούλου από τον Aquino.
2) Τελετουργία μέσω εστίασης σε ένα υλικό αντικείμενο – όπως συμβαίνει με το τετράεδρο κρύσταλλο στο Τυπικό των Εννέα Γωνιών του Order of the Nine Angles.
3) Συνειδησιακό πέρασμα σε άλλες καταστάσεις και διαστάσεις πραγματικότητας (pathworking) – όπως συμβαίνει με τον οραματισμό του Μεγάλου Τραπεζόεδρου του Temple of the Vampire.
Εργαζόμενος προσωπικά πάνω στο Ρεύμα του Νεκρονομικόν τα τελευταία πέντε χρόνια, έχω διαπιστώσει πως ο κθουλικός αποκρυφισμός (yog-sothothery ή θεϊστικός κθουλισμός για κάποιους) εμπεριέχει ήδη ένα μεγάλο πλούτο από τελετουργίες, όπως και διαθέτει χώρο για το σύγχρονο ασκητή να προσθέσει το δικό του λιθαράκι εμπειρίας και γνώσης στο όλο (εν δυνάμει) σύστημα.
Η βάση όλων των τύπων πρακτικής μαγείας, όμως, που μπορεί να απασχολήσει αυτούς που εργάζονται με το Νεκρονομικόν, πιστεύω πως είναι οι τρεις προαναφερθείσες κατηγορίες.
Το πραγματικό ερώτημα, παρ’ όλ’ αυτά, έγκειται αλλού: α) το σύστημα του Νεκρονομικόν θα πρέπει να ακολουθεί τις μεταμοντέρνες αντιλήψεις του χαοτικισμού ή να συμφωνεί με την γριμοριακή φιλοσοφία, και β) ποιο το γενικότερο όφελος;
Η απάντηση στο πρώτο ερώτημα διαφέρει από συγγραφέα σε συγγραφέα. Για κάποιους, οι Μεγάλοι Παλαιοί μπορούν και πρέπει να βρούνε τη θέση τους πάνω στο Δέντρο του Θανάτου.
Κάποιοι έχουν γράψει βιβλία που βασίζουν τη δομή τους στα υπάρχοντα γριμόρια, παρουσιάζουν δηλαδή μια σειρά από επικλήσεις, κύκλους προστασίας και ευφάνταστα sigils. Κάποιοι άλλοι, τέλος, πιστεύουν πως το όλο θέμα θα πρέπει να απέχει από δογματικούς τύπους και να είναι ελεύθερα συγκριτικό, ώστε να αποτελεί ένα υποκειμενικό έργο αυτογνωσίας και ανέλιξης.
Η θέση μου συμφωνεί με την τελευταία επιλογή, γι’ αυτό και παραμένω σκεπτικός κάθε φορά που συναντώ τα γριμοριακά πονήματα αγνώστων μάγων με βαρύγδουπα ονόματα! Δεν πρέπει να ξεχνάμε πως πρόκειται για προσωπικές εμπειρίες, που η αντικειμενική τους αξία μπορεί και να είναι μηδαμινή.
Αν, λοιπόν, υπάρχει κάτι που θα πρέπει να αναζητήσει κανείς στην αληθινή μαγεία του Νεκρονομικόν, αυτό πιστεύω πως πρέπει να είναι οι έννοιες (τα μαύρα αρχέτυπα, αν προτιμάτε) πίσω από τα ονόματα και τις πρακτικές… Αυτό είναι το αληθινό κλειδί!
Περνώντας τις Πύλες στις Διαστάσεις του Άλλου
Τι πραγματικά είναι, λοιπόν, το Νεκρονομικόν; Υπάρχουν πολλές ερμηνείες εδώ, αυτή που προτιμώ προσωπικά θέλει να πρόκειται για το Βιβλίο των Νεκρών Ονομάτων. Εκ πρώτης όψεως, ο τίτλος αυτός παραπέμπει σε μυστήρια νεκρομαντείας, στην πραγματικότητα, όμως, αφορά τις δυνάμεις εκείνες που η συνείδησή μας έχει λησμονήσει! Το Νεκρονομικόν, συνεπώς, είναι η διεργασία ανάμνησης (και αποκάλυψης) του λόγου, δηλαδή της δημιουργικής αρχής που κρύβουμε μέσα μας.
Η γλώσσα δεν είναι απλά ένα μέσο για να επικοινωνούμε ιδέες για τον κόσμο, αλλά ένα εργαλείο για να φέρνουμε τον κόσμο σε ύπαρξη. Η «πραγματικότητα» δεν είναι απλά κάτι που βιώνεται ή αντικατοπτρίζεται στη γλώσσα, αλλά κάτι που παράγεται κυριολεκτικά από το λόγο, όπως ακριβώς γινόταν με τους Σαμάνους, που ο κόσμος τους ήταν οι ιστορίες που διηγούνταν…
Καθόλου παράξενο, λοιπόν, που ο Λάβκραφτ χρησιμοποίησε μια νέα ακαθόριστη γραμματική για να ονοματοδοτήσει τους θεούς του -κατά αντιστοιχία των βαρβαρικών ονομάτων στην Γνωστική μαγική πρακτική- ενώ κατεβάζει τους ήρωες του στις σπηλιές των φιδιών για να δρασκελίσουν τις διαστάσεις των κόσμων μέσα από παράξενες γωνίες και κρατώντας περίεργα κλειδιά.
Το σκοτάδι στο σύμπαν του Νεκρονομικόν είναι το γοτθικό δάσος του ασυνειδήτου μας, και η νύχτα το ευρύτερο μαγικό πλαίσιο δράσης.
Αν θέλουμε, λοιπόν, να περάσουμε στις διαστάσεις των Παλαιών και να γνωρίσουμε τα μυστικά της μαγείας του αυθεντικού Νεκρονομικόν, θα πρέπει να κατέλθουμε βαθιά μέσα μας και να έρθουμε αντιμέτωποι με τους τρόμους των εσωτερικών μας δωμάτων.
Η δαιμονική όψη των πλασμάτων του mythos, άλλωστε, δεν είναι τυχαία: ο φόβος είναι σαν τη φωτιά, μπορεί να μας αφυπνίσει από το λήθαργο του συμβατού και να μας εξαγνίσει!
Κατεβαίνοντας, λοιπόν, σαν μια άλλη Ινάννα, σαν ένας άλλος Ορφέας και Όντιν, ο μάγος περνάει από σταδιακές πύλες, μέχρι ωσότου να φτάσει στον πυρήνα της ύπαρξής του. Πρόκειται ασφαλώς για το Μυστικό ή Μαύρο Ήλιο, που στον εσωτερισμό του Νεκρονομικόν αντιστοιχεί στον Αζαθώθ.
Αυτό είναι και το ύστατο όφελος της Κθουλικής μαγείας - η γνώση του Κέντρου, που είναι μικροκοσμικό είδωλο της όλης πλάσης. Η δε πορεία προς αυτό το θεοσοφικό σημείο είναι ένα μυητικό μονοπάτι ψυχανωδίας, που ακολουθεί τα πρότυπα του ιουδαϊκού γνωστικισμού Μέρκαβα… αλλά δεν θέλω να σας κουράσω περισσότερο με επιπλέον ορολογίες και παράξενες φιλοσοφίες.
Άλλωστε, όσοι θέλετε να μάθετε περισσότερα για το Ρεύμα του Νεκρονομικόν, το ιστορικό, φιλοσοφικό και πρακτικό του περιεχόμενο, μπορείτε να αναζητήσετε το δίτομο έργο μου Necronomicon (2008) και Νεκρονομικόν: Το Μονοπάτι του Μαύρου Θεού (2011) που κυκλοφορεί από τις εκδόσεις Αρχέτυπο.
Γιώργος Ιωαννίδης
Διαβάστε περισσότερα...
Στις 27 Μαΐου 2011, είχα την χαρά και την τιμή να συμμετέχω σε μια σειρά διαλέξεων για την ζωή και το έργο του Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ. Δίχως αμφιβολία, ήταν μια ξεχωριστή βραδιά, καθώς για πρώτη φορά στην χώρα μας, πραγματοποιήθηκε μια εκδήλωση για έναν άνθρωπο που μισήθηκε και αγαπήθηκε όσο κανένας άλλος, στον χώρο του νεώτερου δυτικού εσωτερισμού.
Μάλιστα, η ανταπόκριση του κοινού ήταν κάτι παραπάνω από θερμή, καθώς ο χώρος είχε πλημυρίσει από κόσμο, ενώ δεν έλειψαν οι βαθυστόχαστες συζητήσεις μεταξύ των παρευρισκομένων και των ομιλητών.
Στα πλαίσια λοιπόν αυτής της βραδιάς, συμμετείχα με την παρακάτω ομιλία...
Στα πλαίσια λοιπόν αυτής της βραδιάς, συμμετείχα με την παρακάτω ομιλία...
Η Σχέση και η Επίδραση
του Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ
στη Wicca, στο Chaos Magic
και στο Ρεύμα του Νεκρονομικόν
Μπορεί να μην είναι τόσο γνωστό, αλλά η δυναμική προσωπικότητα όπως και οι ιδέες του Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ, επηρέασαν άμεσα και έμμεσα τουλάχιστον τρεις διαφορετικές «σχολές» μαγείας που αναπτύχθηκαν ενώ ο ίδιος ζούσε, αλλά και μετά.
Όπως θα δούμε στην συνέχεια, η άμεση επιρροή του ήταν μέσα από την προσωπική του επαφή με τους ανθρώπους-κλειδιά των «σχολών» αυτών, ενώ η έμμεση, αφορά τις νοηματικές αρχές που υιοθέτησαν οι «σχολές» αυτές από την φιλοσοφία και την πρακτική του Θελήματος.
*** WICCA ***
Ήταν στις 1η Μαΐου 1947, όταν ο πατέρας της Wicca, Gerald Gardner θα συναντήσει τον Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ για να αναπτυχθεί μια σχέση έντονου ενθουσιασμού από πλευράς του.
Ο Gardner, θα αγοράσει πολλά αντίτυπα από τα έργα του Κρόουλυ (ιδιαίτερα εκείνα που περιείχαν το Βιβλίο του Νόμου), ενώ ο τελευταίος, θα τον μυήσει σχεδόν αμέσως στους πρώτους βαθμούς του Ο.Τ.Ο. δίνοντας του μάλιστα την άδεια να ιδρύσει δική του Θελημική σύναξη (Camp).
Το γιατί το έκανε αυτό δεν είναι ξεκάθαρο - ίσως γιατί ο Gardner του συστήθηκε ως μύστης στην Τεκτονική Βασιλική αψίδα, κάτι που όπως γνωρίζουμε σήμερα, δεν ευσταθεί!
Όπως και να έχει, ο Κρόουλυ δεν είχε άδικο να είναι ευχαριστημένος καθώς η αγάπη του Gardner για το μαγικό του τάγμα ήταν αναμφίβολα μεγάλη!
Για πολλά χρόνια φορούσε καθημερινά το δαχτυλίδι του τάγματος, ενώ υπέγραψε το μυθιστόρημα High Magic’s Aid (1947) με το μαγικό όνομα που πήρε ως μέλος του Ο.Τ.Ο. (Scire).
Όταν ο Κρόουλυ διάβασε αποσπάσματα από το χειρόγραφο του βιβλίου, παρότρυνε τον Gardner να ασχοληθεί περισσότερο με την μαγεία! Ο τελευταίος δε, έγραψε σε επιστολή του το 1950, πως ο Κρόουλυ ενδιαφερόταν πραγματικά για το «witch cult» και ότι προσπάθησε να το παντρέψει με το Ο.Τ.Ο. δίχως όμως επιτυχία.
Στο μεταξύ, μετά τον θάνατο του Κρόουλυ το 1947, ο Gardner διεκδίκησε την αρχηγεία του Αγγλικού τμήματος του Ο.Τ.Ο. Λίγο αργότερα δε, συναντήθηκε με την ανώτατη Εξωτερική Κεφαλή του Τάγματος, τον Karl Germer και σύμφωνα με επιστολές του Gardner, οι δύο άντρες συμφώνησαν να αναλάβει διοικητικό ρόλο, κάτι που δεν έγινε όμως ποτέ!
Όπως ο ίδιος εξηγεί σε επιστολή του το 1950, τα σχέδια του κοντά στο Ο.Τ.Ο. δεν ολοκληρώθηκαν λόγο ασθένειας, αλλά και γιατί τα υποψήφια μέλη ζούσαν πολύ μακριά για να μπορέσουν να εργαστούν μαζί του συστηματικά.
Και κάπως έτσι, ο Gardner εγκατέλειψε την μαγεία του Θελήματος για να ασχοληθεί αποκλειστικά με το witchcraft στο οποίο ήταν μυημένος από το 1939, ενώ από το 1946 διοικούσε και το δικό του Γουικανικό coven...
Πέρα από τα παραπάνω, η επιρροή του Κρόουλυ είναι περισσότερο αισθητή αν κανείς μελετήσει τα ίδια τα Γουικανικά κείμενα του Gardner. Συγκεκριμένα, στο προσωπικό του Βιβλίο των Σκιών (Ye Bok of ye Art Magical), υπάρχουν πολλά, σχεδόν αυτούσια αποσπάσματα από διάφορα βιβλία του Κρόουλυ, γεγονός που προβλημάτισε την Doreen Valiente, που όταν μυήθηκε στην Wicca του Gardner το 1953, διέκρινε τόσα πολλά Θελημικά στοιχεία στο τελετουργικό, που του ζήτησε να τα ξαναγράψει η ίδια, όπως και έκανε!
Κλείνοντας, να σημειώσω πως ίσως η πιο χαρακτηριστική επίδραση του Κρόουλυ στη Wicca, ήταν και παραμένει ο Γουικανικός Χρυσός Κανόνας (Wiccan Rede) που λέει «Και Δίχως Να Βλάψεις Κανένα, Κάνε Αυτό που Θέλεις».
Ο κανόνας αυτός, παρουσιάζεται για πρώτη από την Valiente το 1964, και σύμφωνα με την ίδια, βασίζεται σε κάποιο σχόλιο του Gardner πως οι γουικανοί θα πρέπει να ακολουθούν το motto του μυθιστορηματικού Βασιλιά Pausole (από το Les aventures du roi Pausole του Pierre Louys, 1901) «Κάνε ότι θέλεις, αρκεί να μην ενοχλείς κανένα».
Θα μπορούσε να είναι έτσι! Μας είναι όμως αδύνατον, να μην σκεφτούμε την ομοιότητα του Χρυσού Κανόνα με την θεμελιώδη αρχή του Βιβλίου του Νόμου: «Κάνε ότι θέλεις, αυτό είναι το σύνολο του Νόμου».
Τέλος, όσοι ενδιαφέρονται να μάθουν περισσότερες λεπτομέρειες για τα σημεία όπου τα έργα του Gardner αντλούν στοιχεία και αποσπάσματα από τον Κρόουλυ, μπορούν να ανατρέξουν στα βιβλία Aradia: Το Ευαγγέλιο των Μαγισσών και Book of Shadows, που κυκλοφορούν από τις εκδ. Αρχέτυπο.
*** CHAOS MAGIC ***
Πολύ πριν ο Κρόουλυ έρθει σε επαφή με τον Gardner, επεδίωξε να συναντήσει έναν ταλαντούχο αλλά μάλλον εκκεντρικό καλλιτέχνη που η ιστορία θα ορίσει ως τον πατέρα της Χαοτικής Μαγείας.
Ήταν το 1907 όταν ο Κρόουλυ θα γνωρίσει τον Austin Osman Spare, ενώ το 1909, και μετά από μήνες συζητήσεων μαζί του σχετικά με την φύση της μαγείας, θα του ζητήσει να γίνει μέλος στο Α.Α. Η σχέση αυτή όμως (που για κάποια περίοδο μπορεί να ήταν και ερωτική!) δεν ευδοκίμησε.
Αν και ο Κρόουλυ ήταν ιδιαίτερα ενθουσιασμένος με το έργο του Spare, ο τελευταίος δυσκολευόταν να συμμορφωθεί στο πολύπλοκο καμπαλιστικό σύστημα που δίδασκε ο Κρόουλυ, όπως επίσης αντιλαμβανόταν την μαγική εργασία με διαφορετικό τρόπο και σε αντίθεση με τις δραματοποιημένες τελετουργίες ενός ερμητικού τάγματος. Και κάπως έτσι, οι δυο άντρες θα ακολουθήσουν διαφορετικά μονοπάτια, με όχι και τα καλύτερα συναισθήματα ο ένας για τον άλλον...
Μήπως αυτό σημαίνει πως η επίδραση του Κρόουλυ στο έργο και την σκέψη του Spare ήταν μηδαμινή; Δυστυχώς, γνωρίζουμε ελάχιστα για τον Spare καθώς δεν κρατούσε σημειώσεις των όσο έκανε. Όταν όμως κυκλοφόρησε το The Book of Pleasure (1913) και πολύ αργότερα το The Focus of Life (1921), ο Κρόουλυ αναγνώρισε σ' αυτά πολλές επιρροές από το Βιβλίο του Νόμου.
Γεγονός είναι πως αν και το περιεχόμενο των έργων αυτών διαφέρει τουλάχιστον στη δομή από τα πρώτα δυο βιβλία του Spare (Earth Inferno, 1905 και A Book of Satyrs, 1907), οι ιδέες που καταθέτει δεν φαίνεται να σχετίζονται άμεσα με τις διδασκαλίες του Α.Α. παρά μόνο να συμφωνούν με ορισμένα ευρύτερα χαρακτηριστικά, όπως την ιδιαίτερη σημασία που έχουν τα σύμβολα στο μαγικό έργο, την τελετουργικά χρηστική αξία του σεξ, τον καθοριστικό ρόλο που κατέχει το ασυνείδητο στο μαγικό αποτέλεσμα, την υπεροχή της υποκειμενικότητας, και την σχεδόν συστηματική επιδίωξη για την αποκάλυψη και τον συντονισμό με τον ανώτερο εαυτό.
Αναμφίβολα όμως, η γενικότερη στάση του Spare απέναντι στον οργανωμένο αποκρυφισμό που πρέσβευε ο Κρόουλυ, ήταν εχθρική. Μάλιστα, στο The Book of Pleasure, κοινοποίησε την έντονη απέχθεια του προς αυτού του είδους την τελετουργική μαγεία και όσους την ασκούνε (εννοώντας τον Κρόουλυ) λεπτομέρεια που παραδόξως δεν σχολίασε ποτέ του το Θηρίο...
Όπως και να έχει, το 1977, θα σχηματιστεί μια νέα ιδιότυπη μαγική ομάδα στην Βρετανία, αντλώντας στοιχεία απευθείας από το έργο του Κρόουλυ, και αυτό του Spare.
Πρόκειται για τους Πεφωτισμένους του Θανάτου & του Έρωτα (Illuminates of Thanateros), που σηματοδοτούν το ξεκίνημα της Χαοτικής Μαγείας.
H φιλοσοφία του Chaos Magic ήταν μια επανάσταση για την εποχή εκείνη. Τοποθετούσε την τέχνη, την δημιουργικότητα, την πρακτική και την ανάγκη για αποτέλεσμα πιο ψηλά από την θεωρητικολογία, τις παραδόσεις και τον δογματικό συμβιβασμό. Ότι περίπου έκανε δηλαδή ο Κρόουλυ με τον βικτωριανό αποκρυφισμό!
Βασική αρχή της Χαοτικής Μαγείας είναι πως τίποτα δεν είναι αληθινό, και εξαιτίας αυτής της σχετικότητας των πάντων, τα πάντα είναι εφικτά. Ως εκ τούτου, ο μάγος μπορεί να επιλέξει από οποιοδήποτε σύστημα αξιών θέλει το μοτίβο της εργασίας του (ακόμη και αν αυτό είναι εντελώς φανταστικό όπως η Μυθολογία Κθούλου), και στην συνέχεια να εργαστεί μέσω αυτού για την επίτευξη των επιθυμιών του.
Στις πεποιθήσεις αυτές, διακρίνουμε σαφή στοιχεία του φιλοσοφικού σκεπτικισμού του Κρόουλυ, όπως για παράδειγμα την έξοδο από τους δογματικούς περιορισμούς, την έμφαση στον υποκειμενισμό, και την επιστημονική αναζήτηση των μηχανισμών της μαγείας.
Το αντικομφορμιστικό μετα-σύστημα της Χαοτικής Μαγείας όμως, αν και άφησε ισχυρό στίγμα σε πολλού κύκλους του δυτικού αποκρυφισμού (κυρίως στις ομάδες της Αριστερής Ατραπού), δεν άντεξε μέσα στον χρόνο οδηγώντας τις περισσότερες χαοτιστικές ομάδες σε διάλυση ή σε αναδιοργάνωση.
Βλέπετε, ο θεμελιώδης ισχυρισμός της Χαοτικής Μαγείας πως τίποτα δεν είναι αληθινό, καταρρίπτει το ίδιο αυτό αξίωμα, στρέφοντας τους αγνωστικιστές χαοτικιστές σε μια διαρκή (και αγωνιώδης) αμφισβήτηση οποιασδήποτε μορφής πεποίθησης και δομής, επομένως και αυτής του Chaos Magic!
Δεν ήταν λίγοι λοιπόν εκείνοι που αναζήτησαν διεξόδους και σταθερές σε εναλλακτικά μονοπάτια, όπως ήταν το Ρεύμα του Νεκρονομικόν.
Πριν περάσουμε όμως στο τρίτο και τελευταίο μέρος της ομιλίας, αξίζει να σημειώσω πως ο Austin Osman Spare είχε κάποτε συναντηθεί με τον Gerald Gardner. Μια συνάντηση που κατέληξε σε καυγά για το ποιος από τους δυο είχε πραγματικά μυηθεί στο παραδοσιακό witchcraft... Για την γνωριμία τους, μεσολάβησε ένα άλλο σημαντικό πρόσωπο της νεότερης μαγικής σκηνής, ο Kenneth Grant.
*** ΡΕΥΜΑ του ΝΕΚΡΟΝΟΜΙΚΟΝ ***
Ο Kenneth Grant αποτελεί το κομβικό πρόσωπο όλων σχεδόν των παραπάνω μαγικο/φιλοσοφικών παρατάξεων. Διατέλεσε προσωπικός γραμματέας του Κρόουλυ την περίοδο 1944-1947, στενός φίλος του Spare από το 1949 μέχρι το τέλος της ζωής του το 1956, και καθιέρωσε την δική του μαγική Τυφώνια παράδοση αναμιγνύοντας στοιχεία από διάφορες κατευθύνσεις, αλλά κυρίως παντρεύοντας με έναν δικό του, παράδοξο τρόπο το Θέλημα με την κοσμολογία του Χάουαρντ Φίλιπς Λάβκραφτ.
Ήταν το 1972, όταν στο βιβλίο του The Magical Revival, ο Grant θα δημοσιεύσει ένα κατάλογο συγκρίνοντας πολλές έννοιες κλειδιά του Κρόουλυ με τις θεότητες της Μυθολογίας Κθούλου. Στην συνέχεια, και καθόλη την διάρκεια του συγγραφικού του έργου, θα διευρύνει αυτή την σύνδεση θεωρώντας ως βάση, πως τόσο ο Κρόουλυ όσο και ο Λάβκραφτ είχαν γίνει δέκτες μιας αλληλοσυμπληρωμένης υψηλής γνώσης από μαγικά ρεύματα που υπερβαίνουν αυτόν τον κόσμο!
Μερικά χρόνια αργότερα, το 1977, και πιο συγκεκριμένα, στην άλλη άκρη του Ατλαντικού, ο «Σίμωνας» θα κυκλοφορήσει ίσως την πλέον γνωστή σήμερα εκδοχή του περιβόητου Νεκρονομικόν, που υποτίθεται ότι είναι η μετάφραση ενός αυθεντικού μαγικού βιβλίου από την Μεσοποταμία!
Το ίδιο το έργο δεν φαίνεται να αντλεί στοιχεία από την μαγική φιλοσοφία του Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ, εκτός τουλάχιστον από ένα σημείο: βασικό μέλημα του μάγου που ασκείται στις τελετουργίες αυτού του βιβλίου, είναι η αναζήτηση του Παρατηρητή (Watcher), μιας αστρικής οντότητας που παραπέμπει στον Άγιο Φύλακα Άγγελο έτσι σχεδόν όπως παρουσιάζεται στο έργο του Κρόουλυ.
Πέρα από αυτό, στην εισαγωγή του βιβλίου, ο Σίμωνας αφιερώνει την μετάφραση του βιβλίου στο Θηρίο, συγκρίνει την κοσμοπλασία του Λάβκραφτ με τον μυστικισμό του Κρόουλυ (με τον ίδιο τρόπο σχεδόν που έκανε νωρίτερα ο Grant), και παραθέτει ένα ειδικό κεφάλαιο ως συμπλήρωμα στο 777, με αντιστοιχίες που αντλεί από το δικό του Νεκρονομικόν!
Παρόμοια λοιπόν με τον Grant, ο Σίμωνας επεδίωξε να συνδέσει το βιβλίο του με το όνομα του Κρόουλυ. Αυτό που έλειπε, ήταν η μυητική εφαρμογή όλων αυτών των συγκρίσεων.
Από αυτούς που προσπάθησαν, ξεχωρίζει ο Αμερικάνος Michael Bertiaux που πραγματοποιώντας μια αλλόκοτη μίξη παραδοσιακού βουντού, Θελήματος και αποκρυφιστικού Λαβκραφτισμού, συνέθεσε ένα μοναδικό αλλά ετερόδοξο σύστημα μαγείας.
Αντίθετα, και ποιο κοντά στα χνάρια του Kenneth Grant, βάδισαν οι βρετανοί μάγοι του Εσωτερικού Τάγματος του Ντάγκον. Το E.O.D. σχηματίστηκε το 1981, και ουσιαστικά αποτέλεσε μέρος του Τυφώνιου Τάγματος του Grant, μέχρι τουλάχιστον πρόσφατα οπότε και ανεξαρτητοποιήθηκε δίχως όμως να χάσει το ισχυρό Θελημικό χαρακτήρα του!
Σχεδόν όλοι όσοι συμμετέχουν στις δραστηριότητες του E.O.D., είναι ενεργά μέλη μιας από τις πολλές Θελημικές κοινότητες, και χρησιμοποιούν τον ακατάπαυστο παράδοξο συγκρητισμό του Grant (και όχι μόνο) για να ερμηνεύσουν την Μυθολογία Κθούλου όχι σαν ένα παράγωγο της pulp φαντασίας, αλλά ως μια μυητική οδό (τριών βαθμών) στα μυστικά της ψυχής και την ενεργό σχέση της με τις εξώτερες δυνάμεις του σύμπαντος.
Η στροφή αυτή της Μυθομαγείας Κθούλου, από ένα σαμπατικό ή καλύτερα άναρχο γριμοριακό τύπο μαγείας, σε μια οργανωμένη και λειτουργική μυητική «σχολή», ήταν ίσως η μεγαλύτερη επιρροή του Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ που διαμορφώθηκε μέσα από τις προσπάθειες των μελών του Ε.Ο.D.
Κλείνοντας, δεν γίνεται να μην απαντήσω στις φήμες που έχω συναντήσει κατά καιρούς, ιστορίες που θέλουν ο Λάβκραφτ να είχε γνωρίσει από κοντά τον Κρόουλυ, όταν ο τελευταίος είχε ταξιδέψει στην Αμερική...
Με βάση λοιπόν τις λεπτομερειακές αναφορές του Θηρίου στα ημερολόγια του, δεν συνάντησε ούτε και διάβασε ποτέ κάποια από τα έργα του Λάβκραφτ. Αντίθετα, ο Χάουαρντ είχε μάθει για τον Κρόουλυ από τα καθόλου κολακευτικά δημοσιεύματα των εφημερίδων, σχηματίζοντας έτσι μια αρκετά αρνητική εικόνα γι' αυτόν!
Μάλιστα, σε μια επιστολή του 1933 που βρέθηκε μόλις πριν λίγους μήνες, χαρακτηρίζει τον Κρόουλυ σαν «queer duck!»
Είναι πραγματικά ειρωνικό πως σήμερα, μετά από τόσες δεκαετίες τα ονόματα και των δυο θα φιγουράρουν δίπλα δίπλα σε ορισμένα από τα πιο παράξενα βιβλία για τον αποκρυφισμό και την μαγεία. Περιέργως όμως, φαίνεται να μπορούμε να μάθουμε πολλά χρησιμοποιώντας την σκέψη του ένα και την φαντασία του άλλου.
Από πλευράς μου, επιχείρησα αυτό ακριβώς στο νέο μου βιβλίο Νεκρονομικόν: Το Μονοπάτι του Μαύρου Θεού, όπου μπορείτε να αναζήτησε με κάθε λεπτομέρειες τις συνδέσεις και τις σχέσεις που υπάρχουν ανάμεσα στην Μυθολογία Κθούλου και στην μεταφυσική του Άλιστερ Κρόουλυ.
Διαβάστε περισσότερα...
Το κείμενο που ακολουθεί αποτελεί paper του K. R. Bolton, που δημοσιεύτηκε στο The Irish Journal of Gothic and Horror Studies (τ. 9, Ιούνιος 2010). Σίγουρα δεν αποτελεί το μοναδικό στο είδος του, καθώς τόσο τα περιοδικά Gnosis και Aries, όσο και το Journal for the Academic Study of Magic, έχουν κατά καιρούς φιλοξενήσει άρθρα και ακαδημαϊκές έρευνες, σχετικά με την επίδραση του Λάβκραφτ στον Αποκρυφισμό. Όσοι έχετε μελετήσει τον πρώτο τόμο της εργασίας μου πάνω στα μυστήρια του Νεκρονομικόν, θα ξέρετε ήδη πως η επίδραση αυτή είναι σαφώς μεγαλύτερη, όπως επίσης και οι σχολές και τα άτομα που σήμερα ασκούνται συστηματικά με το Ρεύμα του Νεκρονομικόν. Μάλιστα, στον δεύτερο τόμο που είναι να κυκλοφορήσει στις 9 Μαΐου, εμβαθύνω περισσότερο στην φιλοσοφία και τις πρακτικές αυτών των ομάδων, όπως και σε ορισμένες καινούργιες.
Όπως και να έχει λοιπόν, η παρακάτω έρευνα, επιβεβαιώνει μια σύνδεση που δύσκολη μπορεί να αγνοηθεί...
The Influence of H. P. Lovecraft on Occultism
Lovecraft’s horror stories have become not just a literary cult like many others, but a tangible cult of the occult. The Cthulhu Mythos of the Old Gods with Unspeakable names are evoked and worshipped, and respected practitioners of the esoteric use the symbolism and mythos as the basis of a magical system. This essay examines some of the individuals, orders and doctrines of the adherents of the Cthulhu Mythos.
RATIONALISING THE IRRATIONAL
The adoption and adaptation of a theme from Lovecraft’s horror stories, that of the Cthulhu Mythos, is no less plausible than any other occult system or doctrine of magic. Magic is based on the irrational, on the intuitive, the unseen – literally that which is ‘occult’ or hidden, being summoned forth for individual or communal purposes by circumventing the causal relationships of the material universe.
Rituals, charms, spells, and incantations are used to produce the willed result, based around two principles, according to Frazer: ‘first, that like produces like, or that an effect resembles its cause; and second, that things which have once been in contact with each other continue to act on each other at a distance after the physical contact has been severed’. Frazer calls these principles, the ‘Law of Similarity’ and the ‘Law of Contact or Contagion’ respectively.(1)
Hence ritual magic is based on the ‘Law of Similarity’ and is generally a complex operation of aligning every word and element used in the ritual, using a system of correspondences,(2) which would in Western magic for example typically include the so--called ‘Elemental Weapons’, Wand, Cup, Dagger and Pentacle,(3) representing the elements of Fire, Water, Air, and Earth respectively; along with corresponding colours, incense, astrological times, etc. The creation of charms might use the ‘Law of Contact’.
One of the primary ceremonial magicians of the ‘magical revival’ that started in 19th Century England was Aleister Crowley, whose doctrines and practises are now often synthesised with the Cthulhu Mythos.
However, while the practice of occultism might employ a complex formulae of ceremony, or simply comprise the use of hallucinogenics to achieve altered states of consciousness, in the words of Nevill Drury, Australian occult practitioner and author, ‘I have found in my study of esoteric traditions that beneath the outer veneer of complexity – occult symbols, elusive meanings, passwords and “keys”, and other protective devices – there is a comparatively simple core essence’.(4)
Another form of magic that has become widespread over the last few decades is ‘Chaos Magick’ which is also heavily influenced by British ceremonial magician Crowley, with an added primary influence being another English occultist of the same era, the artist Austin Osman Spare.(5) Spare disposed of the complex rituals and based his work on sigil(6) meditations. In occultism this is a method called ‘path-working’ by which the practitioner chooses a symbol and meditates upon it, often as the sign on a doorway that is entered. The result is supposed to be what could be described as image association. Analytical psychology has a similar technique called ‘active imagination’ whereby a dream image is chosen for the purpose. Jung describing this method wrote, ‘start with any image, for instance, just with that yellow mass in your dream. Contemplate it and carefully observe how the picture begins to unfold or to change. Don’t try to make it into something, just do nothing but observe what its spontaneous changes are….’(7)
Both shaman and ceremonial occult practitioner, and one might add the LSD experimenters of the Leary generation, seek altered states of consciousness through acts of will. Additionally there is the interpretation of dreams which has a lineage far older than modern psychiatric analysis, the dream world being as important to the ancients as the waking world, just as it is recognised today by psychology. One might recall the particularly famous examples of dream interpretations or ‘visions’ by Daniel,(8) or that of John described in The Revelation, both examples being replete with esoteric symbolism.
The purpose of this brief diversion into basic occult theory is to explain that since any symbol could be used that has sufficient impact on the imagination, or the unconscious of the meditator it can be readily seen how the Cthulhu Mythos has sufficient influence upon the psyche to be of use as a complete occult system, despite its origins in 20th century short stories. The words, imagery and symbols portrayed by Lovecraft are sufficiently arcane to excite the imagination, no less than a medieval grimoire, or the Enochian ‘Calls’, alphabet and language devised by Dr John Dee, Queen Elizabeth I’s Court scholar, around which has arisen a major occult school of Enochian magic since the occult revival of the late 19th Century.(9)
Against this fantastical background, we understand how occultists such as Frater Tenebrous, an adherent of the Cthulhu Mythos, explains that Lovecraft was, unwittingly, one of those fantasy writers who could convey genuine occult knowledge via dream.(10)
On that basis the Esoteric Order of Dagon, one of the primary organisations based on Cthulhu, has offered a particularly cogent explanation as to the legitimacy of Lovecraft’s mythos and indeed of Lovecraft himself as a seer, despite his own repudiation of the metaphysical:
Lovecraft’s fiction, first published in the American pulp magazines such as Weird Tales, presents an internally consistent cosmology, constructed through the literary realizations of the author’s dreams and intuitive impulses. This cosmology came to be known as the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’, after its central deity. These stories and novels contain hidden meanings and magickal formulae unknown even to their creator.
Lovecraft suffered from an acute inferiority complex, which prevented him from personally crossing the Abyss in his lifetime. He remained a withdrawn and lonely writer who retained a rational, skeptical view of the universe, despite the glimpses of places and entities beyond the world of mundane reality, which his dream experiences allowed him. He never learned the true origin of the tremendous vistas of cosmic strangeness that haunted his dreams. He never realized that he was himself the High Priest ‘Ech-Pi-El’, the Prophet of the dawning Aeon of Cthulhu.(11)
Frater Tenebrous similarly explains the relevance of Lovecraft’s stories for the serious occultist:
In the 1920’s, an American magazine of fantasy and horror fiction called Weird Tales began to publish stories by a then unknown author named H. P. Lovecraft. As his contributions to the magazine grew more regular, the stories began to form an internally consistent and self-referential mythology, created from the literary realisation of the author’s dreams and intuitive impulses. Although he outwardly espoused a wholly rational and sceptical view of the universe, his dream-world experiences allowed him glimpses of places and entities beyond the world of mundane reality, and behind his stilted and often excessive prose there lies a vision and an understanding of occult forces which is directly relevant to the Magical Tradition.(12)
While the shaman and the occultist will their altered states of consciousness, Lovecraft, a rationalist and materialist, is considered by his occult followers as what we might term an ‘unwitting shaman,’ whose ability to channel the denizens of the astral or unconscious realms through dreams is as legitimate as a willed channelling by the occult practitioner.
As for Lovecraft’s own world-view, he eschewed anything of a mystical nature, and saw the universe as mechanistic. However, Lovecraft nonetheless had an interest not only in science but also in ancient history and mythology. Lovecraft scholar S T Joshi writes that Lovecraft, ‘…confessed, acutely, that his very love of the past fostered the principal strain in his aesthetic of the weird - the defeat or confounding of time’.(13)
His fantasy is therefore a synthesis of the arcane/ mythic and the cosmological: the description of creatures lurking beyond the physical universe, waiting for entry through the nightmares of mortals. Hence, the ‘Gods with Unspeakable Names’ are an odd mixture of devil and ‘extraterrestrial’. But unlike J R R Tolkien and C S Lewis who wrote their stories in the hope of prompting an interest in the mythic and the religious in the face secularism and materialism, Lovecraft as an atheist had no such desire to see a religious revival. In deprecating attempts to relate quantum theory, for example, to religious beliefs, Lovecraft stated:
…Although these new turns of science don't mean a thing in relation to the myth of cosmic consciousness and teleology, a new brood of despairing and horrified moderns is seizing on the doubt of all positive knowledge which they imply; and is deducing therefrom that, since nothing is true, therefore anything can be true.....whence one may invent or revive any sort of mythology that fancy or nostalgia or desperation may dictate, and defy anyone to prove that it isn't emotionally true-whatever that means…(14)
As a materialist with a mechanistic view of the universe Lovecraft regarded the supernatural as nonsense, but provided himself with sufficient, albeit scant, knowledge to enable him to include allusions to genuine esoteric figures and texts to provide his tales with arcane plausibility. According to Owen Davies, Lovecraft’s main source of occult information was the entry on ‘Magic’ in the Encyclopaedia Britannica.(15) For example when the Necronomicon was mentioned for a second time, on this occasion in ‘The Festival’, published in 1925 in Weird Tales’, the theme of the story was inspired by Lovecraft’s having read Margaret Murray’s The Witch-Cult in Western Europe,(16 & 17) which was itself an influential source for the rebirth of witchcraft or ‘wicca’ or at least the version synthesised into modern existence by Gerald B Gardner.(18) In ‘The Festival’, a descendant of New England witches finds three grimoires or occult texts, Saducismus Triumphatus,(19) Daemonolatreia,(20) and the Necronomicon, the first two being genuine grimoires.(21)
Several genuine characters of occult tradition are alluded to by Lovecraft in his stories, again giving them a tantalising hint of genuine esoteric tradition, including the Elizabethan scholar and inventor of the ‘Enochian language’ and method of scrying, Dr John Dee.(22) Hence, when Lovecraft mentions in ‘The Dunwich Horror’ that John Dee provided the only English translation of the Necronomicon, this is taken up as a subject for commentary by Robert Turner, in which he describes his discovery in the British Museum of a letter by an ‘unknown scholar (dated 1573)’ written to Dee, concerning the ‘Towne of donwiche’.(23)
While Lovecraft’s knowledge of the arcane was limited, the vague hints in his tales are themselves the stuff of which esoteric lore and the occult Orders that form around it, are made. The allusions to Dee and grimoires, etc. provide those looking for a genuine occult tradition in Lovecraft’s tales with grounds for contending that Lovecraft was a channel for the transmission of an occult tradition that is traced from Sumeria through to the Lovecraftian ‘Mad Arab’, to John Dee, Aleister Crowley, Kenneth Grant, et al.
Ironically, Lovecraft’s occult interpreters are committed to precisely what their unwitting shaman found contemptible in his own day in those who “invent or revive any sort of mythology… and defy anyone to prove that it isn't emotionally true…” Nonetheless Lovecraft provided his stories with sufficient plausibility for seekers of arcane knowledge to enable them to weave a tapestry out of the threads he provided.
‘THE CALL OF CTHULHU’
The Cthulhu Mythos manifested first with Lovecraft in his short story ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, published in 1928.(24) The ‘heroes’ of the story, at least to the followers of the cult, are the Great Old Ones whose earthly followers might evoke them from extraterrestrial dimensions when astral alignments are right. Their followers were, from Lovecraft’s description, the most degraded dregs of the Earth:
They worshipped, so they said, the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky. Those Old Ones were gone now, inside the earth and under the sea; but their dead bodies had told their secrets in dreams to the first men, who formed a cult which had never died.(25)
Frater Tenebrous, rationalising the existence of the Great Old Ones as objective realities, explains:
These entities exist in another dimension, or on a different vibrational level, and can only enter this universe though specific ‘window areas’ or psychic gateways - a concept fundamental to many occult traditions. Cthulhu is the High Priest of the Old Ones, entombed in the sunken city of R’lyeh,(26) where he awaits the time of their return. He is described as a winged, tentacled anthropoid of immense size, formed from a semi-viscous substance which recombines after his apparent destruction at the conclusion of the tale.(27)
The Cthulhu Cult is given a certain objective legitimacy by supposedly having extant remnants since time immemorial, examples alluded to by Lovecraft including South Seas Islanders, Voodoo worshippers, and the angakoks(28) of Greenland.(29) Hence, the present day Western adepts, dedicated to a return of the Great Old Ones to Earth to assume their godly mantles, claim to be part of a living tradition that has long existed, the very phenomena Lovecraft deplored in his own time.(30)
While it is difficult to discern the doctrines of this cult from Lovecraft’s stories, there is nonetheless sufficient indication to enable a weaving of a dogma that is clearly nihilistic or chaotic as is the nature of the Great Old Ones; the new earthly dispensation upon their return evoking a society that many people might consider to be a utopia of psychopathology. Hence Frater Tenebrous cites a passage from the seminal ‘Call of Cthulhu’:(31)
The time would be easy to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and reveling in joy. Then the liberated Old Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all the earth would flame with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom.(32)
Frater Tenebrous attempts to bring this pathological, nihilistic outlook into accord with the doctrines of certain occult schools, including Templars, Assassins, Gnostics, and in particular the ‘Law of Thelema’ the new religion of Lovecraft’s contemporary, Aleister Crowley.(33) This is a theme that is especially adopted by Kenneth Grant and those of similar outlook who synthesise Cthulhu with Thelema. While the Aeon of Horus as a martial age would be ushered in by conflict, to compare the vision of a Thelemic society that Crowley advocates with the a global atavistic bedlam under the regime of the Great Old Ones is to offer a superficial analysis at best, despite all these adepts of Cthulhu seeming to also be well versed in Thelema.
Aleister Crowley (1875- 1947) has had a seminal influence on the occult revival since the late 19th Century. His enduring legacy has been helped by the notoriety he sought as the self-described ‘Great Beast 666’, and the sensationalist headlines that appeared in the press in his time describing him as ‘The King of Depravity’ and the like. Crowley entered the crypto-Rosicrucian(34) society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the basis of the occult revival in England, whose initiates included W B Yeats, in 1898.(35) As befits his temperament Crowley soon argued with the Golden Dawn, and in 1912 transferred his commitment to a so-called ‘sex-magical order’, Ordo Templi Orientis, at the invitation of its founder, journalist and German intelligence agent Theodor Reuss.(36) As one would expect from such an energetic personality Crowley became Outer Head of the Order, and used the Order as a vehicle for the propagation of his religion for the ‘New Aeon’, Thelema, a synthesis of mysticism and Nietzsche.
What Crowley advocated was a society that offered the individual the chance at discovering and fulfilling his ‘True Will’, or what might be broadly termed in a mundane sense self-actualisation. However the Thelemic society Crowley advocated was anything but anarchistic let alone nihilistic, being hierarchically structured, and reminiscent of the Medieval era but with Thelema replacing Christianity. Crowley wrote of his Thelemic state as conferring both rights and duties, each individual being, ‘absolutely disciplined to serve his own, and the common purpose, without friction’.(37) The Thelemic social structure is based on the guild, which is also a feature of the organisational structure of Thelemic orders.(38) The premise of the Thelemic state Crowley described as being to, ‘gather up all the threads of human passion and interest, and weave them into a harmonious tapestry…’ reflecting the order of the cosmos.(39) This incorporation of all human passions and interests into a ‘harmonious tapestry’ seems remote from the raving, frenetic, murderous lunacy promised by the return of the Great Old Ones and looked upon with enthusiastic expectation by the Cthulhu cultists.
With this moral nihilism the cult of the Great Old Ones must be classified as part of the Left Hand Path, or the sinister tradition, the doctrine of Eastern origin that repudiates orthodox morality. The purest remnant is that of Left Hand Path Tantra as a heresy of Hinduism, where adherents in their rites partake of the substances prohibited by orthodox Hinduism, and include women in sexual rituals, regarded as a yogic interplay of the male and female cosmic principles represented by Shiva and Shakti. In India this is called Vama Marg, Sanskrit for ‘left path’, which according to Kenneth Grant, a Western initiate, who will be considered below, is ‘so called because it involves the use of Woman and/or certain organic substances that are usually regarded with abhorrence’.(40) Hence the interest by overtly Satanic cults in the West.
CULTS OF CTHULHU
Kenneth Grant and the Typhonian Cultus
The individual most responsible for the development of Cthulhu as an occult system seems to be the British occultist Kenneth Grant, one of several claimants to Aleister Crowley’s mantle on the latter’s death in 1947.(41) Grant has the advantage of having met Crowley and having been in correspondence with him as one of his magical students. Grant is also a practitioner of the sigil magic of the aforementioned A O Spare; hence synthesising the two systems, while adding a third element, that of Cthulhu to form ‘Typhonian Thelema’. Grant created the ‘Typhonian’ Ordo Templi Orientis in 1955,(42) as the heir to the occult organisation taken over by Crowley in 1922 from Reuss.(43) Grant’s assumption to head what was his own version of the OTO with the designation ‘Typhonian’, named after the Egyptian dark god Set(44), emerged in the predictable midst of a conflict of succession following Crowley’s death.
Grant has done much in an attempt to reconcile Lovecraft’s nightmare fantasies with ancient mythic entities, the view of Grant and others being that Lovecraft’s ancient (fictional) grimoire, The Necronomicon, is a legitimate esoteric text extant on the akashic or astral realm and accessed via dreaming. Grant writes of this: ‘As I have shown… it is not unlikely that Blavatsky(45), Mathers(46), Crowley(47), Lovecraft and others are reading from an akashic grimoire…’(48)
Grant regards Lovecraft and Crowley as parts of the same mythic and occult system, Crowley’s Book of the Law (also referred to as Liber Al) being ‘interpreted as the Book of the Law of the Great Old Ones; it is the grimoire containing the keys to mans’ intercourse with Them’.(49) Hence, Lovecraft’s fiction is regarded as a legitimate part of occult tradition, and an important part for Grant and others; as dream interpretation has been a major aspect of occultic, shamanic, and religious experiences from antiquity to the present, in which we might include the prophetic dreams and visions that are a feature of the Old and New Testaments.(50) Lovecraft attained to visions as a frequent and unwilled part of his dream-world while occultists work hard and long to achieve the same results via complicated magical formulas.. Thus, Crowley’s ‘Awaiss(51) Current’, Austin Spare’s ‘Zos Kia Cultus’(52), and Lovecraft’s ‘Cthulhu Cultus’, ‘are different manifestations of an identical formula – that of dream control’.(53) Grant specifically alludes to Lovecraft as a ‘magician’:
Each of these magicians lived their lives within the context of cosmic dream myths which, somehow, they relayed or transmitted to man from other dimensions. The formula of dream control is in a sense used by all creative artists, though few succeed in bringing human consciousness into such close proximity with other spheres.(54)
The difference is that Lovecraft was a rationalist of middle-class background, who found the imagery evil and horrendous. As Grant explains it, Lovecraft held back from ‘Crossing the Abyss’, which prevented him from seeing his dreams in magical context and from detaching himself from moral judgements on good and evil Grant writes of this:
The quality of evil with which Lovecraft invests the types of his Cthulhu Cult and other mythoses is the result of a distortion in the subjective lens of his own awareness, and I have shown elsewhere how these images emerge when not so deformed, approximating sometimes to the point of actual identity with Crowley’s cult-types of Shaitan-Aiwass and The Book of the Law…(55)
Grant takes to task those Lovecraft fans who claim that their favourite author’s stories are uniquely original, rather than manifesting a long occult tradition; and for Grant Lovecraft’s status is thereby not diminished but enhanced, when he is recognised as a channel for cosmic forces of epochal or aeonic significance.(56)
Grant regards Lovecraft as having tapped through dreams, albeit in distorted manner, the same ‘Current’ as Crowley, of whom Lovecraft apparently had not heard, Grant providing a number of corresponded between the Cthulhu Mythos and that of Crowley:
Lovecraft: Al Azif The Book of the Arab; Crowley: Al vel Legis, The Book of the Law.
Lovecraft: The Great Old Ones; Crowley: The Great Ones of the Night Time.
Lovecraft: Yog-Sothoth; Crowley: Sut-Thoth, Sut-Typhon.
Lovecraft: Gnoph-Hek (The Hairy Thing); Crowley: Coph-Nia (a barbarous name in Liber vel Legis).
Lovecraft: The Cold Waste (Kadath); Crowley: The Wanderer of the Waste (Hadith).
Lovecraft: Nyarlathotep (a god accompanied by ‘idiot flute players’). Crowley: ‘Into my loneliness comes the sound of flutes’, Liber VII).
Lovecraft: The overpowering stench associated with Nyarlathotep; Crowley: ‘The perfume of Pan pervading ‘ (Liber VII).
Lovecraft: Great Cthulhu dead, but dreaming in R’lyeh. Crowley: The Primal Sleep, ‘In which the Great Ones of the Night time are immersed’.
Lovecraft: Azathoth (‘the blind and idiot chaos at the centre of infinity’). Crowley: Azoth, the alchemical solvent; ‘Thoth, Mercury: Chaos is Hadit at the centre of Infinity (Nuit)’.
Lovecraft: The Faceless One (The God Nyarlathotep); Crowley: The Headless One.
Lovecraft: The five pointed star carven of grey stone; Crowley: Nuit’s Star: the five pointed star with the circle in the middle. Grant explains: ‘Grey is the colour of Saturn, the Great Mother of which Nuit is a form’. (57)
Of these correspondences, however forced they appear to the non-adept, Grant states:
The table is interesting because it shows how similarly and yet how differently related were certain archetypal patterns characteristic of the New Aeon. But whereas to Crowley the motifs conveyed no moral message, to Lovecraft they were instinct with horror and evil.(58)
It could be contended that Grant places too much focus on Lovecraft’s failure to attain adeptship or occult understanding of what he was unconsciously channelling because of his alleged moral hang-ups; however, as quoted by Joshi, Lovecraft does not seem to have had any such moral prejudices, but rather like Nietzsche to have considered the universe to operate ‘beyond good and evil’.
Michael Bertiaux and the Lovecraftian Coven
Bertiaux is a Chicago-based practitioner of ‘Gnostic Voudoo’, synthesising Thelema and Lovecraft, who has received a lot of interest from Kenneth Grant. Bertiaux’s main vehicle for esoteric transmission is as Master of the Cult of La Couleuvre Noire, The Black Snake, and director of the Monastery of the Seven Rays.(59) Grant writes of Bertiaux that he ‘claims to have established contact with the “Deep Ones”, the fearful haunters of Outer Spaces that Lovecraft has brought so close to earth in his terrifying fictions’.(60)
The Lovecraftian Coven is a branch of the Cult of La Couleuvre Noire, and is led by ‘a priestess of the Black Snake Cult’.(61) The basis of the practise is that of sexual magic, or what might be called a version of Left Hand Path Tantra, ‘structured on the basic law of sexual polarity’, with the female principle represented by the sea-goat which corresponds astrologically with Capricorn, a ‘sea-shakti’, mated with the male principle as the Goat, or ‘sea beast’, or in Lovecraft Shub-Niggurath, the Goat of a Thousand Young.(62)
Grant claims that according to August Derleth, who continued the literary tradition of Lovecraft, parts of Wisconsin (where Derleth establish his publishing house) ‘ contain specific Cthulhu power zones’, the most potent being centred on a deserted lake. This area is frequented by Bertiaux and his followers where the ‘Deep Ones’ are evoked, whose point of entry to earth lies in the lake itself. The rites are performed when astrologically propitious and the ‘Deep Ones’ are said to ‘assume an almost tangible substance’. The performance is one of ceremonial magic and includes the use of paintings and statues of sea monsters, turtles, amphibia and batrachia, consecrated with the kalas (fluids) of the priestess. A special chant in Creole-French is particularly effectual. (63)
Church of Satan
Without getting too far off field with definitions, the reader might generally perceive by now that the Cthulhu Mythos comes closest to the Western or Judaeo-Christian conceptions of ‘Satanism’ and ‘evil’ in the normally accepted use of the word, although advanced esotericists such as Crowley and Grant would eschew the definition of ‘Satanism’ as too limited for their systems. Nonetheless, the Arabic word Shaitan does appear in the Thelemic cosmology and in particular in that of Grant.(64) Mankind throughout history and across ethnicities and cultures has had a conception of ‘good and evil’ as a necessity for living together in some type of workable accord. Taboos and commandments with divine sanction are devised to create society per se. Lovecraft saw his nightmares as representing figures as entirely negative or evil and life-negating in-so-far as he believed that ‘good and evil’ is defined as whatever serves the social fabric. Crowley, Grant, and Satanists advance the proposition that the cosmos is an interplay of polarities, the ‘evil’ or negation represented in Judaeo-Christianity as Satan, ‘the accuser and adversary’, which to such occultists is a necessary part of cosmology, otherwise stasis and eventual stagnation would ensue.(65) During the late 19th Century Satan even appeared to certain political rebels as the heroic, archetypal ‘rebel in the cosmos’.(66)
With the Cthulhu cultists it is difficult to see mere ‘rebellion’ or ‘heresy’ in a zealous commitment to supposedly ‘restore’ The Great Old Ones to sovereignty over the Earth. The only indication of what type of regime these Great Old Ones would impose is that of greater and more horrific ways of killing, and the imagery invoked is probably closer to the scenes from a blood-and-guts soaked Earth from the recent movie version of the ‘War of the Worlds’(67) where the outer ‘gods’ (?) proceed to feast upon humankind, than a 19th century romantic revolutionary image of a Miltonian Lucifer enthroned over a freed humanity, or the hierarchical and ordered society that Crowley himself proposed. Despite the attempts of occultists to put a positive and even liberating slant on the return of the Old Ones to reign over the Earth, Phil Hine has stated more realistically:
The Great Old Ones are served by various human, and non-human cults in wild and lonely places, from ‘degenerate’ swamp-dwellers to the innumerable ‘incestuous’ Whateley’s of the fictional region Dunwich. These cults are continually preparing both to bring about the return of the Old Ones, and also to silence anyone who does stumble across the awful secret of the existence of the Old Ones.
The return of the Old Ones involves, as Wilbur Whateley puts it in ‘The Dunwich Horror’,(68) the ‘clearing off’ of the Earth. That is, the clearing off of humanity, apart from a few worshippers and slaves. This apocalyptic reference can be asserted as metaphorical, or as referring to an actual physical catastrophe - Nuclear holocaust perhaps? Perhaps Lovecraft wished to emphasise that the Great Old Ones would give no more thought to wiping out humanity than we might give to wiping up water on a table. Exactly why the Old Ones wish to return to Earth is never clear, but we might assume that for them, Earth is close to the bars and convenient for bus routes!
Lovecraft is careful to point out that most of the Old Ones are, in fact, mindless, or ‘idiot gods’. Only those who are already insane or degenerate could worship them sincerely. Only Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos, is given a human semblance of intelligence…(69)
One would expect that given Phil Hine’s description of the Great Old Ones as for the most part ‘idiot gods’ rather than teachers of man, whose servants are imbeciles, and whose only perceivable goal is to eliminate humanity, save for a few craven inbreeds, he would be a fervent rejectionist of the Cthulhu Cult among occultists, yet Hine is one of the principal members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon (70), which will be described below.
It is therefore not surprising that self-described Satanists have a considerable interest in the Cthulhu Mythos. The most overt manifestation of present day Satanism is of the Church of Stan founded in San Francisco in 1966 by Anton LaVey.(71) The principal exponent of the Cthulhu Mythos in the Church of Satan was Michael Aquino, who was a Magus IVº in the Church, i.e. LaVey’s deputy. LaVey’s Satanic Bible(72) had become a best-seller, and LaVey compiled The Satanic Rituals(73) in 1972 with Aquino’s assistance.
Aquino’s Cthulhuean chapters in The Satanic Rituals comprise a chapter on Lovecraftean metaphysics, ‘The Ceremony of the Nine Angles’, and ‘The Call of Cthulhu’. No other subject in The Satanic Rituals has as much dedicated to it as Cthulhu.
Aquino here regards Lovecraft as having penned ‘the most convincing and thoroughly terrifying works of macabre fiction in modern times’.(74) Aquino aimed in the essay to consider Lovecraft as a philosopher despite noting the scorn with which Lovecraft regarded any such metaphysics. Aquino suggests a Faustian theme of man’s drive for knowledge to the point of self-destruction and cataclysm represented by the Great Old Ones:
This theme of a constant interrelationship between the constructive and destructive facets of the human personality forms the keystone of the doctrines of Satanism, even as theism argues that the integrity of the individual can be increased by a rejection of the carnal and an obedience to morality.(75)
Aquino attempts to present the Cthulhuean monstrosities as somewhat benevolent towards mankind, as teachers that do not require worshipping other than to be evoked by festivals. Aquino invites the reader to compare a Cthulhuean festival to the ‘element of servility’ in Christian and other religions. Here then is a revival of the 19th century romantic notion of the devil as the cosmic rebel and teacher of humanity. It is also suggestive of the divine beings, the ‘Watchers’, who became the ‘Fallen Angels’ after rebelling against Jehovah and under the leadership of Azazel (or Samyaza), descended to Earth to not only mate with the daughters of man whom they lusted after, siring offspring of mighty renown,(76) but also teaching humanity all the arts of civilisation.
Aquino continues with this type of theme, stating that Lovecraft sought to portray the Great Old Ones as ‘never conclusive stereotypes of good or evil; they vacillate constantly between beneficence and cruelty’. Conversely, it might be recalled, Kenneth Grant, contends that Lovecraft did regard these nightmare creatures as wholly evil and destructive and completely alien to human consciousness. The protagonist of each story ‘abandons every prudent restraint’ on a Faustian quest for knowledge.
It was from this introductory essay that Aquino proceeded with two Cthulhuean rituals. ‘The Ceremony of the Nine Angles’(77) is to be performed in a ‘closed chamber with no curved surfaces’, and lighted by a single brazier or flame-pot, before an altar behind which there is the sign of a trapezoid. All celebrants are masked to distort their facial features. ‘Yugothic’ language was formulated by Aquino to enhance the evocative atmosphere of the rite by the main celebrant, to whom the participants respond in their mundane language. The beings evoked are Azathoth as ‘great center of the cosmos’; Yog-Sothoth, ‘master of dimensions’; Nyarlathotep, ‘black prince from the Barrier’; and Shub-Niggurath, ‘father of the World of Horrors’. After evoking Nine Angles, each representing a cosmic sphere presided over by an Old One, the celebrant intones that ‘the hounds are loosed upon the barrier, and we shall not pass; but the time shall come when the hounds will bow before us, and apes shall speak with the tongues of the hornless ones. The way is Yog-Sothoth, and the key is Nyarlathotep. Hail, Yog-Sothoth. Hail, Nyarlathotep’.(78)
In ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ the ritual is performed in a secluded area ‘near a major body of water’, preferably on an overcast night, when the water is tempestuous. The chief celebrant assumes the role of Cthulhu, while the participants encircle a large bonfire. Participants evoke sundry water deities indulging Kraken, Poseiden, Typhon, Dagon, Neptune, Leviathan, Midgard, and Cthulhu.(79)
Something of the positive aspect Aquino aims to suggest is alluded to when the participants chant in unison that Cthulhu crossed the Abyss to walk upon Earth, and ‘taught the apes [humanity] to laugh and to play, to slay and to scream’. This is suggestive of the mad utopia described by Frater Tenebrous in referring to ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ when the Old Ones will teach humanity new ways to slaughter each other; apparently an update of what was taught millennia ago.
The participants state in unison: ‘I danced and I killed, and I laughed with the apes, and in R’lyeh I died to sleep the dreams of the master of the planes and the angles’. The ritual ends with a repudiation of the Christian God, as the ‘god of death’ who will be overthrown upon the return of the Old Ones.
Aquino explained in an article for Nyctalops Magazine(80) that he constructed the ‘Yugothic’ language by the patterns suggested in Lovecraft’s incantation given in the ‘Call of Cthulhu’: ‘Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn’.
There is nothing phoney about such an invention per se, within the context of the occult traditions. All such ‘magical languages’, other than those that are obscure or ancient languages used for a magical purpose, are contrivances, as are the magical alphabets. It is the very nature of their unfamiliarity that makes them evocative. On a more common level, Latin Mass might be particularly evocative to a non-Latin speaker. The most famous of the occult languages is Enochian, formulated by Elizabethan scholar Dr John Dee, around which an entire system of magic has been practised from the time it was revived by the Golden Dawn in England during the late 19th Century. Enochian is said to be the langue of the angels, and Dee claimed that he scried with the use of the Enochian language and sigils and received communications from the Enochian denizens of other planes. Either one accepts that Enochian really is a supernatural language given to Dee, or that Dee made it up, but it has nonetheless remained a very evocative language.(81) A more familiar form of evocative language is the ‘speaking in tongues’ by some Pentecostal churchgoers. I heard this spoken several decades ago, much to my mirth at that time; however a Pentecostal friend of Indian descent recently offered a quite rational explanation as to its efficacy, stating that as a practitioner himself he finds it to be an efficacious means of altering one’s consciousness, like the mantras used in meditation by Eastern religions.
Aquino explains also that the ‘nine angles’ are the five points of the pentagram and the 4-edge angles of the ‘phi-trapezoid’ or the pentagon within the pentagram.(82)
In 1972, the year The Satanic Rituals was published, Aquino wrote in the Church of Satan’s newsletter the Cloven Hoof an article attempting to identify the location of R’lyeh.(83) Aquino identifies this as Nan-Madol, Ponape in Micronesia, Ponape being a destination for sea captain Ahab Marsh in The Shadow Over Innsmouth.(84) The immense and still mysterious stone walls of Nan-Madol, considered by the islanders to be haunted, is a convincing location, given that it matched key features for R’lyeh given by Lovecraft as an island in the Pacific with mysterious megalithic structures. Aquino states that island tradition tells of the city having been created by a race of gods, the Anti-Aramach, ‘who came down from the sky in great canoes’, while the great stones of the city flew down from the sky.
Aquino, like Grant, has attempted to draw objective parallels with the imagery presented from Lovecraft’s Cthulhu mythos, although while Aquino does this as an intellectual exercise in itself, Grant places literal significance on the mythos as being an echo of actual ancient traditions, cults and myths, mainly deriving from the demonology of Egypt and Sumeria.
Esoteric Order of Dagon
The Esoteric Order of Dagon (EOD), named after the society in Lovecraft’s Shadow Over Innsmouth,(85) was founded in 1981. Randolf Carter had assumed the shape of a ‘thought form’ existing in the word of dreams (or the astral realm) even during Lovecraft’s lifetime, waiting for the right moment to manifest into a human consciousness. This occurred in the 1960s during the drug induced state of a young man, Steven Greenwood,(86) who assumed the name and character of Carter and issued The Manifesto of the Aeon of Cthulhu, which led to the formation of the Temple of Dagon, from which emerged the EOD. Greenwood (aka Randolf Carter) inaugurated his own Aeon, like Crowley with the Aeon of Horus, and Michael Aquino with the Aeon of Set; this having the numerological value as ‘Current 23’ equating with Chaos or Kaos and represented by the Great Old One named Azathoth.(87)
In 2007 Obed Marsh, representing the Supreme Council of the Temple of Dagon, went to England to meet Michael Staley of Grant’s Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis, and the EOD became an affiliate of the Typhonian OTO.(88)
The EOD explanation on the Lovecraft mysteries followers the line of other occultists, that Lovecraft’s transmissions from the Great Old Ones are part of a genuine tradition, but Lovecraft himself was not capable of ‘Crossing the Abyss’(89) and of becoming an adept.
The EOD embraces Thelema, Wicca, Tantra, and like Grant traces its tradition back to Sumeria and Egypt, and to stellar worship centred on Sirius, the Dog Star that Grant has identified with Set.(90)
The EOD is loosely based on self-initiation with three degree, that of Neophyte, Initiate, and Adept.(91)
What is of particular significance about the EOD is that within this have coalesced the principal representatives of a number of primary magical systems and/or organisations including: Kenneth Grant, who is stated to have been an important influence on the formation of the EOD and has ‘graciously acknowledged his honorary membership’; Michael Staley, spokesman for Grant’s Typhonian OTO; Nicholaj de Mattos Frisvold of Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica(92); Phil Hine, previously mentioned, a philosopher of Chaos Magick; John Balance of the British industrial band Coil; Nema the formulator of Maat Magick;(93) Michael Aquino, previously mentioned author of the Lovecraftian elements within the Church of Satan, and founder of the Temple of Set,(94) along with authors, publishers, film-makers and artists.
From this it can be seen that the EOD includes representatives of Thelema, Chaos Magick, Industrial sub-culture, Maat Magick, and Setianism.
NECRONOMICON
There have been several attempts to present to the discerning occultist public, editions of the Necronomicon, the dreaded grimoire for summoning the Great Old Ones alluded to in Lovecraft’s stories. As one should expect, Kenneth Grant has attempted to argue for the existence of the Necronomicon on an objective basis, albeit as a book that exists on the astral plane which might be accessed by occult practices or via dreams, as Lovecraft did unwittingly.
The Necronomicon was first mentioned by Lovecraft in 1922 in a short story, ‘The Hound’, which was published in 1924. The protagonists are an unnamed hero and his now mangled, dead friend St John, who had both become so jaded in a Faustian quest for evil and decadence that they resorted to grave robbing, being collectors of diabolic antiquities:
Only the somber philosophy of the decadents could help us, and this we found potent only by increasing gradually the depth and diabolism of our penetrations. Baudelaire and Huysmans were soon exhausted of thrills, till finally there remained for us only the more direct stimuli of unnatural personal experiences and adventures. It was this frightful emotional need which led us eventually to that detestable course which even in my present fear I mention with shame and timidity - that hideous extremity of human outrage, the abhorred practice of grave-robbing.(95)
The corpse that was uncovered, that of a 500 year old satanic character, was adorned with an amulet bearing markings reminiscent of the symbols found in the Necronomicon, the book being introduced to Lovecraft’s reading public in a quite unassuming manner:
…Alien it indeed was to all art and literature which sane and balanced readers know, but we recognized it as the thing hinted of in the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred; the ghastly soul-symbol of the corpse-eating cult of inaccessible Leng, in Central Asia. All too well did we trace the sinister lineaments described by the old Arab daemonologist; lineaments, he wrote, drawn from some obscure supernatural manifestation of the souls of those who vexed and gnawed at the dead.(96)
An account of the origins of the Necronomicon has been provided by Lovecraft, stating that the original title is, ‘Al Azif - azif being the word used by the Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by insects) supposed to be the howling of daemons’.(97)
Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaa’, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished during the period of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia - the Roba El Khaliyeh or ‘Empty Space’ of the ancients - and ‘Dahna’ or ‘Crimson’ desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil spirits and monsters of death.(98)
Abdul Alhazred wrote Al Azif in Damascus and died or disappeared in 733AD, one account being that he was devoured by an invisible demon in broad daylight in front of a multitude of terrified witnesses, after having lived in madness for years, ‘worshipping unknown entities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu’.
In 950 AD Azif was translated into Greek as Necronomicon by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople, followed during the Medieval era by translations into Latin and Spanish.(99)
With a quite convincing historical chronology provide by Lovecraft, the Necronomicon became the subject of much speculation as to its actual existence.
Avon Books published this dread document, said to induce insanity by its mere possession let alone by practising its rites, in 1980, from a previous edition published in 1977 at the instigation of Herman Slater, proprietor of Magickal Childe bookstore, and himself a publisher under that imprint, in Manhattan. The edition was published thanks to a thought-form entering the consciousness of L K Barnes, publisher, which prompted him to enter Slater’s bookshop, ‘the crazed proprietor’ waving the MS of Azif about. Fortunately, Barnes had long been looking for the genuine Necronomicon, which since childhood he had known existed. This MS had been produced by ‘Simon’ who had the necessary documentation to prove the authenticity of Azif.(100) This edition makes it plain thatit is an aspect of Thelema, and the preface to the second edition ends with a reference to entering the ‘New Age of the Crowned and Conquering Child, Horus, not in a slouch towards Bethlehem, but born within us at the moment we conquer the lurking fear within our own souls’.(101)
This version of Azif is rather interesting in that despite the situation of such a dread tome being published by Avon Books, a respectable amount of research has gone into tracing Mesopotamian and other parallels, reminiscent of the approach of Kenneth Grant:
It is of extreme importance to occult scholars that many of these deities had actual counterparts, at least in name, to deities of the Sumerian Tradition, the same Tradition that the Magus Aleister Crowley deemed it necessary to ‘rediscover’.(102)
A ‘Chart of Comparisons’ links correspondences between names used by Lovecraft, Crowley and Sumer, as follows:
Cthuhlu – The Great Beast CTHAH 666 – Ctha-lu; Azathoth – Aiwass – Azagthoth; Shub Niggurath – Pan – Shub Ishniggarab(?); Out of Space – The abyss – Absu; IA! – IO! IAO! – IA, EA; The Five Poutned grey Star carven – The Pentagram – The Ar; Vermis Mysteriis – The Serpent – Erim.(103)
The Avon Books Necronomicon proceeds with several hundred pages of incantations, spells and sigils. What is of interest again however, is that the corpus of the book is mainly drawn from Babylonian mythology, and includes the names of deities such as Inanna, Ishtar, Enki, Marduk et al, these being identified with what in the Cthulhu Mythos are the Elder Gods who defeated the Great Old Ones; which has its analogue in the Babylonian Creation Myth of the defeat of the dragon Tiamat by Marduk. It is not until one reaches the ‘Urilia Text’, or ‘the Book of the Worm’, that the diabolical adept gets to the Cthulhu conjurations, which provides ‘the formulae by which the wreakers of havoc perform their Rites’. These are the conjurations of the ‘hidden priests’ of the creatures that were defeated by Marduk, and here the author identifies Tiamat, ‘the Ancient Worm’, with Kutulu, slain by Marduk, ‘yet who lies not dead, but dreaming’, which is the manner by which Cthulhu is described by Lovecraft.(104) The demons evoked are from the Sumero-Babylonian traditions; such as Humwawa,(105) Pazuzu,(106) and Lilit[h].(107)
Given that Tiamat is the dragon or great worm of the primal chaos and moreover of the sea in Mesopotamian legend, defeated by Marduk,(108) the analogies between these Mesopotamian myths and the Lovecraftian theme of the Great Old Ones defeated by the Elder Gods, seems sufficiently close to contrive a convincing and workable system of occult theory and practise. At any rate, it captured the imagination of a sufficient number of Cthulhuean aspirants to prompt the Church of Satan to set up a website to ‘answer the large amount of e-mail the Church of Satan continually receives concerning this purported book, the Necronomicon, and its history and validity’.(109) The author of the Church’s response, Peter Gilmore, who assumed the role of High Priest on LaVey’s death, states that he had conversed with Herman Slater of Magical Childe about the book, who told Gilmore that the number of requests about the existence of a Necronomicon clearly showed that there was a large market for such a volume:
The book thus fabricated by the mysterious Simon is an artful blend of pseudo-Sumerian and Goetic ritual, with names crafted to resemble those of Lovecraft’s invented monster gods. More importantly for many would-be Black Magicians who bought copies, it had performable rites and plenty of arcane sigils. It was more than enough to sucker-in the gullible and it still sells well today.(110)
However, within the context of LaVeyan Satanism, this certainly does not mean that the Simon Necronomicon is without value. It could not consistently be stated otherwise, as LaVeyan ritual, including the Lovecraftian rites written by Aquino for LaVey’s Satanic Rituals (also published by Avon Books) are also contrived with introductory histories for each no more nor less accurate than those of the Simon tome. The advice of Gilmore is simply that one should not be fooled into thinking that the rites are authentic and arcane, regardless of whatever practical use they might be in shifting one’s consciousness. This accords with the nature of LaVeyan Satanism, as distinct from the schools of thought developed by Crowley, Grant, et al, that the entities being called upon are symbolic and without any objective existence on any plane. In that respect, LaVeyan Satanism is a form of ‘atheism’ with ritual trappings that are not claimed to be anything but ‘psychodramas’.(111)
CONCLUSION
While Tolkien penned his Ring Trilogy as a Mythos for Britain that he hoped would prompt a rejection of materialism and industrialism, having a strong moral outlook in regard to waging a chivalric war against ‘evil’, inspired by the Heathen ethos of England and Northern Europe; Lovecraft was quite different. He was a rationalist, who eschewed any notion that his stories and the nightmares that inspired them had any cosmic or moral consequences. Nonetheless, Lovecraft’s mythos has taken on a life of its own in precisely the same manner Lovecraft lamented the emergence of such crypto-religious and mythic revivals in his own time. Not surprisingly, the mythos has attracted the perverse fascination of occultists who are drawn to the ‘dark’ and ‘chaotic’ sides of life and the cosmos. There are moreover sufficient hints in the Lovecraft stories around which an entire occult system of theory and practise can be woven, especially when synthesised with other dark forms of occultism such as those of Crowley. Since the occult, and indeed in the wider context religion, has since times immemorial been based in no small measure upon dreams, dream interpretations and visions, often wilfully invoked by the use of rituals or of drugs, it is entirely fitting that some occultists would conclude that Lovecraft was unwillingly tapping into the astral plane, or what Jung called the collective unconscious, where there exist many atavisms repressed into the subconscious since the dawn of humanity, awaiting conscious awakening. Whether one calls such archetypes gods and devils is a matter of semantics or moral relativity. The Lovecraft mythos is just as ‘legitimate’ – or otherwise – as any other form of occultism or mysticism, and if it has sufficient force to impact upon the psyche then it is at least as proficient as any other, whether old or new.1. J G Frazer, The Golden Bough: A Study in Magic and Religion (London: Macmillan, 1987), 11.
2. See for example the ‘Table of Correspondence’ in: Aleister Crowley, 777 and other Qabalistic Writings (Maine: Samuel Weiser, 1986), 2-38.
3. Alex Owen, The Place of Enchantment: British Occultism and the Culture of the Modern (London: University of Chicago Press, 2004), p. 67.
4. Nevill Drury, Music for Inner Space: Techniques for Meditation and Visualisation (Sydney: Prism Press, 1985), ‘Foreword’.
5. Adrian Savage, An Introduction to Chaos Magick (New York: Magickal Childe, 1988).
6. Magical symbol.
7. Carl Jung writing to a patient. Gerhard Adler and Aniela Jaffe (eds.) Selected Letters of C G Jung (Princeton University Press, 1973), p. 459.
8. Daniel, Chapter 5.
9. Pat Zalewski, Gold Dawn Enochian Magic (Minnesota, Llewellyn Publications, 1990).
10. Fra. Tenebrous, Cults of Cthulhu: H P Lovecraft and the Occult Tradition (Daath Press, 1993), 9.
11. Esoteric Order of Dagon, http://www.esotericorderofdagon.org/
12. Fra. Tenebrous, Cults of Cthulhu, op.cit., p. 5.
13. J T Joshi, Introduction to An Epicure in the Terrible: A Centennial Anthology of Essays in Honor of H. P. Lovecraft (Rutherford, New Jersey: Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 1991), II.
14. J T Joshi, ibid., quoting Lovecraft.
15. Owen Davies, Grimoires: A History of Magic Books (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2009), p. 266.
16. Owen Davies, ibid., p. 265.
17. Margaret Murray, The Witch-Cult of Western Europe, 1921.
18. Margaret Murray wrote the ‘Preface’ to Gardner’s seminal 1954 book Witchcraft Today (New York: Magickal Childe, 1982), pp. 15-16.
19. Joseph Glanvill, Saducismus Triumphatus, 1681.
20. Remigius, Daemonolatreia, 1595.
21. Owen Davies, op.cit., p. 265.
22. Owen Davies, ibid., p. 266.
23. George Hay (ed.) The Necronomicon: The Book of Dead Names (London: Skoob Books, 1992), Robert Turner, ‘The Necronomicon: A Commentary’, p. 69.
24. H P Lovecraft, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, Weird Tales, Vol. 11, No., 2, February 1928, Miskatonic University, http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/stories/callcthu.htm (accessed on September 29, 2010).
25. Ibid.
26. R’yleh, a city that first appears in Lovecraft’s Call of Cthulhu, where Cthulhu lies buried, dreaming.
27. Fra Tenebrous, op.cit., p. 10.
28. High Priests of the Eskimo, suppressed by the Christian missionaries. Hinrich Rink, Danish Greenland: Its People and its Products (H S King, 1877; republished by General Books, 2009), p. 91.
29. Fra. Tenebrous, op.cit., p. 10.
30. J T Joshi, op.cit.
31. Ibid., p. 10.
32. H P Lovecraft, ‘The Call of Cthulhu’, op.cit.
33. Fra. Tenebrous, op.cit., p. 11.
34. Alex Owen, op.cit., p. xvii.
35. Colin Wilson, Aleister Crowley: The Nature of The Beast (Northamptonshire, The Aquarian Press, 1987), p. 45.
36. Colin Wilson, ibid., p. 102.
37. Aleister Crowley, The Law is for All (Arizona: Falcon Press, 1985), p. 101.
38. Crowley, Liber CXCIV, ‘O.T.O. An Intimation with Reference to the Constitution of the Order’, paragraph 21, The Equinox, Vol. III, No. 1, 1919.
39. Crowley, Liber CXCIV, ibid., ‘concluding remarks’.
40. Kenneth Grant, Outside the Circles of Time (London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1980), p. 294.
41. Others who claimed to be heirs of Crowley and created their own OTOs or Lodges, included rocket scientist Jack Parsons, who died in a laboratory explosion in 1952; Karl Germer, a German refugee living in New York who inherited Crowley’s papers and robes; and a Californian named Grady McMurtry who had received a Lodge charter from Crowley in 1946 and was appointed Crowley’s ‘Caliph’ or spiritual representative. Francis King and Isabel Sutherland, The Rebirth of Magic (London: Corgi Books, 1982), pp. 182-184.
42. Michael Staley, ‘Typhona Ordo Templi Orientis: A Brief History’, 1986, http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/dplanet/staley/staley1.htm (accessed on September 27, 2010).
43. Michael Staley, ‘Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis: The OTO after Crowley’, http://user.cyberlink.ch/~koenig/dplanet/staley/staley2.htm (accessed on September 27, 2010).
44. Grant etymologically derives the name Typhon as the Greek form for the Egyptian name Ta-Urt, ‘Mother of Set’. Kenneth Grant, Outside the Circles of Time, op.cit, pp. 292-293.
45. Helena Blavatsky, founder of Theosophy, who claimed that a Book of Dzyan existed in an astral Tibetan realm, and formed the basis for her seminal Secret Doctrine (Madras, The Theosophical Publishing House, 1978); first published 1888. This set in motion a renewed tendency of occultists to claim revealed wisdom or a special mandate from ‘Secret’ or ‘Hidden Chiefs’, one of the more recent being the claim by Dr Michael Aquino, formerly of US Military Intelligence, to have received The Book of Coming Forth by Night, from the Egyptian deity Set, which mandated the forming of the Temple of Set. Arthur Lyons, Satan Wants You: The Cult of Devil Worship in America (New York: The Mysterious Press, 1988), pp. 126-127.
46. McGregor Mathers, a founder of the Order of the Golden Dawn, Ellic Howe, The Magicians of the Golden Dawn: A Documentary History of a Magical Order 1887-1923 (Northamptonshire: The Aquarian Press, 1985).
47. Aleister Crowley claimed to be the prophet of a new aeon through the transmission of The Book of the Law by a messenger of the Gods, Aiwaz. Colin Wilson, Aleister Crowley: The Nature of the Beast (Northamptonshire: the Aquarian Press, 1987), pp. 71-72.
48. Kenneth Grant, Outside the Circles of Time, op.cit., p. 167.
49. Ibid., p. 273.
50. Genesis 37:5-10 (Jacob’s dreams), Matt. 1: 20-24 (Joseph’s dream of Jesus’ birth), The Revelation (John’s visions), etc.
51. One of several spellings, as determined by numerological factors.
52. Kenneth Grant, Images and Oracles of Austin Osman Spare (n.d. or publication details). The once widely acclaimed artist Spare withdrew from society and existed in poverty to devote himself to the painting and writing of his hellish visions, and performing magic, the basis of which was ‘dream control’, masturbation, meditation upon sigils, and auto-suffocation via the so-called ‘death posture’.
53. Kenneth Grant, Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God (New York: Samuel Weiser, 1974), p. 94.
54. Ibid., p. 94.
55. Kenneth Grant, Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, op.cit., pp. 35-36.
56. Ibid., p. 36.
57. Kenneth Grant, The Magical Revival (London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1972), pp. 115-116.
58. Ibid., p. 117.
59. Kenneth Grant, Cults of the Shadow (London: Frederick Muller Ltd., 1975), p. 165. Grant also states that the Monastery of the Seven Rays is the ‘Outer Court of the Black Snake Cult’, and is a ‘cell of the OTOA, or Ordo Templi Orientis Antiqua’, a Thelemic order. Grant, ibid., p. 166.
60. Ibid., p. 166.
61. Ibid., pp. 186-187.
62. Ibid., p. 187.
63. Ibid., p. 189.
64. As a representative example see Grant, Outside the Circles of Time, op.cit., p. 290, where Shaitan is identified as the Chaldean form of Set, worshipped by the Yezidis, with Crowley being, according to Grant, a reincarnation of the prophet Yezid who revived the Cult of Shaitan/Set. Shaitan is also identified with Aiwass (Aiwaz and variant spellings according to numerology), the extraterrestrial messenger of the Gods who supposedly dictated Liber al vel Legis to Crowley as the bible of the New Aeon.
65. For an historical survey on the concept of evil and its representation by demonic entities, see: Paul Carus, The History of the Devil and the Idea of Evil – From the Earliest Times to the Present Day (Illinois: The Open Court Publishing Co., 1974).
66. The anarchist Mikhail Bakunin wrote for example: ‘The Evil One is the satanic revolt against divine authority, revolt in which we see the fecund germ of all human emancipations, the revolution…’ Mikhail Bakunin, God & State (New York: Dover Publications, 1970), p. 112. Baudelaire: ‘All-knowing lord of subterranean things/ Who remedy our human sufferings,/ Satan have pity on my long despair!…’ Charles Baudelaire, Marthiel and Jackson Mathews (ed.) ‘Litany to Satan’, Flowers of Evil (New York: New Directions, 1962), p. 172.
67. ‘War of the Worlds’, 2005, director Steven Spielberg, starring Tom Cruise.
68. H P Lovecraft, ‘The Dunwich Horror’, Weird Tales, Vol. 13, no. 14, April 1929, pp. 481-508, Miskatonic University Press, http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/novellas/dunwich.htm (accessed September 29, 2010).
69. Phil Hine, ‘H P Lovecraft: Visionary of the Void’, http://www.scribd.com/doc/3054993/Chaos-Magick-Using-The-Cthulhu-Mythos-by-Phil-Hine (accessed on September 29, 2010).
70. The Esoteric Order of Dagon, http://www.esotericorderofdagon.org/eod%20additional%20information.html (accessed on September 29, 2010).
71. Arthur Lyons, Satan Wants You : The Cult of Devil Worship in America (New York; the Mysterious press, 1988), Chapter VIII, The Church of Satan, pp. 104-124.
72. Anton S LaVey, The Satanic Bible (New York: Avon Books, 1969).
73. Anton S LaVey, The Satanic Rituals (New York: Avon Books, 1972).
74. Michael A Aquino, ‘The Metaphysics of Lovecraft’, The Satanic Rituals, op.cit. My reference is: Michael A Aquino, The Church of Satan (Temple of Set, 1989), Appendix 69: ‘The Metaphysics of Lovecraft’.
75. Ibid.
76. Genesis 6:4.
77. Michael A Aquino, The Church of Satan, op.cit., ‘Appendix 70: “The Ceremony of the Nine Angles”’.
78. All of the ‘satanic rituals’ end with a ‘hail’ to some demon, devil or deity, and with the ‘sign of the horns’.
79. Michael A Aquino, The Church of Satan, op.cit., ‘Appendix 71: “The Call of Cthulhu”’.
80. Michael A Aquino, Nyctalops Magazine, No. 13, May 1977; reprinted in Aquino, The Church of Satan, op.cit. Appendix 72: ‘Lovecraftian Ritual’.
81. Donald C Laycock, The Complete Enochian Dictionary: A Dictionary of the Angelic Language as Revealed to Dr John Dee and Edward Kelley (London: Askin Publishers, 1978). I have heard Enochian spoken fluently by the New Zealand occultist and author Pat Zalewski when he was working as a Tarot reader at a Wellington market, and can attest to its efficacy upon the ear.
82. Aquino, The Church of Satan, op.cit., Appendix 72.
83. Michal A Aquino, ibid., Appendix 55: ‘Expedition to R’lyeh’, reprinted from The Cloven Hoof #6, July-August, 1972.
84. H P Lovecraft, Shadow Over Innsmouth (1936) http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/novellas/shadowin4.htm (accessed on September 29, 2010).
85. Obed Marsh, ‘An Introduction to the Esoteric Order of Dagon’ (Oregon: Yaddish Lodge, 2007), p. 3.
86. Esoteric Order of Dagon, http://www.esotericorderofdagon.org/eod%20additional%20information.html (accessed September 29, 2010).
87. Crowley’s Thelema (Will) Aeon is numerologically designated ‘Current 93’.
88. Obed Marsh, ‘An Introduction to the Esoteric Order of Dagon’ (Oregon: Yaddish Lodge, 2007), p. 2.
89. Ibid., p. 3.
90. Kenneth Grant, Outside the Circles of Time, op.cit., p. 289.
91. Obed Marsh, op.cit., p. 7.
92. Brazilian author, psychotherapist and astrologer. Ecclesia Gnostica Catholica is the ecclesiastical branch of the OTO.
93. Nema, aka Andahadna, declared the Aeon of Maat in Ohio in 1976. Kenneth Grant, Outside the Circles of Time, op.cit., pp. 137-163.
94. Michael Aquino broke with LaVey’s Church of Satan in 1975, and declared the Aeon of Set. Arthur Lyons, op.cit., pp. 126-127.
95. H P Lovecraft, ‘The Hound’, Weird Tales, Vol. 3, No. 2, pp. 50-52, 78. http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/stories/hound.htm (accessed on September 29, 2010).
96. Ibid.
97. H P Lovecraft, ‘The History of The Necronomicon’, Miskatonic University, http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/library/stacks/literature/lovecraft/stories/hplnecro.htm (accessed on September 29, 2010). The reader is referred to the large collection of archives at Miskatonic University, Department of Literature, http://www.yankeeclassic.com/miskatonic/dliterature/authors/lovecraft/hplmain1.htm#hplstories
98. Ibid.
99. Ibid.
100. Necronomicon (New York: Avon Books, 1980), vii.
101. Ibid., x.
102. Ibid., xix.
103. Ibid., xxxix.
104. Necronomicon, op.cit., ‘The Urilia Text’, 183.
105. Brother of Pazuzu, with a beard of human entrails.
106. Demon of famine and locusts.
107. In the Talmudic tradition of Judaism Lilith is Adam’s first wife. She is derived from a class of Sumerian demonesses, the lilitu.
108. George Smith (Tr.) Chaldean Account of Genesis (Minneapolis: Wizards Book Shelf, 1977), pp. 91-99.
109. Peter H Gilmore, ‘Necronomicon: some Facts about a Fiction’, Church of Satan, http://www.churchofsatan.com/Pages/FAQnecronomicon.html (accessed on September 29, 2010).
110. Ibid.
111. Anton S LaVey, The Satanic Bible, op.cit., ‘The Book of Belial’, pp. 137-134.
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