Here's an old essay on the intersection between Lovecraft and the occult and mystical, by Erik Davis (author of Techgnosis, High Weirdness and many other books): http://www.levity.com/figment/lovecraft.html
Sunday, 29 October 2023
Erik Davis - Calling Cthulhu: H.P. Lovecraft's Magical Realism
Saturday, 3 September 2022
Esoterica on Lovecraft & the Occult
The excellent Youtube channel Esoterica has posted a video about HP Lovecraft and the occult. It's a good introductory overview of the topic.
Saturday, 16 July 2022
Deep Cuts on the Sauthenerom
The excellent blog Deep Cuts in a Lovecraftian Vein has an extensive post on the Frank G Ripel Sauthenerom:
Monday, 19 August 2019
Blasphemous Tomes Podcast
Blasphemous Tomes is a podcast about the Call of Cthulhu roleplaying game. They have spent two episodes exploring the interplay between the fiction of H.P. Lovecraft and the occult.
Blasphemous Tomes - Lovecraft and the Occult (part 1)
Blasphemous Tomes - The Occult and Lovecraft (part 2)
Blasphemous Tomes - Lovecraft and the Occult (part 1)
Blasphemous Tomes - The Occult and Lovecraft (part 2)
Thursday, 16 June 2016
Dreaming Out of Space: Kenneth Grant on HP Lovecraft
John Coulthart shared this essay of Kenneth Grant from the magazine Man, Myth and Magic, where Grant outlines his view on the work of H.P. Lovecraft.
Monday, 7 October 2013
Blavatsky on occult messages in fiction
I was just made aware of this interesting passage in HP Blavatsky's "The secret doctrine":
"Our best modern novelists, who are neither Theosophists nor Spiritualists, begin to have, nevertheless, very psychological and suggestively Occult dreams: witness Mr. Louis Stephenson and his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, than which no grander psychological essay on Occult lines exists. Has the rising novelist, Mr. Rider Haggard, also had a prophetic or rather a retrospective clairvoyant dream before he wrote "SHE"? His imperial Kor, the great city of the dead, whose surviving living men sailed northwards after the plague had killed almost a whole nation, seems to step out in its general outlines from the imperishable pages of the old archaic records. Ayesha suggests "that those men who sailed north may have been the fathers of the first Egyptians"; and then seems to attempt a synopsis of certain letters of a MASTER quoted in "Esoteric Buddhism." For, she says, "Time after time have nations, ay, and rich and strong nations, learned in the arts, been, and passed away, and been forgotten, so that no memory of them remains. This (the nation of Kor) is but one of several; for time eats up the work of man unless, indeed, he digs in caves like the people of Kor, and then mayhap the sea swallows them, or the earthquake shakes them in. . . . . Yet were not these people utterly destroyed, as I think. Some few remained in the other cities, for their cities were many. But the barbarians . . . came down upon them, and took their women to wife, and the race of the Amahagger that is now is a bastard brood of the mighty sons of Kor, and behold it dwelleth in the tombs with its fathers' bones. . ." (pp. 180, 181.)" http://www.sacred-texts.com/the/sd/sd2-1-19.htm
Perhaps the esoteric interpretation of HP Lovecraft's fiction made by some contemporary occultists is more in line with tradition than is usually assumed.
"Our best modern novelists, who are neither Theosophists nor Spiritualists, begin to have, nevertheless, very psychological and suggestively Occult dreams: witness Mr. Louis Stephenson and his Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, than which no grander psychological essay on Occult lines exists. Has the rising novelist, Mr. Rider Haggard, also had a prophetic or rather a retrospective clairvoyant dream before he wrote "SHE"? His imperial Kor, the great city of the dead, whose surviving living men sailed northwards after the plague had killed almost a whole nation, seems to step out in its general outlines from the imperishable pages of the old archaic records. Ayesha suggests "that those men who sailed north may have been the fathers of the first Egyptians"; and then seems to attempt a synopsis of certain letters of a MASTER quoted in "Esoteric Buddhism." For, she says, "Time after time have nations, ay, and rich and strong nations, learned in the arts, been, and passed away, and been forgotten, so that no memory of them remains. This (the nation of Kor) is but one of several; for time eats up the work of man unless, indeed, he digs in caves like the people of Kor, and then mayhap the sea swallows them, or the earthquake shakes them in. . . . . Yet were not these people utterly destroyed, as I think. Some few remained in the other cities, for their cities were many. But the barbarians . . . came down upon them, and took their women to wife, and the race of the Amahagger that is now is a bastard brood of the mighty sons of Kor, and behold it dwelleth in the tombs with its fathers' bones. . ." (pp. 180, 181.)" http://www.sacred-texts.com/the/sd/sd2-1-19.htm
Perhaps the esoteric interpretation of HP Lovecraft's fiction made by some contemporary occultists is more in line with tradition than is usually assumed.
Sunday, 4 March 2012
Paradigms in Lovecraftian occultism
From the early seventies the literary works of HP Lovecraft have been the object of a growing interest in occult circles. Many allegedly genuine Necronomicons have been published and several esoteric societies have been formed around concepts taken from Lovecraft’s fiction. Some milestones in the history of lovecraftian occultism are Kenneth Grant’s “The Magical Revival” (and the other books in his Typhonian trilogies), Anton LaVey’s (and Michael Aquino’s) “The Satanic Rituals”, “Simon’s” Mesopotamian-inspired edition of the Necronomicon and Phil Hine’s “The Pseudonomicon”.
In what way do they mean that the lovecraftian mythos is something more than a work of fiction? If the mythos has some kind of objective reality outside the literary sphere how did Lovecraft gain knowledge of it?
Of course there are those who believe that Lovecrafts fictional mythos has some kind of objective reality or occult significance but who has no clear opinion on these questions. However the following categories are a kind of ideal types of the positions I have been able to find in the literature of Lovecraftian occultism.
Necronomania – The mythos entities and the Necronomicon are considered to have an objective existence, more or less in accord with how Lovecraft portrayed them. HPL is considered to have gained knowledge of these eldritch forces through reading the Necronomicon. It is rather unclear how he is supposed to have gotten access to the book, but it has been suggested that it could have been through his father who might have been a member of the freemasons, or that his wife Sonia Green may have met Aleister Crowley and gained occult knowledge that she passed on to her husband. The most prominent member of this category is “Simon”, but the George Hay edition of the Necronomicon also expresses a similar view.
Oneiric mysticism – It is well known that dreams and nightmares played an important role in Lovecraft’s creative process and inspired many of his stories. Certain occultists have proposed that Lovecraft’s dreams had an occult source and that the mythos entities have an objective existence in a kind of spiritual sphere of reality. HPL was therefore, according to these occultists, unknowingly channelling a message or knowledge from these entities to mankind. Furthermore it is considered possible through such practices as lucid dreaming to personally achieve contact with these forces. Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian trilogies are the most important example of this in occult literature. The occult organisation named after the Esoteric Order of Dagon (http://www.esotericorderofdagon.com/) is the best example of occultists putting this perspective into actual practice.
Chaos magic – (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic) The Lovecraftian mythos with all its entities and arcane books is considered to be a literary artefact, a fiction originally made up by HP Lovecraft and his collaborators. However, it is also believed that the human mind is capable of changing objective, physical reality through paranormal means. According to the practitioners of chaos magic one can use symbols, thoughts and beliefs to change ones mind in a way that will in turn change the rest of reality. It is not the symbol or object of belief in it self that has paranormal powers but the human mind. It has been fairly popular to use concepts taken from Lovecraft’s fiction as such symbols. The primary example of this is Phil Hine’s “Pseudonomicon”. To a lesser extent we could also place Michael Aquino’s Lovecraft-inspired psychodrama in Anton LaVey’s “The Satanic Rituals” here.
Sources
Grant, Kenneth, The Typhonian trilogies
Harms and Gonce, The Necronomicon Files
Hine, Phil, The Pseudonomicon
LaVey, Anton, The Satanic Rituals
Mason, Asenath, Necronomicon Gnosis
“Simon”, The Necronomicon
“Venger Satanis”, The Cthulhu Cult
Woodman, Justin, Lovecraft & the occult MP3 files
In what way do they mean that the lovecraftian mythos is something more than a work of fiction? If the mythos has some kind of objective reality outside the literary sphere how did Lovecraft gain knowledge of it?
Of course there are those who believe that Lovecrafts fictional mythos has some kind of objective reality or occult significance but who has no clear opinion on these questions. However the following categories are a kind of ideal types of the positions I have been able to find in the literature of Lovecraftian occultism.
Necronomania – The mythos entities and the Necronomicon are considered to have an objective existence, more or less in accord with how Lovecraft portrayed them. HPL is considered to have gained knowledge of these eldritch forces through reading the Necronomicon. It is rather unclear how he is supposed to have gotten access to the book, but it has been suggested that it could have been through his father who might have been a member of the freemasons, or that his wife Sonia Green may have met Aleister Crowley and gained occult knowledge that she passed on to her husband. The most prominent member of this category is “Simon”, but the George Hay edition of the Necronomicon also expresses a similar view.
Oneiric mysticism – It is well known that dreams and nightmares played an important role in Lovecraft’s creative process and inspired many of his stories. Certain occultists have proposed that Lovecraft’s dreams had an occult source and that the mythos entities have an objective existence in a kind of spiritual sphere of reality. HPL was therefore, according to these occultists, unknowingly channelling a message or knowledge from these entities to mankind. Furthermore it is considered possible through such practices as lucid dreaming to personally achieve contact with these forces. Kenneth Grant’s Typhonian trilogies are the most important example of this in occult literature. The occult organisation named after the Esoteric Order of Dagon (http://www.esotericorderofdagon.com/) is the best example of occultists putting this perspective into actual practice.
Chaos magic – (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chaos_magic) The Lovecraftian mythos with all its entities and arcane books is considered to be a literary artefact, a fiction originally made up by HP Lovecraft and his collaborators. However, it is also believed that the human mind is capable of changing objective, physical reality through paranormal means. According to the practitioners of chaos magic one can use symbols, thoughts and beliefs to change ones mind in a way that will in turn change the rest of reality. It is not the symbol or object of belief in it self that has paranormal powers but the human mind. It has been fairly popular to use concepts taken from Lovecraft’s fiction as such symbols. The primary example of this is Phil Hine’s “Pseudonomicon”. To a lesser extent we could also place Michael Aquino’s Lovecraft-inspired psychodrama in Anton LaVey’s “The Satanic Rituals” here.
Sources
Grant, Kenneth, The Typhonian trilogies
Harms and Gonce, The Necronomicon Files
Hine, Phil, The Pseudonomicon
LaVey, Anton, The Satanic Rituals
Mason, Asenath, Necronomicon Gnosis
“Simon”, The Necronomicon
“Venger Satanis”, The Cthulhu Cult
Woodman, Justin, Lovecraft & the occult MP3 files
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