A Brief Introduction to Azathothian Magic

[Hadit]

Lovecraft and the Law of Thelema


What is commonly known in occultism is that in April 1904, Aleister Crowley received, channeled, or otherwise created the Book of the Law, which he would later use to found Thelema. What is less known in occultism is that H.P. Lovecraft was, in the same month of the same year, writing his first, extremely relevant story known as “The Beast in the Cave”.

The thing to remember about Lovecraft is that, unlike most “occult” authors, Lovecraft was not an occultist by any means. The amazing thing about him is that he writes from the viewpoint of the complete outsider. What he sees with horror and disgust is an unevolved, racist, white protestant looking at the forces of occultism from his perspective. It is an interesting thing to see for those of us so used to occult ideas, we can forget just how strong those ideas are.

Many people consider Aleister Crowley to be the be-all-end-all of Thelema, and in fact his comment in The Book of the Law claims just that. There are a whole lot of problems with though. For one thing, Crowley severely tampered with the text to make it fit Golden Dawn ideology as well as his own, personal beliefs. Further, instead of promoting the Law of Liberty, Crowley chose to promote himself as prophet – a title likely self-assigned – and his own agenda. The comment itself is a later addition to the Book of the Law – a book the “speakers” clearly said not to add to or touch – based on Crowley’s fear that the initiatory system, which had existed before 1904, would change and bring his rank into question.

Lovecraft, on the other hand, had no agenda. He was a fearful and closed-minded man who had no self-agenda or occult related agenda to promote, and in fact he died completely poor. Much work has been done on the relationship between Lovecraft and Crowley’s work, so we will not discuss it here. However, what is important to understand is that the Law of Thelema is for all, not just an elite few such as Crowley and other occult initiatory orders would have us believe. This means that the ideas within must be generally applicable. Crowley fails to do this by making a very strict, dogmatic systems based on very specific organizations and systems. Lovecraft, on the other hand, is more a stream of consciousness, and his “monsters” or “forces” touch on general human fears, ideas, etc. His most famous creation, Cthulhu, is generally applicable – almost archetypal – in that all cultures could understand he is a very non-human force resting just below the surface and could cause severe danger to humanity if released. Meanwhile, entire sections of The Book of the Law are near impossible to understand without a background in the Golden Dawn.

The point here is that – if something really happened to Crowley in Cairo in 1904 – it is equally possible that the same thing affected Lovecraft. Whereas Crowley gave us a biased interpretation, Lovecraft gave it straight. If there is a “prophet” like voice to announce the coming of modern occultism, the unknown, unappreciated, and unadaltered author certainly seems the better candidate.
This quick introduction will discuss how the works of H.P. Lovecraft can fit in better with modern occultism, psychology, and science better than Crowleyanism could ever hope.

Lovecraft and Occultism

As touched upon above, the works of Lovecraft make a better candidate for the new Aeon than the work of Crowley. We see occultism for what it is through the eyes of Lovecraft. There are dark, hidden, and secret aspects of the practice no matter who tries to lighten it up. There is a freedom of sexuality like the overexaggerated orgies of his works. There are important texts and workings generally kept from the eyes of the public. What Crowley gives us is an ironically solar and conservative religion based around the elitism of the individual. Lovecraft shows us respectfully silent and isolated types who practice their religion in silence.
If the goal of the Aeon is universal self-betterment – the discovery and following of True Will – then we need to reach as many people as possible. Whereas Crowley twists around old deities for his purposes, filling in the blanks with his best guesses, Lovecraft gives us vague insanities that can be used to describe any form in religion, good or bad. Yog-Sothoth can be the mystical “all”. Azathoth is the creator who needs to be pleased to avoid his wrath. Nyarlathotep is the avatar, high priest, wandering guru, whatever it is that needs to be described.

Another issue with conservative Thelema is that it is human-centric, again falling into a cycle of ego-gratification. With Azathothian magic we get the necessary humility that comes with occultism which has been lost to easy, solar based religions or pseudo-dark paths such as LaVeyan Satanism. Part of magic is the respect of forces greater than oneself, whether it be gods, angels, the forces of nature, or even the subconscious mind. Lovecraft’s entities can be used to describe all of these things, each on their own terms.

Lovecraft and Psychology

Lovecraft represents the average mindset of the average man in our western society, if to an exaggerated extent. His extravagant visions are devations from the mean. For example, the Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath give an great insight into just how deep and long-lasting events affect us on a non-conscious level. The entire city of Randolph Carter’s dreams is that of his home town. The Shadow Over Innsmouth is an example of how we fight the darker, “sinful”, etc. urges within ourselves. Like the main character, as we ignore and hide who we truly are things spiral out of control. This is seen in his fear of the Fishmen who believes want to harm him, when the reality of the situation is he is simply one of them.

Azathoth himself represents the essentially chaotic nature of all our lives. We all struggle with belief, meaning, we are all capable of losing complete control sometimes even no matter what we do, and the eternal chaos of Azathoth is one of the deepest struggles individual may go through.

The ideas of the mythos can also be used to discuss different ideologies. To a Christian, the archetypal Cthulhu is easily comparable to Jesus who rises from the dead and rules the world. However, it is also perfectly applicable to the devil, who waits below and desires to conquer humanity. Yog-Sothoth represents the very debate between Free Will and All-Knowingness. While it does not really matter if the proper, strange titles are used, the stories that feature them can almost be used as text to understand human psychology quite a bit better, along with human thoughts in general.

Lovecraft and Science

Thelema is already a religion that (is supposed to) adhere to scientific knowledge above belief, so that is not what this is going to cover. Instead, the works of Lovecraft teach us an important lesson to the limits of science. Ironically being almost religiously atheist himself, Lovecraft’s works throw the limits of our minds, senses, and sciences right in our face. There is no escaping them. In a world where blind religions is simply being traded for scientism, these works are only that much more important. We have no idea of what could possibly be out there, how much of the universe we are seeing is true. In fact, for the intellectually honest all knowledge must be questioned in some way (though not necessarily to the level of absolute skepticism, more like agnosticism). We simply do not know as much as we like to pretend we do, and we are not necessarily as special or amazing as we think we are. This is a problem Crowleyanism shares with modern scientific and atheistic movements – extreme human arrogance.

Our problems as a species mostly arise from problems of ego. We want to be more right, we want more knowledge, we want to be more special than others, and so on. Religious wars are fought because groups have contradicting pseudo-knowledge. To understand just how small and limited we really are would – at least in theory – help unite us. Religion does not do favors by preaching us vs. them, and science does no favors by boosting human arrogance even about that of most religions. For anyone truly dedicated to knowledge, knowing just how limited it is might just be the most important step.

Azathothian Magic

What Azathothian magic comes down to is a stripping down of older and synchronized occult ideologies to invent something more generally useful and across more areas of study and practice. This is not the same as Chaos Magic that suggests borrowing anything from wherever you want, but rather a rejection of the old ways entirely (as the religions of old are black) and accepting a truly Thelemic framework for the new Aeon. Sure we are 111 years late, but it is better late to start than never.

All of the works of Lovecraft can be read by anyone and understood in new terms. The occultist can see the story of Wilbur Whately as successful sexual magic or symbolic completion of some Great Work, anything of the sort, while the story is also an analogy for the conception of Jesus himself. The important trick to all this is the author is always the outsider. If Wilbur Whately is Jesus, then those who use magic to combat him are probably scientists or Satanists or any of the many adversarial positions out there. Yet instead of encouraging more division, the applicability of the stories and pantheon, and their evidence towards our lacking knowledge, are the key here. We are all confused in the same boat, knowing next to nothing, able to build on the practice of magic with a whole new fresh start.

Authorship The Order of the Dawning Sun

[RockDemon]

I think this might be interesting addition to this topic.