H. P. Lovecraft

Discussion on literature other than by the Star of Azazel.
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Nefastos
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H. P. Lovecraft

Post by Nefastos »

When we're discussing fiction in the Left Hand Path's context, it usually won't take many minutes before H. P. Lovecraft get mentioned. So, we might as well start with him! What do YOU think about Lovecraft? Why is he so important to so many people both those interested in occultism and those who aren't? Did he actually manage to grasp something not wholly mundane in his fiction?

Or, what are the work(s) of Lovecraft that have been most important / intriguing to you? Can you say why that or those exactly?
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
obnoxion
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Re: H. P. Lovecraft

Post by obnoxion »

Lovecraft, "the reluctant prophet", did manage to grasp somthing occult in his work. For me the most important stories are "The Horror at the Red Hook" and "The Dreams in the Witch-House".

I see "The Horror at the Red Hook" as a succesful conjuration for the whole Cthulhu Mythos. This was the last - and the best! - story were Lovecraft was just treating general occult information in an original way. After that he began his masterful and completely authentic work with the Cthulhu Mythos. I see the "The Horror at the Red Hook" as a quite real occult working, and a final step in the appearence of the eldritch pantheon for which Lovecraft will be forever known.

"The Dreams of the Witch-House" I consider one of the clearest crystalization of the full lovecraftian phenomenon. First of all, the sheer level of horror is absolutely unique. And in a more occult sense, this story does unite the things above to the things below in a way that no other Lovecraft story does; I mean the way he unites the almost spiritual world of higher mathematics to the dark witchcraft of his native New England "geochakra".

Lastly I'd like to mention the pagan poetry of teenage Lovecraft, whose devotion to the greek pantheon was for a moment so sincere that he actully built an altar to Pan in the forest. As an occultis myself, i think these sort of dedicated operations have long term effects.
One day of Brahma has 14 Indras; his life has 54 000 Indras. One day of Vishnu is the lifetime of Brahma. The lifetime of Vishnu is one day of Shiva.
Lux

Re: H. P. Lovecraft

Post by Lux »

obnoxion wrote:Lastly I'd like to mention the pagan poetry of teenage Lovecraft, whose devotion to the greek pantheon was for a moment so sincere that he actully built an altar to Pan in the forest. As an occultist myself, I think these sort of dedicated operations have long term effects.
I agree about the long term effects of this kind of things, and I think this kind of manifestations of sincere devotion, especially in teenage, are one of the most clearest practical proofs of re-incarnation of the soul, metempsychosis and / or transmigration of one's spiritual essence. I think they are some sort of a re-enactment (and possibly a closure) of things started who knows how long time gone, and they can also be a manifestation of "the becoming of the old ones" in a higher turn of the cyclical spiral.

Lovecraft is / was certainly an interesting man and a writer. Yet, having read only one recently published comprehendum from him, I know not well enough his writings that I could be able to discuss about them in-depth. Most certainly the occult teachings have had an effect upon him and his writings in a profound way, very much like the author of Conan the Barbarian; and it is interesting to realize that Lovecraft was a sceptic and a "materialist" in his daylight-consciousness, while being a "full-time" spiritualist / occultist in his more deeper and authentic layers of being. I know personally some people who are just like this also, and it is actually quite interesting to see how "the utterances of the soul" manifest even if (and maybe precisely because) they are denied by man.

The phenomenon of occult pulp fiction and its manifestation through Lovecraft and others in a time of scepticism and modernism is also one of the signs and ways of how numinous things manifest if they are trampled beneath the ground in the official consensus way of thinking.
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Nefastos
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Re: H. P. Lovecraft

Post by Nefastos »

I think it's very good example of the paradox law how Lovecraft, via his materialistic and fatalistic thought, actually brought a new spiritual and free form of the Left Hand Path mysticism to many people's attention. The images of his are so alluring that many FEEL that there's something very true in them. And there is.

Personally I like The Dunwich Horror, The Case of CDW and The Lurker at the Threshold best, although the last mentioned is more a Derleth's work than Lovecraft's.

"The cursed Voices of Azazel and Buzrael..."
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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Benemal
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Re: H. P. Lovecraft

Post by Benemal »

I would highly recommend to all fans of Lovecraft, the writings of his good friend Clark Ashton Smith. He was a poet whom Lovecraft persuaded to write stories. These stories or fables are quite different from H.P's and others. Mostly, they don't follow the traditional arc of a story, but are like lucid dreams in lost worlds and cities.
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Nefastos
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Re: H. P. Lovecraft

Post by Nefastos »

Lovecraft just doesn't leave me alone, he seems to be everywhere, whether I'm reading academical essays, fiction, or occultism. Not to say it's a bad thing! Once again it brings to mind how things that are left unpolished often have more to cling to, just like a rough surface is easier to glue to another...

But one thing that puzzles me a bit is a habit of many Left Hand Path occultists to take the Lovecraftian mythos to be real as it is, not symbologically or vaguely but factually & exactly. Of course I've stumbled into that kind of thinking many times before, but only now when I'm reading Kenneth Grant I face a world view that seems to be revolving solely around Crowley mythos & Cthulhu mythos woven together as one. It's so without any self-criticism it's almost hypnotic to read.

Still, it's healthy for an occultist to come across & ponder upon this kind of problems. For I believe myself a great number of things that are considered impossible & even insane. So, it helps to keep one's mind clear to think every once in a while what is the line between awfully strange & actually mentally imbalanced worldviews. And maybe for the third, the ones that are made up by so emotional people that it isn't even considered interesting if something is rational, as long as it feels "right".

"She felt her tears welling up. Such awful lives; and yet they held onto them so desperately. What humbling beauty, what endless rapture, that beings could live in that way, in a world so starved of magic and gods." (Gord Sellar: Of Melei, of Ulthar)
Faust: "Lo contempla. / Ei muove in tortuosa spire / e s'avvicina lento alla nostra volta. / Oh! se non erro, / orme di foco imprime al suol!"
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