Post by A Shamanic Approach on Nov 1, 2012 21:20:42 GMT -6
Greetings, everyone.
I apologize for my absence, but I've been getting back to roots, I guess you could say. I've always been intrigued by shamanic process and more primal paradigms in the world of the occult, and chaos has seen fit to house me with a Shaman in the last year or so. This has been conducive to many spiritual and magical developments and changes within myself and my perspective within the Necronomicon paradigm. Here is a brief introductory essay on the foundations of the system I'm currently working with, there are more to follow. Please do not hesitate to contact me personally with any comments or questions.
The path and learning process of the shaman may be defined, in a general and nonspecific way, by the eight points of the four crossed axes of self, that is to say the Physical, Spiritual, Emotional and Mental. Each point may be assigned to one of the Eight Xaos Lords of the so-called 'Lovecraftian' pantheon - the Great Old Ones - in an attempt to better understand both the shamanic cycles of growth, and these obscure entities of infamy in both the worlds of science-fiction and chaos magick.
It is accepted that a separation from the mundane, and a descent into the Underworld in order to integrate ones shadow are necessities of shamanism, some even stating that the integration of the shadow is the sole work of the shaman. It is this necessity which makes the Great Old Ones effective and appropriate symbols/fetishes/energy signatures with which one may explore shamanism and other aspects of occult and spiritual work.
The argument as to the reality of these beings is an old one, and, much like the dance of the blind, amorphous Other Gods, only goes around in circles and is truly aimless for all the energy put into it. It has now become widely accepted (amongst modern chaos magickians, at least) that the literal existence of a deity, spirit, or any other entity invoked is irrelevant and is in no way a hinderance to the efficacy of a working, provided the operator is sufficiently convinced of his own methods; 'Belief is reality' and 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted' being two commonly repeated mantras of the chaote. Such modern thinking is necessary for advancement in the fields of spirituality if we are ever to use occult techniques to true efficacy and full potential, and the stubborn, rigid thinking of the ceremonial sects (marred in the foetor of Judeo-Christian morality, fear, denial and repression) will only prevent true spiritual growth. It is with this in mind that we shall here examine how the 'Cthulhu Mythos' paradigm may be utilized in shamanic work as expressions of different aeons within the personal Cycle.
The labyrinth to be traversed may be viewed as a spiral hallway of infinite distance leading further and further into the Depths. In each round of the spiral are eight doors or gateways, each with a Keeper and Guide. Proceding clockwise around the points on the web through the Halls of Yog-Sothoth, we may name and examine the Keeper of each gate and Its connection and relevance to the point to which it has been attributed.
We begin at the Gate of Yog-Sothoth. The Keeper of Beginnings and Endings. Lord of all gateways and transitions - literal and metaphorical, ordinary and extraordinary, all forms of birth and death come under His rulership. 'Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate.', so states the Necronomicon, and it is truth for without His sufferance none may move from one gate to another and may only cross those thresholds when He permits it. The Gate of Yog-Sothoth is both the first and the final Gate to be passed through in ones rounds of the spiral hallways, each Death-door being shown to be a Birth-gate on the other side. Yog-Sothoth may be placed on the Physical axis, as He is coterminous with all space and time. Indeed, it may be said that His form is physical existence itself.
The Gate of Shub-Niggurath. The Keeper of the Calling. Closest to the physical realm in which we live, it is the Black Goat who gives the summons to departure. Called the Black Mother and the Lord of the Woods, Shub-Niggurath nurtures the one who will wander off the beaten path into the darkness of the forest. (S)He teaches the wanderer to be wild - to hunt, to fight, to devour - that when the time comes to descend into the darker levels the wanderer will be ready. Shub-Niggurath may be placed on the Emotional axis, the deep instincts of the heart and gut are Hir wisdom, and these must be awakened first to understand the wisdom of the other Keepers of the Gateways.
The Gate of Cthulhu. The Keeper of the Battle. Warrior lord, He awakens within to war with the adversaries to gain ground as one descends into the Underworld. Sleeping within R'lyeh, Cthulhu awaits the time when 'the stars are right' to come forth once again to conquer the land He once ruled, when He will annihilate all foes and the Great Old Ones will reign again and elevate the faithful to higher levels of being. Cthulhu may be placed on the Spiritual axis, correspondent to fire and willpower, the burning desire of the soul. The hunger for power and the lust for greatness burn a furnace within, but part of this wisdom is knowing when to move. Cthulhu meditates beneath the waves until His time comes again, and it is after this discipline also that the wisdom of Cthulhu is placed upon the Spiritual axis.
The Gate of Yig. The Keeper of Ancestral Wisdom. Old and wise, He speaks not with words, and it is He who will facillitate communication with ancestors and spirit guides. Silent and watchful, He hears all and He knows where the dead wait hidden and hiding, and may help the seeker understand the messages of creatures and nonhuman intelligences. Yig is the Father of Serpents and He will bite he who has no love for the slithering and crawling creatures of the Lower worlds. He is placed upon the Mental axis, and is the seeking mind of the wanderer searching out its goal in the dark places of the Worlds.
The Gate of Azathoth. The Keeper of Illumination. Blind and mad, in the chaotic darkness of Self, the Lord of Creation knows all for he is all there is to know. The words of worlds, the pleas and demands of the ignorant, the screams and laughter of the Other Gods, fall upon His ears as He pipes unceasingly, and in His insanity He knows these words to be His own thoughts and desires. In the darkness, His blind eyes see. Azathoth is placed at the other end of the Physical axis, for it is by the pipings of His flute that shape is sustained, and the planets and stars move strangely in bacchanal to His disjointed melodies with the absurd Other Gods. Yog-Sothoth's globes spin and dance as dictated by the whine of Azathoth's cracked flute. Azathoth is the blind lord of creation.
The Gate of Tsathoggua. The Keeper of Transformations. Black, amorphous toad-god of the dark places, His wisdom mutates the receptive vessel that it may be fit to contain Azathoth's radiance. Having been enlightened in the vortex of chaos at the centre of infinity, the essence leads the change and transformation of the other parts at the dictation of Tsathoggua. His formless spawn rise up as viscous black ichor from the cauldrons of N'kai to engulf the body and rebuild it anew. Tsathoggua is placed on the other end of the Emotional axis, this once again being the starting point for change and transformation. Lusts and hungers are reassessed with the knowledge gained, and the change of these base motives renews change throughout the whole.
The Gate of Nyarlathotep. The Keeper of Resurrections. The faceless sorcerer in blackest night, who will guide the wanderer back from the Underworld, and raise the corpse from its grave. Having been washed in the blackened blood of Tsathoggua's rites of cleansing, Nyarlathotep will 'mark the witch' and bestow secrets and rewards upon the successful seeker according to His capricious whim, so that the value of such bestowments is at times questionable and varies greatly; for it is not vainly that He is whispered of as the Crawling Chaos. Nyarlathotep is placed on the Spiritual axis opposite Cthulhu, for where Cthulhu leads the seeker down into the depths of the darkness, the Crawling Chaos may lead the worthy seeker to the stars. Think not that here the black things of the deep depart, but rather that you have become as those nameless black things, as the deathless Deep Ones, rising up from the hidden places to claim your prize and venture forth to reign in mastery.
The Gate of Dagon. The Keeper of Attainments. Bringer of abundance and much beloved of man, Dagon may be said to rule over the resting period of self-mastery after the battle in the Underworld, called the period of Reign. At their full maturity, those bred of man and Deep One cast off their old selves and go into the sea to live in Dagon's kingdom forever. It is in the temples of Dagon that we learn to give worship to Cthulhu also, for without Dread Cthulhu the attainments of the period of mastery would not be possible. We learn that anything worth having is worth fighting for, and that, as with the immortality of the Deep Ones, the battle never truly ends and refinement is the only way forward. Dagon is placed at the opposite end of the Mental axis, being correspondent to the reflective mind rather than the searching. This is the reasoning process, and the final step in the integration of the wisdom attained in the journey of descent. When this integration is realised, death occurs, drawing one back through the Gate of Yog-Sothoth, to the next level of the spiral labyrinth of Xaos to repeat the Cycle again.
With these structures in mind, we may better understand the shamanic process and the energies inherent in the entities identified by H P Lovecraft (among others) and known as the Great Old Ones. The energies represented within the structures of being given by Lovecraft in his extensive works on the Cthulhu/Necronomicon Mythos are primal, with singular hungers and pure intentions. That is to say, Their intentions are not fettered by the petty problems that bedevil mortals, and are pure in that the wants of engrained morality and hypocritical pretense do not sway or hinder Their desires. This too makes Them useful symbols for the shaman and magick worker.
The primal natures of these beings make Them fit models easily adapted to the largely symbolic work of the shaman, as well as the chaos worker and the witch. Being macrocosmic in nature, They maintain a purity of essence, while being made of many smaller parts and may therefor be seen to represent almost anything that may be accepted by the reason of the operator. This also lends the operator the ability to identify Their energy currents with the gods of many 'real' mythologies, making the possibility for varied expressions of Their forms and natures, in ritual and spiritual work, almost infinite. The value of this can not be overstated. One may easily identify Yog-Sothoth with the two-faced Roman god of doors and gateways, Janus; or with the Vodoun lwa known as Papa Legba in Haiti, and Exu Elegua in the Santeria of South America. The mother goddesses of various cultures - Kali of India, Hecate of Greece, Cybele of Phrygia - and the male gods of virilty - Priapus of Rome, Pan of Greece, the enigmatic Baphomet of the Templars - may all be viewed as incarnations or avatars of Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. North America's Coyote, Baron Samedi and Maitre Carrefoure of Vodou, and Set of ancient Khem are all masks of the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep. So it is with the other Xaos Lords that they may be identified with multiple deities of many religions of man, so that the astute student may learn much indirectly and find the freely flowing chaos energies to be a vast sea of limitless potential in which much can be learned and achieved by the cunning and ingenuity of the operator.
There has been some discussion as to the safety of traffick with these beings. It can be said that this is largely due to the lingering sinister reputation given Them by Lovecraft's own horrified rational mind in his conscious recording of these unconsciously perceived beings, as well as the oppressive shadow of Christianity and general ignorance due to incorrect, or a lack of, information. Bypassing such obstacles is a responsibility of the individual operator. The darkness must be explored if we are to traverse new territory, in the Spiritual, Emotional, and Mental realms. Let armchair theorists guess dimly and self-righteous god-botherers condemn blindly - free exploration is the only way forward, and those left behind will fall into the darkness as the ground opens its mouth wide beneath them.
Rev. J Bradley
September 2012
blackgoatearth@hotmail.com
I apologize for my absence, but I've been getting back to roots, I guess you could say. I've always been intrigued by shamanic process and more primal paradigms in the world of the occult, and chaos has seen fit to house me with a Shaman in the last year or so. This has been conducive to many spiritual and magical developments and changes within myself and my perspective within the Necronomicon paradigm. Here is a brief introductory essay on the foundations of the system I'm currently working with, there are more to follow. Please do not hesitate to contact me personally with any comments or questions.
On the Xaos Labyrinth, and the Keepers of Its Gateways -
The Great Old Ones
The Great Old Ones
The path and learning process of the shaman may be defined, in a general and nonspecific way, by the eight points of the four crossed axes of self, that is to say the Physical, Spiritual, Emotional and Mental. Each point may be assigned to one of the Eight Xaos Lords of the so-called 'Lovecraftian' pantheon - the Great Old Ones - in an attempt to better understand both the shamanic cycles of growth, and these obscure entities of infamy in both the worlds of science-fiction and chaos magick.
It is accepted that a separation from the mundane, and a descent into the Underworld in order to integrate ones shadow are necessities of shamanism, some even stating that the integration of the shadow is the sole work of the shaman. It is this necessity which makes the Great Old Ones effective and appropriate symbols/fetishes/energy signatures with which one may explore shamanism and other aspects of occult and spiritual work.
The argument as to the reality of these beings is an old one, and, much like the dance of the blind, amorphous Other Gods, only goes around in circles and is truly aimless for all the energy put into it. It has now become widely accepted (amongst modern chaos magickians, at least) that the literal existence of a deity, spirit, or any other entity invoked is irrelevant and is in no way a hinderance to the efficacy of a working, provided the operator is sufficiently convinced of his own methods; 'Belief is reality' and 'Nothing is true, everything is permitted' being two commonly repeated mantras of the chaote. Such modern thinking is necessary for advancement in the fields of spirituality if we are ever to use occult techniques to true efficacy and full potential, and the stubborn, rigid thinking of the ceremonial sects (marred in the foetor of Judeo-Christian morality, fear, denial and repression) will only prevent true spiritual growth. It is with this in mind that we shall here examine how the 'Cthulhu Mythos' paradigm may be utilized in shamanic work as expressions of different aeons within the personal Cycle.
The labyrinth to be traversed may be viewed as a spiral hallway of infinite distance leading further and further into the Depths. In each round of the spiral are eight doors or gateways, each with a Keeper and Guide. Proceding clockwise around the points on the web through the Halls of Yog-Sothoth, we may name and examine the Keeper of each gate and Its connection and relevance to the point to which it has been attributed.
We begin at the Gate of Yog-Sothoth. The Keeper of Beginnings and Endings. Lord of all gateways and transitions - literal and metaphorical, ordinary and extraordinary, all forms of birth and death come under His rulership. 'Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate.', so states the Necronomicon, and it is truth for without His sufferance none may move from one gate to another and may only cross those thresholds when He permits it. The Gate of Yog-Sothoth is both the first and the final Gate to be passed through in ones rounds of the spiral hallways, each Death-door being shown to be a Birth-gate on the other side. Yog-Sothoth may be placed on the Physical axis, as He is coterminous with all space and time. Indeed, it may be said that His form is physical existence itself.
The Gate of Shub-Niggurath. The Keeper of the Calling. Closest to the physical realm in which we live, it is the Black Goat who gives the summons to departure. Called the Black Mother and the Lord of the Woods, Shub-Niggurath nurtures the one who will wander off the beaten path into the darkness of the forest. (S)He teaches the wanderer to be wild - to hunt, to fight, to devour - that when the time comes to descend into the darker levels the wanderer will be ready. Shub-Niggurath may be placed on the Emotional axis, the deep instincts of the heart and gut are Hir wisdom, and these must be awakened first to understand the wisdom of the other Keepers of the Gateways.
The Gate of Cthulhu. The Keeper of the Battle. Warrior lord, He awakens within to war with the adversaries to gain ground as one descends into the Underworld. Sleeping within R'lyeh, Cthulhu awaits the time when 'the stars are right' to come forth once again to conquer the land He once ruled, when He will annihilate all foes and the Great Old Ones will reign again and elevate the faithful to higher levels of being. Cthulhu may be placed on the Spiritual axis, correspondent to fire and willpower, the burning desire of the soul. The hunger for power and the lust for greatness burn a furnace within, but part of this wisdom is knowing when to move. Cthulhu meditates beneath the waves until His time comes again, and it is after this discipline also that the wisdom of Cthulhu is placed upon the Spiritual axis.
The Gate of Yig. The Keeper of Ancestral Wisdom. Old and wise, He speaks not with words, and it is He who will facillitate communication with ancestors and spirit guides. Silent and watchful, He hears all and He knows where the dead wait hidden and hiding, and may help the seeker understand the messages of creatures and nonhuman intelligences. Yig is the Father of Serpents and He will bite he who has no love for the slithering and crawling creatures of the Lower worlds. He is placed upon the Mental axis, and is the seeking mind of the wanderer searching out its goal in the dark places of the Worlds.
The Gate of Azathoth. The Keeper of Illumination. Blind and mad, in the chaotic darkness of Self, the Lord of Creation knows all for he is all there is to know. The words of worlds, the pleas and demands of the ignorant, the screams and laughter of the Other Gods, fall upon His ears as He pipes unceasingly, and in His insanity He knows these words to be His own thoughts and desires. In the darkness, His blind eyes see. Azathoth is placed at the other end of the Physical axis, for it is by the pipings of His flute that shape is sustained, and the planets and stars move strangely in bacchanal to His disjointed melodies with the absurd Other Gods. Yog-Sothoth's globes spin and dance as dictated by the whine of Azathoth's cracked flute. Azathoth is the blind lord of creation.
The Gate of Tsathoggua. The Keeper of Transformations. Black, amorphous toad-god of the dark places, His wisdom mutates the receptive vessel that it may be fit to contain Azathoth's radiance. Having been enlightened in the vortex of chaos at the centre of infinity, the essence leads the change and transformation of the other parts at the dictation of Tsathoggua. His formless spawn rise up as viscous black ichor from the cauldrons of N'kai to engulf the body and rebuild it anew. Tsathoggua is placed on the other end of the Emotional axis, this once again being the starting point for change and transformation. Lusts and hungers are reassessed with the knowledge gained, and the change of these base motives renews change throughout the whole.
The Gate of Nyarlathotep. The Keeper of Resurrections. The faceless sorcerer in blackest night, who will guide the wanderer back from the Underworld, and raise the corpse from its grave. Having been washed in the blackened blood of Tsathoggua's rites of cleansing, Nyarlathotep will 'mark the witch' and bestow secrets and rewards upon the successful seeker according to His capricious whim, so that the value of such bestowments is at times questionable and varies greatly; for it is not vainly that He is whispered of as the Crawling Chaos. Nyarlathotep is placed on the Spiritual axis opposite Cthulhu, for where Cthulhu leads the seeker down into the depths of the darkness, the Crawling Chaos may lead the worthy seeker to the stars. Think not that here the black things of the deep depart, but rather that you have become as those nameless black things, as the deathless Deep Ones, rising up from the hidden places to claim your prize and venture forth to reign in mastery.
The Gate of Dagon. The Keeper of Attainments. Bringer of abundance and much beloved of man, Dagon may be said to rule over the resting period of self-mastery after the battle in the Underworld, called the period of Reign. At their full maturity, those bred of man and Deep One cast off their old selves and go into the sea to live in Dagon's kingdom forever. It is in the temples of Dagon that we learn to give worship to Cthulhu also, for without Dread Cthulhu the attainments of the period of mastery would not be possible. We learn that anything worth having is worth fighting for, and that, as with the immortality of the Deep Ones, the battle never truly ends and refinement is the only way forward. Dagon is placed at the opposite end of the Mental axis, being correspondent to the reflective mind rather than the searching. This is the reasoning process, and the final step in the integration of the wisdom attained in the journey of descent. When this integration is realised, death occurs, drawing one back through the Gate of Yog-Sothoth, to the next level of the spiral labyrinth of Xaos to repeat the Cycle again.
With these structures in mind, we may better understand the shamanic process and the energies inherent in the entities identified by H P Lovecraft (among others) and known as the Great Old Ones. The energies represented within the structures of being given by Lovecraft in his extensive works on the Cthulhu/Necronomicon Mythos are primal, with singular hungers and pure intentions. That is to say, Their intentions are not fettered by the petty problems that bedevil mortals, and are pure in that the wants of engrained morality and hypocritical pretense do not sway or hinder Their desires. This too makes Them useful symbols for the shaman and magick worker.
The primal natures of these beings make Them fit models easily adapted to the largely symbolic work of the shaman, as well as the chaos worker and the witch. Being macrocosmic in nature, They maintain a purity of essence, while being made of many smaller parts and may therefor be seen to represent almost anything that may be accepted by the reason of the operator. This also lends the operator the ability to identify Their energy currents with the gods of many 'real' mythologies, making the possibility for varied expressions of Their forms and natures, in ritual and spiritual work, almost infinite. The value of this can not be overstated. One may easily identify Yog-Sothoth with the two-faced Roman god of doors and gateways, Janus; or with the Vodoun lwa known as Papa Legba in Haiti, and Exu Elegua in the Santeria of South America. The mother goddesses of various cultures - Kali of India, Hecate of Greece, Cybele of Phrygia - and the male gods of virilty - Priapus of Rome, Pan of Greece, the enigmatic Baphomet of the Templars - may all be viewed as incarnations or avatars of Shub-Niggurath, the Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young. North America's Coyote, Baron Samedi and Maitre Carrefoure of Vodou, and Set of ancient Khem are all masks of the Crawling Chaos, Nyarlathotep. So it is with the other Xaos Lords that they may be identified with multiple deities of many religions of man, so that the astute student may learn much indirectly and find the freely flowing chaos energies to be a vast sea of limitless potential in which much can be learned and achieved by the cunning and ingenuity of the operator.
There has been some discussion as to the safety of traffick with these beings. It can be said that this is largely due to the lingering sinister reputation given Them by Lovecraft's own horrified rational mind in his conscious recording of these unconsciously perceived beings, as well as the oppressive shadow of Christianity and general ignorance due to incorrect, or a lack of, information. Bypassing such obstacles is a responsibility of the individual operator. The darkness must be explored if we are to traverse new territory, in the Spiritual, Emotional, and Mental realms. Let armchair theorists guess dimly and self-righteous god-botherers condemn blindly - free exploration is the only way forward, and those left behind will fall into the darkness as the ground opens its mouth wide beneath them.
Rev. J Bradley
September 2012
blackgoatearth@hotmail.com
IA! IA! CTHULHU FHTAGN!