A Glimpse Through the Gate of the Silver Key
by Frater Sevekh
"Through the Gate of the Silver Key" is the title of a short
story written by H. P. Lovecraft and E. Hoffman Price, but largely authored
by Lovecraft. In the story, the protagonist, Randolph Carter, finds a way
to explore different versions of himself as manifested in different worlds.
Many contemporary magicians have likewise spoken of magic as the power to
move between reality tunnels at will. In my own personal ritual work, I
have begun to consider the magical uses of the Lovecraftian mythos, and
in this article, I will share the results of some of that work, and my personal
interpretation of those results.
A key concept of Lovecraft are "The Great Old Ones", alien beings
who once ruled our universe, but are now hidden from humanity. Nonetheless,
they possess vast cosmic power, and direct the fate of the cosmos. Phil
Hine's book The Pseudonomicon describes the Great Old Ones as being different
aspects of one being, not several distinct entities.(1) My own personal
experiences would tend to concur. I have recently done a series of workings
to invoke Cthulhu and undergo the disintegrative process which he represents.
An entity associated with the depths of the ocean, Cthulhu and his minions,
the Deep Ones, lurk in the deepest corners of the psyche in those areas
where the light of our daytime consciousness never shines. I have found
it useful to delve into these areas, which often afford startling insights
into my own Being. However, these are more in the realm of psychological
exploration than magical activity. They are scouting trips, not opportunities
to impose one's Will on Reality. However, one of these workings showed me
a formula by which this may be understood differently.
In previous Cthulhu workings, I simply experienced a feeling of disintegration
and reintegration. In one case, my body dissolved into a puddle of green
putrescence on the floor, which then re-evolved into my regular body. But
the next time I tried the working something different happened. Instead
of my body simply dissolving, robed figures armed with knives came to me.
I was then simply flayed alive. Large strips of skin and tissue were torn
off until the bones were visible, hard white sticks glistening out of the
wet, red tissue. I also felt memories, feelings, and ideas ripped away from
my physical body. Everything that I considered part of myself was gone.
I was (as you might guess) terrified. Tears welled up in my eyes. I wasn't
sure if I could get back to my original state. I had lost all sentience,
in a realm beyond all points of orientation. I realized I had only known
myself in relation to other things- to other people, to my job, to the value
other people ascribed to me. Without these anchors, my identity simply slid
away. This was Azathoth- called by Lovecraft a blind mindless, nuclear Chaos
at the center of the Universe. In Phil Hine's interpretation, Azathoth is
a state of mind that one slips into, more than a being one contacts. I hung
there, beyond the "gulfs of ultimate time and space", as Lovecraft
might say. But yet there was Will. The Will that orders reality, for it,
too, is beyond time and space. This point of Will is the Soul of the Outer
Ones, Nyarlathotep. In those primal gulfs before reality coagulates out
of the Chaos, any reality may be imposed. It is the inbetween state, when
all shapes are unformed, that infinite possibilities can be created. I entered
that state and now I could use its power to recreate myself.
This was a liminal state where it seemed as if reality was wet clay, without
form or context for separate items to exist apart from one another. There
were no spaces between things, for it is the gulf between what exists that
defines one thing as separate from another. Hence, there was Will- for there
were no particular person to have a will. It was from this working that
I came to feel that Nyarlathotep -- the Will of the Outer Ones -- was an
entity well suited to sorcery. He is the link, a liminal figure between
our world of separate entities existing in linear spacetime, and the Outer
Ones' sphere where all differences vanish into primordial Existence. Again,
Phil Hines' observations are along similar lines. Lovecraft's own works
also suggest this. None of the Great Old Ones , except (possibly) Nyarlathotep
appear to have particular personalities. They are described more as facets
of cosmic processes. For example, Yog Sothoth, in a famous "excerpt"
from the Necronomicon is described as "Yog Sothoth knows the gate.
Yog Sothoth is the Gate. Yog Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate".(2)
There is no sentient thought, no plans or schemes, any more than a thunderstorm
is the scheme of the weather. Azathoth is specifically described as "blind"
and "idiotic". Cthulhu is one of the few Old Ones met in person,
but his release from R'lyeh is simply part of a natural cycle of activity
and rest. In The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath, Randolph Carter actually
meets Nyarlathotep, the only Outer One known to have had a conversation
with someone.(3) The conversation gives the impression that the Old Ones
function as a process: Nyarlathotep is the only one with a personality and
mind, because he is the Mind and Will of the Outer Ones collectively.
Interesting connections may be made with the experiments of Kenneth Grant,
who explores the magical aspects of the "Necronomicon Gnosis"
as he puts it, in his books, particularly The Magical Revival, and more
extensively in Hecate's Fountain. In the course of one ritual, he concluded
that the Outer Ones perceive space, time and all the various levels of consciousness
as one, instead of separate categories.(4) If this is the case, then it
is natural that they would not exist as discrete entities, for space, time
and consciousness are the reference points by which individuality is known.
We exist in space and time separately from other entities, and from this
springs the consciousness of ourselves as unique individuals. But in the
realms of the Outer Ones- outside time and space- that individuality breaks
down. During my visions, I was not seeing a scene before me; I was a state
of being.
It should be noted that the beings who make up Lovecraft's pantheon are
often divided into separate categories. For example, much has been made
of the difference between the Great Old Ones being a different class of
beings then the Outer Ones.(5) The Great Old Ones, such as Cthulhu, are
physical entities that exist on the material plane, while the Outer Ones,
such as Nyarlathotep and Azathoth, exist in other universes. Some of these
distinctions may not be supported by the "canonical" works of
Lovecraft, though in the Dunwich Horror, there is an interesting quote from
the infamous Necronomicon : "Great Cthulhu is their cousin, yet He
can only spy Them only dimly".(6) The same passage indicates that Cthulhu
is also their "priest" This would seem to indicate that Cthulhu
is indeed in a different class than Yog-Sothoth, and perhaps an inferior
one if he can only "spy them dimly". Grant identifies Cthulhu
with the astral plane (by association with dreams and water), which is the
plane usually considered next to our own. It could be that Cthulhu and the
Great Old Ones are more "earthbound" in that they are a state
of consciousness more like ordinary consciousness than Nyarlathotep &
Co. Cthulhu may be their priest in that he is the gate between our realm
(i.e. ordinary, uninitiated consciousness) and realms of the Outer Ones.
This would make sense in terms of my own experience, as I first encountered
the realm of Cthulhu, who had to destroy my ordinary consciousness in order
to prepare me to meet Azathoth. But in the same story quoted from above,
Yog-Sothoth is named as "the Gate", and it is through Yog-Sothoth
that the manifestation of the Beyond erupts into our world, which is the
central point of the story.(7)
It could be that Cthulhu is simply the first of a series of initiators-
the first one met when journeying out onto the other planes. Grant places
Yog-Sothoth in the "invisible" Sephiroth of the Tree of Life,
Daath, which for Grant, is the doorway to an entirely different universe,
as opposed to other regions of this one.(8) Following this line of thought,
one may construct an initiatory system as follows:
First, when leaving one's ordinary consciousness to journey out on the astral,
one meets Cthulhu, who represents the repressed complexes of the sorcerer's
psyche. Confronting these complexes is a terrifying process, and is only
the beginning. When I speak of facing personal fears many people say to
me that they prefer to face their own fears. This is nonsense, of course;
no one prefers to be frightened or uncomfortable. When we do try to confront
our fears we invariably find excuses for not doing so right now, or convince
ourselves that we faced our problems unflinchingly, when all we have done
is avoid them again. But Great Cthulhu is not fooled. From the abyss of
his tomb in R'lyeh, where all the fears and repression lie not dead but
dreaming, waiting to be reawakened, he sees the underside of our soul. He
knows we cannot face them simply by wishing to do so, and he mercilessly
throws them upwards, exposing them to the light and air. We are left to
stare in horror at what has been within us, our entire lives. Like the hapless
sailor in The Call of Cthulhu, who journeys to R'lyeh, we can let ourselves
die spiritually instead of acknowledging what we now know to be true. Or
we can continue on the path.
Our delusions ruthlessly exposed, we reach Azathoth, who writhes at the
center of (our) universe. Every shred of who we were is now gone. All the
points of reference by which we knew who we were is gone. We do not exist
as an individual person, as a human, or as anyone; we simply Exist.
But as we know we Exist, then their must be a Mind that knows this. But
this Mind is not the mind that was Fra. Sevekh, who lived in a particular
time and particular place; this Mind exists everywhere throughout eternity.
This is the Nyarlathotep stage of consciousness, who in the early short
story of the same name spreads ghastly knowledge, revealing to humanity
the bizarre truth beneath ordinary reality. With the doors to new realms
flung open, we abandon our old identities and embrace new, radical possibilities.
Perhaps, like Randolph Carter in Through the Gate of the Silver Key, we
can become any identity we wish to assume.
What to make of these outlandish visions, and curious speculation? I cannot
truly say. I am not making any extraordinary claims. I know what I experienced
and in this article and others, how I have interpreted those experiences.
Each person can only explore these realms by themselves, and discover for
themselves what is there. It may be helpful to hear what others have found.
Essentially this is making order out of chaos, making maps of shifting sand
dunes- it is out of date as soon as you finish. However, our minds are such
that we cannot profit by simply looking at an unintelligible void. A context,
is required for us to orient ourselves and decide upon courses of action.
Therefore, this article is an attempt, however poor, to make sense of that
Void that we may grasp its ultimate meaning at last.
Footnotes
1. pg 17 Hine, Phil The Pseudonomicon Chaos International: London,
1994
2. pg. 111 Lovecraft, H. P. "The Dunwich Horror" The Best of
H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre Del Rey:
New York, 1983
3. pg. 130 Lovecraft, H. P. "The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath"
The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath Del Rey: New York, 1982.
4. pg. 204 Grant, Kenneth , Hecate's Fountain Skoob: London, 1992
5. see The Call of Cthulhu, a roleplaying game published by Chaosium
Inc. Roleplaying games are not known for their scholarship, but the makers
of this game have done outstanding research in producing this game and line
of supplements.
6. pg. 111 Lovecraft, H. P. "The Dunwich Horror" The Best of
H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre Del Rey:
New York, 1983
7. pg. 111 Lovecraft, H. P. "The Dunwich Horror" The Best of
H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre Del Rey:
New York, 1983
8. pg. 124 Grant, Kenneth , Hecate's Fountain Skoob: London, 1992
Bibliography
Grant, Kenneth , Hecate's Fountain Skoob: London, 1992
Hine, Phil The Pseudonomicon Chaos International: London, 1994
Lovecraft, H. P. -
"The Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath" The Dream Quest of Unknown
Kadath Del Rey: New York, 1982.
The Best of H. P. Lovecraft: Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre
Del Rey: New York, 1983
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