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rite of the ghouls
23:46 Jul 30 2009
Times Read: 3,375


r i t e

o f

t h e

g h o u l s



(c) 1994 Ryan Parker

intended for informational purposes only





HPL wrote of the necrophagic ghoul in Pickman's Model and Dream Quest of

Unknown Kadath. In Lovecraft's mythos the ghoul was a semi-human creature

with a canine or monstrous facial appearance. The ghouls were said to feed

on the human dead or even occasionally live humans. HPL claimed, in his

stories, that it was possible a human to be transformed into a ghoul. The

ghouls of HPL's stories are based on the ghouls or ghuls of Arab myth and

magick. In Arab myth ghuls are again semi-human creatures with monstrous

or animalistic faces. Like HPL's ghouls the Arab ghul lived in lonely and

deserted places feeding on the dead. In Arab myth it is said the powerful

magicians can transform into ghuls. The ghuls are associated with a

homophagic diet (eating humans), necrophilia, and magickal transformation.



The ghuls of Arab magick are reminiscent of many aspects of shamanism. In

many cultures it is common for the shaman to transform into an animalistic

or semihuman form. Ritual cannibalism was found in almost every culture at

one time or another. Even today in cultures where ritual cannibalism is no

longer physically enacted there still remains traces of symbolic

cannibalism. Tibetan and Hindu sadhus often undergo rites involving a

corpse, sometimes even with necrophilic elements. In HPL, Arab magick, and

shamanism there are undercurrents of devouring, being devoured, and

transformation into animalistic forms.



The so called "grotesqueness and monstrosity of the liminal sacra

(shamanic knowledge)" in shamanism are not darkness for its own sake. The

"monstrous" elements in shamanism are intended to force the practitioner

to face and integrate primal, animalistic aspects of her or his psychic

make up. Such drives have been termed the "Shadow" by Jung Although our

culture has labeled the these drives "evil" they are within us all.

Shamanic practices help us to accept and integrate the Shadow.



According to many researchers the dark and bizarre rituals in shamanism

are designed to force the practitioner to confront cultural "taboos" and

ego limits in order to free the shaman from these artificial confines.

Thus the "monstrosities" of magick and shamanism are psychodynamic

techniques aiming at liberation. They help us to confront and transcend

our taboos and to integrate the Shadow or the "evil" and animalistic

drives in our psychic make up. Sometimes, in shamanic initiation, the

"monstrous" elements are combined with other tactics to eliminate false

ego structures such as taunting or mockery.



It should be noted that symbolic cannibalism, when it involves

symbolically "eating" the shaman, is closely related to experiences that

often occur spontaneously in an initiatory ordeal or crisis. Very often a

shaman will undergo a prolonged psychophysical illness that ends in an

initiatory experience. The initiatory experience often involves being torn

to pieces or being devoured by demonic forms. This same archetypal process

has been encountered more recently in psychological research using

entheogens or dynamic breathing. This process is a type of ego death. It

is the false limited idea of "self" that is dismembered and devoured. This

initiatory process is often called the death/rebirth rite. The old limited

notion of "self" dies and a new, broader, and less constrained "self" is

reborn. The Tibetan Tchod rite is based on the exact same type of

death/rebirth sequence (involving being devoured by demons.) However, the

Tibetan version of this rite often also includes necrophilic undertones.



According to Vilmos Dioszegi in Tracing Shamans in Siberia "possession"

states in which the shaman is transformed into an animalistic or semihuman

form encountered have an important value.



"possession states in the countries in which they play an

important part of religious rituals have an important

distress-relieving, integrative, and adaptive function. As

far as mental illness is concerned, they may be of

prophylactic value.



As we can see the animalistic possession and symbolic cannibalism

involved in shamanic and magickal initiations are aimed at freeing the

practitioner from cultural restrictions and artificial ego limits. They

are powerful and liberating psychological techniques.



About the same time I was considering how the above shamanic methods

relate to the ghouls of HPL's mythos and Arab magick I happened upon

Kenneth Grant's ideas on the "mortuary feast" of the Lamas of Leng,

Andahada's "Feast of the Hive" and "Demon Feast" and Spare's "Feast of the

Supersensualists". After reading Grant I read what materials were

available to me on Spare. Both grant and Spare used themes of

transformation into a semihuman form and symbolic homophagy (cannibalism)

in an initiatory context. Grant and Spare also included sexual elements

into their work. When taken as a whole this struck me as closely parallel

to the Arab magickal traditions regarding Ghuls. Both involve

transformation into monstrous forms devouring or being devoured, and

sexual (necrophilic?) undertones. After reading Grant I began to toy with

constructing a shamanic initiatory rite based on the Ghul legends of HPL

and Arab magick. It included being devoured, transformation into an

animal-like ghoul and necrophlic elements.



"Pickman's Model" by HPL, and Grant's writings were big

influences as was the Tibetan Buddhist Tchod rite. More recently Phil

Hine's Pseudonomicon has influenced my understanding of the psychodynamics

of this rite. Mr. Hine has significantly impacted this rite and my

understanding of why it works. The actual nomenclature of this rite is

derived from the infamous 18th century printing of "Cultes des Goules"

used by Abbe' Boullan in his Lyons workings.



This is the third version of this rite. The first was written in 1989 and

contained only instructions with no commentary. The second was written in

July 1994 after reading Hine's Pseudonomicon. It contained the rite as

well as some commentary and several quote's from Mr. Hine that helped to

explain the nature of this sort of Rite. The current version was written

in October 1994 and contains somewhat longer commentary and but fewer

quotations from Mr. Hine.



This rite was designed to be used in a group setting. However, it can be

modified to be used on the "astral", by a solo magician or partially on

the "astral" by two celebrants. Also, this rite was written from my own

Cthulhu mythos perspective and should be modified to fit into whatever

myth system the magician uses. This rite (like all magick) should not be

considered to be carved in stone. Otherwise it becomes just another dogma

to transcend!!



Location: Outdoors in a rural setting. There should be no evidence of the

very existence of man at the ritual site except for those objects used for

the rite itself. The site should reflect the meaning of "wild" in the word

wilderness.



Time: At night well after dark. Because of the rite's association with

Nyarlathotep (Nyharluthotep) and therefore Azathoth (Asa-Thoth) the

ultimate time to preform this rite is "when the Sun is in the Sign of the

Ram, the Lion, or the Archer; the Moon decreasing and Mars and Saturn

conjoin" Short of this any time that the celebrants feel that "the spheres

do intersect and the influences flow from the Void". _1_



Materials: the Altar of the Old Ones, the Incense of Zkauba, animal offal

(obtained from a butcher), theatrical make-up, animal and human skulls

(replicas will do if they are realistic), A tape player and a recording of

drumming at 3-7 cycles per second _2_, a charcoal burner,; optional are

entheogens _3_.



In this rite the imagined body as well as the ego-complex of the magician

is devoured by the other celebrants (the ghouls). At this point the

magician transforms into one of the ghouls her/himself. The rite is now at

the climax and the Ghoul/magician joins the feast of offal and engages in

ritual copulation with the "corpse" on the Altar of the Old Ones. Quoting

Mr. Hine "Undercurrent of such a ritual is the idea of relinquishing

control to others, and of facing one's own taboos and desires in a way

that means that they cannot be dodged or evaded."



Well no point in further meandering. Here it is.





The Rite of the Ghouls



Set the Altar of the Old Ones in a clearing of a dense woods. Above the

altar place a large wooden "banner" to act as the "Center of Focus" in the

opening. On this banner the Egyptian hieroglyphics for Asa-Thoth

(Azathoth) and Yak-SutThoth (Yog-Sothoth) should be painted on the top.

Below these but in larger Hieroglyphics the name Nyharluthotep

(Nyarlathotep) should be painted in a bold style. At the South end (the

head) of the Altar should be placed several animal skulls and at least one

human skull (or a realistic replica). Below the Altar (below it's foot end

ie north) about ten-twenty feet should be placed a large quantity of

animal offal (from a butcher). A single small charcoal burner for the

incense should be the only source of light. This burner should be placed

between the altar and the "banner".





Opening:



This rite should not be preceded by any form of banishing. Nor should any

use of a type of magick circle be used. The attitude of this rite must be

one of total helplessness before the demonic forces that will devour the

magician. For this reason the magician will be placed in the center of the

other celebrants nude and without any weapons or other magickal objects.

The other celebrants should also be nude (to increase the

animalistic/taboo atmosphere) but should be wearing theatrical make-up in

order to give their faces and bodies a monstrous/animal-like appearance.

The acting priest of the Old Ones (one of the other celebrants not the

magician) begins the rite thus:



The priest starts the drumming tape and throws a large amount of the

incense of Zkauba into the charcoal burner. The priest holds his left hand

in the Voorish sign and the celebrants do likewise.



Priest: "Hail the limitless Void!

Priest: Ia! Yog-Sothoth the infinite Chaos

Celebrants: Hail Yog-Sothoth

Priest: Ia! Azathoth the primal center of the Void

Celebrants: Hail Azathoth

Priest: Ia! Nyarlathotep Mighty Messenger

Celebrants: Hail Nyarlathotep Mighty Messenger



Priest: Nyarlathotep, purveyor of Chaos, Lord of Ghouls, remove the

illusion of reality from the mind of (name of magician) by the

annihilation of that mind! Watch over this feast of Ghouls as (name) is

killed and devoured. Rejoice in your black gulf that Chaos is once again

unleashed on the earth.



Celebrants: Hail Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos!



(Nyarlathotep is featured in the opening because of "his" close

association with the ghouls in myth. The mention of the Other Gods helps

to create a sense of continuity with previous mythos work and serves to

create a link with later work.)



(Priest and celebrants give the sign of Kish)



Priest: (name), you offer yourself up to the ghouls as a sacrifice.



(name)you are now now completely helpless before the might of the Old Ones

and their minions the ghouls!



(name), your mind and soul shall be ripped apart and you shall be reborn

in darkness. As this happens remember that "the wailings of the mad are

but the birth-cries of the new man-the old man gone like dust in the

desert wind. Cleansed of the lies of mankind, the new man-the man of

darkness-is free to absorb the beauty of nothingness, to glory in the

stark might of the utter void. As your useless reason dissolves, Rejoice!"_4_



(During this opening the magician is laying on the ground near or on the

offal. The celebrants form a rough U around the magician with the altar at

the opening of the U. The magician should maintain a mind-set of

helplessness during this opening. It is also important that the magician

allows Her/himself to slip into a state of fear and then paranoia.)



(The main body of this rite does not involve the usual sort of ritualistic

elements common to western magick. The majority of this rite involves the

chaotic acting out of Sub/Superhuman drives. Therefore, to make the

transition, from the relatively ordered opening to the bulk of the rite,

smoother a specific technique is needed. The technique used is gradually

going from R'lyehian and Enochian phases and words to pure "glossolalia"

or speaking in tongues as the Xtians call it.)



Priest and celebrants together:

Z'rdo K'af' Caosago Mosp'l'h T'loch, Z'rdo K'af' Caosago Mosp'l'h T'loch,

N'gha Z'rdo Hoath Adphaht Affa p'lz'n, N'kai Z'rdo Hoath Nyarlathotep,

Z'rdo ''-all ollog. Z'rdo ''-all ollog.



Ia! Nyarlathotep Fhtagn N'gha n'gah ia thos N'kai!!!



The celebrants begin to use glossolalia (quickly uttering seemingly

meaningless "words"). In the beginning the Celebrant may wish to use

random combinations of any of the Enochian or R'lyehian words above. N'gha

and N'kai are particularly useful for entering a non-human state. These

words have a incredibly long history {pre-human?} and posses strong

magickal "morphogenic" fields. The use of glossolalia when combined with

drumming and the use of entheogens {as it is in this rite} can rapidly

create a strong state of Gnosis in which possession is likely to occur. In

this rite the celebrants should combine chaotic and frenzied dancing with

the use of Glossolalia. The celebrants begin to chant random syllables and

dance animalisticly. When they, as a group, feel themselves to be

possessed by ghouls they begin to walk or crawl towards the magician to

begin their feast. The magician her or himself should remain silent during

this period. She or he should allows her or himself to be taken into the

state of fear that should naturally be aroused by this stage. She or he

should allow thoughts like "am I going to loose my mind?", "Am I slowly

going crazy, what the hell am I doing out here!" "what if they really kill

me" "are they loosing it, maybe they lured me out here because they wanted

to do a REAL human sacrifice" etc. etc. The magician should allow her or

himself to fall into a state of fear and paranoia. She or he should be

intensely aware of her or his utter helplessness. The use of entheogens

will greatly increase this state of mind. The feast should be wild and

uncivilized. The ghouls should nuzzle, bite, lick, claw, and use offal to

rub the body of the magician. When the ghouls start feasting on the offal

{which they smear on the magician then eat or wipe across their mouths}

and the imagined body and soul of the magician they should (according to

Mr. Hine) mock and taunt the magician. Remember the ego-complex as well

as the imagined body is to be consumed. Tactics such as mockery

"dismember" the magicians sense of self importance. The magician should

begin to sense a feeling much like being lost. This rite should create a

profound type of sensory-overload. When the magician feels completely lost

in this state, a temporary type of ego-death occurs. This state is to be

embraced when it comes. When the magician feels the state to have reached

a peak she or he begins her or his transformation into a Ghoul. The

celebrants may reinforce the transformation by rolling the magician around

in the offal. The magician should begin to make whatever animalistic

sounds or motions she or he feels appropriate. When the transformation is

complete the magician walks or crawls to the Altar of the Old Ones. On

this Altar a is the "corpse" (one of the celebrants wearing make-up to

look dead). The Ghoul-magician now copulates with the "corpse". This

should involve the same type of nuzzling, light clawing, and light biting

that is common in animal sex. The celebrants should nuzzle and rub against

one another (or also engage in sex if they choose). The body of the

"corpse" can have a particular symbol or sigil painted on it to create a

link between the mind of the Ghoul-magician and the thing symbolized. The

application of this technique is Highly individual and needs to be

explored on your own.



When the celebrants feel that the are coming out of the

possession the should use the "Laughter of Azathoth". This is a completely

mindless and chaotic sort of laughter that can serve as a transition

between states. ("banishing by laughter") This laughter must be the same

in feel as the laughter of the insane. There should be no "reason" for it

or behind it. After the using "Laughter of Azathoth" the celebrants should

lay or sit on the ground with their eyes closed and allow whatever

experiences that come to happen.



When the magician orgasms (or feels the act complete) she or he also uses

the "Laughter of Azathoth" and lays on the ground too be swept away by

whatever visions come.)



When the group feels the rite complete they should close thus:





All: Ia! Nyarlathotep lord of the Ghouls. We rejoice in the success of

this Rite of Chaos that you have given us. We thank you for watching over

this rite.



(no special closing other than a short and simple one like that above

should be used as it would tend to create a separation between the Rite

and "normal" life.)





Obviously the most important element of this rite is timing. The formal

rite should should begin about 40 minutes after the entheogens (if such

are used) have been ritually taken. The period of Glossolalia and dancing

should last at least 15-20 minutes but can last much longer. It is

especially important to allow enough time for this stage. Even if a

celebrant feels her or himself possessed by a ghoul she or he should keep

dancing allowing the state to intensify and the ghoulish hunger to grow.

It is also important to take enough time for the magician to enter a

strong state of fear/paranoia. During the feast the Ghouls should make a

lot of body contact with one-another and the magician (thus breaking a

cultural taboo). The feast should be long enough to create a lost or

egoless feeling in the magician. However, it should not be so long that it

numbs the participants. The final stage in which the participants lay on

the ground in an ecstatic state again should not be so long as to create a

separation from the rest of the rite. Judging the correct amount of time

is something that can only come with practice.



A review of Intent: This rite is intended as a form of shamanic initiation

in which the magician confronts her or his animalistic drives integrates

them as well as penetrating the boundaries of cultural taboo. This forces

the magician to see the artificial nature of her or his ego limits and

cultural programing. In this rite the magician dies and the ego and

cultural programing is devoured. The shaman-magician is reborn in an

expanded less constrained form. According to Mr. Hine one of the

undercurrents of a rite of this sort is "the idea of relinquishing control

to others and facing one's own taboos and desires in a way that cannot be

dodged or evaded."





Ethics, Legality and the Rite of the Ghoul



This rite should only be (and indeed CAN only be) carried out by people

who profoundly trust and like one-another. Because this rite involves only

consenting and informed adults and does not involve the harming of either

people or animals I feel that its use is ethical. However, because of the

nature of this rite I feel that it is very dangerous. All participants

should be made aware of the high risk of psychological damage. The author

strongly suggests that readers refrain from using illegal entheogens. The

use of legal entheogens must be an individual choice. The author strongly

recommends that you do not do this rite on a physical level. Fairly good

results can often be obtained by preforming this rite on an "astral" trip

or in a lucid dreaming type format. In conclusion the author feels that

this rite can (and always should) be done on the physical plane in a

ethical and legal fashion. However, because of the danger inherent in this

rite the author does not recommend that it be physically enacted.



Notes



1) This "ultimate time" is derived from Turner and Langford's

controversial decoding of Dr. John Dee's Liber Logaeth. This is said, in

Liber Logaeth, to be the time in which man can most easily gain access to

the realm of Azathoth and therefore Nyarlathotep. The Altar of the Great

Old Ones and the Incense of Zkauba are also derived from this decoding of

Liber Logaeth



2) Drumming at 3-7 cycles per second causes a phenomenon known as

sonic-driving or Neuro-entrainment. This produces a "shamanic state of

consciousness" in which the magician can work.



3) entheogen can be used by all participants to increase the intensity of

this rite. There is a long history of use of entheogens in magick and

shamanism. The use of legal entheogens is not without risk and should be

considered carefully.



4) The portion of the opening in quotes has been adapted from the

"excerpts from the ritual books of the order" in "The Hermetic Order of

the Silver Twilight" by Marc Hutchison

THE TURKEY CURSE
23:26 Jul 30 2009
Times Read: 3,376

-=THE TURKEY CURSE=-



by Greg Hill



Revealed by the Apostle Dr. Van Van Mojo as a specific counter to

the evil of the Curse of Greyface, the Turkey Curse is here passed

on to Erisians everywhere for their just protection.



[The Turkey Curse works. It is firmly grounded on the fact that

Greyface and his followers absolutely require an anerisitic

setting to function and that a timely introduction of eristic

vibrations will neutralize their foundation. The Turkey Curse is

designed solely to counteract >negative< anerisitic vibes and if

introduced into a neutral or positive aneristic setting (like a

poet working out word rhythms) it will prove harmless, or at

worst, annoying. It is not designed for use against negative

>eristic< vibes, although it can be used an eristic vehicle to

introduce postive vibes into a misguided eristic setting. In this

instance, it would be responsibility of the Erisian Magician to

manufacture the positive vibrations if results are to be achieved.

CAUTION - all magic is powerful and requires courage and integrity

on the part of the magician. This ritual, if misused, can

backfire. Positive motivation is essential for self-protection.]



TO PERFORM THE TURKEY CURSE--



Take a foot stance as if you were John L. Sullivan preparing for

fisticuffs. Face the particular grey-face you wish to

short-circuit (e.g. a street preacher), or towards the direction

of the negative aneristic vibration that you wish to neutralize

(e.g. the White House). Begin waving your arms in any elaborate

manner and make motions with your hands as though you were

Mandrake feeling up a sexy giantess (Dr. Strange imitations are

fine). Chant, loudly and clearly:



GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE, GOBBLE!!



The results will be instantly apparent.

Eroul romantic si cel clasic - Calinescu
15:41 Jul 30 2009
Times Read: 3,380

This text is for Romanian readers but I hope to translated soon.

It`s a parallel about the Romatic and the Classicist Hero as two opposed and ideal poles of aesthetics as the great man of letters George Calinescu saw them.





"Nu există în realitate un fenomen artistic pur, clasic ori romantic. Racine e şi clasic şi romantic. Clasicismul elin e şi clasic, şi romantic. Romantismul modern e şi romantic, e şi clasic, şi nu e vorba de vreun amestec material de teme, influenţe tradiţii căci nu ne punem pe teren istoric, ci de impurităţi structurale.



Clasicism-Romantism sânt două tipuri ideale, inexistente practic în stare genuină, reperabile numai la analiza în retortă.







Individul clasic este utopia unui om perfect sănătos trupeşte şi sufleteşte, “normal” (slujind drept normă altora), deci “canonic “.



Individul romantic este utopia unui om complet “anormal” (înţelege excepţional), dezechilibrat şi bolnav, adică cu sensibilitatea şi intelectul exacerbate la maxim, rezumând toate aspectele spirituale de la brută la geniu. Expresiile trebuiesc luate într-un sens cu totul literar, evitându-se confuzia cu patologia medicală.





Din punct de vedere sanitar, eroul clasic e “sănătos” cu o sănătate însă de tipul gladiator care presupune o insuficienţă a antenelor nervoase.



Romanticul, se ştie, este maladiv, infirm, tuberculos, nebun, orb, lepros (cităm suferinţele “clasice” ale romanticului) atribuindu-i-se utopic o complexitate senzorială şi sufletească mai mare decât aceşti bolnavi o au în realitate.



Trupeşte, eroul clasic e “mai mare”, fără expresie clară, adâncă, de o oarecare asprime lapidară. Clasicismul a cultivat îndeosebi arta statuară, unde se eviă din motive tehnice ridiculul dimensiunilor reale. Eroul clsic este în acelaşi timp un semizeu ori un rege cu ascendenţă divină (Achille) încât iluzia de “mai mare” este canonică, inerentă formulei dignităţii umane, caracteristică clasicismului. [..]



Eroul romantic e cocoşat, orb, şchiop, etc. sau în fine niciodată “normal” frumos, ci de o frumuseţe stranie, de o delicateţă maladivă. [..]



Sub raportul vârstei, clasicul are o unică vârstă incertă, de tânăr perfect dezvoltat ( vârsta lui Achille). Romanticul e foarte tînăr (13-14 ani femeia) sau foarte bătrân.



Trei sânt profesiile clasicului: rege, păstor, vânător sau, mai bine ziss, una singură, de rege care păstoreşte şi vînează (războiul e implicat).



Sânt clare acum motivele de ordin speculativ pentru care istoria confirmă preferinţa în romantism pentru profesiile următoare: proletar, călugăr, student, militar, puşcăriaş, marinar, nobil, doctor , savant, femeie uşoară, bufon, călău, vrăjitoare etc. [..]



[..], clasicul e un om ca toţi oamenii (canonici, normativi, nu reali), romanticul e un monstru în toate: un monstru de frumuseţe sau de urâţenie, de bunătate ori de răutate, ori de toate acestea amestecate. [..]



Clasicul are o percepţie de sine ştearsă, e obiectiv, mod de a spune că nu se distinge de categoria lui ideală, romanticul are un stentiment de sine acut subiectiv, de unde orgoliul.



Clasicul tratează o unică sau unice teme, doar uşor variate. Romanticul caută ineditul.



Clasicul “imită” modelele. Romanticul “intentează”.



Clasicul aplică “reguli”, e “preceptistic. Romanticul e independent, revoluţionar. [..]



Clasicul cultivă stările clare, logice; Romanticul, stările de noapte, ilogice."

PRIVATE ENTRY
00:54 Jul 23 2009
Times Read: 3,401


• • • • PRIVATE JOURNAL ENTRY • • • •

Transilvania here we come!
19:50 Jul 22 2009
Times Read: 3,414

For my friends really interested of my silence in the next few days:



I`m going to see the Medieval Festival of Sighisaoara - Transilvania. I will be back on 28 of July. Luva will come with me. See you later, ladies and gentlemen!



Transilvania here we come!

about acting
13:49 Jul 19 2009
Times Read: 3,426






Fulchran-Jean Harriet - Oedipus at Colonus

1798









https://www.vampirerave.com/journal/journal_section.php?section=poetry&journal=philosopher



This is an URL that will lead you to an article on Philosopher`s journal about the dilemma of acting in Aristotle`s view.It has the virtue of being written in a language that everybody can understand and is very at the point!

Uxia
12:24 Jul 19 2009
Times Read: 3,428

UXÍA



Gender: Feminine



Usage: Galician



Pronounced: oo-SHEE-a [key]

Galician form of EUGENIA

M O R M O
01:47 Jul 18 2009
Times Read: 3,445
















Saint of streets, and brilliant one, that strays by night;

Foe of radiance, but friend and mate of gloom;

In howl of dogs rejoicing, and in crimson gore,

Wading 'mid corpses through tombs of lifeless dust,

Panting for blood; with fear convulsing men.

Gorgo, and Mormo, and Luna, and of many shapes,

Come, propitious, to our sacrificial rites!



- Philosophumena of Hippolytus

Book IV, Chapter XXXV



Basic Information



Mormo is a Spirit that bites bad children. This female figure from Greek and Roman Mythology is possibly a Vampire. She may be a companion or Avatar of Hecate, the Greek goddess of the moon and magic. Very little information about Mormo has survived from classical antiquity, where she appears to have been revered in part of a mystery cult.



As with Lilith, the identity of Mormo may have started as a more general term, which then became more personified over time. Mormo appears in a few plays of Aristophanes, who uses the name as if it were a synonym for "bogey man" or "monster".



Hippolytus of Rome, in his Refutation of all Heresies (also known as the Philosophoumena), detailed a pyromantic form of Divination that invoked Mormo, Bombo, Gorgo, Hecate, and Luna. As described by Hippolytus, the divination was nothing more than a Hoax involving pyrotechnics and a cauldron with a fake bottom, a hoax he proceeded to debunk the way one might ruin the secret of a magic trick. Therefore, Mormo might have magic and powers connected to fire.



Note that phrases from the Philosophoumena are hard to clearly define and explain. When he says "Gorgo, and Mormo, and Luna, and of many shapes," is that calling out to three, four, or just one entity? Is Mormo just another name for Hecate, and/or the Moon? Does Gorgo refer to a Gorgon? Hecate is a three-headed goddess, and there were three Gorgon Sisters in Greek Mythology, and three names are given in that line.



In The powers of evil in Western religion, magic and folk belief, Richard Cavendish says that Mormo was a "nursery bogy" that was a source of fear for Erinna of Telos, a poetess of Ancient Greece. In the very next sentence he opines that Gorgo indeed refers to Medusa, and says the face in the moon used to be called the "Gorgon's Head". The face of Medusa was a common protective device in ancient greece, known as the Gorgoneion.



In The Satanic Bible, Anton Levay flips the gender of Mormo, rendering him "King of the Ghouls, Consort of Hecate".



Wikipedia makes tantalizing references to a Mormo in australian mythology, but (as of this writing) never explains the reference.



Mormo is also the name of an evil Witch in Niel Gaiman's Stardust.

Mormo in the Cthulhu Mythos







In the story The Horror At Red Hook, H.P. Lovecraft directly connected Mormo to Lilith. He referenced Hippolytus, but put a more sinister twist upon the worship of Mormo.



'O friend and companion of night, thou who rejoicest in the baying of dogs (here a hideous howl bust forth) and spilt blood (here nameless sounds vied with morbid shriekings) who wanderest in the midst of shades among the tombs, (here a whistling sigh occurred) who longest for blood and bringest terror to mortals, (short, sharp cries from myriad throats) Gorgo, (repeated as response) Mormo, (repeated with ecstasy) thousand-faced moon, (sighs and flute notes) look favourably on our sacrifices!'

As the chant closed, a general shout went up, and hissing sounds nearly drowned the croaking of the cracked bass organ. Then a gasp as from many throats, and a babel of barked and bleated words - 'Lilith, Great Lilith, behold the Bridegroom!' More cries, a clamour of rioting, and the sharp, clicking footfalls of a running figure.



-H.P. Lovecraft, The Horror At Red Hook,



In that tale, Mormo/Lilith/etc certainly seems more sexualized than most the Gods and Horrors of the Cthulhu Mythos. It's Lovecraft, so the orgies are certainly not graphic.



Several internet sites listing entities of the Cthulhu Mythos connect Mormo with The Hydra, an Outer God created by Henry Kuttner for a story entitled Hydra, but none of them (at least none I've seen) elaborate on the connection. Kuttner's Hydra lives in another dimension and feeds on the brains of those who engage in Astral Projection. (I haven't read any Kuttner, so I can't tell you much more.)



In the Trail of Cthulhu RPG, Kenneth Hite says Mormo is Diana, Mab, Lamia, Lilith, Medusa, The Moon, and/or several other Gods, Titans, and Great Old Ones. He links her to vampires, werewolves, and dogs, and says she's an enemy of Bast. As with all of Hite's write-ups of Gods and Titans in that book, the Keeper (GM) is encouraged to decide which of the contradictory elements are true and which are mere myth or misunderstanding.









See Also:



* Bisociation

* Classical Mythology

* Cosmic Horror

* Gorgoneion

* Interpretatio Cthulhiana

* Syncretism



Sources

Bibliography

1. Wikipedia article on Mormo

2. Wikipedia on Kuttner's Hydra

3. Wikipedia on Hippolytus' Philosophoumena

4. newadvent.org has the surviving text of Hippolytus Refutation Of All Heresies up on the web. It includes numerous details on the Mormo ceremony / hoax.

5. Knowledge Rush has a typical one-line unexplained reference linking "Hydra, The, the Thousand-Faced Moon, Mormo" as a single entity. The same is echoed elsewhere on the net.

6. Fiction: The Horror At Red Hook by H.P. Lovecraft Available Online for free. Consider this fair warning: the tale is not exactly what you'd call Politically Correct, the narration has unpleasant overtones of bigotry.

7. The powers of evil in Western religion, magic and folk belief by Richard Cavendish. Includes a somewhat different translation of the Mormo / Gorgo / Luna incantation from the Philosophoumena, if you aren't quite happy with the versions on this page.

Game and Story Use



* Mormo is a great unknown, with tantalizing wisps that a Player (or Player Character) might google up, but no clear historical or mythic persona that you can point to and say "this is what Mormo is all about". The GM is free to twist the remnants of myth nicely, and the players won't know whether to expect magic, cthulhu, vampirism, satanism, etc.

* What Hippolytus sees as mere confidence game might turn out to be Coded Myth or hidden Alchemical teachings. Yes, the image of gods in the cauldron and firey demons on the ceiling is done with reflective crystal cauldron bottoms and combustive chemicals, but that doesn't mean it has to lack magic, meaning, or power.

o Or, in a dark and cynical game, Hippolytus may have been conjecturing or talking nonsense in an attempt to discredit the competition.

* Lovecraft's variation on Hippolytus, and the exerpted text from both, is an example of how a GM can take some element from mythology or history and make it creepier when Cultists of a Religion of Evil get their hands on it. The link to Hippolytus at newadvent.org also has some awesome details on the ceremony that can be used for flavor and window dressing. He presents it from a dryly skeptical point-of-view, but it was probably quite impressive to those experiencing it first hand without benefit of explanation.

* Some folks like to mix sexuality and horror - it shows up in movies quite often. Mormo, with her vampiric roots, is a rare case of that making sense within the context of a Call of Cthulhu game.

* I note that in the Philosophumena, the chant mentions Gorgo, and Hite's interpretation (in Trail of Cthulhu) of linking Mormo to Medusa, a Gorgon, does set a precedent that could be utilized in a very silly game. If calling to Gorgo invokes to a Gorgon, does calling to Mormo invoke a Mormon? :)

o I was just back on the wikipedia page, checking to see if any new information was available. Some joker had posted that a Mormo is a common unit of measurement in Utah. So very sad (and yet again, perfect for a really silly game).







SOURCE:

http://arcana.wikidot.com/mormo

H E K A T E
01:18 Jul 18 2009
Times Read: 3,447








Hecate in Greek mythology was a powerful goddess representing the three aspects of the great Goddess, or Triple Goddess: goddess of fertility and plenty; goddess of the moon; and goddess of the night, ghosts and sHades, which led to her evolving as the patroness of magic and Witchcraft. Her powerful position was derived from the Egyptian mid-wife goddess Heqit, Heket, or Hekat, who in turn evolved from the heq or tribal matriarch of pre-dynastic Egypt, who was a wise-woman in command of all hekau or "mother's Words of Power." In her moon-goddess aspect she is often part of the trinity with Selene, and Diana/Artemis.



The goddess possesses infernal powers, nocturnally roaming the earth with a pack of red-eyed hellhounds and a entourage of dead souls. She is only visible to dogs, and if the dogs are traveling at night, it means Hecate is about. She causes nightmAres and insanity, and was so threatening to the ancient people that she was called "the Nameless One."





The Hellenes emphasized her Crone aspects, but continued to worship her at places where three roads connected, especially in rites of magic, divination, and consulting with the dead. Her images guarded three-way crossroads for many centuries, thus she was Hecate Trevia, "Hecate of the Three Ways." Offerings, particularly on nights of the full moon, were left at roadside shrines built in her honor, especially by those wishing this goddess of prophecy and magic to assist them on journeys.





Throughout the ages incarnations have been chanted to her, sacrifices were offered to her. In ancient times people sought to appease her by leaving chicken hearts and honey cakes outside of their doors. On the last day of the month, offerings of honey, onions, fish, and eggs were left at the crossroads, along with sacrifices of puppies, infant girls, and she-lambs. Sorcerers gathered at crossroads to pay homage to her and such infernal servants as the Empusa, a hobgoblin; the Cercopsis, a poltergeist; and the Mormo, a ghoul. One petition for her patronage is recorded in the third century by Hippolytus in Philosphumena:







Come infernal, terrestrial, and heavenly Bombo (Hecate), goddess of the broad roadways, of the crossroad, thou who goest to and fro at night, torch in hand, enemy of the day. Friend and lover of darkness, thou who doest rejoice when the bitches are howling and warm blood is spilled, thou who art walking amid the phantom and the in place of the tombs, thou whose thirst is blood, thou who doest strike chill and fear in mortal hearts, Gorgo, Mormo, Moon of a thousand forms, cast a propitious eye on our sacrifice.







Also from the goddess Heqit Hecate derived her heavenly midwifery ability. Heqit amalgamated the Seven Hathos of the birth-chamber, since she delivered the sun god every morning. Heqit's totem was the frog, which symbolized the fetus. Hellenic writers described Hecate as being in the houses of women in childbirth. Therefore, since Hecate was at times represented by Artemis, it is no wonder that the latter was able to help in the delivery of her twin brother Apollo, and was petitioned for help by women having difficulty in child bearing.



In modern Witchcraft Hecate is thought to reign over the waning and dark moon, the two weeks considered best for magic dealing with banishing, releasing, planning, and introspection. A.G.H.



Sources:



Guiley, Rosemary Ellen, The Encyclopedia of Witches and Witchcraft, New York: Facts On File, 1989, pp. 155-156

Walker, Barbara G, The Woman's Encyclopedia of Myths and Secrets, New York, HarperCollins, 1983, pp,. 378-379







http://www.soulrebels.com/beth/hekate.html

The Festival
19:29 Jul 12 2009
Times Read: 3,515

This summer I`ll go to two festivals:



Rock City Open Air in August:



http://www.rogothic.com/resurse/2009/01/19/rock-city-open-air-festival/



and Medieval Festival - Sighisoara in July



http://www.sighisoara-medievala.ro/



Sorry, the info are only in Romanian.

If you are from Romania, see you there!

Pour les horreurs Lovecraftianes!
20:42 Jul 10 2009
Times Read: 3,527

bite
00:11 Jul 10 2009
Times Read: 3,539

The first time when I recieve a bite on VR

AFTER

I was talking with someone!

Thank you young lady!

I liked this new experience!







Please don`t read it in thew wrong way.

Sometime I act like a child!

She's ALIVE
17:58 Jul 09 2009
Times Read: 3,556

A rather malicious way of telling the truth about the story.Read with care!

"Oh no, you say? Not another retelling of that most famous of Dark and Stormy Nights during which Lord Byron challenges each of his several guests at the (rented) Villa Diodati to tell a ghost story, resulting in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein! Indeed, it would be hard to imagine what else could possibly be milked from this transcendent event that has become enshrined in pop culture's collective memory. Movies have been made; books have been written (most recently, Chuck Palahniuk used it as the inspiration for a collection of short stories).







Calm the hell down, man. Before you flee, muttering "So we'll go no more a-roving / So late into the night" under your breath, let me introduce you to the Hooblers, Dorothy and Thomas, whose latest book The Monsters: Mary Shelley & the Curse of Frankenstein does something that, to my admittedly spotty knowledge, has not been yet attempted for the common reader: it explicates the causes and sources of Mary Shelley's immortal novel. The Hooblers' book will doubtless have limited appeal. Those familiar with the English Romantics will be bored by this most obvious of topics within the milieu; the rest won't care. Their loss, as The Monsters proves to be a page-turning soap opera of the first order, detailing the intellectual and sexual lives of some of the most famous people in history. I read most of the book (323 pages of text) in one sitting.







The book is a collective biography of Byron and his four guests on that stormy night in the villa on Lake Geneva. Percy Bysshe Shelley, Shelley's soon-to-be wife Mary Godwin, Byron's young physician John Polidori (traveling with Byron in exile), the sexually ambitious Claire Claremont (Mary's step-sister), and the notorious Lord all get their biographical due, but the narrative anchors on Mary. The first chapter is a moving account of the loves, losses, and achievements of Mary's famous mother, the proto-feminist Mary Wollstonecraft, author of A Vindication of the Rights of Woman, who died eleven days after giving birth to her daughter. The Hooblers go to work on their thesis right away, finding a symbolic Frankenstein connection years before Mary Shelley was born: Wollstonecraft was, before finding and marrying William Godwin, briefly the lover of Henry Fuseli, the artist who shocked England with his immortal 1781 painting The Nightmare. (Mary Shelley would describe a woman lying murdered in bed by the nameless monster in a manner identical to the woman in the painting.)



But a painting's just a painting; it turned out that Mary would find more than enough monstrousness in her actual father, the radical thinker William Godwin, author of An Enquiry Concerning Political Justice, who had apparently used up the sum total of his decency with Wollstonecraft. After her death, if the Hooblers are to be believed (and perhaps they're being very selective with their primary sources), Godwin calcified into an insufferable moralist as emotionally cold as his Calvinist forebears, whom he resembled far more than he doubtless would have wished. The first tactless thing Godwin did was to write a tell-all biography of his dead wife, in which her sexual history, including the birth of Mary's older sister thanks to the services of a lover named Imlay, is meticulously laid out. Well, there was only so much radicalism that late 18th-century Great Britian could take: Wollstonecraft's memory was smeared until the middle of the 20th century, and Godwin himself was tarred and feathered in the press and spat on in the street. Even after he remarried -- to a no-nonsense woman named Mary Jane Clairmont -- he kept a large portrait of Mary Wollstonecraft hanging up in the living room, perhaps as a reminder to young Mary that, as the single child of the Wollstonecraft-Godwin union, she had a hell of a lot to live up to. (The new Mrs. Godwin's opinion on this shrine to the first wife remains unrecorded.)



Adding to the confusion and misery for young Mary, she "grew up in a strange blended family of five children with no child having the same two parents." The details are too dense to get into here, but let it be said that the brilliant, half-insane young poet Percy Bysshe Shelley eventually found his way to Godwin to pay him homage for Political Justice and other works. Almost immediately, the shunned, unemployable, virtually unpublishable radical latched onto the ingratiating future baronet Percy as a source of financial security; in recompense, Percy -- currently 19 and married to another teenager -- absconded with 16-year-old Mary (along with step-sister Claire Claremont, daughter of the new Mrs. Godwin, with whom Percy certainly had sexual relations soon after declaring his love for Mary). The suddenly affronted Godwin -- the torch-bearer of "free love" -- affected to feel betrayed, and refused all communication with Mary for the foreseeable future . . . though he was not so outraged as to stop asking Percy for more money as the years went on.







Percy B Shelley



Monstrous people; monstrous behavior. And young Miss Mary wasn't much better, more or less laughing at the plight of Percy's abandoned (and pregnant) wife Harriet. (Harriet would eventually commit suicide when it became apparent that Percy would never return to her and their son.) But karma, as always, was instant: soon Mary herself was pregnant. The baby girl died soon after. But at least she was able to rid the household of step-sister and rival Claire, who had been living with them since the elopement. But the nubile Claire -- who emerges as the great instigator of events and engaging anti-heroine in this account -- isn't to be defeated so easily. If she would be denied the famous Percy Shelley, then she would go for bigger game and surpass Mary. Back in the Godwin house in London, Claire commenced writing love letters to none other than Lord Byron himself. The letters were so persistent that Byron eventually started writing back; an affair began. Byron really should have known better, but he was, well, Lord Byron. He summed it up this way: " . . . if a girl of eighteen comes prancing to you at all hours, there is but one way . . ." The affair was occurring during the scandalous revelations that Byron was having a sexual relationship with his own half-sister. He was being run out of the country. Claire, now pregnant, would follow . . . with Mary (pregnant again) and Percy (dying to meet the infamous poet) in tow.







Byron



So that is how they all got together on that dark and stormy summer night in 1816. Actually, it was several weeks that they spent together in the Villa Diodati, Byron and Percy doing most of the talking. The subjects included poetry, philosophy, the supernatural, and science. They discussed the discoveries of Italian Luigi Galvani, "who had shown in 1786 that he could produce muscular contractions in dead frogs by touching them with a pair of scissors during an electrical storm." In 1803, Galvani was trying to do the same thing to human cadavers with electricity collected in Leyden jars. (His name bequeathed us the word "galvanize".) Mary, who had spent a lifetime reading the masters of literature, history, and philosopy, and further enriched during the past 2 years by Percy's manic tutelage, sucked it all in like a sponge. Plainly, Frankenstein was crying out to be born, and Lord Byron's ghost story challenge proved to be the vehicle of conception.



But Mary was also immersed in the new Romantic tradition, which rejected the cold rationalism of her parents' generation. Her fictional baron, Victor Frankenstein, ends up destroyed by science: the nameless monster he creates kills the people closest to his creator and vows to destroy Victor himself. The creator, half-mad like Percy Shelley, tries to turn the tables on the monster and purses the creature in turn, all the way to the Arctic wasteland aboard a ship captained by an explorer seeking the Northern Passage. This part of the plot mirrors a novel that Mary's father had written, Things as They Are; or The Adventures of Caleb Williams, in which a servant is framed for murder by a tyrannical employer: both pursue the other murderously. Influences from the world outside and influences from within her private world interlocked to create the inevitable masterpiece. Victor, the combination of her father and husband, perishes in defeat; the monster (her mother? Mary herself?) vanishes into the ice. Still out there. Frankenstein can be read as a declaration of independence from a most burdensome life, a life that was very quickly to become even more tragic: 2 more of her children died, along with her husband at age 29, before the curse abated. We're not surprised to find a reactionary, conventionally religious Mary Shelley in her middle age, who can say of her loving, dull son, "Teach him to think for himself? Oh, my God, teach him rather to think like other people!" Needless to add, Shelley revised her novel in 1831 to reflect her -- and the times' -- more cautious and conservative attitudes. Now she was Victor, adding incongruous pieces to a ghastly creation. The workmanlike Hooblers put these building blocks together in a most persuasive way.







Percy B. Shelley`s monument





I really must stop, but before I do, I have to mention the fifth member of the Villa Diodati group, Byron's young doctor, John Polidori -- or, as the Lord sneeringly called him, "poor Polidori". The (already) famous artists in the Villa did not, in the event, actually finish any ghost stories. (Byron produced a fragment; Percy didn't bother with the business at all.) But Poor Polidori eventually cobbled together a famous short novel that all true horror fans revere, The Vampyre. It is with this startling tale (replete with a downer ending, for the vampire lives on) that the young doctor finally gets immortal revenge on his taunting employer. The Vampyre in the story is called "Lord Ruthven" . . . which, as it happens, is the name of the Byronic character in Lady Caroline Lamb's hit-piece on the poet, the novel Glenarvon. (Lamb was another one of Byron's jilted lovers; the experience eventually drove her completely mad.) For the first time in literature, the vampire is an aristocrat, smooth, plausible, handsome, heartless, whose charms are finally more powerful than the repulsion engendered by his otherwise evil behavior. 80 years later, Bram Stoker would make this incarnation of Lord Byron a permanent icon in the world's imagination . . . but Poor Polidori, an inveterate gambler who didn't see any profits from his tale (which sold fairly well), died a suicide, another victim of the curse.







Percy Shelly's funeral pyre



But of course there really was no curse of Frankenstein. As the Hooblers make clear, these super-human monsters, who lived such intense lives as a collective object-lesson for the benefit of posterity, brought the curse of their times and their personal antecedents with them as they destructively stomped across the earth. If anything, Mary Shelley's book broke the curse. The monsters in The Monsters suffered for their right to express themselves so that we -- the sons and daughters of Western civilization, let it be hastily specified -- don't have to."



By The Sexy Misanthropist



http://thesexymisanthropist.blogspot.com/

Acting is a devilish art sometimes!
14:25 Jul 09 2009
Times Read: 3,562

The devil teaching his pupil:



"My countenance changes with my studies and sensations. . . . It is a natural peculiarity in me, over which I have not full control. If I contemplate a man's features seriously, mine own gradually assume the very same appearance and character. And what is more, by contemplating a face minutely, I not only attain the same likeness, but, with the likeness, I attain the very same ideas as well as the same mode of arranging them, so that, you see, by looking at a person attentively, I by degrees assume his likeness, and by assuming his likeness I attain to the possession of his most secret thoughts. This, I say, is a peculiarity in my nature, a gift of the God that made me; but whether or not give me for a blessing, he knows himself, and so do it. At all events, I have this privilege,--I can never be mistaken of a character in whom I am interested."



James Hogg's quote from the odd little novel of dark, supernatural religion, The Private Memoirs and Confessions of a Justified Sinner (1824)



If you go at the art University you might be helped with diverse techniques to do something similar.That`s devilish?

LOL

OF course not.The purpose is a noble one.

;)

Strange dream
02:43 Jul 06 2009
Times Read: 3,581

Hey, I`m back on the regular basis on VR! Shoot!

I am bullet proof and I like the war... well, only virtual war!



I have dreamed that I was with my mom in the mountains, in the woods and in a clearing with a high vegetation I discovered forgotten there the statue of a communist hero.I don`t think this Romanian hero exists in reality and it was an obscure person for me even in the dream, but the statue was there.It was from the waist up and the traits slightly remembered of the statues from the Pascal Islands from Pacific Ocean, with sharp nose and long ears.



Later in the same clearing I discovered another forgotten stone statue: of the dictator Ceausescu.He was standing and he was wearing a moustache.He never wore that in reality but that didn`t bothered me in the dream.





Later I dreamed that I was with my loved one in a middle of a mountain road and I wanted to take a picture with her, but I couldn`t: a little bunny(at very try a different bunny) was attacking me.It was very painful because he was jumping with the tiny teeth on a delicate part of my body.I wake up in pain but I was only in physical pain in my dream.In reality no pain!

Phew!



The dream was in natural colors and everything was very realistic.

One of the most weird dream I ever have.