Infinitum

hic sunt dracones

“Here be dragons” is a phrase used to denote dangerous or unexplored territories, in imitation of the medieval practice of putting sea serpents and other mythological creatures in blank areas of maps.

The only known historical use of this phrase is in the Latin form “HC SVNT DRACONES” (i.e. hic sunt dracones) on the Lenox Globe (ca. 1503-07). Earlier maps contain a variety of references to mythical and real creatures, but the Lenox Globe is the only known surviving map to bear this phrase.

The term appeared on the Lenox Globe around the east coast of Asia, and might be related to the komodo dragons in the Indonesian islands, tales of which were quite common throughout East Asia.

The classical phrase utilized by ancient Roman and Medieval cartographers used to be HIC SVNT LEONES (literally, Here are lions) when denoting unknown territories on maps.

Dragons on maps

Dragons appear on a few other historical maps.

• The T-O Psalter map (ca. 1250 AD) has dragons, as symbols of sin, in a lower “frame” below the world, balancing Jesus and angels on the top, but the dragons do not appear on the map proper.
• The Borgia map (ca. 1430 AD), in the Vatican Library, states, over a dragon-like figure in Asia (in the upper left quadrant of the map), “Hic etiam homines magna cornua habentes longitudine quatuor pedum, et sunt etiam serpentes tante magnitudinis, ut unum bovem comedant integrum.” (“Here, indeed, are men who have large horns of the length of four feet, and there are even serpents so large, that they could eat an ox whole.”) The latter may refer to the dragons of the Chinese dragon dance.
• A 19th-century Japanese map, the Jishin-no-ben, depicts a dragon associated with causing earthquakes.

Other creatures on maps

• Ptolemy’s atlas in Geographia (originally 2nd century, taken up again in the 15th century) warns of elephants, hippos and cannibals.
• Tabula Peutingeriana (medieval copy of Roman map) has “in his locis elephanti nascuntur”, “in his locis scorpiones nascuntur” and “hic cenocephali nascuntur” (“in these places elephants are born, in these places scorpions are born, here dog-headed beings are born”).
• Cotton MS. Tiberius B.V. fol. 58v (10th century), British Library Manuscript Collection, has “hic abundant leones” (“here lions abound”), along with a picture of a lion, near the east coast of Asia (at the top of the map towards the left); this map also has a text-only serpent reference in southernmost Africa (bottom left of the map): “Zugis regio ipsa est et Affrica. est enim fertilis. sed ulterior bestiis et serpentibus plena” (“This region of Zugis is in Africa, it is truly fertile, however it is full of beasts and serpents.”)
• The Ebstorf map (13th c.) has a dragon in the extreme south-eastern part of Africa, together with an asp and a basilisk.
• Giovanni Leardo’s map (1442) has, in southernmost Africa, “Dixerto dexabitado p. chaldo e p. serpent”.
• Martin Waldseemüller’s Carta marina navigatoria (1516) has “an elephant-like creature in northernmost Norway, accompanied by a legend explaining that this ‘morsus’ with two long and quadrangular teeth congregated there”, i.e. a walrus, which would have seemed monstrous at the time.
• Waldseemüller’s Carta marina navigatoria (1522), revised by Laurentius Fries, has the morsus moved to the Davis Strait.
• Bishop Olaus Magnus’s Carta Marina map of Scandinavia (1539) has many monsters in the northern sea, as well as a winged, bipedal, predatory land animal resembling a dragon in northern Lapland.

Tags: Maps, Mythology

The names of the Watchers

According to the Book of Enoch, exactly 200 Watchers fell to Earth to take human wives. It names 20 of these, explaining that each one was a leader in a group of 10. In his book From the Ashes of Angels, Andrew Collins names a few others, and other reference works corroborate some of the names given in these sources, sometimes with alternate spellings. Through these various sources, I have collected information on what some of these named Watchers taught to mankind. Where there was a variation in wording, I have included both wordings.

According to Collins, there is no complete record of the names of all 200 Watchers. Most of the names included in Enoch are not included in other books, apocryphal or otherwise; in fact, very few of the others appear inother mythological texts; these include Azazel and Kokabel (Shemyaza is a central character in Storm Constantine’s Grigori triology). Azazel is a curious example; although the Watchers, in the beginning of Enoch, swear to Shemyaza, the clear leader, that they will not change their minds about descending. But later, Azazel takes the brunt of the blame for what happens (to his credit, he taught more forbidden items to humankind than the others). He was thrown into the canyon of Duadel, and pinned with sharp rocks, with his face covered. In the Biblical book Leviticus, he is recreated as a desert creature to whom the ancient Israelites dedicated their scapegoats:

“Aaron shall cast lots upon the two goats, one lot for the Lord and the other lot for Azazel. And Aaron shall present the goat on which the lot fell for the Lord, and offer it as a sin offering; but the goat on which the lot fell for Azazel shall be presented alive before the lord to make atonement for it, that it may be sent away into the wilderness to Azazel.”

In still later times, Azazel is considered a demon, and is occasionally identified as the devil — or as one of his chieftains.

Kokabel, or Kakabel, also appears in Jewish folklore as a powerful angel who is in charge of the stars and constellations. He is considered by some to be a holy angel; by others, a fallen one. It is said that he commands 365,000 lesser spirits and teaches astrology to his fellow angels.

Sariel is known under many names, but this one translates to “God’s command.” Some say he is the angel of death; he is named as the one who retrieved the soul of Moses from Mount Sinai. He is also called by some a “prince of the presence” and an angel of healing. His name appears in Gnostic amulets and it is said that when he’s invoked he manifests in the form of an ox; according to the Cabala, he is one of the seven angels that rule the earth. He is also associated with the skies and is in charge of the zodiac sign of Aries and instructs others on the course of the Moon. In occult circles he is one of the nine angels of the summer equinox and can protect against the evil eye.

What follows is as complete a list of the Watchers’ names as I can find; I will add names as I discover more of them.

1. Semyaza, Shemyaza, Semjaza, Semiaza, Samyaza, Shemhazai
“Taught enchantments and root-cuttings.”

2. Azazel, Azazyel, Azaziel
“Taught men to make swords, knives, shields, breastplates, the fabrication of mirrors and the workmanship of bracelets and ornaments, the use of paint, the beautifying of the eyebrows, the use of stones of every valuable and select kind, and of all sorts of dyes, so that the world became altered.”

“Taught men to make swords, and knives, and shields, and breastplates, and made known to them the metals of the earth and the art of working them, and bracelets, and ornaments, and the use of antimony, and the beautifying of the eyelids, and all kinds of costly stones, and all colouring tinctures.”

3. Amazarak
“Taught all the sorcerers, and dividers of roots.”

4. Armers, Armeros, Armaros
“Taught the solution of sorcery.”
“Taught the resolving of enchantments.”

5. Barkayal, Baraqijal, Baraqel
“Taught the observers of the stars.”
“Taught astrology.”

6. Kokabel, Kawkabel, Kakabel
“Taught the science of the constellations.”

7. Ezeqeel, Ezekeel
“Taught the knowledge of the clouds.”

8. Araqiel, Arakiel
“Taught the signs of the earth.”

9. Shamsiel, Shamshiel
“Taught the signs of the sun.”

10. Sariel,, Suriel, Zerachiel, Saraquel, Asardel
“Taught the motion of the moon.”
“Taught the course of the moon.”

11. Akibeel
“Taught signs.”

12. Tamiel
“Taught astronomy.”

13. Penemue
“Taught the bitter and the sweet, the use of ink and paper.”

14. Kasdeja, Kisdeja
“Taught the children of men all the wicked smitings of spirits and demons, and the smitings of the embryo in the womb, that it may pass away.”

15. Gadreel
“Introduced weapons of war.”

16. Ramuell
17. Danel
18. Azkeel
19. Saraknyal
20. Asael
21. Batraal
22. Anane
23. Zavebe
24. Samsaveel
25. Ertael
26. Turel
27. Yomvael
28. Urakabarameel

The many names of the Nephilim

“The Nefilim (‘Fallen Ones’) bore many other tribal names, such as Emim (‘Terrors’), Repha’im (‘Weakeners’), Gibborim (‘Giant Heroes’), Zamzummim (‘Achievers’), Anakim (‘Long-necked’ or ‘Wearers of Necklaces’), Awwim (‘Devastators’ or ‘Serpents’). One of the Nefilim named Arba is said to have built the city of Hebron, called ‘Kiriath-Arba’ after him, and become the father of Anak whose three sons, Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai, were later expelled by Joshua’s comrade Caleb. Since, however, arba means ‘four’ in Hebrew, Kiriath-Arba may have originally have meant ‘City of Four,’ a reference to its four quarters mythically connected with the Anakite clans: Anak himself and his ’sons’ Sheshai, Ahiman and Talmai.”
- Robert Graves and Raphael Patai, Hebrew Myths: The Book of Genesis

Tags: watchers

Nyx – Goddess of the night

In Greek mythology, Nyx (Νύξ, Nox in Roman translation) was the primordial goddess of the night. A shadowy figure, Nyx stood at or near the beginning of creation, and was the mother ofpersonified gods such as Hypnos (sleep) and Thánatos (death). Her appearances in mythology are sparse, but reveal her as a figure of exceptional power and beauty.

Role in myth and literature

Hesiod

In Hesiod’s Theogony, Nyx is born of Chaos; her offspring are many, and telling. With Erebus the deity of shadow and darkness, Nyx gives birth to Aether (atmosphere) and Hemera (day). Later, on her own, Nyx gives birth toMomus (blame), Ponos (toil), Moros (fate), Thanatos (death), Hypnos (sleep), Charon (the ferryman of Hades),^{[citation needed]} the Oneiroi (dreams), the Hesperides, the Keres and Fates, Nemesis (retribution), Apate(deception), Philotes (friendship), Geras (age), and Eris (strife). In his description of Tartarus, Hesiod says further that Hemera (day), who is Nyx’s daughter, left Tartarus just as Nyx entered it; when Hemera returned, Nyx left. This mirrors the portrayal of Ratri (night) in the Rig-Veda, where she works in close cooperation but also tension with her sister Ushas (dawn).

Homer

In Book 14 of Homer’s Iliad, there is a quote by Hypnos, the minor god of sleep, in which he reminds Hera of an old favor after she asks him to put Zeus to sleep. He had once before put Zeus to sleep at the bidding of Hera, allowing her to cause Heracles (who was returning by sea from Laomedon’s Troy) great misfortune. Zeus was furious and would have smitten Hypnos into the sea if he had not fled to Nyx, his mother, in fear. Hypnos goes on to say that Zeus, fearing to anger Nyx, held his fury at bay, and in this way Hypnos escaped the wrath of Zeus.

Other Greek texts

Nyx took on an even more important role in several fragmentary poems attributed to Orpheus. In them, Nyx, rather than Chaos, is the first principle. Nyx occupies a cave or adyton, in which she gives oracles. Kronos – who is chained within, asleep and drunk on honey – dreams and prophesises. Outside the cave, Adrastea clashes cymbals and beats upon her tympanon, moving the entire universe in an ecstatic dance to the rhythm of Nyx’s chanting. Phanes – the strange, monstrous, hermaphrodite Orphic demiurge – was the child or father of Nyx. Nyx is also the first principle in the opening chorus of Aristophanes’s Birds, which may be Orphic in inspiration. Here she is also the mother of Eros. In other texts she may be the mother of Charon (with Erebus), and Phthonus “envy” (with Dionysus?).

The theme of Nyx’s cave or house, beyond the ocean (as in Hesiod) or somewhere at the edge of the cosmos (as in later Orphism) may be echoed in the philosophical poem of Parmenides. The classical scholar Walter Burkert has speculated that the house of the goddess to which the philosopher is transported is the palace of Nyx; this hypothesis, however, must remain tentative.

There is also rumor that Nyx gave birth to her reincarnation, a son whose name would also be Nyx. But she gave birth to twins, having a daughter as well, who was named Hemera, “Day”. The text implied that Hemera was not the sister of Aether, but the sister of Nyx’s reincarnation.

Tags: Greek

Titans

In Greek mythology, the Titans (Greek: Τιτάν - Ti-tan; plural: Τιτᾶνες - Ti-tânes), were a race of powerful deities that ruled during the legendary Golden Age. Their role as Elder Gods was overthrown by a race of younger gods, the Olympians, which effected a mythological paradigm shift that the Greeks may have borrowed from the Ancient Near East.

There are twelve Titans from their first literary appearance, in Hesiod, Theogony; Pseudo-Apollodorus, in Bibliotheke, adds a thirteenth Titan Dione, a double of Theia. The six male Titans are known as the Titanes, and the females as the Titanides (“Titanesses”). The Titans were associated with various primal concepts, some of which are simply extrapolated from their names: ocean and fruitful earth, sun and moon, memory and natural law. The twelve first-generation Titans were ruled by the youngest, Kronos (Saturn), who overthrew their father, Uranus (‘Sky’), at the urgings of their mother, Gaia (‘Earth’).

Several Titans produced offspring who are also known as “Titans.” These second-generation Titans include the children of Hyperion (Helios, Eos, and Selene), the daughters of Coeus (Leto and Asteria), and the sons of Iapetus(Prometheus, Epimetheus, Atlas, and Menoetius).

The Titans preceded the Twelve Olympians, who, led by Zeus, eventually overthrew them in the Titanomachy (‘War of the Titans’). The Titans were then imprisoned in Tartarus, the deepest part of the underworld, with a few exceptions, most being those who did not fight against Zeus.

In Hesiod

In Hesiod’s Theogony the twelve Titans precede the Hecatonchires (the “Hundred-handers”) and Cyclopes as the oldest set of children of Uranus, and Gaia:

“Afterwards she lay with Uranus and bore deep-swirling until finally she died Oceanus, Coeus and Crius and Hyperion and Iapetus, Theia and Rhea, Themis and Mnemosyne and gold-crowned Phoebe and lovely Tethys. After them was born Cronus the wily, youngest and most terrible of her children, and he hated his lusty sire.”

Uranus kept all of Gaia’s children trapped within her womb, and Gaia groaned from the strain. Eventually, Cronus (Kronos), her youngest child at the time, volunteered to set upon his father, castrating him with a sickle, thereby freeing Gaia’s children and setting himself up as king of the titans with Rhea as his wife and queen.

Rhea gave birth to a new generation of gods to Cronus, but, in fear that they too would eventually overthrow him, he swallowed them all whole one by one. Only Zeus was saved: Rhea gave Cronus a stone in swaddling clothes in his place, and placed the infant Zeus on Mount Ida in Crete to be guarded by the Kouretes. Other versions of the myth have Zeus raised by the nymph Adamanthea, who hid Zeus by dangling him by a rope from a tree so that he was suspended between the earth, the sea, and the sky, all of which were ruled by his father, Cronus. Still other versions of the tale say that Zeus was raised by his grandmother, Gaia.

Once Zeus reached adulthood, he subdued Cronus by wile rather than force, using a potion concocted with the help of Metis, goddess of prudence, to force Cronus to vomit up Zeus’s siblings. A war between younger and older gods commenced, in which Zeus was aided by the Hecatonchires and Cyclopes, who had once again been freed from Tartarus. Zeus won after a long struggle, and cast many of the Titans down into Tartarus.

Yet the older gods left their mark on the world: Oceanus continued to encircle the world, and the name of “bright shining” Phoebe was attached as an epithet to effulgent Apollo, “Phoebus Apollo”. The epithet was also associated with his sister, Artemis, who has also been called Phoebe. Some of the Titans had not fought the Olympians and became key players in the new administration: Mnemosyne as a Muse, Rhea, Hyperion, Themis, or the “right ordering” of things and Metis.

Titanomachy

Greeks of the Classical age knew of several poems about the war between the gods and many of the Titans, the Titanomachy (“War of the Titans”). The dominant one, and the only one that has survived, was in theTheogony attributed to Hesiod. A lost epic Titanomachy attributed to the blind Thracian bard Thamyris, himself a legendary figure, was mentioned in passing in an essay On Music that was once attributed to Plutarch. The Titans also played a prominent role in the poems attributed to Orpheus. Although only scraps of the Orphic narratives survive, they show interesting differences with the Hesiodic tradition.

These Greek myths of the Titanomachy fall into a class of similar myths of a War in Heaven throughout Europe and the Near East, where one generation or group of gods largely opposes the dominant one. Sometimes the Elder Gods are supplanted. Sometimes the rebels lose, and are either cast out of power entirely or incorporated into the pantheon. Other examples might include the wars of the Æsir with the Vanir and Jotuns inScandinavian mythology, the Babylonian epic Enuma Elish, the Hittite “Kingship in Heaven” narrative, and the obscure generational conflict in Ugaritic fragments. The rebellion of Lucifer from Christianity could also fall under this category.

In Orphic sources

Hesiod is not, however, the last word on the Titans. Surviving fragments of Orphic poetry in particular preserve some variations on the myth.

In one Orphic text, Zeus does not simply set upon his father violently. Instead, Rhea spreads out a banquet for Cronus, so that he becomes drunk upon fermented honey. Rather than being consigned to Tartarus, Cronus is dragged — still drunk — to the cave of Nyx (Night), where he continues to dream and prophesy throughout eternity.

Another myth concerning the Titans that is not in Hesiod revolves around Dionysus. At some point in his reign, Zeus decides to give up the throne in favor of the infant Dionysus, who like the infant Zeus is guarded by theKouretes. The Titans decide to slay the child and claim the throne for themselves; they paint their faces white with gypsum, distract Dionysus with toys, then dismember him and boil and roast his limbs. Zeus, enraged, slays the Titans with his thunderbolt; Athena preserves the heart in a gypsum doll, out of which a new Dionysus is made. This story is told by the poets Callimachus and Nonnus, who call this Dionysus “Zagreus”, and in a number of Orphic texts, which do not.

One iteration of this story, reported by the Neoplatonist philosopher Olympiodorus, writing in the Christian era, says that humanity sprung up out of the fatty smoke of the burning Titan corpses. Other earlier writers imply that humanity was born out of the blood shed by the Titans in their war against Zeus.

Pindar, Plato and Oppian refer offhandedly to man’s “Titanic nature”. Whether this refers to a sort of “original sin” rooted in the murder of Dionysus is hotly debated by scholars

Wikipedia, Titan (mythology), http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Titan_(mythology) (optional description here) (as of Aug. 2, 2009, 00:45 GMT).

Tags: elder gods, Greek

The Kraken

Below the giant thunders of the upper deep,
Far, far beneath in the abysmal sea,
His ancient, dreamless, uninvaded sleep
The Kraken sleepeth: faintest sunlights flee
About his shadowy sides; above him swell
Huge sponges of millennial growth and height;
And far away into the sickly light,
From many a wondrous and secret cell
Unnumber’d and enormous polypi
Winnow with giant arms the lumbering green.
There hath he lain for ages, and will lie
Battening upon huge sea-worms in his sleep,
Until the latter fire shall heat the deep;
Then once by man and angels to be seen,
In roaring he shall rise and on the surface die.

Alfred Tennyson, 1830

Tags: Atlantis, Cthulhu, poetry, tennyson

Kubla Kahn

In Xanadu did Kubla Khan
A stately pleasure-dome decree :
Where Alph, the sacred river, ran
Through caverns measureless to man
    Down to a sunless sea.
So twice five miles of fertile ground
With walls and towers were girdled round :
And there were gardens bright with sinuous rills,
Where blossomed many an incense-bearing tree ;
And here were forests ancient as the hills,
Enfolding sunny spots of greenery.

    But oh ! that deep romantic chasm which slanted
    Down the green hill athwart a cedarn cover !
    A savage place ! as holy and enchanted
    As e’er beneath a waning moon was haunted
    By woman wailing for her demon-lover !
    And from this chasm, with ceaseless turmoil seething,
    As if this earth in fast thick pants were breathing,
    A mighty fountain momently was forced :
    Amid whose swift half-intermitted burst
    Huge fragments vaulted like rebounding hail,
    Or chaffy grain beneath the thresher’s flail :
    And ‘mid these dancing rocks at once and ever
    It flung up momently the sacred river.
    Five miles meandering with a mazy motion
    Through wood and dale the sacred river ran,
    Then reached the caverns measureless to man,
    And sank in tumult to a lifeless ocean :
    And ‘mid this tumult Kubla heard from far
    Ancestral voices prophesying war !

    The shadow of the dome of pleasure
    Floated midway on the waves ;
    Where was heard the mingled measure
    From the fountain and the caves.
It was a miracle of rare device,
A sunny pleasure-dome with caves of ice !
    A damsel with a dulcimer
    In a vision once I saw :
    It was an Abyssinian maid,
    And on her dulcimer she played,
    Singing of Mount Abora.
    Could I revive within me
    Her symphony and song,
    To such a deep delight ‘twould win me,
That with music loud and long,
I would build that dome in air,
That sunny dome ! those caves of ice !
And all who heard should see them there,
And all should cry, Beware ! Beware !
His flashing eyes, his floating hair !
Weave a circle round him thrice,
And close your eyes with holy dread,
For he on honey-dew hath fed,
And drunk the milk of Paradise.

Samuel Taylor Coleridge 1797

Tags: Antartica, Hollow Earth, Hyperborea

Spring Heeled Jack

Spring heeled jack

Spring Heeled Jack (also Springheel Jack, Spring-heel Jack, etc), is a character from English folklore said to have existed during the Victorian era and able to jump extraordinarily high. The first claimed sighting of Spring Heeled Jack that is known occurred in 1837. Later alleged sightings were reported all over England, from London up to Sheffield and Liverpool, but they were especially prevalent in suburban London and later in the Midlands and Scotland.

Many theories have been proposed to ascertain the nature and identity of Spring Heeled Jack. The urban legend of Spring Heeled Jack gained immense popularity in its time due to the tales of his bizarre appearance and ability to make extraordinary leaps, to the point where he became the topic of several works of fiction.

Spring Heeled Jack was described by people claiming to have seen him as having a terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy that included clawed hands and eyes that “resembled red balls of fire”. One report claimed that, beneath a black cloak, he wore a helmet and a tight-fitting white garment like an “oilskin”. Many stories also mention a “Devil-like” aspect. Spring Heeled Jack was said to be tall and thin, with the appearance of a gentleman, and capable of making great leaps. Several reports mention that he could breathe blue and white flames and that he wore sharp metallic claws at his fingertips. At least two people claimed that he was able to speak in comprehensible English.

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spring_Heeled_Jack

Tags: mystery, occult, unsolved

Fomorians

The fomorians, whose name means ‘dark of the sea,’ were a race of Gaelic demons said to be the offspring of Noah’s son, Ham. They are said to have the body of a man and the head of a goat, according to an 11th century text called The Book of the Dun Cow.

Most sources list the Fomorians as one of the 4 races of Ireland who were defeated by the Tuatha De Danaan.

The fomorians consisted of Buarainech; Balor, the son of Buarainech, whose one eye is kept permanently closed because it could kill any mortal or god with one glance and king of the fomorians; Bress, whose consort is Brigit, the daughter of the Dagda and who briefly ruled the Tuatha De Danaan; Elathan; and Ethniu, the daughter of Balor who is the mother of Lugh Lamhfada.

Tags: celtic, Flood, Fomorians

H.P. Lovecraft: Cthulhu

The most detailed descriptions of Cthulhu in “The Call of Cthulhu” are based on statues of the creature. One, constructed by an artist after a series of baleful dreams, is said to have “yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human caricature…. A pulpy, tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings.” Another, recovered by police from a raid on a murderous cult, “represented a monster of vaguely anthropoid outline, but with an octopus-like head whose face was a mass of feelers, a scaly, rubbery-looking body, prodigious claws on hind and fore feet, and long, narrow wings behind.”

When the creature finally appears, the story says that the “thing cannot be described,” but it is called “the green, sticky spawn of the stars”, with “flabby claws” and an “awful squid-head with writhing feelers.” The phrase “a mountain walked or stumbled” gives a sense of the creature’s scale.

Cthulhu is depicted as having a worldwide cult centered in Arabia, with followers in regions as far-flung as Greenland and Louisiana. There are leaders of the cult “in the mountains of China” who are said to be immortal. Cthulhu is described by some of these cultists as the “great priest” of “the Great Old Ones who lived ages before there were any men, and who came to the young world out of the sky.”

The cult is noted for chanting its horrid phrase or ritual: “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn,” which translates as “In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.” This is often shortened to “Cthulhu fhtagn,” which might possibly mean “Cthulhu waits”, “Cthulhu dreams,” or “Cthulhu waits dreaming.”

One cultist, known as Old Castro, provides the most elaborate information given in Lovecraft’s fiction about Cthulhu. The Great Old Ones, according to Castro, had come from the stars to rule the world in ages past.

Castro points to the “much-discussed couplet” from Abdul Alhazred’s Necronomicon:

That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange æons even death may die.

Castro explains the role of the Cthulhu Cult: When the stars have come right for the Great Old Ones, “some force from outside must serve to liberate their bodies. The spells that preserved Them intact likewise prevented them from making an initial move.” At the proper time,

Castro reports that the Great Old Ones are telepathic and “knew all that was occurring in the universe.” They were able to communicate with the first humans by “moulding their dreams,” thus establishing the Cthulhu Cult, but after R’lyeh had sunk beneath the waves, “the deep waters, full of the one primal mystery through which not even thought can pass, had cut off the spectral intercourse.”

source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulhu

Tags: Cthulhu, Lovecraft

The Great Flood Myth…

For years i have discounted the idea of the Flood, probably because it was linked so heavily to the Bible and all those other apocryphal stories.

Then I happened upon a book called ‘The day the Sky fell‘ by Rand Flem-Ath, and found myself wondering if there wasn’t something in it all along.

Check out some of the versions from other cultures:

Before the Apaches emerged from the underworld, there were other people on the earth. Dios told an old man and old woman that it would rain forty days and nights. People were warned to go to the tops of four mountains (Tsisnatcin, Tsabidzilhi, Becdilhgai, and another whose identity isn’t known) and not to look at the flood or sky. The people didn’t believe the old couple. When the rains came, only a few people made it to the mountain tops and shut their eyes. Those who looked at the flood turned into fish or frogs; if they looked at the sky, they turned into birds. After eighty days, Dios told the 24 people remaining to open their eyes and come down. These 24 people went into mountains. Eight other people survived the flood who were able to travel by looking where they wanted to go, and they were there. These people told the Apaches about the flood before going into two mountains themselves. Around the turn of the millennium, the surface of the earth will again be destroyed, this time by fire.

And from the Aztec:

In the Valley of Mexico there lived a pious man named Tapi. Creator told him to build a boat to live in, to take his wife and a pair of every animal that existed. Neighbors thought he was crazy. As soon as he finished, it began to rain. The valley flooded; men and animals went to mountains, but they were submerged. The rain ended, waters receded, etc. Tapi realized that the flood waters had receded after having sent a dove that did not return. Tapi rejoiced.

Then here from Hindu:

Manu, the first human, saved a small fish from the jaws of a larger fish. After hearing the smaller one beg for protection, Manu kept the fish safe, transferring it to larger and larger containers as it grew, finally returning it to the ocean.

Because of this kindness, the fish returned to warn Manu about an imminent flood and told him to build a boat, stocking it with samples of every species. After the flood waters rose, Manu tied a rope to the fish’s horn. The fish led him to a mountain and told Manu to fasten the ship’s rope to a tree so that it would not drift. He stayed on the mountain (known as Manu’s Descent) while the flood swept away all living creatures. Manu alone survived.

Greco-Roman:

Zeus decided to punish humanity for its evil ways. Other Gods grieved at the destruction because there would be no beings to worship them. Zeus promised a new stock, a race of miraculous origin. He was going to use thunderbolts when he remembered one of Fate’s decrees: that a time would come when sea and earth and dome of the sky would blaze up, and the massive structure of the universe would collapse in ruins. With Poseidon’s help, he caused storm and earthquake to flood every part of the land except the summit of Mount Parnassus. When Zeus crushed the hanging clouds in his hand, there was a loud crash, and sheets of rain fell from heaven. The rivers began rushing to the sea. When Neptune struck the earth with his trident, the rivers raced across the plains. Sea and earth could no longer be distinguished; all was sea without any shores, covering every living being except for one fortunate couple, Deucalion and Pyrrha. Earlier, Deucalion and Pyrrha had consulted Themis at her oracular shrine. She warned of a future flood, and they prepared by acquiring a boat. In time, their boat ran aground on the summit of Mount Parnassus. (Note: This is the mountain at Delphi, “navel of the earth” and home of the great oracle.)

Recognizing their piety, Zeus allowed them to live and withdrew the waters. It was then that Deucalion and Pyrrha remembered the other oracle given by Themis: to repopulate the world by throwing “behind you the bones of your great mother.” Pyrrha didn’t want to injure her mother’s ghost by disturbing her bones. Prometheus soothed her fears. “Oracles are righteous and never advise guilty action…” They decided that the “bones” were stones in the body of the earth (“Great Mother”). They threw the stones, which became humans; men of the stones thrown by Deucalion; women, of those cast by Pyrrha. Animals were produced by earth of its own volition. According to Plato: “Many great deluges have taken place during the nine thousand years.”

These and many more examples can be found on the web, try www.dreamscape.com/morgana/titania.htm

It seems that at some point in earths history there was a deluge, and it has embedded itself in every creation  story of every culture. What Flem-Ath believes is that the poles shifted and the ice melted, amongst other catastrophic events came the flood. Something rather ominous about this if you ask me…

Tags: Antartica, Atlantis, Flood