Lovecraftian Qabalah http://kiva.net/~julianus/hplqbl.

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This page and all contents copyright 1997-2000 by John L. Smith

Ph'nglui mglw'nath Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn.

Table 1 / Table 2 / Table 4

The Star Onyx Ritual / Mount Voormithadreth

Introduction
Kenneth Grant is to blame for this.

It was some years ago when I obtained a copy of The Magical Revival and, while I found a good deal
of the book informative, the section in Chapter Six comparing Lovecraftian and Thelemic concepts just
about made me gag. Even allowing that he was writing in the early Seventies when Lovecraft studies
was still labouring under August Derleth's Manicheanism, Grant's table was still pretty shallow.1

The natural result of this was that I determined to produce my own table of corespondences in the
format of Aleister Crowley's Liber 777. To be sure this was a daunting task even for someone who's an
long-time Lovecraft fan as well as a practicing Magician, but I went ahead with it anyhow and you can
now shudder before the results. For the most part, I have tried to restrict myself to the "objective"
portrayal of the Mythos, however some personal touches were unavoidable and are identified as such.
In particular much of Table 2 (the Elemental correspondences) is of my own devising. I have used the
best editions of the primary sources at my disposal so as not to be unduly influenced by other "occult"
interpretations of the Mythos.2 One of the many strange things I discovered is that, despite their
supposed "alieness," the entities of the Cthulhu Mythos actually fit very comfortably into the 777 tables.
This, among other things, makes me wonder just who the real aliens are.

With some reservations I have accepted August Derleth's idea that at least some of the Great Old Ones
are linked to the four Elements as understood in the Western Magicak tradition. I have also accepted, for
convenience as much as anything else, Chaosium's3 distiction between the Great Old Ones and the more
"cosmic" Outer Gods. It is wise to bear in mind that Lovecraft was often deliberately haphazard with his
terminology, and that he used the term "Old Ones" to refer to several different classes of entities in
different stories. It is best if the reader does not take this as a rigid classification system in any sense.

I have used the regular 777 format as revised for the second edition of Magick. I have decided not to
number the columns so as avoid possible confusion with any "official" additions which may eventually
be published.

Most of the entries are taken from Lovecraft's own works, which I am treating as "Canonical" for our
purposes; these are printed in CAPITAL LETTERS on the tables. Those entities developed by others
but used by Lovecraft himself4 form a nebulous intermediate class and are printed in Italics. Entries
taken soley from HPL's associates and later imitators,5 including a few of my own, may be thought of
as "Apocryphal," and are printed in regular upper- and lower-case type.

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Lovecraftian Qabalah http://kiva.net/~julianus/hplqbl.html

For those interested in the practical use of all this, I have written a Lovecraftian Banishing/Invoking
ritual called The Star Onyx. I have also written a symbolical study of Clark Ashton Smith's story, the
Seven Geases.

1For my detailed study of Kenneth Grant's work, click here.

2My opinion of Grant's work has already been mentioned (see note 1, above), and I have similar
reservations about "Simon," Robert Turner, Colin Wilson, et al. The modern "Esoteric Order of Dagon"
seems to have a better grasp on the material.

3Makers of the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game and now major publisher of Mythos fiction.
Though their referrence material is gaming-oriented, it is some of the most comprehensive available. See
their site.

4Principally Robert E. Howard, Robert Bloch, August Derleth, Ambrose Bierce, Robert W. Chambers,
Arthur Machen, Frank Belknap Long, and Clark Ashton Smith.

5Such as Ramsey Campbell, Colin Wilson, and Brian Lumley.

Table 1 / Table 2 / Table 4

The Star Onyx Ritual / Mount Voormithadreth

Is your mind too fragile to withstand these revelations? Then click here.

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This page launched 25 May, 1997 e.v.

Last updated 16 August, 2000 e.v.

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