Into the Caverns of the Dark One

The Dark Lord: H.P. Lovecraft, Kenneth Grant, and the Typhonian Tradition in Magic by Peter Levenda
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Peter Levenda has done an excellent job of bringing out the points of commonality between Crowley, Lovecraft and Kenneth Grant. It is a massive undertaking and the book is mind blowing. Writing from a detached observers stance Peter Levenda has me convinced that HP Lovecraft was psychically intuned to some astral realm like most of the great magicians were. The points of coincidence between Lovecraft's writing and Crowley's revelation are too much to be ignored.

Starting off with a discussion of Aleister Crowley's Thelema we learn that the world has experienced the aeon dedicated to different Egyptian Deities. According to Crowley we are in the age of Horus. The age of Horus corresponds to that of the child. This is where individual growth takes precedence over following what patriarchal authority tells us what to do. We write our own program so to speak. Horus's twin is Set, in a sense of speaking. According to Egyptology Horus kills Osiris, Horus's father and later on Horus avenges his fathers death. According to Crowley's schema and some other interpretation Set is the other side of Horus. In the old Egyptian myth the two of them get into a nasty fight and basically tear each other apart.

Set though is somewhat different from other Egyptian deities. He has no assigned animal and he is generally thought of as a god of the foreigners. He is the god of the desert wastes, of chaos and of very wanton sexuality. He is in a sense a dark lord. Now Crowley received his revelation in Egypt by a deity or guardian angel named Aiwas. Aiwas can can be compared to Set but the origins of the Dark Lord are going back even further. Kenneth Grant would say all the way back to Sumeria. A discussion ensues on the Sumerian origins with a focus on the yezidi's who Kenneth Grant has devoted a lot to in his works.The yezidis worship Melekh taus or the Peacock God. they believe that he is Satan and and that Satan in end will be redeemed. But are the origins of Melekh Taus really in Sumeria and where did the Sumerians come from. Peacock are not native to Sumeria but rather India.

Tantric Spirituality has made several contributions to Kabballah, Alchemy and Ceremonial Magic. After a long and complex discussion we see that the possible origins for Crowley's Scarlet Queen and the Lord Chaos might be an incarnation of Shiva. The Indian Goddess is colored Red and Shiva is a Lord of Hell and Chaos in the form that brings the most enlightenment to mankind. there is also the concept of Kundalini which rises to the base of our spine which then drops down the amrita or immortality. Of course this is symbolic of Shakti rising to Shiva.Or the serpent rising up. Remember the serpent from the Bible. He enlightens Eve by telling her to eat from the tree of knowledge.

Through out this discussion references to HP Lovecraft's works are brought up. Cthulhu being the most famous of the Old Ones is described as being dead but dreaming and when the stars are right he will arise and as a priest of the old ones he will rise up and open the gates to allow for the Old Ones return. The Old Ones were here before we were and they do have their human followers. In Tantric Operation which can be very sexual there is an importance of doing sex magic at a time when the stars are in the proper position. Phases of the moon determine the spiritual power of human body fluids. The Kundalini Serpent as well lies asleep and dreaming at the base of our spine. Also there are DNA particles of every animal encoded in our cells. Remember evolution.

One of the goals of sex magic is to create a magical child . This child could be a physical child or a spiritual child that is designed to carry out some magical task. By being in the right frame of mind and opening the right spiritual doorways one can bring in the essence of other beings into a physical child and thus bring about a sort of evolution. In HP Lovecraft's writing there is talk of mating with humans and the old ones. In Lovecraft's view the offspring are strange and deformed. Crowley and Grant sorrt of welcomed it and HP Lovecraft feared it.

The analysis will require some background in Kabballah, Ceremonial Magic. Lovecraft and Tantra. Even for someone versed in these it can get confusing. The book is chocked full of material and there were parts that needed to be reread. In the end we come up with a system of magic that Grant could understand and use that was consistent with his psyche. To the objective it may make no sense. Grant also believed that we did in fact open some of those gateways and the world was feeling the effects. Great book!

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