Lovecraft Lore

The cosmology, or to be more precise the chaosmology, of the Temple of Shub Niggurath is founded on the premise that the 'fictional' world of the occult author H. P. Lovecraft is derived from dream visions.Visions that in varying degrees revealed a world with a status equal to any historical pagan mythos. The most interesting feature of Lovecraft's vision however, and that which made it superior to those of most pagan religions, was its multi-perspectivism and mystery. Lovecraft created no coherent 'theology' or 'cosmolology', rather his stories were told through the perceptions of their varied protagagonists, whose encounter with the unknown was rationalised according to their preconceptions. There are thus many diverse understandings of the world Lovecraft spun, sometimes even within a single story, but no 'Truth' of the matter. Anyone approaching the Mythos needs to bear this in mind first and foremost. The second essence of his vision was the depth of his penetration into the unknown, not merely into the 'deep reality' of our familiar world as encoded in classic mythology, but an encounter with the deepest 'cosmic other' and totally non-human. Penetrating as far as the primal ineffable chaos from which the universe was born. Lovecraft is without doubt the prophet of the post modern age. The use of a fantasy writer as a prophet is of course a great commentary on prophets.

Many individuals and groups have taken to working with what Lovecraft called his Yog Sothery. Today a combination of myth and magic, like any other neo-pagan paradigm. As with all such magical work individual practioners, and looser groups, have a greater flexibility in their mythos and practise, while more coherent groups have greater power. The Temple of Shub Niggurath lies between these two extremes. Other groups (both past and present) in this tentacular tangle of Yog Sothery include the Church of the Starry Wisdom, the Cult of Ghoules, the Brotherhood of the Beast, the Cult of the Bloody Tongue, the Whisperers in the Darkness and the Esoteric Order of Dagon. Typically named after their fictional namesakes, but in the main having greater social skills, these groups continue the mythos according to their own lights (or nights). Emerging from the occultural network known as the Dionysian Underground, the Arcane Temple of Shub Niggurath has become a chapter of the latter, the largest of the tentacles, and hopes to achieve a tentacular entanglement with other such groups. As groups need a mythos to work in, a common language and understanding, a magical necessity, each group, or even each chapter, will have its own perspectival chaosmology. This of course is not to be mistaken for the 'true system', which does not exist, but may evolve into one truer system amongst many.

Based in the ancient marshes of Londinium, The Temple of Shub Niggurath practices the evolving praxis of the EOD, as well as developing its own system(s). The system of the Esoteric Order of Dagon (essentially Dreamwork involving the Deep Ones) can be found on the EOD website http://www.esotericorderofdagon.com/ While here we will explore the Temple of Shub Niggurath system.

The ATSN system is centred on Shub Niggurath, and on Hastur, hir consort. The latter being a Baphomet like archetype uniting the opposing Elder Gods Shub Niggurath and Nodens in one Dionysian entity. Our very symbol at the top of this page signifies not only Shub Niggurath, but also the union of Shub Niggurath and Nodens in Hastur, the fusion of the S and N into an H. This will be outlined within. Using Shub Niggurath and Hastur as openers of the ways, the Temple actually works with all the Elder Ones, as well as lifeforms throughout the universe who are under their influence, a complete pantheon (seen as submerged aspects of ourselves as much as Other).

The entities used are primarily from the pen of the prophet HPL, we totally reject the Derlethian Heresy,
though subsequent additions from later writers are included where a gap needs to be filled. And there are
many entities in the Dreamlands that even Lovecraft himself failed to dream...

Artwork Disclaimer - All artwork on this site (except where indicated) is mutant. Mutant art consists
of reworkings of early forms into new genera. If you would like your art mutated please send to dionysian_underground@yahoo.co.uk. If your art has already been mutated and you object let
us know and it will be removed.