A Different Author's World

I enjoyed editing the colors and lighting to turn a very plain photo of my new ring into a photo more suited to the feeling I aim for with pictures on this blog. Yes, in case you're wondering, that is a replica of the One Ring from The Lord of the Rings. It took some work to get everything situated for the photo so that the Elvish inscription would show. It isn't obvious and disappears, leaving a plain gold band, if everything isn't just right. At least I don't have to hold it to a flame.

So why am I writing about a Tolkien ring on a Lovecraft blog? Well, it isn't really a Lovecraft blog. It's a Yog-Sothothery blog. We can discuss all day whether or not it's fair to identify the Mythos with the name of the man who laid the groundwork when most of the creation has been done by other authors. We can avoid that by identifying it with the most famous Old One in the mythos, but we also know Lovecraft himself wanted it identified with Yog-Sothoth. In circles of literary discussion or fandom, these details might have greater importance. Here, though, I'm talking about a spiritual practice, and that can draw inspiration from many sources.

Even outside of the Mythos? Here's a better question: Is there anything known to us that is "outside of the Mythos"? Tolkien's work exists in our world. Our world is all part of Azathoth's dream. Thus, Tolkien's work is part of Azathoth's dream. This is part of the beauty of the Yog-Sothoth Mythos! Once one understands it's not really limited to Cthulhu rising up from R'lyeh, it mixes with everything else. While there are many books, movies, and games that intentionally reference this Mythos, it also changes how so many other stories can be seen - the ones that seem to be completely unrelated - once they are viewed as being part of Azathoth's dream.

I'm straying too far from what I'm really here to write about. That's kind of funny. I've known many people who just can't really get into reading tales of the Old Ones because they start with The Call of Cthulhu or At the Mountains of Madness and can't force themselves through what is commonly recognized as Lovecraft's "purple prose". Yet most of these same people I've known absolutely love Tolkien's work. (There are a few who don't like either author's work because they feel they are suffocating in the writing styles of both of them.) I can't force myself through Tolkien's writing. I can't keep track of what's happening when someone asks a hobbit a question, the hobbit looks out over a field and we spend 15 pages going through the history of every blade of grass in the Shire, and then the question is answered with no reminder that it was ever asked. Give me a blog post to wander my way through writing, though, and I'll do the same thing.

It really is just the writing style that keeps me from being a Tolkien fan. Okay, the writing style and the elves. I have rather passionate opinions about elves, and it's not that I adore them. The world he created, the stories he told...great stuff! I'm glad movies were made. I tend to look deeper at certain characters than analyzing the whole allegory. For as much as I've seen people get into intense arguments over how "you don't understand Tolkien if you don't see that he's talking about...", my understanding is that Tolkien himself was pretty happy to let people find what they find in his work. There were a few things that he'd clarify what his intentions were or were not, but even that was mostly to say, "I didn't write it that way, so you don't have to read it that way. But if that's what resonates...hey! You do you." (Not an actual Tolkien quote.)

The One Ring has a lot of personal significance for me, and I may write more about that at some point. It's often called the biggest MacGuffin in modern storytelling. Whether or not it's a MacGuffin at all depends on how one looks at the story, I suppose. It's a magic ring...it can be multiple things. I see it as being a character all on its own. Within the world of Middle-earth, it's also an ancient artifact.

Hmm...ancient artifact, created by an evil being, has its own sentience, manipulates its way into someone's posession and starts corrupting them... Since Tolkien's work is not on the Inspired By and/or Referencing Lovecraft list, this goes back to what I said about it all being part of Azathoth's dream.

I have my personal reasons for wanting the ring. It arrived, I'm pleased with it, fits perfectly, etc. Then I started thinking about it being made from tungsten carbide and me not really knowing what tungsten is. So I looked up some information, and it caught my attention that the atomic number for tungsten is 74. What is it about that number? Why is this catching my attention? It's not one of those numbers that stands out for me, so why -- ?

Oh!

It hit me that 74 is the number that also caught my attention in a recent ritual! The number that didn't line up with the way I was looking at other numbers, both in my notes on prayers to Hekate and in the ToA cards I drew during the ritual! The number that I went back to the page in my notes and saw the prayer to Hekate as Anima Mundi. I said I needed to look the number up in the ToA gematria. I still hadn't done that yet, so I accepted the ring as a reminder and went to do it.

It looks like the number 74 is probably calculated from a lot of phrases in The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Of course, that isn't the only way to find the number. It's just that I can see a clear pattern in things that turn up. Here are some of the phrases that grabbed my attention and really resonated with me.

They brung us fish an' treasure

Many-columned Y'ha-nthlei

There is in certain ancient things a trace

That brooding reef in the sea

Dreams bring us close - but ancient lore repeats

Yogge-Sothothe

The secret lore of the ocean

I think I'll be doing more work to see how this ring can connect with Yog-Sothothery, and especially whether it can be part of uncovering more of what I'm meant to learn from the number 74.