Amazonite

Lovecraft dug deep into history for the inspirations for his stories. Or entities that go back deep in history reached far to inspire him. It's hard to say which. We know from his personal letters that he and his circle of writing associates laughed about how seriously some readers thought he believed the things he was writing. I'll trust his word that it was all just fun storytelling...on the surface. I think it was Stephen King who once said, "Fiction is the truth inside the lie." He might have been quoting someone else, but I'm pretty sure I read it from him, and it has stayed with me for years. Writing fiction often gives an author space to work out things they haven't recognized in themself. There are many reasons to believe Lovecraft didn't consciously believe the Old Ones actually exist, but also many reasons to believe pieces of what he created were manifestations of bigger things than just his own imagination. And maybe some of it was misguided gnosis. Maybe bits of this and pieces of that merged with something else...something Lovecraft himself didn't want to look at too seriously.

But why not mythologies like Greek mythology? Why going back to ancient Sumerian and Babylonian inspiration? I suspect at least some of that was about the romanticization of ancient Greek culture and how common study of the mythology was among the educated population. I think he wanted to draw on something less commonly recognized, and going back that far added to the "more ancient than humans can safely comprehend" feeling.

"Greek mythology" is older than it may seem, though. It's Greek now, much like many things about Puerto Rican culture existed before it was Puerto Rico and were inherited from the Taíno. Not only did the tales that make up what we know as Greek mythology existed before Greece as we know it today, some of the deities we classify as "Greek" were introduced to the Hellenic peoples by neighboring cultures. For example, the great Titaness Hekate.

It may seem odd that I can see reflections of Hekate in so many entities of the Yog-Sothoth Mythos. I see Her everywhere. I am not a pantheist, and I suspect different deities do, in some way or another, "claim" a culture. Adopt those people as their own. So I don't just say, "A Deity is known as B Deity in this culture, C Deity in that culture, and D Deity to these people over here." I do think some deities cross the lines, though, and sometimes may be known with different names by multiple cultures. Hekate may be one of those who does so.

How would She be limited? A Titaness! Daughter of Destruction, born of the Stars! She sided with the Olympians in their battle against the Titans, and Zeus honored Her above all others and did not even try to take Her domains from Her. Hekate's freedom to intervene in things, and to give blessings and punishments, is more like Zeus than other Greek deities. Just to consider how great those below Zeus in rank are is more than a mortal mind can accurately comprehend. That's why we have the myths...to sacrific accuracy in order to communicate things in ways mortals can grasp. And even the study of those myths can result in a lifetime of finding new things and never seeing all of the answers. To place limitations on Hekate would be foolish. 

It was my devotion to Her that led me to Yog-Sothothery. I won't lie and say I've never questioned that, but the questions have led me to confirmation. I was a fan of the Mythos, but not inclined to explore any of it through a personal practice meant to be anything more than just enjoying the stories. There is a lot about Hekate that has become twisted, diluted, and understood in limiting ways in current times. Maybe She knew the Mythos could give me what I needed, much like I believe mythologies were given to ancient peoples.

She has many forms, carries many epithets, and has dominion on Earth, in the Underworld, and in the Cosmos. "Land, sea, and sky" have greater meanings when applied to a deity than when applied to human military. She is Hekate Einalia, Empress of the Dark Seas. That's not how I first came to know Her, though, and it took several years before I started to understand why some of the things She led me to had to do with water. 

If I had to assign an element to myself, it would be Earth. There are many reasons for that, going into astrology, personality...many reasons. And most people who know me and the basic elemental alignments would agree. A few people, depending on how they know me, might say Fire. Actually, it seems Earth and Water are the strongest with me, and I'm not certain that Water isn't from an outside influence.

How is all of this getting to Amazonite? I have a string of Amazonite beads that was a gift from Hekate. I love collecting all kinds of stones, but I learned years ago that I don't usually experience what books say they work for. I stopped paying attention to those charts and just listen to the stones. So it was a bit of a surprise to me when I found out Amazonite is aligned with Water and can be emotionally soothing because...well, that's what I was experiencing!

I decided to look the name "Amazonite" up in the Temple of Abzu gematria. The number I got is 27. That is an important number to me, and it's a number for Hekate because it is three sets of nine, with each set of nine being three sets of three. A few of the words and phrases that match up with this number are "Daoloth", "Deep One", "in ant aout o' water", and "twilight". There are other names and phrases that are clearly related to Innsmouth. Strong association with water.

But what about Daoloth? Daoloth doesn't come from Lovecraft's writing. I think he comes from Ramsey Campbell's stories, but I'm not sure. Daoloth is the Render of the Veils. There's information about seeing the past and future, and a lot of hyping up the horrific that sounds to me like Daoloth can choose to give form to chaotic potential. Hekate is not limited by boundaries. In fact, boundaries themselves are under her domain. And divination is strongly associated with Her, which is a way for the diviner to look into the past and future.

And what about twilight? What is twilight, if not a sort of boundary? It is a liminal time. For as much as dramatic stories paint all the magic as happening in the depths of night, folktales warn us to be careful during twilight. I would say a liminal time belongs to Hekate as much as a liminal space. Due to how we experience twilight in the physical world, it may be both liminal time and liminal space.

I don't have anything to neatly tie these thoughts up with, no greater point to make. It's all more for meditating on than for summarizing.