N'wraenomicon

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 ...

I'm not sure where I'm going with this line of thinking yet. I mostly just need to scribble some notes down so I don't lose this if it does end up leading somewhere. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is also the key to the gate. For a while, when I first started reading Mythos stories, I had a hard tike distinguishing between Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth in my mind. Names, descriptions, roles they play in things...it was all too similar. Which one is asleep and has no clue that any of this is really happening, but also the only reason it's happening is because he's asleep and dreaming it? (That's Azathoth.) And which one is a lot like the sleeping one, but does know it's happening, knows why it's happening, kind of seems to be the Overseer of everything, and got Old Man Whately's daughter pregnant - possibly with more of Old Man Whately's help than I want to know? (That's Yog-Sothoth). Eventually, I started thing of them as being sort of like ...

Maybe I'll never tell the whole Lake Monster story here. Maybe I'll just keep referencing it as if the whole thing is already known. I seem to be in That Sort of Mood tonight, but I do need to come back to the Lake Monster because things continue to...reveal? Unfold? I'm not sure exactly what's happening, but it's something. In talking to a few trusted companions about the Lake Monster, things were mentioned about the mythologies of various Indigenous peoples who lived in our area, and stories of great horned serpents came up. I'm being a bit vague here because I don't want to make it sound like I'm claiming that my Lake Monster must be the exact same spirit that was known to these Indigenous people. I don't know that she's not, but I don't know that she is and too much has been taken from our Indigenous peoples. At this point, I'm looking at the connections as a flow of information to lead me deeper, not as any kind of evidence that thes...

I'm not particular about restricting my knowledge of the Mythos to only Lovecraft's writing. That just...well, wouldn't work. Lovecraft's work laid a foundation, but the Mythos really exists because other writers added to it. Even that oversimplifies things. There are things commonly accepted as "part of the Mythos" that inspired Lovecraft. Does that make them "pre-Mythos"? Is it really that simple? Should any of it be seen as so simple? And yes, there are folks out there who do not accept the works of certain authors as being "true Mythos" because they feel those authors went too far from what Lovecraft intended. I disagree. There are works in the Mythos I don't like. Sometimes the focus of the work is boring to me. Sometimes the writing style doesn't appeal to me. I don't judge whether or not it belongs in the Mythos, though. Lovecraft isn't known for being the most accepting and inclusive person to walk the earth, but it ...

Yes, this will look really familiar if you have even basic knowledge of ceremonial occultism. My familiarity with the LBRP is less about the LBRP itself and more about rituals inspred by it. I didn't just change words, though. There are things that may set off some Important Things Are Missing alarms. Those things are important in the systems they belong to. I'm not saying there's no room for improvement here, but this ritual is about getting some similar results. Not all the results, and not for entirely the same reasons, so not done the same way. It's still about clearing and protecting the space.  If you really want to work with it, go ahead. Use it for personal experimentation and practice. Don't publish it anywhere else, and credit N'wrae. Chant the Greek vowels seven times. Α - Ε - Η - Ι - Υ - Ο - Ω The Cardinal Directions Start in the East, working clockwise. Draw a sigil in the air, or give a slight bow, maybe just take in a deep breath before you speak ...

I've mentioned my dice a couple of times now.  This is the set I'm using.  Yes, it's a Mythos-themed set. That almost stopped me from buying them. My dice are devoted to a particular deity, and everything about this set was perfect for what I needed except for that Mythos connection. Which wouldn't really matter, except...well, look at mine. That symbol that takes the place of the largest number on each and every piece? Yeah. I don't keep them in the box they came in (though I did keep the box), but that stmbol is always there on each one. But there's a flow to everything that has drawn me toward Yog-Sothothery, so there's a story to this. I started with astragalomancy by using my old set on tabletop rpg dice. I haven't played a game they'd be needed for in, oh...too many years to figure out what number to attach. Those dice have their own story, though, and I've kept them all this time. Getting enough of a grasp on the basics of usin...