The Temple of Dagon

Mainly in the context of the Three Great Religions.

I've been thinking this over for a while, how to incorporate the Mythos and Cannon, but it hasn't occured to me until recently that it can't be done; BUT it could be done if you incorporate the theology of the Three Great Religions and the Mythos. For the sake of this I presume that Christianity, especially Catholicism, is the closest to hitting the nail on the head.

Here's what I got so far, it's a little shackey at first. Though Christianity is a lie, it is based on truths that the original Fathers knew, said truths being that only the Mythos Pantheon existed. Now, they worshipped the members of the Pantheon, and wanted others to, so they developed a vast, vast metaphor (so to speak) for the Pantheon by putting it into a more palatable context: ie - religion. Essentially tricking people into becoming cultists for their religion.

Now I'm done with the really shaky part. Here's the part that really interests me - figures in theology corresponding to members of the Pantheon.

Azathoth = The Lord on High

The Father's knew the masses wouldn't particularly like going to the center of ultimate chaos when they died so they renamed him Yahweh, and equally absurd name, and instead of having people go to the center of ultimate chaos, they had they go to the center of ultimate peace.

Yog-Sothoth = St. Peter

In "The Dunwich Horror" Lovecraft is quoted saying the following about Yog-Sothoth, "Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate."

In Matthew 16:19 Jesus says to Peter, "I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven."

The resembalence is uncanny, and could easily be worked in if one was clever enough.

Cthulhu = the Leviathan

Isaiah 27:1 "In that day the Lord with his hard, and great, and strong sword shall visit leviathan the bar serpent, and leviathan the crooked serpent, and shall slay the whale that is in the sea." And he has not been seen since, yet it still haunts the dreams of sailors, now and thousands of years into the past.

And Cthulhu sleeps, deathlike, in R'lyeh, influencing the dreams of people everywhere, not just sailors.



Now here's where more sketchy comparisons come in, I'm not to sure of them.


The Great Race of Yith = Fallen Angels

Looking for knowledge other than God, or in the true case, Yog-Sothoth. Always seem to live on Earth, though through tive travel.

Nyarlathotep = Muhammad or Osama, (Avatars of.)

This being in modern day context.

Nyarlathotep is the Crawling Chaos, and it would be hard for one not to see that Muhammad/Osama created a crawling chaos throughout the world. I don't want to get into politicis here, though. Aside from that, both Muhammad and Osama are of Arabic origin, as was Nyarlathotep, being from Egypt.

Dagon = ??? Moses ??? (Avatar of.)

Most sketchy one here I find. Only thing I could really compare Dagon, besides the Leviathan, was Moses. As Moses led his people out of Egypt on that oh so famous exados into eternal spiritual life, Dagon leads the people of Innsmouth, and in other places I'm sure, into the sea and eternal physical life.

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Lovecraft wrote with a lot of biblical references and Hebrew names and what not, so it's not inconcievable that one could blend the Three Great Religions and the Mythos. It would take some skill though.

It might even take sorcerous power. Judaism's probably your best bet, it's got some weird monsters in it anyway - Catholicism doesn't really give for the actual existence of Leviathian, Ziz and Behemoth.

Yet they hold everything in the OT to be true. Besides, in the Catholic understanding Yog-Sothoth would be included. But, as I said, it's a 3-in-1 deal.

Some of it - no Catholic, not even the Pope, believes Bel And The Dragon, or half of Genesis, to be literal truth. It's those other Christian faiths that have started that. Catholicism used to be based entirely on symbolism, so they've always got the value of symbols.

wasn't dagon the name of a philistine deity? the philistines figure in there somewhere, in bible scripture..

i don't know how easy it would be to write, but i'd read a story that draws from a solid understanding of both pantheons, and somehow blurs the lines between them without being cheeseball.. for example, i've seen a couple of stories where cthulhu is likened to satan, which is a mostly lousy comparison.

interesting ideas enkil

Dagon was the Phillistine god of grain and agriculture.

Jesus Prime wrote:Some of it - no Catholic, not even the Pope, believes Bel And The Dragon, or half of Genesis, to be literal truth. It's those other Christian faiths that have started that. Catholicism used to be based entirely on symbolism, so they've always got the value of symbols.

First of all the whole structure of the discourse of promise demands a literal interpretation of the words: "eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood".
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05573a.htm


The Catholic church has changed a lot over the years. I won't wrangle with you over it because I wasn't raised in the Catholic church, but I don't think you're quite right to insist that "those other Christian faiths" started it. There was a time when all Christians believed in the devil but not many of them seem to now. And I suppose if you asked them, it would a toss-up whether they insisted that theirs was the newly enlightened interpretation or that it had always been interpreted symbolically.

I'm not saying any of this to pester Catholicism, but only because I've noticed that Christians of many denominations have been rewriting the scriptures lately. And I know enough about the history of Christianity to know that it was never based entirely on symbolism: Anyone can invent/use symbols and rituals; cleverness can accomplish that much but it doesn't inspire belief. The masons have their symbols and they have no large following, except in the imaginations of novelists.

Everyone enjoys a conspiracy theory about the Catholics anyways, what would make people more satisfied, especially the anti-catholic, to find out they're worshipping some devil gods from beyond the void?

Hodgson wrote:And I know enough about the history of Christianity to know that it was never based entirely on symbolism.

I meant when it was persecuted in Rome and everything had to be hidde behind something else, like the fish, the chi-ro, all those sigils that really meant something else while looking innocuous. Which is pretty good for the idea of it being a secret cult, I guess.

Enkil wrote:
Dagon = ??? Moses ??? (Avatar of.)

Most sketchy one here I find. Only thing I could really compare Dagon, besides the Leviathan, was Moses. As Moses led his people out of Egypt on that oh so famous exados into eternal spiritual life, Dagon leads the people of Innsmouth, and in other places I'm sure, into the sea and eternal physical life......

I picture Moses as being another incarnation of Nyarlathotep.
Causing problems for those in power, (Egypt) performing feats of magic.( The plagues )
Leading 'his' people.....

Yah sounds right too me

True Odin

Also, you've got to factor in that Moses was raised as Egyptian nobility.

you could find the connection between moses and nephren-ka, the black pharoah

It can be done! I, with yalls help, have succeeded in obtaining my half year long dream of working the Mythos into religion!

NIKE! *smokes a cig*