Cthulhu One

Well… my Lovecraft and Cthulhu Mythos convention has come and gone. How does one sum up one of the most important weekends of their life? Unspeakable, Nameless, Indescribable! Organizing this thing was quite a task, but the monumental support from Mythos fans and freaks showed me I was on to something.

There were a ton of great indie HPL films at Cthulhu One. Hopefully, Aaron Vanek keeps crankin' those horror movies out. I'm sure people enjoyed a few other "mainstream" selections too such as Prince of Darkness, In the Mouth of Madness, Dagon, and Evil Dead. The guests of honor: S. T. Joshi and Robert M. Price gave amazing lectures. Joshi's was on Lovecraft's arrival into the halls of great literature; Lovecraft's acceptance, and recognition. Price's talk was on the origins of Satan, followed by discussion of the Mythos and Lovecraft. Some people played my RPG Empire of Satanis and the Call of Cthulhu collectable card game and RPG.

I have been into dark, monstrous, and weird things since I was very little. My toys, TV programs, coloring books, picture books, and fantasies predominantly involved strange creatures, mysterious happenings, haunted places, time doorways, and alien races. In school, I was always considered different and weird; quickly I embraced those names as a sign that I was extra-ordinary. Naturally I gravitated to other bizarre, outsider types from friends to artists and authors…

As soon as I discovered H. P. Lovecraft around 6th grade, I knew that this was for me. His preoccupation with adjective-laden horrors that bend science and realism took center stage while everything else almost vanished into the background of insignificance. It encouraged a lust for the ghoulish and demoniacal. The characters seemed to be mere window dressing as the story line became a slow unveiling of what was truly out there. I longed to know the entities from beyond, more so than anything native to this world. Lovecraft came up with images and theories that have had a tangible effect on art, literature, film, philosophy, religion, and magic. His creations are vague archetypes and cosmic reflections of terrifying beings that might truly exist.

When I started learning about things like the Holographic Universe, advanced forms of physics, mathematics, esotericism, and subjective versus objective human perspectives… I knew that my conception of 'what is true' was increasingly tenuous. Reality is what we make it. Nothing is true, everything is permitted. If enough people believe in something, it becomes real for those people. Worldviews are individual and malleable. Every day, I am convinced that I don't live in the same reality as others. As Lovecraft knew, a man's dreams can be far greater than his day to day life. It is the strength of one's belief which gives things substance and meaning. So why not put one's faith in the Great Old Ones?

As some of you might know, I take my devotion to the Cthulhu Mythos farther than any sane man should. The religion of the Old Ones has been around for a long time, as have Satanic Cults, Black Orders, Witch Covens, etc. However, I take it upon myself to re-establish the Cult of Cthulhu, a sect involving dark spirituality, inhuman evolution from Outside, sorcery, Devil worship, and contact with the Ancient Things. This convention had many facets and meanings, all of them individually met by each participant's own perspective. For me, the most important angle of Cthulhu One was the Walpurgisnacht ritual that officially opened the ineffable gulphs of a slimy, tentacled, eldritch green fiery dimension where the Old Ones wait! April 30th, May Eve at the stroke of midnight, the Cult of Cthulhu was officially born using black magic. The Gate was opened and now the Antediluvian blasphemies crawl, slither, and shamble upon the earth.

Thanks to everyone who made this horrible event possible! The next convention: Cthulhu Two will be held in somewhere in Madison, WI on Friday April 27th to Sunday April 29th 2007. Hopefully, I'll see most of you there, no matter if your cultist or christian, human or deep one.

Cult of Cthulhu 2005 Walpurgisnacht Ritual

As the celebrants whispered the well-known phrase, "Ia Ia Cthulhu Fataghn" throughout the ceremony, I spoke the words from the Cthulhu Cult's Grimoir, Flesh Stealing Shadows: Prophecies of Terror.

Horned Depravities… consecrate this mad distortion. The natural laws avert their eyes as we partake of the loathsome membrane that is reality. Ready to be peeled back to reveal new and greater horrors.

Necromantic slithering Pagan-folk, hear me as I say that this ritual chamber, this Lovecraftian grotto is beyond constraints of space and time. We Cthulhu Cultists make our own way in life - disturbing the vast, bleak oceans of the ultimate.

Dread Cthulhu, hear my call…!
The Satanic Doctrine of the Old Ones, hear my call…!
All-pervasive Evil of Hellish and Nonsensical Gulphs peering outward in fungoid illumination, hear my call…!

Humanity may be as sand, but some remain the black sand that answers to no one. Our Drowned Lord, we ask for nothing less than the Destruction of Reality! The structure and substance of our world is dying by our hand, gloved in Deathless Nightmare.

You have sent these visions to your servants - half remembered cities weird in angle and mesmerizing in ambition. The dark croaking of your demon dreams gives us pause before the Crimson Throne of Satanis, as well as, His Octopoidal Eminence.

Tis a delicious time, my Master.
Let all tremble before a new Age of Cthulhu!
Let the pulsating stars drip their foul ichor before a new Age of Cthulhu!
Let the unclean, incongruous minds of his worshipers kneel in supplication before a new Age of Cthulhu!

Now the hallucination masque has fallen. The truth of our non-existence is apparent.

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh wgah'nagl fhtagn

In His R'lyeh tomb, Cthulhu lurks below the waves of consciousness, preparing to awake, corrupting us with his barbarous, throbbing vibrations. We are the pioneers of the strange. To sleep, perchance to worship…

I am the slimy guardian thristing for blood, madness, and power. I am His name writhing as midnight tentacles. I, Venger Satanis, AM the High Priest of the CULT OF CTHULHU…!

Our malevolent God is the alien form of humanity's unspeakable soul. A great chasm in space, the gateway to infernal dimensions, is now open. We are the key, the sleepers who must become the Accuser!

A Dark Current infects our universe. By all the degenerate, shambling Fiends of the Pit, it is our Will to alter the way of things. Bringing a new aeon of shadowy emerald drippings. Mindful of entities older than time… our Brothers.

Hail Cthulhu, Unknown Usurper whose bilious taint bathes us in annihilation.

So it is done!