Your challenge, if you dare to accept, us to make Lovecraft’s literature surrounding the Cthulhu and it’s mythology to become an actual religion. I know that probably should be part of ASB, but how much would the United States and Lovecraft himself need to change in order for such a religion exist ?
AHC: Cthulhu Church
- Thread starter Kaiser of Brazil
- Start date
Honestly it’s not impossible. It would be a kind of Satanism. Let’s say that it start as a kind of joke atheist cult, much like LeVeyan Satanism did, and some people embrace its nihilist philosophy. The early joke cult slowly die out, except for a few members who don’t get the joke part and begin more serious but legal worship. The leader of the cult is a charismatic madman who slowly expand it, at the same time the cult push a pro-natalist philosophy and a idea of living in mostly self sufficient communes. The leader dies and a more sane but still believing guy takes over, the cult stop get new belivees, but continue to grow through natural means. By modern the Church have a several thousand members living in a few village communes, which produce enough food for them and in general isolating themselves from the outside society, they produce a few goods to get capital to buy the few things they don’t need themselves. As the cult avoid television, computer and radio, they have little knowledge of the outside world. With the increased popularity of Lovecraft a American tv station made a documentary about the cult and it became instant famous, but the cult didn’t welcome outside visitors and in general closed itself off, it became popular to use as inspiration in horror movies as the cult didn’t complain or sue. This interest was feed by a few members who left the cult regularly, and the fact that these tells of religious orgies, religious use of drugs to enter trances and sermons which look like raves have only strengthen the interest. The authorities have tried to intervene, but after a few bad experience the cult have moved to avoid underage children taking part in the part of the worship, at least official their communities are known for their unusual high number of teen pregnancies with it being more the rule than exception than girls being mothers before their 18 year birthday.
In general the perspective from the outside is that the Church of Cthulhu is a mix of Scientology, Satanism and Amish.
Get Lovecraft to think of this stuff in terms of occultism and mysticism and whatnot rather than (just) literature. Have him share these ideas with some like-minded friends, one of whom, after Lovecraft's death, decides to make a proper go of it as a cult or secret society or whatever (I am skeptical Lovecraft himself could be made into the sort of person willing and able to start such a thing without changing his works beyond recognition), spreading Lovecraft's ideas and doing for "Lovecraftism" what August Derleth did for the Cthulhu Mythos IOTL. It'd probably never be a religion of any great size or importance ("Earth is an island of warmth and light in a vast dark cosmos filled with unspeakable horrors beyond human imagination" is just not a pitch with widespread appeal), but it could have its own little niche among the ranks of the neopagans and the chaos magicians.
Much of his work was “pay by the word” pulp to fill up magazines, so I can’t really see him altering it too heavily when he’s just trying to make a living. However, maybe in his later years he becomes convinced the universe and the Great Old Ones really are speaking to him through his stories. He begins writing about how to protect oneself from harm of Forbidden Knowledge, his older stories being like the books of the bible, stories and allegories to covey the messages of the central teachings. It gets some followers in the early years but suffers from Lovecrafts lacking charisma and slinks back to the shadows until the 70s and the New Age. Throw in some bad LSD trips and suddenly all that mumbojumbo about the horror of Non-Euclidean geometry will seem very real. Around that time I can see it splitting between the orthodox believers and the more “We can access the forbidden knowledge of Father Lovecraft prophecies safely through drugs” sects, which let’s face it, is probably going to be the one to attract the most converts.
Without some big names involved, I can’t see Lovecraftism growing to become a major faith but who knows, maybe they get a celebrity or two and become the new Scientology
Without some big names involved, I can’t see Lovecraftism growing to become a major faith but who knows, maybe they get a celebrity or two and become the new Scientology
L. Ron Hubbard doesn't bother making up his own mythos, and decides to call his org the Church of Starry Wisdom. He calls the e-meter the Tillinghast Resonator, and charges a fortune to sleep hooked up to it after overdosing on niacin because this will supposedly let you astral project to the realms outside Earth's normal Dreamlands where the Great Old Ones dwell, etc.
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Of course, there was this in the late 70s/early 80s. Published by Avon Books, who also put out LaVey's stuff. I imagine the discussion at their board meeting going like this...
A: Hey, that Satanic Bible has done great. Remind me, what was the marketing strategy again?
B: Uh, put the words "Satanic Bible" on a book with a black cover, stick it in the head shops, and it'll never occur to the average stoner that we just paid some clown in 'Frisco to make it all up.
A: Think that'll work twice?
B: Hell, yeah.
A: Hey, that Satanic Bible has done great. Remind me, what was the marketing strategy again?
B: Uh, put the words "Satanic Bible" on a book with a black cover, stick it in the head shops, and it'll never occur to the average stoner that we just paid some clown in 'Frisco to make it all up.
A: Think that'll work twice?
B: Hell, yeah.
My sister WORSHIPPED that moronic book! Don't even get me started on the Necronomicon that was floating around Walden Books in the 90s (I actually watched Evil Dead and used my library card to check out the translated Sumerian Book of the Dead so I was underwhelmed with the lack of human flesh and blood).
And it wasn't just easily wowed suburban teenagers who attached a lot of significance to that masterpiece. From the FBI's report on Satanic Ritual Abuse....
Who decides exactly what “satanists” believe? In this country, we cannot even agree on what Christians believe. At many law enforcement conferences The _Satanic Bible_ is used for this, and it is often contrasted or compared with the Judeo-Christian Bible. The _Satanic Bible_ is, in essence, a short paperback book written by one man, Anton LaVey, in 1969.
To compare it to a book written by multiple authors over a period of thousands of years is ridiculous, even ignoring the possibility of Divine revelation in the Bible.
People put Jedi as their religion sometimes. Have that catch on and you're set.
Flockoflambs had some ideas.
Introduction
Cthugha, the Living Flame
Yog-Sothoth, the Lurker at the Threshold
Hastur the Unspeakable
Ithaqua, the Wind Walker
Cthulhu Lies Dreaming
Shub Niggurath, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young
Nyarlythotep, the Crawling Chaos
Azathoth, the Nuclear Chaos
Epilogue: Tsathoggua
Introduction
Cthugha, the Living Flame
Yog-Sothoth, the Lurker at the Threshold
Hastur the Unspeakable
Ithaqua, the Wind Walker
Cthulhu Lies Dreaming
Shub Niggurath, the Black Goat with a Thousand Young
Nyarlythotep, the Crawling Chaos
Azathoth, the Nuclear Chaos
Epilogue: Tsathoggua
I could see this as a millennial cult that somehow survives the coming of Y2K and evolves into a sort of Scientology Darkly with its innermost secrets very much protected and its members publicly portrayed as eccentrics. Maybe they gain equal or greater influence, for total irony make them a driving force behind driving out inequality in Hollywood and beyond as they would believe that we are all equal (as dinner and playthings to drive mad) in the eyes of the Great Old Ones.