AHC: Cuthulu-mythos/Lovecraft-based Religion

[whitecrow]

Inspired by recent Scientology-related threads on this site.

The challenge here is to create an influential (if relatively small) religious movement based on Cuthulu-mythos and works of Lovecraft that would be just as (in)famous as OTL Scientology.

Bonus points if H.P. Lovecraft himself, just like L. Ron Hubbard, is the one to start the religion.

 

[asnys]

They're not influential, but there are at least two groups of occultists IOTL who claim to worship/venerate/something Cthulhu. There's even a Yahoo! mailing list...

Short of a psychotic break, though, I don't see any way that HPL would ever involve himself in organized religion, even one he founded himself.

 

[Marc Pasquin]

Inspired by recent Scientology-related threads on this site.

The challenge here is to create an influential (if relatively small) religious movement based on Cuthulu-mythos and works of Lovecraft that would be just as (in)famous as OTL Scientology.

Bonus points if H.P. Lovecraft himself, just like L. Ron Hubbard, is the one to start the religion.

if it did, it would quickly turn into an anti-racemixing pressure group. Would preobably also some issues with modern technology and social norms in general.

 

[whitecrow]

OK, so maybe there isn't a good non-ASB way to get Lovecraft to start a religion. But is there any way to create a well-known religion based on his writings?

 

[asnys]

OK, so maybe there isn't a good non-ASB way to get Lovecraft to start a religion. But is there any way to create a well-known religion based on his writings?

Well-known? Sure.

I haven't made any kind of in-depth study of the various would-be Cthulhu cultists floating around the net, but most of them seem to be Nietzschean types of one kind or another. Have a group of them get into radical politics as well, and start committing acts of terrorism. Borrow some systems disruption theory and have them start blowing up power plants to destroy the economy and thereby bring down the state, so that the Strong Shall Rule As They Should.

I don't think any of the existing groups that I'm aware of would do that - they're either too sensible or too, ahem, non-physical. But let's say a group like that forms around a Charles Manson type. Mix in a taste for kinky sex (definitely plausible) and a knack for self-promotion, and you've got a media story that will just run and run.

 

[von hitchofen]

I, for one, welcome our many-tentacl'd, squamous and rugose overlords.

when do the human sacrifices start?

 

[Jape]

A militantly nihilistic cult who view Yog-Sothoth et al as the embodiment of the pointlessness of existence itself doesn't seem incredibly far fetched. Notably a Lovecraftian real world cult would probably be different from the fictional ones HPL depicted, more 'philosophical' than religious. Then again there's a boat load of ridiculous groups in the world so maybe they dress up in Cthulhu masks and sacrifice people while simultaneously touting the uncaring void, just for the hell of it.

Then you get into the problem of Lovecraft the man versus Lovecraft's writings. Though he loved the Enlightenment past he was a big tech nerd and also while racist, his in-fiction worldview makes ideas of 'blood mixing' pretty void. Even if you accept a racial hierarchy you're still dealing with pathetic ape men gazing up into a roaring, violent universe of mind bending horror. That microbe is superior to that microbe etc.

Best bet might actually be for HPL to avoid his post-death surge in popularity. He remains pretty unknown, some cult nutjob comes across it and takes it forward into the real world touting Lovecraft as a sage. By the time informed people start pointing out the idiocy of 'worshipping' genre fiction, he's already got hundreds of followers.

 

[Orville_third]

I, for one, welcome our many-tentacl'd, squamous and rugose overlords.

when do the human sacrifices start?

I have one of those!
Of course, if you count the Simon Necronomicon , there is a major work based on the Cthulhu Mythos* with lots of followers.

*In Name Only

 

[HeavyWeaponsGuy]

Lovecraft was a very socially inept person and had a pretty messed-up background that stunted his social capabilities.

He is not an ideal leadership personality: he's too shy and too inclined to avoid the limelight, something the leader must thrust himself into.

I mean, on the best of days, something like this could probably take off in a few circles of little real importance like paganism is, but like a lot of new religions, nobody would take it seriously enough for it to achieve any sort of mass following. Doomed to an isolated minority of a minority.

 

[whitecrow]

Lovecraft was a very socially inept person and had a pretty messed-up background that stunted his social capabilities.

He is not an ideal leadership personality: he's too shy and too inclined to avoid the limelight, something the leader must thrust himself into.

I mean, on the best of days, something like this could probably take off in a few circles of little real importance like paganism is, but like a lot of new religions, nobody would take it seriously enough for it to achieve any sort of mass following. Doomed to an isolated minority of a minority.

So what allowed Ron Hubbard's Scientology to gain fame and following?

 

[Marc Pasquin]

So what allowed Ron Hubbard's Scientology to gain fame and following?

knack for self promotion and infectious delusions of grandeur.

Also, Scientology is a spinoff of the less quirky appearing "dianetics" so they roped in people first with a scientific sounding therapy and then went on with the religious aspect.

 

[DG Valdron]

Well, there's all sorts of new age cults between the 1880's and 1930's, so its not out of the question. On the one side, there was the Theosophists under Blavatsky, on the other, the Shaver mystery proto-cult.

What would it take?

One brilliant schizophrenic. Someone out there who imbibes all this stuff and regurgitates it as a full fledged cult.

There are elements that might work - the hedonistic rites that Lovecraft describes several times in Red Hook or the Call, might attract followers. The deep nihilism. The aspects of received wisdom.

Lovecraft, perhaps in the role of unwilling prophet.

 

[jacobus]

We will live forever in the sea, with Dagon!

 

[Marc Pasquin]

We will live forever in the sea, with Dagon!

wonder if she smells fishy....

 

[jacobus]

Don't they all, ha ha ha!

 

[doctorx]

We will live forever in the sea, with Dagon!

That girl was hot. Of course, she had tentacles for legs, but nobody's perfect.