Cthulhu, the Necronomicon, and other Curiosities

Cthulhu, the Necronomicon, and other Curiosities

   H P Lovecraft was an American author, mostly of what would be described as ‘pulp fiction’, who gained a small cult following during his lifetime yet, like so many other author of note, only truly became successful after his death. The American pulp magazine, Weird Tales, published his tale ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ in 1928 – the creature existed as part of the ‘Great Old Ones’ within the universe he created for his readers and looked like a hybrid of an octopus and a dragon  somehow combined into a human form.

   

   

Howard Phillips Lovecraft – 1890-1937
 

    A dark, esoteric, if not forbidden, knowledge drives the theme of the majority of Lovecraft's works - his heroes, or anti-heroes, seem to be impelled by curiosity or scientific need. The knowledge uncovered usually consists of such revelations that end up destroying them psychologically, physically, or even at times both which with so many of the characters in his books ending up dead brings us rather neatly onto the ‘Necronomicon’ .

     Lovecraft introduced the Necronomicon as a fictional grimoire and was an account of the history of the ‘Old Ones’ which contained the means for summoning them and it first appeared in his 1924 short story "The Hound" – though in the tale its origins are stated as coming from the works of the "Mad Arab", Abdul Alhazred, who had appeared as a character previously in another of Lovecraft’s works, "The Nameless City".

   After being faced with so many questions as the whether the Necronomicon, its ‘author’, or those beings it described, H P was forced to write a book about the books and even stated in a letter to Willis Conover, a jazz producer and broadcaster on the Voice of America for over forty years -

    ‘Now about the "terrible and forbidden books” — I am forced to say that most of them are purely imaginary. There never was any Abdul Alhazred or Necronomicon, for I invented these names myself. Robert Bloch devised the idea of Ludvig Prinn and his De Vermis Mysteriis, while the Book of Eibon is an invention of Clark Ashton Smith's. Robert E. Howard is responsible for Friedrich von Junzt and his Unaussprechlichen Kulten.... As for seriously-written books on dark, occult, and supernatural themes — in all truth they don’t amount to much. That is why it’s more fun to invent mythical works like the Necronomicon and Book of Eibon ‘.

‘That is not dead which can eternal lie.

And with strange aeons even death may die.’

H P Lovecraft
The Nameless City" (1921) & The Call of Cthulhu" (1928

    In his work ‘The Dunwich Horror ‘(1929) Lovecraft’s character, Wilbur Whateley, at the age of fifteen, locates a copy of the work library of Miskatonic University and finds the following passage -

 ‘Nor is it to be thought that man is either the oldest or the last of earth's masters, or that the common bulk of life and substance walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, and the Old Ones shall be. Not in the spaces we know, but between them, they walk serene and primal, undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth knows the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future, all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He knows where the Old Ones broke through of old, and where They shall break through again. He knows where They had trod earth's fields, and where They still tread them, and why no one can behold Them as They tread. By Their smell can men sometimes know Them near, but of Their semblance can no man know, saving only in the features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from man's truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely places where the Words have been spoken and the Rites howled through at their Seasons. The wind gibbers with Their voices, and the earth mutters with Their consciousness. They bend the forest and crush the city, yet may not forest or city behold the hand that smites. Kadath in the cold waste hath known’ Them’, and what man knows Kadath? The ice desert of the South and the sunken isles of Ocean hold stones whereon ‘Their’ seal is engraven, but who hath seen the deep frozen city or the sealed tower long garlanded with seaweed and barnacles? Great Cthulhu is Their cousin, yet can he spy Them only dimly. Ia! Shub-Niggurath! As a foulness shall ye know Them. Their hand is at your throats, yet ye see Them not; and Their habitation is even one with your guarded threshold. Yog-Sothoth is the key to the gate, whereby the spheres meet. Man rules now where They ruled once; They shall soon rule where man rules now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here shall They reign again.’

    After reading that excerpt, you may be surprised to learn that Wilbur dies after being mauled by a guard dog in situ – as to why, well, you’d need to read the book to learn that. I’m not about to spoil it all for you.

   And so, now we’re reaching the end of this post, what of the ‘Curiosities’ mentioned in the title of this piece? Well, the curiosities are in fact my own – to wit, how can people base a belief or even a religion on something that they’ve read?  Now I’m all for people reading , especially if it’s a book I’ve written and, even though what I write is based on observation and personal experience, I don’t expect, or even want ( maybe when I’m older  I might feel differently - who knows ? ) people to build temples and worship me in them as appealing as the thought is . The whole point is a writer writes and hides lies in truths and truths in lies usually with the intention of hopefully entertaining you - so if they tell you something is in fact an invention, a work of fiction, then take note. On the other hand, if they tell you something is completely true and that you should ignore everything else then  maybe it's time to run like hell. I’m not sure who’s the most dangerous in those cases, the author or the reader? And that is all I’m trying to say.

D W Storer August 2018/2019

Reculver - A Tale From The Past

Reculver

     A tiny caravan perched near the edge of a cliff, that wobbled when the wind blew, was where I spent my first few holidays as a child in the early 70’s. There was a shingle beach, usually a lot of foul smelling seaweed, and very little else there other than one tiny shop, a stall selling pie and mash, and an incredibly small arcade with a few penny machines in it. Desolate as the place was, it had some appeal for me, and most of it centred on the ruins of the Twin Towers of Reculver Castle which held, and still does, a certain fascination for me.

     My elder sister and brother seemed to take great delight in telling me that Dracula, Frankenstein, along with various other monsters, resided there with the sole intention of eating small children who wandered too close. My mother, on the other hand, didn’t like the place at all and seemed to be more than happy to avoid it as much as possible, which was perfectly understandable considering the history of the place and the ghosts some people believe haunt the site.

   

    Reculver was an important Roman fort by the name of  Regulbium or Raculfceastre (Ceaster meaning Roman walled town), which then became the Old English Raculf, was built during the early 3^rd century AD possibly during the reign of the Emperor Severus with the intention of guarding against the marauding Saxon forces. Controlling the northern entrance to the Wantsum Channel, which was approximately 3 miles wide at the time, and cut off the Isle of Thanet from the mainland, the fort stood on a promontory at the north end of the channel where it joined the Thames estuary, albeit over the centuries the Wantsum silted up and became dry land. Even now, despite the coastal erosion it’s still an impressive site that’s visible from nearby Herne Bay and Margate even.

    When the Romans abandoned Britain in the 5^th century AD the fort fell into ruins and seems to have been left unused until 669AD when an Anglo-Saxon monastery was built upon them, and this lasted until sometime during the 10^th century whereupon it appears to have evolved into the parish church, which was dedicated to St Mary, there. The towers which make it such a rarity ( most churches only have one) were added in the 12^th century and the building survived until 1805 when it was partially demolished with much of the stonework being removed to be used on another church on higher ground at Hillborough where , due to the incessant coastal erosion , the Reculver community seems to have relocated, The twin towers however, were left standing, and were purchased by Trinity House four years later who underpinned the site to allow it in all likelihood to continue being used as a landmark to guide shipping.

   

    Canterbury Cathedral is home to two columns from Reculver which can be found in its eastern crypt. In 1852 Joseph Brigstocke Sheppard, who was to become keeper of the Cathedral’s archives, was visiting a friend’s orchard near Canterbury and quite by chance discovered several large stone drums which he recognised as those that made up columns from the old church which caused him to contact Charles Roach Smith, the author of Antiquities of Richborough, Reculver , and Lymme which led to Canon Robertson purchasing the remains of the columns and placing them within the Cathedral’s Precincts. When Sheppard located more remains on a local farm they too were recovered – the pair were then displayed in the Water Tower Garden until 1932 when, with a donation of £144 (slightly over £7000 by today’s standards) from the Friends of Canterbury Cathedral, to their present location.

     Reculver has of course, like so many of these old sites, its fair share of legends and ghosts and has been the subject of many paranormal investigations with varied results to say the least. Saturday nights can be rather busy there with the semi- professional groups that vie with both amateurs and the thrill seekers who attempt to discover its secrets – this combined with the occultists who attempt to perform their works there means that it is no easy place to work with to say the least. It’s a fact that the local radio stations and taxi firms can interfere with recording equipment which is a real hindrance to the serious investigator.

    Tales of Roman soldiers, hooded figures, spectral monks, crying children, sailors, soldiers, airmen even, abound within the realms of prurient urban myth yet, no doubt to the amazement of some, despite the tales growing longer in the retelling there are, hidden away amongst the Hall of Broken Stones (as I refer to the place in my books) some grains of truth to be discovered.

    In 1966, which was the year I was born, skeletal remains were found under the foundations of the Roman barrack block when the site was excavated - some theories claim they may have been sacrificed by the Romans to help ‘protect’ the fort , whilst others suggest they may be older and of Celtic origin . Certainly many reports can be found on the internet, and on You Tube especially, which claim to have recorded the sounds of crying children, shouts, moans, and various other phenomena . Are they real, misinterpreted or corrupt data, or even blatant fakes?  Even if you watch them you’ll still have no real feel for the place, or be any wiser as to what’s really there- to do that you’ll have to visit Reculver, and if you do you may well be in for a surprise. Hopefully it’ll be a pleasant one. 

    What now?  I could copy and paste a few tales of the abnormal activities and phantasmic fantasies that seem to be prevalent, quick and simple as it would be, but I don’t know if any of them are actually true - so I’ll supply you with one that I know is. How do I know it’s true? Because I know the people involved all too well.

     Those of you who remember them will have to cast your minds back to the 1970’s , pre decimal – when real money still existed and not all this toy-town stuff foisted on us. If you weren’t around back then you’ll have to use your imagination, and regret the fact you missed out on the last few years before the rot set in. Showing my age? Absolutely, and grinning while I do so. Why is for a future post and that’s all I’ll say on the matter. 

   To set the scene then -  it’s early evening, yet dark. Most of the light available comes flickering through the windows of caravans where people are settling down for the night. Peaceful even, the waves rolling gently over the shingle beach are accompanied by the calls of those seagulls still floating about in hope of finding scraps. It’s all part of the adventure that makes for happy memories of simpler times. Even with the Towers rearing up out of the gloom, and how they loom in the sight of the boy who, despite the tales told by his siblings of the place in an attempt to frighten him, can feel the threat of the place in a way that his family cannot.

   The sounds he can hear emanating from the place confuse him- as if there are frightened children there, and a low murmuring that he will later come to recognize as chanting. Questions asked about them are either ignored, or brushed aside as childish imagination, something he gets used to far too quickly. To fetch dinner, however, they must head on - and that brings them closer to the shadows that confuse him even more, for shadows there are, and they are not where they should be. 

    It takes minutes, yet seems far longer to the child, and as they trudge back up the slope to their caravan he notices a change in the atmosphere. Clutching his hand tightly his mother has suddenly begun to walk faster, dragging him along with some urgency. Risking a glance behind, and almost falling in the process, he can see that something appears to be following them- a hooded figure that is some way back but gaining ground.  Attempts to point this fact out are responded to with a hissed request to be quiet and hurry up, yet he knows that she has seen it too.

    On reaching their tiny sanctuary it becomes clear from the way the door is hastily pulled shut and bolted that the boy’s mother is worried. Chilly as the evening is, the caravan seems to have become colder as their meal is hurriedly eaten. A low, keening, call comes from outside- seemingly far off, yet near at the same time which lingers momentarily then fades. The rest of the night is spent quietly, for the child’s mother is clearly rattled by the experience, and when they finally go to bed sleep comes far quicker than usual.

     The following day sees them back on the beach, albeit not so far along this time lest they stray too close to the towers. No mention is made of the previous night’s events, and the boy knows better than to press the matter. They return there, for their holidays, for the next few years and he can often be found sitting sketching the place, or just sat staring at it , and not once will anyone think to ask him why.

 

   Truth is often stranger than fiction, so the saying goes, so why not find out for yourself and go there. Even of the best of days it’s noticeable that the ruins, and not just because they’re ruins, have an aura about them that is just not ‘right’-something is wrong there, very wrong. Perhaps the best thing would be for the sea to reclaim it, and free whatever is trapped there for once and for all- and that is all I’m saying for now.

                        D W Storer  2018/2019

Spring- Heeled Jack

Spring- Heeled Jack

   

   Without a doubt the myth of Spring-heeled Jack enthralled and captivated the Victorians. The records of the time show his first ‘appearance’ occurred in 1837 and the last being reported in Liverpool as late as 1904, with his legend gaining momentum people from all over Great Britain claimed to have seen him- albeit most of these were from London and accordingly, with such a furore becoming so prevalent he became the subject of so many of the ‘penny dreadfuls’ of the time,  and even now theories abound as to what, or who, Spring-heeled Jack, if he ever actually existed, was.

     Descriptions of him as varied wildly – ranging from having a ‘terrifying and frightful appearance, with diabolical physiognomy, clawed hands, and eyes that "resembled red balls of fire’, or that’ beneath his black cloak, he wore a helmet and a tight-fitting white garment like an oilskin’, whilst others claimed that he’ was tall and thin, dressed like a gentleman’. More outlandish ones included tales of him breathing out blue and white flames and having sharp metallic claws.

    An account from October 1837 gives details of a girl by the name of Mary Stevens who, after visiting her parents in Battersea, was walking to Lavender Hill, where she was working as a servant. As she passed through Clapham Common a dark figure leapt at her from a shadowy alley and grasped her tightly whilst trying to kiss her face, ripping her clothes, and touching her flesh with his claws, which she spoke of as being as "cold and clammy as those of a corpse".  Her screams brought nearby residents rushing to her aid and her assailant fled the scene leaving no trace.

   

    Following close upon the heels of Mary’s ordeal, pun intended, the next day saw another incident occur- one that was quite close to her home and which started a trend in those reports that followed in the years to come.  The ‘fiend’ jumped in front of a passing carriage, causing the coachman to crash and injure himself. Eyewitness accounts stated that he escaped by jumping over a 9 foot high wall with a burst of ‘high-pitched’ laughter, thereby earning himself the appellation given to him both by the press as well as the pubic of ‘Spring-Heeled Jack’

      Sir John Cowan, the then Lord Mayor of London revealed at a public session held in the Mansion House on 9 January 1838 that he had been sent ‘anonymous letter’ signed by "a resident of Peckham" wherein the writer claimed that some members of society’s highest ranks had wagered with one of their number to visit the villages near London in three different disguises- namely a ghost, a bear, and a devil with the purpose of causing alarm. The wager had been accepted, and the villain had succeeded in ‘depriving seven ladies of their senses, two of whom are not likely to recover, but to become burdens to their families’.

    When a member of the audience informed those attending the meeting that, "servant girls about Kensington, Hammersmith and Ealing, tell tales of this devil", the sceptics amongst them began to be swayed and when the matter was reported in The Times on 9 January, with other national papers picking up on the story over the next few days , Cowan then displayed to a crowded gathering a pile of letters from various places in and around London all claiming to be victims of , or of hearing tales of , similar "wicked pranks".

    Cowan was still sceptical about the affair which he thought to be full of falsehoods, exaggerations, and those seeking attention, saying that it was impossible "that the ghost performs the feats of a devil upon earth". However, when a trusted confidante told him of a servant girl from Forest Hill who had been scared into fits by a figure in a bear's skin he was certain that the person or persons involved in this "pantomime display" would be caught and instructed the police to search for those responsible.

     Illustrating how the trend had captured the public eye an article, first featured in The Brighton Gazette, found its way into the 14 April 1838 edition of The Times and told of how a gardener in Rosehill, Sussex, had been ‘terrified by a creature of unknown nature’- albeit it then came about that it had been described as ‘some large, four footed beast’. Despite the report bearing no real similarities to others The Times declared that ‘’Spring-heeled Jack has, it seems, found his way to Sussex’’.

   Possibly the most famous incidents involving Spring-heeled Jack were the claims of having been attacked by Lucy Scales and Jane Alsop, both of whom were teenage girls at the time-

    Jane claimed that on the night of 19 February 1838, upon answering the door of her father's house a man claiming to be a police officer told her to bring a light claiming that ‘Spring-Heeled Jack had been captured; and asked her to bring some form of lighting to help. After fetching a candle and handing it to him he immediately removed his cloak and had a ‘most hideous and frightful appearance’, with blue and white flames bursting from his mouth, eyes that were red balls of fire, whilst wearing a helmet and a suit of white oilskin. As he shredded her clothes with claws ‘of some metallic substance’ she screamed for help which led to her being rescued by one of her sisters at which point the creature fled.

   Reported as "The Late Outrage At Old Ford" by The Times the article was accompanied by details of the trial of Thomas Millbank, who, after hearing of Alsop’s ordeal, had loudly proclaimed in the Morgan's Arms that he was Spring-heeled Jack. Arrested and tried at Lambeth Street court it came about that Millbank had been wearing white overalls and a greatcoat, which he had abandoned outside the house yet, incredibly, he was acquitted because Jane Alsop insisted her attacker had breathed fire, which he admitted was not something within his powers to manage.

    A week later, Lucy Scales and her sister were returning home from Limehouse after visiting their brother. Their route took them via Green Dragon Alley, where they noticed a figure wearing a cloak loitering within the shadows, who as they drew nearer, shot blue flames towards her face, causing her to lose her sight and collapse in shock. Her brother, as they were being interviewed by the police afterwards, claimed he had heard his sisters screaming within seconds of leaving his house and, on running up Green Dragon Alley to investigate, he discovered Lucy writhing in the grip of some fit, which lasted for several hours, with her sister trying to aid her.  As she recovered once back at his home, his other sister explained what had happened. Her description of Lucy's assailant to the officers attending was of someone tall, thin, and gentlemanly, hidden within the confines of a large cloak, and carrying a small lamp much like those used by the police. By this time reports of Spring-heeled Jack cropped up almost on a regular basis in the newspapers and his notorious behaviour led to him appearing as the subject of various 'penny dreadfuls' and even plays performed in the more dire theatres that abounded at the time.

   Perversely reports of Spring-heeled Jack's appearances became rarer as either the public’s imagination, or interest in him waned, until suddenly in 1843 when a host of sightings raced across the country once more with on such report, originating from Northamptonshire, proclaimed that he had ‘the very image of the Devil himself, with horns and eyes of flame’, whereas notices of attacks on drivers of mail coaches in East Anglia became common. In Teignmouth, Devon one investigation held during the month of July 1847 actually resulted in the arrest and conviction of a Captain Finch on two charges of assault against women - he is said to disguised himself in a bullock's hide, skullcap, horns and mask which may have led to the tales of the "Devil's Footprints" which appeared in Devon in February 1855.

   

‘This here is Satan,-we might say the devil, but that ain't right, and gennel folks don't like such words. He is now commonly called 'Spring-heeled Jack;' or the 'Rossian Bear,' – that's since the war’

— Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, 

     During the first few years of the 1870’s Spring-heeled Jack seemed to enjoy a rebirth with reports surfacing once more from all over England.  November 1872 saw the News of the World announcing that Peckham was "in a state of commotion owing to what is known as the "Peckham Ghost", a mysterious figure, quite alarming in appearance". Further, they stated that it was "Spring-heeled Jack resurfacing to continue his reign of terror that had caused such uproar in years gone by- even The Illustrated Police News followed suit including several articles detailing his latest incarnation. The months of April and May, 1873, witnessed even more sightings of the "Park Ghost" in Sheffield, which were also claimed to be Spring-heeled Jack.

    By the autumn of 1877 reports seemed to be once again dying out, although one notable incident was the reputed appearance of Spring-heeled Jack at Newport Arch, in Lincoln, Lincolnshire- this time supposedly wearing a sheep skin. Pursued by a mob him, and eventually cornered, whereupon some members of the mob opened fire on him with no visible effect.  Following the legend, it was stated that he leaped from roof to roof before disappearing from sight.

    With the last claims of his appearing occurred sometime during 1888, in Everton with a display of his famed agility on the rooftop of Saint Francis Xavier's Church in Salisbury Street and then again in 1904 when he reputedly made his final appearances in nearby William Henry Street, after which he seemed to have quietly gone into retirement.

   

     Spring-heeled Jack for all his amazing abilities, the amount of attacks attributed to him, and the number of years that his activities supposedly took place, has never actually been identified. Theories abound as to who he could have been, much in the same way as Jack the Ripper, but none offer any real evidence which begs the question- if he wasn’t a person, and more than just a collective hysteria, the what was he?

D W Storer 2018/2019

The Mothman

The Mothman

   Whether you’re a lover of Forteana or not, you’ve probably heard of the ‘Mothman’ – it’s even been the subject of a film, ‘The Mothman Prophecies’ made in 2002 with Richard Gere starring which was based on John Keel’s 1975 book of the same name in which he theorized that there were supernatural events related to the sightings and of one in particular that preceded (or predicted ) the collapse of the Silver Bridge which carries ca U.S. Route 35 over the Ohio River and connects Point Pleasant, West Virginia, with Gallipolis, in Ohio.

   Reports of the Mothman seem to begin in the Point Pleasant area with sightings reported from November 12, 1966, to December 15, 1967 – the first newspaper to mention it was the Point Pleasant Register which ran a story on November 16, 1966 with the heading "Couples See Man-Sized Bird ... Creature ... Something".

    According to the records so far the first known appearance put in by the creature was witnessed by five gravediggers working in cemetery near Clendenin, West Virginia who claimed to see a man-like figure fly low from the trees over the heads on November 12, 1966. 3 days later two young couples, Roger and Linda Scarberry and Steve and Mary Mallette, told police they had been followed by a ‘large grey creature whose eyes "glowed red’ when the car headlights picked it up that resembled a "large flying man with ten-foot wings", car while they were driving in an area outside of town known as ‘the TNT area’, which was the site of a disused munitions plant.

     The tale spread over the next few days with more reports of sightings being announced.  Two volunteer firemen claimed they had seen it but it appeared to be a ‘large bird with red eyes’.  The Mason County Sheriff George Johnson proclaimed that it was no more than an unusually large heron which he termed a ‘shitepoke’ after being informed by a local contractor, Newell Partridge, that when he aimed a flashlight at a creature in a nearby field its eyes glowed "like bicycle reflectors", and even revealed that he believed buzzing noises from his television set and the disappearance of his dog were down to the creature.

    Dr. Robert L. Smith, a Wildlife biologist at West Virginia University, informed the press that the witness descriptions thus far seemed to point to the creature being a 'sandhill crane' , which was almost as high as a man and had a seven-foot wingspan as well as having reddish circles around its eyes, pointing out that the bird was not usually seen in the area and that this was probably a case of mistaken identity.

    The bridge in question, that seems to be the focal point for the Mothman legend really picking up speed, is a suspension eye-bar chain bridge, built in 1928 which collapsed during rush hour. The cause of this disaster isn’t really much of a mystery, for it was traced to a defect in one of the eye-bar links a crack to forming due a defect in one of the eye-bar links. The real mystery was the appearance of a strange visitor sighted several times by the citizens of Point Pleasant during the months leading up to the tragedy- which then became the basis for the film. 

    As for the film, I’ve seen it, directed by Mark Pellington and as state before was based on the 1975 book by Fortean author and parapsychologist John Keel and starred Richard Gere as John Klein, a reporter researching the legend of the Mothman. It had a mixed reception, despite being given a certificate to allow children over the age of 14 to see it, and barely made its costs back.

    Can I recommend it? That’s a tough one – it was advertised as being ‘based on a true story’ – note the ‘based’ .Whenever I see that word used with a film, or even a book, I see it as a warning sign, because in truth the film gets an awful lot wrong and even claims that the cause of the collapse was never found ( which it was in 1971- before the book was even written ) , along with other ‘lapses’ too. Still, saying that, if you’re a fan of matters Fortean then you may well enjoy it for what it is, a reasonable romp for late night viewing even if it does seem to be similar in style to the X-Files series a little too much.

     As a parting shot, curiously, it appears that there have been worldwide sightings for there are some cryptozoology theorists who claim that the Mothman has been seen before many catastrophes, incredibly even 9-11.

    Now it's your turn-  any thoughts or comments , suggestions ( preferably polite ones) , or if you want to mention your own experiences feel free to pop them into the comment box-  

D W Storer 2018/2019 

Headless Horsmen

Headless Horsemen

Scene taken from Tim Burton’s 1999 film The Legend of Sleepy Hollow

Headless Horsemen

   The first time I came across the ‘Legend of Sleepy Hollow’ was as a child, way back in the early 1970’s. It was, of all things, a Disney cartoon- one that held my attention rather well despite my being no fan of them even at that tender age. Ichabod Crane and the Headless- Horseman- a tale of a schoolteacher and his “face-to-face” rendezvous with a headless horseman was set in a small village on the banks of the Hudson River in Westchester County, New York, and told of a Hessian trooper whose head was taken off by a cannonball during the Revolutionary War. Buried without his head in Sleepy Hollow’s churchyard, he was believed to hunt the premises at night, desperately searching for his missing head.

  A tale that has endured many different versions, especially in the film world, the latest version (1999) starred Jonny Depp, and most people think it started with Washington Irving’s 1820 work without realising his tale had its foundations laid in tales far older.

Scene from Disney’s 1949 two part film- The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr Toad

   The Brothers Grimm had published their versions of folk tales on this subject some years before Irving and, considering the parallels to be seen in their stories, may well have influenced him no small amount. In the tale of Hans Jagendteufel (sometimes Hagen-Teufel ) , set near Dresden, a woman gathering acorns in a place called “Lost Waters” hears a hunting horn and turns around to see the headless “hunting devil” riding by. To her joy it ignores her and continues its hunt for ‘evil-doers’ and the like. In their tale ‘Brunswick’, a “Wild Huntsman” warns hunters not to hunt without dire results- those that decided to go against his advice and entered the woods find themselves to be the prey instead.

Scene taken from tapestry at British Museum showing Arthurian tales

   Travelling further back in time the tale can be seen to have roots in the Arthurian romances, if not even in the far older Celtic legends too. In the 14^th century tale of Gawain and the Green Knight, a mysterious ‘Green knight’ appears at Camelot with the intention of testing the king’s knights’ loyalty and honour. Daring Arthur, or any of his knights, to behead him on condition that whoever took up the challenge would swear to meet him a year and a day after the event to receive the same treatment in return. Although Arthur was first to rise and offer to accept his nephew Gawain, the youngest knight present, argued for the right to perform the deed himself and promptly carried out the decapitation with one blow. The Green Knight, however, instead of dying on the spot merely retrieved his head and reminded all present of the conditions of the challenge before leaving.

    Depending, again on the version told, Gawain rode out the Green Knight’s castle to fulfil his obligation and, without knowing it, was tested 3 times for his honesty and of these tests he passed 2 which was reflected in his treatment by the Knight who takes the same number of swings with his axe at Gawain’s neck with only the third stroke making contact, Honour thus satisfied the tales ends with the usual happy ending as Gawain returns to Camelot.

    The photo above  is of the location where the Headless Horseman  purportedly lost his head - somewhere near this field on the slope of Merrit Hill in White Plains, New York, about nine miles from Sleepy Hollow.  During the last week of October, 1776, this property was the site of hostilities between American and British forces during the American War for Independence.  Today, a small monument topped with an antique cannon marks the site of these events, and a sign nearby describes the historic significance of the location.    The old Celtic legend of the Dullahan, or Gan Ceann, the headless harbinger of death, is thought to possibly be the first ever reference to a headless horseman found in history books, albeit it’s impossible to know where or by whom the Dullahan is first mentioned, but he appears to be tied to the ancient Celtic god, Crom Cruach, the Dark God of the Burial Mound.
   Legend has it that about 15 centuries ago Ireland was ruled by the sacred High Kings. They were god-given rulers, and King Tighermas considered himself to be a direct descendant of this dark lord who demanded human sacrifices to be made in his name each year in order that both the land and women would ‘bear fruit’ and Crom Cruach’s preferred method of sacrifice just happened to be decapitation.
  St. Patrick, in his own legends, is said to have found this stone, sometime during the 6^th century, and smashed part of it to pieces thereby banishing the ‘God’ to hell and ended this ruthless pagan practice, along with the sacrificial religion. The worshiping stone, known as the Killycluggin Stone, actually exists and can be found within the precincts of  the museum of Cavan County .   A collection of ancient texts, known as The Metrical Dindshenchas, tells us that people from Ireland upon their king’s request were duty bound to give up their firstborn in return for a rich harvest the next year- the unfortunate children’s heads would be smashed on a stone representing Crom Cruach.

Replica of Killycluggin Stone

    Even as Christianity replaced the indigenous religion the old fears never completely died out for a god so dark could never perish and would still harvest souls one way or another- if not by a willing sacrifice, then with wrath and fury. Thus rose , in Irish folklore,  the legend of the Dullahan.

     A type of ‘Unseelie’, or dark faery, it appears to be the Celtic equivalent of the Grim Reaper, carrying a whip made out of a human spine in one hand and his rotting head in the other. Some describe him as a headless rider on a headless black horse, whilst others claim he rides on a carriage made out of bones, coffins, and tombstones pulled by six fire-breathing headless horses. Both versions agree on one thing - if you hear him speak, then he is speaking your name, and your time has come.

   Sleepy Hollow, German forests, or Irish fields, the legend persists, Maybe it has its roots in tales far earlier than those I’ve managed to dig up and if you know of any please let us know here – who knows what we could uncover between us all ?

D W Storer 2018/2019

The Baphomet

  

The Baphomet

   This post is without doubt going to prove to be somewhat difficult to write- far too many people have been brainwashed by religion, the media, and especially Hollywood, into thinking that the Baphomet is in fact the mythological bogeyman of Christianity known as ‘the Devil’ and to explain what it truly represents will as usual be met with the cries and accusations of heresy, Satanism, and other nonsensical blatherings that so many retreat into when faced with facts that challenge their beliefs.

''I am who you say I am
Yet you know me not''

D W Storer

   It’s a curious thing, for the Devil wasn’t originally seen by the church as an evil figure but as a dark angel that worked as ‘God’s Gaoler’, yet it evolved within the social politics of the medieval mind into a creature of ultimate darkness that hated humanity pretty much around the same time as the witchcraft trials began to gain momentum in the 14^th and 15^th centuries. Works such as Kramer’s Malleus Maleficarum added to the hysteria that began with outbreaks of plague across Europe as scapegoats were sought- to wit, witches and a greater source of evil were used by those who could not explain why such things occurred and needed to find a way to hold on to their power.

   

     Such thoughts even helped lay the foundations of the fall of the Templars arranged by King Philip IV of France, who was heavily in debt to them, with the collusion of Pope Clement V who was related to him.  The arrest warrant started with the phrase: "Dieu n'est pas content, nous avons des ennemis de la foi dans le Royaume" or "God is not pleased. We have enemies of the faith in the kingdom"   which led to the mass arrests of members of the order on October 13, 1307 ,and the eventual execution of so many of them on charges of heresy and apostasy, financial fraud, and even sodomy.

     What was it then that the Templars were supposedly worshipping? The accusations included idolatry, and descriptions of their idol ranged from the mummified head of John the Baptist to the Goat of Mendes -  the indictment (acte d'accusation) published by the court of Rome set forth ... "that in all the provinces they had idols, that is to say, heads, some of which had three faces, others but one; sometimes, it was a human skull ... That in their assemblies, and especially in their grand chapters, they worshipped the idol as a god, as their saviour, saying that this head could save them, that it bestowed on the order all its wealth, made the trees flower, and the plants of the earth to sprout forth.  The medieval mind, with such events taking place, needed no urging to further develop the character into the ‘Devil’ we know of today.

   Nowadays most people associate the image of the Baphomet with the one created as an illustration by Eliphas Levi in his books ‘ Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie’ (Dogma and Rituals of High Magic)  which he published as two volumes (Dogme 1854, Rituel 1856), in which he included a sketch drawn by himself and  described it as the Baphomet and "The Sabbatic Goat",  yet it greatly differs from the historical descriptions from the Templar trials. It is possible that he, himself, was inspired by grotesque carvings on the Templar churches of Lanleff in Brittany and Saint-Merri in Paris, which depict squatting bearded men with bat wings, female breasts, horns and the shaggy hindquarters of a beast. Levi is known to have believed that the usual figures depicting the ‘Devil’, especially those used in the witchcraft trials of old were more half remembered items of pagan religions than the enemy of mankind and so this coloured his works accordingly. 

    Lévi called his image "The Goat of Mendes", possibly following Herodotus' account that the god of Mendes, which was the Greek name for Djedet, in Egypt, had a goat's face and legs. Herodotus relates how all male goats were believed to be holy by the Mendesians who worshipped the god Pan and his living image on earth which is often referred to as the  Mendean Ram, or Ram of Mendes .

   Representation of carvings found on Templar churches depicting the Baphomet

    Some years before Levi had begun his works the name Baphomet appeared in an essay composed by the Viennese Orientalist Joseph Freiherr von Hammer-Purgstall, which he titled  ‘Idoloduliæ et Impuritatis convicti, per ipsa eorum Monumenta’ or The Discovery of the Mystery of Baphomet, by which the Knights Templars, like the Gnostics and Ophites, are convicted of Apostasy, of Idolatry and of moral Impurity, by their own Monuments. Here he presented his views with the intention of discrediting Templarist Masonry and Freemasonry. In it he argued, using as archaeological evidence of "Baphomets" mentioned by earlier scholars, and parts of the Grail romances by authors such as  Von Eschenbach and Chrétien de Troyes, that the Templars were Gnostics and the "Templars' head" was a Gnostic idol.

     The content of this essay consists mainly of his opinions on images described as ‘Baphomets’ that he had located found in various museums and collections of antiquities. Carved from stone, they were portraying hermaphrodites with either two heads or two faces that although having beards had breasts also. It appears that the majority of them had serpents, the sun and moon, included along with various, and often unknown, emblems as well as inscriptions that he attributes to both the Sophia ‘Mete’ and  the ‘Achamot Prunikos’ of the Ophites as described by  Hippolytus of Rome which was represented half man, half woman, as the symbol of wisdom, unnatural voluptuousness and the principle of sensuality  which he claimed signified the baptism of Metis, or the Gnostic baptism, which was an enlightening of the mind, albeit this was interpreted by the Ophites as a fleshly union instead.

The Goat of Mendes , as portrayed in the Hammer film adaptation of
Dennis Wheatley’s ‘ The Devil Rides out ‘

    For Aleister Crowley Levi’s Baphomet was an important figure within his Thelemic cosmos and he asserted that the Baphomet was a divine androgyne and ‘the hieroglyph of arcane perfection’ – in essence that which reflects, or ‘As above so below’. Featured heavily within the Creed of the Gnostic Catholic Church, the congregation recites in The Gnostic Mass, ‘And I believe in the Serpent and the Lion, Mystery of Mysteries, in His name BAPHOMET’

    Crowley went further in clarifying his tenets by stating that ‘The Devil does not exist. It is a false name invented by the Black Brothers to imply a Unity in their ignorant muddle of dispersions. A devil who had unity would be a God... 'The Devil' is, historically, the God of any people that one personally dislikes... This serpent, SATAN, is not the enemy of Man, but He who made Gods of our race, knowing Good and Evil; He bade 'Know Thyself!' and taught Initiation. He is 'The Devil' of The Book of Thoth, and His emblem is BAPHOMET, the Androgyne who is the hieroglyph of arcane perfection... He is therefore Life, and Love. But moreover his letter is Ayin, the Eye, so that he is Light; and his Zodiacal image is Capricornus, that leaping goat whose attribute is Liberty’

     At the end of it all you can either adapt your own beliefs or hide behind them depending on how you feel on such matters. For myself I believe the Baphomet to be an allegorical depiction of some Higher Consciousness that exists possibly with the hope that humanity may actually learn to rely less on modern technology and more on instinct and the pursuit of a higher level of awareness. There is a phrase that doubtless Crowley took from those famous inscriptions carved upon the walls of the Delphic Temple – ‘Gnothi seauton’ , he included it in the above passage, which translated from the Greek is generally taken to be ‘ Know thyself- then follow the God’ . Gnosis, self- knowledge and the union with the God, what more could we aim for? 

   Look to yourself, look above, look below, look at everything, for everything has a reason to ‘be’ as much as everything has a reason not to ‘be’ and in learning why perhaps, with time and effort,  you will discover your own place and why you yourself are here.

D W Storer 2018 / 2019