Anthony Testa - The Key of the Abyss.pdf

is, as the above shows, associated with Witchcraft, specifically the
“Witchcult” of the Middle Ages 228 , in Lovecraft’s story Dreams in the
Witch House. Interestingly, words with the NAEQ6 value of 155 are
abomination, intimate and mysteries.
While I realize this will be a problematic association insofar as
Lovecraft is a writer of horror stories 229 , it is worth noting that
Lovecraft “dreamt” Nyarlathotep into being, he was not a literary
creation. Second, the connection with the Witch cult is based on
archetypal resonance 230 so the association is not without foundation. It
is also the case that the “Black Man” of the cult is a legendary figure
associated with the Mediaeval resurgence of Witchcraft and therefore,
as we noted earlier, with the establishment of the coven (NAEQ6,
COVEN = 74, 7 + 4 =11).
228
Though it should be noted that Lovecraft got this concept from Margaret Murray’s The
Witchcult in Western Europe, a book that is considered unreliable as an historical reading of
the records of the Witch trials. The god of the Witches, as viewed by Murray, was
IT is impossible to understand the witch-cult without first understanding the position of the
chief personage of that cult. He was known to the contemporary Christian judges and
recorders as the Devil, and was called by them Satan, Lucifer, Beelzebub, the Foul Fiend, the
Enemy of Salvation, and similar names appropriate to the Principle of Evil, the Devil of the
Scriptures, with whom they identified him.
This was far from the view of the witches themselves. To them this so-called Devil was God,
manifest and incarnate; they adored him on their knees, they addressed their prayers to him,
they offered thanks to him as the giver of food and the necessities of life, they dedicated their
children to him, and, there are indications that, like many another god, he was sacrificed for
the good of his people.
The contemporary writers state in so many words that the witches believed in the divinity of
their Master. Danaeus, writing in 1575, says, 'The Diuell com{m}aundeth them that they shall
acknowledge him for their god, cal vpo{n} him, pray to him, and trust in him. Then doe they
all repeate the othe which they haue geuen vnto him; in acknowledging him to be their God.'
Gaule, in 1646, nearly a century later, says that the witches vow 'to take him [the Devil] for
their God, worship, invoke, obey him'. [Margaret Murray, The Witchcult in Western Europe]
This theory – that the Witches were a Pagan survival of Pre-Christian Europe, had a huge
impact on Gardner in his creation of is Witchcult. Lovecraft’s view of this deity is more of an
adoption of form rather than substance, as he clearly considered Nyarlathotep to be a Demonic
being.
229
and I realize “serious” magicians, i.e. those who fail to grasp Grant and Bertiaux in
particular, the sort who thinks Grant is “unreadable” will dismiss this out of hand. I confess
that I view this chapter as having the additional benefit of being a repellent to those who think
that reading books and getting degrees – or whatever – is the same thing as Magick.
230
Which is to say by the magical theory of correspondences, see Sepher Sephirot.
147