couplet for azathoth

'' outside the ordered universe, where no dreams reach; that last amorphous blight of nether most confusion which blasphemes and bubbles at the centre of all infinity--the boundless daemon sultan azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud, and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes; ...

'' that last amorphous blight of nether-most confusion where bubbles and blasphemes at infinity's centre the mindless daemon-sultan azathoth, whose name no lips dare speak aloud ... those inconcievable, unlighted chambers beyond time wherein azathoth gnaws shapeless and ravenous amidst the muffled, maddening beat of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes. ''

h.p.lovecraft, dream quest of unknown kadath.

zenig's skull

zenig at a place called etsy.


 ''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.

barzai's repose

''atop the tallest of earth's peaks dwell the gods of earth, and suffer no man to tell that he hath looked upon them. lesser peaks they once inhabited; but ever men from the plains would scale the slopes of rock and snow, driving the gods to higher and higher mountains till now only the last remain. sometimes when earth's gods are homesick they visit in the still night the peaks where once they dwelt, and weep softly as they try to play in the olden way on remembered slopes.

''in ulthar, which lies beyond the river skai, once dwelt an old man avid to behold the gods of earth; ... his name was barzai the wise, and the villagers tell of how he went up a mountain on the night of the strange eclipse. barzai knew so much of the gods that he could tell of their comings and goings, and guessed so many of their secrets that he was deemed half a god himself.

''he believed that his great secret knowledge of gods could shield him from their wrath, so resolved to go up the summit of high and rocky hatheg-kla on a night when he knew the gods would be there. ... the villagers of hateg-kla say it is ill to climb the hateg-kla at any time, and deadly to climb it by night when pale vapours hide the summit and the moon;

''but barzai heeded them not when he came from neighboring ulthar with the young priest atal, who was his disciple. ... many days they travelled and from afar saw lofty hateg-kla with his aureole of mournful mist. ... the way was rocky and made perilous by chasms, cliffs, and falling stones, ... for three days they climbed higher and higher toward the roof of the world; then they camped to wait for the clouding of the moon.

''for four nights no clouds came, and the moon shone down cold through the thin mournful mist around the silent pinnacle. then on the fifth night which was the night of the full moon, barzai saw some dense clouds far to the north, and stayed up with atal to watch them draw near.

''barzai was wise in the lore of earth's gods, and listened hard for certain sounds, but atal felt the chill of the vapours and the awe of the night, and feared much. and when barzai began to climb higher and beckon eagerly, it was long before atal would follow.

''then through the high mists he heard thte voice of barzai shouting wildly in delight: "i have heard the gods. i have heard earth's gods singing in revelry on hateg-kla! ... the wisdom of barzai hath made him greater than earth's gods and against his will their spells and barriers are as naught; barzai will behold the gods, the proud gods, the secret gods, the gods of earth who spurn the sight of man!"

''then he heard barzai's voice grow shrill and louder: "the other gods! the other gods! the gods of the outer hells that guard the feeble gods of earth! ... look away ... go back ... do not see! do not see! the vengeance of the infnite abysses ... that cursed, that damnable pit ... merciful gods of earth, i am falling into the sky!"

''barzai the wise they never found, nor could the holy priest atal ever be persuaded to pray for his souls rerpose. ... and above the mists on hateg-kla earth's gods sometimes dance reminiscently for they know they are safe, and love to come from unknown kadath in ships of cloud and play in the olden way, as they did when earth was new and men not given to the climbing of inaccessible places.''

h.p.lovecraft, the other gods.

low-pulp tentacles

'' if i say that my somewhat extravagant imagination yielded simultaneous pictures of an octopus, a dragon, and a human charicature, i shall not be unfaithful to the spirit of the thing ... a pulpy tentacled head surmounted a grotesque and scaly body with rudimentary wings; but it was the general outline of the whole which made it most shockingly frightful ... ''


h.p.lovecraft, the call of cthulhu.

droning song

''trembling in waves that golden whisps of nebula made weirdly visible, there rose a timid hint of far off melody, droning in faint chords that our own universe of stars knows not. ... it was a song, but not the song of any voice. night and the spheres sang it, and it was old when space and nyarlathotep and the other gods were born.'' h.p.lovecraft, the dreamquest of unknown kadath.

ancestral image restored

self portrait via it's about time.


'' this matter of the portrait interested him, particularly, since he would have given much to know just what joseph curwen looked like ... in three days he returned with an artist of long experiance, mr. walter dwight, ... and that accomplished restorer of paintings set to work at once ... as day by day the work of restoration progressed charles ward looked on with growing interest at the lines and shades gradually unveiled after their long oblivion, ...

'' the subject was a spare, well shaped man ... a thin, calm undistinguished face which seemed somehow familiar; ... and to confront the bewildered charles dexter ward, dweller in the past, with his own living features in the countenance of his horrible great-great-great-grandfather... 

'' somehow this small glimpse gave a new and vague terror to the features of joseph curwen which stared blandly down from the overmantel ... he stopped before leaving to study the picture closely, marvelling at its resembalance ... cosmo alexander, he decided was a painter worthy of the scotland that produced raeburn, and a teacher worthy of his illustious pupil gilbert stuart. '' 

h.p.lovecraft, the case of charles dexter ward.

wound endlessly

image via hoshisato's soft rain blog.


 ''and i saw that all the travellers were converging ... at the top of a high hill, ... where perched a great white church ... the throng that was now slipping speechlessly into the church ... to the trap door of the vaults which yawned loathsomely open just before the pulpit ... i followed dumbly down the foot worn steps and into the dark suffocating crypt ... into a venerable tomb ... and in a moment we were all descending an ominous staircase ... a narrow spiral staircase ... that wound endlessly down into the bowels of the hill ... it was a silent shocking descent ..." 


h.p.lovecraft; the festival.

zenig of aphorat

a million skull ring at ring-a-day.

''you have come to see the great ones whom it is unlawful for men to see. ... when barzai the wise climbed hatheg-kla to see the greater ones dance and howl above the clouds in the moonlight he never returned. the other gods were there, and they did what was expected. zenig of aphorat sought to reach unknown kadath in the cold waste, and his skull is now set in a ring on the little finger of one whom i need not name."

h.p.lovecraft, the dream quest of unknown kadath.