#the esoteric order of dagon

[hplovecraftmuseum]

In Lovecraft's masterful tale, THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH, we are told that the old Masonic Hall has been taken over by the invading and degenerate alien element that has insinuated itself into the once thriving little Yankee fishing village. This occurred at a time when Innsmouth was suffering an economic downturn. The hall now houses the unsavory and mysterious quasi religious organization called, The Esoteric Order of Dagon. The actual Free Mason organization was particularly popular in old New England. Though there have been all kinds of rumors and conspiracy theories that the group is connected to nefarious doings it is in reality a completely benign organization. Lovecraft no doubt found the rumors about the group interesting enough to warp it into something with a hideous transformation. By the way many of the men who have become president of the United States were also Masons. Masonic symbolism permeates much of the art and architecture of the U. S. Government too. (Exhibit 348)

[komorezuki]

Did Lord Dagon and Howard Lovecraft know each other?

If you love Lovecraft, as much as I do, then you definitely noticed references to his universe in GO. Yeah I'm talking about Hastur and Dagon. We also can suppose, that Lovecraft existed in GOverse. And let's imagine their communication for fun and Dagon's image as we see her. Its not a full proper analysis, mostly likely I give you small excursion into mythology about Dagon and some headcanons.

Origin

Dagon in Lovecraft!verse wasn't created from scratch. It was a Canaan god of prosperity (it was started to be interpreted as a fish-god in the Middle Ages, but its just a mistake). Later Dagon is mentioned in Old Testament as head god of the Philistines.

"Then the lords of the Philistines gathered them together for to offer a great sacrifice unto Dagon their god, and to rejoice: for they said, Our god hath delivered Samson our enemy into our hand."

"And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon. And when they of Ashdod arose early on the morrow, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah. And they took Dagon, and set him in his place again. And when they arose early on the morrow morning, behold, Dagon was fallen upon his face to the ground before the ark of Jehovah; and the head of Dagon and both the palms of his hands (lay) cut off upon the threshold; only (the stump of) Dagon was left to him. Therefore neither the priests of Dagon, nor any that come into Dagon's house, tread on the threshold of Dagon in Ashdod, unto this day. But the hand of Jehovah was heavy upon them of Ashdod, and he destroyed them, and smote them with tumors, even Ashdod and the borders thereof. And when the men of Ashdod saw that it was so, they said, The ark of the God of Israel shall not abide with us; for his hand is sore upon us, and upon Dagon our god."

A meta about this episode could be here, but I am not good at interpretations of the Old Testament. Maybe someone else will try.

In the Middle ages humans began to interpret him as a fish-god. We call it a mistake, but what if Dagon had visited Earth and inspired someone to this plausible description? Anyway, since then Dagon is associated with sea and fish. Good job for a demon.

In the 17th century, Dagon is mentioned along with the other fallen angels in Milton's "Paradise Lost". And in addition to sacred text this mention is also based on the medieval interpretation as a fish-god, which is actually (as science says) incorrect:

Paradise Lost is a very curious poem to read for ineffable fandom (but IMO very tedious), and not only for us. It has big cultural value, and no wonder HPL was inspired by it. There is a direct mention of Paradise Lost in his short story "Dagon".

Next came one

Who mourn'd in earnest, when the Captive Ark

Maim'd his brute Image, head and hands lopt off

In his own Temple, on the grunsel edge,

Where he fell flat, and sham'd his Worshipers:

DAGON his Name, Sea Monster, upward Man

And downward Fish: yet had his Temple high

Rear'd in AZOTUS, dreaded through the Coast

Of PALESTINE, in GATH and ASCALON,

And ACCARON and GAZA's frontier bounds.

HPL's influence

Well, what can I headcanon suppose. There are some details in their stories which could be received from a demon directly.

We will take rn two HPL's stories: "Dagon" and "Shadows over Innsmouth". In "Dagon" a protagonist ends up on a strange island which is kinda like naked ocean floor and finds there a mysterious monolith with glyphs and supltures carved on it. A giantic creature comes out of sea to the monolith. Narrator escapes in his boat. Later he tries to find something out about fish-god Dagon and slowly loses his mind.

I dream of a day when they may rise above the billows to drag down in their reeking talons the remnants of puny, war-exhausted mankind—of a day when the land shall sink, and the dark ocean floor shall ascend amidst universal pandemonium.

Not that Dagon was a famous deity for the world. But somehow the narrator tells about them. Certainly, HPL was well informed about mythology and he could choose a sea of more expressive sea-gods (pun intended). But he had chosen Dagon. What if it wasn't just random? I think Dagon told him something about demons and ocean. And we know how much she does want The Armageddon. Universal pandemonium, you know.

I think she could be male-presented at that time. Of course if you can call THIS a male.

This is the illustration for "Dagon". The creature is one of the Deep Ones, fish-frog men who were an underwater nation in Lovecraft's world.

Or probably Dagon herself looked like this:

Deep Ones are described in "Shadows Over Innsmouth". They are immortal, they can control a number of fish in the sea and they wear strange jewelry (And I remember her strange necklace from here). Their leaders (probably kinda deities) were Father Dagon and Mother Hydra.

This wondeful art was created by gorgeous @birdgirl22

*fangirling sounds*

A curious detail that appears in SoI. Innsmouth is a town whose inhabitants were members of mysterious Esoteric Order of Dagon. The Order sacrificed people to Dagon and gave to the Deep Ones their women to mate with them. A whole population of Innsmouth consists of hybrids. And this kinda demonic order was in a building of local masonic lodge.

Wait what~

I will just leave here my meta about masons in GOverse. TL;DR: the Lodge in the show may be a demonic nest. What a suspicious coincidence...

After all, I can add something about most notable traits of HPL's books.

The first is an anti-anthropocentrism - an idea that humanity is not the main race in the world for everyone and not the only one. In Lovecraft!verse there are old and huge races and deities (Cthulhu, Dagon etc.). In GO!verse there are angels and demons which don't think about humans at all (except azicrow but still)

The second is that HPL's deities aren't like humans as much as demons aren't. Their mind are utterly different.

And finally the third. THE INEFFABILITY. We don't get detailed descriptions of horrors.

Well, everything written above is just my headcanon but I think it makes sense to research HPL's work and maybe I can find more innuendos. Now I just want the art of Dagon chilling with HPL.

[azhmodai]

"They were the blasphemous fish-frogs of the nameless design--living and horrible"

- H.P. Lovecraft, "The Shadow over Innsmouth"

bit.ly/azhmodai

[vintagerpg]

This is Cults of Cthulhu (2022), a fantastic and weirdly long overdue sourcebook for Call of Cthulhu (It’s a Call of Cthulhu kind of week!).

Why is it overdue? Well, Cthulhu is a pretty key part of the name of the game, but the big squid was really only featured in one adventure, the first CoC campaign, Shadows of Yog-Sothoth. Since then, if there is a prime antagonist of the CoC game writ large, its Nyarlathotep. That’s a cosmic entity who gets around.

With Cults of Cthulhu, we get the first serious and fairly exhaustive examination of the worldwide Cthulhu cult hinted at in Lovecraft’s story. The overview is provided in an in-universe style by two characters: Mildred Schwartz works off Professor Angell’s original research to provide a history of the cult from the dawn of history to 1930. David Eberhart’s blog builds on Schwartz’s timeline, detailing developments from the ‘30s to the present. This isn’t quite so thrilling to read as the Delta Green timeline, but it is certainly entertaining and feels a bit more usable for a game.

Following that, the book presents five cults in depth. There are two old ones, the Louisiana swamp cult and the Esoteric Order of Dagon, and three new ones, the Elevated Order of Morpheus (a Victorian occult club), the Society of the Angelic Ones (a California cult) and the Church of Perfect Science (a riff on Scientology). Those new ones are the subject of lengthy scenarios later in the book and have a thread connecting them that ends on a deliciously ambiguous note. There is also a robust guide to creating your own Cthulhu cults, something I feel like I could do indefinitely. All this is wrapped up in a handsome package, as well — I generally like Chaosium’s production values these days but this one feels a bit above their average in terms of art.

An instant classic, basically.

[arcanotherium]

There are many people out there who have worked with the eldritch entities of Lovecraft through different magickal approaches. The Chaos magick of Phil Hine's Pseudonomicon, the ever popular Simon Necronomicon, and Donald Tyson's stories and grimoirs. There are those who have taken the plunge and attest: here there be dragons!

This began after the death of Lovecraft, with the likes of Kenneth Grant, who was a member of the Ordo Templi Orientis, founded by Aleister Crowley.

There are very few, if any, extant orders devoted to lovecraftian magick. To my knowledge, there are only two. The Esoteric Order of Dagon and the Cult of Cthulhu. The second being less of a magickal order and more of a new religious movement.

If any reader should know of any cult/order/movement or material not listed above, please don’t hesitate to inform me.

The workings and scribbling I share here are my own if not otherwise specified.

[redacted-metallum]

Inter-god conflicts in the Cthulhu Mythos

Bored at work yeehaw slap some THOUGHTS on TUMBLE DOT EDU with NO CUT because I FORGOR HOW

Fundamentally I like inter-god conflict because it's fun. It's fun to read and write about nine times out of ten. My main issue arises when it becomes a cosmic struggle between the forces of Good and Evil (which is fine in human centric stories, but once you start calling mythos beasties good or evil I think you've missed the point and meaning of amoral. They're amoral in the way a storm is. They just Are)

Also August Derleth's elements thing was stupid.

My absolute favorite thing is when it seems like a true conflict that's potentially world-ending and cosmic and all that, but when you zoom out to the entities' perspective it's really petty and dumb. It's always so funny.

There's also some interesting stories I've been playing around with that haven't gone past the conceptualizing phase, one of which being the idea that Dagon (and by extension, the Esoteric Order of Dagon) actually want Cthulhu to stay asleep because as far as the Great Old Ones go, Dagon is pretty weak and a bit of a pissbaby and he likes being the only one up and about and active on Earth

I just think there's neat stories that can be told with this

[whitechadwarden]

*lovecraftian fishman voice* in the name of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, i'll punish you!

[darkersoul]

Do y'think innsmouth is the only place that has a strong deep one population? Where else would it thematically be as good as it is in innsmouth

In my mind, yes, because the whole breeding with humans thing in my verse is specifically a practice done by the Esoteric Order of Dagon cult, not the Deep Ones as a whole. The EoD are religious extremists attempting to grow their numbers. They're the QAnon of the Deep Ones, an extremely loud but ultimately small minority when compared to the entirety of the Deep One species.

As for if there can be another place quite like Innsmouth...well, it'd take a damn good writer. I'm very critical of HPL but damn is Innsmouth a character in its own right. But, as far as with Deep Ones specifically, Innsmouth is pretty singular. Making a new Innsmouth is kinda like trying to reinvent the wheel. You'd have to do some real heavy lifting to convince me it's worth buying into.

My tendency with the EoD post-raid is a fractured group of interconnected spies, a secretive organization attempting to keep tabs on humanity but not reveal itself in the same way it did at Innsmouth again. Trying to strike the perfect balance of secrecy vs getting new members. There isn't another Innsmouth because, well, last time humanity learned about Innsmouth they blew it up. And that's where I imagine the cult's passing interest in humans became full malevolence.

[dagonsvault]

"The structure’s once white paint was now grey and peeling, and the black and gold sign on the pediment was so faded that I could only with difficulty make out the words “Esoteric Order of Dagon”."

The Shadow over Innsmouth

[uniquely-sarah-elisabeth]

Esoteric Order of Dagon

[igotopinions]

David C. Smith is an author whose career began in the 1970’s during the second wave of sword & sorcery, he still writes to this very day, and Oliver felt very lucky to get the chance to have this epic, first-ever two-part interview with him! In this first part we cover David's original aspirations to work in film, the incredible role having the right English teacher can play in your life, discovering Conan, the real life model for Norman Bates, how Lord of the Rings helped David see Robert E Howard more clearly, the grounded nature of sword & sorcery and how it contrasts to make the weird elements shine brighter, too many elephants in too many towers, "when everything is special than nothing is", the 70's fanzine community and the role it played in David's career, zine letter's pages as the "online" forums of the pre-internet era, David's first time selling one of his stories, getting his first rejection out of the way, the value of feedback with rejections and getting roasted in the letters column, selling his first novel - Oron, using zines to promote sword and sorcery today, how David distinguishes S&S from Heroic Fantasy, trying to attract fans of the romance genre to S&S, how only having serious musclemen protagonists and stories limits things, when there was a midlist in publishing, the second wave of sword and sorcery, how the Esoteric Order of Dagon played a key role in David's career, potentially finding direct influences on Lovecraft's invention of weird cultist language, David's line between fan fiction and true pastiche, the Greek style heroic arc, the truth behind a rumor Oliver heard about David being called in to finish a Karl Edward Wagner novel, Black Vulmea, and more! David's Author Site David on Goodreads Sword & Sorcery: "An earthier sort of fantasy" Goodreads Group

www.soimwritinganovel.com

PATREON: www.patreon.com/soimwritinganovel BUY OLIVER’S BOOKS: https://www.oliverbrackenbury.com/store SO I’M WRITING A NOVEL… TWITTER: https://twitter.com/so_writing OLIVER’S TWITTER: https://twitter.com/obrackenbury Oliver’s Link Tree (For everything else): https://linktr.ee/obrackenbury

[hplovecraftmuseum]

A framed drawing in ink depicting a scene from Lovecraft's masterful tale, THE SHADOW OVER INNSMOUTH. The story was the basis for a fairly interesting movie adaptation called DAGON. The Esoteric Order of Dagon was also the name of an early organization of Lovecraft aficionados which included many of the pioneers of Lovecraft related writers, fan mag publishers and critics. These individuals were the very core of the first underground Lovecraft fan base of the 1970s. Some members formed a direct link between the origional 'Lovecraft Circle' and the new Avant-garde of Lovecraftian research. (Exhibit 200)

[fringefangs]

Abandonment in New England

*As a disclaimer. I am aware of Lovecraft’s extreme racism. I am not trying to defend it.

Horror, as a genre, is, fundamentally, an expression of anxiety. An author’s fears become manifest within the pages of their writing. Central to the cosmic horror written by H. P. Lovecraft is the existentialist notion of abandonment. This essay explores abandonment in both The Call of Cthulhu and The Shadow Over Innsmouth.

To start, we must first define what we mean by abandonment. Jean-Paul Sartre describes abandonment as the assertion that “God does not exist, and that we must bear the full consequences of that” (27). He elaborates that it is “extremely disturbing that God no longer exists, for along with his disappearance goes the possibility of finding values in an intelligible heaven.” (28). This is to say, if God is the source of all that is good in the world then the supposition that God does not exist means that it is, at best, impossible to determine what is good or, at worst, that people are naturally inclined towards evil. Thus the consequence of God’s absence is that there is no limit to human immorality and nothing to encourage people to act morally.

Moving to the texts proper, it is important to demonstrate that the eldritch entities and their cults which pervade Lovecraft’s works indicate the dissolution of God. In The Call of Cthulhu, he routinely conflates the Cthulhu Cult that appears within the story with religion and faith and refers to the Great Old Ones as “unhallowed blasphemies” and the images and hieroglyphs etched into the walls of the city of R'lyeh as “impious” (41, 43). This cult “paled the speculations of theosophists” who “have guessed at the awesome grandeur of the cosmic cycle” indicating that these theosophists are unnerved at the notion that their understanding of God might be wrong given the presence of the Great Old Ones (The Call of Cthulhu 26, 5). In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, The Esoteric Order of Dagon is harshly described as “a debased, quasi-pagan” cult surrounded by “rumors of devil-worship” with the evocatively named Devil Reef located just off the coast of the town (8). With virtually every person from Innsmouth being a member of the Esoteric Order of Dagon and each of them being inexplicably drawn to Devil Reef on that fateful night, it is clear to see that the intention of the author is to show how people are being drawn away from their faith. Finally, when referring to the Great Old Ones, Lovecraft capitalizes the pronoun used, elevating Them to the same magnitude as God, further evidenced by Castro’s cautious disclosure that “They had come from the stars, and had brought Their image with Them” invoking similar language from the Book of Genesis (The Call of Cthulhu 39).

However, it is necessary to clarify that Lovecraft is not just concerned with the conception of a new religion that stands in opposition to existing faith but also that this is a total replacement of God. The narrator in The Call of Cthulhu is worried that, upon the reawakening of the Great Old Ones, mankind will become as Them, “free and wild and beyond good and evil, with laws and morals thrown aside” (28). In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the “ruinous old churches” of Innsmouth are not only decaying, indicating the decline in faith reflected in the state of the building, but they are actively being repurposed by the Esoteric Order of Dagon (18). As the narrator passes one of the churches he experiences “a momentary conception of nightmare” and an “unaccountable horror” at the sight of a priest from the cult within the basement of the church (The Shadow Over Innsmouth 12). In Zadok Allen’s drunken recounting of the history of Innsmouth, he refers to Captain Obed Marsh as the “old limb o’ Satan” and that Captain Marsh believes that “all the folks stupid fer goin’ to Christian meetin’ … they’d orter git better gods” (The Shadow Over Innsmouth 21). All of this is, in so many words, the kind of distress that Sartre describes that is felt by those experiencing abandonment. If God does not exist then all that will remain is chaos.

Yet this is not the full extent of the narrators’ distress. The abandonment weighs heavily on them as they fall into deep despair upon acquiring the knowledge of their abandonment. In The Call of Cthulhu, the narrator states that “I have looked upon all that the universe has to hold of horror, and even the skies of spring and the flowers of summer must ever afterward be poison to me.” (48). And in The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the narrator comments that “Some frightful influence, I felt, was seeking gradually to drag me out of the sane world of wholesome life into unnamable abysses” (49). The despair is often accompanied by an admission that death would be preferable to the future created by this abandonment. In The Call of Cthulhu, the narrator says that “When I think of the extent of all that may be brooding down there I almost wish to kill myself forthwith.” and that “Death would be a boon if only it could blot out the memories.” (42, 47). In The Shadow Over Innsmouth, the narrator says that “So far I have not shot myself … I bought an automatic and almost took the step” (50).

To conclude, this existentialist lens demonstrates how Lovecraft is grappling with an indifferent universe devoid of any intrinsic morality. The author is wary of people because he knows that there is nothing that mandates them to be moral and are thus capable of any number of abhorrent actions.

WORKS CITED

Lovecraft, Howard Phillips.The Call of Cthulhu. Strelbytskyy Multimedia Publishing. 2018.

Lovecraft, Howard Phillips. The Shadow Over Innsmouth. Gothic Digital Series @ USFC.

Sartre, Jean-Paul. Existentialism Is a Humanism. Translated by Carol Macomber. Yale University Press. 2007.

[mysticvaultdesign]

Step into the mystical realm of the Esoteric Order of Dagon, where ancient symbols intertwine with modern aesthetics. This design invites you to explore the depths of hidden knowledge and cosmic mysteries, blending the esoteric with the enigmatic in a visual tapestry that whispers of secrets untold.

Link - TEEPUBLIC STORE

[bigbutchgothgirl]

Heya folx, I'm live!

We're picking up The Sinking City again today, and things seem to be getting spicy. We're encountered the Esoteric Order of Dagon, which… can only bode well, i'm sure~

[tomorrowedblog]

First look at The Old Ones

A new trailer has been released for The Old Ones. No release date was specified.

Inhabited by a Great Old One, Russel Marsh committed unspeakable acts in the name of the Esoteric Order of Dagon. Now free, he is in search of a way to go back in time to reverse the horrors wrought upon the world.