“What is gnosis?”

The Esoteric Order of Azathoth is, properly speaking, a Gnostic order as well as a Lovecraftian one. If we define Gnosticism as the historical and spiritual pursuit of experiential knowledge of the Divine then the path favoured by the E.O.A. is certainly Gnostic; although our ultimate purpose is to bring the stars right again so that Azathoth may be awakened, the more intermediate pursuit of our worshippers is to perceive (through ritual and possibly hallucinogens) the reality of our existence as part of His dreams and therefore part of His Being. The aim is abolishing the false impression that we are separate entities distinct from the Daemon Sultan and embracing our true nature as ephemeral shadows within His sleeping Mind. To rend this veil, even for a time, is gnosis — a fleeting prefigurement of that glorious day when Azathoth is roused from His slumber by His Children, and we are forever and irrevocably subsumed by Him as our universe passes away as an ended dream.

“What is the status and station of the many gods worshipped by the human race?”

‘…the crawling chaos Nyarlathotep strode brooding into the onyx castle atop unknown Kadath in the cold waste, and taunted insolently the mild gods of earth whom he had snatched abruptly from their scented revels in the marvelous sunset city.’

— from ‘The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath’

‘Nyarlathotep resents these earthly deities and has gathered them together in a great throne room in the place known as Kadath in the Cold Waste. He keeps them as pets for his own amusement, and it is only with his approval that they are permitted to answer the prayers of mankind. In this way he seeks to make himself into a smaller image of Azathoth, for as Azathoth rules the cosmos and all its dimensions, so Nyarlathotep seeks to rule this world … He hates the gods of earth, for in them is a nobility and purity that he lacks within himself. They are powerless to resist him, and tremble at the sound of his footsteps.’

— from ‘The Grimoire of the Necronomicon’

The deities propitiated by the human race throughout history do not, unlike the Old Ones and the Outer Gods, maintain an independent existence — they were birthed from the hopes, dreams, and desires of mankind and are irrevocably connected to and sustained by such emotions and motivations. At some point in time they were plucked from ‘their scented revels in the marvelous sunset city’ by a jealous Crawling Chaos and imprisoned in frigid Kadath to serve the purposes of Nyarlathotep. The spiritual economy of the world continues to run on the occasional answered prayers, but it is only by the leave of the Black Pharaoh that the gods of the humans may attend to their supplicants. 

Members of the Esoteric Order of Azathoth are discouraged from praying to the imprisoned deities in frigid Kadath but may from time to time find it useful to do so — having said that the worthy or aspiring cultist would be better off beseeching Nyarlathotep for His favour, as the servitor of Azathoth is more than capable of fulfilling human requests if doing so would suit His designs; or else to approach one of the Old Ones. Prayers to Azathoth are always encouraged; although the Daemon Sultan cannot hear our petitions as such, to approach Him with reverence and fear when outlining our struggles and desires can be psychologically beneficial and spiritually edifying.

“What is the relationship between cosmicism and anti-cosmicism?”

Cosmicism and anti-Cosmicism are the foundation stones of our theology and practice. Cosmicism is the belief, pioneered by the Prophet, that the universe is a vast and indifferent realm which has no care for humanity. Rather than positing a anthropocentic cosmos cosmicism believes that humanity is nothing special and utterly insignificant within the boundless span of existence. While often in the Prophet’s stories this results in an attendant sense of terror and despair the E.O.A. and its cultists embrace this cold reality and seize the opportunity to create meaning in our lives through dedication to the pursuit of gnosis and continuous effort expended in carrying out the Great Work.

Anti-Cosmicism, despite first appearances, is not defined as opposition to that other foundational tenet. Primarily associated with certain strains of Satanism, which attempt to destroy matter to return us to an envisioned primordial state of chaos, it is anti-cosmic insofar as it is opposed to the existence of our cosmos. A variation on this belief is key to what the Order refers to as the Great Work: the quest to rouse Father Azathoth from His slumber within which our conscious existence resides, finally burning away the gossamer veil of perception which divides us and the Dreamer once and for all as we are collectively subsumed within His Waking Being; eliminating our perceived existence and reuniting us all within the Person of Azathoth. These two perspectives, cosmic and anti-cosmic, are together the bread and butter of the Order’s doctrine and without either one of these pillars our mission would collapse into incoherency.

“Aren’t you aware that Lovecraft never said that reality is Azathoth’s dream?”

The revelations of the Prophet, like all religious revelations and their relevators, have not remained stagnant in the period since his death. Even during the Prophet’s life the cosmological world of what he referred to as ‘Yog-Sothothery’ was not static — on the contrary it was deeply collaborative, as Lovecraft freely borrowed conscious aspects from other writers and members of his authorial circle, in turn, elaborated upon what later came to be referred to as ‘the Cthulhu Mythos’.

After the Prophet’s Requiem innumerable authors — some of whom were not immune to prophesying with their texts —have contributed works to the oeuvre established by his revelations; just as Christian theology has been expanded a thousandfold from the root of Jesus’ words as recounted in the Gospel. The Esoteric Order of Azathoth does not shun this state of affairs in favour of narrow, blinkered textual literalism (which often contains more than an inkling of haughty superiority) but rather embraces it as the natural progression of authentic revelation in dialogue with the world. In any case the exact origins of the notion of Father Azathoth’s dream and all that pertains to it are unclear: although there are select works by the Prophet which could be interpreted as supporting the reality-as-dream concept (such as Sonnet XXII of his poem Fungi from Yuggoth) many attribute it to the works of Saint August Derleth, others to the pen of Saint Edward, the Lord Dunsany, some to Lovecraft’s friend and contemporary Henry Kuttner, and still others attribute it to a collective misunderstanding of what Lovecraft intended which has unfortunately proved durable.

To the Order this conception of Father Azathoth and His dream is not unfortunate, unfounded, or a misunderstanding. Rather we believe it is an organic and authentic elaboration upon the comparatively little that the Prophet wrote of Azathoth and His Nature and surroundings, risen unconsciously through the ideas and experiences of the countless people who have been touched by the Prophet’s revelation — or, more specifically, we believe that it is a form of shared personal gnosis. Shared personal gnosis can be defined as “a spiritual understanding or insight that is not derived from traditional texts or historical records but instead comes from the independent experiences of multiple individuals, suggesting a consensual form of spiritual knowledge within a community,” and it is the Order’s view that the idea of Father Azathoth’s dream-as-reality is just such a form of collective and unconscious revelation; indeed, one which is given its imprimatur through its lasting and widespread influence amongst the people of the Prophet.

Therefore the Order is not concerned by earnest naysayers pointing out, for the umpteenth time, that the very core of our dogma is not to be found among the ur-texts of Yog-Sothothery. The creation of the E.O.A. itself was prompted by the personal experience of a dream (a personal gnosis, if you will) and we remain confident in all the tenets of our beliefs.

Iä iä Azathoth!


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