Friday, July 30, 2010

A Kufic symbol of contact with the Old Ones


The swastika-like "Sign of the Old Ones" is in the center of this symbol and it is surrounded by a four-fold repetition of the Arabic word 'azif (voice of the Jinn) in an ancient Kufic script. These are in turn encased in an eight-pointed star.

The swastika is an appropriate symbol for the Old Ones (as Lovecraft suggested) for many reasons:

The inward spiral suggests an ingress of some type.

The right angles (as opposed to a smooth curving spiral) suggests a radical change. Indeed, the right angle is as different as an angle can be (because once you go past it; you start to get closer again).

So the swastika can be a symbol of the ingress of that which is most different or -most alien-.

The right angle is significant on another level. The fourth dimension is -at a right angle- to absolutely everything. So the "Sign of the Old Ones" can be symbolic of the ingress of the extra-dimensional. The incursion of the extra-cosmic into the cosmic (and terrestrial). (cf the Dunwich Horror and Dreams in the Witch-house etc)

The anti-clockwise directionality is a reversal of the normal order (and it is worth noting that widdershins circumambulation is used at the Ka'aba; a rite which goes back to its use as a pagan shrine)

These meanings all seem vaguely congruent with the 'azif which is the incursion of a non-human and pre-adamic consciousness into the human mind.

The four bars of the swastika are often said to represent the rotation of the seasons. The fact that this swastika is diagonal can be seen as a reference to the pre-Islamic celebration (later adopted in Islam) of the seasonal *cross-quarter* rites (which are of course the "rites howled at their Seasons", and are also identical to the "greater Sabbats" of the witch-cult).

The eight pointed star is one of the quintessential Arab symbols (and/or artistic motifs). Although it was adopted by Islam, it is pre-Islamic in origin and is associated with controlling the Jinn. An eight-pointed star is also the symbol of Chaos and of Chaos-Magick, a system which often taps into the "magical current" of the Old Ones.

The disproportionally large letter "zai" is significant because its sound reflects the buzzing sound of the 'azif which the Mad Poet can hear in a trance state. It also is a direct reference to the tree-branch like "Elder Sign" which in fact is "zai" in the graphemes of Disaqoridos (ديسقوريدس) .

1 comment:

  1. Excellent analysis!! I would like to add the importance of the center – the swastika is actually a wheel, another symbol for the sun, or the Black Sun who is the unseen (spiritual) sun/center of all, meaning Azathoth!

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