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) .

Alhazret's "Elder Sign" and its occult associations

Alhazret's "Elder Sign" seems to be all but completely unknown to western occultists. However, it is a relatively common symbol in Arabic magical traditions. Below the associations of Alhazret's "Elder sign" have been summarized based on the writings of Ibn Wahshiyya (بن وحشية) and supplemented with material from Ibn 'Arabi (ابن عربي‎) and other sources.

The name of the sign is "Zai" (زاي )

It is a Solar Grapheme ["huruf ash-shams" (حروف الشمس)]

Its numeric value is 7 (٧)

It is associated with the 19^th lunar mansion ["manzil" (منزل)] which called The Sting ["ash-shaula" (الشولة)]

Its zodiacal sign is Scorpio [“burj al ‘aqrab” (برج العقرب )]

The divine name associated with this sign is The Living One ["al Hayy" (الحي)]

Terrestrially it is associated with the element Water and celestially it is associated with the element of Air.

Coming Soon: The Secrets of Lēng

It doesn't appear to be well known, but Lēng and Tsang are real regions in Central Asia on the Tibetan Plateau. The tantric sects of these areas actually do practice anthropophagy and make extensive use of ritual items made from human corpses. While the phrase "the corpse-eating cult of inaccessible Lēng, in Central Asia" may be overly sensationalistic, it is also accurate. The author has participated in the rituals of these sects and will be publishing a short illustrated essay describing various ritual items from his personal collection, their origin, and their traditional uses.

This includes a rare look at the actual Indo-Tibetan practice of necrophagy, the survival of the practice into the present, and its slow (and extremely cautious) transplantation to Western countries .

The collection includes:

Extremely rare pills made from human flesh (བྲམ་ཟེ་སྐུ་ཤའམ་སྐྱེ་བདུན་རིལ་བུ་) which are consumed to gain magic-powers

Several styles of ritual drinking bowls made from human skulls (ཐོད་པ་)

A hand-drum made from the skulls of two children and human skin (ཐོད་རྔ་)

A trumpet made from a human thigh-bone (རྐང་གླིང་)

A rosary made from bone from multiple human skulls (མི་མགོའི་འཕྲེང་བ་)

Alhazret's Sources of Inspiration

We can identify with reasonable certainty where Alhazret derived his description of kthulu (خذولُ) as: being far older than the human species, coming to the Earth ages ago from "out of the sky" (amongst the stars), being of gigantic size, with scaly skin, leathery wings, and prodigious claws on its fore and hind limbs. Most disturbingly, having a mass of writhing serpentine appendages where one would expect to find a head or face.

Alhazret's parents, being typical Sana'a natives in the 7th century, only converted to Islam as adults. So, Alhazret almost certainly would have been familiar with this image as an older representation of ash-shaytan (الشيطان). Being fluent in Greek, it is likely that Alhazret also read descriptions of this figure in such ancient texts as _Ἀποκάλυψις Ἰωάννου_ where we find Σατανᾶς described as a “δράκων μέγας” and as “ἔχων κεφαλὰς ἑπτὰ”.

We also can conclude that Alhazret derived the name “kthulu” from what was already an extremely familiar designation of ash-shaytan (cf: “لقد اضلني عن الذكر بعد اذ جاءني وكان الشيطان للانسان خذولا”).

Of course this begs the question of why he chose that particular designation and that specific representation out of all the many which existed in his day. Alhazret himself seems to indicate that he learned that these were the “true name” and the “true form” of this ancient god in a series of bizarre dreams. He also claimed that the (non-human?) leaders of the cult dedicated to this god in Iram dhat al-'imad (إرَم ذات العماد) confirmed this information. This last claim is of course fantastic and either an example of Alhazret’s tendency to spin fanciful yarns or perhaps evidence of mental disorder.

In any event, Alhazret seems to have seen himself as preserving the lore of an ancient cult from the darkest and most remote of the “Days of Ignorance” (Jahiliyyah جاهلية).

Greco-Egyptian Influence