by Donald Tyson
Below the waist Wilbur was described as covered in coarse black fur. From his lower belly hung a score of gray-green tentacles with red sucking mouths. On each hip in a pinkish socket surrounded by hairs was an undeveloped eye. At the base of his spine hung a kind of tail with purple rings that had a mouth on its end. His legs were like those of a dinosaur and terminated in feet in the shape of "ridgy-veined pads that were neither hooves nor claws." The color below the skin of Wilbur's body changed in rhythm with his breathing, as he heart pumped the yellowish ichor through his veins.
Wilbur's lower body resembles in a general way the lower bodies of some demons depicted in medieval and Renaissance woodcuts and manuscript paintings, which show such features as hairy legs, hoofs or claws in place of feet, and eyes or faces on the buttocks, groin, or knees. These demons are sometimes scaled, and often have tails. For example, the demon Belial in the illustrations to the 1473 German work Das Buch Belial has the beaked face of a bird on his buttocks, and paws or cloven hooves for feet (Lehner, p. 4). The devil in a woodcut from Le purgatoire Sainct Patrice, published at Paris in 1530, shows a figure with a face on its lower belly, a long tail, hawk-like talons for feet, spines on its knees, and serrated ridges down the backs of its legs (Lehner, p.14). It is obvious that Lovecraft took his inspiration for Wilbur's lower body from traditional depictions of demons.
Wilbur Whateley was born February 2, 1913, at 5:00 AM. He was killed by the guard dog as Miskatonic University in the "small hours" of August 3, 1928. He lived a few months more than fifteen years, but his hybrid body possessed a maturity much in advance of his age. He was able to contemplate without horror what he would look like when the final change in his physiology occurred, and observed in his diary with a calm and almost analytical interest that there would be little that was human left. A creature he called up from the depths of the earth using the Aklo formula told him that he might be transfigured, "there being much of outside to work on." This was a matter of prime concern for Wilbur, since the entire planet was to be purged of all living things of normal substance. He had reason to be assured that when that time came, his nature would be so radically transformed, he would escape destruction.
Wilbur differed from his invisible brother, who was of so strange a substance that his image would not register in the human brain without occult aids. In the Necronomicon Alhazred wrote that the hybrid offspring of the Old Ones engendered on mortal women range greatly in appearance, from the near-human to the totally alien. Both extremes are expressed in the Whateley brothers.
Wilbur was not quite human even at his birth-his legs were probably always alien in shape, and were kept covered to conceal them. We may assume this to be the case because, as early as one year of age, he was observed at a distance by Silas Bishop running naked up Sentinel Hill, and his upper legs were then covered with the rough and hairy pelt that he thereafter took great pains to conceal from human sight. Only two people saw Wilbur as an infant, Zechariah Whateley and Mamie Bishop, and neither one commented on any strangeness in Wilbur's appearance, so it may be guessed that his mother had him wrapped in a blanket and was careful that his legs were not uncovered.
The unnamed invisible brother matured even more quickly than Wilbur, and bore a much nearer resemblance to the Old Ones, even as his physical substance was much closer in its composition to theirs. He was fed on the blood of cattle, and at times on the blood of his mother. It formed a substitute for breast milk in the days and weeks immediately following his birth. In his diary Wilbur wrote that those from outside could not take body without human blood. It may have been necessary that the invisible thing that was Lavinia Whateley's child consume a portion of her blood merely to become tangible and stable enough to endure. Shortly after his death, Wilbur's body evaporated into the air, so alien was its substance, and the body of his brother was made of even stranger stuff.
Why Wizard Whateley conducted the ritual that brought forth Wilbur and his brother from the womb of his daughter Lavinia is not explained in the story. Did he hate humanity so much that he was eager for the Old Ones to wipe the human race utterly from the face of the Earth? Or was it something that happened without his full consent, something that both frightened him and filled him with pride? A week after the brothers were born, Wizard Whateley drove his sleigh into Dunwich to buy provisions at the general store, and the old man was observed to be strangely changed in manner, both furtive and fearful. Even so, he boasted of the unrevealed paternity of his grandson. In his sly, mocking way he asserted, "I calc'late her man is as good a husban' as ye kin find this side of Aylesbury." In later years, neither Wizard Whateley nor Wilbur showed the slightest doubt or qualm about the plan to open the gate for the Old Ones. Wizard Whateley may have foreseen that the destruction would take place only after he was dead.
(The Dunwich Horror)
Also known as Old Whateley. We learn from the poem "The Familiars" in Lovecraft's sonnet cycle Fungi from Yuggoth that his first name was John. He wished to open the gate of Yog-Sothoth so that the Old Ones could return to Earth and strip its surface of all life, before transporting the entire planet out of normal space and back to the alien dimension from which the planet had fallen uncountable aeons ago. This he meant to accomplish by causing his albino daughter, Lavinia, to breed with one of the Old Ones, Yog-Sothoth, and produce hybrid children who were capable of performing the necessary ritual for the opening of the gate. The Old Ones would then multiply her more unnatural child into an army of invisible monsters that would destroy all life on Earth. He had inherited two centuries worth of arcane occult books from his forefathers, including a damaged copy of the John Dee English translation of the Necronomicon. The incantation to open the gate was on the missing page 751 of that edition. His library eventually found its way to Miskatonic University.
(The Dunwich Horror; Fungi from Yuggoth)
In Lovecraft's mythos, he was a Dominican priest of the thirteenth century who translated the Necronomicon in the year 1228 from Greek into Latin. Lovecraft referred to it in his story The Festival as the "forbidden Latin translation" about which "monstrous things" were whispered.
There was an actual historical figure of the same name, but he was a Danish physician and antiquarian of the seventeenth century. He studied first at the University of Marburg, and went on to receive a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Basel in 1611, and a Master's degree in Arts from the University of Copenhagen in 1617. In addition to teaching medicine and languages at Copenhagen, he collected ancient rune texts and wrote several books on the runes.
(The Festival; History of the Necronomicon)
A German mystic and alchemist, author of the Chronicle of Nath. He borrowed some of his lore from the books of Hermes Trismegistus, the mythical father of alchemy.
(The Tree on the Hill)
An elderly German mute who earns his living by playing viol in the evenings in a theater orchestra of an unnamed French city. He is a musical genius who sits alone in his high attic room and improvises wild alien harmonies. However, he does this not from a love of music, but out of dread that should he cease to play, something in the dark void beyond his shuttered window will force its way into his room.
(The Music of Erich Zann)
An inhuman wizard of the planet Yaddith, whose primary occupation is the weaving of spells to keep the bleached and viscous bholes (or Dholes) in their burrows beneath the surface of his world. When Randolph Carter passed through the Ultimate Gate, he asked Yog-Sothoth to send him into the body of Zkauba, which he subsequently inhabited. It is rugose and partly squamous, somewhat insect-like in the articulation of its limbs, but bears a faint resemblance to the human form.
(Through the Gates of the Silver Key)
The Key to the Second Gate
Sun passes through Capricornus: January 20-February 17
Constellation is represented by a goat with the hindquarters of a fish.
Right Pillar: Dabih (Arabic: Al Sad at Dhabih-The Lucky One of the Slaughter
ers). Astronomical designation: Beta Capricorni. Astrological nature: Saturn-Venus. Influence: success in business, politics, dealings with people; but it may indicate suspicion, mistrust, frustration, and criticism. Magnitude: 3.1. Color: white. Sun crosses: January 23. Location: left eye of the goat. Comments: This star, second-brightest in Capricorn, can be either beneficial or harmful depending on circumstances.
Left Pillar: Deneb Algedi (Arabic: danab al jady-The Tail of the Goat). Astronomical designation: Delta Capricorni. Astrological nature: Saturn Jupiter. Influence: integrity, a sense of justice; but when ill-dignified it can indicate corruption. Magnitude: 2.9-multiple star system. Color: yellow. Sun crosses: February 13. Location: tail of the goat. Comments: The brightest star in Capricorn, which is the second darkest of the zodiacal constellations, after Cancer.
The astral gate of Capricornus lies between the star of its right pillar, located at the left eye of the sea-goat, and the star of its left pillar, on the fishy tail of the goat. The sun enters the gate by crossing the longitude of Dabih, the star of the right pillar, around January 23. The solar transition of this wide gate takes twenty-one days. The sun exits the gate around February 13, when it crosses the celestial longitude of the star of the left pillar, Deneb Algedi.
The key to the Second Gate opens Capricornus, allowing entry into that part of the walled city of the Necronomicon that contains the unique personalities dreamed by Lovecraft. Use it for divining information or receiving dreams about the named individuals of the mythos, or for communicating with a specific individual whose public or common name is known to you.
Seal of the Second Key on the Second Gate
Face the direction of the compass ruled by the Second Gate, which is east by norththat is, slightly to the left of due east. Visualize the closed gate in the eastern wall of the city in front of you so that it is more than large enough for you to walk through without bending your head. Take the time to create on the astral level its structure and shape in great detail, so that it appears in your imagination as a real gate. This is done by imagining each detail successively and impressing it on the mind, then shifting to other details, but returning the attention to each imagined part of the gate as it begins to fade in the imagination.
With the image of the gate clear in your mind and projected upon the astral level to the east by north, speak the following invocation to Yog-Sothoth, which is the invocation for all the gates:
Guardian of the Gate! Defender of the Door! Watcher of the Way! Who art the stout Lock, the slender Key, and the turning Hinge! Lord of All Transition, without whom there is no coming in or going out, I call thee! Keeper of the Threshold, whose dwelling place is between worlds, I summon thee! Yog-Sothoth, wise and mighty lord of the Old Ones, I invoke thee!
By the authority of the dreaded name, Azathoth, that few dare speak, I charge thee, open to me the gateway of Capricornus the Sea-Goat that lies between the blazing pillar Dabih on the right hand and the blazing pillar Deneb Algedi on the left hand. As the solar chariot [or, lunar chariot] crosses between these pillars, I enter the city of the Necronomicon through its Second Gate. Selah!
Visualize the key of the Second Gate in your right hand some six inches long and made of cast iron. Feel its weight, texture, and shape as you hold it. Extend your right arm and use the key to draw upon the surface of the gate the seal of the key, which should be visualized to burn on the gate in a line of white spiritual fire. Point with the astral key at the center of the gate and speak the words:
In the name of Azathoth, Ruler of Chaos, by the power of Yog-Sothoth, Lord of Portals, the Second Gate is opened!
Visualize the gate unlocking and opening inward of its own accord upon a shadowed space beyond. On the astral level, walk through the gateway and stand in the dark space beyond. Focus your mind upon the individual person or being named in the mythos whom you wish to communicate with or understand. Open your mind to impressions concerning the human and alien persons scried by Lovecraft during his dreams. In a more general sense, this ritual and this gate may be used to scry or communicate with individual persons or spirits the names of whom are known.
After fulfilling the purpose for which this gate was opened, conclude the ritual by astrally passing out through the gate and visualizing it to close. Draw the seal of the Second Key on the surface of the gate with the astral key you hold in your hand, and mentally cause it to lock itself shut, as it was at the beginning of the ritual. Speak the words:
By the power of Yog-Sothoth, and authority of the supreme name Azathoth, I close and seal the Second Gate. This ritual is well and truly ended.
Allow the image of the gate to grow pale in your imagination and fade to nothingness before you turn away from the ritual direction.
The Third Gate
t may at first glance seem strange to class gods and devils under the same gateway, but anthropologists and folklorists have long observed that the gods of a religion become the devils of the religion that supplants it. This occurred when Christianity replaced the pagan religions of ancient Rome-the pagan deities were given places in Hell and relabeled as demons. God and devil are the two faces of the same Janus-like spiritual presence, which is characterized by the possession of knowledge and power. Spiritual entities are classed as either gods or devils based on what they are believed to be capable of teaching, and on the harm they are thought to be able to work against humanity. A god without the power to do harm is a god without authority, and not much of a god at all.
Lovecraft created a hierarchy of gods that have their origins, not in the supernatural, but in the extraterrestrial and extradimensional. The various classes of Old Ones and their great lords are not native to this planet, but came to the Earth from other worlds or other realities in the distant past, before the human species differentiated itself from the apes. They came here for their own purposes, which did not involve mankind, and for those who remain today on the edges and in the shadows of our world, humanity is of little or no consequence. At best we can fulfill for them the role of minor servants. They look upon us in the way we regard insects-some are useful to us, and others are pests to be eradicated. But there can never be bonds of friendship or respect or affection between the Old Ones and humanity. They are simply too alien.
It is not to be wondered that when humanity became dimly aware of the presence of these various alien species, on the edges and in the dark places of our reality, that secret cults formed in which their great leaders were worshipped as gods. The lords of the Old Ones encouraged this worship, since it served their purposes. Cults arose to Cthulhu, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and others the origins of which are lost in pre-history. In Lovecraft's Necronomicon mythos, witchcraft is a form of worship of Nyarlathotep, in his guise as the Black Man of the sabbat. It may be that magic itself appeared as a byproduct of this cultic adoration of the Old Ones, for magic is at times indistinguishable from the alien sciences of these beings. The creation of dimensional portals by the Salem witch, Keziah Mason, using certain angles and curves is nothing more than applied alien geometry.
The traditional pagan gods were not forgotten by Lovecraft, but he relegated them to the dreamlands, and accorded them a limited authority in comparison with that of the Other Gods under Nyarlathotep and Azathoth. They respond to the prayers of humanity in a capricious and unpredictable way, and are never to be relied upon in time of need. The gods of Earth reside in a great palace on the summit of the mountain Kadath, in the Cold Waste of the dreamlands. Whether this great mountain has a correspondence with an actual mountain is not clear, although Lovecraft hints that this may be so in his story At the Mountains of Madness, where it is intimated that Kadath may be located in Antarctica. Kadath serves as a kind of prison for the gods of Earth, which are at times let out to play by Nyarlathotep, but only under a strict supervision. These lesser gods sometimes dance atop the higher peaks of the mountain ranges in the dreamlands, where they are far enough removed from towns and villages to remain unobserved by men.
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About the God of the Christians, Lovecraft has virtually nothing to say. Christ is not invoked to battle the evil of the Old Ones, because it is assumed that such invocation would be useless. In general it may be observed that Lovecraft treats the Christian God as though he does not exist. There are minor exceptions to this rule. In The Dreams in the Witch House, Walter Gilman uses a crucifix to startle the witch Keziah Mason into releasing her grip on his throat. Lovecraft wrote that she seemed "struck with panic" at the sight of the cross, but it may have been the faith Gilman unconsciously placed in it that startles the witch, rather than the crucifix itself, for there is no evidence of supernatural power emanating from the cross. Gilman uses its chain to strangle old Keziah, but he could have used any similar chain for the same purpose. The prayers recited nightly by his fellow boarder at the Witch House, the devout Catholic Joe Mazurewicz, seem in themselves to be without authority.
Lovecraft declared himself to be a man without religious faith in his 1922 essay, A Confession of Unbelief. He wrote that at age four, when told that Santa Claus was a myth, he asked the reasonable question, why isn't God also a myth? The dreariness of Sunday school drove from him any belief in Christianity. He progressed from an early fascination with the folklore of the Arab world to a love of Greek mythology at age six, to an interest in science at age nine that drove all religious belief from him. He wrote of this period in his essay, "Naturally, having an open and unemotional mind, I was soon a complete skeptic and materialist."
From age twelve to age seventeen Lovecraft studied astronomy intensively, collecting a library of sixty-one books on the subject. The effect of astronomy on his philoso phy was to confirm in him a conviction that the place of mankind in the universe is vanishingly small, and that human needs, aspirations, and intentions are of no importance in the cosmic scheme of things. Always alienated from the rest of humankind, he began to look upon the human race dispassionately as just one more inconsequential species the fate of which was foredoomed. He summed up his philosophy at the time of writing the essay, when he was thirty-two years old, as "a cynicism tempered with immeasurable pity for man's eternal tragedy of aspirations beyond the possibility of fulfillment."