Part 2: Image-Inducing Occult Techniques for “Charlatans” (or “Astrologers”)

Read Part 1 and Part 3

---

H. P. Lovecraft’s birth chart is a wealth of information when scrutinized with an astrological focus; oddly, the same can be said with individuals when traditional planets on the day of their birth were closely conjunct with the fixed star Spica in the constellation Virgo, which is actually in the tropical zodiac of Libra. This article will not demonstrate methods of traditional or modern delineation of any birth charts, which can be complex to describe without a solid background in Hellenistic Astrology, but instead will apply archetypal cosmological principles when observing these individuals and their birth patterns to gain an understanding of how these patterns have been exhibited in their own lives. Returning to Colin Wilson’s “escapist imagination” definition from my previous article submission, author Peter Levenda has also summarized certain supernatural phenomena attributed to this prominent Spica-influenced individual:

In 1907, [Aleister] Crowley was writing some of the works that became seminal to the doctrines of Thelema, known as The Holy Books. These include Liber Liberi vel Lapidus Lazuli, Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente, and other works written between October 30 and November 1 of that year, and Liber Arcanorum and Liber Carcerorum, written between December 5th and 14th that same year. Lovecraft would have had no knowledge of this, as he was only a seventeen-year old recluse living at home on Angell Street in Providence, Rhode Island, dreaming of the stars. Instead, he later would write of an orgiastic ritual taking place that year in the bayous outside New Orleans, Louisiana, and on the very same day that Crowley was writing the books enumerated above.

The story Lovecraft wrote is entitled “The Call of Cthulhu” and is arguably his most famous work. He wrote the story in 1926, in late August or early September, but placed the action in New Orleans in 1907 and later in Providence in 1925. How is this relevant?

Lovecraft’s placement of the orgiastic ritual in honor of the high priest of the Great Old Ones, Cthulhu, and the discovery of a statue of Cthulhu by the New Orleans police on Halloween, 1907 coincides precisely with Crowley’s fevered writing of his own gothic prose. In the Liber Liberi vel Lapidus Lazuli, for instance, Crowley writes the word “Tutulu” for the first time. He claims not to know what this word means, or where it came from. As the name of Lovecraft’s fictional alien god can be pronounced “Kutulu,” it seems more than coincidental, as Kenneth Grant himself noted.

In Crowley’s Liber Cordis Cincti Serpente—or “The Book of the Heart Girt with a Serpent”—there are numerous references to the “Abyss of the Great Deep,” to Typhon, Python, and the appearance of an “old gnarled fish” with tentacles…all descriptions that match Lovecraft’s imagined Cthulhu perfectly. Not approximately, but perfectly. Crowley’s volume was written on November 1, 1907. The ritual for Cthulhu in New Orleans took place on the same day, month and year. ¹

In the astrological perspective, Lovecraft’s rising sign/Ascendant is in the area of the tropical zodiacal ecliptic called “Via Combusta” or the “burning way.”² Along with examining the Ascendant—indicative of the native’s time of birth— certain spooky behavior can also be observed by comparing the biographical experiences and patterns of natives born with prominent planetary placements, not only in the area of “Via Combusta,” but specifically where the fixed star Spica is located.³

According to Claudius Ptolemy, Spica gives “success, renowned, riches, a sweet disposition, love of art and science, unscrupulousness, unfruitfulness and injustice to innocence,”⁴ but this doesn’t explain anything about the “weirdness” that comes along with observing the patterns of natives with placements conjunct Spica.⁵ However, examples of noteworthy natives with planetary conjunctions to Spica clearly demonstrate that there is most certainly a pattern of weirdness occurring here (note: these same individuals were listed in the previous article submission):

 

The Ascendant, as the point symbolically representing the meeting of spirit and matter in the flesh of the body, has to do with the native as symbolically representing the self/personality.⁸

In a sense, this is the lens Lovecraft encountered in life.

• Lovecraft’s Ascendant is in the 3 of Swords minor arcana (the middle card in Figure 2, located between 10-20 degrees of Libra). The keyword for this face or decan of Libra is also “Sorrow,” which is why in the birth chart we see the glyph of Saturn here⁹ (Saturn in the major arcana is “The World,” and Libra in the major arcana is “Justice”); the previous decan, “Peace,” and the following decan, “Truce,” is demonstrative of the difference between all three areas. Libra’s ruler, Venus (major arcana: “The Empress”), is also in this decan.
• Lovecraft’s Sun in Leo in the 7 of Wands (the card on the left in Figure 2).¹⁰
• Lovecraft’s Moon is in the 4 of Swords in Libra (the card on the right in Figure 2), less than 10 degrees away from his Ascendant, which is also where Spica is located. When referring to the three decans of Libra (2, 3, 4 of Swords), it’s “Crossroads, Crisis, and Compromise,” respectively.¹¹

Lovecraft’s interest in astronomy was without equal, observable in the correlation to both planets that are in Lovecraft’s first house, which are the ruler of his Ascendant and the planet that was conjunct Spica, as well as in his own words:

“My observations (for I purchased a telescope early in 1903) were confined mostly to the moon and the planet Venus. You will ask, why the latter, since its markings are doubtful even in the largest instruments? I answer—this very MYSTERY was what attracted me.”¹²

Using the tarot creates a strong image-focused interface with the birth chart. An addition to this method is applying the literature of Ellias Lonsdale.¹³ Beginning at the Ascendant, the Chandra symbol (A chariot pulled by four elephants),¹⁴ indicates a native personality/body/spirit that embarks on a highly unusual journey in which getting there is a very remote prospect. You can see this as it was after Lovecraft died that his work achieved fame and notoriety. It also says that encounters with everything trigger inner changes in the native and that deep processes of alchemy incurring in the native allow these encounters to ferment. And as the Ascendant is in Libra, the location of the ruler of Libra (Venus) is important. Here, we find Venus 3 degrees away from this degree. Lonsdale’s interpretation of Venus’ location refers to this degree of Libra as a child of destiny, offered by spirit protection and guidance, encouragement and empowerment. You can directly see this occurring in his life where the settings in short stories achieve strong illusionary fantasy based on his travels to these locations as inspiring events.

It speaks volumes just how strong Lovecraft’s own left-brain “rational roadmap of reality” reflected his very ego-identity. The Sun is in domicile in Leo, and when the Sun is in a fire sign, it is considered trigon/triplicity lord. It’s a diurnal/day chart, so the Sun is sect light, indicating the quality of the other planets traditionally. The Sun is actually located in the 7 of Wands tarot, the card titled “Valour,” and this area of the decan is conjunct the fixed star Regulus, infamous for a sense of Leonine royalty.¹⁵ In reference to his ego-identify, from Wilson: “Like W. B. Yeats, [Lovecraft] was something of a snob, and liked to assert that he was a ‘gentleman’ by birth (although his father was actually a commercial traveller).”¹⁶

A good indicator in his life of a Sun of this particular quality, especially in the area/house of friends, hopes, and goals, is his back-and-forth debate about “pioneerism vs. civilization” with Conan the Barbarian author Robert E. Howard.¹⁷ Lonsdale’s interpretation of the Chandra symbol for the location of Lovecraft’s Sun (Men doing gymnastics)¹⁸ provides that the native is:

• Torn between agony and ecstasy in material existence:
  • Weighed down by the agony of things, sorely troubled, heavily impacted, just about immobilized
  • Ecstasy that so much can be done with it, and when mobilized, the body wielded as an instrument or vessel, the physical turns into a masterpiece, a wonder, a delight unsurpassed
• Repelled and attracted by core drama of life on Earth
• When feeling good, life glows with promise
• When life force ebbs and becomes stagnant, world is saturated with abysmal dread
• If native learned to harness embodied selfhood into something more constant and satisfying, even when faced with resistance, the habit would have died hard (i.e., rigidity vs. fluency)
• Creative dilemma with so much growth, outlasting one’s own inner enemies and becoming Earth-worthy in the physical, triumphantly and with lasting imprint.¹⁹

As the Sun can correspond with the quality of the left-brain hemisphere, the Moon is indicative of the right-brain: the Moon is conjunct the Ascendant, as well as conjunct Uranus closely. The Moon’s domicile, Cancer, is at the angular position of the 10th house of career and public reputation, where the MC (Midheaven), or the highest position of the Sun on Lovecraft’s day of birth, was located. This indicates one’s self and public role are linked inextricably. Symbolically, this is considered the essence of one’s gravitas in society, and right-brain Moon-Cancer is associated with subjectivity rather than objectivity (Sun). Being so closely conjunct the Moon, you often find this as an indicator a native close to the mother, or at least mothering principle, and that principle was also independent/rebellious/unique/outlying in archetype (Uranus), which too reflects the drive Lovecraft exhibited in his personality.²⁰ With the Moon in this degree of Libra, according to Lonsdale (A tremendous boulder hovering over the ocean),²¹ the native is:

• Caught between worlds, part of many, belonging to none
• No rest, no quiet, no continuity
• On the verge of astounding things, held poised at the edge
• Propelled by destiny to obsess upon where we all are now, where we came from, and especially where we are going

Personally, after reflection, I don’t believe the Spica influence is “escapist” in intent like Wilson described. However, I do believe “caught between worlds” is a concise description. Consider the nature of our solar system as it finds itself placed in syzygy—caught between—Spica and fixed star Vertex at roughly 27 degrees Aries; this is also the start of Aries with reflection to the opposing start of Libra in the sidereal zodiac. Vertex, or M31 Andromeda Galaxy, is the closest galaxy approaching our own Milky Way at 100 kilometers per second. It is expected to collide with the Milky Way in roughly 4 billion years. While the symbolism of our own Sun rising and setting implies birth and death, respectively, these areas of the sidereal zodiac have also historically held this meaning—this is why the Sun is exalted in Aries but in detriment in Libra.

Spica placements for natives may glean subtle, archetypal meaning, like a meeting of the myth of “Perseus rescuing Andromeda from the sea creature Cetus” versus “Hades ‘rescuing’ Persephone from Demeter myth,” and the corresponding constellational galaxy myths of these regions can provide natives with these narrative forms as synchronicities in their lives. And experiences in these topics, specifically given the left-hand Virgo/hermetic symbolism of the right brain, exhibit the role of Lovecraft’s Moon conjunct Spica, along with Uranus; the symbolism is directly demonstrative of the Lovecraft legacy in society (i.e., the sign of the Moon’s rulership of Cancer represents right-brain passive, feminine receptivity/irrationality, and for Libra-rising natives, Cancer is always in the 10^th house of public reputation due to the tradition of whole-sign versus quadrant-based houses for topics of life).

I believe “escapist imagination” as a concept may have more to do with the ability of an individual to provide an audience firsthand access to the ultimate change-agent humanity has ever known: fear of the cosmic unknown. This, too, is why Saturn—the archetypal principle of death—is exalted in Libra and in detriment in Aries; there is no stronger fear for the living than of this principle. Evidence of this concept is found in the creative and/or criminal behaviors of individuals with Spica placements. Levenda writes:

Lovecraft’s core story, ‘The Call of Cthulhu,’ is the repository of all the basic themes and motifs that appear in his later tales. It reflects his basic preoccupations with ancient races, mysterious cults, non-Eucleadian geometry, and the power of dreams. It also introduces us to Cthulhu, the high priest of the Great Old Ones, and the sunken city of R’lyeh where Cthulhu lies dead but dreaming.

Lovecraft’s genius lay in reinterpreting these stories from a darker point of view. Lovecraft’s sunken city of R’lyeh is where the Great Old Ones were defeated by some quirk of space or time and where Cthulhu lies buried in his house-like tomb beneath the waves. This ancient city is older than Atlantis or any of its other mythical counterparts. It was built—using geometry that was all ‘wrong’—by the race from the stars, a race that used to own the planet Earth in aeons past and which is on the verge of returning when the ‘stars are right.’

If we analyze this story from the point of view of depth psychology, we can see a certain level of consistency with modern ideas concerning the unconscious and the danger of repressing unconscious feelings and especially the knowledge that lies buried in the deep, forgotten corners of the human mind. In this approach, R’lyeh becomes the unconscious itself, and Cthulhu is the Shadow that waits to be discovered: the potentially dangerous, violent, evil aspect of human nature. An aspect that communicates with us the same way Cthulhu communicates with his followers: in dreams.

It may be a truism that what demands to be known in our dreams is not some beautiful image of heaven or some pleasing, loving memory—but something more sinister, something uglier that needed to be ‘put down,’ that needed to be suppressed in order that the rest of the personality could survive in the real world. The only persons who deliberately evoked those nightmares to visible appearance were the mystics, the magicians, and the shamans. I have written at some length in other works about the shamanistic initiations, and of course, Mircea Eliade has discussed this at some length in his seminal work on the subject of Shamanism. This type of initiation involves a direct confrontation with the suppressed psychic material that involves death, dismemberment, and the re-integration of the individual psyche. For someone who has come through this type of experience, the dread Cthulhu could hold no fears.

It may also be a truism that this suppressed material is connected with sexual issues. It may involve sexual trauma of the individual at a very young age or physical or emotional abuse of some kind by an older person. While the exact identity and nature of the trauma will be different from person to person, the Minotaur in the Labyrinth is the same: the different types of abuse reflect pathways in the Labyrinth, but they all lead to the same Monster at the center. Lovecraft called this Monster by a name he heard or invented or dreamed of: Cthulhu.²²

There is no clearer image for this than the Rider-Waite tarot’s own Four of Swords (the decan where Spica resides): it is literally the image of a tomb. Yet, Jung found that fear of death also demonstrated something uniquely valuable in reflection:

Jung’s essential idea was that something very unusual and unknown was being seen in the skies and that the desire for redemption was ‘projected’ on the unknown phenomenon being observed. The fact that fear of nuclear catastrophe occurred at the same time UFOs and flying saucers were being regularly spotted was a meaningful coincidence. Jung called that type of coincidence synchronicity. As I wrote back in 1984, synchronicity is more than just coincidence; it is also a type of enhanced awareness.²³

Perhaps “enhanced awareness” is a more concise term than “escapist imagination,” where we subconsciously fear futile cosmic annihilation from an approaching “monster galaxy,” we project our desires for hope in this different direction, in fact, quite literally. And in so doing, this may breathe life into another form of monster, subtly influencing our own unconscious self. Spica may be a symbol of what we are able to dream in light of inevitable impending doom; that is, enhanced awareness of this chthonic principle in consciousness. By assessing the archetypal cosmology of natives with Spica placements, it can reveal the nature of what Lovecraft may have meant by “Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn” (“In his house at R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming”).

---

Bibliography

Chang, T. Susan. 36 Secrets: A Decanic Journey through the Minor Arcana of the Tarot. Self-published, Lulu.com, 2020.

Collins, Andrew, and Little, Gregory L. Origins of the Gods: Qesem Cave, Skinwalkers, and Contact with Transdimensional Intelligences. Rochester: Bear & Company, 2022. Kindle.

Farnell, Kim. Fiery Travels: The Via Combusta. Kent: My Spirit Books, 2012. Kindle.

Joshi, S. T. Lovecraft and a World in Transition: Collected Essays on H. P. Lovecraft. New York: Hippocampus Press, 2015. Kindle.

Levenda, Peter. The Dark Lord: H. P. Lovecraft, Kenneth Grant, and the Typhonian Tradition in Magic. Lake Worth: Ibis Press, 2013. Kindle.

Lonsdale, Ellias. 360 Degrees of Your Star Destiny: A Zodiac Oracle. Rochester: Destiny Books, 2021.

Lonsdale, Ellias. Inside Degrees. Berkeley: North Atlantic Books, 1997.

Robson, Vivian. The Fixed Stars and Constellations in Astrology. Tempe: The American Federation of Astrologers, 2017. Kindle.

Wilson, Colin. The Strength to Dream: Literature and the Imagination (Outsider Cycle). London: Aristeia Press, 2021. Kindle.

---

Birth Data and Sources

Aquino, Michael, born October 16, 1946, San Francisco, CA, US, at 12:34. Astro-Databank (https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Aquino,_Michael). Source: Quoted birth chart/record (Rodden Rating: AA).

Birkhäuser, Peter, born June 7, 1911, Basel, Switzerland, time unknown. Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Birkh%C3%A4user). Source: Unknown.

Berkowitz, David, born June 2, 1953, Brooklyn, NY, US, at 16:52. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Berkowitz,_David). Source: Birth chart/record in hand (Rodden Rating: AA).

Campbell, Bruce, born June 22, 1958, Royal Oak, MI, US, time unknown. AstroTheme (https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Bruce_Campbell). Source: Unknown.

Campbell, Joseph, born March 26, 1904, White Plains, NY, US, 19:25. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Campbell,_Joseph). Source: From memory (Rodden Rating: A).

Chambers, Robert, born May 26, 1865, Brooklyn, NY, US, time unknown. AstroTheme (https://www.astrotheme.com/astrology/Robert_W._Chambers). Source: Unknown.

Crowley, Aleister, born October 12, 1875, Leamington Spa, UK, at 23:42. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Crowley,_Aleister). Source: Rectified from approximate time (Rodden Rating: C).

Hilley, Audrey Marie, born June 4, 1933, Blue Mountain, AL, US, time unknown. Poisoned Blood: A True Story of Murder, Passion, and an Astonishing Hoax. Source: Philip E. Ginsburg.

Hitler, Adolf, born April 20, 1889, Braunau, Austria, at 18:30. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Hitler,_Adolf). Source: Birth chart/record in hand (Rodden Rating: AA).

Joshi, S. T., born June 22, 1958, Pune, India, time unknown. Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/S._T._Joshi). Source: Unknown.

Jung, C. G, born July 26, 1875, Kesswil, Switzerland, at 19:24. Astro-Databank (https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Jung,_Carl). Source: Rectified from approximate time (Rodden Rating: C).

LaBarre, Sheila, born July 4, 1958, Ft. Payne, AL, US, time unknown. Wicked Intentions: A Remote Farmhouse, a Beautiful Temptress, and the Lovers She Murdered. Source: Kevin Flynn.

Lynch, David, born January 20, 1946, Missoula, MT, US, at 03:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Lynch,_David). Source: Birth chart/record in hand (Rodden Rating: AA).

Lovecraft, H. P., born August 20, 1890, Providence, RI, US, at 09:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Lovecraft,_H.P.). Source: From memory (Rodden Rating: A).

Magnotta, Luka, born July 24, 1982, Toronto, Canada, time unknown. Wikipedia (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murder_of_Jun_Lin). Source: Unknown.

Mazzaglia, Seth, born October 18, 1982, location unknown (likely NH seacoast), time unknown.

McDonough, Kathryn, born November 1, 1993, location unknown (likely NH seacoast), time unknown. Dark Heart: A True Story of Sex, Manipulation, and Murder. Source: Kevin Flynn.

Michel, Anneliese, born September 21, 1952, Leiblfing, Germany, time unknown. The Exorcism of Anneliese Michel. Source: Felicitas D. Goodman.

Nietzsche, Friedrich, born October 15, 1844, Rõcken, Germany, at 10:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Nietzsche, _Friedrich). Source: Bio/autobiography (Rodden Rating: B).

Poe, E. A., born January 19, 1809, Boston, MA, US, at 01:00. Astro-Databank (https://www.astro.com/astro-databank/Poe,_Edgar_Allan). Source: Rectified from approximate time (Rodden Rating: C).

Putin, Vladimir, born October 7, 1952, St. Petersburg, RU, at 09:30. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Putin,_Vladimir). Source: Conflicting/unverified: (Rodden Rating: DD).

Rowling, J. K., born July 31, 1965, Yate, UK, at 21:10. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Rowling,_J._K.). Source: Rectified from approximate time (Rodden Rating: C).

Shelley, Percy, born August 4, 1792, Horsham, UK, at 22:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Shelley,_Percy_Bysshe). Source: Quoted birth chart/record (Rodden Rating: AA).

Smith, Joseph, born December 23, 1805, Sharon, Vermont, US, at 18:00. Astro-Databank (www.astro.com/astro-databank/Smith,_Joseph). Source: Accuracy in question (Rodden Rating: C).