The Dark Lord: H.P. Lovecraft, Kenneth Grant, and the Typhonian Tradition in Magic - Peter Levenda 2013

Glossary

(E) indicates an Egyptian word

(G) indicates a word from Greek

(H) indicates a Hebrew word

(Ha) indicates a word from Haitian Creole

(J) indicates a Javanese word

(L) indicates a Lovecraftian term

(P) indicates a Pali term

(S) indicates a word from Sanskrit

(Su) indicates Sumerian

(T) indicates a word peculiarly Thelemic

(Ti) indicates a Tibetan word

Advaita (S) Non-duality; a mystical state in which Subject and Object are one.

Aeon (G) Gnosticism: an emanation from God, personified or identified as a particular Being or Characteristic. Thelema: a length of time identified with an Egyptian deity and partaking of its characteristics.

Agama (S) A word with many and various definitions depending on the cultural context. It can mean tradition or culture. A collection of scriptures peculiar to Tantra. Religion.

Agharta (S) A legendary underworld civilization of advanced spiritual beings.

Aiwass (T) The Being that dictated the Book of the Law; Aleister Crowley's Holy Guardian Angel; a Sumerian priest or god; Shaitan; Set; all of these.

Aiwaz (T) Variant spelling of Aiwass, q.v.

Ajna chakra (S) The chakra located in the center of the forehead between the eyes and above the nose, often referred to as the “third eye.”

Amrita (S) Literally “no death”; the elixir of immortality.

Amun (E) The Hidden God of Egypt.

Anatta (P) Literally “Not-self” in the sense that phenomena are transitory and impermanent. They do not “belong” to one's self, but are instead a source of disappointment and sorrow.

Ankh (E) Egyptian symbol of life, also known as the crux ansata, the cross with a handle.

Antardasha (S) In Vedic astrology, a period of time in which a particular planet (or the Moon's North Node) rules.

Anuttara Amnaya (S) The “highest tradition.” One of the six “subsidiary” vidyas of the Sri Vidya practice. To Grant, the Anuttara Amnaya is a cultus itself, and the sole repository of the deepest secrets of Sri Vidya.

Apana (S) One of the five principal vayus, or “airs” in Indian yogic theory and praxis. Apana refers to the elimination of waste products in the body.

Apophis (E) A serpent-god, often equated with the Greek Typhon.

Asana (S) In yoga, a physical position involving the whole body, used in meditation.

Atlantis A legendary lost civilization, buried under the sea.

Bala (S) One of the names for Lalita Tripurasundari (q.v.) meaning simply “the Girl.”

Bizango (Ha) An occult organization or society in Haiti, linked to works of magic.

Bodhisattva (S) One who has attained the penultimate spiritual goal but who has resisted ultimate attainment in order to assist all other sentient beings.

Bön The pre-Buddhist religion of Tibet, often associated with shamanism.

Borobudur (J) The largest open-air Buddhist shrine in the world, located in Java, and considered by the Dalai Lama to be representative of Vajrayana Buddhism.

Chakra (S) Literally “wheel” or “circle”; in Tantra, a sensitive location in the etheric component of the human body analogous to a nerve nexus.

Chandra (S) The God of the Moon in Indian religion.

Cthulhu (L) The high priest of the Great Old Ones who lies “dead but dreaming” in his underwater or underground sunken city.

Cutha (He) An ancient city in Mesopotamia, known also as Gudua, associated with the entrance to the Underworld.

Dakshinachara (S) A form of the Sri Vidya practice in which an external form of the Goddess is required for the ritual. This can be a human female, but in this practice there is no physical contact with her.

Damaru (S) A ceremonial drum made from a human skull.

Dambhala (Ha) A serpent god in the Haitian vodun pantheon.

Daoism Also known as “Taoism,” the indigenous, pre-Buddhist religion of China.

Diksha (S) Initiation.

Drukpa (Ti) A lineage in Tibetan Buddhism popularly referred to as “Red Hat” Lamaism, founded in the twelfth century CE. It is considerably more “magical” in some respects than the better-known “Yellow Hat” school represented by the Dalai Lama.

Durga (S) “The Invincible.” A fierce goddess in the Indian pantheon.

Dvapara yuga (S) Literally the “second” of the yugas, or Indian aeons.

Fire Snake Kenneth Grant's term for Kundalini, the psycho-biological force at the base of the spine.

Geb (E) An Egyptian god of the Earth. Husband of Nut, the sky goddess, and son of Tefnut and Shu. He is the father of Osiris, Isis, Nephthys and Set.

Gematria (H) A method of assigning numerical values to letters and using those values to determine the numerical equivalents of words and phrases.

Gnosticism A religio-magical tradition contemporary with early Christianity which borrowed elements from Christianity, Judaism, and Greco-Egyptian sources.

Goran Sahr The name of a legendary sunken city in the Yezidi tradition.

Gudua (H) See “Cutha.”

Hadit (E) In Thelema, the God of the Point within the Circle that is Nuit. A star within the Empyrean.

Hegemon (G) A leader. An officer in Golden Dawn ceremonies.

Hiereus (G) Priest. An officer in Golden Dawn ceremonies.

Hekhalot (H) “Palace,” a term used to describe a specific form of Jewish mysticism.

Heru-Behedeti (E) A name of Hadit, q.v.

Horos (G) Literally “the Limit”; in Gnostic literature the boundary between the Pleroma (q.v.) and the visible, created world.

Horus (E) An Egyptian god, the son of Isis and Osiris.

Hounfort (Ha) The temple in Haitian vodun.

Inanna (Su) The ancient Sumerian goddess who descended into the Underworld. Ishtar is the ancient Syrian goddess identified with Inanna.

Isis (E) The ancient Egyptian goddess often associated with Inanna and Ishtar. She is the mother of Horus and the sister/wife of Osiris.

Isopsophy (G) The technical term for the type of gematria used in the Greek alphabet.

Kailasha Prasatara (S) In Grant's usage, the position of the woman over the man in an act of sexual intercourse that mimics that found on the Stele of Revealing and in some Indian iconography.

Kala (S) Depending on how it is written, kala can mean “digit”—as in digit of the Moon, or lunar phase—as well as “black,” as in the Black Goddess Kali. It also refers to the etheric component of the female vaginal secretions that take place throughout the lunar and menstrual cycle.

Kala Chakra (S) Literally “Wheel of Time,” a famous Indo-Tibetan diagram or mandala.

Kalachakra Tantra (S) A text and a method of Tantra that incorporates sexual elements as well as millenial predictions.

Kali (demon) The sword-wielding demon of the Kali Yuga, our present age, and sworn enemy of the Kalki avatar: the tenth and last avatar according to some Indian and Tibetan traditions who will come out of Shambhala to cleanse the world.

Kali (goddess) The Black Goddess of the Indian pantheon and symbol par excellence of Shakti, the divine power. Not to be confused with the demon Kali.

Kali yuga (S) According to Indian tradition, the yuga—or aeon—in which we now find ourselves, the last of the four yugas and the precursor to a Golden Age.

Kalpa (S) Aeon.

Kamite An old designation for “Egyptian,” referencing Egypt as “the black earth.” It is one possible root for the English word “alchemy,” as in al-khemia.

Kapala (S) Literally “head,” the term used in Tibetan Buddhist practice for a human skull used as a ceremonial cup.

Karezza A sexual technique that involves heightened stages of sexual arousal but avoiding orgasm, especially in the male.

Kaula (S) A word that may mean “clan” or “family.” It refers in this context to a sect of Tantrikas that are closely allied in practice to the Nath Siddhis.

Kaulachara (S) The Sri Vidya practice in which physical contact between the male and female practitioners takes place.

Khonsu (E) An Egyptian god of the Moon, often depicted as a small child.

Kundalini (S) In Indian yoga, Tantra and alchemy, the coiled power at the base of the human spine usually depicted as a serpent goddess. The raising of Kundalini from its dormant position to the top of the skull is the goal of Kundalini yoga.

Kurmanji The dialect of Kurdish language most commonly found among the Yezidi.

Kutu (Su) A Sumerian word meaning “Underworld.”

Lalish A town in Mesopotamia, now Iraq, that is the pilgrimmage center for the Yezidi.

Lalita Tripurasundari (S) Literally “Lalita of the Three Cities,” a Goddess most identified with the Sri Cakra and with the schools of Tantra centered on that symbol.

Lara Kidul (J) The Goddess of the Southern Sea, a famous deity in pre-Islamic Java.

Lemuria A legendary civilization buried under the Pacific Ocean.

Lingam (S) A term for the phallus in Indian literature.

Loa (Ha) A word meaning “god” in Haitian Creole, often also spelled “lwa” in academic literature.

Lukumi A form of Afro-Caribbean religion, identified with Santeria.

Lwa See “loa.”

Maat (E) The Egyptian Goddess of Justice.

Madhyamika A school of Buddhism that states all phenomena are empty, and have no essence, no substance.

Mahakalpa (S) A “great kalpa,” i.e., an enormous length of time. In Buddhism, an aeon comprising the four lesser kalpas and lasting more than one trillion years.

Mahasamadhi (S) The “Great” Samadhi, the ultimate samadhi experienced upon dying.

Maithuna (S) A term for the sexual embrace; intercourse.

Mantra (S) A syllable or series of syllables recited as a chant; often specific to certain deities or characteristics, enabling the chanter to attain experience of the deity. A kind of magic spell.

Marma (S) An intersection point on the Sri Chakra, analogous to points on the human body and to points in space.

Marma adi (S) A method of killing someone by applying pressure to one of twelve “death marmas” on the human body.

Mauve Zone A term unique to Grant, referring to the Abyss, or Daath on the Kabbalistic Tree of Life, or to a band of dark matter surrounding the Abyss. It is a destination for the occult practitioners of the Typhonian Order.

Melek Ta'us The Peacock Angel, the high god of the Yezidi.

Merkavah (H) Literally “chariot,” referring to a specific form of Jewish mysticism.

Mosul A city in northern Iraq largely populated by Kurds and the Yezidi.

Mudra (S) A stylized gesture; a mesmeric pass; a magical arrangement of the hands and fingers—and also sometimes the entire body—representing specific powers or other spiritual or supernatural characteristics.

Muladhara chakra (S) The chakra (q.v.) at the base of the spine, where Kundalini is said to reside until awakened by the practitioner.

Mut (E) The mother of Khonsu, the Moon God. Self-created.

Nadi (S) A channel of energy in the etheric counterpart to the human body. There may be thousands of nadis, of which three are the most important: the Ida, the Pingala, and the Sushumna (q.v.).

Naga (S) A serpent or dragon god or demon.

Nakshatras (S) The lunar mansions in Indian astrology, either 27 or 28 in number.

Nath Siddhas A form of Hindu Tantrism and Kashmiri Shaivism devoted to attaining liberation in this life-time. It involves many of the Tantric practices normally associated with the Kaula circles, for instance.

Nefertum (E) The son of Ptah and Sekhmet (according to one tradition). The Blue Lotus that appeared at the beginning of the world. According to some texts, Nefertum was the adolescent form of Ra, the Sun God.

Nephthys (E) The sister of Set, Isis, and Osiris. Daughter of Geb and Nut. Nephthys is barren and therefore has no progeny, despite an apparent rape attempt by Set.

Nergal The God of Cutha and lord of the Underworld, whose symbol was a rooster (and sometimes identified with the god of the Yezidis, Melek Ta'us, q.v.).

Nineveh A city in northern Iraq, near present-day Mosul.

Nu-Isis The name of one of Grant's Typhonian lodges (sometimes spelled New-Isis) and identified with an extra-mundane source of occult knowledge and power, a “Double-Wanded One” and dweller on a distant planet.

Nuit (E) The Goddess of the Sky; the first Speaker of the Book of the Law. She represents the vastness of space, whereas Hadit represents a point or star within that space. In Egyptian religion, one of the oldest of the gods, often depicted with Shu holding her up to support the sky, while Geb—the God of the Earth—is below, supporting the whole assemblage.

Nut (E) See Nuit.

Nyarlathotep (L) An evil deity who appears as an Egyptian pharaoh but who behaves as a black magician. A dweller in the innermost chambers of the earth.

Nyingmapa (Ti) Another of the “Red Hat” sects of Tibetan Buddhism.

Obeah Originating in Jamaica, a form of Afro-Caribbean magic sometimes referred to as “hoodoo.”

Ojas (S) Vigor, strength, power, light. A word indicating occult energy or power.

Osiris (E) The dead and resurrected God of Ancient Egypt. Husband and brother of Isis, father of Horus.

Palo Mayombe An Afro-Caribbean religion with roots in the Congo and manifesting in Cuba.

Panchamakara (S) “Five M's.” One term for the central ritual of Tantra involving the breaking of tabus (represented by five words beginning with the letter M) and at times sexual intercourse.

Panchatattva (S) “Five elements,” another term for panchamakara (q.v.).

Parah adumah (H) A red heifer, required for the purification ceremonies at Solomon's Temple.

Peristyle (Ha) The ritual space in which ceremonies of vodun are performed. In the center is usually found a poteau mitan, or central pole, up which the lwa of the Haitian pantheon ascend and descend.

Pleroma (G) The fullness of God and his emanations, where the emanations dwell on the other side of the Limit (Horos) that divides the divine state from the human state.

Points chauds A term unique to Michael Bertiaux, and used by Grant, to refer to “hot points” in the world—areas of particular occult energy or power—and also to analogous places on the human body as well as in deep space.

Pranayama (S) Breath control: a method of consciously controlling one's breathing as a precursor to attaining altered mental states.

Ptah (E) An Egyptian creator-god.

Puja (S) A term meaning “ritual.”

Qlippoth (H) “Shell” or “shard”: one of the broken pieces of Creation according to one school of Kabbalistic tradition; an evil spirit represented by one of these shards.

Ra-Herakhty (G) Greek form of Ra-Hoor-Khuit.

Ra-Hoor-Khuit (E) A form of Horus with Ra components, and the Third Speaker of the Book of the Law.

R'lyeh (L) A sunken city wherein Cthulhu sleeps, “dead but dreaming.”

Rohini (S) “The Red One,” referencing variously a Goddess or the star Aldebaran.

Samadhi (S) The highest state of consciousness, analogous to advaita or the experience of non-duality.

Samana (S) The vayu or “air” that aids in digestion. One of the five vayus, of which prana is the first.

Samayachara (S) The mental performance of the Sri Vidya ritual.

Samvartakalpa (S) One of the Buddhist Aeons, the Aeon of Dissolution.

Samvartathayikalpa (S) The Aeon of the Continuation of Dissolution, one of the Buddhist kalpas or Aeons.

Sandhi (S) The point where two lines intersect on the Sri Chakra.

Santeria A form of Afro-Caribbean magic.

Satya yuga (S) The first yuga or Indian Aeon.

Sefirot (H) (singular: sefirah) “Sphere,” one of the emanations from God in Jewish mysticism, introduced by the Sefer Yetzirah and eventually the subject of much speculation concerning Creation. The Tree of Life is composed of ten sefirot in various arrangements, one of which was the template of Golden Dawn initiation and, later of initiation into Aleister Crowley's AA

Sekhmet (E) An Egyptian Goddess, usually depicted as having a lion's head.

Set (E) An Egyptian God of Chaos and Destruction, of the Other, of Foreign Lands, and often associated with Shaitan or Satan.

Shaitan (H) The Hebrew spelling of the English word “Satan”: the Adversary. A name for the Lord of the Underworld, the King of demons, etc.

Shakti (S) “Power.” The consort of the Indian gods is often referred to as their “shakti.”

Shekinah (H) In Jewish mysticism, the Bride of God who is in the world, yearning for union with the Lord.

Shemitta (H) (plural shemittot) A cosmic cycle, according to the Sefer ha-Temunah, a Kabbalistic work. A shemitta is calculated as either 49 or 50 years in length.

Shiva (S) The Indian God most closely associated with Tantra. However, the Eye of Shiva is believed to be so powerful that once opened it would destroy the cosmos.

Shodashi (S) “the Sixteen,” a reference to the goddess Lalita Tripurasundari and also a reference to the number of kalas, or etheric vaginal secretions of some forms of Tantra and of Typhonian magic.

Shu (E) The Egyptian God of the Air.

Siddhi (S) A power, usually a magical or occult power, obtained by the pracitioner.

Sitra Ahra (H) The “Other Side” of the Tree of Life, what Grant refers to as the Nightside: the realm of the qlippoth (q.v.) and of the Tunnels of Set (q.v.).

Soma (S) Analogous to the amrita (q.v.). Soma is lunar and a full moon is considered to be full of Soma.

Sophia Literally “Wisdom,” a name of one of the Gnostic Aeons.

Sri Meru Cakra (S) The only three-dimensional cakra in Indian tradition, representing Mount Meru—the sacred mountain of Indian religion and analogous to the human body.

Sri Vidya (S) “Holy Knowledge.” It is an important Tantric sect whose main feature is the three-dimensional Sri Meru Chakra (a form of the Sri Yantra), and the worship of the youthful goddess Lalita Tripurasundari.

Sri Yantra (S) A two-dimensional magical drawing of nine interlocking triangles representing the union of Shiva and Shakti.

Stele of Revealing (T) An Egyptian stele discovered in Egypt in the nineteenth century and identified by Rose Crowley—Aleister Crowley's first wife—as relevant in some way to Crowley; its identification was a precursor to Crowley's receiving the Book of the Law.

Sunyatavada (S) A form of Madhyamika, q.v.

Sushumna (S) In Indian yoga and Tantra, the central channel or nadi that runs from the muladhara chakra at the base of the spine to the sahasrara chakra at the top of the head.

Suvasini (S) A word used to describe one of the female participants in a rite of Tantra.

Svadisthana chakra (S) The chakra immediately above the muladhara chakra.

Sylph In European mythology and magic, one of the four elemental spirits, in this case of the Air. The others are Gnomes (for earth), Undines (for water), and Salamanders (for fire).

Syzygy (G) A term from Valentinian Gnosticism that refers to pairs of emanations. In this context, each emanation has its double; these may be conceived as male-female pairs. Sophia did not have a male emanation and attempted to give birth to a creation by herself, which resulted in the creation of the world as we know it (considered by the Gnostics to have been a mistake).

Tangential tantrums (Grant) A term used by Grant to refer to unexpected or unplanned side effects of magical operations.

Tantra (S) A magico-mystical tradition of India and Tibet which involves sexual metaphors and analogies which may or may not manifest as sexual ritual and magic. Ceremonial magic has been referred to as the “Tantra of the West.”

Tantrika (S) A practitioner of Tantra.

Tattwas (S) One of the five basic elements of Indian cosmology: fire, earth, air, water and spirit.

Tefnut (E) One of the ancient Egyptian goddesses, representing water (specifically rain, dew, etc.). Sister of Shu, and mother of Geb.

Teratoma (L) Literally a “monster.” In Grant's system, something that may have been created via intercourse between humans and extra-mundane beings through acts of magic.

Thelema (G) Literally “Will.” The name usually given to the magico-religious movement instituted by Aleister Crowley and based upon his received scripture, the Book of the Law.

Themaist Another name for Maat.

Thoth (E) The ancient Egyptian God of Writing and Magic.

Tithi (S) A measurement of time—based on the moon's phases—in Indian astrology.

Transplutonic Isis (Grant) A hypothetical planet with which the Typhonian Order was said to be in contact.

Tree of Life A schematic of the ten sefirot and the twenty-two connecting paths between them, used by the Golden Dawn and the AA, as well as by numerous Jewish mystics. The Tree of Life represents all of creation and as such is a kind of mandala. Grant's interest lay in the “darkside” of this Tree and in the placement of the qlippoth.

Treta Yuga (S) “Third” yuga in the Indian system of yugas or Aeons.

Tulpa (Ti) A Tibetan version of the golem, or homonculus: an artificially created being with a (usually) limited lifespan, made for certain specific tasks.

Tunnels of Set In Grant's system, these are pathways to and through the darkside of the Tree of Life and represent gateways to other realms.

Tutulu A mysterious word found in Crowley's writings with analogues in Lovecraft's works.

Typhon (G) A Greek god of Chaos and destruction.

Udana (S) The vayu of exhalation and speech.

Vajrayana (S) The “thunderbolt” path; a form of Buddhism associated with Tibet.

Vajroli mudra (S) A method of contracting the penis during sex and retaining—or collecting the spent—seminal fluid (or its etheric counterpart).

Vama Marg (S) The “left hand” path of Tantric practice in which the female partner sits on the male's left side. The implication is that actual sexual intercourse will take place. This characterization of Vama Marg has been challenged, but it is the one most common among Western occultists.

Veve (Ha) A mystical diagram used in Haitian vodun, representing either one of the Haitian pantheon or a specific purpose.

Vidya (S) A word meaning “knowledge,” and used in this context as the root of Sri Vidya.

Visuddha chakra (S) The chakra associated with the throat region.

Vivartakalpa (S) The kalpa—or Aeon—of Evolution, in which Creation occurs.

Vivartasthayikalpa (S) The Aeon of Duration of Evolution.

Vodun One of the more politically-correct ways of spelling the more common “Voodoo,” to differentiate it from popular misconceptions and Hollywood interpretations of this Afro-Caribbean religion.

Voltigeurs (Ha) A term used by Michael Bertiaux and later by Kenneth Grant to refer to “leapers”: those who can jump from one of the points chauds (q.v.) to another.

Voodoo The popular term for the Afro-Caribbean religion of Haiti, which is referred to more appropriately as vodun.

Vyana (S) The vayu or breath that moves internally in the body and which contributes to its motion through space.

Wanga In Afro-Caribbean magic, a small bag used to hold charms or spells; often used as a term to refer to acts of black magic.

Wayang kulit (Ja) The famous shadow plays of Java using puppets cut from leather strips.

Weran Sahr Another designation of Goran Sahr, q.v.

Yaksha (S) Guardian spirits, often protecting buried treasure.

Yantra (S) A mystical diagram in the Indian tradition, believed to contain power in its very design.

Yezidis A Kurdish sect that is said to worship the Devil. Found mainly in Iraq but also scattered throughout Central Asia and now in Europe and America. They were a focus of both Crowley and Grant.

Yog-Sothoth (L) The “Lurker at the Threshhold” and the “Opener of the Way.” A cosmic being from the Lovecraftian pantheon who impregnated Lavinia Whateley in the story “The Dunwich Horror.” A target of the rituals of Grant's Typhonian Order.

Yoni (S) A term for the female genitalia.

Yuga (S) An Indian term for Aeon.

Yuggoth (L) Lovecraft's word for the planet Pluto.