The Most Fascinating Lovecraft Connection To Ancient Mummies?

Who would have thought that there is a connection between Lovecraft, ancient Egyptian texts, Aliester Crowley, Blavatsky, and Hollywood?

We’re all familiar with the popular Hollywood stories of the dashing American hero, run amuck of the French Foreign Legion in Egypt, and faced with a mercenary charter from a beautiful British woman. The two narrowly escape capture, only to find themselves swept up in an adventure to save the world from the evil agenda of a mummy and its followers. (I’m talking about “The Mummy“ here)

H.P. Lovecraft, the Necronomicon and Ancient Egyptian Mummies

As is typically the case in Hollywood, facts sometimes get muddled in the creative process, and what we’ve come to know of the legend of the Book of the Dead, may be less accurate than you think.

It is true that ancient Egyptians made use of a document, now known as ‘The Book of the Dead’, though it is far less dubious than the name suggests.  The name of the book, coined by German Egyptologist Karl Richard Lepsius, was an unfortunate failure of translation from ancient Egyptian, to Arabic, to German and then to English.  Something was definitely lost in that translation.

What archaeology knows as the Book of the Dead was long believed to be the Egyptian Bible …

What archaeology knows as the Book of the Dead was long believed to be the Egyptian Bible, though that belief was replaced with the understanding that the text contains more ritualistic hymns, prayers and incantations, than it does religious doctrine, and was intended to aid the deceased in passing through obstructions in the afterlife (basically a how-to manual for surviving in the hereafter).  It was commonly placed inside the inside the coffin or burial chamber, along with the many other items of spiritual power and wealth.

So, if the Book of the Dead was simply a set of post funeral instructions, where did the mummy legend come from?  This point is up for debate, though some theories have been postulated.

The famed American horror author H.P. Lovecraft (August 20, 1890 – March 15, 1937) may be to blame for more that just a few nightmares.

Look inside Details Preview Phantom World A.R. Braun [caption id="attachment_8291" align="alignleft" width="188"] phantom world[/caption]

Phantom World is a Hard Core Haunt collection that explores the bitter feelings of isolation, loss, and denounces religion from various personalities. Here we will be introduced to poltergeists, newly born ghost-entities along with their familiars learning about the afterlife, and spirits that are stuck in the netherworld. While some of these ectoplasmic beings may come across as innocent at times, their stories unfold in a manner to inform the reader as to why they were not allowed into the heaven or allowed to have a “peaceful” afterlife.

Written by A.R. Braun

Release Date: September 22nd, The First Day of Fall

Phantom World will be Available on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, Smashwords, Scribd, Kobo and here.

ISBN: 978-1-7361447-2-5


About the Author
Once completing the Bram Stoker Award Boot Camp, A. R. Braun writes the following novels: Dogman of Illinois, Heaven’s Witches, Autonomy, and Only Women in Hell. As well as publishing the short-story collections: Insanity, Horror Book, Grimoire, and the novella, 66SICK.

He became interested in horror when he read “The Telltale Heart,” as an assignment in high school. By the time he was eighteen, he owns the whole Stephen King collection and begins writing short stories for friends and family.

A. R. holds numerous publication credits, including “NREM Sleep” in the D.O.A. anthology; “Freaks” in Downstate Story magazine; “The Unwanted Visitors” in the Vermin anthology; “Coven” in the Heavy Metal Horror anthology; “Remember Me?” in Horror Bound magazine; and “Shades of Gray (the Symbiosis of Light and Dark)” in Micro Horror magazine.

“The Interloper” wins story of the month in 2009’s June Full Moon in Bloom issue of SNM Horror Magazine, and the piece was included in the SNM Horror anthology, Bonded by Blood 2: a Romance in Red.

A.R. Braun is a featured writer in our fiction anthology, “Mad Men” – a collection of three disturbing tales exploring what lies within man. Available now at Google Books, Barnes and Noble, Kobo, Apple iBooks, Smashwords, and Amazon.

 

Read Demosthenes, the Great Greek Orator .book[data-book="book-8002"] .cover::before {background: url(https://mindonfirebooks.com/wp-conten... figure .buttons a { font-size:0.65em !important;}.bookshelf figure h2 { font-size:1.8em !important;}div#bookshelf { -ms-transform: scale(1, 1); /* IE 9 */ -webkit-transform: scale(1, 1); /* Safari */ transform: scale(1, 1);} Look inside Details Mad Men Mad Men Mad Men is a collection of three disturbing horror shorts from authors living in the Midwest. The themes explored in this collection range from man versus self, man versus man, and man versus creature.

[caption id="attachment_4742" align="alignleft" width="188"] Mad Men eBook at Mind on Fire Books[/caption]

Mad Men begins with Matt’s tale, a thought-provoking thriller that causes the reader to question his reality and what he fears within himself. The second tale explores the grotesque juxtaposed with beautiful nature, where the ending unfolds into a horrific dream, waking in even more terrible pain. The third tale is by seasoned horror writer, A.R. Braun – and his diabolical creatures never disappoint!  A.R. Braun’s goal is to be on the banned book list; we think this tale may just be evil enough to be considered. A must-read before it does get banned!

Mainstream Horror Shorts don’t always satisfy us in the way they should. They don’t open conversations about what it is that we fear or why we fear such things, they focus mainly on pop culture and gore. The writers in the Mad Men anthology understand the need for literate horror, opening discussions of man’s psyche. When these writers set out to tell a story, they are less interested in conveying fear and more interested in wonder, the sublime, and the infinite strangeness that drives all men and women. Highly recommended for tweens, teens, and adults.

The Mad Men anthology was published by Mind on Fire Books. Written by Willy Martinez, A.R. Braun, and Matt Lavitt. No part of this book shall be copied without permission from the publisher. .book[data-book="book-4740"] .cover::before {background: url(https://mindonfirebooks.com/wp-conten... figure .buttons a { font-size:0.65em !important;}.bookshelf figure h2 { font-size:1.8em !important;}div#bookshelf { -ms-transform: scale(1, 1); /* IE 9 */ -webkit-transform: scale(1, 1); /* Safari */ transform: scale(1, 1);} Continued – What H.P. Lovecraft, the Necronomicon, and Ancient Egyptian Mummies Have in Common

Lovecraft was, in his own time, a little known and under appreciated author of cult stories and strange horror fiction.  His tastes were not aligned with the temperament of his audience at the time, though his work has gained world renown since his death.  Author/Film Maker Stephen King attributes his own sick sense of gore and suspense to Lovecraft (among others).

There is a wide belief that Lovecraft’s most famous work, ‘Cthulhu Mythos’, which has garnered the most attention and influenced more writers worldwide than any other, may actually be a partial plagiarism from the infamous Arabic tome, the Necronomicon.

According to some experts in the study of ancient texts, namely Justin Geoffry in his book ‘The Book of the Arab’, The Necronomicon is shrouded in its own mysteries and misunderstandings.  History had largely accounted the Necronomicon as a collection of evil, as a grimoire or sorcerers handbook, but as is often the case with such fantastic claims, scholars have discovered something very different.

Study of the ancient languages has lead scholars to the correct translation of the books title: ‘Book of Dead Names’.  The Necronomicon was originally written in Damascus in 730ad, by a man who is described by some as a wandering mad poet, Abdul Alhazred.  Little is known about Alhazred, but much speculation has taken place and many believe that he was a well read nomad born of the Yemen province of Sanaa.

FacebookTwitterInstagramLinkedInGoodreadsWhat Do Blavatsky and Crowley Have to Say?

What is known is that the Necronomicon was an incoherent literary rambling of a man who has been compared to Madam Blavatsky, famed author of ‘The Secret Doctrine’.  It is believed that the actual purpose of the book was an historical accounting of traditions, languages and important people who had passed on, though Alhazred was less talented as a writer, than he was as a historian.

As a result of his tendency to spin in tangent mid sentence and to marry odd concepts together with little logic or meaning, superstitious readers of the book became convinced that the book itself held supernatural powers, bestowed upon it by the raving madman.

Well, poet and magician Aleister Crowley is known to have studied various copies of the actual Necronomicon texts (of which there are variations due to banning, destruction and selective editing) as a part of research for his own ‘Book of the Law’, and as it turns out, Crowley’s love interest and later wife, Sonia Greene, was an influential acquaintance of Lovecraft, and had both opportunity and cause to share her suitors work and ideas with the weirdly charismatic horror author.

So where does Lovecraft fit into all this?

This is all well and good, and provides some food for thought, but there’s still no connection between the modern mummy legends and Lovecraft, let alone the Necronomicon.

The leap from Lovecraft to modern Hollywood is no real stretch; after all, so many writers and directors are vociferous in their love of Lovecraft.  It’s not hard to see how the fundamentals of the ‘Cthulhu Mythos’ leeched its way into popular culture.  The one piece of evidence that is compelling in all this is the fact that no other book or script in the history of humanity has been so vehemently regarded as an ancient grimoire for raising and controlling the dead.  The Necronomicon is such a book, and the superstition surrounding this script is virtually identical in foundation to the very adventures our hero and his heroine face on the silver screen.

Believe what you may, but know that behind every great adventure story is a grain of truth, though that truth may come from somewhere completely surprising.

Thank you for visiting with us. For more Literature related content, visit our blog at The Ritual.

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