{"id":3328,"date":"2016-12-01T14:03:27","date_gmt":"2016-12-01T14:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/?p=3328"},"modified":"2017-08-22T12:10:51","modified_gmt":"2017-08-22T12:10:51","slug":"fawcett-saga-1-lovecraft-book-dzyan","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/greydogtales.com\/blog\/fawcett-saga-1-lovecraft-book-dzyan\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fawcett Saga 1: Lovecraft & the Book of Dzyan"},"content":{"rendered":"

We’re off on another wild multi-part adventure, involving the Victorian airship The Attila<\/em>, lost cities, H P Lovecraft<\/strong>, Madame Blavatsky<\/strong>, Tibetans, E Nesbit’s<\/strong> ghost stories and how to be an anarchist. Did you pay any attention when we explained the true origins of the ghoul? No. Or when we told you the truth behind the Flying Dutchman? No. So we’re at it again. We are, unashamedly,\u00a0 greydogtales<\/em>, and this is Edwardian Arcane: The Fawcett Saga<\/strong><\/em>.<\/p>\n

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It’s one of our fun mega-trails, so we’ll start with the easy part, and inevitably get mixed up along the way…<\/p>\n

Forbidden Books<\/h2>\n

One of the fascinations of early weird fiction, as written by Robert W Chambers, H P Lovecraft<\/strong> and Clark Ashton Smith<\/strong>, amongst others, is the range of tantalising tomes they mention. Forbidden books, some of which drive men to terrifying and nightmarish deeds, or simply send them mad. It’s a great tradition, carried on into more recent times by writers such as Brian Lumley<\/strong> and Ramsey Campbell.<\/strong><\/p>\n

(We aren’t usually told what forbidden books do to women. Neurotic male scholars and artists were frequently cornered and asked why they’d spent their money on mouldering volumes of pre-human knowledge. Why hadn’t they picked up the pork chops, bread and nappies like they were told? Someone has to get real.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Most readers of period weird fiction are familiar with the Necronomicon<\/em>, the Book of Eibon<\/em> and so forth. Another fun one is Robert E Howard’s Book of Skelos<\/em>, from his story The Pool of the Black One<\/em> (1933). This was part of the inspiration for that neat new magazine Skelos<\/em>, which we covered when we interviewed Jeffrey Shanks<\/strong> –\u00a0 the secrets of skelos unveiled<\/a><\/p>\n

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Despite some having vague hopes that these were real books, H P Lovecraft himself was quite candid about the fictional nature of most of them.<\/p>\n

“Now about the “terrible and forbidden books\u201d \u2014 I am forced to say that most of them are purely imaginary. There never was any Abdul Alhazred or Necronomicon, for I invented these names myself. Robert Bloch devised the idea of Ludvig Prinn and his De Vermis Mysteriis, while the Book of Eibon is an invention of Clark Ashton Smith’s. Robert E. Howard is responsible for Friedrich von Junzt and his Unaussprechlichen Kulten…. As for seriously-written books on dark, occult, and supernatural themes \u2014 in all truth they don\u2019t amount to much. That is why it\u2019s more fun to invent mythical works like the Necronomicon and Book of Eibon.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Letter to Willis Conover (1936)<\/em><\/p>\n

He and his peers did reference a number of genuine publications, but you have to check to work out which were which. One such book which really existed, but which has also been dismissed by some as bunkum, is the Book of Dzyan<\/em>. We’ll give you a couple of sourced mentions for this one, from the stories:<\/p>\n

“I learned of the Book of Dzyan, whose first six chapters antedate the earth, and which was old when the lords of Venus came through space in their ships to civilise our planet. And I saw recorded in writing for the first time that name which others had spoken to me in whispers, and which I had known in a closer and more horrible way\u2014the shunned and dreaded name of Yian-Ho.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Diary of Alonzo Typer,\u00a0<\/em> H. P. Lovecraft and William Lumley<\/em><\/p>\n

Incidentally, Yian-Ho is the “dreadful and forbidden city” on the Plateau of Leng, from Through the Gates of the Silver Key<\/em> (1934), by Lovecraft and E Hoffman Price<\/strong>. The Yian part may also have been nicked from Robert E Chambers, who mentions it in his story The Maker of Moons<\/em> (1896). From Lovecraft again:<\/p>\n

“But there were others he had known merely by reputation or not at all\u2014the Pnakotic Manuscripts, the Book of Dzyan, and a crumbling volume in wholly unidentifiable characters yet with certain symbols and diagrams shudderingly recognisable to the occult student. Clearly, the lingering local rumours had not lied. This place had once been the seat of an evil older than mankind and wider than the known universe.”<\/em><\/p>\n

The Haunter of the Dark<\/em><\/p>\n

Dzyan Revealed<\/h2>\n

So what is this Book of Dzyan<\/em>? For some time it was dismissed as a construct of Helena Blavatsky’s<\/strong> fertile imagination. Blavatsky (1831-1891) was an occultist and the co-founder of the Theosophical movement. Passages supposedly from this book formed the basis of her central work on theosophy in the Victorian era, The Secret Doctrine<\/em> (first published in 1888).<\/p>\n

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According to Blavatsky it was based on rare Tibetan texts whose originals were secreted somewhere in Tibet or Western China. In fact, Dzyan was meant to be part of ‘secret’ commentaries pertaining to or part of the Books of Kiu-Te<\/em>, which no-one at the time could identify.<\/p>\n

For Lovecraftians, and indeed enthusiasts of many Weird Tales writers, the Secret Doctrine<\/em> includes wonderful stuff. The second half of the book describes the origins of humanity through an account of “root races” said to date back millions of years. The first root race was, according to her, “ethereal”; the second root had more physical bodies and lived in Hyperborea. The third root race, the first to be truly human, is said to have existed on the lost continent of Lemuria and the fourth root race is said to have developed in Atlantis.<\/p>\n

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Side note:<\/strong> This is also relevant to xenoarchaeologists, who in general have little to do. Searching the ruins and remnants of ancient civilisations, including their texts, to prove that non-humans have influenced our development, is always fun. We rather like the pithy Wikipedia comment:<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cXenoarchaeology is not currently practiced by mainstream archaeologists due to the current lack of any material for the discipline to study.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Many folk tried to demonstrate that Blavatsky made it all up, or drew on other Eastern texts to create a sort of mish-mash. The position was not helped later by the fact that Eric von Daniken<\/strong> was a great believer in its authenticity. In his book Gods from Outer Space<\/em> (1970), he says he believes that the Book of Dzyan<\/em> is more ancient than the planet, and that it points to aliens visiting the Earth. But then everything pointed to that where he was concerned.<\/p>\n

You Say Kiu-Te, I Say rgyud-sde<\/h3>\n

But the Book of Dzyan<\/em> is not yet dead and enscoffed. David Reigle<\/strong>, an American Sanskrit scholar, has published research on the sourcebooks accepted in Theosophy, including the Books of Kiu-te<\/em> and the Book of Dzyan:<\/em><\/p>\n

“The Secret Doctrine, H. P. Blavatsky\u2019s 1888 magnum opus, is based on stanzas allegedly translated from a secret \u201cBook of Dzyan.\u201d In 125 years, not a single one of these stanzas has been traced in any known book. While we would not expect to trace verses from a secret book in known books, this has nonetheless been taken to confirm the widely held view that the Book of Dzyan is a product of Blavatsky\u2019s imagination\u2026. (however) I have come across significant circumstantial evidence in favor of the authenticity of the Book of Dzyan.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Reigle, unpublished article (2013)<\/em><\/p>\n

Reigle identifies the Books of Kiu-te<\/em> as the rgyud-sde<\/em>, Tibetan Buddhist tantras (which differ from the Hindu ones). Quite how Blavatsky had access to readable copies of these, no-one is sure, as a lot of the known translations of such tantras only occurred long after her death. A slightly later theosophist, Alice Bailey<\/strong> (1880-1949) sidestepped this sourcing problem by claiming that she herself received her material telepathically from a Tibetan master.<\/p>\n

(We have decidedly no views on whether or not Lovecraft drew on theosophical writings as background material for his stories and general Yog-Sothothery. Clever people can argue that one.)<\/em><\/p>\n

Edward the Theosophist<\/h3>\n

What has this to do with the price of fish? Well, you see, one of the people who helped create and collate the basis of the Theosophical Movement was a certain Edward Douglas Fawcett<\/strong> (1866-1960).<\/p>\n

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He knew Blavatsky, and helped Bertram<\/strong> and Archibald Keightley<\/strong> prepare The Secret Doctrine<\/i> for publication. His theosophical involvement continued for many years. When his book Divine Imagining<\/i> was published in 1921, it was dedicated<\/p>\n

“To his old friend Bertram Keightley, MA, First among British thinkers to accept the imaginal hypothesis, this essay, written at his prompting and profiting by his timely suggestions, is dedicated affectionately by the writer.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Fawcett was a lively fellow, a bit of an adventurer and a writer of some energy, producing what some call a description of a tank before such a thing existed, an Atlantean\/Hollow Earth novel and many articles. He also wrote Hartmann the Anarchist<\/em>, published in 1893, wherein the eponymous Hartmann terrorises London in his mighty airship The Attila<\/em>. We’ll be back to that in more detail in a later part, but first we want to introduce you to his younger brother Percy<\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Lost Cities<\/h2>\n

One of the other great themes in weird fiction is that of lost cities, which may include:<\/p>\n