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Acolyte, v. 3, issue 2, whole no. 11, Summer 1945
Page 17
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The remains of the murdered stars are mixed with the ichor of fallen gods and served as fodder to the lost spirits of Omacatl. Tamoancan. The god of the Waiting World or Abode of Descent where wait the souls of demons, outer world fiends, and hell-spawned effluvia. Tamoancan secretly slips the souls of these hideous devils into the bodies of infants about to be born on earth. Once in human form they must remain bound to that body until they are freed by performing some noteworthy cosmic crime whose "evil effect can blot out the stars". Tlau-Izcal-Pante-Cutli. Beauteous, sadistic, lustful, lecherous female voluptuary who purchased the Five Firmaments in order to find a supreme lover who could satiate her overwhelming passions. So far, all lovers have perished gallantly in the attempt. In vengeance and frustration she destroys the solar circuits of the planet from whence the failures sprang. She has frequently disguised herself as the newlywed bride of some brawny swain, usurping the place of his wife who is spirited away into the Starless Void beyond the Eternal. The groom is usually found with his life completely drained away, succubus-like. This goddess has been known to kidnap the entire male population of a planet, leaving the stricken womenfolk with a desolate, manless world. (Lovecraft thought this deific character would make the basis of a splendid Robert E. Howard story.) Yum-Cimil. The Supreme Horror who steals the possessions, life-forces, and finally the soul of every sentient creature in the Universe. His head is the skull of a dead planet; his beard the entrails of the savage quag-god; his eyes the living fires of hell; and his voice the agonizing cry of frightened thunder. Lovecraft studied over the choice items carefully and said they were fertile with ideas he "might choose to use" but they were crude and require a great deal of interpretation and modification". He said that he felt his own writings depicted man as the hapless victim of vast cosmic conspiracies, and that the suggested Mexican gods fitted in with this principle. He went on to venture the thought that Clark Ashton Smith would likewise be interested "because he wrote of man as the pre-destined tool of death", and assuredly the garish gods of the Aztecs bore out such a premise. He went on to declare that Catherine Moore wrote as "an incurable optimist rescuing man from an ill-omened fate by the means of a 'Star-destined fortune-favored' element; and that she would take over these old Mexican gods and dispose of them one by one through the valor, courage, and will power of her characters". He said she believed that the animal "man" had the undeniable ability to recover from the most hell-shattering catastrophe. The immortal potentialities of mankind, as she saw them, were too enormous a factor to be submerged or intimidated by mere "terror-gods". Such would make excellent straw-men for her heroes to vanquish. Lovecraft finished his comparisons by asserting that "Robert Howard created men like gods and gods like men, with the men invincible conquerors over all the woe and misery the Powers of the Absolute could throw at them". He averred that Howard would find the Maya-Toltec-Aztec gods easy meat for his blood-lusting warriors, except that the divinities should have more sex-appeal to be worth his heroes' trouble in dispatching them! In the light of this basic philosophy of Howard's it was a titanic life-quake when the full shock of his passing struck his friends. Such a reversal of fundamental nature seemed unbelievable. So vital and dynamic a personality seemed eternal and immutable. He and Lovecraft were good friends and perhaps together they are exploring the infinite with the same zest and joyous spirit they possessed on the mundane sphere. They make a perfect pair of -- 17 --
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The remains of the murdered stars are mixed with the ichor of fallen gods and served as fodder to the lost spirits of Omacatl. Tamoancan. The god of the Waiting World or Abode of Descent where wait the souls of demons, outer world fiends, and hell-spawned effluvia. Tamoancan secretly slips the souls of these hideous devils into the bodies of infants about to be born on earth. Once in human form they must remain bound to that body until they are freed by performing some noteworthy cosmic crime whose "evil effect can blot out the stars". Tlau-Izcal-Pante-Cutli. Beauteous, sadistic, lustful, lecherous female voluptuary who purchased the Five Firmaments in order to find a supreme lover who could satiate her overwhelming passions. So far, all lovers have perished gallantly in the attempt. In vengeance and frustration she destroys the solar circuits of the planet from whence the failures sprang. She has frequently disguised herself as the newlywed bride of some brawny swain, usurping the place of his wife who is spirited away into the Starless Void beyond the Eternal. The groom is usually found with his life completely drained away, succubus-like. This goddess has been known to kidnap the entire male population of a planet, leaving the stricken womenfolk with a desolate, manless world. (Lovecraft thought this deific character would make the basis of a splendid Robert E. Howard story.) Yum-Cimil. The Supreme Horror who steals the possessions, life-forces, and finally the soul of every sentient creature in the Universe. His head is the skull of a dead planet; his beard the entrails of the savage quag-god; his eyes the living fires of hell; and his voice the agonizing cry of frightened thunder. Lovecraft studied over the choice items carefully and said they were fertile with ideas he "might choose to use" but they were crude and require a great deal of interpretation and modification". He said that he felt his own writings depicted man as the hapless victim of vast cosmic conspiracies, and that the suggested Mexican gods fitted in with this principle. He went on to venture the thought that Clark Ashton Smith would likewise be interested "because he wrote of man as the pre-destined tool of death", and assuredly the garish gods of the Aztecs bore out such a premise. He went on to declare that Catherine Moore wrote as "an incurable optimist rescuing man from an ill-omened fate by the means of a 'Star-destined fortune-favored' element; and that she would take over these old Mexican gods and dispose of them one by one through the valor, courage, and will power of her characters". He said she believed that the animal "man" had the undeniable ability to recover from the most hell-shattering catastrophe. The immortal potentialities of mankind, as she saw them, were too enormous a factor to be submerged or intimidated by mere "terror-gods". Such would make excellent straw-men for her heroes to vanquish. Lovecraft finished his comparisons by asserting that "Robert Howard created men like gods and gods like men, with the men invincible conquerors over all the woe and misery the Powers of the Absolute could throw at them". He averred that Howard would find the Maya-Toltec-Aztec gods easy meat for his blood-lusting warriors, except that the divinities should have more sex-appeal to be worth his heroes' trouble in dispatching them! In the light of this basic philosophy of Howard's it was a titanic life-quake when the full shock of his passing struck his friends. Such a reversal of fundamental nature seemed unbelievable. So vital and dynamic a personality seemed eternal and immutable. He and Lovecraft were good friends and perhaps together they are exploring the infinite with the same zest and joyous spirit they possessed on the mundane sphere. They make a perfect pair of -- 17 --
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