Apologies for the rather bold and (at least to non-UK reader’s) ungrammatical header. Apropos the (largely unmourned) death of
The News of the World, I felt that the UK readers might be cheered by a post header of tabloid proportions.
Needless to say, in the minds of some conspiracy theorists, aforementioned header is figuratively (if not literally) true. Certainly one area of research which is proving to be fertile in relation to my book are apparent links between Lovecraft’s fictive mythology and the whole Holy Blood, Holy Grail/Da Vinci Code shebang. David Icke’s claims – indirectly lifted from Robert E. Howard’s King Kull story ‘The Shadow Kingdom’ - that the ruling elite of the planet are constituted of a bloodline of shapeshifting extra-dimensional reptoids is already a well-established sidereal Lovecraftian take on this particular stream of contemporary esoterica. Another - which I’ve recently become aware of - is Tracy Twyman‘s claim that the sacred bloodline of Jesus goes back, a la 'The Shadow Over Innsmouth', to a hybridisation programme between humans and extra-/ultra-terrestrial beings akin to Cthulhu and the Great Old Ones. Here, however, Twyman takes a leaf out of the Simon
Necronomicon (peppered with a heavy dose of Zecheria Sitchin filtered through Robert Temple and Kenneth Grant) by claiming that Lovecraft’s pseudomythology is also synonymous with that found in Sumerian mythology: that the Old Ones are identical with the Annanuki (and, indeed, with the Nephilim from
The Book of Enoch). Indeed, Simon's
Necronomicon is quoted at various points in one of Twyman’s books on the matter,
Dead But Dreaming: The Great Old Ones of Lovecraftian Legend Reinterpreted a Atlantean Kings. So far so good - with ultraterrestrials, holy bloodlines, and ancient aliens we’re hitting some of the key signifyers of any contemporary conspiracy theory deserving of the name.
Sadly, Twyman appears not to have undertaken a particularly close reading of Lovecraft, as she submits the Cthulhu mythos to a very Derlethian interpretation (evident in the fact that she claims that in ‘The Call of Cthulhu’ R’lyeh sank because of the pride and destructive behaviour of Cthulhu
et al offended God). In addition, any good Lovecraftian conspiracist worth their salt would immediately jump on the similarities between ‘The Dunwich Horror’ and the biblical accounts of Jesus’ life as documented by Dirk Mosig (and the basis of Richard Tierney’s novel
The Drums of Chaos).
Oh yes, and a rather strained etymological link between ‘Cthulhu’ and ‘Thule’ is made, bringing the Nazis into the picture for no other apparent reason than, well, they are Nazis (and any contemporary conspiratorial occult tale worth its salt needs to contain at least a passing mention of Nazis). In any case, an interesting end result of all this is the inference that Prince William may be a direct descendent of Sumerian/Atlantean/Cthulhoid ultraterrestrials. Not sure where the other red-headed step-child (namely, Prince Harry) fits into the picture. Though given his past proclivities for dressing up in SS uniforms, maybe the Nazi occultists can find something for him to do in the New World Order. Talking of red-headed people, did I mention that the Merovingians are, according to Twyman, also red-headed Aryans? That’s right: not only are the Merovingians hybrid descendents of Sumerian-Atleantean-Cthulhoid Extra-/Ultra-Terrestrials, they are also the Aryan sons of Jesus. Who is, in turn, a descendent of Satan (and thus, one presumes, Cthulhu-Shaitan in Kenneth Grant and Simon’s esoteric interpretation of Lovecraft). So we have it: a bizarre racialised Gnostic Luciferian re-imagining of human prehistory whereby a great war in heaven occurred between the ancient followers of Satan and Jehovah, subsequent to which the benevolent Satan has been depicted as evil by the usurping followers of the god of the Old Testament (i.e. Catholicism and Judaism).
Implicit in this aspect of Twyman’s exegesis of the holy bloodline as Cthulhu mythos is, I think, a common element of contemporary Lovecraftian occulture (and one I’ve documented in my own research): that the multi-dimensionality of the Great Old Ones represents an idealised state of human futurity. Thus the ‘summoning’ of the Great Old Ones becomes the symbolic means of re-awakening their genetic heritage within the human genome and thus allowing us (or at least those of the Great Old Ones’ bloodline) to participate in a transhuman and transcendent phase of being in which the illusory duality of ‘good’ and ‘evil’ will be dissolved in an Nietzschean apocalypse of the Will to Power writ on a cosmic stage. Did I mention that this may come about with the re-awakening’ of the ‘holy grail’ somewhere under Rennes-le-Chateau? And that said grail is none other than the originator of the holy bloodline (Satan-Cain-Cthulhu) who is thus ‘dead but dreaming’ deep beneath Southern France?
The notion of a trans-/post-human metamorphosis of consciousness is a central tenet of elements of contemporary Satanism. A point which, in this context, ties in broadly with Twyman’s generally libertarian outlook on the significance of the holy bloodline as that of the ignominiously maligned ultraterrestrial Satan-Cthulhu. It is a viewpoint evident in the work of her fellow researcher, the wonderfully named Nicholas de Vere von Drakenberg - bearing in mind I have yet to read any of his work. Taking that into consideration, my understanding (elaborated from Twyman) is that de Vere von Drakenberg advocates an explicitly genetic-occult elitism (which, in turn, appears to have its roots in the work of Laurence Gardner, whose work I’ve also yet to read) wherein the selfsame sovereign bloodline also traces its descent to ultraterrestrial God Kings of the primal earth. Who are also elves, apparently. Reading between the lines, I get the sense that both Twyman and de Vere von Drakenberg believe themselves to be inheritors of this genetic tradition.
Thus in an interview on Twyman’s own podcast, de Vere von Drakenberg views this bloodline as heir to a spiritual and political heritage of total and absolute freedom untrammelled by ordinary anthropocentric mores (unsurprisingly, de Sade was also apparently a member of this bloodline). The influence of Kenneth Grant again seems evident, as achievement of this state is interwoven with the evocation of ‘starfire’ via menstrual blood in some kind of system of Tantric magick which De Vere von Drakenberg refers to as ‘Royal Witchcraft’ (only attainable to those of the bloodline). However - and despite spiritual claims which are as grandiose as his title - de Vere von Drakensberg appears to be advocating a vulgar form of Crowley’s magical philosophy of ‘Do What Thou Wilt’. To this end, von Drakenberg also appears to be seeking recognition of his bloodline as a ‘transcorporeal’ sovereign state, with a view of somehow achieving recognition by the United Nations and attaining diplomatic status. The intention behind this - implied but not explicitly stated in the interview with Twyman - is to enable members of the bloodline to acquire immunity from the legal consequences of murder, rape, incest, etc. (all of which, as I understand it, are the ancient prerogative of the bloodline).
Ironically, de Vere von Drakensberg seems not to have considered the possibility that the transition to such a transhuman state might render such corporeal desires meaningless. Indeed, one could be forgiven for thinking that the Sovereign Grand Duchy of Drakensberg seems more inclined to envisage their ultimate spiritual goal in terms of a violently sexualised masculine fantasy.
This brings me to what I think is an important and up to now unrecognised aspect of 'holy bloodline' conspiracies: that they are reminiscent of British Israelism. British Israelism achieved popularity in England and elsewhere in Europpe during the 19th Century, and formed a precursor to the contemporary right wing white supremacist Christian Identity movement in the US. Interested readers are directed to Michael Barkun’s excellent
Religion and the Racist Right for a detailed academic exploration of this relationship.
British Israelism is a complex phenomenon with many offshoots, but in brief elements of this belief system posit the notion that Northern Europeans are one of the 'lost tribes' of Israel, and the true inheritors of the covenant with the Judeo-Christian god of the Old Testament (admittedly this is not quite the same position taken by Twyman and de Vere von Drakenberg). Furthermore, forms of British Israelism also held that the aristocracy of England and Europe are themselves direct descendents of King David, and thus relations of Jesus (a point that is explicitly stated in the work of some bloodline researchers, including Twyman). Importantly, elements of British Israelism also held that Jewish people were not the true 'Israelites', but were presumed to be a racially and spiritually inferior group who usurped that covenent. In the context of the Christian Identity movement, this resulted in the notion that Jesus was not ethically, ‘racially’ or culturally Jewish, but ‘Aryan’ (In contrast to Twyman's work, the Christian Identity movement tends to treat Jewish people as being literally the spawn of Satan - but in this case the evil Satan and not the 'good' one). As indicated above, Twyman also seems to hold the view that the bloodline of Jesus is also 'Aryan'. Of course, these perspectives are not unique to British Israelism, but crop up in the racilaised aspects of Theosophy, as well as the Ariosophy movement documented by Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke in 'The Occult Roots of Nazism'
I’m sure a goodly number of ‘holy bloodline’ researchers such as Twyman are not pursuing an explicitly racist or anti-semitic agenda. However, sometimes one only needs to scratch beneath the surface to find significant threads of racialist and anti-semitic ideology running through many aspects of contemporary conspiracism and esotericism.
There are other obvious racialised aspects of this story which I have yet to explore, including: Otto Rahn’s quest for the grail (currently the focus of the Lovecraftian tinged work of Richard Stanley) as well as the fact that a few bloodline researchers do rely on a quote from the works of racist esotericists such Julius Evola and Miguel Serrano.
Another point of interest (though not perhaps the most appropriate word to use given the subject matter) are the links I'm discerning between all of the above and elements of racialised esoterism that I think are implicit in, of all things, claims about hoaxed moon-landing and other NASA-related conspiracies. This, I should add, seems to be related to (but goes beyond) the tired claims of a New World Order being brewed up by a global cabal of Jewish bankers, framing this in terms of a cosmic war between different groups of ancient aliens who were/are 'racial' enemies, the material remnants of which are to be found in so-called 'anomalous artefacts' said to be found visible on the Moon, Mars, Phobos, Titan, etc.
Finally, apologies for the lack of embedded links in this post - I'm still catching up on work, but wanted to get this post published even though links are missing. I'll try and add them later.
