Gods: Azathoth

The Nuclear Chaos. The Daemon Sultan. Blind Idiot God. The Lord of All Things. Little is known about the creator God. Like Lord Dunsany's Mana-Yood-Sushai, Azathoth sleeps under the other gods' song and music. No one knows if he is the creator of the Big Bang or is encompasses it. Little is known about him except that he created the Nameless Mist, the Darkness, and Nyarlathotep before sleeping and dreaming our existence.

Then we have the true horror: we may be only his dream. What happens when he wakes up? Do we disappear or does he destroy us? Perhaps ignorance is better. Better to not know what happens because we can't comprehend his ways. So mindless is he that he mutters things he can't understand. And it's not that he's so beyond us that we can't understand. Lovecraft makes it clear that this god is mad by our standards.

It's like time has an effect on even the gods. But let's look deeper. Terrible things happen in an awakening. Look to literature. Beowolf's kingdom is ravaged by an awoken dragon. There's a literature and narrative theme of terrible signs and horrible wonders occuring with a monster's awakening. Like an unsealed curse brought down on humanity. 

Azathoth embodies cosmic indifference. He is unaware or uncaring of the inhabitants of the universe. An "idiot" in the way that he is mindless, not stupid. He is the "nuclear chaos" of the universe that is vast and cold and uncaring. Impossible to imagine or even comprehend. He is the ultimate existential horror. Think about how inconsequential a dream is to a person and stretch it to the universe. If this reality is his dream, what is his reality? He symbolizes the fear that we can't understand or control aspects of our life. We are weak and fragile and turn to madness when we realize the truth of this reality. 

Despite this, part of me see him as an old man unaware of his own thoughts and burdened by his timeless lifespan. There's something more here that nags at the back of my mind. I feel like Lovecraft is trying to say something deeper. Something that can only be understood with something akin to enlightenment. Maybe it's something philosophical I found during my research.

Let's look deeper. Most religions strive to give a purpose or meaning to life. "This happened because of that, if you do this you'll get that." It's a type of order and rules that gives us purpose. Azathoth is a mockery of that concept. Everything is here on accident and there is no meaning. If there isn't a purpose, what claim to sanity do we have?

Its as if Azathoth is a representation of the opposite of a caring, understanding god. Azathoth doesn't oversee a domain or care for people like the pre and post Judeo-Christian gods. Instead he's uncaring, almost by accident. It reminds me of the Turtle, the creator of the universe in Stephen King's "It." We're only a byproduct, a mistake given form. There's no malice behind Azathoth's actions, no goal or purpose. 

Lovecraft's works only mention Azathoth in "Haunter in the Dark", "Dream Quest of Unknown Kadath," "The Dreams in the Witch House," "The Whisperer in the Darkness," and a few others but no story centers around him. It's as if Azathoth is too horrible to mention. 

Of course I had to start with the god of gods. I plan to do deep dives of the other gods later.

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