I sympathise with chaos magick in the sense that their argument is that at some point all deities were created, as were all systems.
However, I don't see the point of or need to use fiction. I just can't help but think it is to be different, or stand out. What is more is where do you draw the line, should we worship DUmbledore as the God of Wisdom, Voldemort as the destroyer God, Hagrid as the God of strength?
I am not a fan of pop culture paganism. If you wish to create your own path, don't borrow the name of another.
I use lovecraft because it's fun. In a ritual that I'd use, say, Cthulhu in, I would not be too concerned with results. They are usually disappointing. I simply think it's amusing to take something with such an overdone dark and chaotic essence and play with it.
Basically, it's a game with real world consequences for me. Now, with such things you have to be careful and try to do things as safely as possible, but that's true for all magic. This sort of thing is just better suited for results that you could live with not receiving, or receiving in a weak, watered down and possibly ironic way.
Praying to fictional deities, invoking fictional names, or enacting fictional rituals will not change or effect anything of the real world, and the only consequences that may follow would be a misled study.
No where did I say i was going to blend the two together.
But i'd like to say this as long as the Cthulhu Mythos have been read thought about games played,people working rituals,and magick in the names of the mythos entities,these entities have pertty much become real on the astral plane,but it pertty much amazes me how people can and will say they believe that egregores ,thoughtforms,etc etc can be created intentionally as well as unintentionally and yet meantion the Cthulhu Mythos and there is a Knee jerk reaction out of them that turns them and they start claiming they are strictly fictional and do everything they can to reject and cause others to reject the fact that they have by no taken substance on the astral plane.
the fact is Occultust,wiccans etc etc thorugh attempts at denial are opposing the Mythos entities asd much as any magick weilding protaganist in any Mythos story,the only thing is that as long as you have occultists of every stripe doing rituals,people reading the mythos stories,and playing Mythos related games in the real world their existance in the astral plane is assured,opposition to their existance is by now late in the game so to speak.
From your first post= " I should do something diffrent by blending the two into a form of Lovecraftian Druidry"
You did mention blending the two together.
What is more is that I did say they have an argument, however, the fact of the matter is what is a fictional character vs what is a god?
Everything an be real on the astral plane, it is not that impressive. Your imagination is real on the astral plane. It is the expression of the force on a Atziluthic and Briatic plane of existence which would be impressive.
A thoughtform/character is all well and good, and you should do what you want. However I would like to propose the following thought;
Kenneth Grant who sympathised with the Lovecraft occult movement, and was probably the first to propose such comparisons defined a God as follows;
" A god is technically an energy-aggregate of colossal concentration. When a vastly coagulated series of acts, performed under will, achieve cosmic magnitude, a "god" is born."
Now I don't know about Lovecraft too much, but I just can't see how a bunch of fictional characters fit in with that definition.
That the idea of creating a new path isn't alien. The idea of melding fact and fiction might seem coarse to some, but the meta truth is that if a path is Functional for you then it can be considered a legitimate exercise.
If he wants to channel a concept and place his chosen name on the force, that's his choice.
If he wants to try something, find out it doesn't work, and move on.. Is that not his Right?
Constructive criticism is a far cry from what a lot of you are offering. Outright insults and downright mockery aren't constructive.
I can see where some could be offended by presented ideas, but isn't it better to explain then degrade?
People create new paths all the time, even functional ones. Sometimes old ideas are cannibalized into newer ones, or older rites "improved" or streamlined for modern life.
One must also recall that unless a person sets out to Be offensive, that Reading something online and Choosing to be offended is your Choice. Not the writers. Can't please everybody after all.
I personally don't think the two ideas are compatible, in the sense that druid work is more centered around nature and the idea of the Outer Gods is centered around Madness and similar non-linear occurrences, would set them at odds. It would be helpful to do something complimentary, or with more synergy if you're merging systems.
I would advise learning a system that exists, even if it doesn't 100% fit with your ideal. Then you can take what is Useful about the experience and move on, learning as you go. You may one day find a means to create your own functional system that way.
I would be surprised if several respectable occult authors didn't start by learning other paths until they saw an amalgam of their own to walk.
I encourage you to learn and experience, then find for yourself what works.
Reading what you said shows there are still open minded people, who don't mind cutting through the mess.
the closest if i did decide to blend the mythos and druidry together that I would go is to blend in the Outer Gods with Druidry as they are "personifications" of cosmic forces,but thats if i was to go the syncretic way.but I keep those two paths seperate.
I think, honestly, much of the reaction was knee-jerk to what initially appeared to be more of the same. I almost jumped on the band wagon with everyone else and decided that it really wasn't worth adding two tarnished pennies to the pile.
Flagg kind of said what we are all thinking, but the frequency of absurdity on the forums leaves us lacking the patience and kindness to do so.
Fiction is frequently applied to individual magical studies in favor of studying rich traditions that will offer far more valuable insights, and for no better reason than "it's fun," and frequent laziness (not to say the laziness necessarily applies to you). Sometimes applying fictional concepts to a personal path can yield results but this is almost always UPG, and more a variation of semantics than anything else. The end result of sharing these results, and speaking of the fictional methods as gospel magical lore generally just translates into a bunch of kids looking to be the next sparkly new vampire or Harry Potter. I used to spend much more time trying to explain the problems with this, only to find that my explanations were ignored and responded to with "but it's my belief" and other such inanities.
Myself, and likely others, viewed your intial post speaking of blending Lovecraftian/Cthulhu fiction with Druidry and kind of stared slack jawed. As Flagg suggested, even if one of the paths weren't rooted in fiction the methods and ideals are somewhat less than congruent. Even taking into consideration that the Outer Gods are personifications of cosmic forces, in Lovecraftian lore they are "outer." They are the unknowable, unnatural forces that are at best indifferent, and far more frequently wholly malignant. This is how Lovecraft wrote of the in his fictions. Mingling this with a love of nature and the balance therein seems to offer a balance of its own, I suppose, but really... It's entirely at odds.
