Cosmic Horror Is Cosmic Awe

I’ve broached this subject before on this blog and as I get ready later this year to delve into the third book of the series, I find myself revisiting the subject of Cosmic Horror and Cosmic Awe. I’ve mulled over this issue since the last time I’ve written about it, and the thought came to me that this type of horror and awe are two sides of the same coin. I see it as a duality, similar to the duality of Good and Evil, Darkness versus Light. I say this because the terror and magnificence, the scope and vastness, the powerful emotions it can stir seem to come from the same well - you feel impossibly tiny and unimportant in the face of it. But, here is the difference.

The horror side makes you realize that you are so small and insignificant before such an entity or body that the vasty, dark deepness draws out the helplessness from you and it makes you quell in fear and hopelessness because you don’t matter. You are a mote among many that are consumed or destroyed without so much as an after-thought as to your existence, because, what is a mote in the face of a god? It is much like how a human cares about dust mites as they go cleaning through their house. They don’t. On such a scale, the lives and realities to such small things are meaningless to such an entity.

The Awesome side of this makes you realize that you are so small and seemingly insignificant before the vastness of the being/entity/body you are beholding and you feel awe in the sense of destiny or hope because on this side, you realize that you are only a mote but you and all of the other countless motes together were put there for a reason and small as you are, you do matter to God, which is why you exist. He has placed you in the universe at a place and time for a reason you are privileged to gaze upon the magnificence of creation since you are part of that creation and rather than eliciting hopelessness it elicits humility before such greatness and also joy that you get to experience it and be apart of it.

I don’t think I’ve ever seen this concept of one overturning into the other in story play out except in that ultimate story of A Revelation To John, and I’m still not sure it truly fits the description.

In the story I’m writing, Jonas will encounter such entities that make him feel that horror, that terror of meaninglessness. We haven’t gotten to that book yet but in this series there is a far away place in the universe that I have called Hastur. YOu may be aquaimted with that name if you’ve read. Ambrose Bierce’s work, Robert L. Chambers’ work or H. P. Lovecraft’s work, Hastur was both an entity and a palce in various stories. The original creator of Hastur was by Bierce as a shepherd god. In my work, Hastur is a place called Magonia by some and Edessa by those of the Mazzaroth Society. If you’ve read much about the Templar Knights, that name might be familiar to you. Edessa had great importance to the Templars. In my series it is the battleground of religious, esoteric and spiritual importance in the universe.

I think I’ve seen a resurgence over the years of an interest both from readers and writers in Cosmic Horror and I like it. I don’t think it gets enough attention in literature and I like to see it. as for Cosmic Awe? This is a term I made up just to tease out ideas that I have. For me, Cosmic Awe is related to what Tolkien called Ucatastrophe - that sudden turn of events from great tragedy to great felicitous rescue from tragedy. Not the same but similar in that one could believe they are in a universe that doesn’t matter only to find, at the last minute that this isn’t true. Or vice versa. The next series of posts will be about how Carl Jung, shadow work, the unconscious and meditation fits in with my understanding of The Chapel Perilous and how it will show up in my series. Happy reading!