Astrology and the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft
In our work at the Wilfred Hazelwood Clinic, we often deal with the "Shadow", those parts of the psyche that are rejected, hidden, and fearful. Few writers in history have personified the collective Shadow as effectively as H.P. Lovecraft. While known as a master of horror, Lovecraft was also a precocious amateur astronomer. His "Cosmic Horror" was not just a literary invention; it was rooted in a profound, albeit terrified, understanding of the universe's vastness, a vastness that astrology seeks to map.
The central premise of Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos is famously astrological: "When the stars are right," the Great Old Ones can plunge from world to world through the sky; but when the stars are wrong, they cannot live. This is a dark reflection of the astrological concept of transits, periods of time where planetary alignments trigger dormant psychological complexes.
Yuggoth and the Discovery of Pluto
One of the most striking synchronicities between Lovecraft’s fiction and actual astronomy concerns the planet Pluto. In his story The Whisperer in Darkness (written in 1930), Lovecraft speaks of a ninth planet called "Yuggoth," a dark, icy world at the edge of the solar system, inhabited by the alien Mi-Go. Remarkably, the real planet Pluto was discovered by Clyde Tombaugh in February of that very same year, 1930.
Astrologically, Pluto represents the underworld, the deep subconscious, upheaval, and power that is hidden from view. Lovecraft, arguably tapping into the collective unconscious, intuited the archetype of this planet just as it was being brought into human consciousness. In our therapy sessions, we view Plutonian periods as times when the "floor" of our reality falls out, revealing deeper, often uncomfortable truths, a process Lovecraft dramatised as contact with alien entities.
The Jungian Deep: R'lyeh as the Unconscious
The creature Cthulhu is described as "dead but dreaming" in his sunken city of R'lyeh beneath the Pacific Ocean. From a Jungian perspective, the ocean is the universal symbol of the Unconscious. Cthulhu, therefore, is not merely a monster; he is an archetype of the primordial, devouring contents of the deep psyche that the rational mind (the dry land) tries to ignore.
In The Call of Cthulhu, the psychic disturbances that drive artists and sensitives mad occur between February 28 and April 2, 1925. I researched the planetary positions for this specific period. During this time, the Sun, Mercury, and Venus were transiting through Pisces, the sign of the mystic, the dreamer, and the boundless ocean. Furthermore, they were moving toward a square with Saturn in Scorpio (a sign associated with death and the occult). It is fitting that in a season ruled by Pisces (the Fishes), Lovecraft envisioned a psychic signal broadcasting from a nightmare city beneath the waves.
Cosmic Indifference vs. Cosmic Meaning
Where traditional astrology looks for meaning and connection in the stars, Lovecraft posited a universe of "Cosmic Indifference." He feared that the universe was so large that humanity was insignificant. However, psychological astrology offers a bridge across this abyss. We argue that while the universe is indeed vast and powerful (as symbolised by the outer planets Uranus, Neptune, and Pluto), it is not separate from us.
- Uranus: The shock of the new, which Lovecraft viewed as "forbidden knowledge."
- Neptune: The dissolution of reality, which he wrote as madness or "the weird."
- Pluto: The transformative destruction, which he saw as the return of the Old Ones.
Lovecraft’s horror arose from his resistance to these forces. His protagonist is usually a rational materialist who is crushed when his worldview is expanded. In therapy, we aim for the opposite: to voluntarily open ourselves to the "stars", the archetypes, so that we are expanded by them rather than destroyed. We learn to swim in the waters where Cthulhu swims, integrating the shadow rather than fleeing from it.
Ultimately, Lovecraft’s mythos serves as a cautionary tale of the unintegrated psyche. It reminds us that if we do not respect the "Old Ones", the ancient, instinctual forces within us, they will eventually rise when the stars are right, demanding to be heard.
