Cthulhu Mythos Cosmology and Gods

The Archetypes

in Through the Gates of the Silver Key, we are introduced to the idea that reality as perceived by mortals and lesser beings is nothing but a fragmentary, partial illusion that exists as an imperfect aspect of the true nature of the world, which is a changeless, static oneness devoid of any differentiations, that exists beyond all perspectives.

"Time, the waves went on, is motionless, and without beginning or end. That it has motion, and is the cause of change, is an illusion. Indeed, it is itself really an illusion, for except to the narrow sight of beings in limited dimensions there are no such things as past, present, and future. Men think of time only because of what they call change, yet that too is illusion. All that was, and is, and is to be, exists simultaneously.

These revelations came with a godlike solemnity which left Carter unable to doubt. Even though they lay almost beyond his comprehension, he felt that they must be true in the light of that final cosmic reality which belies all local perspectives and narrow partial views; and he was familiar enough with profound speculations to be free from the bondage of local and partial conceptions. Had his whole quest not been based upon a faith in the unreality of the local and partial?

After an impressive pause the waves continued, saying that what the denizens of few-dimensioned zones call change is merely a function of their consciousness, which views the external world from various cosmic angles. As the shapes produced by the cutting of a cone seem to vary with the angles of cutting—being circle, ellipse, parabola, or hyperbola according to that angle, yet without any change in the cone itself—so do the local aspects of an unchanged and endless reality seem to change with the cosmic angle of regarding. To this variety of angles of consciousness the feeble beings of the inner worlds are slaves, since with rare exceptions they cannot learn to control them. Only a few students of forbidden things have gained inklings of this control, and have thereby conquered time and change. But the entities outside the Gates command all angles, and view the myriad parts of the cosmos in terms of fragmentary, change-involving perspective, or of the changeless totality beyond perspective, in accordance with their will."

This portrayal of the Ultimate Gods, however, appears only once, in this specific story, and greatly conflicts with how they are depicted in the rest of Lovecraft's works. Thankfully, Through the Gates of the Silver Key itself already offers an explanation of sorts to this apparent inconsistency, namely:

"To this variety of angles of consciousness the feeble beings of the inner worlds are slaves, since with rare exceptions they cannot learn to control them. Only a few students of forbidden things have gained inklings of this control, and have thereby conquered time and change. But the entities outside the Gates command all angles, and view the myriad parts of the cosmos in terms of fragmentary, change-involving perspective, or of the changeless totality beyond perspective, in accordance with their will."

To paraphrase that, the Archetypes are stated to be capable of experiencing the cosmos either as the unchanging, undivided wholeness that it truly is, or in the form of fragmentary, change-involving perspectives that they naturally exist beyond, in accordance to their own will. In essence, this would mean that they can actively choose to perceive reality as local identities that other stories identify as "The Ultimate Gods," which are far more limited, lower equivalents of their true selves.

This is then supported by another passage of the story, where Randolph Carter identifies The Supreme Archetype as the same entity that denizens of lower worlds worshipped under the name of Yog-Sothoth, and at the same time, he realizes that even the identity of "Yog-Sothoth" is nothing but an illusory, fractional conception of a much greater being.

"In the face of that awful wonder, the quasi-Carter forgot the horror of destroyed individuality. It was an All-in-One and One-in-All of limitless being and self—not merely a thing of one Space-Time continuum, but allied to the ultimate animating essence of existence's whole unbounded sweep—the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. It was perhaps that which certain secret cults of earth have whispered of as YOG-SOTHOTH, and which has been a deity under other names; that which the crustaceans of Yuggoth worship as the Beyond-One, and which the vaporous brains of the spiral nebulae know by an untranslatable Sign—yet in a flash the Carter-facet realised how slight and fractional all these conceptions are."

The case of contradictory descriptions of the Outer Gods is much more than simply a case of changeless beings presenting as changeable to lesser beings- the Outer Gods as fragmentary, changing entities have limitations that simply don't apply to their eternal, archetypal states. The only logical conclusion is that these two modes of existence of the Outer Gods should be separated for the purposes of indexing, with them in their greater state - the static, eternal state of oneness - being identified as The Archetypes, and the lesser state that still beholds some limits should be labeled The Ultimate Gods or The Outer Gods if you prefer. The former is what they are called by the Supreme Archetype, and the latter is how they are referred to in every other story.