When it comes to the occult, the moon holds a significant position as a symbol of mystery, magic, and feminine energy. Throughout history, various cultures have assigned different meanings and interpretations to the moon, making it a potent symbol in occult practices. The moon's phases, shape, and positioning in the night sky all carry symbolism that practitioners tap into during rituals and spellwork. One of the most recognizable occult moon symbols is the Triple Goddess symbol, which represents the three phases of the moon - waxing, full, and waning. These phases are often associated with the Maiden, Mother, and Crone archetypes, representing different stages of a woman's life. This symbol is widely used in Wiccan and pagan traditions.
The film pays its obeisance to the Lovecraft story even if it is not a particularly good adaptation, including a reading from sections of the story over the opening credits. Dropped is the journey to the astral plane and other dimensions, no doubt for budgetary reasons. Lovecraft’s central character gets a gender-flip and for entirely contrived reasons moves into the attic (because it is the only room the owner will rent out). I was intrigued how the film was going to depict the idea of occult geometry on the low-budget it has – indeed, how it would be possible for any film to give visual representation to such an idea – but the film sidesteps this by merely having Michelle Morris obsessed with the topic and even giving a lecture on it (not that any of these make clear what occult geometry actually is).
In 1966, Anton LeVay founded the Church of Satan, a non-theistic religious philosophy that took the theatrical trappings and some of the rituals which literature including accounts of the witch trials associated with Satanism in the early modern period. In The Dreams in the Witch House, the ultimate revelation was that the horrors were real that there was a cruel reality that lay behind the Salem witch accusations, that the accused were not just innocent victims of religious mania; something a bit closer to The Lords of Salem 2012.
This symbol is widely used in Wiccan and pagan traditions. Another important moon symbol in the occult is the pentacle, which is a five-pointed star enclosed in a circle. The pentacle often represents the elements - earth, air, water, fire, and spirit - each point corresponding to one of these elements.
H.P. Lovecraft’s Witch House (2021)
Director – Bobby Easley, Screenplay – Bobby Easley & Ken Wallace, Based on the Short Story Dreams in the Witch House by H.P. Lovecraft, Producers – James Brenton, Bobby Easley & Ken Wallace, Photography – James Brenton, Music – Dyllen Nance, Special Effects – Zeus Lee & Phil Yeary, Makeup Supervisor – Erin Trimble. Production Company – Horror Wasteland Pictures International/Dark Arts Entertainment/First Frame Productions.
Cast
Michelle Morris (Alice Gilman), Julie Anne Prescott (Tommi), Erin Trimble (Kelly), Andie Noir (Kenzie Mason), John Johnson (Professor Sherfick), Bill Levin (Vespuli), Solon Tsangaras (Brown Jenkin)
Plot
Alice Gilman rents a room in the Hannah House, although the only room the owner will give her is the attic. Alice befriends the owner’s niece Tommi, who shows her some of the secrets of the house, while the two also become lovers. Alice has a fascination with occult geometry and lectures on the subject. However, she ignores warnings she is given about the house. She is soon plunged into a series of nightmare hallucinations and is dragged to an occult ceremony where she is intended to bear the Devil’s child.
H.P. Lovecraft (1890-1937) was an author writing in the 1920s and 30s who created a fascinating body of work that broods with a sense of cosmic horror, of scientists uncovering forbidden knowledge, elder gods slumbering and awaiting to be released, ancient prehistoric races emerging and the like. (For greater detail see Lovecraftian Films ).
The Dreams in the Witch House (1933) is a Lovecraft story, originally published in Weird Tales magazine. The story concerns student Walter Gilman who moves into the attic of the Witch House in Arkham. The attic is constructed according to occult geometry and he soon begins having dreams in which he travels to other astral planes and is haunted by appearances of the witch Keziah Mason. The story previously formed the basis of two other films, both uncredited, with supposedly The Curse of the Crimson Altar (1968) and more directly The Dark Sleep (2013), while Stuart Gordon made a direct adaptation with Dreams in the Witch-House (2005), an episode of the horror anthology tv series Masters of Horror and Catherine Hardwicke subsequently conducted an adaptation with the The Dreams in the Witch House (2022) episode of Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities . The Lovecraft story is never directly credited as the basis of the film here either – the film just calls itself H.P. Lovecraft’s Witch House and it would take a knowledge of Lovecraft’s bibliography to connect that up as being an adaptation of the story.
The film pays its obeisance to the Lovecraft story even if it is not a particularly good adaptation, including a reading from sections of the story over the opening credits. Dropped is the journey to the astral plane and other dimensions, no doubt for budgetary reasons. Lovecraft’s central character gets a gender-flip and for entirely contrived reasons moves into the attic (because it is the only room the owner will rent out). I was intrigued how the film was going to depict the idea of occult geometry on the low-budget it has – indeed, how it would be possible for any film to give visual representation to such an idea – but the film sidesteps this by merely having Michelle Morris obsessed with the topic and even giving a lecture on it (not that any of these make clear what occult geometry actually is).
Alice Gilman (Michelle Morris) (front) haunted by Brown Jenkins (Solon Tsangaras)
The film has obtained the use of the real-life Hannah House in Indianapolis. The house was built in 1858 by a gold prospector who had struck it rich and at one point it ended up being used as part of the Underground Railroad. It is regarded as an historic landmark and has gained a reputation as a haunted house where it has been investigated by various ghost hunters and the like. Indeed, this haunted reputation is part of the house’s tourist sell today.
The main problem with the film is that it is all about the locale of a house that the filmmakers have attained use of for filming. We get various connections and nods to the H.P. Lovecraft story but not much else. There is not even really much of a story to the proceedings. We get scenes of Michelle Morris fascinated with occult geometry and the house. There is time aside for a lesbian love affair with Julie Anne Prescott, the daughter? niece? of the owner, but never any scenes where Michelle starts to uncover the house’s secrets.
Rather than any ventures to astral planes, the latter third of the film turns into a parade of dreams and hallucination scenes, filled with occult orgies with hooded figures chanting in circles and pursuing Michelle Morris through the house and woods, as well as her impregnation by The Devil. In these scenes, Bobby Easley does no more than draw on stock images of The Occult and Black Magic Film but delivers nothing out of the ordinary.
This was the fourth film for director Bobby Easley who has elsewhere made the horror films All Sinner’s Night (2014), Belly Timber (2016) and co-directed The Dead Bodies in #223 (2017), as well as the non-genre war film The Devil Dogs of Kilo Company (2015).
Other films based on the works of H.P. Lovecraft include:- The Haunted Palace (1963), Die, Monster, Die/Monster of Terror (1965), The Shuttered Room (1967) and The Dunwich Horror (1969). The big success in the modern era was Stuart Gordon’s splattery black comedy version of Re-Animator (1985), which popularised Lovecraft on film. This led to a host of B-budget Lovecraft adaptations, including Stuart Gordon’s subsequent From Beyond (1986), The Curse (1987), The Unnameable (1988), The Resurrected (1992), Necronomicon (1993), The Unnamable II: The Statement of Randolph Carter (1993), Lurking Fear (1994), Stuart Gordon’s Dagon (2001), The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath (2003), Beyond the Wall of Sleep (2006), Cool Air (2006), Chill (2007), Cthulhu (2007), The Tomb (2007), Colour from the Dark (2008), The Dunwich Horror (2009), The Color (2010), Pickman’s Muse (2010), The Whisperer in Darkness (2011), The Dark Sleep (2013), The Haunter of the Dark (2015), Herbert West: Re-Animator (2017), Color Out of Space (2019), H.P. Lovecraft’s The Deep Ones (2020), the tv series Lovecraft Country (2020), Markham (2020), The Resonator: Miskatonic U (2021) and The Lurking Fear (2023). Lovecraft: Fear of the Unknown (2008) is a documentary about Lovecraft. Also of interest is The Manitou (1978), which features an appearance of the Great Old One; Cast a Deadly Spell (1991) and its sequel Witch Hunt (1994), a tv movie set in an alternate world where magic works and where the central character is a detective named H.P. Lovecraft; Juan Piquer Simon’s cheap and loosely inspired Cthulhu Mansion (1992); John Carpenter’s Lovecraft homage In the Mouth of Madness (1995); the fan parody The Last Lovecraft: Relic of Cthulhu (2009) and the parody Call Girl of Cthulhu (2014); even a trilogy of animated children’s film Howard Lovecraft and the Frozen Kingdom (2016), Howard Lovecraft and the Undersea Kingdom (2017) and Howard Lovecraft and the Kingdom of Madness (2018) in which a young Lovecraft encounters his own creations; while Batman faces Lovecraftian horrors in the animated Batman: The Doom That Came to Gotham (2023). The Elder Gods turn up at the end of The Cabin in the Woods (2012), Lovecraft (Paul Titley) appears as an imaginary companion in Ghostland/Incident in a Ghostland (2018) and In Search of Lovecraft (2008) features a tv news crew discovering that Lovecraft’s works are true. Lovecraft’s key work of demonic lore The Necronomicon also makes appearances in films such as Equinox (1970), The Evil Dead II (1987) and Army of Darkness (1992), and was also borrowed as an alternate retitling for Jesus Franco’s surreal and otherwise unrelated Succubus/Necronomicon (1969) about a BDSM dancer.
Walter Gilman, a student of mathematics at Miskatonic University, rents an attic room in a house that is rumored to be cursed and haunted by the spirit of a witch, Keziah Mason, who lived there in the 17th century. He experiences nocturnal visions of Mason, her familiar (a rat-like creature called Brown Jenkin), and strange creatures in otherworldly dimensions, and is offered knowledge beyond the reach of human science, but at a terrible cost.
In occult practices, the pentacle is used for protection, divination, and invoking the powers of the moon and the elements. The crescent moon is another significant symbol in the occult. It represents the waxing and waning phases of the moon and is closely associated with female energy and intuition. In many cultures, the crescent moon was revered as a fertility symbol and a protector against evil spirits. In modern occult practices, the crescent moon is often used to enhance psychic abilities and intuition. The moon's position in the night sky also holds symbolism in the occult. For example, a full moon is considered a time of heightened energy and power, making it an ideal time for rituals and spellcasting. The new moon, on the other hand, is seen as a time of new beginnings and fresh starts. Different moon phases offer varying energy and opportunities for practitioners to harness and work with. In summary, the moon holds immense significance as a symbol in occult practices. Its phases, shape, and positioning all have unique symbolism and meanings that practitioners tap into during rituals and spellwork. Whether it is the Triple Goddess symbol, the pentacle, the crescent moon, or the various moon phases, the moon's occult symbolism resonates with the mysteries and magic of the universe..
Reviews for "Sacred Luna: Embracing the Moon's Symbols in Occult Practices"
1. Emma - 1 star
I found "Occult Moon Symbols" to be an absolute waste of time. The plot was confusing and scattered, with no clear direction. The characters were poorly developed, and I couldn't bring myself to care about any of them. The writing style was choppy and lacked finesse, making it a struggle to get through each chapter. Overall, I was left disappointed and frustrated with this book.
2. John - 2 stars
I had high expectations for "Occult Moon Symbols," but unfortunately, it fell flat for me. The concept was intriguing, but the execution was lacking. The pacing was inconsistent, with moments of slow, dragging narrative followed by sudden rushes of action that left me feeling confused. The dialogue felt forced and unnatural, making it difficult to immerse myself in the story. Overall, I felt let down by this book and wouldn't recommend it.
3. Sarah - 2 stars
"Occult Moon Symbols" had an interesting premise, but it failed to deliver on its promise. The plot was convoluted and hard to follow, leaving me feeling detached from the story. The characters lacked depth and felt one-dimensional, making it hard to care about their struggles. The writing style was overly descriptive, dragging out scenes that could have been concise. Overall, I was left unsatisfied with this book and wouldn't consider it a worthwhile read.
4. Robert - 1 star
I struggled to get through "Occult Moon Symbols" because the writing was incredibly dull and monotonous. The plot lacked originality and felt like a jumbled mess of clichés. The characters were uninspiring, and their motivations were unclear. The whole story just didn't engage me, and I found myself skimming through pages to reach the end. I was truly disappointed with this book and would not recommend it to anyone.
5. Samantha - 2 stars
"Occult Moon Symbols" failed to captivate me with its lackluster storytelling. The plot was predictable, and there were no surprising twists or turns. The characters felt like cardboard cutouts, lacking depth and authenticity. The writing style was average at best, with nothing to differentiate it from other mediocre books in the genre. Overall, I was left unimpressed and wouldn't recommend this book to others who are seeking a thrilling and unique occult-themed read.