Sojourns in the

South Pacific

by Grand Master Obed Marsh and Soror Yolara of the

Esoteric Order of Dagon

by Grand Master Obed Marsh and Soror Yolara of the

Esoteric Order of Dagon

Sojourns in the

South Pacific

INTRODUCTION

In March and April of this year, Obed Marsh, the Grand Master of the E.’.O.’.D.’., and Soror Yolara, High Priest-ess of the Moon Pool, sojourned in the South Pacific, visit-ing the South and North Islands of New Zealand, and the Samoan Islands of Upolu, Savai’i, and American Samoa.

Soror Yolara once lived in the South Pacific for over twelve years, in Wellington, New Zealand and on the major islands of Samoa, as well as for short periods of time on the islands of Ponape, Beakin, and Kuseae, and she also visited Fiji, and the Soloman islands.

They stayed at the homes of various friends, and with the family of Soror Yorala’s former husband, a Samoan.

World travels like this by members of the Esoteric Order of Dagon are valuable in making personal connections with distant members, visiting archeological sites with significant to the HPL mythos, and viewing significant artifacts held in museum collections.

(Note - Due to Obed Marsh’s carelessness, most of the original photos taken while traveling have been lost. Substituted photos were located that depict places visited and objects seen.)

Published by the Esoteric Order of DagonAll Rights Reserved

Journal Entry, March 15thChristchurch, South Island, N.Z.

I appreciated the opportunity to spend time carefully inspecting the various Maori artifacts on display at the very quaint Canterbury museum. After viewing the Moa skeleton on display, I spoke with a curator who in respond to my inquiry, and to great my disappointment, told me that the collection did not have a published cata-log available of the Maori collection, which is one of the oldest in New Zealand.

Sir Richard Owen and the Moa skeleton

Canterbury museum, Christchurch

Maori artifacts, Canterbury museum

Journal Entry, March 17thAkaroa, Banks Peninsula, South Island, N.Z.

We spent the night at a cottage overlooking the bay of Akaroa, on the Banks Peninsula, which is of volcanic origin, and similar to Crater Lake. This similarity reminded me of Peter Smith’s artwork, “Evocation at Crater Lake”, the original of which is on display in the E.’.O.’.D.’. Grand Lodge library. It depicts a vision that Peter had before even having personalliy visited Crater Lake in Oregon, many years later, and illustrates a nude Priestess (based on Soror Azenath, then Director of the E.’.O.’.D.’.) hailing the rising of a denizen of the deeps.

Upon commencement of The Akaroa Working, a sudden change in the weather brought massive dark clouds gathering and advancing over the surrounding volcanic ridges, culminating in a violent windstorm, with prolonged blasting winds shaking the large tree branches and bushes surrounding the cottage. The energy and excitemtent gen-erated was conveyed into a memorable evening.

“Evocation at Crater Lake”by Peter Smith

Akaroa

Journal Entry, March 19thNelson, South Island, N.Z.

We are staying at a luxurious (yet incredibly inexpensive) hotel, a mid-1800’s mansion atop a hill overlooking Nelson, a port city at the far northern end of the South Island of New Zealand. This hotel is appropriately named ‘The Golden Lodge’. An atmospheric and antique palace, a place a gold-rich captain like Obed might have enjoyed having built for his personal enjoyment and as his cult headquarters.

Journal Entry, March 19thNelson, South Island, N.Z.

While walking in the oldest section of Nelson, I chanced upon the Masonic Temple. Unable to gain admission since no one was present, I had to be satisfied with viewing the symbolic architecture from outside. I fancy this would have been a likely haunt for the fictitious Captain Obed Marsh, who would later transform the Masonic Hall of Innsmouth into the original Esoteric Order of Dagon. The Masonic Heritage of the Esoteric Order of Dagon consists of the esoteric symbolism of Freemasonry incorporated into the original Order.

The Golden Lodge, Nelson

Masonic Temple, Nelson

Journal Entry, March 20thAbel Tasman National Park, South Island, N.Z.Forested, hilly country accessable only by hiking and boat, either kayak or water taxi

After having being taken by water taxi to a secluded beach, we enjoyed exploring the trails through the semi-tropical primor-dial bush, with huge ferns and palms, and jungle-like forest . Only the periphery of the preserve is accessible, the thick depths being impossible to transverse. I pondered the cryptozoological reports of sightings of the possible survival of the Moas in New Zealand. Bothersome hordes of tiny black bloodsucking sand flies did not diminish the beauty and exoticness of the place.

Journal Entry, March 22thWellington, North Island, N.Z.

Soror Yolara and I have the pleasure of meeting our esteemed brother in the Esoteric Order of Dagon, Frater Henry Anthony Wilcox, a transplated Californian and expert digital artist presently working at Peter Jackson’s film studio, Weta Workshop in Wellington, on The Hobbit. Frater Wilcox is the author of ZBrush Character Creation: Advanced Digital Sculpt-ing. ZBrush is a digital sculpting tool that combines 3D/2.5D modeling, texturing and painting. The director of the film The Hobbit, Guillermo del Toro has written a screenplay based on Lovecraft’s story At the Mountains of Madness, and perhaps someday Frater Wilcox will be involved with this project as well.

Frater Wilcox was pleased at recieving our small gifts of original copies of some out of print Esoteric Order of Dagon and Miskatonick Society publications, as well as the last “Cru-cible Club’ t-shirt available, with its wonderful design by Peter Smith, another accomplished artist. The Crucible Club was a bar in Sheffield, England that members of the U.K. contingent of the E.’.O.’.D.’. would meet in the old days.

While having a delicious dinner and drinks at fine India res-taurant recommended by our host, we enjoyed getting to know each other, exchanging ideas and opinions on matters Love-craftian and and occult, as well as making plans for future co-operative ventures and developments within the Order. Talking until late into the night, we finally had to say our good-byes, looking forward to meeting again someday soon.

Abel Tasman National Park

An artist during the early 1900s, Henry Wilcox was visited by terrible visions during March, 1925 which predicted that Cthulhu would rise from his watery grave in R’lyeh. He was a precious youth of known genius, but suffered from great eccentricity. Henry Wilcox often called himself a “psychi-cally hypersensitive” individual. Henry Wilcox was the cre-ator of the bas-relief studied by Professor George Angell. On March 23, 1925, Henry Wilcox was stricken by a strange malady. During his sickness, he spoke of a gigantic thing “miles high” which walked and lumbered about. On April 2, 1925, at around 3 p.m., all traces of the sickness disappeared.

The Call of Cthulhu, H.P. Lovecraft.

Henry Anthony Wilcox

Journal Entry, March 23Wellington, North Island, N.Z.

Soror Yolara and I spent a great length of time exploring Te Papa, the biggest, and best museum of New Zealand. The extensive collection of ‘Hei-Tiki’ s (a talisman worn around the neck as body adornment) was fascinating. The museum hosts a Marae, a community house of the Maori, which can be visited, and gives one an impressive otherworldly feeling .

Noteworthy in the natural history collection was a very large glass tank with a preserved giant squid.

Jade Maori Tiki given to Sir George Grey at Te Waimate, Auckland

Journal Entry, March 24Rotorua, North Island, N.Z.

The heart of the Maori culture, and spectacular geother-mal hotsprings, Rotorua was a treasure trove of Maori buildings, sculpture and people. “Obed Marsh” became an “honorary Maori chief”, with his “tribe” consisting of of a group of sightseers that followed him at a respect-ful distance, due to his status, into the marae or Maori house, only after he successfully passed the Maori war-rior challenge ceremony. As explained by a guide:

“Prior to entering the marae a maori warrior starts cry-ing out in native maori language, “Kia Hiwa Ra, Kia Hiwa Ra!” as he begins moving towards our group in challenge. Holding a carved wooden staff known as a Taiaha he continues to utter cries of challenge at our group. Once he is just a short distance away, he stops and then retreats slightly before bending down and placing a token on the ground, usually a leaf. One of our group members advances, never losing direct eye contact with the warrior, even while he picks up the token, indicating acceptance of the challenge, walks backwards, always maintaining eye contact, and only then we are welcomed to the Marae.”

Obed was the first to enter the Marae, seated at the front of the hall, and after greeting each Maori warrior by the traditional “nose rubbing” ceremony, was invited on to the stage with them to learn and perform the Haka, “ the traditional dance performed by a group, with vigorous movements and stamping of the feet with rhythmically shouted accompaniment.”

Haka Dance, Rotorua

Maori warrior challenge, Rotorua

Journal Entry, March 26Pago Pago, American Samoa

I met David J. Herdrich, Acting Historic Preser-vation Officer & Territorial Archaeologist of the American Samoa Historic Preservation Office, and an old friend of Soror Yolara. I learned more about the ancient archeological stone ruin sites known as “Star Mounts”, name for their usually five-pointed shape, that are scattered all over the Samoan islands, and that Dr. Hendrich is the world’s expert on.

Later over dinner and drinks, Dr. Herdrich qui-etly revealed that the much of the collections of the Maori museum of American Samoa had been ran-sacked by the corrupt previous administrator, includ-ing even certain collections given to Samoa by the Bishop museum in Hawaii as well as a fine collection from a unnamed New England museum.

The truly alien native culture of the South Pacific has given me a glimpse into their far distant primor-dial past, and visiting some places feels like mythical Lemuria or some other lost continent.

Samoan War Clubs

Journal Entry, March 30thWestern Samoa

I will end our travelogue with a few comments on the curious and interesting wildlife. We saw no octopus other than the ones we ate, which were prepared in their own ink and delicious! The flying fish were amazing creatures, however I rather I hadn’t seen that saucer-sized spider on the bathroom wall one night. My favorite animals were the “flying foxes”, fruit bats with a two to three foot wing-span, which were truly fantastic creatures. While I still have some unpleasant, very slow healing wounds on my legs from scratches on the coral reefs, the brightly colored ocean fishes were incredible to view while snorkeling, and the large menacing eel I saw in the sea weed at my feet was the most Lovecraftian experience I have ever had!

Samoan Flying Fox“Captain Obed Marsh”,

Western Samoa

Samoan Beach Hut

Interior of the Marae in Te Papa Museum, Wellington

Museum, Rotorua