Shub-Niggurath - The Dark Mother and the Mythos (Part 1)

In the mythology of Cthulhu Mythos, Fertility is represented by Shub-Niggurath. It is the cosmic entity that symbolizes the Cycle of Life, especially with respect to Birth, Reproduction and Fecundity.

The time and place of origin of Shub-Niggurath are unknown, but since it evokes a universal principle - of cosmic motherhood, perhaps its genesis has occurred with the very appearance of the Universe. To many Mythos theorists, Shub-Niggurath was formed shortly after the explosion resulting from universal birth was triggered by the will of Azathoth. Among the constitutive forces of the Universe, Shub-Niggurath arose after only Azathoth, which is the representative Alpha and Omega of all things and Yog-Sothoth symbolizing the concept of time and space. Theorists also say that its emergence triggered the first fecund wave that spread through the cosmos allowing the emergence of lifeforms as abundant as the stars in the firmament. It would, therefore, be the being from which all original life takes place.

By virtue of her role as "mother", Shub-Niggurath is treated generically as a female, therefore a Goddess. However, there are passages in esoteric volumes of Mythos that refer to it as "The Mother of Multitudes," which differs from its most famous epithet, "the Black Goat with a Thousand Young."

A reference from Chaat Aquadingen states that Shub-Niggurath does not have a gender, it is both male and female, fused into a single body. This androgeny seems to be related to the principle that it encompasses every process of creation in its being. More striking than the genre, is the size of offspring that follows it, alluded to in all titles. The striking element is the plural character. "A Thousand Sons" certainly denotes a great number and not an exact number, being her offspring countless.

According to most sources, the current home of Shub-Niggurath is the planet Yaddith, the lair of the gigantic Dholes who since the beginning of time have venerated the Outer Goddess as their only Deity. Shub-Niggurath would have ordered the faithful dholes to conquer this vast world so that it could settle down in its subsoil and shape the planet in the form of a living planet species whose surface it can transform at will. There is also the hypothesis that it remains occupying a prominent place in the legendary Court of Azathoth, at the center of the Universe. There, dancing and evolving around the Primal Chaos that is Azathoth, it continues to propagate life that are thrown into the recesses of the universe to sow barren planets.

There is no consensus on the subject. To some Mythos scribes, the goddess would have adopted the Earth as her home, building the inhuman city of Harag-Kolath somewhere in the south of the Arabian Peninsula, a place she still inhabits, awaiting the arrival of her consort Hastur, the Unnamable. These scribes are unlikely to be correct in their assumptions that Shub-Niggurath inhabits the Earth, but it is accepted that at various times in the existence of our planet, it has been physically invoked here.

In primitive cultures, one knows with certainty that Shub-Niggurath was honored like Matriarchal Goddess of enormous importance and influence. The Cult of Shub-Niggurath within human societies may have been the most widespread of all Mythos entities.

It is known that at some point in history it was revered by the Tcho-Tcho, by the people of Hyperborea, by the Muvians and Atlantians, as well as Egyptians, Cretans and Etruscans. It was also glorified by the Sumerians, Phoenicians and Babylonians who paid him numerous tributes. The Romans had contact with these cults throughout their conquests and took it to all the corners of the Empire, of the European east, to the heart of Europe, until the Britains embraced it throug the Druids. In Africa it was already known by the black people, as well as by the pre-Columbian civilizations in America. Occurring the same in the distant east.

For these cults, life only existed by the designs of their Goddess. She blessed the carnal union and allowed the species to perpetuate. To ensure conception, birth and growth, the "Goddess" was revered and honored in complex rituals. Different civilizations have adopted different conceptions and distinct forms for Shub-Niggurath, all having in common the principles of fertility and fecundity. From the rites of Artemis and Ephesus, to Hecate and Demeter in Greece, the goddess Astarte in Mesopotamia, Amun, the progenitor of all things in the folklore of Egypt passing through the celebrations of Baal among the Canaanites, the horned god Cernunnos of the Celts and the divinity Nordic Freyr...

All these entities, identical in a single symbolism, may be embodiments of Shub-Niggurath, the Magna Mater (Great Mother).

In addition to being a mother, the goddess was seen as an agrarian deity capable of promoting the fertility of the soil in the same way that it promoted the bonanza of the female womb. In order to please Shub-Niggurath, to Her, were dedicated offerings: part of the harvest, celebrations and observance of special days devoted exclusively to his praise. But the offerings also included blood sacrifices to irrigate the hard, rocky soil making it receptive to the seeds. The sacrifice of sheep and lambs passed by the blade of knives on a stone altar also bore the blessing of plenty. The precious Blood of Life turn into a bounty of abundance.

It is not surprising that Shub-Niggurath, in its many aspects, also received human sacrifices. Both to favor the fecundity of women and animals, as well as the fields. Countless victims were sacrificed in sacred rituals to please the goddess.

In Sicily, home to one of the last bastions of cultists, active until the ninth century, a virgin was taken to an altar and sacrificed every summer. His blood offered to Shub-Niggurath who blessed the congregation. Men with a strong seed and women with a receptive womb. In the orgy that followed the sacrificial ritual, couples engaged in the frenzy of the goddess copulated madly until all women were impregnated. And their children were born strong and healthy thanks to the blessing of the goddess.

In pre-Columbian Peru, the Inca sowed the fields and left a vacant space between the ranks where the planting should grow. They dug at that point a ditch or trench in which they offered offerings to Pachamama, the goddess of fertility. If the harvest was weak, they performed blood sacrifices in which children and women had their throats cut and buried in the ground. The blood of the victims was collected and dispersed over the field so that the sacrifice would stimulate growth.

However, gradually matriarchal societies were replaced by the patriarchal model and the cult of the Great Mother suffered a huge setback. Perhaps men resented their diminutive role in rituals, since the priests who presided over the ceremonies were always female.

Moreover, in many places, the practice of sacrifice has been abandoned, thus diminishing the effectiveness of rituals and belief in them. Gradually matriarchal peoples became increasingly rare and pushed ever further into the limits of civilization, persisting only in a few primitive societies.

Likewise, the growth of the Christian religion was instrumental in disrupting belief in the various aspects of the fertility goddess. Banned in numerous cultures, the deities were demonized as blasphemous in their sexual furor and bestial in their dependence on sacrifice. Shub-Niggurath's depiction as a black goat or goat became intimately associated with the devil and his priests as witches and witches. The orgies, rituals, and sacrifices did nothing to alleviate this presumption. The Christian priests and priests saw in each of these rites the satanic presence and endeavored to end each of the cults.

But those who believe that the cult has completely disappeared are deceived. Although much less active today, fertility goddesses are still present in some dark corners of the modern world. In isolated places such as the Australian outback, where aborigines dance naked in natural temples in the depths of the Brazilian Amazon where tribes that never had contact with civilization indulge in wild rites of passage and even in the arctic boundaries of the ural mountains, where sorceresses carry celebrations as old as the conifers of icy Siberia.

And it is in the sinister Severn Valley in southern England that lies the decaying village of Goatswood, where Shub-Niggurath's largest and most feared enclave of worship persists. The population, composed of degenerate men and women, is wholly devoted to the goddess and follows the old conventions for centuries. In this dark land, defiled by nefarious forces, Shub-Niggurath gallops freely as in the beginning of time.