Houdini, Sonia, Lovecraft, and Satanism?

Lovecraft is constantly being reinterpreted and reengineered. This is notably done by what may be termed occultists; those believing that Lovecraft somehow either channeled magic, or actually practiced it, but concealed that practice by some means. Here, in passing, several myths of that paradigm are mentioned.

. Sonia practiced magic.
. Sonia knew Aleister Crowley (not mentioned here)
. Houdini was a believer in magic (real, not illusion)
. Bess Houdini believed in magic
. Red Hook actually happened, maybe not exactly the way Lovecraft depicted it


_____

On 8 February 2011, Winter Laake, a self-claimed Satanist appeared on the George Noory hosted Coast to Coast AM radio program. I transcribed about a 2 minute segment of the interview that discusses briefly Lovecraft.

Winter Laake: There is an alien influence as well, but they cannot reach us in any grand scale, we are too far out, uh, the closest system being the Aldebaran system that 69 million light years away. Actually, no, it's not even million, it's 69 light years away. I believe. I could be wrong. That, that, proposes the only closest life entity near us, so -

Noory: Tell me about the Satanic Paradigm, what's it all about?

Winter Laake: The Satanic Paradigm is my treatise on what Satan is, how he functions in our world, uh, the energy of Satan, uh, goes into a series of rituals that can be conducted, satanic rites that are cutting edge in order to get closer to that power.

It touches on H. P. Lovecraft, being more than just a writer, and there is some Lovecraftian rituals in there as well, uh -

Noory: He was the science fiction writer, right?

Winter Laake: Correct. But he was more than that, especially when he was in New York City, uh, with Houdini, uh, he ghost wrote Under the Pyramids for Houdini, uh, they were practicing magic, and cult* things in an area known as Red Hook, which is in Brooklyn. And, uh, his wife, uh, Sonia Greene was very much into it, and so was Houdini's wife, but in the Satanic Paradigm I touch on some of that as well as innumerable other things.

I go into Anton LaVey, uh, his death and some of the recurrent themes that are on about people taking his name and, uh, its become so rampant. He's worshipped like a god, so its quite interesting what is occurring, uh, that is part of what the Third Wave is all about as well ...

* he did not say "occult" as I listened to this a few times to be sure.
_____

Link> http://www.coasttocoastam.com/show/2011/02/08

More on Laake if you are interested: