1) Unlike what the Klan and neo-Nazis and their ilk will tell you about all the evils in the world, we can actually blame the Jews for this one. It comes from their mysticism.

2) Piercings, along with tattoos and certain items of clothing (think "power tie", for example) can certainly carry totemic power. Of course, if you know what you are doing, certain days, plants, even hours of the day can give you power.

3) Right now, Mercy's trying to figure out what is going on in her own town , let alone across the freakin' country... :)

Excellent! Large portions of the mystical underpinnings of Autumn Bay are built on syncretism! :)

Well, early in his life, he would have been appalled.

Later in his life, he married a Jew, Sophia Greene.

He seemed to be calming his racist ways as his life went on. In one of his many letters, he said that he had been quite an ass.

Finally, and this is a technicality, The King in Yellow is a creation of Robert W. Chambers, and only fully brought into the Mythos by August Derleth after HPL's death.

None of the above can stop me, though. :)

And thank you for the vote of confidence. I always worry about messing things up when I syncretize, not to mention being accused of appropriation.

And we're just getting started on the syncretism...

Believe me when I say I've done a lot of study into these matters. :)

Yes, the Church of Starry Wisdom are kind of like a starfish. Cut off one arm and another one grows...

Ghoul still has his training wheels on. Sometimes he still gets a little overwhelmed. A lot of people in these circles are professionals, and they have seen some serious shit. It's easy to come across as a little jaded under those circumstances.

We tend to focus on the lower side here, so hopefully it will be a nice change to see some of the "upper" side.

All things are connected...

While studying various mystical, paranormal, and fictional concepts, I take notes on things that are similar, or seem to come from a similar place. Then we take these syncretized concepts and apply them to our lovely landscape here.

I'm glad you like it!

And yes, I understand that about the Kabbalists... :)

It is a very bad thing when qliphoth enter into our reality. That's part of the reason people sometimes go mad even seeing them...

It's a bit more complicated than that, but yeah, that's the gist of the thing (I can't give away too much here...)

It really is. There's a reason that Ghoul latched on to it so hard. Well, reasons, but that's one of them.

Yep. There are more...