The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen
The Great God Pan
The Great God Pan is a novella written by Arthur Machen. On publication it
was widely denounced by the press as degenerate and horrific because of
its decadent style and sexual content, although it has since garnered a
reputation as a classic of horror. Machens story was only one of many at
the time to focus on Pan as a useful symbol for the power of nature and
paganism.
In Supernatural Horror in Literature H. P. Lovecraft praised the novel,
saying: No one could begin to describe the cumulative suspense and
ultimate horror with which every paragraph abounds; he added that the
sensitive reader reaches the end with an appreciative shudder. Lovecraft
also noted, however, that melodrama is undeniably present, and
coincidence is stretched to a length which appears absurd upon analysis.
Personal Review: The Great God Pan by Arthur Machen

Arthur Machen's "The Great God Pan" (1894) delves into Machen's
favorite subject: the supposed existence of a spiritual realm that is
imperceptible to the human eye. A realm -- in the mind of Machen --
populated by golden-haired fairies haunting Welsh meadows, sex-crazed
demons of ancient mysticism, furry red-eyed changelings that drag
children underground with ropes, and phantom Roman legions glimpsed
on foggy British moors. Clearly, Machen was a dreamer-sentimentalist, but
with a very, very creepy sexual side. His Orthodox Anglo-Catholic
upbringing imbued his mind with a love/hate fascination of aberrant
sexuality; in particular, its spiritual ramifications. It was this fascination that
lead to his writing "The Great God Pan."
Machen's "The Great God Pan" is based upon the concept of spiritual
demons that seduce their victims. This age-old story shares some of its
esoteric origins in the Old Testament. Prior to textual expurgations by
Christian Councils, the Old Testament once referenced the existence of
incubi (male) or succubi (female) which preyed on sexual debutantes.
Their queen was Lilith -- the Night Hag -- the first wife of Adam in Hebrew
and Akkadian folklore. Lilith was a nymphomaniac whom Yahweh made
from dung, prior to the creation of Eve. Lilith's inability to obey Adam led to
her banishment and replacement by Eve. Later, Lilith mated with beasts
and had offspring. Although in Hellenistic myth Pan was the foster brother
of Zeus, some of Joseph Campbell's monomyth theorists claim that Pan
was one of Lilith's children.
The Pan deity present in Machen's horror story borrows from the
aforementioned lore and also from the contemporary exorcism of his day.
In the 19th century, exorcists believed that a demon could invade a weak
soul and, if a child was conceived in lust by that soul, be born into the
resulting child. Another variant was that a person in a hypnotic or drowsy
state of mind could glimpse the spirit realm and have unwanted
"encounters" there. Machen expounded upon this latter variant of exorcism
in "The Great God Pan" by having Dr. Raymond create an experiment that
allows others to glimpse that spirit world and creates tragic, yet kinky
results.
In "The Great God Pan," the experiment performed upon a seventeen-year
old female, Mary, results in her seeing the "real world [...] beyond the veil"
and, in doing so, she is raped by Pan. Mary goes insane, but bears a child
nine months later from that unholy union. Years later, Helen Vaughan, the
offspring of Pan and Mary, shocks London society by engaging in bizarre
sexuality and destroying lives as the result of her taint by Pan. Machen
foreshadows these events with the Latin adage: "Et diabolus incarnatus
est. Et homo factus est." The English translation is: "And a devil was made
incarnate. And a human being was produced."
Overall, I enjoyed Machen's "The Great God Pan." To me, Machen's tale is
similar to Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897) minus the clear-cut, black-and-
white demarcation between good and evil. I also think "The Great God

Pan" would be an excellent story to have your girlfriend read if the topic of
marriage and children has just come up...
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