Stephen King’s1, The Dark Man2,

.

I have stridden the fuming way

of sun-hammered tracks and smashed cinders;

I have ridden rails and burned sterno in the

gantry silence of hob jungles: I am a dark man.

I have ridden rails and passed the smuggery

of desperate houses with counterfeit chimneys and heard from the outside

the inside clink of cocktail ice while closed doors broke the world -

and over it all a savage sickle moon that bummed my eyes with bones of light.

I have slept in glaring swamps where musk-reek rose

to mix with the sex smell of rotting cypress stumps where witch fire clung in sunken

psycho spheres of baptism - and heard the suck of shadows

where a gutted columned house leeched with vines

speaks to an overhung mushroom sky I have fed dimes to cold machines

in all night filling stations while traffic in a mad and flowing flame

streaked red in six lanes of darkness, and breathed the cleaver hitchhike wind

within the breakdown lane with thumb leveled and saw shadowed faces made complacent

with heaters behind safety glass faces that rose like complacent moons

in riven monster orbits. and in a sudden jugular flash

cold as the center of a sun I forced a girl in a field of wheat

and left her sprawled with the virgin bread a savage sacrifice

and a sign to those who creep in fixed ways:

1 Author Stephen King, American author of contemporary horror, suspense, science fiction and fantasy fiction.

2 Published in Ubris 1969 and later in Moth, 1970

I am a dark man.

Steven King is renowned for themes of good vs. evil and allowing evil to become goodness when

it calls for it to humanize his characters. One in particular is Randall Flagg. The characterization of

Flagg was inspired by Weird Tales author HP Lovecraft who was inspired by the likes of Edgar

Allen Poe. Inspiration is passed along the memeplexi3 like the creeping shadow. Much like the

reoccurrence of the Dark Man archetype4, considered to be a psychological phenomenon.

Appearance of such Shadowy figures can be traced back to Ancient Persiam, many of their own

myths heavily influenced by a Judeo-Christian memeplex. The Arab people used the Djinn5 to

communicate a number of ideas, anything from hidden wisdom to actual spirits thought to grant

both good fortune and bad omens. The idea that these spirits could manifest themselves as

shadow men is heavily influenced by the Scapegoat6 in practice by Ancient Hebrews which most

likely adopted this practice from the Ancient Greeks during the period of Hellenization7.

The Hebrew Bible provides modern people cues, when referring to such passages as Leviticus which addresses atonement

for sin. A goat was sent out into the desert bearing the burden of sin, when the animal died of exposure in the barren

desert sands, the sin too would die with this beast of burden; thus making the sinner an escape artist from personal

accountability. The Ancient Greeks would send

out unfavorable people to die in the same

manner, usually after some localized event such as

natural disaster or bad omens read in the entrails

by Augers8. Augers were relied upon to make

important decisions for the entire community, to

include getting rid of people bringing on the

wrath of the gods. It is speculated that the

manifestation of Djinn stemmed from guilt from

sin and the deaths of these unfavorable members

of ‘community’. These are just a few examples,

there are many more one could explore as an

independent researcher.

3 Memeplex, in this context, a complex of memes present in the individual spread about by cultural and literary influences.

4 Dark Man or Shadow man, Science offers anything from sleep deprivation, psychological breaks, hallucinations and chemical

imbalances. 5 Djinn, shadowy wind spirits, thought to be taken from earlier Mesopotamian wind spirits called the Lilit.

6 Scapegoat, derived from Classical Hebrew ‘la-azazel’ meaning to remove entirely.

7 Hellenization, the period attributed to the spread of Greek cultural influence.

8 Augers, see: Birds of a Feather

I often find myself in a position of awe and wonderment when directly addressing the

question: What is the Shadow man exactly? I'm always amazed at the iconography, and

the correlations to be made, especially if one has a more personalized experience with

shadowy figures manifesting from your own psyche.

According to the Randall Flagg pathology, he just came into being. He doesn’t

remember living in different centuries, or as different characters. In essence, he has

always been and just moves through time. He shape-shifts, but prefers the man-like

form. King preferred the Dark Cowboy look, vs. the Slender Pharaoh of Nyarlathotep

from the stories of HP Lovecraft, but both archetypes, have similarities. Nyarlathotep

wanders through time and space gathering followers. Randall Flag attracts followers

which are drawn to destruction. In both cases, once the followers have their leader they

lose sight of everything else, outside that sphere of “reality”. The new reality is: In

service to the Dark Man. Any alternative subjective

experience is lost, and simply doesn't exist.

For me, the Shadow Man is a psychological

phenomenon, in which people claim to see a

shadow man manifest, even as adults. Analyzing

my own subjective experience, I can trace the

pathology of how this apparition came into being. I

suppose, I might be considered one of the ‘lucky’

ones. In the many years I’ve discussed the Dark Man

with others, I can sympathize with not knowing in

all certainty what they experienced was an internal

manifestation made real by belief or something

else. But what?

Speaking from direct experience as a child which saw a shadow person and as a mother

with a child that experienced shadow people; my conclusion is that we manifest these

things, when we feel we need them. Even if, we don’t know we do. Our subconscious is

always at work, and until such time we are more self-aware by nature, we will remain

utterly human. As a human being our brains are

complex and we still don’t know all there is to know

about how it operates. We have plenty of psyche models

to pull from, but each mind is unique.

The Dream-quest of Unknown Kadath, Dreams in the Witchhouse, The Rats in the Walls, The Haunter in the Dark and the poem, Fungi from Yuggoth. Nyarlathotep is mentioned in name only in The Shadow out of Time, and The Whisperer in the Darkness.

When I think back to the time when I had a Shadow Man experience, I was 5 years old. This Dark Man both terrified and

comforted me. He lived in the hall closet, the place where my mother stored her furs and secrets. I remember the first

encounter vividly. I was hiding in the closet, playing a game with the babysitter, and I saw him. I froze with fear, but then I

wanted to investigate.

So I reached for the man, and when I did...I remember feeling comforted and not afraid anymore. Beyond that, I don't recall

much more. I can only conclude that by reaching for it, and realizing there was nothing there, I was comforted by the idea

that I made it with my mind. Much like most imaginary things kids create with imagination. All it needs is belief right?

When my son was about 7-8, he had a Shadow Man, but it was his protector. He had developed a fear of the dark and the

Boogeyman, and this Shadow Man protected him at, he believed it kept him safe. Later, a shadow girl manifested, which

was closer in his age but later terrified him more than the dark and the Boogeyman combined.

When I asked my son to describe it, he saw the Hat Figure. When I was young, it was the Hood figure. I've read many

psychology reports on the manifestation of Shadow People, everything from an early sign of schizophrenia, to emotional

projection9. All the ‘experts’ have their medical theories. Belief is strong, even in the face of data and analysis.

When I was 5, there could have been any number of scenarios which caused me to manifest the shadow man. My son's

manifestation was directly tied to a belief in the 10Boogeyman. I've been told

that if the Shadow Man was not accompanied by a feeling of dread, it was

something else and all according to the subjective experiences of others- who

become the other ‘experts’. Memory tells me that I did feel a sense of dread,

fear of the unknown, but then once I realized my mind was making this thing

appear, I just felt sort of silly. Nyarlathotep, could have been this Shadow Man

manifestation to Howard Philip Lovecraft, for any reason from his physical

ailments to his mental state of un-rest. His mind was rarely at peace. Stephen

King, chose him as representative for particular stories to convey concepts,

through a literary interpretation and rich story-telling. Whether myths were

written thousands of years ago, or in our modern era, makes no difference.

They remain a carrier of knowledge.

There are several cultures which have a sort of dark specter in their midst.

When I was looking for the history of the Boogeyman, I found a spelling

variation Bogeyman, which led me to the folklore and legend of Europe. Some of it was based in cultural lore, while others

were invented to get children to behave. In Europe, it was sort of a hobgoblin that was known for carrying children away.

Though, in places like Asia, it was a monstrous sort of sea pirate. From what I was able to track down, the Europeans

brought the tales over to Asia, and were seeded. I did find some references in the Oxford Dictionary, that states that the

term was most likely in use hundreds of years before Europeans visited Asia. There is even a sort of Boogeyman in Spain,

Brazil, and Portugal. They call it the Sack Man. Child snatchers, which would carry misbehaving children off in a sack. There

is some form of Boogeyman in nearly every country around the world. Another useful analysis is the Otherkin, and strangers

9 What are Shadow People?

10 Boogey Man, Everything you need to know from Book rags

See: Etymology Dictionary or

Wiki-page: " European

languages: boeman (Dutch), buse

(Nynorsk), bøhmand (Danish),

bòcan, púca, pooka or pookha

(Irish Gaelic), pwca, bwga or

bwgan (Welsh), puki (Old Norse),

pixie or piskie (Cornish), puck

(English), bogu (Slavonic), buka

(Russian), baubas (Lithuanian),

bobo (Polish)"

we recognize as being human. Such as the Utlanning, Framling, Ramen or Varelse. More of a hierarchy of exclusion derived

from concepts held by the Norse people, to include xenophobia.

Lovecraft was exposed to a myriad of Mythologies, and there's no telling which culture was the most impacting. He did

seem to have an interest in Ancient Persia, but there very well could be a lot of European Myths peppered into the

development of Nyarlathotep. There is no question in my mind, that Stephen King was inspired by the madness of HP

Lovecraft, in the development in several characters in his fictions. I was introduced to the Kingdom Hospital TV series (2004)

by a friend. Stephen King has a knack for conceptualizing ideas in the strangest ways, similar to the Eldritch weirdness of old

Howard Lovecraft. In this series, a characterization of the Egyptian god Anubis is Nyarlathotep. Mr. King sure likes his twists,

and Anubis is an Ant Eater, a child’s interpretation.

For an even more interesting turn, the child’s name is Mary. A defining attribute of Nyarlathotep in Lovecraft’s tales is that it

is the only Old One that can contact man directly; he causes insanity in man to perform his deeds. The Dark Man seeks to

put you under its power, but whether it comforts or terrifies, is reliant on pathology of belief. The terror and comfort are the

shadows of the Specter.

The Dark Man is in our midst. We project him, a manifestation of ourselves, Shadows working our consciousness. It would

behoove humanity to remain self-aware, and constantly aspire towards Power, Autonomy and Self-deification otherwise the

Dark Man commeth. When the shadows come forth, they have their claws in the ink-well and with it, comes a sharp

reckoning to disturb your present architecture. Have you faced your Dark Man? Do you serve it, or does it serve you? Only

you can answer the question: Am I am a Dark Man?

Written by,

Sin Jones