“Ex Ignorantia Ad Sapientiam. Ex Luce Ad Tenebras.”
“Out of Ignorance into Wisdom. Out of Light into Darkness.”
This is the “official” motto of Miskatonic University. I put the official in quotes because you won’t find Miskatonic University in any college guidebook. It’s a fictional school created by H.P. Lovecraft in 1922. Some of his most famous stories (Herbert West: Reanimator, Dreams In The Witch House) are set there. People debate the real-life school Lovecraft used as his inspiration for Miskatonic. The most likely suspect is Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island.
Original Miskatonic art by Joseph Diaz
And the fictional town of Arkham where the school is located? Most agree that Arkham was based on Salem, Massachusetts, the site of a famous witch trial in 1692-93, where nineteen innocent people were executed.
As if that isn’t spooky enough....
Miskatonic University is a university devoted to Arcane knowledge.
It’s the Ivy League of The Occult. Home to a grand library of old books that could get you into some very serious trouble. That open doors that shouldn’t be opened. Of course, the lure of such forbidden knowledge can be irresistible. The head librarian, Henry Armitage, once had to defend the collection from an attack by cultists in Lovecraft’s The Dunwich Horror. Yet another reason why librarians are awesome!
Interested in exploring more about this world? miskatonic-university.org is a great place to start. But I will warn you. It’s a very deep rabbit hole!
I will sign off with the “traditional” Miskatonic blessing (one I created for my series).
Go in peace and may God be with you on the dangerous path you tread.
Brown University at night