Great One who must not be named

Peter Mace mentioned the "Great One who must not be named" in a prayer to resurrect Maureen Kennedy: "And in the name of the Great One who must not be named . . . through the wells of night where the crawling ones lurk unseen, waiting for wings to raise them . . . and in the name of the headless ones born in the red foulness of the limitless pit . . . give her to me in life, O Hastur." [HC Isle (online text)]

The prayer is reminiscent of goetic sorcery, where the magician calls on a greater being to command a lesser being. So, the "Great One who must not be named" may be a being who is greater than Hastur and is able to command Hastur. In the same prayer, Mace calls on Nyarlathotep, and it is possible that "Great One who must not be named" is simply an epithet for Nyarlathotep; though if so, it is a paradoxical one, since the narrator has already referred to Nyarlathotep by name.

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