Seal of R'lyeh

A disk-like pattern showing Cthulhu in R'lyeh, surmounted by the astronomical symbol of Aquarius ♒, and circled by the phrase Ph’nglui mglw’nafh Cthulhu R’lyeh wgah’nagl fhtagn. The design appeared throughout the house of Sylvan Phillips, and also on a ring that had belonged to him. Later, Ada Marsh and Marius Phillips found a great stone slab in sunken R'lyeh that had the same design. Ada and Marius hoped to pry up the slab, which they believed was placed by the Elder Gods (1) to imprison Cthulhu. [AWD Seal (online text)]

Elsewhere, Martin Keane said the Seal of R'lyeh is inscribed on thousands of star-stones used to close the prisons of the the Great Old Ones (3). [AWD Witches]

There a number of mysteries about this seal. Why did the Elder Gods engrave some star-stones with the Elder Sign (2), and others with the Seal of R'lyeh? If Sylvan Phillips was a descendant of Deep Ones and was seeking Cthulhu, why would he be "proud to emblazon" his house with the badge of Cthulhu's imprisonment? If the Elder Gods inscribed the seal on the slab in R'lyeh, why would they embroider it with a phrase of the Cthulhu cult, one that celebrates Cthulhu's endurance, the fact that he still "waits dreaming"? If the designs in Phillips' house are copies of the slab in R'lyeh, then why is the cult phrase written in our modern alphabet? If the seal serves to imprison Cthulhu, why did Marius Phillips, a hybrid Deep One, find the image attractive? Why did Marius experience enhanced psychic powers when he put on a ring inscribed with the seal?

For I had no sooner put it on my finger than it was as if new dimensions opened up to me—or as if the old horizons were pushed back limitlessly. [AWD Seal]

Compare this with the effect that a star-stone, infused with the Elder Gods' magic, had on another hybrid Deep One, Horvath Blayne:

It was not large; it scarcely covered my palm, but it had a most peculiar effect on me, for it felt as if it burned my flesh, and I found it curiously repellent. I put it into my pocket, and there it seemed incredibly heavy; there, too, it left a burning sensation on my skin, despite the clothing between . . . [AWD Island]

In AWD Seal (online text), the Seal of R'lyeh seems to function more like an emblem of the Great Old Ones' magic, something that is attractive to the Deep Ones and positive in its effect on them. Nevertheless, Marius Phillips believed the seal was used to imprison Cthulhu:

The hour is late, and tomorrow we shall descend again, to find some way, if possible, to open the seal. Was it indeed imposed upon Great Cthulhu by the Elder Gods in banishing him? [AWD Seal].

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