ABOUT MY NAME.....

My name is Aldous Tyler, despite my legal name of Christopher Anton Cloyd. If the concept of a chosen name seems a bit odd to you, let me sum it up: While parents need *something* to call you when you are young and developing, it occasionally happens that who you develop into is ill-encapsulated by your original name. At the point of that discovery, I believe it is only appropriate to pick out anew name that better summarizes who you are.

In my case, I was born in 1972 in San Francisco. My mother was a hippie at the time, living in a rather run-down apartment in a notably bad neighborhood. Her roommate, a big fellow, kept her safe from any harm that might befall her while carrying me. In return for his friendship, she bestowed upon him the honor of choosing my middle name.

In 1972's San Francisco, there were quite a lot of deeply philosophical folks. They studied and bantered about all sorts of precepts and paradigms, from the benign and flighty to the dark and disturbing. The sources mattered little- they wished only to find what felt "true". My mother's roommate was one of these folk, and had been a fan of a particularly controversial philosophy for quite some time. Still, she had no idea he'd choose to place in my middle name the namesake of the founder of that path.

The path: The Church of Satan. The Founder: Anton LaVey.

She was *not* pleased at all by this, but he insisted that if it was his choice, that was to be my middle name. She was an honorable woman, and stayed true to her offer. My legal middle name is Anton. However, she was not going to let that sit unchallenged. She researched names until she found one that she felt would help combat my middle name: Christopher, a Greek name meaning "Bearer of Christ". My last name was in flux until I was three and my mother married Jean Ralph Cloyd. His adoption of me (for which I am ever grateful) completed the convolved circumstances of my legal name.

I should hope by now that it isn't too hard to see why I felt my legal name truly had very little to do with me, and had far more to do with mischievous ego (in the case of Anton), religious fear (in the case of Christopher) and societal tradition (I was Jean Cloyd's adopted son, thus I was a Cloyd). What prompted me to seek my new name was when I decided to publicly produce a magazine called JULES- The Journal of Unusual Learning and Esoteric Studies. The subject matter ranged far into territory that would make my more uptight Protestant relatives upset, so I decided that it was finally time for me to find a name that suited me better, and at the same time protected them from being upset over my interests in the Unusual and the Esoteric.

Aldous means "of the old or elder house/family/race". Quite literally, "of the elves". A Tyler, in certain ceremonial traditions (such as Freemasonry) stands guard at the door to the Lodge with "a naked sword", i.e. unsheathed and ready for use, to challenge any who would wish to enter. The person desiring entry had to meet the Tyler's criteria or go away (or face him down in combat, if they were so bold). Thus, my name means I am the guardian and the challenger of the elder house. Given my studies into mysticism and metaphysics, I am told that this seems to suit me quite well.