"His face was calm, placid, not unhandsome, his eyes lambent and slightly opaque."

-The People of the Black Circle

Lambent is one of Howard's more commonly used arcane words, often employed to designate a reptilian or otherworldly consciousness. Howard's use of the reptilian mind as the seat of sorcery, fits well with the sorcery of summoning, binding and possession his fantastical magic users largely traffic in. This reader thinks it is no accident that his fascination with mesmerists as evil foes and his horrific regard for everything reptilian seemed to combine and intersect through much of Howard's work, as if he feared, that at the base of every human mind coiled a reptilian consciousness.

lam·bent.

[ˈlambənt]

ADJECTIVE

1.

literary

(of light or fire) glowing, gleaming, or flickering with a soft radiance:

synonyms: flickering · fluttering · incandescent · twinkling · dancing · radiant · brilliant

Originated in mid 17th cent.: from Latin lambent- ‘licking,’ from the verb lambere.