Necronomicon Simon ver. part 102:53 Dec 15 2009
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The Complete Simon
Necronomicon
INTRODUCTION
IN THE MID - 1920's, roughly two blocks from where the Warlock Shop once stood, in
Brooklyn Heights, lived a quiet, reclusive man, an author of short stories, who eventually
divorced his wife of two years and returned to his boyhood home in Rhode Island, where
he lived with his two aunts. Born on August 20, 1890, Howard Phillips Lovecraft would
come to exert an impact on the literary world that dwarfs his initial successes with Weird
Tales magazine in 1923. He died, tragically, at the age of 46 on March 15, 1937, a victim
of cancer of the intestine and Bright's Disease. Though persons of such renown as
Dashiell Hammett were to become involved in his work, anthologising it for publication
both here an abroad, the reputation of a man generally conceded to be the "Father of
Gothic Horror" did not really come into its own until the past few years, with the massive
re-publication of his works by various houses, a volume of his selected letters, and his
biography. In the July, 1975, issue The Atlantic Monthly, there appeared a story entitled
"There Are More Things", written by Jorge Luis Borges, "To the memory of H.P.
Lovecraft". This gesture by a man of the literary stature of Borges is certainly an
indication that Lovecraft has finally ascended to his rightful place in the history of
American literature, nearly forty years after his death.
In the same year that Lovecraft found print in the pages of Weird Takes, another
gentleman was seeing his name in print; but in the British tabloid press.
NEW SINISTER REVELATIONS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY read the front page of
the Sunday Express. It concerned testimony by one of the notorious magician's former
followers (or, actually, the wife of one of his followers) that Crowley had been
responsible for the death of her husband, at the Abbey of Thelema, in Cefalu, Sicily. The
bad press, plus the imagined threat of secret societies, finally forced Mussolini to deport
the Great Beast from Italy. Tales of horrors filled the pages of the newspapers in England
for weeks and months to come: satanic rituals, black masses, animal sacrifice, and even
human sacrifice, were reported - or blatantly lied about. For although many of the stories
were simply not true or fanciful exaggeration, one thing was certain: Aleister Crowley
was a Magician, and one of the First Order.
Born on October 12, 1875, in England - in the same country as Shakespeare - Edward
Alexander Crowley grew up in a strict Fundamentalist religious family, members of a
sect called the "Plymouth Brethren". The first person to call him by that Name and
Number by which he would become famous (after the reference in the Book of
Revelation), "The Beast 666", was his mother, and he eventually took this appellation to
heart. He changed his name to Aleister Crowley while still at Cambridge, and by that
name , plus "666", he would never be long out of print, or out of newspapers. For he
believed himself to be the incarnation of a god, an Ancient One, the vehicle of a New
Age of Man's history, the Aeon of Horus, displacing the old Age of Osiris. In 1904, he
had received a message, from what Lovecraft might have called "out of space", that
contained the formula for a New World Order, a new system of philosophy, science, art
and religion, but this New Order had to begin with the fundamental part, and common
denominator, of all four: Magick.
In 1937, the year Lovecraft dies, the Nazis banned the occult lodges of Germany, notable
among them two organisations which Crowley had supervised: the A A and the O.T.O.,
the latter of which he was elected head in England, and the former which he founded
himself. There are those who believe that Crowley was somehow, magickally,
responsible for the Third Reich, for two reasons: one, that the emergence of New World
Orders generally seems to instigate holocausts and, two, that he is said to have influenced
the mind of Adolf Hitler. While it is almost certain that Crowley and Hitler never met, it
is known that Hitler belonged to several occult lodges in the early days after the First
War; the symbol of one of these, the Thule Gesellschaft which preached a doctrine of
Aryan racial superiority, was the infamous Swastika which Hitler was later to adopt as
the Symbol of the forms, however, is evident in many of his writings, notably the essays
written in the late 'Thirties. Crowley seemed to regard the Nazi phenomenon as a
Creature of Christianity, in it's anti-Semitism and sever moral restrictions concerning its
adherents, which lead to various types of lunacies and "hangups" that characterised many
of the Reich's leadership. Yet, there can be perhaps little doubt that the chaos which
engulfed the world in those years was prefigured, and predicted, in Crowley's Liber AL
vel Legis; the Book of the Law.
The Mythos and the Magick
We can profitably compare the essence of most of Lovecraft's short stories with the basic
themes of Crowley's unique system of ceremonial Magick. While the latter was a
sophisticated psychological structure, intended to bring the initiate into contact with his
higher Self, via a process of individuation that is active and dynamic (being brought
about by the "patient" himself) as opposed to the passive depth analysis of the Jungian
adepts, Lovecraft's Cthulhu Mythos was meant for entertainment. Scholars, of course, are
able to find higher, ulterior motives in Lovecraft's writings, as can be done with any
manifestation of Art.
Lovecraft depicted a kind of Christian Myth of the struggle between opposing forces of
Light and Darkness, between God and Satan, in the Cthulhu Mythos. Some critics may
complain that this smacks more of the Manichaen heresy than it does of genuine
Christian dogma; yet, as a priest and former monk, I believe it is fair to say that this
dogma is unfortunately very far removed from the majority of the Faithful to be of much
consequence. The idea of a War against Satan, and of the entities of Good and Evil
having roughly equivalent Powers, is perhaps best illustrated by the belief, common
among the Orthodox churches of the East, in a personal devil as well as a personal angel.
This concept has been amplified by the Roman Catholic Church to such an extent -
perhaps subconsciously - that a missal in the Editor's possession contains an engraving
for the Feast of St. Andrew, Apostle, for November 30, that bears the legend "Ecce Qui
Tollis Peccata Mundi" - Behold Him Who Taketh Away The Sins of the World - and the
picture above it is of the atomic bomb!
Basically, there are two "sets" of gods in the mythos : the Elder Gods, about whom not
much is revealed, save that they are a stellar Race that occasionally comes to the rescue
of man, and which corresponds to the Christian "Light"; and the Ancient Ones, about
which much is told, sometimes in great detail, who correspond to "Darkness". These
latter are the Evil Gods who wish nothing but ill for the Race of Man, and who constantly
strive to break into our world through a Gate or Door that leads from the Outside, In.
There are certain people, among us, who are devotees of the Ancient Ones, and who try
to open the Gate, so that this evidently repulsive organisation may once again rule the
Earth. Chief among these is Cthulhu, typified as a Sea Monster, dwelling in the Great
Deep, a sort of primeval Ocean; a Being that Lovecraft collaborator August Derleth
wrongly calls a "water elemental". There is also Azazoth, the blind idiot god of Chaos,
Yog Sothot, Azathoth's partner in Chaos, Shub Niggurath, the "goat with a thousand
young", and others. They appear at various times throughout the stories of the Cthulhu
Mythos in frightening forms, which test the strength and resourcefulness of the
protagonists in their attempts to put the hellish Things back to whence they came. There
is an overriding sense of primitive dear and cosmic terror in those pages, as though man
is dealing with something that threatens other than his physical safety: his very spiritual
nature. This horror-cosmology is extended by the frequent appearance of the Book,
NECRONOMICON.
The NECRONOMICON, is according to Lovecraft's tales, a volume written in Damascus
in the Eighth Century, A.D., by a person called the "Mad Arab", Abdhul Alhazred. It
must run roughly 800 pages in length, as there is a reference in one of the stories
concerning some lacunae on a page in the 700's It had been copied and reprinted in
various languages - the story goes - among them Latin, Greek and English. Doctor Dee,
the Magus of Elizabethan fame, was supposed to have possessed a copy and translated it.
This book, according to the mythos, contains the formulae for evoking incredible things
into visible appearance, beings and monsters which dwell in the Abyss, and Outer Space,
of the human psyche.
Such books have existed in fact, and do exist. Idries Shah tells us of a search he
conducted for a copy of the Book of Power by the Arab magician Abdul-Kadir (see: The
Secret Lore of Magic by Shah), of which only one copy was ever found. The Keys of
Solomon had a similar reputation, as did The Magus by Barret, until all of these works
were eventually reprinted in the last fifteen years or so. The Golden Dawn, a famous
British and American Occult lodge of the turn of the Century, was said to have possessed
a manuscript called "the Veils of Negative Existence" by another Arab.
These were the sorcerer's handbooks, and generally not meant as textbooks or
encyclopedias of ceremonial magick. In other words, the sorcerer or magician is
supposed to be in possession of the requisite knowledge and training with which to carry
out a complex magickal ritual, just as a cook is expected to be able to master the
scrambling of eggs before he conjures an "eggs Benedict"; the grimoires, or Black Books,
were simply variations on a theme, like cookbooks, different records of what previous
magicians had done, the spirits they had contacted, and the successes they had. The
magicians who now read these works are expected to be able to select the wheat from the
chaff, in much the same fashion as an alchemist discerning the deliberate errors in a
treatise on his subject.
Therefore it was (and is) insanity for the tyro to pick up a work on ceremonial Magick
like the Lesser Key of Solomon to practise conjurations. It would also be folly to pick up
Crowley's Magick in Theory and Practise with the same intention. Both books are
definitely not for beginners, a point which cannot be made too often. Unfortunately,
perhaps, the dread NECRONOMICON falls into this category.
Crowley's Magick was a testimony of what he has found in his researches into the
forbidden, and forgotten, lore of past civilisations and ancient times. His Book of the Law
was written in Cairo in the Spring of 1904, when he believed himself to be in contact
with a praeter-human intelligence called Aiwass who dictated to him the Three Chapters
that make up the Book. It had influenced him more than any other, and the remainder of
his life was spent trying to understand it fully, and to make its message known to the
world. It, too, contains the formulae necessary to summon the invisible into visibility, and
the secrets of transformations are hidden within its pages, but this is Crowley's own
NECRONOMICON, received in the Middle East in the shadow of the Great Pyramid of
Gizeh, and therein is writ not only the beauty, but the Beast that yet awaits mankind.
It would be vain to attempt to deliver a synopsis of Crowley's philosophy, save that its
'leitmotif' is the Rabelaisian
Do what thou wilt shall be the whole of the Law.
The actual meaning of this phrase has taken volumes to explain, but roughly it concerns
the uniting of the conscious Self, a process of individuation which culminates in a rite
called "Knowledge and Conversation of the Holy Guardian Angel"; the Angel signifying
the pure, evolved Self.
Yet, there are many terrors on the Way to the Self, and an Abyss to cross before victory
can be declared. Demons, vampires, psychic leeches, ghastly forms accost the aspiring
magician from every angle, from every quarter around the circumference of the magick
circle, and they must be destroyed lest they devour the magician himself. When Crowley
professed to have passed the obstacles, and crossed the Abyss of Knowledge, and found
his true Self, he found it was identical with the Beast of the Book of Revelation, 666,
whom Christianity considers to represent the Devil. Indeed, Crowley had nothing but
admiration for the Shaitan (Satan) of the so-called "devil-worshipping" cult of the
Yezidis of Mesopotamia, knowledge of which led him to declare the lines that open this
Introduction. For he saw that the Yezidis possess a Great Secret and a Great Tradition
that extends far back into time, beyond the origin of the Sun cults of Osiris, Mithra and
Christ; even before the formation of the Judaic religion, and the Hebrew tongue. Crowley
harkened back to a time before the Moon was worshipped, to the "Shadow Out of Time";
and in this, whether he realised it as such or not, he had heard the "Call of Cthulhu".
Sumeria
That a reclusive author of short stories who lived in a quiet neighbourhood in New
England, and the manic, infamous Master Magician who called the world his home,
should have somehow met in the sandy wastes of some forgotten civilisation seems
incredible. That they should both have become Prophets and Forerunners of a New Aeon
of Man's history is equally, if not more, unbelievable. Yet, with H.P. Lovecraft and
Aleister Crowley, the unbelievable was a commonplace of life. These two men, both
acclaimed as geniuses by their followers and admirers, and who never actually met,
stretched their legs across the world, and in the Seven League Boots of the mind they did
meet, and on common soil . . . . Sumeria.
Sumeria is the name given to a once flourishing civilisation that existed in what is now
known as Iraq, in the area called by the Greeks "Mesopotamia" and by the Arabs as,
simply, "The Island" for it existed between two rivers, the Tigris and the Euphrates,
which run down from the mountains to the Persian Gulf. This is the site of the fabled city
of Babylon, as well as of Ur of the Chaldees and Kish, with Nineveh far to the north.
Each of the seven principal cities of Sumeria was ruled by a different deity, who was
worshipped in the strange, non-Semitic language of the Sumerians; and language which
has been closely allied to that of the Aryan race, having in fact many words identical to
that of Sanskrit (and, it is said, to Chinese!).
For no one knows where the Sumerians came from, and they vanished just as
mysteriously as they appeared, after the Assyrian invasions which decimated their
culture, yet providing the Assyrians with much of their mythology and religion; so much
so that Sumerian became the official language of the state church, much as Latin is today
of the Roman Catholic Church. They had a list of their kings before the Flood, which
even they carefully chronicled, as did many another ancient civilisation around the world.
It is believed that they had a sophisticated system of astronomy (and astrology) as well as
an equally religious rituale. Magick, as well in history, begins at Sumer for the Western
World, for it his here, in the sand-buried cuneiform tablets that recorded an Age, that the
first Creation Epic is found, the first exorcism, the first ritual invocations of planetary
deities, the first dark summonings of evil Powers, and ironically, the first "burnings" of
people the anthropologists call "Witches".
Lovecraft's mythos deals with what are known chthonic deities, that is, underworld gods
and goddesses, much like the Leviathan of the Old Testament. The pronunciation of
chthonic is 'katonic', which explains Lovecraft's famous Miskatonic River and
Miskatonic University, not to mention the chief deity of his pantheon, Cthulhu, a sea
monster who lies, "not dead, but dreaming" below the world; an Ancient One and
supposed enemy of Mankind and the intelligent Race. Cthulhu is accompanied by an
assortment of other grotesqueries, such as Azathot and Shub Niggurath. It is of extreme
importance to occult scholars that many of these deities had actual counterparts, at least
in name, to deities of the Sumerian Tradition, that same Tradition that the Magus Aleister
Crowley deemed it so necessary to "rediscover".
The Underworld in ancient Sumer was known by many names, among them ABSU or
"Abyss", sometimes as Nar Mattaru, the great Underworld Ocean, and also as Cutha or
KUTU as it is called in the Enuma Elish (the Creation Epic of the Sumerians). The
phonetic similarity between Cutha and KUTU and Chthonic, as well as Cthulhu, is
striking. Judging by a Sumerian grammar at hand, the word KUTULU or Cuthalu
(Lovecraft's's Cthulhu Sumerianised) would mean "The Man of KUTU (Cutha); the Man
of the Underworld; Satan or Shaitan, as he is known to the Yezidis (whom Crowley
considered to be the remnants of the Sumerian Tradition). The list of similarities, both
between Lovecraft's creations and the Sumerian gods, as well as between Lovecraft's
mythos and Crowley's magick, can go on nearly indefinitely, and in depth, for which
there is no space here at present. An exhaustive examination of Crowley's occultism in
light of recent findings concerning Sumeria, and exegesis on Lovecraft's stories, is
presently in preparation and is hoped to be available shortly. Until that time, a few
examples should suffice.
Although a list is appended hereto containing various entities and concepts of Lovecraft,
Crowley, and Sumeria cross-referenced, it will do to show how the Editor found
relationships to be valid and even startling. AZATOT is frequently mentioned in the grim
pages of the Cthulhu Mythos, and appears in the NECRONOMICON as AZAG-THOTH,
a combination of two words, the first Sumerian and the second Coptic, which gives us a
clue as to Its identity. AZAG in Sumerian means "Enchanter" or "Magician"; THOTH in
Coptic is the name given to the Egyptian God of Magick and Wisdom, TAHUTI, who
was evoked by both the Golden Dawn and by Crowley himself (and known to the Greeks
as Hermes, from whence we get "Hermetic"). AZAG-THOTH is, therefore, a Lord of
Magicians, but of the "Black" magicians, or the sorcerers of the "Other Side".
There is a seeming reference to SHUB NIGGURATH in the NECRONOMICON, in the
name of a Sumerian deity, the "Answerer of Prayers", called ISHNIGARRAB. The word
"Shub" is to be found in the Sumerian language in reference to the Rite of Exorcism, one
of which is called Nam Shub and means "the Throwing". It is, however, as yet unclear as
to what the combination SHUB ISHNIGARRAB (SHUB NIGGURATH) might actually
mean.
There was a battle between the forces of "light" and "darkness" (so-called) that took place
long before man was created, before even the cosmos as we know it existed. It is
described fully in the Enuma Elish and in the bastardised version found in the
NECRONOMICON, and involved the Ancient Ones, led by the Serpent MUMMUTIAMAT
and her male counterpart ABSU, against the ELDER GODS (called such in the
N.) led by the Warrior MARDUK, son of the Sea God ENKI, Lord of Magicians of this
Side, or what could be called "White Magicians" - although close examination of the
myths of ancient times makes one pause before attempting to judge which of the two
warring factions was "good" or "evil". MARDUK won this battle - in much the same way
that later St. George and St. Michael would defeat the Serpent again - the cosmos was
created from the body of the slain Serpent, and man was created from the blood of the
slain commander of the Ancient Army, KINGU, thereby making man a descendent of the
Blood of the Enemy, as well as the "breath" of the Elder Gods; a close parallel to the
"sons of God and daughters of men" reference in the Old Testament. Yet, though the
identity of the Victor is clear, there were - and are - certain persons and organisations that
dared side with the vanquished, believing the Ancient Ones to be a source of tremendous,
and most unbelievable, power.
Worship of the Ancient Ones in History
"Let them curse it that curse the day, who are skilful to rouse Leviathan." - JOB
3:8
S.H. Hooke, in his excellent Middle Eastern Mythology, tells us that the Leviathan
mentioned in JOB, and elsewhere in the Old Testament, is the Hebrew name given to the
Serpent TIAMAT, and reveals that there was in existence either a cult, or scattered
individuals, who worshipped or called up the Serpent of the Sea, or Abyss. Indeed, the
Hebrew word for Abyss that is found in GENESIS 1:2 is, Hooke tells us, tehom, which
the majority of scholars take to be a survival of the name of the chaos-dragon TIAMAT
or Leviathan that is identified closely with KUTULU or Cthulhu within the pages are
mentioned independently of each other, indicating that somehow KUTULU is the male
counterpart of TIAMAT, similar to ABSU.
This monster is well known to cult worship all over the world. In China, however, there
is an interesting twist. Far from being considered a completely hostile creature, dedicated
to the erasure of mankind from the page of existence, the Dragon is given a place of preeminence
and one does not hear of a Chinese angel or saint striving to slay the dragon,
but rather to cultivate it. The Chinese system of geomancy, feng shui (pronounced fung
shway) is the science of understanding the "dragon currents" which exist beneath the
earth, these same telluric energies that are distilled in such places as Chartres Cathedral in
France, Glastonbury Tor in England, and the Ziggurats of Mesopotamia. In both the
European and Chinese cultures, the Dragon or Serpent is said to reside somewhere
"below the earth"; it is a powerful force, a magickal force, which is identified with
mastery over the created world; it is also a power that can be summoned by the few and
not the many. However, in China, there did not seem to be a backlash of fear or
resentment against this force as was known in Europe and Palestine, and the symbol of
might and kingship in China is still the Dragon. In the West, the conjuration, cultivation,
or worship of this Power was strenuously opposes with the advent of the Solar,
Monotheistic religions and those who clung to the Old Ways were effectively
extinguished. The wholesale slaughter of those called "Witches" during the Inquisition is
an example of this, as well as the solemn and twisted - that is to say, purposeless and
unenlightened - celibacy that the Church espoused. For the orgone of Wilhelm Reich is
just as much Leviathan as the Kundalini of Tantrick adepts, and the Power raised by the
Witches. It has always, at least in the past two thousand years, been associated with
occultism and essentially with Rites of Evil Magick, or the Forbidden Magick, of the
Enemy, and of Satan . . .
. . . and the twisting, sacred Spiral formed by the Serpent of the Caduceus, and by the
spinning of the galaxies, is also the same Leviathan as the Spiral of the biologists' Code
of Life : DNA
The Goddess of the Witches
The current revival of the cult called WICCA is a manifestation of the ancient secret
societies that sought to tap this telluric, occult force and use it to their own advantage,
and to the advantage of humanity as was the original intent. The raising of the Cone of
Power through the circle dancing is probably the simplest method of attaining results in
"rousing Leviathan", and has been used by societies as diverse as the Dervishes in the
Middle East and the Python Dancers of Africa, not to mention the round dances that were
familiar to the Gnostic Christians, and the ones held every year in the past at Chartres.
The Witches of today, however, while acknowledging the importance of the Male
element of telluric Power, generally prefer to give the greater honour to the Female
Principle, personified as the Goddess. The Goddess has also been worshipped all over the
world, and under many names, but is still essentially the same Goddess. That TIAMAT
was undoubtedly female is to the point; and that the Chinese as well as the Sumerians
perceived of two dragon currents, male and female, gives the researchers a more complex
picture. The Green Dragon and the Red Dragon of the alchemists are thus identified, as
the positive and negative energies that compromise the cosmos of our perception, as
manifest in the famous Chinese yin-yang symbol.
But what of INANNA, the single planetary deity having a female manifestation among
the Sumerians? She is invoked in the NECRONOMICON and identified as the
vanquisher of Death, for she descended into the Underworld and defeated her sister, the
Goddess of the Abyss, Queen ERESHKIGAL (possibly another name for TIAMAT).
Interestingly enough, the myth has many parallels with the Christian concept of Christ's
death and resurrection, among which the Crucifixion (INANNA was impaled on a stake
as a corpse), the three days in the Sumerian Hades, and the eventual Resurrection are
outstanding examples of how Sumerian mythology previewed the Christian religion by
perhaps as many as three thousand years - a fact that beautifully illustrates the cosmic and
eternal nature of this myth.
Therefore, the Goddess of the Witches has two distinct forms: the Ancient One, Goddess
of the Dragon-like telluric Power which is raised in Magickal rituals, and the Elder
Goddess, Defeater of Death, who brings the promise of Resurrection and Rejuvenation to
her followers those who must reside for a time after death and between incarnations in
what is called the "Summerland".
Sumer-land?
Another hallmark of the Craft of the Wise is evident within the NECRONOMICON, as
well as in general Sumerian literature, and that is the arrangement of the cross-quarter
days, which make up half of the Craft's official pagan holidays. These occur on the eves
of February 2nd, May 1st, August 1st, and November 1st, and are called Candlemas,
Beltane, Lammas and Samhain (or Hallows), respectively.
The name Lammas has a curious origin in the dunes at Sumer. It is not less than the name
of one of the four mythological Beasts of the astrological fixed signs, Lamas being the
name of the half-lion, half-man Guardian of Leo (the sign governing most of August,
when the feast of Lammas takes place), and USTUR being that of Aquarius (February),
SED that of Taurus (May) and NATTIG that of Scorpio (November). I do not believe that
this is a fantastic assumption, the Sumerian origin of the Feast of Lammas. Indeed, it
seems just as valid as the ideas of Idries Shah concerning Craft etymology as presented in
his book, The Sufis. It is also not far-fetched to assume that these four beasts were known
to the entire region of the Middle East, as they appear on the Sphinx in Egypt, and have
become the symbols of the Four Evangelists of the Christian New Testament - an ironic
and splendid result of the ignorance of the Greek religious historians concerning the
ancient mysteries!
Probable the most inconsistent concept the Sumerians possesses with reference to the
Craft is the naming of the Goddess as a deity, not of the Moon (as the Craft would have
it), but of the planet Venus. The Moon was governed by a male divinity, NANNA (like
INANNA but minus the initial 'I'), and was considered the Father of the Gods by the
earliest Sumerian religion. It should be noted, however, that all of the planetary deities,
termed "the zoned Ones" or zonei in Greek, and indeed all of the Sumerian deities, had
both male and female manifestations, showing that the Sumerians definitely recognised a
yin-yang composition if the universe (the "male Moon" idea is, the Editor is given to
understand, common to so-called Aryan mythologies). There is also evidence to show
that every god and goddess also had both a good and an evil nature, and evil gods were
banished in the exorcism formulae of that civilisation as well as the lesser forms of
demon.
The Horned Moon
As mentioned, the God of the Moon was called NANNA by the Sumerians. By the later
Sumerians and Assyrians, he was called SIN. In both cases, he was the Father of the
Gods (of the planetary realm, the zonei), and was depicted as wearing horns, a symbol
familiar to the Witches as representative of their God. The horn shaped crown is
illustrative of the crescent phases of the Moon, and were symbolic of divinity in many
cultures around the world, and were also thought to represent certain animals who were
horned, and worshipped for their particular qualities, such as the goat and bull. They also
represent sexual power.
The fact that, in ancient Sumeria and Egypt, horns were solely representative of evil
gods, but of many different deities, was used by the Christian Church in their attempt to
eradicate pagan faiths. It was a simple enough symbol to identify with the Author of Evil,
Satan, which the Church depicted as a half-animal, half-human creature with horns,
claws, and sometimes a tail. The Church's use of the horns as a sort of archetype of Evil
is quite similar to the feeling many people have today with regards to the swastika used
by the Nazis, a symbol which has become the archetype of an evil sigil in the West. The
fact that it is a highly valued mystical and religious symbol in the East is something that
is not well-known. What is worse, the image of the Devil as perpetrated by the Church is
simultaneously representative of sexual energy, and can be safely compared to Jung's
archetype of the Shadow, the psychic repository of a man's innate maleness, as the anima
represents that part of a man which is feminine. Truly, the pictures painted of a Satanic
ritual by the pious Catholic clergymen was one of sexual orgies and "perversions", and
the handbook of the Inquisitors, the Malleus Maleficarum - which has been responsible
for the deaths of many more people than even Hitler's Mein Kampf - is full of detailed
sexual imagery and reveals the nature of the souls of the monks who wrote it, rather than
of the innocents it was used to massacre. Eventually, Satanism, Protestantism and
Judaism were inextricably woven together to form a patchwork quilt of Evil that the
Church attempted to destroy during the Middle Ages, with fire and sword.
As a matter of fact, a certain type of devil worship did exist during those times but,
ironically, the acolytes of Hell were usually never brought to trial; something which
stems from the fact that many of those who celebrated and attended the infamous Black
Masses of the period were Roman Catholic clergymen, many of whom has been pressed
into His Service at a young age by their parents, who wished to see their sons brought up
well-fed and educated in those uncertain times, where the Church was the sole power and
refuge. The frustration at being "condemned" to a life that demanded the abandonment of
society and a "normal" life led many priests to express their hostilities through the Office
of the Demon, the Black Mass. Often, this was also a means of political demonstration, as
the Church controlled virtually all the political life of the period. In a way, as though in a
test tube at a philosophical laboratory, Aleister Crowley was brought up under similar
circumstances - although ver far removed in time from the days of the Church's immense
temporal power. Coming from a fanatically religious Christian family, and suddenly
freed upon the neighbourhood of Cambridge, Crowley did, in a sense, turn Satanist. He
identified strongly with the underdog, politically as well as spiritually, and came
eventually to take the Name of the Beast as his own, and expound a philosophy that he
hoped would rip apart the worn tapestry of the established moral Christian atmosphere of
Victorian England, and expose it for what it really was, a carpet made of many ingenious
threads and not God - or eternal happiness - at all; only nap.
Therefore, it seemed almost logical that he should seek in the defeated, Old Religions of
the world for the basis of his new philosophy and, some say, his new "religion". He
raised the female aspect back up to one of equality with the male, as it was in the rites of
Egypt, and of Eleusis. "Our Lady Babalon" (his spelling) became a theme of many of his
magickal writings, and he received he Credo, the Book of the Law, through a Woman, his
wife Rose Kelly. The lunar element, as well as the Venusian, are certainly accessible in
his works. It has even been said in occult circles that he had a hand in putting together the
grimoire of one Gerald Gardner, founder of a contemporary Witchcraft movement, called
the Book of Shadows.
The Moon has an extremely important, indeed indispensable, role in the tantrick sex
magick rites that so preoccupied Crowley and the O.T.O. There can be no true magick
without woman, nor without man, and in the symbolic language of the occult there can be
no Sun without the Moon. In alchemy, ceremonial magick, and Witchcraft, the formula is
the same, for they all deal with identical properties; whether they are called the Sun and
Moon of the Elixir Vitae, the male and female participants in a rite of Indian or Chinese
tantricism, or the Shadow and the Anima of Jungian depth psychology.
For many years, the Moon remained the prime deity of the Sumerians, constituting the
essential Personum of a religious and mystical drama that was performed roughly 3000
B.C. amid the deserts and marshes of Mesopotamia. Side by side with the worship of the
Moon, NANNA, there was fear of the Demon, PAZUZU, a genie so amply recreated in
the book and the movie by Blatty, The Exorcist, and similarly recognised as the Devil
Himself by the Church. PAZUZU, the Beast, was brought to life by Aleister Crowley,
and the Demon walked the Earth once more.
With publicity provided by H.P. Lovecraft.
The Devil
PAZUZU was a prime example of the type of Devil of which the Sumerians were
particularly aware, and which they depicted constantly in their carvings and statues. The
purpose of this iconography was to ward off the spiritual - and psychic - circumstances
which would precipitate a plague, or some other evil. "Evil to destroy evil." Although the
ancient people of the world were conscious of an entity we might call the :Author of all
Evil", the Devil or Satan, as evident in the Sumerian Creation Epic and the rumoured
existences of the Cult of Set of the Egyptians, the more pressing concern was usually the
exorcism of TIAMAT, she exists, somehow, just as the Abyss exists and is perhaps
indispensable to human life if we think of Her as typifying the female quality of Energy.
Although MARDUK was responsible for halving the Monster from the Sea, the Sumerian
Tradition has it that the Monster is not dead, but dreaming, asleep below the surface of
the Earth, strong, potent, dangerous, and very real. her powers can be tapped by the
knowledgeable, "who are skilful to rouse Leviathan."
Although the Christian religion has gone to great lengths to prove that the Devil is
inferior to God and exists solely for His purpose, as the Tempter of Man - surely a
dubious raison d'etre - the Sumerian Tradition acknowledges that the Person of "Evil" is
actually the oldest, most Ancient of the Gods. Whereas Christianity states that Lucifer
was a rebel in heaven, and fell from God's grace to ignominy below, the original story
was that MARDUK was the rebel, and severed the Body of the Ancient of Ancient Ones
to create the Cosmos in other words, the precise reverse of the Judeo-Christian dogma.
The Elder Gods evidently possessed a certain Wisdom that was not held by their Parents,
yet their Parents held the Power, the Primal Strength, the First Magick, that the Elder
Ones tapped to their own advantage, for they were begotten of Her.
It generally accepted in the Halls of Magick that all of the Wisdom in the world is useless
without the necessary adjunct of Power. This Power has gone by many names, as the
Goddess and the Devil have, but the Chinese symbolise It by the Dragon. It is the force of
Will, and relies heavily upon the biochemical matter that makes up the human body, and
hence, the human consciousness, to give it existence. Science is coming around to accept
the fact that the Will does exist, just at the point where Psychology has determined it does
not - in the behaviourists vain attempt to eradicate what has always been known to
constitute vital parts of the psyche from their consideration in pseudo scientific
experimentation, leaving us with the "white mice and pigeons" of Koestler's The Ghost In
The Machine. Science, ancient Sister of Magick, has begun to realize the human potential
that resides, inconspicuously, in the spiral-mapped matter of the brain. Just as the
magicians, accused of trafficking with the Devil, were said to have developed tremendous
power over natural phenomena, Science has ascended to that realm unblamed, and
guiltless. The Pope has ridden in aircraft. Cardinals have flown in 'choppers' over
battlefields in Southeast Asia, urging technological eco-side, invoking Christ;
pronouncing damnation and the Devil on the industrially inferior man. Ecce Qui Tollit
Peccata Mundi.
And a rock group from England, home of the Anglican heresy, sings of "sympathy" for
the Devil. PAZUZU. TIAMAT. The Seven Deadly Sins. The fear of Lovecraft. The pride
of Crowley.
The lunar landing was the symbolic manifestation of man's newly acquired potential
power to alter the nature - and perhaps, via nuclear weapons, the course - of the heavenly
bodies, the zonei, the Elder Gods. It has a power the Ancient Ones have been waiting for,
for millennia, and it is now within their grasp. The next century may deliver unto
mankind this awesome power and responsibility, and will leave him knocking on the
dread doors of the azonei, the IGIGI, approaching the barrier that keeps out the ABSU.
And one day, without the benefit of NECRONOMICON, the Race of Man will smash the
barrier and the Ancient Ones will rule once more.
An alternative possibility exists: that, by landing on the Moon, we have come to reinstate
the ancient Covenant and thereby assure our protection against the Outside. Since "the
gods are forgetful", buy treading on their celestial spheres we are reminding them of their
ancient obligations to us, their created ones. For, as it is said in one of man's most ancient
of Covenants, the Emerald Table, "As Above, So Below". Man's power to alter the nature
of his environment must develop simultaneously with his ability to master his inner
environment, his own mind his psyche, soul, spirit. Perhaps, then, the lunar landing was
the first collective initiation for humanity, which will bring it one step closer to a
beneficial Force that resides beyond the race of the "cruel celestial spirits", past the Abyss
of Knowledge. Yet, he must remember that the occult powers that accompany magickal
attainment are ornamental only, indications of obstacles overcome on the Path to
Perfection, and are not to be sought after in themselves, for therein lies the truth Death.
Lovecraft saw this Evil, as the world passed from one War and moved menacingly
towards another. Crowley prepared for it, and provided us with the formulae. The Mad
Arab saw it all, in a vision, and wrote it down. He was, perhaps, one of the most
advanced adepts of his time, and her certainly has something to say to us, today, in a
language the Intuition understands. Yet they called him "Mad".
Accompanied in the ranks of the "insane" by such "madmen" as Neitzsche, Artaud, and
Reich, the Mad Arab makes a Fourth, in a life-and-death game of cosmic bridge. They
are all voices crying in that wilderness of madness that men call Society, and as such
were ostracised, stoned, and deemed mentally unfit for life. But, for them, Justice will
come when we have realised that the Ship of State and the Ship of St Peter have become
mere Ships of Fools - with Captains who course the seas by stars, ignoring the eternal
Ocean - and then, we will have to look to the Prisoners in the Hold for navigational
guidance.
It is there, always, and Cthulhu Calls.
PREFATORY NOTES
THE PRESENT MANUSCRIPT was delivered into the hands of the Editor by a priest
who had managed to get ordained through uncanonical methods which have been
entertainingly described in the several books and articles on the ecclesiastic phenomenon,
the "wandering bishops". Just such an "unorthodox" prelate was Fr. Montague Summers,
who wrote numerous books on demonology, witchcraft, and the like. Suffice it to say, we
were rather doubtful as to the authenticity of the work before us. In the first place, it was
in Greek and for quite awhile it was difficult to ascertain what it might actually be, save
for the title NECRONOMICON and the many weird drawings. In the second place, after
translation, we found several internal inconsistencies and some evidence that would
suggest we did not possess the entire Work. There may still be some missing or the
irregular monastic might have withheld certain of the chapters. As the chapters are not
numbered, it is too difficult to day.
A great deal of misfortune accompanied the publication of this book. First, we went
through more than one translator. The last finally absconded with his preface, describing
his work in the some detail. This, we will have to do from memory in the following
pages. At one point, an unscrupulous publisher from the West Coast took a copy of the
initial preface and some of the miscellaneous pages in translation (including some
dummies, which we were in the habit of giving potential publishers for our protection)
and went off, and has not been heard from again.
At a crucial stage in the preparation of the manuscript, the Editor was stricken with a
collapsed lung and had to undergo emergency surgery to save his life.
But, let us proceed with a description of the contents of the NECRONOMICON:
Within these pages a series of myths and rituals are presented that have survive the
darkest days of magick and occultism. The exorcisms and bindings of the famous Maqlu
text are here presented for the first time in English, although not completely: for the
originals in their entirety were evidently not known to the author of the
NECRONOMICON, nor are they to present scholarship; the various tablets upon which
they were written being cracked and effaced in many places, rendering translation
impossible. The MAGAN text, which comprises the Creation Epic of the Sumerians
(with much later glosses) and the account of INANNA's "descent into the Underworld",
along with more extraneous matter, is presented. The unique "Book of the Entrance" has
no counterpart in occult literature, and the drawings of magickal seals and symbols are
wholly new to anything that has yet appeared on the contemporary occult scene -
although bearing some resemblances to various diagrams found in the ancient Arabic
texts of the last millennium. Although some of the characters found in these pages can be
traced to Mandaic and Demotic sources, and are evidently of a much later date than the
Rites of Sumer, the overall appearance of the seals is quite unusual, almost surreal.
The Book begins with an introduction by the alleged author, the Mad Arab (the name that
Lovecraft made famous, 'Abdul Alhazred' does not appear in our copy of the Ms.), and
ends with a sort of epilogue by the same Arab. We have called the first part "The
Testimony of the Mad Arab" and the latter "The Testimony of the Mad Arab, the Second
Part." The Second Part if the most chilling. The author has, by this stage in the writing of
his opus, become fearful for his soul and begins to repeat himself in the text, saying
things he has already said in previous chapters as though having forgotten he had said
them, or perhaps to stress their importance. The Second Testimony is riddled through
with non sequiturs and bits of incantation.
He does not finish the Book.
It trails off where he would have signed it, presumably, in the Arab manner, but giving
his lineage. Instead, it ends before he can name himself or even one relation. We can only
imagine with horror what fate befell this noble Sage.
Another problem that confronts the Editor is the suspected frequency of the copyist's
glosses; that is, there do seem to be occasionally bits of sentence or fragments of
literature that would seem to be inconsistent with the period in which the text was
written. However, no final word can be said on this matter. The difficulty arises in the
age-old question of "which came first, the chicken or the egg?". For instance, in the
MAGAN text, the final verses read though from the Chaldean Oracles of Zoroaster:
"Stoop not down, therefore, into the darkly shining world," which might have been of
Greek origin and not Zoroastrian. It is a question for scholars.
The etymology of certain words is a game that has fascinated both the Editor and perhaps
a score or more of Sumerian researches of the past. The Sumerian origin of many of the
words and place-names we use today provides us with an insight into our own origins.
For instance, the Sumerian word for the temple is BAR, from which we get our word
"barrier", or so it is said by Waddell. This makes sense in the context with the erecting
and maintaining of barriers against the hostile forces Outside.
The etymology is even dramatic where Magick is concerned, and aids us in understand
even Crowley's system better than we do. As an example, Crowley of (or Aiwass) ends
the Book of the Law with the words "AUM.HA." In the Sumero-Aryan Dictionary by
Waddell we read that the word AUM was known to the Sumerians, in almost the same
sense that it was, and is, known to the Hindus. It is a sacred word, and pertains to the
Lord of Magicians, ENKI. Further, the Greek spelling of ENKI was EA, by which he is
most commonly known in the European texts which treat of Sumeriology. In the Greek
alphabet, EA would appear as HA. Q.E.D: AUM.HA betrays the essential Sumerian
character of that Book.
After the initial Testimony, we come to the chapter entitles "Of the ZONEI and Their
Attributes", Zonei is, of course a Greek word and refers to the planetary, or heavenly
bodies; for they are "zoned", i.e., having set courses and spheres. They are also known as
such in the Chaldean Oracles. The 'spirits' or bodies that exist beyond the zonei are called
the azonei, meaning "un-zoned". Whether this refers to the so-called "fixed " stars
(having no sphere ascertainable to the early astronomers) or the comets, is unknown to
the Editor. Whatever the case may be, the zonei seem to include the Seven Philosophical
Planets, i.e., including the Sun and Moon as planetary bodies, along with Mercury,
Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn. Each has their own seal and their own Number.
Kenneth Grant, author of Aleister Crowley and the Hidden God, may be interested to
know (or may already know) that the Number of the Sumerian Goddess of Venus, hence
of Love and War, is Fifteen. In many of the ancient tablets of that period, she is actually
referred to as "the Fifteen", as a shortcut to spelling out the whole Name in cuneiform,
was assume. Grant made much of "the Goddess Fifteen" in his study of Crowley's system
as related to Tantricism, without mentioning the Name by which this Goddess is quite
well-known, or even mentioning Her native country!
After the chapter on Zonei, we come to the "Book of Entrance" which is really a system
of self-initiation into the planetary spheres and may have something to do with the
planetary arrangement of the steps of the ziggurats of Mesopotamia, which were seven
storeyed mountains. Not much is revealed to the potential candidate for initiation as to
how these "gates" work, or what he might find there, save to say that the key of one Gate
lies in mastering the Gate before it. The Mad Arab was either keeping a sacred Secret, or
found human language inadequate to the task of describing what other initiates in similar
systems have expressed in the vague abstractions of the truly illuminated, likening the
experience to an LSD trip.
The "Incantations of the Gates" follow, and are probably meant to accompany the
preceding chapter, being prayers proper to each of the celestial Gates. The "conjuration of
the Fire God" follows this, and resembles the others in its mixture of Greek and Sumerian
phrases. It should be noted here that wherever a Sumerian phrases. It should be noted
here that wherever a Sumerian phrase appears in the original MS. we have kept it as it is,
untranslated, as we expect the Mad Arab would have wanted it. Quite possibly, even he
did not know the exact meaning of much of the conjurations in the Old Tongue, but
viewed it as a 'barbarous' tongue' which must be preserved because of its essential Power.
Indeed, with the publication of this Book, Sumerian may become as popular among
magicians as the strange, angelic language of Enochian, discovered by Dr. Dee in
Elizabeth England.
In Greek, in the original MS., a common incantation would look something like this
(using Roman characters for the Greek):
'O Kakos Theos
'O Kakos Daimon
'O Daimon
PNEUMA TOU OURANOU THUMETHERE!
PNEUMA TES GES THUMETHATE!
(O Wicked God
O Wicked Demon
O Demon
Spirit of the Sky, Remember!
Spirit of the Earth, Remember!)
Yet, a word like SHAMMASH, the Name of the Solar Deity, would read SAMAS or
SAMMAS, and in the text of the NECRONOMICON we would make the word read like
its original.
The "Conjuration of the Watcher" follows the Fire God conjuration. The word "watcher"
is sometimes used synonymously with "angel", and sometimes as a distinct Race, apart
from angelos: egragori. The Race of Watchers are said not to care what they Watch, save
that they follow orders. They are somewhat mindless creatures, but quite effective.
Perhaps they correspond toe Lovecraft's shuggoths, save that the latter become unweildly
and difficult to manage.
After the Watcher, comes the MAKLU text, which appears to be a collection of
exorcisms, which includes the famous "Xilka Xilka Besa Besa" incantation, in the
original, to which a translation has been appended in this work - a translation evidently
not at hand when the author compiled the MS. Thus, for the first time, this muchrumoured
exorcism is available in full and in English.
After this, the "Book of Calling" needs little explanation. It is the grimoire of the
NECRONOMICON, containing the formulae of ritual conjuration, as well as the seals
and diagrams to accompany the rites. It is followed by "The Book of Fifty Names" being
fifty separate powers of the God MARDUK, defeater of Chaos. This is interesting, in that
the names seem to come from the Enuma Elish, in which the Elder Gods confer these
fifty names upon MARDUK as titles, in their appreciation of his routing of Evil. A sigil
is given for each of the Names, and a word of Power for most of them.
Then appears the Centrepiece of the Book, the MAGAN text. The word MAGAN may
mean the Land of the MAGAN which was said to lie in the West of Sumer. For a time, it
seems the name MAGAN was synonymous with the Place of Death - as the Sun 'died' in
the West. Hence, it is a bit confusing as to what MAGAN is really supposed to mean in
this text, but in context the "Place of Death" explanation seems quite valid. The MAGAN
text is nothing more than an incomplete and free-form version of the Creation Epic of
Sumer, along with INANNA's Descent into the Underworld, and many glosses. We are
told how MARDUK slays TIAMAT - after much the same fashion that the Chief of
Police of Amity slays the great white shark in Benchley's novel JAWS, blowing an evil
wind (the oxygen tank) into Her mouth and sending in an arrow (bullet) in after it to
explode her. Surely, the two or three most box-office successful films of the past few
years, JAWS, THE EXORICST and, perhaps, THE GODFATHER, are an indication that
the essence of Sumerian mythology is making itself felt in a very real way in this, the
latter half of the Twentieth Century?
After the long and poetic MAGAN text, comes the URILLIA text which might be
Lovecraft's R'lyeh Text, and is subtitled "Abominations". It has more specifically to do
with the worship of the Serpent, and the nature of the cults that participate in the
Concelebration of Sin. Again, more conjurations and seals are given, even though the
reader is charged not to use them; an inconsistency that is to be found in many grimoires
of any period and perhaps reveals a little of the magicians's mentality; for there is very
little that is evil to the advanced magus, who cares not if he deals with angelic or demonic
forces, save that he gets the job done!
Then, following the URILLIA text and forming the very end of the received MS., is the
Second Part of the Testimony of the Mad Arab. It is a haunting and sorrowful occult
personality. Was he really mad? This is perhaps a question that will go on for as long as
Man tries to understand himself; himself as a part of the cosmic dance and spiral, which
includes the satanic as well as the deific, the sad as well as the happy. Perhaps the Arab
was privy to some other-worldly secret that he could not reveal. Perhaps he had opened
the Door by mistake, his own personal Gate to the Abyss, and was forced to cross its
threshold into the Unknown. We may never know.
Or, we may wish we never had.
The Editor New York, New York October 12, 1975
COMMENTS
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