1

Al Azif

The Cipher Manuscript known as "Necronomicon"

Ye Book of Ye Arab, Abdul Alhazred, 730 at Damascus

from DarkPages Website

Notes regarding this Etext edition

This E-text version of the book, Al Azif has been entered into Hypertext by Ken Ottinger over the course of

some few months. This project was completely funded by the Universal Life Trust.

The reason for the project was the realization that so many people were fascinated by H.P. Lovecraft and the

Cthulhu Mythos. Reading the newsgroups alt.necronomicon and alt.necromicon and seeing so many requests for

an online copy of the Necronomicon, and then seeing the arguments and debates as to whether the text actually

existed or not prompted me to search out the research work of Colin Wilson, George Hay, Robert Turner and

David Langford.

These men, publishing through CORGI Books of Chaucer Press, Ltd., Great Britain, provided a translation of a

cipher manuscript of Dr. John Dee's called Liber Logaeth, a portion of a larger manuscript, the origin and

nature of which is not known. Due to its history and the similarity in content to the Cthulhu Mythos, this

document has been presented by these men as being, at least a portion of, the document which was the

inspiration for HPL's Necronomicon.

Because of copyright restrictions, I have included only quotes from the original manuscript used in the CORGI

edition. The bulk of this E-text edition is the text of the manuscript Liber Logaeth which has been translated to

date. This is presented as a Tool or Guide leading toward additional research.

Zi Dingir Ana Kanpa, Zi Dingir Kia Kanpa

Spirits of the earth remember, spirits of the sky remember...

Al Azif - Necronomicon

Ye Book of Ye Arab, Abdul Alhazred

NECRONOMICON'S CONTENT:

1. Ye Testimony of Abl-Al Hazred

This is the testimony of all that I have seen, and all that I have learned, in those years that I have possessed the

Three Seals of MASSHU. I have seen One Thousand and-One moons, and surely this is enough for the span of a

mans life, though it is said the Prophets lived much longer. I am weak, and ill, and bear great tired- ness and

exhaustion, and a sigh hangs in my breast like a dark lantern, I am old.

The wolves carry their name in their midnight speeches, and that quiet, subtle Voice is summoning me from afar.

And a voice much closer will shout into my ear with unholy impatience. The weight of my soul will decide its

final resting place. Before the time, I must put down here all that I can concerning the horrors that stalk Without,

and which lie in wait at the door of every man, for this is the ancient arcana that has been handed down of old,

but which has been forgotten by all but a few men, the worshippers of the Ancient Ones (may their names be

blotted out!)

And if I do not finish this task, take what is here and discover the rest, for time is short and mankind does not

know or understand the evil that awaits it, from every side, from every open Gate, from every broken barrier,

from every mindless acolyte at the alters of madness.

For this is the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Black Earth, that I have writ down at the peril of my life,

exactly as I received it, on the planes of IGIGI, the cruel celestial spirits from beyond the Wanderers of the

Wastes.

Let all who read this book be warned thereby that the habitation of men are seen and surveyed by that Ancient

Race of gods and demons from a time before time, and that they seek revenge for that forgotten battle that took

place somewhere in the Cosmos and rent the Worlds in the days before the creation of Man, when the Elder

Gods walked the Spaces, the race of MARDUK, as he is known to the Chaldeans, and of ENKI our master, the

Lord of Magicians.

2

Know, then, that I have trod all the Zones of the Gods, and also the places of Azonei, and have descended into

the foul places of Death and Eternal Thirst, which may be reached through the Gate of GANZIR, which was

built in UR in the days before Babylonian was.

Know, too, that I have spoken with all manner of spirit and daemon, whose names are no longer known in the

societies of Man, or were never known. And the seals of these are writ herein ; yet others I must take with me

when I leave you. ANU have mercy on my soul!

I have seen the Unknown Lands, that no map has ever charted. I have lived in the deserts and the wastelands, and

spoken with demons and the souls of slaughtered men, and of women who have died in childbirth, victims of the

she-fiend LAMMASHTA.

I have traveled beneath the Seas, in search of the Palace of Our Master, and found the stone monuments of

vanquished civilizations, and de-ciphered the writings of some of these; while still others remain mysteries to

any man who lives. And these civilizations were destroyed because of the knowledge contained in this book.

I have traveled among the stars, and trembled before the gods. I have at last found the formula by which I passed

the gate of ARZIR, and passed into the forbidden realms of the foul IGIGI.

I have raised demons, and the dead.

I have summoned the ghosts of my ancestors to real and visible appearance on the tops of temples built to reach

the stars, and built to touch the nethermost cavities of HADES. I have wrestled with the Black Magician, AZAG-

THOTH, in vain, and fled to the Earth by calling upon INANNA and her brother MARDUK, Lord of the

double-headed AXE.

I have raised armies against the Lands of the East, by summoning the hordes of fiends I have made subject unto

me, and so doing found NGAA, the god of the heathens, who breathes flame and roars like a thousand thunders.

I have found fear.

I have found the Gate that leads to the Outside, by which the Ancient Ones, who ever seek the entrance to our

world, keep eternal watch. I have smelled the vapors of that Ancient One, Queen of the Outside, whose name is

writ in the MAGAN text, the testament of some dead civilization whose priests, seeking power, swing open the

dread, evil Gate for an hour past the time and were consumed.

I came to possess this knowledge through circumstances quite peculiar, while still the unlettered son of a

shepherd in what is called Mesopotamia by the Greeks.

When I was only a youth, traveling alone in the mountains to the East, called MASSHU by the people who live

there, I came upon a grey rock carved with three strange symbols. It stood as high as a man, and as wide around

as a bull. It was firmly in the ground, and I could not move it. Thinking no more of the carvings, save that they

might be the work of a king to mark some Ancient victory over an enemy, I built a fire at its foot to protect me

from the from the wolves that wander in that regions and went to sleep, for it was night and I was far from my

village, being Bet Durrabia.

Being about three hours from dawn, in the nineteenth of Shabatu, I was awakened by the howl of a dog, or

perhaps a wolf, uncommonly loud and close at hand. The fire had died to its embers, and these red, glowing

coals cast a faint, dancing shadow across the stone monument with the three carvings. I began to make haste to

build another fire when, at once, the grey rock began to rise slowly into the air, as if it were a dove. I could not

move or speak for the fear that seized upon my spine and wrapped cold fingers around my skull. The Dik of

Azug-bel-ya was no stranger seemed to melt into my hands!

Presently, I heard a voice, softly, some distance away and a more practical fear, that the possibility of robbers,

took hold of me and I rolled behind weeds, trembling. Another voice joined the first, and soon several men in

black robes of thieves came together over the place where I was, surrounding the floating rock, of which they did

not exhibit in the least fright.

I could see clearly now that the three carvings on the stone monument were glowing, a flame red color, as

through the rock were on fire. The figures were murmuring together in prayer or invocation, of which only a few

3

words could be heard, and these in some unknown tongue; though, ANU have mercy on my soul!, these rituals

are not unknown to me any longer.

The figures, whose faces I could not see or recognize, began to make wild passes in the air with knives that

glinted cold and sharp in the mountain night.

From beneath the floating rock, out of the very ground where it had sat, came rising the tail of a serpent. This

serpent was surely larger than any I had ever seen. The thinnest section thereof was fully that of the arms of two

men, and as it rose from the earth it was followed by another, although the end of the first was not seen as it

seemed to reach down into the very Pit itself. These were followed by still more, and the ground began to

tremble under the pressure of so many of these enormous arms. The chanting of the priests, for I knew them now

to be some the servants of some hidden Power, became much louder and nearly hysterical.

IA! IA! ZI AZAG!

IA!IA! ZI AZKAK!

IA! IA! KUTULU ZI KUR!

IA!

The ground where I was hiding became wet with some substance, being slightly downhill from the scene I was

witnessing. I touched the wetness and found it to be blood. In horror I screamed and gave my presence away to

the priests. They turned toward me, and I saw with loathing that they had cut their chests with the daggers they

had used to raise the stone, for some mystical purpose I could not then divine; although I now know that blood is

the very food of these spirits, which is why that field after the battles of war glows with an unnatural light, the

manifestation of the spirits feeding thereon.

May ANU protect us all!

My scream had the effect of casting their ritual into chaos and disorder. I raced through the mountain path by

which I had come, and the priests came running after me, although some seemed to stay behind, perhaps to finish

the Rites. However, as I ran wildly down the slopes in the cold night, my heart gave rise in my chest and my

head growing hot, the sound of splitting rocks and thunder came from behind me and shook the very ground I

ran on. In fright and haste I fell to the earth.

Rising, I turned to face whatever attacker had come nearest me, though I was unarmed. To my surprise, what I

saw was no priest of ancient horror, no necromancer of that forbidden Art, but black robes fallen upon the grass

and weeds, with no seeming presence of life or bodies beneath them.

I walked cautiously to the first and, picking up a long twig, lifted the robe from the tangle of weeds and thorns.

All that remained of the priest was a pool of slime, like green oil, and the smell of a body lain long in the sun to

rot. Such a stench nearly overpowered me, but I was resolute to find the others, to see if the same fortune had

also befallen them.

Walking back up the slope that I had so fearfully run down only moments ago, I came across yet another of the

black priests, in identical condition to the first. I kept walking, passing more of the robes as I went, not venturing

to overturn them any longer. Then, I finally came upon the grey stone monument that had risen unnaturally into

the air at the command of the priests. It was now upon the ground once more, but the carvings still glowed with

supernatural light. The serpents, or what I had then thought of as serpents, had disappeared. But in the dead

embers of the fire, now cold and black, was a shining metal plate.

I picked it up and saw that it was also carved, as the stone, but very intricately, after a fashion I could not

understand. It did not bear the same markings as the stone, but I had the feeling I could almost read the

characters, but could not, as though I once knew the tongue but had since long forgotten. Mt head began to ache

as though a devil was pounding my skull, when a shaft of moonlight hit the metal amulet, for I know now what it

was, and a voice entered my head and told me the secrets of the scene I had witnessed in one word: KUTULU.

In that moment, as though whispered fiercely into my ear, I understood.

These were the signs carved upon the grey stone, that was the gate to the Outside:

(I wish to apologize for the primitive descriptions of the symbols but its about the best that can be done with this

file writer)

The amulet that I held in my hand, and hold to this very day, around my neck as I write these words, is this:

(after seeing the so-called picture of the symbols you can probably understand why I did not attempt to show you

4

the amulet)

Of the three symbols carved, the first is the Sign of our Race from beyond the Stars, and is called ARRA in the

tongue of the Scribe who taught it to me, an emissary of the Elder Ones. In the tongue of the eldest city of

Babylon, it was UR. It is the Sigil of the Covenant of the Elder Gods, and when they see it, they who gave it to

us, they will not forget us. They have sworn!

Spirit of the Skies, Remember!

The second sign is the Elder Sign, and is the Key whereby the Powers of the Elder Gods may be summoned,

when used with the proper words and shapes. It has a Name, and is called AGGA.

The third sign is the Sigil of the Watcher. It is called BANDAR. The Watcher is a Race sent by the Elder Ones.

It keeps vigil while one sleeps provided the appropriate rituals and sacrifice has been preformed; else, if called, it

will turn upon you.

These seals, to be effective, must be graven on stone and set in the ground. Or, set upon the alter of offerings. Or,

carried to the Rock of Invocations. Or, engraved upon the metal of ones God or Goddes and hung about the neck,

but hidden from the view of the profane. Of these three, the ARRA and the AGGA may be used separately, that

is to say singly, and alone. The BANDAR however, must never be used alone, but with one or both of the others,

for the Watcher must needs to be reminded of the Covenant he has sworn with the Elder Gods and our Race, else

it will turn upon thee and slay thee and ravage thy town until succor is to be had from the Elder Gods by the

tears of thy people and the wailing of thy women.

KAKAMMU!

The fire amulet that I retrieved from the ashes of the fire, and which caught the light of the moon, is a potent seal

against whatever may come in the Gate from the Outside for, seeing it, they will retreat from thee SAVE ONLY

IF IT CATCH THE LIGHT OF THE MOON UPON ITS SURFACE for, in the dark days of the moon, or in

clouds, there can be little protection against the fiends from the Ancient Land should they break the barrier, or be

let in by their servants upon the face of the Earth. In such a case, no recourse is to be had until the light of the

moon shines upon the Earth, for the moon is the Eldest among the Zonei, and is the starry symbol of our pact.

NANNA, Father of the Gods, Remember!

Wherefore, the amulet must be engraved upon pure silver in the full light of the moon, that the moon shine upon

it at its working, and the essence of the moon be drawn down and captured therein. And the proper incantations

must be performed, and the prescribed rituals as given forth in this Book. And the amulet must NEVER be

exposed to the light of the Sun, for SHAMMASH called UDU, in his jealousy, will rob the seal of its power. In

such case, it must be bathed in waters of camphor, and the incantations and ritual performed once again. But

verily, it were better to engrave another.

These secrets I give to thee at the pain of my life, never to be revealed to the profane, or the banished, or the

Worshippers of the Ancient Serpent, but to keep within their own heart, always silent upon these things.

Peace be to thee! Henceforth, from that fateful night in the mountains of MASSHU, I wandered about the countryside in search of

the key to the secret knowledge that had been given me. And it was a painful and lonely journey, during which

time I took no wife, called no house or village my home, and dwelt in various countries, often in caves or in the

deserts, learning several tongues as a traveler, to bargain with the trades people and learn of the news and

customs. But my bargaining was with the Powers that reside in each of these countries. And soon, I came to

understand many things of which before I had no knowledge, except perhaps in dreams. The friends of my youth

deserted me, and I them. When I was seven years gone from my family, I learned that they had all died of their

own hand, for reasons no one was able to tell me; their flocks had later been slain as the victims of some strange

epidemic.

I wandered as a beggar, being fed from town to town as the local people saw fit, often being stoned instead of

threatened with imprisonment. On occasion, I was able to convince some learned man that I was a sincere

scholar, and was thereby permitted to read the Ancient Records in which the details of necromancy, sorcery,

magick and alchemy are given. I learned of the spells that cause men illness, the plague, blindness, insanity and

5

even death. I learned the various classes of demons and evil gods that exist, and of the old legends concerning

the Ancient Ones.

I was thus able to arm myself against the dread Maskim, who lie in wait about the boundaries of the world, ready

to trap the unwary and devour the sacrifices set out at night and in deserted places; against the she-devil

LAMMASHTA, who is called Sword that Splits the Skull, the sight of whom causes horror and dismay, and

(some say) death of a most uncommon nature.

In time I learned of the names and properties of all the demons, devils, fiends and monsters listed herein, in this

Book of the Black Earth. I learned of the powers in the astral Gods, and how to summon their aid in times of

need. I learned, too, of the frightful beings who dwell beyond the astral spirits, who guard the entrance to the

Temple of the Lost, of the Ancient Days the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, whose Name I cannot write here.

In my solitary ceremonies in the hills, worshipping with fire and sword, with water and dagger, and with the

assistance of strange grass that grows wild in certain parts of the MASSHU, and with which I had unwittingly

built my fire before the rock, that grass that gives the mind great power to travel tremendous distances into the

heavens, as also into the hells, I received the formulae for the amulets and talismans which follow, which

provide the Priest with safe passage among the spheres wherein he may travel in search of the Wisdom.

But now, after One Thousand-and-One moons of the journey, the Maskim nip at my heels, the Rabishu pull at

my hair, Lammashta opens her dread jaws, AZAG-THOTH gloats blindly at his throne, KUTULU raises his

head and stares up through the Veils of sunkun Varloorni, up through the Abyss, and fixes his stare upon me;

wherefore I must with haste write this Book lest my end come sooner than I had prepared. For indeed, it appears

as though I have failed in some regard as to the order of the rites, or to the formulae, or to the sacrifices, for now

it appears as if the entire host of ERESSKIGAL lies waiting, dreaming, drooling for my departure.

I pray the gods that I am saved (which he is not, for "gods" cannot save ones soul, only GOD) and not perish as

did the Priest, ABDUL BEN-MARTU, in Jerusalem (the gods remember and have mercy upon him!). My fate is

no longer writ in the stars, for I have broken the Chaldean Covenant by seeking power over the Zonei. I have set

foot on the moon, and the moon no longer has power over me. The lines of my life have been obliterated by my

wanderings in the Waste, over the letters writ in the heavens by the gods. And even now I can hear the wolves

howling in the mountains as they did that fateful night, and they are calling my name, and the names of the

Others. I fear for my flesh, but I fear for my spirit more.

Remember, always, in every empty moment, to call upon the gods not to forget thee, for they are forgetful and

very far away. Light thy fires high in the hills, and on the tops of temples and pyramids, that they may see and

remember.

Remember, always, to copy each of the formulae as I have put it down and not to change it by one line or dot,

not so much as hair's breadth, lest it be rendered valueless, or worse: a broken line provides means of entrance

for those Outside, for a broken star is the Gate of GANZIR, the Gate of Death, the Gate of the Shadows and the

Shells. Recite the incantations as they are written here, in the manner thus prescribed. Prepare the rituals without

erring, and in the proper places and times render the sacrifices.

May the gods ever be merciful unto thee!

May thou escape the jaws of the MASKIM, and vanquish the power to the Ancient Ones!

AND THE GODS GRANT THEE DEATH BEFORE THE ANCIENT ONES RULE THE EARTH ONCE

MORE!

KAKAMMU! SELAH!

2. Of Ye Old Ones and their Spawn

The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are and the Old Ones shall be. From the dark stars They came ere man was

born, unseen and loathsome They descended to primal earth. Beneath the oceans They brooded while ages past,

till seas gave up the land, whereupon They swarmed forth in Their multitudes and darkness ruled the Earth.

At the frozen Poles They raised mighty cities, and upon high places the temples of Those whome nature owns

6

not and the Gods have cursed.

And the spawn of the Old Ones covered the Earth, and Their children endureth throughout the ages. Ye shantaks

of Leng are the work of Their hands, the Ghasts who dwelleth in Zin's primordial vaults know Them as their

Lords.

They have fathered the Na-Hag and the Gaunts that ride the Night; Great Cthulhu is Their brother, the shaggoths

Their slaves. The Dholes do homage unto Them in the nighted vale of Pnoth and Gugs sing Their praises

beneath the peaks of ancient Throk.

They have walked amidst the stars and They have walked the Earth. The City of Irem in the great desert has

known Them; Leng in the Cold Waste has seen Their passing, the timeless citadel upon the cloud-vieled heights

of unknown Kadath beareth Their mark.

Wantonly the Old Ones trod the ways of darkness and Their blasphemies were great upon the Earth; all creation

bowed beneath Their might and knew Them for Their wickedness.

And the Elder Lords opened Their eyes and beheld the abominations of Those that ravaged the Earth. In Their

wrath They set their hand against the Old Ones, staying Them in the midst of Their iniquity and casting Them

forth from the Earth to the Void beyond the planes where chaos reigns and form abideth not. And the Elder

Lords set Their seal upon the Gateway and the power of the Old Ones prevailest not against its might.

Loathsome Cthulhu rose then from the deeps and raged with exceeding great fury against the Earth Guardians.

And They bound his venomous claws with potent spells and sealed him up within the City of R'lyeh wherein

beneath the waves he shall sleep death's dream until the end of the Aeon.

Beyond the Gate dwell now the Old Ones; not in the spaces known unto men but in the angles betwixt them.

Outside Earth's plane They linger and ever awaite the time of Their return; for the Earth has known Them and

shall know Them in time yet to come.

And the Old Ones hold foul and formless Azathoth for Their Master abd Abide with Him in the black cavern at

the centre of all infinity, where he gnaws ravenously in ultimate chaos amid the mad beating of hidden drums,

the tuneless piping of hideous flutes and the ceaseless bellowing of blind idiot gods that shamble and gesture

aimlessly for ever.

The soul of Azathoth dwelleth in Yog-sothoth and He shall beckon unto the Old Ones when the stars mark the

time of Their coming; for Yog-sothoth is the Gate through which Those of the Void will re-enter. Yog-sothoth

knowest the mazes of of time, for all time is one unto Him. He knowest where the Old Ones came forth in time

along long past and where They shall come forth again when the cycle returneth.

After day cometh night; man's day shall pass, and They shall rule where They once ruled. As foulness you shall

know them and Their accursedness shall stain the Earth.

3. Of Ye Times and Ye Seasons to be Observed

Whenever thou would'st call forth Those from Outside, thou must mark well the seasons and times in which the

spheres do intersect and the influences flow from the Void

Thou must observe the cycle of the Moon, the movements of the planets, the Sun's course through the Zodiac

and the rising of the constellations.

Ye Ultimate Rites shall be performed only in the seasons proper to them, these be: at Candlemas (on the second

day of the second month), at Beltane (on the Eve of May), at Lammas (on the first day of the eighth month), at

Roodmas (on the fourteenth day of the ninth month), and at Hallowmas (on November Eve).

Call out to dread Azathoth when the Sun is in the sign of the Ram, the Lion, or the Archer; the Moon decreasing

and Mars and Saturn conjoin.

Mighty Yog-sothoth shall rise to ye incantations when Sol has entered the fiery house of Leo and the hour of

Lammas be upon ye.

7

Evoke ye terrible Hastur on Candlemas Night, when Sol is in Aquarius and Mercury in trine.

Supplicate Great Cthulhu only at Hallowmas Eve when the Sun abides within the House of the Scorpion and

Orion riseth. When All Hallows falls within the cycle of the new Moon the power shall be the strongest.

Conjure Shub-Niggurath when the Beltane fires glow upon the hills and the Sun is in the Second House,

repeating the Rites of Roodmas when ye Black One appeareth.

4. To Raise up Ye Stones

To form ye Gate through which They from ye Outer Void might manifest thou must set up ye stones in ye

elevenfold configuration.

First thou shalt raise up ye four cardinal stones and these shall mark ye direction of ye four winds as they

howleth through their seasons.

{Alter Design}

To ye North set ye the stone of Great Coldness that shall form ye Gate of ye winter-wind engraving thereupon

the sigil of the Earth-Bull thus: {Taurus sigil}

In ye South (at a space of five paces from ye stone of ye North), thou shalt raise a stone of fierce-heat, through

which ye summer winds bloweth and make upon ye stone ye mark of ye Lion-serpent thus:{Leo Sigil}

Ye stone of whirling-air shall be set in ye East where ye first equinox riseth and shall be graven with ye sign of

he that beareth ye waters, thus:{Aquarius Sigil}

Ye Gate of Rushing Torrents thou cause to beat the west most inner point (at a space of five paces from ye stone

of ye East) where ye sun dieth in ye evening and ye cycle of night returns. Blazon ye stone with ye character of

ye Scorpion whose tail reacheth unto the stars:{Scorpio Sigil}

Set thou the seven stones of Those that wander ye heavens, without ye inner four and through their diverse

influences shall ye focus of power be established.

In ye North beyond the stone of Great Coldness set ye first ye stone of Saturn at a space of three paces. This

being done proceed thou widdershins placing at like distances apart ye stones of Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus,

Sul and Luna marking each with their rightful sign.

{Seal of Yog-Sothoth}

At ye center of the so completed configuration set ye the Alter of ye Great Old Ones and seal it with ye symbol

of Yog-Sothoth and ye mighty Names of Azathoth, Cthulhu, Hastur, Shub-Niggurath and Nyarlathotep.

And ye stones shall be ye Gates through which thou shalt call Them forth from Outside man's time and space.

Entreat ye of ye stones by night and when the Moon decreasetth in her light, turning thy face to ye direction of

Their coming, speaking ye words and making ye gestures that bringeth forth ye Old Ones and causeth Them to

walk once more ye Earth.

8

5. To Compound Ye Incense of Zkauba

In the day and hour of Mercury with the Moon in her increase, thou shalt take equal parts of Myrrh, Civet,

Storax, Wormwood, Assafoetida, Galbanum and Musk, mix well together and reduce all to the finest powder.

Place the so assembled elements in a vessel of green glass and seal with a brazen stopper afore inscribed with the

characters of Mars and Saturn.

Elevate the vessel to the Four Winds and cry aloud the supreme words of power thus:

To the North: ZIJMUORSOBET, NOIJM, ZAVAXO!

To the East: QUEHAIJ, ABAWO, NOQUETONAIJI!

To the South: OASAIJ, WURAM, THEFOTOSON!

To the West: ZIJORONAIFWETHO, MUGELTHOR, MUGELTHOR-YZXE!

Cover the vessel with a cloth of black velvet and set aside.

For each of seven nights thou shalt bathe the vessel in Moonlight for the space of one hour - keeping it concealed

beneath the cloth from cock-crow till sunset.

All this being accomplished the incense shall be ready for use and possessed of such vertue that he that useth it

with knowledge shall have power to call forth and command the Infernal Legions.

9

Nota: When employed in ye Ultimate Rites the incense may be rendered more efficacious by the addition of one

part powdered mummy-Egypticus.

Employ the perfume of Zkauba in all ceremonies of ye ancient Lore casting ye essences upon live coals of Yew

or Oak. And when ye spirits drawn near, the vaporous smoke shall enchant and fascinate them, binding their

powers to thy will.

{Editor's Note: In the published edition a series of planetary glyphs and sigils are shown in reference to the

above formula. These have been omitted as they are not illustrated in the original manuscript but were provided

from other unrelated texts by the publishers.}

6. Of Diverse Signs

These most potent signs shall be so formed with thy left hand when thou employeth them in ye Rites {The four

Signs}

Ye first sign is that of Voor and in nature it be ye true symbol of ye Old Ones. Make ye thus whenever thou

wouldst supplicate Those that ever waite beyond the Threshold.

Ye second sign is that of Kish and it breaketh down all barriers and openeth ye portals of ye Ultimate Planes.

In ye third place goeth ye Great Sign of Koth which sealeth ye Gates and guardeth ye pathways.

Ye forth sign is that of ye Elder Gods. It protecteth those who would evoke ye powers by night, and banish ye

forces of menace and antagonism.

(Nota: Ye Elder Sign hath yet another form and when so enscribed upon ye grey stone of Mnar it serveth to hold

back ye power of Ye Great Old Ones for all time.)

10

7. To Make Ye Powder of Ibn Ghazi

THE MYSTIC POWDER OF MATERIALIZATION:

Take ye dust of ye tomb - wherein ye body has lain for two hundred years or more past -, three parts. Take of

powdered Amaranth, two parts; of ground Ivy leaf, one part, and of fine salt, one part.

Compound all together in an open mortar in the day and hour of Saturn.

Make over the thus assembled ingredients the Voorish sign, and then seal up the powder within a leaden casket

whereupon is graven the sigil of Koth.

YE USING OF YE POWDER:

Whenever thou wisheth to observe the airial manifestations of the spirits blow a pinch of ye powder in the

11

irection of their coming, either from the palm of thy hand or the blade of the Magic Bolyne.

Mark ye well that ye maketh ye Elder Sign at their appearence, lest the tendrils of darkness enter thy soul.

8. Ye Unction of Khephnes Ye Egyptian

Whosoever anointeth his head with the ointment of Khephnes shall in sleep be grabted true visions of time yet to

come

When ye Moon increaseth in her light place in an earthen crucible a goodly quantity of oil of ye Lotus, sprinkle

with one once powdered mandragora and stir well with ye forked twig of ye wild thorn bush. Having so done

utter ye incantation of Yebsu (taken fron diverse lines in ye papyrus) thus:

I am the Lord of Spirits,

Oridimbai, Sonadir, Episghes,

I am Ubaste, Ptho born of Binui Sphe, Phas;

In the name of Auebothiabathabaithobeuee

Give power to my spell O Nasira Oapkis Shfe,

Give power Chons-in-Thebes-Nefer-hotep, Ophois,

Give power! O Bakaxikhekh!

Add to ye potion pinch of red earth, nine drops natron, for drops balsam of Olibanum and one drop blood (from

thy right hand). Combine the whole with a like measure of fat of the gosling and place ye vessel upon ye fire.

When all is rendered well and ye dark vapours begin to rise, make ye the Elder Sign and remove from ye flames.

When the unguent has cooled place it within an urn of ye finest alabaster, which thou shalt keep in some secret

place (known only to thyself) until thou shalt have need of it.

9. To Fashion the Scimitar of Barzai

In the day and hour of Mars and when the Moon increaseth, make thou the scimitar of bronze with a hilt of fine

ebony.

Upon one side of the the blade thou shalt enscribe these characters:

{Editor's Note: These graphics are not shown in the Manuscript}

And upon the other side these:

{Editor's Note: These graphics are not shown in the Manuscript}

On the day and hour of Saturn the moon decreasing, light thou a fire of Laurel and yew boughs and offering the

blade to the flames pronounce the five-fold conjuration thus:

HCORIAXOJU, ZODCARNES, I powerfully call upon ye and stir ye up O ye mighty spirits that dwelleth in the

Great Abyss.

In the dread and potent name of AZATHOTH come ye forth and give power unto this blade fashioned in

accordance to ancient Lore.

By XENTHONO-ROHMATRU, I command you O AZIABELIS, by YSEHYROROSETH, I call the O

ANTIQUELIS, and in the Vast and Terrible Name of DAMAMIACH that Crom-yha uttered and the mountains

shook I mightily compel ye forth O BARBUELIS, attend me! aid me! give power unto my spell that this weapon

that bearest the runes of fire recieveth such vertue that it shall strike fear into the hearts of all spirits that would

disobey my commands, and that it shall assist me to form all manner of Circles, figures and mystic sigils

necessary in the operations of Magickal Art.

In the Name of Great and Mighty YOG-SOTHOTH and in the invincible sign of Voor (give sign)

Give power!

12

Give power!

Give power!

When the flames turn blue it shall be a sure sign that the spirits obey your demands whereupon thou shalt quench

the blade in an afore prepared mixture of brine and cock-gall.

Burn the incense of Zkauba as an offering to the spirits thou hast called forth, then dismiss them to their abodes

with these words:

In the Names of AZATHOTH and YOG-SOTHOTH, Their servant NYARLATHOTEP and by the power of this

sign (make ye the Elder Sign), I discharge thee; go forth from this place in peace and return ye not until I calleth

thee. (Seal ye portals with the sign of Koth).

Wrap the scimitar in a cloth of black silk and setit aside until thou wouldst make use of it; but mark ye well that

no other shall lay his hand upon the scimitar lest its vertue be forever lost.

10. Ye Alphabet of Nug-Soth

{Editor's Note: The following graphic alphabet is deciphered from the manuscript, according to the publishers,

by use of a "Magic Square Cipher" inherent in the manuscript itself and is therefore included in this e-text

version.}

Ye Alphabet of Nug-Soth

(Note: In ye writing of ye mystic runes of Nug-Soth ye latin C serveth for ye K.)

Ye characters of Nug hold ye key to ye planes, employ ye them in ye talismanic art and in all ye sacred

inscriptions

11. Ye Dream-Lands Of Leng in Ye Cold Waste

Who seeketh Northwards beyond the twilight land of Inquanok shall find amidst the frozen waste the dark and

mighty plateau of thrice-forbidden Leng.

13

Know ye time-shunned Leng by the ever-burning evil-fires and ye foul screeching of the scaly Shantak birds

which ride the upper air; by the howling of ye Na-hag who brood in nighted caverns and haunt men's dreams

with strange madness, and by the grey stone temple beneath the Night Gaunts lair, wherein is he who wears the

Yellow Mask and dwelleth all alone.

But beware O Man, beware, of Those who tread in Darkness the ramparts of Kadath, for he that beholds Their

mitred-heads shall know the claws of doom.

Of Kadath Ye Unknown

What man knoweth Kadath?

For who shall know of that

which ever abides in strange-time,

twix yesterday, today and the morrow.

Unknown amidst ye Cold Waste lieth the mountain of Kadath where upon the hidden summit an Onyx Castle

stands. dark clouds shroud the mighty peak that gleams 'neath ancient stars where silent brood the titan towers

and rear forbidden walls.

Curse-runes guard the nighted gate carved by forgotten hands, and woe to he that dare pass within those dreadful

doors.

Earth's Gods revel where Others once walked in mystic timeless halls, which some have glimpst in sleeps dim

vault through strange and sightless eyes.

12. Ye Formula of Dho-Hna

Whosoever performeth this Rite with true understanding shall pass beyond ye Gates of Creation and enter ye

Ultimate Abyss wherein dwelleth ye vapourous Lord S'ngac who eternally pondereth ye Mystery of Chaos.

Trace ye Angle-Web with ye Scimitar of Barzai and offer the mystic suffumigations with the incense of Zkauba.

[INLINE]

Enter ye Web by the Gate of the North and reciting the incantation of Na (thus):

ZAZAS, NASATANADA, ZAZAS ZAZAS

Proceed to ye South-most Pinnacle by the Path of Alpha whereupon make ye, ye Sign of Kish, pronouncing the

triple-Word of power thrice, (thus so):

OHODOS-SCIES-ZAMONI!

Proceed thence to ye Angle of the North-East chanting the third verse of ye Fifth Psalm of Nyarla- thotep

seglecting not to make the quintuple genuflection on passing through ye curve locus-(thus):

The All-One dwelleth in Darkness, At the centre of All dwelleth He that is the Darkness; And tfiat Darkness

shall be eternal when all shall bow before the Onyx Throne.

Pause at the Third Angle and make ye once more the Sign of Kish speaking the words that clear the portal and

stay the course of time: ABYssus-D|AcoNrsus, ZEXOWE-AZATHOTH!) NRRGO, IAA! NYAR-LATHOTEP!

Follow the Third Path to the Pinnacle of the West and there perform the obeisances in silence (bow low thrice

and give the gesture of Voor). Turn and tread the Path of Transfiguration leading to ye Ultimate Angle. Open up

the Abyss Gate by the ninefold affirmation (thus):

ZENOXESE, PIOTH, OXAS ZAEGOS, MAVOC NIGORSUS, BAYAR! HEECHO!

YOG-SOTHOTH! YOG-SOTHOTH! YOG-SOTHOTH!

14

Make ye the Sigil of Transformation and step thou forth into ye Gulf.

13. Ye Voice of Hastur

Hear ye the Voice of dread Hastur, hear the mournful sigh of the vortex, the mad rushing of the Ultimate Wind

that Swirls darkly amongst the silent stars.

Hear ye Him that howls serpent-fanged amid the bowels of nether earth; He whose ceaseless roaring ever fills

the timeless skies of hidden Leng.

His might teareth the forest and crusheth the city, but none shall know the hand that smiteth and the soul that

destroys, for faceless and foul walketh the Accursed One, His form to men unknown.

Hear then His Voice in the dark hours, answer His call with thine own; bow ye and pray at His passing, but

speak not His name aloud.

14. Concerning Nyarlathotep

I hear the Crawling Chaos that calls beyond the stars

15

And They created Nyarlathotep for Their messenger, and They clothed Him with Chaos that His form might be

ever hidden amidst the stars.

Who shall know the mystery of Nyarlathotep? for He is the mask and will of Those that were when time was not.

He is the priest of the Ether, the Dweller in Air and hath many faces that none shall recall.

The waves freeze before Him; Gods dread His call. In men's dreams He whispers, yet who knoweth His form?

15. Ye Adjuration of Great Cthulhu

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl fhtan.

A supplication to great Cthulhu for those who would have power over his minions.

In the day and hour of the moon with sun in scorpio prepare thou a waxen tablet and enscribe thereon the seals of

Cthulhu and Dagon; suffumigate with the incense of Zkauba and set aside.

On Hallowmas eve thou must travel to some lonely place where high ground overlooks the ocean. Take up the

tablet in thy right hand and make of the sign of Kish with thy left. Recite the incantation thrice and when the

final word of the third utterance dieth in the air cast thou the tablet into the waves saying: 'In His House at R'lyeh

Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming, yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth.'

And He shall come unto you in sleep and show His sign with which ye shall unlock the secrets of the deep. Ye

Incantation

O Thou that lieth dead but ever dreameth, Hear, Thy servant calleth Thee. Hear me O mighty Cthulhu! ' Hear me

Lord of Dreams ! In Thy tower at R'lyeh They have sealed ye, but Dagon shall break Thy accursed bonds, and

Thy Kingdom shall rise once more. The Deep Ones knoweth Thy secret Name, The Hydra knoweth Thy lair;

Give forth Thy sign that I may know Thy will upon the Earth. When death dies, Thy time shall be, and Thou

shalt sleep no more; Grant me the power to still the waves, that I may hear Thy Call.

(At ye third repeating of ye incantation cast forth the Tablet into ye waves saying):

In His House at R'lyeh Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming, yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth.

16

16. To Summon Shub-Niggurath Ye Black

Where the stones have been set up thou shalt call out to Shub-Niggurath, and unto he that knoweth the signs

and uttereth the words all earthly pleasures shall be granted.

When the sun entereth the Sign of the Ram and the time of night is upon ye turn thy face to the North wind and

read the verse aloud:

Iah ! SHUB-NIGGURATH !

Great Black Goat of the. Woods, I Call Thee forth ! (Kneel) Answer the cry of thy servant who knoweth the

words of power! (make the Voorish sign) Rise up I say from thy slumbers and come forth with a thousand more!

(make the sign of Kish) I make the signs, I speak the words that openeth the door! Come forth I say, I turn the

Key, Now ! walk the Earth once more !

Cast the perfumes upon the coals, trace the sigil of Blaesu and pronounce the words of power:

ZARIATNATMIX, JANNA, ETITNAMUS, HAYRAS, FABELLERON, FUBENTRONTY, BRAZO,

TABRASOL, NISA, VARF-SHUB-NIGGURATH ! GABOTS MEMBROT !

And then the Black one shall come forth unto thee and the thousand Horned Ones who howl shall rise up from

the Earth. And thou shalt hold before them the talisman of Yhe upon which they shall bow to thy power and

answer thy demands.

17

When thou would banish those that you have called forth intone the words: IMAS, WEGHAYMNKO,

QUAHERS, XEWEFARAM

Which closeth the Gate, and seal with the sign of Koth.

17. To Call Forth Yog-Sothoth For Yog-Sothoth is the Gate.

He knoweth where the Old Ones

came forth in times past and where

They came forth again when

the cycle returneth

When thou would call forth Yog-Sothoth thou must waite until the Sun is in the Fifth House with Saturn in trine.

Then enter within the stones and draw about thee the Circle of evocation tracing the figurines with the mystic

scimitar of Barzai.

Circumambulate thrice widdershins and turning thy face to the South intone the conjuration that openeth the

Gate: Ye Conjuration

O Thou that dwelleth in the darkness of the Outer Void, come forth unto the Earth once more I entreat thee.

O Thou who abideth beyond the Spheres of Time, hear my supplication.

(Make the sign of Caput Draconis)

O Thou who art the Gate and the Way come forth come forth Thy servant calleth Thee.

(Make the Sign of Kish)

BENATIR! CARARKAU! DEDOS! YOG-SOTHOTH! come forth! come forth! I speak the words, I Break Thy

bonds, the seal is cast aside, pass through the Gate and enter the World I maketh Thy mighty Sign!

(Make the Sign of the Voor)

Trace the pentagram of Fire and say the incantation that causeth the Great One to manifest before the Gate:

18

Ye Incantation

Zyweso, wecato, keoso, Xunewe-rurom Xeverator. Menhatoy, Zywethorosto zuy, Zururogos Yog-Sothoth!

Orary Ysgewot, homor athanatos nywe zumquros, Ysechyroroseth Xoneozebethoos Azathoth! Xono, Zuwezet,

Quyhet kesos ysgeboth Nyarlathotep!; zuy rumoy quano duzy Xeuerator, YSHETO, THYYM, quaowe xeuerator

phoe nagoo, Hastur! Hagathowos yachyros Gaba Sub-Niggurath! meweth, xosoy Vzewoth!

(Make the sign of Cauda Draconis)

TALUBSI! ADULA! ULU! BAACHUR!

Come forth Yog-Sothoth! come forth!

* * *

And then he will come unto thee and bring His Globes and He will give true answer to all you desire to know.

And He shall reveal unto you the secret of His seal by which you may gain favour in the sight of the Old Ones

when They once more walk the Earth.

* * *

And when His hour be past the curse of the Elder Lords shall be upon Him and draw Him forth beyond the

Gate where He shall abide until He be summoned.

19

{Editor's Note: Included on this page are a number of sigils and a magic circle. These illustrations are not in the

Manuscript but were referenced from other texts, including, but not limited to; Key of Solomon (see Additional

Ms. 36,674, British Museum Library) and Three Books of Occult Philosophy- Cornelius Agrippa.}

To Conjure of Ye Globes

Know ye that the Globes of Yog-Sothoth be thirteen in number, and they be the powers of the Parasite-hoard

which are His servitors and doeth His bidding in ye world.

Call them forth whenever thou shall have need of anything and they shall grant their powers unto ye when ye

shall call them with the incantations and make their sign.

His Globes have diverse names and appeareth in many forms.

The first is GOMORY, who appeareth like a camel with a crown of gold upon his head. He commandeth twenty-

six legions of infernal spirits and giveth the knowledge of all magical jewels and talismans.

The second splrit is ZAGAN, who appeareth like a great bull, or a King terrible in aspect. Thirty-three legions

bow before him and he teacheth the mysteries of the sea.

20

The Third is called SYTRY, who taketh the form of a great Prince. He hath sixty legions and telleth the secrets

of time yet to come.

ELIGOR is the fourth spirit; he appeareth like a red man with a crown of iron upon his head. He commandeth

likewise sixty legions and giveth the knowledge of victory in war, and telleth of strife to come.

The fifth spirit is called DURSON and hath with him twenty-two familiar demons and appeareth like a raven. He

can reveal all occult secrets and tell of past times.

The sixth is VUAL his form is of a dark cloud and he teacheth all manner of ancient tongues.

The seventh is SCOR, who appeareth like a white snake, he bringeth money at your command.

ALGOR is the eighth spirit, he appeareth in the likeness of a fly. He can tell of all secret things and granteth the

favours of great Princes and Kings.

The ninth is SEFON. He appeareth like a man with a green face and hath the power to show where treasure is

hidden.

Tenth is PARTAS, He hath the form of a great vulture, and can tell ye the vertues of herbs, stones, make ye

invisible and restore sight which is lost.

The eleventh spirit is GAMOR, and when he appeareth like a man can marvellously enform ye of how to win

favours of great persons and can drive away any spirit that guardeth over treasure.

Twelfth is UMBRA, He appeareth like a giant; he can convey money from place to place if thou bid him and

bestow the love of any woman that thou desirest.

The thirteenth spirit is ANABOTH who taketh the form of a yellow toad. He hath the power to make thee

marvellous cunning in nigromancy, he can drive away any devil that would hinder ye and tell of strange and

hidden things.

When thou wouldst call up ye Globes thou must first make upon the earth this sign:

And evoke of them thus:

EZPHARES, OLYARAM, IRION-ESYTION,

ERYONA, OREA, ORASYM, MOZIM!

By these words and in the name of YOG-SOTHOTH who is thy master, I do most powerfulIy summon and call

ye up

O . . . . N . . . .

That thou mayest aid me in my hour of need.

Come forth I command ye by the sign of Power!

(Make the sign of Voor)

21

And then the spirit shall appear unto thee and grant thy requests.

But if he remaineth invisible to thine eye, blow the dust of Ibn

Ghazi and he will immediately take his proper form.

When thou wouldst banish what ye have called up eraze thou their sign

with the scimitar of Barzai and utter the words:

CALDULECH ! DALMALEY ! CADAT !

(and seal with the sign of Koth).

Nota: If on their appearance the spirits obstinately refuse to speak cleave the air thrice with the scimitar and say:

ADRICANOROM DUMASO! And their tongue shall be loosened and they will be compelled to give true

answer.

18. Ritual for summoning Yog-Sothoth and opening the Gate

Banishing: (could be replaced with other banishings. Uses Salt, water and incense.)

Zazii, Zamaii, Puidmon the Powerful, Sedon the Strong, El, Yod, He, Vau, He, Iah, Agla, protect me and help

me when I summon the Gate! (light incense and candles)

No evil may approach from the North! No evil may approach from the East! No evil may approach from the

South! No evil may approach from the West! No evil may approach from Zenith! No evil may approach from

Nadir! (bow towards the directions)

The Flaming Circle locks everything in! Draba, draba, kalta, kalta, entemoss! The Flaming Circle locks

everything out! Draba, draba, kalta, kalta, entemoss! Accar, Zour and Maroud! Lock the circle and let no evil

pass through!

Draba, draba, kalta, kalta, entemoss! (participants walk round the circle. Salt, water and incense is sprinkled)

The Summoning: Per Adonai Elohim, Adonai Jehova Adonai Sabaoth, Metraton Ou Agla Methon, Verbum Pythonicum,

Mysterium Salamandrae Cenventus Sylvorum, Antra Gnomorum Demonia Coeli God, Almonsin Gibor Jehoshua

Evam Zariathnatmik, Veni, Veni, Veni!

(Put your hands above your head, with the thumbs and index fingers together so they create a equilateral triangle.

Turn the right hand so its halve of the triangle points down, creating a paralellogram. Turn the left hand, creating

a downwards pointing triangle. Move it down to your forehead, turning it upwards, so the final result is a triangle

on your forehead.)

Hear me! King of Infinite Space! Planetmover! The Foundation of Fastness! Ruler of Earthquakes! The

Vanquisher of Terror! The Creator of Panic! Destroyer! The Shining Victor! Son of Chaos and the Void! The

Guardian of the Abyss! God of the Outermost Darkness! Lord of Dimensions! Riddle-knower! Guardian of The

Secrets! Lord of the Labyrinth! Master of the Angles! God of the Whiporwills! Omegapoint! Lord of the Gate!

Opener of the Way! The Oldest! All-in-One! The One by Life Prolonged! Umr At-Tawil! Iak-Sathath! YOG-

SOTHOTH NAFL'FTHAGN!!! Your servant call upon you!

(Take the staff and turn it first so it points Right-Left, then Up-Down, then Forward-Back. Then twist it, and

visualize how it is turned to point into the fourth dimension, perpendicular to the other directions. It will show

the eightrayed star of Chaos.)

Opening of the Gate: (The staff is held horizontally.)

Yog-Sothoth knows the Gate. Yog-Sothoth is the Gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the Gate. Past,

Present and Future, all is one in Yog-Sothoth.

By that which is not to be named, By Azathoth, By Nyarlathotep, By Shub-Niggurath, By the two snakes, By

that which created the Voids, By Kadath in the Cold Waste, By the Plateu of Leng, By Yuggoth, By the moon-

22

lens, By the inprisoned, By the free, By Samas, Gibil and Nusuku, By the High Name of Ea, By the Seven

Demons, Guardian, let the Gate be opened!

By Chaos, By the Void, By the Light, By the Darkness, By the Air, By the Fire, By the Water, By the Earth,

Key, open the Gate!

By my sacred oath, Let those who want to leave come out! Let those who want to enter come in! Let us see intp

the Hiding Light! Let us see into the Blinding Darkness! Rend the Veil! Crush the Mirror! Reveal the Illusion!

See, the Gate opens!

(slowly turn the staff from horizontal to vertical, and make the sign of the Rending of the Veil.)

See, the Nodes are filled with Power! See, the Lines are filled with Power! See, the Angles twist and open!

The Necronomicon

Anti-FAQ

by Colin Low

September 1995

from DigitalBrillance Website

This anti-F.A.Q. was compiled using information obtained from "The Book of the Arab", by Justin Geoffry,

Starry Wisdom Press, 1979

I owe an immense debt to Parker Ryan for his research on Arab magical practices.

Colin Low has never read the Necronomicon, never seen the Necronomicon, and has no information as to where

a copy may be found.

Index

Q. What is the Necronomicon?

Q. Where and when was the Necronomicon written?

Q. Who was Abdul Alhazred?

Q. What is the printing history of the Necronomicon?

Q. What is the content of the Necronomicon?

Q. What are the "Old Ones"?

Q. How are the "Old Ones" Evoked?

Q. Why is the Necronomicon connected with Norse mythology?

Q. What happened to the purloined manuscript of Michael Psellus?

Q. Why did the novelist H.P. Lovecraft claim to have invented the Necronomicon?

Q. Who was Nathan of Gaza?

Q. Where can the Necronomicon be found?

In conclusion

Other Links

What is the Necronomicon?

The Necronomicon of Alhazred, (literally: "Book of Dead Names") is

not, as is popularly believed, a grimoire, or sorcerer‟s spell-book. It was

conceived as a history, and hence "a book of things now dead and gone".

An alternative derivation of the word Necronomicon gives as its meaning

"the book of the customs of the dead", but again this is consistent with the

book‟s original conception as a history, not as a work of necromancy.

The author of the book shared with Madame Blavatsky a magpie-like

tendency to garner and stitch together fact, rumour, speculation, and

complete balderdash, and the result is a vast and almost unreadable

compendium of near-nonsense which bears more than a superficial

resemblance to Blavatsky‟s The Secret Doctrine.

In times past the book has been referred to guardedly as Al Azif, and also

The Book of the Arab. Azif is a word the Arabs use to refer to nocturnal

23

insects, but it is also a reference to the howling of demons (Djinn). The Necronomicon was written in seven

volumes, and runs to over 900 pages in the Latin edition.

Where and when was the Necronomicon written?

The Necronomicon was written in Damascus in 730 A.D. by Abdul Alhazred.

Who was Abdul Alhazred?

Little is known. What we do know about him is largely derived from the small amount of biographical

information in the Necronomicon itself. He was born in Sanaa in the Yemen. We know that he travelled widely,

from Alexandria to the Punjab, and was well read. He spent many years alone in the uninhabited wilderness to

the south of Arabia. He had a flair for languages, and boasts on many occasions of his ability to read and

translate manuscripts which defied lesser scholars. His research methodology however smacked more of

Nostradamus than Herodotus.

As Nostradamus himself puts it in Quatrains 1 & 2:

"Sitting alone at night in secret study;

it is placed on the brass tripod.

A slight flame comes out of the emptiness

and makes successful that which should

not be believed in vain.

The wand in the hand is placed

in the middle of the tripod‟s legs.

With water he sprinkles both the hem

of his garment and his foot.

A voice, fear; he trembles in his robes.

Divine splendour; the god sits nearby."

Just as Nostradamus used ceremonial magic to probe the future, so Alhazred used similar techniques (and an

incense composed of olibanum, storax, dictamnus, opium and hashish) to clarify the past, and it is this, combined

with a lack of references, which has resulted in the Necronomicon being dismissed as largely worthless by

historians.

He is often referred to as "the mad Arab" or "the mad Poet", and while he was certainly eccentric by modern

standards, there is no evidence to substantiate a claim of madness (other than his chronic inability to sustain a

train of thought for more than a few paragraphs before leaping off at a tangent). It is interesting that the word for

madness ("majnun") has an older meaning of "djinn possessed", the significance of which will become clear

below (see What are the Old Ones?). Alhazred is better compared with figures such as the Greek neoplatonist

philosopher Proclus (410 - 485 A.D.). Proclus was completely at home in astronomy, mathematics, philosophy,

and metaphysics, but was sufficiently well-versed in the magical techniques of theurgy to evoke Hekate to

visible appearance. Proclus was also an initiate of Egyptian and Chaldean mystery religions. It is no accident that

Alhazred was intimately familiar with the works of Proclus.

What is the printing history of the Necronomicon?

No Arabic manuscript is known to exist. The author Idries Shah carried out a search in the libraries of Deobund

in India, Al-Azhar in Egypt, and the Library of the Holy City of Mecca, without success. A Latin translation was

made in 1487 (not in the 17th. century as Lovecraft maintains) by a Dominican priest Olaus Wormius.

Wormius, a German by birth, was a secretary to the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition, Tomas de

Torquemada, and it is likely that the manuscript of the Necronomicon came into

his possession during the persecution of Spanish Moors ("Moriscos") who had

been converted to Catholicism under duress and did not exhibit the necessary

level of enthusiasm for the doctrines of the Church.

It was an act of sheer folly for Wormius to translate and print the Necronomicon

at that time and place. The book must have held an obsessive fascination for the

man, because he was finally charged with heresy and burned after sending a copy

of the book to Johann Tritheim, Abbot of Spanheim (better known as

"Trithemius"). The accompanying letter contained a detailed and blasphemous

interpretation of certain passages in the Book of Genesis. Virtually all the copies

24

of Wormius‟s translation were seized and burned with him, although there is the inevitable suspicion that at least

one copy must have found its way into the Vatican Library.

Almost one hundred years later, in 1586, a copy of Wormius‟s Latin translation surfaced in Prague. Dr. John

Dee (left), the famous English magician, and his assistant Edward Kelly (below, right) were at the court of the

Emperor Rudolph II to discuss plans for making alchemical gold, and Kelly bought the copy from the so-called

"Black Rabbi", the Kabbalist and alchemist Jacob Eliezer, who had fled to Prague from Italy after accusations

of necromancy. At that time Prague had become a magnet for magicians,

alchemists and charlatans of every kind under the patronage of Rudolph, and it is

hard to imagine a more likely place in Europe for a copy to surface.

The Necronomicon appears to have had a marked influence on Kelly, because the

character of his scrying changed, and he produced an extraordinary

communication which struck horror into the Dee household. Crowley interpreted

this as an abortive first attempt of an extra-human entity to communicate the

Thelemic Book of the Law. Kelly left Dee shortly afterwards. Dee translated the

Necronomicon into English while warden of Christ‟s College, Manchester, but

contrary to Lovecraft, this translation was never printed - the manuscript passed

into the collection of the great collector Elias Ashmole, and hence to the

Bodleian Library in Oxford.

Parts of the Necronomicon were translated into Hebrew (probably in 1664) and circulated in manuscript form,

accompanied by an extensive commentary by Nathan of Gaza, mystical apologist for the pseudo-messiah

Sabbatai Tzevi. This version was titled the Sepher ha-Sha‟are ha-Daath, (the Book of the Gates of Knowledge).

The story surrounding this version is so unusual that it is treated fully below (see Who was Nathan of Gaza).

There are many modern fakes masquerading as the Necronomicon. They can be recognized by a total lack of

imagination or intelligence, qualities Alhazred possessed in abundance.

What is the content of the Necronomicon?

The book is best known for its antediluvian speculations. Alhazred appears to have had access to many sources

now lost, and events which are only hinted at in Genesis or the apocryphal Book of Enoch, or disguised as

mythology in other sources, are explored in great detail. Alhazred may have used dubious magical techniques to

clarify the past, but he also shared with the 5th

century B.C. Greek writers such as Thucydides a critical mind,

and a willingness to explore the meanings of mythological and sacred stories. His speculations are remarkably

modern, and this may account for his current popularity. He believed that many species besides the human race

had inhabited the Earth, and that much knowledge was passed to mankind in encounters with beings from

"beyond the spheres" or from "other spheres".

He shared with some Neoplatonists the belief that the stars are similar to our sun, and have their own unseen

planets with their own lifeforms, but elaborated this belief with a good deal of metaphysical speculation in which

these beings were part of a cosmic hierarchy of spiritual evolution. He was also convinced that he had contacted

beings he called the "Old Ones" using magical invocations, and warned of terrible powers waiting to return to

re-claim the Earth. He interpreted this belief (most surprisingly!) in the light of the Apocalypse of St. John, but

reversed the ending so that the Beast triumphs after a great war in which the earth is laid waste.

What are the "Old Ones"?

It is abundantly clear that Alhazred elaborated upon existing traditions of the "Old Ones", and he did not invent

these traditions. According to Alhazred, the Old Ones were beings from "beyond the spheres", presumably the

spheres of the planets, and in the cosmography of that period this would imply the region of the fixed stars or

beyond. They were superhuman and extrahuman. They mated with humans and begat monstrous offspring. They

passed forbidden knowledge to humankind. They were forever seeking a channel into our plane of existence.

This is virtually identical to the Jewish tradition of the Nephilim (the giants of Genesis 6.2 - 6.5). The word

literally means "the Fallen Ones" and is derived from the Hebrew verb root naphal, to fall. The story in Genesis

is only a fragment of a larger tradition, another piece of which can be found in the apocryphal Book of Enoch.

According to this source, a group of angels sent to watch over the Earth saw the daughters of men and lusted

after them. Unwilling to act individually, they swore an oath and bound themselves together, and two hundred of

25

these "Watchers" descended to earth and took themselves wives. Their wives bore giant offspring. The giants

turned against nature and began to "sin against birds and beasts and reptiles and fish, and to devour one another‟s

flesh, and drink the blood". The fallen angels taught how to make weapons of war, and jewellery, and cosmetics,

and enchantments, and astrology, and other secrets.

These separate legends are elaborated in later Jewish sources such as the Talmud, which make it clear that

Enoch and Genesis refer to the same tradition. The great flood of Genesis was a direct response to the evil

caused by humankind‟s commerce with fallen angels. The fallen angels were cast out and bound:

"And I proceeded to where things were chaotic. And I saw something horrible: I saw neither a heaven above nor

a firmly founded earth, but a place chaotic and horrible. And there I saw seven stars of the heaven bound

together in it, like great mountains, and burning with fire. Then I said:

‟For what sin have they been bound, and on what account have they been cast in hither?‟

Then said Uriel, one of the holy angels who was with me, and was chief over them and said:

‟Enoch, why dost thou ask, and why art thou eager for the truth? These are the number of the stars of heaven

which have transgressed the commandment of the Lord, and are bound here till ten thousand years, the time

entailed by their sins, are consummated.‟"

Arab traditions hold that the Jinn or Djinn were a race of superhuman beings which existed before the creation

of humankind. The Djinn were created from fire. Some traditions make them a lesser race than human beings,

but folk-tales invariably endowed them with unlimited magical powers, and the Djinn survive to this day as the

genies of the Arabian Nights and Disney‟s Aladdin. Islam has subordinated the Djinn to the Koran, and like

elves and fairies they have lost their dark and extremely sinister qualities with the passage of time. In Alhazred‟s

time the older and darker traditions of the Djinn were still current, and Arab magicians ("muqarribun") would

attempt to gain forbidden knowledge and power through commerce with the Djinn.

How are the "Old Ones" Evoked?

It is now generally agreed by occult scholars that the Enochian system of Dee and Kelly was directly inspired by

those sections of the Necronomicon which deal with Alhazred‟s techniques for evoking the Old Ones. It must be

remembered that the Necronomicon was primarily intended as a history, and while it provides some practical

details and formulae, it is hardly a step-by-step beginner‟s guide to summoning praetor-human intelligences. Dee

and Kelly had to fill in many details themselves, so their system is a hybrid of ideas taken from the

Necronomicon and techniques of their own invention

There seems little doubt that the Sigellum Dei Aemeth (above), the Enochian language, and the Enochian Calls

or Keys are authentic borrowings, and we must doubt Dee‟s claim that Kelly received them from the archangel

Uriel. Bulwer Lytton, who studied Dee‟s manuscript of the Necronomicon in the last century, asserts bluntly

that they were transcribed directly from the book, and if they were received from Uriel, then it was Alhazred

who did the receiving!.

The very name of their system, "Enochian", is a clue, if there were no other, that it was inspired by the age-old

traditions recorded in the Book of Enoch, and it was Dee and Kelly‟s intention to contact the Nephilim, or Great

Old Ones. The manuscript of the Book of Enoch was lost until the late 17th

. century, and Dee would have had

access to only the few fragments quoted in other manuscripts, so the name of their system would be somewhat

enigmatic if we did not know that they had access to Alhazred‟s compilation of legends concerning the Fall and

the end of the world. There is no doubt that Alhazred would have had access to the Book of Enoch, as it was

current throughout the Middle East in the ninth century.

Another clue can be found in the Call of the Thirty Aethyrs, the nineteenth of the Enochian Calls. Aleister

Crowley called this Call "the original curse on the Creation". It is uttered as if by God, and is an appalling (and

immensely literate [1]

) curse on the world, humankind, and all its creatures, ending,

"And why? It repenteth me that I have made Man."

This is identical to the sentiment of Genesis 6.6 where it states,

"And it repented the Lord that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart".

This verse immediately follows the verses which describe the evil done by the Nephilim and the resulting

sinfulness of the world, and it is followed by God‟s decision to wipe out all the life on earth with a great flood.

Aleister Crowley, using his immense knowledge of the Bible, recognized the Call of the Thirty Aethyrs for what

it was: God‟s curse on the Nephilim and the evil they had caused. It was this curse which cast them out of the

earth and consigned them to the Abyss.

It is difficult to underrate this clue. To summarize: the key or gate to exploring the thirty Aethyrs is a Call in the

26

Enochian language, said by Dee to be the language of the angels, and this Call is the curse by which the

Nephilim were assigned to the Abyss in the first place. This is consistent with an age-old practice for controlling

demonic power: whatever means have been used to subordinate an entity in the past can be used by the magician

as a method of control. This formula is used in almost every mediaeval grimoire.

In some cases the magician is quite explicit in naming precisely those occasions where the entity has been

controlled by means of a formula. The entry into the thirty Aethyrs begins with a divine curse because it is a

means to assert control over the entities it evokes: the Nephilim. The Fallen Ones. The Great Old Ones. This

establishes beyond any doubt that the Enochian system of Dee and Kelly was identical in spirit, and almost

certainly in practice, to the system of Alhazred as described in the Necronomicon.

Crowley knew. One of his most important pieces of magical work (recorded in The Vision and the Voice) was

his attempt to penetrate the Aethyrs using the Enochian Calls. He did this while crossing the North African

desert in the company of the poet Victor Neuberg. Why the desert? Crowley says he had "no special magical

object" in going there, and he "just happened" to have the Enochian Calls in his rucksack. He is dissembling. He

chose the desert for this work because he had had difficulty in entering into the 28th.

Aethyr during his initial investigations in Mexico, and wanted to reproduce Alhazred‟s praxis as closely as

possible. Alhazred carried out his more significant investigations while wandering in the Rub al Khali, a vast

and empty desert wasteland in the south of Arabia - the remoteness from other human beings helped to shift his

consciousness into the utterly alien perspectives of the Aethyrs. Crowley had read Alhazred‟s account (see

below) and it was in his nature to attempt to emulate people he particularly respected and admired - he spent a

good part of his life trying to outdo the exploits of Richard Burton, the explorer, adventurer, writer, linguist and

field researcher into obscure oriental sexual practices.

Why is the Necronomicon connected with Norse mythology?

The apocalyptic nature of Norse myth, and detailed comparisons between Ragnorok and events prophesized by

Alhazred, have caused a number of commentators to speculate whether there might be a connection, however

unlikely this must seem at first sight. Recent research has revealed a bizarre and completely unexpected link.

In Norse myth the gods of the earth and humankind, the Aesir and Vanas, exist against a backdrop of older,

hostile powers, represented by the frost and fire giants who dwelled to the north and south of the Great Abyss

Ginnunga-gap, and also by Loki (fire) and his monstrous offspring. At Ragnarok, the twilight of the gods, these

old powers return once more and lock in mortal combat. Most deadly of these adversaries is Surtur and the fire

giants of Muspelheim, who complete the destruction of the world.

This is essentially Alhazred‟s prophecy of the return of the Old Ones. This is Crowley‟s prophecy of the Aeon of

Horus, the god of conquering fire. The fire giants of Muspelheim are none other than the Djinn, and it is even

plausible that Surtur is a corruption of Surturiel. Uriel, the angel set to watch over the Nephilim, is named after

the Hebrew word for fire. Like Surtur, he carries a fiery sword.

Uriel comes up again and again in connection with the Necronomicon. While ostensibly one of the mighty

archangels of the Presence of God, there is a shadow side which surfaces from time to time and one wonders

whether he guards the Nephilim or commands them. This could reflect our ambivalence towards fire, but it could

also be that angels and Old Ones are the flip sides of the same coin.

These links between Alhazred‟s Necronomicon and the myth of Ragnorok, frail though they may seem, are no

longer believed to be a coincidence, and the story of how the Necronomicon arrived in Iceland is quite

remarkable. The story begins in the town of Harran in northern Mesopotamia.

The town of Harran was remarkable in that while the rest of the region was conquered by the Arabs in 633-643

A.D. and converted to Islam, the Harranians did not. They continued to practice paganism and worshipped the

moon and the seven planets. Even more remarkable was the fact that they possessed large numbers of hermetic

and neoplatonic documents, and when they were eventually pressed (in A.D. 830) to name a prophet "approved"

by the Koran, they named Hermes Trimegistus and his teacher Agathos Daemon. Many Harranians moved to

Baghdad where they maintained a distinct community and were known as Sabians.

Their familiarity with Greek gave them access to a wide range of literature, and many became famous in areas

such as philosophy, logic, astronomy, mathematics and medicine. Alhazred speaks of the Sabians and describes

27

them as being "famous for lore and knowledge of things long gone". It is highly probable he studied with them.

It was a learned community that had managed to maintain direct links with the paganism, philosophy and secret

traditions of both the Arab and Greek worlds long after they had been proscribed elsewhere.

The Sabians survived as a distinct community up to the 11th

. century, but the forces of Islamic orthodoxy

increased to the point where we hear nothing of them after about the year 1050. It was about that time (Norse

sources imply a date of 1041 or 1042) that a large body of documents arrived in Byzantium and came into the

hands of Michael Psellus, the famous historian, neoplatonist and demonologist. The bulk of the documents

formed what has know come to be known as the Corpus Hermeticum, but there were other documents, including

a Syriac copy of Al Azif, which Psellus promptly translated into Greek. There seems little doubt that a prominent

Sabian must have moved from Baghdad to Byzantium in a search for a more tolerant atmosphere. Whether he

found it is unclear!

The 11th

century was what the Chinese call "interesting times". Duke William of Normandy invaded England

and killed King Harold Godwinson. King Harold Godwinson‟s daughter married Prince Vladimir Monomakh

of Kiev (whose own mother was the daughter of Constantine IX Monomachus of Byzantium). The Russians,

assisted by large numbers of Scandanavians, invaded Byzantium in 1043, an event witnessed by Michael Psellus

himself standing at the side of the Emperor. Harald Hadrada ("the Ruthless"), who later became king of Norway,

joined the Byzantine army with a large following of northmen ("Varanger"), campaigned widely, and ripped out

the eyes of the Byzantine emperor Michael Caliphates in 1042. King Harald Hadrada of Norway invaded

England in 1066 and was killed by King Harold Godwinson ... who was killed by Duke William at the Battle

of Hastings. There are few soap operas to compare with these pan-European goings-on. So much for the Dark

Ages.

The popular image of Vikings in furry jerkins and horned helmets is inaccurate. They were among the best

equipped and most experienced heavy infantry available at that time. Their trade routes spanned thousands of

miles, from North America, to Greenland, Britain and Ireland, the entire Atlantic coast of Europe, and through

Russia to Byzantium. They were employed in significant numbers as bodyguards (Varanger) to the Byzantine

emperors. Most Varanger spoke fluent Greek. The exact year in which Harald went to Byzantium is unclear due

to a minor mismatch between Norse and Byzantine sources, but the account in the Heimskringla claims he

served the Empress Zoe the Great sometime around 1030-40. The description of their arrival in longships is

spell-binding:

"Iron shielded vessels

Flaunted colourful rigging.

The great prince saw ahead

The copper roofs of Byzantium;

His swan-breasted ships swept

Towards the tall-towered city."

It was the custom in those days that when the Emperor died, the Varanger were permitted to plunder the palace

and anything they laid hands on, they could keep. These were turbulent and violent times (with the Empress Zoe

strangling husbands in the bath) and Harald took part in three such plunders. According to the chronicle he

amassed great wealth.

Harald had two close companions, Halldor Snorrason and Ulf Ospaksson. Halldor was blunt, imperturbable and

dour to the point of rudeness, the son of Snorri the Priest, a leading Icelandic chieftain. Ulf was extremely

shrewd and well-spoken and eventually married Harald‟s sister-in-law, becoming a Marshall of Norway. He was

an incorrigible schemer, a keen poet, fluent in Greek, and he like to spend time with Psellus, partly to discuss

Greek poetry, but mainly to keep a finger on the pulse of Byzantine palace politics. He watched Psellus

translating Al Azif, discussed its contents, and in the confusion of a palace plunder arranged for a number of

Psellus‟s manuscripts to be "removed". Fortunately Psellus still had the original Syriac version, otherwise the

Necronomicon would have been lost to history.

At this point we must conjecture. We do not know how Halldor obtained Al Azif. We know that Ulf and

Halldor returned to Norway with Harald, and Halldor went back to Iceland, taking with him the story of Harald‟s

adventure and a great deal besides. We know this because Halldor‟s descendent was Snorri Sturluson (1179 -

1241), the most famous figure in Icelandic literature and the author not only of the Heimskringla and many other

important works but author of the Prose Edda and the source for almost all of our surviving knowledge of Norse

myth. It is known that Sturluson had a large quantity of material available for his historic researches, and we can

now be reasonably certain that elements from the Necronomicon were mingled with traditional Norse myth in

Sturluson‟s description of Ragnarok.

28

What happened to the purloined manuscript of Michael Psellus?

Good question ...

Why did the novelist H.P. Lovecraft claim to have invented the Necronomicon?

The answer to this interesting question lies in two people: the poet and magician Aleister Crowley, and a

Brooklyn milliner called Sonia Greene. There is no question that Crowley read Dee‟s translation of the

Necronomicon in the Bodleian, probably while researching Dee‟s papers; too many passages in Crowley‟s

"Book of the Law" read like a transcription of passages in that translation. Either that, or Crowley, who claimed

to remember his life as Edward Kelly in a previous incarnation, remembered it from his previous life!

Why doesn‟t Crowley mention the Necronomicon in his works? He was surprisingly reticent about his real

sources. There is a strong suspicion that ‟777‟, which Crowley claimed to have written, was largely plagiarized

from Allan Bennet‟s notes. His spiritual debt to Nietzsche, which in an unguarded moment Crowley refers to as

"almost an avatar of Thoth, the god of wisdom" is studiously ignored; likewise the influence of Richard Burton‟s

"Kasidah" on his doctrine of True Will.

I suspect that the Necronomicon became an embarrassment to Crowley when he realized the extent to which he

had unconsciously incorporated passages from the Necronomicon into "The Book of the Law".

In 1918 Crowley was in New York. As always, he was trying to establish his literary reputation, and was

contributing to The International and Vanity Fair. Sonia Greene was an energetic and ambitious Jewish émigré

with literary ambitions, and she had joined a dinner and lecture club called "Walker‟s Sunrise Club" (?!); it was

there that she first encountered Crowley, who had been invited to give a talk on modern poetry.

It was a good match. In a letter to Norman Mudd, Crowley describes his ideal woman as

"... rather tall, muscular and plump, vivacious, ambitious, energetic, passionate, age from thirty to thirty five,

probably a Jewess, not unlikely a singer or actress addicted to such amusements. She is to be ‟fashionable‟,

perhaps a shade loud or vulgar. Very rich of course."

Sonia was not an actress or singer, but qualified in other respects. She was earning what, for that time, was an

enormous sum of money as a designer and seller of woman‟s hats. She was variously described as,

"Junoesque"

"a woman of great charm and personal magnetism"

"genuinely glamorous with powerful feminine allure"

"one of the most beautiful women I have ever met"

"a learned but eccentric human phonograph"

In 1918 she was thirty-five years old and a divorcee with an adolescent daughter. Crowley did not waste time as

far as women were concerned; they met on an irregular basis for some months.

In 1921 Sonia Greene met the novelist H.P. Lovecraft, and in that same year Lovecraft published the first novel

where he mentions Abdul Alhazred ("The Nameless City"). In 1922 he first mention the Necronomicon ("The

Hound"). On March 3rd. 1924, H.P. Lovecraft and Sonia Greene married.

We do not know what Crowley told Sonia Greene, and we do not know what Sonia told Lovecraft. However,

consider the following quotation from "The Call of Cthulhu" [1926]:

"That cult would never die until the stars came right again [precession of the Equinoxes?], and the secret priests

would take Cthulhu from His tomb to revive His subjects and resume His rule of earth. The time would be easy

to know, for then mankind would have become as the Great Old Ones; free and wild, and beyond good and evil,

with laws and morals thrown aside and all men shouting and killing and revelling in joy. Then the liberated Old

Ones would teach them new ways to shout and kill and revel and enjoy themselves, and all earth would flame

with a holocaust of ecstasy and freedom."

It may be brief, it may be mangled, but it has the undeniable ring of Crowley‟s "Book of the Law". It is easy to

imagine a situation where Sonia and Lovecraft are laughing and talking in a firelit room about a new story, and

Sonia introduces some ideas based on what Crowley had told her; she wouldn‟t even have to mention Crowley,

just enough of the ideas to spark Lovecraft‟s imagination. There is no evidence that Lovecraft ever saw the

Necronomicon, or even knew that the book existed; his Necronomicon is remarkably close to the spirit of the

original, but the details are pure invention, as one would expect. There is no Yog-Sothoth or Azathoth or

Nyarlathotep in the original, but there is an Aiwaz...

29

Who was Nathan of Gaza?

Nathan of Gaza precipitated one of the most profound events in the history of Judaism. In 1665, while only 21 or

22 years old, he proclaimed that Sabbatai Tzevi was the Messiah. In itself this would not have been

extraordinary, as there had been other messianic claimants in the past, but due to the extraordinary personalities

of Nathan and Sabbatai Tzevi, the news of the Messiah‟s coming spread like wildfire all over Europe. The

repercussions of this event lasted for centuries. Judaism would never be the same.

Nathan was born in Jerusalem in 1643 or 1644. He married the daughter of a wealthy merchant in Gaza and

moved there. He was a brilliant student of Torah and Talmud, and took up the study of Kabbalah in 1664. The

atmosphere at that time was charged with the expectation of the coming of the Messiah. The brilliant and

charismatic Kabbalist Isaac Luria had hinted that the process of restoration was near to completion, and the

time of the redemption and the Messiah was nigh. One of the key attributes of Luria‟s Kabbalah was the belief

that, due to a primordial catastrophe during the creation of the universe, the souls of human beings had become

immersed in a grossly material world which was nigh to the realm of the Klippoth. The Klippoth were the

source of evil. The word means a husk or shell, and the implication is that the Klippoth were the husks or shells

of materiality which ensnare the spirit.

Luria’s Kabbalah was based on very old traditions. One such tradition was that God created several worlds

before this one, but they were unbalanced, unstable, and disintegrated. The 3rd

century Rabbi Abbahu wrote,

"God made many worlds and destroyed them until he made the present universe".

This was combined with the Biblical legend of the Kings of Edom which were but are no more, to produce a

highly elaborate myth concerning the creation of the universe. The quality that Kabbalists call Din, or judgment,

is that quality which separates on thing from another. The Klippoth represent an extreme embodiment of this

quality.

The creation of the universe was essentially a process of definition and separation, and hence an expression of

Din, but the powers of Din were too concentrated for a viable universe and had to be separated out for a second,

viable creation to take place. These concentrated shards of the original creation, pure Din, fell into the abyss.

Unfortunately some sparks of light fell with them, so that the Klippoth were more than just empty shells. They

had life. Not much life, but enough. Human sinfulness reinforces the Klippoth because it transfers some of our

life to them. If I am selfish, for example, I am creating a separation between myself and another, so the Klippoth

are reinforced by my selfishness.

The need to free the sparks of light from the Klippoth was one of the dominant themes of Kabbalah. It was

believed that living according to the commandments of the Torah and combining this with mystical insight,

concentration, and intention, could help to free the trapped sparks, but living sinfully was a sure way of

strengthening the Klippoths‟ hold. In later developments the Klippoth were regarded as primordial, demonic

powers with seven kings, reflecting the seven destroyed worlds of the original creation.

The Klippoth held a strong fascination for Nathan of Gaza. Sabbatai Tzevi appears to have been a manic-

depressive. In his manic states he had the most extraordinary force of personality, and there are many reports of

his face literally shining like the sun. In his ecstatic states he would do things which no pious Jew would do.

Nathan wrote a document entitled Treatise on the Dragons (the dragons being the Klippoth) which was an

attempt to mythologize Tsevi‟s behaviour, explaining it in terms of the Messiah‟s need to descend into the world

of the Klippoth to redeem the remaining sparks (just as Christ is depicted harrowing Hell, and Orpheus descents

into the Underworld to rescue his love). The mythic credentials of the Treatise on the Dragons are impeccable.

Before the publication of the Treatise, Nathan circulated a curious document, the Sepher ha-Sha’are ha-

Daath. He described this as a commentary on two chapters of the Book of the Alhazred, an ancient history of the

world. The title means "the Book of the Gates of Knowledge". The word for knowledge, da‟ath, has a technical

meaning. When the Bible was translated into Greek, the word da’ath was translated as gnosis. Da‟ath has a very

peculiar status in Kabbalah, being a kind of non-existent, a nothingness. In modern Hermetic Kabbalah it is

sometimes represented a hole or gate into an abyss of consciousness. Crowley‟s experiments with the Call of the

Thirty Aethyrs led him into this abyss.

Da’ath has a dual aspect:

on one hand it is our knowledge of the world of appearance, the body of facts which constitute our beliefs and

prop up the illusion of identity and ego and separateness

on the other hand it is revelation, objective knowledge, what is often referred to as gnosis

30

The transition between the knowledge of the world of appearance and revelation entails the experience of the

abyss, the abolition of the sense of ego, the negation of identity. From within the abyss any identity is possible. It

is chaos, unformed. It contains, as it were, the seeds of identity. It is from this point that an infinity of gates open,

each one a gateway to a mode of being. These are what Nathan is referring to as the "Gates of Knowledge".

Nathan‟s purpose appears to have been to develop a methodology for a systematic exploration of the realms of

the Klippoth, as part of his mission to redeem the sparks, using some of Alhazred‟s techniques. It is an

extraordinary development of Alhazred‟s work, identifying the Klippoth with the primordial Old Ones. It has a

modern counterpart in Kenneth Grant‟s Nightside of Eden.

Nathan developed a huge following and for many years Judaism was riven with charges of heresy. Many

prominent Rabbis and community leaders sided with Nathan, and it took most of a century for the drama to

unwind. Eventually the Sabbatean movement went underground, and while it is a certainty that a copy of the

Sepher ha-Sha‟are ha-Daath exists in a private library somewhere, no one is admitting that they have it.

Where can the Necronomicon be found?

Nowhere with certainty, is the short and simple answer, and once more we must suspect Crowley in having a

hand in this. In 1912 Crowley met Theodor Reuss, the head of the German Ordo Templi Orientis (O.T.O.), and

worked within that order for several years, until in 1922 Reuss resigned as head in Crowley‟s favour. Thus we

have Crowley working in close contact for 10 years with the leader of a German masonic group. In the years

from 1933-38 the few known copies of the Necronomicon simply disappeared; someone in the German

government of Adolf Hitler took an interest in obscure occult literature and began to obtain copies by fair means

or foul.

Dee’s translation disappeared from the Bodleian following a break-in in the spring of 1934. The British Museum

suffered several abortive burglaries, and the Wormius edition was deleted from the catalogue and removed to an

underground repository in a converted slate mine in Wales (where the Crown Jewels were stored during the

1939-45 war). Other libraries lost their copies, and today there is no library with a genuine catalogue entry for

the Necronomicon. The current whereabouts of copies of the Necronomicon is unknown, but there is a story of a

large wartime cache of occult and magical documents in the mountainous Osterhorn area near Salzburg - this

may be connected with the recurring story of a copy bound in the skin of concentration camp victims.

In Conclusion

One thing which struck me very forcefully while researching this document was that the Necronomicon was not

a book out of time and out of place. Alhazred did not compose it in a vacuum. Extraordinary though its content

is, it is little more than an extrapolation of existing knowledge. Many writers have followed similar lines, though

not to such extremes. If we were to marry Blavatsky‟s Secret Doctrine to Grant‟s Nightside of Eden, and ask

Nathan of Gaza to edit the result, then we would have something similar in spirit if not in content to Alhazred’s

magnum opus.

Perhaps we expect too much from the book. It is, after all, only a book. No real book, however esoteric, can fill

the shoes of a mystery, and it is the mystery that people aspire to. The mystery of the creation. The mystery of

good and evil. The mystery of life and death. The mystery of things long gone. We know that the universe is

immense beyond any power of imagining. What is out there? What has happened? What alien powers impinge

on us?

The ancients asked these questions. They were not afraid to weave myths and they were not afraid to imagine.

We do it too, but our Star Treks and Babylon Fives reassure us that the universe is a safe and comfortable place

where everyone speaks English and goes to Living with Diversity classes.

The Necronomicon succeeds not because of its content, but because of the existential terror induced by its

existence. It doesn‟t reassure. It doesn‟t tell us the universe is a safe, cozy place. It tells us we are just a speck of

dust in a vast and alien cosmos, and lots of strange things are going on out there. Look in any current astronomy

or astrophysics textbook.

You know it’s true.

31

Other Links

The Dan Clore Necronomicon Page. In Dan‟s own words, "Everything You Never Wanted To Know About The

Necronomicon (Al Azif) Of The Mad Arab Abdul Alhazred But Weren‟t Afraid Enough To Know Better Than

To Ask!"

The Necronomicon Files. What is olieribos? These are the guys who know, but they make you attend the

Necronomicon 101 Foundation course before telling you.

Dr. John Dee, the Necronomicon & the Cleansing of the World - A Gnostic Trail. By Colin Low. Fact is a good

deal stranger than fiction. See also The Necronomicon and Ontological Pressure.

The Church of the Great Abyss, the chao-sumerian gnostic sect of that eccentric Abbess of the Abyss, Miranda

Raven. Very fishy indeed.

Notes: [1] Crowley writes: "[the Keys] contain passages of sustained sublimity that Shakespeare, Milton and the Bible

do not surpass". I agree. There is a great deal of repetition, but some passages are simply superb. To echo

Crowley, if Kelly was a charlatan, he was a literary genius of the calibre of Isaiah.

by Parker Ryan

from AntiqIllum Website

This section is a short summary of some of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft‟s major ideas relating to the

Necronomicon and its associated Myths. The Necronomicon is perhaps the most infamous book related to the

magick (whether real or fictional). Please note that I am not claiming that the information presented in part is

historical fact. Rather I am simply summarizing what HPL had to say in his fiction and other sources about the

Necronomicon. After reading ALL parts of this post AND doing your own research, you will be the judge about

what may or may not be historical fact. Perhaps the best way to start is by quoting HPL from The History and

Chronology of the Necronomicon.

“Original title Al Azif-Azif being the word used by the Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by

insects) supposed to be the howling of demons.”

“Composed by Abdul Alhazred, a mad poet of Sanaa, in Yemen, who is said to have flourished in the time of the

Ommiade Caliphs, circa A.D. 700. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis and

spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia - the Roba el Khaliye or „Empty Space‟ of the

ancients and „Dahna‟ or „Crimson Desert‟ of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil

spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange and unbelievable marvels are told by those who

pretend to have penetrated it. In his last years Alhazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon (Al Azif)

was written... Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to have seen the fabulous Irem or city of Pillars,

and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert town the shocking annals and secrets of a race

older than mankind.”

Later the Al Azif was translated into Greek under the Greek title Necronomicon (the title is definitely not in Latin

as is often claimed). This title is translated as “the Book (or image) of the Practices of the Dead”; Necro being

Greek for “Dead” and Nomos meaning “practices”, “customs” or “rules” (as in astronomy). The title

Necronomicon absolutely does not translate as Book of Dead Names (as Colin Wilson has mistakenly and

repeatedly stated). In order for it to mean Dead Names it would have to be Latin/Greek hybrid (besides HPL

flatly indicated the first translation is the correct one). Still later (possibly in the 1200‟s) it was translated into

Latin but retained it‟s Greek title. The Latin text came into the possession of Dr. John Dee in the sixteenth

century. Dr. Dee made the only English translation of the Necronomicon known.

The Necronomicon contains dark secrets about the real nature of the Earth and the universe. According to the

Necronomicon the Earth was once ruled by the Old Ones, powerful beings from other worlds or other

dimensions. HPL in The Dunwich Horror attributes this quote to the Necronomicon:

“Nor is it to be thought, that man is either the oldest or the last of Earth‟s masters, or that the common bulk of

life and substance walks alone. The Old Ones were, the Old Ones are, the Old Ones shall be not in the spaces we

know but between them, They walk serene and primal undimensioned and to us unseen. Yog-Sothoth is the

32

gate. Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the gate. Past, present, future all are one in Yog-Sothoth. He

Knows where the Old Ones broke Through of old, and Where They shall break through again. He knows where

They have trod earth‟s fields, and where They still tread them, and why no man can behold Them as They tread.

By their smell can men sometimes know them near, but of their semblance can no man know, saving only in the

features of those They have begotten on mankind; and of those are there many sorts, differing in likeness from

mans truest eidolon to that shape without sight or substance which is Them. They walk unseen and foul in lonely

places where the Words have been spoken and the Rights howled through at their seasons...Yog-Sothoth is the

key to the gate whereby the spheres meet. Man rule now where They rule once; They shall soon rule where man

rule now. After summer is winter, after winter summer. They wait patient and potent, for here they shall reign

again.”

The Necronomicon STRONGLY hints that there is a cult or group of cults that worships the Old Ones and

seeks to aid them gain control of this planet. One of the tactics attempted by this cult is to breed human and Old

One offspring that will then multiply and ingress into terrestrial life until the Old Ones return to their pre-

ordained position.

Some branches of the cult venerate a deity called Cthulhu. Cthulhu is a dragon-like “god” with a face that is a

mass of tentacles. Cthulhu is dead (dormant) but dreaming in the abyss (the Pacific Ocean). It is not certain

whether or not Cthulhu is an Old One. At one point Cthulhu is referred to as Cousin of the Old Ones. At another

the deity is called the high priest of the Old Ones; both of these labels might imply that Cthulhu may not be

exactly like the Old Ones. The cult seeks to raise Cthulhu in order to usher in the day when the Old Ones will

control the world.

When Cthulhu rises men will be wild and free beyond good and evil. If Cthulhu rises partly from the ocean but it

is not yet the correct time there are terrible bouts of madness. The center of the Cthulhu cult “lay amid the

pathless deserts of Arabia, where Irem, City of Pillars dreams hidden and untouched.” The cult places special

emphasis on dreams, which they say can sometimes contain the thoughts of the “deity.”

There are many other important gods mentioned in the Necronomicon. One group of these deities, the Other

Gods seem to be true Gods (unlike the Old Ones and Cthulhu who seem simply to be very powerful entities).

Most important among the Other Gods are Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth. Yog-Sothoth is coterminous with ALL

time and space. In Through the Gates of the Silver Key Lovecraft (who, despite the fact that E. Hoffman Price

appears as co-author, wrote nearly every word of this story) describes Yog-Sothoth thus:

”an All in One and One in All of limitless being and self-the last, utter sweep which has no confines and which

outreaches fancy and mathematics alike. “

Past, present, future all are one in Yog-Sothoth. Of equal or greater importance is Azathoth. Evidence that

Azathoth is at least equal with Yog-Sothoth is that Azathoth is “Lord of All” while Yog-Sothoth is “All in One,

One in All” Azathoth is the “ultimate nuclear chaos,” at “the center of infinity.”

It is from the Throne of Azathoth that the aimless waves, “whose chance combining gives each frail cosmos its

eternal law,” originate from. It is Extremely noteworthy that Azathoth is very closely related to the latest models

in Quantum Physics. There are also some notable parallels between HPL‟s ideas about Chaos and the new Chaos

Mathematics. Azathoth the ultimate nuclear chaos that emits the random waves that govern the universe seems

to be the principle opposite of Yog-Sothoth who embraces the expanses of infinity. Whereas Yog-Sothoth is

infinitely large, Azathoth seems to be infinitely compact (e.g., the quantum center). HPL researcher Philip A.

Shreffler states in The H.P. Lovecraft Companion that the acting principles of Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth are

“infinite expansion and infinite contraction” respectively.

The heart and soul of the Other Gods is Nyarlathotep the mighty messenger. It is as their messenger that

Nyarlathotep makes the will of the Other Gods known on Earth. It is through Him that all traffic with Azathoth

must go. Nyarlathotep has a thousand forms. He is called the Crawling Chaos.

Shub-Niggurath the Black Goat of the Woods is a type of “perverse fertility deity.” Shub-Niggurath also is

called the Goat with a thousand young. It is apparently a very important deity in the Necronomicon mythos,

judging by how frequently It is mentioned. There is obviously a connection between the cult of Shub-Niggurath

and the many Goat cults of antiquity.

Besides Cthulhu, the Old Ones and the Other Gods there are numerous minor races of creatures in the

Necronomicon such as the shoggoths. A shoggoth is a shapeless congerie of “protoplasmic bubbles.” The

shoggoths were created by the Old Ones as servitors. They can assume any form they need to accomplish their

33

assigned task. They are unruly servants, becoming more intelligent with time eventually gaining a will of their

own. Shoggoth are sometimes, according to HPL, seen in drug-induced visions.

Another race is the Deep Ones who are a type of amphibious creature resembling a mixture of a fish, a frog and

man. The Deep Ones worship a god called Dagon. Dagon is a deity resembling a giant Deep One. Dagon and the

Deep Ones seem to be Allied in some way with Cthulhu.

Another minor race is ghoul. Ghouls are corpse eating monsters that are very manlike except for their canine or

monstrous facial features. It is possible for a man to be transformed into a ghoul under the right circumstances.

This concludes my short summary of HPL’s major ideas on the Necronomicon and it’s Associated myths. This is

by no means exhaustive but it should give you enough general information to address the rest of this post with a

good point of references.

THE NECRONOMICON AND ANCIENT ARAB MAGICK

HPL‟s accounts of the Necronomicon provide a number of dramatic parallels with actual Arab myths and

magickal techniques. These parallels are too specific and detailed for it to be a case of coincidence. Much of the

material in this section was NOT available in the books printed in English before 1930. This would seem to

mean that Lovecraft either was given the information in his stories by someone initiated in Arab magickal

traditions (which is VERY unlikely) or that Lovecraft had a written source of information on Arab myths and

magick not publicly available. The second option is rather plausible as Lovecraft was an extraordinarily erudite

bibliophile who loved Arab mythology when young.

Lovecraft almost certainly had an unprinted, probably rare, book (or some other form of manuscript), on Arab

myths or magick. This is the most economical explanation as to how VERY OBSCURE information on Arab

magick could appear in his stories. Lovecraft probably owned a book much like Al Azif (Necronomicon) in

content if not in title. To some people this may sound like a difficult assertion to accept without support. I am

just that type of person. The reason I am making this assertion is that I feel it is very well supported. I hope you

will share this feeling when you are done reading this post.

I will now detail some of the rare information, referred to above, that connects HPL‟s accounts of the

Necronomicon and its myths with real Arab mystical and magickal traditions.

HPL wrote that the Necronomicon was written Abdul Alhazred, who was called the “Mad Poet.” Alhazred

visited the lost city “Irem of the Pillars” (the center or the cult of Cthulhu) and encountered many strange and

magickal things there. Lovecraft placed Irem in the Rub al Khali. When he was very old, Alhazred recorded

what he had learned in his book of poetry Al Azif (later retitled Necronomicon).

Irem is very important to Arab magick.

“Irem Zhat al Imad” (Irem of the Pillars) is the cities name in Arabic. It is popularly believed by the Arabs that

Irem was built by the Jinn under the direction of Shaddad, Lord of the tribe of Ad. The tribe of Ad, according to

legend, was a race roughly equivalent to the Hebrew “Nephlim” (giants). In some version of this myth Shaddad

and the Jinn built Irem before the time of Adam. The Muqarribun (Arab magicians) have important beliefs about

Irem and it‟s significance.

The Muqarribun, whose traditions predate Islam, believe that Irem is a locale on another level of reality, rather

than a physical city like NY or Tokyo. (Why Irem is important to the Muqarribun and how they use it will be

more fully explained shortly.) The “Pillars” in “Irem of the Pillars" has a hidden meaning. Among Arab mystics

pillar is a code name for “elder” or “old one.” Thus “Irem of the Pillars” is really “Irem of the Old Ones.”

(It is noteworthy that several Lovecraft “scholars” erroneously claim that HPL created Irem, just as they claim

he created the Necronomicon, as part of his fiction.)

In Arab legend Irem is located in the Rub al Khali just as HPL said it was. To the Muqarribun the Rub al Khali

also has a “hidden” meaning (incidentally the art of encoding and decoding “hidden” meanings in Arab mystical

or magickal writing is called Tawil). Rub al Khali translates as “the EMPTY Quarter.” In this case Empty refers

to the VOID and is the same as AIN in the Cabbalistic traditions. Rub al Khali is the “secret” door to the Void in

Arab magickal traditions. It is the Exact Arab equivalent to DAATH in the Cabbala. To the Muqarribun the Rub

al Khali is the secret gate (Daath) to the Void (Ain) in which is the “city of the Old Ones.” This is Incredibly

close to Lovecraft, who made many references to a gate connected with the “Old Ones.”

34

Further Lovecraft claimed that the Old Ones were from Outside (another dimension of reality) and linked them

with the “infinite void.” By making these claims about the “Old Ones” and connecting them to Irem and the Rub

al Khali Lovecraft tapped into the very core of an almost unknown (but important) area of ancient Arab magick.

What makes this even more interesting is that there is no way to know about the “hidden” meaning of Irem

unless you have done some serious research into Arab magickal and mystical traditions. Thus Lovecraft either

made one of the luckiest guesses in history or actually did some research into the deeper aspects of the

Muqarribun magickal traditions (to my knowledge there were no publicly available books with this information

in Lovecraft‟s time).

The “Rub al Khali” (not the physical desert, but the Arab equivalent of Daath) was entered in an altered state of

consciousness (some where between dreams and the complete absence of thought) by the Muqarribun. Irem

represents that part of the “Empty Quarter” that acts as the connection to the Void. It is from this place (Irem)

that the communion with the Void and that which inhabits it can happen. The “monsters of death” and protective

spirits Lovecraft mentions are the Jinn (see below). The Muqarribun can interact with these entities when he is

in the “Rub al Khali” or “Irem.” When the Muqarribun passes through Irem to the Void he achieves Annihilation

(fana). Annihilation is the supreme attainment in Sufi and Muqarribun mysticism.

During Annihilation the magicians entire being is devoured and absorbed into the Void. The self or “soul” (nafs

i ammara) is utterly and completely destroyed by this process. This is probably the sources of stories regarding

the soul eating demons (associated with Irem) in Arab legend. This should be compared to Lovecraft in Through

the Gates of the Silver Key in which Irem is a type of portal to the Outside. A close comparison of this story with

the Muqarribun ideas, discussed above, will again show that HPL had a knowledge of Arab magick that was not

publicly available.

Next let‟s look at Alhazred‟s title. HPL wrote that Alhazred‟s title was “Mad Poet.” “Mad” is usually written

“majnun” in Arabic. Majnun means “mad” today. However, in the eighth century (Alhazred‟s time) it meant

“Possessed by Jinn.” To be called Mad or Possessed by Demons would be highly insulting to orthodox Muslims.

The Sufis and Muqarribun regard Majnun as complimentary title. They even go so far as to call certain Sufi

heroes Majnun.

Jinn were powerful creatures of Arab myth. The Jinn, according to legend, came down from heaven (the sky) in

the time before Adam. Therefore, they pre-exist mankind and thus called “Preadamites.” “Infidel pagans”

worship these incredibly powerful beings. The Jinn can “beget young on mankind.” The Jinn are usually

invisible to normal men. They apparently want great influence on Earth. Much of the magick used in Arab

countries concerns the Jinn (protection spells against, or spells to call them up). The Jinn are thus virtually

identical with Lovecraft’s Old Ones.

Let‟s look at the title “Mad Poet” some more. Jinn inspire poets in popular Arab myth. This is why Mohammad

was so vehement in denying that he was a poet. He wanted it known that his revelation came from “God” and

not the Jinn. So the title “the Mad Poet” indicates that Alhazred had made “Contact” with the Jinn (the Old

Ones). It also Implies that his writings were directly inspired by them. This is entirely consistent with what

Lovecraft wrote about Alhazred. Anyone unfamiliar with Arab magick and mysticism could not know the

significance of “the Mad Poet” in Arabic. This again seems to indicate that Lovecraft probably had a source of

rare information on Arab magick.

Lovecraft wrote that Alhazred’s Necronomicon was a book of poetry originally titled Al Azif. This also shows a

deep connection to Arab magick and mysticism that would not be apparent to someone unfamiliar with these

subjects. Al Azif is translated as “the book of the howling of the Jinn.” This title is remarkably consistent with

the meaning of “the Mad Poet” in Arabic (The One Possessed by Jinn and Whose Writings Are Inspired by the

Jinn). It is Also important that the Al Azif was said to be written in poetic verse. The Necronomicon (Al Azif)

was concerned with many religiomagickal and mystical subjects. Nearly all Arabic Books on religion or

mysticism were written as poems. This includes orthodox works (such as the Quran) as well as Sufi and

Muqarribun writings.

The name Cthulhu provides an Important and fascinating parallel with Arab magickal practice. Cthulhu is very

close to the Arabic word Khadhulu (also spelled al qhadhulu). Khadhulu (al qhadhulu) is translated as

“Forsaker” or Abandoner.” Many

Sufis and Muqarribun writings make use of this term (Abandoner). In Sufi and Muqarribun writings

“abandoner” refers to the power that fuels the practices of Tajrid “outward detachment” and Tafrid “interior

35

solitude.” Tajrid and Tafrid are forms of mental “yoga,” used in Arab systems of magick, to help the magician

free himself from (abandon) cultural programming. In Muqarribun texts Khadhulu is the power that makes the

practices of Tafrid and Tajrid possible for the magician. Although I was familiar with the use of “abandoner” in

Arab mystical and magickal writings I was unaware (until about two years ago) that Khadhulu appears in the

Quran. I owe the knowledge Khadhulu shows up in the Quran (in a very significant way) to William Hamblin.

In the Quran chaper 25 verse 29 it is written, “Mankind, Shaitan is Khadhulu.”

This verse has two orthodox interpretations. The first is that Shaitan will forsake man. The other orthodox

interpretation is that Shaitan causes men to forsake the “straight path of Islam” and the “good” ways of their

forebears. The orthodox Muslim would view forsaking Islamic culture as sinful and ungodly. However,

Muqarribun and Sufis, as already discussed feel abandoning culture is vital to spiritual growth. The

identification of Shaitan of the Islamic tradition is very important. By the time Mohammad was writing Shaitan

was being called “the Old Serpent (dragon)” and “the Lord of the Abyss.” The Old Serpent or Old Dragon is,

according to experts such as E.A. Budge and S.N. Kramer, Leviathan. Leviathan is Lotan. Lotan traces to

Tietan. Tietan, we are told by the authorities on Near Easern mythology is a Later form of Tiamat. According to

the experts the Dragon of the Abyss called Shaitan is the same Dragon of the Abyss named Taimat.

Scholars specializing in Near Eastern mythology have stated this time and again. Why is this important? Its

importance lies in the fact that HPL described Cthulhu as dragon-like and sleeping in the abyss (ocean).

Leviathan/Tiamat is also said to be sleeping or dormant. The identification of Shaitan the Old Dragon Lord of

the Abyss with Khadhulu in the Quran is thus a very fascinating parallel with Lovecraft. The connection of the

“Abandoner” with the Dragon is strengthened somewhat by a line from “The Book of Annihilation” an Arabic

text on magick.

This line translates as,

“the dragon is an abandoner for he leaves all that is sacred. The dragon goes here and there without pause.”

While this line is obviously symbolic (most likely referring to the practice of Tafrid) it does serve to establish a

connection between the Dragon of Near Eastern myth with Khadhulu in Arab magick. The ancient dragon of the

abyss (Tiamat) traces back to Sumeria. Sumeria was the oldest civilization known to have existed. If Khadhulu

of Arab mysticism is synonymous with the Dragon of mythology (which the evidence suggests it might be) then

Khadhulu has been “worshipped” for a very long time. The numerous parallels between Cthulhu and the

Muqarribun‟s Khadhulu are strong enough to suggest that Lovecraft expanded on Arab myth to create his deity

Cthulhu.

There is another interesting bit of information related to the Dragon of the Abyss (which originated in Sumeria)

and Khadhulu. This data quite possibly is simple coincidence. On the other hand, it may not be coincidence;

there is simply no way to tell yet. It concerns one of the titles of the Dragon, namely the Lord of the Abyss. The

title Lord of the Abyss translated into Sumerian is “Kutulu.” Kutu means “Underworld” or “Abyss” and Lu is

Sumerian for “Lord” or “Person of importance.” Let‟s consider this for a moment: the Sumerian Kutulu is quite

similar to Khadhulu in Arabic. Khadhulu is associated with the Dragon in Arab magickal texts. Khadhulu is also

Identified with the Old Dragon (Shaitan) in the Quran.

One of the titles of this Dragon (Lord of the Abyss) is Kutulu in Sumerian. The word Kutu (abyss) is connected

with the dragon Sumerian mythology. Indeed the ruler of the Abyss (kutu) in Sumeria was the Old Dragon

Mumu-Tiamat. There is, it would seem, quite a bit of connection here and it may indicate that Kutulu and

Khadhulu are on in the same. I first became aware of the similarity of Cthulhu and “Kutulu” reading a

publication of L.K. Barnes. I was quite skeptical at first but I did not make a knee-jerk dismissal of the

information.

Instead I researched until I was able to confirm all the above information, related to the word Kutulu. The fact

that the above information on Kutulu is accurate and very suggestive does not PROVE anything. It does,

however, generally SUPPORT the idea that Kutulu/Khadhulu has been a part of the magickal traditions of the

Near East for a very long time. The only thing that can be accepted as proof will be the discovery, in a Sumerian

text, of the direct mention of the name or word Kutulu in the context discussed. To my knowledge this has not

yet happened. Until it does (if it does) the Kutulu/Khadhulu equivalence will have to remain tentative.

Let‟s closely examine the material on Arab magick. I believe it leads to one conclusion. Lovecraft had access to

rare material on Arab magick and myths. Ignoring the possible coincidental equivalence of Kutulu and Khadhulu

there is still overwhelming evidence supporting this proposal. Lovecraft used Irem in a manner that Parallels the

36

Muqarribun use before this information was generally available. The Rub al Khali (Roba el Khaliye) is in truth

important to the Muqarribun. The Jinn are exact counter parts of the “Old Ones.” Lovecraft‟s description of

Alhazred is VERY consistent with the Arabic Meaning of the “Mad Poet” even though this also was generally

unknown in the 1930‟s. The Al Azif (the howling of the Jinn) is obviously related to Alazred‟s title:

“The One Who is Possessed by Jinn and Whose Writings Are Inspired by Jinn.”

Al Azif being a book of poetry is consistent with the fact that almost all mystical or prophetic writings in Arabic

are poems. Khadhulu‟s association with the sleeping Dragon of the Abyss is VERY close to Lovecraft’s Cthulhu

who lays Dreaming in the Abyss (ocean). To my knowledge there was nothing available (in print) about

Khdhulu in English in the 1930‟s. All this seems to indicate that Lovecraft had a source of information of

Arabic magick and myths not commonly accessible. It appears HPL expanded on some of the material, in this

source, in his fiction. Please note that this in no way detracts from his considerable creativity. HPL‟s stories are

great not because of few isolated elements but rather because of the way Lovecraft could blend the individual

pieces into a whole.

In addition to the material above there are numerous other instances in which Lovecraft borrowed from Arab

and Near Eastern mythology. Lovecraft probably expanded on Arab and other Near Eastern myth when creating

his Deep Ones and Dagon. Arab myth mentions mysterious fish-men from the sea of Karkar. These fish-men are

probably derivative of the myths related to the actual Near Eastern god Dagon. Dagon is a Philistine deity that

appears as a giant fish-man. Dagon is a later version of the Babylonian Oannes. Oannes (Dagon) was the head of

group of semidivine fish-men. The Fish-man Zootype still plays an important role in some systems of magick.

Clearly Dagon and the Deep Ones are direct expansions on Arab and Near Eastern mythology familiar to

Lovecraft.

The Ghoul is another obvious example of Arab mythology that has worked its way into Lovecraft‟s fiction. The

Ghoul is derived from the Arabic Ghul. The Ghul is a man-like creature with monstrous facial features. It

inhabits desolate and lonely places especially graveyards. The Ghuls which inhabit graveyards feast on the

corpses there. This obviously is the source of Lovecraft’s Ghouls. To this day the corpse eating Ghul has a

distinct role in the magickal practices of Arabs and others.

The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young traces back to ancient Egypt and Sumeria. While both

Egypt and Sumeria had Goat cults it was probably the Egyptian version that was most influential. The so called

Goat of Mendes was a “black” incarnation of Asar.

The cult was fertility based. Aspects of these Goat cults were absorbed into Arab magickal systems. For

instance, the Aniz tribe is designated as the Goat Anz. (Anz and Aniz are cognates.) The Aniz are called the Goat

because their founder practiced fertility based magick. The Symbol of this cult is a torch between two Goats

horns. This symbol has become important in Western magickal traditions.

BARBAROUS NAMES

Alhazred is said (by HPL) to have journeyed to Egypt in search of occult secrets. This is consistent with the

time frame that it was supposed to have occurred in. Between the fourth century and the tenth century Near

Eastern scholars interested in magickal matters viewed Egypt as an invaluable source of information. During this

time many corrupt Egyptian words and phrases entered magical writings. Gnostic, Coptic, and Greco-Egyptian

word formulas were incorporated in great number into existing Arab magickal systems. The barbarous names

often only vaguely resemble their Egyptian forefathers.

For instance, Asar Un Nefer became Osorronophris. Although the name has been badly corrupted the original

can still be deciphered. Often Egyptian words and their corrupt counter parts can have even less phonetic

similarity than this example. It has been suggested that some of the Barbarous names used in Lovecraft‟s fiction

might indeed be corrupt Egyptian word formulas. Particularly Yog Sothoth, Azathoth, and Nyarlathotep are said

to have an Egyptian origin. (Note the obviously Egyptian endings “hotep” and “thoth.”)

I was given a privately printed document called The Rites of the Gods. This document consists of seven short

rituals and an introduction. It is said to be a translation of an Arabic document. I feel that this, however, is very

unlikely. I will have to remain skeptical of this booklet‟s Arabic origin and its antiquity until I have some solid

evidence (such as an Arabic Original). It is more probably a modern attempt to reconstruct “ancient rituals”

dedicated to the Other Gods. Although I regard this document as probably apocryphal the introduction contains

some very interesting and possibly accurate speculation on the origin of the names Yog-Sothoth and Azathoth.

The Rites of the Gods suggests the following origins for these names.

37

AZATHOTH

Azathoth is said to be derived from Asa-thoth. The Rites of the Gods states that Asa translates as “source” from

ancient Egyptian and Thoth (Tehut) is of course the popular god name. Asa is an alternate name of Thoth. A

friend who knows much more about Egyptian mythology than I do assures me that Asa the god is indeed closely

associated with the concept of “source” (he is considered the “source” because of his association with the

beginning of time). Ausaa-Thoth or Aasaa-Thoth is translated as the intelligence of Thoth.

YOG-SOTHOTH

According to The Rites of the Gods Yog-Sothoth is derived from Yak Set Thoth. This is supposed to translate as

follows Yak means “one” or “union”. Yak, or perhaps more correctly Iak, and Yog seem on the surface to be

quite different. This is an illusion the “og” in Yog is pronounced like dog. The vowel sound “a” in Yak is

pronounced “ah.” Thus the vowel sound in both words is identical. K and G are based on the same root sound. K

and G are formed in exactly the same way by the tongue and pallet.

The only difference is the way the air is released at the end. Yak and Yog are phonetic equivalents. To prove this

to yourself try saying Yog (as in dog) then Yak (as in hawk) alternately. They sound quite similar. Set is, of

course, the deity Set and Thoth is again the god Thoth. Thus Yak-Set Thoth translates as “Set and Thoth are one”

or “the union of Set and Thoth.” Set and Thoth are the dark and light aspects of the moon respectively in

Egyptian mythology. According to The Rites of the Gods the magical significance of the name Yak-Set Thoth is

“the union of opposites in lunar-vaginal context.”

NYARLATHOTEP

No translation for Nyarlathotep was offered in the introduction to The Rites of the Gods. I first realized, many

years ago, that Ny and Hotep were Egyptian words meaning “not” and “peaceful” respectively. “Not peaceful”

certainly seemed to fit Lovecraft’s Nyarlathotep. I still didn‟t know what “Arlat” could mean. I am again

indebted to William Hamblin for the complete translation. Ny means “not” Har means “at” or “through” Lut

“gateway” or “place of judgment” and Hotep means “peace” or “rest.”

Thus Nyharluthotep translates as “there is no peace through the gateway” or “there is no peace (rest) at the place

of judgment.” The magickal functions of Nyharluthotep are very close to those of Thoth (Teht). In face, some

people suggest that they may indeed represent the same force. The Thoth-Nyharluthotep equivalence will

probably clarify the meaning of the name Asa-Thoth. (Please note that just because I used information from

William Hamblin‟s writings in this post does NOT mean that Mr. Hamblin shares any of the views in this post.)

It is very interesting that the Barbarous names associated with the Necronomicon do not only have an Egyptian

word and obey Egyptian sound but seem to made of actual Egyptian words and obey Egyptian Grammar.

Corrupt Egyptian words and phrases often appear in Arab magickal texts. The appearance of what certainly

seems to be real barbarous names in Lovecraft‟s fiction should cause one serious thought. Did HPL derive these

names from a rare book on Arab magick? Could it be Coincidence?

I‟ve been researching Arab magick (and it connection to Lovecraft) for nearly 10 years so I won‟t be able to list

every source I‟ve used. However I should be able to give resource in which people interested can verify ALL the

claims I make.

But first let me say a word about what I didn‟t use as sources. I did NOT use ANY of A. Crowley‟s ideas on

Near Eastern mythology or language as a source for the information on Arab magick and mysticism. Nor did I

use any of Crowley‟s ideas in my suggestions on the Egyptian meaning of the barbarous names (I did use W.

Hamblin Ideas about Nyarlathotep though). Crowley was NOT a source. I did not use any of Colin Wilson‟s

“research” at all. Nor did I use the Simon “Necronomicon” as a major resource. I adapted ONE idea from that

book only after I CAREFULLY VERIFIED it in other more reputable sources

IREM OF THE PILLARS

Those of you looking for general sources should begin with these. A Dictionary of mythical places by Robin

Palmer. Arabian Nights ed. by R.F. Burton (get the 10 Vol. set) For those who want to research how Irem fits

into Arab magick and Mysticism should try to find this book The Muqarribun: Arab Magic and Myth by Steve

Lock and Jamal Khaldun. (It talks about the “hidden” meaning of Irem etc.)

I believe Idries Shaw also mentions how Irem fit into Sufi mysticism in one of his books but I can‟t remember

which. Mr. Shaw briefly talks about the double meaning of “Pillars” in Arabic (which means Old Ones) in The

Sufis. (the art of encoding/decoding “hidden” meaning in Arab mystical writings is called Tawil).

38

RUB AL KHALI

The sources for the Rub al Khali are mostly the same as Irem. You can also check out Kenneth Grant‟s

Hecate’s Fountain. Note that I am NOT saying Grant should be read as a good historical source, he is not.

HOWEVER his ideas on the Rub al Khali are nearly the same with those of the ancient Muqarribun.

MAD POET

If you want a short cut to verify that the Arabic word for mad “majnun” also means “possessed by Jinn” and that

poets are said to be inspired by Jinn just look up Jinn in Man, Myth, and Magic. If you‟d like to go to the original

source find Notes on the Arabian Nights and The Modern Egyptians by Lane. The Sufis by Idries Shaw also

briefly mentions Majnun

THE JINN

Again the short cut to check out the validity of what was posted on the Jinn is to look up Jinn in Man, Myth, and

Magic. If you want a more detailed source look up Genii in A Dictionary of Islam. This book has much

information not covered in M.M.M. In A Dictionary of Islam Jinn are said to have come the Earth ages before

man existed. They were the first of Earths masters. They built huge cities whose ruins still stand in forgotten

places. Aeons later many Jinn were forced to flee Earth while other were imprisoned.

Still other roam desolate places to this day. The Jinn are said to be invisible to normal men. They are, however

able to interbreed with humans but the human parent may suffer when the dark offspring is born (shade of the

Dunwich Horror.) The Jinn will, according to legend survive mankind (the last of Earths masters?) I don‟t need

to point out the parallels to Lovecraft‟s Old Ones. If you want more information than is provided in A

Dictionary of Islam try Notes on Arabian Nights by Lane also try using the term search (Jinn) through ILL.

There are whole books on the Jinn.

KHADHULU

Khadhulu is the Arabic word meaning “abandoner” or “forsaker.” The primary source to read to research the role

of “the Abandoner” in Arab magick is The Muqarribun: Arab Magic and myth by Steve Lock and Jamal

Khaldun. In this book the transliteration of “the Abandoner” is “al qhadhulu.” (I use the transliteration

“Khadhulu” because I‟ve been told it is more correct.)

In this book the authors state that al qhadhulu (Khadhulu) is a type of spiritual force that powers the practices of

Tafrid and Tajrid. These are exercises that are used to transcend (abandon) normal cultural programming. The

idea is that by transcending (abandoning) Dogma and fixed beliefs a person can see reality as it is. Al qhadhulu

is stimulated by the Nafs (breath or soul.) The stimulated “abandoner” then causes the Hal or spiritual state. the

relationship between Nafs, al qhadhulu and Hal is very intricate and this is very oversimplified. Lock and

Khaldun state that the abandoner is mentioned some Sufi poetry. Another source that you may want to read is

Further Notes On the Necronomicon by William Hamblin.

Mr. Hamblin Compares Cthulhu with Khadhulu in this article. I hate to admit it but I had owned The

Muqarribun... for at least three years before I read Mr. Hamblin‟s article and I never noticed how close al

qhadhulu (Khadhulu) is to Cthulhu. I also did not know that Khadhulu appears in the Quran (25:29) until I read

Mr. Hamblin‟s article. I have since talked to several Muslims about this verse.

The verse translates as “Mankind, Shaitan is al khadhulu.”

They have explained two orthodox interpretations of this verse to me the first is that Shaitan will abandon man.

the other is that Shaitan causes men to forsake Islam and its culture. You‟ll note that this second interpretation is

fairly consistent with the spiritual meaning the ancient Muqarribun give al qhadhulu. (Obviously an orthodox

Muslim would think Muqarribun practices Sinful.) This verse in the Quran is important because it links the

“abandoner” Khadhulu with Shaitan the Old Dragon, Lord of the Abyss.

SHAITAN LEVIATHAN AND TIAMAT

The Image of Shaitan as The Dragon was well established by the writing of the Quran. The old Dragon is

Leviathan. Leviathan traces to Lotan. Lotan to Tietan. And Tietan is Tiamat. This can be verified in MANY

sources. One standard one is The Gods of the Egyptian by E.A. Budge. S.N. Kramer is another. (see below)

KUTULU

Kutulu is a Sumerian translation of the title Lord of the Abyss. KUTU means Abyss. LU means lord or person of

39

importance. L.K.Barnes was first to note the similarity of Cthulhu and Kutulu in Simon’s “Necronomicon.” I

was therefore quite skeptical of it accuracy.

I carefully read History Begins at Sumer and Sumerian Mythology by S.N.Kramer as well as several other books

on Sumerian mythology/culture. I discovered that the translation given to Kutulu is TOTALLY ACCURATE. I

also verified that KUTU is closely tied to the Sleeping Dragon (Tiamat) in Sumerian myth.

ARAB MYSTICAL POETRY

Arabic mystical poetry is a complete field of study in itself. The Pre-Islamic prophets used the Sadj style of

verse. This is the same style that the Quran is written in. The early Muqarribun poetry is in the Ruba‟I style

which is fairly simple. Later Muqarribun and Sufi poetry was written in the Mathnawi form of verse. Idries

Shaw talks about the role of poetry in Arab mysticism in The Way of the Sufi. Lelah Bakhtiar has a short

chapter on poetry in Sufi Expressions of the Mystic Quest. Another more detailed source is Structural Continuity

in Poetry. A Linguistic study of five Pre-Islamic Odes by Mary C. Bateson

THE BARBAROUS NAMES

I have to admit I haven‟t done enough research into this area YET. This is my next big project. I‟ll post anything

of interest I learn in my research. The translations for Yak-Set Thoth and Asa-Thoth are from The Rites of the

Gods. The translation of Nyharluthotep is from Further Notes on the Necronomicon by William Hamblin. If

you want more information on corrupt Egyptian word formulas in general try using the term search through ILL

(Gnostic Coptic or Greco-Egyptian). The best books available on Egyptian mythology are by E.A. Budge.

RECOMMENDED READING

AND RESEARCH GUIDE

ARAB MYTHOLOGY, MYSTICISM AND MAGICK

The Book of a Thousand Nights and a Night trans. by R.F. Burton

This is the huge 10 Vol. set. The Sufis and Muqarribun say these books contain many mystical and magickal

secrets. A. Crowley calls them a “valuable storehouse of oriental magicklore. VERY GOOD. Much of the

material in this is very Lovecraftian.

The Secret Lore of Magic by Idries Shaw

This is an interesting and very useful book if you can read BETWEEN THE LINES. Shaw almost never comes

directly out and say anything of importance. He does hint in the right directions though. Contains some good

general info. on Arab magick.

The Muqarribun: Arab myth and Magic by Steve Lock and Jamal Khaldun

This is a nice little source on Arab magick. Some of the material on Irem and the “abandoner” is relevant to

HPL. This books main drawback is that it is too short.

Fabled Cities, Princes and Jinn from Arab Myth by Khiray Al Salem

Although this book is also short and is for young readers it contains some information that is hard to find

elsewhere. It is most useful if you keep your eyes open for double meanings.

Notes on Arabian Night by Lane

This contains some information on the Jinn that is quite good Sufi Expressions of the Mythic Quest by Laleh

Bakhtiar. this is an intriguing book that touches on such subjects as mystic poetry, dreams, the Dragon, the Jinn

etc. The chapters are to short and it hints more than it says.

The Sufis by Idries Shaw

This book contains scattered gems of information. Not very detailed. Shaw‟s attempt to show that every western

mystical group was influenced by the Sufis is silly.

The Way of the Sufi by Idries Shaw

This is a good book if you are interested in Arab mysticism Per Se. Otherwise don‟t bother.

Tales of the Prophets of al-Kisai by Muhhammad ibn abd Allah Kisai 11th century

40

Good for its data on preIslamic prophets. Interesting stuff if you have enough background in Arab magickal

studies.

The Book of Annihilation author unknown.

This is a short Arabic book on magick. It is not of much use if you don‟t have a friend to translate. It is in general

not unlike HPL style grimoire. No Yog-Sothoth or Azatoth here though.

Making of the Last Prophet by Mohammad Ibn Ishaq

This book has some interesting material on Pre-Islamic prophets Hajar bin Humeid by Gus Willa VanBeek this

is a good source on Pre-Islamic culture in general.

SUMERIA AND RELATED

Sumerian Mythology by S.N. Kramer

History Begins at Sumer. by S.N. Kramer

Sumer by Andre Parrot

Cuneiform Texts by Giorgio Buccellat

EGYPTIAN MYTHOLOGY AND MAGICK

The Gods of the Egyptians Vol .1+2 by E.A. Budge

Isis and Osiris Vol. 1+2 by E.A. Budge

Egyptian Magic by E.A. Budge

The Egyptian Language by E.A. Budge

An Egyptian Hieroglyphic Dictionary by E.A. Budge

otes regarding the

Necronomicon Project by HPL

from AlAzif-Necronomicon Website

What is the "Necronomicon Project" ?

Somebody called it, in a mail I received, a 'necronomicon project'... it is not yet a project, but I would love to see

it becoming one. The book as it exists right now is a draft of what I think it could (or should) be.

This Necronomicon started as an HTML enhanced version of an old web page available on the web back in 1994

(I can't find the original version anymore). It was part of the De Web Mysteriis pages, a website about

H.P.Lovecraft's works I used to maintain when I was in college in 1994-1997.

De Web Mysteriis pages no longer exist, although I may revive them someday. In a way, I am already reviving

part of that site with these pages.

Is this a real Necronomicon ?

No. Again, this is only an artistic view of what the mythic book could be. I do not believe in the existance of a

real Necronomicon whatsoever. To me, the Necronomicon is a storytelling device created by H.P.Lovecraft to tie

some of his stories together. You can find references about letters where Lovecraft explained how he created the

book on the brilliant page by Donovan.K.Loucks. Click below button:

How did the idea start ?

The idea is very simple. It started from a sad observation : look around on the Net, all you can find about so

called versions of the Necronomicon are raw ascii texts, sometimes with a couple of pictures. There are articles

too, bibliographies, analyses... fine.. but I could find nowhere something that could look like the Necronomicon

as I picture it. In the same time, I opened a guestbook on my 'Mysteriis Pages' and it happeared some people

41

wrote very good pieces on it (unfortunately I lost a large part of the entries after a crash :( ). What started with a

simple guestbook looked more like a kind of diary, filled with quotes, thoughts, warnings or poems about the

Mythos. This gave me the idea of a collaborative work around the Al Azif and that's why I started to collect

materials about the book and make my own version.

The Necronomicon I envision is an imaginary book, with drawings, pictures, poems, chronicles... just like the

book described by Lovecraft. I have some drawing left to scan and put on the net for some extra pages. It's just a

question of time.

I am sending this call for contribution for an obvious reason : There can't be a single vision of the

Necronomicon. If we could put together the works of anyone who would like to share his own vision ( with

drawings or poems or ritual or whatever ), we could come up with a unique place on the web. A kind of virtual

Al Azif. Previous experiences proved it : collaborative work on the net is far more various and interesting that

the vision of a single person.

All I am doing now is to offer web space and part of my time to build this vision.

So.. how can people contribute to it ?

As I said it above, by sending :

drawings, pictures, paintings to illustrate the pages already existing.

stories, chronicles, articles that could have been written by the Mad Arab himself or followers.

comments, annotations, just like those you can find on real books.

They can be raw text or full HTML pages , it's fine, as long as I can download them here and insert them in the

site.

Al Azif - Necronomicon

the Book of the Arab, Abdul Alhazred,

730 at Damascus

able of Contents

The complete list of document translated to date.

Preliminary Notes

Where you can find everything you want to know about the 'Necronomicon Project', its origin and how it is

related to H.P.Lovecraft's "Necronomicon".

Historical notes - by H.P. Lovecraft

Myth or Reality ? - references about the Necronomicon

I.Book of the Dead Names

This book is about how the secrets where revealed to the Author in a dangerous journey in earthly deserts and

unearthly lands..

the Testimony of Abl-Al Hazred

the diary of a madman

42

II. Book of the Old Ones

This Book is about The Old Ones, where they come from, where they lie and how they shall come again.

Of the Old Ones and their Spawns

the Old Ones and Ancient Times

the Coming-Down of the Old Ones

Hastur the Unspeakable

Nyarlathotep

the Serpent-bearded Byatis

Of The Old Ones and the Gates

Ubbo-Sathla

odd correspondances with earthly elements

Of Y'golonac

Legacy of the Old Ones

Cyäegha Who Did Not Know It Existed,

Dream-Witch Yidhra

the Worm That Gnaws

III. Book of Places

This Book is about lands on Earth and beyond, real places and dreamed ones, and about the ways to visit them.

Earthly places

Leng in the Cold Waste

Irem Of Thousand Pillars

R'leyh the Deep

Hyperborea

Of Outer Places

Yaddith

Yuggoth

Of the Dream Lands

Sarnath and the Land of Mnar

Kadath the Unknown

IV. Book of Summonning

This Book is about the rituals to use and portals to open for summonning The Old Ones and Other Beings to this

Earth.

the Times and the Seasons to be Observed

to Raise up the Stones

the Adjuration of Great Cthulhu

Shub-Niggurath the Black

to Call Forth Yog-Sothoth

Ritual for summoning Yog-Sothoth and opening the Gate

Call to the Render of the Veils

V. Book of Materials

This Book is about the tools, materials and other protections the reader will need in order to perform The Arts.

Of protective devices

Compound the Incense of Zkauba

Make the Powder of Ibn Ghazi

Unction of Khephnes the Egyptian

43

To Fashion the Scimitar of Barzai

VI. Book of Signs

This Book is about the symbols, signs and languages necessary to a good use of The Arts.

the Alphabet of Nug-Soth

potent signs

sacred seals

VII. Book of Rituals

This Book is about ceremonies and rituals The Reader shall perform to be revealed past and future events, and

The Secrets of the Arts.

the old ones and earth magick

the Ritual of Dho-Hna

History of the Necronomicon

by Howard Phillips Lovecraft

from Dr.Cracker'sProgrammerPage Website

Original title Al-Azif -- azif being the word used by the Arabs to designate that nocturnal sound (made by

insects) supposed to be the howling of daemons.

Composed by Abdul Al-Hazred, a mad poet of Sanaa, in Yemen,who is said to have flourished during the period

of the Ommiade caliphs, circa 700 A.D. He visited the ruins of Babylon and the subterranean secrets of Memphis

and spent ten years alone in the great southern desert of Arabia - the Roba al Khaliyeh, or "Empty Space" of the

ancients and "Dahma" or "Crimson" desert of the modern Arabs, which is held to be inhabited by protective evil

spirits and monsters of death. Of this desert many strange a nd unbelievable marvels are told by those who

pretend to have

penetrated it. In his last years, Al-Hazred dwelt in Damascus, where the Necronomicon (Al Azif) was written,

and of his final death or disappearnce (738 A.D.) many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn

Khallikan (12th century biographer) to have been seized by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured

horribly before a large number of fright-frozen witnesses. Of his madness many things are told. He claimed to

have seen the fabulous Irem, or City of Pillars, and to have found beneath the ruins of a certain nameless desert

town the shocking annals and secrets of a race older than mankind. He was only an indifferent Moslem,

worshipping unknown deities whom he called Yog-Sothoth and Cthulhu.

In A.D. 950 the Azif, which had gained a considerable though surreptitious circulation amongst the philosphers

of the age, was secretly translated into Greek by Theodorus Philetas of Constantinople under the title

Necronomicon.

For a century it impelled certain experimenters to terrible attempts, when it was suppressed and burnt by the

patriarch Michael. After this it is only heard of furtively, but Olaus Wormius (1228) made a Latin translation

later in the Middle Ages, and the Latin text was printed twice - once in the 15th century in blackletter (evidently

in German) and once in the 17th (probably Spanish); both editions being without identifying marks, and located

as to time and place by internal typographic evidence only.

The work, both Latin and Greek, was banned by Pope Gregory IX in 1232, shortly after its Latin translation,

which called attention to it.

The Arabic original was lost as early as Wormius' time, as indicated by his prefatory note (there is, however, a

vague account of a secret copy appearing in San Francisco during the present century but later perishing by fire);

and no sight of the Greek copy - which was printed in Italy between 1500 and 1550 - has been reported since the

44

burning of a certain Salem man's library in 1692.

An English translation made by Dr. [John] Dee was never printed, and exists only in fragments recovered from

the original MS.

Of the Latin texts now existing one (15th century) is known to be in the British Museum under lock and key,

which another (17th century) is in the Bilbiotheque Nationale at Paris. A 17th century edition is in the Widener

Library at Harvard, and in the Library of Miskatonic University at Arkham; also in the library of the University

of Buenos Aires.

Numerous other copies probably exist in secret, and a 15th century one is persistently rumoured to form part of

the collection of a celebrated American millionaire. A still vaguer rumor credits the preservation of a 16th

century Greek text in the Salem family of Pickman; but if it was so preserved, it vanished with the artist R.U.

Pickman, who disappeared early in 1926. The book is rigidly suppressed by the authorities of most countries,

and by all branches of ornaised eccleciasticism. Reading leads to terrible consequences. It was from rumours of

this book (of which relatively few of the general public know) that R.W.Chambers is said to have derived the

idea of his early novel The King in Yellow.

ook of the Dead Names

here the reader will discover the Testimony of Abl-Al Hazred , your servent.

45

the book reveals the places of wonder I visited, the unhearthly horrors I encountered, which lead me to forsaking

madness as show in my diary, the diary of a madman. For it must be madness to believe in the things I have

seen, in the rituals I have performed, in the places I have been and the Times I have visited.

the Reader will find throughout these pages the sum of all knowledge I have collected during this maddenning

journey. May this book take place that of a warning against the Things that are Waiting Between Worlds...

-e Testimony of Abl-Al Hazred

his is the testimony of all that I have seen, and all that I have learned, in those thears that I have

possesed the Three Seals of MASSHU. I have seen One Thousand and-One moons, and surely this is

enough for the span of a mans life, though it is said the Prophets lived much longer. I am weak, and ill,

and bear great tired- ness and exaustion, and a sigh hangs in my breast like a

dark lantern, I am old.

The wolves carry thier name in thier midnight speeches, and that quiet, subtle

Voice is summoning me from afar. And a voice much closer will shout into my

ear with unholy impatience. The weight of my soul will decide its final resting

place. Before the time, I must put down here all that I can concerning the

horrors that stalk Without, and which lie in wait at the door of every man, for

this is the ancient arcana that has been handed down of old, but which has

been forgotten by all but a few men, the worshippers of the Ancient Ones

(may thier names be blotted out!)

And if I do not finish this task, take what is here and discover the rest, for

time is short and mankind does not know or understand the evil that awaits it,

from every side, from every open Gate, from every broken barrier, from every

mindless acolyte at the alters of madness.

For this is the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Black Earth, that I have writ

down at the peril of my life, exactly as I recieved it, on the planes of IGIGI,

the cruel celestial spirits from beyond the Wanderers of the Wastes.

Let all who read this book be warned thereby that the habitation of men are

seen and surveyed by that Ancient Race of gods and demons from a time

before time, and that they seek revenge for that forgotten battle that took

place somewhere in the Cosmos and rent the Worlds in the days before the

creation of Man, when the Elder Gods walked the Spaces, the race of

MARDUK, as he is known to the Chaldeans, and of ENKI our master, the

Lord of Magicians.

Know, then, that I have trod all the Zones of the Gods, and also the places of

Azonei, and have descended into the foul places of Death and Eternal Thirst,

which may be reached through the Gate of GANZIR, which was built in UR in the days before Babylonian was.

Know, too, that I have spoken with all manner of spirit and daemon, whose names are no longer known in the

societies of Man, or were never known. And the seals of these are writ herein ; yet others I must take with me

when I leave you. ANU have mercy on my soul!

I have seen the Unknown Lands, that no map has ever charted. I have lived in the deserts and the wastelands,

and spoken with demons and the souls of slaughtered men, and of women who have died in childbirth, victims of

the she-fiend LAMMASHTA.

46

I have traveled beneath the Seas, in search of the Palace of Our Master, and found the stone monuments of

vanquished civilizations, and de- ciphered the writings of some of these; while still others remain mysteries to

any man who lives. And these civilizations were destrothed because of the knoeledge contained in this book.

I have traveled among the stars, and trembled before the gods. I have at last found the formula by which I passed

the gate of ARZIR, and passed into the forbidden realms ofthe foul IGIGI.

I have raised demons, and the dead.

I have summoned the ghosts of my ancestors to real and visible appearence on the tops of temples built to reach

the stars, and built to touch the nethermost cavities of HADES. I have wrestled with the Black Magician, AZAG-

THOTH, in vain, and fled to the Earth by calling upon INANNA and her brother MARDUK, Lord of the double-

headed AXE.

47

I have raised armiesagainst the Lands of the East, by summoning the hordes of fiends I have made subject unto

me, and so doing found NGAA, the god of the heathens, who breathes flame and roares like a thousand thunders.

I have found fear.

I have found the Gate that leads to the Outside, by which the Ancient Ones, who ever seek the entrance to our

world, keep eternal watch. I have smelled the vapors of that Ancient One, Queen of the Outside, whose name is

writ in the MAGAN text, the testiment of some dead civilization whose priests, seeking power, swing open the

dread, evil Gate for an hour past the time and were consumed.

I came to possess this knowledge through circumstances quite peculiar, while still the unlettered son of a

shepherd in what is called Mesopotamia by the Greeks.

When I was only a youth, traveling alone in the mountains to the East, called MASSHU by the people who live

there, I came upon a grey rock carved with three strange symbols. It stood as high as a man, and as wide around

as a bull. It was firmly in the ground, and I could not move it. Thinking no more of the carvings, save that they

might be the work of a king to mark some Ancient victory over an enemy, I built a fire at its foot to protect me

from the from the wolves that wander in that reigons and went to sleep, for it was night and I was far from my

village, being Bet Durrabia. Bieng about three hours from dawn, in the nineteenth of Shabatu, I was awakened

by the howl of a dog, or perhaps a wolf, uncommonly loud and close at hand. The fire had died to its embers,

and these red, glowing coals cast a faint, dancing shadow across the stone monument with the three carvings. I

began to make haste to build another fire when, at once, the grey rock began to rise slowly into the air, as if it

were a dove. I could not move or speak for the fear that siezed upon my spine and wrapped cold fingers around

my skull. The Dik of Azug-bel-ya was no stranger seemed to melt into my hands!

Presently, I heard a voice, softly, some distance away and a more practical fear, that the possibility of robbers,

took hold of me and I rolled behind weeds, trembling. Another voice joined the first, and soon several men in

black robes of thieves came together over the place where I was, surroundin the floating rock, of which they did

not exhibit in the least fright.

I could see clearly now that the three carvings on the stone monument were glowing, a flame red color, as

through the rock were on fire. The figures were murmuring together in prather or invocation, of which only a

few words could be heard, and these in some unknown tongue; though, ANU have mercy on my soul!, these

rituals are not unknown to me any longer.

The figures, whose faces I could not see or recognize, began to make wild passes in the air with knives that

glinted cold and sharp in the mountain night.

From beneath the floating rock, out of the very ground where it had sat, came rising the tail of a serpent. This

serpent was surely larger than any I had ever seen. The thinnest section thereof was fully that of the arms of two

men, and as it rose from the earth it was followed by another, although the end of the first was not seen as it

seemed to reach down into the very Pit itself. These were followed by still more, and the ground began to

tremble under the pressure of so many of these enormous arms. The chanting of the priests, for I knew them now

to be some the servents ofsome hidden Power, became much louder and nearly hysterical.

IA! IA! ZI AZAG!

IA!IA! ZI AZKAK!

IA! IA! KUTULU ZI KUR!

IA!

The ground where I was hiding became wet with some substance, being slightly downhill from the scene I was

witnessing. I touched the wetness and found it to be blood. In horror I screamed and gave my presence away to

the priests. They turned toward me, and I saw with loathing that they had cut their chests with the daggers they

had used to raise the stone, for some mystical purpose I could not then divine; although I now know that blood is

the very food of these spirits, which is why tha field after the battles of war glows with an unnatural light, the

manifestation of the spirits feeding thereon.

May ANU protect us all!

48

My scream had the effect of casting thier ritual into chaos and disorder. I raced through the mountain path by

which I had come, and the priests came running after me, although some seemed to stay behind, perhaps to

finish the Rites. However, as I ran wildly down the slopes in the cold night, my heart gave rise in my chest and

my head growing hot, the sound of splitting rocks and thunder came from behind me and shook the very ground I

ran on. In fright and haste I fell to the earth.

Rising, I turned to face whatever attackerhad come nearest me, though I was unarmed. To my surprise, what I

saw was no priest of ancient horror, no necromancer of that forbidden Art, but black robes fallen upon the grass

and weeds, with no seeming presance of life or bodies beneath them.

I walked cautiously to the first and, picking up a long twig, lifted the robe from the tangle of weeds and thorns.

All that remained of the priest was a pool of slime, like green oil, and the smell of a body lain long in the sun to

rot. Such a stench nearly overpowered me, but I was resolute to find the others, to see if the same fortune had

also befallen them.

Walking back up the slope that I had so fearfully run down only moments ago, I came across yet another of the

black priests, in identical condition to the first. I kept walking, passing more of the robes as I went, not venturing

to overturn them any longer. Then, I finally came upon the grey stone monument that had risen unnaturally into

the air at the command of the priests. It was now upon the ground once more, but the carvings still glowed with

supernatural light. The serpents, or what I had then thought of as serpents, had disappeared. But in the dead

embers of the fire, now cold and black, was a shining metal plate. I picked it up and saw that it was also carved,

as the stone, but very intricatly, after a fasion I could not understand. It did not bear the same markings as the

stone, but I had the feeling I coukd almost read the characters, but could not, as though I once knew the tongue

but had since long forgotten. Mt head began to ache as though a devil was pounding my skull, when a shaft of

moonlight hit the metal amulet, for I know now what it was, and a voice entered my head and told me the secrets

of the scene I had witnessed in one word:

KUTULU.

In that moment, as though whispered fiercly into my ear, I understood.

These were the signs carved upon the grey stone, that was the gate to the Outside:

(I wish to apologize for the primitive descriptions of the symbols but its about the best that can be done with this

file writer)

The amulet that I held in my hand, and hold to this very day, around my neck as I write these words, is this:

(after seeing the so-called picture of the symbols you can probably understand why I did not attempt to show you

the amulet)

Of the three symbols carved, the first is the Sign of our Race from beyond the Stars, and is called ARRA in the

tongue of the Scribe who taught it to me, an emissary of the Elder Ones. In the tongue of the eldest city of

Babylon, it was UR. It is the Sigil of the Covenant of the Elder Gods, and when they see it, they who gave it to us,

they will not forget us. They have sworn!

Spirit of the Skies, Remember!

The second sign is the Elder Sign, and is the Key whereby the Powers of the Elder Gods may be summoned,

when used with the proper words and shapes. It has a Name, and is called AGGA.

49

The third sign is the Sigil of the Watcher. It is called BANDAR. The Watcher is a Race sent by the Elder Ones. It

keeps vigil while one sleeps provided the appropriate rituals and sacrifice has been preformed; else, if called, it

will turn upon you.

These seals, to be effective, must be graven on stoneand set in the ground. Or, set upon the alter of offerings. Or,

carried to the Rock of Invocations. Or, engraved upon the metal of ones God or Goddes and hung about the

neck, but hidden from the view of the profane. Of these three, the ARRA and the AGGA may be used seperatly,

that is to say singly, and alone. The BANDAR however, must never be used alone, but with one or both of the

others, for the Watcher must needs to be reminded of the Covenant he has sworn with the Elder Gods and our

Race, else it will turn upon thee and slay thee and ravage thy town untill succour is to be had from the Elder

Gods by the tears of thy people and the wailing of thy women.

KAKAMMU!

The fire amulet that I retrieved from the ashes of the fire, and which caught the light of the moon, is a potent seal

against whatever may come in the Gate from the Outside for, seeing it, they willretreat from thee SAVE ONLY IF

IT CATCH THE LIGHT OF THE MOON UPON ITS SURFACE for, in the dark days of the moon, or in clouds,

there can be little protection against the fiends from the Ancient Land should they break the barrier, or be let in

by thier servants upon the face of the Earth. In such a case, no recourse is to be had untill the light of the moon

shines upon the Earth, for the moon is the Eldest among the Zonei, and is the starry symbol of our pact. NANNA,

Father of the Gods, Remember!

Wherefore, the amulet must be engraved upon pure silver in the full light of the moon, that the moon shine upon

it at its working, and the essence of the moon be drawn down and captured therein. And the proper incantations

must be performed, and the prescribed rituals as given forth in this Book. And the amulet must NEVER be

exposed to the light of the Sun, for SHAMMASH called UDU, in his jealousy, will rob the seal of its power. In

such case, it must be bathed in waters of camphor, and the incantations and ritual performed once again. But

verily, it were better to engrave another.

These secrets I give to thee at the pain of my life, never to be revealed to the profane, or the banished, or the

Worshippers of the Ancient Serpent, but to keep within thine own heart, always silent upon these things.

Peace be to thee!

Henceforth, from that fateful night in the mountains of MASSHU, I wandered about the countryside in search of

the key to the secret knowledge that had been given me. And it was a painful and lonley journey, during which

time I took no wife, called no house or village my home, and dwelt in variuos countries, often in caves or in the

deserts, lerning several tongues as a traveler, to bargin with the tradespeople and learn of the news and

customs. But my bargining was with the Powers that reside in each of these countries. And soon, I came to

understand many things of which before I had no knowledge, except perhaps in dreams. The friends of my youth

deserted me, and I them. When I was seven thears gone from my family, I learned that they had all died of thier

own hand, for reasons no one was able to tell me; thier flocks had later been slain as the victoms of some

strange epidemic.

I wandered as a begger, being fed from town to town as the local people saw fit, often being stoned instead of

threatened with imprisonment. On occasion, I was able to convince some learned man that I was a sincere

scholar, and was thereby permitted to read the Ancient Records in which the details of necromancy, sorcery,

magick and alchemy are given. I learned of the spells that cause men illness, the plague, blindness, insanity and

even death. I learned the various classes of demons and evil gods that exist, and of the old legends concerning

the Ancient Ones. I was thus able to arm myself against the dread Maskim, who lie in wait about the boundaries

of the world, ready to trap the unwary and devour the sacrifices set out at night and in deserted places; against

the she-devil LAMMASHTA, who is called Sword that Splits the Skull, the sight of whom causes horror and

dismay, and (some say) death of a most uncommon nature.

In time I learned of the names and properties of all the demons, devils, fiends and monsters listed herein, in this

Book of the Black Earth. I learned of the powers in the astral Gods, and how to summon thier aid in times of

need. I learned, too, of the frightful beings who dwell beyond the astral spirits, who guard the entrance to the

Temple of the Lost, of the Ancient Days the Ancient of the Ancient Ones, whose Name I connot write here.

50

In my solitary ceremonies in the hills, worshipping with fire and sword, with water and dagger, and with the

assistance of strange grass that grows wild in certain parts of the MASSHU, and with which I had unwittingly

built my fire before the rock, that grass that gives the mind great power to travel termendous distances into the

heavens, as also into the hells, I recieved the formulae for the amulets and talismans which follow, which

provide the Priest with safe passage among the spheres wherein he may travel in search of the Wisdom.

But now, after One Thousand-and-One moons of the journey, the Maskim nip at my heels, the Rabishu pull at my

hair, Lammashta opens her dread jaws, AZAG-THOTH gloats blindly at his throne, KUTULU raises his head

and stares up through the Veils of sunkun Varloorni, up through the Abyss, and fixes his stare upon me;

wherefore I must with haste write this Book lest my end come sooner than I had prepared. For indeed, it appears

as though I have failed in some regard as to the order of the rites, or to the formulae, or to the sacrifices, for

now it appears as if the entire host of ERESSKIGAL lies waiting, dreaming, drooling for my departure. I pray

the gods that I am saved (which he is not, for "gods" cannot save ones soul, only GOD) and not perish as did the

Priest, ABDUL BEN-MARTU, in Jerusalem (the gods remember and have mercy upon him!). My fate is no

longer writ in the stars, for I have broken the Chaldean Covenant by seeking power over the Zonei. I have set

foot on the moon, and the moon no longer has power over me. The lines of my life have been obliterated by my

wanderings in the Waste, over the letters writ in the heavens by the gods. And even now I can hear the wolves

howling in the mountains as they did that fateful night, and they are calling my name, and the names of the

Others. I fear for my flesh, but I fear for my spirit more.

Remember, always, in every empty moment, to call upon the gods not to forget thee, for they are forgetful and

very far away. Light thy fires high in the hills, and on the tops of temples and pyramids, that they may see and

remember.

Remember, always, to copy each of the formulae as I have put it down and not to change it by one line or dot,

not so much as hair's breadth, lest it be rendered valueless, or worse: a broken line provides means of entrance

for those Outside, for a broken star is the Gate of GANZIR, the Gate of Death, the Gate of the Shodows and the

Shells. Recite the incantations as they are written here, in the manner thus prescribed. Prepare the rituals

without erring, and in the proper places and times render the sacrifices.

May the gods ever be merciful unto thee!

May thou escape the jaws of the MASKIM, and vanquish the power to the Ancient Ones!

AND THE GODS GRANT THEE DEATH BEFORE THE ANCIENT ONES RULE THE EARTH ONCE

MORE!KAKAMMU! SELAH!

-e diary of a madman

( Annotated by Jacob Strauss, Magus of the Shining Hill)

None are innocent.

There are only those weak enough to believe they are.

And those strong enough to revel in the knowledge

that they are not. ~Jacob Strauss, Magus of the Shining Hill, London 1940

o be a black magician is perhaps the most dangerous thing one can attempt, for you risk not only your

life and mind but your essence -- what simpler minds call the "soul" -- as well. You may beat the odds

and become a god, but most likely you will go mad.

Or -- and this may be worst of all -- you may do both.

Oh thou who wrote of evil things remember : they always are inspired by the Evil Ones you shall meet after your

passing, so turn your dark thoughts to repentment and prather since the road to Hell is much shorter than what

you believe : do not let you wicked soul to become as dark as this page.

We hunt a horror that feeds on human tears . . .

51

After the western horizon's blood turns black, and all through the dusky hours, I, in my solitude, roam the far

flung realms of time. In ancient halls with brazen censers smoldering, strange shadows dance across vaulted

ceilings and curtains of rich velvet. And those stone chambers ring with echoes of the twisted language of

conjuration, lighted by the glow of otherworldly powers. The walls meet at impossible angles and there tread

unearthly fiends that are deranged nightmares come to life. Frozen by fear, I remain unseen. And ere a tint of

rose in the east heralds the coming dawn I am released from my nocturnal wanderings and am allowed to return

from whence I came beyond the wall of sleep. Only then do all those things vanish and be gone with the morning

mist until my awakening once again gives them life.

While traveling from island to island, I heard many tales of ancient and forgotten lore. Although I dismissed

many of these stories as nonsensical superstitions, I found the tale of Orobla singularly significant. It evoked half

remembered feelings that I had not felt since I had slept in the ancient city of many pillared Irem.

Hearken unto the incessant prattle that constantly spewed forth from the many mouths of Orobla, the Beast of

the forgotten lies,

"Does the horrid face of Boac-Treth tolerate frail human cowardice? You know that it can not. Such is its

nature. So why, I say again unto you, why do you not arise and strike down the blasphemers who would deny the

ultimate truth? You know your cowardice will not be tolerated. the wrath of the Old Ones will surely fall upon

you all! Do you not feel the dreams of the one who sleeps beneath the waves? Do you hope that he will be

pleased by your payetic nature when his harsh gaze falls upon you? No. Surely, he shall devour you with all of

the others who have forgotten the way! How can you continue to behave in such a frail and inconstant manner

when all of you have seen the wondorus lens of the moon and the crucible of eternal vitae? You puny beings are

as worthless as so much excrement. I will laugh with joy when Yog-Sothoth and his favored son appear. They

together shall set aright all that has been mislaid. I shall dance upon many legs when the cloven feet of the Goat

with a Thousand Young pounds the infidels back into the dust from which they arose. I will be as one with the

dark minion himself, the one who walks abroad in the form of a man, but is not a man. I speak of he whose faces

are as numerous as there are stars in the heavens. His vicous rage needs not be mentioned for his way is known

to all men. You should fear evoking his wrath for he is the left hand of the center, the voice of the ultimate

destruction."

Such was the way that Orobla would speak. It had expounded in this incessant manner for hours and days and

thears unnumbered, always cursing the reticent nature of its many followers. Until that fortold day when the

moon was as crimson and flaming steel fell from the stars. Upon that very day, when the ruddy sphere hung at its

apex like a severed head, the Beast of forgotten lies was silent. Orobla has not uttered a sound since. His

priests,who hide amongst the men and women of Crete, reverently proclaim that when Orobla speaks again the

world shall be undone. They claim that R'leyh shall be hurled into the sky and Cthulhu and his kind shall be

freed to rule once again.

I know not if I should believe all of the strange tales they told me, but the previous legend was told with such

conviction that I felt compelled to record it.

-

between the dark and light

between heaven and hell

between dream and wakefulness

between the heavens and earth

there is only us. -

It is still bright, but for how long?..

There is something of heaven in death. --Because I could not stop for Death

he kindly stopped for me

the carriage held but him and me

and Eternity

I live, I will die, I will leave, I WILL come again.

52

Through the ages I have lived, secluded under the impass- able mountains of the unknown Kaddath, but now

having dis- pelled the arcane powers that kept me imprisioned, I have returned, and I am here to wreak fiery

death and chaos upon your lowly race. Behold the Power of Axn-Xcamr the all power- ful Keeper of the yellow

Sign, he who is dead yet lives!

Nay! Dead Cthulhu lies not dreaming, rather, listen to the rhythm of the waves, for they tell the fell story of a

noisome day to come, when Cthulhu shall spew forth from dead R'lyeh to lead his minions on a rampage of

slaughter throughout the unsuspecting world....

I can no longer tolerate the slap slapping of the sea, for I hear the cries, feel the vibrations......waving tentacles

deep down pound out an ancient rhythm, hordes of batrachian mouths gibber fiendishly....oh that I would never

see the ocean again!!! Ia! Ia! Shib Niggurath save me! The goat with 1000 young have mercy.....nay, evn as I

grovel on the floor of this rented tenement, I feel the walls close in about me..... is it? could it be? I hear

them....the Hounds....the Hounds come and I am doomed... Mna 'Fth'ngui Fgthan......

Humans are such foolish creatures.... They know not of the Dark, of the Things Within, of Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu,

or Shub-Niggaroth.

Few of the foolish creatures, Bolder, if less sane than the rest, Choose to learn, to understand. To find the secrets

of the Night, to learn that which none should know.

IA! IA!

There will come a day when they will walk amongst you. They will not be able to be seen for what they are by

normal folk. Only those amonst you with true faith will be able to detect their evil and be able to stop them.

Do not fail as the fate of the world rests in your hands and as such, if you fail, the human race is doomed.

53

The night things are called forth

The time draws nigh

To find out what a man's soul is worth

In these trying times

Death calls and a new journey am I become

An empty shell is left under the lonely sun

All that is, was and ever shall be

Are in one spirit, a single journey

If I should while I am awake

My soul is gone, my body is fake

Down into those endless depths I fly

Where imagery of dark being are cast on a star lit sky

All these things I have seen

And even farther have I been

I am become

I am

I

The Darkness waits, the febrile moon

Casts arcane shadows. I do not dare

To utter your cursed name; I soon

will meet the Watcher standing there

At the Abyssal Gates. I pay my toll

In blood-red gold -- the veil parts, dim

and spectral lights illume my soul,

and my dream-dark master calls me to him.

Ia! Io! Mine eyes are rent by glorious destruction!

-ook of the Old Ones

e Brood of the Dark Stars will be revealed to the reader.

Here are tales of ancient history, stories known only by a

few, for they caused unprepared Readers to seek their

peace within uncanny madness.

Peaceful is the ignorant man whose vision of Earth is bounded by

hills and the seas behind. Such a man lives on a small island of

ignorance, unaware of the oceans of maddening absurdities

surrounding this small world.

f the Old Ones and their Spawn, or the narration of the Horrors that Once Came to Earth, the way they

fell down and how Shall Come back ...

f the Old Ones and their Spawn

54

he Old Ones were, the Old Ones are and the Old Ones shall be. From the dark stars They came ere man

was born, unseen and loathsome They descended to primal earth. Beneath the oceans They brooded

while ages past, till seas gave up the land, whereupon They swarmed forth in Their multitudes and

darkness ruled the Earth.

At the frozen Poles They raised mighty cities, and upon

high places the temples of Those whome nature owns

not and the Gods have cursed.

And the spawn of the Old Ones covered the Earth, and

Their children endureth throughout the ages. the

shantaks of Leng are the work of Their hands, the

Ghasts who dwelleth in Zin's primordial vaults know

Them as their Lords.

They have fathered the Na-Hag and the Gaunts that

ride the Night; Great Cthulhu is Their brother, the

shaggoths Their slaves. The Dholes do homage unto

Them in the nighted vale of Pnoth and Gugs sing Their

praises beneath the peaks of ancient Throk.

They have walked amidst the stars and They have walked the Earth. The City of Irem in the great desert has

known Them; Leng in the Cold Waste has seen Their passing, the timeless citadel upon the cloud-vieled heights

of unknown Kadath beareth Their mark.

Wantonly the Old Ones trod the ways of darkness and Their blasphemies were great upon the Earth; all creation

bowed beneath Their might and knew Them for Their wickedness.

And the Elder Lords opened Their eyes and beheld the abominations of Those that ravaged the Earth. In Their

wrath They set their hand against the Old Ones, staying Them in the midst of Their iniquity and casting Them

forth from the Earth to the Void beyond the planes where chaos reigns and form abideth not. And the Elder

Lords set Their seal upon the Gateway and the power of the Old Ones prevailest not against its might.

55

Loathsome Cthulhu rose

then from the deeps and

raged with exceeding great

fury against the Earth

Guardians. And They

bound his venomous claws

with potent spells and

sealed him up within the

City of R'lyeh wherein

beneath the waves he shall

sleep death's dream until

the end of the Aeon.

Beyond the Gate dwell now

the Old Ones; not in the

spaces known unto men but

in the angles betwixt them.

Outside Earth's plane They

linger and ever awaite the

time of Their return; for the

Earth has known Them and

shall know Them in time yet

to come.

And the Old Ones hold foul

and formless Azathoth for

Their Master abd Abide

with Him in the black

cavern at the centre of all

infinity, where he gnaws

ravenously in ultimate chaos amid the mad beating of hidden drums, the tuneless piping of hideous flutes and the

ceaseless bellowing of blind idiot gods that shamble and

gesture aimlessly for ever.

The soul of Azathoth dwelleth in Yog-sothoth and He shall

beckon unto the Old Ones when the stars mark the time of

Their coming; for Yog-sothoth is the Gate through which

Those of the Void will re-enter. Yog-sothoth knowest the

mazes of of time, for all time is one unto Him. He knowest

where the Old Ones came forth in time along long past and

where They shall come forth again when the cycle returneth.

After day cometh night; man's day shall pass, and They shall

rule where They once ruled. As foulness you shall know them

and Their accursedness shall stain the Earth.

the Old Ones and Ancient Times will reveal the Reader more about the origins of the Old Ones and Their

Foretold Future.

56

-ook of the Old Ones

e Brood of the Dark Stars will be revealed to the reader. Here

are tales of ancient history, stories known only by a few, for

they caused unprepared Readers to seek their peace within uncanny

madness.

Peaceful is the ignorant man whose vision of Earth is bounded by hills

and the seas behind. Such a man lives on a small island of ignorance,

unaware of the oceans of maddening absurdities surrounding this small

world.

f the Old Ones and their Spawn, or the narration of the Horrors that Once Came to Earth, the way they

fell down and how Shall Come back ...

-f the Coming-Down of the Old Ones

f the coming-down of the Great Old Ones from the stars, it is written in the Book of Eibon that the first

who came hither was the black thing, even Tsathoggua, who came hence from dim Cykranosh not long

after the creation of life on this planet. Not through the starry spaces came Tsathoggua, but by the

dimensions that lie between them, and of His advent upon this planet, the place thereof was the unlitten

and subterraneous gulf of N'kai, wherein whose gloomy depths He lingered for innumerable cycles, as Eibon

saith, before emerging into the upper world. And after this it was the Great Cthulhu came hither next, and all

His spawn from distant Xoth, and the Deep Ones and the loathsome Yuggs who be Their minions; and Shub-

Niggurath from nightmare- rumored Yaddith, and all they that serve Her, even the Little People of the Wood.

But of the Great Old Ones begotten by Azathoth in the prime, not all came down to this Earth, for Him Who Is

Not To Be Named lurks ever on that dark world near Aldebaran in the Hyades, and it was His sons who

descended hither in His place. Likewise, Cthugha chose for His abode the star Fomalhaut, whereupon He begat

the dread Aphoom Zhah; and Cthugha abideth yet on Fomalhaut, and the Fire-Vampires that serve Him; but as

for Aphoom Zhah, he descended to this Earth and dwelleth yet in his frozen realm. And terrible Vulthoom, that

awful thing that be brother to black Tsathoggua, He descende upon dying Mars in His might, which world He

chose for His dominion.

Now it is also written of those of the Begotten of Azathoth who abide not within the secret places of the Earth,

that when the Great Old Ones came down from the stars in the misty prime They brought the image and likeness

of Their Brethern with Them. In this wise, it was the Outer Ones that serve Hastur the Unspeakable, brought

down the Shining Trapezohedron from dark Yuggoth on the Rim, whereupon had it been fashioned with curious

art in the days ere Earth had yet brought forth its first life. And it was through the Shining Trapezohedron, that

is the very talisman of dread Nyarlathotep, that the Great Old Ones summoned to Their aid the might of the

Crawling Chaos in the hour of Their great need, what time the Elder Gods came hither in Their wrath.

57

Likewise, it was the Deep Ones who carried to this world the awful likeness of serpent-bearded Byatis, son of

Yig, whereby was He worshipped, first by the shadowy Valusians before the advent of man on this planet, and

yet later by the dwellers in primal Mu.

For the Great Old Ones had forseen the day and the hour of Their need, when that They must summon to Their

side those of Their awesome Brethren who had taken far worlds for the place of Their abiding, and had brought

hither these images for this very purpose. Now of these star-made eidolons, little there is that is known to men; it

is said they were wrought by strange talimanic art, and that the sorcerers and the wizards of this Terrene sphere

are not deemed worthy by the Great Old Ones to be instructed in the secrets thereof.

But it is whispered in certain old, forbidden books an awesome power lurks within such images, and that

through them, as through strange windows in time and space, Those that dwell afar can sometimes be evoked

and summoned hither, as They were when that it came to pass, in the fullness of time, the Elder Gods descended

on this world in Their wrath.

And there be those that worship the Great Old Ones through their image and likeness, but of this the must be

wary, for such eidolons be uncanny, and betimes are known to drink the lives of they that handle them unwisely,

or who seek through such images to summon to this sphere Those far off and better left undisturbed. Neither is it

wholly within the knowledge of men to destroy such images, and many there be that sought the destruction

thereof, who found their own destruction; but against such images from beyond the stars the Elder Sign hath

very great power, although the must beware lest in the conflict betwixt That which you evoke to destroy the

likeness of That which slumbereth afar, you be not consumed and swallowed up, or be yourself destrothed

thereby, and that utterly, even unto your immortal soul.

-e Voice of Hastur

ear the the Voice of dread Hastur, hear the mournful sigh of the vortex,the mad rushing of the Ultimate

Wind that Swirls darkly amongst the silent stars.

Hear the Him that howls serpent-fanged amid the bowels of nether earth; He whose ceaseless roaring ever fills

the timeless skies of hidden Leng.

His might teareth the forest and crusheth the city, but none shall know the hand that smiteth and the soul that

destroys, for faceless and foul walketh the Accursed One, His form to men unknown.

Hear then His Voice in the dark hours, answer His call with thine own; bow the and pray at His passing, but

speak not His name aloud.

Concerning Nyarlathotep

I hear the Crawling Chaos that calls beyond the stars

And They created Nyarlathotep for Their messenger, and They clothed Him with Chaos that His form might be

ever hidden amidst the stars.

Who shall know the mystery of Nyarlathotep? for He is the mask and will of Those that were when time was not.

He is the priest of the ether, the Dweller in Air and hath many faces that none shall recall.

The waves freeze before Him; Gods dread His call. In men's dreams He whispers, yet who knoweth His form?

58

And at the last from inner Egypt came

The strange dark One to whom the fellah bowed ;

Silent and lean and cryptically proud,

And wrapped in fabrics red as sunset flame. (1)

-e Serpent Beared Byatis

yatis, the serpent-bearded, the god of forgetfulness,son of Yig, came with the Great Old Ones from the

stars, called by obeisances made to his image which was brought by the Deep Ones to Earth. He may

be called by the touching of his image by a living being. His gaze brings darkness on the mind; and it

is told that those who look upon his eyes will be forced to walk into his clutches. He feasts upon those

who stray to him, and from those upon whom he feasts he draws a part of their vitality, and so grows vaster. For

there is this about those images of the Great Old Ones brought down from the stars when all the Earth was

young, that a psychic link connects such as Byatis or Han to their images, and they that worship the Great Old

Ones and who serve them on this plane may communicate with their Masters through such ideals; but a fate

darkling and terrible beyond belief is reserved for they who unwittingly possess such idols from Beyond, for

them the Old Ones drain vitality through this psychic link, and their dreams are made hideous with nightmare

glimpses of the Ultimate Pit.

-f The Old Ones and the Gates

oncerning the Old Ones, it is written, they wait ever at the Gate. and the Gate is all places at all times,

for They know nothing of time or place but are in all time and in all place together without appearing

to be, and there are those amongst Them which can assume diverse Shapes and Features and any given

Shape and any given Face and the Gates are for Them everywhere, but the first. was that which I

caused to be opened, namely in Irem, the City of Pillars, the City under the Desert, but wherever men sayeth the

forbidden Words, they shall cause there a Gate to be established and shall wait upon Them Who Come through

the Gate, even as the Dhols, and the Abominable Mi-Go, and the Tcho-Tcho people, and the Deep Ones, and the

59

Gugs, and the Gaunts of the Night and the Shoggoths and the Voormis, and the Shantaks which guard Kadath in

the Cold Waste and the Plateau of Leng. All are alike the Children of the Elder Gods, but the Great Race of Yith

and the Great Old Ones failing to agree, one with another, and both with the Elder Gods, seperated, leaving the

Great Old Ones in possession of the Earth, while the Great Race, returning from Yith took up Their Abode

forward in Time in Earth-Land not yet known to those who walk the Earth today, and there wait till there shall

come again the winds and the Voices which drove Them forth before and That which Walketh on the Winds over

the Earth and in the spaces that are among the Stars forever.

-oncerning Ubbo-Sathla

bbo-Sathla is the source, the unbegotten beginning from whom came those who dared set themselves

against the Elder Gods who ruled from Betelgueze, those who warred upon the Elder Gods, the Great

Old Ones led by the blind idiot god, Azathoth, and Yog- Sothoth, who is All-in-One and One-in-All, and

upon whom are no strictures of time or space, and whose agents are 'Umr At-Tawil and the Ancient

Ones, who dream forever of that time when once again they shall rule, to whom rightfully belong Earth and the

entire universe of which it is a part...

Great Cthulhu shall rise from R'lyeh, Hastur the Unspeakable shall return from the dark star which is in the

Hyades near Aldebaran, the red eye of the bull, Nyarlathotep the messenger of the Ancient Ones shall howl

forever in the darkness where he abideth, Shub-Niggurath shall spawn his thousand young, and they shall spawn

in turn and shall take dominion over all wood nymphs, satyrs, and the Little People, Lloigor, Zhar, and Ithaqua

shall ride the spaces among the stars, and those who serve them, the Tcho-Tcho, shall be ennobled, Cthugha

shall encompass his dominion from Fomalhaut, and Tsathoggua shall come from N'kai. ...

They wait by the gates, for the time draws near, the hour is soon at hand, and the Elder Gods sleep, dreaming,

and there are those who know the spells put upon the Great Old Ones by the Elder Gods, as there are those who

shall learn how to break them, as already they know how to command the servants of those who wait beyond the

door from Outside.

For Ubbo-Sathla is the source and the end. Before the coming of Tsathoggua or Yog- Sothoth or Cthulhu from

the stars; Ubbo-Sathla dwelt in the steaming fens of the new- made Earth: a mass without head or members,

spawning the gray, formless efts of the prime and the grisly prototypes of terrene life.....And all earthly life, it is

told, shall go back at last through the great circle of time to Ubbo-Sathla.

-f the Old Ones and Elements

agon was referred to as "Leader of the Deep Ones", but he was not the primary Water -Being

worshiped. Indeed it was the very son of Him whom Dagon and the Deep Ones served. The wizards of

the sea-god cult called him Zoth-Ommog, the Dweller in the Deeps, one of the 3 sons of Cthulhu who had been

mighty gods in elder Mu before the cataclysm destrothed that shadow- haunted and primal continent in

prehistoric times. Early man had worshiped a pantheon of divinities that had come down from the stars when the

Earth was young. These beings were essentially malign and had ruled man through fear, being more demons

than gods; the most common term for them was "the Old Ones," and they were not even remotely human-like.

They had some innate correspondences to the four elements of earth, air, fire and water: for example, the chief

divinity, a winged, octopus-headed monstrosity named Cthulhu, was a sea-elemental; his half-brother, Hastur,

was an air-elemental (and costantly at odds with Cthulhu); another, named Cthugha, was a fire-elemental, and

so on. These were known as the Great Old Ones, and subservient to them was a second group of minor entities

60

called the Lesser Old Ones, comprised of beings who served the Great Old Ones as leaders of their minions or

servants. For example, the minions of Cthulhu were called the Deep Ones, led by Father Dagon and Mother

Hydra, and the minions of Cthugha were the so-called "Flame-Creatures," whose leader Fthaggua, dwelt on a

world called Ktynga, while the great air-elemental, Hastur, was served by the Outer Ones, under their leader

N'gha-Kthun. These beings were identified with the famous Abominable Mi-Go.

These Old Ones having warred against and been defeated by a superior, rival pantheon called the Elder Gods,

who either banished them to distant stars (as Cthugha to Fomalhaut and Hastur to Aldebaran), or imprisoned

them at various places upon the Earth. Cthulhu himself they locked away in a sunken stone city called R'lyeh

beneath the Pacific; his son Ghatanothoa they sealed within the mountain on Mu, and his second son, Ythogtha,

was imprisoned in a chasm in Yhe, a

Muvian province, while Zoth-Ommog lay

chained beneath the ocean off the "Island

of the Sacred Stone Cities."

Cthulhu had fathered 3 godlings on a

female entity named Idhyaa, who dwelt

on or near the "dim green double star,

Xoth," in the aeons before his descent to

this planet. Thus the materials relating to

Cthulhu and his sons is sometimes called

the Xothic Legend-Cycle.

As for the twin leaders of this rebellion,

Azathoth the Demon-Sultan and Ubbo-

Sathla, the Unbegotten Source, they were

reduced to idiocy by the Elder Gods, who

thrust Azathoth beyond the physical

universe into primal Chaos from which

he can never return, while Ubbo-Sathla

they confined forever at the subterranean

place referred to only as "gray-litten

Y'qaa, beneath ancient Hyperborea.

-f Y'golonac

ven the minions of Cthulhu dare not speak of Y'golonac; yet the time will come when Y'golonac strides

forth from the lonliness of aeons to walk once more among men ...

Beyond a gulf in the subterranean night a passage leads beyond the wall where rises Y'golonac to be served by

the tattered eyeless figures of the dark. Long has he slept beyond the wall, and those which crawl over the bricks

scuttle across his body never knowing it to be Y'golonac; but when his name is spoken or read he comes forth to

be worshipped or to feed and take on the shape and soul of those he feeds upon. For those who read of evil and

search for its form within their minds call forth evil, and so may Y'golonac return to walk among men and await

that time when the earth is cleared off and Cthulhu rises from his tomb among the weeds, Glaaki thrusts open the

crystal trapdoor, the brood of Eihort are born into daylight, Shub-Niggurath strides forth to smash the moon-

lens, Byatis bursts forth from his prison, Daoloth tears away illusion to expose the reality concealed behind,

Aphoom Zhah rises from the bowels of Yarak at the ultimate and boreal pole, Ghatanothoa emerges from his

crypt beneath the mountaintop fortress of Yaddith- Gho in eldritch Mu, and Zoth-Ommog ascends from the

ocean deeps. Ia! Nyarlathotep! By their very images shall the conjure them.

61

This is not a vain prophecy, for the Legacy of the Old Ones is so very real, as it will be shown to the Reader...

-ook of the Old Ones

e Brood of the Dark Stars will be revealed to the reader. Here

are tales of ancient history, stories known only by a few, for they

caused unprepared Readers to seek their peace within uncanny madness.

Peaceful is the ignorant man whose vision of Earth is bounded by hills

and the seas behind. Such a man lives on a small island of ignorance,

unaware of the oceans of maddening absurdities surrounding this small

world.

f the Old Ones and their Spawn, or the narration of the Horrors that Once Came to Earth, the way they

fell down and how Shall Come back ...

-oncerning Cyäegha

here the dark is blacker than black and a color of its own, where nothing is something, and the dark is

yet clearer than light, it was. It had always been there; It thought at those times when it was able to

think at all, those short periods of consciousness between eternally seeming periods of what could only

be sleep or nonexistence, and maybe It died each time and was reborn, if It could die at all, which It

didn't know either. Then It tried to think of Itself, and It knew It had a name, which was Cyäegha, which told It

nothing about Itself except that It did exist. It just was, It couldn't be touched in Its somewhere place which was

nowhere, but neither could It touch other things.

It could be called evil, if evil would have had a rational meaning to Itys existence, which it hadn't. Rather

Cyäegha was something beyond the man-made laws of good and evil, a natural force, or a natural happening

like a wood-fire or a tornado, or a storm, or just plain death, something to which no artificial laws apply.

Sometimes during those scarce moments when It was allowed to think, or maybe allowed Itself to think, because

It didn't know if the sleep-death periods were or weren't created by Itself, It tried to remember more than Its

name. Then there came sights of millenia of blue ice and then of fire-spitting volcanoes, warts on the face of

Earth, and it all seemed so utterly stupid and unimportant to Cyäegha that it revolted It, so It went back to death

and slumber. Time had no real meaning either, it was just something which went by unnoticed, utterly

unimportant to something such as Cyäegha, trapped in Its maybe self- made prison and only by Its mind in

contact with the outer reality. And at those times when It was awake, fully awake, It hated, as only something

can hate which is beyond good and evil. Its whole consciousness became that hate, because that was the only

62

thing It could do. It saw with eyes that were no eyes, and It heard with ears that were not ears, and It thought

with Its whole being because It didn't possess such primitive organs as brains either. Silently It hated.

Through the aeons some of Its alien dreams touched men and drove them gibbering mad. Some were more

strongly protected and just felt the outer touches of Its dreams, and tried to interpret then consciously in essays,

or used them unconsciously in weird stories. Some authors wrote them down as stories, knowing that the world

would never accept such an utterly alien reality. Of course they too were considered as insane, as those who

really had been driven mad by Its dreams. None had the knowledge and the possibilities to search for other

clues. Because Its name had already been written down long ago, or other names which they thought was Its,

carved on limestone tablets; and Its shape had been painted on the walls of subterreanian caves, still waiting to

be opened. But Its shape was not real and constantly changed, and later they wrote about It with trembling

fingers on ancient scrolls, and still later on parchments, and all were burned when they were discovered. And

when some dared to print Its name, the writers and printers were burned together with their books. But some

always survived, some always stathed sane or at least partly, and interpreted Its dreams. Some prathed to It,

offering It still warm, beating hearts torn out of the bleeding chests of sacrificial victims, and still others cursed

It in many languages, but It couldn't care less. It didn't hate then more or less for what they did. It hated then all

with Its whole being.

And sometimes Cyäegha dreamed too, dreamed of the others, just like Itself, and yet so different, as ancient as

Itself and as hidden as Itself, by aeons of nameless terror. And It wondered where they were.

In hiding, or chained,as Itself? Waiting...always waiting.

Hating...always hating. And the Dark That Waits has 5 who guard the temple and the Dark,and they are called

Vaeyen. They are The Black Light, the White Fire which is Blacker than Night, the White Dark which is more red

than the Fire, the Winged Woman, and the Green Moon, Who keep and guard Him in His Darkness.

The Nagaäe that serve Cyäegha are earth creatures with toadlike bodies, transparent, with pulsating innards

covered only by a thin lather of leathery skin. They have the hind legs of a frog, and the forelegs of a man. They

moves crablike, crawling on their lumpy bellies, and pushing with the force of their hind legs, giving themselves

direction by muscular movements of their bellies. All four of each one's forelegs are raised mantislike. Their

faces consist mainly of bulging eyes and an oversized mouth with two forked tongues.

63

-idhra

A hundred April winds disperse her fragrance,

A thousand wet Octobers scour her footprints,

The ruthless thears assail the ancient memory of her presence, yet

Where Yidhra walks the hills do not forget.

t is clear that the most ancient gods, the prototypes of all the gods of man, were known and worshipped

before men existed; and it is further clear that the most ancient gods all proceed from the one source.

That source is sometimes called Mlandoth, and all gods are but varied manifestations and extensions

of the One. But whether Mlandoth is a place, or a conscious entity, or an inconceivable maelstrom of

unknown forces and properties outside the perceptible cosmos is not known surely.

Certainly Ngyr-Khorath, the mad and monstrous thing which haunted this region of space before the solar

system was formed and haunts it still, is but a local eddy of the vastness that is Mlandoth. And is not fabled

"Ymnar, the dark stalker and seducer of all Earthly intelligence," merely the arm of Ngyr-Khorath, an organ

created in the image of Earthly life and consciousness to corrupt that life and lead it to its own destruction?

And does not even great Yidhra, who was born of and with the life of Earth and who through the aeons

intertwines endlessly with all Earthly life-forms, teach reverence for Mlandoth?

Before death was born, She was born; and for untold ages there was life without death, life without birth, life

unchanging. But at last death came; birth came; life became mortal and mutable, and thereafter fathers died,

sons were born, and never was the son exactly as the father; and the slime became the worm and the worm the

serpent, the serpent became the yeti of the mountain forests and the yeti became man. Of all living things only

She escaped death, escaped birth. But She could not escape change, for all living things must change as the trees

of the north must shed their leaves to live in winter and put them on to live in spring. And therefore She learned

to devour the mortal and mutable creatures, and from their seed to change Herself , and to be as all mortal

things as She willed, and to live forever without birth, without death.

Yidhra devoured the octopus and learned to put forth a tentacle; she devoured the bear and learned to cloth

herself in fur against the creeping ice of the north; indeed can Yidhra take any shape known to living things. yet

no shape can she take which is truly fair, for she partakes of all foul creatures as well as fair. To her followers

she appears in many fair and comely forms, but this is because they see not her true form, but only such visions

as she wills them to see. For as the adepts can send their thoughts and visions to one another over great

distances so can Yidhra send her thoughts to men and cause them to see only what she wills. Indeed it is by

sending her thoughts that Yidhra remains in one soul, for in body she is many, hidden in the jungles of the south,

the icy wastes of the north, and the deserts beyoun the western sea. Thus it is that though her temples are many,

she waits by all, combining bodily with her diverse followers, yet her consciousness is a vast unity.

The Mad Lama of Prithom-Yang has written:

Yidhra, the Lonely One, craving the life of all things;

Lonely One, needing the life of the Earth.

Yidhra,the Goddess, ruling her avatar races;

Goddess, of vulturine Y'hath of the sky,

Goddess, of Xothra who sleeps in the Earth

and wakes to devour

Goddess, of men in strange places who worship her.

Yidhra, the Hierophant, teaching her followers mysteries;

Hierophant, teaching strange tongues of the elder world.

Yidhra, the Bountiful, making the hills and the meadows green;

Bountiful, showing the way to the desert springs,

Bountiful, guarding the flocks and the harvest.

Yidhra, the Lover, needing the seed of her followers;

Lover, who must have the seed of all things,

Lover, who must have the seed of change or die,

Lover, whose consorts are changed,

64

infused with the seed of the past and changed

to forms not of past nor of present.

Yidhra, the Mother, bringing forth spawn of the past;

Mother, of all things that were,

Mother, of children of past and of present,

Mother, whose children remember all things

of their fathers long dead.

Yidhra, the Life-Giver, bringing long life to her followers;

Life-Giver, giving the centuries endlessly

to her children and lovers and worshipers.

Yidhra, the Restless One, needing the sons of new fathers;

Restless One, sending her followers forth

to seek new blood for her endless change,

Restless One, craving new lovers outside the blood

of her worshipers

lest she and her spawn and her followers

shrivel and wither in living death.

Yidhra, the Dream-Witch, clouding the minds of her followers;

Dream-Witch, hiding her shape in illusion,

Dream-Witch, cloaking her shape in strange beauty.

Yidhra, the Shrouder, wreathing the faithless in shadow;

Shrouder, devouring the errant and hostile ones,

Shrouder, who hides men forever. . . .

-f the Worm that Gnaws

e nethermost caverns are not for the fathoming

of eyes that see; for their marvels are strange

and terrific. Cursed the ground where dead

thoughts live new and oddly bodied, and evil the

mind that is held by no head. Wisely did Ibn Schacabao

say, that happy is the tomb where no wizard hath lain,

and happy the town at night whose wizards are all ashes.

For it is of old rumour that the soul of the devil-bought

hastes not from his charnal clay, but fats and instructs

the very worm that gnaws; till out of corruption horrid

life springs, and the dull scavengers of earth wax crafty

to vex it and swell monstrous to plague it. Great holes

secretly are digged where earth's pores ought to suffice,

and things have learnt to walk that ought to crawl.

-ook of Places

65

e Reader willing to start a journey in the places described in this book shall be prepared to be revealed

the mysteries of unearthly places. Some still remain, of others nothing is left than whispered legends of

doom and destruction. Few are the ones who could visit such places, and even fewer are those who

came back from the journey with enough sanity left to tell about them.

Earthly Places will be described first, for the Traveller may reach them with human ways. Then will be shown

Outer Places, where the Old Ones came from and where They shall return one day. These are not possible to see

without the help of an Old One or one of Their Followers, for they are most often located beyond the walls of

Time and Space.

More peculiar are the last places shown in this book, for they were created by mankind dreams in a strange

realm. Skilled Travellers may go there physically, through gates and doors. Dreams are yet the easiest way to

visit these cities and the lands around them.

f Earthly places, and the hidden cities where the Old Ones wait and dream...

-ook of Places

Of Earthly places

66

e Old Ones came, and they built their own places. Most of them were Cyclopean cities, raised by the

Old Ones or destrothed by Them. Made of black obsidian and ever strong basalt, they were built to the

image of their Makers : huge alleys where They can Walk on Winds, countless pillars and towers rising

to the skies like filthy claws, shiny domes and crystal windows, from where they could watch the Stars

They Came From.

Leng in the Cold Waste is one of those cities, hidden halfway

between this world and the realms of Dreams in the

northernmost lands of Earth. Hidden as well in the furnace of

a burning desert lies Irem Of Thousand Pillars, dressed like a

jewel behind a wall of sand.

Others are places where one of Them has been banished and

is waiting, dreaming of the Times when they shall rule again.

Cthulhu is locked away in a sunken stone city called R'lyeh

beneath the Eastern Ocean, close to the lost continent of Mu.

His son Ghatanothoa lays within the mountain of Mu. His

second son, Ythogtha, was imprisoned in a chasm in Yhe, a

Muvian province. Zoth-Ommog lay chained beneath the ocean

off the "Island of the Sacred Stone Cities." Ubbo-Sathla, the

source and the end lay confined forever at the subterranean

place referred to only as "gray-litten Y'qaa, beneath ancient

Hyperborea.

These are not empty places however. Servents and minions

still lurk in the dark corners of titanic streets. In addition to

the dangers of such journey, the Traveller shall be prepared to

face the Ones who still worship Them in the Dark. With much

wisdom and mastery of the Art of Arcanes, the Traveller may

find there artefacts and allies to start an even more dangerous

journey ; the very path of the Outer Places, where the Old

Ones came from and where some are still dreaming...

-f Leng in the Cold Waste

ho seeketh Northwards beyond the twilight land of Inquanok shall find amidst the frozen waste the dark

and mighty plateau of thrice-forbidden Leng.

Know the time-shunned Leng by the ever-burning evil-fires and the foul screeching of the scaly Shantak birds

which ride the upper air; by the howling of the Na-hag who brood in nighted caverns and haunt men's dreams

with strange madness, and by the grey stone temple beneath the Night Gaunts lair, wherein is he who wears the

yellow Mask and dwelleth all alone.

But beware O Man, beware, of Those who tread in Darkness the ramparts of Kadath, for he that beholds Their

mitred-heads shall know the claws of doom.

-f Irem Of Thousand Pillars

67

rem Zhat al Imad, Irem of the Pillars, the great city. I have spent ten thears in the heart of the "Roba al

Khalitheh," the empty space, the great southern desert colored "Dahma," crimson. And I have seen the

fabulous many pillars of Irem and I have been called "majnun," mad and possessed of the Jinn. Many

are the strange and unbelievable marvels that may be seen there. Alas for the earth has swallowed up

the City of Pillars, no more do the caravans of frankincense pass by. Many have called it a town of great

wickedness, but do they dare comprehend the fabulous?

Irem was an earthly paradise to the initiated. Towers rising high, the great octagonal fort, alas no more! And

there were places here of hidden knowledge and of power.

Some say it was built by giants, some by the tribe of Ad, but Irem was here before men and though swallowed

she will protect her secrets from the profane, releasing them to the knowing

For there are many levels of existence for Irem, many levels of reality. So Irem of the Old Ones still exists in

some form, and is not this great desert, this empty quarter connected to the void.? Cannot a Muqarribun interact

with its unseen denizens in the Crimson Desert?

-ook of Places

Of Outer Places

n Outer Space most of these places are, for the Old Ones came from the Dark Stars. Tsathoggua was

the first, he came from dim Cykranosh not long after the creation of life on this planet. His brother

Vulthoom descended upon dying Mars. Great Cthulhu came hither next from distant dim green double

star Xoth, with His Spawns, the Deep Ones and the Goddess-Bitch Shub-Niggurath followed them soon

after from nightmare-rumored Yaddith. Hastur the Unspeakable left dark Yuggoth to stain the soil of Earth in its

prime. Fthaggua, dwelt on a world called Ktynga.

Of the Old Ones, not all came on Earth. the Demon-Sultan Azathoth, Him Who Is Not To Be Named, lurks ever

on that dark world near Aldebaran in the Hyades. Likewise, Cthugha chose for His abode the star Fomalhaut.

To visit such places, the Traveller shall be patient. Only a few chosen are allowed to travel through time and

space and see by themselves the very places where They were born. Either madness or Death is the toll for such

a journey. However, it is possible, as the following chapters will show, to open Windows or Gates though which

one may look upon the Dark Stars. the ritual has a risk though, for the Old Ones or Their Minions may feel your

gaze and track you down unmercifully.

[Translator's note : Abdul Al-Hazred died in Damascus, circa 738 A.D. Of his final death or disappearance

many terrible and conflicting things are told. He is said by Ebn Khallikan (12th century biographer) to have

been siezed by an invisible monster in broad daylight and devoured horribly before a large number of fright-

frozen witnesses. It is probable one of these "Watchers" finally found him.]

the reader must be aware that The Old Ones are not the only makers of cyclopean cities. Mankind unexpectedly

created the most beautiful countries, a place even Ancient Gods chose to rest peacefully. Some call that holly

place, beyond the Silver Key Door, the Lands of Dreams

Visions of Yaddith

Each night the dream comes, and I sink submerged into another mind, an alien form which toils in metal

chambers cold, bizarre, amidst the teeming warren of a nightmare realm where insect- mages strive to pen

below some monstrous peril scarcely glimpsed or named, which gnaweth ever the foundations of the world... O,

Mother, Mother, ever the same dark dream!

68

Perched on the giddy brink of vertiginous chasms, elaborate metallic structures tremble and sway to

subterranean tremors from beneath. Untiringly, we mages seek and search the pentacle- inscribed plates and

scrolls fetched hither from far worlds and fabulous, but without finding that for which we seek. The ground

shakes. We ignore it, and search on.

My nine claws trace inexplicable hieroglyphs acid-etched in perdurable metal. Through odd- angled apertures

pour diverse solar colors in five distinct luminosities. Crouched on my prism, I ponder cantrips to hold at bay

the bleached and viscous swine-snouted worms. On Nython and Mthura, my brethren barter for more potent

ensorcellments. For lack of these must the Nug-Soth perish in the foundering of intricate metal cities? Alas, the

Mother remains indifferent as to which of the races of her minions triumph!

For ages and ages beyond all reckoning have the great Dhole-things lurked beneath, in noisome burrows where

they fed and grew, waxed huge and strong beyond belief. Now are their black and fetid nests below no longer

large enough to any more contain such prodigious progeny. They thrust and lurch against the walls of thought-

projected force that held at bay for aeons interminable the Doom of Yaddith. And the walls give way...

Through labyrinthine streets, under the burning suns, we gather to the meeting-place of minds. There the Arch-

Ancient One exhorts of us redoubled labors holding strong the force which walls away the squirming burrow-

spawn. And once again we float to dimmest Xoth, and trans-galactic Stronti. But in vain...

Sheathed in bent light, we drift to Kythamil or Kath. The fungoid intelligences of Nzoorl repulse our entreaties.

Even should we migrate to a world remote from this, the snouted worms can track us through our dreams which

call like beacons through the eldritch dark... Nor can our cantrips any more suffice to hold at bay the loathed,

unwholesome Dholes we never shall escape or long elude!

Our far-fled brethren, empty of hand, return from Yarnak and from ill-rumored Ymar, and terrible Shaggai.

They voyaged far to Vhoorl in the remotest nebulae, to Zaoth and Ktynga, and, at last, remotest Phenoth beyond

space itself, where rules the Crawling Chaos. They return fetching not hither that for which they sought -- the

runes to keep the gruesome worm-things pent.

From world to world our brother-mages went for stronger spells, ever more potent runes; and on cold Abbith,

where the Metal Brains in crystal caverns cogitate long ages by, they learned a fearful lore: the spells arcane for

which we quest were known of old on Yith and Yith is perished untold eons past... Ever we toil on under the five-

hued light, knowing at last there is not any hope.

Under the shuddering aurorae of the north, where glaciers crawl the meteor strewn waste, the thought-waves

bring to us a tale of doom for City Three is fallen, fallen... No more the larvae in the breeding-pits shall mewl

and slither, the Nug-Soth no more may stroll the broad metallic esplanade, nor mages ponder tomes of elder

lore. For City Three is fallen, fallen...

No more are the departure-stages thronged. Now in their thousands are the Nug-Soth fled, armoured in closed

light against the bitter cold and utter blackness that yawns between the stars. The metal pavement quavers

underfoot, the broken towers totter toward collapse. I am among the very last to leave. For few remain to hold

the Dhole-swarm back.

Inscrutable. The Mighty Mother smiles over her fleeing, her star-scattered brood, as night falls over Yaddith at

the end. We hurtle through the frigid gloom of space to Zaoth or Shaggai or Kythamil leaving behind the ruin of

a world, and little hope have we to long survive. The awful doom of Yaddith we evade will soon be snuffling at

our heels again -- The snouted worms can track us through our dreams.

( From Lin Carter's notes posthumously published as "Visions from Yaddith" and often quoted as a work of

Ariel Prescott in the Mythos )

-oncerning Yuggoth

69

t is a strange dark orb at the very rim of our solar system -- unknown to earthly astronomers as yet. At

the proper time.. the beings there will direct thought-currents toward us and cause it to be discovered.

There are mighty cities on Yuggoth -- great tiers of terraced towers built of black stone. the sun shines there no

brighter than a star, but the beings need no light. They have other subtler senses, and put no windows in their

great houses and temples. Light even hurts and hampers and confuses them, for it does not exist at all in the

black cosmos outside time and space where they came from originally. The black rivers of pitch that flow under

those mysterious cyclopean bridges -- things built by some elder race extinct and forgotten before the beings

came to Yuggoth from the ultimate voids --(can drive a mad to madness or ecstacy).

But that dark world of fungoid gardens and windowless cities isn't really terrible. It is only to us that it would

seem so. This world seemed terrible to them when they first explored it in the primal age -- long before the epoch

of Cthulhu was over. They have been inside the earth, too--and the great worlds of unknown life down there;

blue-litten K'n-yan, red-litten Yoth, and black lightless N'kai, from whence frightful Tsathoggua came.

-ook of Places

Of the Dream Lands

70

About Mnar, Sarnath, Kadath the Unknown,

71

-f the Land of Mnar

and the Doom That Came to Sarnath

here is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream, and out of which no stream flows.

Ten thousand thears ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no

more.

It is told that in the immemorial thears when the world was young, before ever the men of Sarnath came to the

land of Mnar, another city stood beside the lake; the gray stone city of Ib, which was old as the lake itself, and

peopled with beings not pleasing to behold. Very odd and ugly were these beings, as indeed are most beings of a

world yet inchoate and rudely fashioned. It is written on the brick cylinders of Kadatheron that the beings of Ib

were in hue as green as the lake and the mists that rise above it; that they had bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips,

and curipus ears, and were without voice. It is also written that they descende one night from the moon in a mist;

they and the vast still lake and gray stone city of Ib. However this may be, it is certain that they worshipped a

sea-green stone idol chiseled in the likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard; before which they danced

horribly when the moon was gibbous. And it is written in the papyrus of Ilarnek, that they one day discovered

fire, and thereafter kindled flames on many ceremonial occasions. But not much is written of these beings,

because they lived in very ancient times, and man is young, and knows little of the very ancient living things.

After many eons men came to the land of Mnar, dark shepherd folk with their fleecy flocks, who built Thraa,

Ilarnek, and Kadatheron on the winding river Ai. And certain tribes, more hardy than the rest, pushed on to the

border of the lake and built Sarnath at a spot where precious metals were found in the earth.

Not far from the gray stone city of Ib did the wandering tribes lay the first stones of Sarnath, and at the beings of

Ib they marveled greatly. But with their marveling was mixed hate, for they thought it not meet that beings of

such aspect should walk about the world of men at dusk. Nor did they like the strange sculptures upon the gray

monoliths of Ib, for those sculptures lingered so late in the world, even until the coming men, none can tell;

unless it was because the land of Mnar is very still, and remote from most lands, both of waking and of dream.

As the men of Sarnath beheld more of the beings of Ib their hate grew, and it was not less because they found the

beings weak, and soft as jelly to the touch of stones and arrows. So one day the young warriors, the slingers and

the spearmen and the bowmen, marched against Ib and slew all the inhabitants thereof, pushing the queer bodies

into the lake with long spears, because they did not wish to touch them. And because they did not like the gray

sculptured monoliths of Ib they cast these also into the lake; wondering from the greatness of the labor how ever

the stones were brought from afar, as they must have been, since there is naught like them in the land of Mnar or

in the lands adjacent.

Thus of the very ancient city of Ib was nothing spared, save the seagreen idol chiseled in the likeness of Bokrug,

the water-lizard. This the young warriors took back with them as a symbol of conquest over the old gods and

beings of Ib, and as a sign of leadership in Mnar. But on the night after it was set up in the temple, a terrible

thing must have happened, for weird lights were seen over the lake, and in the morning the people found the idol

gone and the high-priest Taran-Ish lying dead, as from some fear unspeakable. But before he had died, Taran-

Ish had scrawled upon the altar of chrysolite with coarse shaky strokes the sign of DOOM.

Many centuries came and went, wherein Sarnath prospered exceedingly, so that only priests and old women

remembered what Taran-Ish had scrawled upon the altar. As Sarnath waxed mighty and learned and beautiful, it

sent forth conquering armies to subdue the neighboring cities; and in time there sate upon the throne in Sarnath

the king of all the land of Mnar and of many lands adjacent.

Lofty and amazing were the seventeen tower-like temples of Sarnath, fashioned of a bright multi-colored stone

not known elsewhere. On the ground were halls as vast and splendid as those of the palaces; where gathered

throngs in worship of Zo-Kalar and Tamash and Lobon, the chief gods of Sarnath, whose incense-enveloped

shrines were as the thrones of monarchs. And at the lake, at night, was done the very secret and ancient rite in

detestation of Bokrug, the water-lizard, and here rested the altar of chrysolite which bore the doom-scrawl of

Taran-Ish.

72

Each thear was celebrated in Sarnath the feast of the destroying of Ib, at which time wine, song, dancing and

merriment of every kind abounded. Great honors were then paid to the shades of those who had annihilated the

odd ancient beings, and the memory of those beings and of their elder gods, were derided by dancers and

lutanists crowned with roses from the royal gardens. And the king would look out over the lake and curse the

bones of the dead that lay beneath it.

Gorgeous beyond thought was the feast of the thousandth thear of the destroying of Ib. For a decade had it been

talked of in the land of Mnar, and as it drew nigh there came to Sarnath on horses and camels and elephants

men of Thraa, Ilarnek, and Kadatheron, and all the cities of Mnar and the lands beyond. Before the marble walls

on the appointed night were pitched the pavillions of princes and the tents of travellers. Within his banquet-hall

reclined Nargis-Hei, the king, drunken with ancient wine from the vaults of conquered Pnoth, and surrounded by

feasting nobles and hurrying slaves. Ther were eaten many strange delicacies at that feast; peacocks from the

distant hills of Implan, heels of camels from the Bnazic desert, nuts and spices from Sydathrian groves, and

pearls from wave-washed Mtal dissolved in the vinegar of Thraa.

Whilst the king and his nobles feasted within the palace, priests held revels in the tower of the great temple. And

it was the high-priest Gnai-Kah who first saw the shadows that descended from the gibbous moon into the lake,

and the damnable green mists that arose from the lake to meet the moon and to shroud in a sinister haze the

towers and domes of fated Sarnath. Thereafter those in the towers, and without the walls beheld strange lights

on the water, and saw that the gray rock Akurion, which was wont to rear high above it near the shore, was

almost submerged. And fear grew vaguely yet swiftly, so that the princes of Ilarnek and of far Rokol took down

and folded their pavilions and departed, though they scarce knew the reason for their departing.

Then, close to the hour of midnight, all the bronze gates of Sarnath burst open and emptied forth a frenzied

throng that blackened the plain, so that all the visiting princes and travellers fled away in fright. For on the

faces of this throng was writ a madness born of horror unendurable, and on their tongues were words so terrible

that no hearer paused for proof. Men whose eyes were wild with fear shrieked aloud of the sight within the king's

banquet-hall, where through the windows were seen no longer the forms of Nargis-Hei and his nobles and

slaves, but a horde of indescibable green voiceless things with bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious

ears; things which danced horribly, bearing in their paws golden platters set with rubies and diamonds and

containing uncouth flames. And by now the great gray rock Akurion was quite submerged. Through all the land

of Mnar and the land adjacent spread the tales of those who fled from Sarnath, and caravans sought that

accursed city no more. And where once had risen walls of three hundred cubits and towers yet higher, now

stretched only the marshy shore of the vast still lake itself, and the gray rock Akurion which rears high above it

near the shore. DOOM had come to Sarnath.

But half buried in the rushes was spied a curious green idol; an exceedingly ancient idol chiseled in the likeness

of Bokrug, the great Water-Lizard God. That idol, enshrined in the high temple at Ilarnek, was susequently

worshipped beneath the gibbous moon throughout the land of Mnar. And also, when the tide is low, can be seen

an inscription on the gray rock Akurion which reads, in letters ancient, "Ib is gone but the Gods live on. Across

the world is the Sister City, Lh-yib, hidden in the earth, in the barbarous lands of Zimmeria. There the People,

the Deep Ones, flourish yet and there will the Gods ever be worshipped; even unto the coming of Cthulhu."

-f the Land of Mnar

and the Doom That Came to Sarnath

here is in the land of Mnar a vast still lake that is fed by no stream, and out of which no stream flows.

Ten thousand thears ago there stood by its shore the mighty city of Sarnath, but Sarnath stands there no

more.

It is told that in the immemorial thears when the world was young, before ever the men of Sarnath came to the

land of Mnar, another city stood beside the lake; the gray stone city of Ib, which was old as the lake itself, and

peopled with beings not pleasing to behold. Very odd and ugly were these beings, as indeed are most beings of a

world yet inchoate and rudely fashioned. It is written on the brick cylinders of Kadatheron that the beings of Ib

were in hue as green as the lake and the mists that rise above it; that they had bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips,

and curipus ears, and were without voice. It is also written that they descende one night from the moon in a mist;

73

they and the vast still lake and gray stone city of Ib. However this may be, it is certain that they worshipped a

sea-green stone idol chiseled in the likeness of Bokrug, the great water-lizard; before which they danced

horribly when the moon was gibbous. And it is written in the papyrus of Ilarnek, that they one day discovered

fire, and thereafter kindled flames on many ceremonial occasions. But not much is written of these beings,

because they lived in very ancient times, and man is young, and knows little of the very ancient living things.

After many eons men came to the land of Mnar, dark shepherd folk with their fleecy flocks, who built Thraa,

Ilarnek, and Kadatheron on the winding river Ai. And certain tribes, more hardy than the rest, pushed on to the

border of the lake and built Sarnath at a spot where precious metals were found in the earth.

Not far from the gray stone city of Ib did the wandering tribes lay the first stones of Sarnath, and at the beings of

Ib they marveled greatly. But with their marveling was mixed hate, for they thought it not meet that beings of

such aspect should walk about the world of men at dusk. Nor did they like the strange sculptures upon the gray

monoliths of Ib, for those sculptures lingered so late in the world, even until the coming men, none can tell;

unless it was because the land of Mnar is very still, and remote from most lands, both of waking and of dream.

As the men of Sarnath beheld more of the beings of Ib their hate grew, and it was not less because they found the

beings weak, and soft as jelly to the touch of stones and arrows. So one day the young warriors, the slingers and

the spearmen and the bowmen, marched against Ib and slew all the inhabitants thereof, pushing the queer bodies

into the lake with long spears, because they did not wish to touch them. And because they did not like the gray

sculptured monoliths of Ib they cast these also into the lake; wondering from the greatness of the labor how ever

the stones were brought from afar, as they must have been, since there is naught like them in the land of Mnar or

in the lands adjacent.

Thus of the very ancient city of Ib was nothing spared, save the seagreen idol chiseled in the likeness of Bokrug,

the water-lizard. This the young warriors took back with them as a symbol of conquest over the old gods and

beings of Ib, and as a sign of leadership in Mnar. But on the night after it was set up in the temple, a terrible

thing must have happened, for weird lights were seen over the lake, and in the morning the people found the idol

gone and the high-priest Taran-Ish lying dead, as from some fear unspeakable. But before he had died, Taran-

Ish had scrawled upon the altar of chrysolite with coarse shaky strokes the sign of DOOM.

Many centuries came and went, wherein Sarnath prospered exceedingly, so that only priests and old women

remembered what Taran-Ish had scrawled upon the altar. As Sarnath waxed mighty and learned and beautiful, it

sent forth conquering armies to subdue the neighboring cities; and in time there sate upon the throne in Sarnath

the king of all the land of Mnar and of many lands adjacent.

Lofty and amazing were the seventeen tower-like temples of Sarnath, fashioned of a bright multi-colored stone

not known elsewhere. On the ground were halls as vast and splendid as those of the palaces; where gathered

throngs in worship of Zo-Kalar and Tamash and Lobon, the chief gods of Sarnath, whose incense-enveloped

shrines were as the thrones of monarchs. And at the lake, at night, was done the very secret and ancient rite in

detestation of Bokrug, the water-lizard, and here rested the altar of chrysolite which bore the doom-scrawl of

Taran-Ish.

Each thear was celebrated in Sarnath the feast of the destroying of Ib, at which time wine, song, dancing and

merriment of every kind abounded. Great honors were then paid to the shades of those who had annihilated the

odd ancient beings, and the memory of those beings and of their elder gods, were derided by dancers and

lutanists crowned with roses from the royal gardens. And the king would look out over the lake and curse the

bones of the dead that lay beneath it.

Gorgeous beyond thought was the feast of the thousandth thear of the destroying of Ib. For a decade had it been

talked of in the land of Mnar, and as it drew nigh there came to Sarnath on horses and camels and elephants

men of Thraa, Ilarnek, and Kadatheron, and all the cities of Mnar and the lands beyond. Before the marble walls

on the appointed night were pitched the pavillions of princes and the tents of travellers. Within his banquet-hall

reclined Nargis-Hei, the king, drunken with ancient wine from the vaults of conquered Pnoth, and surrounded by

feasting nobles and hurrying slaves. Ther were eaten many strange delicacies at that feast; peacocks from the

distant hills of Implan, heels of camels from the Bnazic desert, nuts and spices from Sydathrian groves, and

pearls from wave-washed Mtal dissolved in the vinegar of Thraa.

74

Whilst the king and his nobles feasted within the palace, priests held revels in the tower of the great temple. And

it was the high-priest Gnai-Kah who first saw the shadows that descended from the gibbous moon into the lake,

and the damnable green mists that arose from the lake to meet the moon and to shroud in a sinister haze the

towers and domes of fated Sarnath. Thereafter those in the towers, and without the walls beheld strange lights

on the water, and saw that the gray rock Akurion, which was wont to rear high above it near the shore, was

almost submerged. And fear grew vaguely yet swiftly, so that the princes of Ilarnek and of far Rokol took down

and folded their pavilions and departed, though they scarce knew the reason for their departing.

Then, close to the hour of midnight, all the bronze gates of Sarnath burst open and emptied forth a frenzied

throng that blackened the plain, so that all the visiting princes and travellers fled away in fright. For on the

faces of this throng was writ a madness born of horror unendurable, and on their tongues were words so terrible

that no hearer paused for proof. Men whose eyes were wild with fear shrieked aloud of the sight within the king's

banquet-hall, where through the windows were seen no longer the forms of Nargis-Hei and his nobles and

slaves, but a horde of indescibable green voiceless things with bulging eyes, pouting, flabby lips, and curious

ears; things which danced horribly, bearing in their paws golden platters set with rubies and diamonds and

containing uncouth flames. And by now the great gray rock Akurion was quite submerged. Through all the land

of Mnar and the land adjacent spread the tales of those who fled from Sarnath, and caravans sought that

accursed city no more. And where once had risen walls of three hundred cubits and towers yet higher, now

stretched only the marshy shore of the vast still lake itself, and the gray rock Akurion which rears high above it

near the shore. DOOM had come to Sarnath.

But half buried in the rushes was spied a curious green idol; an exceedingly ancient idol chiseled in the likeness

of Bokrug, the great Water-Lizard God. That idol, enshrined in the high temple at Ilarnek, was susequently

worshipped beneath the gibbous moon throughout the land of Mnar. And also, when the tide is low, can be seen

an inscription on the gray rock Akurion which reads, in letters ancient, "Ib is gone but the Gods live on. Across

the world is the Sister City, Lh-yib, hidden in the earth, in the barbarous lands of Zimmeria. There the People,

the Deep Ones, flourish yet and there will the Gods ever be worshipped; even unto the coming of Cthulhu."

-f Kadath the Unknown

What man knoweth Kadath?

For who shall know of that

which ever abides in strange-time,

twix thesterday, today and the morrow.

nknown amidst the Cold Waste lieth the mountain of Kadath where upon the hidden summit an Onyx

Castle stands. dark clouds shroud the mighty peak that gleams 'neath ancient stars where silent brood

the titan towers and rear forbidden walls.

Curse-runes guard the nighted gate carved by forgotten hands, and woe to he that dare pass within those

dreadful doors.

Earth's Gods revel where Others once walked in mystic timeless halls, which some have glimpst in sleeps dim

vault through strange and sightless eyes.

75

-ook of Summonning

e adventurous Reader has to remember always Who he will

expose himself to when trying to summon One of Them. For it is

a highly hazardeous thing to trouble the Dream of The Old Ones.

There are times, places and rules to respect. The patient and clever

Reader will learn of the Times and the Seasons to be Observed and to

Raise up the Stones before starting to practice.

Keep in mind They can rarely be banished easily. Their wills are strange

and strange is Their logic.

With care and devotion, the Reader may use the Adjuration of Great

Cthulhu or learn to Summon Shub-Niggurath the Black

To be thaught about strange times or travel without moving, the Reader

may want to Call Forth Yog-Sothoth. There is a different Ritual for

summoning Yog-Sothoth and opening the Gate for troubled times.

Other Higher Beings may teach the Reader about past or future events.

This is the procedure for the invocation of He Who Lies Beyond the Veil

and Who Shall Tear It Asunder at the time of the Great Dying. The Render

may impart the the happenings of the past and future with greater

accuracy than even that Cathay volume of good repute.

-f the Times and the Seasons to be Observed

76

henever thou would'st call forth Those from Outside, thou must mark well the seasons and times in

which the spheres do intersect and the influences flow from the Void

Thou must observe the cycle of the Moon, the movements of the planets, the Sun's course through the Zodiac and

the rising of the constellations.

the Ultimate Rites shall be performed only in the seasons proper to them, these be: at Candlemas (on the second

day of the second month), at Beltane (on the Eve of May), at Lammas (on the first day of the eighth month), at

Roodmas (on the fourteenth day of the ninth month), and at Hallowmas (on November Eve).

Call out to dread Azathoth when the Sun is in the sign of the Ram, the Lion, or the Archer; the Moon decreasing

and Mars and Saturn conjoin.

Mighty Yog-sothoth shall rise to the incantations when Sol has entered the fiery house of Leo and the hour of

Lammas be upon the.

Evoke the terrible Hastur on Candlemas Night, when Sol is in Aquarius and Mercury in trine.

Supplicate Great Cthulhu only at Hallowmas Eve when the Sun abides within the House of the Scorpion and

Orion riseth. When All Hallows falls within the cycle of the new Moon the power shall be the strongest.

Conjure Shub-Niggurath when the Beltane fires glow upon the hills and the Sun is in the Second House,

repeating the Rites of Roodmas when the Black One appeareth.

-o Raise up the Stones

o form the Gate through which They from the Outer Void might manifest thou must set up the stones in

the elevenfold configuration.

First thou shalt raise up the four cardinal stones and these shall mark the direction of the four winds as they

howleth through their seasons.

To the North set the the stone of Great Coldness that shall form the Gate of the winter-wind engraving thereupon

the sigil of the Earth-Bull thus:{Taurus sigil}

77

In the South (at a space of five paces from the stone of the North), thou shalt raise a stone of fierce-heat, through

which the summer winds bloweth and make upon the stone the mark of the Lion-serpent thus:{Leo Sigil}

the stone of whirling-air shall be set in the East where the first equinox riseth and shall be graven with the sign

of he that beareth the waters, thus:{Aquarius Sigil}

the Gate of Rushing Torrents thou cause to beat the west most inner point (at a space of five paces from the

stone of the East) where the sun dieth in the evening and the cycle of night returns. Blazon the stone with the

character of the Scorpion whose tail reacheth unto the stars:{Scorpio Sigil}

Set thou the seven stones of Those that wander the heavens, without the inner four and through their diverse

influences shall the focus of power be established.

In the North beyond the stone of Great Coldness set the first the stone of Saturn at a space of three paces. This

being done proceed thou widdershins placing at like distances apart the stones of Jupiter, Mercury, Mars,

Venus, Sul and Luna marking each with their

rightful sign.

At the center of the so completed configuration set

the the Alter of the Great Old Ones and seal it

with the symbol of Yog-Sothoth and the mighty

Names of Azathoth, Cthulhu, Hastur, Shub-

Niggurath and Nyarlathotep.

And the stones shall be the Gates through which

thou shalt call Them forth from Outside man's time

and space.

Entreat the of the stones by night and when the

Moon decreasetth in her light, turning thy face to

the direction of Their coming, speaking the words

and making the gestures that bringeth forth the

Old Ones and causeth Them to walk once more the

Earth.

-e Adjuration of Great Cthulhu

Ph'nglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl fhtan.

A supplication to great Cthulhu for those who would have power over his minions.

In the day and hour of the moon with sun in scorpio prepare thou a waxen tablet and enscribe thereon the seals

of Cthulhu and Dagon; suffumigate with the incense of Zkauba and set aside.

78

On Hallowmas eve thou must travel to some lonely place where high ground overlooks the ocean. Take up the

tablet in thy right hand and make of the sign of Kish with thy left. Recite the incantation thrice and when the final

word of the third utterance dieth in the air cast thou the tablet into the waves saying:

'In His House at R'lyeh Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming,

yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth.'

And He shall come unto you in sleep and show His sign with which the shall unlock the secrets of the deep.

the Incantation

O Thou that lieth dead but ever dreameth,

Hear, Thy servant calleth Thee.

Hear me O mighty Cthulhu!

' Hear me Lord of Dreams !

In Thy tower at R'lyeh They have sealed the,

but Dagon shall break Thy accursed bonds,

and Thy Kingdom shall rise once more.

The Deep Ones knoweth Thy secret Name,

The Hydra knoweth Thy lair;

Give forth Thy sign that I may know

Thy will upon the Earth.

When death dies, Thy time shall be,

and Thou shalt sleep no more;

Grant me the power to still the waves,

that I may hear Thy Call.

(At the third repeating of the incantation cast forth the Tablet into the waves saying):

In His House at R'lyeh Dead Cthulhu waits dreaming, yet He shall rise and His kingdom shall cover the Earth.

79

-o Summon Shub-Niggurath the Black

here the stones have been set up thou shalt call out to Shub- Niggurath, and unto he that knoweth the

signs and uttereth the words all earthly pleasures shall be granted.

When the sun entereth the Sign of the Ram and the time of night is upon the turn thy face to the North wind and

read the verse aloud:

Iah ! SHUB-NIGGURATH !

Great Black Goat of the.Woods,

I Call Thee forth !

(Kneel)

Answer the cry of thy servant

who knoweth the words of power!

(make the Voorish sign)

Rise up I say from thy slumbers

and come forth with a thousand more!

(make the sign of Kish)

I make the signs, I speak the words

that openeth the door!

Come forth I say, I turn the Key,

Now ! walk the Earth once more !

80

Cast the perfumes upon the coals, trace the sigil of Blaesu and pronounce the words of power:

ZARIATNATMIX, JANNA, ETITNAMUS,

HAYRAS, FABELLERON, FUBENTRONTY,

BRAZO, TABRASOL, NISA,

VARF-SHUB-NIGGURATH ! GABOTS MEMBROT !

And then the Black one shall come forth unto thee and the thousand Horned Ones who howl shall rise up from

the Earth. And thou shalt hold before them the talisman of Yhe upon which they shall bow to thy power and

answer thy demands.

When thou would banish those that you have called forth intone the words: IMAS, WEGHAYMNKO, QUAHERS,

XEWEFARAM

Which closeth the Gate, and seal with the sign of Koth.

-o Call Forth Yog-Sothoth

For Yog-Sothoth is the Gate.

He knoweth where the Old Ones

came forth in times past and where

81

They came forth again when

the cycle returneth

hen thou would call forth Yog-Sothoth thou must waite until the Sun is in the Fifth House with Saturn

in trine. Then enter within the stones and draw about thee the Circle of evocation tracing the figurines

with the mystic scimitar of Barzai.

Circumambulate thrice widdershins and turning thy face to the South intone the conjuration that openeth the

Gate:

the Conjuration

O Thou that dwelleth in the darkness of the Outer Void, come forth unto the Earth once more I entreat thee.

O Thou who abideth beyond the Spheres of Time, hear my supplication.

(Make the sign of Caput Draconis)

O Thou who art the Gate and the Way come forth come forth Thy servant calleth Thee.

(Make the Sign of Kish)

BENATIR! CARARKAU! DEDOS! YOG-SOTHOTH! come forth! come forth! I speak the words, I Break Thy

bonds, the seal is cast aside, pass through the Gate and enter the World I maketh Thy mighty Sign!

(Make the Sign of the Voor)

Trace the pentagram of Fire and say the incantation that causeth the Great One to manifest before the Gate:

the Incantation

Zyweso, wecato, keoso, Xunewe-rurom Xeverator. Menhatoy, Zywethorosto zuy, Zururogos Yog-Sothoth! Orary

Ysgewot, homor athanatos nywe zumquros, Ysechyroroseth Xoneozebethoos Azathoth! Xono, Zuwezet, Quyhet

kesos ysgeboth Nyarlathotep!; zuy rumoy quano duzy Xeuerator, YSHETO, THYYM, quaowe xeuerator phoe

nagoo, Hastur! Hagathowos yachyros Gaba Sub-Niggurath! meweth, xosoy Vzewoth!

(Make the sign of Cauda Draconis)

TALUBSI! ADULA! ULU! BAACHUR!

Come forth Yog-Sothoth! come forth!

82

* * *

And then he will come unto thee and bring His Globes and He will give true answer to all you desire to know.

And He shall reveal unto you the secret of His seal by which you may gain favour in the sight of the Old Ones

when They once more walk the Earth.

* * *

And when His hour be past the curse of the Elder Lords shall be upon Him and draw Him forth beyond the Gate

where He shall abide until He be summoned.

{Editor's Note: Included on this page are a number of sigils and a magic circle. These illustrations are not in the

Manuscript but were referenced from other texts, including, but not limited to; Key of Solomon (see Additional

Ms. 36,674, British Museum Library) and Three Books of Occult Philosophy- Cornelius Agrippa. They are

therefor not included in this version.}

To Conjure of the Globes

Know the that the Globes of Yog-Sothoth be thirteen in number, and they be the powers of the Parasite-hoard

which are His servitors and doeth His bidding in the world.

83

Call them forth whenever thou shall have need of anything and they

shall grant their powers unto the when the shall call them with the

incantations and make their sign.

His Globes have diverse names and appeareth in many forms.

The first is GOMORY, who appeareth like a camel with a crown of gold

upon his head. He commandeth twenty-six legions of infernal spirits

and giveth the knowledge of all magical jewels and talismans.

The second splrit is ZAGAN, who appeareth like a great bull, or a King

terrible in aspect. Thirty-three legions bow before him and he teacheth

the mysteries of the sea.

The Third is called SYTRY, who taketh the form of a great Prince. He

hath sixty legions and telleth the secrets of time yet to come.

ELIGOR is the fourth spirit; he appeareth like a red man with a crown of iron upon his head. He commandeth

likewise sixty legions and giveth the knowledge of victory in war, and telleth of strife to come.

The fifth spirit is called DURSON and hath with him twenty-two familiar demons and appeareth like a raven. He

can reveal all occult secrets and tell of past times.

The sixth is VUAL his form is of a dark cloud and he teacheth all manner of ancient tongues.

The seventh is SCOR, who appeareth like a white snake, he bringeth money at your command.

ALGOR is the eighth spirit, he appeareth in the likeness of a fly. He can tell of all secret things and granteth the

favours of great Princes and Kings.

The ninth is SEFON. He appeareth like a man with a green face and hath the power to show where treasure is

hidden.

Tenth is PARTAS, He hath the form of a great vulture, and can tell the the vertues of herbs, stones, make the

invisible and restore sight which is lost.

The eleventh spirit is GAMOR, and when he appeareth like a man can marvellously enform the of how to win

favours of great persons and can drive away any spirit that guardeth over treasure.

Twelfth is UMBRA, He appeareth like a giant; he can convey money from place to place if thou bid him and

bestow the love of any woman that thou desirest.

The thirteenth spirit is ANABOTH who taketh the form of a yellow toad. He hath the power to make thee

marvellous cunning in nigromancy, he can drive away any devil that would hinder the and tell of strange and

hidden things.

84

When thou wouldst call up the Globes thou must first make upon the earth this sign:

And evoke of them thus:

EZPHARES, OLYARAM, IRION-ESYTION,

ERYONA, OREA, ORASYM, MOZIM!

By these words and in the name of YOG-SOTHOTH who is thy master, I do most powerfulIy summon and call

the up

O . . . . N . . . .

That thou mathest aid me in my hour of need.

Come forth I command the by the sign of Power!

(Make the sign of Voor)

And then the spirit shall appear unto thee and grant thy requests.

But if he remaineth invisible to thine eye, blow the dust of Ibn Ghazi and he will immediately take his proper

form.

When thou wouldst banish what the have called up eraze thou their sign with the scimitar of Barzai and utter the

words:

CALDULECH ! DALMALEY ! CADAT !

(and seal with the sign of Koth).

Nota: If on their appearance the spirits obstinately refuse to speak cleave the air thrice with the scimitar and

say: ADRICANOROM DUMASO! And their tongue shall be loosened and they will be compelled to give true

answer.

-Ritual for summoning Yog-Sothoth and opening the Gate

85

Banishing:

(could be replaced with other banishings. Uses Salt, water and incence.)

Zazii, Zamaii, Puidmon the Powerful,

Sedon the Strong, El, Yod, He, Vau, He,

Iah, Agla, protect me and help me when I summon the Gate!

(light incense and candles)

No evil may approach from the North!

No evil may approach from the East!

No evil may approach from the South!

No evil may approach from the West!

No evil may approach from Zenith!

No evil may approach from Nadir!

(bow towards the directions)

The Flaming Circle locks everything in!

Draba, draba, kalta, kalta, entemoss!

The Flaming Circle locks everything out!

Draba, draba, kalta, kalta, entemoss!

Accar, Zour and Maroud! Lock the circle and let no evil pass through!

Draba, draba, kalta, kalta, entemoss!

(participants walk round the circle. Salt, water and incense is sprinkled)

The Summoning:

86

Per Adonai Elohim, Adonai Jehova

Adonai Sabaoth, Metraton Ou Agla Methon,

Verbum Pythonicum, Mysterium Salamandrae

Cenventus Sylvorum, Antra Gnomorum

Demonia Coeli God, Almonsin Gibor

Jehoshua Evam Zariathnatmik, Veni, Veni, Veni!

(Put your hands above your head, with the thumbs and index fingers

together so they create a equilateral triangle. Turn the right hand

so its halve of the triangle points down, creating a paralellogram.

Turn the left hand, creating a downwards pointing triangle. Move it

down to your forehead, turning it upwards, so the final result is a

triangle on your forehead.)

Hear me!

King of Infinite Space!

Planetmover!

The Foundation of Fastness!

Ruler of Earthquakes!

The Vanquisher of Terror!

The Creator of Panic!

Destrother!

The Shining Victor!

Son of Chaos and the Void!

The Guardian of the Abyss!

God of the Outermost Darkness!

Lord of Dimensions!

Riddle-knower!

Guardian of The Secrets!

Lord of the Labyrinth!

Master of the Angles!

God of the Whiporwills!

Omegapoint!

Lord of the Gate!

Opener of the Way!

The Oldest!

All-in-One!

The One by Life Prolonged!

Umr At-Tawil!

Iak-Sathath!

YOG-SOTHOTH NAFL'FTHAGN!!!

Your servant call upon you!

(Take the staff and turn it first so it points Right-Left, then Up-Down,

then Forward-Back. Then twist it, and visualize how it is turned to

point into the fourth dimension, perpendicular to the other directions.

It will show the eightrathed star of Chaos.)

Opening of the Gate:

(The staff is held horizontally.)

Yog-Sothoth knows the Gate.

Yog-Sothoth is the Gate.

Yog-Sothoth is the key and guardian of the Gate.

Past, Present and Future, all is one in Yog-Sothoth.

By that which is not to be named,

By Azathoth,

87

By Nyarlathotep,

By Shub-Niggurath,

By the two snakes,

By that which created the Voids,

By Kadath in the Cold Waste,

By the Plateu of Leng,

By Yuggoth,

By the moon-lens,

By the inprisoned,

By the free,

By Samas, Gibil and Nusuku,

By the High Name of Ea,

By the Seven Demons,

Guardian, let the Gate be opened!

By Chaos,

By the Void,

By the Light,

By the Darkness,

By the Air,

By the Fire,

By the Water,

By the Earth,

Key, open the Gate!

By my sacred oath,

Let those who want to leave come out!

Let those who want to enter come in!

Let us see intp the Hiding Light!

Let us see into the Blinding Darkness!

Rend the Veil!

Crush the Mirror!

Reveal the Illusion!

See, the Gate opens!

(slowly turn the staff from horizontal to vertical, and make the sign

of the Rending of the Veil.)

See, the Nodes are filled with Power!

See, the Lines are filled with Power!

See, the Angles twist and open!

Notes:

I have performed this ritual in front of a lovecraftesque monument and on a empty hilltop. I prefer to have it

done on a starlit night, preferably a Sabbath. It is also nice if it is cold, suggesting the emptyness of the Void (I

have noticed a fall of temperature both times I have performed the ritual properly).

As incense I used jars filled with a mix of sugar, salpeter and incense, which I ignited, creating red-violet fire

and lots of irritating smoke.

I also used the following seals drawn in the snow or around the circle

88

- - -

Yog-Sothoth-Nyarlathotep-Shub-Niggurath-Azathoth

Power

In the summoning, I visualized a cloud of darkness slowly forming behind reality, gathering into a vortex. Inside

the vortex Yog-Sothoth manifests from the higher dimensions. Its shape is highly highly variable. Think of the

movies of three-dimensional cross-sections of fourdimensional objects, especially the pictures of julia sets in the

quaternions. It rotates, twists, splits up and reform itself constantly.

In the Gate opening, I visualize a Gate in front of me, a place where reality gets thinner and thinner, until it

reveals the Outside. A bit like a picture where the image fades to reveal the wall behind. Also helpful is

meditation about the Schwartzhid metric in General Relativity.

-e Call to the Render of the Veils

t should be noted that the Render is a fickle being, and thus this rite may not be performed with impunity.

Though the means to its completion may be sought at any time, only when the magician is ready shall

these tools come into his hands.

First, one must seek out the blessing of the Render through the gaining of one of His sacred images. The path of

least hazard is to obtain one from another magician or priest, but I know of none in our land who hold these,

and those who possess them are loath to part with them. If you despair of this, sometimes such eidolons may be

found by the soul as it floats in trance through the Higher Realities. Indeed, some find the image of the Render in

their visions without searching, but these occurrences are rare indeed. Those who possess the Crystallizer of

Dreams will find this less taxing, but note what I have said elsewhere of that item.

Once the image is obtained, the rite may then commence. The summoning is best performed at night, as then the

outline of the Render will be masked, and when the stars are in their proper places. Do not rely upon charts or

records, for such matters are incomprehensible to mortals, but let the spirit within be the judge of the day and

hour. It would be well if one would take on some companions in this task, that their vitality as well as the

wizard's may be drawn forth for the Work.

First the wizard shall create the Pentacle of Planes. Though the twigs of the ash is best for this purpose, it may

be made from other materials, or even drawn upon the ground if no other means are available, but be certain

that there is not even a hairbreadth's crack in the design. Within this stricture place the cranium of one of the

hideous lurkers of the tarns of Zemargad, and into this insert two candles made from the fat of the proper kind,

89

one part of mandragora, three of ivy leaf, and one of salt. Place the image close by, though not within three

cubits of the Pentacle itself.

Light the candles and take up an iron rod bearing on its end a drawn representation of the Render's shape as it

appears to oneself. Having purified the area, strike this rod upon the ground and speak the following:

" Uthgos plam'f Daoloth asgu'i! O come forth Thou who sweepest aside the veils of perception, and showest the

realities beyond. For it shall be here as it is in Yuggoth, in Tond as it is in Shaggai, in Poseidonis as it is in

Yaddith-Gho, in Yian-Ho as it is in Tsan-Chan. The time of Thy coming is nigh, and the Abyss of the Night of

Time is bridged. Make Thyself manifest in our spheres, that we may gain Thy knowledge and be edified thereby.

Ia Th'ailog! K'thakluth m'khur'g ath'lys! Ia Daoloth!"

When the beacons have been snuffed and the Render has manifested himself within the Pentacle, he will reach

forth and take what is necessary from those nearby. After this the wizard may question the Render how- soever it

is desired. No banishment is necessary, for following the impartation of the knowledge and the departure of his

time the Render shall withdraw back to the Veil Beyond the Abyss.

The following is most important. If any portion of the ritual, no matter how small, is not performed properly, it is

best to conclude the ceremony forthwith before the Render manifests. If the candle flames burn yellow, it shows

the favor of That Which Is Beyond. Make certain to perform the ceremony at the exact moment of the Veil's

rending, for this time is brief. Be fluid with the motions and speak the words of invocation smoothly. Be certain

that those who assist you are trustworthy and steadfast. It is of especial import that those who call out to the Veil

should do so out of a genuine desire for knowledge and not mere curiosity, for That Which Is Beyond will give

those whose search is for the latter exactly that which they desire.

Some have said that the Render may bestown the ability to perceive the true nature of the world, but such an

experiment is extremely perilous to the mind and soul of he who would do so. The Atlantean high priest

Klarkash-ton tells of an acolyte who attempted to do so, and met his death the the hands of his horrified fellows

as they struck out at _what had grown within_. Considering this, such an act would be foolish for all but the

mightiest sorcerers.

-ook of Materials

e wise Reader will find in these pages all

the necessary devices for the practice of

the Art. Powders, Talismans, Incenses, Unctions

may become useful allies on the road to

Knowledge. Be advised of such protective devices

by this note written by a skilled sorcerer before his

sudden disparition.

If thou wish to bind the Spirits to Thy Will, thou

shall Compound the Incense of Zkauba and

proceed carefully.

To observe the airial manifestations of the spirits,

Make the Powder of Ibn Ghazi, and do not despise

the Elder Sign.

True visions of time yet to come shall be grabted

by using the Unction of Khephnes the Egyptian.

90

To Fashion the Scimitar of Barzai, follow these rules attentively and thou shall be granted of its vertue.

-f protective devices

y protection seems to be holding, but for how long I can only guess ... the Elder Sign has taken much

abuse ... Before I leave this "sanctuary" let me describe what I perceive to be some effective defenses

against the agents of humanity ...

The Elder Sign -- imprinted with a sign of power and blessed by the priests of the Elder Gods. They CAN NOT

not be duplicated (Lord knows we tried -- with disasterous results). Size has no bearing on the power of the sign

.. I have seen signs both large and small ...

Rock Salt -- used to replace buckshot, this is effective against Shuggoths, the Ancient Race, and the Yuggoth

Fungi. You must get close for the shot to puncture their "flesh" ... too close ...

The Chaos Shield -- this device is a small buckler with the eight arrows of Chaos imprinted on the front. Michael

Moorcock wrote of the device after a dream and incorporated it into his "Elric" stories. The device exists ... it

was last seen near Greenland ... it offers immunity from physical attacks from outer world beings.

Explosives -- the Deep Ones can be damaged by normal physical means. Explosives seem to do the most

damage. Fire unfortunately does not seem to hurt them as much as we would have thought ... must be the skin ...

Fire -- Man's first defense since elder times. There's NO guarentee that ancient / elder outer world creatures are

succeptable to fire attacks. It never hurts to carry some oil and a dependable light ...

Silver -- When used as a head dress (woven into a hood, cap, etc...) prevents most baneful creatures from

harming your mind (or reading your thoughts). This information came from other sources that haven't been

disproved (yet), ... it saved my life once ...

Mirror -- Most intelligence creatures ignore the mirror ... works to distract the stupider creatures ...

Black powder -- effective means of stopping the Shuggoths from smelling / tracking you ... works well on other

creatures ...

I must leave now ... supplies are low ... time is short ... till next time ...

-o Compound the Incense of Zkauba

n the day and hour of Mercury with the Moon in her increase, thou shalt take equal parts of Myrrh,

Civet, Storax, Wormwood, Assafoetida, Galbanum and Musk, mix well together and reduce all to the

finest powder.

91

Place the so assembled elements in a vessel of green glass and seal with a brazen stopper afore inscribed with

the characters of Mars and Saturn.

Elevate the vessel to the Four Winds and cry aloud the supreme words of power thus:

To the North: ZIJMUORSOBET, NOIJM, ZAVAXO!

To the East: QUEHAIJ, ABAWO, NOQUETONAIJI!

To the South: OASAIJ, WURAM, THEFOTOSON!

To the West: ZIJORONAIFWETHO, MUGELTHOR, MUGELTHOR-YZXE!

Cover the vessel with a cloth of black velvet and set aside.

For each of seven nights thou shalt bathe the vessel in Moonlight for the space of one hour - keeping it

concealed beneath the cloth from cock-crow till sunset.

All this being accomplished the incense shall be ready for use and possessed of such vertue that he that useth it

with knowledge shall have power to call forth and command the Infernal Legions.

Nota: When emplothed in the Ultimate Rites the incense may be rendered more efficacious by the addition of one

part powdered mummy-Egypticus.

Employ the perfume of Zkauba in all ceremonies of the ancient Lore casting the essences upon live coals of thew

or Oak. And when the spirits drawn near, the vaporous smoke shall enchant and fascinate them, binding their

powers to thy will.

{Editor's Note: In the published edition a series of planetary glyphs and sigils are shown in reference to the

above formula. These have been omitted as they are not illustrated in the original manuscript but were provided

from other unrelated texts by the publishers.}

-o Make the Powder of Ibn Ghazi

92

e MYSTIC POWDER OF MATERIALIZATION:

Take the dust of the tomb - wherein the body has lain for two hundred thears or more past -, three parts. Take of

powdered Amaranth, two parts; of ground Ivy leaf, one part, and of fine salt, one part.

Compound all together in an open mortar in the day and hour of Saturn.

Make over the thus assembled ingredients the Voorish sign, and then seal up the powder within a leaden casket

whereupon is graven the sigil of Koth.

the USING OF the POWDER:

Whenever thou wisheth to observe the airial manifestations of the spirits blow a pinch of the powder in the

irection of their coming, either from the palm of thy hand or the blade of the Magic Bolyne.

Mark the well that the maketh the Elder Sign at their appearence, lest the tendrils of darkness enter thy soul.

-e Unction of Khephnes the Egyptian

hosoever anointeth his head with the ointment of Khephnes shall in sleep be grabted true visions of

time yet to come

When the Moon increaseth in her light place in an earthen crucible a goodly quantity of oil of the Lotus, sprinkle

with one once powdered mandragora and stir well with the forked twig of the wild thorn bush. Having so done

utter the incantation of thebsu (taken fron diverse lines in the papyrus) thus:

I am the Lord of Spirits,

Oridimbai, Sonadir, Episghes,

I am Ubaste, Ptho born of Binui Sphe, Phas;

In the name of Auebothiabathabaithobeuee

93

Give power to my spell O Nasira Oapkis Shfe,

Give power Chons-in-Thebes-Nefer-hotep, Ophois,

Give power! O Bakaxikhekh!

Add to the potion pinch of red earth, nine drops natron, for drops balsam of Olibanum and one drop blood (from

thy right hand). Combine the whole with a like measure of fat of the gosling and place the vessel upon the fire.

When all is rendered well and the dark vapours begin to rise, make the the Elder Sign and remove from the

flames.

When the unguent has cooled place it within an urn of the finest alabaster, which thou shalt keep in some secret

place (known only to thyself) until thou shalt have need of it.

-o Fashion the Scimitar of Barzai

n the day and hour of Mars and when the Moon increaseth, make thou the scimitar of bronze with a

hilt of fine ebony.

Upon one side of the the blade thou shalt enscribe these characters:

{Editor's Note: These graphics are not shown in the Manuscript}

And upon the other side these:

{Editor's Note: These graphics are not shown in the Manuscript}

On the day and hour of Saturn the moon decreasing, light thou a fire of Laurel and thew boughs and offering the

blade to the flames pronounce the five-fold conjuration thus:

94

HCORIAXOJU, ZODCARNES, I powerfully call upon the and stir the up O the mighty spirits that dwelleth in the

Great Abyss.

In the dread and potent name of AZATHOTH come the forth and give power unto this blade fashioned in

accordance to ancient Lore.

By XENTHONO-ROHMATRU, I command you O AZIABELIS, by YSEHYROROSETH, I call the O

ANTIQUELIS, and in the Vast and Terrible Name of DAMAMIACH that Crom-yha uttered and the mountains

shook I mightily compel the forth O BARBUELIS, attend me! aid me! give power unto my spell that this weapon

that bearest the runes of fire recieveth such vertue that it shall strike fear into the hearts of all spirits that would

disobey my commands, and that it shall assist me to form all manner of Circles, figures and mystic sigils

necessary in the operations of Magickal Art.

In the Name of Great and Mighty YOG-SOTHOTH and in the invincible sign of Voor (give sign)

Give power!

Give power!

Give power!

When the flames turn blue it shall be a sure sign that the spirits obey your demands whereupon thou shalt

quench the blade in an afore prepared mixture of brine and cock-gall.

Burn the incense of Zkauba as an offering to the spirits thou hast called forth, then dismiss them to their abodes

with these words:

In the Names of AZATHOTH and YOG-SOTHOTH, Their servant

NYARLATHOTEP and by the power of this sign (make the the Elder Sign), I

discharge thee; go forth from this place in peace and return the not until I calleth

thee. (Seal the portals with the sign of Koth).

Wrap the scimitar in a cloth of black silk and setit aside until thou wouldst make

use of it; but mark the well that no other shall lay his hand upon the scimitar lest

its vertue be forever lost.

-ook of Signs

95

e Verb is powerful. As powerful are Signs, Symbols and Scriptures. Advised Readers shall learn

protective signs, sacred seals and ancient languages in order to perform well. The importance of signs

should not be ignored, for Thy life shall depend on them.

the Alphabet of Nug-Soth is one key to the talismanic art and in all the sacred inscriptions. They shall be used in

addition to potent signs and sacred seals.

-e Alphabet of Nug-Soth

{Editor's Note: The following graphic alphabet is deciphered from the manuscript, according to the publishers,

by use of a "Magic Square Cipher" inherent in the manuscript itself and is therefor included in this etext

version.}

e characters of Nug hold the key to the planes,

employ the them in the talismanic art and in all

the sacred inscriptions

(Note: In the writing of the mystic runes of Nug-Soth the

latin C serveth for the K.)

-f Diverse Signs

hese most potent signs shall be so formed with thy left hand when thou employeth them in the Rites

96

the first sign is that of Voor and in nature it be the true symbol of the Old Ones. Make the thus whenever thou

wouldst supplicate Those that ever waite beyond the Threshold.

the second sign is that of Kish and it breaketh down all barriers and openeth the portals of the Ultimate Planes.

In the third place goeth the Great Sign of Koth which sealeth the Gates and guardeth the pathways.

the forth sign is that of the Elder Gods. It protecteth those who would evoke the powers by night, and banish the

forces of menace and antagonism.

(Nota: the Elder Sign hath yet another form and when so enscribed upon the grey stone of Mnar it serveth to

hold back the power of the Great Old Ones for all time.)

-Sacred Seals

- - -

Yog-Sothoth-Nyarlathotep-Shub-Niggurath-Azathoth

97

Power

-ook of Rituals

azardeous is the road to True Knowledge and mastery of the Arcanes. Only fools can try to perform

rituals without knowing about the Old Ones and Earth Magick to the perfection. Such foolish attemps

are bound to fail.

Whosoever performeth the Ritual of Dho-Hna with true understanding shall pass beyond the Gates of Creation

and enter the Ultimate Abyss wherein dwelleth the vapourous Lord S'ngac who eternally pondereth the Mystery

of Chaos.

-f the old ones and earth magick

Fools indeed are those Sorcerers who, intoxicat'd with their own fame and justify'd of theri own Powers, do lay

hold on the Old Ones as if they be mere Daemons, and seek to conjure and hold such by the Cantrip, the Spell,

and the Five-Pointed Star.

For Daemons do verily obey these things, but the Old Ones be far more than Daemons, and hold all magick of

Earth as vain and powerless and all Sorcerers of Earth as children pretend'ng to command the Wind whither it

blows. the most potent wizard Ibn Al-Kadil did in my presence try his rule over one Old One, a creature of most

surprising habits and unpleasant attitude whose name was called Y------c, who was but a shadow of dread

CTHULHU in both power and awfulness. Said Ibn Al-Kadil, that to but read the name of Y------c was to ensure

its coming, and to say the name aloud was certain disaster. Thus Ibn Al-Kadil had fortify'd himself with the most

terrible collection of potions, talismans, and binding spells known to magicians of this astral plane before the

invocation was ever made.

98

Alas, Y------c did not wait on the invocation, but did appear early, and all that was left of the most potent wizard

Ibn Al-Kadil was his pile of protective trinkets. These Y------c did throw at my feet most disdainfully before

vanishing as quickly as it came.

So it is that I tell you of a truth that the Old Ones obey not their summoners, but disdain them; and that for some

of Them a passing thought is as an open Gate.

-e Ritual of Dho-Hna

Trace the Angle-Web with the Scimitar of Barzai and offer the mystic suffumigations with the incense of Zkauba.

Enter the Web by the Gate of the North and reciting the incantation of Na (thus):

ZAZAS, NASATANADA, ZAZAS ZAZAS

Proceed to the South-most Pinnacle by the Path of Alpha whereupon make the, the Sign of Kish, pronouncing the

triple-Word of power thrice, (thus so):

OHODOS-SCIES-ZAMONI!

Proceed thence to the Angle of the North-East chanting the third verse of the Fifth Psalm of Nyarla- thotep

seglecting not to make the quintuple genuflection on passing through the curve locus-(thus):

The All-One dwelleth in Darkness,

At the centre of All dwelleth He that is the Darkness;

And tfiat Darkness shall be eternal when all shall bow before the Onyx Throne.

99

Pause at the Third Angle and make the once

more the Sign of Kish speaking the words that

clear the portal and stay the course of time:

ABYssus-D|AcoNrsus, ZEXOWE-

AZATHOTH!) NRRGO, IAA! NYAR-

LATHOTEP!

Follow the Third Path to the Pinnacle of the

West and there perform the obeisances in

silence (bow low thrice and give the gesture of

Voor). Turn and tread the Path of

Transfiguration leading to the Ultimate Angle.

Open up the Abyss Gate by the ninefold

affirmation (thus):

ZENOXESE, PIOTH, OXAS ZAEGOS,

MAVOC NIGORSUS, BAYAR!

HEECHO! YOG-SOTHOTH! YOG-

SOTHOTH! YOG-SOTHOTH!

Make the the Sigil of Transformation and step thou forth into the Gulf.

Campus Crusade For Cthulhu

The R'Lyeh Text

Hidden Leaves From The Necronomicon

from Tenebrositas Website

There's plenty of transcriptions of Liber Logæth out there, but none of it's sequel - "The R'Lyeh Text". For this

reason I have decided to upload my own transcription of the text, researched, transcribed and annotated by

Robert Turner. The text below has been checked and any apparent mistakes or misspellings are present in the

original edition (eg. Zkauba being spelled Zakubar).

"Phil"

Contents

Their Hidden Place

Of He Who Sleeps

The Nurturing Of The Cadaver

The Vessel Of Balon

To Fashion The Ring Of Hypnos

The Amulet Of Nodens

Of The Dead Who Rest Not In Their Tombs & Of Attendant And Familiar Spirits

The Speculum Of Apparitions

The Visitations Of The Great Old Ones

The Rite Of Transfiguration

The Augury Of Alhazred

Their Hidden Place

I have seen much unmeant for mortal eyes in my wanderings beneath that dark and forgotten city. It is not the

splendours of Irem that haunt my dreams with this madness, but another place, a place shrouded in utter silence;

long unknown to man and shunned even by ghoul and nightgaunt. A stillness likened to millions of vanished

years pressed with great heaviness upon my soul as I trod those labyrinths in terror, ever fearing that my footfalls

might awaken the dread architects of this nameless region where the hand of time is bound and the wind does not

whisper.

Great was my fear of this place, but greater was the strange sleep-like fascination that gripped my mind and

guided my feet ever downwards through realms unknown. My lamp cast it's radiance upon basalt walls,

revealing mighty pillars hewn surely by no human hand, where curiously stained obelisks engraved with

100

frightful images and cryptic characters reared above me into the darkness. A passage sloped before me, I

descended. For what seemed to be an eternity I descended rapt in contemplation of the grim icons that stretched

endlessly on either hand, depicting the strange deeds of Those Great Ones born not of mortal womb. They had

dwelt here and passed on, yet the walls of the edifice bore Their mark: vast likenesses of those terrible beings of

yore carved beneath a firmament of unguessed asterisms.

Endlessly the way led downwards, ever downwards. The passage of time had fled from my mind, Hypnos and

eternity held my soul.

How long, how far had I journeyed? I knew not. Then like one awaking from the dreams of Narcaeus my eyes

beheld a door which barred my path. Their Sign was upon it, The Sign which I have seen within the tomb-

caverns of Leng, amidst the pillars of Irem , and borne before the idols of cryptic Isnavor. I trembled as I beheld

the dark inscriptions which covered the jaded stone writhe like a thousand hideous serpents, sometimes their

reptilian forms darting toward each other as if in conflict, sometimes joining to form creatures of nauseous bulk

once more to divide into a twisting host of black serpentine characters.

Before my eyes the door was rolled up as if it were a scroll and I gazed upon the void beyond, where amongst

strange stars great darkling forms moved. Like the moaning of a great wind terrible voices assailed my ears with

a cry of a thousand souls in torment. The forbidden names of Yog-Sothoth, Cthulhu, Nyarlathhotep and a

hundred more seared my brain like venomous vitriol. Their minds entered my being and I learned of

blasphemous things undreamt by mortal man and of a realm beyond our time and creation where the blind

demon sultan Azathoth dwells within the pit of Chaos throughout the countless aeons of infinity.

Then with thunderous roar the stars whirled before me in a great coiling vortex and I was drawn into that

nameless abyss like a leaf before the tempest . My screams of terror yielded to merciful oblivion and darkness

engulfed me.

I awoke amidst the silent sands of the red desert to behold the great orb of the sun proclaiming the dawn. I arose,

and turning to the North set my feet towards Damascus where I, Their scribe, must write my book. For beyond

the Pillars of Hercules, dreaming crystals call.

Of He Who Sleeps

Know ye that He has slept death's dream for ages unnumbered; He who has slumbered long before the birth of

Man; He who is dead yet waits dreaming: SHALL RISE, and His time draws near. The worm shall not corrupt

the corrupted; time is naught to His continuation; the aeons shall not lay waste that which is not of earth's flesh.

In R'Lyeh He dwells, bound in timeless sleep by Those who would hold back the darkness of Outer Hells and

stem the fate of Man. Yet the darkness shall prevail, the destiny of Man is sealed and graven.

The stars shall mark the time of His coming, and when the spheres intersect: HE SHALL RISE. Great Cthulhu

shall return, and armed with vengeful talons He shall smite the Elder Lords and rend the soul of Man. The earth

shall know the night without cease.

His minions dwell amongst you, Beware O Man, they come in servile stealth; like thieves in the night. They

heed not Man and his frail gods, blind in the will of their master.

Great Cthulhu sleeps in His house and shapes the dream of what shall me, dead Cthulhu waits dreaming.

My brother Ibn Ghazi saw with the lidless eyes the end of Man's time, yet Their curse denied him the revelation.

Ever condemned he suffers the endless torments of the Vaults of Zin. His mouth is sealed up, his tongue severed

- nought shall he speak or bewail his tortures - he is headless, the slave of the Shoggoth until the Great Old Ones

fall.

Yog-Sothoth knoweth the Gate through which the Old Ones shall return. When the stars have faded and the

moon shines no more, when only dark suns rise and set: Great Cthulhu shall awaken and call from the deep with

the voice of a thousand thunders, and the Gate shall be cast open: THEY SHALL RETURN.

Lament thy fate O Man, for the earth shall be void and cast for eternity into the abyss of perdition.

101

IN HIS TOMB AT R'LYEH GREAT CTHULHU DREAMS.

The Seal They have set against Him shall not prevail forever. The folly of mankind shall shatter the Seal: HE

SHALL RISE.

Man in his unseeing ignorance shall assault the skein which binds his immortality (and know not who guides his

hand); he shall rupture the air and oceans with fire, and cover the firmament with the venomous shroud of

ancient Cthulhu's shadow.

I, Alhazred, have heard His cry, my eyes have beheld the forbidden Signs, I fear the voice of the night wind - I

fear for man.

Ph'hglui mglw'nafh Cthulhu R'lyeh Wgah'nagl fhtan

The Nurturing Of The Cadaver What hand harvests the soul at death?

What dwells within the tomb after the spirit has departed?

What locks the Gate beneath the serpent's eye?

STANZA I He who would possess the hidden power must pay homage to Those of the Void and provide the sustenance of

Their being. In ages past They created bodies of flesh and walked the earth and bred diverse life-forms for Their

nourishment: creatures of Their design, (some yet continue upon earth) shaped and coloured to serve Their

needs.

In the Void They dwell without form; Their mantle of flesh long destroyed, yet Their desire for the essence of

matter remains and long unremembered lusts burn with ravenous ferocity.

When life has fled the corpus the fly of Yoth must be encapsulated thus; Make the incision with the Scimitar of

Barzai and over the head of the cadaver pronounce the Incantation:

ZECKA-REBUS PRATCHI, RO'KAS

WELBREBOSDOS SATIGOC INRUT, YOTH

IMBRUT, ZECKA-REBUS YOTH! RO'KAS YOTH!

Make the Voorish Sign and burn the Incense of ZKAUBA.

Take up a brand of fire and facing to the West pronounce the words:

BELUM OSAS GRIMSAL

BOGAD RITZAS

PEGVIER

LAZOZ IMBRUT

ZECKE-REBUS

YOTH!

Strike the brazen gong and as the sound dies from your ears the insect will attend you and enter the wound. The

fly will dwell therein for one hundred and ninety days and from its decay shall rise the nine worms of

ISCUXCAR which shall gnaw as instructed until naught remains but the essence.

If the Na-hags come forth banish them with the Elder Sign (which they fear greatly) and bar their return with the

Amulet Of Iron.

Thus prepared, the essence may be offered to Those beyond for Their appeasement whenever you shall Open the

Gate as before taught. (Make the triple genuflection and Seal with the Sigil of Koth at Their coming).

The glittering Powder of Desiccation may be formulated from the remains if pulverized in the day and hour of

Saturn and combined with the ochre of the earth, salt and sulphur.

Mummia can be produced by sprinkling the powder upon any corporeal being.

102

The Vessel Of Balon

Fashion a vessel in the form of a brazen head. Upon the brow engrave the sigil:

beneath the right eye:

beneath the left eye:

beneath the mouth,

(to the right) and

(to the left).

103

Set the vessel upon a stone engraved with the emblems of great Balon. Last, let the eyes of his vessel be set with

obsidian. Seal within the cranium a quantity of the Powder of Ibn Garzi, the metals of the ancient planets and the

essence of life.

When the moon is old take the vessel veiled in black to some high place where no man is abroad and turn the

countenance to the North. Unveil the head and burn the incense of Zakubar before it. Then you shall call forth

five servitors of Balon in His name:

VEDAL, NOCUSA, IBROS, DENAK, ENPROS I call you forth in the name of your Master: Great BALON!

Behold your Signs and look upon this image with favour for this vessel awaits you in silence. I evoke you in

these words: KADESES YOLMO REEGUS EMIG ORRESSUS DIZZAG, ORRESSUS, ORRESSUS DIZZAG,

and by the power of His emblems that I have set before you. I bid you enter this vessel and feast upon the

essences you so desire.

104

The spirits shall appear as a red vapour before the image, and the essences within the cranium shall beckon their

lust, and they shall enter through the mouth of the vessel. When they are within make the sign of KOTH and seal

up the mouth with red clay (which you have before prepared) saying:

105

VOLEC DEMAS, ORIS, through this earth you shall not pass. The words have been spoken, the Sign has been

given, for as long as I so will it you shall dwell within this vessel I have fashioned with my Art and thou shall

give true answers to my demands when I shall have need of you; for Balon your Master has cast you forth from

the hosts that serve Him to be obedient to my will in return for my worship and due sacrifice.

Veil the image with black cloth.

When thou wish to know of anything which is hidden from you in the world of man or realm of elemental spirit -

Unveil the head, turn the face to the North, ask what you desire to know and address the image in these words:

"I have fashioned you with my Art,

I have given you life,

Now answer in truth."

(Make the Voorish Sign and burn incense).

The Seals of the Vessel must never be broken for the Spirits will seek to destroy you upon their release.

To Fashion The Ring Of Hypnos

The realm of sleep touches earth's world in many places, but it is beyond the mighty Towers of the West that the

dreams of man mingle with the threads of eternity. Only there where thought has form and purple Hypnos rules

can a waking man tread the Valley of the Land of Sleep and behold the Web of Minds therein.

To enter the dreams of another you must know the Names and Sigils of the four Guardians of this realm and

possess the Ring of Passage.

The four Guardian Spirits of the Western Portal (through which you must pass) each have names of five

letters and diverse characters in which the secrets of their power are locked, thus:

NEMUS:

DACOS:

CABID:

LEEBO:

Fashion a ring from virgin silver in the day and hour of Jupiter and engrave upon it these characters:

In the day and hour of Mercury furnish the ring with a bezel of bronze bearing this character:

106

For one cycle of the Moon expose the Ring to the elements in which time the silver will blacken and the bronze

turn green.

In the dark of the Moon write the Names and Sigils of the four Guardians upon the parchment and suffumigate

with storax while calling upon the said Guardians in these words:

Nemus, Dacos, Cabid, Leebo!

I call you forth by your ancient names

Attend me in my work and behold these your symbols!

YAILISBO IBUZOD!

Place the Ring upon the parchment and recite the Incantation in a low voice:

YOBUS RESUSYARTA NEBEE, RISSANUS NEBEE ZHIYA, VEN REBUSERIC NI ARDAS ARBAOS

VANZEE GEREL ZIMPHANSE NI NEBEE AWENHATOACORO, VEHATH, HAGATHORWOS.

Sprinkle the ring twice with the juice of juniper mixed with the oil of civet and perfume with the Incense of

Zkauba, saying:

Nemus, Dacos, Cabid, Leebo

I bind you in these words:

ADULAL! ABUIAL! LEBUSHI!

Let me pass before unhindered

Through the realms of your Kingdom And let not sleep dim my eyes.

(Make the Sign of Kish)

Place the Ring and parchment within a leaden casket and set it aside for the space of seven days.

When you have need to enter the dream-mind of another, in the hours of night place the Ring upon the second

finger of your left hand, turn West and pressing the bezel to your forehead pronounce the four Names upon the

parchment and you shall pass in a moment between the Towers of the West and enter the realm of sleep. Speak

the name of the dreamer and your minds shall become as one until Morpheus lifts his spell.

The secrets and desires of any man or woman shall be revealed to you through the images of their dreams. Yet,

only those who sleep the hours of the night shall be subject to the power of the Ring, for the radiance of the sun

utterly destroys it's virtue, and the Key shall be lost - The Spirits are not answerable to a second calling.

The Amulet Of Nodens

The amulet of Lord Nodens is a Shield of Protection against the fiends that walk the night; the demonic

adversaries that assail Mankind. Whoever shall bear this Symbol upon his breast shall turn back the legions of

darkness until the despoilers of earth return.

When the Moon is in her increase and Orion ascends in the East: Take a plate of purest silver and upon it

engrave the image of the Serpent-bat which guards the Gateway of Fire. From the serpent mouth shall issue the

tripart Word of Power that none shall speak or know.

On the reverse of the Amulet engrave the asterism of Orionis and within the Symbol of The Hand.

On a night when the stars burn in the heavens and the Sun is in the Sign of the Sea-Goat, turn to the East and

hold the Amulet aloft saying:

Great NODENS of the Silver Hand, I call you forth!

Behold the Symbol of your mighty Power!

Open the fiery Gate of your Abode and give life to this Emblem fashioned by my Art.

See the Name that may not be spoken, issue from the jaws of your servant -

See the form of your secret place amongst the stars!

I hail you NODENS!

Stretch out your Hand and lend Power to my work that the Elder Lords may assist me in my time of need.

In these Names I call upon your Power:

BABÃDUR, SHUJÃ, GIBBÕR, MURZIM,

BESN, KLARIA, GABBÃRÃ! JABBÃR!

107

(Make the Elder Sign)

Bow low to each Cardinal Point beginning and ending in the East. Perfume the Amulet with sweet myrrh of

Commiphora, wrap in a black silken cloth and set aside until you would make use of it.

108

-

109

Of The Dead Who Rest Not In Their Tombs & Of Attendant And Familiar Spirits

Where in times past the Old Ones have stained the earth with Their curse, the dead shall know not the peace of

the grave. From corruption they shall rise bringing forth a race of ghouls; creatures that are not of life or death

but dwell in the shadow-world of phantasm.

The corpses of evil sorcerers are buried with their faces downwards and their hands spiked with iron to hinder

their return to this world. Yet, some with great power yield not to death or the confinement of the sepulcher and

by necromantic art, shape the marrow of their backbones to form terrible serpents or great lizards that feed upon

noisome remains and gnaw dark passageways to the world of the living.

There are those that rise from the grave at nightfall and drink the blood of man and woman, sometimes

transforming into wolf or bat and other diverse shapes.

The serpent-like lamia and clawed harpies also spread the plague of torment amongst men as they ever lust for

the substance of life that has been denied them.

The worm begets the worm and from the decay of the body strange forms come forth.

The dreams of men and women are sometimes troubled by those passionate spirits of nightmare that the ancients

have called incubi and succubi; whereof (through carnal congress) races of halflings are bred.

The wastelands are haunted by Afrit and Jinn, Gorgons and many-headed Hydras abide with the Mi-Go in the

great yellow Desert of the North and my eyes have been infected with their evil.

110

All these beings are easily fascinated and bound to the will of the wizard-sorcerer who knows the ways and rites

of the Old Ones. But, beware of those who dwell (dead, yet alive) beneath the ancient sands of Egypt (which I

learned of in the house of Khephnes) for their time is yet to come and no mortal hand shall stay their power.

They shall return.

Time passes not before the muted idols.

STANZA II

The Speculum Of Apparitions

To have vision of the conclave of spirits called forth (when not evoked to visible appearance), or commune with

the souls of the dead you must prepare a vessel in which their images will be ensnared.

The use of this curious mirror was taught to me by the magician-priests of the Vale of ZURNOS where the Great

Night is followed by the Great Day and the Seven Caverns lead to the bowels of the earth.

Take a vessel of crystal glass in the form of the alchemist's retort and set aside. In the day and hour of the Moon

(when she is in Her increase) and the Sun in the House of the Scorpion write upon a void parchment the Cypher

of the Crab of Zosimos:

and perfume it with musk.

In a great mortar mix together: Betony, Pelitory, Snake-Weed, Elder, Cretan-Dittany of each a like measure;

Zedoary, Galangal, Doronicum, Ammoniac, Opoponax, Spodium, Schaeinanthus, Ebony, Bole-Armenick,

Mithridate and Must, each of one third part. Reduce all to a fine powder and put them within the alchemist's

Pelican or blind Alembeck. Add distillate of sea-water to increase the amalgam fourfold. Cover with the

parchment and ferment for the space of fifteen days.

Draw off the Quintessence and fill up the before mentioned retort with the Elixir and add a loadstone. Seal up the

vessel with red wax and set it on a brazen tripod.

Make the Voorish Sign and speak the Nine Words of Power:

LUSOOM, RENGAT, EEPUS, OMARASY,

ALCUM, DARBUS, NESMONARTIS,

ENPHODDARIBUISEC, EBO!

At sunset for the space of nine days burn sweet incense beneath the vessel and speak the Words of Power in their

order, one upon each day.

The Apparition of the Spirits shall be seen in the depths of the Speculum when you shall call them by your Art,

and the souls of the dead shall give true answer according to their nature.

The Visitations Of The Great Old Ones

In metallic stars the Old Ones visit this earth from time to time. And the Lore of the Elder Gods prevails not

against this coming; for They walk not the earth in Their forbidden forms.

They visit the skies of the desert lands, high places and desolate regions of the earth and strike fear into the heart

of the lonely traveller and all who see Their signs. Yet, no man shall divine Their dark purpose or behold Their

countenances, for They travel with great swiftness upon the back of the very wind and tear the fabric of Time's

web in Their fury.

The Beast of Night shall foretell their coming.

STANZA III

111

The Rite Of Transfiguration

Those who would enter the Gulf and yet live must first endure the process of transfiguration. Likewise any that

shall continue when the Old Ones return and the earth is cleared off, must take the form of his Masters.

This is the final rite and those who tread this path shall not return to the frame of mortality. His body shall be as

iron, his mind shall be one with the oldest and first of earth's Masters; his eyes shall see what no man sees and

his shape shall be one with those who walk the dimensions of time.

On a night when the eye of the Star-Dragon dims and the Sun is in the Fifth House with Saturn in Trine enter

within the Stones and Open the Gate with the Conjuration and Incantation of Yog-Sothoth. Call forth the Globes

by their diverse Names and when They attend you, make upon each coming the Sign of Voor.

Before each of the Stones burn the Incense of Zkauba blowing the Powder of Ibn Ghazi to the Four Winds.

Stand before the Altar facing north and taking the Scimitar of Barzai, trace in the air before you the three

boundary beating Sigils:

and utter the great Words of Power:

RENOSORATUNTA! POHOTHON! BASAKUNNAS!

In a loud voice call forth the Lord AZATHOTH in these words:

Great AZATHOTH I call you forth!

Downbreaker of thought and form,

Come to me in Power and clothe me

with the Darkness of Eternity!

Let the Shroud of Nyarlathotep descend upon me

that I shall walk even amongst the stars

and men shall not comprehend my presence.

ZENTO! HEDARBUS! TASAC!

(Make the Sign of Kish)

Cast this mantle of flesh into the mould of the Ancient Ones.

I have called you forth!

I have spoken the mighty Words of your Lore!

My father Yog-Sothoth stands beside the Gate,

and Great Cthulhu calls beneath the waves!

(Make the Sign of Voor)

The thousand-faced moon has risen!

The Dragon's eye dims! Let yours be opened!

Trace the Angle-Web and enter the Gulf by the Formula Dho-Hna and your form shall be one with those

without.

112

The Augury Of Alhazred

The words of this book are the venomous thorns that so torture my spirit and my doom is at hand.

The night is filled with Their cries and the beating of leathern wings. Their hand is at my throat, and though I

wear the Triple Talisman upon my breast; the power wanes with each passing cycle of the Moon.

I dare not sleep the hours from sunset till dawn lest with stealthy skill the Charm is torn from me and They

devour my soul.

The Oracle of Yebsu has foretold of my destruction: when day shall be as night, Their power shall prevail. A

man's life is but a cloud that passes swiftly before the face of the moon. Yet, there is an Abyss of Perdition where

such oblivion is denied, into which my defiled mind and body shall be cast, to suffer the torments of the damned

throughout the countless ages of infinity, devoid of form or substance .

The Omens are amongst the Stars and grim fear strikes into my bones, my time is at an end.

Yet Al Azif shall not perish for it has passed into the hands of another, a Keeper of Great Powers, who dwells

beyond the Western Ocean. Through the ages these writings shall endure, concealed from the many, revealed to

the few. In the secrets of my book the wise shall find the Key of Salvation - the fool shall unlock the door to his

damnation.

In the space of nine days hence, the Sun shall join with the Moon and my fate will be sealed.

When darkness comes at noon and the sands shiver with the wind - I shall be no more.

To the West lies the Cavern of Scrolls,

Where the Brazen Scorpion guards the Forbidden Words.

STANZA IV

by Daniel Harms

1998

from Necronomicon Website

In the Beinecke Rare Book Library at Yale lies one of the most enigmatic manuscripts in the world. Classified as

Manuscript 408, it is a manuscript of nine by six inches and 235 pages (though some pages may have been lost).

Its lettering is unique to the manuscript, and its pages are illustrated with a wide variety of diagrams: plants, nude

women in baths, astronomical charts, and other unlikely subjects. The Voynich Manuscript has become the

focus of intense scholarship ever since its discovery, and some of the world‟s best cryptographers have been

attempting to read it for decades.

Over time, the "most mysterious manuscript in the world" has become intertwined with the mythology of the

Necronomicon, to the point that many people have hopelessly confused the issues regarding the two. With all

the confusion which is already part of the Necronomicon debate, it might help to describe the controversy

surrounding the Voynich Manuscript for the first-time reader. [1]

The Manuscript in Medieval Times

The Voynich Manuscript first enters the historical record at the court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II.

113

Rudolph (1552-1612) was a weak ruler who allowed affairs of state to fall into disarray until the Hapsburg

archdukes threw their support behind his brother (and soon-to-be heir) Matthias. For Rudolph, political concerns

were much less important than science and alchemy. His court in Prague became a magnet for learned men

including the astronomer Johannes Kepler and charlatans from across Europe, and individuals were constantly

rising into and being cast out of the Emperor‟s favor. It was in this atmosphere that the Emperor purchased the

Voynich Manuscript from an unknown individual for 600 ducats an unbelievable sum for a book that no one at

the court could read.

Accounts suggest that the Emperor thought the manuscript was the work of Roger Bacon (c. 1220-1292), a

Franciscan friar. Roger Bacon was a great thinker and spent much of his time in the study of philosophy, science,

and alchemy. He made relatively few scientific discoveries (though he did investigate the nature of light and

proposed gunpowder‟s use in warfare), but he is perhaps better known for his steps toward creating a systematic

procedure for experimentation. Because of his unusual viewpoints and attacks on fellow scholars, he was often at

odds with his superiors, and near the end of his life was imprisoned for reasons unknown. Nevertheless, his

works, including the Opus majus, Opus minus, and Opus tertium are considered milestones in the history of

science.

Most scholars would agree that the Voynich Manuscript did not originate with Bacon, however. There is no

mention of this work anywhere between his time and its appearance in Prague. Bacon might have known

something about cryptography, but if the manuscript is written in a cipher which is by no means certain it is a

cipher more difficult than any used in the thirteenth century. Some have pointed to a simple encoded inscription

in the book that identifies the author as Bacon - but this could have been the work of a clever hoaxer. Other

evidence within the manuscript, such as diagrams of what appear to be New World plants, suggest that the

Voynich Manuscript was not actually the work of Roger Bacon.

If the manuscript is not the work of Roger Bacon, then who is responsible for it? One likely individual is John

Dee (1527-1608), the Elizabethan doctor and magician. Between 1584 and 1588, Dee visited Prague several

times as the guest of Rudolph II. Dee himself was interested in cryptography, and had a substantial collection of

Roger Bacon‟s works in his library. In addition, during his time in Prague, Dee mentions a gift of 630 ducats,

approximately that which Rudolph II paid for the book. Some have also said that the page numbering on the

Manuscript is in Dee‟s handwriting. Thus, it is likely that the manuscript came to Rudolph through Dee.

After its appearance in Prague, the manuscript‟s history becomes slightly clearer. Tests revealed the signature of

Jacobus de Tepenecz, a botanist and alchemist at Rudolph‟s court, on the Manuscript‟s first page. It is believed

that the Emperor gave the manuscript to de Tepenecz around 1610 (though some suggest that de Tepenecz had

the book first and sold it to the Emperor). It then passed through a person or persons unknown * who left it in

their will to the scholar Joannes Marcus Marci (c. 1595-1667).

* Since the publication of our book, the identity of this individual has been confirmed as a mysterious

individual named "Baresch".

Shortly before his death, Marci sent the manuscript on to his friend Athanasius Kircher (1602-1680). Kircher

popularized the "magic lantern" (a sort of prototypical slide projector), and was considered an expert on

cryptography. He tried unsuccessfully to decode the book, and after his death the Voynich Manuscript vanished

until it turned up again in the library of the Villa Mondragone in Frascati, Italy.

The Rediscovery and the "Deciphering"

In 1912, a used bookseller named Wilfrid M. Voynich found the manuscript along with a number of books

bearing the seals of the noble houses of Italy. Voynich was anxious that the book be deciphered, and sent out

copies to al number of expert cryptographers who he hoped would provide an answer. Most of them were certain

that they could solve the cipher quickly, but all of them were stymied.

The first of many "solutions" appeared in 1921, when Professor William Romaine Newbold of the University

of Pennsylvania claimed to have solved the puzzle. The first stage of decipherment, according to Newbold, was

to understand that each of the characters was in fact made up of a number of characters from a type of Greek

shorthand. These microscopic letters were deciphered, and then subjected to a complicated process involving

doubling some of the letters, using pairs of letters to generate new characters, changing those characters into

their phonetic values, and rearranging the letters in a sequence to create words.

114

This may seem like an overly complicated process (as many cryptographers later agreed), but his methods of

decipherment were overshadowed by his results. Newbold announced that the Voynich Manuscript showed that

Bacon had a vast knowledge of facts believed to have been discovered only recently, such as the spiral nebula of

Andromeda and a process for creating metallic copper. The discovery was seen as a breakthrough in the history

of science.

Newbold died in 1927, and his work The Cipher of Roger Bacon was published in the following year. After the

euphoria had worn off, many scholars expressed their doubts as to the decipherment. The foremost of these was

John M. Manly, who demolished Newbold‟s claims in an article in the Speculum, a journal of medieval studies,

in 1931. Manly began by pointing out that the supposed Greek shorthand was actually the result of the fading

and cracking of the manuscript‟s ink. He noted that even if these characters had existed, Newbold‟s system of

rearrangement made it possible to generate hundreds of possible translations for each text. The texts which

Newbold had "deciphered" contained a number of historical inaccuracies, and most of them seemed to be no

more than a product of Newbold‟s imagination. With this announcement, most of the support for the

decipherment vanished.

As the years have passed, more possible solutions have emerged. Joseph Feely arrived at his "decipherment" by

guessing at what the labels to the pictures might mean, and then hypothesizing an abbreviated medieval Latin

was used to write the book. Leonell Strong claimed that the book was a gynecological textbook written in

Middle English. Robert Brumbaugh claimed to have reached a solution that explained some of the labels on the

illustrations, but failed to decipher the main text, leading him to conclude that most of the book was fraudulent.

One of the most recent examples of these efforts was Leo Levitov‟s Solution of the Voynich Manuscript: A

Liturgical Manual for the Endura Rite of the Cathari Heresy. Levitov believed that the book was a manual of the

Cathars, a heretical Christian sect destroyed in the 13th

century. Instead of being a cipher, Levitov claimed the

book was actually written in a polyglot tongue of which we have no other records. In the end, all of these

solutions rested on shaky methodology and highly creative readings of the "deciphered" text, and as a group they

tell us more about human nature than the Manuscript‟s contents.

Voynich passed away in 1930, and his widow held the Manuscript until her death in 1960. It was briefly held by

its co-owner, A. M. Nill, who sold it in 1961 to the bookseller Hans P. Kraus. Kraus was unable to find a buyer

for the Manuscript, and deposited it at the Beinecke Rare Books Library. The manuscript still attracts a great deal

of attention. Even after years of effort by cryptographers, we cannot even say what language it might be in.

Some claim that large parts of it are random, and that only a few passages mean anything at all. Others believe

that it is an attempt at an artificial language, or an elaborate work of art. Most cryptographers who have dealt

with the Voynich Manuscript believe that it does have meaning, however, and it will have no shortage of

prospective decipherers in the future.

Colin Wilson, the Voynich Manuscript, and the Necronomicon

The link between those two mysterious manuscripts Voynich‟s book and the Necronomicon - was first

hypothesized in the Cthulhu Mythos fiction of the English author and critic Colin Wilson. Wilson had been

treated Lovecraft quite critically in his book The Strength to Dream, and wrote his first Mythos novel, The Mind

Parasites, in response to August Derleth‟s challenge to write such a book. Wilson wrote relatively few Mythos

stories, but most fans regard his tales as classics in the genre.

The first time Wilson mentioned the Voynich Manuscript was in his short story "The Return of the Lloigor",

published in Arkham House‟s Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. The protagonist of "Return" is Professor Paul Lang

of the University of Virginia. A literary acquaintance of his asks him to acquire a photocopy of the Voynich

Manuscript, which is being kept at the University of Pennsylvania [2]

. While Lang is making the copy, he meets a

photographer who has taken a color photo of the manuscript.

The professor notices that some faint lines are now showing up, and he commissions photographs of the entire

manuscript, filling in the areas where the ink has worn away. He soon discovers that the book is written in

Arabic or rather, Greek and Latin written in the Arabic alphabet. (A glance at the characters from the Voynich

Manuscript will show that this is impossible, but as this is fiction, Wilson can be allowed some leeway.)

When he finishes, he finds that he has discovered that the book was written by a "Martin Gardener" and is both

"a complete scientific account of the universe" and "a typical mediaeval m 鬡nge of magic, theology, and pre-

Copernican speculation" [3]

. I leave you to guess its title.

115

Professor Lang has no knowledge of the Necronomicon, and is surprised to learn that Lovecraft supposedly

invented it. He notes that there are elements in the Voynich Manuscript in common with the fiction of both

Lovecraft and Arthur Machen (a real-life Welsh fantasy writer and a crucial influence on Lovecraft), and

hypothesizes that they had seen another copy of the manuscript at some point in their careers. He is unable to

find out anything about Lovecraft, but learns that Machen may have seen such a manuscript in Lyons or Paris,

where it was held by a circle of French Satanists. For reasons that are unclear, Lang decides to look for this

manuscript in Melincourt, Arthur Machen‟s birthplace. After he arrives in Melincourt, the story takes its leave of

the manuscript as it tells of the professor‟s battles against a species of psychic beings known as the lloigor.

I am uncertain why Colin Wilson chose to bring link these two books. The best theory is that this comparison

involves John Dee. In real life, John Dee may have been the individual who gave Emperor Rudolph II the

Voynich Manuscript, and in fiction, he was the translator of the Latin Necronomicon. The only flaw in this

hypothesis is that Wilson never mentions Dee anywhere in his story. It is possible that this omission is

deliberate, or possibly Wilson had other reasons entirely for his choice.

Wilson returns to the Voynich Manuscript/Necronomicon at the end of his novel The Philosopher’s Stone.

Throughout the novel, Howard Lester and his friend Sir Henry Littleway (whose initials can hardly be a

coincidence) have been learning to develop their psychic abilities to avoid aging and bring about the next

evolutionary step for humanity. As they become more successful, however, they are beset by a series of odd

calamities. The two men are nearly involved in an auto accident, Littleway‟s brother Roger assaults a girl, and

scholars who were previously friendly to the two become hostile. Lester eventually realizes that these mishaps

are the result of mental control by beings known as the Great Old Ones. He sets out to learn as much about them

as possible, and during his search of mythology and religion he learns of Lovecraft and the Necronomicon.

One night, Lester believes Roger Littleway is in contact with the Great Old Ones. While Roger is resting, Lester

asks him where the Necronomicon is. Roger mouths a phrase which sounds like, "The ladder..." Lester

concludes that he actually means "Philadelphia", and tries to find which books may be in that city. One of them

the Voynich Manuscript seems to be the one, so he and Littleway set out immediately to see it. When they

arrive, they meet Professor Paul (now James) Lang‟s nephew and follow his suggestions to decipher it. They find

that the book is not actually the Necronomicon, but a commentary on it including many passages from the book

itself.

The most terrifying aspect of the Voynich Manuscript, however, is not its contents. Lester and Littleway have

become adept at psychometry that is to say, psychic reading of the histories of objects yet they can get no reading

on the manuscript at all. One day, they attempt to do so in concert, and break through the interference, only to

disturb the slumber of one of the Great Old Ones themselves. The two men make it through alive but shaken,

and then begin plotting their next move against the Old Ones.

The spread of the "Voynich Manuscript=Necronomicon" rumor may be attributed to two causes. One is the

distribution of Wilson‟s fiction; "Return" first appeared in Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos, perhaps the most

influential Mythos anthology of all time. The story would probably have attracted little attention if it had been

printed in a small-press magazine of limited circulation, as many other Mythos stories have been. More of the

credit, however, goes to Wilson‟s unparalleled ability to merge together fact and fiction until it becomes nearly

impossible to separate them.

Lovecraft himself made wide use of this technique, but Wilson takes it to new heights in his stories. An

uninformed reader might believe that the Voynich Manuscript is not real, or that the Voynich Manuscript is

really the Necronomicon. Wilson seems to have been aware of the dangers of this, as he states in his introduction

to The Philosopher’s Stone that,

"the Voynich manuscript does, of course, exist, and is still untranslated" [4]

.

The rumor‟s power has endured nonetheless.

These two pieces are the only ones of Wilson‟s which mention the Voynich Manuscript, yet I would be remiss

if I did not mention one more the George Hay edition of the Necronomicon. Colin Wilson was the creative

force behind this hoax [5]

, and the story behind it bears a striking resemblance to these other pieces. The Hay's

Necronomicon is supposedly a transcription of an encoded manuscript found in a library in this case, a set of

charts of letters made by John Dee.

116

Through concerted effort, a cryptographer breaks the cipher and discovers that the book is in fact the

Necronomicon in disguise. As in "The Return of the Lloigor", it is hypothesized that Lovecraft had access to

another copy of the volume, though Hay’s book is much more explicit about how this occurred. As a matter of

fact, it is surprising that Wilson at no point mentions the Voynich Manuscript, even though he does bring in

John Dee at last. Is he trying to keep the two fictions separate? At any rate, the Hay's Necronomicon and

Wilson‟s other stories may almost be seen as a complementary pair.

References [1] Much of the information in this section is taken from the following books:

Brumbaugh, Robert S., ed. The Most Mysterious Manuscript: The Voynich "Roger Bacon" Cipher Manuscript.

Carbondale, IL; Southern Illinois University Press. 1978.

D‟Imperio, M. E. The Voynich Manuscript: An Elegant Enigma. Fort George C. Meade, MD; National Security

Agency/Central Security Service. 1978.

[2] I have heard that the Voynich Manuscript was kept at the University of Pennsylvania during the Sixties, but I

have yet to find a source that corroborates this information. Wilson probably made this up based on the fact that

Newbold was a professor at that institution.

[3] Tales of the Cthulhu Mythos. Second edition. Sauk City, Arkham House. 1990. pp. 366-7.

[4] New York, Crown Publishers. 1971. p. 7.

[5] Wilson, Colin. The Necronomicon: The Origin of a Spoof." Crypt of Cthulhu, St. John‟s Eve 1984.

Since the publication of our book, the identity of this individual has been confirmed as a mysterious individual

named "Baresch".