Origin of the Necronomicon Term: IA MASS SSARATU

Greetings!

I have seen many newcomers stumbling across some of the terminology that appears in the Simon Necronomicon over the years. Of course, the idea of pronouncing words that are foreign to our native tongue can be  a challenge, and we usually suggest  that the new Initiate would do well to get acquainted with a Sumerian lexicon, and other resources available  on ancient Mesopotamian languages. With some time and effort, pronunciation of  the words and phrases becomes easier and easier.

There is one thing, however, that seems to present a problem for a few Gate-Walkers, and this is not understanding the meaning of some of the Necronomicon Tradition’s terminology. Some Initiates are under the hypothesis that many of the terms used in the Simon Necronomicon are made up, as some sort of blasphemous tongue, and this is simply not the case. So from time to time you might stumble along this blog page and find some articles that define many of the terms that appear in the Simon Necronomicon. Today, we will discuss the term IA MASS SSARATU.

In the Simon Necronomicon’s section entitled, The Conjuration of the Watcher, we find the following:

“Wherefore it is wise to conjure It in the Names of the Three Great Watchers Who existed before the Confrontation from whose borne the Watcher and His Race ultimately derive, and those Three are ANU, ENLIL, and Master ENKI of the Magick Waters. And for this reason They are sometimes called the Three Watchers, MASS SSARATI and the Watcher MASS SSARATU, or KIA MASS SSARATU.”

Later we read:

“When the time has come to summon the Watcher the first time, the place of thy calling must be clean, and a double circle of flour drawn about thee. And there should be no altar, but only the new Bowl with the three carven signs on it. And the Conjuration of the Fire should be made, and the sacrifices heaped thereupon, into the burning bowl. And the Bowl is now called AGA MASS SSARATU, and to be used for no other purpose, save to invoke the Watcher.”

When I first stumbled upon the Simon Necronomicon, I had no idea what the term “MASS SSARATU” meant, but it seemed like the word may have been translated with a different spelling than the one that appears in the Simon Necronomicon. I say this because over the years, I have discovered that the Simon Necronomicon presents certain words in a way that it is easier to pronounce them correctly, and sometimes what appears to be two words could actually be one, and vice versa. Famous scholar and Mesopotamian researcher Leonard William King in his work First Steps In Assyrian, gives us one rendering of the term “MASS SSARATU” on page 370:, where he tells us that the term “massartu” means ” to watch.”

In my research, I stumbled upon this word again, in an online article appearing in the Jewish Encyclopedia under the subheading astronomy we find:

 “…be explained as identical with “Ḥadre Teman” (chambers of the south) (Job ix. 9) or etymologically referred to the Assyrian “massartu” (Babylonian “mazzartu”), a place where something is watched. But it is just as likely to be, as tradition already has it, a variation of “mazzalot” (, II Kings xxiii. 5)—a word also of uncertain meaning, varying as its explanations do between “planets,” “constellations of the zodiac,” and “stations of the moon.”

From the above descriptions we find that the Assyrian word “massartu” is where the Necronomicon term ” MASS SSARATU ‘ finds its origin. We are now clear that the Necronomicon term “ MASS SSARATU ” does have an authentic origin, which is found in the Assyrian term “massartu,” or the Babylonian “mazzartu,” which means “watch.”  However, it should also be noted, especially by those who care whether or not a slight phonetic change would affect the meaning of the term, that the Babylonian term massaratu, which is consistent with the lingustic structure of the said term appearing in the Simon Necronomicon as MASS SSARATU, means to  actively watch. Francesca Rochberg makes the following observation in Babylonian Horoscopes:

“(massaratu): EN.NUN AN. … The watches of the night comprise the earliest system of “telling time” attested in Babylonian texts..”

Here we find, according to Rochberg, that the Simon Necronomicon’s term MASS SSARATU is phonetically correct,  as it comes from the Babylonian verb massaratu, which can be defined as the act of watching. Now that we have validated that the term “MASS SSARATU” is indeed of ancient Mesopotamian origin, let us see if this term was used in the same way as it is described in the Simon Necronomicon.

Theological Dictionary of the Old Testament-Volume 12, states the following on pages 431-433:

“The sentinal goes to an elevated location…to observe (a) the surrounding area, and report important occurences, e.g., the approach of enemies or messengers,…These two primary tasks are described with stereotypical terminology. The activity of looking or watching is rendered as “(raise one’s eyes and) see” …and the transmission of the message with ….”speak, call out, report”…Secular sentinals provide the model for understanding prophetic tasks…Hab 2:1 uses the sentinel topos to describe the prophetic reception of revelation…The prophet goes to and elevated location, (…”watchpost, lookout post,”..)  to receive the divine revelation…Whereas most exegetes understand such descriptions of a “reception of revelation on the outlook post ” in a psychological or metaphorical sense, Jeremias finds in them evidence of prophets who used certain techniques when receiving revelations and were closely associated with the temple. The place to which the prophet went at such times “Is described by an Assyrian loanword (massartu, “guard, sentry, garrison”) that was originally a technical term referring to the place where Assyrian birdwatchers and astrologers practiced their craft within the holy precinct ; the accompanying verb (nasaru) already refers in a Mari letter to the prophetic reception of revelation..”

The information cited above actually shows  us that long before the Simon Necronomicon was ever  published the idea of using a “sentinel,” or “Watcher” in mystical and prophetic practices had long been established by the nation of Israel, who more than likely received such a formulae from the Babylonians, based on the fact they used the Assyrian loanword massartu in a metaphorical sense. The fact that the ancient Peoples of Mesopotamia were well aware of the “magical” use of a Watcher can be confirmed in the Annals of Ashurbamipal, where we find the following:

“I threw down the bull-colossi and the guardian gods and all the other watchers of the temple,”

Here we see in the King’s writings that he too associated “guardian gods” with “watchers of the temple.” This clearly shows us once again that the Simon Necronomicon was written with a very deep understanding of the mystical practices that existed in ancient Mesopotamia.  The use of the Watcher for divination also existed in ancient Egypt. Bud Carroll in the classic work The Materialistic Wall state the following on page 135:

“At the beginning of the Egyptian empire, what the Egyptians call the “First Time,” there were intermediaries between humans and the gods known as the “Watchers.” They were the Neteru, beautiful godlike beings with supernatural powers that could manifest wherever and whenever they wished.”

This seems to unlock yet another mystery about the Watcher. In a previous article entitled The Mysteries of Azatoth we discovered that the Three Great Watchers and the Watcher converge, as mentioned in the Simon Necronomicon’s Conjuration of the Watcher section, this action is a symbolic representation of the Giza Necropolis in Egypt. The Simon Necronomicon also mentions that the “Lord of the Watchers” dwells in the realms of the Igigi, which is the zodiac. It is with this information that we can determine that the Watchers are the Igigi, or the zodiac. Now that we have discovered the antiquity of the term “MASS SSARATU” let us now look at the term IA.

According to L. A. Waddell gives us the definition of the term IA as it is used in the Simon Necronomicon, on page 92 of his famous, but bigoted work The Makers of Civilization is Race and History:

” The god Sagg (Sakh, or In-dur, whose name also reads IA, the source of JAH, or ” Father Ju ” or Ju-piter or Jove, borrowed by the Hebrews as Yahwe or ” Jehovah “). For the prefixed title Ash (or An ) for : Lord : or ” King ”  tends in this Bowl inscription and hereafter in Sumerian and Babylonian inscriptions and literature to have the sense of ” God ” as well as of ” Lord.”

The above quote clearly indicates that the term IA  means god or lord.  Interestingly, we have already covered evidence of a Sumerian Egyptian connection and we must keep this in mind as Waddell also relates, in the work cited above, that IA is also known under the phonetic IAH. This is a point that should not be taken lightly. In the Simon Necronomicon’s Chart of Comparisons we find that IA is a title of Enki, or Ea, which is different from some of the conclusions given by Waddell:

Lovecraft	Crowley	Sumer
Cthulhu	The Great Beast as represented in “CTHDH 666”	Ctha-lu, Kutulu
Azathoth	Aiwass (?)	Azag-thoth
The Dunwich Horror	Choronzon	Pazuzu
Shub Niggurath	Pan	Sub Ishniggarab (?)
Out of Space	The Abyss	Absu; Nar Mattaru
IA!	IO! IAO!	IA (JAH; EA; Lord of Waters)
The Five-pointed	.	The AR, or UB (Plough Sign; grey Star carven The Pentagram the original pentagram and the sign of the Aryan Race)
Vermis Mysteriis	The Serpent	Erim (the Enemy; and the Sea as Chaos; Gothic; Orm, or Worm, great Serpent)

 There is a part of Egyptian history that has not readily discussed that may help us understand all of this is proven in ancient history. I would like to direct the reader to a Wikipedia article that describes the Egyptian Moon god IAH:

“Iah is a god of the moon in ancient Egyptian religion, and his name, jˁḥ (sometimes transliterated as Yah, Jah, or Aah), simply means “moon”. Nevertheless, by the New Kingdom he was less prominent as a moon deity than the other gods with lunar connections, Thoth and Khonsu. Because of the functional connection between them, he could be identified with both of those deities;…..Iah was also assimilated with Osiris, god of the dead, perhaps because, in its monthly cycle, the moon appears to renew itself. Iah also seems to have assumed the lunar aspect of Thoth, god of knowledge, writing and calculation; the segments of the moon were used as fractional symbols in writing”

Now that we know that IAH is relative to the Egyptian deity Thoth, we can easily see the connection to DinGir Enki. Enki corresponds to the Egyptian deity Thoth. They are both  Mercurial. Revelation of the Holy Grail, states on page 55:

” In fact, the Vatican itself is now located on the ruins of an ancient Mithraic temple. Rome also had the god Mercury, who played a role identical to Hermes, Thoth, Enki, and Merlin, as a messenger and keeper of secrets.”

In view of our discussion we can appropriately define the term IA MASS SSARATU as a Watcher of Enki. Stay blessed 🙂