Redefining The Necronomicon Tradition Part 4: Entrance Into Universe B.

Greetings! This is the fourth installment of our recent series “Redefining The Necronomicon Tradition.” In Part 3 of our discusion, which can be accessed in the following link; http://warlockasyluminternationalnews.com/2011/04/20/redefining-the-necronomicon-tradition-part-3-is-there-really-a-war-between-the-ancient-ones-and-the-elder-gods/ our friend Jyotishmoy asked a few questions, which I thought would be good to address in a separate post. I will address these in an interview format so than we can answer these questions one at a time.

Jyotishmoy: You see, in the Testimony of the Mad Arab, in the First Part he mentioned about the Gate of GANZIR in the 6th paragraph and then again in the 10th paragraph he mentioned about the Gate of ARZIR. Now i would like to ask whether they are both the same Gate ? or parheps different ones ?

Warlock Asylum: I must commend you on how your questions are presented. You are able to see that the way the Simon Necronomicon is formatted has a lot to do with the order of the gates themselves. It would well for the reader to note that Jyotishmoy mentions that “Ganzir” is mentioned in the sixth paragraph of the Mad Arab’s First Testimony. This is a unique comparision relative to the 6^th Gate being Marduk. In the Book of Entrance we read the following:

“This will not give thee power over the ABSU, however, this power being obtained differently by the Ritual of Descent. This Ritual thou wilt undertake in the fifteenth day after the thirteenth of the month when thou hast summoned the Gate of MARDUK to open. For MARDUK slew the Fiends, and INANNA, the Goddess of the Fifteen, conquered the Netherworld, where some of theirs still dwell. This is a most perilous Rite, and may be undertaken by any man who as the formulae, whether he has passes the previous Gates or not, save that it is best advised to have passed through MARDUK Gate before venturing forth into the Pit.”

Here we see that the Gate of Ganzir must be undertaken after the Initiate has Walked Marduk, the 6^th Gate. This is also reavealed in the paragraph that follows the 6^th paragraph in the First Testimony of the Mad Arab:

“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 some of these are writ herein; yet others I must take with me when I leave you. ANU have mercy on my soul!”

We know the above quote is a reference to what the Mad Arab experienced when he was in Ganzir because he makes mention of the following:

“And the seals of some of these are writ herein; yet others I must take with me when I leave you.”

This compares greatly to what is mentioned in the Urilia Text:

“Of all the Gods and Spirits of Abomination, there can be no use or gain to call upon AZAG-THOTH, as he is Surely Mad. Rendered sightless in the Battle, he is Lord of CHAOS, and the priest can find little use for him. He is also too powerful to control once called, and gives violent struggle before sent back to the Gate, for which only a strong and able magician may dare raise him. Thus, for that reason, his seal is not given.”

This confirms for us that the idea of aligning the paragraph numbers with those of the initiatory gates is correct as Jyotishmoy was wise enough to do. We also see that the “seals’ that the Mad Arab did not leave in the tome is relative to those found in the Urilia Text for some entities for good reasons we will explore as we look at the next question presented by Jyotishmoy concerning Arzir.

Some of a regular readers may remember our Mountain of Masshu series, which also appears in the Atlantean Necronomicon.  In tne that series, Mt. Mashu was defined, among other things, as a Gateway to the Abode of the Gods.  The Abode of the Gods is what we refer to in the Necronomicon Tradition as Universe B, which is also mentioned in the Typhonian work of the late Kenneth Grant. In the Simon Necronomicon’s Introduction, we find the SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL TO 777 very appropriate to this discussion. Let us look at the chart as it appears below:

 

	Table VII [A.C.]	Table XXV [S.]
0.	. . .	ANU (TIAMAT)
1.	Sphere of the Primum Mobile	ENLIL (ABSU)
2.	Sphere of the Zodiac or Fixed Stars	ENKI; LUMASHI (IGIGI)
3.	Sphere of Saturn	ADAR
4.	Sphere of Jupiter	MARDUK
5.	Sphere of Mars	NERGAL
6.	Sphere of the Sun	UTU
7.	Sphere of Venus	INANNA
8.	Sphere of Mercury	NEBO
9.	Sphere of the Moon	NANNA
10.	Sphere of the Elements	KIA

Jyotishmoy mentioned that the term Arzir is in the 10^th paragraph of the Gate of Arzir, which reads as follows:

“I have traveled among the stars, and trembled before the Gods. I have, at last, found the formulae by which I passed the Gate ARZIR, and passed into the forbidden realms of the foul IGIGI.”

It is interesting to note that the Mad Arab writes about the Ganzir in the 6^th paragraph, which is equivalent to the Marduk Gate, the Gate that one must enter before descending into Ganzir. If we apply this same principle to the Arzir Gate, then we can conclude that the 10^th paragraph corresponds to the Sphere of Enlil before entering the Gate of Arzir, which would then equate to the Sphere of Anu/Tiamat and is given no number correspondence. This is due to the fact that the gate of Arzir stands outside of the phenomenal universe and upon entering this gate, the Initiate finds himself in Universe B, or the antiverse, wherein the heavens manifests as a “static light” and not a dark sky, like in our universe. Additionally, the stars in the heavens of Universe B would appear as black portals against a sky of pure light. It is with this understanding that Initiates of the Necronomicon Tradition understand that a “black hole” appearing in the center of a galaxy is actually a cosmic sun and the gateway to Universe B.  This corresponds to what is mentioned in the Urilia Text:

“I receive the Sun at night and the Moon by day.”

Simon (L. K. Barnes) mentions this in the tome’s introductory pages:

“Although a list is appended hereto containing various entities and concepts of Lovecraft, Crowley, and Sumeria cross-referenced, it will do to show how the Editor found relationships to be valid and even startling. AZATOT is frequently mentioned in the grim pages of the Cthulhu Mythos, and appears in the NECRONOMICON as AZAG-THOTH, a combination of two words, the first Sumerian and the second Coptic, which gives us a clue as to Its identity. AZAG in Sumerian means “Enchanter” or “Magician”; THOTH in Coptic is the name given to the Egyptian God of Magick and Wisdom, TAHUTI, who was evoked by both the Golden Dawn and by Crowley himself (and known to the Greeks as Hermes, from whence we get “Hermetic”). AZAG-THOTH is, therefore, a Lord of Magicians, but of the “Black” magicians, or the sorcerers of the “Other Side”.”

After reviewing the quote above, it would seem that Azag-Thoth would be realtive to, or a messenger of the Sphere of Anu/Tiamat.  Before we go further into this discussion, I find it necessary for the reader to understand how Universe B is described by the Mad Arab in the Magan Text. Let us first remember that when we review the chart cited above, the ladder of lights,, leading to Universe B, we can see that from KIA to ANU exists eleven spheres., and the 11^th sphere is the entrance to Universe B, where the higher levels of Jinn exist. This is made evident by a passage that appears in the Magan Text:

“Know that our years are the years of War
…And our days are measured as battles…
And every hour is a Life….
Lost to the Ouside
(Universe B) Those from Without
(The Race Beyond the Stars, or Arra)…Have builded up charnel houses
…..To nourish the fiends of TIAMAT…..
And the Blood of the weakest here…
Is libation unto TIAMAT…
Queen of the Ghouls
Wreaker of Pain
….And to invoke her
The Red Water of Life….
Need be split on a stone…
The stone struck with a sword
That hath slain eleven men
(the eleven spheres mentioned in SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL TO 777)..Sacrifices to HUBUR
……So that the Strike ringeth out
…And call TIAMAT from Her slumber…
From her sleep in the Caverns
Of the Earth…And none may dare entreat further
…For to invoke Death is to utter
The final prayer.”  

The reader should consider “Tiamat’s sleep in the Caverns of the Earth,” may have some relative  correpondences as found in DNA, Dragon Currents beneath the Earth, Kundalini, and etc, but upon entering Universe B, the Initiate recognizes Tiamat as the cosmic-electrical dimension, which stands outside of time and space, where Anu acts as messenger between Universe A and Universe B.  During the earlier stages of Initiation, when the priest/priestess is working within the limits of Universe A, it is a common practice to Nergal as Azag-Thoth. This is understandable since Nergal is called the “blind lord” in pre-Islamic texts, the Atlantean Necronomicon goes into this in much detail. All this being said, the Initiate upon entering Universe B, will begin to appreciate that Nergal is actually Azag-Thoth. Nergal is the veil between the manifested world, Universe A, and the fiery world of Universe B.

The definition of “Azag” as Enchanter comes from the Sumer Aryan Dictionary written by L. A. Waddell. H. P. Lovecraft’s Haunter in The Dark makes the following statement concerning Azatoth:

“the ancient legends of Ultimate Chaos, at whose center sprawls the blind idiot god Azathoth, Lord of All Things, encircled by his flopping horde of mindless and amorphous dancers, and lulled by the thin monotonous piping of a demonic flute held in nameless paws.”

Here Lovecraft describes Azatoth as the “blind idiot god” and also as the “Lord of All Things.” In the Simon Necronomicon we find a this reference to Azag-Thoth in the Magan Text:

“AZAG-THOTH screamed upon his throne”

Later in the Urilia Text we read the following:

“Of all the Gods and Spirits of Abomination, there can be no use or gain to call upon AZAG-THOTH, as he is Surely Mad. Rendered sightless in the Battle, he is Lord of CHAOS,”

In both Lovecraftian fiction and the Simon Necronomicon,  Azatoth, or Azag-Thoth is said to be a “blind idiot god” and associated with Chaos. However, what is interesting is that in the Simon Necronomicon’s Magan Text, Azag-Thoth sits on the Throne in the Underworld. This seems to be a reference to Nergal since the Sumerians and Chaldeans considered him the Lord of the Underworld.  Proof of this is revealed in the book, The City of The Moon God: Religious Traditions of Harran by Tamara M. Green. On page 195 we find the following observation:

“Some of the Muslim texts identified Nergal/Mars as the Blind Lord and the Aim of the Sage and the prophecies of Baba the Harranian, both of which give him that title, seem to point to his continued power in Harran:

“In the gate which is situated between east and south, a house of worship will be built and that upon the orders from the power of the Blind Lord. He is the one who commanded me to make these things known to you.” (The Prophecies of Baba the Harranian,” 224-225 by F. Rosenthal)”

This is a very interesting point indeed for it is only in the Simon Necronomicon that we are able to identify who the deity that Lovecraft described as the “blind idiot god” is, that being Nergal.

Earlier in this discussion, we posted the Supplementary Material To 777. In the this material the Sphere of Enlil relates to the the Primum Mobile, which means that Anu/Tiamat is would correspond to Empyrean. In the Wikipedia article entitled Primum Mobile we get a clear idea of spheres 9 to 11 listed in the SN’s Supplementary Material To 777

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primum_Mobile

“In medieval and Renaissance astronomy, the Primum Mobile, or “first moved,” was the outermost moving sphere in the geocentric model of the universe. The primum mobile was thought to be responsible for the apparent daily movement of the heavens around the Earth, producing the east-to-west rising and setting of the sun and stars. This apparent motion is now known to be due to the rotation of the Earth on its polar axis—a concept that, though known since ancient times (generally ascribed to Aristarchus), was not widely accepted prior to Copernicus. Astronomers believed that the seven naked-eye planets (including the Moon and the Sun) were carried around the spherical Earth on invisible orbs. Beyond them was the sphere of fixed stars, the Primum Mobile, and the Empyrean.”

 

	Table VII [A.C.]	Table XXV [S.]
0.	. . .	ANU (TIAMAT)
1.	Sphere of the Primum Mobile	ENLIL (ABSU)
2.	Sphere of the Zodiac or Fixed Stars	ENKI; LUMASHI (IGIGI)

From the information cited above, Anu/Tiamat would relate to the Empyrean, which is, by some definitions, a region of pure light and fire. The reader should also remember that although the worship of Tiamat in the Magan Text is written in dark esthetics, her worship is one of light. The name Tiamat means ‘maiden of life.” We are also reminded in the Babylonian Creation account, the Enuma Elish:

“She gave him the Tablets of Destiny, on his breast she laid them, saying: Thy command shall not be without avail, and the word of thy mouth shall be established.” Now Kingu, thus exalted, having received the power of Anu,.”

Tiamat was the bestower of divinity or godhood, described as the power of Anu in the Enuma Elish. It is from this understanding that we can determine that entrance into Universe B is initiation into godhood, and this rite of intiation can be confirmed by ancient Mesopotamian mythology, as every deity is recorded to have spent time in the Underworld before becoming renowed as a god. Based on such information, the battle between Marduk And Tiamat is purely a metaphoric battle of a later diety’s initiation. The universe is created in the same manner that a child is developed in the embryo. The battle between Marduk and Tiamat is the sperm meeting the egg.

Jyotishmoy: Secondly, in the Necronomicon in several parts the Mad Arab mentioned about using of blood in some Rituals. Now, if i have to use blood that way, then, by the end of the month, i will have left with little blood in my body !!!

Warlock Asylum: I have never read anywhere in the Simon Necronomicon anything about blood being sacrificed. I do know that the “sacrifice” mentioned in the text refers to bread.

“The sacrifice must be new bread, pine resin, and the grass Olieribos. These must be burned in the new bowl, and the Sword of the Watcher, with his Sigil engraved thereupon, at hand, for he will inhabit such at the time of the Calling of the Watcher and will depart when he is given license to depart.”

“And when thou hast set out bread for the dead to eat, remember to pour honey thereupon, for it is pleasing to the Goddess Whom No One Worshippeth,..”

There is a reference to blood in the First Testimony of the Mad Arab:

“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 a 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 know now that blood is the very food of these spirits, which is why the field after the battles of war glows with an unnatural light, the manifestations of the spirits feeding thereon.”

The references to “blood” in the passage cited above is a metaphor. The Mad Arab noticed that the groundwas wet with blood, and he later mentions that because of such, the ground glows with an unnatural light, but nowhere in the text is a leteral blood sacrifice mentioned. Later, in his Second Testimony this symbology is made clear:

“And I have seen them turn the very Moon’s rays into liquid, the which they poured upon their stones for a purpose I could not divine.”

Blood is a symbol for lifeforce, or chi. The rite of sacrificing bread, or foods from the ground is a much older rite than animal sacrifice, as scene in the Biblical mythoogy of Cain and Abel. Some advanced Gate-Walkers do use blood in their rites, but it is never a necessary requirement.  It ia personal decision. If you are just beginning, then you should wait  until you have reached the 7^th Gate, and have some understanding as to how blood sacrifice works before doing so. Allen P. Ross, makes the following observations in the book Recalling the Hope of Glory:

“Sumerian worship called for the sacrifice of sheep, goats, oxen, swine, birds, fish, grain, flour, bread, cakes, dates, figs, oil, … Temple ritual included blood sacrifice,…”  

I personally do not sacrifice blood literally, but some Initiates in the Gate-Walking Community have found it useful.

Jyotishmoy: Thirdly, in the Testomony of the Mad Arab in the Fisrt half and in the Last half, the Mad Arab mentioned about wolves and their midnight speeches and howling. What did the word “wolves” means here ? Definitly the Mad Arab was not saying about some jungle wolves!

Warlock Asylum: Yes this is definitely a symbolic reference. The wolf was associated with both Anu (the power of Universe B) and Lamashtu ( a queen in Universe B). Gavin White points to some good information in Babylonian Star-lore , wherein he explains how Anu in the later Babylonian periods was associated with the Underworld, and how the Wolf was symbolic of the head of constellation Draco. “The ghost of Anu is a wolf,” is reference to the Wolf Star, showing that the Mad Arab, as well as, the Elder Gods were worshippers of the Ancient One.