The Mystical Necronomicon Tradition: An Introduction

initiation — "the Dragon or Serpent is said to reside somewhere "below the earth"; it is a powerful force, a magickal force, which is identified with mastery over the created world; it is also a power that can be summoned by the few and not the many. "

Greetings! I would like to welcome everyone to the Simon Necronomicon Practitioner’s Journal. if this is your first time here, please feel free to review some of our previous articles. Stay blessed.

The mystical aspects of the Necronomicon Tradition begin after the Initiate has passed the trials of the seven-stage Gate-Walking Initiation. Throughout the initiation process, the candidate is able to interact with the natural world around them, more and more. Many avid readers of the Simon Necronomicon have notice that the ancient Sumerian system categorized planets, stars, and other aspects of nature by numbers. These numbers represent the quantity and quality of how Tiamat’s energy was/is distributed throughout nature. Evidence of this is found in the introduction of the Simon Necronomicon:

“The Elder Gods evidently possessed a certain Wisdom that was not held by their Parents, yet their Parents held the Power, the Primal Strength, the First Magick, that the Elder Ones tapped to their own advantage, for they were begotten of Her.”

Later in the Mad Arab’s Second Testimony, we read:

“Remember that the Essences of the Ancient Ones are in all things, but that the Essences of the Elder Gods are in all things that live, and this will prove of value to thee when the time comes.”

The later reference, taken from the Mad Arab’s Testimony, reveal that alchemical practices of the Tradition, which has every thing to do with taking matter (Tiamat, DNA) and creating something that works in harmony with the phenomenal world (Gold). The Golden Dawn: Inner Teachings, by R.G. Torrens, mentions the following on page 38, fulling illustrating the alchemical aspects of the Necronomicon Tradition:

“Alchemy is the science of multiplication and is based on the mental phenomena of growth. The Supreme One manifests Himself through growth, which is an urge from within outwards; a struggle for expression and manifestation. God is the spiritual seed planted in the dark earth (the material universe). By art it is possible so to grow and expand this seed so that the entire universe is tinctured thereby and becomes like the seed–pure gold. In the spiritual nature of man this is termed regeneration; in the material body of the elements it is called transmutation. As it is in the spiritual and material universes, so it is in the intellectual worlds. Wisdom cannot be imparted to an idiot because the seed of wisdom in not within him, but wisdom may be imparted to an ignorant person, because the seed of wisdom exists in him and can be developed by art and culture….Through art (the process of learning) the whole mass of base metals (the mental body of ignorance) is transmuted into pure gold (wisdom). Thus, through faith and proximity to God the consciousness of men may be transmuted from base animal desires (the planetary metals) into a pure, golden and godly consciousness. As the way for redemption of the soul is concealed in the Mysteries, so the secrets of the metals are also concealed, that they may not fall into the hands of the profane and become perverted.”

Often times, when a candidate for initiation approaches the Necronomicon Tradition, it is thought of as magical, but in essence, the Initiate’s progress through the Tradition is mystical. in a Wikipedia article entitled Mysticism, we read:

“Mysticism ( pronunciation (help·info); from the Greek μυστικός, mystikos, meaning ‘an initiate’) is the knowledge of, and especially the personal experience of, states of consciousness, i.e. levels of being, beyond normal human perception, including experience and even communion with a supreme being….A “mystikos” was an initiate of a mystery religion. The Eleusinian Mysteries, (Greek: Ἐλευσίνια Μυστήρια) were annual initiation ceremonies in the cults of the goddesses Demeter and Persephone, held in secret at Eleusis (near Athens) in ancient Greece.”

It is interesting to find in the information cited above that we find a reference to the Eleusinian Mysteries. These mysteries represented the myth of the abduction of Persephone from her mother Demeter by the king of the underworld Hades, in a cycle with three phases, the “descent” (loss), the “search” and the “ascent”, with main theme the “ascent” of Persephone and the reunion with her mother.

In a similar manner, the Mysteries of the Necronomicon Tradition are also chthonic in nature. The Mad Arab describes the four major fields of study included in the Necronomicon Tradition:

“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.”

Here we see that the Necronomicon Tradition corresponds to four sciences, which in turn compose the four directions, and these are: necromancy (north), sorcery (east), magick (south), and alchemy (west). The Book of Calling also confirms this for us:

“The Place of Calling shall be high in the Mountains (North), most preferably; or near the Sea (West); or in some secluded area far from the thoughts of Man (East); or in the desert (South); or atop an ancient temple (meditative visualization). “

These four aspects of the Necronomicon Tradition are found in the writings of the Mad Arab and confirm our findings in a recent article entitled; Is the Book of Calling A Trap Created By The Scorpion Man. The other Mandal of Calling reveals these four aspects:

mandal — The Mandal of calling for the Urilia Text workings. Notice that the Elder Sign is to the North corresponding to the "Face of a Man," as described of the Four Spirits.

The Mad Arab primarily deals with the Initiate’s obvious initiation into necromancy, which corresponds to the North. Notice what is mentioned in the Urilia Text:

“And a Dead God may be summoned,…And it must be called in a secret place, without windows, or with windows only in one place, and that should be in the Northern Wall of the place,..”

In our findings, thus far, the East correspond to sorcery. The term sorcery is given the following definition by the online Merriam Webster\’s Dictionary:

“the use of power gained from the assistance or control of evil spirits especially for divining..”

The fact that the East corresponds to sorcery is clearly seen in the Mad Arab’s words, as found in his First Testimony:

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

Additionally, the Mad Arab points to the South as corresponding to “magick.” Once again let us look at a common definition of magick found in the Merriam Webster\’s Dictionary:

“the use of means (as charms or spells) believed to have supernatural power over natural forces.”

We find the appropriate correspondence of magick with the South in the Urilia Text:

“The Lord of Abominations is HUMWAWA of the South Winds, whose face is a mass of the entrails of the animals and men. His breath is the stench of dung, and has been. HUMWAWA is the Dark Angel of all that is excreted, and of all that sours. And as all things come to the time when they will decay, so also HUMWAWA is the Lord of the Future of all that goes upon the earth, and any man’s future years may be seen by gazing into the very face of this Angel, “

Alchemy corresponds to the West in the Necronomicon Tradition. In order for us to have a clear view of what alchemy is, let us take a look some information that was previously cited in this discussion. The Golden Dawn: Inner Teachings, by R.G. Torrens, mentions the following on page 38:

Concerning the West, we read the following in the Mad Arab’s Second Testimony:

“Remember the Scorpion Man who dwells in the Mountains….But call upon him if there be something concerning the Outside that you would know, that I have not told thee…And merely, face the place where he is, and he will come and speak,..”

The words of the Mad Arab illustrate first and foremost, the importance of knowing the directions, their elements, and what energies can be tapped into, based on such. Readers would do well to note that the description that the Mad Arab gives concerning the Scorpion Man fall right in line with what we read in Wikipedia concerning Alchemy:

“Alchemy is an influential philosophical tradition whose early practitioners’ claims to profound powers were known from antiquity.”

Manly P. Hall in Secret teachings of All Ages, page 140 states:

“The important point to be remembered is that when the sun is said to be in a certain sign of the zodiac, the ancients really meant that the sun occupied the opposite sign and cast its long ray into the house in which they enthroned it. Therefore, when it is said that the sun is in Taurus, it means (astronomically) that the sun is in the sign opposite to Taurus, which is Scorpio….While the ignorant multitudes worshiped the house of the sun’s reflection, which in the case described would be the Bull, the wise revered the house of the sun’s actual dwelling, which would be Scorpion, or the Serpent, the symbol of the concealed spiritual mystery. This sign has three different symbols. The most common is that of a Scorpion, who was called by the ancients the backbiter, being the symbol of deceit and perversion; the second (and less common) form of the sign is a Serpent, often used by the ancients to symbolize wisdom…probably the rarest form of the Scorpio is the Eagle. The arrangement of the stars of the constellation bears as much resemblance to a flying bird as to a scorpion. Scorpio, being the sign of occult initiation, the flying eagle–the king of birds–represents the highest and most spiritual type of Scorpio, in which it transcends the venomous insect on earth.”

scorpionwoman — "And the Scorpion Man has another of his Race, female, that dwells with him there, but of her it is not lawful to speak, "

The Mad Arab, in his/her poetic writing, emphasizes again these same correspondences in the Book of Calling:

“The Spirits of the Dead may be invoked (North). The Spirits of the Unborn may be invoked (West). The Spirits of the Seven Spheres may be invoked (East). The Spirits of the Flame may be invoked (South).”

We will discuss the various spirits and their corresponding direction in our next article. Stay Blessed.