The Simon Necronomicon Gate-Walking Rituals – An Ancient Masonic Rite?

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“The Gates refer to the process of self-initiation contained in the NECRONOMICON. This is a useful Spiritual Guide for those involved in any form of occult self-initiation” (excerpt from the Necronomicon Spellbook)

Many people who use the Simon Necronomicon, may work with some sections of the book, but find the gate-walking process of initiation a little difficult to understand. Let us take a deeper look into the source of this initiation process, as described in the Simon Necronomicon, and compare it with the initiatory rites of antiquity. We will begin our comparison by first looking into the origin of the word “initiation.”

Wikipedia provides this explanation of the term initiation:

“The English word derives from the Latin, initium: “entrance” or “beginning,” literally “a going in.”

Initiation refers to moving from one condition to the next, or an entrance, ‘a going in.’ Dennis Chomenky, in his writings on Freemasonry entitled; Initiation, Mystery, and Salvation: The Way of Rebirth, he states:

“The term “initiation” comes from the Latin word initiare, which is a late Hellenistic translation of the Greek verb myein.  The main Greek term for initiation, myesis, is also derived from the verb myein, which means “to close.”  It refers to the closing of the eyes which was possibly symbolic of entering into darkness prior to reemerging and receiving light and to the closing the lips which was possibly a reference to the vow of silence taken by all initiates.  Another Greek term for initiation was telete.  In his Immortality of the Soul Plutarch writes that “the soul at the moment of death, goes through the same experiences as those who are initiated into the great mysteries.  The word and the act are similar: we say telentai (to die) and telestai (to be initiated).”  The fact that myein means “to close” and its translation, initiare, is derived from the earlier inire, which means to “to go in” or “to begin,” further suggests that a notion of endings and beginnings was inherent to the ancient understanding of these terms.”

Chomenky makes a reference to Plutarch’s work, Immortality of the Soul, where it states that the soul at the moment of death goes through the same experiences as those who are initiated into the greater mysteries. This information gives us further insight into some of our previous articles concerning the Qliphothic Tree. It shows us that the ancients held the opinion that in order for one to be initiated, they must walk through the path of the dead while alive and through this experience a ‘transformation’ occurs.

The Simon Necronomicon, along with other Ninzuwu writings, provides the Initiate with an effective form of initiation, consistent with ancient tradition, as seen in the words of the Mad Arab:

“which Zones were known to the ancient races that proceeded them among the lost temples of UR. Know that these Zones are governed by the celestial spirits..”

The fact that these spheres are references to the Qliphothic Tree can be determined by a previous passage written by the Mad Arab on page 5:

“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 the IGIGI, the cruel celestial spirits from beyond the Wanderers of the Wastes.”

The Mad Arab received his instructions from the ‘cruel’ celestial spirits, or those that are Qliphothic in nature. He was also said to have ‘traveled beneath the Seas, in search of the Palace of Our Master.’ The Mad Arab’s journey, beneath the Seas, refers to voyage into a dimension, similar to the legends of Owatatsumi-no-Mikoto and Ryūgū-jō, a place where the souls of the living are refined. The Initiate takes the same path that the Soul does when a person has died in order to destroy the false self, which is acquired by inappropriate attachments to the phenomenal world.

This false self must be destroyed before true initiation can take place. The ancient path of true initiation and transformation was indeed Qliphothic in nature, as ‘negative’ forces were used to destroy the false ego that was acquired in the phenomenal world.  This is why some of the ideologies offered in the New Age Movement are nothing but eye-candy. The New Age Movement continues to offer these foolish ideas that ‘initiation’ is a ceremony that gives one a membership into an occult organization, If the ancients depicted their gods as having completely benevolent and evil natures, then the initiates who were to serve as priests and priestesses of these forces had to learn both aspects. This ideology of being an occultist and only working with the so-called ‘benevolent forces’ is a sign of one being self-disillusioned by the phenomenal world around them. The Ivory Tablets of the Crow makes this point very clear, as it states:

“The beginning of every journey is always in this time now. For many years I struggled between the sides of darkness and light. There is no freedom in these choices for they are not choices at all. Can an infant choose between its mother or father? There is no freedom in such things. Just take what is not useful and plant it in a good place. This is the only choice you have.”

Earlier in our discussion the following was quoted by Dennis Chomenky:

“In his Immortality of the Soul Plutarch writes that “the soul at the moment of death, goes through the same experiences as those who are initiated into the great mysteries. “

 Leonid Lar wrote the following in an article concerning the Nenets Shamans:

“At the time of initiation a young shaman experiences the “physical destruction” of his body, which the spirits take apart. For a few days he lies “dead”, until the spirits put all the parts of his body back together. The encounter with death is a key moment of the shaman’s initiation. Next the initiate receives a “new body” and is reborn to a new quality. During the initiation ritual a young shaman receives new supernatural qualities, which allow him to move fast in the space and time and allow for transformation from one state to another. According to the stories told by shamans Yaptik and Mandakov they “were dead” for three days, did not eat or drink anything.”

It is interesting to note that the Nenets people are spoken of in the Simon Necronomicon on page 7:

“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 the NGAA, the God of the heathens, who breathes flame and roars like a thousand thunders.”

Here it speaks about the god Ngaa, a termed derived from the god Nga, who was known as the lord of death. Wikipedia offers us this brief history concerning Nga:

“Among the Nenets people of Siberia, Nga was the god of death, as well as one of two demiurges, or supreme gods.

According to one story, the world threatened to collapse on itself. To try and halt this cataclysm a shaman sought the advice of the other demiurge, Num. The shaman was advised to travel below the earth, to Nga’s domain and call upon him. The shaman did as told and was wed with Nga’s daughter. After that point he began to support the world in his hand and became known as “The Old Man of the Earth.” In another myth, Num and Nga creates the world, collaborating and also competing with each other — the myth is an example of dualistic cosmology.”

The initiated had to walk, to a lesser or greater extent, into the world of the dead in order to be reborn. Some have foolishly stated that the gate-walking process, as it is revealed in the Simon Necronomicon, is not part of any ancient system from Mesopotamia, but a western ceremonial magickal working. The first mistake in critiques such as these is that the Simon Necronomicon is Qliphothic in nature, and not based on Abrahamic spirituality, like so many grimoires popularly used in the West.

Secondly, in Chaldean (i.e. Babylonian) astronomical lore, Cancer was called the ‘Gate of Men,’ the entrance point for souls seeking incarnation in human bodies. Capricorn was called ‘the Gate of the Gods’ by which souls passed into Heaven. The entrance point (initiate) was the Gate of Men, which was another name for the constellation of Cancer, is ruled by Nanna (the Moon). This is the first Sphere in the gate-walking process mentioned in the Simon Necronomicon. The constellation of Capricorn is called the Gate of the Gods. The ruler of Capricorn is Ninib, which is the final Gate mentioned in the initiation rites of the Simon Necronomicon. This shows us that the initiatory rites of the Necronomicon Tradition are perfectly aligned with the customs and practices of the ancient world. Albert Pike explains this astrological formula in Morals & Dogma:

“The Galaxy, Macrobius says, crosses the Zodiac in two opposite points, Cancer and Capricorn, the tropical points in the sun’s course, ordinarily called the Gates of the Sun. These two tropics, before his time [Aries], corresponded with those constellations, but in his day [Pisces] with Gemini and Sagittarius, in consequence of the precession of the equinoxes; but the signs of the Zodiac remained unchanged; and the Milky Way crossed at the signs Cancer and Capricorn, though not at those constellations.

“Through these gates souls were supposed to descend to earth and re-ascend to Heaven. One, Macrobius says, in his dream of Scipio, was styled the Gate of Men; and the other, the Gate of the Gods. Cancer was the former, because souls descended by it to the earth; and Capricorn the latter, because by it they re-ascended to their seats of immortality, and became Gods.” (155:437-8)

These are just a few points to illustrate the uniqueness and authenticity of the gate-walking initiation rites, as outlined in the Simon Necronomicon. It is an intense journey, but for the serious occultist, the journey is the reward.