In an attempt to keep all readers of this website abreast of current events and attitudes relative to the "Necronomicon phenomenon", I have written this guide to Necronomicon-related websites available on the Internet. All websites will be assessed as regards their attitude towards the Necronomicon, their alignments (if any) with various magickal paradigms, and all sites will be reviewed and rated according to their artistic and literary quality, creativity and scholarship. And, last-but-not-least, each site will be rated on its ethical conscientiousness (that is -- does it pretend that the Necronomicon is real, or admit that it is a hoax?).
RATING SYSTEM:
Poor:The first group of sites to be discussed will be the "on-line grimoires". The most inventive and interesting of these are the sites in which the author has attempted to create his/her original version of the Necronomicon. The less interesting of these sites are those in which the author has merely reproduced and rehashed material from the various paper-published Necronomicons (usually the Simon book). All of these sites share at least one thing in common ; their author's have decided to web-publish a "virtual" grimoire (book of magick) and call it "Necronomicon".
This site is written by one Fr. Necarius, and is introduced with the warning that the site will soon close because its author is planning a "bigger project" involving other grimoires. The Necronomicon Research Group (NRG) is self-described as "a small group" searching for "everything that has to do with the Necronomicon or other occult and secret books" and experimenting with rituals and spells. This is a website for true believers in the Simon Necronomicon paradigm. All spells found on this site (under Rituals and Spells) are taken from the Simon Necronomicon. In fact NRG seems to have reproduced practically every bit of ritual material published in the Simon book, both English and transliterated Assyrian. Necrolord - as the editor of this site calls himself - was very taken with the Simon book's only love spell "Winning the Love of a Woman", claiming that he used the spell successfully. Though other Necronomicon hoaxes are reviewed in the Information Texts link, only the Simon book is considered authentic. The Hay/Wilson Necronomicon is condemned by Necrolord as "a f***ing fake". Though this website has reasonably good wallpaper and graphics, and features links to "other Magickal Pages", Necrolord's information is all a lame rehash of spells from the Simon book. His approach to magick shows the unethical irresponsibility of a maladjusted adolescent, and his writing style shows the literary influence of Beavis and Butthead.
Rating : *
Written by Lovecraftian magickian Phil Legard, this interesting Necronomicon pastiche can be found as a link on Legard's Lovecraftian Magick site. The title was obviously inspired by the real historical grimoire The Grimorium Verum, which probably dates from at least the late seventeenth century. But, since this is supposed to be Doctor John Dee's version of the Necronomicon, it has an authentically long-winded Elizabethan/Jacobean title that goes on for days:
This title was undoubtedly inspired by the full-length title of Meric Casaubon's chronicle of Dee's Enochian experiments: A True and Faithful Relation of What Passed for Many Yeers Between Dr. John Dee... and Some Spirits (1659). Like its namesake, the Grimorium Verum, the first section or "book" (Liber Primum) of this work is a Goetic list of names and sigils of evil spirits. But these "spirits" are all different forms or aspects of Lovecraft's deity Nyarlathotep. Liber Secundum (the Second Book) reveals the characters and seals of the "Old Spirits" (Great Old Ones) and even provides the archaic astronomical degrees at which the stars will be "right" for each individual Mythos creature to return. The third book (Liber Tertium) provides instructions for the manufacture of the magickal vestments and tools necessary for these conjurations. This brand of magick could get expensive! For example, the mage must procure twelve semiprecious stones (breastplate of the High Priest?) the size of his fist (good luck finding fist-sized topaz, jet, and turquoise!) and engrave each one with a special seal.
This book purports to be Dee's translation of a manuscript version of the Al Azif given to him by the nefarious Barnabas Saul (Dee's scryer before Edward Kelly) and sold in 1606 when Dee desperately needed money - explaining why it wasn't found by Casaubon or others. This is probably the best attempt yet at a really impressive Dee Necronomicon hoax. It was far more Lovecraftian and with a far better cover story than the Hay/Wilson/Turner book. But, like the Hay Necronomicon, Legard's Dee version is unusable for magick because its tools and equipment are too costly and rare, and it provides no actual instructions for evocation. But that's probably a good thing! Legard states that there are ten more books to be "translated" in this "continuing transcription project". Ethically superior to most Necronomicon hoaxes on the Internet, with clever writing and an attractive web presence.
[Phil Legard has decided to not put up any new material on his page. - Ed.]
Rating: ***
The Necronomicon Project was created by Laurent Alquier as a result of frustration : After searching the Internet for Necronomicon websites, Laurent said "I could find nowhere something that looked like the Necronomicon as I pictured it." Thus Laurent has created his own "virtual Necronomicon" as an art and literature project to simulate the imaginary Al Azif in all its sinister beauty, with impressive graphics and text from many sources. Against a background of wallpaper that resembles aged yellowed parchment, the site features reproductions of pages from the Hay and de Camp Necronomicons, along with artwork from Philippe Druillet (as seen in the 1979 Lovecraft edition of Heavy Metal), and H.R. Giger's gallery, and text from such diverse sources as Lin Carter and George Hay/Robert Turner. The site also contains links to other splendid sites like The Lovecraft Archive and Dan Clore's Necronomicon Page. This site is not just another Necronomicon hoax. Laurent makes it clear from the start that he is not pretending to have published "the real Necronomicon", and that there is no Necronomicon. "This is only an artistic view of what the mythic book could be. I do not believe in the existence of a real Necronomicon whatsoever." There is hardly any magick in the Necronomicon Project. Most of the "spells" come from the Hay/Wilson/Turner book, and are only there to create atmosphere. Ethically impeccable, with beautiful graphics, creative formatting and exceptional content.
Rating: ****
Despite its title, this site has nothing to do with Wicca. The author of this site includes a link entitled "My Spells Page" which contains only one spell; a binding from pages 90-91 of the Simon Necronomicon, called ANOTHER BINDING OF THE SORCERERS. The author of the site insists that this is a ten-day curse designed to cause its victim extreme misery, yet he claims it can be done in such a way as to avoid the inevitable karmic punishment to the attacker dictated by the Wiccan "Rule of Three" (dream on). In an earlier version of this site, the author stated, "we believe in the Necronomicon as being the sole source of Sumarian [sic] Magik[sic]. Yes, we are Sumarian [sic] (an ancient religion based on the belief that witchcraft rules the world." There is also a section on candles with a repulsive skull graphic and standard information about color correspondences. Dismal, puerile, juvenile, and with all the ethical accountability of a rabid ferret. This site should have been entitled "The Beavis and Butthead Necronomicon".
Rating: *
This site appears to be little more than an attempt to work the Necronomicon into the current fad of "Millennial Madness", rehashing all the popular cliches about the "end times", "final days", the Antichrist, etc., ad nauseam. The author cannot seem to decide whether to satirize the eschatological panic or to play along with it. So he tries to do both. The author derides the "worry and neurosis" of Christian chiliasm, listing past historical candidates for the title of Antichrist (Kaiser Wilhelm, Hitler, etc.) who didn't quite make the grade. The author of this site apparently failed to take two things into account when he decided to drag the Necronomicon into the 2K foolishness of pop-eschatology:
The author declares that the "realm of the Necronomicon" is "the wondrous land where myths, white magic and spirituality embodies the empty soul and guides it toward the path of enlightenment." 'Enlightenment' is unlikely however, and the magick is anything but 'white', since all the ritual material under the link Spells, Conjurations, and Banishings is reproduced from the Simon Necronomicon. Predictable rehashes include "Invocation for Summoning the Watcher" and " The Exorcism Against A Possessing Spirit". Without its millennial gimmick, this site has nothing new to offer. Its graphics are mediocre, it's ethics questionable, its content creativity bankrupt, its basic premise asinine.
Rating : **
by Daniel Harms
International Guild of Occult Science - This California occult supplier is your one-stop source for Bigfoot power stones, "Buddha of Fast Luck" candles, and time machines you strap to your head. They are also the publishers of the Necronomian, or Necronomicon Workbook, as well as the Hidden Key to the Necronomicon (out of print) and Necronomicon Revelations (yet to be released - ?). I've been told that their grimoire translations are good, but I maintain that any press that advertises the "Heptameron of Agrippa" isn't all that concerned with scholasticism.
This page is 1998 © John Wisdom Gonce III. All rights reserved.