by Luis Abbadie
(Editor's note: This is another of Luis Abbadie's pieces on the Italian Necronomicons. For those who need it to be spelled out, Abbadie's attempts to connect this book with other parts of the Cthulhu Mythos is a game played by authors and readers alike, and are not meant to be taken as statements of fact.)
Since this is a quite confusing book, and deals mainly with previously unknown material, this is going to be quite longwinded. In the Sauthenerom part I extended myself inordinately, but in later portions unrelated to the Mythos my comments are scarce.
The Ripel Necronomicon - contained in the book The Stellar Magick: The True Necronomicon is part of a trilogy of books by Frank G. Ripel, head of the Italian Ordo Rosae Mysticae; the other books are The Red Magick: The Evolution of the Works of Aleister Crowley - The Magickal workings of Ordo Rosae Mysticae and The Magick of Atlantis: Sauthenerom, the Source of the Necronomicon. And it is the latter which is of the utmost interest to fans and researchers of the Necronomicon and the Cthulhu Mythos.
La Magia de la Atlántida: Sauthenerom, la Fuente del Necronomicon (The Magick of Atlantis: Sauthenerom, the Source of the Necronomicon)
Frank G. Ripel
Original title: La Magia di Atlantide (Sauthenerom: La Fonte del Necronomicon)
Roma, Italia: Hermes Edizioni, SRL
Translated by Marcos Fagit
Editorial Kier, Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1988
Here, Ripel explains how this book is essentially divided in two parts: the first is the Sauthenerom, a text "whose origin is lost in the night of time" (this is a recurring Lovecraftian phrase in Spanish, although I don't know if HPL ever phrased something like it - I think Crowley did; the first use of this phrase - "En la noche de los tiempos" - was the Spanish title of Lovecraft's "The Shadow out of Time")1]. The second part is a treatise on the ORM (Order of the Mystic Rose), "which refers to a current of occult lore which comes forth 4,000 years ago, that is, between the termination of stellar-lunar cults and the beginning of the lunar ones." This Order means to be the transmutation of OTO as predicted by Aleister Crowley in his Magickal Diaries.
Ripel clearly states: "In respect to the Sauthenerom (The Book of the Law of Death) I can assert that it shall be considered the source of the true Necronomicon (The Book of Dead Names) - which is to say, the text from which consequently derived the Necronomicon." Now, Ripel quotes Kenneth Grant's The Magical Revival again and again, and - even though he criticizes Grant's works all the time (like everybody else, it would seem), he often uses Grant's terminology and discusses the "Draconian and Typhonian Currents" later in this book. Why do I mention this? Because in Don Webb's "Meeting the Messenger" (Realms of Fantasy Vol. 4 Nº 5, June l998) there is mention of "the Typhonian Tablet, which seems to be the source document for the Kitab Al Azif or in bad Greek, the Necronomicon." This Typhonian Tablet is further described as "a Ptolemaic redaction of a Set-Nyar cult manual." Incidentally, the Egyptian goddess Maat is mentioned in the same context, and she is an important element in Ripel's (and Grant's) occult theories, which identify the cult of the Old Ones as the "Typhonian cult," as in Grant's "Typhonian OTO". I wonder, is this other Typhonian text also described as "the source of the Necronomicon" the Sauthenerom, or is it just a coincidence? Only time - and Mr. Webb - will tell.
Anyway, Ripel goes on to warn that only the titles of the Sauthenerom's first two chapters were translated and the rest are still in the original tongue, so he gives the translation of the rest of the chapters. I can't see the logic in doing so in the introduction, but there is undoubtedly a profound qabalistic reason for it... I'm going to add the translations to the headings along the way.
And where, do you ask, did Ripel find this forbidden book? Well, as the good occult writer he is, he answers this question with a riddle. Maybe some occult student or Crowley devotee might make some sense out of it; not me.
This forty-page book is of even more interest to Necronomicon students than Ripel suggests, since it would seem to be actually part of the Necronomicon itself. In the Perez-Vigo Necronomicon2 we find variant versions of several chapters of the Sauthenerom, as well as some rituals from Liber Logaeth, or the Hay edition. This book is extremely abstruse; there are whole chapters that do not seem to say anything. Even so, the Perez-Vigo version actually manages to be understandable, it is infinitely clearer than the Ripel version. My own guess is that the Sauthenerom is actually a 4,000 years old text which Abdul Alhazred incorporated into his own book - a common practice in his pre-copyright age. Whether it was included as a section of the Necronomicon (just like Ripel included it as a section of his own book), or distributed in different sections according to the subject of each chapter, I cannot say, although I lean toward the latter. Al-Majritti, in his Picatrix, quotes dozens of authors - it is mostly a compilation of other magicians' knowledge - and alternates their respective contributions to whatever subject he is currently discussing, so Alhazred might have done the same. Still, Ripel's version of this text is obviously not intended to be a faithful word-by-word rendering of the ancient manuscript, since he freely included obvious anachronisms such as mentioning the Inca culture, Eldorado, Hindu words such as Arunachala, and Crowleyesque terms like Hadit.
And what culture is supposed to have spawned this eldritch book? My first guess was Egypt, since, when checking my E. A. Wallis Budge Egyptian grammar, I found that at least one of the chapters' titles was in that language, but I couldn't find other words. Later, and with the aid of a fellow Mythos delver, I concluded that the "Sabean" in Ripel's "Sabean Cult" was not merely a sophisticated way of referring to Stellar Cults, but also an allusion to the country of Saba (occultists are very fond of such double-meanings)3. It would be too lengthy to explain our reasoning here, but the fact that another, more recent, Italian text of the Necronomicon (Necronomicon 2: La Tomba di Alhazred) is said to have been found in a tomb near Ma'rib, ancient capital of Saba, seems to indicate that we were on the right track. By the way, Sabeans were among the few ancient cultures that worshipped the moon as a male god, and its name was - in at least one version - Ilmuqah; shades of Mnomquah...4
I. The Old Ones
This chapter retells the origin of the universe, more detailedly than the Ripel Necronomicon (or its Hay cousin) do. Since it is this chapter which is of greatest interest for Necronomicon and Mythos readers, I will compress as much of it as I can; this is going to be a bit extensive, but since I'm going to keep my comments of latter non-Mythos chapters to a minimum, that will balance things up.
After further describing Yog-Sothoth, the text says that
Naryx's first manifestation was Nyarlathotep, fearfully spoken of by men as the Crawling Chaos of the Beginning and the End; "he will be present at the final destruction of the universe as it is known" and, like the other Gods, will wander again in "the night of time where dwells the Great Old One: Naxyr." (According to what I could figure out from an Italian Lovecraft website, the Italian names for Old Ones and Elder Gods are "Grandi Antichi" and "Dei Antichi"; I wonder which was applied to Naxyr in the original text)
After Nyarlathotep, Cthulhu and Hastur "manifested themselves as objective universe." Cthulhu claimed Ursa Major, and Hastur "the lit star, which is in Orion." Then came Shub-Niggurath, Universal Lord, who inhabited and claimed the universe.
This is the juicy part: the primal darkness was returning from nothingness to shape infinity, but things changed: "the Gods became men, and men became Gods" (cf. Teotihuacan, the old Toltec city, its name means 'Where Men Become Gods'.) "And each of these Gods entered lands inhabited by men, imposed his supremacy, and made demanded to be worshipped." This is why I say that the Necronomicon parts found in The Sussex Manuscript are complemented by this book! Mythos readers despise the Sussex Manuscript for seeming to consider Cthulhu, Cthugha, Yog-Sothoth, et al, as mere rulers of alien, pre-human races, when in fact an elementary interpretation of the Manuscript as an occult book (which it conceptually is, Mythos notwithstanding) shows that it fits perfectly with generally agreed Mythos lore. Anyway, the average Lovecraft reader doesn't plunge headfirst into reading Crowley, Dee, Dion Fortune, Golden Dawn rituals, and so forth.
So here is my theory:
l) When the Sauthenerom speaks of "men" it refers to alien races, which is to say, not godlike entities, but merely creatures different from, but analogous to, humanity. Such races as the Elder Race (Elder Things, Polar Ones, whatever).
2) Now, remember how Lovecraft said - "In the Mountains of Madness" - that the Mad Arab mistook the Elder Race for the Old Ones, and called them Old Ones when referring to them? Well, this might just be what so bothers readers of the Sussex Manuscript who complain at seeing the description of a civilization of Old Ones! The mistake was Alhazred's, not the Manuscript's!
3) The Manuscript's descriptions of Cthugha, Hastur, etc., as rulers of the Old Ones is not literal. The priest-leaders of the pre-human races (they were priests, since they performed rites) were as "human", so to speak, as the rest of their respective races; but they had assumed the identities of the gods they worshipped! Quoth the Sauthenerom: "the Gods became men, and men became Gods", "And each of these Gods entered lands inhabited by men, imposed his supremacy, and made demanded to be worshipped." Even this very Ripel volume includes a chapter on the assuming of god-forms by the magician, a common practice in several types of magic (with or sans k): Ceremonial, Neo-Pagan, Santeria, and so forth. As to a ruler permanently assuming the divine identity, it has historical precedents; my personal favorite is the fifteenth century ruler of the Toltecs in Tollan Xicolotitlan, Ce-Acatl Topiltzin, also called Quetzalcoatl. It was this monotheistic ruler whose legend of his return caused the Aztecs to mistake Hernan Cortes for him; he was a human priest-king, yet assumed the name and identity of a millenia-old Mesoamerican deity and his life was later sewn into the original myth. (In fact, in the particular case of Umr At-Tawil, the Sussex Manuscript might literally be speaking of the Mythos entity itself, since it has often been said that Umr At-Tawil was once a mortal).
Okay, back to the Sauthenerom:
The book then says that the Gods raised their city "beyond the furthest reaches of time and space" (the City between the Magnetic Poles? It is said by Ripel to lie within the "Intersection," that is, where past, present and future intersect). In the desert of Kevaal they raised mount Kadath, "with a height of over 1,000 kms," and there built their city called Khabeer (?!?). From there, they manifested from time to time among men.
Here follow very symbolic descriptions of the Old Ones' manifestations (Cthulhu is described very similarly to the seven-headed beast of Revelation). Then, the Gods parted: Hastur from Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep from Shub-Niggurath, and Azathoth from Yog-Sothoth. "...The universe in its entirety suffered its splitting. Cthulhu was banished to the furthest depths, and Hastur flew to the most sining of heavens. And he ruled until the time when the gate of the pit opened wide, and the Sleeper invaded the universe with his dreams.
Millions of years later, angered by her sons' warring, Naryx destroyed Typhon, and they sought refuge "in the remotest abysses of deepest sleep" (Dreamlands? Like Oorn). But Naryx sentenced them, expelling them "beyond the abyss", where they were further divided: "The One became the Two." They dwelt in Yuggoth for a time, and then came to a young planet called Sharhah (you guessed it: Earth), where they established their civilization; but, because of the punishment, they could not go back to the stars. Then the seven seasons of the Great Star of Shanir fell upon Earth. Sharhah was still a mass of molten lava, but they withstood the weather; "and they were not alone. The Primal Gods had already descended upon Typhon with other Gods, such as Nodens, Ichtonh, Mithra and others." Realizing the futility of warring, they dwelt in peace for millions of years on the mount later called Arunachala by men, upon which they built the city called by us Eldorado or the City of Pyramids.
Aeons later they built Atlantis, Lemuria, Mu and Hyperborea, and in the the underground kingdom of Agartha (K'n-yan? Shamballah?) under Sharhah's surface. "And they were worshipped as Gods, even though they were Gods no more." And otherv races dwelt in Sharhah: the giant, destructive Khulls, dimly remembered by men, exterminated by the Gods for having attacked Lemuria - but a few survived, fearful of being found. And the race of the Zog - in spite of the name, the description is clearly that of the Gugs - who came down from Levath (the Moon) madly bent on destroying the Gods. The Gods destroyed them and turned the surface of Levath into a barren place; and they threw to the space the other three moons: Saranah, Yoghorth and Dhashyf. The Bathorh, very little creatures, also defied the gods and were destroyed; the Bhahlix, a race of winged men, tried to trick the Gods and were also destroyed (the race of the winged creature in a tower in a Robert E. Howard tale - I don't remember its title?)
Meanwhile, the Gods kept "involuting", and losing their power over Yog-Sothoth (i.e. controlling their physical shapes, like the "Old Ones" in Colin Wilson's The Philosopher's Stone, which in my opinion aren't the Old Ones either, but yet another alien race who were worshipped in Mu, a branch of the Lloigornos (or Lloigor) that chose to take permanent physical bodies). They built pyramids with complex crystalline structures to draw cosmic energy from the space. But Naxyr (not Naryx) finished the punishment through a Knight from the Space (a comet?) which destroyed their civilization. He or she made the seven stars of the Great Star fall into the catastrophe, and sank the continents into the depths. Only four survived, "because they were in the last stage of fulfillment," but the four were eight (?), and they carried the Eldritch Science: Cthulhu and Hastur went to Egypt; Ichtonh and Mithra visited the lands of the Incas (a misreading by Ripel, caused by the mention in the Sussex Manuscript of the "people of Kuzco"?) and later China (again, these might be priest-leaders identified with their gods).
Yeah, it's a real mess.
II. Kadath, the Unknown
This is the best chapter, composed of three unrelated texts. The first mentions Kadath, in the North, beyond the river of fire, and those who dared to reach the Throne of Azathoth.None will know the Mysteries if he has not surpassed the Threefold Test (see the Ripel Necronomicon).
One final comment: the "Lineage of Nharahk" refers to some Cthulhoid wrtitings which have circulated here in Guadalajara (Mexico). Nharahk is somehow related to Naxyr; long story).
The third text is a brief description of "the great formula through which you may reach the fabled city." It involves calling the name of Yog-Sothoth and crossing a Gate, using the Seal of Bahr (which is not given).
III. Khranmirh (The Fire Star)
This chapter instructs on the performance of the Ritual of Aangohr, which serves to astrally open the Gate of Yog-Sothoth. "If you gaze beyond the stars, the night when the moon is black and weeps in red, you shall see the formless fire above them. You shall then know what you must do. But beware!" The reader is addressed as the Lord of the Hundred Living Flames (the creator spirits, the essence of purest Divinity, whom it is dangerous to defy, although a fool may be pitied by the Gods (now this is the most anti-Cthulhoid claim in the whole book!). The ritual is described in enthusiastic, Crowleyesque style with Alhazredian touches ("For he is the Guardian of the Threshold, and the Threshold. He knows from whence they came aforetime, and when he finds the key, the gate shall open. Open the gate! Invoke him! Be him!"), but somewhat confusing. At a point you must use a Sign which you are supposed to know already, and then speak aloud the Fourth Verse of the Third Book - but this is evidently from a different, unnamed book! Fortunately, the more lucid version in the Perez-Vigo Necronomicon is much more specific: the "Sign" is the Seal of Yog-Sothoth from the Necronomicon and the "Verse" is actually the Litany of Terror, included in the Perez-Vigo book.
IV. (Untitled) (NOTE: the head of this chapter says "Untitled")
It's as if Crowley and St. John had joined forces to produce a three-page riddle. Infuriatingly abstruse, this is an endless set of paradoxes, such as: "This was the un-time when everything existed, and nothing was possible. This time shall return at the end of the cycle, when he climbs to the throne and dies in the waters." "(He) shall go through the gate, see the stairway of silver asnd gold, and descend under the castle where everything is and is not, where everything exists and nothing remains." "The time is now, the place is anywhere." There are also some weird prophecies: "How shall you know? When the shining strikes the holm oak, when the sword is wielded by someone who is not the predestinated one. You shall see all this, for this was written in the times yet to come, and shall be revealed in times past. He shall come forth from the water,brandish the sword, lose it! Then, he shall seek the chalice, and when he drinks from it, he shall clench the sword in his fist, but he will plunge it into the great Mother's womb, so that the chosen one may be reborn wielding it." And on and on, until the closing phrase, which wonderfully summarizes the spirit of the Sauthenerom:
V. Tharnhaim (The Game of the Serpent)
This chapter is told in the voice of one of the Gods, written shortly before the fall of Atlantis' last kingdom. It tells how they came to Earth, dwelt atop a mountain, and eventually created their first kingdom, Hyperborea, knowing that their race (sic) had to be destroyed in order to be reborn. They manipulated the weather conditions, shaped Earth, and created a form of vegetable life which could move and walk, although it coldn't wander far from its nourishing water; from this plant humanity was evolved. They wanted a race in which to manifest from time to time in the physical plane through incarnation and the creation of a cult. (Is this not very much like Colin Wilson's The Philosopher's Stone?) This is written with modern anatomical language and both scientific and pseudo-scientific concepts.
VI. Argonahr (Infinite universe)
Another abstruse text in the line of Chapter IV; also like the preceding chapters, it contains not a single Mythos word or name. This one is more Crowleyish: "Kill, then, in the fervour of your anger, in the day of your pride for unplacated fury." Mentions the Fire Star from Chapter III. More sons, crowns and swords. And so on.
VII. Rhan Hoh (Absolute Darkness)
This is much better. More interesting and suggestive, telling of the times when the Gods were forgotten, the Ancient Lore was lost, new beliefs spread through the world. "This is not the time of Gods and men, but of heroes and their myths." Discusses the Threefold Test in confusing words, andspeaks of the Word that makes people tremble, asserting that it is hidden in this text. The clarifying Perez-Vigo version tells us that this is the word coded as VAL in Chapter II, the "Word That Kills", and it is also subtly discussed in other difficult passages. This Word seems to be the main revelation of the Sauthenerom.
VIII. Pan-Har (Total Illumination)
Besides this masterful quote, this chapter contains several symbolic and numerical clues to find the Word that was pronounced upon the Sacred Mount.
IX. Ruth-Ha (Wind from the East)
A page with ambiguous prophecies and warnings, mentions "the Secret of the threefold force".
X. Yorr-Hanh (Strength of God)
"Do as Narrgom, he who holds the terrible destroying desire. He is as the burning wind that soars the skies in all times, in all places." Yet another entity! In my own story "The Scream of the Mask" there is a mention "of the wastes burnt by Narrgom," possibly in relation to the Hastur/King in Yellow mythos.
Further nomenclature: "The secret name (of what or whom?) is Valgoor, for he is the strength, and the motor force in him. He dwells in the house of stone, the name of which is Rotham."
XI. Thar-O (The Serpent's Eye)
This chapter invites you to visit the kingdom of the Old Ones, where the triple golden star burns. Beyond dimensions, time and space (the Ciry between the Magnetic Poles?). "Wander in the endless deserts, until you arrive to that which I call... home." "Know that the Gods are many, but only three rule over the infinite majesty of the cosmos. Hastur. Azathoth and Nyarlathotep rule sovereign in their house, which is the dwelling place of all people. At their side rises a dark shadow: tenebrous Cthulhu, the Dragon from the Pit, who now sleeps in the cosmic depths." A prophecy of their return follows, when cold flames fall from the sky. "They wait under the seas, they wait for the time when they shall be awakened. That day, a howl shall contaminate Earth, and men shall look around with their hearts heavy with terror."
XII. Neh-Ar (Black Light)
Another abstruse chapter which starts talking about the creation of the universe and Hastur, including a surprisingly decipherable symbolic parable about the beginning of time, when Azathoth exploded. The weird part is that this text goes on to warn gods, men, angels and demons about the coming of the Son of Man!
XIII. (Untitled)
This is "the Word of Azathoth, his Law and our Law." In poetic, vaguely crowleyesque phrases, the proceedings of a ritual are suggested, involving Tantric practices on the altar.
Believe it or not, there are a few bits in this section that are of great interest to Mythos readers - you just have to sort them out.
Preamble
I'm summarizing this for the benefit (?) of anybody who tries to sort out just where Ripel came from - skip it if you don't care, read it if you're an Illuminati freak:
Here, Ripel briefly tells the history of the OTO until 1962, year of Germer's death, when Grant returns and proclaims himself international leadernof OTO. Currently - according to Ripel - Grant leads only the British branch of OTO, since there are four branches in Switzerland, Germany, England and the USA. And the ORM would be created to sort out the ensuing mess. Unfortunately, at this point, Ripel forgets about concrete facts and gives us only the occult background of the birth of his order. My own guess (but that's all it is: a guess) is that Ripel (or somebody else) either transformed an Italian branch of OTO - probably derived from Grant's Typhonian OTO - into ORM, or some Italian OTO member merely read Grant's books and created his own order (there is a third possibility: that the ORM itself is an elaborate hoax. After all, the only hint of its existence are the Ripel books). Anyway, this is what Ripel says:
Crowley brought back the lunar-solar cult period (1904-1947), followed by a period of lunar cults (1948-1979) practiced by OTO, but Grant failed to create the next period, which should have been of stellar-lunar cults, nor did he fulfill the previous lunar period. ORM would represent lunar cults as they "should have been practiced" in that period - although Ripel admits that he is unaware whether other branches of OTO did things right. Anyway, ORM is constituted by 13 workings, with two aspects: inner and outer. The outer aspect composes the first 6 workings, done by "the worshippers of the red serpent of the Universal Spiritual Gnostic Church" (these are given later in this book). The inner aspect is the Sovereign Sanctuary of Gnosis (where they only make Tantric rituals), the Order of the Red Rose, which would be the passage from the Order of the Rosy Cross to the Order of the Golden Rose (inner order of the Order of the Golden Star, which also has an outer order which would be the Order of the Golden Dawn). (In his third book, The Red Magick, Ripel channels a manifesto announcing that the Rosy Cross is dead and the Golden Rose rules - sorry to break the news to you, Rosicrucians, but it seems you're all dead!)
Oh, and Ripel also gives several hints of Grant being theoretically and empirically incompetent. Well, I've never read Grant, but seeing so much dirt thrown on his name by everybody is getting depressing. Give the guy a break!
I. The Sabean cult of Ancient Egypt
First, we get a list of the Aeons in which the history of the universe is divided. We're now in the fifth one. Who cares, if Cthulhu is going to eat us anyway? Then Ripel discusses at enormous length the two beasts of Apocalypse - Leviathan and Therion, the red and black dragon, etc. But we now know they're Nug and Yeb, right? So skip it.
And then we get to discuss Lovecraft!
There is a very interesting comment made in passing:
A chart? Made by Lovecraft? Where is it? Where did Ripel find it?6 Anyway, Ripel offers a "corrected" chart.
On a different note, here follows a brief description of the Phoenix myth,which has nothing to do with anything, but contains a phrase so utterly ingenuous that I've just got to quote it: "Of the Phoenix's return there is an irrefutable historical proof which goes back around 12,000 years" - the destruction of Atlantis!
Ripel also quotes himself from a commentary on "the invisible Master Shy-mha" in the First Volume of Orion, which would mean there are other ORM publications.
II. The Double
A discussion on the astral body, praising Carlos Castaneda's works on the dream-self and further deriding Grant.
III. The Chakras
Revises Grant's attributions of the Chakras to the planet itself (I don't wanna see Earth's Kundalini!).
IV. The Great Universal Magickal Agent
Thelemic commentary on the primal substance (Akasha, Vril, Prana, Od, the Force, call it what you will), which manifests as electricity, magnetism, psychic power, etc. In The Stellar Magick, it is identified as the Suthoth.
V. Nu-Isis
Thelemic stuff.
VI. The Logos
And more Thelemic stuff. Says that the thirteenth Qabalistic sephirah, Daath, is a black hole which leads into the "universe B of anti-matter", which "must not be confused with the Tree of Death, the thirteen Qliphoth that constitute the body of Yog-Sothoth". Ah, and gives the "new" Tetragrammaton which is IVTH, but for some reason is pronounced Yutmah. Rene Guenon gets quoted so that Ripel explains how his 12 Hindu Aditya are the 12 Invisible Masters, the Gods that will sit around the "throne" when the dragon rises from the waters.
Very little of interest here, but let's go through it anyway.
Introduction
Occult comments on Ripel's 13-sphered Tree of Life, with a nice, Lovecraftian closing paragraph about how, if the initiate falters, when the day of union comes he will be one of the worms that feed on dung who dwell in Yog-Sothoth.
I. Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis Universalis
What you must do if you want to be a worshipper of the red serpent.
II. Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis Universalis
How to meditate.
III. Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis Universalis
An initiation ritual in 18 lines; these guys are fast!IV. Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis Universalis
Another, twice as long - now you get to worship the red serpent.
V. Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis Universalis
Next initiatory stage.
VI. Ecclesia Gnostica Spiritualis Universalis
The last stage, including a bunch of mantras.
Here follows a picture of the 13-sphered Tree of Life and several pages of tables with correspondences of the Tere, the Crowley Tarot, Hebrew alphabet, etc., including a new gematria.
Preliminary Observations
To make it as part of ORM, you must read Pauwels & Bergier, Guenon, Hartmann, Castaneda, Nietszche, Jung, and the corrections of Grant's works made by the ORM in the first two Vols. of Orion.
1. Fabrication of the magickal instruments (the index misnames this chapter as "Fabrication of the musical instruments"!)
A) The Magickal Book (Lamen)
B) The Magickal Cup
C) The Magickal Knife
D) The Magickal Pentacle
E) The Magickal Wand
F) The Magickal Trident
G) The Magickal Lamp
H) The Magickal Sword
I) The Magickal Candelabrums
J) The Magickal Crown
K) The Magickal Robes
L) The Incense-Burner (Bell)
Hey! This one ain't "magickal!"
M) The Magickal Ring
2. Construction of the temple, of the circle and of the altar
A) The Temple
B) The Circle
C) The Altar
3. Of the Magician's Preparations
A) Of the Magician's BalanceIf he means mental balance, there won't be much to discuss.
B) The Gestures
C) Assumption of the Forms
Several photos of a hooded man showing magical gestures, Golden Dawn-style. The pic in Setian Hunt I's Mythos magick website is a million times better.
D) Vibration of Divine Names
E) Circular Walking, Shifting Positions, Tappings or Ringings
4. The Rituals of Purification, Consecration and Initiation.
A) The Star-Ruby (Improved)
In case you're saner than me and haven't read Crowley, this one and the next were created by him.
B) The Star-Sapphire (Improved)
C) The Moonstone
The Host of Satan
From Crowley's Book of the Law.
1. The Gate of Water
A method for astral travel.
2. The Tattwas
3. The Shewstone
To visit John Dee's Aethyrs.
1 - The "Great Ones of the Night of Time" turn up in one of the Golden Dawn initiation rituals. Return
2 - The Perez-Vigo Necronomicon derives from both Ripel's version and the Hay edition. Luis is preparing another review of this edition.Return 3 - Saba: a country in South Arabia, is better known as the Biblical Sheba. Return 4 - Mnomquah is a reptilian moon-god from the fiction of Brian Lumley. Return 5 - Throughout the tens of thousands of pages of Lovecraft's correspondence we have preserved, Crowley is only mentioned a few times. Lovecraft seems to have known little more of him than what he could learn in the popular press.Return 6 - This is probably a mistaken reference to the chart in Grant's The Magical Revival, pp. 115-116. Return This page is 1998 © Luis Abbadie. All rights reserved.