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The Book of Power: Evaluating the Necronomicon

To: alt.magick.tyagi,alt.magick,alt.necronomicon,alt.horror.cthulhu,sci.skeptic,alt.paranet.skeptic
From: MERKVRIVS 
Subject: Re: The Book of Power: Evaluating the Necronomicon (was ...)
Date: Sat, 04 Mar 2000 22:51:15 -0600

 

> when you say "some arcane language", would you expect this to be
> alien, cyphered, symbolic and personal, or isolated to a particular
> culture in human history and geography?
> 

That would depend upon its actual origin.  It need not even reflect
Sumerian culture but there would be a bias towards expecting it to
reflect some elements of the times from whence it originated.  Unless
the text itself literally was dropped from outer space (or where ever)
the text would bare the marks of the author who could not help but to
bare the marks of his/her time.



> have you compared Lovecraft with "Nightside of Eden" by Grant,
> which is based on Crowley, or other books by Kenneth Grant
> (Skoob bookS)?
> 

Regrettably I have little famialarity other than an overview of Grant's
work having only read some of his online material (maybe a book or two
way back when) and the comments of others upon his work (I read mostly
tech crap these days).  From what Ive gathered (and I may be mistaken)
but he overall appears to be making something of a study of the Qlippoth
himself.  Im not sure how it would compare to HPL for imagery vs.
Grant's but I would imagine the general psychology of it is not to far
off just given a bit more structure (if you care to call it that - it is
the Qlippoth which doesnt map well given its nature) with the Qabalah.

 

> then why does Daniel Harms write:
> # ... many of the elements of the mythology (the Sumerian link,
> # those copies bound in human skin) don't show up in Lovecraft.
> 
> ?? when he says "the Sumerian link" is he talking about
> something specific for whch you have already accounted?
> 

Covered that one already in part.  I dont necessarily recall a specific
link in HPL's work - there may not be one.  It may merely be the
suggestion of the idea from the modern myths that have grown around the
_Necronomicon_.  Wouldnt surprise me in the least if this were the
case.  Im not even certain that it is alluded to beyond perhaps the Star
of the Covenant (or even there) that the Ancient Ones and Elder Gods
ever had dealings with the human race until the people of Lovecraft's
stories (re)awoke them (at least in Lovecraft's mythos).  

However, as to *a* Sumerian link:  Sumeria was an archeological hotspot
briefly during Lovecraft's day.  As to similarities or links:  the basic
outline of his story closely resembles many myths including Sumerian,
Gnostic and many others.  The Ancient Ones are are equivalent to the
Sumerian Annunaki and the Gnostic Archons.  There are generally depicted
in myth as sort of a hybrid reptilian mutant demi-god race.  This was
followed by another race which is generally depicted as being more
asthetic to behold.  This race would be the Sumerian Igigi (or Watchers)
and the Gnostic Aeons, repectively.  I could add to this list the
Biblical Nephilim (lit. 'fallen ones' gen. transl. as 'giants' also
referred to as Watchers - _Book of Enoch_, _Book of Watchers_), the
Greek Titans ('giants' also referred to as the Elder Gods) and the
Celtic Formori but that gives rise to the question (at least for me) of
what to do with the 3rd category or race(s) that rises out of this (the
Olympians, the Tuatha and so on) or is it merely a rehash of the
previous two.  Personally I lean towards a listing of 3 primary
categories as given here but my intuition seems to feels that this
leaves a gap or void somewhere but then again maybe thats when humans
come into play as a 4th race (5 if you include which ever almighty(s)
you want to attribute to having started the whole thing).

But then again maybe Lovecraft just pulled it from his imagination, the
collective unconscious, genetic memory or whatever.

Maybe this will help:

My 'Book of the Earth Gods' project:

http://psychonomicon.magick.nu/library/earthgods/liber_deum_terrestris.html

Merk

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