THE
ARCANE
ARCHIVE

a cache of usenet and other text files pertaining
to occult, mystical, and spiritual subjects.


TOP | OCCULTISM | MAGIC | BOOKS | NECRONOMICON

necronomicon

To: alt.magick,alt.mythology
From: catherine yronwode 
Subject: Re: necronomicon
Date: Sun, 31 Mar 2002 23:19:40 GMT

x-posted to alt.mythology in hope that further (and more expert)
notations may be added by the mythographers resident there.

In alt.magick Andralphus wrote:
> 
> The Simon "Necronomicon" takes a bunch of stuff from classical 
> ritual magick, dumbs it down, and paints a veneer of Sumerian 
> mythology over it.
 
> The idea of opening the seven gates (or was it nine gates?  gave my
> copy away a long time ago) is obviously a knock-off of scrying the 
> 30 ethers in Enochian magick.

You may be right on that, but i always thought that this part of the
Simon N"Necronomicon" was a specific rip-off of the opening of the seven
gates to the netherworld in the Sumerican story called "The Descent of
Inanna." The Sumerian text has been translated by Samuel Noah Kramer and
appears both in his academic publications and in the popular book on
Inanna that he co-wrote with Diane Wolkstein, "Inanna, Queen of heaven
and Earth." 

A "plot synopsis" (if a religious hymn can be said to have a "plot") of
"The Descent of Inanna" can be found at:
    
http://www.wooster.edu/chinese/Chinese/courses/fu_nu_wen_xue/inanna/Inanna.html
and there we find a list of the progressive stripping of Inanna's
garments at each gate: 

  At the first she must remove her shugurra, the Crown of the Steppes 
  At the second, the small lapis beads from around her neck 
  At the third, the double strand of beads from her breast 
  At the fourth, her breastplate 
  At the fifth, her gold ring 
  At the sixth, her lapis measuring rod and line 
  At the seventh gate, the last, her royal robe.

The relationship between this sequence of disrobings at the seven gates
and a Kabbalistic tree of life system or a Hindu chakra system or a
Chinese chi-meridian system should be obvious. I am not saying there is
a direct correlation between these four systems, simply that human
speculation about how sequenced alignments along human body points might
relate to a near-death / after-death / out-of-body / immortality /
underworld / heaven scenario existed in ancient Sumer. 

From a book review of the Kramer-Wolkstein text at:
     http://www.shira.net/book-inanna.htm
comes this sample of the verses relating to Inanna's passage through the
sven gates and the removal of one piece of jewelry or clothing at each
gate:

        When she entered the first gate,
        From her head, the shugurra, 
        the crown of the steppe, was removed.

        Inanna asked:
             "What is this?"

        She was told:
             "Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect.
             They may not be questioned."

        When she entered the second gate,
        From her neck the small lapis beads were removed.

        Inanna asked:
             "What is this?"

        She was told:
             "Quiet, Inanna, the ways of the underworld are perfect.
             They may not be questioned."

For a Jungian (glak) psycho-analytical view of the text as myth, see: 
     http://www.jelder.com/mythology/inanna.html

> The thing is, why bother with a thrown-together literary hoax when 
> you can go to the original?  Try "Aleister Crowley's Illustrated 
> Goetia" or "The Enochian World of Aleister Crowley" by Lon Milo 
> Duquette.  Or "The Book of Solomon's Magick" by C. R. Runyon.

Note that i am not saying that Simon was not heavily influenced by
Enochian themes and texts, simply that when he added his notorious
"Sumerian overlay," to his Lovecraftian pastiche, he actually pulled
some part of his references from Sumerian hymns. 

Your book recommendations are very good; i would merely add that one
should also consult the fictional works of H. P. Lovecraft and the
Kramer-Wolkstein Inanna book in order to attempt a "study" of Simon's
fake Necronomicon. 

Cordially, 

cat yronwode 

Karezza and Sacred Sex ------ http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredsex.html
The Esoteric Archive --------- http://www.luckymojo.com/esoteric.html
The Sacred Landscape ------- http://www.luckymojo.com/sacredland.html

The Arcane Archive is copyright by the authors cited.
Send comments to the Arcane Archivist: tyaginator@arcane-archive.org.

Did you like what you read here? Find it useful?
Then please click on the Paypal Secure Server logo and make a small
donation to the site maintainer for the creation and upkeep of this site.

The ARCANE ARCHIVE is a large domain,
organized into a number of sub-directories,
each dealing with a different branch of
religion, mysticism, occultism, or esoteric knowledge.
Here are the major ARCANE ARCHIVE directories you can visit:
interdisciplinary: geometry, natural proportion, ratio, archaeoastronomy
mysticism: enlightenment, self-realization, trance, meditation, consciousness
occultism: divination, hermeticism, amulets, sigils, magick, witchcraft, spells
religion: buddhism, christianity, hinduism, islam, judaism, taoism, wicca, voodoo
societies and fraternal orders: freemasonry, golden dawn, rosicrucians, etc.

SEARCH THE ARCANE ARCHIVE

There are thousands of web pages at the ARCANE ARCHIVE. You can use ATOMZ.COM
to search for a single word (like witchcraft, hoodoo, pagan, or magic) or an
exact phrase (like Kwan Yin, golden ratio, or book of shadows):

Search For:
Match:  Any word All words Exact phrase

OTHER ESOTERIC AND OCCULT SITES OF INTEREST

Southern Spirits: 19th and 20th century accounts of hoodoo, including slave narratives & interviews
Hoodoo in Theory and Practice by cat yronwode: an introduction to African-American rootwork
Lucky W Amulet Archive by cat yronwode: an online museum of worldwide talismans and charms
Sacred Sex: essays and articles on tantra yoga, neo-tantra, karezza, sex magic, and sex worship
Sacred Landscape: essays and articles on archaeoastronomy, sacred architecture, and sacred geometry
Lucky Mojo Forum: practitioners answer queries on conjure; sponsored by the Lucky Mojo Curio Co.
Herb Magic: illustrated descriptions of magic herbs with free spells, recipes, and an ordering option
Association of Independent Readers and Rootworkers: ethical diviners and hoodoo spell-casters
Freemasonry for Women by cat yronwode: a history of mixed-gender Freemasonic lodges
Missionary Independent Spiritual Church: spirit-led, inter-faith, the Smallest Church in the World
Satan Service Org: an archive presenting the theory, practice, and history of Satanism and Satanists
Gospel of Satan: the story of Jesus and the angels, from the perspective of the God of this World
Lucky Mojo Usenet FAQ Archive: FAQs and REFs for occult and magical usenet newsgroups
Candles and Curios: essays and articles on traditional African American conjure and folk magic
Aleister Crowley Text Archive: a multitude of texts by an early 20th century ceremonial occultist
Spiritual Spells: lessons in folk magic and spell casting from an eclectic Wiccan perspective
The Mystic Tea Room: divination by reading tea-leaves, with a museum of antique fortune telling cups
Yronwode Institution for the Preservation and Popularization of Indigenous Ethnomagicology
Yronwode Home: personal pages of catherine yronwode and nagasiva yronwode, magical archivists
Lucky Mojo Magic Spells Archives: love spells, money spells, luck spells, protection spells, etc.
      Free Love Spell Archive: love spells, attraction spells, sex magick, romance spells, and lust spells
      Free Money Spell Archive: money spells, prosperity spells, and wealth spells for job and business
      Free Protection Spell Archive: protection spells against witchcraft, jinxes, hexes, and the evil eye
      Free Gambling Luck Spell Archive: lucky gambling spells for the lottery, casinos, and races