Necronomicon: The Wanderings of Alhazred
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Authors: Donald Tyson
Prefatory Note by Olaus Wormius
Concerning the Life of Abdul Alhazred by Theodorus Philetas
Lustful Demons and Angry Demons
Many-Towered Irem, Its Wonders and Pitfalls
The Starlit Chamber of Seven Gates
The First Portal, Leading to the Plateau of Leng
The Second Portal, Leading to the City of Heights
The Third Portal, Leading to Sunken R’lyeh
The Fourth Portal, Leading to Yuggoth
The Fifth Portal, Leading to Atlantis
The Sixth Portal, Leading to Kadath
The Seventh Portal, Leading to the Temple of Albion
What May Be Safely Written of the Old Ones
Yig, Corresponding with the Sphere of Saturn
Yog-Sothoth, Corresponding with the Sphere of Jupiter
Cthulhu, Corresponding with the Sphere of Mars
Azathoth, Corresponding with the Sphere of Sol
Shub-Niggurath, Corresponding with the Sphere of Venus
Nyarlathotep, Corresponding with the Sphere of Mercury
Dagon, Corresponding with the Sphere of Luna
The Great Seal of the Old Ones, Known As the Elder Seal
Concerning the Tombs of Wizards
The Uncanny Ways of Cats, and Their Cult
The Riddle of the Sphinx Interpreted
The Resurrectionists in the Storehouse of Kings
The Essential Salts and Their Use
Walking Corpses Above the Second Cataract
The Book Markets of Alexandria
The Ziggurats and the Watchers of Time
The Tower of Babel and the Fall of the Watchers
U’mal Root and Its Manner of Harvest
Inner Grounds of the Sons of Sirius
The Secret Purpose of the Magi
Wanderers on the Road to Damascus
Terms of the Covenant with Shub-Niggurath
Alphabet of the inhabitants of the city beneath Irem
Lunar hieroglyphs on the recumbent stone of the temple of Albion
Hieroglyphs on the black pillar of Dagon
The great seal of the Old Ones
Signs of the seven lords of the Old Ones
Regarding the work known as Νεκρονμlκον to the Greeks, or transcripted into the Latin letters,
Necronomicon
, having become exceedingly rare and difficult to procure, and then only to be had at great price, it seemed no unworthy task to translate it into the Latin tongue; not that its matter offers anything to edify the mind or provide moral instruction, for its contents exceed in wickedness all other books in Christendom; only for the reason that it holds secret wisdom that would surely pass away were this book to fall prey to worms or the fires of the censorious, as seems likely will occur to those few Greek texts that survive, and that, within the term of those presently dwelling in this land; the clergy of late railing against this accursed book as written by Satan himself.
The true author of the text, I will let the scribe Theodorus Philetas, known as the Wise to history, relate in due course in his opening words of the Greek manuscript that is the source for my rendering. Here it is my purpose to expound on the nature of the book and to relate the unfortunate circumstances surrounding the death of the worthy Theodorus above named, his death in itself a sufficient warning to the idle curious, for this work is suitable only for the deepest intellects wedded to Christ in the Holy Spirit and will corrupt all who seek to turn its arcane lore to base ends. It is a sword poisoned with nightshade that cuts the hand that seeks to seize it, but one with godly purpose and subtle touch may cradle it like a sleeping serpent without receiving its venom. Only he who has no love for it can use it.
The veritable sense of the title of this work is commonly misunderstood and misspoken by those ignorant of Greek roots, It is from νεκpοσ, signifying corpse, and from νομοσ that has the sense of law or custom; hence, Necronomicon has the meaning “the expositing of the ways of the dead,” and what is intended is the control and working of the dead through the sorcery of corpses that bears the common name of necromancy. The ways of the dead, and secret matters known only to the dead and those with whom they have dealings, are here set forth in such abundance as exists in no other book.
Upon these leaves are to be found accounts of living creatures beyond the higher spheres, of lost cities and other places forgotten by the memory of mankind; yet more pernicious still, the manner of summoning souls of the dead back into their mortal clay, and eliciting from them by means of torment secrets that lie hidden at the roots of the world, in dark caverns and beneath the depths of the seas. Here also are instructions on the making of things quickened with a semblance of life, that were better left unmade, but cannot be unmade having been created. All of which would be reason to consign this book to the depths of hell, were it not that beings of fell potency dwelling between the stars, offering threat to the very continuance of our race, are to be in some ways controlled by the teachings of this evil work. So in the Devil’s machinations lie the practical tools of our salvation on that dread day, which by the grace of our Lord shall never come, when the stars are right and the gates open.
To return to the most diligent and learned Theodorus, he completed the Greeking of this book in the city of Constantinople, for know you that the elder copies were all in the tongue of Mohammed, and the title was not
Necronomicon
but
Al Azif,
supposedly signifying in that language the sound of insects heard in the night, but vulgarly expressed as the howling of demons, seeing that the night sounds of the desert were mistaken for demon voices by the heretic nomads of those lands; but Theodorus gives a different rendering from the Arab, which I will leave for your eyes to discover.