The Evil dead: Truth Meets Fiction

The Evil Dead Truth Meets Fiction

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THE EVIL DEAD The Evil Dead (Evil Dead) is a 1981 horror film, written and directed by Sam Raimi, starring the then-unknown Bruce Campbell, Ellen Sandweiss, and Betsy Baker. Despite its low budget and the melodramatic, bad acting due to the actors inexperience, the film grossed over $2.4 million at the box office and

The movie is not based on a true story, the only truth’s behind the movie can be loosely based on the practices of necromancy in ancient antiquity. Necromancy is a claimed form of magic involving communication with the deceased – either by summoning their spirit as an apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge.

NECRONOMICON EXMORTIS – THE BOOK OF THE DEAD launched the careers of Raimi, Campbell, and Tapert, who collaberated on films for years afterwards.

It is based on the short film Within the Woods, which served as a 'prototype' that allowed Raimi to secure $90,000 to produce the film. The film was a hardship for the cast and crew, being filmed at an actual cabin in Morristown, Tennessee, secluded from the nearby town. Despite the hardships, the film was released to positive reviews, including a rave review from Stephen King, calling it "the most ferociously original horror film of the year", allowing it to secure an international distributer, the then-unknown New Line Cinema. The film currently holds a 98% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes and is considered to be one of the largest cult films.

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Fictional biography The Necronomicon is said to have been written by the Dark Ones, bound in human flesh and inked in blood. This text contained prophecies, funerary incantions, and demon resurrection

passages. In the first two films, the book is found by Professor Raymond Knowby. In the third film, it is in a graveyard, being that it is almost 700 years before Knowby was even born.

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Characteristics and abilities The Necronomicon is bound in human flesh, inked in human blood, and has a variety of different passages and translations to do mainly one thing: Awaken the Evil to possess the living so it can be reborn on Earth.

In The Evil Dead and Evil Dead II, the reading of passages from the book out loud "activates" the powers of the book to awaken evil in inanimate objects (such as trees), and raise the dead to serve as its servants. It can also turn living people into its servants as well, making them "Deadites" (there seems to be no notable physical difference between when a living human being or a dead human being becomes a Deadite). Sunlight, though, can release those possessed from the affliction (as seen in Evil Dead II when Ash is released from being possessed).

In addition the passages of the book can be used to open portals to other places in time and space, as seen in Evil Dead II and Army of Darkness.

Also the book, supposedly, has the ability to return the evil it awakens back to sleep, or restore people to normal (though this is suggested to be possible it is never shown to happen.)

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In other incarnations of the Evil Dead/Army of Darkness franchise the book is shown to have a larger range of powers, as well as having a personality and inclination to want to destroy the living, particularly the "Chosen One".

In the Army of Darkness comics the book is shown to be able to infect animals, and any living entity, with its evil creating Deadites out of them.

The book is also shown to be able to be physically injured, causing it to bleed, though such injuries allow the book to spread its evil even easier as it seems as the "blood" can infect anyone it comes into contact with. The book also, is apparently indestructible (or at least Ash believes it to be so).

In addition, the spells and powers of the book are extremely varied in the comic books depending on the passages read and who is reading the passage. Freddy Krueger, in Freddy Vs. Jason Vs. Ash, was able to use the spells in the Necromonicon to bring himself to the physical world out of the dreaming world, physically alter Jason Voorhees so he had a great-

er intellegence, and make his own powers in the dreaming world powers he could use in the real world. Ash has used the book to open a wide range of portals throughout time and space,

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as well as write in the book itself to use it to change reality (in the Ashes 2 Ashes series). The book has been shown to have a detailed history of its interactions with the line of Chosen Ones who are called to protect the world against the evil of the book.

In the stories of the video game, depending on the game, the book, or its pages, serve often as

When a book comes wrapped in black plastic and barbed wire, it's probably a sign that its contents aren't safe to read. Unfortunately, the cast of Fede Alvarez's Evil Dead remake are cursed with more curiosity than sense, and thus, another group of young innocents falls victim to the dreaded Necronomicon - a mythical book of demonic power.

sources of different powers for Ash and also as cheap transportation. He is able, in the Fistful Of Boomstick game, to use pages to possess various types of Deadites, become super strong, summon lightning, and travel through time.

Legend has it that the Necronomicon was penned by a mad Arabian poet named Abdul Alhazred after a decade spent roaming the ruined cities of Babylon and Memphis.

Having completed what he called the Al Azif, Alhazred descended further into insanity, before either disappearing or being devoured by an invisible monster, depending on whose account you believe. Thereafter, this unholy manuscript was translated into Greek by scholars in the 10th century, burned in the middle

LOVECRAFT TO EVIL DEAD With the Evil Dead remake on the way, Ryan looks back over the unholy history of its forbidden volume, the Necronomicon...

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ages, before the last few remaining copies disappeared into dusty libraries, only to be discovered in the modern age by an ill-starred few.

Actually, the Necronomicon has a much shorter history than its true creator HP Lovecraft had his readers believe. Although inspired by real texts, such as the Egyptian Book of the Dead, the Necronomicon was a product of Lovecraft's fertile imagination, and mention of it first appeared in the short story The Hound, first published in 1924. The tale told of two grave robbers doomed by their

theft of a jade amulet, which they recognised as " the thing hinted of in the forbidden Necronomicon of the mad Arab Abdul Alhazred."Â Lovecraft was apparently unhappy with The Hound, but both it and The Nameless City, published in 1921, marked the beginning of the author's endeavours to set his stories in one coherent universe. This Cthulhu Mythos, as it later became known, suggested that ancient, god-like beings once ruled the Earth, and could return to either destroy us or drive us all insane by anyone foolish enough to reawaken them. The Necronomicon

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tied directly into this mythos, since it was said to contain a lengthy account of the extra-terrestrial Old Ones, and to merely look upon its pages would be enough to inspire madness.

This attempt to build a coherent world, with its own history, deities and forbidden texts, gave Lovecraft's work a wonderful sense of the unknown, providing sci-fi and horror literature with the kind of rich storytelling Tolkien would later bring to fantasy with his Middle Earth books.

The Necronomicon and its related mythology also inspired a number of writers in Lovecraft's circle, and its name is mentioned in the works of such authors as August Derleth (who tinkered greatly with the Cthulhu Mythos in his stories) and Clark Ashton Smith. In what became a lively exchange of ideas, this little coterie of storytellers constantly embroidered on Lovecraft's myths in their own tales; Smith came up with The Book of Eibon for his stories, which Lovecraft readily mentioned in his own work. Robert Bloch, who would later write Psycho, came up with De Vermis Mysteriis, a book whose pages are potent enough to summon forth demonic beings from another dimension. This, too, was worked into Lovecraft's stories, including The Haunter Of The Dark and The Shadow Out Of Time.

Lovecraft often talked about the Necronomicon in his letters - which rambled on about everything from Roman history to literature to his incurably sweet tooth - where he suggested that his inspiration for

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the book came from Gothic writing, which often featured ancient

texts and forbidden literature.

It's certainly easy to draw a line between the Victorian Gothic writings of Edgar Allan Poe (of whom Lovecraft was an open admirer) and the Necronomicon. Poe would go to great lengths to convince his readers that his tales were genuine, and his 1844 story The Balloon-Hoax was initially published as a genuine news story in New York's The Sun newspaper. Although Lovecraft was never quite that mischievous, his constant references to both real works of academia and nonexistent books like the Necronomicon helped to blur the lines between fiction and reality - just as found-footage movies do in modern horror cinema.

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When Lovecraft died in 1937, he was still largely unknown, except to the devoted readers of the pulp fiction magazines which published his stories. It was only in the decades after his death that his fiction was published in book form, and thus became more widely read. And as Lovecraft's fame grew, so too did the strange influence of the Necronomicon.

Numerous authors, including such famous names Neil Gaiman and Stephen King have championed Lovecraft's stories, and written elements of his mythos into their own tales. The Swiss artist HR Giger was so taken by Lovecraft that he called a 1977 collection of his erotic, occult art Necronomicon. This book - and in particular the illustration titled Necronom IV - would lead to Giger designing the Starbeast for Ridley Scott's Alien (1979).

Sam Raimi's horror classic, The Evil Dead (1981) was clear-

ly influenced by Lovecraft's work.

Although the author would probably have balked at the thought of writing about five teenagers in a woodland cabin (his stories more

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commonly revolved around scientists or other educated types), the tape recording of a long-dead professor is a first-person narrative straight out of a Lovecraft tale: Here I continued my research undisturbed by the myriad distractions of modern civilization and far from the groves of academe. I believe I have made a significant find in the Candarian Ruins. A volume of Ancient Sumarian burial practices and funerary incantations. It is entitled Naturom Demonto - roughly translated, "Book of the Dead".

According to The Evil Dead, the Necronomicon is bound in human skin, its pages written in human blood.

Lovecraft always danced around the specifics of the Necronomicon's appearance, but the fact that it could be found on the shelves of the British Museum or the fictional Miskatonic University in Arkham suggests that Lovecraft probably didn't have roughly-stitched human dermis in mind. Nevertheless, the tome in The Evil Dead behaves in a singularly Lovecraftian manner, with the recital of its text summoning forth an ancient horror. The Necronomicon (or designer Tom Sullivan's version of it) was a key plot point in the Evil Dead films, with the first film even called Book Of The Dead at one point. The volume makes an extended appearance in the third film, Army Of Darkness (1992), where it takes on a mischievous life of its own. The book returns, of course, in this year's Evil Dead remake, its pages filled with hideous engravings

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and hurriedly-etched obscenities.

Just as the Necronomicon turned up time and again in Lovecraft's stories, so the cursed volume continues to lurk on the peripheries of modern culture. A Brian Yuzna-produced collection of short horror film was released as Necronomicon in 1993, in which Jeffrey Combs plays Lovecraft, whose discovery of the dreaded volume leads to some predictably grisly deaths. Books have been published under its name (including The Simon Necronomicon, published in 1977, and 2004's Necronomicon: The Wanderings Of Alhazred by Donald Tyson), and it's regularly referenced or alluded to, along with the rest of the Cthulhu mythos, in movies, games and television.

Certain special editions of the Evil Dead films even come in a handsomely-modelled rubber facsimile of the book, complete with hollow eye sockets and mouldering teeth. And with the possibility that Sam Raimi may be planning a second Army Of Darkness movie, it's likely that the Necronomicon will continue to wreck havoc for many years to come.

As Abdul Alhazred wrote himself, "That is not dead which can eternal lie..."

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EGYPTIAN FUNERAL CEREMONIES. In illustration of the ceremonies which accompanied the burial of the dead the readter will find extracts from different texts printed in the Appendix on p. 264 ff. To these may be added an extract from the curious ritual which was in vogue in the Vth and VIth dynasties, and which commemorated the ceremonies

which were performed for the god Osiris. It is to be noticed how closely the deceased is identified with Osiris, the type of incorruptibility.

Osiris takes upon himself “all that

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BOOK PLATE I. Vignette: The scribe Ani, standing with hands raised in adoration before a table of offerings consisting of haunches of beef, loaves of bread and cake, vases of wine and oil, fruits, lotus, and other flowers.

He wears a fringed white and saffron-coloured linen garment; and has a wig, necklace, and bracelets. Behind him stands his wife “Osiris, the lady of the house, the lady of the choir of Amen, Thuthu,” similarly robed and holding a sistrum and a vine (?)branch in her right hand, and amenat in her left.

2. The menat, which is often called “the counterpoise of a collar,” consists of a disk, with a handle attached, and a cord. It was an object which was usually offered to the gods, with the sistrum; it was presented to guests at a feast by their host; and it was held by priestesses at religious festivals.

It was either worn on

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the neck or carried in the left hand; and it was an emblem which brought joy to the bearer.

Interesting examples of the pendent menat in the British Museum are No. 17,166, inscribed, “Beautiful god, lord of the two lands, maker of things, King of the North and South, Khnemab-Ra, son of the Sun, Aahmes (Amasis), beloved of Hathor, lady of sycamore trees”; and No. 13,950 in faïence; and Nos. 8172, 8173, and 20,607 in hard stone.

No. 18,108 is the disk of a menat in faïence, inscribed, Hathor, lady of the town of Anitha.”

No. 20,760 is a disk and handle in bronze, the disk having, in hollow work, the figure of a cow, sacred to Hathor, and the handle, the upper part of which is in the form of the head of Hathor, having a sistrum.

On the one side is the prenomen of Amenophis III. and on the other is Hathor, lady of the sycamore.” The meaning and use of the menat is discussed by Lefébure in Le Menat et le Nom de l’eunuque (Proc. Soc. Bibl.

Arch., 1891, pp. 333-349).

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is hateful” in the dead : that is, he adopts the burden of his sins; and the dead is purified by the typical sprinkling of water. While the gods are only accompanied by their ka’s, the deceased, in right of his identification

with a higher power, is accompanied by his Tet also, that is, by his Osiris.

Throughout the ceremony, the Eye of Horus, which is represented by various substances, plays a prominent part, for it is that which gives vigour to the heart of the dead and leads him to the god. That portion of the ceremony which was believed to procure the unlocking of the jaws 21

and the opening of the mouth of the deceased, or of the statue which sometimes represented him, was performed after the purification by water and incense had been effected; and hereby was he enabled to partake of the meat and drink offerings, wherein the friends and relatives also participated, in order that they might cement and seal their mystic unity with the dead and with the god with whom he was identified.

Certain formulae were directed to be repeated four times: a direction which takes us back to the time when

the Egyptians first divided the world into four parts, each corresponding 22

* A duplicate is in the Louvre; see Perrot and Chipiez, Histoire de l’Art, l’Égypte,

A HYMN OF PRAISE TO RA WHEN HE RISETH IN THE EASTERN PART OF HEAVEN. Behold Osiris Ani the scribe who recordeth the holy offerings of all the gods, (2) who saith: “Homage to thee, O thou who hast come as Khepera,[2] Khepera, the creator of the gods. Thou risest, thou shinest, (3) making bright thy mother [Nut], crowned king of the gods. [Thy] mother Nut doeth homage unto thee with both her hands.

(4) The land of Manu[4] receiveth thee with content, and the goddess Maat[5] embraceth thee at the two seasons. May he give splendour, and power, and triumph, and (5) a coming-forth [i.e., resurrection] as a living soul to see Horus of the two horizons[6] to the [1. The numbers in parentheses indicate the lines of the papyrus.

2. The god Khepera is usually represented

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to one of the four pillars which held up the sky, that is to say, to one of the four cardinal points, East,

South, West, and North, presided over by a special god. The deceased sought to obtain the assistance of each of the four gods of the cardinal points, and to have the right to roam about in his district; hence the formula was repeated four times.

Originally four animals or four geese were sacrificed, one to each god, 24

with a beetle for a head; and the scarab, or beetle, was sacred to him. The name means “to become, to turn, to roll,” and the abstract noun kheperu may be rendered by “becomings,” or “evolutions.”

The god was self-created, and was the father of all the other gods; men and women sprang from the tears which fell from his eyes; and the animal and vegetable worlds owed their existence to him. Khepera is a phase of Tmu, the night-sun, at the twelfth hour of the night, when he “becomes” the rising sun or Harmachis (i.e., Horus in the horizon).

He is also described as “ Khepera in the morning, Ra at mid-day, and Tmu in the evening.” See Lanzone, Dizionario, p. 927 ff.; Grébaut, Hymne à Ammon-Ra, , pp. 74, 75; Lefébure, Traduction Comparée des Hymnes au Soleil, p. 39; De Rougé, Inscription d’Ahmés, p. 110; Archaeologia, vol. 52, p. 541 ff.; Wiedemann, Die Religion der Alten Aegypter, p. 17; Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, p. 245, etc.

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3. The goddess Nut represented the sky, and perhaps also the exact place where the sun rose. She was the wife of Seb, the Earth-god, and gave birth to Isis, Osiris, and other gods.

One of her commonest titles is “mother of the gods.” She is depicted as a woman bearing a vase upon her head, and sometimes wears the disk and horns usually characteristic of Isis and Hathor.

She was the daughter and mother of Ra. See Lanzone, Dizionario, p.

392; Pierret, Panthéon, pp. 34, 36; Brugsch, Religion und Mythologie, pp. 603-610.

4. Manu is the name given to the mountains on the western bank

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but subsequently East and North, and West and South were paired,

and two bulls (or birds) only were sacrificed, one of which was called the Bull of the North, and the other the Bull of the South. The custom of four-fold repetition continued to the Ptolemaïc times and even later.

The priest whose official title was kher heb, recited the prayers, and the sem or setem priest presented the prescribed offerings. The rubrical directions are given on the margin for the sake of clearness.

“O Osiris, all that is hateful in Unas hath been brought unto thee, and all the evil words which have

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been spoken in his name. Come, O Thoth, and take them unto Osiris, bring all the evil words which have been spoken and place them in the hollow of thy hand; thou shalt not escape therefrom, thou shalt not escape therefrom. Whosoever marcheth, marcheth with his ka. Horus marcheth with his ka, Set marcheth with his ka, Thoth marcheth with his ka, Sep marcheth with his ka, Osiris marcheth with his ka, Khent-

maati marcheth with his ka; and thy tet shall march with thy ka. Hail, Unas, the hand of thy ka is before thee. Hail, Unas, the hand of thy ka is behind thee. Hail, Unas, the leg of thy ka is before thee. Hail, Unas, the leg of thy ka is behind thee. Osiris 26

of the Nile, opposite Thebes, wherein was situated tu Manu, “the mountain of Manu,” the chief site of rock-hewn tombs. See Brugsch, Dict. Géog., p. 259.

5. Maat, “daughter of the Sun, and queen of the gods,” is the personification of righteousness and truth and justice. In many papyri she is represented as leading the deceased into the Hall of Double Maat, where his heart is to be weighed against her emblem.

She usually wears the feather, emblematic of Truth, and is called the “lady of heaven”: see Lanzone, Dizionario, p.

276 (and tav. 109, where the twin-goddesses Maat are shown); Pierret, Panthéon, p. 2011. She is sometimes represented blind-fold: see Wiedemann, Religion der alten Aegypter, p.

78. For figures of the goddess in bronze and stone, see Nos. 380, 383, 386, II, 109, and II, 114 in the British Museum.

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Unas, I have given unto thee the Eye of Horus, and thy face is filled therewith, and the perfume thereof spreadeth over thee. The libations which are poured out by thy son, which are poured out by Horus, are for thee, O Osiris, and they are for thee O Unas. I have come, and I have brought unto thee the Eye of Horus that thou mayest refresh thy heart therewith, I have placed it beneath thy feet, and I give unto thee whatsoever hath come forth from thy body that thy heart may not cease to beat through [the want] thereof. Thy voice shall never depart from thee, thy voice shall never depart from thee.

THE EGYPTIANS’ IDEAS OF GOD, THE WORD NETER AND ITS MEANING. To the great and supreme power which made the earth, the heavens, the sea, the sky, men and women, animals, birds, and creeping things, all that is and all that shall be, the Egyptians gave the name neter. This word survives in the Coptic , but both in the ancient language and in its younger relative the exact meaning of the word is lost. M. Pierret,following de RougÊ, connects it with the word 28

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and says that it means “renovation” (renouvellement), but Brugsch renders it by “göttlich,” “heilig,” “divin,” “sacré,” and by three Arabic words which mean “divine,” “sacred or set apart,” and “holy” respectively. By a quotation from the stele of Canopus he shows that in Ptolemaic times it meant “holy” or “sacred” when applied to the animals of the gods.

Mr. Renouf says that “the notion

expressed by nutar as a noun, and nutra as an adjective or verb, must be sought in the Coptic, which in the translation of the Bible corresponds to the Greek words ‘power,’ ‘force,’ ‘strong,’ ‘fortify,’ ‘protect,’” and he goes on to show that the word neter means “strong” or “mighty.” M. Maspero, however, thinks that the Coptic nomti has nothing in common TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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with meter, the Egyptian word for God, and that the passages quoted

by Mr. Renouf in support of his theory can be otherwise explained.

His own opinion is that the signification “strong,” if it ever existed, is a derived and not an original meaning, and he believes that the word is so old that its first sense is unknown to us. The fact that the Coptic translators of the Bible used the word nouti to express the name of the Supreme Being shows that no other word conveyed to their minds their conception of Him, and supports M. Maspero’s views on this point. Another definition of the word given by Brugsch makes it to mean “the active power which produces and creates things in regular recurrence; which bestows new life upon them, and gives back to them their youthful vigour,” and he adds that the innate conception of the word completely covers the original meaning of the Greek {Greek fu’sis} and the Latin natura.

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NECROMANCY Necromancy is defined as the conjuring of the spirits of the dead for purposes of magically revealing the future or influencing the course of events. In the Bible, necromancy is also called “divination,” “sorcery” and “spiritism” and is forbidden many times in Scripture (Leviticus 19:26; Deuteronomy 18:10; Galatians 5:1920; Acts 19:19) as an abomination to God. It is something that the Lord speaks very strongly against and is to be avoided as much as any evil. The reason for this is twofold.

First, necromancy is going to involve demons and opens the one who practices it to demonic attack. Satan and his demons seek to destroy us, not to impart to us truth or wisdom. We are told that our “enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Second, necromancy does not rely on the Lord for

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information, the Lord who promises to freely give wisdom to all who ask for it (James 1:5).

This is especially telling because the Lord always wants to lead us to truth and life, but demons always want to lead us to lies and serious damage.

The idea that dead people’s spirits can be contacted for information is false. Those who attempt such contact inevitably contact demonic spirits, not the spirits of dead loved ones. Those who die go immediately to heaven or hell—heaven if they believed in Jesus as Savior, and hell if they

did not. There is no contact between the dead and the living.

Therefore, seeking the dead is unnecessary and very dangerous.

Necromancy is a form of magic involving communication with the deceased – either by summoning their spirit as an apparition or raising them bodily – for the purpose of divination, imparting the means to foretell future events or discover hidden knowledge. The term may sometimes be used in a more general sense to refer to black magic or witchcraft.

The word "necromancy" is adapted from Late Latin necromantia, itself borrowed from post-Classical Greek (nekromanteía), a compound of Ancient Greek (nekrós), "dead body", and (manteía), "prophecy or divination"; this compound form was first used by Origen of Alexandria in the 3rd century CE. The Classical Greek term

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was (nekyia), from the episode of the Odyssey in which Odysseus visits the realm of the dead, in Hellenistic Greek, rendered as necyomanta in Latin, and as necyomancy in 17th-century English.

Necromancy in pagan countries Along with other forms of divination and magic, necromancy is found in every nation of antiquity, and is a practice common to paganism at all times and in all countries, but nothing certain can be said as to the place of its origin. Strabo (Geogr., XVI, ii, 39) says that it was the characteristic form of divination among the Persians.

It was also found in Chaldea, Babylonia and Etruria (Clemens Alex., “Protrepticum”, II,

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in Migne, P.G., VIII, 69; Theodoret, “Græcarum affectionum curatlo”, X, in P.G., LXXXIII, 1076).

Isaias (19:3) refers to its practice in Egypt, and Moses (Deuteronomy 18:9-12) warns the Israelites against imitating the Chanaanite abominations, among which seeking the truth from the dead is mentioned. In Greece and Rome the evocation of the dead took place especially in caverns, or in volcanic regions, or near rivers and lakes, where the communication with the abodes of the dead was thought to be easier. Among these, nekromanteia, psychomanteia, or

near the River Acheron, which was supposed to be one of the rivers of hell, another in Laconia near the promontory of Tænarus, in a large and deep cavern from which a black and unwholesome vapour issued, and which was considered as one of the entrances of hell, others at Aornos in Epirus and Heraclea on the Propontis. In Italy the oracle of Cumæ, in a cavern near Lake Avernus in Campania, was one of the most famous.

The oldest mention of necromancy is the narrative of Ulysses’ voyage to Hades (Odyssey, XI) and of his evocation of souls by

psychopompeia, the most celebrated were the oracle in Thesprotia

means of the various rites indicated by Circe.

It is noteworthy that, in

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this instance, although Ulysses’ purpose was to consult the shade of Tiresias, he seems unable to evoke it alone;

regions. But here there is no true evocation, and the hero himself goes through the abodes of the souls. Besides these

a number of others also appear, together or successively. As parallel to this passage of Homer may be mentioned the sixth book of Virgil’s Æneid, which relates the descent of Æneas into the infernal

poetical and mythological narratives, several instances of necromantic practices are recorded by historians. At Cape Tænarus Callondas evoked the soul of Archilochus, whom he had killed (Plutarch, “De

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sera numinis vindicta”, xvii). Periander tyrant of Corinth, and one of the seven wise men of Greece, sent messengers to the oracle on the River Acheron to ask his dead wife, Melissa, in what place she had laid a stranger’s deposit. Her phantom appeared twice and, at the second appearance, gave the required information (Herodotus, V, xcii). Pausanias, King of Sparta, had killed Cleonice, whom he had mistaken for an enemy during the night, and in consequence he could find neither rest nor peace, but his mind was filled with strange fears. After trying many purifications and expiations, he went to the psychopompeion of Phigalia, or Heraclea, evoked her soul, and received the assurance that his dreams and fears would cease as soon as he should have returned to Sparta. Upon his arrival there he died (Pausanias III, xvii, 8, 9; Plutarch, “De sera num. vind.”, x; “Vita Cimonis”, vi). After his death, the Spartans sent to Italy for psychagogues to evoke

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and appease his manes (Plutarch, “Desera num. vind.”, xvii). Necromancy is mixed with oneiromancy in the case of Elysius of Terina in Italy, who desired to know if his son’s sudden death was due to poisoning. He went to the oracle of the dead and, while sleeping in the temple, had a vision of both his father and his son who gave him the desired information (Plutarch, “Consolatio ad Apollonium”, xiv).

Among the Romans, Horace several times alludes to the evocation of the dead (see especially Satires, I, viii, 25 sq.). Cicero testifies that his friend Appius practised necromancy (Tuscul. quæst., I, xvi), and that Vatinius called up souls from the netherworld (in Vatin., vi).

The same is asserted of the Emperors Drusus (Tacitus, “Annal.”, II, xxviii), Nero (Suetonius, “Nero”, xxxiv; Pliny, “Hist. nat.”, XXX, v), and Caracalla (Dio Cassius, LXXVII, xv). The grammarian Apion pretended to have conjured up the soul of Homer, whose country and parents

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he wished to ascertain (Pliny, “Hist. nat.”, XXX, vi) and Sextus Pompeius consulted the famous Thessalian magician Erichto to learn from the dead the issue of the struggle between his father and Cæsar (Lucan, “Pharsalia”, VI).

Nothing certain can be said concerning the rites or incantations which were used; they seem to

many incantations, and speaks of warm blood poured into the veins of a corpse as if to restore it to life. Cicero (In Vatin., VI) relates that Vatinius, in connexion with the evocation of the dead, offered to the manes the entrails of children, and St. Gregory Nazianzen mentions that boys and virgins were sacrificed and dissected for conjuring up the dead and divining (Orat. I contra Julianum, xcii, in P.G., XXV 624).

Necromancy in the Bible

have been very complex, and to have varied in almost every instance.

In the Odyssey, Ulysses digs a trench, pours libations around it, and sacrifices black sheep whose blood the shades drink before speaking to him. Lucan (Pharsalia, VI) describes at length

In the Bible necromancy is mentioned chiefly in order to forbid it or to reprove those who have recourse to it.

The Hebrew term ‘ôbôth (sing., ‘ôbh) denotes primarily the spirits of the dead, or “pythons”, as the Vulgate calls them (Deuteronomy 18:11; Isaiah 19:3), who were consulted in order to learn the future (Deuteronomy 18:10, 11; 1 Samuel 28:8), and gave their answers through certain persons in whom they resided (Leviticus 20:27; 1 Samuel 28:7),

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but is also applied to the persons themselves who were supposed to foretell events under the guidance of these “divining” or “pythonic” spirits (Leviticus 20:6; 1 Samuel 28:3, 9; Isaiah 19:3). The term yidde ‘onim (from yada, “to know”), which is also used, but always in conjunction with ‘obôth, refers either to knowing spirits and persons through whom they spoke, or to spirits who were known and familiar to the wizards. The term ‘obh signifies both “a diviner” and “a leathern bag for holding water” (Job — xxxii, 19 — uses it in the latter sense), but scholars are not agreed whether we have two disparate words, or whether it is the same word with two related meanings. Many maintain that it is the same in both instances as the diviner was supposed to be the recipient and the container of the spirit.

The Septuagint translates ‘obôth, as diviners, by “ventriloquists” (eggastrimthouoi), either because the translators thought that the diviner’s alleged communication with the spirit was but

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a deception, or rather because of the belief common in antiquity that ventriloquism was not a natural faculty, but due to the presence of a spirit. Perhaps, also, the two meanings may be connected on account of the peculiarity of the voice of the ventriloquist, which was weak and indistinct, as if it came from a cavity.

Isaias (8:19) says that necromancers “mutter” and makes the following prediction concerning Jerusalem: “Thou shalt speak out of the earth, and thy speech shall be heard out of the ground, and thy voice shall be from the earth like that of the python and out of the ground thy speech shall mutter” (xxix, 4).

Profane authors also

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attribute a distinctive sound to the voice of the spirits or shades, although they do not agree in characterizing it. Homer (Iliad, XXIII, 101; Od., XXIV, 5, 9) uses the verb trizein, and Statius (Thebais, VII, 770) stridere, both of which mean “to utter a shrill cry”; Horace qualifies their voice as triste et acutum (Sat., I, viii, 40); Virgil speaks of their vox exigua (Æneid, VI, 492) and of the gemitus lacrymabilis which is heard from the grave (op. cit., III, 39); and in a similar way Shakespeare says that “the sheeted dead did squeak and gibber in the Roman streets” (Hamlet, I, i).

The Mosaic Law forbids necromancy (Leviticus 19:31; 20:6), declares that to seek the truth from the dead is abhorred

by God (Deuteronomy 18:11, 12), and even makes it punishable by death (Leviticus 20:27; cf. 1 Samuel 28:9).

Nevertheless, owing especially to the contact of the Hebrews with pagan nations, we find it practised in the time of Saul (1 Samuel 28:7, 9),

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of Isaias, who strongly reproves the Hebrews on this ground (8:19; 19:3; 29:4, etc.), and

of Manasses (2 Kings 21:6; 2 Chronicles 33:6).

The best known case of necromancy in the Bible is the evocation of the soul of Samuel at Endor (1 Samuel 28). King Saul was at war with the Philistines, whose army had gathered near that of Israel. He “was afraid and his heart was very much dismayed. And he consulted the Lord, and he answered him not, neither by dreams, nor by priests, nor by prophets” (5, 6). Then he went to Endor, to a woman who had “a divining spirit”, and persuaded her to

call the soul of Samuel.

The woman alone saw the prophet, and Saul recognized him from the description she gave of him. But Saul himself spoke and heard the prediction that, as the Lord had abandoned him on account of his disobedience, he would be defeated and killed.

This narrative has given rise to several interpretations. Some deny the reality of the apparition and claim that the witch deceived Saul; thus St. Jerome (In Is., iii, vii, 11, in P.L., XXIV, 108; in Ezech., xiii, 17, in P.L., XXV, 119) and Theodoret,

who, however, adds that the prophecy came from God (In I Reg., xxviii, QQ.

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LXIII, LXIV, in P.G., LXXX, 589). Others attribute it to the devil, who took Samuel’s appearance; thus St. Basil (In Is., viii, 218, in P.G., XXX, 497), St. Gregory of Nyssa (“De pythonissa, ad Theodos, episc. epist.”, in P.G., XLV, 107-14), and Tertullian (De anima, LVII, in P.L., II, 794).

having held the others (De diversis quæst. ad Simplicianum, III, in P.L., XL, 142-44; De octo Dulcitii quæst., VI, in P.L., XL, 162-65; De cura pro mortuis, xv, in P.L., XL, 606; Christian Doctrine II.23). St. Thomas (Summa, II-II, Q. clxxiv, a. 5, ad 4 um) does not pronounce. The

Others, finally, look upon Samuel’s apparition as real; thus Josephus (Antiq. Jud., VI, xiv, 2), St. Justin (Dialogus cum Tryphone Judæo, 105, in P.G., VI, 721), Origen (In I Reg., xxviii, “De Engastrimytho”, in P.G., XII, 1011-1028), St. Ambrose (In Luc., i, 33, in P.L., XV, 1547), and St. Augustine, who finally adopted this view after

last interpretation of the reality of Samuel’s apparition is favoured both by the details of the narrative and by another Biblical text which convinced St. Augustine: “After this, he [Samuel] slept, and he made known to the king, and showed him the end of his life, and he lifted up his voice from the earth in prophecy to blot out

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the wickedness of the nation” (Ecclus., xlvi, 23).

Necromancy in the Christian era In the first centuries of the Christian era the practice of necromancy was common among pagans, as the Fathers frequently testify (see, e.g., Tertullian, “Apol.”, xxiii, P.L., I, 470; “De anima”, LVI, LVII, in P.L., II, 790 sqq.; Lactantius, “Divinæ institutiones”, IV, xxvii, in P.L., VI, 531). It was associated with other magical arts and other forms of demoniacal practices, and Christians were warned against such observances “in which the demons represent themselves as the souls of the dead” (Tertullian, De anima, LVII, in P.L., II, 793). Nevertheless, even Christians converted from paganism sometimes indulged in them. The efforts of Church authorities, popes, and councils, and the severe laws of Christian emperors, especially Constantine, Constantius, Valentinian, Valens, Theodosius, were not

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directed specifically against necromancy, but in general against pagan magic, divination, and superstition.

In fact, little by little the term necromancy lost its strict meaning and was applied to all forms of black art, becoming closely associated with alchemy, witchcraft, and magic. Notwithstanding all efforts, it survived in some form or other during the Middle Ages, but was given a new impetus at the time of the Renaissance by the revival of the neo-Platonic doctrine of demons.

In his memoirs (translated by Roscoe, New York, 1851, ch. xiii) Benvenuto Cellini shows how vague the meaning of necromancy had become when he relates that he assisted at “necromantic” evocations in which multitudes of “devils” appeared and answered his questions. Cornelius Agrippa (“De occulta philosophia”, Cologne, 1510, tr. by J. F., London, 1651) indicates the magical rites by which souls are evoked. In recent times, necromancy, as a distinct belief and practice, reappears

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under the name of spiritism, or spiritualism (see SPIRITISM).

The Church does not deny that, with a special permission of God, the souls of the departed

may appear to the living, and even manifest things unknown to the latter.

But, understood as the art or science of evoking the dead, necromancy is held by theologians to be due to the agency of evil spirits, for the means taken are inadequate to produce the expected results. In pretended evocations of the dead, there may be many things explainable naturally or due to fraud; how much is real, and how much must be

attributed to imagination and deception, cannot be determined, but real facts of necromancy, with the use of incantations and magical rites, are looked upon by theologians, after St.

Thomas, II-II, Q. xcv, aa. iii, iv, as special modes of divination, due to demoniacal intervention, and divination itself is a form of superstition.

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Anthropodermic bibliopegy The practice of binding books in human skin. Though extremely uncommon in modern times, the technique dates back to at least the 17th century. The practice is inextricably connected with the practice of tanning human skin, often done in certain circumstances after a corpse has been dissected.

The trend for anthropodermic bibliopegy likely began in the late 16th and early 17th centuries, although the first reputed example, a French Bible, dates back to the 13th century.

Surviving historical examples of this technique include anatomy texts bound with the skin of dissected cadavers, volumes created as a bequest

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and bound with the skin of the testator (known as "autoanthropodermic bibliopegy"), and copies of judicial proceedings bound in the skin of the murderer convicted in those proceedings, such as in the case of John Horwood in 1821 and the Red Barn Murder in 1828.

What has been called "the most famous of all anthropodermic bindings" resides at Boston Athenaeum, titled The Highwayman: Narrative of the Life of James Allen alias George Walton. It is by James Allen, who asked to have his memoir bound in his own skin and presented to a man he once tried to rob and admired for his bravery.

The libraries of many Ivy League universities include one or more samples of anthropodermic bibliopegy. The rare book collection at the Harvard Law School Library holds a book that was long believed to be bound in human skin, Practicarum quaestionum circa leges regias Hispaniae, a treatise on Spanish law, though testing on the binding has proven that it was bound in sheepskin. A faint inscription on the last page of the book states: The bynding of this booke is all that remains of my deare friende Jonas Wright, who was flayed alive by the Wavuma on the Fourth Day of August, 1632. King Btesa did give me the book, it being one of poore

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Jonas chiefe possessions, together with ample of his skin to bynd it. Requiescat in pace.

The John Hay Library's special books collection at Brown University contains three human-skin books, including a rare copy of De Humani Corporis Fabrica by Vesalius. The University of Pennsylvania medical school created a few human-skin books in the late 19th century.

The French astronomer Camille Flammarion's book Les terres du ciel (The Worlds of the Sky) (1877) was bound with the skin donated from a female admirer.

Some early copies of Dale Carnegie's Lincoln the Unknown were covered with jackets containing a patch of skin from an African American man, onto which the title had been embossed. A portion of the binding in the copy that is part of the collection of Temple University's Charles L. Blockson

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Collection was "taken from the skin of a Negro at a Baltimore Hospital and tanned by the Jewell Belting Company".

The National Library of Australia holds a book of 18th century poetry with the inscription "Bound in human skin" on the first page.

Another such book resides at the University of Georgia in the Richard B. Russell Special Collections Library.

Several anatomical volumes, including at least one belonging to and apparently prepared by the renowned anatomist Joseph Leidy (September 9, 1823 – April 30, 1891) are in the Mßtter Museum of the College of Physicians of Philadelphia. As of August 2012, these volumes and samples of human-skin leather were on public display.

Moyses Hall, at Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk, England, contains a book said to be bound in the skin of murderer William Corder.

There is also a tradition of certain volumes of erotica being bound in human skin.

Examples reported include a copy of the Marquis de Sade's Justine et Juliette bound in tanned skin from female breasts.

Other examples are known, with the feature of the intact human nipple on one or more of the boards of the book.

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MARDUK

THE BOOK OF FIFTY NAMES OF MARDUK DEFEATER OF THE ANCIENT ONES

combat, who defeated the Ancient Ones that the Elders may live and rule the Earth.

In the time before time, in the age before the heaven and the earth were put in their places, in the age when the Ancient Ones were rulers of all that existed and did not exist, there was nought but darkness. There was no Moon. There was no Sun. No planets were they, and no stars. No grain, No tree, no plant grew. The This is the Book of MARDUK, Ancient Ones were Masters of begotten of our Master ENKI, Spaces now unknown or forLord of Magicians, who did gotten, and all was CHAOS. defeat TIAMAT, known as KUR, MARDUK was chosen of the known as HUWAWA, in magick Elders to fight KUR and wrest power from the Great Sleeping Serpent who dwells beneath the Mountains of the Scorpion.

MARDUK was given a weapon, and a Sign, and Fifty Powers were given to him to fight the awful TIAMAT, and each Power has its weapon and its Sign and these are the mightiest possessions of the Elder Gods against the Ancient One who threatens Without, who threatens from the Abyss, the Lord of Darkness, the Master of CHAOS, the Unborn, the Uncreated, who TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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still wishes ill upon the Race of Men, and upon the Elder Gods who reside in the Stars.

The Gods forget. They are distant. They must be reminded. If they are not watchful, if the gatekeepers do not watch the gates, if the gates are not kept always locked, bolted and barred, then the One who is always ready, the Guardian of the Other side, IAK SAKKAK, will enter and bring with him the hordes of the armies of the Ancient Ones, IAK KINGU, IAK AZAG, IAK AZABUA, IAK HUWAWA, ISHNIGGARAB, IAK XASTUR, and IAK KUTULU, the Dog Gods and the Dragon Gods, and the Sea Monsters, and the Gods of the Deep.

Watch also the Days. The Day when the Great Bear hangs lowest in the sky, and the quarters of the year measured thereof in the four directions measured thereof, for there the Gates may be opened and care must needs be taken to ensure that the Gates remain forever closed. They must be sealed with the Elder Sign accompanied by the rites and incantations proper.

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The Fifty Names here follow, with their Signs and Powers.

They may be summoned after the Priest has ascended to that step on the Ladder of Lights and gained entrance to that Sacred City. The Signs should be engraved on parchment or sealed in clay and placed upon the altar at the Calling. And in the perfumes should be of cedar, and strong, sweet-smelling resins. And the Calling be to the North.

1. The First Name is MARDUK. The Lord of Lords, Master of Magicians. His name should not be called except when no other will do, and it is the most terrible responsibility to do so. The word of his calling is DUGGA. This, the first name of MARDUK, should only be used when life is threatened. It is not wise to use it on any other occasion, of flippantly in way. To do so would be to render the other seals and names worthless, for MARDUK would abandon you to your fate.

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2. The Second Name is MARUKKA. Knows all things since the beginning of the World.

Knows all secrets, be they human or divine, and is very difficult to summon. The Priest should not sumon him unless he is clean of heart and spirit, for this Spirit shall know his innermost thoughts.

This warning should, of course, be taken seriously.

Can be useful in an emergency situation when the knowledge of some secret thing is important to life or limb, but a time of purification should be observed at any rate after the Spirit is summoned.

There is no word for this spirit. It must be summoned by the force of your desire.

3. The Third Name is MARUTUKKU Master of the Arts of Protection, chained the Mad God at the Battle. Sealed the Ancient Ones in the Caves, behind the Gates.

Possesses the ARRA star.

To be used especially when performing any occult

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ceremony in which there is danger, such as the invocation of demonic forces. The ARRA star is a five-pointed Pentagram, and is the universal symbol of protection. Protects the soul as well as the body.

4. The Fourth Name is BARASHAKUSHU. Worker of Miracles. The kindest of the Fifty, and the most beneficent. The Word used at his Calling is BAALDURU. Can be used in hopeless cases, when it seems that the whole world is against you or a loved one. When despair reaches its lowest depth, and a coldness constricts your soul, call forcefully upon BARASHAKUSHU will all your might and hope and your prayer will be answered in ways you cannot imagine.

5. The Fifth Name is LUGGALDIMMERANKIA Puts order into CHAOS. Made the Waters aright.

Commander of Legions of Wind Demons who fought the Ancient TIAMAT alongside MARDUK KURIOUS. The word used at TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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his Calling is BANUTUKKU. This seal has proven useful when confusion has taken hold of the mind and no way can be seen to end the mess a life is in. To sharpen your perception of a problem and to discover a hidden answer, one you have constantly overlooked, call upon this spirit and a cloud will lift from your heart and mind and the solution to an important problem will reveal itself in all its simplicity.

6. The Sixth Name is NARILUGGALDIMMERANKIA The Watcher of the IGIGI and the ANNUNAKI. SubCommander of the Wind Demons. He will put to flight any maskim who haunt thee, and the foe of the rabisu.

None may pass into the World Above or the World Below without his knowledge. His word is BANRABISHU. A good Spirit for warding off feelings of aggravation and irritation, as well as the gnawing feelings of dread that sometimes come in the wee hours of the morning, when you feel lost and alone. Merely

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the pronunciation of the Word BANRABISHU at these times is sufficient to dispel most of these negative emotions.

To be said with force and strength in the four directions.

7. The Seventh Name is ASARULUDU. Wielder of the Flaming Sword, oversees the Race of Watchers at the bidding of the Elder Gods. He ensures the most perfect safety, especially in dangerous tasks undertaken at the behest of the Astral Gods, his Word is BANMASKIM. Like the Angel in Genesis, this Spirit protects a place, a home or temple, from negative psychic and magickal attacks. Like the Sixth Spirit, merely the pronunciation of his Word BANMASKIM is sufficient to dispel hostile influences when shouted to the four quarters. Maskim and Rabisu are the names of ancient Sumerian demons.

8. The Eighth Name is NAMTILLAKU. A most secret and potent Lord, he hath knowledge to TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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raise the dead and converse with the spirits of the Abyss, unbeknownst to their Queen.

No soul passes into Death but that he is aware. His word in BANUTUKUKUTUKKU. Similar to the Lord Yama of the Tibetans or Baron Samedi of the Voudoun cult, ths spirit has the power to see beyhond the veil that separates the living from the dead and can reveal secrets that have been carried to the grave.

9. The Ninth Name is NAMRU. Dispenses wisdom and knowledge in all things. Giveth excellent counsel and teaches the science of metals. His Word is BAKAKALAMU. One reader writes to us and says, “Although I am excellent in most of my subjects at (a college on the East Coast), I am a general failure at science. It was then that I got a copy of your NECRONOMICON and my eyes fell to the seal of NAMRU. I prayed the night before an important Chemistry midterm exam to NAMRU and carried his seal into the

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classroom. I passed a test I thought I would never get a 35 in with an astonishing 85.

Suddenly, it just seemed that I understood the subject for the first time in my life.�

10. The Tenth Name is ASARU. This Power has knowledge of all plants and trees, and can make marvellous fruits to grow in the desert places, and no land is a waste to him.

He is truly the Protector of the Bounty. His word is BAALPRIKU. The application of the powers of this Spirit is obvious. Can be used for a simple window box flower, or an entire farm, to protect against blight and drought, and to insure a bountiful harvest.

11. The Eleventh Name is ASARUALIM. Possesses secret wisdom, and shines Light in the Darkened areas, forcing what lives there to give good accounting of its existence and its knowledge. Gives excellent counsel in all things.

His word in BARRMARATU.

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For those who dabble in the necromantic arts, or who are involved with spiritualism, santeria, voodoo, macumba, or any of the other arts which head of communication with invisible spirits and gods, this Spirit is a tester and measurer of their truth. Can protect one from being deceived by negative or unruly spirits, or by those who seek to convince you that they are in communication with those forces when, in truth, they are not. When engraved in metal and worn on the person in the presence of deception, the metal has a tendency to get warm to the touch.

12. The Twelfth Name is ASARUALIMNUNNA. This is the power that presideth over armor of all kinds and is excellently knowledgeable in military matters, being of the advance army of MARDUK at that Battle.

He can provide an army with its entire weaponry in three days. His Word is BANATATU. An Auxiliary Police officer of our acquaintance goes nowhere on patrol without

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the seal of this spirit concealed on his clothing.

13. The Thirteenth Name is TUTU Silences the weeping and gives joy to the sad and ill at heart. A most beneficent Name, and Protector of the Household, his word is DIRRIGUGIM. Sadness can sometimes be a heavy burden and a negative emotion that eats away at our body and soul as surely as any disease. Quite often, only a change of perspective is needed to quell the soulﾃ不 tremblinhg. A kind word, a sympathetic ear, a knowling intelligence, the hand of friendship. Those who call on this spirit find an unspeakable peace descends on their souls and lightens their spirits so that they can return to the world of the living with a sense of rlief and renewed faith in themselves and the world.

Can be summoned to aid a friend in distress as well as to give yourself a much-needed sense of joy and well-being.

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14. The Fourteenth Name is ZIUKKINNA Giveth excellent knowledge concerning the movements of the stars and the meanings thereof, of which the Chaldeans possessed this same knowledge in abundance.

The Word is GIBBILANNU. An excellent patron Spirit for astrologers and astronomers, and a good aid for those who read the sacred TAROT as well. The psychic abilities of astrologers who use the ZIUKKINNA in their workings will become greatly expanded.

15. The Fifteenth Name is ZIKU This power bestoweth Riches of all kinds and can tell where treasure is hidden. Knower of the Secrets of the Earth. His Word is GIGGIMAGANPA. Although quite often scholars attribute metaphorical meanings to the powers said to be found in spiritual spellbooks, ZIKU has been known to work both ways, both literal and metaphorical. A reader who has used ZIKU before writes to tell us that after invoking

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him she discovered a ten dollar bill in the street. That was only the beginning, however.

She discovered that her attic contained a valuable stamp collection that she sold to an interested buyer the following week. A “hidden treasure”?

16. The Sixteenth Name is AGAKU. This Power can give live to what is already dead, but for a short time only. He is the Lord of the AMULET and the TALISMAN. His word is MASHGARZANNA. Some explanation is necessary to understand the full implications of AGAKU. The bestowing of life into dead objects is a specialty of those magicians who deal in TALISMANIC magick. In this ART, a drawing or engraving is made of some occult symbol that represents a goal to be achieved (to make an extreme case, drawing a dollar sign on a piece of paper to represent money or wealth). This ‘talisman’ must then be consecrated and given ‘life’, which is the life-force and True Will of the magician transmitted TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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to the Talisman. AGAKU can assist the budding magician by expediting this transfer of life-force to the talisman.

17. The Seventeenth Name is TUKU. Lord of Baneful Magick, Vanquisher of the Ancient Ones by Magick, giver of the Spell to MARDUK KURIOS, a most fierce enemy. His Word is MASHSHAMMASHTI. There are times when we feel that someone else may be praticing magick against us.

The feeling is hard to describe to anyone else, but we know it when it happens. If you are certain that magick is being used against you, that a spell has been cast or a curse sent in your direction, then the name and seal of this spirit will repel the evildoer as surely as if Archangel Michael had been summoned to rout Lucifer from Heaven. A most potent protection device.

18. The Eighteenth Name is SHAZU. Knows the thoughts of those at a distance, as well as those

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in the vicinity. Nothing is buried in the ground, or thrown into the water, but this Power is aware.

His Word is MASHSHANANNA. Can assist the magician in developing powers of telepathy and ESP, as well as the special abilities of divination (telling past and future, as well as present, events through the use of the Tarot cards, the I Ching, or any of the thousands of methods in use since time began.)

19. The Nineteenth Name is ZISI. Reconciler of enemies, silencer of arguments, between two people or between two nations, or even, it is said, between two worlds. The scent of Peace is indeed sweet to this Power, whose word is MASHINANNA. The function of this Spirit is obvious by the obove description. Can heal a lovers quarrel, a marital spat, a lawsuit, or even greater problems. The Fifty Names of MARDUK are from the original Battle that divided the universe into Good and Evil, and hence the forces they represent are primal and TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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hearken back to a time before recorded history, before the collective memory of humanity.

20. The Twentieth Name is SUHRIM. Seeks out the Worshippers of the Ancient Ones wherever they may be. The Priest who sends him on an errand does so at terrible risk, for SUHRIM kills easily, and without thought. His Word is MASSHANGERGAL. We will not comment on the above.

21. The Twenty-First Name is SUHGURIM. As SUHRIM before, the Foe who Cannot be Appeased.

Discovers the Priest’s Enemies with ease, but must be cautioned not to slay them if the Priest does not desire it. The Word is MASHSHADAR. Again, we refuse to comment except to say that to use either SUHRIM or SUHGURIM, as with ZAHRIM and ZAHGURIM below, is a dangerous act of perhaps questionable morality.

Magick was worked hard in this tradition.

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22. The Twenty-Second Name is ZAHRIM. Slew ten thousand of the Hordes in the Battle. A Warrior among Warriors. Can destroy and entire army if the Priest so desires. His Word is MASHSHAGARANNU. 23. The Twenty-Third Name is ZAHGURIM. As ZAHRIM, a most terrible opponent. It is said ZAHGURIM slays slowly, after a most unnatural fashion. I do not know, for I have never summoned this Spirit. It is thy risk.

The Word is MASHTISHADDU. Right.

24. The Twenty-Fourth Name is ENBILULU. This Power can seek out water in the midst of a desert or on the tops of mountains.

Knows the Secrets of Water and the running of rivers below the Earth. A most useful Spirit.

His Word is MASHSHANEBBU. For irrigation, drought, dowsing, “Most useful”.

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25. The Twenty-Fifth Name is EPADUN. This is the Lord of all Irrigation and can bring Water from a far place to your feet.

Possesses a most subtle geometry of the Earth and knowledge of all lands where Water might be found in abundance. His Word is EYUNGINAKANPA. The use of EPADUN is obvious by the preceding sentences. Water is fast becoming a scarce commodity in some areas of the earth, and dowsers are often called in to help locate sources of water under the ground. How much more powerful they could be with knowledge of the power of the NECRONOMICON and the Sumerian spirit called EPADUN. 26. The Twenty-Sixth Name is ENBILULUGUGAL. The Power that presides over all growth, and all that grows. Gives knowledge of cultivation, and can supply a starving city with food for thirteen moons in one moon. A most noble Power. His Word is AGGHA.

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Scientists predict a worldwide famine in twenty years.

27. The Twenty-Seventh Name is HEGAL. As the Power above, a Master of the arts of farming and agriculture. Bestows rich harvests. Possesses the knowledge of the metals of the earth, and of the plough.

His Word is BURDISHU. An accomplished mystic writes to us to say that another ability of this Spirit is in the realm of sexual reproduction in people as well, and asserts that HEGAL, can receal secrets concerning human sexuality and fertility, linking HEGAL with the Semitic Spirit HAGIEL, a Spirit of the planet Venus.

28. The Twenty-Eighth Name is SIRSIR. The Destroyer of TIAMAT, hated of the Ancient Ones, Master over the Serpent, Foe of KUTULU. A most powerful Lord. His Word is APIRIKUBABADAZUZUKANPA. A secret application of this Spirit concerns celibacy and the harnessing of the sexual TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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urge for greater magickal power, as is done in some Western and Eastern occult traditions.

29. The Twenty-Ninth Name is MALAH. Trod the back of the Worm and cut it in twain. Lord of Bravery and Courage, and gives these qualities to the Priest who desires it, or to others the Priest may decide. The Word is BACHACHADUGG. One of the prime characteristics of survivors is an inner sense of courage in the face of near impossible odds.

Quite often, all that stands between us and success is the courage to do the right thing.

Self-confidence does not come with being born. It must be learned. MALAH can help, The use of the seal and name acts withing days, some say within minutes, to instill an exhiliarating feeling of superiority.

One feels equal to any task, no matter how hard or forbidding.

30. The Thirtieth Name is GIL. The Furnisher of Seed.

The Beloved of ISHTAR, his Power is mysterious and quite

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ancient. Makes the barley to grown and the women to give birth. Makes potent the impotent. His Word is AGGABAL. 31. The Thirty-First Name is GILMA. Founder of cities, Possessor of the Knowledge of Architecture by which the fabled temples of UR were built; the creator of all that is permanent and never moves. His Word is AKABAL. Also reveals teh hidden structure in all things, from the tiniest molecule or atom to the solar system, galaxy, uiverse. Can show you the Pattern of any event or object, can reveal the love triangle as well as the golden triangle of the geometers. Aids students at the university as easily as the children in a kindergarten class studying the names for the colors.

32. The Thirty-Second Name is AGILMA. Bringer of Rain. Maketh the gentle Rains to come, or causeth great Storms and Thunders, the like may destroy TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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armies and cities and crops. His Word is MASHSHAYEGURRA. The supply of potable water is becoming an increasing problem in many countries. Many magicians have made their fortunes simply on the ability to provide rain to parched towns and farmland. Another Spirit whose usefulness will become more and more apparent as the next few years go by.

33. The Thirty-Third Name is ZULUM. Knows where to plant and when to plant. Giveth excellent counsel in all manner of business and commerce. Protects a man from evil tradesmen.

His word is ABBABAAL. Certainly a practical force, ZULUMÕs abilities range from aiding a person in the development of a green thumb to advising a person in the management of a multinational corporation. Can protect your store or home against conmen or frauds. Invoke daily whenever involved in a particularly sticky or important business deal with people you don’t particularly trust.

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34. The Thirty-Fourth Name is MUMMU. The Power given to MARDUK to fashion the universe from the flesh of TIAMAT. Giveth wisdom concerning the condition of life before the creation, and the nature of the stuctures of the Four Pillars whereupon the Heavens rest. His Word is ALALALABAAAL. Before there was Matter, according to certain mystics, there wasonly Energy.

This Spirit is summoned to impart knowledge of this divine and cosmic fire to the magickal aspirant.

35. The Thirty-Fifth Name is ZULUMMAR. Giveth tremendous strength, as of ten men, to one man. Lefted the part of TIAMAT that was to become the Sky from the part that was to become the Earth. His Word is ANNDARABAAL. Continued evocation of this Spirit over a period of several weeks will increase vitality and vigor in the weak and sickly.

It will add lustre to the health and strength of the strong.

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36. The Thirty-Sixth Name is LUGALABDUBUR. Destroyer of the Gods of TIAMAT. Vanquisher of Her Hordes. Chained KUTULU to the Abyss. Fought AZAGTHOTH with skill. A great Degender and a great Attacker.

His Word is AGNIBAAL. A Spirit to increase one’s sense of self, or confidence and self-assurance, by working on speeding up the reactions, mental and physical, that determine our behavior. Gives the agility of a fencer and the acuity of a chess-player. Also, generally good for defense against magickal attack.

37. The Thirty-Seventh Name is PAGALGUENNA. Possessor of Infinite Intelligence, and determines the nature of things not yet made, and of spirits not yet created, and knows the strength of the Gods.

Hos Word is ARRABABAAL. An arcane spirit, surely, who can reveal to you the wisdom of taking certain courses of action in your life or business or personal

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affairs. Can show you where a certain plan of action might lead you if followed through the way you have it set up.

38. The Thirty-Eighth Name is LUGALDURMAH. The Lord of Lofty Places, Watcher of the Skies and all that travels therein. Naught traverses the starry element, but that this Power is aware.

His Word is ARATAAGARBAL. Increases psychic awareness, even in those who claim they have no ESP. Trains the mind in picking up subconscious signals from others, forwarns of precognition. Good for astrologers and diviners, or to invoke before going to see a reader or astrologer to insure a true reading.

39. The Thirty-Ninth Name is ARANUNNA. Giver of Wisdom, Counselor to our Father, ENKI, Knower of the Magickal Covenant and of the Laws and of the Nature of the Gates. His Word is ARAMANNGI. The Magickal Covenant is descriptive of the uneasy TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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truce that exists between the forces of Good and Evil, or, if you will, the Ancient Ones and the Elder Gods, both alien life forms which somehow contributed to the birth of the human race and which now vie for superiority over us. The Gates refer to the process of self-initiation contained in the NECRONOMICON. This is a useful Spiritual Guide for those involved in any form of occult self-initiation, for ARANUNNA sometimes acts as a Teacher.

40. The Fortieth Name is DUMUDUKU. Possessor of the Wand of Lapis Lazuli, Knower of the Secret Name and the Secret Number. May not reveal these to thee, but may speak of other things, equally marvelous. His Word is ARATAGIGI. An awesome Force, difficult to summon. Of little practical use, it would seem, except that the ‘other things, equally marvellous can sometimes be quite useful! Not to be attempted until after you have mastered at least two or twelve of the others. Once

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summoned, DUMUDUKU is difficult to hold for very long.

41. The Forty-First Name is LUGALANNA. The Power of the Eldest of the Elder Ones, possesses the secret knowledge of the world when the Ancient Ones and the Elder Ones were One. Knows the Essence of the Ancient Ones and where it might be found. His Word is BALDIKHU. Increases your own power, especially your magick ability. Assists in finding your own True Will, a most necessary step in becoming proficient in all magick. Also has the uncanny ability to help you remember your past lives and other incarnation.

42. The Forty-Second Name is LUGALUGGA. Knows the Essence of all Spirits, of the Dead and the Unborn, and the Starry and Earthly, and the Spirits of the Air and the Spirits of the Wind as well. Which things he may tell thee, and thou wilt grow in wisdom. His Word is ZIDUR.

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Enables one to work magick with greater ease and speed, but also to divine the Truth in any given situation, to sense the reality behind the falsefronts of personal behavior in others, to know immediately when you are being deceived, or when others are deceiving themselves. For the magician, this Spirit gives excellent information concerning the art of Magick itself, and how the spirits may best be summoned.

43. The Forty-Third Name is IRKINGU This is the Power that laid capture to the Cammander of the forces of the Ancient Ones, KINGU, Mighty Demon, that MARDUK might lay hold of him and, with its blood, create the Race of Men and seal the Covenant.

His Word is BARERIMU. This Spirit can also give knowledge of past lives and incarnations, because it was there at the time of the creation of the human race, and knows of its origins through the Blood and how the Demon KINGU was captured. When invoking

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this Spirit, meditate for awhile quietly before you close the circle, looking meanwhile into a smooth polished surface like a mirror or a crystal ball, and various images will arise that will tell you what you wish to know.

44. The Forty-Fourth Name is KINMA. Judge and Lord of the Gods, at whose name they quake in fear. That the Gods may not err, this Power was given to oversee their activities, should they be lawful and within the nature of the Covenant, for the Gods are forgetful, and very far away. His Word is ENGAIGAL. When all else fails, when your prayers and invocations come to nothing, when it seems as though God has forgotten you and abandoned you to your fate, when the situation seems hopeless with no chance of improvement, call on KINMA with all your heart and mind and soul. Empty yourself of your fear and loneliness in his presence, and he will carry your message to the throne of the Gods themselves.

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45. The Forty-Fifth Name is ESIZKUR. This Spirit possesses the knowledge of the length and Life of any man, even unto the plants and the demons and the gods. He measureth all things, and knoweth the Space thereof. His Word is NENIGEGAL. About this spirit we may not speak. He can be invoked at your own discretion, should you find such information desirable or necessary. A word of advice, though, from someone experienced in these matters. Do not ask from ESIZKUR knowledge of your own length of life.

Unless you are prepared to deal with that information in a useful and productive way.

46. The Forty-Sixth Name is GIBIL. This Power has been given the Realm of the Fire and the Forge. He keepeth the sharp point of the Sword and the Lance, and giveth understanding in the working of metals. He also raises the Lightning that comes from the Earth, and maketh Swords to appear in the Sky.

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According to the esoteric teaching, this Spirit initiates the magician into the processes of self-knowledge, refining those base components of ourselves that remain secret even to us, or are revealed through the costly process of psychotherapy and analysis. Helps you to understand why you are the victim of passions and urges you cannot control, and how to eventually control them.

Worth the trouble involved to invoke for the serious student.

47. The Forty-Seventh Name is ADDU. Raises storms that fill the entire heavens and causes the Stars to tremble and the very Gates of the IGIGI to shake in their stead. Can fill the skies with his brightness, even in the darkest hour of the night.

His Word is KAKODAMMU. Sometimes it is too difficult to deal with a situation that involves a great many extenuating circumstances, the personal feelings of several people, which may be confused, for instance. The invocation of ADDU can dispel TRUTH MEETS FICTION

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the confusion and the troubled feelings and help clear the air in a quick and dramatic fashion. In extreme cases, ADDU can abruptly change the entire situation for the better by throwing a fast-moving random factor into the pattern that causes everything to change and dispel bad energy.

48. The Forty-Eighth Name is ASHARRU. Knower of the Treacherous Ways. Gives intelligence of the Future and also of things Past.

Put the Gods in their courses and determined their cycles.

His Word is BAXTANDABAL. Gives information, but does not act on commands.

An excellent Spirit to invoke before doing a card-reading or asking any question about the future. Has an uncanny way of getting to the heart of any matter put before him.

49. The Forty-Ninth Name is NEBIRU. This is the Spirit of the Gate of MARDUK. Manages all things in their ways, and moves the crossings

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of the stars after the fashion known to the Chaldeans.

His Word is DIRGIRGIRI. To be invoked when you feel a need for order and pattern in your life, or someone else’s. When a sense of security and safety is desired or needed, of comfort and well-being, and of peace.

50. The Fiftieth Name is NINNUAM. This is the Power of MARDUK as Lord of All That Is, Judger of Judgements, Decider of Decisions, He Who Determines the Laws and the Reign of Kings. He may not be called, save at the destruction of a city or the death of a king. His Word is GASHDIG. The Warning should be observed scrupulously. “King”, however, may be taken to mean also, besides heads of state and monarchs, corporation executives and religious leaders.

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STOOP NOT DOWN, THEREFORE, UNTO THE DARKLY SHINING WORLD WHERE THE ABSU LIES IN DARK WATERS AND CUTHALU SLEEPS AND DREAMS STOOP NOT DOWN, THEREFORE, FOR AN ABYSS LIES BENEATH THE WORLD REACHED BY A DESCENDING LADDER THAT HATH SEVEN STEPS REACHED BY A DESCENDING PATHWAY THAT HATH SEVEN GATES AND THEREIN IS ESTABLISHED 84

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THE THRONE OF AN EVIL AND FATAL FORCE. FOR FROM THE CAVITIES OF THE WORLD LEAPS FORTH THE EVIL DEMON THE EVIL GOD THE EVIL GENIUS THE EVIL ENSNARER THE EVIL PHANTOM THE EVIL DEVIL THE EVIL LARVAE SHOWING NO TRUE SIGNS UNTO MORTAL MAN.

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BLACK MAGIC Black magic has traditionally referred to the use of supernatural powers or magic for evil and selfish purposes. With respect to the left-hand path and right-hand path dichotomy, black magic is the malicious counterpart of benevolent white magic. In modern times, some find that the definition of “black magic” has been convoluted by people

who define magic or ritualistic practices that they disapprove of as “black magic”.

Like its counterpart white magic, the origins of black magic can be traced to the primitive, ritualistic worship of spirits as outlined in Robert M. Place’s 2009 book, Magic and Alchemy. Unlike white magic, in which Place sees parallels with primitive shamanistic efforts to achieve closeness with spiritual beings, the rituals that developed into modern “black magic” were designed to invoke those same spirits to produce beneficial outcomes for the practitioner. Place also

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provides a broad modern definition of both black and white magic, preferring instead to refer to them as “high magic” (white) and “low magic” (black) based primarily on intentions of the practitioner employing them.

He acknowledges, though, that this broader definition (of “high” and “low”) suffers from prejudices as good-intentioned folk magic may be considered “low” while ceremonial magic involving expensive or exclusive components may be considered by some as “high magic”, regardless of intent.

During the Renaissance, many magical practices and rituals were considered evil or irreligious and by extension, “black

magic” in the broad sense. Witchcraft and non-mainstream esoteric study were prohibited and targeted by the Inquisition. As a result, natural magic developed as a way for thinkers and intellectuals, like Marsilio Ficino, abbot Johannes Trithemius and Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa, to advance esoteric and ritualistic study (though still often in secret) without significant persecution.

While “natural magic” became popular among the educated and upper classes of the 16th and 17th century, ritualistic magic

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and folk magic remained subject to persecution. 20th century author Montague Summers generally rejects the definitions of “white”

and “black” magic as “contradictory”, though he highlights the extent to which magic in general, regardless of intent, was considered “dark” or “black” and cites William Perkins posthumous 1608 instructions in that regard: All witches “convicted by the Magistrate” should be executed. He allows no exception and under this condemnation fall “all Diviners, Charmers, Jugglers, all Wizards, commonly called wise men or wise women”.

All those purported “good Witches which do not hurt but good, which do not spoil and destroy, but save and deliver” should come under the extreme sentence.

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DEMONOLOGY The first demon was created by Lucifer, an archangel, after God banished him from Heaven for refusing to revere humans. In revenge, he took a human woman - Lilith - and stripped away her humanity to make her the first demon. For this offense, God commanded

Michael to imprison Lucifer in a cage in Hell.

Demons have a belief system analogous to humans, according to the demon Casey, but while humans believe in God as their higher power, demons view Lucifer as theirs. No demon had ever actually seen Lucifer according to Casey, at least until that point in the show’s progression. If this

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is true, it would mean Lilith was turned into a demon without seeing her maker.

All demons were once originally humans, who become demonic when tortured in Hell until their humanity is lost. Prior to becoming demons, it is unclear on what criteria the human spirits are judged as being worthy of Hell, other than selling one’s soul to a crossroads demon or being a witch.

According to Crowley, some demons live together in “nests.”

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The Hierarchy of Demons — White-eyed demons The demon chiefs of staff.

— Yellow-eyed demons The demon army generals.

— Knights of Hell Some of the first souls handpicked

by Lucifer to become demons.

— Red-eyed demons The demon deal-makers.

— Black-eyed demons The soldiers, thugs, henchmen, minions.

HEINRICH CORNELIUS AGRIPPA Agrippa was born in Cologne on 15 September 1486. In 1512, he taught

at the University of Dole in the Free County of Burgundy, lecturing on Johann Reuchlin’s De verbo mirifico; as a result,

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Agrippa was denounced, behind his back, as a “Judaizing heretic”. Agrippa’s vitriolic response many months later did not endear him to the University.

In 1510, Agrippa studied briefly with Johannes Trithemius, and Agrippa sent him an early draft of his masterpiece, De occulta philosophia libri tres, a kind of summa of early modern occult thought. Trithemius was guardedly approving, but suggested that Agrippa keep the work more or less secret; Agrippa chose not to publish, per-

haps for this reason, but continued to revise and rethink the book for twenty years.

During his wandering life in Germany, France, and Italy, Agrippa worked as a theologian, physician, legal expert, and soldier.

Agrippa was for some time in the service of Maximilian I, probably as a soldier in Italy, but devoted his time mainly to the study of the occult sciences and to problematic theological legal questions, which exposed him to various persecutions through life, usually in the mode described above: He would be privately denounced for one sort of heresy or another. He would only reply with venom considerably later (Nauert

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demonstrates this pattern effectively.)

No evidence exists that Agrippa was seriously accused, much less persecuted, for his interest in or practice of magical or occult arts during his lifetime, apart from losing several positions. It is impossible, of course, to cite negatively, but Nauert, the best bio-bibliographical study to date, shows no indication of such persecution, and Van der Poel’s careful examination of the various attacks suggest that they were founded on quite other theological grounds.

According to some scholarship: “As early as 1525 and again as late as 1533 (two years before his death) Agrippa clearly and unequivocally rejected magic in its totality, from its sources in imagined antiquity to contemporary practice.” Some aspects remain unclear, but some believe this renunciation was sincere (not out of fear, as a parody, or otherwise).

Recent scholarship (see Further Reading below, in Lehrich, Nauert, and Van der Poel) generally agrees that this rejection or repudiation of magic is not what it seems: Agrippa never rejected magic in its totality, but he did retract his early manuscript of the Occult Philosophy - to be replaced by the later form.

In the Third Book of Occult Philosophy, Agrippa concludes with: But of magic I wrote whilst I was very young three large books, which I called Of Occult Philosophy, in which what was then through the curiosity of my youth erroneous, I now being more advised, am willing to have retracted, by this recantation; I formerly spent much time and costs in these vanities. At last I grew so wise as to be able to dissuade others from this destruction. For whosoever do not in the truth, nor in the power of God, but in the deceits of devils, according to the operation of wicked spirits persume to divine and prophesy, and practising through magical vanities, exorcisms,

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incantions and other demoniacal works and deceits of idolatry, boasting of delusions, and phantasms, presently ceasing, brag that they can do miracles, I say all these shall with Jannes, and Jambres, and Simon Magus, be destinated to the torments of eternal fire.

According to his student Johann Weyer, in the book De praestigiis daemonum, Agrippa died in Grenoble, in 1535.

PENTAGRAM A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha or pentangle or a star pentagon) is the shape of a five-pointed star drawn with five straight strokes.

The pentagram was used in ancient times as a Christian symbol for the five senses. or of the five wounds of Christ. A Christian use

of the pentangle occurs in the 14th-century English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, in which the symbol decorates the shield of the hero, Gawain. The unnamed poet

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credits the symbol’s origin to King Solomon, and says the symbol is key to understanding the work. The poet explains that each of the five interconnected points represents a virtue tied to a group of five. Gawain is keen

in his five senses, dextrous in his five fingers, faithful to the salvation provided through the Five Wounds of Christ, takes courage from the five joys that Mary had of Jesus, and exemplifies the five virtues of knighthood.

Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa and others perpetuated the popularity of the pentagram as a magic symbol, attributing the five neoplatonic elements to the five points, in typical Renaissance fashion. By the mid-19th century a further distinction had developed amongst occultists regarding the pentagram’s orientation. With a single point upwards it depicted spirit presiding over the four elements of matter, and was essentially “good”. However, the influential

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writer Eliphas Levi called it evil whenever the symbol appeared the other way up.

“A reversed pentagram with two points projecting upwards, is a symbol of evil and attracts sinister forces because it overturns the proper order of things and demonstrates the triumph of matter over spirit. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns, a sign execrated by initiates.”

“The flaming star, which, when turned upside down, is the hierolgyphic [sic] sign of the goat of Black Magic, whose head may be drawn in the star, the two horns at the top, the ears to the right and left, the beard at the bottom. It is the sign of antagonism and fatality. It is the goat of lust attacking the heavens with its horns.”

“Let us keep the figure of the Five-pointed Star always upright, with the topmost triangle pointing to heaven, for it is the seat of wisdom, and if the figure is reversed, perversion and evil will be the result.”

The apotropaic use of the pentagram symbol in German folklore (called Drudenfuss in German) is referred to by Goethe in his Faust (1808), where a pentagram prevents Mephistopheles from leaving a room (but did not prevent him from entering by the same way, as the outward pointing corner of the diagram happened to be imperfectly drawn): Mephistopheles: I must confess, my stepping o’er Thy threshold a slight hindrance doth impede; The wizard-foot [Drudenfuss] doth me retain.

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Faust: The pentagram thy peace doth mar?

To me, thou son of hell, explain, How camest thou in, if this thine exit bar?

Could such a spirit aught ensnare?

Mephistopheles: Observe it well, it is not drawn with care, One of the angles, that which points without, Is, as thou seest, not quite closed.

USE IN MODERN OCCULTISM

Based on Renaissance-era occultism, the pentagram found its way into the symbolism of modern occultists.

Following Anton LaVey, and ultimately based on a drawing by French nobleman and occultist Stanislas de Guaita (La Clef de la Magie Noire, 1897), the so-called Sigil of Baphomet, a pentagram with two points up inscribed in a double circle with the head of a goat inside the pentagram is the copyrighted logo of the Church of Satan.

Aleister Crowley made use of the pentagram in his Thelemic system of magick: an adverse or inverted pentagram represents the descent of spirit into matter, according to the interpretation of Lon Milo DuQuette.

Crowley contradicted his old comrades in the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, who, following Levi, considered this orientation of the symbol evil and associated it with the triumph of matter over spirit.

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THE HISTORY OF THE ORIGIN OF THE SIGIL OF BAPHOMET AND ITS USE IN THE CHURCH OF SATAN There have been many rumors and claims regarding this symbol, and here we recount the Church of Satan’s discovery and use of this powerful image.

Prior to the worldwide press given the Church of Satan—and later the publication of The Satanic Bible — the now familiar goat / pentagram / “Leviathan” graphic had not been used as the prime symbol for Satanism. Our younger readers may find this hard to believe, but it is a fact.

Examine the literature and imagery predating the founding of the Church of Satan in 1966: Satanism is usually denoted by inverted crosses or crucifixes and blasphemous parodies of Christian art. There

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are also images of goats and devils, and demons— along with their sigils from grimoires—all used to represent the “satanic.”

However, the complete graphic which we now call the “Sigil of Baphomet” only became associated as the foremost symbol of Satanism in the public and media consciousness after the founding of the Church of Satan and Dr. LaVey’s use of it. From its

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inception, the Church of Satan has been constantly spotlighted in print, film, and television media all over the globe, so this was to be expected. The word “Baphomet” dates back to records of Templar trials, and there are ongoing discussions concerning its derivation and meaning.

However, there is no clear evidence that the symbol which we in the Church of Satan call “Baphomet” is similarly derived; the evidence, if any, has not yet been released in any public forum.

their millennium hath become as reality. Each, with his own “divine” path to paradise, hath accused the other of heresies and spiritual indiscretions. The Ring of the Nibelungen doth carry an everlasting curse, but only because those who seek it think in terms of “Good” and “Evil” - themselves being at all times “Good”. The gods of the past have become as their own devils in order to live. Feebly, their ministers play the devil’s game

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The gods of the righthand path have bickered and quarreled for an entire age of earth. Each of these deities and their respective priests and ministers have attempted to find wisdom in their own lies. The ice age of religious thought can last but a limited time in this great scheme of human existence. The gods of wisdom-defiled have had their saga, and

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to fill their tabernacles and pay the mortgages on their temples. Alas, too long have they studied “righteousness”, and poor and incompetent devils they make. So they all join hands in “brotherly” unity, and in their desperation go to Valhalla for their

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a great Church shall be builded, consecrated in its name. No longer shall man’s salvation be dependent on his self-denial. And it will be known that the world of the flesh and the living shall be the greatest preparation for any and all eternal delights!

REGIE SATANAS! AVE SATANAS! HAIL SATAN! last great ecumenical council. “Draweth near in the gloom the twilight of the gods.” The ravens of night have flown forth to summon Loki, who hath set Valhalla aflame with the searing trident of the Inferno. The twilight is done. A glow of new light is borne out of the night and Lucifer is risen, once more to proclaim: “This is the age of Satan! Satan Rules the Earth!” The gods of the unjust are dead. This is the morning of magic, and undefiled wisdom.

The FLESH prevaileth and

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THE NINE SATANIC STATEMENTS

1. Satan represents indulgence, instead of abstinence!

2. Satan represents vital existence, instead of spiritual pipe dreams!

3. Satan represents undefiled wisdom, instead of hypocritical self-deceit!

4.

Satan represents kindness to those who deserve it, instead of love wasted on ingrates!

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5.

Satan represents vengeance, instead of turning the other cheek!

6. Satan represents responsibility to the responsible, instead of concern for psychic 7. Satan represents man as just another animal, sometimes better, more often worse than those that walk on all-fours, who, because of his “divine spiritual and intellectual development”, has become the most vicious animal of all!

8.

Satan represents all of the so-called sins, as they all lead to physical, mental, or emotional gratification!

9.

Satan has been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years!

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HELL, THE DEVIL, AND HOW TO SELL YOUR SOUL

SATAN has certainly been the best friend the church has ever had, as he has kept it in business all these years. The false doctrine of Hell and the Devil has allowed the Protestant and Catholic Churches to flourish far too long. Without a devil to point their fingers at, religionists of the right hand path would have nothing with which to threaten their followers.

“Satan leads you to temptation”; “Satan is the prince of evil”; “Satan is vicious, cruel, brutal,” they warn. “If you give in to the temptations of the devil, you will surely suffer eternal damnation and roast in Hell.”

The semantic meaning of Satan is the “adversary” or “opposition” or the “accuser”. The very word “devil” comes from the Indian devi which means “god”. Satan represents opposition to all religions which serve to frustrate and condemn

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man for his natural instincts. He has been given an evil role simply because he represents the carnal, earthly, and mundane aspects of life.

Satan, the chief devil of the Western World, was originally an angel whose duty was to report human delinquencies to God. It was not until the Fourteenth Century that he began to be depicted as an evil deity who was part man and part animal, with goat-like horns and hooves.

Before Christianity gave him the names of Satan, Lucifer, etc., the carnal side of man’s nature was governed by the god which was then called Dionysus, or Pan, depicted as a satyr or faun, by the Greeks.

Pan was originally the “good guy”, and symbolized fertility and fecundity.

Whenever a nation comes under a new form of government, the heroes of the past become villains of the present. So it is with religion. The earliest Christians believed that the Pagan deities

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were devils, and to employ them was to use “black magic”. Miraculous heavenly events they termed “white magic”; this was the sole distinction between the two. The old gods did not die, they fell into Hell and became devils. The bogey, goblin, or bugaboo used to frighten children is derived from the Slavonic “Bog” which means “god”, as does Bhaga in Hindu.

Many pleasures revered before the advent of Christianity were condemned by the new religion. It required little changeover to transform the horns and cloven hooves of Pan into a most convincing devil!

Pan’s attributes could be neatly changed into charged-with-punishment sins, and so the metamorphosis was complete.

The association of the goat with the Devil is found in the Christian Bible, where the holiest day of the year, the Day of Atonement, was celebrated by casting lots for two goats “without blemish”, one to be offered

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to the Lord, and one to Azazel. The goat carrying the sins of the people was driven into the desert and became a “scapegoat”.

This is the origin of the goat which is still used in lodge ceremonies today as it was also used in Egypt, where once a year it was sacrificed to a God. The devils of mankind are many, and their origins diversified. The performance of Satanic ritual does not embrace the calling forth of demons; this

practice is followed only by those who are in fear of the very forces they conjure. Supposedly, demons are malevolent spirits with attributes conductive to

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the deterioration of the people or events that they touch upon. The Greek word demon meant a guardian spirit or source of inspiration, and to be sure, later theologians invented legion upon legion of these harbingers of inspiration - all wicked.

An indication of the cowardice of “magicians” of the right-hand path is the practice of calling upon a particular demon (who would supposedly be a minion of the devil) to do his bidding.

The assumption is that the demon, being only a flunky of the devil, is easier to control. Occult lore states that only the most formidably “protected” or insanely foolhardy sorcerer would try to call forth the Devil himself.

The Satanist does not furtively call upon these “lesser” devils, but brazenly invokes those who people that infernal army of long-standing outrage - the Devils themselves!

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THE THREE TYPES OF SATANIC RITUAL

There are three types of ceremony incorporated in the practice of Satanic magic. Each of these correspond to a basic human emotion. The first of these we shall call a sex ritual.

A sex ritual is what is commonly known as a love charm or spell. The purpose in performing such a ritual is to create desire on the part of the person whom you desire, or to summon a sex partner to fulfill your desires.

If you have no specific person or type of person in mind strong enough to cause direct sexual feeling culminating in orgasm, you will not succeed in performing as successfull working. The reason for this is that even if the ritual was successful, by accident, what good would it serve if you could not take advantage of your eventual opportunity because of lack of stimulation or desire? It is easy to confuse enchantment for your ulterior motives, with spell-casting to satisfy

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your sexual desires.

Enchantment for self-aggrandizement, when accompanied by ceremonial magic, falls into the category of either the compassion or the destruction ritual, or possibly both. If you want or need something so badly you are sad or feel much anguish without it, without causing hurt on another’s part, then this would incorporate a compassion ritual to increase your power.

If you wish to enchant or entrap a deserving victim for your own purposes, you would employ a destruction

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ritual. These formulas are to be adhered to, as applying the wrong type of ritual towards a desired result can lead to trouble of a complicated nature.

A good example of this is the girl who finds herself plagued by a relentless suitor. If she has done little to encourage him, then she should recognize him for the psychic vampire he is, and let him play his masochistic role. If, however, she has enchanted him frivolously, giving him every encouragement and

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then finds herself a steady object of sexual desire, much to her dismay, she has no one to blame but herself. Such exercises are only ego boosts, borne of an indoctrination of ego denial which makes these little bewitchments necessary. The Satanist has enough ego strength to use enchantments for her own sexual gratification, or to gain power or success of a specific nature.

The second type of ritual is of a compassionate nature. The compassion, or sentiment, ritual is performed for the purpose of helping others, or helping oneself. Health, domestic happiness, business activities, material success, and scholastic prowess are but a few of the svituations covered in a compassion ritual. It might be said that this form of ceremony could fall into the realm of genuine charity, bearing in mind that “charity begins at home�.

The third motivating force is that of destruction.

This is a ceremony used for anger, annoyance, disdain, contempt, or just plain hate. It is known as a hex,

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curse, or destroying agent.

One of the greatest of all fallacies about the practice of ritual magic is the notion that one must believe in the powers of magic before one can be harmed or destroyed by them.

Nothing could be farther from the truth, as the most receptive victims of curses have always been the greatest scoffers. The reason is frighteningly simple. The uncivilized tribesman is the first to run to his nearest witch-doctor or shaman when he feels a curse has been placed upon him by an enemy. The threat and presence of harm is with him consciously, and belief in the power of the curse is so strong that he will take every precaution against it. Thus, through the application of sympathetic magic, he will counteract any harm that might come his way. This man is watching his step, and not taking any chances.

On the other hand, the “enlightened” man, who doesn’t place any stock in such “superstition”,

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relegates his instinctive fear of the curse to his unconscious, thereby nourishing it into a phenominally destructive force that will multiply with each succeeding misfortune.

Of course, every time a new setback occurs, the non-believer will automatically deny any connection with the curse, especially to himself. The emphatic conscious denial of the potential of the curse is the very ingredient that will create its success, through setting-up of accident prone situations. In many

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success of the operation is dependent on the receptivity of the person who is to receive the blessing or curse, as the case may be. In the case of a sex or compassion ritual, it helps if the recipient has faith and believes in magic, but the victim of a hex or curse is much more prone to destruction if he DOES NOT believe in it! So long as man knows the meaning of fear, he will need the ways and means to defend himself against his fears.

No one knows everything, instances, the victim will and as long as there is deny any magical signifwonder, there will always icance to his fate, even be an apprehension of unto his dying gasp the unknown, where there although the magician is are potentially dangerous perfectly satisfied, so long forces. It is this natural as his desired results occur. fear of the unknown, a first It must be remembered cousin to the fascination that it matters not whether towards the unknown, that anyone attaches any sigimpels the man of logic nificance to your working, towards his very explanaso long as the results of tions. Obviously, the man the working are in accorof science is motivated dance with your will. The to discovery by his very super-logician will always sense of wonder. And yet, explain the connection of how sad that this man the magical ritual to the who calls himself logical end result as “coincidence�. is often the last to recogWhether magic is pernize the essence of ritual formed for constructive or destructive purposes, the

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MAGIC

If religious faith can make bleeding wounds appear on the body in approximation to the wounds supposedly inflicted on Christ, it is called stigmata. These wounds appear as a result of compassion driven to an emotionally violent extreme. Why, then,

Therefore, never attempt to convince the skeptic upon whom you wish to place a curse. Allow him to scoff. To enlighten him would lessen your chance of success. Listen with benign assurance as he laughs at your magic, knowing his days are filled with turmoil all the while.

If he is despicable enough,

by Satan’s grace, he might even die - laughing!

A WORD OF WARNING TO THOSE WHO WOULD PRACTICE THESE ARTS

should there be any doubt as to the destructive extremes of fear and terror. The so-called demons have the power to destroy in a flesh rending manner, theoretically, as much as a handful of nails, long rusted away, can create blood-dripping ecstasy in a person convinced he is hooked upon the cross of Calvary.

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Concerning Sex or Lust: Take full advantage of spells and charms that work; if you be a man, plunge your erect member into her with lascivious delight; if you be a woman, open wide your loins in lewd anticipation.

CONCERNING COMPASSION

Be resolved that you’ll have no regrets at the expense of the help that you have given others, should their new-found blessings place an obstacle in your path. Be grateful

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for things that come to you through the use of magic.

CONCERNING DESTRUCTION

Be certain you DO Â NOT care if the intended victim lives or dies, before you throw your curse, and having caused their destruction, revel, rather than feel remorse.

HEED WELL THESE RULES OR IN EACH CASE YOU WILL SEE A REVERSAL OF YOUR DESIRES WHICH WILL HARM, RATHER THAN HELP, YOU!

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SOURCES DIGITAL http://evildead.wikia.com/wiki/Necronomicon_Ex-Mortis http://www.denofgeek.com/movies/24810/from-lovecraftto-evil-dead-the-history-of-the-necronomicon http://livescifi.tv/2013/04/ is-the-evil-dead-movie-based-on-a-real-story/ http://www.gotquestions.org/Bible-necromancy.html http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Necromancy http://boredsloth.com/what-they-just-discoveredharvard-library-will-make-your-skin-crawl-seriously-omg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anthropodermic_bibliopegy http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10735a.htm http://www.mitchellteachers.org/WorldHistory/ AncientEgyptNearEastUnit/Images/EgyptDailyLife/ AncientEgyptDailyLifeBurialPic_large.jpg http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sigil_of_the_Gateway http://www.lovecraft.ru/texts/necro/ spellbook_eng/names.html http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/ horror/demon/necro-9.html http://www.supernaturalwiki.com/ index.php?title=Demonology http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_magic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heinrich_Cornelius_Agrippa http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pentagram http://johann-weyer.tumblr.com/archive http://www.churchofsatan.com/ history-sigil-of-baphomet.php http://www.sacred-texts.com/egy/ebod/ebod11.htm http://highermeaning.org/Authors/CTOdhner/077-1.jpg http://www.gutenberg.org/files/15932/15932-h/ images/pg_150_f.png http://www.masseiana.org/images/kircher_zodiac.jpg http://highermeaning.org/Authors/CTOdhner/109-1.jpg

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WRITTEN LENORMANT, La magie chez les Chaldéens (Paris, 1875); IDEM, La divination et la science des présages chez les Chaldéens (Paris, 1875) BOUCHÉ-LECLERCQ, Histoire de la divination dans l’antiquité (Paris, 1879-82) TYLOR, Researches into the Early History of Mankind (London, 1865) DÖLLINGER, Heidenthum und Judenthum (Ratisbon, 1857) FRÉRET, Observations sur les Oracles rendus par les âmes des morts in Mémoires de l’Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres, XXIII (1756), 174 KÖHLER, De origine et progressu necyomantiæ sive manium evocation apud veteres tum Græcos tum Romanos (Liegnitz, 1829) RHODE, Psyche (Freiburg im Br., 1898); WAITE, The Mysteries of Magic (London, 1897), 181 HOLMES in Kitto’s Cyclopedia of Biblical Literature, s.v. Divination WHITEHOUSE in HASTINGS. Dict. of the Bible, s.v. Sorcery LESÊTRE in Dict. de la Bible, s.v. Evocation des morts; SCHANZ in Kirchenlexicon, s.v. Todtenbeschwörung.

LAVEY, ANTON, The Satanic Bible - reprint edition (December 1, 1976)

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A book by Walter Oscar Rothe for the subject publication given by Thomas de Smet as part of his bachelor’s assignment Graphic Design at the School Of Arts, Ghent. /14