The Necronomicon by Aleister Crowley, Necronomicon
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Dedication
On the One Hundredth anniversary
of the Nativity of the Poet
ALEISTER CROWLEY
1875-1975
Ad Meiomrum Cthulhi Gloriam
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
THE EDITOR would like to thank all of the people whose cooperation and dedication to
unspeakable horrors has made this book possible. First, our thanks go to that nameless monk
who presented us with the originals., who has since disappeared. Second, to that ever-changing
staff of translators who performed a most distasteful and oft'times unsatisfying task: to Ms. I.
Celms, Ms. N. Papaspyrou, Mr. Peter Levenda, Mr. X. and Mr. Y. Third, to Ms. J. McNally,
whose thorough knowledge and understanding of Craft folklore aided the Editor in assuming a
proper perspective towards this Work. Fourth, to Mr. J. Birnbaum who aided in some of the
preliminary practical research concerning the powers of the Book, and its dangers. Fifth, to Mr.
L. K. Barnes, who dared to tempt the awesome wrath of the Ancient Ones, rising unspeakable
eldritch horrors, in supporting the publication of this arcane treatise. Sixth, to all those patient
Pagans and Friends of the Craft who waited, and waited for the eventual publication of this
tome with baited breath . . . and something on the stove. Seventh, and perhaps most
importantly, to Herman Slater of the Magickal Childe (nee Warlock Shop), whose constant
encouragement and eternal kvetching was material to the completion of this Work.
And, finally, to the Demon PERDURABO, without whose help the presentation of this Book
would have been impossible.
Blessed Be!
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
The NECRONOMICON
PREFACE TO THE SECOND EDITION
THERE ARE THREE major individuals who must share the credit for the astonishingly good reception the
NECRONOMICON has enjoyed over the last two years since its publication. L.K. Barnes was lured into the
Magickal Childe bookstore in Manhattan one day by an incarnated thoughtform we may only refer to by his
initials, B.A.K. Both were in search of some casual amusement from the slightly distorted version of the
supernatural intelligence-dissemination that usually took place on those premises. L.K. Barnes, publisher of this
tome, has probably come to regret ever setting foot or tentacle inside those clammy precincts, for the crazed
proprietor of that institution commenced to wave before him the manuscript copy of this book, thereby securing
his soul forever in the service of the Elder Gods.
Needless to say, L.K. - a longtime pilgrim in the search for the genuine NECRONOMICON which he knew,
since childhood, really existed - was suitably impressed. Shocked, actually. He asked to see the dubious
personality who claimed responsibility for the editing and general research work that went into the volume.
This exotic individual, Simon by name, appeared suddenly one day in the living quarters of L.K. Barnes attired
in a beret, a suit of some dark, fibrous material, and a attache case which contained - besides correspondence
from various Balkan embassies and a photograph of the F-104 fighter being crated up for shipment to
Luxembourg - additional material on the NECRONOMICON which proved his bona fides. Also at that meeting
was the third member of the Unholy Trinity, James Wasserman of Studio 31 who - according to a South
American cult leader - died during the last year, but who has been able with assistance from the Stone of the
Wise and certain of the formulae in this book, to go on about his business like unto a living man.
With Simon's manuscript, Barnes' occult vision and aesthetic scruples, and Wasserman's production experience
and tireless labour, the abhorred NECRONOMICON began to take shape and the first edition smote the stands
on December 22, 1977 - the ancient pagan feast of Yule, the winter solstice.
Yet, not without a number of bizarre occurrences that more than once threatened the lives, the sanity, and the
astral bodies of the three individuals most deeply involved.
Jim Wasserman was subjected to what we may vaguely refer to as "poltergeist" activity during the time he
worked on production and design aspects of the book. A room which, for certain loathsome purposes, was
always kept locked was found one day to have been opened - from the inside. In the same building, just below
his loft, the typesetters were set upon by swarms of rats. The discovery of a small Hindu idol that had been lost
signalled the end to the plague, and the rats disappeared.
Simon usually lives in fear of his life, for reasons that do not always have to do with the NECRONOMICON.
However, he has been subject to constant surveillance by the Ancient Ones as they await one slip, the single
misstep, that will provide for them the entry they earnestly desire into this world.
L.K. Barnes, on the other hand, has had no rest whatever from the signals and messages from the
extraterrestrial intelligences that were the overseers and the guardians of the book's publication. He has been
plagued by an unremitting chain of numerological events which he cannot ignore. The predominance of the
numbers 13,333,555,666 and others too arcane to bear mentioning have been made his life a demonstration
(read, demon-stration) of Jungian synchronicity patterns. Also, his printing of the beautiful, full-colour
Denderah Zodiac on the first anniversary of the NECRONOMICON's publication in 1978 precipitated a rash of
UFO sightings in Australia and New Zealand - in which one pilot has disappeared.
Bizarre occurrences and humorous coincidences aside for the moment, the NECRONOMICON has caused
changes in the conscience of those people most intimately involved with it, as well as many strangers who simply
bought the book through the mail or at their bookstore. Judging by the letters we have received in the last two
years, these changes have been startling. Many have found the books' magick to work, and work extremely well.
Others, having once attempted certain of the rituals, felt compelled to retire from the occult "scene" for lengthy
periods of time. The mere fact that the books was generally considered never have existed - and then found to
exist after all - is itself a powerful psychic influence. A fantasy come true. A dream realised in waking life. The
quest for a lifetime search come to an end. The ultimate Book of Spells. The Godfather of Grimoires.
Therefore it is with awe, and with something akin to dread, that I address this second edition to the courageous
reader of the NECRONOMICON. The Beast has told us, "I am the warrior Lord of the Forties : the Eighties
cower before me, & are abased." (AL, III:46) This edition of the NECRONOMICON is scheduled for early
delivery in January-February 1980, making it possibly the first occult book of the Eighties. A herald of doom ?
Or a harbinger of fate ?
Since the publication of this book in December, 1977, the ancient forces of erstwhile victory have been banging
and clamouring at the Gates. December 1977 was the middle of the killing spree of the calibre killer, known to
the press as the Son of Sam, who was motivated - according to recent reports - by membership in a satanic cult
in Yonkers. Several months after the capture of David Berkowitz in 1978, nearly one thousand people killed
themselves in Guyana at the orders of a crazed religious leader. Several months after that, the leader of a
mystical Islamic sect seized power in Iran and - at the time of writing - is calling for a Holy War against the
Infidel.
There is evidence that every New Age witnesses a baptism by fire. Christians and Muslims are turning on each
other and themselves; Israel is once again in serious jeopardy; Buddhism is being eradicated in Southeast Asia
as it was in Tibet. The Ancient Ones, Lords of a time before memory, are being drawn by the smell of confusion
and the hysteria and mutual hatred of the primitive life-forms on this planet: human beings. Unless the Gates
are secured against attack, unless humanity awakens to both the real danger and the real potential for evolution
. . .
Well, the vision of the Mad Arab - ancestor of the Muslim princes so much in the news in 1979/1980 - is one,
certainly of terror. The discovery of this book, however, like the discovery of the typesetters' idol, may be the
key, the link in our defence against the possible Enemy awaiting us, Outside. Events of the last two years have
shown us that the book is also an amulet, a protective shield, that guards its own from the machinations of evil.
Extraterrestrial or primevally elemental, alien beings or subconscious repressions, they are powerless against us
if we consider deeply the message of this book, and take the seeming ranting of the Arab at face value for what
they are: a warning, a weapon, and a wisdom. With these three we enter the New Age of the Crowned and
Conquering Child, Horus, not in a slouch towards Bethlehem, but born within us at the moment we conquer the
lurking fear in our own souls.
New York, N.Y.
December, 1979
"Our work is therefore historically authentic; the rediscovery of the Sumerian Tradition." -
Aleister Crowley
IN THE MID - 1920's, roughly two blocks from where the Warlock Shop once stood, in Brooklyn Heights, lived
a quiet, reclusive man, an author of short stories, who eventually divorced his wife of two years and returned to
his boyhood home in Rhode Island, where he lived with his two aunts. Born on August 20, 1890, Howard
Phillips Lovecraft would come to exert an impact on the literary world that dwarfs his initial successes with
Weird Tales magazine in 1923. He died, tragically, at the age of 46 on March 15, 1937, a victim of cancer of the
intestine and Bright's Disease. Though persons of such renown as Dashiell Hammett were to become involved in
his work, anthologising it for publication both here an abroad, the reputation of a man generally conceded to be
the "Father of Gothic Horror" did not really come into its own until the past few years, with the massive
re-publication of his works by various houses, a volume of his selected letters, and his biography. In the July,
1975, issue The Atlantic Monthly, there appeared a story entitled "There Are More Things", written by Jorge
Luis Borges, "To the memory of H.P. Lovecraft". This gesture by a man of the literary stature of Borges is
certainly an indication that Lovecraft has finally ascended to his rightful place in the history of American
literature, nearly forty years after his death.
In the same year that Lovecraft found print in the pages of Weird Takes, another gentleman was seeing his
name in print; but in the British tabloid press.
NEW SINISTER REVELATIONS OF ALEISTER CROWLEY read the front page of the Sunday Express. It
concerned testimony by one of the notorious magician's former followers (or, actually, the wife of one of his
followers) that Crowley had been responsible for the death of her husband, at the Abbey of Thelema, in Cefalu,
Sicily. The bad press, plus the imagined threat of secret societies, finally forced Mussolini to deport the Great
Beast from Italy. Tales of horrors filled the pages of the newspapers in England for weeks and months to come:
satanic rituals, black masses, animal sacrifice, and even human sacrifice, were reported - or blatantly lied about.
For although many of the stories were simply not true or fanciful exaggeration, one thing was certain: Aleister
Crowley was a Magician, and one of the First Order.
Born on October 12, 1875, in England - in the same country as Shakespeare - Edward Alexander Crowley grew
up in a strict Fundamentalist religious family, members of a sect called the "Plymouth Brethren". The first
person to call him by that Name and Number by which he would become famous (after the reference in the
Book of Revelation), "The Beast 666", was his mother, and he eventually took this appellation to heart. He
changed his name to Aleister Crowley while still at Cambridge, and by that name , plus "666", he would never
be long out of print, or out of newspapers. For he believed himself to be the incarnation of a god, an Ancient
One, the vehicle of a New Age of Man's history, the Aeon of Horus, displacing the old Age of Osiris. In 1904, he
had received a message, from what Lovecraft might have called "out of space", that contained the formula for a
New World Order, a new system of philosophy, science, art and religion, but this New Order had to begin with
the fundamental part, and common denominator, of all four: Magick.
In 1937, the year Lovecraft dies, the Nazis banned the occult lodges of Germany, notable among them two
organisations which Crowley had supervised: the A\ A\ and the O.T.O., the latter of which he was elected head
in England, and the former which he founded himself. There are those who believe that Crowley was somehow,
magickally, responsible for the Third Reich, for two reasons: one, that the emergence of New World Orders
generally seems to instigate holocausts and, two, that he is said to have influenced the mind of Adolf Hitler.
While it is almost certain that Crowley and Hitler never met, it is known that Hitler belonged to several occult
lodges in the early days after the First War; the symbol of one of these, the Thule Gesellschaft which preached a
doctrine of Aryan racial superiority, was the infamous Swastika which Hitler was later to adopt as the Symbol
of the forms, however, is evident in many of his writings, notably the essays written in the late 'Thirties. Crowley
seemed to regard the Nazi phenomenon as a Creature of Christianity, in it's anti-Semitism and sever moral
restrictions concerning its adherents, which lead to various types of lunacies and "hangups" that characterised
many of the Reich's leadership. Yet, there can be perhaps little doubt that the chaos which engulfed the world in
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