Grimoire of the Necronomicon

by Donald Tyson

  Sigil of Shub-Niggurath

  Worship of Shub-Niggurath gives potency in lovemaking, attraction of lovers, the power of fascination and glamour of appearances, and intense and varied pleasures of kinds unknown to other mortals. She may be called upon in matters of attraction, affection, desire, sensation, and pleasure. Those who worship her must beware the wiles of the Black Man, who will try to steal away their loyalty to this goddess, and then betray them with tricks, for Nyarlathotep is ever the trickster, and to sow confusion among mankind is his delight.

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  Cthulhu

  Cthulhu flew on his vast leathern wings across the gulf of space to conquer and rule this world. He had no other purpose. He revels in combat, warfare, bloodshed, and death. Conquest is his way, and the way of his spawn, who are like him in their general appearance, but smaller. Whereas Cthulhu is as large as a mountain, his spawn are little bigger than horses or cows. They also possess wings for flying through the air, and through the dark emptiness of space. They are said to resemble the octopus, but this is true only of their heads, which are hung in the front of their faces with tentacles that lift and writhe about in the air, for they are all by nature dwellers on the surface of the earth and in the air. It is only misadventure that cast them below the waves of the sea, which they loathe and despise with a passionate hatred, for this water prevents them from sending forth their thoughts across the face of the world to control those who worship them.

  When Cthulhu descended from between the stars to the dreaming earth, he found it ruled by the Elder Things, an ancient race possessing deep wisdom that also came to this world from the stars, but long before the coming of Cthulhu and his spawned army. Cthulhu thought to easily destroy the Elder Things, but to his amazement and dismay he found their arts of warfare equal to his own. His spawn swept against their slaves that are called shoggoths the way an ocean wave sweeps toward the rocks of the shore, and it broke upon them just as a wave breaks and falls back in frustration. The shoggoth is the strongest creature that has ever lived, and deathless. Not even the spawn could prevail against them.

  To end the war more quickly, the Elder Things were gracious and ceded to Cthulhu and his spawn the newly risen lands of the Pacific Ocean that formed chains of islands. With these the war god was content to bide his time, for he never ceased to plot the overthrow of the Elder Things and the conquest of this entire world. He and his spawn, which are smaller buddings of himself from his own body, sent forth their thoughts into the dreams of the other thinking creatures of the earth, bringing them into subjugation and servitude, until all worshipped Cthulhu as a god, including the hairy ape-like beings that would later become men.

  Alas for Cthulhu, the stars changed their pattern in the heavens, and sent down poisonous rays to vex him. He used his magic to place his spawn and himself into a sleep that was like death, but in his dreams he continued to send forth his thoughts and to rule his worshippers. A second disaster struck, one unforeseen in spite of all his wisdom and ancient experience. The island of R’lyeh sank beneath the waves to the bottom of the sea with Cthulhu and all his spawn locked within their stone houses, dreaming their strange dreams. The mass of water held back his thoughts and the thoughts of the spawn. There was no way to call his worshippers to release him should the stars came right once again in the heavens. So Cthulhu and his spawn continue to lie on sunken R’lyeh, deep beneath the waves, almost forgotten by men, but dreaming still of warfare and conquest.

  Statues of Cthulhu, carved from green stone that is not native to this world, reveal the strange shape of the dreaming god. He has a massive, bulging head that is soft and pulsing on the top, with six small eyes on the front, and below them a tangle of slender writhing tentacles resembling a nest of serpents that conceals his mouth. From his back hang his enormous wings, like those of a bat that are folded close. His body is like the body of a man corpulent and of solid frame, but his hands and feet end in claws that are longer than the tusks of the greatest elephant. His flesh is said by those who claim to have glimpsed it in dreams to be like cloudy green glass that lets light pass through, and similar to jelly beneath the touch. But when it is cut it heals itself almost instantly and reforms. No injury of a normal kind can harm Cthulhu or his spawn. They are deathless, since they do not live as we know life.

  Those men who worship him have formed a cult in the far corners of the world, and pass down the ancient knowledge of R’lyeh. They worship his statues, but their priests receive no instruction from him, except at rare times when the gate of Yog-Sothoth opens upon R’lyeh, and they travel to the sunken citadel of their mighty lord and hold communication with him in their dreaming minds. Then does Cthulhu instruct them in the rites of his cult. He tells them to wait and watch for the stars to come right in their courses, and for R’lyeh to rise, for these are the signals that the time of slaying is come upon the world again, as it was before the making of man by the Elder Things.

  The worship of Cthulhu lends courage and skill in warfare and all forms of battle. In dreams Cthulhu teaches ancient wisdom and ancient magic, for he is the high priest of the Old Ones and well-learned in all their alien arts. Only Nyarlathotep has greater wisdom, but the Crawling Chaos seldom teaches men matters of great value. Cthulhu is generous to his worshippers. He needs them to come and release him and his spawn from their stone houses once R’lyeh rises above the waves. He teaches them the joys of battle and the greater joys of slaying. His cult is fearless and without mercy or kindness. They gladly kill the innocent, and embrace death as a lover.

  Seal of Cthulhu

  Use this seal of the war god to reach him in the depths of your dreams, or when you project your astral form beneath the waves to sunken R’lyeh, where you may hold communication with Cthulhu as he sleeps. The sphere of the heavens most in harmony with his warlike nature is the sphere of Mars. All things martial are suited to form a part of his worship and his rites. Of all the Old Ones, he most delights in sacrifices of blood. It is possible to invoke a shadow of his mind, and in this way take on the fierceness and mercilessness of the warrior god and his spawn. This is useful in achieving victory in battle or in contests. Cthulhu cannot bear to lose any contest. He cannot bear to decline any challenge.

  Sigil of Cthulhu

  The magic square of the sphere of Mars, and the sigil formed from the name of Cthulhu upon that square are both useful instruments in seeking the aid or teachings of the dreaming god. His natural way among the six directions of space is the south, because its fiery nature accords with his lust for war. A final word of warning. It is possible to invoke a shadow of Cthulhu’s mind into your own mind, and in this way take on the force of will, the fearlessness, the aggression, and warlike virtues of the god, but consider well before you attempt this, for Cthulhu glories in slaying and death, and is not fastidious about whom he slays.

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  Dagon

  D agon dwells in a deep rift below the waters of the Pacific Ocean. Like mighty Cthulhu, he is of vast size with a body as large as the largest of whales, but his nature is unlike that of the war god. Dagon delights in self-command and the attainment of arcane skills, and in the intricate working of metals and the crafting of jewels. He does not make war for sport, but only when it is necessary for the survival of his people. Long ages past, before even Cthulhu and his spawn came to this world, Dagon and his spouse Hydra swam across the sea of space and took up their abode in the deep places of the oceans, where they erected their mighty cities of stone. The Elder Things did not molest them, for they committed no aggression against the crinoid race and their shoggoth slaves.

  The womb of Hydra is ever fertile, and brought forth the sons and daughters of Dagon in their teeming myriads. They are like Dagon in shape, and do not resemble Hydra, which no human eye has glimpsed despite the legends that are told in her name. Manlike in body, they have webbed hands and feet, and heads that resemble those of a frog, joined
to their shoulders with no neck and having gill slits in their sides. Just as the spawn of Cthulhu resemble their father but are smaller in size, so the children of Dagon resemble him but are in size no larger than men. They are called the Deep Ones, and can live both in the depths of the ocean and in the air on land.

  The Deep Ones have long cohabited with human beings and sired hybrid offspring on their human wives. Men, too, can engender hybrids in the females of Dagon’s children. They are in every way human when born, but as they age, they acquire the characteristic sloping brows, wide mouths, and broad noses of those born in unions between humans and Deep Ones. Their skin becomes gray in color and scaled. Gill slits open in the sides of their necks. Eventually they leave the land and go to dwell in the deepest canyons on the ocean floor, where the cities of the Deep Ones are built.

  The cults of the Deep Ones among human beings worship both Father Dagon and Mother Hydra. Sacrifices are made to them of young men and women. They swear potent oaths to keep the secret of the Deep Ones forever, and to serve them in all their works. In return the Deep Ones give them gold and the treasures of the oceans, and drive fish into their nets to feed them. This commerce between men and Deep Ones has been carried on for ages. In lost Atlantis, the Deep Ones mated with the noble warrior class of that island kingdom, and gave the people crystal weapons that emitted rays of light to destroy their enemies and enslave them. These weapons were the downfall of Atlantis, for the people grew arrogant and misused them during a civil war that destroyed Atlantis and sent it under the sea. Among the Deep Ones there are those who still live and remember Atlantis, for they are deathless save by accident, poison, or deliberate violence.

  The native people of the Pacific Isles ward off the Deep Ones of Dagon with a symbol that they paint or inscribe on flat beach stones. It is abhorrent to the Deep Ones and their great father, and holds power over them. This symbol was created by the Elder Things in case of need, before they knew that Dagon and his children were peaceful and did not seek to make war against the crinoid race. In appearance it is much like the symbol known as the swastika, but with rounded arms instead of arms that are bent at angles.

  Charm Against the Deep Ones

  No Deep One will cross a threshold that has this symbol upon it. No Deep One will follow a path that has this symbol lying in it. No Deep One will emerge from a beach that is strewn with stones bearing this sacred symbol. It represents the spiral chaotic vortex of Azathoth. Yog-Sothoth recognizes it, and will not open any portal upon which it rests for the passage of the sea dwellers. All transitions are portals to Yog-Sothoth, even transition from the surf to the sand, or progress upon a path. By this sign those islanders who dwell near the cities of the Deep Ones are not molested by them while they are on the land, but when they venture into the waves the Deep Ones exact a vengeance upon them, and for this reason these islanders never swim off the beaches of their islands, or stand in the surf to fish along their reefs.

  Seal of Dagon

  By this seal, formed from the primal shapes of the letters in the sea-god’s name, may Dagon be called and petitioned for favors. He is willing to give help to all who ask, but he demands service in return, and sometimes sacrifices. The Deep Ones are not only his children’s children, but also his agents on both the seas and the land, who execute his judgments among mortals. Those who wed a Deep One are protected. Those who are born of the union between a human and a Deep One are protected. But those who betray the secrets of this race are pursued and punished.

  Sigil of Dagon

  The sphere of the moon is in greatest accord with the nature of Dagon, which is inclined to dreams and visions, and to artistic accomplishments. The god teaches skills for the curing of sickness and the prolonging of life, and skills for scrying into the future and into hidden matters. Actions that fall under the authority of the moon are suited for the invocation of Dagon and his race. The symbols of the moon lend themselves to use in his rites. Among the six directions of space, the way that is naturally given to Dagon is the west, that quarter of the world associated with the oceans.

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  The Dancing Gods

  The twelve gods who step and twirl and leap about the black throne of chaos in perpetual motion, driven by the rhythms and melodies of Azathoth’s flute, are archons to the Old Ones, even as Azathoth himself is the chief archon who created the cosmos. They are of gigantic dimensions and strange disproportions, and their bodies change to reflect the changing moods of their dance. Many are imperfect or deformed since the fall of Barbelzoa and the madness of her grieving father. The anguish of Azathoth is made apparent in their broken shapes. What Azathoth expresses in his music, the dancing gods manifest in their dance.

  Their naked bodies shine with iridescent colors. They dance between worlds, so that sometimes their bodies seem a strange sort of translucent flesh, yet at other times they appear a conglutination of colored spheres, similar to the face of Yog-Sothoth that is glimpsed when he opens his gates. Simultaneously they dance in all worlds, all realities, straddling the gates between their thighs. They are blind, as is Azathoth, for they are of the same blood. When he lost his sight and reason, the dancing gods lost their reason and their sight in sympathy, for they are connected to him with ties deeper than his link to the womb of Shub-Niggurath. His music is their food and drink. The notes of his flute are the flesh of their forms, as these trilling notes are all flesh and all stone, everywhere. The cosmos is made of music, and it is the tragedy of creation that the flute of Azathoth is cracked.

  The sorcerers and stargazers of the Persians signified the twelve dancing gods in the forms of the zodiac, which they placed in the firmament of fixed stars, above the planets, just as the dancing archons are above the lords of the Old Ones, even above the bowed head of Azathoth himself. Here is a mystery. In the double tetractys that expresses in geometric form the true and secret name of Azathoth, there are thirteen dots. The central dot represents Azathoth on his black throne, and the twelve dots that surround it and form the star of six points stand for the mindless idiot gods who dance, and by their measured steps create and destroy the universe, for there cannot be creation without destruction, or destruction without creation.

  Some sages assert that each god simultaneously creates and destroys six universes, and that each universe has five primary planes or dimensions of reality, so that in all the cosmos there are three hundred and sixty dimensions. Others less bound to ancient doctrine assert the planes of being and their gates to be infinite in number. Yog-Sothoth knows the answer, but who shall question the god of portals? It may be that the primary planes that form the structure of creation are of this number, but that the lesser planes are infinite.

  These are the names and seals of the twelve dancing gods who rule over the lower hells and the throne of chaos, each commanding his own six universes and their five planes, the subdivision of which is infinite. Before the madness of Azathoth they ruled the pure heavens, but after his fall they rule the lower hells, for he made the heavens into hells, and the higher into the lower. They dance invisible, but sometimes put on forms like masks that express aspects of their natures, and from these masks the zodiac was derived.

  Seal of Athoth

  The first is named Athoth, who is surnamed the Reaper for his sharp sickle that he uses to reap souls to torment. He is hairy all over, and wears the horns of the ram on his head. He was placed by the wise Persians in the portion of the zodiac known as Aries, the Ram.

  Seal of Harmas

  The second is called Harmas, who is surnamed the Eye of the Fire, which glares into the hearts of all who commit acts of evil and chars them to black ash. He has the head of a black cow with a single great red jewel in his forehead, and snarling jaws that drip the foam of madness. His portion of the heavens is that known as Taurus, the Bull.

  Seal of Galila

  The third bears the name Galila, who has the form of a yo
ung girl. Upon her left side extends a reddened scar where her conjoined twin brother tore himself away at the closing of the former age of the cosmos. The old wound yet seeps blood, and she sorrows for her loss, even after the passage of countless ages. Her portion is that known as Gemini, the Twins.

  Seal of Yobel

  The fourth has the name Yobel. Her shape is monstrous, her skin covered in heavy armored plates of horn, like to the shell of the crab. The Persians have given her the portion of the heavens called Cancer, the Crab.

  Seal of Adonaios

  The fifth is called Adonaios. He is fierce and red in claw, with a great, angry countenance fringed in golden hair, and a roaring voice that splits the air like thunder. His part of the zodiac is Leo, the Lion.

  Seal of Cain

  The sixth is named Cain, a young man whose heart is filled with resentment. Tears of frustration fall from his blind eye sockets as he stumbles on heavy limbs through the cosmic dance. His part of the heavens is Virgo, the Virgin.

  Seal of Abel

  The seventh is called Abel, brother to Cain. He laughs immoderately and spins lightly on his toes, his body slender and well balanced. He hates his brother for his ceaseless complaints and turns his back to him. His portion is Libra, the Balance.

  Seal of Akiressina

  The eighth is named Akiressina. Barbs that drip poison cover her naked limbs, and from the base of her spine coils a barbed tail ever ready to strike her unfortunate lovers. Her portion is Scorpio, the Scorpion.