The 13 Gates of the Necronomicon

by Donald Tyson

  The other type of magician in the mythos is the wicked wizard who always uses magic for evil purposes. His lust is for both forbidden knowledge and personal power, and he pursues his mania to the exclusion of all moral considerations. In The Thing on the Doorstep, Ephraim Waite, the wizard of Innsmouth, destroyed his own daughter so that he could preserve and extend his term of life, and he was perfectly prepared to de stroy Edward Derby in the same manner. The necromancer Joseph Curwen performed a rite that ensured his resurrection after death by his descendant, Charles Ward, even though it involved impressing that descendant with a predisposition for the study of the occult that would dominate and destroy his life.

  If Lovecraft's use of magic is sometimes for the greater good, the same cannot be said about his use of witchcraft, which is invariably evil and demonic. Modern Wiccans will find little to like in his treatment of the Craft. Lovecraft adopted the same attitude toward witches as that of Cotton Mather, whose book Magnalia Christi Americana he had in his personal library. Witches in the mythos are minions of the Black Man of the sabbat, who is none other than an avatar of Nyarlathotep. They take the form of hunched stereotypical crones, or evil and seductive lamia who use their wiles to ensnare men. Wizards also form part of their covens, but the wizards involved with witches are invariably evil in the mythos. Lovecraft does not seem to have conceived the possibility of a good witch.

  The innovation he brought to the concept of magic was to integrated it with higher dimensional geometry. The portal magic of Keziah Mason is based on the alien mathematics of the Old ones, or perhaps of the Elder Things, with whom Keziah has commerce. Ephraim Waite met with other witches in the pit of the shoggoths beneath stone ruins in northern Maine, where he acquired knowledge that was to him magic, but was to the alien creatures who taught him a kind of science. Over the millennia of human history, mankind has acquired the use of only a small portion of this science of uncouth geometries, which the limited human intellect comprehends as a kind of magic. The great alien races that lurk and watch on the borders of our world possess much more of it, and what they hold is vastly more powerful.

  Aklo is a language mentioned several times in Lovecraft's stories. The term originates in the story The White People, by Arthur Machen. In that story a character writes in a diary, "I have a great many other books of secrets I have written, hidden in a safe place, and I am going to write here many of the old secrets and some new ones; but there are some I shall not put down at all. I must not write down the real names of the days and months which I found out a year ago, nor the way to make the Aklo letters, or the Chian language, or the great beautiful Circles, nor the Mao Games, nor the chief songs."

  In The Dunwich Horror, Wilbur Whateley writes in his diary, "Today learned the Aklo for the Sabaoth, which did not like, it being answerable from the hill and not from the air." Aklo is evidently the language in which an incantation must be chanted to be effective. The Sabaoth is that special day of the year on which the chant may be used. Wilbur Whateley studied the incantation at age three and a half, for use on the final sabbat that would open the gate of Yog-Sothoth to admit the Old Ones-probably the witches' sabbat of May-Eve, or Walpurgis Night, is intended, since that is the sabbat on which Wilbur himself was engendered. Wilbur was not fond of the Aklo, because it required a response from his monstrous invisible brother, who would occupy Sentinel Hill at the time, not from the Old Ones who spoke from the air above the hill. Wilbur was worried about this because he feared his brother did not have much in the way of an "earth brain" with which to make the correct responses. The being who was summoned by Wilbur with magical incantations, and who gave to him the Aklo Sabaoththe sabbat ritual in the Aklo language-told him that he might be "transfigured" when he conducted the ritual.

  In The Haunter of the Dark, the writer Robert Harrison Blake solves a cryptogram written in the Aklo language. "The text was, he found, in the dark Aklo language used by certain cults of evil antiquity, and known to him in a halting way through previous researches." Mention is also made of the `Aklo writings" in The Diary of Alonzo Typer, where the writings hint at a malevolent intelligence beyond time and beyond the universe that is allied to power outside the Earth.

  (The Dunwich Horror; The Haunter of the Dark; The Diary of Alonzo Typer)

  Lovecraft wrote that the citizens of Dunwich celebrated the festival of Candlemass on February 2 under another name. That name must have been Imbolc. It is one of the pagan cross-quarter days of the year, falling directly between the winter solstice and the spring equinox.

  (The Dunwich Horror)

  A magic chant taught to Wilbur Whateley by his grandfather, Wizard Whateley, when the boy was three and a half years old. Using it, Wilbur was able to psychically glimpse an inner city said to be located at the two poles-which suggests that it is perhaps a city inside the Earth that is accessed from the poles. Wilbur wrote in his diary that he might be able to "break through" with the Dho-Hna formula.

  (The Dunwich Horror)

  Magic incantations associated with the inhuman residents of the plateau of Leng.

  (The Horror in the Museum)

  Charles Dexter Ward uses the incantation "Dies Mies Jeschet Boene Doesef Douvema Enitemaus" as the culmination of a ritual to raise the dead. Lovecraft probably derived this from an extract from the writings of the French occultist Eliphas Levi that was quoted in A. E. Waite's 1886 work The Mysteries of Magic. It appeared in the second part of Eliphas Levi's 1855-6 work Dogma et Rituel de la Haute Magic (bk. 2, ch. 15), which was first published in English in 1896 as Transcendental Magic (see Levi, p. 320), but it seems likely that Lovecraft got it from Waite's compendium, not from Waite's source.

  Levi reproduced this incantation, calling it the "Grand Appellation of Agrippa." By this he meant that it was taken from the Latin edition of the Opera omnia (Complete Works) of the German magician Henry Cornelius Agrippa. However, it is not part of Agrippa's writings, but instead appears in a brief epitome of various forms of divination by Georgius Pictorius Villinganus that is appended to the first volume of the Latin Opera of Agrippa.

  The incantation is used when performing a divination to identify a guilty person by means of a turning sieve. This was a popular form of divination during the Renaissance. A round metal sieve for sifting flour was held by the pinchers of a large pair of tongs, or the blades of a large pair of shears, so that the widely spread tongs or shears gripped the round, smooth barrel of the sieve on its outer sides. Two people supported the handles of the tongs or shears, each with a single fingertip. This was a delicate arrangement, and the slightest tremor of the hands naturally caused the sieve to slid down as the tension of the tongs or blades of the shears slackened momentarily.

  The mysterious incantation "Dies, Mies, Jeschet, Benedoefet, Dowima, Enitemaus" was uttered to invoke the spirit of the sieve, and then a series of suspects were named. When the name of the guilty party was spoken, it was believed that the sieve would rotate slightly as it slid partway down on its tenuous supports. Pictorius commented on the words of the incantation that they were "understood neither by those who speak them nor by others." Eliphas Levi, as translated by A. E. Waite in Transcendental Magic, echoed this statement when he wrote of the words, "We make no pretence of understanding their meaning; possibly they possess none, assuredly none which is reasonable, since they avail in evoking the devil, who is the sovereign unreason."

  Lovecraft, reading Waite's comments in The Mysteries of Magic, and not having any notion that the incantation was used in sieve divination by common country folk, assumed that the incantation had a greater significance. He divided the word "Boene- doesef" into two words, "Boene" and "Doesef," thereby extending the incantation to seven words. The reason for this division is not hard to find-in the Latin Opera of Agrippa (vol. 1, p. 597), the word is broken over two lines of text, and for this reason is hyphenated as "BENE-DOEFET" If the hyphen were overlooked, or if it were pale or missing entirely from the copy, it would be inevitable that the single word
be mistaken for two words. This must have been the case in Lovecraft's source text.

  (The Case of Charles Dexter Ward)

  Spell in the Book of Ebon, which Daniel Morris contemplated using against Arthur Wheeler.

  (The Man of Stone)

  A minor convocation of witches, or in Lovecraft's fiction, of devil worshippers.

  (The Diary of Alonzo Typer)

  The intoxicated followers of the Greek god Dionysos invoked the god by repeatedly shouting the phrase "lo! Evoe!"

  (The Electric Executioner)

  An occult ritual conducted on top of Thunder Hill in the state of New York by Daniel Morris, the descendant of the notorious wizard Nicholas Van Kauran.

  (The Man of Stone)

  A cult of Kurdish devil worshippers of the Yazidi clan, who were apprehended by federal authorities at Red Hook, in the state of New York, used this barbarous name in their chant of evocation to the demoness Lilith: "0 friend and companion of night, thou who rejoicest in the baying of dogs and spilt blood, who wanderest in the midst of shades among the tombs, who longest for blood and bringest terror to mortals, Gorgo, Mormo, thousand-faced moon, look favourably on our sacrifices!"

  Lovecraft derived this text directly from the invocation to Hecate, under her alternative title "Bombo" (more properly "Baubo"), recorded by St. Hippolytus of Rome (c. 170-c. 236) in the fourth book of his Philosophumena (bk. 4, ch. 35): "Come infernal, terrestrial, and heavenly Bombo, goddess of the broad roadways, of the crossroad, thou who goest to and fro at night, torch in hand, enemy of the day. Friend and lover of darkness, thou who doest rejoice when the bitches are howling and warm blood is spilled, thou who art walking amid the phantoms and in the place of the tombs, thou whose thirst is blood, thou who doest strike chill and fear in mortal hearts, Gorgo, Mormo, moon of a thousand forms, cast a propitious eye on our sacrifice."

  (The Horror at Red Hook)

  A ritual that Daniel Morris, a descendant of the infamous wizard Nicholas Van Kauran, asserted was to be conducted atop Thunder Hill in the state of New York to "open the gate."

  (The Man of Stone)

  A curse that occurs in the Book of Eibon. Daniel Morris, a descendant of the infamous wizard Nicholas Van Kauran, found it in the book, which had belonged to his uncle Hendrik Van Kauran, having been passed down from Nicholas to his grandson William Van Kauran, who carried the book across the Atlantic to the United States. The curse is said to have unpleasant consequences with regard to the appearance and odor of the person on whom it is cast. Morris contemplated using it on the sculptor, Arthur Wheeler, because he believed the sculptor was having an affair with his wife.

  (The Man of Stone)

  Also known as Hallowmass, Hallow Eve, and Samhain, a pagan festival. It was on Halloween that Lavinia Whateley and her infant son, Wilbur, who was sired by one of the Old Ones, conducted a bonfire ritual while naked on the top of Sentinel Hill, near Dunwich. In The Thing on the Doorstep, a witches' sabbat is held on Halloween in the pit of the shoggoths, the entrance to which is in cyclopean ruins in the woods north of Chesuncook, Maine.

  (The Dunwich Horror; The Diary of Alonzo Typer; The Thing on the Doorstep)

  In Lovecraft's story The Horror at Red Hook, a demonic incantation is read upon a wall by a police inspector:

  HEL • HELOYM • SOTHER • EMMANVEL • SABAOTH • AGLA • TETRAGRAMMATON • AGYROS • OTHEOS • ISCHYROS • ATHANATOS • IEHOVA • VA • ADONAI • SADAY • HOMOVSION • MESSIAS ESCHEREHEYE.

  Lovecraft characterized this incantation in the story as "Hebraised Hellenistic Greek" and wrote that it suggested "the most terrible daemon-evocations of the Alexandrian decadence." By this he meant the period during which the Greeks ruled Egypt from the Egyptian city of Alexandria-a period during which the magic of Greece was melded with the magic of ancient Egypt. In a letter written in October of 1925 to Clark Ashton Smith, Lovecraft admitted "I bedeck my tale with incantations copied from the `Magic' article in the 9th edition of the Britannica, but I'd like to draw on less obvious sources if I knew of the right reservoirs to tap." He made an attempt at translating the words: "O Lord God Deliverer; Lord-Messenger of Hosts: Thou-art-a-mighty god-forever; Magically fourfold assemblage; And anointed one, together and in succession!" The actual text in the Britannica article reads as follows:

  The magician relies on the power of divine Hebrew names, such as the shem hammephorash or the name Jehovah in its true pronunciation, with which Solomon and other wonder-workers of old did marvellous things. He draws powerful spells from the Kabbalah of the later Jews, with its transposed letters and artificial words, -using for instance the name Agla, formed from the initials of the Hebrew sentence -"Thou art a mighty God for ever." But in compelling the spirits he can use Hebrew and Greek in admired confusion, as in the following formula (copied with its mistakes as an illustration of magical scholarship in its lowest stage)-"Hel Heloym Sother Emmanuel Sabaoth Agla Tetragrammaton Agyros Otheos Ischyros Athanatos Jehova Va Adonai Saday Homousion Messias Eschereheye!"

  Daniel Harms points out in The Necronomicon Files (p. 95) that Lovecraft lifted the incantation from the Encyclopaedia Britannica without ever really understanding its use, which was the finding of treasure. More specifically, it is said by William Howett in volume two of his 1863 History of the Supernatural (pp. 31-2) to be part of a Catholic Church exorcism ritual to release from the clutches of demons a spirit that is bound to the earth to haunt the locality of its hidden treasure. This may have been its stated use, but it could be used for many other purposes, since it is really no more than a string of bastardized Hebrew divine names mixed with Greek words of power. These names and words are to be found frequently scattered throughout the grimoires.

  For example, in the grimoire known as the Fourth Book of Occult Philosophy, the Hebrew divine names El, Elohim, Zebaoth, Adonay, Jah, and Saday occur in a list of what are termed "the ten general names." The Magical Elements of Peter de Abano has grouped together as a portion of one conjuration "Hagios, 0 Theos, Ischyros, Athanatos." In the Second Conjuration of the Goetia, we find the Greek words of power "O Theos, Ischyros, and Athanatos," as well as the Hebrew name "Emmanuel," and the Greek form of the Hebrew name of God, Tetragrammaton, which was extremely popular in incantations in the grimoires.

  In texts of magic, the spelling of words and names often varied greatly, or became corrupted by copying errors. The corrected spelling of the incantation used by Lovecraft would be as follows:

  El . Elohim . Soter . Emmanuel . Tzabaoth . AGLA Tetragrammaton Agyros . 0 Theos . Ischyros . Athanatos . Jehovah - Yah Adonai - Shaddai Homousion • Messias • Asher Eheieh.

  El is a Hebrew name meaning "The Mighty One" that is used as a divine termination in the names of angels, such as Raphael and Michael. In magic, its addition to a name was considered to empower that name with divine force. In this context it means "of God" or "with God." Elohim means "Lord." Soter is Greek for "Savior." Emmanuel means "God is with us" and was equated with God. Tzabaoth (often spelled Sabaoth) signifies "Hosts," meaning the angelic hosts of heaven. AGLA is an acronym for the Hebrew phrase meaning "Thou Art Mighty Forever, 0 Lord." Tetragrammaton is the Greek substitute for Yahweh (YHWH) and simply means "Name of Four Letters." Agyros may perhaps mean "Shining" or "Enlightened." The Greek 0 Theos means "the One God"-the definite article 0 signifies "One." The Greek Ischyros means "Strong." The Greek Athanatos means "Eternal." Jehovah is another form of Yahweh that was used by Christian Europeans. Yah is the first half of Yahweh (YH). Adonai means "Lord." Shaddai is an ancient name for God that means `Almighty." The Greek Homousion means "One Substance." Messias is an older form of the Greek Messiah, from the Hebrew Mashiach, and means `Anointed One." Asher Eheieh is a partial form of Eheieh Asher Eheieh, which means "I Am That Which I Am."

  Since these are simply names and words of power that are called upon, they have no connected meaning that can be translated as a coherent text, so Lovecraft's attempt was doomed to failure. On the other hand, since they are ge
neral names and power words, they may well be used for various purposes of practical magic, the exorcism of a soul that haunts a hidden treasure being only one possible use.

  (The Horror at Red Hook)

  The secret coven name of the black magician of Innsmouth, Ephraim Waite. It was used in the pit of the shoggoths, down the six thousand steps, below the cyclopean ruins with their standing stones in the northern Maine woods where the coven was accustomed to meet and work their evil magic.

  Secret names are used by modern witches and magicians to differentiate their everyday personalities from their magical personalities. They are often given by a teacher to a student, but may also be chosen by the witch. In a symbolic sense, the giving of a new name is a rebirth into a new identity. When priests and nuns take up their avocation, they take on new names to mark the beginning of their lives in Christ. Ritual magicians take a magical name or motto that is used within the brotherhood or occult lodge to which they belong.

  The transcripts of the European witch trials indicate that sometimes, though not always, witches adopted or were given a coven name to be used at the sabbat gatherings. The Devil in the form of the Black Man might baptize the witch in blood at the sabbat and give her a new name, but at other times the members of the coven selected their witch names amongst themselves. Margaret A. Murray wrote that this practice was confined to Scotland (Murray, p. 85), but Montague Summers stated, "The giving of a new name seems to have been very general" (Summers, p. 85).