New Book By Simon Options

I just wanted everyone to know there is a new book coming out by our old friend Simon. Yes the same author of the Necronomicon.

The title of the new book which is Dead Names : The Dark History of the Necronomicon has been out for awhile and it is still not released as of yet BUT they have finally released a picture of the book and a quick overview.

Here is the picture of the new book:

(IMG:http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v235/Frater_Nero/newbook.jpg)

and here is the Book Description:


The most feared, fascinating, and dangerous book in the history of humankind . . . Necronomicon

An ancient Arabic text -- a powerful book of spells that could, in the wrong hands, create unimaginable and irreversible devastation -- the Necronomicon featured prominently in the stories of legendary horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. For many generations, few believed it to be anything other than pure fiction.

But in 1972, a young man who, for his own protection, must be known simply as "Simon," stumbled upon an old, handwritten manuscript that ultimately proved to be an authentic edition of the unholy work.

Dead Names is the startling true account of the dark and violent history of this most fearsome of books: from its Middle Eastern origins to its reemergence centuries later; its role in pivotal events of the twentieth century, from the JFK assassination to the Son of Sam murders; and the terrible fates that befell those who helped bring the Necronomicon out of the shadows and into the light of day.

Dan and Simon,

Lol dont post too fast because my copy of the book isnt coming in until Tuesday (IMG:style_emoticons/default/laugh.gif) . To be serious for a moment. While I understand that trying to find practicing Simoniconists on the internet (at least those who werent 14 and tripped out on acid) would have proved to be a difficult task (as even today you would be hard pressed to find any of us beyond occultforums and Sacred-Magick), I feel that there should have been more indepth research into the magick of the book. Lol, I am no sumerologist but I think you would be hard pressed to find any magickal system that did not stray, at least to some extent, away from the original tradition. This is by no means a way to say "Dan, because its magick it doesnt matter what it is."....but rather what I feel is a valid point. For example, the majority of western Magickians incoporate the Tree of Life into their Kaballa workings. If memory serves me correctly, the idea of the Tree of Life (at least the actual visual representation of it) is not found anywhere in the Kaballa.

While I understand that the basis of your argument is the scholarly work of the Necronomicon, I still feel that one can not completley interpret even that without the aid of those who work with it. One of the biggest examples that I can think of is your work's comment on the Gates of the Necronomicon. In the Necronomicon there are 7 gates not including the gate of Ganzir. In each gate one is supposed to travel to that God's sphere in a sort of Astral journey. That journey is cleary planetary, so it is safe to assume that we are reaching for what early civilizations would called the heavens. After the Marduk Gate, one is told that the Next gate is that of Ganzir. Ganzir is revealed to be the gate of the black earth, or in other words, hell. It is thought to be a downward journey. In Inanna's decent, she passes through several sub gates until reaching Ereshkigal. What we, essentially, have here is a long journey to the heavens and then back down to the depths of the underworld. It would appear to me to be much like the Kaballist's journey up the Tree of Life and then back down the Tree of Death. To say that the whole journey is the Tree of Death would be like saying that if I flew to Canada, then to Mexico, I flew south the whole way.

Please understand for a moment that I am not attacking you book, but rather stating that arguments toward the validity of the Necronomicon fall a bit incomplete until, at least some, of the Magick of the book is put into the right context. I also realize that Magickal experiences are different for everyone, but there are certain things (such as the Gate process...perhaps not the experiences but at the least the process) which are held for every system. A Kaballist would not skip around on the Tree of Life, but rather work each sphere in it's own order, for example.

Ashnook

Ashnook,

It's difficult for me to answer your question, because we probably have quite different responses . I haven't practiced the gatewalkings myself, so that certainly can't factor into the equation. I think, based on the terms of symbolism and myth, we have proved our point. In fact, we might be on even better footing than I'd thought three days ago, but I'll have to look into that some more.

No book can ever be complete as some readers would want. All I can say at this point is that, if you think our book leaves an important gap, you should write something to close it.

Dan