The Book of Dzyan

“An Archaic Manuscript – a collection of palm leaves made impermeable to water, fire and air, by some specific unknown process – is before the writer’s eye...”

-‘Proem’, The Book of Dzyan, Helena Blavatsky

Referred to by Mme Blavatsky as essential to her Theosophist theories and forming the core to her magnum opus The Secret Doctrine, the original of this work has never been authenticated. In much the same fashion which von Junzt purportedly encountered the Ghorl Nigral, Blavatsky claims to have been given glimpses of the original and to have had portions quoted to her while in the lamaseries of Tibet; however, no other conclusive sighting of the sacred ‘palm leaves’ has been verified. Blavatsky’s remembered interpretations take the form of a Proem (or introduction), seven stanzas entitled Cosmic Evolution, twelve stanzas entitled Anthropogenesis and nine stanzas entitled Theogenesis, left incomplete by Mme Blavatsky and finished after her death by her followers. These are normally found within The Secret Doctrine but are occasionally found published separately as the Stanzas of Dzyan.

The original Book of Dzyan (pronounced ‘dzhahn’) is supposed to be a translation from the Atlantean tongue into the Tibetan idiom of a work detailing the evolution – both physical and spiritual – of the pre-human, human and other races dwelling upon the Earth. In this form it is a thoroughly more potent instrument, free of the hashish-blurred rememberings of La Blavatsky. The existence of an anonymous English translation with no known publication details implies that Blavatsky was probably not the only spiritual seeker to have encountered the text; it is highly likely that there are Chinese versions, or partial translations, in existence as well.

(Source: H. P. Lovecraft, Selected Letters IV)

English; translator unknown; mid- to late Nineteenth Century; Sanity loss: 1d3/1d6; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; average 14 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Dreams of the Mother-water” (Contact Deity: Cthulhu); “Call Forth the Self-Born” (Summon/Bind Dark Young); “Call Forth the Egg-Born” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “Call Forth the Chhaya!” (Summon/Bind Dimensional Shambler)

Tibetan (Lhasa/Ü-Tsang dialect), written in the Devanagari script; transliterator unknown; date unknown; Sanity loss: 1d4/1d8; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; average 40 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Dreams of the Mother-water” (Contact Deity: Cthulhu); “Call Forth the Self-Born” (Summon/Bind Dark Young); “Call Forth the Egg-Born” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “Call Forth the Chhaya!” (Summon/Bind Dimensional Shambler)

Chinese; translator unknown; date unknown; Sanity loss: 1d4/1d8; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; average 30 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Dreams of the Mother-water” (Contact Deity: Cthulhu); “Call Forth the Self-Born” (Summon/Bind Dark Young); “Call Forth the Egg-Born” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “Call Forth the Chhaya!” (Summon/Bind Dimensional Shambler)

Chinese, partial translation; translator unknown; date unknown; Sanity loss: 1d2/1d4; Cthulhu Mythos +1d6 percentiles; average 12 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “Dreams of the Mother-water” (Contact Deity: Cthulhu); plus one of the following: “Call Forth the Self-Born” (Summon/Bind Dark Young); “Call Forth the Egg-Born” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “Call Forth the Chhaya” (Summon/Bind Dimensional Shambler)

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Joachim Feery (????-1934)

Feery was the son of the German Baron Ernst Kant and, like his father, a dedicated researcher of the supernatural. Feery had a more theoretical approach to his studies however, unlike his father who died in a Westphalian asylum, claiming that a demonic entity named Yibb-Tstll had taken control of his mind.

Feery is mainly known for the series of limited edition books which he printed, each an extended commentary on a particularly notorious book of forbidden lore with annotations and quotations. These works include The Book of Dzyan, the Cthaat Aquadingen, De Vermis Mysteriis and, most infamously, the Necronomicon. These publications have expanded the range of these hard-to-access tomes and are often utilised by hard metaphysicians where the original texts are unavailable.

A word of caution, however: while generally well-received, Feery’s books were examined by other authorities on these works and his quotations and supplementary material were found to be somewhat at odds with the original matter, if not entirely unsupported by the text. His response was that his researches had been supplemented by material which had come to him in dreams. As a result, the reception of his publishing efforts has been universally cool.

Eine Studie des Buches von Dzyan

Joachim Feery released a number of self-published books with titles similar to this one, including a commentary on the Necronomicon and Notes on the Cthaat Aquadingen. Many people have observed that, despite enough evidence to show that he had actually encountered the tomes about which he wrote, there is an abundance of ‘extra material’ contained within these monographs; Feery claimed that the extra information was revealed to him in dreams.

(Source: Brian Lumley, “An Item of Supporting Evidence”)

German; Joachim Feery; circa 1930; Sanity loss: 1/1d3; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; Occult Skill +3 percentiles; average 3 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: (Roll INTx1 to see if one only of the following spells is detected within the discussion and revealed through inference) “Träume des Mutterwassers” (Contact Deity: Cthulhu); “Benennen Sie weiter das Selbst-Geborene” (Summon/Bind Dark Young); “Benennen Sie weiter das Ei-Geborene” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “Benennen Sie weiter das Chhaya!” (Summon/Bind Dimensional Shambler)

A Study of the Book of Dzyan

A year after its initial German release, a hand-written translation circulated through Cambridge University in England; almost inevitably, it found its way into print in 1933 and sold sporadically to those in the know. It has suffered markedly from its clandestine handling.

English; Joachim Feery (unknown translator): A Study of the Book of Dzyan; 1933; 0/1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +1 percentile; Occult +3 percentiles

Spells: None