Hell, Bound: D

 

On to the letter “D” and here we start to observe an interesting intersection between books that exist within Mythos writings and those which are, in fact, real. Lovecraft and his emulators are not above pillaging and co-opting real world tomes for the purpose of their own fantastical scenarios, and this often causes confusion among the lay readership. Be warned though that, while these books appear in Mythos stories, they are often quite different when encountered outside of fictional boundaries. The Book of Dzyan is a typical example of this phenomenon: the book is real enough; its Mythos version is a stranger beast altogether.

These Daemonomaniacal volumes are brought to you by the letter “D”!

*****

Daemonolatreiae (Daemonolatreiae libri tres) “Demonolatry”

“‘Remigius?’ the evil voice boomed forth again. ‘You can’t be serious, Vadász. The Daemonolatreiae is a fraud – didn’t you know? How delicious!’

Vadász stammered to a halt. ‘It’s worked before,’ he said, ‘very effectively...’

The demon cut him off. ‘Yes, against lesser imps and incursions of a minor sort. If it had no value at all, Remigius would never have traded his soul for it, much less published the thing. It had to have enough truth to convince him, but no real power. Your weapons are useless, Vadász; it’s time you accepted the fact.’”

-“The Devil Drives”, Craig Stanton

The Daemonolatreiae libre tres is a work about witchcraft and demonology which was penned in 1595 by Nicholas Rémy – or “Remigius”, his Latinized pen-name – an avid agent of the Inquisition. It is widely considered to be one of the pre-eminent witch-hunters’ texts, along with the Malleus Maleficarum. It is based on evidence gained from 900 capital cases of alleged witchcraft and demonic possession gathered over a 15-year period in the Duchy of Lorraine in France. Rémy himself, seems to have been a somewhat sloppy scholar – most of the material which he cites was culled from files and other documents that he removed from storage and never bothered to return, resulting in the loss of important corroborative material. As far as anyone knows nowadays, he might well have cobbled this book together from whole cloth.

Latin; Nicholas Rémy aka. ‘Remigius’; Lyon, 1595; 0/1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles; Occult skill +5 percentiles; 10 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

English; Nicholas Rémy aka. ‘Remigius’ (Montague Summers, trans.); London, 1929; 0/1 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +0 percentiles; Occult skill +5 percentiles; 8 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****

Daemonolorum

A treatise concerning Egyptian mysticism, penned by an unnamed author around 200 AD. It mentions various obscure and unusual aspects of Egyptian worship including a reference that the gods can transform into human beings. It also discusses a messenger entity known as the “Dark Demon” – most metaphysical researchers believe that this creature is an aspect of Nyarlathotep.

Latin; Unknown; Egypt, 200 CE; 0/1D8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 28 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Summon Nyarlathotep (in its avatar as the “Dark Demon”)

*****

Dagon, Invocations to

A collection of prayers and rituals intended for the worship of the entity called Dagon, gathered together and transcribed by Asaph Waite, a resident of Innsmouth MA who died in the Federal Raid of 1928. Some pages of the text were seized during that event and now reside in the Restricted Section of the Orne Library at Miskatonic University; the balance of the text is held by persons unknown. Several attempts have been made by Innsmouth residents to claim the missing pages – not all of them legal – and all attempts have been rebuffed.

The book appears to be an induction manual for those raised in the worship of Dagon, a sort of catechism text. It prepares the adherent for life during the Change and for an existence below the sea thereafter. In this sense it resembles that other Deep One text – The Teachings of the Esoteric Order of Dagon – but is a much-truncated work, focusing solely on the rites without the dogma. Copies of the work have been encountered sporadically, made from the material held by the Innsmouth denizens and theoretically missing the material held by the Orne Library. Some have speculated that the missing pages discuss forbidden aspects of the Dagon canon – such as the nature of the entity called Cthylla – but until such time as the pages are released to public scrutiny, such musings will remain theoretical.

(Source: “The Black Island” by August Derleth)

English; Asaph Waite; unknown - before 1928; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; 16 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Roll 20% to see if 1-3 of the following are present: Voorish Sign; Summon Deep One; Attract Fish

*****

De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis

"It was not infrequently seen that the dead person in his grave had devoured all about him, grinding them with his teeth, and (as it was supposed) uttering a low raucous noise like the grunting of a pig who roots among garbage. In his work, De Masticatione Mortuorum in Tumulis, Leipzig, 1728, Michael Ranft treats at some length of this matter. He says that it is very certain that some corpses have devoured their cerements and even gnaw their own flesh. It has been suggested that this is the original reason why the jaws of the dead were tightly bound with linen bands. Ranft instances the case of a Bohemian woman who when disinterred in 1355 had devoured the greater part of her shroud. In another instance during the sixteenth century both a man and a woman seemed to have torn out their intestines and were actually ravening upon their entrails. In Moravia a corpse was exhumed which had devoured the grave-clothes of a woman buried not far from his tomb."

-Montague Summers, The Vampire: His Kith and Kin, 1928.

There have been two texts to bear this title: the first was penned by Philip Rehrius in 1679 and little else is known either of its contents or its publication details; the other was written by Michael Ranft (or “Raufft” - possibly a transliteration error) in Leipzig in 1728 and was reprinted in 1734. Both books discuss the idea that dead bodies held within their tombs awaken in hunger to devour whatever they can obtain – their burial shrouds; other bodies; themselves. Of course, this notion is probably a legend designed to explain the effects of premature burial, wherein the living are misdiagnosed as deceased and interred alive. The Twentieth Century occultist Montague Summers made much of this text in his 1928 book about vampires.

(Source: “The Mannikin” by Robert Bloch.)

Latin; Philip Rehrius, Michael Ranft or “Raufft”; Unknown 1679, then Leipzig 1728 (or 1734); 1d2/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 18 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****

De Vermis Mysteriis

“In addition to those interesting notes, there were diagrams of what seemed to be very odd operations ... apparently copied out of ancient texts, particularly ... De Vermis Mysteriis, by Ludvig Prinn. ... The operations themselves suggested a raison d’etre too astounding to accept on face; one of them, for instance, was designed to stretch the skin, consisting of many incisions made to ‘permit growth’. Yet another was a simple cross-incision made at the base of the spine for the purpose of ‘extension of the tailbone’. What these fantastic diagrams suggested was too horrible to contemplate, yet it was part and parcel, surely of the strange research conducted for so many years by Dr. Charriere, whose seclusion was thus readily explicable...”

-“The Survivor” by August Derleth

Ludwig Prinn is said to have been the scion of a great Flemish trading family with connexions to Constantinople; in his own writings, he claimed to have been the sole survivor of the Ninth Crusade, an assertion which would have made him centuries old. Whatever the reality, he was a sorcerer of great ability and had made the Black Pilgrimage to Chorazin on the Sea of Gallilee.

Prinn was a relentless traveller and roamed widely in his search for power. He is known to have visited Alexandria to speak with the priests of the Black Brotherhood of Nephren-Ka and spent time as a prisoner of Syrian wizards in Jebel Ansariye, from whom he learned much about the summoning and imprisonment of demonic entities. He returned to Bruges at the end of his travels, later moving to Ghent and from there to a hermitage constructed from a pre-Roman tomb in a forest outside of Brussels. It was from here in 1540, that he was arrested by agents of the Inquisition and brought to trial on charges of sorcery. While imprisoned, he wrote his magnum opus De Vermis Mysteriis and managed to smuggle it out of his cell in order to be printed after his execution.

The first edition of this work was published in Cologne the year after Prinn’s death; it is considered to be the only accurate printing of the text. In 1569, Pope Pius V banned the work as an instrument of the Devil and copies began rapidly to disappear. This did not, however, prevent other editions being made by publishers with eye to capitalising on the work’s notoriety: a German black-letter edition appeared in Düsseldorf in 1570 and another Latin version was produced in Prague in 1809. The German edition was heavily expurgated and is considered of little worth; the Prague edition was in a very limited print run and has rarely ever been seen: it is considered by many to be a lost book.

In 1789, a copy of De Vermis Mysteriis surfaced in the village of Jerusalem’s Lot in Massachusetts. It was said that much of this copy was written in the Ogham script used by the ancient Druids and thus suspicion has fallen on the book’s identity: either this was some other text and not De Vermis Mysteriis, or it was the Cologne or Düsseldorf edition - in an idiosyncratic transcription - to which additional elements had been added. In any case, this example disappeared along with the citizenry of that town on October 31^st in 1789 and thus, we may never know for certain.

“Watch not the Stalkers, nor seek to know the Spawn of the Woods, for the tainted wellspring which gives them birth cares not for the intruder. Mark well what fate befell Orpheus when the Daughters of Dionysus came upon him deep in the woods. The Black Goat of the Woods spawns and spawns again ... and all the world shall tremble beneath her hooves, She Who is the Ender of Ages.”

-Dead Reckonings: “Behold the Mother” by Richard Watts

Latin; Ludwig Prinn; Cologne, 1543; 1d6/2d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +12 percentiles; 48 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “To Compel the Dead” (Command Ghost); “To Invoke the Bearded One” (Contact Byatis); “To Invoke the Serpent Lord” (Contact Yig); “To Create the Liao Drug” (Create Plutonian Drug); “To Summon Visions of the Past” (Create Scrying Window); “To Compel a Corpse in Servitude” (Create Zombie); “To Invoke a Demon” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “To Invoke a Child of the Goat” (Summon/Bind Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath); “To Invoke an Invisible Servant” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Prinn’s Crux Ansata”; “To Shed the Weight of Years” (Mind Transfer); “A Sign of Power” (Voorish Sign)

German, black-letter edition; unknown translator; Düsseldorf, 1570; 1d6/2d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +6 percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

Latin; Ludwig Prinn; Prague, 1809; 1d6/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +10 percentiles; 45 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “To Compel the Dead (Command Ghost); “To Create the Liao Drug” (Create Plutonian Drug); “To Summon Visions of the Past” (Create Scrying Window); “To Compel a Corpse in Servitude” (Create Zombie); “To Invoke a Demon” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “To Invoke a Child of the Goat” (Summon/Bind Dark Young of Shub-Niggurath); “To Invoke an Invisible Servant” (Summon/Bind Star Vampire); “Prinn’s Crux Ansata”; “To Shed the Weight of Years” (Mind Transfer); “A Sign of Power” (Voorish Sign)

“...O the visions of history that I beheld in the throes of the Liao! Into the minds of my ancestors I was swept. Sorcerers, kings, madmen, labourers, warriors, beggars and still more madmen – these were my forebears. And beyond that, shambling things scarcely able to walk erect, yet still vaguely human. Beyond even that, as all traces of humanity fled from the countenances of my earlier selves – beasts, devils, sibilant scientists ... would there were time I should write volumes on the secret wonders I have seen through eyes dead and dust these millions of years. But the High Inquisitor is impatient to carry out my fair trial and execution and thus, I must discuss other things...”

-Sacraments of Evil: “Signs Writ in Scarlet” by Kevin A. Ross

English translations of the book have been relatively prevalent but have also suffered the hallmarks of unreliability at the hands of editors and translators. The first of these was the version produced by Edward Kelley in 1573: Kelley was a notorious fraud and confidence trickster and his edition suffers accordingly. Charles Leggett produced another English copy in 1821, using the Düsseldorf edition as his source: given that that work was largely incomplete, Leggett’s efforts are of little practical use and the situation is compounded by the fact that very few copies were actually released. Later in 1895, the Starry Wisdom Press announced the impending release of a reprint of the work but no copies have ever been seen: whether it was done at all remains a matter of conjecture.

English; Edward Kelley; London, 1573; 1d6/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +9 percentiles; 40 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: “To Speak with the Dead!” (Command Ghost); “To Create Visions within the Glass” (Create Scrying Window); “To Cause the Dead to Rise!” (Create Zombie); “To Invoke a Demon” (Summon/Bind Byakhee); “A Gesture of Command” (Voorish Sign)

English; Charles Leggett (translated from the German edition); London, 1821; 1d4/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; 36 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

English?; unknown translator?; Starry Wisdom Press, Providence, RI, 1895; No further statistics can be provided as the fact of the book has never been proven.

Spells: Unknown

“Iä! Rhyn tharanak ... Vorvadoss of Bel-Yarnak! The Troubler of the Sands! Thou Who waiteth in the Outer Dark, Kindler of the Flame ... n’gha shugg y’haa...”

-“The Invaders” by Henry Kuttner

The contents of this blasphemous tome are divided into sixteen chapters each of which deals with a different topic of sorcerous lore, the most famous of which – “Saracenic Rituals” – deals with the rites and practises of the Saracens who had imprisoned Prinn during his wanderings. One chapter deals exclusively with the summoning of invisible creatures from the skies. There are chapters on necromancy and divination; vampires, elementals and familiar spirits; tales of Byatis and the Worm-Wizards of Irem; of the Crocodile-god, Sebek, along with operations designed to hasten the transformation of Deep-One hybrids. Most famously, this is the original source of the formula for the infamous Liao Drug amongst Western wizards, and is widely sought-after for this recipe alone.

(Source: Robert Bloch, The Shambler from the Stars)

“Saracenic Rituals”

“In Syria, with my own eyes, I, Ludwig Prinn saw one wizard of Years without Number transfer himself to the person of a younger man, whose Number he had divined; when at the appointed Hour he spoke the Words of the Worm. And this is what I saw... [Editor’s Note: Prinn’s description of the dissolution of the wizard and the investment of himself into his host is considered too horrific and monstrous to permit of any merely casual or unacquainted perusal. – X]”

This is a pamphlet, printed on well-browned and foxed paper of a lesser quality. A small folio edition, there are 48 pages: 22 of these comprise the introduction by the author with the rest making up his translation. The printing is hurried, with many misspellings, and authenticity is determined by a worn lower case ‘a’ impression. Often, when encountered, there are missing pages and those that remain are quite chipped and worn. Occasionally, a careful former owner may have made a special box for it, or may have even had their copy bound.

The text is an excerpted chapter from De Vermis Mysteriis. ‘Saracenic Rituals’ is the best-known chapter of that work, dealing mainly with numerology, and the translator spends much time in his introduction outlining the background to the text and in justifying his decision to translate such a blasphemous work (while simultaneously managing to dodge the question of why he did so anonymously). The actual translation is heavily footnoted, laced with editorial comments and paraphrased where the material is considered by the translator to be “too horrible to reveal”.

(Source: Brian Lumley, The Lord of the Worms)

English; “Clergyman X”, translator; 1856; 1/1d3 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +3 percentiles; Occult +5% or gain 5% in Numerology (Keeper’s choice); 6 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****

Dho-Hna Formula

“Grandfather kept me saying the Dho formula last night, and I think I saw the inner city at the 2 magnetic poles. I shall go to those poles when the earth is cleared off, if I can't break through with the Dho-Hna formula when I commit it.”

-HPL, “The Dunwich Horror”, chapter VIII.

A spell which allows the caster access to the “Inner City at the Magnetic Poles”. What this place is exactly is unknown, although rumour has it that it is the spawning place of monsters. Many contend that it is another term for the fabled city of Yian Ho.

The Formula often appears in two halves, and, as often, both halves are not presented within a single work. It is known that the two halves appear in the Necrononomicon as translated by John Dee and one assumes that earlier iterations of that book will also have this material; but of course, very little is certain in these matters. The “Dho” segment allows the caster to view the Inner City at a distance, in a fashion akin to clairvoyance; it is explicitly stated that using this means of observation removes any danger to the caster presented by the Hounds of Tindalos. The “Hna” component of the spell then allows the caster to travel to the City instantaneously. A word of warning though: experimentation has shown that the Hna formulation is prone to failure and results are often disappointing.

*****

Dhol Chants (I)

This book is said to have originated from the Plateau of Leng. A copy written in Chinese was discovered at an undisclosed location - said to be a monastery - in 1650. Thereafter, copies in English have made their way into various collections, the most famous of which is the copy in the Miskatonic University Library. It is highly likely that the original text may have come from Yian, or possibly Niya.

While the text does seem to have some connexion with the burrowing horrors known as Dholes (and in this sense it may be argued that the work could derive in some fashion from the Ghorl Nigral) it is better known for its 555 esoteric chants which are claimed to have many non-meditative effects. One of these calls forth the ‘Blue Glow’, while others claim to conjure and command ‘spirits’. Experimentation has shown that few of the spells are completely effective while many are downright dangerous. The Spells of Vengeance for example, on pages 101-127 of the Miskatonic version, seem only to take effect after the death of the caster.

(Source: H. P. Lovecraft & Hazel Heald, “The Horror in the Museum”)

Burmese; Unknown author and date; Sanity Loss: 1d6/2d6; +13 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 62 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Command Dhole; Contact Cthonian; Contact Deity: Shudde M’ell; Create Blue Glow; Eyes of the Zombie; Glass From Leng; Lantern of the Fire Crows; Parting Sands; Raise Night Fog; Red Sign of Shudde M’ell; Tyndalon

Chinese; Unknown author; circa 1650; Sanity Loss: 1d6/2d6; +10 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 60 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Command Dhole; Contact Cthonian; Contact Deity: Shudde M’ell; Create Blue Glow; Eyes of the Zombie; Glass From Leng; Lantern of the Fire Crows; Parting Sands; Raise Night Fog; Red Sign of Shudde M’ell; Tyndalon

English; Unknown author; circa 1650; Sanity Loss: 1d4/2d4; +7 percentiles to Cthulhu Mythos; average 45 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Command Dhole; Contact Cthonian; Contact Deity: Shudde M’ell; Create Blue Glow; Eyes of the Zombie; Glass From Leng; Lantern of the Fire Crows; Parting Sands; Raise Night Fog; Red Sign of Shudde M’ell; Tyndalon

*****

Create Blue Glow

Many commentaries on Mythos magic refer to this as a “useless” spell, or one “of little merit”; however, a hard metaphysician who has paid attention will report otherwise.

The spell consists of a droning chant and some hand gestures which must be actuated at night while the moon is down. Casting the spell requires the spell-user to daub ceremonial patterns on their face, neck and chest with the ichor of some bioluminescent creature while chanting. The caster must expend a minimum of 1 Magic Point (MP) during these evocations, and this will ensure that the spell will stay in effect for a period of about fifteen minutes. The spell summons a trailing tentacle of bluish light which emerges from the chest of the caster and slowly wends its way around the location wherein the caster stands. The light will circle the caster, moving ever outwards until the time limit – determined by the number of MPs spent - has been reached. At that time, it will dissipate leaving a faint blue glow in the surrounding area which will fade over the next twenty minutes or so. The caster loses 0/1 Sanity Point in the aftermath.

For this reason, many casters have described disgruntlement with the spell. However, if the spell continues in effect for over an hour, any object made of gold – or gold in its raw form as an ore - in the area will start to glow with a sympathetic light. This includes any object which is hidden from sight, in boxes or bags or hidden niches. Such hidden wealth will also be plainly visible to the caster (and only the caster) who will see the glowing shapes through the material which obscures them: it won’t tell them how to access the gold, just where it is.

Many magickal practitioners deride notions of wealth as a source of true power and this may also be a reason why this spell is seemingly little-valued, but there are differing points of view on the matter. For some, gold is a means to an end, and being able to determine its presence, or not, can be quite beneficial.

*****

Lantern of the Fire Crows

By means of this spell the Taoist sorcerer creates a cage to contain Fire Vampires. The sorcerer creates an eight-sided lantern of brass with mirrored panes and enchants it with 10 Magic Points. When a Summon/Bind Fire Vampire spell is next cast in the vicinity of the Lantern, the ‘Vampire is automatically contained within the cage and remains there indefinitely; with the expenditure of a further 10 Magic Points another Fire Vampire can also be contained: up to 4 ‘Vampires can be so trapped. As each is released, the delayed Summon/Bind spells which caused their appearance take effect and can be enacted as per usual, but with the creator of the Lantern as the controlling influence. If the Lantern (15 Hit Points) is destroyed, all Fire Vampires contained within it are freed under their own volition.

*****

Tyndalon

This symbol is somehow linked to the Hounds of Tindalos and is useful in any attempt to contact or destroy them. Like the Elder Sign, the drawn symbol is useless without the accompanying spell to enchant it; that being said, an unenchanted sketch of the Tyndalon makes an attempt to Contact a Hound more efficacious, the Hound appearing to the caster within 15 minutes, rather than an hour or more.

Enchanting the Tyndalon requires the sacrifice of 2 POW; if a Hound appears within 10 feet of such an image, its ability to regenerate damage is nullified. Further, if inscribed upon a weapon and then enchanted, that weapon is considered enchanted, but only in regard to Hounds of Tindalos and their kin. Note well, that a gun or bow inscribed with the symbol gains no tangible benefits; bullets and arrows so inscribed and enchanted do gain this capability. Grenades and other explosive devices accrue no benefits since – obviously - the symbol would be destroyed in the explosion.

*****

Dhol Chants (II)

A book which attempts to correlate the musical traditions of the Caribbean and West Africa and which presents several songs from both cultures. The songs have been transcribed so as to be performed by an unfretted stringed instrument (such as a violin) or by the human voice. One song, when performed in conjunction with a golden amulet, summons Nyarlathotep in its form of Ahtu, the Congolese deity. The frontispiece of the work is a half-tone reproduction of this item but lacks a caption to explain its presence within the work; since many metaphysical practitioners are eager to locate this amulet, finding a copy of the book with the frontispiece extant is very difficult.

What connexion this work has with the dholes, or indeed with the other volume of the same name, is unknown.

(Source: “Dead of Night” by Keith Herber)

German; Heinrich Zimmerman; 1890s; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +7 percentiles; 17 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: Summon Nyarlathotep (in his form as Ahtu, Dark God of the Congo)

*****

Dwellers in the Depths

A book which discusses the Deep Ones and their deity, Cthulhu. It mentions many aspects of Deep One society – often, frustratingly, in a highly peripheral fashion – along with a lot of similar detail about their spiritual lives. Not much is known about the author: the introduction to the English translation offers a brief biographical note concerning le Fé, mentioning little apart from the fact that he died insane.

(Source: “The Aquarium” by Carl Jacobi)

French; Gaston le Fé; date unknown, c.1910; 1d4/1d8 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +8 percentiles; 12 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

French; Gaston le Fé, unknown translator; 1943; 1d2/1d6 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +4 percentiles; 10 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

English; Gaston le Fé, unknown translator; 1959; 1/1d4 Sanity loss; Cthulhu Mythos +2 percentiles; 6 weeks to study and comprehend

Spells: None

*****

Dzyan, The Book of (aka. The Stanzas 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 by 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 by her spirit guide while in the lamaseries of Tibet; however, no other conclusive sighting of the sacred ‘palm leaves’ has been verified. This has given rise to the notion that the original work exists somehow on a higher spiritual plane and is only occasionally glimpsed by esoteric seekers after its wisdom. According to Blavatsky, the Book consists of fifteen commentaries on the thirty-five books of Kiu-te, however her remembered and re-worked 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 impression we get, then, is that the wording of the stanzas in The Secret Doctrine is not simply a translation of some set text in a language called Senzar, but is rather a restatement for modern students of such parts of the stanzas as Blavatsky herself understood, drawing upon such sources as she had available to make the ideas more comprehensible. That is, The Stanzas of Dzyan, as we have them, are not a fixed sacred text, but an approximation. The version we have is less a translation than a paraphrase. That difference is important for our understanding of what kind of language Senzar is.”

-John Algeo, “Senzar - The Mystery of the Mystery Language, Part 1”

The original Book of Dzyan (pronounced ‘dzhahn’) is supposed to be a translation from a language called Senzar 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 its original form, it is a thoroughly more potent instrument, free of the hashish-blurred rememberings of La Blavatsky. The work is said to have been brought to Earth by “the Lords of Venus”, along with the Senzar tongue and was preserved according to legend in the libraries of Shamballah. There are reports that a copy was discovered in a cave in western China in 595 AD and that copies in Chinese were made from this; one version made its way to the Wharby Museum in England, while another was unearthed in Chorazin, New York. The documented holdings of the Starry Wisdom Church in Providence RI, indicate that a copy may have been held there also, but theft and destruction have place it outside of certainty. 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 other versions, or partial translations, in existence as well.

(Source: Selected Letters IV, HPL)

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 phonetic 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)

*****

Senzar

"…a tongue absent from the nomenclature of languages and dialects with which philology is acquainted…"

-The Secret Doctrine, Book I, Chapter xxxvii

A written form of “Ancient Sanskrit” (Blavatsky, The Book of Isis, Book I, verse 440) which was either developed in Atlantis or brought to Earth by and extraterrestrial culture. Since the exact nature of these “Lords of Venus” is yet to be determined, the true origin of the idiom must necessarily remain suspect. According to La Blavatsky, Senzar is an esoteric tongue imparted only to true seekers of mystical insight and, as such, again according to Blavatsky, is unlikely to be common knowledge. The Theosophical Glossary (p.295) refers to it as “the mystic name for the secret sacerdotal language or the 'Mystery-speech' of the initiated Adepts, all over the world.”

Academic research into the etymological roots of the language have shown that extant writings have been seeded with erroneous factors which deliberately serve to confuse efforts at identifying the origin of the language. Attempts at linking the tongue to Chinese, Pharaonic, or any other terrestrial idiom have all fallen short and a question remains as to whether this is indeed a secret, human – possibly supernatural - language, or if it is a complete and wilful fabrication.

“[Blavatsky] claimed to have received her information during trances in which the Masters of Mahatmas of Tibet communicated with her and allowed her to read from the ancient Book of Dzyan. The Book of Dzyan was supposedly composed in Atlantis using the lost language of Senzar but the difficulty is that no scholar of ancient languages in the 1880s or since has encountered the slightest passing reference to the Book of Dzyan or the Senzar language.”

-Ronald H. Fritze

*****

Eine Studie des Buches von Dzyan

Joachim Feery, son of German Baron and witch-hunter Ernst Kant, 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. It has been widely observed that his translations often contain ‘extra material’ unsupported by the source texts.

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

Feery’s text came into the notice of the Theosophical community who were rather less than impressed with much of the content. They authorised a reprint through their Indian press and took the opportunity to re-work the contents more in line with their stated aims and methods. The book has little value to the hard metaphysical researcher.

English; Joachim Feery: A Study of the Book of Dzyan; Theosophical Publishing House, Adyar India, 1933; No Sanity loss; Occult +3 percentiles

Spells: None

*****

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 amongst occult circles, 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 research had been augmented by material which had come to him in dreams. As a result, the reception of his publishing efforts amongst academia has been universally cool.

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

*****

Vaults of Academia:

DANNSEYS, Peter, (1971), “Disturbing Irregularities in Lunar Photographic Files”, Master’s Thesis, Provo State College

IBID., (1981), “Dhole Dispersal via Interdimensional Dreamlands Connexions”, Annals of the Innsmouth Society 114:114-131

STARR, M.C., (1984), “The Dho-Nha Formula: Results of Experimental Trials”, Proceedings of the International Metaphysics Society 42:10-79

MORIARTY, James, (1872), “The Dynamics of an Asteroid”, publication details missing

SMITH, C. A., (1931), “The Dream of the Spider and the Awakening”, Golden Goblin Press, Philadelphia PA, USA

WASLING, Noah, (1982), “Defeating the Hound of Tindalos”, Proceedings of the International Metaphysics Society 40:101-110