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)
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 31st 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
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