Necronomicon

Rating:
Summary: THIS is THE TRUTH
Review: Lovecraft NEVER Wrote or found nothing about this. He invented it, but he never wrote it. It is just an imaginary book that he used as a reference in his tales, but it never existed, so anything you find like "Necronomicon, by H.P. Lovecraft" (this same book is sold in mexico under the name of Lovecratf) is a fake,hoax, a garbage.

Anyone who thinks the spells really work, is being FOOLED. Any version of any autor claiming it is real or transcripted from an antique text is FAKE. IF YOU DON'T LIKE LONG REVIEWS, THIS IS THE RESUME:


NECRONOMICON DOESN'T EXIST.

Rating:
Summary: Moron believers.
Review: For those of you who simply must believe this nonsense PLEASE TAKE A LOOK AT THIS:

http://www.hplovecraft.com/creation/necron/

Reality is not a bad thing. It really isn't.

Rating:
Summary: Just The Facts Please!
Review: I am saddened by the lack of depth and integrity with the majority of these reviews. Who cares if you believe it is fact or fiction. That is a pointless argument that can't be proven. The point is moot. The real nectar and honey of the matter is based upon practical application. WHAT WHERE YOUR RESULTS?! If you can't answer this question then your opinion is relegated to did you like or dislike the book. I can confidently say that the majority of these posts are by individuals that don't have an inkling of good or bad occult literature if it was to smack them in the face. I can uineqivocally say this is a very interesting book for a serious student of the occult. However one must have knowledge of various diverse disciplines in order to sufficiently enjoy the tasty treat that awaits the ardent student. Pay no attention to the profane and cast their ignorance and stupidity to the wind.

Rating:
Summary: Doubt can sometimes be good....
Review: I have bought this book and read what can be read (otherwise, I'd be shouting 'IA KANTALAMAKKYA TARRA! KANPA!'). I must say that it is an interesting book to check out. But that's the only good thing about it. It is of little use when you are not expecting to actually use the rituals within. And that is why I bought it, for theory, not practice.
I will not comment on Lovecraft, the style, origins or anything like that, all I am going to say is that such a name as 'Abdul Alhazred' cannot exist if the so-called 'mad Arab' really IS an Arab as it is claimed. Being an Arab myself, I can tell you that 'Abdul' can never be followed by anything starting with 'Al', let alone 'Hazred', which cannot be properly pronounced nor has a meaning in the Arabic Language!

But then again, we all know that the Necronomicon is one of the most controversial occult books, and everyone has his/her own opinion. I would suggest you buy it and read it for yourself as i did, since, due to all the conflicting opinions, no review is reliable enough!

Rating:
Summary: You people are missing the point.
Review: OF COURSE THE BOOK IS FAKE! OF COURSE THERE IS NO REAL NECRONOMICON!

It wasn't written to fool you, it's just for fun! So you can say "I have a copy of the Necronomicon!" It's a prop! It's not a hoax, it's not a religious text, it's not a "real" grimoire.

It does, however, read like a "real" hermetic, enochian, or kabbahlistic spellbook. Many of the same themes are present, the seals and gates correspond directly to the kabbahlistic sephiroth, for instance.

The two main differences here are.
1. The Sumerian pantheon is used instead of a Hebrew or Greek pantheon
2. The books is much darker and forboding. The reason for spellcasting here is not to advance in your workplace or get a new lover, as in most modern "real" spellbooks, instead it is supposed to be used to gain power from the "Elder Gods" (the good guys) to keep "The Ancient Ones" from destroying the mortal world.

The beggining and ending written by "The Mad Arab" are a great homage to Lovecraft. This is for entertainment.

If you like the way you get scared reading Lovecraft's stories, you might like to read this book. If you love occult sigils you will love this book. If you're writting horror or fantasy stories, you might find this book useful as inspiration. If you want to learn a bit about Sumerian mythology (you know, MARDUK, slayer of TIAMAT, and all that), there's some of that in the introduction too.

I really enjoyed this book.

Actually the "real" Necronomicon is "The Egyptian Book of the Dead" which is a pretty complete translation of hieroglyphs from the papyrus of ANI which, written about 1500 - 1400 BCE. and aquired by the British Museum in 1888. This book won't give you magic powers either, but it's an authentic religious text.

Rating:
Summary: People actually believe in this? Oh... my... gods...
Review: That books like this still have 4 - 4.5 star ratings is testament to the fact that a sucker is born each minute. Every time a black-clad teenager with dyed hair purchases a copy of "The Necronomicon" it is a slap in the collective faces of his/her parents, Judeo-Christian religion, the last three centuries of science, and public education. And that's just why they purchase it: so many anti-establishment beliefs all bound into one book make for an irresistable avenue to express adolescent discontent.

Let's start with three reasons as to why no sane and educable human being should believe that this book is a credible grimoire:
1) There is no such being "Kutulu," which features prominently in this book, to be found in any Near Eastern pantheon. The name stems from the work of HP Lovecraft. It has nothing to do with "Chthonian," which is traceable back only as far as the Greek word for "earth."
2) Akkadian, the language used in most of the incantations, was lost until the late 18th century/early 19th century and hence there is no way that the purported "Mad Arab" of the 8th century CE would have learned it. Another similar giveaway is the haphazard use of the earlier Sumerian equivalents for a number of the deities mentioned (Enki, Nanna, Inanna, etc.) Sumerian ceased to be spoken ca. 1500 BCE. Even its written form was entirely lost well before the turn of the common era and not rediscovered until the 19th century.
3) The author claims the existence of an age old cult of Tiamat worship. Not a shred of literary or archaeological evidence even suggests such a thing existed.

So why does the book sell?
1) Design. Note its foreboding black cover with arcane curvilinear glyphs and runes unfamiliar to those typical "wannabe occultist" handbooks sporting pentagrams and ankhs.
2) Untranslated incantations. The unintelligible always adds a mystique to religion and the occult, as if the practitioner were tapping into a power greater than he/she could fathom. (Note Pentacostal Christians' insistence upon speaking in tongues.)
3) "The good guys" don't win in the end. God (Yahweh) supposedly can't protect the practitioner if he/she incurs the wrath of the supernatural nasties, helping to make the book's overtones of religious upheaval more appealing to counter-culture.

I recommend this book if your children or little siblings refuse to believe in the standard boogeyman and you are intent upon branding a few scars into their healthy mental disposition. The book offers a novel and effective approach for tapping into and exploiting irrational fear in the simple-minded. See for yourself in the previous heap of 5-star reviews and their appended admonitions to the uninitiated.

Rating:
Summary: Read the book
Review: The point of a book is not whether its true, how old it is, or if it summons demons. The point is good reading. For those people writing reviews, please read the book themselves (like you, ravensmask) before telling everyone not to read it. I don't care if you are a real witch or a necromancer, or a dungeons and dragons geek, read the book if you want it was at least decent reading and dont let people tell you not to just because they have personal biases against it or make up stories to convince you not to. If you think you want to read this, dont let others dissuade you. This is probably something you would find interesting.

Rating:
Summary: WAKE UP PEOPLE!!!!
Review: This book is nothing more than PART of the history of mankind itself. If any of you were to actually do more reading into history and the origins of man, you would know that the first civilization (Sumer) "worshiped" "gods" that "happen to have" the same names as the "mad arab" Abdul Alhazred refers to. It astounds me how naive and gullible you people truly are. I doubt VERY serioulsy if we will EVER truly know the origins and history of mankind but, this book axplains some of where we came from and how "crazy" we as individuals can truly become. The next time any of you "envokes" any of the "demons" from the "spells" in this book, I suggest you ask them what there home world is and why they have chosen to not come back to earth and "teach" us as they did in the ancient times.

If you want more proof, just do some research on the "gods" and dieties of ancient Sumer and the civilization itself. If you can't see the connection, then your all sadly blind.

I bid you all Adieu.

Rating:
Summary: Truth-seekers are always persecuted
Review: This book wil answer a lot of your questions about life, death, ancient secrets, and lots of other things. All you fools who mock it just need to look at your fingers after reading it - they'll be turning black already, as proof of what's happening to your soul! That's why Avon books used a crappy font on cheap newsprint. Yeah, I know it's Avon. But I've seriously communicated with Aleister Crowley, Jim Morrison, and Sherlock Holmes before on Ouija board, and those have a Parker Brothers logo on them.

Those of you who say this is fake simply haven't done your research, or perhaps simply aren't acclimated to various arcane occult disciplines. Lovecraft said he made it up, but he was just covering it up so the people who gave him the information wouldn't kill him - duh! I know cause this friend of mine had a copy in high school - an old publisher's galley copy, with the REAL spells and everything - the version you buy now changes some words so the spells won't work. I mean, people, just do some research. There are things beyond our knowledge, if you just keep an open mind. Is that so hard?

Anyway, he used to do lots of spells and rituals out of this book, and I know for a fact that he was manipulating the forces that are beyond our knowledge, because I saw it myself. He raised demons up out of his basement. He saw visions of the old Gods (who, frankly, are looking a little water-logged after all that time in the sunken tombs in the Pacific), and he made it rain, like, three times. We even built a shrine to Cthulu using the "Squid Head" Star Wars figure, which is actually supposed to be Cthulu (Lucas knows everything. He's read this book. He knows the truth, because, unlike a lot of you closed-minded reviewers, he apparently did some REAL research on Abdul al-Hazred. Once you realize this, Jar-Jar makes a lot more sense.) There are things that happened around this shrine that I can't possibly describe here, but they were MUCH better than the other stuff I got out of casting ancient spells from old books - and certainly better than I ever got when I tried to cast the spells from Harry Potter (for the record, some of those are based on real spells, but most of them aren't, and the whole thing about wands is just ridiculous).

He and I and this one other guy started a circle. He himself, though, went too far into it. I warn you, ONCE YOU START, YOU CAN'T TURN BACK. After about a month he spent most of his time huddled and shivering and chanting the names of the old gods - no kidding. He had to drop out of school, and his parents sent him off to some place. The other guy from the circle learned to manipulate things before they could manipulate him, though - he works for Lleweylyn Press now. I'm only giving this one stars. It would be five, but I'm taking away one because it messed my friend up, one because the font sucks, one because of the letters I'll probably get because of this, and one because I lost a toe in one of the rituals, and that just sucks.

Rating:
Summary: Methinks the Critics Doth Protest Too Much
Review: This edition of the Necronomicon has aroused so much controversy that I can't help but add my two cents. Some of the critics here have attacked the book because they say it's a hoax, that it isn't the "real" Necronomicon, that it was made up. I hasten to remind them that so were the Greater and Lesser Keys of Solomon (no, King Solomon did NOT write them!), the Grimoire of Pope Honorious and many other grimoires, as well as the whole story behind the Cypher Manuscript on which the Golden Dawn is based, the Gardnerian Book of Shadows which was based on Crowley and the Golden Dawn rituals, as well as even the Book of the Law, which Crowley claimed was dictated to him by an ET but which has all the hallmarks of Crowley's own purple prose. Thus, when a critic urges you to read Crowley, Regardie, and all the others he is unconsciously recommending one set of hoaxes against what he assumes is another. I don't mean to devalue the other occultists or their books: falsifying authorship of grimoires is a grand old tradition that goes back centuries! I am only saying that one should be careful of throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Entire occult traditions (including the Golden Dawn, the OTO, the A.:. A.:.) have been built on these other hoaxes, and no one questions them. Why? Because they work. One could even say the same for the Book of Mormon, as the recent scholarship by D. Michael Quinn and others has shown.

Kenneth Grant, the most learned author of Crowleyan occult books and himself a famous occultist and ceremonial magician, has consistently supported the Simon edition of the Necronomicon. In his books, he finds a definite occult link between the entities in the Necronomicon and the entities summoned by Crowley and others. To him, the book is valuable.

The Simon edition of the Necronomicon does not support the "Adul Alhazred" authorship, by the way. The text of the Simon Necronomicon does not include such a name, and as such should not be criticized for this.

It IS popular to attack the Necronomicon, except in serious occult circles like those of Mr Grant. To say that it doesn't work, that it's rituals don't work, etc. reminds me of what Crowley said about A. E. Waite in his introduction to the (hoaxed) Lesser Key of Solomon: "The world of magic is a mirror, wherein who sees muck is muck." A word to the wise.