The Gates of the Necronomicon by Simon

The Gates of the Necronomicon by Simon

Author:Simon [Simon]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 978-0-06-204624-6
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2006-03-14T16:00:00+00:00


The Celestial Calendar

The timing of the ascent to the Dipper, the Celestial Gate, is important. After death, in cultures as diverse as Tibet and Egypt, there is a certain waiting period (a period of time) that it is necessary to observe before the spirit of the dead individual can be expected to achieve immortality (or become reborn). Thus, the concept of the Underworld is both that of space (it is a specific location: an underground cavern or a mysterious fortress) and of time (the forty-nine—7 × 7—days of Tibetan Buddhism, for instance, or the seventy—7 × 10—days of the mummification process).

This space-time quantum is reinforced in the instructions we find in the Necronomicon, and in no other place is it explained so clearly. While pagan religions in Europe actually observed the same calendar as that employed in the Necronomicon, there is no explanation given as to why those dates are ritually so important.

“When the Great Bear is slain …”

“When it hangs from its tail in the sky …”

“The month of AIRU…”

At the time the Necronomicon was being written (not to be confused with the time those rites actually originated, in ancient Sumer), this period of time was—and still is—in the (tropical) sign of Taurus, the sign of the Bull; specifically, the above instructions refer to the pagan festival and Witches’ Sabbat known as Beltane, or Walpurgisnacht; the Cétshamhain of the Celts: May 1st.

To the European Celts this marked the time of the lighting of great bonfires. The Celtic word “Beltane” is derived from two words: tane or tene, meaning “fire,” and bel, a famous term—a survival of Baal—coming to the Celts a long way—from Syria and the Palestinian coast—and meaning “lord.” Thus, the Celtic ceremony is one dedicated to the Lord of the Fire, or, perhaps, to the Shining Lord. The popular associations for an agricultural community were with fertility, for it was the time of Spring and of the planting. Rites were performed on May Eve to ensure good harvests and abundant crops. It was also the feast day of St. Walburga, an English missionary nun who accompanied the Benedictine monk St. Boniface to Germany on a mission of conversion, where Boniface became the first Bishop of Germany. (He is known as the Apostle of Germany.) Walburga outlived Boniface by about twenty-seven years, the latter having been murdered—together with thirty of his friends—in 750 by a mob of peasants (thus demonstrating a certain rough pagan élan when it came to dealing with meddlesome Christians?). These days, however, May 1st is no longer known as a feast day of St. Walburga, but has become replaced by one of the Feasts of St. Joseph, he of the flowering staff. In a related context, another pagan festival—Lammas—celebrated on August 1st has become the Feast of the Chains of St. Peter, commemorating the chains that bound the First Pope in his cells both in Jerusalem and in Rome (he brought his own?), which chains are still on display by order of Nero (!) in the basilica of St.



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