Top critical review
3.0 out of 5 starsThe Solomonic version
Reviewed in the United States on February 24, 2013
I have two Necronomicons: this one by "Simon" and the version written by Donald Tyson. Both, you must realize, are "fictional" or mythical accounts, but please also realize, all myth began as fiction! The everyday, "solid" deities of the Teutonic/Norse pantheon, for instance -- Frey and Freyja, Thor and Odin -- these began in "fictional" mythology. To call something "myth" does not mean it isn't real -- it means, this is ONE way of approaching and working with elements, spirits, deities, demons, archetypes-gods that live within what we call the "Otherworld" aka the Psyche (which is not limited to what any one person has inside themselves).
THis version by Simon follows a Solomonic approach, an approach issuing out of the tradition of Ceremonial Magic, and Simon pays his respects to Aleister Crowley. The result is, like Ceremonial Magic as a whole, in my view rather more male-oriented than feminine. What results is something dualistic -- the "good" gods, here termed the Elder Ones, against the "bad" ones, here called the Ancient Ones. Considering that Chthulhu, the "Worm" god, is equated with Tiamat, the actual Serpent Goddess of Sumerian myth, there is an unfortunate equating of "evil" with the feminine, chaotic, and chthonic elements of deity, and of psyche. The book as a whole abounds with the male orientation of attempting to impose "order" upon chaotic Nature, equated with the Ancient Ones and Chthulhu. Of course we do need order, but we also need chaos. All order and no chaos makes Jack a very dull boy.
The "demonic" spirits associated with the Ancient Ones are essentially viewed as the "dark" parts of our own psyches, which, because they exist in all of us, can be viewed as deities/demons in themselves. This book is less a real guide on how to work magically with these demons, than a story from one man, the "Mad Arab", who like many modern men cut off from all their feelings, apparently had no ability to enter into any meaningful relationship with either Elder Ones or Ancient Ones, or any spirits at all. Thus he laments, in the last chapter of the book, "What God have I offended? What Goddess? ...I have traveled on the Spheres, and the Spheres do not protect me. I have descended into the Abyss and the Abyss does not protect me. I have walked to the tops of mountains, and the mountains do not protect me." (pg 206). Of course, if you travel the world but never travel inside your own psyche and your own heart, this is the predictable result. You can't form meaningful relationships with any part of creation, or any deity. As a result, you feel you are not nourished or protected by any of them.
A important criticism of the spirit of the Necronomicon is its hostile approach to the "shadow" side of the soul, a hostility which ends up becoming a hostility towards the feminine. We must recall that the idea of the Necronomicon issued HP Lovecraft, a man who feared sex and women. This comes from an article by Bruce Lord: "Lovecraft's anxiety over sex and women has been well documented and pondered over by his biographers,1 yet it is rarely discussed in connection with his fiction, apart from the occasional note that Lovecraft excluded women in his stories because of the confusion and apprehension he felt towards them. More importantly, the subjects of women, sex and reproduction are almost never connected with Lovecraft's tales of degeneration and the racism that underlies them." Lovecraft's sense of horror can be tied to his misanthropy and his equation of the feminine and chaotic elements with his misogyny. WOmen do not seek to SLAY our inner dragons as much as befriend them, and learn to enter into dialogue with them, and this is a far more effective way to work with what, after all, are just other parts of our own selves.
On the other hand, working with demons is often difficult, and they can appear very frightening, sordid, slimy, and torment us. Writings like the Necronomicon can validate that sense of forboding and even horror that they can awaken. Yet I prefer a Necronomicon story (which seems to have not yet been written: I think a woman would have to write it) which results in learning the wisdom on how to keep the ANcient Ones where they belong, but also how to tap into their power and learn their teachings. IN other words, a Necronomicon of real Alchemical growth and integration, instead of simply spending one's life holding a nameless horror at bay, as Lovecraft did until he died of cancer and malnutrition -- (which might cause one to wonder if he died of the "worm" he abhorred...)