John Dee’s Necronomicon: Contents & Background


The Necronomicon is the most famous book never written. First mentioned by H. P. Lovecraft in the early twentieth century, it has lingered ever since, a grimoire of occult knowledge cited throughout his stories but never fully described. Lovecraft offered only fragments: a text by the “mad Arab” Abdul Alhazred, translated into Greek, Latin, and, in the late sixteenth century, into English by John Dee.

Our edition of John Dee’s Necronomicon builds on those scattered references. Every mention in Lovecraft’s work has been gathered and set into the framework of what such a translation might have looked like had it survived: an English rendering of the Kitab al-Azif, presented in the manner of a Renaissance grimoire.

The structure reflects not only Lovecraft’s mythos but also the influence of Lord Dunsany, one of his most important inspirations. The result is a vision of existence as fragile, always threatened by collapse should the dreamer awake. Within this context, Alhazred’s journey across the Gates becomes a record of study and revelation that ends with Azathoth, the blind chaos at the center of all things.

Lovecraft left the book deliberately undefined. He gave only brief hints, a couplet of verse or a passing reference. This edition attempts to answer the long-asked question: What is in the Necronomicon? It combines those fragments with the subjects John Dee himself might have pursued as an occult scholar.

The contents range widely. Cthulhu, Nyarlathotep, Yog-Sothoth, Shub-Niggurath, and other Great Old Ones. Lore on Deep Ones, Ghouls, Shoggoths, Mi-Go, and hidden cults. Material such as the Elder Sign, the Voorish Sign, and the Dust of Ibn Ghazi appears alongside rites of summoning, banishment, resurrection, necromancy, temporal concealment, and dimensional traversal. There are sections on R’lyeh, Leng, Carcosa, Mu, Iram of the Pillars, and Celephaïs. Treatises on alchemy, numerology, planetary correspondences, algebra, and celestial mechanics stand beside reflections on reality’s origin, dream realms, spectral hierarchies, and the thresholds of Yog-Sothoth.

Cosmic horrors appear beside the subjects that concerned Renaissance natural philosophers: the philosopher’s stone, the motions of the heavens, and the mathematics of creation.

This Necronomicon is presented as a collectible edition for readers and scholars who want a coherent vision of the book Lovecraft only hinted at. To give a clear sense of its scope, the complete Table of Contents is provided below.

The John Dee Necronomicon Table of Contents

Preface by Dr. Dee – 3
Abdul Alhazred’s Plunge into the Nethermost Chasm – 17

Book I: The Book of Wisdom – 29
The Revelations of the Abyss – 30
A Precarious Voyage Through Shadows of Perception – 46
Madness as Enlightenment – 48
Concerning Those Hidden and Invisible – 50
The Hindsa Numbers – 53
On Algebra – 54
The Celestial Apparatus and the Dance of the Heavenly Spheres – 56
Hermetic Precepts and the Mysteries of Correspondence – 61
The Art of Divination – 65
A Treatise on the Alchemic Art – 70
The Philosopher’s Stone – 71
Sacramental Observances of the Alchemic Craft – 72
Applications and Advanced Elucidation of the Arcanum – 74
On the Art of Bewitchment and the Conjuring of Amulets – 75
A Minor Register of the Underworld Spirits of Terra – 79
On the Obscure Enigmas of the Chthonic Æther and Eldritch Manipulations – 83
The Phantasmagoric Maze of the Daemon Sultan, Azathoth – 85
Protective Measures: Glyphs and Sanctified Utterances Against the Horrors of the Abyss – 94
The Elder Sign – 95
The Voorish Sign – 98
On the Esoteric Dust of Ibn Ghazi – 99
Of Spectral Hierarchies: A Chronicle of the Ethereal Kingdom and Its Sovereigns – 100
On the Invocation, Binding, and Banishment of Abhorrent Beings – 104
The Craft of Incantation – 105
The Enslavement of the Invoked – 106
The Necessity of Exorcism – 107
A Commentary on Malignant Seizure by Malevolent Spirits and Dæmons – 108
Unholy Resurrection and the Plague of the Dead – 109

Book III: The Book of Gates – 113
Alhazred’s Visions – 114
A Revelation of the Gates and the Court That Should Not Be Named – 117
The Delineation of Reality’s Origin – 119
The Lesser Gates and Their Wardens – 120
The Unveiling of Dread Names and the Secret Lore of the Abyss – 121

The First Gate: Yabou – 137
The Dream Realm – 141
A Treatise on the Netherhewn Redoubt and the Genesis of the Abyss – 144
Alhazred’s Journey Beyond the First Gate 1 – 154
Frost-Written Portals from the Waking World to the Peaks of Mount Kadath – 157
Lament of the Rimebound – 158
Chronicles of the Ancient Horrors and Dark Legacies of the Elder Ones – 159
On Shoggoths and Their Unholy Evolution – 162
Epistles of the Noct-Feyne and Its Dreadful Dominion – 165
On the Invocation of the Noct-Feyne – 168

The Second Gate: The Darkness Profound: Magnum Tenebrosum – 169
On Iram of the Pillars – 174
The Court of Blood in Iram and the Passage of the Second Gate – 178
The Fall of King Asim and the Kingdom of Qadara – 182

The Third Gate: The Dreaded, Supreme Governor: Magnum Innominandum – 185
The Way into Mu Through the Dream Realm – 191
The Heavenly Polis of Celephaïs – 193
The Master of Dreams, Abuion – 195
The Fall of Mu and the War Against Atlantis – 196

The Fourth Gate: The Incarnation of Lunacy: Nyarlathotep – 225
An Assembly of Perceptible Presentments of Nyarlathotep – 231
The Profane Gospel of the Crawling Chaos – 233
Of the Oculis of the Scribe – 234
Invocations and Conjurings Related to Nyarlathotep – 235
A Chronicle of the Bhölg’s Wrath – 242
The Shining Trapezohedron – 244
The Unholy Heights of Leng – 246
The High-Priest Whose Description Is Forbidden and the Potentate of Leng – 253
The Jade Soul Amulet and the Black Barghests – 254
The Fourth Gate of Lost Carcosa and of Hastur, the King in Yellow – 260
On the Poetic Doom of Ziyad ibn Ziyad – 269

The Fifth Gate: The Twins of the Pit: Nug & Yeb – 271
The Children of Al’val Had – 275
The Monoliths of Jabal al-Lawz – 278
The Offering of Memoirs – 283

The Sixth Gate: The Womb Transcendent: Shub-Niggurath – 287
Invocations and Conjurings Related to Shub-Niggurath – 293
The Rite of the Essential Salts – 298
On Risen Corpses and Darkened Souls – 301
A Most Certain and Dreadful Account of the Shadow Wraith – 303
The Mylinga – 305
The Syren-Fiend Known as the Qarinah – 308
A Notice Upon the Malefic Shayatin al-Layl – 311
The Mi-Go, or Fungus from Yuggoth – 313
Of the Fleshloom – 317
The Perilous Traverse Betwixt Mortality and the Sixth Gate of Abysmal Terrors – 325

The Seventh Gate: The Loathsome Slumberer: Tsahgolath – 332
The Gluttony of the Abyss – 335

The Eighth Gate: Arch-Hierophant of the Great Old Ones: Cthulhu – 342
Upon the Sinister Linguistics and Inscriptions of Profane R’lyeh – 349
A Glossary of the Abyssal Words and Their Meanings – 355
An Examination of the Abhorrent Sect of Cthulhu – 358
A Treatise on the Etheric Leviathans of the Starry Skies, Ministers unto Cthulhu – 363
The Damnable Dagon and the Deep Ones – 367
The Anthem of Heltun’s Valor – 371
The Dread Voyage Through the Eighth Gate – 376
A True Account of the Most Terrible Equilibrium Betwixt Rats and the Poor – 382

The Ninth Gate: The Progenitor of Ghouls: Shaurash-ho – 383
A Chronicle of the Al-Ghul and Their Loathsome Appetites – 387
The Ghastly Rites and Forbidden Communion of the Ghoul Sects – 393
The Azure Plague – 396
On Mortal Demise and the Dim Realms Beyond – 398
Of Death and the False Return – 404

The Tenth Gate: The Key, the Final Guardian: Yog-Sothoth – 405
Invocations and Conjurings Related to Yog-Sothoth – 410
The Splitting of the Boundless Æther – 416
Otherworldly Realms and Chimeric Visions of the Daemon Sultan – 419
The Shambler Betwixt the Spheres – 422
Evocation, Ensnaring, and Expulsion of Dimensional Shamblers – 424
The Perilous Perceptions of Yog-Sothoth – 428
The Rite of Temporal Concealment – 431
The Thresholds of Yog-Sothoth – 434
The Secret Beyond the Tenth Gate – 438

The Pinnacle, The Porta Ultima: Azathoth – 449
The Transcendence of the Spectral Voyager Beyond the Porta Ultima – 455
Invocations and Conjurings Related to Azathoth – 461
The Song of Azathoth – 464
A Dire Warning from Dr. Dee – 465

Book V: The Book of Darkness – 469
The Shards of the Æther – 470
The Dread Bargain: A Warning Against the Siyaad – 471
Revelations of Eldritch Corruption – 474
The Crawling Ones – 478
A Ghostly Expedition into the Catacombs of the Nameless City – 481
The Sorcerer Jangus Vakuli – 487
The Ethereal Boundaries and the Creatures That Wander Beyond – 490
The Damnation and Burial of Sorcerers – 492
The Shadow of Al-Madinat al-Mu’allaqa – 495
The Inkthirst – 498
The Curse of Ib and the Wrath of Bokrug – 499
The Veil of Zill al-Awmida – 502
Men-Nefer: The Eternal City of the Undying Pharaohs – 504
The Accursed Tribe That Dwelleth Below – 508
The Elixir of Life and Unlife – 512
The Vigil of the Servants of Suleiman – 518
The Archive of Ythar-Kal – 520
The Devilry of al-Baali’ah – 523
The Ephemeris of the Unspeakable – 525
Abdul’s Warning – 558
Postscriptum – 560