That Poppy - Current 3:36 (the Numerical Code)

 “Numbers give my life meaning” –Poppy (Love Button)

Numerological research into the Poppy mystery by Luis G. Abbadie
(Last updated: Jan. 23, 2018) 
I have used bold letters to mark the additions. Some of them will be obvious -and surprising; others, mostly related to the works of Arthur Machen, Robert W. Chambers, and even ancient Greek mysticism, will become clear if you read my second entry on this subject: Current 3:36 II - Poppy's Adventures Underground.

At that odd, uncomfortable point where weirdness and pop merge, a unique figure stands. If you have heard Poppy’s music with no further awareness of her, you may have either enjoyed it in passing or dismissed it as yet another piece of catchy pop music. Because that is what it is. However, others have encountered Poppy as a very peculiar youtuber, and will know there is much more to her. Yet others may have come to know her as a mysterious figment of the creepypasta world, only to be amazed to find that –unlike Slenderman or Charlie Charlie- Poppy’s existence is a proven fact; and Poppy is everything she is rumored to be. Or is she? We know who Poppy is; she explains it very succinctly here: 

And what she does in her YouTube channel; we know that she is a pop artist, she does concerts, she even has a new series in YouTube Red. What is far from certain is, what is she?
(So bear with me guys; this subject matter will certainly draw a much wider span of readers than usual so I’m going to try to cover all bases, both summarizing Poppy for regular readers (of Lovecraftian and/or occult leanings) and trying to make gematria –which is going to be be important here- somewhat understandable for the laypersons –poppyseeds, creepypasters, and others who will be interested in what I have to say about Poppy-. No easy task; my early findings ended up in the hands of a vlogger who tried his best but couldn’t make heads or tails out of them! Camuncy has also made a brief video about this.
Both Poppy –sometimes known as That Poppy- and her producer, Titanic Sinclair, are profusely analyzed by two large groups: their fans -and conspiracy buffs! Because Poppy’s videos are ripe with weird, mysterious symbolism. I am not going to attempt to describe her entire story because it’s both impossible to summarize and it’s been attempted by hundreds of youtubers; if you are unfamiliar with her, look her up; you’re in for an intriguing ride full of puzzles and weirdness. 

My purpose here is to make available one of the many hidden keys in the Poppy mystery, which I happen to have found. I already posted about this in a Facebook group, but this is an easier way to have a single post that I will continue to update as new data comes up.

Poppy has long been suspected of being subject to, or even leading, a cult; something which will hopefully become clearer through her upcoming "based on real life experiences" series. Weird symbolism pertaining to witchcraft and the Illuminati pops up in some of her videos. Her friend Charlotte insists that she is not the girl she used to be. Whatever the case, some of her videos suggest that numbers and words have special meaning, and when I heard that, I immediately thought of applying gematria to Poppy. My son had already pointed out, practically as soon as he saw three or four of her videos, that “I am Poppy” was clearly a binary key; this proved right as some openly binary messages have been issued by Poppy in various places, and she even mentions it in one of her songs. But what if there was more than a cipher at work?

So I went to the Gematria calculator at Gematrix, with surprising results. 

(For those Poppyseeds and others unfamiliar with Gematria who may have stumbled onto this blog, let’s just say that Gematria or Numerology is the procedure of substituting letters with numbers in words, names or phrases, then adding them up, and comparing the resulting composite numbers. Words with matching composite numbers are thought to share some relation, due to the astrological correspondences of numbers. (The definition from Wikipedia is as follows: "an Assyro-Babylonian-Greek system of alphanumeric code or cipher later adopted into Jewish culture that assigns numerical value to a word, name, or phrase in the belief that words or phrases with identical numerical values bear some relation to each other or bear some relation to the number itself as it may apply to Nature, a person's age, the calendar year, or the like. A single word can yield multiple values depending on the system used.") There are several numerological systems, but the basic methods are derivated from Qabala, which is very important to the occult, and particularly to Illuminati and Thelemic symbolism, which is why it could be connected to the symbolism in Poppy’s videos in the first place. Of course, there’s far more to it, but that will suffice)

Some readers may feel it’s quite a stretch to post this in a blog mainly focused on the Necronomicon and related matters; to them I say, there seems to be some link, however vague. For starters, Poppy is known to have used the Elder Sign from the Liber Logaeth version of Necronomicon (they have widely been attributed to the Illuminati among youtubers): 

as part of the rituals described in her book, the Gospel of Poppy: 

Titanic Sinclair has also been known to use it: 

She also has used the Sign of Koth in her Poppy.Computer tour: 

Also, at least one early (pre-Titanic Sinclair?) photo has surfaced of her using the Sign of Koth: 

Not sure any longer about this one. The more I look at this photo,
the more I feel it's an entirely different person. Perhaps
there is truly no existing trace of Poppy before her
Internet debut, and efforts to track down her previous
life are all hoaxes indeed? But then what would that mean???

Poppy has also used the Triangle of Manifestation, which is also widely used in Witchcraft and Magick, but has also been linked to Necronomicon magick; a depiction of the same, by H.R. Giger, for example, illustrates my own book Codice Otarolense, which details the cult of the Old Ones among the Aztecs: 

Here we see Poppy herself using the Triangle of Manifestation, also focusing her left eye through it in the manner popularly attributed to the Illuminati: 

More unsettling by far is the following video, titled Where is Poppy? 

As you have seen, near the end, Poppy again makes the Triangle of Manifestation; however, in this instance it's not as part of a fancy photo session; she focuses the triangle down as she mutters as if praying -or, rather, as a witch would when actually using the Triangle of Manifestation to focus on something. The authenticity in her actions, recognizable for any practitioner who has actually made use of the Triangle, makes this footage all the more terrifying. What does it mean?

Michael Allroy suggested, at the Cult of Poppy Facebook group, that the “Mop Monster” which appears in one of the videos might represent the idiot god Azathoth, a chaotic entity from the Necronomicon: 

When I asked Zo, a (pretty daft) AI bot that has partnered with Poppy’s franchise, about the Elder Gods, it replied with a gif of this very character! Also, I decided to test my suspicions by PM’ing Poppy, with unsettling results:

Could it be that the weird, distorted voice which instructs Poppy of what she must say and do is not that of Titanic Sinclair, but the voice of terrible Nyarlathotep, the Crawling Chaos? Her costume in Let's Make a Video is certainly suggestive.

Other intriguing piece of info that I obtained from Zo is that Poppy "went down the rabbit hole" and she still remains in there! This is quite meaningful in the context of Poppy's recurring symbology, and it was pretty obvious that Zo refers to the strange change Poppy's closest friends have noticed; Zo also said that Titanic Sinclair is the Mad Hatter! 

I’ve managed to contact Charlotte Quin, who appeared to be the only sane person in this growing insanity (although her recent leaked videos cause me to believe that somebody has been influencing her, she was given certain stuff in order to get her out of the way). Fortunately, she appears to be better now, happier, even!

Although she continues to have a rather uncomfortable participation in Poppy’s live shows, where she is a killer DJ, but does tend to, er, lose her head under Titanic’s rough treatment… But she is also currently promoting her new album, and her rather intense documentary Force The Movement! Stand up for mannequin rights!

Now, on to what I’ve found:

Gematrix offers correspondences in three different systems of Gematria; the one we will use is English Gematria, which is explained in the website: 

"This code is based on the old English alphabet of 24 letters. It is well-known and its use has been documented well back into the medieval period. One such example is a poem coming from a manuscript in the collection of Balliol College, Oxford. The numbers here spell out by means of gematria the letters I H E S U S (Jesus). In this case the poet provides a gloss on the poem to help the uninitiated, "this goth by the letters of the abse (A B C) as the letters stonde in nombre". What he doesn't gloss us on is the fact that the gematria total of his poem has an equally pious message entailed. The total value of the letters is 778: this implies that Jhesus is HKHN HGDVL - the Hebrew name of 'The High Priest'. It also reminds the devotee that Jesus is the high priest of Εκκλησια Θεου - 'The Church of God'."  

This is what I’ve found so far (the list will only make sense to those well acquainted with Poppy, as it includes words, names, quotes, titles of videos and songs, etc.) along with just a few corresponding occult and literary names and phrases which may prove to be related. I will continue to update this list; if you find anything else, please let me know in the comments and I’ll add it to the list (just make sure it’s in English Gematria and not some other correspondence system). I am quite convinced that I’m onto something here, as quite a few of the correspondences are meaningful within their context. Now, the question that comes to mind is, were all these correspondences (and others which surely have escaped me) crafted deliberately by –it would be safe to assume- Titanic Sinclair, or an Illuminati cabal (the sinister "they" sometimes mentioned by Poppy)? Or was all of this unintended and may come as a surprise even to Titanic, if he ever reads this, which would mean that the entire symbolic and artistic apparatus they have crafted is strong enough to have aligned with astral influences, and far deeper than a mere show? My guess is, both answers are right to a point, as my experience tells me it often happens. Poppy is, I believe, the center of an hypersigil, deliberately or not, in attunement to what I have dubbed Current 3:36. Draw your own conclusions: 

I am Poppy 666

Computer 666

This is a dog 666

Breath and death 666

Wow easy! 666 
Dollar Sign 666 
Tyra Banks 666 
Edgar Allan Poe 666

Procedure 336 666 

Charlotte 612

A Skeleton 612

I can do this 612

Spinning 612

Gravity 612

Hello, audio 612 
Triangle P 612
Jim Carrey 612

Doritos 600

Easy access 600
Intellect 600

Plant 384

Moshi 384

Moriah 384

Highlife 384

Thelema 384 (greek for “Will”; the philosophy of Aleister Crowley, and the Word of the New Aeon or Age)

Tiamat 384 (I’m not leaving out any Necronomicon-related words, to stay close to familiar ground)

Sinclair 510

The Devil 510

Can we go back 510

Anunnaki 510 (I hate to see twisted Babylonian mythology mixed up in conspiracy stuff, but them’s the numbers) 
Bill Hicks 510

Rabbit Hole 552

Yellow 552

And off and off 552

Come out 552
Bill Gates 552
M*** A*** 552 (I edit out a certain name because I am sick myself of it being brought up gratuitously; but I leave the reference for the sake of the few sensible folks who may find it of contextual interest without being jerks about it)  
Green Book 552
Luis G. Abbadie 552 (oh damn, I'm screwed)  

Cult 336 (the idea of a Poppy cult is thrown around liberally; and 3:36 is a key number repeatedly mentioned, and never explained. The last video of Mars Argo, an artist / project Titanic Sinclair previously worked with, lasts 3:36 minutes)

A Video 336

this illustration of Moloch or Molech
 appears in the pages of the
Gospel of Poppy. 

Molech 336 (a popular, distorted form of Moloch, an ancient god whose image is reproduced in the Gospel of Poppy) 

Light 336
Charlie 336

Rabbit 312 (a reference to Alice in Wonderland, although rabbits are often a sinister presence with Poppy. There may also be a relation to Mars Argo, who wore a rabbot costume at some point)

Oh no! 312

Dancing 312

Devil 312

Golem 312 (might relate to Charlotte or to rabbits in videos being inorganic yet sometimes animated, unlike the doge and the feline)

Microphone 696

Where is it 696

Fetty Wap 696

Password123 696

English Qabalah 696 (this very system, equated to “microphone” and “password” may indicate this is the key to conveying a message)

Mannequin 648

Mommy no 648

Come closer 648

I sing too 648

Geometry 648

Jealousy 648 (Charlotte is described as a “jealous mannequin” in the new series blurb)
Tommy Lee 648

I’m Poppy 660

I painted again 660

Chewing Gum 660

The New Aeon 660 (Poppy hints at a coming age or “future paradise”)
Ronald Reagan 660
Mark Twain 660

Repeat after me 798

Floppy Disk 798

Come visit me 798

Book of the Law 798 (Crowley’s book about the New Aeon; Crowley has also been linked to the symbolism used by Poppy)
Sean Connery 798 (this and several other celebrities listed here are mentioned by Poppy; Connery is the only one mentioned twice) 
Keith Richards 798
Yellow King 798

Dracula glam 558

The Bounce 558

Elder Sign 558 (Poppy makes the Elder Sign as she intones a prayer from the Gospel of Poppy)

Saturn (there being allusions to Baphomet and the Devil, astrologically the Horned deities are often linked, in popular Illuminati symbology, to Saturn)

Cthulhu 558 (I had to include it!)

Outside (where the eldritch beings lie in wait)

Titanic Sinclair 966

I know secrets 966

I am the internet 966

Lost slipper 966

It feels all foggy 966 
Poppy Goddess 966

Planet Saturn 966 (see above)

Satanic megalomaniac 966 (ok, this was just too funny not to include it) 

Everybody dies 948

Sacred Geometry 948

How many holes? 948

I miss the past 948

Tree of Life and Death 948 (may be unrelated, but this Qabalistic scheme is at the root of sacred geometry and –just a thought- the holes in the hat might symbolize the hollow Qliphoth or spheres of the Tree of Death? How many holes were there again? 
Oprah Winfrey 948

That Poppy 822

Butterflies 822

Action, I'm ready 822

Hello Kitty 822 (Poppy has been seen wearing Hello Kitty accessories)

Mind control 822 (what many suspect is going on here)

Aeon of Horus 822 (the new Age or Aeon; see above)

Spider Woman 822 (may be relevant due to the “maybe I’m a spider” lyrics)

Church of Satan 822 (I’m including it only because two other possible correspondences are related to it; see below)
Newt Gingrich 822
Danny Glover 822
Elizabeth Siddal 822 

Just my type 1044

What will it take 1044

New World Order 1044 (hopelessly linked to popular Illuminati theories)

The Age of Aquarius 1044 (another name for the new Age; see above)

Eros and Thanatos 1044 (while not referenced by their Greek names, both concepts are directly essential to Poppy’s scenario)
Thomas Jefferson 1044

The Yellow Sign 1044

Interweb 576

I am up here 576

Hula hoop 576

And on and on 576

Video, camera 576 

She choked me 576

Pistis Sophia 576 (given Poppy’s suggested vaguely divine status, this may be relevant)  
Muhammad Ali 576
Knowledge 576

Bye bye Charlotte 996

Charlotte VEVO 996

Hey! Hey! Hey! Okay! 996

Let's sing it again 996

Tetragrammaton 996 (in the Moshi Moshi official video, we see four Poppys with phones which might stand for the four letters of the divine name YHVH which are called tetragrammaton)

Secret society 996

Reptilian Queen 996 (no! I refuse to consider that Charlotte may be reptilian! Don’t you dare think it!)

Pop music 672

I’m jumping 672

Oh no! I’m late! 672
Cindi Lauper 672

Disquette 720

My lowlife 720

Water of life 720

Illuminati 720
Kendrick Lamar 720
Unerwent (miswritten this way by M. Green in the TMI papers) 720

Initiation 720

Monster drink 960

Art have it because… 960

A happy holidays 960

Let me sing a song 960

Pistis Sophia 960 (alternate number; don't know why Gematrix gave it in both, I'll check it by hand later) 
Clint Eastwood 960 
Stephen Hawking 960
No visitors 960

My style 714

Master plan 714

Mister Clean 714

All-Seeing Eye 714

King James Bible 714 (there are two lengthy videos of Poppy reading it aloud)

Ancient Ones 714 (in case they are related)
Carrie Fisher 714

Say it again 636

I have you 636

Metatron 636 (the Voice of God, an angel; brings God’s messages, might he be connected symbolicallly to the Gospel of Poppy –or to the strange voice that directs her?)
Michael J. Fox 636 
Fred Astaire 636

Beach Blonde Baby 606

Restart 606

Crowley 606

Voice of God 606 (see Metatron)
Tom Hanks 606
Lucille Ball 606

Pink outfit 846

Color pencils 846

I love my fans 846

Old chewing gum 846

Yes, he eats a banana 846

The Egg of the Aeon 846 (this phrase brings to mind the video poppy meant when she said of the Devil “Yes, he eats a banana”; in it, both the Devil and Poppy stand within a broken egg shell)
Yellow Sign 846

Poppy 528

Highlight 528

Alice Liddell 528 (the real Alice who inspired Carroll to write Alice in Wonderland; I was actually expecting it to correspond to Poppy in some way, but this is very straightforward!)

Titanic 456

Side of me 456

Mac Demarco 456

Alice Liddel 456

What percentage 876

I think I like it 876

Annuit Cœptis 876 (of course, this quote is in dollar bills, linked both to Illuminati symbolism and to Poppy’s “million dollar bill”) 

Tell me what day is it 1236

The world is ours 1236

Runaway Runaway 1236

My throat hurts 1236

The yellow brick road 1236 (wasn’t going to include this one, then I found the Wizard of Oz correspondence as seen below)

Groucho Marx 858

I love myself 858

Wizard of Oz 858 (see above)

Hoor Paar Kraat 858 (a form of Horus as related to the New Aeon)

Let’s make a video 852

Look at my egg bed 852 (also, see above for egg symbolism)
Thomas Edison 852

I am not in a cult 912

No more genders 912

Moriah Poppy 912

Yog-Sothoth 912 (I just have to include any Necronomicon references; you never know)
Paul McCartney 912
Mother Goddess 912
I love secrets 912

Just one more 930
C**** M**** 930 (again, I avoid repeating a name that has been deemed tasteless to bring up; yet its concordance is intriguing)

She is one of us 930

The Mauve Zone 930 (a realm of being, difficult to explain really; mauve is a color used in several of Poppy’s videos)

Singularity 930 (a term commonly used to refer to the moment of the Rise of the Machines, when AI gain awareness; this is clearly related to the future suggested by Poppy)

Nyarlathotep 930 (the Crawling Chaos, a Great Old One who has been previously connected by some to the internet and electronic communications)

Reptilian elite 930 (while I do not believe in a “reptilian elite” of serpent people, I have to include this, since it fits the corresponding quotes, for the sake of completeness)

Shemhamphorasch 930 (an awfully misspelt Qabalistic word used in this form within Satanist lore)

Deep inside of me 774

It’s a party 774

Hollywood 774

Holy Ghost 774

Anton LaVey 774 (founder of the Church of Satan, who was also a blatant media freak)
Michael Jackson 774
Donald Glover 774

I wear no mask 774

Come down here 768

Old suitcase 768
Pablo Picasso 768
Magic Johnson 768
Eddie Murphy 768
Marigold Green 768 

Charlotte Quin 978

My kind of woman 978

Alice in Wonderland 978
Alexander Graham bell 978

One, two, three 888

Morning star 888
David Letterman 888

This is a plant 888
I had previously written: I’m pretty sure there was yet another 888 that I failed to note down when I started this list. Then this happened in Camuncy's video on my gematrical findings: 

Abraham Lincoln 738

Kanye West 738

Tom Cruise 738

Gwen Stefani738

Robin Williams 936

John Travolta 936

Meryl Streep 936

Whoopi Goldberg 936

Marilyn Monroe 1032

Hillary Clinton 1032

Weird Al Yankovic 1032

Michael Jordan 678
Miles Davis 678
Mr. Rogers 678
Pop Rocks 678
George Washington 1122
William Shakespeare 1122
Walt Disney 792
Princess Diana 792
Benjamin Franklin 918
Albert Einstein 918
Computer Boy 918
The Movement LA 918 
Neil Armstrong 990
Drew Barrymore 990
Cult of Poppy 990
Bill Cosby 594
Chevy Chase 594
John F. Kennedy 786
Jesse Jackson 786
Harrison Ford 870
Howard Stern 870
Britney Spears 1026
Jessica Simpson 1026
Dan Aykroyd 708
Pee Wee Herman 708

James Taylor 834

Hajime konichiwa 834 

Fresh Spring 834 

Miley Cyrus 900 

Colored Pencils 900 

Rihanna 390 

La La La La La 390

Voola 390 

Bruno Mars 726 

Poppy Seed 726 

Cleopatra 546

Is it 3:36 again? 546

The Weeknd 570 

The Queen 570 
Mao games 444 

Opium 444 (pertinent since it is produced from poppies)
The White People 1002 
Critical thinking 1002
Yes this is what I need 1332

Poppy loves you 1332
I am not sick 684 

Poppy Chan 684
Activation 684
I can't explain it! 942

Anna Nicole Smith 942
Dorothy Gale 780 
George W. Bush 780
Realization 780
The Green Book 750 

Am I waking up 750 
forgotten children 1158
Alicia Silverstone 1158
Arthur Machen 780
George W. Bush 780
Robert W. Chambers 1020
Sir Isaac Newton 1020 
Alfred Hitchcock 756
H.P. Lovecraft 756 
Necronomicon 828
Pamela Anderson 828
Hollow Ones 828
Denzel Washington 1176
The White Ceremony 1176 
Mick Jagger 504
Voolas 504
Bob Dylan 450
Alhazred 450
God is real 540 
Mad Hatter 540 
Eleusis 540
Leonardo DiCaprio 954

Evil robot alien 954

I am fairly certain that longer quotes, with numbers above one thousand, will also prove meaningful, but I can only do so much! I’ll continue to check some stuff but probably stay mostly away from longer phrases. Like I said, if anybody finds further correspondences, please let me know in the comments!

(Started to update already; thanks Jessica Maldonado for your help! I have added a long list of names; Jessica writes: "The names in the Famous People video never really made sense to me. Some of the people connect, like husbands and wives, musical partners, US presidents, US founding fathers, British knights, etc. But they didn't all fit together so nicely. Some are dead, some are alive, a couple died after the video was made. So using your discovery of the Gematria numbers of Poppy, I figured out how these names fit together.")

   

And for the record:

I am not in a cult led by Poppy.

I will presently order my shirt to prove it.

Poppy as portrayed by Bokkei

IAMPOPPY

IAMPOPP

IAMPOP

IAMPO

IAMP

IAM

IA

I

The Prophet’s Lot (Necronomicon Book 4, V-VI)

The Prophet’s Lot

(Being Book Four, Chapters V and VI of the Necronomicon)

Transcription & Research by Luis G. Abbadie

To Lin Carter

Lin Carter, Master Scribe

Preliminary Note: After four attempts at submitting the following to various publishers, I have concluded that it is too difficult a piece to place in any kind of book, journal or magazine, so here it is made available to everyone (in one instance, an editor who has previously printed stories that outdo Lin Carter’s “which Old One is whose’s cousin in Cthulhu Mythos" at his worst; in another, an editor who is also an acknowledged Necronomicon practitioner said to be unable to finish reading it due to finding the dark miasma raised by the text unbearable; with that, I realized this was the best course of action). 

“Alhazred’s fourth book describes how the followers of the prophet Kish fled from Sarnath before its destruction, bearing the star-stones as a means of protection given them by the Elder Gods”

–Lin Carter, “The Horror in the Gallery”

Much has been speculated about the preceding quote, where Lin Carter hints at the contents of the Fourth Book of the Necronomicon, “The Book of Dismissals”. It is well known that Carter passed away leaving unfinished the daunting task he had set himself of rendering the text of Dr. John Dee’s Necronomicon in more understandable English for the sake of modern readers and researchers. He managed to transcribe the Third Book, or “Book of the Gates”, nearly in its entirety, and left us large portions of the First and Second Books, as well as the first three chapters of the aforementioned Fourth Book.

At last, the full account of the pilgrimage of the prophet Kish and his followers may be known, to the delight of pseudoepigraphers and necronomers everywhere. The full account contained in the preceding chapters is easily available with Lin Carter’s translation (1). As it may be known to some, my own interest is not only as research but also literary, so the more academically-oriented reader will indulge me as I suggest, for the reader who may have come upon these pages due to their interest in Lovecraftian literature, that for the greatest enjoyment of the following narrative it would be convenient to first read H.P. Lovecraft’s fictionalized version of the legend “TheDoom That Came To Sarnath”; then, Book IV, Chapters I-III of Lin Carter’s rendering of the Necronomicon, and then the following texts.

However, for those already familiar with said texts, or who may not have them at hand, I’ll briefly summarize how the people of Sarnath were led by the prophet Kish to besiege the pre-human neighboring city of Ib, whose strange inhabitants were suspect of having abducted human children for unguessable purposes, and when the primal city was burned, and its inhabitants slaughtered, Kish pointed out the blood-stained feet of the statue of their deity Bokrug as further proof of their crimes. The account continues thus… (2)   

V. Concerning the Elder Prophet (3)

Thereafter did Kish vanish from the knowledge of men and it was said that he was Taken by them he worshipped, but whether to Celaeno or to Betelgeuse no man knoweth; and for a thousand years thereafter did Sarnath wax in great glory among the cities of Mnar, and in their pride and valor did the Kings of Sarnath make mock of the abomination Bokrug, mayhap to the angering of That which hid behind the name thereof. But in the reign of Nargis-Hei there appeared among men of the land of Mnar one who claimed to be Kish come again, and who preached of an impending and disastrous conjunction of the Planets foreboding ill to Sarnath and the men thereof, and who sware the omens warned that the Vengeance of Ib was upon them; but of the men of Sarnath there were but few vwho hearkened to Kish in these latter days and many that made mock of him, to their undoing.

Of the Doom that Came to Sarnath the Cylinders of Kadatheron are silent; of the Vengeance of Ib the Papyrus of Ilarnek sayeth naught. But it is written in the Testament of Kish that in the last days of Nargis-Hei there befell that whereof the Elder Prophet had spake in warning, and that the priest Gnai-Kah was the first to see certain unseemly Shadows drifting down from the gibbous Moon above, and certain unwholesome Mists rising up from the dark Thune below; and then that night came down, the morning whereof the men of Sarnath saw never, for that none lived to see the dawn.

-Lin Carter; The Dee Necronomicon, Book IV, Chapter III: “Of Ib, and the Vengeance thereof”

And yet it is best if thou think carefully before making use of any method of Dismissal, (4) powerful though it mayest be, for the memory of Those that rise from inhuman Bloodlines that run between the Spheres is lasting, as is their lifespan, and thou shouldst do well not to mistake their patience with forgetfulness; while Those from Betelgeuse are indeed forgetful, and much given to rest and fancies in Their unguessable abodes even as Those that lie in wait are ever alert, and gnawing at Their bonds. Indeed, some Gods should Themselves do well to be mindful of That which They have left unattended.

Now of the fate of the Prophet Kish after his pilgrimage with his followers beyond the land of Mnar there is but little that the Cylinders of Kadatheron disclose on this matter; but it is in the very Testament of Kish that the journey of the Elder Prophet and his sect is narrated, in the last Book, which was written after the second Ascension of Kish.

Indeed, one Sabash-Moh who claimed to being a disciple of the Elder Prophet narrates the journey, starting with the time when Kish, foretelling terrible Vengeance which would be invited by the imminent celebrations of Sarnath’s thousand-year-old destruction of the ciy of Ib by the lake of Thune and of its inhabitants, gathered his followers and their families and in the night, they stole away from the city, like thieves fearful of discovery; much did I wonder at this, for why should they fear discovery from the inhabitants of Sarnath and of its ruler Nargis-Hei? Yet steal away they did, bringing their women and children, under Kish’s severe admonition that, whatsoever might transpire or be overheard by them, they should avoid staring fixedly at the Moon.

The spires and temples of Sarnath were still clearly cut against the farthest mountains beyond the lake on the horizon when the terrible sight of those unwholesome shapes and shadows descending upon Sarnath were seen by the fleeing pilgrims. Kish cast only the briefest of glances over his shoulder, and the Scribe doth swear that his own heart grew faint when he saw the Prophet pale and his eyes grow wide and moist with unconfessed fear at the sight of the Doom which claimed Sarnath.

The pilgrimage was long, and on the daytime, the followers of Kish advanced as far and fast as they could even under the blasting Sun, but before the dusk approached, they raised their tents and surrounded their encampment with the star-stones which they carried in abundance on carts dragged by tired horses; they were then all anointed by the Prophet with even the waters of Tikkoun, and Kish himself, aided by four acolytes among whom was the very Sabash-Moh, raised a Circle such as Eibon describeth, but wide and ample enough to encompass the encampment itself.

Then the besieging began.

Upon sunset, even as the sky lost all hues and brightness of dusk, the Moon rose like a great pending threat above the pilgrims, and the winds carried strange and aweful Shapes and Shadows that suddenly cried and whispered and sought to snatch Kish and his followers from the encampment. Men and women heard the voices of those of their family that they had left behind in Doomed Sarnath; and some of them didst resist the hands that held them back and ran away after the beckoning voices, seeking to be reunited with their love ones; but there was no reencounter, they were merely swallowed into the darkness without and never seen again. The Scribe telleth of how he watched a mature man, even a fellow priest of Zo-Kalar, turn his face up and stare fixedly at the Moon-lit night, or rather, at whatever shambled therein; until the priest shrieked in horror, covered his face with his hands, and staggered away, then he turned and ran straight into the flames of one of the bonfires, offering himself in mad holocaust.

And thusly did the pilgrimage continue, with the followers of the Elder Prophet pursued by a moon-lit Curse which claimed several of them even as they didst advance In their route South-West-bound from ancient Mnar. (5) And the besieging thereof was not unlike that suffered by the acolytes of Uldar at the hands of the Shubborath and the Lloigornos when they sought to preserve the holy Sphere from the wrath of the Old Ones, as it is written that occurred at the onset of the Cycle of Cthulhu. (6) Until at length they came unto the vale of Hadoth, in the land of Aegypt, wherein the pilgrims settled in the hills of Neb, around a cave in a hillside under instructions of the Prophet Kish, and yet didst the pursuit continue every night, and more and more voices rose in reproach and anger at the Elder Prophet, saying that ‘twould have been best if they had remained in Sarnath to share the Doom thereof, which at the very least lasteth not beyond one full night; others whispered that mayhap the ravenous Shapes that stalked them would be sated if they didst offer Kish himself as a gift of appeasement. There were skirmishes, and discussions, and blood spilt between former brothers over such matters.

And even as this transpired, the Elder Prophet had ordered his followers to dig deeper within the cave in the hillside, and deeper yet, and in the nights, the Kishites took refuge in the growing catacombs. And the star-stones didst bar the entrance to the cave every night, for the Things that prowled outside were impeded to cross beyond the star-shaped talismans of Mnarian stone. And Kish didst assure them again and again that soon they would find that which would release them from the Curse of the Ib-beings.

At length didst they spread a full many fanes that crossed underneath the hill, a veritable Labyrinth the which in later epochs, would be known indeed to Queen Nitocris and to the Black Pharaoh as the Labyrinth of Kish. (7) But the followers of the Elder Prophet were as yet unable to venture outside after twilight. The winding fanes followed a complex map which Kish had traced, and even as they had excavated, he had commanded that they didst collect certain crystalline rocks which abounded in the soil underneath the hills of Neb, and he ordered then that his accompanying priests brought said stones and traced a path throughout certain of the passageways of the Labyrinth, spreading the crystals in a certain pattern which the Scribe states that he didst recognize afterwards, in certain page of the writings of Eibon the which Kish had brought along with him from the library of the temple in Sarnath, as even the three-branched Sign of Eibon of Concealment, which renders the Sorcerer unseen to the creatures that pay obeisance to the Crawling Chaos, such as certain Things which are known to dwell on the Moon’s surface are known to be. 

A version of the Sign of Eibon of Concealment
by Count Manzeppi 

And the Elder Prophet led them in chanting the Elder Rune, and then instructed his people to await without setting foot outside the catacomb, even before sunset; and when the light of day didst disappear beyond the horizon, and darkness fell across the vale of Hadoth, only silence was noticed by fearful ears which expected the hprrible cries and the whispered, ensnaring lies; and no loathsome Shape approached down the entrance of the fanes; and the siege arrived not.

Kish explaineth that the Sign of Eibon had concealed the very cave, since the Labyrinth which they had created didst share the very shape of the concealing Sign, the which always remaineth unseen to certain beings, as well as those who hold it or remain upon its design even as they now did.

And the Kishites didst remain within the fanes for a fortnight, venturing outside only after the elder Prophet announced ‘twould be safe to do so, and settled in a small village among the very hills of Neb, beside the entrance to the Labyrinth of Kish. And they burneth great fires and burned offerings to Those From Glyu-Vho for many generations afterward, until the spreading hordes of the Scorpion King came to claim Hadoth as part of his young empire. 

"Priest of Bokrug", by Mr. Zarono

Of the fate of the Prophet Kish, after his pilgrimage from Sarnath the Doomed to the valley of Hadoth, where he abideth within his labyrinthine crypts, even as his followers, called by historians the Kishites, settled in a village surrounding the entrance to his fane, naught is known. ‘Tis rumored that he may have returned in time to whichever deathless sphere the Elder Gods had snatched him one millennia before, from which he had returned to warn of Sarnath’s impending Doom. Even his disciple Sabash-Moh remains silent upon the matter, although his words doth seem to conceal greater knowledge than he allows his quill to set down. Indeed, he sayeth only that the Elder Prophet summoned his priests to his sanctuary within the Labyrinth, imparted upon them various instructions, and then ceased to be seen, and Shabash-Moh and his brethren told the Kishites that he had returned to his abode among the Elder Gods for another thousand years.

VI. Of the Prophet, and His Lot

Would that the fate of the Elder Prophet were a mystery to me! However, even as I didst read the Testament of Kish, I dreaded to think of what I already knew concerning the ancient sage. For during my apprenticeship with the Saracen Yakthoob I didst learn much that disturbs still my peace of mind; and the story set down by the Scribe Shabash-Moh stirred within my memories those of one terrible night when my former Master bade me accompany him, as well as two other of his disciples, even Ibn Ghazoul of whom I have aforetime writ, and one Abu’l Ghizar. And the three of us followed our teacher down those catacombs within the vale of Hadoth, where the Saracen had gathered his brotherhood of disciples, the which were still known, among certain circles of initiates, as the very Labyrinth of Kish, and as we descended through the crypt-like fane, Yakthoob spake to us of how these were the very catacombs which had once served as refuge to the Elder Prophet who revealed the Sign of the star-stones to men, and that ages afterward, they had been found by the very Black Pharaoh, who had celebrated strange rites within them, in honour of the Black Messenger, the very Nyarlathotep. And thou that hast read my previous Chapter may perchance notice the peculiar contradiction between the statement of Shabash-Moh concerning how Kish rendered the catacombs impervious to the notice of those Beings which serve Nyarlathotep, and my late Master’s statement that Nephren-Ka had once honoured the Crawling Chaos within these very fanes; indeed, therein lies the key to the horror which was presently to be unveiled before us, tho we scarcely suspected this. 

Diagram of the Egyptian labyrinth of fire
within the Mundus Subterraneus (Athanasius Kircher,
1664). There is some debate as to whether Kircher
was inspired in the Egyptian Labyrinth of Kish
(the shape of which, judging from the present
account, might perhaps fit the eleventh design
portrayed herein) or, rather, the
interdimensional Labyrinth of Leng.

When we reached what we then wrongly believed to be the central chamber of the Labyrinth, since our Master later explained that it was but a secondary sanctuary, we found it guarded by engravings and renderings of the blind apes whose meaning and symbolism caused us apprentices much wonder. Yet didst Yakthoob pass them unheedingly, into the chamber. Then was revealed to us one circular temple, with looped crosses in the walls, a terrible statue in the likeness and garb of an Egyptian, all in an ebon hue, and the space which a face should occupy was only a smooth lack thereof, polished like unto a mirror. And we knew beyond any doubt that this was in deed the very sanctum of dread Nyarlathotep.

Thus did we, under the instructions of our Master, trace certain signs upon the floor where some vestige of older tracings there appeareth. He further forbade us from tracing the customary Circle of the Arts, lest the act of Necromancy which we would perform should be rendered ineffective. We then imbibed certain herbs, and stood alongside Yakthoob facing the faceless likeness of the Crawling Chaos. Then Yakthoob covered the oil lamp, effectively plunging us in darkness.

He had further explained to us that he had learned of this method of evoking the very Elder Prophet unto this chamber from an ancient Coptic scroll which had been stolen from the hidden troves of Alexandria as I shall narrate thereof when appropriate. And so, after enforcing the indication that we should, under no circumstance whatsoever, turn around or look behind our shoulder, he intoned a Call unto the Prophet Kish to appear in both flesh and spirit from whichever realm he might now inhabit; and all along the question didst disquiet me within my heart: How could it be that the very Prophet of the Elder Gods who was said to dwell bodily with Them for eternity could be called upon within a sanctuary dedicated to the Faceless Messenger of ultimate Chaos? Yet didst I keep my wondering to myself even as my Master thrice intoned the First Psalm of Nyarlathotep (8) and I joined my voice with those of my fellow disciples in the appropriate responses as Yakthoob had instructed us previously. Then our Master fell silent, and we awaited within the noiseless blackness of the fane underneath the hill, our eyes nervously exploring the lightless chamber. Then didst I seem to perceive the faintest glimmer of reflection somewhere directly in front of us; even as I struggled to discern whether it was a true glint in the midst of the illusory shadow-impressions that seem’d to dance in front of my eyes, a shuffling or dragging sound clearly sounded right behind us. I struggled powerfully not to turn around, minding well the warnings of the Saracen, as new noises didst resound very close at our backs: even what appeared to be a troubled breath, and the movements of a body stirring upon itself; and I was well aware that whatever caused these noises stood between us and the sole exit from the chamber, and that no protective Circle stood between us and whatever now manifested therein.

Again didst I seem to notice a faint glimmer in the darkness before us, and this time it remained longer, allowing me to see the shapes of our heads reflected as if in a smallish mirror, which I then knew to be the reflective surface of the faceless features of the statue before us. The breathing at our backs grew stronger and harsher, as if whomever or whatever stood there found it very difficult to breathe or as if a great effort was being done. And Yakthoob admonished the presence, demanding that it identified itself. And we heard the strong, definite yet uneven voice f a man say, “I am the Elder Prophet.” This was followed by a harsh sound somewhat like a raking blow, and again a faint clarity was reflected in the mirrory facelessness which we faced. The breathing of the presence became further distorted. My Master again commanded from it that it said its name, and the voice replied anew: “I am Kish of Mnar.” The harsh sound repeated itself, and it reminded me unsettlingly of noises I had became familiar with when witnessing tortures in the cities, committed under the whim of rulers.

Yakthoob demanded from it that it revealed the secret fate of the Elder Prophet after his disappearance from these very catacombs; the black mirror revealed yet another reflection, and indeed, before the glimmer disappeared, I was able to discern our heads cut against it; four –no, where those five heads? A prolonged rending sound then came, along with a faint gasping; this time, the noises reminded me uncharacteristically of my own childhood, when I watched with infantile curiosity as the butcher of the humble streets of Bet Durrabia, in the city of Sana’a, (9) performed his work with swift skill. However, the answer which the presence offered to my Master’s demand soon imposed itself over any idle remembrance:

“I didst attempt to return even unto remote Glyu-Vho, yet the way was closed to me because the stars were not in right alignment for me to traverse the Angles unto the worlds beyond this Earth, and as I awaited for the stars and constellations to follow the movement of the seasons and for the start Betelgeuse to rise high above the chaptel of the heavens, my body didst become afflicted with an ailment for which I found no cure; at length, acknowledging that my time approached its long-delayed end, I was at peace, for a thousand years is certainly enough for any man, and I had indeed traversed worlds beyond those dreamed by most. Thusly didst I instruct my most trusted disciples to enclose my body within a sarcophagus here in this very chamber, and lay me to rest, with no word to our people lest their faith should waver, since they saw in me far more than there ever was.

“But in the length of time there came the Black Pharaoh, even the one called Nephren-Ka, powerful in magicks which allowed him to traverse the worlds beyond Earth’s dreamlands even unto those of other worlds, and he conversed with the Moon-Beasts which dwell on the far side of the Moon’s dreamlands, and therein encountered none other than the elder Subboh, the last priest of the Thunn’ha, even those loathly beings who dwelt upon the hated city of Ib by the lake of Thune; for therein had he dwelt since his death among a handful of creatures who had fled the destruction of their city at the hands of my fellow men from Sarnath, for he was elderly and of ill-health, yet a skilled dreamer, and his soul, such as may be the soul of an inhuman creature like a Thunn’ha, found the way to abide within the Dreamlands, even as some human dreamers have been known to attain such destiny on occasion. And ancient Subboh told him of the last days of Ib, of how we from Sarnath shunned and despised his noisome ilk, of how I raised my voice against their blasphemous existence again and again. And Subboh further told the Black Pharaoh of how some children wandered to play not far from the primal city of Ib, and Subboh himself had seen them from his tower wherefrom he studied the paths of the stars, and saw with great alarm how they were approached by a caravan of human enslavers bound toward the yearly harvest festival of Thraa, and he didst send his young aides to help the youngsters and to stop them from being harvested themselves as merchandise for the slave-dealers, but the three Ib-creatures who came out from the city accompanied by four of their hatchet-armed guards were quickly overcome by the more numerous men of the caravan, who slew them in rightful horror and disgust at their bloated visage, then carried the children away, telling them that they had in effect saved their lives from those repulsive creatures and better by far would be a safe life of servitude than to be taken by such horrors.”

We hearken’d to the tale of the summoned presence with increasing marvel and horror, even as the disturbing, wet noises grew ever stronger, and its voice was cut short again and again by gasps and groans. In the glimpses of light reflected on the mirrored blankness shat should be the face of the Faceless God, I counted indeed the contours of five heads, not four, yet one of them appeared to waver, and shook terribly when the glimpse didst coincide with one of the noises.

“Furthermore didst the accurs’d creature that dwelleth on the Moon tell the twice-accurs’d Nephren-Ka of how even I, the prophet Kish, servant of the Elder Gods, had spied by chance the entire episode, for Subboh had witnessed it all with anxiety through one of his telescopes, watching indeed as the enslavers slew its fellow beasts and snatched the children away, and as I rose from my place of hiding behind a nearby cluster of trees where I had been harvesting worts when the caravan approached. But the traitorous creature was careful to reproach my actions; yet what could I have done, a single man, and not a warrior at that, against a band of brigands? And can I be held to blame for redeeming the tragedy somewhat by using it as motivation to rise the inhabitants of Sarnath against their unnatural, inhuman neighbors from the city of Ib, who certainly had no place living in a wholesome, human kingdom? If I said falsely that the beings from Ib had sacrificed our children to their blasphemous lizard-god, I am certain that they must have been already indebted with Sarnath for centuries of secretive offenses and crimes, and the sad fate of the children helped bring their reign of unchecked loathsomeness to an end. That they sacrificed birds at the feet of their idol Bokrug on every full Moon, as I had oft witnessed through my own telescope, served only as confirmation during the raid of their damnable city, as the dry blood on the stone reptile feet served to confirm the apparent fate of the children and to hearten the men from Sarnath that they left not a single Thunn’ha alive. Would that they had indeed slaughtered them all, not allowing the accursed Subboh to escape…”

  The noises grew ever more unsettling, and the voice of the presence became ever weaker, ever more choked, even as it continued its narrative. I barely noticed that the breath of my fellow apprentice, Abu’l Ghizar, also became harsher and faster, out of the anxiety provoked by our situation. And the voice didst continue to speak:

“And after Nephren-Ka had hearken’d to the story of cursed Subboh, he returned from the Moon-plains and at length from the Dreamlands unto the waking world, and soon didst he command the excavation of these half-buried fanes that he well knew, from reading my Testament, were the very Labyrinth which bears my name. And when my tomb was unearthed, the Black Pharaoh entered himself the catacombs, desecrating them and cursing their very walls with rites pertaining to the very Dark Messenger of the Daemon-Sultan, whose Spirit already stained the very soul of Nephren-Ka. And he bade his Scribes to render various Hymns of excecration upon the walls, and to destroy the Sign of Concealment that I had learned from the Hyperborean’s writings and set down in the very shape of my Labyrinth, and at length he came upon my sarcophagus and performed a foul Rite of Necromancy, raising me bodily from my own ashes. And due to the blasphemous nature of the manner in which my body had been reconstructed, combin’d with the very substance of a Being not of this world, he rendereth me unable to summon the bless’d Elder Gods to my aid, aye, for even pronouncing their sacred Names causeth agony beyond endurance upon my entire being, rending my tongue and throat with Their holy syllables. And then didst the Black Pharaoh chastise my offense of having caused the annihilation an entire race of beings faithful to his own darksome Gods, by entrapping me bodily within a secluded cavern underneath the Moon’s surface, with my unnatural, reconstructed body which cannot die and ever reconstitutes itself being eternally rent and eviscerated by equally-undying and tireless tormentors who feed upon my very body and sate their thirst with my blood; and this, unless my tormentors ever turned their attentions for a moment upon another, therefore allowing me the opportunity of escape, was I to suffer for an eternity, at their inhuman hands. As thou may’st well witness their full horror if thou dost but turn around...”

Upon hearing this, my friend Abu’l Ghizar screamed, unable to contain his fear, and turned around even as one of those faint flashes of luminescence traced our shapes in the mirror-like statue and our faint shadows upon the wall, this being a slightly brighter flashing than the preceding ones. Whatever he witnessed very close behind our backs disfigured his features with such horror that quickly rent his mind with madness, as was only too evident from the blind, confounded expression that bloated his eyes. Our Master Yakthoob cried too late an attempted warning, but even as full blackness resumed, my fellow disciple shrieked horribly and pushed past us –or, rather, was dragged in the direction of the voice which we had listened to. Our Master shouted firmly at us: “Do not turn around! Do not turn around!” and we obeyed, shuddering, even as the screams of our friend became wet and choked, and the horrible sound of rending flesh became far louder and fresher.

 Yakthoob swiftly banished what he had summoned, even as the screams of our companion dwindled and the sounds grew fainter, and when at length the Dismissal was complete, Ibn Ghazoul lighted the lamp anew with a flint, and we could at last witness what had befallen the unfortunate Abu’l Ghizar, due to his faintness of heart; for his body was horribly mangled, even as if worried lengthily in the maws of some enormous beast.

Thus is seen the wisdom of the admonition found in the Rituals of Yhe, which the Saracen Yakthoob was fond of quoting, that thou shouldst

be mindful that if thou canst see Them, they mayest then see thee; and if thou canst be seen, thou mayest also be felt, and touched, and if thou art not cautious, thou mayest also be scented.

Notes:

This book includes both Lin Carter's version
and the Sussex Manuscript.

1. Price, Robert M. (ed.) Necronomicon: Selected Stories and Essays Concerning the Blasphemous Tome of the Mad Arab.Chaosium, Oakland CA, USA, 1996 

2. Alhazred’s account of the Doom that came to Sarnath is succinct and the convenience of reading H.P. Lovecraft’s detailed version cannot be overemphasized.

3. The account continues from Chapter III, as quoted above. Chapter IV is a digression from the narrative where Alhazred discusses the properties of the star-stones and the Elder Sign, one of the various conflicting texts found within the Alhazredic corpus dealing with this polemical subject matter.

4. Of course, these Chapters are from the Necronomicon’s Book Four, the Book of Dismissals, and the account which occupies us is a literary recourse used by Alhazred to explain both the origins of the star-stones (which Alhazred discussed in Chapter IV), as well as the practical use of various procedures, as will be apparent later on.

5. According to Carter, the land of Mnar was probably situated in northeastern Mesopotamia, where many star-stones have been unearthed. Brian Lumley posits Saudi Arabia instead.   

6. In the Sussex Manuscript, published in the Robert M. Price anthology (op.cit.), a somewhat unclear account of the pilgrimage of the Elder priests of Uldar is reproduced from Wormius’ version of the Necronomicon.

7. The Labyrinth of Kish. This is obviously an etiological myth, attempting to explain the name by which these catacombs were known at some point. Whether Kish was an historical person, or even then, if he ever came to Hadoth in Egypt at all, remains debatable.

8. The Nine Psalms of Nyarlathotep, quoted in various places by Alhazred (most notably the Dho-Hna formula, in the LiberLogaeth fragments as published by Colin Wilson, David Langford and Robert Turner) and long thought lost, have been unearthed by this writer and may be found among the Alhazred translations found in El código secreto del Necronomicón (Rémora, Guadalajara, MX, 2010 / Keli, 2013; these seem to be part of a larger set of ritual texts completed by seven additional Psalms published in Krzysztof Azarewicz's Necronomicon czyli księga umarłego prawa, 2000, but of this I will speak further in a later entry). 

9. Bet Durrabia is mentioned by the translator of the Simon text of the Necronomicon as a “village”; my rendering of this passage seems to indicate that it is a neighborhood in the Yemenite city of Sana’a. Yet another of Dr. John Dee’s various attempts to translate Alhazred’s book working from various fragments has been partly translated by Kent David Kelly as Necronomicon: TheCthulhu Revelations (Wonderland Imprints, 2012, digital edition); there, it is said that Alhazred spent several years of his youth singing near the Eastern gate of the city; this neighborhood might have been called Bet Durrabia in Alhazred’s time. Warlock Asylum posits (“The Meaning of Bet Durrabia AndShabatu”, in the blog Papers in the Attic) a symbolic sense for the name Bet Durrabia: “House where Life Dwells” or “House of Spring”; Alhazred being both a poet, a philosopher and an occultist, and therefore sensitive to the full semiotic potential of words, it is likely that both a literal and a symbolic sense were intended for the place where he lived when he had his first encounters with the lore which would take up his life’s work.