Necronomicon

[mondo23]

Ive just started to read this and I am trying to find out all I can on it. There seems to be several conflicting ideas on where its origins lay.
I am currently going crazy for Lovecraft and the Cthulhu Mythos and am wondering if he was privy to some 'hidden knowledge' or he just made it all up based on what a bunch of occultists told him in passing. Or did he have access to some original source material which he plagiarised?

Here is the Necronomicon:

http://satanicsingles.com/library/Dee-Necronomicon.pdf

Anyone have thoughts or ideas or info on this infamous book?

[veritasvoice]

"The Call of Cthulhu" was influenced by theosophical concepts. There are stanzas of Madame Blavatsky's "Book of Dyzan" written into some Cthulhu Mythos stories.

In "The Haunter of the Dark", Lemuria is mentioned.

And in "The Dunwich Horror", Lovecraft credits John Dee with translating the Necronomicon into English.

As to the name, Lovecraft said that it came to him in a dream.

He also said this:

Now about the “terrible and forbidden books” — I am forced to say that most of them are purely imaginary. There never was any Abdul Alhazred or Necronomicon, for I invented these names myself. Robert Bloch devised the idea of Ludvig Prinn and his De Vermis Mysteriis, while the Book of Eibon is an invention of Clark Ashton Smith's. Robert E. Howard is responsible for Friedrich von Junzt and his Unaussprechlichen Kulten.... As for seriously-written books on dark, occult, and supernatural themes — in all truth they don’t amount to much. That is why it’s more fun to invent mythical works like the Necronomicon and Book of Eibon.

Here's an interesting footnote though:

Kenneth Grant, the British occultist, disciple of Aleister Crowley, and head of the Typhonian Ordo Templi Orientis suggested in his book The Magical Revival (1972) that there was an unconscious connection between Crowley and Lovecraft. He thought they both drew on the same occult forces; Crowley via his magic and Lovecraft through the dreams which inspired his stories and the Necronomicon. Grant claimed that the Necronomicon existed as an astral book as part of the Akashic records and could be accessed through ritual magic or in dreams. Grant's ideas on Lovecraft were featured heavily in the introduction to the Simon Necronomicon and also have been backed by Donald Tyson; but Lovecraft, a strict materialist, would likely have been outraged. Like any claim based purely on supernatural evidence, Grant's ideas cannot be proved or disproved and have added further confusion to the issue.

[mondo23]

I cant help but think there's an element of truth in it all, what ever the actual source of the mythos.
Reading the Necronomicon I am reminded very much of The Emerald Tablets of Thoth in its style and subject matter.
This is also quite interesting written in the comments section of a youtube vid on Cthulhu:
"H.P Lovecraft" got the idea of adding the being "Cthulhu" too his stories. from the "Grandmaster" "Rosicrucian" Paschal Beverly Randolph". This man was an advisor to "Abraham Lincoln for a time. And wrote some great texts on hermetics that are worth the time to study.."

Im yet to do some proper research on the guy. So far google isnt coming up with much.