Call of Cthulhu - Cults of the Dark ...

[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
TRANSLATOR'S NOTE
This material is a translation of a part of the researches of ..
Professor von Archensbax related to certain cults, or quasi-
religions, believed to be connected with the plans of the Great
Old Ones to resume their domination of our planet.
The Professor had originally i
ntended to withhold this infor-
i
tself began to fragment this led to the formation of a whole
range of new secret sociaties - most notably the Ishmaelites
The
I
shmaelites are distinguished by their belief that Ishmael
son of Ja'far was the seventh imam and heir to the power and
authority of Adam - all other Sunni's and Shiites believe
Ishmael to have been an evil man legally deprived of the
I
mamate by his father. The is hmaelite sect also gave rise to yet
another sub-group, a secret society within a secret society I
refer, of course, to the Assassins.
So far as modern scholars, including my oven source, have
been able to ascertain the facts in this matter, the cult of the
Assassins was established by Hassan Ibn Sabah-the Old Man
of the Mountains-- in about 1090AD.
mation until he had completed his major work on Cthulhu-orientated cults. After the recent death of the great Bulgarian
scholar, Dr Philius Sadowsky,
whilst he was preparing a defini-
tive commentary on the
Necronomicon,
however, von
Archensbak has asked me to prepare a s
ynopsis of his findings
for immediate publication.
THE VICTORY OF THE SANDS
Following the publication of my monograph on the Sigsand, or
Sussex, Manuscript I have received a number of letters from self-,
styled 'fellow researchers'. In many cases these communic-
ants were mere cranks of one persuasion or another. Yet in the
midst of this nonsense certain information has been drawn to
my attention, by one who wishes to remain anonymous,
which has both confirmed certain data already i n
my posses-
sion. and, more importantly, has fleshed out certain portions
of that data which were hitherto sketchy and unclear.
As i stated in my earlier work. there can be little doubt that
the Sigsand Manuscript i s either wholly derived from some
Arabic source, or at !east depends upon such work for its cent-
ral thesis. What was unclear to me when I wrote those words,
however, was the identity of that original material.
Let me state, quite categorically, that the document to which
I refer is still unknown to me. Nevertheless I am at least able to
i
ndicate the probable source of the Sigsand material, together
with a list of the main groups, or cults, through which that
teaching has been disseminated drawn the ages, even unto the
present day.
As the American writer, H P Lovecraft, has so often observed,
the time of the Great Old Ones' rule on Earth most surely pre-
ceeded our own times by many millennia.
Yet the knowledge of
their being, and of their power, together with the loathsome
and blasphemous rites inspired by that knowledge, has per-
sisted within isolated groups like some dreadful cancer upon
the soul and body of the human race.
Thus far had my researches led before new information was
l
aid before me. A simple belief that such 'lost' peoples as the
dreaded Tcho-Tcho of the Tsang plateau, the Abominable
Snowmen of Mi-Go and the Deep Ones of Ponape, were the
scattered remnants of the Old Ones' worshippers on Earth.
How little I knew!
I
bn Sabah's nickname, allegedly accorded him by the
Crusaders, tells us much about both parties. The term old
man' could be derived from the idea of a wise man or sage,
since Ibn Sabah himself was certainly not old in years. I
t is
quite possible; on the other hand, that old was meant to refer
to the alleged antiquity of Ibn Sabah's authority, which impli
es
that some of the
Crusaders at least were prepared to recognise
that authority, The 'mountains' referred to are in northern Iraq,
where IbnSabah had his personal stronghold at Alamut-- The
Eagle's Nest'-from which he and his successors directed a
reign of terror which reached throughout the Arab world, and
beyond.
But what was the real purpose behind the formation of this
sect?
Certainly Hassan Ibn Sabah and the later Grand Masters of the
sect were interested in power. Indeed there was a time, before
their ambitions were temporarily thwarted by the arrival of
Genghis Khan and the Mongol hordes, when it looked as
though the Assassins might take control of the entire Muslim
world.
The influence of the Assassins, as their name implies, was
based primarily upon the practice of executing anyone who
i
ncurred the Master's displeasure or who offered a threat to
the cult, either real or imagined. These executions were car-
ried out by carefully trained and utterly dedicated killers called
the
Fidavis.
The training is of particular interest since it
i
nvolved certain mind altering techniques.
THE ASSASSINS
I
n tracing the history of that infamous and terrible cult of the
Hashishim,
more commonly called the Assassins, we must
l
ook to the deviant groupings of the Muslim faith.
The first, and most important schism within Islam was
based upon differing attitudes regarding him whom they call
The Prophet (ie Mohammed). On the one hand we have the
Sunni's, who accept the Koran (as presented by The Prophet)
as the source of religious authority. The main opposition
group is that of the Shiite persuasion, which holds that every
age has its own divinely inspired leader or imam who has
absolute, God-given authority over all men.
According to the Shi'ites each Imam has positively super-
human powers- handed down from age to age since Adam. To
the Shi'ites, each Imam is, quite literally, the voice of God on earth.
As the Shi'ite sect began to emerge, being in the minority, it
protected itself by resorting to secrecy. And when Shi'ism
16
CULTS OF THE DARK GODS
i
nto contact with the Templars quickly learnt that the sect had
adopted many of the Assassins' ideas and methods.
[ Translator's Note:
At this point Professor Archensbak's notes
become totally fragmentary. In essence he merely outlines the
conflict which arose between Phillipe !V- Phillipe le Bel - and
the Templars, which Archensbak attributes primarily to the
Templars' growing arrogance towards everyone, from the
Pope downwards, and more importantly to the fact that Phil-
li
pe was heavily in debt to the Templars with little or no hope
of being able to pay that debt.]
When two Popes in succession refused to help Phillipe in his
plan to suppress the Templars, both died under suspicious cir-
cumstances. Phillipe was thus able to have his own candidate
elected to the office, and in less than two years a list of charges
of blasphemy had been drawn up, and the Templars' strong-
holds had been overthrown.
Amongst the charges drawn up against the Templars two,
i
n particular, are worthy of note. In the first it was alleged that
all Templars, on entering the order, were required to reject
Jesus Christ as a false prophet and to spit and trample upon a
crucifix placed on the floor for this purpose. The second
charge concerns something, possibly a sculpture of a bearded
head, which was called Bafomet, said to have been held in the
highest reverence.
On the subject of the renunciation of Christ by the members
of what was apparently a Christian order I will have more to
say later. For the moment let me merely suggest a parallel
between this practise and the Assassins' effective rejection of
Mohammed.
-
The matter of Bafomet may be dealt with immediately, since
there can be little doubt as to its true significance.
Many scholars have worried over the
name Bafomet, not only
because of the uncertainty as to
what it was, but also because
this Arabic-sounding word is not found in that language in that
exact form. Yet we hardly need to look far for an explanation.
For there is indeed a very similar word in Arabic, namely
abufihamet-which
breaks down as abu, meaning 'father of
or 'source of', and
fihamet
(from the root word
fehm),
mean-
i
ng 'wisdom' or 'understanding'.
If
we then take Bafomet to mean 'father of wisdom are we
not led inexorably back to the Assassins yet again, and their
belief in the Imam of the age-their own Grand Master-as the
only true source of all knowledge.
Moreover, despite the praise heaped upon them as defen-
ders of the Holy Land, the Templars actually fought only when
it suited them to do so, and even then it was not always only
on behalf of their fellow Crusaders.
So, now, we have seen the Assassins as a cult dedicated to
the pursuit of power, though not averse to the accumulation
of wealth-through murder, kidnapping and blackmail-when
the opportunity arose.
The Templars, on the other hand, seem to have had little
interest in power for its own sake, except as a means of pro-
tecting their own interests. Their dedication to the pursuit of
wealth in all its forms, however, was legendary, almost
obsessive.
So what happened to the Templars, and to their vast wealth?
As an organisation they were broken up by the raids staged
by Philippe IV in 1307. In 1312 the Order was officially dis-
banded, by papal decree, and in 1314 the last Grand Master,
Jacques de Molay, was burned at the stake by command of
Phillipe.
Yet this was hardly the end of theTemplars. In the first place
their treasure was never found, nor has it been discovered up
to the time at which I write. As far the individual members,
comparatively few were seized, and even fewer put to death.
The survivors undoubtedly found 'new' allegiances elsewhere.
Some knights simply m
oved from France to Prussia where
they would undoubtedly have been welcomed by highly sym-
pathetic knights of the Teutonic Order. Others, taking advan-
tage of the war which was in progress between Scotland and
England took the road to the Highlands, where the papal decree
had been totally ignored. In
both cases the
exiles did not sim-
ply rest on the memories of their past. Rather they began
to
build the foundations of new orders. One
society, created by
the exiles
in
Scotland, became what we now know
as Free-
masonry. Those in Germany, with
a far greater dedication to
secrecy, borrowed their new title from the Afghans. They
became the llluminati.
THE KNIGHTS TEMPLAR
The exact date for the foundation of the Knights Templar, like
many other aspects of this
ambiguous organisation, is almost
i
mpossible to fix with absolute precision. Some writers
suggest 1118 or 1120AD, whilst others place it up to ten years
earlier.
What we can be sure of, however, is that by 1120AD
at
the latest,
the first nine members of the order were securely
i
nstalled in that part of the (Christian) King of Jerusalem's
palace-that part which stood on the site of what had once
been King Solomon's Temple.
Even at this early part of the history of the Templars we
come across a series of intriguing paradoxes.
Firstly, it is alleged that Hugues de Payen,the first Master of
the Order, and all his colleagues were 'poor' knights. Yet
within a very short space of time following the foundation of
the Order the knights began to send large sums of money back
to France, specifical!y to the Abbot of the Cistercian monastery
at Clairvaux-Saint Bernard. This was extremely fortunate,
from the monk's point of view, since it lifted them from being
on the verge of bankruptcy to a position as one of the most
i
nfluential orders in the Western world.
Secondly, there is the question of the seemingly instant
acceptance of the founder knights by King Baudouin 1. By what
means were the nine able to gain such immediate and exten-
sive favours?
Thirdly, we must examine the Templars' declared objective
-to make the roads of Palestine safe for pilgrims and other
travellers. Yet how could they hope to succeed in such a mas-
sive task? Their seal emphasised their alleged poverty by
showing two knights upon a single horse. Even with: a horse
apiece, how could nine men police such a large area single
handed? And lastly, who were they guarding the roads against?
I n 1 127 a majority of the Templars, including Hugues de
Payen, returned to France where they were welcomed as 'the
epitome and apotheosis of Christian values'! De Payen was
officially proclaimed file Grand Master (1) of the Knights of the
Order o the Temple,
a semi-religious order of warrior-monks.
It
was also at this time that they were granted the exclusive
right
to
wear white mantles over their armour adorned with a
red cross on
the left side.
One hundred and eighty
years
l ater, the Templars were
so
rich that They had become the bankers of Europe, so powerful
that they recognised allegiance to no one, not even the Pope,
yet
at the same tim
e they were reviled on all sides as despotic,
degenerate devil-worshippers.
I
can hardly think that I need to impress
upon my readers the
many similarities between the Assassins on the one side, and
the Templars on
the other indeed, many of those who came
Further revelations about the Cults
of the Dark Gods' will be
appearing in later issues of White
Dwarf.
I
have already mentioned that the Assassins were also
known as the
Hashishim.
This alternative title relates to the
practice of drugging initiates with hashish and then introduc-
i
ng them into a purpose-built 'heaven on earth'- a luxurious
palace surrounded by beautiful gardens and inhabited by
throngs of lovely women who attended to the initiate's every
desire during his brief stay. After a suitable period of time the
i
nitiate was drugged again, returned to the Eagle's Nest, and
told that he could only return to Paradise if the Master willed
i
t, that is, if he unhesitatingly obeyed the Master's every com-
mand. The results of this process were remarkably successful.
The 'uniform' of the Assassins, who most certainly remain
i
n existence even today, consisted of a white robe, a red belt
and black or red boots. I
t should be noted, however, that just
as they are
skilled in the many means of killing so are they well
trained in every aspect of the art of disguise. Their absolute
obedience to the will of their masters is unparalleled, even by
the deadly Ninjas of the East, since they have no fear of death
but rather welcome it as the one road back to that paradise
they have already experienced!
I n the 13th century the invading Mongols, led by Genghis
Khan's -leutenant, Halaku, seemed to have wiped out the
Assassins
as
part of their drive to exterminate Islam. Yet when
the Mongols were finally forced back by the Sultan of Egypt
the Assassins re-emerged as strong as ever, not only in Syria
(
where their power had remained largely intact, but also in
Persia, Afghanistan (where they called themselves the
Roshaniya
-the illuminated ones') and India (as theThugees).
But the Assassins were no longer operating only in the Middle-
East and India. By indirect means they had penetrated into the
very heart of Christendom itself, thus providing the basis for
every subsequent secret society of any note throughout the
l
ength and breadth of Europe.
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]