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Joseph H. Peterson
© April 13, 2000.
I always thought that Cthulhu was a literary invention of horror writer H. P. Lovecraft; maybe not?
I was recently surprised to find an (apparently) previously unnoticed passage in a rare Hebrew magical text which has a curious connection with the Cthulhu mythos. Any Hebraists out there who can tell us what exactly it says?
The text in question, Mafteah Shelomoh, a Hebrew manuscript of the Key of Solomon, refers to a spirit named KThULH, and gives his seal. In his 1889 edition of the Key of Solomon, S. L. MacGregor Mathers complained that "there is every reason to suppose that this [the Hebrew original] has been entirely lost." Ironically, it was only a few years later that a Hebrew manuscript (ca. 1700) was discovered and published by Hermann Gollancz (1903, 1914).
Recently an additional manuscript was acquired by the British Library, Oriental collection, described in the British Library Journal, Vol. 21, 1995. This manuscript dates to the 17th-18th century, and was acquired by British Library in 1993.
The following passage occurs in both of these Hebrew manuscripts, but not in Mathers edition:
Here are some details to help put the text in context: The passage is found at the bottom of folio 40b of Gollancz' manuscript, and on folio 29a of the Or. manuscript. I used the latter for the gif since the calligraphy is much neater.
This occurs in a section described as "Names and seals of angels, stars, and planets" (Gollancz, 1914). The section commences with the seals of the seven planets, giving their seals and usual Hebrew names, ShBThI, TzDQ, ... LBNK (fol. 28b-28a). This is followed by the list of 12 spirits of which KThULH is 6th: TLH, ShUR, ThAUMIM, SRTN, ARIH, KThULH, MAZKIM, OQRK... (illeg.), (fol. 29b:) QShTh, GDI, DLI, and DGIM.
This is followed by a section with two seals labelled RAShHThLI and ZNBHThLI. After that is a section titled ChUThMi HMZLUTh ("Seals of the Zodiac"), followed by several other lists with seals.
Besides the two Hebrew manuscripts cited, there is a third one in the Bibliotheca Rosenthaliana in Amsterdam (MS. Ros. 12.)
A mechanical transliteration of the Hebrew letters of the name would nicely explain the alien sounding 'Cthulhu'.
I would like to see someone tackle a translation of this entire facinating text.
J.H. Peterson, http://www.esotericarchives.com
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