The Blasphemous Tome of Forbidden Elder Lore of the Month Club (1)

[This series will present material originally written in connection with a background (contemporary) for the Call of Cthulhu role-playing game; since I never actually got round to running that background or even actually writing any scenarios, this material is being made available for any other GMs who want to use it.]

The Epistle of Simon the Magician.

. . . But before I set out how I came to possess this gnôsis, I must counter the noxious lies about me spread by one Loukas, who in his Praxeis makes me out to be the lowest of men, a common sorcerer [γοες] who fooled the people by simple tricks and sought to obtain the favour of the Gods with base coin . . .

The Epistle of Simon the Magician (henceforth EpSM) is a quasi-Gnostic text, purported to be a letter from the "Simon Magus" of early Christian legend to a school or group of disciples (the work has no title in MS., but opens "Simon of Samaria, called the Magician, writing to those seeking to be made perfect").

The earliest known copy of this work appears in Greek, in a papyrus codex found in the Egyptian desert in 1998 c.e. EPsM occupies about three-quarters of the codex and is followed by a scribal note stating that it had been copied in Alexandria in the second year of the reign of the Emperor Julian, from an "ancient copy" found in the Temple of Serapis, "for the benefit of those seeking perfection in the true Gnôsis." This date at least is believed credible based on paleography and the condition of the codex. The remaining leaves are filled with what appear to excerpts from Hermetic texts, also in Greek. The date of composition of EpSM, based on an analysis of the Greek style and usage, is tentatively placed in the latter half of the third century c.e., and certainly no earlier than 200 c.e.; some of the language employed, indeed, appears to reflect the technical terminology of Neoplatonic Theurgy, which would suggest a date somewhat nearer to the claimed time of the known copy. The author attribution (even assuming Simon of Samaria to have been an historical figure in the first place) is thus, as with most works of this class, spurious and the work is an example of pseudoepigraphy.

Contents: As Bentley Layton (see the "genre analysis" of the Nag Hammadi texts &c. in Gnostic Scriptures) might have put it, EpSM has a complex mixture of genres in which various traditional materials are subordinated to others:

I. Epistle from a teacher to a school of disciples.
. . . A. Autobiography
. . . . . . 1. Visionary revelation
. . . . . . . . . a. Theogony
. . . . . . . . . b. Cosmogony and uranography
. . . . . . . . . c. Treatise on the nature and origin of souls.
. . . . . . 2. Mystical "ascent."
. . . . . . . . . a. Description of successive stages of gnosis.
. . . B. Exhortations.

Besides forming a frame for a lengthy revelation-discourse, the autobiography contains an audi alteram partem account of Simon the Magician's set-to with Simon the Rock (the explicit reference to the Praxeis or "Acts of the Apostles" is another pointer to dating EpSM). "Simon" states that he had been initiated into "The Mysteries" (he does not state which of the various Mystery Cults around at the time) prior to his encounter with the new sect and specifically states he was attracted to them by the reputation of their leaders for thaumaturgical powers—a reputation which he claims he later found out was 'worked up by the reports of fools and liars, or won by the use of tricks which I had long ago abandoned'—but after taking their first "initiation" he discovered that (a) the initiation and attached teaching did nothing to increase his knowledge or power, (b) it was considered by the cult to be little more than a preliminary purification, (c) the cult had a second initiation, which he refers to as "transmission of the pneuma," (d) it was this second initiation which was associated with thaumaturgic powers, (e) any progress in the cult, and certainly being accepted for the second initiation, required an exclusive devotion to "this new God of the Hebrews called Jesus" and would thus mean burning his boats so "those gods on whom I once had called would no more hear my voice." Aware also that it was not uncommon among teachers of the Mysteries to require fees, sometimes quite substantial, for their greater initiations, he approached the leader of the cult (he refers to him as "the leader of this sect, a Jew named Simon whom his followers call 'the rock' (ο πετρος)," sarcastically adding that this sounded like the epithet of a gladiator) at the first opportunity and as he puts it, politely enquired what this fee was, whereupon he was told to get lost.

After this rejection he travelled some more, and, growing somewhat weary of the life of a wandering thaumaturgist, took up with another (unnamed) teacher, from whom he learnt to "turn his attention to the Divine Mind." On so doing (the description of the process is obscurely phrased but seems to imply some kind of ritual invocation; certain phrases used in the Greek suggest the technical terminology of Neoplatonic Theurgy) and received from "Mind" a lengthy revelation. This revelation is written in (somewhat defective) Greek hexameter verse, probably out of convention rather than because "Simon" had any particular liking or affinity for the form. The revelation opens with a cosmogonic myth, here loosely paraphrased in English:

IN THE BEGINNING there was nothing save the great First Thought;
First Thought, who from self contemplation did become insane.
As to how long this madness lasted, it may not be said;
This happens in Eternity, for Time as yet was not.
An æon or an instant passed, First Thought came to itself,
By casting forth its madness as the first separate being.
This first separate being had no mind, but awesome pow’r
And blind insatiable will to create and to destroy.
Nor did this being have as yet a name, and even though,
In latter ages, certain names have been bestowed on it,
These names it were not well to speak nor even yet to write.
Thus there became First Madness. And thus First Thought knew fear.
Then with its primal unity now shattered past repair,
The First Thought did again create, six more separate beings;
These were Space/Time, and Life, and Wisdom; Mind, and then two more,
But these last two, their names and pow’rs, are yet unknown to me.
And thus became the Ogdoad, the primal Elder Gods.
And then did Mind reflect upon this Primal company;
And thought: Though we have all this pow’r, to what end shall it serve?
Then, prompted by dim memories of something yet to come,
Mind thought to make a Universe of matter and of form.
The raw power of First Madness in the matrix of Space/Time
Would shape the raw materials which Life could animate;
The three remaining Primals, Mind thought, would not serve this cause,
Not representing anything this kind of world should need.

The universe thus created by these four Primal demiurgic powers proved unstable, and imploded messily. But

This fall, though cataclymsic was yet in no sense complete:
The rulers of this universe, the Kings of Ancient Time,
Lurked on within the ruins of the cosmos that collapsed.
For while these worlds be shattered, still their broken shells remain.

There then follows a rather confused account on the nature and origin of souls as manifested in humans and other sentient beings in the present creation, in the course of which the metre first becomes strained, then breaks down completely and is finally abandoned. The beings peopling the first universe did not have souls as such; some were essentially automata, others were animated by a greater or lesser 'spark' of the First Madness; and since this universe collapsed due to structural flaws rather than the First Madness deliberately withdrawing Its power, the most powerful of these inhabitants, the "Kings of Ancient Time" or "Great Ones of Old Time" survived, and lurk on in the broken spheres. In any case, the creation of souls is ascribed to Wisdom and the two unnamed Primals; their existence is initially almost as 'angels' in the realm of the Primals. After some indeterminate period has passed:

Once more did Mind reflect and think, What use to have a mind
If one may not learn from mistakes, and try the task again?
So yet once more the great First Madness did put forth its pow’r;
Within the matrix of Space/Time a Universe took shape.
Now Mind did look upon these works, and thought that they were good;
Or, if not good, they at the least were better than last time.
Then First Madness assumed a place within the great gulf fixed,
and Life surged forth to populate the countless worlds new-formed.
And once more did First Thought know fear.

And so First Thought took counsel with the three who yet were loyal,
And, fearing lest this Universe should founder like the last,
Established they the Ring Pass Not, and set their seal thereon,
Imprisoning the Primal pow’rs who had defied their will.

Along, however, with the four rebellious Primals and an unknown number of the Great Ones of Old Time, an astronomical number of largely blameless souls are entrapped within the universe.

[Desunt cetera.]

The papyrus codex containing EpSM was later stolen during a break-in at the museum where it was being studied.  Prior to this, a complete English translation had been prepared and submitted to various academic journals, but was universally rejected as "sloppy and uncritical"; several reviewers took exception to the translator's comparing the cosmogonic myth with teachings of modern occultist groups and legends contained in Theosophical literature.  The translation has had a limited circulation in MS. and TS., although the translator herself has disappeared (along with all extant photographic prints and negatives of the papyrus) after being sacked in a dispute over alleged plagiarism and fraudulent expenses claims.

For the translation: +4 Mythos, 1d3 / 1d6 SAN, spell multiplier x 2; spells include Contact Nyarlathotep, Create Skrying Window, Journey to the Other Side.