Mount Voormithadreth is first revealed to us in the Initiation-story The Seven Geases as transmitted by the Atlantean High-Priest, Klarkash-Ton, through his recent avatar, Clark Ashton Smith. It is an image and representative of the primal World-Mountain, examples of which include Meru, Olympus, and Shasta, that is found many Traditions worldwide. The World-Mountain (sometimes represented by a cosmic Tree such as the Norse Yggdrasil) is always the Center, the point at which it is possible to transit from one state or level of existence to another, and from which the esoteric Traditions emanate. In addition to the true primal Mountain, whose image in the Mythos is Unknown Kadath, each separate Tradition or Aeon will have its own especial Center. Thus for a time the Gods danced on Hatheg-Kla (from which Barzai the Wise was drawn into the Heavens) before withdrawing back to Kadath in the Cold Waste. Voormithadreth is thus the particular Center for the Hyperborean Aeon (Pleistocene Era) and is therefore of special importance to us as this was period of Humanity's emergence. With its four volcanic peaks (refering to the four directions and Elements) Voormithadreth is thus the Centre of the human Mystery-Tradition and our link with Those who were before us. It lies in the wilderness and its slopes shelter many beings from the hostility of the un-Initiate, while deep within lies a veritable world of caverns inhabited by pre-human Entities.
The tale begins as as Lord Ralibar Vooz, an ordinary man of the world, leads his men on a hunting expedition to our Mountain. He hunts the Voormis, who are seemingly the remnants of an anthropoid species from which humanity evolved. His names may be spelt as Resh-Lamed-Beth-Resh, which equals 423, and Vau-A'ain-Zain, which equals 83. These match the values of the Hebrew words TzLLI A'aRB, "eventide shadows" and GP, "person, self" respectively. "Ralibar Vooz" is thus the false persona that veils the True Identity. He accidentally interupts a Summoning ritual of the hermit Ezdagor, who inflicts a geas on him in revenge.
Now Ezdagor may be rendered as Aleph-Zain-Daleth-Aleph-Gimel-Resh which numerates to 216. This is equivalent to the Hebrew words DBIR, "oracle," and RVGZ, "anger, wrath." It is significant that if we leave out the second Aleph, thus dropping the total to 215, the sorcerer's name is equivalent to AVRCh, "a path, narrow way," which well describes the remainder of the story.
For Ezdagor commands Ralibar Vooz to enter Voormithadreth, to fight the Voormis bare-handed, and to present himself to the Great Old One Tsathoggua as a sacrifice. This is the first of the seven geases that send Vooz deeper and deeper into the cavern-worlds of Voormithadreth, there to encounter Beings and Races from before Mankind's advent on this planet. The Seven Geases is thus an Initiatory jouney into the Primordial states. The number Seven has a plethora of associations, but it is certainly singificant in this context to note the seven stars of the Great Bear, the Polar constellation with intimate connections to Hyperborea, and from which Lovecraft says the Fungi from Yuggoth came to our star-system.
Guided by Ezdagor's familiar, the archaeopteryx Raphtontis, Vooz penetrates the caves where the Voormis live and fights his way into the deeper strata of the Mysteries. He has thus encountered his own immediate past, the most recent layer of genetic conciousness before his own. Unable to transcend his "civilised" world-view, Vooz is capable of nothing but fear and hostility towards these creatures who are nothing but his own ancestral form. It develops in another of Klarkash-Ton's annals, The Testament of Athammaus, that the Voormis have interbred with the amorphous servants of Tsathoggua who followed that god to Earth, and therefore some of them are capable of a protean shape-shifting and regeneration. This also implies a relation to the degenerate survivals in the Welsh hills described by Arthur Machen in The Novel of the Black Seal.
Raphtontis may be spelled as Resh-Peh-Teth-Nun-Teth-Yod-Samekh which numerates to 418! He is thus well-fitted to function as Guide to the Great Work and this is emphasized by his species, for the Archaeopteryx is a transitional form between reptile and bird. Raphtontis thus guides his charge from one state to another.
Vooz finally reaches the chamber of Tsathoggua, but the toadlike Great Old One has recently fed and thus places Ralibar Vooz under a new geas: to go yet deeper and offer himself to the spider-god, Atlach-Nacha.
Concerning Tsathoggua's origins there is some debate. He is said by Smith to have come to Earth from Saturn and to have settled beneath Voormithadreth. However, in The Mound and elsewhere Lovecraft places him in the cavern-world of "black, lightless N'kai" beneath the North American Great Plains. This is supported by one possible spelling of his name, Tzaddi-Tau-Gimel-Gimel-Vau-Aleph-Heh, which at 508 is equivalent to ShChR, "black." Probably we are dealing with a realm not necessarily on our own plane, but which touches it at several points. Tsathoggua is a Cthonic (underworld) deity and his connection to both Earth and Saturn places him neatly on the Tree of Life at the Path of Tau. He is the first of the truly Otherworldly beings Ralibar Vooz encounters: the gate-keeper to the Non-human.
Atlach-Nacha is the spider-god who eternally spins his web in the Abyss. This web is perhaps the primal archetype of the Tree of Life, and it serves to maintain the communication of the various Underworlds. His task is obviously endless, and he has no time for Ralibar Vooz except to send him away under a new geas to Haon-Dor.
Haon-Dor is one of the most mysterious and significant figures in the whole Hyperborean Cycle. He is a pre-human sorcerer dwelling in his thousand-columned palace on the far side of the Abyss. His race is nowhere mentioned and and one may well wonder just what he may be. He is entirely shrouded, not unlike the High Priest not to be Described who inhabits the Monastery of Leng, and it is possible the two are somehow related. It is also possible that he is one of the Ancient Ones attendant on Umr at-Tawil. The sorcerer's name may be rendered in Hebrew as Heh-A'ain-Nun-Daleth-Vau-Resh which numerates to 335 and is equivalent to MLK MLKI HMLKIM, "The King above the King of Kings." It may also be spelled Heh-Aleph-Vau-Nun-Daleth-Vau-Resh which adds to 272 and is an actual Hebrew phrase meaning "the strength or force of a generation, epoch or age." These imply that Haon-Dor is either a Secret Chief or perhaps the Magus of the Hyperborean Aeon. Haon-Dor is served by a legion of Earth-familiars who form their bodies as needed from the very rock, as well as by vampiric spirits capable of possessing the unwary. He is also allied to the Serpent People, and it is to them that he sends Ralibar Vooz under yet another geas.
The Serpent People are an ancient race of highly-evolved reptiles who, according to other sources, created their first civilisation in the Permian Era. Probably they were the first native intelligent species to reside on Earth. They are coldly intellectual and are so far divorced from regular animal existence that they consume only synthetic foods. Scientists of considerable attainment, they create virulent toxins and engage in biological research unhampered by mammalian squeamishness. Rationally, they can see no use for Ralibar Vooz as they already have a specimen of current humanity, so they send him under hypnotic suggestion (their scientific form of a geas) to the Cavern of the Archetypes.
These are the immaterial Astral forms upon which manifest Earthly life is based and their level is the deepest to which Ralibar Vooz penetrates. In Qabalistic terms he has gone from Assiah, the Material World, to Atziluth, the Archetypal World. Here he meets various extinct life forms and finally the two Originals of Mankind who reject him as a perversion of the true model and send him to Abhoth. Abhoth is called the Source of Uncleanliness. Its name may be rendered as Aleph-Beth-Heh-Vau-Tau, which at 414 is equivalent to AZOTH, the Alchemical principle. It is in fact a true genetic soup constantly generating mutant creatures, then releasing them to the environment or devouring them as It sees fit. Abhoth may be seen as the sentient engine of evolution that transforms the life originally created by the mindless demiurge, Ubbo-Sathla in the first days of Earth. It is even possible that these two entities are in fact one and the same being, simply called by different names as Its function changes from creating the primal life to modifying that life (and as It develops sentience?) If so, it is possible that the Tablets of the Elder Gods, containing all Their cosmic lore, which were said to be in the keeping of Ubbo-Sathla in the beginning are now in the cavern of Abhoth.
And yet the two entities may be distinct after all, for Abhoth does not recognise Ralibar Vooz as one of Its progeny and so sends him off with his last geas: to seek the Outer World. Thus Ralibar Vooz is to return to his own familiar world at last, closing this classic Underworld Initiation. Yet because he was not truly a fit subject for these Ordeals, he fails in re-crossing the Abyss on Atlach-Nacha's web and falls to... what? That is out of our ken, though it may be that his fate is one with that of the Black Brothers.
Note: I am indebted to Br. Gideon Ashlayah for many valuable suggestions in matters of Gematria.
Ice rules now where They ruled once in the steaming jungles and basalt cities under the Auroras.
There, where Man first shed his fur and stood erect under the husbandry of the Old Ones.
There, where Man learned the Aeon-shrouded lore of Those who lived before.
There, where Man's first cities rose to slash the northern skies with their towers.
There, where the Rites were howled and Offerings made to Them.Where is Hyperborea now? Cradle of our Race?
Buried under ice, frozen away from us, her children.
Claimed by the Cold Waste, more lost than even Mu or Atlantis.
Her lore forgotten, her cities buried too deep even for dreams.But what has frozen may thaw as the Polar stars turn in their dance.
Now, as Man's fires burn away that life for which he no longer cares.
Now, as Man's sight turns upwards to the ultimate black gulfs.
Now, as Man's mind unlocks the secrets of time and life.
Now, as Man is free to revel and scream in delight.The northern ice cracks, the oceans swell.
This cycle's cities drown as the stars turn right.
The ancient places are freed and we see.
Hyperborea awakes!-- Haon-Dor, 7 August, 1997 e.v.
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