The Book of Paramazda

Hadean Press  46 pages, includes tables.  Small octoavo.  2010.

Bound in full, dark green, speckled calfskin.  Limited to 28 copies, 26 of which were offered for sale.

Recently available in paperback.

The publisher claims that The Book of Paramazda is a received book akin to Crowley's much celebrated Liber AL.  The author remains anonymous, though it appears to be a contemporary text.  The publisher also claims the book is a "enciphered magical system and an apocalyptic vision of the Aeons".  For now I'll have to take Hadean Press' word for it, as I've only just begun to peel away the layers of this mysterious book.  For starters, who is the mysterious figure, Paramazda, who claims to be "beyond the Light and the Dark"?  Looking closer at the name might give us a clue. 
From the Greek 'Para' we get, beside, above, or beyond. 'Mazda' can be traced back to a proto-Iranian Zoroastrian deity representing the 'uncreated god'. The name means 'intelligence' or 'wisdom'. So one could interpret 'Paramazda' as 'above/beyond uncreated wisdom', meaning 'wisdom manifest', much like the Theosophical concept of 'Sophia'.  Thus, the title could be interpreted as, 'The Book of Manifest Wisdom'. The phrase "beyond the Light and the Dark" could indicate one who has risen above the darkness of ignorance and who has also moved beyond the initial lightning flash of understanding and into pure awareness.  Only the anonymous author can say for sure.

The text itself is somewhat of an enigma.  It contains various diminishing words of power, such as the Lord of the Aeon:

RAHOORKHUT

RAHOORKHU

RAHOORKH

RAHOORK

RAHOOR

RAHOO

RAHO

RAH

RA

R

It contains a few planetary and elemental examples of the above as well, along with magic squares, invocations, and alphanumeric tables. The litany of specific gods and goddesses and frequent mention of Aeons puts this book firmly within the Thelemic tradition.

The majority of the book contains a series of paeans and symbolic vignettes divided up into groups of 'aeons', each corresponding to specific elements and days of the week. Also included is an unusual version of English gematria. Using the book's own system, the name PARAMAZDA equates to 26-1-12-1-21-1-8-6-1 = 77  Interestingly, in Jewish gematira, PARAMAZDA equates to 678, meaning: holy bloodline; the rising sun; Pandora's Box.  In standard English Gematria PARAMAZDA equals 486.  Other words that equate to 486 are: hermetic; Horus; source; God's child -- to name a few.

I can see already that this book will take years to tease out its mysteries.  I have only begun to scratch the surface.  The application of its own gematraic system to decipher possible hidden meanings within the text is quite a daunting task, to say the least.  Thus, I will revisit this book in a future update when further secrets have been gleaned.

The calfskin binding is a smooth, matte, hunter green with dark speckles.  Marbled endpapers create a kaleidoscope of black, russet, green & gold.  Black head and tail bands.  The text is printed on beautiful cream colored Fabriano paper (from one of the oldest paper mills in Europe) which has a soft, natural grain.  The title is stamped in silver foil on the cover.  Spine is blank.  Each copy contains a tipped in bookplate with the title stamped in silver, a sigil hand-drawn by the anonymous author.  It also states the book's limitation (limitation also hand written on the title page).  Each copy comes in a green, padded, box.  It's obvious that each copy was given individual attention by the binder.  I sincerely hope Hadean Press continues to produce more riddle-filled gems such as this.