MAN-OPEN RITUAL:

From The Hyperborean Texts

by E. S. WYNN

Note: This is the second chapter of The Hyperborean Texts edited by

Earl S. Wynn (2011). The notes are by Doctor Larry Abraham
Armitage of Miskatonic University.

Man-Open Ritual
(Plate 1, Object 392: site A)

And he gave himself unto the beast

As the man-open ritual,2
And the god received him,
And was satisfied.

2
. Rough transliteration of the name given to the practice of ritual
self-dismemberment, where the individual offering himself in
sacrifice makes an incision spanning from the top of the groin to the
base of the throat with a sharpened blade of obsidian, offering
individual organs to an idol in the following order:
1. intestines,
2. spleen,
3. liver (in chunks),
4. bladder,
5. stomach,
6. and lastly, the heart.
A man-open ritual of the highest caliber (one which will secure a
bountiful harvest) is only attained if the individual offering himself in
this manner completes the ritual and truly lays his own heart at the
feet of the idol without the assistance of other members of the tribe.

Editor's Notes: A Harvest practice, the "Man-Open Ritual" is notable

for its sheer savagery which is rarely seen in archaic indigenous
ceremonies (with the obvious exception of the forbidden cannibalistic
rites of the Tcho-Tcho). Shades of the Harvest rites were known to the
Meso-American cultures of the Mayan and Aztec Empires. He Who
Walks Behind the Rows is the dark Lovecraftian god behind a modern
version of the Harvest rites in the Stephen King short story "Children
of the Corn."
This is presented for its insight into the lost Hyperborean
civilization, sheerly for its research value.
For the sake of the general public, let us hope that there are no
unstable readers out there. Please do not attempt this.
--Allen Mackey