Azoth
Azoth
Azoth was considered to be a 'universal medicine' or 'universal solvent' sought in alchemy. Its symbol was the Caduceus and so the term, which being originally a term for an occult formula sought by alchemists much like the philosopher's stone, became a poetic word for the element Mercury.
The term was considered by occultist Aleister Crowley to represent a unity of beginning and ending by tying together the first and last letters of the alphabets of antiquity; A/Alpha/Alef (first character of Roman, Greek & Hebrew), Z (final character in Latin), O as Omega (final character in Greek) and Th as Tau (final character in Hebrew). In this way permeation and totality of beginning and end was symbolised to consider the supreme wholeness and thus the universal synthesis of opposites as a 'cancellation' (i.e. solvent) or cohesion (i.e. medicine), and in such a way is similar to the philosophical "absolute" of Hegel's dialectic. Crowley further made reference in his works referring to Azoth as "the fluid."
An interesting fact is that in some languages, especially Slavic, but some others as well (e.g. Italian) azoth is the name for nitrogen, but the etymology is different (in Italian it's "azoto" which comes from Greek "no life").
In popular culture
- Azuth, the lesser deity of spellcasters in the Forgotten Realms D&D campaign setting, is presumably named after Azoth.
- Atelier Iris 2: The Azoth of Destiny features two "Azoths", powerful magical items in the shape of swords (as well as other references to alchemy).
- A spell used by the Nu Mou Ezel Berbier in the game Final Fantasy Tactics Advanced
- Azoth sword makes an appearance in Fate/Stay Night.
- Azoth is the divine fire powering the created in Promethean:_The_Created
- Gene Wolfe's series of novels the Book of the Long Sun contains rare, valuable laser weapons known as Azoths.
- One of the seven sub-groups of the band Secret Chiefs 3 is named "The Electromagnetic Azoth".
- A dagger in Ragnarok Online which has a low chance of transforming all monsters, aside from Boss monsters, with each attack. Only the alchemist class can wield it.
References
- Crowley, Aleister. 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley. York Beach, ME: Samuel Weiser, 1977. ISBN 0-87728-670-1.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia; from the article "Azoth". Image Credit.
