Azoth
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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Azoth was considered to be a universal medicine or universal solvent sought in alchemy (similar to other alchemical idealized substance, alkahest, that like azoth was the aim, goal and vision of many alchemical works it was to achieve). 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 name being originally derived from Arabic al-zā'ūq "the 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 Latin, 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, French), azoth is the name for nitrogen, but the etymology is different (in Italian it's "azoto" which comes from the Greek ἀ+ζωή "no life").
In popular culture
- Azuth, the lesser deity of spellcasters in the Forgotten Realms D&D campaign setting, is presumably named after Azoth.Template:Or
- 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 Advance
- Azoth sword makes an appearance in Fate/stay night, as a magical dagger capable of storing and releasing magical energy.
- Azoth is the purified divine fire that serves as the power trait 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.
- Haunting Ground features Azoth as a substance which can be used to attain immortality.
- A Dagger in Final Fantasy XI that drops from the Notorious Monster Dark Ixion.
- Azoth is the name of one of the main characters in the Night Angel Trilogy by author Brent Weeks.
- Azoth the Faceless is one of several characters introduced in Heroes for Dungeonquest (1987) an expansion for the 1985 board game Dungeonquest.
- Our Glassie Azoth is the name of an experimental music project formed in the 1990s by Ruth and Dafydd Roberts.
See also
