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.
* 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.
* Azoth is the divine fire powering the created in
* 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

References

* cite book
first = Aleister
last = Crowley
authorlink = Aleister Crowley
title = 777 And Other Qabalistic Writings of Aleister Crowley
publisher = Samuel Weiser, 1977
location = York Beach, ME
id = ISBN 0-87728-670-1