Azathoth

The 1922 fragment entitled "Azathoth" seems to indicate that this is a man taken away in dreams or that being which takes a man away in his dreams but Azathoth is most often mentioned as the mindless entity which rules all time and space from a black throne at the center of Chaos and the demon-sultan whose name no lips dare speak aloud and who gnaws hungrily in inconceivable, unlighted chambers beyond time amidst the muffled, maddening beating of vile drums and the thin, monotonous whine of accursed flutes. Azathoth is lord of all things, dwelling in the Ultimate Chaos encircled by his flopping horde of mindless and amporhous dancers. Also called the "monstrous nuclear chaos beyond angled space."

[Ashur. Assyrian mythology. Also Asshur, Assur, Asur. The principal diety and god of war and empire.] -[Thoth, Egyptian mythology, god of the moon and patron of writing, learning, and sciences, is shown as either an ibis with a pointed beak or as a dog-faced baboon. God of Hermopolis in Middle Egypt, scribe of the gods and inventor of writing. Also called Hermes Trimegistus]

It has been suggested by "Simon the Wise" the author of the Avon paperback called (wrongly) the Necronomicon that the name Azathoth was of Sumerian origin. He contends that "AZATOT is frequently mentioned in the grim pages of the 'Cthulhu Mythos,' and appears in the Necronomicon [Simon's version] as Azag-Thoth, a combination of two words, the first Sumerian and the second Coptic, which gives us a clue as to Its identiy. AZAG in Sumerian means "Enchanter" or "Magician"; THOTH is Coptic is the name given to the Egyptian God of Magick and Wisdom, TAHUTI, who is evoked by both the Golden Dawn and by Crowley himself (and known to the Greeks as HERMES, from whence we get "Hermetic"). AZAG-THOTH is, therefore, a Lord of Magicians, but of the "Black" magicians, or the sorcerers of the "Other Side"." We suggest that Simon might have been more correct in thinking that the name came from ABZU- THOTH. Which would make him a god of the Abyss which seems more in keeping with the Azathoth of Lovecraft and Abdul Alhazred.

AZOTH from Colin Wilson's The Occult: According to Paracelsus, there is a fundamental principle of life which the alchemists call 'azoth' and symbolize by a red lion. The word also means 'essence.' Azoth can convert all metals into gold. There is a story told by Sudhoff that Paracelsus cured the daughter of an innkeeper who had been paralyzed from the waist downwards since birth with teaspoonfuls of red wine and his 'azoth of the red lion.' Whether this means that he cured her by 'mental power' rather than medicine is not clear, but it seems likely, in view of his statement that a good physician depends on a natural 'magic.' Paracelsus also gave the name 'azoth' to his sword, of which he was so fond that it is said he slept with it in his bed.

("Azathoth" [a fragment], "Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath," "Dreams in the Witch House," "Haunter of the Dark," "The Fungi from Yuggoth")

(PR) The greatest of the gods. Alien gods howl in the maelstrom of Azathoth.

([P.Rev.] "The Mound," "The Horror in the Museum")

See also: Azathoth and Other Stories