What Is Azoth in Alchemy? The Universal Solvent and Symbol of the Whole Work
Azoth in alchemy, the universal solvent and symbol of the alchemical project, its identification with mercury, and its role in the magnum opus.
The word azoth is one of the most evocative and most mysterious in the alchemical vocabulary, and the word is the kind of single term that captures an entire program. The alchemists used it to refer to the universal solvent, the active principle of the magnum opus, and the symbol of the entire alchemical project. The word is sometimes identified with mercury, sometimes with the universal solvent, sometimes with the divine spirit that animates all matter, and the multiple identifications are part of what makes the term useful (Principe, The Secrets of Alchemy, 2013, pp. 100-110; Holmyard, Alchemy, 1957, pp. 142-150; Kahn, L’Alchimie et la Tradition, 2014; Newman, Promethean Ambitions, 2004). The word is most likely derived from the Arabic al-zā’ūq or the Latin azoc, and the etymological uncertainty is itself characteristic of the alchemical vocabulary.
The meanings
The word azoth has several related meanings in the alchemical tradition, and the multiple meanings are the point.
The first meaning is mercury, the metallic principle of fusibility and liquidity. The alchemists identified mercury with the active principle of the metallic world, and they called it by many names, including azoth. The identification of azoth with mercury was common in the Arabic and the early Latin traditions, and it survived in the Paracelsian and later traditions. The identification is not arbitrary. Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature, and the liquid quality is one of the qualities the alchemists associated with the active principle.
The second meaning is the universal solvent, the liquid that can dissolve any substance. The alchemists believed that such a solvent must exist if the doctrine of the unity of matter is true, and they called the hypothetical substance the alkahest, the menstruum universale, or azoth. The universal solvent was thought to be capable of reducing any substance to its prima materia. The second meaning is the one most often quoted in the popular alchemical literature, and the quoting is one of the reasons the term has been misunderstood.
The third meaning is the active principle of the magnum opus, the agent that drives the alchemical transformation through the four color stages to the philosopher’s stone. The active principle is sometimes identified with mercury, sometimes with the tria prima as a whole, and sometimes with the divine spirit that animates the alchemical work.
The fourth meaning is the divine principle that animates all matter. The alchemists, drawing on the Hermetic tradition, believed that the cosmos is a single living, ensouled whole, and they called the animating principle the pneuma, the spiritus mundi, or azoth. The divine principle is the foundation of the alchemical theory of the unity of matter, and the divine principle is the source of the alchemical conviction that the laboratory work is a participation in the divine work of creation.
The four meanings are not in competition. They are layered, and the layering is part of what the term is doing in the alchemical tradition.
Azoth in the alchemical imagery
Azoth is one of the most frequently used symbols in the alchemical visual tradition, and the visual tradition is one of the best places to see the term at work. The alchemists developed a distinctive iconography for azoth, and the symbol is found in many of the most important alchemical illustrations.
The most common image of azoth is the letter A inscribed within a circle, often with a cross or other symbolic additions. The letter A is the initial of azoth, and the circle is the symbol of the cosmos. The image represents the unity of the divine and the material, the alpha and the omega of the alchemical work, the beginning and the end of the magnum opus.
Another common image is the dragon or the serpent biting its own tail, the ouroboros, with the word AZOTH inscribed within the circle formed by the body of the creature. The image combines the symbolism of the unity of all things with the symbolism of the active principle of the alchemical work, and it is one of the most reproduced alchemical images in the visual tradition. The combination is a visual program in a single image.
A third common image is the figure of the hermaphrodite, the rebis, holding a scepter and an orb, with the word AZOTH inscribed on the body. The image represents the integration of the opposites that is the goal of the alchemical work, and it links the symbolism of azoth with the symbolism of the philosopher’s stone.
Azoth in the alchemical practice
In the practical alchemical work, azoth refers to the active agent of the magnum opus. The alchemist who is performing the work adds azoth — in the form of mercury, or a mercury compound, or a specially prepared solution — to the prima materia, and the azoth drives the work through the stages of the opus.
The alchemists disagreed about the exact nature of azoth, and they used the term in different ways in different traditions. The Arabic alchemists often used azoth as a synonym for mercury, the metallic principle. The Latin medieval alchemists often used azoth as a synonym for the universal solvent. The Paracelsian alchemists often used azoth as a synonym for the active principle of the tria prima. The early modern alchemists often used azoth as a synonym for the divine spirit that animates the alchemical work.
The disagreement about the nature of azoth was, in part, a deliberate feature of the alchemical tradition, and the deliberateness is one of the things the modern reader needs to take seriously. The alchemists used coded language to protect their secrets, and the apprentice was expected to learn the codes by long study of the literature. Azoth sits at the heart of the alchemical code, and the coding is part of the alchemical pedagogy.
Azoth in the Hermetic tradition
The Hermetic tradition, particularly the Emerald Tablet, provides a philosophical framework for understanding azoth, and the framework is the one that gives the term its deepest meaning. The Tablet’s central maxim — “That which is above is like to that which is below, and that which is below is like to that which is above” — is the principle of correspondence that underlies the alchemical concept of azoth (Copenhaver, Hermetica, 1992).
The Hermetic tradition holds that the cosmos is animated by a single divine spirit, the pneuma, that permeates all matter and binds all things together. The pneuma is the source of the unity of matter, the foundation of the alchemical theory of the transmutational project, and the active principle of the alchemical work. Azoth is the alchemical name for the pneuma in its manifestation as the active principle of the laboratory work.
The Hermetic reading of azoth links the laboratory work with the religious and philosophical framework of the alchemical tradition, and the linking is one of the more interesting features of the alchemical synthesis. The alchemist who is working with azoth in the laboratory is participating in the work of the divine spirit in the cosmos, and the philosopher’s stone that the alchemist produces is the manifestation of the divine spirit in the material world. The alchemist who treats the laboratory work as merely technical is missing the Hermetic reading, and the missing is one of the things the term is designed to prevent.
Azoth in the modern esoteric tradition
Azoth remains a central term in the modern esoteric tradition, and the persistence is one of the more interesting features of the modern reception. The Theosophical Society, the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, the Anthroposophical Society, and the various modern Rosicrucian orders all use azoth as a central term in their alchemical vocabulary, and the symbolism of azoth is an important part of the contemporary Western esoteric inheritance.
The modern esoteric reading of azoth builds on the Hermetic tradition. Azoth is the divine spirit that animates the cosmos, the active principle of the alchemical work, and the symbol of the integration of the human being with the divine. The alchemist who works with azoth in the laboratory or in the meditation is participating in the work of the divine spirit, and the alchemical transformation is the externalization of the inner transformation. The externalization is the most distinctive claim of the alchemical tradition, and the term azoth is the densest single expression of the claim.
The reader who approaches the alchemical tradition for the first time will probably encounter the term azoth in a context that emphasizes one of its four meanings to the exclusion of the others, and the encounter is part of what makes the term slippery. The most useful reading, in my view, is the layered one, in which the four meanings are held together and the term is allowed to do all of its work at once. The alchemists were not confused about the multiple meanings of azoth. They were using the multiple meanings to do a piece of conceptual work, and the work is one of the more impressive features of the alchemical vocabulary.