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The Zazfanz Gazette
Official Journal for NAZEPI
The North American 'Zaziel Ephemera Preservation Institute
Kimmerlin Kinnemere, Archivist and Editor
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Special Issue # 2

THE MYSTERY OF 'ZAZIEL

This issue is the result of another special request, this time for the "Azaziel" monograph. These posts will appear chronologically within their context in a future issue of the Gazette under the subject header of EARLY ZAZ, but there is no canonical reason to wait for this memorable display of 'Zaziel in the full flower of his particular brand of wit.

Although my wonted method of editing follows a hands-off policy when presenting the texts of the posts from www.jtj.net, in an effort to preserve with fidelity the ambience of the JTJ message board, here I have made a minor deviation from my usual policy. I have restored the form of the stanza, which cannot be achieved within the interface of the message board, to the quote from Milton�s Paradise Lost.

..............................

Yonder,

Kimkin

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Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:31:31 to
Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:51:03 (PDT)
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'Zaziel writes:
I feel I have been horribly neglectful of all the precious little bored anons who have taken the all that time and effort to write their precious little posts. I really feel I have to make a big effort on your behalf, a supreme effort, to return the gift of your precious thoughts that you have shared with me. The following is for you, my dear dedicated anon fans. Because I know how you loved to be bored, how you live to be bored.
(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:31:31 (PDT))

'Zaziel writes:
Sensible people might want to gather the women, children, and livestock, and move to high ground. I'm about to be naughty. My apologies to the nice people. You know who you are, because you're nice. Kisses to you.
(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:34:44 (PDT))

'Zaziel writes:
In the remote possibility that anyone is worried that when they're talking to me, they may be talking to a little devil (well, yeah, I know I am, but what are you) I present "The Etomology of 'Zaziel" (trumpets please): It's been so long since I was christened, seems like a lifetime ago (wow, it was), that I have actually forgotten what vowel was the first letter of my name. So am I Azaziel, Ezaziel, Izaziel, Ozaziel or Uzazial? I think we can rule out Izaziel and Ozaziel, because with those names I'm sure my family would have called me Izzy or Ozzy from a very early age, and they didn't. Uzaziel? Uzzi? Nahhh, I don't think so. And with Ezaziel I would have been Ezie, and believe me, I may be cheap but I ain't Ezie. So that leaves us with Azaziel. And this is where people might worry, because isn't Azaziel a demon? Because everybody knows Azaziel is a variant spelling of Azazel (everybody knows that, don't they?) And we all saw the movie Fallen where Denzel Washington sacrificed his life to kill a skanky bit of hellspawn named Azazel. Didn't work though. Oops. Spoiler. But we all know that Hollywood, and the movies made there, are full of Lies, Half-Truths, Cruel Illusions and/or Delusions, plus various forms of Bullcrappy. So let's go right to the source on this one, shall we?
(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:36:53 (PDT))

'Zaziel writes:
FAIR WARNING for all the precious little bored anons. For your delight we provide this WARNING! WARNING! WARNING! BOREDOM ALERT! I assure you, you will be bored. Even *I* found this part a bit tedious: From The Secret Doctrine, The Synthesis Of Science, Religion, And Philosophy (a masterwork on theosophy) By H. P. Blavatsky. A tome of 2 volumes which addresses cosmic, planetary, and human evolution, as well as science, religion, and mythology. Based on the Stanzas of Dzyan, with corroborating testimony from over 1,200 sources, and originally published in 1888. �Ol Blavatsky writes [brackets are me]: Now the Zohar says that the Ischin, the beautiful B'ne-aleim [the Sons of God], were not guilty, but mixed themselves with mortal men because they were sent on earth to do so. (Book of Ruth and Schadash; fol. 63, col. 3; Amsterdam edition). [Well, bust my balls, who would've thought that "mixing" with mortal men was a holy vocation. Sheeeeoooot! I'm a saint!] Elsewhere the same volume shows these b'ne-aleim belonging to the tenth sub-division of the "Thrones" (Zohar, part iii., col. 113. But see also 1st vol. 184). It also explains that the Ischin, "men-spirits," viri spirituales, now that men can see them no longer, help magicians to produce, through their science, homunculi which are not small men but 'men smaller (in the sense of inferiority) than men.' [Shit. Men smaller than men? What a dirty, dirty trick. I would not do that. I would not.] Both show themselves under the form that the Ischin had then, i.e., gaseous and ethereal. Their chief is Azazel. But Azazel, whom the Church dogma will associate with Satan, is nothing of the kind. [Whew! I knew that! I knew that!] Azazel is a mystery, as explained elsewhere, and it is so expressed in Maimonides, "In More Nevochim" (chapter xxvi., p. 8). "There is an impenetrable mystery in the narrative concerning Azazel." And so there is, as Lanci, a librarian to the Vatican and one who ought to know, says -- we have quoted him before -- that "this venerable divine name (nome divino e venerabile) has become through the pen of Biblical scholars, a devil, a wilderness, a mountain, and a he-goat" (Sagra Scrittura). [No shame in being a he-goat. Some of my best friends are he-goats.] Therefore it seems foolish to derive the name as Spencer does, from Ajal (separated) and El (god), hence "one separated from God," the DEVIL. In the Zohar, Azazel is rather the Sacrificial victim than the "formal adversary of Jehovah," as Spencer would have it (II., pp. 14, 29). The amount of malicious fancy and fiction bestowed on that "Host" by various fanatical writers is quite extraordinary. Azazel and his "host" are simply the Hebrew "Prometheus," and ought to be viewed from the same standpoint. The Zohar shows the Ischin chained on the mountain in the desert, allegorically; thus simply alluding to those "spirits" as being chained to the earth during the cycle of incarnation. Azazel (or Azaziel) is one of the chiefs of the "transgressing" angels in Enoch, who descending upon Ardis, the top of Mount Armon, bound themselves by swearing loyalty to each other. [Sounds like my Lunch Bunch.] It is said that Azaziel taught men to make swords, knives, shields, to fabricate mirrors to make one see what is behind him (viz., "magic mirrors"). [Oh, he is so cool!] Amazarak taught all the sorcerers and dividers of roots; Amers taught the solution of magic; Barkayal, astrology; Akibeel, the meaning of portents and signs; Tamial, astronomy; and Asaradel taught the motion of the moon. "These seven were the first instructors of the Fourth man" (i.e., of the Fourth Race). [That�s the Atlanteans.]
(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:42:33 (PDT))

'Zaziel writes:
More Azaziel references (and you thought I was finished, ha!) Now if we go over to this shelf and check E. Cobham Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, 1898 (WARNING! MORE BORING STUFF!) we find Azaziel all over the place. As Azaz'el, he was the scape-goat; so called by the Jews, because the high priest (Aaron, I think it was) cast lots on two goats; one lot was for the Lord, and the other lot for Azaz'el or Satan, and the goat on which the latter lot fell was the scape-goat. Leviticus 16:8. Uh-huh. Sounds like some kind of fancy-schmancy rigmarole of which the outcome was never in any doubt. AKA a scam. I bet Azazel's goat was skinny, old, and tough. And don't you just loooovvve Leviticus; it's a really fun chapter of the Bible. Azaz'il in the Koran: when God commanded the angels to worship Adam, Azazil replied, "Why should the son of fire fall down before a son of clay?" Which I think was a reasonable point of debate, but God was feeling like a big ol' meanie that day and cast him out of heaven. Azazil's name was then changed to Eblis, which means "despair." Poor baby. Of course, as Eblis, he got a whole new career as the Lucifer of Moslem theology. And he got himself five sons: Tir, author of fatal accidents; Awar, the demon of lubricity; Dasim, author of discord; Sut, father of lies; and Zalambur, author of mercantile dishonesty. Ooh, man, I tell you, queer men are perfectly familiar with that son-of-a-devil, Awar. Lubricity can be a bitch. Ouch.
(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:44:41 (PDT))

'Zaziel writes:
Had enough? No? Still want to be bored? Okay, where else do we find Azaziel? In Byron's play Heaven and Earth (admittedly not one of Byron's best works), the guy is an absolute sweetie, and a diehard romantic. He is Azaz'iel, a seraph who falls in love with An'ah, a granddaughter of Cain, and saves her from the Great Flood. When the flood comes, he carries her under his wing to another planet. Yeah, when the flood comes, sometimes I feel like I'm heading straight for another planet. Houston, we have lift-off. Azaziel also gets a nice part in Milton's Paradise Lost:

Then strait commands that at the warlike sound
Of Trumpets loud and Clarions be upreard
His mighty Standard; that proud honour claim'd
AZAZEL as his right, a Cherube tall:
Who forthwith from the glittering Staff unfurld
Th' Imperial Ensign, which full high advanc't
Shon like a Meteor streaming to the Wind
With Gemms and Golden lustre rich imblaz'd,
Seraphic arms and Trophies: all the while
Sonorous mettal blowing Martial sounds:
At which the universal Host upsent
A shout that tore Hells Concave, and beyond
Frighted the Reign of Chaos and old Night.

Paradise Lost, I:531-543

(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:47:16 (PDT))

'Zaziel writes:
So what have we learned about Azaziel, besides the fact that the guy has been around the block a few times? Well, now we know he is the Hebrew Prometheus, and he taught the Atlanteans many useful things. He's been a goat. (No biggie. We've all done that one.) He's been wrongly associated with Satan by Jews, Christians and Moslems alike. (Which is not surprising, considering that they all pray to the same God and piss in the same House. I don't know why they won't acknowledge that fact, and kiss and make up.) He's romantic as hell. He has a good-lookin� standard (I've never heard it called that before). And we also have learned that it's a bad, bad thing to call a guy a "homunculus". Very bad. Don't do it.
(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:49:20 (PDT))

'Zaziel writes:
A wise man named Aben-Ezra said that he who comprehends the mystery of Azaziel "will learn the mystery of God's name, and truly." Wow, that's really *nice*. Now I think you can understand why my proud Momma and Poppa chose that name for their beamish bouncing baby boy. Or did they? Or was I about to launch my first post on JTJ when I realized I needed a name, and perhaps when looking around my den of inequity for inspiration, my eye fell upon Raymond Queneau's Zazie Dans Le Metro? And since Zazie was too sissy even for me, did I add an L to the end to make the name a little more manly? And an apostrophe to the beginning to make it look pretty? Knowing full well all about the various associations of the names Azaziel, Azazel, Azazil? And is my name really Azaziel? Maybe it is Ezaziel. Maybe I am Ezie, as well as cheap. How will you ever know? Maimonides was right. It's a mystery.

(Sunday, June 24, 2001 at 16:51:03 (PDT))