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featherynscaleAnd the heavens parted, and there were a number of explanations given for the whole "Eko, eko, Azerak" thing. (One player did also submit the explanation that I like best for a 'real' answer, but I'll hold that until the end of the round...)
Please read the answers below, and choose the one you like the best. Each vote an answer gets is a point for its author. There is no 'right' answer among these, so no points for guessing correctly.
Ready? Go!
1. Azarak and Zomelak (originally Asarak and Thomelak, for A and Thorn) represent the first and last letters of an obfuscatory phonetic alphabet used by Anglo-Saxon witches. The phrase bears some similarity to "the alpha and the omega" in Judeo-Christian writings, but in the Rune it specifically means that the words about to be spoken should echo from the beginning of time to the end of time.
2. Like much (if not all) of Neo-Paganist ritual and terminology, this chant is a horrible bastardization of different cultural memes. Eko - from the Norse 'ekowe', meaning 'hail' or 'praise', usually referring to a victorious warrior or war band. Azarak and Zomelak are pre-Islamic Persian brother-and-sister myth figures, the former the Goddess/Queen of the Earth, the latter the God/King of the Dawn Sun. The chant probably derives from the myth that each sunrise is the symbolic mating of the two, whose progeny are the minor nature spirits which enhabit each day and die at dusk at the hands of their other brother, Mazrulak. As in most myths of this type which predate any real understanding of the problems associated with the result of incestuous progeny, the mating of siblings is considered a royal perogative.
3. The invocation is a Basque prayer regarding "wash the
pots and dishes, bring the food, we're going to have a feast".
4. As Eko, Eko is the spiritual radio communication shorthand for "E", over in NATO radio shortening they call it "Echo". This is just handed down ritual shorthand for Evoke, Evoke. Think of it as ritual note shorthand for
"Evoke, Evoke, come to me O! Azarak". When this briefly became "Eko, Eko, Azarak...Come Back, Good Buddy" during the cb-radio craze, the gods could hear all that CB crosstalk and left the area due to all the damn radio chatter giving them a headache.
5. "Eko, eko Azarak, eko eko Zomelak" translates to modern English as "Nana Nana Bo Bana, Banana Fana Fo Fana, Me Mi Mo Mana... Nana".
6. Little do most occultists and practioneers of the black arts realize that the chant "Eko, eko Azarak, eko eko Zomelak." are not arcane invocations to the lost deities of the Witch Tribe, but are in actuality the very first commercial jingle and use of corporate sponsorship. Yes in the early days of advertising the most prevalent form of media were magical rituals (which were the equivalent of TV shows back then - there were soap opera spells and Saturday morning incantations for example).
So it should come as no surprise that "Eko, eko Azarak, eko eko Zomelak." translates simply as - "We got, we got Azarak, we got, we got Zomelak", a popular little jingle for what we would now quaintly call a 'Mojo Shop'.
Azarak was a popular dietary supplement that promoted a healthy libido, cured what was known then as the 'Hobbit Foot' and helped clear up pimples (known as 'face bugs' then). Zomelak or "Zom" as the kids called it was a refreshing beverage made from grounded Shoggoths, Gotu Kola and just a hint of lemon. Dee-lish-us!
7. These lines are essentially base-calls, testing the connection between those conducting the ritual and the spirits Azarak and Zomelak. "Eko" is a variation of "echo" so essentially the ritual participants are asking for their voices to be echoed to the spirit realm. Azarak and Zomelak were the guiding spirits of the covens responsible for authoring the Witches' Rune.
8. Linguistically speaking, this prayer form dates back to the Proto Indo-Eurpoean culture. The word eko forms the linguistic base for the word that in Latinate languages became "acclaim." It makes a phonetic shift in the Germanic languages to Ehre, which is usually translated as "glory." In Gaelic however, it reverts back to the /k/ phoneme in the word cliù, which means "praise." Eko then is a general greeting and acknowledgment of the powers and can be loosely translated as "hail."
The deity names that follow the greeting are more problematic. Most scholars agree that "Azarak" is likely an erroneous spelling of the dawn goddess Xausos. Likewise "Zomelak" is more likely Xaryomen, who is a law-giver god. The errors in nomenclature are attributed to the lack of scholarship at the turn of the century on the part of the mystical societies, such as the Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society, that were so de rigeur in early Edwardian England. For their purposes, achieving an aesthetic rhyme with the deity names would, unfortunately for us moderns, have been more important than authentic scholarship.
Therefore, the traditional greeting in the Witches' Rune, "Eko, eko, Azarak. Eko, eko, Zomelak," is nothing more than a salute to the female and male deities in their traditional roles of the goddess ruling the natural world and the god ruling civilization.
8b. Azarak = The Beginning
Zomelak = The End
A to Z
English translation:
Echo, Echo A, Echo, Echo Z
Hearing the beginning, hearing the end
9. The lines actually have no meaning whatever. As it turns out, the group was trancing and really grooving out when Mr. Gardner's cat had a really nasty hairball ...
10. The eko eko part means "here is here is" in an early Celtic language and Azarak and Zomalak are both ancient Gods.
11. There are some Words of Power that do not require comprehension in order to achieve real magical results. For example, it's a closely guarded secret in most initiatory traditions that "Asarak" and "Zomelak" are the root words for "rock" and "lobster," respectively, it's not surprising that their repetition will build a cone of power the likes of which are unequaled across boundaries of culture and time. Use them with caution.
12. Azarak and Zomelak are primeval chthonic deities from the earliest experiences of human life in the British Isles. Their rituals were handed down across millennia in the ancient witchcraft religion. They had to be invoked at the beginning of every ceremony to acknowledge that they were indeed among The First. In ancient pagan ceremonies this was usually accomplished by calling their sacred names into any crevice or shaft in the earth. Wells were long a popular choice. Early 20th century folklorists claim the addition of "Eko, Eko" to the invocation began in the middle ages and derived from the unfortunate lapse in judgment of a highly esteemed priest who could not resist shouting, "Echo!" into the well before the ceremony began. He quickly tried to cover up the faint repetitious evidence of his moment of frivolity by starting the ceremony but the coven were thrilled by what seemed a moment divine inspiration and it was performed thus ever since.
13. Eko means Darkness from within the light from a fable that was passed down in the city of Tuscany. It is seen as an antithesis of a candle in the light. (Incidentally, this is the use that the creators of NBC's LOST intended when naming the character, Mr. Eko.)
Azerak and Zomelak are both spirits or beings that were thought to be demons, cast from the light of day to hide in the night time. The Witches' Rune was usually inscribed upon a pendant (hence the Rune part), in hopes that it would keep the demons from harming them, the same way that placing a Malocchi symbol could protect you from the evil eye.
Please read the answers below, and choose the one you like the best. Each vote an answer gets is a point for its author. There is no 'right' answer among these, so no points for guessing correctly.
Ready? Go!
1. Azarak and Zomelak (originally Asarak and Thomelak, for A and Thorn) represent the first and last letters of an obfuscatory phonetic alphabet used by Anglo-Saxon witches. The phrase bears some similarity to "the alpha and the omega" in Judeo-Christian writings, but in the Rune it specifically means that the words about to be spoken should echo from the beginning of time to the end of time.
2. Like much (if not all) of Neo-Paganist ritual and terminology, this chant is a horrible bastardization of different cultural memes. Eko - from the Norse 'ekowe', meaning 'hail' or 'praise', usually referring to a victorious warrior or war band. Azarak and Zomelak are pre-Islamic Persian brother-and-sister myth figures, the former the Goddess/Queen of the Earth, the latter the God/King of the Dawn Sun. The chant probably derives from the myth that each sunrise is the symbolic mating of the two, whose progeny are the minor nature spirits which enhabit each day and die at dusk at the hands of their other brother, Mazrulak. As in most myths of this type which predate any real understanding of the problems associated with the result of incestuous progeny, the mating of siblings is considered a royal perogative.
3. The invocation is a Basque prayer regarding "wash the
pots and dishes, bring the food, we're going to have a feast".
4. As Eko, Eko is the spiritual radio communication shorthand for "E", over in NATO radio shortening they call it "Echo". This is just handed down ritual shorthand for Evoke, Evoke. Think of it as ritual note shorthand for
"Evoke, Evoke, come to me O! Azarak". When this briefly became "Eko, Eko, Azarak...Come Back, Good Buddy" during the cb-radio craze, the gods could hear all that CB crosstalk and left the area due to all the damn radio chatter giving them a headache.
5. "Eko, eko Azarak, eko eko Zomelak" translates to modern English as "Nana Nana Bo Bana, Banana Fana Fo Fana, Me Mi Mo Mana... Nana".
6. Little do most occultists and practioneers of the black arts realize that the chant "Eko, eko Azarak, eko eko Zomelak." are not arcane invocations to the lost deities of the Witch Tribe, but are in actuality the very first commercial jingle and use of corporate sponsorship. Yes in the early days of advertising the most prevalent form of media were magical rituals (which were the equivalent of TV shows back then - there were soap opera spells and Saturday morning incantations for example).
So it should come as no surprise that "Eko, eko Azarak, eko eko Zomelak." translates simply as - "We got, we got Azarak, we got, we got Zomelak", a popular little jingle for what we would now quaintly call a 'Mojo Shop'.
Azarak was a popular dietary supplement that promoted a healthy libido, cured what was known then as the 'Hobbit Foot' and helped clear up pimples (known as 'face bugs' then). Zomelak or "Zom" as the kids called it was a refreshing beverage made from grounded Shoggoths, Gotu Kola and just a hint of lemon. Dee-lish-us!
7. These lines are essentially base-calls, testing the connection between those conducting the ritual and the spirits Azarak and Zomelak. "Eko" is a variation of "echo" so essentially the ritual participants are asking for their voices to be echoed to the spirit realm. Azarak and Zomelak were the guiding spirits of the covens responsible for authoring the Witches' Rune.
8. Linguistically speaking, this prayer form dates back to the Proto Indo-Eurpoean culture. The word eko forms the linguistic base for the word that in Latinate languages became "acclaim." It makes a phonetic shift in the Germanic languages to Ehre, which is usually translated as "glory." In Gaelic however, it reverts back to the /k/ phoneme in the word cliù, which means "praise." Eko then is a general greeting and acknowledgment of the powers and can be loosely translated as "hail."
The deity names that follow the greeting are more problematic. Most scholars agree that "Azarak" is likely an erroneous spelling of the dawn goddess Xausos. Likewise "Zomelak" is more likely Xaryomen, who is a law-giver god. The errors in nomenclature are attributed to the lack of scholarship at the turn of the century on the part of the mystical societies, such as the Order of the Golden Dawn and the Theosophical Society, that were so de rigeur in early Edwardian England. For their purposes, achieving an aesthetic rhyme with the deity names would, unfortunately for us moderns, have been more important than authentic scholarship.
Therefore, the traditional greeting in the Witches' Rune, "Eko, eko, Azarak. Eko, eko, Zomelak," is nothing more than a salute to the female and male deities in their traditional roles of the goddess ruling the natural world and the god ruling civilization.
8b. Azarak = The Beginning
Zomelak = The End
A to Z
English translation:
Echo, Echo A, Echo, Echo Z
Hearing the beginning, hearing the end
9. The lines actually have no meaning whatever. As it turns out, the group was trancing and really grooving out when Mr. Gardner's cat had a really nasty hairball ...
10. The eko eko part means "here is here is" in an early Celtic language and Azarak and Zomalak are both ancient Gods.
11. There are some Words of Power that do not require comprehension in order to achieve real magical results. For example, it's a closely guarded secret in most initiatory traditions that "Asarak" and "Zomelak" are the root words for "rock" and "lobster," respectively, it's not surprising that their repetition will build a cone of power the likes of which are unequaled across boundaries of culture and time. Use them with caution.
12. Azarak and Zomelak are primeval chthonic deities from the earliest experiences of human life in the British Isles. Their rituals were handed down across millennia in the ancient witchcraft religion. They had to be invoked at the beginning of every ceremony to acknowledge that they were indeed among The First. In ancient pagan ceremonies this was usually accomplished by calling their sacred names into any crevice or shaft in the earth. Wells were long a popular choice. Early 20th century folklorists claim the addition of "Eko, Eko" to the invocation began in the middle ages and derived from the unfortunate lapse in judgment of a highly esteemed priest who could not resist shouting, "Echo!" into the well before the ceremony began. He quickly tried to cover up the faint repetitious evidence of his moment of frivolity by starting the ceremony but the coven were thrilled by what seemed a moment divine inspiration and it was performed thus ever since.
13. Eko means Darkness from within the light from a fable that was passed down in the city of Tuscany. It is seen as an antithesis of a candle in the light. (Incidentally, this is the use that the creators of NBC's LOST intended when naming the character, Mr. Eko.)
Azerak and Zomelak are both spirits or beings that were thought to be demons, cast from the light of day to hide in the night time. The Witches' Rune was usually inscribed upon a pendant (hence the Rune part), in hopes that it would keep the demons from harming them, the same way that placing a Malocchi symbol could protect you from the evil eye.
