aquastor

English

Etymology

From German, coined by Swiss philosopher Paracelsus (1493–1541).(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium. Particularly: “Need original definition by Paracelsus. His works are not easily searchable.”)

Noun

aquastor (plural aquastors)

1. A being created and sustained by the power of the imagination and the concentration of thought.
   • [1891, Franz Hartmann, The Life and the Doctrines of Philippus Theophrastus, page 40:

     AQUASTOR.—A being created by the power of the imagination]

   • 1899, William Wallace Cook, “Aquastor”, in Overland Monthly‎^[1], page 14:

     There is another being, created by the imagination entirely, and called Aquastor. The specific imagination required for this creative act is evolved by a concentration of thought upon the A'kasa, which is an Eastern term signifying living primordial substance.

   • [1912, Victor Robinson, Pathfinders in Medicine, page 52:

     Little will here be said concerning Paracelsus' notions on Magic. We have scant inclination to elucidate his aniadum and aquastor, or explain his evestrum and erodinium.]

   • 1983, Gene Wolfe, chapter XXXI, in The Citadel of the Autarch (The Book of the New Sun; 4), New York: Timescape, →ISBN, page 255:

     “ […] We are aquastors, beings created and sustained by the power of the imagination and the concentration of thought.”

   • 1987, Gene Wolfe, chapter IV, in The Urth of the New Sun, 1st US edition, New York: Tor Books, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 20:

     Hearing it, it seemed to me for a moment that it was my own cry, that something I had held deep inside me since that still-dark morning when I had walked the beach with the aquastor Master Malrubius and watched the aquastor Triskele dissolve in shimmering dust had freed itself and separated itself from me, and that it was below, howling in the faint lost light.

   • 2001, Timothy A. Storlie, “Chapter Twelve Polishing the Chalice: Imperil and Esoteric Purity Practices”, in Initiation Into the Grail Mysteries: Advanced Spiritual Teachings, Practices, and Empowerments for Esoteric World Service, Writers Club Press, →ISBN, “Subtle Anatomy and the Need for Esoteric Purity”, page 155:

     The etheric aura can be visualized for practical purposes to extend the same distance from our bodies that we can measure by extending both arms. It can be developed by using the invoked light of the First Iliaster to create protective aquastors. These protective aquastors eventually render the auro impenetrable to all but the most potent invasive forces and energies. This is done in the First Empowerment after Initiation in the Temple of the Holy Grail.

   • 2004, Robert J. Borski, “13. Miles and Jonas”, in Solar Labyrinth: Exploring Gene Wolfe’s Book of the New Sun, iUniverse, →ISBN, page 80:

     Aquastors must therefore be true to their mnemonic blueprints, the same way our eyes must remain blue if genetically coded so. Thus Severian’s dog Triskele still has three legs (and will always have three, as long as Severian lines and the machine sustains his beloved pet’s quiddity), while Master Malrubius will never be anything but old, stern and wise. All this, of course, we learn rather late in Citadel, despite the fact that aquastors of Malrubius and Triskele have been appearing to Severian ever since Shadow. But are they the only aquastors to appear in the original quarter? Surely, it would not be above Gene Wolfe to sneak a few non-obvious, machine-fleshed eidola into the narrative. So let us investigate several potential cases and see if we can roust an aquastor or two.

   • 2008, Michael Andre-Driussi, “Synopsis of Severian’s Narrative”, in Lexicon Urthus: A Dictionary for the Urth Cycle, 2nd edition, Sirius Fiction, →ISBN, page 405:

     The Urthman sailors in the audience draw their knives at this news. They attack and kill the Hierarch Venant, identified as Tzadkiel’s son. Again the aquastors (based upon people from Severian’s past) fight against the sailors. Gunnie helps Saverian (atonement for her betrayal of the Conciliator [ch. 34]) and the sailors are defeated. The aquastors dissolve (21).

   • 2013, Jonathan Black, The Sacred History: How Angels, Mystics and Higher Intelligence Made Our World, Quercus, →ISBN:

     Paracelsus also wrote of another order of beings which may be created by humans. Aquastors are given life by the power of the human imagination.

   • 2014, Leonard Wittine, “11: Yeshua Ha-Nozri Alias Jesus Of Nazareth, Leo Lobeck The Trojan And Saint Che”, in Brain Arrest or Doomsday Countdown, Paragon Publishing, →ISBN, page 177:

     After the physical manifestation of an aquastor, a particular abstract eidolon controlled by the Trojan’s distant willpower, the new light being would start gradually a life of its own. […] The aquastor sent by Lobeck and Ersatz was a space and time probe to elicit the historical situation.