Magician
Invoking Elementals
The magician, having drawn his circle, is here shown invoking the
various
elemental beings, who are emerging from their respective haunts.
From
the earth at his feet come the gnomes, from the water the undines,
from
the fire the salamanders, and from the air the winged sylphs. In
like
fashion, we observe the Modern Magicians (Greer, Mack, Boylan, Strieber,
et al) employing their Holy Scientific Protocols to invoke the "Little
Grey
Space Alien" Elementals of our day; languishing in the terminal
errata of
their absurdly inappropriate culture-bound mythos.
Caeruleus
Excerptus
"Just
as visible Nature is populated by an infinite number of living creatures,
so, according to Paracelsus, the invisible, spiritual counterpart
of visible Nature (composed of the tenuous principles of the visible
elements) is inhabited by a host of peculiar beings, to whom he
has given the name elementals ...The civilizations of Greece, Rome,
Egypt, China, and India believed implicitly in satyrs, sprites,
and goblins [just as America today believes implicitly in it's Little
Grey Space Aliens from Zeta Reticuli -B:.B:.] Occasionally, as the
result of atmospheric conditions or the peculiar sensitiveness of
the devotee, they became visible ...as man has within his own nature
centers of consciousness sensitive to the impulses of all the four
ethers, it is possible for any of the elemental kingdoms to communicate
with him under proper conditions.
"The idea once held, that the invisible elements surrounding
and interpenetrating the earth were peopled with living, intelligent
beings, may seem ridiculous to the prosaic mind of today. This doctrine,
however, has found favor with some of the greatest intellects the
world. The sylphs of Facius Cardan, the philosopher of Milan; the
salamander seen by Benvenuto Cellini; the pan of St. Anthony; and
le petit homme rouge (the little red man, orgnome) of Napoleon Bonaparte
have found their places in the pages of history ...Not so very long
ago the greatest minds of the world believed in the existence of
fairies, and it is still an open question as to whether Plato, Socrates,
and Iamblichus were wrong when they avowed their reality.
"Paracelsus,
when describing the substances which constitute the bodies of the
elementals, divided flesh into two kinds, the first being that which
we have all inherited through Adam. This is the visible, corporeal
flesh. The second was that flesh which had not descended from Adam
and, being more attenuated, was not subject to the limitations of
the former. The bodies of the elementals were composed of this transubstantial
flesh. Paracelsus stated that there is as much difference between
the bodies of men and the bodies of the Nature spirits as there
is between matter and spirit.
"Yet," he
adds, "the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh,
blood and bones; they live and propagate offspring; they eat and
talk, act and sleep, etc., and consequently they cannot be properly
called 'spirits.' They are beings occupying a place between men
and spirits, resembling men and spirits, resembling men and women
in their organization and form, and resembling spirits in the rapidity
of their locomotion." (Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz
Hartmann.) Later the same author calls the creatures composite,
inasmuch as the substance out of which they are composed seems to
be a composite of spirit and matter. He uses color to explain the
idea. Thus, the mixture of blue and red gives purple, a new color,
resembling neither of the others yet composed of both. Such is the
case with the nature spirits; they resemble neither spiritual creatures
nor material beings, yet are composed of the substance which we
may call spiritual matter, or aether.
"The gnomes are
of various sizes -- most of them much smaller than human beings,
though some of them have the power of changing their stature at
will. This is the result of the extreme mobility of the element
in which they function. Concerning them the Abbe de Villars wrote:
"The earth is filled well nigh to its center with gnomes, people
of slight stature, who are the guardians of treasures, minerals
and precious stones. They are ingenious, friends of man, and easy
to govern."
"Not all authorities
agree concerning the amiable disposition of the gnomes. Many state
that they are of a tricky and malicious nature, difficult to manage,
and treacherous. Writers agree, however, that when their confidence
is won they are faithful and true. The philosophers and initiates
of the ancient world were instructed concerning these mysterious
little people and were taught how to communicate with them and gain
their cooperation in undertakings of importance. The magi were always
warned, however, never to betray the trust of the elementals, for
if they did, the invisible creatures, working through the subjective
nature of man, could cause them endless sorrow and probably ultimate
destruction. So long as the mystic served others, the gnomes would
serve him, but if he sought to use their aid selfishly to gain temporal
power they would turn upon him with unrelenting fury. [Will someone
please alert Laurence Rockefeller and Bob Bigelow immediately? -B:.B:.]
"Great trees
also have their Nature spirits, but these are much larger than the
elementals of smaller plants. The labors of the pygmies include
the cutting of the crystals in the rocks and the development of
veins of ore. When the gnomes are laboring with animals or human
beings, their work is confined to the tissues corresponding with
their own natures. [Hmmm....given the propensity of many of the
Clever Grey "Space Aliens" to core-out the assholes of
many of their hapless Bovine Victims, we cannot but wonder at this
point precisely how the Grand Cosmic Natures of the Iconoclastic
Martians correspond to their peculiar selection of bodily tissues.
-B:.B:.]
"Paracelsus differs
somewhat from the Greek mystics concerning the environmental limitations
imposed on the Nature spirits. The Swiss philosopher constitutes
them of subtle invisible ethers. According to this hypothesis they
would be visible only at certain times and only to those en rapport
with their ethereal vibrations. The Greeks, on the other hand, apparently
believed that many Nature spirits had material constitutions capable
of functioning in the physical world. Often the recollection of
a dream is so vivid that, upon awakening, a person actually believes
that he has passed through a physical experience. The difficulty
of accurately judging as to the end of physical sight and the beginning
of ethereal vision may account for these differences of opinion.
["alien abductions," anyone...? -B:.B:.]
"Even this explanation,
however, does not satisfactorily account for the satyr which, according
to St. Jerome, was captured alive during the reign of Constantine
and exhibited to the people. It was of human form with the horns
and feet of a goat. After its death it was preserved in salt and
taken to the Emperor that he might testify to its reality. (It is
within the bounds of probability that this curiosity was what modem
science knows as a monstrosity. [Roswell "Space Aliens,"
anyone...? -B:.B:.])
"The salamanders
are as varied in their grouping and arrangement as either the undines
or the gnomes. There are many families of them, differing in appearance,
size, and dignity. Sometimes the salamanders were visible as small
balls of light. Paracelsus says: "Salamanders have been seen
in the shapes of fiery balls, or tongues of fire, running over the
fields or peering in houses." (Philosophia Occulta, translated
by Franz Hartmann.) ["Ball lightning" / BoL phenomena,
anyone...? -B:.B:.]
"They [the fairies]
were supposed to be diminutive aerial beings, beautiful, lively
and beneficent in their intercourse with mortals, inhabiting a region
called Fairy Land, Alf-heinner; commonly appearing on earth at intervals
-- when they left traces of their visits, in beautiful green rings,
where the dewy sward had been trodden in their moonlight dances."
[crop circles, anyone...? -B:.B:.]
"The sylphs sometimes
assume human form, but apparently for only short periods of time.
Their size varies, but in the majority of cases they are no larger
than human beings and often considerably smaller. It is said that
the sylphs have accepted human beings into their communities and
have permitted them to live there for a considerable period; in
fact, Paracelsus wrote of such an incident, but of course it could
not have occurred while the human stranger was in his physical body.
[Paracelsus -- 15th century "space alien abductee"...?
-B:.B:.]
"The terms incubus
and succubus have been applied indiscriminately by the Church Fathers
to elementals. The incubus and succubus, however, are evil and unnatural
creations, whereas elementals is a collective term for all the inhabitants
of the four elemental essences. According to Paracelsus, the incubus
and succubus (who are male and female respectively) are parasitical
creatures subsisting upon the evil thoughts an emotions of the astral
body. These terms are also applied to the superphysical organisms
of sorcerers and black magicians. While these larvae are in no sense
imaginary beings, they are, nevertheless, the offspring of the imagination.
By the ancient sages they were recognized as the invisible cause
of vice because they hover in the ethers surrounding the morally
weak and continually incite them to excesses of a degrading nature.
For this reason they frequent the atmosphere of the dope den, the
dive, and the brothel, [and Whitley's house, apparently -B:.B:.]
where they attach themselves to those unfortunates who have given
themselves up to iniquity.
[End Caeruleus
Excerptus]
The Elements and
Their Inhabitants
FOR the most comprehensive and lucid exposition of occult pneumatology
(the branch of philosophy dealing with spiritual substances) extant,
mankind is indebted to Philippus Aurcolus Paracelsus (Theophrastus
Bombastus von Hohenheim), prince of alchemists and Hermetic philosophers
and true possessor of the Royal Secret (the Philosopher's Stone
and the Elixir of Life). Paracelsus believed that each of the four
primary elements known to the ancients (earth, fire, air, and water)
consisted of a subtle, vaporous principle and a gross corporeal
substance.
Air is, therefore, twofold in nature -- tangible atmosphere and
an intangible, volatile substratum which may be termed spiritual
air. Fire is visible and invisible, discernible and indiscernible
-- a spiritual, ethereal flame manifesting through a material, substantial
flame. Carrying the analogy further, water consists of a dense fluid
and a potential essence of a fluidic nature. Earth has likewise
two essential parts -- the lower being fixed, terreous, immobile;
the higher, rarefied, mobile, and virtual. The general term elements
has been applied to the lower, or physical, phases of these four
primary principles, and the name elemental essences to their corresponding
invisible, spiritual constitutions. Minerals, plants, animals, and
men live in a world composed of the gross side of these four elements,
and from various combinations of them construct their living organisms.
Henry Drummond, in
Natural Law in the Spiritual World, describes this process as follows:
"If we analyse this material point at which all life starts,
we shall find it to consist of a clear structureless, jelly-like
substance resembling albumen or white of egg. It is made of Carbon,
Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. Its name is protoplasm. And it is
not only the structural unit with which all living bodies start
in life, but with which they are subsequently built up. 'Protoplasm,'
says Huxley, simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life.
It is the clay of the Potter.'"
The water element
of the ancient philosophers has been metamorphosed into the hydrogen
of modern science; the air has become oxygen; the fire, nitrogen;
the earth, carbon.
Just as visible Nature
is populated by an infinite number of living creatures, so, according
to Paracelsus, the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible Nature
(composed of the tenuous principles of the visible elements) is
inhabited by a host of peculiar beings, to whom he has given the
name elementals, and which have later been termed the Nature spirits.
Paracelsus divided these people of the elements into four distinct
groups, which he called gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders.
He taught that they were really living entities, many resembling
human beings in shape, and inhabiting worlds of their own, unknown
to man because his undeveloped senses were incapable of functioning
beyond the limitations of the grosser elements.
The civilizations
of Greece, Rome, Egypt, China, and India believed implicitly in
satyrs, sprites, and goblins. They peopled the sea with mermaids,
the rivers and fountains with nymphs, the air with fairies, the
fire with Lares and Penates, and the earth with fauns, dryads, and
hamadryads. These Nature spirits were held in the highest esteem,
and propitiatory offerings were made to them. Occasionally, as the
result of atmospheric conditions or the peculiar sensitiveness of
the devotee, they became visible. Many authors wrote concerning
them in terms which signify that they had actually beheld these
inhabitants of Nature's finer realms. A number of authorities are
of the opinion that many of the gods worshipped by the pagans were
elementals, for some of these invisibles were believed to be of
commanding stature and magnificent deportment.
The Greeks gave the
name daemon to some of these elementals, especially those of the
higher orders, and worshipped them. Probably the most famous of
these daemons is the mysterious spirit which instructed Socrates,
and of whom that great philosopher spoke in the highest terms. Those
who have devoted much study to the invisible constitution of man
realize that it is quite probable the daemon of Socrates and the
angel of Jakob Bohme were in reality not elementals, but the overshadowing
divine natures of these philosophers themselves. In his notes to
Apuleius on the God of Socrates, Thomas Taylor says:
"As the daemon
of Socrates, therefore, was doubtless one of the highest order,
as may be inferred from the intellectual superiority of Socrates
to most other men, Apuleius is justified in calling this daemon
a God. And that the daemon of Socrates indeed was divine, is evident
from the testimony of Socrates himself in the First Alcibiades:
for in the course of that dialogue he clearly says, 'I have long
been of the opinion that the God did not as yet direct me to hold
any conversation with you.' And in the Apology he most unequivocally
evinces that the daemon is allotted a divine transcendency, considered
as ranking in the order of daemons."
The idea once held,
that the invisible elements surrounding and interpenetrating the
earth were peopled with living, intelligent beings, may seem ridiculous
to the prosaic mind of today. This doctrine, however, has found
favor with some of the greatest intellects the world. The sylphs
of Facius Cardan, the philosopher of Milan; the salamander seen
by Benvenuto Cellini; the pan of St. Anthony; and le petit homme
rouge (the little red man, orgnome) of Napoleon Bonaparte have found
their places in the pages of history.
Literature has also
perpetuated the concept of Nature spirits. The mischievous Puck
of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, the elementals of Alexander
Pope's Rosicrucian poem, The Rape of the Lock, the mysterious creatures
of Lord Lytton's Zanoni, James Barrie's immortal Tinker Bell; and
the famous bowlers that Rip Van Winkle encountered in the Catskill
Mountains, are well- known characters to students of literature.
The folklore and mythology of all peoples abound in legends concerning
these mysterious little figures who haunt old castles, guard measures
in the depths of the earth, and build their homes under the spreading
protection of toadstools.
Fairies are the delight
of childhood, and most children give them up with reluctance. Not
so very long ago the greatest minds of the world believed in the
existence of fairies, and it is still an open question as to whether
Plato, Socrates, and Iamblichus were wrong when they avowed their
reality.
Paracelsus, when describing
the substances which constitute the bodies of the elementals, divided
flesh into two kinds, the first being that which we have all inherited
through Adam. This is the visible, corporeal flesh. The second was
that flesh which had not descended from Adam and, being more attenuated,
was not subject to the limitations of the former. The bodies of
the elementals were composed of this transubstantial flesh. Paracelsus
stated that there is as much difference between the bodies of men
and the bodies of the Nature spirits as there is between matter
and spirit.
"Yet," he
adds, "the Elementals are not spirits, because they have flesh,
blood and bones; they live and propagate offspring; they eat and
talk, act and sleep, etc. , and consequently they cannot be properly
called 'spirits.' They are beings occupying a place between men
and spirits, resembling men and spirits, resembling men and women
in their organization and form, and resembling spirits in the rapidity
of their locomotion." ( Philosophia Occulta, translated by
Franz Hartmann. ) Later the same author calls the creatures composite,
inasmuch as the substance out of which they are composed seems to
be a composite of spirit and matter. He uses color to explain the
idea. Thus, the mixture of blue and red gives purple, a new color,
resembling neither of the others yet composed of both. Such is the
case with the nature spirits; they resemble neither spiritual creatures
nor material beings, yet are composed of the substance which we
may call spiritual matter, or aether.
Paracelsus further
adds that whereas man is composed of several natures (spirit, soul,
mind, and body) combined in one unit, the elemental has but one
principle, the aether out of which it is composed and in which it
lives. The reader must remember that by ether is meant the spiritual
essence of one of the four elements. There are as many ethers as
there are elements and as many distinct families of Nature spirits
as there are ethers. These families are completely isolated in their
own ether and have no intercourse with the denizens of the other
ethers; but, as man has within his own nature centers of consciousness
sensitive to the impulses of all the four ethers, it is possible
for any of the elemental kingdoms to communicate with him under
proper conditions.
The Nature spirits
cannot be destroyed by the grosser elements, such as material fire,
earth, air, or water, for they function in a rate of vibration higher
than that of earthy substances. Being composed of only one element
or principle (the ether in which they function), they have no immortal
spirit and at death merely disintegrate back into the element from
which they were originally individualized. No individual consciousness
is preserved after death, for there is no superior vehicle present
to contain it. Being made of but one substance, there is no friction
between vehicles: thus there is little wear or tear incurred by
their bodily functions, and they therefore live to great age. Those
composed of earth ether are the shortest lived; those composed of
air ether, the longest. The average length of life is between three
hundred and a thousand years. Paracelsus maintained that they live
in conditions similar to our earth environments, and are somewhat
subject to disease. These creatures are thought to be incapable
of spiritual development, but most of them are of a high moral character.
Concerning the elemental
ethers in which the Nature spirits exist, Paracelsus wrote: "They
live in the four elements: the Nymphae in the element of water,
the Sylphes in that of the air, the Pigmies in the earth, and the
Salamanders in fire. They are also called Undinae, Sylvestres, Gnomi,
Vulcani, etc. Each species moves only in the element to which it
belongs, and neither of them can go out of its appropriate element,
which is to them as the air is to us, or the water to fishes; and
none of them can live in the element belonging to another class.
To each elemental being the element in which it lives is transparent,
invisible and respirable, as the atmosphere is to ourselves."
(Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
The reader should
be careful not to confuse the Nature spirits with the true life
waves evolving through the invisible worlds. While the elementals
are composed of only one etheric (or atomic) essence, the angels,
archangels, and other superior, transcendental entities have composite
organisms, consisting of a spiritual nature and a chain of vehicles
to express that nature not unlike those of men, but not including
the physical body with its attendant limitations.
To the philosophy
of Nature spirits is generally attributed an Eastern origin, probably
Brahmanic; and Paracelsus secured his knowledge of them from Oriental
sages with whom he came in contact during his lifetime of philosophical
wanderings. The Egyptians and Greeks gleaned their information from
the same source. The four main divisions of Nature spirits must
now be considered separately, according to the teachings of Paracelsus
and the Abbe de Villars and such scanty writings of other authors
as are available.
The Gnomes
The elementals who dwell in that attenuated body of the earth which
is called the terreous ether are grouped together under the general
heading of gnomes. (The name is probably derived from the Greek
genomus, meaning earth dweller. See New English Dictionary.)
Just as there are many types of human beings evolving through the
objective physical elements of Nature, so there are many types of
gnomes evolving through the subjective ethereal body of Nature.
These earth spirits work in an element so close in vibratory rate
to the material earth that they have immense power over its rocks
and flora, and also over the mineral elements in the animal and
human kingdoms. Some, like the pygmies, work with the stones, gems,
and metals, and are supposed to be the guardians of hidden treasures.
They live in caves, far down in what the Scandinavians called the
Land of the Nibelun . In Wagner's wonderful opera cycle, The Ring
of the Nibelungen, Alberich makes himself King of the Pygmies and
forces these little creatures to gather for him the treasures concealed
beneath the surface of the earth.
Besides the Pygmies,
there are other gnomes, who are called tree and forest sprites.
To this group belong the sylvestres, satyrs, pans, hamadryads, durdalis,
elves, brownies, and little old men of the woods. Paracelsus states
that the gnomes build houses of substances resembling in their constituencies
alabaster, marble, and cement, but the true nature of these materials
is unknown, having no counterpart in physical nature. Some families
of gnomes gather in communities, while others are indigenous to
the substances with and in which they work. For example, the hamadryads
live and die with the plants or trees of which they are a part.
Every shrub and flower is said to have its own Nature spirit, which
often uses the physical body of the plant: as its habitation. The
ancient philosophers, recognizing the principle of intelligence
manifesting itself in every department of Nature alike, believed
that the quality of natural selection exhibited by creatures not
possessing organized mentalities expressed in reality the decisions
of the Nature spirits themselves.
C.M. Gayley, in The
Classic Myths, says: "It was a pleasing trait in the old paganism
that it loved to trace in every operation of nature the agency of
deity. The imagination of the Greeks peopled the regions of earth
and sea with divinities, to whose agency it attributed the phenomena
that our philosophy ascribes to the operation of natural law."
Thus, in behalf of the plant it worked with, the elemental accepted
and rejected food elements, deposited coloring matter therein, preserved
and protected the seed, and performed many other beneficent offices.
Each species was served by a different but appropriate type of Nature
spirit. Those working with poisonous shrubs, for example, were offensive
in their appearance. It is said the Nature spirits of poison hemlock
resemble closely tiny human skeletons, thinly covered with a semi-transparent
flesh. They live in and through the hemlock, and if it be cut down
remain with the broken shoots until both die, but while there is
the slightest evidence of life in the shrub it shows the presence
of the elemental guardian.
Great trees also have
their Nature spirits, but these are much larger than the elementals
of smaller plants. The labors of the pygmies include the cutting
of the crystals in the rocks and the development of veins of ore.
When the gnomes are laboring with animals or human beings, their
work is confined to the tissues corresponding with their own natures.
[Hmmm....given the propensity of many of the Clever Grey "Space
Aliens" to core-out the assholes of many of their hapless Bovine
Victims, we cannot but wonder at this point precisely how their
Grand Cosmic Natures correspond to their peculiar selection of bodily
tissues. -B:.B:.] Hence they work with the bones, which belong to
the mineral kingdom, and the ancients believed the reconstruction
of broken members to be impossible without the cooperation of the
elementals.
The gnomes are of
various sizes -- most of them much smaller than human beings, though
some of them have the power of changing their stature at will. This
is the result of the extreme mobility of the element in which they
function. Concerning them the Abbe de Villars wrote: "The earth
is filled well nigh to its center with gnomes, people of slight
stature, who are the guardians of treasures, minerals and precious
stones. They are ingenious, friends of man, and easy to govern."
Not all authorities
agree concerning the amiable disposition of the gnomes. Many state
that they are of a tricky and malicious nature, difficult to manage,
and treacherous. Writers agree, however, that when their confidence
is won they are faithful and true. The philosophers and initiates
of the ancient world were instructed concerning these mysterious
little people and were taught how to communicate with them and gain
their cooperation in undertakings of importance. The magi were always
warned, however, never to betray the trust of the elementals, for
if they did, the invisible creatures, working through the subjective
nature of man, could cause them endless sorrow and probably ultimate
destruction. So long as the mystic served others, the gnomes would
serve him, but if he sought to use their aid selfishly to gain temporal
power they would turn upon him with unrelenting fury. [Will someone
please alert Laurence Rockefeller and Bob Bigelow immediately? -B:.B:.]
The same was true if he sought to deceive them.
The earth spirits
meet at certain times of the year in great conclaves, as Shakespeare
suggests in his Midsummer Night's Dream, where the elementals all
gather to rejoice in the beauty and harmony of Nature and the prospects
of an excellent harvest. The gnomes are ruled over by a king, whom
they greatly love and revere. His name is Gob; hence his subjects
are often called goblins. Mediaeval mystics gave a comer of creation
(one of the cardinal points) to each of the four kingdoms of Nature
spirits, and because of their earthy character the gnomes were assigned
to the North -- the place recognized by the ancients as the source
of darkness and death. One of the four main divisions of human disposition
was also assigned to the gnomes, and because so many of them dwelt
in the darkness of caves and the gloom of forests, their temperament
was said to be melancholy, gloomy, and despondent. By this it is
not meant that they themselves are of such disposition, but rather
that they have special control over elements of similar consistency.
The gnomes marry and
have families, and the female gnomes are called gnomides. Some wear
clothing woven in the element in which they live. In other instances,
their garments are part of themselves and grow with them, like the
fur of animals. The gnomes are said to have insatiable appetites,
and to spend a great part of the time eating, but they earn their
food by diligent and conscientious labor. Most of them are of a
miserly temperament, fond of storing things away in secret places.
There is abundant evidence of the fact that small children often
see the gnomes, inasmuch as their contact with the material side
of Nature is not yet complete and they still function more or less
consciously in the invisible worlds.
According to Paracelsus,
"Man lives in the exterior elements and the elementals live
in the interior elements. The latter have dwellings and clothing,
manners and customs, languages and governments of their own, in
the same sense as the bees have their queens and herds of animals
their leaders." (Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
Paracelsus differs
somewhat from the Greek mystics concerning the environmental limitations
imposed on the Nature spirits. The Swiss philosopher constitutes
them of subtle invisible ethers. According to this hypothesis they
would be visible only at certain times and only to those en rapport
with their ethereal vibrations. The Greeks, on the other hand, apparently
believed that many Nature spirits had material constitutions capable
of functioning in the physical world. Often the recollection of
a dream is so vivid that, upon awakening, a person actually believes
that he has passed through a physical experience. The difficulty
of accurately judging as to the end of physical sight and the beginning
of ethereal vision may account for these differences of opinion.
Even this explanation,
however, does not satisfactorily account for the satyr which, according
to St. Jerome, was captured alive during the reign of Constantine
and exhibited to the people. It was of human form with the horns
and feet of a goat. After its death it was preserved in salt and
taken to the Emperor that he might testify to its reality. (It is
within the bounds of probability that this curiosity was what modem
science knows as a monstrosity. [or a Roswell "Space Alien"
-B:.B:.])
The Undines
As the gnomes were limited in their function to the elements of
the earth, so the undines (a name given to the family of water elementals)
function in the invisible, spiritual essence called humid (or liquid)
ether. In its vibratory rate this is close to the element water,
and so the undines are able to control, to a great degree, the course
and function of this fluid in Nature. Beauty seems to be the keynote
of the water spirits. Wherever we find them pictured in art or sculpture,
they abound in symmetry and grace. Controlling the water element
-- which has always been a feminine symbol -- it is natural that
the water spirits should most often be symbolized as female.
There are many groups of undines. Some inhabit waterfalls, where
they can be seen in the spray; others are indigenous to swiftly
moving rivers; some have their habitat in dripping, oozing fens
or marshes; while other groups dwell in clear mountain lakes. According
to the philosophers of antiquity, every fountain had its nymph;
every ocean wave its oceanid. The water spirits were known under
such names as oreades, nereides, limoniades, naiades, water s rites
sea maids mermaids, and potamides. Often the water nymphs derived
their names from the streams, lakes, or seas in which they dwelt.
In describing them,
the ancients agreed on certain salient features. In general, nearly
all the undines closely resembled human beings in appearance and
size, though the ones inhabiting small streams and fountains were
of correspondingly lesser proportions. It was believed that these
water spirits were occasionally capable of assuming the appearance
of normal human beings and actually associating with men and women.
There are many legends about these spirits and their adoption by
the families of fishermen, but in nearly every case the undines
heard the call of the waters and returned to the Sea.
Practically nothing
is known concerning the male undines. The water spirits did not
establish homes in the same way that the gnomes did, but lived in
coral caves under the ocean or among the reeds growing on the banks
of rivers or the shores of lakes. Among the Celts there is a legend
to the effect that Ireland was peopled, before the coming of its
present inhabitants, by a strange race of semi-divine creatures;
with the coming of the Celts they retired into the marshes and fens,
where they remain even to this day. Diminutive undines lived under
lilly pads and in little houses of moss sprayed by waterfalls. When
seen, the undines generally resembled the goddesses of Greek statuary.
They rose from the water draped in mist and could not exist very
long apart from it.
There are many families
of undines, each with it's peculiar limitations. It is impossible
to consider them here in detail. Their ruler, Necksa, they love
and honor, and serve untiringly. Their temperament is said to be
vital, and to them has been given as their throne the western corner
of creation. They are rather emotional beings, friendly to human
life and fond of serving mankind. They are sometimes pictured riding
on dolphins or other great fish and seem to have a special love
of flowers and plants, which they serve almost as devotedly and
intelligently as the gnomes. Ancient poets have said that the songs
of the undines were heard in the West Wind and that their lives
were consecrated to the beautifying of the material earth.
A
Salamander
Note the clearly Draconian
features & attributes
The Salamanders
The third group of
elementals is the salamanders, or spirits of fire, who live in that
attenuated, spiritual ether which is the invisible fire element
of Nature. Without them material fire cannot exist; a match cannot
be struck nor will flint and steel give off their spark without
the assistance of a salamander, who immediately appears (so the
mediaeval mystics believed), evoked by friction. Man is unable to
communicate successfully with the salamanders, owing to the fiery
element in which they dwell, for everything is resolved to ashes
that comes into their presence. By specially prepared compounds
of herbs and perfumes the philosophers of the ancient world manufactured
many kinds of incense. When incense was burned, the vapors which
arose were especially suitable as a medium for the expression of
these elementals, who, by borrowing the ethereal effluvium from
the incense smoke, were able to make their presence felt.
The salamanders are as varied in their grouping and arrangement
as either the undines or the gnomes. There are many families of
them, differing in appearance, size, and dignity. Sometimes the
salamanders were visible as small balls of light. Paracelsus says:
"Salamanders have been seen in the shapes of fiery balls, or
tongues of fire, running over the fields or peering in houses."
(Philosophia Occulta, translated by Franz Hartmann.)
Mediaeval investigators
of the Nature spirits were of the opinion that the most common form
of salamander was lizard-like in shape, a foot or more in length,
and visible as a glowing Urodela, twisting and crawling in the midst
of the fire. Another group was described as huge flaming giants
in flowing robes, protected with sheets of fiery armor. Certain
mediaeval authorities, among them the Abbe de Villars, held that
Zarathustra (Zoroaster) was the son of Vesta (believed to have been
the wife of Noah) and the great salamander Oromasis. Hence, from
that time onward, undying fires have been maintained upon the Persian
altars in honor of Zarathustra's flaming father.
One most important
subdivision of the salamanders was the Acthnici. These creatures
appeared only as indistinct globes. They were supposed to float
over water at night and occasionally to appear as forks of flame
on the masts and rigging of ships ( St. Elmo's fire). The salamanders
were the strongest and most powerful of the elementals, and had
as their ruler a magnificent flaming spirit called Djin, terrible
and awe-inspiring in appearance. The salamanders were dangerous
and the sages were warned to keep away from them, as the benefits
derived from studying them were often not commensurate with the
price paid. As the ancients associated heat with the South, this
corner of creation was assigned to the salamanders as their throne,
and they exerted special influence over all beings of fiery or tempestuous
temperament. In both animals and men, the salamanders work through
the emotional nature by means of the body heat, the liver, and the
blood stream. Without their assistance there would be no warmth.
The Sylphs
While the sages said that the fourth class of elementals, or sylphs,
lived in the element of air, they meant by this not the natural
atmosphere of the earth, but the invisible, intangible, spiritual
medium -- an ethereal substance similar in composition to our atmosphere
of the earth, but far more subtle. In the last discourse of Socrates,
as preserved by Plato in his Phaedo, the condemned philosopher says:
"And upon the earth are animals and men, some in a middle region,
others [elementals] dwelling about the air as we dwell about the
sea; others in islands which the air flows round, near the continent;
and in a word, the air is used by them as the water and sea are
by us, and the ether is to them what the air is to us. Moreover,
the temperament of their seasons is such that they have no disease
[Paracelsus disputes this], and live much longer than we do, and
have sight and hearing and smell, and all the other senses, in far
greater perfection, in the same degree that air is purer than water
or the ether than air. Also they have temples and sacred places
in which the gods really dwell, and they hear their voices and receive
their answers, and are conscious of them and hold converse with
them, and they see the sun, moon, and stars as they really are,
and their other blessedness is of a piece with this." While
the sylphs we believed to live among the clouds and in the surrounding
air, their true home was upon the tops of mountains.
In his editorial notes
to the Occult Sciences of Salverte, Antho Todd Thomson says: "The
Fayes and Fairies are evidently of Scandinavian origin, although
the name of Fairy is supposed to be derived from, or rather [is]
a modification of the Persian Peri, an imaginary benevolent being,
whose province it was to guard men from the maledictions of evil
spirits; but with more probability it may referred to the Gothic
Fagur, as the term Elves is from Alfa, general appellation for the
whole tribe. If this derivation of the name of Fairy be admitted,
we may date the commencement of the popular belief in British Fairies
to the period of the Danish conquest. They were supposed to be diminutive
aerial beings, beautiful, lively and beneficent in their intercourse
with mortals, inhabiting a region called Fairy Land, Alf-heinner;
commonly appearing on earth at intervals -- when they left traces
of their visits, in beautiful green rings, where the dewy sward
had been trodden in their moonlight dances." [crop circles,
anyone...? -B:.B:.]
To the sylphs the
ancients gave the labor of modeling the snow flakes and gathering
clouds. This latter they accomplished with the cooperation of the
undines who supplied the moisture. The winds were their particular
vehicle and the ancients referred to them as the spirits of the
air. They are the highest of all the elementals, their native element
being the highest in vibratory rate. They live hundreds of years,
often attaining to a thousand years and never seeming to grow old.
The leader of the sylphs is called Paralda, who is said to dwell
on the highest mountain of the earth. The female sylphs were called
sylphids.
It is believed that
the sylphs, salamanders, and nymphs had much to do with the oracles
of the ancients; that in fact they were the ones who spoke from
the depths of the earth and from the air above.
The sylphs sometimes
assume human form, but apparently for only short periods of time.
Their size varies, but in the majority of cases they are no larger
than human beings and often considerably smaller. It is said that
the sylphs have accepted human beings into their communities and
have permitted them to live there for a considerable period; in
fact, Paracelsus wrote of such an incident, but of course it could
not have occurred while the human stranger was in his physical body.
[Paracelsus -- 15th century "space alien abductee"...?
-B:.B:. ]
By some the muses
of the Greeks are said to have been sylphs, for these spirits are
said to gather around the mind of the dreamer, the poet, and the
artist, and inspire him with their intimate knowledge of the beauties
and workings of Nature. To the sylphs were given the eastern corner
of creation. Their temperament is mirthful, changeable, and eccentric.
The peculiar qualities common to men of genius are supposedly the
result of the cooperation of sylphs, whose aid also brings with
it the sylphic inconsistency. The sylphs labor with the gases of
the human body and indirectly with the nervous system, where their
inconstancy is again apparent. They have no fixed domicile, but
wander about from place to place -- elemental nomads, invisible
but ever-present powers in the intelligent activity of the universe.
General Observations
Certain of the ancients, differing with Paracelsus, shared the opinion
that the elemental kingdoms were capable of waging war upon one
another, and they recognized in the battlings of the elements disagreements
among these kingdoms of nature spirits. When lightning struck a
rock and splintered it, they believed that the salamanders were
attacking the gnomes. As they could not attack one another on the
plane of their own peculiar etheric essences, owing to the fact
that there was no vibratory correspondence between the four ethers
of which these kingdoms were composed, they had to attack through
a common denominator, namely, the material substance of the physical
universe over which they had a certain amount of power.
Wars were also fought within the groups themselves; one army of
gnomes would attack another army, and civil war would be rife among
them. Philosophers of long ago solved the problems of Nature's apparent
inconsistencies by individualizing and personifying all its forces,
crediting them with having temperaments not unlike the human and
then expecting them to exhibit typical human inconsistencies. The
four fixed signs of the zodiac were assigned to the four kingdoms
of elementals. The gnomes were said to be of the nature of Taurus;
the undines, of the nature of Scorpio; the salamanders exemplified
the constitution of Leo; while the sylphs manipulated the emanations
of Aquarius.
The Christian Church
gathered all the elemental entities together under the title of
demon. This is a misnomer with far- reaching consequences, for to
the average mind the word demon means an evil thing, and the Nature
spirits are essentially no more malevolent than are the minerals,
plants, and animals. Many of the early Church Fathers asserted that
they had met and debated with the elementals.
As already stated,
the Nature spirits are without hope of immortality, although some
philosophers have maintained that in isolated cases immortality
was conferred upon them by adepts and initiates who understood certain
subtle principles of the invisible worlds As disintegration takes
place in the physical world, so it takes place in the ethereal counterpart
of physical substance. Under normal conditions at death, a Nature
spirit is merely resolved back into the transparent primary essence
from which it was originally individualized. Whatever evolutionary
growth is made is recorded solely in the consciousness of that primary
essence, or element, and not in the temporarily individualized entity
of the elemental. Being without man's compound organism and lacking
his spiritual and intellectual vehicles, the nature spirits are
subhuman in their rational intelligence, but from their functions
-- limited to one element -- has resulted a specialized type of
intelligence far ahead of man in those lines of research peculiar
to the element in which they exist.
The terms incubus
and succubus have been applied indiscriminately by the Church Fathers
to elementals. The incubus and succubus, however, are evil and unnatural
creations, whereas elementals is a collective term for all the inhabitants
of the four elemental essences. According to Paracelsus, the incubus
and succubus (who are male and female respectively) are parasitical
creatures subsisting upon the evil thoughts an emotions of the astral
body. These terms are also applied to the superphysical organisms
of sorcerers and black magicians. While these larvae are in no sense
imaginary beings, they are, nevertheless, the offspring of the imagination.
By the ancient sages they were recognized as the invisible cause
of vice because they hover in the ethers surrounding the morally
weak and continually incite them to excesses of a degrading nature.
For this reason they frequent the atmosphere of the dope den, the
dive, and the brothel, [and Whitley's house, it appears -B:.B:.]
where they attach themselves to those unfortunates who have given
themselves up to iniquity. By permitting his senses to become deadened
through indulgence in habit-forming drugs or alcoholic stimulants,
the individual becomes temporarily en rapport with these denizens
of the astral plane. The houris seen by the hasheesh or opium addict
and the lurid monsters which torment the victim of delirium tremens
are examples of submundane beings, visible only to those whose evil
practices are the magnet for their attraction.
Differing widely from
the elementals and also the incubus and succubus is the vampire,
which is defined by Paracelsus as the astral body of a person either
living or dead (usually the latter state). The vampire seeks to
prolong existence upon the physical plane by robbing the living
of their vital energies and misappropriating such energies to its
own ends.
In his De Ente Spirituali,
Paracelsus writes thus of these malignant beings: "A healthy
and pure person cannot become obsessed by them, because such Larvae
can only act upon men if the latter make room for them in their
minds. A healthy mind is a castle that cannot be invaded without
the will of its master; but if they are allowed to enter, they excite
the passions of men and women, they create cravings in them, they
produce bad thoughts which act injuriously upon the brain; they
sharpen the animal intellect and suffocate the moral sense. Evil
spirits obsess only those human beings in whom the animal nature
is predominating. Minds that are illuminated by the spirit of truth
cannot be possessed; only those who are habitually guided by their
own lower impulses may become subjected to their influences."
(See Paracelsus, by Franz Hartmann.)
A strange concept,
and one somewhat at variance with the conventional, is that evolved
by the Count de Gabalais concerning the immaculate conception, namely,
that it represents the union of a human being with an elemental.
Among the offspring of such unions he lists Hercules, Achilles,
Aeneas, Theseus, Melchizedek, the divine Plato, Appolonius of Tyana,
and Merlin the Magician.
Excerpt from:
The Secret Teachings of All Ages:
An Encyclopedic Outline of Masonic, Hermetic,
Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy 1988
by Manley P. Hall, ISBN 0-89314-830-X
Philosophical Research Society, Inc.
3910 Los Feliz Boulevard, Los Angeles, CA 90027
