Brother
Manly P. Hall, 33º
The Elementals
An Holy Excerpt from his Great
Alchymeckal Worke of 1928:
The Secret Teachings of All Ages:
An Encyclopaedic Outline of Masonic,
Hermetic, Qabbalistic and Rosicrucian Symbolical Philosophy
1988 by Manley P. Hall
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, or gnome) 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 analyze 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
-
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
Loc
-
the mysterious creatures of Lord Lytton's Zanoni
-
James
Barrie's immortal Tinker Bell
-
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.
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.
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