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An Holy Excerpt from his Greate Alchymeckal Worke of 1928

[from http://www.brotherblue.org/libers/elements.htm ]

Subject: An Holy Excerpt from his Greate Alchymeckal Worke of 1928
   The Secret Teachings of All Ages:
   An Encyclopaedic Outline of
   Masonic, Hermetic, Qabbalistic
   and Rosicrucian Symbolical
   Philosophy

[{BRACKETED} comments by "Brother Blue"]   
     _________________________________________________________________
   
   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.

     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. 
     
     "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. 
     
     "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. 
     
     "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.) 
     
     "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." 
     
     "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. 
     
     "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, 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. 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. 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. 
   
  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." 
   
   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.
   
   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, 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

EOF

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