Introduction to Elementary Spirits

From New Age Village

The unseen intelligences who inhabit the four elements, of the finest essence of which they are composed. The creatures of the air are called sylphs; of the earth gnomes; of fire salamanders; and of water, nymphs or undines. The best authority on the subject is the Abbé de Villars, who published early in the eighteenth century a short treatise entitled Comte de Gabalis, from which a good deal of what follows is drawn. According to this work the creatures of the elements were before the Fall subject to Adam in all things, and we are led to understand that by means of certain performances this ancient communication may be restored, and that man may once more have at his beck and call the elementary spirits. The Abbé gives a brief sketch of the nature of these peoples. The air, he says, is filled with a great number of beings of human form, somewhat fierce in appearance, but really of a docile nature. They are much interested in the sciences, and are subtle, officious towards the sages, hostile towards the foolish and the ignorant. Their wives and daughters are of a masculine type of beauty, such as is depicted in the Amazons. The seas and rivers are inhabited as well as the air, beings dwelling therein whom the sages designated undines, or nymphs. The female population much exceeds the male, the women being exceedingly beautiful, so that among the daughters of men there is none to equal them. The earth is filled almost to the centre with gnomes, people of small stature, the guardians of subterranean treasure, minerals and precious stones. They are ingenious, friendly towards men, and easy to command. They provide the children of the sages with all the money they require, asking no other reward for their services than the glory of performing them. The gnomides, their wives, are small of stature but very good-looking, and they dress very curiously. As for the salamanders, the inhabitants of the region of fire, they serve the philosophers, but are not over-anxious for their company, while their daughters are rarely seen. Their women are very beautiful, beyond all the other elementals, since they dwell in a purer element. Their habits, mode of life, manners and laws are admirable, and the attractions of their minds are greater even than that of their persons. The Supreme Being they know and religiously adore, but have no hope of eternal enjoyment of Him, since their souls are mortal. True it is that, being composed of the purest parts of the elements wherein they dwell, and having no contrary qualities, they can live for several centuries; yet are they much troubled because of their mortal nature. It was, however, revealed to the philosophers that an elementary spirit could attain to immortality by being united in marriage with a human being. The children born of such unions are more noble and heroic than the children of human men and women, and some of the greatest figures of antiquity - Zoroaster, Alexander, Hercules, Merlin, to mention a few - are declared to have been the children of elementary spirits.

The salamanders, the Comte de Gabalis goes on to say, are composed of the most subtle particles of the sphere or fire, conglobated and organized by the action of the Universal Fire, so called because it is the principle of all the motions of nature. The sylphs are composed of the purest atoms of the air; the nymphs, of the most delicate particles of water; and the gnomes, of the finest essence of earth. Adam was in complete accord with these creatures because, being composed of that which was purest in the four elements, he contained in himself the perfections of these four peoples, and was their natural king. But since by reason of his sin he had been cast into the excrements of the elements, there no longer existed the harmony between him, so impure and gross, and these fine and ethereal substances. The Abbé then gives a recipe whereby the resultant state of things may be remedied and the ancient correspondence restored. To attain this end we must purify and exalt the element of fire which is within us. All that is necessary is to concentrate the fire of the world by means of concave mirrors, in a globe of glass. There will then be formed within the globe a solary powder, which, having purified itself from the admixture of other elements, becomes in a very short time a sovereign means of exalting the fire which is in us, and makes us, so to speak, of an igneous nature. Thenceforward these creatures of the fire become our inferiors, and, delighted at the restoration of mutual harmony between themselves and the human race, they will show towards man all the good-will they have for their own kind. Sylphs, gnomes, and nymphs are more familiar with man than are the salamanders, on account of their shorter term of life, and it is therefore easier to get into touch with them. To accomplish the restoration of our empire over the sylphs, gnomes, or nymphs, we must close a glass full of air, earth, or water, and expose it to the sun for a month, at the end of which period its various elements must be separated according to science. This process is most easy in the case of water and earth. "Thus," says the Comte, "without characters, without ceremonies, without barbarous words, it is possible to rule absolutely over these peoples." Other authorities prescribe other means of obtaining dominion over the spirits of the elements. Eliphas Levi, for instance, states that anyone desirous of subjugating the elements must first perform the four trials of antique initiation; but as the original trials are no longer known similar ones must be substituted. Thus he who would control the sylphs must walk fearlessly on the edge of a precipice, he who would win the service of the salamanders must take his stand in a burning building, and so on, the point of the ordeals being that the man should show himself unafraid of the elements whose inhabitants he desires to rule. In mediaeval times the evocation and exorcism of elementary spirits was much practiced, the crystal being a favorite means of evoking them. The exorcism of earth is performed by means of breathing, sprinkling of water, and burning of incense, and the repetition of a formula of prayer to the gnomes. Air is exorcised by breathing towards the four cardinal points, and by the recital of prayers to the air-spirits (sylphs). The casting of salt, incense, sulphur, camphor, and white resin into a fire is declared efficacious in the exorcism of that element. In the case of water, breathing and laying on of hands, repetition of formulae, mixing of salt and ashes of incense, and other ceremonials are to be observed. In every instance a special consecration of the four elements is a primary and essential part of the proceedings.

As has been said, it is possible for a human being to confer immortality on an elementary spirit by the ceremony of marriage. But this does not always occur; sometimes the reverse is the case, and the elementals share their mortality with their human mate. In literature, at all events, countless stories relate how men have risked and lost their immortality by marrying a sylph or an undine. According to the Comte de Gabalis, however, it would seem to be a matter of choice whether a man confers his immortality on his ethereal partner, or whether he partakes of her mortal nature; for it is therein suggested that those who have not been predestined to eternal happiness would do well to marry with an elemental, and spare themselves an eternity of woe.

Not every authority has painted so attractive a picture of the creatures of the elements as has the Abbé de Villars. By some it is believed that there are numberless degrees among these beings, the highest resembling the lowest which, while the lowest may often be mistaken for demons, which, of course, they are not. Not only do multitudinous variations of form and disposition characterise the elementals of our own planet; the other planets and the stars are the abode of countless hosts of elementary spirits, differing from those of our world perhaps more than the latter differ from one another. All the forms of beasts, insects, and reptiles may be taken by the lower elementals, as well as strange combinations of the shapes of different animals. The inhabitants of each element have their peculiar virtues and vices which serve to distinguish them. The sylphs are capricious and inconstant, but agile and active; the undines, jealous and cold, but observant; the salamanders, hot and hasty, but energetic and strong; and the gnomes, greedy of gold and treasures, but nevertheless hard-working, good-tempered and patient. One who would seek dominion over any of these must practise their virtues; but carefully avoid their faults, thus conquering them, as it were, on their own ground. Each species can only dwell in its own proper element. Thus a sylph may not invade the sphere of a salamander, or vice versa, while both would be decidedly out of their element in the regions of the nymphs or the gnomes. Four rulers have been set over the four species - Gob, ruler of the gnomes; Paralda, of the sylphs; Djin, of the salamanders; and Necksa, of the nymphs. To the dwellers in each element is assigned a point of the compass, where lies their special kingdom. To the gnomes is given the north; to the salamanders, the south; to the sylphs, the east; and to the undines, the west. The gnomes influence those of a melancholic disposition, because they dwell in the gloom of subterranean caverns. The salamanders have an effect on those of sanguine temperament, because their home is in the fire. The influence of the undines is upon the phlegmatic, and of the sylphs upon those of a bilious temperament. Though as a rule they are invisible to human eyes, they may on occasion become visible to those who invoke them, to the sages and philosophers, or even to the multitude. In the reign of king Pepin, Zedekias suggested to the sylph that they should appear to men, whereupon the air was seen to be full of them, sometimes ranged in battle, or in an aerial navy. It was said by the people that they were sorcerers - an opinion to which Charlemagne and Louis the Debonnair subscribed, the latter at least imposing heavy penalties on the supposed sorcerers. So that they might behold their admirable institutions, certain men were raised up in the air, and while descending were seen by their fellowmen on earth. The latter regarded them as stragglers of the aerial army of sorcerers, and thought that they had come to poison the fruits and fountains. These unfortunate persons were thereupon put to death, along with many others suspected of connection with the sorcerers.

To return to the consideration of the nature of these spirits, we find them collated in the Comte de Gabalis with the oracles of antiquity, and even with the classic panteons of Greece and Rome. Pan, for example, was the first and oldest of the nymphs, and the news of his death, communicated by the people of the air to the inhabitants of the waters, was proclaimed by them in a voice that was heard sounding all over the rivers of Italy - "The great Pan is dead!" Mr. A. E. Waite considers that the "angels" evoked in mediaeval magic, as well as the "devils" of the Sabbath, were higher or lower elementals. Others may see in the brownies and domestic spirits of folk-lore some resemblance to the subjugated elementary spirit. Even the familiar poltergeist, where he does not clearly establish his identity as the spirit of a deceased person, may be regarded with propriety as an elemental. The Theosophists use the word "elemental" in a different sense, to denote the "astral remains" (See Shell) of one who has lived an evil life on earth, and who is loath to leave the scene of this pleasures. With some occultists, again, "elemental" really signifies a sub-human being, probably identical with an elementary spirit, but of a mental and moral status considerably lower than that of a human being.

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