[Devas, angels, the four worlds, pitṛ-s, kāma-rūpa forms, larvae, māra-rūpas, the devil, unborn germs, the inhabitants of the four elements, human elementals, human spirits, Adepts, the brothers of the shadow]

[Elementargeister. Nach Mitteilungen von H. P. Blavatsky.]

Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl^[1]

“The sensual man does not receive that which is of the Spirit of God;
it is folly to him and he cannot grasp it, because it can only be grasped spiritually.”

I Corinthians, II, 14.

“We do not need to go beyond the limits of the analogy of the knowledge we have acquired so far in order to still think of cosmic space populated with beings in an ascending line; until we arrive at beings that are a
ctually indistinguishable from omnipotence, omnipresence and omniscience.”

Prof Huxley.

I.^[2]

In the study of mysticism it is necessary, above all, to understand the meaning of the words which are used. By the word “spirit” we mean an emanation of the will, a thought animated by the will, an idea, whether embodied or not. According to this conception, all things visible and invisible are products of an inward working spiritual force, the character of which has been expressed in outward appearance; all things are embodied thoughts brought into being by the mind, and to those who embrace this view the conclusion is obvious; that there are multitudes of thoughts or ideas in the universe which are not visibly embodied to us, but which must nevertheless be substantial in their way; for where there is no “substance” (sub—under, sto—stand), i.e., if no underlying existence existed, neither an idea nor anything else would be conceivable.

          But we do not intend to speculate on the possibility of the existence of “elemental spirits,” or rather elementals, and the above remarks are intended only to anticipate the usual objections. It is rather a matter for us to get to know what Indian philosophy teaches about such things. The world looks very different depending on whether you look at it from the spiritual or from the so-called “material” point of view. We say from the “so-called” material standpoint because no materialist has yet enlightened us as to what “matter” is; he too, if he wants to think logically, must reduce all arising to a cause of origin, which we call “mind” (Atma) [Ātma] and its activity “life” (Prana) [Prāṇa]. Preferring to regard this cause as dead “stuff,” he puts death in lieu of the living spirit, and turns impotence into omnipotence, which works the miracle surpassing all the miracles of the saints, to create something out of nothing.

          H.P. Blavatsky says:

“The ubiquitous cosmic “ether” was to the ancients not an uninhabited empty thing stretching through the vast celestial space, but a shoreless ocean, populated like our terrestrial seas, in which gods and planetary angels, colossal both as little creatures dwelt, and this ocean had in every atom of it the germ of life, from the latent state up to the fully developed. Like the scaly races that populate our waters, each occupying that place for which it is singularly fitted, and some friendly to man, some hostile, some dwelling in quiet coves and sheltered corners, while others the roam the depth and breadth of the sea; thus the ancients also knew different races of planetary, elemental, and other beings who inhabited the world sea of ​​ether, and whose nature was suited to their environment.”

           According to the teachings of the ancients, each of these denizens of the etheric realm, from the supreme gods (devas) down to the soulless elementals, was a product of evolution brought about by the perpetual motion that reigns in the astral light. Light is a force, and underlying force is will; but the will springs from a consciousness which cannot err, for it is absolute and immutable; it has none of the material ingredients of human thought in it; it is the pure emanation of the One Life (the Eternal Oneness) itself, unfolding from the very beginning the original fabric necessary for later generations of creatures which we call “humans.”^[3] In all these human races, whether they are inhabitants of this planet (our earth) or of any other of the thousands of planets in cosmic space, the material body in this soil (the astral light) develops from the bodily forms of a certain class of elementals, the primordial germs of gods and men who have passed into the (for us) invisible regions. In the philosophy of the ancients there was no “missing link” which required the imagination of the scholars to fill; there was no gap to be filled with boatloads of philosophical speculation, which was the foolish attempt to solve an equation given only two factors, our ancient ancestors pursued the law of evolution in the universe as a whole.”

          There is no doubt that nature appears to us all the more magnificent the higher the vantage point from which we look at it. Anyone who believes that all natural science is limited to this globe is not much better than someone who imagines that there is nothing left outside of his laboratory or museum. The wise therefore distinguish between a small and a large natural science. The small one deals only with what can be perceived directly with the senses or can be made perceptible to the senses through the microscope, telescope, etc., and with the conclusions drawn from the observation of external natural phenomena. In our time, this little science has become so lost in all sorts of details and specialties that the view and knowledge of the unity of the whole has been lost. The modern specialist is like an insect on a tree leaf, which knows the geography of the leaf on which it is crawling, but knows nothing of the existence of the tree, its trunk, roots and branches. He can’t see the tree for the leaves or the forest for the trees. Great natural science, on the other hand, recognizes the spirit through the spirit in all of creation. For those who have opened their eyes wide enough to recognize the law of the spirit in nature, the effect of this law in nature is no longer a mystery; he sees that one and the same law has everywhere the same effects, which differ only in their manifestations, according to the conditions under which they appear, and on this rests the analogy found in all the kingdoms of nature, so that everything visible only appears as a symbol of the invisible, and everything ephemeral as a parable of the eternal.

“Just as a world with its creatures and finally the physical body of man gradually develops out of the planetary mist in cosmic space, there is also an uninterrupted series of products of development and individual beings from the cosmic “ether” to the incarnate human spirit. This evolution takes place through the descent of spirit (consciousness) into dense matter, and through an ascent of perfected, spiritualized matter to the origin of all. The descent of the spirit into “condensation” and being separate was recognized by the ancients as a degradation (“fall of man”). In this complete chain of evolution, the spiritual and elemental beings took their appointed place between the two extremes (matter and spirit), much like the Darwinian “missing link” between man and apes.”

          Theophrastus Paracelsus also recognized that man is not just a product of development from the animal kingdom, but rather a higher being that inhabits a body created from earthly matter, and he therefore speaks of two fathers of man. The animal kingdom is the father of man’s animal nature; the kingdom of God is the father from which the divine man arose.^[4]

          Where the material, spiritless animal man only sees combinations of spiritless substances, the spiritually awakened man sees everything illuminated by the spirit. For him there is no dead matter; for him all bodies on earth as well as in infinite cosmic space are appearances, created by the magical magic power of the omnipresent will in nature, forms in which general life and general consciousness manifest themselves in different ways, depending on the conditions of the substance in which it is occurs, is dependent, revealed. To him every thing is a thought of God in nature, perfect, imperfect, or wrongly expressed, according as the earth spirit has worked that thought; for him every thing is a dwelling place of eternal light, a flame of light whose hidden fire is fanned by the fire of love and the light of knowledge, blossomed by the power of the inward working will; every thing an outward symbol of a hidden thought, a word in the language of the spirit in nature.

          The hidden life in nature is something that is not only known and described by the ancient sages and guessed at by modern philosophers, but all unspoiled primitive peoples have suspected and dreamed of it, like the myths and sagas even among completely uncivilized nations prove, and all great poets, all noble natures feel the existence of a higher world. Children often perceive the inhabitants of the astral light as long as their inner perception has not yet been dulled by the process of concentration called “pedagogy.” —

          A novelist is permitted to say some truths which one must not say in works of a “scientific” character, without incurring the indignation of those who want to have everything “proved” externally precisely because they themselves are unable to see anything internally. Of the many writers who have written of elementals, perhaps none has come closer to the truth than Sir E. Bulwer-Lytton, author of Zanoni. Then the wise Mejnour says to Glyndon:

“The more ignorant a man is, the more obsessed he is with self-conceit. For thousands of years he saw in the innumerable worlds, which shimmered in space like bubbles of air on a shoreless sea, nothing but pretty lights, which Providence chose to kindle, and which had no other purpose than to make the night pleasant for man. Astronomy put an end to this delusion of vanity, and it was reluctantly decided to see that stars are worlds greater and more glorious than ours. Science discovers life everywhere. Now consider the law of analogy; if there is not a leaf and not a drop of water that is not, like a star in the sky, a habitable and living world; —yes, if even man is a whole world to other creatures, of whom millions and myriads live in his veins and inhabit his body as he himself inhabits the earth, common sense (if our school tyrants had any) would teach, that the infinity which surrounds us, which you call space, the limitless intangible which separates the earth from the moon and the stars, is also filled with its peculiar and suitable life. Is it not apparent folly to fancy that every leaf swarms with forms of existence, and yet that in the immensity of space there is no life! The law of the great world order does not permit even the useless wasting of an atom; it knows no place where something living does not breathe. Can you then imagine that the cosmos, which is infinity itself, alone a desert, a waste, lifeless and less useful to the general existence than the populated leaf and the inhabited drop? The microscope shows you the inhabitants of a leaf, but no mechanical device has yet been invented to discover the nobler and more gifted beings floating in the boundless seas of the world. Yet there is a mysterious and terrifying elective affinity between these and humans. If you want to cross this limit, your soul, which is listening to these things, has to sharpen its perception through enthusiasm and be free from earthly desires. If you are so prepared, science can come to your aid; your sight can be sharpened, your nerves made more sensitive, your mind more alive and perceptive, and there are certain means of making the element itself, the air, space, more tactile and visible. There are millions of beings in space not exactly of a spiritual nature, for like microbes, which the naked eye cannot see, they have certain material forms, though subtle and ethereal, which might be likened to a veil or spider’s web covering the clothe spirit. There are the most diverse sexes among them; some of extraordinary wisdom, others of terrible wickedness; some as hostile as devils to man, others serving as messengers of peace between earth and heaven. . . . .”

          Thus spoke one of England’s most brilliant writers, and it is likely that he knew even more than he was inclined to let the public know. The Indian Secret Doctrine agreed with his argument above. It divides the invisible beings in the universe into the following main classes, which in turn have countless subdivisions:

1. Arupa-devas [Arūpa-devas], “gods” or rather intelligences (forces) who are not clothed in any particular form (rupa) [rūpa]. We cannot describe them, but they could be compared on the material plane with air, light, heat, electricity, which are also “everywhere” without losing their individuality.

2. Rupa-Devas [Rūpa-devas], gods who have not yet outgrown the illusion (maya) [māyā] of personal existence and therefore represent individual appearances. Here belong “Planetary Spirits” (Dhyan-Chohans), the “Lords of Light,” called “Archangels” and “Angels” in the Catholic Church. The Indians speak of 330 million such Devas, in 33 classes, who inhabit the three worlds above us.

3. Elemental beings, by which are to be understood the beings existing in the astral light (eidolon, umbra) of people separated from the physical body, of which there are many types with more or less or also without intelligence or consciousness. This includes the Pisachas [Pisācas] (male) and Mohinis [Mohinīs] (female) “ghosts,” incubi and succubi and the like, about which there is a large amount of literature in German too.^[5]

4. Mara-rupas [Māra-rūpas]. The thoughts and volitions which arise from the emanations of the desires (Kama) [Kāma] and passions (Mara) [Māra]; described by Paracelsus as the products of the Imaginatio under different names.^[6] Their realm is Kamaloka [Kāmaloka], the realm of desire, which can be found all over our earth.

5. Nature spirits (soulless beings), also called “spirits of the elements.” They are the inhabitants of the four elemental kingdoms, which are referred to as “earth, air, fire and water,” but which do not mean the external visible embodiments of these “elements,” but rather their psychological basis (substance). The main groups here are the gnomes of the earth, the sylphs of the air, the salamanders of the fire and the undines of the water. They are generally to be regarded as formless living forces of nature, but under certain circumstances they can appear as individual manifestations and forms of consciousness. Countless stories and fairy tales are told about them. “Fairy tale” and “lie” are two different things; Fairy tales and fables are true when there is truth hidden in them under the artificially made mask.

6. Demons and Devils (Rakshasas) [Rākṣasas]. The “spirits” of depraved, wicked, devilish people; be they the outpourings of people still embodied on earth, or inhabitants of the astral plane.

          But in order to get to know any class of these “spirits,” man does not need to go far and not look outside; he must only get to know his own nature and surroundings, and he will find there, all the evidence he needs. He himself exists on earth in the four planes of existence, the divine, spiritual and astral planes and in the physical world, and inhabits that plane to which he transfers his consciousness. Then he perceives what he himself belongs to; he can find God and gods in his innermost being, angels and devils in his heart, the inhabitants of the same astral world in his own, and the physical world of the body in external life. Your own experience is better than all blind speculation.

Devas.

We shall hereinafter return to what the European mystics say of these various classes of elementals, and especially what Paracelsus writes about them; but first we want to take a look at the gods and demons of the Greeks and Romans; starting from the belief that these immortal intelligences existed and still exist; for if they were mere inventions, it would also be a very needless waste of time to inquire what the Egyptians, Greeks, and Romans believed about something that is not and never was. However, in the end everything is just a game of the imagination, but in a completely different sense than is usually understood; namely, a game of the imagination of the universal world spirit and not of our human imagination. In the mystical sense, God did not create the world, but merely imagined himself creating it; but these products of creative imagination are our real world, and we ourselves are such dreams that have come into being. So even the gods are only representations or divine thoughts, which in the end return to their origin; there is no absolute being but eternal truth. H. P. Blavatsky says:

“Xenocrates taught that the daemons are beings intermediate between divine perfection and human sinfulness, and he divided them into classes and subdivisions. He says that the individual soul of every human being is its protective daimon, and that no other daimon has so much power over us as our own. Socrates’ daimonion was not an “evil spirit”; but the “God” or inner “Self” which inspired and guided him as long as he lived; just as each one of us may be led, guided, or disobeyed by his own immortal God, who is above life and bodily pain.

“Heracleides calls the “spirits” “daimons with airy misty bodies,” and says that the souls inhabit the “Milky Way” before descending to existence “below the moon.”^[7] Between the highest and the lowest gods he sees three classes of demons, the first two of which are invisible to us, their bodies being of ether and fire; the third class has nebular bodies, which are also usually invisible, but can become visible for a few moments through condensation. They are the earthbound spirits we call “astral souls.”

“The word “daimonios” had a very different meaning among the Greeks from that ascribed to the word “demon” today, and was used for “spirits” or “gods” of various kinds. Apuleius says: “The human soul is a demon [German spelling, Dämon], which in our language can be called a “genius.” It is an immortal “god” (deva), although in some respects it is born at the same time as the human being to whom it is attached. We can say that it “dies” like man; but only in the same way as it is born.” That is, it enters the body, unites with it, and is freed from the body again through the death of the body; but the twofold nature of the same, its divine-human and its human-animal part (Buddhi-Manas and Kama-Manas) are to be considered.

“People of high intellectual standing were generally referred to as “gods” in antiquity, or regarded as incarnations of “gods,” which in fact they are. But what the semi-scholars and spiritualists call “spirits” were recognized as the astral remains of deceased humans and animals, and called these things “larvae” and “umbrae,” ghosts and shadows. Cicero says in relation to the gods:

“We know that of all living beings, man is the best educated, and since the gods belong to this class they must have a human form. I am not saying that the gods have (earthly) bodies and blood in them, but I am saying that they seem to have bodies with blood in them. Epicurus, for whom the hidden things were as tangible as if he had touched them with his finger, teaches us that gods are not usually visible, but that they are intelligible; that they are not bodies with any degree of solidity; but that we may know them by their passing appearances, and that there are enough atoms in infinite space to produce such appearances as are produced before us, and make us know what these blessed immortal beings are.”^[8]

          Even today it is not, as many think, only old women and fools who believe in the possibility of beings other than humans and animals in the universe; the short-sightedness of science is the reason why, instead of life, it only knows metabolism and only gravitation, but not love.

          The blind materialist sees nothing in the universe but a conglomerate of dead matter, out of which an activity called life and consciousness is inexplicably created; the mystic sees spirit everywhere in the whole world, dead matter nowhere; For him there is life and consciousness everywhere, which is manifested in material bodies. Orthodox Protestantism knows nothing but blind faith in the dead letters of the Bible; he knows neither ghosts nor spirit, nor the spiritual meaning of the Holy Scriptures, and therefore takes giant strides towards his decline; Catholicism (in the narrow circle) suspects the living spirit behind the veil of the outer material appearance, believes in good and bad forms of consciousness (angels and devils) and divides the supernatural beings into different classes. Thus we find the following compilation in the “Secret Figures of the Rosicrucians” from the 16th and 17th centuries, Part I, Plate 11.

          At the top, or, if we will, in the centre, is the revealed deity, Jehovah; the unity from which everything springs and to which everything returns, the Α and Ω that encompasses everything, and is represented as the spiritual sun of the universe (Brahmā).^[9]

          Out of this light arise, or more correctly said, in this light the Archangels, Angels, Thrones, Dominions, Powers, Principalities und Virtues appear.

          From these secondarily, comparable to the reflection of sunlight, the seven “planets” or “primal beginnings of things” are discernible; symbolized by the signs of “Sun, Moon, Jupiter, Mercury, Mars, Venus and Saturn,” all of which represent living spiritual forces or states of consciousness and thus something quite different from what the calendar makers understand by it.

          These are the living celestial forces in nature and through their action in matter innumerable forms come into being, both visible and invisible, and every creature which has an individual existence also has its individual life, hence its individualized “soul,” respectively his astral body, the outward expression of which is the visible form; and as the inner image is the reflection of the innermost light, so the outward appearance is the reflection of the inner image; be it an exact likeness or a distorted caricature. In this way, a benevolent fairy dwells in every flower, i.e., a living force whose main quality is beauty and harmony, and in the soul of man not only God but also the kingdom of heaven and finally the whole animal kingdom is represented.

          Man is the center to which all nature flows, in order to rise again through him to its divine origin. Therefore we see in the figure above how the seven “metals,” i.e., mystical powers, and the higher forms of consciousness develop, until finally everything returns to its origin, but in a self-conscious, purified form.

          What is called gods or devas in Indian is often found in Christian mysticism under the name “angels.” The gods of the Egyptians, Greeks and Romans are still around today, they have only been renamed by the Christian Church, and the Jupiter Olympus of yore is now “St. Peter” in Rome.

Angel.

Meister Eckhart says: “The essence of angels is reason, and through this they enjoy the unremitting beholding of the divine light. Their number is infinitely great, corresponding to the infinite fullness of the deity. Each angel has its own special nature and receives the totality of nature in a special way. The nearer he is to God, the higher his rank; everyone receives from God as much as he is able to receive. The angel is a spotless mirror in which the divine light is reflected without being dimmed. Thus he stands freely and immaterially between God and matter. Himself an image of God, he illuminates all his being with the image of God.”

          Jacob Boehme says:

“Fire is born from strength, and spirit from fire, and spirit creates strength again in fire, so that it is an indissoluble bond. And from this mind, which stands in darkness, God gave birth to angels, which are flames of fire, but illuminated with the light of God.”^[10]

“Out of the eternal nature God has revealed his wisdom, for in the essence, as in the divine wisdom, was the being of the spirits and creatures from eternity. But with the movement of God the Father (of Origin) it has come into formal creature after every essence quality, in Verbo Fiat as in Word of Power. That is why the angels are called flames of fire, but flooded with the light of God.”^[11]

“The essence and nature of the good angels is a power of central fire and light; in it stands her image. But the idea in them is a figure of the holy name of God as the miracle-working Word. And just as the divine names are many and without number, so there is also a difference between the Ideis in them, just as one power has a different effect than the other; though they are alike in God, yet in the issue they are different than in wisdom.”^[12]

          Indeed, every creature, from the universal planetary god to the animal, and from the animal down to the stone that lies in the field, is a word, a light, an idea, a will, a force, a spirit, essentially the same, but as appearance and revelation different in quality from other creatures; but man embraces all four kingdoms; he can manifest himself as a god, a spirit, an animal and an inanimate thing. For those who recognize themselves, all these riddles are solved and they do not need “authority” to gain understanding and certainty about it.

          In The Secret Doctrine, communicated by H. P. Blavatsky,^[13] we find a presentation of the spiritual evolutionary history of the universe, and see how, like the sunbeam dividing into seven colors in the physical plane, the life and light emanating from the divine Sun of Wisdom appears sevenfold and the seven “source spirits” are revealed, of which, for example, also in the Bible (Revelation of John) as the “seven lampstands on the throne of God” is mentioned, and from which then arise the succeeding classes of celestial beings, forces, and forms, of which Indian philosophy describes thirty-three million species.

(Sequel follows.)

---

The four worlds.^[14]

As has already been mentioned several times in the “Lotusblüten,” four stages of existence or levels are distinguished in the macrocosm as well as in the microcosm,^[15] and the corresponding inhabitants also correspond to these. To refer to these levels with English names, we could name them as such:

1. 1. 1. The God World (Nirvana) [Nirvāṇa].
      2. The spiritual or god realm (Swara-loka [Svarloka] or Devachan) [Devacan].

          III. The Astral World (The Middle Region, Anima mundi. Antariksha^[16] or Bhuvar-loka [Bhuvarloka]).

1. 1. 1. The sense world, i.e., that which is externally perceptible to us (Bhur-loka) [Bhūrloka].

          In other words, these four worlds are four levels of consciousness in the cosmos, namely:

1. 1. 1. Ananda [Ānanda]. The realm of eternal joy and bliss whose sun is the absolute, the indefinable divine self-awareness, the Deity (Parabrahman).
      2. Vijnana [Vijñāna]. The kingdom of wisdom (Buddhi), the pure soul, whose sun is God (Brahmâ) [Brahmā].
      3. Manas. The realm of thought, intelligence and discernment, centered on man, or rather humanity.
      4. Prana [Prāṇa]. The realm of the sensual, of life in nature, the center of which is the physical sun, the source of all life on earth.

          The organization of the beings living in it corresponds to each of these realms. We have no conception of an organization of the inhabitants of the gods. The Indians divide this world into four kingdoms, namely:

1. 1. 1. Maharloka. The world of Prajapati [Prajāpati] (Logos).
      2. Inana-loka [Jñāna-loka]. The World of Knowledge.
      3. Tapas loka. The world of divine love.
      4. Satya-loka. The world of wisdom (self-knowledge).^[17]

          In the realm of the devas we find the transfigured body of their inhabitants called Karana-Sharîra [Kāraṇa-śarīra]. In the astral world, appearances are semi-material (sukshma-sharîra) [Sūkṣma-śarīra]^[18]; the fully condensed visible material bodies of our sensual world are called sthula-sharîra [Sthūla-śarīra].

          We cannot know anything about the higher heavenly worlds or states of being unless we know these states from our own experience; we can therefore only refer to what has been said or written about it by probably enlightened persons. Jane Lead, for example, says^[19]:

         “It has been revealed to me that there are different regions or worlds that accept souls of all grades and ranks, eight in fact. The first of these is this mortal visible world, the second the astral or airy world, the third the watery elemental, the fourth the fiery dark world (Kamaloka). These four are all the worlds into which sinful lechers enter and dwell. . . . Nothing evil or sinful can enter into the four higher worlds, or exist in the inhabitants of them. The first of these is the world of paradise, a heavenly state in which there is an ascension to still higher perfection to qualify us for the “kingdom of Sion”; the third is the “New Jerusalem,” surrounded by the “Crystal Sea,” and above that the “Silent Eternity,” from which all these worlds are born.”

          The Indian doctrine also distinguishes at least two regions in the astral world; the region of the “airy world” and the world of “fire,” i.e., of desire and passion (Kama-loka) [Kāma-loka]. The former correspond to the actual astral bodies (linga-sharira) [Liṅga-śarīra]; the second, the animal forms of its inhabitants (Kama-rupa) [Kāma-rūpa]. But “quiet eternity” is the divine light of wisdom, which is infinitely higher than the astral light and from which all things originate.

          Since at every stage of existence the world around us is a result of will and imagination,^[20] it is also understandable that the beauty of the phenomenal world in which we find ourselves, whether before or after death of the body, depends on the purity of our will and the beauty of our imagination. After all, life both before and after death is just a dream, and true awakening only begins when the spirit lives in its own divine self-consciousness, beyond all imagination.

Even in our sensory world, man only perceives what comes into his consciousness and with which he occupies himself in spirit; in the subjective state, where there are no external impressions and no senses to receive them, every being lives in its own circle of ideas, and the images which it sees may be agreeable or disagreeable, according to the spiritual direction, which a man has taken; everyone will see the thought germs and thought lines that naturally develop within him. That is why the dreams of one are different from those of the other. The “messages from beyond” contradict each other, and likewise the descriptions that the “spirits” give us of the higher regions are contradictory to each other. Swedenborg and others have written much on such things; but even if there is some truth in such tales, most of it is only a play of the imagination. However, it must be taken into account that since a spiritual influence between two people is also possible during earthly life, even remote effects of thought between two parts of the world, a similar interchange in a higher world and between two worlds is also conceivable.

H.P. Blavatsky speaks most clearly of such things in The Secret Doctrine^[21]:

“Maya (illusion) is something related to all finite things; for all existence is of a relative nature and not absolute reality, because the appearance which the hidden being assumes for the observer depends on his imagination. A painting has hardly any meaning for the savage, for him it only represents colors and lines, while the educated recognize what is represented in it. Nothing is permanent except the one hidden being, which contains in itself the origin of everything. The forms of existence on all levels up to the highest Dhyan-Chohan are in a way like shadows cast by a magic lantern on a colorless screen; but all things are respectively real, for the perceiver is himself a mirror image and the other mirror images are just as real to him as he is himself. If we want to see reality in a thing, we must look for it in the thing itself, either before or after flashing through the material world; but we cannot recognize any such being directly as long as our sense organs are busy bringing only material forms of existence into the sphere of our consciousness. At each level of consciousness we ourselves and the things that belong to that level are always reality for us alone. As we rise in the ladder of development, we realize that what we took to be reality when we were at a lower level are but shadows, and the flowering of individuality (the ego) is a series of progressive awakenings; each carrying the idea that we have finally found the truth; but only when we have attained Absolute Consciousness (All-Self-Consciousness) and unified our consciousness with it will we be free from the delusions of Maya.”

          There is little value in speculating about things of which we can know nothing so long as they are beyond the bounds of our own experience. Therefore Apollonius of Tyana also says:

“God belongs to you and not you, O man, the immortal soul!

From the dying body flies like a winged horse

Free her from chains and mingles with the lighter air;

Leaving behind the service, the heavy and fatal.

However, what is of no use to you is what only becomes clear to you after death,

Still in life tormenting yourself with brooding.”

          Were we as we ought to be, raised in our self-awareness above life and death, able to enter into that state called samadhi, then these things would be clear to us even now; then we could, as the Adepts and saints have done, confidently associate with the gods in our higher state. But as long as we are lower spirits ourselves, we can only get acquainted with lower spirits, and in relation to the higher ones we must be content with what the enlightened ones say about them, who know the things they talk about from their own experience. The ordinary man can also get to know the lower “spirits” or “soul forces” from his own observation; he need only study his own states of mind. His very nature is like an inn where these “spirits” come and go daily and hourly; he is the host who can get acquainted with them. He will find there that every desire, every passion, has its cause in some “spirit,” some influence that has gripped him or possesses him; in other words; his own feelings and desires are the result of a form of will that has come alive in him, aroused by external impressions and created by his ideas into images that become conscious in him. But a thought-form brought to life by the will is understood to be a “spirit,” just as one understands consciousness in general by spirit. An idea that has not yet taken a definite form is formless (arupa) [arūpa]; when given concrete form by imagination, it is an individual thing (rupa) [rūpa], as opposed to tangible material things, a “spirit.”

          Everyone creates such “ghosts” themselves throughout their lives, and no formulas are required to conjure them up. We gather the following from a letter from an Adept:

“Every thought that a man thinks, as soon as it is formed, passes into another world (level of existence) and there becomes an independent individuality by fusing, so to speak, with an “elemental” (corresponding to his nature); i.e., he unites with one of the semi-intelligent beings of those realms. There it lives as an active form of consciousness, a product of the mind, for a longer or shorter time according to the intensity of the brain activity that created it. Thus a good thought becomes a beneficent power, and an evil thought a malicious demon. In this way man continually populates his sphere of existence with the births of his fantasies, conceptions, desires and passions, and these emanations in turn act on sensitive minds with which they come into contact in proportion to the energy contained therein.^[22]

        Thus each human being, whether consciously or unknowingly, creates these spirits, and one “hypnotizes” and “possesses” one another and is unknowingly “hypnotized” and “possessed” by others. A thought spirit that has sprung from an unknown person in a distant part of the world can have an effect on this or that receptive person in this part of the world, come to maturity in his mind as a thought, and become an action in him. This is how inventions are made and crimes committed; an idea that has come to life is a living thing, and neither natural death nor the execution of the man from whom it sprang can kill it. In the realms of spirit and thought there is also constant birth, mingling and dying, from the confluence of ideas new series of thoughts arise, from which new forms develop which are realized in the outer world of appearances, as fashion or necessity entails.

          But what man does on a small scale, the world-spirit does on a large scale, only with the difference that the thoughts of “God,” sent out by the spirit, are capable of becoming material things that are visible to us in the bosom of nature, without human help, to develop forms and thus to create an external world as man creates it internally; a world that appears external to us but exists in God, as man’s thoughts exist in man’s sphere of consciousness (spirit). Rückert expresses this truth in the following verses:

“The world is God’s unthinkable thought,

And divine the vocation to think without barriers.

Nothing in the world that does not contain thought-stuff,

And no thought that does not help build the world.

That’s why my spirit loves the world, because it loves thinking,

And she gives him so much to think about everywhere.”^[23]

          Since the number of invisible intelligences in the universe is legion, even a classification of them is a dubious undertaking; indeed, even an attempt to do so is apt to make our view of the infinite appear limited, as if we intended to draw limits to the limitless. The names of the Indian “gods,” Devas, Adityas [Ādityas], Rudras, Vasus [Vāsus], Sadhyas [Sādhyas], Viswas [Viśvas], Maruts, Ghandarvas, Jakshas [Jakṣaṇa], Suras [Sūras], Asuras [Asūras], Siddhas, Rakshasas [Rākṣasas], etc., alone would fill many volumes in a library, and so we will only consider a few of the most important classes which it may be useful to know.

Pitris [Pitṛ-s].

          H.P. Blavatsky says:

“The Devas and the Pitris are for us the most important groups among the 33 million “deities” of the Indian pantheon, and they are also the least understood by the “Orientalists.” Their nature has always been kept hidden by the Brahmins, unwilling to reveal their philosophical secrets to European scholastic wisdom.

“The Devas are aeriform beings, some standing higher, some lower than (average) man. The word “Deva” means the “shining one,” “radiant one,” and refers to a host of diverse beings, including those intelligences from earlier Manvantaric periods, who are involved in the formation of new solar systems and are concerned with the education of humanity in their infancy, down to unevolved planetary spirits appearing in spiritistic séances under the guise of human deities and historical characters.

“The Deva-Yonis, on the other hand, are elementals of a lower order compared to the cosmic ‘gods’ and can even be subjected to the will of the black magician. To this class belong the gnomes, sylphs, fairies, jins, etc. They are the souls of the elements, the capricious forces in nature, subject to an immutable law inherent in these centers of power. Their consciousness is undeveloped and their bodies are plastic in nature and can take any shape according to the conscious or unconscious will of the person who “rapports” with them. It is through these classes of elementals that the spiritists, by attracting them (unknowingly) endow the fading shells (astral corpses) of deceased men with a sort of individual power (galvanize them, as it were, into a semblance of life). These classes of beings were never human, but later, in myriad ages, will evolve into humans. They belong to the three lower kingdoms of nature (elementary kingdoms) and knowledge of them belongs to the mysteries, since dealing with them is dangerous.”

          These will be discussed further below.

“Concerning the nature of the “Pitris” even the European scholars have completely wrong ideas. It is generally believed that the term “Pitris” refers to the spirits of our direct ancestors, to “deceased” people, and the spiritists hold that the fakirs are “mediums” who accomplish their phenomena only with the help of these human ghosts. This is quite wrong. The Pitris are not the (direct) ancestors of now living humans, but the ancestors of the now existing human race, an original race, i.e., the “spirits” of human races which preceded our race on the great scale of descending evolution (many millennia ago), and which were far superior, both physically and spiritually, to our dwarf race.^[24] In the Manava-Dharma-Shastra [Mānava-dharma-śāstra] they are called the lunar ancestors. They are devas of the “moon” (i.e., intellect) and the sun (of wisdom). The former, in the course of evolution, gave their “chāyās” (shadows) to form the first human race of the fourth round; the latter endowed mankind with understanding”

          The Bible says that the sons of heaven (the Pitris) saw that the daughters of men (the still spiritless earthly human shells) were beautiful and that they connected with them. What is meant by this and how these “spirits” enlivened the bodies of primitive people and thereby made them rational beings capable of immortality is described in the Rig Veda and presented even more clearly in the “Secret Doctrine.”^[25] There are seven types of Pitris, three of which are incorporeal (arupa) [arūpa], four corporeal (rupa) [rūpa].^[26] A deeper examination of their nature is beyond the scope of this article.

Kāma-rūpa forms.

          These creatures, whose appearance is shaped by the desires within them, do not belong to the celestial but to the astral beings. They are inhabitants of the astral plane of our world, and under certain circumstances they can become visible and interact with people. H. P. Blavatsky says:

“As we see, the Pitris have nothing to do with “ghosts,” nor with secluded “human spirits” in modern terms. They formed a transition from the race of ethereal human races preceding our creation to the present material human race. They have, of course, nothing to do with spiritistic gimmicks or the miracles of the fakirs, and the heavenly spirit of a deceased person has just as little to do with such things. On the other hand, if we consider the list of the various “demons” or “elementals,” we find that their very names indicate the deeds to which their natures are best suited.

          The following may serve as examples:

“Mādan is the name of a class of elementals of a vicious kind, half bestial, half monstrous in shape. “Mādan” denotes a creature that looks like a cow. He is the friend of malicious sorcerers and helps them in carrying out their evil intentions, infecting people and cattle with sudden illnesses or even killing them.

“The Shudāla-Mādan [Śudalai Mādan, Cutalai Mādan] or churchyard devil is a type of vampyre. He amuses himself where crimes and murders are committed, loving mainly fresh graves, slaughterhouses and places of execution. He helps the “magician” in the production of fire phenomena (setting fires, making incombustible, etc.), as well as Kutti-Schāttan, the little witch spirits. Shudāla is said to be a half fire, half water spirit who has the power to take any form and transform one thing into another. If he is not in the fire, he is in the water. He can blind people’s eyes so that they “see things they do not see” (suggestion).

“Schūla-Mādan is another malicious ghost. He is skilled in pottery and baking. He doesn’t harm those who are his friends, but he plays badly on those who insult him. He loves compliments and flattery, and since he is usually underground, so the fakir turns to him when he wants to perform the “miracle” known in India, to grow a mango tree with ripe fruit from a mango seed in a quarter of an hour.^[27]

“Kumil-Mādan is actually an undine. He is an elemental of water, and his name means the sound of a bubble rising. He is a funny goblin and helps his friends with things that are related to his trade. It splashes water around, makes rain, and shows the present or future to those who study hydromancy.

“Poruthū-Mādan is a Herculean demon, the strongest of all; he aids in the spiritistic movements of things without touch, “levitations,” the taming of wild beasts, etc. Indeed, each kind of “physical manifestation” in spiritistic séances has its own class of elementals to guide and help bring them about.^[28] Apart from these, however, in India there are many other kinds of elementals and demons, giants and vampires, asuras and nagas, dragons and snake-headed creatures, etc.

Larvae.

          “These beings are not to be confused with the “astral shadows,” “souls, larvae” or astral remains of deceased people [of which we have already spoken in the          “Lotusblüten”^[29]], and which in turn are to be distinguished from the real human souls (Buddhi-Manas), which are raised above everything earthly and no longer take part in the shadow play of this world after they have entered the heavenly state, while the animal part of the human soul still dwells in the astral realm. About this Proclus says:

 “After death the soul continues to abide in the airy body (astral body) until it is cleansed of all anger and passions. Then, through a second death, it sheds the astral body as it shed the earthly. But the ancients say that a heavenly body is connected to the soul, who is immortal and equal to the stars.”

Plutarch says:

“The element of these souls is the moon (in mystical meaning) because the souls dissolve in it (in the astral light) like the bodies of the dead in the earth. Those who have been virtuous and honest, have lived quiet, wisdom-loving lives without bothering much with dissatisfaction, will be quickly dissolved. Their remnants, deserted by the nous (mind) and no longer keeping the bodily passions active, will vanish.”

“The ancient Egyptians, whose teachings came from the Aryans in India, were familiar with these things. Modern archaeologists could not explain the fact that images and symbols of all kinds of figures were found on papyrus specimens, on mummy cases, in the “Book of the Dead,” on underground temple walls and buildings, other than that these were fantastic representations of alleged gods, and that the Egyptians worshiped cats, dogs, and all sorts of crawling things. This assertion is entirely false and springs from modern ignorance of the astral world and its strange inhabitants.

“There are many different classes of larvae and Kama-rupa [Kāma-rūpa] forms.^[30] The highest of the larvae or spooks in terms of intelligence and cunning are the so-called “earthbound human spirits.” It must suffice for the time being to say of these that they are the coverings or shadows of those who dwelt on earth, whether they lived a good or a bad life. They are the lower fundamental parts^[31] of all disembodied beings (humans and animals) and they can be divided into three main groups:

1. The spiritually dead. The first group includes the larvae of those people who resist all higher spiritual knowledge, have sunk deep in material things, have died and from whose sinful souls the immortal spirit has gradually separated itself. To put it correctly, they are the departed souls of rejected people, souls who renounced their divine spirit even before their bodies died and thus lost the possibility of immortality. After these “souls,” or rather astral larvae, have separated from the body, they, especially those very materially minded persons, are irresistibly drawn to earth, where they live temporal and finite lives, among environments suited to their gross material natures. Having cultivated no sense of the higher and noble during their whole life, but cherishing the common higher, they are unfit even now for the high existence which belongs to the pure detached beings for whom the earth’s atmosphere is suffocating and is smelly. The attraction of these higher beings is not only remote from the earth, but they could, even if they wished, owing to their celestial qualities, knowingly have nothing to do with the earth and its inhabitants.^[32] Exceptions to this will be specified later. But sooner or later the material souls will decompose and finally, like a mist, atom by atom will dissolve in the elements surrounding them (in the “astral fire”). These are the larvae which remain in Kāma-loka the longest, they are saturated with earthly vapors, and their kāma-rūpa (desire-body), strong in sensuality and impervious to the spiritualizing influence of the higher principles, endures longer and decomposes with difficulty. We are taught that these larvae sometimes exist for centuries before completely decomposing.^[33]

2. Kāma-rūpa. The second group includes all those who had an ordinary degree of spirituality, but were more or less attached to earthly things, and whose expectations and longings were more for earth than for heaven. The length of time these remnants reside in Kāma-loka, and which belonged to the average man, is shorter than that of the preceding class; but nevertheless long in itself, and it depends on the power of the desire to live.^[34]

3. Dispossessed people. The third group includes those who died a violent death. They are complete human beings, with all the basic parts except the physical body, disembodied, and remain so until the time comes when they should, by nature, have died a natural death.”^[35]

          Perhaps it is appropriate here to take a look at the German mystics and see what they say of these three classes of ancient human remains. The literature on this is extraordinarily large, and a small selection must suffice here.

          The “Catholic” Master Eckhart says:

“Hell is not a place but a condition. What is human essence here below remains their essence in eternity, just as they are found in it. Some think they can have an unnatural being here and attain a divine being there. In this they are wrong. The torment of the damned (damned by themselves) consists essentially in being aware of their own nothingness while being deprived of the vision of the Supreme. What burns in hell is self-will; the not-I. If I put a glowing charcoal on my hand, it is not so much the charcoal that burns me, but rather the nothing; namely, that coal has something about it that my hand does not have; for if my hand were of a fiery nature, like coal, all the fire in the world could not harm it. So it is with the “damned.” Because there is something about God and all who are in right bliss before God, which those who are separated from (their) God do not have, it is this nothing that torments souls in hell more than any fire. What folly it is not to want to be with someone without whom one cannot be!”^[36]

“When the soul separates from the body in faithful love and with the firm will to do everything for the sake of God and to abandon all sin, the soul suffers so much that it can no longer, and it awaits the day when its God will be found to have mercy, even if it lasted until the last day, hope is her essence. On the other hand, whoever has once received the light of eternity, the purest revelation of God, will no longer reach this intermediate state.^[37]

          The “Protestant” mystic Jakob Boehme says:

“We have to know here that our life, which we get in the womb, (with its thinking and feeling) stands bare and alone in the power of the sun, stars and elements; that they not only figure a child in the womb and give it life, but also bring it into this world, and nourish and care for it all the time of its life, also inflicting happiness and misfortune on it and finally death and breakage, and if our essences, from which our life is born, were not higher from their highest degree in Adam, we would be equal to all cattle.” (Princip. XVI, 4.)

“At death first the four elements break from the (one) element; since then the tincture goes into the ether with the shadow of the human being and remains with the shadow in the root of the element, from which the four elements were born and emanated, and in it alone is the suffering in the breaking, from which a house of torment is broken off for the souls. So now, however, the essences of the souls of the first principle of the region of this world have been so hard appropriated that the soul essences have only sought the lust of this world, with temporal honor, power and splendor, so the soul or the essences endure to the first Principio the stellar region itself, as its very dearest jewel, in the will to live in it; but since it has no more mother than the four elements, over time it consumes itself in the essences from the first principio. Here is now the great life and also the great death, since the soul must enter one (or the other) and (this) is afterwards her fatherland.” (Princip. XIX, 15 & 16.)

“There are three principles in the human mind, all three of which he may unlock at this time. But when the body is broken, he only lives in one (of the same) and has lost the key and can no longer unlock any other; he must remain in the same torment which he has here kindled.” (Principia, Appendix 10.)

“All here in this life the soul is in balance and, though it has been evil, can be born again in love; if the hook breaks, it’s over, she’s afterwards in her own country, in her Principio.” (40 Fragen [40 Questions], XIII, 10.)

“At the time of earthly life the soul may change its will, so does it command to change the form. But after the body dies, it has nothing left to change it’s will, as can be seen from the devils.” (Tilken, I, 267).

Māra-rūpas. The Devil.

          These earthbound souls, when abandoned by true spirit, can assume those animal forms which correspond to their passions (māra), and this is scientifically justified by the fact that the astral body is the expression and symbol of a creature’s underlying qualities. The physical body, which is less plastic, retains the human form throughout life, even in the case of a fully transformed human being; After death, nothing prevents the astral body from assuming that form which corresponds to the character of its being. Boehme says:

“By this everyone should learn to recognize he may only search for his qualities, to which his will always drives him, in the kingdom he stands and is not a human being, as he thinks and pretends to be, but a creature of the dark world, like a miserly dog, a haughty bird, an unchaste animal, a fierce serpent, a jealous toad full of poison, etc. All these qualities swell in him and are his wood from which his fire burns. If the outer wood, as the being of the four elements, is left in his death, then only the inner, poisonous, evil torment remains. What kind of figure should stand for such a quality? None other than which of these qualities has been the strongest, that is figured into his form by the infernal command, as to a venomous serpent, dogs, and the like, or any other animal. Whatever qualities the will-spirit has given itself into, the same quality is afterwards the image of the soul, and this is its portion.” (Sechs Punkte [Six Points], Ch. VII, 37.)

          Swedenborg in his visions of the astral realm, which, however, were tinged with ecclesiastical hues, describes these spirits as seen from afar as animals appearing, which, on closer inspection, are recognized as human beings. In our world it is the other way around.

          Anyone who finds this strange should only look into himself and get to know the animal species that are contained in his astral soul. Perhaps he finds a whole menagerie there, and these qualities or states of being may even, under certain circumstances, emerge as objective phenomena, as we find numerous examples both in the legends of the saints and in the history of modern spiritism. They emerge particularly easily when these forms are pushed outwards through an inner true spiritual awakening and thus become objectively visible to the person concerned and perhaps also to others. So, for example, St. Anthony tells that he was tempted in his hermit cave by many devils under all kinds of ugly forms that were visible. If we assume that these figures were the spiritual emanations of his nature, his own forms of will and thought, and that he possessed a mediumistic organization which made possible their material condensation into visible bodies, then “superstition” ceases and understanding arises in its place.^[38]

          Annotation. The attached picture represents Saint Anthony in the midst of the larvae tempting him, from which he seeks to escape through prayer. These larvae are the symbols of the desires that have become false “I-s” in him, that is, drunkenness, sloth, gluttony, greed, mockery, envy, anger, self-conceit, etc. In modern parlance, one would say they are the “objective products of his auto-suggestion.” But this only creates a new error; for Saint Anthony certainly does not intend to “suggest” (imagine) these apparitions, but rather seeks to free himself from them. They are the forms of existence which have sprung from his own baser instincts, nourished by his own will, and each of them assumes of itself that form which corresponds to its essence and character. Likewise, however, Saint Anthony himself, like every human being, is only a product of the will and imagination that have come alive in him, and therefore in a certain sense just as much an “illusion” (Māyā) as the creatures of illusion surrounding him; on the other hand, they are as real to him as he appears to be real to himself. Through man’s realization of his true self (Ātma), the delusion of one’s “selfness” disappears and with it the illusions arising from this delusion; in other words, when desire goes away, so does the thought that came from it, and with it the form that came out of desire and thought. But these desires, thoughts and forms could not arise and grow in the soul of man if the corresponding elements were not present in the great Nature; for, as in physical life, nothing new is formed in psychic life other than through an influx from outside, and the small human being is only a miniature image of the great human being, whose soul is God and whose body is the universe.

Unborn Germs.

          Finally we have to consider a special class of elementals, for example, the psychic germs or archetypes of men, which are destined to be born into physical existence. They are the underlying idea of the growing human being. H. P. Blavatsky says about it:

“These types, which are as yet without the divine spirit (which comes later), are “elementals,” or, more properly, “psychic germs,” which, when the time is right, depart from the invisible world and into the visible as human children are born and thereby receive the divine breath which is called Spirit, whereby they then have all that pertains to the complete human being.^[39]

“The essential difference between such a psychic embryo and an elemental spirit is that the embryo, the future man, contains within itself a part of each of the four great kingdoms of the elements, fire, air, earth and water, while the spirits of the elements only own part of one of these realms. So, for example, the salamander is a form of life that has only a part of the primordial fire and no other element. Man is a higher creature and has all four elements in his nature. Therefore one does not find elementals of fire in water, nor those of air in fire, and yet as water is contained not only in man but also in other bodies, elementals are within and among each other in every substance, so too is how the spiritual world is contained in the material world.”

          All elemental spirits, like all things and forces in general, are forms of existence, modifications of the one universal life, states of the one universal consciousness, be it latent or active, hidden in the bud or unfolded. In order to learn to distinguish between these spirits it is necessary to know the four stages of existence or spheres of consciousness in the universe; for every being belongs to one or the other of them. We must not confuse physical powers with spiritual powers, the astral forms with those of the Kāma-rūpa realm, the plane of Devachan with Nirvāna; but we have it within our power to know all these four states of existence because they all exist within ourselves, and precisely because man is the highest creature and is capable of entering into and knowing the highest, it should also be our aspiration to attain the highest; for whoever has come to know what is higher can also know what is below him; but without the knowledge of the higher, all mysticism and all demonology has no value.

(Sequel follows.)

---

(Continuation.^[40])

          What is the point of engaging in a study of the elementals when comparatively few people “worry about the spiritistic frills?” This question is tantamount to, “What is the point of learning about those unseen influences which move all mankind like puppets, without knowing the cause of this movement?” We see how entire peoples are seized by psychic diseases and how delusions lead them to actions at which calm reason shudders with horror. Such aberrations of the human spirit confront us in the times of the Crusades, flagellantism, the frenzy of dancing, the witch hunts, and more recently in anarchism and anti-Semitism. Such epidemics are suddenly rampant, and no prior exercise of the mind in rational thought protects against them; for with them the cooperation of common sense ceases.

          About this, we read the following in the “Zirkel” published in Vienna:

“There can hardly be any doubt that, like the individual, like a whole people, a nation can become mentally ill if it has been under the dominion of pathogenic influences (?) for a long time. A mental illness thus becomes epidemic in the real sense, a psychic plague. Of course, not all of the people are ill, just as typhus, smallpox and similar epidemics do not attack everyone, but such a large fraction of the nation is affected that the actions and doings of such a people largely reflect the character of the mentally abnormal. Völkel points out the well-known fact that a delusion can be transmitted from one person to another through psychic contagion, of which lunatic asylums provide plenty of examples, since guards and the like are often infected by their delusions through constant contact with insane people and go insane yourself. From this arises of itself the possibility that the population of a whole region, nay, a whole people, may present the symptoms of mental disorders for generations. Delusions in political and religious matters in particular are easily spread by contagion, evidently because such subjects are generally very much and very persistently talked about (indulging in the influences concerned). Political and religious fanaticism, such as has so often confronted us in history with its sad consequences, is nothing but the expression of a perverse state of mind.”

“Such a mental disease is, for example, known under the name Flagellantism. It broke out in Italy in the mid-13th century and from there spread to France and Germany, reaching its peak about 100 years later when the plague known as the Black Death nearly depopulated areas of Germany. Thousands and thousands of people went through the villages and the towns, and everywhere their numbers increased. They went on, men and women, old and young, clergy and lay, learned and unlearned, all stripped to the waist, insanely jumping and dancing and flagellating themselves to the death while singing penitential psalms.”

          Another spiritual epidemic, the most dreadful of all that has ever raged among the poor human race, were the witch hunts. In these it is quite evident to what perversity and irresponsibility the human spirit can sink in one respect, while at the same time it can boast of great advances in the field of science. For the heyday of witchcraft trials did not fall in the Middle Ages, which were decried as dark and superstitious, but rather in the epoch of transition to modern times, in the much-praised age of humanism, the reawakening of the human spirit, the favoring of the new church. It was as if some uncanny poison had entered the imagination of men and, on this one point, destroyed reason and calm judgment for nearly ten years. Yes, wasn’t this a mental illness of mankind?

          As in today’s anti-Semitism, with which I want to compare that witch craze, we are dealing with a step backwards. In 1310, about 200 years before the outbreak of that mental plague, the Council of Trier [French, Treves] dealt with the belief in witches and described it as unchristian, absurd and fatal and threatened those who adhered to it with punishment. It was in the last quarter of the 15th century that the two Dominicans, Heinrich Kramer and Jakob Sprenger, had the task of working against heresy in Germany. Since they soon realized that they would not get far with the persecution of heretics, they looked for another field of activity and found it in their intervention against witches. They wrote the Malleus maleficarum, the “witch’s hammer.” Can you understand how this book has gained its disastrous status among clergymen and judges, among Catholics and Protestants? It is written in the worst Latin, bristling on every page with the grossest ignorance, which was bound to be noticeable in that era of learning, it describes in all detail the power of witches to ride down the chimney on broomsticks and bring about storms and hail on crops, giving birth to toads instead of human children, etc. This book demands that every mere rumor should be brought to justice against women. It teaches tricks and dissimulations to be used by the judges in order to elicit a confession. And finally, the book also gives detailed instructions about torture and its intensification, so that one shudders when reading about human fanaticism.

          Imagine the fear of all women and girls of that time! They were not safe for a moment. A thoughtless word, a chance encounter, the denunciation of an enemy, a scolded servant, were enough to lead them to the harshest dungeons, to the torture rack, to the pyre. And now it was natural that hatred, malice, envy, and rivalry, and all the evil tendencies of men, should employ this convenient means of corrupting the innocent and troublesome by denouncing witchcraft. Once the poor women were in the hands of the judges, there was no escape. Under the unspeakable agony of torture, in which their bodies were racked, their limbs broken, they had been rendered impotent, or made to the desperate resolution that they would rather bring about an agonizing death than be torn limb by limb and mutilated. There were 22 escalating degrees of torture. — In Quedlinburg in 1589, 133 witches were burned in one day, in the Principality of Neisse over 1000 in 9 years, including children aged 2–4. The witch judge Balter Voss in Fulda boasted that he had burned more than 700 witches alone and he hopes to God that he will burn 1000 more. The total number of women and girls burned for witchcraft in Germany has been calculated at more than 2 million.

          Against witches, the testimony of every first person was enough. The witch hammer orders dishonest servants and punished criminals to be admitted as witnesses. A capable witch spy, no matter how lowly a scoundrel, was a respected and much feared personality.

          Much the same is the case today with anarchism, anti-Semitism, national hatred, etc. The flapping of the spirit of religious intolerance which brought the plague to the world has died away and other elementals are entering our earth’s atmosphere; Chief among them is māra–the devil of wickedness, and in his entourage are kāma–selfishness, trishna [tṛṣṇa]–lust, attavāda–megalomania, visikicha [vicikicchā]–doubt, silabhat-para-māsa–superstition in the guise of science.

          It is no use saying that the thought of one person infects another. Nothing in the world, not even an idea, grows without an influx from outside. The sprout of a tree is planted in the earth, and the sprout of an idea in the mind of man, but no seed grows unless it receives an influx of those elements which correspond to its nature. These elements, however, are psychically the elementals (forms of the emanations of will and thought) which inhabit the astral soul (kāma-rūpa) of the earth and produce their children in the astral soul of man. But the divine spirit of man is above all elemental spirits, devils and demons, and that is why he is also the lord of all spirits who does not allow himself to be influenced by foreign influences, but who has become aware of his true spiritual being, and in this, his higher Self-awareness forms a magic circle into which no inferior influence can penetrate.

II. The inhabitants of the four elements.

          Though it may not qualify as “exactly scientific,” it is not less true when the poet says, “The world is a divine thought.” First comes the feeling, then the idea, then the definite thought, and finally the clothing of thought with a material form visible to the external eye. The whole of creation is a sum of thoughts that have sprung from the spirit of the world and which are based on the idea of ​​creation. The sensible, external world of appearances consists of these thoughts in so far as they have clothed themselves with matter and come into objective existence; the inner “supra-sensible” world contains similar forms and beings, made of ether (ākāśa) just like us, but not clothed with so coarse stuff, not “condensed” like our bodies. The common naturalist investigates the external phenomena of nature, and perhaps imagines he knows all her treasures; but besides these naturalists there are others who penetrate more deeply into nature, and know the realms which are hidden behind her veil. You won’t find anything “supernatural” there either; but things which belong to a different octave than ours in the great organ grinder of nature, and of whose existence those scholars who draw their entire knowledge from the consideration of the sensible-material can know nothing. But to those who have opened up this deeper realm of nature, a new world of unimagined riches opens up to them, and with amazement they see life and forms in everything; the new page in the book of nature increased his admiration of the omnipotence of the Creator and the glory of his manifestation in nature.

          Because every thing has its astral body, or more correctly, since the outward appearance of every thing on the physical plane is nothing but the material condensation or embodiment of an astral thing, which can exist without this material garment and existed before the physical body existed, the types of all things whose material appearances we perceive in external nature are also found on the astral plane; the air, the fire, the water, the earth in their various shapes and forms, with their various inhabitants, belonging to the mineral, vegetable, or animal kingdoms. But besides these, the astral plane has its own unique creatures, which have not yet incarnated on the physical plane. Chief among these are the “spirits” of the four elements, and regarding them H. P. Blavatsky says:

“Another class of elementals, which in the present Manvantara do not become human, but occupy, as it were, a peculiar step on the ladder of evolution, may be termed “nature spirits,” or cosmic agents, in comparison with others, each class of which belongs to their own element and never encroaches on the territory of others. These are the beings Tertullian called “the princes of the powers of the air.”

“In the writings of the Cabalists of the East, as well as in those of the Rosicrucian and Alchemists of the West, these beings are said to be born in and evolved from the four kingdoms of nature, earth, fire, air and water. They are called gnomes, salamanders, sylphs, and undines. They are the forces of nature (comparable to light, heat, air, and electricity) and (like these) serve either as blind instruments in carrying out the laws of nature, or, as already described in the previous chapter, they can be used by disembodied spirits, now that they are pure or impure, used by Adepts of white magic and by magicians and witches (fakirs, dervishes, mediums, etc.) to bring about certain phenomena. The Adept rules these spirits, the medium is ruled by them. They never become human.

“These “Spirits of the Four Elements” are to be found in the myths and fairy tales, in the folk tales and in the poetry of all nations, ancient as well as modern, under many names, such as Fairies, Paris, Devs, Djins [Jīns], Satyrs, Fauns, Elves, Goblins, Mermaids, Nymphs, etc. In every part of the world and in every age they have been seen and observed, feared by some, invoked or worshiped by others, revered by gifted persons. Is it reasonable, then, to suppose that all the thousands who know these nature spirits suffer from hallucinations, and that none have a clear mind except the short-sighted professor on his lectern, looking at the world through his colored glasses and knowing nothing at all, as what is attested in his books?

“These elementals are the chief contributors to the production of so-called “physical phenomena” (table-turning, table-breaking, etc.) in the spiritistic experiments, and for this purpose are used by the disembodied, but never uses visible larvae, which most spiritualists take to be “spirits of dead people.” They bring forth all phenomena except subjective ones.”

“Anyone who knows the nature of man and his evolutionary history will find nothing strange in the existence of the “inhabitants of the four elements.” Millions of years ago, before our bodies took on our present gross form, we too were “invisible spirits,” i.e., invisible by the standards of our present sensory perception, but visible under the conditions of that period. It is difficult to form an approximate idea of ​​our condition at that time. The Secret Doctrine says: “In the beginning man was a linga-sharira [liṅga-śarīra], an astral being brought into being by prana [prāṇa] (the breath of God), the life spirit of the sun of the universe. The monad, Atma-Buddhi (the Spirit of God), born of Mahat, a ray of eternal light, brooded over “the deep” in which these astral beings were contained; the material corporeal man did not yet exist, three world periods and a half were necessary before his organism became perfect and he began to think.”

          The Egyptian Hermes also teaches the same thing, on whose tablets it says: “His (man’s) father is the sun (wisdom), his mother the moon (the intellect), the wind (akasa) [ākāśa] carried him in his belly, and his fruits are the generations of mankind.”

“Since one usually imagines something completely different under the term “spirit” than what someone else means by it, we want to use the term “elemental beings” in these pages for the inhabitants of the four elements. They have no definite form, and might perhaps more correctly be described as centers of power possessing instinctive desires but no consciousness (in our terms).^[41]

“These types of elementals possess only one of the three main human attributes. They have neither an immortal spirit nor a tangible body, but only astral forms, which have the peculiarities of the element to which they belong, and which also share in the properties of the ether. They are a composite of refined matter and undeveloped spirit (manas). Some remain unchanged through several world periods, but have no definite individuality; others, belonging to certain classes and genera, change shape according to a certain law known to the cabalists. The most solid of these beings’ bodies are just immaterial enough not to be seen with physical eyes, yet sufficiently material to be visible to the clairvoyant’s inner eye.^[42] They all exist and can live in the ether, and can even manipulate the ether and use it to produce physical phenomena as easily as we can use water or air for mechanical purposes. The human elemental beings, the “larvae” of deceased people, help with this. Yes, even more! They can condense the ether in such a way that they form tangible bodies from it, and they can give them different forms according to circumstances, so that they appear now in this form, now in that, taking as models the images which they are in find the memories of people present. Nor is it necessary here that those present remember the appearance of the person concerned, living or dead; its image may have vanished from conscious memory years ago and yet still exists in the Astral Light. The soul receives lasting impressions from all sorts of perceptions, even from chance encounters or people just seen in passing. Just as a momentary exposure of a photographic plate suffices to capture the image of an object, so it is with the soul.”^[43]

“Proclus teaches that the highest regions from the zenith of the universe down to the moon^[44] belonged to the gods and planetary spirits with their hierarchies and classes. Chief among these would be the “super-Uranians” or super-heavenly gods with many legions of subordinate angels and demons. These are followed in position and in power by the intra-cosmic gods, each of whom has under him a large number of demons. They poured their power into them, according to one’s pleasure or that one’s. These are evidently the personified forces of nature in their mutual interactions, and these latter constitute the third class of elementals.

“Proclus further demonstrates, with reference to the Hermetic Principle of types and prototypes,^[45] that the lower spheres, like the super-celestial spheres, have their subdivisions and classes of beings, the lower always being subject to, and governed by, the higher. He says that the four elements are inhabited by demons and agrees with Aristotle that there is no such thing as empty space in nature. The demons of earth, air, fire and water are elastic, ethereal, semi-corporeal beings. They are the forces acting and mediating between gods and men. Though inferior in intelligence to the sixth class of the higher demons, yet they precede the elements and organic vital activity. The growth, the flowering, the properties of the plants and the changes occurring in them are based on them. They are the personified ideas or virtues descending from the celestial Hylê into unorganized matter, and as the vegetable kingdom stands a degree higher than the mineral kingdom, these emanations of the celestial gods take form and essence in the plants, and become the souls of them.

“This is what Aristotle’s doctrine of the three principles of natural bodies calls form. His philosophy teaches that, besides primordial matter and force, another principle is needed to make the trinity of nature of every thing perfect, namely, form, an invisible yet in a certain sense of that word substantial being, that of the actual matter is different. Thus in an animal, besides the bones, flesh, nerves, brain, blood, etc., and in a plant, besides the cellular tissue, fibers, and sap, which flow through the organism and nourish all parts of it, and besides the animal spirits, which are the cause of motion and chemical energy, which is transformed into life-force in the green leaf, there must still be a substantial form which Aristotle called in a horse the soul of the horse. Proclus calls it the demon of minerals, plants and animals, and the philosophers the elementals of the four realms of nature.”

          However, these beings are only called “spirits” insofar as they are incorporeal and invisible to us. In fact, they just lack the spirit; i.e., the consciousness of the divine spirit in nature, and therefore they are also described as “soulless” beings, i.e., as beings lacking the divine spirit through which the soul can attain the consciousness of immortality. Paracelsus says:

“So the flesh must be understood; that it is of two kinds, viz., the flesh of Adam (earthling man) and the flesh that is not of Adam. The flesh of Adam is a coarse flesh, for it is earthly, and it is to be grasped and bound like wood or stone. The other flesh is not of Adam, it is subtle flesh, and is not to be bound and grasped. Now the flesh of Adam is man of Adam; he is coarse like the earth, the same is compact; so that man cannot slip through a wall, nor through a wall, without first making a hole; but the flesh that is not of Adam, the walls offer no obstacle, this flesh needs no door and no hole, but goes through walls and walls without breaking anything. Now they are both flesh and blood and bones and the like that belong to a human being and are in all nature like human beings. But they differ from each other in so far as there are two origins, i.e., two fathers. As spirit and human are related to each other, so is it related to the people (elementals) I am writing about and to human beings; but they are distinct from the spirit in having blood, flesh, and bones. In doing so they give birth to children and fruit, talk, eat, drink and walk, all of which a spirit cannot do. They are equal to spirit in speed (movement) and similar to human beings in shape, and therefore people who have spirit nature about them. Man has a soul, the spirit (elemental spirit) has none. These creatures resemble humans more than cattle, but they are neither man nor cattle. Like an ape, which is the animal most like man in gestures and works, so are they like man; alone without a soul, and similar to ghosts that no one can see. Therefore let no one marvel that there should be such creatures, for God is wonderful in his works. These things are not before our eyes every day, but appear very seldom and appear to us like a dream image; but we need to fathom these great works of wonder in order to correctly recognize our Creator in his wonderful revelations in nature.

“Just as it is said that man is made in the image of God, so it can also be said that these people are made in the image of man. Man is not God, though created in God’s likeness, neither are these creatures, though made in man’s image. Although they are of animal nature, they have human reason, but no (divine) soul, and no obligation to serve God and walk in his way. Their reason is higher than that of animals. As man is nearest to God above all creatures on earth, so are they nearest to man above all other creatures.^[46]

“Their dwellings are of four kinds, viz., according to the four elements; the one inhabits the water, the other the air, the third the earth, the fourth the fire. The nymphs are in the water, the sylphs in the air, the pygmies dwell in the earth, and the salamanders in the fire; they are also called undines, sylvestri, gnomes, and vulcani, respectively. Each sex has its own dwelling (element) and neither associates with the other; but they can all appear to man, that he might know and see how wonderful God is in his works, and that he leaves no element empty.

“We humans live in the air and are surrounded by it as a fish is surrounded by water, and can no more live without air than a fish without water. Likewise, the element of water is to the undines as air is to us, and what air is to us, so is earth to the gnomes, so that they can pass through walls and rocks as we can through air. Likewise, fire is the air of salamanders; but the sylphs are closest to us because their air is also our air. They are all under God’s umbrella and clothed and guided by Him; for God is not only powerful in providing for man, but also everything else of which man knows nothing and only slowly learns about it. And as we see the sun shining through the air, so the gnomes see through the earth, the undines through the water, and the salamanders through the fire. The undines are similar to humans in size and shape; the sylphs are longer and stronger; the gnomes are only about two spans long; but the salamanders changeable, long and thin.

“Everything that God has made he makes known to man; but such revelations do not come every day, but as often as is necessary to keep faith in them.”^[47]

          These are the general outlines that Theophrastus uses to depict the nature of the inhabitants of the four elements, and his statements are consistent with those of other metaphysicians. Everyone may think of it what he will, and find in it what he is able to find. Whoever has neither experience nor understanding of these things is entitled neither to affirm them nor to deny them. H. P. Blavatsky says:

“All this is explained in our degenerate century as nature fanaticism and superstition; yet there is a spark of probability in these theories for the thinking man, and they hold perhaps the key to finding the “missing link” of that science which calls itself the “exact.” This science is beginning to become so dogmatic that it declares everything that does not spring from the inductive method (of speculation) to be fantastic, and Professor Joseph Le Conte claims that the “best scholars” have already pitied the term “vital force” as smile of what is left of an outdated superstition and want to put “life activity” in its place; as if there could be any action where there is no power! Thus “science” works diligently to transform the immortal, thinking human being into an automaton driven by a mechanism (which, incomprehensibly, works by itself). Where there is an expression of life, there must also be life energy, and as there are special kinds of activity, so there are different forms of forces.”

          That is precisely the cause of the depravity of our powerless generation, that we no longer recognize our own power, which is the basis of our existence, and only lead an apparent life in the realm of scientific imagination. We cannot see spirits because we are no longer able to recognize ourselves as spirits dominating the body; we are ruled by our body, which should only be a tool for our power, and its desires, and the more we identify with the material form, the more the mind’s self-awareness, mental energy and mental perception wanes, and nothing remains but sensuality and “scientific” reverie. The greed of men has driven the fairies and elves from our mountains and valleys, and in place of the lost sensibility for beauty comes the craving for the gratification of scientific curiosity, in place of the greatness of spirit, is a narrow mind.

          “In the Jewish Kabala, the inhabitants of the four elements are known by the general name of schedim^[48] [also: shidom] and are divided into four classes. The Indians call them “Bhūtas” and “Devas,” the Persians “Devs,” the Greeks generally call them “Demons” and the Egyptians “Afrites.” “The ancient Mexicans,” says Kaiser, “believed in the existence of numerous dwelling places for spirits of various kinds. The souls of heroes ascended to heaven, but the hideous larvae of incorrigible degenerate men wandered despairingly in subterranean caverns, imprisoned within the earth’s atmosphere, without the will and without the strength to be free. They spent their time associating with mortals (in the spiritist manner), teasing or frightening them. Some African tribes know them by the name “Jowahus.”^[49]

          “The inhabitants of the four elements (and by “elements” is meant not their outward appearances but their metaphysical basis) are called by the Brahmins “Daityas.” Initiates know that these elementals are attracted to certain quarters, viz by a mysterious force similar to that which turns the magnetic needle to the pole. If we wish only to keep in mind the fact that the rapid movement of the planets through space must produce a similar disturbance in the plastic cosmic ether as a cannonball fired in of the air, or like a steamer in the water it traverses, and if we think of this on a larger (cosmic) scale, it is easy to see that certain aspects of the planets can cause a much greater disturbance in the ether than others, and may bring about certain strong currents in certain directions. This consideration makes it understandable that whole swarms of friendly or even hostile elementary beings are introduced into our atmosphere or into any particular part of it, and that certain causes are thereby created which finally lead to outwardly manifesting results. If the calendar maker can calculate in advance the occurrence of an eclipse because he knows the revolutions of the bodies of the planets, why should he who knows the interaction of certain spiritual influences not also be able to calculate in advance the occurrence of certain epidemics, earthquakes, etc., as do the Indian astrologers, and as Paracelsus and other clear-sighted men have done.”^[50]

          The elemental spirits are not only outside of our organism, but just as we have all four elements in our body, earth (material), fire (energy), water and air, the spirits of the four elements are also contained in our nature. In order to convince ourselves of their existence, we need not go out of ourselves, but only look within ourselves. Also, the temperament of one man will differ from that of another according to the element which is predominant in him, and as like associates with like, that which is predominant in him determines the influences which he attracts.

          “It is said that the different races of “ghosts” have a certain influence on certain human temperaments, and can control one more than another. (The self-controlled man is, of course, the master of his temperament.) A biliary, lymphatic, nervous, or sanguine temperament may therefore be affected favorably or unfavorably, according to circumstances, by certain states of the astral light arising from certain planetary positions, and upon this rests the possibility of certain predictions through the horoscope and astrology. Of course, the correctness of such prophecies depends not only on astronomical calculations, but above all on a knowledge of the occult forces of nature.”

          “Fortune telling” comes from “telling the truth,” i.e., say what one perceives, but not what one imagines and what one cannot see and what is not true. It is a superstition to think that a certain event in a person’s life must occur because the planetary influences are favorable for this, because then the person would no longer have free will and would be the fool of his “planets.” That is why Paracelsus also says: “Our inclinations depend on the influences acting on us; but a wise man rules over the stars.” (Paramirum.)

          A knowledge of the occult forces of nature is not the result of theoretical research and is not acquired through mere reading of books, but rather involves one’s own spiritual development, an awakening of a higher consciousness, through which alone spiritual perception is possible, for if these forces were so clear during the day that everyone could see them, they would not be occult.

          Life is everywhere in nature, spirit everywhere. If we want to get an idea of ​​the invisible, we will find symbols and similes in the visible that will help us. We know, for example, that water is a body common throughout nature, and that, though divided into millions of drops, each appearing in a different form, it still remains water. It is diffused in the atmosphere as an invisible vapor, part of it being condensed into mists which wander the valleys, others forming clouds hovering about the highest peaks of mountains; part falls down as rain and penetrates the earth, which it fertilizes, another part appears as hail, destroying the fruits of the earth, or snow or ice forms, and what used to be invisible now has become a hard, tangible, impenetrable body and appears as a miracle to the child who does not understand the connection. The One Life breath also appears in the universe in various forms and life activities; the formless constitute forms and they dissolve again; the invisible can become visible and the visible invisible; what is there to marvel at for those who know the law? The one-sided scholar whose whole life energy is taken up by his brain activity, who can only ponder but not feel, knows nothing about the spirit; the sensitive man recognizes the existence of the higher through feeling, and from feeling springs the power of his seeing. Therefore the theosophists and poets of all times, from Homer to our own time, have recognized the existence of the inhabitants of the four elements.

          The blind want proofs, but those who can see need no further proofs; his eyes prove to him that he sees; but whoever sees nothing can also recognize nothing; the best “evidence” for him is only the confirmation of an opinion, but by no means knowledge.

          “The ancients, who named only four elements, described the fifth, the ether, as the one element (the foundation of the other four) and regarded it as the intermediate stage between the worlds of the visible and the invisible. They believed that if the intelligences ruling in space withdrew from any part of the four kingdoms under their control, that part would be left to the forces of evil. Therefore, anyone who wanted to associate with the invisible spirits or make the inhabitants of the four elements subservient to himself had to be a spiritually superior and wise person and adhere to the good powers. The fool, however, who abandons himself to influences which he does not know, consecrates himself to destruction.

          “The spirit of harmony and unity, disturbed by the wicked hand of the ignorant fool, forsakes the elements (the ether) and the currents of irrational forces are quickened by innumerable monstrosities of matter and instinct—demons and devils (larvae), gnomes, salamanders, undines and sylphs take possession of the mind of the inexperienced. Unable to create anything new, they penetrate the depths of his memory. Hence the nervous exhaustion and the pressure that weighs on the souls of those who attract these influences. The elementals bring to light long-vanished memories from the past, forms, images forgotten but preserved in the depths of memory, written in indelible strokes in the “astral leaves” of the Book of Life.”

          If you are spiritually great yourself, you can also control the “spirits” that are known to you and that are deeper than you, be it your own instincts, inclinations, passions and thoughts, or the minds of other people. We already see this in everyday life, and we don’t need to get the proof for it from the “beyond” first; but whoever goes into the realm of demons and elemental beings, whom he does not know, and opens his mind to them because he considers them to be higher beings, exposes himself to the danger of being “possessed” by them, and not only physically and morally, but also intellectually, as the history of so many eminent spiritualists proves.

          There are many spirits, but only one spirit from which they all spring. We should learn about this one spirit before we deal with the spirits which come from it. But this one spirit is the spirit of God in the universe, which is the cause of the existence of all spirits and thus also the cause of the existence of our own spirit. But where could we get to know this spirit better than by seeking out and communicating with this spirit in our own soul [the Monad or Higher Self within the reincarnating Ego or higher Ego], which is a temple of the divine spirit? This Spirit is the Spirit of Truth, which is to become essence and “flesh” in us, that we may know it as our own true self, the “self” that it is, when theosophical writings speak of “Self-knowledge.” This Self is the spirit, through whose light the truth is recognized in all things, and outside of which everything is just lies and deception, and therefore the old teaching proves itself as the supreme principle in the study of spiritualism: Man, know thyself!

(Conclusion follows.)

---

(Ending.)

III.^[51]

          We have discussed in the preceding two chapters the various classes of beings, intelligences, powers and forms inhabiting the far astral, and then the elementals of the four elements in particular. All these beings are not figments of the imagination, which have no existence of their own, but, like light, electricity, etc., they are actually forms of existence which, under certain conditions, can take shape and even appear objectively. Anyone who doubts the existence of elemental spirits, angels and devils need only look at himself and, depending on his condition, he will find one or the other class represented within himself. If his will is good and his soul permeated by the spirit of divine self-knowledge, then he finds a god in himself; if his will is penetrated by the desire for evil, he can see the devil in himself; if he is completely absorbed in the sensual, without an ideal world view and without a desire for anything higher than the gratification of his bodily needs or his scientific curiosity, then the man from whom the Spirit of God (the true Self) has left is also nothing more than an elemental being in human form, in which all four elements are united, but the main thing that denotes him as a human being is missing. Furthermore, it has been known since time immemorial that there is no force without matter. Where there is a force, there is also something substantial in which it works. The power itself is substantial. It can be called an expression of force of matter, just as one can call “matter” latent force, bearing in mind, however, that what we call “matter” is not visible. What one sees with bodily eyes is not matter itself, but only its outward manifestation or appearance. Therefore, if the human being has a spiritual power that survives the death of the body, then this power must also be something material (in the transcendental sense) and be able to reappear, as the doctrine of reincarnation makes this clear. But if it is an individual being, then it must also have its individual organization, and when the body disappears, the being exists somewhere in the universe. This conclusion is as logical as a thousand others on which “exact science” is based.

These speculations lead us to consider the various human spirits, and of these we now find as many classes and varieties as there are any classes of human characters and personalities in the universe; for it is true that every man differs in something from another man, even if he belongs with him to the same class.

Human elementals.

          By this we mean every human being, whether embodied and walking the earth, or disembodied in any of the various states into which the “soul” can enter after the death of the body. By this we understand every human being apart from the divine spirit (Ātma) illuminating him, consequently the personality of the human being with all its lower forms of will and intellectual functions (kāma-manas) without the higher spiritual intelligence (buddhi-manas) which some people have lost, yet unconscious in the majority Without this higher knowledge or love of good, even the wisest man is but a sum total of material beings (tattvas), and essentially a son of earth, an elemental in which a real man, a son of God, can be born, but who himself is not yet a man (in the true sense of the word).

          We do not have the space to even briefly discuss these various classes of characters (spirits) as we find them in this world or in the “beyond.” Every man is engaged in this study more or less all his life, and it is the purpose of all fiction and drama to get clear about the various characters we meet in human life; a purpose which can never be fully attained because the spiritual as well as the physical characteristics of man are constantly changing as long as man has not yet come to his true God-consciousness. All our “psychologists” are not concerned with the real human soul, but only with the ever-changing properties of kāma-rūpa, with the lower part of manas, if not just with physiological processes. The true soul of man, psyche, is not a subject of material science but of spiritual knowledge.

          The elements of which these human elemental spirits are composed are formed by those natural qualities which have become forces in the human organism. They form all the virtues and vices which spring from egoism. This includes greed, avarice, dissatisfaction, desire, anger, vanity, pride, megalomania, envy, self-conceit, and in general all human passions that are forms of self-will. It also includes all the ideas, opinions, prejudices and theories that man has acquired, that have become rooted in him and have become “flesh.” The only thing that is true man in these elementals is that part of his being which wants the truth and is imbued with the truth. But since there are relatively few people in whom the truth has become a living force, one finds more elemental beings in everyday life than real people, and a Diogenes lantern would often be necessary to find one among the many illusory people in order to find a being who is in fact a true human.

          The psychological qualities with which man leaves his physical existence are those with which he enters the “beyond,” i.e., enters subjective life. But in that life there takes place a division between the spiritual and the material nature of man (between Kāma-Manas and Buddhi-Manas), and it is thus comprehensible that many a spiritualist who fancy himself communes with the exalted spirits of noble dead men to care for, in fact, only deals with the filth left behind on earth by them. That is why the communications of the deceased, if they do not spring from the imagination of the medium, are based on the views and ideas which they had adopted during their lives. The “spirits” of the Greeks and Romans had a lot to reveal about Hades and Elysium; the Catholic speaks of purgatory and the Protestant knows nothing of it.

          But as far as spiritual communication with human spirits is concerned, we know from our everyday experience that we can always approach the spirit of a man, whether his body is alive or dead, if we are able to enter his circle of ideas, follow his train of thought and feel and perceive him. If I write something in the spirit of this or that living or dead person, the same spirit that animated it also writes through me, and without the dead or absent person knowing anything about it, his character is expressed in what I write, and corresponds to the character of the person concerned, depending on my ability to identify with his will and thoughts.

          The soul of the deceased has nothing to do with it. If I adopt his way of thinking, it is mine as well as his, and vice versa, without me or he losing anything.

Human spirits.

          Just as all human beings are elementary beings in relation to their earthly being with their willing and thinking, feeling and acting, so are all spirits, whether they are alive or dead, depending on the degree to which the spirit has become a force in them. Without these mental powers there are no mental functions; for it is the force that performs the function and not the function that creates the spirit. But the spirit may or may not have become self-aware in a person. If a man’s spirit has become self-conscious during life, there is no reason to suppose that this spiritual self-consciousness should disappear after the body dies; for it has nothing to do with the body; the body is only the vessel in which it manifests itself; on the contrary, this spiritual self-confidence will be all the clearer after the disappearance of everything that is a hindrance. But if man has only led an everyday dream life throughout his life and if he has not awakened from his spiritual sleep, then he will also be spiritually unconscious beyond material existence, or lead a dream life, which, however, may not be inferior to earthly life in apparent reality.^[52] Also, it goes without saying that if there are human spirits, they are within the universe and not outside it.

          The actual human spirit (Ātma-buddhi-manas) does not belong to the elemental spirits and is therefore not in the scope of this study. He is above all spirits, immortal. But as it is of the utmost importance for our purposes to understand the difference between spirit and “spirits,” it will be necessary to give a brief consideration to the two natures contained in man. Perhaps through this one or the other will become aware of the difference between the eternal, immortal and the temporal, ephemeral in his being.

          This duality of human nature has been recognized and described by all the great philosophers and poets. The words of Goethe in Faust are well known:

“Two souls dwell, alas! in my chest. The one wants to separate from the other.” etc.

          One of these souls dwells in the light of knowledge of truth, the other in the reflection of reason, in the realm of desire, selfish speculation and theory. One strives for the knowledge of the eternal truth, which is only one and not composite in nature; the other depends on knowing everything. One has only one God, one infinite ideal; the other has many narrow ideals and idols. One is easy to recognize once there is a will to recognize it; the other is never recognized because it is impermanent. A modern poet put it this way:

          “There are two natures in every human being,

One is a child of daylight

It shows traces of the sun everywhere,

There is nothing dark and veils nothing.

You may see through them to the core,

You take nothing strange, perceive no riddle.

There is insight, clarity and trust,

It is crystal clear, simple, clear as day.

The other has emerged as if from the night,

You don’t know them and nobody measures them;

Trial and reason shall be desecrated upon her,

She is a stranger in her own house.

Intangible she throws into the realities

Your flickering and mad play of shadows,

Like dreams gliding through the bright day

Tangles the threads and hexes the target.”

          All personal inclinations, desires and dreams, all willing and thinking originating from egoism belongs to the earthly man, all selfless willing, thinking and doing to the spirit man. The qualities, virtues, and vices that belong to earthly man are also found in animals; even if they reveal themselves in a different way in man as a result of his higher organization. Husband love, parental love, child love, courage, devotion, loyalty, friendship, pride, envy, cunning, cleverness, understanding, skill etc., belong not only to humans but also to animals, in fact humans are often even surpassed by animals. The fish surpasses him in swimming, the bird in flying, the ants and bees in the treasury, the dog in running, the monkey in climbing, the bull in physical strength, etc. That many a horse has more reason than the coachman who leads it teaches our daily experience, and the tormented pig on the dissecting table is morally much higher than the vivisector who tortures it to satisfy its scientific curiosity.

          All human science refers only to the world of appearances and belongs to the realm of appearances and the transitory semblance of man. All of his so-called intellectual achievements are only of a material, but not of a spiritual nature; the spiritual person owns what he himself is and what he recognizes in himself. When the human spirit leaves the body, the delusions and dream images that the human being possessed on earth or by which he was possessed remain in the Astral Light and can be reflected and expressed in the soul of a “medium.” Therefore we find that a man tainted by wrong opinions does not appear to have become wiser or more understanding by dying when his elemental communicates through a medium. The animal instinct, the affection, for example, what a mother feels for her child (and what she has in common with animals) is part of her elementary components, and may find expression in a spiritistic session in the usual way. The real spirit of this mother knows nothing about it. Once he has separated himself from the earthly, he is also elevated above all earthly things; is no longer attracted to it and therefore no longer aware of what is happening on earth. Were this not the case, observing events on earth could make even heaven hell; there would be no rest in God either.

          Anyone who wants to get to know this divine spirit will look in vain for it in books, in churches or lecture halls, in external observations or in philosophical speculations; In order to find it, he must renounce all his own will and knowledge and — not the elemental spirits — but let the spirit of divine self-knowledge unfold in himself and become a living force.

Adepts.

          An “Adept” is a man, whether walking the earth in a physical body or without this material clothing, whose personality is permeated with this light of divine self-knowledge; in other words, who has “adapted” himself wholly to his divine nature, or, as is commonly said, has surrendered to his God; a person in whom the divine I, pure reason, wills, thinks, perceives, speaks and acts.

          It is not necessary to go to high school to become an Adept; God has no need of human opinions. What should he care about scientific theories and hypotheses who knows everything by personal observation, has everything and is everything himself? But whether there are such real Adepts to-day is an idle question; one would have to be an Adept oneself in order to be able to tell whether another person is an Adept. An Adept is a master of self-knowledge, and to what degree a man possesses self-knowledge no one can decide but God, one’s own divine Self. Nor can anyone make himself an Adept; he can only give up his own “self” completely and work selflessly for the good of the whole. In this way he becomes a tool of God and God becomes a living force in him. Only in this way can a person become an Adept, by the Adept being born in him. In this spiritual rebirth, the spiritual man is the core, the personality, the covering and nourishment which is consumed as the lotus flower of wisdom unfolds in the soul.

          Since an Adept is a person who has awakened to full spiritual self-awareness, he is also independent of the existence of his body and can live, want, think and act confidently without it; Time and space no longer exist for him; he can place his soul wherever he wants, just as a person can put his thoughts, and wherever he puts himself, there is also his consciousness and his ability to perceive, and he teaches his students by inspiring their thoughts with the light rays of his spirit.

          An Adept who has left his earthly body but still resides in the earth’s atmosphere to help mankind is called a nirmanakaya [nirmānakāya] in Indian.^[53]

          Such a human being permeated by divine wisdom becomes a god himself through this permeation, in that the divine being becomes his own being, the Logos in him becoming “flesh” (manas). Such Adepts still exist in Tibet today, and it is such that gave rise to, and maintain certain connections with, that world association which is called the Theosophical Society.^[54]

          An Adept is therefore a person who has risen to God through the power of God within him, whose earthly part (Kāma-Manas) has merged into the divine (Ātma-Buddhi-Manas). In contrast to these there are other beings who have drawn down the divine light, degraded it and prostituted it. The Adepts are called “Sons of Light,” the opposite class “Brothers of Shadow.”

The Brothers of the Shadow

          Regarding these, H. P. Blavatsky says the following:

“The world is sustained by the same law of balance and harmony on which it is built. Without centrifugal force, centripetal force could not have been manifested in the harmonic revolutions of the celestial bodies. All forms are the products of this dual force in nature. To get the picture, let’s consider “spirit” as the centrifugal and “soul” as the centripetal mental energy. When both are in perfect harmony, both produce but a single result, but the centripetal movement of the soul toward the center which attracts it (God) is interrupted or marred, its ascent by a material burden heavier than it is capable of bearing is prevented, the harmony of the whole, which was its life, is destroyed. Individual life (of the soul) can only be sustained when supported by this dual power. The slightest deviation from the law of harmony damages it, and once it is irrevocably destroyed, the two forces separate and form (individuality) is gradually lost. After the death of the ungodly and depraved, comes the decisive moment. If during life the ultimate and desperate effort of the inner self to merge with the faint ray of its divine Monad is neglected, as that ray becomes more and more veiled in a thickening crust of matter, the soul follows when it, having become free of the body, its earthly attractions, is magnetically drawn into the material atmosphere of Kāma-loka and held there. Then she sinks lower and lower, until at last, when she regains consciousness, she finds herself in that state which the ancients call Hades and which we call Avītchi. The annihilation of such a soul is never sudden, it can easily take centuries, because nature does not move in leaps and bounds. Since the astral soul of the personality is made up of elements, the law of evolution needs a certain amount of time to work. Then begins the terrible work of retribution, the yin-yuan of the Buddhist initiates.

“This class of spirits is called “earthbound elementals” or “earth spirits” and is to be distinguished from the elemental spirits described above. But there is another and still more dangerous class. These are known in the East as the “Brothers of the Shadow.” They are living humans possessed by earthbound elementals; they are at times their masters, but eventually fall prey to these terrible beings.^[55]

          In Sikkhim and Tibet these “magicians” are called Dug-pas (Red Caps), and they are to be distinguished from the Geluk-pas (Yellow Caps), to which the disciples of white magic belong. But this is not to be understood as if in all Bhutan and Sikkhim, where the religion of the Bhons, commonly called Dug-pas, is at home, the whole population is possessed by devils and sorcerers. One finds just as good people among this people as elsewhere; we refer only to the elite of their lamaseries, to an inner circle of priests, devil-dancers, and fetish-worshippers, whose horrid and mysterious orgies and ceremonies are unknown to most of the populace.

“Thus, there are two classes of “Brothers of the Shadow”; the living and the dead. Both are insidious, cunning, vengeful, and always seek to avenge their own suffering on humanity. Thus, until annihilation (of their individuality) finally overtakes them, they become vampires, spooks, and the foremost contributors in spiritistic séances (where they appear under the most varied of masks and under assumed names). They are the celebrities on the stage of the so-called “spirit materializations” and bring about these phenomena with the help of the more intelligent among the more naturally born elementals, who always and happily reside in the sphere of the former.^[56] Henry Kunrath [1560–September 9, 1605 (aged 44–45], the well-known German cabalist, in his now rare work Amphitheatrum Sapientiae Aeternae [Hamburg, 1595], gives a drawing with representations of the four classes of these human elemental beings. Once man has passed through the gate of initiation, (to spiritual self-knowledge) through rebirth, once he has lifted the veil of Isis, this mysterious and jealous goddess, he has nothing more to fear. But as long as he has not succeeded in this, he is in constant danger.^[57]

          The magicians and theurgists always warned against the “conjuration” (invocation) of the souls. Psellus says:

“Do not call it (the soul) lest, when it leaves you, something (unclean) will cling to it”; and regarding the elementals he says: “Thou shalt not see them till thy body has been initiated; for they lure and seduce the souls of the uninitiated.” The reasons given against this association with the dead are as follows:

1. Iamblichus says:

“It is extremely difficult to distinguish a good demon from a bad one.”

2. When the larva of a good man succeeds in penetrating the density of the earth’s atmosphere, which is always oppressive and repugnant to it, it finds another danger which it cannot avoid. For the soul cannot approach the material world without putting on something impure. She thereby taints her purity, and then suffers for it. The true theurgist will avoid making an inhabitant of the higher spheres suffer more than is absolutely necessary for the salvation of mankind. Only those who are addicted to black magic, such as the Dugpas of Bhutan and Sikkhim, through powerful incantations and necromancy, coerce the impure souls of villains willing to aid them in their selfish schemes.^[58]

          Communication with the Augoides (the spiritual Self) by means of the mediumistic forces of subjectively active mediums (inspiration and trance) is something quite different, which will be discussed elsewhere.^[59]

          “These elementals and devils seek to possess the bodies of fools and idiots, and when they succeed they remain there; until they are driven out by a mighty and pure will. (The explanation for this is that they are themselves forms of will and imagination). Jesus and Apollonius and others possessed the power to thus purify the atmosphere within and without the demoniac; that the evil spirits had to go. Certain chemicals and incenses are particularly unpleasant for these elementals (who are semi-material themselves). This was already known to Zoroaster, and the famous electrician, Mr. Cromwell F. Varley, made successful experiments in this direction by the use of vapors of nitrous acid. The Indians, Chinese, Africans and other peoples use various herbs for this purpose. (It is not surprising that stupidity laughs at this; stupidity scoffs at everything but itself.) Pure human spirits, or even human spirits that are not downright malicious, have nothing to fear from this; for since they have become free from earthly matter, earthly substances cannot influence them. Such spirits are like a breath. The (semi-material) earthbound elementals and the spirits of the four elements behave differently in nature.

          For such carnal earthbound larvae, depraved human spirits, the old cabalists hoped for reincarnation. But when and how? At an opportune moment, with the help of a sincere desire for his reformation and conversion, on the part of a strong-willed person sympathetic to him, or by means of a desire springing from the depraved mind itself, provided that it is strong enough to satisfy him to enable him to cast off the sinful matter with which he is burdened. He then loses all consciousness; the formerly clear and brilliant monad is again caught in the whirl of terrestrial evolution, must again wander through the lower kingdoms of nature, and finally breathes again as a human child. To calculate the time that is necessary for this is an impossibility and such an effort would be very superfluous, since there is no measure of time in eternity.^[60]

          Porphyry says of these elementals:

“These invisible beings were worshiped by humans as gods. It is generally believed that they can become very malicious, and the evidence of this is that their anger is kindled against those who do not offer them the worship to which they believe themselves entitled.^[61]

          Homer says the following about it:

“Our gods appear to us when we make sacrifices to them. You sit down at our table and take part in the feast. When they meet a lonely wanderer on his way, they serve as guides and reveal themselves to him. Our piety brings us close to them, just as crime and bloodshed unite the Cyclops and the savage race of giants.”^[62]

          “From this it is evident that these “gods” were friendly and benevolent demons, but not “devils,” whether disembodied spirits or elementals.”

          Furthermore, Porphyry, who was a disciple of Plotinus, says:

“The demons are invisible, but they know how to clothe themselves in matter and take on shapes and forms of various kinds. This can be explained by the fact that they have a great deal of substance in their nature. Their dwelling place is near the earth, and if they can escape the supervision of the good demons, there is no crime they dare not commit. Sometimes they use violence, sometimes they use cunning.”^[63]

          He says further:

“It is child’s play for these demons to arouse in us evil passions, to fill human society and whole nations with tumultuous ideas which cause war, revolution and other misfortunes, and to make us believe that this is the work of the gods. These spirits amuse themselves by lying and deceiving mortals; they show them illusions and miracles. Their main concern is to make people believe that they are gods or the souls of the dead.”^[64]

          Iamblichus, a Neoplatonist and magician, teaches the following:

“Good demons appear to us in reality; evil demons can only reveal themselves to us in the form of shadowy phantoms.”^[65]

          “The good do not fear the light, the bad need darkness. The sensations they arouse in us make us believe in the existence and reality of things which they show us, though they are not there.”

“Even the best and most experienced thaumaturgists [theurgists] have found it dangerous to mingle with the elementals, and Iamblichus says of this:

“The gods, angels and demons, as well as the souls can be brought closer to us through invocations and prayers. But if you make a mistake, you may end up badly. Do not think that you are dealing with benevolent deities, called to you by your earnest prayer; they are only evil demons in the guise of good ones, for the elementals often dress in looks similar to the good ones and represent a much higher class of rank than is their due. They usually give themselves away by boasting.”^[66]

          “At all times it has been the rule among thaumaturgists [theurgists] that he who engages in the communication with spirits must be pure in heart, and must know the conditions by which the perfect equilibrium between the four elements is established and maintained. Above all, he had to know exactly the relevant regulations. He had to purify the spiritual atmosphere within the circle in which he wanted to attract pure spirits and balance the elements to prevent the spirits of the four elements from entering their respective spheres. Woe to anyone who does something they don’t understand. Dangers threaten him at every step. He calls forth powers he cannot control; he awakens the guardians of the threshold, who only allow their Lord to pass through.”

          A certain alchemist-turned-immortal says:

Once you have determined to become a co-worker in the spirit of the living God, see that you do not hinder him in his work; for if your warmth exceeds the natural ratio, you will agitate the damp natures; they will turn against the Central Fire and the Central Fire against them, and there will be a terrible division in chaos.”

          All of the above is taught, albeit in a corrupted form, in various religious systems, although “in our enlightened times” hardly any preacher would dare to touch this object if he did not want to expose himself to the laughter of the “enlightened” who understand nothing of all this. The spirits of which the ancient philosophers speak are not dead and not gone, they are still there. Modern world wisdom has not put an end to the realm of spirits, but has only reduced, if not destroyed, the spiritual cognitive ability. The demons are still sitting at our tables today, but we can no longer see them because we ourselves have become too material and unspiritual, and because we cannot see them, we imagine in our self-conceit, that there are no beings other than those that are physically visible to us.

          But in spite of our unbelief these spirits walk in and out of ourselves, arouse in us this or that emotion, cause passions of all kinds to arise, overwhelm our reason, influence our will and thoughts, and we are all the less able to face our enemies the more we close our eyes to them. The less man recognizes himself and his nature, the less he can control himself. Moral depravity in Europe is becoming more prevalent every day, invisible influences dominate people’s minds and lead them to ruin. They lead to crimes before which the do-gooders stand helpless and helpless; but mindless science gropes around in the dark like a blind man and does not find what it is looking for, because it always only looks for the causes of such phenomena where they are not.

          What is the cause of this intellectual dullness and short-sightedness other than the superficiality caused by the multiplicity, which prevents us from seeing the unity of the whole within things. “The more the outer eye opens, the more the inner eye closes,” says the Bhagavad Gita. The more the mind moves outward and on the surface, the less its eye looks inward, the less it recognizes itself, its true essence in the depths of its nature. If our present age deserves to be called an age of enlightenment, it is such only in a wholly material sense, but it is a period of sleep in relation to the knowledge of truth, and without this spiritual knowledge the true meaning of the material processes in our world of appearances are not recognized. “Only those who recognize the Eternal, the lonely, spotless truth, which is above all deception, attain this self-knowledge” — so it says in the Upanishads. You attain this knowledge through persevering striving, but not through flighty study and know-it-all.”^[67]

          It is on the inside just as it is on the outside. It has now become fashionable to travel through a large part of the world every year by train and steamer in order to get some rest and distraction and to get to know the world. This gives you a lot of superficial impressions that are quickly forgotten, but you don’t get to know anything thoroughly, and the enjoyment of it is usually such that you’re glad to come home again. Likewise, education today is aimed at getting to know as many things as possible superficially, leafing through a multitude of books, but not penetrating any subject in depth, and no one finds the heavenly peace in which knowledge of the truth and this true happiness are enthroned. But if someone dedicates himself to a specialty, he usually loses himself in the pettiness of the surface because he does not know the unity of the whole. He is like a mineralogist who in the sweat of his brow breaks dead rock on the side of a mountain; but he knows nothing of the gold-bearing veins in the interior and the refreshing streams that rush in the depths and scoffs at the experienced miner who talks to him about them.

          If you want to get to know the spirits that move in the universe, you should above all get to know the spirit that moves the whole universe and from which all spirits spring. This is the ultimate goal of all true religion and the basis of real science. This knowledge is called Theosophy or knowledge of God. It is the realization of that which is in all things the root cause of their existence and therefore also our own true innermost selves, not that “self” which is a transient appearance, impermanent and mortal, but the divine self which is without any limitation encompasses, penetrates and sustains the whole in boundless love.

          But no human being is destined to get to know God, because he is the highest in everything and in everything. God alone can know himself, and in order to know himself as God man himself would have to become God and thus cease to be a man, i.e., he would have to step out of himself, give up all limitations, become the eternal, the infinite himself and recognize himself as such. No man can reach the top of a ladder without climbing the intermediate stages, and likewise man must first attain the higher stages of existence before he can attain the highest. Therefore, the seeker after truth must first learn to know and become one with his own inner guide before he can attain divine self-knowledge through that guide, who alone is capable of contemplating God. This is the great secret. It is the “luminous self,” a divine ray of that “I” whose shadow is the human personality. The consideration of the Higher-Self, and the relations which it has to the personality of man, both during and between incarnations, does not belong in an article on “Elementals,” and we shall reserve a discussion of this subject in a special section.

Notes:

^[1] Elemental-Spirits. According to Information From H. P. Blavatsky [Elementargeister. Nach Mitteilungen von H. P. Blavatsky.] Franz Hartmann, M.D. Lotusblüten 4, no. 26 (November 1894), 781-808; Lotusblüten 4, no. 27 (December 1894), 855-894; Lotusblüten 5, no. 28 (January 1895), 36-76; Lotusblüten 5, no. 30 (March 1895), 175-211] {Four part-series in one document. This article was reformatted from the original, but with the content unchanged other than fixing minor typos. Translation from the German by Robert Hutwohl, ©2025. The translator wishes to note that Franz Hartmann frequently did not reference the source from which he extracted H. P. Blavatsky’s text. For the most part, he used The Secret Doctrine. This content later appeared in book form as: Elementargeister, ihre Natur und verschiedenen Charaktere, Gruppen, Arten und Klassen. Anhang: Die geistig Toten. [Elementary-spirits, Their Nature and Various Dispositions, Groups, Kinds, and Classes, With a Supplement: “Spiritual Death” which I have translated from German to English.] Dr. Franz Hartmann. Calw-Wimberg/Württ., Deutchland, Schatzkammer-Verlag Hans Fändrich, n.d. but earliest I could find is 1959}

^[2] Elemental-Spirits. According to Information From H. P. Blavatsky. [Elementargeister. Nach Mitteilungen von H. P. Blavatsky. Lotusblüten 4, no. 26 (November 1894), 781-808]

^[3] The term “humanity” is ambiguous because man has a dual nature. In fact, only the self-recognizing godlike man is a real man; the rest is an animal-like creature from which a human can evolve. {Dr. Hartmann means animal-like if the higher triad is not connected and there is only the lower quaternary functioning.}

^[4] Compare Paracelsus, “De Fundamento Sapientiae,” pages 437–445. Huser’s 1589 edition.

^[5] For example, “The Monastery” [By Sir Walter Scott.] (Stuttgart 1849), Vol. XII. — Elisabeth Crowe, “The Night Side of Nature.”— Prof. Perty, “Mystical Apparitions in Nature,” etc.

^[6] De Fundamento Sapientiae.

^[7] Just as the sun is the symbol of unity and wisdom, so is the moon is the symbol of the material, the delusion of separateness from which springs selfishness and imagination and desire.

^[8] De Natura Deorum [Of the Nature of the Gods]. Lib. 1. Chap. XVIII.

^[9] “The Secret Symbols of the Rosicrucians.” Occult Publ. Co., Boston, Mass. U. S. A.

^[10] 677, 38. – 267, 31. – 103, 24. – 162, 2.

^[11] Tilken I, 184.

^[12] Theosoph. Fragen, verse 8.

^[12] See, “Lotusblüten,” volume I.

^[14] Elemental-Spirits. According to Information From H. P. Blavatsky [Elementargeister. Nach Mitteilungen von H. P. Blavatsky. Lotusblüten 4, no. 27 (December 1894), 855-894]

^[15] See, Subba Row, “Lectures on the Bhagavad Gita,” Lotusblüten, Vol. IV.

^[16] {R.H.—There are several Sanskrit forms which are possible, but probable: antarīkṣa.}

^[17] It hardly needs to be said that these “worlds” are not to be thought of as separate localities, but as states which, like light and warmth, are not local, but different in their properties.

^[18] {R.H.—The Subtle body consists of the Sūkṣma-śarīra, which consists of three bodies: Vijñānamaya-Kośa = the sheath of the intellect. It is located within the mental sheath (Manomaya-kośa). These two, together with the Prāṇamaya-kośa, constitute the subtle body.}

^[19] Allegedly (see [the German] Conversation Lexicon) “theosophical enthusiast” (?) from the 17th century, whose “enthusiasm” strangely enough (?) correspond to the Buddhist teachings. The following quote is from her work “The Wonders of God’s Creation Manifested in the Variety of Eight Worlds.” German: Amsterdam 1696. {Jane Ward Leade (March 1624–19 August 1704)}

^[20] Schopenhauer.

^[21] The Secret Doctrine, vol. I, page 39[-40]. {Unabridged Verbatim Edition}

^[22] A. Sinnett, “The Occult World.”

^[23] “Die Weisheit des Brahminen,” page 350.

^[24] “In those days there were giant races . . .” See “Secret Doctrine,” vol. II, page 277.

^[25v] See, H. P. Blavatsky: “Auszüge aus der Geheimlehre,” [“Excerpts from the Secret Doctrine”] Lotusblüten, Volume I.

^[26] The “Patriarchs” of the Bible (?).

^[27] We know very well that this “miracle” can be imitated by sleight of hand and even learned the process ourselves. However, this does not prevent the real phenomenon from actually being produced.

^[28] Which elements these “spirits” require to produce “good manifestations” is known to anyone who has studied spiritualism in depth and studied the habits of major mediums of “materialization” and “physical manifestation.” More about this can be found in the works of Theophrastus Paracelsus. Vol. X. Philosophia occulta. “De Natis Animalibus ex Sodomia.”

^[29] A. Besant: “Der Tod — und was dann?” [“Death—and then what?”]

^[30] To avoid confusion, we translate the word “Elementaries” (Eidolon), as the “shadows” of deceased people, and “larvae” and the “Elementals,” as the spirits of the elements, with “elemental spirits.”

^[31] See, A. Besant: “Die sieben Prinzipien,” Lotusblüten, volume I.

^[32] For years many followers of spiritism have tried by all possible means to combat theosophical teachings and their advocates and to defend their pet theory of dealing with the “spirits of the departed.” The cause of the discord lies, as is usually the case in such matters, in the different understandings of the word “spirit.” While H. P. Blavatsky concedes the designation “spirit” only to the heavenly, immortal part of man, the spiritualists also hold for spirit the astral remnants of man, with their lower intellectual and emotional life, which do not belong to true man but only to his higher animal nature, and the difficulty in distinguishing between such intelligent but mindless beings and the actual immortal human spirit lies in the lack of self-knowledge. In this life, too, it is often difficult to say whether one is dealing with a real human being or just with a mindless, human-like animal human being, for even a high degree of erudition, eloquence, perspicacity, intelligence, education, etc., is far from proving that that the owner is really a real person, that is, that he possesses love of virtue, truth, justice, and the other qualities pertaining to immortal human nature. But while these two natures are connected in the earthly human being and the spiritual intelligence can be behind the intellect, they are separated from each other in the deceased (with certain exceptions), and one then only finds a spiritless being, the “spirit” of the lower basic parts.

^[33] As for the physical body, so also for the astral larva there is no other end than utter decay; because the immortal part of man has already separated from the animal elements and cannot rejoin them.

^[34] Here we find the scientific explanation of “purgatory,” the existence of which is a natural necessity, for the pure elements must be separated from the impure. This happens violently after the death of the body, if it has not happened gradually before death.

^[35] Such earthbound spirits are called “bhuts” [bhūts] (ghosts) by the Indians. They are bound to the earth by unfulfilled desires.

^36] 470, 22. — 522, 18. — 65, 20. — 169, 11.

^[37] 471, 37. — 640, 15, 39.

^[38] The figure in question is after an engraving by [Jacques-Philippe] J. P. Le Bas in 1735.

^[39] According to the “Secret Doctrine” the human astral body is formed from this germ even before the physical human being develops in the womb. Also contained in this germ are the tendencies created during the previous incarnation, through which the karma created earlier asserts itself in the following incarnation.

^[40] Elemental-Spirits. According to Information From H. P. Blavatsky [Elementargeister. Nach Mitteilungen von H. P. Blavatsky. Lotusblüten 5, no. 28 (January 1895), 36-76]

^[41] What is it but some kind of life and consciousness (although quite different from what we feel) that moves the rosebud to open its calyx to the light of the sun and turn toward the light? What causes elective affinities among chemical substances if not a certain kind of vital activity and sentience ? But these properties do not belong to dead matter, but to the soul of things.

^[42] In H. P. Blavatsky this inner perception was so developed that she could see on the astral plane as well as on the physical plane. The author of these lines has been sufficiently convinced of this.

^[43] This explains why the “proof of identity” so popular with spiritualists is always of a very dubious nature. There are multitudes of mediums who fancy themselves receiving communications from Jesus, Swedenborg, Paracelsus, Blavatsky, or other well-known “spirits,” and who in their vanity cling to this cherished idea so much that it is useless to try to turn them away from this superstition. We are also aware of mediums who firmly swear by it that they have received communications and proof of identity from persons such as Don Quixote, Wilhelm Tell, Tartuffe, Goethe’s “Faust” etc., who never existed anywhere else than in the imagination of the poets who created them. Others received messages from the afterlife, from those who were supposed to be dead, for years, and then found that the people in question were still alive and kicking. If our physical world is a world full of deception and danger, the astral plane is even more so. {R.H.—The saying: “what you don’t know won’t harm you” can be no further from the truth. Quite the contrary.}

^[44] What is to be understood by the “zenith of the universe” and the “moon” needs no explanation for the mystic.

^[45] “As it is below, so it is above. Everything on earth has its etheric model in heaven, and there is nothing so small in the world that does not depend on something similar superior to it.”—Zohar.

^[46] The legends and fairy tales of the most diverse peoples agree that these creatures can only become immortal in this way; that through their union with man they attain an immortal soul (buddhi).

^[47] Paracelsus, “De Nymphis, Sylphis etc.”

^[48] {R.H.—This word is a loan-word from Akkadian.}

^[49] Even among us mortals there are many who are “banned in such underground caves” and have neither the strength nor the will to be free. This includes anyone possessed by, infatuated with, and clinging to a wrong idea. It is usually a vain effort to try to convince a spiritualist who imagines that he is in contact with a deceased person whom he highly esteems and who wants to receive messages from him by knocking on the table, etc., that such messages are nothing but a reflection of his own emotional life mediated by animal-like creatures that are nothing short of angelic. An idea generated, nurtured, and firmly rooted in man is an integral part of the nature of the man it possesses; an ingrained cherished prejudice is a mental limb that cannot be removed without painful amputation.

^[50] Physics deals only with external phenomena and their interactions; metaphysics, on the other hand, with the inner “spiritual” states of the “soul” of the world, which are the causes of all external phenomena and their interactions. Because modern science (especially medicine) has lost itself in details and trivial matters, it has become short-sighted and can only see the superficial and not the deeper causes. It only sees the form, but not the mind which brings about the forms. If it really wants to progress further, it must rise from its petty to a higher conception and get to know what Paracelsus has already described in detail as the “Ens Astrale.”

^[51] Elemental-Spirits. According to Information From H. P. Blavatsky [Elementargeister. Nach Mitteilungen von H. P. Blavatsky. Lotusblüten 5, no. 30 (March 1895), 175-211]

^[52] See, A. Besant. “Der Tod — und was dann?” [“Death — and then what?”] Lotusblüten, vol. III, page 413.

^[53] See: H. P. Blavatsky. “Die zwei Wege.” [The Two Paths] Lotusblüten III.

^[54]  H. P. Blavatsky was a student of these Adepts, i.e., she was a spirit who took this incarnation to prepare humanity for the approaching period of the Kāli Yuga.

^[55] Who doesn’t think of “Faust” who, according to legend, was taken by the devil at the end of his career, to whom he had “devoted himself.” There’s some truth to the story, you just have to get it right.

^56] These elemental beings also include those that produce phenomena similar to those produced by Miss Annie Abbot in Germany. Anyone who has actually examined the matter for themselves knows that it is not based on “tricks which anyone can copy if shown how to do so,” and that “science” is on the wrong track here, because it does not know about the existence of elementals. The Poruthū Mādan, that is, a demon of Herculean strength who delights in poking fun at a gathering of short-sighted professors and [so-called] “experts” (?).

^[57] The personal vanity of many “mediums” makes it easy for the elemental spirits to pretend to be great personalities. Some people think to themselves: “Yes, I believe that high spirits do not associate with everyone, but they certainly associate with me.” So many people imagine that Goethe and Schiller dictate his verses into his pen or spell them out across the table, while these “spirits” are nothing but elemental beings playing games with his imagination without his knowing it.

^[58] How fortunate we are that our scholarly world knows nothing of such things and denies them. If our vivisectors knew black magic, they would not hesitate to doom countless souls to give themselves an opportunity to parade before the world with a “new discovery.”

^[59] In order not to be misunderstood, it is necessary to note here that interaction with one’s own spiritual Self is not only not an impossibility, but is even urgently required. Communication with the deceased, or rather with the dying, is also possible. So long as the soul is not divorced from the body (and this often occurs long after death appears to have occurred), the yearning or thought of the departing may affect a distant friend, perhaps revealing his presence to him, entering into him show in a dream or a vision, even become objectively visible. However, no true human spirit of a deceased person can “materialize” or produce the well-known “physical manifestations” (turning a table, etc.). This is done by elementals who love to tease the superstitious.

^60] In the above we find the key to explaining the doctrine of the redemption of the “poor souls” in “purgatory” and the transmigration of souls. Both of these teachings are superstitions when taken as they are taught or viewed today, but seem less silly when you begin to understand them properly.

^[61] “Of the sacrifices to the gods and demons.” Ch. II.

^[62] “Odyssey, VII.

^[63] “On the sacrifices to the gods and demons.” Ch. II.

^[lxiv] Ibid.

^[64] “De Mysteriis Aegyptiorum.”

^[66] Iamblichus. “On the difference between demons.”

^67] “The Palladium of Wisdom.” Lotusblüten XXV, page 725.