Elemental

An Elemental is a spirit embodying one of the elements of antiquity (earth, water, air, and fire). Anthropological records of indigenous beliefs and practices throughout the world show that the belief in Elementals predates all the major religions.

General description

Mme. Blavatsky states:

There are different classes [of elementals] for each plane, and division of plane, of nature. Many can never be recognized by men. And those pertaining to one plane do not act in another.

In the Theosophical literature there is mention to three elemental kingdoms, which are evolving in the direction of humanity. Mme. Blavatsky wrote that "the inferior, semi-intelligent and non-intelligent Elementals—are all future men". However, in Isis Unveiled she wrote that "such beings never become men". The discrepancy may be explained if we interpret this last quote only in terms of the present manvantara.

Elementals are devoid of any sense of morality:

As to the moral character of elementals, they have none: they are colourless in themselves—except some classes—and merely assume the tint, so to speak, of the person using them.

The elementals are formless, but may assume different shapes:

The shape given to or assumed by any elemental is always subjective in its origin. It is produced by the person who sees, and who, in order to be more sensible of the elemental’s presence, has unconsciously given it a form. Or it may be due to a collective impression on many individuals, resulting in the assumption of a definite shape which is the result of the combined impressions.

Elementals may be employed "by living adepts of magic and sorcery, to produce desired phenomenal results".

In The Mahatma Letters to A. P. Sinnett there is a mention to two kinds of elementals: the "Asuras", which have human form, and the "Beasts", which are animal elementals. They both are to become men in a future manvantara.

Nature Spirits

Mme. Blavatsky defined elementals as follows:

Elementals. Spirits of the Elements. The creatures evolved in the four Kingdoms or Elements—earth, air, fire, and water. They are called by the Kabbalists, Gnomes (of the earth), Sylphs (of the air), Salamanders (of the fire), and Undines (of the water). Except a few of the higher kinds, and their rulers, they are rather forces of nature than ethereal men and women. These forces, as the servile agents of the Occultists, may produce various effects; but if employed by ”Elementaries” (q.v.) in which case they enslave the mediums—they will deceive the credulous. All the lower invisible beings generated on the 5th, 6th, and 7th planes of our terrestrial atmosphere, are called Elementals: Peris, Devs, Djins, Sylvans, Satyrs, Fauns, Elves, Dwarfs, Trolls, Kobolds, Brownies, Nixies, Goblins, Pinkies, Banshees, Moss People, White Ladies, Spooks, Fairies, etc., etc., etc.

An early modern reference to this class of elementals appears in the 16th century alchemical works of Paracelsus. His works grouped the Elementals into four of the elements as follows:

• Gnome: Earth Elemental.
• Undines (also known as Nymph): Water Elemental.
• Sylph: Air Elemental.
• Salamander: Fire Elemental.

Elementals and thoughts

Mme. Blavatsky described the elementals as "centres of force or energy which are acted on by us while thinking and in other bodily motions. We also act on them and give them form." Elementals "are constantly assuming the impression conveyed by the acts and thoughts of that person, and therefore, if he sets up a strong current of thought, he attracts elementals in greater numbers.

In his first letter to A. O. Hume, Master K.H. wrote:

Every thought of man upon being evolved passes into the inner world and becomes an active entity by associating itself . . . with an elemental; that is to say with one of the semi-intelligent forces of the kingdoms. It survives as an active intelligence, a creature of the mind's begetting, for a longer or shorter period proportionate with the original intensity of the cerebral action which generated it. Thus, a good thought is perpetuated as an active beneficent power; an evil one as a maleficent demon. And so man is continually peopling his current in space with a world of his own, crowded with the offsprings of his fancies, desires, impulses, and passions, a current which reacts upon any sensitive or and nervous organisation which comes in contact with it in proportion to its dynamic intensity. . . . the Adept evolves these shapes consciously, other men throw them off unconsciously.

For this reason, The Voice of the Silence states:

Ere thou canst near that goal . . . thou must have mustered all the mental changes in thy Self and slain the army of the thought sensations that, subtle and insidious, creep unasked within the Soul's bright shrine.
If thou would'st not be slain by them, then must thou harmless make thy own creations, the children of thy thoughts, unseen, impalpable, that swarm round humankind, the progeny and heirs to man and his terrestrial spoils.

Elementals and Karma

Master K.H., when explaining to Mr. Hume how our thoughts and actions attract elementals, stated that "the Buddhist calls this his 'Skandha', the Hindu gives it the name of 'Karma'." Mme. Blavatsky elaborated this concept further saying:

The elemental world has become a strong factor in the Karma of the human race. . . . In the earlier ages, when we may postulate that man had not yet begun to make bad Karma, the elemental world was more friendly to man because it had not received unfriendly impressions. But so soon as man began to become ignorant, unfriendly to himself and the rest of creation, the elemental world began to take on exactly the same complexion and return to humanity the exact pay, so to speak, due for the actions of humanity. . . . Being unconscious and only acting according to the natural laws of its being, the elemental world is a powerful factor in the workings of Karma. And so long as mankind does not cultivate brotherly feeling and charity towards the whole of creation, just so long will the elementals be without the impulse to act for our benefit. But so soon and wherever man or men begin to cultivate brotherly feeling and love for the whole of creation, there and then the elementals begin to take on the new condition.

Elementals . . . are able, or rather it is possible for them, to enter into the sphere of unprotected persons, and especially those persons who are engaged in the study of occultism. And then they become agents in concentrating the karma of those persons, producing troubles and disasters often, or other difficulties which otherwise might have been so spread over a period of time as to be not counted more than the ordinary vicissitudes of life.

Elementals and human constitution

H. P. Blavatsky explained that in the case of a person whose thoughts are consistent, he attracts elementals of the same kind, which can be regarded collectively as one elemental:

It is one mass of elementals similarly vibrating or electrified and colored, and in that sense may be called one elemental, in just the same way that we know one man as Jones, although for years he has been giving off and taking on new atoms of gross matter.

Annie Besant and C. W. Leadbeater, working on similar lines, talked about the collection of elementals on the physical, emotional and mental levels as constituting three units of elementals.

Physical elemental

C. W. Leadbeater wrote:

The physical body has a certain blind, instinctive consciousness of its own . . . and this consciousness seeks always to protect it from danger, or to procure for it whatever may be necessary. This is entirely apart from the consciousness of the man himself, and it works equally well during the absence of the Ego from the physical body during sleep. All our instinctive movements are due to it, and it is through its activity that the working of the sympathetic system is carried on ceaselessly without any thought or knowledge on our part.
While we are what we call awake, this physical elemental is perpetually occupied in self-defence; he is in a condition of constant vigilance, and he keeps the nerves and muscles always tense. During the night or at any time when we sleep he lets the nerves and muscles relax, and devotes himself specially to the assimilation of vitality, and the recuperation of the physical body.

Desire-elemental

In his first letter to A. O. Hume, Master K.H. wrote:

Earth is the battle ground of moral no less than of physical forces; and the boisterousness of animal passions under the stimulus of the rude energies of the lower group of etheric agents, always tends to quench spirituality.

These "etheric agents" stimulating the kamic principle seem to correspond with what C. W. Leadbeater called "desire-elementals." He described the topic as follows:

Each of these bodies [physical, astral, and mental] is built of living matter, and the life in them joins itself together, and acquires a kind of corporate consciousness.
In the astral body that forms what we sometimes call the desire-elemental, who is practically an entity composed of the joint life of all the astral cells that make up that body. Each cell by itself is a small, only partly-conscious life, struggling on its upward way--or, rather, its downward way, because evolution for it is to pass down into the mineral kingdom. When these lives find themselves all joined together in an astral body, they do to a certain extent practically club together and act as though they were a unit, and you get the effect of an astral body that has strong instincts of its own, so strong, in fact, that you could almost say that it has a will of its own. The way for it to evolve is to get stronger and coarser vibrations, connected with all those feelings and emotions which we do not want to develop, such as envy, jealousy and selfishness: that is why its interests are so often opposed to ours. The far more delicate, more rapid and really more powerful vibrations of love, sympathy and devotion, all belong to a higher part of the astral body, consequently they are of the type that the body itself does not want, though we do.

Mental elemental

Regarding the mental elemental, C. W. Leadbeater wrote:

We must remember that this mental matter with which the soul surrounds himself is not dead matter . . . but it is also ensouled and further vivified by the Second Outpouring, which is . . . described as elemental essence. . . .

This living essence is pursuing an evolution of its own; and the instinct implanted within it leads it to seek whatever will aid that evolution. What it needs for its development is vibration; for it grows, as we ourselves do at a much higher level, by learning to respond to impacts from without. It is therefore always reaching out for varieties in vibration; it has the strongest possible objection to being held down for a long time to one definite rate.

Probably we have all of us found this to be the case in our endeavours at concentration; we have discovered that something exists within us which constantly impels us to wandering thought and vigorously resists our effort to hold it down to one definite line. It is with this force that we are struggling, as well as with our own mental inertness, when we are endeavouring to gain perfect control of the mind, and to employ it as an instrument for our service, instead of letting it roam away with us at its own sweet will.

Online resources

Articles and pamphlets

• Elementals at Theosophy World.
• Salamander at Theosophy World.
• Nature Spirits at Theosophy World.
• Elementals by H. P. Blavatsky.
• Thoughts on the Elementals by H. P. Blavatsky.
• Blavatsky on Elementals and Elementaries compiled by philaletheians.co.uk.
• Elementals - How They Act by William Q. Judge/H. P. Blavatsky.
• Elementals and Elementaries by William Q. Judge/H. P. Blavatsky.
• Elementals-Karma by William Q. Judge/H. P. Blavatsky.
• "Forms" of Elementals by William Q. Judge/H. P. Blavatsky.
• Laws Governing Elementals by William Q. Judge/H. P. Blavatsky.
• Echoes from the Celtic Otherworld by Alan Senior.
• Devic Consciousness by Dora Kunz. Reprinted from "Devic Consciousness." Quest 97. 4 (Fall 2009): 152-153.