![]() Just as visible Nature is populated by an infinite number of living creatures, so, according to Paracelsus, the invisible, spiritual counterpart of visible Nature (composed of the tenuous principles of the visible elements) is inhabited by a host of peculiar beings, to whom he has given the name elementals, and which have later been termed the Nature spirits. The water element of the ancient philosophers has been metamorphosed into the hydrogen of modern science the air has become oxygen the fire, nitrogen the earth, carbon. 'Protoplasm,' says Huxley, 'simple or nucleated, is the formal basis of all life. And it is not only the structural unit with which all living bodies start in life, but with which they are subsequently built up. It is made of Carbon, Hydrogen, Oxygen and Nitrogen. Henry Drummond, in Natural Law in the Spiritual World, describes this process as follows: "If we analyse this material point at which all life starts, we shall find it to consist of a clear structureless, jelly-like substance resembling albumen or white of egg. Minerals, plants, animals, and men live in a world composed of the gross side of these four elements, and from various combinations of them construct their living organisms. The general term elements has been applied to the lower, or physical, phases of these four primary principles, and the name elemental essences to their corresponding invisible, spiritual constitutions. Earth has likewise two essential parts-the lower being fixed, terreous, immobile the higher, rarefied, mobile, and virtual. Carrying the analogy further, water consists of a dense fluid and a potential essence of a fluidic nature. Fire is visible and invisible, discernible and indiscernible-a spiritual, ethereal flame manifesting through a material, substantial flame. Paracelsus believed that each of the four primary elements known to the ancients (earth, fire, air, and water) consisted of a subtle, vaporous principle and a gross corporeal substance.Īir is, therefore, twofold in nature-tangible atmosphere and an intangible, volatile substratum which may be termed spiritual air. 105 The Elements and Their InhabitantsįOR the most comprehensive and lucid exposition of occult pneumatology (the branch of philosophy dealing with spiritual substances) extant, mankind is indebted to Philippus Aureolus Paracelsus (Theophrastus Bombastus von Hohenheim), prince of alchemists and Hermetic philosophers and true possessor of the Royal Secret (the Philosopher's Stone and the Elixir of Life). Sacred Texts Esoteric Index Previous Next Secret Teachings of All Ages: The Elements and Their Inhabitants
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