Fairy Dictionary

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Demon

Demon(s) (from Greek daimones, Latin daemons)

In many of the later religions, such as Christianity, either the gods of rival religions, nature spirits of paganism, or the exuviae or shells of the dead.

Actually demons are a relatively modern misapprehension of a large class of nature sprites which in ancient thought comprised a vast range of spiritual, semi-spiritual, and astral beings, existing in different degrees of evolutionary unfoldment, and therefore classified into groups from the fully self-conscious down to the only partly conscious elementals of the astral realms.

The teaching regarding daimones was extremely recondite; the later medieval Christian Demonologies, however, dealt almost exclusively with beings of low grade and of an astral character lacking moral sense and self-consciousness, which for ages have been called in European countries by names such as fairies, sprites, goblins, hobgoblins, pixies, nixies, and brownies.

See also DAEMON

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual Theosophical Dictionary on Elementals

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.

Fairy Dictionary: Oceanography Dictionary - Arthropoda

Definition and meaning of Arthropoda:

Arthropoda - an animal phylum that contains lobsters, crabs, shrimp, mantis shrimp, barnacles and copepods, fairy shrimp (all crustaceans), insects, centipedes, millipedes, spiders, scorpions, horseshoe crabs, pycnogonids (sea spiders), ticks and mites. Approximately three quarters of a million species are described, many more than all the other animal phyla combined. The crustaceans are the arthropods associated with coral reefs

(Source: US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) )

Also see these pages : Oceanography, Oceanography Sitemap, Coral Reef, Environment, Sustainability, Climate Change,

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Peri

Peri (Persian) Pairika (Avestan?) A class of elemental or nature spirits corresponding in many ways to what Europeans call fairies.

Just as in other national mythologies, the peris in ancient Persian thought are representative of those classes of conscious, self-conscious, and quasi-conscious beings who range all the way from simple sprites in the lower ranges, up to and including the classes of lower monads which are the psychological and even physical ancestors of the human race. They are, therefore, families of evolving monads in various grades of development, from the human down to the elemental kingdoms.

The earlier races of peris, which in Persian mythology reigned for 2,000 years on earth, correspond to the progenitors of the first root-race. The later races of peris, occasionally looked upon as inimical in the Avesta, although smaller in stature than the devs -- giants, strong and wicked, who reigned for 7,000 years -- were wiser and kinder, and their king was Gyan. Here the devs and peris correspond to the Atlantean giants and the Aryans (SD 2:394).

In the Avesta, the pairikas "in the shape of worm-stars, fly between the earth and the heavens, in the sea Vouru-Kasha," (Tir Yasht 5, 8), i.e., in the waters of space. They were flung by Angra Mainyu "to stop all the stars that have in them the seed of the waters." But Tishtrya, "the bright and glorious star who moves in light with the stars that have in them the seed of the waters, afflicts them, he blows them away from the sea Vouru-Kasha; then the wind blows the clouds forward, bearing the waters of fertility, so that the friendly showers spread wide over, they spread helpingly and friendly over the seven Karshvares" (Ibid. 46, 39-40).

Corresponding in origin to the Indian apsaras, the pairikas correspond to the elementals of the air, rather than water, called sylphs by the medieval Fire-philosophers. The rain-bestowing god Tishtrya corresponds to the sixth principle in man, buddhi, which fructifies the fifth and fourth principles. Thus it is only when the lower passions, the pairikas, have been mastered, that the light of Tishtrya -- the buddhic splendor -- may shine in the temple (Theos).

In the Persian mythology of the Arabian period, the peri is an elf or fairy, male or female, represented as a descendant of fallen angels, excluded from Paradise till their penance be accomplished.

Fairy Dictionary: Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Teeth Falling Out

Teeth Falling Out : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Teeth Falling Out

Teeth

One of the most common dreams I hear is dreaming of teeth falling out or decaying. There are several associations I make with this:- On the most basic level - have you had toothache? Are you due for a visit to the dentist? The body is very aware of it's state of health and the subconscious can pass this information on in a dream

Teeth Falling Out

Are you going through a period of change in your life? When we are children, we lose our milk teeth as we begin to mature. The ritualising of this is seen in the story of the tooth fairy. Losing milk teeth is a sure sign of growing into our own personality. Anxiety. Teeth are the strongest visible part of the body and therefore if they crumble, decay or come loose, it can imply that our very foundations seem to be crumbling. It can also be seen as losing your smile. Emphasis on decay may show that you feel something important in your life is "dying".

Gaining Teeth

Gaining Wisdom.

Growing Vampire Teeth

Needing to be sustained, feeding off something or someone else, anaemia,

Source: http://seekers.100megs6.com

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Penates

Penates (Latin) The household gods, or sometimes gods of the State, among the Romans. They were represented by images, to which honors were paid, and supposedly protected the hearth, home, and family. Aeneas transfers with great solicitude and piety the penates from Troy to his new Italian settlement.

The universe is filled with hierarchies of intelligent beings, ranging from the highest to the lowest, in addition to those representing the organic kingdoms of nature. No nation of antiquity, indeed no people today outside Western civilization, but had or has its protective divinities of the home, field, mart, etc. Even in Western civilization the same undying belief finds expression in a thousand habits, customs, and ceremonies.

The idea of the penates underwent progressive change and possible degeneration; however, they undoubtedly belong to the great class of genii, whether of a family or of a State, and genius is anything from a planetary spirit to what the simple fancy of Medieval Europe called a fairy. Hence it is easy to understand how names originating in the ancient Mystery schools may pass down into times when people are more concerned with their immediate physical needs, as at present. The consistent testimony of all Roman antiquity shows that the penates were the guardian angels supposed to watch over and, if possible, protect the individuals to whom these guardian angels were attached by karmic bonds.

As men individually and collectively are integral parts of nature, they are connected with spiritual powers of which mankind is not only the offspring, but in a certain sense the representative on earth. The reverence paid to the penates by the Romans is a manner of tacitly stating that every individual and group, such as a people, is under the watchful supervision of their spiritual prototypes in the celestial realms.

Fairy Dictionary: Dream Interpretation - Water

Water

To dream of clear water, foretells that you will joyfully realize prosperity and pleasure.
If the water is muddy, you will be in danger and gloom will occupy Pleasure's seat.
If you see it rise up in your house, denotes that you will struggle to resist evil, but unless you see it subside, you will succumb to dangerous influences.
If you find yourself baling it out, but with feet growing wet, foreshadows trouble, sickness, and misery will work you a hard task, but you will forestall them by your watchfulness. The same may be applied to muddy water rising in vessels.
To fall into muddy water, is a sign that you will make many bitter mistakes, and will suffer poignant grief therefrom.
To drink muddy water, portends sickness, but drinking it clear and refreshing brings favorable consummation of fair hopes.
To sport with water, denotes a sudden awakening to love and passion.
To have it sprayed on your head, denotes that your passionate awakening to love will meet reciprocal consummation.
The following dream and its allegorical occurrence in actual life is related by a young woman student of dreams:
"Without knowing how, I was (in my dream) on a boat, I waded through clear blue water to a wharfboat, which I found to be snow white, but rough and splintry. The next evening I had a delightful male caller, but he remained beyond the time prescribed by mothers and I was severely censured for it.'' The blue water and fairy white boat were the disappointing prospects in the symbol.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

Fairy Dictionary: Meaning of Dreams about Canary Birds

Canary Birds

To dream of this sweet songster, denotes unexpected pleasures. For the young to dream of possessing a beautiful canary, denotes high class honors and a successful passage through the literary world, or a happy termination of love's young dream.
To dream one is given you, indicates a welcome legacy. To give away a canary, denotes that you will suffer disappointment in your dearest wishes.
To dream that one dies, denotes the unfaithfulness of dear friends.
Advancing, fluttering, and singing canaries, in luxurious apartments, denotes feasting and a life of exquisite refinement, wealth, and satisfying friendships. If the light is weird or unnaturally bright, it augurs that you are entertaining illusive hopes. Your over-confidence is your worst enemy. A young woman after this dream should beware, lest flattering promises react upon her in disappointment. Fairy-like scenes in a dream are peculiarly misleading and treacherous to women.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

Fairy Dictionary: Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Water

Water

To dream of clear water, foretells that you will joyfully realize prosperity and pleasure.
If the water is muddy, you will be in danger and gloom will occupy Pleasure's seat.
If you see it rise up in your house, denotes that you will struggle to resist evil, but unless you see it subside, you will succumb to dangerous influences.
If you find yourself baling it out, but with feet growing wet, foreshadows trouble, sickness, and misery will work you a hard task, but you will forestall them by your watchfulness. The same may be applied to muddy water rising in vessels.
To fall into muddy water, is a sign that you will make many bitter mistakes, and will suffer poignant grief therefrom.
To drink muddy water, portends sickness, but drinking it clear and refreshing brings favorable consummation of fair hopes.
To sport with water, denotes a sudden awakening to love and passion.
To have it sprayed on your head, denotes that your passionate awakening to love will meet reciprocal consummation.
The following dream and its allegorical occurrence in actual life is related by a young woman student of dreams:
"Without knowing how, I was (in my dream) on a boat, I waded through clear blue water to a wharfboat, which I found to be snow white, but rough and splintry. The next evening I had a delightful male caller, but he remained beyond the time prescribed by mothers and I was severely censured for it.'' The blue water and fairy white boat were the disappointing prospects in the symbol.

Source: 10 000 Dream Interpretations, by Gustavus Hindman Miller

Fairy Dictionary: Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Teeth dreams - "My Teeth Are Falling Out"

Teeth Falling Out : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Teeth dreams - "My Teeth Are Falling Out"

Teeth dreams - "My Teeth Are Falling Out"

Dreams that your teeth are falling out are the most common dreams we here at Dream Moods receive. Common dream scenarios include having your teeth crumbling in your hands or your teeth falling out one by one with just a light tap. Such dreams are not only horrifying and shocking, but often leaves the dreamer with a lasting image of the dream. So what does it mean?

One theory is that dreams about your teeth reflect your anxiety about your appearance and how others perceive you. Sadly, we live in a world where good looks are valued highly and your teeth play an important role in conveying that image. Teeth are used in the game of flirtations, whether it be a dazzling and gleaming smile or affectionate necking. These dreams may stem from a fear of your sexual impotence or the consequences of getting old. Teeth are an important feature of our attractiveness and presentation to others. Everybody worries about how they appear to others. Caring about our appearance is natural and healthy.

Another rationalization for these falling teeth dream may be rooted in your fear of being embarrassed or making a fool of yourself in some specific situation. These dreams are an over-exaggeration of your worries and anxiety.

Teeth are used to bite, tear, chew and gnaw. In this regard, teeth represent power. And the loss of teeth in your dream may be from a sense of powerlessness. Are you lacking power in some current situation? Perhaps you are having difficulties expressing yourself or getting your point across. You feel frustrated when your voice is not being heard. You may be experiencing feelings of inferiority and a lack of self-confidence in some situation or relationship in your life. This dream is an indication that you need to be more assertive and believe in the value of your own opinion.

In the latest research, it has been shown that women in menopause have frequent dreams about teeth. This may be related to getting older and/or feeling unattractive and less feminine.

Traditionally, it was thought that dreaming that you did not have teeth, represent malnutrition which may be applicable to some dreamers.

Other Perspectives

A scriptural interpretation for bad or falling teeth indicate that you are putting your faith, trust, and beliefs in what man thinks rather than in the word of God. The bible says that God speaks once, yea twice in a dream or a vision in order to hide pride from us, to keep us back from the pit, to open our ears (spiritually) and to instruct and correct us.

In the Greek culture, when you dream about loose, rotten, or missing teeth, it indicates that a family member or close friend is very sick or even near death.

According to the Chinese, there is a saying that your teeth will fall out if your are telling lies.

It has also been said that if you dream of your teeth falling out, then it symbolizes money. This is based on the old tooth fairy story. If you lose a tooth and leave it under the pillow, a tooth fairy would bring you money.

Source: http://dreammoods.com

Fairy Dictionary: Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Teeth dreams - "My Teeth Are Falling Out"

Teeth Falling Out : Dream Interpretation Dictionary - Teeth dreams - "My Teeth Are Falling Out"

Teeth dreams - "My Teeth Are Falling Out"

Dreams that your teeth are falling out are the most common dreams we here at Dream Moods receive. Common dream scenarios include having your teeth crumbling in your hands or your teeth falling out one by one with just a light tap. Such dreams are not only horrifying and shocking, but often leaves the dreamer with a lasting image of the dream. So what does it mean?

One theory is that dreams about your teeth reflect your anxiety about your appearance and how others perceive you. Sadly, we live in a world where good looks are valued highly and your teeth play an important role in conveying that image. Teeth are used in the game of flirtations, whether it be a dazzling and gleaming smile or affectionate necking. These dreams may stem from a fear of your sexual impotence or the consequences of getting old. Teeth are an important feature of our attractiveness and presentation to others. Everybody worries about how they appear to others. Caring about our appearance is natural and healthy.

Another rationalization for these falling teeth dream may be rooted in your fear of being embarrassed or making a fool of yourself in some specific situation. These dreams are an over-exaggeration of your worries and anxiety.

Teeth are used to bite, tear, chew and gnaw. In this regard, teeth represent power. And the loss of teeth in your dream may be from a sense of powerlessness. Are you lacking power in some current situation? Perhaps you are having difficulties expressing yourself or getting your point across. You feel frustrated when your voice is not being heard. You may be experiencing feelings of inferiority and a lack of self-confidence in some situation or relationship in your life. This dream is an indication that you need to be more assertive and believe in the value of your own opinion.

In the latest research, it has been shown that women in menopause have frequent dreams about teeth. This may be related to getting older and/or feeling unattractive and less feminine.

Traditionally, it was thought that dreaming that you did not have teeth, represent malnutrition which may be applicable to some dreamers.

Other Perspectives

A scriptural interpretation for bad or falling teeth indicate that you are putting your faith, trust, and beliefs in what man thinks rather than in the word of God. The bible says that God speaks once, yea twice in a dream or a vision in order to hide pride from us, to keep us back from the pit, to open our ears (spiritually) and to instruct and correct us.

In the Greek culture, when you dream about loose, rotten, or missing teeth, it indicates that a family member or close friend is very sick or even near death.

According to the Chinese, there is a saying that your teeth will fall out if your are telling lies.

It has also been said that if you dream of your teeth falling out, then it symbolizes money. This is based on the old tooth fairy story. If you lose a tooth and leave it under the pillow, a tooth fairy would bring you money.

Source: http://dreammoods.com

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Apsaras

Apsaras (Sanskrit) (from ap water + saras flowing from the verbal root sri to flow, glide, blow (as of wind))

Moving in the waters; a class of feminine divinities known as celestial water nymphs, whose location is commonly placed in the sky between the clouds rather than in the waters of earth, although they are often described as visiting earth. These fairy-like wives of the gandharvas (celestial musicians) can change their shape at will, often appearing as aquatic birds.

In Manu they are held to be the creations of the seven manus, but in the Puranas and the Ramayana their origin is attributed to the churning of the cosmic waters, and it is said that neither gods nor asuras would have them for wives. Since mythologically they were common to all, they are called Sumadatmajas (self-willed pleasurers) -- 35 millions of them, of whom Kama, god of love, is lord and king. One of their roles is to act as temptresses to those too ardent for divine status. Only the individual who can withstand the perfumed entreaties of the apsarasas is worthy of full enlightenment. In the Yajur-Veda the apsarasas are called sunbeams because of their connection with the gandharva who personifies the sun.

Blavatsky looks upon the apsarasas as "both qualities and quantities" (SD 2:585) and also as " 'sleep-producing' aquatic plants, and interior forces of nature" (TG 28).

In the Puranas the apsarasas are sometimes divided into two classes, the daivika (divine or belonging to the devas), hence highly ethereal beings, and the laukika (from loka worldly)

, belonging to the worlds of manifestation, such as a physical plane. Considered apart from mythologic references, the apsarasas bear a strong resemblance to the undines of medieval Europe, nature forces and elementals appurtenant to all ten ranges of their hierarchical distribution, from the spiritual to the grossly material and physical. Every one of the seven or ten cosmic elements (bhutas) or principles (tattvas) has its own class of inhabitants.

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Rohit

Rohit (Sanskrit) Red; a female deer, hind. In the Puranas Vach, the female aspect of Brahma, assumes the form of a rohit in order to escape the amorous pursuits of her father, Brahma, who nevertheless transformed himself for that purpose into a buck or red deer (rohita), Brahma's color being red.

Events in cosmic evolution and emanation were told under the guise of fairy tales such as the above, in order to hide the meaning from those whose right to know had not yet been established through proper training, self-devotion to truth, and renunciation of the temptations of ordinary life. Here Vach is the feminine form of the Logos, and Brahma is the masculine form; the Logos is a unit, but when worlds are evolved it produces from itself its alter ego for the purpose of the ensuing manvantara, which is called the feminine Logos in which the masculine Logos of intelligence drops the seeds of thought, and from the spiritual matter or feminine Logos emanate the hierarchies of beings.

The two aspects of the Logos are inseparable, but appear as a manifested duality only at the very beginnings of manvantaric time. It is thus seen that when Brahma emanates Vach as one half of his body or self, it means that for the purposes of manvantaric emanational productions, the Logos enters upon its creative activities. Brahma in this case becomes what would in the Christian Trinity be called the Father, Vach the Holy Spirit (always feminine among the early Christians), out of which comes forth the third aspect of the Logos, the manifested Logos. Brahma therefore is the First or Unmanifest Logos, Vach the Second or Manifest-unmanifest Logos; the intelligence creating the hierarchies of beings is the Third or Manifesting Logos. Thus the three Logoi are yet but one, as the Christian Trinity is said to be composed of three persons or masks philosophically, and yet to form one Godhead or Godhood.

(See also: Rohit, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary)

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Edda

Edda(s) (Icelandic) (from edda great grandmother)

Matrix of the mythic wisdom of the ancient Norse peoples, the Edda consists of two main parts: the poetic or Elder Edda, which was written down by Saemund the Wise in Iceland after the ancient oral traditions of the skalds, about 1000 AD, a version known as the Codex Regius.

Saemund was a learned man who, after studying in Paris, founded a school at Oddi in Iceland. Scholars have speculated on the possibility that the manuscript of Saemund may have been called The Book of Oddi, which became linguistically Edda.

In 1643 Bishop Brynjolf Sveinsson of Skalholt discovered Saemund's manuscript. He had copies made and sent the original with Thormod Torfaeus to King Frederik III of Denmark as a gift in l662. After three hundred years it was returned to Iceland.

The Younger Edda, in which the verses are rendered in prose form by Snorri Sturlusson, a pupil of Saemund's grandson in the school at Oddi, contains some material which has been omitted or lost from the poetic version. A large part of Snorri's Edda is devoted to Skaldskaparmal, a treatise on the rules of alliteration and meter that apply in the creation of poetry, and the uses of kenningar -- a type of word play giving suggestive descriptions instead of the words commonly used to designate people, gods, and things. As examples of kennings the Tree of Life is called variously the soil mulcher, the shade giver, and Odin is named allfather, the thinker, the disguised, etc. The other two sections of Snorri's Edda are named Hattatal (rules or conventions), and Gylfaginning (the mocking of Gylfe). This can also mean the "apotheosis of Gylfe" which, in the context of a Mystery teaching presents interesting possibilities.

One 18th century author, Johan Goransson, believes that the Eddas were copied from old Runobocker (books of runes) and that when Christianity first spread its influence in Sweden about two hundred years after Saemund, these ancient writings were systematically destroyed (Sviogota ok Nordmanna Edda xxxi).

The manuscripts containing the collection of lays and stories known as Edda are: Codex Regius, Codex Wormianus, and Codex Upsaliensis. The last-named and also the Arnamagnaean Vellum No. 748, which contains a portion of the text, are clearly written by Snorri.

The Eddas have given rise to a great many fairy tales, mythic and heroic stories, and humorous anecdotes, but the keys to decipher their esoteric meaning have been largely lost.

Fairy Dictionary: Mysticism Magick Dictionary on TARO, Tarot

TARO (TAROT)

(See AZOTH.) The Great Wheel or "Book of Thoth." The letters form a magic square, thus:

ORAT

ROTA

ATOR

TARO

Which possibly means, "Ator (darkness) speaks through the wheel of Tartarus." (See TARTARY.)

In the psychedelic days of 1970, the more daring experimenters used to remove The Tower, the Nine and Ten of Swords, the Reaper and other disagreeable cards from the deck. Then they would pass out (not necessarily at random) the remainder, one by one, to those whom they met during the course of a few days. Whichever card you received was yours to keep because it was your fortune. Any left-over cards at the end of the "experiment" were the Reader's fortune.

Since we keep forgetting even the very survival lessons and pragmatics we've learned through bitter misfortune and ordeal, once we memorize the arcana, its 22 terse encapsulizations of perennial wisdom will serve as permanent and ready memory-joggers for all occasions thereafter.

Madame Blavatsky points out that anyone can visit the British Museum and read the signs of the tarot easily enough in the ancient Babylonian Cylinders, the Chaldean antediluvian rhombs, referred to by De Mirville as the "rotating globes of Hecate." The cards that fortune-tellers shuffle today are far, far removed from their origins and most of the meanings ascribed to them are but modern fairy tales...

Meanwhile, we are beset by a maze of false trails. According to Idries Shah, the 14th Century Italian word, Tarocchi, derives from Arabic turuq, i.e., the (4) "PATHS" (corresponding to the 4 suits) and the Tarot is therefore of Sufic rather than Judaic origins. The Judaic elements are therefore, according to him, superimposed Since, however, in known history, both the Qabalah and the Tarot arose simultaneously within the Italian-Jewish community in the 13-14th Century, its Jewish significance cannot be discounted. The Hebrew connection is clear from the number of the trumps alone (22), which is the number of letters in the alphabet -- each of which, in Qabalah, is a facet of Briah, or "Creation." Moreover, the most distinguished scholars insist it is far older than two millennia, hence the supposition of its Egyptian origin as The Book of Thoth, which we can also support by various etymological clues.

In any case, although Orthodox Jews tend to downplay any connection, the trumps are now fairly well associated with the 22 pathways between the sephiroth of the Qabalah as the Ze'ir Anpin (lit. "microcosm"), i.e., the letters of the alphabet, with Malkuth, form the "language" of Qabalah. As time has passed, the Tarot has become more and more mystical. In the Middle Ages, the suits merely stood for the Military (Swords), the Clergy (Cups), the Intellectuals (Wands) and the Merchants (Coins).

There are, in all, 32 paths, just as the brain, divided into three parts, spreads through the body in 32 pairs of nerves. The sephiroth themselves comprise the first ten "paths" and the remaining 22 are the links of the Atus (major trumps) themselves, the Fool being pathway 11, the Magician pathway 12, The High Priestess pathway 13, etc. The paths, as we've seen, are the 22 letters of the Hebrew Alphabet, which are the building blocks of Creation.

(See also: TARO, Tarot, Magick, Mysticism, Mysticism Dictionary, Body Mind and Soul, )

Fairy Dictionary: Spiritual - Theosophy Dictionary on Elemental, Elementals

Elemental (Elementals) Used by medieval European mystics, such as the Fire-philosophers, Rosicrucians, and Qabbalists, to signify those classes of ethereal beings evolved in and born of the four elements or kingdoms of nature. Ordinarily they are spoken of as existing in four classes corresponding to the four popular elements air, fire, water, and earth; but theosophy describes these kingdoms of nature as seven or even ten in number: four of the material or quasi-material range, and three (or six) of highly ethereal and even quasi-spiritual substance. They are often described as nature spirits or sprites.

More strictly, the word is confined to those beings who are beginning their evolutionary growth, who have developed in their constitution but one of the four elements -- that one from which they were born -- and who are therefore in the elemental state of growth. It is a generalizing term for all beings evolutionally below the minerals. Nevertheless, by extension of meaning, the mineral, vegetable, and animal kingdoms are often referred to as families of elemental beings, though in more advanced stages. An elemental, therefore, is a being who has entered our, or any other, universe on its lowest plane or world.

There are three kingdoms of the elementals below the mineral kingdom, each of which has seven (or ten) subdivisions, and every entity high or low has passed through this stage at some time in its career.

There are four commonly recognized great classes of these unevolved beings, called by the medieval European mystics gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders -- elementals respectively of earth, water, air, and fire. These elementals are not only the inhabitants of and born from the respective elements, but really are the elements themselves. They are from one viewpoint simply nature forces, tools of the higher intelligences, and actually perform all the physical work of the world.

From another point of view they may be looked upon as life-atoms in different stages of evolutionary growth; and being in various degrees of evolution they are variously spiritual, ethereal, astral, or material, running through vast ranges on all these planes. Thus they exist everywhere: in the air we breathe, the food we eat, and all the tissues of physical nature. Through their agency we perform all our bodily or mental activities.

The three kingdoms of elementals actually build and form every new planet or world, beginning in serial order with the lowest of the three kingdoms, preparing the globe for the advent of the mineral kingdom, to be followed in turn by the vegetable and higher kingdoms in regular succession. The elementals are not only the matters of nature, but when acting together and used by higher intelligences become the forces or energies of nature, such as electricity, magnetism, light, vitality, etc. Unconsciously, human and other beings use them in the carrying on of all their bodily functions. For example, our bodies cohere through the automatic aid of the elementals of earth; and the elementals of fire give us our bodily heat.

The four kingdoms of elementals, existing in the four elements, are also known under the general designation of fairies and fays in the myths, fables, traditions, and poetry of all nations, ancient and modern. Their names are legion: peris, devs, jinn, sylvans, satyrs, fauns, elves, dwarfs, trolls, nixies, kobolds, brownies, banshees, leprechauns, pixies, moss-people, good people, good neighbors, wild women, men of peace, white ladies, and many more. They have been seen, feared, blessed, banned, and invoked in every quarter of the globe in every age.

These elementals are the principal nature forces used by the disimbodied human dead, very real but never visible "shells" mistaken for spirits at seances, and are the producers of all the phenomena except the purely subjective. They may be described as centers of force having instinctive desires but no consciousness as we understand it. Hence their acts may be what we humans call good or bad, indifferently. They have astral forms which partake, to a distinguishing degree, of the element to which they belong and also of the universally encompassing ether. They are a combination of sublimated matter and a purely rudimental mind. Some remain throughout several cycles relatively unchanging, so far as radical change goes, but still have no separate individuality, and usually acting collectively, so to speak. Others, of certain elements and species, change under a fixed law which Qabbalists explain. The most solid of their bodies are ordinarily just immaterial enough to escape perception by our physical eyesight, but not so unsubstantial that they cannot be perfectly recognized by the inner or clairvoyant vision. They not only exist and can all live in ether, but can handle and direct it for the production of physical effects, as readily as we can compress air or water for the same purpose by pneumatic and hydraulic apparatus; in which occupation they are readily helped by the human elementaries or astral shells.

More than this, they can so condense the ether as to make for themselves tangible bodies which, by their Protean powers, they can cause to assume such likeness as the elementals themselves are at the time impressed to assume, this being caused by their taking automatically as their models the portraits they find stamped in the memory of a person or persons present at a seance. It is not necessary that the sitter should be thinking at the moment of the one represented: the image may have faded many years before. The mind receives indelible impressions even from chance acquaintances. As a few seconds' exposure of the sensitized photographic plate is all that is requisite to preserve indefinitely the image of the sitter, so is it in incomparably greater degree with the mind. Unable to invent anything or to produce anything of itself, the elemental automatically reflects stamped impressions in the memory of human beings to its very depths; hence the nervous exhaustion and mental oppression of certain sensitive natures at spiritualistic circles. The elemental will bring to light long-forgotten remembrances of the past: forms, images, even familiar sentences, long since faded from memory, but vividly preserved on the astral tablets of the imperishable book of life. The elementals are very imitative, having neither developed will nor intelligence of their own which they self-consciously use, and hence tend automatically to copy forms in all the higher kingdoms. They have therefore many shapes or bodies, some of the more advanced taking even a quasi-human form.

Some of the elementals are said to be friendly, others unfriendly, to humanity not because of any deliberate intent on their part, but simply because mankind happens to be in such evolutionary position that it is affected one way or the other by them. Also, as different people contain in their constitution a preponderance of one of the elements over the other, they are more sensitive to the elementals of their predominating element.