Elementals: Gnomes . Sylphs . Salamanders . Undines . by Alice B. Clagett

Written and published on 16 June 2018

  • ELEMENTALS
  • GNOMES . EARTH FAES . EARTH ELEMENTALS
  • SYLPHS . AIR ELEMENTALS
  • SALAMANDERS . FIRE ELEMENTALS
  • UNDINES . NAIADS . WATER ELEMENTALS
  • HOW DIFFERENT SORTS OF ELEMENTALS RELATE TO DIFFERENT SORTS OF HUMANS
  • MORE INFORMATION

Dear Ones,

Here is information on nature spirits from various sources …

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ELEMENTALS

“An elemental is a mythic being described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. There are four elemental categories: gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders … These correspond to the Classical elements of antiquity: earth, water, air and fire. Aether (quintessence) was not assigned an elemental. Terms employed for beings associated with alchemical elements vary by source and gloss …

“Universally, an elemental is a type of magical entity who personifies a force of nature and controls natural powers derived from their element.

“Within the Paracelsian concept an elemental is a mythic being described in occult and alchemical works from around the time of the European Renaissance and particularly elaborated in the 16th century works of Paracelsus. From the classical Paracelsian perspective there are four elemental categories: gnomes, undines, sylphs, and salamanders … These correspond to the Classical elements of antiquity: earth, water, air and fire. Aether (quintessence) was not assigned an elemental. Terms employed for beings associated with alchemical elements vary by source and gloss.

“Paracelsus … noted that undines are similar to humans in size, while sylphs are rougher, coarser, longer, and stronger. Gnomes are short, while salamanders are long, narrow, and lean. The elementals are said to be able to move through their own elements as human beings move through air. Gnomes, for example, can move through rocks, walls, and soil. Sylphs are the closest to humans in his conception because they move through air like we do, while in fire they burn, in water they drown, and in earth, they get stuck. Paracelsus states that each one stays healthy in its particular ‘chaos,’ as he terms it, but dies in the others.”

[His size evaluations do not entirely match mine. –Alice B. Clagett]

“Paracelsus conceived human beings to be composed of three parts, an elemental body, a sidereal spirit, and an immortal divine soul. Elementals lacked this last part, the immortal soul. However, by marriage with a human being, the elemental and its offspring could gain a soul.” — from Link: “Elemental,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elemental … CC BY-SA 3.0

Here is more on each type of Elemental …

Link: “The Elemental Kingdom,” at Bibliotecapleyades …  https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mapas_ocultotierra/esp_mapa_ocultotierra_6a.htm ..

Here is information on the Elementals, as well as the Devas and the nature spirits, from “Soul Guidance … http://soul-guidance.com/ ..

Link: “Devas,” at Soul-Guidance … http://www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/ET/devas.htm ..

Link: “Cosmic Beings” … http://www.soul-guidance.com/houseofthesun/cosmicbeings.html#Devas Search the term: 3. Elemental Beings

Below is information on the Elementals, category by category …

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GNOMES . EARTH FAES . EARTH ELEMENTALS

Image: “Forest Spirit, by Mike Azevedo … https://pre00.deviantart.net/93f5/th/pre/i/2011/025/5/c/forest_spirit_by_pklklmike-d380915.jpg ..

Earth Fae are also called dryads, dwarfs, gnomes, ents, ghillie dhu, muggle-borns, or yaksha. These sorts of Elemental Fae are rarely seen, as they live deep in the woods. Here is more on their form, whether they can mate with humans, and what hybrid children of Earth Faes and humans are like …

Link: “Earth Fae (elemental),” by The Monster Blog of Monsters … http://themonsterblogofmonsters.tumblr.com/post/103161106244/earth-fae-elemental-one-of-the-more-rarely-seen ..

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SYLPHS . AIR ELEMENTALS

Image: Sylph … https://i0.wp.com/www.whats-your-sign.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/03/SylphAirElementals.jpg?fit=1600%2C1054&ssl=1 ..

Here is more on Sylphs …

Link: “Sylphs,” at Crystalinks … https://www.crystalinks.com/sylphs.html ..

Link: “Art Photo Series: Angel and Sylph Clouds,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 12 June 2018 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-9q0 ..

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SALAMANDERS . FIRE ELEMENTALS

Image: Salamander … https://i.pinimg.com/originals/da/c3/e6/dac3e63d503fbe8e2e59c5c575027145.jpg ..

I have heard that the ruler of the Salamanders might be the Jinn … although the term is spelled ‘Djin’ in this reference …

Link: “The Elemental Kingdom,” at Bibliotecapleyades …  https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mapas_ocultotierra/esp_mapa_ocultotierra_6a.htm ..

This may be because, in Islamic theology, the Jinn are said to be made of a ‘mixture of fire’ or made of ‘smokeless fire’. [from Link: “Jinn,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jinn .. ] From my own experience, I would say that the Jinn are like both fire and wind. –Alice B. Clagett

There is more on the Salamanders here …

Link: “Fire Elementals: Salamander Meaning as an Essential Element on Earth” … https://www.whats-your-sign.com/fire-elementals-salamanders.html ..

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UNDINES . NAIADS . WATER ELEMENTALS

Image: “Hylas and the Nymphs 1896,”  Manchester Art Gallery, by John William Waterhouse. in English Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hylas_and_the_Nymphs_(painting)#/media/File:Waterhouse_Hylas_and_the_Nymphs_Manchester_Art_Gallery_1896.15.jpg … public domain

Image: “Hylas and the Nymphs 1896,”  Manchester Art Gallery, by John William Waterhouse. in English Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hylas_and_the_Nymphs_(painting)#/media/File:Waterhouse_Hylas_and_the_Nymphs_Manchester_Art_Gallery_1896.15.jpg … public domain

The above painting is from the classical tale of Hylas and the Nymphs, which is part of the story of Jason and the Argonauts, who searched for the Golden Fleece. For more on this, see …

Link: “Hylas and the Nymphs,” in Artble … https://www.artble.com/artists/john_william_waterhouse/paintings/hylas_and_the_nymphs ..

There are different names for Undines, including Water Spirits, Limoniades, Naiads, Mermaids, Oreads, Potamides, Oceanids, and Sea Maids. –from Link: “The Elemental Kingdom,” at Bibliotecapleyades … https://www.bibliotecapleyades.net/mapas_ocultotierra/esp_mapa_ocultotierra_6a.htm ..

Information on each of these can be found on Wikipedia. Below are the Wikipedia descriptions of Undines and Naiads.

“Undines … (or ondines) are a category of elemental beings associated with water, first named in the alchemical writings of Paracelsus. Similar creatures are found in classical literature, particularly Ovid’s Metamorphoses. Later writers developed the undine into a water nymph in its own right, and it continues to live in modern literature and art through such adaptations as Hans Christian Andersen’s ‘The Little Mermaid’.

“Undines are almost invariably depicted as being female, and are usually found in forest pools and waterfalls. The group contains many species, including nereides, limnads, naiades and mermaids. Although resembling humans in form, they lack a human soul, so to achieve immortality they must acquire one by marrying a human. Such a union is not without risk for the man, because if he is unfaithful he is fated to die.” –from Link: “Undines,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Undine … CC BY-SA 3.0

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“In Greek mythology, the Naiads … are a type of female spirit, or nymph, presiding over fountains, wells, springs, streams, brooks and other bodies of fresh water.

“They are distinct from river gods, who embodied rivers, and the very ancient spirits that inhabited the still waters of marshes, ponds and lagoon-lakes, such as pre-Mycenaean Lerna in the Argolis.

“Naiads were associated with fresh water, as the Oceanids were with saltwater and the Nereids specifically with the Mediterranean, but because the ancient Greeks thought of the world’s waters as all one system, which percolated in from the sea in deep cavernous spaces within the earth, there was some overlap. Arethusa, the nymph of a spring, could make her way through subterranean flows from the Peloponnesus, to surface on the island of Sicily.” –from Link: “Naiad,” in Wikipedia … https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Naiad … CC BY-SA 3.0

More on Naiads …

Link: “Naiads . Water Nymphs,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 9 February 2015; revised … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-7TR ..

In love, light and joy,
I Am of the Stars

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HOW DIFFERENT SORTS OF ELEMENTALS RELATE TO DIFFERENT SORTS OF HUMANS

“For when the Fair in all their Pride expire,
To their first Elements the Souls retire:
>The Sprites of fiery Termagants in Flame
Mount up, and take a Salamander’s name.
Soft yielding minds to Water glide away,
>And sip, with Nymphs, their elemental Tea.
The graver Prude sinks downward to a Gnome,
In search of mischief still on Earth to roam.
The light Coquettes in Sylphs aloft repair,
And sport and flutter in the fields of Air.”
— Alexander Pope, the Rape of the Lock, Canto 1, 1714 … public domain

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MORE INFORMATION

Link: “A Children’s Story: Nature Elementals . Wind, Water, Fire, Earth, Ether,” by Alice B. Clagett, published on 31 July 2014; revised on 7 December 2018 … https://wp.me/p2Rkym-7wE ..

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