Theos-Talk Archives (March 2002 Message tt00130)

Part III of the series CONVERSATIONS ON OCCULTISM




ELEMENTALS - KARMA

W. Q. Judge


STUDENT. - Permit me to ask you again, Are elementals beings?

Sage. - It is not easy to convey to you an idea of the
constitution of elementals; strictly speaking, they are not,
because the word elementals has been used in reference to a class
of them that have no being such as mortals have. It would be
better to adopt the terms used in Indian books, such as
Gandharvas, Bhuts, Pisachas, Devas, and so on. Many things well
known about them cannot be put into ordinary language.

Student. - Do you refer to their being able to act in the fourth
dimension of space?

Sage. - Yes, in a measure. Take the tying in an endless cord of
many knots - a thing often done at spiritist séances. That is
possible to him who knows more dimensions of space than three. No
three-dimensional being can do this; and as you understand
"matter," it is impossible for you to conceive how such a knot
can be tied or how a solid ring can be passed through the matter
of another solid one. These things can be done by elementals.

Student. - Are they not all of one class?

Sage. - No. There are different classes 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. You
must remember, too, that these "planes" of which we are speaking
interpenetrate each other.

Student. - Am I to understand that a clairvoyant or clairaudient
has to do with or is affected by a certain special class or
classes of elementals?

Sage. - Yes. A clairvoyant can only see the sights properly
belonging to the planes his development reaches to or has opened.
And the elementals in those planes show to the clairvoyant only
such pictures as belong to their plane. Other parts of the idea
or thing pictured may be retained in planes not yet open to the
seer. For this reason few clairvoyants know the whole truth.

Student. - Is there not some connection between the Karma of man
and elementals?

Sage. - A very important one. The elemental world has become a
strong factor in the Karma of the human race. Being unconscious,
automatic, and photographic, it assumes the complexion of the
human family itself.

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. Or, like a donkey,
which, when he is pushed against, will push against you. Or, as a
human being, when anger or insult is offered, feels inclined to
return the same. So the elemental world, being unconscious force,
returns or reacts upon humanity exactly as humanity acted towards
it, whether the actions of men were done with the knowledge of
these laws or not.

So in these times it has come to be that the elemental world has
the complexion and action which is the exact result of all the
actions and thoughts and desires of men from the earliest times.
And, 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.

Student. - How then about the doing of phenomena by adepts?

Sage. - The production of phenomena is not possible without
either the aid or disturbance of elementals. Each phenomenon
entails the expenditure of great force, and also brings on a
correspondingly great disturbance in the elemental world, which
disturbance is beyond the limit natural to ordinary human life.

It then follows that, as soon as the phenomenon is completed, the
disturbance occasioned begins to be compensated for. The
elementals are in greatly excited motion, and precipitate
themselves in various directions. They are not able to affect
those who are protected. But they 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.

This will go to explain the meaning of the statement that an
Adept will not do a phenomenon unless he sees the desire in the
mind of another lower or higher Adept or student; for then there
is a sympathetic relation established, and also a tacit
acceptance of the consequences which may ensue.

It will also help to understand the peculiar reluctance often of
some persons, who can perform phenomena, to produce them in cases
where we may think their production would be beneficial; and also
why they are never done in order to compass worldly ends, as is
natural for worldly people to suppose might be done, - such as
procuring money, transferring objects, influencing minds, and so
on.

Student. - Accept my thanks for you instruction.

Sage. - May you reach the terrace of enlightenment!

Path, June, 1888

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5

ELEMENTALS - HOW THEY ACT


W. Q. Judge



Student. - Is there any reason why you do not give me a more
detailed explanation of the constitution of elementals and the
modes by which they work?

Sage. - Yes. There are many reasons. Among others is your
inability, shared by most of the people of the present day, to
comprehend a description of things that pertain to a world with
which you are not familiar and for which you do not yet possess
terms of expression. Were I to put forth these descriptions, the
greater part would seem vague and incomprehensible on one hand,
while on the other many of them would mislead you because of the
interpretation put on them by yourself.

Another reason is that, if the constitution, field of action, and
method of action of elementals were given out, there are some
minds of a very inquiring and peculiar bent who soon could find
out how to come into communication with these extraordinary
beings, with results disadvantageous to the community as well as
the individuals.

Student. - Why so? Is it not well to increase the sum of human
knowledge, even respecting most recondite parts of nature; or can
it be that the elementals are bad?

Sage. - It is wise to increase the knowledge of nature's laws,
but always with proper limitations. All things will become known
some day. Nothing can be kept back when men have reached the
point where they can understand. But at this time it would not be
wise to give them, for the asking, certain knowledge that would
not be good for them. That knowledge relates to elementals, and
it can for the present be kept back from the scientists of today.
So long as it can be retained from them, it will be, until they
and their followers are of a different stamp.

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

Student. - Will our scientific men one day, then, be able to use
these beings, and, if so, what will be the manner of it? Will
their use be confined to only the good men of the earth?

Sage. - The hour is approaching when all this will be done. But
the scientists of today are not the men to get this knowledge.
They are only pigmy forerunners who sow seed and delve blindly in
no thoroughfares. They are too small to be able to grasp these
mighty powers, but they are not wise enough to see that their
methods will eventually lead to Black Magic in centuries to come
when they shall be forgotten.

When elemental forces are used similarly as we now see
electricity and other natural energies adapted to various
purposes, there will be "war in heaven." Good men will not alone
possess the ability to use them. Indeed, the sort of man you now
call "good" will not be the most able.

The wicked will, however, pay liberally for the power of those
who can wield such forces, and at last the Supreme Masters, who
now guard this knowledge from children, will have to come forth.
Then will ensue a dreadful war, in which, as has ever happened,
the Masters will succeed and the evil doers be destroyed by the
very engines, principalities, and powers prostituted to their own
purposes during years of intense selfish living. But why dilate
on this; in these days it is only a prophecy.

Student. - Could you give me some hints as to how the secrets of
the elemental plane are preserved and prevented from being known?
Do these guardians of whom you speak occupy themselves in
checking elementals, or how? Do they see much danger of
divulgement likely in those instances where elemental action is
patent to the observer?

Sage. - As to whether they check elementals or not need not be
enquired into, because, while that may be probable, it does not
appear very necessary where men are unsuspicious of the agency
causing that phenomena. It is much easier to throw a cloud over
the investigator's mind and lead him off to other results of
often material advantage to himself and men, while at the same
time acting as a complete preventive or switch which turns his
energies and application into different departments.

It might be illustrated thus: Suppose that a number of trained
occultists are set apart to watch the various sections of the
world where the mental energies are in fervid operation. It is
quite easy for them to see in a moment any mind that is about
reaching a clue into the elemental world; and, besides, imagine
that trained elementals themselves constantly carry information
of such events.

Then, by superior knowledge and command over this peculiar world,
influences presenting various pictures are sent out to that
enquiring mind. In one case it may be a new moral reform, in
another a great invention is revealed, and such is the effect
that the man's whole time and mind are taken up by this new thing
which he fondly imagines is his own. Or, again, it would be easy
to turn his thoughts into a certain rut leading far from the
dangerous clue. In fact, the methods are endless.

Student. - Would it be wise to put into the hands of truly good,
conscientious men who now use aright what gifts they have,
knowledge of and control over elementals, to be used on the side
of right?

Sage. - The Masters are the judges of what good men are to have
this power and control. You must not forget that you cannot be
sure of the character at bottom of those whom you call "truly
good and conscientious men." Place them in the fire of the
tremendous temptation which such power and control would furnish,
and most of them would fail.

But the Masters already know the characters of all who in any way
approach to a knowledge of these forces, and They always judge
whether such a man is to be aided or prevented. They are not
working to make these laws and forces known, but to establish
right doctrine, speech, and action, so that the characters and
motives of men shall undergo such radical changes as to fit them
for wielding power in the elemental world. And that power is not
now lying idle, as you infer, but is being always used by those
who will never fail to rightly use it.

Student. - Is there any illustration at hand showing what the
people of the present day would do with these extraordinary
energies?

Sage. - A cursory glance at men in these western worlds engaged
in the mad rush after money, many of them willing to do anything
to get it, and at the strain, almost to warfare, existing between
laborers and users of labor, must show you that, were either
class in possession of power over the elemental world, they would
direct it to the furtherance of the aims now before them.

Then look at Spiritualism. It is recorded in the Lodge --
photographed, you may say, by the doers of the acts themselves --
that an enormous number of persons daily seek the aid of mediums
and their "spooks" merely on questions of business. Whether to
buy stocks, or engage in mining for gold and silver, to deal in
lotteries, or to make new mercantile contracts. Here on one side
is a picture of a coterie of men who obtained at a low figure
some mining property on the advice of elemental spirits with
fictitious names masquerading behind mediums; these mines were
then to be put upon the public at a high profit, inasmuch as the
"spirits" promised metal. Unhappily for the investors, it failed.
But such a record is repeated in many cases.

Then here is another where in a great American city -- the karma
being favorable -- a certain man speculated in stocks upon
similar advice, succeeded, and, after giving the medium liberal
pay, retired to what is called enjoyment of life. Neither party
devoted either himself or the money to the benefiting of
humanity.

There is no question of honor involved, nor any as to whether
money ought or ought not to be made. It is solely one as to the
propriety, expediency, and results of giving suddenly into the
hands of a community unprepared and without an altruistic aim,
such abnormal power.

TREASURE

Take hidden treasure, for instance. There is much of it in hidden
places, and many men wish to get it. For what purpose? For the
sake of ministering to their luxurious wants and leaving it to
their equally unworthy descendants. Could they know the mantram
controlling the elementals that guard such treasure, they would
use it at once, motive or no motive, the sole object being the
money in the case.

Student. - Do some sorts of elementals have guard over hidden
treasure?

Sage. - Yes, in every instance, whether never found or soon
discovered. The causes for the hiding and the thoughts of the
hider or loser have much to do with the permanent concealment or
subsequent finding.

Student. - What happens when a large sum of money, say, such as
Captain Kidd's mythical treasure, is concealed, or when a
quantity of coin is lost?

Sage. - Elementals gather about it. They have many and curious
modes of causing further concealment. They even influence animals
to that end. This class of elementals seldom, if ever, report at
your spiritualistic séances. As time goes on the forces of air
and water still further aid them, and sometimes they are able
even to prevent the hider from recovering it. Thus in course of
years, even when they may have altogether lost their hold on it,
the whole thing becomes shrouded in mist, and it is impossible to
find anything.

Student. - This in part explains why so many failures are
recorded in the search for hidden treasure. But how about the
Masters; are they prevented thus by these weird guardians?

Sage. - They are not. The vast quantities of gold hidden in the
earth and under the sea are at their disposal always. They can,
when necessary for their purposes, obtain such sums of money on
whom no living being or descendants of any have the slightest
claim, as would appall the senses of your greatest money getter.
They have but to command the very elementals controlling it, and
They have it. This is the basis for the story of Aladdin's
wonderful lamp, more true than you believe.

Student. - Of what use then is it to try, like the alchemists, to
make gold? With the immense amount of buried treasure thus easily
found when you control its guardian, it would seem a waste of
time and money to learn transmutation of metals.

Sage. - The transmutation spoken of by the real alchemists was
the alteration of the base alloy in man's nature. At the same
time, actual transmutation of lead into gold is possible. And
many followers of the alchemists, as well as of the pure-souled
Jacob Boehme, eagerly sought to accomplish the material
transmuting, being led away by the glitter of wealth.

But an Adept has no need for transmutation, as I have shown you.
The stories told of various men who are said to have produced
gold from base metals for different kings in Europe are wrong
explanations. Here and there Adepts have appeared, assuming
different names, and in certain emergencies they supplied or used
large sums of money. But instead of its being the product of
alchemical art, it was simply ancient treasure brought to them by
elementals in their service and that of the Lodge. Raymond Lully
or Robert Flood might have been of that sort, but I forbear to
say, since I cannot claim acquaintance with those men.

Student. - I thank you for your instruction.

Sage. - May you reach the terrace of enlightenment!

Path, July, 1888

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