Theos-Talk Archives (March 2003 Message tt00035)

Wednesday, March 05, 2003

Dear M:

Here is some more material on elementals

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E L E M E N T A L S 
a n d 
E L E M E N T A R I E S 

===ooOOoo===


ELEMENTALS.	Spirits of the Elements. The creatures evolved in the
four Kingdoms or Elements--earth, air, fire, and water. They are
called by the Kabalists. Gnomes (of the earth), Sylphs (of the air),
Salamanders (of the fire), and the Undines (of the water). Except a
few of the higher kind 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" (see below)--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.
THEOS. GLOSS. 111-12


ELEMENTARIES.	Properly the disembodied souls of the depraved; these
souls having at some time prior to death separated from themselves
their divine spirits, and so lost their chance for immortality; but
at the present stage of learning it has been thought best to apply the
term to the spooks or phantoms of disembodied persons, in general, to
those whose temporary habitation is the Kama Loka. Eliphas Levi and
some other Kabalists make little distinction between elementary
spirits who have been men, and those beings which people the elements,
and are the blind forces of nature. Once divorced from their higher
triads [Atma-Buddhi-Manas] and their bodies, those souls remain in
their Kama-rupic envelopes, and are irresistibly drawn to the earth
amid elements congenial to their gross natures. Their stay in the
Kama Loka varies as to its duration; but ends invariably in
disintegration, dissolving like a column of mist, atom by atom, in the
surrounding elements.”	
THEOS. GLOSS 112


==================================

Some Comments;


The seven-fold range of evolutionary stages may be visualized;
to commence with as H.P.B. presents them in THE SECRET DOCTRINE.


"...Atma...identical with the universal Spirit, and man being
one with it in his essence, what is then the Monad proper? It is that
homogeneous spark which radiates in millions of rays from the primeval
"Seven;"...the EMANATING spark from the UNCREATED Ray...Such is the
upperward gradation among entities. Gods, Men, Gandharvas, Pisachas,
Asuras, Rakshasas,, all have been created by Svabhavat (Prakriti, or
plastic nature)...not by any physical cause." SD I 571



"This "central sun" of the Occultists...is simply the center
of Universal life-Electricity...the one attracting, as also the
ever-emitting, life Center." SD II 240


"...the Central Spiritual Sun and...the polar Sun...radiate on
man his Atma...the equatorial Sun cement the Buddhi to Atman and the
higher attributes of Manas [and]...the spirit of our visible sun
endows him with his Manas and its vehicle--the Kama-rupa, or body of
passions and desires, the two elements of Ahankara which evolve
individualized consciousness--the personal ego. Finally, it is the
spirit of the Earth in it triple unity that builds the physical body,
attracting to it the Spirits of Life and forming the Linga Sarira
[Astral Model Body]." SD II 241


"Who forms the Manu (the Man) and who forms his body ? The
Life and the Lives...Here Manu stands for the spiritual, heavenly man,
the real and non-dying Ego in us, which is the direct emanation from
the "One Life" or the Absolute Deity...As to our outward physical
bodies, the house of the tabernacle of the Soul...every atom of even
mineral dust is a Life, though beyond our comprehension and
perception, because it is outside the range of the laws known to those
who reject Occultism."	SD I 248-249

[Creators and destroyers in Nature at the level of the Lives:
examples SD I 33, 199, 248-250, 261-3 ]


The elementals are called the "nerves of nature," and they
function, exist and work in the electro-magnetic, super-sensuous
material called the "Astral Light." It has a seven-fold division,
and, in this area they are assigned their work. Their being invisible
to our gross physical senses, is understood, just as the astral realm
is not "visible" to us when we are "awake," and only partly so in our
recollection of certain types of dreams.

A clairvoyant is one who has partially or fully bridged the
gap between the physical and one or more of the layers, or degrees of
the astral planes; and, in addition, may or may not be able to
exercise control over this faculty. If unable, he is a medium. If he
exercises this control, he is an adept or "mediator."

If he should be a chela under the guidance of his Master, he
is being taught to guide and direct this faculty for benevolence, and
only as necessity allows.  

What little visibility elementals show to us has been
described as the shimmering of hot air over a stove, as an eddy behind
a rock in swift-flowing water, or as fiery sparks moving in seeming
random when one looks into the depths of the blue sky above, focusing
ones eyes about 20 feet away.

Most of us cannot transfer our consciousness to even the
grossest aspect of the Astral Plane. Descriptions, such as those Mr.
Judge gives us in his "stories" [LETTERS THAT HAVE HELPED ME, pp.
207-260] enable us to visualize some aspects of the action of various
kinds of elemental functions and work under the control of the Adepts.

These manifest as: sensitivity to moral and mental states;
carriers of Karma because of their impressibility, they become for us,
our Skandhas, the carriers of our Karma, when they are attracted back
into our 'sphere' of life and work later in this life, or in future
lives.  

Their innate power to influence others of their class, or of
other classes, causes this function to operate and to draw together
the necessary conditions [Karma] so that we are placed in
circumstances and along with individuals and other factors we formerly
had close connection to, in terms of causes we generated.

The elementals are responsive to the electro-magnetic
impressions our Will generates. This will-force is evoked and shaped
by our desire-motive and it carries these as creative power fueled by
the energy and force of our imagination--moved by the desire, which
proceeds to frame the actualization of those desires. The impression
thus left serves in the infinitely sensitive karmic justice of Nature
to mark (or "flag" so to say) those aspects of Nature that we have
benefited or distorted and retarded in their evolutionary progress.
They are those which return to us at the most opportune time for our
readjustment so that harmony can be restored and progress resumed for
all.

The triple force in Occultism would be: 1. MOTIVE or resolve,
this is the base for desire; 2. WILL, or the power to plan; and, 3.
IMAGINATION, the power of EXECUTION, or that which brings into being
the desire.

Occultism gives us power over the whole of Nature. Hence the
absolute necessity for the purification of our moral nature, which has
to be rendered harmless to all beings before we can be entrusted with
Power. To grasp the magnitude of this task demands impersonalizing and
universalizing our outlook; securing deep and complete knowledge of
Nature and her many departments and interactions, as well as of our
own nature and the "star" or "hierarchy" to which we naturally belong.
This includes the nature and functions of the life-force and the
elementals; the workings of the ONE consciousness on the seven planes
of OUR being; the pacifying and calming of our kamic nature, thus
making of it a docile and willing assistant in the pilgrimage of the
soul.

One can anticipate the need for controlling our Kamic nature
and discharge or harmonize such of our Karma as may remain distortedly
us earlier, and unbalanced. 

Ours could be called the stage of "preparing the molds for the
control of Elementals." This is achieved not only by purity of
motive, but by accuracy, punctuality, and purity in all matters of
daily life. And of course, added to this ha to be a definite
knowledge of the minutest effects that we produce on living nature, so
that we are able to help with the constructive side of living.

Elementals are in our organism, and they surround and
interpenetrate us in many ways. They are like mirrors, and if we,
instead of using them. allow ourselves to be used, we fall again under
the influence of our own past errors (which are called "habits.")
What we have to learn and apply is to be deliberate, alert and
attentive, as well as concentrate on all aspects of our work and on
all events that arise in our lives.

Metallic elementals go to make up the metals.

But how do elementals come into existence ? The metallic
elemental is a solidification of certain sounds and colors, and those
are expressions of powers and qualities of Nature, symbolized by the
Great Dhyani Buddhas, the Original SEVEN. Just as water solidifies
and becomes ice, so certain combinations of elementals or devatas
produce what we call "minerals." 

Elementals are agents used by the Great Adepts for the
performance of some of their works of mercy and of help. All humans
also use elementals, but they do not know how to do this well, or what
happens after their being used, (take the process of digestion, or of
blood circulation, as examples).

Because the Masters have that knowledge of the nature,
functions, and character of various elemental beings, they are able to
use and direct them accurately and with least confusion.

Elementals become skandhas when impressed or used by us.
After being used by us, they are attracted to others who may have
already used them earlier. The impression of our usage then is
submerged in the vast ocean of skandaic memory while the memory of how
the elemental was last used by the new host rises in it and leads it
off to its new/old host.  

"Each human being has his own elementals [skandhas ] that
partake of his nature and his thoughts. If you fix your thoughts upon
a person in anger, or in critical, uncharitable judgment, you attract
to yourself a number of those elementals that belong to, generate, and
are generated by this particular fault or failing, and they
precipitate themselves upon you. Hence, through the injustice of your
merely human condemnation, which cannot know the source and causes of
the action of another, you at once become a sharer of his fault or
failing by your own act, and the spirit expelled returns "with seven
devils worse than himself."	Epitome, p. 21
	
There is to be considered a further factor. Sometimes we
cannot bear the defects of other people. The elemental carries the
power to bring on strain and tension between individuals because of
the consubstantiality in their desire natures; and, the cause of
irritability is within. All ill-feelings towards one-another are
obstructions to our spiritual progress, and are mostly due to
selfishness, isolation and personal self-assertion. Our disturbed
Kamic nature, because and through the emotional upset, attracts to us,
by the law of magnetic attraction and affinity, the very kind of
elementals the manifestation of which we dislike in others. 

What is the remedy? To impersonalize our feelings, control
and purify our Kamic nature, and use the knowledge now given to us. If
a student permits personal feelings to rule him, he will not be able
to assimilate or harmoniously apply the Esoteric Philosophy. We can
adopt different measures. By turning our vision inwards, and
beginning to live by the light of Buddhi-Manas in us, our lower
Manasic mind-soul may clarify itself so as to receive a greater
portion of the light of Atma-Buddhi, the Wise-Spirit, and thus glimpse
the Divine Ideas that are permanently imprinted in the Akasa.

==========

Thoughts and Elementals



"Every thought of man upon being evolved passes into the inner world
and becomes an active entity by associating itself, coalescing we
might term it, with an elemental. 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 constantly peopling his current in space with a world of his
own, crowded with the offspring of his former desires, impulses, and
passions, a current with reacts upon any sensitive or nervous
organization which comes in contact with it." [ From a Master's
letter.]
English Theosophist Vol. 33, # 4, July 1899, p. 69
Theosophical Articles & Notes, p. 293


Human elementals -- Skandhas


"Each human being has his own elementals that partake of his nature
and of his thoughts. If you fix your thoughts upon a person in anger
or in critical, uncharitable judgment, you attract to yourself a
number of those elementals that belong to, generate, and are generated
by this particular fault or failing, and they precipitate themselves
upon you. Hence, through the injustice of your merely human
condemnation, which cannot know the source and causes of the action of
another, you at once become a sharer of his fault or failing by your
own act, and the spirit expelled returns "with seven devils worse than
himself."

This is the origin of the popular saying that "curses like chickens
come home to roost," and has its roots in the laws governing magnetic
affinity...we are hypnotized by the effect of the immense body of
images in the Astral Light, compounded of all the deeds, thoughts and
so forth of our ancestors, whose lives tended in a material direction.
These images influence the inner man--who is conscious of them--by
suggestion. In a brighter age [than the present Kali Yuga] the
influence of such images would be towards Truth. The effect of the
Astral Light, as thus molded and painted by us, will remain so long as
we continue to place those images there, and it thus becomes our judge
and our executioner...The Astral Light...is the universal register.
Its chief office is that of a vehicle for the operation of the laws of
Karma, or the progress of the principle of life, and it is thus in a
deep spiritual sense a medium or "mediator" between man and his
Deity--his higher spirit."
Epitome of Theosophy.
pp 21-2 

Some References to Consult:


ELEMENTALS:


SECRET DOCTRINE I 97 145-6 176 183-4 218 224 461 606

SECRET DOCTRINE II 42 [Scale of Causes]  

5 YEARS OF THEOSOPHY	176

ANSWERS TO QUESTIONS on OCEAN OF THEOSOPHY RC	62-3 239-40

FRIENDLY PHILOSOPHER	269 292  

W Q J ARTICLES	Vol. I	359 383 405 413  

H P B ARTICLES II	127 164  

Letters that Have Helped Me. pp. 92-3, 96-7,







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