Theos-Talk Archives (July 2003 Message tt00175)

July 14 2003

Dear Friend:

RE: on a universe of invisible elementals, Devas,
etc.


I would really need a date to locate this reference again. Can
you find the original ?

In the meantime, look at this:


"...man is a free agent during his stay on earth. He cannot
escape his ruling Destiny...which from birth to death every man
is weaving thread by thread around himself; and this destiny is
guided either by the heavenly voice of the invisible prototype
outside of us, or by the evil genius of our more intimate astral,
or inner man." -- SD I 639


-------------

Re: Denizens of the Astral Plane: ELEMENTALS

Dear Friends:

In our studies in the nature of the astral plane and the effect
they may have interactively on the human "astral body" let us
review together an article written y H P B on the "Elementals,"

-----------------------------
1

The ETHERIC PLENUM


THE Universal AEther was not, in the eyes of the ancients, simply
a tenantless something, stretching throughout the expanse of
heaven; it was for them a boundless ocean, peopled like our
familiar earthly seas, with Gods, Planetary Spirits, monstrous
and minor creatures, and having in its every molecule the germs
of life from the potential up to the most developed.

Like the finny tribes which swarm in our oceans and familiar
bodies of water, each kind having its habitat in some spot to
which it is curiously adapted, some friendly, and some inimical
to man, some pleasant and some frightful to behold, some seeking
the refuge of quiet nooks and land-locked harbours, and some
traversing great areas of water; so the various races of the
Planetary, Elemental, and other Spirits, were believed by them to
inhabit the different portions of the great ethereal ocean, and
to be exactly adapted to their respective conditions.


SOURCE OF ENTITIES in the UNIVERSE

According to the ancient doctrines, every member of this varied
ethereal population, from the highest "Gods" down to the soulless
Elementals, was evolved by the ceaseless motion inherent in the
astral light. Light is force, and the latter is produced by the
Will. As this Will proceeds from an intelligence which cannot
err, for it is absolute and immutable and has nothing of the
material organs of human thought in it, being the superfine pure
emanation of the ONE LIFE itself, it proceeds from the beginning
of time, according to immutable laws, to evolve the elementary
fabric requisite for subsequent generations of what we term human
races.

All of the latter, whether belonging to this planet or to some
other of the myriads in space, have their earthly bodies evolved
in this matrix out of the bodies of a certain class of these
elemental beings--the primordial germ of Gods and men--which have
passed away into the visible worlds.

In the Ancient Philosophy there was no missing link to be
supplied by what Tyndall calls an "educated imagination"; no
hiatus to be filled with volumes of materialistic speculations
made necessary by the absurd attempt to solve an equation with
but one set of quantities; our "ignorant" ancestors traced the
law of evolution throughout the whole universe. As by gradual
progression from the star-cloudlet to the development of the
physical body of man, the rule holds good, so from the Universal
AEther to the incarnate human spirit, they traced one
uninterrupted series of entities.


SPIRIT involutes into MATTER

These evolutions were from the world of Spirit into the world of
gross Matter: and through that back again to the source of all
things. The "descent of species" was to them a descent from the
Spirit, primal source of all, to the "degradation of Matter." In
this complete chain of unfoldings the elementary, spiritual
beings had as distinct a place, midway between the extremes, as
Mr. Darwin's missing-link between the ape and man.

No author in the world of literature ever gave a more truthful or
more poetical description of these beings than Sir E.
Bulwer-Lytton, the author of Zanoni. Now, himself "a thing not of
matter" but an "idea of joy and light," his words sound more like
the faithful echo of memory than the exuberant outflow of mere
imagination. He makes the wise Mejnour say to Glyndon:

"Man is arrogant in proportion of his ignorance. For several ages
he saw in the countless worlds that sparkle through space like
the bubbles of a shoreless ocean, only the petty candles . . .
that Providence has been pleased to light for no other purpose
but to make the night more agreeable to man. . . . Astronomy has
corrected this delusion of human vanity, and man now reluctantly
confesses that the stars are worlds, larger and more glorious
than his own. . . . Everywhere, in this immense design, science
brings new life to light. . . . Reasoning, then, by evident
analogy, if not a leaf, if not a drop of water, but is, no less
than yonder star, a habitable and breathing world--nay, if even
man himself is a world to other lives, and millions and myriads
dwell in the rivers of his blood, and inhabit man's frame, as man
inhabits earth--common sense (if our schoolmen had it) would
suffice to teach that the circumfluent infinite which you call
space--the boundless impalpable which divides earth from the moon
and stars--is filled also with its correspondent and appropriate
life. Is it not a visible absurdity to suppose that being is
crowded upon every leaf, and yet absent from the immensities of
space! The law of the great system forbids the waste even of an
atom; it knows no spot where something of life does not breathe.

. . . Well, then, can you conceive that space, which is the
infinite itself, is alone a waste, is alone lifeless, is less
useful to the one design of universal being . . . than the
peopled leaf, than the swarming globule? The microscope shows you
the creatures on the leaf; no mechanical tube is yet invented to
discover the nobler and more gifted things that hover in the
illimitable air. Yet between these last and man is a mysterious
and terrible affinity. . . .

But first, to penetrate this barrier, the soul with which you
listen
must be sharpened by intense enthusiasm, purified from all
earthly desires. . . . When thus prepared, science can be brought
to
aid it; the sight itself may be rendered more subtile, the nerves
more acute, the spirit more alive and outward, and the element
itself--the air, the space--may be made, by certain secrets of
the higher chemistry,
more palpable and clear. And this, too, is not Magic as the
credulous call it; as I have so often said before, Magic (a
science that violates Nature) exists not; it is but the science
by which Nature can be controlled.

Now, IN SPACE THERE ARE MILLIONS OF BEINGS, not
literally spiritual, for they have all, like the animalculae
unseen
by the naked eye, certain forms of
matter, though matter so delicate, air-drawn, and subtile, that
it is, as it were, but a film, a gossamer, that clothes the
spirit. . . . Yet, in truth, these races differ most widely . . .
some of surpassing wisdom, some of horrible malignity; some
hostile as fiends to men, others gentle as messengers between
earth and heaven." 1

Such is the insufficient sketch of Elemental Beings void of
Divine Spirit, given by one whom many with reason believed to
know more than he was prepared to admit in the face of an
incredulous public. We have underlined the few lines than which
nothing can be more graphically descriptive. An Initiate, having
a personal knowledge of these creatures, could do no better.


DAIMONS

We may pass now to the "Gods," or Daimons, of the ancient
Egyptians and Greeks, and from these to the Devas and Pitris of
the still more ancient Hindu Aryans.

Who or what were the Gods, or Daimonia, of the Greeks and Romans?
The name has since then been monopolized and disfigured to their
own use by the Christian Fathers. Ever following in the footsteps
of old Pagan Philosophers on the well-trodden highway of their
speculations, while, as ever, trying to pass these off as new
tracks on virgin soil, and themselves as the first pioneers in a
hitherto pathless forest of eternal truths--they repeated the
Zoroastrian ruse: to make a clean sweep of all the Hindu Gods and
Deities, Zoroaster had called them all Devs, and adopted the name
as designating only evil powers. So did the Christian Fathers.
They applied the sacred name of Daimonia--the divine Egos of
man--to their devils, a fiction of diseased brains, and thus
dishonoured the anthropomorphized symbols of the natural sciences
of wise antiquity, and made them all loathesome in the sight of
the ignorant and the unlearned.

What the Gods and Daimonia, or Daimons, really were, we may learn
from Socrates, Plato, Plutarch, and many other renowned Sages and
Philosophers of pre-Christian, as well as post-Christian days. We
will give some of their views.

Xenocrates, who expounded many of the unwritten theories and
teachings of his master, and who surpassed Plato in his
definition of the doctrine of invisible magnitudes, taught that
the Daimons are intermediate beings between the divine perfection
and human sinfulness, 2 and he divides them into classes, each
subdivided into many others. But he states expressly that the
individual or personal Soul is the leading guardian Daimon of
every man, and that no Daimon has more power over us than our
own. Thus the Daimonion of Socrates is the God or Divine Entity
which inspired him all his life. It depends on man either to open
or close his perceptions to the Divine voice.

Heracleides, who adopted fully the Pythagorean and Platonic views
of the human Soul, its nature and faculties, speaking of Spirits,
calls them "Daimons with airy and vaporous bodies," and affirms
that Souls inhabit the Milky Way before descending "into
generation" or sublunary existence.

Again, when the author of Epinomis locates between the highest
and lowest Gods (embodied Souls) three classes of Daimons, and
peoples the universe with invisible beings, he is more rational
than either our modern Scientists, who make between the two
extremes one vast hiatus of being, the playground of blind
forces, or the Christian Theologians, who call every pagan God, a
daemon, or devil. Of these three classes the first two are
invisible; their bodies are pure ether and fire (Planetary
Spirits); the Daimons of the third class are clothed with vapoury
bodies; they are usually invisible, but sometimes, making
themselves concrete, become visible for a few seconds. These are
the earthly spirits, or our astral souls.

The fact is, that the word Daimon was given by the ancients, and
especially by the Philosophers of the Alexandrian school, to all
kinds of spirits, whether good or bad, human or otherwise, but
the appellation was often synonymous with that of Gods or angels.
For instance, the "Samothraces" was a designation of the
Fane-gods; worshipped at Samothracia in the Mysteries. They are
considered as identical with the Cabeiri, Dioscuri, and
Corybantes. Their names were mystical--denoting Pluto, Ceres or
Proserpina, Bacchus, and AEsculapius or Hermes, and they were all
referred to as Daimons.

Apuleius, speaking in the same symbolical and veiled language, of
the two Souls, the human and the divine, says:

"The human soul is a demon that our language may name genius. She
is an immortal god, though in a certain sense she is born at the
same time as the man in whom she is. Consequently, we may say
that she dies in the same way that she is born."

Eminent men were also called Gods by the ancients. Deified during
life, even their "shells" were reverenced during a part of the
Mysteries. Belief in Gods, in Larvae and Umbrae, was a universal
belief then, as it is fast becoming--now. Even the greatest
Philosophers, men who have passed to posterity as the hardest
Materialists and Atheists--only because they rejected the
grotesque idea of a personal extra-cosmic God--such as Epicurus,
for instance, believed in Gods and invisible beings. Going far
back into antiquity, out of the great body of Philosophers of the
pre-Christian ages, we may mention Cicero, as one who can least
be accused of superstition and credulity. Speaking of those whom
he calls Gods and who are either human or atmospheric spirits, he
says:

"We know that of all livings beings man is the best formed, and,
as the gods belong to this number, they must have a human form. .
. . I do not mean to say that the gods have body and blood in
them; but I say that they seem as if they had bodies with blood
in them. . . . Epicurus, for whom hidden things were as tangible
as if he had touched them with his finger, teaches us that gods
are not generally visible, but that they are intelligible; that
they are not bodies having a certain solidity . . . but that we
can recognize them by their passing images; that as there are
atoms enough in the infinite space to produce such images, these
are produced before us . . . and make us realize what are these
happy, immortal beings. " 3


INDIA

If, turning from Greece and Egypt to the cradle of universal
civilization, India, we interrogate the Brahmans and their most
admirable Philosophies, we find them calling their Gods and their
Daimonia by such a number and variety of appellations, that the
thirty-three millions of these Deities would require a whole
library to contain only their names and attributes. We will
choose for the present time only two names out of the Pantheon.
These groups are the most important as well as the least
understood by the Orientalists--their true nature having been all
along wrapped in obscurity by the unwillingness of the Brahmans
to divulge their philosophical secrets. We will speak of but the
Devas and the Pitris.


DEVA

The former aerial beings are some of them superior, others
inferior, to man. The term means literally the Shining Ones, the
resplendent; and it covers spiritual beings of various degrees,
including entities from previous planetary periods, who take
active part in the formation of new solar systems and the
training of infant humanities, as well as unprogressed Planetary
Spirits, who will, at spiritualistic seances, simulate human
deities and even characters on the stage of human history.

As to the Deva Yonis, they are Elementals of a lower kind in
comparison with the Kosmic "Gods," and are subjected to the will
of even the sorcerer. To this class belong the gnomes, sylphs,
fairies, djins, etc. They are the Soul of the elements, the
capricious forces in Nature, acting under one immutable Law,
inherent in these Centres of Force, with undeveloped
consciousness and bodies of plastic mould, which can be shaped
according to the conscious or unconscious will of the human being
who puts himself en rapport with them. It is by attracting some
of the beings of this class that our modern spiritualistic
mediums invest the fading shells of deceased human beings with a
kind of individual force. These beings have never been, but will,
in myriads of ages hence, be evolved into men. They belong to the
three lower kingdoms, and pertain to the Mysteries on account of
their dangerous nature.


PITRI

We have found a very erroneous opinion gaining ground not only
among Spiritualists--who see the spirits of their disembodied
fellow creatures everywhere--but even among several Orientalists
who ought to know better. It is generally believed by them that
the Sanskrit term Pitris means the spirits of our direct
ancestors; of disembodied people. Hence the argument of some
Spiritualists that fakirs, and other Eastern wonder-workers, are
mediums; that they themselves confess to being unable to produce
anything without the help of the Pitris, of whom they are the
obedient instruments. This is in more than one sense erroneous,
the error being first started, we believe, by M. L. Jacolliot, in
his Spiritisme dans le Monde, and Govinda Swami; or, as he spells
it, "the fakir Kovindasami's" phenomena.

The Pitris are not the ancestors of the present living men, but
those of the human kind or primitive race; the spirits of human
races which, on the great scale of descending evolution, preceded
our races of men, and were physically, as well as spiritually,
far superior to our modern pigmies. In Manava-Dharma-Shastra they
are called the Lunar Ancestors. The Hindu--least of all the proud
Brahman--has no such great longing to return to this land of
exile after he has shaken off his mortal coil, as has the average
Spiritualist; nor has death for him any of the great terrors it
has for the Christian. Thus, the most highly developed minds in
India will always take care to declare, while in the act of
leaving their tenements of clay, "Nachapunaravarti," "I shall not
come back," and by this very declaration is placed beyond the
reach of any living man or medium. But, it may be asked, what
then is meant by the Pitris? They are Devas, lunar and solar,
closely connected with human evolution, for the Lunar Pitris are
they who gave their Chhayas as the models of the First Race in
the Fourth Round, while the Solar Pitris endowed mankind with
intellect. Not only so, but these Lunar Devas passed through all
the kingdoms of the terrestrial Chain in the First Round, and
during the Second and Third Rounds "lead and represent the human
element." 4


VISHNU - Fire-Ether

A brief examination of the part they play will prevent all future
confusion in the student's mind between the Pitris and the
Elementals. In the Rig Veda, Vishnu (or the pervading Fire,
AEther) is shown first striding through the seven regions of the
World in three steps, being a manifestation of the Central Sun.
Later on, he becomes a manifestation of our solar energy, and is
connected with the septenary form and with the Gods, Agni, Indra
and other solar deities.

Therefore, while the "Sons of Fire," the primeval Seven of our
System, [S D I 570 - 575] emanate from the primordial Flame,
the "Seven Builders" of our Planetary Chain are the "Mind-born
Sons" of the latter, and--their instructors likewise. For, though
in one sense they are all Gods and are all called Pitris (Pitara,
Patres, Fathers), a great though very subtle distinction (quite
Occult) is made which must be noticed. In the Rig Veda they are
divided into two classes--the Pitris Agni-dagdha ("Fire-givers"),
and the pitris Anagni-dagdha ("non-Fire-givers") 5 i.e., as
explained exoterically--Pitris who sacrificed to the Gods and
those who refused to do so at the "fire-sacrifice." But the
Esoteric and true meaning is the following.

1. The first or primordial Pitris, the "Seven Sons of Fire"
or of the Flame, are distinguished or divided into seven classes
(like the Seven Sephiroth, and others, see Vayu Purana and
Harivamsha, also Rig Veda); three of which classes are Arupa,
formless, "composed of intellectual not elementary substance,"
and four are corporeal. The first are pure Agni (fire) or
Sapta-jiva ("seven lives," now become Sapta-jihva, seven-tongued,
as Agni is represented with seven tongues and seven winds as the
wheels of his car). As a formless, purely spiritual essence, in
the first degree of evolution, they could not create that, the
prototypical form of which was not in their minds, as this is the
first requisite. They could only give birth to "mind-born"
beings, their "Sons,"

2. the second class of Pitris (or Prajapati, or Rishis,
etc.), one degree more material; these, to the third--the last of
the Arupa class. It is only this last class that was enabled with
the help of the Fourth principle of the Universal Soul (Aditi,
Akasha) to produce beings that became objective and having a
form. 6 But when these came to existence, they were found to
possess such a small proportion of the divine immortal Soul or
Fire in them, that they were considered failures. "

3. The third appealed to the second, the second to the
first, and the Three had to become Four (the perfect square or
cube representing the 'Circle Squared' or immersion of pure
Spirit), before the first could be instructed" (Sansk. Comment.).
Then only, could perfect Beings--intellectually and
physically--be shaped. This, though more philosophical, is still
an allegory. But its meaning is plain, however absurd may seem
the explanation from a scientific standpoint. The Doctrine
teaches the Presence of a Universal Life (or motion) within which
all is, and nothing outside of it can be. This is pure Spirit.

Its manifested aspect is cosmic primordial Matter coeval with,
since it is, itself. Semi-spiritual in comparison to the first,
this vehicle of the Spirit-Life is what Science calls Ether,
which fills the boundless space, and it is in this substance, the
world-stuff, that germinates all the atoms and molecules of what
is called matter. However homogeneous in its eternal origin, this
Universal Element, once that its radiations were thrown into the
space of the (to be) manifested Universe, the centripetal and
centrifugal forces of perpetual motion, of attraction and
repulsion, would soon polarize its scattered particles, endowing
them with peculiar properties now regarded by Science as various
elements distinct from each other. As a homogeneous whole, the
world-stuff in its primordial state is perfect; disintegrated, it
loses its property of conditionless creative power; it has to
associate with its contraries. [see NOTES ON THE BHAGAVAD GITA,
pp, 132-3]

Thus, the first worlds and Cosmic Beings, save the
"Self-Existent"--a mystery no one could attempt to touch upon
seriously, as it is a mystery perceived by the divine eye of the
highest Initiates, but one that no human language could explain
to the children of our age--the first worlds and Beings were
failures; inasmuch as the former lacked that inherent creative
force in them necessary for their further and independent
evolution, and that the first orders of Beings lacked the
immortal soul. Part and parcel of Anima Mundi in its Prakritic
aspect, the Purusha element in them was too weak to allow of any
consciousness in the intervals (entr' actes) between their
existences during the evolutionary period and the cycle of Life.
The three orders of Beings, the Pitri-Rishis, the Sons of Flame,
had to merge and blend together their three higher principles
with the Fourth (the Circle), and the Fifth (the microcosmic)
principle before the necessary union could be obtained and result
therefrom achieved..


ELEMENTAL SPIRITS

We have but to consult the lists of the principal Daimons or
Elemental Spirits to find that their very names indicate their
professions, or, to express it clearly, the tricks for which each
variety is best adapted. So we have the Madan, a generic name
indicating wicked elemental spirits, half brutes, half monsters,
for Madan signifies one that looks like a cow. He is the friend
of the malicious sorcerers and helps them to effect their evil
purposes of revenge by striking men and cattle with sudden
illness and death.

1. The Shudala-Madan, or graveyard fiend, answers to our
ghouls. He delights where crime and murder were committed, near
burial-spots and places of execution. He helps the juggler in all
the fire phenomena as well as Kutti Shattan, the little juggling
imps. Shudala, they say, is a half-fire, half-water demon, for he
received from Shiva permission to assume any shape he chose, to
transform one thing into another; and when he is not in fire, he
is in water. It is he who blinds people "to see that which they
do not see."

2. Shula Madan is another mischievous spook. He is the
furnace-demon, skilled in pottery and baking. If you keep friends
with him, he will not injure you; but woe to him who incurs his
wrath. Shula likes compliments and flattery, and as he generally
keeps underground it is to him that a juggler must look to help
him raise a tree from a seed in a quarter of an hour and ripen
its fruit.

3. Kumil-Madan, is the undine proper. He is an Elemental
Spirit of the water, and his name means blowing like a bubble. He
is a very merry imp, and will help a friend in anything relative
to his department; he will shower rain and show the future and
the present to those who will resort to hydromancy or divination
by water.

4. Poruthu Madan is the "wrestling" demon; he is the
strongest of all; and whenever there are feats shown in which
physical force is required, such as levitations, or taming of
wild animals, he will help the performer by keeping him above the
soil, or will over-power a wild beast before the tamer has time
to utter his incantation.

So, every "physical manifestation" has its own class of Elemental
Spirits to superintend it. Besides these there are in India the
Pisachas, Daimons of the races of the gnomes, the giants and the
vampires; the Gandharvas, good Daimons, celestial seraphs,
singers; and Asuras and Nagas, the Titanic spirits and the dragon
or serpent-headed spirits.



--------------------------------

2

[Note: The text below has been extracted from a letter by H P B
. D T B]

ELEMENTALS

By H. P. Blavatsky


I PERCEIVE that of late the ostracized subject of the Kabalistic
"Elementaries" is beginning to appear in the orthodox
spiritualistic papers pretty often.

No wonder; Spiritualism and its Philosophy are progressing, and
they will progress despite the opposition of some very learned
ignoramuses, who imagine the Cosmos rotates within the academic
brain.

But if a new term is once admitted for discussion, the least we
can do is to first clearly ascertain what that term means. We
students of the Oriental Philosophy count it a clear gain that
spiritualistic journals on both sides of the Atlantic are
beginning to discuss the subject of sub-human and earth-bound
beings, even though they ridicule the idea. But do those who
ridicule know what they are talking about, having never studied
the Kabalistic writers?

It is evident to me that they are confounding the
"Elementaries"-disembodied, vicious, and earth-bound, yet human
Spirits-with the "Elementals," or Nature Spirits.

With your permission, then, I will answer an article by Dr.
Woldrich which appeared in your Journal of the 27th inst., and to
which the author gives the title of "Elementaries." I freely
admit that, owing to my imperfect knowledge of English at the
time I first wrote upon the Elementaries, I may have myself
contributed to the present confusion, and thus brought upon my
doomed head the wrath of Spiritualists, mediums, and their
"guides" into the bargain. But now I will attempt to make my
meaning clear..

Dr. Woldrich, in imitation of Herbert Spencer, attempts to
explain the existence of a popular belief in Nature Spirits,
demons and mythological deities, as the effect of an imagination
untutored by Science, and wrought upon by misunderstood natural
phenomena. He attributes the legendary Sylphs, Undines,
Salamanders and Gnomes-four great families, which include
numberless sub-divisions-to mere fancy; going however to the
extreme of affirming that by long practice one can acquire.

That power which disembodied spirits have of materializing
apparitions by the will. Granted that "disembodied Spirits" have
sometimes that power; but if disembodied why not embodied
Spirits also, i.e., a yet living person who has become an Adept
in Occultism through study?

According to Dr. Woldrich's theory, an embodied Spirit or
Magician can create only subjectively, or to quote his words:

"He is in the habit of summoning, that is, bringing up to his
imagination, his familiar spirits, which, having responded to his
will, he considers as real existences." ......


Were the persons present endowed with the same clairvoyant
faculty, they would every one of them see this creature of
"hallucination" as well; hence there would be sufficient proof
that it had an objective existence.

And this is how the experiments are conducted in certain
psychological training schools, as I call such establishments in
the East. One clairvoyant is never trusted. The person may be
honest, truthful, and have the greatest desire to learn only that
which is real, and yet mix the truth unconsciously and accept an
Elemental for a disembodied Spirit, and vice versa.

For instance, what guarantee can Dr. Woldrich give us that "Hoki"
and "Thalla," the guides of Miss May Shaw, were not simply
creatures produced by the power of the imagination? This
gentleman may have the word of his clairvoyant for this; he may
implicitly and very deservedly trust her honesty when in her
normal state; but the fact alone that a medium is a passive and
docile instrument in the hands of some invisible and mysterious
powers, ought to make her irresponsible in the eyes of every
serious investigator.

It is the Spirit, or these invisible powers, he has to test, not
the clairvoyant; and what proof has he of their trustworthiness
that he should think himself warranted in coming out as the
opponent of a Philosophy based on thousands of years of practical
experience, the iconoclast of experiments performed by whole
generations of learned Egyptians, Hierophants, Gurus, Brahmans,
Adepts of the Sanctuaries, and a whole host of more or less
learned Kabalists, who were all trained Seers?

Such an accusation, moreover, is dangerous ground for the
Spiritualists themselves. Admit once that a Magician creates his
forms only in fancy, and as a result of hallucination, and what
becomes of all the guides, spirit friends and the tutti quanti
from the sweet "Summer Land," crowding around the trance mediums
and Seers? Why these would-be disembodied entities are to be
considered more identified with humanity than the Elementals, or
as Dr. Woldrich terms them, "Elementaries," of the Magician, is
something which would scarcely bear investigation.

>From the standpoint of certain Buddhist Schools, your
correspondent may be right. Their Philosophy teaches that even
our visible Universe assumed an objective form as a result of the
fancy followed by the volition or the will of the Unknown and
Supreme Adept, differing, however, from Christian theology,
inasmuch as they teach that instead of calling out our Universe
from nothingness, He had to exercise His will upon preexisting
Matter, eternal and indestructible as to invisible Substance,
though temporary and ever-changing as to forms.

Some higher and still more subtle metaphysical Schools of Nepaul
even go so far as to affirm-on very reasonable grounds, too-that
this preexisting and self-existent Substance or Matter
(Svabhavat) is itself without any other creator or ruler; when in
the state of activity it is Pravritti, a universal creating
principle; when latent and passive they call this force
Nirvritti.

As for something eternal and infinite, for that which had neither
beginning nor end there can be neither past nor future, but
everything that was and will be, IS; therefore there never was an
action or even thought, however simple, that is not impressed in
imperishable records on this Substance, called by the Buddhists
Svabhavat, by the Kabalists Astral Light.

As in a faithful mirror, this Light reflects every image, and no
human imagination could see anything outside that which exists
impressed somewhere on the eternal Substance. To imagine that a
human brain can conceive of anything that was never conceived of
before by the "universal brain," is a fallacy and a conceited
presumption. At best, the former can catch now and then stray
glimpses of the "Eternal Thought" after this has assumed some
objective form, either in the world of the invisible, or visible,
Universe.

Hence the unanimous testimony of trained Seers goes to prove that
there are such creatures as the Elementals; and that though the
Elementaries have been at some time human Spirits, they, having
lost every connection with the purer immortal world, must be
recognized by some special term which would draw a distinct line
of demarcation between them and the true and genuine disembodied
souls, which have henceforth to remain immortal. To the Kabalists
and the Adepts, especially in India, the difference between the
two is all-important, and their tutored minds will never allow
them to mistake the one for the other; to the untutored medium
they are all one. .

Thus, Mr. Editor, your esteemed correspondent, Dr. Woldrich, may
be found guilty of an erroneous proposition. In the concluding
sentence of his article he says:

"I know not whether I have succeeded in proving the Elementary a
myth, but at least I hope that I have thrown some more light upon
the subject to some of the readers of the journal."

To this I would answer: (1) He has not proved at all the
"Elementary a myth," since the Elementaries are, with a few
exceptions, the earth-bound guides and Spirits in which he
believes, together with every other Spiritualist. (2) Instead
of throwing light upon the subject, the Doctor has but darkened
it the more. (3) Such explanations and careless exposures do
the greatest harm to the future of Spiritualism, and greatly
serve to retard its progress by teaching its adherents that they
have nothing more to learn.

Sincerely hoping that I have not trespassed too much on the
columns of your esteemed journal, allow me to sign myself, dear
sir,

Yours respectfully,

H. P. BLAVATSKY,
Corresponding Secretary of the Theosophical Society.
New York.
>From The Religio-Philosophical Journal, Nov. 17th, 1877.

[Reprinted in: MODERN PANARION p. 146, 152.]

-------------

Best wishes,

Dallas


-----Original Message-----
From: aspasia
Sent: Sunday, July 13, 2003 9:38 PM
To:
Subject: on Devas, etc

Dear Dal,

In a late email of yours, you refer to devas, elohim, dhyani
chohan,
archangels and angels and so on. In my limited knowledge these
are
orders of beings of the invisible world, some of them gifted by
individual intelligence, some others not yet. Is there any
difference on
the Hierarchical Ladder among these beings? And if so, what are
the
characteristics of each order, their duties and their relations
to
mankind and to Evolutionary Plan.

Here is another question. What is a demon? Is it an order of
beings
having completed human evolution? I, also wonder what the
difference
is between the demon of Socrates and this order of demons.

Thank you,

Best Regards,

Aspasia





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