Elemental

An elemental is a mythological being first appearing in the alchemical works of Paracelsus. Traditionally, there are four types: [Carole B. Silver, "Strange and Secret Peoples: Fairies and Victorian Consciousness", p 38 ISBN 0-19-512199-6]
*gnomes, earth elementals
*undines, water elementals
*sylphs, air elementals
*salamanders, fire elementals.

The exact term for each type varies somewhat from source to source, though these four are now the most usual. Most of these beings are found in folklore as well as alchemy; their names are often used interchangeably with similar beings from folklore. [C.S. Lewis, "The Discarded Image", p135 ISBN 0-521-47735-2] The sylph, however, is rarely encountered outside of alchemical contexts.

The basic concept of an elemental refers to the ancient idea of elements as fundamental building blocks of nature. In the system prevailing in the Classical world, there were four elements: fire, earth, air, and water. This paradigm was highly influential in Medieval natural philosophy, and Paracelsus evidently intended to draw a range of mythological beings into this paradigm by identifying them as belonging to one of these four elemental types.

Elementals of Air, Earth, Fire and Water

In mysticism, magic and alchemy, an elemental is a creature (usually a spirit) that is attuned with, or composed of, one of the classical elements: air, earth, fire and water.The elements balance each other out through opposites: water quenches fire, fire boils water, earth contains air, air erodes earth. The concept of elementals seems to have been conceived by Paracelsus in the 16th century, though he did not in fact use the term "elemental" or a German equivalent. [Paracelsus, "Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus." in "Philosophia magna, de divinis operibus et seretis naturae. V. 1." Date unknown, but thought to be a later work.] Paracelsus gave common names for the elemental types, as well as alternate names, which he seems to have considered somewhat more proper. He also referred to them by purely German terms which are roughly equivalent to "water people," "mountain people," and so on, using all the different forms interchangeably. The Paracelsian elementals were:

Of these names, "gnomus", "undina", and "sylph" are all thought to have appeared first in Paracelsus' works, though "undina" is a fairly obvious Latin derivative. The other names are traditional terms, though the Paracelsian usage is thought to be novel.

He noted that undines are similar to humans in size, while sylphs are rougher, bigger, longer, and stronger. Gnomes are short, while salamanders are long, narrow, and lean.

In his influential "De Occulta Philosophia" of the same period, Heinrich Cornelius Agrippa also wrote of four classes of spirits corresponding to the four elements, though he did not give special names for the classes. Agrippa did however give an extensive list of various mythological beings of this type, although without clarifying which belongs to which elemental class. [ [http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/De_Occulta_Philosophia/Book_3/Part_1#Chapter_xvi._Of_Intelligences_and_spirits.2C_and_of_the_threefold_kind_of_them.2C_and_of_their_diverse_names.2C_and_of_Infernall_and_subterraneall_spirits. De Occulta Philosophia Book 3, Ch. 16] ] Like Paracelsus, he did not use the term "elemental spirit" "per se".

Elementals are commonly mentioned in grimoires dealing with alchemy and sorcery and are usually "called" by summoning.

ee also

* Elementals in fiction
* Elemental (video game)

References

*"undine." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 November 2006 .
* Theophrast von Hohenheim a.k.a. Paracelsus, "Sämtliche Werke: Abt. 1, v. 14, sec. 7, Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus." Karl Sudhoff and Wilh. Matthießen, eds. Munich:Oldenbourg, 1933.

External links

* [http://www.angelfocus.com/elementals.htm Angel Focus' Elementals Page]
* [http://faerie.monstrous.com/ List of Elementals]
* [http://bib1lp1.rz.tu-bs.de/docportal/servlets/MCRFileNodeServlet/DocPortal_derivate_00000702/intro.htm Collected Works of Paracelsus V. 14 at the University of Braunschweig (German)]