Theos-Talk Archives (May 1996 Message tl01321)

ISIS005.TXT (Isis Unveiled, 1st Edition) - BEFORE THE VEIL
   (continued)

ELEMENTAL SPIRITS. - The creatures evolved in the four kingdoms of
   earth; air; fire; and water; and called by the kabalists gnomes;
   sylphs; salamanders; and undines. They may be termed the forces
   of nature; and will either operate effects as the servile agents
   of general law; or may be employed by the disembodied spirits -
   whether pure or impure - and by living adepts of magic and
   sorcery; to produce desired phenomenal results. Such beings
   never become men.  [Persons who believe in the clairvoyant
   power, but are disposed to discredit the existence of any other
   spirits in nature than disembodied human spirits, will be
   interested in an account of certain clairvoyant observations
   which appeared in the London Spiritualist of June 29, 1877 A
   thunderstorm approaching, the seeress saw "a bright spirit
   emerge from a dark cloud and pass with lightning speed across
   the sky, and, a few minutes after, a diagonal line of dark
   spirits in the clouds." These are the Maruts of the "Vedas" (See
   Max Muller's "Rig-Veda Sanhita").  The well-known and respected
   lecturer, author, and clairvoyant, Mrs. Emma Hardinge Britten,
   has published accounts of her frequent experiences with these
   elemental spirits.]

Under the general designation of fairies; and fays; these spirits
   of the elements appear in the myth, fable; tradition; or poetry
   of all nations; ancient and modern. Their names are legion -
   peris, devs; djins, sylvans; satyrs; fauns; elves, dwarfs;
   trolls; norns, nisses; kobolds, brownies, necks, stromkarls,
   undines, nixies; salamanders; goblins; ponkes, banshees;
   kelpies; pixies; moss people; good people; good neighbors; wild
   women; men of peace, white ladies - and many more. They have
   been seen, feared, blessed, banned, and invoked in every quarter
   of the globe and in every age. Shall we then concede that all
   who have met them were hallucinated?

These elementals are the principal agents of disembodied but never
   visible spirits at seances, and the producers of all the
   phenomena except the subjective.

ELEMENTARY SPIRITS. - 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.  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 bodies,
   these souls (also called "astral bodies") of purely
   materialistic persons, are irresistibly attracted to the earth,
   where they live a temporary and finite life amid elements
   congenial to their gross natures.  From having never, during
   their natural lives, cultivated their spirituality, but
   subordinated it to the material and gross, they are now unfitted
   for the lofty career of the pure, disembodied being, for whom
   the atmosphere of earth is stifling and mephitic, and whose
   attractions are all away from It. After a more or less prolonged
   period of time these material souls will begin to disintegrate,
   and finally, like a column of mist, be dissolved, atom by atom,
   in the surrounding elements.

ESSENES - from Asa, a healer. A sect of Jews said by Pliny to have
   lived near the Dead Sea "per millia saeculorum" - for thousands
   of ages.  Some have supposed them to be extreme Pharisees; and
   others - which may be the true theory - the descendants of the
   Benim nabim of the Bible, and think they were "Kenites" and
   "Nazarites." They had many Buddhistic ideas and practices; and
   it is noteworthy that the priests of the Great Mother at
   Ephesus, Diana-Bhavani with many breasts, were also so
   denominated. Eusebius, and after him De Quincey, declared them
   to be the same as the early Christians, which is more than
   probable.  The title "brother" used in the early Church, was
   Essenean: they were a fraternity, or a koinobion or community
   like the early converts. It is noticeable that only the
   Sadducees, or Zadokites, the priest-caste and their partisans,
   persecuted the Christians; the Pharisees were generally
   scholastic and mild, and often sided with the latter. James the
   Just was a Pharisee till his death; but Paul or Aher was
   esteemed a schismatic.

Scanned and uploaded by Alan Bain.  See posting with commentary on the
Essenes on theos-buds.
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