Nonetheless many of these concepts also have resemblance with proclamations of Paracelsus, a Swiss alchemist born at end of 15th century. In his view, the world is a living whole, which, like man, the microcosm, in whom the whole content of the macrocosm is concentrated. The later Victorian concept of ether is outlined in his words as "prima materia" which is the unified stuff from which matter is created and underlies all substances. Prima materia is not matter, but rather a potentiality. The four primary elements “earth, water, air and fire” manifest the concrete prima materia.[145][146]
Disease is a checking of those four vital principles by contrary powers, which are of a terrestrial and of a sidereal nature. Three worlds are distinguished for Paracelsus: the elemental or terrestrial, the astral or celestial, and the spiritual or divine; all building the human constitution. The matter is built by means of air plus the three fundamental essences quicksilver, sulfur, and salt, by which in Latin, Paracelsus relates as:mercurius, that which makes bodies liquid (water); sulphur, that which makes them combustible (fire); sal, that which makes them solid (earth).
There is more bliss in describing the nymphs than in describing medals. There is more bliss in describing the mountain people underground than in describing fencing and service to ladies. For in these things the human spirit is used to move in divine works, while in the other things the spirit is used to seek the word's manner and applause, in vanity and dishonesty.—Paracelsus (16th century)
Compounded the four elements, each of which is ruled by elemental spirits. Earth by gnomes, water by undines or nymphs, air by sylphs, fire by salamanders; all aresublimated substances and not demoniacal beings.
They are not conventional spirits, because they live, procreate, eat, drink, smell, speak (some), laugh, sing, perform, rest and die. They differ from one another in person, character, and species; are beings populating a space between men and spirits, looking like the man in their organization and form and resembling spirits in the swiftness of their movement.
The water type looks like a man or woman living in the waters. Salamanders are fiery balls or else long, narrow, glowing lights running across meadows and living in the volcanoes and bonfires. The forest or mountain kind seems a little people. The sylphs have no defined form but are long and strong. They can have a rapport with humans but after while come back to their world.[145] They know the minds, thoughts and cogitations of men. And they sometimes are the executioners of divine wrath, nevertheless they also can warn, watch and defend people from dangers.[147]
Nature spirits cannot be destroyed by action of regular earthy substances on account of they are in etheric condition, therefore in a rate of higher vibration. However they can have etheric diseases and their bodies after death solely disintegrate, no individual consciousness is preserved although they are of a high moral character.[147]
Being made of ether, a single substance, there is no friction in their composition, consequently there is little "tear" brought upon their bodily functions, and they can live long time. Thus nature spirits have a mean of length of life between three hundred and a thousand years. Those made of air ether have longest life while those of earth etherare the shortest lived, states Paracelsus. Connected to this gist, the writer Castaneda substantiates that ethereal beings have an extremely narrow tear compared to one of a regular living being like the man. That ethereal tear or slit, located adjacent to center of body, as time goes, the spirit of death incessantly strikes and makes it to grow larger until it finally broke open the “lively casing” and cause an immediate death.[148] That’s why people and animals curl when mortally injured; they are instinctively protecting their slits.[60][73][149]
According to Paracelsus some sorts of earth elementals, like the gnomes, live congregated in communities, while others are restrict to the substances in which they perform. Hamadryads, for example, live and die with the trees of which they act. Small nature spirits often inhabit alone every shrub and flower. The man lives in the exterior elements and the elementals live in the interior Elements, states Paracelsus. Concerning that, the writer C. M. Gayley in The Classic Myths, observes each species is served by a distinct and suitable kind of nature spirit. For instance the hemlock, a poisonous shrub, has an elemental resembling a pygmy human skeleton covered with a thin translucent skin. This nature spirit, even if the plant is cut down, stays with the shrub’s remains while there is any residue of life until finally both die, plant and elemental guardian.[150]
Looking through the assertions proclaimed by Paracelsus, particularly those related to sylphs, comes out the comparison with the work Phaedo by ancient Greek philosopher Plato in which there are correlated descriptions. In Phaedo the Greek philosopher Socrates fairly narrates the existence of an unaware world connected with the ordinary world of the man. According to Socrates, that is the "upper earth" where its diverse inhabitants live much longer than common persons and do not have diseases. They have sight, hearing and smell, and all the other senses. They openly talk and hear the voices and answers of theirs gods, which truly dwell their sacred places. In the upper earth some beings dwell in the air, they use the air as men use the sea, and the ether it is their air, articulates Socrates.[151]
Even from perspective of nature spirits, proceeds Paracelsus, some entities are unorthodox creatures, such as giants and sirens, due to the fact that elementals can beget these anomalies that die out soon. The apparition of these means a disequilibrium on nature and omen of impending disaster.[145]
Elementals, says the alchemist, have subtle blood, flesh and bones; they are able to travel through walls but each kind has its own density according to its abode. Each kind does not withstand the abode of another kind. They work like men but their work is for the nature where them live.
They are non-Adamic creatures, are sinless, not have soul but if procreate with man, gain soul and have human descendents. They are under protection of God, clothed and guided by him. However evil spirits can possess elementals and these can harm people. Besides elementals dispose of knowledge about past, present and future without penetration, so can be dangerous deal with them.
Concerning the question of the soul deliberated by Paracelsus, certain philosophies, such the Taoism, posit it as manifold as well as some other cultures ground a dualism to the soul. The axial concept takes into account that inhabit the living body the po, an animal soul, and the hun, the spiritual soul. Po is connected to body functions, it is the "moon soul", an ephemeron and terrene soul, while hun is the “solar soul”, that is to say, the celestial and free soul.[152] As a further matter, in his writings Castaneda gives another interpretation where he understands the absolute inexistence of everlasting souls.[153]However, he states, the body itself it is an entity holding own consciousness, while the regular mind it is another separated being.[154] Ultimately both entities would become a true oneness if they accomplished the enlightenment.[71][73][155]
Although Paracelsus thereof repeatedly claims the soulless nature of elementals he also clarifies that actually they have exquisite souls. Elementals do not have an eternal soul but they are themselves a kind of soul, its soul it is the life. When a fire burns, this happens for there is an "elemental soul", in other words, life it is present. Without that soul, a fire cannot burn; what burn it are not the elements of fire but its soul. The soul of the elementals is the life of all created things.[31]
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