Paracelsus elemental spirits1/18/2024 ![]() ![]() If bodily fluids are abused, dangerous substances introduced into the bloodstream, let’s say, then the Ondine is weakened. ![]() The Ondine is symbiotically attached to the human. These spirits care for us, but we care for them, too. There is also a theory that each human being is assigned a water elemental, an Ondine, at birth, who presides over the individual’s bodily fluids including blood, urine, and lymph. Ondines emerge from foam and dissolve back into foam. Hans Christian Andersen’s concept of mermaids-who lack souls and unless loved by a man are destined to dissolve into foam-is heavily based on Paracelsus. They are vague spirits, elemental beings, lacking true personalities. They are described as having lovely voices. Ondines live in sources of fresh water (pools, springs, waterfalls, lakes) and may be composed of the element. He named the elemental spirits of water Ondines. In the days to come, I hope to discuss the use of characters associated with the classical elements in the Oz books and the video game world, and perhaps other media as well.Swiss alchemist Paracelsus (1493–24 September 1541) organized a system of elemental spirits. And, not surprisingly, they've also made their way into fantasy. They're also often associated with the occult, and mystical philosophies like Theosophy incorporate beliefs in such beings. The idea of elementals has stuck around through the ages, and a Google search reveals that they're fairly popular within the neopagan movement. The air elementals are sylphs, and don't have as many mythological associations, but are generally regarded to be quite similar to winged fairies. We now know such tales are no more true than the ostrich hiding its head in the sand, but since the idea of a fire lizard is still intriguing, some modern fantasists think of the elemental as a completely different animal than the amphibian of that name. They were also thought to be able to withstand heat because of their moist skin. Fire elementals are salamanders, the association likely coming from how salamanders would hibernate in logs and scurry out to escape when the logs were set ablaze, giving the impression to a casual observer that the flames created them. That also presumably means they can't go to Hell either, but I'm not sure the myth writers addressed that. I guess the idea is that it gives humans a certain amount of superiority over traditional immortals, since they can go to Heaven while the minor deities are stuck on Earth forever. Some legends had it that an undine had no soul unless it married a mortal, an idea that showed up from time to time in post-Christian folklore. Undines are water spirits, the term being the French name for mermaids. The term "gnome" might have been original with Paracelsus, and probably derives from the Latin and Greek for "earth-dweller," although it was commonly believed at one point that it was connected to the term for knowledge. Earth was ruled by the gnomes, diminutive dwarfs from European folklore. His names for such creatures came from mythology, although he sometimes changed details from older descriptions of nature spirits. Some sources suggest that Paracelsus associated each of the classical elements with a real atomic element (carbon for earth, hydrogen for water, oxygen for air, and for some reason nitrogen for fire), and he also proposed intelligent beings dwelling in each of these elements. Since the discovery of actual elements, however, it seems that the classical elements are typically viewed symbolically rather than literally. These elements have, throughout history, been linked to everything from planets to months of the year. The Chinese had slightly different classical elements, counting metal and wood but not air. In Japanese thought, the fifth element was known as Void. There was sometimes also a fifth element added to the mix, but contrary to what Ted Turner and Captain Planet might have told you, it wasn't "heart." Rather, Aristotle decided that the fifth element was aether, also known as quintessence, an immutable substance from which the gods and the heavens are made. These, of course, were earth, fire, air, and water. He was a believer in the four classical elements as known in Greece, India, and Japan. Many cultures believed in such beings, but the most famous classification is probably that determined by the sixteenth century physician and alchemist Phillip von Hohenheim, better known as Paracelsus. This week, I thought it might be fun to look at elementals, which are basically nature spirits. ![]()
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