Invisible Creatures of the Elements by Manly P. Hall

Invisible Creatures of the Elements Paracelsus gained enduring distinction as a patron of forlorn causes. He advanced and defended beliefs, opinions, and doctrines unpopular in his own day and even less acceptable to the mind of the 20th Cen- tury. 16th Century Europe is now regarded as superstition-ridden, and doctrines then held as valid subjects for scientific consideration have been totally rejected, or at least allowed to languish in dignified oblivion. As we have noted before, Paracelsus chose to gather his friends and ac- quaintances from among the peasantry. He liked to visit hermits living in huts and caves, and to explore the myths and legends of the gypsies, alchemists, herbalists, and even magicians and sorcerers. He was con- vinced that the folk-beliefs flourishing in isolated regions had valid origin and meaning for those who had the wit and wisdom to examine them * 46 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus with open and charitable attitudes. We are inclined today to agree with Paracelsus, accepting ancient symbols and ideas not as mere inventions, fabrications, or delusions, but as revealing the deeper phases of human consciousness, much as we regard dreams and visions as testimony to the inner life of the individual. All over the world, people of every race and class, and belonging to many levels and degrees of intelligence, have affirmed the reality of creatures in nature other than those with which we are commonly acquainted. The mythologies of the Persians, Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, and Egyptians, abound with accounts of spirits, benevolent or malevolent, who occasionally involve themselves in the affairs of ordinary mortals. The Greeks had their nymphs and dryades , sprites of fountain and forest. The ancient Druids had their tree-spirits, inhabiting the sacred groves, and the Teutonic tribes never questioned the reality of the Nibelungen folk — gnomes and earth-dwarfs who guarded lost treasures. Although Paracelsus never reached Ireland, he would have found there the same respect for leprechauns, who pegged shoes in forest glades, and fairies, like the airy people o $ A Midsummer Night's Dream, who held court in meadows, and whose dances caused fairy rings of bright flowers. Of course, Paracelsus did not actually invent his explanations relat- ing to elementals and elementaries. He merely adapted them from the writings of the Egyptians and other learned nations of the ancient world. On one occasion, Socrates, desiring to discourse with his disciples, chose a certain shaded and secluded place because the spirits that inhabited it would contribute to the dignity and richness of the occasion. Iamblichus, in his work on the Mysteries, mentions attending spirits, some of which are associated with a person from his birth and become his protectors. This concept, which returns in Christian theology as the Guardian Angel, is not regarded as contrary to the doctrines of the Church. Paracelsus was a devout man, and drew much of his inspiration from the Bible and early commentaries thereon. He was therefore not a stranger to the Scriptures or the miracles and mysterious appearances • 47 • Manly Palmer Hall which they set forth. He came to the conclusion that the subject of sub- mundanes, or nonhuman beings in nature, did not conflict with the orthodox inclinations of pious persons. In the Archidoxis, he tells us that there arc two kinds of substances in nature — two kinds of bodies — which he quaintly describes when he says “there is a flesh from Adam and there is also a flesh that is not from Adam.” He goes on to say that Adamic flesh is composed of the mingling of the four basic elements that were known to the ancients. We must bear in mind that our modern theory of elements is far more complicated than the older concept. The four elements of the ancients were earth, water, fire, and air, and the flesh of Adam is composed of a mingling of these four elements. Thus, in the human body, there is a physical or mineral part, a vegetative or humid part, a fiery' principle, sustaining warmth and motion, and an airy or gaseous principle, often related to the structure of the intellect. Thus the human body is made up of solids, liquids, gases, and a fiery principle. Some of the Cabalists held that the four rivers described in Genesis as flowing out of the Garden of Eden, represented the streams of energy sustaining the four primordial elements. These elements, again, were sy'mboiized by the four fixed signs of the zodiac: Taurus the Bull, repre- senting earth; Scorpio the Scorpion, representing water; Leo the Lion, representing fire; and Aquarius, sometimes called the Water-bearer, an electrical kind of fluid associated with the spirit of air. These elements later became identified with the four corners of the world, and in Chris- tianity, with the four Apostles or Evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In art, these Evangelists were often pictured accompanied by the fixed signs of the zodiac. Man, descending from Adam and receiving his body from the Adamic flesh, iives in four elementary spheres at the same time. He has dominion over these elements, with the power to control, integrate, and arrange them, and he also possesses within himself what is called in alchemy the quintessence, or the fifth essence. This is a psychic spiritual energy, superior to the elements, by the agency of which these elements can be bound and unbound, held together in conformity with the laws • 48 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus governing the human creation. This quintessence, or fifth power, was known to both the Pythagoreans and the Paracelsians as the soul, which permeated the flesh of Adam, ensouled him, so that he became indeed a living being. Paracelsus explains that we come to know the elements because we have a certain experience of them through our sensory perceptions and our intellectual powers. We know that the earth extends beneath our feet; we can touch solid substances and know them to have structure, weight, shape, and size. Bodies grow from the earth, and the more corporeal parts of these bodies are of the earth-earthy, like the trunk of a tree or the bones of animals. Such forms belong to the physical element of earth; they are derived from it, and ultimately they return to it again. Man is also sustained and supported by liquids, which together the ancients called the water element. The human being can live much longer without food than without water. Yet this very water which preserves him, and of which his body is largely composed, can also destroy him; that is, he can drown or become dropsical in his own flesh. Man must also possess the principle of heat or fire in order to exist, and Paracelsus believed that the heat-radiating center in the body was the liver. Without heat, man must die, but with too much heat, he can also be consumed. So fire is both a friendly and a dangerous element. The last of these elements its air, and without this, man can survive only a few moments. He discov- ers his indebtedness when he climbs to a high altitude and experiences difficulty because of the rarified atmosphere. He lives within air as the fish lives within water, and the pressure of air upon his body is likewise essential to his survival. Paracelsus resolved to explore the mysteries of these four elements, through the cooperation of which man lives and moves and has his be- ing: He decided that these elements are not merely substances heaped together, or stratified, or aggregated for the simple convenience of man. Each has an existence apart from man. Every element has its own bound- aries, its own laws and rules, and each contributes to the maintenance of compound structures because of an internal virtue or energy-factor. . 49 • Manly Palmer Hall Such elements, therefore, are indeed rivers of life, and man, in order to retain his physical economy must preserve the balance of these elements in his body at all times, which he does by means of nutrition and even the introduction of talismans and magical formulas. Elements are not always visible, nor is man able to solve their mystery completely by merely observing their effects in his own life. Fire, for example, is a spontaneous element arising here, disappearing there, blaz- ing forth from the volcano or from the striking of flint and steel. A fire may disappear, burn out, leaving only cold embers, but the principle or spirit of fire remains, and it may be conjured into manifestation by those requiring its assistance. Each of the elements, in the Paracelsian theory, is actually a kind of a world — a sphere interpenetrating the spheres of the other elements, yet possessing qualities of its own. Thus there are four spheres: earth the most visible, physical and fixed; water — physical but mutable; fire — sometimes visible in combustion, and more mutable; and finally air — usually invisible, and to be discovered, as in the case of wind, when it causes some physical thing to move, like the swaying of branches or the filling of a sail. All physical elements are therefore two-fold, possessing a causal nature, essentially invisible, and a nature according to effect or consequence, usually visible to some degree. Paracelsus explained that these spheres of the four elements are subject to a certain kind of scientific analysis, if man possesses internal faculties beyond the objective sense perceptions. Man, by virtue of his own constitution, lives in a world of three dimensions, but he is surrounded by a universe in which there are an infinite number of dimensions beyond human experience. A dimension is more than a mere division or expression of extent and expanse. The element spheres expand into dimensions beyond us, and are finally lost to our comprehension in the concept of space, which is actually the reservoir of dimension. There are forms in nature which are not three- dimensional or two-dimensional or one-dimensional, as we apply such terms. There are also forms in which there are many more dimensions than we have ever recognized. Paracelsus further believed that man • 50 • 1 The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus possesses powers and latent faculties by which it is possible for him to gradually become aware of a many-dimensioned universe. This will mean the ultimate conquest of space through the realization that there is no such thing as space, but merely an infinite expanse of unfolding areas of visible or invisible, known or unknown life, energy, and substance. There is no vacuum in the universe, and the nearest thing to a vacuum, according to Paracelsus, was the brain of one of his fellow professors at Basel University. Man, on certain occasions, may be able to break through some of the dimension-binders which hold his consciousness in psychological re- straint. This can occur in sleep or in the dream state. Paracelsus belonged to that group of philosophers who maintained that our comparative ignorance on the subjective side of our own lives was due mostly to our hypnotic addiction to objectivity. The consciousness of the small child, not having been adversely conditioned by what we call the reasonable, retains faculties by which he may penetrate some of the dimensional boundaries and become aware of invisible creatures, or participate in experiences which are not of this world. Later, however, ridicule and the pressure of common opinion contribute to the loss of the extra faculties and their perceptions. To make his point as simple as possible, Paracelsus devotes some consideration to the element of water. We all know that the seas and oceans, rivers and streams, and even the old family rain barrel, are worlds populated with living things, whose ways of life differ from our own, but are well adapted to the element in which they exist. Visible water is only a small part of the liquid element. The whole sphere of water, visible and invisible, terrestrial and sidereal, may therefore also be a habitable region. Could we see this region, it might unfold as a varied and wonderful landscape. There could be rocks composed only of the humid principle; mountains and valleys, plants and animals, some resem- bling human beings, others without any correspondence in our mortal experience. Actually, all this wonderful world is differentiated within one substance only. It is not a compound, but this does not mean that • 51 • Mar.lv Palmer Hall it cannot support or advance the destinies of the creatures developing within it. If nature produces a sphere, or plane of substance or activity, it does not leave this creation lifeless and forlorn. Every dimension of environment sustains living things, even as the visible earth sustains its diversity of flora and fauna. Thus there is a two-fold world of earth — one visible, and the other invisible; and the same is true of water, of fire, and of air. These elements are also worlds, and these worlds are inhabited. The creatures of such invisible planes are called by the Paracelsian mystics elemental. This is because each is composed of a single element, with both the advantages and disadvantages of an uncompounded con- stitution. All elementals differ from human beings in two respects: first, they have a body composed of only one element; and second, they do not have a soul, because the soul itself arises in compound bodies and cannot find a habitation appropriate to itself in forms composed of single elements. Actually, in the case of elementals, spirit, soul, and body, are not differentiated because these creatures have not been individualized as man has been. Being thus undifferentiated, they do not possess moral natures; that is, they are amoral; they are neither good nor bad. In this, they resemble animals. They do not worship, nor do they fear any evil. They are not frightened by death, nor are they constituted for immortal- ity. They have an existence without conflict. Because there is no stress or pressure, as must exist in compound beings, their constitutions are not subject to wear or exhaustion. These elemental beings can therefore exist for a very long time in comparison to man, and when their existence ends, they dissolve again into the substance from which they came. Because all four elements are material but not physical, their cor- responding beings are also essentially material, though not physical, as we understand that term. They are subject to the laws of generation, and attain a certain gradual evolution within the elemental field to which they belong. By their constitution, however, the growth which they attain advances the element itself rather than the nature of the separate beings. • 52 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Paracelsus, following the concepts of Greece, Egypt, India, and China, divided elemental beings into four groups. Of these, he considered the earth-spirits, or the gnomes, to be those most closely associated with matter; the water-spirits, he calls undines, or nymphs; the fire-spirits, salamanders; and the air-spirits, sylphs. Paracelsus also indicates that the elementals not only live within their particular elements, but are the administrators of the processes associated with the elements. In other words, we seem to perceive a certain intelligence operating in the relation- ships of elements and creatures. We observe the growth of metals in the earth, and how fishes have a certain instinctive knowledge of the rules governing their own existences. This is likewise true of animals, birds, and of the larger expressions of elements in storms, the formations of clouds, whirlpools, eddies, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It is scarcely necessary for us to enlarge the stories relating to elemen- tals. We can, however, summarize the Paracelsian concept. Elementals are divided into races and groups. They have their homes; they are ruled over by kings and princes; they perform innumerable tasks, busying themselves in their world as we busy ourselves with the problems of our dimension and existence. Occasionally, these elementals come into our own sphere of awareness because our natures include the substances within which the elementals exist. Legends like the story of Undine, the beautiful accounts of the Greek nymphs, and of gnomes revealing their treasures to mortals for whom they have a friendship, are regarded by us as pure fiction, but Paracelsus recommended that the subject be given further examination. In his philosophy, Paracelsus also differentiated an entirely different group of invisible creatures, referring to them as elementaries. At first, the terms might seem confusingly similar. We must remember that an elemental is a natural creature derived from the flesh that is not the flesh of Adam, and belonging to the orderly procedure of creative processes in the universe. By contrast, the elementary is an artificial being, created in the invisible worlds by man himself. In harmony with more recent findings, Paracelsus noted that most elementaries seem to be of an evil • 53 • Manly Palmer Hall or destructive nature. They are generated from the excesses of human thought and emotion, the corruption of character, or the degeneration of faculties and powers which should be used in other, more construc- tive, ways. A good example of the Paracelsian elementary is the incubus. This is a kind of demon which exists because when God created Adam, he breathed into him the divine power. Man is therefore a creator, not merely in the terms of the perpetuation of the species, but especially in terms of the imagination. Man is creative in arts, sciences, and philoso- phies, but his creative powers are not only external, but also internal. Because he lives, man bestows life, and he can generate creatures from his thoughts and emotions, even as from his flesh. The power to create is the power of vibration, by which anything is set into a peculiar motion. This motion is itself immortal, and contributes its own power to other things forever. The invisible progeny of man include thought-forms and emotion-forms. These are like infants, especially in their beginnings, for they depend upon their creator for their nutrition and survival. Later, however, if the forces which generate them continue to operate, these thought and emotion-forms gain strength, finally attaining a kind of independence which is their immortality. Having thus become even stronger than their creator, these thought or emotion-forms will turn upon the one who fashioned them, often causing in him a terrible habit and destroying his health and happiness. Man may also create by the power of his speech. Among Orientals, addicts to hashish and other drugs have reported their ability, while under the influence of these narcotics, to see words coming out of the human mouth. These words appear as luminous forms or patterns. Paracelsus tells us substantially the same thing. Entities thus created by thought, emotion, or the spoken words, are further sustained by the continual flowing of energy from the person. If such support is not sufficient a kind of vampirism sets in, and the elementary, like a parasitic plant, drains the energy of the human body to support its own growth. It becomes a psychic tumor, surviving at the expense of the organism to which it is attached. • 54 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Much of the information gathered by Paracelsus relating to the incubus is interesting from a psychological standpoint. We know that the human psyche can become ridden with pressure-centers or pressure- patterns which we call fixations, complexes, phobias, and the like. We know that these negative psychic formations are nourished by the continual repetition of the attitudes which caused them. We say that negative attitudes become habitual, by degrees taking over and destroying the mental and emotional integrity of the individual. A fixation, well nour- ished by attitudes suitable for its perpetuation, intensifies, becoming actually avaricious and resolved to dominate or possess the entire life of its unhappy victim. This again suggests the Paracelsian analogy between the incubus and the parasite. Just as a beautiful orchid, or the mistletoe plant, lives partly from the air and partly from the tree to which it is attached, so the incubus, or the phobia, is an unlawful being, surviving not because its roots are in nature, but at the expense of another living organism whose vital forces will be vampirized. Modern thinking, therefore, sheds a light upon the concept of elementaries, extending beyond the basic research of Paracelsus. We observe today the tremendous increase in mental pathology. We know that attitudes which become more and more fixed lead to what science calls a state of obsession. Paracelsus used the term obsession to signify possession by an entity. Today the term is used to signify possession by an abnormal attitude. What is the fact of this matter? Is it possible that the abnormal attitude has gradually become an entity? We may prefer not to assume such a belief, but how can we completely explain the pe- culiar and continuous undermining of the consciousness and morality of a human being? Once a destructive attitude has come into posses- sion of a life, the person is gradually devoured by that attitude, which appears to become more and more possessive. Many persons under psychological obsession resist treatment, as though some foreign creature were fighting for its own survival in them. Often, indeed, in a mental illness, the patient, instead of desiring to recover, becomes defensive of his ailment, defending abnormalcy more courageously than he would ever defend normalcy. • 55 • I I Manly Palmer Hull Much has also been written on the subject of vampires, the mysterious | undead who live upon the blood of the living and can be destroyed only j when a stake is driven through their hearts. In Paracelsian psychology, the vampire also plays an interesting role. There seems to be an analogy I with what might be termed collective manias. To become a vampire, we | must first be the victim of a vampire. This evil creature can function only at night, and must sleep forever in its own earth. Many psychological j ailments seem to be communicated by the pressures of one person ad- > versely influencing the life of another. We have great psychoses, shared j by multitudes of persons, such as fear of war, crime, sickness, poverty, and death. Once we have been attacked by these fears, we become like j them. We perpetuate negative thought and emotion-forms, preserving our own bad habits by causing others to share them. Destructive thought- patterns therefore organize into groups, and in each of these groups, there are millions of persons exemplifying the same destructive and morbid tendencies. These, according to Paracelsus, result in collective thought- forms, which will become attached to persons who make themselves available through a basic kind of negation. The individual then simply becomes receptive to the pressures of his world, allows these pressures to move in, until he finally becomes another unit in the pressure-group, adding his negative influence to the already tragic condition. In the Paracelsian doctrine, there is, however, a solid sense of jus- tice. In order to be a victim of elementaries of any kind, the individual must be potentially given to excessive attitudes or destructive habits. The kindly person, fully occupied in useful endeavors, will not open his nature to infection or contagion. Actually, the elementary is closely associated with imagination, which can be a distorting and deforming force in the life of the individual. In the aloneness of his private living, the melancholy person becomes filled with self-pity, deludes himself, convinces his mind that he is the victim of injury or neglect, and finally prepares his nature for the development of one of these psychic entities. Recovery must therefore be a reversal of process, in which faith, friend- ship, understanding, tolerance, and good humor break the vicious circle and deprive the obsession of its needed nutrition. . 56 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Out of his philosophy of elementaries, Paracelsus came to the conclusion that a very large part of what we consider to be physical disease, results from psychic parasites generated by wrong thought and emotion. He did not go so far as to insist that attitudes are the sole cause of sickness, but he regarded them as extremely important factors. Furthermore, wrong attitudes will reduce the probability of recovery, and leave the patient without the proper energy for the reorientation of his career. Gradually, the obsessing entity or elementary sets up physical equivalents in the body, which symbolize the state of the soul and the interior sickness of the mind and heart. Paracelsus was enough of a psychologist to recognize that the black magician of medieval sorcery is simply the black psychic side of ourselves. The dishonest person seeking to gain by unlawful ends certain securi- ties or advantages normally reserved for those of proper attainments, becomes a kind of sorcerer who, with spells and incantations, tries to fulfill his own selfishness. Thus, a person living an apparently respectable life, but inwardly filled with hatreds, morbid emotion, and destructive attitudes, is creating another being within his own magnetic field — a kind of second and negative self. This is suggested in the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the Paracelsian period of human activity, it was believed that certain persons had attendant demons, or familiar spirits, who served their bidding for a time and then claimed the immortal soul of the magician. This is the Mephisto who attached himself to Faust, as the result of what has been called the Faustian complex. This Mephisto is ever whispering in our ear that we may do as we please, regardless of consequences, and we agree because we desire to agree; but if we follow this course and listen to this demoniacal voice, our satanic imp will ultimately carry us away to his own infernal region. Contrary to general opinion, Paracelsus did not believe that our private elementaries, demons, and vampires, could go out from us and hurt the persons we hate or wish to injure. The elementary cannot ex- ist except within the energy-field of its own creator. Destructive emo- tions or hatreds, therefore, can never escape from us, but having been * 57 • I Manly Pd mer Hail generated and allowed to flow into the energy-field, they return to us j again in the forms of various disasters. The hate we turn upon another | strengthens only the power to hate in ourselves. For this reason, the [ doctrine is soundly ethical. Our own evil destroys us, usually so slowly 1 and mysteriously that we do not understand the procedure. We are I reminded always that evil is its own punishment, even as good is its own greatest reward. Paracelsus also had another theory which perhaps will seem incred- \ ible to us, yet it deals with a subject which we have never satisfactorily solved. This has to do with the problem of germs, bacterial organisms, and viruses — those microforms of life that are so dangerous to the health of ordinary mortals. Paracelsus believed that the germ, or its equivalent, is a psychic entity created by creatures possessing mental and emotional powers. He pointed out that epidemical disease usually accompanies out- breaks of destructive human intensity. War, for example, is nearly always accompanied by a plague, and also by violent seismic disorders. By this way of thinking, the Swiss Hermes points out the danger of overloading those processes of nature by means of which physical, emotional and mental pollution is neutralized or overcome. We are now [ concerned with water pollution and with the pollution of air, as in the smog problem. Paracelsus believed that the psychic fields of the world, which must absorb the psychic toxins arising from the negative dispo- sitional characteristics of mental and emotional creatures, can become J so polluted that they can no longer cleanse themselves with sufficient [ rapidity. The result is the rise of psychic toxin in the energy field of the planet. Invisible Creatures of the Elements Paracelsus gained enduring distinction as a patron of forlorn causes. He advanced and defended beliefs, opinions, and doctrines unpopular in his own day and even less acceptable to the mind of the 20th Cen- tury. 16th Century Europe is now regarded as superstition-ridden, and doctrines then held as valid subjects for scientific consideration have been totally rejected, or at least allowed to languish in dignified oblivion. As we have noted before, Paracelsus chose to gather his friends and ac- quaintances from among the peasantry. He liked to visit hermits living in huts and caves, and to explore the myths and legends of the gypsies, alchemists, herbalists, and even magicians and sorcerers. He was con- vinced that the folk-beliefs flourishing in isolated regions had valid origin and meaning for those who had the wit and wisdom to examine them * 46 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus with open and charitable attitudes. We are inclined today to agree with Paracelsus, accepting ancient symbols and ideas not as mere inventions, fabrications, or delusions, but as revealing the deeper phases of human consciousness, much as we regard dreams and visions as testimony to the inner life of the individual. All over the world, people of every race and class, and belonging to many levels and degrees of intelligence, have affirmed the reality of creatures in nature other than those with which we are commonly acquainted. The mythologies of the Persians, Mongolians, Chinese, Japanese, Hindus, and Egyptians, abound with accounts of spirits, benevolent or malevolent, who occasionally involve themselves in the affairs of ordinary mortals. The Greeks had their nymphs and dryades , sprites of fountain and forest. The ancient Druids had their tree-spirits, inhabiting the sacred groves, and the Teutonic tribes never questioned the reality of the Nibelungen folk — gnomes and earth-dwarfs who guarded lost treasures. Although Paracelsus never reached Ireland, he would have found there the same respect for leprechauns, who pegged shoes in forest glades, and fairies, like the airy people o $ A Midsummer Night's Dream, who held court in meadows, and whose dances caused fairy rings of bright flowers. Of course, Paracelsus did not actually invent his explanations relat- ing to elementals and elementaries. He merely adapted them from the writings of the Egyptians and other learned nations of the ancient world. On one occasion, Socrates, desiring to discourse with his disciples, chose a certain shaded and secluded place because the spirits that inhabited it would contribute to the dignity and richness of the occasion. Iamblichus, in his work on the Mysteries, mentions attending spirits, some of which are associated with a person from his birth and become his protectors. This concept, which returns in Christian theology as the Guardian Angel, is not regarded as contrary to the doctrines of the Church. Paracelsus was a devout man, and drew much of his inspiration from the Bible and early commentaries thereon. He was therefore not a stranger to the Scriptures or the miracles and mysterious appearances • 47 • Manly Palmer Hall which they set forth. He came to the conclusion that the subject of sub- mundanes, or nonhuman beings in nature, did not conflict with the orthodox inclinations of pious persons. In the Archidoxis, he tells us that there arc two kinds of substances in nature — two kinds of bodies — which he quaintly describes when he says “there is a flesh from Adam and there is also a flesh that is not from Adam.” He goes on to say that Adamic flesh is composed of the mingling of the four basic elements that were known to the ancients. We must bear in mind that our modern theory of elements is far more complicated than the older concept. The four elements of the ancients were earth, water, fire, and air, and the flesh of Adam is composed of a mingling of these four elements. Thus, in the human body, there is a physical or mineral part, a vegetative or humid part, a fiery' principle, sustaining warmth and motion, and an airy or gaseous principle, often related to the structure of the intellect. Thus the human body is made up of solids, liquids, gases, and a fiery principle. Some of the Cabalists held that the four rivers described in Genesis as flowing out of the Garden of Eden, represented the streams of energy sustaining the four primordial elements. These elements, again, were sy'mboiized by the four fixed signs of the zodiac: Taurus the Bull, repre- senting earth; Scorpio the Scorpion, representing water; Leo the Lion, representing fire; and Aquarius, sometimes called the Water-bearer, an electrical kind of fluid associated with the spirit of air. These elements later became identified with the four corners of the world, and in Chris- tianity, with the four Apostles or Evangelists — Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. In art, these Evangelists were often pictured accompanied by the fixed signs of the zodiac. Man, descending from Adam and receiving his body from the Adamic flesh, iives in four elementary spheres at the same time. He has dominion over these elements, with the power to control, integrate, and arrange them, and he also possesses within himself what is called in alchemy the quintessence, or the fifth essence. This is a psychic spiritual energy, superior to the elements, by the agency of which these elements can be bound and unbound, held together in conformity with the laws • 48 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus governing the human creation. This quintessence, or fifth power, was known to both the Pythagoreans and the Paracelsians as the soul, which permeated the flesh of Adam, ensouled him, so that he became indeed a living being. Paracelsus explains that we come to know the elements because we have a certain experience of them through our sensory perceptions and our intellectual powers. We know that the earth extends beneath our feet; we can touch solid substances and know them to have structure, weight, shape, and size. Bodies grow from the earth, and the more corporeal parts of these bodies are of the earth-earthy, like the trunk of a tree or the bones of animals. Such forms belong to the physical element of earth; they are derived from it, and ultimately they return to it again. Man is also sustained and supported by liquids, which together the ancients called the water element. The human being can live much longer without food than without water. Yet this very water which preserves him, and of which his body is largely composed, can also destroy him; that is, he can drown or become dropsical in his own flesh. Man must also possess the principle of heat or fire in order to exist, and Paracelsus believed that the heat-radiating center in the body was the liver. Without heat, man must die, but with too much heat, he can also be consumed. So fire is both a friendly and a dangerous element. The last of these elements its air, and without this, man can survive only a few moments. He discov- ers his indebtedness when he climbs to a high altitude and experiences difficulty because of the rarified atmosphere. He lives within air as the fish lives within water, and the pressure of air upon his body is likewise essential to his survival. Paracelsus resolved to explore the mysteries of these four elements, through the cooperation of which man lives and moves and has his be- ing: He decided that these elements are not merely substances heaped together, or stratified, or aggregated for the simple convenience of man. Each has an existence apart from man. Every element has its own bound- aries, its own laws and rules, and each contributes to the maintenance of compound structures because of an internal virtue or energy-factor. . 49 • Manly Palmer Hall Such elements, therefore, are indeed rivers of life, and man, in order to retain his physical economy must preserve the balance of these elements in his body at all times, which he does by means of nutrition and even the introduction of talismans and magical formulas. Elements are not always visible, nor is man able to solve their mystery completely by merely observing their effects in his own life. Fire, for example, is a spontaneous element arising here, disappearing there, blaz- ing forth from the volcano or from the striking of flint and steel. A fire may disappear, burn out, leaving only cold embers, but the principle or spirit of fire remains, and it may be conjured into manifestation by those requiring its assistance. Each of the elements, in the Paracelsian theory, is actually a kind of a world — a sphere interpenetrating the spheres of the other elements, yet possessing qualities of its own. Thus there are four spheres: earth the most visible, physical and fixed; water — physical but mutable; fire — sometimes visible in combustion, and more mutable; and finally air — usually invisible, and to be discovered, as in the case of wind, when it causes some physical thing to move, like the swaying of branches or the filling of a sail. All physical elements are therefore two-fold, possessing a causal nature, essentially invisible, and a nature according to effect or consequence, usually visible to some degree. Paracelsus explained that these spheres of the four elements are subject to a certain kind of scientific analysis, if man possesses internal faculties beyond the objective sense perceptions. Man, by virtue of his own constitution, lives in a world of three dimensions, but he is surrounded by a universe in which there are an infinite number of dimensions beyond human experience. A dimension is more than a mere division or expression of extent and expanse. The element spheres expand into dimensions beyond us, and are finally lost to our comprehension in the concept of space, which is actually the reservoir of dimension. There are forms in nature which are not three- dimensional or two-dimensional or one-dimensional, as we apply such terms. There are also forms in which there are many more dimensions than we have ever recognized. Paracelsus further believed that man • 50 • 1 The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus possesses powers and latent faculties by which it is possible for him to gradually become aware of a many-dimensioned universe. This will mean the ultimate conquest of space through the realization that there is no such thing as space, but merely an infinite expanse of unfolding areas of visible or invisible, known or unknown life, energy, and substance. There is no vacuum in the universe, and the nearest thing to a vacuum, according to Paracelsus, was the brain of one of his fellow professors at Basel University. Man, on certain occasions, may be able to break through some of the dimension-binders which hold his consciousness in psychological re- straint. This can occur in sleep or in the dream state. Paracelsus belonged to that group of philosophers who maintained that our comparative ignorance on the subjective side of our own lives was due mostly to our hypnotic addiction to objectivity. The consciousness of the small child, not having been adversely conditioned by what we call the reasonable, retains faculties by which he may penetrate some of the dimensional boundaries and become aware of invisible creatures, or participate in experiences which are not of this world. Later, however, ridicule and the pressure of common opinion contribute to the loss of the extra faculties and their perceptions. To make his point as simple as possible, Paracelsus devotes some consideration to the element of water. We all know that the seas and oceans, rivers and streams, and even the old family rain barrel, are worlds populated with living things, whose ways of life differ from our own, but are well adapted to the element in which they exist. Visible water is only a small part of the liquid element. The whole sphere of water, visible and invisible, terrestrial and sidereal, may therefore also be a habitable region. Could we see this region, it might unfold as a varied and wonderful landscape. There could be rocks composed only of the humid principle; mountains and valleys, plants and animals, some resem- bling human beings, others without any correspondence in our mortal experience. Actually, all this wonderful world is differentiated within one substance only. It is not a compound, but this does not mean that • 51 • Mar.lv Palmer Hall it cannot support or advance the destinies of the creatures developing within it. If nature produces a sphere, or plane of substance or activity, it does not leave this creation lifeless and forlorn. Every dimension of environment sustains living things, even as the visible earth sustains its diversity of flora and fauna. Thus there is a two-fold world of earth — one visible, and the other invisible; and the same is true of water, of fire, and of air. These elements are also worlds, and these worlds are inhabited. The creatures of such invisible planes are called by the Paracelsian mystics elemental. This is because each is composed of a single element, with both the advantages and disadvantages of an uncompounded con- stitution. All elementals differ from human beings in two respects: first, they have a body composed of only one element; and second, they do not have a soul, because the soul itself arises in compound bodies and cannot find a habitation appropriate to itself in forms composed of single elements. Actually, in the case of elementals, spirit, soul, and body, are not differentiated because these creatures have not been individualized as man has been. Being thus undifferentiated, they do not possess moral natures; that is, they are amoral; they are neither good nor bad. In this, they resemble animals. They do not worship, nor do they fear any evil. They are not frightened by death, nor are they constituted for immortal- ity. They have an existence without conflict. Because there is no stress or pressure, as must exist in compound beings, their constitutions are not subject to wear or exhaustion. These elemental beings can therefore exist for a very long time in comparison to man, and when their existence ends, they dissolve again into the substance from which they came. Because all four elements are material but not physical, their cor- responding beings are also essentially material, though not physical, as we understand that term. They are subject to the laws of generation, and attain a certain gradual evolution within the elemental field to which they belong. By their constitution, however, the growth which they attain advances the element itself rather than the nature of the separate beings. • 52 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Paracelsus, following the concepts of Greece, Egypt, India, and China, divided elemental beings into four groups. Of these, he considered the earth-spirits, or the gnomes, to be those most closely associated with matter; the water-spirits, he calls undines, or nymphs; the fire-spirits, salamanders; and the air-spirits, sylphs. Paracelsus also indicates that the elementals not only live within their particular elements, but are the administrators of the processes associated with the elements. In other words, we seem to perceive a certain intelligence operating in the relation- ships of elements and creatures. We observe the growth of metals in the earth, and how fishes have a certain instinctive knowledge of the rules governing their own existences. This is likewise true of animals, birds, and of the larger expressions of elements in storms, the formations of clouds, whirlpools, eddies, earthquakes, and volcanic eruptions. It is scarcely necessary for us to enlarge the stories relating to elemen- tals. We can, however, summarize the Paracelsian concept. Elementals are divided into races and groups. They have their homes; they are ruled over by kings and princes; they perform innumerable tasks, busying themselves in their world as we busy ourselves with the problems of our dimension and existence. Occasionally, these elementals come into our own sphere of awareness because our natures include the substances within which the elementals exist. Legends like the story of Undine, the beautiful accounts of the Greek nymphs, and of gnomes revealing their treasures to mortals for whom they have a friendship, are regarded by us as pure fiction, but Paracelsus recommended that the subject be given further examination. In his philosophy, Paracelsus also differentiated an entirely different group of invisible creatures, referring to them as elementaries. At first, the terms might seem confusingly similar. We must remember that an elemental is a natural creature derived from the flesh that is not the flesh of Adam, and belonging to the orderly procedure of creative processes in the universe. By contrast, the elementary is an artificial being, created in the invisible worlds by man himself. In harmony with more recent findings, Paracelsus noted that most elementaries seem to be of an evil • 53 • Manly Palmer Hall or destructive nature. They are generated from the excesses of human thought and emotion, the corruption of character, or the degeneration of faculties and powers which should be used in other, more construc- tive, ways. A good example of the Paracelsian elementary is the incubus. This is a kind of demon which exists because when God created Adam, he breathed into him the divine power. Man is therefore a creator, not merely in the terms of the perpetuation of the species, but especially in terms of the imagination. Man is creative in arts, sciences, and philoso- phies, but his creative powers are not only external, but also internal. Because he lives, man bestows life, and he can generate creatures from his thoughts and emotions, even as from his flesh. The power to create is the power of vibration, by which anything is set into a peculiar motion. This motion is itself immortal, and contributes its own power to other things forever. The invisible progeny of man include thought-forms and emotion-forms. These are like infants, especially in their beginnings, for they depend upon their creator for their nutrition and survival. Later, however, if the forces which generate them continue to operate, these thought and emotion-forms gain strength, finally attaining a kind of independence which is their immortality. Having thus become even stronger than their creator, these thought or emotion-forms will turn upon the one who fashioned them, often causing in him a terrible habit and destroying his health and happiness. Man may also create by the power of his speech. Among Orientals, addicts to hashish and other drugs have reported their ability, while under the influence of these narcotics, to see words coming out of the human mouth. These words appear as luminous forms or patterns. Paracelsus tells us substantially the same thing. Entities thus created by thought, emotion, or the spoken words, are further sustained by the continual flowing of energy from the person. If such support is not sufficient a kind of vampirism sets in, and the elementary, like a parasitic plant, drains the energy of the human body to support its own growth. It becomes a psychic tumor, surviving at the expense of the organism to which it is attached. • 54 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Much of the information gathered by Paracelsus relating to the incubus is interesting from a psychological standpoint. We know that the human psyche can become ridden with pressure-centers or pressure- patterns which we call fixations, complexes, phobias, and the like. We know that these negative psychic formations are nourished by the continual repetition of the attitudes which caused them. We say that negative attitudes become habitual, by degrees taking over and destroying the mental and emotional integrity of the individual. A fixation, well nour- ished by attitudes suitable for its perpetuation, intensifies, becoming actually avaricious and resolved to dominate or possess the entire life of its unhappy victim. This again suggests the Paracelsian analogy between the incubus and the parasite. Just as a beautiful orchid, or the mistletoe plant, lives partly from the air and partly from the tree to which it is attached, so the incubus, or the phobia, is an unlawful being, surviving not because its roots are in nature, but at the expense of another living organism whose vital forces will be vampirized. Modern thinking, therefore, sheds a light upon the concept of elementaries, extending beyond the basic research of Paracelsus. We observe today the tremendous increase in mental pathology. We know that attitudes which become more and more fixed lead to what science calls a state of obsession. Paracelsus used the term obsession to signify possession by an entity. Today the term is used to signify possession by an abnormal attitude. What is the fact of this matter? Is it possible that the abnormal attitude has gradually become an entity? We may prefer not to assume such a belief, but how can we completely explain the pe- culiar and continuous undermining of the consciousness and morality of a human being? Once a destructive attitude has come into posses- sion of a life, the person is gradually devoured by that attitude, which appears to become more and more possessive. Many persons under psychological obsession resist treatment, as though some foreign creature were fighting for its own survival in them. Often, indeed, in a mental illness, the patient, instead of desiring to recover, becomes defensive of his ailment, defending abnormalcy more courageously than he would ever defend normalcy. • 55 • I I Manly Palmer Hull Much has also been written on the subject of vampires, the mysterious | undead who live upon the blood of the living and can be destroyed only j when a stake is driven through their hearts. In Paracelsian psychology, the vampire also plays an interesting role. There seems to be an analogy I with what might be termed collective manias. To become a vampire, we | must first be the victim of a vampire. This evil creature can function only at night, and must sleep forever in its own earth. Many psychological j ailments seem to be communicated by the pressures of one person ad- > versely influencing the life of another. We have great psychoses, shared j by multitudes of persons, such as fear of war, crime, sickness, poverty, and death. Once we have been attacked by these fears, we become like j them. We perpetuate negative thought and emotion-forms, preserving our own bad habits by causing others to share them. Destructive thought- patterns therefore organize into groups, and in each of these groups, there are millions of persons exemplifying the same destructive and morbid tendencies. These, according to Paracelsus, result in collective thought- forms, which will become attached to persons who make themselves available through a basic kind of negation. The individual then simply becomes receptive to the pressures of his world, allows these pressures to move in, until he finally becomes another unit in the pressure-group, adding his negative influence to the already tragic condition. In the Paracelsian doctrine, there is, however, a solid sense of jus- tice. In order to be a victim of elementaries of any kind, the individual must be potentially given to excessive attitudes or destructive habits. The kindly person, fully occupied in useful endeavors, will not open his nature to infection or contagion. Actually, the elementary is closely associated with imagination, which can be a distorting and deforming force in the life of the individual. In the aloneness of his private living, the melancholy person becomes filled with self-pity, deludes himself, convinces his mind that he is the victim of injury or neglect, and finally prepares his nature for the development of one of these psychic entities. Recovery must therefore be a reversal of process, in which faith, friend- ship, understanding, tolerance, and good humor break the vicious circle and deprive the obsession of its needed nutrition. . 56 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus Out of his philosophy of elementaries, Paracelsus came to the conclusion that a very large part of what we consider to be physical disease, results from psychic parasites generated by wrong thought and emotion. He did not go so far as to insist that attitudes are the sole cause of sickness, but he regarded them as extremely important factors. Furthermore, wrong attitudes will reduce the probability of recovery, and leave the patient without the proper energy for the reorientation of his career. Gradually, the obsessing entity or elementary sets up physical equivalents in the body, which symbolize the state of the soul and the interior sickness of the mind and heart. Paracelsus was enough of a psychologist to recognize that the black magician of medieval sorcery is simply the black psychic side of ourselves. The dishonest person seeking to gain by unlawful ends certain securi- ties or advantages normally reserved for those of proper attainments, becomes a kind of sorcerer who, with spells and incantations, tries to fulfill his own selfishness. Thus, a person living an apparently respectable life, but inwardly filled with hatreds, morbid emotion, and destructive attitudes, is creating another being within his own magnetic field — a kind of second and negative self. This is suggested in the story of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. In the Paracelsian period of human activity, it was believed that certain persons had attendant demons, or familiar spirits, who served their bidding for a time and then claimed the immortal soul of the magician. This is the Mephisto who attached himself to Faust, as the result of what has been called the Faustian complex. This Mephisto is ever whispering in our ear that we may do as we please, regardless of consequences, and we agree because we desire to agree; but if we follow this course and listen to this demoniacal voice, our satanic imp will ultimately carry us away to his own infernal region. Contrary to general opinion, Paracelsus did not believe that our private elementaries, demons, and vampires, could go out from us and hurt the persons we hate or wish to injure. The elementary cannot ex- ist except within the energy-field of its own creator. Destructive emo- tions or hatreds, therefore, can never escape from us, but having been * 57 • I Manly Pd mer Hail generated and allowed to flow into the energy-field, they return to us j again in the forms of various disasters. The hate we turn upon another | strengthens only the power to hate in ourselves. For this reason, the [ doctrine is soundly ethical. Our own evil destroys us, usually so slowly 1 and mysteriously that we do not understand the procedure. We are I reminded always that evil is its own punishment, even as good is its own greatest reward. Paracelsus also had another theory which perhaps will seem incred- \ ible to us, yet it deals with a subject which we have never satisfactorily solved. This has to do with the problem of germs, bacterial organisms, and viruses — those microforms of life that are so dangerous to the health of ordinary mortals. Paracelsus believed that the germ, or its equivalent, is a psychic entity created by creatures possessing mental and emotional powers. He pointed out that epidemical disease usually accompanies out- breaks of destructive human intensity. War, for example, is nearly always accompanied by a plague, and also by violent seismic disorders. By this way of thinking, the Swiss Hermes points out the danger of overloading those processes of nature by means of which physical, emotional and mental pollution is neutralized or overcome. We are now [ concerned with water pollution and with the pollution of air, as in the smog problem. Paracelsus believed that the psychic fields of the world, which must absorb the psychic toxins arising from the negative dispo- sitional characteristics of mental and emotional creatures, can become J so polluted that they can no longer cleanse themselves with sufficient [ rapidity. The result is the rise of psychic toxin in the energy field of the planet. As all creatures inhabiting this planet must derive their energies and life substances from this field, its pollution causes widespread low- ering of vitality and morality. When this occurs, the general health and optimism of the race are afflicted. People complain of intangible ills, and are inclined to a common morbidity or to the neglect of activities which are healthful and psychically normal and sustaining. Paracelsus therefore believed that the solution to the problem of health was the realization that only the wise and the good can be happy • 58 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus and well. This does not mean that Paracelsus himself was never ill. He realized that he lived in a society which made freedom from sickness almost impossible. He believed, however, that we could minimize our dangers through the cultivation and preservation of defensive vitality. We can keep our psychic nature free from elementaries, and protect our energy fields from the parasitical attitudes which drain our vital resources. In early works on medicine, it is often noticed that representations of diseases are in the form of clouds of demon-like insects. These attack the sick man from all directions, and most certainly represent the evils in his own nature contributing to his discomfort. Paracelsus was a minister of good will among men. He believed that it was the duty of the human being to establish constructive relationships with the intelligent universe existing around him. Nature is by essential purpose kindly and benign, and has provided man with innumerable resources and opportunities, but through the perversion of his power, and the pollution of his mental-emotional life, man has created a situa- tion which has caused him to assume that the world is evil. If, however, he establishes harmonic sympathies with universal life, he will make friends he knows not of. We are reminded of the story of the kindly peasant to whom the earth-dwarfs cheerfully revealed their treasure. Even as the incubus is the product of man’s destructive emotion, so there is a guardian angel, generated from good thoughts and right emotions. There are good spirits to attend the good man, because he has created them, and they serve him gladly. He is rewarded according to the merit of his deeds, and if he finds depletion and depression invading his life, he should realize the strange chemistry of the elements and principles upon which he depends for existence. Through the proper use of his faculties, man builds a wonderful armor of protection around his life.

all creatures inhabiting this planet must derive their energies and life substances from this field, its pollution causes widespread low- ering of vitality and morality. When this occurs, the general health and optimism of the race are afflicted. People complain of intangible ills, and are inclined to a common morbidity or to the neglect of activities which are healthful and psychically normal and sustaining. Paracelsus therefore believed that the solution to the problem of health was the realization that only the wise and the good can be happy • 58 • The Mystical & Medical Philosophy of Paracelsus and well. This does not mean that Paracelsus himself was never ill. He realized that he lived in a society which made freedom from sickness almost impossible. He believed, however, that we could minimize our dangers through the cultivation and preservation of defensive vitality. We can keep our psychic nature free from elementaries, and protect our energy fields from the parasitical attitudes which drain our vital resources. In early works on medicine, it is often noticed that representations of diseases are in the form of clouds of demon-like insects. These attack the sick man from all directions, and most certainly represent the evils in his own nature contributing to his discomfort. Paracelsus was a minister of good will among men. He believed that it was the duty of the human being to establish constructive relationships with the intelligent universe existing around him. Nature is by essential purpose kindly and benign, and has provided man with innumerable resources and opportunities, but through the perversion of his power, and the pollution of his mental-emotional life, man has created a situa- tion which has caused him to assume that the world is evil. If, however, he establishes harmonic sympathies with universal life, he will make friends he knows not of. We are reminded of the story of the kindly peasant to whom the earth-dwarfs cheerfully revealed their treasure. Even as the incubus is the product of man’s destructive emotion, so there is a guardian angel, generated from good thoughts and right emotions. There are good spirits to attend the good man, because he has created them, and they serve him gladly. He is rewarded according to the merit of his deeds, and if he finds depletion and depression invading his life, he should realize the strange chemistry of the elements and principles upon which he depends for existence. Through the proper use of his faculties, man builds a wonderful armor of protection around his life.

The 'I' in Man & the Christ Being

"No external name can call me, this being; a very different name can only express that: "I am the I-am!" There is no way to find elsewhere the name of the Sun-Spirit than in Man. That which lives as I in Man, that is the Christ-being. "( Ref . GA 109, p. 154)

"What Christ is to the world is the ego to Man. His ego is a part of Christ, out of his ego all powers emerge; but in order for them to grow and increase, they have to come together again and again in their ego. This confluence of the human powers in the ego happens in the intervals between the incarnations. Then the forces unfolded during a human life gather and consolidate, to emerge more intensified in a new incarnation. But when a person reaches a higher level of development, he learns more and more to carry out this process consciously during his earthly life. He consciously develops his powers in the service of the world, and he consciously transmits the experiences thus made to his ego, to the center of his being. They are then already implanted in the ego during earth life; He thereby presupposes the work of many years of intermediate time between his incarnations, where this gathering of the unfolded forces in the ego occurs through the help of higher beings.

As soon as man begins to consciously gather and develop forces in this way during his life, his spirit grows in the spiritual world, and he transforms more and more his whole being into an immortal one. For what he himself incorporates into his being, remains to him as a lasting part of his being. "( Lit .: GA 91, p. 255f )

"We must be clear that we have the spiritual-spiritual essence that we summarize in its center, when we say" I "or" I. "This spiritual-spiritual essence is embedded in the astral, Etheric and physical body. Just as man now lives in the world, when we live inwardly we actually live in our ego, for all the activities of the soul are in some way connected with the ego in the waking man, and all appear on the same Background of the ego. " ( Ref .: GA 143, p. 49f )

Through its three lower essential elements, which are as it were given to man in a natural way, man is a creature of the divine spiritual world just like all other earthly beings. Through his ego he is called to become the creator of himself, indeed, more than that, he can only realize himself by creating himself. The ego develops in the course of repeated earthly lives , which also determine its destiny ( karma ).

In order for the ego to be able to intervene in the bodily sheaths, the ego-bearer , which is the external bodily expression for the ego, is needed. The ego-wearer appears to the clairvoyant in the human aura as a somewhat oblong bluish ball at the root of the nose behind the forehead.

A destructive hearth inside man is the prerequisite for the ego to develop and consolidate. If these forces, which are normally inaccessible to consciousness because they are below the memory level, then become the source of evil. On the other hand, all the moral forces that we develop here are already fertile germs for the future existence of Jupiter ( Ref : GA 207, p. 21ff ).

Quotes from Rudolf Steiner 

St Francis by Ehrenfried Pfeiffer

There is a distinct difference between spiritual and physical leadership. In the case of spiritual leadership, usually we do not even realize it is there. Physical leadership pretends to be what it is. One of the outstanding physical leaders of history was Genghis Khan. At one time he was called Master of the Earth. He ruled a realm covering Asia and parts of Eastern and Southern Europe. At about the same time that he was ruling the world, there was present on the earth a spiritual leader of a particular kind: St. Francis of Assisi. We speak of saints, not in any religious connection, but because the spiritual development of man consists in the development of soul and mind, and the result of the development of an Individual also affects humanity and civilisation. 

One of the most outstanding characteristics of spiritual leadership is that the individuals concerned develop themselves, not for their own sake, but to help others develop themselves to help humanity. One can say that St.Francis was a model saint: others patterned themselves on him. What he had in mind did not even fit into the pattern of the church of his time. When he asked that his order be acknowledged by the Church, there was great opposition. Eventually it was accepted by the Pope. But shortly after the death of St.Francis, his rule was amended, so that of the original impulse not much was left. St. Francis was born in 1181 or 1182 and died in 1226. His contemporaries included Richard the Lion - Hearted and St. Hildegarde, the seeress. In 1206 there was the contest of the Minnesingers at the Wartburg. From 1209 to 1229 took place one of the most cruel events in history, the war of the Catholic Church against the Albigenses, the last group which still adhered to the teachings of Manes. Pope Innocent the Third ( 1189 - 1216 ) who called himself the Deputy of God on Earth, was the arch - enemy of the Albigenses. He tried to realize the dogma of St. Augustine and establish the earthly realm of the Church. Genghis Khan ruled his tremendous realm from 1214 to 1227. The Fourth Crusade took place in 1202 and the Fifth in 1221. Neither was in accord with the original impulse of the Crusades. The Fourth Crusade was a 'racket'. The Venetians had idle ships on their hands. To make them pay, they started a Crusade. It was a failure. The Venetians had not wanted their ships to land at either Palestine or Turkey. 

The time was a difficult one. There were fights in Germany under Frederick the Second. The Pope and the Mongols ruled the earth. In this time Francis lived. Thomas Aquinas was born in 1225. Albertus Magnus lived from 1193 to 1280.

Before entering into the spiritual path of Francis and its meaning for our time and the future, let us give some biographical information. He was born in Assisi; his father was a very rich merchant. The son was a leader of the young men around him, and lived a rather gay and joyous life. He was a very naughty youth, living a rich, idle life, devoted to parties, travels and festivities, until he reached the age of twenty - one. Then he had a serious illness, and through the influence of this he became dissatisfied with his previous life. He determined as his goal to participate in a military expedition. But he fell ill again on the first day of the expedition. He experienced great disappointment and through a spiritual crisis. This crisis changed his mind. In the course of going through the crisis, he had a vision, in which he was told that everything he should do he ought to do not for his but for others. So he devoted himself to solitude, prayer and the care of others. He devoted himself to the care of the poor and the lepers. It is noteworthy that leprosy at that time was very contagious. 

Francis used his own money to help these people. His father was enraged. There was a family crisis: the mother tried to help Francis but his father confined the young Francis in a cellar, in darkness, for four weeks. The father had to go on a business trip. Francis with his mother's help, escaped and went to the court of the Bishop of Assisi. When his father returned he filed a suit against the Bishop. Francis decided to go his own way, to break with his father. The latter grew very excited and said: "Not even the clothes you are wearing are your own'. Francis, enraged, disrobed completely and threw his clothes at his father's feet, and the Bishop wrapped his cloak around him.
For the next three years, Francis retired into solitude. He lived in the woods on Mount Subasio in complete poverty, ministering to lepers and outcasts. He had separated from his father at the age of twenty - five. At twenty - eight years of age, he had a spiritual experience in a small, ruined chapel, St. Mary of the Angels, the "Portiuncula'. During mass, the inner call came to him. He reports that he was told: "Everywhere on your road preach and say the Kingdom of God is at hand. Cure the sick, raise the dead, cleanse the lepers, drive out devils. Freely have you received, freely give. Carry neither gold nor silver nor money in your girdles , nor bag, nor two coats, nor sandals, nor staff, for the workman is worthy of his hire'. 

Then he went to Assisi, and started preaching. Disciples joined him. He selected twelve and founded the Order. With much trouble, he finally obtained sanction for it from Innocent III. First the Pope and Cardinals said that such 'impossible' rules could not be imposed on any human being. But finally he convinced one of the Cardinals, and with his help the rules of the Order were sanctioned. This was in 1210. In 1212 he started the "Second Order', that of the nuns, by investing St. Clara with the Franciscan habit. That same year he set out for the Holy Land but was shipwrecked on the coast of Albania and had to return, going through various adventures on the way home. When he was thirty - three years of age ( two years later ) he went to the Moors in Spain but became very ill on trip and had to return without accomplishing his mission. From that time on, however, the Moorish influence waned in Spain.

He went to Egypt in 1219, was taken prisoner and led before the Sultan, to whom he preached the Gospel. The Sultan wanted to test his faith and said he was to be tortured. Francis, in his zeal, offered to go into a fire for his faith. 

He said he would go into the fire with a priest of the Moslem faith. The Sultan did not like that at all and said no Mohammedan priest would like it. So the test was not made. Francis was released and went to the Holy Land, remaining there until September 1220.

We know that many other Christian leaders, such as Christian Rosenkreutz and Raymond de Sabunda, tried at the age of thirty - three to thirty - five to go to the Holy Land. We know that Christian Rosenkreutz, in his second incarnation, had the Damascus experience there. We know that in about his thirty - third year he went to Palestine and returned changed in his mental and spiritual attitude. 

In the year 1220, trouble started in the Franciscan Order. Francis resigned as Minister General, turning over the Order to his vicar and provincial ministers. He told them that they would be responsible not only for the development of the Order but for the individual character of every member of it, responsible at the Day of Judgement. 

In the next years he made a revision and final reduction of the rule, and the "Third Order' was founded. This was composed of laymen knights, business people, farmers etc., men and women. It was founded that they might, without withdrawing from the world, adhere to the fundamental principles of Franciscan life. Evidently, although this is not expressed, he was dissatisfied with the way the Franciscan Order had developed, and so he addressed himself to followers beyond its limits.
In the year 1224, at age forty - three, on September 14, in the midst of preparations for a Michael Festival, he had a spiritual vision of the Christ and received the stigmata. He had contracted an Egyptian eye disease and went blind. It is told that one night there were alot of mice running over his body. On October 3, 1226, he died. In 1228, two years after his death, he was canonized by Gregory IX. At that time the Church canonized people more quickly, not waiting until fifty years after their death, as they do now.

As to his individual life, his main idea was, through the development of contemplation, through prayer and meditation, to give up outer temptations, and through complete poverty and a system of self - education that came near to starvation, to train the body so that the body would not be a hindrance to self development. His aim was to make himself ready for a relationship with the Christ. His object was not mystical, but to be able to unite himself without the Christ. 

Each of the twelve original friars exemplified particularly one of the twelve virtues Francis gave as rules for his inner, esoteric circle. It is evident that Francis excelled in all twelve of them. They were: faith, simplicity, courtesy, gracious and natural sense, the mind raised in contemplation, virtuous and continual labour, patience, the Imitation of Christ, charity, solicitude, humility, fairness.

Among the rules for the inner development of his Order were certain ones written down by Friar Giles. The first was a group of eight exercises, having to do with vices and virtues:
1. Having to do with vices and virtues:
a. endure every tribulation willingly and with gladness.
b. humble in all things thou does and seest.
c..love steadfastly the invisible good which thou canst not see with mortal eyes.
2. Faith
3. Holy humility
4. Holy fear of God
5. Holy patience
6. Regarding sloth: the slothful man loseth both this world and the next
7. Contempt of temporal things
8. Holy chastity 

The next group dealt with temptations, penitence, prayer, spiritual prudence, profitable and unprofitable knowledge ( here the Friars were urged to differentiate between profitable and unprofitable knowledge and shun what was of no value for the spiritual world ), good and evil speaking, good perseverance, true religious life, spiritual obedience, and remembrance of death: to remember death as the portal to a world where there exists more life than in this world. 

These were the rules of which the Pope said: it couldn't be done. This shows the difference between the Church as an institution and a spiritual leader. St. Francis welcomed being badly treated, because he held that when he was well treated it took no effort still to be satisfied and look for the spirit. In accordance with his initiation, he always looked for situations that gave him the chance to sacrifice himself, not to develop his own personality but because he thought that such a condition became a holy man.

Francis's behaviour had a tremendous influence on his time. Many cruel people ceased being cruel. Many ceased looking for profit. Sometimes as many as 5,000 listened to him, and not only human beings but birds and animals and fishes came to listen. This shows how far his attitude could penetrate to the realm of natural forces and animal forces. Sometimes funny things happened, for it is a fact that when mystic ecstasy starts, people sometimes did not return for a long time to their bodies. Others were lifted into the air and had to be held down. One of them they used to put in chains before mass, so that he would not get out of range. Whether this particular incident happened or is related as a symbol, I do not know, but I do know that levitation has taken place. We today are too heavy for such phenomena. 

The more esoteric and inner life of Francis is reflected more or less in his visions and the visions of his friars. These visions were objective observations. Spiritual experience was not so difficult then as it is now: but there was, with him, always a permanent cross - check. Francis did not tell of his visions unless others came to him and told of seeing the same visions. So his experiences were confirmed by other observers. This was a true, conscientious, scientific approach, with nothing mystical about it. 

The more he advanced on the spiritual path, the less he could hold physical office. ( This is the opposite of physical leaders who try to hold on to office ). There developed a deep love of plants, animals, and all creatures. He even called his body "Brother Body' and said: 'Brother Body has his rights also; he should be fed so that he does not complain during visions and say: "I am tired, I am hungry'. He shunned complete asceticism. Asceticism was, in a way, added to the rule later.

Francis was a rather joyous saint. He disliked a sad face. Once he called to a sad - faced brother and said: 'A sad face is a disgrace to God, and only shows that the brother has not penetrated himself yet by the true power of love'. There was no false asceticism in him or his inner followers. 

The visions that St. Francis and the other friars had related particularly to the realm of the experiences of Christ on the Cross, the suffering of Christ. This is the true Christian initiation. Francis considered himself a pupil of, a follower of the Archangel Michael. His final initiation took place during the preparation of a Michael festival. He was a conscious pupil of the Archangel Michael. In one of his visions, he and others saw him ( Francis ) fighting a dragon, they saw him with a sword coming out of his mouth, fighting with and conquering a dragon. This showed that he was penetrated with the Michael force.
Before he received the stigmata, an angel said to him: "Make your mind and body ready, because a great experience will come to you'. The next day, after a forty - day fast, he was in prayer in the small hours of the night when he had the vision that led to the stigmata. He was alone on a mountain. The tremendous light on this mountain woke people nearby. A caravan of mule - drivers saw the light and thought that the sun had risen. Shepherds in the nearby fields saw the light, others also.

St. Francis described this experience in words to one of his friars: 'Jesus Christ, in the form of a Seraph, appeared and imprinted with his hands the wounds he had received.'
He came down from the mountain at dawn, and the next day the stigmata began to appear. There was a penetration of his hands and feet, and a wound at his side. Francis tried to hide this, although his feet were so mutilated that he was no longer able to walk, and he tried to keep his hands covered with a cloth. He also attempted to conceal the bleeding in his side. Only one of his people, Brother Leo, was permitted to see his wounds, because he took care of him. Brother Leo was not the brightest of the brothers; in fact he was dumb as an ox. Yet his devotion to Francis was such that when Francis went too far in humility, Brother Leo would tell him the opposite. Brother Leo was the first to tell, as a witness of the stigmata.

Gradually, knowledge of the stigmata spread, but Francis never made anything of the matter, he never "put on a big show'. And nowadays such a phenomenon would be entirely out of place.
Francis developed a stomach ailment, apparently stomach ulcers, of which he died. As has been mentioned, he also had an eye disease. It is a question why such a saint should have to have an eye disease and stomach ulcers? It has been said that he had not completed his inner 'education', that he could heal others but not himself. Francis himself explained that during the time he was across the Threshold demons tried to tempt him, to make him err on the spiritual side. But since they could not attack his soul, the demons therefore enter and attacked his body. This is why he, when taken away in the spirit, had to suffer in the body. 

Rudolf Steiner said something similar. At the end of his life he was very ill, and a story was told that he had been given a poisoned sandwich at a social gathering. Rudolf Steiner actually told at least two people, from whom I had it directly, that in an unprotected state of spirit absence, demons entered his body and brought about an effect like poisoning. This was how his illness began, and his not having a chance to rest led to his physical breakdown. 

We must consider this holy secret regarding advanced beings, if they are not sufficiently protected, their body may suffer, and this protection can only be brought about by those surrounding the one in a spiritual state. The twelve pupils of Francis could have protected him, but they let him down. The disciples of Christ fell asleep. I say this in humility. Words are inadequate. Of what happened to Francis, Francis did not complain, rather taking it as one of the sufferings on the spiritual path. 

Once the friars saw Francis vested with two swords, one coming from his mouth and the other crossing it. This is a sign of the combined Christ with Michael forces. They also saw him with the Tao sign on his forehead. The Tao is the sign of life. Rudolf Steiner said it was the sign with which the creative forces are combined. Francis was told that he was to become "The Standard Bearer of Life'. This is the title for a highly developed human being able to master and use the etheric forces. This is a future task of Francis. He was told his task was really to begin after his death. It was told him that his complete union with the Christ was only a preparation. 

The first step in his task after death was that once a year, on September 14, he was permitted to go down to Hell (Kamaloca ) and gather those souls who had been penetrated by his principles and to bring them, shortening their time, directly to the realm of the Spiritual Sun, the Christ. 

All this we have to see as the background of Anthroposophy. We have to see Francis, not as the man who lived from 1181 to 1226, but as a being prepared for a spiritual leadership that will work farther and more deeply than what he exercised during his earthly life.

What is his mission? It is one not so inappropriate for our time. Rudolf Steiner once said that in a previous incarnation, Francis was one of the most beloved pupils of Buddha, in fact his closest pupil at the time of his elevation to the rank of Buddha, and that Francis is taking over the physical task of Buddha. Then Francis incarnated in the Mysteries of Colchis on the Black Sea, trying to develop himself further. Then we find him as Francis proper. 

Afterward he had been directed by Christian Rosenkreutz to a particular task. 

In a certain way Francis has taken the Eightfold Path of Buddha and Christianized it. We can see this in his eight primary rules. Some people say it would be better to go back to Buddha. Today is not the time to follow Buddha, rather we should follow Francis.

Rudolf Steiner said that Buddha gave his astral and etheric body to prepare the body of Jesus for the incorporation of Christ. He gave his etheric body to the Nathan Jesus, and his ego and astral body helped the Nathan Jesus body for the first twelve years. The Nathan Jesus had the ability to listen to wisdom and knowledge, but had boundless love. Thus, Adam Cadmon, was able to incarnate. 

The stigmata are imprints of the astral body of Christ into the astral and etheric and physical of one who is able to prepare his astral body to experience Christ. Francis' school is the preparation of Manas. The life of Francis was this preparation, to be ready to receive the stigmata. The stigmata show the becoming one of Francis' astral body and the astral extract of the etheric body of Christ. So the role of Francis goes much deeper than his life on earth, as it has been described. 

In a vision, Francis looked up and saw the thrones of the Hierarchies, among them one empty throne. He was told that this was the throne of Lucifer and that he Francis, was to take the place of Lucifer on this throne. Michael fights the dragon. Francis is fighting Lucifer by the conquest of the soul, and he is elected to take the place of Lucifer. This is important for the spiritual future of Francis, because Rudolf Steiner tells us that there will be an incarnation of Ahriman in about the year 3,500, and that in the next cultural epoch there will be an incarnation of Lucifer, and Francis will be the leader of those who fight Lucifer and help humanity not to fall prey to him. Rudolf Steiner says that through Genghis Khan Lucifer was working. Genghis Khan was a contemporary of Francis, and his task was to stimulate forces that would bring it about that the fifth post - Atlantean epoch would become Luciferic instead of Christian and the human soul would be lulled so that it would experience Imaginations in a state of half-consciousness. It is Lucifer's aim that the culture of the West become a visionary culture. 

We can say that Genghis Khan incorporated the Luciferic forces in order to separate humanity from its proper task. Francis, as a spiritual leader, performs an Initiation in order to bring to humanity the inner soul forces that will be able to conquer the influence of Lucifer.

~ Ehrenfried Pfeiffer

"The Spiritual Leadership of Mankind'
Lecture 2, August 5, 1947
Notes of five lectures given at the Threefold Community. Thanks to David Skelly 

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Who is Medusa?

According to this Greek legend, Medusa had been at one time a beautiful woman. But during the course of time she developed snakes for hair, and anybody who looked at Medusa would be turned to stone. In this context, we might ask, what does Medusa really symbolize? 

I wish to argue that she is a depiction of the ancient power of clairvoyance, what in the East is called the power of the serpent, or the Kundalini. The snakes coming out of Medusa’s head show this ancient force of clairvoyance gone wild and having become a danger, so that any human being exposed to this force could become paralyzed in their own being. They could become imprisoned through not having a free relationship to the visions arising through their clairvoyance. 

We can understand this if we recall that sometimes when we are dreaming we feel that events take place without our free initiative, and consequently we feel powerless. This analogy reveals something of the quality of this ancient clairvoyant faculty that all human beings possessed at that time.
In the legend of Perseus, the young Greek hero, who represents the new faculty of intelligence, decides he will slay Medusa.

How is he going to do this when Medusa has such a terrifying appearance that just one look from her is sufficient to turn him to stone? Perseus is aided in his conquest of Medusa by Athena, goddess of wisdom.

Here we see another indication that Athena, as an aspect of the Divine Sophia, was really behind the transition in evolution from clairvoyance to the development of human intelligence and thought. 

Athena accompanies Perseus to the domain of Medusa, and she holds up her shield so that Perseus can see the reflection of Medusa without looking at her directly. Walking backwards with the shield of Athena, Perseus engages in battle with Medusa and in his victory he cuts off her head. Here we see the application of intelligence to overcome the terrifying power of ancient clairvoyance.

The transition from ancient oriental clairvoyance to Greek rational thought is further highlighted in the legend of Andromeda and Perseus. Andromeda was the daughter of Cepheus and Cassiopeia, king and queen of Ethiopia. Their beautiful daughter Andromeda in a certain respect, like Helen of Troy, represents the soul of the world. Andromeda was dearly loved by Cepheus and Cassiopeia. However, a sea monster began to threaten the country, causing great destruction. An oracle revealed to the king and queen that the only way to save their country from destruction by the sea monster Cetus, who was like an enormous whale, was through the sacrifice of their daughter Andromeda. Symbolically the soul of humanity, represented by Andromeda, is being threatened by an atavistic force of the will, represented by the sea monster Cetus, a force from the depths. Through the constructive use of this atavistic force of the will, great structures such as the pyramids in Egypt and Stonehenge in the British Isles were built in antiquity. This constituted an enormous strength of will. But, just as ancient clairvoyance was a threat to the development of human freedom, so too this atavistic force of will was a threat to the development of independence. The task of saving Andromeda fell to Perseus. At the very moment when Andromeda was bound to a rock and was about to be devoured by Cetus, Perseus appeared holding the head of Medusa, and turned her evil eye upon Cetus. The sea monster was turned to stone. Here we see the use of intelligence to overcome the atavistic power of the will, all of this under the guidance and inspiration of Athena, the goddess of wisdom, an aspect of Divine Sophia.

In the myth of Perseus we see the representative of the new Greek consciousness, as one who uses his intelligence and his power of thought in order to be guided through life. 

Perseus, of course, is a mythological figure, whereas Odysseus, whom Homer tells us was the key figure in the conquest of the city of Troy through the use of intelligence, was an actual Greek personality. We know that the Trojan War actually took place, because the German archeologist Heinrich Schliemann was inspired and guided to the actual site where the Trojan War took place and was able to rediscover the city of Troy. In the story of the Greeks re-capturing Helen of Troy, representing the soul of humankind, in turn related to Divine Sophia, we see symbolically how the love of Sophia played an important part in the emergence of Greek civilization. 

- Robert Powell, The Sophia Teachings, The Emergence of Divine Feminine in Our Time -Page 26-29