Elemental spirit

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The 1903 inaugurated Undine fountain in the spa of Baden . The sculptor Josef Valentin Kassin was inspired by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué's fairy tale Undine (1811) , one of the most famous literary adaptations of the elemental spirit motif.

An elemental spirit is a spirit that is supposed to live or work in one of the four elements . The terms "elemental spirit ", " nature spirit " and " nature demon" are often used synonymously. The idea of ​​elemental spirits originally comes from late ancient Neo-Platonism and was taken up again by early modern natural philosophers . Paracelsus's doctrine of the elemental spirits in particular achieved great popularity and influenced later literary works, especially Romanticism .

Elemental spirits are figures of natural philosophy and literature, they do not appear in popular beliefs and folk tales . Nevertheless, the term is sometimes used in folklore as a collective term for beings that are considered to be associated with the elements. For water spirits like mermaids and naiads, for example .

Elemental spirits also play a role in various forms of neo-paganism and modern esotericism , for example in anthroposophy .

Elemental spirits in philosophy

The idea of ​​the elemental spirits was conceived by Iamblichos von Chalkis and further developed by Proklos . These Neoplatonists assumed that there were also elemental demons in addition to the material demons that live in animals and plants , which reside in elements such as fire, water, earth and air. The stoicheia , against which Paul warns in Galatians , are partly translated as "elemental spirits".

Johannes Trithemius tried in his book of the eight questions ( Liber octo questionum , 1515) to combine the doctrine of elemental spirits with medieval Christian demonology . He designs a system in which the fallen angels get caught in the various elements when they fall into hell , and accordingly differentiates between six sexes of the "evil spirits": Igneum, Aerum, earthly devils, Aquaticum, Subterraneum and Lucifugium. At Agrippa von Nettesheim , the humanistic de-demonization of the elemental spirits is already well advanced. In his work De occulta philosophia (1531) he differentiates between the four classes of fire, water, air and earth spirits. As ruler over the elements and their spirits, he locates the four angels Seraph / Nathaniel (fire), Tharsis (water), Cherub (air) and Ariel (earth).

The idea of ​​elemental spirits became popular primarily through Paracelsus, who presented a comprehensive system with his Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris, et de caeteris spiritibus (1566).

Systematics of the elemental spirits according to Paracelsus
Element (" chaos ") Name of the elemental spirits True name of the elementals Misshapen variety (" Monstra ")
water Nymphs Undines Sirens , sea ​​monks
air Sylphs New Year's Eve (" forest people ") Giants
earth Pygmies Gnomes Dwarfs
Fire salamander Vulcani Will-o'-the-wisps

Paracelus assigns a type of ghost to each of the four classical elements (which he esoterically called chaos ). For each of the four species he names a supposedly known name, the actually true name and a misshapen variety. In fact, many of these names are neologisms he invented or deliberately reassigned classical names. The terminology, system and content of this doctrine of spirits are largely Paracelsus' own creation; there are only a few points of reference to the Bible , ancient tradition, contemporary scholars and medieval folk beliefs. There is a parallel in particular to Agrippa von Nettesheim: Just like him, but unlike the contemporary authors Trithemius and Martin Luther , Paracelsus no longer explains the elemental spirits as devils , but rather locates them positively as beings created by God. According to him, they fulfill a number of functions, such as helping people to gain knowledge of God, guarding the treasures of nature and serving as harbingers. The Liber de nymphis thus combines natural philosophical and theological orientations.

According to Paracelsus, the elemental spirits are very similar to humans: like humans, they have a physical body and an astral body . Their body, however, consists of a "subtle flesh" that enables them to exist both in their element and in the human world. In contrast to Agrippa von Nettesheim's, for example, the body of elemental spirits according to Paracelsus does not consist of the respective element, but is more subtle so that the spirits can move through the element. The elemental spirits are not only similar to humans in appearance and diet, but also live in an orderly society and go about work. According to Paracelsus, the main difference between humans and elementals is that the latter have no soul and thus, despite their longevity, have no part in Eternal Life . However, they can receive a soul if they enter into marriage and father children with people who are understood by Paracelsus as a sacrament . Hence the elementals are eager to seduce people. In his description of the female water spirits in particular, he draws on the narrative motif of mahrt marriage . Paracelsus only discusses the situation in which a ghost woman receives a soul through a human man. The opposite constellation is not expressly rejected by him, but seems to have been considered impossible. Paracelsus probably followed a widespread theological doctrine, according to which women are less in the image of God than men and therefore need men as mediators to God. A ghost man cannot gain a soul by marrying a human woman.

As a result, further teachings of elementary spirits were set up by Oswald Croll , Georg Stjernhelm and others.

These types of rationalization gave elementals plausibility in the scientific worldview of the early modern period . With the increasing progress of the natural sciences , however, the belief in them was no longer tenable for many.

Elementals in art

In particular, Paracelsus's doctrine of the elemental spirits was received by later poets and writers. In the study room scene 1 Faust , Goethe lets the four spirits Salamander, Undene, Sylphe and Kobold conjure up. Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué describes in his works Undine (1811) and Sophie Ariele (1825) the love of soulless nymphs and sylphids for human men. Even Eduard Mörike ( The rainy brothers in 1839, the history of the beautiful Lau 1853) and Hans Christian Andersen ( The Little Mermaid 1837) treat the animation of elemental spirits.

From 1835 Heinrich Heine published the essay Elementary Spirits , in which he reproduces and discusses popular stories of supernatural beings. More than half of the text consists of direct and indirect quotations from the German sagas , Des Knaben Wunderhorn and other sources. He arranged these stories roughly according to the system of Paracelsus. However, he considers the system to be poorly applicable to German popular belief, because it does not have a clear separation of water spirits (mermaids) and air spirits (elves), nor a category of fire spirits. As a step up, he treats the devil and finally Ms. Venus after the elementals . This preoccupation with legends made it possible for Heine, under the pressure of state censorship, to practice an enlightening criticism of Christianity , which he accused of having destroyed the romantic and erotic emotional world of paganism.

Paracelsus' elementary spirit teaching was also taken up by the French abbot Nicolas-Pierre-Henri de Montfaucon de Villars (1635–1673) for his novel Le Comte de Gabalis (1670), a satirical work on contemporary secret doctrines. In England , however, the text was partly understood as a serious textbook. In the foreword of his satirical epic The Rape of the Lock (1712) , Alexander Pope was able to refer to Villars, who he portrayed as a Rosicrucian . Pope himself combined the Paracelsian teachings of the elementals with ideas from John Milton from Paradise Lost and criticized the belief in supernatural powers from an enlightenment perspective.

Other supernatural beings in literature are also referred to as elemental spirits in specialist literature, such as the mermaid in Goethe's Der Fischer und seine Erlkönig . The comparative literature also discusses current stories of supernatural beings as examples of elementals stories.

Elemental spirits in esotericism

The disenchantment of the world in modern times was propagated by some as liberation from the fear of ghosts and magic, but perceived by others as alienation from nature . The belief in elementals and similar powers enabled them to hold on to a reverent understanding of the world. British esotericists and occultists became familiar with the concept of elemental spirits primarily through the Comte de Gabalis des Villars, whom many believed to be an actual adept . The Theosophical Society was founded, among other things, to research elemental spirits. At the end of the 19th century, theosophists reported seeing elementals themselves, and rituals were devised to conjure and marry them.

Rudolf Steiner , a former theosophist and the founder of anthroposophy , wrote a number of writings on elemental spirits. These ideas play a role today in contemporary anthroposophy, for example in Waldorf schools and Demeter agriculture .

Elementals in Folklore

In his article Elementargeister , published in 1981 for the Encyclopedia of Fairy Tales, Lutz Röhrich states that the conception and terminology of elemental spirits can be attributed to natural philosophy, poetry, art fairy tales and art ballads , and plays (almost) no role in folk tales , folk tales and popular beliefs. Accordingly, the term is rarely used in research. Insofar as legendary figures are sorted according to the elements, this classification does not result from the source material itself , but is derived from the learned spirit theories .

Of Leander Petzoldt 1990 published Small dictionary of demons and elementals . In this he differentiates the natural or elemental spirits from the spirits of the dead and the spirits of culture. According to him, the personification of the elements should go back to the stage of development of animism . He sums up:

“The division into“ elemental spirits ”according to the four elements water, fire, earth and air promises an apparently logical system. But their logic comes from the speculations of the natural philosophers of the 15th and 16th centuries, which is continued in the romantic poetry of the 19th century. The sylphs and naiads, undines and nymphs were never figures of popular belief, they were creations of the pre-scientific natural philosophers who owed their material to the teachings of demons in late antiquity. Behind this is the anthropological conception of a nature animated by mysterious beings and powers, as it corresponds to animistic thinking. "

- Leander Petzoldt : Petzoldt 2014, p. 9

literature

  • Peter Dinzelbacher : The Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris, et de caeteris spiritibus. In: Albrecht Classen (Ed.): Paracelsus in the context of the sciences of his time. Cultural and Mental History Approaches. De Gruyter, Berlin and New York 2010, ISBN 978-3-11-021886-2 , pp. 21-46.
  • Leander Petzoldt : Small lexicon of demons and elementals . 5th edition. CH Beck, Munich 2014, ISBN 978-3406669286 .
  • Lutz Röhrich : Elemental spirits . In: Kurt Ranke (ed.): Encyclopedia of fairy tales . Concise dictionary for historical and comparative narrative research, Volume 3. Walter de Gruyter, Berlin and New York 1981, ISBN 3-11-008201-2 , Sp. 1316-1326.
  • Isabelle Gloria Stauffer : Undine's longing for love. About Paracelsus' conception of the animation of elemental spirits in the Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris, et de caeteris spiritibus. In: Nova Acta Paracelsica. Contributions to Paracelsus research. New episode , 13, 1999, pp. 49-100.

Web links

Commons : Elemental Spirit  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1316.
  2. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 8.
  3. ↑ Röhrich 1981, Sp. 1316, 1323.
  4. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1317.
  5. ↑ Clinton E. Arnold: Returning to the domain of the Powers: Stoicheia as evil Spirits in Galatians 4: 3, 9. In: Novum Testamentum , XXXVIII, 1, 1996, pp. 55-76. Here p. 56f.
  6. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1317-1319.
  7. ↑ Röhrich 1981, Sp. 1319f.
  8. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 8f.
  9. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 61.
  10. ↑ Stauffer 1999, pp. 52, 56f.
  11. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, pp. 27f., 29, 33.
  12. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, p. 25
  13. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, pp. 34, 36–38, 40.
  14. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, pp. 42–45.
  15. ↑ Stauffer 1999, p. 55.
  16. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1320.
  17. ↑ Stauffer 1999, p. 57f.
  18. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, p. 45.
  19. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 8f.
  20. ↑ On the bodies of the elemental spirits in Paracelsus, see Stauffer 1999, pp. 58–62.
  21. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, p. 24.
  22. ↑ Stauffer 1999, p. 67.
  23. ↑ Dinzelbacher 2010, p. 26.
  24. ↑ Stauffer 1999, pp. 67-71.
  25. ↑ Stauffer 1999, pp. 77f, 86.
  26. ↑ Hans Biedermann: Hand dictionary of the magical arts from late antiquity to the 19th century. 3rd, improved and significantly increased edition. Volume 1. Academic printing and printing Verlaganstalt Graz, Graz 1986, ISBN 3-201-01303-X . Here p. 142f.
  27. ^ Jan R. Veenstra and Karin Olsen: Introduction . In this. (Ed.): Airy Nothings. Imagining the Otherworld of Faerie from the Middle Ages to the Age of Reason. Essays in Honor of Alasdair A. MacDonald. Brill, Leiden 2014, ISBN 978-90-04-24551-8 , pp. Vii – xvi, here p. Xvi.
  28. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1321.
  29. ↑ Röhrich 1981, SP. 1322.
  30. ↑ Röhrich 1981, Sp. 1322f.
  31. ^ Gerhard Höhn : Heine manual. Time, person, work. Third, revised and expanded edition. Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart and Weimar 2004, ISBN 978-3-476-01965-3 . Here pp. 363–367.
  32. ↑ On the elementals in Le Comte de Gabalis and The Rape of the Lock, see Jan R. Veestra: Paracelsian Spirits in Pope's Rape of the Lock . In the S. and Karin E. Olsen (Eds.): Airy Nothings. Imagining the Otherworld of Faerie from the Middle Ages to the Age of Reason. Essays in Honor of Alasdair A. MacDonald. Brill, Leiden 2014, ISBN 978-90-04-24551-8 , pp. 213-239.
  33. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1322.
  34. ↑ Janet Hildebrand: An Ecology of Elemental Spirits and Mortals in Goethe's Ballads. In: History of European Ideas , 12, 14, 1990, pp. 503-521. Here p. 505.
  35. ↑ Elisa Müller-Adams: 'De nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris' - on the use of a circle of motifs in texts by Michael Fritz, Julia Schoch and Karen Duve . In: Heike Bartel and Elizabeth Boa (eds.): Pushing at Boundaries. Approaches to Contemporary German Women Writers from Karen Duve to Jenny Erpenbeck . Editions Rodopi BV, 2006, ISBN 978-90-420-2051-1 , pp. 73-88.
  36. ^ Wouter J. Hanegraaff : Esotericism and the Academy. Rejected Knowledge in Western Culture. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2012, ISBN 978-0-521-19621-5 . Here p. 227f.
  37. ↑ Helmut Zander : The Anthroposophy. Rudolf Steiner's ideas between esotericism, Weleda, Demeter and Waldorf education. Verlag Ferdinand Schöningh, Paderborn 2019, ISBN 978-3506792259 . Here p. 142.
  38. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1323.
  39. ↑ Röhrich 1981, col. 1316.
  40. ↑ Petzoldt 2014, p. 7f.