34 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



spear and shield for Mars and a silver mirror in a golden necklace for 

 Venus. In Shushup, it is said, guests for all the signs of the zodiac are 

 received — but of these I have seen but two, a charming young lady from 

 Virgo and a mahatma from Sirius who bore the badge of a great dog or 

 wolf. 



The sixth class are elemental essences. These may be either mineral 

 or monadic in their nature, this depending on their origin. Usually 

 they begin as a thought, aspiration or association of ideas, permeated by 

 its appropriate variety of the deva or life principle, hence capable of 

 floating or drifting about through etheric or astral space, until at last 

 crystallized as an ego and embodied as a man. The history of these 

 monadic essences is still obscurely known, as few adepts have the 

 patience to watch them continuously through their centuries of develop- 

 ment and incarnation. These often pass through the stage of animal 

 essentials, some of whom are at last incarnated as animals, and the 

 learned author of the ' Secret Doctrine ' describes his encounter with a 

 number of these essences ' embodied in anthropoid apes, already in- 

 dividualized and ready to take human incarnation at the next round or 

 even sooner.' 



Then in the etheric plane are swarms of nature spirits, the tiny 

 emanations of the sunny banks of moss, the foamy waterfall or the 

 fragrance of the roses. Some of these are dim and gigantic, the 

 products of the mighty canon, the roar of the sea, or the awesomeness 

 of the forest. These may assume all forms at will, but when at rest 

 they take the shape that is most befitting their natures. Ordinarily 

 they are out of human sight, but they have the power of self-material- 

 ization, or they can be formed into visual clearness by the effort of a 

 powerful will. Such essentials are known to us of the east as djinns 

 and sprites and peris, but in the west they have many names, fairies, 

 gnomes, elves and imps, and the Greeks called them fauns and satyrs. 

 Those which live in water are called undines, those which live in air are 

 sylphs and those in fire are salamanders. The wild essential spirits 

 do not like, the presence of man, though they often try to help him or 

 sometimes to play little tricks on him for their own amusement. They 

 have no real dislike for humanity, but the constant rush of astral cur- 

 rents set up by the restless ill-regulated desires of Europeans disturbs 

 and annoys them. In India, they are more at ease and lie about under 

 the palms and the bulbul trees. In Olcott Sahib's beautiful gardens in 

 Madras, Earn has spent many joyous evenings in commune with them. 

 Similar creatures are ever present in California, giving your state the 

 indescribable charm of which you all talk so much and feel so little. In 

 a quiet stroll in the woods near Alcalde with Madame Hhatch, Earn 

 found them in myriads, some of them lurking in the branches of the 

 eucalyptus trees, others had burrowed in the dry ground to form fairy 

 homes. In Eam's visit to Angels he found them thick under Abner 



