124 PARACELSUS 



" The angels are invisible to us ; but nevertheless an 

 angel may appear to our spiritual sight, and likewise 

 man is invisible to the spirits of nature, and what the 

 Undines know of us is to them merely what fairy tales 

 are to us. The Undines appear to man, but not man 

 to them. Man is gross in the body and subtle in the 

 Chaos ; therefore they may enter his Chaos (the physical 

 plane), and appear to him and remain with him, marry 

 and have children with him. Thus an Undine may 

 marry a man and keep house with him, and her children 

 will be human beings and not Undines, because they 

 receive a human soul from the man ; and, moreover, the 

 Undine herself thereby receives the germ of immortality. 

 Man is bound to God by means of his spiritual soul, 

 and if an Undine becomes united to man, she will 

 thereby become bound to God. As an Undine without 

 her union with man dies like an animal, likewise mau 

 is like an animal if he severs his union with God." 



" Therefore the Nymphs are anxious to become united 

 with man; they seek to become immortal through him. 

 They have a mind and intellect like man, but not the 

 immortal soul, such as we have obtained through the 

 death of Christ. But the spirits of the earth, the air, 

 and fire seldom marry a human being. They may, 

 however, become attached to him and enter his service. 

 It must not be supposed that they are airy nothings 

 or merely ghosts or appearances ; they are of flesh and 

 blood, only subtler than man (i.e., of the substance of 

 mind)." 



" The Nymphs sometimes come out of the water and 

 may be seen sitting on the shore near their dwelling, 



ever have entered physically the abodes of disembodied adepts. But the 

 physical body of a man is not the man ; it is only his external shadow, 

 and wherever man's consciousness is, there will he be present himself. 

 But while he is there, he does not miss his exterior body, of which he has 

 no more use than of a part of his clothing purposely laid away, and on 

 reawakening to physical consciousness he may well believe that he had 

 been to such a place in his physical form. 



