The Spectre at The Feast

Avaunt! and quit my sight! let the earth hide thee!

Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;

Thou hast no speculation in those eyes

Which thou dost glare with!

“The Ancients claimed that wars, plagues, fires, earthquakes, and other cataclysms were caused by great armies of Elementals marching in military array against each other and fighting in these elements of Nature. 

Thus Thunder and Lightning were said to be caused by battles between the sylphs and salamanders, while rains and tidal waves were caused by the sylphs and undines. Movement of bodies in the earth, landslides, and internal rumblings were said to be caused by inharmony between the salamanders and gnomes. Generated out of the explosions of gunpowder, the salamanders hover over battlefields. 

As great armies of red flaming creatures, they also feed upon Human Passion, obsessing The Mind of Man and finding expression through the receptive ethers in his body. The four groups — gnomes, undines, salamanders, and sylphs — form the natural inhabitants of the etheric elements. Their labour is carried on through what is called The Humidity Body of both The Earth and The Planetary Logos, and also their corresponding poles in The Body of The Individual. 

In addition, there are several other groups of elementals, some the products of natural phenomena, and others generated by man. Among these may be mentioned the thought and emotion elemental, ghosts, spectres, The Dweller on The Threshold, and larvae. 

The latter group (known also as etheric shells) are the etheric bodies of individuals who, in passing out at death, have gone on to the astral plane. Casting off the etheric body soon after the physical form, they leave it behind in the ethers, where it slowly disintegrates. 

These shells are the basis of the greater percentage of mediumistic manifestations, a fact which can be determined only through an examination of the eyeballs of the medium. They are often used by both elementals and larvae as temporary vehicles of manifestation as they float around in the ethers in process of disintegration. 

Due to the fine structure of these etheric shells, it often takes many years for disintegration to take place. Hence a great host of etheric bodies float like chips of driftwood upon the sea of etheric humidity, discarded by their former owners who have long since passed on to other planes of life.”