Home›Elemental Spirits›TraditionBrowse ByTraditionThis page groups mythical creatures by the wider artistic and religious tradition that pictures them. Wikipedia notes that "in medieval art, animals, both real and mythical, played important roles." Browsing by tradition lets a visitor read every creature from one cultural tradition together.FactsLearn MoreTraditionSourcesComments (0)Reader Challenges (0)FactsOriginsWhose Classification This IsWell-attestedThe scheme is Paracelsus's: nymphs to water, sylphs to air, pygmies (gnomes) to earth and salamanders to fire, set out in the Liber de nymphis (written c. 1537, printed 1566). Later Western occultism took the four-fold order from there. 3Tradition: Paracelsus, Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis, Pygmaeis et SalamandrisOverviewWhat Defines This GroupingWell-attestedBeings assigned one to each of the four classical elements. This is a specific Western esoteric scheme rather than a general folk belief: the four-fold order is Paracelsus's, and later occultism took it from him. 2Tradition: Paracelsus, Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis, Pygmaeis et SalamandrisDirectoryCategoryWell-attestedMythical Creatures 1Learn MoreThe elemental spirits This small group holds an elemental spirit, a being bound to one of the classical elements of earth, water, air or fire, a conception developed especially in Western esoteric tradition, where each element has its own order of spirits. The browser will find the figure the atlas classes here. The entry describes its nature and its place in the tradition.TraditionFilter Results1 entryEra of Decline End YearAll600 (1)Era of Decline Start YearAll300 (1)Era of Modern Revival End YearAll1471 (1)Era of Modern Revival Start YearAll1463 (1)Origin Period End YearAll300 (1)Origin Period Start YearAll1 (1)Place of OriginAllRoman Egypt, chiefly Alexandria (1)Practice StatusAllLiving, and practised in varied local forms (1)Status TodayAllHistorical; not practised continuously (1)Revived or reconstructed in the modern era (1)TheologyAllEmanationist: reality proceeds from an ineffable One (1)Monistic: one ultimate reality behind all appearance (1)Show ResultsHermeticismTradition1 entrySources1. Divinity Atlas Directory Taxonomy, First Edition Category Treetier 12. Liber de Nymphis, Sylphis, Pygmaeis et Salamandris et de Caeteris Spiritibustier 1Paracelsus (Theophrastus von Hohenheim)On the four kinds of elemental being3. The Secrets of Alchemytier 1Lawrence M. Principe, University of Chicago Press, 2013on the Paracelsian elementalsView the SourceDivinity Atlas Directory Prose, First Edition Category Descriptionstier 1Comments (0)No comments yet. Be the first to share a thought.Sign in to join the discussion.Reader Challenges (0)No disputes yet. Spotted an error or a better source? Open the first one.Sign in to dispute this or suggest a correction.