Christendom, in an effort to eliminate the pagan world, turned the
Great God Pan into a devil, his world of nature spirits into goblinesque
fiends. For fifteen hundred years the true essence of the spirits of na-
ture was relegated to the care of witches, gypsies, or the secret labora-
tories of the alchemist.
The first to retrieve such spirits from enforced obscurity was
the Swiss alchenllst Philippus Aureolus Theophrastus Bombastus von
Hohenheinl, better known as Paracelsus. Born in the canton of
Schwyz in 1490, a contemporary of Martin Luther, Paracelsus was per-
haps an even greater reformer than his Saxon peer in that he tackled
medicine and physics as well as religion. Like Luther, he also broke the
tradition of his day by choosing to write a treatise on nature spirits, not
in the acadenllc Latin of his compeers, but in his own vernacular
German. It was to become the prime source of innumerable works by
later authors.
Following the concepts of classical cultures, Paracelsus divided the
world of nature spirits into the standard four elements of earth, water,
air, and fire, calling then1 elementals because each was considered to be
conlposed of a single one of these classic elements. Grouping his ele-
mental~ into races and division, he assigned each to performing innu-
merable useful tasks within its natural realm. "They represent,"
explained the Swiss physician, "certain forces fulfilling a role in nature,
and are not created without purpose."
Not limiting himself to the study of what had been written in the
past, Paracelsus went deeply into nature to study the subject firsthand.
Unlike his peers, trapped in the narrow linllts of contemporary scho-
lasticism, Paracelsus sought solutions to the mysteries of nature by per-
sonally pursuing his data wherever he could find it, from bypsies,
witches, faith healers, herbalists, or anyone who claimed knowledge of
the healing arts. He liked to visit hermits living in huts or caves: he be-
lieved the old tales of isolated religions would have meaning for those
who had the wit to examine them."Whosoever would understand the
book of nature," said Paracelsus, "must walk its pages with his feet."
Boldly determined to clear the way for a modern understanding
of the nlechanics of nature, Paracelsus scandalized his fellow doctors
joyce
(Joyce)
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