1 72 k7 The Secret Lije fe Nature
Their four seals will be imprinted upon his finer bodies and he can call
upon them and their immediate seniors for work and for aid."
From either side of the royal arch the earth elementals are invoked.
If the candidate can command them, says Hodson, either by willpower
through his voice or by an inherent quality of his nature, they will bow
and, as the candidate turns, will make way for him to pass. "The
gnomes are amused by most of the ceremony, except at those times
when its force arrests them. Then they become serious for the time
being.The gnomes play about the temple floor, march with grotesque
and absurd mimicry behind the procession, thoroughly enjoying
themselves all the time and really getting much fun out of the cere-
mony. But if the officiating Master Mason does not command their re-
spect, they will laugh and mimic him and the candidate."
Hodson considers these to be a superior kind of gnome, not always
so dark as the gnomes found in natural surroundings and lacking their
unpleasant or hostile appearance. He calls them "ceremonial" gnomes,
dressed in imitation of human clothes, generally of bright colors. Some
even attempt evening dress for a few moments, "though the result
could not be said to be very successful; the same being true of apron,
collar, and jewels [Masonic emblems] which they assume on occasion."
As the ceremony progresses, a sylph is described by Hodson as ap-
pearing from the upper air to hover just under the ceiling,"a fierce and
powerful creature of about human size and shape, with a face of great
beauty and strength, but no particular sex differentiation."
Hodson's sylph accepts the candidate's offering and, stretching out
a hand, touches the forehead of the candidate, pouring in its radiant vi-
tality and giving the key by which the doors to its kingdom can be un-
locked.
His undine appears as a nude female figure, of singular beauty, with a
bstening aura and a body that shes as ifwet. His salamander is very tall
and thin, a creature of flame, with arms and legs like tongues of fire and
a fiery body with the suggestion of a human shape, two fiery eyes and a
flaming center in the middle of the head. Momentary contact with the
salamander is described as setting the candidate's aura on fire in a "won-
dehlly stimulating and purifactory way."