What is an Elemental exactly?
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I have a vague idea what they are but is there a definitive answer?
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The basic answer is that an elemental is a thing composed of exactly one character and no more. We may use two descriptors (hot and fluid for Fire, cold and inert for Earth), but it is exactly one character.
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Thanks, does that apply to both material and non-material creatures?
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@Captainmaharaj said
"Thanks, does that apply to both material and non-material creatures?"
In my opinion, yes. For instance, when Jack Parsons writes of discovering Cameron after performing his rituals with LRH, he describes her as an elemental creature. To me this reads as one who is only of one simple character, pliable to the molding of the magician's will.
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An elemental is usually described as being distinct from the Microcosm.
That is to say, human beings are described as containing all elements in a balanced fashion,and so being in the 'perfect image' of God. Elementals on the other hand refer to beings that are unbalanced, containing only a part (or parts) of the Microcosm.
As human beings are microcosms that contain all of these elements, these elements can be evoked in a process known as evocation, thus bringing forth separate elementals.
Animals have often been called elementals, as they contain the divine spark but not in a whole and balanced equilibrium.
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Yes, elemental is used in magick exactly as it is in English in general - to indicate a component, a subset of a whole. Microcosms (e.g., humans_ are conceived as having all components, i.e., all elements within them.
One dictionary's definition of element:
"A component or constituent of a whole or one of the parts into which a whole may be resolved by analysis/"And of elemental:
"Of the nature of an ultimate constituent; simple; uncompounded."