according to the use which consciously or
unconsciously we are continually making of it.

It would be hopeless within the limits of such a treatise as this to
attempt to explain the different uses to which the forces inherent in
the manifold varieties of this elemental essence can be put by one who
has been trained in their management. The vast majority of magical
ceremonies depend almost entirely upon its manipulation, either
directly by the will of the magician, or by some more definite astral
entity evoked by him for that purpose. By its means nearly all the
physical phenomena of the _seance_-room are produced, and it is also
the agent in most cases of stone-throwing or bell-ringing in haunted
houses, such results as these latter being brought about either by
blundering efforts to attract attention made by some earth-bound human
entity, or by the mere mischievous pranks of some of the minor
nature-spirits belonging to our third class. But the "elemental" must
never be thought of as itself a prime mover; it is simply a latent
force, which needs an external power to set it in motion. It may be
noted that although all classes of the essence have the power of
reflecting images from the astral light as described above, there are
varieties which receive certain impressions much more readily than
others--which have, as it were, favourite forms of their own into
which upon disturbance they would naturally flow unless absolutely
forced into some other, and such shapes tend to be a trifle less
evanescent than usual.

Before leaving this branch of the subject it may be well to warn the
student against the confusion of thought into which some have fallen
through failing to distinguish this elemental essence which we have
been considering from the monadic essence manifesting through the
mineral kingdom. It must be borne in mind that monadic essence at one
stage of its evolution towards humanity manifests through the
elemental kingdom, while at a later stage it manifests through the
mineral kingdom: but the fact that two bodies of monadic essence at
these different stages are in manifestation at the same moment, and
that one of these manifestations (the earth elemental) occupies the
same space as and inhabits the other (say a rock), in no way
interferes with the evolution either of one or the other, nor does it
imply any relation between the bodies of monadic essence lying within
both. The rock will also be permeated by its app