us beings will be found in _The Secret Doctrine_, vol. i., pp.
122-126. They are able to take human material forms at will, and
several cases are recorded when they have done so. All the higher
nature-spirits and hosts of artificial elementals act as their agents
in the stupendous work they carry out, yet all the threads are in
their hands, and the whole responsibility rests upon them alone. It is
not often that they manifest upon the astral plane, but when they do
they are certainly the most remarkable of its non-human inhabitants.
A student of occultism will not need to be told that as there are
seven great classes both of nature-spirits and elemental essence there
must really be seven and not four Devarajahs but outside the circle of
initiation little is known and less may be said of the higher three.

III. ARTIFICIAL.

This, the largest class of astral entities, is also much the most
important to man. Being entirely his own creation, it is inter-related
with him by the closest karmic bonds, and its action upon him is
direct and incessant. It is an enormous inchoate mass of
semi-intelligent entities, differing among themselves as human
thoughts differ, and practically incapable of anything like
classification or arrangement. The only division which can be usefully
made is that which distinguishes between the artificial elementals
made by the majority of mankind unconsciously, and those made by
magicians with definite intent; while we may relegate to a third class
the very small number of artificially arranged entities which are not
elementals at all.

1. _Elementals formed unconsciously._

It has already been explained that the elemental essence which
surrounds us on every side is in all its numberless varieties
singularly susceptible to the influence of human thought. The action
of the mere casual wandering thought upon it, causing it to burst into
a cloud of rapidly-moving, evanescent forms, has already been
described; we have now to note how it is affected when the human mind
formulates a definite, purposeful thought or wish. The effect produced
is of the most striking nature. The thought seizes upon the plastic
essence, and moulds it instantly into a living being of appropriate
form--a being which when once thus created is in no way under the
control of its creator, but lives out a life of its own, the length
of which is proportionate to the intensity of the thought or wish
which called it into existence.