In ceremonial magic tradition the English Murry Hope, a New Agey priestess, addresses elves as elemental beings from the four elemental dominions fire, air, water and earth. They are helpers of the natural world and can assist the development of the human psyche through rituals of magic mysteries. Among the Celts, she recounts, Vivien was an ethereal being which instructed witchcraft to Breton and Scotch sorcerers.^[141]

Spirit of the Night by John Atkinson Grimshaw, 1879.

Nevertheless, consistent with Hope, ethereal beings tend not to trust in humans, and an incursion in their world may be a really dangerous act. It is not something for fools or curious, the deed demands knowledge, respect and specific rules must be obeyed because there is a cosmic orderliness. Usually this is achieved through rituals bringing mutual benefits to humans and entities. Break the norms means punishment, following them helps the magician to develop psychic abilities and qualities. Rarely, in a balanced mode, a person joins up the four elements in his psyche, body and way of life. In this fashion all beings of the four elements can show the way or cure bad health and stabilize the physical equilibrium of a person. For instance salamanders (fire) fuel stamina and creativity; sylphs (air) stir the intellectuality, the communication; ondines (water) work the emotions, the sympathy; fairies (earth) can encourage physical well being showing curatives herbs while gnomes teach accumulation and prosperity.

She distinguishes elementar, seen as a very unfinished being on the evolutionary ladder, from elemental spirits, which following their ascensional line develop into angels.Thoughtforms would be elementares, entities with barely consciousness, and made of a bag of energy, which is, intentionally or not, created by emotional discharges or magic arts. Distinct from humans, but in spite of this, elementals can experiment the human lineage as well as can choose to protect people as guardians for some period. Accordingly, says Hope, there are many stories in folklore and mythologies telling how the mother or father of a character is not a human being but a creature like an elf, nymph, god, or other mystical entity. Hope avers have performed a past life regression in a person whose history revealed that the individual did not belong to Homo sapiens basis but to the intermediate realm. The origin of that person was a fire salamander.^[56][141] Indeed Hope testifies to be herself from devic origin, she would have had various non-human lives.^[142]

A prime reference to early occultists since 19th century, the French Eliphas Levi understood the devic realm^[143] as composed of four elementar forms that render the astral light completely filled with souls having no free will.

Celtic pixie, illustration byArthur Rackham, 1910.

Elementary spirits, declares Levi, figure a great invisible chain and as such can motivate or determine impressive commotions in Nature. They show themselves under partial and fugitive forms. They are like kids, good and evil are the same; have no responsibility. They are not in mortal sin, simply are inquisitive and inoffensive. Frequently set up distressing or fabulous dreams; can bother unless one has control of them; can produce the movements and the knocks on walls and furniture. But they do not exhibit any other thoughts than those emanated from humans; they talk to people with all the incoherence of dreams.

Conjurers can employ or exploit them like unarmed. For that reason the magus who occupies their help burdens a terrible responsibility, for he will have to expiate all the evil, which he makes them do. Then only flawless persons in the air, fire, water and earth qualities should try impose upon the elements the verb of their will, by respective special consecrations of sylphs, salamanders, undines, and gnomes.

The kingdom of gnomes is at the north, that of salamanders at the south, that of sylphs at the east, and that of undines at the west. Their sovereigns are Gob of the gnomes, Djinof the salamanders, Paralda of the sylphs, and Nicksa of the undines. Levi still lays strong emphasis in the Ezekiel’s creatures and depicts hieroglyphic signs as the "Bull" to the gnomes controlled with the "Sword"; the "Lion" to the salamanders commanded with the "Bifurcated Rod or Magic Trident"; the "Eagle" to the sylphs dominated by the "HolyPentacles"; and the "Water-Carrier (Aquarius)" to the undines ruled by the "Cup of Libations".

Succeeding Levi, the French occultist Gerard Encausse whose pseudonym was Papus endorsed the Levi’s teachings in his own works but he articulated the symbolic relations of nature-spirits discoursed by Levi as founded in writings by magician Cornelius Agrippa who was born centuries before.^[144]