A term used by Charles W. Leadbeater and others to describe the elemental essence that vivifies the emotional body.

An understanding of this term requires some knowledge of those matters termed in theosophy, “astral body” and “astral plane.” Briefly, the astral body is the emotional or desire body of a person that has an independent existence and which is composed of subtle material drawn from the astral plane in nature. An intense concentration on external objects of desire or preoccupation with passionate desire may cause a certain amount of astral material to be “thrown off” and this may gather around itself what is known as “elemental essence.” Such a thought-desire form has as its body Elemental Essence that is composed of material drawn from the six lower levels of the astral plane and has as its “animating soul” the desires or passions that created it. These artificial entities can become for a time living beings: entities of intense activity animated by the one idea — the passion or desire that brought them forth.

See also THOUGHT FORMS.

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