Sylphs

The sylphs (sylphs) are the elemental spirits of the air, a figure coined by the Swiss physician and alchemist Paracelsus in his treatise Liber de Nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris (published posthumously in 1566). In Paracelsus's cosmology, each of the four elements is inhabited by a class of beings intermediate between humans and pure spirits: the nymphs or undines in water, the gnomes or pygmies in earth, the salamanders in fire and the sylphs (or sylvestres) in the air. Conceived as beings of subtle body, invisible by nature and of enormous longevity, the sylphs inhabit the atmospheric heights. Their notion, of Neoplatonic and hermetic root, was popularized and novelized in the seventeenth century by the abbot Montfaucon de Villars in his satirical work The Count of Gabalis (1670).

The sylphs are described as ethereal and graceful creatures, of idealized human form but made of air, capable of floating, riding the winds and crossing the clouds. Ordinarily invisible, they manifest in the breezes and whirlwinds, and can adopt a visible appearance, almost always feminine and of great beauty, to deal with worthy mortals. They are attributed dominion over the winds and the ability to purify the air. According to the doctrine expounded by Villars, they lack an immortal soul, and therefore yearn to unite in marriage with human beings, since from that union they would obtain the immortality of the soul; moreover, they only show themselves to people of pure heart, and flee from lust and corruption. They feed on the ether and not on material sustenance, and their contact is compared to the coolness of a breeze that inspires visions and poetic raptures.

The figure of the sylphs passed from the esoteric treatise to literature and art. Alexander Pope immortalized them in his satirical poem The Rape of the Lock (1712), where sylph guardians watch over the beautiful Belinda. In the 19th century, the romantic ballet La Sylphide (1832) consecrated them as a symbol of the unattainable and the ethereal, and Victorian occultism (the Golden Dawn, theosophy) incorporated them into its system of air elementals, associated with the intellect and spiritual freedom. Their name has also remained in common language: calling a person a 'sylph' evokes a slender, light and graceful figure. Sylphs endure today in fantasy, art and neopaganism as the quintessential incarnation of the spirit of air, alongside their elemental brothers of earth, water and fire.