Sylph

spirit · France · Mediterranean

The sylph is the air elemental of Western esotericism, coined by Paracelsus in the 16th century as the airy counterpart of the salamander, undine and gnome. Classically pictured as slender, winged female beings of sky and mountain, they govern winds and weather. The term became a stock figure of alchemical, Rosicrucian and Romantic literature.

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