"Undine Rising From the Waters" by Chauncey Bradley Ives

An Elemental is a spirit embodying one of the five elements of antiquity: Earth (solid), Water (liquid), Wind (gas), Fire (heat), Aether (quintessence.) Elementals are referred to by various names. In the English European tradition these include Fairies, Elves, Devas, Brownies, Leprechauns, Gnomes, Sprites, Pixies, Banshees, Goblins, Dryads, Mermaids, Trolls, Dragons, Griffins, and numerous others. These nature spirits are governed by the Archangels. Like Angels, Elementals have a recognisable appearance consistently depicted by the archetypal language of art and literature. For example, it is easy to determine if a drawing is an Angel or a winged elemental. Angels have feathered bird-like wings and the winged Elementals have wings that look like a butterfly.^[1]

Elemental spirits possess supernatural powers and are usually invisible to humans, living among the trees, rivers, plants, bogs, mountains, and minerals. They attach themselves to practically every natural thing. Earthly Elementals are the metaphysical (beyond the physics) cause of earthquakes, floods, gales, thunderstorms, and wild-fires. In Shakespeare's The Tempest, Prospero, marooned and exiled, frees an Elemental named Ariel from a tree. Then, in order to be free from Prospero, Ariel agrees to perform a series of supernatural acts including a storm that allow Prospero to right the injustice of his exile and to forgive those responsible. More importantly, Earthly Elementals are responsible for creating, sustaining, and renewing life on Earth.

Animism, which is oldest known human spiritual practice, is the belief Elementals inhabit all things. The belief in Elementals predates all the major religions. This is evident in anthropological records of indigenous beliefs and practices throughout the world, including Australian Aboriginies who have the oldest continuous culture.

An early modern reference of elementals appears in the 16th century alchemical works of Paracelsus. His works grouped the Elementals into four of the five elements:^[2]

• Gnome, Earth Elemental.
• Undines (also known as Nymph), Water Elemental.
• Sylph, Air Elemental (also known as Wind Elemental).
• Salamander, Fire Elemental.

The earliest known reference of the term Sylph is from the works of Paracelsus.

The basic concept of an Elemental refers to the ancient idea of the elements Earth, Water, Wind, Fire, and Aether as the fundamental building blocks of nature. This system prevailed in the Classical world. This paradigm was highly influential in Medieval natural philosophy, and Paracelsus drew a range of mythological beings into this paradigm by identifying them as belonging to one of the four elemental types.

In comtempory times there are those who study and practice rituals to invoke Elementals. These include Wiccans and followers of nature based religions, as well as Freemasons studying the esoteric knowledge and the practices of alchemy and witchcraft.

Activating Elementals is performed by the conscious act of the practitioner personifying an object of focus and animating the spirit. The practice involves ceremony and ritual with clearly defined positions and a fastidiousness to order which invoke the spirit through charms, incantations and signs. The practice has a high degree of caution. Given the powerful and the important role of Elementals, participants must ask themselves why they are interceding into the Elemental realm. The thoughts and feelings of the participant are in equilibrium with the Elemental. In other words, the way the participant affects the Elemental is equal to the way the Elemental will affect the participant. Impure practitioners who transfer any negative affects onto another person by changing positions achieve short term gain. However, it returns to the initiating participant with long term consequences.

Usually Elemental ceremonies involve communion with the spirits to reconcile and cleanse negative acts on the natural world, to ask for blessings and gifts of nature to continue, and to thank the elemental spirits for their life giving purpose.

The five elements earth, water, wind, fire, and aether are analogous to the five states of nature modelled in contemporary physics (i.e. solid, liquid, gas, plasma, and Bose–Einstein condensate.) From a metaphysical point of view, the ancient elements do not contradict modern physics tabling 92 natural occurring elements ranging from hydrogen (lightest) to Uranium (heaviest). In industry the four Elements of Earth, Water, Wind, and Fire are powers used to charm and temper the natural order of elements like iron into steel through heat (plasma), molten iron (liquid), and iron, carbon & chrome (solids). Turning lead into gold, either in a physical or metaphysical sense, is one of the enduring legacies of Elemental folklore.

See also[link]

• Classical elements
• Sigil
• Tattva
• Fairy, mythological being
• Gnome
• Salamander
• Sylph
• Undine
• Aether, Aristotelian element. 19th century physicists used the Aether as a hidden state to describe how light moved through a vacuum. Maxwell's electromagnetic equations and Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity made the Aether model redundant from the viewpoint of 20th century physicists.
• Bose–Einstein condensate

References[link]

• "undine." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2006. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 16 November 2006 <http://www.britannica.com/eb/article-9125706>.
• Theophrast von Hohenheim a.k.a. Paracelsus, Sämtliche Werke: Abt. 1, v. 14, sec. 7, Liber de nymphis, sylphis, pygmaeis et salamandris et de caeteris spiritibus. Karl Sudhoff and Wilh. Matthießen, eds. Munich:Oldenbourg, 1933.

External links[link]

Look up elemental in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Collected Works of Paracelsus V. 14 at the University of Braunschweig (German)

Paul Alborough, more often known as Professor Elemental, is a steampunk and chap hop musical artist.^[1] After being approached to do a concept album of hip-hop as it would sound in different time periods, Emcee Elemental created the character of Professor Elemental. While the album never came to fruition, the character stuck.^[2] Professor Elemental has since been seen performing as a solo act or in theatre acts such as Come Into My Parlour. He is also popular at steampunk events and has been a headliner at the Steampunk World's Fair and the Waltz on the Wye.

The Professor Elemental character first gained notoriety with his music video for "Cup of Brown Joy," (Directed by Moog) which got the attention of notable celebrities such as Warren Ellis. Since then he has released a new album, continued his work in the community and performed live. He is currently in a feud with fellow "chap-hop" artist Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer.^[3]

Discography[link]

The Indifference Engine[link]

1. "Splendid", 2:39
2. "Animal Magic", 2:41
3. "Fighting Trousers", 3:03
4. "Sweet Cold Colation (Feat. Miss Sadie Bell)" - 2:22
5. "The Quest For The Golden Frog" - 4:06
6. "Elixir" - 1:47
7. "A Fete Worse Than Death" - 2:23
8. "Steam Powered (Feat. Mr. Jon Clark)" - 2:00
9. "Penny Dreadful" - 4:32
10. "Cup Of Brown Joy (Tea Bag Remix)" - 3:09

More Tea?[link]

1. "Intro", 0:40
2. "The Quest For The Golden Frog (Tom Caruana remix)", 3:49
3. "Splendid (Tom Caruana remix)", 3:02
4. "Fighting Trousers (Mr Simmonds remix)" - 2:58
5. "Alright (Suhov remix)" - 3:18
6. "Fred's Amazing Animal Band" - 1:17
7. "Animal Magic (Tom Caruana remix)" - 2:41
8. "Animals (Helen Arney feat. Professor Elemental) (Mr Simmonds remix)" - 4:00
9. "Pay Me A Visit (Ajuda remix feat. Count Bass D)" - 4:39
10. "Player Hater" - 3:34
11. "Hard Act To Follow (Tom Caruana remix)" - 2:53
12. "Livin' In The 90s (Tom Caruana remix)", 3:21
13. "Moon Monkeys", 1:15
14. "0800 Sickie (Crespo remix)", 3:55
15. "Steampowered (Tom Caruana remix feat. Mr Jon Clark)", 2:16
16. "Lets Get It Done", 3:09

Special School: The Album[link]

1. "So Special", 2:55
2. "A Scolding", 2:36
3. "Too Much Info (featuring Longusto)", 3:06
4. "Joey and Marie", 2:16
5. "Pie (featuring Legs)", 2:50
6. "Wilbur and Orville", 2:38
7. "The Antidote", 2:28
8. "Hungry (featuring Vecks)", 3:51
9. "Second to None", 2:50
10. "Graveyard Shifts (featuring Dizrali)", 4:08

Forthcoming releases[link]

• "Elemental and Jon Clark are Special School" (due out July 2011)
• "The Menagerie - Hopeful Monsters" (due out September 2011)

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Professor Elemental

• Official website
• Professor Elemental on Twitter
• Elemental page on Tea Sea Records

Baba Brinkman
Baba Brinkman performing at the CUSP Conference, 2010, Chicago, IL
Background information
Birth name	Dirk Murray Brinkman
Born	(1978-10-22) 22 October 1978 (age 33) Riondel, Canada
Origin	Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
Genres	Canadian hip hop
Occupations	poet, rapper, playwright
Years active	2004–present
Website	bababrinkman.com

"Baba" Dirk Murray Brinkman Jr (born October 22, 1978) is a Canadian rapper and playwright best known for recordings and performances that combine hip hop music with literature, theatre and science.

Biography[link]

Born in the remote community of Riondel, British Columbia, in a log cabin built by his parents,^[1] Brinkman is the eldest of three children of Joyce Murray, a Member of the Parliament of Canada, and Dirk Brinkman Sr, who is notable for having founded a company responsible for planting one billion trees.^[2] Dirk Sr gave Brinkman the honorific nickname "Baba" at birth, because of his son's contemplative, Buddha-like expression.^[3] Brinkman's childhood was divided between Vancouver and the Kootenay region of British Columbia. He attended Crawford Bay School and Relevant High, a democratic school.

Brinkman spent his early summers in remote tree planting camps,^[4], and began planting trees himself at the age of 15. He worked for his parents' business, Brinkman & Associates Reforestation, for twelve seasons in British Columbia and Alberta, personally planting more than one million trees.^[5] During this period he also earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in English Literature from Simon Fraser University and a Master of Arts degree in Comparative Literature from the University of Victoria, Canada. He studied human evolution and primatology with the orangutan researcher Biruté Galdikas and wrote his thesis comparing modern Hip hop freestyle battling with The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.^[6]

Literature Rap[link]

Brinkman first gained widespread media attention for his one-man show "The Rap Canterbury Tales",^{[7][8][9][10]} devised as a means of re-telling Chaucer's iconic stories for a modern audience. The show premiered at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 2004, and the following year Brinkman was sponsored by Cambridge University to perform the show in British secondary schools.^[11] The Rap Canterbury Tales was published as an illustrated paperback by Talon Books in 2006.^[12]

Brinkman's 2010 follow-up show, Rapconteur, premiered at the Edinburgh Free Fringe and features hip hop adaptations of Beowulf, the Epic of Gilgamesh, and the Finnish Kalevala.^[13][14][15] Because of his interest in merging hip hop and classic literature, Brinkman has referred to his style of rap as "Lit hop", which was also the title of his 2006 solo rap album.^[16]

Science Rap[link]

In 2008, Brinkman was commissioned to write a new rap show about evolution by Professor Mark Pallen, a Birmingham University microbiologist and author of The Rough Guide to Evolution. The result was "The Rap Guide to Evolution," a hip hop homage to Charles Darwin which Brinkman first performed in Britain for the Darwin bicentennial in February 2009.^[17] Because the lyrics were fact-checked for scientific accuracy, Professor. Pallen calls it "the first peer-reviewed rap".^[18] Brinkman cites Richard Dawkins, David Sloan Wilson, Jared Diamond, Geoffrey Miller, and E. O. Wilson as his influences in writing the show.

The Rap Guide to Evolution premiered at the 2009 Edinburgh Festival Fringe, winning a Fringe First Award from The Scotsman for best new theatre writing.^[19] In 2010 the UK's largest biomedical charity, the Wellcome Trust, provided grant funding for Brinkman to make a series of educational music videos based on the show, as a resource for biology teachers.^[20] The Rap Guide to Evolution began an Off-Broadway run in New York City in June 2011.^[21]

Brinkman followed up his Darwin-tribute with a sequel show specifically about evolutionary psychology, The Rap Guide to Human Nature, which also premiered at the Fringe in 2010.^[22]

Controversy[link]

The Rap Guide to Evolution has been viewed unfavourably for a variety of reasons. A science writer for The Scientist Magazine called the project "misguided" and accused Brinkman of "if not misogyny, then at least sexism" for his use of "scantily clad women" in the Wellcome Trust music videos.^[23]

When asked what other subjects he intends to explore through rap, Brinkman responded: "Global warming, health care policy, religion, gender politics. As long as it’s controversial I’m interested."^[24]

Works[link]

Theatre[link]

2004: The Rap Canterbury Tales

2008: The Rebel Cell (co-written with MC Dizraeli)

2009: The Rap Guide to Evolution

2010: Rapconteur

2010: The Rap Guide to Human Nature

Discography[link]

2004: Swordplay

2004: The Rap Canterbury Tales

2005: Pandemonium

2006: Lit-Hop

2009: The Rap Guide to Evolution

2009: Apocalyptic Utopian Dreams in the Western Wilderness

2010: Rapconteur

2010: The Rap Guide to Human Nature

2011: The Rap Guide to Evolution: Revised

2011: The Rap Guide to Business

Writings[link]

The Rap Canterbury Tales, Talon Books 2006

"The Speciation of Rap" The Evolutionary Review, Volume 2, March 2011

References[link]

1. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/science/28rap.html
2. ^ http://walrusmagazine.com/articles/2011.09-profile-the-money-tree/
3. ^ http://skepchick.se/2011/05/24/intervju-med-baba-brinkman/
4. ^ http://www.vanmag.com/News_and_Features/Fresh_Prince_of_East_Van?page=0%2C1
5. ^ http://www.plantingtheplanet.com/the-millionaires/
6. ^ http://www.bababrinkman.com/doc/rct/prologue.pdf
7. ^ http://www.theage.com.au/news/arts-reviews/the-rap-canterbury-tales/2007/10/04/1191091243627.html
8. ^ http://articles.latimes.com/2006/dec/25/entertainment/et-chaucer25
9. ^ http://www.timeout.com.hk/stage/features/22687/review-rap-canterbury-tales.html
10. ^ http://www.canada.com/victoriatimescolonist/news/arts/story.html?id=20cefb15-7b19-49c6-9f2d-d6bdf8c080eb
11. ^ http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/education/4721073.stm
12. ^ http://talonbooks.com/books/the-rap-canterbury-tales
13. ^ http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/viewreview.aspx?id=1994
14. ^ http://www.broadwaybaby.com/edinburgh-fringe-archive/7296
15. ^ http://www.whatsonstage.com/reviews/theatre/edinburgh/E8831282146316/Rapconteur.html
16. ^ http://thetyee.ca/Music/2007/03/01/MusicPicks/
17. ^ http://blogs.sciencemag.org/origins/2009/02/rapping-with-darwin-and-dawkin.html
18. ^ http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/science/28rap.html?_r=2
19. ^ http://www.edinburgh-festivals.com/viewpreview.aspx?id=670
20. ^ http://www.wellcome.ac.uk/News/2011/News/WTVM051468.htm
21. ^ http://theater.nytimes.com/2011/06/28/theater/reviews/baba-brinkman-in-rap-guide-at-soho-playhouse-review.html
22. ^ http://www.chortle.co.uk/shows/edinburgh_fringe_2010/r/18278/the_rap_guide_to_human_nature/review
23. ^ http://blog.the-scientist.com/2011/06/03/the-rap-guide-to-evolution/
24. ^ http://www.musicomh.com/theatre/features/baba-brinkman_0910.htm

External links[link]

• http://www.bababrinkman.com/
• http://www.rapguide.com/
• http://www.rapguidetoevolution.co.uk
• Presenting at Cusp Conference 2010 (video)