Some say that the ethers are emanations of divine beings who live on the sun. Others give highest praise to their place in the creation, death, and sustenance of the material world. They appear as planetary signatures, metals, notes, forms and other manifestations of spirit in matter.
Ancient Eastern texts refer to the ethers as tattvas and point to their primal importance in creation and the hierarchy, serving as "binders" between the spiritual energies of the divine and the physical substances through which they operate. To modern spiritual scientists, the ethers are the secret of all life functions and growth.
Alchemists are said to have worked with these elemental forces, often referring to them as beings that could be "set free" by releasing spirit from matter. In the deepest parts of Theosophy, Anthroposophy, Rosicrucianism, esoteric Masonry, and the Magical Revival, ethers and tattvas are the subject of the deepest esoteric teachings and rituals.