“Lowest in the scale of being are those invisible creatures called by the kabalists the “elementary”. There are three distinct classes of these. The highest, in intelligence and cunning, are the so-called terrestrial spirits, of which we will speak more categorically in other parts of this work.
Suffice to say, for the present, that they are the larvae, or shadows of those who have lived on earth, have refused all spiritual light, remained and died deeply immersed in the mire of matter, and from whose sinful souls the immortal spirit has gradually separated.
The second class is composed of the invisible antitypes of the men to be born. No form can come into objective existence – from the highest to the lowest – before the abstract ideal of this form – or, as Aristotle would call it, the privation of this form – is called forth.
Before an artist paints a picture every feature of it exists already in his imagination; to have enabled us to discern a watch, this particular watch must have existed in its abstract form in the watchmaker’s mind.
So with future men.”
H. P. Blavatsky
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 