Product Description
The Spirits of Nature is a book about angels, fairies, elves, gnomes and other "nature spirits". It's fascinating reading, and based on extensive research into the ancient traditions of Egypt, India, the pre-Colombian Mayas and Incas, and others. The book explains where different types of nature spirits live, their behavior, and their relationships with humans. There is a chapter on where and under what conditions they can be seen. These "invisible" creatures are not "supernatural" but simply live on their own plane of existence, even though modern man has all but lost the ability to perceive them. There is also a detailed explanation of the 7 planes, from the physical through the psychic to the spiritual realms.
The Spirits of Nature explains things about plants and animals that many people perceive intuitively, with a pet for example. It is a real gem for those interested in learning more about life and the world around us.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Stories about Genies, Gnomes, Undines, Elves and the whole immense range of Elementals fill the History of Mankind in such a way that without them neither its development nor the telling of it would be the same, as we can confirm in so many instances from the Myth of Enkidu and Gilgamesh to Homers Odyssey, the Sagas of Arthur and Merlin, or the elementals which taught Isadora Duncan to dance and inspired the glassware of Gallé.
Until very recently, their representations adorned the prows of ships, and they are still portrayed in hundreds of statues throughout the world, whether in parks, or on rocks overlooking the sea.
Grandmothers (...in the times when children were children, adults were adults and old people were old people, whether they held university degrees, noble titles, or were illiterate) used to tell their little grand-children about the Spirits of Nature. Delightful tales whose characters were undines, gnomes, fairies and elves, described with their characteristic forms and life-styles, their prodigies and apparitions.
Even the Catholic belief in a Guardian Angel who looks after little children until they reach the age of seven, has much older roots than Christianity itself, and from Arcadia to America it has always been believed that children, because of their purity and vulnerability, had a Guardian Spirit which saved them from many accidents, protected them from wild beasts and helped them to find their way home when they were lost.
The most curious thing about all this is that in the art forms of such dissimilar peoples, the Spirits of Nature are represented in a similar way. Likewise, in traditions, one hears of the same Elemental beings in 15th century Central Europe as in the heart of India in the 2nd millennium B.C. (pp. 38-39)