Years ago, I had an encounter with nature spirits. My friend and I were walking with our six small children across a wild field towards a woods, and the children ran ahead laughing. Soon, when we realised that we could no longer hear them, we called out, but no reply, so I began to walk faster, calling out anxiously. I was coming close to tears when I heard a calm voice ask, "Why are you afraid?" and noticed three tall slender women in long light dresses to our far left, moving gracefully through the grasses. "Don't you know that we are watching over them?" asked the voice." Suddenly, I felt completely reassured, and moments later, the children came out of the edge of the woods towards us, still laughing and playing.
My friend seemed totally unaware of these nature spirits, and when I later asked her about them, she said that she had noticed nothing except that I had suddenly become calm. The children had seen no one.
Others have told of encounters with nature spirits or elementals, some, as with the Scottish scientist Robert Ogilvie Crombie, over many years. Crombie formed a long close relationship with the mythical Spirit of Nature, Pan, overlord of nature entities.
We so-called civilised westerners like to dismiss nature spirits, elves, faerie and other unseen creatures as fantasies of the primitive mind, products of an unsophisticated though enchanting way of thinking about the world.
“The primal human being" writes Richard Tarnas, "perceives the surrounding natural world as permeated with meaning, meaning whose significance is at once human and cosmic. Spirits are seen in the forest, presences are felt in the wind and the ocean, the river, the mountains. Meaning is recognized in the flight of two eagles across the horizon, in the conjunction of two planets in the heavens, in the unfolding cycles of the Moon and Sun. The primal world is ensouled.” (in Cosmos and Psyche).
Fairies looking through a Gothic arch. by John Anster Fitzgerald
Yet even today, some people do see these presences, and animals do sometimes give meaningful signs that may be understood. I have made my around the South Island of New Zealand without getting lost once by following hawks that appeared at every single intersection or fork in the road to guide me, and in the valley near where I live, a hawk taught me a valuable lesson on focus and intent by circling three times over my head with a fish in its mouth. (I always ask for my messages in threes to dismiss the possibility of coincidence). (https://mythologos.typepad.com/blog/2015/07/hawks-lesson-on-heart.html)
In Iceland, belief in elves who often dwell in or beneath large rocks is still very much alive (love those Icelanders!), so much so that the Icelandic parliament ordered roadworks to be rerouted to avoid disturbing a site believed to be inhabited by elves. Almost half of Icelanders, it seems, believe in elves, and elf 'experts' are often consulted prior to roadworks and other constructions to determine whether elves live in that area and what to do about it.
Elf habitat protected by Iceland parliament
"There are many splendid dwellings. One is there called Alfheim. There dwell the folk that are called light-elves; but the dark-elves dwell down in the earth, and they are unlike the light-elves in appearance, but much more so in deeds. The light-elves are fairer than the sun to look upon, but the dark-elves are blacker than pitch." (softpedia.com).
Then there is Bigfoot, or what the Australian Aborigines call the Yowie. Yes. They have been seen, and in my area as well, and Bigfoots have even been recorded. (https://mysteriousuniverse.org/2017/08/the-eerie-world-of-bigfoot-sound-recordings/)
I was, however, surprised to find that Seth, the entity who spoke through Jane Roberts, spoke of Bigfoot-like creatures on Earth.
"There are indeed two different kinds of upward-walking mammals, much like your own species, but much larger and with infinitely keener senses. They are indeed amazingly swift creatures and through scent alone they are aware of the presence of man when any member of your species is at all in the immediate area - standing, say, several miles away. Vegetable matter is a main diet, though often supplemented by insects, which are considered a delicacy. …… With some territorial variation, such creatures reside in many of the world areas on your planet, though their overall population is very small - altogether, perhaps several thousand. …….Language is not developed to any great degree, of their sensual ordinary equipment is so pure and swift that it almost becomes a language of its own. (Jane Roberts. Seth: The Way Toward Health).
Some might not like the idea of unseen intelligent beings around us, large or small, but I find it very reassuring that despite our astoundingly ignorant behaviour toward nature and other species, some beings have had the wisdom to avoid us and our bungling, violent ways. As I potter around the wild parts of my garden, I like to know that someone might be watching, and that in return for the untouched corner of wilderness where it is safe from harm, it is probably helping my garden to grow. If I run into a Yowie, though, I'd rather not be alone.
Comments