So many and so varied are the subdivisions of this class that to do
them anything like justice one would need to devote a separate
treatise to this subject alone. Some characteristics, however, they
all have in common, and it will be sufficient here to try to give some
idea of those. To begin with, we have to realize that we are here
dealing with entities which differ radically from all that we have
hitherto considered. Though we may rightly classify the elemental
essence and the animal Kâmarûpa as non-human, the monadic essence
which manifests itself through them will, nevertheless, in the fulness
of time, evolve to the level of manifesting itself through some future
humanity comparable to our own, and if we were able to look back
through countless ages on our own evolution in previous manvantaras,
we should find that that which is now ourselves has passed on its
upward path through similar stages. That, however, is not the case
with the vast kingdom of nature-spirits; they neither have been, nor
ever will be, members of a humanity such as ours; their line of
evolution is entirely different, and their only connection with us
consists in our temporary occupancy of the same planet. Of course
since we are neighbours for the time being we owe neighbourly kindness
to one another when we happen to meet, but our lines of development
differ so widely that each can do but little for the other.
Many writers have included these spirits among the elementals, and
indeed they are the elementals (or perhaps, to speak more accurately,
the animals) of a higher evolution. Though much more highly developed
than our elemental essence, they have yet certain characteristics in
common with it; for example, they also are divided into seven great
classes, inhabiting respectively the same seven states of matter
already mentioned as permeated by the corresponding varieties of the
essence. Thus, to take those which are most readily comprehensible to
us, there are spirits of the earth, water, air, and fire (or
ether)--definite intelligent astral entities residing and functioning
in each of those media. It may be asked how it is possible for any
kind of creature to inhabit the solid substance of a rock, or of the
crust of the earth. The answer is that since the nature-spirits are
formed of astral matter, the substance of the rock is no hindrance to
their motion or their vision, and furthermore physical matter in its
solid state is their natural element--the only one to which they are
accustomed and in which they feel at home. The same is of course true
of those who live in water, air or ether. In mediæval literature,
these earth-spirits are often called gnomes, while the water-spirits
are spoken of as ûndinés, the air-spirits as sylphs, and the
ether-spirits as salamanders. In popular language they are known by
many names--fairies, pixies, elves, brownies, peris, djinns, trolls,
satyrs, fauns, kobolds, imps, goblins, good people, etc.--some of
these titles being applied only to one variety, and others
indiscriminately to all. Their forms are many and various, but most
frequently human in shape and somewhat diminutive in size. Like almost
all inhabitants of the astral plane, they are able to assume any
appearance at will, but they undoubtedly have definite forms of their
own, or perhaps we should rather say favourite forms, which they wear
when they have no special object in taking any other. Of course under
ordinary conditions they are not visible to physical sight at all, but
they have the power of making themselves so by materialization when
they wish to be seen.
There are an immense number of subdivisions or races among them, and
individuals of these subdivisions differ in intelligence and
disposition precisely as human beings do. The great majority of them
apparently prefer to avoid man altogether; his habits and emanations
are distasteful to them, and the constant rush of astral currents set
up by his restless, ill-regulated desires disturbs and annoys them. On
the other hand instances are not wanting in which nature-spirits have
as it were made friends with human beings and offered them such
assistance as lay in their power, as in the well-known stories told of
the Scotch brownies or of the fire-lighting fairies mentioned in
spiritualistic literature. This helpful attitude, however, is
comparatively rare, and in most cases when they come in contact with
man they either show indifference or dislike, or else take an impish
delight in deceiving him and playing childish tricks upon him. Many a
story illustrative of this curious characteristic may be found among
the village gossip of the peasantry in almost any lonely mountainous
district, and any one who has been in the habit of attending _séances_
for physical phenomena will recollect instances of practical joking
and silly though usually good-natured horseplay, which always indicate
the presence of some of the lower orders of the nature-spirits. They
are greatly assisted in their tricks by the wonderful power which they
possess of casting a glamour over those who yield themselves to their
influence, so that such victims for the time see and hear only what
these fairies impress upon them, exactly as the mesmerized subject
sees, hears, feels and believes whatever the magnetizer wishes. The
nature-spirits, however, have not the mesmerizer's power of dominating
the human will, except in the case of quite unusually weak-minded
people, or of those who allow themselves to fall into such a condition
of helpless terror that their will is temporarily in abeyance; they
cannot go beyond deception of the senses, but of that art they are
undoubted masters, and cases are not wanting in which they have cast
their glamour over a considerable number of people at once. It is by
invoking their aid in the exercise of this peculiar power that some of
the most wonderful feats of the Indian jugglers are performed--the
entire audience being in fact hallucinated and made to imagine that
they see and hear a whole series of events which have not really taken
place at all.
We might almost look upon the nature-spirits as a kind of astral
humanity, but for the fact that none of them--not even the highest
possess a permanent reincarnating individuality. Apparently therefore
one point in which their line of evolution differs from ours is that a
much greater proportion of intelligence is developed before permanent
individualization takes place; but of the stages through which they
have passed, and those through which they have yet to pass, we can
know little. The life-periods of the different subdivisions vary
greatly, some being quite short, others much longer than our human
lifetime. We stand so entirely outside such a life as theirs that it
is impossible for us to understand much about its conditions; but it
appears on the whole to be a simple, joyous, irresponsible kind of
existence, much such as a party of happy children might lead among
exceptionally favourable physical surroundings. Though tricky and
mischievous, they are rarely malicious unless provoked by some
unwarrantable intrusion or annoyance; but as a body they also partake
to some extent of the universal feeling of distrust for man, and they
generally seem inclined to resent somewhat the first appearance of a
neophyte on the astral plane, so that he usually makes their
acquaintance under some unpleasant or terrifying form. If, however, he
declines to be frightened by any of their freaks, they soon accept him
as a necessary evil and take no further notice of him, while some
among them may even after a time become friendly and manifest pleasure
on meeting him.
Some among the many subdivisions of this class are much less childlike
and more dignified than those we have been describing, and it is from
these sections that the entities who have sometimes been reverenced
under the name of wood-gods, or local village-gods, have been drawn.
Such entities would be quite sensible of the flattery involved in the
reverence shown to them, would enjoy it, and would no doubt be quite
ready to do any small service they could in return. (The village-god
is also often an artificial entity, but that variety will be
considered in its appropriate place.) The Adept knows how to make use
of the services of the nature-spirits when he requires them, but the
ordinary magician can obtain their assistance only by processes either
of invocation or evocation--that is, either by attracting their
attention as a suppliant and making some kind of bargain with them, or
by endeavouring to set in motion influences which would compel their
obedience. Both methods are extremely undesirable, and the latter is
also excessively dangerous, as the operator would arouse a determined
hostility which might prove fatal to him. Needless to say, no one
studying occultism under a qualified Master would ever be permitted to
attempt anything of the kind at all.