It is recognised by many that we have grown too far from Nature, our native home and mother. Through the over-exploitation of natural resources to feed the hungry monster of commercial development we have added another step between ourselves and the natural world. Friends of mine with children would tell me of the benefits to the children of running and playing on the fields. Bare foot in the grass is something we all could do to help us leave the insulated world of manufactured environment and feel ourselves at home again, as part of a great Wholeness.
But key among the factors of separation has been the alienation from the Fairy world, the world of the elementals and nature spirits. I cannot emphasise highly enough the importance of reconnecting with the Nature spirits. The curious blend of Middle Eastern ideas with Greek mythology lead the Roman Church, possibly others also, to denounce the world of the Nature Spirits.
Taking the Great God Pan, whose very name means ‘everything’ because He is God of All, they twisted him into some evil djinn and took his image as that of the Devil in the Middle Ages. Pan is known as the God of Nature, not a green man image, but something more powerful, teacher and friend of Zeus and Apollo, and to whose kingdom all Nature spirits belong.
But the Roman church is not alone in declaring Pan and his kingdom as deceptive, the Tibetans also speak of that realm as being a distraction on the path. But this is something very different from declaring it as the source of Evil, a question which the Church still has not managed to discuss intelligently.
European folklore too speaks of Merlin, for example, being trapped by a fairy.
I was alarmed when my sister spoke of nature spirits as purposefully being spiteful and malicious. I have never experienced them as such. Already, long before I reached Findhorn, I had a good relationship with the Fairies and Elves. I met them once at Heaven’s Gate, a picturesque spot on the edge of the Longleat estate. But I left Warminster in 77 and did not hear about Findhorn for at least another two years. I had been aware of spirits beside my bed in Australia, when I was 5 or 6, many years before that.
It has to be said however that the Findhorn outlook certainly opened my eyes and heart to the realm. Cooking in the kitchens with the co-operation of the Nature spirits was a gas. It was as natural as invoking their help in the garden. I learned here of Devas also, and that these intelligences governed such things as hospitals, towns and villages, as well as individual buildings, football clubs, and other organisations.
The specific teaching was a little garbled and, by the time of my return in 2010, gardeners were openly denying the existence of Nature Spirits. It has to be said that if we begin by denying a being we are unlikely to get very close to it, and it is only what many among the nature spirits expected from humans who had so long denied their existence or painted them as devious sprites.
When we work with love that love as an energy pours from our hearts and being into the project at hand, whether it be cooking, embroidery, gardening or ship-building. The love we generate pours into the thing. But it does not build itself into the meal or the image, the garden or the canoe, on its own. That energy is carried by elemental intelligences and woven into the project. The result is a glowing portrait, or sumptuous meal. It is above ordinary. But while we are so self absorbed as to take credit for the thing itself we tend to forget that it involved the employment of these Natural intelligences. Try cooking without their help. Be distracted and throw things in a pan while you are thinking of the gammy leg you’re standing on, or the cost of the electricity bill and see what the result is. You may not want to eat it.
I do encourage you to begin immediately by acknowledging their hidden presence and thanking them for their help. You will quickly see how easy your life becomes. The ball of thread you lost. Ask for their help to find it. The right way through town to your destination, even if you have never been there before you find you will be taken directly to the place. Time and again I have done this.
Asking for help to find a specific item when visiting a neighbouring town. Again you will be directed to find it.
But always express your gratitude, until it becomes second nature to say thank you. No-one likes to be spurned and as Nature Spirits relate to our emotions so they, too, respond emotionally. They will turn your milk sour, if you are sour with them. They enjoy thankfulness, not some great waving of the arms about or some bleeting cry of gratitude – unless it is spontaneously generated – Living in the moment they recognise deceit swifter than we do ourselves.
So be humble, be grateful and renew that broken bond with Nature that keeps you separated from the world at large.
