Appendix II nature spirits

Writing of the Dionysiac beliefs of the Greeks, Pater remarks:

"The higher intelligence brooding deeply over things pursues in thought the generation of strength and sweetness in the veins of a tree." Indeed what is to modern man the chemistry of nature was to the ancient Greeks the mediation of living souls. According to the religion of Dionysius trees and flowers were the habitations of such beings. This is something more than a graceful fancy, and the time may come when poets will ask again whether trees and plants are possessed by souls? For, presently, photography will reveal marvels. However, my reply must be in the negative. The term soul, as I have defined it, implies a certain mental individuality. Trees, plants and the simpler forms of life are controlled by what might be described as "impersonal mind." In the higher forms of animal life embryo souls express themselves, and finally, we discover their more advanced expression in the bodies of man.

Trees and plants breathe and possess nervous systems. Wherein do they differ in the principles of structure from man and the higher animals?

We can discover our answer to this query only through our knowledge of the invisible world.

As I have stated, all through life man is accompanied by his double or unifying body. Its core or germ is the etheric body, which will develop during old age, or in the last years of a man's life. It then takes shape and form and is

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the garment worn by the soul in the world beyond death. Within the etheric body resides the seed of the subtle body. If the traveller decides that he will not return to earth and adventures upwards this subtle body blossoms and breaks into flower in the world of Eidos.

Now trees, plants and all the simpler forms of life, possess only the double or unifying body. Without it the plant could not breathe. The double receives the life units and thereby nourishes the plant. It will be recognised that when the plant withers and dies there is likely, in time, to be a disintegration of the invisible unifying body, and in effect, this is a correct conclusion. However, even in the case of these lower forms of life, an essence remains which almost immediately reincarnates. That is to say this factor swiftly re-enters the vegetable world and again the old story of the seasons is unfolded.

Although the modern mind rejects the ancient belief in nature spirits the Greeks of old were nearer the truth when they peopled river, valley, mountain top and brook, with creatures who were invisible, or whose presence could be guessed at only through the medium they inhabited. Naturally, to apply the term "soul" to them would be incorrect. There is no resemblance of any kind, and their vitalising energy springs from another source.

These so-called nature spirits may be multiple in character, each apparent unit being composed of several. The essence emanating from a forest at certain seasons of the year, for instance, can coalesce and become unified and while mindless in the usual meaning of the word can assume the form we call a sprite and is capable not only of movement but also of having an emotional effect upon a human being who has sought solitude in the leafy glades of the forest or by the brink of a river or lake.

Such reactions may be of a mild, beneficent character, may offer nourishment to the human being's double or unifying body, may bring him in touch again with primal

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life. On the other hand if such a human being is not habitually well balanced and is easily susceptible to harmful suggestions, these essences or sprites of water, earth, air and of the vegetable world, may adversely affect him. Whatever the psychic reaction, the ancients were correct in believing that the countryside contained at times such invisible presences. They were wrong in describing these entities by terms applicable to human beings.

Man, in possessing an etheric body is the expression of soul or an individualised mentality. Thus is he the purveyor of a higher order of consciousness. But you must not, while studying his structure, confuse the aura with the double or unifying body.

The aura may be described as the radiation of life through the physical body. It can be perceived not only in connection with human beings, but in relation to various discarnate intelligences on different levels of consciousness.

Animal Survival

I have little to add to the essay on animals which appeared in The Road to Immortality. Our dumb friends may become our companions again in the world of Illusion if we are genuinely attached to them and if our affection is reciprocated. But only highly developed animals share our life on the Third plane.

However, the death of the material body does not necessarily imply the immediate destruction of the hunter's instinct, of the craving for the excitement of shooting or slaughtering birds, beasts and fishes. In the world of Illusion the sportsman may satisfy this instinct to the fullest degree. But his victims are not, as on earth, animated with the life principle. They are merely the creation of his imagination. For a long time he is not as a rule aware of this fact and continues to enjoy his sport. For instance, you may be informed that some friend of

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yours has been shooting woodcock but you would scarcely credit this statement.

However, if you realise that this individual was unconsciously creating a pleasurable occupation for himself out of his earth memories, then you will be able to accept his claim that, in the world after death, he is still shooting woodcock.

These woodcock may be described as thought forms conceived and shaped in the man's subconscious mind. The sportsman's craving to shoot birds creates the birds. They are merely alive in the sense that they are animated by the electrical waves of thought emanating from his mind and stimulated by his desire. The birds are actual in the sense that they are of etheric substance. When the sportsman eventually realises that pheasant, partridge and woodcock all spring out of his imagination he will probably no longer experience the keen gratification that follows a good day with the guns.

There are no animals&emdash;as you know them&emdash;on the Fourth plane. But we can have companions in the world of Eidos that may be classified with animals and birds.

Their forms are strange, bizarre, beautiful and grotesque. They are embryo souls and later on will be born on earth.

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