Nature Spirits and What They Say E-Book

Verena Stael von Holstein

• Herausgeber: Clairview Books
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2019

Beschreibung

'I can perceive spiritual beings in my surroundings… I can communicate with higher spirit beings of either an elemental or non-elemental kind, when they are willing. I can perceive the human aura, as well as certain areas of the astral plane… I can see the aura of plants and animals. I can speak with the guardian beings of plants and animals, inasmuch as they're interested...' – Verena Staël von Holstein Verena has learned to see and speak to elemental and nature beings. What's more, she is able to translate their language into human terminology and thought. In this remarkable book, seventeen nature spirits are interviewed through her, almost as if these beings were sitting in front of us. Through the conversations we learn what spirits of fire, air, water and stone have to say – as well as hearing from beings of glass, silver, salt, paper, and even spirits of our dwellings and homes! They speak about their work with nature and their regrettable lack of contact with human beings. They describe the secrets of the cosmos, and tell of humankind's past and future. The nature beings have surprising views on the environment, on natural disasters, good and evil, love and redemption. The interviews throw up beautiful, but sometimes disturbing insights into our world. Nature Spirits and What They Say offers an enchanting view of the world of elemental beings – but it also calls on us to recognize the seriousness of the situations they describe. As Verena explains, humans owe a huge amount to nature spirits, and we need to discover new ways of approaching them with full consciousness. This valuable book gives us the means to do just that.

Leseprobe

VERENA STAËL VON HOLSTEIN was born in Rendsburg in 1959. She studied surveying and hydrography and worked as a computer programmer and in the hydrographic surveying department. She is a homemaker with two children, and lives at a watermill in Lüneburger Heide, a heathland region in Northern Germany. A student of the work of Rudolf Steiner, from childhood onwards she has been able to perceive the etheric and astral realms in human beings and the natural world. She has learnt over many years to train her metaphysical perceptions so that communication with nature spirits takes place almost as a matter of course. She receives answers spiritually in the form of patterns, ideas and sometimes also images, and translates them into human concepts. She is the author of several books, including Nature Spirits of the Trees and What They Want to Tell Us.

NATURE SPIRITS

AND WHAT THEY SAY

MESSAGES FROM ELEMENTAL AND NATURE BEINGS

Verena Staël von Holstein

CLAIRVIEW

Clairview Books Ltd., Russet, Sandy Lane, West Hoathly, W. Sussex RH19 4QQ

www.clairviewbooks.com

Published by Clairview Books 2019

First published in English by Floris Books, Edinburgh, 2004

Originally published in German under the titleWas die Naturgeister uns sagenby Flensburger Hefte Verlag, Flensburg, 2001

Translated by Brian Strevens Edited by Wolfgang Weirauch

© Flensburger Hefte 2001 Translation © Floris Books 2004

This book is copyright under the Berne Convention. All rights reserved. Apart from any fair dealing for the purpose of private study, research, criticism or review, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, electrical, chemical, mechanical, optical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner. Inquiries should be addressed to the Publishers

The rights of Verena Staël von Holstein and Wolfgang Weirauch to be identified as the authors of this work have been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act, 1988

A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN 978 1 912992 13 3

Cover by Morgan Creative featuring images © Klavdiya Krinichnaya and Subbotina Anna

Typeset by Floris Books, Edinburgh Printed and bound by 4Edge Ltd, Essex

Contents

Foreword by Wolfgang Weirauch

Preliminary remarks by Verena Staël von Holstein

Living with spirit beings Verena Staël von Holstein interviewed by Wolfgang Weirauch

Nature Spirits interviewed by Wolfgang Weirauch through the mediation of Verena Staël von Holstein

1. Miller, the House Spirit

2. Echevit, the Watery One

3. Kapuvu, the Stone One

4. Valliniyu, the Airy One

5. Eknaton, the Fiery One

6. The Four Groups of Elemental Beings Through the Year

7. The High One

8. The Paper Being

9. Evil

10. The Cycle of the Year and the Christian Festivals

11. Kollii, the One From the Marsh

12. Moonlight, the Silver One

13. Little Glass Man

14. Kahine, the Salt Child

15. Harmonious Elemental Beings

16. The Relationship Between Humans and Nature Spirits

17. Madeleine, Lady of the Pines

18. Oakbeena

19. Quadrom

20. Knut, the Sandy One

21. Moonlight, the Silver One

22. The Paper Being

23. Kahine, the Salt Child

24. The Brown One

25. Gnunno, the Green One

26. Kapuvu, the Stone One

27. Eknaton, the Fiery One

28. Valliniyu, the Airy One

29. Echevit, the Watery One

30. The Catastrophic Flooding

31. The High One

32. Miscellaneous

33. The Brown One

34. Gnunno, the Green One

35. Echevit, the Watery One

36. The High One

37. Kapuvu, the Stone One

My Abilities in Spiritual Perception Verena Staël Von Holstein

Learning to Open Yourself to Nature Friedrich Pfannenschmidt interviewed by Wolfgang Weirauch

Foreword

Wolfgang Weirauch

In late summer 2001, shortly before the world was shaken by the attacks in New York of September 11, a manuscript from Verena Staël von Holstein arrived in our office, entitledConversations with Miller.It appeared that, between March 1, 2000 and February 28, 2001, she and her husband, Friedrich Pfannenschmidt, had held conversations with nature spirits. Now it was lying there, her book proposal, five hundred A4 pages — far too much text for a normal publication.

For almost a year we didn’t touch the manuscript. But then, in the summer of 2002, I got to work on the text, recognized the value of these conversations and arranged to meet the writer, along with her husband. I still had doubts, I must admit. What would be waiting for me? Some kind of medium? Somebody on a huge ego trip? A dramatic spectacle?

In fact, after reading through the manuscript, most of my doubts had already disappeared, and my very last concerns vanished when I came to know the individuals and the nature spirits themselves.

They live in a watermill among scenic surroundings by a river in the Lüneburger Heide, a heathland region in Northern Germany. I visited them three times, and over a period of four days spoke myself with the nature spirits — and those meetings were extraordinary!

I discovered that Verena Staël von Holstein had learnt over many years to work on her supersensory perceptions so that she is able to translate almost simultaneously the language of the elemental beings into our human terms. And so the interviews took place with seventeen nature spirits, almost as though seventeen human beings were sitting in front of me.

As the interviews began, I allowed the nature spirits to penetrate all my thoughts and then, speaking aloud, I asked the first of the beings my questions. Verena Staël von Holstein received the answers spiritually in the form of patterns, ideas and sometimes also images, and conveyed the answers vocally. And they all spoke differently, some going into details, many just giving very brief answers, so that often I had to ask again to get a satisfactory reply. Now and again I was refused an answer or it was bluntly explained to me that my question was nonsensical, and once in a while I had to hold playful little battles of words with the nature spirits, just to get one more answer. The answers mostly came in a flash, and now and again the answer came even before I had properly put the question. They had read my thoughts!

Unfortunately no exact names exist for these beings. Here we use the following terms synonymously: elemental being, elemental spirit, nature-being, nature spirit and also spirit being. In a more precise sense the four elements are represented by the elemental beings — the Stone One, the Sandy One, the Watery One, the Airy One and the Fiery One. The Little Glass Man, the Paper Being, the Salt Child or the Silver One are not elemental beings in the same sense, but represent spheres of nature and are without any difficulty to be described as nature-beings. In the case of the two house spirits — Miller and Quadrom — the definition becomes more difficult. They are active only partly in the elemental sphere, only partially in nature, but predominantly in the house. On the other hand all animal, marsh, plant and tree beings are clearly nature spirits, but not elemental beings.

Nonetheless all beings are active somewhere in nature, consequently they are nature spirits. They’re also active in the etheric-spirit elemental particles or forces out of which our world is composed, and in this respect they’re also elemental beings. Only the High One, a higher being, who speaks in the spirit of Michael, doesn’t belong to this category.

The different ways of speaking of the seventeen beings are difficult to convey. The conversations were often amusing and surprising, from time to time very serious, and often simply beautiful. One clearly experienced the atmosphere intensifying as the High One spoke. The Stone One was also impressive, speaking in a peculiar grammatical tense which doesn’t exist for us, but which is intended to express his state of permanence — past, present and future rolled into one.

The nature spirits have no human morality, but they know exactly how they can hurt and how they can help humans. They live in the spiritual-etheric interconnections of nature, they hold the world together and ensure the continued existence of the earth. They have never known freedom in the way that humans know it. Some of them are friends with one another, but what love is or how the feeling of love is experienced, they have also never known. They perceive the supersensible world, but how it is to live in a dark prison, in a physical body, and not to perceive the supersensible world is completely unknown to them.

In order to experience more closely this new land — morality, love, freedom, ignorance of the spiritual world — seventeen spirit beings have set out as a kind of advance party in order to speak with human beings. These conversations are extraordinarily important for them, because up to now the angels were their rulers, and taught them their tasks. But the angels are now withdrawing and leaving the elemental beings more and more alone. Human beings are their new masters, but human beings know nothing about them. For this reason the nature spirits are suffering and are afraid of humans. That’s precisely why these conversations between human beings and nature spirits are so important, for both sides. Both partners can learn from one another, draw closer to one another and cooperate in a totally new way.

When you read these conversations you will be able to immerse yourself into the world of the elemental beings, into the different spheres of responsibility of each being. You will experience many things which are new, but also things which are well-known, as well as secrets of the past and the future.

It may be that mistakes have occurred in the process of transmission, but to the best of our ability we have sought to avoid this. The texts were edited, given to Verena Staël von Holstein and Friedrich Pfannenschmidt and also read aloud to the nature spirits. Taking all this into account I can vouch for the authenticity of the contents.

We know that humans speaking to elemental beings is nothing new. In ancient times that was common practice, and even today there are isolated individuals with such abilities. What is new here is the approach of elemental beings to humans because they have a longing to speak with them, because they would like to learn from them, speak about themselves, work together with humans in the future in many projects and would like to ask them questions.

The way of contact which Verena Staël von Holstein has with nature spirits is also new, together with their wish to disseminate the conversations through the medium of print. This contact is not mediumistic, in other words it does not occur in a state of changed consciousness, and has not come about through any particular path of inner training. Verena Staël von Holstein is an anthro-posophist, one who sets out to follow the spiritual indications of Rudolf Steiner, but her ability to perceive etheric and astral spheres of human beings and nature is something she has possessed since she was a child. She has so trained this ability over years through arduous work that communication with the nature spirits takes place almost without difficulty.

The content of the conversations stands and speaks for itself. Allow yourself to be enchanted by the world of the nature spirits. But recognize also the seriousness of the situation. We humans owe the elemental beings so much, and that is why we should practise a completely new approach to them. In this book you will find how that may be done.

Preliminary Remarks

Verena Staël von Holstein and the nature spirits

The spirit beings and the people involved in the creation of this book donotsee it as their task to help other people deal with their own lives. Therefore no recipes for happiness are going to be handed out nor any questions answered about past, present or future incarnations of individual persons.

It is much more the urgent wish of the spirit beings with the help of the people here to awaken the general consciousness of the people of this culture to the fact that our Earth is a living being. It is inhabited by humans, animals, plants, minerals and spirit beings.

At present this living Earth-being faces the danger of being destroyed by its human inhabitants. To avert this danger people have to turn again to facts which are not to be found in the physical world but in the spiritual world. The contents of this book aim to help towards this.

There are many people who entertain doubts with regard to the content and the creation of this book and who, for example, want proofs for the existence of the spirit beings or for the truthfulness of the persons involved.

To these people it may be said that such proof is unnecessary or rather, not at all possible. Something that is not part of the physical world cannot be proven within the physical world. Nowadays it is left to each individual as to whether or not they can view the existence of the spiritual world as a fact, or believe in the ability of an individual to perceive spiritually.

Those people who only recognize physical proofs are recommended to read Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s bookThe Little Prince,where the fox says to the little prince, “One only sees clearly with the heart. The essence is invisible to the eyes!” (Chapter 21).

Verena Staël von Holstein

Living with Nature Spirits

An interview with Verena Staël von Holstein

Wolfgang Weirauch:When did you consciously see nature spirits for the first time?

Verena Staël von Holstein:I can’t answer that exactly, because they were always there. It must have been a slow process connected to the dawning of my childhood awareness. They were always around me; in certain periods they appeared more clearly than at others. They appeared very clearly from the age of nine to twelve, when I attended the Waldorf School in Benefeld. During this time I often went to a little birch wood, where I played with the nature spirits.

WW:And this contact with them was something completely normal?

VS:Yes, it was normal and everyday. I didn’t give much thought to my special abilities and didn’t speak to other people about them. I don’t know exactly when the perception of the elemental beings began, possibly between two and three years old, when I was still living in Rendsburg. I can remember a large railway embankment there where I saw various beings of whom I was afraid.

WW:Have you always seen the beings or only on particular days or else when you were in natural surroundings?

VS:Always.

WW:Indoors as well?

VS:Not so clearly. The first ones, as I mentioned, were the beings by the railway, then the beings in the birches. Birch beings are girls, or rather women, when the birches are old. There were beings in the house in Benefeld, especially in the cellar, but they didn’t play such a big role in my life. The essence of the house spirit has only become apparent to me here in the watermill through our house spirit, Miller.

WW:When did you first speak to people about your seeing things that others don’t see?

VS:I always knew what I was seeing. My parents and my grandmother were quite open to this sphere of experience. My grandmother, who was born in 1886, also had contact with nature-beings — though more unconsciously, she perceived them in a very dreamy way. She was not a “head” person. She was small and tubby and a wonderful grandmother and she told us a wealth of stories about different nature spirits. It was especially after my grandfather died that she had a lot of time for me and conveyed to me in a playful manner a lot about invisible beings.

WW:At that time, did you already refer to the nature-beings with clear names or terms?

VS:No, that I started here in the watermill. I could differentiate them, but not with the clarity I have today. In the meantime, I’ve come to understand that these beings have their own personalities.

WW:Have you ever had times when you didn’t see these beings?

VS:No, but I didn’t always pay much attention to them. I’ve always seen them, but later on they were no longer in the forefront. I then went to university and through my profession spent much time at sea — I sailed on a research ship as hydrographic engineer on the North Sea and the Atlantic — there I perceived the nature-beings more clearly again. Later, I earned my living as a computer programmer, working in surroundings where nature-beings have scarcely any importance.

WW:Does the perception of nature-beings disappear when working with a PC and the internet?

VS:Not with me, though it does slip on to another level. It’s like childhood memories; one isn’t always thinking about them, but they are present nevertheless. I could pick up contact with the nature-beings again and again, and especially when I was feeling down, I used to seek contact, for example, with tree beings. But that’s not so easy. You can’t just go up and lean against a tree and expect something from the tree spirits or other nature spirits. It’s not so simple. The spirit beings have to get to know you first.

WW:When did you come here, to the watermill, and how did the resident spirit beings make contact with you?

VS:The contact with the beings came back quite clearly eight years ago during my pregnancy. A dramatic change took place when I was pregnant. My parents-in-law lived here in the watermill, which was in desperate need of renovation. Though it was never openly expressed, my father-in-law had always been waiting for his son to have an heir. The moment he knew that I was pregnant he let go and died within three months.

My mother-in-law couldn’t cope with the property and the animals by herself, so my husband asked me if I would like to move with him here to the mill. So, heavily pregnant, I moved in. About two months later my daughter was born, and shortly after that I came into closer contact with the resident beings. Suddenly I felt a presence, which wanted something from me. That was Miller, the house spirit. And he confirmed to me that the beings of decay, who shortly before were still present in this watermill, had now moved out.

WW:Did you see these beings of decay when you moved in?

VS:Yes.

WW:What did they look like?

VS:Grey. Like spiders’ webs, not so much like clouds of mist but more like physical spiders’ webs. If you look etherically at spiders however, they shine like a prism. They are very colourful and fascinating to look at. That’s probably the reason why so many people are afraid of spiders.

WW:Why?

VS:People experience the etheric when observing a spider, even if they cannot consciously perceive it.

WW:But isn’t a shining prism something beautiful?

VS:Of course. But one can also be afraid of intense beauty. But that’s just a hunch of mine.

WW:Did the first contact with the house spirit take place when you mentioned that you had noticed that the beings of decay had left the mill?

VS:Yes. When I asked him his name, he said, “Miller.” Only about two years later did I realize the connection between his name Miller and this mill. It wasn’t at all clear to me in the first two years. Sometimes you just don’t see things that are right in front of your nose.

WW:What then did Miller say at the beginning, and then what did the other beings, who came one after the other, say to you at first?

VS:At first they asked, “What sort of a person are you? Can you let us come close to you?” They look at you and they saw, for example, that I love my husband. At the beginning of our relationship it was very important for Miller to comprehend how the change in ownership of this mill took place; that after the death of my father-in-law, my husband and I took over the running of this house. The relationship to my mother-in-law was also important for Miller, for just like my husband, he experienced quite a drama with her. She had no relationship at all to nature-beings or the supernatural. My mother-in-law had burdened this house with her attitude, and Miller had to get this off his chest. He had to learn to formulate it as much as possible in human terms. In that way, he could then understand it better.

The improvement in the understanding between humans and nature spirits was the first thing that happened between us. You then search for a common language. He asks, “What do you mean when you say, ‘wood’?” That’s a simple example. And then when you answer him, he says that he calls the same thing ‘wood’ as well. It’s more difficult with terms that are strongly connected to humans, such as, “What is ‘soul’? Show me what you call ‘soul’.” Or, “Show me what you call ‘beautiful’.” We then have to demonstrate it to them, but that’s a huge job. This is done by imagining these terms as vividly as possible.

WW:Do please describe how you communicate with the nature-beings.

VS:At the beginning, I saw the nature spirits as concretely as in a photograph, and I drew them as well. And then I simply spoke quite normally to them. Words spoken out loud are very important to them. Though it doesn’t have to be like that when speaking to the nature spirits. But the spoken word has a special meaning for them, because every word changes the world. The word is a reality.

We moved here into the mill in August 1995. In the course of the years our level of communication has changed. Now I perceive the nature spirits for example, by noticing exactly where Miller is, even if I can’t see him. I feel the presence of these beings. And then I communicate with these beings using patterns. Pattern is the most appropriate expression. When Miller is concerned about something and wants to inform my husband that somewhere in the mill something has to be repaired, he sends me a kind of pattern and I must translate it into German. These beings don’t speak German, even though their language is connected to this region.

WW:Are they just patterns or also images? Are they put into words or does the understanding or the knowledge of what the nature-beings are saying come almost automatically into your thinking?

VS:They aren’t images, rather words and patterns. It’s more than a bare term, it’s like a connection of patterns. It can maybe be compared to a three-dimensional model of the atom. That’s roughly how one can imagine what these beings say.

WW:But how do you get these patterns into the words of the German language?

VS:That’s the problem!

WW:Rudolf Steiner said something similar. His great accomplishment as researcher of the spirit world may not have been so much the investigation of those regions, but rather putting into words what he saw.

VS:My husband helps me a lot with this translation. I stutter and stammer around, then my husband formulates it and I say that it still isn’t quite correct. Then he often chooses a new formulation and I say where the sticking points are. This goes on until we’ve found the right words and terms. By the way, if you’re tired, the contact with these beings is easier than when you’re mentally alert.

WW:Is that because the intellect is a kind of barrier to these beings?

VS:Yes, the intellect gets in the way for most people. Now, however, the conversations with the nature spirits are a lot more proficient, and I can mostly conduct a dialogue with them as fast as I can now with you.

WW:After first asking your questions and conversing out loud, did afterwards a phase come in which the beings could also read your thoughts?

VS:Yes, I gave them my permission.

WW:Do you have to think about a question intensively and word for word for the beings to understand it?

VS:When it’s something very important, then it should be spoken out loud. If, for example, you’re being pestered by a being, you should say quite loud and clear, “Go away!” With things that aren’t so important, everyday matters arising through contact with these beings, it’s enough to talk to them in thoughts when you know them well. You should think as much as possible in words, because there’s a difference between simply letting a thought pass through your awareness or thinking intensively in words. The thought must embody itself in the word.

WW:And they don’t perceive the teeming bustle of thoughts and inner life in this way?

VS:That gets on their nerves. We chose the term word-junk for it.

WW:Are there any rules governing the contact between humans and spirit beings?

VS:We’re working on these at the moment. You should be honest. Lies devour the soul. You should try to look on the nature spirits as personalities, even if they don’t have a self in the same way as humans. You should realize that even in small things there is something of a personality. But the most important thing is honesty in dealing with one another. Some of them place value on manners; that you’re polite and say, for example, “Thank you,” and “Please.” But that’s not the case with all of them.

WW:In other words, it matters that you greet them and thank them when they talk to you, and that you say goodbye?

VS:Yes, they like that a lot, especially when this takes on a kind of rhythm. For our book I performed this kind of formal ceremony, but not in everyday dealings. Though when the High One comes, his appearing is itself a kind of ceremony.

WW:Are nature spirits allowed to simply read the thoughts of humans?

VS:Not just like that. Firstly, it’s taboo and they require the permission of a person for as long as the thought belongs to him and is still connected to his feelings. But when the thought is freed from the person and has entered the impersonal thought sphere, then of course they may read it. Humans are free and nature spirits are not allowed to simply intrude into the freedom of humans. For this reason, the person has to say “yes” to these beings “passing through him.” Humans have to agree to allow the nature spirits to read their thoughts and the emotional dynamic belonging to them.

WW:But does a person have any idea what he’s letting himself in for giving such permission.

VS:Probably not. But it’s anyway not a normal human practice and I’ve only ever carried it out with two or three people. Not everyone that visits us has to allow these beings to pass through him. You’re only the third one.

WW:That means therefore, that for this interview all the nature spirits present are reading my thoughts and even know my questions just by my thinking them?

VS:Yes, and they know your feelings as well.

WW:When you’re reading a book, do the beings read with you?

VS:Normally not.

WW:Aren’t they interested, or why not?

VS:When we’re reading something by Rudolf Steiner they listen. When I read science fiction novels, at most they’ll briefly look over my shoulder and start to giggle. They’re not interested in them.

WW:Can you arrange the nature spirits into groups a little? Do the beings themselves have definite criteria for telling themselves apart and according to which they’re organized?

VS:The beings are quite clearly hierarchically organized. A house being like Miller is the head of all the house beings in this house. He is the head of the hierarchy and then he has his subordinates. These are beings who are subject to him, and in fact in such a crude way, as was the case in human society in the distant past. They have to do what Miller instructs them to do. And the lower the level in the hierarchy the house beings are, the more insignificant their work. The beings become more and more atomlike. And Miller is the top of the pyramid of house beings.

It’s similar with the Green Ones, the plant beings. Here there is a hierarchy of plant spirits, starting at the bottom with the really small plant beings who fulfil the smallest, single tasks in the plant. The being of a single plant works, for example, on a higher level of the hierarchy. An even higher being then, is Gnunno, who has to take care of a whole region, but only the plants, except for the trees, because trees form a special group. Gnunno forms the region’s canopy, he protects the plants in this region. And then there’s another being who forms the connection to the plant-self, reaching up therefore into the highest spiritual regions, presumably up into the so-called Higher Devachan.

Every sphere in nature, every plant, the sand, every river, the wind has this hierarchy and every being occupies a definite level in the hierarchy.

WW:How many beings, for example, belong to the hierarchy of this house?

VS:Sixteen thousand, seven hundred and forty-three — that’s what Miller’s just told me. But that’s leaving the really small ones out. With them you can’t really speak anymore of personality. Some are responsible for the doors, others for the chairs and again others for the supply of warmth.

WW:Are house spirits elemental beings?

A stable on Miller’s estate

VS:No, they form their own group. The elemental beings belong to the four elements — mineral, water, air, fire. House beings are very similar to human beings and at the same time they’re close to the gnomes. They can be compared to humans. On the other hand, when you approach a fire being that’s a completely different kind of being. Fire beings also have a hierarchy — on a small scale the being of a candle-flame and on a large scale the being of a house fire or even of a volcano.

In the case of water there are the tiny water children and then for example, there’s the nix who’s responsible for a very large region. Here we have a nix, Echevit, the Watery One, who has his focus in our house but who’s actually a nix of the River Elbe. He’s a spirit active on a higher level whose sphere of activity extends now and again to the North Sea. He also has his countless helpers. In the case of the stone beings it’s similar, but here you have to differentiate again between sand and stone beings. Sand actually consists of small stones, nevertheless sand is something different from a large stone.

WW:What’s it like with the air beings?

VS:Exactly the same. There are the small movements of air and the beings responsible for them and then for example, there’s a storm. Air and wind beings are actually different beings. Valliniyu, who is with us here, is responsible for the sphere of air and light in this region. The wind itself moves through this air and light sphere. The west wind comes from the Atlantic, where it’s born, and dies down over Russia.What did you say, Valliniyu?

The Airy One:It’s born again, becomes a strong wind, and then the structures in the strong wind become weaker until they slowly disintegrate and turn into smaller structures. It’s like a mesh, in which the single pieces become starting-points for a new mesh. In between it breaks up. The wind beings travel with the wind, but don’t die when the wind dies down, they just simply change.

WW:Can you apply the categories of good and evil to these beings?

VS:No, in this context these categories are absurd. The beings of decay for example are necessary. A decaying animal corpse in nature is certainly no lovely sight for humans, but it’s a necessity. Nature spirits don’t distinguish between good and evil in our sense. They actually distinguish six categories:

— beings who are helpful towards humans

— beings who are harmful towards humans

— beings who are committed to growth

— beings who are committed to decay

— beings entrusted with protection

— beings entrusted with destruction

WW:In describing the opposing powers, anthroposophy speaks about spectres and demons or simply evil. From the point of view of those nature spirits present here, demons aren’t evil beings?

VS:These are beings who in general are connected to a descending development, while the beings present here are connected to an ascending development. The nature spirits definitely experience the beings at the head of the descending development as a kind of threat. Miller for example, is scared stiff of the higher, darker beings. Fear also exists for these beings. House spirits are also subject to attacks, which Miller isn’t able to withstand. So he has to get together with other beings, and in this respect it’s good that different beings have their focus here in the watermill. Here we have the rare phenomenon that in the room in the mill which you’ve just seen, the weir room, there’s a kind of communal focus for many nature spirits.

WW:Can you apply the categories masculine and feminine in respect of nature spirits?

VS:Yes, especially in the sphere of the animal beings, because there are masculine and feminine animals. These are of course human categories. Nature spirits can at best be described as being more masculine or more feminine. It’s not so black and white as with us.

WW:What then is masculine and feminine in Nature?

VS:It’s the expression or rather the spiritual impression, which corresponds more to a woman or to a man. Miller can sometimes also be very feminine. The Brown One on the other hand is very masculine. You really feel that he’s masculine, with a beard and everything that goes with it. On the other hand, for elemental beings, sand beings for example, it’s completely absurd to speak of masculine and feminine beings. You anyway have to bear in mind with these categories that they’re people’s projections and don’t come from these beings.

WW:When you perceive one of these beings, couldn’t it be that you’re projecting the form of this being? In other words, when you see the Brown One in the form of a man with a beard, in the form of a shepherd, couldn’t it be that this is just your subjective projection and another person would see him completely differently?

VS:Obviously every person would see these beings differently, but not completely differently. The Brown One would certainly be seen by everyone as a masculine being. Certain basic structures remain similar, others would be seen differently through the subjectivity of the person. The beings reflect the pictures that stream towards them from humans.

The beings also have their own humour. Echevit, the Nix, for example, can be quite a laugh. He disguises himself. And he does it because he enjoys it. He can appear sometimes in one form and sometimes another.

WW:Does Echevit actually know that his name is the same, at least according to how it’s pronounced, as that of the current Turkish president.

VS:Yes, he does. Though his real name is untranslatable and very much longer. Echevit is a kind of summary of this longer name.

WW:How do the spirit beings communicate with one another?

VS:That’s a good question, and I can’t answer it exactly for all beings. I don’t fully understand these connections. Some beings, such as Miller and Echevit sit next to one another and simply communicate with one another. But a fire being, for example, doesn’t sit down next to other nature spirits, but appears in another form. How it communicates with other beings is very hard for me to picture.