[PAGE 1]                                   NATURE SPIRITS AND NATURE FORCES




   

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    [ N A T U R E  S P I R I T S  A N D  N A T U R E  F O R C E S ]
    [                                                             ]
    [                            B Y                              ]
    [                                                             ]
    [                    M A X  H E I N D E L                     ]
    [                        [1865-1919]                          ]
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                              Foreward By

                         Augusta Foss Heindel






                     THE ROSICRUCIAN FELLOWSHIP
                            Mt. Ecclesia
                            P.O. Box 713
                 Oceanside, California, 92054, USA




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                                FOREWARD 


   This volume contains mystical writings of Max Heindel on the little 
understood subject of Nature Spirits and Nature Forces. It is a correlation 
from his many books, lovingly collected in one volume by one of Max Heindel's 
students.

   Max Heindel is known as the most advanced of Western Mystics and has in his 
numerous books given to the world a mine of information about Nature Spirits, 
the little people with whom he had such interesting experiences. The writer 
has listened to many stories (which unfortunately have not been put in 
writing) of his experiences with these Spirits, of how they live and their 
appearance. He had many times remarked that he would sometime write an entire 
book on the Nature Spirits, but his very arduous work of pioneering interfered 
with this much needed work. However, from time to time he gave out information 
in his writings which has now been correlated and we are thus able to give it 
to the world in a condensed volume. In the fifty-four years in which he was 
permitted to occupy his physical vehicle, he gave to the world a number of 
most valuable books. The wonder book,  THE ROSICRUCIAN COSMO-CONCEPTION, has





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been translated into many languages. This is only one of a number of books 
which he left for the world to gain knowledge from and to enjoy. His 
astrological books are credited as being the most comprehensive textbooks on 
the market. His simple and clear manner in imparting knowledge is his greatest 
charm. 

                                                         Augusta Foss Heindel 
                                                         April 15, 1937 



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                               CONTENTS


   Foreward by Augusta Foss Heindel.......................................3

Chapter One
   The Ethers and Laws of Nature..........................................7

Chapter Two
   Heaven World Activity and Nature Forces...............................11

Chapter Three
   The Mission of Christ and the Festival of the Fairies.................16

Chapter Four
   Forces of Different Periods...........................................21

Chapter Five
   The Earth Spirit......................................................26

Chapter Six
   Two Questions and Answers.............................................29

Chapter Seven
   The Constitution of the Earth: and Volcanic Eruptions.................35





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                                  CHAPTER ONE 


                        THE ETHERS AND LAWS OF NATURE 



   To speak of ethers as an avenue of forces conveys no meaning to the average 
mind, because force is invisible. But to an occult investigator the forces are 
not merely names such as steam, electricity, etc. He finds them to be 
intelligent beings of varying grades, both sub- and superhuman. What we call 
"laws of nature" are great intelligences which guide more elemental beings in 
accordance with certain rules designed to further their evolution.

   In the Middle Ages, when many people were still endowed with a remnant of 
NEGATIVE clairvoyance, they spoke of gnomes and elves or fairies, which roamed 
about the mountains and forests. These were the EARTH spirits. They also told 
of the undines or WATERsprites, which inhabited rivers and streams, of sylphs 
which were said to dwell in the mists above moat and moor as air spirits, but 
not much was said of the salamanders, as they are fire spirits, and therefore 
not so easily detected, nor so readily accessible to the majority of people.



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   The old folk-stories are now regarded as supersitions, but as a matter of 
fact, one endowed with etheric vision may yet perceive the little gnomes 
building green chlorophyl into the leaves of plants and giving to flowers the 
multiplicity of delicate tints which delight our eyes.

   Scientists have attempted time and again to offer an adequate explanation 
of the phenomena of wind and storm but have failed signally, nor can they 
succeed while they seek a mechanical solution to what is really a 
manifestation of life. Could they see the hosts of sylphs winging their way 
hither and thither, they would KNOW who and what is responsible for the 
fickleness of the wind; could they watch a storm at sea from the etheric 
viewpoint they would perceive that the saying "the war of the elements" is not 
an empty phrase, for the heaving sea is truly then a battlefield of sylphs and 
undines and the howling tempest is the war cry of spirits in the air.

   Salamanders are found everywhere, and no fire is lighted without their 
help; but they are mostly active underground. They are responsible for 
explosions and volcanic eruptions.

   The classes of beings which we have mentioned are still subhuman, but will 
all at sometime reach a stage in evolution corresponding to the human, though 
under different circumstances from those under which we evolve. But at present 
the wonderful intelligences we speak of as the laws of nature, marshal the 
armies of the less evolved entities mentioned.


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   To arrive at a better understanding of what these various beings are, and 
their relation to us, we may take an illustration: Let us suppose that a 
mechanic is making an engine, and meanwhile a dog is watching him. It SEES the 
man at his labor, and how, from the crude iron, steel, brass, and other metals 
the engine slowly takes shape. The dog is a being from a lower evolution and 
does not comprehend the purpose of the mechanic but it SEES the workman, his 
labor, and the result thereof, which manifests as an engine.

   Let us suppose further that the dog were able to see only the materials 
which slowly change their shape, assemble, and become an engine but that it is 
unable to perceive the workman and to see the work he does. The dog would then 
be in the same relation to the mechanic as we are to the great intelligences 
we call laws of nature, and their assistants, the Nature Spirits, for we 
behold the manifestations of their work as FORCE moving matter in various ways 
but always under immutable conditions.

   In the ether we may also observe the angels, whose densest body is made of 
that material, as our dense body is formed of gases, liquids, and solids. 
These beings are one step beyond the human stage, as we are a degree in 
advance of the animal evolution. We have never been animals like our present 
fauna, however, but at a previous stage in the development of our planet we 
had an animal-like constitution. Then the angels were human, though they have 
never possessed a dense body such as ours, nor ever functioned in any material



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denser than ether. At some time, in a future condition, the earth will again 
become ethereal. Then man will be LIKE the angels. Therefore the Bible tells 
us that man was made A LITTLE WHILE lower than the angels. (Hebrews 2:17. See 
marginal reading.)

   As ether is the avenue of vital, creative forces, and as angels are such 
expert builders of ether, we may readily understand that they are eminently 
fitted to be warders of the propagative forces in plant, animal, and man. All 
through the Bible we find them thus engaged: Two ANGELS came to Abraham and 
announced the birth of Isaac. They PROMISED a child to the man who had obeyed 
God. Later THESE SAME ANGELS destroyed Sodom for ABUSE OF THE CREATIVE FORCE. 
ANGELS foretold TO THE PARENTS of Samuel and Samson, the birth of these giants 
of brain and brawn. To Elizabeth came the ANGEL (not archangel) Gabriel, and 
announced the birth of John; later he appeared also to Mary with the message 
that she was chosen to bear Jesus.



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                                CHAPTER TWO

                 HEAVEN WORLD ACTIVITY AND NATURE FORCES



   We are wont to speak of evolution, but do we ever analyze what it is that 
makes evolution, why it does not stop in stagnation? If we do, we must realize 
that there are forces back of the visible which make the alteration in the 
flora and fauna, the climatic and topographical changes which are constantly 
going on; and it is then but a natural question, what or who are the forces or 
agents in evolution?

   Of course, we are well aware that scientists give certain mechanical 
explanations. They deserve great credit; they have accomplished much when we 
take into consideration that science is but an infant and has only five senses 
and ingenious instruments at its command. Its deductions are marvelously true, 
but that does not say that there may not be underlying causes which it cannot, 
as yet, perceive, but which give a more thorough understanding of the matter 
than the mere mechanical explanation affords. An illustration will elucidate 
the point.

   Two men are conversing, when suddenly one knocks the other down. There we 
have an occurrence, a fact, and we may explain it in a mechanical way by 
saying: "I saw one man contract the muscles of his arm, direct a blow at the 



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other, and knock him down." That is a true version, so far as it goes, but the 
occult scientist would see also the angry thought which inspired the blow, and 
would be giving a more complete version if he said that the man was knocked 
down by a thought; for the clenched fist was but the irresponsible instrument 
of aggression. Failing the impelling force of the angry thought, the hand 
would have remained inert and the blow would never have been struck.

   Thus occult science refers all causes to the Region of Concrete Thought, 
and tells how they are generated there by human and superhuman spirits.

   Remembering that the creative archetypes of everything we see in the 
visible world are in the World of Thought, which is the realm of tone, we are 
prepared to understand that the archetypal forces are constantly playing 
through these archetypes which then emit a certain tone, or, where a number of 
them have massed to create a species of plant, animal, or human FORMS, the 
different sounds belend into one grand chord. That single tone or chord, as 
the case may be, is then the keynote of the form thus created, and as long as 
it sounds, the form of the species endures; when it ceases the single form 
dies or the species dies out.

   A jumble of sound is not music any more than words massed together 
haphazard are a sentence. But ORDERLY RHYTHMIC SOUND is the builder of all 
that is, as John says in the first verses of his gospel, "In the beginning was 
the WORD...and without it was not anything made"; also "the Word was made 
flesh."



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   Thus we see that sound is the creator and sustainer of all form, and in the 
Second Heaven the Ego becomes one with the nature forces. With them he works 
upon the archetypes of land and sea, on flora and fauna, to bring about the 
changes which gradually alter the appearance and condition of the earth and 
thus afford a new environment, MADE BY HIMSELF, in which he may reap new 
experience.

   He is directed in this work by great Teachers belonging to the Creative 
Hierarchies, which are called angels, archangels, and other names, all of whom 
are God's ministers. They instruct him then consciously in the divine art of 
creation, both as to the world and the objects in it. They teach him how to 
build a FORM for himself, giving him the so-called "nature spirits" as 
helpers, and thus man is serving his apprenticeship to become a Creator each 
time he goes to the Second Heaven. There he builds the archetype of the form 
which he later externalizes at birth.

   There are four ethers, called chemical, life, light and reflecting ethers. 
Forces work along the positive and negative poles of the different ethers. The 
egos in the Heaven World are part of those forces, and thus the very people 
whom we call dead are the ones who build our bodies and help us to live. We 
may also note that no one can have a better dense body than he can build. If 
one makes a mistake in his heaven world work, he finds it out when he comes to 
use such a defective body on earth, and thereby learns to correct the fault 
the next time he builds an archetype.



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   All the denizens of the Heaven World work upon the models of the earth, all 
of which are in the Region of Concrete Thought. They alter the physical 
features of the earth, and bring about the gradual changes which vary its 
appearance, so that on each return to physical life a different environment 
has been prepared, wherein new experiences may be gained. Climate, FLORA, and 
FAUNA are altered by man under the direction of higher Beings.

   Thus the world is just what we ourselves, individually and collectively, 
have made it; and it will be what we make it. The occult scientist sees in 
everything that happens a cause of a spiritual nature manifesting itself, not 
omitting the prevalence and alarmingly increasing frequency of seismic 
disturbances, which it traces to the materialistic thought of modern science.

   It is true that purely physical causes can bring about such disturbances, 
but is that the last word on the subject? Can we always get the full 
explanation by merely recording what appears on the surface? Surely not! The 
occultist says that if materialism had not been, seismic disturbances would 
not have occurred.

   Man's work in the Heaven World is not confined solely to the alteration of 
the surface of the earth which is to be the scene of his future struggles in 
the subjugation of the Physical World. He is also actively engaged in learning 
how to build a body which shall afford a better means of expression. It is 
man's destiny to become a Creative Intelligence and he is serving his 
apprenticeship all the time. During his heaven life he is learning to build 
all kinds of bodies--the human included.



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   Thus we see that man learns to BUILD his vehicles in the Heaven World, and 
to USE them in the Physical World. Nature provides all phases of experience in 
such a marvelous manner and with such consummate wisdom that as we learn to 
see deeper and deeper into her secrets we are more and more impressed with our 
own insignificance and with an ever growing reverence for God, whose visible 
symbol nature is.




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                              CHAPTER THREE 


        THE MISSION OF CHRIST AND THE FESTIVAL OF THE FAIRIES 


   Whenever we are confronted by one of nature's mysteries which we are at a 
loss to explain, we simply add a new name to our vocabulary which we then use 
in learned juggling to hide our ignorance of the subject. Such are the AMPERE 
which we use to measure the volume of the electric current, the VOLT which we 
say indicates the strength of the current, and the OHM which we use to show 
what resistance a given conductor offers to the passdage of the current. Thus 
by much study of words and figures, the master minds of electrical science 
attempt to persuade themselves and others that they have fathomed the 
mysteries of the elusive force which plays such an important part in the 
world's work; but when all is said and they are in a confidential mood, they 
admit that the brightest lights of electrical science know but very little 
more about it than the schoolboy who is just beginning to experiment with his 
cells and batteries.

   Similarly in the other sciences: Anatomists cannot distinguish the canine 
from the human embryo for a long time, and while the physiologist talks 
learnedly about metabolism, he cannot escape the admisiion that the laboratory 
tests whereby he endeavors to imitate our digestive processes must be and are 
widely different from the transmutations undergone in the chemical laboratory 
of the body by the nourishment we take. This is not said to disparage or 
belittle the wonderful achievements of science, but to emphasize the fact that 
there are factors behind all manifestations of nature--intelligences of 
varying degrees of consciousness, builders and destroyers, who perform 
important parts in the economy of nature--and until these agencies are 
recognized and their work studied, we can never have an adequate conception of 
the way the nature forces work, which we call heat, electricity, gravity, 
chemical action, etc. To those who have cultivated the spiritual sight, it si 
evident that the so-called dead spent part of their time in learning to build 
bodies under the guidance of certain spiritual Hierarchies. They are the 
agents in the metabolic and anabolic processes; they are the unseen factors in 
assimilation, and it is therefore literally true that we should be unable to 
live save for the important aid rendered to us by those whom we call dead.

   In relation to the nature forces we learnedly explain how heat from the sun 
evaporates the water of the rivers and oceans, causing it to ascend to the 
cooler regions of the air where it condenses to clouds which finally become so 
saturated with moisture that they gravitate towards the earth as rain to 
replenish the rivers and oceans and be again evaporated. It is all perfectly 
simple, a nice automatic perpetual motion process. But is that all? Are there 



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not a number of holes in this theory? We know that there are, though we can 
not digress too far from our subject to discuss them. One thing is lacking to 
fully explain it, namely, the semi-intelligent action of the sylphs who lift 
the finely divided vaporized particles of water prepared by the undines, from 
the surface of the sea and carry them as high as they may before partial 
condensation takes place and clouds are formed. These particles of water they 
keep until forced by the undines to release them. When we say it storms, 
battles are being fought on the surface of the sea and in the air, sometimes 
with the aid of salamanders to light the lightning torch of separated hydrogen 
and oxygen and send its awe-inspiring shaft crashing zigzag through the inky 
darkness, followed by ponderous peals of thunder that reverberate in the 
clearing atmosphere, while the undines triumphantly hurl the rescued raindrops 
to earth that they may be again restored to union with their mother element.

   The little gnomes are needed to build the plants and the flowers. It is 
their work to tint them with the innumerable shades of color which delight our 
eyes. They also cut the crystals in all the minerals and make the priceless 
gems that gleam from golden diadems. Without them there would be no iron for 
our machinery nor gold wherewith to pay for it. They are everywhere and the 
proverbial bee is not busier. To the bee, however, is given credit for the 
work it does, while the little Nature Spirits that play such an immensely 
important part in the world's work are unknown save to a few so-called 
dreamers.




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   At the summer solstice the physical activities of nature are at their apex 
or zenith. Therefore "Midsummer Night" is the great festival of the fairies 
who have wrought to build the material universe, nourished the cattle, 
nurtured the grain and are hailing with joy and thanksgiving the crest wave of 
force which is their tool in shaping the flowers into the astonishing variety 
of delicate shapes called for by their archetypes and in tinting them in 
unnumbered hues which are the artist's delight and despair. On this greatest 
of all nights of the glad summer season they flock from fen and forest, from 
glen and dale, to the Festival of the Fairies. They really bake and brew their 
etheric foods and afterwards dance in ecstasies of joy, the joy of having 
brought forth and served their important purpose in the economy of nature.

   It is an axiom of science that nature tolerates nothing that is useless. 
Parasites and drones are an abomination; the organ that has become superfluous 
atrophies; so does the limb or eye that is no longer used. Nature has work to 
do and requires work of all who would justify their existence and continue as 
part of her. This applies to plant and planet, man and beast, and to the 
fairies as well. They have their work to do; they are busy folk and their 
activities are the solution to many of nature's multifarious mysteries, as 
already explained.

   Later, at the time of the winter solstice, we are at the other pole of the 
yearly cycle where the days are short and the nights long; physically 
speaking, darkness hangs over the Northern Hemisphere; but the wave of 




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spiritual light and life which will be the basis of next year's growth and 
progress is now at its greatest height and power. On Christmas night at the 
winter solstice when the celestial sign of the Immaculate Virgin stands upon 
the eastern horizon at midnight, the sun of the new year is born to save 
humanity from the cold and the famine which would ensue were its beneficent 
light withheld. At that time the Christ Spirit is born into the earth and 
commences to leaven and fertilize the millions of seeds which the fairies 
build and water that we may have physical food. But, "Man shall not live by 
bread alone." Important as is the work of the fairies, it fades into 
insignificance compared with the mission of Christ who brings to us each year 
the spiritual food needed to advance us upon the path of progress, that we may 
attain perfection in love with all which that implies.





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                               CHAPTER FOUR 


                       FORCES OF DIFFERENT PERIODS 



   In the Moon Period, contact of the heated sphere with cold Space generated 
moisture, and the battle of the elements commenced in all its fierceness. The 
heated ball of fire endeavored to evaporate the moisture, force it outwards 
and create a vacuum wherein to maintain its integrity and burn undisturbed. 
But there is and can be no void in nature, hence the outrushing steam 
condensed at a certain distance from the heated ball and was again driven 
inwards by the cold of Space, to be again evaporated and propelled outwards in 
a ceaseless round for ages and ages, as a shuttlecock between the separate 
Hierarchies of Spirits composing the various Kingdoms of Life, represented in 
the Fire-Sphere and Cosmic Space which is an expression of the Homogeneous 
Absolute Spirit. The Fire Spirits are actively striving to attain enlargement 
of consciousness. But the Absolute rests, ever clothed in the invisible 
garment of Cosmic Space. In "It" all powers and possibilites are LATENT, and 
It seeks to discourage and check any attempt at expenditure of latent power as 
dynamic energy required in the evolution of a solar system. Water is the agent 
It used to quench the fire of active spirits. The zone between the heated 




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center of the separate Spirit Sphere, and the Point where its individual 
atmosphere meets Cosmic Space, is a battleground of evolving spirits at 
various stages of evolution.

   The present angels were human in the Moon Period, and the highest Initate 
is The Holy Spirit (Jehovah).

   As our humanity and the other Kingdoms of Life on earth are variously 
affected by the present elements, so that some like heat, other prefer cold; 
some thrive on moisture and others require dryness; so also in the Moon Period 
among the angels, some had affinity for water, others abhorred it and loved 
the fire.

    ********************************************************************* 

   From the Cosmic angle or viewpoint we note that Solomon's Temple is the 
Solar Universe, and Hiram Abiff, the Grand Master, is the Sun which travels 
around the twelve signs of the zodiac, enacting there the mystic drama of the 
Masonic Legend. At the Vernal Equinox the Sun leaves the watery sign Pisces, 
which is also feminine and docile, for the belligerent, martial, energetic, 
FIERY SIGN ARIES, the ram or lamb, where it is exalted in power. It fills the 
universe with a creative fire which is immediately seized upon by the 
innumerable billions of nature spirits who therewith build the Temple of the 
coming year in forest and fen. The forces of fecundation applied to the 
countless seeds slumbering in the ground cause them to germinate and fill the 
earth with luxuriant vegetation while the group spirits mate the beasts and 




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birds in their charge so that they may brong forth and increase sufficiently 
to keep the fauna of our planet at normal.

   ********************************************************************* 

   The OBJECTIVE CONSCIOUSNESS by which we obtain knowledge of the outside 
world is dependent upon what we perceive through the medium of the senses. 
This we call "real," in contradistinction to our thoughts and ideas which come 
to us through our inner consciousness; their reality is not apparent to us in 
the same way as that of a book or table, or other visible or tangible object 
in space. Thoughts and ideas seem misty and UNreal, therefore we speak of a 
"mere" thought, or of"just" an idea.

   The ideas and thoughts of today, however, have an evolution before them; 
they are destined to become as real, clear, and tangible as any of the objects 
of the outside world which we now perceive through the physical senses. At 
present, when a thing or a color is thought of, the picture or color presented 
by the memory to our inner consciousness is but a dim and shadowy one compared 
with the thing thought of.

   As early as the Jupiter Period there will be a marked change in this 
respect. Then the dream pictures of the Moon Period will return, but they will 
be subject to the call of the thinker, and not mere reproductions of outer 
objects. Thus there will be a combination of the pictures of the Moon Period 
and the thoughts and ideas consciously developed during the Earth Period, that 
is, it will be a SELF-CONSCIOUS PICTURE-CONSCIOUSNESS.




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   When a man of the Jupiter Period says "red," or speaks the name of an 
object, clear and exact reproduction of the particular shade of red of which 
he is thinking, or of the object to which he refers, will be presented to his 
inner vision and will also be quite visible to the hearer. There will be no 
misconception as to what is meant by the words spoken. Thoughts and ideas will 
be alive and visible, therefore hypocrisy and flattery will be entirely 
eliminated. People will be seen exactly as they are. There will be the 
thoroughly good man and the downright evil man, and one of the serious 
problems of that time will be how to deal with the latter. The Manichees, an 
Order of still higher spirituality than the Rosicrucians, are at present 
studying that very problem. An idea of the condition anticipated may be gained 
from a short resume of their legend. (All mystic orders have a legend 
symbolical of their ideals and aspirations.)

   In the legend of the Manichees there are two kingdoms, that of the Light 
Elves and that of the Night Elves. The latter attack the former, are defeated 
and must be punished. But, as the Light Elves are as thoroughly good as the 
Night Elves are bad, they cannot inflict evil upon their foes, so THEY MUST BE 
PUNISHED WITH GOOD. Therefore a part of the kingdom of the Light Elves is 
incorporated with that of the Night Elves and in this way the evil is in time 
overcome. Hate which will not submit to hate must succumb to Love.

   The internal pictures of the Moon Period were a certain expression of man's 




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external environment. In the Jupiter Period the pictures will be expressed 
from within; they will be an outcome of the inner life of the man. He will 
also possess the additional faculty, which he cultivated in the Earth Period, 
of seeing things in space outside himself. In the Moon Period he did not see 
the concrete thing, but only its soul qualities. In the Jupiter Period he will 
see both, and will thus have a thorough perception and understanding of his 
surroundings. At a later stage in the same Period this perceptive ability will 
be succeeded by a still higher phase. His power to form clear mental 
conceptions of colors, objects, or tones will enable him to contact and 
influence supersensuous beings of various orders and to secure their 
obedience, employing their forces as he wishes. He will be unable to send out 
from himself the forces wherewith to carry out his designs, however, and will 
be dependent upon the help of these superphysical beings, who will then be at 
his service.

   At the close of the Venus Period he will be able to use his own force to 
give his pictures life and to set them out from himself as objects in space. 
He will then possess an objective, self-conscious, creative-consciousness.



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                               CHAPTER FIVE 

                             THE EARTH SPIRIT 


   Most of us walk upon earth and see only a seemingly dead mass, but one of 
the first facts revealed in our consciousness by Initiation is the living 
reality of the Earth Spirit. As the surface of the body is dead compared to 
the organs within, so the outer envelope of the earth, being encrusted, gives 
no idea of the wonderful activity within. Upon the path of Initiation nine 
different layers are revealed, and in the center of this rolling sphere we 
meet the Spirit of the Earth face to face. It is actually true that it is 
"groaning and travailing" in the earth for the sake of all, working and 
anxiously waiting for our manifestation as Sons of God so that, as the seeking 
soul, which aspires to liberation is released from its dense body, the Earth 
Spirit also may be liberated from its body of death in which it is now 
confined for us.

   Of course, the Earth Spirit is not to be thought of as a larger man, or as 
having physical form other than the earth itself. The vital body of Jesus, in 
which the Christ Spirit was focused prior to its actual ingress into the 
earth, has the ordinary human form; it is preserved and is shown to the 
candidate at a certain point in his progression. Some day in the far future it 




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will again house the benevolent Christ Spirit upon His return from the center 
of the earth, when we shall have become etheric, and when He is ready to 
ascend to higher spheres, leaving us to be taught of the Father, whose 
religion will be higher than the Christian religion.

   The Faust myth presents a curious situation in the meeting of the hero, who 
is the seeking soul, with different classes of spirits. The spirit of Faust, 
inherently good, feels drawn to the higher orders; it feels akin to the 
benevolent Earth Spirit, and bemoans the inability to detain and learn from 
it. Face to face with the Spirit of Negation, who is only too willing to teach 
and serve, he finds himself master in a certain sense, because that spirit 
cannot leave over the symbol of the five-pointed star in the position it is 
placed upon the floor. But both his inability to detain the Earth Spirit and 
obtain tuition from that exalted Being, and his mastery over the Spirit of 
Negation, are due to the fact that he has come into contact with them BY 
CHANCE and not by soul power evolved from within.

   When Parsifal, the hero of another of these great soul myths, first visited 
the Castle of the Grail, he was asked how he had come there, and he answered 
"I know not." He had just HAPPENED to enter the holy place as a soul sometimes 
gets a glimpse of the celestial realms in a vision; but he could not stay in 
Montsalvat. He was forced to go out into the world again and learn his 
lessons. Many years he returned to the Castle of the Grail, weary and worn 




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with the quest, and the same query was asked: "How did you come here?" But 
this time his answer was different, for he said, "Through search and suffering 
I came."

   That is the cardinal point which marks the great difference between persons 
who happen to come in contact with spirits from superphysical realms by chance 
or stumble upon the solution of a law of nature, and those who, by diligient 
research and particularly by LIVING THE LIFE, attain to conscious Initiation 
into the secrets of nature. The former do not know how to use this power 
intelligently and are therefore helpless. The latter are always masters of the 
forces they wield, while the others are the sport of anyone who wishes to take 
advantage of them.




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                               CHAPTER SIX 

                        TWO QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 


   A student asks: "Is not nature guilty of frequent malformations in the 
plant and animal world as well as in the human race, and can there be a 
perfectly whole and sane intelligence with a forceful will in a diseased or 
malformed body?"

   In reply we would ask, what is here meant by nature? Bacon says that nature 
and God differ only as the print and the seal. Nature is the visible symbol of 
God, and we are too apt to think of nature nowadays in a materialistic sense. 
Back of every manifestation in nature there are forces, NOT BLIND FORCES, BUT 
INTELLIGENCES which motivates action. What we speak of as electricity, as 
magnetism, as expansion in steam, etc., are intelligences which work unseen to 
us when certain conditions are brought about. Nature spirits build the plants, 
form the crystals of the rock, and with numerous other hierarchies are working 
around and about us unseen, but nevertheless busy in making that which we call 
nature.

   These are all evolving beings, like ourselves, and the very fact that they 
are evolving shows that they are imperfect and therefore apt to make mistakes 




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which naturally result in malformations, so that it may be said in answer to 
the question that the invisible intelligences which make what we call nature 
are guilty of frequent mistakes as well as we.

   As to the second part of the question, whether there can be a perfectly 
whole and sane intelligence with a forceful will in a diseased or malformed 
body, we may say "Yes, undoubtedly," but as the expression of that 
intelligence is dependent upon the efficiency of its instrument, it may, 
naturally, be hampered by the physical deformity, on the same principle that 
no matter how skilled the workman is, his efficiency depends in a great 
measure upon the condition of his tools.

   The following interesting enquiry is worthy of attention: "It is stated in 
the COSMO-CONCEPTION that the faculty of space perception is connected with 
the delicate adjustment of the three semi-circular canals in the ear, pointing 
in the three dimensions of space. Logical thought and mathematical ability are 
in proportion to the accuracy of their adjustment.

   "It seems that the perception of the fourth dimension has been arrived at 
by mathematicians of a very high degree. Can you tell me if there is any 
chance in the arrangement of these semi-circular canals, or what is the 
process that leads up to the fourth dimensional consciousness?"

   "It would also seem that nature spirits and elementals have this fourth 
dimensional consciousness which is a higher degree of consciousness than that 
which we now possess and possibly higher than possessed by the bee or the 





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Elberfield horses. Will you please supply the missing link? What makes man or 
humanity superior to these beings and what is the arrangement of these semi-
circular canals in the case of these gifted horses?"

   To the majority of mankind figures are exceedingly dry. They are not only 
uninteresting, but exceedingly tedious, for we are used to living an outward 
life among other people and friends where we give expression to our desires, 
feelings, and emotions. The more these are stirred the more interesting we 
find life and contrariwise the things that do not cause a ripple of emotion 
are held to be dull and uninteresting. Therefore the majority do not take to 
mathematics or anything else that will sharpen the mind without at the same 
time arousing the emotional nature.

   We know that God geometrizes, that all the processes of nature are founded 
upon a systematic calculation which argues the great Master Mind. When God as 
the great Architect of the universe has built the whole world upon 
mathematical lines we may know that consciously or unconsciously the 
mathematician is reaching out in a direction in which eventually he will find 
himself face to face with God and this in itself argues an expansion of 
consciousness. When we consider the fact that each one of the semi-circular 
canals is in fact a supersensitive spirit-level adjusted so as to indicate to 
our consciousness the motion of our body through the length and breadth, 
height or depth of space we may easily understand that their accurate 
adjustment is necessary to space perception. If they are true, then the space 




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perception of that person is perfect, and if he takes up the study of 
mathematics then his theories will agree with what he sees in the world as 
actual facts. This in some high minds engenders an actual love of figures so 
that they may rest such a mind instead of being a source of fatigue may arouse 
in him the latent spiritual faculties, but not through any change in the semi-
circular canals for these are bony structures and not easily changed during 
the lifetime. There is no doubt, however, that one who has a taste for music 
or mathematics will later build these canals more accurately in the Second 
Heaven between death and a new birth.

   With respect to the consciousness of the ELEMENTALS OR NATURE SPIRITS, it 
is quite correct to assume that they have what may be called a fourth 
dimensional cnsciousness, for in addition to the height, width, and depth 
which are the dimensions of space in the physical world, there is what we may 
call "thoroughness" in the ethers. With the etheric sight you may look into a 
mountain and if you have an etheric body such as the nature spirits possess, 
you may also walk through the hardest granite rock. It will offer no more 
obstruction than the air does to our progress here, in fact not so much, for 
here we are hindered by winds. But even among nature spirits there are 
different entities and a corresponding variation of consciousness.

   The bodies of the gnomes are made of the chemical ether principally and 
therefore they are of the earth earthy; that is, one never sees them fly about 




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as do the sylphs. They can be burned in fire. They also grow old in a manner 
not so greatly different from human beings.

   The undines which live in the water and the sylphs of the air are also 
subject to mortality, but their bodies being composed of the life and light 
ethers respectively, make them much more enduring, so that while it is stated 
that the gnomes do not live more than a few hundred years, the undines and 
sylphs are said to live for thousands, and the salamanders whose bodies are 
principally built of the fourth ether are said to live many thousands of 
years. The CONSCIOUSNESS, which builds and ensouls these bodies, however, 
belongs to a number of divine hierarchs who are gaining additional experience 
in that manner; and the FORMS which are built of matter and thus ensouled have 
attained a degree of self-consciousness; during these long existences they 
have a sense of their own transitory existence and it is to their rebellion 
against this state of things that the war of the elements, notably, fire, air, 
and water, is due. Fancying that they are being held in bondage they seek 
liberation from the leash by force and having no sense to guide themselves, 
run amuck in a destructive manner which at times brings about great 
catastrophes. The consciousness of the gnomes is too dull to take the 
initiative but they not infrequently become accomplices of the other nature 
spirits by opening passages which favor explosions in the rock.

  However, this has no connection at all with the Elberfield horses or kindred 




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animal prodigies. These are the wards of their respective group spirits and it 
is probably the last time they will seek embodiment in an animal form. When 
that happens, such spirits are relegated to Chaos where they must wait during 
the Cosmic Night for their less gifted brothers until the time when it is 
possible to begin their human evolution in the Jupiter Period.





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                             CHAPTER SEVEN 

         THE CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH: AND VOLCANIC ERUPTIONS 


   Even among occult scientists it is counted among the most difficult 
problems to investigate the mysterious construction of the earth. Every occult 
scientist knows how much easier it is to thoroughly and accurately investigate 
the Desire World and the Region of Concrete Thought and bring back the results 
into the Physical World than to investigate completely the secrets of our 
physical planet, because to do that fully, one must have passed through the 
nine lesser Mysteries and the first of the Great Initiations.

   Modern scientists know very little about this matter. So far as seismic 
phenomena are concerned they very frequently change their theories, because 
they are constantly discovering reasons why their previous hypotheses were 
untenable. They have, with all their usual splendid care, investigated the 
very outside shell, but only to an insignificant depth. As for volcanic 
eruptions, they try to understand them as they try to understand everything 
else, in a purely mechanical way, depicting the center of the earth as a fiery 
furnace and concluding that the eruptions are caused by the accidental 
admission of water and in other similar ways.



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   In a certain sense, their theories have some foundation, but in this case 
they are, as always, neglecting the spiritual causes, which to the occultist 
appear to be the true ones. To him, the world is far from being "dead." On the 
contrary, its every nook and crevice is permeated by spirit, which is the 
leaven that causes changes in and upon the planet.

   The different kinds of quartz, the metals, the disposition of the various 
strata--all have a much higher significance than the materialistic 
investigator has ever been able to grasp. To the occult scientist, the way in 
which these materials are arranged is full of meaning.

   To the trained clairvoyant sight of the Initiate of the various degrees of 
the Mysteries, the earth appears built in strata, something like an onion, one 
layer or stratum outside another. There are nine such strata and the central 
core, making ten in all. These strata are revealed to the Initiate gradually. 
One stratum becomes accessible to him at each Initiation, so that at the end 
of the nine lesser Initiations he is master of all the layers, but has not yet 
access to the secrets of the core.

   In ancient parlance these nine steps are called the "Lesser mysteries." 
They take the neophyte consciously through all that relates to his past 
evolution, through the activities of involuntary existence, so that he is able 
to understand the manner and meaning of the work he then performed 
unconsciously. He is shown how the present ninefold constitution (the 
threefold body, the threefold soul, and the threefold spirit) was brought into 




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existence; how the great creative Hierarchies worked on the virgin spirit, 
awakening in it the Ego, helping it to form the body; and also the work he 
himself has done, to extract from the threefold body as much of the threefold 
soul as he now possesses. One step at a time is he led through the nine steps 
of the lesser mysteries, the nine strata.

   When the advancing man has passed through the nine lesser Initiations, 
gaining thereby entrance to all the layers of the earth, entrance into the 
core is yet to be won. That is opened to him by the first of the Four Great 
Initiations, in which he learns to know the mystery of the mind, that part of 
his being begun on earth. When he is ready for the first Great Initiation he 
has developed his mind to the degree to which all men are destined to attain 
at the end of the Earth Period. In that Initiation he is given the key to the 
next stage, and all work done by him after that will be such as humanity in 
general will do in the Jupiter Period, and does not concern us at present.

   Diagram 18 will give an idea of the arrangement of the earth's strata, the 
central core being omitted to indicate more clearly the lemniscate formation 
of the currents in the ninth stratum. In the diagram the strata are 
represented as being of equal thickness, though in reality some are much 
thinner than others. Beginning at the outside, they appear in the following 
order:
  (1) The Mineral Earth: This is the stony crust of the earth, with which 
geology deals as far as it is able to penetrate.




[PAGE 38]                                     NATURE SPIRITS AND NATURE FORCES 







                              DIAGRAM NO. 18: 
                        CONSTITUTION OF THE EARTH 
      [For more information, see the note at the end of this file.]








[PAGE 39]                                     NATURE SPIRITS AND NATURE FORCES 



  (2) The Fluid Stratum: The matter of this stratum is more fluid than that of 
the outside crust, yet it is not watery, but rather more like a thick paste. 
It has the quality of expansion, like that of an exceedingly explosive gas, 
and is kept in place only by the enormous pressure of the outer crust. Were 
that removed, the whole of the fluid stratum would disappear in space with a 
tremendous explosion. These correspond to the Chemical and Etheric Regions of 
the Physical World.

  (3) Vapor Stratum: In the first and second strata there is really no 
conscious life. But in this stratum there is an ever flowing and pulsating 
life as in the Desire World surrounding and interpenetrating our earth.

  (4) Water Stratum: In this stratum are the germinal possibilities of all 
that exists upon the surface of the earth. Here are the archetypal forces 
which are back of the group spirits; also the archetypal forces of the 
minerals, for this is the direct physical expression of the Region of Concrete 
Thought.

  (5) Seed Stratum: Material scientists have been baffled in their efforts to 
discover the origin of life, how the first living things came forth from 
previously dead matter. 
   
   In reality, according to the occult explanation of evolution, the question 
should be how the "dead" things originated. THE LIFE WAS THERE PREVIOUS TO THE 
DEAD FORMS. It built its bodies from attenuated vaporous substance long before 
it condensed into the earth's solid crust. ONLY WHEN THE LIFE HAD LEFT THE 
FORMS COULD THEY CRYSTALLIZE AND BECOME HARD AND DEAD.




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   Coal is but crystallized plant bodies; coral is also the crytallization of 
animal forms. The life leaves the FORMS and the FORMS die. Life never came 
into a form to awaken it to life. Life departed from the forms and the forms 
died. Thus did "dead" things come to be.

   In this fifth stratum is the primordial fount of life from which came the 
impetus that built all the forms on earth. It corresponds to the Region of 
Abstract Thought. 

  (6) Fiery Stratum: Strange as it may seem, this stratum is possessed of 
sensation. Pleasure and pain, sympathy and antipathy have here their effect on 
the earth. It is generally supposed that under no possible circumstances can 
the earth have any sensation whatever. The occult scientist, however, as he 
watches the harvesting of the ripe grain and the gathering of fruit from the 
trees in the autumn, or the plucking of flowers, knows the pleasure 
experienced by the earth itself. It is similar to the pleasure felt by the cow 
when its bursting udders are ebing relieved by the sucking calf. The earth 
feels the delight of having yielded nourishment for its progeny of Froms, this 
delight reaching its culmination in the harvest time.

   On the other hand, when plants are torn out by the roots, it is patent to 
the occult scientist that the earth senses a sting of pain. For that reason he 
does not eat the plant foods which grow under the earth. In the first place 
they are full of the earth force and deficient in sun force, and are 
additionally posioned by being pulled up mby the roots. The only exception to 
this rule is that he may partake sparingly of the potato, which originally 




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grew on the surface of the earth, and has only in comparatively recent times 
grown beneath the soil. Occultists endeavor to nourish their bodies on fruits 
which grow toward the sun, because they contain more of the higher sun force, 
and have not caused the earth pain.

   It might be supposed that mining operations would be very painful to the 
earth, but the reverse is the case. Every disintegration of the hard crust 
causes a sensation of relief and every solidification is a source of pain. 
Where a mountain torrent washes away the soil and carries it toward the 
plains, the earth feels freer. Where the disintegrated matter is again 
deposited, as in a bar outside the mouth of a great river, there is a 
corresponding sense of uneasiness.

   As sensation in animals and men is due to their separate vital bodies, so 
the feeling of the earth is particularly active in this sixth stratum, which 
corresponds to the World of Life Spirit. To understand the pleasure felt when 
mining operations are disintegrating the hard rock, and the pain when deposits 
gather, we must remember that the earth is the dense body of a Great Spirit, 
and to furnish us with an environment in which we could live and gather 
experience, it had to crystallize this body into its present solid condition.

   As evolution proceeds, however, and man learns the lessons pertaining to 
this acme of concretion, then earth will become softer and its Spirit more and 
more liberated. This is what Paul meant when he spoke of the whole creation 
groaning and travailing, waiting for the day of liberation.




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  (7) Refracting Stratum: This part of the earth corresponds to the World of 
Divine Spirit. There are in occult science what are known as "The Seven 
Unspeakable Secrets." For those who are not acquainted with these secrets, or 
have not at least an inkling of their import, the properties of this stratum 
must seem particularly absurd and grotesque. In it all the forces which are 
known to us as the "Laws of Nature" exist as moral, or rather immoral forces. 
In the beginning of the conscious career of man they were much worse than at 
present. But it appears that as humkanity progresses in morals, these forces 
improve correspondingly; also that any lapse in morals has a tendency to 
unleash these Nature Forces and cause them to create havoc upon the earth; 
while the striving for higher ideals makes them less inimical to man.

   The forces in this stratum are thus, ata ny time, an exact reflection of 
the existing moral status of mankind. From the occult point of view, the "hand 
of God" which smites a Sodom or a Gomorrah is not a foolish superstition, for 
as surely as there is individual responsibility to the Law of Consequence 
which brings to each person the just results of his deeds whether for good or 
evil, so is there also community and national responsibility, which brings 
upon groups of men corresponding results for their collective acts. Nature 
Froces are the general agents of such retributive justice, causing floods, or 
earthquakes, or the beneficent formation of oil or coal for various groups, 
according to their deserts.




[PAGE 43]                                     NATURE SPIRITS AND NATURE FORCES 




  (8) Atomistic Stratum: This is the name given by the Rosicrucians to the 
eighth layer of the earth, which is the expression of the World of Virgin 
Spirits. It seems to have the property of multiplying many fold the things in 
it; this applies, however, only to those things which have been definitely 
formed. An unshapen peice of wood, or an unhewn stone has no existence there, 
but upon anything which has been shaped, or has life and form (such as a 
flower or a picture), this straum has the effect of multiplication to an 
astonishing degree.

  (9) Material Expression of the Earth Spirit: There are here lemniscate 
currents, which are intimately connected with the brain, heart, and sex organs 
of the human race. It corresponds to the World of God.

  (10) Center of Being of the Earth Spirit: Nothing more can be said about 
this at present except that it is the ultimate seed ground of all that is in 
and on earth, and corresponds to the Absolute.


               END OF "NATURE SPIRITS AND NATURE FORCES"


                             --- END OF FILE ---

