Background Beliefs, Overview, Traditions

[Fae Oonagh]

Nature Spirits Devas Elementals Fairies Trees
Background Beliefs Overview Traditions

Many Ancient Cultures and practitioners of Natural World orientated, Sacred Pathways recognized their valuable contribution to the overall development and harmonic balance of the planetary evolutionary spirals.

The Land, the Divine Forest, the Sacred Groves, and the Holy Wells were enlivened and hallowed by the presence of the Nature Spirits.

From the dancing blue tipped flames of the hearth fire to the sparkling golden candle lights of the lapping brook, the elemental beings of air, water, fire, and earth enliven and sanctify all the Days and Ways of the landscape of daily living.

All the cultures have different names for the Nature Spirits like the Irish Sidhe and the German Kobold. Some of the English language equivalents you may be familiar with might include: brownies, elves, dwarves, fairies, fauns, gnomes leprechauns, and pixies to name a few.


The colorful diversity of the Nature Spirits is both enormous and kaleidoscopic. They range in size from tiny Flower Fairies with auras or energy fields only a few inches wide to huge Mountain Devas with energy fields that stretch fifty miles or more beyond the mountain they safeguard and tend (overlighting and blessing the surrounding area with their spiritual presence and accelerated vibrational resonance).

Some of the Nature Spirits are resplendent gossamer beauties, while, others are more rustically attractive with their bulbous features. Most of the Fairies are friendly and trustworthy, but, Dwarfs are stern taskmasters who repay unkindness with unkindness.

Metamorphic change and synergistic transformation is continually occurring throughout the Natural World. A fragile flower becomes a fortifying fruit.

A pinecone falls to the ground and grows into a lofty tree with soaring branches. A caterpillar encases itself inside a cocoon and emerges later on as a butterfly, and so on.

All of it happens with the unheralded help of the Nature Spirits who seamlessly spin and weave all the myriad interconnections, while, maintaining the intricate balance and continuity of the divine template for universal unfoldment...


The most important function of the elementals or the Nature Spirits of air, earth, fire, and water is their charge to be builders of form. As such they become the catalytic generators and steadfast sustainers of the organizing patterns of all growing and living things.

Like humans housing their souls temporarily in a human body or biochemical shell to further the expansion of their individual consciousness, the elemental nature spirits house their spiritual essence within the confines of the etheric substance of a particular element.

It is one of the evolutionary spiral options available to the Nature Spirits. The elementals accomplish their work by converting etheric thought designs or Dreaming intentional images into physically manifest patterns.

The Nature Spirits are also called Devas or Shining Ones because of the light they radiate as they travel about fulfilling their Creational assignments such as helping plants to grow and hallowing tree groves.

Most cultures have folklore and fairytales about them. The Natural World traditions have always been enlivened by the vibrant Beingness and the vital quintessential aliveness, of the elemental beings of air, earth, fire, and water who have helped to sanctify the land, the sea, and the sky with their inherent divinity and creative acumen.


From the scintillating splendor of the Fairy Hosts to the rainbow promise treasures of the Leprechauns to the hallowed sword of Excalibur, the mystical, magical Otherworldly powers of the Nature Spirits have charmed the human heart and inspired the soul for millenium upon millenium.

Hallow Hills, Holy Wells, Pixie Dust, Tree Spirits, and the Wee Folk continue to charm, enchant, enlighten, fascinate, and inform succeeding generations of both children and adults who have attuned to their inner child.

Since the dawn of this local universe, the Nature Spirits had been charged with carrying out the requests or commands of any Spirit Companion sharing the same overall destiny mapping, manifestation template who asked for their assistance in some matter of import to them.

So whenever a disharmonious or imbalanced light being who had free will and chose to exercise it by putting a curse or hex on someone asked an elemental to assist them in their attempts to manipulate the fate of the target of their ire or wrath, the Nature Spirit was required to comply even if doing so was distasteful or repulsive to them.

When the animals were granted the freedom of choice by Cosmic Decree a few years ago Earth Time, the Nature Spirits also requested and were given the same degree of liberty and self-determination

The Fairies want to continue to spell their name Fair-ies because soon they will all once again be as Fair of Face as they were in days of yore (before what they call the trying and turbulent Vendetta Times took their toll, disfiguring a lot of their faces like moldy blight on the petals of a rosebush).

Together they sing, "Monday's child is Fair of Face. Monday's child is Fair of Face. Monday's child is Fair of Face". Three times for the Moon Goddess. Blessed Be Her Face of Grace.

Then, they add that they are the children of the Moon Goddess who rules Monday and they are very pleased to announce that they have chosen to be called Fairies once more. They add the postscript that mirrors are now back in vogue again too.

Currently I live by a cluster of small ponds where the boundaries between this world and the Otherworld are morphic and Nature Spirits frequently get my attention as they emit bright flashes of colored light whenever they make rapid movements as they gambol about in the air.

Like their true spirit names, they remain somewhat secretive about their activities. Especially now that they have freedom of choice, it is important to remember that even though the Nature Spirits are friendly and enjoy being helpful to humans, they still have their own lives and purposes to pursue.


Several Nature Spirit tribes (Brownies, Dwarves, Elves, and Fairies) and several of their clans expressed an interest in describing their activities separately from those of the Gnomes, Salamanders, Sylphs, and Undines groupings portrayed above under Four Kinds of Elemental Beings.

There are four kinds of Elemental Beings of Air, Earth, Fire, and Water. These Nature Spirits are often referred to as Sylphs, Gnomes, Salamanders, and Undines respectively.

The Nature Spirits of Air are known as Sylphs. Since they vibrate at a slightly higher frequency rate than the other elementals, they often prefer to live around heightened and more rarified places on the planet like mountains and sea cliffs. The winds, gases, and ethers of the Earth are their medium of expression.

The Sylphs find disturbances in the air currents generated by airplanes, helicopters, and other types of oscillating machines dissonant, discordant and discomforting and quickly work to restore harmony after the upsetting cacophony.

The Sylphs frequently assume the appearance of humans for brief periods of time. When they do they can vary in size from human proportions to being quite diminutive in size....

They are usually seen with wings and resemble drawings of cherubs and fairies. Often volatile and changeable, the Sylphs are usually sympathetic of human endeavors and for the most part their actions towards them are kindly and thoughtful.

The Sylphs can have a profound and powerful influence on the human mental body and thought, and, they are responsible for being the primary impetus behind both inspirational art and inventions, as well as, unraveling the more arcane and convoluted mysteries of the universe.

The Nature Spirits of Earth spirits are known as Gnomes. Since they usually live in the soil, in rocks, beneath the ground, and under the tree roots, they are the elementals who are most likely to imitate the customs and behaviors of the people of prior Cultures, concentrating on aspects of daily life that intrigued them and that they thought were worth emulating.

The Gnomes constantly journey back and forth maintaining the textures and hues of the destiny tapestries that anchor the patterns of human traditions in the material plane.

Ranging in size from a few inches to a couple of feet and from Dancing Gnomes dressed in gaily colored clothes who hold hands as they circle dance to Domestic Gnomes who use etheric buckets to fetch water from the stream, Gnomes typically have a quaintly wizened demeanor that delights in the brilliance of sunshine and the vitality of the environment.

Their features tend to be rough hewed, protruding, and prominent, yet, they are mellowed by the sincerity and cheerfulness of their grins. Gnomes are very discriminating and will only assist humans who have been thoughtfully considerate of the ways of the Natural World, who have also established a connection with them through prior acts of kindness.

The Nature Spirits of Fire are known as Salamanders. They are often regarded as the most powerful of the elementals because fires would not exist without them. Fire Spirits ignite the flame, giving matches and sparks the impetus they need to burst forth in fiery light.

On the spiritual level, Salamanders also help to awaken kundalini. Wherever there are blazing bonfires, burning candles, and crackling campfires there are fire spirits. The Salamanders will always help people who are friendly towards them and keep their heart fires burning.

Salamanders are usually about a foot high but they can expand or shrink in size. The appearance of the different families of fire spirits varies in appearance, size, and deportment.

Hearth fire Salamanders tend to be buoyantly exuberant as they crackle and sway about as they proudly display their ruddy orange attire and their headdresses of blue flame

Communicative and gregarious by nature, the facial expressions of Brownies are rustic and friendly. They live beneath the surface of the ground amongst the roots of bushes, plants, and trees.

Their primary function seems to be working with flowing lines of magnetism in the soil, tending to the nurturance of the roots of their leafy charges, and in a more ancillary way preserving the features of the overall landscape. Sometimes they are attracted to quiet spots in homes where they may become attached to one of the family members.

There are traditional tales of Brownies who have fostered an atmosphere of cleanly tidiness in a house, as well as, those where they instigated a mood of disruptive renovation when necessary.

Brownies have a great deal of creative intelligence and have been known to perform good deeds for people they liked, including helping with the crops and the garden.

The Dwarfs have normally appeared wearing conical red hats and blue or green clothes. Their noses tended to be rather bulbous The males are often bearded, fond of smoking pipes, and prone to carrying axes or shovels with them at all times since they are tasked with both protecting and guarding treasures of all kinds.


Modest, reticent, and retiring the mannerisms of the Dwarfs are well grounded and endearingly countrified. Ancients among the elementals, the reclusive Dwarfs prefer to live in caves, mounds, and rocks.

Folklore depicts the Dwarfs as champions of virtue and smiths to the gods and goddesses who frequently gifted mortals with gifts. Known for rewarding kindness with kindness and cruelty with cruelty, the assistance of the Dwarfs was usually gilded with magic since they were both superb craftsmen, as well as, masters of incantation.

Their tribes retreated from the view screen of the mundane world when civilized society began to parody them and their hallowed activities.

Today the Dwarfs continue to watch over the full range of creative schematics in the Natural World, from a fairy paint brushing magenta on a flower petal to the resident Sidhe Lightkeepers tending their recordkeeper quartz crystals.

The Nature Spirits that are called Elves (the Grass Elves, the Seaside Elves, and the Wood Elves) are industrious caretakers who diligently maintain the bushes, the grasses, the plants, and the seaweed on the shoreline, as well as, the trees that are not inhabited by a Tree Spirit...

Elves normally travel about in troop like groups which can be rather large in size at times. When they are not dashing about the lawn, the countryside, or the ocean's edge, the Elves like to sit together in bushes, on tree branches, and by the shoreline at lands end.

Tending on the small side from one to six inches in height on average with large hands and feet, they appear to be for the most part attired in garments that glisten and resemble the materials they work with.

For instance, Grass Elves wear tight fitting green garments, while, Wood Elves, often wear one piece garments the color and consistency of tree bark.

All of the Elves have one-pointed, organizing intelligence which they use to thread their thoughts together as they send them out like connectivity bubbles.

The Grass Elves are totally engrossed as they walk about the trails of their forest of grass, and, the Seaside Elves center their attention on the cellular processes of the seaweed as they play nearby.


The Nature Spirits that are called Fairies (Flower Fairies, Leprechauns, and Pixies) all belong to the same tribe of Fairies, even if they are members of different clans.

All of the Fairies are notorious for their intense love of lively, toe tapping music, and dancing amongst the flowers of the field. Gregarious and sometimes jovially rambunctious, they are fond of animals and trees. They also have a keen sense of humor, but, do not suffer fools gladly preferring to pester them with pranks or to play tricks on them instead.

Fairies can vary in height from tiny to about three feet in height. Pixies are found of wearing toadstool or flower caps over their often red hair and although they are partial to green, they often change the color of their garments as the seasonal cycles change.

Leprechauns are usually cheerful, male shoemaker's who are Keepers of various kinds of treasure including the proverbial pot of gold. Leprechauns can be suspicious of humans who are overly inquisitive about whatever they are safeguarding.

Flower Fairies swiftly move about flashing their pearly wings, wearing resplendently hued robes. Large groups of them float about together, resembling dewy strings of mist, as they tend the flowers..

The ancient Celts had deeply rooted spiritual traditions that included: Bards, Druids, Fairy Mounds, Healing Rivers, Holy Wells, Newgrange, Otherworld, Ovates, Sacred Groves, Stonehenge, and Tree Spirits.

During their rituals, the Celts often revered their ancestors who lived in a paradise that lied somewhere beyond the encircling sea. For the Celts, the Earth and the Realm of Nature was alive with sacredness and with the elementals of fire, earth, air, and water who were imbued with innate divinity and purposeful beingness.

Three was a Celtic holy number which had many different meanings beside the most traditional of the representations, that of the three realms of land, sea, and sky. Even though the Celts were highly skilled artists, builders, craftsmen, farmers, merchants, and smiths who shared common customs and spiritual traditions, they were content to remain a pastoral and agricultural peoples, living in harmony with the land and the seasonal cycles.

Although the followers of Heathenry refer to themselves as Heathen rather than Pagan, they share some similar beliefs roots with Paganism that burrow deep into the ancestral memories of Elder Ages when it was natural to venerate Nature; to celebrate the passage of the seasons; and to honor the Nature Spirits.

The tapestry of Heathen practices was woven from these common threads of past beliefs that the Earth and all the animals, nature spirits, trees, plants, rocks, and the land are sacred and worthy of respect.


The spirits of earth, rocks, springs, streams, forests, and homes, the Heathen Landvaettir or Landwights do not resonate with discord or loud noises and will quickly leave an area that radiates entropy or negativity.

Alchemical Transformation deals with the Five Elements of Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Ether. Fire, earth, air, and water commingle and combine in a myriad of patterns as they spring forth from the ether, the fifth element, the hidden underlying spiritual foundation of perceptible physicality.

Each of the elements contain archetypal and alchemical properties: Earth is linked with tangible manifestation, physical materiality, fertile creativity, copper ore, and Conjunction.

Water is linked with cleansing ablution, fluidic purification, osmotic luminosity, the metal tin, and Dissolution. Fire is linked with initiative action, sacred vigor, dynamic transformation, the metal lead, and Calcination.

Air is linked with manifest spirit, vital communications, sympathetic vibrancy, the metal iron, and Separation. Ether is linked with quintessence, the space-time continuum, the vital principle of collective universality, the magnetically radiant Archaeus, and Mysterium Magnum