The Earth
THE SPIRITUAL EARTH
- Chapter 34 -
Air spirits, mountain spirits, and wanderer spirits
The particular mist that develops in high rocky mountains and above rock clusters, even without previous rainfall or snowfall, consists mostly of nature spirits that may become human souls, but only after long periods of time.
These spirits, which like to rise in the air and overcast the entire sky, are known as air spirits. They enjoy more freedom than earth spirits, which are more solid. They have to be very carefully guarded in this free state by the pure peace spirits, as otherwise they could very easily cause great harm.
These spirits are seldom seen by human beings; they prevent this from happening because they have a great fear of all those in whom they notice a strong perceptive faculty. This fear instills in them a kind of hatred towards matter, in which they were held captive for a long time. That is why a careful surveillance of these spirits is absolutely necessary.
Every spirit, once he has managed to rid himself of matter, may not for any reason be brought close to it again. Even the spirits of departed human beings have, in spite of their great intelligence, an abhorrence towards it. Those spirits who have just recently gained their much-desired freedom by special permission, and who have been released from this bondage of the hardest imprisonment, have an even greater fear of matter. These spirits become either malicious and revengeful because of their abhorrence and hatred of matter, or they band together by the millions, wanting to escape into vast infinity. The malicious and revengeful spirits are taken captive again and, in the above-mentioned phenomena, are led to the Earth, where they are ordered to labor in the plant regions. If they do not show any enthusiasm for that, they are driven in the form of water into brooks, rivers, lakes, or oceans, where they frequently practice their evil pranks. Should they become extremely malicious and join the evil spirits of the oceans, then it frequently happens that these malicious spirits are driven back into the innermost part of the Earth, which is a most pitiful fate.
If, however, these spirits work diligently in the administration of plant growth, they may then start upon the path of higher development in the flesh. They may also be allowed to return to their former free state after they have completed a certain period of service, which may last up to two hundred years and sometimes somewhat longer. They may then inhabit either the air, mountains, the earth, forests, or sometimes even lakes and rivers.
These spirits possess complete intelligence. They are extremely proficient in matters of Nature; they can see and hear everything that happens and is said on Earth. They also have the ability to deal with human beings and sometimes they render them good services. But you have to be on guard lest you draw too nigh unto them; for they in turn may easily become exasperated and can inflict tremendous harm upon a person.
These spirits prefer to inhabit regions that are remote and peaceful. It is not advisable to scream, whistle, swear, or scold in these regions, because the spirits that are still held captive in matter may thereby become rebellious. And this would cause harm to the spirits which are already more liberated. In order to prevent this, they attempt to frighten the traveler in these regions with many ghostly apparitions.
They are especially active in the mountains, in stopes and shafts, where they have frequently caused the greatest of accidents to those working in the mountains. Sudden cave-ins of shafts, firedamp, flooding, and the like are all works of such spirits, as are landslides and avalanches on the high mountains. When these spirits are well-disposed towards human beings, or at least have little intent to cause harm, they usually appear in the form of dwarves, particularly in a dark gray, blue, or green color. Their small size indicates that they have lowered themselves to the level of a human being in order to do good, because they pity the spirit that is held captive in such a human being. When, however, a human being behaves improperly towards these spirits, they frequently grow to the size of giants. At such a time it is not advisable to remain near them, especially without calling upon My name.
There is also the question as to whether such spirits will travel the path of - development in the flesh or not. If they show themselves to be useful and active, then they may be spared an incarnation on Earth. They will go either to the moon or to another planet. They accept such an incarnation much more willingly because it is usually easier to incarnate on other celestial bodies.
These spirits are usually called wanderer spirits, because they wander from planet to planet without the purpose of incarnation. On these travels they frequently accompany the spirits of departed human beings, because the departed spirits cannot see on other celestial bodies without the help of nature spirits. The nature spirits help these departed spirits to enter the human beings which live there. Then they may see through the eyes of those human beings the things that are on these alien celestial bodies.
When these nature spirits finally become tired of groping about, they return again to Earth and submit to the difficulties of incarnation there. A filiation with God is not possible without such an incarnation, because everyone who wishes to become a child of God must travel God's path. This is the reason why the spirits from countless other celestial bodies rush to Earth in order to endure here the incarnation of the Son of Man.
There is only one God, one Truth, and one Life; that is why there is only one Path. But it is not a necessary consequence that all the inhabitants of other celestial bodies must travel this path, so as to be blissful in their manner, just as there are in the human body a number of other healthy nerves which are not necessarily the nerves of the heart.