112 @ The Secret LiJe of Nature1ife.Whereas Hodson's descriptions have the vividness of an eyewitness
reporter and Leadbeater's the eclectic assurance of the world traveler,
Steiner's, with the benefit of his clairvoyantly developed "spiritual sci-
ence," are specifically analytic, giving substance to Blavatsky's dictum
that the role of nature spirits is the very essence of every natural phe-
nomenon. In so doing, Steiner produces a canvas eerier and even more
fantastic than that of any of his predecessors.
Whereas Hodson and Leadbeater describe the nature spirits as they
could see them in their various lairs, Steiner goes deeper, much deeper,
to explain their paramount role in human and planetary life, claiming
that without these workaholic elementals the planet would be bare and
sterile. Steiner's approach is simple but cogent. All that surrounds us-
not only mineral, vegetable, and animal, but alsc we ourselves, includ-
ing our bodies and our inner organs-is created and maintained by
nature spirits. Without the help of friendly industrious elementals, says
Steiner, we would not even be able to marshal our own thoughts. In
this occult view of life on earth, elemental spirits lie hidden behind all
that constitutes the physical, sense-perceptible world, making it, with
their effort, truly alive.And to the degree, says Steiner, that we deny re-
ality to these beings that whirl and weave around the mineral, plant,
and animal worlds, to that degree do we lose understanding of the
world, an understanding necessary to life, health, and especially to the art
of healing, an art largely lost to present-day humanity.
Basic to Steiner's nature spirits are the substances and forces out of
which they are composed,all derivatives of his "world-ether," of which
warmth-ether is prime. Way back in the past, says Steiner, warmth-
ether split into two streams: one branch ascended to form the other three
ethers, light-ether, chemical-ether, and life-ether; the other branch de-
scended to form the four elements known to Aristotle and Anaxagoras
as fire, air, water, earth. Steiner's four groups of nature spirits, though
classically identified with fire, air, water, and earth, are actually com-
posed, respectively, of warmth-ether, light-ether, chemical-ether, and
life-ether, whereas the elements, in line with Aristotle, are not in them-
selves substantial but rather forces responsible for the maintenance of
the states of solidity, liquidity, gaseousness, and fieriness. Earth makes