Devas fl 127
on the physical plane, manifested to Hodson as a powehl magnetic in-
fluence, so marked as to be noticeable without the aid of clairvoyance.
Gardner explains how devas have their center of consciousness at
the astral level and dip down into the physical plane chiefly to stimu-
late the life of trees and larger plants. He says they may live as the en-
souling life of a tree or group of trees, like the dryads of tradition,
stimulating the far slower activities of the tree with the magnetism of
their bodies, circulating the sap, and so forth. Or they may be engaged
in raying out strong influences over certain spots termed "magnetic
centers."
Leadbeater described the spirit of a great banyan tree as occasion-
ally exteriorizing itself in the form of a gigantic human. Beneath the
tree many earth nature spirits or gnomes were running about on
the surface of the ground, dark in color like the skin of an elephant,
fiom eight inches to two feet high, of very primitive intelligence, their
sense of enjoyment of life predominant.
Around the outer surfaces of the tree, in the more leafy regions,
Leadbeater found a number of "leaf" nature spirits, somewhat feminine
in appearance, diminutive in form, a few inches to two or three feet
tall. He says they were transmitting creative form-producing impulses
and stimulating energies to the outermost branches and 1eaves.The as-
sociation of these nature spirits with the tree had the effect of impress-
ing the form of the tree upon their auras, which made it possible for
the overseeing deva to observe, correct, and influence their actions.
The deva of a tree Leadbeater described as stationed in the central
trunk, its head in the upper branches, its feet below the ground; though
at times it would rise high above its ward. Its consciousness completely
unified with that of the tree, it could subject it, from within, to stimu-
lating and quickening power.
Wilham Bloom, of the Findhorn Community-where the vogue of
communion with devas was revived in the 196ossays that devas have
an exact sense of what the perfect plant should be and that the changes
wrought by the interference of weather, of other plants, of soil condi-
tions, of animals, and of people are all inputs to which the deva fluidly
adjusts, always clearly holding the sense of the perfectly fulfilled plant.