In 1907, the poet W.B. Yeats approached Dr. W.Y. Evans-Wentz, a noted anthropologist and religious scholar. Yeats told Evans-Wentz that as 20th-century values replaced the old beliefs in Great Britain, encounters with fairies and Nature Spirits were less frequent. The old traditions had to be written down if they were to survive the threat of the considerably mechanized new century. Evans-Wentz took the challenge and spent two years interviewing people through Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Cornwall, and Brittany.

While performing his task, Evans-Wentz realized that Yeats was right. Only the older people were interested in encounters with fairies or other entities, and the younger generation ignored the concept. An older man, a resident of the Isle of Man who described himself as a clairvoyant, explained to Evans-Wentz that before education for everyone became standard on the island, more people claimed they could see the entities. However, very few admitted to retaining such talent during the early part of the twentieth century. What he meant by education is the teaching that changes people's attitude toward the spiritual side of the world and stresses science and logic. Such education can be excellent and is needed as our culture develops. However, it often makes people antagonistic to any spiritual phenomenon.

Professionally, I specialize in the field of mythology, folklore, and fairy tales. However, I also spent many years writing and studying natural history, particularly botany and environmental studies. These two lifelong fields of interest prompted me to connect natural history with what is sometimes seen as paranormal or supernatural phenomena, and I have always been highly interested in the mythology of Nature Spirits. Not that I accept that anything is truly supernatural. I firmly believe that if a phenomenon exists, it is, therefore, natural. Otherwise, it would not exist since how can anything be outside nature? It would be paradoxical to assume that. In other words, we may not understand a particular phenomenon, at least not yet, but it may very well merit examination.

In this book, I will examine the phenomenon of Nature Spirits from two points of view. The first will assume they exist as a natural force, part of our ecology. The second will treat them as an organic, ever-growing folklore. I intend to prove that from both points of view, the phenomenon is vital, even essential, to our understanding of our planet and our culture.

To begin with, we must define the word “ecology” because while everyone discusses the environment these days, when climate change has become such a threat, the concept of ecology is more complex. Quoting the Ecological Society of North America (ESA), here is an excellent definition: “Ecology is the study of the relationships between living organisms, including humans, and their physical environment; it seeks to understand the vital connections between plants and animals and the world around them. Ecology also provides information about the benefits of ecosystems and how we can use Earth’s resources in ways that leave the environment healthy for future generations.”

Furthermore, what exactly do we mean when discussing the phenomenon of Nature Spirits? They are believed to be forces or the personification of these forces of nature. Up to the 20th Century, most people thought the Earth was populated not only by people and animals but also by Nature Spirits. They included the myths of giants, gods, monsters, ghosts, spirits, magical animals, and elves. Christianity tried to discourage it, but only with minimal success. Many old traditions lived on, and some even assimilated into the new religion in different forms.

Attempts to rationalize the encounters are fascinating in themselves. Funk and Wagnall’s The Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, Legend, and the Encyclopedia Britannica give similar rationalizations. Here are some of them:

“Folk memories of the original inhabitants of a country conquered by the present people. Remnants of the conquered people would linger in mountains and caves, preying on their conquerors. They would necessarily have to operate at night and in a fugitive manner, all of which might lead to their being exaggerated into the strange and supernatural.”

“Fairies are discarded gods or heroes reduced in stature and importance as an old set of gods gives way to the new. So Queen Maeve, a heroine of Irish epics, in a later age becomes the queen of Fairyland.”

“Another theory accounts for the fairies as spirits of the dead, or as the dead themselves, on the grounds that fairies are commonly found underground, often in a barrow, that they must rush back to their habitations at cockcrow (as must revenants and ghosts) that a mortal eating their food cannot return to the mortal world, that fairy land resembles the abode of the dead as pictured by many people, that to get to the abode of the fairies (and the dead) one must sometimes cross a river.”

While these theories make sense, none of them is entirely satisfactory. They may partially account for the beliefs of a small part of the Western world at a particular time but not for all the world encounters. However, I am not setting out to scientifically prove that Nature Spirits exist. I do not believe that science is equipped for such a task. You cannot squeeze the mythological, the ephemeral, into a laboratory.

In addition, I do not believe it is possible to understand these entities away from their assumed or declared habitats, and this statement is the core of this book. Nature Spirits cannot be separated from their environment, and they may be one and the same with their habitats. Destroy the habitat, and you destroy the legend of the Nature Spirit as well. Encourage the ecological balance, and the study of this folklore thrives.

The book is divided into three parts, each comprising several chapters. The first part deals with Traditional Nature Spirits. I will introduce the reader to a selection of such entities, compare the Gaia theory with the entities researched by the researcher, Dora Van Gelder, make a connection between Wicca and Nature Spirits, present biblical and religious Nature Spirits, analyze the importance of fairy tales, and speculate on the theory that we create our own reality, and therefore, the Nature Spirits that occupy it.

The book's second part deals with a subject rarely discussed: that of Urban Nature Spirits. It will also be divided into chapters, including Urban Nature Spirits in antiquity, the presence of Urban Nature Spirits in various countries, and the entrance of such entities into literature.

The third part may seem controversial. I have collected the stories of people who claim to have encountered Nature Spirits. It includes encounters with Traditional Nature Spirits, Urban Nature Spirits, and several suggestions for studying the phenomenon. It must be stated that I do not expect the reader to accept these revelations as facts. I am only reporting them as they contributed significantly to my research.

In conclusion, I have tried to show how closely this mythology is connected with our understanding of our environment. Also, I wanted to show how Nature Spirits, whether one believes in them or not, have been part of the human experience from the beginning of known history and into today’s world of computers, the Internet, and artificial intelligence. I hope I have succeeded in showing how they are interconnected with our destiny, regardless of whether one views them as an evolving myth or an integral part of our planet and environment.