Books by Verena Stael von Holstein
Unless stated otherwise, all book reviews in this section are by Michael Pilarski
To put my book reviews somewhat in perspective here is a bit of my history. I have been assiduously studying the literature on fairies, devas and nature spirits since 1977.
In 2004, I published a bibliography which reviewed 60 books on the nature fairy/deva evolution. This bibliography was an appendix in the book “Forty Years with the Fairies” by Daphne Charters.
Since then I have read and added many more books to my fairy library. I just counted and now have over 150 books in my fairy library. Not being content to be just an armchair theorist, I founded the Fairy & Human Relations Congress in 2001. An event which brings together 250 to 300 people annually, many of whom see, communicate with, or work with the nature spirit and faery realms. Thus I have been able to meet firsthand the authors of dozens of the books in my fairy library and become friends with them. Indeed, I have met hundreds of people who see into, and work with, the fairy realms. And the people I’ve met are, of course, just the tip of the iceberg.
Some people may call me a kook, but there a lot of us. Materialism and its denial of any spiritual realms has a strong hold on a large part of the population. Religions and their denial of nature spirits (or condemning of them) also has a strong hold on a large part of the population. Still there is a part of the population (and appearing to be growing) that believes in, or is open to the idea of, nature spirits (by whatever names a culture calls them).
The Fairy & Human Relations Congress website is devoted to the sectors of the population who would like to know more. Come back to see a growing list of books and authors reviewed here.
Book review by Michael Pilarski. 12/12/2014
Nature Spirits and What They Say
Interviews with Verena Stael von Holstein. Edited by Wolfgang Weirach. First published in German in 2001. First published in English in 2004. Translation by Brian Stevens. 2008 is the 3rd printing in English.
I highly recommend this book to people who seek to understand and work with the nature spirits. Surprising that this book and Verena Stael von Holstein have escaped my attention until now. This book adds a lot of insights into the relationships between humans and nature spirits. Verena has been seeing fairies since her earliest memories as a child. There is a photo of Verena in the book and I would guess she was 45 to 50 when the photo was taken.
The main story line for this book is that Verena has formed a close talking relationship with a group of 17 nature spirit beings who are linked to her land. Some of them are very specific to that place, Miller, the house fairy, Kollii, the One from the Marsh, Oakbeena, Guardian spirit of the oaks in the village. Others have very large territories, such as Echivit, the Nix (Deva) of the Elbe River. Moonlight, the Silver One, who is connected to the moon and travels throughout the Earth. Knut, the Sandy One, is connected to all the sand of the region. Verena writes very little of the book and Wolfgang Weirach is much more than the editor. The text is composed of interviews of the nature spirits conducted by Wolfgang. Verena receives the nature spirit’s answers and translates them into human words. Wolfgang asks them questions, they respond through Verena, conversations are recorded. There is also a spirit being the nature spirits refer to as The High One who works with the project and is interviewed.
The information is fascinating and thought provoking. The attitudes and feelings of the nature spirits come through. This is a contemporary connection with the fairy realms. The conversations include cell phones, nuclear power, genetically engineered crops and the increasing rate of caesarean births among humans. The book includes a lot of information on how humans are currently affecting the world and the nature spirits. It also gives us some direction as to how individual humans can work with the nature spirits to improve the situation.
Following are some quotes from three of the books in this series:
Verena: “These communications are not just a happenstance. These seventeen spirit beings have set out as a kind of advance party in order to speak with human beings. These conversations are extraordinarily important for them, because up to now the angels were their rulers, and taught them their tasks. But the angels are now withdrawing and leaving the elemental beings more and more alone. Human beings are their new masters, but human beings know nothing about them. For this reason the nature spirits are suffering and afraid of humans. That’s precisely why these conversations between human beings and nature spirits are so important, for both sides. Both partners can learn from one another, draw closer to one another and cooperate in a totally new way. “ Page 9
Verena: It is much more the urgent wish of the spirit beings with the help of the people here to awaken the general consciousness of the people of this culture to the fact that our Earth is a living being. It is inhabited by humans, animals, plants, minerals and spirit beings.
At present this living Earth-being faces the danger of being destroyed by its human inhabitants. To avert this danger people have to turn again to facts which are not to be found in the physical world but in the spiritual world. The contents of this book aim to help towards this. Page 11.
Wolfgang Weirauch: Miller, how can a human help the nature beings?
Miller: By being fond of them. Apart from that he can help them by doing them favours by trying to perceive them. But the most important thing for us are the positive feelings of humans, it’s like food for us
WW: Rudolf Steiner talks about how elemental beings slip into a person when he just stares at a tree, and live in him until his death and after his death are not redeemed but are charmed or banished back into the physical world. When on the contrary a human looks at a tree in all its beauty, the elemental beings slip into him in exactly the same way, but are redeemed from the material world after his death. Is that true?
Miller: Yes, that’s one of the fundamental laws of nature and the spiritual world. If you want you can redeem the whole earth by looking at it affectionately and with awareness. If all humans were to carry out this process intensively and over a long period of time, the whole of matter would one day be gone. Page 136
WW: Are there other things we can do?
Miller: Being fond of nature spirits, playing music at home. We love it when humans play music. You can also sing us a song. It doesn’t have to be a complicated aria like the “Queen of the Night.” A simple children’s song will do. It as also important to arrange artistic objects, to create a beautiful home. Spaces in nature should be just as beautifully designed. We eat your sympathies and we become round and happy through love. Page 138.
The High One: “Humans have to begin to perceive the elemental beings and the spirit beings and act with them in the same direction. Otherwise the earth will disintegrate. It will die if humans don’t take up their tasks and their responsibility for the etheric, soul and spiritual aspects of the cosmos. And then – this is very important – humans have to learn what beauty is. they have to learn not to just simply act and produce any kind of objects, but that everything has to be beautifully formed.” Page 186.
The Salt Child: Yes, Humans nowadays eat too much salt. What’s more they eat polluted salt.
Wolfgang: What are you thinking of?
The Salt Child: Iodized salt. Humans are adding an impurity to the spiritual purity which is salt. And it’s quite important to realize that when you eat polluted salt you’re polluting your own self. It’s different when you eat sea-salt, but convincing humans to artificially iodize salt is a great feat of the Ahrimanic beings. ….
The Salt Child: Fluoride is a halogen. Halogens make is simpler for beings to gain access to the human self and possess it. Page 130.
Wolfgang gets the answer to his question “What kind of beings are storm giants, frost giants and fog giants.” Page 190.
Here is a link to some other quotes from the book:
http://www.whale.to/b/holstein.html
Whoa! There are three subsequent books in this series. I’ve just ordered all three of them and look forward to reading them.
Nature Spirits of the Trees: Interviews with Verena Stael Von Holstein Published in 2009. Working with Wolfgang Weirach. Here is a review from Amazon “Not as ‘charming’ as: Nature Spirits and What They Have to Say, but more thorough, and definitely a ‘must read’ if you were left wanting to understand Elemental Beings better, and wanting to build a relationship with them.” Here is the Amazon url:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/0863157033/ref=pd_luc_rh_bxgy_01_01_t_lh?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Thoughts that Shine like Stars: Further Conversations with the Nature Spirits. Published on August 6, 2012.
We Turn Our Hearts To The Earth: Nature Spirits on Oil and Human Destiny. Published on January 25, 2014.
http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1490945105/ref=pd_luc_rh_sim_01_02_t_lh?ie=UTF8&psc=1
Nature Spirits and What They Say.
Thoughts That Shine Like Stars.
We Turn our Hearts to the Earth: Nature Spirits on Oil and Human Destiny.
Interviews with Verena Stael von Holstein. Edited by Wolfgang Weirach.
I just re-read three of Verena’s books to get a deeper understanding of what they are conveying.
One of the things that struck me is their discussion of the duality of forces working on earth. They mention beings such as grey beings, demons, phantoms, spectres, Luciferic beings, Ahrimanic beings, giants, and others.
Much of the conversations are on positive things happening in the world, but there is not a glossing over of the battle that is happening on the Earth. It is common for people in the spiritual, new-age movements to focus on the positive and to not look at the dark side. Of course, it is even worse to only look at the dark side and not see the bright side of things. These books have helped clarify for me some of the things happening in the world today, both at the individual level and at larger societal levels. One thing that became clear to me is that on this duality planet there is supposed to be a balance between all the forces at work. At this point in time, the descending forces (dark forces) are causing a lot of havoc in the world. They are out of balance with the ascending (Light forces). It is up to humanity to right the balance. The light forces aren’t going to come in from outside and save us. The free will of humanity has to act in a positive direction. It isn’t desireable (or even possible) to expel all the Luciferic and Ahrimanic forces from the Earth, but a better balance should be aimed for.
According to Verena’s nature-spirit contacts, a lot of the world’s leaders (especially in the US) are possessed by demons. This helps explain the horrible decisions we see them making which are destructive to the Earth and which kill millions of people.
The groundwork for the nature spirit/human communications in these books have been underway for a long time. Echevit the water Nix, points out that he realized that it would be necessary to start this conversation hundreds of years ago when the humans in his part of Germany ceased to recognize him. Rudolf Steiner laid groundwork in the early 1900s through his contact with the nature spirit realms. Verena saw nature spirits from her earliest years. It culminated on March 1, 2000 when Verena and her nature spirit friends decided they should undertake a book project to bring the nature spirits’ messages to the public. They are under the protection of a member of the Hierarchy they call “The High One”. The dark forces are aware of, and not happy with, their attempts to bring the nature spirits to the attention of humans. It is in their interests to have humans stop believing in spiritual forces and become completely materialistic.
Here are some quotes:
“The nature spirits have no human morality, but they know exactly how they can hurt and how they can help humans. They live in the spiritual etheric interconnections of nature, they hold the world together and ensure the continued existence of the earth. They have never known freedom in the way that humans know it. Some of them are friends with one another but what love is or how the feeling of love is experienced, they have also never known. They perceive the super-sensible world, but how it is to live in a dark prison, in a physical body, and not to perceive the super-sensible world is completely unknown to them.
“In order to experience more closely this new land – morality, love, freedom, ignorance of the spiritual world – seventeen spirit beings have set out as a kind of advance party in order to speak with human beings…the nature spirits are suffering and are afraid of humans. That’s precisely why these conversations between human beings and nature spirits are so important, for both sides. Both partners can learn from one another, draw closer to one another and cooperate in a totally new way.” Page 9, Nature Spirits and What They Say.
“Nature spirits don’t distinguish between good and evil in our sense. They actually distinguish six categories:
- -beings who are helpful towards humans
- -beings who are harmful towards humans
- -beings who are committed to growth
- -beings who are dedicated to decay
- -beings entrusted with protection
- -beings entrusted with destruction”
- Page 22, Nature Spirits and What They Say.
Verena: [VS]: “…what we’re doing here at the moment is not altogether being looked upon with favour.
Wolfgang: [WW] Who isn’t looking favourably at our undertaking?
VS: The forces of evil. They don’t want any sort of information about the spiritual world to reach human awareness, because humans who are ignorant are far easier to control than those who aren’t. The nature spirits taking part in our project want to pass on this information. And above all they want to get to know their new masters. The hierarchies of the angels are withdrawing from guiding humans, also from directly influencing the elemental beings. They’re handing over the shaping of the earth’s future more and more to humans.
WW: And humans don’t understand the nature spirits!
VS Exactly. Humans don’t make any effort to understand the nature spirits. For the most part they don’t even know they exist.
WW: That must be terrible for these beings.
VS: It’s dreadful! Some of them are in complete despair. When you see an elemental being in despair you become terribly sad. Sometimes I even cry.
Next door we have the marsh. The “One from the Marsh” rules there. Nature-beings from Hamburg, such as tree beings, come to him. They come here as sick, tired, exhausted and despairing elemental beings. And that’s because humans don’t notice them and humans don’t cultivate any contact with them. This blindness in human behavior is in accordance with the intentions of the forces of evil, especially the Ahrimanic beings. When the human being is blind to the connection with the elemental beings, it’s then possible for the Ahrimanic beings to act at this point.” Page 28, Nature Spirits and What They Say.
The Fiery One: “…The Ahrimanic beings have no interest in humans remaining human, but are interested in humans falling as far back again as possible to the level of the animals.” Page 80, Nature Spirits and What They Say.
WW: What are demons?
The Watery One: Demons are beings of the descending powers out of the dark regions, who are caused amongst other things by people’s lies. They also arise through wrong human thoughts Just as we’re children of the angels, so are demons, children of pieces split-off from the fallen angels.”Page 103, Nature Spirits and What They Say.
WW: What tasks does Lucifer have?
The Watery One: To enthuse humans and make them progress. But he’s always trying to do everything too soon. Lucifer inspires and brings things to mankind which leads them on. He brings important things from out of the spiritual world and transforms them to human abilities. When seen in this light he’s very helpful to mankind. Through their deeds, the powers of evil are making a great sacrifice in the background. This aspect of theirs has always to be kept in mind. But that doesn’t mean finding everything the powers of evil achieve good.
WW: Do humans have the task of one day redeeming these powers of evil?
The Watery One: Yes.
WW: Will they succeed?
The Watery One: That I don’t know.
WW. What kind of being is Ahriman?
The Watery One: He’s cold, he’s cold as a CD. And he’s extremely clever. He’s brilliant, but not inspiring. He’s much cleverer than you can imagine. But he’s ugly.
,,,he operates very much in secret, completely in contrast to Lucifer. That’s one of the most interesting differences between the two of them. The one likes to take centre stage, while the other one hides himself as much as possible.
…WW: What necessary tasks does Ahriman have:
The Watery One: He forms the counterweight to Lucifer, which is the most necessary thing there ever could be. He fixes matter and prevents the earth from turning into a fireball. Matter can only exist from both being in balance.” Page 106-017, Nature Spirits and What They Say.
Wolfgang: Miller,how can a human help the nature-beings?
Miller: By being fond of them. Apart from that he can help them by doing them favours, by trying to perceive them. But the most important thing for us are the positive feelings of humans. It’s like food for us.”Page 136, Nature Spirits and What They Say.
The High One: …And so that Americanism is repelled. Americanism is not Trinitarian, only a dualism of black and white exists in Americanism. And this dualism is averse to peace. The forming of awareness in Europe will make peace possible again. I’m not talking now about in thousands of years, but from the next few years on. The peace initiative can only be successful if it’s Christian – Christian in the cosmic sense, not the Church sense. Sufism is also peaceful and would be a partner in the Islamic world, as the possibility of change lies in Sufism.”Page 26, Thoughts That Shine Like Stars.
Wolfgang: What concretely can an individual person do so that the forests will become healthy again?
Crown: [a Tree Shepherd] Become aware of them, that’s the most important thing. And then pray, because praying almost always helps. See a forest as a place of healing and not just a collection of trees. Forests are also your places of healing, because air that is good for you is produced in them. Understand why your ancestors considered the forests holy.
WW: What happens to someone on entering a forest?
Crown: He steps into a being and is perceived simultaneously by everything living in the forest. If a human expands his awareness he can perceive the whole forest organism. He then acquires the ability to receive cosmic etheric energies like an antenna. These are energies for the forests of a cosmic nature. In a forest you can find peace. Sit down for half an hour in a forest and in this half an hour think only about the forest. The cough you’re suffering from will then go away at that moment. But it will be difficult for you because Iraq will always be a little bit on your mind.” Page 35-36, Thoughts That Shine Like Stars.
The High One: …In general, the Ahrimanic beings would like the impulse of the sixth post-Atlantean cultural period, Philadelphia, the impulse of pure brotherhood not to develop, but rather that America destroys the world to as large an extent as possible. It’s within this wider context that the activity of Ahriman has to be seen. Ahriman would actually like the wars of the USA in Afghanistan, in Iraq and also in Iran to have such an effect that for centuries no form of culture will be possible in these countries.”Page 54, Thoughts That Shine Like Stars.
WW: Should we say hello to the house spirit every day?
Miller: It’s polite to say hello, but isn’t very important. It’s much more important to tell the house spirit when you’re leaving the house or apartment, ”Look after the house, I’m away for a few hours or for three days.” It’s also nice if you could tell us where you’re going, but that’s not so important. Page 88, Thoughts That Shine Like Stars.
Wolfgang: What task did oil have until about a hundred years ago, before human beings began exploiting it on a major scale?
Eulalia: [The Guardian of Crude Oil]: To wait until humans have spiritualized the Earth to a non-material physis. Until the impure inner emotions connected to oil, which are in no way just human ones, had been worked through. During the future spiritualization process of the Earth you humans, presumably with the participation of the angels, would have worked on the clumps of astral impurities in oil. This is what oil is waiting for. Now though, due to the transformation of cosmic intelligence into your technical intelligence, you got hold of the idea of no longer permeating oil with spirit, but of using it primarily in internal combustion engines. That was an interesting line of reasoning for you humans.
Wolfgang: What basically interests me is what beings are actually connected to oil. Is there a higher oil being, and how are the others hierarchically structured?
Eulalia: To your first point, there are beings in oil that have been formed from the disconnected remnants of astral bodies. They are undine-like beings, coming somewhere between the sylphs and undines. They exist as very small beings and in larger oil cavern as large beings as well. They can be called oil undines. Moreover, there are the local beings that care for an oil field and the oil guardians, to which I belong. The oil guardians are the specialists who take care of the oil fields along with the local beings. We’re similar to the shepherds of the elemental spirit of the body and the animal shepherds…
Wolfgang: And is there a god of oil? What kind of being is it?
Eulalia: Yes, there’s also one of them. That’s a hierarchical being. It’s a special angel. It organizes everything on the higher level that’s connected to oil, such as contact with the leading spirit of the age, at present Michael, later it will be others. It clarifies to what extent under certain circumstances oil is flammable. It’s quite exciting, everything that has to be considered. It is also involved in how far to allow Ahrimanic technical knowledge to be combined with oil.
Page 62-63. We Turn our Hearts to the Earth: Nature Spirits on Oil and Human Destiny.
Wolfgang: In 1938 oil was discovered for the first time in Saudi Arabia and drilling was undertaken by the US firm Standard Oil of California. What kind of alliance, which still exists today, has been welded together between this particularly conservative form of Islam, Wahhabism, and the USA’s materialistic, profit-centered way of thinking?
Eulalia: It is an alliance of egoism at every level; an egoism that’s raised to a state religion. It’s egoism as the source of belief and as the foundation for religious experience. This alliance is very unholy. I would like to stress here though, that it’s not just oil’s fault that ideas of power arise in various nations. Oil is simply a support for these ideas.” Page 67. We Turn our Hearts to the Earth: Nature Spirits on Oil and Human Destiny.
Wolfgang: … Can you add something to our conversation, mainly about oil sands?
Knut [a sand being]: It’s difficult not to hear your conversation etherically. You’re yelling around here like the trumpets of Jericho. There is somehow a logical connection between oil and sand, but it’s a troublesome one. You do know of course what sand represents spiritually? Just as stone represents death, sand represents dying, which is what happens with oil, even though its not just human etheric or astral bodies that are squeezed out in the oil, an interesting mixture arises of impure inner activity and dying.
Wolfgang: And what results from this?
Knut: Among other things, suicide assassins.
Wolfgang: But how am I supposed to understand the connection between oil sands and suicide assassins?
Knut: You can understand it in that oil sands form a certain kind of spiritual bridge for the intention of suicide assassins, in other words, humans coming from regions where there are oil sands allow themselves to be motivated to that effect. A religion, too, that can produce such phenomena grows well in such areas. … Page 74. We Turn our Hearts to the Earth:
Echevit: Nevertheless, every individual is free. You shouldn’t forget this. And if humans in freedom destroy the world, they will have to bear the consequences, even if they’re in their egoism phase. We expect these repercussions. You will have to face the music. Seen in this way, it’s no contradiction.
Wolfgang: …if in the process the whole world gets destroyed! The oil disaster is big enough [Gulf oil spill], but further catastrophes can come along, an atomic catastrophe could occur as well…
Echevit:…further catastrophes will come! Even during your lifetime on Earth catastrophes will come that will make this oil disaster look like a joke. But the Earth isn’t so old yet that it has no forces of rejuvenation anymore. And the catastrophes will occur predominantly in those regions of the Earth in which the egoists are living. That’s unfortunately the way it is. The spiritual world says you’re free and not everything will always be forgiven. It is said as well that you humans will be able to find answers, and the spiritual world is sending out help, that much of the Earth will be saved.
You free and mighty humans will have to pay when you destroy the Earth. Our tolerance has in the meantime come to an end. We won’t let ourselves be destroyed without any resistance. Resistance as an educational measure is every now and then even necessary for humanity. Page 95. We Turn our Hearts to the Earth:
Wolfgang: Warm thanks. Would you like to say anything in conclusion?
Echevit: It doesn’t help anyone if an extreme attitude is adopted because of the present conversation, for example, of never driving a car again. Such an attitude is damaging. It only helps the evil spirits. For your next car you could consider whether it really is necessary to buy it; you could reconsider how you handle plastic, petrol, and heating oil, and whether perhaps you could change something here. Page 103. We Turn our Hearts to the Earth:
