You may be familiar with the concept of elemental beings. They are "invisible" beings who take care of various elementals. A tree or a flower would not grow into a shape without the arduous works by the responsible elemental beings. They can be called, depending on their activity areas and their status in their own hierarchy, gnomes, fairies, goblins, leprechauns, undines, salamandars, etc. etc.

For more information on elemental beings or elementals, I would highly recommend "A Summer with the Leprechauns - a True Story" by Tanis Helliwell and "Nature Spirits - what they say - Interviews with Verena Stael von Holstein" edited by Wolfgang Weirauch.

There are also "SHIZEN-REI", literally meaning nature spirits, in Japan. Since I moved back to Japan in 2004, however, I have gained some sense that there may be significant differences between the elemental beings in the West and the nature spirits in Japan. Here I would like to suggest a hypothesis I have developed so far and welcome any suggestion or comment on it.

Usually when I enter into a forest and tune into a tree or a flower, I feel that I establish a connection with the elementals taking care of that particular plant. But when I first attempted the same as soon as I came back to Japan in Kamakura, what I got was very different. I did sense the plant is giving me some messages but I could not understand a word! It was as if the plant was speaking in an ancient language or something. Then I I went to another forest to see what happens. There again, the basic message I got was like "I doesn't bother me if you stay here just now and feel us - but when you're done with it, leave us alone" It was very different from the generally friendly "Hello!! Welcome to our land. See how beautiful branches I have grown! I am very proud of them." - like attitudes I got from trees in England.

Of course even in England I know many elementals in the woods near a big city or those in our bodies are not happy at all and often very angry at us humans. But the impressioins I got in Japan were different from those as well. There was some indifference or aloofness there and I have been wondering where this differnece is coming from.

Then I realised that those messages are coming not from the same level of elementals, who are in charge of individual plant, but from a being much higher in the hierarchy. For instance, there are a hierarchy of elementals and some are responsible for a particular plant, who are directed by a being above them responsible for the entire forest or the mountain, or the town, or the whole country. I feel that as soon as I started tuning into a plant in Japan, I bypass the lower elementals and reach the higher beings who take care of the mountain which the plant is just a part of. These higher beings carry the atmosphere of an archangel (I may be wrong here) who are generally considered in change of a group of people such as an organisation.

This could mean, as far as I can understand, that the hiearchy of the elementals in Japan may be much closer-knit than in the West. Probably Japanese people used to part of the hierarchy living quite harmoniously with the nature - that is why Japanese were known to be appreciative of the natural beauty. With the recent evolution (devolution?) of individual consciousness among Japanese, this harmony has been destroyed and our lifestyles in most areas of Japan are no longer in line with the nature.

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