smile Heres what I can share that I have learned through life and being called "greenwitch" in my beliefs even though my way of life embraces native american spirituality and christainity.
I work mostly with elementals that being Earth, Air, Water and Fire. Nature spirits which include elementals are believed to be various types of beings or spirits which inhabit Nature. The belief in their existence was almost universal in the ancient era of religions which embodied animism. This belief still exists among many people who believe that all things possess life, which is especially true among most occultists and Neo-pagan witches. These spirits are thought to possess supernatural powers and are usually invisible to humans, save those possessing the psychic ability of clairvoyance.
Nature spirits usually abide in trees, rivers, plants, bogs, mountains, and minerals. They attached themselves to practically every natural thing. These include the Dryads, oceanids, naiads, nereids, oreads for example.
Nature spirit worship was also practiced by the Greeks and Romans as well as the celtic people who believed spirits inhabited every glen, pool, and even the air. As can be seen there are many incidences of the universality of nature spirit worship.
Elementals are of a lower type of nature spirit. They are believed to exist as the life force in all living things. They are said to even exist in the four elements of earth, air, fire, and water; the planets, stars, and the signs of the zodiac; and the hours of the day and night.
They are ruled or governed over by higher spirits such as devas or archangels (which in modern witchcraft are called Lords of the Watchtowers, the Guardians, or the Mighty Ones). Generally elementals are looked upon as benevolent creatures that maintain natural harmony.
The Neoplatonic Greeks (ca. third century AD) grouped the elementals according to the four elements of life. The elementals of the earth are the gnomes, ruled by the angel Ariel; the ones of the air are the sylphs, ruled by Cherub; the ones of the water are the undines, ruled by Tharsis; and there are five elementals that are salamanders, ruled by Seraph. Porclus, in the fifth century, added a fifth group which dwells beneath the ground; and in the eleventh century Psellus included a sixth group, the 'lucifugum' which means "fly-the-light."
Interest in the elementals increased during the Middle Ages and Renaissance when practitioners alchemy and magic sought to acquire nature's secrets so to be able to control her forces.
Also included among elementals are elves who live in woods and along seashores, and household spirits such as goblins, brownies, bogles, and kobolds. Sometimes fairies are included within the elemental category, and also mannikins which are male fairies having the attributes of elves, gnomes, and brownies.
In the folklore among many Native North American tribes, water babies, that are small in human form, inhabit lakes, streams, springs, and other bodies of water. They are not malicious, but do at times play tricks on humans, and are feared.
Other types of "little people" as they are called do inhabit forests and mountains. Some are said to possess powerful medicine which they frequently bestow on humans in times of need.
Elementals do appear to clairvoyants and are easy recognizable. Many are claimed to wear clothes and jewelry. Gnomes are dwarfish living in caves and mountains. Sylphs appear as butterflies, undines as waves, and salamanders as lizard-like creatures that frolic in flames.
Thus far elementals, except the water babies, seem like nice, friendly little creatures of nature. But, others share a different viewpoint. Although the elementals are classed as nature spirits, they are thought by some to be entities of the astral plane. The origin of the belief in their existence seems to be similar to the one previously mentioned; the belief in elementals was at its height when everything in nature was thought to possess life, and these spirits were thought to live in every tree, stream, hill, cloud, and boulder.
It is ethereal in substance although it does partakes to some extent of the nature it inhabits. Some believe elementals lack souls and seek sexual union with humans in order to acquire one. They are capable of copulating and bearing children. Folklore contains many tales of such prodigies such as Hercules, Achilies, Plato, Alexander the Great, and Julius Caesar. Folklore seems to have a fascination for human-elemental unions.
