In ancient times people were able to commune with nature spirits. These spirits -- "elemental beings" -- are familiar to us today in stories, legends and myths as, for example, fairies and gnomes. Based on his own highly developed clairvoyance, Rudolf Steiner contended that this aspect of traditional "folk wisdom" is a spiritual reality. But we must develop a new relationship to these beings, or humanity will not be able to bridge the gulf that separates it from the spiritual world, for the nature spirits act as "emissaries of higher divine spiritual beings".