The Earth Element: Exploring Shamanic Traditions Across Cultures

The Earth floating in space, lit by the Sun. Shamanism is the oldest religion,

The earth element is honored across different shamanic traditions worldwide. As a shamanic bodywork therapist, I find that understanding these ancient practices helps us reconnect with the fundamental energies that sustain us, particularly the earth element which represents stability, nourishment, and abundance.

Shamanism is the oldest religion in the world, spanning over the last 200,000 years. Shamanism is based in "Animism", the belief that all things have their own spirit and the quality of our life on Earth, is based in how we interact with the spirits of the things we share our world with. Shamans take this one step further, building relationships with spirits beyond the "seen" realms, which allows them to provide a variety of needed services for the community. Shamans fill many different roles in their societies. They are revered as the elders, the doctors, the prophets, healers, herbalists and artists. Their unique perspective and approach to life makes them an asset. They can discern problems with crops or the human body before physical problems arise.

The journey began in Africa, where thousands of ethnic groups share animist worldviews that see earth as both mother and ancestor. In West Africa, the Yoruba tribe honors Orisha-Anail, owner of the earth, while the Dagara people of Burkina Faso hold strong elemental rituals. African earth traditions often combine ancestor veneration with offerings to the land. Communities express their connection through dance and drumming directly upon the ground, with movements designed to awaken the fertility of the land. The use of clay and ochre for body painting serves as a sacred reminder that we are earth made flesh.

Moving to Australia, we explored Aboriginal traditions—the world's oldest continuous culture with over 60,000 years of practice. Their worldview centers on the Dreaming, the ancestral time when land, animals, and laws were formed. Songlines, sacred paths across the land, function as both spiritual maps and practical navigation routes. Aboriginal peoples walk these songlines, which are mapped not by roads but by music that honors the earth and ancestors who shaped it. The didgeridoo induces deep trance states allowing elder spirits to travel across the land and collaborate with nature spirits. Sand and ochre paintings drawn upon the ground become living maps of spirit and dreams.

Siberian shamanic traditions, particularly among the Iwanki, Buryat, and Yakut peoples, view every mountain, river, and grove as inhabited by spirits. Their Earth Mother is central to their worldview, and shamans work to maintain harmony between humans, animals, and earth. In the frozen landscapes of Siberia, shamans bury offerings like bread, milk, or coins into the soil as gifts for land spirits. Their drums, painted with symbols of earth and sky, are played while standing barefoot on the ground to call upon the heartbeat of mother earth.

The Incan Empire in Peru built their entire civilization around harmony with nature. Pachamama (Mother Earth) was honored through offerings, festivals, and agricultural rituals. Despite colonization, Andean communities have preserved Pachamama rituals, which are still practiced today in Peru, Bolivia, and Ecuador. These include despacho offerings—intricate bundles of coca leaves, corn flour, and sweets that are buried or burned in gratitude. Every August, Pachamama Raymi is celebrated as a festival of thanksgiving to Earth.

Amazonian cultures view the rainforest itself as a living spirit, with Earth as the mother of plants, animals, and medicines. Shamans use plant teachers like ayahuasca to connect with Earth's wisdom. Some rituals involve covering the body with clay, reuniting the human form with nature. Planting seeds with song and prayer ensures new life is welcomed in partnership with Earth.

Native American traditions across Turtle Island (North America) share common threads: the land is sacred, time is cyclical, and Mother Earth is a relative. The Lakota's sacred hoop and medicine wheel symbolize earth's balance, while the Navajo's Hozo represents harmony with the land. The medicine wheel—a circle of stones laid upon the ground—represents balance in the elements, with certain animals connected to different directions. Pipe ceremonies offer tobacco to the soil before prayers rise on the smoke, and sweat lodges built from earth and wood are entered like the womb of Mother Earth.

Celtic traditions from Iron Age Europe honored earth through seasonal festivals tied to planting and harvest. They built barrows and stone circles as sacred earth sites, often aligned with solstices and equinoxes. In Celtic myth, the land was personified as a goddess tied to sovereignty, and the health of the land mirrored the health of its people. Festivals like Beltane and Imbolc celebrated the fertility of the earth and the cycles of agriculture.

In many ancient cultures, Shamans are recognized as powerful assets and are usually revered with high honor. Western culture, often times, outcasts the candidates that would otherwise be recognized as Shamans in other cultures. Those people experience scrutiny for their abstract world views and undergo psychiatric care for the interactions with the unseen realms that others do not experience or understand. Despite the distance and differences between all the different cultures where Shaman are found, the practices have stayed generally the same since the inception of the religion. These practices include music that induces trances, offerings to the land and spirits, divination, using crystals and herbs as medicine, working with animal spirits, and healing with their hands.

What connects all these traditions is the understanding that Earth is not just a resource but a living organism to be honored. They remind us that we belong to the Earth, and she belongs to us. The earth element provides the foundation for stability and abundance in our lives, offering everything we need if we learn to reconnect with it.