The Earth Element

Written by Gabrielle Hawke

When I think about the Earth Element I think about being grounded, structured, and stable. Earth is solid matter, tangible, touchable. It contracts, cools and crystalises. It is nurturing, supportive, receptive. It has a heavier, slower energy, a spiralling downward motion into your roots. It can slow you down and “bring you back to earth” when you are feeling a “bit up in the air”. It can calm your fire if it has become too explosive. It can hold your emotions, when you are feeling over emotional.

Earth is fertile, yet if we don’t feed and care for it, it can become barren, and depleted of goodness and energy, unable to support growth. It is representative of birth, life, death and rebirth. The cycles of life.

When I think of it in terms of personality traits, I think of someone who is grounded, trustworthy, organised, stable, patient and wise. It is connected to the Gnomes, to Autumn, to the Base Chakra, to Yin energy – receptive, feminine energy. You can work with any of these to connect with this element. You can read more about the Base Chakra on our website if you look for the Base Chakra Oil, and also about Feminine energy under our Divine Feminine Balm.

Sometimes it is much easier focusing on one element more than the other. You may experience any of the following when you are more focused, or less focused on the earth element:

Ungrounded,
Foggy, scattered, or be overthinking
Disorganised
Obsessive
Anxious, clingy, unstable
Distressed, overwhelmed
Overprotective
Unstable
Financially, emotionally, relationally insecure
Sluggish
Lethargic
Energetically Stuck
Unstimulated
Feeling overly responsible
Materialistic

How can we focus more on the Earth Element?

Connect to the earth of course, take off your shoes and walk barefoot, out in nature
Develop a deeper understanding of yourself
Bring balance back in your life, reflect on how you can do this
Practice self-care – do you need rest like a garden needs rest after it has grown a crop, time to regroup, to rest the soil within.
In meditation connect to your own roots and see them growing into the earth below you, see the earth holding you, supporting your growth.
Lay on the earth (maybe on the sandy beach or in your backyard) and feel the support of the earth beneath you. Sense the stability and grounding that it brings you.
Journal your thoughts, this will calm the monkey mind that can be prone to too much thinking and worrying. This is a great thing to do first thing in the morning to set you up in a better rhythm for your day

What if we are focusing too much on this element?

When we are feeling sluggish we could bring in more of the Air Element, by any type of active movement – dance, exercise, walking.
Eat less starchy foods like pasta, breads, and less dairy.
Drink more water.
Practice more energising yoga poses. Take an invigorating breathwork class
Try something that takes you out of your comfort zone, try a new class or go somewhere different - that you have wanted to do but felt nervous about doing.
Declutter your home and work environment and create areas that feel more enriching and harmonious.

When you are too much in your head, overthinking, foggy or scattered, you may be disconnected from your body. Are you feeling pain or discomfort in your body – listen to your body, pain is your body's way of trying to get your attention. Connect back to your body by feeling into the pain or discomfort. What are the messages that your body wants to communicate with you? Connect to your body using self-massage, movement, dancing, tai-chi or yoga. When we are embodied we are grounded and that is our best from of protection.

The Earth Element is very much about the practical. Feeling insecure or struggling with your finances? Find ways that you can be more practical, or bring more structure into your life, so that you feel more stable and secure. What small changes can you implement? Can you declutter and sell some items, can you go through your expenses and see where you can save some money. Bringing in action here can help to bring in more security and clarity to your situation.

Release what is no longer serving you - just as the trees release their leaves in Autumn, so too can you reflect on what you no longer need and release into the earth so the earth may compost it.

Plant some seeds and watch them grow, knowing that they are held by the earth. Observe the cycles of a plant over time, watching the buds, the flowers, the fruiting, the seeds releasing, the flowers falling. Observe how it may connect with what is happening in your own life.

What about manifesting? Do you ever have problems manifesting an idea? You may need to ignite the earth element within you. We need this element to help us bring an idea into solid form. This can be done in some of the ways already mentioned but one thing I love to do is to make earth offerings. When I am beginning a new project in my life or wanting to manifest something, I like to do either of the following (and particularly on a New Moon - also more powerful if the new moon is in any of the earth signs Virgo, Taurus or Capricorn)

Gather some items that represents the other elements – a candle, a bowl of water, a feather. Take these and a pen and paper to somewhere you can dig into the earth (your garden, somewhere out in nature, even a pot plant if you can’t get out or don’t have a garden). Light the candle and dig a hole. Write about what you wish to plant (manifest) or grow in the world on to your paper – fold up the paper and place into the hole. Leave a small offering on top of the paper (I like to place something I find around where I am, a flower, some herbs, a shell or even a crystal), now pour over the water to bring flow to what you wish to grow, add the feather for air to spread your wish and drip some of the candle wax on top to light the fire of passion, finally bury with the earth. Remember to follow up with action. Working intentionally with all the elements can produce some amazing results.
Create an offering for the Earth out of anything you can find in nature and ask for her support.

Just creating an offering is also a beautiful way to honour and thank the Earth for all that she does for us every day. Never underestimate the importance of expressing daily gratitude - it seems to create more abundance in your life. Or maybe on your next walk, take a bag you can collect rubbish in, supporting our Earth in this way is a great way to give back.

When you are feeling burnt out, stressed and easy to anger, balance this by bringing more calm and steady energy of the Earth into your life. Practice self-care by slowing down and nurturing yourself.

I love working with the Earth Element, it is one the elements I seem to focus on more at times, but I often I can focus less on Fire and Air, so need to work on bringing those back into balance within me. It's great to work on building your knowledge about these so you can be aware of when something is out of balance and how you can bring them back to balance.

I hope you enjoy exploring where the Earth Element sits within you, whether it needs some balancing or not and hopefully some of these suggestions may help.

Next time, we will look at one of the other elements.