Native Americans, since they lived in a strong symbiosis with the natural context in which they were immersed on a daily basis, had from time immemorial established connections and analogies between what happens in nature and what happens to human beings.

According to their vision, each season found its “domicile” in one of the four directions, or cardinal points, with each of which it associated one of the four Elements: the East and Air with Spring, the South with Fire and Summer, the West with Water and Autumn, the North with Earth and Winter.

East as the energy of awakening, of rebirth, of the re-opening of the wings to take flight supported by the Air element after the Winter sedentary lifestyle.

South as carefree, joyful and dynamism inspired by the beautiful season, by the strong intensity of the Sun’s heat (Fire) and by its prolonged light on long Summer days.

West as a gradual inward retreat after the previous expansion, as a harvest of the fruits of the Earth in anticipation of the long Winter and progressive slowdown of activities imposed by the frequent rains which rehydrate the soil with beneficial water in preparation for sowing and spring recovery.

North as a time of retreat into the den, return to the womb of the Earth, rest, balance, as a phase of closure and fulfillment, reflection and interiority, in harmony with the slower biorhythms dictated by the reduced hours of light.

This people lived in great harmony with the natural cycles and the alternation of the seasons that marked the rhythms of life and movements of the tribes, always finding themselves in the right place at the right time. There was no dislocation, no uprooting, no strangeness. Everything in their lives flowed with the flow of Mother Nature.

They recognized, honored and internalized each of the Elements that the seasonal transformations exalted from time to time.

Their life purpose was simply to support this external and internal “movement” of their Earth with ever greater flexibility and wisdom, to become “one” with that natural universe.

They led a simple, essential existence, interwoven with animist spirituality. Everything that constituted the material plane, Above (Heaven) and Below (Earth), was alive and sacred for them, including its Elements.

They contemplated four, as already mentioned: Air, Fire, Water and Earth (according to the sequence of the seasons). The fifth Element, Aether, was not formally theorized in their cosmogony, as it was told and depicted in the Medicine Wheel.

Native Americans had from time immemorial established connections and analogies between what happens in nature and what happens to human beings…. Their life purpose was simply to support this external and internal “movement” of their Earth with ever greater flexibility and wisdom, to become “one” with that natural universe.

To tell the truth, however, it could plausibly be assimilated to the Center of the Wheel, symbol of the energy that everything contains, the Supreme Being, or the “Spirit” (or “Great Spirit”) that each tribe identified with its own name , according

Reflecting on how to structure this contribution of mine, I ended up opting for the treatment of a single Element, the one that would have been energetically dominant in the period of release of this issue of the magazine: the Earth element (associated precisely with Winter in Native vision).

That Earth that rests on the surface in the harsh season but continues to fervent underground.

That Earth that purifies itself, sterilizes itself and becomes fertile again to be ready, at the right time, to welcome the seeds of a new, future harvest.

That Earth which is the most dense, solid, compact element, best representative of the nourishment of Mother Nature, which gives life and sustains every being of hers.

That    Earth   which, being  motherly, possesses a uterine, loving and welcoming feminine energy.

Beneath her cold surface lies a heat that never fails and a richness that never runs out, from water to mineral substances to humus…

Any seed planted in good “Earth” will bear good fruit.

In the cold season, it would be desirable for us to metaphorically prepare our internal “soil” to welcome the new seeds that we may wish to “plant” during the Spring time of awakening.

In speaking in more metaphysical terms of “earth” and “land”, one cannot help but highlight how, in today’s Western materialistic vision, although imbued with religiosity, the concept of Earth is instead reduced to two simple concepts: plowing and farming land, intended to accommodate crops or buildings, and a place of burial and entombment.

In the first case, a functional element for cultivation and construction; in the second, a receptacle for what has been used and is no longer useful, for what has perished and can neither be recovered nor revitalized.

In an ideal vision, how extraordinary it would be to return to recognizing and dignify the meaning of this Element so fundamental to our human existence in not only material but also spiritual terms…

In native culture, the Earth is alive, vital.

Not only does it generate spontaneously, but it welcomes and transforms what lies there in nature, from leaves to carcasses, converting the organic material into nutritional principles for seeds and plants, which it also supports in the cold season by providing the roots with the mineral salts they need to survive the Winter and regain strength in the Spring…

The return to Earth, understood as a physical and energetic element, cannot be only seen as the inevitable final destination of an existence that ends.

Every day, at every moment, we can return to a shamanic vision of the Earth element as that energy that leads to pacification, stasis, suspension, introspection, patient and conscious waiting…

And not only that, because the Earth, for the Natives, was also a sacred space from which to draw spiritual energy and life force, as “the stage where the world of elemental spirits and the human world meet”.

The Earth speaks to us, communicates with us when we straighten our antennas and open our senses to capture her language, when we allow ourselves to pause to open a contact that is not only the pressure of our soles on the ground, but that of a hand, of a bare foot, of our skin, of our forehead or the back of our neck if we are lying on it.

The Earth, understood as a “planet” (although in the culture of the Prairies it was still an unknown concept), was for the Natives a living organism, pulsating with the same intensity with which the animal and human body pulsate, as well as, as previously mentioned, a generous mother from whose abundance every creature drew nourishment and support.

Theirs was a harmonious, if not downright “loving” relationship – as some have defined it – with nature.

And when the life cycle of one of her children came to an end, its shell returned home, to the womb of the Earth, the same one from which it had been generated, and there it returned to being part of the Whole.

A Native wrote:

“For us the woods, the distant hills, the light of the North, the setting sun are alive, together with them we live and, as no white man is capable of doing, we live in their Spirit. If we are alone we talk to the water and the trees and we are not alone. Despite their modern inventions, white people cannot live like us, and if they try, they die, because they do not understand what the sun says when it sets and do not hear the voices of ancient wisdom in the wind. The white man is sometimes like a puppy and dies when the wind blows against him, because he sees only trees, rocks, earth and water, only the outside part of the book: but he cannot read it…”.

Some time ago, during a meeting on the energy of the Winter Equinox, a girl shared this reflection with me: a friend had confided to her that every time she felt the desire for comfort and wisdom she went in front of a tree, always the same, which has now become her reference. She asked herself: “Why find outside what we should actually also be able to find inside? Why shouldn’t we possess within ourselves the same source of comfort, consolation and wisdom that we more easily attribute to elements or people external to us?”.

Nothing more true. Coming into contact with the energy of an Element does not necessarily involve physically immersing yourself in that Element. It can be brought to mind in a state of concentration or meditation by evoking its characteristics and qualities.

… we often look outside for what we think we don’t have inside. The Elements are with us in every moment of our life, they are an intrinsic part of us, they make up our own energy, we are unconsciously surrounded and penetrated by them.

The Earth Element possesses that component of “maternal” energy that works small healings, inspiring sensations of warmth and comfort that all of us living beings need to stay alive, to germinate, flourish, mature, perceive a well-being state.

Restoring a mental connection with the energy of the Earth, with her Spirit and her elements can help to make peace with ourselves and with the world, to recover a sense of belonging that we urbanized Westerners lost the moment we cut the cord with the world of Nature, to rediscover a rhythm, an internal time tuned to that of the Planet, of its primordial heartbeat, to hole up in her sacred space, muffled and silent, only apparently immobile, to imagine sinking back into our tortured roots or cut in that soft and welcoming humus that receives them and supports them, giving sensations of renewed balance and stability.

As that girl reiterated, we often look outside for what we think we don’t have inside. The Elements are with us in every moment of our life, they are an intrinsic part of us, they make up our own energy, we are unconsciously surrounded and penetrated by them.

To begin with, to strengthen the belief that we can recall every Element in the closed space of our homes, we find a tree, a corner of a meadow, a natural context from which to begin our journey back to Earth. And back to ourselves.

By getting used to vibrating in unison with Mother Nature again, memories and intuitions will be able to resurface which will gradually allow us to reopen access to our sacred inner space, where our true Wisdom is kept..