Tattvas
Earth
Gross Elements
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Origin 1887 to 1890
Prithvi, the earth element, is the principle of solidity and stability, the densest of the five elements. Its sense is smell and its subtle quality (tanmatra) is odor (gandha); it builds the body solid structures of bone, muscle, and flesh. Earth grounds, supports, and gives lasting shape. It is the primary element of the Kapha dosha and corresponds to patience, endurance, and material substance.
Facts
Origins
Origin Period1887 to 1890 1Tradition: Rama Prasad, Nature's Finer Forces (1890) Origin PeriodSourced to the subject's own account1888 to 1900 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Origin PeriodIn classical Samkhya "tattva" names any of the twenty-five principles of the system 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Origin PeriodShaiva and Shakta tantric systems count thirty-six tattvas, extending the Samkhya twenty-five upward with eleven further principles above them 4Tradition: Tantra Origin PeriodThe five recorded here, the pancha-mahabhuta or five gross elements, are five of those twenty-five, and they are the last and densest to unfold 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Origin PeriodThe same word therefore names three different-sized lists depending on who is speaking 4Tradition: Tantra Place of OriginSourced to the subject's own accountLondon. 2Tradition: Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn Place of OriginThe Indian subcontinent. 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Attributed Author / CompilerRama Prasad, for the English transmission 1Tradition: Rama Prasad, Nature's Finer Forces (1890) Attributed Author / CompilerThe doctrine itself is anonymous and much older than he is 1Tradition: Rama Prasad, Nature's Finer Forces (1890) Origin of the NameA principle or category of reality, not an element 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Origin of the NameTattva is Sanskrit for that-ness, from tat, "that" 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Origin of the NameThe five recorded here are the pancha-mahabhuta, five of Samkhya's twenty-five tattvas and five of Shaiva tantra's thirty-six 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Origin of the NameUsing "tattva" to mean "element" is a Western shorthand that loses the word's meaning 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna LanguageSanskrit 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Attestation
Meaning in the Attesting SourcePrithvi, earth, is the gross element whose proper sense-object is smell, gandha, and it is the densest of the five. 3Tradition: Samkhya Karika of Ishvarakrishna Status
Status TodayLiving tradition, practised today 5 Learn More
Prithvi, the Earth Tattva
Prithvi is the earth tattva, the densest of the five gross elements of the Indian scheme, the principle of solidity, resistance, structure and smell. In the classical analysis earth is associated with the sense of smell and with everything that has fixed form and mass; in the subtle physiology it is linked to the base of the body and to the qualities of stability and support. The five tattvas are the elemental principles of Samkhya and Tantric metaphysics, each proceeding from a subtle essence and giving rise to a sense-faculty.
Earth entered Western esoteric practice through Rama Prasad's Nature's Finer Forces of 1890 and the Golden Dawn, whose members meditated on the tattva symbols, earth shown as a yellow square, in the practice they called tattva vision, from 1888 onward. This Western use is a modern borrowing; the earth tattva and its attributes of solidity and smell belong to the ancient Indian doctrine of the five elements from which the symbols were taken.
Sources Classical Samkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and MeaningGerald James Larson with Nature's Finer Forces: The Science of Breath and the Philosophy of the TattvasRama Prasad
Prithvi in the Golden Dawn Tattva Cards
In the late nineteenth century the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn adapted Prithvi into a yellow square, one of five coloured shapes built into a system of meditation and scrying cards that stands apart from, rather than continues, the tattva's original role in Indian philosophy. The square's four equal sides and solid colour were chosen to evoke earth's stability and resistance to change, the densest and most fixed of the five forms in the set.
Golden Dawn method has the practitioner gaze at the painted square until an afterimage forms, then hold that image with closed eyes as an entry point into meditative or visionary states linked to the element; the practice passed largely intact into later currents that drew on Golden Dawn material, including some Thelemic practitioners who kept the same five shapes and colours.
The card practice is a distinct Western invention that borrowed Prithvi's name and elemental associations to build a new visual technique, and it should not be read back into the tattva's own tradition, where Prithvi names the densest of the five gross elements, tied to smell and to the body's solid structure, a physiological and metaphysical category rather than an object built for gazing meditation.
Cross-Tradition Connections
Associated With
Yellow, Colors In the Golden Dawn's tattva set Prithivi, earth, is drawn as a yellow square. The colour is a feature of the Western scrying diagrams, not of the Indian sources from which the term is taken.
Belongs to Tradition
Derived From
Prithvi (earth) condenses carrying gandha, its own new and final quality, plus shabda, sparsha, rupa and rasa inherited from every prior stage, the last and densest step of grossening.
Originates in Language
Related To
The tattva Earth is paired with the Western element Earth in the tattva work the Golden Dawn took into its curriculum.
The tattvas entered English-language occultism through his essays in The Theosophist, collected as Nature's Finer Forces in 1890. He is the transmitter, not the origin. The tattvas are far older than he is and the atlas cites him only for the English route.
Sources
1. The Theosophical Enlightenment
Joscelyn Godwin, State University of New York Press, 1994on Rama PrasadView the Source 2. The Golden Dawn: The Original Account of the Teachings, Rites, and Ceremonies of the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn, 6th edition
3. Classical Samkhya: An Interpretation of Its History and Meaning
Gerald James Larson, Motilal Banarsidass, 1979the mahabhuta; earth (prithvi) and the sense of smellView the Source 4. The Secret of the Three Cities: An Introduction to Hindu Sakta Tantrism
Douglas Renfrew Brooks, University of Chicago Press, 1990on the tattva scheme in Shakta tantric metaphysics
5. An Introduction to Hinduism
Gavin Flood, Cambridge University Press, 1996on Samkhya categories in living Hindu thoughtView the Source The Triumph of the Moon: A History of Modern Pagan Witchcraft
Ronald Hutton, Oxford University Press, 1999Rama Prasad (1890) and the tattva symbols in the Golden DawnView the Source The Golden Dawn
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