Tattva 36 — Earth (Pṛthivī)

Pṛthivī is the gross element of earth — the densest and most solid of the five great elements, the principle of firmness, weight, and stability, carrying the quality of smell. It is the very bottom of the thirty-six-fold map: the most contracted, most 'externalized' point of the whole descent from pure consciousness. From the heights of undivided Śiva down to solid earth, the entire universe is, for Kashmir Shaivism, one consciousness appearing as all these levels.