About this ebook
More than 280 million people live with depression. Another 301 million live with anxiety. We have more therapists, more medications, and more wellness apps than any civilization in history — and we are, collectively, more disconnected than ever. In We Are the Elements, Ajarn Shaman Shu argues that the missing piece is not more effort, but an older map: the framework of the five elements from which every cell, every thought, and every emotion is continuously built.
The proposition at the heart of this book is radical yet ancient — the mind cannot be healed in isolation from the elements that constitute it. Depression, anxiety, trauma, addiction, and the modern ache of meaninglessness are, at root, forms of elemental imbalance: a broken relationship between the human being and Earth, Water, Fire, Air, and Space. Heal the elements, and you begin to heal the mind.
Drawing on three decades moving between the ceremonial fires of West Africa and the cave temples of Tamil Nadu, the author reveals a startling convergence between two of the oldest healing civilizations on Earth. The Dagara people of Burkina Faso — through the celebrated work of the late elder Malidoma Patrice Somé — hold that Mineral, stored in the bones, carries the memory and grief of our ancestors. Thousands of miles and thousands of years away, the Tamil Siddhas — Thirumoolar, Agastya, Boganathar, and the eighteen masters — mapped the same truth with breathtaking precision. Two traditions. Two continents. One science.
Inside this book you will discover:
The twin teachings of Bhuta Shuddhi (purifying the five elements) and Buddhi Shuddhi (purifying the intellect) — and why one is impossible without the other
How each element governs a specific dimension of body, emotion, and memory
The Dagara elemental cosmology as a living diagnostic and therapeutic system
The Tamil Siddha science of the five elements and the body as cosmos
A complete elemental healing practice you can begin today
Africa remembered first. India remembered deepest. We are the living proof that they remembered the same thing.
The healing has always been here. We simply needed to remember what we are made of.
OrishaUniversity.com and these books represent the restoration of what was taken from our people. The 256 Odu of Ifa are the original operating system of human consciousness. Oluwo Jolaoso Osainbola has done what many generations prayed would one day be done. My full endorsement and blessing from Ile-Ife, the source of all.
— Araba Agbaye, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. Àṣẹ.
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About the author
Shri Surya Narayana Swamikal is an initiated master of the Shaiva Siddha and Vaishnava traditions, sacred scientist, and founder of ShivaUniversity.com and Krishna.University — the world's first AI-powered universities for Shaiva and Vaishnava sacred sciences. Also known as Oluwo Jolaoso Osainbola (Ifa tradition) and Ajarn Shaman Shu (Thai Buddhist tradition), he is the author of over 70 books spanning Shiva, chakras, Tantra, yoga, Vajrayana Buddhism, and the universal science of consciousness and wealth.
Robert Shumake is the legal name of Shri Surya Narayana Swamikal. Based in Dallas, Texas, he is the founder of Smart Money Media AI — one of the largest independent publishers of African and Eastern sacred sciences — and the owner and publisher of multiple newspapers and digital media properties. He is the author of academic papers and over 70 published books on Ifa, Shaiva philosophy, Buddhist practice, and the science of wealth and consciousness. Learn more at robertshumake.co.
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