Various Indigenous cultures have different names for the Otherworld. Below are some.

• Saivu (Sámi) — A hidden, benevolent spirit realm that mirrors the human world in beauty and terrain. It is populated by ancestral spirits and sáiva, helpful beings often associated with sacred lakes and high mountains. Sámi shamans (noaidis) may travel to Saivu through trance, aided by drum and chant, to consult spirits for healing, guidance, and weather-working. Saivu is seen not as a distant heaven, but as a close and immanent presence, existing just behind the visible landscape.

• Xibalba (K’iche’ Maya) — The underworld realm of the Maya, governed by the Lords of Death and filled with sacred trials, illusions, and mythic tests. Though often feared, Xibalba is also a site of transformation and revelation, where initiates must outwit trickster forces to retrieve spiritual gifts. Heroes like the twins Hunahpu and Xbalanque once journeyed here to restore balance and cosmic justice. Accessed through caves, cenotes, and ritual storytelling, Xibalba remains a potent symbol of the hero’s descent into mystery.

• Ani’-Wah’ya (Cherokee) — “Wolf Land,” a dreamlike spirit territory where animal guides and ancestors walk in beauty and wisdom. Especially sacred to those undergoing vision quests or rites of passage, Ani’-Wah’ya is reached through prayer, sweat lodge ceremonies, and encounters with wolves in dreams or wilderness. It is both a teaching ground and a healing space, where lost power can be recovered and deep instincts renewed. Songs, footprints, and twilight winds are its messengers.

• Alcheringa / The Dreaming (Arrernte and other Aboriginal Australian groups) — The Dreaming is not a past era but an eternal, ever-unfolding realm where ancestral beings formed rivers, stars, rocks, and laws of life. It exists alongside physical reality and shapes all living relationships. Accessed through sacred sites, dreamtime travel, and ancestral songlines, the Dreaming is both memory and map, instruction and essence. It is a field of deep ecological and spiritual intelligence that guides the community's harmony with land, kin, and spirit.

• Uku Pacha (Quechua, Inca) — The innermost underworld of Andean cosmology, Uku Pacha lies beneath the surface of the Earth and is intimately connected with seeds, ancestors, and the gestational powers of the soil. It is a space of darkness and mystery, not evil but fertile and brimming with potential. Caves, wombs, and springs are portals into Uku Pacha, and rituals of sowing and mourning are ways of honoring its powers. Shamans descend spiritually to this realm to awaken the forces of renewal.

• Yuruparí (Tukano, northwest Amazon) — Yuruparí is a sacred, mythic realm that forms the axis of masculine initiation among several Tukanoan peoples. It is accessed through ceremonial rites involving sacred flutes, seclusion, fasting, and visionary ingestion of plant medicines. Within Yuruparí, cosmic laws, origin myths, and ancestral codes are transmitted by spirit-beings to initiates, sealing their transformation into adult roles and responsibilities. The realm is seen as a source of cultural memory and divine instruction, fiercely protected and ritually renewed.

• Tengri Ülgeni (Tuvan, Mongolian) — This is the Sky World, the shimmering celestial domain where Tengri, the eternal blue sky god, presides with the benevolent deity Ülgen. It is reached by shamans through ecstatic flight, guided by drumbeats that mimic galloping horses and eagle cries. In this vast realm of light and wind, spirit-helpers offer blessings, omens, and insight into the soul’s path. Tengri Ülgeni is associated with clear skies, high plateaus, and the vast spiritual authority of the heavens.

• Duat (Ancient Egyptian) — A richly symbolic and multilayered spirit realm, Duat is the terrain the soul navigates after death on its way to judgment and possible union with the divine. It contains fire-lakes, celestial boats, serpent guardians, and transformative gates, each requiring sacred knowledge to pass through. The sun god Ra travels through Duat each night, battling chaos and bringing light to the dead. Guided by spells from the Book of the Dead, initiates and kings sought to master this luminous labyrinth of the afterlife.

• Annwn (Welsh) — A radiant Otherworld of music, magic, feasting, and poetic vision, Annwn lies just beyond the veil of the mundane, accessible through lakes, fairy mounds, and trance-song. Ruled by mythic beings such as Arawn or Gwyn ap Nudd, it is both a land of the dead and a source of ecstatic inspiration. Bards once journeyed there in dream to receive sacred lore and prophecy. It is not a place of punishment, but of mystery, testing, and soul-renewal.

• Tír na nÓg (Old Irish) — The “Land of the Young” is a realm of eternal spring and joy, where time slows or stops altogether, and sorrow is unknown. It can be reached by sea, by fairy invitation, or by slipping through hidden portals in the landscape. In Tír na nÓg, the dead live among immortals, and music, beauty, and wisdom flow without end. Yet those who return often find centuries have passed, for the realm bends time as easily as light.

• Po and Ao (Hawaiian) — Po is the primordial darkness, the deep generative void from which all gods and worlds are born. It is the sacred source of life, death, and mystery—chaotic yet creative. Ao, by contrast, is the realm of daylight and waking consciousness. Hawaiian kahuna (spiritual experts) mediate between these worlds through chants, dreams, hula, and offerings, seeking guidance from ancestral deities who return to Po after death. The two realms are in constant dialogue, shaping balance and destiny.





• Pulotu (Tongan/Samoan) — Pulotu is the paradisiacal underworld across or beneath the sea, where gods, chiefs, and honored ancestors dwell in luminous peace. It is the spiritual homeland of the soul, and some traditions view it as the place from which the first humans emerged. Priests and seers may dream or voyage to Pulotu to retrieve lost power, knowledge, or ancestral messages. Although far from the world of the living, it is invoked regularly in prayer, chant, and ritual navigation.

• Angakkuit Realms (Inuit) — These realms stretch beyond the icy horizon, unfolding into the sky, sea, and beneath the earth. Shamans (angakkuit) enter them by flying in spirit form, plunging into the ocean, or ascending into the aurora. Within these worlds they meet animal spirits, helping beings, and cosmic intelligences that govern weather, health, and social balance. The spirit realms are living environments, animated by breath, wind, and animal thought, and navigated through drum rhythms, silence, and dream.

• Tuonela (Finnish) — A shadowy land of mists, still waters, and unspoken songs, Tuonela is the realm of the dead, nestled behind the river of forgetting. It is not a place of punishment, but a quiet world where ancestors rest, fish swim in silver pools, and owls whisper the fate of souls. Shamans and rune-singers may travel there in trance to bargain for a life, receive a cure, or seek forbidden knowledge. A return requires careful remembrance of one’s name, purpose, and song.

• Alam al-Mithal (Sufi-Islamic mysticism) — Often called the Imaginal Realm, Alam al-Mithal is the dimension of subtle forms: the place where angels, symbols, dreams, and archetypes reside. It bridges the seen and unseen, the soul and the Divine. Sufi mystics journey there in ecstatic states, perceiving it through visions, dreams, and meditative inward flight. It is a realm of perfect images and symbolic truth, where spiritual reality takes on luminous, perceivable shape, guiding the heart toward union with the Beloved.

• Aluna (Kogi, Colombia) — Aluna is the cosmic sea of consciousness, the sacred mind of the Earth from which all physical forms emerge. It is the invisible template behind visible reality, alive with intelligence and memory. The Kogi Mamas, spiritual leaders trained from birth in darkness and silence, access Aluna through meditation, fasting, and ritual solitude. In this realm, they perceive the balance—or imbalance—of the world and receive instructions for restoring harmony between humans, animals, rivers, and mountains. Aluna is not only a place but a way of seeing.

• Abhu (Maasai, Kenya/Tanzania) — Abhu is the wind-borne realm of ancestors and unseen powers, riding the savanna’s breath and flickering in firelight. It exists alongside the waking world, revealing itself in dreams, omens, and the movements of lions or birds. Elders and diviners interpret its signs through rituals involving milk, fire, and shadow. Abhu is not distant, but near and intimate—woven into the land’s rhythms and the moral order of the people. It speaks through thunder, silence, and the footprints of memory.

• Wakan Tanka's Realm (Lakota/Dakota) — The spirit-world of Wakan Tanka, the Great Mystery, is a vast and formless domain beyond the limitations of time and shape. It encompasses the sacred beings known as Wakȟáŋ, including thunder spirits, star ancestors, and cosmic animals. Vision quests (hanblecheyapi) and sweat lodge ceremonies allow individuals to briefly pierce the veil and receive visions, songs, and sacred names. Wakan Tanka’s realm is not a singular place, but a living presence that infuses the seen world with depth, meaning, and holy paradox.

• Sikuliaq Qimuksiq (Inupiat) — Known as “spirit trails across the sea ice,” this realm is revealed in the shimmer between visibility and breath, where shamans journey in trance or sleep. These trails curve over ocean swells, slip beneath frozen lakes, and reach the hidden lairs of walrus, seal, and polar bear spirits. Shamans consult these beings for hunting success, weather changes, and soul retrieval. Sikuliaq Qimuksiq is a delicate yet powerful lattice of glowing paths, shaped by the reverence between human and animal kin.

• Dzamling Gyatso (Bon and Tibetan Indigenous traditions) — The “Ocean of the World” is a luminous and multidimensional space filled with rainbow energies, wisdom deities, and pre-cosmic truths. It is accessed by Bonpo shamans through long retreat, mantra recitation, visualization, and subtle body work. Within Dzamling Gyatso, the practitioner may encounter sky travelers, protectors of the elements, and oracles who embody the law of interconnection. It is both the origin and the reabsorbing field of all forms, a dream-tide that rolls through spirit and matter alike.

• Haduwiguna (Mapuche, Chile and Argentina) — Haduwiguna is a sacred land beyond the western sea, where the spirits of the dead travel after leaving the body. This realm is not one of final endings, but of ancestral council and medicine. Shamans (machi) reach it by riding spirit canoes across the dream-ocean, calling upon guiding birds, wind-horses, or luminous serpents. In Haduwiguna, the ancestors are active participants in the welfare of the living. For those who listen well, they offer protection, messages, and healing.

• Guayota's Realm (Guanches, Canary Islands) — Deep within the volcanic heart of Mount Teide lies the chthonic realm ruled by Guayota, a fiery spirit of both chaos and transformation. This underworld is not only a place of the dead but of elemental reckoning—a crucible where human arrogance meets the sacred fury of nature. In volcanic eruptions and sulfurous vapors, the boundary between Guayota’s domain and the human world grows thin. Shamans and seers engage this realm during rituals of appeasement, fire-dances, and dream-oracles near lava vents or crater lakes.

• Bulu (Fang people, Gabon and Cameroon) — Bulu is a verdant and serene mirror-world where the ancestors live in beauty, wisdom, and tranquility. This hidden domain parallels the physical world in landscape and pattern but is invisible to ordinary eyes. Nganga (spiritual healers) enter Bulu through trance, song, or forest rituals to consult elder spirits, restore broken social bonds, or retrieve lost knowledge. It is a place of justice, memory, and sacred ecology, where ancestral guidance supports the moral and physical health of the community.

• Winkingha (Mardu, Western Australia) — Winkingha is the glimmering realm just beyond the edges of perception, where Dreamtime beings still move, shape-shift, and sing creation into being. It hovers in the air, glows in desert mirages, and pulses beneath sacred rocks and rivers. Though it appears distant, Winkingha is always present—a parallel vibrational layer accessed through story, ritual walking, and ceremonial art. Those who listen with their skin and see with their breath may glimpse its inhabitants: Rainbow Serpent, Fire Woman, and the laughing silhouettes of ancestor-tricksters.

• Uumajursiutik unaatuinnanik (Inuit, Nunavut dialect) — Translated as “that which the animals give only to those who dream,” this realm lies between sleep and ice, where the spirits of caribou, bear, seal, and whale offer their wisdom. Hunters, healers, and dreamers access it by fasting, solitude, or long journeys across the snow. In this world, animals speak, teach songs, and may gift portions of themselves if approached with respect. It is a realm of reciprocity and myth, where survival depends on spiritual intimacy with the animal nations.

• Kalûnga Line / Nsi a Kalûnga (Bakongo, Congo Basin) — The Kalûnga Line is a sacred threshold, a shimmering boundary of water, mist, and spirit that separates the world of the living (nseke) from the world of the dead (mpémba). It is often symbolized as a river or ocean that the soul must cross after death, aided by ancestral guides or divine messengers. Ritual specialists known as nganga may also journey across this boundary during trance or possession ceremonies to retrieve lost souls or divine wisdom. The other side is lush, cool, and radiant—filled with the voices of the honored dead, keepers of memory, justice, and renewal.

• Orun (Yoruba, West Africa) — The sacred abode of the Orishas, ancestors, and divine forces, Orun is a radiant, multidimensional realm that hovers just beyond the veil of the seen world. It is a place of ancestral councils, elemental powers, and soul contracts. Through divination (especially Ifá), drumming, dance, and offering, spiritual practitioners open channels between Orun and Ayé (Earth), allowing wisdom, protection, and destiny to flow between the realms. Orun is layered and vast—home to both luminous cities of light and quiet ancestral groves—each part echoing a different divine frequency.

• Amamoori no Kuni (Ainu, Japan) — The “Land of the Spirits,” inhabited by kamuy, divine beings who dwell in animals, rivers, fire, and weather. This realm lies just behind the visible, unfolding in the shimmer between seen and unseen. Bear spirits, owl messengers, and salmon deities act as guides and guardians. It is accessed through trance-dances, ceremonial songs (yukar), and offerings of sake, fire, and respect. The boundary between this world and the waking one is thin, and must be approached with reverence and precise etiquette.

• Srawung (Javanese Kejawen tradition) — A subtle, fluid domain of ancestral presences and spirit beings (lelémbut) interwoven with everyday life. It hums in the background of shadow puppet theater (wayang kulit), gamelan music, and sacred silence. Spiritual seekers may encounter Srawung through dream travel, ritual possession, quiet communion with sacred trees, or deep meditative stillness. Here, intuition becomes dialogue, and the invisible moves in graceful choreography with the visible. It is a realm of presence rather than place, revealed not by force, but by receptivity and poetic attention.

• Hawaiki (Polynesian cultures, especially Māori) — A mythic origin place and final resting realm, Hawaiki lies across the sea, beneath the earth, and within the memory of the blood. It is both a geographical homeland and a sacred time-space where ancestors dwell, watching over their descendants. Souls are said to return to Hawaiki after death, and voyagers may glimpse it through oceanic ritual, ancestral chants (karakia), and navigation of stars and dreams. In some stories, it is also the place from which the ancestors first emerged—making it both the Alpha and Omega of human becoming.

• Tonacayotl Realm (Nahua, Aztec) — The invisible field of tonalli, the animating essence gifted by the sun, which travels between the physical body and the celestial source. Ancestral memory permeates this realm. It is accessed through dreamwork, ritual bloodletting, fire ceremony, and communion with deities. Those born with strong tonalli radiate with destiny-light, bearing spiritual mandates from this luminous realm.