Chakras

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Chakra basics

The chakras are the centres of consciousness that make up the human soul. Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel and the chakras can be seen to be coloured, circular energy vortices or simply coloured discs. Chakras are in different dimensions to our physical selves – they are on different planes of consciousness.

The chakra system is as complex and sophisticated as it is beautiful. The chakras are the lower consciousness or the soul and are believed to be the subconscious mind. They contain memories and learning of all of our lifetimes and contain our deepest feelings at different levels of our being, whether or not we are aware of them. Our souls learn through our experiences and our chakras experience things on many different and subtle levels that we may not be aware of in our conscious minds.

In theory we can control every aspect of our consciousness with our conscious minds, however this may require being in touch with every level of our being. The conscious mind is more connected with the solar plexus chakra – the chakra connected with our will, personality and ego. Most people will have imbalances in the chakra system since it is generally through experiencing the pain of imbalance that our souls learn to grow in areas in which we have deficit. Our chakra systems reflect every level of our mental, emotional, physical and spiritual selves and every facet of our being. Different people view the functions and relationships of the chakras in different ways and it is well worth reading a wide range of views on the subject.

 The crown chakra is the only chakra that is outside the body and is the centre of spiritual purpose and connection to the Divine. The crown chakra is the primary receptor of spiritual information through which we can sense impressions of things (clairsentience).

The third eye (or brow) chakra is receptive to spiritual information and gives us discernment in an unemotional way. Whether or not we can see clear images received through the third eye (clairvoyance) we are always receiving information here.

The throat chakra is the centre of self expression, judgement, change, commitment and progression. This chakra is healthy if we are fully able to express our true, ever changing selves. This chakra can also receive audible spiritual information (clairaudience).

The heart chakra is the centre of unconditional love and compassion. Divine love passed down from the upper chakras is interpreted here as unconditional love, yet our interpretation of this higher, pure spiritual love is only recognisable to us when we put it in terms what we feel from the lower chakras - when it is combined with some emotion. Hence compassion is love combined with passion, or emotion.

The solar plexus chakra is related to the higher aspects of our physical selves - intellect and logical thought, higher emotions and personal power. It is also the centre of psychic protection.

The sacral (or abdominal) chakra is all about desire, passion and basic emotions and it also is the centre of sexuality. This chakra motivates us to express passion through music, art, poetry and love-making. This centre is very receptive to the emotions and feelings of others.

The base (or root) chakra is the chakra which roots us in the physical plane and is about the physical aspects of our nature. It expresses our need to physically survive - to eat, defend ourselves and procreate. It reflects our security as physical people on this Earth.

The top three chakras relate mainly to our spiritual selves.

The heart chakra is like a mediator between our physical and spiritual selves.

The lower three chakras relate mainly to our physical, mental and emotional selves.

The palm chakras (in the palms of the hands) may be connected to the throat, heart or solar plexus chakras, in various proportions and may quickly change from receptive to expressive and vice versa.

The foot chakras are connected to the base chakra.

All of the chakras may be expressive and receptive; however the odd numbered chakras tend to be more expressive than receptive. These chakras are more to do with the masculine principle.

The even numbered chakras tend to be more receptive than expressive. These are more to do with the feminine principle. Men and women each have both masculine and feminine facets. The masculine principle may be thought of in terms of expressing, giving or a motive force. The right side of the body is more connected to the masculine principle. The feminine principle may be thought of in terms of receiving and creating. The left side of the body is more connected to the feminine principle.

Chakra details

Base | Sacral | Solar plexus | Heart | Throat | Third eye | Crown

The base chakra (sometimes called the root chakra) is a bright red energy centre located at the perineum, half way between the anus and the genitals. The base chakra is ruled by the element of earth and the planet Earth. It is the lowest of our major chakras and issues of the base chakra are those connected with our physical selves, our connection with our physical environment and the whole planet. The base chakra is connected with the skin, muscles and bones and any physical problems that have a general effect upon these areas may be related to a base chakra issue.

The base chakra is about our physical survival – procreating, having food and shelter and feeling physically secure in our bodies and on this planet. All chakras are psychic and this chakra may warn us of impending physical danger and when we are in danger it will send immense amounts of energy to our body for fight or flight. As the base chakra is related to survival, money may also be a base chakra issue.

The base chakra confers a sense not only of loving our physical selves and the physical world around us but of feeling as one with them. A well balanced base chakra actually makes us feel a part of the planet.

Common problems in the base chakra may be because of our deep feelings of insecurity. An extreme example of this would be someone who lives constantly in the face of danger for their base chakra would be constantly enlarged and would suffer problems if this were a long-term issue. People who live or have lived with the threat of violence or with uncertainty about their survival would have security issues and would suffer with base chakra problems.

The most common base chakra problems may be more subtle than this and are often related to how we feel that our physical environment is safe and welcoming or otherwise. We are greatly affected by those around us in our formative years so if our parents believed that the world is an unsafe and uncomfortable place their children will often take on this view. Parents who grew up in war years may retain the belief that there is a lack of food and that they are constantly in physical danger and these attitudes may be passed to children unless they successfully let those attitudes go with changing times and circumstances.

People who have the feeling that there is never enough money for them to have a satisfactory life may have base chakra issues (although problems in other chakras can also raise this issue); they may be their own issues or taken on from others.

A child who was not fed when they were hungry or changed when they had soiled themselves or who were not given attention to their basic physical needs may grow up with retained base chakra issues.

The base chakra is about foundation, purpose and grounding. The base chakra reflects our feelings about our right to have a life on Earth with all of our basic requirements met. The base chakra is also connected down the legs, to chakras in each foot and this further reflects the human connection to the Earth.

Someone with well balanced base chakra attitudes sees the Earth as their Mother, the source of their physical bodies and the supplier of their physical needs. The Earth truly has an abundance of what we need to live and thrive here and well balanced base chakra people will gratefully accept the abundance of the Earth, knowing that they are worthy of it. Good base chakra attitudes will give people love, reverence and respect for all the living things of the planet and will help them to feel a part of the symphony of life. Well balanced base chakra people have strong and balanced legs and a straight gait and can see themselves walking through their life with ease, happy to be on this beautiful planet with everything that they need given to them. Symptoms of an unbalanced base chakra are the feelings that life is a constant battle for survival, feeling that the Earth is a place of danger, with dangerous creatures waiting to hurt them.

Ungrounded people may feel nervous, twitchy or feel constantly light headed. They may have problems with their feet or legs and be disconnected from their body or from life. Some very spiritual people can become engrossed in living with the unconditional love of spirit and become ever more disconnected from the Earth, unable to come to terms with their lower chakra problems and exacerbating them through avoiding the issues. Although the base chakra is connected with the physical world, this does not mean that it is disconnected from spiritual values. Those with balanced chakras and balanced views and with spiritual insight may learn to see God in everything, including all things physical. The Divine is all around us; it is just a matter of recognising it.

Base chakra healing comes with realising the truth about our physical security, or if we are genuinely physically uncomfortable, changing our circumstances. Leaving behind a constant or intermittent threat of physical harm is essential. Putting down roots by having a home and getting financial security are therapeutic for the base chakra. The next phase is realising the truth about our physical selves and the world around us and this is slightly more difficult. It takes a big effort to really change the way we feel about the Earth, our physical selves and environment but it is well worth the effort. Sorting out base chakra issues will make us feel physically stronger and more secure as people. The base chakra is like our foundation and it should be solid; there is a base chakra meditation (see page 40) that can be done every day.

Looking at the base chakra issues that I mentioned above and really thinking about them and you is a good place to start. Think about what false attitudes your parents and mentors may have had and how you may have erroneously taken them on. See how the things that have happened in your life have changed or compounded your base chakra issues. Know that you can change your mind (you are the only person who can) and see things in a different way. Gardening, walking, eating and wearing red underwear are generally quite grounding things to do, but they will not sort out embedded mental attitudes or beliefs that are false. A concerted effort to realise the truth and move on, together with doing grounding things that you enjoy will help to heal base chakra problems.

Base | Sacral | Solar plexus | Heart | Throat | Third eye | Crown

The sacral chakra is a bright orange energy centre located below the navel. This chakra is all about passion, desire. creativity and powerful basic emotions. The sacral chakra is ruled by the element of water and by the Moon. The sacral chakra is a chakra that gives us powerful feelings connected with creativity and is the emotional powerhouse that gives us the need to sing, dance, write, compose and make and enjoy beautiful things. The sacral chakra is about our vitality and urges us to indulge in pleasure and to enjoy sensual experiences. The sacral chakra is the root of the overpowering joy and bliss of the ‘in love’ feeling we get when we have met someone special.

The base chakra is about staying alive and the sacral chakra is about enjoying life. A very good healer that I met, Paul Lambillion, sees the base chakra as a centre related to purpose and the sacral chakra as related to power.

The sacral, as one of the more receptive chakras, is very receptive to the emotions of others although this is not always a good thing. Most people are receptive to the emotions and feelings of others but through the sacral chakra we are actually able to feel the emotions of others.

Being a more feminine chakra, women are generally more affected by some sacral issues than men. The menstrual cycle is governed by a 28 day cycle, the same as the Moon’s orbit and women will find that their emotions are very much affected by phases of the Moon. The sacral chakra governs the reproductive organs of men and women and life is conceived and carried in pregnancy in the sacral chakra area.

Both men and women often feel, perhaps for different reasons that they are unable to fully express their emotions and passions and this leads to all sorts of problems around the sacral area. Although both men and women are liable to carry extra weight around the sacral area it is more predominantly men that will carry extra weight over the solar plexus (discussed further on) and women who will carry extra weight around the lower abdomen and hips, both areas being governed by the sacral chakra. Extra weight around the hips and lower abdomen can be related to a variety of sacral chakra issues and may be because the body is trying to protect itself from the emotions of others that are routinely invited into the body.

A very large proportion of people have problems associated with the sacral chakra and one of the main reasons for this is our inability to truly feel and express our powerful emotions. How many parents tell their children to stop crying when this is very real emotional expression? How often do we feel that it is actually wrong for us to engage with our emotions, let alone act on them or express them? Our emotions are valid feelings and they are a real and acceptable part of us. We may feel guilty about feelings of sadness, disgust or hatred but these are still emotions that belong to us and to ignore them is to invalidate an important part of us and be untrue to ourselves. Deep, emotional feelings may move us greatly and an external expression of these feelings is truly an acknowledgement of the things we feel

With practice we may get to be so well balanced and so filled with love, compassion, understanding and acceptance of others that almost nothing that someone else does or says will make us angry; but until we get to that stage we must be able to accept and thereby validate our powerful emotions. Telling ourselves that these emotions that we often consider negative are wrong is to be untrue to ourselves. The very word emotion suggests movement, and emotions should not be allowed to build up, multiply or fester. There are times when the only option is to express our emotions to get them out of our system. People who have unresolved or unexpressed emotions can forever be able to explode at someone who doesn’t deserve it or constantly have inner turmoil and pain. Our society is often intolerant of people who are truly in touch with their own emotions enough to fully indulge in them and express them when necessary. These people can seem eccentric and weird and may cause people to turn heads or back away. Such people may incur the disdain of society but at least they are being true to themselves.

Another problem that can arise with the sacral chakra is that it becomes connected to the foot chakras instead of being connected to the base chakra which is connected to the foot chakras. This can come about through an inability to deal with base chakra issues such as feeling the need to survive at the expense of others. Trying to live a life based on emotion is not what we are built for and leads to all sort of problems.

We often become embroiled in relationships which are emotionally dysfunctional, where partners use the constant pulling of emotional bribery or blackmail to have their emotional needs fulfilled. This is typically tolerated by many people who are not aware of what is going on and only by learning to take responsibility for our own emotions can we move on from this sort of relationship. Learn to see and hear what people are really saying and if it is acceptable.

As I said above, the sacral chakra is very receptive and a problem that is most common in women, though in men as well is that of taking on other peoples emotions. The way in which subtle energies work is complex, but it is possible for a person to actually take someone else’s emotions into them and there are a good many people who do this. A good indicator of this is if you have people who frequently come to you and all they seem to do is to talk about their emotional problems and you feel great sympathy or even empathy towards them. The chances are that you are taking their emotional pain into your sacral area. The problem with this is twofold: they are not learning to resolve their own emotional problems and you are taking on their problems that you are completely unable to resolve, since these problems are not yours. Vacuuming up other’s pain is a common problem and although for those who have their pain taken away they may temporarily feel better, it will come back again.

Aside from the constraints upon our emotions placed by our mentors and society there are a great many problems that people have with their sexuality, another sacral chakra issue. Sexual issues are often considered taboo and therefore not discussed openly and honestly within families or peer groups. The tradition of marriage before sex has undoubtedly changed a great deal in the western world but what about love before sex? This brings up complex issues about love that are discussed more in the section about the heart chakra but the desire to have sex with someone is a very real and strong emotion that, again should be recognised, validated and expressed responsibly where appropriate. Being rid of the sexual taboos of generations and the sexual attitudes of previous generations and getting in touch with our own true sexuality is often not easy but is essential to our overall well-being.

The power of emotions is often overwhelming but that is not necessarily a bad thing. They can make someone sell their house to go and feed the hungry or make someone risk everything to completely indulge a passion but remember that some of people’s greatest achievements and greatest learning experiences come from engaging their emotions.

Base | Sacral | Solar plexus | Heart | Throat | Third eye | Crown

The solar plexus chakra is a bright yellow expressive chakra located just above the navel and it is the uppermost of the three body orientated chakras and as such is to do with the higher levels of our human being. The solar plexus chakra is ruled by the element of air and by the planets Mercury on the right and Venus on the left. The solar plexus chakra is related to our personal power, intellect, will and our personal sovereignty. If the base chakra is considered to be about purpose, and the sacral chakra about power, then this chakra is about the manifestation and expression of that purpose and power in our personality. The solar plexus chakra can be defensive since it protects us against the psychic energy and will of others and it can be quite offensive if we try to impose our will over others. The solar plexus chakra is about our sovereign being and our ability to be independent.

Since this is more expressive and masculine chakra this can be the area through which people push and defend in a clash of wills. Someone who is constantly undermined, ignored and not taken seriously will have a diminished solar plexus chakra. In men with an under active heart chakra (a common problem) is often compensated for by an enlarged solar plexus chakra. People like this may feel that their personal power over others is everything and that backing down or losing face is a blow to them as people.

People with balanced lower chakras and a functioning solar plexus chakra will be able to quietly and calmly insist on their satisfaction when appropriate, they will not hold it in and then blow up occasionally. A balanced solar plexus chakra allows you to use your intellect and all of your faculties and to have faith in your power to succeed. A properly functioning solar plexus chakra will allow you to express emotions, thoughts and views when required without fear of what others think. It allows you to be yourself with confidence.

How many people live with angry or threatening behaviour from a partner that leaves them intimidated and put down? When a man lives a lot from the solar plexus chakra they may feel depleted if they are not the bread-winner or over-inflated if they are. The way that fathers and sons often act like stags locking antlers is symptomatic of too much solar plexus stuff going on, of not enough listening, love and acceptance and of too much competing for being top dog.

The solar plexus chakra is about manifesting your will; thinking out a plan and putting it into action with the sure knowledge that you will see it through and it will succeed. People who hold victim status or feel powerless to help themselves or others or to stand up for what they believe in may have a solar plexus chakra that is not functioning properly.

From what is written about the solar plexus chakra it is possible to see the many ways in which people have diminished solar plexus chakras. Arriving at an understanding of how this came about may be apparent to many. How many times are we told by worried parents that we should not try to do something in case we fail? What were our parents’ attitudes to what we may be successful at in life? Did your parents constantly reinforce the fact that you are free to do or be anything you choose and that you would succeed if you tried? Do you believe that your personal power is potentially limitless and that you can achieve anything? Because this is the truth. Do you feel that people are genuinely interested in hearing your views and opinions? Do you have acceptance for the way that you and others are and do you encourage yourself and others to develop their own views, opinions and personality? Do you give your power away? Do you see others as more important or better than you? How often do you state opinions that are not yours?

People who’s heart chakra is under working may have an over active solar plexus chakra and such people may believe that they are better or less worthy than others, see things in black and white and have residual anger or resentment. Such people may over-emphasise the importance of logic and reasoning and seek proof of everything before accepting it. Such people may be equally aggressive and defensive and may have an enlarged solar plexus region.

A balanced solar plexus confers an inner knowing and certainty of strength and power; it is about self belief and independence. The power of the solar plexus in a well balanced chakra system does not need to be expressed just for show, it gives us a sense of inner strength and is connected with a deep sense of security about who we are.

Base | Sacral | Solar plexus | Heart | Throat | Third eye | Crown

The heart chakra is a green and sometimes pink chakra located in the middle of the chest and is the centre of love and compassion. The heart chakra is ruled by the fire element and the Sun. The heart chakra is above the solar plexus chakra, the uppermost of the body chakras and the love of the heart chakra is beyond human logic or thought and is not an emotion of the lower chakras. The love of the heart chakra is what we feel as unconditional love – pure and divine.

The heart chakra communicates with the chakras connected with our human being, below and the chakras connected with our spiritual being above. The divine love that comes down from the higher chakras is a pure love, a oneness of all things. This divine love is unemotional and through this love God gives us free will to create as much pain and suffering or love and compassion for ourselves and others as we like and He will still love us exactly the same. This is the same divine love that comes from your higher self, your spirit and from your Spirit Guides and Angels. It is absolutely unconditional in that whatever your thoughts, words and deeds you will be loved exactly the same amount. Through this divine love you are loved as equally as someone who has committed most heinous crimes. You can do nothing to stop this love, however unworthy you feel, however much you curse or get angry with God this love is constant and unwavering.

The feelings that come up from the lower chakras – the purpose of the base chakra, the emotions and intellect of the sacral and solar plexus get transmitted up to the heart and these, combined with the divine love coming from the upper chakras result in, among other things compassion. Compassion is the result of the combination of divine love from above mixed with passion from below. Compassion is unconditional love through the experience of a human. Compassion is how we, with the human condition, feel love. Compassion is love for people and living things, the feeling of wanting to relieve the pain and suffering of self and others.

So the compassion of the heart chakra is not totally pure, it is not completely devoid of emotion. However love of the heart is very often confused with emotion of the sacral chakra. I think of love as a feeling, not an emotion. The word emotion indicates movement and change whereas love is the one unchanging, constant of this universe.

In the section about the sacral chakra I said that the ‘in love’ feeling that people get when they have met someone special is mostly in the sacral chakra. Unconditional love is no greater for one person than for another since it is unconditional. If, as a heterosexual you spent equal time with a man and a woman and bonded closely with them both, assuming that you liked them equally, you may feel a stronger pull towards the one of the opposite sex to you, having bonded through the sacral in a slightly different way; however the heart chakra unconditional love could be exactly the same for both of them. You see, true love is blind to beauty, sex, age, colour, race and everything for it is truly unconditional.

Unfortunately heart chakra dysfunction is rife in our world. People with high cholesterol and heart problems will probably have heart chakra issues – self love and other love problems.

If we look at statistics I would guess that there are probably slightly more men with heart chakra problems than women. The heart chakra is more connected to the receptive, feminine principle than to the expressive, male principle. Although a mother may have equal love for a new baby whether a boy or a girl, our society tends towards ‘making a man’ out of someone through hardship, toughness and other seemingly male attributes rather than developing their ability to give and receive love and compassion. And for a mother whose heart is dysfunctional or emphasises other human attributes, their relationship with a daughter can hold pitfalls. There are many mother-daughter relationships that have an emotional tugging that may be partly due to a of lack of heart chakra love.

Healing a dysfunctional heart chakra can seem a difficult thing to do at first. As I said, love is almost an abstract, it is not as tangible as emotions or other feelings that we have. However I have known people who have very successfully opened their hearts to give and receive love after a lifetime of having only a limited ability. Although one chakra may seem smaller and therefore less able to give and receive than another chakra, this is not to say that a chakra is either working or not. All chakras can become more developed and functional with our increased awareness of the issues associated with it.

If you see someone who is in pain and obviously suffering and you want to help them how much of your feeling is emotional and how much of it is unconditional love? Whether or not it is someone close to you it can be difficult to tell. A better way to tell how much unconditional love you feel is with someone who has done you wrong. Suppose a burglar has gone into your house when you were away and stolen your possessions and you later found out who it was and met them. If they admitted to you that it was they who did it, but were unrepentant about it how much love and compassion could you feel for them? You know that their actions were misguided and that may give you an emotional feeling of anger towards them but how much could you say that you love them. Your solar plexus chakra would have been impinged upon because your sovereignty was abused. Would you wish them well and say a sincere prayer asking for them to be helped? Would you feel that you would like to help them? Could you feel pity for them? Could you feel that you would like their turmoil and pain that led to their misguided action to be taken away?

I have often thought about what forgiveness is and the answer that I have come to is that if I can feel that my love for someone can overcome any anger or other emotions that I have for a person and if my love can overcome the pain that they have caused me then I have forgiven them. I picture myself standing opposite that person and fully engage all of my feelings about them, remembering all of the negative things that they have done to me. Then I feel my emerald green heart chakra spinning round and growing larger and imagine that pure white light is pouring in through the top of my head and out of the centre of my chest into them and as this happens it heals their pain that caused their actions and heals the relationship between us. Through this I can feel my love for them and forgiveness and healing happening.

The heart chakra brings divine love into our lives that tells us that we are all the same before God. We are all souls with imperfections and are all loved unconditionally and therefore equally by God. The heart chakra bestows joy, happiness, acceptance, forgiveness, abundance and gratitude.

Sonia Choquette in her excellent book Balancing your chakras says that the heart chakra allows us to laugh at ourselves and I know that the heart chakra gives us good humour. Extremely pious and spiritual people have a wondrous ability to see humour in many situations that others might find depressing. This is not a case of making light of serious situations, but rather of having developed extreme love and compassion and being able to see a bigger picture.

Love of the heart makes life wondrous for it allows us to see the Divine in everything. Alberto Villoldo in his book Shaman Healer Sage recounts a part of his shaman initiation in which he was required to kill and eat a large snake and he, being a vegetarian did not want to do this. However he tracked his quarry and looked at this beautiful animal basking in the sun having just eaten a small mammal and he wondered about killing for food. He had a realisation that an animal that kills another has no feeling of anger or hatred, in fact just the opposite, it has feelings of pure love. Furthermore he realised that he had a feeling of love for the snake and should he have to kill it for food he could do so with love. Following this insight he picked up the snake and took back to his teacher without killing it and ate something else instead.

The heart chakra is truly our doorway to divine love and when fully working it gives a blissful and contented feeling. You do not have to be either a spiritually aware or a wise person to have a fully working heart chakra. Even a fool, without much education, wisdom or religious beliefs can see beauty in the world around them and the people they meet and feel joyful happiness and love in their life. This is not to say that love is a substitute for intellect, knowledge and wisdom. We are incarnated on this Earth to learn love and wisdom and free our minds from fear.

Base | Sacral | Solar plexus | Heart | Throat | Third eye | Crown

The throat chakra is a sky blue energy centre at the base of the throat and is concerned with communication and self-expression. This chakra is also associated with change and progression since a balanced person is able to constantly change, letting go of old ideas and embracing new ones in the light of new experience and understanding. This chakra is the lower of the upper three spirit-level chakras. Someone who has awareness of their spiritual self is able to accept and embrace change and progression since they know that this is what they are here for – to learn. It is the case with many people that we feel that keeping a routine and keeping other things constant in our lives gives us some sense of stability and security but those with true faith in themselves, their higher spiritual self and God may constantly strive to become better people, knowing that they are guided every step of the way.

The throat chakra is able to express our physical and spiritual self when we let it. Unfortunately there are many people with throat chakra problems that can cause physical symptoms around the throat and neck area. People who are in a partnership or close relationship where they feel suppressed by another or in any way unable to express themselves fully are liable to throat chakra problems.

This is very common, particularly in the former generations when the pressures of society were even greater upon people. Imagine a man who was taught that getting a job for life was a most important thing to do since it would enable him to have financial stability and get a wife and have children in safety. He would get the job and have a wife who would be a housewife until children came along and the family would progress in a mould created by societal expectations. This was considered a safe way to be but unfortunately did not allow enough room for people to change as they wanted and to be their true selves. This scenario may have led to the wife having throat chakra problems since she knew that she wanted to do or be something else but was unable to do it, or even to talk about it with her husband. The same can be said for the husband who could feel trapped in job that bored him.

For anyone who is unable to speak out for themselves due to external pressure they will surely get throat chakra blockages. For anyone who is unable to be what they want to be in life their throat chakra, among other parts of them, will suffer.

The throat chakra is very much connected with the lower chakras, especially the sacral chakra since the throat is a major route to expressing externally what is going on inside. So the throat chakra is also connected with self-expression in many different ways, not just verbally. A clear throat chakra allows us to express ourselves through the way we dress, talk, walk, dance and eat. And because it allows us to express our changing selves it will help us to suddenly stop eating one kind of food after years of loving it or dress completely differently. Being able to express your ever changing self means being able to listen to yourself and then be yourself.

It is not always appropriate to express our emotions and herein lies a challenge. Our emotions are valid feelings that are indicators of the way that we think. It is important that firstly our emotions are recognised and accepted and then they can be released with ease. Many emotions will not be able to dissipate naturally through this process and will have to be expressed in some way otherwise they will stay inside and cause problems. The throat chakra allows us to move such emotions out of us by expressing them in a variety of ways. Anger might be expressed through the throat by screaming and punching a pillow or by painting a picture. Obviously if this happens repeatedly we would have to look at the root cause of the anger and sort it out at source.

The throat chakra also governs communication which means it is about listening to others and the ways that they express their selves. Being spiritually connected means that we know that the views of others are valid and we can hear them, however they are communicated to us and whether or not we have the same view.

The throat chakra is the lower of the upper three spirit-level chakras and is the centre associated with clairaudience – the ability to hear communication from spirit. Clairaudient communication sounds as though it is through the ears when in fact it is through the throat chakra. There are many people who can hear communication from Spirit Guides or Earth-bound souls and for an unfortunate few this can seem like a symptom of madness – not just to them but also to the medical establishment. People who hear voices are not mad, they are clairaudient and the sort of things that they hear will depend upon the spiritual source. If the source is a Spirit Guide or Angel it will be divine guidance and nothing less but if it is from an Earth-bound soul or other misguided consciousness it can be misinformation or worse. For those people who cannot control their clairaudience help can be given so that they do not have unwanted intrusion in their lives. Those people who hear Divine guidance through their throat chakras can use this very direct form of spiritual communication to help themselves and others in many different ways.

Base | Sacral | Solar plexus | Heart | Throat | Third eye | Crown

The third eye chakra is an indigo coloured chakra between the eye brows and is the centre of intuition, vision and discernment. This receptive chakra sees what we don’t with our eyes; it sees energies at higher levels than the physical and knows what is going on around us. It is responsible for our vision and dreams and helps us to visualise and interpret. The third eye is the only major chakra located inside the head and so is connected to our higher knowing and ability to imagine and conceive of things that are beyond the logic and reason of the solar plexus.

The third eye is the middle of the three spirit level chakras and sees things in an unemotional way since it is rather remote from the lower chakras and closer to the pure love of spirit. The third eye can see energies around us but can also see information that comes down from higher up. Clear visions of Spirit Guides, Angels or people who have passed on, whether during sleep or while awake are through the third eye. The third eye is the centre of clairvoyance, the ability to see energies in other dimensions but whether or not visual spiritual information is available to our conscious minds each of us has a working third eye chakra. It is through this energy centre that we get much of our intuition. This kind of intuition is different from the emotions that can be received through the sacral chakra and the compassion or pain of the heart chakra. The third eye gives us a real knowing that is without emotion or reason. It can guide us to steer clear of a particular person without us knowing why or can guide us to do a particular action without us knowing why.

Our spiritual guidance comes through the crown chakra and our third eye sees where to go, how to get there and what to do. Flashes of inspiration from which we can clearly see a way to go come through the third eye. The third eye sees beyond the physical world and brings spiritual truth to our lives; it can see where we have come from and where we are going even when our conscious minds cannot. The third eye helps us to visualise what we can dream of in our imagination.

There are many people who are naturally clairvoyant and most of us are clairvoyant as young children. Traditional attitudes have steered clear of anything to do with ghosts or spirits, despite the fact that they are so well known of. We should encourage people to see clearly their dreams and visions and to use them as a vital part of life. Acceptance that our dreams can become reality and that vision for the future can be used as a basis for our lives is a way of embracing our spiritual identity and bringing spiritual reality into our lives.

Base | Sacral | Solar plexus | Heart | Throat | Third eye | Crown

The crown chakra is at the crown of the head and is a violet or white coloured chakra that is our connection to God and the chakra of our spiritual purpose. Just as the base chakra is our connection to our physical selves, the crown chakra is our connection to our spiritual selves. Energy from the base chakra flows upwards to the sacral chakra and so on through all of our chakras to the crown and likewise energy from the crown flows downwards through the chakras to the base. However much or little spiritual understanding we have or however much we are in denial of spiritual truth we are all guided by our crown chakras. The more that we acknowledge our spiritual selves and make a connection with God, the more our crown chakras open to make that connection. Although our crown chakras can be damaged by a misguided commitment to incorrect religious dogma.

The crown chakra gives us a feeling that whatever happens in our lives, our spirit will learn from the experience. It also conveys to us the feeling that we are all a part of the same whole and that we are a part of something much larger. Through meditation and prayer the crown chakra makes a firm connection to our Divine source.

The crown chakra has the essence of the divine – the greatest love. But this is really not recognisable to us as love at all. Humans feel unconditional love through the heart centre and the love of our crown chakras feels more like a oneness with all things, that the whole universe and everything in it is one.

The crown chakra is our connection to spiritual truth and there is no doubt that the truth about God and the universe is complex and only partially within the understanding of our conscious minds. Meditation is the route whereby we are able to forget about our physical bodies temporarily, let go of our conscious minds for a while and dwell in our spiritual being through the connection from our crown chakra to the Divine source. This allows us to become conscious of spiritual truth and although this may be somewhat intangible and incomprehensible to our conscious minds, it strengthens and develops the consciousness as a whole and raises the consciousness of our being to a higher level.

Meditation allows us to feel our spirituality but it is of only limited value to many of us without prayer. Meditation can carry us forward but when combined with prayer we can be sure that we are going forward in the right direction. Your own spiritual power and strength is great but any of us may become misguided unless our intent is to constantly strive for the Divine. When we reach upwards with our crown chakras we should be sure that it is with the sole intent of communing with the highest, wisest, most loving and Divine consciousnesses of the universe and the way to ensure this is to pray to God.

Religion and spirituality can play a part in relaying a certain amount of spiritual truth to us through teachings of the wise and pious and it is through the commitment and dedication of the people that have found spiritual truth and written it down that we have some good guidance. Spiritual guidance that has been left for us by the teachings of Buddha, Jesus and the many other luminous spiritual figures that have had considerable impact on human civilisation are here for us to learn from. The failing of humans comes when we try to interpret these teachings to fit in with what we think is the truth. Higher spiritual truth, as I have said is mostly beyond the scope of our conscious minds, so we should constantly strive to let go of our understanding in these matters and through meditation and prayer we can go beyond what we think of as the truth. Literal interpretations of spiritual teachings can lead us astray but this does not mean that we should not use them. Jesus, Buddha and many others have led by example and left a legacy of divine guidance that has been relayed through the limitations of the written word. The path to spiritual truth is to see beyond the words and to actually ask for help, guidance, understanding and wisdom from whoever you see as a divine guide, by praying to whoever you believe can guide you closer to God. The teachings of Buddha and the messages relayed in The Holy Torah, The Kabala, The Holy Koran and The Bible are mostly entirely relevant to us today.

Masculine & feminine principles

It can be useful to understand the masculine and feminine principles that can be seen in us all so that we can better understand ourselves. This is another perspective from which we can look at our selves and understand our selves in order to become better balanced.

We each have masculine and feminine facets to our beings and every man is in touch with his feminine side just as every woman expresses her masculinity. The masculine and feminine principles are not opposites but are complimentary to each other and are a kind of polarity which sets up a dynamic. This polarity actually goes way deeper than the masculinity and femininity of people, it is concerned, in esoteric terms with the creation of the universe. Polarity is another way in which people are a reflection of the Divine.

The masculine principle is that of the motive force to create and the feminine principle with receiving that force and creating with it. The masculine principle is giving and the feminine principle is receiving. In the esoteric language of Dion Fortune she talks about masculine and feminine as being force and form, respectively. The masculine has power and gives, the feminine receives and forms.

Basically the right hand side of the body is concerned with the masculine principle and the left side of the body with the feminine principle. In the majority of people the right hand side of the body has the strongest limbs. We may give with the right hand and receive with the left hand. Men are, on average, taller and stronger than women and women can create new life. If giving is to talking as receiving is to listening do men talk more than women and do women listen more than men? In my experience women are better at receiving than men. Most of my clients are women, who will allow themselves to receive healing and new ideas.

Copyright © 2007 Mark Stallabrass