Chapter 9

Plants and the Chakras

The chakra system is a useful way to map blockages in the body’s system and energy flow. Though this system was not part of the original Usui reiki teachings, many of us are familiar with the seven main chakras or energy centres that move life force energy through our bodies. Chakra is a Sanskrit word meaning wheel or vortex. There are seven major chakras in our bodies, arranged along an energy channel that runs from the top of the head to the end of our tailbone. Each chakra is a spinning vortex or wheel of energy where consciousness meets matter or where the soul meets the physical body, with specific functions, frequency, colour and characteristics that affects a corresponding area, system or organ in our body. If these energy centres become blocked or sluggish, this causes an imbalance within our system and will have a negative effect on our health. We can scan for these blocks using Byosen scanning or by dowsing with a pendulum. The chakras process and distribute subtle energy that enters the aura and meridians, transforming the frequencies into different sensations: emotion, thought and physical sensations. There is a connection between the condition of a chakra and the condition of the corresponding organ. A chakra can be overactive, underactive or in balance. Plants have a unique vibrational frequency that can assist in balancing, healing and raising the vibration of our energy bodies. Using reiki as well as plants in various forms can help balance the chakras and maintain health in our organs. Detailed explanations and diagrams of the chakras can be found in both ancient and modern writings on yoga. The chakras themselves are often visualized as lotuses or flowers.

The reiki hand positions roughly correlate to the chakra system and also cover the body’s major organs and glands to send healing to these areas. Working with the chakra system is a skill that develops over time as we become used to working with reiki and sensing the flow of energy in ourselves and others.

In this chapter I will briefly explore each of the seven chakras, connecting each to specific plants, essential oils or flower essences, together with a useful table for you to refer to. I will also suggest ways that you can work with the plants or plant products within your reiki practice. As with all of these connections with plants and energy, allow yourself to be guided and learn through your experience.

Note: Further minor chakras can be found in the physical body in the feet and palms and also in the energetic body. These include higher dimensional chakras like stellar gateway, soul star, causal, navel and earth star chakra; however, covering all of these is beyond the scope of this book.

The Seven Major Chakras

Root chakra: Connected to the base of the spine and has the Sanskrit name muladhara, which means “root support”. It is associated with the colour red, the element of earth, our material world and the sense of smell. This chakra opens downwards, connecting us to the Earth and our environment, and helps us to feel grounded and stable. It affects our sense of belonging, survival, family identity, vitality and nourishment and reveals patterns related to issues of insecurity, fear, greed, safety and prosperity. The root chakra is the seat of kundalini (life force).

Corresponding part of the body: large intestine, adrenal glands and the rectum. It also has a certain influence on the function of the kidneys.

Signs of imbalance: depression, immune system issues and foot-, rectumor tailbone-related issues.

Sacral Chakra: Found between the pubic bone and the navel, connected to the sacrum, close to the prostate gland in men and ovaries in women. Its Sanskrit name is svadhishthana, meaning “dwelling place of the self”. Its colour is orange and the chakra is associated with the element of water and the sense of taste. This chakra represents our connection to the sweetness of life and helps with intimacy, sensuality, sexuality and creativity. It can be a place where our guilt or shame hide out and is home to our shadow self.

Corresponding part of the body: reproductive and urinary systems, bladder, pelvis, sacrum and hips.

Signs of imbalance: reproductive or urinary system issues, emotional problems, inertia, creative stagnation, guilt, lust and eating disorders.

Solar Plexus Chakra: Located in the solar plexus, the lumbar spine and the umbilicus, with the Sanskrit name manipura, meaning “city of jewels”. It is associated with the colour yellow, the element of fire and the sense of sight, as well as to digestion due to its location. The third chakra relates to personality, self-expression and our creative power. When in balance, the solar plexus chakra helps us to accept our own individuality, provides us with self-control, self-respect, self-confidence, self-worth and helps with our self-esteem and sense of purpose.

Corresponding part of the body: liver, gall bladder, stomach, pancreas, spleen and the small and large intestines.

Signs of imbalance: ulcers, bulimia, digestive issues and kidney problems, anger, fear, pain, self-denial, self-doubt and lack of integrity and confidence, lack of self-esteem and an inability to take leadership or make decisions.

Heart Chakra: This energy centre is located between the shoulder blades, the heart region and the palms of the hands. Its Sanskrit name is anahata, meaning “unstruck” (the pure sound of creation). It is the colour green and activates the sense of touch and our ability to give and receive unconditionally. Some yogic texts refer to this chakra as the heart centre or the gateway to the soul. A balanced heart chakra helps us to feel love and a sense of connection with all things and to express our emotions freely. It is an important energy centre through which to receive reiki as well as spiritual guidance and insight.

Corresponding part of the body: heart, hands, shoulders, arms, thymus (immune system), respiratory and circulatory systems.

Signs of imbalance: asthma, respiratory and heart conditions. Overattachment and neediness, inability to receive, emotional paralysis, feelings of abandonment, judgement or isolation and conditional love.

Throat Chakra: This energy centre is located at the back of the neck and throat region. Its Sanskrit name is vishuddha, meaning “purified”, and it is associated with the colour blue and the element of ether or space. It relates to self-expression, our sense of hearing, speech and communication and personal authority.

Corresponding part of the body: lungs, throat, thyroid gland.

Signs of imbalance: unresolved grief, fear of judgement, speech impediments, hesitancy, lack of inspiration and inability to express oneself or make decisions. Throat or thyroid issues, shoulder tension, nervousness, insecurity, lack of trust and anxiety.

Brow or Third Eye Chakra: This energy centre is located between the eyebrows and has the Sanskrit name ajna, meaning “command” or “perception”. Its colour of indigo transcends the elements and activates the physical senses, opening the gateway to cosmic connection. It connects to our intuition and the ability to see things from a “higher” viewpoint, helping us to trust our path. When in balance our intuition, imagination, psychic powers and dreams flow.

Corresponding part of the body: pineal gland, pituitary gland, eyes, brain, face, ears and nose.

Signs of imbalance: lack of imagination, poor decision-making, self-deception, migraines and nightmares. Hearing or visual issues.

Crown Chakra: This energy centre is located at the top of the head and extends above the head. Its Sanskrit name is sahasrara, meaning “thousand-petalled lotus”. The crown chakra is associated with the colour violet or white and reaches beyond space and time into the highest realms of the infinite and eternal. It controls the cerebral cortex and opens us to high spiritual vibrations that result in increased self-knowledge and spiritual awareness. The seventh chakra is a gateway that receives high-frequency energy downward from the spiritual planes. Reiki enters here, as well as through the heart chakra.

Corresponding part of the body: This chakra affects the overall functioning of our being as a whole. It develops our connection with the universe and helps with enlightenment.

Signs of imbalance: self-delusion, escapism, lack of clarity and a tendency to glamorize the spiritual world or indulge in spiritual materialism. Feeling lost or out of touch with our spiritual self. ADD, migraines, dyslexia, cognitive disorders.

Chakras and Plants

Working with Reiki, Chakras, and Plant Material

The easiest way to work with specific chakra centres and plants is to place the plant material over the specific energy centre that requires balancing during a reiki session. For example, placing rose petals onto the heart centre or lavender at the crown. If it’s possible for you or the client to physically connect with the plant where it grows, such as an oak tree for example, then you may wish to involve the client in connecting with the plant as part of their treatment plan. This can be a simple suggestion that they sit with the plant for five minutes a day and talk to it. As you get more deeply acquainted with the local green landscape that grows around where you live, you may feel drawn to certain plants and feel their affinity for certain parts of the body or energy centres. It helps to know a variety of plants and a variety of ways that you can work with them, i.e., as fresh or dried material, flower essences, teas or oils. In this way you can continuously call on the plants even in the winter months when fresh plant material is not available. Personally I enjoy the vitality of fresh plant material, or sitting with a plant that is growing outside in the earth. If you ever get the opportunity to offer reiki outside with the client lying down directly on the earth or grass, surrounded by trees, plants and other elements of the natural world (both unseen and seen), then try it!

Flowers at the Chakras

Working with Reiki, Chakras, and Herbal Teas

As discussed in the previous chapter, a huge variety of herbal teas exist that are blended and packaged for our convenience. There are even brands that market themselves as chakra teas and contain herbs that are traditionally said to act on specific energy centres. You can introduce these teas as part of the session, or even use a few tea bags to make a strong infusion to add to a footbath. Always read the label and check contraindications and allergies when offering them in any way to a client.

Working with Reiki, Chakras, and Essential Oils

The previous chapter included many in-depth suggestions on how to incorporate the aromatherapeutic qualities of essential oils into your personal practice and/or your treatment space. As mentioned earlier, do not rub oils onto a client without their permission—this is not part of reiki, but the role of an aromatherapist! However, if you are drawn to working with oils and have identified an energy centre that needs healing then do use oils for yourself. You could wear it in a diffuser around your neck, either to treat yourself or while you are treating a client. If the client was willing then you could also put the oil onto a tissue to infuse the scent close to the client, or use a diffuser to infuse the whole room with the fragrance.

Working with Reiki, Chakras, and Flower Essences

If you are drawn to connecting with a certain flower then it’s often worth exploring whether or not it might be available as a flower essence, or considering making your own. Flower essences make the vital spirit of the flower readily available for us in liquid form that we can ingest, carry with us or make into a room spray, without having to always use fresh plant material, and they have a beautiful harmonizing effect on our emotions.

Conversely, if there is a flower essence that you feel drawn to working with then hold it in your hand to send reiki to the bottle of essence before you use it. As you ingest the essence (a few drops in a glass of water), pay attention to the effect that it has on your body and different chakra centres as the flower essence infuses with your vital force. Always read the instructions when working with flower essences and never offer flower essences to a reiki client unless you have the relevant training and experience.

Self-Care with Flowers and Reiki

If you are feeling a block in your emotions, buy some beautiful flowers that match the vibration of the corresponding chakra. You might select flowers in the colour that corresponds to the colour of the chakra that you are focusing on, or by the way that they make you feel. Place the flowers where you can see them often. You can even use a photo or image of flowers if you can’t access fresh plant material. Each flower has a unique colour and essence that vibrationally corresponds with one or more of the seven chakras in our body.

Spend 15 minutes in gassho, asking reiki to flow and gazing upon the flowers. Consider the qualities that you’d like to develop and the emotion that you would like to shift. For example, if you’re lacking in willpower, you may have solar plexus (yellow) chakra blockages, so find some yellow roses, sunflowers or beautiful black-eyed susans to help you focus on the quality of mental strength and confidence in yourself.

EXERCISE

Chakra Cleanse and Strengthen

This exercise can be for your personal healing or used in a client treatment. You will need a flower. This can be taken from a plant that you have met and asked to help you on your healing path, or it can be a flower that you were “chosen by” at a florist and felt called to use for this exercise.

1 do this exercise in your treatment space, living space or out in nature. From gassho ground yourself with three deep breaths. Connect with reiki and ask reiki to flow as you have been taught.

2 From your heart, and with reiki flowing, call to the spirit of the flower that you are holding; something such as:

“I call upon the spirit of this flower (name it if you can) and all the nature beings (if you are outside) to help me with cleansing my energy centres from stagnant energy that no longer serves me and strengthen my light. I trust with all of my heart that this (flower name) will help me for my highest good. I am open to guidance and healing. I am willing to let go of any negative energy, pattern, block or story that is holding me back and I am willing to step into my divine light.”

3 Begin at your crown chakra and, with the flower in your hand, brush this area as if you were cleansing it, both the physical top of your head and also the space around it. Be as gentle or as quick and purposeful as you feel guided. Keep the intention in your heart that you are cleansing away any blocks from this chakra. Visualize this dense energy falling to the Earth or travelling to the sun (or the flame of a candle) to be transformed. An alternative is to have a bowl of salt water with you to brush the energy into. If you are attuned to Level 2 and above you may like to draw the power symbol with the flower and say its mantra three times over the chakra.

4 Hold your hands over the chakra for five minutes after you have cleansed with the flower to charge the area with reiki. When you feel guided move to the next chakra.

5 Continue this over each of the chakras from crown to root.

6 If you feel guided, you may also like to cleanse the chakras on your hands and feet.

7 You can also include the earth star chakra, which lies below your feet about a foot into the Earth. This will help remove any blocks to your connection with the Earth and helps to ground you.

8 When you have finished, place your hands in gassho in front of your heart, still holding the flower. Give your thanks. Respectfully dispose of the flower by placing it out in nature or on your compost.

9 Note down how you feel now and write freely to discover if the flower has a particular message for you or can help you with a challenge that you are facing.

EXERCISE

Reiki Rainbow

As part of your healing plant toolkit you may like to get to know and select specific plants that align with each of the chakra points so that these become your go-to plant allies when working to heal chakra imbalances for yourself or for clients.

As a starting point, you may find selecting plants suggested in the previous chakra plant table helpful. The more you get to know plants from the landscape where you live, the more confident you will be about selecting your own plants, essences, teas or essential oils that align with the different chakras.

For each of the energy centres, select a plant or plant product such as an essential oil, touch the plant to the specific chakra and note down the first words or colours that come into your mind and any sensations that you feel in your body or energy centre.

Complete this with a different plant for each chakra until you feel that you have a set of at least seven different plants that relate to each of the main chakras. You may wish to always include these plants in some way as part of each plant spirit reiki session or your personal reiki practice, such as by invoking their spirit through prayers at the start of a session, as plant material gathered in a vase in your space or as part of a bundle that you can use to brush down a client’s aura to finish a treatment.

Whenever you come across a new plant or plant product it can be useful to note down its effect on each of your chakras as a way of classifying when and how you may work with it in the future.

Learnings and Blessings

The chakra system is complex and I haven’t tried to detail it for you here. This chapter serves as a reminder of the key attributes of each of the energy centres and provides you with simple suggestions to point you in the direction of plants and their products that might be helpful to focus on balancing the chakras. In the same way that we are all different with a unique vibration, so too are the plants and their products that you will encounter. Don’t try to follow any rules; open to your intuition and guidance. Always stick within your remit as a reiki practitioner, with “crazy plant lady” as a subheading!