The concept of an energetic body or bodies, surrounding the physical body of all living beings, is a concept that has been debated and researched since antiquity. The existence of energetic emanations around plants, animals, and humans has been well explored and documented with the work of Kirlian photography, which clearly demonstrates fluctuations in intensity of energetic radiation depending on differing emotional states, as well as during periods of sickness and good health.
Metaphysical practitioners and students of esoteric practices who have personally explored the energetic body through meditation and “hands on” work agree unequivocally on the existence of an energy field surrounding and emanating from living beings. There are several differing schools of thought regarding the organization of these fields of energy, and regarding their ultimate function.
Depending on the tradition, philosophy, and personal experience of the individual, esoterics generally agree on the existence of between four and twelve different energetic fields surrounding the physical human body, each one corresponding to a level of consciousness of the individual. The energetic field, more commonly known as the aura, can be intuitively perceived and explored using touch, feeling, and vision to gain information and insights into the current state of oneself or of another. From an intuitive perspective, the aura can be likened to an intricately woven tapestry of light and color enveloping its owner in an ever changing landscape of sensation, mood, and movement. The aura is, by its nature, a flowing energetic field of colors, feelings, and thoughts, existing in a form too subtle to be seen by the normal human eye, yet perceptible through intuitive inner vision. All that exists in the aura exists as a reflection or an overflow, of what exists in our inner world of being. The aura is an external manifestation of our inner state, reflecting in a more subtle form the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels of being. The emanations of the aura are the result of the function of energy fields existing in the interior of the physical body. We find the energy axis located along the vertebral column, extending toward the earth from the base of the spine, and toward heaven from the crown of the head. The energetic body is sustained by this vertical axis, which absorbs subtle light nourishment from the air above and the earth below the physical body. Aligned within the axis and following the vertebral column are several individual spheres of energetic matter. These energy fields, or centers, are known as chakras and, together with the axis and the aura, they combine to create the energetic body of living beings.
Figure 2. The aura of the subtle body.
A chakra is a concentration of energy within a living being, situated in a strategic part of the body. Intuitively perceived, this energy often resembles a sphere, a funnel, or a spinning cone in shape. The word chakra has its roots in the Sanskrit language and translates as “wheel that turns.” There are seven major chakras in the human body and numerous minor ones, with four of particular importance located in the palms of the hands and on the feet. The seven major chakras are aligned along the axis of the body, beginning at the base of the pelvis and ascending to the crown of the head.
Figure 3. The chakras: front view.
From a metaphysical point of view, the chakras are considered as energy centers of the subtle body that act directly on the physical body through their interrelation with the glandular (hormonal) system. The chakra centers receive, store, and radiate life-force energy, which is absorbed through the respiratory system, the skin, and the eyes (as light) throughout the lifetime of an individual.
During the interaction between a person and the external world, a constant exchange of subtle energies occurs that directly affects the vitality level of the individual, as well as the well-being of the energetic body.
When we interrelate with the external world, the energy, or light, generated by the interrelationship is received into our bodies through one or several of the chakras. The generated energy is stored in the subtle body as an experience and in the physical body as a body memory. The memories held in both the subtle and physical bodies have an emotional, as well as a mental, component. The experience lived, our subjective analysis of it, and our emotional and physical responses to it are all registered and stored. Every time we interact with the external world, with nature, and with other living beings, we receive energy during the encounters. Every time we express ourselves, we radiate life-force energy through the chakras, giving energy to the external world. This constant process of give and take, present in the interrelationships between all living beings, creates movement, circulation, and change, qualities essential to the wellbeing of both the physical and energetic bodies.
The chakras contain memories of all the experiences we have lived through time, both in this life and in other lives. The most ancient memories are stored deep in the core of the chakras, while more recent memories are held closer to their surface, corresponding also to the surface of the physical body. Every time we enter into contact with another, physically, emotionally, mentally, or psychically, we enter into contact with the totality of their experience, with the totality of their memories. Of course, for most people, this process occurs and is experienced at an unconscious level. Nevertheless, every single time we enter into an exchange with someone, this “memory bank” of experience is stimulated. The quality of exchange we experience with another is always determined, to a greater or lesser degree, by the ensemble of memories triggered during the exchange. This “remembering” can occur at a conscious, subconscious, or unconscious level in both of the parties involved in the exchange.
Figure 4. The chakras: side view.
Every exchange, however superficial or profound, is remembered by the body/being on a vibrational (sensational), emotional, intellectual, and spiritual (soul) level.
The role and functioning of the chakras is of fundamental importance in the healing and transformational journey of the human being. It is into this “memory pool” of the four levels of being that we dip to access past traumas, to locate, define, and address unfinished business, and to find and understand energy blockages and physical illnesses in the body. Through the stored information in the chakras, we can locate and reanimate forgotten and neglected inner resources, qualities that assist us to strengthen, realign, and heal our physical, as well as our subtle, body. It is through the structure and function of the chakra system that we can retrace the paths of our personal and symbolic story, finding our way through the recent and more ancient past, until we arrive at the deepest memory of the chakras, the memory of our essential self. Here we are always strong, pure, and unmarked by the hazards of the experiences of life. In this deep part of the chakras, we are connected to our vertical axis and the axis is connected to the stabilizing influence of Earth energy and the uplifting, illuminating influence of heavenly (universal) energy. The energies of Earth and universe constantly nourish, replenish, and refortify the chakra system, cleansing and purifying the energetic body. The connection and interrelation between the chakras, the axis, the Earth, and the universe, are essential to the health, well-being, and evolutionary possibilities of the human being.
Each of the seven major chakras of the human being are related to a sphere of activity in human life, as well as to a level of consciousness related to the inner world of the individual. A chakra can be functional without the conscious awareness of its “owner,” in the same way that our organs and other bodily systems function without our conscious direction. Because the chakras belong to the energetic body and are therefore very subtle in their nature, they are particularly susceptible to conscious awareness and direction. Once we become aware of the existence of the chakra system, our very awareness creates movement, change, and evolution in this part of ourselves. It is possible, through acting on the chakras with thought and imagination, to act, eventually, on the physical body itself, creating change, transformation, and healing. Before acting on the chakras however, it is essential to understand what they are, where they are, and how they influence our lives.
The first chakra is located at the base of the spine in the genital region. It governs general physical constitution, circulation in the lower body, sexuality, and all basic survival issues. Life-force energy that flows at this level of the body/being is concerned with essential survival needs of the human being—the necessity for food and shelter which then becomes a question of work and money. In this chakra, your energy is used to take care of the fundamental details of daily life. The first chakra also governs your essential sexual energy, the sexual organs, the ovaries and prostate glands, the organs of elimination (colon, bladder, and skin), and the circulation of energy in the pelvis, legs, and feet. The state of the first chakra (open, flowing, irregular, blocked, closed, etc.) describes your fundamental existence and determines the way you go forward in your life—the way you advance physically and temperamentally through life. If this chakra is open and the energy circulates well, your body will be constitutionally strong and generally healthy, your sexual energy will be lively and consistent, and you will advance progressively in your life at the rhythm that is correct for you, experiencing improvements in your standard of living as you find your way to manage and master survival needs.
Through the first chakra, you create a connection to the Earth and take care of earthly concerns (material details). The more this chakra is open and flowing, the more grounded you will be. The more you are grounded, the more you will be a master of the material details of life and the more pleasure you will experience in being alive, present, in a body, on this Earth.
If, as a soul, you are troubled by the fact that you are in a body, that is, you are not certain that you really want to be here, this inner dilemma will be evident as problems and energetic blockages in the pelvis, legs, and feet. If, for example, you made the decision as a soul to incarnate in a body, but discovered that life on Earth is more difficult, bothersome, and impossible to understand than you remembered, a situation is created where energetically you try (as a soul) to leave your body to “go home.” You pull away from the Earth and you pull away from your physical body, against the natural current of life-force energy, which flows into you from heaven toward the Earth, propelling you gently forward along your evolutionary path.
The result is that you go against the natural flow. You close yourself to the energies flowing naturally in your body and all around you, and you experience tension and physical pain. Over time, a closed and blocked first chakra causes circulation problems in the feet and legs, as well as problems in the ankles and knees, and in the articulations of the toes. Lack of sexual energy, sexual impulse and interest, frigidity, impotence, bladder infections, and constipation are all signs of first-chakra malfunction. Other indications of problems at this level include lack of vitality, a waning enthusiasm for life, and the lack of a sense of direction in life.
If you are tense and cannot let go physically, or, conversely, if you are too slack (without tone and tension), you may have a first-chakra problem that is often related to the question of your basic desire to be alive. If you have constant problems about money, about finding a profession that is really suitable for you, about finding a home that pleases you, you are being shown that your deeper problem is related to the question of existing at all. You have, perhaps, a deep ambivalence about life itself and, therefore, you hesitate to commit yourself deeply and fully to life. In fact, you are not really here yet, even though you are alive and living.
If you want to be well in your body, in a home you enjoy, and with work that satisfies you, you must commit yourself more deeply to life. You must be willing to open to the flow of life, to engage with life, to go with life. It is important to enter more fully into contact with your physical body and to be willing to explore and transform the fears that you have about being alive, about letting go into the flow of life.
Once your first chakra is open and flowing and you are well grounded and present in life, you will become more and more aware of the energy that flows into you and through you—energy from the universe, the earth, and from others. You will feel yourself strong, lively, and energetic, willing to go forward, willing to advance.
The key words for the first chakra are “I exist.”
The second chakra is located in the pelvic area, just below the navel, in the mound of the belly. This energy center relates to your emotional experience—the ebb and flow of emotional states within you, as well as your emotional relationships with others. Your sexuality is expressed through this chakra in the quality of sensual response, rather than the first-chakra physical need and biological urge to procreate. Through your second chakra, you feel the desire to share something of yourself with another, to reveal your vulnerability, and to share your sensitivity and passion through the exchange of a personal relationship.
The second chakra also describes the way you nourish yourself emotionally. In the first chakra, you nourish yourself to stay alive, while at the level of the second chakra, you nourish yourself to feel loved. In this center of consciousness, you discover your needs, your emotional desires and your urge to belong, to have a place. The way that you approach others and enter into intimate relationships with them, the fluidity with which you adapt yourself to changes in your life, and the rhythm of your inner emotional movement are all behaviors related to the functioning of this chakra. The emotional inner world being changeable and fluid in its nature, movement and spontaneity are very important qualities associated with the well-being of this aspect of yourself.
Corresponding equally to the qualities of receptivity and femininity, the second chakra is related to the mother—how you were mothered and, as a result, how you mother yourself and others. Did you get touched enough, cradled enough, cuddled enough, fed enough when you were a child? Was the quality of contact that you received enough to satisfy your needs? Was your mother in her heart with you? Was she really there, present and attentive to your needs? Or did you, in fact, feel smothered by her? Never free from her presence? Now, in your adult life, do you seek touch and find contact easy, or is contact something you tend to avoid? The relationship your mother had with her body often influences the relationship you have with your own body.
The small intestine, the organ responsible for the assimilation of nourishment, is influenced by the function of the second chakra, as are the uterus (in women), the kidneys, and the adrenal glands. If you have problems in this zone of the body and in these organs, they are often related to the mother and, in particular, to the way you feel you were mothered. Either through lack or through smothering, the result is an imbalance in your emotional function and the way you manage your intimate relationships. If your mother neglected you, you may crave attention, yet never feel satisfied with the quality of attention you receive. To fulfill your need for physical contact and reassurance, you may play the seduction game to excess, seeking endlessly after the quality of maternal nourishment you missed and finding some comfort through the sensual and sexual contact of intimate adult relationships. Or, if your mother smothered you with attention, you may have adopted a cold, self-protective manner to keep others at a distance, unconsciously proving to yourself and to your mother that you are free of her.
The emotional needs of the second chakra are strongly related to the unconscious needs of the child within, especially the unfulfilled needs of childhood: the need for security, attention, and tenderness; the need for exploration, adventure, and freedom; the need to feel special, unique, and appreciated. Given the demands of children and the difficulties experienced by most parents in responding adequately to these demands, it is a rare child who arrives at adulthood feeling they were understood, unconditionally accepted, emotionally fulfilled, and adequately nourished by their parents.
Problems of the small intestine indicate unresolved issues concerning nourishment. You may need to learn how to nourish your body with a balanced diet, taking the time to learn to combine and prepare foods in a manner that corresponds to your particular and unique dietary needs. Physical nourishment is essential to well-being and regular, moderate eating habits can often rectify some of the chronic assimilation problems of the small intestines. The “modern” diseases of anorexia and bulimia experienced by adolescent girls and women have their roots in questions and issues relating to the mother, nourishment, and the female image—all issues governed by the second chakra. The uterus and ovaries, so essential to the creative nourishing process of procreation, can only function well if a woman nourishes herself in a balanced fashion. The kidneys, eliminators of body toxins, require regular liquid nourishment to accomplish their task adequately.
Even though attention to diet is an essential and important step in healing problems of the second chakra, a more fundamental need is, in fact, that of emotional nourishment. Malfunctioning of the second chakra indicates the need for maturation of the emotional self. You must become adult, your own mother, so you can let go of your emotional dependence on others and establish mature relationships based on the mutual desire to share and exchange.
When your second chakra is open and functioning in a balanced rhythm, you can feel the richness, the diversity of your emotional self, and sense instinctively the rhythms of distance and intimacy in your personal relationships. You can maintain the feeling of your relationship to the other—your sense of place—and yet remain aware of your rhythms, which are unique to you. With the healthy functioning of your second chakra, you can trust in the spontaneous expression of your emotions, which add movement, depth, and meaning to your daily life.
The key words that describe the functioning of the second chakra are “I feel.”
The third chakra is located in the solar plexus, above the navel, in the region of the diaphragm. This chakra, like the second, is emotional in nature, but its function describes the way you direct your emotional needs and desires into the world, rather than the way you feel yourself in relation to the world.
The third chakra is your power center, describing your will-power and stamina. Its function determines the way you direct your life. Through your third chakra, you transform your ideas into reality—you build your world according to your emotional needs and desires, and according to your belief systems. Through the experience of your second chakra you feel your place in relation to your mother, the family, and the world. Through the dynamics of the third chakra, you create your place in the world—you take your place.
This chakra represents the masculine energy in you—your expressive, male aspect and, therefore, also the father. How were you fathered? How were you disciplined when you were young? What was your relationship to authority? How was your life organized in the family? Were you taught the value of order, of structure? Were you guided by your parents to bring a concept through to reality with the help of the structure of discipline and organization? Were you, in fact, controlled to the point where you felt powerless, unimportant? Or were you fathered in such a way that you felt incapable of succeeding yourself? How do you discipline yourself now?
To better understand the current state of your third chakra, it may be fruitful to pay attention to how you structure your life, to the way you organize yourself. Do you exert a lot of self-control? Are you a leader? Do you take charge of situations? Or are you a follower? This center of energy determines whether you take the position of victim or creator in your life, whether your life is something that happens to you, or whether you take charge and steer your life according to your preferences. Are you someone who often feels manipulated, used? A doormat? Or do you stand up for yourself? Do you, in fact, have a tendency to stand on others?
The organs which come under the rulership of the third chakra are the liver, gall bladder, stomach, pancreas, and spleen. If the circulation of your energy is blocked in the third chakra, you will probably have problems in the function of one or several of these organs. The diaphragm, a large muscle situated in the solar plexus, is directly related to the third chakra and the respiratory process. Breathing problems are, therefore, often associated with blockage of energy flow in the third chakra.
If you are someone who never gets angry or who does not express anger, you most certainly have a blockage in this region! If you are someone who is chronically angry, you have a third-chakra problem. If you never feel afraid, if you live in a state of constant fear, if you never stop doing, if you never start doing, if you experience extremes like this in your emotional makeup, you are experiencing an imbalance in the energetic function of your third chakra.
Both the second and third chakras describe your inner emotional life and the fashion in which you express yourself emotionally with others, in intimacy and in a more general way, in relation to the world at large. To become really mature you must resolve your relationships to both the mother and the father. To become emotionally mature, you must understand the ways you were conditioned by the behavioral tendencies of your parents and free yourself from this programming.
When your third chakra functions in a healthy and balanced way, you discover your capacity to bring dreams to life through discipline, organization, and determination. You create a goal and, with time, realize it. Through the function of your third chakra, you feel yourself as a powerful, self-determined being, capable of making a unique and creative contribution in your chosen sphere of life. By nature, you are firm in your ideas, but you can also be flexible and accommodating when you work with others to bring an idea into realization.
The key words to describe the third chakra are “I create.”
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The life issues governed by the first three chakras take a tremendous amount of time in most peoples lives. The necessity for food, shelter, work, and personal relationships create the fundamental occupations of life and can also create great hardships. When you function principally through these three chakras, your experience is very subjective—you are inside your experience of life, living what comes toward you and reacting to it.
The fourth chakra, the chakra of the heart, plays an enormous role in recognizing and understanding your potential as an individual. This chakra acts as a point of integration for the other chakras, as it contains elements of the four levels of your experience: physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual. Through the fourth chakra, located in the center of the chest, you integrate the experiences of life and develop the qualities of wisdom and compassion. With this level of consciousness, you become a true friend to others, not because you need something, but simply for the joy of it, for the pleasure of the exchange. The generosity of your spirit lives in the heart chakra—the desire to give to others, to share your experiences, to find and express that which you have in common with your fellow humans.
The heart chakra is the home of the soul. When you are incarnated in a body, your soul rests in the depths of your fourth chakra, living, witnessing, absorbing, and integrating the experiences you gather on your path through life. In the heart chakra, you develop the qualities of unconditional love and detachment in relation to the exterior world. You know you are in the world, but not of it. When your awareness is focused in this chakra, you are with yourself and you can be with others, without losing yourself. In the second chakra, when you are with another, you tend to merge, dissolve, and lose yourself in the flow of the exchange. In the fourth-chakra exchange, you are present, yourself, whole and compassionate, engaged in the exchange, yet with a certain detachment from personal need.
The organs of the body which are governed by the fourth chakra are the heart, the lungs, and the thymus gland. Problems at this level include high blood pressure, low blood pressure, heart-valve problems, blood and circulatory difficulties, respiratory infections, hyperventilation, hypoventilation, mid-back pain, and pneumonia. All of these problems are indications of a deeper conflict concerning the absorption and integration of life experience.
Through your lungs, you breathe in air and absorb the life force flowing all around you. From the air, oxygen is integrated into your body by your lungs and absorbed into your blood, where it is pumped by the heart throughout the entire body. Once the oxygenated blood is distributed and your body nourished (that is, the oxygenated blood is digested), that which is no longer useful is eliminated and sent through your heart to the lungs, where it is expelled as carbon dioxide. These two organs regulate the flow of essential life-force energy into and out of your body, while the fourth chakra regulates the flow of essential life experience into and out of your body.
Sadness and joy are the two emotional extremes expressed through the function of the heart chakra. If you experience much sadness in your life, it can be helpful to understand this sadness as the expression of one aspect of your soul. What makes you deeply sad? What are you missing? Are you nostalgic for your connection to the Source, to God? Are you sad that you cannot find your real people, your real tribe, your true healing family? Do you feel lost? Perhaps you feel you have lost your way, your friends, your feeling of being connected, your sense of fellowship? In the sadness of the heart chakra, there is often a longing, a nostalgia for something forgotten, something lost.
Even when life is rich and you feel fortunate, privileged compared to others around you, the sense of a lack, or a loss, is still there. This lack has nothing to do with the material organization of your life, but is the grief-call of your soul longing for a quality of life experience you lack. It is the call of your soul, longing for you to be inside yourself, to be with yourself, to listen to the needs of your heart, and to cultivate a quality of life that is rich, deep, and authentic.
If you are well integrated in your heart chakra, you will be joyful and playful, with a lively sense of humor. You will appreciate the ironies of life, accepting the paradoxes and dualities by which you are surrounded with a knowing wisdom. Even though you will be sincere and kind to others, you will retain your authenticity and honesty, always staying faithful to your truth, which is as unique as you are.
Faced with the problems of others and the problems of a lost and troubled world, you will maintain a compassionate yet detached position, knowing that problems are a necessary and unavoidable part of life, essential for evolution. Integrated in your heart chakra, you experience a lightness of heart, a lightness of being, which is not at all superficial, but is, rather, a lightness that comes from knowing yourself and respecting your limits in the face of the needs and problems of others.
If you have lost your sense of humor, your ability to laugh at yourself and the ironies of life, you are suffering from a malady of the heart, a serious illness. If you have this problem, there is a reason for it. There is something important missing from your life. There is a quality you need, which you are not receiving. Perhaps it is a quality of friendship, support, or fellowship, or the feeling of being understood. Maybe you need to let go of the past to be more available in your present life. Very often, unfinished business from the past, with family, coworkers, and friends, creates an emotional weight in the heart that cannot be shaken until it is addressed and resolved.
The key words for the fourth chakra are “I love.”
The fifth chakra is found in the throat and represents the functioning of the conscious rational mind, with its ability to analyze, compartmentalize, and discriminate. This chakra governs communication—speaking, listening, and understanding spoken words, and then organizing these words into a frame of reference suited to your personal belief systems.
If you experience muscular problems in your neck, in the cervical vertebrae, have chronic throat infections, hearing difficulties, and/or mouth and teeth problems, there is a direct relationship to the fifth-chakra function of the rational mind and communication. Because this chakra governs the expression of your ideas, it also represents the way you interpret the ideas and verbal expressions of others. Do you listen when others speak to you? Do you think others listen to you? Are your ideas important and valuable? Do you express yourself clearly? Can you express your needs in such a way that you feel understood? Do you hear what people say to you? Are you able to organize your thoughts in such a way that you can follow your own ideas logically? Can you paraphrase an idea or a problem?
If you believe you are unimportant and have low self-esteem, it can be difficult to express yourself with words. As you begin to speak, others turn and look at you, waiting for you to continue your sentence, your story. If you are not sure of yourself, it is easy to wind down a sentence before it is finished, leaving yourself and everyone else “hanging in midair,” wondering what the point or purpose of your communication was. The result is that you have not expressed yourself and the others have not understood you.
Many fifth-chakra problems are related to the self-image instilled in you as a child. If your parents did not take enough time to help you find the words with which to express yourself, you can think unconsciously that others have no time for you or that your ideas have no value. If, as a child, you were shy and found it difficult to express yourself spontaneously, others more sophisticated than you may have judged you as slow or stupid and you may have kept this judgment as an idea about yourself, even though it is not appropriate.
The solution to almost all problems of the fifth chakra can be found in communication and expression. What do you need to say? To whom? With what tone of voice? In which emotional state? What words do you need to use so that your expression can be heard and understood by others? How can you express yourself honestly, authentically?
With the fifth chakra and communication, it is essential to speak for yourself, from your own experience, never assuming you know the reality of someone else. If you wish to be heard by others, it is essential that you do not attack them with judgments and accusations. If you are angry because you have felt hurt by the actions of others, it is important that you express your anger. However, if you hold the others responsible for your hurt and anger, you can be sure they will not be available to listen to your tirade against them. It is imperative to learn a few simple rules for effective communication so that you can find the way to speak clearly, simply, and with conviction about your ideas, feelings and experiences.
When your fifth chakra is functioning in a balanced and integrated fashion, you express yourself with ease in the majority of situations, whether in a large group or in intimacy with another. You speak clearly and fluently, finding the appropriate nuance to express the idea you wish to share. In the same way, you are able to listen to and hear others when they speak to you, allowing them to finish their sentences before you respond. You are open-minded to the ideas of others, while staying faithful to your own experience of life. Mentally organized and able to handle efficiently the details of your daily life, you are able to manage your time effectively, arriving on time for your appointments. You are able to plan in advance and carry your plan through to completion, paying attention to details as you go, so that the end result is what you have worked for. With your fifth chakra open, flowing, and balanced, you are able to communicate your needs to people, who are available to listen to you. Your experience of communication supports you in your belief that you can be honest and authentic without being judgmental and that the words you speak have a true value.
The key words for the fifth chakra are “I communicate.”
The sixth chakra is found in the center of the head behind the forehead and governs the function of the subconscious and the unconscious mind. This is where your imagination functions—where you see things, internally and externally. The sixth chakra determines your ability to see with perspective, with distance. This is the home of your clairvoyance (clear seeing). With this chakra, you perceive and understand the patterns of events and the cycles of life that occur all around you. With the perspective of your sixth-chakra vision, you understand the behavior of others, seeing their psychological patterns and behavioral habits in relation to yourself, to themselves, and to others. With your second chakra, you experience the behavior of the other; with your fourth chakra, you accept it as it is; with your sixth chakra, you see it clearly and understand it. You perceive how it fits into a bigger picture, so you have distance and perspective.
In the sixth chakra, you find all the functions of the brain and mind. It is in this chakra that your belief systems about life are stored and expressed as the creative functioning of your mind. Belief systems created through the experience of life are often deeply buried in the unconscious mind and function as an immediate reflex reaction in response to life situations. Through the natural interrelation between your sixth and fifth chakras, your belief systems are expressed through the symbology of your dreams, the action of your imagination, and the communication of your ideas.
In your sixth chakra, you hold the idea you have of yourself—of how you look (whether you are beautiful, ugly, ordinary, fat, thin) and of how you characteristically behave in given situations (clumsily, gracefully, stupidly, intelligently). This idea, this self-image, is based on past personal experience and specific conditioning and programming you received as an infant. According to the idea you have of yourself (of your strengths and weaknesses), you see yourself as having one place or another in the world. With the creative power of your imagination always supporting your personal belief systems, you create for yourself the place you believe you deserve. It can be said of the sixth chakra that, with this aspect of yourself, you create yourself, your world, and your place in it. If you change your creative idea of yourself, you will change your external reality naturally, because of the creative power of your imagination.
How do you imagine yourself? What are your positive and negative qualities? When you look in a mirror, real or imaginary, what do you see? Your sixth chakra is a mirror, reflecting you back to yourself, continuously showing you the beliefs you have about yourself, about others, about life. Are you aware of the power of your imagination? Can you direct your imagination to create a vision internally and hold that vision until it is manifest in the external world around you? Can you look around you and perceive the patterns, the cycles of behavior unfolding—the cycles of nature, of Earth, of people, of yourself?
Physical problems related to the sixth chakra include headaches, migraines, neck pain, and eyesight disorders. What is it that you do not want to see? What is too difficult to see? To what are you too close? From what do you take so much distance that you can no longer see clearly? What creates pain in your head? What thoughts and beliefs make you sick of yourself? What do you see in yourself, about yourself, that you cannot, will not, accept? In others? In the world?
When the sixth chakra is blocked, related reactions are often “I don't want to see!” Or, “I don't want to take responsibility.” If you have difficulties perceiving, understanding, and accepting responsibility for your ideas, dreams, and actions, this is often a manifestation of a sixth chakra blockage.
When the sixth chakra is functioning well, you will have a vivid imagination, with clear, detailed images that come and go easily on the screen of your creative mind. You will experience life as an ongoing series of interconnected events, each with a significance and a symbolic meaning evident to you. In the rhythm and flow of the ever changing cycles unfolding within you and around you, you will see your place, your role, and your own significance in relation to others. Life appears as a rich tapestry of sensation, feelings, and images, and you, the weaver, work the tapestry in relation to the experiences you live. With the richness of your flowing imagination, you know you are the dreamer and the dream. You understand that truth is relative, that everyone is right from their own point of view. You free yourself from the limitations of your programmed belief systems and explore the unlimited possibilities of your creative imagination.
The key words for the sixth chakra are “I see.”
The seventh chakra, at the crown of the head, reaches out toward the universe. It it the chakra of your spiritual self, which governs not only your spiritual beliefs and practices, but also the religious conditioning you received as a child. The crown chakra describes your sense of connection to the universe, to the Source, to God, in whatever form you believe Him to exist. In this chakra, you experience your sense of purpose—the reason why, as a spiritual being, you have incarnated into a body, the reason why you have come to Earth.
If you have blockages at the level of your seventh chakra, they may manifest physically as headaches and tension in the region of the head, neck, and shoulders. More often, seventh-chakra problems manifest as a sense of confusion and lack of a sense of purpose. Energy-circulation problems here can be experienced as a feeling of being cut off from life and others, or through the lack of belief in an infinite intelligence, in God, in light.
Do you feel that your life has a purpose? Do you believe that the universe is intelligent? That humanity is evolving? Do you feel that you are a light being, living in a physical body, gathering experience on your evolutionary journey back home to the Source? Do you go forward in trust, with faith that you will find your way? Do you feel guided?
When your seventh chakra is open and functioning, you feel yourself on your path, going somewhere with a sense of purpose. You have faith, but this faith is not a blind faith—it is a faith full of questions. You are curious—curious to search, to research, and to discover what life is. You wish to find and explore mysteries, to experience nature and the vast universe. With your connection to the Source, to the light, you experience your uniqueness, your deepness, your vastness, and your nothingness. Through your seventh-chakra aspect, you can experience the fullness of the emptiness within you—to understand the significance of your place and your purpose against the vast backdrop of the ever present universe. You will be able to live your purpose fully, knowing that your life is but a cycle of experience and that one day, you will die to this life and go on to the Source from which you came, from which all existence comes and to which it goes. This you will know with acceptance in your heart, for you understand that we are all but visitors to this Earth and that, to live, we must die to a greater life we leave behind us—a greater life to which we eventually return.
The key words for the seventh chakra are “I know.”
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It can be helpful, in understanding the chakras, to regard them as either expressive or receptive. The first, third, and fifth chakras are expressive, active, masculine, and yang in character, while the second, fourth, and sixth chakras are receptive, passive, feminine, and yin in character.
With the energy of the expressive chakras you act—you move, you create, you communicate, you reach out. If the movement of your energy is blocked in these chakras, you will have a problem “doing.” The remedy for this problem is action and expression. You need to move physically—walk, run, dance, shake. You need to express your innate power by changing the organization of the physical world around you. Work in the garden, change the placement of furniture in your home, build something, destroy and throw away something else.
You need to communicate, to express who you are with words—you may speak, yell, scream, and write letters to important people in your life. Blockages of energy circulation in the expressive chakras are related to problems of repression—of holding back. What are you holding back? Why are you holding back? Why are you afraid of stepping out, of going forward? If you express yourself, what is the worst thing you imagine can happen to you? If you dare to be yourself and take your place in the world, what is the best thing you imagine can happen to you?
With the energy of the receptive chakras, you receive, feel, perceive, understand, and integrate. The natural movement of these chakras is an inward flow, taking you toward your deepness, to your inner perceptivity and awareness. If you experience difficulties with your sensitive, receptive, feminine aspects and these chakras are blocked, you may need to go within yourself more deeply. You need to feel more, to listen more, and to be more available, above all, to yourself. Very often, when the receptive chakras have functional difficulties, it is because you have a habit of living your life at a superficial level—you look outside yourself to find your sense of self, rather than seeking your truth in your inner deepness.
Energy blockages in the receptive chakras reveal your fear of discovering the truth of who you are. Energy blockages in the expressive chakras reveal your fear of expressing the truth of who you are.
The seventh chakra is both receptive and expressive. In receptive contemplation you understand the purpose of your life, and in expressive action, you realize this purpose.
A healthy body is a body where energy circulates in balance and harmony. Life-force energy, by its nature, is always in movement. When you repress the life-force energy within you—when you suppress your ideas, your feelings, and the natural urges of your physical body to move, the energy flowing through your chakras becomes blocked and stagnant. When this energy stops flowing correctly, you can experience physical discomfort, pain, illness, and disharmony in the part of your body affected by the blockage.
If your energy flow has stopped circulating in a region of your body and you wish to reanimate this part of yourself, it is very often difficult and painful at the beginning. It is as though something in you has died and you must bring it back to life. After an initial period of discomfort, you succeed in reawakening the chakra/body region and, from this point on, healthy circulation returns and you experience a decrease in pain and an increase in ease.
In the meditation of circulating Earth and universal energy into your heart chakra and throughout your subtle body, you are, in effect, calling your body back to life. This meditation is an affirmation of your desire and your willingness to be alive, vital, and complete. You choose consciously to call life-force energy into you, to nourish you and strengthen your subtle and physical bodies. Life-force energy naturally flows in through the first and seventh chakras if it can (if the energy pathways are not blocked). The pathways for this circulation of energy are already installed in you, whether you are consciously aware of them or not. When you become consciously aware of their existence, you can assist the pathways to function more efficiently. You can consciously direct Earth and universal energy to go where you want or need it to go.
If you have problems in a particular chakra, for example in the first chakra, you can heal these problems consciously. You can become more active physically, by walking, running, exercising. You can focus on grounding yourself by consciously developing suppleness in your knees, by connecting yourself more often with the earth, by bringing awareness to your pelvic area and breathing deeply and fully into this area of your body. In relation to the first chakra, you can engage in a work of personal therapy on the subject of your sexuality, to bring your life-force vitality back into this region of your body. If you have problems at the third chakra level about power, you can work consciously on this aspect of yourself. In your personal meditation you can bring Earth/universe energy into this chakra, cleansing, revitalizing, and strengthening this area of your body. Understanding the importance of self-expression in relation to your personal evolution, you can practice taking risks, you can allow yourself to become angry, to express your fear.
There are many ways you can help yourself to heal yourself, especially once you know and understand where your energy is blocked in your body and to what aspect of yourself that blockage corresponds.
The map of the chakras is a very useful system for clarifying the human subtle body system and its relationship to the physical body. However, you must always remember it is simply a map of the body, of the being—it is not The Being. Because you are unique, your problems are unique. Through the practice of the Chakra Meditation, you can understand more deeply your uniqueness, the uniqueness of your problems, and the uniqueness of the healing path you must take to restore yourself to a full and balanced state of well-being.