The purpose of this chapter is to prepare you for all chakra interactions. The chapter accomplishes this goal by discussing two important, basic principles and then showing you how to locate a chakra. You’ll draw from this material throughout the remainder of part 2.
The first major concept to comprehend is intention, which is the starting point of every healing and manifestation. In nearly every exercise you’ll be asked to set an intention or compose a dream. This vital step directs your chakras so they can accomplish your deepest aspirations.
The second important detail regards chakra spin direction. As I shared in Part One, chakra spin directions and their meanings aren’t universal, although some practitioners believe so. Before you can detect a chakra based on its spin or evaluate the meaning of a chakra rotation, it’s important to understand what the spins really mean. The section “Establishing Chakra Spin: Direction and Meaning” will explain what I mean.
Groundwork laid, you can start having fun. Onward we’ll journey, for it’s time to learn how to locate your chakras. Three basic tools are covered: a pendulum, your hands, and your intuition. These activities form a framework for the rest of the exercises in this book. (After all, if you can’t find a chakra, you can’t work with it.)
Know that the exercises in this book are quite malleable. You can use them on yourself and also on other people. I’ll tell you how to adapt exercises for either purpose, both in this chapter and subsequent ones.
And now, are you ready and set? Then let’s go!
The Power of Intention
Throughout this book you’ll be urged to set an intention or perform some other activity that is similar, such as hold a focus or create a dream. In order to tap into the deep power of intention, it’s important to understand what intention is.
My personal description of intention is this: intention is the moment that allows a dream to come true. If chakras are the steering wheels of our individual mini universe, then intention is the tool that allows us to steer the wheels.
Other words frequently used for intention are “focus” and “decision.” Some people also describe an intention as a “goal” or “aim,” but these words are only partially correct. A goal, like an aim, is future oriented. To establish a goal implies that you must pre-think the steps necessary to fulfill the goal. In contrast, the creation of an intention is accomplished completely in the here and now. Intention is the inner activity that aligns subtle and physical energies so you can enable a desire to come true.
Modern social scientists and metaphysicians testify to the importance of setting an intention to invite change. My favorite way to explain the power of setting an intention—or making a decision—relates to subtle energy. As we explored in Chapter One, subtle energy interacts with physical energy and can even become physical energy. Subtle energy can do this because it taps into the quirky world of the quanta. Intention inserts you into this world, and from there almost anything becomes possible.
Basically, when you focus on an intention—and are willing to become more than you currently are—the subtle energies start to shift. In reaction, physical reality rearranges. In poetic verbiage, your intention can now align the heavens and earth with your dream. Your attitude might shift. You might behave differently. You might draw more cooperative opportunities into your life. Your chakras empower these changes as if adding jet fuel.
How do you set an intention? There are endless methods, but they all begin with making a decision. It’s easiest to establish an intention in sentence form, such as “I am happily accepting new job opportunities” or “I am attracting wondrous relationships.” Keep your desire as positive and as clear as possible.
After formulating an intention statement, it’s helpful to empower the desire, especially if you lift an intention out of an exercise in this book and want to keep working on it. Imagine that it’s already come into reality easily and joyfully. Feel the dream as thoroughly as possible in every fiber of your being, and pull it through as many aspects of you as possible.
Engage your soul by restating the intention as a prayer. Move it into your body by chanting the intention aloud or dancing around, imagining that you are living the dream already. Insert the intention into your mind by writing about what it means to you. Meditative techniques also access the mind, body, and soul to lock an intention into real life. These processes can include quieting your mind, connecting to a higher force, breathing deeply, or performing yoga postures. And you can experiment. After all, we are all as different as snowflakes are from each other.
One of the ways that intention operates in regard to the chakras is to attune their rotation—the directional spin of their vortices—so you receive or send energy supportive of your goal. For instance, if your intention can best be achieved through the attraction of a new opportunity, the relevant chakra must spin in receiving mode so you can accept the boon. If an intention requires that a certain chakra emanates a message to the world, it better be in sending mode. This point leads to a vital discussion about chakra spin—one that will affect how you locate, assess, and shift a chakra.
Direction and Meaning
Chakras are basically able to take in or send out energy, and each chakra is capable of doing both. Who doesn’t want to receive love, blessings, healing energies, cheer, and spiritual messages? At the same time, it’s vital that a chakra can release toxins, unneeded energies, and destructive patterns, and also broadcast important messages to the world.
I was taught that a chakra spins clockwise when receiving energy and counterclockwise when releasing energy. Frequently this is true, but not always. (Wouldn’t it be nice if anything were that simple?) There are three main caveats we must pay attention to in regard to a chakra’s directional spin, not only when locating a chakra, but also—and especially—when evaluating and interacting with a chakra.
Firstly, know that when you are measuring a chakra’s spin, you are appraising only the outer wheel, a point first made in Chapter Two. The inner wheel is a still point where our individual spirit and the Divine meet. Because of this, it is always in perfect balance. The most solid way to create a healthy spin in the outer wheel is to add energy from the inner wheel. Whether the result is a clockwise, counterclockwise, or freaky-wild rotation, it will be perfect in that moment.
Secondly, there are two main perspectives used to evaluate spin. Typically, a directional swing evaluation is based on the observer. The easiest way to picture this method is to pretend that you are looking at a clock facing outward, either on your body or on someone else. Clockwise swings follow the movement of the arms. Counterclockwise swings go in the opposite direction. However, some chakra practitioners evaluate chakra spin in the opposite way. They check for directional spin through their own eyes or the eyes of the subject. In this book I recommend that you picture a clock on the outside of the chakras. You will evaluate for spin direction by observing this clock. This will be true when you’re working on another person or trying to figure out spin direction on yourself. However, when working on yourself, the easiest way to figure out clockwise versus counterclockwise spins will be to use exercise 7 and analyze accordingly.
The third caveat is that whichever way you test for chakra spin, some individuals are different from the norm. Most chakra experts believe that a healthy chakra always spins clockwise and only reverses when it’s imbalanced. I have found that most individuals’ chakras do spin clockwise (as measured by the clock facing outward) most of the time. However, in about 20 percent of the people I’ve worked with, healthy is counterclockwise. Plain and simple, their systems run different than others’ systems usually do. Rather than being “wrong,” these individuals are often shamans—priest-healers whose mystical aptitudes add beauty and magic to their community.
The greater point I want to make, however, is that everyone’s chakras actually and constantly shift between clockwise and counterclockwise. It’s not the direction that actually matters, though; it’s the activity being performed by the two different directions.
You see, chakra experts have used the terms “clockwise” and “counterclockwise” for one main reason. This is to figure out when the chakra is taking in new energy rather than releasing energy. As stated, the common rule is that the clockwise spins take in energy and the counterclockwise spins release energy. However, it actually doesn’t matter if a chakra is going “left” or “right.” What’s important is that you figure out which direction for a specific chakra in a particular person indicates the release rather than sending of energy.
This indicator won’t be vital in locating a chakra. In this chapter’s exercises you’ll merely be looking for a spin, not a specific direction. But in subsequent chapters you’ll be shown how to check for the receiving and sending directions of a chakra, rather than merely clockwise and counterclockwise, as that is the essential knowledge you’ll be seeking.
With that, it’s time to learn how to find your chakras with three basic techniques.
Locating a Chakra with a Pendulum
A visible way to discover a chakra is to use a pendulum. A pendulum is a weight suspended from a string or chain. A necklace will work if it has a large enough pendant, as the weight needs to be heavy enough to swing obviously. A pendulum’s swing can detect the vortices of the chakra’s outer wheel.
The fundamental reason why a pendulum can discover and also provide a surface analysis of a chakra is that it moves in relation to a chakra’s spinning energy. When the weight is centered in the vortex, it will move clockwise or counterclockwise, vertically or horizontally, at slants, or switch between these directions. It might swing in a full circle; then again, it might reveal a restricted or too-open circumference. Of course, its arc will also continually shift. Because we change constantly, so does the chakra’s rotation.
You can find many of your own chakras—and all of them on another person—with a pendulum. The exception when working on yourself, of course, is all those hard-to-reach back-side chakras. To detect these chakras, use exercise 2.
Here are instructions for finding chakras on a partner and also on the self.
step one: Someone else, front and back sides. Have your partner lie flat on a massage table, couch, the floor, or another surface. They will face upward when you’re looking for their front-side chakras and downward when searching for their back-side chakras. Standing over your partner, dangle the pendulum about two to six inches over the probable location of the chakra; refer to Figure 1 to hone in on a site. Hold the pendulum still until it starts to move on its own.
step two: Yourself, front side. Sit or stand. When testing one of your own chakras, if you can reach it, you can hold the pendulum about two to six inches in front of the chakra site. The weight will catch when caught by the chakra’s vortex. While this maneuver will help you detect one of your own chakras, it will be easiest to test for spin and direction using exercise 7.
step three: Yourself, back side. You can use the palm of your hand and intention to evaluate your back-side chakras; see exercise 2 to accomplish this. Once you have accomplished this transfer, hold the pendulum between two and six inches above your palm until it starts to move on its own, indicating that you have located the transferred chakra and are now ready to assess it.
Transferring a Chakra to the Palm
Throughout the body there are secondary, or minor, chakras, and the hand centers are particularly strong. The hand chakras are especially powerful energetically as the hands (and the arms) are extensions of the heart chakra. If you can’t reach a chakra, front or back, you can also establish that chakra in your palm and work with it there.
Select a chakra you’d like to evaluate and state your intention aloud: “I’m interacting with my back-side first chakra on this palm.” The palm chakra will now transform into that particular chakra. When you are done interacting with the transferred chakra, set another intention: “My palm is now clear of the transference.”
Locating a Chakra with Your Hands
Your hands are extensions of your fourth, or heart, chakra. Because of their sensitivity, hands are frequently able to sense the vortices of the chakras as well as determine other factors such as temperature, emotions, and more.
This exercise will help you locate a chakra with your hands. In order to perform this activity, it’s important to first distinguish between your receiving and sending hands. Your receiving hand takes in external energy, usually from the outside world, and the sending hand releases energy, usually from inside of the self into the external world. Use exercise 4 to differentiate your hands and then conduct this exercise, which involves the following steps:
step one: Prepare. Select a chakra you want to locate and take a few deep breaths. Rub your hands together and differentiate between your sending and receiving hands (refer to exercise 4).
step two: Search with Your Receiving Hand. Focus on a chakra area and hold your receiving hand two to six inches away from the skin. Move your hand around until you sense the differences between the chakra energy and that emanating from the surrounding area. Differences can be perceived in temperature, texture, sensation, a sense of motion, or even an emotion relayed to your heart.
step three: Search with Your Sending Hand. For some it’s easier to locate a chakra with the sending rather than receiving hand. Hold your hand parallel to the selected chakra area, between two and six inches away from the skin. Send energy from the heart into the sending hand and move the hand around until you find a site that is warmer, cooler, or simply different in texture, sensation, or emotion than the surrounding area.
step four: Search with Both Hands. You can conduct either step one or two—or both—and then stop searching. Or you can skip both steps and search with both hands at the same time. To do this, move both hands over and around the chakra area and sense the chakra site. You might perceive a mix of sensations, temperatures, vibrations, and the like.
step five: Continue or Close. Either continue finding other chakras or end this exercise. You can close by taking a few deep breaths and sensing the entirety of your body before returning to your everyday life. You can also continue to exercise 8 if you want to assess a chakra with your hands.
Discerning Between Your
Receiving and Sending Hands
How do you differentiate between your receiving and sending hands? Typically, the left hand receives and the right hand sends, but this flow might be opposite in left-handed individuals and others.
To differentiate, shake your hands and rub them together. Hold them about two inches apart, palms facing, and sense the movement of energy between them. Can you tell which one is sending energy to the other? In general, your receiving hand will be warm, as energy is being added. Your palm might also tingle, flush red, or itch. Your sending hand might feel cool, as energy is being released. The palm might become pale and pulse.
If it’s still difficult to figure out which hand is sending and which is receiving, select a hand and imagine a color emanating from it into the other hand. Then reverse hands. Psychically visualize the flow of energy. Which hand generates the color and which absorbs it? As soon as you figure out the difference between your hands, label them accordingly. You can also keep retesting your hands in case they shift because of life circumstances.
Locating a Chakra Intuitively
As relayed in Chapter Three, each chakra is associated with a variety of intuitive gifts. In this section the gifts are organized into five basic categories, so you can focus your intuition to locate a chakra. The four main categories are physical, spiritual, verbal, and visual intuition. The fifth category is a “catch-all” and is mystical. It incorporates the other four types of intuition. Throughout part 2 you’ll tap into the same abilities to interact with the chakras.
In this exercise you’ll first be provided a brief description of each gift. You’ll then be shown how to locate a chakra per each.
physical intuition: Physical intuitives sense subtle energy empathically, relating to the world through their physical body, feelings, and knowledge.
spiritual intuition: Spiritual empaths relate to subtle information through spiritual awareness, evaluating for love and virtuousness.
verbal intuition: Verbal intuitives hear words, songs, and messages either in their “inner ear” or even in the everyday world.
visual intuition: Visual intuitives receive revelations that are psychically visual. The images might involve colors, shapes, pictures, or even movie-like dramatizations. They can also perceive special visual messages in the environment.
mystical intuition: The mystic is a shaman, a “priest-healer,” who uses all forms of intuition to receive and offer information, healing, and conduct interdimensional travels.
To conduct the exercise, select a chakra on yourself or another person. Take a few deep breaths and ask your essential spirit or the Divine to attune your awareness. Then evaluate your chakra through the following intuitive means.
physical intuition: Sense the chakra’s location physically. You might feel it in your body, sense an emotional reaction in the chakra site, or simply “know” where the chakra is.
spiritual intuition: You will become conscious or mindful of a chakra site with an inexplicable wisdom. Also ask the Divine to locate it for you.
verbal intuition: Ask to hear the tones of the chakra and focus in on these. You can also request that a guide speak the answer into your inner ear or relay it through an external source.
visual intuition: Ask for a vision of the chakra’s location. If you simply perceive an image and it’s unclear, you can also ask for a caption for the picture, which you can then read psychically.
mystical intuition: Review all the former intuitive faculties and blend the information.