The word chakra (pronounced cha-krah) comes from ancient Sanskrit Vedic texts and loosely translates to mean anything that has a circular motion. For example, cakravata is a “whirlwind,” and kalacakra means the “wheel of time” or “wheel of fortune.”
The Kundalini chakras are what most people think of when they think of chakras. These chakras are energy centers that travel along the spinal region of the body from the base of the spine to the top of the head. Some traditions say there are five, some seven, others eight, and some over a hundred. For the purposes of this book, I use the seven chakras that are familiar to most people. While they are listed below in the descriptions, I don’t reference the colors in the animal section because my focus is the core attribute of that chakra.
One of my favorite ways to understand chakras is by comparing them to individual pools of water along a stream. For us to remain mentally, physically, emotionally, and energetically healthy, those pools of water must be clean and free of debris so our energy can flow between them. Just like a river, if there is a blockage, the water dams up and collects all sorts of garbage. We can even become physically ill.
How we see the world, how the world sees us, everything we feel, everything we taste or touch, our gut instincts, our sense of security, our ability to manifest our dreams, our ability to communicate, and our ability to love and be loved can all be tied to our energetic health. I hope seeing your energy centers from a different perspective will help you to find balance and happiness.
The following are descriptions of each chakra. They are by no means all-inclusive, but they may be a useful reference while working with the animals.
The Seven Chakras
Root Chakra
Color: Red • Element: Earth • Sense: Smell
The location of the root chakra is roughly an inch above the tailbone. This chakra connects you to the earth and helps you feel grounded and safe. It is your firm foundation and speaks to your primitive instincts and your senses of security, safety, and survival. It also speaks to basic life needs like food and home. It helps you tap into your body’s needs.
Health in this chakra means that you feel grounded, safe, and secure in your life and living situation and that you are able to feel trust. If this chakra is out of balance, you may be fearful, detached, or even angry. This chakra stores some of your earliest emotional memories. If you grew up in a family feeling safe, sheltered, and rarely hungry, you probably have a healthy root chakra. However, if you grew up knowing only fear and want, or if you have ever been in an abusive relationship, this chakra may be damaged or hypersensitive.
The sense tied to this chakra is smell. Our sense of smell is one of our fundamental survival instincts. For example, if we smell fire, we run for safety. Most of us can smell if food has gone bad, so we know not to eat it because we might get sick. But if a person loses their sense of smell, they may not be able to tell if food has spoiled. Some animals will starve if they lose their sense of smell. There are some people whose sense of smell is so acute they can detect illness on another person. Some animals are trained as therapy companions to identify things like insulin imbalances and alert their humans that medication is needed. We often say that something just “smells wrong,” so we avoid it. Smell helps us survive.
Other aspects key to your survival include knowing where you like to live and what makes you feel safe. Do you like living in a traditional family structure or with housemates, or are you more comfortable as a loner? How do you like your home to be? Do you prefer a tidy, well-organized space, or are you more comfortable with a bit of homey clutter? What do you like to eat? It is essential to understand and feed your basic needs so that you can not only survive but also thrive, and you do that through the root chakra. If you currently don’t feel safe or aren’t happy with your living situation, this chakra can help ground you so that you can see the life changes you need to make.
Sacral Chakra
Color: Orange • Element: Water • Sense: Taste
The location of the sacral chakra is in the sacrum, just below the belly button. The sacrum is the upside-down-triangle-shaped bone between your lower back and your rear end. This chakra is your pleasure center and speaks to your emotional body, sexuality, passions, desires, creativity, confidence, and self-worth. It is your ability to be open and friendly.
Health in this chakra means you are in touch with what makes you happy. It means your creative juices are flowing, and you have healthy emotional and sexual boundaries. You are easily able to express your desires. If this chakra is out of balance or blocked, it can manifest in many ways, including obsession, guilt, an explosive temper, or lack of creative energy. It can also manifest as either sexual addiction or repression. It is the difference between being able to relax and being unable to, between being confident and being arrogant, between living your passion and living in a shell.
The sense connected with this chakra is taste. For many, this sense is a source of pleasure; however, what pleases one person may not please another. Being in touch with what gives you pleasure helps you feel truly alive. While the root chakra speaks to your sense of physical security, this chakra speaks to your emotional security.
Solar Plexus Chakra
Color: Yellow • Element: Fire • Sense: Sight
The location of the solar plexus chakra is in between the base of your sternum and your belly button. This chakra is your power, energy, vitality, self-esteem, and ego. It is your ability to choose an intention and then take action to turn it into a plan. It is your gut instinct and your inner fire. This chakra is your relationship to the world around you and your comfort level about your place in it.
Health in this chakra means that you know who you are. You project confidence without being egotistical. You can work with others without needing to control a situation. If this chakra is out of balance, you may seem painfully shy or, on the opposite end of the spectrum, narcissistic. It may mean that you feel like nothing can get done unless you do it.
The sense connected to this chakra is sight, and it helps you realistically see the world. It means you can see the forest and the trees. This chakra enables you to stay in touch with the world around you so that you don’t become someone who spends too much time navel-gazing. This chakra helps you see beyond just the plan to the completion of a project.
If you want to walk through the world with your head held high and confidently express yourself, tap into this chakra for strength.
Heart Chakra
Color: Green • Element: Air • Sense: Touch
The heart chakra is located behind the breastbone and is all about balance. It is the link between your lower three chakras (the place of your physical self) and the upper three chakras (the place of higher thought, dreams, and intuition). The heart chakra represents unconditional love, relationships, compassion, well-being, and spirituality. It connects the body and mind with Spirit.
Health in this chakra means that you can be emotionally open, loving, and compassionate. It says that you are in touch with your physical and spiritual needs in equal measure. You feel happy, peaceful, and friendly, and people see you as having an easygoing and forgiving personality. If this chakra is out of balance, you may feel overwhelmed by sorrow and have a desire to hide from the world. You may be intolerant of most everything, angry, irritable, and nasty. You may suffer from nightmares and have trouble feeling grounded. You may even feel short of breath or suffer from high blood pressure.
It will be no surprise that the sense connected to this chakra is touch. Touch is how you express your love and affection, be it by hugging someone, rocking a child, stroking your companion animals, or holding hands with the one you love. The act of touch is incredibly healing, and it is not unique to humans.
Many believe this chakra is the one that is most easily and frequently damaged but also the one that seems to want to heal. If your heart needs to heal, get outside among green things and breathe deeply. Snuggle with the one you love, human or animal. It may take time, but, believe me, I know as a widow and cancer survivor that your heart can heal.
Throat Chakra
Color: Blue • Element: Ether • Sense: Hearing
The throat chakra is located in the neck and aids you in your ability to communicate. It is important to remember that authentic communication is a two-way street. Being able to listen, really listen, is often more important than the words that come out of your mouth. This chakra is the place of self-expression, self-discipline, and your ability to take a creative idea and bring it out into the world. It is the power of sound and breath. This chakra is also where you consume food, so it is important to only let things through that will nourish you.
Health in this chakra means that you can speak your mind without cruelty and that you take your time to hear what another person is saying without focusing on your response. It means that you can bring your ideas and projects to fruition. It means that you can express yourself in a variety of ways, including but not limited to art, music, dance, writing, speaking, and thought. If this chakra is out of balance or damaged, it could mean that you suffer from stage fright, have a tendency to talk very loud or too much, and even interrupt while someone is talking. It is also possible that you have a collection of unfinished projects lying around.
The sense connected with this chakra is hearing. As stated above, listening is essential to authentic communication. It is important to listen to another’s truth, but it is equally important to hear and understand your truth as well. Call on this chakra when you need to express yourself in any way, want to finish a project, or want to learn to shut up and listen.
Third Eye Chakra
Color: Indigo • Element: Light • Sense: Intuition
The location of the third eye chakra is in the center of the forehead. From here, you see the physical world with clarity, and it is also the seat of your intuition, insight, and focus. It is the place of wisdom and knowledge. It is your connection to your own higher self and the place of your psychic ability, where you see visions. While the solar plexus is the place of your gut instinct, the third eye is your intuition.
Health in this chakra means your intuition is reliable and accurate. It says you can visualize easily, have powerful insight, have excellent recall, and can remember your dreams. If this chakra is out of balance, you might suffer from nightmares, have trouble concentrating, and lean toward unhealthy or obsessive thoughts.
The sense connected to this chakra is intuition. Your intuition can be a powerful tool if you can silence the chaos of your inner chatterbox. Call on this chakra when you are looking for new ideas, are trying to gain a clear perspective of where you are in your life, want to improve your memory, or want to improve your psychic ability.
Crown Chakra
Color: Violet • Element: Thought • Sense: Consciousness
The location of the crown chakra is at the top of the head and is your connection to Source, Spirit, God—however you perceive the Divine. It is here that you receive cosmic awareness, enlightenment, and pure light. It allows for the inward flow of cosmic wisdom and is the gateway to other dimensions. The place from where you can travel on the astral plane.
Heath in this chakra means you are in touch with your divine source and you can walk through life with a sense of grace. You tend to have a calm presence and can see beyond the big picture. You can quickly assimilate and analyze complex information, and you have a broad and far-reaching understanding of life itself. If this chakra is out of balance, you might be cynical about anything you can’t touch or see, or you might experience the opposite of that: an addiction to meditation or some other spiritual practice, focusing too much on spirit realms and forgetting to stay grounded or pay your bills.
The sense connected to this chakra is consciousness. It is how you see beyond your human perception and existence to something greater than yourself. Tap into this chakra to connect with all that is.