The Crown Chakra

It is within you
that the Divine lives.

Joseph Campbell

Thought, Universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge

.

The crown chakra relates to consciousness as pure awareness. It is our connection to the greater world beyond, to a timeless, spaceless place of all-knowing. When developed, this chakra brings us knowledge, wisdom, understanding, spiritual connection, and bliss.

.

The Crown chakra is the final chakra in our journey. Anodea Judith asks us to imagine that our torso is a sturdy stem with its roots sunk deep into the earth. Imagine your roots are nurtured by water in the sacral chakra, and that your stem is fed by the firey solar plexus to rise into the air, vibrating in sound and light, to at last explode into a thousand shining lotus petals at the top of the crown. At the centre of the lotus, your individual point of awareness connects with the orarching field of divine intelligence, knowing there is no separation. In the true meaning of the word yogo as union, the individual and divine are at last linked in their common field of consciousness. To be aware of this unity and to go beyond that awareness into simply 'being' this unity is the essence of realisation.

.

The crown chakra represents the underlying conscicousness that is the basic operating principle in all of the chakras. Only consciousness is capable of seeing, speaking, loving, doing, feeling, and living. In our work in the seventh chakra we seek to free that consciousness from its usual distrations to experience its own limitless nature. This is the ecstaatic culmination of the liberating current in its final goal of ultimate freedom (mukti). This is the seat of enlightenment and the ultimate source of awakening.

.

Yogis spend their lives in practices designed to achieve this state of ultimate freedom, although there are few who achieve full enlightenment. Yet, we all have some enlightening moments, those little 'ahas' of realisation that give us a small taste of liberation. For most of us, it is only a glimpse from which consciousness then descends back into manifestation. But from this awakening the sweet nectar of divine wisdom condenses into ever firmer realities, step by step, extending downward through each of the chakras. Like raindrops collecting into pools, the chakras condense consciousness into the various qualities of manifestation, both within and around us. In Sanskrit these ualities are called tattvas, represented by elements we have been balancing in the lower chakras.

.

Manifestation begins in consciousness with an initial conception. You first conceive of an idea, then daydream about it by creating pictures or blueprints (chakra six), talk about it to others (chakra five), bring it into relationship (chakra four), give it energy (chakra three), achieve connection (chakra two), and finally manifest it on the physical plane (chakra one). If you want to see what divine consciousness looks like, you need only look around you to see the hidden signature of creation in the natural world. To see the manifestation of your personal consciousness, just look at your immediate surroundings. As you remove blocks and distractions from your consciousness, through healing old wounds and focusing the mind in meditation, the field around you will gradually become ordered and spacious.

.

Consciousness is the operating force in each of the chakras.

.

Chakra Attributes

.

Colour: Violet

.

Function: Understanding, Knowing, Bliss

.

Healing Essence of the Chakra: Located at the top of the head and extending upward to the Heavens, it is called the “Crown Chakra,” “the gateway to divine spirit.” A true aspirant grounds such energy to include the work and focus of daily life. Wisdom emanates from those who walk in spirit with both feet firmly planted on the ground.

.

Keywords: Enlightenment, Prayer, Meditation, Transformation, Divinity, Wisdom

.

Affirmations:

• I am guided by my higher power and higher wisdom.
• I am awakened.

Interpreting excess or deficiency in the seventh chakra

Excessive characteristics

• Dissociation from the body
• Spiritual addiction
• Confusion
• Over-intellectualisation
• Living "in your head"
• Disconnection from spirit
• Excessive attachments

Deficient characteristics

• Spiritual cynicism
• A closed mind
• Learning difficulties
• Rigid belief systems
• Apathy

Balanced characteristics

• Spiritual connection
• Wisdom and mastery
• Intelligence, presence
• Open-mindedness, ability to question
• Ability to assimilate and analyse information

The seventh chakra self evaluation

1. What attachments do you have in your life and how could you release them?
2. What is your concept of the divine and how much time do you put aside to contemplate this?
3. Tune into what thoughts occupy your mind on a daily basis and decide if they serve you in a positive way or are they self-limiting beliefs?
4. How can you bring a sense of the sacred in your daily life?
5. How often do you show gratitude towards everything that you have in your life?

-----------------------------------

Participant's responses:

You make my day

I would like to thank Rebecca from Gratitude Practices for honoring me by awarding me the You Make My Day Award.

Rebecca, it has indeed been an honour sharing this journey with you and the other participants at Rainbow Dreams -- in fact, you made my day!

I thank you all for your support and love, its humbling. So now its time to honour my fellow travellers.

The Rules: Give the award to up to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel so happy about blogland! Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so that they can pass it on. Beware! You may get the award several times!
There are so many people who inspire me on a daily basis with their courage in showing up for their lives, following their hearts and working to manifest their dreams. I don't read a lot of blogs, but the ones I read are listed on the side of my blog.

All these goddesses visit and participate in Rainbow Dreams regularly. Visiting their blogs always brings a gentle smile to my face as I witness their strength, vulnerabily and beauty:

1. Hélène Deroubaix
2. Aurora
3. Creative Spirit Faery
4. iGoddess
5. The Modern Goddess
6. The Dream
7. Midwest Musings

Please visit their blogs!

The Third Eye Chakra

Your vision will become clear only

when you look into your heart.

Who looks outside, dreams.

Who looks inside, awakens.

Carl Jung

Chakra Six: Light, Archetypal identity, oriented to self-reflection

This chakra is known as the brow chakra or third eye center. It is related to the act of seeing, both physically and intuitively. As such it opens our psychic faculties and our understanding of archetypal levels. When healthy it allows us to see clearly, in effect, letting us "see the big picture."

After refining your energy body through the purification of sound in the fifth chakra, the journey moves deeper into your inner world. Anodea Judith guides us to our sixth chakra, the centre of illumination, the gateway to wisdom, and the luminescent source of the light within.

To enter this chakra is to discover a world of indescribable beauty. It is to seek the light of consciousness and learn how to focus that light in order to see clearly. This is the homeland of intuition, dreams and visions.

The sixth chakra is often called the third eye, an etheric organ of consciousness that lies directly behind and between your two physical eyes. The third eye is capable of seeing beyond the density of the physical world into the subtler realms of energy and spirit. Only be training your consciousness to be focused and directed can you harness the immense gifts of this visionary centre.

Shiva, one of the principle Hindu gods, is sometimes depicted with a thunderbolt emanating from his third eye for the purpose of destroying illusion. As you learn to focus your attention, you have a means to free yourself from illusion and begin to perceive the ultimate nature of reality.

The name of this chakra, ajina, means both to perceive and to command. To perceive is to see or recognise a pattern. To command is to hold a picture in your mind as a guiding template for manifestation. It is important to be conscious of these internal pictures so that you create from clarity and intention rather than illusion.

The sixth chakra is about seeing in the deepest sense. What does it mean to really see? Even when our eyes are open, we remain unaware of many things that are within our visual field. To see deeply requies a focus of consciousness in a particular direction and to look at something long enough to turn its patterns into meaning. We use the expression "I see" to denote understanding, even using it in reactin to words, feelings, or ideas. It is this kind of seeing that is the basis of insight, the ability to see inside, and to perceive the patterns we create. Through insight we are able to free ourselves from constricting patters and to achieve liberation.

As you enter this chakra, look deeply within. Take time to detach from your suroundings and look at them objectively. Focus your attention. Validate your intuitions. Follow your dreams.

Chakra Attributes

Color: Indigo/Cobalt

Function: Intuition

Healing Essence of the Chakra: Located in the center of the forehead between the eyebrows, it is identified with the Third Eye. This chakra asks that a person look within to find the wisdom of the soul. It affects the brain and the neuralgic system, which stimulate the endocrine and pituitary systems. At the highest level, when this chakra has connected with the Heart Chakra, divine love and light emanates out to the world.

Keywords: Clear Vision, Genius, Imagination, Dreams, Quiet, Inner Peace

Affirmations:

• I see the light and it guides my way.
• I listen, I hear, I speak the truth.

Interpreting excess or deficiency in the sixth chakra

Excessive characteristics:

• Hallucinations
• Delusions
• Obsessions
• Nightmares
• Intrusive memories
• Difficulty concentrating
• Excessive fantasising

Deficient characteristics:

• Lack of imagination
• Difficulty visualising
• Insensitivity
• Excessive skepticism
• Denial (can't see what's going on)
• Inability to see alternatives

Blanced characteristics

• Strong intuition
• Penetrating insight
• Creative imagination
• Good memory
• Good dream recall
• Ability to visualise
• Has a guiding vision for life

The sixth chakra self-evaluation

1. Can you see what is really going on in your life or do you try to keep certain things buried?
2. Do you have a personal vision for your life?
3. Are you aware of what archetypal influences may be guiding or limiting your life?
4. Are you aware of your dreams and the symbolic messages they may hold for you?
5. Do you trust your intuition?
   

The Throat Chakra

Kind words can be short and easy to speak,

but their echoes are truly endless.

Mother Teresa

Chakra Five: Sound, Creative identity, oriented to self-expression

This is the chakra located in the throat and is thus related to communication and creativity. Here we experience the world symbolically through vibration, such as the vibration of sound representing language.

As we move into working with our Throat Chakra, Anodea Judith tells us to take a beath and listen to the air rushing into your lungs. Let the breath out with a sound, touching your fingers to your throat, and feel the vibration of the fifth chakra. With this simple motion of moving air through your body you express the consciousness inside and influence the reality around you. This is the essence of communication.

Sound, vibration, rhythm, music, voice, words, communication. Thse are all aspects of the fifth chakra, located in the throat, literally the bottleneck of the whole chakra system. Its name, Vissudha, means purification, as the release of sound urifies and orders the energy body for entry into higher consciousness.

This chakra is about opening the voice, speaking your truth, and freeing your creativity. It is where you take the will from the third chakra, add it to the breath in the fourth chakra, and energise the ideas coming down from the mind to express yourself in the world. Through communication you connect, expand, and unite with others, creating your world as you go.

The essence of this chakra is to find resonance and harmony with all that is vibrating around you. It is to open to speaking and listening, toning and singing, moving and dancing, and from this synergy you open your creativity to express your deepest self.

To open the fifth chakra is to commune, a word which forms the root of communication, and literally means to be one with. To communice with self and spirit is to take yet anotehr step toward the realisation of unity with all things.

Chakra Attributes

Color: Blue

Function: Communication, Creativity, Connection

Healing Essence of the Chakra: Located in the throat and neck region of the body and extending upward to include the lower region of the brain or cortex, this area holds the communication center. Through the Throat Chakra one may speak long-held truths of past hurts and, in the process, find much inner peace and a sense of personal freedom. With a healed and healthy fifth chakra, one’s words are kind, clear and truthful.

Keywords: Truth, Self-Expression, Song, Poetry, Clarity, Communication

Affirmations:

• I am the messenger.
• I speak my truth with clarity and courage.

Interpreting excess or deficiency in the fifth chaka

Excessive Characteristics

• Talking too much or inappropriately
• Gossiping
• Stuttering
• Difficulty being silent
• Excessive loudness
• Inability to contain (keep confidences, etc)

Deficient characteristics

• Difficulty putting things in words
• Fear of speaking
• Speaking with a small, weak voice
• Secretiveness
• Excessive shyness
• Tone deafness

Balanced characteristics

• Reasonant, full voice
• Clear communication with others
• Good communication with self
• Good listener
• Good sense of timing and rhythm
• Lives life creatively

The fifth chakra self evaluation

1. Are you comfortable with your own voice? Have you ever listened to its reasonace?
2. Do you allow other people to have their say and be heard?
3. In what ways do you express yourself creatively?
4. Do you feel that people hear you?
5. Do you communicate your feelings open and honestly?