The Crown Chakra

It is within you
that the Divine lives.

Joseph Campbell

Thought, Universal identity, oriented to self-knowledge

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Consciousness is the operating force in each of the chakras.

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Chakra Attributes

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Colour: Violet

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Function: Understanding, Knowing, Bliss

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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.

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

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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?

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Participant's responses:

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?

The Heart Chakra

"To love is the great amulet

that maks the world a garden."

Robert Louis Stevenson

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Chakra Four: Air, Social identity, oriented to self-acceptance

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This chakra is called the heart chakra and is the middle chakra in a system of seven. It is related to love and is the integrator of opposites in the psyche: mind and body, male and female, persona and shadow, ego and unity. A healthy fourth chakra allows us to love deeply, feel compassion, have a deep sense of peace and centeredness.

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Now that we have awakened the firest of our will, we are ready to enter the sacred and tenderrealm of the heart. Here lies the very centre of the chakra system as well as the heart of our being, the chamber from which we give and receive love.

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As we move onto the fourth chakra in Anodea Judith's Chakra Balancing Workbook, we must ask ourselves these questions:

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How do we open our hearts to love? What is this mysterious essence that has such power to rule our lives? What is its purpose in our journey through the chakras and how can we align ourselves with this purpose?

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These are the essential questions we ask of the heart, the organ whose beating defines life itself. But when we speak of the heart, we are speaking not of a physical organ out of a realm of connection, where we are beckoned to expand beyond ourselves and find union with another.

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Love is the essence of life. It is the ultimate healer, the most potent teacher, the inspiration for great works. For the child love provides the assurance of survival. For the adult, it brings the intimacy that allows acceptance and invites expansiveness. And while the desire to receive love is a basic need of all human beings, this alone will not open the heart.
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The Sanskrit name for this chakra is Anahata, meaninging unstuck or unhurt. To open the heart is to treat others (as well as things) with honour and respect and refrain from causing unneccessary harm. This occurs naturally when we discover the divine nature of the self within and realise that a similar nature resides within others and indeed all of life.

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An open heart feels compassion and empathy for both self and others. It understands the tender nature of spirit, the delightful joy of connection, and the deep peace of body, self and other, light and shadow, masculine and feminine, inner and outer realms. The result of this balance is peace.

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Chakra Attributes

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Color: Green

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Function: Love

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Healing Essence of the Chakra: Located in the region of the heart and between the shoulder blades, it is the area of the body where love resides, in the cave of the heart. The ecstasy of love teaches us to let go and trust in the world, ultimately transcending the flames of sexual passion and emptying our life, giving spirit and spirituality into the world.

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Keywords: Love, Unconditional Love, Surrender, Compassion, Forgiveness, Grace,

Peace

Affirmations:

• I am unconditionally loving of myself and others.
• There is an infinite supply of love in the world.
• I am love.

Interpreting excess or deficiency in the fourth chakra

Excessive characteristics:

• Codependency (focussing too much on others)
• Poor boundaries
• Jealousy
• Being a martyre
• Being a pleaser

Deficient characteristics:

• Antisocial, withdrawn
• Critical, intolerant
• Lonely, isolated
• Lack of empathy
• Fear of intimacy

Balanced characteristics:

• Caring
• Compassionate
• Empathetic
• Accepting
• Self-loving
• Peaceful
• Centered
• Content

The Fourth Chakra Self Evaluation

1. Are you able to love yourself as you are or do you put up certain conditions?
2. How often do you show your appreciation to those around you including strangers?
3. Are you holding onto any feelings of grief?
4. Do you have any feelings of hatred or resentment towards someone in your life? If so, what can you do to forgive this person and free yourself from these old wounds?
5. What parts of yourself do you deny? What can you do to reclaim aspects of yourself that you may have sacrificed to be accepted?

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See participants' responses:

1. Aurora
2. Mich
3. Hélène Deroubaix
4. Creative Spirit Faery

The Solar Plexus Chakra

“There is a force within that gives you life—Seek that.
In your body there lies a priceless jewel—Seek that.
Oh, Wandering Sufi, if you are in search of the greatest treasure, don’t look outside.
Look within, and Seek That”.

Rumi

Chakra Three: Fire, Ego identity, oriented to self-definition

This chakra is known as the power chakra, located in the solar plexus.

It rules our personal power, will, and autonomy, as well as our metabolism. When healthy, this chakra brings us energy, effectiveness, spontaneity, and non-dominating power.

Chakra Attributes:

• Color: Yellow


• Function: Will, Power, Laughter, Anger, Joy

Healing Essence of the Chakra:

Located above the navel, it corresponds to the solar plexus in the physical body.

This chakra opens the channels of power and acts like a radiant sun, storing power and energy for future use.

By directing the full force of our intention toward our dreams and goals and moving creatively through life, we leave the limiting aspects of our childhood behind.

We are transformed into sacred and peaceful warriors.

Keywords: Leadership, Power, Authority, Integrity, Consciousness, Courage, Action

Affirmations:

• I honor myself.


• I offer my light and service to the world.

Interpreting excess or deficiency in the third chakra:

Excessive Characteristics

• Dominating
• Controlling
• Competitive
• Arrogant
• Ambitious
• Hyperactive
• Stubborn
• Driven (compulsively focussed toward goals)
• Atracted to sedatives

Deficient Characteristics

• Passivity
• Lack of energy
• Poor digestion
• Tendency to be cold
• Tendency toward submission
• Blaming
• Low self-esteem, lack of confidence
• Weak will, poor self-discipline
• Use of stimulants

Balanced characteristics

• Responsible, reliable
• Good self-discipline
• Positive sense of self
• Confident
• Warm
• Energetic
• Spontaneous, playful, humorous
• Able to take risks

Answer the following questions:

1. How do you rate your energy levels?
   
2. Do you take appropriate action when your energy feels diminished?


3. Do you feel the need to conform?


4. Do you seek approval from other people?


5. Do you take responsibility for your own actions, or do you let other people control you?


6. Does shame influence your behaviour?


7. Do you assert yourself without dominating others?


8. Can you stay focussed on activities and see them through to completion?


9. Do you take risks in your life?

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Participant's responses:

1. Hélène Deroubaix
2. Mich

The Sacral Chakra

"Beneath heaven nothing is more soft and yielding than water.

Yet for attaching the solid and strong,

Nothing can take its place.

Therefore the soft can overcome the hard,

The weak can overcome the strong,

Under heaven everyone knows this,

Yet no one puts it into practice."

TAO TE CHING

Now we move up to the second chakra, the element of water and our feminine energy.

The second chakra, located in the abdomen, lower back, and sexual organs, is related to the element water, and to emotions and sexuality. It connects us to others through feeling, desire, sensation, and movement. Ideally this chakra brings us fluidity and grace, depth of feeling, sexual fulfillment, and the ability to accept change.

Where the earth is solid and fixed, water is fluid and formless. Where earth is solid and fixed, water is fluied and formless. Water follows the path of least resistance and flows downward, following the shape of earth or being absorbed into it. Where earth provides consistency, water induces changes. And Through change our consciousness begins to expand. Without water, growth is impossible. Water makes life juicy.

Our bodies -- made mostly of water -- are shaped by the structure of bones and muscles, but within these bodlies flow our emotions and desires, our wants and needs, our feelings and sensations.

The Sanskrit name for this chakra is Svadhisthana, which translates as "one's on place". This refers to the personal nature of the second chakra aspects of our emotions and sexuality. It is important that we stand in "our own place" within this chakra and define our sexual and emotional issues in a way that is suitable to our individual characters. If our roots are deep and well-watered, then our fruit will be sweet -- the Sanskrit verb svadha means "to sweeten". From the centre of one's own place, we sweeten life by opening to pleasure.

Pleasure is the motivating principle of the second chakra. Pleasure promotes well-being and is a natural healin force. It teaches us how to open up, how to move, how the reach beyond ourselves. Pleasure comes to us through any of our senses: seeing a sunset, tasting a meal, listening to music, savouring a lover's touch.

The senses are the first gatewa between the outer and inner world. To open our senses is to become sensible instead of senseless. Through the senses we first get "in touch". to be in touch is to know what we feel, to be awake and aware. To be in touch is to be connected.

The pull of the erotic in this chakra represents the universal urge to connect with others. through desire, emotion, pleasure, and sensation, we enter the complex realm of sexuality -- a place where we dissolve our boundaries and enter into intimacy with another. Dissolving is the beginning of our upward journey, whose ultimate goal is to enter mystic union with divine conciousness. While some traditions teach that pleasure is a dangerous distraction on the road to enlightenment, healthy pleasures -- such as touch, play, laughter, sexuality, and experiencing beauty - lead to contentment and peace, rather than an insatiable desire for more. In fact, it is often the denial of these simple, biological pleasures that leads to overindulgence and addiction.

Emtions are a composite of feeling and sensation. They give us a powerful source of information about our well-being. But we must understand the complext nature in order to stay afloat in the watery aspect of the second chakra.

Chakra Attributes

1. Sanskrit Name: Svadhisthana, which translates as "one's on place"
2. Color: Orange
3. Element: Water
4. Function: Desire, Pleasure, Sexuality, Procreation

Interpreting excess or deficiency in the sacral chakra

Excessive characteristics:

• Sexual addictions
• Obsessive attachments
• Addiction to stimulation
• Excessive mood swings
• Excessively sensitive
• Poor boundaries, invasion of others
• Emotional dependency
• Instability

Deficient characteristics:

• Rigidity in your body, beliefs or behaviour
• Emotional numbness or insensitivity
• Fear of change
• Lack of desire, passion, or excitement
• Avoidance of pleasure, fear of sexuality
• Poor social skills
• Excessive boundaries
• Boredom

Balanced characteristics:

• Graceful movements
• Ability to embrace change
• Emtional intelligence
• Nuturance of self and others
• Healthy boundaries
• Ability to enjoy pleasure
• Sexual satisfaction
• Passion

Healing essence of the sacral chakra

Located in our lower belly, it is where we relate to our bodies through the procreative centers. Through a healthy second chakra one can heal relationship problems, transform deep and hurtful emotions, and balance life.

Keywords: Life Energy, Creative, Procreative, Giving, Receiving, Inner Truth

Affirmations to practice this week:

• I make my decisions from a place of hope and faith.
• My creative drive is strong and exciting.
• My sexuality is fulfilling and meaningful.
• I am life.

Those of you who have bought Anodea Judith's Chakra Balancing Kit can move on to their workbooks, and if you like, blog your responses and link back to this post.

For those of you who don't have the book but would like to know a bit more about the first chakra, visit Anodea Judith's site and answer the questions below:

1. Do you express your emotions clearly and honestly?
2. Are you in touch with what you truly feel?
3. Do you set appropriate boundaries for yourself and in relation to others?
4. What pleasurable activites do you bring into your life?
5. Do you move towards change and new experiences, or are you resistant?
6. What are your passions?
7. Do you value your own feelings and respond to them?

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See participants responses to this post:

1. Mich

The root chakra

"Put seeds and cover them.

Blades will sprout

you do your work."

Rumi

As I'm sure you'd all agree, every journey begins with a single step.

In Chakra Balancing Anodea Judith suggests we take this step by making solid contact with earth, the element of the first chakra. So it if fitting that we begin our journey upward through the chakras by initially going down.

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Located at the base of the spine, this chakra forms our foundation. It represents the element earth, and is therefore related to our survival instincts, and to our sense of grounding and connection to our bodies and the physical plane.

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Ideally this chakra brings us health, prosperity, security, and dynamic presence.

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The root chakra represents how we interface with the physical ealm: our body, home, finances, work, and environment. It represents our physical identity -- the ability to identiy with our body and its needs.

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Increasing your contact with the natural world is an essential part of first chakra development. To treat the physical world as sacred is to honor what you do with your body and environment, the food you eat, the things you buy, and your means of livelihood.

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On a psychological level, the root chakra is associated with the survival instinct and the will to live, hence your basic health and vitality. As te final chakra in the descending current, it is here that you bring things into manifestation or completion. In order to fully manifest, you must be able to ground your energy into the earth.

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Chakra Attributes

1. Sanskrit name: Muladhara, meaning root support
2. Color: Red
3. Element: Earth
4. Function: Survival, grounding

Excessive characteristics:

• heaviness, sluggishness, slow movements
• resistance to change
• overeating, obesity,
• hoarding
• material fixation, greediness
• workaholism
• excessive spending

Deficient characteristics:

• fear, anxiety
• resistance to strucutre
• anorexia, underweight
• spaciness, flightiness, vagueness
• disconnection from your body
• restlessness, inability to sit still
• difficulty manifesting

Balanced characteristics: The following characteristics indicated a balanced first chakra. They are also the rewards that come from first chakra work.

• Groundedness
• Physical health
• Being comfortable in your body
• A sense of safety and security
• Stability and solidity
• Right livelihood
• Prosperity
• Ability to be still
• Presence in the here and now

Healing Essence of the Chakra

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Located at the base of the spine, it governs all aspects of grounding, inner security, sexuality, and safety issues brought from childhood or past lives. Becoming conscious of the first chakra allows one to tap into a life affirming power that is deep and profound.

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Keywords: Grounding, Sexuality, Life Affirming, Primal, Foundation

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Those of you who have bought Anodea Judith's Chakra Balancing Kit can move on to their workbooks, and if you like, blog your responses and link back to this post.

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For those of you who don't have the book but would like to know a bit more about the first chakra, visit Anodea Judith's site.

Affirmations to practice this week:

• I enjoy being in my body and I nourish it each day.
• I am connected to the earth and the safe foundation it provides for my future growth.
• I believe in my abundance.

You might want to answer these questions:

1. What is your relationship to your body, diet and exercise?
2. Do you suffer from any physical ailments?
3. Is your home environment nurturing & clean?
4. Are you on top of your finances?
5. Are you satisfied in your work?
6. How regularly do you spend time in nature?
7. Does fear hold you back in your life?
8. Can you take care of details and stay centred?

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See participant's responses:

1. Mich
2. Angela Eclectic Recovery (see response in comments section)
3. Hélène Deroubaix
4. Anna

Welcome to the journey!

"It is the tremendous experience

of becoming conscious,

which nature has laid upon mankind,

which unites the most diverse

cultures in a common task."

Carl G Jung

Welcome to the start of our journey, as we work our way through Anodea Judith's Chakra Balancing kit.

In the Chakra Balancing Workbook, Judith says the Chakra System is a map for the journey through life. Its seven rainbow colours represent the full spectrum of human possibility that stretches from the ordinary to the extraordinary, from Earth to Heaven, forming a bridge and describing the steps between them.

This map is an archetypal formula for wholeness that addresses the full spectrum of human possibility.

To navigate its territory is to take an exciting journey of awakening -- in body, mind, and spirit.

THE SEVEN WONDERS OF THE SOUL

"There is a bridge between time and eternity; this bridge is the individual soul, the Jiva."

Chandogya Upanishad

There are many challenges on this journey.

Try something new, and you might feel buterflies in your stomach. Try to speak up, and you might get a lump in your throat. Fall in love and you might feel your heart leap with joy and fear. These are all common activities that happen through your chakras. They occur for most people quite by accident. Sometimes the experiences are better than others.

Learning about the chakras gives you access to your programmed responses so you can minimise their negative effects and maximise their positive ones. But furst you need to understand just what the chakras are and how they work in your energy body.

The word chakra is Sanskrit for wheel or disk and signifies one of seven basic energy centers in the body. Each of these centres correlates to major nerve ganglia branching forth from the spinal column. In addition the chakras also correlate to levels of consciousness, archetypal elements, developmental stages of life, colors, sounds, body functions, and much, much more.

You can read more about Anodea Judith and the chakras here and and you'll also find some articles.

Those of you who have the kit, begin with CD one. Part One takes you on a journey through the general territory of the chakras. Its purpose is to make initial contact with your own energy centres and their and their contents.

Next week we'll explore how to deepen your connection to your first chakra.

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Read participant's responses:

1. Mich

Chakra Balancing

I wanted to get a feel from you all this week to see if you're interested in healing and awakening your energy body.

A couple of months ago I bought Anodea Judith's Chakra Balancing Kit. It includes a work book, two audio CDs and Chakra Cards.

We could spend 7 weeks travelling through the Chakras together and journal our experience in our blogs.

You can check it out at Amazon they have new and used copies available. I bought mine from the local new-agey book store.

Anodea Judith has such a wealth of knowledge to share about the chakras - you can even buy the kit directly from her if you wish.

Please let me know in the comments section if you'd like to do this - if so, we can start on Sunday 3 November 2007.

Namaste.

mich