Light my fire

Energetically, physically, emotionally and mentally, we are all powerful, radiant beings. However, we may not always be living from a place where we accept and radiate our own power. Sometimes we may feel like it would be easier not to have to interact and bargain and state our worth to people at all. Sometimes we may give in and accept less than we’re worth. These are all symptoms of an under-active solar plexus chakra. Natalie Southgate

When I left my marriage seven years ago, I was a shivering mess of a woman. In fact, I should say shivering mess of a girl rather than a woman, even though I was well into my thirties.

All my life I had given my power to others, thinking everyone else knew better for me than I did, mostly because they told me that, but also I had never outgrown that childish irresponsibility of happily letting others take control.

Avoiding conflict seemed the peaceful path, and so I would give in to the needs and demands of others. It was just easier.

I had never stepped into my own power, never fully embraced my own authenticity or sense of integrity. Although I had some degree of a spiritual life, it could never fully come to fruition while I continued to place human powers ahead of my own connection with the divine.

Life is the sum of all your choices. Albert Camus

For years I was fuelled by fear and anxiety, as I forged through those hideous early months and years of separation and divorce. Trying not to take on my ex’s bitter rage, trying to sort out parenting arrangements, trying to mend bridges with my step-sons who rightly felt abandoned by me leaving them behind.

Then just as the sun seemed to finally peek back through the clouds, and life seemed to settle into a more mellow pace, my body completely crashed. It sounds dramatic I know, but that’s really what happened. The official diagnoses included depression, anaemia, low blood pressure, adrenal fatigue, leaky gut… Not to mention a whole lot of head-scratching by doctors who really couldn’t understand what was going on in my body, never mind why.

In retrospect I can see all those symptoms had one root cause, power loss. After years of giving my power away, I was bankrupt, and was running dangerously low on life force.

One of the greatest struggles of the healing process is to forgive both yourself and others and to stop expending valuable energy on the past hurts. Caroline Myss

It was during this time, researching my first blog, that I discovered Chakradance. Although I knew of the chakras and had always felt drawn to Indian mysticism, I can’t recall exactly how I found myself at the website.

Something drew me there and something about the name, the Sanskrit-inspired lettering, the colours and description of the practice set off bells and whistles in my gut. Before I even knew what I was responding to, my spirit was shouting “Yes! For Gods sake, YES!”

Thus began my Chakradance journey, which started with me dancing along to a DVD in my lounge room and has grown into a beautiful practice, a way of life and a spiritual business.

While I would never want to single out one chakra as being more fundamental than another, I think all newcomers to Chakradance identify pretty quickly where they are blocked or deficient. For me it was primarily the solar plexus.

When facilitating a class, I always explain to participants that they may encounter a chakra where the music doesn’t resonate, or where their dance feels stilted, or they just disconnect and their mind wanders off. For me the solar plexus was the triple whammy.

The tribal, warrior dance-inspired music – that I have since grown to love – was initially abrasive. My dancing, so smooth and graceful in the sacral chakra became jerky and off-beat. I often joke to people who have a similar experience with this chakra – it’s very common – that I danced like Peter Garrett, from Midnight Oil.

The Chakradance facilitator training involves a deep-dive into each chakra through dance, Jungian archetypes, energetic practices and journal writing. When I reached the solar plexus, I had little expectations because of my previous experiences.

Nothing ever goes away until it teaches us what we need to know. Pema Chodron 

The dance of Manipura (the solar plexus chakra) begins with a flame, and as the music intensifies, the fire increases, I danced like wildfire. I became one with the fire, I was fire, flickering and wild. It felt incredibly liberating and powerful, and then all of a sudden my perception shifted dramatically.

The experience transformed from being elemental fire, to being ON fire – being burned, encased in flames – and all the powerful emotions that came with it. Horror, fear, panic.

During the dance I became angry, outraged, I found myself growling and shouting, I was defending myself against people who had abused me, punished me, shamed me, or taken my power away. It was a stream of vitriol that started as a very young child and worked its way through to the more recent relationships in my life. Doctors, teachers, partners, family, friends, one after another I got very angry about all the times I had disempowered myself or been disempowered in these relationships.

Even knowing it was just in the dance, the emotional reaction was profound. Recovering in child’s pose, I found myself saying to myself, “that was then, this is now, it is safe to be powerful now.”

As I incanted this affirmation, there came a vision of a fiery cauldron burning away the hurts of the past, all those experiences where I was persecuted, shamed, or abused for expressing my power. An image came to me of a golden cauldron on a large fire, and I poured all this emotion into the pot, to be transformed by the fire.

That night I dreamt that a golden pot exploded – flipping its lid – with such a force it woke me up. Manipura had been activated!

Meditate there on the region of Fire, triangular in form and shining like the rising sun. Purnananda

The image of the cauldron is meaningful. In both Taoist and Celtic traditions, the three cauldrons are the energy centres which are roughly equivalent to the seven chakras in the yoga tradition. The first cauldron in the Celtic system is the cauldron of heat, or Coire Goiraith, and in the Taoist tradition, is known as “the golden stove” representing the refining and vitality of the life force into the Ching energy, which is basically a highly refined, super potent form of chi, or life force energy.

Since then I continue to connect deeply in this chakra. After my last few months of immersion in the waters of Svadisthana, I knew I needed to wake this fire up again. I needed energy, motivation, will to power. All the aspects of Manipura.

Manipura is the seat of personal power and will. It is the fire that fuels our metabolism, and if it’s activated it increases our energy, drive, and sense of purpose. Who couldn’t use some of that?

According to tantric texts, it is in manipura that the spiritual activation of the kundalini takes place, as it is the junction of two vital forces, prana and apana. As we breathe prana rises from the navel to the throat and apana rises from Muladhara – the root chakra – to the navel. Manipura is considered the activation point for these subtle energies. In the sacred alchemy described in Taoist texts, this corresponding dantien is the furnace.

From Manipura chakra emanate ten nadis appearing like the petals of a lotus. The lotus is yellow and the petals depict the ten pranas, vital forces, which control and nourish all the functions of the body. On each petal is inscribed a letter in blue, giving the sound vibrations produced by the ten nadis. Inside the yellow lotus is an inverted red triangle-shaped yantra, representing the fire element, the spreading of energy. The inverted triangle also suggests the movement of energy downward. On its three sides the triangle has svastika signs shaped like a ‘T’, representing the formative force of fire (tejas tattva). At the lower end of the inverted triangle is a symbolic animal, a ram, representing dynamism and endurance. The ram is the vehicle of Agni (the fire God) and on it is inscribed the bija mantra ‘ram’, which lies latent. This is the symbol of the Divine Intelligence presiding over fire. Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power

So let’s start with the Sanskrit meaning of Manipura – which is city of jewels, mani means jewels and pura city. What are these jewels? The jewels of Manipura are self-confidence, self-assurance, clarity, wisdom and knowledge. Unlike the higher centres where this knowledge may be more subtle, in Manipura the gift of knowledge is translated into will and action. It is the knowledge that enables us to make authentic and empowered decisions for ourselves. The solar plexus chakra is where our mental intentions become manifest. Here our will is fired by passion, purpose and energy.

This centres awakens our sense of individuality. Where as the first and second centres activates our awareness of our physical and sensory natures respectively, it is in Manipura that we begin to individuate, we experience our sense of self as a distinct identity.

This chakra is our autonomy, our sovereignty, our authenticity. As Shakespeare said “to thine own self be true,” Manipura is where we can find this truth. Manipura is thought of as the centre of willpower, vitality, achievement. It is the force that makes us act in the world.

It has a corresponding centre in the physical body, the solar plexus, which governs our digestive fires and heat regulation in the body. Manipura regulates our pranic – or life force – energy throughout our body, controlling our energy balance, vitality and strength.

This chakra helps develop the ego, creating our self-identity. Concerned with assertiveness and personal power, it is easy to see where this chakra can be out of balance. Either in excess feeling a desire for material power and control over people, or deficient in allowing ourselves to be dominated by others.

The archetype of the warrior epitomises the energy of this chakra.

The archetypes that we live out reflect the psychological patterning of self-care and worthiness, demonstrating the degree to which we love and cherish ourselves. The archetypes are also a metaphor for the strength of our vital energy, and the degree of creativity and pleasure we enjoy. Ambika Wauters

I wrote in my last post of becoming immersed in the watery, emotional world of the unconscious. My mandala drawings were full of water serpents chasing their tails, and I see how easy it might be to sink into those waters. What I needed was the sun rise to call me up and out, to again experience the heat and fiery passion of the dawn.

While we can dive into our unconscious and dance in our sensory waters, we cannot live there, there is no momentum.The unconscious is rendered conscious in the light of Manipura. Rising from sacral depths our emotions are digested and processed in the solar plexus chakra.

Here in Manipura, we have to contend with both the fire of desire and the power of the emotions. Without the fire in our bellies we could be stuck in the mud, or stay in the dark oceanic depths. Here in this energy centre we rise like the sun and the will to action is engaged.

You must have control of the authorship of your own destiny. The pen that writes your life story must be held in your own hand. Irene C. Kassorla

As much as our shadow side is unconscious and hidden, it does want to be seen. Those parts of ourselves that are underdeveloped, or we turn a blind eye to, will project themselves onto other people and life circumstances to force us to see the things we try to avoid in ourselves. All this owning of our truth, our authenticity and our power comes to light in the solar plexus.

Here we experience the light bulb moment, as the light illuminates the dark and we see what we have been wrestling with in the murky depths of the sacral waters. Unconscious becomes conscious awareness.

Dancing the solar plexus chakra was the catalyst for this process, allowing me to release all the ways I had been disempowered.

Our fiery natures gets dampened through our way of life in the west, through societal conformity and a focus on relating to others, which is all very base and sacral chakra stuff. The epidemic of depression and anxiety in modern westernised cultures could reflect a generalised loss of connection to the vital core of spiritual power, based in the solar plexus.

Above the inverted triangle is the storm-God Rudra (Shiva), portrayed as an old Shiva, daubed with white ashes, who represents the power of destruction. Presiding over the subtle body, seated beside Rudra, is his consort, the three-headed, four-armed goddess of fire, Lakini. Arthur Avalon, The Serpent Power

The solar plexus Chakradance is a journey with the Warrior archetype, with our relationship to masculinity. What does ‘warrior’ mean in our world? Integrity, perhaps? Not being silenced by ideals of correctness?

Servitude, the opposite archetypal energy means following the party line, subsuming ones own needs and desires beneath the needs and desires of others.

In an age of rampant political correctness, it is a fine line between respect for difference and being silenced from speaking our thoughts because they might offend someone.

There’s certainly plenty of anti-masculine rhetoric that goes around, as if the feminine alone could save the world. What will save humanity, if indeed it even needs saving, is balance. I’m not talking homogenisation here, I mean true balance, where all aspects of our selves can be healthily expressed. Where masculine traits are not derided.

We give away our power all the time, in our choice of lifestyle, where we spend our money, what we choose to do with our time. If the power of Manipura is considered masculine, if the warrior archetype is considered masculine, if authenticity, autonomy, the will to power is masculine, I say we all need plenty of that.

Every time you don’t follow your inner guidance, you feel a loss of energy, loss of power, a sense of spiritual deadness. Shakti Gawain

For women, it may help to think of this archetype as sovereignty, as the warrior queens who stood their ground under all kinds of difficult circumstances, who prized integrity and autonomy as the highest goals.

As we move into the heart chakra, we begin to balance and integrate these masculine and feminine energies, but before integration comes activation, and I feel that this chakra is so out of whack in our culture. Most of us are just living in the box we were provided with, enjoying our small illusions of freedom and autonomy. While a few are overactive in the chakra wielding tyrannical control and destruction over the world.

Until we activate, acknowledge and integrate our inner warriors, the shadow warrior will continue to rage in the collective unconscious of humankind.

Did you exchange a walk-on part in the war, for a lead role in a cage? Pink Floyd

Like all archetypes, the warrior is a stage we must develop through, taking the lessons and integrating them as we move into the next phase of development. Archetypes are two dimensional aspects, as such we try them on, act them out, but they are rites of passage, stages we move through to differentiate and ultimately integrate the various aspects of self.

As teenagers when the energy of Manipura really fires up, we may find ourselves butting heads with the world, but at some point we have to turn all that passion and will power within to foster our own integrity and personal authenticity. This inner warrior needs discipline equal to its fiery passion.

Many people misunderstand Tantra as being about sex. What Tantra really does is provide a system for engaging with, managing and ultimately uniting our inner masculine and feminine energies. The tantric practitioner seeks union of the shakti and shiva within their subtle body, by encouraging the upward movement of the feminine kundalini energy to unite in Sahasrara – the crown chakra – with the masculine shiva energy. As in Jungian psychological terms, the goal is an inner union, an integration of forces, that he called individuation.

By meditating on the navel centre one attains knowledge of the whole body. Patanjali

5 top tips for balancing your solar plexus chakra by Chakradance founder Natalie Southgate:

1. Take responsibility for your life; avoid blaming others, circumstances, or fate.
2. Develop a strong sense of self and keep sight of your own unique direction, ambitions and goals. Take the right action to achieve these goals.
3. Find appropriate self-discipline in your life.
4. Create good boundaries.
5. Call to mind and celebrate your achievements and successes.

Expressing power need not be an act of overpowering. It is an act of being in touch with who you truly are and having your actions follow that belief. It is being able to commit, have integrity, keep your word and deal honourably. A balanced and healthy solar plexus chakra allows us to live lives of dignity and self-respect. Natalie Southgate

Blessings!

Things that makes you go Om

Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. Basho

People often ask me, “what are the chakras?” And rightly so, I do teach Chakradance.

In truth, probably like all ancient systems, the chakras just ain’t what they used to be. And for good reason, the world ain’t what it used to be. Any system worth its salt must be adaptable to change. Nothing stays still for thousands of years, particularly not whirling vortices of energy.

The more I read and learn about ancient systems, be it the Hindu chakra system, druidry or shamanism, the more I begin to understand that there is no one ‘standard system.’ These systems were highly localised and steeped in the culture and traditions of the people who developed them.

So where does that leave a woman of Irish descent, living in Australia, with an innate fascination for Indian mysticism?

Good question. Can you let me know when you figure it out?

The ancients created a profound system. We can now marry this wisdom with modern information about the natural world, the body, and the psyche, to create an even more effective system. Anodea Judith

Seriously though, it leaves me where most of us seekers are these days… Trying to find meaning in a world where culture has been stripped away, appropriated, and misrepresented. Most of us have not been raised in a lineage of a cultural spiritual tradition, some of our cultural traditions barely even exist anymore. Due to mass migration, many of us have been raised in lands far removed and alien to those of our ancestors.

Even though I have lived in this beautiful land all my life, I am not one of the First People and as such I am not privy to much of their sacred law. Nor should I be, I respect that. In addition to that, our education system has largely ignored indigenous history and wisdom, so what I could have been taught, I haven’t. I intend to remedy that now.

So, I find myself walking a fine line between research and direct experience. I keep an open mind, I read, I look out for interesting people with like-minds, I journey with spirit. And somehow, as I continue to follow the next obvious step on this path, I am guided to the things that illuminate my way.

Every breath is a sacrament, an affirmation of our connection with all other living things, a renewal of our link with our ancestors and a contribution to generations yet to come. Our breath is a part of life’s breath, the ocean of air that envelopes the earth. David Suzuki

It’s a patchwork journey. A zigzag path. A bit of this, a bit of that. Sometimes I get lost in all the competing avenues of interest. This week in particular I have had moments of indecision paralysis because I have “homework” from my druidry course, my nature magic course, and my shamanic journeying course. What do I do first?

Then I remind myself, they’re just different pathways, the destination is the same. And I try to find pathways that are meaningful to me, that make sense together, for me, as a Western woman.

I just keep connecting, and trust that spirit will guide me.

And I see connections everywhere. The similarities between the druidic path and the shamanic path, and many ancient belief systems continue to astound me. The representation of spirit as something that can be mapped and worked with, appears across belief systems.

At the heart of most eastern philosophies lies an understanding of the mystical channels of energy that flow through our bodies. The word ‘chakra’ is an ancient Sanskrit word, which literally translated means ‘wheel’.

Just a quick note here on the use of the word ‘energy’. I refer to the subtle energy as described so well by physicist F David Peat:

Many of the biochemical processes within the body involve exchanges of physical energy, but these grosser forms of energy are not what I take the terms healing energy and subtle energy to mean. Rather, the latter are like the activity of a conductor of an orchestra or the choreographer of a ballet, that integrates and coordinates into one cohesive movement all the bio-chemical and energy processes of the body. F David Peat

The chakra system is a system of energy and information. The chakras are part of the subtle energy body, which means they can’t be seen with the naked eye. Some highly sensitive people can perceive the chakras, which is why the original information recorded by the earliest Indian mystics is still proving to be pretty accurate today. All people can learn to attune themselves to these subtle energy channels.

Here in this body are the sacred rivers, here are the sun and moon, as well as the pilgrimage places. I have not encountered another temple as blissful as the body. Saraha Doha

The chakras are part of the yoga tradition. Yoga meaning ‘yoke’ or union is the practice designed to yoke the mortal, physical self, to the divine nature of pure consciousness. Yoga and the early concepts of energy centres first appear in the Vedic texts of India from about 4,000 years ago. Following the Vedas were the texts of the Upanishads and the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali.

The idea of the subtle vital force (prana) and the channels along which it flows (nadis) appear in the earliest Upanishads. The heart was said to be the centre of the 72,000 nadis or subtle channels.

Within these Hindu scriptures, the chakra concept became a part of a complex set of ideas related to esoteric anatomy, or as Caroline Myss refers to it, the ‘anatomy of the spirit.’ What we may be learning to manage here then, is our soul.

Subtle energy is like the underlying meaning and coherence which remains implicate in the phenomenal world. Jason Kirkey

These texts mention varying numbers of chakras. Over time, one system of six or seven chakras along the body’s axis became the dominant model, adopted by most schools of yoga. This particular system originated in about the tenth century, and rapidly became widely popular. It is in this model where Kundalini – divine feminine shakti energy – is said to “rise” upward, piercing the various centres until reaching the crown of the head, resulting in union with the Divine Shiva energy.

It was the tantra tradition that moved from the dualistic worldview of the ancient Hindu texts, of matter and spirit as distinct things, that earthly desires should be renounced in the pursuit of enlightenment, to a non-dual idea of integration of body and spirit, to be in the world, not apart from it, a weaving together of the previous traditions, that included the chakras, and saw the body as a sacred temple for spirit.

The practice of tantra is about inner-transformation. The energy involved in the process of tantric transformation is the energy of our own bliss. Prana Gogia

In the tantric texts, the Sat-Cakra-Nirupana, and the Padaka-Pancaka, the chakras are described as emanations of consciousness from Brahman, a spiritual energy which flows through the crown and gradually becomes denser, creating these distinct levels of chakras, and eventually finds its rest in the Muladhara, or base, chakra. Another text, the Gorakshashatakam gives specific instructions for meditating on the chakras.

The word tantra, which has a dubious reputation in the West as predominantly sexual practices, actually means ‘loom’ and denotes this weaving together of the principles of yoga, the kundalini energy, and deity worship, including practices for mastering our spiritual energy.

The soul… is the primary organizing, sustaining, and guiding principle of a living being. Thomas Berry

The chakra system was popularised in the West by Sir John Woodroffe (writing as Arthur Avalon), in his book, The Serpent Power, which was an English translation of these tantric texts.

Theosphists Charles Leadbeater and Alice Bailey investigated the connections they saw between the chakras and the biology of the human body – associating each chakra with particular endocrine glands and nerve ganglions or plexii in the sympathetic nervous system. According to their clairvoyant perception, the chakras were seen as energy vortexes in the each of the subtle bodies – or layers of the aura. This is quite different to the Indian traditions, where the chakras are subtle centres of consciousness, but have no independent energy status.

Carl Jung and Rudolph Steiner further integrated Eastern spiritual concepts with the evolving theories of Western psychological development. They believed the chakras develop from conception as we age physically, emotionally, and spiritually, starting with the base chakra and moving up into our individual energy expressions and finally up to our connection with the source energy. Jung saw the chakras as an analogy for the progression towards individuation.

To gain that which is worth having, it may be necessary to lose everything else. Bernadette Devlin

Many New Age writers, such as Anodea Judith in her book Wheels of Life, and Caroline Myss in her book, Energy Anatomy, have written about their experiences with the chakras in great detail, including the reasons for their functions and associations.

Anodea Judith points out that the associations of the spectrum colours to chakras is a Western addition, attributed to Christopher Hills who published a book entitled Nuclear Evolution in the early 1970’s. The addition of the rainbow colours has hugely influenced Western thinking about the chakras.

According to the Eastern texts, the chakras are formed at the junctions of three connected energy channels, or nadis, that ascend the spine, one on each side, and spiralling around, the central channel, the Shushumna. The two lesser channels of energy – the Pingala on the right and Ida on the left – run parallel to the spinal cord. Chakras both take up and collect prana (life force energy) and transform and pass on energy. This system can be seen as a road map for energy transmission and organisation throughout the subtle energy body.

Chakras are organizing centres within the body for the receiving, processing, and distributing of life energies. Anodea Judith

In the Western approach, which is less esoteric, and more holistic, than the traditional Hindu concept of the chakra system, each chakra is associated with a certain part of the body, and a certain organs and endocrine glands. The endocrine system is a collection of hormone-producing glands, which act as the body’s chemical messengers, and instruct the body in the bodily functions attributed to each chakra.

In the West the chakras are often seen as analogous to ‘computer software’ programmes which relate to our safety, sexuality, power, love, communication, intuition and self-realisation. They have the power to affect our health, emotions, thoughts and behaviours in a positive or negative way.

This is seen as the energy exchange of the mind-body-spirit interaction, and as every organ in the human body has its equivalent on the mental and spiritual level, so too every chakra corresponds to a specific aspect of human behaviour and development.

The lower chakras are associated with fundamental emotions and needs, for the energy here vibrates at a lower frequency and is therefore denser in nature. The finer energies of the upper chakras corresponds to our higher mental and spiritual aspirations and faculties.

Man did not weave the web of life, he is merely a strand in it. Whatever he does to the web, he does to himself. Chief Seattle

Chakradance incorporates the concepts of the chakras as interpreted by Western thinkers, particularly influenced by Carl Jung, Arthur Avalon, and Anodea Judith. These writers extensively studied the Hindu texts, and then incorporated them into a conceptual framework that was meaningful to the Western mind.

The chakras regulate a field of energy called the aura – a dynamic, energetic matrix, which includes the physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual aspects of our being.

Whereas the original Indian texts associated sounds – mantras – and deities with each chakra, a practice followed by Anodea Judith and Chakradance, Jung presented the chakras as a system of psycho-spiritual awakening, and used developmental stages of the psyche and archetypes to convey this system. 

As long as we’re in a state of confusion, overwhelmed by the three conflicting emotions, trapped in cyclic existence, we’re not happy and we can’t benefit sentient beings. Even though we think we might be benefitting them, ultimately we’re not. Ngagpa Yeshe Dorje

The chakras are often described in the West as energetic ‘gateways’, which connect the various layers of the aura. They move like wheels and open like petals of a flower, allowing the subtle energies to flow freely. Each chakra was believed to vibrate to a certain sound frequency, as well as, in the modern Western concept, a certain colour frequency.

The founder of Chakradance, Natalie Southgate, came upon the practice intuitively when she was studying Jungian psychology and ancient and shamanic dance practice.

She describes her experience. As she allowed herself to dance freely in the dark of her living room, music filled the darkness and her intuitive movements started to guide her into the inner power ignited within her chakras. She began to notice certain music carried a unique resonance with different chakra centres. Free flowing movements born in spontaneity brought her home into her inner dance of her true self.

Chakradance awakens each chakra, starting with the base chakra and flowing effortlessly from one to the other, up to the crown chakra, with unique musical vibrations. The combination of music, movement, and guided imagery allows the dancer to journey through the chakras, focusing attention on a particular chakra, allowing the centre to open, and releasing any blockages.

Emotional, spiritual and physical energies are released. Natalie Southgate describes dancing the seven chakras as like dancing through seven different worlds, each with its own lessons, meaning, and stories.

Chakradance draws on many ancient systems from around the world to find the common elements of those culture’s dances with the chakra system or its equivalent. Dance has long been used in shamanic cultures to connect to our spiritual source, to commune with our gods, to find healing and answers about life.

Let’s just say I was testing the bounds of society. I was just curious. Jim Morrison

In Hinduism, many of the great epics are taught through dance, whilst in Sufism, the whirling dervishes surrender their individuality and dance into spiritual “oneness”. One of the oldest recorded references made to religious dancing comes to us from the Old Testament -“Let them praise His name with dancing, making melody to him with tambourine and lyre” (Psalms 149:3).

Chakradance combines the elements of this spiritual journeying process through dance and rhythm, with the rich exploration of the chakra system.

To Carl Jung the study of chakras was a study of symbols encountered as we develop our individuality and awareness of the unconscious. Jung likened this individuation process to a spiritual quest or journey, with the aim being to achieve ‘wholeness’.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there, wondering, fearing, doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before. Edgar Allan Poe

Natalie Southgate describes the process of individuation as a series of phases and manifestations, which include: encountering the unconscious (inner unknown life), insight into our shadow (reclaiming parts of ourselves we reject), encountering anima and animus (inner feminine and masculine), experiences of the Self (glimpses of our total being). During this process, we begin to integrate the opposites within us (flesh and spirit, reason and emotion, extravert and introvert, saint and sinner). What is not integrated is projected out, so we perceive the unconscious parts of ourselves in others rather then recognising them in ourselves.

In addition to our immediate consciousness, which is of a thoroughly personal nature… there exists a second psychic system of a collective, universal, and impersonal nature which is identical in all individuals. This collective unconscious does not develop individually but is inherited. Carl Jung

From a Jungian perspective, when we enter the chakras through dance we enter not only our individual selves but also a collective experience passed through the ages, culture to culture.

Another Jungian technique used in Chakradance is what he called ‘active imagination’, which feels a bit like a waking dream. In active imagining, we use self-expression – be it drawing, writing, or dancing – with the aim of assimilating and integrating our unconscious.

In Chakradance, we use the chakras to journey into our different aspects of consciousness, using specific music and creative visualisations relevant to each of the chakras such as physical elements, colours, or archetypes. This triggers a chain of associated images, ideas, sensations, feelings, or insights to rise from deep within us to the surface of our consciousness. The process of ‘active imagination’ sets up a line of communication between consciousness and the unconscious.

Chakradance is a beautiful example of a sacred dance practice, which uses ancient and modern wisdom to connect our spirit with the divine, both within ourselves and with the universe. The intention of Chakradance is to bring all seven chakras into harmony and balance.

Each of us is born with a treasure, an essence, a seed of quiescent potential, secreted for safekeeping in the center of our being. This treasure, this personal quality, power, talent, or gift (or set of such qualities), is ours to develop, embody, and offer to our communities in acts of service—our contributions to a more diverse, vital, and evolved world. Our personal destiny is to become that treasure through our actions. Bill Plotkin

This week I got to thinking about sacred knowledge and cultural appropriation.

I went to a rally to protest the closures of the aboriginal communtities in Western Australia. Thousands of people sat in the city centre, outside the main train station at Flinders St, in the middle of Friday night peak hour. There was a fire and the sacred leaves were burnt, creating a smoke that smudged the entire gathering. My friend and I, both pale redheads, are never going to pass as indigenous to this land, and yet we are passionate about standing beside our indigenous brothers and sisters as they fight to stay on their lands.

I didn’t bring a flag or even my click sticks, it just didn’t feel appropriate. I was standing in solidarity, not trying to be a token aboriginal. I haven’t had their experience, I don’t have their songlines and dreamings in my psyche and DNA, and it would be shallow of me to pretend I do.

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put foundations under them. Henry David Thoreau

What I do have is a deepening connection to this land, and a greater respect and understanding for the continuous cultural traditions that have been maintained here over the last 50,000 years.

As I do with shamanism and druidry and the Hindu chakra system. I respect this wisdom.

I didn’t have the privilege of growing up in a cultural tradition like that. As many people these days, even our indigenous peoples, do not. This is, in part, my passion for this protest. Believing as I do in the interconnectedness of land and people, I cannot abide the idea that in this day and age we would still force our First peoples from their land. Enough damage has been done, I cannot stand by and watch more.

I absolutely believe to the core of my being that these land-based traditions hold the key for our sustainability as a human race. Not that we need to revert to the past, but we do need to acknowledge wisdom that has stood the test of time, that works.

There is no reason why ancient tradition and science and technology cannot support each other, cannot be mutually enhanced by interacting with each other.

Jason Kirkey writes in his wonderful book on the ecology of Celtic spirituality, The Salmon in the Spring, of the need for integration. We know our technological life is inherently lacking in spirit, and yet who of us wants to live without electricity and running water – only a small few.

The goal then is to integrate our technological advances with a renewed spiritual connection with the wilderness. Intrinsic to our soul is a deep need for this connection and only by honouring this can we bring the vision of a truly modern world – one that respects science, technology, nature and spirit – into being. Kirkey argues that evolution is the key, we cannot go backwards to a more primitive life, nor should we.

Our evolution and continued viability as a life-enhancing species on this planet requires our ecological integration into the cosmos. The human being is at its most creative wholeness when it freely and effortlessly mediates its own realized wildness into the world. Jason Kirkey

The mantle bestowed on humans in collective evolution is our ability for self-reflective awareness. This is not ‘our’ intelligence per se, but rather the evolutionary process has blessed us with this capacity to be a “particular expression of an intelligence and subjectivity” present in the cosmos from the beginning. In the scheme of things, of nature, humans got the job of self-reflection.

Our purpose now is to integrate this reflective consciousness into a mode of living that is in harmony with the evolutionary functions of all life – and not contrary to it.

So, I am wondering, I am thinking aloud. How do we honour and respect traditional cultures, allow them to operate according to the sacred traditions, accept that some knowledge will never be ours because of tribal law, and yet be thankful for the knowledge that can be shared to further our development? Can we defer to the experience and wisdom of our First peoples, without the typical modern Western arrogant demand for proof and evidence first? (As if 50,000 years of practical experience isn’t enough evidence.)

Sure, let’s invite science in to learn more about why these practices work, but let’s not wait for science, but rather accept that there is a demonstrated body of evidence already to the veracity and power of indigenous wisdom.

Western civilisation needs a complete overhaul or it will fall apart one day or another. It has realised the most complete perversion of any rational order of things. Reign of matter, of gold, of machine, of number, it no longer possesses breath, or liberty, or light… As long as we only talk about economic classes, profit, salaries, and production, and as long as we believe that real human progress is determined by a particular system of distribution of wealth and goods, then we are not even close to what is essential. Julius Evola

And for those of us who long for a framework within which to practice, can we incorporate the core principles of ancient wisdom, the ones that is is appropriate to share outside of strict tribal restrictions,  into a synthesised practice, one that acknowledges both the traditions and the reality of the modern world?

I too must be an estuary of confluent tides—
this earth-body of antlered thoughts,
the decay of leaves: my branching mind.
Tumbling with stones and salmon toward the sea,
the rivers of the Earth move through me. Jason Kirkey

Yes. I think we can. It’s already happening. It’s time to change the channel. To recognise that the money economy is only one possible construct of a limitless number under which we could live. And if it doesn’t work, we get to choose another.

Affirmations for the chakras:

I am grounded and connected with Mother Earth

I am in the flow of sensory experiences

I am taking up my rightful space in the world

I am open to love

I am expressing myself authentically

I am clear sighted and intuitive

I am experiencing my divinity and the divinity of all life

 

Bless!

Images by RebelBam on deviantart

Sources:

Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith

Chakradance.com

Arvan Harvat’s Introduction to the Chakras

So it begins…

We reach for the sun and call upon the yellow ray. The ray of life, the ray of creation, the ray of consciousness, the spark of fire. We call upon the flame to burn within us and temper our passions into strength. With strength we fight the dark, pulsing and straining, to realise it is a part of ourselves, part of our strength, part of our fear. We laugh, and put down the fight, merging, becoming whole, becoming stronger. Anodea Judith

Will you take a moment and come for a mental meander with me? Follow me down a verdant garden path, under draped yellow flower lights, past a Buddha garden into another world…

I created this space. With my own hands. A sanctuary, a place of love and light, where the very walls and floors are imbued with my vision. Hand-polishing the floorboards and painting the walls, whilst practicing the Chakradance script, I have embedded the essence of Chakradance in the walls and floors of my studio.

Yes, my body aches, and hurts. My flesh is covered in so many cuts and bruises and blisters, a reality that any novice renovator would empathise with. I am physically stretched to my limits. Financially stretched to my limits.

And yet, I have never felt so happy and grateful to be alive. Hell, I have never felt so alive. Is this what to feels like to manifest your intentions? And it isn’t what I thought. Intentions do not manifest through meditation and divine blessing alone, but through hard labour, dedication and self-sacrifice. Is this what it means to set your heart on a goal and doggedly follow it through, clearing hurdles, diving through obstacles, embracing the unknown? Ah!

Whenever you want to achieve something, keep your eyes open, concentrate and make sure you know exactly what it is you want. No one can hit their target with their eyes closed. Paulo Coelho

Last night, at the end of a of my first Chakradance class, I was feeling such a wave of gratitude, first to the powers that be, yes, but also, to myself. I was able to acknowledge how hard I have worked to make this dream a reality. And that’s new for me.

I am usually a ‘never enough’ kind of girl, especially when it comes to my owns achievements, I have a rather critical eye. Something about this endeavour, setting up my Chakradance studio, has bypassed that to a degree. I felt happy, I felt satisfied, I felt grateful. I told myself “You did it, girl!”

I never imagined a year ago when I bought the Chakradance DVD that it would lead me to this point. And yet everything has prepared me for this. Years of meditation, a fascination with the chakras, and healing, and inner journeying, has culminated here.

Part of me keeps expecting a crash. I mean it was only twelve months ago my adrenal system crashed, and I was unable to crawl my way out of bed for a few months.

I can’t help but think perhaps I am pushing myself too hard, and yet, there’s no evidence to suggest that. And in fact, despite my renovation-related injuries and a reasonable tiredness, I feel great. I make sure I finish each day with a salt bath and meditation, and despite some understandable muscle soreness, my body is holding up amazingly well.

Survival is not enough – we must learn to thrive. Clarissa Pinkola Estes

Perhaps its time to acknowledge the power source within – my solar plexus chakra.

Known as Manipura in Sanskrit – which means lustrous gem – the third chakra revolves around themes of personal power, physical power, self-expression, and will. It’s the fire that fuels our metabolism, and if it’s activated it increases our vitality, drive, and sense of purpose.

Manipura is about your individuality, about allowing yourself to be yourself, and accepting others as they are. It’s about taking responsibility for you and your life, not blaming or making yourself a victim. This requires belief in yourself and good boundaries with others. In some ways, this chakra is our ‘inner teenager’ – inviting us to address issues of identity and unbridled passion.

Located in the area of the diaphragm and stomach, this chakra relates to concepts of self-definition, personal power, and positive emotional expression. This is your core, your centre.

This chakra represents our “get up and go,” our action, our will, our vitality, and our sense of personal power. Its name, Manipura, means “lustrous gem.” We can think of it as a glowing yellow Sun, radiating through the centre of our body. Anodea Judith

Balancing this chakra brings the ability to create healthy boundaries, balanced personal power, will power, and positive self-value. It governs the digestive system, the lower back, and the nervous system.

The energy of manipura is expressed as the element of fire. Traditional aboriginal cultures have strong relationships to fire using it in shamanic rituals and land-care, as well as for warmth and food preparation.

Jung believed in the connection between the psyche and the chakras, now it seems this connection is expanding to physiological connections between the chakras and the physical organs of the body. Jung equated the energy moving up through the chakras, known as the ‘kundalini rising’ as analogous to the awakening of the soul experienced in all cultures, described by Jung as the emergence, and ultimately the assimilation of the unconscious self. He saw the chakra system as a framework for the developmental phases of higher consciousness.

The manipura represents the stage where we are born again, into the fire of passion and awareness of a self beyond a relationship to others: family, tribe and community. It is entering the fire that allows us to emerge and connect with the spirit world, the world of the gods, and the cosmos, the collective unconscious, in Jung’s words it is “what will follow when you have made your acquaintance with the unconscious.”

But what is passion, what are emotions? There is the source of fire, there is the fullness of energy.  A man who is not on fire is nothing: he is ridiculous, he is two-dimensional. … So when people become acquainted with the unconscious they often get into an extraordinary state – they flare up, they explode, old buried emotions come up, they begin to weep about things which happened forty years ago. Carl Jung

The Solar Plexus Chakra is particularly associated with the adrenal glands which regulate the immune system and metabolism, and the pancreas which regulates insulin production.

The adrenal glands are two glands that sit on top of your kidneys that are made up of the adrenal cortex – the outer part of the gland – and the adrenal medulla – the inner part of the gland. The adrenal cortex produces cortisol – which helps regulate metabolism and helps your body respond to stress – and aldosterone – which helps control blood pressure. The adrenal medulla produces adrenalin – which helps your body react to stress.

The pancreas is a large gland behind the stomach close to the duodenum. It digests your food and produces insulin, the main chemical for balancing the sugar level in the blood. All the body’s cells use glucose (sugar) as an energy source. The level of sugar in the blood is kept constant by insulin, which is made by special cells in the pancreas. If the cells are not working properly and insulin is lacking then diabetes develops.

We often associate adrenalin with the ‘fight or flight’ response, our instinctual survival response to a real or perceived threat.

The problem is, in our busy modern lives, we tend to live in a constant state of such arousal, aggravated by excessive caffeine intake, and so our adrenals either tire out, or never get a chance to do their other important jobs. The adrenal glands release hormones that are essential for to life, so we need to take care of them.

What is this life flowing in our bodes like fire? What is it? Life is like a hot iron. Ready to pour. Choose the mould and life will burn it. Mahabharata

Last year, in fact exactly about a year ago, I suffered from adrenal fatigue (amongst other things including severe anaemia and depression). It was health crisis most likely as a result of having thrived on stress for too long. After my divorce, well truthfully long before my divorce, my life was very stressful and I had never really settled into a calm and relaxed space.

Although I wouldn’t wish that experience on anyone, it has been valuable for me to see the toll that long-term stress took on my health.

And even as I write this, I feel a touch of that bone-weariness again. I know I have been pushing myself, burning the candle at both ends. At work and then painting half the night, or at the hospital with my dad.

Good sleep habits are the best remedy for adrenal fatigue. I was prescribed 9pm bedtimes, which I stuck to religiously for 6 months or more, and it really helped. I have got undisciplined again, and it’s not highly conducive to dating or having a social life, but I need to find a happy medium.

The Solar Plexus Chakradance is the dance of the hero warrior. The music is tribal and dynamic, the guided imagery encourages us to reconnect with our inner masculine energy and power. There is something incredibly liberating about dancing like a Kiwi Haka – grunting and stamping my feet. It releases a part of me that seems to lie dormant much of the time.

Creating and holding a vision for our endeavours does not mean being attached to perfect outcomes, more it is a compass to hold and refer to when the sun clouds over and the seas get rocky. It is a vision of the direction we saw from the high vantage point on the coast before we set sail, and once we found ourselves out at sea, we can refer to that vision for guidance, inspiration, direction and courage.

Woodchopper Exercise by Anodea Judith

Stand with feet planted firmly on the ground, knees slightly bent, heels about two feet apart. Raise arms together over the head with hands joined. Arch back slightly. Making an “ah” sound as you descend, swing the whole upper portion of the body downward bringing your hands between your legs and through. The motion should be smooth and rapid, emitting as much force and power as is possible. Let the sound be full and loud. Repeat five to ten times in a session, and feel the energy break through into your upper body. This exercise is also an excellent anger release.

Affirmations from Chakra Anatomy:

I love and accept myself.
I stand up for myself.
I am strong and courageous.
I am worthy of love, kindness, and respect.
I choose the best for myself.
I express myself in a powerful way.
I am proud of my achievements.
I honor my self.
I choose healthy relationships.
I am authentic.
I direct my own life.
I appreciate my strengths.
I feel my own power.
I am free to choose in any situation.
I seek opportunities for personal and spiritual growth.
I am at peace with myself.

Bless!

 

Images:

Sun Dance

Last dance with the sun by goddessathenaiegirl

Dance in today’s sun

Sun dance by visualsoup

Dancing woman

Beautiful couple dance love sun

Sources:

Manipura – The Power Chakra by Anodea Judith

The adrenal glands

Jung illuminates the fires of the solar plexus chakra

A look at C.G. Jung’s English Seminar on the Kundalini Yoga by Kevin Aiello

One more time, from the top

 

Reach high, for stars lie hidden in you. Dream deep, for every dream precedes the goal. Rabindranath Tagore

Starting my own Chakradance business has highlighted some flaws – actually, let’s use the term ‘quirks’ – in my character.

It’s fair to say, I’ve never been a great planner, I tend to just turn up in my life and go with it. And I’ve always been employed by someone who has given me a basic structure within which to work.

Until a few days ago, I had begrudgingly written business plans and a marketing plan, just because people, who knew better than me, said I should.

And I thought having a plan was a sensible, well, plan. It was all about timelines and ticking items off the to-do list. Or so I thought.

Now, I’m having the aha moment. Planning is about maintaining a vision from thought into action.

This planning stuff is about vision, and creating intentions. Where do I want to go with my business? And how do I convey that message to the people I want to attract?

This week my apparent lack of marketing savvy did set in motion a mild panic attack, followed by a self-beration session along the lines of, “why can’t you do what you should do, like planning and stuff,  and not just fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants and trust in the right outcome all the time?”

After I gave myself a bit of a rubbishing, I remembered that most of my great life choices had been part accident, part planning, part going with the flow. (Truth be told, mostly ‘accidents’…)

What you do makes a difference, and you have to decide what kind of difference you want to make. Jane Goodall

I do believe in serendipity, in fact, I rely on it. If I thought my decision-making skills were the be-all and end-all of my life plan, well I’d be worried.

And I find I make my best decisions intuitively, the initial hunch, like the first outfit I try on before the other ten, is usually the right one.

And I always try to make decisions based on love, as my dear friend says, ‘what would love do right now?’ In some ways, that’s my plan, align my values to love and service, and then take thoughtful and inspired actions.

In my last post I experimented with using the chakras as a framework for my business vision. I feel inspired to follow that through a little.

With a synchronicity I am becoming accustomed to, I also found myself reading about the correlation between the chakras and the endocrine system, which governs the production and distribution of hormones in the body.

So I have somehow made a hotch-potch of all of these ideas, as I am want to do, trusting that its significance will be revealed in time.

I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking. Albert Einstein

As I am starting at the top, and as the crown chakra is the centre of inspiration, I’ll just trust in that process, for now. Knowing at some point even the greatest of inspiration needs to be wrangled into reality and form.

The human body is abundantly filled with magnificent systems that maintain life and health. And while it’s true that these systems work very well without any conscious effort on our part, and even function when we behave in ways that run contrary to them. What potential could we unleash by actually living in harmony with our body, and its systems?

Like the chakras, all the glands in the endocrine system work together, and rely on each other to stay in balance. The endocrine system works with the nervous system, together forming an important part of the immune system.

An endocrine gland is a group of cells that secretes into the bloodstream tiny amounts of the hormone it produces. In this way, hormones adjust the body’s growth, mood, sleep, cell repair, sexual reproduction, digestion, and homeostasis (constant internal balance).

While the  seven chakras do not correspond exactly with the location of the endocrine glands, there’s enough correlation to make a connection helpful, to make sense of the interplay between the endocrine system, the chakras, and our emotional and physical health.

Each chakra corresponds to a level of consciousness, a musical tone, a colour, and like hormones, an emotional state. Amanda McQuade Crawford

Our emotions demonstrably affect our physical state, from metabolic rate to nervous system. And this effect is the interplay between the nervous system and the endocrine system in action. Hormones are both triggered by our emotions and trigger emotions, for example, adrenaline and fear, oxytocin and love.

Here’s a rough breakdown of the correlation between the chakras and the endocrine system, courtesy of The Healthy Chakra Guide:

Root chakra — Reproductive glands (testes in men; ovaries in women); controls sexual development and secretes sex hormones.
Sacral chakra — Pancreas; regulates metabolism.
Solar Plexus chakra — Adrenal glands; regulates the immune system and metabolism.
Heart chakra — Thymus gland; regulates the immune system.
Throat chakra — Thyroid gland; regulates body temperature and metabolism.
Third Eye chakra  — Pituitary gland; produces hormones and governs the function of the previous five glands.
Crown chakra — Pineal gland; regulates biological cycles, including sleep.

There are two executive endocrine glands that regulate overall glandular and biological function: the pituitary gland and the pineal gland. The pituitary regulates body chemistry, emotion, and intellect, and works in partnership with the pineal gland to achieve overall homeostasis of the body. The pineal gland governs the pituitary gland – inhibiting it if required for the balance of hormones in the body.

The crown chakra, where I’ll begin, corresponds to the pineal gland, which senses changes in light according to season and night and day. It governs our body cycles and particularly our rest and recuperation. This has an effect on our immunity – which is why getting a healthy amount of natural light and rest is so good for us. The pineal gland also produces melatonin which is a natural anti-depressant.

The pineal gland regulates the endocrine functions, and converts the signals of the nervous system to endocrine signals. Enabling the body’s main systems to work in harmony with each other.

Shaped like a pinecone – hence the name pineal – and the size of a tear-drop, the pineal gland sits deep under the brain, between the two eyes. Which is why it is sometimes correlated with the third eye chakra. In fact Rene Descartes called this area ‘the seat of the soul.’

My view is that this gland [pineal gland] is the principal seat of the soul, and the place in which all our thoughts are formed. Rene Descartes

It has been speculated that the Pineal gland is involved in the production of the psychedelic dimethyltryptamine (DMT) in the human brain, and that a release of DMT occurs during REM dream sleep and prior to death, possibly contributing to Near Death Experiences.

In this way the Pineal gland is intricately linked to the third eye and crown chakras, in the creation of dreams and visions, and as the gateway to realm of the spirit or soul. It is activated by light, in the same way the crown chakra is said to receive the divine light through the top of the head – received by us, as pure awareness and thought.

Anodea Judith says that the themes of the crown chakra are:

•  Opening to the power of emptiness
•  Receiving guidance and grace
•  Clarifying ideas into intention
•  Clearing limiting beliefs

Just as the pineal responds to light, so the crown chakra is the first transducer of energetic light through the chakras, transforming divine consciousness into personal consciousness – thoughts, awareness, intelligence, ideas, beliefs, interpretations, information, understanding, intention, and attention.

The seventh chakra is the gateway to universal or divine consciousness. In this sense, we begin by “downloading the Divine.” Anodea Judith

This divine spark cannot enter a full mind, so the state that precedes this is emptiness. Like Kevin Costner’s character in Tin Cup, who commands before each pitch of the baseball “clear the mechanism,” it is only when we can let go of our thoughts of what is that we can see what could be.

The seven chakras are embedded into our nervous system. When aligned, they form a vertical channel along our core. Within this channel, two major currents of energy move upward and downward: the currents of liberation and manifestation. Anodea Judith

The crown chakra represents the spark of creativity that is transformed into my personal consciousness. It governs the process by which I receive inspiration, and then ask myself how it relates to my life purpose.

As I wrote in my last post, the inspiration for teaching Chakradance comes from my broader sense of the meaning of life. To know ourselves, to know our gifts, and share gifts and ourselves for benefit of humanity – whether that is family friends, community, or the broader world. Chakradance has allowed me to explore this inner journey and I want to teach others this technique of journeying within.

Inspiration has multiple meanings: a divine influence, a moment of creative intelligence, or the drawing in of breath.

This word derives from the old French word meaning to breathe. Hence the idea of inspiration is intricately linked to life itself. The creative spark is literally the breath of life, of our life purpose. Like the breath, we take it into ourselves, transform it, and then release it out into the world. And it happens in spite of us, it is the flow of life.

Each in breath a new beginning, each out breath a complete letting go. Jon Kabat-Zinn

But the breath isn’t the end of the story, we breathe so we can live, we are inspired so we can create. This is only the beginning, what happens next decides whether the inspiration stays as an idea or whether it manifests as a reality.

It is a constant process of bringing in the inspiration and then using our executive command facilities to bring it down into the world.

The breath also has a profound effect on the endocrine system. Mindful breathing lowers our metabolic rate and calms our sympathetic nervous system, reducing the trigger for the stress hormone adrenaline.

In this blog I have tended to align the crown chakra with my seventh intention, love. There is something miraculous that happens when I set my intention on love. My heart opens, my mind fills with light-filled thoughts and I smile. Try it. Try thinking about love, someone you love, it could be your devoted pet. It’s an instant energy shift.

I love Chakradance, and I love sharing it with others. This is the core of my business vision.

This is the wisdom of the crown chakra – focusing within, focusing on my breath, focusing on my creative vision, and setting intentions for each day to bring that vision from thought into being. There is a time for action, but first, it is a time for allowing the inspiration to come and trusting it when it does.

Affirmations for inspiration by Che Garman:

Every day I read something insightful and inspiring.

Every flash of inspiration reminds me that my inner resources are all-knowing and all-powerful.

I accept my inner voice with reverence and respect.

I am ready to act on all inspiration that comes to me.

I ask that the work I do provide me with its own inspiration and energy.

I combine inspired thought with intelligent action.

I dare to follow my inner voice.

My inspirational signals are clear and strong.

Bless!

 

Title image:

theresekerr.com

Crown chakra images:

auracacia.com

expressionsofspirit.com

123rf.com

reikirays.com

redbubble.net

digitalmandalablog.wordpress.com

rlv.zcache.com

Sources:

Hormones Demystified, by Amanda McQuade Crawford, Yoga Journal May-Jun 1997

Chakras and Glands

Better Health Channel

Wikipedia

Finding your invincible summer

In the midst of winter, I found there was, within me, an invincible summer. And that makes me happy. For it says that no matter how hard the world pushes against me, within me, there’s something stronger – something better, pushing right back. – Albert Camus

I’ve heard it said before that the effect of fear on motivation is analogous to a speeding bullet hitting a large body of water. When you fire a bullet it comes out of the barrel at a speed of one thousand feet per second – having never even seen a real gun I can’t testify to this, but it looks pretty fast in the movies. Upon hitting the water, the bullet slows dramatically and then stops within a few feet and is left to drift harmlessly to the bottom. There are two points to this story, one, if someone is ever shooting at you, jump in the nearest body of water, and two, that fear takes all the power out of your inspirational ‘bullets’.

This is absolutely the usual trajectory of my motivation. I experience the jubilant high and rush of energy when thinking about a new plan or idea, and then I hit a wall (or a body of water) when I realize I can’t just think about it, I have to actually do something. That’s when the fear arises. Fear for me is at the root of all my resistance to fully living life as I intend to. Usually the fear that I’m not good enough.

Remind yourself, in whatever way is personally meaningful, that it is not in your best interest to reinforce thoughts and feelings of unworthiness. Even if you’ve already taken the bait and feel the familiar pull of self-denigration, marshal your intelligence, courage, and humour in order to turn the tide. Ask yourself: Do I want to strengthen what I’m feeling now? Do I want to cut myself off from my basic goodness? Remind yourself that your fundamental nature is unconditionally open and free. Pema Chodron

Operation Self-Esteem–Day Fucking One. Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

After I wrote about the Creating On Purpose principles in my last post, I went from feeling incredibly inspired to feeling completely overwhelmed. It took about ten minutes after I pressed the ‘publish’ button. I tend to be an ideas person – very top three chakras: inspiration, imagination, insights, and communication. Any personality test I have ever done confirms that I am an idealistic dreamer.

Inspiration and ideas energize me. Action energises me when it’s new and inspired, but I can rapidly become demotivated at the thought of too much (repetitive) action. Or maybe it’s commitment phobia, I’m not so sure. It all seems like a hard slog, all work and no play. I feel an instant aversion to this idea.

Dreamers dream, but visionaries translate a dream into actions which can manifest potent realities. Robert Levithan

This is all completely consistent with my energy blocks in my lower chakras, which are all about will and action. If you want to get an idea of your chakras and how well they are flowing try this test, I wouldn’t rely on it solely as a diagnostic tool, but I found it was an accurate reflection for me, and it’s a good place to begin. Once you have been ‘working’ with your energy for a while you will learn to feel what is flowing and what isn’t. Or to see, some people see their chakras as colour rays, I am more sentient than visual and so I feel them.

To overcome this resistance I felt to doing the work outlined in Creating on Purpose, I made a deal with myself that I would read one chapter a week and do the exercises until I lost motivation. This takes the element of force out – put that whip away! – and gives me a definite goal. I have learned to do this over the years with any self-development work. There is always a lot of resistance and it can feel like pushing the proverbial uphill. Baby steps, just a little each day, ‘chip away’ as my friend always says. It’s amazing what you can achieve over time this way without it being onerous. I believe it’s commonly known as self-discipline, delayed gratification, or growing up…

Stop wearing your wishbone where your backbone ought to be. – Elizabeth Gilbert, Eat, Pray, Love

The Creating On Purpose process is taking me from the crown chakra down and my chakra meditation takes me from my base chakra up. Whereas in the past this would have seemed contradictory to me, now I feel that I am honouring the dual energy flows that are the natural ebb and flow of the chakra system. As much as I intend to follow the Creating on Purpose guidelines, I also intend to keep reading widely and following my intuition. So, if it seems at times as if I’m jumping all over the place, that’s because I am! I’m doing this experiment jazz improv style, baby!

(Wo)Man learns through experience, and the spiritual path is full of different kinds of experiences. (S)he will encounter many difficulties and obstacles, and they are the very experiences (s)he needs to encourage and complete the cleansing process. Sai Baba

The truth is you know your own energy better than anyone. There are no rules here. It’s about learning to tap into your inner wisdom. Most of the time all that requires is sitting still and listening to or feeling what arises. A simple way to tap into your intuition is to ask the question “What is important for me to do (notice, feel, share, see, say) today?”

The word intention shares a root with the word attention: tendere, which is Latin for ‘to stretch.’ Creating on Purpose

Intention means to stretch inward and attention means to stretch toward. So it is easy to see how these two ideas work so well together. Your intention comes from within, but until you put your attention on it, it doesn’t move out of you and toward its goal.

Set an intention at the beginning of each day. Write it down and tape it to your computer, refrigerator, or wall—wherever you will be certain to see it. At the end of each day, note whether you fulfilled your intention and, if so, how it occurred. Creating on Purpose

This practice could a simple shopping list to start. Set an intention, write it down and see if it happens. That’s easy, who can’t write a shopping list? Although writing it is one thing, remembering to actually look at it when you get to the supermarket is another. That’s the attention part!

In addition to this I completed the following questions from the book. Then I had to look at what they call crosscurrents,  which are areas where there were conflicts of intentions, resistance, or obstacles.

What is your intention for how you want to live your life?

What do you intend to create, accomplish, or change in the 
coming year? In the coming decade?

Name three things outside yourself that support your intention. 
(Example: “I’ve received great support from my friends and family. 
I have the education I need and the motivation to succeed.”)

What is your intention in reading this book?

What is your intention for the upcoming conversation you’re 
going to have with someone who is important to you?

What is your intention in your choice of food you eat? In 
your planned activities?

As you can see, it’s not rocket science. And yet resistance may arise to the questions themselves or even to the process of self-enquiry. If you are not used to asking yourself these kind of questions, it can bring up old emotions and ideas which can be quite confronting and painful. I learned long ago that the only time I ever want to wash the kitchen floor is in preference to this kind of self-enquiry or to helping the kids with their math homework.

Obstacles are natural, normal, and predictable. They are the world’s natural response to your creation. Whenever you decide to create something new in your life, whenever you declare a new intention or belief into existence, this act automatically stimulates all previous conflicting intentions and beliefs to reassert themselves. Creating on Purpose

Even gone on a diet? Remember how almost instantaneously every restricted food loomed large in your mind, in excruciating detail, dripping with tempting yumminess? Then, all the thoughts about how this hasn’t worked in the past flood your mind. About ten seconds after making the intention, it’s all over red rover.

Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off your goal. Henry Ford

Anodea Judith reminds the reader that obstacles are not appearing to stop you, but rather to hone you and your intentions. They are not your enemy. You just need to learn how to work with them.

Successful people have ways of handling obstacles so that those obstacles don’t stop forward progress. Creating on Purpose

Usually what happens when you state an intention, is that it is designed to address some area of your life where you feel change is needed. As such your old intentions and beliefs will surface and seem like obstacles.

When you declare an intention and put the full weight of your commitment behind it, you initiate a magical process that works invisibly in the background of your life. But when you have conflicting intentions or beliefs, the process gets muddled. The universe doesn’t know what you want, so it gives you a little of this and a little of that. When you clear away the conflicts and hold only one clear intention with no resistance, that invisible force can work in the background to help you create what you intend. Creating on Purpose.

Writing down your intentions is a good way to draw out your mental obstructions. One suggestion is to write down seemingly conflicting intentions, for example:

I want to lose weight and I want eat whatever I like.

I want to make more money and I want have more leisure time.

I want to relax at home and I want a clean house.

I want lots of people to read my blog and I want to write authentically for myself with no concern for who’s reading.

Writing down your intentions is a good way to acknowledge that you have many competing commitments, needs, desires, and beliefs. Notice any criticism that may arise as you write down your intention. For example with wanting to lose weight, your inner critic may pipe up with “lose weight? That never works, you always end up starving and then you eat twice as much as gain more weight than when you started.”

Never look back unless you are planning to go that way. Henry David Thoreau

In Creating on Purpose the authors suggest the exaggeration technique to deal with these old beliefs that are blocking your intention.

Assert your intention. Observe the critical thoughts. Act them out, aloud, in a silly voice, exaggerate it. Imitate Bugs Bunny or Daffy Duck or Cruella DeVille. Imitate your parents or a old teacher or boss who criticised you. Really ham it up until it sounds and feels completely silly. Then assert your intention with your voice. Try it, it really works! You may have to keep doing the practice for some stubborn ideas, you may have to experiment with different voices for different thoughts, but it is incredibly empowering to make fun of your inner critic!

There are plenty of difficult obstacles in your path. Don’t allow yourself to become one of them. Ralph Marston

So for today’s affirmations, let’s focus on manifesting joy, power, and the release of obstacles. Let your inner invincible Summer sun shine! These affirmations are from The Book Of Stones by Robert Simmons and Naisha Ashian.

I am filled with the vital energies of life, and I take action with confidence and power.

I am moving through all of life’s joys and sorrows, triumphs and traumas, with serenity and grace.

I am open to the full experience of joy, releasing anything that might hold me back.

I am magnifying my passions and creative powers, directing them to fulfil my heart’s desire.

Bless!

References:

The Creating on Purpose book by Anodea Judith and Lion Goodman is available here as well as many free resources and information:

http://creatingonpurpose.net

Seven intentions for seven chakras

After publishing my last post I was absolutely wracked with self-doubt. Where was I going with all this? I love a tangent as much as the next person but I had started a blog on intentions, not chakra healing – for crying out loud!

I have learned to allow these emotional waves – tsunamis at times – to just ebb and flow. Or in the case of the emotional tsunami, to flood the whole dang place and render me a clean slate. These waves seem to be a reaction to “putting myself out there.” Being an introvert at heart, I keep a lot of my beliefs private, so publishing them for anyone to read can be a little confronting. I also can be a prey to great self-doubt, something which has stopped me in the past from doing the things I love and believe in. So I let this reaction ride and do what I have learned to do, just be still. Allow the feelings to pass, and stay true to my intentions. What’s the alternative, a life run by self-limiting doubt and fear?

The greater danger for most of us lies not in setting our aim too high and falling short; but in setting our aim too low, and achieving our mark —Michelangelo Buonarroti

As such, I spent a blessed and blissed day of sanctuary spent resting and reading. A practice my lovely friend calls ‘extreme self-care.’

I am learning to allow myself such days, once an impossibility with three young children, work, study, and a rather demanding (now ex-) husband. Now life has changed and I make the time and have a degree of solitude built into my life to ensure I can recharge and rejuvenate.

Speaking of recharging, I read somewhere that the chakras are like batteries for our bodies – sorry that I can’t source that quote, I read so much online on my phone while I was watching my son play cricket, I’m not sure what I read where – but I really liked the analogy. I have been doing a chakra meditation every morning and I love it so much that I go to sleep early just to get to my favourite part of the day again. This from a reformed night owl!

Here is the closing of that meditation and a completely accurate reflection of how blissed out and connected I feel at that time.

Your body is full of energy, your emotions are harmonious and warm, your thoughts are bright and clear, your heart is open and loving, you are kind compassionate and understanding, you communicate clearly and cleanly, you are able to see your inner being, and you are able to know the truth of who you really are. Simply use intention to allow the maximum flow possible. Jeddah Mali

I thought I might have been a bit whacko with my seemingly tenuous link between chakras and manifesting intentions. However in yet another lesson called ‘trust your intuition’ I discovered that the correlation between healthy chakras and manifesting is well documented. 

A quick google search on ‘chakras and manifesting’ put the idea to bed that I was alone in this kookiness. There’s a huge body of work, with super-qualified chakra expert Anodea Judith having written a book all about it called Creating on Purpose: The Spiritual Technology of Manifesting Through the Chakras – and if you go to this site and register your email you get two free audio meditation downloads. They also have some wonderful interviews with their authors. I’m a big fan of free stuff.

It seems my intuition about the importance of balancing the root chakra as a key to manifesting and flow was pretty spot on. Anodea Judith believes that is the greatest block to manifesting, as the base chakra is key in converting our energetic intentions into action in the physical world. She says it is possible to clear the blocks and misalignment in our chakras though, and that’s what her book is all about. As Thoreau (again, sigh) so eloquently puts it:

If you have built castles in the air, your work need not be lost; that is where they should be. Now put the foundations under them —Henry David Thoreau

Here’s some highlights of an interview with Anodea and co-author Lion Goodman, if you are interested the interview is available online here.

The jist of Creating on Purpose is that all creation is co-creation between energy forces which are always at work, and through awareness and energetic healing we can become a clear ‘bridge’ for these forces to flow through, and we can quite literally use our consciousness to change the world:

You are an active agent in the creation of reality. Two powerful evolutionary forces are at work simultaneously— one from the top down, and the other from the bottom up. Spirit, or the light of consciousness, is evolving downward into embodiment, infusing matter with Spirit. At the same time, matter is evolving upward into Spirit, into conscious awareness. You are a rainbow bridge that ties these two forces together. You stand between heaven and earth as both a co-creation of these two forces and a co-creator with these two forces. You are being trained to become a more capable co-creator with the Universe. You have the ability to draw down your own vision of what you want to create in your life and to manifest it here in the physical world. Your soul has a purpose for being here.

The ancient vedic texts called this upward journey mukti, or freedom; Anodea calls it the ‘current of liberation’. This current enables you to liberate yourself from limitations and attachments. It is the commonly conceptualised path of enlightenment by ascending from the lower chakras through to the crown chakra.

Less understood is the downward path, which the ancient masters called bhukti meaning “enjoyment”. The descending current of bhukti is the process by which consciousness densifies into physical form. In its simplest form this can be thought of as the process used in any body movement. When you walk your consciousness tells your brain to instruct your body to walk, this thought travels via energy signals to the nerves in your legs, where it manifests physically as you walking. 

This downward path of energy is the process of manifestation, where ideas and intentions catalyse and are transformed into physical reality. This process begins at the seventh chakra at the crown and moves down to the base or first chakra.

In Creating on Purpose, Anodea and Lion outline seven manifestation principles, which describe how the seven chakras are involved in various stages of manifestation. Lion is very clear that this is not about sitting still and manifesting abundance, this is co-creation between our energetic and physical forms which requires action.

For an intention to manifest there has to be an idea in your consciousness (7th chakra) you visualise it, including looking at all kind of related things and letting your imagination play with the idea (6th chakra), you communicate with people who can be helpful and talk about it (5th chakra), you ensure right relationships around this intention (4th chakra), you create action plans (3rd chakra), you infuse your intention with passion (2nd chakra) and you actualise the intention in the physical world (1st chakra).

The other process is dealing with resistance. Like my aforementioned reaction to putting myself out there, it is natural to experience resistance to any new intention or action. You need to identify and remove these obstacles and unblock your chakras to allow the current to flow freely.

Here’s the seven manifestation principles and some of the potential blocks you may experience in relation to each chakra/stage:

Chakra Seven: Consciousness Creates is the idea or intention which can be blocked by the limiting beliefs you have about yourself.

Chakra Six: Vision Vitalises is the process of insight and using imagination to think outside box which requires your imagination to be flowing and unblocked, and your use of visualisation. 

Chakra Five: Conversation Catalyses is the use of communication, either in your own thoughts or in conversation with others, to further your intention and can be blocked by the inner critic and self-defeating thoughts.

Chakra Four: Love Enlivens is the way you relate to other people as part of the co-creation process. Blockages occur in your old relationships patterns with people, such as being unable to ask for what you need or fear of rejection.

Chakra Three: Power Produces is harnessing your will power to create action plans, which can be blocked if you have stifled your will power in any way, or by a lack of focus in your will in the face of distractions or conflicting choices.

Chakra Two: Pleasure Pleases is about engaging your passion, pleasurable feelings, and your positive emotions in this process, and can be blocked by suppressed feelings, sense of unworthiness, and guilt.

Chakra One: Matter Matters is the final stage where intention become reality in the physical form and can be blocked by a feeling of not being grounded in your body, or not being physically present in acting out your plans, such as not honouring your appointments and commitments.

First say to yourself what you would be; and then do what you have to do —Epictetus

Whereas Anodea believes blocks in the 1st chakra are the main obstacle, her co-author Lion Goodman believes the main obstacle is our limiting beliefs, and these can affect and ultimately block all the chakras.

Where do these blocks come from? You created them! That’s right. You created them either to protect yourself from pain or as an expression of a belief you were taught. So to use the analogy of Lion Goodman, it’s time to clean out the belief closet!

Whether you think you can or you can’t, you are usually right —Henry Ford

There are some great visualisations available online for clearing blocks and drawing energy down the chakras. Like this meditation.

Even if you don’t believe in this theory of chakras affecting energy flow, one of the key factors in the reading I have done on manifesting intentions is the ability to maintain a clear, unwavering focus. When I’m feeling anxious and emotionally unbalanced, I’m unable to focus on anything, much less manifest anything. Like attracts like, so balanced and harmonious flow is more likely to attract abundance. And having experienced my energy flow, as well as the opposite, it makes sense to me that being in a state of disharmony would affect manifesting intentions into reality. I am more than willing to believe I need internal balance and harmony to manifest abundance. I also like the combination of energy work and pragmatism that Lion and Anodea recommend.

This has got me to thinking more and more about the connection between my seven intentions and the seven chakras, and the way they align is so amazing! Here’s how I see them now…

1. Home – base
 chakra
2. Community – sacral chakra
3. 
Purpose – solar plexus chakra
4. Health – heart chakra
5. Abundance – throat chakra (relates to thoughts and communicating ‘I am’ affirmations)
6. Joy – third eye chakra (the insight that joy is your natural state of being)
7. Love – crown chakra (the deep wisdom that love is truth of who you really are)

So cool. Here’s seven affirmations for seven chakras, I am on a roll (actually these are from Louise Hay, bless her cotton socks!)

By the way, if you have a hard time with affirmations, thinking they are perhaps self-centred and self-indulgent as I used to, remember what the Course in Miracles says “When I am healed I am not healed alone.” When you heal yourself, you heal all of creation. So come on, once more with feeling!

I love myself therefore I provide myself a comfortable home.

I love myself therefore I take loving care of my body.

I love myself therefore I work at a job that I truly enjoy doing.

I love myself therefore I think and behave in a loving way toward all people.

I love myself therefore I forgive and release the past.

I love myself therefore I live in the now, experience each moment as good and knowing that my future is bright and joyous and secure.

I love myself therefore I trust that I am our spirit and that divine wisdom guides me.

Bless!