Please note: this is the second of a 2-part blog. (see part 1)
Division of Chakras
The first three Chakras below the diaphragm all relate to our animal nature — the drives of survival, procreation, and power (establishing a social pecking order). The Heart is considered the ‘Bridge’ or Human Chakra because it both connects the upper and lower energy centers and also connects us to one another heart-to-heart. The upper three are our Transpersonal Chakras, expanding our awareness to higher states of consciousness.
5th Chakra, the Throat
The Throat Chakra, at the center of the throat, relates to the Space or Ether Element. This is our communication center, encompassing both hearing and speaking. Because this is one of our transpersonal centers, it, more importantly, relates to listening to what’s going on inside and speaking our inner truth. It also functions as a secondary bridge, this time between the heart and mind.
On a metaphysical level, we talk about the Throat Chakra being, like our 2nd Chakra, connected to our creativity and emotions. The act of creation begins in the Throat; I get an inspirational idea and tell people about it, which is the first step to making it a reality. Next, I pass it down through the field of Heart to see, ‘How much do I love this, do I love it enough?’, then 3rd Chakra, ‘Do I have the will to do what it takes’, 2nd, ‘What’s my creative spin on it? Am I willing to give birth to this?’ And finally 1st Chakra, the Earth, ‘Can I stick with it all the way to completion, making this really happen?’
We can block expressing both the inspirations that come through from ‘above’ but also the emotions and gut feelings welling up from ‘below’. The same heart traumas that affect the field of the chest and neck often get stifled in the throat because they feel just too big to ever fully get out. In Sanskrit, the Throat Chakra is Vishuddha, meaning Purgation, purging; implying the need both to allow our feelings to come up and out, and also to clear the mundane thoughts of our everyday life to make space for inspiration.
Just about every client I see has neck issues. Clinically, most bodywork practitioners focus on the muscles at the back of the neck which is often where all the tension lies. But, by now you know I’m going to say, it’s a field phenomenon. Most neck issues are Throat and possibly Heart Chakra issues creating distortion patterns that affect the tissue, fluid, and energy fields.
Patterns of tension or laxity in the front of the body (where the visceral organs live) reflect challenging FEELINGS we don’t want to experience, while the backside (where the muscles of locomotion are) reflects ACTIONS we are in conflict about taking. Feeling and acting are nowhere more directly linked than in the throat/neck area. We often bite our tongues to stop from saying what’s really on our minds and in our hearts. We can experience a void of nothingness if we’ve cut ourselves off from our emotions rather than feeling them or we might have a sense of gagging or retching as we attempt to suppress sobs and strong feelings. Some people get images and feel like they have a grapefruit or the like lodged in their throat.
6th Chakra, the 3rd Eye
The 3rd Eye Chakra is located in the center of the forehead at a point behind our two eyes. It relates to our ability to perceive clearly what is in our Mind’s Eye.
“The 3rd Eye Chakra is related to us experiencing clear and concise thoughts, as well as connecting us with the higher functions of consciousness and spiritual reflection. It offers us the possibility of wisdom, discernment, intuition, and knowledge, as well as consciously staying connected with our spiritual home. It is the ‘gateway’ to ‘higher worlds’ which can be opened through meditation.” ~ Stephen Canning, Chakra Wisdom
Unlike the lower chakras, the upper three require effort to detach from the concerns of the world and everyday life in order to withdraw your awareness and navigate internally to a still place of peace.
That said, as humans, this is a built-in part of our anatomy. You don’t have to be a super-being to access these. We do it all the time in quiet moments when our mind is unfocused or daydreaming. Meditation practices can take that to the next level, honing these abilities and perceptions.
A healthy 6th Chakra grants us access to depths of wisdom, discernment, imagination, intuition, knowledge, and ‘extrasensory’ perception. When the 3rd Eye is out of balance we can be overly analytical, judgemental, rigid in our viewpoints, disconnected from our inner spiritual life, and seem generally confused or discombobulated.
In spiritual practices, the 3rd Eye is referred to as the ‘Tisra Til’ or ‘Open Sesame’, as it acts as the doorway through which we must pass if we wish to enter higher states of awareness. This is the point where the two eyes (or two ‘I’s’) must become one.
When we focus on the outside world our consciousness either oscillates, ping-ponging between polarities of this and that, or moves in multiple directions at once. There are many ways in, but this inner journey ultimately brings consciousness into a singularity, a stillpoint where spacetime expands. The Eye Center is this fulcrum for consciousness and the Crown Chakra is what lies beyond.
STILLNESS & SPACE EXPLORATION:
Try this simple breathing exploration to experience in your body a bit of what I’m talking about with the 6th and 7th Chakras.
Sit upright with your spine erect and relaxed, feet on the floor, and your eyes closed. Allow your tongue to rest on the roof of your mouth and breathe through your nose (if possible). Bring your awareness to your breath as it enters and leaves your body. Allow your awareness to follow this pattern for several cycles. Notice which is easier/freer, the inhalation or exhalation.
You are tethering your conscious mind to one of the rhythms of body-consciousness, namely the breath. Body rhythms oscillate between polarities like a metronome — expansion, contraction, expansion. Allow your breath to become a little deeper and your body to gently rock to and fro with the rhythm. Notice the directions of this motion, yourself as the metronome. You are lulling your conscious mind into a meditative trance state.
The motion will ‘tend’ to move easier in one direction than another. Follow it. Is this the in-breath or the out-breath easier? First, accentuate that direction of ease for several cycles, … then a few more. Now, see if you can balance the motion in both directions by bringing it more in the direction with resistance or restriction. Find the fulcrum, the center balance-point that this movement passes through. Now notice if the motion and breath is equally as effortless in both directions.
FINDING THE STILLPOINT: Again, notice the direction of EASE with the breath now. Has it changed? For you, that may be either inhalation or exhalation. Now, still the oscillating movement and allow the easy breath to endlessly extend in that direction until it simply ceases being. Don’t hold it, just allow it to not be. FEEL the sense of stillness and space. Begin breathing again whenever you need to while allowing your awareness to remain in the stillness, exploring deeper and deeper levels of the space within the stillness and stillness within the space. You can cease the breath periodically to enhance that still-space.
7th Chakra, the Crown
The Crown Chakra lies at or just behind the ‘soft spot’ at the crown of the head. It connects us to the consciousness of life itself, the cosmos, God, or however you want to phrase that.
Like the 3rd Eye, we all tap into this in our own way in quiet moments when our minds are unfocused and wandering, that’s when ‘something else’ can come through. We connect to a wisdom and a knowing that is not our own. Whereas Chakra 5, the Throat Center, has to do with SPEAKING our inner truth, and Chakra 6, the 3rd Eye, has to do with SEEING our inner vision, Chakra 7, the Crown, is our inner KNOWING that informs the other two, and in fact all the rest.
This is not an understanding that comes from researching, thinking, and puzzling it out. It’s a personal knowing with the surety of religious fervor. It’s your personal download from the ‘Universe’, — which is where many people get into trouble. Your download may be at odds with someone else’s because it’s filtered through the field of your mind, beliefs, and individual life experience.
We can further develop this through meditation. Insomuch as Chakra 6 is the doorway that we access by bringing our awareness to a stillpoint, a singularity; when we walk through that singularity, where awareness ends up is ‘someplace completely other’. That’s 7th Chakra!
It’s spoken of as a connection to ‘Source’, of undifferentiated consciousness. It is a paradox. Here consciousness both exists and doesn’t exist, it is both and neither — one and many, masculine and feminine, everything and nothing. Like describing the sunrise to a blind person, it is impossible to put into words, especially sharing it with anyone who hasn’t had their own direct experience YET.
The Sanskrit word for this Chakra 7 is Sahasrara which means thousand or infinite petaled lotus. These petals open up to this Divine or Ultimate Consciousness as we ‘wake-up’ to an understanding of reality completely different from what our ‘normal’ conscious mind perceives. The seed mantra for this chakra is AUM or OM. It is considered to influence brain functions, fine-tuning memory, intelligence, and focus.
When Sahasrara activates, it brings us a more positive outlook on life. There are visible changes in our habits and attitude. The Self is no longer ruled by the ego. Emotions such as gratitude, compassion, and acceptance guide us. Aligning to it, we dismiss ‘negative’ thoughts and feelings that can bring unhappiness and stress to our lives.
When Sahasrara is out of balance we may experience disillusionment, boredom, melancholy, and restlessness. We can become stuck in our way of thinking and unwilling to consider other ideas, thoughts, or directions. Our felt-sense is one of being disconnected from our Source and from one another. We can feel abandoned, heart-sick, and deep grief from this loss of our felt-sense of interconnectedness.
The 3rd Eye and Crown, together, generate the field of the head, so we look at both as a unit when assessing challenges. Because the skull is a hard structure it doesn’t collapse in the same way the chest and belly can, but the tissue field can become rigid or flaccid, muscles can tense, and the cranial plates can bind in their subtle movements. But most notably, the motion patterns of cerebrospinal fluid and pure consciousness distort. This is why Craniosacral Therapy is incredibly effective at assessing and working with challenges at this level.
The 7th and 1st Chakras act as anode and cathode, in dynamic opposition, the Crown connects us to the cosmos, while the Root to Mother Earth. Meditations, such as the Taoist Microcosmic Orbit, cycle awareness from the Root up along the spine past the Crown and back down along the front, in rhythm with the breath. Native American traditions speak of Father Sun and Mother Earth. By oscillating our awareness between Crown and Root we connect to the two forces of consciousness that gave birth to us.
Conclusion
Cellularly, as well as energetically, we are literally made up of stardust and the recycled elements of the planet. Our consciousness is a topic that modern science is at pains to explain using the current mechanistic paradigm. What consciousness really is, how it emerged from an organization of cells, and how it does what it can do, is a mystery unless we ask different questions, explore other avenues using other methods, and expand the paradigm.
Resources:
- Also go to Chakras & Transformation
- Polyvagal Theory – Parts 1 to 5
- Resourcing: Meeting Life’s Challenges
Footnotes:
David I. Rome, Your Body Knows the Answer: Using Your Felt Sense to Solve Problems, Effect Change, and Liberate Creativity
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