During my classes and workshops on the chakra system, I link my work with archetypes to the chakra system. I’ve been working with this information, applying it and distributing it to my clients over the past 16 years, increasingly. This also includes now the premise that there is one dominant chakra for each individual for a lifetime. I discovered this premise during my yoga teacher training in India which I’ve found is beautifully aligned to the archetypes work, ultimately yielding an informative, thorough system through which to gain a profile of oneʼs self from the soul level. Let me share some information about the chakras that will illustrate how important it is to balance and heal these subtle energies.
The word chakra is Sanskrit for wheel. Chakras are centers of activity that receive, assimilate and express life force energy. The ancient Hindu chakra symbols represent these circular centers of energy, and they correspond to the nerve plexuses and organs in the physical nervous system. By focusing on these energy centers, and understanding the function of each, we are able to balance our entire mind-body-spirit system, augmenting all areas in our lives, and facilitate healing.
More specifically, chakras are responsible for the person’s physical, mental, spiritual and energetic functions, organized in such a way that each of them connects to a specific domain of the human experience, say spiritual awareness or love or sexual energy expression or self-worth as expressed with choices made in the physical world such as work or basic survival issues. Thus, the chakra system is able to be a psychology system for the soul, because it functions at such a fundamental level of existence, within the subtle energy realm. This is also why the concept of each person having one dominant chakra with which to focus on is even more informative about the psychology of a personʼs soul, that then yields information about their particular life issues within each of the realms of the human experience: physical, mental, emotional and energetic. This then filters into our daily life experiences within our work, our family, our relationships, our finances, and our community.
Letʼs back up, and make this more tangible and linear to follow. Chakras are energy centers that run along the spine, or the central nervous system. Today there are now studies that have validated the chakra system on the spine; Candace Pert has discovered that the key nodal points – clusters of huge numbers of neurotransmittersʼ receptors so that it is a main center of communication exchanged between the mind and body – that are also where the ancient Hindu chakra system have each of the seven chakras located.
The chakras have also now been understood to correspond with the endocrine system – which is the master command center of the human body for our hormones; our endocrine system is the regulator of our bodyʼs hormones – which runs everything in our bodies not considered a part of the messaging system of the nervous system. So the chakras cover our two major command centers for all mechanical processes within the human body. The chakra system is so much more than what has previously been considered within our culture.
On the level of less gross, or less dense and physical and more subtle energy, chakras also give admission to levels of soul information, energy and power. But this is not only limited to the individualʼs system when alone, it is also how the individualʼs system is when out in the external environment, interacting with others and the environment. Think power struggle issues, for example, or a strong feeling to stay away from someone. Specifically, both the second chakra, located at the sacrum, and the sixth chakra, located in between the eyebrows, are considered intuitive centers within the chakra system. The lower abdomen connects to our concept of “gut instincts” or a bodily knowing, while the sixth chakra, frequently referred to as the “third eye” senses out intuitive information that is more on the realm of mental, or consciousness – seeing into the situation with intuition/insight, or as some know it to be, psychic abilities. If either of these chakras are oneʼs dominant chakra, then that means perhaps that a person will have a finer sense of intuition, and this will figure into the way the person lives their life with his or her job, relationships, community, education, interests etc. If a personʼs second chakra is shut down, then this means that their sense of “gut knowing” or “instinct” is also going to be shut down, or not reliable for information that is accurate. This could lead them into relationships with others who are dangerous for them, or pose a threat that they wouldʼve heard had they been in tune with their second chakra open and balanced. At this level, we are talking about more patterned, habitual behavior, or situations, using the chakra system to help better inform us in a holistic and complete way.
Thus, it is a more encompassing psychology than that just of the conscious and even subconscious mind, as it goes beyond this, and into a level of ourselves where our individuation from a higher source begins, but not yet at the small personality and small mind level of the individual human body. Yet itʼs not only soul psychology, because it is a system that is solidly interacting and linked in with the physical bodyʼs system as well. Itʼs that the chakra system runs at such a foundational level of existence and thus affects every plane above it – emotional, mental and physical – that it is an over-reaching “psychology” system, stemming from the soul, but nonetheless that has physical effects, such as a physical disease, for example.
So again, when we work within the chakra system, we are working at a baseline of the human being, gaining understanding of what is contributing to the current situation. My healing work is focused on helping to bring this information forward to you both through my one on one energy medicine sessions and group healing work. Thus, what already is being “said” in your system through the events in your life is what will be brought forward and communicated to you. My job is to act as a facilitator to connect to this level of yourself, translate this symbolic, and at times rather cryptic, encoded information to you, and clear the way for you to reconnect to this level of yourself.
There is in fact a way to approach life that is proactive, lived with an awareness of the soul, so that one does not need pain or crisis or tragedy to flag their attention to the deeper levels of oneʼs self. Interestingly though, when people are moving from one major life stage to another if theyʼre not living with this aligned awareness to their soul – they need crisis to wake them up.
My desire is to help people thrive and not need struggle, illness, tragedy or crisis to force them to pay attention to the more subtle parts of themselves.
By keeping our chakra system aligned, balanced and flowing our life force energy up and down our spine, and therefore throughout not only our central nervous system, but also our sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems, our system is able to hum along with a vitality that perpetuates longevity and resplendent mental health.
Click here for a way to begin healing your chakras right now.
Great article and thanks. I especially liked the linkages of the chakra system to the endocrine system and how you are working with this through therapy.