Apologies for the delay in posting this, which was due to an extraordinary visit I undertook to Egypt (details of this, will be coming soon to this website but, in the meantime, please check out my short film of the trip here!).
This is the fourth in my new weekly (every Friday) series of blog posts ‘For Newbies’, in which I attempt to outline the basic practices and terminology of shamanism in as clear and easy to understand prose as I can. This one is about chakras.
I’ve heard of chakras but what exactly are they?
Simply put, chakras (from the Sanskrit word for ‘wheel’, or ‘circle’) are 7 focal points within our energy field.
Wait a minute – back up! What’s an energy field?
We all have an energy field, which surrounds our physical body. This ‘life energy’ is found in many different and ancient belief systems. Amongst others, I, personally, believe that it equates with the following concepts from around the world:
Shakti – Hindu
Qi – Chinese
Ki – Japanese
Khi – Vietnamese
Gi – Korean
Koach-ha-guf – Hebrew
Bios – Greek
Aether – English
Orenda – Native American
Mana – Polynesian
Od – German
Ka- Egyptian
Okay, so lots of cultures believe in them. Are these chakras like the Chinese system of meridians in acupuncture?
Similar. Unlike meridians, however, the chakras are not part of the physical body but are part of the energy field, which surrounds our physical body.
Where are these seven chakras, then?
The chakras are aligned in an ascending column, from the base of the spine to the top of the head:
First Chakra – Root Chakra – Base of the spine – Red
Second Chakra – Sacral Chakra – Navel region – Orange
Third Chakra – Solar Plexus Chakra – Solar plexus – Yellow
Fourth Chakra – Heart Chakra – Above the heart – Green
Fifth Chakra – Throat Chakra – Base of the throat – Blue
Sixth Chakra – Third-Eye Chakra – Between the eyebrows – Purple
Seventh Chakra – Crown Chakra – Crown of the head – White
What are the colours you’ve listed?
These colours are associated with the chakras and some energy practitioners actually perceive the colours, the brightness of the colour corresponding to how well the chakra is functioning.
Functioning? What exactly is the ‘function’ of chakras?
Chakras spin and draw in energy, keeping the spiritual, mental, emotional and physical health of our bodies in balance. In Anatomy of the Spirit (1996), Caroline Myss describes the function of chakras as follows: ‘Every thought and experience you’ve ever had in your life gets filtered through these chakra databases. Each event is recorded into your cells’.
You mean, I’m storing up bad thoughts and feelings in these ‘databases’?
It is certainly a popular theory. Shaman of my lineage seek to cleanse the chakras of these bad thoughts and feelings, which they call ‘hucha’.
Where does the ‘hucha’ go?
Typically, it is returned to Mother Earth, who mulches the energy and reemploys it in the great cycle of life. Nothing ever gets wasted!
How do I improve the functioning of my chakras?
Just thinking about each chakra in turn can be enough to clear and improve their function. Try it in your morning shower – just visualise each one in turn. If you can remember the relevant colours, visualise them as being clearer and brighter. Some practitioners like to imagine spinning the chakras in an anti-clockwise direction to open them and clear them, then they imagine spinning them in a clockwise direction to re-seal them.
My favourite way to work with the chakras, however, is through sound, a practice I learned from the wonderful ‘vocal shaman’, Jill Purce. Try intoning ‘oo’ for the base chakra, ‘aw’ for the sacral and solar plexus chakras, ‘ah’ for the heart chakra, ‘air’ for the throat chakra and ‘ee’ for the third eye and crown chakras. These particular sounds vibrate the areas in the body which correspond to the chakras and the resulting effect is surprisingly powerful. Give it a go!
Wait a minute, in ‘Journeying For Newbies’, you talked about opening our ‘wirra cocha’ and you said that we had to reach into our eighth chakra?
Yes, you’re right! There is an eighth chakra. It represents a connection with Spirit and exists outside of time.
Excuse me? ‘Outside of time’?
That’s right. If you’re going to immerse yourself in the world of the shaman you’re going to find that we have a slightly different concept of time. This reminds me of my favourite quotation of Albert Einstein’s – ‘Time and Space are modes by which we think, not conditions in which we live’. Thus, shamans believe we can link to and even ‘download’ information from the future and also that we may do something now purely to benefit our future selves. Even my chosen name, ‘Chacaruna’, is an indication of this belief – I don’t feel entitled to it as yet but I do feel that I will earn it in time, so, therefore, I am bold enough to use it now.
So, what else are you holding out on? Are there any other chakras?
My advice is to concentrate on increasing your understanding of the eight chakras but the answer is that it depends upon your belief system. Some modern practitioners lay claim to twelve chakras. They believe that the ninth chakra connects to the soul, the tenth chakra connects us to the earth, the eleventh chakra (intriguingly) to dormant supernatural powers and the twelfth to an understanding of the concept of ‘universal unity’.
So, has the chakra system changed?
A number of modern practitioners believe that the chakra system is somewhat different for modern people, than it was in ancient times and that it will continue to evolve in the future. Rudolf Steiner, for instance, certainly considered the chakra system to be dynamic and evolving. So, I guess, its a question of ‘watch this space’ for any further developments!