There are countless volumes on the chakras none more rational, none more intuitive than Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith. I highly recommend her book to all because it is an in-depth analysis that is written in an easy to understand approach.
Within this map in hand, your journey can be more direct, more profound, and more deliberate. The system maps onto the body through the human nervous system, maps onto the psyche through developmental stages through childhood, maps onto the spiritual quest through states of consciousness, and transforms the culture through planes of external reality. The chakra’s are truly a set of portals between the inner and outer worlds
Anodea Judith
Author – Eastern Body Western Mind.
Therapist, and public speaker on the chakra system
There is a lot of information to get through so I will be as systematic as I can. As a jewellery company our approach is to use the colour empowerment of each chakra as the base for the intention that is to be set for each piece you wear. I will be discussing colour and intentions on the next few documents.
Below is a condensed version of each chakra, showcasing a state of balance along with the depleted and excessive versions so that you can identify your own energetic system.
The chart below comes from Judith’s book.
The First Energy Center – Survival
Based at the seat of the spine, Scarlet Red is the frequency of survival
Instinctual fear is the beginning of consciousness. When the instinct to survive is threatened, consciousness cannot develop. Keeping your instinctual desires nourished energises this center. Fear of survival blocks the center.
Confronting fear is the only way. Fear exists in our life in order to rise above it, learn from it and finally get empowered because of it.
A depleted survival center discards the instinct to survive because they are stuck and unable to act due to the fear that is being experienced. The biggest fear expressed in today’s society, is paying our bills. So if anyone is having a hard time getting a job, staying employed and meeting financial obligations are experiencing a depleted survival center.
An excessive survival center uses fear of change as the motivator in life. Fear is still present it’s just a different strategy that is being used. Instead of being unable to move, this type over achieves to compensate. Workaholic and scrooge like tendencies usually develop. Nothing is ever enough, no matter how much one works or saves, even billionaires can have an excessive survival.
A balanced survival center is a state of ease with the external because action towards survival has been met and an independent self is experienced. No longer do you need government handouts to pay the bills and no longer does the world’s survival rest on your shoulders. Fear is dropped when wisdom of survival is understood.
The Second Energy Center – Pleasure
Based below the belly button, Sunset Orange is the frequency of pleasure
Once the self is nourished and sheltered, its time to have fun. To eat, drink, and be merry. To dance and to laugh, while surrendering to the pleasures of life energises this center. Guilt of these pleasures blocks the center.
Guilt becomes the emotion when survival is either not being met because there is too much pleasure, or survival trumps pleasure and the workhorse lives with the guilt of never going out for a trot.
A depleted pleasure center is full of guilt and shame and so pleasure is denied. Fear of rejection becomes the theme of life. Creating an isolated life, where joyful experiences are not for the self.
An excessive pleasure center focuses on the addiction of pleasure seeking. Drugs, gambling, sexual promiscuity and obesity are the all-telling signs of an excessive state.
A balanced pleasure center surrenders to life’s pleasures entertaining no guilt or shame in the action by having the wisdom to never hammer the experience to the point of addiction.
The Third Energy Center – Power
Based above the belly button, Golden Yellow is the frequency of self-empowerment.
A wilful ego that takes independent action energises this centre. Shame is the experience when action is either mortified or oppressed blocking this center.
A depleted power center fails to individuate from the crowd. Always hiding with a massive inner critic, while sheepishly acting out for others instead of for self.
An excessive power center is an over achiever who wants to be in control. A lack of self-esteem and an ego that needs recognition motivates this type to abuse power.
A balanced power center is one where action is independent and determined. Respect for self is understood and a balanced lifestyle is adhered to.
The Fourth Energy Center – Love
Based at the heart region, Emerald Green is the frequency of love
Intellectual love begins with finding balance in ones life. Balance in every area, from health, to the home, to work and relationships. Love for self begins the process and love for the other becomes the balance. This energises the center.
Grief is the emotion when life is out of harmony. When life is out of balance, relationships turn out to be out of balance as well creating the feeling of rejection. The heart is broken and grief is the outcome blocking the center.
A depleted love center fears risk of rejection. No longer able to invite love in, this type is lonely and becomes an island unto the self.
An excessive love center also fears risk of rejection. This type gives excessively becoming needy and creating blurred boundaries in the process. Ultimately leading the self towards rejection.
A balanced love center stems from living a balanced lifestyle. Respect for self and respect for others is the emotional balance you engage in. When you review your relationships and see that they are all in balance, trust and acceptance of self emerges because you recognise that you’re on the right path. Love for self is now understood.
The Fifth Energy Center – Communication
Based at the throat region, Aqua Blue is the frequency of expression through speech and action
Expression in all its forms defines the egos need to be heard. The roaring nature of the egotistic driver communicates what is going on internally. If all is balanced, creativity will flow in the form of action that strengthens the ego by expressing an independent self. This energises the center.
Lying to yourself and others is an ego that is ashamed rather than roaring with independence blocking the center.
A depleted communication center hides truthful expression because shame and fear blocks the delivery. Either a mouse-like shadow of the self, or a constant meaningless chitter chatter that never shuts up becomes the expression.
An excessive communication center is the tyrant who dominates. If a challenge arises rage is usually the defence because the ego has become so independent that to defy is to go to war.
A balanced communication center is one that creatively expresses the self’s level of awareness freely. Not needing to please or assimilate. The expression is the pinnacle of the self’s acknowledgement of self – The ego’s love of self, a wild and fearless expression that hides no shame.
The Sixth Energy Center – Intuition
Based in between the eyes and is known as the third eye, Sapphire Blue is the frequency of intuition.
The third eye deals with what you perceive to see. All reality is a perception of truth, what you perceive the truth to be. Your level of perception will be determined by the state of balance your energy centers are in. The more balanced the clearer the rational drivers become allowing the intuitive nature to fly high into the union of creation energising this center.
The more out of balance you are the more you will face illusion as a substitute for a grounded intuitive awakening blocking the center.
A deficient intuitive center denies intuition by valuing a rational argument over what is truly needed to make life happy. Denial of a bad marriage, denial of a bad job, denial of bad relationships, a life lived in denial because fear blocks the intuition. Rationalising a misfortunate life becomes the outcome.
An excessive intuitive center has no grounding, focusing on outer body experience, rather than sticking to the here and now. Illusions of grandeur, along with denial of the present moment occur when the lower energy centres are out of balance and thereby creating excessive intuition to compensate.
A balanced intuitive center is one where intuition is grounded in rational thought. This is a state of being rather than doing. Being present, in the moment, whole and nurtured by having a balanced life and balanced relationships. Thought is diminished when you no longer hate you’re past or need a future for resolve. Being in a state that pauses thought opens a truly grounded yet infinitely intuitive consciousness.
The Seventh Energy Center – Cognition
Based inside the brain and is known as The Crown, Purple is the frequency of cognition.
Cognition uses the senses to interpret the outside world. The ego learns to like and hate the pleasurable and painful sensations and then formulates judgment on the experience.
The rational mind concedes judgment as wisdom of the experience. But the level of wisdom gained will depend on how balanced the energetic centres are. Attachment to things is the final test. The ego’s need for acquiring more of what it believes itself to be transcends when thoughts are no longer needed. Past and future thought must come to an end if the wisdom of union is to be realised. This energises the center.
Only a level of truth, not infinite truth is attained when the system is out of balance. When the patterns that lead to union have not been unravelled, wisdom becomes flawed, still needing to identify with thoughts and things blocks the center.
A deficient wisdom center is a mind that is totally fixed. There is no room for knowledge because the ego believes it already has the answers.
An excessive wisdom center is disconnected from the heart. Using intellect to shield emotional immaturity, relationships remain disconnected because rationalisation trumps love. The moment is a battle to be fought.
A balanced wisdom center is a mind that is united to the present moment. No longer is the mind fixed to any one standard nor is the mind intellectually driven. The rational self is balanced giving flight to the intuitive cognisance that pauses thought in the process. A child like observance of what is with a curious joyful motivation is the seed that ultimately flowers into a compassionate, loving and united being.
The most common thread of knowledge around chakras are based on seven energy centres, but as you delve deeper a twelve-chakra system is then revealed. A system that vibrates beyond physicality, an etheric system where some mystics assert that the numbers rise into the hundreds and can only be experienced once versed in deep levels of meditation. For this reason I am not going to get into specific detail on each because the wisdom is varied and fact checking is limited.
What I have done though is suggest what beyond the body means and have creatively expressed my intuitive understanding of the energetic union experienced during meditation.
The Eighth Energy Centers (and beyond) – Universal Transcendence
Based below and above the body, Black and White is the frequency of transcendence.
There is no depleted or excessive transcendence because to transcend is to arrive at the still point of the present moment. I have experienced flashes of these ecstatic states during Vipassana retreats but have never been able to hang onto these mystical experiences for too long.
A completely balanced energetic system is the only way to hold onto these elevated states of timelessness, where mind is dropped, thinking is dropped, judgement of pleasure and pain is dropped for the expanded experience that meets the yin yang frequency as one universal truth that is. No longer experiencing the duality of life, now the cyclic feast and famine are met as one, where the finite human walk of suffering transcends into the infinite walk of being.
To hold onto this conscious non-dual still point and access a paused mindfulness throughout your days, one must master all energy centres and bring each into balance.
To have mastered a fearlessness over survival
To have mastered pleasure of the senses
To have mastered will in constant respectful action
To have mastered love for self and harmony with others
To have mastered creative expression in union with life
To have mastered a deeply grounded rational mind with an infinitely soaring intuition
To have mastered a whole and united experience of the present
To have mastered a mindful transpersonal energetic experience beyond the body
You now possess the language. The fundamental language begins the wisdom. Now we must unravel how to use this language so as to direct the path of action that must be executed for the transcendent state of infinite wisdom to be actualised. Without action this system is merely more noise to add to your thoughts. You must study your personal energy centres, know them intimately and then move towards balancing each out.
To go about the job of redirecting thought so as to balance all eight centres is the rational foundation of this masterful system. Use this map and you will see that the layers of truth will keep unfolding as you progress through your personal unravelling.
When you masterfully execute the path that lay before you, all of your deficient and excessive tendencies unravel into a balanced and united state. The seed of evolution begins in a fearing mind that is focused on suffering, and finally transcends into a fearless mind that is focused on compassionate union. Like a butterfly, you spontaneously morph from a life of fighting the moment, to a life that is in union with all moments of experience. When your system is balanced, so too your life will be balanced, as within so throughout.
Consciousness transcends the separate ego into being united with all. Being every woman, being the ocean, being the mountains and stars. From no mind and no thing, to all minds and all things, consciousness enters the quantum multiverse. A loving essence during the pleasure and a compassionate empath during the pain, the summit of conscious mastery is the art of living.
