Understanding and Developing Our Chakras on our Journey of Personal and Spiritual Development
Image by Okan Caliskan 


Narrated by Marie T. Russell

Video version

Our lives can be seen as a journey of personal and spiritual development in which we are growing our souls and our ability for love, compassion, wisdom, creativity, and other virtues. If we understand that happiness can result from our good thoughts, words, and deeds, and that our difficulties are here for us to learn from, then we put our lives in a framework of meaning that helps us when the going gets rough and allows us to be compassionate when we see others struggling with their lot.

The Heart Chakra and the Upper Chakras

We begin our journey through the chakras with the lower chakras, through which the individual ego is constructed, and we end with the upper chakras, which have the ability to express our highest potential. At the psychological level, the upper chakras reflect and express the qualities of the lower ones. For example, a difficult childhood will affect the way we express ourselves (Throat Chakra) and the way we view the world (Eye Chakra).

The Heart Chakra is the game changer. Human beings have the potential for self-healing and redemption, and this life task begins with the Heart Chakra. The upper chakras reflect the programming of the lower chakras until such time that the central chakra of the system, the Heart Chakra, flows strongly, when they can begin to take on deeper inspirational qualities.

The more we are able to develop the energy of the Heart Chakra, the more potential we have for healing the lower chakras and for realizing our true selves through the upper chakras. A strongly flowing Heart Chakra has the potential to transform our lives, heal our wounded­ness, and invite us into the spiritual levels of our being, where great riches lie.


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Dominance and Prominence

All the chakras open at the psychological level during childhood, but during the various stages of our development, a different lower chakra is dominant. This does not mean that the other chakras are not operating during those stages; we simply see that one of the lower chakras has dominance over the others.

Once we have reached maturity, there are no stages of dominance for the chakras, but each of us will have different levels of power and flow in individual chakras, and it is likely that one or two of our chakras will have more influence than others at the psychological level. I use the term prominent to describe these more influential chakras; in my mind, prominent suggests that although a particular chakra plays a leading role in a person’s psychology, it is not working entirely alone, and it is not dominating a stage of development. I hope this distinction adds clarity.

Some adults will have a prominent Sacral Chakra, others a ­prominent Solar Plexus Chakra or Heart Chakra, or one of the upper chakras may be prominent. Other chakras may be very strong or very weak, and all these variations contribute to the individual nature of each human being.

Psychic Level Development

Human beings have the potential to develop many psychic abilities, but often we—or the people around us—fear and distrust these abilities. Nevertheless, many people will readily admit to some extrasensory experiences that they cannot easily explain rationally: the telephone rings and they know exactly who it is, or they have a precognitive dream or a moment of foresight, when they seem to have accessed the future before its time.

The most common psychic experience is awareness of another person’s feelings, but because this can easily be explained away by body language and other nonverbal cues, it is difficult to prove there is a psychic element at work here. Rupert Sheldrake’s research shows that a majority of people can tell when someone is staring at them from behind, validating a level of psychism and also challenging the accepted view that our minds exist only inside our heads.

There is a great need for research and development in this area, and a need to recognize and integrate the research already done, and yet the scientific culture in the West suffers from taboos and denial around psychic and paranormal abilities.

The psychic level of the chakras is a transitional level sitting between the psychological and the spiritual levels. There are different types of psychic aptitudes connected to each chakra, and it would seem inevitable, from a chakra perspective, that psychic abilities would increase as we journey deeper toward spiritual awakening. In the ancient Hindu traditions, it was understood that disciplined spiritual practice would increase psychic abilities, or siddhis.

Understanding and Developing Our Chakras

At the psychological level, we do not want the flow through the chakras to be closed off, but at the psychic level, being too open can be problematic, allowing us to pick up negative energies without knowing it and causing great distress. Understanding and developing our chakras at the psychic level can be a useful way of controlling our psychic mechanisms; at the psychic level, we can learn to “open” and “close” the chakras.

There is a minor chakra at the center of the sole of each foot and at the center of the palm of each hand. The feet chakras receive energy from the earth. This energy travels up the legs into the Base Chakra, feeding and nourishing it. The hand chakras can both receive information from the outside and give out energy from our energy system. If a person is consciously meditating or healing, the hands can channel energy from the universal field of energy that permeates our world. In this way both feet and hand chakras work at the energetic psychic level, and it is at this level.

Chakra

Associated Color

Psychic Level

Crown

Violet and white

Knowing

Eye/Brow

Purple

Clairvoyance, clear seeing, intention

Throat

Blue

Clairaudience, clear hearing, telepathy

Heart

Green

Healing, loss of boundaries

Solar Plexus

Yellow

Moves energy around, psychic protection

Sacral

Orange

Clairsentience, clear feeling

Base/Root

Red

Receives energy from the earth

Feet

N/A

Receives energy from the earth

Hands

N/A

Receives and gives out energy

The preceding table shows the psychic qualities associated with each chakra. It also notes the color associated with each chakra, but note that this is not meant to imply that each chakra emits only one color. The associated color is simply the one best suited for nourishing and healing each chakra when you are working with guided visualization.

The Heart Chakra: The Entry Point Into The Spiritual Realm

Spiritual energy flows constantly downward through the Crown Chakra to the Base Chakra, connecting us to the world of spirit, but we cannot be in touch with our spiritual nature until we develop the Heart Chakra deeply. The Heart Chakra is the entry point into the spiritual realm, where we have the potential to function more consciously at the spiritual level of our being.

There are three realms of life in the chakra system. The Base Chakra is our entry point into the earth realm, where we experience life through the physical, psychological, and psychic levels of the chakras. The Heart Chakra is the gateway to the spiritual realm, where we can access the spiritual levels of the chakras, and the Crown Chakra is the gateway to the divine realm, where we have the potential to know ultimate enlightenment.

At the psychological level, the upper chakras are influenced by the qualities of the lower chakras, but when the Heart Chakra is flowing strongly they function at a deep spiritual level. They become centers of inspiration and spiritual guidance rather than simply reflecting the gifts and wounds of the lower chakras.

The Crown Chakra functions unconsciously in most of us throughout our lives, but when the Heart Chakra has developed sufficiently and we are functioning more often at the spiritual level of the chakras, we have the potential to enter the spiritual level of the Crown Chakra, where we become conscious of the deepest divine essence of our being, the ultimate reality that permeates everything. When this happens, we have entered the divine realm.

Chakra

Spiritual Levels

Crown

Receives spiritual energy; gateway to the divine realm and enlightenment

Eye or Brow

Inspirational thinking, manifesting intention

Throat

Uncovering the true self, calling

Heart

Witnessing; gateway to the spiritual realm

Solar Plexus

Servant of spirit

Sacral

Holds karmic patterns until healed

Base or Root

Receives energy from the earth; gateway to the earth realm


Copyright 2021. All Rights Reserved.
Published by Destiny Books, an imprint of Inner Traditions, Intl.

Reprinted with permission. www.innertraditions.com 

Article Source

Chakra Healing Therapy: Awaken Spiritual Energies and Heal Emotional Wounds
by Glen Park

book cover: Chakra Healing Therapy: Awaken Spiritual Energies and Heal Emotional Wounds by Glen ParkIn this in-depth guide to working with the chakras, author Glen Park draws on her decades of experience as a Chakra Therapist to explain how the chakras can be understood as an embodied map of the psyche, with each chakra representing a different stage of development from infancy and childhood through adulthood, with the Heart Chakra playing a central role in awakening the spiritual potential of the upper chakras.

The author examines each chakra individually on the physical, psychological, psychic, and spiritual level, as well as through the lens of the solar (masculine) and lunar (feminine) channels. She shows how the connections between the chakras and developmental stages are paralleled in the findings of Western psychology and neuroscience and how our collective expressions of the chakras influence cultural trends in society.

For more info and/or to order this book, click here

photo of Glen ParkAbout the Author

Glen Park has taught workshops in the Alexander Technique and chakra healing therapy for more than 30 years in Europe, the United States, Australia, and Japan. She has presented at conferences for Alexander Technique International and the Society of Teachers of the Alexander Technique. She is also the author of The Art of Changing.
 

More books by this Author.