Previous Cycles or Grand Cycles

Chakras
(excerpt from Opening to Healing Energy)

CHANNELED BY SHEPHERD HOODWIN

Chakras, your energy centers, are well covered in other texts, but here are a few additional comments:

To review, the first, or root, chakra is at the top of your pelvic bone (from the back it is at the base of your spine). The second, or spleen, chakra, is about the width of two fingers below your navel. The third, or solar plexus, chakra, is in your diaphragm cavity, usually about three inches above your navel. The fourth, or heart, chakra, is in the center of your breast bone. The fifth, or throat, chakra, is at the base of your neck. The sixth, or third-eye, chakra, is just above the center of your eyebrows. The seventh, or crown, chakra, is at the top of your head, about two-thirds back. The eighth, ninth, and higher chakras are above the head in your spiritual body. There are other chakras in the body, in the hands and feet, for instance, that are not numbered.
Exact locations of the chakras vary from individual to individual, depending partly on the size and proportions of the body.

The heart chakra is the center of the chakras, providing connection, mediation, and consolidation between what is above and what is below. It also is the place where you can connect with the Tao, and through which your essence can come forth. It is the body’s love center, as opposed to the second chakra, which focuses sexuality, creativity, and emotions.

You would focus your awareness on the solar plexus if you were interested in working more kinetically. If, for example, you were interacting with an assailant, you would center yourself in the third chakra to bring your kinetic power into play.

The crown chakra is the center for universal connection. How is this different from the heart chakra? Your heart, you might say, is a direct route to the Tao, which is the universe’s source. Through the crown, there is the weaving of connection with everything that emanates from the Tao. That includes your brothers and sisters on all planes, as well as the elements.

The eighth and ninth chakras, by the way, begin the process of stepping down higher energies so that the physical body can handle them. Actually, you could see each chakra as stepping down the frequency of the emanation from the next higher chakra. Chakra energies become denser as they go farther down into the body.

What about the third eye and solar plexus as connections to the Tao?

The third eye is the seat of perception. The solar plexus works with personal power. The sun is the source of light and heat—power—for the earth. Every person is like a miniature sun. Through your solar plexus, you radiate your own personal sunlight. The heart chakra is a window of pure, neutral Tao energy.

Is the heart chakra the only place one can connect directly to the Tao?

Within the limitations of semantics, we would agree with that statement. However, in another way of looking at it, it is not true. Everything in the universe is contained within the Tao. Everything is part of it, springs from it, and is it.

What about, for instance, yogis who specialize in one of the chakras, not the heart chakra? Would you say that they are not connected to the Tao?

We do not wish to promote a hierarchy among the chakras. Each is equal in importance and value. One does not obtain enlightenment through one chakra above another. If you feel moved to work with a particular chakra more than the others, that is probably appropriate for you. What is right for one person is not necessarily right for another.

How can you tell if your chakras are functioning properly? If they’re not, what can you do about it?

There are many practices designed to open and attune the chakras. You can use visualizations, sound, chanting, gemstones, and many other tools. The key is your intent that it occur, and making space for it to happen. Everything seeks health and balance. If you give it the space, it will move in that direction. A good approach is to simply bring your attention to one particular chakra, ask that it be cleared, and observe the process while it occurs. However, any method comfortable for you is fine.

You can assume that if you have not been giving them specific attention, they need some, just as a car needs its oil changed periodically. When you live in a place that is highly polluted, both physically and psychically, you need to clean your chakras more often. Spending five minutes a day working with your chakras can do much toward keeping them healthy and attuned, once they are basically functioning well.

If a person has an illness in an area of the body near a particular chakra, would giving that chakra extra attention be helpful? Is there a relationship between it and the illness?

Usually there is, and extra attention to the nearest chakra can be useful. You can communicate directly with it. For example, if you have a headache near your brow chakra, you might bring your awareness to it and ask what you are holding there, what emotion or belief might be contributing to the headache.

If the fourth chakra is central, not the second, why are emotions, which relate more to the second chakra, always portrayed as being so compelling?

People often mistake second chakra infatuation with heart chakra love. They glamorize infatuation partly because there is little evidence of mature love around; not knowing their own hearts, they assume that infatuation is about as good as it gets. Immediate emotion is all they know. Emotions are important and should not be repressed, but they are not the whole self. In the heart, the whole self comes together. To know your heart, you must spend time there.

Would you say that being romantically in love is a combination of fourth and second chakra energy?

Yes. Being “in love” is a state of bonding both at the personal (second chakra) and impersonal (fourth chakra) levels; in other words, you love someone both emotionally and spiritually, both subjectively and objectively, in both your immediate reaction and your overall response. However, people often mistake experiences such as body-type attraction, emotional triggering, karmic ties, and even essence contact (transcendentally connecting with the soul) for being in love.

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Shepherd is a professional Michael channel and author of The Journey of Your Soul--A Channel Explores Channeling and the Michael Teachings and Loving from Your Soul--Creating Powerful Relationships. He does channeling sessions and intuitive readings via telephone, mail, and e-mail. Audio cassettes are available from his site. Visit his website at Summerjoy Press