Chakras are organizational centers for the reception, assimilation, and transmission of life-force energy. They are the stepping-stones between heaven and earth.
The chakra system describes the architecture of the human soul. It is a profound formula for wholeness, a template for transformation, and a map for manifestation. Its seven major energy centers correspond to nerve ganglia along the body’s core, and represent essential aspects of the human psyche. As a whole, the chakra system forms a bridge that connects universal polarities: spirit to matter, heaven to earth, and mind to body. The chakras are stepping stones along that bridge, bringing those polarities into union.
“Union” is the true meaning of the word yoga, the system from which the chakras originated. The practice of yoga is a means to awaken the chakras, through a combination of postures, breath, and meditation. In my work I also combine yoga with bioenergetics, developmental psychology, and sacred ceremony.
The chakras can be thought of as jewels strung along a necklace. When you hold the necklace in your hands and pull the two ends apart vertically, the jewels line up, one on top of another. When you align your chakras vertically, they enhance the flow of universal energy and move this flow through your body in the most efficient and direct way possible. With this opening, you have the most direct access to your source within.
The chakras act as portals between the inner world of your experience and the outer world of your environment. When your chakras are aligned and open, your mind and body work in harmony, making your actions more effective in the world.
Like any gateway or channel, chakras can become blocked. When you take the time to remove blockages from within the chakras, your life-force energy flows in and out in a more harmonious and productive manner. It becomes easier to relate to your environment and achieve your dreams.
The chakra system is a map of the broad vertical terrain between heaven and earth. It shows the way to reach the heights of pure awareness and the way down to the realities of the material world. Most treatises on the chakras emphasize the journey upward. This journey begins with the body and the material world, entering subtler and higher planes of consciousness with each step upward. The ancient texts called this upward journey mukti, or freedom; I call it the current of liberation. This current allows you to liberate yourself from fixed forms and attachments. It enables you to break free from limitations that hold you back from spiritual realization.
Less understood is the downward path, which the ancient masters called bhukti (meaning “enjoyment”). In this path, the flow of creation begins in the vast plane of pure awareness. It enters our individual consciousness as a thought or idea. The chakras then act as “condensers,” giving thoughts shape and form, moving them into words and then into actions, until they are dense enough to manifest on the material plane. We call this energetic path the current of manifestation. It is by this path that we enjoy the play of life, the myriad ways the Divine can manifest into the world.
Blocks in the chakras can take many forms. A chakra may be deficient in its functioning, meaning there is constriction that results in too little energy flowing in and out of that chakra, or it may be excessive, meaning there is too much energy flowing. The goal of chakra healing is to balance the energy flow through each chakra and, subsequently, through your whole mind-body-energy system.
Blocks in the chakras impede your ability to manifest, because they impede the flow of energy. To manifest anything, you need all of your energies available and flowing. Trying to bring a dream to reality with a blocked chakra is like trying to paint a masterpiece without having one of the major colors of paint.
The chakra system is a master map and an elegantly profound system for understanding the links between our essential Self and the world. The chakras have been used to identify states and stages of consciousness, developmental periods of individual growth and maturity, and eras of human history, even giving us a map for where we are in our civilization at this time—moving from an organizing principle based on the third chakra’s love of power to the fourth chakra’s power of love.
Manifestation is the process of bringing the spiritual and material together to create a good life for yourself, your family, and your community. It begins with your best ideas for your life—your true desires and dreams, how you want life to be. All ideas are conceived in the infinite pregnant void, which we call Source, just as babies are conceived inside a mother's womb. When you create from this open space, from Source, you're creating alignment with your life purpose.