?? The Chakras as a Path of Personal Evolution ??

Hello, my friends!

Today, I share with you a section from my Illustrated Guide to Energy Anatomy.

This piece explores the yogic map of the chakras and how it can be used as a guide to the expansion and refinement of consciousness.

I hope you enjoy!

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"A Path of Personal Evolution

One benefit of learning about the chakras is that they offer a roadmap for our inner growth.

Everyone is on their own journey, exploring what is right for them to explore, in their own time and way.

And on the subjective levels, all of our lessons are very personal. Not nearly as transferable as we might like.

There’s no guarantee that what works for one person will work for another.

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So it’s incredibly valuable to have these maps of the subjective, based on a deep and powerful understanding of the human frame of experience.

Based on a frame we all share, the frame of the human body and being.

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As we explore the subtle energies, we become aware of aspects of our own experience that had previously gone unnoticed.

We learn about the many bodies that constitute our energy field, how they work, and how they interact with one another.

And we begin to notice our inner operations more deeply.

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In learning the chakras, we begin to see how the physical, mental, and emotional are all tied together.

We begin to see the health of our chakras reflected in the experiences we have in life.

Themes start to emerge in our lives as we begin to see the deeper journey of development that we’ve been playing out all along.

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And, in exploring the Human Energy Field, we gain a new lens by which to view the holistic operation of our being.

We can feel and work with the subtle energies of our being, making this knowledge a matter of practice rather than theory.

And, as we learn to deepen this awareness and bring it into our daily life, it’s almost like we switch from black-and-white to technicolor.

We live in the world we perceive, and when you open up a new channel of perception, you see a new world.

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The chakras are a map of human needs, beginning from the most immediate and basic and moving up the spine to the most refined.

To take a closer look at this, consider Abraham Maslow’s Pyramid of Needs.

Maslow was a humanistic psychologist, and his pyramid of needs ranks and prioritizes human needs from the most basic to the most refined.

Sound familiar?

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At the base of Maslow’s Pyramid is safety and survival. Food, water, shelter.

Once we have those needs addressed, we have space for the next: intimacy, desire.

And next, confidence and self esteem.

Next, love.

And finally, self-actualization.

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The way humans grow and develop, we must have the base need addressed before we can focus on the secondary, then tertiary, and so on.

It’s a path of development and maturation. A fundamental template of human growth.

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Now, this fits perfectly with the chakra system laid out as a map of our energy and psychology some thousands of years ago.

Imagine seven balls of light, colored just like the rainbow. ROYGBIV.

Red at the base of the spine, and violet at the crown.

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Each of these balls (or wheels) of light is centered at a particular place along the spine, each is symbolized by a color, and each has a specific domain of activity.

Each Chakra fits with a basic human need, and a fundamental way of relating to the world.

And they go from the tailbone, where the most earthy needs reside in the body, to the crown, the most subtle aspect of our being.

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The root chakra (RED) is located at the base of the spine, and it’s concerned with material survival, grounding, and safety.

The root chakra is linked to the element of Earth, and the superpower of this chakra is to stabilize, embody, crystallize. To anchor and ground.

And this is where we start.

If we don’t meet the challenge of fear and learn to feel safe, to find faith, then we can stay stuck, dominated by survival concerns throughout our life.

Once we meet and make peace with our fear, attend to our material needs sufficiently for the moment, our scope of consciousness begins to expand.

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Once we have addressed the challenges of the first chakra, we move on to the next: the sacral.

This is located along the spine a couple of inches below our navel. (ORANGE)

It relates to power and sexuality, force and vitality, creativity and physical energy. This is the center for all things that move through us and move us.

Here, we learn to express our desire and power in aligned ways, and in the process we meet and overcome the guardian guilt.

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Once we are moving in the world, we develop habits. We structure our being and get a sense of who we are.

We grow an ego. Which is a functional structuring of energy, emotion, and story.

And it’s something that we identify with. It is the story we tell to ourselves so that we will know who we are.

This is linked with the solar plexus chakra, along the spine just below the sternum. (YELLOW)

This center is linked with digestion and metabolism, with how we process and structure energy in relation to the world.

We meet the guardian shame, here, as we learn to find inner confidence independent from outer validation.

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Once we have established a sense of self, then we can consider reaching out and connecting with others.

We’ve been interacting the whole time, but without clarity and purpose, unstructured and with fuzzy boundaries.

So as our growth reaches the level of the heart chakra, in the center of the sternum (GREEN), we begin to become more conscious of our connections to others.

This center is the balanced point between matter and spirit, and it links us to all of Creation, one Being at a time.

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The emotional guardian we meet In the heart is anger.

From this guardian we begin to learn how to form healthy boundaries.

The Heart chakra is linked to the thymus, which actually takes its name from the greek word, Thymos, which means righteous anger.

In the heart, we learn how to be open and feel our connection to the world.

And, in the process, we learn to safeguard our own boundaries, and listen to the wise messages offered by our anger when it arises.

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As we develop further, our attention rises to the level of the throat chakra (LIGHT BLUE), in the center of the neck along the spine.

This center relates to expression, to our voice and our personal power.

In this space we learn to share meaning, and we learn to transform emotional toxins into healing and growth.

Through healthy expression and communication, the purview of the throat chakra.

The emotional guardian we encounter here is sadness.

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And, as we learn to release this sadness, to use the scalpel of truth to heal and transform emotional toxins, we master the art of meaning, and our attention lifts higher.

We begin to more consciously tell our own story, instead of having our story tell us.

And we move to the third eye (INDIGO/DARK BLUE), which is the center of vision. It is linked to the functions of perception and inspiration.

The emotional guardian that we encounter when developing to this center is pride, and the journey is one of releasing fixed ideas to permit a wider scope of understanding.

Humility brings clarity.

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And finally, our focus rises to the Crown chakra at the top of the head. (VIOLET)

This is the center most closely connected with pure consciousness, with the Holy I AM presence that Creates and exists at the core of our Being.

It is in this space that we learn true surrender, and we find within it a sense of Peace, Grace, and Freedom more profound and powerful than anything we can imagine.

Here, we learn to surrender, to release control and overcome attachment.

To let the light in and move into a space of allowing.

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So, that was a brief overview of the chakras, a brief glimpse into the circuit of subtle energy that is the Human Energy Field.

And, as you can see, there is a path of refinement built into the function of our bodies and beings.

The chakras as a whole offer a guide to our personal growth and a map to link outer world situations with inner meaning.

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And, at the same time, as we learn to work with the energies of each level of our being, we naturally open our senses to deeper levels of our experience.

When you can see something, you can work with it.

So, along with the deepening of our awareness come new ways of perceiving and working with the world.

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Here’s a quick overview of the inner gifts that accompany each energy center:

Root Chakra Inner compass

Subtle visceral and somatic feedback in every situation

Sacral Chakra Clairsentience

Clear feeling, or the ability to feel external vibrations through inner sensation

Solar Plexus Chakra Intuition

Sensitivity to external vibrations, people and places

Heart Chakra Empathy and Healing

Synchron, merging and synchronizing your energies with another in order to perceive or exchange energy

Throat Chakra Clairaudience

Clear hearing, Higher auditory which receives sounds and words, awareness of subtle entities

3rd Eye Chakra Clairvoyance

Clear seeing, perceiving higher vibrations and energies with an inner seeing

Crown Chakra “I Am” Consciousness

Samadhi, the point at which we become one with the object of our focus

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In the yogic perspective, it is acknowledged that many siddhis (unusual abilities) exist, and that in the course of natural development, these abilities may manifest.

If they do, the student is guided to take it in grace without according it too much importance.

Seeking siddhis or attaching excess importance to them can interfere with our continued growth, just as any form of imbalanced attachment.

We will always have the inner power we need to handle the situations we encounter, should we look within in the moment of need.

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In the case of the natural gifts associated with each chakra, we will have many new channels of information open as we engage actively with our own growth.

The challenge is to then integrate these new channels of information with our daily lives.

This is a journey all on its own.

Our personal awareness of energy may lead us to perceive and respond very differently from those around us.

We will have to figure out, one step at a time, the meaning of this inner guidance and where it fits in with our lived experience.

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On this journey, presence is an ally.

We don’t have to understand what we perceive. We simply have to be present enough to feel inwardly as we choose and perceive outwardly.

Listening to the subtle feedback from our body and energy as we navigate the currents.

Present in our body and energy, open to feeling what comes up, choosing intentionally and with a clear idea of our values.

This will guide us home, one step at a time, faster than any story."

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If you've enjoyed this, then you'll love the Only Human Guide to Energy Anatomy.

If you'd like a free copy of the guide, just say hello in the comments. :)

Thanks and blessings!