Chakra Info (excerpted from):

Anatomy of the Spirit by Caroline Myss

Pages 68 & 70
The Symbolic Power of the Seven Chakras
Eastern religions teach that the human body contains seven energy centers. Each of
these energy centers contains a universal spiritual life-lesson that we must learn as we
evolve into higher consciousness. Only after I had been conducting regular intuitive
evaluations for many years did I realize that I had been instinctively focusing on these
seven energy centers. This sacred, ancient imagery is remarkably accurate in its
depiction of the human energy system, its habits, and its tendencies.
The chakra system is an archetypal depiction of individual maturation through seven
distinct stages. The chakras are vertically aligned, running from the base of the spine to
the crown of the head, suggesting that we ascend toward the Divine by gradually
mastering the seductive pull of the physical world. At each stage we gain a more rened
understanding of personal and spiritual power, since each chakra represents a spiritual
life-lesson or challenge common to all human beings. As a person masters each chakra,
he gains power and self-knowledge that become integrated into his spirit, advancing
him along the path toward spiritual consciousness in the classic hero's journey.
The following is a very brief summary of the spiritual
life-lessons represented by the seven chakras (see
gure 3):
The rst chakra: lessons related to the material
world
The second chakra: lessons related to sexuality,
work, and physical desire
The third chakra: lessons related to the ego,
personality, and self-esteem
The fourth chakra: lessons related to love,
forgiveness, and compassion
The fth chakra: lessons related to will and self-
expression
The sixth chakra: lessons related to mind, intuition,
insight, and wisdom
The seventh chakra: lessons related to spirituality
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These seven spiritual life-lessons direct us toward greater consciousness. If we ignore
our responsibility and need to address consciously these seven spiritual lessons,
however, their energy can manifest itself in illness. Indeed, the many Eastern spiritual
traditions understand illness to be a depletion of one's internal power, or spirit. The
congruencies among major spiritual traditions underscore the universal human
experience of the connection between the spirit and the body, illness and healing.
Pages 76 - 79
How the Chakras, Sacraments, and Serot Work Together
Each of the seven levels of power in our biological system contains a single sacred
truth. This truth continually pulsates within us, directing us to live according to the right
use of its power. We are born with an inherent knowledge of these seven truths woven
into our energy system. Violating these truths weakens both our spirit and our physical
body, while honoring them enhances the strength of our spirit and our physical body.
Energy is power, and our bodies require energy; therefore, our bodies require power.
The chakras, the Serot, and the sacraments all speak of interacting with power and of
taking control of our own power in gradually more intense processes. At the rst level,
for example, we learn to handle having a group identity and the power that comes within
the family; at later levels we individualize and manage power as adults. Gradually, we
learn to manage our minds, our thoughts, and our spirits. Every choice we make,
motivated by either faith or fear, directs our spirit. If a person's spirit is impelled by fear,
then fear returns to her energy eld and to her body. If she directs her spirit in faith,
however, then grace returns to her energy eld, and her biological system thrives.
All three traditions hold that releasing one's spirit into the physical world through fear or
negativity is a faithless act of choosing personal will over the will of the heavens. In
Eastern spiritual terms, every action creates karma. Acts of awareness create good
karma; acts of fear or negativity create bad karma, in which case one must "retrieve"
one's spirit from the fear that motivated the negative action. In the Christian tradition the
sacrament of Confession is the act of retrieving one's spirit from negative places in
order to enter heaven "complete." In the language of Judaism, a fear that holds such
power over a human being is a "false god." In the words of my Athabascan teacher,
Rachel, one calls back one's spirit from its misdirections so that one can walk straight.
\Ve are simultaneously matter and spirit. In order to understand ourselves and be
healthy in both body and spirit, we have to understand how matter and spirit interact,
what draws the spirit or life-force out of our bodies, and how we can retrieve our spirits
from the false gods of fear, anger, and attachments to the past. Every attachment we
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hold on to out of fear commands a circuit of our spirit to leave our energy eld and, to
use a biblical phrase, "breathe life onto earth"-earth that costs us health. What drains
your spirit drains your body. What fuels your spirit fuels your body. The power that
fuels our bodies, our minds, and our hearts does not originate in Our DNA. Rather, it
has roots in Divinity itself. The truth is as simple and eternal as that.
Three truths are common to these spiritual traditions and to the principles of medical
intuition.
1. Misdirecting the power of one's spirit will generate consequences to
one's body and life.
2. Every human being will encounter a series of challenges that tests his
allegiance to heaven. These tests will come in the form of the
disintegration of one's physical power base: the inevitable loss of wealth,
family, health, or worldly power. The loss wi]] activate a crisis of faith,
forcing one to ask, "What is it, or who is it, that I have faith in?" Or "Into
whose hands have I commended my spirit?"
Apart from such major losses, the trigger that causes people to seek
deeper meaning and psychological and spiritual "ascension" is usually a
physical disorder that creates a personal or professional earthquake. We
all tend to look upward when the ground beneath our feet shifts out of
control.
3. To heal from the misdirection of one's spirit, one has to be willing to act
to release the past, cleanse one's spirit, and return to the present moment.
"Believe as if it were true now" is a spiritual command from the Book of
Daniel to visualize or pray in present time.
In all three of our spiritual traditions, the physical world serves the learning of our spirits,
and the "tests" we encounter there follow a well-ordained pattern.
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In the chakra system (see gure 5) each energy center warehouses a particular power.
These powers ascend from the densest physical power to the most etheric or spiritual
power. Remarkably, the challenges we face in our lives tend to follow this alignment as
well. Chakras one, two, and three are calibrated to the issues that engage us with
physical or external power. Chakras four, ve, six, and seven are calibrated to
nonphysical or internal power. When we align them with the sacraments and the Serot,
we have not only the script for the development of our consciousness but a spiritual
language of healing as well as a symbolic life map of the inevitable challenges in our
healing process.
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Pages 285 - 290
AFTERWORD
A Guide for the Contemporary Mystic
I know that I'm not the rst to announce that this is a most exciting time to be alive. We
are living in a time unlike any that have come before. We are living between two
paradigms of power, or two paradigms of reality-internal and external, energetic and
physical. We are restructuring ourselves and our relationships to personal and spiritual
authority. Inevitably, that restructuring will reshape every aspect of our world culture in
accordance with the sacred truth All Is One.
The fact that our global society is now saturated with crises that touch every nation,
every organ, and every system in our global "body" has symbolic signicance. Nuclear
poisoning, the shortage of fresh water, environmental concerns, and the thinning of the
ozone layer are just the rst of many issues that are no longer national in scope but
global. At the macrocosmic level the threat of global disasters is forcing us to create a
politics of unity, much as an individual faced with a serious illness must unite all the
powers of his body and his life in order to survive. We have reached the end of the
"divide and conquer" system of power, and that system is being replaced by an attempt
to unite the powers of the different nations in order to survive and move safely into the
next millennium. Our interconnected "information age" is the symbol of a global
consciousness.
Information technology is a physical representation of our energy interactions. We have
created on the outside what already exists in our energy elds. Energy information is
used everywhere: in holistic models of health; in corporate "health and development"
programs and seminars for teaching positive attitudes; in athletic training where mental
attitudes and visualization skills are considered as important as players' physical skills.
Whether motivated by money, a desire to win a sports event, or the need to heal an
illness, pioneers in every eld are turning to energy solutions to maximize physical
results.
Seen from our rst chakras, the energy age of civilization is an "information age,"
supported by the computerization of businesses, classrooms, and households. From
our seventh chakra, however, we can see it as an age of consciousness that requires
the energy management skills of the mystic: prayer, meditation, continual self-
examination, and unity of all people. Ironically, both eras are the same; we are all on the
same path.
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Guidance for the Contemporary Mystic
Think in a vocabulary of oneness.
Look through the lens of symbolic sight. Remind yourself that all physical and emotional
obstacles are illusions. Always seek the energy meaning of a situation, and follow it.
Evaluate your daily choices and the consequences of those choices for your energy
system. This wjll help you sense when you are losing energy to fear or negative
thinking.
Look at the sacred text of your biological energy system (see gure 6) for daily
guidance. Keep in mind the seven sacred truths of the body and spirit:
1. All Is One
2. Honor One Another
3. Honor Oneself
4. Love Is Divine Power
5. Surrender Personal Will to Divine Will
6. Seek Only the Truth
7. Live in the Present Moment
Simple and powerful, these truths help
focus the mind, body, and spirit back to a
contact point with Divine awareness. So
long as you use these truths as reference
points, you can evaluate any loss of power
and retrieve your spirit by consciously
recognizing which truth you are not
honoring.
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A Daily Meditation
Finally, as a daily act of meditation, draw your attention consciously into each of your
chakras, beginning with the rst and working your way up. As you focus your attention:
1. Ask yourself the following questions: "Am I losing energy? If so, what fear is
drawing power from this part of my body?" Take a deep breath and consciously
disconnect your energy from that fear.
2. Invoke the protective energies of the spiritual guardians, the serot or
sacrament, of that particular chakra.
3. Enter consciously into tile energy of that chakra and sense the quality of
energy activity increasing in that part of your body.
Proceed through the chakras, focusing in the following ways:
For chakra one, focus on the energy of the Serah of Shekhinah, and feel yourself
connected to all of life. Then focus on the symbolic meaning of the sacrament of
Baptism, and bless the life you have agreed to live, and the family, both personal and
extended, that makes up your life.
For chakra two, focus on the energy of the Serah of Yesod, and sense the energy you
have released from this area of your body into acts of creation. If your energy is
contaminated-lled with negativity and fear-reexamine your intention. Bring into your
mind the energy of the sacrament of Communion: see each person in your life as
having a Divine purpose. Wherever you cannot see that Divinity clearly, ask for the
energy to see through the illusions that are controlling you.
For chakra three, focus on the energy of the Serot of Nezah and Hod, integrity and
endurance. Evaluate your own code of behavior and whether you have compromised
your honor in any way. If so, meditate on the signicance of honor, and ask for
assistance in maintaining your personal standards. Then bring into your mind the
energy of the sacrament of Conrmation, a commitment to yourself to honor your own
dignity.
For chakra four, focus on the energy of the Serah of Ti'eret and the energy of love and
compassion. Evaluate how well you extend love to others as well as to yourself,
including the loving energy contained within acts of forgiveness. Then focus on the care
you give yourself and how well you honor your symbolic vow of the sacrament of
Marriage to yourself.
For chakra ve, focus on the energy of the Serot of Hesed and Gevurah, mercy and
judgment, and evaluate the quality of the thoughts you are holding about other people,
as well as yourself. Evaluate the words you have shared with others, and if you have
expressed harmful words, send positive energy to those people. If you have expressed
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false words, consciously acknowledge that you have acted to deceive others, and
examine the fear that exists within you, from which deceitful actions emerge. This is
utilizing the energy of the sacrament of Confession. Ask the Light to enter that fear and
give you the courage not to act in that negative pattern again.
For chakra six, focus on the energy of the Serot of Hokhmah and Binah, Divine
wisdom and understanding, and continue to evaluate your daily life. Request wisdom
and insight for the situations in which you feel confused or frightened. And remind
yourself of the promise of the sacrament of Ordination: that each of us has a special gift
to give to this life and that each of us is inevitably led to that path. It is impossible to
miss our life's purpose.
For chakra seven, focus on the energy of the Serah of Keter, your contact with the
Divine, and the sacrament of Extreme Unction, consciously completing and releasing
your unnished business. Allow the energy of God to enter into your mind, body, and
spirit, and breathe that energy into your being.
In this daily meditation practice, you will evaluate the health of your body, your mind,
and your spirit. Working with this meditation will let you feel the health of your spirit and
your body. With it you can work to increase your awareness of the balance of power
within your energy system.
In addition, remind yourself on a regular basis of the archetype of tile Promised Land.
This archetype is not meant to inspire us to seek out a "one-time" physical solution to all
our problems. It is meant to draw us into ourselves to discover the power behind our
eyes. We can transcend every dilemma through the power of our spirits; that is a Divine
promise.
Through this self-evaluation you will develop the skill of reading energy and sensing
intuitive guidance. Developing this skill requires daily practice-in times of crisis, even
hourly. This simple act of awareness, coupled with a conscious commitment to learn
from your experiences, will weaken your fears and strengthen your spirit.
Above all else, as you learn the language of your spirit, establish a code of honor for
yourself that reects the spiritual content of your biology. This age of consciousness is
not pushing us merely to indulge in new spiritual theories or play thought games that
unite physics with Zen Buddhism. We are meant to move toward selfdiscovery and
spiritual maturity, to be ready and able to live a life that matters to us and those around
us.
We contain the scripture. We contain Divinity. We are Divinity.
We are the church, the synagogue, the ashram. We need but close our eyes and feel
the energy of the sacraments, the Serot, the chakras, as tile origin of our own power-
as the energy that fuels our biology. Ironically, once we realize the stuff of which we are
made, we have no choice but to live a spiritual life.
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