I’ve been thinking that maybe all this negativity—all my hopelessness and lack of faith—is something that can be fixed, and maybe even fixed in a pagan way while I still have the chance, before this month is over. I don’t want to go into a new month and a new religion feeling as bad as I do right now. So I’ve been exploring my options.
Paganism borrows a lot from Eastern religions—things like reincarnation and karma. Some pagans also believe in the idea of chakras, a concept popular in India.
The word chakra means “wheel of light” in Sanskrit. There are supposed to be a bunch of chakras in the human body. They’re basically little vortexes of energy that spin around at different points.
When the chakras are spinning freely, your energy flows well and you’re supposed to feel healthy and balanced. But if one or more chakras get blocked—by stress or negativity or some other everyday problem—it can affect your health and your whole outlook on life.
Man, my chakras must be welded into a fixed position, because I am in bad shape these days.
So where are the chakras and what do they do?
Most sources agree that there are seven main chakras, conveniently located in a straight line down the center of the body.
Starting from the bottom and working our way up, the first is the root chakra, found at the bottom of the spine. It’s related to material existence and the instinct for survival. All chakras are associated with colors (and together they form a rainbow—see the illustration below). The root chakra’s color is red.
The second chakra is the sacral, located just above the . . . um . . . genital area. Associated with the color orange, it’s related to sexuality and reproduction (so it’s in the right place on the body), as well as pleasure and creativity.
The third chakra, which is yellow, is the solar plexus chakra. It’s located (surprise, surprise) at the solar plexus, above the navel (is it weird that I’m pushing 40 and still prefer the term belly-button over navel?). The solar plexus chakra relates to personal power and decision-making. It also helps keep the other chakras going strong. I’m guessing that mine is pretty screwed up.
The fourth chakra is the heart. You might expect it to be associated with red, or at least pink, but nope. It’s green. It relates to love (stunner!), compassion, balance, and healing.
The fifth chakra is the throat. Associated with the color blue, the throat chakra is related to communication, self-expression, magic (oh, no!), and creativity. Again, I must have a pretty dysfunctional throat chakra, since I can’t seem to get out a single sentence lately without somebody taking it the wrong way.
Sixth is the brow, or third eye, chakra, located in the center of the forehead. Its color is indigo or violet (indigo works better with the whole “seven chakras make a rainbow” idea, if you ask me). The third eye chakra relates to intuition, wisdom, and other mental abilities.
Finally, the seventh chakra is the crown, located at the very top of the head. Associated with either violet/purple or white, depending on who you ask, the crown chakra deals with our relationship to Spirit, universal consciousness, and spiritual transformation.
Based on all this, I’ve got to wonder if any of my chakras are working properly. I think I have some kind of problem going on at all seven stations—and, I’d hazard to guess, in the 21 minor chakra locations, too (but we won’t get into those now—let’s stick with the big seven for the sake of brevity, okay?).
So how do you fix a problem in the chakras, considering that some pagans say they’re not even real, that they’re just imaginary things created to help us better visualize our internal energy flow? Well, apparently, there are lots of methods for clearing or healing the chakras. I’ve even found entire books written on the subject. But the one that looks easiest to me is a basic meditation—and in my current fragile state, easy is good.
The way it works is this: You visualize each chakra, one at a time, picturing them in all their vibrant color and spinning freely with lots of force and energy. You can picture them in any way that works for you: as swirling flowers, colored flames, or maybe (and this is how I envision them) as one of those little pinwheel things on a stick that you probably played with as a child (see the picture below if you don’t know what I mean).
The point behind the meditation is to see for yourself how well your chakras are spinning. If they’re having any trouble, you’re supposed to be able to focus and concentrate to make them spin more freely.
I figure it’s worth a shot. I’m still pretty good at visualization, even if I usually only visualize horrible things. If there’s even a chance I can start to feel better, I’ll take it. So, here I go.
Okay, I’m back. (That was quick, right?) I got in the bath to do the meditation. I know, it’s probably not the ideal place, since there’s always the chance you could fall asleep and drown, but hey, isn’t everything better naked?
So anyway, I did the meditation and had a close look at my chakras. I know it’s probably all nonsense and nothing more than my imagination, but when I pictured those little pinwheels, I saw color but no spinning. They were just sitting there. And then I noticed that the crevices between the “leaves” or whatever you call the pieces of pinwheel were full of gunk—black, sludgy gunk.
I wasn’t sure what to do, because none of the books I read mentioned anything about gunk clogging up the chakras, but I did what I would do in real life if I saw gunk gumming up the works. I imagined scraping it out. And when I did, the little wheels started to spin. A lot. And—again, even though I know it’s probably all just crap—I actually feel a little better.
So, whether it’s real or not, I’ll take it.
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