Chakra Seven - Anodea Judith's Sacred Centers

Our long climb upward through the chakras has taken us to the ultimate mystery: consciousness as the unifying essence of all life. The chakra system itself is a map for evolving consciousness. The journey upward is a journey of liberation from our hard-wired, instinctual consciousness in chakra one, to an experience of infinite, universal consciousness at chakra seven. Indeed, there is consciousness involved in every chakra, for it is consciousness that operates the body, feels emotions, takes action, falls in love, listens and speaks, perceives and remembers, and creates everything. If we enhance our consciousness, we enhance each of these levels.

CHAKRA SEVEN
THE CROWN CHAKRA

NAME: Sahasrara (meaning) “thousand fold lotus”

LOCATION: Crown of head

ELEMENT: Consciousness, thought

COLOR: Violet and/or white

PURPOSE: Awakening, union with the Divine, understanding

DEVELOPMENTAL AGE: Adulthood

BALANCED: Present, aware, open

IDENTITY: Universal identity

DEMON: Attachment, ignorance

GIFTS: Wisdom, grace

RIGHT: To know and understand

EXCESSIVE: Disconnection from Earthly reality, spiritual addiction, overly intellectual

DEFICIENT: Disconnection from Spirit, cynical, closeminded

PRINCIPLE: Awareness

CORE VALUE: Wisdom

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The difference at chakra seven is that rather than looking at what consciousness is pointing at, we contemplate the miraculous nature of awareness itself.

WHAT IS CONSCIOUSNESS?

The difference at chakra seven is that rather than looking at what consciousness is pointing at (like the awareness of a sunset, the taste of an apple, or the sound of jazz) we contemplate the miraculous nature of awareness itself. WHO is perceiving these things and with what? And how do you know? What is knowing? These are great questions to ask yourself. Several times a day, just stop, take a breath, and inquire: “Who is doing this? Feeling this? Wanting this? Saying this?” This inquiry will lead you into becoming aware of your own awareness or looking at your own consciousness.

The psyche is an organization of consciousness that lives in our body. In a sense, we are what we are aware of, including the sum total of all our experiences from the past and what we are reaching for in the future. We are angry or sad because we are aware of these feelings in our body. Yet consciousness has many levels. We are more aware of some of them than we are of others, hence consciousness has been divided into many layers and typologies in order to get a handle on this vast and amazing dimension.

CONSCIOUS AND UNCONSCIOUS

One of the prime distinctions we make when referring to the consciousness of our psyche is between conscious and unconscious (or subconscious) and the more spiritual dimensions of superconsciousness. Here’s a way to look at it: We experience our awareness through attention. We become aware of an object, a task, a person, a feeling, or a thought when we place our attention upon it. This is what we do in our everyday, waking consciousness. We move our attention around and receive information and experience. Being able to control the focus of our attention is a powerful skill.

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We experience our awareness through attention.

Exercise: Expanding and Contracting Attention

Place your attention on something small in front of you. Hold your attention there without wavering for one full minute. (If you slip, you have to start over). Then widen your attention to include as much as you can see from where you are sitting. Repeat both these steps again, only this time notice where your attention comes from. Next, focus your attention on some part of your body, feeling that part from inside. Keep your attention there for one minute and notice what happens. Next, with eyes closed, focus on listening to all the sounds you can hear within you and around you (for one minute). Where does your attention come from during any of these periods of focusing? See if you can feel both the origin and object of your attention at the same time. This brings you into a unified state of awareness.

The Unconscious: Beneath your focused awareness is a subtler awareness—one that silently monitors things like feelings and temperature or hunger, yet keeps it beneath the radar of our attention. It is still part of our consciousness and psyche—in fact it comprises the larger part of it—but it generally runs beneath our awareness, which is why it is called the unconscious or subconscious.

We become aware of it when the contents grow large enough to be noticed (such as with an ache, an emotion, or a noise), or when we choose to pay attention, like focusing on our breath or a body sensation. It is said that the unconscious is analogous to the lower, hidden part of an iceberg, while our conscious mind is the smaller part above the water surface. The unconscious carries an enormous amount of information, and has a profound effect on our emotions, health, and reality. By definition, it is hidden. So how do we bring it to consciousness?

One way is through our dreams. These profound emanations of the psyche emerge from the unconscious at a time when the conscious mind takes a break. But they are only integrated into consciousness when we become aware of them, and turn them into meaning. Later we can work with our dreams “consciously” by acting out their parts, writing in our journal, making art from their symbols, or many other techniques for working with dreams. In chakra six, we talked about keeping a dream journal, so that you become more connected with the contents of your dreams. Chakra seven focuses on dream interpretation — what do these symbols mean? For more about that, I recommend deeper study with Jeremy Taylor’s books.

It is said that the unconscious is analogous to the lower, hidden part of an iceberg, while our conscious mind is the smaller part above the water surface.

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The body is the unconscious mind.

Conscious and Unconscious Body Posture

The body is the unconscious mind. It records everything that happens to us, holds it in memory storage, and operates on the patterns and programs that are stored there until consciousness comes along to change them. Integration of mind and body comes from integrating conscious and unconscious.

This exercise is a practice adapted from Stanley Keleman’s work that we teach more thoroughly in our Sacred Centers Mind-Body Integration workshop. It is a way of integrating the conscious and unconscious mind through the behavior of the body. What does your body do unconsciously? Does it tend to slump? Do you wiggle your foot, purse your lips, cross and uncross your legs, or stand habitually on one leg more than the other? Do you have a habit of holding your breath?

Cocking your head more to one side than the other? If you allow yourself to relax while standing or walking, you may notice habits of moving or holding. Pick one and really bring your attention to it. Exaggerate the movement or posture as much as you can and feel what it is saying to you. Your tight jaw might be saying “I can’t talk about it.” Your clenched fist might be saying, “Don’t come near me.” Exaggerate the posture or movement even more, so that you really get the message. You might even say it aloud, expressively, once it comes to mind. Then slowly dissolve the posture—meaning do it progressively less and less until it is no longer present. Wait a few moments in the empty space and pay attention. See what, if anything emerges. Often it is a new state with a new message that will emerge.

Meaning and Beliefs

Most of the time our waking consciousness is making meaning out of our experience. We want to know what something means so that we know how to respond to it. As children we tried to make sense of our world. If our mother was in a bad mood, we might have made it mean that we did something wrong. If this happened repeatedly, and we created that same meaning each time, we might come to believe we were flawed in some way.

The meanings we create then combine to create beliefs. Beliefs that we formed as children, when we knew little about the world, may have protected us at one time. As adults, however, they may work against us, and prevent us from living fully or creating our dreams. For instance, it may have served you to remain hidden and quiet as a child in order to be safe, but as an adult who is now trying to be seen and understood, this belief works against you.

Beliefs can be carried in the conscious mind, such as the belief that it’s wrong to kill or steal, and they can also be carried in the unconscious mind, such as the belief “There’s something wrong with me.” Or: “No one can be trusted.” In other words, these beliefs lurk below the surface of awareness, yet still shape our behavior and our reality. It behooves us to look at what beliefs serve us and what beliefs hinder us.

Lion Goodman has created a fantastic process for identifying hidden beliefs and changing them permanently to more productive beliefs. It’s called The BeliefCloset Process and you can start Clearing Your Beliefs here.

Consciousness or Superconsciousness

The third state of consciousness is transcendent consciousness or superconsciousness. This is an overarching dimension of awareness that transcends the thinking mind, the psyche, and all our beliefs.

This bundle of information and techniques for working with your chakras offers you a wide pallet for your personal and professional transformation.

This information is part of a larger comprehensive course: Chakra Healing Bundle. With practices you can use the rest of your life, this valuable resource helps you navigate your way to better health, expanded awareness, and joy. Check out the link below where you can watch the video teaser and see your many bonus items along with 7 Chakra Awakening Videos to take your chakra learning to the next level!

Chakra Healing Bundle

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