Working with the Crown Chakra - Part 2

Key – “I know"

Colour: VIOLET/BRILLIANT WHITE

Location: Crown of the head

In the last post I went over the signs and symptoms of overactive, underactive and balanced crown chakra energy. In this post I’m going to be looking at the stones, activities, and daily affirmations that will help you open your crown chakra and bring it into balance. You can also find a ritual and mediation in the base chakra post that can be adapted to suit this chakra here.

The stones in the Crown Chakra amulets and their lessons:

Apophyllite - Awareness of pure consciousness
Herkimer Diamond - Spiritual awareness in daily life
Moonstone - trust in higher plan, awareness of spirit, intuition
Selenite - opens crown chakra and brings energy to other chakras.
Amethyst - spiritual awareness.
Petalite - connect with bliss of pure being
Clear Quartz - focus, clarity and amplification of energies

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Activities for working with the Crown Chakra:

- The best activity for the crown chakra is residing in awareness. As I mentioned in my last post, there are many resources you can look into to find out about this. I very much like Adyashanti, who you can find on you tube, and also Eckhart Tolle in his books "The Power of Now" and also "A New Earth". It is a teaching so incredibly simple, yet so very powerful. Just watch. Don't judge or try to be any way. Just watch your actions, your thoughts, your words, your emotions and movements. Notice how they are. Notice why they are the way they are. That's it. And as you start to do this, just being aware, without trying to change or to stop change or to DO anything, things will naturally start to change for the better. It's quite miraculous. The following activities you can use to work on this awareness.

- Yoga is a great activity for this as the yogic traditions are all about finding awareness. The chakra system is of course, a part of the yogic traditions, and so it is easy to see why the highest goal of yoga is also the highest chakra. Finding a good teacher who can guide you into awareness through your postures can be a great help, but being aware of this yourself in every moment is the goal. Notice as you practice if you are judging your actions and abilities - are you trying to be "good" or beating yourself up for being "bad" at yoga. Another thing you might notice is difficulty in certain areas of the body. Be curious rather than judgemental - "what emotions am I holding here?", "what do I need to let go of to allow this stretch to deepen?".

- Being aware can also be a practice of mundane activities like doing the dishes, driving, doing the grocery shopping, hanging out the laundry or cleaning the house. Simply being aware of our thoughts, reactions and emotions at any time can give us great insight into ourselves. We create our realities a great deal with our mental chatter. When we realise how we are creating our realities, often just this realisation will bring about change.

- Breathing meditation. When we meditate on the breath we quickly come into the present moment. We can't be anywhere else, or we are not concentrating on the breath. Finding a focus like the breath is great for meditating on awareness. Watch thoughts and sensations as they arise, but don't get caught up in them, just keep coming back to the breath. What is this moment?

- Ask the big questions: What is the meaning of life? Who am I? Why am I here? What is existence? What is really meant by the word "God" or "Goddess"? What does "reality" mean? What, if anything, is the "self"? Do I have a soul? ... I'm sure you can think of more! If you need to, take some time to sit with these as a meditation. They are great to ponder in your journal or to use as inspiration for artistic expression, or have a good deep and meaningful with a good friend.

- Reading others thoughts on the meaning of life etc. can be a great way to work out how you feel about it. You don't have to believe everything you read, but you can use their ideas as a bouncing board to work out what your own are. This has been a favourite subject of mine for many years and I have found wisdom and inspiration in many different paths including yoga, druidry, Christian gnosicism, Sufism, Qabala, Western philosophy, Classical philosophy, martial arts, and science. Here are some of my favourites, though I'm sure you will have many of your own:

Patanjali's Yoga Sutras
The Bhagavad Gita
"Yoga and the Quest for the True Self" and "The Wisdom of Yoga" by Stephen Cope
"A Practical Guide to Qabalistic Symbolism: Vols 1 & 2" by Gareth Knight
"Jesus and the Lost Goddess" by Timmothy Freke and Peter Gandy
"Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance" and "Lila" by Robert M. Pirsig
"Meno and Protagoras" by Plato
"The mind of God" by Paul Davies
"Living Druidry" by Emma Restall Orr
"The Demon's Sermon on the Martial Arts" Issai Chozanshi (trans. William Scott Wilson)
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Daily affirmations:

I am
I am awareness
I am pure spirit
All that is, is within me.
I am Oneness

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A ritual for blessing and receiving the amulet, as well as a meditation for energising the crown chakra can be adapted from the ones posted in the second blog post about the base chakra. Just replace "crown chakra" for "base chakra" and violet/white for red etc. When connecting with the amulet, see how this piece feels for you and how you relate to the crown chakra energy. Set an intention for what you would like it to bring into your life right now. 
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You can purchase my chakra amulets at www.forestspiritjewelry.com

Working with the Crown Chakra - Part 1

We've made it to the final chakra, the Crown Chakra. If you've been following with me since the base
chakra, well done! It's been quite an adventure.

If you haven’t read the previous posts on the first to sixth chakras, you can find
them here:
Base chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Sacral chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Solar plexus chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Heart chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Throat chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Third Eye chakra articles: part 1 and part 2

The crown chakra is where we experience a connection with what we might call pure spirit, pure consciousness, awareness or the divine. It is the sense of pure being in the state of the witness within each of us - the only constant in our lives. In connecting with this, we also connect with the present moment, "is-ness", and what Eckhart Tolle has called "the power of now". When we awaken to our true selves, which is this essence of spirit and pure awareness, we gain a perspective on existence and on reality that recognises the arbitrary nature of the ego. Suddenly, what we thought of as "I" is somehow just a story we have been telling ourselves and we realise that what we really are is love, peace, bliss, and simple awareness of the moment of now. It is a freeing and wonderous moment when we first awaken to this reality. We realise that life can be whatever we make it, that we have the freedom to act and perceive in any way at all. We step back from our actions in the ability to just watch what we do and say, without judgement, and just be with ourselves. Doing this, we realise that we can choose our responses in any situation to be actions of love and peace with what is.

In coming into this awareness we also find the deepest questions of reality. What is this existence all about? What is really going on here? What is the truth? What is real? Who am I? What is the meaning of life? What is the divine/the source/spirit/Oneness? We come into conceptual thought and pondering the absolute. Answers are almost always never completely satisfying, as the answer is essentially ineffable - it cannot be spoken, it can only be experienced. This personal experience is sometimes referred to as gnosis, which is to know by experience. For example you can read a thousand descriptions of the taste of an apple, and these will give you knowledge, but you need to actually taste one to know through gnosis. A gnostic experience of spirit is a personal connection with it, and this is the experience of the crown chakra.

The crown chakra is the personal connection with, and understanding of the absolute. It is to “KNOW”.

Overactive

Honestly, this is pretty rare. It's hard to hold onto an active crown chakra, and a person with an overactive one would seem almost god-like. To be overactive in the crown chakra is to have left the ego and self behind completely in order to identify with pure being, and pure spirit only, but to a detrimental effect. When we connect with the source or the divine in pure awareness and reside there, it is possible to let go of our association with the individual self, but this is not completely ideal. There is still a need to be a part of this world and this incarnation. When the crown is overactive, we might forget our personal reality and our ability to act as an individual. People who get this way might become gurus or spiritual leaders of some kind who are revered for their connection to spirit by their followers, almost as though they are gods themselves, but while doing this, they also have trouble acting in the world as a human being. They seem "out of this world" in a negative sense.

Underactive

Crown chakras are often underactive, and might only have moments of being fully balanced. We tend to get caught up in our egoic identities, our thoughts about the past and future and the stories we tell ourselves about what this reality is. It can be a painful and difficult journey to let go and surrender into pure awareness, and many people never do. Having moments where we ponder the meaning of existence or who we really are, are the times when we begin to open, but it can be difficult to remember to do this in daily life and we can go for long periods of time without awareness of this. Having an underactive crown chakra is a space many of us will find ourselves in, even if we have had moments of awakening. It is a channel that needs to be worked on in every single moment to become fully active, and this is no simple task.

Balanced
When the crown chakra is balanced we have reached a very special state of being. We can be aware of the present moment in full consciousness, feeling the Oneness of all the universe in the witness of all things. We see what truly IS, not what we imagine, believe or think is real. We live in the now, and it brings us an incredible sense of peace, calm and acceptance. We emanate love for all beings naturally, and can connect with the source of being to share that love with others in our every action. Some people who are healers will be familiar with this state when they share their energy or the energy of the source with their patients. Here we have a constant sense of spirit, of truth and of wonder at our very existence. Life becomes "lila" or divine play, with every moment of experience accepted with joy for learning and experience's sake itself.

Questions to ask:

What is real?
What is the meaning of life?
Who am I?
What is the witness in me?
What would it mean to let go of my ego?
What stories am I telling myself about reality right now?
What is spirit/the source/ the divine/Oneness?

In the first base chakra blog there was an exercise for a meditation to assess the energy of your chakras. You might like to do this meditation again to check in with your progress.

My experience

This is a subject I have had a lifelong love affair with. I just love asking these questions and not a day goes by that I don't ponder them in some way. There are some amazing authors and speakers out there that can really help you to meditate on these ideas and find awakening experiences. One spiritual speaker I have really enjoyed listening to on this subject is Adyashanti, and he has a lot of videos on You Tube. I totally recommend having a listen to them. They are very thought provoking. You can find them here. Another popular author you would have heard about is Eckhart Tolle. I loved his book "A New Earth", and "The Power of Now" is also brilliant.

For my journey in the crown chakra I am going to take the very simple, but also very challenging task of trying to reside in awareness as much as I can. Notice right now, that part of you that only watches the moment. It doesn't think, and it can't be anywhere else but right now. Your mind and your thoughts are watched by it, but it is only ever present, watching and non-judgmental. This is awareness, and trying to move into this space of just watching our egoic experience is the meditation of the crown chakra. So very simply, this is what I am going to be doing for this one, and it is the most important activity of the crown chakra. I will discus some others in the next part of my blog on the crown chakra, but this is definitely the most important.

So we come to the end of my own journey in these blogs. Though the chakras I've added the following to my days:
Base chakra - eat healthily and cut out addictions
Sacral chakra - exercise or do yoga or dance
Solar plexus chakra - meditate on mindfulness and write in my journal
Heart chakra - daily gratitude photo to Instagram.
Throat chakra - either write a poem or do an mantra/chant meditation
Third Eye - actively question reality for lucid dream experiences, and record dreams
Crown Chakra - reside in awareness

In summary of the whole experience I have to say it has been life changing, as it is every time I have moved through them. Each time I work through the chakras I have such a great experience! And I'm going to be doing it all again soon as this is a constant cycle of refining for me. It's really great. I hope you've been enjoying this journey as much as I have enjoyed it, and enjoyed sharing it with you.

In the next blog post I am going to talk about stones, other activities, and affirmations that relate to the crown chakra. In the meantime, you might like to have a look at the Pinterest board I have made for the crown chakra which has a lot of ideas.
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Amulets for the crown chakra are available at www.forestspiritjewelry.com under the JEWELRY tab. I hope you find something you like!

Working with the Third Eye Chakra - Part 2

Key – “I see"

Colour: INDIGO/DEEP PURPLE

Location: Center of forehead

In the last post I went over the signs and symptoms of overactive, underactive and balanced third eye chakra energy. In this post I’m going to be looking at the stones, activities, and daily affirmations that will help you open your third eye chakra and bring it into balance. You can also find a ritual and mediation in the base chakra post that can be adapted to suit this chakra here.

The stones in the Third Eye Chakra amulets and their lessons:

Sodalite - insight, inspiration, wisdom, and mental clarity.
Amethyst - spiritual awareness, meditation, psychic work
Blue Apatite - opens psychic faculties, inner vision.
Labradorite - magic, ritual and initiation. Psyhic work.
Dumortierite - inner vision. Mental clarity. Intuition. Psychic work,
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Activities for working with the Third Eye Chakra:

- Work on meditation for inner vision. You can begin with simple visualisations, such as imagining a simple shape, or looking at a candle and then closing the eyes to see it in the mind's eye. You can then take this a step furthur to imagining the complexities of a particular place. It might be the room you are meditating in, or your favourite place. Try to visualise all the details of it as though you are walking around in it in your imagination. This practice can lead to better visualisation in guided meditations and journeying meditations, as well as dreams and astral projection.

- Keep a dream journal. In the morning, when you wake up, or if you wake up in the night. Try to lie still and recall the details of the dream, then as soon as you are able, take your journal and write points of clarity, then go back and fill in any details you can remember. Recalling our dreams helps us to become more aware of them as we are dreaming - this is called lucid dreaming, when we awaken to the fact that we are dreaming, while we are still dreaming. Lucid dreaming is a way that we can seek wisdom from our guides. It is possible to interract with them directly in the dream state, though maintaining focus in this takes a lot of practice. Practicing testing reality as I explained in the last entry can also help with this.

- Work with divination. There are so many wonderful divinatory tools out there to work with. Divination is a form of gentle psychic work that can help us to open up our third eye. You might like to try a few different types of divination to see what works for you. Some ideas might include different oracle card decks (I really like the Gaia oracle deck but there are so many!), tarot cards, runes, ogham sticks, pendulums, scrying or crystal ball gazing. Another one is oracle walking or looking out for signs and omens. You can do that one in daily life. Just be aware that the universe is always trying to give us messages and see if you can notice them. It might be a numberplate that seems to be saying something or an animal you feel has a certain meaning. It's important not to get "caught up" in divination. It is a tool for opening our mind and speaking with our subconscious. We have free will and whatever we "see" in our futures is only a possibility. We always have the power to make a change.

- Learn about a psychic skill you are interested in. There are a lot of great books out there that can help you work on your psychic abilities, but also just learning to listen to your intuitive senses can help us develop in these areas a great deal.

- Ritual and magickal practice are a part of this chakra's energy also. If you are experienced with ritual and magic, it is a great thing to work on regularly for your psychic development and connection with spirit. If you are not familiar with magick there are some brilliant authors out there that will be able to guide you on the path. It is a wonderful process of celebration, affirmation and personal healing, as well as connecting with the divine. Our spell is our prayer to the universe. I really enjoyed "Ritual" by Emma Restall Orr, or "Green Witchcraft" by Moura, but there are so many out there. Find something that speaks to you.

- Notice the moments where you feel you are "just seeing things". Maybe you are out walking and thought you saw a person, but it was just a tree stump, or perhaps you feel you keep seeing a cat in someone's house, or have the feeling that someone is watching you etc. These can sometimes be spirit presences. You don't need to be afraid, as sometimes we project our fears onto our inner vision and we need to know when it is just this, but be curious about it when you see it. Be in wonder and don't be afraid to see if what you are seeing actually is a spirit. You might be surprised with what you find out.

- If you ever feel afraid of what you are experiencing in your inner world, remember that it cannot hurt you. The only thing in your inner world that will hurt you is your own imagination and your own fears. If you are feeling afraid, seek out help. A kind friend who will listen to your worries without judgement is a great gift. If you don't feel you have that kind of support or feel uncomfortable talking about it, you might like to seek out a counselor who can guide you through exercises that will strengthen you and help you to work through the fears. I would sincerely recommend a transpersonal counselor, for anyone on this journey, as they work with not just our psychology, but our spirit. Other forms of spiritual guidance can be in your own spiritual community, or perhaps with a spiritual healer of some kind. Don't ever feel that you are alone. If you just reach out, you will find the help you need.

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Daily affirmations:

I have clear inner vision
I am aware of the spiritual layers of reality
I open my inner vision to wisdom
My third eye is open and vibrant
I am intuitive and inspired
My psyhic skills are clearer each day

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A ritual for blessing and receiving the amulet, as well as a meditation for energising the third eye chakra can be adapted from the ones posted in the second blog post about the base chakra. Just replace "third eye chakra" for "base chakra" and deep purple for red etc. When connecting with the amulet, see how this piece feels for you and how you relate to the third eye chakra energy. Set an intention for what you would like it to bring into your life right now. You can make this adaptation for any of the following chakras also.
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You can purchase my chakra amulets at www.forestspiritjewelry.com

Working with the Third Eye Chakra - Part 1

Welcome to the Third Eye Chakra. How far we've come!

If you haven’t read the previous posts on the first to sixth chakras, you can find
them here:
Base chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Sacral chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Solar plexus chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Heart chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Throat chakra articles: part 1 and part 2

The third eye chakra is one that people with spiritual interests tend to get excited about, however many people tend to disregard this aspect of our being, thinking it superstitious, irrational or imagined. Unfortunately this way of thinking limits our experience of the wonder of what it is to be alive. Our existence itself is miraculous and wonderous, and if we take the time to be curious and follow our intuitive feelings, we can find ourselves having truly amazing experiences.

The third eye is associated with our inner vision or the view of the mind's eye. It is through the thrid eye that we "see" our dreams,astral projections, meditation journeys, memories, visualisations, and imagination. Here we are also aware on a psyhic level through skills such as clairvoyance (clear seeing), clairaudience (clear hearing) or clairsentience (clear feeling). Through subtle awareness in the third eye we might also see energies, spirits, spirit guides or deities. It is also through the third eye that we come to wisdom and an understanding of abstract concepts, metaphor and poetic truth. We "see" the truth.

The third eye chakra is the vision of the inner eye on many levels. It is to “SEE”.

Underactive third eyes are quite possibly the norm in our society, however, in spiritual circles, overactive third eyes are actually fairly common too. Finding the balance between underactive and overactive third eye energy in our society can be quite difficult. Society tends to be underactive, with the general status quo being a cynical, empirical, data-based, scientific worldview of what our reality is all about. To be a "believer" in anything spiritual is often seen as a bit kooky. Spiritual people often find eachother and create communities, which is great, but it can also lead to a comfortability that ends up leading some people to extremes. In some circles, the use of mind altering substances at times when the mind is not ready can also lead to an overactive third eye. The ideal state is of course, somewhere in between these two states.

Overactive

Words we tend to use for people who are displaying the characteristics of an overactive third eye are "away with the fairies", "spaced out", "not with it", "all in his/her mind", "lost it". If we find ourselves in this state it is because we have gone so far INTO our mind that we have lost track of reality. Our experience is flooded with the images of the mind, and we layer this experience onto our reality, which can cause disconnection. We might make assumptions of people that are based in our imagination, or see "signs" all over the place that are not helpful. We may take our dreams too literally or feel bombarded by spiritual energies. The signs we feel we see may even cause us stress or have negative messages that are really projections of the mind. We lose track of truth and reason and need to come to a place of balance. Some people are very distressed by this experience, while others tend to feel calm here. Many people who are calm in this state tend to have difiiculties in their day to day lives as they can become disconnected from the physical planes.

Underactive

When the third eye is underactive we tend to shun all kinds of belief as nonsense, ridiculous, insane or a waste of time. We see the world without wonder, meaning or purpose. We find the idea of spirits, energies or deities to have little credit. If we do have any kind of spiritual experience, such as a dream, a chance meeting or a granted wish, we brush it off as coincidence, or try to explain it away in another way. We might find it difficult to recognise our intuitive senses or to have the courage to follow them if we do feel them. We explain away any messages we recieve and do not seek out the opportunities they might lead us to. Synchronicities (chance life events) are not met as they are often not recognised. We also have difficulty understanding or accepting practices like divination (eg tarot cards), horoscopes, energetic healing, magic and meditation.

Balancing...

The process of balancing these energies finds us somewhere in between cynicism and blind faith. I like to call it the path of the "open minded skeptic". To be open minded, you need to be curious and experimental; follow those hunches and see what magic might happen; talk to the spirits and see what they say; pick up the tarot cards and give it a go. Have a sense of playfulness in what you do, but not a mocking disbelief. Be open to the possibilities of finding wonder here. To be skeptical, I don't mean be disbelieving, just maintain a sense of being unattached to it being either true or untrue. Be aware that it could all just be in your head, but also be aware that it might bring you amazing experiences. This is a hard balance to find.

Balanced
When our third eye is balanced we are aware of the subtle layers of existence - energies our our bodies such as the aura; spiritual presences; divine energies and presences; the energies and spirits of animals, plants and landscapes. We find we have more vivid and memorable dream experiences, possibly experiencing lucid dreams or astral projection. Our meditative visualisations will also be clear and focused. We strongly feel intuitions or recieve messages from guides about whether or not to take certain actions and though we may use meditation for clairification, we tend to follow these and see where they lead us. We are more inclined to have synchronicities happen in our lives - for example, we meet a person who can help us with a problem just at the right moment; we follow a hunch and find ourselves in an experience that brings us deep wisdom, etc. When we are open here we also realise the power of magic and ritual to shape our realities with our Will, and understand how to become aligned with the energies of the universe around us. People with very balanced third eyes may be drawn to energetic healing, psychic work or divination.

Questions to ask:

Am I a believer or a cynic, or a bit of both?
Are there times that I find it hard to be open minded?
Are there times that I find it hard to question my beliefs or spiritual experiences?
Do I feel in connection with spirits or energies?
Do I feel my intuitions and follow them?
Am I open to synchronistic experiences?
Is my inner vision clear and focused?

In the first base chakra blog there was an exercise for a meditation to assess the energy of your chakras. You might like to do this meditation again to check in with your progress.

My experience

I have to admit, adding the throat chakra to my schedule has shaken things up a bit and I haven't been able to keep up the whole set of activities. In the heart chakra I think I learned not to be so hard on myself though, so I am just doing what I can and being grateful when I manage to do the whole lot. It feels a lot like spinning plates, and trying to add another and another... at some point it gets pretty tricky. I guess it has helped me to see how true enlightenment can come from achieving and maintaining balance in all of them all the time! And I was only trying one activity in each! For the final three chakras I am going to keep up this attitude of allowing myself to do what I can, though my goal is to do all of them as much as possible. I tell you what, when I do it feels awesome.

So far I've added the following to my days:
Base chakra - eat healthily and cut out addictions
Sacral chakra - exercise or do yoga or dance
Solar plexus chakra - meditate on mindfulness and write in my journal
Heart chakra - daily gratitude photo to Instagram.
Throat chakra - either write a poem or do an mantra/chant meditation

The third eye is an area I have been looking forward to working with the whole time as we have moved through the chakras in these blogs. For a long time I have been interested in astral projection and lucid dreaming and want to work on these here. I have had some significant experiences, and I would really like to get to the point where I am able to stay with it for a bit longer. Lucid dreams are when we "wake up" within our dream - we become aware of the fact that we are dreaming. When this happens, if we can stay with the dream, we are able to do all sorts of fantastical things, like fly through the air, travel in an instant to distant places or speak with spirit guides. Astral projection is similar, but there is less projection here of the imagination which manifests as form. It's a bit complicated, and possibly worth another blog post to explain it! Let me know if you're interested.

Anyway, the way that you initiate lucid dream experiences is basically to question your reality in daily life. Always asking "am I dreaming? Is this "real"?" etc. You can then test reality by either doing a little jump (if you're dreaming you will float), pulling your finger (if dreaming your finger will stretch), look at a clock (it won't be working right), or turn a light on an off (it won't work right either). You might remember the spinning top used in the movie Inception? That's the same idea. They are just testers for which reality we are in. If we do this as often as we can in our daily life, we will remember to do it in our dreams, and then we will become aware that we are dreaming. Give it a go! It's quite amazing.

So, yes, for the third eye chakra, as often as I can remember, I will be checking my reality and also recording my dreams in my dream diary to hopefully improve my experience.

In the next blog post I am going to talk about stones, other activities, and affirmations that relate to the third eye chakra. In the meantime, you might like to have a look at the Pinterest board I have made for the third eye chakra which has a lot of ideas.
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Amulets for the third eye chakra are available at www.forestspiritjewelry.com under the JEWELRY tab. I hope you find something you like!

Working with the Throat Chakra - Part 2

Key – “I speak"

Throat Chakra Amulets
www.forestspiritjewelry.com

Colour: BLUE/AQUA

Location: Throat

In the last post I went over the signs and symptoms of overactive, underactive and balanced throat chakra energy. In this post I’m going to be looking at the stones, activities, and daily affirmations that will help you open your throat chakra and bring it into balance. You can also find a ritual and mediation in the base chakra post that can be adapted to suit this chakra here.

The stones in the Throat Chakra amulets and their lessons:

Turquoise: communication, balance, speaking your highest truth.
Chrysocolla: Empathetic communication, divine expression.
Lapis Lazuli: Connection with voice of the higher self
Blue chalcedony: Balances throat chakra, soothes overactive energy, and also activates the chakra if underactive.
Blue lace agate: communication, articulation. voice of the higher self.
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Activities for working with the Throat Chakra:

- Be aware of how balanced your conversations are. Do you tend to talk more or less than others? Do you interrupt? Do you find it difficult to say what you want to say? Do you feel you are not expressing your highest truth? Just being aware of how we interact with others through our speech is a powerful way of connecting with the throat chakra. Our awareness of the exchange of energy in conversation can tell us a lot about where we are at with our throat chakra, and we can learn to balance that energy through making sure we listen and hear others out, take time to gather our thoughts before speaking, and search deep within ourselves for our highest truth.
- Get musical. Musical expression, whether it comes from our own voice or an instrument we play is a wonderful way to work on our throat chakra energy. You might like to start learning an instrument, or join a choir. If you're experienced with music, it could mean working on a new song or composition, trying to get out your soul expression. If you're not experienced, it could be as simple as having a sing along to your favourite songs in the car or in the shower. Make a playlist of songs you enjoy singing to and put it on when you have a chance to sing along.
- Creative writing. Try your hand at writing a poem or a story. Practice connecting with your higher voice in order to do so. Let go and delve deep into your being to find the words that speak what you are feeling right at this moment. Let it be a spiritual practice. What does your higher self want to tell you? What does it want to express to the world? Can you capture that in words? An extra step in this activity is to perform your poem or story to an audience. Can you learn it by heart? Can you stand in front of others and tell this story with eloquence and articulation?
- As above, public speaking of all kinds is excellent for the throat chakra. Take opportunities to talk in front of groups while working on your throat chakra. You might have the chance at work or in your studies, or you might enjoy joining a toastmasters club or a debating club. Learning to speak eloquently without fear or that knot in the throat is one of the highest goals for the throat chakra.
- Use mantras and chants as meditation. There are so many, as I explained in the last post. You can explore them by searching for them online, or you can make up your own. Even "toning" can be great. This is when we explore the sounds our voice can make, just experimenting with different shapes of the mouth.
- Affirmations. The power of our words is quite amazing. When we speak something it starts to come into being. It is the beginning of form, the seed. Learning to use our words wisely and positively, as a tool for our own self development is a powerful tool. When we talk down to ourselves we become dis-empowered. We can learn to create positive change trough positive affirmations.

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Daily affirmations:

I strive for balanced communication
I speak with the voice of my higher self
I express my highest truth
In my higher self I find wisdom
My words are my power
I am confident in speaking in front of others

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A ritual for blessing and receiving the amulet, as well as a meditation for energising the throat chakra can be adapted from the ones posted in the second blog post about the base chakra. Just replace "throat chakra" for "base chakra" and blue for red etc. When connecting with the amulet, see how this piece feels for you and how you relate to the throat chakra energy. Set an intention for what you would like it to bring into your life right now. You can make this adaptation for any of the following chakras also.
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You can purchase my chakra amulets at www.forestspiritjewelry.com

Working with the Throat Chakra - Part 1

Wow, we've made it to the throat chakra. We're more than half-way through!

If you haven’t read the previous posts on the base, sacral, solar plexus and heart chakras, you can find
them here:
Base chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Sacral chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Solar plexus chakra articles: part 1 and part 2
Heart chakra articles: part 1 and part 2

If you've been working through all the chakras with me, well done! It's been a lot to think about. Now we're onto the final three. These are concerned with the more spiritual and subtle realms of our experience. The throat chakra is where we learn to find the voice of our higher self. It is also the area for communication, and creative expression, particularly with poetry, storytelling and creative writing. It is here that we learn to become a channel of sorts for the "divine". We can understand and experience "the divine" in many ways, such as "spirit", "pure consciousness", "the source", the "universe" or even "God" or "Goddess", but no matter which of these "speaks" to us, it is this that we are learning to give a voice.

If you are a writer, singer or have to do public speaking at all, you may have noticed that there are times when you really feel "in the zone". You might have a feeling of watching yourself, or allowing yourself to be taken over somehow as you speak or do what you do? Many people who feel this report that it is at these times that they have been the most eloquent in their speech, or have sung with a particular clarity etc. It has a spiritual quality about it that seems to have come from somewhere else, or is more pure than what they had done at other times. This is because the throat chakra has been opened to allow the energy of the source to flow through them, helping them to speak with the voice of the higher self, or to channel the energy of the divine through them into their art.

The throat chakra is our ability to communicate, express, and craft with words. It is to “SPEAK”.

Another area of interest of mine is Druidry which is particularly interested in poetry and storytelling and the channelling of divine energy, "flowing spirit" or "Awen" in order to bring this about. It is through chanting this word that the inspiration of the divine is allowed to flow through the Bard (or poet) to bring them eloquence and help them have insights in their poetry and stories. It seems to me that in this practice they were focusing on the energy of the throat chakra, helping it to open. Those interested in Wicca will also be familiar with the power of the spoken word as a magickal tool. We need to be careful with our every word as our words have great power. So we have a responsibility to be sure our words come from our highest sense of self.

Chants and mantras are also very powerful important for the yogic tradition, and exist for all kinds of purposes. It is through the throat chakra that we can bring energy and life to them. It is also through mantras that we can help to open the throat chakra, but more on that in part 2. For now, let's have a look at the effects of an underactive or overactive throat chakra and what we are looking to acheive by bringing our throat chakra into balance.

Overactive

If the throat chakra is overactive it can manifest as a need to talk too much, possibly at the expense of being able to listen to others. We may talk at length, moving from one idea to the next without recognising the need to let others speak also or listen to their side of the conversation. We might also interrupt and cut off others as a result of being too interested in having our own say. If channeling, poetry or other kinds of creative speech or writing are involved, we may seem "spaced out" and disconnected to others as we are obsessed with the stories and messages playing out in our minds that we are trying to express, or may be expressing. The mad writer who is both brilliant and impersonal is a good archetype for an overactive throat chakra.

Underactive

If the throat chakra is underactive we will feel shy and nervous about speaking out. We may feel a knot in the throat or constriction when we want to say something and feel it as a blockage that is stopping us from using our voice. When it comes to speaking in public or singing we can feel all sorts of negative emotions that many of us are familiar with, though some people can have these feelings in private conversations. When we feel under pressure it can cause shaking, stuttering, palpitations, sweating, crying, and/or hyperventilating. When our throat chakra is underactive we may also have trouble connecting with the voice of the higher self, and/or our creative ability with words in various ways.

Balanced

When the throat chakra is balanced our conversations are also balanced. We can talk as much as we listen, and when we talk we are eloquent, thoughtful and speak with the voice of the higher self (which doesn't mean we sound all "la dee dar" spiritual. It means we have perspective, presence and awareness. We see the big picture). When the throat chakra is open we will be able to direct that energy to creative word play, whether it is in our daily conversations, even our facebook status updates, writing poetry, singing, telling a good story, doing a presentation or giving a speech. It helps us to communicate well, with inspiration (spirit within). 

Questions to ask:

How do I feel in conversations?
What does the energy in my throat feel like when I am under pressure to speak?
Do I feel connected to the voice of my higher self?
What is the higher self?
Is there a form of creative word play I would like to get better at?

In the first base chakra blog there was an exercise for a meditation to assess the energy of your chakras. You might like to do this meditation again to check in with your progress.

My experience

So far I've been stacking my activities for each of the chakras, so now I've got a pretty hectic daily schedule! It is great and I feel really good, but I also feel a bit like I'm spinning plates and I'm about to add yet another one. It's quite a challenge, that's for sure. But no one said this would be easy, and once I get to the end? Well, then I get to start it all over again! :-) It's a constant process of refining and polishing from here.

So far I've added the following to my days:
Base chakra - eat healthily and cut out addictions
Sacral chakra - exercise or do yoga or dance
Solar plexus chakra - meditate on mindfulness and write in my journal
Heart chakra - daily gratitude photo to Instagram. A modern meditation!

For the throat chakra I've decided to alternate with two activities so I can do them as I have the opportunity. I'm either going to write a poem or I'm going to chant a mantra. There are so many! I may mix it up a bit, but to begin with the mantra for the throat chakra in the yogic tradition is "EYE" like the letter "i". OM or AUM is of course another good one which is the word for the source of all being - the divine Oneness. And Awen is always a Druid alternative. It's pronounced "AH-OO-EH-NN". 

In the next blog post I am going to talk about stones activities, and affirmations that relate to the throat chakra. In the meantime, you might like to have a look at the Pinterest board I have made for the throat chakra which has a lot of ideas.
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Amulets for the throat chakra will be available at www.forestspiritjewelry.com under the JEWELRY tab. I hope you find something you like!

Working with the Heart Chakra - Part 2

Key – “I love"

Colour: GREEN with a PINK center

Heart chakra amulets
www.forestspiritjewelry.com

Location: Heart/ Center of the chest

In the last post I went over the signs and symptoms of overactive, underactive and balanced heart chakra energy. In this post I’m going to be looking at the stones, activities, and daily affirmations that will help you open your heart chakra and bring it into balance. You can also find a ritual and mediation in the base chakra post that can be adapted to suit this chakra here.

The stones in the Heart Chakra amulets and their lessons:

Rose Quartz - love, compassion, peace, emotional healing.
Green Aventurine - meditative attention in the heart center, opening the heart. Working through emotional blockages.
Fuschite with ruby - Helps us to act with real love and find the balance between unconditional love and tough love. We act in accord with love for ourselves, others, and all of existence simultaneously.
Prehnite - Peace, gratitude, giving, and making the world a better place.
Zoisite with ruby - opens the heart, encourages engagement with life, being in the moment, and having gratitude for what is.
Green Jade - balances the emotions, opens the heart, brings love, compassion, and feelings of abundance and joy.

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Activities for working with the Heart Chakra:

- Meditating on compassion and love - The Balinese teacher Ketut in the popular book and movie "Eat Pray Love" said it very simply, "sit in silence and smile... Smile with face, smile with mind, and good energy will come to you and clean away dirty energy". That's about it. Bring in feelings of love, compassion and peace by changing your energy to smiling energy. It's so simple it's perfect. Great book by the way!

- Practice emotional awareness. This is a continuation of the solar plexus mindfulness meditation where we watched our thoughts. Here we expand this awareness into our feelings and emotions. Be aware of what you are feeling, when you are feeling it, what your triggers are, and what in your past they remind you of. Just be aware of it without judgement. You might like to record these observations in your diary.
- Practice acting with love, particularly at times where you are feeling negative emotions. Always ask "how can I act with the most love?" It will always help you to find the best course of action. Remember though, that acting with the most love means acting with real love, not infatuation, fanaticism or craving. It also does not mean loving others at the expense of yourself. It is love for all and everything. For the greater good.

- Practice gratitude. Finding time to have gratitude for our lives and everything in it can be very healing and help us to break out of times where our hearts feel closed or underactive. Being positive and optimistic about life is a skill we develop. It is a perspective we can learn to have more regularly. We just need to work on it genuinely. Finding something to have gratitude for everyday is a great start.
- Work for a charity or cause, make a donation or volunteer, attend a rally or join a political party you support. There are so many things we can do in the world to make a positive difference. When we open our hearts and feel love and compassion for all, we will also be drawn towards helping others in whatever ways we can. 
- Random acts of kindness. This should be a way of life. Treat everyone with kindness and love and the world slowly has more smiling faces. Open a door for someone, ask someone if they are OK, call a friend you haven't spoken to in awhile, share what you know with those who care to listen, listen to others tell their story.... there are so many small ways we can make the world a better place.

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Daily affirmations:

My heart is full of love and compassion
I am at peace with what is
I act with true love
I have gratitude for my life's experiences and lessons
I give love for the sake of love

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A ritual for blessing and receiving the amulet, as well as a meditation for energising the heart chakra can be adapted from the ones posted in the second blog post about the base chakra. Just replace "heart chakra" for "base chakra" and green with a pink center for red etc. When connecting with the amulet, see how this piece feels for you and how you relate to the heart chakra energy. Set an intention for what you would like it to bring into your life right now. You can make this adaptation for any of the following chakras also.
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You can purchase my chakra amulets at www.forestspiritjewelry.com