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