Monthly Featured Article (Feb 2017)

February 2017

Transform Your Life Through Chakra Work: Continuing an Introduction to Your Chakras - Implementing Crystals & Your Earth Star

by Susie J. Briscoe

To recap: Last month we looked at the 7 main chakras, and discovered that they can be balanced in several ways, including visual imagery, chanting, using chakra stones and/or aromatherapy. The chakras are an important part of Eastern medicine, in particular, Ayurvedic medicine from India. We learnt that meditating on each chakra, its color and position, can re-balance your energy and help you move forward in whatever areas you feel stuck and how they impact on your health and relationships.

How did you get on with your meditation exercise… I hope that you found it brought a focus and renewed energy to help you to your day.

Implementing Crystals - An Introduction to Chakra Stones

People who do chakra work look for a range of options to balance their chakras in order to promote health and healing and effect transformation. One of the best ways to accomplish this is through the use of crystals, more commonly referred to as chakra stones. The stones featured have a particularly iridescent air.

Touching your chakra with your fingers or hand is an effective way to focus and balance your chakras. Related to touch is massage to open the chakras. Chakra stones can be used on their own or as part of a therapeutic massage. The theory is that the touch of the stone when it is placed on a chakra can not only balance the chakra but even magnify its power.

Certain crystals or stones are associated with particular chakras. They will often match them in color, making where to place the stones easy to remember if you know the location and color of each chakra.

Chakra stones can be bought one at a time to work on a particular chakra, or be purchased as a set to use in chakra work and reiki (RAY-key), another form of traditional medicine from Japan that works on balancing energy in the body by focusing on the chakras.

The chakras, their location, colors, and suggested stones are as follows:

1. The Root Chakra - anus and buttocks: red-bloodstone, tiger’s eye, agate
2. The Navel Chakra/Sacral Chakra - belly button, small of the back: orange, carnelian, moonstone, coral
3. The Solar Plexus Chakra - upper abdomen, immediately below where the rib cage divides: yellow-malachite, calcite, topaz
4. The Heart Chakra - the center of the chest between the pectoral muscles: green-jade, green calcite, green tourmaline
5. The Throat Chakra - the front of the throat or base of the neck: blue-lapis lazuli, turquoise, aquamarine
6. The Third Eye Chakra - just above the bridge of the nose, between the two eyes: indigo-amethyst, purple fluorite, black obsidian
7. The Crown Chakra - the top or crown of the head: violet or white in certain depictions-clear quartz, amethyst, diamond

Another easy way to remember how to lay the stones is to think of the colors of the rainbow. Starting with the root chakra, which is red, work your way upwards through the rest of the rainbow. You might find the memory aid of this fake name Roy G. Biv to be useful in recalling all of the colors, especially the last two, Indigo, a sort of purplish blue, and violet.

Stones have been used since primitive times for power and protects. Cavemen wore amulets to ward of enemies and diseases. Why not add chakra stones to your chakra work and see what a difference it can make to your balance and energy.

Now, I want to share with you some of the lesser known – unless of course you are a student of the chakras – but none the less important ones.

Your Earth Star Chakra   - Grounding and Connecting you to Mother Gaia

This chakra is your very core entry into the Earth, grounding you and releasing negativity. Its strong properties keep you protected and secure your aura within the physical world. Your Earth Star is located beneath your feet, under the ground, so for this exercise I would like you to imagine a silver thread lifting your head high toward the ceiling or the sky (it’s even more special if you are able to do this exercise in the garden or in the park or countryside) so that it brings your spine into total alignment. Sitting in a chair without touching or resting your back quietly bring yourself into a focused state. Breathe with a conscious intent, and then concentrate on the ground beneath your feet. If you can be barefoot, so much the better. Keep your feet firmly placed on the ground, yet in a relaxed fashion, slightly apart, and by concentrating on your breath and the ground, visualise roots going from your feet into the ground, connecting you directly into the centre of Mother Earth. Feel the energy rising from the earth, to nourish you, feeding into your very core, and begin to understand that we are all a part of nature and that Mother Earth is at one with us, ready to nurture us if we will allow.

Sit quietly like this for several minutes, concentrating on the breath, feeling the connection grow and planting our roots to ground us and keep us mindful of what it is we need to do. Be like the gardener, and learn from using this exercise how to tune into the seasons that nature brings and the many blessings that are there for the taking… all we have to do is ask and connect.

After several minutes of this breathing in and out and being at one with the earth, allow the energy which has built at the base of your spine to rise gently up and feel it passing through each of the chakra points we learnt about last week, and then breathe back down into the ground once more. Repeat this exercise 3 times and remember that you may wish to chant and hold a stone or crystal to help your understanding.

My personal favourite crystal for doing this work is Obsidian, and in particular Apache Tears. "Apache tears" is the popular term for rounded pebbles of obsidian or "obsidianites" composed of black or dark-colored natural volcanic glass, usually of rhyolite composition and bearing conchoidal fracture. And, believe it or not, this also comes in a Rainbow form… again, my favourite. I like to look for the rainbows wherever you can find them, so be aware!

Don’t forget to share with me what you discovered during this month by incorporating this conscious talk with your Earth Star, and let me know if I may share it within this newsletter next month.