CP15   Nelson Mandela and the Chakra system

As we come to terms with the death of Nelson Mandela I am prompted to think about his life and work in relation to the Chakras.  For a long time I have thought that, as a human race, we are struggling to move from the solar plexus chakra up into the heart chakra – to live our lives and develop our values from a place of acceptance of and respect for all living things, including our planet.

 The solar plexus chakra’s importance is that it represents for us a good, strong ego – a sense of self, having a place in the world which is solid.  We all need to have a positive sense of our individual uniqueness, a inner feeliing of worthiness and value that can carry us through the challenges that life regularly presents us with.  The solar plexus tells us when we are experiencing injustice, it fuels us with the energy of righteous anger – the kind of energy we need to bring about personal and social change for the better.  Nelson Mandela had this in bucket loads.

I would also say that most likely he was strengthened by the innate power of his tribal background (his father having been a tribal chief), and so had a solid root chakra.  He was passionate and in touch with his feelings (sacral chakra) and, as a young man, he would have been able to feel the suffering that apartheid produced.  With his groundedness and passion he used his anger to fight.  We may judge that now – we may say that his terrorist activities were wrong.  However, we do know that before he took up arms he had been trying to bring social change with peaceful protests for a long time.  Only when children fleeing from military gunfire – shot in the back – in Soweto did he feel he had no alternative.

I would say that at that time his vision – based in the crown and third eye chakras – was held within his first three chakras, from which he got the strength to take the action that he did.  He also held that vision within his heart, being willing to sacrifice his life for the cause of ending apartheid.  I would suggest that his prison years demanded him to continue to grow – to move much further into the heart chakra –  personally, spiritually and politically.  To be able to come out of prison after 27 years and speak of forgiveness and acceptance is beyond most of us.  That is why he is such a great man.  His throat chakra (speaking his truth) was clearly strong – he was a great orator and his words have  influenced, and I hope will continue to influence, millions of us.    

 For me he represents the pathway from the potential conflict between different peoples (the solar plexus chakra gives us a national identity) to the unity of all peoples at the heart chakra.  We so desperately need more Mandelas in our world – those whose vision lifts us all beyond creeds and set belief systems.  This must happen if we are to survive and evolve as a human race.  At the level of the solar plexus we can potentially destroy one another; at the heart we can unite and move forward as that global rainbow of people that he referred to.

 I would be interested to hear any of your thoughts on this.  

all good wishes,

Delcia

  Heart chakra energy

This next blog post is about the Chakras and Deep Fear.  I hope you find it useful ...
 

I woke up this morning from a fearful dream and could feel deep anxiety in the pit of my belly.  I thought about the Monroe Institute meditative work that I am doing at the moment – this is something called The Gateway Programme, a well established, scientifically based method for expanding consciousness and even travelling in the mind ‘outside of the body’.  It involves something called Hemi-Sync – a system using sounds (through headphones) that have the effect of synchronising both sides of the brain so that the body/mind are in their optimum state for journeying to other states of consciousness. 

I find whenever I am ‘growing’ or developing my spiritual life and my psyche that in order to experience blissful states of consciousness and an awareness of total oneness with the cosmos, its opposite arises too – in full contrast.  I see this as part and parcel of our human condition.  For me, deep fear has always been with me – sometimes very conscious, sometimes revealing itself to me in phobias (in my case claustrophobia and fear of heights), and regularly during sleep (I suffered powerful night terrors from puberty till menopause).  So this morning having this feeling of dread was not unfamiliar.  I wanted to understand it more deeply – and of course to feel better so I could enjoy my day.

So where do the Chakras come into this?  I realised that the area of my ‘existential fear’ feeling was around the location of my Sacral Chakra.  This may seem a little surprising as the chakra concerned with physical survival is the Root.  However developmentally the Sacral Chakra becomes relevant for the toddler – the time in our lives when we are having to learn that there are other people in the world, that we are not totally autonomous.  We are not just an extension of our mothers (or primary carer) – they can go away out of sight.  But will they come back again?

The fear of abandonment – unformed with no developed cognition to understand it – is potentially totally overwhelming.  I got stuck in a cupboard when I was a toddler – only for a very short time, but my parents told me I was inconsolable when they got me out. 

This morning I decided to focus on the Sacral Chakra and stay connected with these horrible feelings of fear.  I endured the discomfort – after all nothing really bad was happening to me whatsoeverl.  I was completely safe in my bed!  By staying with the feelings – not trying to do anything else at all but stay focussed, gradually over the period of about five minutes the feeling simply eased and eventually dissolved.  It is only now as I write that I realise it is now time for the adult me to comfort the toddler me and reassure her that she is safe.

Existential fear of course is deeper than any wounding experiences we may have as children or adults.  Our experience of being separate and alone is part of being human. Connecting with our spirituality and existence beyond our ego selves expands the possibilities of what it means to be a human being.  To go further I know I need to integrate my ‘shadow’ more and more and this is where the Chakras help so much.  They give us a way in to what is not yet conscious for us.  They also are a vehicle through which we can ‘hold’ painful and uncomfortable feelings so that we can move through them and not be controlled by them.

I hope this may be of help to some of you today.

With my love

Delcia

Here are a couple of my mixed media paintings to illustrate this blog post:

Into the Dark                                                                                                Into the Light