First Chakra - Muladhara - Red

[Guest guest]

Information on First Chakra

 

Element: Earth

 

Name: Muladhara/Root

 

Purpose: Foundation

 

Issues: Roots, Grounding, Nourishment, Trust, Health, Home,

Family, Prosperity, Appropriate Boundaries

 

Color: Red

 

Location: Base of Spine, Coccygeal Plexus

 

Orientation: Self Preservation

 

Basic Rights: Each one of the chakras reflects a basic inalienable

right. Loss of these rights blocks the chakra. Re-

claiming these rights is a necessary part of healing

the chakra.

 

Basic Right of First Chakra: To Be Here and Have

 

To find solidity in the first chakra, we must have an instinctual

sense of our right to be here. Without the right to be here, few

other rights can be reclaimed. Do we have the right to take up

space? Do we have the right to establish individuality? Do we

have the right to take care of ourselves?

 

The right to be here is our right to exist--the right that is the

foundation of our survival and security.

 

 

Affirmations: " It is safe for me to be here. "

" The earth supports me and meets my needs. "

" I love my body and trust its wisdom. "

" I am immersed in abundance. "

" I'm here and I'm real. "

 

Identity: If our rights remain intact, or if we have managed to re-

claim them, then we have a good chance at embracing our seven

basic chakra identities, each of which builds upon the one below

in an ever expanding pattern of larger systems.

 

The identities can be seen as metaphoric layers of clothing, as

ways to cover the essential soul underneath. It is not a problem

to have clothing--we need different outfits for different occasions.

It is a problem if we think the clothing is who we actually are,

and never remove it.

 

When we are so immersed in these identities that we confuse

them with the underlying Self, then we have gotten stuck at a

particular level. We have confused the clothing for the body

itself--unwilling to remove it, scared to expose the nakedness

underneath. If, on the other hand, we cannot identify at all with a

level, then we know we have some work to do there.

 

The chakra identities can be positive or negative, liberating or im-

prisoning. They are simultaneously real and false. They are real

in that they are real parts, yet they are false because they are

not the whole.

 

Identity of Chakra One Our first identity level is known as the

physical identity, and its job is self-preservation. Here we learn

to identify with the body--when my body is hungry, I am hungry,

when it hurts, I hurt. The body cloaks the invisible soul, and

reveals its shape and expression. When we identify with the

body, we identify with the soul's expression in physical form,

as well as its physical qualities of male, female, young, old, fat,

thin, healthy, or sick.

 

Physical identification is necessary for dealing with the physical

world. If I do not realize that I cannot lift one hundred pounds of

paper in a carton, I can seriously hurt my back. If I do not re-

cognize when I am hungry or need to rest, I can seriously

compromise my health over time. To go without this identity

is to be dissociated from the body and disconnected from the

physical world.

 

Demons of the Chakras Each of the Chakras has what I have

come to call a specific demon that interferes with its health and

undermines its identity. I use the word demon not to denote

some kind of evil creature, but as a way of naming the counter-

force that seemingly opposes the natural activity of the chakra.

The reason I say seemingly is that the demons arise to teach

us something. A counterforce usually results in strengthening

whatever it opposes. The presence of the demon keeps the

chakra from doing its job, but that challenge also forces us to

bring more awareness to that job, so eventually we can do it

better.

 

When unacknowledged, the demons keep us from moving

forward. They fixate our energy at a particular chakra level,

short circuiting our activities and expression, blocking resolution.

If we acknowledge the demon and explore its reason for being

there, we gain a deeper understanding of ourselves. To

acknowledge that we have fear, for example, enables us to

face that fear and understand its origins, eventually making us

more confident. To acknowledge grief enables healing, and

allows the heart to lighten.

 

Demon of Chakra One: Fear When survival is threatened,

we feel afraid. Fear heightens our awareness and floods the

body with natural chemicals (such as adrenalin) to energize

it for action. Fear brings our attention into the here and now

to address the threat, but focuses the attention outward and

upward to the chakras of perception and mental activity. We

become hypervigilant, restless, anxious. We cannot settle,

relax, or let down. It is as if we are jumping right out of our

skins.

 

Although fear is the demon of the first chakra, it is also a

sacred adversary, a presence that has much to teach us.

Fear exists as an ally of self-preservation, teaching us of our

own importance and the need to take care of ourselves.

Only when we acknowledge this demon as an ally can it be

truly mastered.

 

Ernest Holmes, who founded the Science of Mind philosophy,

describes both qualities of fear and faith as having similar

qualities. Fear is a belief that something awful might happen,

while faith is a belief that something good will happen.

Although the results are different, the causes are the same--

both are beliefs that govern our behavior and influence the way

we feel. If we can replace unreasonable fear with reasonable

faith, then we have a natural antedote to our first chakra demon.

 

Reclaiming the Temple of the Body

 

The Foundation of the Temple

 

All foundations rest upon the earth--the universal ground for all that

we do. Our bodies are the earth of our spirit, the foundation, the

home. To connect with the body is to connect with the earth, to be

grounded in the biological reality of existence.

 

Situated at the base of the spine, the first chakra is the foundation

for the entire chakra system. It is here we build the foundation for

the entire chakra system. It is here we build the foundation for the

temple of the body--the anchor for the Rainbow Bridge. Without a

strong, rooted foundation, little else can be accomplished. We must

have soil firm enough to provide stability, yet yielding enough to be

penetrated by roots. The anchoring of this temple digs deep into the

earth, for its Sanskrit name, muladhara, means root.

 

The foundation contains the temple's energy by defining its scope,

edges, and boundaries. It defines a place, as a basic context of all

that happens to us. It gives us a ground, a home, an anchor point for

our experience. The foundation largely determines the shape of the

structure above, determining what it can hold, how high it can build,

what kind of stresses it can withstand. Thus damage to this chakra is

reflected in each and every chakra above.

 

To build a strong foundation is to gain solidity. Solidity allows us

to be firm and make boundaries. Solidity has consistency, repetition,

accountability. Our bodies are the solid form of our existence; they

have definable boundaries. To be solid is to face what is in front of

us without flinching, to remain anchored in truth in the face of

opposition, and to remain calm and secure.

 

 

 

From Eastern Body Western Mind by Anodea Judith