Athena Perrakis - 11 Sept

The Beginners Guide to Balancing, Healing, and Unblocking Your Chakras for Health and Positive Energy

Athena Perrakis, Ph.D.

Much of todays accepted metaphysical wisdom has deep roots and long lineages dating back to early civilizations and ancient cultures. When you trace these roots back to their source, incredible doors of awareness open to you, because these connections to history, mythology, geology, archaeology, and etymologies of ancient languages are what keep this wisdom alive. When you are mindful and reverent of the past, you both honor your ancestors and do a great service to your lineage.

T he purpose of this book, then, is to teach you about the chakras, or energy centers, found within and adjacent to the human body. In Sanskrit, arguably the oldest and most sacred living language, chakra means wheel. This translation hints at the spinning, circular movement of each energy center, which simultaneously receives and sends information to and from you all the time.

But why are chakras so important, and why have they been a focus of spiritual teaching since ancient times? The answer is simple: Chakras, or energy centers, are the gathering places of energy within and adjacent to your physical body. It is important to study them because they are your bodys energy vortexes; they determine where, how, and for what purpose energy is flowing within your physical body and your etheric body (that is, the first layer of the aura or human energy field).

Energy flow is vitally important. It dictates your health, happiness, and whether you are in harmony with your environment. Thats why understanding your chakras and improving energy flow through them can literally bring you greater health, happiness, harmony, prosperity, love, wellness, protection, and comfort. Your chakras are doorways to spiritual power and possibility, and as such have been an ongoing source of fascination and study for thousands of years. Whats more, each one of your chakras contains an ancient key that can unlock solutions to modern challenges and dilemmas. This means that you are about to learn secrets that were once known only to our ancestors, and to bring those traditions into present time.

The origins of the modern chakra system can be traced back to the Vedas, the oldest and most sacred texts of ancient Indian culture. The Vedas are a body of what is known as knowledge texts written in Sanskrit and are the foundation of modern Ayurvedic medicine and Hindu wisdom. Hindus consider the Vedas to be supernaturally authored texts full of channeled messages designed to guide and help humans as they evolve. There are four Vedas, and each has been classified into four text types. Of all of the Vedas, the Upanashads are most widely known and recognized, and in Sanskrit, upanashad translates literally to sitting down close to, which refers to the way in which students gather close to their teacher in order to receive spiritual information and wisdom. The Upanashadsor Vedanta, one of the Vedic classificationscontain all of the Vedic wisdom regarding spirituality and meditation. In addition to information about the chakras, they also contain central Hindu concepts of God (Brahman) and the Soul (Atman) plus the foundations of modern Hindu practice that also have echoes in Buddhism and Sikhism.

Thus the chakra system is a mainstay of spiritual practices around the world (including yoga). It includes seven primary physical energy centers as well as two additional anchor energy centers that connect you to Earth and Spirit. However, some traditions point to 50 to 108 energy centers in the body and aura that correspond to letters of the Sanskrit alphabet and call for the recitation of Sanskrit mantras or prayers. This phenomenon of multiple energy centers aligned with the ancient Sanskrit language forms the basis of modern mantra recitation practices, whereby reciting a sacred Sanskrit mantra 108 times is said to activate the 108 energy centers of the body.

However, this books focus is the basic physical chakra system and the two anchor chakras, including their gemstones, essential oils, tarot, and astrological, mythological, and historical correspondences. This is because the seven primary chakras are the most widely agreed-upon energy centers across all spiritual traditions that acknowledge the flow of energy through the human body. Beyond these seven, two additional chakras are needed to anchor the flow of energy back into the planet and back up to spiritthat is, a return to Source or to a Higher Powerand so a total of nine are explored here in depth. As you read this book, allow yourself to feel the words and to receive them at the specific energy center to which they refer. Where possible, you might even consider placing your hand over the relevant energy center as you explore the pages dedicated to it, since chakras are vortex points of coagulated energy that can only be partially understood on an intellectual level. As youll see, the rest of the experience is highly emotional, intuitive, and experiential.

To that end, each chapter includes a specific meditation and mantra for each chakra based on the ancient Vedic texts so that you can practice working with the chakras in physical, intellectual, and spiritual ways. Connecting with the chakras in multiple ways allows them to make themselves known to you on a deeper level. After all, spiritual teachings are not meant to be entirely intellectual exercises; you are meant to live into the ideas, experience the concepts, and see the inherent beauty they represent.

The nine chakras explored in this book begin beneath your feet, with your most grounded and powerful connection to Earth: the Earth Star Chakra, which is referred to as Vasundhara (Sanskrit for daughter of the Earth). Then, the Base, or Root, Chakra (Muladhara) is followed by the Sacral Chakra (Svadhisthana); the Solar Plexus Chakra (Manipura); the Heart Chakra (Anahata); the Throat Chakra (Vishuddha); the Third Eye Chakra (Ajna); the Crown Chakra (Sahasrara); and, finally, the Soul Star Chakra, which is referred to as Sutara in Sanskrit or Holy Star. Following this order, the book will unfold from Earth to Sky, from physical human reality toward your uppermost point of access to Source energy and creation. The journey skyward will be echoed within your own spirit, and as you read, you will find that your body feels more aligned and comfortable, that your soul feels more peaceful and calm, and that your mind feels enchanted, relaxed, and excited to explore the limits of this new framework.

Think of yourself, then, as the Fool from the major arcana of the tarot as you step into these pages. You are ready to embark on a new adventure that you know will transform youand you are aware that this transformation is necessary, even critical, to your development. I advise you to read this book slowly, allowing the words to move through you and into you, settling deep into the groundwater of your experience and your desire to expand. As you work through the various Embodiment Exercises, you will experience a renewed connection to the energies located in each chakra and will begin to embody them more significantly in your life and spiritual practice.