Our ascent begins at the ground level—the level of the energy center known as the base-of-the-spine, or base, chakra. It takes its name from its location at the base of the spine, but it is also the base (foundation) of our inner and outer development.
At the base chakra, we access the life-force that enlivens us both physically and spiritually. This energy is the creative power of Spirit anchored in our physical bodies.
The base chakra represents the point where we connect with the physical world, with nature and with our environment. Balancing the energies of this chakra is therefore fundamental to our practicality and effectiveness in the physical world.
When used in harmony, the pure and vibrant energies of the base chakra can endow us with hope, joy, self-discipline and wholeness. Along with the soul chakra, the base also engenders the activity of procreation.
This energy center and its white light are associated with planning, striving for excellence and perfection, and externalizing inner patterns and divine geometry in outer form.
The base chakra is also associated with the expression of purity, harmony, perfection, symmetry, order and integration in fields such as music, art, sculpture, architecture, technology and mathematics.
One of the reasons this first energy center is foundational is that its health and vitality affect all the other chakras.
How we use the energy that resides at the base chakra will determine whether the potential of our other chakras remains dormant or becomes fully awakened.
Some of us have a greater momentum of mastery in the base chakra than others, but at this level we are all called to learn certain lessons. What are those lessons and initiations? And how can we master the flow of energy through this center?
The ideas we’re about to share with you are springboards you can take off on. Your own thoughtful reflection on these concepts, as you carry them with you into daily life, will deepen your understanding of how to accelerate, balance and clear the energies of your first chakra to express more of your inner power.
COLOR: White
LOCATION: Base of spinal column
PETALS: 4”
POSITIVE EXPRESSIONS: purity, hope, joy, self-discipline, integration, perfection, wholeness, nurturing.
UNBALANCED EXPRESSION: discouragement, hopelessness, impurity, chaos.
PART OF BODY: adrenals
MUSICAL INSTRUMENT: drum, tabla
GEMSTONE: diamond, pearl, zircon, quartz crystal
SPIRITUAL TRADITION: Hinduism
ARCHANGEL: Archangel Gabriel
We cannot evolve spiritually without having a secure physical platform. The two go hand in hand.
Sometimes because of our religious up-bringing we have the mistaken idea that Spirit is good and matter is bad, or that spiritual things are good but the body is bad.
In reality, both the spiritual and the material, in their highest state, are meant to be a reflection of the divine.
Matter comes from the Latin word mater, meaning “mother.”
The physical world is the mother because matter is the womb or chalice into which Spirit descends.
Matter is the instrument of Spirit.
It allows Spirit to express itself. Matter is like the flute and Spirit like the breath.
Another misconception we may have is that in order to be spiritual we need to escape from the world around us. But real spirituality isn’t leaving the physical world behind; it’s imbuing the physical world with Spirit.
It’s being part of the world, but not identifying so much with the material that we forget who we are (spiritual beings) and why we are on earth (to express our spirituality in a practical way as we fulfill our unique reason for being and help others).
Without our flute—our physical instrument—Spirit cannot play its song through us. And each of us contains a unique song waiting to be heard.
In other words, being grounded and practical is part and parcel of spirituality.
At the level of the base chakra, we learn to relate to the world in the most meaningful way possible.
The initiation at this level asks us to tenderly care for those we are responsible for and not to neglect our duties to others because we are “pursuing spirituality.”
In fact, our spirituality demands that we enter the physical arena. It demands that we integrate the spiritual and the material.
Ramana Maharshi, one of the great spiritual teachers of modern India, once chided a student who wanted to give up his job and family to serve God.
He said, “Renunciation doesn’t mean giving away your money or abandoning your home. . . . No: a true renunciate actually merges in the world and expands his love to embrace the whole world.”
It’s like Aesop’s fable of the astronomer who would wander around the town each night studying the skies.
One night while he was staring up at the heavens, he fell into a deep well. The neighbor who finally heard his cries said, “Why probe the skies when you can’t even see what’s here on the earth?”
Another lesson we learn at the level of the base chakra is to have a positive view of our body and to build a working relationship with our body.
When we have a healthy regard for the physical world and for our own physical bodies, we become a much better partner with Spirit.
If we are to fulfill our unique mission in life, we need to be strong at the mental, emotional, spiritual and physical levels.
God wants us to take care of our body—to listen to what our body is telling us and to understand what it needs.
Each of us has different needs.
Your best friend may be able to eat a wonderfully rich dessert after lunch, but the same dessert might floor you for the rest of the day. She may be able to stay up half the night but you just can’t do it.
Caring for yourself by cultivating a positive attitude about your body, taking time to get the nourishment, exercise and rest you need, and getting good advice from health-care professionals when needed can help you get fit spiritually.
At energetic levels, the reason it’s important to pay attention to the physical is that the condition of our body determines in part how much energy we are able to hold on to.
If you could plug a 120-volt desk lamp into a 240-volt outlet, the light bulb would burn out.
Likewise, God won’t let a 240-volt flash of light pour through you if the chalice of your body is only able to receive a 120-volt charge of light.
Our care for the physical includes not only our body but our physical base.
Our home and our work environment are extensions and expressions of our soul—the crucibles in which we forge our life’s work.
“Care for our actual houses,” says psychotherapist and author Thomas Moore, “is also care of the soul. No matter how little money we have, we can be mindful of the importance of beauty in our homes.”
The more uplifted we are by our environment, the more creative and fulfilled we will be.
List in your journal three ways that you take care of your physical body.
For example, yoga, nutrition, meditation, time in nature, etc.
A picture or statue of Mother Mary will help you in your meditations.
Mother Mary gave us the following prayer as her new age rosary for the Age of Aquarius. If you give this prayer with devotion, it will assist you to raise the Divine Mothe’s Kundalini energy stored in the base-of-the-spine chakra up the spinal altar to the crown chakra.
Please close your eyes and meditate in your heart as you recite the The Hail Mary:
Hail, Mary, full of grace.
The Lord is with thee.
Blessed art thou among women and
Blessed is the fruit of thy womb, Jesus.
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
pray for us, sons and daughters of God,
now and at the hour of our victory
over sin, disease, and death.
As you say the following affirmation, see and feel the light within you as a mother-of-pearl softness bathing your body in a gentle, suffusing glow. See the light surround every cell and atom of your body, becoming whiter and whiter. As the cells and atoms accelerate, they begin to spin—releasing the white light to clear and energize your body, mind and emotions.
As you recite this affirmation, stand with your arms raised over your head. Imagine that you are directing the energy that is rising up the network of your chakras back to God.
I AM the resurrection and the life of every cell and atom of my being now made manifest!