Chapter
17

Meditating: Root to Crown

As just about anybody who meditates regularly can tell you, meditation can be tough. It doesn’t seem so hard, really. You just sit there, counting your breaths and trying not to think, or something like that, right?

Actually, meditation means many different things, depending on which tradition you explore. Meditation can be sitting with an empty mind, sitting with a completely mindful mind, counting breaths, chanting a mantra, focusing on a visual point, contemplating a question, or communing with Spirit or a Higher Power. It can happen while sitting or lying down, walking or dancing, laughing or spinning, or making love.

It can also center around the chakras.

Chakra Meditation

Despite all the many techniques and traditions, meditation almost always has the same goal: to expand the boundaries of awareness until the mind moves beyond its individuality and experiences unity with all things or with Divine Spirit. But most meditators can’t just sit down and slip right into samadhi—the last of the Eight Limbs of Yoga, as described by Patanjali in the Yoga Sutras—and the direct experience of the unity of all things. Meditators need some techniques to help get them there.

One of the most common and proven techniques is to focus the mind on one thing. This trains the mind to concentrate and helps combat scattered thinking and excessive mental chatter. In chakra meditation, instead of a mantra to chant or an object to gaze upon, the objects of contemplation are the chakras.

Chakra meditation is incredibly relaxing and also an excellent way for beginners to test the waters of guided meditation. In a guided meditation, the meditation leader reads or speaks the meditation, leading the meditators through the steps. You don’t have to try to clear your mind because you have someone else’s voice and a story or visualization you will focus on. Guided meditation is an easy way to start learning how to meditate because it takes a little less discipline than just clearing the mind or focusing without anyone’s help.

In particular, chakra meditation gives the mind something interesting, varied, beautiful, and self-involved to focus on—way more fun than just sitting there not thinking. As you get better at meditating on your own chakras, you can progress beyond hearing a guiding voice and meditate on your chakras without assistance.

Chakra Meditation How-To

Chakra meditation isn’t difficult. However, it will be easier and more effective if you follow a few simple guidelines.

Who’s Talking?

Obviously, you can’t read these meditations out loud and also do the meditation at the same time. Instead, you could record your voice reading the meditations with your smartphone or audio recorder and then play them back.

If you are in a committed relationship, ask your intimate partner (or someone whose voice you love) to read or record the meditation for you. Once you are familiar with the meditation, you won’t need to hear it anymore because you can just go through it in your head.

You can do the chakra meditations in this chapter separately, such as one per day, or you can do them all in one longer session. How long each will take depends on how fast you (or your partner doing the reading) read the words and how much time you give to the pauses; allow yourself about three to five minutes for each.

Why are these meditations better than just using a downloaded app? These guided meditations were created specifically for your chakra healing. By recording them, you’ve used your Throat chakra to communicate to your very own prana lifeforce. By following the meditation, you follow your own voice, or the voice of your loved one, allowing that energy to be the catalyst that activates and heals your chakras.

Set the Mood

Before you jump right in, set aside time during which you won’t be disturbed by noise or interruptions, including texts, social media, children, or pets. Take out your ear buds and turn off your phone if necessary. Turn off the television. You want it to be as quiet as can be. (You only need 20 to 30 minutes to do all the meditations.)

If you simply must, you can play relaxing mood music, too, but it should not contain any vocalizations. Turn the volume low enough that the music doesn’t interfere with the sound of the voice guiding you through the meditation. Any music should enhance, not compete with, the meditation.

Find a place to meditate. Ideally, it should be a clean, uncluttered spot that relaxes you, but do the best you can. Choose the room that makes you feel the most relaxed. If it helps, drape sheets, scarves, or saris over clutter and turn down the lights. Many people find candlelight relaxing.

We don’t all have the luxury of a spare room or extra, unused space in our homes, but if you do, you might consider turning that spot into a meditation space. Keep your meditation space very clean and uncluttered with simple décor that makes you feel calm and peaceful. Many people with meditation areas set up an altar with items on it for meditative focus, such as candles, crystals, shells or leaves for the Elements, or pictures or statues of spiritual leaders or religious figures. Add a yoga mat and a folded blanket or meditation cushion. This room or space does not need a computer or a television, but it can benefit from beautiful art, especially in the colors of the chakras that you most want to heal.

Getting Into Position

Sit or lie down in a position that keeps your spine straight and expanded. You don’t want to be hunched over, twisted, or moving. The best positions are either:

• Sitting cross-legged on a folded blanket with your spine lifted and straight. Roll your shoulders back and down, relax your arms naturally, and place your hands on your knees.
• Lying on your back on a yoga mat or a blanket on the floor in Corpse pose (see Chapter 7) with your arms slightly away from your body with your palms facing up, and with your legs stretched straight out and relaxed. If you tend to easily doze off, we recommend you do these meditations in a seated versus a supine position.

Now you are ready to meditate on your chakras. Record your voice reading each of these meditations, or ask your loved one to read them aloud for you. Relax, breathe naturally, and listen, following the words and focusing your consciousness according to the directions.

Whether you or someone else reads this meditation for playback on a recording or is reading aloud for you as you meditate, make sure to read it in a slow and calming manner. It can even help to make your voice almost a monotone. Also, do we have to tell you that when the following meditation text reads “[pause],” you are supposed to wait briefly but not actually say the word “pause”?

Root Chakra Meditation

Relax all the muscles in your body and soften your breath. Close your eyes. [pause]

Take a long, slow, and deep inhalation. As you exhale, imagine pure prana energy funneling down into the base of your spine. Your first chakra begins to glow a deep, hot red, like the molten core of the Earth. Your hips feel heavy, as if made from dense stone that sinks into the ground, cradled by the Earth. You feel warm, still, settled, calm, serene, and absolutely safe. [pause]

Now, imagine you are standing at the base of a vast cliff of rock that rises high above you into the sky. The cliff face is full of deep crags and crevices, and you can barely see the top, rising into the clouds. Before you, you see a cave, the entrance lit with the rosy glow of candles, the scent of cedar, and the ground carpeted with soft moss; the walls are smooth and clean. Look at the entrance to this cave and contemplate what might be inside. [pause]

Step forward and enter the cave. As soon as you step inside, you see that the cavern is vast and spacious with a high vaulted ceiling. The air moves as if by a gentle breeze through the stillness, warm and comfortable. Candles flicker everywhere, casting a deep red glow over the cave’s interior. The moss carpet gives way to smooth stone. Walk further into this room and look around. [pause]

You notice another opening at the back of this room. It is also lit by candles that flicker warmly, so you walk into this second, smaller chamber. The room is completely empty except for the candles along the walls and a natural square-shaped stone in the middle of the room. You walk over to the stone and sit on it, making yourself comfortable. You feel as if you can sit cross-legged without any effort. [pause]

As you sit, you begin to feel as if you are a part of this vast mountain. Inside this cave, sitting on this stone in this private room, you realize the room was designed just for you because this is your place to be safe. You feel deeply anchored to the Earth as you breathe the mountain’s inner air, feeling the height of the mountain rising above you as your own height. You are the mountain. You feel the cliff’s crags and shelves as the vast topography of your own mind, and the mountain’s weighty authority as your own inner resource, nourished and supported by the planet. [pause]

Feel your first chakra slowly spinning and strengthening, opening to the Earth’s reassuring body and drawing the strength of stone and mountains from its core. The ruby-red color washes over you, the candles flare with the power of the Earth, and your first chakra flashes into full awareness. Inhale deeply then exhale, feeling pure prana energy move down your spine into your first chakra, illuminating the red wheel with sparkling light. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly rise from the stone bench, walk slowly out of the small room, through the larger room, and back out of the cave. Look back up the cliff face and know that you are the mountain. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly move your fingers and toes and rock yourself gently back and forth. Open your eyes, and return to stand for a few moments in the strength of yoga’s Mountain pose. Breathe. Return to your day with your Root chakra energized and healed.

Sacral Chakra Meditation

Relax all the muscles in your body and soften your breath. Close your eyes. [pause]

Take a long, slow, and deep inhalation. As you exhale, imagine pure prana energy funneling down into your abdomen, just behind your navel. Your second chakra begins to glow a deep fire orange, like the light from a torch. Deep inside your abdomen, you begin to feel the movement of waves, as if it contained a vast ocean inside your abdomen with a confident tide, rocking your body with its ebb and flow. [pause]

Imagine you are standing on a wide, white beach with grassy dunes behind you and an immense sea before you. It is dawn, and the Sun 3 hasn’t yet risen above the ocean; the whole sky is colored a brilliant orange with washes of pink and textured with deep blue and purple clouds like the wisps of smoke. Watch the sky for a while and feel the intensity of its vastness. [pause]

Now, turn your gaze down to the water, which extends as far as you can see. The surf is calm and steady, with waves starting from far back and rolling gently in to break and wash calmly over the sand. Step into the water and let it surround your ankles and shins. The water is warm and swirls around you as the sky begins to brighten, the orange grows lighter and warmer, and the clouds part. The surf grows stronger and the waves pulse and flow against your knees and thighs. Feel the sea and the depths of emotion swirling with the Water element. [pause]

You move forward and dive into the water, letting the swirling warm sea caress your back and shoulders, your neck, and your face and hair. You come up out of the water and begin to swim, and the swimming is completely effortless. You look around, and the sea has become like a mirror. You ease onto your back and float on the quiet surface of the sea, gazing at the warm orange sky and letting the water rock you. [pause]

Feel your second chakra slowly spinning and strengthening, opening to the Water element’s gentle pulse and flow, and drawing the energy of movement and grace from the depth and breadth of the sea. The flaming orange sky washes over you, and your second chakra flashes into full awareness. Inhale deeply and then exhale, sending pure prana energy down your spine into your second chakra, illuminating the orange with sparkling watery light. [pause]

When you are ready, you begin swimming again, but you don’t have far to go because you are almost back to shore and back to those who love you. The sea has carried you safely to the place where you belong. Your feet find the sand, and you walk out of the water as the Sun 3 rises behind you into the sky, bathing the beach, the dunes, and your body in warm light. Turn to look back at the sea, feeling the windswept spray of seawater on your face like teardrops, and know that you are the sea. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly move your fingers and toes and rock yourself gently back and forth. Open your eyes, breathe, and return to your day with your Sacral chakra energized and healed.

Solar Plexus Chakra Meditation

Relax all the muscles in your body and soften your breath. Close your eyes. [pause]

Take a long, slow, deep inhalation. As you exhale, imagine pure prana energy funneling down into your chest and pooling at the base of your rib cage, which is the dwelling place of the brilliant jewel. Your third chakra begins to glow a dazzling gold, like a jewel beaming sunlight. Deep inside you, begin to feel a center of warmth in your stomach that spreads through your middle torso like a radiating Sun 3. [pause]

Visualize yourself standing on a tall platform in the middle of a field covered in sunflowers for as far as you can see in every direction. The huge flowers wave gently in the breeze. The sky is brilliant blue with no clouds, and the Sun beams down on the field with warm rays. You can feel the warmth on your skin, and everything looks dazzlingly beautiful—the waving acres of yellow sunflowers on thick green stalks, the bright blue sky, and the golden light. [pause]

Now, look up at the blue sky that is full of depth. You lift your arms up above your head to embrace the Heavens, and you feel yourself rising, as if lifted by the rays of sunlight, rising up off the platform and high over the field. You look down and see flowers for miles. Look up and feel the wind rushing past your face, then clouds, and then nothing. You are rushing through space but always with your eye on the Sun’s fire, flying like an arrow, and arms outstretched. You begin to play, stretching your arms out to the side like a superhero, swimming as if you were moving through a sea, turning somersaults and throwing both arms back to plunge headfirst toward the solar fire. Feel how fun it is to fly. [pause]

As you get closer and closer to the Sun, you feel the warmth, but the heat of its rays doesn’t burn you. Instead, they feel like gentle pulsations of warmth. As you get closer, you see how huge the Sun is—a massive spinning sphere of fire and lava that is molten and invigorating. You hold your breath, put your arms over your head, press your palms together, and dive straight into the Sun’s vital energy, leaving ripples on the surface. Inside, you realize you are floating and suspended in the middle of the Sun, supported by light and the Fire element. You see Earth, far away, green and blue, and spinning around you. You smile as you realize that suddenly, just for a few glorious moments, the Earth really does revolve around you! [pause]

Feel your third chakra slowly spinning and strengthening, opening to the Sun’s power and rays of light as it flashes into full awareness, with light pouring out of your body’s center core in rays that reach far beyond you and merging and becoming the light of the Sun. Inhale deeply and then exhale, sending pure prana energy down your spine into your third chakra, setting the golden jewel aglow with sparkling rays of light. [pause]

When you are ready, relax into the Sun’s warmth and begin to slowly float down, and then pick up speed, not falling but flying back toward the Earth where our entire world exists because of the Sun. Now, you are returned to the field of sunflowers where you land gently to stand tall and strong back on the platform. The Sun beams inside your core, infusing your liver, your kidneys, and stomach with strength of clarity. You feel great personal power, tempered by warmth and charisma. You turn your face back up to the Sun and know that you are the Sun. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly move your fingers and toes and rock yourself gently back and forth. Open your eyes, breathe, and return to your day with your Solar Plexus chakra energized and healed.

Heart Chakra Meditation

Relax all the muscles in your body and soften your breath. Close your eyes. [pause]

Take a long, slow, deep inhalation. As you exhale, imagine pure prana energy filling your heart. Your Heart chakra begins to glow bright, deep forest green, surrounding a beautiful blood red rosebud. Deep inside your lungs, you begin to feel a flowering with each breath, as if your chest is filled with vines and leaves slowly unfolding and the rosebud at the center gently blossoming. [pause]

Imagine you are standing at the base of a huge leafy tree with a thick, knotty trunk and hundreds of magnificent sturdy branches lushly covered in brilliant green leaves. You look up through the branches and see layers of leaves and twigs. Feel the roots under your feet and look up at the branches extending into the sky. Reach out and grab hold of the thick sturdy bark and begin to climb. [pause]

It feels good to feel your core strength as you pull yourself up the tree. Whenever you need a branch to hold or a knot to stand on, there it is. You climb easily and freely, higher and higher until you can’t see the ground anymore. Still, you climb higher until the branches begin to thin and you realize you are almost at the treetop. You can see light above you now, so you climb faster. At the very top of the tree, you find a seat in a wide V-shaped branch. You can see for miles and miles—fields, mountains, forests, a meadow, and blue sky. [pause]

A gentle wind rises, and the tree begins to sway back and forth, rocking you like a swing. You can smell the scent of lavender rising from the meadow. At the tip of each tree branch, tiny buds burst into more leaves, filling up all the spaces beneath you, so you feel completely secure and nurtured by this wise and sentient tree. The leaves brush lush against you, rustling in the Air element, making gentle whispering that sounds like “far, far, far….” [pause]

Feel your fourth chakra slowly spinning and strengthening, opening to the green leaves and powerful branches. The tree glows with a green light, and your heart feels as if it were a bud bursting open upon its leaves, flashing into the full bloom of awareness. Green light pours from your lungs, filling up your chest and flowing out into your shoulders and arms and down into your fingertips. Inhale deeply and then exhale, sending pure prana energy into your fourth chakra, illuminating it with sparkling, leafy-green light. [pause]

When you are ready, begin your descent, climbing easily back down the tree, through the branches and leaves that move to support and care for you. You feel deeply loved and nurtured. Finally, you reach the ground. You are at peace with yourself and your loved ones. Rooted back on Earth, you look up, your gaze following the sturdy trunk up into the branches and leaves of the magnificent tree, and know that you are the tree. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly move your fingers and toes and rock yourself gently back and forth. Breathe. Open your eyes, and return to your day with your Heart chakra energized and healed.

Throat Chakra Meditation

Relax all the muscles in your body and soften your breath. Close your eyes. [pause]

Take a long, slow, and deep inhalation. As you exhale, imagine pure prana energy rising up into your throat. Your fifth chakra begins to glow bright sapphire blue, like the blue of the brightest expanse of sky or the clearest river run. Inside your throat, you feel a gentle, subtle vibration that slowly grows and grows until you realize music resonates in your body. [pause]

Imagine you are walking through the woods along a river’s bank on a path covered in pine needles. Trees surround you on either side, and sunlight pours through between the branches as the river burbles and flows. Among the trees, the wildlife watches you. Birds flutter back and forth between the branches. A fox darts inside a hollow log to your right, and you catch just a glimpse of his big, fluffy tail. In the river that runs alongside the path, you see a beautiful iridescent-scaled fish jump above the rocks and splash seamlessly under the water again. Everywhere you look, you see animals, and you know this is their home. Space and time fill the air around you as the sounds of the woods and river come to your ears. You know you are welcome to be at home here as well. [pause]

You come upon a large log between the path and the river. It looks comfortable, so you sit and settle in where a thick branch makes a perfect rest for your back. Lean into the log, relax, and listen. [pause]

The first sound you recognize is birdsong, and their unique melodies weave into one another like a chorus of voices. Then you hear the honest, gentle background sound of the river pouring over rocks as it moves through the woods. The wind in the pine trees adds another layer of sound … the pattering rustle of poplar trees and the soft swishing sound of oak trees. Then you hear finer sounds: the air, the sunlight hitting the forest floor, the movement of clouds in the sky above, the planet Earth spinning in the Heavens, and the solar system turning like a giant chakra. Everything in the Universe makes a sound, and all the sounds harmonize into beautiful celestial music. [pause]

Feel your fifth chakra spinning and strengthening, opening to the song of the Earth and sky and the sound of being. The forest glows with blue light as it sings, and your fifth chakra flashes into full awareness. Inhale deeply and then exhale, sending pure prana energy into your fifth chakra, illuminating it with sparkling blue, sound-drenched light. [pause]

When you are ready, take a deep breath, rise from the log, and walk back down the path following the river. With your being in tune with celestial music, you feel ready to raise your body’s voice in unison, clear and strong. As you leave the woods, you turn, look, and know that you are the singing woods. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly move your fingers and toes and rock yourself gently back and forth. Breathe. Open your eyes, and return to your day with your Throat chakra energized and healed.

Third Eye Chakra Meditation

Relax all the muscles in your body, and soften your breath. Close your eyes. [pause]

Take a long, slow, and deep inhalation. As you exhale, imagine pure prana energy rising up into your forehead and pooling just above the space between your eyebrows. Your sixth chakra begins to glow a deep indigo-purple, like a dark amethyst with an inner glow that illuminates your mind with a wash of gentle violet light, like the sky at dusk or at dawn. [pause]

Imagine that you have a chamber inside your head, and its door is in your Third Eye, just above the space between your eyebrows. When you want to go inside yourself to think, figure out what to do about something, contemplate your beliefs, or just get away from it all, you can go into this chamber, close the door, and have time completely to yourself. Visualize stepping inside and closing the door behind you. Look around. The chamber can be any shape, any size, any color, or any style you want. What will you make of it? Does it have windows? Does it have carpet, wood, or a thicket of thyme groundcover for a floor? What color are the walls? (Does it have walls?) Anything you envision for the chamber happens before your mind’s eye. Create your chamber now. [pause]

You can furnish the chamber with anything you like. Do you want a luxurious bed in the corner or a fireplace, fountain, pool, or steamy hot tub? Do you want a desk, table, magnificent kitchen, cushioned window seat? Chandeliers? Candles? Shelves of books? An easel? Will there be a poet’s garden to muse in? Your chamber may be full or almost empty. If you add something and you don’t like it, you can make it disappear again. Move things around until you get the chamber exactly the way you want it. Don’t worry about making permanent decisions, either. The next time you come to your chamber, you can manifest it completely anew. How does your chamber look today? Furnish your mind’s eye chamber now. [pause]

Find a comfortable spot in your chamber to sit and get comfortable. Let your mind open to what you need right now. Why do you need time alone right now? What are you looking for? What answers do you seek? [pause]

As you sit in quiet contemplation, feel your sixth chakra slowly spinning and strengthening, opening to the inner turning that is yours in this chamber. See the room growing lighter until your sixth chakra flashes into full awareness. Inhale deeply and then exhale, sending pure prana energy into your sixth chakra, illuminating it with sparkling crepuscular violet light of the Celestial element. [pause]

When you are ready, take a deep breath, stand, walk to the door, open it, and then turn back to see your beautiful thought chamber; know that the room, in your mind, is a manifestation of your mind. Only you can create the space to tap into its deep inner wisdom. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly move your fingers and toes and rock yourself gently back and forth. Breathe. Open your eyes, and return to your day with your Third Eye chakra energized and healed.

Crown Chakra Meditation

Relax all the muscles in your body, and soften your breath. Close your eyes. [pause]

Take a long, slow, and deep inhalation. As you exhale, imagine pure prana energy rising into the crown of your head and pooling at your seventh chakra, which begins to glow like a sparkling diamond rotating slowly about an inch above your head. As you focus on this brilliant jewel, it begins to change; its brilliant multi-colored rays unfold into a beautiful white lotus flower with one-thousand petals, which is the sacred Thousand-Petaled Lotus shining with the Goddess and God joined in the Thought element. [pause]

You are piloting a small spaceship through the Universe. Although you’ve never been trained to do it, you already know exactly how to operate the controls and you fly easily past thousands of stars and spinning planets. Your ship has windows on every side, and as you fly, easily avoiding collisions, you can see the velvety blackness of space and the brilliant luminous celestial bodies all around you; these clouds of dust seem to be lit from within—lazy meteors and soaring comets with long glowing tails. Far off in the distance, you see a glow brighter and more incandescent than all the other dazzling stars and planets. It looks like a giant star. You turn your ship to fly toward it, and as you get closer, you see it is a solid sphere, not a star. It has a stable surface that radiates an inner light. You land, step out of your ship, and you know you will be able to breathe. As your feet touch down, you begin to glow, illuminated by the infused light of the surface. Begin to explore, filled with a quiet calm; as you walk, the surface of this celestial body undulates and glows, changing shapes, rising up into undulating waves of natural forms and then sinking back into itself so that the landscape you walk over appears in constant flux. Yet your footing is never unsure. Every manifesting shape looks and feels familiar. Stop and watch the surface of this glowing landscape shifting. [pause]

You hear a low humming wind whispering a message of the ancestors directly into your soul: your knowledge is their knowledge, spanning the generations for all time. As you listen and try to understand, you feel your seventh chakra slowly spinning and strengthening; the Thousand-Petaled Lotus that is your seventh chakra begins to open, petal by petal, unfolding to the Universe as a flower in full blossom and circling to sit above your head’s crown.

Suddenly, you understand that just when you have reached the threshold of finally comprehending what life is, there will always be more and a never-ending unfolding. Your seventh chakra flashes into full awareness, and suddenly, you understand that it is all one—you, the planet Earth, stars, meteors and comets, clouds and sky, sea, forests and trees, and mountains and cliffs. It is all you, and you are a part of the All—the Source—rising like a wave and then falling back into Universal consciousness. Inhale deeply and then exhale, sending pure prana energy into your seventh chakra, illuminating it with sparkling diamond light. [pause]

When you are ready, take a deep breath, and then walk back to your ship, climb inside, close the door, and rise back up off this strange yet familiar celestial body. As you lift off, turn back to see its surface glowing in the Heavens with the Thought element, and know, too, that you are its glowing surface. When you return to Earth, you will be Earth as well, and everything on Earth will be you. [pause]

When you are ready, slowly move your fingers and toes and rock yourself gently back and forth. Breathe. Open your eyes, and return to your day with your Crown chakra energized and healed.

Tarot Chakra Meditations

Feeling like you want to check in on how well all your chakras are cooperating? A seven-card Tarot Chakra reading will give you insights into your chakras, whether they are in or out of balance. For this reading, you can do two versions. One uses Tarot’s Major Arcana cards, which will tell you how your chakras are balanced with the karmic forces of Fate and Destiny in your life; the other version uses Tarot’s Minor Arcana cards, which tells you how your chakras are responding to the daily activities of your life—your Free Will decisions. For these readings, all cards should be oriented in the upright position before shuffling the Tarot deck.

Tarot’s four suits—Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles—each correspond to one or more of the body’s chakras (see Chapter 4). If you are new to the Tarot, there are many books and websites that will tell you more about the individual Tarot cards and how to interpret their meanings in readings. It might be a good idea to have a Tarot primer on hand while doing these healing chakra Tarot readings.

Tarot Suit	Tarot Meaning	Chakra Correspondence
Wands	Creativity, Inspiration	Third, or Solar Plexus Fifth, or Throat
Cups	Compassion, Love	Second, or Sacral
Swords	Action, Thought	Fourth, or Heart, Sixth, or Third Eye
Pentacles	Abundance, Wealth	First, or Root
Major Arcana	Destiny, Source	Seventh, or Crown

Chakras and Your Fate

For this reading, separate Tarot’s 22 Major Arcana cards from your deck. Shuffle the Major Arcana cards while thinking about the questions you might have about your life’s path, your life’s goals, and your needs and desires. When you are ready, choose seven cards and place them faceup in a vertical column, starting at the bottom with the first card revealing your Root chakra and the seventh card at the top of the column revealing your Crown chakra. Ask yourself the question: how can I understand my life force Destiny?

1. Look deeply into the Major Arcana card for each chakra to understand its relationship to your security (first chakra, or Root chakra), your passion (second chakra, or Sacral chakra), your power (third chakra, or Solar Plexus chakra), your compassion (fourth chakra, or Heart chakra), your voice (fifth chakra, or Throat chakra), your thought (sixth chakra, or Third Eye chakra), and your soul (seventh chakra, or Crown chakra).
2. Take a look particularly at the first, fourth, and seventh cards to examine the balance presented in your life journey’s path to enlightenment. The first card, revealing your Root chakra, shows where your karmic journey begins and what your life force needs for you to feel safe to set off on your path. The seventh card, revealing your Crown chakra, shows where your karmic journey arrives and where your life force finds its place in the Universe. The fourth card, revealing your Heart chakra, gives insights into the balance needed to bring the karmic journey’s start and its destination into harmonic resonance. This card is the key to understanding how you will unite what might seem like dissonant or even opposing forces.
3. Take a look at the flow of energy that moves through the Major Arcana cards for keys to unlock the Kundalini serpent power that will kick your life force prana into high gear. This is your karmic Destiny on steroids. But remember, be safe—Kundalini energy and karmic Destiny are an intense combination. It will take much deep thought to understand the Tarot cards’ message here.

Chakra and Your Daily Choices

To understand how chakra energy informs the daily choices of your Free Will, repeat the steps above, this time using only the Minor Arcana suits of the Tarot deck: Wands, Cups, Swords, and Pentacles.

• As you analyze the Tarot cards, double the energy of any Minor Arcana card in the reading whose suit matches the one corresponding with that chakra. For example, the Three of Cups landing as the card revealing the second chakra, or Sacral chakra.
• If the number of the card also matches the chakra it reveals, triple the energy of that card in the reading. So, for example, the energy of the Two of Cups landing as the card revealing the second chakra, or Sacral chakra would be tripled.
• The seventh, or Crown chakra is revealed by the energy of a Major Arcana card. You’ll want to shuffle the Major Arcana cards and choose one to add to the Minor Arcana card you’ve previously placed there to reveal the Crown chakra. The two cards together will give added insight into the Free Will choices that inform your soul’s karmic Destiny.

Using the Tarot to do healing chakra readings is only one more way to use correspondences to deepen chakra meditations. Go back to Chapter 4 to study the associations listed there, as well as Chapters 7 through 13 on the individual chakras, Root to Crown. Look for things that resonate with you, as tools to further your meditative chakra healing.

You may want to initiate a practice of meditation by exploring color theory or supplementing your diet with chakra-related foods. In Appendix A, you’ll see how to use an astrological birth chart to explore your unique chakra energy. The more you discover about your own chakras by exploring their correspondences, the deeper your chakra meditations will become, and the more fruitful their results will be.

Especially if you are not the kind of person who can do traditional meditation (maybe all you do is sit or lie on the floor and watch the minutes tick by) without losing interest, incorporating yoga, herb gardening, love of gemstones, or other interests into your meditations can give you ways to enhance your understanding, allowing you to think deeply and nurture your path to chakra healing.