Rising from the Vishuddha chakra to the Ajna, the sixth chakra, you move away from the interpersonal chakras (3rd-5th) to the transpersonal. Here, you can tap into your consciousness and become free of the limits of your personal identity. This energy hub is the center for intuition, imagination, dreaming, and vision.
What is a Chakra?
A chakra is a subtle body energy center. In the physical body, they are bundles of nerve ganglia that connect to certain areas in your body. They are said to rule our behaviors and emotions. The word chakra means “wheel” or “disc”. There are many chakras in the body but there are seven main chakras. Six sit in front of the spine starting at the base up to the mid brain with the seventh above the crown of the head.
Chakras can get blocked due to childhood traumas, the belief systems you grew up in, as well as physical and emotional injuries. When a chakra is blocked, energy cannot flow properly in the body. When your energy can flow freely through the chakras, they can be used as a road map to reconnect with yourself and to the piece of the divine inside you.
Ajna Chakra
Ajna means ‘to command’ or ‘to perceive’. It is the command center for all the other chakras. The color associated with this chakra is indigo or violet. This sixth chakra is activated during adolescence.
The symbol is a downward pointing triangle called the tritasra, within a circle. Two petals are on either side of the circle forming a lotus. The three corners of the triangle are associated with Brahma, Vishnu, and Maheshvara, one of the forms of Shiva, the destroyer and restorer of worlds.
This chakra is neutral so there is no predominant sense. The action organ is the mind.
In this energetic center, dualities collapse and come into singularity. You no longer see ‘bad’ vs. ‘good’ and ‘I’ vs. ‘you’. You can see what truly is.
Ajna chakra is located at the very top of the spinal column, around the medulla oblongata. People focus on the mind brow point to activate this energy center. This is often referred to as the third eye center.
Third Eye Center
The third eye center is the psychic organ of Ajna chakra. It sees beyond the physical world. The third eye adds insight to the information you already have stored in your brain.
The third eye was first associated with the 6th Chakra by Scientist Nils Holmgren in 1918. He discovered cells on the tip of the pineal gland, located in the mid brain, of frogs and dogfish sharks that looked like retinal cone cells. So, he said the organ was sort of a spiritual third eye.
But this idea of a spiritual third eye dates back further than before 1225 AD. The third eye shows up in Hinduism, Taoism, and Buddhism. Andreas Vesalius (1514—1564 AD), the father of modern anatomy, also proposed the brain as the center of the soul. Rene Descartes in his book The Passion of Soul described the pineal gland as the meeting place of the physical and spiritual worlds. He wrote that “The body and spirit not only meet there, but each affects the other and the repercussion extends in both directions.”
The pineal gland controls the circadian rhythm by secreting melatonin. Also, it secretes dimethyl tryptamine which is known as a spiritual molecule because it is linked to perception, and it is activated by energetic and magnetic frequencies. This gland is related to your dreams, visions, and clairvoyance.
Becoming the Witness
The third eye allows you to see the bigger picture. The more your inner awareness develops, the more clear you become. You are free from your ego taking the lead in decision making. Old stories and patterns have been acknowledged and worked through. You can see from a new perspective which are serving you and which are not. Illusions are destroyed.
You step into witness consciousness. From this energy, you are no longer a victim of your thoughts. You can hold a clear vision for your own life. Removing fear, judgement, doubt, societal norms, etc., you access your intuition to help guide you and create your future from a place of knowing who you truly are.
Tapping into Your Intuition
Intuition is the pang in your gut, the ‘aha’, or a thought on repeat that you can’t shake. Anodea Judith, an expert on the chakra system, describes intuition as lighting a match in the darkness. It’s there to help you find the light switch to turn on the light. Meaning, it’s a clue to lead you to the answer, not the answer itself. The clue still needs some investigation and questioning before the answer or final decision comes.
Cultivate Focus
Cultivating focus balances Ajna chakra. You can use a Drishti, or focal point, to train yourself to focus on the good. The saying, “Where your attention goes, energy flows” is an example of how powerful you can be creating your own reality and vision. You may have patterns and old stories from your past that have shaped your perspective. These are ingrained in your neural pathways but may not even be true! The good news is that you can create new stories and neural pathways by focusing on good. What kinds of things are getting your attention in your life? What types of relationships and activities are you seeking? Are they serving you or not? Start practicing gratitude to help bring the good things around you into focus.
Deficiency in Ajna Chakra
Deficiency in this chakra looks like not being able to see what’s right in front of you. You are unable to self-reflect. You can live in denial and be delusional.
Excess in Ajna Chakra
When you are in excess in Ajna chakra, you have a hard time sorting what is true and not true. You can also have ‘monkey mind’ with excessive jumping thoughts and you are unable to turn it off.
Balance in Ajna Chakra
Balance in Ajna chakra allows you to free yourself from the past and old patterns allowing you to create a new path. You can hold a vision for the future.
Ajna in Practice
During your physical yoga practice, asana, you can practice your focus by using a Drishti or focal point. You can also move slowly through your postures focusing on alignment and transitioning from one pose to the next being mindful of how you move your body and engage your muscles.
In meditation and pranayama, you can use imagery to develop your visions. You can use a symbol, color, or mantra to focus on during your practice. Nadi Shodhana, alternate nostril breathing, is a good breathing technique to create balance. You create energy in your third chakra, Manipura, and then move it up to the sixth to combine the energy of action with.
If you would like to explore chakras one through five, you can go to the search bar and type in chakras.
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Much love and health,
Carrie
Resources:
Judith, A. (1996). Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System As a Path to the Self.
Dale, C. (2021). Llewellyn’s Complete Book of Chakra: Your Definitive Source of Energy Center Knowledge for Health, Happiness, and Spiritual Evolution. Seventh Printing.
Judith, A. (2020). Chakra Yoga. Seventh Printing.
Judith, A. (2022). Wheels of Life. Llewellyn Worldwide.