Centers of Consciousness

Centers of Consciousness

There are centers of energy along the spinal system from the base of spine to the crown of the head, called wheels or chakras, vortexes of energy. These are somewhat physical, but mostly are astral body pathways, we're told.

These chakras each have their own realms of awareness. For example, the base chakra is survival consciousness -- "Me Tarzen, You Jane. Let's get food, get shelter and mate, babe."...

However, when the upper centers are activated, this base chakra is revealed also to be the abode of all our ancestors and the sages– who sometimes appear to us at the crown chakra, referred to as the “thousand petal lotus.” Well, they don’t actually “appear” to us because at the crown center we’re experiencing oneness, Samadhi. So if a wise teacher “appears,” we feel we are that. We have become one with that awareness. That’s the nature of the crown chakra.

Sigmund Freud well explained the human view and inclinations from the second chakra -- much of which is determined by sexual instincts and sub-conscious inclinations and viewpoints.

The third, navel area chakra is a base power source for getting things done from a very centered place, very Zen.

The next chakra is the heart center and Carl Jung well articulated the view from that center of consciousness with the anima and the animus and big love flowing in the heart realm and archetypes within projected outside on others, etc.

There are still other levels of awareness, windows of consciousness -- that most folks most of the time don't look out of (we mostly operate from the first two or three chakras, sometimes from the heart also).

The Prophet Ezekial beautifully offers a view from the 6th chakra, the so-called third eye center, when he describes his vision of the divine chariot. [See Ezekial Chapter One. I’ll include a contemporary translation in this weblog under the label, Introduction to Kabbalah]

There are also energy vortexes at the base of the throat and just above the crown of the head. Many report that the serpentine sexual energy, kundalini, transmutes as it rises up from sleep at the base of the spine, waking and rising to and through the different centers. And as it rises, it transforms into ever more refined levels of power and subtlety.