Energy basics

When we talk about reiki, when we talk about life, we are talking about energy.  This kind of energy is called ki, chi, prana, sekhem and ither names in other cultures.  If you are a Star Wars buff, you make think of it as " the force."

Whatever you call it, each of us humans has an energy body as well as a physical body.  We modern day folks think of this as the aura, but from ancient times most cultures knew of this energy body and had some way of defining the various energy vortexes (chakras) in the body.  For the sake of clarity and my own personal preference we'll work with the Eastern chakra system, since it is also the one most people are most familiar with.

This system describes  seven vortexes seated in the sushunma, a sort of energy spine that runs up the body.  The seven chakras are the root, sacral, solar plexus, heart, throat, third eye and crown.  Each chakra is related to a color, a sound, an organ in the body and a life issue.  The chart below outlines these:

Chakra	issue	color	sound	ruling glands
root	survival	red	LAM	adrenal
sacral	sexuality	orange	VAM	sexual organs
solar plexus	power	yellow	RAM	pancreas
heart	love	green	YAM	thoymus
throat	communication	blue	HAM	thyroid
third eye	intuition	indigo	AUM	pituitary
crown	spirituality	violet or white	AH or AUM	pineal

 

There are, of course, other chakras as well. The palm chakras are activated during a reiki attunement. There are chakras in the soles of the feet as well. The Mouth of God chakra is at the nape of your neck and you feel its activation as the hairs on the back of your neck standing up.

Chakras are affected by both the governing channel (male) that runs down the spine and the creative channel (female, kundalini) that runs up the front of the body.

If all this sounds a little much to take in, don't worry.  I will be devoting the next seven posts to explaining each of these chakras.  Then I will discuss how you can clear your chakras and also how you can use chakras to aid in developing your characters (now you know what this has to do with writing).  Hope you'll stick around for the whole series.  As my grandmother used to say--you might learn something.