Anodea Judith's Blog, page 3

Earth Day: We Can Still Make a Difference!

“We won’t have peace on the Earth,
until we make peace with the Earth.”
—Julia Butterfly Hill 

I haven’t been writing blogs for the usual holidays there’s far too many already—but Earth Day provides such a crucial focus for our times. All our spiritual efforts are for naught if we don’t take care of this planet, not only for future generations, but for the sake of Mother Earth herself. 

I am circulating a petition (see below) from an organization I’ve been involved with, declaring an emergency situation for climate change. Indeed, if we stopped doing everything causing climate change right now, we would still be facing many disasters in the future due to rising sea levels, increased temperatures, and weather disasters. The recent flow of refugees in Europe is only the tip of the iceberg (perhaps 10%) of what we could see from displaced populations due to flooding of coastal cities around the world, and severe drought threatening food supply, if we continue to stand by and do nothing.

Statements like that can make us want to bury our heads in the sand, saying, “There’s nothing we can do, so why bother?”

Get this: We who are alive today are the luckiest generation ever. We have had the glory of experiencing Nature in her wild untrammeled beauty with a normal climate. We have lived at a time of relative abundance and freedom, gotten to ride the wave of technology that allows us to see the world, and those of us on the elder side won’t be alive to see the worst of what is to come.

That gives us a tremendous responsibility to do something, now, while we can still make a difference.

Will you take a moment to sign this petition and send it forward to your networks to gather even more support?

I thank you for your Earth Day present.

Now go plant a tree!  (And sign the petition below…)

Blessings,
Anodea
4.22.16

The post Earth Day: We Can Still Make a Difference! appeared first on Sacred Centers.

Happy Earth Day to All!

“We won’t have peace on the Earth,
until we make peace with the Earth.”
—Julia Butterfly Hill 

I haven’t been writing blogs for the usual holidays there’s far too many already—but Earth Day provides such a crucial focus for our times. All our spiritual efforts are for naught if we don’t take care of this planet, not only for future generations, but for the sake of Mother Earth herself. 

I am circulating a petition (see below) from an organization I’ve been involved with, declaring an emergency situation for climate change. Indeed, if we stopped doing everything causing climate change right now, we would still be facing many disasters in the future due to rising sea levels, increased temperatures, and weather disasters. The recent flow of refugees in Europe is only the tip of the iceberg (perhaps 10%) of what we could see from displaced populations due to flooding of coastal cities around the world, and severe drought threatening food supply, if we continue to stand by and do nothing.

Statements like that can make us want to bury our heads in the sand, saying, “There’s nothing we can do, so why bother?”

Get this: We who are alive today are the luckiest generation ever. We have had the glory of experiencing Nature in her wild untrammeled beauty with a normal climate. We have lived at a time of relative abundance and freedom, gotten to ride the wave of technology that allows us to see the world, and those of us on the elder side won’t be alive to see the worst of what is to come.

That gives us a tremendous responsibility to do something, now, while we can still make a difference.

Will you take a moment to sign this petition and send it forward to your networks to gather even more support?

I thank you for your Earth Day present.

Now go plant a tree!  (And sign the petition below…)

Blessings,
Anodea
4.22.16

The post Happy Earth Day to All! appeared first on Sacred Centers.

View from the Trail

I’m in my 3rd week of international travel, and I have to admit it’s embarrassing to be an American right now. The people I talk to in other countries are absolutely appalled over the state of US politics, and I can only agree with them.

Little do we realize that despite America’s many tragic mistakes, such as the Iraq war and proliferation of weapons throughout the planet, much of the rest of the world still holds us in high regard as a voice of reason and a leader of the developed world. 

That view is rapidly changing.

It’s not just that Donald Trump is who he is. There have always been demagogues traipsing through politics, and foreigners realize he’s just another one. 

No, the real embarrassment is that there are so many people supporting him. It is here that the Europeans and Canadians I talk to are losing respect for Americans, shaking their head in disbelief.

How can this possibly be, they ask me? How could this happen in a land so sophisticated and educated?  Have we completely lost our minds?

Trump is a media phenomenon. His outrageousness makes a good story. The media needs eyeballs to make money, and the Donald rivets attention, like nothing else going on. When I scan newspapers or online news sources, a disproportionate number of articles are about Trump.  I even confess to reading them. I am guilty of writing one now.

We are a media driven society. We love a good story. The more outrageous it is, the more it goes viral. Is that because we don’t have any center of truth from which to stand? Where is our moral outrage?

If Trump gets the nomination, and heaven forbid the highest responsibility in the land, it will be our collective addiction to media and to sensationalism that will be at fault.

Media made Trump a frontrunner. Media can take him down. But we all must be a part of it, in a world where for the first time, the average person has a voice, whether it’s through Facebook, Twitter, or any of the many other forms in our collective grasp. We must wake America from this dangerous trance. We must awaken ourselves.

And who do the other countries respect most and hope will win?  Hillary, hands down.

Like it or not, that’s my report.

Anodea Judith
04.03.16

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Chakras Ancient and Modern: How Do We Know What’s Real?

A recent article has come to my attention by Chris Wallis concerning his scholarly research into the ancient writings on the chakras, and his debunking of modern or Western writings, including my own.  “The Six Most Important Things You Never Knew About the Chakras” is circulating widely among the yoga community and I am very grateful for the opportunity to open up some juicy dialog on the subject. I hope we can all benefit from this and that the entire subject of the chakra system continues to evolve as a result. 

First of all, I want to thank Chris for his extensive research into the subject, made possible by his lifetime studies and knowledge of Sanskrit. I’ve been waiting for someone to dig deeper into ancient sources and bring more information to light. Pouring through ancient manuscripts was not my karma in this lifetime. Working with real people is.

Wallis’ perspective is a valuable contribution to the growing pile of modern literature on the subject, which is often woefully contradictory, so I have no surprise that he states that the ancient literature was also contradictory. I myself often wince at many of the “new age” associations that I hear as I travel about, and find that while the chakras have somehow gripped the modern world, there is a vast range of interpretation about what they mean and how to engage with them, much of it rather fluffy and groundless. 

I have never claimed to be a Sanskrit scholar. I read Arthur Avalon’s, The Serpent Power, some 35 years ago with a Sanskrit dictionary close at hand, doing the best I could to make sense of what Wallis even admits is “relatively incoherent and confusing.” Goswami’s book Layayoga, which is almost as obscure, does indeed support what Chris has said about the practice around the chakras having originally been largely meditative, primarily using mantras and visualization of deities and symbols.

I’m also aware that Mark Singleton, in his well-researched book “Yoga Body: The Origins of Modern Posture Practice” suggests, with much scholarly footnoting, that most of the yoga asanas we practice today are a modern derivation influenced by European gymnastics a century ago, and that ancient yoga practice had far fewer postures. And we all know, many of the branches of yoga taught today take liberties with exploring new forms of practice.  

Spiritual Evolution

Spiritual systems naturally evolve over time. This evolution is absolutely essential, as we gain ground over the centuries in our understanding of science, psychology, and the physical body, and as we get exposed to a wider variety of teachings from across cultures and time periods. Humans have never before had access to so much spiritual diversity. 

The trouble with anything written down about religion, whether it is written in the Bible, the Koran, stone tablets, or Sanskrit texts, is that the written word is static, while life is dynamic, constantly changing and evolving.

Religious texts that have endured through time, always lag behind the times in which they are actually practiced. In fact, one simple example of this is that the vast majority of writers about yoga throughout the ages appear to be men, while the modern yoga world today appears to be about 80% women. 

We live in a far different world than our ancestors, who never spent hours at a computer, drove a car, or texted on cell phones. They did not face the destruction of their environment, the assault of modern technology and pollution. Nor did they have the freedom that our modern world offers us, to be exposed to a wide range of philosophy from diverse cultures, and actually have time freed up from survival to practice and experiment with different forms of meditation, body practices, diet, contemplation, prayer, service or other spiritual practices – while leading a “householder” life – working, raising children, etc.

Our bodies, minds, and spirit need different things now. We have a better understanding of nutrition, chemistry, biology, psychology and the world around us. Our systems have evolved as they must. What is traditional is extremely important, but we must look at all texts in the context of the times they were written.

My own research has been more focused on the human condition, primarily through studying psychology and various healing disciplines, including yoga, but also through studying Western mystery traditions and comparative religion, history, sociology, and evolution.

Having read Arthur Avalon’s, Serpent Power, and other writings (including Leadbeater’s theosophical book, The Chakras, written in 1927) at the time I was writing Wheels of Life, 30 years ago, and pairing the many sources listed in its bibliography with my knowledge of human psychology, modern science, social history, and metaphysics in general, I saw in the chakras a profound map of evolution that was capable of healing the separation of mind and body, heaven and earth, spirit and matter, purusha and prakriti, that is the true purpose of the Tantrik teachings as I have come to understand them.

I also knew that this model needed some updating if it was ever going to be embraced by the modern world. I know, because I originally tried to talk about it esoterically, only to fall on deaf ears. Of course, at the time, I had no idea that what I was writing would become so popular, that the chakras would become a household word, or that my 40 years of teaching and working with the chakras would continue to reveal to me such a wide range of application. 

I agree with Wallis that the ancients did not give mention to modern psychological constructs that I put forth in my book, Eastern Body, Western Mind. That kind of thinking barely existed before Freud came on the scene, in the early 1900’s. In addition, no modern or ancient text has suggested that we use the downward route through the chakras as a way to manifest heaven on earth, that I put forth in my book, Creating On Purpose, co-authored with Lion Goodman. Neither has anyone applied the chakra map to human cultural evolution as I did in my book The Global Heart Awakens, where I suggest, through a long analysis of Western Civilization that we are now undergoing a global rite of passage from third chakra to the fourth or from an organizing principle based on the love of power to one based on the power of love.

These are all original and creative interpretations, based on the elegance of a model that presented itself to me four decades ago when I first read the word “chakra” in a book by Ram Dass and felt a shot of energy go through me that has been the guiding influence of my life ever since. 

So What is Real?

What I object to in Wallis’ article is the idea that the ancient texts have theonly description of what is “real.” He himself even admits that there are many chakra systems, coming from different writers at different periods, and that even they don’t all agree on the number of chakras or locations.

So let’s beg the question: What is real?

I would answer that human experience is real. When someone feels the activation of one of their chakras and experiences the Shakti coursing through their body, whether you call it CHARGE, as I do in my upcoming online course on the subject, or we call it prana, chi, The Force, or any other name, that person’s experience is real. And real experience varies from person to person. All religious texts come through human experience, each one through a different vessel, whether divinely inspired or not. No one has the last word on what “is.”

When I teach yoga, for example, I don’t stick to anyone’s particular theory of whether the tailbone should be placed in this or that position, but encourage my students to see for themselves, what happens energetically in a pose with the tailbone either pressed forward or tucked back, to actually feeltheir alignment from inside and not take any teacher’s word for it. We learn from inside our bodies, something that I think is vitally important in this externally imposed, mechanical world that tells how to move and think and feel.

When I teach bioenergetic exercises for the chakras, I see with my own eyes the person in front of me making contact with their vital life force in different areas of the body, returning to the sacred within themselves, and awakening to their divine nature. It is not for me to say whether that’s real, but for the person who experiences it. I only know what I’ve been told over the decades. When people tell me in emails and personal conversations that my books changed their life, brought them healing, or guided them in some positive way, I tend to believe we are working with something that is not only real, but something that works.  Even so, I am constantly evolving it, or rather “we” are all evolving it. 

What I object to is anyone, myself included, stating that “this is the one true right and only way.” We are here to learn, to experiment, and to evolve. Wallis says to “tell your yoga students that every book on the chakras presents only one possible model.”  I couldn’t agree more. Take it all with a grain of salt. The proof of any method is its results. 

So I appreciate the rich conversation that this article stirs up. I appreciate the questioning of assumptions, whether ancient or modern. And now that I have contributed my two cents to the subject, what I’m really curious about is what do you, the readers of these posts, think about all this? Please share your comments.

Anodea Judith
anodea@sacredcenters.com
02.09.16

 

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Master Manifestors of Miraculous Vision

 

MASTER MANIFESTORS OF MIRACULOUS VISION
by Anodea Judith

  We the unwilling, led by the unknowing,
have done so much with so little for so long,
we are now equipped to do the impossible with nothing.

I’ll start with the question of reality itself. What is it, what is it made of, and how do we create it?  Not that I or anyone else can precisely answer these questions, but the inquiry itself opens wider possibilities, a space into which we might create the miracle of a world we know is possible.

Since the early yogis first withdrew their senses to find higher consciousness; since Buddha first practiced renunciation; since the early Christians retreated into monastaries; and since New Age spiritualism started talking about ascension, the arrow of our attention has been pointing upward, toward transcendence and detachment—saying that the realities of everyday life were not real—that only spirit was. Even the chakras have most often been seen as a ladder for liberation, a means toward an end: to transcend mundane reality.

And what has all this upward spiritual pursuit gotten us?  Do we have better command of the reality around us? Are we more effective in our lives? Have we been able to prevent genocide, ecocide, pesticide, herbicide, and collective suicide?  Are we becoming an enlightened civilization? I would argue that higher consciousness contributes to solving these causes, but it takes something more than that to actually create a new world.

In order to create a new reality and tackle the seemingly insurmountable challenges facing us on this planet, you and I need to become master manifestors of miraculous vision. This is an evolutionary turn-around, an about-face from the upwardly mobile trajectory we have been faithfully following for the last few thousand years.

We have entered a time in the evolutionary journey where humans are being asked to consciously co-create our collective reality. It’s time to harvest that higher consciousness we have been seeking for so long and turn it back downward, toward the earth and our bodies, toward the mundane and the finite and learn how to bring our lofty visions down to earth. The Hero’s Quest has been to move outward, but the final step in the quest is to Return Home.

We all know it’s going to take a miracle to turn things around on this planet. I teach a course, Creating on Purpose, about manifesting miracles, in which I posit that we are here to co-create Heaven on Earth.  That’s a big dream and it will take many, many people to make it happen, people who know how to create reality from their imagination and live into their dreams.

One of the primary tenets in this course is:   “Never let your reality define your reality.”  This means you should never let the reality that currently exists define the reality that can exist. Let me explain further.

Imagine you are standing in your current reality, with all its constrictions. You have only so much money, so much time, or your skills aren’t what they could be. You have various obstacles: bills to pay, kids to feed, aging parents to care for, or health concerns. These are all part of your current reality. Everybody has such constraints in one form or another. They are pre-existing conditions to what you want to create.

Now imagine that from this reality, you stretch toward a dream. You have a dream of making a contribution, of finding a more appropriate job, of going back to school, or getting your body in shape. That dream does not yet exist as reality, but we all know it can. Moving toward these dreams is the stuff that life is made of; it’s what gets us up in the morning. The place between what is and what could be is our “reality sandwich.”

Now imagine you are extending your attention like a rubber band between your current reality and your dream. We call this “intention,” whose root is tendare to stretch. The word attention has the same root, and when we set an intention, we stretch our attention toward a goal- a goal which does not yet exist in reality, but only in our imagination.

When a rubber band stretches, it wants to resolve. If you let go of one end or the other, it will snap back to its original shape. So in this case which end do you want to release: the one in your current reality or the one in your dream?

Most of us constantly reaffirm our current reality when we contemplate our dream: “It’s too expensive to go back to school; I don’t have the time; I’m not smart enough; it’s a tough job market; all the good men are taken; nothing I do ever succeeds.” Fill in the blank with your personal version.

When you reify what is, the end of the rubber band hitched to your dream lets go and simply returns to your current reality, with nothing changed. You’re left with the reality you started with.

If instead, you keep our attention on the dream, and move your reality in that direction, then the rubber band snaps toward the new reality. We consider where we might borrow the money, how we might find the time, or look for a tutor to help us get up to speed.

In actuality, you do this all the time. If you have an appointment at 8 in the morning, you arrange your reality accordingly. You know what time you have to get up, whether you have time for breakfast, and when you need to leave your house in order to fulfill your intention.  

Can we do this on a grand scale of creating miracles together?  Can we hold a vision of Heaven on Earth and adjust our reality accordingly? 

Moving Down through the Chakras

Manifestating miracles is a process of moving your ideas and dreams down through each of the levels of the chakras into the earth plane until it condenses into solid form. It’s a process anyone can learn and follow; it just takes mastering the steps.

Step One: CONSCIOUSNESS CREATES

Creation begins in the 7th chakra, in the realm of pure consciousness, with a conception or idea. Ideas are like arrows in a quiver. We get lots of them and stow them away for future possibility. As we choose an idea to bring into being, it becomes an intention.

Step Two:  VISION VITALYZES

Our intention is aimed toward a goal, a target we can see in the mind’s eye, but which doesn’t yet exist “in reality.” This requires the imaginative properties of the 6th chakra, located in the third eye. In order for our arrow of intention to properly land on our target, we need to keep our “third eye” fixed on the goal.  Imagination is the art of the inner “I” making magic through images (I + mage).

Step Three: CONVERSATION CATALYZES

The next step is to talk about it, which brings you down the fifth chakra. The more you talk about your dream, the more likely you are to catalyze consciousness around its creation. You find people who want to help you by offering ideas, feedback, or support. Someone knows the perfect graphic designer, real estate agent, or angel investor.  Someone else has good advice or resources for you.

Step Four:  LOVE ENLIVENS

As soon as you talk about your dream, you are entering into relationship, related to the heart or 4th chakra. When you treat every relationship with an attitude of caring and love, those relationships thrive. This applies to your employees, your investors, your clients and your customers. Furthermore, what serves the greater good puts the wind at your back.

Step Five:  POWER PRODUCES

As you move downward through the heart chakra, you start to enter the planes of collective reality. Here in the third chakra, you have to take actions and do things. You have to go to the gym to lose weight, make phone calls to find funding, apply hammers to nails, or dig in the garden. When you know how to empower your will, you can get things done.

Step Six: PLEASURE PLEASES

As you enter the second chakra, you enter the waters of passion. Here you find the real law of attraction: Pleasure Pleases. When you bring fun and pleasure to what you are doing, you make it more heavenly and certainly more attractive to others. People are attracted to join you, as the waters of this chakra make the creative process juicy and enjoyable.

Step Seven:  MATTER MATTERS

At last you settle down into the first chakra, whose element is earth. Here you come into solid matter, the manifested plane. We learn that “Matter matters.” It matters what we put in our foundation, how we treat the earth and our bodies. It matters that we complete our tasks, because if we do—if we complete all the steps in the manifestation process­–we bring something into being that never before existed. We have created a new reality.

Miracle Making

I believe this model offers a formula for a miracle. This is a formula of reclaiming each of the elements related to the chakras: (from the top down) consciousness, light, sound, air, fire, water, and earth. Each element exists inside of us as well as in the outer world. Each one proceeds into density, into the particular. But this is where we most need it now—not just in the lofty realms of consciousness where conception takes place, but right down here on the earth plane where people are starving and carbon is driving up the temperature.

I believe each of us has a piece of the puzzle, a vision of something we want to create–whether it’s in the realm of health or technology, green energy or economic transformation, peace-making or education. Each of us can imagine a way to make life a little more heavenly for ourselves and for each other.  Affirming our current reality is child’s play. Anyone can do it. Creating a vision and bringing that dream into reality—that is the work of adults.

I believe that “Evolution is the Gods’ way of making more gods.”  This means that our rite of passage into adulthood requires that we begin taking reality into our own hands. I don’t know what your version of Heaven on Earth might be. That is for you to decide. I can only offer you the steps to get there. But if the trajectory of evolution is turning back around and taking us home from the Hero’s Journey, back down to earth, then learning how to create something out of nothing is our lesson at this time.

When enough people learn how to do that together –then miracles are possible.

Anodea Judith

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The Chakras, Body Armor, and Global Transformation

Hey Chitheads! Chit is a Sanskrit for consciousness. So CHIT HAPPENS!

Check out this fantastic interview I recently did with Jacob Kyle of Embodied Philosophy on Chakras, Body Armor, and Global Transformation.

Learn about myths and psychological aspects surrounding these energy centers of the body, and gain insights on body armor and global consciousness from my perspective.

Click here to read and even download the interview!

The post The Chakras, Body Armor, and Global Transformation appeared first on Sacred Centers.

Looking Ahead

The new year is the only time of year that everyone in the world acknowledges the same day, regardless of what country you live in, what religion you practice, what race, age, or gender you are.  We all mark this moment together, this new beginning, this time of hope for a fresh start.

And even though one day still follows another, the significance of this new beginning allows us to change old habits, look ahead, and really consider what we want to create during the coming year. A time for deep reflection, so very much needed as we go through another year of our planetary initiation from the old ways to the new, from the love of power to the power of love.

One thing I did over the holidays was list the various areas of my life, (the dream categories in the Creating on Purpose book), such as work, relationship, friends, creativity, health, education, service, fun, spiritual growth, and rate them all for 2015 on a scale of 1-10 to see which ones were doing well and which were lacking. I saw clearly how work and travel scored very high, but time with friends and personal health got sacrificed, and my level of service wasn’t quite high enough to be proud of. I intend to change all that in 2016.

What are you planning to do this year that’s different? Which areas of your life do you want to focus on? What’s your dream and what do you want to create? Where does your service lie?

One way to really bring your year into focus and manifest those dreams is with the upcoming, Creating on Purpose workshop, one at Kripalu in February and the other in the Netherlands in late March. Here you can clarify your goals and learn a step by step plan for how to bring them into manifestation, with fun filled exercises to remove the blocks at each chakra from top to bottom. Many of my students say it is their favorite workshop of them all.

Other workshops coming up offer training in chakra yoga, chakra psychology and body based therapy, with a full calendar here.

Also check out our online courses, both past and current, especially by a new teacher, Dr. Jacqueline Chan on Doctoring your Chakras, and a brand new 7 month advanced course from me on CHARGE! (This one isn’t listed yet, but will be offered through The Shift Network and will be announced shortly.)

For me, the overwhelming things calling me this year are beauty and service. It is not quite enough that I serve through my books, teachings and travels, much as I am honored and humbled to do so. I want to give more to my community, help awaken consciousness to the incredible danger and opportunity that faces us at this time, and continue my vision of co-creating Heaven on Earth.

To that end, I have become aware of the incredibly deep and hidden problem of human sex trafficking, not just in other countries, but right here in the U.S. underneath our noses. Shared Hope International is an organization that works with this issue and you can go to their website to find out how to help or to donate to this important cause that has become one of highest paying crime rackets in the U.S.

I also intend to create beauty by instigating some downtown gardening efforts to beautify the town I live in on local efforts without spending a lot of money. I was inspired by San Francisco’s Quesada Garden initiative, and the way that crime fell when neighbors got together to plant their median strip on the street.

We all need to take care of this planet together. I believe we are already seeing the world turn a corner, through the Paris climate talks, passage of gay marriage, the efforts of Pope Francis, new green technologies, new ways of healing, movies that are revealing the true stories behind child sexual abuse in the church (Spotlight) and the financial crisis (The Big Short) and much, much more.

But 2016 will be a defining year as to whether our turning the corner will truly take us in a new direction.

Will you do your part?

Happy New Year, 
Anodea Judith

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It’s that time of year again

It’s that time of year again, when we should be slowing down and going yin-side into the darkness, but are instead running around crazy-busy with yang-xiety. How did this happen?

Long ago, before the advent of electric lights, (let alone cell phones, computers, ipads, ipods, fax machines, and computer screens on gas pumps) the nights really were dark and scary. Our ancestors passed these longest, darkest nights sitting around the fire together, telling stories. They told stories of the tribe’s history, stories of hope, stories of transformation.  They knew they were passing through a dark time, but they also knew it was the pivot point for returning back to the light.

What are the stories we are telling today?

There is no doubt that we are at a dark time in our world.  Threats of terrorism, environmental destruction, climate destabilization, economic disparity or collapse, racism and police violence, rampant sexism trying to curtail women’s right to birth control, and people running for president with no experience in political office threatening to take us into World War III! Dark times indeed!

But it is always darkest before the dawn. For the darkness is what let’s us dream.

We are perched at the pivot point in this dark, the point where we turn things around.

The recent COP 21 climate conference in Paris shows a monumentally historic change of direction, in which 196 nations agreed to work together to combat climate change. Arguably, we need even more, but it steered the world in the right direction, and fostered a new level of cooperation. Economies that embrace green technologies are creating prosperity, holistic health programs are making us healthier, neuroscience is giving us new perspectives on how we think, people are doing yoga everywhere, and we are more globally connected than we have ever been at any time since humans walked on their hind legs.

Creation and destruction have always happened simultaneously, it’s just that now they are both happening faster.  As evolutionary philosopher Tom Atlee,has said, “The world is getting worse and worse and better and better, faster and faster.”

All this amounts to the most profoundly emergent period humanity has ever seen. We have only begun to see the barest light of this new dawn, scarcely able to imagine what is possible.

Despite the darkness around us, we are turning the corner.

So now is the time in your own life to align with these times and to let go of whatever no longer serves you. The more you release, the more you make room for the new. 

Take a deep breath and thank whatever has been there, the good and the bad, the lessons and the pain, and allow it to dissolve into the darkness. 

Take some time to sit in the darkness and simply let go. Let go into gravity, let go into your breath, let go into the unknown and enter the mystery.  See what emerges when you’re not making anything happen. See what guidance comes when your mind gets quiet.

Don’t miss this opportunity, because soon enough the days will get longer and the lights will get brighter. As Rumi says: Now is the time to seek the remedy of vision.

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ANODEA JUDITH’sCHAKRA YOGA

INTERVIEW QUESTIONS asked to Anodea Judith about her latest book: ANODEA JUDITH’s CHAKRA YOGA.

1. How long have you been working with the chakra system and how did you originally connect to it?

I first discovered yoga in 1975. There weren’t many classes then, so I did a lot of reading and I came across writings on the chakra system at the same time. As soon as I read about it, a shot of energy went through my body. I knew I had found a vital key that unlocked many mysteries, yet somehow tied things together in cohesive fashion. Now, 40 years later, I realize those keys were far more profound than I had even imagined at the time. It just keeps getting higher and deeper!

But what I was reading implied that the lower chakras were bad and needed to be shut down in favor of the higher chakras above. I knew intrinsically that such an interpretation was unbalanced and fueled by a spiritual prejudice that ignores the body and denigrates the earth. Why would we have seven chakras only to suppress the first three? That just didn’t make sense to me.

Now after 4 decades of working with the chakra system through writing, teaching, and private sessions, I am thoroughly convinced that each of the chakras plays a vital role in the journey between heaven and earth, human and divine. You can’t leave out any of the stepping stones on this path and still go the distance. Each one has its own unique role to play in the journey toward wholeness. It really is an archetype for wholeness, something Carl Jung said that each one of us needs as a guide.

The chakra system has been my guiding template and a healing context for millions of others to find their wholeness.

2. How would you describe the chakras in just a few sentences?

I define chakras as organizational centers for the reception, assimilation, and transmission of life energy. They correspond to the major nerve ganglia branching out from the spinal column, as well as states of consciousness, patterns of behavior, even stages of human history. Metaphorically, chakras are the inner psychic gears that move us along the journey of life. If we want to get up to speed, we need to have all our gears working properly.

The word “chakra” literally means wheel or disk, and like a computer disk, each center contains habitual patterns, or “programming,” that enables our life force to interact with different levels of energy, such as physical, sexual, emotional, mental, or spiritual energies. If we have “bugs” in our programs, then we have trouble dealing effectively with one or more of these important levels. When we do the work of cleaning up that programming, our life flows more smoothly at that level.

3. What is the simplest way for someone to become aware of, or make use of, their own chakras?

The most direct access is through your own body. Simply tune into the part of your body where a particular chakra is located. For instance, when you feel butterflies in your belly due to nervousness, you are feeling your third chakra, often called the power chakra. When you fall in love, you feel energy in the heart chakra. When you have an orgasm, you are feeling the second chakra. When you feel all choked up and are unable to speak, you’re feeling constriction in your throat chakra. These are very simple, everyday experiences.

Once you learn the system, you can then practice exercises associated with each chakra to help open, develop, and evolve that particular center. These practices involve yoga postures, breathing techniques, visualizations, sounding, and taking tasks on in your life.

For instance, as one works through blocks in the throat, their creativity is enhanced. Healing blocks in the second chakra can deepen one’s sexual connection. Opening the heart improves your quality of intimacy in relationship. People’s finances improve when they learn to ground properly and open the first chakra. I’ve seen this happen so many times that I wish I could get a commission! The changes in your inner life can bring profound changes in one’s outer life accordingly.

These are real and tangible results. They don’t happen every time, but often enough that I am amazed at the power of this system when practices are applied.

4. As you travel around and teach your workshops, what do you find are the major issues people have today?

I find that people today are hungry for the sacred, which is why I call my business Sacred Centers. In my workshops, I use yoga postures for each chakra, guided meditations, movement, art, dance, even ritual, to bring someone into an experience of the sacred within themselves and from there into a sacred connection with others. This is what brings about meaningful transformation. It makes it real inside your own body, instead of going home with a notebook full of intellectual knowledge that never gets looked at again.

Aside from a hunger for the sacred, people want an embodied experience. They want to feel something in their bones and their flesh. Then it is very immediate. And this has always been a challenge for me, because I love the intellect and the realm of ideas so much. But I know the deepest truths are embodied truths, realizations that we feel in the entirety of our being.

As for people’s issues, the most common themes I see is that most people are not grounded; that women struggle with their third or power chakras, and almost everyone claims to have trouble with their throat chakra.

The key is to find balance in each chakra. Chakras can be excessive or deficient – meaning we do too much of something or not enough; compensating for something we didn’t get or avoiding something we didn’t want. Excessive chakras need to discharge their energy or move it to another chakra. Deficient chakras need attention and focus in order the charge up.

5. How do you address these issues?

Teaching people to ground is one of my specialties. Having had a life long struggle to fully inhabit my own body, I understand what it takes to find your way home again. Basically, I teach bioenergetic exercises designed to activate the core of the legs, and push the legs into the earth. Works like a charm.

I work with the third chakra power issues with activating exercises that push energy through the body, or expressly trigger the belly area. Also strengthening the belly muscles through core work. Core work also means contacting the sacred “I” that lives inside.

I work with the throat chakra largely through sound—chanting, communication exercises, and journal writing.

And all of the chakras can be accessed through breath, visualization, movement, and focused attention.

6. How would you explain the energy body?

Within this mass of muscles and bones that we call our physical body is an elaborate network of energy flowing through each and every cell. It’s what makes you alive, and what makes you who you are. If you could somehow dissolve the opaque quality of the physical body and see what’s underneath, you would see this network. That’s the energy body, also called the subtle body.

Everything is made of energy, every cell, every breath, every thought. Various traditions call this energy chi, ki, or prana. I call it CHARGE, which stands for: Consciousness Having A Really Genuine Experience.

This energy body is constantly renewing itself, charging and discharging. The chakras are the organizational centers that receive, assimilate and express this energy at different levels.

7. Are there seven chakras?

A chakra is a spinning vortex of energy in the subtle body. You might say it is where several pathways come together. The system of chakras with seven major centers is an ancient, elegant, and complete system, covering the full spectrum of human possibility– from our earthly and bodily needs to our highest spiritual aspirations. The chakra system is the architecture of the soul, and the yoke of yoga – the structure whereby the finite physical body is yoked to the infinite divine.

There are people and systems that suggest there are more than seven chakras, and that’s fine – I wouldn’t deny that you can look at it that way since any vortex could be considered a chakra– but I think it dilutes the profound philosophical system represented by the system of seven chakras that map directly onto the body. But even the old texts describe smaller sub-chakras within the basic seven chakras, such as the guru chakra in the seventh chakra or the anandakanda lotus beneath the heart chakra. I also believe we have chakras in our hands and our feet, for example, but they don’t have the same philosophical importance.

8. Where did the philosophy of the chakra system originate?

Chakras come from the yoga tradition of India, most specifically from the Tantric period of yoga philosophy, circa 500 – 1000 AD, though they were probably an oral tradition long before that. The word chakra is Sanskrit, the language of ancient India, and it means wheel or disk. This refers to the spinning nature of the chakras. But I also like to think of this meaning in modern terms, like a floppy disk, that contains vital programming for our beliefs and behaviors.

9. You talk about a liberating current and a manifesting current. What is the difference?

The liberating current moves through the chakras from bottom to top, from the first chakra at the root, to the 7th chakra at the crown. It is called liberating because at every step you free yourself a little more from fixed forms, from limitation, and from density. You can see that if you follow the elements from bottom to top: earth, water, fire, air, sound, light, and consciousness, they get lighter and freer, until you have consciousness, which has no dimension and is everywhere.

The manifesting current starts at the crown chakra and descends, step by step down to the base chakra and the earth. I call it manifesting because it takes what begins as an idea, which is pure conception, and then turns that idea into an image, then words of communication, then brings that idea into relationships with others or co-creation, then activating the will and passion, and finally, anchoring it in the nuts and bolts that ground the vision into reality. If you master the manifesting current, you create your life on purpose, as we discussed in the book I wrote with Lion Goodman, CREATING ON PURPOSE.

We need access to both currents to be whole. In fact the two currents passing each other as they go up and down actually create the spinning of the chakras, which occurs in opposite directions, like gears.

10. What’s an example of a chakra imbalance someone could be experiencing, and how might they work with it in your workshop?

I have created a diagnostic system for the chakras that looks at imbalances as either excessive or deficient (or sometimes a combination of both). An excessive chakra is trying to compensate for something that isn’t working in that chakra, and a deficient chakra is trying to avoid something, or maybe didn’t get enough of something. Both are defenses caused by wounds, but it is not the wound that defines the excess or the deficiency, but how we learned to defend ourselves against the pain of that wound.

For example, if you were wounded in your third or power chakra, you might compensate (become excessive in that chakra) by needing to have lots of power and remain in control, or you might avoid, (become deficient) by steering away from challenges or being too passive. If you were excessive in the first chakra (oriented to the earth and material substance), you would create a heavy body that weighs you down in order to keep grounded, while a deficient first chakra would create body that is too thin and feels ungrounded or unsafe. You can use this diagnostic for each of the chakras.

We then learn about energy and how it flows through the system and how to discharge the excessive chakras and charge up the deficient ones. Contained within the diagnosis is the treatment. For the most part, it’s very simple, yet each person’s pattern is unique.

I believe that opening the chakras and clearing out the blocks creates the possibility of a smooth experience of Kundalini. The reason she can be uncomfortable is that she pushes up against the blocks. As long as we’re holding on, it’s uncomfortable.

11. What is Kundalini and how is it related to the chakras?

Kundalini is the shorter name for Kundalini-Shakti, the primordial goddess of our internal life force, and the energy within everything. As a goddess, she takes the form of a serpent, which travels up and down the core, piercing and awakening each chakra in turn. She is a profound experience of divine energy that is ultimately a healing force, though not always very comfortable.

12. Does everyone experience Kundalini?

Definitely not. It is said that she comes to one through grace, meaning it’s beyond our ability to consciously activate or even de-activate Kundalini. Some people go their whole lives, even with tons of practice, and never experience Kundalini. Some people get it unexpectedly, without even knowing what it is or having done anything to invoke it, and they call that spiritual emergence. But in everyone who has experienced a genuine Kundalini awakening, the experience is profound. That’s about the only thing Kundalini awakenings have in common.

13. Have you experienced Kundalini?

Yes, I have on a number of occasions in different ways. It is not constant for me by any means, but every once in awhile it comes on and takes me over for awhile. I love it when that happens, but it is generally too intense to want to do much of anything but meditate or do yoga.

14. Why do you think the chakras have become so popular today?

We understand now that we need holistic systems that address and integrate all the various parts of ourselves. People are tired of systems that deny the body, deny our spirituality, or fail to deal with the very real psychological wounds that are epidemic in the culture. The chakra system integrates mind, body, and spirit within one comprehensive system. It is a profound formula for the wholeness that we are seeking.

But even more important, it is a path to the Divine, a path that connects Heaven and Earth through the very sacred center of each person. I believe that at this time on the planet, we are being asked to reach up toward heaven through all our limitations and ignorance, and then to bring heaven down to earth, where it can be manifested for the good of all. It is not about endlessly preening yourself on your mat or meditation cushion, but about having a map to higher consciousness that allows you to use that consciousness to create a better reality. There is so much work to do in this world right now, and we need a good map to guide us through the coming years.

15. In your book The Global Heart Awakens, you talk about how humanity is moving collectively from third chakra to fourth chakra, or from the love of power to the power of love? How do you know that? What are the signs?

Everywhere you look, the old power structures are crumbling. Economies are fluctuating, wars are actually decreasing. At the same time a new organizing principle is arising: one based more on equality and kindness, cooperation rather than competition, a web of connection rather than a chain of command, as we can see through peer to peer networking, open source enterprises like Wikipedia, and of course the huge online social networking sites. We are slowly growing up, facing our initiation into planetary adulthood. As the old system is falling, the healers and teachers and true servants of humanity are leading us to a new way of living on every level: politics, education, economics, science, health, religion, and technology.

16. What do you hope to achieve with your newest book on Chakra Yoga?

I see this book as a guide for teachers and students alike. Arranging your practice or your classes by the chakras puts everything you do in a very sensible context, from finding one’s ground, to opening to others, activating your power, opening your heart, speaking your truth, seeking a vision, and liberating your spirit. Anyone, no matter where you are on the path, can learn from this.

I’ve been in the yoga world for 40 years. I’ve seen the yoga movement grow from occasional classes of a few people in someone’s living room, to the mega-business of goods and workshops that it is today. People just discovering yoga often think it is just an exercise routine. I hope to bring the deeper meaning of yoga in a way that relates directly to people’s lives, chakra by chakra.

17. Do you have some parting words?

We are being called forth to play in a grand symphony of creation together. But to play in the symphony we need to practice, practice, practice. The ancients have handed down practices to help us mature and develop. I don’t believe we need a lot of elaborate, painful, or time-consuming practices to enjoy what life has given us, but we do need some practices to keep us on track. We need to heal the divorce between matter and spirit, mind and body, and awaken to our divine natures. The body is a vehicle equipped with everything we might need for this spiritual journey.

Inherent within each of us is an archetype of wholeness that will take us home to our fullness if we allow it and trust it. The chakras integrate mind, body, and spirit into within a full spectrum experience. When we use this system as a map for our journey, there is a greater opportunity for wholeness to emerge. That wholeness can change the world.

The post ANODEA JUDITH’s
CHAKRA YOGA appeared first on Sacred Centers.

GLORIFYING SENSELESS VIOLENCE

How many times do we have to witness the senseless killings of fanatics with guns to realize this issue goes much deeper than gun control, deeper than a women’s right to control her own body, and deeper than a mental health problem? We have no right to be surprised when it happens. Until we address the deeper systemic level of this problem, gun violence will continue to massacre innocent lives and make everyday life increasingly dangerous. For starters, every time there is a killing, it dominates the news for hours or even days– iterating every gory detail, showing bloodied victims on stretchers, police cars lined up like a grade B movie, TV journalists invasively interviewing grief stricken family members, and newspaper headlines making the killers globally famous, if not infamous. he news—for 
As horrific as these killings are, the 12,234 deaths and 24, 751 injuries by gun violence so far this year are a small number compared to, say, iatrogenic deaths from medical mistakes, which number close to a million a year by some estimates.

But bad news makes good news. The networks know that fascination with horror garners attention like no other subject.

Then there’s the issue of glorified fictional violence in movies and television shows, again mostly with guns. Even a carefully chosen movie is preceded by 20 minutes of shoot-em-up previews, featuring every kind of weapon imaginable, wielded by men trying to look manly as they shoot and dodge bullets, while their femme fatale runs for her life in high heels.

And let’s not forget the factions that are literally making a killing on weapons sales, perhaps the biggest culprit of all. The United States is the highest exporter of weapons worldwide, almost doubling Russia in 2014. The combined arms sales of just the top 100 weapon manufacturers worldwide was $395 billion in 2012 according to Stockholm International Peace Research Center. The Small Arms Survey research center estimates there are 875 million small weapons in circulation worldwide, 4.5 million sold annually in the US alone. Do we expect these guns not to be used?

Gun control is vitally necessary, but it’s merely a stop-gap measure to limit the bleeding while the deeper slaughter continues. Until we remove violence from the center of our news, our entertainment, and the economy, these senseless killings will continue their bloody rampage on innocent life and our common good sense.

Love and light.
Anodea12-7-15 

 

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