What is the Crown Chakra?

THE CROWN CHAKRA – THE KEY TO SPIRITUAL ENLIGHTENMENT

QUALITIES

• • The CROWN chakra is located on the top of the head, with its tip seating into the middle of the top of the head. Called the Sahasrara (thousand) chakra, it represents the experience of direct knowing. This area is the key to spiritual enlightenment. Included in its blessings are healing of the subtle body, calmness, gentleness, expansiveness and harmony.

• • The GOAL of the seventh chakra is to fulfill our purpose of existence by experiencing our oneness with the eternal now. (Alex Jones, Seven Mansions of Color.)

• • CONNECTED with the crown chakra are the color violet, the note B, the sound AUM, the element cosmic energy, and the planet Neptune.

    This energy is associated with the major body systems including the central nervous system, the muscular system and the skin. Caroline Myss in the Anatomy of Spirit refers to the crown as the spiritual connector chakra and lists the primary strengths of this energy as inner guidance, insight into healing, quality of trust beyond ordinary fears and devotion. John Ruskin in Emotional Clearing identifies the primary feeling in the brow as oneness with Self.

• • PSYCHOLOGICAL IMBALANCE in the crown chakra may manifest as psychic attack, negativity and paranoia.

• • PHYSICAL IMBALANCE may manifest as insomnia, restlessness, and sensory dysfunctions.

• BALANCED, the crown chakra provides the qualities of divine realization, humility and creative imagination. Our consciousness is uplifted beyond separation to the experience of oneness with all creation and the knowing that creation is nothing but our own selves.
  Experience of the crown chakra energy cannot be explained in words. It is beyond duality and words can only point to the way. Most of us have had a brief experience of this blissful energy, whether we realized it at the time or not. In the mid 1980’s, when my husband, Charlie, and I were becoming involved in our own spiritual development, we had just a moment of this energy. We were living in Augusta, Georgia at the time and decided that we needed to become enlightened. We reasoned that a good place to become enlightened was in the mountains. So we rented a cabin for the weekend somewhere off the Blue Ridge Parkway. We arrived at night in dense fog, found the cabin and checked in, only to find that the restaurant was closed and there was no TV! When we woke up the next morning we discovered that our window looked out over a graveyard! Nevertheless, we went out looking for our enlightenment. We hiked down a gravel road looking for a waterfall. After several hours of hiking, and only finding horse droppings, we returned to the cabin and called it a day. The second morning we decided to rent the horses that had obviously found the waterfall the day before. Neither one of us are experienced horse-riders but Charlie was put on Spitfire and I was put on Fireball. The horses took off and we went bouncing along with them. Somewhere during that ride we both finally relaxed into the realization that the horses were totally out of control and that at any moment we would be thrown off to our deaths! And then it happened. We had given up control, and were allowed to experience Truth. For a moment, or an eternity, we could not tell which and it does not matter, we became one with All. There was no separation, no difference, between ourselves and the horses, the grass, the trees, the horizon, the earth, the sky. We were All That Is and All That Is was us. Just as suddenly as it began, the experience ended. We were back on the horses riding towards the barn. We dismounted, got in the car, checked out of the cabin, and came home. We had experienced what we intended; though not how we intended it. That, dear reader, is oneness. It has happened to you. It will happen again for all of us.
  Below are some guidelines to assist you in opening to the oneness of the crown chakra.

ACTIVITIES AND RITUALS

1. 1. Practice silent awareness of the vastness, the space, the infinite bliss found in nature.
   2. Intend to experience your Self and surrender to all of life.
   3. Listen to music in the key of B, or simply hum this tone.
   4. Chant the sacred sound of “AUM” over and over, out loud, and let its vibration heal you.
   5. Use the color violet in your meditation or contemplation rooms. . Meditate on the color violet and white and allow its energy to move through your being.
   6. Play with gemstones, especially amethyst and clear quartz. Place a crystal on your nightstand to remind you of the pure Light of the infinite, eternal now.
   7. As Ram Dass says, simply BE HERE NOW, living without desire each present moment.

SUMMARY

Living in a state of oneness is very rare. Experiencing moments of oneness can be cultivated through meditation, nature and even physical activity. Though I have never participated in extreme sports such as mountain climbing, parachuting, and marathons, I am convinced that the reward for these sports in that state of perfect flow, where the participant is truly one with the mountain, the sky, or the road.
As long as we feel enclosed within our bodies, we are separate. When our spirit expands outward to include our environment, we begin to sense feelings of belonging. And when our spirits expand even farther, we know that we are one with all, eternal and safe; healed and whole. This is the lesson of the crown chakra. It is a lesson we are all destined to learn!