Name in Sanskrit | Sahaswara - one thousand, infinity |
Symbol | Circle - Thousand Petal Lotus |
Location | Top of the head |
Essence | I know |
Function | Liberation |
Quality | Fulfilment |
Colour | Violet or White |
Element | Purity of spirit |
Sound | Om |
Gland | Pituitary |
Crown chakra
The Crown chakra is located on the top of the head and is violet in colour. Often referred to as the ‘Thousand Petal Lotus’, the energy of this chakra allows us to experience the divine energy of a higher power and to our higher selves, which is your connection to your divinity. It is the state of unity with the cosmos and divine consciousness, the source of enlightenment and our greatest spiritual connection – the meeting point between finite (the body and the ego) and infinite (the universe and soul).
In Sanskrit the Crown chakra is know as the Sahaswara The gift of this chakra is the experience of unity and realization that everything is connected. It’s ultra fine vibration links us to our main source of enlightenment, allowing a wider perspective to develop in expanding your awareness to more than your body. We become one, part of a universal spiritual consciousness. In ancient cultures the crown chakra is thought to be the place where the soul enters the physical body at birth and departs from in death.
Spiritually, to fully open and engage with the Sahaswara means complete realization of pure awareness, an undivided all expansive united consciousness with our creator. To be in harmony with the universe and have complete understanding of our soul’s existence is the ultimate objective of spirituality, to transcend the ego and know that there is a deeper meaning to life.
Imbalanced chakra
Life is more often than not a struggle on many levels, with our relationships, our career paths, our health or our emotions. An imbalance within this chakra may manifest as mental instability or lack of purpose. Ailments of the crown chakra physically relate to disorders of the nervous system, brain and the psyche.
Related psychological or emotional ailments:
Depression, schizophrenia, alzheimer’s, learning disorders, lack of spiritual direction
Related physical ailments:
Migraine, parkinsons disease. epilepsy, multiple sclerosis, paralysis, immune system disorders, cancers
The energy of the Crown chakra resonates with the pituitary gland, a pea-sized gland located at the base of the brain. It is the body’s master gland and produces essential hormones that control and regulate bodily functions. Meditation and healing can help to re-balance the complex chemical make-up of the endocrine and nervous system which are governed by this gland.
Healing the Crown chakra
On a spiritual level, if we are willing to, we can expand our perspective to see that somewhere along the line, a message or a lesson lies within our own battles. It takes courage to find this expanded perspective in the middle of all pain, to ask the question. “What is that I can learn form this?” rather than why is this happening to me?”.
Knowing bliss and what it is to “Be” is to feel entirely at peace. You find those moments if you have felt in complete harmony with nature or another soul. When the world about feels so beautiful and precious, a sense of knowing that you are part of something so much bigger than your own existence
Achieving this state may seem completely out of reach and reserved solely for the likes of the truly enlightened, however, you have already experienced a connection like this if you have felt unconditional love for someone or empathy for complete strangers in crisis. If you have a particularly close relationship with your pet, the love that you give and receive and the ‘knowing’ that you experience of truly feeling loved by that creature is pure awareness because it is achieved without communicating through a shared language. You simply express, feel and give out love and an understanding of each other.
Living in awareness is a step to attaining the essence of the crown chakra. It happens to ordinary people everyday for example, when you come out of an awful relationship and find that you can then look back and think I wouldn’t have known this about myself if I hadn’t had that experience or you see your own role in the demise of that relationship and the effects on the other. You develop an awareness of the experience that can lead to forgiveness and understanding of both sides of the story. Daily practice of meditation and prayer are the disciplines that can help us to:
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Develop a heightened spiritual connection
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Be able to give and receive unconditional love
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Give a more expanded sense of spiritual awareness in your outer world
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Bring about a shift in perspective of life making it is easier to forgive
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No longer solely focus on our own troubles
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See that life is more about being of service to others rather than just oneself
From pain, fear, tragedy can come inner peace that we would ordinarily never have known. You often see that those who have endured the most unimaginable heartache and loss are somehow able to be at peace with their ordeals. Within that peace is acceptance and often a spiritual levelling of what was experienced against what is gained. To be spiritual doesn’t necessarily mean that you are religious. It can be that you are aware of a higher force, something bigger than ourselves that relates to the experience of living, which is all part of a learning process. To expand your conscious perception of day to day struggles and move above and beyond the expected emotions of fear, anger, hatred and vengeance and to embrace and merge into peace, acceptance, wisdom and even unconditional love.
Crystals to support the Crown chakra are:
Sugilite, Amethyst, Chaorite, Clear Quartz, Herkimer Diamond, Selenite, Tanzanite, Heredite, Moonstone, Purple Spinel, Purpurite