Chakra Two
photo credit Ben Bernard
Chakra One says, "You are home. You are real. You are connected to the whole earth and you are nourished by it." In a firm and steady voice, muladhara says, "You are One and One is perfect." The whole story would begin and end right there if not for the awakening of desire that comes from Chakra Two.
Chakra Two speaks in a seductive whisper or an elated roar, depending on the circumstances. She says, "There's something else out there, baby. Let's move, let's meet, let's unite, let's expand, and let's have a hell of a good time doing it!" Without this energy there would be no need for other chakras because there would be no desire to move and connect and expand. Chakra Two is the impetus for the journey and the joy of feeling ourselves move.
Here is a 20 minute audio recording from the beginning of the Chakra Two workshop on Sunday, November 5, 2017
Svadisthana is the Sanskrit name for Chakra Two. It means “her favorite resting place.” It’s element is WATER, its COLOR is orange. It is associated with creativity but in the rawest sense—sexuality, the drive to reproduce. It connects us with the subconcious, deep knowing, deep longing.
This energy is the awakening of desire. Desire is the birth of movement. It takes us on a journey. The feeling of propelling ourselves along on the journey, toward the object of desire is pleasure. So these are the basic issues of second chakra: desire, movement, pleasure. Without this chakra there's no need to leave the comfort of chakra one.
With desires come the possibility for disappointment. With a journey, comes the almost-guarantee of dangers. With obtaining the object of pleasure comes the eventuality of losing it, with the peaks come valleys, with the heavens come hells. With the potential for movement comes a huge amount of power and power can either create or destroy. This is the raw energy of creation, the energy of the reproductive system. Meaning its impulse is to seek, meet, mate and multiply! It multiplies. It can multiply the positive or the negative in your life. And thats scary!
It's so scary that most societies, religions and institutions regulate the shit out of this energy. And they indoctrinate individuals from a very young age to do the same. They know that this energy can actually destroy the institution or create something to rival it.
The primary way that we shut this energy down is through rules and regulations. If we fail to meet these rules and regulations, the punishment is a SHAME experience.
I have been truly amazed to discover the extent to which I have been programmed to fear this energy and manipulate it right out the gate, creating tons of blockages around this chakra.
MY SECOND CHAKRA STORY
• Childhood encounters with sexuality that I was too young to make sense of.
• Adolescent longings for the likes of Kurt Cobain and Agent Mulder that I had no opportunity to satisfy and no tools to discharge.
• At the same time as I was feeling these new desires, learning that my new female body would require lots of diligent maintenance and upkeep. (Enter some level of eating disorder for most young girls.)
• Being ostracized by my high school girlfriends for hooking up with the wrong guy.
• Developing unhealthy relationships with alcohol and my friends' prescription Adderall in college and watching loved ones struggle with addiction.
• Deeply desiring a competitive career path in my 20's and being too terrified of rejection to truly pursue it.
• Despairing that I would never find a proper mate.
• Worrying that I would never have children.
• Spending 34 years in a sexist culture which told me that:
◦ A) My value as a person comes from being the best possible object of pleasure and
◦ B) To be the best possible object of someone else's enjoyment, I better forego my own enjoyments! Those things might make me too fat or too old-looking or too craven or too independent or too weird or too wild
All of this amounted to a huge amount of anxiety around the energy of the second chakra. There was this thing that felt totally out of control and there was little me, who somehow had to control it. My answer was to use a whole bunch of energy from higher up chakras to go down and regulate the bejeezus out of it. I made lots of rules around how and when and why I might get pleasure. I coupled pleasure and shame as insurance that I didn't enjoy too much, therefore I didn't do too much damage.
And that worked ok for a while. Until it didn't. See, the second chakra energy isn't just responsible for us moving toward a lover or glass of wine. It's responsible for us moving toward our personal and spiritual goals. I got to a place where I wasn't able to meet my sincere goals without more power. Getting my second chakra energy fully back online (not to mention relieving the upper chakras from being on 24/7 police duty!) gave me the juice that I needed. And the not so coincidental side bonus: I am getting much more joy out of every moment.
PRACTICES
work with pleasure
- notice what stories you have around pleasure. are there rules around receiving pleasure? where do they come from?
- take time to slow and down and really savor sensory experiences. shamelessly draw the pleasure out of these experiences as much as possible.
work with shame
- make a list of your experiences with shame. examine the circumstances around these experiences. are there patterns?
- contemplate: what are the benefits of shame? what are the negative ramifications?
- the next time you feel shame arising, don't feed that energy. imagine it flowing through and out of you like water.
work with desire
- sit comfortably. bring to mind an object of longing and imagine it sitting about 6 inches in front of your sacral chakra. see if you can feel energy welling up in response. that’s YOUR energy.
- then, rather than getting up and "claiming" the object of desire, circulate the healing and sacred energy of desire through your body
- make a list of things that you have REALLY wanted in your life. examine the stories around those moments of desire.
work with sexuality
- address sexual trauma. call on your best resources and get ready to face this stuff. the world needs you healed and whole.
- cleanse the reproductive organs using the Taoist healing sounds:
- SADNESS: sssss
- ANGER: shhhhh
- ANXIETY: hoh
- INDIFFERENCE: ahh
- FEAR: choo
- explore sexual energy work traditions. taoist master Mantak Chia and teachers in his lineage have some great practices for connecting with sexual energy. a couple of my favorite teachers of female sexual energy work are Daisy Lee and Saida Desilets
work with the sacral area
- visualize an orb of pulsing orange light at the space between the navel and the pubic bone
- pause before you make a decision and ask your sacral area: what do YOU want?
- do hip stretches
work with movement
- qi gong, tai chi, modern dance, belly dancing, vinyasa yoga flow are all great but it's best if you're working with a teacher and a tradition that encourages intuition, creativity and grace over technique, structure and alignment
- simply set aside a few minutes to do intuitive, fluid, satisfying movement
- dance parties! totally surrender to the music for a while with your eyes closed. then open them and catch a reflection of yourself: vibrant, joyful and sexy
work with water
- honor water in your daily interactions with it. thank it when you drink it. maybe drink more of it!
- notice how it quenches and satisfies
- notice how, wherever water goes, life flows
- be present for the experience of being in a body made of mostly liquid!
- notice the liquid ways that we release toxins and stale energy from the body--urine, sexual fluids, sweat
- notice how water lubricates and insulates, allowing things to flow smoothly in the body
- feel the power of a nice hot bath or take a swim. surrender and dissolve the boundaries between yourself and the water
- make enjoying a bottle of wine or a cup of tea with a friend a sacred ritual. take in the experience through all your senses. make room for this experience to actually achieve its goal! to relax you, to connect you, to be a break from worry and rigidity. ahhhhh.