Sacral Chakra - Emotions

The sacral chakra (Swadhisthana) helps inform how we relate to our emotions and the emotions of others. An open sacral chakra also governs creativity and sexual energy. It is the 2nd chakra and its Symbol is a 6-petal Orange Lotus Flower and a Moon Within.

Location: Lower abdomen, the lower section of your stomach around your naval about 2 inches below the navel located by the Sacrum, a large piece of bone at the base of the spine, but above the coccyx.

Associated Themes & Emotions: Sense of abundance, well-being, pleasure, and sexuality as well as emotional balance and sexuality. It represents the part of our consciousness concerned with self-respect. It is how we perceive ourselves and is affected by our ability to have the freedom to be ourselves, It also motivates us and is the seat of our creativity and personal relationships.

This chakra affects several physical areas of your body such as your adrenal gland, liver and upper intestines along with your sexual organs, pancreas and stomach and the reproductive organs, prostate and bladder.

Meaning & Function: creativity, fertility, and acceptance of oneself as a powerful sexual being.

Signs of Imbalance or blockage: infertility and blocked creativity. The sacral chakra is where ‘hooks’ from other people may influence their mood, particularly from sexual encounters.

Negative feeling: selfishness and low self-esteem. Positive feeling: self-confidence and self-esteem.

Age of development - 3-5/8 years old

Typical conditions: muscle cramps; reproductive blockages or diseases; infertility (both male and female) or impotence (male),allergies; addictions, eating issues, metabolic disorders, diabetes, liver or intestinal dysfunction (irritable bowel); urinary infections; back pain.

The symbol for this chakra is Water, and the musical note D will help you balance it and you can also re-balance it by focusing on objects that are bright orange or red-orange.

Having arrived here on earth, and being aware only of our link to our mother or whoever takes care of us, the next step is recognising that we are not alone. There are others in our immediate environment. The first people that we become aware of form what is known as our ‘primary relationships.’ This is where we learn about relating to one another. How they behave towards us, and each other, becomes our understanding of ‘relationships.’ For many people this is not an encouraging thought! This is why so many therapy takes us back to early childhood in order to identify the old tapes that are looped into our systems – those tapes that we installed when we were little, that automatically and endlessly repeat in adult life, resulting in different relationships. When we go back into our past and re-live our early frightening experiences, we can collect those aspects of our self that have become frozen in time and space at that moment.

A moment when we either ‘split off’ or ‘shut down’ in a certain situation in order not to be overwhelmed. We may have a very powerful parent who made it difficult for us to establish our own boundaries. Feeling vulnerable and unsafe, we get ‘sucked in’ to their energy field and have difficulty in establishing our own sense of self. It is also in these early years that we discover that there is a part of our anatomy that gives us lovely feelings – entirely natural for a little person that experiences life totally through its senses. Our parents, however, might have had a different view.

What they felt and expressed about their own sexuality would have a direct effect on how we viewed our own. Another faulty tape may have been installed at this time, saying, “It’s dirty. Don’t do that, it’s naughty – (or even worse) it’s disgusting”. These days sex has come out of the closet and because of its potent energy is used by marketing moguls to sell everything – shampoo, jeans, furniture, cars and telephones. But what about its value as a sacred act?

The other crucial aspect of the Sacral chakra is to do with creativity (apart from making babies), and the development of our imaginations. When we are small we spend a great deal of time in an imaginary world. We talk to our teddies, all of which have their own personalities, and we begin to draw and build things. Stories hold us spell-bound as we live the tales of witches and princes, treasure and adventure. Our imaginations are fertile and unfettered. We make up endless games that have no sense of outcome or goals – we truly live in the moment. We may even have an ‘imaginary’ friend who is a very real presence. We are in touch with magic at this time in our lives. We trust those around us and are open to them. If this trust is betrayed, we develop the belief that it is not safe to trust another, ti is not safe to open us, it is not safe to be intimate.

Going to school soon changes the focus from creative use of our imaginations to the left-brain skills that are valued so highly in our contemporary culture. Over-dosing on television and computer games shrivels the growth and expression of children’s collective imagination. They don’t have to invent their own stories because it is done for them. No more fairies at the bottom of the garden – you’ll find them on the Disney Channel.

So our feelings about sexuality, our relationships with others and our creative imagination are formed during this early period of our lives, along with the development of the Sacral chakra. If all or any of these aspects of our lives are squashed out of us, the balance will need to be redressed. The soul speaks through this centre with the knowing that every significant relationship in our lives holds a key to open the door to some aspects of ourselves that is hidden. When our buttons get pushed, it is important not to look at who is pushing them, but what effect this has on us, any why. This is the soul asking us to take responsibility for what happens to us as it leads us back to our relationship with the Divine.

The 3. Incarnation intention - Be the absolution of divine expression through the 3d filter.

Can we relate to another without fear of being overwhelmed, or without needed to

possess them? Do we need to get love and nurturing from someone else, because

we did not get it from our parents? Do we find partners who are like our absent

parents in our search to find balance?

Questions for the Sacral Chakra

Using your journal write the thoughts and insights that come from asking yourself the

following questions:

• What was the sexual climate in your home?
• What attitudes were expressed towards your developing sexuality?
• How do you feel about your sexuality now?
• Think about the needs of your inner child – how would it like to express itself?
• What did you enjoy when you were aged between 3 and 8?
• How do you use your creativity now?
• Think of an important relationship in your life? What are you learning? 

Creativity, by the way, does not mean painting like Leonardo de Vinci. It means allowing yourself to do things for the sheer joy of doing them – not because they will earn money, fill your time or are things you ‘ought’ to do.

Crystals that are associated with this Chakra are:

Carnelian, Orange Calcite, Golden Topaz.

The herbs that are associated with this Chakra are:

Ylang Ylang, Fennel, Jasmine