The Sacral Chakra is the second of the seven chakras. Because it is connected to the genital organs, it is also called the sexual chakra. Svadhisthana is considered to be the storehouse of unconscious karmas and life experiences. This chakra also plays an important part along with the Muladhara chakra in awakening the Kundalini energy.
- sva = “self”, “own”
- adhishthana = “place”
It literally translates into “One’s own place.” It is a swirling vortex of energy that both draws in and puts out astral energy; and it is directly connected to the reproductive organs, ovaries, and gonads. Thus in some practices, Reiki masters stimulate this chakra through the pelvis or tailbone. Either way, the effects of this vital center are not impossible to see if you know what to look for.
The second chakra is the subtle place where our sexuality, our sensuality, and our body awareness, our creativity, and our true selves are at home. It is the center of our visions and the power to make this reality. It represents our ability to deal with emotions, as well as our eros and our flirt with life. Its power has to work so that a seed can become an orange tree. The departure into life begins here.
Characteristics of Sacral Chakra
The Location Point
Sacral chakra is situated at the base of spinal chord, at the level of coccyx or tailbone. It is very close to muladhara chakra.
We find the sex chakra about a hand’s breadth below the navel in the area of
Color
Orange is the color of the sacral chakra. It symbolizes the joy of living and optimism, healing and lightness, sexuality, and sensuality. It gives us a feeling of security and emotional warmth. In-depth psychology it stands for the desire for unity. In Ayurveda, it is considered the inner color of the water.
Symbol
Svadhisthana chakra is symbolized by a six-petaled orange-colored lotus. On each petal, there is letter: bam, bham, mam, yam, ram, and lam. Within the pericarp of the lotus, a white crescent moon is there which is the symbol of water.
Element
The element of the sacral chakra is water, without which no life would be possible. Water heals, cleanses, calms, transforms, and symbolizes the unhindered flow of life energies and our feelings.
Sense
The sense of taste is connected to the sacral chakra because our soul wants to experience how life tastes. But personal style also has to do with a sense of taste.
Mantra
The Bija mantra of the sacral chakra is VAM, VUNG and represents the element of water. When you chant it, yo awaken the flowing energies and cleansing powers associated with this element. Its sound is said to purify the chakra and favorably influence the flow of prana in it.
Animal
The animal of the Svadhishthana chakra is the fish, crocodile.
God and Goddess
Vishnu is his god and Saraswati is a goddess.
Associated Nervous System Plexus
Hypogastric, prostatic, uterovaginal, lumbar
Associated Endocrine Gland
Adrenal gland
Organs Associated
The reproductive organs, kidneys, bladder, and blood circulation are assigned to the sacral chakra.
Relationship to body
Lower spine, sexual organs, bladder and urinary system, kidneys, pelvis, large intestine, fluid regulation, sense of taste are assigned to this chakra.
Emotional Connection
Sex, food, nourishment, bodily pleasure, money, creativity, manipulation, power.
If the Swadhisthana Chakra has a positive effect, the following properties become strong: Devotion, letting go, love , humility, compassion, intuition, flow, love of God, trust.
Imbalance Attributes
If the sacral chakra is not in balance, this can become noticeable in the form of instinctuality, compulsiveness, feelings of guilt, fertility problems, kidney problems, addictions and sexual aversion.
Stones
Citrine, Carnelian, Moonstone, Coral are used for sacral chakra healing. Generally, stones with orange color, orange-red, golden color are considered most supportive for healing Sacral Chakra.
Essential Oils
Sandalwood, Ylang-ylang, Rose, Jasmine, Clary Sage
Healing Foods
Oranges, Cinnamon, Melons, Sweet Fruits, Coconut
Sacral Chakra in Other Traditions
The Sacral Chakra is also called “Secret Place” in the Tibetan Vajrayana. In the Lataif system of Sufism, it corresponds to “nafs”. In Kabbalism, it corresponds to Sephirah Yesod.
Sacral Chakra and Kundalini Awakening
It is said that if you meditate on this chakra, you will get rid of your internal enemies i.e lust, anger, greed, etc.
Svadhisthana is considered to be the storehouse of all mental impressions and its counterpart in the brain is the unconscious mind.
It is believed that all karmas, the past lives, the previous experiences, and the greater dimensions of the human personality that is unconscious are symbolized by this Svadhisthana Chakra.
According to science, each and every experience, perception, and association is recorded. If you have a fight or quarrel with somebody, that leaves a strong impression but if happen to pass someone on the path, look at him and walk on, this is also registered.
Such observations are not analyzed but simply filed away in some layer of the mind. All these unnoticed karmas and experiences which are stored automatically by our consciousness forms the total unconscious.
Generally, in the kundalini awakening process, Sacral chakra is regarded as a hindrance in the sense that these karmas lying embedded in the unconscious do not allow kundalini to pass through and after the initial awakening, kundalini goes to dormancy again and again.
When Sacral Chakra awakens, it presents many difficulties for the aspirant as the whole of his unconscious material explodes in front of him. These karmas are beyond the range of analysis and they have practically no form but they constitute a great force.
It is just like the situation that if you put several objects in a water tank and then open that tank after five years, you will not find anything the same as you put in the tank though all the objects are present there but in a new form.
Therefore due to this reason, many spiritual aspirants avoid entering this stage of the kundalini awakening process, but it is absolutely necessary for his spiritual evolution.
During this stage, you must have a spiritual guide or guru who knows how to avoid all the pitfalls of this area of awakening.
Experiences
When kundalini is residing in Sacral chakra, all the negative and positive impressions of your unconscious mind express themselves. During this stage, you may be angry, afraid, or full of sexual fantasies or you may also experience lethargy, dullness, and depression.
The tendency to procrastinate is very strong and you just want to sleep and sleep.
If you are fearless and strong will-powered, only then you can survive through the temptation of this stage of awakening. Every great person and saint has had to undergo this peculiar experience.
If one fluctuates from his path of sadhana even slightly, kundalini will return to Muladhara i.e Root chakra and the real awakening will become very difficult.
Therefore in the initial stages of sadhana, one should have a superior quality of detachment (Vairagya). It should not be the mere renunciation of the sensual pleasures because if even after leaving all sensual pleasures, their taste remains in mind then this detachment is of no use.
If aspirant understands the truth that desires can never be satisfied in one lifetime, not even in thousands of lifetimes, the kundalini can pass through sacral chakra relatively fast and will reach solar plexus chakra safely.
Sexual desires and fantasies can manifest in the aspirant at any stage of evolution but they are expressed very acutely and clearly when the kundalini is in Sacral Chakra.
Here one thing I should tell you, that sexual awareness never really dies, even when the aspirant is at the highest level of consciousness because sex is also a form of the primal energy that is present all around us and universal in nature.
However, when the kundalini is in Svadhisthana Chakra, this sexual awareness is in very disturbed state whereas in higher stages of evolution it is in seed form.
After all, what is the devotion or ‘bhakti’?? They are sublimated pure forms of sexual energy.
According to the tantric texts, there are many psychic powers gained through the awakening of Sacral Chakra which includes: Fearlessness from water, gaining of intuitive knowledge, knowledge of astral entities, and the ability to taste anything.
The net sum up is that awakening of kundalini power is not a difficult task, but getting through Sacral Chakra is. Therefore you must purify the background of your psycho-emotional life before entering into this phase of your spiritual evolution.
How to Activate Sacral Chakra?
The Swadhisthana Chakra can be activated in a variety of ways:
- Special Swadhisthana Chakra meditations. In particular visualization meditations like visualizations of a source, a river, a waterfall
- Affirmations like “I find access to the source of my creativity”, “I flow with the Cosmic Stream”
- Special pranayamas like Kapalabhati
- Mantras like the Bija Mantras of the Swadhisthana Chakra, Achmanyam Mantras, Ganga Mantra, Water Mantras
- Yoga poses for sacral chakra: especially Paschimotthanasana, Matsyendrasana
- Mula Bandha, Ashwini Mudra, Vajroli Mudra
Sacral Chakra Balancing
Sacral chakra balancing is a very important step in terms of kundalini awakening. The practitioner has to be extremely careful and vigilant while going through this phase. The experiences one has during the Sacral chakra awakening can be very strong and even with a slight mistake, one may fall back to lower levels of consciousness.
The practices for balancing of sacral chakra are entirely concerned with the urogenital systems, the prostate gland and testes in males, and the genito-ovarian system in females. It is also referred to as “Sex chakra” in many instances and the two very important and powerful practices for the balancing of the sacral chakra are Vajroli Mudra in males and Sahjoli Mudra in females.
The practices given underneath can be performed by anyone with reasonable ease who is familiar with the Shalabasana, Uddiyana Bandha, and Dhanurasana. The suggested yoga poses which have to be practiced for the awakening of Sacral Chakra includes Paschimotthanasana, Matsyendrasana, Bhujangasana, Shashankasana, Dhanurasana, and Shashank bhujangasana.
The following practices for balancing of sacral chakra should be performed for one month and perfection should be attained in these practices. You should also continue the practices for the Muladhara chakra (Root Chakra) and Ajna Chakra (Third eye chakra).
1. Sacral Chakra Location
First, you must identify and understand the exact location of the Sacral chakra. It will help to concentrate on this chakra and will improve the effectiveness of the practices.
2. Ashwini Mudra (Horse Gesture)
An important mudra (gesture) in the Yogic Science. This is one of the prime practices for Sacral chakra balancing.
The Point of contraction is anal muscles/Sphincters.
3. Vajroli Mudra (Thunderbolt attitude)
This mudra is for male and the point of contraction lies in rear part of penis. This muscle action is like holding back an intense urge to urinate.
4. Sahajoli Mudra (Spontaneous Psychic Attitude)
This mudra is for females and the point of contraction lies at the clitoris, vaginal walls, and urethra. Again the muscle action is like holding back an intense urge to urinate.
How to Heal the Sacral Chakra?
Before you think about tampering with your sacral chakra, you must first make sure that your root chakra is well-balanced. Not doing this can throw off your entire chakra system. Once this is done, then you can move on to using Sacral-specific healing techniques to get yourself back in line.
Start by meditating or doing yoga for at least 20 minutes per day, perhaps with an orange blanket. Or, take a nice, hot color bath and try some deep breathing exercises. You can get harmless and stainless dyes for your bath water that will give you a charge in the right direction.
You can even try listening to some music in the note of D for at least 15 minutes (perhaps Beethoven’s 2nd piano concerto). This is best done if you wear some stereo headphones. You could also look for binaural beats or isochronic tones that are geared specifically for healing the sacral chakra (it’s somewhere between 320 and 360 Hz). After you are done, try putting some Ylang-Ylang oil on your wrists, forehead, temples, and on your belly button. If possible, wear the color orange for 24 hours; and try to find a piece of garnet or ruby to carry around with you.
Learning to Love your Chakras
Your chakras’ health is just as important as your physical health. In fact, most holistic practitioners believe that these two facets of the human body are one and the same. Learn to love each chakra, as they all work together to form the beautiful pattern that is you. Remember, when you love something, you want to protect it and heal it; and indeed, that is what your sacral chakra is doing for you.
