A Journey into the Energy Centers of the Human Body - The Sixth Chakra - The Third Eye
The sixth chakra is often referred to as the Third Eye. Physically, the third eye is located in the center of the forehead just above the brow line. It relates to the pituitary (master gland), lower brain, sense of sight, ears, nose, and nervous system. It is also related to the perception of light, both on the physical and metaphysical planes.Violet is the color this chakra is associated with. Violet symbolizes passion, the depth of feeling, and a balance of violet stimulates intuition and inspirational energies. Violet produces calming, good healing, and recuperation. It also encourages your dedication to higher ideals and pushes you to attain higher truth. The healing effects of this color help to clear the head and open the third eye, and one's spiritual perceptions.
This chakra vibrates with clear seeing, insight, imagination, intelligence, and directs intuition. It is from here that we develop our psychic ability, our memories of the past and visualizations for the future, and can stand unafraid to see the truth about what's happening in our lives.
The third eye also assists in the cleansing of negative tendencies and in the elimination of selfish attitudes. Through the power of the sixth chakra, you can receive guidance and channel and tune into your Higher Self. Once opened, the higher senses are activated and your perceptions of life will expand.
If your sixth chakra energy is weak and unbalanced, you may be some combination of undisciplined, oversensitive, depressed, confused, unable to dream, or lacking in vision. On a physical level, you may have learning disabilities, headaches, blurred vision, blindness, eyestrain, vertigo, and/or insomnia.
If your sixth chakra energy were in optimum balance, you would likely be some combination of intuitive, guided, wise, perceptive, and/or unattached. When this chakra is balanced and open you are your own master with no fear of death, you are not attached to material things, and you may experience telepathy, astral travel, and past lives.
People who have an over-active sixth chakra may tend to be a little spaced out and/or unable to accept the reality of the world they live in. They may be some combination of proud, manipulative, authoritarian, cold, ungracious, bitter, and/or caught up in illusion. In addition, they may be hypersensitive, assuming that everyone else's emotions are targeted at them, or reacting to situations that exist only in their imagination. On a physical level, they might suffer from brain and head disorders associated with overactive nerve and cell functioning.
On the other hand, people who's minds are blocked, or have an under-nourished sixth chakra energy, tend to be insensitive, unaware of anything that is going on around them. They may need to be told bluntly what's happening right in front of them, or how their behavior is hurting or offending another person. They frequently have no ability to imagine new ways to do things, to find creative solutions to problems, or to believe in anything intangible and mythical. They may have little faith in the future or in their own ability to empower their lives. Imbalances in sixth chakra energy may show up physically as mental illness, poor memory, vision problems or severe headaches as a response to stress.
This energy center is important to developing traditional knowledge: the ability to study and retain facts, to function with a clear mind, to think rationally and make decisions based on logical input. It also fuels our ethereal side: our intuitive nature, clairvoyance (ability to see the future), our aptitude to perceive information about people and things by non-logical methods, to interpret our dreams and to visualize the future we'd like for ourselves.
People who function from healthy mental energy don't let themselves get discouraged by roadblocks when they truly feel they are doing what is right for them to do. Instead, they search for alternative paths to the same goal, ask for advice from experts with similar achievements, and rely on Divine intervention. They take advantage of synchronicity, the seemingly coincidental good fortune that drops into their laps.
Development of true third eye vision, that uncommon ability to see from great distances, to know secrets about people without being told, to predict the future or to see the truth about past events, takes a willingness to face the truth without fear.
We inhibit sixth chakra growth when we deny the patterns of our own behavior. When we refuse to acknowledge that we don't know everything and refuse to learn anything new. We need to acknowledge that sometimes we need assistance to achieve growth.
When we cannot acknowledge the validity of new ideas or ways of living that are foreign to us, we effectively close our minds and shut ourselves off from the power of strong mental energy. This results in damaging judgment of others, and the fear that if someone else's life is all right, then ours must be wrong.
We can enhance our mental clarity, by taking the time to calm our scattered thoughts and focus on what is happening in the moment. We nourish the ability of our thinking power when we accept that there are countless ways of thinking and living in the world. We can open ourselves to that understanding without prejudice or negative judgment We know that hearing/seeing alternatives doesn't mean we have to adopt them into our own lives.
When we are fully grounded and centered we can learn from our dreams, trust our intuition by learning to determine when it comes from inner guidance vs. when it comes from a fear-based life pattern, and when we stop being afraid to know the truth.
Once your sixth chakra is optimally functioning, you will have many moments of being blissfully unified with all of creation. You will experience this unity in all sorts of environments and with all sorts of people. When you live with an open and balanced sixth chakra, union is a common experience. Remember that in the sixth chakra we become conscious of that unity and experience it.
Take some time to make a plan for how you want to work on this chakra. What are your strengths in this chakra? What are your weaknesses? What are your goals? Are you willing to make a commitment to working with and balancing your chakras in order to nurture growth and self-healing?
Below is a meditation that Zeffi suggests you do on a daily basis for a month. After the 21st day you will see things start clearing for you throughout the last week of this meditation. Remember to write down the small miracles that make changes in your life. Write down what you have experienced or things that you observed.
Suggested Meditation
Make yourself comfortable in a place where you will not be disturbed during your meditation.
Wear comfortable clothes. Place your feet flat on the floor and do not cross your legs or arms.
You may want to play some soothing music to help you relax during your meditation (many metaphysical stores have various selections of chakra music).
Close your eyes and focus on your breathing.
Take twenty deep breaths while visualizing above your head a bright white light that goes from the top of your head and runs down through your spine, down through your tail bone and out of your tail bone into the earth beneath you.
Imagine the light traveling down; down through the earth until it reaches the center where the white light becomes the fire at the center and becomes an anchor, anchoring you to Mother Earth keeping you grounded, safe, and secure within yourself. From this anchor visualize the color violet, as a glowing ball of violet light in the center of your forehead. Check the shading of this color violet; check the emotions and feelings that you may be experiencing. Stay with this visualization for five minutes. Afterwards write down what you experienced during this sixth chakra meditation. An important part of this exercise is to write down or journal your findings. Your journal doesn't have to be formal – it doesn't even have to be written in complete sentences! All it is, is a place for you to express what you are feeling. These meditations can strengthen each chakra center by visualizing its vibratory color. Write down your impressions leaving out nothing you observed and/or felt. You will find that as you write that you are exploring who you are, what you are going through, and how you are dealing with it.
If you would like to conduct a ritual for health and assist clearing your sixth chakra,
Zeffi recommends that on Mondays from sunrise to sunset only a vegetarian diet be consumed.
Or in place of that choice you may choose simply to consume green tea and water (a day fast) for the same length of time.