The first chakra forms the foundation of our survival instincts. It associates with all the basic needs such as health, food, sleep, shelter, and self-preservation, as well as our material possessions, monetary existence and our ability to focus and manifest prosperity. The Root Chakra grounds us to the earth and anchors life energy into the world.
Sanskrit Name – Muladhara (root)
Mantra (Seed Sound) – LAM
Element – Earth
Purpose – Forming your Foundation or Root Support
Color – Red
Function – Survival, Grounding
Location – Base of spine
Identity – Physical
Chief Operating Force – Gravity
Tarot Suit – Pentacles
Orientation – Self-preservation
Glands – Adrenals
Demon – Fear
Symbol – Lotus with 4 petals
Celestial Planet – Saturn + Earth
Sense – Smell
Crystals – All Red Gemstones
Archangel – Auriel
A balanced root chakra creates a solid foundation for the six chakras above.
The 1st chakra focuses on our physical survival. It is our instinctual fight or flight response. To ignore the chakra or its earthly element is to threaten our very survival, both personally and collectively. If we don’t build the solid foundation of this chakra before we progress to others, we will constantly collapse In every area of our life.
When survival is threatened, we experience fear. Fear is the demon of the 1st chakra. It counteracts the sense of safety and security. Facing your fears will always awaken this energy center.
So the next time your experience “Fear”, ask yourself “Where do I not feel safe?”
“Where do I feel scarcity?”
“Why don’t I feel trust right now?”
Also referred to as “earthing”, Grounding is a process of dynamic contact with the earth. Without grounding, we become unstable – we lose our center, our ability to manifest, or even stuck day dreaming in a fantasy world. Ultimately, we lose our ability to contain, to have and to hold.
In an alienated and “ungrounded” culture, our values have fallen away from keeping a close relationship to Mother Nature. As we fall out of touch with Earth, we
we develop pain. Think about it – our bodies hurt after a day of driving or sitting at a computer. The stress of fast paced living doesn’t give us the chance to rest and renew, or to process the hurt so we can release it. As we develop pain, we become more resistant to grounding, for “to ground” is “to be in touch”.
Not that long ago, before cars were on the streets, humans were walking among the earth several miles a day. Walking keeps our energy in flow, as well as keeping the body physically fit. This is a natural healing and grounding technique, to connect us back to our roots.
While we ground ourselves by simply walking barefoot on the earth’s surface, we send the impact of stressful vibrations into a larger body that can handle them. There is an electrostatic field surrounding the earth with a resonant frequency of about 7.5 cycles per second. The late Itzhak Bentov discussed a micro motion of the body that consists of a constant vibration of the heart, cells and bodily fluids, all vibrating at a frequency of 6.8 – 7.5 cycles per second. Therefore, the body’s natural frequency resonates with the earth’s ionosphere. Just as a lighting rod protects a building by sending the excess voltage into the ground, our grounding protects the body from becoming overloaded by tensions of everyday life.
As 1 of the 4 elements in Alchemy, Earth is the element of stability, roundedness, fertility, materiality, potential, stillness, and abundance. Earth is also an element of beginnings and endings, or death and rebirth, as life comes from the ground and then decomposes back into earth after death.
Solid elements of matter have edges, boundaries and limitations – just like what we experience here on Earth. Earth elements allow us to become solidly real – being present in the here and now and feeling the vitality of Mother Nature.
Our house is a home for our body, just like our body is a home for our spirit. The task of mastering the 1st chakra is ultimately to understand and heal the body.
You start by learning to accept your body – feel it, validate it, and love your body keep you in a healthy relationship with your physical identity.
The language of the 1st chakra is form, and our body is the physical expression of our personal form. To validate the body is to identify with it. If your chest hurts, you should question if your emotional heart is actually hurt.
As we gain our physical identity, it gives us solidity as human beings. At our present level of evolution, matter is an undeniable reality and necessity. We cannot separate ourselves from it, because we are made up of it. To deny the connection and care of your physical body is choosing to die prematurely.
Self-Nurturance is fundamental in taking care of your physical body. Giving your body massages, pleasure, rest, hot baths, physical exercise and nourishing food are key to making your Root Chakra healthy and happy.
Eating is a 1st chakra activity. It grounds us, nourishes us, and maintains our physical structure. The food we digest is the matter we transform to energy, and it follows that what we eat affects our energy output.
“You are what you eat”
Heard this before? Scientifically, this has been proven to be physically and energetically true!
The people who’s health begins to decline or experience a physical collapse are revealing a lack of support in their life, and their bodies show it as a sense of defeat. They may question their right to be here, have difficulty nourishing themselves or suffer from abandonment issues. Eating disorders are also manifestations of 1st chakra issues of nourishment.
{ I explain more malfunctions under IMBALANCED }
BALANCED 1ST CHAKRA CHARACTERISTICS –
- Good health
- Vitality
- Well grounded
- Comfortable in body
- Sense of trust in the world
- Feeling of safety and security
- Ability to relax and be still
- Stability
- Prosperity
- Right livelihood
ROOT CHAKRA DEFICIENCIES –
- Disconnection from body
- Notably underweight
- Fearful, anxious, restless, can’t settle
- Poor focus and discipline
- Financial difficulty
- Poor boundaries
- Chronic disorganizations
EXCESSIVE 1ST CHAKRA –
- Obesity, overeating
- Hoarding, material fixations, greed
- Sluggish, lazy, tired
- Fear of change, addiction to security
- Rigid boundaries
PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS –
- Disorders of the bowel, anus or large intestine
- Disorders of solid parts of the body; bones, teeth
- Issues with legs, feet, knees, base of spine, buttocks
- Eating disorders
- Frequent illness (can be deficient and/or excessive)
Developmental Stage – 2nd trimester to 12 months
Developmental Tasks –
- Physical growth
- Motor skills
- Object permanence
Learning Basic Rights – To be here and have
TRAUMAS + ABUSES –
- Birth trauma
- Abandonment, physical neglect
- Poor physical bonding with mother
- Malnourishment or feeding difficulties
- Major illness or surgery
- Physical abuse or violent environment
- Enema abuse
- Inherited traumas – parents’ survival fears (war veterans, poverty conditions, etc.)
NEEDS + ISSUES –
- Roots
- Grounding
- Nourishment
- Trust
- Health
- Home
- Family
- Prosperity
- Appropriate Boundaries
CONNECTING TO OUR ROOTS
The Sanskrit name Muladhara means “Root Support” the sciatic nerve, traveling from the sacral plexus down through the legs, is the largest peripheral nerve in the body (about as thick as your thumb) and functions like a root for the nervous system. The legs and feet which provide locomotion, enable us to perform tasks necessary to obtain life sustenance from the earth and its environment. Our legs touch the ground below us and connect our nervous system with the earth, our 1st chakra element. The gravitational force keeps us connected to our planet, rooted in material existence.
When we reclaim our roots, we strengthen who we are as a human being. Standing on a solid surface, we cannot fall, which gives us a sense of inner security. It is through grounding that our consciousness completes the manifesting current. It is at the 1st chakra where dreams and visions (6th and 7th chakra energies) become our reality.
The characteristics of good grounding, connection with our bodies and the physical world, self-nourishment and self preservation contribute to the ability to manifest prosperity. This isn’t about being rich – I’m talking about meeting basic survival needs in ways that offer security, stability, and enough freedom to expand beyond survival consciousness.
Only by standing our own ground can we determine our future.
In order to manifest, we must be able to accept limitation. We have to be able to focus on what we want, and be specific about it. So many people have an unwillingness to accept limitation long enough to manifest their basic needs, and as a result, they don’t have freedom at all and are forever enslaved to 1st chakra level of consciousness. To overcome this enslavement, One deeply needs the practice and mastery of self-discipline, where we accept limitation in order to transcend it.
In order to reach the spiritual levels of the upper chakras, we must see the spiritual side of our material existence. Many people struggle with the belief that they are deserving to have things. Developing the ability to have things increases our self worth. This is with money, time, love, and other luxuries. With your first chakra programmed on a foundation of scarcity rather than abundance, you will consistently suffer with fear, instability, a decline in physical health, and even worse, depression. Without support, we fall; Without nourishment, we collapse.
Ask yourself the following questions:
Do I feel stable in my environment?
Do I live in a state of scarcity?
Do I feel and look healthy?
Am I happy with how my body looks and feels?
Am I comfortable in my body?
Have I recently had a major illness or surgery I haven’t fully recovered from?
Do I trust in my manifesting abilities?
Do I ever get accused of being negative or a cynic?
Do I exercise my body 3-5x a week, or 30 minutes a day?
Do I feel like my body just weighs me down?
Do I often get anxious or restless?
Do I have a hard time focusing?
Am I self-disciplined?
Do I frequently have financial difficulties?
Have I always been disorganized?
Do I make goals, and never follow through with them?
Do I overeat?
Do I have a hard time making commitments?
Am I overweight and unmotivated?
Have I struggled with eating disorders?
Have I ever encountered physical abuse?
Have I ever lived in a violent, unstable environment before, or currently?
Are my parents or family fearful? And I sometimes see it within myself?
Do I rarely receive physical touch from my loved ones?
Have I been accused of being a hoarder?
Do I feel the sun on my skin or the grass under my feet often? Am I immersed in nature enough?
- Reconnect with the body
- Self Discipline
- Physical exercise + activities
- Get out in nature (barefoot if possible!)
- Physical touch (massage)
- Grounding
- Hatha Yoga
- Reclaim the right to be here
- Revisit earlier childhood relationship to parents
- Wear the color red
- Meditation
- Root Chakra Box
Listen to the chanting during meditation, while you fall asleep, or simply to relax and align with your 1st chakra center.