“While we measure success in terms of well-being and personal security, the universe relates it to what we have learned. As long as these remain our criteria for success, we will continue to fear our intuitive guidance, which by its very nature pushes us toward new, often uncomfortable, cycles of learning.” Caroline Myss
The third chakra is Manipura, defined by Anodea Judith as “The Burning Path to Power”; in Sanskrit it is translated in various ways: “The City of Jewels”, or “The Inner Sun”, or again “Lustrous Gem.”
Physical characteristics
This third energy center is located at the point of our solar plexus, five or six centimeters above the navel. It is connected to all the organs belonging to the digestive system and housed in the abdominal cavity: stomach, pancreas, liver and gallbladder, spleen, large intestine and adrenal glands. The section of the spine located behind the solar plexus is also included among the physical organs involved.
Through this chakra we connect with our “Inner Warrior,” represented by the Element Fire, but this time yellow in color, specifically a Golden-Yellow, different from the red fire of the Earth, and thus ready to face “alongside us” our Fears, our Weaknesses and our challenges through the energy of Balance and inner Calm. This chakra is an extremely powerful reservoir of Energy from which Life Energy is distributed to the whole body; it is also the origin of the 72,000 Nadis. Considering the name given to the body part associated with the third chakra – the solar plexus – we cannot fail to notice the analogy with the Sun, which shines, warms and gives life to every being in the Solar System, regardless of its characteristics.
“The Manipura chakra is like the morning sun; by meditating on it with the gaze fixed on the tip of the nose, one can move the world.” Gorakshashatakam
Its Polarity is Masculine.
Its color is Yellow.
Its sense is Sight.
The Crystals recommended for the Manipura Chakra are Amber, Yellow Chalcedony, Tiger’s Eye, Pyrite, Citrine Quartz and Topaz.
Symbolic characteristics
It is connected to the Sign of Aries.
The Symbol used to represent it is the circle, the chakra’s symbol, with ten blue petals, inside of which is the Ram – running –, representing willpower and determination in relation to the outside world and to relationships with others, action, enthusiasm and the drive to act (on the right), and the determination to carry one’s own energies forward (on the left).
Its Yantra – a geometric figure that holds within it the element of the cosmos and/or the moving cosmic forces that sustain the psychic forces during meditation, “compelling” the realization of certain inner states of awareness that transform the person who draws or contemplates it, bringing them back to a “re-centering” of their personality, or to an identification with a unifying Principle, or to an awareness of the totality of Being – is a red triangle pointing downward, symbol of the Shakti with the Hindu solar cross (svastika).
Psychological characteristics
The third chakra develops between the fourteenth and twenty-first years of age, and its energy constitutes the predominant vibration of the period of puberty. The development of the third chakra and of our own I, in its balanced expression, determines, at the level of personality, the I act. It closes the triad of centers linked to the physical and survival sphere and represents, specifically, the connection to one’s own personal power. This is, therefore, the center of individuality and of personal responsibility, and of self-respect, through which one’s own uniqueness is expressed, regardless of the survival instinct of the self (first chakra) and of the species (second chakra).
As Anodea Judith writes: “When the lower chakras are not satisfied and do not reach fulfillment, individuation may fail to occur. If the mother does not provide sufficient care or trust, or if the emotional environment is so entrapping or unstable that it consumes the child, then there is no individuation. In some cases there may be separation or even rebellion, but resisting control is not the same thing as being free of it. As long as we resist, we are shaped and determined by the very force we oppose.”[1]
Specifically, this psychological trait is to be understood as “I am what I want to be,” not because I close myself off and cling to that role, but because, by verbalizing it, I can create reality starting from the energetic vibration of the waves I myself am made of: a reality within the quantum field in which I exist and of which I actively form part, and which I manifest through my action by making a choice. When I make a choice, I activate my third chakra, which uses my energy through behavior shaped by my own autonomy and not by dependency. To become individuals – meant not so much as separate from others but as autonomous, independent from our beliefs, our convictions and our conditioning – we must detach ourselves from the child’s fused state with the mother (water) and with the father (earth), as well as with the “group” and “society,” and give life to the uniqueness of the divine being that dwells within us.
As Yeshua ben Josef said, “Leave father and mother and follow me!”
Metaphorically, father and mother represented the conditioning of the first three chakras, that is, the limitations that, through the tribal instinct and that of survival first – the first – and the impulses arising from our emotions when they are dominant and uncontrolled – the second –, then condition us and block our evolution both spiritually and on every level. And the third, that of Personality, of personal power, more tied to the paternal figure, which needs to be integrated so as not to feel the compensatory need to prevail over others or to submit to them.
The very moment this “I can because I want” arises from the deep needs of our Soul and no longer from those imposed or self-imposed by our I-personality-society, we finally free ourselves of that mask which, moreover, each of us has sought out, accepted and encouraged, both unconsciously and consciously! Through this energy center, then, a transformation is carried out by the element Fire associated with it, finally allowing us the connection with Anahata Chakra, the Heart Chakra.
If our path toward Awakening entails awakening and activating all our energy centers, this movement is undoubtedly favored and fed by the Fire of our will. It is precisely thanks to it that we free ourselves from preset patterns and create a new mode of action. With our will, we allow ourselves to step away from obeying our habits, without offering any resistance, or trying to do so half-heartedly, succumbing at the slightest difficulty. And, in order to have this will, the desire to do so is necessary!
It is therefore desire that is the foundation of the action triggered in the Second Chakra, since the Second Energy Center longs for what is missing, seeking to fill perceived deficiencies. This desire, in turn, feeds the Will. It is indeed beyond doubt that the energy of our action in the physical dimension derives from, and is motivated by, survival and pleasure! These two instinctive forces, which together help create the ascending current that elevates us, that frees us, join in this energy center with the forces of consciousness, which make it possible to transform these instinctual impulses into voluntary activity through understanding. When these two currents meet, the Life Energy, the Kundalini that enables and fuels life and strength within us, takes on activity: only in this way do we become aware that the true purpose of our strength is Transformation.
Here begins the dance of our Inner Warrior, who, through great work of will and action, literally transforms the elements of Earth and Water of the first two chakras, purely passive – dense, they settle and flow downward – into a new active and dynamic energy: Fire! Fire, on the other hand, moves upward in its combustion-action that “destroys form,” creating a new energy of heat and light. Challenge, therefore, is the terrain of the Third Chakra, as we live through events that strengthen us, forcing us to grow. Leaving inertia and passivity behind, we abandon our habits, our comfort zones and our compensatory certainties, in order to enter the Unknown, where anything is possible and the transformative leap can turn from linear into quantum.
Remembering that there is never truly an external enemy, and that what we “struggle” with in every moment of our lives exists only and solely within us, the “enemy” – if we can even call it an “enemy,” meant in this case as an obstacle-resistance to our fullest spiritual evolution and to our fullest well-being from every point of view – is us, that is, our mask! And at the same time, that very obstacle becomes our most important life teacher, simply because it serves as a “lever” to help us rise by integrating our opposites, a pivotal process for our Awakening. As always, there is no separation: All is ONE and we are all ONE! Any “thought” that fragments inevitably departs from “Truth”; social life has taught us, has imposed on us, and has indeed made us inevitably dependent on “fragmentation,” so that the crossroads we find ourselves at in the moment of “awakening” is: “survive in society, or super-live in solitude?”. And it is precisely this capacity for discrimination – a capacity that is paradoxically one of separation, and thus fictitious, but which we need in order to set limits and boundaries necessary for survival on this plane of existence – that is the characteristic of Manipura, because it is precisely this differentiation, marked out by our Individuality, our Personality and in fact by our Ego, that makes us grow within interpersonal relationships, through which we acquire an identity, a definition of the I, thanks to which we can compare ourselves with our fellow beings and perceive ourselves adequately within what is Life’s evolutionary experience.
We must rediscover the sense of our own sacredness in relation to the power inherent within us. Reconsidering power as potency and channeling the strength that derives from it is the highest task of our Third Chakra. This awareness transforms us from within and allows us to fully grasp our life purpose, our soul’s task.
We can evolve spiritually only if we deeply accept our physical and material limitations, so that they are no longer an insurmountable obstacle to our growth. This process allows the center of spiritual strength and power to shift from outside to within us! Everything that is spiritual cannot be separated from the other aspects of life: every form of separation pushes our growth further away.
The demon of the third chakra takes concrete form in Shame, which is, not by chance, the main deterrent to self-esteem, the cornerstone of action, of being spontaneously proactive in one’s personal security, of commitment and willpower — all characteristics peculiar to the Manipura Chakra. If we are ashamed of ourselves and of our deepest instincts, all we will do is keep them under control through our mind, blocking our personality and our will, and thus submitting to patterns of compulsive repetition and dependency. We will then act inauthentically toward those around us, and above all toward ourselves. When we dare to live authentically, in truth, we will gain enormous power and manifest the admonition of the Christ: “The Truth will set you free!” Free through the awareness of everything that has been relegated to the unconscious and that is commonly called the “Shadow.” Only by bringing into consciousness this part, which plays a fundamental role in our existence, since it represents the vast majority of our energies and is therefore the part of us that truly decides in our life, can we hope for a true and profound Transformation.
Primary Fears
The energy flowing in this energy center thus concerns our personal power in relation to the outside world; the most intense fears here are therefore those of being rejected and a hypersensitivity to criticism.
This is also linked to our narcissism of life, essential for developing a strong sense of our identity, which is absolutely indispensable for acquiring the healthiest form of personal power, thanks also to our willpower and the trust we place in ourselves. Within All That Is, the Divine Design, the way in which we choose to proceed along the path of our Soul depends solely on us: either we move toward “Maya,” the illusion of physical reality, or we head toward Essence, awareness and spiritual evolution. The famous Sufi phrase “Be in the world but not of the world” perfectly sums up the virtues of this energy center and symbolizes, among other things, how well we manage to remain balanced and detached from all the Ego’s forms of servitude. All of this is closely tied to how much we put ourselves on the line and how deeply we manage to understand ourselves. This energy center tells us how necessary outer or physical power is for health: it is, indeed, fundamental both for material success and for spiritual balance, the latter often a balanced consequence of the former. But it also reminds us that the power of our spirit – “the spiritual warrior within us” – cannot be forced or conditioned by any limitation. Spiritual strength thus comes to us from deep respect for ourselves. By respecting and honoring ourselves, we will also be able to respect and honor others.
The main outcome, and thus the lesson to be learned in relation to this chakra, concerns our relationship with the Ego, that is, our Personality, and with self-esteem — this time in a broader sense than for the second chakra, which is instead more related to the sexual aspect. The third chakra is thus the expression of the awareness each person has of themselves, that is, the capacity to feel pleasure in knowing oneself satisfied. But within this satisfaction there is also the humility to understand that “we have not arrived anywhere” because there is nothing to reach, that one can continuously evolve on that path of awakening to our truest part, represented by the Journey Toward Ourselves.
Functional characteristics
The Third Chakra in balance is the source of willpower, the origin of self-affirmation, of personal determination; but also of resilience and of the strength to face life’s challenges. Its balance in the physical body allows for digestion and the assimilation of nutrients. Indeed, it acts as a mediator between the outer world (first and second chakra) and the interiorization of consciousness (a characteristic of the fourth chakra).
Caroline Myss writes: “Generally, the third chakra acts as a mediator between the outer world (characteristic of the first and second chakras) and the interiorization of consciousness. The first chakra has an external gravitational center and is always situated within a collective mind. The second chakra also has an external gravitational center, but it concerns relationships and the effects they have on us. In the third chakra, on the other hand, the gravitational center is partly interiorized, because our focus of interest shifts from how we relate to the people around us to how we relate to ourselves and come to understand ourselves.”[2]
The “illnesses”, or rather, the energetic imbalances connected to this chakra are tied to the relationship with others as it relates to power. When a chakra is deficient, there is low energy, constant insecurity, shyness and a sense of inadequacy. When the third chakra is instead overactive, the person is unable to remain calm and displays outbursts of anger as well as stomach disorders of nervous origin.
When the third is instead dysfunctional, it generates an unbridled desire for power and manipulation, aimed at twisting reality in every situation, always to one’s own advantage. One can often notice a strongly aggressive attitude, essentially protective of the weaker, suffering part – the deep lack of power the person actually experiences, which, if exposed, would plunge them into a desperate crisis of powerlessness. This would reveal their sense of inferiority toward the people they relate to, an element that would characterize much of that person’s life.
Tool for balance
The Bija Mantra for the third chakra is RAM (where R represents the strength through which one “takes what one needs most”). Continuing while seated and still with eyes closed, bring your attention to the area of the third chakra, Manipura, stomach and abdomen: “Are they contracted? Are they relaxed?” Observe the liver, the gallbladder, the spleen, the pancreas, move down into the small intestine, and at this point imagine seeing the color Golden-Yellow spreading through all these organs and cleansing them, dissolving whatever is “stuck.” On this plane of consciousness, feel and affirm: “I awaken my Spiritual Warrior, my willpower, my trust in myself” and continue vibrating to the sound of the mantra RAM observing the effect this sound produces in the physical body and in the astral body. “I breathe and I vibrate.”
“I honor the strength within me. I complete my tasks easily and effortlessly. The fire within me burns away all blocks and fears. I can do anything I want.”
[1] Il libro dei chakra, Anodea Judith, pag. 237, Edizioni Neri Pozza I COLIBRÌ
[2] Author’s note: Caroline Myss, Anatomia dello spirito, pag. 167, ANIMA EDIZIONI
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