Last moonth, I was focussing purely on the first chakra. After a warm up of pawanmuktasana around the feet and legs, foot massage and basic poses, I moved into more demanding stretches and dynamic sun salutations. In the standing postures I began to notice how energy moves around the body in Spirals.
I have always loved working with tensegrity – feeling the stretch in one part o the body by moving another part. Almost as if I was a puppet on strings, I lead with one part of the body and the rest follows, stretching into the shape of the next posture, or even as I breathe, every inhale and exhale introduces me to a deeper place in the posture. As I focus on the root chakra, Warrior I has opened up for me in recent weeks:
As I ground down with the back heel and the big toe of the back leg, I feel energy on both sides riseing up the leg, opening the hip in one direction and straightening the leg on the other. By pressing down through the foot I activate the side body, I feel tensegrity working my lateral muscles, and the effect of grounding down helps me to reach up with my arms at the same time. The energy continues to spiral, Under and around the shoulder to open the chest, and up the arm, finishing at the hand in prayer. I find myself twisting from both sides to create an arch within the palm, extended high over head. On the other side, the front foot, bent at the knee, grounds into the earth, the knee, thigh and hip bracketed by energy moving up the lateral and spiral meridien lines. Again, front arm lines open the chest, culminating in the index fingers pressing together, while the back arm lines close the prayer with little fingers reaching upwards as one. We are at once opening and closing the chest with the prayer to sky dynamic, creating space on the inhale, deepening the stretch on the exhale. Anjali mudra emerges as a natural expression of form. Rather than pressing palms tightly together, the fingers join, but the palms are slightly open ready to receive blessings from the higher realms. The more the feet ground down, the higher the prayer reaches, the more the heart opens.
The energy is moving in diametrically opposed curves: double helices. I feel like one big strand of DNA! The aura pulsates, appearing and disappearing with each heart beat, shfting and changing as the human mind moves through its many forms. I catch a glimpse of the bright light moving around the body. The opposition bring balance, a grouding force that simultanously lifts as it connects to the earth. By working with the feet, the entire body is energised.
I have never found the warrior poses to be very accessible before now. The root chakra shadow emotions of anger, is tied to the idea of our basic survival; anger protects us from danger. This is because anger is associated with the fight mechanism in fight, flight or freeze. As far as we have evolved, anger is now a mask of other emotions like fear and sadness. By working on our root chakra, through standing poses, we may be confronted with stuck negative emotions being released.
The root chakra is by its nature tamasic. Tamas, the least active of the three gunas*, is inert, slow moving, lazy, and heavy. Only by activating the feet and legs do we begin to channel the enrgy upwards. When we observe the opposing spirals, and energise on them with the breath, the muscles of the body come alive, we become empowered. My right ‘to be’ is reinforced and we feel validated.
By projecting the image of perfect spirals emanating from the feet and hands, wrapping around the body, it becomes clear where there are imperfections. Where is the shadow? Where am I holding on whenI should be letting go? What in my aura needs more recognition? By visualising the spirals inherent in our sacred geometry we are able to cultivate the sensation of enlightenment. When we are in perfect balance, we feel at ease and can more readily observe how the spirit is moving through the body’s space. The double helices literally reveal the matrix of the body connecting the earth to the body to the spirit.
*gunas are the three primordial forces of the universe. They comprise tamas, rajas, and sattva: Inertia, activity and purity.
Sarasvati Flow 