Ultimate guide to crystals and stones - Uma Silbey 2016
Balancing the Chakras
Subtle Energy Bodies and Subtle Planes of Reality
If an energy center or chakra is weak or closed, we will be blocked in that area of our experience, unable to access those energies, physically, mentally, or emotionally. To the degree our heart chakra is closed or blocked, for example, is the degree that we will be unable to experience love, compassion, or empathy. It is important, then, that all chakras should be open and functioning.
However, that isn’t the only consideration. Each chakra needs to be open in balance with all of the other chakras so that our physical and subtle bodies will be balanced and thus whole. In other words, each chakra needs to be open the same amount as the others. Our root chakra, for example, needs to be as open as our heart center, which needs to be as open as our throat center, which needs to be as open as our third eye.
Energetic imbalance often translates to imbalance within our physical body and can color our thinking and feelings, among other things. Illness and negative emotions, like anger and stress, are often the result of imbalance. An open navel center without a similarly open heart center, for example, can bring the craving for power and the ability to act powerfully. But without the balancing empathy of an open heart, this power can easily become merciless and hurtful.
One way to balance the chakras with each other is to do the basic stone layout as presented below, using the appropriate color stone for the energy center. However, because clear quartz contains all color, it can be used with every subtle energy center. When held over a chakra, the chakra’s natural color is amplified, which energizes or opens the chakra. The first practice below will show how to do this. The second practice will work with our energetic rainbow body of light, our light body, bridging between earth and sky, between our deepest roots and the clear light that flows both inward and upward from our crown center.
Practice: Basic Stone Layout to Balance the Chakras
To balance the chakras means that every subtle energy center is open or stimulated just as much as the others so that they vibrate in harmony. When the chakras are in balance with each other, then our subtle energy or essential life force can flow through our bodies without impediment or blockage. This not only brings mental and emotional peace, but also essential healing in the ways we need to be healed. To the extent that we are balanced within, our minds and feelings in a state of peace, is the extent to which our awareness can expand, allowing us to become aware of increasingly subtle energies and hear the voice of the stones.
INSTRUCTIONS
1. Focusing on your breathing, center and ground yourself.
2. If you are working with someone, help him or her to become centered and grounded as well so that you feel in harmony.
3. After sensitizing your hands, hold a clear quartz crystal in your left hand with the tip pointing up towards your arm. Besides stimulating the healing center of the palm, it also helps you feel or sense energy and brings information to your mind’s eye.
4. Hold another similarly sized or equally powerful single-terminated quartz crystal in your right hand. This sends energy (if coupled with your focused intention) and increases your sensitivity to subtle energy. (The more you do this, the more you will open the healing energy centers in the middle of both palms.)
5. Place a pink or green stone on the heart chakra in the middle of the chest. While imagining the breath flowing in and out of the heart chakra, use the crystal in your right hand to spiral clockwise, opening the chakra and sending energy into it. When you have a strong intuitive feeling that this chakra is opened enough, finish your spiral as you draw your right hand upward. Be aware of any mental, emotional, or physical impressions or changes that you experience. These can bring you useful information. Clear your right hand crystal by touching its tip to the ground, imagining any negative energy that may have been attracted into the crystal as you removed blockages leaving through the bottom and flowing into the earth, where it is transmuted. Leave the rose quartz or green crystal on the heart chakra.
6. Next, gently place a yellow stone on the solar chakra. As before, use the crystal in your right hand to spiral outward, opening the chakra so that it feels in equal balance to the heart chakra. Pull upward when releasing the right-handed crystal from its spiral and then ground it, touching its tip to the floor or earth. Leave the stone on the solar chakra.
7. Follow this same procedure from chakra to chakra, sensitively placing each colored stone upon the chakra that it corresponds with, starting with the throat and a turquoise or sky blue colored stone. Next, gently place an orange stone on the second chakra, a royal or dark blue stone on the third eye, a red stone near the base of the spine, and a violet stone, centered above or on top of the head. Each time you lay a stone down, open the chakra only as much as it remains in balance with the other chakras.
8. The stones don’t have to be the same size; a stone on the throat chakra or third eye should be smaller so that it doesn’t hurt, for example. Although the stones may be different in size, find stones that are equal in power, which you can tell when you harmonize yourself with the stones.
9. When you lay the stones on the body, if you become aware of any feeling or sense of resistance, it is important that you pay attention to this. Either proceed with extreme gentleness, backing off if needed, or don’t place that stone at all. Either try another stone or come back to that chakra later.
10. If you don’t have all of the colored stones, it also works to program a clear quartz crystal to act as the color stone you need. (Programming is covered in a following chapter.)
11. Now, turning the crystal in your right hand sideways, scan the energy body about six inches to a foot over the physical body, slowly sweeping downward from the crown chakra, third eye, and throat chakra, all the way to the root chakra. If you feel or sense any chakra as being more open than the others, point the tip towards the chakra and spiral counterclockwise, closing it until it is in balance with the others. Similarly, if you feel a chakra as weaker or more closed than the others, spiral clockwise until it seems in balance.
12. Rest with the stones in place for at least three minutes or until it seems time to stop. Retaining your subtle awareness, remove the stones in the reverse order in which you placed them. Before leaving, clear all of the stones, yourself, and, if applicable, the person that you were working with.
USING STONES AND VISUALIZATION TO EXPERIENCE OUR RAINBOW LIGHT BODY
The basic stone layout sets the stage for this powerful extension in which you consciously embody your rainbow light body as it bridges heaven and earth to bring an even more profound awareness and expanded consciousness.
1. After clearing both of your clear quartz crystals that you held in your hands, hold them again with the crystal in your left hand pointing upward and the one in your right hand pointing outward.
2. Now, bring all of your attention to focus one by one on the chakras, starting with the red colored root chakra. In your mind’s eye, see the glowing red from this chakra transition to the glowing orange of the second chakra, continuing upward until you see the glowing violet of the crown chakra. Next, notice in your mind’s eye that these light-filled colors join with each other to form a rainbow from red to violet.
3. With your eyes closed and your palms facing upward if you are lying down, or outward if you are standing, imagine yourself losing your physical boundaries to dissolve into this rainbow light. First feel your body as a rainbow of light, and then let go to just be the rainbow.
4. Next, place a clear quartz crystal, point down, or black stone beneath the feet. Visualize a deep maroon, then brown, gray-brown, and a black color extending beneath the red of your rainbow, seeing your rainbow body as the light of the earth, extending into its very center. From this dark center, the light extends downward to become silver-black, silver, silver-white, and then clear as it flows through the stone of the planet and beyond into space.
5. Next, place a clear quartz crystal, with its point up, above the head. As you continue to gaze into your mind’s eye, visualize that from the violet top of your rainbow extends a deeper magenta-violet, then light violet, white, silver-white, golden-white, then clear as it extends beyond into space.
6. Your rainbow body is now a bridge between earth and sky, merging into the infinity of space. In your mind’s eye, see a gentle beam of clear white light flowing upward from the open crown chakra at the top of your head at the same time that the clear white light enters into your crown. As the light flows upward, you join with the infinite, losing your individual boundaries. As the light flows inward, you individuate again to receive wisdom and guidance.
7. Rest in this state for at least three minutes and up to an hour, then remove your stones in reverse order. Center and securely ground yourself. Be sure to clear your stones.