Crown Chakra

We are almost at the end of our journey through the chakra system as we now look at the crown chakra.  The Sanskrit name for this chakra is Sahasrara which literally means thousand fold.  It is depicted as a thousand petalled lotus flower.  It is the seat of our consciousness and understanding.  Physically it relates to our central nervous system and malfunction in this chakra can be linked to depression, feelings of alienation, confusion, boredom, apathy and inability to learn.

It resonates with violet and white.  Gold, amethyst and diamonds are all good for helping to restore balance to this chakra which sits at the top of our head.
We have sprouted from our roots in the earth, moved up and experienced the fluidity of water, transformed with fire and felt the soft touch of air.  We have moved through sound and light and now find ourselves at the source of all – consciousness.  With each level we experienced new degrees of freedom and awareness and now we reach enlightenment.  However it is important to remain grounded and connected, after all even the 1000 petalled lotus flower needs to keep its roots in the earth in order to continue to blossom.
The element for the crown chakra is again spirit and its function is thought and knowing.  We need to look inside our own mind in order to gain understanding and knowledge.  We need to tend the garden of our mind.  Thoughts take form and can impact on our physical surroundings.  We are all linked together with a higher consciousness – collective consciousness.  Words are rarely enough to describe this concept – we need to experience it for ourselves.
Each chakra is a manifestation of consciousness at different layers of reality and vibration.  As we move upwards we purify with each step.  Looking within we need to ask ourselves who is minding the storehouse of memories and thoughts in our head.  As human beings this is a massive concept as we are looking within our own mind using our mind to do so.  We all have our memories and belief systems.  We are all capable of new learning and then changing beliefs.  We constantly search for meaning – this search for unity of experience and connection to others.  We all need our lives to have meaning.  We receive information and we seek to make sense of it – to find meaning.  Only once we find meaning can we then find an order.  Thoughts are things and we can use them to manifest our reality.
Our minds are like computers constantly downloading information.  The internet exists whether we use it or not, radio waves exist outside of the radio.  We can tap into information outside ourselves from the collective consciousness when we open this chakra and learn to use it.  The crown chakra is the gateway between the mortal and the divine, the temporal and the timeless, the finite and the infinite.
Meditation is key to this chakra because our minds can become cluttered with all the information we take in.  Think about this – would you eat your dinner off a dirty plate?  No, of course you wouldn’t.  You would wash the plate and start with a clean fresh plate.  Why then approach today’s problems with yesterday’s cluttered mind?  Meditation is like defragmenting your computer hard drive.  It allows you to sort through the clutter, making sense of it and restoring order and functionality to allow you then to process more efficiently.  There are lots of studies which look into the effects of meditation on a physiological level but that is for another article.  If you are interested in learning how to meditate click here for information on courses.
So, we have reached the summit.  Let’s put it all together – after all the chakras do not exist independently of each other – they are interconnected and form a circuit of energy.  Each one relies on another.  As we move up we go towards freedom, liberation from constraints and enlightenment.  We also need then to move back down through them in order to manifest our thoughts and ideas we need limitation as discussed in earlier articles.  The movement up and down go hand in hand.  We apply our newly found knowledge and understanding to the world around us.  
The chakra system is not a linear system or path – all is inter-related and connected.  The beginning is the end and the end is the beginning.  There is no destination, just the journey.  Enjoy it!