INSPIRATION
Working with the 6th chakra has helped me to intimately understand how everything unfolds perfectly within the divine’s right and proper time. It has helped me discover depths of perception and insight as they have come to me in a steady progression that reminds me of the lotus slowly unfolding to the light of day. For me, this progression was initiated with the new year as I underwent a week of prayer, journaling, fasting, and detoxification. My plan was to release the old, and use journaling and other rituals to clarify and visualize what I wanted to manifest for the future. This time of release and invocation provided me with a clarity of presence and a wide field of vision from which to gain a greater connection to my guides, higher self, and spirit. I was praying for the removal of that which no longer served me, and the insight needed to move with inspired direction.
It reminded me that seeing is a passive faculty. It is the eyes that perceive, but the mind that sees. When our eyes are open they only pick-up the emanations of light and energy that are reflected from the matter around us. These reflections are then turned upside down and reversed before being presented to the mind for perception and interpretation. Seeing is truly an inside job. The only true light we will ever know or comprehend is the light we find within – physically and metaphorically. From this perspective, physical sight can also be considered an exercise in intuition since we never actually “see” the matter we encounter in the world around us – but simply intuit its presence and capacities based upon the reflected light and energy it emits. We must trust what light we perceive and intuitively adjust our actions and behavior based upon those emanations. We walk by faith, not by sight. The more light we allow and open our eyes to perceive, the greater our capacity to gain insight and interpret the world around us. Likewise, the more we are still, focused and passive, the better our capacity to perceive and interpret the light we have allowed within. This is why the 6th chakra is dedicated to sight, perception, and intuition.
My week of prayer and fasting help me to understand how much the mechanics of sight and insight are almost identical to one another physically and spiritually. Our chakras and minds do not perceive divine light – because its substance and vibration are entirely too high, but rather the myriad reflections of its movement that have slowed enough vibrationally for our minds to perceive them. These reflections are always there but we are able to perceive them more readily when we are still, passive, open, allowing, and focused upon receiving them. In my experience last month. This state allowed me to begin opening my self to greater levels of reception, which fostered stronger intuitive insights and a deepening of my faith after receiving them. Part of this process was magnified after my guides led me to sign up for a “28 Day Challenge” online course geared toward deepening one’s connection to spirit, higher self, and guides. This guidance was given one week after I had been guided to begin work on the 6th chakra as the next piece in the series, and 3 days after I had completed my research and begun the actual painting! Everything unfolds perfectly within the spirit’s right and proper time.
Although sight and insight are passive, these passive faculties activate other aspects of our being which are much more active and projective. The more we deepen and open ourselves to receive, the greater our capacity for output through the use of imagination, visualization, and manifestation. The greater our capacity to receive, the greater our ability to project. This is why it so important that we know the light within. Creation and manifestation are birthed from imagination and visualization. The more light we allow within, the greater our capacity to manifest and create – both spiritually and physically. The 6th chakra is both active and passive as it functions to provide clarity, insight, and intuition, while simultaneously being actively present in the work of visualization and manifestation.
As a point of clarification, I would also like to point out that the third eye is not synonymous with the 6th chakra. Many people convolute the third eye, 6th chakra, and pineal gland but they are not the same thing. Each is its own separate entity. Just as there are other chakras, the third eye is another form of chakra but it is not the 6th chakra. Any well-informed teacher will confirm this. The 6th chakra and third eye often support one another or work in tandem but they are still very separate. The 6th chakra is located deeper inside the brain at or just above eye-level, while the third eye is located in the front of the head between the eyes or eyebrows. If you spend some time meditating upon the 6th chakra and grow more attuned to it you will begin to notice the subtle differences in the energy of the two. It also helps to spend some time bringing energy into the 6th chakra from the back of the head until you can become more familiar with the differences.
Although I have not been able to find any definitive statement on the exact function of the third eye, I would postulate that it is exactly what its name suggests – a spiritual third eye or chakra geared specifically toward the reception of spiritual light and energies. It functions as our physical eyes by picking up these energies and transmitting them to the 6th chakra so that they can be interpreted, provide wisdom…and then hopefully used by the 6th chakra for the purposes of imagination, visualization, and manifestation.
Insight: Knowing the Light Within
SYMBOLISM
This chakra moves us a step further along the color wheel and higher in vibration. We move from the lighter, cerulean blue of the 5th chakra to the deep indigo of the 6th. The closest representation of that blue is found within the graphic symbol of the chakra depicted above the figures head. Because the indigo is so deep and rich, I was forced to integrate other shades of blue into the composition in order to maintain clarity between the deep purple of the 7th chakra and the deep blue of 6th. Sometimes, the eyes can confuse the two hues with black, and/or not clearly distinguish between them when they are so closely placed to one another. I hope to show the whole series together once it is completed and was concerned that patrons might not be able to easily differentiate between the two – so I took the liberty of using my artistic license in order to create a greater distinction between the hues. This is also why I chose to use a somewhat lighter blue for the background color. Even with the white covering parts of it, the deep indigo would have just been too overpowering.
As in the other four depictions, the figure sits upon a lotus flower, The subtle difference here is that this figure is not just in meditation but also in visualization. We have moved from the vibratory matter of the 5th chakra (she was chanting) to the higher vibration of light here in the 6th. Sight and insight are the material of visualization. Her thumbs are placed upon her heart as she somatically connects head and heart through the action of touch. Scientific studies have shown that placing one’s hands upon the heart, and or touching the heart while meditating strengthens the bond between them thus allowing for increased levels of intuition and greater amplitude from the heart itself.
The graphic lotus symbol above her head contains the Sanskrit character for the chakra and the two petals associated with the 6th chakra. The white of the background is representative of the cosmic ethers waiting to be absorbed and directed.
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Damon Powell 