Awakening the Brow Chakra Third Eye
Awakening your Third Eye, or the Brow Chakra, opens the door to understanding the language of symbols and connecting with your higher mind, along with other gifts that may be lying dormant, just awaiting your focused attention! The sixth energy center of the body is located at the Brow Center. The Sanskrit name is Ajna, meaning to perceive or command. Our Brow chakra is the home of our visionary!
Symbols of the Brow Chakra: This symbol has two petals opposite each other, signifying the two primary energy channels that run through your body - the Ida and the Pingala, which circulate the balance of masculine and feminine energy through your subtle energy system. Ida and Pingala also represent two aspects of the mind - the material world and the Spiritual world … the manifest and the yet un-manifested, still residing in the spiritual realms. These aspects of mind are also known as the lower mind and the higher mind. The petals connect through the center circle to indicate that in this Third Eye energy center, duality ends and unity is achieved.
In the body, the two petals are said to represent the pineal gland, which regulates the circadian rhythm and the pituitary gland, which is the master of all the endocrine glands which are important in regulating hormones - metabolism, growth and development.
Consider the implications here for the Spiritual counterpart to the work of both of these powerful glands in regards to our Light Body! Imagine the job of the pituitary and the parallels for regulating growth and development of the energetic body … perhaps regulating the rate of vibrations, the developmental stages of spiritual growth and the journey of expansion for this highest aspect of self! The pineal gland is intimately linked to our body's perception of light, and thus modulates our sleep-wake patterns and circadian rhythms. It is considered to be our biological third eye, that both supports our body’s processing of light and metaphysically provides inner sight. Our third eye is regarded as the seat of the soul, and is the namesake of a sacred symbol throughout history - the pinecone. The spines of a pinecone spiral in a perfect Fibonacci sequence in either direction - sacred geometry, a doorway into seeing the interconnectedness of all things - which is a higher aspect of our Brow Chakra.
The color vibrations associated with the Ajna Center are deep violet to indigo. Violet and Indigo are both colors of transition as light turns to darkness or darkness to light - twilight and dawn’s first light. These colors usher us into the awareness of light - it’s return as well as it’s absence, and the colors themselves begin to open us to the awareness of the special element of the Ajna Center - Light itself!
Because color holds vibration, it’s helpful to surround yourself with these colors when working on awakening the Brow Chakra. Options for doing so are as varied and creative as you can imagine - wearing the colors, lighting a candle with the colors, working with the colors in a creative project, to simply closing your eyes and imaging the color in the center of your Ajna Center!
The Element is Light!
Our Third Eye utilizes higher light frequency from the Cosmic sun to see the spiritual essence of life around us in much the same way that our physical eyes use light from our sun to see all that surrounds us. What we do know is that it is light that gives us vision and creates color! In truth our understanding of the world is based on the way our eyes (and brains) interpret it.
Let’s explore how our physical understanding of light might help to inform our understanding of the higher dimensions of light as well … One of the things we all know about light is that it reflects. And this is an important function of light, because without light and it’s reflection, there would be no sight! All objects are either luminous - objects that generate their own light, or illuminated - objects that reflect light back to the eyes. Example: the sun is an illumined object, while the moon is illuminated by the light of the sun. Nothing around us, including ourselves, could be seen without light: we either need the sun’s light to see, or man-made lights to see when and where the sun’s light is not shining. “As above, so below” is a guiding Spiritual principle that helps us gain important insight on the path of higher knowledge. An appropriate higher understanding of light is that our body is an illumined object via the light of our Soul, our own personal reflection of the light of the Divine, or the Cosmic sun which is the light of all light!
Reflection is also how mirrors work. At the higher dimension we begin to understand that, much like with a mirror reflecting an image of ourself back to us, what you see when you look in a mirror is not what’s really there, but instead what our brain thinks is there, based on our own inner distortions! What we see is an optical illusion! Once again, when we apply the same spiritual principle to this understanding, we begin to see that as our inner sight grows, so does our understanding of our outer sight. We begin to make sense of the world around us in new ways, with greater possibilities for our evolution along with the evolution of all beings.
Physical Signs of an Energetic Imbalance / Balanced
When the Brow Chakra is out of balance, physical manifestations will show up in the body such as headaches, allergies, sinus congestion, difficulty with vision, night blindness.
When the Brow Chakra is in balance, one’s metabolism is strong, the systems of the body feel balanced, overall health is good, one’s head feels clear - both physical and mental, and one’s vision is clear. The animal symbol for the Third Eye is the hawk! The hawk flies high and has laser sharp vision.
Mental Signs of Energetic Imbalance / Balance
An out of balance Brow Chakra can range from delusions and psychosis (as our sight dominates our perception and understanding of life around us) to more common phenomenon of having the inner critic run our internal perceptions about ourselves and our world rather than our inner visionary. The inner critic sees flaws where the visionary sees possibilities! When the inner critic is running the show, illusion and confusion tend to dominate our perception, and therefore thinking.
When our awareness resides in the lower mind, we believe the outer world is as we see it - with it’s duality and chaos prevailing. As we learn to raise our awareness to our higher mind, we understand that life around us is but a reflection of the current state of our mind. Thus, when we are stressed and harried, life around is disorganized and other people and things seem to be “in our way”. And when our perception rests in the higher mind, our awareness shows us that life around is unfolding for our benefit, or for our Soul’s evolution. In this way, we are able to experience both small and large setbacks as lessons for our growth and expanded understanding.
We grow into clear seeing that everything happens for a reason, and insight (or inner sight) dawns about the intricate design of our life, and the interconnectedness of all things. As this center becomes activated and expands, we become more Self-Realized. This is the path of connecting with the light of our Soul, and even the light of Divine Spirit, and the Spiritual purpose of our life!
Powerful ways to work with the energy of the Ajna Center for clear vision and insight
- Surround yourself with the colors blue violet and indigo
- Meditate regularly to awaken your inner vision
- Work with crystals that amplify the higher energies of the Third Eye: amethyst, spirit quartz (cactus amethyst), stichtite, sodalite, desert rose (selenite rose), moldavite, lapis lazuli, laboradorite, etc (there are many!)
- Bring your awareness to your brow center, breathing into and out of your Brow. Breathe light into this chakra for cleansing and clearing, breathe in the light of the cosmic sun, filling your third eye and then your whole beng with light
- Toning, vocalizing the seed sound, OM
- Essential oils to help cleanse and invigorate the Brow chakra include rose, lavender, sandalwood, cedar, or Clary Sage
- Participate in healing and therapeutic work on your lower chakras, because stuck patterns of lower energies in these energetic centers will block expansion of the upper chakras in significant ways. Of particular importance is releasing the voice of the inner critic which can pollute the energy of every chakra, allowing room for the voice of love and encouragement to flourish and nourish the disparate wounded parts of self.
- Three affirmations for aligning with the higher energies of the Brow Chakra
- I am Light
- I am guided by my intuition and clear knowing
- I create my own reality
Enjoy your awakening - there is much to explore here in the world of the Third Eye!
Much Love and Many Blessings!
Lynn and Cheryl