Meditation and the Body 2
July 2006
The body meditation based on the first chakra has completed. But how could I tell?
Well, employing a body-based meditation what was my body telling me? Basically there just was no energy being generated around the first chakra. I was no longer preoccupied with first chakra issues.
The “world as mirror” was also showing me. I received gifts of bags of organic apples.
I went for a walk one Sunday and there on the footpath was a large red onion. I thought, “I’m not picking that up!” and kept on walking. Then I thought, “Hold on. That’s a gift from the universe.” And I went back and picked it up.
I then received what I now believe was a closure on the first chakra. I bought a scratchie and won $50!
Then women started approaching me – was I going to be leading more church services? – Was I going to this yoga class? – And then the clincher –one woman started treating me exactly the way my mother would have treated me. I realised I was being moved on to the second chakra – relationships.
The second chakra is located on the body about one and a half handbreadths below the navel. I sense this is to do with our relationships. Shortly after starting meditation on the second chakra I began to have bouts of dizziness… So I intuit I am still dizzy around relationships. (The dizziness seems to have passed so….) Now I have been laid low with a bout of flu. So basically there seems to be a lot going on associated with the second chakra. And that woman is still treating me the way my mother would have treated me!
While attempting body-based meditation, an image has been speaking to me – the three of swords from the Waite tarot deck.
In the tarot swords represent the intellect – and here it would represent thoughts or beliefs. The heart represents the body: indeed the organ of life and a metaphor for love. We speak of a person being “in good heart” and being “hale and hearty.” So these thoughts are attacking the body, our capacity for life and our capacity to love.
In a general way this is a representation of the values of our society: in our education we value cleverness and the intellect over the body, and knowledge over feelings. But I can be more specific than this – what thoughts are these that attack the body and specifically the heart. I have heard of people speaking of heart attacks and relating this to “a broken heart”.
I came across a story, “The Heart as Love’s Captive“, written and illustrated by Renee of Anjou in the 1460s – it relates a dream of Renee’s: his heart is removed by love and he sets off as the Knight Coeur accompanied by his page, Desire, to liberate Sweet Grace who is being held captive. She escapes from the Manoir de Rebellion but is eventually trapped by the three enemies of love – Denial, Shame and Fear. (You can view this tale for yourselves at http://kingrene.guice.org/bklvntr2.html)
This pulled the Waite Tarot card together for me. The three swords attacking the heart represented, as beliefs may well be the enemies of love – denial, shame and fear. But equally may be guilt, low esteem, criticism etc. And scratch the surface – these are not beliefs, but feelings masquerading as beliefs. I recognise these beliefs as frozen feelings or, to use a Psychosynthesis word, as “subpersonalities”. So it isn’t beliefs that are running this symbol- depicted as the three of swords – but feelings from long ago, not yet fully acknowledged. And I deceive myself by intellectualizing – that way I can avoid dealing with those feelings that I sealed away so many years ago.
These feelings have taken on a life of their own and are wreaking havoc on my body physically, as well as my capacity to feel and express love. (This goes to love not sex.) This symbolic card relates to me on the general level of intellect and body but also specifically is speaking to me of the world of relationship enfolded in the second chakra.
I’ll keep you posted.
