A Journey Through The Chakras I

by Susan Cameron

The Journey Begins

Chakra one is located at the base of the spine and comes from the Sanskrit word "Muladhara" which literally translated means root. Its location is at the base of the spine and its central issue is survival. This is literally our physical survival center. At this level we are dealing with issues about life on earth which typically include survival, money, health and food. We are coming from a purely instinctual level. Here we have to deal with our fears and our deep need for self preservation. Think of the beginning of the evolution of man about 22,500 B.C., at the dawn of the Cro-Magnon age. Tools were heavy and crude, mostly made of earth materials such as stone, wood and bone. People lived in caves in the earth. Diets consisted of foods yielded from the earth naturally. Your life was short and dangerous. You were constantly at the mercy of the earth. You were born into as specific tribe and with that came your duties and loyalties to your tribe. In order for you and your tribe to survive you had to practice and follow strict tribal rituals and rules. This is still deeply imbedded in our culture and society today. We are born into our immediate family and very early we are taught the rules of our family or tribal unit. Conformity to the rules and regulations is constantly reinforced and rewarded. The human species has the longest period of dependency on his family before he is able to take care of himself, usually from 18 to 20 years.

From this early dependency on the tribe, we form our beliefs about hunger and food - was there enough or what were the circumstances surrounding food and eating. Did we have enough? Did we have to eat very quickly? Money and lack of prosperity issues are also developed during these years. Do I deserve money? Was the familiar slogan.....money is the root of all evil constantly spoken of in your early years? How did we see our immediate tribe earn money? Did all tribal members work? Were other people blamed for our tribe not earning enough or getting their fair share? Health attitudes are formed here also. Did we get attention when we were ill as a child? Was this the only time we got attention? Were we encouraged to be ill by mimicking the behavior of our parents or siblings?

In order to create a solid foundation in our lives, we have to dig deep within our roots to examine our past, our memories, our heritage and our dependency years. We begin our climb upward by going down to our roots and thereby liberating ourselves from all of the limiting beliefs we formed about our environment and other individuals growing up. For better or worse, our roots are unconscious influences on our behavior, linked to impressions and experiences from our past.

Without grounding we are unstable and without boundaries. When the first chakra is damaged, we are plagued with issues of survival, health, money, housing and or job related problems. The survival instincts lie at the base of the collective unconscious, as inherited tendencies that have developed over the course of evolution.

Without a strong, rooted foundation little else can be accomplished. The color associated with our root chakra is red, the color with the longest wavelength and slowest vibration. Earth is the element and Mars is the planetary energy associated with it.