VI. How is the chakra system a useful thing?

The chakra system is one particular map showing the possibilities of exploration, not necessarily what is the next right step for your particular path. As in, here you are with multiple possible pathways to figuring out what's underneath your pain - the emotions that you haven't been able to process, for instance - but there isn't one pathway that works cookie-cutter-like for everyone.

My take on the chakra system is that it’s useful as a tool to point to the thing that is going on. In and of itself it is just an organizing principle. The magic and beauty happens when you begin bringing your own curiosity and attention to yourself. If you are studying the chakras, it’s not to learn about the chakras, in my world, it’s to learn about you. What are the things that you hold hard to and become wrapped up in on these particular levels?

When I look at the chakras in relation to people and groups of people, I’m always aware of the larger things that are going on. Victims of childhood abuse tend to have wide open sacral chakras with really perfunctory boundaries, if any - and here wide open is not a good thing. It’s more gaping open. As in, they aren’t able to close it and draw their boundaries.