A Quick Thought: My Experience with the Seventh Chakra
Author Anodea Judith, in her book Eastern Body, Western Mind, writes about the Seventh Chakra (also known as the Crown Chakra for its position at the very top of our cerebral cortex) in terms of human experience. She describes the experience of activating the Seventh Chakra as Crossing the Rainbow Bridge, at p. 393:
The Rainbow Bridge, like any bridge, is all about connection. The two ends of the spectrum connect the individual self with universal creation…Our purpose in the Seventh Chakra is to contact the divine, but also to manifest divinity in our bodies and actions and so transform the world. In the seventh chakra we see divinity in all matter and in all its infinite arrangements. Crossing the Rainbow Bridge is about stretching to connect the limited with the infinite, while still retaining both qualities. It is through that stretch that we will grow.
This passage is a beautiful description of the human-divine bond that is present through the seventh chakra. It is highly descriptive of the trance state one enters during meditation, or the ecstasy one experiences during lovemaking, or the sublime peace one enters during a soaring passage of music. The Rainbow Bridge is the stuff of artists’ dreams. In the west, we have Goethe’s poetry, Beethoven’s Ode to Joy, Wagner’s final act of the Ring Cycle, and many more: moments and passages that try to capture that essence and those images.
I believe that as humans, it takes us lifetimes to get to the place where we can love without ego, live without fear, overcome pain and sadness, and finally cross that Rainbow Bridge to re-union with the Divine Spirit. We try to cross that bridge over and over, experiencing momentary bouts of happiness and joy. But doubt and fear settle in, pain and uncertainty limit our stride, and we slip back into delusion, suffering and longing.
Where does the Seventh Chakra lead us? To develop our lives, fine tune our Spiritual practice, make contributions to society, love our neighbor. But we are human and life is not easy. Poverty, disease, famine, drought, have been part of life since the beginning. Is death the final journey across the Rainbow Bridge? “Death, where is thy sting?” rings a refrain of Ludwig Van Beethoven’s Ode to Joy. The faith traditions all speak of overcoming suffering and death and re-uniting with God for all eternity. Our ability to access the divine spark within us all through the chakras may keep us on the road to that ultimate reunion. Accessing the Rainbow Bridge keeps us aware of our potential as humans to do god-like things.
A few years ago, me and the husband attended an acapella concert of sacred music at the Cathedral of Saint John the Divine in Manhattan. During one of my favorite pieces --- Morton Lauridsen’s Lux Aeterna –-- I closed my eyes, leaned forward, and let my head fall back as if I were looking up at the stars. The soaring dissonances filled the cathedral nave with glorious overtones. Tears streamed down my face. I felt my beloved’s hand slip into mine and squeeze it tightly as the final crescendo rang above us. I was there, in that zone of the Seventh Chakra, for a blissful moment. “Ah, this is heaven,” I thought to myself.