MANIPURA or Solar Chakra

This is called Manipura or the Solar Chakra. It’s located at the level of the solar plexus, at the bottom of the stomach. It’s linked to the pancreas and to the spleen. It corresponds to the element of FIRE, which symbolises light, warmth and activity as well as purification on the spiritual level. This chakra represents our sun, our centre of personal strength. It is through this chakra that we assimilate solar energy that gives us our vitality.

Through this chakra, we can establish active contact with other human beings and everything that is happening in the world. It is also this chakra that channels our emotional energy outwards into the outside world. This energy centre ‘drives’ most of our social relations, our likes and our dislikes, as well as our ability to form long-term relationships.

The solar plexus is the seat of the personality. It’s the chakra of self-image: it allows us to express our identity, to find the social identification we constantly seek to confirm through personal strength, determination and the quest for power, but also through adaptation to social norms.

The principal role of this chakra is the conscious use of the creative energies of the first 2 chakras (purification of desires and instincts) and to manifest the spiritual wealth of the higher chakras (4, 5, 6 and 7^th chakras) in the material world, with a view to the achievement of spiritual awakening.

Through it we directly receive the vibrations of people around us, basing our reactions on their vibratory quality. If we come into contact with negative vibrations, we sense danger: the chakra ‘recoils’ immediately, providing temporary protection. This protection becomes superfluous as soon as the light becomes powerful enough in itself to radiate outwards and surround the body with a protective « coat ».

If this chakra is open and functioning harmoniously:

We have a feeling of inner peace, we feel at one with life and our role in it. We fully accept ourselves as we are while at the same time being able to respect the feelings and quality of others. We see the feelings, desires and experiences of life as natural. We can clearly see the role they play in the evolutionary process and the need to incorporate them into our personality so that they can lead us towards the realisation of our potential.

Our behaviour is in harmony with the natural laws at work in the Universe and in human beings. We radiate light and strength (the etheric aura radiates around us and protects us from negative vibrations). Our wishes are easily attained; like a magnet, we attract what we need towards us.

If it is dysfunctional:

Dysfunction is often rooted in a lack of self-esteem in childhood and the teenage years, which prevents the individual from developing a true sense of worth. They then go on to seek, in their external life, confirmation of the intrinsic qualities and this satisfaction they are lacking inside.

When this chakra is out of kilter, we feel the need to have an influence over everything, to control ‘our’ internal and external world, to exert our power and desires for conquest. We are vulnerable to internal conflict and a profound dissatisfaction that plagues us without respite. We develop an intense need for activity, to mask these gnawing feelings of insufficiency. We have no inner calm; we find it hard to let go and relax.

A subconscious attitude, according to which everything is possible, leads us to control or repress ‘annoying’ or undesirable feelings. Consequently, emotions are blocked. But sooner or later, they will break through this wall of denial and control and drown the individual who will not be able to channel them appropriately.

Someone with a dysfunctional solar chakra will seem depressed and depleted. They will see barriers everywhere, preventing them from achieving their goals. A pre-existing tendency – the fear of displeasing their parents, their teachers, their friends -, curbs any spontaneous expression of their feelings. This leads to the formation of ‘emotional impurities’, reducing the energy of the fire of the solar chakra and sapping all the individual’s strength, all their spontaneity of action and desire. They avoid confronting new challenges and unknown experiences frighten them. In groups, they try to attract attention and have little time for those who shine or attempt to shine.

To summarise, the solar chakra is unbalanced: if you have poor self-image or if you hide behind a mask, if you feel a need to bully and crush others, or if on the contrary you are totally submissive, if you are quick to lose your temper, if you need to dominate or have power over others, if you only believe what is in your own head, if in your day-to-day existence you cannot resolve the perpetual conflict between your own will and the inevitable social restrictions.