Earth energy and spinning
We’ve all heard that the body is over 50% water. Elementary school children know that the pull of the moon creates the tides (you can take their re-fresher course here). The direction of the spin of water down a drain may appear different whether one is in the northern, southern or equatorial regions of the earth. Still, people will argue based on perception and without understanding the laws of fluid motion. The same can be said of the earth as it spins from the west to the east, appearing to spin counterclockwise when viewed from the north pole. The sun, the asteroids, and all the other planets (except Uranus and Venus) rotate in a counterclockwise direction. I have to disagree that there is “nothing special” in this fact, just because we’re not yet special enough to understand this!
The upper seven chakras spin clockwise
So what of the spinning chakras? The upper seven chakras from the top of head to the base of the spine: Sahasrara (crown), Ajna (third eye), Vishuddha (throat), Anahata (heart), Manipura (solar plexus), Svadhisthana (abdomen), Muladhara (perineum, or root) all spin clockwise. Our chakras spin within their respective, “nothing special” locations. Our modern understanding of endocrine anatomy aligns directly with the very special location of these seven chakras! The direction of the spin, and the location of the chakras does not appear to be arbitrary. People figured out the location and the spin of the chakras thousands of years ahead of modern medicine and anatomy. Ancient people weren’t ignorant, they were just ancient! Think of all the things we could discover without the distractions of modern living. Like the location and spin of the chakra energy centers in the body.
The lower seven chakras spin counterclockwise
In western-style yoga, the seven chakras below the Muladhara chakra (root chakra) are not as well known. Their names and locations are: Atala (hips), Vitala (thighs), Sutala (knees), Talatala (calves), Rasatala (ankles), Mahatala (feet) and Patala (souls of the feet, or below to the underworld). There is a large body of knowledge concerning their qualities, and long complicated stories of their significance in Indian philosophy. They come up in discussion in this article because they happen to spin counterclockwise, like our earth. Very special, indeed. Curious, in fact!
Enter the vortex, or rather the helix
As long as we are on the topic of spinning, we’d do well to consider vortexes, spirals, the helix, and the double helix in nature. Consider how the planets rotate around the sun. Watch this simple 3 minute video showing how they do more than simply spin around the sun, they move with it, through space. The video takes some license with science, and has attracted some serious debunking and even detractors of that debunking. All the hairsplitting of this science does not negate the distinctive helix pattern formed by the paths of the planets. The spin and spiral around the sun is reminiscent of the double helix of DNA.
Does the spinning energy of the Chakras form a double helix?
Just maybe. The seven upper chakras spin clockwise. The seven lower chakras spin counterclockwise. In yoga we speak to “balancing the chakras.” When one or more of our chakras are out of balance, we lack resonance and coherence with the systems of the body. There is a state of dis-ease at one or more levels of the parts of ourselves (i.e., the Koshas as described in yoga: the physical body, the energy body, the emotional body, the spiritual body, the bliss body).
Perfect balance might look like a complete energy exchange between all 14 major chakras. The lower seven, in the “super gross” energy body (earth bound lower chakras below the root chakra), gross body (first, second, and third chakras from root, abdomen, solar plexus), and the higher, subtle bodies (fourth, fifth, and sixth chakras from heart, throat, and crown).
Bottomline: It would be foolhardy to think the energy forces in our universe are nothing special, just because we have described them. It would be ignorant to discount their effects on the forms of plants and animals, and on movement because they seem common. Regardless of scale (or maybe because they can be scaled up!) we should look for glimpses of their effects on all the things we cannot see, and all the things we have yet to discover.
Attend my 7 week Therapeutic Chakra Workshop, Tuesday evenings 7-8pm ET, August 2-Sept 13, 2022. $100. Details on my Tampa Yoga Therapy website here.