The 13th Chakra and The Acceleration of Healing
by Eileen McKusick

Many of us are familiar with the seven chakras, the major energy centers of the body that run from the base of the spine to the crown of the head. These centers are represented by the seven colors in the visible light spectrum and seven notes of the diatonic scale, beginning with the color red and the note C and ending with the color purple and the note B. Fewer of us are aware that there are actually more chakras as well: two more above our head (8 and 9), one below our feet (10), one in the palm of each hand (11 and 12), and the 13th chakra, which is about arm's length from the body, slightly below the level of the heart.

(There are more chakras - the 14t5h chakra is the gateway to the next dimension, but that is another story).

The Heart chakra is represented by the color green; however, in some contexts it is referred to as having two colors - green and rose, or pink. Until I learned about the 13th chakra, this always confused me. How could pink be in there? How could a chakra have two colors? The answer is that the 13th chakra is outside the body, but the energy of it is experienced in the heart.

The energy of the 13th chakra is that of Unconditional Love. Unlike the seven major centers of the body, this one cannot become blocked. What can become blocked however, is our awareness of it. This center is like a beacon of love and light that is eternally shining on us, delivering to us bliss and well being at every moment of our existence. It is our interconnectedness to All That Is, to our Source.

The 13th chakra has been symbolized in the image of a Rose. Throughout history,  myth and religion, this symbol appears to represent the energy of Love, or God, or the Light (which are essentially all one and the same). If the Rose spoke, it would say one thing: "You are Loved."

The truth contained in the awareness of this energy center is what everyone is looking for: it is simply, happiness. Buddha's famous last words were (allegedly), "There is no Way to Peace and Happiness - Peace and Happiness is the Way." These are profound words, and yet they are not the words we are taught to live by. Somehow we have swallowed the belief that happiness lies outside ourselves, that it is something to be pursued, purchased, found in a mall, a restaurant, a relationship, or a pill.

And so we go from store to store, from person to person, or perhaps therapist to therapist, seeking the elusive Bliss that calls to us. We get lost in addictions that whisper lies to us about happiness. From Heroin to Sugar to Online Catalog Shopping, we answer that whisper and fall headlong into the temptation of the short-lived high, only to find ourselves on the desolate beach of the inevitable crash soon after. Lost at the mall.

Our awareness of this Source of Unconditional Love is blocked on a personal, as well as cultural level. This has occurred for a number of reasons, the primary one being the Creation Myth that is known by nearly everyone in our culture whether they choose to subscribe to it or not. Put simply, we are the children of a couple that blew it (it was her fault) and we have been cast out of the Garden, separated from God, to suffer forever in the world of Duality.

This story has, on a subtle level, defined the reality of our culture. Its basic message is that we are all guilty sinners living under a judgmental God. This belief instills in us a powerful message that we are not worthy of Bliss, Happiness, Joy, and Ecstasy. We are worthy of pursuing it, yes - in that shiny SUV, in that Beautiful House, in that Fit Body and all the other images that Madison Avenue holds up to us as Desirable. We are worthy of pursuing it in Food, Alcohol, Shopping, Sex and Busy-ness. But of finding it? Of truly finding it and choosing it and owning it? Of really living it?

Well, living it, that's scary stuff. Because somewhere in this belief system there is this lurking thought that if we let ourselves feel too good, something terrible is going to happen. Therein lies the whole lie: this is where Unconditional Love becomes conditional love - "I can be happy if all of the conditions are right - when I am fit, rich and have the perfect mate," or whatever your personal conditions are. The thought that it is too scary to have all of these things that we think will make us happy because we might lose them all and then become unhappy keeps us in a cycle of perpetual unhappiness - it keeps us Stuck.

The truth is, that while this is a world of suffering, it is merely an illusion and love is behind all of it. All of the seeming "tragedies" that "happen" to us are lessons laid with love before us so that we may know Love, and are all essentially Maya, the mask of God. In truth, we have never really left the Garden - we are still connected. The 13th chakra is, was, and will always be there.

(There is an interesting sideline here about the Goddess Tradition and the Number 13 and how it was stamped out by the Church of Rome and what all that means, but that, too, is another story.)

Many people bog down in the healing process when it comes to truly and fully opening to this energy. Most people are so accustomed to feeling bad that feeling good is outside their comfort zone. We are programmed, especially through Television, to focus on the negative. Whatever one focuses on expands, and so we have expansive depression in our culture, and it is accepted as normal. In fact, we subscribe to the curious notion that depression is a result of being victim to hormones and body chemistry beyond our control, that it is a condition to be fixed with a pill.

In fact, the entire notion that we need to be fixed is incorrect thinking. What we need to do is remove the blocks that stand between our essential nature and Unconditional Love. The first step in removing these blocks is identifying them. Any place where we experience "stuckness" is a place where we hold a false thought or belief about ourselves, a notion that limits us and disconnects us from our Authentic Selves.

Much unhappiness comes from the fact that we are culturally programmed to be that way, because it is no great secret that this inherent dissatisfaction with life is what drives the ever-important Economy. The lie that happiness lies in the accumulation of stuff (especially expensive new stuff) and status keeps our consumer culture functioning. The hard truth is that we are all slaves to a system that seeks to rob us of our joy, our time with loved ones and our freedom, while all the while feeding us propaganda that we are free and rewarding us with shiny possessions for our sacrifices.

A good starting point in identifying the sources of your unhappiness is to recognize that many of your own issues are holographic to the culture at large. You are part of something bigger than yourself, and were most likely educated within a school system that stamped the authenticity right out of you in order to make you easily manageable and able to fit nicely as another cog in the machine of commerce. (Today's children who do not fit nicely are labeled ADHD or something like that and drugged so that they do fit).

This belief system frowns on the concept of "following your bliss" as irresponsible, selfish and foolish, so you have learned well to put aside the things that make you happy to the point where you may not even be sure what makes you happy. The price that you pay for this surrendering to the System is depression, addiction, rage, or apathy. Ultimately it becomes disease.

The process of healing the planet is one of healing ourselves - of taking the time and the energy and the self-worth to re-establish our connection to the energy of the 13th chakra and discover the things that bring us joy. It has been noted that time seems to be speeding up - the rapid exchange of information has allowed the evolutionary process of all sorts of human systems to accelerate at an astounding speed.

Technology is not the only factor that benefits from this process - the individual healing process is also speeding up. Issues that previously may have taken years to get through are now being healed within a matter of months, even weeks. It is as if time has speeded up - or more appropriately, our beliefs have expanded to include a simple truth: we can heal ourselves, and so the process is not altered by false beliefs any longer.

When your belief is geared to physical healing only, healing time will naturally be on a slower vibration (or physical vibration), thereby taking a longer time to heal oneself. As we begin to heal on the emotional and spiritual levels, our vibration and awareness expands and healing time becomes almost instantaneous.

When we come to a place of spiritual healing, we see that all illness arises from places where we are not letting love in. Health or wellness then becomes a choice, becomes our own responsibility. This is where the awareness of the 13th chakra is such a profound tool for healing - in many cases the simple reconnection of our energies to this source of bliss can eliminate all kinds of mental, emotional and physical distress.

As people become healed (unblocked) and in touch with the energy of Unconditional Love, they become liberated to do the job they came here to do. Freed from shoulds, from guilt, from depression, they are rising up to take their place among those who are working to restore balance, to create sustainability, to improve education, and to heal each other and the planet. They are reconnecting with their bliss, claiming their power, and answering their callings, and doing so at an increasingly rapid rate. It is in this way that lightworkers are also riding the powerful wave of change that is sweeping the planet.

A good and simple way to begin to connect to this energy is through the use of color therapy. Pink is a color that many of us, especially men, tend to shun, or at the very least pay little attention to. Using it deliberately, therefore, has a powerful effect on our psyches. You can buy pink flowers, burn pink candles, wear pink underwear. You can visualize the color pink emanating from a location arm's length from the body just below the heart while meditating. It so happens that pink is a very "in" color this year, so it is very easy to find.

Along with visualizing the color, associate it with the emotion of "unbridled bliss;" try to awaken that concept in your heart and your mind. A good metaphor for this is the image of a cup that is brimming, gently spilling over the top. Truly feeling this emotion doesn't come easily to most of us, but with practice it becomes much more so.

It is important to note here that this isn't about being blissed out all the time. Life happens: pets die, neighbors do unneighborly things, the government does questionable things, and so we will feel and have every right to feel sad, or angry, or confused or any other emotion that people tend to label as unspiritual. The difference is that we are not afraid of these emotions - the undercurrent is one of trust that all things that rise up fall away and that ups and downs are part of life and that the ultimate ground of all of this perceived reality is Love. The energy of the 13th chakra acts as a rudder that keeps us on course and on keel regardless of what winds are blowing.

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Eileen McKusick is a Breakthrough Facilitator from Northeast CT who specializes in helping people identify, define and release stubborn blocks. She can be reached at 860-928-3672 or emckusick@hotmail.com.