COLORS, CHAKRAS AND CRYSTALS
Some Colors and their effects
Color Therapies
Chakras. What are they?
Aura
Color, Crystals and Healing
Some Colors and Their effects
YELLOW is the color of the sun and the imperial color of old China. It is the color of gold, of the crystals calcite, citnine, topaz and yellow jade. Yellow heightens your energy and can help make you feel warm and joyous.
ORANGE is a stimulating color, but being a mixture of red and yellow it does not have the strength of either red or yellow. The positive side of this is that when yellow or red radiate too much energy for you, orange is a gentler alternative. Orange is one of the colors of sunsets and sunrises and of the crystals carnelian, citrine and orange calcite.
RED is one of the most compelling colors for humans, along with black and white. It has formidable energy, so should be used with care. Too much red is never a good thing, for it can be overpowering. If you need a boost in energy, wearing red will help. The closer to the horizon the sun is, the redder it will seem - sometimes a setting sun will appear to set the sea on fire. Red crystals are garnets, carnelian, red jasper and rubies.
MAGENTA is a cool red as it contains some blue. Its effect is sensuous and quietly exciting. Magenta is a very strong color, so too much becomes cloying and oppressive. A crystal of this color is rhodalite garnet.
PURPLE is a combination of red and blue. Depending on the amounts of each hue used, this mixture ranges from the palest of lilacs, mauves and lavenders through to the violets and rich purples. Purple is a color that is associated with the Church and royalty from Europe and ancient Egypt. Great skill is needed to use purple well, otherwise it can be vulgar and unsettling. Amethyst, alexandrite and fluorite are crystals of purple coloring.
BLUE is a color that can be either peaceful and relaxing or cold. It can sometimes bring out feelings of fear and insecurity, depending on its shade and your mood and personality type. The sky and the sea show blue in all its aspects. It is a color that has always carried both positive and negative associations. Blue crystals include blue agate, azurite, lapis lazuli and sapphire.
TURQUOISE is greenish blue and is the color of shallow tropical waters. This is a gentle, peaceful color that will cheer you up. It suits most people and creates a happy, carefree appearance for those who wear it. The legend of the turquoise, a stone in various shades of greenish blue, is that it should always be received as a gift and never purchased. It was often given to a loved one or to someone about to go on a journey. Aquamarine is a crystal of another shade of greenish blue.
GREEN is everywhere in nature - it is the color of life and is the most restful color to the eye. In its artificial form green can be either peaceful or oppressive, and while some people wear it well, it can make others look sick. Of all the ancient pigments, green ones were the most difficult to obtain. Crystals in shades of green include aventurine, chrysoprase, emerald, jade and malachite.
There is a strong interconnection between the vibrations of colors, our own physical vibrations, our emotional vibrations, and vibrations of another sort that may be seen as deriving from personality at its deepest unconscious level, etheric or spiritual. Today there are many techniques of color healing practiced in the West.
Color is infinitely more profound than our appreciation of its aesthetic qualities. Light is living energy that is made up of both the visible spectrum (perceived by us as color) and the non-visible spectrum. Light penetrates everything except the deepest seas and the darkest holes deep beneath the earth's surface. Our own bodies are penetrated by light, so we are affected by its properties from our conception - even when we are blind. And many people believe that the light at the center of our etheric selves illuminates outward into the world.
Light makes things grow. An absence of light can cause things to die. It is reasonable therefore to assume that color can heal us, as has been professed from the time of the ancients in Egypt, China, Greece, India and Tibet. Color healing in various forms is still practiced by many people in these cultures and by tribal groups all over the world.
Some Color Therapies
Color therapies or "photobiotics" are alternative healing treatments that use the frequencies of color and light to balance and harmonize the body's organs individually and the person as a whole. For instance, if you have a blood pressure problem, you can use blue light to lower your blood pressure and red light to raise it. The use of complementary (opposite or secondary) pairs of colors are an essential aspect of color therapy. The complementary pairs used in color therapy are red and cyan, orange and blue, yellow and violet, green and magenta. Most color therapies are designed to balance both your physical and emotional states and many involve a diagnosis of your aura and your chakras. Your aura is the rainbow of colors that surrounds you and reveals to those who can see it, underactive and overactive emotional and physical conditions. The chakras are the seven major energy centers in our bodies. They radiate certain colors and each color reveals strengths and weaknesses in that area of your life.
Because every person has a different set of vibrations, everyone will respond to a greater or lesser degree to the various colors. The color therapist will find which colors work best for you and adapt his or her techniques to accommodate your particular needs.
A number of color therapies are derived from ancient systems of color healing. Some incorporate the system of color healing associated with the Tree of Life from the Jewish mystical tradition of the kabbala. Others use the mandala, the ancient Buddhist design of a circle enclosing a square, symbolizing the universe, which is used to focus the mind in meditation. The patterns, shapes, symbols and colors of each mandala used will elicit particular responses, so it can be a potent tool in color healing. Many techniques involve the traditional colors associated with the zodiac.
Color therapists may use breathing, meditation, visualization; colored light, candles, paints, crystals, colored fabrics, solarized water, diet of correct "color" foods, essential oils and colored oils made from herbs, flowers and exposure to sunlight. Beaming colored light through filters onto specific parts of the body is one of the most effective of these techniques. The filters are red, orange, yellow, lemon, green, cyan (greenish blue), indigo (dark blue), violet, purple and magenta.
Techniques of color therapy used by psychotherapists who specialize in creative therapies do not employ the same principles as those used by color therapists in the area of health and well-being, though a talented psychotherapist can occasionally effect some remarkable physical healing in the process. Color therapists are concerned with their clients’ own color associations emanating from their unconscious minds, thus providing the basis of a successful emotional healing.
Chakras. What are they?
The chakras represent energy centers and give us a system through which we can understand the constant flow of energy through and around our bodies. The word chakra comes from the Sanskrit for "wheel". The chakras have been studied and written about for centuries in the East, and more recently in the West. As often occurs with knowledge that is very old and drawn from many sources, there is conflicting information on chakras. Most systems, however, recognize that there are many of these energy centers. The seven discussed below are considered the main ones and correspond to the seven most visible colors in the spectrum.
In color healing, the practitioner must first decide which chakra, or chakras, is out of balance and whether it is underactive or overactive. A color therapy technique is then decided upon and applied.
Base chakra
The first chakra is located at the base of the spine. Its corresponding color is red. This energy center relates to the physical body rather than our emotions and is linked with our survival instinct. It provides courage to stand and fight or the stamina and energy to take flight when our survival is threatened. From the base chakra comes the sexual energy to reproduce and -ensure the survival of our species. This chakra also represents our connection with the earth.
Belly chakra
The second chakra is also known as the sacral plexus and is located approximately midway between the base of the spine and the navel. Its corresponding color is orange. This chakra is the source of our creative energy and our desires and passions. It is associated with our emotions, intuition and sexuality and is connected to the element of water.
Solar plexus chakra
The third chakra is located just above the navel and is the chakra that relates to how we interact with the world around us. Its corresponding color is yellow. From this center comes our personal power and our energy to act. The solar plexus is the point of intersection between the physical and the mental.
Heart chakra
The fourth chakra is located in the center of the body at the level of the heart. Its corresponding color is green. This chakra inspires our love: romantic and sexual love, as well as love for the world and everything in it. It gives us compassion and understanding, and helps us develop our sense of relationship with others and our place in the world. From the heart chakra we can understand how all things relate to each other and to ourselves.
Throat chakra
The fifth chakra is located at the throat. Its corresponding color is blue. This is the chakra of communication, of how we express ourselves in the world, both verbally and non-verbally and how we receive information from the world. The throat chakra is involved with the silent communications that take place within our bodies through the workings of the nervous system and the endocrine system.
Brow chakra
The sixth chakra is located at the center of the forehead. This chakra is also known as the third-eye chakra. Its corresponding color is indigo. Through our third eye we receive information through our perceptions and gain insight and a deeper level of understanding. Developing the energy at this chakra involves an increased level of awareness, enabling us to access our inner wisdom.
Crown chakra
The seventh chakra is located at the top of the head. Its corresponding color is violet or purple. The crown chakra is the source of our thoughts, our conscious and unconscious minds, our beliefs and dreams. It connects to our inner sense of "knowing" and is the intersecting point between our mind and our body.
Aura
What is Your Aura?
A human aura is an egg-shaped kaleidoscopic play of color which extends around your body to a distance of up to three feet. There are several layers to your aura, the closest one to your body being your etheric body. You energy centers are within this layer and their purpose is to draw and absorb the life-force from the atmosphere.
When an aura is healthy, its colors are pure, luminous and in perfect harmony. When you have a physical or emotional problem, certain colors will be muddy, depending on what your problems are. The more ill or disturbed you are, the dirtier and darker the colors will be. The shape and pattern of your aura will also be affected.
Your aura reflects your physical, emotional and spiritual conflicts. A healer who can see your aura will know at once the basis of your problem, and can then take steps to help you heal, but he or she can only do this with your assistance. No healing is a fait accompli. It is not uncommon for a healer to see discords in your aura long before any illness manifests. This is because weaknesses are present in your body before an illness takes hold, and these make their appearance in your aura. Steps can then be taken to prevent the illness from developing further.
The Meanings of the Colors of the Perfect Aura
GOLD is only present where there is great intellect as well as high spiritual development.
WHITE represents purity and high, spiritual evolvement.
RED relates to the physical body and sexuality. It shows a vibrant personality, someone who sets the spirit on fire.
ORANGE is the energy of the life-force. It shows joy and lightheartedness.
YELLOW represents the astral body and corresponds to the third chakra.
GREENS AND BLUES show the state of your health. Green also represents the personality.
VIOLETS AND PURPLES are psychically evolved colors. They represent the higher self and the spirit.
Any variation or imbalance in these colors will show dysfunction. Grays and murky colors especially indicate ill-health and depression.
Crystals, Colors, Healing
There is some evidence to suggest that crystals resonate with the frequency of healthy cells, drawing unhealthy cells that may be vibrating at a lower or higher frequency back into the normal range by a process called "entrainment".
Since every cell in our body has its own frequency, this may explain why some crystals work most effectively on a particular part of the body and why different crystals benefit different people.
When deciding which stones to use for healing and where they should be placed on the body, trust your intuition. If you instinctively feel you would like to use a particular stone or feel drawn to it when thinking about a particular part of the body, use the crystal and judge the results for yourself. If you don't have a piece of a crystal specified in the chakra layout, use one of a similar color. The color of the crystal should relate to the color emitted by the specific chakras.
Cleansing Your Crystals
Make sure all the crystals you are about to use have been cleansed. Some crystals transform energies and others absorb or transmit them, so inappropriate or undesirable patterns of energy need to be cleared away. By doing this you also attune the energy of the crystal to your own.
There are many methods you can use, such as:
- moonbaths (placing crystals in a glass or ceramic bowl filled with cold water and set under the light of a full moon overnight);
- sunbaths (follow same directions but placing the bowl under the noon sun for one to two hours);
- returning them to the earth (burying the crystals in a potted plant or in rich soil for two to three days); or
- moving the crystal through the smoke of burning sage.
The simplest method is to meditate and imagine any negativity falling away from the crystal, leaving it clear, clean and vibrant.
Using Crystals to Heal
Lie on your back and put the crystals into position as described below, starting at the crown chakra. Stay in this position, breathing deeply and slowly for about 15 minutes. Slowly remove the crystals, starting at the crown and working downward.
Crown chakra: Place a single clear quartz crystal a short distance away from the top of the head. If using a terminated crystal, angle the point toward the head. This directs the crystal's energy into the crown chakra.
Brow chakra: Place a single point of amethyst, a piece of tumbled amethyst or purple fluorite over the brow chakra.
Throat chakra: For the throat chakra, use a piece of aquamarine or jade on the throat, over the voice box.
Heart chakra: Place a small piece of uncut or tumbled rose quartz crystal over the heart chakra.
Solar plexus: Place a single point, a small cluster or a tumbled piece of citrine over the solar plexus. If using a terminated crystal, position so the point of the stone is facing toward the head or facing upward, away from the body.
Belly chakra: Place a piece of carnelian or red jasper halfway between the solar plexus and the base of the spine.
Base chakra: Place a single point or tumbled stone of smoky quartz over the base of the spine. If using a terminated crystal, position so the point of the stone is facing toward to the head.
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