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Nancy Privett - Energy based therapies

The First Chakra and Saturn
Your Legal System

by Nancy Privett, MA, EFTCert-I, BBSH

This article is part of the “The Planets in Your Chakras” Series

Astrology and Chakra Psychology

In our never-ending quest to understand -- ourselves, our lives, and what is going on on this planet that we are calling home for the moment — we look to many disciplines to help us translate and interpret our experience. Astrology, tarot, mythology, eastern metaphysics, the world-as-energy — whatever speaks to us can be the arena in which we work and play to increase our self-awareness.

I have found that it can be even more elucidating to combine two fields of study, not only for the fascination of seeing how they naturally relate to each other, but also because it gives us more ways to sort out what we are looking to clarify. What if we sent two different modalities out on a date and played the role of the proverbial “fly on the wall?” Wouldn’t it be interesting to see how they hit it off? To see what kind of relationship they created together? To be in on the new ideas and insights that emerged from the interaction?

In this article we are doing just that — combining two disciplines, that of astrology and the life-as-energy philosophy. More specifically, we are matching up the planets from the Astrology Family and the chakras from the Energy Systems Family and are going to watch what evolves. Which planet will pair up with which chakra? Why is that specific pair attracted to each other? And, most importantly, what can we gain by watching and listening to all of this?

The Role of the Planets and the Chakras

In astrology, the seven inner planets are said to represent different aspects of our personality — the drives and urges, both conscious and unconscious, that make us human. Placed against the backdrop of the astrological signs and houses in our chart, the planets help us understand how we are living our life and how we can live it even more fully.

In energy field science, the major chakras, also seven in number, also represent aspects of our personality. The way the chakras are energetically configured at any moment can be decoded to reveal, among other things, our belief systems, our patterns of behavior and the way we are interpreting our reality. By using what I like to call chakra psychology, we look at how the chakras can actually take the straw of any experience and carry it through the energy body to spin that straw into gold. I like to use the language and symbolism of the astrological planets to better define and understand not only the basic structure of the chakra system, but also its transformational potential.

So it already seems like the planets and the chakras are a good match (E-Harmony eat your heart out!) since they both help us see where we are and where we have the potential to go.

The First Chakra — Your Planetary Life Information Center

All the chakras are spinning, cone-shaped vortices of energy. The tip of each cone inserts at a specific point on the physical body into a kind of Interior Power Strip that is situated in the core of the physical body, running from crown to perineum. Each chakra governs specific areas and systems of the physical body and also is associated with certain personality psychodynamics. Each chakra interprets our reality in a way that is associated with the chakra’s psychological function.

The tip of the cone of the first chakra inserts into the perineum between the legs, with the wide mouth of the cone open to the earth beneath our feet. I like to call this chakra the “Planetary Life Information Center.” This center truly is the first resource for a soul coming into a body. (“Now I’m a soul. Now I’m a soul in a body. Now I’m a soul in a body on planet Earth. How exactly does it work here?”) The exciting thing about this first chakra center is that it contains our Operating Manual, subtitled: Rules for How Life Works. Our Manual answers questions about how to maneuver on the physical plane and grounds us in earthly reality, and in doing so it offers a degree of safety and support for our planetary trip.

Of course, there is a caveat. The potential problem of the Operating Manual is that it was written by our parents, perhaps our grandparents and other family members also (Caroline Myss calls these people our “tribe”). If a church played a prominent role in the family life, then that institution gets to author several pages in our Operating Manual. The cultural mores of the decade into which we are born definitely are woven throughout almost every page. And any other groups that influenced our original family are also eligible to be co-authors.

All of this means that my Operating Manual is different from yours, and yours is different from your spouse’s, and so on and so on. Right away this can lead us to ask questions like, “Whose Manual is the real one? Whose Manual has the right answers? Which edition should I believe? Do I get updates?” But we don’t ask these questions right away. We usually don’t ask them until the time comes for us to leave our parents’ home and go out into the world on our own. Then we may question a lot of things in the Operating Manual which we took as Truth for many years. However, until that time, we accept our Operating Manual as the Author-ity in our life. And even after we have been out in the world on our own for many years, many of the Rules in the Manual remain the Author-ity in our life, even when they not working for us.

But the positive and essential thing about our Operating Manual is that it gives form and structure to our planetary life. It helps us ground ourselves in earthly matters and engage in life on earth. In its own way, each Operating Manual helps give us focus, provides us with boundaries, and guides us in deciding what is important to us and what is not. It is a weighty and serious work and is therefore under the governance of the planet Saturn.

The First Chakra and Saturn — Your Legal System

Now let’s face it, if you know anything about astrology, you know that Saturn is definitely not the life of the party. How could he be? He’s in charge of the Rule Book! His role is not to entertain us, it is to remind us of our responsibilities. Saturn works with form and structure, he writes laws and contracts, and teaches us how to live in a physically-focused environment. Saturn is the disciplinarian and judge, and although we may sometimes groan when we come up against his insistence on one of his mandates, we need Saturn’s energy as a foundation on which to build our lives. If our Operating Manual is incomplete, or our Saturn energy dissipated, our footing becomes unsure, we don’t feel safe, we don’t feel supported, and life just loses its juice.

Utilizing Saturn energy in the first chakra gives us our earthly “legal system” as a guide for living. Saturn expertly works with the part of our consciousness that has come into physical form, and teaches us what it is to be a soul in a human body.

First Chakra Initiation

Each chakra in the human energy system is encoded with transformational energies. The flowering, or exaltation, of any chakra is sparked by a spiritual initiation held within the energy center. As the energy of the initiation begins to unfold in our life, the chakra begins to open into a glorious, healthy bloom which enhances our life by aligning us with the positive energies of the chakra.

The first initiation of the first chakra is individuation from the tribe and what this means is that we take a really good look at the Operating Manual we were handed at birth and have treated as law. We read it thoroughly and decide what works for us and what does not. Then we rewrite what we want to transform and begin to live by a new set of “rules.” The energy of Saturn can be of great assistance with this rewriting because Saturn helps guide us to set intention and move through life with purpose. Saturn energy wants to build our character and so helps us create guidelines for the new edition of our Operating Manual that allow us to interact elegantly with our earthly experiences. And although Saturn may present us with tests and trials (it is an initiation, after all), it is with the sole purpose of gaining Wisdom -- Wisdom to be written into our Operating Manual, Wisdom to be the Author-ity in our own life and Wisdom to gracefully inhabit our physical form.

It is interesting that one of the functions of this very earthly first energy center is to act as the storehouse for the feminine kundalini energy which lies coiled at the base of the spine. The kundalini energy represents the soul encased in form, living by the earthly laws of time and space, yet with the potential to burst through the material bounds into its true formless and potent nature. The first chakra and its Saturn partner are the staunch and able caretakers of the kundalini serpent -- our true and miraculous potential.