What if change is possible?
Nancy Privett - Energy based therapies

The Second Chakra and Mars
The Power of Our Military

by Nancy Privett, MA, EFTCert-I, BBSH

The Second Energy Center

In energy field science, the second chakra governs the area of the physical body from the internal pelvic floor to the navel. This is a quite dynamic area of the body - in fact, we could call it the "Shake, Rattle and Roll" chakra. It is the energy area that endows us with the creative Force, the sexual Force, and the procreative Force (all the same Force, by the way) and then deals with and interprets our power and control issues. It settles us into our physical bodies and introduces us to our emotional guidance system. It is the energy area that receives the life Force from the first center and sends it up the spine. And it is the center that gives us the ability to become excellent belly dancers.

Here we have the hips, which allow us to move us forward, sit, bend and turn, as well as the pelvis, which provides a foundation for the movement of the back and legs and transfers energy from the upper body down to the legs. The lumbar spine is in the second chakra area: it functions as a foundation for the entire spinal column, supports most of our body weight and provides flexibility of movement. The second energy center also provides energy to our sexual and generative organs; to our lower intestines, including the colon; and to the bladder.

We saw, in Part 1 of this article series, that the first energy center grounds our consciousness in the planet and provides our operating manual for life on earth. Once we have our manuals, we want to start exploring and experiencing life in a physical body, and to do this, we use the motor of the second chakra. The energy here is much different from the structured legal system of the first chakra. As an example of this, think of the difference in range of motion that the legs have (first chakra) versus the hips (second chakra). The second energy center undulates and powerfully pulses. It can rotate and thrust. It has movement and potency and force and verve. Healthy second chakra energy exudes not only vitality, but also a grounded mastery and COMMAND - yes, the kind that must be written in capital letters.

As if all that isn't enough glamour, the second energy center area of the body also contains the tan t'ien (also "dantian" and "dan tien"), an energetic center about an inch and a half below the navel, which is the body's physical center of balance and gravity, as well as the main storehouse of "chi," or internal Energy.

Power Headquarters

Basically, the second chakra is like the military branch of our energy systems. It is the command headquarters for all matters involving power: our power to carry the life force, our power to procreate, our sexual power, our creative power to shape life in a way that pleases us, our power to choose what we want, our power to move in the direction we want, and so on and so on. The second chakra asks and answers questions like: What do I want? (Anything you desire.) How do I make it happen? (All the power you will ever need is right here, right now.) Where is the juice?(Again, the power is right here.) Where is the funding going to come from? (From the never-ending supply of power/energy that is always present, right here in the second chakra.)

The second center is the jumping-off place for any creative adventure - the power fueling station, so to speak. When we look for a planet to pair up with our second chakra, we must find one that knows how to handle power, who knows how to be in COMMAND. It is quite obvious that the only one for the job is Mars.

Mars and Power

Mars is a feisty go-getter of a planet. Its energy is lively and spirited, dynamic and creative, generative and arousing. Mars teaches us to assert ourselves; it is custodian of "positive aggression," the kind we need, for example, to reach out and choose the food we want, or to get out of bed in the morning and prepare for the day. We call upon our Mars energy when we begin new projects, when we need courage or stamina. Mars energy in our second chakra solidly connects us with our physical bodies. With our second chakra full of balanced Mars energy, we are good "drivers" of our physical vehicles, which allow us to navigate our life adventures. Like a good military force, a balanced second chakra allows us to use our power in beneficial ways.

When Mars energy is deficient in the second chakra, we become passive. We let others choose for us and then complain that we have no autonomy. We say "no" to moving forward, we feel like we have no ability to change our lives, the fire goes out, our interest dwindles, we become apathetic. We have no warrior energy.

Conversely, we can have too much Mars energy. Then we see the shadow of Mars, and the energy in the second chakra becomes distorted. This may manifest in cruelty or violence or a need to dominate. Now the warrior turns into a murderer, and the military force turns to war and destruction. Any mastery of COMMAND devolves into a tyrannical quest.

One easy exercise to use to balance second chakra Mars energy is to stand with your feet shoulder-width apart, knees flexible, hands on hips, and imagine that you have a pencil at the end of your tailbone, with the pencil tip pointing down to the floor. Begin to slowly rotate your hips and imagine that you are drawing big, full circles on the floor. Don't move the upper body, just the hips. These pelvic rotations, when done at a steady pace, are a good way to bring balanced energy into your second energy center.

Mars and Venus as Co-Creative Partners in the Second Chakra
Although Mars "rules" the second chakra, his energy alone is not enough for the successful implementation of the creative force. In mythology, Mars had a lover - Venus - and we find both of their energies in this dynamic center.

Mars energy represents the outward-moving masculine energy, which is the one that points at the apple tree, says, "I want those apples hanging off that high branch, and I have the ability to get them." Mars then gets the ladder, carries it to the tree trunk, scurries up it, plucks all the apples he wants from the tree, climbs down and feels very satisfied. But now the question is: What to do with all these apples?

The creative process needs both masculine and feminine energy to carry a task to fruition. This is where Venus comes in. She looks at the apples, and brings the idea of them inside to her creative laboratory, where she comes up with the idea to make a pie. Mars will peel and core the apples, but then Venus must put them in the pie and take the pie to her interior oven and bake it, essentially transforming it into something different. The pie that is the outcome doesn't look like the red apples from the tree, but it certainly has aspects of them. And it took a co-creative partnership of Mars and Venus to create the final result.

The second chakra in women contains the womb, which is Venus energy. When the Mars and Venus energies are combined, the procreative force is activated. In any creative endeavor, we need both the Mars energy and the Venus energy to bring our project to its fruition.

Initiation of the Mars Chakra

The second chakra is all about power and although the general belief has been that the power must be gotten from outside of ourselves, the initiative teaching of the second chakra is that all power is internal. All the power we will ever need is right here, right now, and available to us internally. And we all have the same internal infinite amount of power. These tenets explain why the archetype of the second chakra is "The Naked Man/The Naked Woman." This powerful archetype reminds us that even if we were stripped of everything earthly, we still are endowed with all the power we will ever need to create the life we want. (Interestingly, a mutated version of this archetype can be seen walking around in Times Square in the form of The Naked Cowboy and the Naked Cowgirl.)

If it sounds like we are now in Mystery School, well, this is exactly the direction in which our second chakra wants us to go. The ancient mystery schools and wisdom teachings were about learning to become responsible managers of our powerful internal force. The exaltation of our second chakra with its dynamic Mars energy is our mastery of how we direct the potent Source that is energetically encoded in our bodies.