The Fifth Chakra and Venus
Desire and the Will

by Nancy Privett, MA, EFTCert-I, BBSH

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

The Singular Territory of the Upper Chakras

The fifth chakra is the first energy center “over the bridge” of the Heart chakra. You are now in different territory from the three lower chakras. The three upper chakras deal more with consciousness and less with negotiation of the physical plane. Everything here (including the language used to describe the chakra) becomes less concrete, less linear, less logical, and more spiritual, transcendent, esoteric and mystical. It is like the difference between making a detailed list of what you did in the last hour versus describing a complex dream you had and what it meant to you.

The upper chakras are vehicles that help you transcend your “earthly humanness” and fulfill an expanded definition of human potential. The upper centers are extraordinary in that they allow you to participate both in the process of transforming pain and also in becoming an accomplished master of manifesting your life in the way that you choose. These centers remind you that you are not merely a physical waking consciousness; they jog your pre-birth memory that who you are as a human being includes a non-physical aspect that is always connected to the Source of life.

When working with the upper centers, it is important to have the heart remain open to allow passage between the upper chakras and the lower ones. The upper centers need the foundation of the lower ones for balance. You are in a human body, and it is the lower three chakras that manage your vital, basic negotiation with daily life.

The Realm of the Fifth Chakra

The area of the physical body commanded by the fifth chakra begins just below the nose and ears down to the bottom of the collarbone. It includes the respiratory system as a whole (even though the lungs reside in the area of the fourth chakra), specifically ruling the larynx and trachea. Energy from the fifth chakra feeds the thyroid gland, the neck and throat, the cervical vertebrae, the collarbone, the jaw, the teeth, mouth, upper esophagus, gums and tongue, your voice, and your smile!

The fifth chakra expresses and receives. It determines how well you are able to speak up for yourself, how good a communicator you are, and if you tell the truth. A healthy energy center at the throat also allows you to take responsibility for your actions. A coherent fifth chakra bestows the capacity for healthy energy metabolism, that is, how well you manage and “spend” your energy. The evolved fifth center comes clean about your role in creating things in your life that you don’t like and determines to transform the places in you that are keeping you dissatisfied.

However, the major foundational task of the fifth chakra is to provide a “home base” for two powerful modulators – your will energy and your desire. The headquarters for your will energy, which is strong, resolute and determined, is in the hard dense bony tissue of the cervical vertebrae in the back of the neck. The headquarters for your desire, which has to do with longing and yearning, and sometimes feels like a hunger that can make your jaw drop, your saliva flow and can bring a smile to your face, is in the softer area of the throat. It is the partnership of desire and the will that is the first determination of what you will manifest in your life, and so the fifth chakra also holds the creative force, ready to burst forth new possibilities into your life.

The Relationship between Desire and Will

Here is how the relationship between your desire and your will works. You have desires all day long – it is a completely natural process. What do you desire to have for lunch? What kind of car do you desire to drive? Do you desire your kitchen to be tidy? Do you desire to create a healthy relationship? Your desires are a normal and required part of being human, but by themselves, they are just dreams or wishful thinking. In order for your desires to be fulfilled, your will energy must come into play. You can hold a desire to have a tidy kitchen all day long, but unless you are motivated by your will to take action to create a neat kitchen, it is not going to happen and your desire remains unfulfilled.

What was just described is the relationship between your interior feminine and masculine energy, and it can be illustrated even better by looking at the relationship between the planet that is associated with your throat chakra – Venus – and Venus’ longtime love affair with Mars.

Venus and the Fifth Chakra

You probably know Venus best as the goddess of beauty and desire. Her goal was to urge humanity to lose itself in the ecstasy of both sensual and spiritual pleasure. In the same way, the astrological Venus stimulates the desire for both material and spiritual growth, reminding us to pay attention to both the material world and the world of spirit. Venus in the throat chakra can represent loving kindness, an energy that flows openly without restraint in the way a wonderful singer’s voice does.

Venus stimulates response; she is passionate and represents the power of attraction. She is an energy vector that opens a doorway between what we desire and the connection to it. She represents the perfect balance of male and female, the electrical link between desire and manifestation. This “electrical link” is also called the Law of Attraction, the universal Force that responds to your desires. After expressing her desire, Venus receives the energy that allows it to be fulfilled.

But Venus alone cannot bring desire into manifestation, and that is where Mars comes in. We encountered Venus and Mars earlier, in the second chakra, and here they are again – it seems they just can’t stay away from one another. In your second chakra, Mars reaches out for what he wants, and gives it to Venus, who receives it and cooks it in the oven of her womb to create something new. In the fifth chakra, Venus expresses a desire, opens the link of the Law of Attraction, and once that energy is received, Mars takes over. Working with all the possibilities offered by the universe, the will energy of Mars implements the action necessary to manifest the
desire in the physical plane. This perfect teamwork sparks the creative process and allows you to become the person you want to be.

Fifth Chakra Initiation

The Sanskrit name for the fifth chakra translates as Purification. The first phase of fifth chakra initiation involves owning responsibility for what isn’t working in your life – a kind of honest, purifying confession of how you have been contributing to your own misery. It is not a good idea to prolong this phase of noticing what you don’t like in your life, since you don’t want to dwell in the negative for any length of time.

The second phase of fifth charka initiation is an awareness of exactly what needs to change in order for you to become the person you want to be. This second phase is where Venus expresses her desire for the change that will allow growth of consciousness. At this point you have changed direction from noticing what you don’t like to what it is you would like, which is a very positive and empowering process.

The third phase of fifth chakra initiation occurs when your Mars energy is willing to allow the change that must take place in order for you to grow. At this point, you may even change the way you pray, from “Please help me” to “I am willing.”