The Seventh Chakra and Mercury
The Portal to Your Non-Physical Self

by Nancy Privett, MA, EFTCert-I, BBSH

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

Who Are You, Really?

If you were asked to describe yourself, what would you say? Most likely you would begin with your name, where you live, what you do for a living, and then describe your relationships. You might include what you look like, your likes and dislikes, what you are passionate about, experiences that have shaped your life, and your opinions about specific aspects of the world. All of this would provide a good composite of your physical self and personality. There is only one problem – it would be terribly incomplete.

The problem with the above description is that it ignores a very real part of your being that isn’t talked about very much, and that part is the non-physical part of you. Some would call this non-physical part your superconscious self, or your higher self, or your expanded being, or your cosmic consciousness, or the God-part of you. Because it is “super”-conscious, it is normally outside of your awareness; it is beyond who you believe yourself to be.

You are very familiar with your waking consciousness self – that is the part of you that you see in the mirror and use as a vehicle to negotiate the physical plane. And yet this “self” that you are so familiar with actually emerges from a much larger non-physical force field that is more YOU than the YOU you recognize when you look in the mirror.
It might seem confusing to consider that there is another, essentially invisible, aspect of yourself that you don’t know very well. Here is another way to look at it. What if “who-you-are” starts with a loving, non-physical energy, which is always connected to a loving Great Force, which creates and sustains the well-being of the universe? What if the desire to incarnate and experience physicality is born out of your non-physical energy? What if, when you are born, you don’t lose the non-physical aspect of yourself? What if you are never separated from the Source-connected, non-physical part of yourself, even if you forget is there most of the time? Wouldn’t it be nice to think that the non-physical aspect of you that is always connected to the well-being of the universe is always supporting you, guiding you, loving you and educating you, whether or not you are aware of it?

The heart and the upper chakras are direct links to this non-physical energy, but the most direct route -- the biggest door, you might say -- is through the seventh chakra.

The Seventh Chakra

The seventh chakra emerges from the physical body at the top of the head. Also called the crown chakra, its Sanskrit name is “Thousandfold” and its symbol is a lotus flower with a thousand petals. Out of all the chakras, the seventh is most thought of as a portal, a heavenly gateway to connect your physicality with your superconscious self, which is the non-physical aspect of your being.

The seventh chakra is the repository for your faith in something bigger than you. It holds the template for your beliefs about a benign universal Source of power. It is also a very important intake/outtake valve. As an outtake valve, the seventh chakra is a conduit for releasing the negativity of life experiences while keeping the growth garnered from them. It allows you to emerge victorious from the dark night of the soul. It is also the major center through which the energy leaves the body upon death.

As an intake valve, the seventh chakra takes in very high vibrational energy from the non-physical plane and the non-physical aspect of you. This means that it is a conduit for “direct knowing” guidance – which is when the answer or the guidance that you have been seeking “pops” into your consciousness and you just know it to be right. This function leads us to the planet that resides in the seventh chakra – the active intelligence of Mercury.

Mercury in the Seventh Chakra

You may recognize Mercury as “the messenger of the gods,” and indeed, in Roman mythology, it was Mercury’s job to travel back and forth between the earth realm and the home of the deities, carrying messages from one plane of existence to the other. He was also assigned the job of assisting in the transition of souls who had just died, leading them from the earth plane into the non-physical afterlife.

Astrological language gives an even richer meaning to Mercury’s energies and attributes. Not only does Mercury bring you guidance from the non-physical realm, but its energies help you translate that guidance and bring it from your soul into your personality. In other words, Mercury helps you decode and make sense of the mysterious and sometimes hard-to-translate high-vibrational energy that comes into your seventh chakra, so that energy can be interpreted as guidance and used in your daily life. It allows you to bring the divine energy that is YOU into your physical experience. Mercury is an alchemist – its energies take spiritual, non-physical magic and turn that magic into manifested gold to be used in the material plane. Through Mercury you are essentially given the keys to the realms of transcendent consciousness, from which you can channel divine healing energy, activate your divine potential, and realize that you are always connected to a Source that creates and maintains the universe. From the viewpoint of this cosmic energy, what are called “miracles” on earth, are simply manifestations of your divine birthright.

Mercury is the guardian of the seventh energy center, which manages transitions and crossroads. Mercury not only assists your spirit when it leaves the body in the act of death, but its energy assists you in allowing an aspect of your life to die so that you can consciously emerge into a bigger life and a bigger consciousness.

Mercury’s alchemy and assistance can only be experienced if your seventh chakra is up and running and finely-tuned. The two best vehicles for keeping your seventh chakra open are meditation and prayer. Remember, this is prayer that has evolved from the victim crying “Please, please help me,” to prayer that says “I am a willing creative partner. Please guide me to be open to Universal grace and support and the infinite wisdom of a loving Source.”

Seventh Chakra Initiation

What does it look like when you have moved through a seventh chakra initiation? The gift of the seventh chakra is the ability to perceive divine energies woven throughout every part of your physical world, even in difficult experiences. Recognizing divine imprint in difficult experiences doesn’t happen immediately upon having something painful occur in your life, of course, but as you allow the energy of the event to move through the healthy chakra system, by the time it gets to the crown chakra, you are emerging from what now can be viewed as a hero’s journey.

Seventh chakra initiation demands that you allow something to die off from your old life in order to metabolize the guidance of higher-vibrational energy and lift your consciousness. The new consciousness affords you a broader perspective by which to interpret your life experiences, a perspective that includes the transpersonal energies from a non-physical aspect of yourself.

When you have passed through seventh chakra initiation, you make your relationship with your non-physical Higher Self a priority in your life. It is the relationship to be pursued and housecleaned and nurtured first and foremost. When this happens, there is access to an undercurrent of tangible peace and joy that allows you to say, “Life is a blessing.” If you remember, this phrase is from the healthy first chakra. The energy from the top of your head is magnetized to connect with the first chakra energies, leaving you with your feet firmly planted on the earth and what appears to be a magical ability to bring grace into your world.

River of Light: Journey of Energy from the Crown Chakra to the Root Chakra

When you open your crown chakra to the Light of spiritual energy, the movement of Light down through the physical body and the corresponding energy centers sets off a cascade of grace that elicits the qualities of each chakra center as the Light passes through.

It begins in the seventh chakra, which opens as Mercury upwells the quality of faith in a benign supportive Source from which you are never separated. You believe that everything is possible.

The sixth chakra between the brows opens and the rhythms of the Moon stream understanding, insight and wisdom into your conscious awareness.

The fifth chakra opens and Venus brings your desire and will into perfect balance, while at the same time the qualities of honesty, strength and mercy are elicited.

The heart chakra opens and the Sun pours into your chest and draws forth your inner qualities of love, harmony, appreciation, balance and beauty. From the innermost core of the heart emerges the gift of invincible strength.

As the river of celestial light continues down through the body, it enters the third chakra, which opens as Jupiter begins to radiate the qualities of majesty, generosity, charisma and patience.

The second chakra opens and your inner Mars delivers vitality, passion, and creativity with a base of equanimity.