The Crown Chakra is at the top of our head and connects us to the divine and higher consciousness. It’s associated with knowledge, thought, and understanding.
When we are in alignment with our 7th chakra, we live in the present moment with a strong trust in our inner guidance.
Sanskrit – Sahasrara (Thousandfold)
Purpose – Understanding
Color – Violet to White
Location – Top of head, cerebral cortex
Identity – Universal
Orientation – Self-knowledge
Demon – attachment
Element – Thought
Sense – Touch
Symbol – Lotus with 12 petals
Celestial Planet – Uranus
Corresponding Verb – To Know
Yoga Path – Jnana Yoga or meditation
Gods + Hindu Deities – Zeus, Allah, Enki, Inanna, Odin, Shiva, Ama-kala (upward moving Shakti), and Varuna
Glands – Pituitary
Children are constantly hungry for knowledge, and withholding it deprives the child of proper mental nourishment. When information is withheld, the child either makes it up or stops asking. In either case, the searching stops and our crown chakra ceases to draw in new information and shuts down.
7th chakra development builds our cognitive structure, our sense of belief systems, our understanding of the world and our ability to question and think for ourselves. There is no concrete developmental stage or age for this, as it happens in different ways from the moment were born until our last breath. The main activity of this cognitive structure is learning.
Through learning, we expand our horizons, master our relationships, and grow toward understanding and wisdom. Learning constantly adjusts what we know and upgrades our cognitive matrix.
We consciously crave a deeper understanding and connection. We develop our ability to question and be open-minded.
As we learn, we develop intelligence.
- Ability to perceive, analyze, and assimilate information
- Intelligent, thoughtful, aware
- Open-minded, able to question
- Spiritually connected
- Wisdom and mastery, broad understanding
The demon of this chakra is attachment.
Attachment to the particular keeps us from realizing the universal and the infinite.
Attachment keeps our mind cluttered and prevents us from releasing any limited beliefs or blockages.
When we release attachments, we allow the upward, liberating current of energy to move toward its goal of freedom.
Is there a difference between attachment and commitment? – Yes!
Attachment is based on a desired outcome or result
Commitment is based on intention rather than results
The realms of our lower chakras do require commitment, consistency and sometimes struggle. Whether we commit to a spiritual practice, to a person, job, or activity, our commitment is made more powerful when it’s freed from the lust of a particular result. When we release attachments, it leaves us free to commit more fully, even when it becomes difficult or challenging.
Be sure to examine your attachments by asking yourself –
“What things am I attached to? Who? Why? What is it about them?”
Learn more about understanding + releasing attachments with the Crown Chakra Box!
Our attachments become our beliefs.
The goal of the Crown Chakra is to awaken our consciousness on each and every level of our human potential. This awakening is aided by the act of questioning. Too often we accept our programming without questioning, and therefore, without consciousness.
Ask yourself –
“Is this belief really true?”
“How do I know this?”
“Does this belief serve me or hinder me?”
“What might be a more productive belief?”
As we grow, everything we come in contact with influences the programming that we develop to process the overwhelming wealth at information coming in through our sensory organs at all times. We begin the process of reprogramming by examining what programs are running things right now and where they come from.
DEFICIENT 7TH CHAKRA –
- Spiritual cynicism
- Learning difficulties
- Rigid belief systems
- Apathy
- Excess in lower chakras – materialism, greed, domination of others
EXCESSIVE 7TH CHAKRA –
- Overintellectualization
- Spiritual addiction
- Confusion
- Dissociation from body
PHYSICAL MALFUNCTIONS –
- Coma
- Migraines
- Brain tumors
- Amnesia
- Cognitive delusions
NEEDS + ISSUES –
- Transcendence
- Immanence
- Belief systems
- Higher Power
- Divinity
- Union
- Vision
Learning Basic Rights – To know and to learn
Developmental Stage – Early adulthood and after (or all throughout life)
Developmental Tasks – Assimilation of knowledge and the development of wisdom
TRAUMAS + ABUSES –
- Withheld information
- Education that thwarts curiosity
- Forced religiosity
- Invalidation of one’s beliefs
- Blind obedience (no right to question or think for oneself)
- Misinformation, lies
- Spiritual abuse and criticism
In the crown chakra, we find our Universal Identity – the more our consciousness expands, the larger our identity becomes. As we realize the magic of the cosmos, we have the opportunity to transcend our smaller, more limited world, and identify with the entire universe.
This is a common theme in mystical + psychedelic experiences – where the Ego Identity (of the third chakra) surrenders into a unitary identity with all of life and creation. In eastern philosophy, this is the basis of true self-knowledge – the knowledge of divinity within.
While Chakras 1-6 each have individual identities, they all unite in the seventh chakra towards a universal commonality.
The purpose of the crown chakra, meditation and most spiritual disciplines is to break through the binding with the smaller identities and to achieve realization of the universal identity. This does not deny the reality of the smaller identities, it just means we see them as important roles to create the integrated whole.
Like Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, we must consolidate our identities on the lowers levels before we can sustain the larger identities.
Learn more about the identities in all 7 chakras here
- Reestablish physical, emotional connection (excess)
- Reestablish spirit connection (deficiency)
- Learning + Study
- Meditation
- Reading
- Spiritual Discipline
- Psychotherapy (examine belief systems, develop inner witness, work with higher power)
Do I dissociate from my body?
Am I addicted to spirituality or religion?
Do I feel confused often?
Can I over intellectualize things?
Do I live in my head?
Do I feel disconnected from spirit?
Am I attached to people, possessions, or beliefs?
Am I a cynic with spiritual matters?
Am I closed-minded?
Do I have learning difficulties?
Do I have rigid belief systems?
Do I have apathy?
