INSIDE THE PROCESS OF CREATING THE SEVEN CHAKRA PAINTINGS
WHAT IS A CHAKRA?
Chakras are vortices of activity that receive, assimilate, and express energy in the form of emotions, thoughts, sensations, etc. The word “chakra” is derived from the Sanskrit word for "wheel" or "turning", and refers to a spinning sphere of bioenergetic activity emanating from the major nerve ganglia branching forward from the spinal column. Generally, seven major subtle energetic centers are described, stacked in a column of energy that spans from the base of the spine to the crown of the head, although there are other, “minor” chakras.
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MY PERSONAL HEALING WORK WITH CHAKRAS
"I became deeply familiar with the chakras through my work with Advanced Integrative Therapy (then, Seemorg Matrix Work). Developed by Dr. Asha Clinton, AIT is a form of transpersonal psychotherapy based on the psychodynamic underpinnings provided by analytic psychology, object relations, and self psychology; on traumatology, energy psychology and energy healing; and on teachings and practices drawn from Sufism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism and other spiritual and religious traditions. AIT accesses unconscious material through Applied Kinesiology (muscle testing), and then moves energy through the body's major energy centers (chakras) to eliminate traumas that are housed within the body, mind and spirit.
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A NEW VISUAL REPRESENTATION
"Through AIT, I learned to feel the energetic centers within my body, as well as to locate emotional or physical sensations in corresponding chakras, and to clear obstructions from my bioenergetic field. I learned to differentiate between the experience of a clear and open chakra, and a blocked one. Being a visual person, I sought images that would correlate to what I was experiencing. None of the chakra depictions I could find even came close. They were all two-dimensional representations, many crudely drawn. The more artistic versions still appeared flat, and were sometimes less accurate (the “thousand-petaled lotus”, or crown chakra was often represented with only 50 or 200 petals). I grew inspired to create a series of images that could be used as tools for healing work and meditation; something that would have a more multi-dimensional feel, and that would be a more accurate representation of my own experience.
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INTEGRATION OF EASTERN & WESTERN COLOR, SACRED GEOMETRY
"Being already influenced in my artwork by sacred geometry and crop circle patterns, I created a series of chakra designs based on these motifs, and integrated both the Eastern and Western associated colors. From “root” to “crown” the Western interpretation uses the 7-color spectrum (ROYGBIV), while the more ancient Eastern traditions utilize colors based on practitioners’ visual experiences in meditations (yellow, white, red, blue, white, silver or colorless). The traditional two-dimensional shapes inside each chakra became their three-dimensional expressions, (for example, a square became a cube, a hexagram became a star tetrahedron, etc.). I painted each of the 1,000 petals of Sahasrara, the crown chakra, representing it as an undulating torus flower.
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QUANTUM HEALING
"The process of creating each of the seven paintings became it’s own unique meditation for me, as I chanted the traditional Sanskrit seed syllables associated with each chakra, in order to create a resonant vibration in my own body, thereby imbuing each piece with the actual experience of a clear and balanced flow of energy through my chakras. In this way, the quantum vibrations were recorded in each of the chakra paintings, making them unique energetic tools for healing work and meditation."