Fourth Chakra

Sanskrit name: Anahata chakra

Musical note: F

Element: Air (breath, wind)

Color: Green

Endocrine: Thymus gland

Keywords: LOVE/FEELINGS/VOICE OF THE SPIRIT

Love is what the heart chakra is all about. When our hearts are open, we love ourselves and others. If it's too open we become too sensitive and feel too much of what's going on, without a healthy balance of boundary. If the heart is closed we feel somehow cut off from our Source and our soul. We feel hardened. Closing the heart chakra enables one to feel anger and fear. In times of self-protection, this center must close.

Again the idea is balance. The heart is the voice of the spirit. When the heart is in balance we feel an incredible harmony, a love and tenderness for ourselves and others. We feel the childlike magic dawning all around us and we are at this magic's center. The heart is "The Ever True Voice". It never lies. Focusing and listening to the heart in times of question and confusion will restore clarity and answers. The heart chakra is special since it has a very desirable and fulfilling vibration when activated and balanced. It's a spiritual center, providing for "The Truth Which Passeth Understanding" as well as "the joy, joy,joy, joy down in my heart". In baseball the heart chakra would be home plate.

The areas of correspondence with the heart chakra are: the physical heart, lungs, all breathing conditions, feeling cut off from feelings, or feeling love, feeling cut off from source and love, heart attack (not listening to the heart causes the heart to make one listen to it), self-love or self-hate, hearing of "the still small voice of the divine," or not hearing it, and unconditional love for oneself and others.

The heart is particularly attuned to the sense of hearing and the act of listening. The heart symbol even resembles two ears that are joined. If you take the first letters of heart you can make an inner meaning of HEAR Truth. Heart also spells the name of the beneficent terrestrial sphere we live on, Earth. Remember, the heart is particularly sensual because it's the home of one's feeling nature. Self-love lives here as do All forms of love. Angels can touch this place and activate our self-love. Receiving love from oneself is like being in Heaven. Once you taste it you want a steady stream. I'll finish this chakra with a quote from a good friend, Sandra: "You have to love yourself so much that the difference between you and God disappears."