no. seven

the crown chakra archetype

Artwork: Unknown, Unknown, Natalie Thomas

A toolbox for

MASTERY // WISDOM // KEEPING AN OPEN MIND // AWARENESS // COsmic consciousness // limitlessness

Working with no. 7 support

I invite you to utilize this course in whatever way serves you to get the most value. I would listen to the audio a couple of times and read through all of the content to begin and see what jumps out at you. Maybe you know exactly what you want to dive into or you visit a piece of it everyday working your way through. Another option is grabbing a tool or a few and work with them for 30 days noticing what shifts or doesn’t and then experiment with a new one.

If you’d like to inject some whimsy + have some daily guidance. Here is a 30 Days to a more balanced CROWN Deck. You can print the pages and cut them into cards; fold them and put them in a bowl, and then draw a card each day to offer you a focus.

No. 7

Anatomy associated with The Crown: brain and skull, pineal gland, carotid plexus. It also Influences the nervous system, muscular system and the skin. 
Related Functions: Circadian Rhythms

Element: Thought

SOME THEMES ASSOCIATED WITH THE CROWN:

• a meeting point between the finite and the infinite

• vastness

• humility

• connecting to something bigger than yourself, spiritual relationship

• seeing yourself in all beings

• compassion

• accepting your place and part to play in the Universe

• awakening consciousness

• the seat of the soul

DEFICIENCY:: not enough vital energy in this area from energy leaking. The energy may flow in but there are poor boundaries and energy can’t be contained like a sink without a plug. It’s important here to create a boundary to contain the energy. Deficiency may lead to spiritual cynicism, apathy, pattern repetition + default settings that do not serve you, a difficulty in learning or assimilating new information, becoming solid with your limiting beliefs. A deficiency in the Crown can also lead to excess in the lower chakras.

We want to be mindful in education to not block curiosity, to allow for the ability to question.

EXCESS: too much energy flowing in, the sink is overflowing. This can result in mental confusion, a disconnect from the body or emotions, spiritual addiction, the need to be right/know it alls and excess intellectualization. We can all get caught up trying to figure it out with our minds but when we intellectualize to excess we can become overwhelmed by too much energy in the head resulting in chronic headaches or confusion. This can also happen when we Freeze as part of the Fight/Flight Pattern.

When we are experiencing excess, grounding exercises are key. We want to bring the energy down to the lower chakras.

BALANCE:

• a connection with Source/Higher Self/Divine Guidance

• access to our inner wisdom + grounded awareness

• a feeling of serenity despite outer circumstances

• being open minded and curious

• cultivating wisdom + mastery

• a broad perspective

• intelligence

• thoughtfulness

• the ability to absorb and assimilate new information

toolbox

JOURNAling Prompts

• Do you have a defined or open Crown Center? Explore.

• What patterns are you seeing/most aware of in the world? In your life?

• Do you feel connected to Source/Divine Guidance and trust in the process?

• Do you cultivate curiosity? Where do you feel you have fixed POV’s in your life?

• Have you become solid with any limiting beliefs you need to clear?

• Do you have a consistent practice for grounding?

• Do you feel you have access to unlimited possibilities? If not, why?

• Do you practice compassion? With yourself?

• Are you spending time connecting into Source with gratitude, listening to your guides, asking for guidance, watching out for signs?

• Contemplate your Purpose and what you’re here to learn. Many insights and jumping off points in your Human Design.

  
  

Healing

food

eat fresh Whole Foods

Picking fresh fruits and vegetables, growing your own garden (and then eating it) are all extremely nourishing. As well as eating for detoxification (check out all the offerings in Spring Cleanse). Here are some others for purifying and nourishing the Crown.

MAKE A SPIRIT PLATE

A Spirit Plate is a Shamanic tradition of offering a small amount of your food on a plate as gratitude and sharing to Spirit. The plate of food sits on the table throughout the meal as a reminder of the grace of Spirit. 

You can also do this in nature, offering tobacco or water to the Earth, etc..  This is also in harmony with The Root Chakra.

Hot tea of Gotu Kola and Tulsi

• Gotu Kola balances left and right brain.

• Tulsi expands and integrates higher knowledge and understanding to allow for spiritual expression and is calming to the Nervous System. 

For convenience, I really love this Tulsi Sweet Rose from India Organics. Or you can buy loose leaf bulk at your local herb shoppe. 

Also chewing dry-toasted fennel seeds (or coriander for less estrogen) after a meal to cool off the digestive acids, helping to ensure your food is properly digested and absorbed. Bonus = mouth freshener. 

C E L E R Y   J U I C E 

Celery juice is said to be incredibly healing to your gut, detoxing and alkalizing.  I heard about it first via Medical Medium. The key is to have the celery juice on its own, first thing in the morning on an empty stomach. I don't have a juicer right now so I blend 1-2 bunches of celery in the blender with a bit of water and then strain through my nut milk bag. Enjoy immediately before it oxidizes. 

recipes

CLEANSING KICHADI
Pictured above from: My New Roots

Ingredients:
1 Tbsp. coconut oil or ghee
½ Tbsp. cumin seeds
½ Tbsp. mustard seeds
½ Tbsp. coriander seeds
½ tsp. ground turmeric
1 cinnamon stick
1-2 Tbsp. minced ginger (to taste)
1 large tomato, chopped (optional)
2 medium yellow onion, diced
2 medium carrots, chopped
1 small / 250g sweet potato (or other seasonal root veggie), chopped
1 cup / 200g brown rice
½ cup / 110g mung beans or brown lentils
1 tsp. fine grain sea salt
1 cup / 140g green peas, frozen or fresh
4 cups / 1L water (or more, as needed)
a couple handfuls finely chopped cilantro
lemon to garnish

Directions:
1. If possible, soak the rice and pulses together overnight, or for 8-12 hours. Drain and rinse very well.

2. Melt the oil in a large stockpot. Add the cumin and mustard seed and fry just until the mustard seeds start to pop. Add the remaining spices, stir and then add the tomato and ginger (if you’re opting out of the tomato, simply use a few splashes of water). Fry for a couple minutes until fragrant.

3. Add the onion, carrots, sweet potato, brown rice, mung beans, salt, and water. Bring to a boil, reduce to simmer and cook for about 45 minutes, until the rice and beans are soft. About five minutes before serving, add the peas whether fresh or frozen, and cook until they are warm. Add more water for a stew-y consistency, or if the pot becomes dry while cooking.

4. Serve kichadi hot, garnished with cilantro and a squeeze of fresh lemon juice. Give thanks and enjoy.

ASPARAGUS + DAIKON SOUP
From: What to Eat for How You Feel by Divya Alter

1 cup peeled and diced daikon radish

1 medium taro root, peeled and diced (about 2/3 cup)

1 tsp grated fresh ginger

1 tsp ground coriander

3/4 tsp salt, or to taste

1/2 tsp ground numeric

1/4 tsp freshly ground black pepper

1 tsp olive oil

1 bunch of asparagus, fibrous stalk ends trimmed and spears cut into 1/2 inch pieces

(about 3 cups)

Garnishes: 

1 TBSP chopped fresh cilantro or dill

3 or 4 lime slices

1. In a 2 quart saucepan, combine 4 cups water, the daikon, taro, ginger, coriander, salt, turmeric, pepper and olive oil. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce the heat, cover and simmer for 10 minutes. Add the asparagus and cook for 5 more minutes, or until all vegetables are tender. 

2. Let cool a bit and then puree until a smooth or chunky consistency. Reheat if necessary and garnish. 

GREEN DETOX SOUP
From: Liz Moody

Ingredients:

• 3 medium or 2 large yellow onions, peeled and roughly chopped

• 1 zucchini, washed but not peeled, and roughly chopped

• 10 leaves dinosaur kale, roughly chopped

• 1 head broccoli, roughly chopped (while you can chop off any especially woody bits, it’s great to include the stem)

• 4 cups vegetable broth

• 1 head garlic, cloves removed and minced

• ½ cup packed cilantro (or fresh coriander, for Brits)

• ½ cup packed parsley

• Juice of 1 lemon

• 3 tbsp raw, unrefined coconut oil *(I would sub Avocado oil of Ghee)

• 1/4 tsp sea salt

In a large pot, heat coconut oil over medium-high until warm. Add onions and cook for 5 minutes, stirring occasionally, then add zucchini, kale and broccoli and cook for 5 additional minutes. Pour in vegetable stock and bring to boil, then reduce heat to low and simmer, covered, for 15-20 minutes or until broccoli is easily pierced with fork. Turn off heat and add garlic, then let cool, uncovered, for 15 minutes. Working in batches if necessary, blend with cilantro, parsley, lemon and sea salt until very smooth. Serves 4.

a few of my favorite Whole Foods “cookbooks”

• Medical Medium

• Life Changing Foods

• Liver Rescue

• Your Tastebuds Are Assholes

• The First Mess

• Eat Clean Play Dirty

• Moon Juice

• A Painters Kitchen

• My New Roots

• Six Seasons

Resource

Nadi breath

Hands-Free Nadi Shodhana (alternate nostril breathing)

Sit up in a comfortable seat, and rest your hands on your knees (you can also begin by plugging alternating nostrils if this help). Bring awareness to the touch of air at your nostrils. Once focused on this sensation, concentrate an exhale out the left nostril. Then inhale through the left nostril and exhale out the right. Inhale through the right nostril and exhale left.

Continue with this pattern, using your concentration (rather than your hand) to direct the flow of breath. Spend five to ten minutes here.

VAJRASANA meditation
(thunderbolt pose) + Shiva Linga Mudra

Sit on your heels with the big toes touching. Engage your core and lift your chest. Keep your chin parallel to the floor as you close your eyes, or soften your gaze. The Crown of your head points to the sky.

Place your left palm, face up, in front of your solar plexus (the area of the abdomen just below your sternum).

Make a fist with your right hand, and stick your thumb out. Place the right fist on top of the left palm so that your thumb points up. Press the hands softly into one another, sensing the relationship between the upward and the downward force in order to hold center. Soften your shoulders. Breathe naturally.

clearing

Tools for clearing your space:
*especially important if your strongest Sense in Human Design is: Feeling

• Burning ethically sourced Palo Santo (from dead trees), Juniper (for healing trauma), Cinnamon or Sweetgrass.

• Plants

• Salt lamps

• Beeswax Candles

• Having a gemstone “drain” in the main/social room of your home like Onyx or Black Obsidian.

• Shungite and/or black tourmaline for EMF protection

• Turning off your wifi at night and turning off or putting your devices on Airplane Mode.

Tools for clearing your aura:

• Selenite

• Energy Dry Brushes

• Salt water baths or dunks in the ocean

• Piñon or other plant clearing hydrosol

MANTRA
"This mantra is known as the Ashtang Mantra for the Aquarian Age. It will open the solar plexus, which in turn will charge the solar centers. The person will get connected with the Cosmic Energy, and thus will be liberated from the cycle of time and karma. Those who meditate on this mantra in silence will charge their solar centers and be one with the Divine. That is why I speak to you of why we should meditate and recite this mantra."
-Yogi Bhajan

Morning Call // Long Chant // Long Ek Ong Kar

Begin with the Adi Mantra.

Then Inhale: EK OOOOOONNNNNNNNGGGGGG KKKKKKAAAAAARRRRR

2nd Inhale: SAT NNNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMM SIRI

Small Inhale: WAHEE GGGGUUUURRRRUUUU

You can do this for 3 - 11 minutes + close with Sat Nam

Practice

• Practice extreme unction in your daily life. Remember that it is the act of calling our soul back to our body before we die and the way we do this is by cutting ties to attachments, to unfinished business, things we wish had gone differently, accepting choices we made, forgiving others, forgiving ourselves, releasing the "should" feelings. Release attachment and let previous phases of your life die. You can find a Cord Cutting Meditation here.

• Find ways to unify your inner life with your outer life. Find your joy. Assume its energy. Take yourself on dates, get dressed up for no reason, take a class in something your passionate about, find ways to bring your purpose and your passion into your day to day. Find the fun in your own healing. 

• Seek inspiration in environments that inspire you or contain people who inspire you, ESPECIALLY if you have an open Crown Center.

• Explore your Crown Center.

• To expand through the Crown Chakra, remember that you need strong widespread roots, so it's always good to check back in with your lower chakras and make sure you have grounding stability. Begin by nourishing your Root. Bringing balance to all of the lower chakras will give you the foundation to explore higher consciousness.

• Pay attention to the opposing forces: the energy coming down from your Crown through your feet into the Earth and energy coming up from the Earth through your Root and up through your Crown and their meeting place in your Solar Plexus and your Heart. They're all connected.

• As with the 6th Chakra there is really no better practice than meditation and bringing mindfulness to your days. Here is a great guide to getting started. And, I’m always happy to work with folks one on one to find the right practice for you through follow up appointments.

• Get inspired to grow some food with The Biggest Little Farm.

• Ego Eradicator Meditation

• Sat Kriya

• In Kundalini, meditating on the tip of your nose connects you into The Crown.

• Connect to Eagle Medicine.

• Flame Gazing meditation. Set a timer, find a comfy seat, focus your soft gaze (drishti) on the flame of a candle as you find your center and stillness.

• Box breathing. Inhale 4 count, hold 4 count, exhale 4 count, hold 4 count.

• Skull Shining Breath

• Non-linear movement.

• Color therapy.

• Sound Healing.

• Receive energy work (Reiki, Pranic healing, etc..)

• Time for daily silence, especially outside in nature.

• Clear out the things that do not light you up in your surroundings, find your healthy form of minimalism.

• Acts of service, reciprocity + tithing.

• Be open to and/or cultivate a relationship with other forms of consciousness like elementals + plant healing.

• Chanting OM

• Meditate visualizing a violet light at your Crown clearing out any obstructions, sluggishness, low vibrations.

• Connect to the stars.

• Work with the energy of the Moon.

• Listen: The Power of Prayer

• Emotional Freedom Technique (EFT)

• Wear Violet.

• Explore The Crown mood board and/or make your own.

Products

• Bath Salts

• Calm

• Headspace

• Scalp Detox

• Salt Scalp Scrub

• Copper Energy Dry Brush

• Holy Basil Tea

• Gotu Kola Tea

• The Power of Now for connecting to our inner witness.

• The Moon Lists

• Find yourself one big bowl or plate to enjoy your meals from.

• Blessing of the Energy Centers Meditation

affirm

I am open to being inspired, new concepts + ideas.

I am guided by my inner wisdom and a higher intelligence.

I attract all I need.

I am a Divine being.

PRACTICE GRATITUDE for everything you have received and will receive daily.

“Thank you Spirit/Source/Guides/Inner Guidance for all of the abundance, help, support, guidance and inspiration. Thank you for lighting my path. I recognize and acknowledge your presence in gratitude.”

POSTURES

All intentional, thoughtful + embodied yoga, meditation and pranayama helps to bring balance to the Crown.

Stand in Tadasana. As you inhale, feel the energy travel up from your feet through the crown of your head. As you exhale, feel the energy flow down from the crown of your head into your feet. Remember that this flow between earth and spirit is always intact and there for you. Take several deep breaths following the path.

This sweet little series.

Eagle Pose + Baby Eagle Pose

Inversions

Ego Eradicator

"The human body emits a range of bio-electric energy signatures, which taken together form a powerful electromagnetic field known as the aura. Over a hundred different cultures have given names to this phenomenon, so it is in no way a new revelation. What is new is the understanding that the DNA molecule's primary role in the body (even before protein synthesis) is, in fact, electromagnetic reception and transmission. By converting frequency into chemistry, your DNA generates the overall vitality and quality of your aura. As the Gift frequency grows in your life, so your Aura grows. Your aura is directly linked with your health and with your ability to generate and transmit light waves out into your environment. Within your body, higher frequencies open your heart and flood you with periodic rushes of love and even ecstasy. Such waves reach right into the auric fields of others where they can unlock blocked pathways and give you access to powerful healing energies.

In recent years the human aura has also been likened to an attractor field. Through its frequency, it attracts similar frequencies toward itself, which is the foundation of all relationship attraction. More than this however, as your aura expands, it begins to bring you into a deeper harmony with the greater rhythms of the cosmos, and this in turn produces potent manifestations in your life. Your aura engages the power of synchronicity, the universal law of good fortune."

- Richard Rudd, The Gene Keys

no. 8

I want to also speak about a bit about what some refer to as the 8th Chakra or The Aura.

This is essentially the law of attraction. Your thoughts and words become stories, the stories we run and tell become the hologram we live in. The innermost piece of that hologram is our Aura, it is what we are projecting energetically. That energy is stronger than anything we’re saying. What we are vibrating creates the color of our aura and the strength of our protective bubble as it magnetizes life to us.

We bring balance by remembering that we are spiritual beings. That we are made of stars. That we are connected to infinite abundance. We continually make the choice to connect to our higher consciousness, we choose a better thought, a better feeling. The Eighth Chakra is also very much connected to the Radiant Body. One of my favorite mantras for working with the energy of royalty in the Radiant Body is a short one, the Salok of Japji. It connects us to the energy of elevation, of reverence, self-satisfaction, respect and royalty. You can chant along here. Eleven times in a row or for 11 minutes is kind of the magic number.

SALOK OF JAPJI

PAVAAN GUROO PAANEE PITAA
MAATAA DHARTA MAHAT

DIVAS RAAT DU-I DAAA-EE-DAA-I-AA
KHAYAI SAGAL JAGAT

CHANGI-AA-EE-AA BURI-AA-EE-AA
VAACHAI DHARAM HADOOR.

KARMEE AAPO AAPANNEEE
KAYNAYRRAI KAY DOOR

JINEE NAAM DHI-AA-I-AA-
GA-AY MASAKAT GHAAL.

NAANAK TAY MUKH UJALAY 
KAYTTEE CHHUTTTEE NAAL

Other tools for 8th chakra balance:

• Overcoming Fears. See where they may live in your chart.

• Committing to a Spiritual practice + daily ritual

• Wear white to protect your energy (reflecting outside influence) and expand your aura by at least one foot.

• In Kundalini and in many Native American traditions it is believed that your hair connects you to higher consciousness/wisdom so many believe that you shouldn’t cut it. I still love trimming my hair with the Lunar Cycles.

• All forms of meditation including Ego Eradicator.

• Find more meditations for brightening your radiance in Prosperity (as our Radiance is always tied to our ability to manifest and attract wealth)

• Practice connecting to the energy of your Aura and imagine pushing it out in all directions.

• Get your Aura photographed.

• Check out what keeps you uniquely radiant in your Design.

• Unpacking your Design in general, self inquiry and contemplation.

• Explore The Aura mood board and/or make your own.

• Raising your vibration.

• Creating healthy energetic autonomy + boundaries.

• Tools for the Arcline, the Sixth Energetic Body (the nucleus of the Aura).

• Read about Gene Key 22 which dives into the Rainbow Body - the subtle layers of the Aura known as the Corpus Christie.

• Lean into your Gifts

• Protect your space + your aura from EMF’s as much as you can. Turn off your computer at night, turn off your wifi, put your phone on airplane mode when you’re not using it. Put shungite around your house, wear shungite or black tourmaline. I even have a piece of shungite that lives in my car.

*Some links will only be accessible to members of The Collective to create navigational ease as this workshop is a part of membership. If you want to access them, you can become a member or purchase the corresponding workshop a’la carte.