The Root Chakra & Immune System

August ~ Grain Moon

Hello beautiful beings!

Welcome to the fifth month of A Year of Gaia. It is August and the plants are flowering all around me! The land is covered in bursting green… flowering bee balm, so many lilies, blue vervain, tall yellow elecampane flowers, echinacea feeding the bees, and soft pink marshmallow in flowers. It is a gorgeous time of year in the middle of summer growth and the plants are abundant!

This month we begin moving through the chakras and systems of the body starting at the root. We are now beginning an incredible journey with the plants, calling in their medicine and healing energy through our whole being. These healing plants can bring needed transformation on many levels… Deep nourishment and healing for your body and soul. Get ready for powerful medicine in the months ahead!

This month I journey with you into the root chakra and see what plants you fall in love with there. The root is an energy center that holds so much, and I believe it is where most of our individual and collective healing is needed. When you explore the root chakra many emotions, memories, and energy may emerge. I hope you call in the strong support of the plants this month and be tender with yourself. I am with you all in spirit, calling in the plant allies and our helping guides. Ask for their support, and create time with them to receive…

You may want to create an altar to welcome in the energies of the plants for this month. Earth element plants, strong adaptogenic roots, fungi, and nourishing herbs. Choose a few plants to journey with into the root chakra, getting to know each of them one at a time through your own body and being. Notice how these plants you choose to connect to affect you during daily or weekly tea meditations. I will also have guided exercises to help support your journey through each chakra. You may want to incorporate some of these healing practices for each chakra into your month along with the plants. At the end of each month’s chakra journey, you may feel inspired to create a medicine blend for your own healing. Write about your experiences each month, and ask for the plant spirits to guide you.

May you receive the medicine you most need,
Sage

August Welcome Video

Chakras & Healing Therapies

The ‘chakras’ are wheels of energy and consciousness residing in our bodies. All cultures have concepts of the energy, emotions, and wisdom that resides in the major parts of our body. Every healing tradition in the world has roots in both spiritual and physical healing, and all traditions have understood that we store emotions and energy in our physical body. The teachings I learned from originally came from the East (in Tibetan tantra and Reiki), so I use the term ‘chakra’ for that reason. Much of what I teach and what others share about the ‘chakras’ comes from years of deep listening to what we carry in these places of our body, and what they communicate to us. It might be helpful to change the language and not only use the term ‘chakra'... but the Eastern chakra system can be a very helpful as a framework for people to understand. It is also where I received teachings in the chakras through Tibetan Tantric Buddhism, and the Mikao Usui methods of Reiki. Many of these traditional practices are not recorded in books. This is part of the challenge often, since most are oral healing traditions passed on through in person training, working with the body through energy healing, bodywork, and herbal treatments etc. I still find the best way to learn is through direct listening and journeying into your own beings, and working with others one on one.

There are 7 or more main chakras according to Eastern teachings, located along the spine, connected to major organs and nerve centers. They run from the root chakra at the base of the spine, to the crown at the top of the head. The chakras express our emotional, spiritual, and physical states of being. You can understand the chakras as energy and consciousness that resides in the physical body, transmitting and receiving energy/information through our being. Universal life force and healing energy some call chi, prana, mana, or qi, resides in our chakras, helping to feed our whole energetic body. This invisible life force energy helps us to stay healthy, vibrant, and energized.

In order for the chakras to function well, their energy must be able to flow clearly without many blockages or restrictions. When we hold experiences and emotions within us that are difficult to integrate, they can get trapped in our chakras and physical body. Often the chakras heal through releasing the emotions, memories, and voices residing in our body. This can be done through deep listening and journeying into each of the energy centers and organs of the body, allowing the feelings and memories that reside there to rise up and be seen. Listening to what is needed for healing, and bringing loving support there. When we hold suffering and painful feelings or experiences in our body, we often try to shut down around them rather than let them out to be felt. This can also create blockages and physical ailments as the emotions contribute to illness.

Every healing tradition around the world has seen emotional and spiritual aspects associated with the main parts of our body (sexual reproductive organs, belly and digestive system, heart, lungs and throat, mind etc). These main energy centers in our body are understood in many other cultures, including in the Americas, throughout Asia, and in Africa. There are not always 7 energy centers identified, but they are highly emphasized in healing practice. You do not have to use the term ‘chakra’… You will still feel these parts of the body singing with energy, wisdom, universal energy, and our soul memories. These aspects of our being are universally understood by healers all over the world because you can't do healing work on an emotional, physical, spiritual level, and not feel the energy that radiates from us!

Video ~ Healing the Chakras

The Root Chakra

In the root chakra we arrive on earth incarnated in many separate forms… woven together in a web of relations all dependent on each other, rooted together and intertwined. This is where we find our family, our support systems, family, and community. The root chakra is where we build our home on earth, building relationships of interdependence, and learn to care for all of our relations. The root chakra rules our foundations, all that we are supported by in our lives, through family, community, friends, and Gaia. Here in our roots we are given all of our basic needs, as a member of this earth family. Here is our nourishment, our shelter, safety, community, home, abundance, love, support, and family. Here we receive the touch we need, the love and care-taking from our family of relations. In the root chakra we receive life and nourishment from the Earth Mother, and give back to her all we can.

Root Chakra Plant Allies

Burdock, Nettles, Oatstraw, Astragalus, Pine, Reishi, Cedar, Solomon’s Seal, Chickweed, Alfalfa, Dandelion, Yellow Dock, Black Cohosh, Osha, Oak Bark, Patchouly, Marshmallow, Shatavari, Gotu Kola, Siberian Ginseng, Sandalwood, Myrrh, Sage, Sweetgrass, Cedar *** Roots, barks, mushrooms, trees, lichen.

Earth Element Nourishing herbs ~ Nettles, Burdock, Oatstraw, Dandelion, Chickweed, Alfalfa, Violet, Plantain, Comfrey, Mullein, Marshmallow, and all wild edible plants.

Earth Element Adaptogens ~ Astragalus, Fo Ti, Reishi, Chaga, Siberian Ginseng, Ashwagandha, Nettles, Burdock, Maca

Trees ~ Oak, Pine, Apple, Birch, Spruce, Fir, Cedar, Juniper, Maple, Redwoods, Hemlock, Beech, and many others…

Tissue healing (vulneraries) & Musculoskeletal Plants - Solomon’s Seal, Comfrey, Plantain, Chickweed, Violet, Mullein, Marshmallow root, Burdock, Horsetail, Oatstraw, Nettles, Calendula etc.

Mushrooms & Lichen ~ Reishi, Chaga, Turkey tail, Usnea lichen, Lion’s mane, Shitake, Maitake

Aspects of our wellbeing ~

Video ~ Root Chakra Healing

Root Chakra Wounds & Challenges

There are many experiences in human society that weaken and wound the root chakra unfortunately. Any difficult experience with your family, community, or society that is harmful to you is wounding to the root. As you can imagine that includes a lot of oppression, violence, and lack of compassion. The root chakra connects to our basic needs, and right now with so much ecosystem destruction, all of our basic needs are threatened. Our access to clean water, food scarcity with drought and climate change, safe communities, homes, and an ecosystem that can support our life. 

The root can be wounded by anything damaging in family relationships, throughout your life, and especially in childhood. It could also be related to abandonment from people you needed and counted on to take care of you, not just to do with the family that raised you. There is also inherited and historical wounding to the root chakra, such as genocide, slavery, oppression, war, loss of home or family. Losses around familial community, your home or homelands, and ancestral roots. Being forced off of your land, or driven out of your home from violence and oppression. All of our ancestors experienced this in different ways most likely, some in extreme conditions such as slavery and continual genocide. Some with hundreds of generations of oppression, poverty, and war. Living in a threat of violence, as many people still experience with all over the world. 

There are many aspects of society that can weaken or wound the root chakra, besides these examples. A society that lives in disconnection from our bodies, and from the earth. A society that doesn’t prioritize the well being of the whole ecosystem, and all of the living beings we share this beautiful earth with. One that continually harms animals, land, ecosystems, waters, and natural habitats/homes for humans and other animals. A society that would destroy the entire earth, and make it inhabitable for life. This is what we are living in currently…. And this threatening of all life, the mass extinction that we are living in right now, weakens all of our root chakras. Thankfully there is a lot we can do! We can focus on changing what is harmful in our societies, and contribute in our own way to collective healing.

 Expression of wounds ~ Root Chakra

Here is some of how the wounds of the root chakra show up in ourselves. Take some time to read through these, and mark down in your journal what resonates with your experience. For many of us, we have dealt with most of these at different times. When a chakra is wounded and weak we either pour energy into it to try to compensate for the weakness (imbalanced excess), or the energy to that chakra becomes depleted and deficient.

• Fear & Fight, flight, or freeze responses.

• Depression, grief, painful emotions.

• Feeling unstable & ungrounded.

• Struggling with feeling safe & trusting others.

• Poor boundaries or very rigid boundaries.

• Hyper-protective (excess) or under-protective (deficiency).

• Out of balance nervous system, anxiety, stress, racing thoughts, panic.

• Low energy, exhaustion. Strong need for rest.

• Lack of focus and ability to concentrate.

• Struggle to have daily rhythms or routine.

• Difficulty with practical tasks and responsibilities.

• Control - need to control environment or others.

• Difficulty building & sustaining things.

• Commitment challenges & struggle with goal setting.

Physical illnesses ~ Some physical illness arises from that is held in our own being, and some illnesses arise more from our environment. For example, AIDS did not wipe out a whole community of mostly gay men because of what was happening inside of them, it occurred because of a threat in their environment. In the root chakra we are very impacted by what surrounds us, which can weaken, strengthen, or sicken us. The whole physical body can be a reflection of the root chakra. I also see specific patterns of certain illnesses related to what we personally carry in the root chakra. These include issues of the musculoskeletal system, especially the legs, low back, and spine. There can be chronic body pain and muscle tension, chronic infections, allergies, auto-immune issues, cancer, chronic inflammation, depression/neural imbalances, neurological pain, digestive and bowel disorders are common.

Healing the Root Chakra

Therapies for the Root Chakra

 Our root chakra connects to the earth, just as an umbilical cord going to our mother. When we reconnect with the earth, our root chakra can regrow and healing. The root chakra is the foundation for all the other chakras. It is difficult for all the other chakras to be well if the root is not well. As the root chakra heals, we see so many other chakras grow stronger. This is the place where we begin to do the deepest healing work within us. Plants are incredibly healing to our root chakras, connecting us back to the earth, to our bodies, to nourishment, and to a close relationship to the earth. 

There are many healing practices and therapies that are restorative to the root chakra. Gardening, tending to our home spaces, planting food, community healing, creating home space, increasing access to resources people need to thrive, ecosystem restoration, community care (in many forms from activism, to schools, to support groups, to medicine/healing spaces, to restaurants, to creating functional needed items people need for daily use…) Providing healing touch, creating loving spaces for connection and safety. Learning ancestral skills that help us to live simply and closely with the earth, providing for our basic needs. Resting… which is also a basic need our society often neglects!

• Connecting to the Earth. Time in nature

• Lying on the earth… Or connecting to soil!

• Stillness & Grounding practices

• Rest & Retreat

• Self care & Receiving care from others.

• Receiving support from community, family, & relationships/friendships.

• Being of service to others – whole earth family.

• Building safe, supportive, community.

• Permaculture & Growing food for self & others.

• Caring for your Body – Massage, body-care, herbs, foods, exercise, yoga, sweats, swimming, etc.

• Creating safe space, being in safe spaces.

• Gardening, taking care of plants, growing your own food & medicine.

• Cooking and eating healthy food

• Time with animals & pets.

• Creating simple routines and structure.

• Tending or caring for anything in your environment/community.

• Ecology, food systems, & sustainability.

• Sacred places on earth & visiting home lands.

Plants for Root Chakra Healing

The Immune System

Continued in Part Two

Booklist & Recommended Readings

Opening to Spirit by Caroline Shola Arewa
Eastern Body, Western Mind: Psychology and the Chakra System As a Path to the Self by Anodea Judith
Wheels of Life by Anodea Judith - PDF Here

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