Earth, Water, Fire and Air: the four elements that make up not only the natural world but every human being, body and mind.
According to yoga, these elements are at play in all of the manifestation. The stability of the Earth, the fluidity of Water, the transformative power of Fire and the expansiveness of Air… They are constantly dancing in all of us. We all have all of them, but your own balance of the four elements is uniquely your own.
The “thousand-petaled lotus” blossoming from the crown of the head represents the pinnacle of the journey through the chakra system, yet sahasrara itself is not a chakra.
If we look at the chakras in the traditional yogic system, each one represents a level of consciousness and a world in itself, each one a very particular flavor of reality.
The mysterious third eye, blinking open in the forehead of Shiva or Buddha. The unforeseen intuition and deeper understanding that seems to arise out of nowhere like a flash of lightning. What is the reality of the ajna chakra, the sixth and highest chakra, that gateway to mystical experience reflected in the middle of the forehead?
Welcome to the world of vishuddha chakra!
Located at the throat, the fifth chakra is the point in the chakra system where things start to get a little trippy. It is the first of the upper chakras, representing a level of consciousness beyond the ordinary reality of personal limitations. This can make it a little more difficult to understand and relate with than the lower chakras, but an absolutely fascinating domain to explore.
Anahata holds the middle point in the chakra system, between the three lower chakras governing ordinary human life and the three upper chakras going into transcendence.
Related to the air element, it represents the beginning of true spiritual life and also the ending point, the place from which you live once you’ve already gone to the top of the mountain and seen the complete view, so to speak.
The system of chakras and their related elements has in some way become iconic of yoga itself.
In fact, the system of five elements – Earth, Water, Fire, Air and Ether – isn’t unique to yoga. You can find the same five elements or something similar in Tibetan Buddhism, Daoism, Native American shamanic traditions, European alchemy and many other cultures.