Wicca: A comprehensive guide to the Old Religion in the modern world. Vivianne Crowley

the heart chakra is emerald green; the throat chakra is bright blue; the third eye is violet; and the crown chakra is seen as a pulsating circle of brilliant white light.²

       The chakras

       Opening the chakras

      In a group, the technique of opening the chakras can be carried out by each person individually, or one person can talk the rest of the group through the process. In the beginning, it is best if someone whose clairvoyance is developed acts as group leader. She or he can then talk the group through the exercise while checking that everyone has opened each chakra before moving on. Chakras can be opened either from the crown chakra down or from the base of the spine chakra up. Initially, most people find it easier to work from the base up and it is this upward-flowing energy that is needed for circle casting and spells.

       1. To open the chakras, first visualize a round circle of pulsating red light at the base of the spine. Visualize this getting larger and larger until it covers the whole of the lower spine. Now imagine that you are drawing a current of energy into the chakra so that it grows warm and begins to glow and pulsate with red energy and light.

       2. Draw more and more energy into your base of spine chakra as though it is a tank being filled with red light. Then, as the flow of energy comes into your body, allow it to coil round and round inside you like a snake. Allow the snake of energy to rise, still spiralling until it reaches the level of your belly.

       3. Visualize the snake spiralling round and round at the level of your belly. As it does so, visualize your sacral chakra in the centre of your belly beginning to glow with spinning orange light. Allow the orange circle to grow larger and larger, spinning with energy.

       4. Draw more energy in from the base of the spine. Bring it up, past your sacral to the level of the solar plexus chakra. Concentrate now on the base of the spine again. Renew the energy in your base of spine chakra by drawing in more energy from outside, until the red glow at the base of the spine begins to spin faster and faster and to grow wider and wider.

       5. Draw more energy up the spine and into the sacral chakra so that this too spins faster and grows wider, glowing with a bright orange light. Then allow the snake of energy to rise up through the centre of your body to the level of the solar plexus. Here it begins to activate the solar plexus chakra that starts to glow with a golden yellow light.

       6. Go back down to the base of the spine and draw more energy up the centre of the body and into the solar plexus chakra. Allow it to open wider and wider. Allow the chakra to spin faster and faster until there is a golden spinning sun at the solar plexus.

       7. Go back to the base of the spine again. Draw more energy in and up the spine, past the sacral chakra, past the solar plexus, up to the centre of the breast bone, where there is a small green fiery glow which is the heart chakra. Let the energy you have drawn up feed the fiery glow, so that it begins to spin faster and faster, and grow wider and wider, until it covers the whole of your chest with a green glowing light.

       8. Go back to the base of the spine again and draw energy up through the spine, past the heart chakra to the throat, where there is a small blue glow. Allow the energy to stream into the throat and to spin the chakra faster and faster until there is a pulsating blue centre at the throat.

       9. Go back to the base of the spine again to renew your energy. Draw energy in through the base of spine chakra, up through the sacral chakra, through the solar plexus, through the heart chakra, to the throat. Then go back to the base of the spine again. Draw a current of energy right up through the body, up past the throat and into the third eye at the centre of the forehead. Allow this energy to merge with the violet spot at the third eye and to spin the third eye energy faster and faster until there is a spiralling violet centre in the middle of the forehead.

      10. Go back to the base of the spine. Draw more energy into the body and up past the sacral chakra, past the solar plexus, past the heart, past the throat and into the third eye. Allow the violet glow to spin faster and faster. Then allow the current of energy to shoot up through the head and out of the crown. Allow the energy to cascade down the body, bathing it in light, and flowing down to the feet in a white stream.

      11. Go back to the base of the spine. Draw up more energy right up through the body, past the sacral chakra, past the solar plexus, past the heart, past the throat, past the third eye and out again through the crown chakra and down the body to the feet. Repeat this for as long as you wish.

      When we first do the exercise, most people have some chakras that are difficult to open. These vary between individuals, but often the throat and sacral chakras present problems. For those who have problems with the sacral chakra, try opening the chakras in the reverse order – from the crown chakra down. There will then be a build up of energy before the sacral chakra is reached which will make it easier to open. For those who have problems with the throat chakra, singing a few notes or sounds just before starting can be a help.

       Closing the chakras

      If we have opened the chakras, we must also close them. If we are doing this in preparation for a ritual, then the chakras will be closed at the end of the rite. Closing the chakras can be done much more quickly than opening them. One of the easiest ways is to imagine each chakra as a stained glass window of the appropriate colour.

       1. Starting at the top, the crown chakra, draw a fountain of white light down the outside of your whole body. Let it flow over the third eye, completing closing the violet light as though a white shutter is being drawn over it.

       2. Then draw more white light down from the crown past the third eye to the throat chakra, and then over the throat, shutting the chakra.

       3. Draw more light from the crown down and over the heart chakra.

       4. Now draw more white light down over the top of the head, over the third eye, over the throat, over the heart chakra and down over the solar plexus chakra.