Speaker 1: 0:13

Welcome to Roots of Arise with me, sarah. Today we've reached the seventh chakra, the crown and the final checkpoint for now in our journey through the chakra system. This is the center of spiritual connection, of meaning, of awakening to something greater than the self. So let me ask you are you a seeker? Do you crave understanding but struggle with trust or discernment? Do you ever feel disconnected from purpose or wonder what it all means? If so, you're in the right place. Keep listening what it all means. If so, you're in the right place. Keep listening. We've arrived at the seventh chakra, but before we dive in, let me reiterate what I've said throughout you don't need to believe in energetic anatomy in order for an investigation into the chakras to be useful for you. Remember, the chakras can be seen simply as where we hold programming related to certain aspects of life. In the case of the seventh, our programming related to wisdom, knowledge and a connection to something larger than ourselves. While each chakra has its own programming, its own purpose, they're all connected. So you may find it useful to go back to episode 42, which I'll link in the show notes where I laid the groundwork for this exploration we've been doing. That said, while I will briefly mention the energetic aspects of the chakra. My focus here is really to get you thinking about your relationship with gaining knowledge and trusting the divine, however you define that Now, to know everything there is about it. Mind you is not going to happen in 20 minutes, but we're going to get you started, so let's dive in.

Speaker 1: 1:47

The seventh chakra is called oh and pardon my pronunciation, you know I'm not good at this Sahasrara, meaning thousand fold. It's commonly associated with either violet or white light and it's not located within the body, unlike the others that we've previously discussed. It's just above the crown of the head. This is significant because this chakra isn't about the tangible or the material. It represents transcendence. Its domain is wisdom, spiritual insight and higher consciousness. As I've mentioned, we carry all seven chakras at all times. They're all always here, but different stages of life bring each integrator focused For the seventh. This time is adulthood. That's when we begin sinking knowledge and understanding, not just because we have to, because we're in school, but because we want to. There's a deeper hunger for meaning and we start asking the big questions. Hunger for meaning and we start asking you know the big questions what is this all for? Why are we here? What's the point of it all? This desire to derive meaning is a central function of the seventh chakra. It builds upon the sixth, where we began to observe our belief systems and ask you know, who am I here? We take it further. We want to know why do I believe what I believe? Are these beliefs serving me? What's the deeper truth beneath it? We want to know why do I believe what I believe? Are these beliefs serving me? What's the deeper truth beneath it all?

Speaker 1: 3:09

Everyone carries a desire to understand to some degree, and this chakra governs our right to know, to seek not only intellectual knowledge but also spiritual truth. It's our connection to the divine, however we define it. For some, that may mean religion, and that's beautiful if it resonates, but it doesn't have to be confined to religion. Many deeply spiritual people find their connection outside of traditional structures. So what do I mean when I say spiritual? To me, spirituality is about deeply integrating the truth that we are all one. It's when we see through the illusion of separateness that we are energetically connected to all that exists and, moreover, that there is no separating spirituality from even the most mundane activity. Being able to find the meaning in the mundane, to me, is kind of the epitome of spirituality.

Speaker 1: 4:06

Opening the seventh, the seventh chakra means surrendering. It means letting go of attachments, letting go of rigid belief systems, addictive patterns, the need to control. Can you see the connection to the root chakra, to our ability to feel safe and secure? If we are experiencing incredible instability, it is no wonder that we reach for something higher to help us feel safe, like there is a plan. There is a reason why we are enduring whatever pain we're experiencing. We trust that there is something that we can't see that is holding us. But surrendering to this idea of a higher authority isn't always easy. It's deeply influenced by our early experiences with authority and power. As children, our parents or caretakers were our first higher powers. If we felt safe surrendering to their love and guidance, then the crown chakra often finds it easier to open. But if our childhood lacked safety or trust, surrender can feel threatening. These original trust wounds must be acknowledged and gently worked with, often over a long period of time.

Speaker 1: 5:15

We have a need to connect with something greater than ourselves, and this brings us to the idea of consciousness. We will talk, I'm sure, much more about this, but let's just briefly touch on it. I once read, and'm sure much more about this, but let's just briefly touch on it. I once read and I wish I could remember the source that consciousness is both our final destination and the means of travel. We tend to equate consciousness with thought, but thoughts are what consciousness produces, not consciousness itself. Consciousness is not perception, but the faculty behind perception, the part of us that observes, remembers, integrates and reflects. We feel the pull of consciousness through our emotions. But what is it that feels those emotions? That's the mystery that lives in the seventh chakra. It's not something we solve, it's something we experience.

Speaker 1: 6:06

Sages, mystics, physicists, they all agree now and describe consciousness as a unified field, a vast, intelligent fabric in which all of existence is embedded. We can tap into this field like how your phone or your computer connects to the cloud, but how much of that field we access depends on the quality of our internal apparatus, if you want to call it that, like a basic calculator can't access the internet. Different structures allow for different levels of consciousness, and within us there is a timeless part that can access this higher awareness. Us, there is a timeless part that can access this higher awareness. Often it's called the witness, this indestructible spark of divinity at our core. But, as we've talked about previously, things can get in the way of us having a clear connection. We'll get to that in a moment.

Speaker 1: 7:05

When the crown chakra is balanced, we tend to feel open-minded, spiritually connected, able to integrate new perspectives. We're not stuck, we're curious, we're expansive. But when it's imbalanced, one of the main signs is attachment. Now this gets tricky because attachment isn't inherently bad. It's necessary, especially for the earlier chakras. I mean, we need healthy attachments to our loved ones, our goals, our responsibilities. That's how we form commitments, that's how we build trust. But at the seventh chakra level, attachment becomes an obstacle because here we're trying to open, to expand, to transcend, and attachment binds. It's tough because for some Letting go becomes an excuse for avoidance. When things get difficult in a relationship, we let it go instead of working through the discomfort and, yes, that might feel freeing, but we also lose the opportunity for growth. We trade depth for distance.

Speaker 1: 8:00

Attachment says I know what's best, I'm certain, but certainty can close us off. It leaves no room for the unknown, for the mystery, for grace, for surprise. Like all chakra demons, attachment is a teacher and as the saying goes, what we resist persists. So instead of trying to force detachment, we can ask what is this attachment doing for me? What fear or pain is it helping me avoid? What story am I using to hold it in place?

Speaker 1: 8:34

Sometimes attachment shows up in our belief systems. Think about it. People were once certain the sun revolved around the earth. Galileo challenged that belief and look what happened to him. Certainty can become one of the greatest tickets to ignorance. Another word for attachment is addiction. We become attached not necessarily because something is right for us, but because it serves some unconscious purpose, usually a way to avoid discomfort or growth.

Speaker 1: 9:03

And then there is avoidance, itself a shadow form of attachment. We become attached to not having something. Most often we're avoiding situations that feel messy, vulnerable or beyond our control. But even in avoidance, we're still clinging to the illusion of safety or of perfection. In all of this, what's needed is a willingness to release, to either step into the experience or let go of the need to control it. This is often work we need to revisit at the third chakra level, our relationship with power, will and letting go, because when we don't, we tend to cling really hard to our beliefs, and that rigid grasping, especially of ideologies, identities or assumptions, is one of the clearest signs of imbalance in the crown chakra. So the work of the seventh chakra is a little paradoxical. It asks us to expand but not escape, to surrender but not collapse, to soften our grip without abandoning our integrity, to become willing to hold all parts of ourselves lightly, knowing that who we truly are is far greater than any of them. So what can shut down the development of the seventh chakra? Two big ones are withholding information and invalidating beliefs.

Speaker 1: 10:29

Children are deeply intuitive. They can sense when something's going on, but they don't always have the context or language to understand what they're sensing. So what do they do? They fill in the blanks. We've talked about this.

Speaker 1: 10:42

If parents choose to withhold information, even with good intentions, thinking it's better they don't know, the child will almost always create a story to explain what they feel and invalidating beliefs. That happens all the time without the parents even realizing they're doing it. Anadeya Judith shares a great example. A kid is watching an old I Love Lucy rerun and asks his dad was the world black and white when you were little? Now, that's such a sweet question, but imagine if the dad laughed, ridiculed the idea and told everyone about how dumb Johnny's question was. If that kind of response happens often enough, a child learns to doubt their own thinking and keep their beliefs to themselves, and the next time that child has a question they might hesitate to ask it. The more empowering response would be. That's a smart question. I can see how you'd think that, and then gently explain the difference between old TV shows and now.

Speaker 1: 11:37

Children are hungry for knowledge. When we withhold information or ridicule their curiosity, they either make up their own truth or stop asking altogether, and either way the crown chakra begins to shut down. Another major block to the crown is spiritual abuse. This can happen when children are forced into unrealistic purity. It might show up as overly austere spiritual practices, angry tirades in the name of God, excessive authoritarianism or the demand for perfection. Sometimes kids are pushed into adopting beliefs that have nothing to do with their own.

Speaker 1: 12:13

Unfolding Judith tells the story of a boy who was dragged door to door with his proselytizing mother. He wasn't old enough to process structured spirituality, and the exposure he did have was negative. So later in life, when he was struggling with heroin addiction, he rejected the idea of a higher power, even though a path like AA could have helped him heal. His early experiences left a bitter taste and he turned away from something that could have supported his recovery. Now things have changed a lot in some spiritual communities. I mean, many religions have done the work to offer age appropriateappropriate guidance, but for a long time much of what was offered wasn't accessible to children Sitting on hard pews, listening to a language they didn't understand or being frightened into submission. That's now not how young children experience spirit.

Speaker 1: 13:05

Religion becomes damaging when it's used as a structure to deny our feelings, avoid life's messiness or control others. When it becomes about God-inflated righteousness rather than authentic connection, it actually negates spirituality. These are the traps of religion, what Judith calls the demons of attachment that masquerade as moral fortitude but actually obscure true connection. That said, I want to be clear. Religion can also be wonderful At its best. It gives us structure, community and a practice, something we can return to. That opens us to deeper awareness and growth. It offers rituals, songs, silence and belonging. It connects us to something bigger than ourselves and to each other.

Speaker 1: 13:52

Now, another sign of imbalance in the crown chakra is overthinking the mindset of I think, therefore, I am. You know, these folks are often highly intelligent, maybe brilliant, but that intense focus on the intellect can lead to an overdeveloped mind at the cost of connection to the body, the heart or emotions. You might see it in the classic know-it-all or someone whose belief system is built around limitation. They say this is how I am, I will never change. Others struggle with the opposite problem overwhelm, too much information, no way to organize it. The crown chakra becomes flooded and suddenly we see symptoms like spaciness, confusion, disassociation. It becomes hard to learn, hard to change, hard to integrate experience. We can also see deep resistance to new information because that new information threatens the foundation of a rigid belief system. If we're over-identified with our beliefs, that new information it feels dangerous. It shakes our identity and instead of welcoming it we push it away.

Speaker 1: 14:56

There's also something called spiritual addiction. This happens when we use spirituality to escape the more demanding work of the lower chakras. We chase the high, we run after the guru, we quote sacred texts, we bounce from one meditation retreat to the next. We might even rely on psychedelic experiences for that fleeting sense of unity or peace. Sometimes we see spiritual purity take over vows of chastity, poverty or obedience that come not from devotion but from a desire to suppress the lower self. It becomes a vow to keep the first three chakras deficient.

Speaker 1: 15:30

Now let me be clear. I am not saying it's wrong to go to retreats, take workshops, engage in sacred practices All of that can be incredibly meaningful. But we need to ask what's the motivation underneath? If we try something for six months, don't feel instantly transformed and then move on to the next shiny thing, chances are we're running, and often it's right, when things start to get uncomfortable, when the deeper work is knocking at our door, that we bounce and we lose the chance to actually heal. Then there's spiritual cynicism, which often arises from pain or disillusionment. If we can't open to spirit, we can't trust the unknown. There's a kind of heaviness here, a preponderance of doubt. Now, a little healthy skepticism is healthy. Without it we lose discernment. But too much skepticism, that's another form of attachment, a rigid clinging to not believing, to not hoping, and it closes the crown just as tightly as blind faith. So I know you've been waiting for it.

Speaker 1: 16:32

How do we heal the seventh chakra? Well, healing isn't quite the right word here. Unlike the lower chakras, where we often work through trauma, wounds or unmet needs, the seventh is less about fixing what's broken and more about awakening a capacity that may have simply been asleep. It's about remembering what has always been true. The number one tool. Here is no surprise meditation.

Speaker 1: 16:55

Meditation creates space for us to wake up, to expand, to witness the part of ourselves that's beyond identity, beyond preference, beyond time. When we live by habit, our awareness dims. We operate on autopilot, we check out, disconnect and life becomes something we move through mechanically. We've all experienced this, that sense of just being on a hamster wheel. When we live by presumption, we don't allow the present moment to unfold in its own way, we see it only through the lens of what we think, we know, and so the magic is missed. That's why cultivating presence is essential.

Speaker 1: 17:30

Mindfulness practices that help anchor us in the now, combined with meditation techniques that purify and integrate higher states of consciousness that can truly accelerate our growth and our healing. If you haven't already checked it out, listen to the heart-based meditation episode I'll link below. That approach in particular can be so powerful because it brings awakening and integration into the heart, not just the mind. Yoga can be very supportive here because of the grounding effects, especially if the person feels kind of ungrounded or floaty. The movement and or breath work can be useful.

Speaker 1: 18:09

Craniosacral therapy is another gentle but powerful modality. It settles the central nervous system and sometimes that's exactly what's needed in order to feel safe enough to access deeper spiritual awareness. In order to feel safe enough to access deeper spiritual awareness, because for most of us, the upper chakras won't open if our nervous system is still locked in survival mode. Lastly, any kind of belief-oriented therapeutic work can be incredibly helpful, whether it's traditional psychotherapy, spiritual counseling, soul mentoring. Anything that helps us explore and loosen our belief systems can open up space for new light to come in, because, remember, one of the main blocks to the crown chakra is rigid belief, beliefs that are no longer serving us but have become part of our identity. When we can gently begin to question those beliefs, to see them as stories rather than truth, then the space around them begins to soften and into that space insight can flow.

Speaker 1: 19:06

I'll link a couple related episodes along these lines in the show notes. So here are a couple questions to ponder as you explore the energy of this chakra. When was the last time you allowed yourself to not know and simply be present with mystery? Do you make space in your life for spiritual connection, or do you need certainty and control in order to feel safe? What would it feel like to loosen the grip, even just a little bit, and trust something larger than yourself.

Speaker 1: 19:40

This week I've got two more episodes I'm really excited to share with you. On Wednesday, I'll be talking about how to view your life through two equally important and ever-present lenses the divine, spiritual being that you are and the very real, very human side of you too. This is such an important aspect of spiritual growth. If you get this, if you really get it, it can help you stop judging your progress, judging everything. Then, on Friday, I'll share my favorite questions to ask myself when I feel stuck or confused or when a situation just doesn't make sense.

Speaker 1: 20:14

Thank you so much for being here with me today. If you learned something from this episode, please consider sharing it or leaving a review, and make sure you're following the show so you'll be notified when those new episodes drop later this week. If you have questions or thoughts, I'd love to hear from you. Just click the message me button If you're listening on Spotify or email me at rootsoftheriseatgmailcom. I hope you have a great rest of your day and remember, know who you are, love who you've been and be willing to do the work to become who you want to be. Just a quick reminder this podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. I am not a licensed therapist and nothing shared here is meant to replace the guidance of a physician, therapist or any other qualified provider. That said, I hope it inspires you to grow, heal and seek the support you need to thrive.