“Opening the third eye allows us to see the big picture, transcend our egocentricity, and find the deeper meaning inherent in all things. As inner-sight develops, illusions are shattered, dreams are integrated, clarity begins, and consciousness extends yet another step beyond what was available through the lower 5 chakras alone. we now access the broad vision that enables us to see our way toward completion.”- Anodea Judith
The third eye is named Ajna chakra, which means ‘to perceive’. Its location is the eyes and the pineal gland within the brain.
https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/89666/10-mysterious-facts-about-pineal-gland
The six chakra’s element is light, it’s color is indigo, and it’s bij mantra, or seed sound, is ‘om’. I have been taught that the third eye seed sound can also be short oms, and the crown chakra holds the long Om; however, others yet, will say the om is for the third eye and no sound is for the crown chakra. It’s emanating vowel sound is the humming ‘mmmm’.
The animal most associated with the third eye is the owl, known as “the winged perceiver” with its ability to see in all directions. Our third eye, gives us the ability to see beyond space and time. For it is here in the third eye that the ida and pingala meet, and duality ceases to exist. here we are entering even more subtle vibrations than the element of ether of the fifth chakra. The need for stillness and silence become ever more important if we are to discern the vibrations, resonances, and communication that we see from the third eye. They are needed because if we cannot be aware enough to see the patterns within life, both our own innate patterns of who we are, and the patterns of our outer world, then we are less able to see how we can make change. Anodea Judith writes, “It is important to remain open to psychic, non-rational input, but equally important to rationally sort through it. Lack of discernment reveals poor 6th chakra boundaries, which allow it to become overloaded. This is not to deny the possible value of intuition, past life memories, precognition, telepathy, or any other psychic arts. With 6th chakra excess, however, the ability to discern truth from fantasy becomes impaired”. She also writes about the deficiency possibilities within the 6th chakra by stating, “people with six chakra deficiency have difficulty visualizing or imagining things differently. Monopolarization refers to the state of mind that cannot see the other side. Unable to imagine differences, we must deny or invalidate them. This produces a spiritually closed mine that prefers to remain in the familiar rather than expanding into the unknown”.
I want to piggy back off that last quote. If we cannot “see the other side”, and if we are unable to “imagine differences”, then how are we to meet understanding. Understanding is by way of the crown chakra, that is for next week, lol, but what I am getting at is this… If we cannot imagine what others are going thru, if we cannot wonder what they might have been thru, if we cannot imagine what they might be going thru right now, then we are dismissing the pathway to understanding that person, and therefore, dismissing the pathway to connection from a loving space. And, the same when others do mot offer that towards us. A strongly egoic person might just simply write off another person and not even care to understand. A fear based person might not even attempt to imagine how another feels because they are stuck in a way in which they think they already know the other person will harm them, which could be an illusion. It might only be a perception you have of another human being that they are out to get you, don’t like, you, or don’t care about you. Illusion is the shadow side of the third eye. So, I invite us all to open our third eyes in healthful ways in which we hold a sense of wonder; wonder about “the other side” of things, both people, and situations. And, to first also be open to observing your own internal patterns** and to catch those ways of thinking and being which you wish to change. Get curious, as they say! And, stay open to what you perceive. What is your intuition telling you about this person, or a situation, or a feeling within yourself? For…
The third eyes main functions are seeing and intuition. Seeing both the inner and the outer. It’s Shadow side is illusion, as I already stated. I always tend to speak about optical illusions here with the third eye. Here’s a link to a very famous One, do you see the maiden or the crone?
https://www.google.com/search?safe=active&hl=en&gl=br&tbm=isch&source=hp&ei=zipcXe6POo-4sgW9w6CwCg&q=optical+illusion+crone+or+maiden&oq=optical+illusion+crone+or+maiden&gs_l=mobile-gws-wiz-img.12..33i299l3.3344.32368..36418…1.0..1.1364.5573.6j20j1j0j1j1j0j1……0….1…….5..35i39j0.LUSwOLDObmg#imgrc=z2gwHnhebt3o9M
**The main purpose of the third eye is for pattern recognition. Anodea Judith again, “the task of chakra 6 is to assemble (that) information into meaningful patterns. … once we recognize a pattern, we can intuit what it will become and guide our actions accordingly. This is the beginning of wisdom.
In the recognition of patterns, we find our way to insight. Insight is the ability to see within, the “aha” of recognizing a pattern, seeing where it relates to the larger picture, seeing what it means. It is within the self that the information from our experiences has been gathering and is stored in our memory. it is only by seeing within that we can cross-reference that information and recognize meaningful patterns”. When I re-read these passages in her book entitled ‘Eastern body, Western mind: psychology and the chakra system as a path to the Self’, it really gave me that sense of becoming our own guru, our own healer, our own light. The third eye is often called the seat of the inner guru. This is also why there is mysticism surrounding the pineal gland as you read up above in the link, and also why this element of light is present here, both on the physical and metaphysical levels. It is here when we open to our own insight and our own intuition and our own wisdom, that we are able to recognize patterns, to see our inherent and learned behaviors, to see what patterns in our life we would like to shift and change, and what patterns within the world that we’d like to either continue, or to never repeat again.
It is also within patterns that we run into that shadow side of the third eye again, illusion. I can speak to a personal example of an illusion that I have repeated in my life, and it’s a pattern that I have almost completely changed; it’s a delusion that I think a person whom I’ve never spoken to doesn’t like me. This is a old inherit pattern within my vision of how I see others and how I have created the illusion of how I’d like others to always be seeing me. To stop this personal pattern, I will often either just simply open to my own awareness, see that I am having these false thoughts and perceptions of what another person is receiving about me, and I will choose to stop the thought pattern, or sometimes I gather up my courage and I go to the person and have an interaction with them in order to get to know them. Most of the time, when I have a conversation with a person I have not interacted with before, the made-up thought that they do not like me is disintegrated. The illusion no longer exists, and Truth is spoken, resonance is created, and a heart connection begins to open. I can feel more comfortable within who I am, and continue to ground down within myself and move more freely in the world.
Affirmations:
“I see all things in clarity.”-Anodea Judith
“I am open to the wisdom within.”-Anodea Judith
“I can manifest my vision.”-Anodea Judith
“I see all things beyond space and time.”-Shawna Emerick
“I trust my intuition.”-Shawna Emerick
“My insights and intuition hold wisdom.”-Shawna Emerick
In reviewing the third eye, I ended up focusing just a little bit on something I hadn’t ever before, archetypes. Anodea Judith , “Each of the chakras can be correlated to an archetype. First chakra is Earth mother or provider, second chakra is the lover, third chakra is the hero, fourth chakra is the healer, 5th chakra is the artist, 6th chakra is the seer, and seventh chakra is the sage or master. The chakra system itself is a still larger archetypal pattern, similar to Jung’s archetype of wholeness, the self. …
To recognize an archetypal energy is to recognize its pattern and meaning and then guide ourselves accordingly. To recognize the pattern of individuation, or chakra unfolding, as it occurs in our lives allows us to see where we are, where we are heading, and what we need to do to get there. Thus insight directs action.
In the sixth chakra we move into our archetypal identity. This identity is gained through the recognition of images and symbols that appear in our lives through dreams, by imagination, art, relationships, or situations. Recognizing the archetypal significance of these symbols brings us into a larger spiritual framework. We enter a broader context of understanding, and a deeper recognition of who we are and what our purpose is. This is the essential work of developing our archetypal identity.
… the instructions embedded within an archetypal energy not only give us meaning, but also direction.”
“Looking is seeing, but seeing is the internalizing of the image into understanding.”-Anodea Judith. this speaks to what we often hear associated with the third eye which is the mind’s eye, or the scene that you see on the screen within your mind. Sri Aurobindo said, “in order to see, you have to stop being in the middle of the picture.” Sometimes, we need to get out of our heads, and back into our bodies in order to see more clearly. And sometimes, we do just need to sit and meditate in order to be able to clear the mind’s eye enough so that we can perceive truth, and to remember our own Light within and to connect with it. It’s no wonder that clairvoyance is also associated with the third eye. Clairvoyance means “clear seeing”.
Along with meditation, color therapy, noticing our dreams, writing about images as symbols, looking at Young ages, and looking and meditating upon pictures of things that we love and people that we admire, are all supportive actions to help support the third eye.
Here is an interesting clip with Joseph Campbell speaking on dreams and interesting one person’s dream with owls, aha, that ajna chakra animal!
https://youtu.be/GzYsi3SV1bY
“6 chakra development opens us to the possibilities of clairvoyance, which means clear seeing. Clairvoyance opens inner-sight to non-physical plans allowing us to see auras and chakras, past and future events. It begins with the development of intuition, and is a matter of learning to focus internal attention on something long enough to illuminate its patterns. As we gain awareness of our own conscious process, we gain the ability to focus that awareness where we choose. Once we find our own light we can shine that light on whatever we wish to see.”-Anodea Judith. This reminded me of
a podcast that I’m going to put a link to HERE(listen especially from 17:37 minutes to 26:15 minutes) in which the interviewer and interviewee talk about a term that means ‘non-coloring’. In Sanskrit, non-coloring is called ‘vairagya’, pronounced “Vie-rah-gya”. A common translation for vairagya is non-attachment, but as you’ll hear in the podcast there is a much more appropriate definition associated with this word. It’s better definition is how we give value to things in our world, how we see them. It means that even though we give things in our life value, none of them are responsible for our own happiness. And, so, how do you “paint” the world? How do you ‘see’ things? How do you want to be “looking” at things in life? And, whre do you want your Inner Vision always to be held? Drishti is ‘focused gaze’ in sanskrit, and it does mean where we hold our eye’s gaze, especially during balancing poses within yoga asana, postures. However, it also means where we hold our internal gaze. We attempt to always have our ‘gaze’, our focus, our vision, our thoughts toward the Light, the Divine.
I’m wondering now, how do you want to approach life? Do you want to approach it thru the lens of Light, Love, and understanding? Do you want to stay open with a strong sense of curiosity in order to better understand? I hope so! I hope you will continue to illuminate your own heart, body, mind, and soul with your own inner wisdom from your Highest Self! I hope you continue to shine your Light upon the world and be a beacon of Light for others thru service, caring, giving, sharing, support, and most of all, just being YOU!. And when you give, may you receive ten-fold back what you have given, and may that pattern continue forever!
Breathe and Believe.